By Ryan King, Washington Examiner, November 03, 2022
Former President Donald Trump called for the impeachment of nemesis Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) Thursday, just days ahead of a midterm election in which McConnell could take the reins of the upper chamber.
While theorizing that McConnell could buck the GOP and collude with the Democrats to “blow the debt ceiling up,” Trump insinuated that the Democrats may have blackmail on him and argued that impeachment could be a remedy if McConnell betrays the party.
Trump’s retort was prompted when he was pressed by the host of American Sunrise on Real America News about Democrats “scheming” to collude “with some of the RINOs,” an abbreviation for Republicans in name only, “to blow the debt ceiling up.”
“Mitch McConnell keeps allowing [them] to have it. I mean, they ought to impeach Mitch McConnell if he allows that. Frankly, Mitch McConnell, something has to be — they have something on him. How he approves this thing is incredible,” he said in the interview.
Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee on Friday released a 1,050-page report on alleged FBI misconduct, based primarily on the testimony of whistleblowers within the agency.
The report, titled “FBI Whistleblowers: What Their Disclosures Indicate About The Politicization of the FBI And The Justice Department,” began by stating that the FBI “is broken” under the leadership of Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland, Wray’s superior, while also blaming the “politicized bureaucracy” of the agency. It accused Garland and Wray of overseeing an agency that “altered and mischaracterized evidence to federal courts, circumvented safeguards, and exploited weaknesses in policies.”
The report identifies several key areas for oversight as Republicans are poised to take the House majority after the midterm elections. Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee and House Oversight Committee have already promised investigations into the FBI and intelligence community over the handling of the investigation into Hunter Biden’s business dealings and the surveilling of school board meetings, among other topics.
In the executive summary, the report quoted FBI whistleblowers who spoke to Republican staff on the committee, led by Ranking Member Jim Jordan of Ohio, claiming that the FBI was “rotted at its core” and maintained a “systemic culture of unaccountability” as well as being full of “rampant corruption, manipulation, and abuse.” It also alleged that the FBI may be inflating statistics on the incidence of violent extremism across the country, as well as diverting resources away from criminal investigations towards more politically-relevant areas.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the stewardship of Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland, is broken.
Some of the allegations leveled in the report include the contention that the FBI “manufactured” a controversy about domestic violent extremism, by “orchestrating” the failed plot to kidnap Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, which was foiled in 2020. It also alleges that the Bureau attempted to minimize allegations of wrongdoing by Hunter Biden, who is currently being investigated for tax-related felonies by Delaware’s U.S. Attorney, David C. Weiss, a holdover from the Trump administration.
Other allegations include the “purging” of conservative employees who dissent from the FBI’s efforts to promote “diversity, equity and inclusion,” which the report terms as a “woke agenda.” Such programs in federal agencies have been heavily criticized by Republicans, who claim that the bias violates the freedom of conscience of conservative federal employees who may disagree with them.
One FBI employee alleged to the committee they were told by their FBI superiors “that child sexual abuse material investigations were no longer an FBI priority and should be referred to local law enforcement agencies.” Another claimed that an FBI program, codenamed “Operation Bronze Griffin,” was an illicit partnership between the FBI and Facebook, where the Bureau allegedly accepts private user information from Facebook, but without the user’s consent or legal process.
The report’s release comes at a time when the FBI is under heavy scrutiny from Republicans in Congress for a variety of reasons. The FBI’s raid of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, in August, prompted several allegations of improper procedure – including that the FBI took materials under attorney-client privilege – and the appointment of a Special Master to review the documents seized.
The bureau was also scrutinized after an alleged order issued by Garland to the FBI to surveil, under counterterrorism authority, parents being involved in school board meetings in Northern Virginia. Many parents have attended school board meetings to criticize the prevalence of contested concepts regarding race and gender in curricula, which has been supported by Republicans.
In response to a request for comment, the FBI wrote that “we follow the facts without regard for politics. While outside opinions and criticism often come with the job, we will continue to follow the facts wherever they lead, do things by the book, and speak through our work.”
Lawrence County is composed of hardworking Pennsylvanians who are currently struggling. We’re struggling to make ends meet. Struggling to attain a better life for our families; struggling to make ourselves heard by our government.
We have the opportunity to improve these things and change the current climate on November 8, 2022. It is imperative that we get out to vote and elect Dr. Mehmet Oz for U.S. Senate and Doug Mastriano for PA Governor. We must retain Mike Kelly as U.S. Representative, Michele Brooks as State Senator, Aaron Bernstine as State Representative, and we need Marla Brown as our State Representative.
After eight years of disaster in Harrisburg under Governor Wolf, it is important that Lawrence County remembers just how badly he hurt our state. From extended lockdowns, attacks on our energy industry, destroying our schools and spending taxpayer money as if it grew on trees to vetoing legislation to keep criminals who are violent in prison behind bars, he has shown his disdain for all things Pennsylvania.
While Mastriano was telling us to “walk as free people”, the Wolf administration (Attorney General Shapiro included) was hiding and locking down businesses they deemed nonessential resulting in many businesses being permanently shuttered and hurting Pennsylvania families in the process. To ensure this doesn’t happen again, we need to show up en masse to vote and have our voices heard.
Mastriano wants to improve our lives by reopening industries for all sixty-seven counties, including Lawrence, to once again reap the benefits of the oil and gas that is right beneath our feet, while Shapiro would continue to attack those industries.
The current administration is not tough on crime. The police need to have the backing of the Commonwealth’s administration to perform their duties confidently and a Shapiro administration would allow the violent crimes to continue. A Mastriano administration would back our law enforcement and return law and order to our communities. Shapiro has proven he is inept as our top law enforcement official and has instead spent his time suing nuns for exercising their first amendment rights.
Lawrence County needs to be represented at the state and federal level by people who are genuinely concerned about our needs and those of our families, not some radical agenda that the Democrats employ from the top down. We the people, in order to retain our rights, truly need to understand the importance of this election and get out to vote for Dr. Mehmet Oz, Doug Mastriano, Mike Kelly, Michele Brooks, Aaron Bernstine and Marla Brown.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Dr. Rich Swierhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngDr. Rich Swier2022-11-05 05:12:562022-11-07 10:10:55Regardless of your party affiliation, vote for Republicans
Basiji, IRGC, You Are Our ISIS! We’ll Give Our Lives For Freedom In Iran!
