Biden’s $700 Checks to Hawaii Fire Victims Won’t Even Cover Their Share of Ukraine Bill

Elle Purnell reporting for The Federalist 

President Joe Biden announced his administration would send relief payments to the tune of $700 per household to Hawaiians whose homes, communities, and loved ones were tragically lost in a sudden blaze last week that devastated the historic town of Lahaina on the island of Maui. Those checks, however, won’t even cover each household’s portion of the $113 billion in aid packages the United States has billed taxpayers for the war in Ukraine, which averages almost $900 per household.

After the cantankerous president told reporters he had “no comment” for the Maui victims as he lounged at the beach near his Delaware vacation home, the Biden administration scrambled to do damage control with more updates about help for Maui on Monday. The staffer who runs Biden’s Twitter account — who also apparently runs that of Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre — tweeted that the government will generously be doling out a “one-time $700 payment per household offering relief during an unimaginably difficult time.”

The “Critical Needs Assistance,” which will be administered by FEMA, will be available to “applicants who were displaced from their homes and have critical needs,” according to the White House. It’s designed to be put toward water, groceries, and other urgent sustenance. Judging by average grocery costs in Hawaii, $700 would last a family of four just over a week — but that’s not even considering the obvious added difficulties present for survivors of the deadliest wildfire the country has experienced in a century.

The fire’s death toll has surpassed 100, but with some 1,300 people still missing, responders expect it to climb far higher. Thousands of buildings, mostly homes, were destroyed, and the damage costs are in the billions.

In the meantime, the bill Washington policymakers are charging American taxpayers for the war in Ukraine has cost each household an average of nearly $900 so far — or more than 125 percent of what the Biden administration is now so benevolently offering back to devastated Maui families.

“According to the Congressional Budget Office, the U.S. had about 127.9 million households during fiscal year 2022, which ended last September, making the estimated cost for the approved aid to Ukraine per American household about $884,” reported The Daily Signal last week.

Siphoning almost $900 off your income to send overseas and then insisting you be thankful when you’re “gifted” part of that money back to rebuild your entire life only makes sense in Common Core math. But that’s the government for you, right?

X22, And we Know, and more- August 18

 

The Great China-American Abyss ~ VDH

One way to get along with China is to deal with it exactly the way it deals with the U.S.

by Victor Davis Hanson for American Greatness

Imagine if the United States treated China in the same way it does us?

What if American companies simply ignored Chinese copyrights and patents, and stole Chinese ideas, inventions, and intellectual property, as they pleased and with impunity?

What if the American government targeted Chinese industries by dumping competing American export products at below the cost of production—to bankrupt Chinese competitors and corner their markets?

What would the communist Chinese government do if a huge American spy balloon lazily traversed continental China—sending back to the United States photographic surveillance of Chinese military bases and installations?

How would China react to American stonewalling any explanation, much less refusing to apologize for such an American attack on Chinese sovereignty?

Envision a U.S. high-security virology lab in the Midwest, run by the Pentagon, allowing the escape of an engineered, gain-of-function deadly virus.

Instead of enlisting world cooperation to stop the spread of the virus, the American government would lie that it sprung up from a local bat or wild possum.

Washington would then make all its relevant military scientists disappear who were assigned to the lab, while ordering a complete media blackout.

America would forbid Chinese scientists from contacting their American counterparts involved in the lab, despite the deaths of more than 1 million Chinese from the American-manufactured disease.

And what if during the first days of the pandemic Washington had quietly prevented all foreign travel to the United States, while keeping open one-way direct flights from America to major Chinese cities?

How would Beijing respond if American biotech company warehouses were discovered in rural China with unsecured vials of deadly viruses and pathogens?

Would China be angered that it was never notified by an American company that it had left abandoned COVID and HIV viruses and malaria parasites in its facilities—along with rotting genetically engineered dead rats littering the floors with hundreds more lab animals abandoned in laboratory cages?

