Tim Wilson is a Senor Fellow at the London Center, a former British Army officer who served in a variety of command appointments on numerous operational tours during a 32 year military career. Lt Col Wilson has written for a range of publications on diverse topics including surviving a nuclear attack, terrorist tactics and asymmetric warfare and has appeared as a guest on numerous TV and radio shows. Since immigrating he has worked on a number of projects including research into the smuggling operations of Iraq during the UN’s Oil-For-Food program, sanctions evasion by Iran and suspicious North Korean shipping activities. As a direct result of his research he has briefed and advised Congressional staffs and officials at State, Treasury and other government agencies. Tim moved to the USA in 2005 and proudly became an American citizen in 2011. He is a firm advocate of The Constitution and Bill of Rights and believes in American Exceptionalism and the benefits of maintaining and continually improving the greatest military in the world.
TOPIC: We Need to Fight Crime, Not the Right to Bear Arms!
JACK KALAVRITINOS
Jack Kalavritinos is Executive Director of the Coalition Against Socialized Medicine. Jack has more than 25 years of experience in public affairs and health communications, served as director for Intergovernmental and External Affairs for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and as the associate commissioner for External Affairs at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). He spent over seven years at Medtronic on policy initiatives. He also served as a senior official at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and as the White House Liaison at the Department of Labor. Most recently, Jack advised clients on strategic communications, policy, and advocacy as part of JK Strategies and APCO Worldwide’s International Advisory Council.
TOPIC: Resurrecting Failed Drug Price Controls Before the Midterms Won’t Help Americans.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Conservative Commandos Radio Showhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngConservative Commandos Radio Show2022-08-03 12:38:202022-08-03 12:38:20PODCAST: We Need to Fight Crime, Not the Right to Bear Arms!
FBI whistleblowers reported the Biden administration is pressuring agents to reclassify cases as domestic terrorism in order to make domestic terrorism look worse than it is. The administration has claimed that domestic terrorism is the greatest threat to homeland security. So now it’s cooking the books to support the phony narrative. But what would you expect from an administration that employs a top official – Attorney General Merrick Garland – who is not above treating ordinary parents who speak out at school board meetings as ‘domestic terrorists’ so a family member can sell more indoctrination material to school districts around the country?
Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio wrote a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray with the details of the whistleblower revelations. “(W)e have learned that FBI officials are pressuring agents to reclassify cases as ‘domestic violence extremism’ even if the cases do not meet the criteria for such a classification,” the letter states. “Whistleblower disclosures have also detailed the agency’s effort to exaggerate [Domestic Violent Extremism or DVE] data to satisfy the Bureau’s leadership…. [Agents] are encouraged and incentivized to reclassify cases as DVE cases even though there is minimal, circumstantial evidence to support the reclassification…. [FBI executives] have pressured agents to move cases into the DVE category to hit self-created performance metrics. According to whistleblowers, the FBI uses these metrics to dispense awards and promotions.”
Awards and promotions for cooking the books – my, my. Congressman Jordan demands the FBI produce all the agency’s communications regarding domestic terrorism case classification, including those with the Office of the President. Jordan wants to know if the fish is rotting from the head down.
There are consequences to cooking the books. Inflating the domestic terrorism statistics boosts public support for going after ordinary parents who object to pornography and transgenderism when they speak at school board meetings. In other words, cooking the books give cover for persecuting political enemies. Also, phony domestic terrorism cases detract from the significance of real cases of domestic terrorism which undeniably exist.
In addition, phony performance metrics skew agency priorities and divert resources from other real threats. For example, Kamala Harris and others have a history of pressuring the Justice Department and FBI not to pursue black identity extremism which is a very real threat. The Waukesha killer who mowed down six and injured 62 others was a black supremacist.
More to the point, the FBI completely ignores violence from Antifa and other radical Left-wing groups, violence which resulted in the burning of entire city blocks and injuries to 2,000 police officers in the riots of summer 2020. After all that, the FBI told Congress the FBI does not consider Antifa to be an organization and does not keep track of its violent activities. We also know from an FBI informant who became a whistleblower that the FBI pursued an agenda of ginning up the white supremacy and domestic terrorism threats while ignoring reports coming in of operations being planned by Marxist terror cells affiliated with Antifa, Black Lives Matter, the Communist Party USA, and other left-wing splinter groups. The informant had infiltrated several left-wing domestic terror groups, but his FBI handlers weren’t interested. They were only interested in white supremacists to build a phony narrative. They kept asking the informant, “Where are the white supremacists?” That’s all they cared about.
The FBI leadership has a one-track mind about domestic terrorism. This single-minded focus has compromised the agency’s ethics – they’re cooking the books – and blinded the agency to real threats like Antifa which is not going away. The single-minded focus is now producing delusional thinking at the agency. The FBI is teaching agents that the Betsy Ross flag and other images from the Revolutionary War are evidence of extreme and violent militia involvement. The FBI’s training also singles out the Gadsden ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ flag. The Gadsden Flag was popularized by the Tea Party. Say what you will about the Tea Party, but nobody can claim with a straight face after 12 years of the Tea Party that it is a violent extremist organization.
Running the government on phony narratives has consequences. One of them is that the FBI is a sick organization and getting sicker by the day.
Does Biden deserve credit or does the second law of demand explain our less painful trips to the pump?
Anyone who has a car is breathing a sigh of relief this last week. After two years of increasing gas prices, we’ve finally had a significant fall in gas prices.
Gas prices are still high at $4.33/gallon (nearly double the $2.18 they were in July of 2020), but there appears to be light at the end of the tunnel.
Since the current administration has taken a great deal of heat over high fuel prices, perhaps it’s no surprise to see the White House taking credit for the lower prices. Earlier this month, President Biden noted that gasoline prices had fallen for 30 consecutive days.
“Our actions are working, and prices are coming down,” Biden said days later.
However, there is little evidence to indicate the majority of the price drop is due to any particular policy change.