This clip is a compilation of the continued widespread anti-regime protests in Iran following the death of Jina (Mahsa”) Amini, who died after being beaten and arrested by Iran’s morality police for not wearing her hijab properly. In this clip, protestors can be seen knocking off the turbans of Islamic scholars, clashing with Iranian authorities, chanting “Basiji, IRGC, you are our ISIS!”, burning down communications jamming facilities, and throwing Molotov cocktails at posters of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and of his predecessor Ruhollah Khomeini.
In one protest, protestors chanted that Khamenei is the “murderer,” who was behind the shooting of IRGC members in the Shiraz shrine of Shahcheragh and that he is a “cripple.” Protesters waved their arms limply, mocking his disabled arm. In another protest, they chanted: “From Zahedan to Tehran, [I’ll give] my life for [freedom in] Iran!” The footage in this clip was posted between October 29 and November 1, 2022, to various Iranian accounts on social media, including those of Iran International Media and of Iranian dissident journalist Masih Alinejad. For more footage from the protests in Iran, see MEMRI TV Clips No. 9891, No. 9837, and No. 9833.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Middle East Media Research Institutehttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngMiddle East Media Research Institute2022-11-04 16:15:472022-11-04 16:18:14VIDEO: Widespread Anti-Regime Protests In Iran Continue
Today is the 43rd anniversary of the Tehran hostage crisis – a date I can never forget, since it’s also my birthday.
What better day to examine B-Team Biden’s relationship to the mullahs of Tehran?
After three weeks of silence as Iran erupts into nationwide protests, Biden has finally said he now supports the “women” of Iran. “Don’t worry, we’re gonna free Iran,” Biden boasted on Thursday during an apocalyptic campaign rally in San Diego more focused on wiping out his political opponents in America than on anybody’s freedom.
What he actually meant by that statement is anybody’s guess, because Biden has done ZERO to help the pro-freedom movement in Iran.
Since taking office on January 20, 2021, Biden and his B-Team of deep state imbeciles have twisted themselves into pretzels to cajole the Mullahs into a new nuclear deal, even offering at one point to remove the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and its leaders from the State Department terrorist list (a bridge too far even for Congressional Democrats and quickly walked back).
They waived Trump-era sanctions on the Iranian oil sector in July 2021, allowing the regime to profit from higher oil prices brought about by Team Biden’s war on fossil fuels.
Contrast this love affair with a murderous Iranian regime — and apparent disdain for the wishes and aspirations of the Iranian people — with B-Team Biden’s war on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, MBS.
They have now succeeded in driving the Saudis into the arms of Russia and Communist China, a consequence so avoidable to be simply idiotic.
Scratch your head all you wish: you will not find a rational explanation for such a policy because there is none. I call it geopolitical malpractice.
I examine these themes in more detail in a new column up at Frontpage mag.
During my weekly appearance on Prophecy Today (which will air exceptionally during the show’s second segment starting at around 1:18 PM on Saturday), I talk about Iran’s efforts to swap drones and rockets for Russian nuclear technology, Russia’s justification for using nuclear weapons in Ukraine, the Israeli elections (and the unsurprising efforts by the Woke Media in the US to undermine past and future Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu), as well as developments in China and North Korea.
As always, you can tune in live in the Jacksonville, Fl, area on 104.9 FM, or by downloading the WayRadio app. If you miss it live, you can get the podcast here.
Don’t forget to vote and to encourage your family and friends to vote by Tuesday! I’ll have much to say about the elections, and what a new Republican majority needs to do on Washington, next week.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Kenneth R. Timmermanhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngKenneth R. Timmerman2022-11-04 16:05:322022-11-04 16:07:00B-Team Biden: Geopolitical Malpractice
Equality before the law is an indisputably good thing. Using force to make people equal is an entirely different story.
Memorize the following line, teach it to your children, and shout it from the rooftops every chance you get. It’s one of the most important truths you’ll ever learn or teach: Free people are not equal, and equal people are not free.
Your first reaction might be, “I thought equality was supposed to be a wonderful thing, something we should all strive for, but this sounds like a rejection of it.”
As the old saying goes, the devil is in the details. Whether equality is good or bad depends on the kind that you’re talking about. Context makes all the difference in the world.
Equality before the law—such as being judged innocent or guilty based on whether you committed the crime, not on what color, sex, or creed you represent—is an indisputably good thing. We should all want the law to be applied fairly and equally to all citizens. The blind-folded goddess of justice should never peek.
That kind of equality is a virtue and an ideal. It’s a pillar of Western Civilization for which untold numbers of men and women have given their lives.
The meaning of “Free people are not equal and equal people are not free,” however, is economic in nature. It refers to material income or wealth. Put another way, it might read, “Free people will earn different incomes. To ensure their incomes are equal, you must attack their freedom by using force.” This is the first of my “seven principles of sound policy,” as explained in this speech.
With elections just days away, I hope you will not vote for someone simply because that candidate is promising to steal on your behalf. To bow to such unseemly demagoguery makes the candidate a crook and therefore not to be trusted, and it would make you a craven accomplice whose freedom and independence can be bought with a handout.
Consider two violinists. One plays in an underground subway for whatever coins that passersby toss into his violin case. The other performs in concert halls before audiences of thousands. It does not matter that they may play the same tunes and be equally pleasing to the ear. The income of the first one will never come close to the income of the second unless and until he cleans up his act and finds himself a good marketer. This is economic inequality. It arises through no compulsion and reflects very different magnitudes of service to happy customers. It’s both natural and beneficial.
Deploying force to somehow make those two violinists equal in income would be stupid, counterproductive, and downright evil.
Even in unfree societies (such as Cuba or North Korea), we see inequality in incomes. The masses there live in quiet desperation while the political elites live in luxury. In the name of “equality,” such places not only fall far short of it, but they also produce tyranny and mass poverty in the effort.
Economist Milton Friedman stated this truth in a famous and memorable way: “The society that puts equality before freedom will end up with neither. The society that puts freedom before equality will end up with a great measure of both.”
One of my favorite movies is Enemy at the Gates, which appeared in 2001. Disillusioned with the communist system, a Soviet propagandist named Danilov (Joseph Fiennes) heaves himself into the line of fire but not before he mutters, “We tried so hard to create a society where everyone was equal, where there was nothing to envy or appropriate. But there is no ‘new man.’ There will always be envy. There will always be rich and poor.” Then he adds, “Rich in gifts, poor in gifts. Rich in love, poor in love.” That is both common sense and profound.
Economic equality in a free society is neither obtainable nor desirable. Free people are different people, so it should come as no surprise that they earn different incomes. Our talents and abilities are not identical. Some work harder than others. And even if we all were magically made equal in wealth tonight, we would be unequal again in the morning because some of us would spend it and some of us would save it.