What would Chairman Xi Jinping have done if American-made fentanyl was shipped in massive quantities to nearby Tibet on the Chinese border? And what if it would be deliberately repackaged there as deceptive recreational drugs and smuggled into China, where it annually killed 100,000 Chinese youth, year after year?

What if 10,000 Americans this year illegally crossed the Indian border into China and disappeared into its interior?

What if an allied Asian nation—such as South Korea, Japan, or Taiwan—went nuclear. And what if, in North-Korean style, it serially blustered to send one of its nuclear missiles into the major cities of China?

What if almost monthly China discovered an American military operative teaching incognito at a major Chinese university or among the ranks of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army?

Would China object if an American femme fatale agent was sleeping with a high-ranking Chinese official of the Chinese communist politburo?

Or what if one of the chauffeurs of its top ranking Chinese officials was a nearly two-decade-long American agent?

What would be the Chinese reaction if there were 350,000 American students attending schools all over the Chinese nation, with perhaps 3,000-4,000 of them actively engaged in national security espionage on behalf of the United States?

These “what-ifs” could be expanded endlessly. But they reflect well enough the great asymmetry in the bizarre Chinese-American relationship.

Obviously, China would not tolerate America treating it as it does the Americans.

Why then does the imbalance continue?

Do naïve Americans believe that the more China is indulged, the more it will respond in kind to American magnanimity?

Does the United States believe that the more China is exposed to our supposedly radically democratic and free culture, the sooner it will become a good democratic citizen of the global community?

Are we afraid of China, because it has four times our population, and believes its economy and military will overtake ours in a decade?

Are we terrified that its ruthless Chinese government is completely amoral, utterly ruthless, and capable of anything?

Or are our political, cultural, and corporate elites so compromised by their lucrative Chinese investments and joint ventures, that they prioritize profits over their own country’s national security and self-interest?

And did the Biden family—including President Joe Biden himself—in the past receive millions of dollars from Chinese energy and investment interests?

Did Hunter Biden’s quid pro quo decade of grifting result in millions in Chinese money filling the Biden family coffers—all in exchange for the current Biden and past Obama administrations going soft on Chinese aggression?

No one seems able to explain the otherwise inexplicable.

But one way to get along with China, and to regain its respect is to deal with it exactly the way it deals with the United States.

Anything less, and America will continually be treated with even more Chinese contempt—and eventually extreme violence.

WATCH: Kristi Noem Lights up Hillary Clinton Over Trump Indictment Cackling, Tells It Like It Is

Sister Toldjah reporting for RedState 

One of the more troubling yet telling reactions to the Fulton County District Attorney's indictment against former President Donald Trump this week came from twice-failed Democratic candidate for president Hillary Clinton, who was a guest on MSNBC Tuesday night, allegedly to talk about something completely unrelated before the indictment was handed down.

As we previously reported, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow and Clinton both were gleeful over Trump's predicament, with Clinton literally laughing out loud at the turning of America into a banana republic where the judicial system can be politicized and weaponized against your political opponents: 

“Oh, I can’t believe this,” a giddy Clinton said while laughing and leaning back in her chair.

“This is not the circumstances in which I expected to be talking to you,” the liberal MSNBC host said to the former Democratic presidential candidate who lost to Trump in 2016.

“Nor me, Rachel,” Clinton replied. “It’s always good to talk to you but honestly I didn’t think it’d be under these circumstances — yet another set of indictments.”

For those who missed it, watch:

At another point during the interview, they both - without a shred of self-awareness regarding their respective penchants for election denialism - talked about how important it was that people have trust in the electoral process and how vital it was for candidates to be able to admit when they lost rather than drag something out because they can't accept they were defeated. 

"...it maybe wounds us as a democracy and in a way that's hard to repair" otherwise, Maddow proclaimed.

