War on Parents: A Fight to the Finish

For the rest of the week, I return to the War on Parents which is in full swing.  Make no mistake – the radical Left is coming for your children.

The news this month is startling.  We begin with reports of teachers or others working around children being arrested for child sex abuse or possession of child pornography.  I submit to you it is no accident these people, who have inserted themselves into positions of trust, have personal sexual agendas as well as public sexual agendas that involve your children.

A high school teacher in Hawaii was arrested on charges of child pornography, including a video of himself having sex with a 13-year-old boy.  He ranted on Twitter about those awful right-wingers accusing teachers of promoting pornography in schools.  Pretty warped, huh?  A Disney actor got two years in prison for attempting to have sex with a minor.  A Disney bus driver was arrested in a child predator sting in Florida.  A high school teacher in New York was charged for groping and sexting students.  That’s a lot for one month, don’t you think?  In all, 135 teachers and teachers’ aides have been arrested for child sex-related crimes so far this year.  The weird thing is some Democrats think all this is perfectly fine and resist efforts to prevent child sex abuse from happening.

Just as dangerous as the sexual agendas below the belt are the ones above the neck.  All of a sudden, the drag queens are out of the closet and in your face, shoved there by Leftist politicians pushing the sexual revolution to destroy society so they can take total power.  Openly lesbian Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said “drag queens make everything better” and there should be one in every school.  New York City Mayor Eric Adams endorsed drag queen story hour for kids in libraries and schools.  He said they express the “core” of what New York City stands for.  That they will do, if the Left wins the War on Parents.  The Satanic Temple, which is getting into after-school programs, promotes ‘drag dance parties’ with ‘unbaptisms’ – the better to undo society with.  Such an event in Idaho was co-sponsored by the public library, the police, the ACLU, a gun control group, and an ecumenical church.  That’s what they call ‘intersectionality’ on the Left – a united front of various issue groups and Leftist-controlled or -influenced institutions joining forces to attack the prevailing order.  In Dallas, parents took their children to a gay bar to see a drag show where the children were invited on-stage to participate.  I love a good drag show, but I’m an adult.  What were these parents thinking?

In any event, you are watching the Gay Gestapo and its friends and allies in action.  I should note there are plenty of gay people who are politically conservative and appalled by the subject being hijacked by the political Left for its own revolutionary purposes.  A drag queen who belongs to the #WalkAway movement warned parents to keep their kids away from drag shows because the early sexualization of children is not a good thing.

The Gay Gestapo is on the march in schools, as well.  The offensive it is waging is wide and deep.  A teacher in North Carolina was caught pushing the LGBT agenda on preschoolers through flash cards.  Lessons on transgender ideology are becoming more widespread and are now required in seven states.  Sex education in a school district in New York has gone X-rated with the use of such graphic terms as ‘face-f***ing’.  A middle school librarian in Virginia justified having a book promoting prostitution in the collection because, in her view, lots of 11- to 13-year-old students do sex work and the school needs to affirm their lifestyle.  Huh?  The National Science Teachers Association is training teachers how to ‘queer their classrooms’ and “affirm and represent queer indentities.”  Philadelphia schools encouraged teachers to attend a transgender conference on kinky stuff, sado-masochism, and “banging beyond binaries”.   Finally, there are fresh reports of more school districts hiding student gender transitions from parents and training teachers how to deceive parents who ask questions about their own children.

The War on Parents is nationwide and fierce.  It is being waged by individual teachers and at the institutional level.  I’ve commented previously on why all this is happening.  Sexualizing children is a communist technique consciously being employed in America today to destroy society and usher in a socialist revolution to put a tiny Leftist elite in control of everything.  This may sound strange to people hearing it for the first time, but people who’ve heard my previous commentaries know I’ve got the goods.  If anyone from the intersectional Left cares to challenge me, I will demolish you with the facts, your own history, and your own words.  Bring it on.  Show parents everywhere you have good reasons for shoving your sexual agendas and your body parts down kids’ throats.

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©Christopher Wright. All rights reserved.

Made in America Series: Block Island Organics Suncare & Titleist Golf Balls

Here at 2ndVote we always advocate for the three pillars of shopping your values; shop local whenever possible, shop the highest 2ndVote score whenever possible, and shop American whenever possible. American production has been outsourced overseas for the sake of labor costs, sometimes even using slave labor, for far too long. It is high time that we as Americans demand that the goods and services we purchase are made by Americans, for Americans, in AMERICA!

That’s why we at 2ndVote endorse a product Made-in-America every week. This weekly message features various products that have been verified to be 100% American produced so that 2ndVote shoppers can better support American economic independence. It should be noted that while any products or companies featured in this series have been vetted for being American-made, there is not a guarantee that all such companies have been scored by 2ndVote at the time of publication.

This week’s featured Made-in-America product is the Block Island Organics Suncare:

Block Island Organics mission is to give everyone access to safe, effective, and lovable non-toxic suncare and skin care products. They believe in living outside and enjoying the sun and not hiding from it. With a little sun knowledge, the right sunscreen, and healthy skin care from day to night everyone can live our mantra: “Play Smart, Play Safe”.

The sun is the leading cause of skin damage but despite advances in science and cosmetics, skin cancer rates continue to rise and premature skin aging is prevalent. Block Island Organics believe this is due in part to poor quality sunscreens, misleading marketing and the failure to educate consumers on safe suncare practices. To rectify this, they pledge to be consistent, honest, and transparent in marketing as they pursue their goals: educate consumers, optimize product safety, quality, and cost, and earn your trust.

Block Island Organics are made in Block Island, Rhode Island

Check them out here!


Here at 2ndVote we always advocate for the three pillars of shopping your values; shop local whenever possible, shop the highest 2ndVote score whenever possible, and shop American whenever possible. American production has been outsourced overseas for the sake of labor costs, sometimes even using slave labor, for far too long. It is high time that we as Americans demand that the goods and services we purchase are made by Americans, for Americans, in AMERICA!

That’s why we at 2ndVote endorse a product Made-in-America every week. This weekly message features various products that have been verified to be 100% American produced so that 2ndVote shoppers can better support American economic independence. It should be noted that while any products or companies featured in this series have been vetted for being American-made, there is not a guarantee that all such companies have been scored by 2ndVote at the time of publication.

This week’s featured Made-in-America product is the TITLEIST GOLF BALLS:

For over 85 years, Titleist golf balls have been manufactured in the greater New Bedford, Massachusetts area.  Throughout these nine decades, Titleist has been the design and process technology leader manufacturing golf balls with a wide range of constructions to meet golfers’ varying performance needs.

A belief that a better process will result in a better quality and performance product has been constant throughout Titleist’s history. An unwavering commitment to continuous improvement and performance and quality excellence are core values of the Titleist tradition.

Titleist Golf Balls are made in New Bedford, Massachusetts

Check them out here!


The best way to make positive change in the world of woke businesses is to vote with your wallet, so remember: shop local, shop the highest score possible, and shop American! 2ndVote is not paid for this feature. While any products or companies featured in this series have been vetted for being American-made, there is not a guarantee that all such companies have been scored by 2ndVote at the time of publication.

EDITORS NOTE: This 2ndVote column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Biden Administration Invests $6 Mil to Advance Racial Equity in Food Stamp Program

The Biden administration is spending millions of taxpayer dollars to advance racial equity in the government’s bloated, multi-billion-dollar food-stamp program that already serves a large minority population. A record 45 million people receive the welfare benefit, according to the latest figures published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), at a cost of about $80 billion. This month the administration announced it is investing $6 million to fund data projects centered on identifying inequities in the food stamp program, which was rebranded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by the Obama administration to eliminate the welfare stigma.

