Fossil Future: Why Global Human Flourishing Requires More Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas—Not Less

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Today’s pervasive claims of imminent climate catastrophe and imminent renewable energy dominance, Epstein shows, are based on what he calls the “anti-impact framework”—a set of faulty methods, false assumptions, and anti-human values that have caused the media’s designated experts to make wildly wrong predictions about fossil fuels, climate, and renewables for the last 50 years.

Deeply researched and wide-ranging, this book Fossil Future will cause you to rethink everything you thought you knew about the future of our energy use, our environment, and our climate.

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Fossil Future: Why Global Human Flourishing Requires More Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas—Not Less

New York Times best-selling author of The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels draws on the latest data and new insights to challenge everything you thought you knew about the future of energy.

For over a decade, philosopher and energy expert Alex Epstein has predicted that any negative impacts of fossil fuel use on our climate will be outweighed by the unique benefits of fossil fuels to human flourishing—including their unrivaled ability to provide low-cost, reliable energy to billions of people around the world, especially the world’s poorest people.

And contrary to what we hear from media “experts” about today’s “renewable revolution” and “climate emergency”, reality has proven Epstein right:

  • Fact: Fossil fuels are still the dominant source of energy around the world, and growing fast—while much-hyped renewables are causing skyrocketing electricity prices and increased blackouts.
  • Fact: Fossil-fueled development has brought global poverty to an all-time low.
  • Fact: While fossil fuels have contributed to the one degree of warming in the last 170 years, climate-related deaths are at all-time lows, thanks to fossil-fueled development.

What does the future hold? In Fossil Future, Epstein, applying his distinctive “human flourishing framework” to the latest evidence, comes to the shocking conclusion that the benefits of fossil fuels will continue to far outweigh their side effects—including climate impacts—for generations to come. The path to global human flourishing, Epstein argues, is a combination of using more fossil fuels, getting better at “climate mastery”, and establishing “energy freedom” policies that allow nuclear and other truly promising alternatives to reach their full long-term potential.

Today’s pervasive claims of imminent climate catastrophe and imminent renewable energy dominance, Epstein shows, are based on what he calls the “anti-impact framework”—a set of faulty methods, false assumptions, and anti-human values that have caused the media’s designated experts to make wildly wrong predictions about fossil fuels, climate, and renewables for the last 50 years. Deeply researched and wide-ranging, this book will cause you to rethink everything you thought you knew about the future of our energy use, our environment, and our climate.

©CFACT. All rights reserved.

Election Fraud: Turn Over the Rocks and Watch the Bugs Scurry Underneath

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A flood of new stories shows we have widespread problems with our elections.  Let’s start with the individual cases:

A former Congressman pled guilty to stuffing ballot boxes for the Democrats in Pennsylvania elections from 2014 to 2018.  A Republican councilwoman in New York pled guilty to submitting multiple absentee ballots in her reelection bid last year.  A Democrat County Supervisor was indicted on 82 counts of false statements, procedural violations, forgery, and more in connection with an absentee ballot scheme in Virginia.  Three women pled guilty to illegal ballot harvesting for the Democrats in Arizona in the 2020 primary election.

A city councilman in L.A. County and five others were charged with election fraud after arranging for nonresidents to vote in the city council election last year. A judge threw out the election results and declared the councilman’s opponent the winner in the race by three votes.  So, yes, detecting election fraud can change the outcome of elections, despite what the Democrats claim.

These individual cases are just the tip of the iceberg of what’s wrong with our elections.

A legal foundation found more than 8,000 people are registered twice or more on New Jersey’s voter rolls.  One voter appears on the rolls six times!

The citizens group amassing the evidence for the documentary ‘2000 Mules’ told Arizona’s lawmakers mules inserted ballots into drop boxes in the state an average of 21 times during the 2020 election.  How is such ballot trafficking possible?  The group noted the problem starts with bloated voter rolls, which make fraud possible when ballots are mass-mailed to everyone on the rolls, including dead voters, people who have left the state, students who vote elsewhere, ballots sent to vacant lots, etc.   That leaves a lot of ballots floating around out there that can be collected in apartment buildings and elsewhere, then cast illegally.  See the problem?

A whistleblower told the filmmakers things are so bad in one Arizona town that voters are coerced into showing their ballots to controllers who demand they vote a certain way.  People who want to run against the local machine are told they will be shot.

Another citizens group obtained official records showing 20,000 mail ballots were received after the legal deadline in Maricopa County, Arizona, enough to change the 2020 election results.

A citizen investigation based on government records found 36 percent of voter registrations in East Lansing, Michigan are inaccurate and 21 percent of ineligible voters cast ballots.  Fifty ballots still get sent to a street that no longer exists.  More than 1,700 votes were cast from dorms that were closed due to the pandemic at Michigan State University.  Makes you wonder about other college towns, doesn’t it?

Another citizen investigation in Michigan led a Detroit official to admit ballots were received in the middle of the night in the 2020 election.  He only admitted to 16,000 ballots arriving, but Michigan added 149,000 votes – 94 percent for Biden – the next morning.  Nobody has explained where those votes came from.  There is no good explanation.

Voters in Wisconsin are suing five cities in the state over the unlawful use of unmanned drop boxes in elections.  The drop boxes, it is believed, are part of a thinly disguised, privately funded get-out-the-vote effort for Democrats run by government officials.

