Tag Archive for: Joe Biden

EXCLUSIVE: Tara Reade Calls GOP-Majority House To Investigate Alleged Sexual Assault By Joe Biden

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Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to include a statement from Reade regarding her work with RT

Former Senate aide Tara Reade called on House Republicans to launch an investigation into allegations that she was sexually assaulted by then-Sen. Joe Biden in 1993, telling the Daily Caller that she would be willing to testify under oath.

“It would be a very different thing, if I could testify under oath,” Reade told the Caller, adding that she would “provide whatever information [Congress] needed and [Congress] could ask me whatever questions they wanted.”

“I think we need to have the conversation, instead of me being erased, and other women that were erased that tried to come forward,” Reade added, saying that House Republicans should launch an investigation while they have a majority.

Reade alleged that Biden sexually assaulted her in a Senate corridor in 1993 by pinging her against a wall and reaching under her clothing before sexually violating her. She said she filed a police report in 2020 about the incident, and that no thorough investigation has ever taken place.

Interns and others that worked alongside Reade in Biden’s Senate office denied knowing that any sexual misconduct took place between Reade and Biden, the New York Times reported in 2020, citing interviews with the former staffers. She could also not remember some details about the incident, including the exact time, date and location, according to the outlet.

Biden’s staffers who worked with Reade at the time, including aide Dennis Toner, chief of staff Ted Kaufman and executive assistant Marianne Baker, all denied that Reade came forward to them about the alleged sexual assault.

Toner and Kaufman told NPR in 2020 that they did not remember Reade and that she did not come to them about the allegations. Congressional records show that she worked for Biden for approximately nine months.

Baker issued a statement saying, “In all my years working for Senator Biden, I never once witnessed, or heard of, or received, any reports of inappropriate conduct, period — not from Ms. Reade, not from anyone. I have absolutely no knowledge or memory of Ms. Reade’s accounting of events, which would have left a searing impression on me as a woman professional, and as a manager. These clearly false allegations are in complete contradiction to both the inner workings of our Senate office and to the man I know and worked so closely with for almost two decades,” NPR reported.

If the Senate staff that served under Biden “had to go under oath, I think they would have to admit something very different,” Reade said.

“He would put his fingers underneath the back of my neck, underneath my hair, and then run his finger up and down,” Reade said. He would “massage my shoulders, and touch me. It was just weird,” she added, noting this happened before the incident in the hallway.

Spokespeople for Biden have repeatedly denied the allegations.

The White House did not respond to the Daily Caller at the time of publication about the allegations and whether Biden would be willing to testify under oath.

Reade claims her mother called into “Larry King Live” in August of 1993 and asked host Larry King what her daughter could do other than go to the press with “problems” she encountered after working for a “prominent Senator.”

Audio shows that a woman did call in to the show at the time, and Reade has claimed that the woman on the line is her mother.

“I’m wondering what a staffer would do besides go to the press in Washington? My daughter has just left there, after working for a prominent senator, and could not get through with her problems at all, and the only thing she could have done was go to the press, and she chose not to do it out of respect for him,” Reade’s mother allegedly said.

King responded, “in other words, she had a story to tell but, out of respect for the person she worked for, she didn’t tell it?”

“That’s true,” Reade’s mother allegedly said.

Reade’s friend said that she told her about the alleged assault at the time, and another friend and Reade’s brother have said that Reade informed them of the alleged assault over the years, The New York Times reported.

Reade told the Caller she filed a sexual harassment report through the Senate in 1993, and that the report was filed on paper. If the paper still exists, it would be sealed with Biden’s papers at the University of Delaware, Reade added.

She continued that when she brought her complaints to her superiors, she was “threatened” and ultimately dismissed from her duties.

One of the press secretary’s staff at the time told Reade, “we’ll f***ing destroy you, if you go forward,” Reade told the Caller.

The intimidation and trauma led Reade to not come forward for years, she said.

“I was 28-years-old, it was scary to hear at the time. It was at the beginning of my political career, and it kind of shut me up,” Reade continued.

House Republicans have announced that they are launching an investigation into Biden, alleging that the president was “involved” in his son Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings.

Republican Kentucky Rep. James Comer, a ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, did not provide comment on Reade’s request.

Biden supporters have used a 2020 probe into Reade allegedly providing a false statement under oath in an attempt to discredit her.

South Bay, California, defense attorneys investigated whether Reade had falsely described her education credentials under oath. A spokesperson for her undergraduate college provided a statement to CNN saying she never graduated, according to the Intercept.

The probe was concluded and no charges were filed, according to the Intercept, and Reade has sent letters to several publications demanding that their claims about her alleged false claims be clarified.

Reade’s critics have also accused her of working with the Russian government, citing her four op-eds published in the Russian government publication RT.
Reade told the Caller, “no Russians were there in 1993 when Joe Biden sexually assaulted me. No Russians were there when Biden team threatened me, used their power and resources to try to silence  me. My political opinions about Russia are simply not relevant to what happened.”
“I was proud of the handful of op-eds that were published. I tried to have one published in the New York Times but it was rejected. Bottom line, I was Joe Biden’s full time staffer in 1993 when he sexually harassed and assaulted me. Any other conversation about what I thought or even who I worked with now is irrelevant to the crime he committed in 1993 and as to why Biden has never even been investigated,” she added.

AUTHOR

DIANA GLEBOVA

White House correspondent.

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

After the ‘Respect for Marriage Act’, will the U.S. follow Spain down the ‘disrespect for marriage’ rabbit hole?

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Spain is on the way to recognising 16 types of families, none of them the traditional nuclear family.

The Respect for Marriage Act has sailed through the US Senate, amidst great jubilation. Twelve Republicans, including former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, voted with Democrats to pass the legislation by a vote of 61-36. Now it goes to the lame-duck House of Representatives, where it is certain to pass.

This will be one of President Joe Biden’s signature achievements. The Act will basically codify Obergefell v Hodges, the US Supreme Court decision which legalised same sex marriage. If SCOTUS happens to overturn Obergefell, as many people fear, same sex marriage will still be safe.

The President tweeted that: “our nation is on the brink of reaffirming a fundamental truth: love is love.”

New York Senator Chuck Schumer, whose daughter is a married lesbian, tweeted: “the Senate has sent a message to Americans everywhere: No matter who you are or who you love, you deserve dignity and equal treatment under the law.”

Heart-warming sentiments, these. What lies ahead for same-sex marriage now that the US Congress is about to codify “love is love”?

The Senators who voted against the Respect for Marriage Act warn that it will be used to strip religious institutions of their tax-exempt status. Texas Senator Ted Cruz commented that “Not only does the so-called Respect for Marriage Act open the door for a weaponized IRS to target religious non-profits, but it will start a race to the bottom, forcing the most extreme marriage laws from any state onto every other state.”