To impose economic equality, or anything remotely close to it, governments must issue these orders and back them up with firing squads and prisons: “Don’t work harder or smarter than others, don’t come up with any new ideas or inventions, don’t take any risks, and don’t try to be more successful than anybody else.”
In other words, don’t be human.
Consider the wisdom of this remark in a 1945 essay by Austrian economist F. A. Hayek: “There is all the difference in the world between treating people equally and attempting to make them equal. While the first is the condition of a free society, the second means, as De Tocqueville describes it, a new form of servitude.”
The fact that free people are not equal in economic terms is a cause for rejoicing. Economic inequality, when it stems from the freedom of creative individuals and not from government power and political advantages, testifies to the fact that people are being themselves, each putting his uniqueness to work in ways that are fulfilling to himself and of value to others.
People obsessed with economic equality do strange things. They become envious of others. They divide society into two piles: villains and victims. They spend far more time dragging someone else down than they do pulling themselves up. They’re not fun to be around. And if they make it to public office, they can ruin a nation. The envy that fuels their passions is at the root of many modern evils, as I explained in this essay.
The Nordic economist Anders Chydenius warned us in the 18th Century where the cult of redistribution leads: “The more opportunities there are in a Society for some persons to live upon the toil of others, and the less those others may enjoy the fruits of their work themselves, the more is diligence killed, the former become insolent, the latter despairing, and both negligent.” No economist worthy of the title believes that either freedom or prosperity can be built upon the dirty business of robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Those who see their lives as spoiled and wasted crave equality and fraternity more than they do freedom. If they clamor for freedom, it is but freedom to establish equality and uniformity. The passion for equality is partly a passion for anonymity: to be one thread of the many which make up a tunic; one thread not distinguishable from the others. No one can then point us out, measure us against others, and expose our inferiority.
For those who want to refresh their understanding of equality—the sort to strive for and the kind to avoid—I’ve assembled some excellent readings below. Please give them a look and share them with others.
This economic equality thing is parent to endless harm. When it’s just an idea, it’s nonsense. When it finds its way into public policy, it’s poison. Don’t drink it.
The unemployment rate rose to 3.7% in October, up from expectations it would hold steady at 3.5%, as the number of jobless Americans rose to 6.1 million, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported Friday.
Labor force participation nudged down 0.1% from September to October, to 62.2%, according to the BLS. Despite employers adding 261,000 jobs overall in October, down from 315,000 in September, the number of unemployed people rose by 306,000, up to 6.1 million, the highest level since February, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
The unemployment range has hovered between 3.5% to 3.7% since March, and labor force participation has hovered 1.2 percentage points below the pre-pandemic standard set in February 2020, the BLS reported. Monthly job growth has been slowing, with employers adding 372,000 jobs per month in the third quarter of 2022, down from 543,000 in the third quarter of 2021, according to The Wall Street Journal.
2/ We also saw a decline in the prime working age labor force participation rate in October. Not as big as employment but this series also has lower volatility. pic.twitter.com/eU4Z3pmVMI
The number of additions blew past investors’ expectations of a more-modest gain of 205,000 jobs, and the unemployment rate surpassed predictions it would hold steady at 3.5%, the WSJ reported. The labor market is anticipated to slow as the Federal Reserve continues to hike interest rates in its bid to combat inflation.
“The broader picture is of an overheated labor market where demand substantially exceeds supply,” Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said in a Wednesday press conference, according to the WSJ. “I don’t see the case for real softening just yet.”
The BLS data contradicts a Wednesday report from payroll firm ADP, which had estimated that the manufacturing sector had cut 20,000 jobs in October. In contrast, the BLS data finds that manufacturers added 32,000 jobs in October, slower than the 37,000 per month average in 2022, but faster than the 30,000 per month seen in 2021.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00The Daily Callerhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Daily Caller2022-11-04 13:10:312022-11-04 13:12:40Unemployment Surges Above Expectations As The Number Of Jobless Americans Rises
The 2023 Index of U.S. Military Strength from the Heritage Foundation is alarming. For the first time, overall U.S. military strength is rated as ‘weak’ and declining. We are at risk of not being able to fight a war, things are that bad. The Army is considered ‘marginal’ and only two-thirds the size it needs to be. The Navy is rated ‘weak’ because the number of ships is going down and the investment has not been made to keep our adversaries from closing the technology gap. Technology is also a factor in rating the Air Force and our Space Force as ‘weak’. Fighter planes are aging and counter-space capabilities are not being developed, while our adversaries are bounding ahead. The Marines and our nuclear deterrent are rated as bright spots but, overall, the U.S. military suffers from a lack of funding and, most disturbingly, a lack of seriousness. Anyone observing the Woke Pentagon’s descent into critical race theory and transgenderism can see that.
The report recommends, among other things, increased defense funding, more shipbuilding, more stealth F-35 multi-purpose aircraft, and addressing the military’s growing recruitment crisis. I don’t see how you can address recruitment unless you stop teaching the troops America is a horrible, rotten, racist place not worth fighting or dying for.
Let’s see what else the lack of seriousness about national security has pointed up recently, shall we? The Biden administration changed U.S. nuclear doctrine to rely less on nuclear weapons as a hedge against future threats and breakouts by nuclear rivals. In practical terms, the new policy signals the elimination of hundreds of nuclear weapons at a time when China and Russia are beefing up their own nuclear forces. Decreased American nuclear strength will have all kinds of ramifications on the battlefield, in diplomacy, and at the negotiating table.
The administration also stopped the development of nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missiles, despite the recommendations of senior military officials the program continue.
The lack of seriousness is also shown by the depletion of U.S. stocks of key weapons sent to Ukraine including Stingers, Javelin anti-tank missiles, howitzers, and ammunition. It is feared the U.S. has only a week’s worth of missiles left for its own use. The problem has been ignored for years and experts worry we may not have the industrial base left to meet our needs.
In the meantime, Russia is threatening commercial satellites over the West’s stance in Ukraine, North Korea is building underwater nuclear weapons silos, and China is positioning the ports it owns in Latin America for military and geopolitical advantage. Moreover, the decidedly un-serious Biden administration still refers to the U.S. as being in friendly “competition” with China when knowledgeable observers say World War III has already begun. No surprise there. Chinese communist leaders all the way back to Mao Zedong have declared their goal is world domination and the end of the United States.