A citizens group in Georgia found 72 counties illegally destroyed drop box video surveillance tapes involving more than 180,000 ballots for the 2020 election.  The group also found 56 counties illegally destroyed their electronic voting machine ballot images for the 2020 election in violation of state and federal requirements such records be preserved for at least 22 months.

Finally, a sheriff in Michigan is suing the Secretary of State, the state Attorney General, and the state police for interfering with his investigation into election fraud in the 2020 election.  The sheriff alleges state officials confiscated documents, harassed his deputies, intimidated witnesses, and whisked away voting machines so they could not be examined.  This should get interesting, because the sheriff has constitutional law enforcement powers independent of state officials.

Citizens and advocacy groups on the political Right are being criticized for taking an interest in election integrity.  We’re being told we’re imagining things and being too aggressive.  Our critics say the most ridiculous things like ‘there is no voter fraud’ and educating law enforcement on how to identify election fraud is somehow beyond the pale.

If we’re successful, we will return to free and fair elections in this country.  If you’ve got a problem with that, I’ve got a problem with you.

Visit The Daily Skirmish and Watch Eagle Headline News – 7:30am ET Weekdays

©Christopher Wright. All rights reserved.

WE ONLY ENDORSE CONSERVATIVES WITH A CONSCIENCE: Re-elect Governor Ron DeSantis on November 8, 2022

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It is the Editorial Board’s policy to only endorse conservatives with a conscience who are willing to contest the uncontested absurdities of our time. The Editorial Board wants politicians who work for not against the people. The Board only endorses candidates and incumbents with a track record or unfailing policy of supporting power to the people and are clearly against big government control.

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are our key metrics when endorsing incumbents and candidates.

For these reasons we the Editorial Board members are endorsing Governor Ron DeSantis for re-election on November 8, 2022.

Since his inauguration Governor DeSantis has:

  1. Empowered parents to take control of their children’s education.
  2. Signed legislation that requires public schools, colleges and universities in Florida to educate children not indoctrinate their students.
  3. Purged age inappropriate books and materials from public school classrooms and media centers.
  4. Supported and rewarded law enforcement and first responders who are on the front lines of taking care of we the people.
  5. Signed legislation that protects children in grades K-3 from receiving sex education classes.
  6. Taken on Disney and those who would groom our children for underaged sex with pedophiles and pederasts.
  7. Is for legal immigration and firmly against the Biden administration’s open borders policies.
  8. Is pro-Second Amendment and is protecting the right of Floridians to keep and bear arms, which shall not be infringed.
  9. Is against lockdowns, mask and vaccine mandates.
  10. Is pro-school choice.
  11. Governor Ron DeSantis is sending Child Protective Services (CPS) agents to investigate adults who expose their children to drag queen shows.
  12. Is pro-life.
  13. Is pro-American.
  14. Supports our State and U.S. Constitution and defends it against all enemies foreign and domestic.
  15. Served honorably in the United States Navy in the Staff Judge Advocates Corps.
  16. Is for election integrity and voter identification.
  17. Is a father, husband and patriot.
  18. Advocates for the people of Florida.

These and many more are the reasons that the Editorial Board has endorsed Ron DeSantis for a second term as Governor of the state of Florida.

As Governor DeSantis said, “The more society becomes unmoored from the truth, the more those that speak the truth come under assault.”

Since his election Governor DeSantis has spoken truth to power and has come under assault. He is a hero’s hero.

©The Editorial Board, DrRichSwier.com. All rights reserved.

UNBELIEVABLE VIDEO: Nancy Pelosi Grooming Kids on ‘RuePaul’s Drag Race’ says ‘Drag Is What America Is All About’

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Of course, on Monday, June 13th, 2022 Catholic Nancy Pelosi, just after her husband’s arrest for DUI, decided to make an appearance on RuePaul’s “Drag Race.” Watch:

RealClear Politics’ Ian Schwartz reported,

Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi made an appearance the television show ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race,’ a weekly program on VH1 that features drag queens.

“It’s my honor to be here,” Pelosi said after being introduced by host RuPaul Andre Charles. “Your freedom of expression of yourselves in drag is what America is all about.”

“With the midterm elections coming up, it is very important for people to make their voices and their vote heard,” Pelosi told the drag queens.

One drag queen praised Pelosi for her “sarcastic shady clap” using expletives.

This appearance comes as The Daily Skirmish‘s Christopher Wright reported on suicides among transgender kids increasing,

The Biden administration and other outposts of the Left tell us, unless we allow children to take puberty blockers and gender transition, a lot of kids will commit suicide.  Transgender ideologues frame the choice as between accepting transitioning kids or burying dead kids.  And parents will automatically be hostile to their transgender kids, so we have to hide all this from the parents. But it’s all pure bunk.  The Left’s transgender suicide narrative won’t fly, as a new study from the Heritage Foundation shows.

Not only is the narrative phony, it’s the exact opposite of the truth.  The study found:

… strong evidence for the claim that suicides among young people have increased significantly since 2010 in states that have a policy allowing minors to access routine health care without parental consent….