In a speech to the Senate Utah Senator Mike Lee reminded his colleagues that the possibility of a conflict with religious freedom was also predicted in the oral arguments before SCOTUS:

Justice Alito asked whether, should states be required to recognize same-sex marriages, religious universities could lose their tax-exempt status. His response, the response from [then] Solicitor General Verrilli was chilling. He said, quote, “It’s certainly going to be an issue. I don’t deny that. I don’t deny that, Justice Alito. It’s going to be an issue.” …

But if you want to look even further ahead, consider Spain, which legalised same-sex marriage in 2005, ten years before Obergefell v Hodges. After almost two decades of experience, it is moving on to bigger and better things. The government there is a left-wing coalition and the Minister of Social Rights and 2030 Agenda, Ione Belarra, belongs to Podemos, a party at the extreme left of the left-wing.

Next week she will present a draft of a new law on families to the Spanish Parliament. This lists 16 kinds of families, according to an exclusive in the ABC newspaper.

The bill’s explanatory memorandum states: “The family no longer exists, only families, in the plural, exist”. Based on rulings by Spain’s Constitutional Court, it declares that “the concept of family is not limited to those of matrimonial origin”.

Accordingly, the Minister says that Spain must give full legal recognition to this array of families and to protect and support them with government services.

Here is the list:

  • Two-parent families
  • Single mother or single father families
  • Young families
  • LGBTI families
  • Families in need of support
  • Multiple families
  • Blended families
  • Immigrant families
  • Transnational families
  • Intercultural families
  • Families living abroad
  • Families returned from aboard
  • Vulnerable families
  • Married couples
  • Defacto couples
  • Single-person families

The linguistic and legal creativity is astonishing. What’s notable about the list is that none of the 16 categories corresponds to the traditional definition of family: a married woman and a man and, if they exist, their children.

In Minister Belarra’s narrative, two-parent families (familia biparental) include married couples and defacto couples and could even squeeze in gay and lesbian couples. Married couples (personas unidas en matrimonio) include heterosexual and homosexual couples. She has even created new words to describe gay and lesbian couples (familia LGTBI homomarental y homoparental).

Clearly Belarra’s aim is to create a blizzard of labels in which the nuclear family disappears from view. It will no longer have a privileged place in Spanish law or a special claim on government services.

Furthermore, Spanish schoolchildren will be catechised in the new order of things. According to the draft bill, “family diversity is a principle of the educational system”. The list of family types must be included in textbooks and in the syllabus for trainee teachers.

What if parents object?

They can’t.

The bill specifically states that “parents or responsible adults may not limit or impede the access of children and adolescents to information and their participation in activities to raise awareness and disseminate family diversity that take place within the educational framework, in order to avoid restricting their rights to education and the free development of their personality”.

Spain is a country where politicians like Ione Belarra are unafraid of defending and imposing loopy laws. Once in power, opposition energizes them and fills them with righteous conviction. Whether or not her proposals succeed completely, it is clear that the nuclear family in Spain is in the sights of a very large LGBTQI cannon.

In the near term, the Spanish experience will not easily transfer to the United States, which has a federal system of government and a larger and more intellectually diverse population.

However, it’s a clear warning of what lies ahead. If American courts and legislatures can redefine marriage to include gay and lesbian couples, why can’t they include polyamory or polygamy?

Or still worse, redefine marriage to include so many relationships that it means nothing at all?

AUTHOR

Michael Cook

Michael Cook is the editor of MercatorNet. He lives in Sydney, Australia. More by Michael Cook.

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

Khamenei chants ‘Death to America,’ mocks Biden as ‘poor, demented’ man

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Meanwhile, Biden’s handlers still hope to revive their catastrophic appeasement package known as the Iran nuclear deal.

Iranian Supreme Leader Mocks Biden As Demented As Nuclear Deal Negotiations Stall

by Alana Goodman, Washington Free Beacon, November 23, 2022:

Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei mocked President Joe Biden as a “poor, demented” man and led a crowd in chants of “death to America” during a speech on state television on Saturday.

Biden turned 80 on Sunday, and his age and declining mental sharpness have been a matter of public speculation since his election in 2020.

Khamenei’s comments come as the Biden administration said this week it is still interested in reaching a nuclear deal with Iran, despite a reported stalemate in the negotiations and the Iranian government’s ongoing violent crackdown on nationwide anti-government protests.

In Khamenei’s speech, which was translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute, the Iranian leader claimed that the Islamic Republic’s “advancement” was “intolerable and unbearable for the West.” He criticized U.S. presidents since the 1979 Iranian revolution, singling out Donald Trump as a “dope” and Biden as “demented.”

“America is at the forefront of this campaign by the enemy,” said Khamenei. “All the American presidents, in the decades that have passed since the revolution, have fought the Islamic Republic on that front.”

“Some of them have dropped dead, and some have been cast in the garbage bin of history, even if still alive,” said Khamenei. “This includes the previous dope [Trump] and this poor, demented incumbent guy [Biden].”

At one point in the speech, the crowd launched into a chant of “death to America.”

The Biden administration still has hope that it can reach a nuclear deal with Iran, despite concerns from members of Biden’s own party that the agreement wouldn’t hinder Iran’s nuclear ambitions and would end up sending more funding to the terrorist-financing regime.

U.S. ambassador to Israel Tom Nides this week said a nuclear deal with Iran is “not off the table,” although the Biden administration is “nowhere close” to reaching an agreement with the regime.

“Nothing’s ever off the table,” said Nides. He added that Iran has been an unwilling partner and he was “not holding my breath for any negotiation with the Iranians in this current form.”…

AUTHOR

ROBERT SPENCER

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

Biden’s Handlers Print Money for the Taliban

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The Taliban chop hands while Biden funds them.

After being described as “partners” by the Biden administration, the Taliban announced that they’re bringing back sharia punishments by chopping off hands and stoning their victims.

Last year, the Biden administration praised the Taliban’s “openness” to women’s rights.

This development puts the nail in the coffin of claims by Biden administration figures that the jihadist organization had changed into a kinder, gentler Taliban. But the media has conveniently ignored revelations of the close collaboration between the administration and the Taliban.

Front Page Magazine was one of the few conservative publications that exposed the over $1.1 billion in aid directed by the administration after the Taliban takeover, the special licenses issued by the Biden administration authorizing financial transactions with the Taliban and Al Qaeda’s Haqqani Network to distribute that aid, and the billions stolen from 9/11 families for the Taliban.

The Biden administration has been stonewalling the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction with the State Department and Samantha Power’s USAID refusing to allow employees to be interviewed about, among other things, their “compliance with the laws and regulations prohibiting transfers of funds to members of the Taliban and the Haqqani Network.”

Instead, the Biden administration has been chartering Osama bin Laden’s old airline which had been used to ferry drugs and terrorists to evacuate the Americans that Biden had left behind. These hostages have become another cash cow that the Taliban are using to extract money from American taxpayers through the offices of their allies in the Biden administration.

Biden administration figures have repeatedly met with Taliban leaders. According to Al Jazeera, run by the state sponsors of the Islamic terror group, the administration had even provided assurances that the United States will not fund any resistance to the Taliban.