We have a President more concerned about his ice cream cones than our national defense, and a Woke Pentagon too busy putting on drag shows to entertain the troops to prepare them for possible conflicts ahead. It’s time to get serious, folks. You can start by throwing the chucklehead Democrats out of office next Tuesday.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00The Daily Skirmish - Liberato.UShttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Daily Skirmish - Liberato.US2022-11-04 12:56:022022-11-06 05:10:43Serious as a Heart Attack: The U.S. Military Is Weak
At this late stage in the ruin of our country, Tucker Carlson’s opening monologues are the lighthouse, a safe harbor in this dark and terrible storm. If there is one thing you do, tune in – every night – this oasis of truth will fortify you and stiffen your resolve to fight this overwhelming take down of our once great country.
It is our responsibility as Americans to defend our Constitutional Republic.
TRANSCRIPT
Polls suggest that even places that supported Joe Biden by a wide margin in 2020 are about to swing dramatically against him and his party. A week from today, New York, of all places, could have a Republican governor. The last time there was an election in New York, Biden won the state by 23 points. What we’re seeing is what political scientists refer to as a realignment, and there’s no mystery as to why it’s happening. Democrats failed conclusively. No group in American history has done a worse job running this country than the neoliberals currently in charge. They’re vicious, they’re intolerant and they are utterly corrupt, but above all, they are incompetent.
In less than two years, it is not an overstatement to say, they have run this country into the ground, wrecking our economy, desecrating our military and opening the borders of the United States to more than 5 million lawbreakers. The destruction they have wrought is so profound it’s hard to describe. So of course, there will be consequences for that.
In a country with democratic elections, how could this party stay in power? Honestly, we don’t know, but maybe Joe Biden does. Tonight, Biden traveled across the city of Washington to Union Station. Built by Teddy Roosevelt more than 100 years ago, Union Station was for generations one of the most beautiful public buildings in this country. Under Joe Biden, it has become a homeless encampment, a place that is too filthy and too dangerous for Starbucks. Standing at this monument to his own failures, Biden proceeded to do what he now so commonly does: Bark at the rest of us for our moral failures. The guy who showered with his daughter is telling you you’re a bad person. Tonight’s topic: Democracy. Here’s a taste of it.
PRESIDENT BIDEN: Yet now, extreme MAGA Republicans aim to question not only the legitimacy of past elections, but elections being held now and into the future. The extreme MAGA element of the Republican Party, which is a minority of that party, as I said earlier, but it’s the driving force is trying to succeed where they failed in 2020 to suppress the right of voters and subvert the electoral system itself.
Well, that’s very weird if you think about it. Here we are less than a week before the Democratic Party is expected to suffer overwhelming losses in the midterm elections and here you have the leader of that party, Joe Biden, commanding you not to complain about the election results. Why is that? Well, let’s see. Here’s Joe Biden telling you that thanks to the changes, the many changes, Democrats have made to our system of voting, all of which make voter fraud easier to commit, we may not know the results of the elections for a few days, but don’t be alarmed. Everything is completely on the level and whatever you do, do not ask questions or else you’re a criminal.
BIDEN: We want Americans to vote. We want every American’s voice to be heard. Now we have to move the process forward. We know that more and more ballots are cast in early voting or by mail in America. We know that many states don’t start counting those ballots until after the polls close on Nov. 8. That means in some cases we won’t know the winner of the election — for a few days, until a few days after the election. It takes time to count all legitimate ballots in a legal and orderly manner. It’s always been important for citizens in a democracy to be informed and engaged. Now it’s important for citizens to be patient as well. That’s how it’s supposed to work.
What is this? What is going on here?
We’re a week from the election, six days. Biden could have given, would under normal circumstances have given, a speech about his policies and how they’ve made your life better. He tried to convince you this country is actually in better shape than it looks and he did that. He could, in other words, have made a pitch for your vote based on what he has done. That’s what politicians do in functioning democracies. They try to convince you to support them on the basis of what they have done for you. That is democracy. That’s not at all what Joe Biden just did. Instead, Biden commanded you to accept the election results whenever they arrive, no matter what they may be. It was bizarre and it did not inspire confidence.
You would hate to think that what’s happening here is a version of what is happening tonight in Brazil. According to official tallies, a convicted criminal, an avowed socialist, called Lula da Silva, beat the incumbent president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, by a narrow margin this weekend and yet millions of Brazilians, millions, don’t believe that’s what actually happened. Bolsonaro himself has not conceded. There are protests all over Brazil right now. You’re seeing some of them on your screen right now. There are questions about whether all the ballots had been counted, why so many were thrown out — millions — and whether election laws were violated in the process.
We can’t render judgment on those questions, but if you care about democracy, if you think the process is essential, then you would look into those allegations. Anything less is not democracy, and yet what’s interesting and maybe a point of concern for the rest of us here in the U.S., is that you are no longer allowed to ask questions about this election in Brazil and you’re not allowed because the Biden administration doesn’t want you to. That’s true. YouTube, which has functioned for the last two years as an arm of the Biden administration, has announced it is censoring any posts in Brazil that question the election results. Brazil’s courts have also rejected any inquiry into the election.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00The Geller Reporthttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Geller Report2022-11-04 06:03:312022-11-04 08:26:44VIDEO: Carlson, ‘The Left Has Run This Country Into the Ground’
President Trump is in top form. Campaigning across the country for pro-America candidates. Expect President Trump to announce his candidacy for POTUS shortly after the mid-term elections. #Trump2024!
Thursday, November 3, 2022: Join the RSBN broadcast crew LIVE from Sioux City, IA for all day coverage of President Donald J. Trump’s SAVE AMERICA rally.
President Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America, will hold a rally in Sioux City, Iowa on Thursday, November 3, 2022, at 7:00PM CDT.
Thursday, November 3, 2022, at 7:00PM CDT
President Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America, delivers remarks in support of his unprecedented effort to advance the MAGA agenda by energizing voters and highlighting the slate of Trump Endorsed America First candidates including Governor Kim Reynolds and Senator Chuck Grassley in the Great State of Iowa.
Last election, more Iowans voted for President Trump than any other presidential candidate in modern political history. President Trump’s visit comes as 73% of Iowans say the nation is on the wrong track under Joe Biden and the Democrats.
Thursday, November 3, 2022: Join the RSBN broadcast crew LIVE from Sioux City, IA for all day coverage of President Donald J. Trump’s SAVE AMERICA rally. LIVE Coverage begins at 1:00 PM ET.
This rally is sponsored by the Birch Gold Group. Get your FREE silver Trump coin with any purchase at https://www.birchgold.com/trump.
