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Ruth King

China Continues To Laugh At Western “Green Energy” Foolishness Francis Menton

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2022-4-2-china-continues-to-laugh-at-western-green-energy-foolishness

With an energy cost crisis now striking Europe and to a lesser extent the U.S., some cracks have begun to appear in the “net zero” utopian dreams being pursued almost universally by Western politicians. Nevertheless, at this writing, the rapid elimination of use of fossil fuels, supposedly to fight “climate change,” remains official government policy throughout Europe, at the federal level in the U.S., in most blue American states, and as well in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Here in the U.S., although President Biden has ordered some temporary measures like release of some oil from the nation’s strategic reserves, the full federal bureaucracy remains under orders from the top to force reduction in production and use of fossil fuels in every way it can devise. Meanwhile, states like New York and California have rapidly approaching legal deadlines for shuttering all fossil fuel power plants, prohibiting all automobiles other than electric ones, banning natural gas for heating and cooking, and otherwise quickly upending the last century of energy progress that has made our lives affordable and enjoyable.

We are supposed to believe that the official fossil fuel suppression policies will stop “climate change” and “save the planet” through the mechanism of rapid aggregate reductions of emissions of CO2 and other “greenhouse gases.” The rescue of the planet’s climate will make worthwhile our sacrifices in the form of higher energy prices, increased taxes to support subsidies to renewable energy, and restrictions on lifestyle.

But in fact, that narrative is all so much hogwash. In the West, twenty plus years and trillions of dollars of subsidies for “green energy” schemes have achieved only some marginal reductions in the share of final energy consumption derived from fossil fuels. Meanwhile, in the rest of the world, fossil fuel usage continues to soar. Leading the way is China, which has used the last two years of Covid distraction to have its emissions leapfrog to new records. In the overall picture, the Western obsession with decreasing emissions, despite enormous costs, does not have any impact that is even noticeable.

The Rules About Corruption Just Don’t Apply To The Bidens Francis Menton

https://us7.campaign-archive.com/?e=a9fdc67db9&u=9d011a88d8fe324cae8c084c5&id=fefc435a63

About two weeks ago, the New York Times published an article finally conceding that the Hunter Biden laptop and many of the emails on it are authentic. Yesterday (March 30), the Washington Post followed suit. The laptop in question is the one that Hunter left at a Delaware computer repair shop, and whose contents the New York Post revealed in a series of explosive October 2020 articles. Those articles got the NY Post banned from Twitter in the run-up to the 2020 election, while some 51 ex-intelligence officials denounced the laptop as likely “Russian disinformation.” Meanwhile, the Times and the WaPo never breathed a word about the laptop’s existence or its contents for the intervening year and a half.

Both the recent Times and Washington Post articles mention the laptop in the context of reporting on a federal criminal investigation into Hunter Biden’s tax liabilities and business dealings in foreign countries including Ukraine and China. Clearly the newspapers are trying to get out in front of a likely impending indictment of the President’s son. After all, it would be quite embarrassing for them if the President’s son were to get indicted based on events that have long been public but which events have never been mentioned in either of those two papers.

But how about the question of how this investigation, and Hunter’s underlying conduct, relate to President Biden himself? To read the Times and the WaPo, you would think that that whole question is somehow out of line. The Times’s piece doesn’t even discuss Joe’s role or involvement, although it does include this bizarre line:

It is not clear whether the criminal probe is focused solely on Hunter Biden, or if he is among a group of individuals and companies being scrutinized.