In the past several years, the suicide rate among those ages 12 to 23 has become significantly higher in states that have a provision that allows minors to receive routine health care without parental consent than in states without such a provision. Before 2010, these two groups of states did not differ in their youth suicide rates. Starting in 2010, when puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones became widely available, elevated suicide rates in states where minors can more easily access those medical interventions became observable.

Rather than being protective against suicide, this pattern indicates that easier access by minors to cross-sex medical interventions without parental consent is associated with higher risk of suicide.

Not only that, but a science journalist dug into the seven studies transgender ideologues frequently cite as justification for rushing children into chemical transitioning and found all the studies to be flawed.  The flaws include:

  • failure to track test subjects over time
  • a false claim kids on puberty blockers ultimately feel better
  • false comparisons resulting from test subjects not on medicine dropping out of the study
  • attributing causation to the drugs when no causation was actually shown, and
  • hiding the raw data from other researchers.

As a group, the studies do not support the proposition that giving kids puberty blockers or hormones significantly improves their mental health.  And they certainly do not support the transgender activists who hold a gun to parents’ heads and tell them their kids will commit suicide if the kids aren’t given the drugs.  Moreover, the studies do not justify hiding information about kids from their parents or stripping parents of parental rights.  Just as with every other argument made by the Left, the more you dig into it, the uglier it gets.  This is why the Left is doing its best to shut down debate on so many issues and hopes you never acquire the critical thinking skills you need to see through their games.

The Biden administration is all in for the phony transgender narrative.  Joe Biden himself said, “We’re committed to advancing transgender equality in the classroom, on the playing field, at work, in our military, everywhere.”  The Biden administration is part of the transgender-industrial complex that wants to steal your kids to line its own pockets and seize more power for statist elites.  They fake study results and hide their data to lull you to sleep.  They mean you harm.  Respond accordingly.

The Bottom Line

Pelosi is in bed, no pun intended, with the LGBTQxyz community. She and Democrats are expecting them to come out of the closet, no pun intended, on Tuesday, November 8, 2022 and vote “D” for drag, a.k.a. dragocrat, no pun intended.

Get it? Got it? Good!

Time for Republicans to drag themselves, no pun intended, to the poles on Tuesday, November 8, 2022 and defeat Nancy and her fellow dragocrats and drag queens, no pun intended.

We don’t want Nancy and Joe to drag America down, no pun intended, now do we?

©Dr. Rich Swier. All rights reserved.

Trump-Endorsed Russell Fry Defeats Impeachment Republican Tom Rice

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That ole Trump magic has us in a spell, that ole Trump magic that he weaves so well!

Purge them RINOs!

Trump-Endorsed Russell Fry Defeats Impeachment Republican Tom Rice

Trump-backed conservative Russell Fry defeated incumbent Rep. Tom Rice (R-SC) in South Carolina’s primary Tuesday evening, marking another successful endorsement for the former president.

By: Breitbart, June 15, 2022:

Decision Desk HQ called the race late Tuesday night, as did others:

As of 10:47 p.m. Eastern time, with over 95 percent of the vote in, Fry led Rice 51.1 percent to 24.6 percent, per the New York Times.

Rice, one of the ten House Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump, has continued to defend his decision to vote alongside Democrats, stating during a recent appearance on ABC’s This Week that he would only consider supporting Trump in the future if the former president apologized for January 6. Rice told This Week, defending his impeachment vote:

It wasn’t that hard. When I thought about what had happened and the president’s activity or inactivity that day, he sat there and put his own vice president’s life, and vice president’s wife’s and his daughter’s life at risk with people shouting, hang Mike Pence, when watched the Capitol being sacked, when he watched the Capitol police officers being beaten, for three or four hours, and lifted not one finger to stop it, it was clear to me what I had to.

“I was livid. I took an oath to protect the Constitution. I did it then, and I would do it tomorrow,” he said, also adding that RINO Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) would make a “great” Speaker of the House.

“I think she’s a real Republican. I think she is very conservative,” he said, describing her as a “fearless leader.”

State Rep. Russell Fry, however, has continued to draw a stark contrast between himself and the incumbent, whom he defeated Tuesday night, promising that he will “stand up for the America First agenda.”

“When you want conservative fighters in the ring, people who stand up for the America First agenda, right here in South Carolina, look no further than the Russell Fry campaign,” he said during a recent appearance on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Saturday.

“People are fed up with Congressman Tom Rice, and he has been, you know, I think the impeachment vote really showed us who he was, and quite frankly, exposed a big frustration with him in general, which is where has he been on some of these issues that matter to the American people. And we see this continued leftward lurch,” he continued.

“Tom Rice, must think his voters are in the swamp in Washington, DC. But the reality is that the hardworking Americans, South Carolinians that are in the district, pay attention, they want to return to normalcy, they want to see their gas prices drop,” he added, explaining that Rice has “never been a conservative warrior.”

“He’s a self-described moderate. He was censured by the South Carolina Republican Party for his impeachment vote. He continually attacks conservatives, from President Trump all the way down to local activists,” he added.

Trump endorsed Fry in February after deeming Rice a “coward who abandoned his constituents by caving to Nancy Pelosi and the Radical Left.”

https://twitter.com/RussellFrySC/status/1488572969844719616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1488572969844719616%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2Fpolitics%2F2022%2F06%2F14%2Ftrump-endorsed-russell-fry-defeats-impeachment-republican-tom-rice%2F

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

JULY 4TH TREASON: Gaggle of 11 Republicans Join Biden To Gut the Second Amendment

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“Biden’s America is becoming a mirror image of Trudeau’s Canada when it comes to gun control.” ― Dr. Richard M. Swier, Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army (Ret.)

