Libertarian Leanings

Ruminations of a New Hampshire Republican with decidedly libertarian leanings

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Old Man of the Mountain

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Recent Posts

  • Social Security Recipients May be Getting a Raise
  • None of this Happens Without the Theft of the 2020 Elections
  • Statement by 45
  • What is the FBI Hiding — Behind Grand Jury Secrecy?
  • Americans Believe the IRS is Bloated and Political
  • A Warning from Legal Insurrection
  • DOJ Actively Seeking to Block Trump from the Office of President
  • As with BREXIT, Once Again Britain Leads the Way
  • America's (not so) Secret Police
  • Suspended Florida State Attorney Andrew Warren gets a Police Escort
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Posted by Tom Bowler on June 01, 2022 at 02:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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August 12, 2022

Social Security Recipients May be Getting a Raise

Nicholas Dolinger, The Epoch Times:  Social Security Payments Set for Biggest Rise Since 1981

According to a recent analysis by The Senior Citizens League, an advocacy group that promotes the interests of the elderly, Social Security benefits are currently being eroded by inflation at a rate of more than 3 percent per year. The league predicts that if this trend continues, recipients will see their purchasing power decline by 11.2 percent over the next 12 months.

The analysis by the league predicts that Social Security payments could be adjusted by 9.6 percent (about $150 more each month) as inflation continues to devalue the U.S. dollar at the current rate. If this were to come to pass, it would be the largest cost of living adjustment to Social Security payments since 1981, when payments were raised by 11.2 percent.

Read the rest here.

Posted by Tom Bowler on August 12, 2022 at 08:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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None of this Happens Without the Theft of the 2020 Elections

Posted by Tom Bowler on August 12, 2022 at 07:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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Statement by 45

Posted by Tom Bowler on August 12, 2022 at 07:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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August 11, 2022

What is the FBI Hiding — Behind Grand Jury Secrecy?

John Solomon, Just the News:  Questions grow about Trump raid after revelation of grand jury subpoena, extensive cooperation 

Two months before his Florida home was raided by the FBI, former President Donald Trump secretly received a grand jury subpoena for classified documents belonging to the National Archives, and voluntarily cooperated by turning over responsive evidence, surrendering security surveillance footage and allowing federal agents and a senior Justice Department lawyer to tour his private storage locker, according to a half dozen people familiar with the incident.

While the cooperation was mostly arranged by his lawyers, Trump personally surprised the DOJ National Security Division prosecutor and three FBI agents who came to his Mar-a-Lago compound on June 3, greeting them as they came to pick up a small number of documents compliant with the subpoena, the sources told Just the News, speaking only on condition of anonymity because the visit was covered by grand jury secrecy.

[...]

“The more we learn, the more confusing this gets,” George Washington University Law professor Jonathan Turley told Fox News program Hannity. “….Did they relay this history to the magistrate? That, according to these sources, that the president had cooperated.

”I mean, the idea that he was subject to a subpoena, complied with a subpoena, didn't challenge it, voluntarily showed the storage room to the agents, followed their advice, secured it to meet their demands. All of that is hardly a basis for saying now we need to send in 40 FBI agents on a on a raid,” he added. “I mean, if the subpoena worked the first time, then presumably a second subpoena would work the second time if there were remaining documents.”

Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., told Just the News that Trump mentioned to her Tuesday night the prior cooperation, and that she viewed the raid as an effort at nullifying his future run for the presidency in 2024 if he chooses.

“Look, this is exactly what people, the public is seeing: a two-tiered justice system. This is impeachment 4,” she said, citing Trump‘s prior two impeachments and the January 6 hearings that preceded the raid.

Read the rest here.

Posted by Tom Bowler on August 11, 2022 at 08:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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August 10, 2022

Americans Believe the IRS is Bloated and Political

...and they're right about that.

Madeleine Hubbard, The Epoch Times:  Americans fear expanded IRS will use Inflation Reduction Act to audit taxpayers of modest means

Bill allocates $80 billion to the IRS over 10 years to hire 87,000 more employees, doubling agency's current size, with funds focused on stepping up enforcement of tax compliance.