This leaves us with an important question. Why exactly are prices falling?
Falling Demand?
Several outlets have undertaken the task of explaining this price decrease. Some seem to have arrived at an answer that is in the right direction.
An article on MarketWatch pinpoints the ultimate cause as falling demand. “Gasoline demand weakness against historical seasonal strength is pressing retail prices lower,” MarketWatch reported analyst Brian Milne saying.
A report by ESAI Energy, an analytics firm, said on Wednesday that the firm expected a global surplus of four million barrels a day in the roughly 100-million-barrel-a-day market in the second quarter. “This is a significant drop in demand,” said Sarah Emerson, ESAI president.
In other words, the oil purchasing decisions are falling below what the oil industry expected. Four million less barrels a day are being utilized than industry experts had anticipated. The Times continues:
An Energy Department report released Wednesday showed that gasoline demand in recent weeks had dropped by 1.35 million barrels a day, or more than 10 percent. A recent survey from AAA seems to back this up, highlighting that two thirds of Americans have claimed to have changed their driving habits since the price increases.
So there’s our answer, right? Falling demand means lower prices.
There are several problems with this explanation, but the problems manifest in one particular issue. Neither of these articles gives a satisfactory answer for why demand would be falling.
In order to understand why demand is changing we first need to eliminate a fallacious reason. It might be tempting to say demand is falling because the price is high. In fact, the MarketWatch article seems to suggest this explanation. But this claim is wrong.
It’s true that when the price of gas (or any good or service for that matter) rises, people will purchase a smaller quantity of that good or service. Economists call this the first law of demand.
But the key part of that statement is when the price rises. Higher prices have existed for a while and cannot explain suddenly lower quantity demanded. Why didn’t the higher prices lead to a lower quantity demanded earlier?
In fact, committing to this explanation that higher price leads to lower demand is contradictory because it would be akin to saying “higher prices cause lower demand which causes lower prices.” This circular reasoning is confusing and incomplete at best.
Scarcity + Time = Substitution
MarketWatch and The New York Times missed it by that much.
I believe the outlets are right to pinpoint changing demand as the relevant factor for falling prices, and they’re right that higher prices are part of the story, but the explanation is missing the most important part.
To see what’s really going on, consider an example.
Imagine you’ve booked your vacation for the summer and you’ve decided to do a cross-country trip in an RV. The RV is rented, you’ve put in for vacation days at work, the insurance is covered, you’ve paid for tickets for sights and attractions, and your family is packed and ready.
You go to bed and gas prices are $2/gallon. The next morning you pull into a gas station with the RV and the price has skyrocketed to $4/gallon. The cost of your travel has doubled.
Do you cancel? In some cases the answer could be yes, but for many people the higher cost of gas is less than the cost of planning an entirely new vacation and executing the plan within a day. The cost of doing the logistics of canceling bookings and organizing something to do with your vacation days is high on short notice.
Now imagine a different scenario. You’re six months out from your trip and gas prices skyrocket to $4. You haven’t rented an RV or put in for vacation days. You assume gas prices will stay high until your vacation. Do you change your vacation plans? It seems likely.
The answer isn’t certain, but what we can say with certainty is that it’s more likely that someone will change vacation plans in the second scenario with six months notice relative to the first scenario with no notice.
Why? Simply put, it’s more costly to find substitutes in the short run than in the long run.
This illustrates a principle called the second law of demand which states that people are relatively more responsive to price changes in the long run than in the short run. Economists call this responsiveness “elasticity”.
With this insight in hand, we are now equipped to give a more robust explanation for falling gas prices.
To begin, gas prices increase substantially. It’s too costly for people to substitute their gas usage in the short run. You still need to drive to your vacation, work, or church the next day if gas prices go up. But, as more time passes, there is more ability to cheaply discover alternatives like bus routes, carpool situations, financing for electric cars, or telework options.
In the case of vacations you could substitute your RV trip with the “staycation” option, which is growing in popularity, given you have time to plan.
Then, as more people substitute these options for gas, gas stations face a new lower demand. Again, this doesn’t occur immediately because it’s costly to make these substitutions in the short run.
Admittedly, confirming this theory as the number-one cause of falling gas prices would require significant statistical work, but the theory is consistent with the basic facts of lower demand and the time that’s passed since gas prices have risen.
Is it possible that releases of supply from the government’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve have had some impact? It certainly should make some difference, but as the articles above indicate, the basic evidence seems to show demand changes are the driver here—not supply changes.
Even Biden’s own Treasury Department estimates the US strategic reserve release to have impacted prices from 13 cents to 33 cents with a little more potentially due to international releases. This upper estimate, based on very generous assumptions, still leaves about half of the price drop unexplained.
And even without statistical testing, the second law of demand is an economic law which means it certainly plays some role in the more responsive demand, everything else held constant.
It’s not clear that we’re out of the woods on inflation yet. However, I remain confident that consumer-side substitutions and supplier-side innovations will continue to work to make gas prices more affordable—so long as meddlesome regulators stay out of the way.
Peter Jacobsen teaches economics at Ottawa University where he holds the positions of Assistant Professor and Gwartney Professor of Economic Education and Research at the Gwartney Institute. He received his graduate education George Mason University and received his undergraduate education Southeast Missouri State University. His research interest is at the intersection of political economy, development economics, and population economics. His website can be found here.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFoundation for Economic Education (FEE)2022-08-03 12:14:242022-08-03 12:14:57Why Are Gas Prices Falling?
“What you are about to watch is a nightmare. It is not meant to be prophetic, it need not happen, it’s the fervent and urgent prayer of all men of good will that it never shall happen. But in this place, in this moment, it does happen. This is the Twilight Zone.” — Rod Serling
Given our declining economy that’s in recession and hurting average Americans, a massive red wave is predicted for the 2022 mid-term elections, a nightmare for Democrats and they are in panic mode.
Angry voters are poised to kick out of power the tyrannical Democrats who are bent on transforming America into their version of a socialist utopia, which, in reality, will be a socialist nightmare.
