Wednesday, January 24, 2024

Democrat Policies Have Consequences


Seemingly every week some Democrat is outraged by something happening in a major city, some crime or a reaction to crime by individuals or companies that “harms” the local population. The politicians there scurry like roaches when the lights are turned on to avoid any splatter of responsibility, because responsibility is kryptonite to the left. But policies and elections have consequences. Those who can’t figure that out on their own learn it the hard way.

In Boston, a Walgreens is closing. While that, in and of itself, is not news, it’s closing is, or at least has become. The reason for that is the policies of Democrats have destroyed this section of the city and drove Walgreens out, thereby harming the residents of the area, largely “black and brown” people.

Why highlight that? Because that’s the only reason this is a story, the only reason elected Democrats in the state are paying attention. The news drew rebuke from both Senators and a member of “The Squad” in the form of a letter to Walgreens. 

These liberals are very upset about the closing, writing, “Walgreens claims that it is seeking to expand its efforts to provide health care. The choice to close several Walgreens locations in neighborhoods that serve Black, brown, and low-income communities in Massachusetts, and across the United States … belies that goal and its stated commitment to serve the health of people across America.”

Never mentioned is the crime wave that is leading to stores being closed, a crime wave concentrated in Democrat-controlled cities where criminals are released and charges are dropped. It’s hard to make a business profitable if people can simply walk in with a 39-gallon garbage bag, sweep clean the most expensive items from the shelves, then walk out of the store knowing that if they ever get caught the worst they’ll face is a slap on the wrist. 

If payment is optional, but punishment for not paying is not an option, no business can survive. Sure, furniture stores and insurance companies can maintain offices and locations because the resale value of what they offer is minimal or the storage of it expensive, but retail locations where even the largest item in their inventory can fit in a bag doesn’t stand a chance. 

All the whining and complaining in the world is not going to change reality, and the reality is Walgreens has zero obligation to keep a store open if that store is losing money. In fact, they have an obligation to shareholders to do the exact opposite. 

I can simultaneously feel badly for neighborhood residents who will no longer have easy access to get their prescriptions filled and think they, in large part, brought it on themselves by voting blindly for progressive Democrats who’ve run these areas into the ground. 

Most of the people impacted are old, so they’ve witnessed and lived through the decline of these areas. Never once did it occur to them to vote differently, that maybe that would stem the tide of destruction? Nope. 

It’s hard to feel sorry for that.

These politicians want to force Walgreens to stay open, but I have a better idea. Senators Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren are rich, and the rest of the Massachusetts delegation surely has money, as do the Democrats who run the city; let them open pharmacies in these areas. With their own money, not taxpayer cash. Lead by example, put your money where your mouth is and “save” these areas.

Even if it’s a non-profit pharmacy, show the world how it is done. Or, since I highly doubt any of these liberals would be dumb enough to do what they’re hoping to force Walgreens into, maybe recruit some of your rich progressive donors. George Soros could run a pharmacy on every corner in Boston and not even notice the impact on his net worth, so why not do it? Or at least ask?

The reason is simple: that’s not how Democrats work. They don’t do things like this, they buy stock right before it explodes or dump it right before it tanks, they don’t start businesses. And they sure as hell don’t start businesses that would have to operate in the hellscape of their policies.

Nope, sorry Boston, even “black, brown and low-income” Boston, you’re screwed. The people you vote for did things, changed things, right in front of you and you just kept reelecting them or people just like them. That has consequences. And they suck. But if you keep voting the same way, the only things that are going to change are their net worth and your ability to live in any kind of comfortable way. 



