Article by Bob Unruh in World Net Daily

 

Limbaugh: Couric, AOC really do want to 'deprogram' Trump supporters

Those calls by Katie Couric and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to "deprogram" and "deradicalize" Trump supporters? Don't take them lightly, warns talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh.

Because they really mean it.

Couric, the former NBC News anchor and "Today" host, said in an interview with Bill Maher that "the question is how are we going to really almost deprogram these people who have signed up for the cult of Trump." Ocasio Cortez said last Friday at a virtual event that it's "going to take a very long time to deradicalize these people and a lot of effort."

A Democratic National Committee official, David Atkins, said on Twitter that "deprogramming" is needed for every one of more than 74 million people who voted for Trump on Nov. 3.

Limbaugh said they "are literally thinking of deprogramming conservatives."

"They don’t call us conservatives. They call us Trump cultists," he said.

Limbaugh posted comments from a number of network personalities:

• Alisyn Camerota spoke of the "cult of Trump."
• Steve Hassan described Americans recruited "by an authoritarian political cult."
• Mustafa Tameez said a "Trump cult that wants to believe whatever the dear leader says."
• Jeremy Bash said, "This was a long ... deliberate effort by political leaders led by Donald Trump to brainwash, to create a cult."

Limbaugh noted that until now, Americans had successfully handled the political divide for generations.

"There was a notion that we’re Americans, that being American meant something. That’s gone. Now, 35, 40% of the country believes 'American' is a dirty word, that the American founding was illegitimate, that we are an illegitimate superpower because our founding was illegitimate and because our economic system — capitalism — is immoral and unjust," he said.

"So, I mean, folks, you don’t have to look any farther than Make America Great Again is controversial. Make America Great Again really ticks some people off.

He said he sometimes, perhaps naively, has thought that "every American loves his country."

"It’s not true," he said.

If any deprogramming is needed, he said, it should be for those who, through the American public education system, "have been taught to hate this country."

A start, he said, would be to "make a stab at telling them why this country should be loved and adored and understood and built on its foundation premises."

Couric, he said, wants conservatives "deprogrammed" because she "doesn't want to have to deal with them."

She believes they "shouldn’t have any access to constitutional rights because they’re cultists."

The radio star noted the left has redefined "hate speech."

"So how do you define hate? Well, they’re already off and running on that. If you're conservative and you don’t like Biden, you’re hateful," he said. "If you say the wrong thing about the presidential election of 2020, you could be categorized as a domestic terrorist.

 "And if it becomes necessary to eliminate certain people from participating because they engage in 'hate speech,' all you have to do is define 'hate speech' as something that opposes the government, for example. That’s how most totalitarian regimes do it. If you opposed the government, why you’re dangerously close to trafficking in hate."

https://www.wnd.com/2021/01/rush-limbaugh-couric-aoc-really-want-deprogram-trump-supporters/

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“Victim-Centered” Justice Is...

 "Victim-Centered" Justice Is a Threat to Due Process

Wendy McElroy for Mises

“Trauma-informed justice” has percolated in academia and activism for decades. It is now knocking on the door of local police departments to demand changes that could upend the basics of how people relate to law enforcement. The approach converts the police into social workers or therapists and erases the due process upon which traditional Western justice hinges. It also increases the odds of wrongful convictions.

Trauma-informed justice—sometimes called “victim-centered” justice—involves an interview methodology in which the police prioritize empathy for an accuser who is automatically considered to be a victim. Rooted in trauma-informed feminist therapy of the 1960s, the methodology is especially favored for allegations of sexual abuse, such as domestic violence, where the accusers who come forward are overwhelmingly female. The methodology was refined by Russell Strand, US Military Police School, who offered the forensic experiential trauma Interview (FETI) as a way to question presumed victims without making them relive an assault.

According to trauma-informed trainers, the police should conduct investigations according to three broad principles.

