Tag Archive for: Joe Biden

The Biden Administration Says U.S. Not in a Recession, but Federal Statutes Say Otherwise. Who is Right?

/in , , , , , , , , /by

Is the U.S. economy in recession? The answer is, paradoxically, both easier and more complicated than you might think.

As expected the United States posted negative growth for the second consecutive quarter, according to government data released on Thursday.

“Real gross domestic product (GDP) decreased at an annual rate of 0.9 percent in the second quarter of 2022, following a decrease of 1.6 percent in the first quarter,” the US Bureau of Economic Analysis announced.

The news prompted many outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, to use the R word—recession, which historically has been commonly defined as “economic decline during which trade and industrial activity are reduced, generally identified by a fall in GDP in two successive quarters.”

The White House does not agree, however, and following the release of the data, President Biden said the US economy is “on the right path.”

The comments come as little surprise. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had recently hinted that the White House would contend the economy wasn’t actually in a recession even if Q2 data indicated the economy had contracted for a second consecutive quarter.

“There is an organization called the National Bureau of Economic Research that looks at a broad range of data in deciding whether or not there is a recession,” Yellen said. “And most of the data that they look at right now continues to be strong. I would be amazed if they would declare this period to be a recession, even if it happens to have two quarters of negative growth.”

“We have a very strong labor market,” she continued. “When you are creating almost 400,000 jobs a month, that is not a recession.”

Yellen is not wrong that NBER, a private nonprofit economic research organization, looks at a much broader swath of data to determine if the economy is in a recession, or that many view NBER’s Business Cycle Dating Committee as the “official recession scorekeeper.”

So White House officials have a point when they say “two negative quarters of GDP growth is not the technical definition of recession,” even though it is a commonly used definition.

On the other hand, it’s worth noting that federal statutes, the Congressional Budget Office, and other governing bodies use the two consecutive quarters of negative growth as an official indication of economic recession.

Phil Magness, an author and economic historian, points out that several “trigger” provisions exist in US laws (and Canadian law) that are designed to go into effect when the economy posts negative growth in consecutive quarters.

“For reference, here is the definition used in the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act of 1985,” Magness wrote on Twitter, referencing a clause in the Act. “This particular clause has been subsequently retained and replicated in several trigger clauses for recessionary measures in US federal statutes.”

It’s worth noting that Magness doesn’t contend the two consecutive quarters definition is the best method of determining whether an economy is in a recession, but simply points out that claims that it’s an “informal” definition of recession are untrue.

“It may not be a perfect metric, but it has a very long history of being used to determine policy during recessions,” Magness writes.

Some readers may find it strange that so much heat, ink, and energy is being spent on something as intangible as a word, which is a mere abstraction that has no value. And some policy experts agree.

“Whether [we’re] in a technical recession is less interesting to me than the following 3 questions,” Brian Riedl, an economist at the Manhattan Institute, recently said. “1) Are jobs plentiful? (Yes – good) 2) Are real wages rising? (Falling fast – bad) 3) Is inflation hitting fixed income fams? (Yes – bad.)”

Others contend that definitions matter, and that by ignoring the legal definition of recession, the Biden White House can continue to argue that the US economy is “historically strong” even as economic growth is negative, inflation is surging, and real wages are crashing.

As Charles Lane recently pointed out in the Washington Post, words have power. He shares a colorful anecdote involving Alfred E. “Fred” Kahn, an economist who served in the Carter Administration who was instructed to never use the words “recession” or “depression” again.

In 1978, Kahn — a Cornell University economist in charge of President Jimmy Carter’s inflation-fighting efforts — said that failure to get soaring prices under control could lead to a “deep, deep depression.” Carter’s aides, perturbed at the possible political fallout, instructed him never to say that word, or “recession,” again.

We don’t know whether this instruction stirred the wrath of Kahn, a verbal stickler notoriously disdainful of cant and euphemism; in a previous government job, he had sent around a memo telling staff not to use words like “herein.”

It did trigger his wit, though: In his next meeting with reporters, Kahn puckishly said the nation was in “danger of having the worst banana in 45 years.”

Lane’s anecdote about Kahn is instructive because it reveals something important about these debates. While they may have a certain amount of importance as far as political spin goes, they are meaningless as far as economic reality is concerned. Substituting the word “banana” for recession did not change economic conditions or the economic outlook one bit, which no doubt was precisely Lane’s point.

My colleague Peter Jacobsen made this point effectively earlier this week.

“[You] don’t need a thermometer to feel if it’s hot outside,” he wrote. “Economic issues, especially inflation, top the list of concerns for voters going into the 2022 midterms, and it isn’t particularly close. So officially defined recession or not, it doesn’t really matter.”

Moreover, Jacobsen explains, macroeconomic data like GDP have historically been the tool of politicians and bureaucrats, who use them to justify economic interventions.

“When GDP numbers fall below a certain level, politicians can use that data to try to push income back up. Or perhaps when the economy is ‘running too hot’ politicians can use fiscal and monetary policy to slow down the economy.

All of these metaphors about economies running hot or stalling are based on a central planning view of the economy. In this view, the economy is like a machine which we can adjust to bring about the proper results. Without macroeconomic statistics, central planners have fewer means by which to justify particular interventions. We can’t claim we need stimulus if we can’t point to some data indicating it’s necessary.”

The takeaway here is an important one. We don’t need “bureaucratic weathermen” telling us when the economy is good or bad anymore than we need them “managing” the economy with the money supply, which is precisely how we got here in the first place.

So while the debates over the R word are likely to continue, it’s important to remember it doesn’t really matter if you call this economy a recession or a banana. The fundamentals speak for themselves.

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.

RELATED VIDEO: GDP Report Shows Economic Plunge

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

‘Kneel To God And No One Else’: Trump Slams Biden, J6 Trial At Arizona Rally

/in , , , , , , , /by

Former President Donald Trump held a rally Friday night at the Findlay Toyota Center in Prescott Valley, Arizona, where he voiced his support for Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and Republican U.S. Senate candidate Blake Masters. In his speech, Trump criticized President Joe Biden’s handling of the U.S. economy and the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, which Trump called “the greatest humiliation our country has ever seen.”