“To conquer a nation, first disarm its citizens.” ― Adolf Hitler

Frank Gaffney in a podcast titled The Senate GOP’s “White Flag” initiative stated,

A gaggle of Republican Senators have just agreed with Democratic counterparts that the something they are prepared to do in response to recent mass shootings is adopt a national ‘Red Flag’ law. As a result, in the name of preventing deplorable, but random, acts of “gun violence,” every American could be one anonymous denunciation away from having their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms eliminated.

This legislation is scheduled to be passed by July 4th, 2022. If it does then American independence is lost. 

Listen to Gaffney’s statement.

Royal A. Brown III, an expert on Florida’s Red Flag law, wrote this about Republican senators joining in the efforts by Biden and Democrats to pass a national Red Flag law,

Sens. Rick Scott (R-FL), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Pat Toomey (R-PA), and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) attended the initial discussions that started on Thursday. As governor of Florida, Scott implemented red flag laws and raised the age to own a rifle to 21 after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

On June 12th, 2022 U.S. Senators Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Cory Booker (D- N.J.), Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Angus King (I-Maine), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) issued the following statement:

Today, we are announcing a commonsense, bipartisan proposal to protect America’s children, keep our schools safe, and reduce the threat of violence across our country. Families are scared, and it is our duty to come together and get something done that will help restore their sense of safety and security in their communities. Our plan increases needed mental health resources, improves school safety and support for students, and helps ensure dangerous criminals and those who are adjudicated as mentally ill can’t purchase weapons. Most importantly, our plan saves lives while also protecting the constitutional rights of law-abiding Americans. We look forward to earning broad, bipartisan support and passing our commonsense proposal into law.

Royal A. Brown III also warns let’s also not forget the following facts:

  • The ex parte Risk Protection Order (RPO) is issued without notice to the respondent and can occur 24 x 7. This is a violation of the 4th Amendment.
  • The “hearing” at which the respondent is present does not take place until 2 weeks after the seizure (this is not Due Process under the 5th and 14th amendments).
  • This process does not recognize the principle of law that a person is innocent until proven guilty.
  • The rules of evidence do not involve “beyond reasonable doubt” but rather “reasonable suspicion” that the respondent may be a threat.
  • Florida’s law calls for the respondent to be immediately entered into the state and federal criminal data bases (even though the RPO is supposedly a civil and not a criminal process, e.g. no crime has been committed). There is no provisions to remove the respondent found innocent from these lists.
  • An RPO can be issued up to a year after reporting a person as a threat.
  • If a respondent is found to be not a threat there are no provisions for prompt return of his/her firearms, ammo, permit nor that this property be returned in the same condition as when seized.
  • Since June 2018 when this law went into effect in Floirda of the over 5,000 RPOs issued, approximately 13% or 650 of those accused respondents have been found not to be a threat at the after the fact hearing – this is far too many and demonstrates 3 possibilities – the accusers lied and/or the law enforcement sending the petition to Judges did not conduct a through investigation and/or the Judges rubber stamp these petitions. Not one of the false accusers have been charged with the 3rd degree misdemeanor called for in the law.
  • This law also facilitates the muting of 1st Amendment law of freedom of speech as people become fearful of stating anything that could be misconstrued as a threat.
  • Furthermore, this law can easily be misused as a weapon against political opponents.

Add to this the fact that Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) warned that Federal Firearms Licenses are being denied at a rate of 500%,

“Federal Firearms Licensees are being denied renewals or their licenses are being taken away at a rate of about 500% greater since Biden was in office [than in] previous years,” Clyde said during a Second Amendment Caucus press conference.

“So it is definitely obvious that the Biden administration is targeting Federal Firearms Licensees because they are the link between manufacturers and people being able to access their Second Amendment rights,” he said.

Clyde, a federal firearms licensee who owns a store in his Athens district called “Clyde Armory,” said that “the motto of my company is we enable individual participation in the preservation of liberty” by giving people access to guns.

Here is Brad Polumbo reacting to 4 gun control tweets that’ll make you’re brain hurt.

The Bottom Line

In America there are approximated 102.5 legal firearms for every 100 citizens. These owners of firearms have an estimated 1 trillion+ rounds of ammunition.

I took an oath as a young Army officer when I was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in 1967 to protect and defend the U.S. Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. That oath doesn’t expire until I do. I and millions of others have taken that same oath. We the people will abide by it.

Jeff Cooper in 1997 book Art of the Rifle wrote,

The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles.

We fully agree. The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy or girl with a gun.

On Monday, July 4th, 2022 Americans will be celebrating Independence Day. If this Red Flag law passes the U.S. Senate it may be the last day of our independence and/or the first day of the second American Revolution.

Gird your loins. A war is coming to America.

©Dr. Rich Swier. All rights reserved.

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RELATED VIDEO: The Bipartisan D.C. Gun Grab Is Coming | The Charlie Kirk Show

ATF is revoking firearm licenses ‘at a rate of about 500% greater’ under Biden

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Federal firearms dealers are getting their licenses revoked or not renewed by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms at a much greater rate since President Biden first came to office, Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) said Wednesday.