The costly project is known as SNAP E&T Data and Technical Assistance (DATA) and its mission is to help states make data-driven decisions to advance equity in the food stamp program. “Throughout the United States, systemic barriers for historically underserved communities have, historically and to this day, led to significant barriers to education, training, and full participation in the labor market,” the Biden administration writes in the grant announcement. “SNAP E&T programs are primed to be leaders in promoting equitable (i.e. race, gender, geographic, sexual orientation, religion, etc.) access to good jobs and sustained family-supporting wages in high-demand career fields for those from historically underserved groups; as measured by educational attainment, households that participate in the SNAP program are the least well-off in the labor market.”

For those unfamiliar with term equity, the document identifies it in a long-winded footnote as the “consistent and systematic fair, just, and impartial treatment of all individuals, including individuals who belong to underserved communities that have been denied such treatment, such as Black, Latino, and Indigenous and Native American persons, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and other persons of color; members of religious minorities; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) persons; persons with disabilities; persons who live in rural areas; and persons otherwise adversely affected by persistent poverty or inequality.” The USDA’s Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) plans to support and invest in projects to help states make data-driven decision to advance equity in SNAP programs, the announcement says.

The data complied under the project will help look inwardly at state policy and operational decisions to identify if they have impacts on equitable program participation, according to the grant document. It will look outwardly to build an understanding of the environment in which food stamp recipients and programs operate that may lead to inequitable outcomes for participants of various identities, backgrounds, and geographic locations. Advancing the ability of states to use data to improve and maintain equitable access and outcomes for all participants is the ultimate goal. Once the data has been gathered, it will be analyzed to understand opportunities or disparities for historically underserved communities, the grant document states. It will also incorporate individual, community, political and historical contexts of race, gender, sexual identity, disability status and geographic location to inform recommendations. Appropriate measures will then be developed that allow states to make accurate and timely decisions related to program policies and operations to advance equity as well as equitable participation and outcomes for food stamp recipients.

Last year the USDA launched a Racial Justice and Equity Working Group to address the agency’s “history of systemic discrimination via policies and programs designed to benefit those with access, education, assets, privilege rather than for those without.” A few weeks later the USDA dedicated $1 billion to bring healthy food to underserved minority communities. The allocation is part of a multi-trillion-dollar Biden administration initiative called Build Back Better to supposedly “rescue” and “rebuild” the country by, among other things, tackling racial injustice and inequity. “Black and Latino Americans, Native Americans, immigrants, and women have never been welcomed as full participants in the economy,” according to a White House document outlining the plan. The initiative is broad and features a three-part agenda that includes promoting food stamps. “There is extra money available for food,” Build Back Better assures, encouraging the public to apply for SNAP.

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

Frustrated Detectives Leaving ‘Insane’ NYPD En Masse, Have ‘Had Enough’

G-d help us. The Democrats are destroying our civilization, the basic social fabric of our life.

DiGiacomo, the Detectives Endowment Association president, said cops feel demoralized because of a lack of support from politicians.

“It’s simple,” he said. “Detectives are retiring in historic numbers because they have no support from politicians who care more about criminals than cops and the New Yorkers they protect.”

Frustrated detectives leaving ‘insane’ NYPD en masse, have ‘had enough’

By Tina Moore, NY Post, June 28, 2022:

More than 100 NYPD detectives have retired in June — and another 75 plan to put their papers in next month — as many become frustrated by revolving-door justice and rules that hamstring them in the Big Apple, officials and detectives told The Post.

“That’s going to have a major impact on investigating crimes,” Detectives Endowment Association president Paul DiGiacomo said. “The detective squads are down now as we speak and are investigating more cases. It’s going to have an impact on public safety.”

So far this year, 250 detectives have retired, leaving the total number at about 5,600, which is nearly 2,000 less than two decades ago.

There were 794 detective retirements during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 — and that number dropped down to 395 in 2021. Sources said 100 retirements in just one month is a large number for the NYPD.

The Post also reported earlier this month that cops in general were leaving the force in record numbers.

At his NYPD walkout ceremony at the 105th Precinct stationhouse Tuesday, Queens Detective Jason Caputo, 51, said he had “had enough.”

Detective Jay Caputo retired from the NYPD’s 105th Precinct after serving 25 years.

Detective Jay Caputo retired from the NYPD’s 105th Precinct after 18 years with the NYPD.

Daniel William McKnight

“To know me is to know I love the job in and out, but it’s not the same job I joined,” said Caputo, who is leaving after 18 years in the NYPD, and thus not getting his maximum pension, which kicks in after 20.

“The no-bail law was a big thing with me,” he said. “It’s not even really crimefighting anymore. You arrest somebody for assault 2 with a weapon and then the person is back at the precinct getting his property the next day. They’re not locking anyone up, even those with records. Pay your debt to society. You broke the law.”

Caputo said he also worried about making arrests and running into problems with city laws, such as the one prohibiting officers from putting pressure on a person’s diaphragm.

AUTHOR

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

CDC Caught Using False Data To Recommend Kids’ COVID Vaccine

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showcased highly misleading data about the risk of COVID-19 to kids when its expert vaccine advisers voted to recommend vaccines for children under five years old.


CDC Caught Using False Data To Recommend Kids’ COVID Vaccine

By DC Caller, June 29, 2022:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showcased highly misleading data about the risk of COVID-19 to kids when its expert vaccine advisers voted to recommend vaccines for children under five years old.

The agency featured a pre-print study ranking causes of death in children when it presented data to its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) earlier this month, after which the committee voted to recommend kids aged six months through four years get vaccinated for COVID-19. The study claimed to show that COVID-19 was a leading cause of death for children in the United States during the coronavirus pandemic, but observers quickly pointed out major flaws in the data which rendered it misleading.

The paper ranks COVID-19 as a top six cause of death for age brackets from 0-19, including under one year old, 1-4 years old, 5-9 years old, 10-14 years old and 15-19 years old. It’s unclear why the authors include 18- and 19-year-olds in pediatric data. A majority of the researchers involved in the paper are from the United Kingdom, where the age of majority is 18 in most jurisdictions.

However, one misleading aspect of the paper, as first pointed out by covid-georgia.com, is that it ranks cumulative COVID-19 deaths alongside annual rates for other causes for death. For instance, in the 1-4 age group, the paper ranks cumulative COVID-19 deaths as the 5th leading cause of death, ahead of heart disease and influenza. But further down the list, it ranks annual COVID-19 deaths in eighth. For every single age group, the cumulative COVID-19 death rate is more than double the annualized death rate.

Another big issue with the CDC data presentation is the conflation of deaths caused directly by COVID-19 versus those for which COVID-19 was just a “contributing” factor. The authors state “we only consider Covid-19 as an underlying (and not contributing) cause of death,” but that is false.

The paper cites data from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), which tabulates COVID-19 deaths by including any death certificate on which COVID-19 is mentioned, not just cases where it was the primary reason for death. The NCHS data cited by the researchers claims there have been 1,433 pediatric COVID-19 deaths through April 30, 2022. However, the CDC’s own data, which counts only deaths where the virus was the underlying cause, reported 1,088 pediatric deaths during that time period. That’s nearly 25% lower.

When the data is annualized and only includes deaths where the virus was the underlying cause, COVID-19 does not rank as a leading cause of death for young children. For kids under one year old, it ranks 9th, behind influenza and pneumonia, heart disease and homicide. Accidents are about 25 times as likely to kill an infant than COVID-19, according to the CDC data.