Trump then addressed January 6th last night in Prescott Valley, Arizona. Trump said of the recent investigation: “Where does it stop? Where does it end? Never forget: Everything this corrupt establishment is doing to me is all about preserving their power and control over the American people, for whatever reason. They want to damage me in any form so I can no longer represent you,” according to MSN.

In response to being accused of grabbing the steering wheel from a secret service agent on January 6th and throwing food in the White House, Trump stated during Friday’s rally, “And they know that wasn’t true too. But they don’t call back the secret service. You know the secret service wants to testify and say it wasn’t true, but they won’t let them testify because they don’t want to hear the answer.  It’s just a horrible thing that’s going on in our country. It’s sick, and the fake news media is totally complicit. These are very dishonest people, many of them.”

“We will never give in, we will never yield, we will never, ever, ever back down,” Trump said during his speech, according to FOX News. “As long as we are unified, the tyrants we are against do not stand a chance because we are Americans who kneel to God and no one else.”

“Rather than targeting Christians, conservatives, and Republicans, the Biden admin should go after street gangs,” Trump stated. “Instead of taking guns away from law-abiding Americans, they should take them away from career criminals and felons,” he continued.

Trump pointed out that we are just four months away from midterms, calling this “the most important election in America’s history.” He said, “If we do not get this done then it is going to be tragic.”

AUTHOR

MEG FOLEY

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLES:

‘Does Anyone Want Me To Run Again?’: Here’s What You Missed From Trump’s Rally In Wyoming

Here Are Just Some Of The Uprisings Over Government Incompetence Happening Around The World

North Carolina Town’s Entire Police Force Resigns, Citing ‘Hostile Work Environment’

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

The Biden Perpetual Emergency Coup

/in , , , , , /by

What does a president do when he can’t get Congress to pass anything?

  1. Sign executive orders
  2. Go on a foreign trip
  3. Give speeches
  4. Declare an emergency

Lefties are pressuring Biden to declare “emergencies” over abortion and the environment. Trying to sideline two of the branches of government with emergency decrees is a hallmark of tyranny. Biden tried to get his policies through both branches and failed. Seizing emergency powers when you fail legislatively is a coup.

So far we’ve got a “National Climate Emergency” and an abortion “National Health Emergency”.

The only emergency here is the one Dems and their media keep pushing, an “attack on democracy” or, more accurately, the Republic.

We have a Constitution and three branches of government with checks and balances. Biden is a particularly poor fit to play Caesar. If the American voters want a legislature that will turn abortion into law or force them to pay twice as much for gas and energy, they can vote one in. And they’ll shortly have the chance to do so.

(And considering how badly some Senate GOP celebrity nominees like Oz, Walker, Vance, are performing and the risk of another Thiel Facebook pick, Blake Masters in Arizona, they may get the chance.)

But the Democrats don’t want to risk elections. They want to seize and wield power through one man. And then everything becomes an emergency.

Want to pass higher taxes, declare an emergency. Want to mandate bike lanes everywhere? Declare a National Bike Emergency.

That’s a coup emergency.

AUTHOR

DANIEL GREENFIELD

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

REPORT: Biden Poised To Declare Climate Emergency To Ram Through Green Agenda

/in , , , , , , , , , , , /by

President Joe Biden could declare a climate emergency as soon as this week, according to The Washington Post, in a bid to implement elements of his environmental agenda as climate legislation has stalled in Congress.

Leading Biden administration officials are debating ways to advance the president’s agenda, and the president is prepared to announce a number of new initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reported the Post, citing three people familiar with the matter. The internal discussions come after Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia told party leaders last week that he opposes the plans to advance this month’s significant economic package that includes billions of dollars toward slashing carbon emissions and promoting green energy.

White House Economic Adviser Jared Bernstein told reporters at a press briefing Monday that Biden would work “aggressively to attack climate change.”

“Realistically there is a lot he can do and there is a lot he will do,” Bernstein stated.

“Unilaterally declaring a climate emergency will not reduce emissions by one molecule,” American Exploration & Production Council CEO, Anne Bradbury said on Twitter Tuesday. “In fact, many of the policies that could follow from declaring a climate emergency would increase emissions while driving up costs for American families.”

Democratic lawmakers are also calling on Biden to use his powers to enact further climate policies amid failed legislative action and the Supreme Court’s recent decision to limit the regulatory abilities of the Environmental Protection Agency.

On Monday, Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon said it was time for Biden to take massive, unilateral executive actions on climate change, even if the Supreme Court rules them unconstitutional.

“There is probably nothing more important for our nation and our world than for the United States to drive a bold, energetic transition in its energy economy from fossil fuels to renewable energy,” Merkley told reporters on Monday, according to the Post.

“This also unchains the president from waiting for Congress to act,” Merkley said, referencing the recent legislative impasse.

Meanwhile, Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, said that lawmakers should continue to pursue legislation in a statement on Monday.

“While I strongly support additional executive action by President Biden, we know a flood of Republican lawsuits will follow,” Wyden said, according to the Post.

“Legislation continues to be the best option here,” he added.

AUTHOR

JACK MCEVOY

Contributor.

RELATED TWEET:

RELATED ARTICLE: Joe Manchin Drives A Stake Through Democrats’ Economic Package

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.

Bernie Sanders’ Dark Money Political Coordinator Launches #DontRunJoe

/in , , , , , , , /by

Someone had to fire the first shot in the circular firing squad. And it was always going to come from the Left. No matter how much Biden appeases the Marxists, they’re always going to turn on him.

It’s the nature of the snake.

And yet too many Democrats think that the extremists who want to destroy America support their party.