Coming a few months after Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed while under Taliban protection, a “high-level delegation” that allegedly included a top CIA figure, agreed not to “fund any armed groups or non-state actors in the country”, particularly the National Resistance Front, consisting of the Northern Alliance members who had originally helped us liberate Afghanistan.

This betrayal came even after clear evidence that the Taliban were harboring Al Qaeda.

Why would the Biden administration unilaterally throw away our best leverage against the Taliban without getting them to end their support for Al Qaeda and other terror groups?

The Biden administration then went beyond just appropriating $1.1 billion in humanitarian aid, much of which will benefit the Taliban in one way or another, while authorizing transactions with the terrorists, but actually conspired to print money for the Taliban to replace their old bills.

According to Biden’s State Department spokesman, the administration was “working hard with international banks to facilitate payment transfers from Afghanistan’s central bank to European printing companies where new banknotes would actually be produced” to “replace what had been crumbling banknotes in Afghanistan”.

Spokesman Ned Price explained that, “Afghanistan’s markets, even today, run widely on cash, but existing banknotes are crumbling. And that’s why this is such an urgent challenge.”

The Biden administration’s idea of an “urgent challenge” in Afghanistan isn’t preventing Al Qaeda from reforming, it’s not getting out Americans, or stopping the Taliban from stoning people, it’s arranging for a Polish printing company to churn out banknotes for the Taliban.

It’s not enough for the Biden administration to steal billions from 9/11 families and send it to the Taliban, it has to go all the way and actually print money for the Islamic terrorist group.

Thanks to Biden, the Taliban will get 10 billion in ‘Afghanis’ from Poland and another 10 billion from a French company. $3.5 billion in assets in the United States are being transferred to a Swiss trust fund held for the Taliban so that a future administration won’t be able to recover it.

The Biden administration claims to be concerned about Taliban atrocities and then continues to enable the terrorists.

Karen Decker, the head of the U.S. Mission to Afghanistan, conducted a “listening tour” of Afghan women who fled the Taliban and claimed that she shares their “concerns and their hope.” Then she described printing money for the Taliban as “part of our commitment to help the Afghan people”. The only Afghan people that she’s helping are the Taliban.

Thomas West, Biden’s Special Representative to Afghanistan, boasted, “I am very pleased to say that in the past 24 hours we have finally seen the conclusion of two currency transactions.”

There is no other conclusion to be drawn from these latest revelations except that the Biden administration wants the Taliban to remain in power. And has been consistently scheming to bypass legal restrictions on funding terrorism to funnel money to the Taliban.

A responsible administration that served our national interests would be providing a fraction of the aid to the National Resistance Front and other anti-Taliban groups that it’s funneling to Ukraine, and it would, at the very least, use sanctions to undermine the Taliban regime.

Instead, Biden is laboring to protect the Taliban and to keep the terrorists in power.

That’s the same conclusion that the Taliban have drawn. That’s why after prolonged hesitation and doubletalk, they are shedding any pretense about their intentions.

The Taliban’s Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada ordered judges to impose “the ruling of sharia” on, among others, “seditionists” and “apostates”.

“Those cases that have met all the Shariah conditions of limitation and retribution, you are obliged to issue the limitation and retribution, because this is the order of the Sharia and my order and it is obligatory to act,” the Taliban’s spokesman tweeted.

The Taliban have begun a comprehensive crackdown using the traditional brutal punishments of Islam. They’re testing the Biden administration and know that they have nothing to worry about.

Supreme Leader Akhundzada had been a chief judge in the Taliban’s court system during their original period of rule when they became notorious for inflicting grotesque and horrifying punishments on anyone who displeased them.

Nothing has really changed.

Last year, the Taliban captured Danish Siddiqui, the chief photographer for Reuters, in a mosque, beat and tortured him, ran him over with a car, and shot him at close range.

The same media, including Reuters, which has amplified Qatari propaganda about its Al Jazeera terrorist operatives, like Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey and Shireen Abu Akleh in Israel, has remained mostly silent about this atrocity against an actual journalist by the allies of Qatar.

The Biden administration, which has attacked Saudi Arabia over Khashoggi’s death and announced an FBI investigation of Israel over Abu Akleh’s death, has made no such efforts over the mutilation and murder of Siddiqui. Biden condemned the Saudis and the Israelis over Khashoggi and Abu Akleh, but never once mentioned Siddiqui’s name.

Jalina Porter, until recently a Washington Wizards cheerleader, who was elevated to a State Department spokeswoman, failed to condemn the Taliban after Siddiqui’s brutal murder, but only called for “an end to the violence” and a “just and durable peace settlement.”

The complicity and the double standards spoke eloquently about the administration’s agenda.

Last year, the Taliban’s Supreme Leader made his position clear to the rest of the world, “I cannot compromise on Shariah to work with you or even move a step forward.”  He warned that “even if the world uses an atomic bomb, we will rule the country according to the Sharia Law.”

That was back in July.

The Biden administration and its media allies knew that they were lying about the kinder, gentler Taliban and their openness to human rights. They told those lies to keep the money flowing.

After robbing 9/11 families, diverting money to the Taliban under a dozen pretexts, including payments for hostages that the Biden administration chose to leave behind, and even collaborating in printing money for the terrorist group, there will be a brief condemnation as the Taliban resume openly mutilating, killing and torturing victims through their Islamic courts.

But the Biden administration will make sure to keep taxpayer money flowing to the terrorists.

The shameful treason we saw at the panicked evacuation of Afghanistan was not the climax, it was the middle of a conspiracy to put the Taliban in power by the enemies of America. Those enemies are not just in Moscow, Tehran or Beijing, they are right here in Washington D.C.

AUTHOR

DANIEL GREENFIELD

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

While Americans Can’t Afford To Heat Their Homes, Biden Pays Muslim Country Billions to Dump Coal

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As part of talks led by John Kerry, donors are exploring how solar might replace the coal plants.

While Americans can’t afford gas or to heat their homes, Biden is bragging of a deal to subsidize solar panels in Indonesia.

Americans have too much money. And too much everything. Let’s give it all away.

The United States, Indonesia and other allies signed a $20 billion deal on Tuesday at the Group of 20 (G-20) summit that will help Indonesia reduce its reliance on coal.

The goal of the agreement, called the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), is to help Indonesia reduce emissions and transition away from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

This isn’t a deal.

This is welfare and a bribe to convince a Muslim regime that has massacred Christians and continues to oppress them to switch its energy from reliable coal to worthless wind and solar.

And they’re taking us for every billion they can get.

The G7 and its partners have made multi-billion dollar offers to wean Vietnam, Indonesia and India off coal — but it has yet to convince emerging economies to drop the dirtiest fossil fuel.

The three deals have been under negotiation through much of 2022 and are being modeled on an earlier, $8.5 billion deal to shut down South Africa’s coal industry, dubbed a Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP).