Among kids aged 1-4 and 5-9, COVID-19 ranked in a four-way tie for the 8th leading cause of death. For ages 10-14 it ranked in a two-way tie for 8th. For teenagers between 15 and 19 years old, it dropped in the cause of death ranking from 4th to 6th.

The CDC did not respond to multiple requests for comment when asked why it presented this misleading data and how that study made it though the agency’s rigorous review process. The FDA did respond after multiple attempts at contact, stating that “FDA speakers in the June 14-15th meeting of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) did not cite the study in question in their presentations. FDA’s press release announcing the authorizations explains the basis for our determinations.”

Read the rest.

AUTHOR

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FDA approve COVID Vaccine for 6-month-old Babies despite Data proving Vaccinated Children are 30,200%/303x more likely to die than Unvaccinated Children

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Publix Publicly Announced Its Refusal To Offer Vaccinations For Children Under 5

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Data Proves ‘Sudden Adult Death Syndrome’ Fiction Is Death by Covid Vaccination

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3-year-old girl dies of heart attack one day after taking COVID vaccine

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

2022 Is Lit: Army Private Sent Sensitive Military Info to White Supremacist Group to Facilitate Jihad Attack

The official propaganda line that the regime would have us believe, solemnly repeated by Old Joe Biden, Gestapo chief Merrick Garland, and others is that “white supremacists” constitute the greatest terror threat the nation faces today. The only problem with this scenario is that in the absence of a large number of white supremacist terror attacks, the narrative has had to be shored up by branding parents as terrorists for being angry about drag queen story hour in elementary schools. That is not to say, however, that there is no white supremacist terrorism at all. It’s just not a matter of MAGA hat-wearing rednecks descending on obscure gay black actors in sub-zero weather while declaring that Chicago is “MAGA country.” Reality, as always, is more complicated than the narrative, as a recent case illustrates.

On Friday, according to the Justice Department, a U.S. Army private named Ethan Phelan Melzer, who also went by the name Etil Reggad, “pled guilty to attempting to murder U.S. service members, providing and attempting to provide material support to terrorists, and illegally transmitting national defense information.” Melzer was involved with the Order of the Nine Angles (O9A), which the DOJ says is “an occult-based, neo-Nazi, and white supremacist group.” But no one is wearing MAGA hats in this crowd: “O9A espouses neo-Nazi, anti-Semitic, and Satanic beliefs, and promotes extreme violence to accelerate and cause the demise of Western civilization.  The group has expressed admiration both for Nazis, such as Adolf Hitler, and Islamic jihadists, such as Usama Bin Laden, the now-deceased former leader of al Qaeda.”

The group didn’t just admire bin Laden; it wanted to emulate him. Melzer, the DOJ explains, “planned a jihadist attack on his U.S. Army unit in the days leading up to a deployment to Turkey and sent sensitive details about the unit” to O9A. Underscoring the seriousness of this plot is the fact that this information included details of his unit’s “location, movements, and security.” This wouldn’t have been the first time O9A committed an act of terrorism: “Members and associates of O9A have also participated in acts of violence, including murders. O9A members are instructed to fulfill ‘sinister’ deeds, including ‘insight roles,’ where they attempt to infiltrate various organizations, including the military, to gain training and experience, commit acts of violence, identify like-minded individuals, and ultimately subvert those groups from within.”

That was why Melzer joined the Army in the first place: solely in order to set up this attack. No one initially suspected him, however, and so in October 2019 he went to Italy as part of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team. While he was there, however, Melzer “consumed propaganda from multiple extremist groups, including O9A and the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, which is also known as ISIS.” He also “subscribed to encrypted online forums where he downloaded and accessed videos of jihadist attacks on U.S. troops and facilities and jihadist executions of civilians and soldiers, in addition to far-right, neo-Nazi, and other white supremacist propaganda.”

Then in May 2020, Melzer was reassigned to a different unit, and classified briefings as part of his training to deploy with it. He started passing on this information to O9A, and to “a sub-group of O9A known as the ‘RapeWaffen Division,’ providing details about his unit’s anticipated deployment including troop movements, relevant dates, locations, armaments, topography, and security, all in connection with the proposed attack on his unit and the Military Base.” Melzer himself and other O9A members referred to what they were planning a “jihadi attack” and envisioned it as a “mass casualty” event that would kill numerous U.S. service members. He also passed on this information to someone who represented himself as a member of al-Qaeda.

Melzer understood the gravity of what he was doing, telling other O9A members: “[y]ou just gotta understand that currently I am risking my literal free life to give you all this.” He said he was willing to die to pull off his attack, but “I would’ve died successfully…cause [] another 10 year war in the Middle East would definitely leave a mark.”

So the DOJ got its white supremacist terrorist, but he had nothing to do with pro-Trump conservatives, and turned out to be working hand-in-glove with the jihad terrorists that the Biden administration has consistently downplayed or ignored outright. Once again, the narrative of the political and media elites is shown to be false – not, of course, that they will take any notice of that, much less change course.

AUTHOR

RELATED ARTICLE: White Supremacists Everywhere: Biden Tries to Link Jan. 6 with Buffalo Shooting

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

There is No Such Thing as Trickle-Down Economics

The point is not to transfer wealth up and down but rather to create universal opportunity.


Critics of liberalism and the market economy have made a long-standing habit of inventing terms we would never use to describe ourselves. The most common of these is “neo-liberal” or “neo-liberalism,” which appears to mean whatever the critics wish it to mean to describe ideas they don’t like. To the extent the terms have clear definitions, they certainly don’t align with the actual views of defenders of markets and liberal society.

Trickle Down

Another related term is “trickle-down economics.” People who argue for tax cuts, less government spending, and more freedom for people to produce and trade what they think is valuable are often accused of supporting something called “trickle-down economics.” It’s hard to pin down exactly what that term means, but it seems to be something like the following: “those free market folks believe that if you give tax cuts or subsidies to rich people, the wealth they acquire will (somehow) ‘trickle down’ to the poor.”

The problem with this term is that, as far as I know, no economist has ever used that term to describe their own views. Critics of the market should take up the challenge of finding an economist who argues something like “giving things to group A is a good idea because they will then trickle down to group B.” I submit they will fail in finding one because such a person does not exist. Plus, as Thomas Sowell has pointed out, the whole argument is silly: why not just give whatever the things are to group B directly and eliminate the middleman?

There’s no economic argument that claims that policies that themselves only benefit the wealthy directly will somehow “trickle down” to the poor. Transferring wealth to the rich, or even tax cuts that only apply to them, are not policies that are going to benefit the poor, or certainly not in any notable way. Defenders of markets are certainly not going to support direct transfers or subsidies to the rich in any case. That’s precisely the sort of crony capitalism that true liberals reject.

General Prosperity

What the critics will find, if they choose to look, is many economists who argue that allowing everyone to pursue all the opportunities they can in the marketplace, with the minimal level of taxation and regulation, will create generalized prosperity. The value of cutting taxes is not just cutting them for higher income groups, but for everyone. Letting everyone keep more of the value they create through exchange means that everyone has more incentive to create such value in the first place, whether it’s through the ownership of capital or finding new uses for one’s labor.

In addition, those of us who support such policies don’t want to “give” anything to anyone, whether rich or poor. When people talk about tax cuts as “giving” something to someone, they implicitly start from the premise that everything belongs to government and we are only able to keep some for ourselves by its indulgence of us.

Aside from the fact that rights are not what government gives to us but what we already have that it should, in theory, protect, the only reason government has any revenue in the first place is because it was taken through taxation from those in the private sector who created it. Government doesn’t “give” us tax refunds; it simply refrains from taking more of what we created through mutually beneficial exchange in the first place.