A progressive grassroots organization that supported Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) 2016 and 2020 White House bids announced on Monday that it will launch a campaign to oppose President Biden’s reelection in 2024.

RootsAction wrote in a press release that Biden has been “neither bold nor inspiring” since taking office early last year. And because his “prospects for winning re-election appear to be bleak,” it will launch the #DontRunJoe campaign on Nov. 9, one day after the midterm elections.

RootsAction is a thinly disguised anti-war lefty group.

Its co-founder and national director, Norman Solomon was “immersed in anti-war, social justice and environmental movements since the late 1960s, he is the author of a dozen books including “War Made Easy” and “Made Love, Got War.”

The campaign coordinator, David Swanson, “is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is director of WorldBeyondWar.org His books include “War Is A Lie.” He blogs at DavidSwanson.org and WarIsACrime.org.”

And just because you couldn’t do this without Iran…

“Hanieh Jodat Barnes is an Iranian American activist, and one of the founding members of Women’s March Los Angeles, and a former board member of Women’s March California and LA. As a Bernie national delegate, she co-founded Muslim Delegates and Allies and currently serves as the National Director of Lift the Sanctions Campaign. Hanieh is a state delegate at the California Democratic Party and for her work, as an activist, she has been recognized by the National Iranian American Council as one of the 40 Iranians under 40 to inspire the community.”

And then there’s Sam Rosenthal.

“Political Director: Sam Rosenthal is an organizer and researcher based in Washington, DC. He previously served as the political director at Our Revolution and in elected leadership with Central Brooklyn Democratic Socialists of America.”

Our Revolution was a key part of the Bernie machine.

Our Revolution, however, has sent dozens of emails in recent weeks to its supporters touting the work it’s doing to get Sanders elected. The group’s chairman, Larry Cohen, detailed in an email Monday how he had spent a week in Iowa mobilizing 5,000 volunteers to caucus for Sanders.

Our Revolution national political coordinator Sam Rosenthal wrote in an email in November: “[I]f we do our job, we will have the opportunity to vote for Bernie Sanders to become the next President of the United States … help Our Revolution elect Bernie Sanders and fight big money in politics up and down the ballot!”

I’ve written quite a bit about One Revolution.

His book is named after Our Revolution, a 501©(4) “social welfare” organization that he set up to influence elections and which can accept unlimited amounts of money from donors without disclosing them.

According to Our Revolution’s former organizing director, it was set up that way to “take big checks from billionaires.”

Our Revolution, Bernie’s dark money organization, planned to solicit money from Soros. Due to the secrecy of both Soros and Our Revolution, it’s hard to know whether Soros ponied up.

But we do know that Our Revolution got its largest contribution of $100,000 from the Sixteen Thirty Fund which is partly funded by George Soros.

Attacking Biden and building a list is one way to announce the beginning of a Biden takedown from the Left.

NOTE: Visit the Don’t Run Joe website.

AUTHOR

DANIEL GREENFIELD

RELATED ARTICLE: Liberal Analyst Warns Dems of Massive Losses Among Hispanics, Working Class

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

Biden’s Israel Trip was a Failure Before He Even Arrived

/in , , , , , , /by

A failed president meets with failed Israeli leftists and failed terrorists.

Don’t touch me.

Even though Biden was seen pressing the flesh with outgoing British Prime Minister Boris Johnson at a NATO summit, and getting a hug from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, not to mention shaking hands with a variety of foreign leaders during his summer trip to Europe, including those of Turkey, Indonesia, and India, there’ll be no touching in Israel.

According to a Jerusalem Post report, the Biden administration has told the Israelis that its titular figurehead won’t be shaking hands in Israel due to COVID. Apparently there’s a whole lot more of a COVID threat in Israel than in meeting politicians from across the entire world.

Instead of the traditional greeting line at Ben Gurion Airport, the Israelis have been told that due to “scheduling pressure, COVID, and the hot weather, the US president will not shake hands with the invited, and there will be no opportunity for personal photographs.”

Not that there’s likely to be too much demand for selfies with Biden anyway.

While the official word is that Biden is too old and won’t be able to handle 90 degree heat, he did not seem to have a problem getting out and shaking hands when he landed at Spain’s Torrejon de Ardoz air base last month at a time when temperatures in Madrid hit 88 degrees.

Either, Biden aged quite a bit in three weeks or two degrees make a hell of a difference.

Or, possibly, the Biden administration wanted to avoid a big show with the Israelis and is using COVID, old age and the weather as an excuse for playing down the traditional ceremony.

While Biden won’t be touching any Israelis (something the local women will no doubt appreciate), he has made a point of becoming the first sitting president to visit a “Palestinian” facility in East Jerusalem. The Biden administration refused to allow Israeli officials to accompany him on the hospital visit, demonstrating that despite President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem, Biden doesn’t recognize Israel’s sovereignty over its own capital.

Considering the location of the hospital in question on the Mount of Olives, Biden is effectively declaring that the historic location belongs to the terrorists. It’s a much worse insult than shaking hands with the tyrant of Turkey, but not elected officials in the Jewish State.

Biden began the prep for his trip by boasting of providing “over $500 million” in aid to the terrorist-occupied territories in Israel despite the refusal of the PLO to stop its ‘Pay-to-Slay’ program subsidizing salaries for convicted terrorists and payments to the families of PLO, Hamas, and even ISIS terrorists killed during their attempts to murder Israelis and Americans.

Administration figures have also demanded that Israel upgrade the terrorist territories to 4G, complaining that the Palestinian Authority is still only able to use 3G networks. After repeated terrorist attacks that murdered Israelis, the big issue is that the terrorists won’t be able to download beheading videos on their iPhones at 4G and will suffer under 3G speeds instead.

There’s no apparent reason for Biden to come to Israel except to boost the terrorists.