It’s hoped that at least two new partnerships might be unveiled during the COP27 U.N. climate talks, which start on November 6 in Egypt. Discussions with Vietnam and Indonesia have advanced to the point where initial cash offers of around $5 billion and $10 billion, respectively…

If you think that’s bad, the Green New Dealers want to get India and eventually China on board. And at that point we’re talking completely nightmarish numbers that would bankrupt everyone.

U.S. President Biden emphasized the importance of this partnership, saying, “Indonesia has shown tremendous leadership and ambition throughout the development of this partnership. The resulting new and accelerated targets demonstrate how countries can dramatically cut emissions and increase renewable energy while advancing a commitment to creating quality jobs and protecting livelihoods and communities.”

While destroying American jobs, livelihoods and communities.

AUTHOR

DANIEL GREENFIELD

RELATED ARTICLE: G20 MARCHING ORDERS—You will comply! 

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

Trump Special Counsel Targeted Conservatives for Prosecution in IRS Scandal

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“Smith asked whether they could charge the groups with conspiracy to violate U.S. laws.”

What are the bona fides of the special counsel appointed to go after Trump? The ones you expect.

via J.E. Dyer.

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland announced today the appointment of former career Justice Department prosecutor and former chief prosecutor for the special court in The Hague, Jack Smith, to serve as Special Counsel to oversee two ongoing criminal investigations.

“Based on recent developments, including the former President’s announcement that he is a candidate for President in the next election, and the sitting President’s stated intention to be a candidate as well, I have concluded that it is in the public interest to appoint a special counsel,” said Attorney General Garland. “Such an appointment underscores the Department’s commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters. It also allows prosecutors and agents to continue their work expeditiously, and to make decisions indisputably guided only by the facts and the law.”

A special counsel was long overdue, but there was no way Garland was going to pick anyone except a loyal soldier to go after conservatives.

How loyal?

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee recently obtained an email addressed to former IRS official Lois Lerner sent from Election Crimes Branch Director Richard Pilger at the Justice Department. The email addressed to Lerner stated that, “I have been asked to run something by you.” During the Committee’s investigation, Public Integrity Section Chief Jack Smith told investigators that officials at the Justice Department discussed targeting conservative nonprofit groups with Lerner as early as October 2010.

Pilger says that Smith asked him to arrange a meeting with Lerner. Pilger further stated that the agenda for the meeting was to discuss how the IRS could be, “more vigilant to the opportunities from more crime in the . . . 501(c)(4) area.”

In their letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, the Committee said, “The Justice Department convened a meeting with former IRS official Lois Lerner in October 2010 to discuss how the IRS could assist in the criminal enforcement of campaign-finance laws against politically active nonprofits. This meeting was arranged at the direction of Public Integrity Section Chief Jack Smith.”

Public integrity indeed.

Who better to pick to go after conservatives than a guy with a track record of doing just that.

What we tend to forget is that the IRS scandal was much worse than the popular understanding of it. Beyond an attempt to block and shut down conservative nonprofits, it had roots in the DOJ and the FBI. It wasn’t just about denying tax-exempt status, but actively criminalizing and prosecuting political dissent.

In October of 2010, apparently without a court order, the IRS sent 21 computer disks containing 1.1 million pages of tax-return documents to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. According to the Justice Department, the massive data dump included public returns from non-profit groups but also taxpayer information that by law the IRS is required to keep confidential. Reps. Issa and Jordan ask in their letter for information relating to the preparation and transmittal of the data.

How did these documents wind up at the FBI? In September of 2010, IRS officials including Lois Lerner and Sarah Hall Ingram helped the New York Times prepare a story about non-profit policy groups which “heavily favored Republicans” in their purchases of issue advertising.

The day after the article appeared, Justice Department Public Integrity Section Chief Jack Smith noted the story in an email to colleagues and asked whether they could charge the groups with conspiracy to violate U.S. laws.

That’s where this is at.

Why is this happening? Because Smith still had his job after all this. And no good deed will go unforgiven.

AUTHOR

DANIEL GREENFIELD

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

Biden Says ‘We’re Gonna Free Iran’ and Also ‘They’re Gonna Free Themselves Pretty Soon’

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At a campaign rally for Rep. Andy Levin, who is a J-Street “Zionist” opposed by AIPAC, but whom President Biden would like to see re-elected, Our President gave us all a brief display of his terminal confusion. This is what he said:

“Don’t worry, we’re gonna free Iran,” Biden told supporters in an aside during a campaign speech in California late Thursday, after audience members appeared to call on him to address the ongoing protests. “They’re gonna free themselves pretty soon,” he added.

Forgive me for asking, but which is it? Are “we gonna free Iran,” or are they, the Iranians, “gonna free themselves pretty soon”? And when might “pretty soon” be – in a month, or in six months from now, in a year, or ten years from now? And how precisely are we gonna, or are they gonna, do it?

You expect confusion from our Confuser-In-Chief, but this reversal of message within two six-word sentences takes some kind of – I’m gonna go out on a limb here and use a word that I think pretty much says it all – cake.

Now there are other great confusers. Let me offer two examples. There was Gracie Allen, of Burns & Allen fame, who wrote a play with the title “Before the Behind Yet Under the Vast Above, the World Is In Tears and Tomorrow is Tuesday.” I understand from his speechwriters that Biden is going to use that very title in his final pre-election speech-and-shoutout next Monday.

There was also Arthur Flegenheimer, the gangster also known as Dutch Schultz, who on his deathbed provided a Joycean, or now we might say Bidenite, stream-of-consciousness:

Schultz noticed a newspaper and spoke:

Has it been in any other papers? George, don’t make no full moves. What have you done with him? Oh, mama, mama, mama. Oh stop it, stop it; eh, oh, oh. Sure, sure, mama.

Now listen, Phil, fun is fun. Ah please, papa. What happened to the sixteen? Oh, oh, he done it, please. John, please, oh, did you buy the hotel? You promised a million sure. Get out. I wished I knew.

Please make it quick, fast and furious. Please. Fast and furious. Please help me get out; I am getting my wind back, thank God. Please, please, oh please. You will have to please tell him, you got no case.

You get ahead with the dot dash system didn’t I speak that time last night. Whose number is that in your pocket book, Phi1 13780. Who was it? Oh- please, please. Reserve decision. Police, police, Henry and Frankie. Oh, oh, dog biscuits and when he is happy he doesn’t get happy please, please to do this. Then Henry, Henry, Frankie you didn’t even meet me. The glove will fit what I say oh, Kayiyi, oh Kayiyi. Sure who cares when you are through? How do you know this? How do you know this? Well, then oh, Cocoa know thinks he is a grandpa again. He is jumping around. No Hobo and Poboe I think he means the same thing.

Will you help me up? O.K. I won’t be such a big creep. Oh, mama. I can’t go through with it, please. Oh, and then he clips me; come on. Cut that out, we don’t owe a nickel; hold it; instead, hold it against him; I am a pretty good pretzler -Winifred- Department of Justice. I even got it from the department. Sir, please stop it. Say listen the last night!