“Picture if you will” the depths desperate Democrats will sink, including election fraud, to thwart the will of the people and hold on to power.
Connecting some dots will provide a window into the election fraud Twilight Zone concocted by socialist Democrats who are colluding with corrupt media cohorts.
Here are the dots:
First dot: Democrat-friendly pollsters have begun publishing incredulous polls that show Democrats with a generic election preference edge, contrary to earlier polling.
Notably, in his July 1, 2022 article “Poll: GOP Holds Same Generic Ballot Lead as Week Before Roe Overturned,” Nick Gilbertson wrote: “A Rasmussen Reports poll reveals that a generic Republican candidate holds the same 5-point lead over a generic Democrat candidate as the week before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.”
“Historically, the generic ballot has overstated Democratic performance.
“The generic ballot numbers have been climbing for Democrats in polling over the past month.
“Despite President Joe Biden’s approval rating in the 30s, a recent Quinnipiac poll found 45% of registered voters wanting Democrats to control the U.S. House of Representatives, versus 44% who want Republicans in charge — a shift from when Republicans held a 5-point advantage on this question in June, 46%-41%.
Additionally, the online Politico/Morning Consult poll has Democrats leading by 4 points, 45%-41% — after it was tied in June.”
The article by Bonchie includes this sentence: “Is the Democrat Party on the rebound heading into November’s mid-term elections? If the latest CBS News poll is any indication, the answer is a resounding ‘no.'”
In that article, Matthew Boyle wrote: “Several Republican strategists told Breitbart News on Sunday that a Missouri poll commissioned by campaign operatives associated with Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s U.S. Senate campaign deliberately undercounts former President Donald Trump’s support in an effort to boost Schmitt in the final days of the race.”
Second Dot: Secure in the knowledge that U.S. news organizations are entrusted with reporting vote counts and declaring winners, Democrats orchestrated a test run of their election fraud scheme, using an obscure Kalamazoo-based television station in West Michigan.
The article states: “In advance of Michigan’s Tuesday, Aug. 2 primary election, News Channel 3 was conducting a test of its election systems last week. In doing so, the station inadvertently published mock results on WWMT.com. The numbers used were randomly generated and did not reflect actual results.”
Here are the images of the fake elections results News Channel 3 posted:
The Michigan Department of State expressed no alarm about the fake results being published ahead of the actual election, which must have pleased the Democrats. When concerned citizens expressed outrage, various media outlets defended the Michigan station. For example, the AP published an article “Release of test election results fuels unfounded fraud claims.”
Our sources of news control what we read and see and they have been influencing, manipulating, and controlling us with ease. Now, they have become political operatives and are colluding brazenly with the Democrats to manipulate elections results to favor the Democrats, betraying our trust.
That article exposes how news organizations declare winners based on estimated numbers of votes with no check on their numbers by responsible government election officials, even if those numbers are “mistakes.”
Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of every democratic society and a key feature is that each citizen’s vote counts equal.
Joseph Stalin said “[i]t’s not the people who vote that count; it’s the people who count the votes.”
It is imperative that we remove the power to call elections away from the media and put it back where it rightfully belongs–with our state election officials.
In the Fortune article below Shawn Tully interviews Ed Pinto and cites AEI Housing Center data on HPA to discuss the cooling housing market. He also writes about the geography of these changes, as western metros face the most drastic downturns in HPA.
It’s finally happening. After soaring 40% from pre-pandemic levels in the greatest boom in decades, home prices peaked in June, and started falling in July. That’s the stunning, sudden shift revealed in a new set of data just introduced by the American Enterprise Institute’s Housing Center, one of the top sources for in-depth, city-by-city numbers on all things housing, from appreciation to inventories and mortgage originations. “The market just reached a turning point,” says Ed Pinto, the AEI Housing Center’s director. “Prices will keep falling on a national basis for August through December. It’s likely that we’ll see declines in around four out of five metros in some of the months ahead.”
Until now, the AEI had measured prices primarily on a year over year format. And by that yardstick, housing still looked strong in June. That month, the AEI found that the value of the average home had grown by 15% from June of 2021. But its data also showed over the 12-month span, “home price appreciation,” or HPA, was slowing fast, down substantially from a summit of 17.5% in April. The question that pullback posed for America’s homeowners: What’s happening right now, week by week or month by month? Is it possible that in my city, in Atlanta or Phoenix or Raleigh, prices are actually starting to decline?
The AEI’s new data answers that query. The measure displays price changes from one month to the next. Hence, the numbers provide an up-close view of precisely when the patterns turn, by how much, and what the moves foreshadow. They’re a guide to reading the market’s pulse. The AEI’s figures are based on actual closings for the month, as reported in the public records. Pinto deploys a methodology that compares sales of similar quality homes, eliminating distortions from shifts in the sales “mix”––for example, a deceptive boost to average prices as a higher share of pricey homes sell in June than in May.
An astounding number of markets are already posting declines
The AEI calculated the figures for the nation’s 50 most active housing markets. The AEI’s below, “Home Price Appreciation (Month over Month),” shows the changes from one month to the next from the start of 2019 through June of this year. Let’s begin with the national data. The overall market has been on such a relentless rampage, for so long, that only twice in that period have prices retreated, and each time by just 0.1%. As recently as January, America’s monthly HPA was 2.6%, sliding in May to a still robust 1.1%. But in June, appreciation hit a virtual freefall, shrinking to just 0.2%.
Behind that national downshift are astounding reversals in sundry cities that were thriving just months ago. In June of 2021, only four metros showed a fall in prices from May and last year, the only May-to-June loser was Louisville at a tiny -0.1%. In April, not a single one of the fifty metros endured a decline from March. But this June, no fewer than 21 locales suffered drops from their May prices, some of them big. In general, the steepest falls came in the expensive west coast markets, as well as western metros that gained legions of buyers from the exodus from California. Eleven of the hardest-hit addresses fit this category. The biggest loser was San Francisco at -3.8%, followed by San Jose (-3.2%). Among the other western cities logging large declines are Seattle (-1.8%), Los Angeles (-1.5%), Portland (-1.3%), Denver (-0.9%) and Phoenix (-0.6%). Almost all of these metros were rocking as recently as February, with San Francisco up 2.8% over January, San Jose ahead 3.9%, and Seattle gaining 3.5%.