The visit is especially oddly timed since Israel doesn’t even have a functioning government. After the collapse of the leftist coalition, the country is headed for new elections. Biden will be greeted at the airport by the ‘caretaker’ prime minister, Yair Lapid, Israel’s answer to Justin Trudeau, whose militantly secularist leftist Yesh Atid party falls well below Netanyahu’s Likud party in the polls, but whom the Biden administration is trying to boost in the coming elections.

Biden will be met by Lapid and outgoing former prime minister Naftali Bennett, and then will have an event with Defense Minister Benny Gantz whose Blue and White party alliance, one in a long series of fake centrist stalking horse parties for the Left, is a player in the next election. And then there will be a session with President Isaac Herzog, the former head of the leftist Labor Party. The Israeli portion of this visit is essentially one long Biden leftist election ad.

But Biden’s stamp of approval isn’t likely to do much for Lapid since Biden is not that much more popular in Israel than he is in America. Surveys of the Israeli public show that confidence in the White House has fallen significantly since the Trump administration. Biden has released funds to Iran and to the terrorists inside Israel. And his visit is set to undermine Jerusalem and Israel.

After the photo ops with Israeli leftists, Biden will head to the PLO to meet with Mahmoud Abbas, its terrorist leader, and to announce concessions being made on behalf of the Israelis.

What the visit really amounts to is Lapid and various leftist politicians trading away Israeli security and lives for an election ad with Biden. And Biden is using the trip to undermine President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem and an end to taxpayer money going to terrorists.

But a meeting between Biden, Lapid, and the rest of the gang is a conclave of failed politicians.

When presidents fail at home, they turn abroad. Biden’s European and Middle Eastern trips are a futile effort by a failing president to bolster his image. Biden has nothing new to offer the Middle East. In Israel, he is reduced to picking away at Trump’s accomplishments and promoting a diminished agenda for the terrorists after the success of the Abraham Accords.

As Biden, 79, meets with Mahmoud Abbas, 87, the leaders of the Left and the PLO are men whose eras have passed. The Palestinian Authority is a failed institution and the entire ideological infrastructure of the peace process on which it was built has been discredited.

The visit of a failing president will conclude with a meeting with a failed PLO president and will come after a series of meetings with Israeli leftist politicians whose governing coalition also failed.

Even before Biden sets foot in Israel, his trip is already marked by failure. It’s just as well that he won’t be shaking hands with anyone. Failure can be even more infectious than the coronavirus.

AUTHOR

DANIEL GREENFIELD

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism. This article was written before the trip began, but it all still holds true.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Muttering and Lost: Disoriented Biden – “What Am I Doing Now?”

Biden says US would use military force against Iran as a ‘last resort’ to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon

‘I was 27, a bad Muslim, an educated, single woman who asked too many questions and rarely wore a hijab’

UK: Muslim rape gang activity went on for decades, nothing was done for fear of being ‘Islamophobic’

Biden Still Talks About Reopening the Jerusalem Consulate

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

Clinic Funded By Biden Administration Distributes Crack Pipes To Addicts Outside A ‘School’

/in , , , , , , , , , , , /by

A “harm reduction” clinic that received grant funding from President Joe Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is distributing crack pipes to addicts in New York City, the Daily Caller confirmed Wednesday.

New York Harm Reduction Educators (NYHRE), a part of OnPointNYC, was awarded nearly $400,000 in grant money from the Biden administration in May to further its services for drug addicts, government records show. Biden officials denied reports that the grant money could fund distribution of crack pipes, but a visit to NYHRE’s office revealed that the organization still offers the smoking paraphernalia to addicts.

OnPointNYC operates two drug use sites, one of which NYHRE runs in East Harlem. After spending about 10 minutes on paperwork with basic information Wednesday evening, staff at the facility provided a Daily Caller reporter a smoking kit containing a crack pipe, condoms and lubricant.

A second Caller reporter returned Thursday and yet again, within minutes, staff provided another crack pipe. A staffer directed the reporter to back rooms for addicts to use drugs under supervision, where the reporter witnessed individuals smoking and injecting various substances.

CLICK HERE FOR A PHOTO OF: A condom and crack pipe acquired from New York Harm Reduction Educators. (Daily Caller)

A second Caller reporter returned Thursday and yet again, within minutes, staff provided another crack pipe. A staffer directed the reporter to back rooms for addicts to use drugs under supervision, where the reporter witnessed individuals smoking and injecting various substances.

The reporter, citing claustrophobia, asked if she could step outside to smoke. A staffer denied the request because the facility is located next to a “school.”

The facility is directly across the street from the Association To Benefit Children, a childcare facility for underprivileged kids in the New York area.

Prior to those visits, the Caller reached out to NYHRE and OnPointNYC on multiple occasions to ask if the organization was still distributing crack pipes, receiving no response. A PBS segment aired December 2021 highlighted that the organization was distributing crack pipes at the time, before the latest Biden grant.

NYHRE provides other services aside from harm reduction, including HIV and hepatitis testing, safe sex education and counseling services. It has received various government grants dating back to 2001 for some of these other services, a review of HHS grant documents shows. This year’s grant is the first “harm reduction” grant the group has received as part of a new administration initiative under Biden’s American Rescue Plan to support “harm reduction” efforts. The so called “safe smoking kits” are a key plank in “harm reduction” efforts across the country.

In addition to the drug and sex paraphernalia, a staffer at NYHRE gave the Caller an ID card after registering personal information. According to that staffer, an individual caught with drugs by police in the city could show that card to avoid punishment.

The Biden administration denied in February that it was giving grants to fund distribution of crack pipes, following a Washington Free Beacon report that HHS had closed applications for funding to do so.

“No federal funding will be used directly or through subsequent reimbursement of grantees to put pipes in safe smoking kits,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement.

“The goal of harm reduction is to save lives. The Administration is focused on a comprehensive strategy to stop the spread of drugs and curb addiction, including prioritizing the use of proven harm reduction strategies like providing naloxone, fentanyl test strips, and clean syringes, as well as taking decisive actions to go after violent criminals who are trafficking illicit drugs like fentanyl across our borders and into our communities.”