Many Americans are expressing concerns that the Internal Revenue Service will use additional funding from the Inflation Reduction Act to audit average taxpayers, amid data showing that most Americans believe the agency is too bloated and political.

"Are we actually going after lower-income people or are we going after higher-income people?" one woman, Adrian, told FOX Business in an article published Tuesday. "My concern is that the lower-income people are losing out on this policy change."

The act, which Democrats approved in the Senate 51-50 on a party line vote Sunday and still needs to pass the House, would raise taxes on most Americans, according to an analysis by the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.

The legislation also allocates $80 billion to the IRS over 10 years. The funding is enough to allow the IRS to hire 87,000 more employees, more than doubling its current size, and most of the money is intended to help the IRS expand enforcement of tax compliance.

Mike, who has been previously audited, told Fox that he thinks the expansion means the IRS will "go after the small guy."  

"I don't think they go after big companies," he said. 

Others felt that the funding boost could be used differently. 

"I guess in theory if they hire more people, then they will catch more people evading taxes," a man named Kofie said. "But definitely feel like the money could be allocated somewhere else, like infrastructure, education system, something like that."

Their concerns align with a Trafalgar Group survey released late last month, showing that 58.5% of Americans agree that federal bureaucracies such as the EPA, CDC and IRS have "grown too large and only serve their own political interests."

Read the rest here.

Posted by Tom Bowler on August 10, 2022 at 08:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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August 09, 2022

A Warning from Legal Insurrection

William A. Jacobson, Legal Insurrection:  This is a provocation. They are trying to get a reaction that allows a further crackdown.

My overall sense of what happened at Mar-a-Lago is that this is a provocation.

If New York Times reporting is right — and they never err on the side of being soft on Trump — then this raid was over documents the National Archives thinks Trump should not have, or perhaps classified documents in his possession. That is not something the FBI raids major political candidates over — See, In Re Hillary Rodham Clinton.

This is a provocation. They are trying to get a reaction that allows a further crackdown. See, In Re J6.

It’s also a provocation to get Trump to declare his candidacy for President before the midterms. Democrats would love to turn 2022 into a referendum on Trump rather than the deliberate destruction of the national borders and inflation.

Would the FBI and DOJ do such a thing? Aren’t they “above” politics? 

Above politics?  No.  Above the law?  Yes.

So yes, the FBI and DOJ would do such a thing, and have done such a thing to Trump.

All the more reason to keep your heads about you.

Don’t take the bait. Being stupid isn’t tough, it’s just stupid.

I flipped back and forth between CNN and MSNBC. At least when I watched, they were not engaging in the expected celebrations. There was a palpable dread that this could backfire against the Democrats. Bigly.

Be smart.

Read the rest here.

When I went downtown for a haircut today, I wore a "Trump" T-shirt, something I don't usually do.  You don't see MAGA hats and Trump shirts in downtown purple Nashua, but in light of the FBI's raid on Mar-a-Lago, I've decided it's important for Trump support to be visible.  I think I'll order more T-shirts.

Posted by Tom Bowler on August 09, 2022 at 02:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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DOJ Actively Seeking to Block Trump from the Office of President

Jonathan Turley: “The Whole Enchilada”: Pundits Wrongly Claim the Mar-a-Lago Raid Could Disqualify Trump from Future Office

[E]ven before learning if any evidence of criminal conduct was found, critics turned to the ability to use the charge to disqualify Trump from future office. Section 2071 has excited the imagination of such critics because of a line that states that a convicted party can “be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both; and shall forfeit his office and be disqualified from holding any office under the United States.”

[...]

Consider that culinary-legal analysis for a second. The claim is that the Justice Department may be actively seeking to use a charge to block Trump as the real motivation for this raid and possible charge. There is not a hint of concern over the FBI being used to achieve such a political purpose. That is putting aside the fact that, unless there is evidence of a “willful and unlawful” effort to conceal or retain such material, the FBI could end up an enchilada short of a combination plate for prosecution.