Also sponsored in part by eSpired Books! Receive a FREE Kids Guide to Trump Book at https://thekidsguide.com/, just pay shipping and handling!
What better way to remember the 45th President and his America First policies than to own a limited edition “Trump Knife”? Go to https://www.freetrumpknife.com/ right now to claim yours!
Thursday, November 3, 2022, at 7:00PM CDT
President Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America, delivers remarks in support of his unprecedented effort to advance the MAGA agenda by energizing voters and highlighting the slate of Trump Endorsed America First candidates including Governor Kim Reynolds and Senator Chuck Grassley in the Great State of Iowa.
Last election, more Iowans voted for President Trump than any other presidential candidate in modern political history. President Trump’s visit comes as 73% of Iowans say the nation is on the wrong track under Joe Biden and the Democrats.
Venue:
Sioux Gateway Airport
2403 Aviation Blvd.
Sioux City, IA 51111
Timeline of Events:
8:00AM – Parking Lots, Vendor Row, and Registration Open
2:00PM – Doors Open
4:00PM – Special Guest Speakers Deliver Remarks
7:00PM – 45th President of the United States Donald J. Trump Delivers Remarks
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00The Geller Reporthttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Geller Report2022-11-04 05:41:372022-11-04 05:46:10Watch President Donald J. Trump’s Save America Rally in Sioux City, IA
The Biden administration’s policies reduced diesel production and caused stockpiles to fall to dangerously low levels, experts told the DCNF.
“There’s an enormous tax and regulatory burden that the Biden administration has put on refining along with other industries,” Josh Young, chief investment officer and founder of energy investment firm Bison Interests, told the DCNF.
“At the moment refining capacity cannot meet demand, even when we have enough oil,” Institute For Energy Research Senior Vice President Dan Kish told the DCNF.
The Biden administration has implemented policies that have hurt diesel production and caused stockpiles to hit their lowest levels since 2008, experts told the DCNF.
The U.S. is facing a diesel shortage which is causing the Biden administration to consider taking action to shore up supplies as fuel refiners struggle to produce enough fuel to meet heavy demand. Diesel supplies have become dangerously low due to recent refinery closures that have been exacerbated by the Biden administration’s regulations as well as increased fuel demand following the coronavirus pandemic, experts told the DCNF.
“There’s an enormous tax and regulatory burden that the Biden administration has put on refining along with other industries,” Josh Young, chief investment officer and founder of energy investment firm Bison Interests, told the DCNF. “Emissions rules and general regulations have increased tremendously under the Biden administration, raising operating costs and causing some refineries to either shut down or not expand operations.”
“There’s an enormous tax and regulatory burden that the Biden administration has put on refining along with other industries,” Josh Young, chief investment officer and founder of energy investment firm Bison Interests, told the DCNF. “Emissions rules and general regulations have increased tremendously under the Biden administration, raising operating costs and causing some refineries to either shut down or not expand operations.”
Crude oil, which is pumped in the U.S. or imported, must be processed at refineries to produce distillate fuels like diesel and gasoline. The Biden administration has continuously imposed environmental policies to cut carbon emissions and achieve “environmental justice” which have damaged refiners’ output.
Limetree Bay Energy in June closed down its U.S. Virgin Islands refinery, a facility that could process 210,000 oil barrels per day, as it could not afford to install special emission monitors that were mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency, according to Reuters. The refinery reopened in February; however, in May the EPA forced the plant to temporarily close and ordered the plant to install 18 sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide monitors before it restarted operations.
The EPA in April rescinded exemptions that would have allowed over 30 refiners to avoid blending renewable biofuels into diesel even though refiners claimed that this would hike costs and decrease output, according to an agency docket. Companies in the U.S. have also not built a major oil refinery in 50 years due to regulatory concerns and anticipation that the green transition will kill demand for fossil fuels.
The coronavirus pandemic, which shut down economic activity, has also contributed to diesel shortages, according to Patrick De Haan head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy.
“COVID caused demand to suddenly plummet to the point where refineries started to idle and companies shut down their facilities back in 2020,” De Haan told the DCNF. “As we recovered from COVID there was a surge in demand that we saw for not only diesel but other products as well and that’s put us in a situation where we have only 25 days of distillate supply remaining.”
Diesel demand recovered much faster than refiners anticipated, meaning that production has to catch up to meet demand, Institute For Energy Research Senior Vice President Dan Kish told the DCNF. The U.S. has lost more than one million barrels per day of refining capacity since 2020, according to the Energy Information Administration.
“At the moment refining capacity cannot meet demand, even when we have enough oil,” Kish said.
White House National Economic Council Director Brian Deese said on Oct. 19 that the administration is “very concerned” about diesel shortages, particularly in the northeast of the country, and indicated that the White House may limit or ban exports of refined petroleum products. The American Petroleum Institute and the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, two industry groups, sent a letter to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm on Oct. 4 claiming that an export ban would exacerbate shortages.
“An export ban would distort the market and essentially force refineries out of business which is the opposite of what is needed right now,” Young said.
The administration could also deploy the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve’s one million barrels of diesel to address shortages in New England. However, because diesel demand is so high, the reserve’s supply would last less than six hours, according to The Washington Post.
Diesel inventories are in good shape when there are around 35 to 40 days of supply available; however, when there are just 30 days of supply left or fewer, problems can start to arise, according to Mansfield Energy. When there are only 25 days left of diesel supply, there is not enough fuel to keep industries operating if supplies are significantly disrupted, as fuel must be delivered via pipelines, meaning that vast quantities of fuel are days or weeks away from getting to where they need to be.
Diesel demand will further increase as cold weather approaches since 82% of households use diesel to heat their homes during the winter, according to the EIA.
“As NOAA’s forecasts warmer-than-average temperatures in the Southeastern U.S. and along the Atlantic coast this winter, DOE remains fully engaged and partnered with state, industry, and interagency partners as the country prepares with the winter season,” an Energy spokesperson told the DCNF.
The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00The Daily Callerhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Daily Caller2022-11-04 05:25:402022-11-07 06:07:31The Country Is In The Middle Of A Diesel Crisis — And The Biden Admin Is Making It Worse, Experts Say
The only good thing about this speech is that it didn’t have a color scheme out of V for Vendetta and didn’t feature Marines in the background. Whoever runs these things at least learned from that attempt at looking like Biden was about to declare martial law, suspend habeas corpus and make everyone read Gender Queer and How To Be An Anti-Racist at gunpoint in a gulag.
The bad news is no one cared about that speech except conservatives. They care even less about this one.