Grain of Truth

However, there is one small grain of truth in the “trickle down” idea. One of the key reasons that modern Westerners, including poor ones, live so much better today than at any point in the past is because our ability to combine our labor with more and better capital has driven up our wages and driven down the cost of goods and services. The accumulation of capital by some does contribute to the enrichment of others as that capital makes workers’ labor more productive and thus more valuable.

That historical truth is not a justification for directly subsidizing the current owners of capital. Contrary to what thinkers like Thomas Piketty appear to believe, merely possessing capital does not ensure a flow of income. It is not ownership of capital per se that benefits others, but the ability to deploy capital in ways that create value for consumers. That is why reducing the tax and regulatory burden on everyone is so important: anyone can come with new ways to create value and potentially enrich themselves and others in the process.

The key is not transferring funds to the currently rich, but ensuring the most competitive economic environment possible so that those with the better ideas can put them into practice. The current owners of capital should not be able to lock in their position by using the political process to enrich themselves by legislation that specifically benefits themselves.

As Hayek observed in his defense of competition:

[I]t is by no means regularly the established entrepreneur, the man in charge of the existing plant, who will discover what is the best method [for efficient production]. The force which in a competitive society brings about the reduction of price to the lowest cost at which the quantity salable at that cost can be produced is the opportunity for anybody who knows a cheaper method to come in at his own risk, and to attract customers by underbidding the other producers.

Today’s owners of capital do not have all of the answers, and the way to ensure the best result for everyone, especially the least well off, is to give everyone the freedom to enter and exit the market and to have the maximum incentive to do so by enabling them to keep the fruits of their successful value creation.

Wealth Creation First

No serious economist believes the lives of the poor are improved by wealth being transferred to the rich and then “trickling down” to the poor. What economics does tell us is that wealth has to be created first and foremost. You can’t transfer something that does not exist. Wealth creation is most likely to happen when people are able to innovate without permission and put their ideas to the market test.

This process of market-tested permissionless innovation will indeed make some people rich, and it will make some rich people poor. What it also does is to drive the creation of value across entire societies, raising the standard of living for all of their inhabitants.

The momentary snapshots of rich and poor are not the categories that matter for sound economic policy. Wealth does not “trickle down” from rich to poor. It is created by all of us when we develop new ideas, skills, and products as either workers or owners of capital.

The way to help the poor is to maximize our freedom to create and keep value through the unhampered market economy. The answer is not giving hand-outs to those who, momentarily, occupy the group we call “the rich.” And history tells us that the improving standard of living for everyone that results from more economic freedom will be more of a flood than a trickle.

AUTHOR

Steven Horwitz

Steven Horwitz is the Distinguished Professor of Free Enterprise in the Department of Economics at Ball State University, where he also is Director of the Institute for the Study of Political Economy. He is the author of Austrian Economics: An Introduction.

RELATED ARTICLE: 30 of Walter Williams’s Best Quotes on Liberty, Rights, Property, and Coercion

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

Why the Anti-Woke Beavis and Butt-Head Clip Is so Hilarious—and a Real Threat to White Privilege Theory

Unlike most, Beavis and Butt-head are not offended or ashamed when they are told they have “white privilege.” They are excited—but things quickly go awry.


In 1937, Boris Orman was working at a bakery in Russia when he shared a joke over tea with his colleague.

“Stalin was out swimming, but he began to drown. A peasant who was passing by jumped in and pulled him safely to shore,” the joke went, according to British writer Jonathan Waterlow. “Stalin asked the peasant what he would like as a reward. Realising whom he had saved, the peasant cried out: ‘Nothing! Just please don’t tell anyone I saved you!’”

The joke is hardly the funniest ever told, but Orman was nevertheless one of countless Russians in the Soviet Union who received a 10-year stint in a labor camp for uttering the jibe. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the great Russian writer who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970, got off a bit easier. He received a mere eight-year sentence in the Gulag after Soviet authorities intercepted a letter he wrote to a friend in 1945 that made a crack about Stalin and criticized the Soviet system.

One might be tempted to think the Soviets just had really bad senses of humor, but there’s a reason totalitarians and authoritarians seek to suppress jokes.

History shows humor is a tool that empowers. It can fortify humans during dark and deadly times, and it can destroy an idea just as effectively as reason, though it’s arguably most powerful when it’s combined with reason.

The most famous such example might be Jonathan Swift’s classic essay A Modest Proposal, a masterpiece of satire that exposed the impoverished conditions of the time by saying poor Irish families could alleviate their condition by selling their excess children to rich people for food.

Combining humor with pointed social commentary is a strategy employed by countless comedians—old and new—including Eddie Murphy, George Carlin, Dave Chappelle, and Bill Burr.

Which brings me to Mike Judge.

Judge, a writer, animator, and director, is probably best known for Beavis and Butt-Head, an animated show that ran on MTV in the 1990s and was turned into a feature film, Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, released in 1996.

Since then, Beavis and Butt-Head have mostly been retired, as Judge turned to numerous other projects, including Office Space (1999), Idiocracy (2006), and the HBO hit show Silicon Valley (2014-2019). But Beavis and Butt-head—a pair of metal head morons who snicker at childish things and make crass observations about “babes” and “scoring”—are back.

Earlier this month, a trailer of a new Beavis and Butt-head movie dropped, announcing a June 23 release date (available exclusively on Paramount+) and a plot as bad as one would expect.

Entertainment writer Christian Toto provides a synopsis:

Our “heroes” stumble their way to space camp after destroying their school’s science fair exhibit. The lads’ penchant for sexual metaphors lands them a gig on a real space shuttle, and that’s where the time-traveling plot kicks in.

The boys sabotage the mission and enter a black hole. The snafu catapults them from the ’90s to 2022, but their space commandeer (Andrea Savage) is hot on their trail. She’s now a governor with political ambition to burn, and the boys’ survival threatens her ascent.

This sounds silly—especially when the trailer shows Beavis and Butt-head rehashing the same crude jokes and acts they were 30 years earlier (“I am Cornholio; I need TP for my bunghole”)—but that is precisely what is making it attractive to audiences.

“This is one of the stupidest concepts for a Beavis and Butthead movie I can imagine,” one YouTube commenter said, “it’s perfect.”

Not all the jokes are rehashed, however. A subsequent clip dropped, and it explores a theme that Beavis and Butt-head audiences in the 1990s never heard of: white privilege.

The clip shows Beavis and Butt-head in college, where they appear to walk into class late and are reprimanded by their professor.

“This is a classic case of white privilege,” the instructor explains. “And you both have it.”

The duo have no idea what white privilege is, but several members of their class are kind enough to explain it to them.

“So, white privilege is when people, particularly men, automatically assume they can take whatever they want,” one young woman explains.

“And they never have to worry about getting stopped by the police,” another chimes in.

“And they have the inside track for any jobs …”

You get the idea. The funniest part of the clip is that, unlike most people, Beavis and Butt-head are not offended or ashamed when they hear this. They are excited.

“Whoa,” Butt-head says. “And we have that?”

“You sure do,” the professor answers.

Naturally, Beavis and Butt-head decide to use this newly-discovered power, but things don’t go as planned.

For those less familiar with white privilege, it’s just one aspect of a larger intellectual movement known as Critical Race Theory (CRT). Writers at FEE and other prominent thinkers have explained at length why CRT is a dangerous and damaging philosophy, one that undermines individuality, fosters a victimhood mindset, and divides along racial lines instead of uniting us in our common humanity.