“The clearest trend is the pullback in these west coast cities, and those influenced by the California craziness,” says Pinto. In these places, the giant price increases in the last two years, from already expensive levels, has so diminished affordability that the fast-shrinking ranks of buyers are hammering values in spite of historically low volumes of homes for sale. From the fourth quarter of 2019 to Q1 of this year, prices jumped from $1.2 to $1.6 million in San Jose, $575,000 to $819,000 in Seattle, from $466 to $623,000 in Denver, and from $340,000 to $516,000 in Phoenix. The only out West markets that still showed strength were Las Vegas, a venue that’s cooling but still managed a 0.2% increase over May, and Boise, where prices waxed 1.8%, maintaining a record of consistent, month over month advances. Boise keeps thriving as a favorite destination for work-at-home refugees from California who can sell a home in, say, San Jose, get a much bigger abode at half the cost in their adopted city, and still bank hundreds of thousands of dollars.
In recent months, the hottest markets have clustered in the sunshine state. Cape Coral, which was scoring year over year increases in the mid-30% range, is backpedaling fast (you can read my recent feature on Cape Coral’s market here). Its gain of 2.8% from April to May flip-flopped to a negative 1.0% in June. Tampa, North Port, Orlando, Jacksonville and Miami are all way down from February increases, but still advanced between 0.2% and 1.1%.
By contrast, a number of older metros that didn’t experience big price gains demonstrated remarkable resilience, for a simple reason: Many remain relatively cheap. St. Louis, Nashville, Boston, Providence, Philadelphia, Kansas City, Columbus and New York all ranked in the top ten for May to June gains. Tied for first place with Boise the Big Apple, which garnered a month over month increase of 1.8% and is one of few stalwarts that appear on a rising trajectory.
The downdraft in June radically transforms the outlook for this year and 2023
Pinto also gets a good look at where prices are headed by studying “rate lock” data from Optimal Blue. Those numbers reflect contract prices for sales that will close in around 90 days. For Pinto, the rate lock trend points to falling prices, at the national level, for July through December of 2022. “We expect the national month over month HPA to go negative in July for the first time in years,” he says. “From there, prices should fall 3% to 5% from June levels by year end. Those total increases will accumulate gradually over the seven months from June to December.” By year end, Pinto expects that home prices will still be 4% to 6% above December of 2021, but probably remain on a downward path.
Pinto forecasts that if overall prices slide by around 4% from here to year end, a far larger number of metros than the 21 that were negative in June will be soon posting falling prices from month to month. “I wouldn’t be surprised if some months, we see 40 cities showing declines,” he says.
So where does Pinto see values heading in 2023? It would seem that if prices are falling in December, they’d keep tumbling through most of 2023. But that’s not necessarily the most likely scenario, says Pinto. “We’ve seen a decline in mortgage rates in recent weeks from 6% to around 5.5%,” says Pinto. “If rates rates continue to recede, that would give a boost to appreciation.” He points out that although inventories are growing, stocks remain extremely slim. “We’re still at around one month of supply at the current level of demand,” he says. “To get declining prices, we’d need to see seven ‘months of supply, and that could be a long way off.” For Pinto, it’s highly possible that a combination of stable or falling rates, and limited volumes of homes for sale, could sustain gains of 4% to 6% next year.
Still, Pinto says it’s never been more difficult to predict housing ‘s future. “There are so many factors pushing and pulling in different directions,” he says. “My crystal ball is getting foggier.” The AEI’s new monthly numbers enable homeowners to watch the market’s course, not just over long spans, but as it evolves. Folks are super-anxious about what today’s tumultuous times mean for the future of their biggest asset. They want to see whether the value of their ranch of colonial waxed or waned in the last 30 days. Now they can. The AEI numbers don’t hand homeowners a crystal ball. But following the AEI’s fresh data will keep your thumb flush on the market’s pulse of the market that, for most Americans, counts more than any other by far.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Edward Pintohttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngEdward Pinto2022-08-03 09:10:462022-08-03 09:21:20New housing market data reveals a stunning shift as these 21 of the top 50 metro areas show price declines for June
Over the past several years America has discovered that China has been carrying out various forms of espionage and intellectual property theft across the US, particularly targeting American companies in the tech sector. Just this past week it was reported that components from the Chinese tech conglomerate Huawei installed in US telecommunications networks could disrupt communications at US nuclear bases. While these companies set up American subsidiaries who deny playing any role in espionage, the reality is that China’s intelligence law obligates Chinese-affiliated companies to serve the Communist party by any means at their disposal. Experts say it is virtually impossible to determine whether a particular Chinese company is operating as a private business or whether it is really an element of the regime.
These types of threats are unfortunately nothing new, yet for some reason companies like Huawei are still allowed to do business in America and with American companies, placing American security at risk and enriching our biggest potential adversary.
Not surprisingly, given the Biden family’s extensive business and financial dealings with Chinese entities, the Biden administration has been less than vigilant about the threat posed by Chinese infiltration, influence, and espionage. The Biden administration recently shut down a major FBI effort targeting Chinese corporate espionage alleging the program was somehow racist.
Fortunately, America is not dependent on the vigilance of corrupt oligarchs like Joe and Hunter Biden. There is much that can be done on the state level to safeguard critical infrastructure from Chinese hacking and set an example for the rest of America. One state has taken such action.
State Senator Barry Milligan of Louisiana recently successfully authored legislation this year to protect his state’s critical infrastructure from nefarious Chinese tech companies.