No, seriously. That's what they talked about. Watch:

In a recent media appearance, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem was asked about Clinton's cackling, and Noem absolutely let Clinton have it, saying Clinton made her "sick" because she was literally laughing at "the breaking of America":

"She makes me sick. What's happening right now in this country is a literal breaking of America. It's a breaking of America because they are proving to us that there is no equal protection under the law, there is no treating every citizen the same. They're using this as a weapon to destroy a political opponent and ignoring the violation of crimes that their own party and their own friends have committed.  So, to have someone that has had so much information, recognizes the consequences of this type of inaction to openly sit on national TV and laugh? That person doesn't love America. That person doesn't love our freedom, our Republic as it was created by our great founders. Yeah, she makes me sick, and the fact that she is lightheartedly laughing at this breaking of our foundation and our Constitutional rights."

Watch:

As I've said before, Hillary Clinton (and Stacey Abrams) are two of the very last people on this planet who should be standing up front and center preaching about how it's important to "respect the results" of the "democratic process" or whatever - but they are, because the same media figures who refuse to interview Trump and his surrogates because of their "election denialism" fall to their feet in reverence for the Hillary Clintons and Stacey Abrams of this world.  It's Democrat Privilege in action.

Honestly, it's why a growing number of people on both the left and the right are suspect of not just the electoral process here but over the pious lectures from our supposed intellectual betters on how we should "respect our sacred institutions" -  unless they tell us otherwise, as Hillary Clinton has done for the seven years since she lost in 2016. Not to mention how she and her campaign and the Obama-Biden administration perpetuated the Russia collusion hoax in an effort to derail Trump's 2016 campaign.

Yeah, pretty sure I'll accept Hillary Clinton's lectures on trusting the process on like the 12th of Never.

The GOP Had Better Prove Its Uses and Soon

posted by Brandon Morse at RedStateVIP 

While I wouldn't say they're an entirely absent party, I often find myself asking where Republicans were on too many subjects. Too often, they resemble Democrat enablers than any kind of opposition party, either because they went right along with the Democrat's plan or because they simply didn't put up a strong enough fight after talking a big game. 

Republicans are simply losing faith in the Republican Party. Back in December of last year, the GOP voted by majority to fund the Democrat's omnibus bill that would infuse the very agencies that have historically attacked conservatives with billions of dollars. The GOP then had the nerve to tweet out "Republicans believe in limited government." 

The response from Republicans and conservatives was nothing short of brutal. 

(READ: It Took a Single Tweet to Prove the GOP and Republican Voters Aren't Friends)

The schism within the GOP is pretty evident. Kevin McCarthy had to wheel, deal, and fight tooth and nail to become House Speaker with a myriad of Republicans celebrating every time he failed to get the vote. He finally did to tepid applause. The reason was simple; McCarthy had proven on more than one occasion to be Republican with Democrat-lite tendencies, and the revolt from within his own party was a consequence of this. 

It's not just McCarthy that's the problem either. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has been a thorn in the side of his own party for years. His disdain for members of his own party loses us elections, and that was demonstrated in vibrant technicolor during the midterms when McConnell badmouthed Republican candidates and even stripped them of campaign funds if they didn't fall in line with his wishes. While it's undeniable that he's helped Republicans achieve some massive wins in the past, his sins weigh heavy and they drag the party down. 

There's a good reason he's the least popular senator in America, even among the GOP. 

This enablement of Democrats by Republicans shines brightly in our corrupted, two-tiered justice system. Democrats can do whatever they want, be as corrupt as they want, and abusive as they want with no backlash save for some tough talk from Republicans. No legal trouble will befall them and they will face no consequences, empowering and enabling them to continue deeper into corruption. 

This is perfectly demonstrated by the Hunter Biden scandal, which continues to weigh on Republicans like an albatross around the neck. It's clear that the Biden family is deeply involved in some serious crimes, yet the Bidens either suffer nothing more than a slap on the wrist if anything at all. Republicans spend a lot of time on television and social media posts talking a big game, but no axes fall. They seem content to farm popularity and donations off the back of every Democrat scandal while doing little about it. 

After a time, one begins to wonder if Republicans somehow benefit from Democrat corruption as it greases the wheels for fundraising dollars. 