With the countdown underway, voters have made it clear that they care about the economy and crime. Anyone who finds the “threat to democracy” routine persuasive is already a solid blue voter and ActBlue donor who probably showed up for at least one D.C. protest.
This isn’t just pandering to the base, it’s pandering to the Elizabeth Warren base.
Biden’s call to “vote knowing what’s at stake and not just the policy of the moment, but institutions that have held us together as we’ve sought a more perfect union are also at stake” is an admission that his faction has lost the policy argument and doesn’t have anything else to work with.
While the delivery is laughable, the premise isn’t. Biden’s speeches may not interest voters, but they continue to push the totalitarian message that “democracy” is embodied by Democrats and threatened by Republicans, that if Dems fail to win, then the result will be the end of America.
That kind of rhetoric is typical, but under Obama and Biden, it’s been backed up by arrests, investigations, surveillance, raids, imprisonment, censorship and the whole banana republic gamut.
The same speech delivered by the leader of a free country and say Vladimir Putin or Xi sound very different because they have really different implications. Biden, once again declaring that the opposition is a collection of “dark force” that “thirst for power” and will destroy democracy is election rhetoric, but it’s also become an actionable item for the DOJ, the FBI and Big Tech firms.
Biden’s rhetoric is a threat to the republic, not because words are scary, but because his allies have shown that they employ such rhetoric as cover for imposing totalitarian realities.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Jihad Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJihad Watch2022-11-04 05:11:242022-11-05 07:42:33Biden’s Rhetoric is a Threat to the Republic
European regulation of online speech will be a speed bump for the new owner of Twitter.
After a complicated, winding, and tense standoff between Musk and the Twitter board, as well as a pending legal trial at a Delaware Chancery Court, the eccentric billionaire finally agreed to abide by his original agreement and purchase Twitter in its entirety. Elon Musk is now the sole owner and CEO of Twitter. In typical Musk style, he wandered into Twitter headquarters carrying a sink, to “let that sink in.”
Musk has repeatedly expressed his disapproval of Twitter’s heavy-handed and politically inflected moderation policies, and has insisted on various occasions that Twitter ought to become an open and inclusive “digital town square,” where citizens of diverse political persuasions can exchange opinions freely. In a recent tweet aimed at advertisers, Musk said:
The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence. There is currently great danger that social media will splinter into far right wing and far left wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society.
The notion of a “common digital square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner,” is the very opposite of Twitter today. Right now, Twitter is essentially a “safe space” to express Woke, leftist, pro-lockdown, and pro-Big Pharma opinions, and a very dangerous place for anyone who wanders from the fold of left progressivism or says something that could potentially endanger Big Pharma’s profits.
Twitter has been shamelessly suppressing inconvenient truths, if they happen to run against Twitter’s version of reality, in which Covid vaccines are about as safe as paracetamol, male and female biology are an assault on citizens’ rights to “gender identity,” and Big Pharma CEOs are altruistic saviours of humanity.
If this were just a silly game, the suppression of one side of the debate would be annoying, but no big deal. However, it is a game in which the stakes are extremely high. As things stand, Twitter is arguably the most important digital forum in the world, so suppressing important medical information concerning issues like vaccine harms and potential Covid treatments may literally be a matter of life and death.
The question is, can and will Elon really “free the bird,” as he so colourfully put it himself? Recently, in a query from Jordan Peterson’s daughter, Mikhaila concerning whether he can get her Dad back on Twitter, he has indicated that “anyone suspended for minor & dubious reasons will be freed from Twitter jail.” In a separate tweet, Musk has indicated that “Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints. No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes.”
@elonmusk can you bring my dad @jordanbpeterson back on here but also somehow make sure he doesn’t spend all his time on Twitter? 🙃
It is true that Musk has, in the past, backtracked on important statements, including his original offer to purchase Twitter. But his stance in favour of free speech has been quite consistent, so I see no reason to doubt that he sincerely intends to “free the bird” from the heavily biased, politicised, and frankly Orwellian censorship policies it has been weighed down by for the past few years. Not to mention that it may be very good business to welcome non-lefties and non-Covideans back onto the platform.
If Musk manages to follow through on his free speech dream, then we could see the release of thousands of people from permanent Twitter “jail” over the coming months, including yours truly (Twitter handle @davidjthunder), as well as a radical revamping of Twitter’s anti-scientific and politically partisan moderation policies, which have served, principally, to protect certain scientists, politicians, and corporations from serious public scrutiny and challenge.
But dreaming is one thing, implementing another. Even if Musk manages to pull off the Solomonic task of keeping advertisers, investors, and customers more or less happy with his new moderation policies, he will also have to contend with governments that are increasingly enthusiastic about using their legislative and regulatory powers to shut down speech they object to.
I wish I could say that it only private actors like Microsoft and Google that suppress free speech. But it turns out that many of the people who currently stand at the helm of our governments, most notably in the European Union, seem to be determined to “protect” the public from what they happen to deem “dangerous or harmful” speech.
The aggressive regulation of speech by governments may come in the shape of notoriously malleable “hate speech” laws, which inevitably end up criminalising speech that is disagreeable to this or that political tribe, or “misinformation” laws that require people to only express opinions on matters of medicine and science that certain powerful actors in the political, pharmaceutical, and scientific establishment approve of.
It is worth noting that as soon as Musk announced that the “bird is freed,” Thierry Breton, EU Commissioner for the Internal Market, replied, “in Europe, the bird will fly by our rules.” He was referring to increasing efforts by the European Commission to clamp down on what they perceive as “misinformation” and to potentially impose enormous fines on Big Tech platforms that do not live up to the EU’s expectations concerning the regulation of “misinformation.”
Twitter is one of the 37 signatories of the 2022 Code of Practice on Disinformation promoted by the European Commission, which includes a set of commitments which appear from the official website to rely heavily on self-regulation, even though the Commission monitors compliance with the code. Even if this code of practice is difficult to police in practice, it provides a political tool to pressure Big Tech companies into doing the Commission’s bidding.
What is especially worrying is the Digital Services Act, which was passed into law by the European Parliament on 5th July 2022. The Digital Services Act, as reported by Ecommerce Europe,
aims to set an ambitious framework to guarantee a safe and trustworthy online environment for consumers, mainly by introducing new obligations for digital service providers. Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs), designated as ‘online platforms which reach a number of average monthly active recipients of the service in the Union equal to or higher than 45 million’, will have to comply with stricter rules, enforced by the Commission.