I don’t know, sir. Honestly I don’t. I don’t even know who was with me, honestly. I was in the toilet and when I reached the -the boy came at me.

No. If he wanted to break the ring no, please I get a month. They did it. Come on. (A name, not clear) cut me off and says you are not to be the beneficiary of this will. Is that right? I will be checked and double-checked and please pull for me. Will you pull? How many good ones and how many bad ones? Please I had nothing with him he was a cowboy in one of the seven days a week fight. No business; no hangout; no friends; nothing; just what you pick up and what you need. I don’t know who shot me. Don’t put anyone near this check~ you might have -please do it for me. Let me get up. heh? In the olden days they waited and they waited. Please give me a shot. It is from the factory. Sure, that is a bad. Well, oh good ahead that happens for trying. I don’t want harmony. I want harmony. Oh, mamma, mamma! Who give it to him? Who give it to him? Let me in the district -fire-factory that he was nowhere near. It smoldered No, no. There are only ten of us and there ten million fighting somewhere of you, so get your onions up and we will throw up the truce flag. Oh, please let me up. Please shift me. Police are here. Communistic…strike…baloney…honestly this is a habit I get; sometimes I give it and sometimes I don’t. Oh, I am all in. That settles it. Are you sure? Please let me get in and eat. Let him harass himself to you and then bother you. Please don’t ask me to go there. I don’t want to. I still don’t want him in the path. It is no use to stage a riot. The sidewalk was in trouble and the bears were in trouble and I broke it up. Please put me in that room. Please keep him in control. My gilt edged stuff and those dirty rats have tuned in. Please mother, don’t tear, don’t rip; that is something that shouldn’t be spoken about. Please get me up, my friends. Please, look out. The shooting is a bit wild, and that kind of shooting saved a man’s life. No payrolls. No wells. No coupons. That would be entirely out. Pardon me, I forgot I am plaintiff and not defendant. Look out. Look out for him. Please. He owed me money; he owes everyone money. Why can’t he just pullout and give me control? Please, mother, you pick me up now. Please, you know me. No. Don’t you scare me. My friends and I think I do a better job. Police are looking for you all over. Be instrumental in letting us know. They are English-men and they are a type I don’t know who is best, they or us. Oh, sir, get the doll a roofing. You can play jacks and girls do that with a soft ball and do tricks with it. I take all events into consideration. No. No. And it is no. It is confused and its says no. A boy has never wept nor dashed a thousand kim. Did you hear me?

Two thousand. Come one, get some money in that treasury. We need it. Come on, please get it. I can’t tell you to. That is not what you have in the book. Oh, please warden. What am I going to do for money? Please put me up on my feet at once. You are a hard boiled man. Did you hear me? I would hear it, the Circuit Court would hear it, and the Supreme Court might hear it. If that ain’t the pay-off. Please crack down on the Chinaman’s friends and Hitler’s commander. I am sore and I am going up and I am going to give you honey if I can. Mother is the best bet and don’t let Satan draw you too fast.

That is what caused the trouble. Look out. Please let me up. If you do this, you can go on and jump right here in the lake. I know who they are. They are French people. All right. Look out, look out. Oh, my memory is gone. A work relief police. Who gets it? I don’t know and I don’t want to know, but look out. It can be traced. He changed for the worse. Please look out; my fortunes have changed and come back and went back since that. It was desperate. I am wobbly. You ain’t got nothing on him but you got it on his helper.

Then pull me out. I am half crazy. They won’t let me get up. They dyed my shoes. Open those shoes. Give me something. I am so sick. Give me some water, the only thing that I want. Open this up and break it so I can touch you. Danny, please get me in the car.

I don’t know. I didn’t even get a look. I don’t know who can have done it. Anybody. Kindly take my shoes off. (He was told that they were off.) No. There is a handcuff on them. The Baron says these things. I know what I am doing here with my collection of papers. It isn’t worth a nickel to two guys like you or me but to a collector it is worth a fortune. It is priceless. I am going to turn it over to… Turn you back to me, please Henry. I am so sick now. The police are getting many complaints. Look out. I want that G-note. Look out for Jimmy Valentine for he is an old pal of mine. Come on, come on, Jim. Ok, ok, I am all through. Can’t do another thing. Look out mamma, look out for her. You can’t beat him. Police, mamma, Helen, mother, please take me out. I will settle the indictment. Come on, open the soap duckets. The chimney sweeps. Talk to the sword. Shut up, you got a big mouth! Please help me up, Henry. Max, come over here. French-Canadian bean soup. I want to pay. Let them leave me alone.

Gracie Allen, Arthur Flegenheimer, and now, our latest entrant, out of the left field of politics, President Joe Biden.

Let’s think. How are “we gonna free Iran”? Certainly not by going through with any Iran deal, which would trigger a removal of sanctions and hundreds of billions of dollars being restored to the regime that we are “gonna free Iran” from. So why not tell your audience and the world that “we” have no intention of removing economic sanctions unless, and until, the current regime is overthrown. That should hearten those Iranians who are now risking their lives to protest that unsavory regime.

But what else? How about Biden suggesting a blockade of tankers carrying Iranian oil? That should bring Tehran to its knees. But as he does it, Biden should warn the Iranians that any retaliation by them will be regarded as an act of war and would trigger a devastating response.

What “we gonna” do to “free Iran” should include encouraging separatist sympathies over the airwaves, and on social media, among the four main ethnic minorities. Does Biden remember who they are? In case he’s forgotten, or never knew, here they are: Kurds, Azeris, Baluchis, Arabs. Biden could send weapons to any of those minorities should they request them: to the Kurds in Iranian Kurdistan, sent through Iraq, to the Arabs in Khuzestan via ship from the UAE and Saudi Arabia, to the Azeris, with supplies from Azerbaijan next door, to the Baluchis in southeastern Iran, via airdrops of weapons to the 7.5 million fellow Baluchis in Pakistan for delivery just across the border in Iran. “We hear you and we’re gonna help you.” Also sprach Joe Biden.

And he should announce that as long as the protesters are being suppressed by the regime, American hackers will be disrupting the Iranian government, including the Supreme Leader’s office, and those of every member of the Majlis, as well as the IRGC and Basij command-and-control centers, the oil industry, the electricity plants, the transportation sector, the prisons, even the food distribution system. No part of the regime, or of Iran’s economy, will remain untouched.

And should “we” fail to free Iran as Biden promised we were gonna do, then how will “they” — the Iranians — “free themselves pretty soon”? They — those Iranians — can be provided with our satellite and other intelligence on the movement of the police, the Basij, the IRGC killers, to know where and when it is safest to march, and where to go to avoid a bloody encounter. We can help the protesters hack into systems that will allow them to take over for long periods Iran’s radio stations and television channels, as up till now they have managed to do only momentarily, and to seize control of Farsi-language social media, so that pro-government propagandists are silenced and only the protesters’ messages can be seen and heard. We can help them to “free themselves” by keeping up the diplomatic pressure at the U.N., where a resolution to expel Iran from the institution should be introduced; Iran now has only a handful of unsavory allies – Russia, China, North Korea, Syria – willing to stand up for it.