Rep. Andrew Clyde says ATF is revoking firearm licenses ‘at a rate of about 500% greater’ under Biden

By TFNTEAM

“Federal Firearms Licensees are being denied renewals or their licenses are being taken away at a rate of about 500% greater since Biden was in office [than in] previous years,” Clyde said during a Second Amendment Caucus press conference.

“So it is definitely obvious that the Biden administration is targeting Federal Firearms Licensees because they are the link between manufacturers and people being able to access their Second Amendment rights,” he said.

Clyde, a federal firearms licensee who owns a store in his Athens district called “Clyde Armory,” said that “the motto of my company is we enable individual participation in the preservation of liberty” by giving people access to guns.

“They enable individual participation in the preservation of liberty, because that’s the only way a person, other than making one themselves, can get a firearm in his hands through a manufacturer is through a Federal Firearms Licensee,” he said. “So if you cut out the Federal Firearms Licensees, then you have denied the American citizens their right to keep in bear arms through not being able to buy a gun. So it’s a problem.”

According to Alan Gottlieb at the Second Amendment Foundation, his organization gets many calls from FFL’s every week telling his group the same story.

“Not so much just a revocation [of an FFl license], but also a fine and just being harassed. There’s a lot more of that going on under the Biden restriction than ever before,” Gottlieb said. “The last time anybody really did anything like that was under Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton figured less guns would be sold if there were less FFL dealers to start with, and so he went out to shrink the number of FFL’s.”

The National Rifle Association-Institute for Legislative Affairs says that Mr. Biden’s administration is running “Clinton playbook again – operating a ‘zero tolerance’ policy that is shuttering FFLs over trivial violations. This sort of schizophrenic policy-making could give the impression that this ‘strategy’ has been motivated by anti-gun politics rather than concerns about violent crime.”

©TFNTEAM. All rights reserved.

19 Nuggets of Wisdom from the Best Economics Writer You’ve Never Heard Of

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Americans would do well to make up the deficit in their knowledge of the works of Arthur Seldon and his “life for liberty.”

May 29 marks the birth of Arthur Seldon. While too-little known to American readers, he was editorial director of the London-based Institute of Economic Affairs for more than thirty years, during which, The Economist wrote, it “brought to the lay reader the ideas of all the leading free-market economists and thinkers of the day.”

Seldon produced a seven-volume set of collected works, including books, monographs, essays and articles, as well as editing hundreds of papers, monographs, and pamphlets.

In such a vast body of work, one cannot easily winnow out the best of Arthur Seldon’s insights. Therefore, consider some of the wisdom in just one of his books—Capitalism—winner of the Fisher Arts Literary Prize and celebrating its 30th anniversary this year:

  1. “Capitalism…creating high and rising living standards for the masses without sacrificing personal liberty speaks for itself. Only the deaf will not hear and the blind will not see.”
  2. “Even bad men are led by the market process to do good, but good men are induced by the political process to do harm. [So] discipline the writ of politics to the bare minimum.”
  3. “Private property is a potent working institution. Public ownership is…political power cornered by handfuls of irresponsible non-ownerships.”
  4. “Capitalism…allows individuals to take the risks of living their lives as they see best.”
  5. “The capitalist market…puts power–effective purchasing power–directly into the hands of the common man and woman for them to use where they wish…That is why the market is more essentially democratic than government.”
  6. “Changing private identifiable property into public unidentifiable property is to destroy the incentives to protect, conserve, improve and render it productive by using it profitably in making goods and services for which consumers will pay.”
  7. “Pricing is the peaceful way of resolving argument and conflict.”
  8. “It was the development and refinement of the law of private property rights that explains… modern progress.”
  9. “That in practice markets are imperfect has obscured the more fundamental truth that they are the best-known way of enabling individuals to meet for mutual benefit . . . World practice and experience…show no better, less imperfect, mechanism.”
  10. “As government has been inflated…It has undermined the instrument that could have done more for the common man.”
  11. “Capitalism embraces the self-correcting mechanisms of open discussion in free society to identify error and open competition in free markets to apply the corrections.”
  12. “The market does not require people to be good: it takes people as they are and induces them to do good by using their capabilities to provide what others want.”
  13. “Wherever it is used, government is so disappointing or worse—inefficient, unaccountable and corrupt—that it is best not to use it at all except for functions where all its faults have to be tolerated to obtain the services required…In short, the price of government is so high that it should be avoided wherever possible.”
  14. “The state has shown itself the false god of all who have looked to it.”
  15. “Capitalism…requires the eventual withdrawal by government from most of its accumulated activities.”
  16. “The inducements of capitalism compel the money-makers to do good; the inducements of socialism enable the power-holders to do harm.”
  17. “The political process…has become the master rather than the servant of the people.”
  18. “Individuals are smothered by collective decisions in the political process.”
  19. “The market of capitalism treats people as individuals; the political process of socialism herds them into categories. Capitalism makes for harmony, socialism for friction.”

Americans would do well to make up the deficit in their knowledge of the works of Arthur Seldon and his “life for liberty,” as his biographer, Colin Robinson, described it. As the IEA website put it, “Seldon highlights the improvements of mankind which came about not through some central plan or social organization but through individuals recognizing an opportunity to produce goods and services which met a need expressed by the demand in the market.”