An HHS spokesperson told the Daily Caller the funds from this grant are still prohibited from being used for any federally illegal activity or equipment, including drug paraphernalia like crack pipes. NYHRE has not yet tapped into the grant money they were awarded, and once they do so, the organization must provide specific details on how the money will be spent so HHS can approve it.

“No federal funding is used directly or through subsequent reimbursement of grantees to purchase pipes in safer smoking kits. Grants include explicit prohibitions of federal funds to be used to purchase drug paraphernalia,” the spokesman said. “As the United States confronts record overdose numbers, the Biden-Harris Administration is focused on a comprehensive drug control policy focused on stopping the illicit flow of drugs like fentanyl and evidence-based policies that reduce overdoses and save lives.”

The administration has embraced “harm reduction” — which can include supplying drug paraphernalia and in some cases drugs themselves — as a strategy for treating addiction. The effort facilitates drug use in a safer setting for addicts than they might otherwise use, and offers clean equipment for drug use to prevent the spread of disease.

In total, the SAMHSA grant awarded almost $10 million to 25 different organizations. The grant recipients are disproportionately located in New York and California, not areas within the rust belt hardest hit by the overdose epidemic. Six of the 25 grants went to harm reduction groups in New York state. The Daily Caller has not confirmed which of the other 24 organizations have provided, or still provide, safe smoking kits or crack pipes to addicts.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), which awarded the grants, did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the Daily Caller, including questions about whether the agency knew NYHRE distributed crack pipes when it awarded them the grant or how it is ensuring that taxpayer funds don’t go to the distribution of smoking equipment.

AUTHOR

DYLAN HOUSMAN

Healthcare reporter. Follow Dylan on Twitter

RELATED ARTICLES:

Even Democrats Now Agree That The Government Should Not Fund Crack Pipes

Knives Are Out For Biden As Contenders Crop Up For 2024

WaPo Writer Says Americans Need To ‘Give Biden A Break’

ANALYSIS: These Four Polls Will Strike Fear Into The Hearts Of Democrats

Biden’s Little Noticed Tax Hike On Everything

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

Why Do The Woke Hate Clarence Thomas So Much?

/in , , , , , , , , , /by

Justice Clarence Thomas, being African American, is seen as a traitor to the woke cause.

After the overturning of Roe v Wade, Justice Clarence Thomas has been a particular target of venomous attack from the woke mob. Why do they hate him so much? One might be forgiven for thinking that it is due to his staunch anti-abortion views. But that explanation does not work.

Pope Francis has long expressed that opposing abortion is “closely linked to the defense of each and every other human right”, and yet, the Left is not obsessed with him (in fact, many even take a liking). At some point, even Joe Biden supported letting States overturn Roe v Wade, and again, the Left did not go ballistic on him.

Not behaving as expected

So, why the animus against Thomas? There can only be one explanation: race. In 1991, as he was accused of sexually harassing Anita Hill, Thomas countered that he was the victim of “a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas, and it is a message that unless you kowtow to an old order, this is what will happen to you.”

This was loose talk, as it trivialised the suffering of real lynching victims in America’s troubled history of race relations. But Thomas did have a point in arguing that in the United States, any black person who dares to deviate from the official narrative of how blacks are supposed to act, will face severe harassment.

In 1991, he anticipated a trend that would become mainstream in our times: if you are born with a particular skin colour, you are supposed to behave in a certain way, and uphold a specific ideology. If not, you are a race traitor. As Biden so neatly phrased it:

“[I]f you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.”

Any competent scholar of the history of racism would immediately recognise this as race essentialism. As Angelo Corlett explains in his book Race, Racism and Reparations,
“proponents of race essentialism define human races by a set of genetic or cultural traits shared by all members of a ‘racial’ group.”

Who are the neo-Nazis now?

In the first half of the 20th Century, this view was popular amongst proponents of so-called “racial science”. They believed that racial biological traits determine how people behave. Hitler believed that no matter how much a person with Jewish ancestry tried to assimilate to German society (even converting to another religion), he or she would still be a dangerous Jew, because it was in his or her essence.

Race essentialism is abhorrent, and one might think that after 1945, the world learned a lesson. And yet, race essentialism is alive and kicking, but this time, under the guise of woke progressivism. As per today’s woke rules, if you are black, you must embrace the whole woke mindset.

White people (such as Pope Francis) may occasionally be forgiven for having anti-abortion views, but if you are black and you deviate from the woke line (such as Clarence Thomas), you are a race traitor, an Uncle Tom. Unsurprisingly, Thomas has been called “Uncle Clarence” multiple times.

If you are black, not only do you have to act a certain way, but you must also have a special sexual preference. The woke pay lip service to interracial relationships, but amongst them there is a sense of unease when they contemplate a successful black man marrying a white woman.

For example, when Thomas was nominated to the Supreme Court of the United States, USA Today columnist Barbara Reynolds wrote: “Here’s a man who’s going to decide crucial issues for the country and he has already said no to blacks; he has already said if he can’t paint himself white he’ll think white and marry a white woman.” Russell Adams, chairman of African American studies at Howard University, said that Thomas “marrying a white woman is a sign of his rejection of the black community.”

Truly racist

Frantz Fanon is a figure beloved by the Left. In 1952, he published Black Skin, White Masks, a canonical text of wokeness. In that book, he also scorns black men who fall in love with white women. Fanon castigates himself for, at some point, having had these thoughts: “Out of the blackest part of my soul, across the zebra striping of my mind, surges this desire to be suddenly white. I wish to be acknowledged not as black but as white… I marry white culture, white beauty, white whiteness.” The implication of this passage is that loving a white woman is an act of racial treason.

Fanon felt disdain for black people who embraced Western values. He claimed they were wearing white masks, as if somehow, they were deviating from their real essence, and were therefore living an inauthentic life. Therefore — so Fanon believed — Western civilisation must be rejected entirely. As he explained in The Wretched of the Earth, “When the colonized hear a speech on Western culture, they draw their machetes or at least check to see they are close to hand.” He who admires Western values is a sellout.