X22, And we Know, and more- January 24

 




Iran bans ex-President Rouhani from running for elite assembly

 


DUBAI, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Iran's hardline watchdog body has banned former pragmatist President Hassan Rouhani from standing again in an election in March for the Assembly of Experts, which appoints and can dismiss the supreme leader, state media said on Wednesday.
The 88-member assembly, founded in 1982, supervises the most powerful authority but has rarely intervened directly in policy-making.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is 84, so the new assembly is expected to play a significant role in choosing his successor since its members are only elected every eight years.  
In a statement, Rouhani criticised the Guardian Council's ruling as "politically biased ... (one) that will undermine the nation's confidence in the system".
Close to moderates, Rouhani was elected president in a landslide in 2013 and 2017 on a promise to reduce Iran's diplomatic isolation.
But the mid-ranking cleric angered political hardliners who opposed any rapprochement with the U.S. "Great Satan" after reaching a 2015 nuclear pact with six major powers. 

The deal unravelled in 2018 when then-U.S. President Donald Trump ditched the agreement and reimposed sanctions that have crippled Iran's economy. Efforts to revive the pact have failed.
"There was no reason given for the Guardian Council's decision," a source close to Rouhani told Reuters, adding that "no decision has been made yet for an appeal" as Rouhani has three days to object the ruling.
"Rouhani has been a member of the assembly since 1999 for three terms. ... It will be interesting to see what the reason for his disqualification was." 

The 12-member Guardian Council, which oversees elections and legislation, disqualified 80% of candidates running for the assembly in its last election in 2016.
Moderate politicians have accused the Guardian Council of disqualifying rivals, and said that excluding candidates from the race undermines the vote's legitimacy.
A low turnout for the upcoming elections is expected, with Rouhani saying that the majority of people do not want to vote and that this will favour the ruling minority which relies on low turnout.
"Undoubtedly, the ruling minority overtly seeks to reduce public participation in elections ... intending to dictate the people's fate through their decisions," he said in the statement published on Rouhani's website.
With Rouhani's disqualification, the Guardian Council had made it clear that hardliners intended to keep moderates away from the assembly, a pro-reform insider said.
The Guardian Council has also disqualified hundreds of hopefuls running for the parliamentary election also to be held on March 1.
State media reported that only 30 mid-ranking moderate candidates have been qualified to stand for the 290-seat parliament. Around 12,000 hopefuls will run for parliament. 

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-bans-ex-president-rouhani-running-elite-assembly-2024-01-24/  



America in January of 2029


Virtually every presidential election over the past forty years has been described by one of the candidates or by either left-wing or right-wing pundits as being the most crucial since (fill in the date). However, in light of the Marxist radicalization of the Democrat Party over the past sixteen years, 2024 is evolving into being the most crucial election cycle since 1860 as the future of this nation as founded precariously hangs in the balance.

Considering the factors that contributed to the debacles that were the 2020 presidential and the 2022 midterm elections combined with the Republican Party’s seemingly never-ending incompetence, inability to turn out the vote, and lack of determination to combat voter fraud and manipulation, it is very likely that the Democrats could run the table in 2024.

If the Democrats controlled the White House, the Senate by either a 50-50 or 51-49 margin, and the House by four or six seats for another four years what would be the political, economic, and societal portrait of this nation on January 20, 2029?

Over the past half-century, the federal judiciary has increasingly assumed the role of being the last line of defense in upholding the Constitution and the delineated rights of every American. Thus, the Democrats have been singularly focused on transforming the federal judiciary.

That resolve has culminated in both Obama and Biden appointing radical left-wing judges during their twelve years in office. The unabashed lawfare directed at Donald Trump is a manifestation of their increasing success.

There are 667 District Court judges in 94 districts who resolve disputes and conduct trials. Currently, there are 339 serving judges who were appointed by Democrat presidents. There are currently 58 vacancies of which at least two-thirds or more will be filled by Biden and the Democrats before the end of the year. Therefore, by January of 2025 there will be at least 380 serving judges (or 57%) appointed by the Democrats.

Based on historical averages, the 2024 newly elected Democrat president and Democrat-ontrolled Senate will appoint upwards of 160-170 judges over the next four years, bringing the total number to 545 or 82% of all District Court judge appointed by the radical left Democrat Party.