The first piece of legislation, signed into law as Act 695 of 2022, prohibits state agencies and universities from using telecommunications equipment produced by Huawei Technologies Company or ZTE Corporation and video surveillance equipment produced by Hytera Communications Corporation, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Company, Dahua Technology Company, or any subsidiary or affiliate of such entities. All of the companies listed are Chinese entities and as such all are majority-owned or controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) or the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
The Chinese companies that are involved in the video surveillance field not only pose a threat to US infrastructure; they also are involved in ghastly surveillance networks inside China characterized by human rights abuses.
The second piece of legislation signed into law as Act 766, prohibits the use by any agency of state government of telecommunications equipment or video surveillance equipment produced or provided by an entity found to be owned, controlled, or otherwise connected to the government of the People’s Republic of China, the Islamic Republic of Iran, North Korea or Russia. The effect of this legislation is targeted at China however, since the other nations either do not have capabilities in the telecommunications or video surveillance field (such as North Korea) or are already sanctioned by US government policies (such as Iran).
The Act also provides that if a vendor uses components from any such entities, the vendor must replace them at the vendor’s expense.
For the purposes of the legislation “critical infrastructure” means a communication infrastructure system, cybersecurity system, electric grid, hazardous waste treatment system, or water treatment facility.
By mandating that all state agencies, including colleges, universities, and hospitals, not include Chinese components in critical infrastructure, Louisiana is setting an example for the private sector and encouraging technology vendors to have alternatives for all their customers.
Every state needs to follow suit and pass legislation like Senator Milligan’s in Louisiana. In protecting infrastructure inside each respective state, they will also be protecting our nation as a whole. Just as state and local activism efforts played a significant role against apartheid in South Africa a generation ago, state activism can fill the gap left by the Biden administration recalcitrance when it comes to dealing with China today.
With the momentum built up by such restrictions on Chinese tech firms, the private sector will then start to feel the pressure to not do business with Chinese entities, and would demonstrate to a future administration in Washington that the American people recognize the Chinese threat for what it truly is and are demanding action.
Christopher Holton is a Senior Analyst and Director of State Outreach at the Center for Security Policy. Mr. Holton came to the Center after serving as president and marketing director of Blanchard & Co. and editor-in-chief of the Blanchard Economic Research Unit from 1990 to 2003
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Center For Security Policyhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngCenter For Security Policy2022-08-03 08:57:492022-08-03 08:58:01One Thing Every State Must Do To Protect America
Following in lockstep with the the other Failed Democrat state New York. The only thing deadly here is another stolen election.
Here we go. Democrat pre-election fear mongering and chaos in order to usurp, yet again, American elections.
People are not dying from Monkeypox, a predominantly gay sexually transmitted disease (the hysteria over this from everyone else is irrational and painful to watch).
California governor declares monkeypox state of emergency
FILE – A man holds a sign urging increased access to the monkeypox vaccine during a protest in San Francisco, July 18, 2022. California’s governor on Monday, Aug. 1, 2022, declared a state of emergency to speed efforts to combat the monkeypox outbreak, becoming the second state in three days to take the step.
California’s governor on Monday, Aug. 1, 2022, declared a state of emergency to speed efforts to combat the monkeypox outbreak, becoming the second state in three days to take the step. (AP Photo/Haven Daley, File)
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s governor on Monday declared a state of emergency to speed efforts to combat the monkeypox outbreak, becoming the second state in three days to take the step.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said the declaration will help California coordinate a government-wide response, seek more vaccines and lead outreach and education efforts on where people can get treatment and vaccination.
“We’ll continue to work with the federal government to secure more vaccines, raise awareness about reducing risk, and stand with the LGBTQ community fighting stigmatization,” Newsom said in a statement announcing his declaration.
Nearly 800 cases of monkeypox have been reported in California, according to state public health officials.
The monkeypox virus spreads through prolonged and close skin-to-skin contact, which can include hugging, cuddling and kissing, as well as through the sharing of bedding, towels and clothing. People getting sick so far have mainly been men who have sex with men, though health officials note that the virus can infect anyone.
“Public health officials are clear: stigma is unacceptable and counterproductive in public health response,” Michelle Gibbons, executive director of the County Health Executives Association of California said in a statement. “The fact is that monkeypox is primarily spread by skin to skin contact and sharing objects like bedding or towels, without regard to sexual orientation or gender identity.”
The type of monkeypox virus identified in this outbreak is rarely fatal, and people usually recover within weeks. But the lesions and blisters caused by the virus are painful, and they can prevent swallowing or bowel movements if in the throat or anus.
The declaration in California came after a similar one in New York state on Saturday, and in San Francisco on Thursday. Newsom’s administration had said as recently as Friday that it was too soon for such a declaration.
After pressing for Newsom to make such a declaration, Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco hailed the governor’s decision.
“The monkeypox outbreak is an emergency, and we need to use every tool we have to control it,” Wiener said.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00The Geller Reporthttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Geller Report2022-08-03 08:46:292022-08-05 06:49:22IRRATIONAL: California joins New York Declares Monkeypox State of Emergency, Biden Forms Monkeypox Task Force
Out-of-stock rates for baby formula remain sky-high across America despite decreased media attention on the crisis in recent months, market data shows.
The national formula out-of-stock level for the week ending July 24 was 30%, according to data released July 29 and shared with the Daily Mail. That’s a slight increase from two weeks before when out-of-stock rates were 28.3%, according to market research firm IRI.
'THEY FORGOT ABOUT US': Mom slams Biden admin over persistent baby formula shortage https://t.co/yxNdMFu5fS
Wyoming and Arizona are being hit hardest at the moment. The out-of-stock rates in those states are 42% and 44%, respectively, the Daily Mail reported.
Media coverage of the crisis has waned since the spring and early summer when the shortage dominated headlines, but the situation is just as bad now as it was at points in May and June. The out-of-stock rate for the week ending May 22 was 23.7%.