According to Thierry Breton, one of the Act’s most fervent advocates, one of the features of the Digital Services Act is that it introduces “a harmonised system to fight ALL forms of #illegal content – from counterfeit or dangerous products to hate speech. Any national authority will be able to request that illegal content is removed, regardless of where the platform is established in Europe.”
1️⃣ With great power comes great responsibility 🕷
The DSA is setting clear, harmonised #obligations for platforms – proportionate to size, impact & risk.#DSA
Breton goes so far as to suggest that the European Union could impose steep financial and regulatory sanctions for non-compliance: “The DSA imposes effective and dissuasive #sanctions. From #fines for breaches of obligations of up to 6% of global turnover to a #ban on operating in the EU single market in case of repeated serious breaches.” Don’t ask me if any of this would withstand judicial scrutiny. But the threat of massive fines and bans for non-compliance is coming from the highest level of the European Union, so I imagine Mr Breton has thought through the legal ramifications of these threats, and is not just bluffing.
🔟 A possible mechanism of #emergency response in the event of a crisis⚡️
We cannot rely solely on platforms’ goodwill when facing crises, pandemics or wars.
Europe needs a legal tool to require large digital players to react quickly in case of emergency.#DSA
To cut a long story short, if the laws of any given jurisdiction become an instrument of tyranny and Groupthink, Mr Musk will be put in a tough spot, and might find himself under enormous pressure to back away from his free speech commitments. That would feel like a terrible betrayal of his declared mission of creating an inclusive “digital town square.”
On the other hand, if Elon Musk is willing to fight the Eurocrats, he might be able to win some legal battles for free speech. Undoubtedly, the European Commission is flexing its muscles in the hopes of intimidating Musk into compliance. But if Musk cares about free speech as much as he says he does, he might just dig in and put the legality of the Commission’s threats to the test in a court of law.
All of this assumes, of course, that we can take Musk at face value in his fighting words on behalf of free speech. Only time will tell if that is true. But there aren’t too many glimmers of hope in the world of Big Tech and free speech these days, so I’ll take whatever breadcrumbs of hope I can pick up along the way.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00MercatorNet - Navigating Modern Complexitieshttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngMercatorNet - Navigating Modern Complexities2022-11-04 04:51:552022-11-04 04:52:28Will Elon Musk ‘free the bird’? I certainly hope so.
Despite what you may read in the newspapers or see on TV, humans continue to reach new heights of prosperity.
Another decade is over. With the 2020s upon us, now is the perfect time to reflect on the immense technological advancements that humanity has made since the dawn of the new millennium.
This article explores, in no particular order, 20 of the most significant technological advancements we have made in the last 20 years.
Smartphones: Mobile phones existed before the 21st century. However, in the past 20 years, their capabilities have improved enormously. In June 2007, Apple released the iPhone, the first touchscreen smartphone with mass-market appeal. Many other companies took inspiration from the iPhone. As a consequence, smartphones have become an integral part of day-to-day life for billions of people around the world. Today, we take pictures, navigate without maps, order food, play games, message friends, listen to music, etc. all on our smartphones. Oh, and you can also use them to call people.
Flash Drives: First sold by IBM in 2000, the USB flash drive allows you to easily store files, photos or videos with a storage capacity so large that it would be unfathomable just a few decades ago. Today, a 128GB flash drive, available for less than $20 on Amazon, has more than 80,000 times the storage capacity of a 1.44MB floppy disk, which was the most popular type of storage disk in the 1990s.
Skype: Launched in August 2003, Skype transformed the way that people communicate across borders. Before Skype, calling friends or family abroad cost huge amounts of money. Today, speaking to people on the other side of the world, or even video calling with them, is practically free.
Google: Google’s search engine actually premiered in the late 1990s, but the company went public in 2004, leading to its colossal growth. Google revolutionized the way that people search for information online. Every hour there are more than 228 million Google searches. Today Google is part of Alphabet Inc., a company that offers dozens of services such as translations, Gmail, Docs, Chrome web browser, and more.
Google Maps: In February 2005, Google launched its mapping service, which changed the way that many people travel. With the app available on virtually all smartphones, Google Maps has made getting lost virtually impossible. It’s easy to forget that just two decades ago, most travel involved extensive route planning, with paper maps nearly always necessary when venturing to unfamiliar places.
Human Genome Project: In April 2003, scientists successfully sequenced the entire human genome. Through the sequencing of our roughly 23,000 genes, the project shed light on many different scientific fields, including disease treatment, human migration, evolution, and molecular medicine.
YouTube: In May 2005, the first video was uploaded to what today is the world’s most popular video-sharing website. From Harvard University lectures on quantum mechanics and favorite T.V. episodes to “how-to” tutorials and funny cat videos, billions of pieces of content can be streamed on YouTube for free.
Graphene: In 2004, researchers at the University of Manchester became the first scientists to isolate graphene. Graphene is an atom-thin carbon allotrope that can be isolated from graphite, the soft, flaky material used in pencil lead. Although humans have been using graphite since the Neolithic era, isolating graphene was previously impossible. With its unique conductive, transparent, and flexible properties, graphene has enormous potential to create more efficient solar panels, water filtration systems, and even defenses against mosquitos.
Bluetooth: While Bluetooth technology was officially unveiled in 1999, it was only in the early 2000s that manufacturers began to adopt Bluetooth for use in computers and mobile phones. Today, Bluetooth is featured in a wide range of devices and has become an integral part of many people’s day-to-day lives.
Facebook: First developed in 2004, Facebook was not the first social media website. Due to its simplicity to use, however, Facebook quickly overtook existing social networking sites like Friendster and Myspace. With 2.41 billion active users per month (almost a third of the world’s population), Facebook has transformed the way billions of people share news and personal experiences with one another.
Curiosity, the Mars Rover: First launched in November 2011, Curiosity is looking for signs of habitability on Mars. In 2014, the rover uncovered one of the biggest space discoveries of this millennium when it found water under the surface of the red planet. Curiosity’s work could help humans become an interplanetary species in just a few decades’ time.
Electric Cars: Although electric cars are not a 21st-century invention, it wasn’t until the 2000s that these vehicles were built on a large scale. Commercially available electric cars, such as the Tesla Roadster or the Nissan Leaf, can be plugged into any electrical socket to charge. They do not require fossil fuels to run. Although still considered a fad by some, electric cars are becoming ever more popular, with more than 1.5 million units sold in 2018.