• The accuser is automatically assumed to be a victim even before any verification process occurs; the accused is automatically assumed to be guilty based on nothing more than an allegation. This dynamic reflects a core belief of the #MeToo movement: “Believe All Women.” The leading proponent of the trauma-informed approach is the End Violence against Women International (EVAWI) group, which argues that “believing” accusers “is the starting point for a fair and thorough investigation.” If EVAWI is taken literally, however, further investigation seems to be unnecessary. An accusation is proof of guilt and is grounds for conviction. Why investigate?
• Contradictions, memory gaps, and inconsistencies in an accuser’s testimony are symptoms of deep trauma and should not be seen as disprobative. A much-quoted guide to FETI states, “Trauma victims often omit, exaggerate, or make up information when trying to make sense of what happened to them or to fill gaps in memory.” The true flaw in the process is said to be the police department’s approach, which depends on what is called “peripheral information”—for example, a suspect’s description and the time or place of an alleged attack. Instead, the police should focus on eliciting nonlinear information from the accuser by establishing trust and interpreting her memories.
• Factors that cast doubt on the allegation, such as an accuser’s history of false allegations or drug use, are not to be considered. This creates an enormous problem if the case goes to trial, of course. The Arizona Governor’s Commission to Prevent Violence against Women issued a letter to Arizona’s criminal justice agencies to explain, “In cases that proceed to trial, defense counsel likely could impugn investigators and claim that alternative versions of the crime were ignored and/or errors were made during the investigation as a result of confirmation bias created by the ‘belief’ element of the Start By Believing campaign.”

Trauma-informed advocates abandon the ethical code of conduct spelled out by the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Article 10, Presentation of Evidence, states, “The law enforcement officer shall be concerned equally in the prosecution of the wrong-doer and the defense of the innocent. He shall ascertain what constitutes evidence and shall present such evidence impartially and without malice.” By this standard, everyone and their testimonies are to be treated equally.

FETI destroys the due process upon which Western criminal justice rests. The central principle of due process: an accused is innocent until proven guilty either by a standard of “clear and convincing evidence” or “beyond a reasonable doubt.” There must be proof before there is guilt and, as a matter of logic if not of justice, the accuser bears the burden of proof, because she is the one making an affirmative statement. Start by Believing inverts this principle and logic, eliminating Western justice in the process.

Unfortunately, the trauma-informed approach is gaining momentum, with training courses for law enforcement seeming to spring up everywhere. Most are held at universities where trauma-informed procedures have dominated Title IX investigations for the last decade; these investigations address allegations of sexual misconduct on campus and a “believe the women” ideology dominates. The spread of FETI is yet another instance of social justice policies spilling from campuses out onto Main Street.

Other factors contribute to the spread. A revolution in how law enforcement is perceived has occurred, with “Defund the Police!” being one of the loudest aspects. A righteous indignation at police brutality and immunity is fueling a rebellion against the status quo of law enforcement. Trauma-informed justice also grows because it is still grassroots; activists go directly to law enforcement agencies. This makes it largely invisible in the media and to the public, from which it encounters little resistance.

This needs to change. Trauma-informed justice must be opposed on three grounds: ethically, on the science, and on practicality.

The ethical case against trauma-informed justice has been made already: it introduces systemic bias into what should be an evidence-based, honest, and impartial process; it embeds unequal treatment under the law; it increases the likelihood of false convictions. It is unfair.

The increased likelihood of false convictions needs to be stressed, because the trauma and tragedy of false convictions is often ignored or diminished. This will proliferate because trauma-informed politics encourages law enforcement to become de facto advocates for an accuser and presume the guilt of an accused.

A commonly stated goal of the trauma-informed approach is to secure a “successful prosecution,” which refers to securing a conviction but makes no comment on whether the defendant may be innocent. After all, Start by Believing declares all accuseds to be immediately and automatically guilty, which obviates the need to discuss their possible innocence. When the police preemptively decide that an accused is guilty, research shows what common sense suspects. The police look for supporting evidence and tend to dismiss counterinformation due to confirmation bias. Again, wrongful convictions become more likely, especially since EVAWI instructsinvestigators on how to assist prosecutors in countering “potential defense strategies.”

Another reason trauma-informed justice gains ground: law enforcement is asked to listen “to the science.” The science of traumatized people remembering events in a disjointed or inconsistent manner is presented as “settled.” This is not true. Unbiased studies contradict the claims of trauma-informed justice. Daniel Reisberg’s “Emotion’s (Varied) Impact on Memory for Sexual Misconduct” found, for example: “These data suggest that traumatic events are likely to be well remembered.” At bare minimum, the nature of traumatized memories is a matter for vigorous debate, and untested ideology-based theories should not be fixed into policy.