News reports have focused instead on other challenges facing the Biden administration, including record-high inflation, lofty gas prices and the war in Ukraine.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and the supply chain chaos it caused, typical out-of-stock rates were in the 5% to 7% range, according to the New York Post.
President Joe Biden has taken steps to alleviate the shortage, but they seemingly haven’t been enough. He made use of the Defense Production Act to try and increase supply, and the administration says it has flown in more than 60 million 8 o.z. bottles of formula from Europe this year, according to the Daily Mail.
EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. All rights reserved.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00The Geller Reporthttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Geller Report2022-08-03 08:26:052022-08-03 08:26:05No Media Coverage: Biden’s Baby Formula Shortage Worsens, Wreaking Havoc On American Families
It has been demonstrably proven the vaccine can be harmful. The risk far outweighs the reward. Once again the law of unintended consequence will serve the right and the righteous. Parents will flee these toxic government schools.
The District outlined an urgent plan this week to vaccinate nearly 30,000 students — more than 25 percent of the public and private school population — who are behind on their routine shots over the summer so that they can legally attend school in August.
Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) has vowed to enforce for the upcoming academic year a long-standing but historically ignored law that says students need to be up to date on their vaccines against diseases including measles, polio and whooping cough to enroll in schools. But the promise to enforce the mandate has underscored just how many students in the District are behind on their vaccinations, and how far compliance rates plummeted in the pandemic when many families skipped doctors’ appointments.
According to city data, around 75 percent of public school students are current with their routine vaccines, with students in the wealthiest wards having the highest compliance rates. If the city outreach efforts to vaccinate students are ineffective, scores of students — likely a disproportionate number of low-income students of color — would be kept at home during a school year where students are already expected to still be recovering from the academic fallouts from the pandemic.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00The Geller Reporthttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Geller Report2022-08-03 07:53:372022-08-03 07:53:37D.C. Plans to EXPEL CHILDREN From School If They Don’t Get The Covid Vaccine
Leaked document is labelled as “Unclassified/Law Enforcement Sensitive” that is for “FBI Internal Use Only.”
Under the “Symbols” category of the document, “2A” is listed with the following explanation: “MVEs justify their existence with the Second Amendment, due to the mention of a ‘well regulated Militia,’ as well as the right to bear arms.”
“Revolutionary War imagery” such as the “Gadsden Flag” and the “Betsy Ross Flag” are cited in the document under “Commonly Referenced Historical Imagery or Quotes.”
Project Veritas released a newly leaked document today provided by an FBI whistleblower, which shows how the Bureau classifies American citizens it deems to be potential “Militia Violent Extremists” [MVEs].
In the document, the FBI cites symbols, images, phrases, events, and individuals that agents should look out for when identifying alleged domestic terrorists.
The “Unclassified/Law Enforcement Sensitive” document says it is for “FBI Internal Use Only.”
Of note, under the “Symbols” section, is a prominent citation of the Second Amendment, where it explains that “MVEs justify their existence with the Second Amendment, due to the mention of a ‘well regulated Militia,’ as well as the right to bear arms.”
Right below that, under the “Commonly Referenced Historical Imagery and Quotes” section, Revolutionary War images such as the Gadsden Flag and the Betsy Ross Flag are listed. Each flag displayed in the document comes with a brief description of what it means.
Under the “Common Phrases and References” section of the leaked document, Ashli Babbitt is cited as a person that MVEs consider to be a Martyr.
The same document also refers to Ruby Ridge, Waco, and even Timothy McVeigh, tying in traditional American ideas and symbols with radical and/or violent events in the past.
SLEEPY HOLLOW, N.Y. /PRNewswire/ The Politicians Honor Code and “Take the Pledge” campaign were launched, as Election Day approaches. The pledge for politicians, candidates for public office, and elected representatives is to abide by an honor code and make a public pledge that they will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do.
Michael Doorley, founder of the “Take the Pledge” campaign and keeper of the pledge database, notes many people believe candidates for public office and elected representatives make false and misleading statements. They may use misinformation, disinformation, and mal-information, and tell falsehoods.
We know some lie, and they know they lie. And these lies are becoming bigger and bolder.
They don’t agree on much, other than the other party is lying. This lying is destroying relationships and families, tearing apart communities, and damaging our country, often so that politicians can attain power or enhance their self-interest and self-enrichment.
If a candidate for elected office or an elected representative makes a false or misleading statement or lies to their constituents or to the American people, accountability is unlikely. Instead, they may be rewarded with contributions, party loyalty, media coverage, and possibly getting elected!
Politicians have a First Amendment right to lie to us. They never told us they wouldn’t lie to us, and we, as a country, have never told them not to lie to us—that is, until now. That’s what the pledge does. We must tell them to “Take the Pledge.” Doorley explains, “the pledge was modeled after pledges at our federal service academies—West Point, and the Naval, Air Force, Coast Guard, and Merchant Marine academies. If the women and men in our service academies who have or will one day lay down their lives for our country can take a pledge, then so too can candidates for public office and elected representatives.” He notes the pledge may not be the final answer, but it is a simple and logical starting point. And he points out that politicians can and will take a pledge because nearly 1,400 of them have taken the Taxpayer Protection Pledge.
August is summer recess for Congress, a time for politicians’ grassroots campaigning events, rallies, barbecues, and shaking hands and kissing babies. It is a perfect time for constituents, to ask their candidates and elected representatives to “Take the Pledge.” Doorley asks his fellow Americans, “Why would you give your support, contributions, or vote to any candidate or representative who has not taken the pledge?”