In other words, “we gonna free Iran ” by helping those Iranians who are “gonna free themselves.” Which is to say, avoid the confusion you created, and rely instead on a proverb that is as old as Aesop; “God helps those who help themselves.” Next time, Mr. President, say it exactly that way, without any Lunchbucket Joe “gonna’s.” A little dignity, please: “We and the rest of the civilized world are going to help the Iranians to help themselves. They don’t doubt that they will win. And neither should we.”

AUTHOR

HUGH FITZGERALD

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

Biden still hasn’t called Netanyahu to congratulate him on his victory

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The reason why is clear: Biden’s handlers support the “Palestinian” jihad.

No Call to Bibi: Biden Has Yet to Congratulate Newly Elected Israeli Leader

by Adam Kredo, Washington Free Beacon, November 4, 2022:

The Biden administration will not say when the president plans on calling newly elected Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to congratulate him on his victory, drawing accusations the U.S. administration is trying to isolate the conservative Jewish leader before he even takes office.

Asked on Thursday afternoon if President Joe Biden has any plans to phone Netanyahu following his victory this week in the Israeli elections, a White House spokesman told the Washington Free Beacon, “We don’t have any call to preview at this point.”

The Israeli media reported on Thursday that Biden is expected to call Netanyahu some time over the weekend, citing the U.S. president’s packed schedule campaigning around America’s midterm elections. But the White House would not confirm these reports when asked by the Free Beacon.

Biden called Brazil’s newly elected far-left president-elect, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, on Monday, just a day after that country’s elections. This discrepancy is fueling accusations the Biden administration is taking a chilly approach to its diplomacy with Netanyahu, who made history by being elected as Israel’s prime minister for the third time.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told the Free Beacon that the president’s delay in calling Netanyahu “is not an accident.”

“President Biden rushed to call Lula, a committed anti-American Chavista, but is finding every possible excuse not to call the next Prime Minister of Israel. That is not an accident,” Cruz said. “Biden has spent his entire administration undermining America’s allies and boosting America’s enemies. The next Republican Congress is going to leverage aggressive oversight and legislation to reverse that recklessness.”

This is not the first time Biden has been accused of dissing Netanyahu. It took Biden nearly a month to call Netanyahu upon taking office in 2021, fueling speculation Biden was trying to create some distance with Israel after four years of warm relations under former president Donald Trump. When outgoing Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett was elected, it took Biden just two hours to call and congratulate him.

Omri Ceren, a national security adviser for Cruz, said reports that Biden is too busy campaigning to call Netanyahu are “nonsense.”

“Biden found time call [sic] Lula the day after his election—and that was on Monday so it’s not like Biden wasn’t midterm campaigning,” Ceren wrote on Twitter. “Also if he calls this weekend, it will still be before the midterms. Why can’t this [administration] just admit what their foreign policy is?”…

AUTHOR

ROBERT SPENCER

RELATED VIDEO: Will There Be A Conflict Between Bibi and Biden?

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

Biden’s Rhetoric is a Threat to the Republic

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This isn’t just pandering to the base.

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.

AUTHOR

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

EXCLUSIVE: ‘Got Away With It’ — Sen. Rick Scott To Release Ad Saying Biden ‘Cheated On His Taxes’

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National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) Chairman Sen. Rick Scott of Florida will release an advertisement Monday night, claiming President Biden has been cheating on his taxes to avoid paying around half a million dollars that should have gone to Medicare.

The ad, titled Tax Cheat, was first obtained by the Daily Caller. In it, Scott accuses Biden of exploiting a loophole to cheat on his taxes and getting away with it. Scott’s ad bases its claim on reports from a number of media outlets, including the New York Post and Wall Street Journal, which said that when Biden was leaving the vice presidency in 2017, Joe and Jill Biden created two S-corporations, the CelticCapri Corporation (Joe Biden) and Giacoppa Corporation (Jill Biden), through which they funneled their book and speech income.

The Bidens paid full income taxes on all their earnings but avoided paying payroll taxes — the 2.9% tax that funds Medicare and the additional 0.9% “high-income” tax imposed by Obamacare — on all income they classified as “profits” from their two corporations. This has caused lawmakers like Scott to raise questions about Biden’s taxes, saying the president could owe the IRS close to $500,000 in back taxes.

In 2020, The Washington Post’s fact checker looked at this allegation in detail and concluded that it was difficult to determine whether Biden’s “tax strategy was especially aggressive or par for the course.”

“Joe Biden just cut $280 billion from Medicare. And we know about his 87,000 new IRS agents. But what you don’t know is that Joe Biden also cheated on his taxes and got away with it,” Scott said in the ad.

“Biden improperly used a loophole to dodge half a million dollars in taxes that should have gone to Medicare. Now that Biden has ripped off Medicare for half a million dollars, he wants to close the loophole and raise your taxes. I’m Rick Scott. Biden should resign,” Scott continued.

The ad is being run by and paid for by Scott’s campaign.

WATCH: 

“Joe Biden and Washington Democrats just cut $280 billion from Medicare, taking money from Florida seniors,” Scott told the Caller before the ad was released. “What’s worse, Joe Biden cheated on his own taxes, taking even more money from seniors who rely on Medicare and other important entitlement programs. Joe Biden is a hypocrite and a tax cheat who is unequipped for the job and should resign.”

White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates respond to the Caller’s inquiry about the accusations Scott made in the ad in a statement: “No. And funnily, Rick Scott’s lie about the Inflation Reduction Act is just as debunked now as it was yesterday when he face-planted after getting fact checked live on CNN yesterday. It’s also just as false as it was when Rick Scott released an ultra MAGA policy agenda that called for putting Medicare on the chopping block. The Inflation Reduction Act is endorsed by the AARP – and opposed by Big Pharma and every Republican in Congress – because it enables Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug costs. Rick Scott just highlighted, again, that want to raise drug prices in the name of welfare for Big Pharma. We should honestly be paying Senator Scott to talk, but then again he probably still has as least a few hundred million dollars left from when he oversaw the biggest Medicare fraud in history.”

AUTHOR

HENRY RODGERS

Senior Congressional correspondent. Follow Henry Rodgers On Twitter

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

EXCLUSIVE: Hungarian Foreign Minister Says Ukraine-Russia War Would Not Have Happened Under Trump

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – The foreign minister of Hungary, Péter Szijjártó, in part, blamed the current war between Ukraine and Russia on President Joe Biden in an exclusive interview Wednesday with the Daily Caller. He argued that if the 2020 election had played out differently, there would be no war.