The current standard police procedure is called the Reid method. It has three steps: factual analysis, interviewing, and interrogation. The factual analysis eliminates suspects and develops leads. Interviewing elicits investigative and behavioral information through nonaccusatory dialogue with accusers, suspects, and witnesses; the interview has nine well-defined stages. Interrogation involves subjecting a confirmed suspect to accusations in which the investigator claims to know the person is guilty and angles for a confession. Police investigations may be imperfect, but they have been tested and streamlined by time, with legal challenges providing protections to those being questioned.

In its “Report on the Use of the Forensic Experiential Trauma Interview (FETI) Technique” (2015), the United States Air Force Office of Special Investigations summarized its reluctance to replace an established protocol with trauma-informed techniques.

We believe it would be inappropriate and irresponsible to discontinue the use of a robust, well-studied, effective, and empirically-validated interviewing method that is supported by the latest scientific research (the Cognitive Interview), in favor of an interviewing method that is loosely-constructed, is based on flawed science, makes unfounded claims about its effectiveness, and has never once been tested, studied, researched or validated.

Social workers and therapists may need to start by believing the person they seek to heal. But the police are not mental health workers; they deal in cold, hard facts that have no gender or race. Investigators need to discern what is true or false about a situation rather than respond emotionally to it. In the process, some officers make mistakes and some act with malice; officers are human beings with all the flaws of shared humanity. The incompetence or malfeasance of individuals must be remedied, but neither one is an indictment of the principles of Western justice. Turning accusations into convictions only makes prisoners of innocent people.

Wendy McElroy is a Canadian individualist anarchist and individualist feminist. She was a cofounder along with Carl Watner and George H. Smith of The Voluntaryist magazine in 1982.

How the U.S. Could Lose to China

 

How the U.S. Could Lose to China

America’s unserious political class is totally 

unequipped to deal with the threat.

Ben Weingarten for The American Mind

The Chinese Communist Party is deathly serious in its pursuit of global hegemony, which, if achieved, would be a nightmare for all who believe in liberty and justice.

By contrast, can it be said of our political class that it is deathly serious about anything fundamental to preserving our way of life?

As 2021 dawns, contrast how the CCP ended last year, with how America’s leaders started this one.

The CCP should have come out of 2020 badly wounded, withering under severe isolation and punishment from a newly resolute West spurred to action over China’s primary culpability in the cover-up and spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, it rang in the new year with a diplomatic, economic, and strategic coup—all with the aid of the West.

China and the European Union agreed in principle to an investment pact that the EU’s president described as “an important landmark in our relationship with China” that would “provide unprecedented access to the Chinese market for European investors.” This was quite a reward given China’s depredations—from the coronavirus casualties on Europe’s streets, to the victims of the crackdown on Hong Kong, to the prisoners in the mushrooming Xinjiang gulags.

The agreement enabled China to drive a wedge between America and its putative allies and partners, reap the pecuniary benefits, and generate a golden opportunity to exert even greater leverage and therefore control over Europe by binding it ever-closer economically and, by necessity, politically and socially.

All in all, China capped a year that could have proven catastrophic for its ambitions by notching a major victory as it continued its ruthless pursuit of global power and influence. Besides which, it exposed our friends’ stated devotion to the so-called liberal international order, and concerns about the environment and human rights, as hollow—particularly given China’s worst-in-class record on the last two counts. Above all, it revealed the EU’s, greed, cowardice, and most concerningly, its readiness to hedge should Communist China eclipse the U.S. as the dominant world power.

What might give it such an idea?

Consider what was happening in Washington, D.C.

Joe Biden’s team’s reacted in toothless fashion to the then-impending EU-China investment pact, stating it “would welcome early consultations with our European partners on our common concerns about China’s economic practices.” Those concerns are not standing in the way of Team Biden’s desire, however, to “cooperate” with Beijing, the world’s largest polluter, on climate change—which Biden claims is a greater threat than China—nor to “engage” with it in the strategically vital realm of space. For the first time in his nearly 50-year career, Biden himself is acknowledging that China presents multiple challenges, but that is about the best that can be said of the arguably compromised, erstwhile loud and proud China cheerleader. One will search in vain for a single piece of evidence that would give the likes of the EU the impression that a Biden administration would be more serious about taking on China than a Trump one. For its part, Communist China has indicated it will welcome a President Biden with open arms.