Ever since Fanon, racial essentialism in the name of progress has only grown worse. People of color are now encouraged not to honour punctuality, because being on time is part of whiteness. Black kids who are academically talented run the risk of being told they are “acting white”. Analysing things objectively is an act of white supremacy. And so on.

Consequently, Clarence Thomas is not allowed to have anti-abortion views. Nobody cares about his anti-abortion arguments, because he is not supposed to make them in the first place. Other jurists, philosophers or theologians will be allowed to oppose abortion, but only if they are white. Thomas is hated not because of his views, but because of his skin colour. He upsets the arbitrary racial classifications that the woke are so eager to embrace.

As per woke taxonomy, black people cannot be conservative, and if they are, they are only wearing a “white mask”. To paraphrase the late Christopher Hitchens, “identity politics poisons everything”. We can no longer have a meaningful discussion about anything as vital as the ontological status of a fetus, because the race of the discussants will determine who is allowed to uphold a particular view. It’s time to push back against this madness.

AUTHOR

Gabriel Andrade

Gabriel Andrade is a university professor originally from Venezuela. He writes about politics, philosophy, history, religion and psychology. More by Gabriel Andrade

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

Biden’s Handlers Alter Federal Laws to Make it Easier for Terrorists to Enter the United States

/in , , , , , , , /by

The Biden Admin Just Made It Easier for Terrorists To Enter the United States

by Adam Kredo, Washington Free Beacon, June 29, 2022:

The Biden administration altered federal law to make it easier for individuals who have worked with designated terrorist groups to legally enter the United States.

The State and Homeland Security Departments last week amended federal immigration laws to allow foreigners who provided “insignificant material support” to designated terror groups to receive “immigration benefits or other status,” according to the policy published in the Federal Register but not formally announced by the administration. Examples of individuals who would fall into the new category, according to the announcement, include individuals who provided “humanitarian assistance” or “routine commercial transactions” to terror groups.

The policy shift is fueling concerns that the Biden administration wants to make it easier for individuals who work with or for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the country’s paramilitary fighting force that has killed hundreds of Americans, to enter the country. Notice of the change came several days before the Biden administration and hardline Iranian government resumed talks aimed at securing a revamped version of the 2015 nuclear deal.

A State Department spokesman said the law was amended to help vulnerable Afghans, who might have inadvertently worked with terror groups, gain refuge in the United States following the Biden administration’s bungled withdrawal that left the Taliban in power. Lawmakers and former U.S. officials, however, say the new regulations are so broadly written that they would apply to organizations like al Qaeda and the IRGC. The policy change is also raising red flags as U.S. officials, including former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, face credible death threats from Iran.

The rule does not specifically mention Afghanistan but is written to cover all U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations, such as the IRGC and al Qaeda, experts told the Free Beacon. The Taliban is not designated as a foreign terrorist organization, leaving lawmakers and former U.S. officials concerned the changes extend far beyond vulnerable Afghans and cover those tied to some of the globe’s most violent terror groups.

Gabriel Noronha, a State Department special adviser for Iran during the Trump administration, said that “the Biden administration is claiming this regulation is all about Afghanistan, but they didn’t even mention Afghanistan once in their action, and have made no serious attempt to limit the scope to the situation there.”

“Instead,” said Noronha, who is a fellow with the Jewish Institute for National Security of America think tank, “this looks like a massive watering down of our immigration restrictions against members of terrorist organizations.”

The State Department says the changes are limited to Afghanistan, but would not say why the country is not mentioned once in the new order….

AUTHOR

ROBERT SPENCER

RELATED VIDEO: This Week In Jihad with David Wood and Robert Spencer.

RELATED ARTICLES:

County Officials In Texas To Declare Border Crisis An ‘Invasion’

Woke Student Claims Justice Clarence Thomas Teaching at GWU Makes Him ‘Unsafe’

Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s Favorite BDS Group Mourns an ISIS Terrorist

The Long Jihad against Syria’s Christians

UK decided not to deport Rochdale Muslim rape gang ring leader known as ‘the master’

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

Republicans Snag Over 1 Million Voters From Dems In Past Year: AP

/in , , , , , /by

Over 1 million U.S. voters in 43 states have fled the Democratic Party since 2021 and registered as Republicans, according to a new report.

Republicans have gained major ground in suburban counties, according to the voter registration data examined by The Associated Press, as well as “in virtually every region of the country.” The findings come almost four months before the midterm elections in November, which a bipartisan swath of pundits has deemed a probable “red wave” in part due to messaging failures among the left.

“While Democrats may see a slight enthusiasm bump following the Supreme Court’s decision on abortion, it’s highly unlikely they’ll be able to sustain that for the next five months,” Andy Surabian, a Republican strategist, told The Daily Caller News Foundation.

Data for roughly 1.7 million voters who switched political parties was analyzed by the AP. The data, which according to the outlet comes from the political firm L2, reportedly shows that around two-thirds of the 1.7 million voters became Republicans — while only about 630,000 voters became Democrats.

Biden’s support in the suburbs has been widely credited as the reason for his success in the 2020 presidential election. While these areas “have tended to show a net advantage to Republicans,” Biden “registered a net Democratic advantage for the first time since Barack Obama’s victory in 2008,” Brookings Institution, a left-leaning think tank, said in a November 2020 report.

However, suburban counties near large cities like Denver, Atlanta and Pittsburgh, as well as near smaller cities like Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and Des Moines, Iowa, have garnered Republican support, the AP reported.

“Biden and Democrats are woefully out of touch with the American people, and that’s why voters are flocking to the Republican Party in droves,” Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel told the AP.

The data showing more registered Republicans comes after Democrats lost in droves across states last fall. In Virginia, Republicans swept statewide, notably taking the gubernatorial race with the election of Glenn Youngkin.