Szijjártó sat down for an interview with the Caller after speaking at the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) International Ministerial Conference and discussed a variety of different issues affecting the U.S. and Europe, including the war in Ukraine. Throughout the interview, Szijjártó made it clear he believes that if former President Donald Trump and former Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel were still in power, the war would not have started.

“The European economy is suffering. Europe is suffering. That is why the only solution for Europe is peace. But definitely, peace not will come with this behavior. What the U.S. administration has been showing. Why? Because in order to create peace, you would need to talk. You would need to communicate,” Szijjártó said during the interview. “And you know, I am usually under very heavy pressure and criticism of why I still talk to the Russians. But, you know, I mean, you cannot afford not to talk to them when you are almost hundred percent dependent on their energy sources and Russia is a reality in Europe, and Russia will remain a reality in Europe regardless of the outcome of this war.”

He continued:

So, you know, what we are definitely sure about is that if your presidential election had played out differently in 2020, this war would not have broken out. As much as I can be sure about things that didn’t happen, I am pretty sure that this would have been the case because we are currently, globally speaking, we are currently lacking leaders. President Trump was a real leader. Chancellor Merkel was a real leader. So what I know is that if Chancellor Merkel. And if President Trump had stayed in power, this war, I’m pretty sure, would not have been broken out. So that’s why what we hope is that there will be some American-Russian talks in this regard because don’t be misled. Don’t be misled. This is necessary to create peace. Russian-American talks.

On Monday, a group of 30 Democrats in Congress requested that the Biden administration seek negotiations with Putin. Several have since walked back their support.

Szijjártó echoed their concerns, however, mentioning the upcoming November G-20 summit in Indonesia, which Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin are scheduled to attend, as an opportunity for the two leaders to talk. The Hungarian minister’s suggestion comes despite claims that U.S. officials are making sure Biden does talk with Putin, per Politico. Biden himself previously told CNN’s Jake Tapper said he will not meet the Russian president except maybe to discuss American Britney Griner, who is serving a 9-year sentence in Russian prison.

“I do hope that those discussions, which are necessary to finish the war, will take place soon. And I don’t want to degrade anyone, but I am pretty certain that these negotiations must take place between the American and the Russian administration,” Szijjártó said. “And, you know, I hope that both of them will behave responsibly because I understand that there will be a G20 meeting. I understand that there is a chance that both of the presidents might be there. And to be honest, I think it would be very, very complicated to explain to the world from both perspectives, why they have not met, if they. If they are on the same place. So, you know, we in Hungary cannot do anything more than just wish, hope, and pray.”

“I want to underline that I really do believe and think that if he had stayed in power, this wouldn’t have broken out,” he added.

As of Oct. 3, the U.S. has spent 52 billion euros in military, financial and humanitarian aid in Ukraine, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. Hungary has urged an immediate ceasefire and end to the conflict. 

The Daily Caller contacted the White House about Szijjártó’s comments to which they did not immediately respond.

AUTHOR

HENRY RODGERS

Senior congressional correspondent. Follow Henry Rodgers On Twitter

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

An Inflation Nation — The New Norm

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Hard working Americans continue to suffer from historically high levels of inflation caused by the Biden administration’s out-of-control spending and opposition to domestic energy production. Soon after the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for September, which confirmed inflation is accelerating and isn’t going away anytime soon, President Joe Biden claimed “If Republicans win, inflation’s going to get worse.”

Such a reckless claim demonstrates the president’s fundamental misunderstanding of the problem his policies have caused … or how to solve it. 

Overall inflation was up another 0.4% in September, or 8.2% year-over-year. Even the less volatile measure of “core” inflation increased by 0.6% in September for a 12-month increase of 6.6%. This is the highest increase in core inflation in 40 years and shows that inflation is broad-based and continues to spread throughout the economy.

Americans are well-aware that food prices have increased dramatically. Food prices rose 0.8% in September alone and have increased 11.2% in the last 12 months. This is the highest year-over-year increase in the United States since 1979. Cereals and bakery items are up 16.2%, dairy items are up 15.9% and fruits and vegetables are up 10.4%.

American workers also suffered another month of declining purchasing power last month. These decreases have become all too customary under the Biden administration’s policies, and in just the past year, purchasing power fell by 3.3%. Since the beginning of the Biden administration, the average worker has paid a $2,500 inflation tax. Lower-income Americans and senior citizens on fixed incomes are particularly vulnerable to rapid price increases.

Ongoing inflation has led the Federal Reserve to engage in some of the most aggressive monetary policy most Americans have ever seen. That’s bad news for Americans whose investments are being destroyed and whose dreams of owning a home or starting a business are being delayed. The Wall Street Journal reports that 30-year fixed-rate mortgages now average more than 7.1% compared to just 3% a year ago.

For a homebuyer borrowing $250,000, the monthly interest and principal payment has increased from approximately $1,050 per month to a staggering $1,680 per month.

The only thing keeping the headline inflation rate from hitting another 40-year high is that energy prices declined slightly in September. That appears to be changing quickly, and not in a good way.

The energy prices in September’s inflation report were recorded before the OPEC+ announcement that the cartel will cut production by two million barrels per day starting in November. A market correction also looms around the corner when the administration’s releases of oil from the strategic petroleum reserve will come to an end. Because it refuses to expand domestic production, the Biden administration will be left with few real options to lower prices at the pump.

The announced reduction of 2 million barrels per day, combined with the long overdue termination of releases from the strategic reserve is already assessed to send oil prices skyrocketing. Goldman Sachs recently forecasted that oil prices will likely reach $110 per barrel.

The 4.9% decline in gasoline prices in September is but a temporary reprieve, and it is highly probable that a national average of $5.00 per gallon will once again crush Americans’ wallets.

Oil and gasoline are only one piece of a more eerie picture. The coming winter should be of significant concern. Natural gas prices are driven by global factors, and with the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, Europe is facing a potential economic catastrophe driven by extreme energy volatility. This would further raise prices for heating American households.

The Biden administration’s embrace of big government socialism has wrought the worst economy in 40 years. Rather than trusting the American people’s ingenuity, the administration’s centralization of authority and special interest cronyism have devastated our Nation’s citizens. Government debt is now more than $31 trillion, and forecasters estimate deficits of more than $1 trillion per year in the future.

Dependency, debt, and demagoguery are not the foundation of a strong economy. Only by returning to an America First economic approach led by renewed energy independence can the American people once again realize the shared prosperity we enjoyed a few short years ago.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

AUTHORS

SAM BUCHAN

Sam Buchan is a former Director for International Economic Policy on the National Economic Council and is currently the Director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the America First Policy Institute.

MICHAEL FAULKENDER

Michael Faulkender is a former Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the Department of the Treasury and is currently a Senior Fellow at the America First Policy Institute.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved. Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

‘The Left Is Out For Blood’: Biden’s DOJ ‘Weaponizing’ Law To Arrest ‘Political Enemies,’ Former Official Says

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The Biden administration is “weaponizing” the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act to go after pro-life activists, an attorney who served under George W. Bush and Barack Obama told the Daily Caller.