Meanwhile, Washington’s lack of seriousness on other matters showed too.

Fresh off the heels of passing a pork-laden spending bill unmoored from its headline aim of providing relief from the economic hardship our political class inflicted upon us through its arbitrary, capricious, and draconian coronavirus response—a bill that lavished billions of dollars on projects ranging from “gender programs” in Pakistan, to failing Amtrak, to the closed Kennedy Center—Congress turned to other vital matters.

The House Rules Committee proposed a slew of changes for the next Congress, including, according to a press release, “honor[ing] all gender identities by changing pronouns and familial relationships in the House rules to be gender neutral.”

All of these events transpired before Congress demonstrated its overwhelming refusal to show even a modicum of interest in investigating the corruption of the 2020 presidential election (while telegraphing it would federalize its assault on election integrity going forward); endeavored to undertake another dubious and pathetic impeachment effort; and threatened to further exploit the Capitol Hill riot by violating the rights of Americans directly and via their adjuncts in Big Tech. Punishing and purging dissenters from the bipartisan establishment’s orthodoxy indeed seems to be the one thing of consequence the feds are truly serious about.

In the spirit of the new rules package, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) concluded his opening prayer for the 117th Congress by saying “amen…and a-woman.”

It would seem clear that in 2021, as concerns Congress, we can expect still-greater profligacy with a side of gender pronouns.

Surely, one would think members of our political class would at least show some seriousness with respect to the coronavirus pandemic for which they advocated we upend our lives for months on end. Yet, demonstrating how unserious they were about the stringent epidemic-combatting standards they enthusiastically endorsed, several Democrat House members who recently tested positive for the coronavirus nevertheless returned to the nation’s capital to cast their vote to re-elect Speaker Pelosi.

If you thought maybe things at the state level looked brighter, think again. 

On China, governor’s offices around the country responded with almost unanimous silence to my inquiries about what measures they were taking to combat the CCP’s malign influence.

With respect to the not only economically disastrous, and socially ruinous, but liberty-imperiling state and local level coronavirus responses, the Empire State showed the potential for ever-greater tyranny on the horizon.

A New York assemblyman put up a bill for consideration that would allow the governor or official of his choosing by order to detain and/or remove individuals or groups of individuals to a “medical facility or other appropriate facility” should the governor believe they “pose an imminent and significant threat to the public health resulting in severe morbidity or high mortality” during a pandemic.

In sum, at every level, we see unseriousness among wide swathes of our political class: About the threats facing us, and the values and principles that we must rekindle if we are to be able to counter them. Many of our putative leaders refuse to take the China challenge remotely as seriously as China is taking its march to power. Many have put Climatism, Wokeism and pandemic hysteria over America’s interests, freedoms, prudence, and frankly, sanity.

That not just the political class but the ruling class itself is literally and figuratively invested in China’s rise for decades, only makes the situation more grim.

Nothing is preordained about China’s ascent, or America’s decline.

But China’s rise will become a self-fulfilling prophecy if our most formidable adversary remains doggedly devoted to its cause, while America’s “elites” are devoted to any other cause but that of putting America, its people, and their liberty and justice first.

 

Article by Alex Robinson in Outdoor Life

 

Where’s All the Damn Ammo? Federal Premium’s President Has Some Answers

Are ammunition companies hoarding their supplies? Have they stopped making ammo altogether? In short, no. Here’s what’s really going on

Last week I was riding around South Texas with Jason Vanderbrink, the president of ammunition for Vista Outdoor. In other words, he’s the big boss for Federal Premium Ammunition, CCI, Speer, and now Remington ammunition. This is a pretty wild time to be running an ammo company: There are an estimated 7 million new gun owners in the U.S. this year, consumers have been panic-buying rounds in everything from .22LR to .300 Win. Mag., and retailers are backordered for months; plus, there’s the global pandemic complicating supply chains and workers’ safety.

So, we know the question that’s on the minds of every hunter and shooter: Where’s the ammo?

Frustration over the ammo shortage has created some pretty fun conspiracy theories. These are probably the top three: 1) Companies are stockpiling their product to drive up demand; 2) Ammo plants have shutdown completely; 3) Ammo companies are in cahoots to stop selling to civilians and are now selling only to the military. It’s worth noting that similar conspiracy theories cropped up during the panic buying and ammo shortages of 2014. It’s also worth noting that none of these conspiracies are true.