There is also a significant constitutional hurdle facing this latest means of barring Trump from office.

This is not the first time that this disqualification argument has been made and scholars like Seth Tillman have previously raised constitutional objections to it. (Professor Josh Blackmun also has a column on this issue)

The problem is that the law would add a qualification or condition that is not stated in the Constitution. There are constitutional ways to impeach a president or to bar a former president from future office. The mishandling of official records is not one of them.

Read the rest here.

Posted by Tom Bowler on August 09, 2022 at 01:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

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August 05, 2022

As with BREXIT, Once Again Britain Leads the Way

Sue Evans, Common Sense:  How Tavistock Came Tumbling Down

I joined the Tavistock Clinic in North London as a clinical nurse therapist in 2003. Back then, Tavistock was prestigious—known all over the world for its professional seminars and specialized psychological treatments for mental-health patients. Before I ever worked there, I would attend lectures and training workshops to hear from renowned psychoanalysts, who were considered some of the best in the field.

A lot can change in a decade.

Last week, the National Health Service ordered that the gender youth clinic at Tavistock shut its doors by next spring. And I am part of the reason why. 

The story of what happened at Tavistock is the story of how small group of whistleblowers—doctors, nurses, parents and patients, together with the help of journalists and reporters—were able to relentlessly expose activist-driven medicine that they knew was irresponsible. It’s also an object lesson for others who are deeply concerned about a one-size-fit-all approach to transgender healthcare and wonder what they should do about it.

[,,,]

Usually, when new patients arrived at the service, they would come in for an hour or so once a month for the first few months. So I was surprised to hear that my coworker was recommending drugs when, in my view, no meaningful understanding of his internal world could have been reached. I knew from my experience in working with adolescents that any diagnostic assessment arrived at after such a short time span would have been superficial. 

It’s worth pointing out that Tavistock specialized in therapy—talking through problems with patients—and that we did not generally prescribe drugs. For that reason, I had expected the same approach when it came to treating children and teens with gender dysphoria. But it seemed that, even back then, certain staff didn’t hesitate to recommend puberty blockers—even for vulnerable kids contending with anxiety, autism, internalized homophobia or other challenges.

Read the rest here.

Posted by Tom Bowler on August 05, 2022 at 09:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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America's (not so) Secret Police

Jordan Boyd, The Federalist:  FBI Director Sets New Record For Lies, Dodges, And Obfuscations To Avoid Slight Attempts At Congressional Oversight

FBI Director Christopher Wray refused to answer legislators’ questions about his agency’s history of corruption and cover-ups and instead doubled down on defending the FBI’s actions against U.S. citizens during a Senate Judiciary hearing on Thursday.

Senators on both sides of the aisle explained their frustrations with the FBI’s lack of transparency and response to their various letters inquiring about threats around the country.

“There is the perception that there are two tiers of justice: one for people that are favored and one for ordinary Americans,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn noted during her interrogation.

Instead of addressing concerns about deceit, Wray confirmed Republicans’ suspicions that the FBI does engage in politicized investigations such as evaluating so-called threats against school board members at the urging of the Department of Justice following its infamous letter from the National School Boards Association.

Read the rest here.

Posted by Tom Bowler on August 05, 2022 at 08:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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Suspended Florida State Attorney Andrew Warren gets a Police Escort

Leah Barkoukis, Townhall:  The Story About DeSantis Removing Woke, Soros-Backed State Attorney Just Got Even Better

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday announced he had suspended woke, Soros-backed State Attorney Andrew Warren for failing to enforce state laws.

“State Attorneys have a duty to prosecute crimes as defined in Florida law, not to pick and choose which laws to enforce based on his personal agenda,” DeSantis said. “It is my duty to hold Florida’s elected officials to the highest standards for the people of Florida. I have the utmost trust that Judge Susan Lopez will lead the office through this transition and faithfully uphold the rule of law.”