“The left is out for blood, and Biden’s base is demanding prosecutions and the DOJ is providing them,” said Roger Severino, who served as an attorney at the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights division, the same division that enforces the FACE Act.

The Biden administration has charged at least 16 pro-life activists with a maximum of 11 years in prison for alleged violations of the act, which prohibits obstructing people seeking reproduction services. Pro-life activist Mark Houck allegedly pushed an abortion escort to the ground after a verbal confrontation. FBI agents swarmed Houck’s house and took him away at gunpoint months after the initial charges against him were dropped.

The DOJ charged the other 15 pro-lifers with allegedly obstructing entrances of abortion clinics and they face a maximum of 11 years in prison, when, under the law, first time violators of the FACE Act usually face a maximum of six months.

Past administrations have issued multi-year prison sentences for violations of the FACE Act in cases of a fatal shooting, death threats, and damaging an abortion clinic with a Molotov cocktail, while people obstructing entrances to abortion clinics faced monetary fines and restraining orders.

Houck is being charged with the decade-long version of the FACE Act violation because the abortion escort “scraped his arm,” his attorney Peter Breen told the Daily Caller. “The charges shouldn’t apply at all, but even if they did, he’s being overcharged.”

“It’s outrageous that you would take a six-month misdemeanor … and turn it into a 10-year federal felony,” Breen added.

One of the other pro-lifers facing over a decade in prison, Paul Vaughn, never blocked the door of an abortion clinic, but was standing nearby, Breen claimed.

Severino, who served under both former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama from 2008 to 2015, said he’s “never heard of a charge being so excessive” as the 11-year maximum prison sentence and $350,000 fine put forth by the current administration for allegedly obstructing abortion clinic doors.

“This is law enforcement run amok. The FACE Act had always been enforced very rarely, because the pro-life movement is a movement of peace,” Severino said. “All of a sudden, they are inventing cases and doing sham prosecutions in an election year for purely political purposes to go after their political enemies.”

The DOJ did not respond to an inquiry from the Daily Caller asking if they have comment on whether the Biden administration has used the FACE Act more excessively than previous administrations.

The FACE Act also protects houses of worship and pro-life pregnancy centers, both of which have been firebombed across the country after the Dobbs decision. Thirty-three churches and 54 pregnancy centers have been attacked, according to the Catholic News Service. The DOJ has not prosecuted any cases of destruction against pro-life centers, Severino stressed.

The effort to arrest pro-lifers is specifically being pushed before the midterms, Department of Homeland Security official under the Trump administration, Ken Cuccinelli, told the Daily Caller.

“This has nothing to do with public safety. This is political virtue signaling to the radical-left base that has control of this administration,” Cuccinelli said.

“I think it will thoroughly backfire on them. I can’t think of a way they’ll get one more vote because they arrest these people, but I guarantee you, a lot [more] pro-lifers will stay home than might have for the midterm election,” he added.

AUTHOR

DIANA GLEBOVA

White House reporter.

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Pro-Life Groups Sound The Alarm Over Repeated Attacks, Call Out FBI, DOJ For Not Doing Enough

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

State Department Weighs Funding Sex Change Treatments For Employees And Their Kids

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The Department of State is weighing its options for funding gender transition services for diplomats and their dependents, according to a strategic plan for 2022-2026.

The State Department is assessing what resources are available for foreign diplomats and their dependents who wish to transition to the opposite sex, according to the strategic plan. Gender transition treatments can include talk therapy, cross-sex hormones and surgeries, though it’s unclear what forms of support the State Department aims to provide and whether that would apply to dependents who are minors.

The move comes after an August report revealed the State Department was pressuring foreign countries to crack down on forms of therapy for children with gender identity issues that don’t automatically affirm their transgender status.

The strategic plan includes a subsection on LGBT inclusion at overseas posts, including goals such as creating more gender-neutral bathrooms and locker rooms in overseas facilities and promoting pro-LGBT policies for children in schools abroad.

The plan proposes that the State Department “develop a Department-wide targeted plan to achieve equity in the advocacy plan to obtain the accreditation of same-sex spouses overseas … assess resources for gender dysphoria and gender transition care at posts for employees and their dependent [and] increase gender-neutral restrooms and locker rooms in overseas facilities.”

The plan recommends guidance be created for protesting policies of foreign countries viewed as discriminatory and recommends the State Department collaborate with accreditation agencies for overseas schools to provide “social-emotional support” for LBGT students.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently told embassies to “submit robust information on the so-called ‘conversion therapy’ practices” in their host countries as part of their annual human rights reports, according to an August City Journal report. Blinken believes the “wait and see” approach to childhood gender issues, which doesn’t automatically affirm a child’s transgender identity, is a form of conversion therapy.

The memo was met with outrage from Republican lawmakers, who rebuked the guidance in a September letter.

“The State Department’s memo is a form of radical gender imperialism that threatens our relationships with other nations and harms our standing in the world,” the lawmakers wrote. “Many countries in Europe … employ either ‘last line of defense’ policies on ‘gender affirming care,’ or have banned gender surgeries for youth altogether. These more restrictive policies now risk making Western European nations “human rights abusers” in the eyes of the State Department, putting them on similar footing as the People Republic of China (PRC), which has committed genocide.”

The State Department did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

AUTHOR

LAUREL DUGGAN

Social and culture reporter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved. Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

OPEC Ignores Biden’s Pleas, Decides To Cut Oil Production

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UPDATE: Green Biden scrambles to boost American oil production after OPEC cuts

OPEC+, which includes the 15 OPEC members and the consortium’s Russian-led allies, voted Wednesday to cut oil production by 2 million barrels per day even though the White House urged the group to pump more oil, according to Bloomberg.

OPEC and its Russian-led allies will reduce crude oil production as they are concerned that oil demand will fall as the world enters a recession, Bloomberg reported. President Joe Biden’s senior officials have been attempting to pressure OPEC into voting against a production cut as the White House would consider this to be a “hostile act,” CNN reported on Wednesday.

The administration was “panicking” over OPEC’s potential to cut production as it is concerned that gas prices may continue to rise and hurt the Democrats’ chances in the November midterm elections, according to CNN. The White House aggressively lobbied Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other OPEC members to vote against cutting oil production; however, its efforts failed as OPEC+ wants to keep oil prices steady by reducing global supply ahead of winter, according to Bloomberg.

The Brent crude oil benchmark sits at $93 a barrel on Wednesday after peaking at over $120 a barrel in March. An oil price hike could further exacerbate the West’s fuel shortages which are causing household electricity bills and gas prices to skyrocket.

OPEC+ agreed to a small production boost in August after Biden visited Saudi Arabia and asked the OPEC member to pump more oil during a visit to the nation, according to The Washington Post. Biden was also rebuffed by OPEC after he asked its Middle Eastern members to produce more oil in May.

OPEC and the White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

AUTHOR

JACK MCEVOY

Energy & environment reporter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved. Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.