Meanwhile, Democrats utilize our justice system to punish their political opponents. Everyone in the nation, including every Republican, should be standing up and denouncing the purely political lawfare being waged against Donald Trump whether you like the guy or plan to vote for him or not. Yet, too many Republicans are standing by and allowing it to happen. They stay mum or even cheer it on because they simply dislike the man. 

The effects of this silence will be devastating. Not only are Democrats learning they can punish their political opponents, but they're also learning that they can use lawfare to get their way in any given situation. Today it's Trump...tomorrow it's you. 

(READ: Breaking Trump, Breaking America)

Both Hunter Biden and the attacks on Trump are continued proof that the GOP is weak and passive, and it creates a very serious divide within the party and a lack of faith that could easily give an independent cold feet during an election as well.

Republicans are not a united front, and we all know what happens to divided houses. 

That's not to say there aren't shining stars within the GOP. There are examples to follow. Kentucky Senator Rand Paul continues to prove to be the how-to to McConnell's how-not. Texas Rep. Chip Roy is also an example I wish other Republicans would dutifully follow.

(READ: Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell: The Do's and Don'ts of Republicanism)

As I reported Thursday, the supermajorities in North Carolina's House and Senate have been pushing through important legislation, and slapping down Democrat Governor Roy Cooper's consistent attempts to veto it all. 

(READ: North Carolina Republicans are Manhandling the State's Pro-Child Mutilating Democrat Governor)

That's not even mentioning the complete Republican domination of Florida by Governor Ron DeSantis and the Republican House and Senate which has been suffocating the Democrat Party to death at every turn.

It's not that we don't have an opposition party, it's just that the party refuses to oppose too often. These instances of victories or actions are the exception, not the rule. 

All they have to do is act and begin making being corrupt a painful affair. It won't be a peaceful undertaking and things might get colder between the parties than they've ever been, but peace is swiftly becoming no option at all:

As my colleague Ward Clark brilliantly wrote in his own piece on this subject: 

Sure, it would be preferable if American national politics was the sane, measured, collegial process it has been since... well, never. But this use of lawfare is something rather new. And there's an argument to be made here, namely that the GOP needs to apply a little sauce to the goose.

Nobody should want to see this happen. But neither should anyone be willing to have the GOP just sit back and let the Left walk all over them, dragging them into court on phony indictments and making them spend small fortunes defending themselves against bull leavings.

The bottom line here is that the GOP doesn't have much longer to prove that it has what it takes to be the Sheriff America needs it to be. The waning faith in the party isn't going to help it come election time, but more importantly, the catastrophic result of a Democrat Party that has learned it can act with reckless abandon will be blamed on Republicans, and people will be right to blame it. 

To be clear, I want the Republican Party to win, but what's the point of voting for a Republican Party if there isn't one? It's a question many will ask themselves come election time. Even if they do manage to overtake Democrats and win the White House, failure to be more than tough-talking paper tigers will only empower the left more. 

The GOP needs to start becoming an offensive force and leave its defensive strategies behind, and it needs to start yesterday. 

Finally! One GOP Georgia State Senator Is Fighting Back Against Trump-Prosecuting DA Willis

Becky Noble reporting for RedState 

As former President Donald Trump faces yet another indictment, his supporters are growing increasingly frustrated with House and Senate Republicans in Washington, who are not exactly running to microphones to defend Trump. But after the most recent indictment in Fulton County, Georgia, at least one state lawmaker has had enough and is fighting back. 

Colton Moore is a Republican State Senator in Georgia representing the 53rd State Senate district, an area north of Rome in the northeast corner of the state. On Thursday, Moore sent a letter to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, announcing he would be pushing for an emergency session of the legislature to conduct a full investigation into the actions of Fulton County Prosecutor Fani Willis.