Now that he mentions it, the U.S. Department of Justice has been selectively enforcing the law in line with Democrat political advantage for the last decade or more.  Maybe the next president can take a lesson from Governor DeSantis.

DeSantis said Warren’s suspension was “effective immediately.” A closer look at the governor’s executive order shows he sent police to remove him:

“As of the signing of this Executive Order, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, assisted by other law enforcement agencies as necessary, is requested to: (i) assist in the immediate transition of Andrew Warren from the Office of the State Attorney for the 13th Judicial Circuit of Florida, with access only to retrieve his personal belongings; and (ii) ensure that no files, papers, documents, notes, records, computers, or removable storage media are removed from the Office of the State Attorney for the 13th Judicial Circuit of Florida or any of his staff.”

Read the rest here.

Posted by Tom Bowler on August 05, 2022 at 08:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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Kari Lake Wins Her Primary! Gee, I Wonder Where Axios Stands

Jeremy Duda, Axios:  Trump-backed Kari Lake wins GOP nomination for Arizona governor

Kari Lake defeated Karrin Taylor Robson in Arizona's Republican gubernatorial primary, AP reports, propelling the Trump-endorsed candidate into a general election where she's favored to become the state's 24th governor.

Driving the news: The former Fox 10 anchor took the race by storm last year, becoming the immediate frontrunner with a style and message that closely emulated former President Trump.

  • Lake's campaign has been characterized by her combative style, anti-establishment rhetoric and unflinching support for Trump's false claims that the 2020 election was rigged against him.

Flashback: Lake declared victory on Wednesday with about 186,000 votes left to count in the primary.

False claims? (My emphasis)

Read the rest here.

Posted by Tom Bowler on August 05, 2022 at 06:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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August 04, 2022

Can FBI Credibility be Saved?

Margot Cleveland, The Federalist:  All FBI Agents Must Blow Their Whistles Or They’ll Be Complicit In Bureau’s Politicization

The new information revealed by the FBI whistleblowers exposes yet a further scandal, which Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., highlighted in a letter he dispatched to Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz last week. In his letter, Johnson noted that while he was investigating Hunter Biden’s questionable business dealings, the FBI provided him and Grassley with a supposed briefing on August 6, 2020. That briefing “was not specific” and was “unconnected” to their investigation, Johnson noted, and he and Grassley had “always assumed [it] was a set up to intentionally discredit [their] ongoing work into Hunter Biden’s extensive foreign financial entanglements.” 

In fact, as Johnson highlighted in his letter, leakers from the FBI fed the fact of the briefing to the Washington Post. The Post then framed the briefing as “an extensive effort by the [FBI] to alert members of Congress … that they faced a risk of being used to further Russia’s attempt to influence the election’s outcome.” That spin worked to falsely portray Grassley and Johnson’s investigation into Hunter Biden’s foreign financial dealings as corrupted by Russian disinformation.

Johnson’s letter to the DOJ, FBI, and OIG concisely captured the significance of these facts and the horror of the scandal: “If these recent whistleblower revelations are true, it would strongly suggest that the FBI’s August 6, 2020, briefing was indeed a targeted effort to intentionally undermine a Congressional investigation. The FBI being weaponized against two sitting chairmen of U.S. Senate committees with constitutional oversight responsibilities would be one of the greatest episodes of Executive Branch corruption in American history.”

[...]

It may be difficult for FBI agents, trained to trust the hierarchy, to reboot their reticence, but recent events establish that the FBI leadership cannot right itself. What the FBI needs, then, to rehabilitate itself is a cavalcade of whistleblowers exposing the rot within the bureau. Every agent at every level must join the few brave whistleblowers who have come forward. 

If, knowing what they do now about DOJ and FBI leadership’s inability to clean the political mess, agents remain mum, they will be complicit in the scandal, and Americans will no longer distinguish between the hardworking men and women of the FBI and the supposedly few bad apples — we will view the entire bureau as bad.

Read the rest here.

Posted by Tom Bowler on August 04, 2022 at 05:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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Pay Attention to the "Cognitive Infiltration" Part

The "Cognitive Infiltration" discussion begins after the 2:04:00 mark.