Making the philosophical case against CRT is important, but I don’t think I’ve seen a single scholarly article or lecture expose white privilege and its talking points as effectively as Mike Judge did in that two-minute Beavis and Butt-head clip.

Which brings me back to the power of humor.

Satire and humor still have the power to destroy ideas, perhaps more than ever. This is precisely why comedians like Dave Chappelle and sites like The Babylon Bee have become targets of the woke movement, which continues in its effort to suppress speech that violates its dogmas on race, gender, and class.

Fortunately, today’s commentators in America don’t face prison sentences like Boris Orman and Alexander Solzhenitsyn did when they make jokes criticizing the ascendant orthodoxy, but they still face risks.

Efforts to have Chappelle fired over his comedy show “The Closer,” which included the trans community among its many targets, failedThe Babylon Bee has been suspended by Twitter for referring to Health and Human Services Secretary Rachel Levine, a biological man who identifies as a woman, as a man, but the Bee is still publishing.

The actions against Chappelle, the Bee, and other creators have a clear chilling effect on expression, which is the entire point of cancel culture. Today’s elites, like those of the twentieth century, clearly recognize that humor has the power to undermine their ideas and power, which is why they work so hard to suppress it when it strays from the narrative.

Increasingly, however, creators refuse to be silenced. Beavis and Butt-head taking on white privilege is just the latest example.

With his two-minute takedown of CRT, Mike Judge didn’t just expose the absurdity of white privilege talking points; he won a victory for free expression and struck a blow to cancel culture.

AUTHOR

Jon Miltimore

Jonathan Miltimore is the Managing Editor of FEE.org. His writing/reporting has been the subject of articles in TIME magazine, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, Forbes, Fox News, and the Star Tribune. Bylines: Newsweek, The Washington Times, MSN.com, The Washington Examiner, The Daily Caller, The Federalist, the Epoch Times.

EDITORS NOTE: This FEE column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved. This article was adapted from an issue of the FEE Daily email newsletter. Click here to sign up and get free-market news and analysis like this in your inbox every weekday.

Clueless Kamala Can’t Say How to Lower Gas Prices Besides a Gas Tax ‘Holiday’

In an interview with CNN on Monday, cerebrally-challenged Vice President Kamala Harris couldn’t name any other actions the Biden administration could take other than a gas tax holiday to lower gas prices.

In response to a question on what other steps could be taken to bring down the cost of gas, the most unqualified and useless VP in American history responded with her usual rambling word salad: “Well, first of all, let’s just say that this is a very real issue, and we have to do something about it and it’s one of our highest priorities as an administration. So, there is the piece that is about gas and bringing down the cost of gas, which, in large part, has exploded because of Putin’s war on Ukraine.”

Fact check: inflation and the price of gas were skyrocketing before Putin invaded Ukraine. These are not Putin’s gas prices; they are the Biden administration’s gas prices.

“The president is in Europe right now, talking, as he has been, to bring our allies and partners together so we can have a common defense around what we believe to be democratic principles, around sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Kamala continued to blather. “But there are other things we need to do. And so, for example, bringing down the cost of prescription drugs. One of — we are fighting to say something like insulin should cost no more than $35 a month. We are fighting to say that we should have affordable child care so that families — working families shouldn’t pay more than 7% of their income in child care.”

Translation: Kamala has no clue, about how to bring down gas prices or on any other issue.


Kamala Harris

111 Known Connections

Harris Gives Simplistic Explanation of Russia’s Recent Invasion of Ukraine

During a March 1, 2022 appearance on the syndicated “Morning Hustle” radio program, Harris was asked by co-host Headkrack to explain the conflict “in layman’s terms for people who don’t understand what’s going on and how can this directly affect the people of the United States.” Speaking slowly, Harris replied: “So, Ukraine is a country in Europe. It exists next to another country called Russia. Russia is a bigger country. Russia is a powerful country. Russia decided to invade a smaller country called Ukraine. So, basically, that’s wrong, and it goes against everything that we stand for.”

To learn more about Kamala Harris, click here.

EDITORS NOTE: This Discover the Networks column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Just Days After Roe Reversal, Abortion Is Already Banned In Almost A Quarter Of America

Barely more than 72 hours after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, abortion is already illegal in roughly one-quarter of the states in America.

A number of Republican-controlled states have had “trigger” laws activated, which are laws put in place to impose restrictions on abortion in the event the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade. Others have moved to enact new abortion restrictions, with some banning the practice entirely.

Abortion is now outlawed in Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Ohio, South Carolina, Texas and Tennessee have enacted six-week bans, and the others have fully banned abortion, according to NPR.

Other states are poised to follow suit in the near future. Republican North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley announced Tuesday that his office had certified the overturning of Roe, and the state’s abortion ban will go into effect July 28. Republican Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds is asking courts to lift an injunction holding up the state’s heartbeat abortion ban.

“Trigger” laws are currently pending in several more states, including Idaho, Mississippi and Wyoming, and Georgia’s six-week ban is currently subject to an injunction.

Analysts expect roughly half the states in America could ultimately ban abortion entirely, or come close to doing so, now that Roe has been overturned, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Democrats have been scrambling to find ways to maintain abortion access, and no blue states have so far implemented any new restrictions.

AUTHOR

DYLAN HOUSMAN

Healthcare reporter. Follow Dylan on Twitter

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

Weather Modification, Another Way to Starve Americans

“Only a government that is afraid of its citizens tries to control them.” —  Thomas Jefferson

“Government has within it a tendency to abuse its power.” —  John C. Calhoun

“There is danger from all men.  The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.” —  John Adams

“The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant.” —  Maximilien Robespierre

“Men would rather be starving and free than fed in bonds.” — Pearl S. Buck


A large portion of America is suffering through extremely high temperatures and drought conditions destroying the ability of what’s left of our farming community to raise and harvest what is needed to feed us.  The planned starvation of Americans is well on its way to becoming reality.  And now, they’re using weather modification to make sure farmers endure another 1931 dust bowl.  Tell the average American that our weather can be manipulated and they look at you with a “deer in the headlights” stare.

You don’t believe me? The Sirius Report gives us a list of 100 U.S. patents related to weather modification.  The first patent listed was in 1891 and the patent numbers are included with each.  Scroll through the list as some of the titles are really quite telling.

In Jerry Tyson’s 2017 article, Consider the Weather, on the Prophetic Observer website, he lists just a few of the weather modification patents from 1964 to 2010.  Portions of the information below have been garnered from Tyson’s article.  Even Bill Gates is involved in weather modification and that should not surprise us as it fits well into his genocidal plans for humanity.

One of the earliest listed patents was designed to manipulate weather via “cloud seeding” or the ability to produce more rain.  Louis Gathmann of Chicago, Illinois is credited with the patent.

In August of 2013, a patent was granted to James M. Cordray for a “Rain-Maker” balloon able to produce rain at any given time, including during drought.

In 1951, Harvey M. Brandau of Wilton, Wisconsin filed his patent to modify weather.  “Process for controlling weather” had some key items that are of interest.  He said his process could dissipate clouds and fog by clearing the atmosphere of moisture particles.  Mr. Brandau also said his invention could control weather by dissipating typhoons, hurricanes and other storm centers by the dissipation of clouds forming the weather phenomena, even controlling weather causing snow and sleet.  He stated he could provide rain in designated areas and provide desirable weather.

By the 1970s, biologically active chemicals began to appear as well as “altering” precipitation by artificial means.  And in the early 1990s, the Pentagon funded HAARP.