The only check on the District Court judges are the Circuit Courts of Appeal and ultimately the Supreme Court. Currently there are 83 out of 179 serving Circuit Court judges appointed by Democrats and four vacancies which will be filled this year totaling 87 or 49% of all judges. Historically, a president during their term will appoint 30-35 Circuit Court judges, thus by 2029 there could be upwards of 122 judges appointed by the Marxist left or nearly 70%.

The two oldest Supreme Court justices, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, will be 80 and 78 years old respectively by 2028. Thus, opening up the distinct possibility of the Democrats appointing multiple replacements. In which case the Supreme Court will, along with the District and Circuits Courts, make a dramatic turn to the radical left. These potential appointments would be the final nail in the transformation of the United States into a one-party socialist oligarchy as it would be a virtual impossibility to achieve the decade of Republican control of the White House and Senate necessary to reverse this dominance.

Consequently, there will be no recourse for the American citizenry. No one, who does not acquiesce to the dictates of Democrat Party regime, will receive equitable treatment in the courts and no action by the administration will ultimately be declared illegal or unconstitutional. By 2029 the weaponization and radicalization of the judiciary may will be a fait accompli.

Since Biden’s inauguration, over 10 million illegal immigrants have descended upon the United States. 2024 is on pace for another two million bringing the four-year total to over 12 million. Added to the 22+ million illegals already in the country, over 10% of the American population will be here illegally absorbing untold billions of dollars in benefits and welfare while depriving American citizens of jobs and wealth creation.

This process will continue unabated during the next Democrat administration as upwards of another 12 million will be granted unrestricted access. By 2029 there could be as many as 50 million illegal immigrants in the United States. A population larger than Spain and 164 other countries throughout the world. Over the next four years, a mass amnesty bill will be passed and touted as being the only solution to this crisis. Within the amnesty bill will be an accelerated path to citizenship. A dependable Democrat voting bloc will be created as the nation begins to fracture and balkanize.

By the end of 2028, the Democrats, in a de facto alliance with a transforming judiciary, will embed de facto government censorship under the guise of controlling disinformation or threats to the nation. The Second Amendment will again come under attack and will, in all likelihood, be dramatically rewritten. Religious freedom will continue to be progressively restricted as will the right of parents to raise their children as they see fit.

Racial, tribal, and cultural animosity will increasingly engulf the nation as Diversity, Equity and Inclusion will become the underpinning of laws, regulations, and executive orders. The religion of “climate change” and its attendant “green agenda” will dominate government spending and economic policy, thus, dramatically undermining the economy and standard of living of virtually every American.

The current national debt is a staggering $34 Trillion dollars. With less than 5% of the world’s population, the United States accounts for 37% of global public debt. By the end of this year the debt will approach $36 Trillion.

Another four years of Democrat domination and, thus, uncontrolled spending will add a further $10-12 Trillion to the debt. Taxes will be significantly increased, and tax enforcement massively ramped up placing a massive drag on the economy. The nation will experience four years of stagnant growth and the Democrats will scramble to avoid a massive recession by unrestrained government spending and de facto money printing.

These actions will result in never-ending inflation and ongoing and accelerated decline in the standard of living as state, local, and federal government spending will consume half of the annual GDP (up from 37% today). By 2029, the nation will be teetering on the precipice of a depression.

It is highly likely that if the Democrats control the Senate they will modify the filibuster rule in order to pass a bill effectively nationalizing all elections. Mass mail-in voting, ballot harvesting, same day registration, and no requirement for identification or proof of citizenship will assure Democrat dominance for the foreseeable future. A similar bill was passed by a Democrat-controlled House in 2021.

Lastly, the world will be a far more dangerous place by January of 2029 because of American obeisance to Communist China, indifference toward Iran, and de facto animosity directed at Israel.

America will continue to effectively underwrite China’s ambitions by persisting in its reliance on unfettered trade with China, thus, effectively granting them a free hand in their pursuit of global hegemony which will include a takeover of Taiwan.