WATCH:
I had the honour of appearing with US news talk show host @delbigtree today on his show @HighWireTalk from time stamp 1h 47m of this video, till the end
(I’ve set it below to automatically start at my interview) https://t.co/05Evmzalr6

— Maajid أبو عمّار (@MaajidNawaz) July 28, 2022

Posted by Tom Bowler on August 04, 2022 at 07:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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August 03, 2022

Neither is Surprising

The first unsurprising outcome of primary night is that most of Donald Trump's endorsed candidates won their races on Tuesday.

Monica Showalter, American Thinker:  Trump's endorsements triumph in last night's primaries

For President Trump, this morning's got to be sweet.

His endorsed candidates, one after another, won over other GOP candidates in Tuesday's primaries.  Those coveted endorsements went for congressional seats in Arizona, Michigan, and sort-of Missouri, where it appeared that President Trump endorsed both candidates with the first name "Eric."  The counting is still on in places like Washington, so it may not have been a full sweep, but it came very, very close.

Many of the candidates Trump endorsed were political upstarts, not incumbents, which have a harder time winning, so the primary victories were all the more impressive.

Maybe it's me, but somehow I can't fathom how voters prefer candidates who dismiss concerns about irregularities in voting.  Especially when these same candidates oppose stemming the flow of illegals across our southern border and who oppose requirements voters prove who they are and prove that they are eligible to vote.  It's no surprise that Trump's endorsed candidates did well.

The second unsurprising result was the proposed amendment to the Kansas state constitution that would ban abortions went down in flames.

Susan Crabtree, RealClear Politics:  Pro-Trump Candidates Largely Prevail, Kansans Support Abortion Rights

Voters across Kansas rejected by a roughly 20-point margin an amendment to the state constitution that would nullify the right to an abortion. Such an amendment would have paved the way for Republican state lawmakers to place new limits on abortion. The vote marked the first time since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade that the right to an abortion was on the ballot.

Heading into Tuesday, it was viewed as a referendum on whether abortion politics have truly shifted in the wake of the high court’s decision earlier this summer and could play a role in the state’s gubernatorial contest. Democrat Gov. Laura Kelly, who opposed the amendment, is up for reelection in November and is considered one of the most vulnerable Democratic governors in the country.

Republican state Attorney General Derek Schmidt, who won the party’s nomination for governor, backed the need for such an amendment.

President Biden and the Democratic National Committee hailed the result in a red state as a major victory for abortion rights that buoys the party’s hopes that the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade will override concerns about inflation and the economy.

Those in anguish over the Courts taking control over women's bodies seem to misread the situation. 

It matters to me when those five men and a woman, looking so exalted in their black robes, decide that I’m going to have a baby even if I die doing it.

The Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade was about who gets to make laws.  Hyperbole aside, "those five men and a woman" decided that state legislatures are where decisions on abortion law are to be made, and they're to be made by representatives who are accountable to the people via the ballot box.  Funny, I can remember a time when liberals thought voting and ballot boxes were pretty important.

With the abortion amendment suffering a resounding defeat, it's understandable that Joe Biden and the DNC would be hopeful about the midterms.  Except for one thing.  Abortion is not the top issue for very many voters, according to a July 5th Monmouth poll.

MonmouthPoll20220705

The top four issues are all related to the economy, and together they add up to 63 percent.  Economic issues are the top concern for 63 percent of those polled.  Abortion comes in as the number one concern for only five percent of those polled.  The demise of Roe v. Wade is not going to swing the election for Joe and the Dems come November.

Posted by Tom Bowler on August 03, 2022 at 03:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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Running Out of Ballots?

Katie Pavlich, Townhall:  RNC Blasts Arizona County for Running Out of Ballots

The RNC and Arizona Republican Party are blasting Pinal County election officials after they failed to produce enough ballots during Tuesday night's elections in Arizona. 