HAARP – High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program

Many of us have heard of Alaska’s HAARP.  The Pentagon erected a powerful transmitter designed to beam more than a gigawatt of energy into the upper reaches of the atmosphere.  The experiment involves the world’s largest “ionospheric heater,” a device designed to zap the skies hundreds of kilometers above the Earth with high-frequency radio waves. Their patent showed the “use of altering weather by transmitting electromagnet radiation from the earth’s surface through the region or regions to be altered.”  This could also be “established at select locations for communication or other purposes.”  The magnetic force lines that radiate from pole to pole are manipulated most effectively for these purposes.

HAARP – The Pentagon’s Ultimate Weapon, Whistleblowers Say written in August of 2021, states the following:

Ever since the existence of HAARP became public, a number of independent researchers have warned the operation has a secret agenda including:

  • weather modification
  • mind control
  • hi-tech military experiments
  • triggering of earthquakes

HAARP is the ultimate in geoengineering.  Their patent proves weather manipulation is a reality, and since this is true, it’s no longer a conspiracy theory – it’s a conspiracy fact.

U.S. Patent 20100224696 A1 describes a space-based technology for generating and controlling hurricanes to weaken or dissipate the weather element.  If they can weaken or dissipate it, they can also strengthen and direct it.

Some of the weather wars people are actually saying that the hurricanes are not generated wholly by artificial systems, but rather that they are steered or influenced in terms of their direction or intensity.  Multiple patents obviously say it is factual and the U.S. patent office didn’t reject those patents.

Cutting Edge Ministries tells us about GWEN Towers— Ground Wave Emergency Network — These are huge towers that have as many as 100 copper wires fanning out at the base of the tower system underground. The Defense Department built these systems with the cover story that they would be useful for communication during and after a nuclear strike. But that story will not hold up when you understand that a thermonuclear blast at the right altitude will completely fry all communications equipment, and will render it impossible to communicate by radio at all for several hours.  What GWEN towers really do is to work in conjunction with HAARP transmitters to create storms and alter weather patterns.

Weather Control as a Cold War Weapon

The Smithsonian Magazine’s Matt Novak related the history of a 1946 pilot.  The article originally appeared in Collier Magazine in 1954.

“On November 13, 1946 pilot Curtis Talbot, working for the General Electric Research Laboratory, climbed to an altitude of 14,000 feet about 30 miles east of Schenectady, New York. Talbot, along with scientist Dr. Vincent J. Schaefer, released three pounds of dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide) into the clouds.  As they turned south, Dr. Schaefer noted, ‘I looked toward the rear and was thrilled to see long streamers of snow falling from the base of the cloud through which we had just passed. I shouted to Curt to swing around, and as we did so we passed through a mass of glistening snow crystals! Needless to say, we were quite excited.’ They had created the world’s first human-made snowstorm.

“After the experiments of G.E.’s Research Laboratory, there was a feeling that humanity might finally be able to control one of the greatest variables of life on earth. And, as Cold War tensions heightened, weather control was seen by the United States as a potential weapon that could be even more devastating than nuclear warfare.”

Weather Weapons are real, they have a treaty to regulate them.  In fact, Patent Number 4,686,605 of August 11, 1987 by inventor Bernard J. Eastland of Spring, Texas is titled, Method and Apparatus for Altering a Region in the Earth’s Atmosphere, Ionosphere, and or Magnetosphere.

UN Treaty on Weather Modification

In this cover letter dated October 27, 1978, the United Nations Treaty was in effect.  The name of the treaty is “Convention on the Prohibition of Military or any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques Approved by the General Assembly of the Assembly of the United Nations on 10 December 1976.”

So, what kind of weather modification could be used in military warfare?  Floods, intense rains, droughts and lack of water, severe heat, volcano eruptions, tsunamis, earthquakes and even tornadoes…and more.  You can examine the document here or here.

From the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs:

“In July 1974, USA and USSR agreed to hold bilateral discussions on measures to overcome the danger of the use of environmental modification techniques for military purposes and three subsequent rounds of discussions in 1974 and 1975. In August 1975, USA and USSR tabled identical draft texts of a convention at the Conference of the Committee on Disarmament (CCD), where intensive negotiations resulted in a modified text and understandings regarding four articles of this Convention in 1976.

“The Convention was approved by resolution 31/72 of the General Assembly of the United Nations on 10 December 1976, by 96 to 8 votes with 30 abstentions.”

This Treaty, or Convention, does not forbid political leaders from using these Weather Warfare weapons against their own people!  The elitists in power, and we all know who they are by now… Blackrock and Vanguard who are controlling America’s food production technologies and will have nearly total control of our food supply in America, Bill Gates with his ownership of 242,000 acres of America’s farmland, the torching of over 100 food procession plants, 10,000 cattle mysteriously dying all at once in Kansas, ranchers destroyed by the Bureau of Land Management, (remember LaVoy Finicum’s death by the FBI).  And of course, Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum (WEC) and his top advisor, Yuval Noah Harari.

Check out this map to see a small (500+) list of all the food and energy companies who have suffered serious problems in the past two years.  Scroll down the list on the right.

Olive Tree Ministries states, Harari is praised by the Zuck, Bill Gates, Barack Obama, Klaus Schwab (founder of the WEC), and others. He suggests that after the Great Reset, we will enter what he describes as the “next industrial revolution,” in which we will produce, not machines, products, or services as we do now. Harari suggests we will produce “human bodies and minds.”

Dane Wigington of Geoengineeringwatch.org states, “Ionosphere heater-induced high-pressure heat domes are baking parts of the Northern Hemisphere while chemical ice nucleation cloud seeding operations cool-down parts of the Southern Hemisphere. Climate intervention operations continue to wreak havoc on ecosystems and populations all over the world. The global controllers are now more desperate than ever before, what cards will they play next?”

Fear

Manufactured fear has been used countless times throughout history to sway the masses into compliance and to surrender their God given freedoms for their “protection.”

The Nazi Party had Germans terrified that enemies were at the gates, and only a massive war, and the murder of millions of European Jews, Romany, dissidents and homosexuals could keep Germany safe. The evil desires of one man would ultimately cost over 50 million lives, and left Germany in ruins.

The 1938 War of the Worlds radio drama by Orson Welles caused panic and massive fear among the listening audience.

The polio fears of 1949 to 1952 had everyone rushing to get the Salk vaccine and then in 1960, the Sabin sugar cube vaccine, both of which were tainted with SV-40 monkey virus causing soft tissue cancers.

The September 11, 2001 hijackings and attacks on the World Trade Center threw the nation into disbelief and yes, fear.

For two years, COVID was parroted as the worst killer pandemic to ever hit America, worse than the 2018 flu epidemic.  Fear erupted throughout the nation, except for a few who kept their wits about them.  Deadly virus causing and oxygen debilitating masks were donned even by toddlers, lockdowns destroyed a massive portion of small businesses and transferred trillions to gigantic corporations.  Drug and alcohol use skyrocketed as did suicide rates.

Hospital protocols denied cheap, safe, lifesaving medications and the federal government paid for COVID diagnoses, for oxygen masks, for ventilators and ultimately for the patients’ deaths from the Wuhan virus.  Fear was hyped…there is no cure…we must have a vaccine!  Instead, Americans received a DNA changing, emergency use authorization, rat, monkey and cat trialed “Operation Warp Speed” messenger RNA injection that failed to protect anyone from the virus.  Those injections have caused millions of deaths throughout the world, and adverse effects have destroyed the productive lives of millions more.

The virus was ultimately the culling of society’s elderly by five state governors who sent infected humanity into nursing homes, but the injections are now causing far more deaths than the actual virus itself.  Now the FDA is promoting three injections for toddlers who don’t even get the virus.  Should they manage to live through it, they’ll most likely be sterile or have Vaccine induced Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (VAIDS).