Business vs. Government? by Alan M. Dershowitz

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18393/business-vs-government

If a corporation builds a better mousetrap than the government, we buy it. And generally, that is a good idea. But it may come with costs, not easily measurable in dollars or speed.
The Constitution itself was not designed for efficiency…. Ours was designed to check and balance power, rather than to expedite results. We pay a price for our desire to prevent too much centralization of authority in any one person or institution. And sometimes we grow impatient at the slow pace of progress.
We want our mail delivered faster and more frequently; we want to know the outcome of elections tonight not next week… we want our disputes resolved without months of pretrial discovery. And so, we turn to the classic American solution: private enterprise, free market competition, capitalism.
The time has come to consider the consider the costs and benefits of this important development.
It is not the object of this article to resolve these issues or to propose specific jurisprudential shifts. It is simply to bring together a number of related changes that have in common the privatization of traditional governmental activities, and to begin a discussion of the legal changes that, especially in the area of social media censorship, seem urgently required.
We must begin a discussion of the legal changes that seem urgently required, especially in the area of media censorship, invasion of privacy and lack of transparency by private companies that appear to be performing functions, possibly at the behest of the government, as a way of bypassing the restrictions placed on the government by the First Amendment.

When I was growing up, the mail was delivered by the post office, money was printed by the treasury, votes were counted by election officials, wars were fought by the army, prisons were run by departments of correction, law enforcement was conducted by the police force, space exploration was done by NASA, legal disputes were resolved by judges and juries.

55 Dems quit paying dues to their own DCCC ahead of midterms By Monica Showalter

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/04/55_dems_quit_paying_dues_to_their_own_dccc_ahead_of_midterms.html

Democrats are running out on their tab.

No surprise there, but according to Breitbart News:

Fifty-five powerful and influential House Democrats are reportedly financially stiffing the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), failing to pay the dues they owe because of the likelihood that Republicans will retake the chamber.

Top Democrats leaders are unhappy and worried because many of their valuable caucus members are not paying their dues to the party committee, according to Punchbowl News. Rules dictate that each member is responsible for dumping a certain amount of cash into the committee’s coffers to be used by the top brass as a part of a national strategy to defeat Republicans. The amount of cash members are to fork over depends on their position in the party.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC), and DCCC Chair Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY) reportedly pleaded with members on Tuesday to pay up. But many members are not paying their dues, perhaps because Democrats perceive the 2022 midterm election as a lost cause. “The House Democratic majority is in deep trouble, with both history and the polls against them; and Republicans have overtaken what’s been traditionally a large lead by the DCCC in fundraising, thanks in part to a huge spurt in online fundraising,” Punchbowl noted.

In other words, they’re demoralized.  After all, why pay big dues to the DCCC when the GOP is poised to take the House come the 2022 midterms?  Money down the drain.

Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi can yell all they like about Democrats retaining the House in November, but figures like this tell a different story.

The DCCC, according to Breitbart, is a sort of slush fund for Democrats to bankroll particular projects to secure Democrat majorities in the House.  It’s run by House speaker Nancy Pelosi.

That so many prominent names of bigfoot Democrats with plenty in their own campaign coffers to are refusing to pay is particularly noteworthy:

Many of those who are stiffing the committee are some of the most powerful and influential members in the caucus, such as Oversight Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Cori Bush (D-MO), and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY).

Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-NC) has $685,000 in a campaign account, yet refuses to pay any dues. Others stiffing the committee include Transportation and Infrastructure Chair Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and Natural Resources Chair Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ).

LIZ PEEK: BIDEN IS PLAYING WITH FIRE IN A BID FOR HISPANIC VOTE

https://www.nysun.com/article/biden-is-playing-with-fire-in-a-bid-for-hispanic-vote

President Biden is following in President Obama’s footsteps, scrambling to curry favor with disgruntled Hispanics before an upcoming election. Under pressure from immigration activists, Mr. Biden has rescinded Title 42, a policy adopted by President Trump that allowed for the swift expulsion of those entering the United States illegally.

As of May 23, Title 42 will be gone. That will open the doors to what will doubtless be another wave of caravans heading north, the participants convinced that the current White House will allow them to stay. They’ll have every reason to think so. Mr. Biden has long blasted his predecessor for his “inhumane” treatment of people trying to gain asylum here.