There’s No Crystal Ball for Ammo Sales

The reality behind the ammo shortage is a lot less provocative. After a few years of tough sledding, ammo companies now simply can’t keep up with the unprecedented demand.

“It’s easy to be a Monday morning quarterback,” says Vanderbrink. “During the Trump Administration, for all ammunition companies, it was a tough business. The industry was over capacity and that leads companies to not invest in expansion or refrain from capital expenditures that may be needed.”

During the Obama Administration, some consumers feared stricter firearm regulations and bought as many guns and as much ammunition as they could. That tailed off significantly when Trump was elected. (Folks in the firearm industry call this the “Trump Slump.”) The FBI tracks background checks before firearms purchases through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which is the closest measure we have for tracking firearm purchases. Firearm background checks have increased almost every single year since 2002, except for Trump’s first year in office, when they decreased from 27.5 million in 2016 to 25.2 million in 2017. Federal had to lay off 200 employees in 2017. In 2020, there were 39.7 million firearm background checks.

 “So when the market turned in March, we were coming off of a tough three-year business cycle.” Vanderbrink says. “[At the time,] the furthest thing from our mind was expanding capacity. So when the market tuned so fast you had two problems: There was certainly not the labor available and, two, it takes time to train people...You just can’t turn on a dime. You can’t go hire hundreds of people overnight, train them and boom, on Friday you have more ammo. It just doesn’t work that way, it’s impossible. The key takeaway is that the business had been tough for three years and we had to right the ship, if you will. And then when demand exploded, it’s impossible to react that fast.”

Raw Material Shortage

Accessing materials has been another challenge for all ammo companies and for individual reloaders. Primers are hard to come by since there’s been such a surge in factory ammo. And brass is another challenge, Vanderbrink says.

“The brass market for the most part is seeing unprecedented demand not only in the ammo market but the national coin shortage and that is certainly driving brass prices up and availability down,” he says. “Brass is a hard commodity to acquire right now and every round that any ammo company makes, for the most part, has brass in it.”

But manufacturers are making ammo, and lots of it. Vanderbrink has taken to YouTube to put some of the conspiracy theories to rest. His first video, shot inside the Federal factory in Anoka, Minnesota, has more than 1.7 million views. 

“I’m tired of all the hate mail, I’m tired of people showing up at our factories, I’m tired of reading the misinformation out on the internet right now about us not trying to service the demand that we’re experiencing,” Vanderbrink says in the beginning of the video.

In a follow-up video, he answers the common complaint: Where is all the hunting ammo? 

 

“Federal has been around for 99 years and we’ve made more hunting ammo this year than we have in [any of] the 99 years of our company. Certainly that wasn’t enough, we understand that.”

Vista Adds Remington Ammo to the Fold

Besides turning out rounds at the Federal plant, Vista is focused on getting the Remington ammunition plant running at full capacity in Lonoke, Arkansas. Vista purchased Remington ammunition and its assets and the Remington trademark in October after the Remington Outdoor Company filed for bankruptcy. Currently, Vista is bringing back furloughed employees and hiring hundreds of new ones to get Remington Ammunition back on its feet.

“Ultimately the consumer wins with this acquisition,” Vanderbrink says, who got his start in the ammunition business as a salesman for Remington. “We’re going to invest heavily in the brand, we’re going to invest heavily in the facility, and we’re going to modernize it. At the end of the day, the American worker wins, and the end consumer wins… We will get production up and going and that will help [ammo] availability.”

No one is quite sure when the ammo shortage will end, but it likely won’t be any time soon. In November, Vista reported a year’s worth of backlogged ammunition orders in excess of $1 billion.

“it’s going to be awhile,” Vanderbrink says. “All the shelves are empty, so we’ll have to fill the shelves. Understanding the political climate in our country and the social unrest…all of those factors create demand. So I won’t speculate, but getting the Remington factory up at max production will help the end consumer for sure.”

 https://www.outdoorlife.com/story/guns/wheres-all-the-damn-ammo-federal-premiums-president-has-some-answers/

 

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Trump Makes First Public...

 https://www.theepochtimes.com/trump-makes-first-public-comments-since-leaving-office_3667881.html?