ABOUT MICHAEL DOORLEY
Michael Doorley, CPA, was a 35-year financial services executive serving in CFO, CAO, COO, and board positions. He founded usdebtforum.com, chairs a special interest group and guest lectures on our national debt. His articles on the national debt have appeared in Newsweek, BoardIQ, and New York State’sThe CPA Journal.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Dr. Rich Swierhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngDr. Rich Swier2022-08-03 07:12:052022-08-03 12:57:05Politician’s Honor Code Campaign Launched: ‘Take the Pledge’ Not to Lie, Cheat, Steal, or Tolerate Those Who Do
The Biden administration is weakening national security in a number of ways. The first has to do with electromagnetic pulse attacks which could knock out our power grid, resulting in the deaths of tens of millions of people from lack of electricity. Russia now has a non-nuclear EMP weapon that can be delivered on hypersonic cruise missiles or launched from submarines. Such weapons can fry our nuclear ICBMs in their silos. China and North Korea are also developing EMP weapons. The Biden administration’s response? Janet Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, has said she is not concerned about EMP attacks.
Another concrete indication of the administration’s blasé attitude about national security is the blind-eye the Pentagon has turned to the effect of its Woke policies on military morale and recruitment. Who in their right mind would sign up to fight and die for such a horrible rotten country, which is how the Pentagon presents America to its troops Who, indeed? The Army will fall 20,000 short of its recruitment goals this fiscal year and things look even worse for next year. The reasons include the military’s insane COVID vaccine mandate, which some say is a deliberate purge of conservatives from the ranks. But the reasons also include the Pentagon’s shoving Woke Marxist-derived policies like critical race theory and transgenderism down service members’ throats.
The Biden administration has also been taking a scissors to the terror group list. Earlier this year, it removed Gamaat Islamiya from the terror list. The group was led by Omar Abdel-Rahman, the Blind Sheikh whose followers bombed the World Trade Center in 1993. The administration also removed from the list the Houthis in Yemen, an Iranian-sponsored Jihad group that hopes its missiles will reach New York “in the very near future.” While we’re on the subject of terrorism, it is undisputed illegal aliens on the terrorist watch list are coming across the southern border, a border made porous by Joe Biden’s open borders policies as I’ve documented in many previous commentaries.
The Senate Armed Services Committee found Biden’s proposed defense budget inadequate for the second year in a row. The Committee added $45 billion for, among other things, more weapons to deter Russia and China. Meanwhile, the Navy’s current plans call for the number of ships to shrink from 300 to 280 by 2027. And an Army general warned Congress America is not ready for chemical and biological attacks. The food supply is especially at risk. Animal pathogens could be targeted at America, producing food insecurity in the United States.
Experts also warn America’s nuclear deterrent is in bad shape. Not only have our weapons become old and rickety, but the overall design – to bust Soviet missile silos – is woefully out of date in this age of mobile missile launchers. Russia has more battlefield tactical nukes, and a different attitude about using them. We draw a bright line at using any nukes, but Putin has threatened some 40 times to use them in Ukraine. The use of nuclear weapons per se is not unthinkable to the Russians. Russia outnumbers us ten-to-one in the tactical nuke category. China isn’t standing still, either. It is turning express trains into mobile missile launchers. China will tell you it aims for ‘world harmony’ which really means subjugation of the entire planet under Chinese rule – world domination. Compared to Russia and China, the Biden administration is twiddling its thumbs when it comes to nuclear deterrence. Forcing electric cars on us to save the planet is so much more important, you see.
Some might argue all of this is deliberate. The Biden administration hates America with a passion and is trying to destroy it. I believe that but, today, all I have to show you is how the administration’s policies are weakening our national security. That’s bad enough. Whatever the reason, the Biden administration is shirking its duty on Job One – national security – and we are less safe as a result.
“The moment we no longer have a free press, anything can happen. What makes it possible for a totalitarian or any other dictatorship to rule is that people are not informed; how can you have an opinion if you are not informed? If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer. This is because lies, by their very nature, have to be changed, and a lying government has constantly to rewrite its own history. On the receiving end, you get not only one lie—a lie which you could go on for the rest of your days—but you get a great number of lies, depending on how the political wind blows. And people that no longer can believe anything cannot make up their minds. It is deprived not only of its capacity to act but also of its capacity to think and to judge. And with such people, you can then do what you please.” — Hannah Arendt
Democrats election and fundraising emails read like a homicidal madman’s manifesto accusing their victims of the crimes they have committed. They accuse us of the crimes they are committing with impunity.
Evil madness. Irrational and anti-real. Their modus operandi. That’s expected. Any American buying into is nothing short of astonishing.
Look at this – it’s evocative of Nazi party propaganda where the Jews were the oppressors and the Nazis their victims. When you control the press, you can sell anything.
Here is the full text of their election campaign:
The November election is crucial because everything we care about is at stake.
Whether abortion is legal – or doctors are jailed and women die
Whether assault weapons are banned – or our children are massacred
Whether global warming is reduced – or our planet becomes uninhabitable
Whether our votes are counted – or we live under a TrumpDictatorship
If Democrats win, we will move forward as a nation. If Republicans win, we will descend into tyranny.
We know we can win because we beat Donald Trump in 2020 by turning out 81 million Democratic voters for Joe Biden – the most votes ever.
“We are not talking about Fraudulent voting acts. What we are talking about is TREASON. When you coordinate 6 to 10 states using cyber warfare to change the outcome, these are Treasonous Acts.” — Representative Trey Gowdy (R-SC)
We The People AZ Alliance hosted an election security forum in Maricopa County on Saturday, featuring testimony from expert witnesses and state legislators.
This informational hearing, moderated by investigative journalist Lara Logan, presented evidence of fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election and addressed the concerns in the 2022 elections.
The hearing also featured a bombshell testimony revealing exactly who in Maricopa County deleted subpoenaed 2020 Election files before delivery to Arizona Senate auditors. The County was clearly hiding something.
As we reported earlier, Lara dropped a bomb on stage, revealing that the Biden regime is now giving social security numbers to illegals at the border.
Election investigator Matt Vanbibber also shared his discoveries from the Maricopa County Elections Department’s public footage. He finally revealed the identities of individuals who illegally deleted elections files from the Elections Management Server in April 2021.
This data was deleted before the voting machines were delivered to Senate auditors in compliance with a subpoena.
Federal law requires these files to be kept for 22 months.