In so doing, he advanced every individual’s potential, which is expanded by private property and voluntary market arrangements, but constricted when political power hinders the freedom and cooperation they engender.

AUTHOR

Gary M. Galles

Gary M. Galles is a Professor of Economics at Pepperdine University and a member of the Foundation for Economic Education faculty network. In addition to his new book, Pathways to Policy Failures (2020), his books include Lines of Liberty (2016), Faulty Premises, Faulty Policies (2014), and Apostle of Peace (2013).

EDITORS NOTE: This FEE column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

More Alarming Inflation Data Undercut the Progressive ‘Greedflation’ Narrative

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Companies haven’t jacked up prices to even fully match the increase in their costs, let alone exceed them.

Another day, another disturbing price inflation metric.

The federal government just released the latest Producer Price Index (PPI), an index that tracks the prices of a basket of the typical inputs businesses rely on, like energy, warehousing, etc. It finds that prices rose 0.8% from April to May, and a whopping 10.8% from May 2021 to May 2022. The PPI is the Federal Reserve’s preferred metric of price inflation, and this latest update keeps it near a 40-year high.

To see just how extreme this trend continues to be, just check out this graph from Fox Business:

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE GRAPH

Of course, this latest update comes just one day after another alarming inflation update. Released Monday, the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) showed an 8.6% year-over-year increase in consumer prices. That metric imperfectly measures prices for a basket of consumer goods a typical US household might buy, and it too remains near 40-year highs.

What’s the significance?

Well, these updates offer more proof that rising prices are hurting American families, eroding paychecks, and bursting budgets. But we already knew that.

The really interesting insight here comes from comparing the producer price data to the consumer price data. Contrasting the two undercuts the progressive “greedflation” narrative that argues rising prices are in large part due to corporate greed.

“Inflation first rose because of other factors, like Covid and economic stimulus bills,” the New York Times writes in an article explaining what “greedflation” advocates believe. “But companies raised prices more than necessary to net higher profits. They knew they could get away with it because consumers no longer had a benchmark for what prices should be. And they did not face enough competition to keep prices down.”

Or, as Senator Elizabeth Warren argues, “profiteering” and “price-gouging” have driven higher prices because “they [can] get away with it because our markets lack competition.”

But this narrative has never made any sense. For one thing, corporations are no more “greedy,” aka profit-seeking, than they were 5 years ago or 10 years ago, when inflation wasn’t surging. What’s more, some sectors have seen much bigger price hikes than others. Are companies in some industries just less greedy than in other sectors?

“Greedflation” conspiracy theorists cite market concentration, i.e. monopoly power, as why companies can supposedly be what’s driving this. But, as MIT economist David Autor notes, market concentration hasn’t meaningfully shifted in the last two years… while inflation most certainly has!

That’s why a survey of top economists found that the vast majority reject the “greedflation” narrative out of hand.

What’s this have to do with PPI, CPI, and other inflation metrics?

The new data set put the nail in the coffin for the “greedflation” narrative.

Why?

Well, if companies were truly being greedy and just jacking up prices to make money, we would expect them to be hiking prices for consumers at a rate higher than their own production costs are going up. But these data sets actually reveal the opposite: consumer prices rose 8.6% while producer prices rose 10.8%—suggesting that, roughly estimating, companies haven’t jacked up prices to even fully match the increase in their costs, let alone exceed them.

Where’s the evidence of this rampant special surge in “greed” we keep hearing about?

It’s nowhere to be seen, of course, because the “greedflation” narrative was always a political talking point simply meant to deflect blame away from the federal government and onto Big Business, a popular boogeyman.

WATCH: Brad reacts to 4 gun control tweets that’ll make ur brain hurt (reaction)

AUTHOR

Brad Polumbo

Brad Polumbo (@Brad_Polumbo) is a libertarian-conservative journalist and Policy Correspondent at the Foundation for Economic Education.

RELATED ARTICLE: 19 Nuggets of Wisdom from the Best Economics Writer You’ve Never Heard Of

EDITORS NOTE: This FEE column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Republican Mayra Flores Wins South Texas District Democrats Carried By 13 Points In 2020

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Republican Mayra Flores, a first-time candidate for elected office, won the special election in Texas’ 34th District to complete the term of former Democratic Rep. Filemon Vela, who resigned in March.

With more than 70% of votes counted, Flores held 51% support, and Democrat Dan Sanchez garnered 43.5%. Despite the presence of two other candidates on the ballot, one Democrat and one Republican, Flores was able to avoid a run-off. Several elections analysts called the race shortly after 10 pm Eastern Time.

The special election was spurred on by Vela’s resignation on March 31. The five-term moderate had announced in March 2021 that he would not seek re-election in 2022, and left the lower chamber on March 31 to take a job at the Washington, DC-based corporate law firm Akin Gump.

Vela won re-election by 13.6% in 2020, and Joe Biden won the district by four points.

Flores, who received endorsements from House GOP Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, won the primary on March 1 to run in November’s general election against Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez. Gonzalez will attempt to switch districts from the 15th, which was redistricted into a toss-up seat. That new 34th District will lean 17 points towards the Democrats, according to FiveThirtyEight.