“During Arizona’s primary elections, the RNC and Republican Party of Arizona's poll observer program documented and reported multiple failures by Pinal County’s Elections Administrator, including 63,000 mail-in ballots delivered to the wrong voters and multiple Republican-heavy precinct locations running out of ballots," RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and Republican Party of Arizona Chairwoman Kelli Ward released in a statement. "This is a comprehensive failure that disenfranchises Arizonans and exemplifies why Republican-led efforts for transparency at the ballot box are so important. Pinal County Elections Director David Frisk should resign immediately.”

Read the rest here.

Posted by Tom Bowler on August 03, 2022 at 06:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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He Didn't Mean To, But...

Eric Worrall, Watts Up With That?:  Climate Scientist Andrew Dessler Proves Renewable Energy is Useless

Dessler thinks he is demonstrating why we need more renewables. The problem with this position is Dessler is ignoring the trillions of dollars the USA and the rest of the world have already spent on renewables.

A reasonable expectation would be that all the previous investments in renewables should have yielded some value. But the graph provided by Dessler says it all – when the price of gas goes up, the price of electricity goes up in lockstep.

Renewables are doing nothing to liberate us from the pain of high gas prices.

Read the rest here.

Posted by Tom Bowler on August 03, 2022 at 05:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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August 02, 2022

Sponsored by Pfizer

Make sure the sound is on when you play the video.

I think it's real funny that both Reuters AND AP emailed me to fact check my report about the hundreds of athletes that have dropped dead after getting vaxed. But when I showed them the articles verifying each athlete's death, AP and Reuters decided not to publish their stories. pic.twitter.com/Gsnu8ljkDH

— Pearson Sharp (@PearsonSharp) August 1, 2022

Posted by Tom Bowler on August 02, 2022 at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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Because Science!

Rupa Subramanya, Common Sense:  Court Documents Reveal Canada’s Travel Ban Had No Scientific Basis

On August 13, 2021, the Canadian government announced that anyone who hadn’t been vaccinated against Covid would soon be barred from planes and trains. In many cases, The Backward could no longer travel between provinces or leave the country. If you lived in Winnipeg and wanted to visit your mother on her deathbed in London or Hong Kong or, perhaps, Quebec City, you’d better get jabbed—or resign yourself to never seeing your mother again. 

Jennifer Little, the director-general of COVID Recovery, the secretive government panel that crafted the mandate, called it “one of the strongest vaccination mandates for travelers in the world.” 

It was draconian and sweeping, and it fit neatly with the public persona that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had cultivated—that of the sleek, progressive, forward-looking technocrat guided by fact and reason. The Canadian Medical Association Journal, in a June 2022 article, observed that “Canada had among the most sustained stringent policies regarding restrictions on internal movement.” 

But recently released court documents—which capture the decision-making behind the travel mandate—indicate that, far from following the science, the prime minister and his Cabinet were focused on politics. (Canadians are hardly alone. As Common Sense recently reported, American public-health agencies have also been politicized.)

Read the rest here.

Posted by Tom Bowler on August 02, 2022 at 09:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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The ‘Wishful Thinking’ Fed Is Anything But ‘Neutral’

The following article was written by Stefan Gleason of Money Metals Exchange.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With last week’s second 75 basis-point rate hike, the Federal Reserve now claims it has achieved a “neutral” monetary policy stance. That would mean, in theory, that interest rates are neither stimulating nor restraining the economy.

"Now that we're at neutral, as the process goes on, at some point, it will be appropriate to slow down,” Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said.

Powell was effectively telling markets he intends to pivot away from inflation fighting.

Inflation

Yet inflation, even when measured by the Fed's own preferred gauge, continues to run hot.

The Personal Consumption Expenditures price index came in at 6.8% in Friday’s report from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

A Fed funds rate that currently stands at just 2.5% doesn’t look “neutral” at all when the official inflation rate is running at 6.8%.

Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers accused Federal Reserve officials of engaging in “wishful thinking” when it comes to inflation.