Maricopa County officials previously admitted that these files were “deleted” in a Congressional hearing but later walked it back and said that the files were “archived.”
This was one of the many law violations discovered by the Arizona audit and other Maricopa County’s 2020 Election investigations.
The Gateway Pundit previously reported on footage of the individuals deleting the files, but their identities were redacted from the public to maintain confidentiality.
On Saturday, it was revealed by Vanbibber that Maricopa County election Database Administrator Brian Ramirez was granted unauthorized entry to the server room on multiple occasions, and he deleted the files.
Ramirez does not have the required credentials to access the server room. However, Vanbibber discovered that he falsely used the identities of individuals who were authorized access.
Vanbibber matched the server room entry logs to the video footage and found Brian Ramirez using others’ cards to access the room.
Vanbibber: So basically, you have Brian entering the server room, and remember I told you he does not have badge access. We The People actually collected server room logs from Maricopa. So I went through all this video footage and matched it with the logs. What you see is Brian has Passarelli’s card in the server room, and he also has Charles Cooley’s badge as well.
Logan: So, Brian is accessing the server room using the identities and cards of other people.
Maricopa County policies also require two people in the server room whenever someone is using the keyboard video monitor, however, Brian was alone on multiple occasions.
Vanbibber then played the video of Brian Ramirez accessing the server room after he was let in by Assistant Elections Director Kristi Passarelli, at the same time that the server logs were deleted.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00The Geller Reporthttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Geller Report2022-08-02 06:03:152022-08-02 06:06:02ARIZONA: Identities Of Maricopa County Election Employees Who Deleted Election Server Files BEFORE Maricopa County Audit
#BREAKING A security camera footage obtained by @IranIntl_En shows Khalid Mehdiyev, the man arrested by New York Police Department with an AK-47, outside Brooklyn residence of Iranian dissident journalist @AlinejadMasih. The police says the AK-47's serial number had been removed. pic.twitter.com/6Y8zgvwlTv
— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) July 31, 2022
On Thursday, a 23-year-old man named Khalid Mehdiyev was arrested in Brooklyn outside the home of Masih Alinejad. She is the astonishingly courageous Iranian dissident who so enrages the mullahs who lead the Islamic Republic that they mounted an audacious plot last year to kidnap her in New York and take her back to Iran, where she would have faced unimaginable horrors. Was this a second attempt by the Iranians to rid themselves of one of their highest-profile and most trenchant critics? If so, it highlights yet again Old Joe Biden’s appalling weakness. Weakness, after all, invites aggression.
According to the New York Post, Mehdiyev (which is a common Azeri name; there is a sizable Azeri minority in Iran) had a loaded AK-47 and over a thousand dollars in cash, and had been hanging around Alinejad’s home for two days before he was finally apprehended. The federal complaint “makes no explicit connection between Mehdiyev and Alinejad but says the accused had focused on an unnamed Brooklyn ‘residence.’”
Mehdiyev showed all the signs of a determined and potentially lethal stalker: “Law enforcement observed Mehdiyev sitting in a gray Subaru Forester SUV with an Illinois license plate for several hours on Wednesday and Thursday. Feds said he ordered food to his car and looked inside of the windows and attempted to open the front door of the residence he was parked outside of.” Finally, on Thursday, Mehdiyev had the poor judgment to run a stop sign and was stopped by the NYPD, which found that he had no driver’s license.
When cops searched his car, they found, apparently along with two days’ worth of takeout cartons, “the loaded AK-47 with multiple magazines, additional rounds of ammunition and a suitcase full of cash. Two other different license plates were also found.”
But Mehdiyev insists that his odd and suspicious behavior was entirely innocent: he “told police he had been staying in Yonkers, but the rent was too high there and he was looking for a new place to live in the Brooklyn neighborhood. He said he had tried to open the front door of the residence so he could knock on an inside door to ask if he could rent a room.” He apparently didn’t explain why he sat outside the place for two days, and he had no plausible explanation for anything else, either: “He initially told officers he had borrowed the car and he didn’t know anything about the gun and said the suitcase was not his.” Yeah, you know how AK-47s can just appear in your car without your knowledge or consent, and what can anyone do about that?
Later, apparently realizing how ridiculous his initial story sounded, Mehdiyev “confessed that the gun was his and he had been in Brooklyn ‘because he was looking for someone’” — an ominous statement when you’re carrying an AK during your search.
Masih Alinejad is a particular thorn in the side of the mullahs because she highlights on a daily basis the pettiness and cruelty of the Islamic Republic. She routinely posts videos that have been sent to her (at tremendous risk) from inside Iran, showing Iranian women risking multiyear prison sentences for the crime of taking off their hijab, the arrest and torture of women who have done so, and the Iranian regime’s determination to punish women who dare to resist their oppression. On Wednesday, she posted a video showing the “unspeakable cruelty” of the Iranian regime in killing over 1,700 stray dogs. (Dogs are considered unclean in Islam, and Muhammad, the Islamic prophet, ordered that they be killed.)
In a shame/honor culture, Masih Alinejad is doing something that the Iranian mullahs likely consider worse than death: she is humiliating them. And so it wouldn’t be in the least surprising if it turns out that they sent Khalid Mehdiyev, as they sent the kidnappers who were foiled last year. Old Joe Biden presents such an image of fecklessness and lack of control that it’s easy to see why the mullahs would think that this is the perfect time to strike within the United States: if Masih Alinejad were ever abducted or killed, Joe will stumble and mumble through some paper-tiger statement and continue his indefatigable pursuit of a new Iranian nuclear deal. So for the mullahs, there is no downside to continuing to try to get her in their clutches. The only people who would pay a price, as always with Joe’s actions and inactions, are the free people of the world.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Jihad Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJihad Watch2022-08-02 05:43:252022-08-02 05:43:25Iranian Impunity in the U.S.? Man Arrested with AK-47 Outside Brooklyn Home of Iranian Dissident