Trump Makes First Public Comments Since Leaving Office

Former President Donald Trump said Friday in his first public comments since leaving office that he’ll make a comeback in some way but didn’t elaborate.

“We’ll do something, but not just yet,” Trump told Rob Crilly of the Washington Examiner on Friday. He didn’t provide more details.

Trump made the comment while dining at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, according to the Examiner article.

On Wednesday morning, before leaving for Florida, Trump made similar remarks about being “back in some form.”

“I will tell you that the future of this country has never been better. I wish the new administration great luck and great success. I think they’ll have great success. They have the foundation to do something really spectacular,” Trump told supporters hours before President Joe Biden was inaugurated.

Trump told supporters “you’re going to see incredible numbers coming in”—referring to the U.S. economy—if the Biden administration leaves his policies unchecked. However, on the first day of his administration, Biden moved to undo a number of Trump’s executive orders on immigration, suspending the Keystone XL pipeline, removing Trump’s 1776 Commission, and more.

“I want you to know that the movement we started is only just beginning. There’s never been anything like it,” Trump also said Tuesday in a pre-recorded video posted online.

Also Friday, former Trump adviser Stephen Miller told the Washington Examiner that “Florida is really the perfect place to be the new HQ of the MAGA movement and a launching pad for the president’s next endeavor.”

Miller said that Trump could play a role politically.

“He leaves with the certain knowledge that he put everything you have into the mission,” added Miller. “This movement is beginning. This movement is a young movement. It’s still in its infancy and the president—his own journey is still only begun.”

Some advisers have suggested he’ll get involved in the 2022 midterm races and could run for president in 2024.

“Trump has a number of goals over the next couple of years … winning back the House and the Senate for Republicans in 2022 to make sure that we can stop the Democratic craziness,” said another former adviser, Jason Miller, earlier this week.

Miller asserted that Trump will “emerge as the nation’s leader on ballot and voter integrity.”

The Senate, controlled by Democrats now, is aiming to convict Trump after the House impeached him. If the Senate convicts Trump, he could be possibly barred from becoming president again.

The Epoch Times has reached out to the Trump Organization for comment.

Biden Rescinds Trump Order Banning Chinese Communist Involvement In US Power Grid

Natalie Winters reporting for The National Pulse

President Biden has revoked a Trump-era executive order that sought to keep foreign countries and companies out of America’s bulk power systems – principally entities associated with the Chinese Communist Party – as part of his “Executive Order on Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis.”

The executive order, which executes key tenets of President Biden’s climate change agenda, was released on the former Veep’s first day in office.

Section 7 of the massive order, which includes the revocation of the permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline, also revokes several climate and energy-focused executive orders penned by the Trump administration.

Subpoint C notes that “Executive Order 13920 of May 1, 2020 (Securing the United States Bulk-Power System), is hereby suspended for 90 days.”

The Trump-era order sought to ban, replace, and set new criteria on bulk-power system (BPS) electric equipment coming from a foreign country or national that poses a national security threat.

“Foreign adversaries are increasingly creating and exploiting vulnerabilities in the United States bulk-power system, which provides the electricity that supports our national defense, vital emergency services, critical infrastructure, economy, and way of life. The bulk-power system is a target of those seeking to commit malicious acts against the United States and its people, including malicious cyber activities, because a successful attack on our bulk-power system would present significant risks to our economy, human health and safety, and would render the United States less capable of acting in defense of itself and its allies,” the introduction to the executive order read.

The move “prohibited any acquisition, importation, transfer, or installation of BPS electric equipment by any person or with respect to any property to which a foreign country or a national thereof has any interest, that poses an undue risk to the BPS, the security or resiliency of U.S. critical infrastructure or the U.S. economy, or U.S. national security or the security and safety of U.S. persons.”

The DOE was also tasked with identifying existing BPS electric equipment that violated the aforementioned prescription and “develop recommendations to identify, isolate, monitor, or replace this equipment as appropriate.”

Released on May 1st, 2020, the powers provided in the executive order were utilized by the DOE in early December concerning the Chinese Communist Party.

As of January 16, 2021, then-Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette issued a “prohibition order designed to reduce the risks that entities associated with the People’s Republic of China pose to the Nation’s BPS.”

“The order prohibits utilities that supply critical defense facilities (CDF) from procuring from the People’s Republic of China, specific BPS electric equipment that poses an undue risk to the BPS, the security or resilience of critical infrastructure, the economy, national security, or safety and security of Americans,” a press release adds.