The usual names have come forth to defend Trump, even though some might be obligatory. House Speaker Kevin McCarty issued a statement on X (Twitter) that said: 

Justice should be blind, but Biden has weaponized government against his leading political opponent to interfere in the 2024 election. Now a radical DA in Georgia is following Biden’s lead by attacking President Trump and using it to fundraise her political career. Americans see through this desperate sham.

Other House members who have traditionally supported Trump, including Reps. Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Tayor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Byron Donalds, and Andy Biggs, have spoken out about the indictment, and each has called out a "two-tiered justice system." In the Senate, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has stayed silent on the most recent Trump indictment, a move that has become the norm for him. South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham has criticized the selection of three of the most liberal jurisdictions in the country, Manhattan, Washington D.C., and Fulton County. Texas Senator Ted Cruz blasted the Georgia indictment as "disgraceful" and stated that "Joe Biden & Democrats are weaponizing the justice system because they fear the voters."

But could Trump supporters be beginning to feel as if the same Trump faithful keep stepping up to defend him? Cliff Maloney has run several America First campaigns in Georgia, and may be saying out loud about Colton Moore's initiative, what a lot of Trump supporters are thinking. “Finally, a leader who is stepping up and fighting back against the epidemic of corrupt District Attorneys that are drunk on power." 

Something else Trump supporters may think as well: Where are Republican D.A.'s willing to bring charges against Joe Biden? Back in April, after Trump's New York indictment, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer stated that he received two calls from Republican D.A.'s from Kentucky and Tennessee, both looking at ways to charge Joe Biden — and possibly other Biden family members — related to the ongoing investigation into family business dealings overseas. Mike Davis is the former chief counsel for nominations on the Senate Judiciary Committee and president of the Article III Project, and says it is definitely possible: 

I think our Republican AGs and DAs should get creative. You just need probable cause. A grand jury can indict a ham sandwich. We just saw that in New York. And the Bidens actually committed real crimes. These are real crimes that the Bidens committed. There is smoking-gun evidence that the Bidens were corruptly and illegally on Chinese and Ukrainian oligarchs’ payrolls.

Out of control D.A.'s like Fani Willis continue to go after Donald Trump and attempt to make an example of him for asking questions and taking on the deep state. But if Gov. Kemp grants the request of a special session of the Georgia legislature, and Moore and his colleagues get as far as defunding Willis and even to impeachment, Willis just may be made an example of herself. While that conclusion may be a long way off, it could give potential Republican D.A.s something to think about.  

The timetable of when Colton Moore and his colleagues might get an answer from Gov. Kemp on a possible special session and when any investigation or impeachment proceedings of Fani Willis could begin are unknown. But if Republicans on the national level are unwilling to step up and fight back, it may very well be time for state lawmakers to go over their heads. 

Here’s What The Democrats Should Expect If a Republican Wins Back The White House

As Billy Joel might say, we didn’t start the fire

by Carpe Diem for American Greatness

Now that the Democrat Party has established that it’s fair game to “reimagine” the rule of law — in an attempt to jail a former president of the United States for a maximum sentence of 700 plus years — or Moses’s lifespan three times over, that benighted party should be fully prepared to accept the consequences, in the not so unlikely event that a Republican takes back the White House come January 2025.

Here is what should occur with a new GOP administration post haste.

A special counsel should immediately be appointed to investigate how the Biden family raked in millions of dollars from some of our biggest adversaries, including China and Russia, as well as Romania and Ukraine, while Joe Biden was vice president.

If the evidence becomes overwhelming (which it already appears to be) and it is uncovered that the Biden family did not provide any actual services to these shady oligarchs and foreign nationalists — other than using the office of the vice presidency to enrich themselves — then nothing less than a handful of indictments for bribery, extortion, and treason should be levied against Joe, his son Hunter, and anyone else involved in this disgraceful scheme.

Simultaneously, a special counsel should be appointed to look into Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign to determine what she knew about the phony Russian dossier that her campaign funded and that was used in an attempt to take down a duly elected president of the United States.