Mr. Biden has eagerly undone the policies — including the construction of a border wall and the “Remain in Mexico” approach — that helped slow the stream of migrants during the Trump years. Title 42 used the threat of Covid-19 as an excuse to expel undocumented people; now that the pandemic has receded, activists pressed Mr. Biden to change course.

The Biden-friendly New York Times reported late last year that over the prior twelve months, “encounters” of illegal migrants had soared to 1.7 million persons, a level not seen since “at least” 1960, “capping a year of chaos at the southern border.” The Times noted that under Title 42, one million individuals had been deported, which invites the question: what happened to the other 700,000?

Palestinian school curriculum – peaceful coexistence? Ambassador (Ret.) Yoram Ettinger

https://bit.ly/3tXACQC

Female fighters are glorified for sacrificing their sons and husbands in (Jihad) battle, as role models and as a proof that Islam ensures women’s “equality with men in sacrifice and self-sacrifice in invasions and battles” (Islamic Education, Grade 8, Card 8, Quarter 1, Semester 1, 2021–22, p. 29).

Dalal Mughrabi, the perpetrator of the 1978 terror attack on a civilian bus from Haifa to Tel Aviv – which left 38 Israelis murdered, including 13 children – is praised as a brave “female Arab jihad warrior” (Social Studies, Grade 9, Semester 1, 2021–22, p. 20).

Overview

The Palestinian Authority’s school curriculum (Please see documentation in the next section) was established in 1993 by Mahmoud Abbas, when he was Arafat’s deputy.

The school curriculum of the Palestinian Authority is the most factual description of the rogue Palestinian walk; a direct contrast to Palestinian diplomatic talk.

The school curriculum of the Palestinian Authority focusses on the pre-1967 area of Israel.

The school curriculum of the Palestinian Authority has been consistent with the 1959 Charter of Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah (8 years before the “1967 War”) and the 1964 Charter of Mahmoud Abbas’ PLO (3 years before the 1967 War), before Israel regained control of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank).

The school curriculum of the Palestinian Authority is consistent with the anti-“infidel” precepts of Islam, aimed to eliminate the “infidel” entity in the abode of Islam and bring the “infidel” to submission.

Ron Johnson’s unanswered corruption questions from 2020 loom large over Joe Biden The unknowns: Did the president benefit in any way from his son’s overseas business deals, what did he know and when did he know it?By John Solomon

https://justthenews.com/accountability/russia-and-ukraine-scandals/ron-johnsons-unanswered-2020-questions-joe-biden-loom

Back before the 2020 election, when Democrats and their allies in the corporate media were still claiming the Hunter Biden story was a conspiracy theory or Russian disinformation, GOP Sen. Ron Johnson released an open letter to America posing questions to then-candidate Joe Biden.

Like most Biden scandals at the time, it mostly got ignored or ridiculed. But the questions were rooted in facts and evidence gathered over two years by investigators on Johnson’s Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Now nearly two years later, a funny thing has happened. The giants of the corporate media – the New York Times, Washington Post and CNN among them – have abruptly reversed course and acknowledged Hunter Biden’s foreign business pursuits raise legal issues and that content on his laptop left behind in a Delaware repair shop in 2019 was authentic all along.

And now Johnson’s unanswered questions posed in August 2020 loom larger than ever as a federal grand jury in Delaware investigates Hunter Biden for his Ukraine and China business deals, taxes, foreign lobbying and other issues, and some Democrats reportedly brace for a possible indictment.

Russia and Iran: The New Axis of Evil Why Is the US Bankrolling Them? by Con Coughlin

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18385/russia-iran-axis-of-evil

Now Western security officials believe that Iran and Russia have struck a cooperation deal to work together to evade Western sanctions once a new nuclear deal has been agreed by the Biden administration.

Iran is known to have established a clandestine banking and finance system to handle tens of billions of dollars in annual trade banned under U.S.-led sanctions.

Iran, according to Western security officials, has offered to provide Russia with access to its illegal sanctions-busting network in return for Moscow’s support in getting a new nuclear deal in place.