Republicans also won big recently in Texas, where Mayra Flores flipped a blue district in June with the support of Latino voters. The Democratic National Committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

AUTHOR

GABE KAMINSKY

Investigative reporter. 

RELATED ARTICLE: ANALYSIS: We Just Got The Latest Indication Red Waves In Blue Cities Could Become A Reality

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.

VIDEO: Biden’s Inflation Plan Includes Increased Dependency on the State and Marxist Economics

/in , , , , , , , /by

The Last Refuge reported on Biden’s plan to deal with out of control inflation. According to The Last Refuge,

Depending on income, the Biden administration plans to offset higher prices for Americans by providing the essential services and products they need.  In essence, Democrat-Socialism with a filter of equity in distribution, i.e. “enhanced dependency.”

Remarkably, Stephanopoulos references one of the most insane New York Times op-ed’s ever written around economics [ARTICLE HERE].  Within the reference, the Democrat legislative proposal is for the government to take over the purchasing of essential products like food, fuel, gasoline and medicine.  The government would then distribute those products.  The entire premise is based on some academic leftist theory of economics that is just nuts. It looks nothing like capitalism.

Read more

WATCH:

In this video Transportation Secretary Buttigieg blames profit-seeking oil companies for gas crisis:

Democrats never ever take responsibility for their own policy to totally eliminate fossil fuels in the name of climate change.

Welcome to CPUSA writ large

Biden, his administration and the media are all into Building Back Bigger Government.

Marc Morano reported on a New York Times article written by Culture & lifestyle journalist Annaliese Griffin writing on June 2, 2022. Griffin wrote,

“Inflation has the potential to drive welcome change for the planet if Americans think differently about the way they eat…We could adjust what we eat to save both our pocketbooks and our planet.”

“Climate change has motivated some to eat less resource-intensive meat and more vegetables, grains and legumes, but this movement has not reached the scale necessary to bring needed change — yet… A 2021 study in Nature found that animal products produce greenhouse gases at twice the rate of foods from plants. We should be paying attention to every ton of carbon dioxide that goes into the atmosphere — the same way shoppers are watching the cost of every addition to their grocery carts.” …

“Inflation resulting from the cost of fuel and feed, coupled with supply chain slowdowns, may make meat substitutes more affordable relative to traditional, factory-farmed meats.

… Historically, cost has been a powerful force that has changed Americans’ diets.”

Marc Morano responded to Griffin’s article with,

“The New York Times seems bent on updating Gordon Gekko’s phrase from the 1987 film Wall Street: Chaos, for lack of a better word, is GOOD. Climate activists in academia, the Biden admin. and the media seem to think the more humans suffer, the more the planet will benefit. This is more evidence that economic calamity, debt, inflation, supply chain issues, and skyrocketing meat and energy costs are not the unintended consequences of the climate agenda, but the INTENDED consequences. Chaos conditions the public to accept more centralized control of their lives. Vladimir Lenin reportedly once said, ‘worse is better’ or ‘the worse, the better’ to cheer on chaos and the destruction of the existing order to impose his ideology.”

The Bottom Line

A reader sent us an interesting commentary titled “Price of gas in France” about an art thief who stole a number of masterpieces. Here’s what he sent us:

A thief in Paris planned to steal some paintings from the Louvre. After careful planning, he got past security, stole the paintings, and made it safely to his van. However, he was captured only two blocks away when his van ran out of gas.

When asked how he could mastermind such a crime and then make such an obvious error, he replied, “Monsieur, that is the reason I stole the paintings—.”

Biden’s plan is no better than that of the thief, it is dramatically worse.

Americans are seeing Biden’s policies at the gas station, on store shelves, in the products and services they buy and in their retirement accounts.

It’s all bad, really bad.

©Dr. Rich Swier. All rights reserved.

These 10 States Had The Most Expensive Gas Over Memorial Day Weekend

/in , , , , , , , , /by

As the national average for gasoline rose to a new record high of $4.62 a gallon on Memorial Day, prices varied throughout the country affecting drivers on one of the busiest travel days of the year.

According to AAA, gas prices went up one penny since Sunday and gasoline is now 44 cents more expensive than it was just last month, CNN reported. On Memorial Day of 2021, gas prices averaged $3.05 a gallon, according to AAA. The Biden administration has continued to face criticism over the record-breaking gas prices and has been blaming the increase in price on the war in Ukraine.

AAA also said around 34.9 million people are traveling by car for Memorial Day weekend, which is 4.6% higher than in 2020, CNN noted. (RELATED: Gas Prices Hit Another Record High)

The 10 states that had the most expensive average gas prices over Memorial Day weekend, according to AAA: 

Alaska: $5.20 a gallon

Arizona: $4.95 a gallon

California: $6.15 a gallon

Hawaii: $5.44 a gallon

Illinois: $5.00 a gallon

Maine: $4.77 a gallon

Nevada: $5.30 a gallon

New York: $4.93 a gallon

Oregon: $5.20 a gallon

Washington: $5.23 a gallon

The Hill first reported about the highest prices in the 10 states.

On Thursday, the average price of gas in the U.S. hit its last record, with the average price costing Americans $4.60 a gallon, up more than 92% since President Joe Biden took office.

AUTHOR

HENRY RODGERS

Senior Congressional correspondent.

RELATED TWEET:

RELATED ARTICLES:

Biden’s Energy Sec Claims Biden Is ‘Obsessed’ With Lowering Gas Prices. So Why Do Prices Keep Going Up?

Gas Prices Hit Another Record High

The US Hasn’t Built A Major Oil Refinery In Nearly 50 Years. Here’s Why

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

Biden Admin Allies Contemplated Using National Guard at School Board Meetings

/in , , , , , , , , /by

How deep in authoritarian fascism was the Biden administration last year?

Faced with parental protests in schools, the Biden administration coordinated with the National School Boards Association to intervene. Here’s an earlier draft of what that might have looked like.