If the evidence is overwhelming (as it already appears to be) that Clinton not only knew about the dossier, but greenlit the idea — then a series of indictments for racketeering, falsifying business records and campaign finance violations should immediately be levied against her and any of her associates who were co-conspirators, including Jake Sullivan, Biden’s current incompetent National Security Advisor, former president Barack Obama, former disgraced FBI director James Comey, former CIA director and serial liar John Brennan, and perhaps the biggest fraud of them all, Rep. Adam Schiff.

A special counsel should also be appointed to look at the behavior and state of mind of all 51 former intelligence “experts” who appeared to have knowingly and deliberately lied and defrauded the American public during the heart of the 2020 presidential election, when they claimed that Hunter Biden’s authentic and incriminating laptop was a Russian plant. If it can be proven that these “experts” knowingly and deliberately lied to the American people, then indictments, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, should immediately be brought against every single one of these corrupt individuals.

A special counsel should also be appointed to look into what communication occurred between Joe Biden, Merrick Garland and Jack Smith regarding the federal indictment of Donald Trump, as well as any communication that occurred between the White House, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis, New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg, and New York Attorney General Letitia James, regarding possible indictments of Trump.

If it turns out, there was communication and an attempt to “get Trump” then all of these individuals should be tried under 18 U.S. Code § 201 for Bribery of public officials and witnesses.

Finally, a special counsel should look into every single Democrat politician, CNN news anchor, or Washington Post “reporter” who publicly supported and encouraged the 2020 Black Lives Matter and Antifa riots that left 2,000 police officers blinded or injured, more than two dozen people dead, and property damage that reached $2 billion.

Anyone who promoted the summer of mayhem, death and destruction, including Kamala Harris who tweeted her support to bail out violent arsonists, as well as failed anchors, Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon who encouraged and were sympathetic to these criminals that went around terrorizing communities night after night for months, should be indicted under 18 U.S. Code § 373 for Solicitation to commit a crime of violence.

If everything you just read sounds completely absurd, remember the rule of law doesn’t matter anymore.

I didn’t set the standards, the Stalinist regime in power did.

As Billy Joel might say, we didn’t start the fire.

Stunningly Low Prices – A Visit to an Average Russian Supermarket

Sundance reporting for Conservative Treehouse 

I wouldn’t normally write a post like this, but WE ARE NOT going to find this level of ground reporting anywhere in U.S. media.   As you might be aware, I have been doing extensive research on the Russian economy specifically with the outcome of western sanctions.

In his video a Youtuber I follow visited a local supermarket, similar to a WalMart Super Center to share information for his USA followers.

Dima Dear, a remarkably nice young man, lives in St Petersburg, Russia (formerly Leningrad), and he shares various experiences with his audience at their request.  There is a lot of U.S interest as people following his story are starting to realize life in Russia is not what western media portray.

If you are familiar with USA grocery prices, what Dima shares in this ground report is stunning from a U.S. perspective.  If you watch this livestream, keep in mind that 100 rubles equals $1.00.  350 rubles is $3.50.  Additionally for weighted products 1kg equals 2.2 lbs.   So generally speaking, if something is 100 rubles/kg it is $1 for two pounds.

Example from the video:

•Lean ground beef at 329 rubles/kg is less than $1.65/lb.
•Bacon at 250 rubles/kg is less than $1.25/lb.
•20 eggs are 139 rubles or $1.39.
•Boneless skinless chicken breast $4 for 4lbs.
•Typical Bagged salad mixes .79¢ each. etc.

The wild part is that in Russia they are getting worried these prices are too high.  

The average rent for a nicely furnished 2-bedroom modern apartment in St Pete Russia is around $500/month.  Something akin to downtown Manhattan. Including rent, utilities, food, transportation, personal items and purchases, a Russian citizen can live very comfortably, remarkably comfortably, on an income of around $1,200 to $1,500/month.  In downtown St Pete which is considered a more expensive place to live.

Put that into a USA middle-class perspective and evaluate the impact of western sanctions against the average Russian cost of living.

100 rubles = $1.00

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