“Jay Powell said things that, to be blunt, were analytically indefensible,” Summers told Bloomberg. “There is no conceivable way that a 2.5% interest rate, in an economy inflating like this, is anywhere near neutral.”

Left unsaid by Summers and Powell is that the slowing economy and highly leveraged financial markets cannot take much more rate hiking without collapsing. That’s why the Fed is signaling it will wind down its tightening campaign – before achieving any kind of victory over inflation.

In the face of four-decade highs in inflation, monetary policy has gone from ultra-accommodative to slightly less accommodative.

It likely will never get to a truly neutral level – at least not for any prolonged period.

The financial system and the U.S. government itself (the world’s biggest debtor) need interest rates to continue to be suppressed. Negative real rates enable borrowers to be bailed out over time by rising inflation and rising nominal asset values.

Over time, negative real rates also put upward pressure on precious metals markets.

Gold and silver prices lost ground when the Fed started talking tough on inflation. But they rebounded last week when central bankers dialed down expectations for future monetary tightening.

The Fed is anything but neutral when it comes to crafting monetary policy. Central bankers inevitably pick winners and losers when they manipulate interest rates and pump liquidity into the financial system.

The winners of Fed policies are typically Wall Street investment bankers and Washington, D.C. politicians. And so are the holders of tangible assets financed with debt.

The losers are: 1) savers and pensioners on a fixed income who don’t receive earnings that keep pace with inflation; and 2) workers whose wages never get them ahead of rising costs of living.

It is possible, however, for individual investors to position themselves on the winning side of Fed policy decisions.

During some economic cycles, it pays to be in stocks. During others, it’s far more profitable to be in assets that benefit from the unintended consequences of the Fed’s inflationary policies.

As the U.S. economy heads into recession, conventional stocks are vulnerable. Meanwhile, demand for safe-haven alternative assets combined with ongoing inflation pressures could provide a big boost to undervalued gold and silver markets.

Stefan Gleason  Money Metals News Service

Stefan Gleason is President of Money Metals Exchange, the company recently named "Best Overall Online Precious Metals Dealer" by Investopedia. A graduate of the University of Florida, Gleason is a seasoned business leader, investor, political strategist, and grassroots activist. Gleason has frequently appeared on national television networks such as CNN, FoxNews, and CNBC and in hundreds of publications such as the Wall Street Journal, TheStreet, and Seeking Alpha.

Posted by Tom Bowler on August 02, 2022 at 08:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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August 01, 2022

Elections Conducted Outside of the Law Are Illegitimate — Wisconsin Supreme Court

Bob Maistros, Issues & Insights:  A Declaration of Dissolution: Wisconsin Supreme Court Fires the Starting Gun

A court of law has finally confirmed it: The 2020 election was “illegitimate.” And all the demands for sufficient evidence of voter fraud to reverse the outcome were a red herring.

The truly dispositive factor, as stated by a Republican Wisconsin state legislator in a March hearing and affirmed in the opinion: “If a vote is cast in an illegal process, it’s an illegal vote!”

The reasons for legislatively enacted absentee ballot protections are clear. Justice Bradley quotes the Wisconsin Legislature’s rationale: “(P)revent the potential for fraud or abuse … overzealous solicitation of absent electors who may prefer not to participate in an election … undue influence on an absent elector … or other similar abuses.”

And that’s exactly what unlawfully relaxed provisions occasioned in Wisconsin:

  • Nearly 3,600 trips by 138 “mules” to drop boxes to traffic 137,551 votes. (Trump lost the state by about 20,000.)
  • Illegal assistance with absentee ballots by nursing home staff to residents, some with dementia.
  • “Zuckerbucks” exploiting these changes to “purchase Joe Biden an additional 65,222 votes, without which Donald Trump would have won the state by 44,540 votes.”

But again, per Wisconsin’s Supremes, Donald Trump didn’t have to prove the existence or extent of fraud, only deviation from legislative schemes. Because – nota bene! – the votes’ unlawful nature is the proof.

Read the rest here.

Posted by Tom Bowler on August 01, 2022 at 09:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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