Elected Democrats and party strategists have repeatedly expressed concern that Hispanic and Latino voters are swinging towards the Republican Party. Biden’s approval rating with Hispanic and Latino voters sits in the mid-20s, several recent polls have shown, the worst of any ethnic group. The 34th District is 85% Hispanic, the U.S. Census found in 2020, one of the most Hispanic congressional seats in the country.

The Republican National Committee and GOP members of Congress have expanded outreach in Hispanic and Latino communities. House Republicans announced the Hispanic Leadership Trust in May, and co-chairman and Texas Rep. Tony Gonzalez campaigned for Flores. The RNC opened several Hispanic outreach centers in South Texas in 2021.

AUTHOR

MICHAEL GINSBERG

Congressional reporter.

RELATED ARTICLE: Special Election Could Give GOP A Chance To Prove Gains With Hispanics

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

DESANTIS TARGETS WOKE UNIVERSITIES: Replacing indoctrination with education

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (ChurchMilitant.com) – Leaked documents suggest Florida’s governor is taking aim at indoctrination and liberal bias present in the state’s universities.

A recently publicized 70-page proposal drafted by lawmakers at the behest of Gov. Ron DeSantis shows faculty hiring at universities could become the responsibility of a board of trustees, many of whom are DeSantis allies or appointees.

The bill, obtained earlier this week by Seeking Rents, intends to take away substantial amounts of power and independence from public universities and colleges.

During a press conference June 5, DeSantis harpooned the current state of education: “We believe that when parents send their kids to school, it’s for education, not for indoctrination.”

According to the proposal, Florida’s Board of Governors, which currently oversees universities in the state, along with the Board of Education would have much more influence on the way these public schools are operated.

The Board of Governors would have the ability to veto budgets, investigate university presidents and even fire employees. Fourteen of the 17 members on this board are directly appointed by DeSantis. In addition, all seven members of the Board of Education are appointed by DeSantis.

The board of trustees at state universities also typically supports DeSantis. These boards are generally set to have 13 members, six of whom are appointed by DeSantis and five of whom are picked by the Florida Board of Governors.

If the bill as written becomes law, the trustees and DeSantis would have much more power in the way state education systems are operated.

Cutting Funding

The DeSantis-backed measure vows to cut some state funding for universities and colleges that do not follow state laws or regulations.

For example, the governor encouraged universities to send out voluntary “intellectual surveys” in April of this year. These surveys ask a series of questions to employees and students to help gauge the political bias or temperature present in Florida’s higher education system.

While these surveys are currently voluntary, the leaked legislation would make fundraising cuts to institutions that refuse to send out the surveys.

Banning Racial Politics

The bill would also effectively ban any teaching related to “identity politics, such as critical race theory,” or that “defines American history as contrary to the creation of a new nation based on the universal principles stated in the Declaration of Independence.”

College and university curricula would be required to “promote the philosophical underpinnings of Western civilization and include studies of this nation’s historical documents, such as the United States Constitution, the Bill of Rights and subsequent amendments and the Federalist Papers.”

Limiting Teacher Tenure

DeSantis’ fight against colleges and universities began back in April when he signed a bill that limits tenure in Florida’s education system. The bill, SB7044, requires “each tenured state university faculty member to undergo a comprehensive post-tenure review every five years.”

This review includes examination of tenured employees’ “accomplishments and productivity; assigned duties in research, teaching and service; performance metrics, evaluations and ratings; and recognition and compensation considerations, as well as improvement plans and consequences for underperformance.”

AUTHOR

Paul Aubert

EDITORS NOTE: This Church Militant column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

TAKE ACTION: Sarasota, Florida GOP HQ Vandalized! Hate Has No Home Here!

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Help Catch The Thug. Share On Facebook.

A Leftist – possessing weapons and zip ties on his way to commit an assassination – was recently arrested outside the home of a Conservative Supreme Court Justice. Outside of some brief initial coverage, the attempted assassination faded from the headlines FAST.

Locally – A Leftist Antifa and anti-2nd Amendment Thug vandalized our Sarasota GOP HQ in the middle of the night (photos below). No coverage by the local media.

PHOTO 1: Picture of vandal.

PHOTO 2: Graffiti 

PHOTO 3: Graffiti 

Isn’t it strange that when Democrats are the victims it seems to marinade in the press, while Conservatives get little to no coverage?

Future suggestion: When we are attacked, we will make it clear to the press that we are identifying as Liberal Democrats during the attack. I suspect that will help us receive some fair media coverage.

Help Catch The Thug. Share On Facebook.

©Christian Ziegler. All rights reserved.

Patriotism is more than sitting at home and scrolling through social media – Video

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This episode of Shout Out Patriots shows that our team is more than just talking heads in front of a camera and a microphone.

First, Shout Out Patriot co-host, Pastor Jason Binder, talks about his Rally for Righteousness event. Then Ryan Mauro of the Afghan Liberty Project gives a heartbreaking update on his efforts to save Christians trying to survive Islamic extremism in Afghanistan.

We’re on the streets, in communities, and even taking our faith to far-distance countries.

Patriots know the Bible is right: “Rescue the weak and needy; Save them from the hand of the wicked.” Ps. 82:4

©Shout Out Patriots. All rights reserved.