Now, according to Biden’s executive order, the fate of the executive order and America’s BPS rests in the hands of Biden’s Secretary of Energy and Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB):

“The Secretary of Energy and the Director of OMB shall jointly consider whether to recommend that a replacement order be issued.”

The National Pulse exposed Biden’s OMB Head as formerly serving as the president of the Center for American Progress (CAP), an establishment think tank that has taken trips to China and co-authored reports alongside a Chinese Communist Party-backed influence operation.

What’s more, Biden’s son Hunter was previously involved in several business relationships with CEFC China Energy Chairman Ye Jianming.

“After his father left office in 2017, Hunter Biden worked on securing a deal with CEFC China Energy to invest in US energy projects, according to documents released by Republicans,” CNN noted.

Similarly, an investment firm headed by Hunter Biden funneled millions into China General Nuclear Power Corp, a state-owned power company guilty of stealing American nuclear technology for use by the Chinese Communist Party for decades.

Hope For Humanity: Here Are 7 Things The Left And Right Still Agree On

Babylon Bee🐝

You may think America is a deeply divided nation, but you're wrong! Americans actually have a ton in common, and we're gonna prove it to you. Let's take a moment together to reflect on what unites us as people. Let the healing and unity begin.

Here are 7 things Americans still agree on: 

All lives matter - Oh shoot-- we didn't mean that. We are so sorry. Let's try again. Let's see...

The Pope is Catholic - no wait...we're actually not sure about this one either.

Boys shouldn't be allowed in girls restrooms - We've just been informed that this is hate speech. We retract it and are deeply sorry for any hurt we have caused. 

Trump's kind of a moron, right? - Please put your gun away-- we were just kidding. 

2+2=4 - That's good! We all agree, right? ...No? Shoot... 

Let's see...

Ice Cream is good - No, it contains dairy. Potatoes are good? No, thousands died from potato famines. Maybe Ketchup? No, it’s red like MAGA hats. We give up.

 

...Ok, this might be harder than we thought. Let's take baby steps here. 

1. We live... we all live in America? - That's true, right? Ok, we're getting somewhere! 

2. The sky is blue! - We're allowed to say that, right? Is that ok? 

3. Bernie memes... those are pretty funny, right? - Ok, we're on a roll now!  

4. Video games are kinda neat - Especially that nonviolent one where the main character didn't do anything offensive. Yeah, that one was good. 

5. The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell - Science. We believe in it. 

6. Hillary is a fine, upstanding citizen who has never done anything wrong and we would never say anything bad about her - You agree with this. Listen-- just nod your head, ok? 

7. Things could be better, and the other side is the cause of all the problems - Duh. We all know that. 

 

Not bad! This is a great start! Can you feel that warm feeling bubbling up inside you? That's unity. Feels good, doesn't it? Go forth and be unified! 

 

Article by J.B. Shurk in The American Thinker

 

Obey, America, for Your Own Good!

I have an old Nigerian friend who has filled my head with so many traditional Igbo proverbs that I sometimes forget whether I'm recalling folksy American wisdom or folksy Igbo wisdom.  (When it has anything to do with yams, it's the latter.)  These days, I can't stop thinking about a sage little gem he threw my way long ago.  I consulted his advice on a particularly difficult decision confronting me, and he just nodded his head and said, "Yes, a large fly has landed on your nether regions."  When I raised an eyebrow in his direction, he said gravely, "Whether you swat it away or leave it there, you're in trouble."

That seems, to me, to sum up the whole awful reality smacking freedom-minded Americans across the face day after day.  We know there's something terribly wrong in our country, but there's no good way to remedy the situation without causing ourselves a great deal of pain.

If you question how the Constitution empowers local municipal tyrants to combat illness by unilaterally sentencing Americans to house arrest, confiscating their places of business, and separating them from their families, nobody even pretends the Constitution still exists.  It doesn't matter whether wearing a mask reduces the spread of disease or just forces people to touch their faces routinely with unclean hands and dirty strips of cloth; you have been told to wear a mask!  It doesn't matter whether social isolation causes more deaths than the Chinese virus or whether enforced business closures permanently destroy Americans' futures; science must be obeyed, even when it's routinely wrong.  Especially when it's wrong!  Government fiat works, you see, only when common people are trained to abandon common sense.  When people know that rules are absurd but follow them nonetheless, they are finally progressive enough to do exactly as the government commands!