Driverless Cars: In August 2012, Google announced that its automated vehicles had completed over 300,000 miles of driving, accident-free. Although Google’s self-driving cars are the most popular at the moment, almost all car manufacturers have created or are planning to develop automated cars. Currently, these cars are in testing stages, but provided that the technology is not hindered by overzealous regulations, automated cars will likely be commercially available in the next few years.
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC): With its first test run in 2013, the LHC became the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator. It’s also the world’s largest single machine. The LHC allows scientists to run experiments on some of the most complex theories in physics. Its most important finding so far is the Higgs-Boson particle. The discovery of this particle lends strong support to the “standard model of particle physics,” which describes most of the fundamental forces in the universe.
AbioCor Artificial Heart: In 2001, the AbioCor artificial heart, which was created by the Massachusetts-based company AbioMed, became the first artificial heart to successfully replace a human heart in heart transplant procedures. The AbioCor artificial heart powers itself. Unlike previous artificial hearts, it doesn’t need intrusive wires that heighten the likelihood of infection and death.
3D Printing: Although 3D printers as we know them today began in the 1980s, the development of cheaper manufacturing methods and open-source software contributed to a 3D printing revolution over the last two decades. Today, 3D printers are being used to print spare parts, whole houses, medicines, bionic limbs, and even entire human organs.
Amazon Kindle: In November 2007, Amazon released the Kindle. Since then, a plethora of e-readers has changed the way millions of people read. Thanks to e-readers, people don’t need to carry around heavy stacks of books, and independent authors can get their books to an audience of millions of people without going through a publisher.
Stem Cell Research: Previously the stuff of science fiction, stem cells (i.e., basic cells that can become almost any type of cell in the body) are being used to grow, among other things, kidney, lung, brain, and heart tissue. This technology will likely save millions of lives in the coming decades as it means that patients will no longer have to wait for donor organs or take harsh medicines to treat their ailments.
Multi-Use Rockets: In November and December of 2015, two separate private companies, Blue Origin and SpaceX, successfully landed reusable rockets. This development greatly cheapens the cost of getting to space and brings commercial space travel one step closer to reality.
Gene Editing: In 2012, researchers from Harvard University, the University of California at Berkeley, and the Broad Institute each independently discovered that a bacterial immune system known as CRISPR could be used as a gene-editing tool to change an organism’s DNA. By cutting out pieces of harmful DNA, gene-editing technology will likely change the future of medicine and could eventually eradicate some major diseases.
However you choose to celebrate this new year, take a moment to think about the immense technological advancements of the last 20 years, and remember that despite what you may read in the newspapers or see on TV, humans continue to reach new heights of prosperity.
Alexander C. R. Hammond is a policy advisor at the Institute of Economic Affairs, a Senior Fellow at African Liberty and a Young Voices contributor. He frequently writes about African development, economic freedom, global wellbeing and British politics. Previously, he was a Research Associate at the Cato Institute’s Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity.
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)2022-11-04 04:35:362022-11-04 04:35:36The 20 Biggest Advances in Tech Over the Last 20 Years
The Declaration of Independence was not egalitarian in the modern sense.
The Declaration of Independence famously proclaimed that “all men are created equal.” Thanks in part to that prestigious endorsement, “equality” has become a widely held social ideal.
But what most modern-day egalitarians promote is far removed from the kind of equality that the authors of the Declaration were referring to.
Many today invoke “equality” to deny any variation in qualities among individuals, or in the resulting qualitative tendencies among sets of similar individuals. They condemn any acknowledgment of differences in aptitude, ability, character, and accomplishment as an affront to equality.
Many also call for “equality of outcome.” They regard inequality of outcomes—of wealth, income, services, treatment by private individuals, etc—as a moral outrage to be rectified.
This is sometimes based on “equality” in the “quality variation denial” sense discussed above. The argument is that, since everyone is “equal” in their qualities, any inequality of outcome must be a consequence of injustice and bigotry.
Alternatively, “equality of outcome” is itself posited to be the sense of “equality” that matters most, and thus an ideal in and of itself.
But the authors of the Declaration of Independence didn’t mean any of that when they proclaimed that “all men are created equal.” What they did mean is what the English political philosopher John Locke meant when he made the same claim in his Two Treatises of Government. This can be inferred from the well-established historical fact that the founders revered Locke’s political philosophy and from the text and context of the Declaration itself.
The reference to equality occurs at the beginning of a line of reasoning used to justify the American people throwing off the British government. And that line of reasoning mirrors the line of reasoning used by Locke to justify the right of any people to cast off any tyrannical government.
As such, Locke’s syllogism for revolution also begins with an appeal to equality.
Locke wrote that all humans are “born to all the same advantages of nature, and the use of the same faculties.” He did not claim that the level of our faculties (or capabilities) are all the same, just that the type of faculties we have use of are. For example, as humans, we all have the faculty of reason. That does not mean that we are all equally reasonable.
From the premise that all humans are created/born equal in that specific sense, Locke derived the conclusion that they “should also be equal one amongst another without subordination or subjection…”
Locke referred to this as the “equality of men by nature.” It is contrary to human nature for any human to subjugate another. And Locke specified what he meant by “subjection” when he wrote that “being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions…”
So, from the natural equality of humans, Locke derived rights: meaning the inviolability of an individual’s person and property.
And from rights, Locke derived the notion that legitimate governments are instituted by the people “for the mutual preservation of their lives, liberties and estates.”
And from his theory of legitimate government, Locke derived the right of the people to disobey and throw off any governments that “endeavor to grasp themselves, or put into the hands of any other an Absolute Power over the Lives, Liberties, and Estates of the People” and thus become tyrannical and illegitimate.
In sum, Locke reasoned from equality to rights to legitimate government to tyranny to revolution. And you can see this exact line of reasoning in the Declaration’s philosophical justification for throwing off the despotic British government (emphasis added):
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
It is highly unlikely that the authors of the Declaration of Independence would so closely follow Locke’s logical reasoning from “equality” and mean something entirely different by “equality.” And Locke did not mean “equality” in the modern egalitarian sense.
So, we can say with confidence that the American founders were not proto-leftist egalitarians. It is far more likely that they agreed with Voltaire, another devotee of Locke, who wrote, as quoted by Will Durant in The Story of Philosophy:
“‘Those who say that all men are equal speak the greatest truth if they mean that all men have an equal right to liberty, to the possession of their goods, and to the protection of the laws’; but ‘equality is at once the most natural and the most chimerical thing in the world: natural when it is limited to rights, unnatural when it attempts to level goods and powers.’”
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)2022-11-03 15:45:572022-11-03 15:48:04Are we equal? What the American Founders Meant by Equality.