Russia and Iran are in the process of negotiating a multi-billion dollar arms deal, including the purchase of Russian warplanes and submarines, and Moscow is keen that the deal will not be scuppered as a result of Western sanctions.

Following a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in China this week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov confirmed that Moscow would work with Tehran to take steps to evade Western sanctions, the RIA news agency reported.

Western security officials believe the outline of a sanctions-busting deal between Moscow and Tehran is already in place, with Iran promising not to enforce Western sanctions against Russia. As part of the deal, Iran has offered to use its existing evasion network to help Russia sell its oil on international markets once the nuclear deal is signed, and sanctions have been lifted against Tehran.

The imposition of these measures is certainly a long overdue recognition by the Biden administration that Iran is simply exploiting the nuclear negotiations to further its own regional ambitions. And the fact that Iran and Russia are now actively colluding to evade Western sanctions, thereby forming a new “axis of evil”, should finally persuade the White House to end once and for all its involvement in this gross act of diplomatic folly.

Thanks to the Biden administration’s ill-judged obsession with reviving the flawed nuclear deal with Iran, the world can soon look forward to the creation of a new “axis of evil” between Russia and Iran.

In recent months, as negotiations over reviving the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the deal’s official title, have continued in Vienna, Western negotiators have expressed concern about the negative support Iran is receiving from Russia in the talks.

A HEARTBEAT AWAY FROM THE PRESIDENCY

Kamala Harris in Jamaica”

“We also recognize just as it’s been in the United States, for Jamaica, one of the issues that has been presented as an issue, that is economic in the way of its impact, has been the pandemic,” Harris said. “So to that end, we are announcing today also that we will assist Jamaica in COVID recovery by assisting in terms of the recovery efforts in Jamaica that have been essential to what, I believe, is necessary to strengthen not only the issue of public health but also the economy.”

HUH???

More Scandals Envelop the Scandalous FBI For years, congressional Republicans promised to hold FBI officials culpable for various scandals but failed to act. By Julie Kelly

https://amgreatness.com/2022/03/31/more-scandals-envelop-the-scandalous-fbi/

“You’re in big fucking trouble.”

So said an FBI agent to Julian Khater, one of two men accused of assaulting Capitol police officers with pepper spray on January 6, during a tense interrogation last year. Desperate to sustain the falsehood that Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick was killed by Trump supporters during the Capitol protest, the FBI claimed to possess video footage that showed Khater and his friend, George Tanios, attacking Sicknick and other officers with chemical spray. Khater was arrested on an airplane at the Newark airport on March 14, 2021 after he arrived home from a trip to Florida.

For more than two hours—shackled to a metal bar in a freezing room at the New Jersey FBI field office—Khater, who has no criminal record, was interrogated without a lawyer present. FBI Special Agent Riley Palmertree refused to tell Khater why he was under arrest until he agreed to proceed without counsel in the room, which Khater reluctantly did. Recently released video confirms Khater initially told the agents he “would feel more comfortable if I had a lawyer” answering questions on his behalf. An hour later, Khater again said he wanted his lawyer.

But Palmertree pushed back, presenting videos and photos implicating Khater in the alleged assault. Palmertree assured Khater that by admitting he sprayed Sicknick with pepper spray rather than a can of bear spray—an item Palmertree later testified was not used that day—a judge would go easy on him. Khater signed a statement confessing that he attacked officers with pepper spray.

Khater has been in jail ever since, housed in the D.C. gulag specifically used to detain January 6 protesters; his trial is scheduled for June 6.

But Khater’s lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, is now asking the court to toss the interrogation as evidence, arguing that the FBI used “coercion and deception” to force Khater into waiving his Miranda rights. Further, Tacopina wrote in a February 22 motion that Palmertree lied in his FBI report by claiming he advised Khater about the “nature of the interview” before asking Khater to waive his rights.