Freedom of the press still exists, fellow Americans, but only if the press chooses its words carefully.  

If you refuse to swallow the official state narrative on the 2020 presidential election and instead question the deluge of voting irregularities in battleground states, you will be ridiculed as a nutjob, deprived of your free speech, and threatened with financial and professional harm.  If you gather together with millions of Americans who feel the same way, then you will be branded a terrorist, deprived of your freedom of association, and targeted by the FBI and local district attorneys for crimes you did not commit.

We are herded like dumb animals, whipped and cursed until we learn to accept the politically correct truths fabricated from one day to the next.  (In the progressive mind, truth is never to be sought but always to be shaped.)  Bureaucrats and elected officials entrusted with safeguarding American freedoms instead bully Americans into silence and compliance.  Private companies eagerly join in the persecution parties by throwing people with incorrect thoughts on no-fly lists and banning them from commercial services and common courtesies.  And an army of belligerent tattletales spend their days enforcing every new government edict upon the populace by shaming and threatening thought offenders through the weaponization of anonymous online hate mobs.  Most of these digital vigilantes are happy to target their countrymen for free.  Authoritarianism succeeds only when populations enthusiastically police themselves.

If the United States of America is still freedom's "last, best hope," that distinction does not include the District of Columbia.  In honor of the new administration, the capital was barricaded up just like the old checkpoints once separating East and West Berlin.  Everything's fine, though.  This is all quite normal.  Sure, Lafayette Square looks a little like Tiananmen Square circa 1989.  No big deal.  Move along, citizen.  Nothing to see.

Joe Biden is the most popularly elected president in the history of the United States — so popular in fact, that a large army has taken over the streets of D.C. just to prove how popular he really is.  Stop questioning his election!  He's tremendously popular, okay?  The overwhelming military and security forces surrounding the new president are there so Americans can see for themselves that no elected president has ever been more popular.  Really, really popular presidents always require huge armies when their regimes are installed.  Truly.  Just ask the Cubans who voted for Castro.

For our entertainment, the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda produced a Hollywood spectacle filled with Hollywood stars to celebrate Joe Biden's inauguration because it's important for Americans to be happy about the new government at all times.  Don't call it conditioning!  This is about "unity."  We're all in this together (except for those who refuse to learn and must therefore be deplatformed and punished).  And anyway, Tom Hanks is a big supporter of Joe Biden.  Don't you like Tom Hanks?  He's America's "everyman."  How can you not trust Tom Hanks and still consider yourself an American?  Someone should add that to the popular president's list of first day executive orders: if you do not believe what Tom Hanks is selling you, then you are no longer an American.  (Amazingly, your replacement is already here and checking in at the unenforced southern border.)

So, just to be clear about where we now stand: 

The Constitution's out sick because of Chinese Flu.  You still get to say and print what you want so long as what you have to say conforms to whatever CNN has to say.  If you stick up for the Founding Fathers who fought for our freedoms, you're likely a "white supremacist," but if you destroy monuments to the Founding Fathers, you're a freedom fighter.  It's patriotic to inform on your neighbors for violating government health decrees but unpatriotic to pray with your neighbors in church.  Rioters who destroy cities are protesting for democracy, but Americans protesting for free and fair elections are threatening democracy.  It's good and noble to burn down buildings around the White House when members of Congress promise to pay for arsonists' bail, but breaching the Capitol perimeter is no less tragic than Pearl Harbor.  Social media protect speech by silencing it.  News corporations protect freedom of the press by urging the censorship of points of view.  Americans can no longer be trusted with guns because they might use them to protect their natural rights.  The only person ever to receive more votes than Donald Trump is Joe Biden, but Americans are supposed to remember at all times that Donald Trump is immensely unpopular while Joe Biden is historically loved.  And so many Americans support the incoming president that he requires a standing army to ensure his safe installation.  In America.  The "land of the free."  Got it.

If all that doesn't already add up to an unrelenting, parasitic fly and a precarious decision, then at the very least, the buzzing sure is getting loud around here.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/01/obey_america_for_your_own_good.html#ixzz6kNsUN5WJ

 

 

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