Food shortages are on the horizon, all planned and executed over the last several decades.  Henry Kissinger allegedly stated, “Control the food and you’ll control the people.”

This brings us to the few corporate and family farms left in operation.  The agricultural states are burning up with high temperatures and dry conditions.  The bread basket of the world is being dismantled.

In 1891 the first patent was listed for weather modification.  Imagine what they’re capable of 131 years later, another dust bowl and starvation.

Conclusion

In 1962, President Lyndon Baines Johnson said, “He who controls the weather will control the world.”  The Great Reset, the New World Order, and ultimately United Nations Agenda 21/30 are one and the same thing, the godless control of humanity by Luciferian forces.  Their goal is depopulation and the enslavement of remaining humanity.

Convincing Americans that our Industrial Civilization is so polluting the world that all of these unnatural storms, temperatures and disruptions are a natural result so that our citizens will be amenable to changing our civilization and moving into the already mapped out U.N. Biodiversity Areas is just part of the enslavement goal via the elites.

Starvation just may convince them.

We’ll then see how many, “Men would rather be starving and free than fed in bonds.”

©Kelleigh Nelson. All rights reserved.

Celebrating America, Despite Our Divisions

Why the violent reaction to Roe v. Wade being overturned? You would think that in effect the decision was anti-democracy (as many on the left claimed). But it was pro-democracy.

Based on the riots and the backlash from Hollywood, you would think that the Supreme Court took the right of the people to rule themselves through their legislators out of their hands. But in reality, the court restored the Constitutional principle that “we the people” should be in charge of our own lives through our elected representatives.

Roe v. Wade of 1973 in effect stipulated for half a century government by an oligarchy—the rule of seven robed men in a decision in 1973 by the Supreme Court that imposed abortion on demand by fiat. Last week’s Dobbs v. Jackson reversed this threat to democratic rule by putting the people themselves, again through their chosen delegates, back in power.

This gets back to what America is all about: We the people, under God, getting to rule our own destiny. What a gift. But you wouldn’t know it from today’s headlines.

The decision to restore the people’s rule comes on the cusp of our nation’s birthday. On July 4th 2022, America will be 246 years old.

July 4, 1776 was the day in which the Second Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, officially agreed by voice vote to adopt the final wording of the Declaration of Independence.

After 150 years of self-government under God in many of the colonies of British North America, the founding fathers, representing three million people—almost all professing Christians—voted for independence from Great Britain with dependence upon God.

The Declaration of Independence mentions God four times and says that our rights come from Him. One of the references to Deity comes near the end, as they said they were, “appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions.”

Dr. Peter Lillback is the founder of Providence Forum (now under the umbrella of D. James Kennedy Ministries), for which I now serve as executive director. He once told me that “the Supreme Judge of the world” was a reference to Jesus—since the founders knew and believed that Jesus is the Judge of the world.

Many books and documentaries today portray the founders as mostly deists or skeptics. But the reality is that the majority of them were committed Trinitarian Christians.

For example, 27 of the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence had the equivalency of seminary degrees. Keep in mind that Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and several others were all started to train ministers of the Gospel (and didn’t go south until much later).

I recently produced a documentary for Providence Forum as part of my Foundation of American Liberty series, entitled “The Road to Independence,” just in time for the 4th of July.

The thesis of this hour-long documentary is that the Bible played a critical role in the push for American independence.

By the grace of God, we were fortunate to feature many expert guests on this program, including Dennis Prager, Os Guinness, Eric Metaxas, Bill Federer, Rabbi Daniel Lapin, Dan Fisher, and others.

Attorney Jenna Ellis made this remark in the program: “The religious component to the founders’ separating was actually a central part of our revolution.”

For example, the ministers played a pivotal role in the whole push for independence. And the Great Awakening, a Christian movement that affected so many Americans, helped unify the 13 disparate colonies into a more cohesive whole as communication between them increased.

Ben Franklin said of the impact of Rev. George Whitefield, the great preacher of the Great Awakening: “It was wonderful to see the change soon made in the manners of our inhabitants. From being thoughtless or indifferent about religion, it seemed as if all the world were growing religious.”

Eric Metaxas says of Franklin in our video: “He was someone who saw that whenever religion breaks out—whenever revival breaks out, whenever people get God, get Jesus, whatever it was, whatever you called it—Franklin saw that crime went down, self-government went up.”

And the spiritual transformation spilled over into politics. John Adams noted, “The Revolution was effected before the War commenced. The Revolution was in the mind and hearts of the people: and change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations.”

Our problem today is that we have forgotten our spiritual roots. But Patrick Henry declared, “It is when a people forget God, that tyrants forge their chains.”

As a nation, we are working toward “a more perfect union,” to paraphrase the Constitution. We’re not there yet—but there is a reason that millions from around the world still clamor to come to America. And it has nothing to do with faux “constitutional rights” that were imposed on our founding document by previous courts.

©Jerry Newcombe. All rights reserved.

‘Elvis’ the Movie and Elvis the ‘Seeker of Truth’

I grew up during the time of Elvis Aaron Presley’s rise as a symbol of my generation. I witnessed first hand Elvis’ rise to fame to his unprecedented superstardom and finally as America’s Rock ‘n’ Roll icon.

These times for me were transformative. I believe they were for Elvis as well.

My wife and I decided to go see “Elvis” the movie with our grandchildren who are 18 and 21 years old. I wanted them to see this film and then tell me what they thought about the man, the singer, the anti-segregationist, the performer and his life. After seeing “Elvis” they and I were awestruck.

After watching the film I believe that Austin Butler, who portrayed Elvis, is most deserving of an Academy Award nomination for best actor. My grandson agreed.

The movie was about how Elvis was recruited and then manipulated by his manager Colonel Tom Parker, played brilliantly by Tom Hanks, over the course of 20 years.

But the movie was also about how Elvis was impacted by three assassinations,

  1. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy or JFK on November 22, 1963 in Parkland Health, Dallas, Texas.
  2. Martin Luther King Jr. the iconic American Baptist minister who was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee, where Elvis and his family lived on his estate named “Graceland.”
  3. Robert Francis Kennedy who was assassinated on June 6, 1968 at PIH Health Good Samaritan Hospital, Los Angeles, California.

The loss of these three men had a great impact on Elvis. In the movie there is a scene when Elvis and others are watching the news about the assassination of Bobby Kennedy and Colonel Tom Parker says that the assassination has “nothing to do with us” to which Elvis replies “it has everything to do with us.”

Elvis understood that his world, much like today, was being taken over by evil forces. Evil forces that are bent on the destruction not only of America but of the Judeo-Christian values that this nation were founded upon.

I will leave it at that and say that I highly recommend our readers go see this film, and take their families and friends. It is definitely the best film that Warner Brothers has ever turned out in recent memory!

Elvis the Seeker of Truth

The film touches on Elvis’ early life and the influence of his mother and the community where he grew up in Tupelo, Mississippi. Elvis was influenced by both black singers and black evangelists in Tupelo. The scene of him entering a tent where a black pastor was holding a revival is telling. Elvis was smitten with the powerful words and music of the black pastor and his congregation.

Why is this important? Because Elvis was a man of God, first and foremost.

Elvis said, “All I want is to know the truth, to know and experience God. I’m a searcher, that’s what I’m all about.