You REALLY Want Federal Gun Control Intervention? Well, Here’s an Idea for You…

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Word is that the Senate has the necessary votes for federal gun control legislation designed to, among other things, pressure states into instituting “red flag” laws. These measures are controversial because they involve suspending a person’s rights (i.e., seizing his weapons) without due process. Wherever you stand on them and federal firearms laws in principle, however, a simple fact is under-emphasized in this debate: Laws mean little if not enforced.

What’s more, they’re actually instruments of evil if only enforced to the degree where good people will comply.

Here’s another fact: Corresponding to the general unwillingness among left-wing district attorneys to punish criminals (who aren’t also political opponents), these officials, though claiming firearms are a plague, aren’t punishing most gun crimes. Odd, huh?

An archetypical example is Philadelphia D.A. Larry Krasner. His office withdrew or dismissed 65 percent of gun charges last year, up from 17 percent in 2015. This, along with his characteristic reluctance to hold miscreants to account, explains why the “City of Brotherly Love” had 559 murders in 2021 — an all time record. And, again, his misfeasance reflects that of left-wing prosecutors nationwide.

Thus, if there must be federal gun-oriented intervention (which I’m against), it’s obvious what it should be:

Make localities’ and/or states’ receipt of federal funds contingent upon their adequate enforcement of violent-crime laws — in particular, gun laws.

There you have it. Are you listening, Mitch McConnell?

Unlike what’s currently being proposed, this measure actually would make a difference. It’s not radical within the context of today’s governmental norms, either. After all, the current “bipartisan” gun bill provides “incentives” for states to implement red-flag laws; even more to the point, the Biden administration is apparently threatening to withhold school lunch money from districts that don’t effect the pseudo-elites’ MUSS (Made-up Sexual Status, aka “transgender”) agenda. Of course, using federal-funding retention as cudgel with which to impose Washington’s will has long been status quo.

I’ll reiterate that I don’t believe in such strong-arm tactics; in fact, the central government is meant to be a mere agent of the states and should get precious little tax money. But if the feds are going to call the tune with their pay-the-piper power, what better cause than compelling feckless localities to enforce the laws that really matter and save lives?

Earlier this month, more than 170 “big city mayors” met in Reno, Nevada, to kvetch about how they “fear sweeping gun limits are out of reach,” as The New York Times put it.

What misdirection.

What deflection.

What nerve.

What phonies.

Crime isn’t skyrocketing nationwide because firearm laws have changed (they haven’t), but because the law-enforcers have changed.

Enforcement of local laws makes far more sense than any one-size-fits-all policy, too, as crime is not an evenly distributed phenomenon. Consider that more than half of 2016’s murders occurred in just certain parts of two percent of our land’s counties, and 68 percent of the homicides were committed in only small pockets of five percent of the counties.

Oh, these would be exclusively, or almost all, Democrat areas.

In contrast and on average, “73 percent of counties in any given year had zero murders from 1977 to 2000,” reported Fox News in 2017. (These would generally be GOP areas.)

In other words, we don’t have a “gun problem.”

We have a Democrat population/governance problem.

What’s so disgusting about enacting more laws but not strictly enforcing those on the books, especially the important ones, is that only good people are affected. They tend to follow laws even when enforcement is lax and punishment for violation is minimal; miscreants won’t without the threat of Draconian measures.

So ponder the vicious circle here:

  • You don’t enforce just laws.
  • Crime consequently proliferates.
  • There’s then a drumbeat for more laws, which take away good people’s freedom but also won’t be enforced on evildoers.
  • Crime then rises further leading to a call for even more laws, and, well….

You get the idea. Wash, rinse, repeat — and soon few freedoms remain. Of course, were you conspiracy minded (perish the thought), you might fancy this the whole point of this seemingly pointless exercise.

As for you politicians, federal and otherwise, focus on enforcing existing laws or forever hold your peace. ’Cause with the way your pet criminals are running wild, a good citizen certainly has to hold his piece.

Contact Selwyn Duke, follow him on MeWe, Gettr or Parler, or log on to SelwynDuke.com.

©Selwyn Duke. All rights reserved.

FINANCIAL CRISIS: Dow Plunges Another 1,000 Points After Friday’s Bloodbath

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On Friday, the stock market tanked 800 POINTS.

Today 900 points.

Stocks sink, S&P enters bear market inflation.

The media may ignore this catastrophe but wiping out the lifesavings of average Americans, impoverishing Americans won’t wash. Americans who haven’t been paying attention will become ….. activated and operative.

Inflation Hits 40 Year High

The average NASDAQ stock is down 60%.

The average stock on the S&P is down 30%.

The S&P 500 started the week in bear-market territory, while global stocks tumbled and bond yields jumped as fears over inflation rattled investors around the world. If the loss holds to the market’s close, the broad index would fall into a bear market for the first time since 2020.

BITCOIN PRICE FALLS BELOW $24,000, AN 18-MONTH LOW

CRYPTO LENDER CELSIUS FREEZES ALL ACCOUNT WITHDRAWALS

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

RELATED ARTICLE: US IS “BEYOND BANKRUPT”: TECH GIANT FEARS “CONTROLLED DEMOLITION” ENABLING A “NEW DYSTOPIAN FUTURE”

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.