Early demands from the National School Boards Association to the White House included calling for the deployment of the Army National Guard and the military police to monitor school board meetings, according to an early draft letter the organization’s independent review released Friday.

In contrast to the final version, the draft of the NSBA letter said, “We ask that the Army National Guard and its Military Police be deployed to certain school districts and related events where students and school personnel have been subjected to acts and threats of violence.”

Did the NSBA realize it went too far, did someone in the Biden admin pull the plug on a proposal to deploy the National Guard?

Consider the atmosphere.

The Biden administration had engaged in an extended and unprecedented military occupation of Washington D.C. in response to the Capitol Riot despite condemning the much lesser response to Black Lives Matter assaults on the White House and D.C. landmarks. Forced to eventually shut down the occupation, someone in the administration may have contemplated using the National Guard to regularly shut down opposition political protests. This would have been the logical next step.

Sending in the FBI was bad enough, but the Biden admin was playing at full-fledged fascism in ’21.  to Black Lives Matter assaults on the White House and D.C. landmarks. Forced to eventually shut down the occupation, someone in the administration may have contemplated using the National Guard to regularly shut down opposition political protests. This would have been the logical next step.

Sending in the FBI was bad enough, but the Biden admin was playing at full-fledged fascism in ’21.

AUTHOR

DANIEL GREENFIELD

RELATED TWEET:

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

Biden Soaring Gas Prices Are Part Of Green Agenda—Gas Stations Adding Extra Digit Expecting $10 a Gallon for Gasoline

/in , , , , , , , , , /by

President Joe Biden suggested record gas prices were part of an incredible transition away from fossil fuels Monday in Japan.

At the press conference in Tokyo with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, a reporter asked the president if a recession in the United States was inevitable.

“When it comes to the gas prices,” the president stammered for a moment. “We’re going through an incredible transition that is taking place that God willing when it’s over we’ll be stronger, and the world will be stronger and less reliant on fossil fuels when this is over.”

Biden then mentioned his decision to ease rising gas prices by releasing 180 million barrels of oil from emergency stockpiles in late March, though he noted it hasn’t been effective.

The Biden administration canceled the three remaining offshore oil and gas lease sales last week including the Cook Inlet in Alaska, and two in the Gulf of Mexico reportedly due to factors including conflicting court rulings.

Richard Spinrad, the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reportedly said the backlog in permitting was from a miscalculation a sub agency found, according to a late April letter obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation.

The average pump price nationwide has surged to $4.59 per gallon of regular gasoline compared to $4.11 in April, according to AAA.

AUTHOR

CHRIS BERTMAN

Contributor. Follow Chris on Twitter.

RELATED ARTICLE: Ever Wonder Why Our Leftist Government is Intent on Putting Us in Electric Cars?

RELATED VIDEOS:

Diesel prices up 100 percent…

Hawley Confronts Sec. Granholm On Exploding Gas Prices

Granholm: Gas Will Stay Above $4 for All of 2022

RELATED TWEET:

RELATED ARTICLE: Gas Stations Add Extra Digit To Pump Meters In Anticipation Of $10 Gas

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

Biden May Not Hold Any Offshore Oil And Gas Leases Until The End Of His Term, Industry Group Says

/in , , , , , , , , , /by

The American Petroleum Institute (API), a leading industry group, said the next offshore oil and gas lease sale likely wouldn’t come until early 2024 following the latest Biden administration update.

The Department of the Interior (DOI) announced Thursday that it would issue an updated proposed program plan for offshore lease sales by June 30. The API, though, said the announcement confirms the administration is “significantly behind” in the multi-year process required for approving a new five-year offshore plan, likely delaying lease sales until early 2024.

The Interior Department declined to comment and referred TheDCNF to DOI Secretary Deb Haaland’s testimony on Capitol Hill Thursday.

“The practical effect of this is that it is unlikely there will be offshore lease sales before the end of 2023,” said Frank Macchiarola, API’s senior vice president of policy, economics and regulatory affairs. “This is one more example of the disconnect between the administration’s political rhetoric and policy reality.”

He added that the announcement was the latest in a series of “mixed signals on energy policy” from the administration.

The current five-year offshore plan is set to expire in late June, meaning the DOI is supposed to have a finalized plan, not proposed program, by that time. The federal government is required to issue a plan outlining all proposed offshore lease sales every five years under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.

“Joe Biden has been lying all along,” Steve Milloy, a former Trump administration transition official and JunkScience.com founder, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “He said that he’s doing everything he can to lower gas prices. The only way to do that is to increase production and he’s doing everything he can to reduce production.”

“The overall tone since day one has been to discourage oil and gas investment,” Milloy continued.

The first lease sale under the current plan took place on Aug. 16, 2017, 519 days after the Obama administration published its proposed program. Based on that timeline, the earliest possible lease sale under the Biden administration plan would take place in December 2023 if the DOI published a proposed program on June 30 as it promised Thursday.

But industry groups suggested the administration’s hostility toward fossil fuels would likely lead to further delays stretching into 2024.

“Interior has had 16 months to fulfill its statutory obligation to develop and maintain an offshore oil and gas leasing program and it has failed,” National Ocean Industries Association President Erik Milito said in a statement. “No other administration has failed in this way.”

In addition, Haaland blamed the Trump administration for the delays on Thursday.

“The previous Administration stopped work on the new five-year plan in 2018, so there has been a lot to do to catch up,” Haaland said during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing.

However, the Obama administration issued a proposed program 411 days after issuing a draft plan in 2015. President Joe Biden has been in office 484 days by comparison.

AUTHOR

THOMAS CATENACCI

Energy & environment reporter. Follow Thomas on Twitter

RELATED ARTICLES:

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm Denies Biden Administration Culpability for High Gas Prices

Biden Cancels More Oil And Gas Leases As Fuel Prices Skyrocket

Biden Might Not Have To Beg Venezuela’s Dictator For Oil If He Kept Keystone XL

EDITOR 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.