Before going to see the film “Elvis” I read about the last day of his life written by the UK Express’ Stefan Kyriazis. In the article titled Elvis Presley death: The King’s final day hour by hour – Why did he die alone? by Kyriazis two things stood out to me:

  1. Before dying Elvis sang two gospel songs and the song Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain (watch the video below).
  2. The last book he read, which he took with him to his bathroom where he was later found unconscious, was Frank O. Adams’ 1972 book The Scientific Search for the Face of Jesus.

Adam’s book was a scientific study of the shroud of Turin. The Shroud of Turin, also known as the Holy Shroud, is a length of linen cloth bearing the negative image of a man. Some describe the image as depicting Jesus of Nazareth and believe the fabric is the burial shroud in which he was wrapped after crucifixion.

Elvis, on the last day of his life on earth, was still seeking God’s truth.

Elvis was, like us believers, a true child of God. He was blessed with a voice that changed the world.

Elvis collected 14 Grammy nominations over his career. However, Elvis never won a single Grammy for his Rock n’ Roll songs. He did win three Grammys for his gospel and inspirational music. He won his first Grammy in 1967 for Best Sacred Performance for his version of “How Great Thou Art.”

Gary Tillery in his book “The Seeker King: A Spiritual Biography of Elvis Presley” wrote, “A woman in the audience once handed Elvis a crown saying, ‘You’re the King.’ ‘No, honey,’ Elvis replied. ‘There is only one king — Jesus Christ. I’m just a singer.'”

Elvis read thousands of books on religion. His personal crisis over making bimbo movies like Girl Happy led him to writers such as Gurdjieff, Krishnamurti, and Helena Blavatsky.

Elvis came to believe that Jesus Christ shines in everyone and that God wanted him to use his light to uplift people. And so he did.

The Elvis Presley Charitable Foundation was established in 1984 by Graceland/Elvis Presley Enterprises in the spirit of Presley’s dedication to community service and to honor his legacy. The organization supports a variety of causes, including the Memphis-based counseling center Goodwill Homes and the creation of the Elvis Presley Endowed Scholarship Fund at the University of Memphis for students majoring in media and the arts.

Elvis’ excesses were as legendary as his generosity, yet, despite his lethal reliance on prescription drugs, he remained ever spiritually curious.

Elvis is now with the One True King, Jesus Christ. Glory be to God in the highest.

Please listen to the very last song Elvis ever sang, in his racquetball hall behind Graceland, only a few hours before he died Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain. The images of Elvis bring back great memories of this Man of God and Believer in His Son Jesus.

Please click here for an Elvis Presley timeline of his short 42 years of life here on earth.

©Dr. Rich Swier a lifelong Elvis fan. All rights reserved.

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10 Memphis moments in ‘Elvis’: Beale Street, Graceland, Russwood Park and more

AN AMERICAN TRILOGY: Elvis Presley’s Grand Patriotic Medley

RELATED VIDEO: In 2018 President Donald J. Trump awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Elvis Presley.

Hurricane Risk is Real For Offshore Wind

The danger from too much wind.


My regular readers know that I have been fussing about the threat of hurricanes destroying proposed Atlantic coast offshore wind arrays. The issue arises because the offshore wind industry is based in Europe, which does not get hurricanes. My focus has been Dominion’s massive project off Virginia, but the whole East Coast is hurricane alley.

Now I have found some research that actually quantifies the threat and it is very real. It looks like wind generators will have to be redesigned specifically to withstand hurricanes. In fact that work is underway. In the meantime we should not be building conventional offshore wind towers.

The 2017 press release is succinctly titled “Offshore wind turbines vulnerable to Category 5 hurricane gusts.” The PR says this: “The study, which was conducted in collaboration with the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, and the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, highlights the limitations of current turbine design and could provide guidance for manufacturers and engineers looking to build more hurricane-resilient turbines in the future.”

We certainly want hurricane-resilient turbines! Actually they also mean towers and blades, not just the turbines. It is the towers and blades that are most likely to collapse in extreme wind, although the turbines can be damaged as well.

The research report itself has a more specific but equally scary title: “Gusts and shear within hurricane eyewalls can exceed offshore wind turbine design standards.”

Mind you what they did is computer modeling. But what they found confirms prior observations that people were having trouble believing.

Simply put they found that hurricane wind gusts can hit an incredible 200 miles per hour (mph), while wind towers are only designed to withstand 160 mph. If those extreme gusts hit an offshore wind farm, catastrophe is pretty much guaranteed.

In addition to extremely damaging gusts, the press release says this: “Furthermore, current standards do not account for veer, a measure of the change in wind direction across a vertical span. In the simulation, wind direction changed by as much as 55 degrees between the tip of the rotor and its hub, creating a potentially dangerous strain on the blade.”

Here is how they make the fundamental point:

“The findings could be used to help wind farm developers improve design standards as well as to help stakeholders make informed decisions about the costs, benefits and risks of placing turbines in hurricane-prone areas.”

I have yet to see any sort of hurricane risk assessment from any of the proposed East Coast wind projects, most of which involve billions of dollars. In the Virginia case, the primary stakeholders are the ratepayers who are on the hook for an estimated ten billion dollars. In their case hurricanes have not even been mentioned by Dominion.

A more recent article comes to similar conclusions—”Hurricane eyewall winds and structural response of wind turbines

The article is technical but here is their plain language summary:

“Offshore wind energy is a burgeoning area of renewable energy that is at an early stage of development in the United States. Exposure of offshore wind turbines to hurricanes must be assessed and mitigated to ensure the security of the renewable energy supply. This research assesses the impact of hurricane wind fields on the structural response of wind turbines. Such wind fields have characteristics that may pose heretofore unforeseen structural challenges to offshore wind turbines.”

I have not done a literature search but there may well be a large literature on this huge problem. If so then the wind developers are carefully ignoring it.

Before we build tens or hundreds of billions of dollars worth of massive offshore wind facilities off the East Coast we need to be sure that they will withstand strong hurricanes. (It may well be that even Category 4 hurricanes will exceed today’s design standards.) Otherwise both the ratepayers and the grid will be at great risk.

This hurricane design case may be something that NERC should Issue a Reliability Standard on. Such a Reliability Standard would lay out the kind of hurricane risk assessment that must be done as part of the facility design process. These risk assessments need to then be made part of the public decision process.

Offshore wind should not fly blindly into the teeth of the storm. Too much is at risk.

Author

David Wojick

David Wojick, Ph.D. is an independent analyst working at the intersection of science, technology and policy. For origins see http://www.stemed.info/engineer_tackles_confusion.html For over 100 prior articles for CFACT see http://www.cfact.org/author/david-wojick-ph-d/ Available for confidential research and consulting.

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

WATCH: Arizona Gubernatorial Candidate Kari Lake Destroys CNN Reporter Right to Her Face

Brilliant. Kari Lake will be a fine governor for the state of Arizona. Trump, DeSantis, MTG, Lake and others are the future of the GOP. The useless GOP establishment will be phased out of the Republican Party in the years ahead.

Kari Lake Totally Destroys CNN Reporter Right to Her Face

By Town Hall, June 27, 2022

Hello, 911, I’d like to report a murder.

That’s really the only way you could describe this epic smackdown of a CNN reporter by Kari Lake, a Republican gubernatorial candidate for Arizona. She’s Trump endorsed. She’s the frontrunner. And she can deliver haymakers like the former president. Lake is lethal in this exchange with Kyung Lah.

Lah introduces herself to Lake, who asks where’s her mask that every liberal reporter has been wearing religiously for the past 18 months or so. Lake has spoken with Lah before when the latter was all masked up. Lah added that she wasn’t wearing at that moment because they were outside.

To learn more about Kari Lake please click here.

AUTHOR

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