A nuclear-armed Iran will inexorably increase its belligerency toward the Sunni nations of the Middle East as well as Israel in their all-consuming determination to establish a new caliphate. Israel will be forcibly coerced by the United States into accepting a variation of a two-state solution which will evolve into a new outpost for Iran and its terrorist proxies. The Middle East will become the tinderbox that was the Balkans in pre-WW I Europe with the same inevitable outcome including the potential destruction of the state of Israel.

There are those, including many American Thinker readers, who will dismiss all the above as being hyperbolic or an exercise in sensationalism colored by my experience as a survivor and casualty of WW II and its aftermath. Far too many Americans fail to recognize the existential threat the Marxist-dominated Democrat Party is to America, despite having experienced the radicalism and divisiveness of the Obama administration as well as the ongoing national catastrophe that is the Biden Administration.

The Democrat Party is the ideological successor to those in the 20th century whose single-minded quest for power deprived untold millions of life and liberty in countries around the globe.



Ruling Class Disturbance

The elites’ legacy policy of demonizing and grinding down the middle class is running into internal opposition. 
This is actually a healthy and encouraging sign.


The last few months have been interesting. We have started to see some very public disagreements among the world’s ruling classes. The gathering of elites at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, has long fascinated observers and become a lightning rod for criticism, becoming a bogeyman of the right, as well as the hardcore, anticapitalist left. It is a front-row seat to the thinking and priorities of the world’s most powerful people.

In Davos, the world’s media, academic, political, and financial elites spend a few days in luxurious surroundings, praising themselves and forming a consensus on solutions to what they deem to be the problems of the world. This includes everything from facilitating mass migration, tackling global warming by moving away from fossil fuel energy, and the need for economic redistribution to the poor and the third world, all through the corporatist idea of “stakeholder capitalism.”

For each of these agenda items, there is also a parallel domestic agenda informed by the same center-left, managerial ideology. This means support for Wall Street speculation, free trade, disinterest in the plight of Middle America and the manufacturing sector, a cosmopolitan view of immigration and multiculturalism, support for an interventionist foreign policy, and, most of all, fear and contempt for so-called populism, whether from the left or the right.

A Failing Campaign to Rebuild Trust

The elite have started to get a little nervous. The latest World Economic Forum conference addressed the critics, focusing on rebuilding trust. During the Obama and Trump years, the elite was fully united. There was little daylight between Harvard, Goldman Sachs, the State Department, Silicon Valley, and the New York Times editorial board, as well as their peers in the European Union and much of the Third World.

They all imagined a complex world made orderly by laws, regulations, and managers, working together to organize the lives of workers and consumers. Other than some hiccups, like the 2008 recession, from the elites’ perspective, the program was working.

The elites agreed on the preeminent value of technology, cosmopolitanism, consumerism, preventing global warming, and globalism. Economic inequality was largely an afterthought, replaced by a consensus concern that the elites do more to bring promising minorities into the elite.

By contrast, religion, family life, traditions, ethnic purity, cultural continuity, stability, and the preservation of middle-class wealth and employment were completely anathema. These concerns of the tradition-oriented middle and working classes have been either ignored altogether or the object of hostility and ridicule. 

For the same reasons, when Trump came along, he was also an object of hostility and ridicule. While Trump hailed from the ranks of the elite, his style was middle-class, as were his loyalties. His enemies saw him as a traitor to his class, and his supporters saw him as a champion of the voiceless.

For the elite, Obama was the archetype: cosmopolitan, minority, educated, and articulate. He was a progressive global citizen, but he was also willing to keep his hands off free trade, Wall Street, open borders, and an interventionist American foreign policy. His expansion of American intrigue overseas and the slow recovery from the 2008 Great Recession hardly dented his approval. Elites did well as the stock market soared, and Obama’s mouthing of the right words on social issues placated his ordinary supporters, even when other aspects of his presidency deviated from leftist orthodoxy.

An Olive Branch to “MAGA Americans”

The strength and near-unanimity of that consensus are what make recent comments by some highly placed individuals very interesting. Jamie Dimon is the CEO of Chase. He is a billionaire and one of the most wealthy and powerful men in the world.

At Davos, he recently intoned that Democrats should be more “respectful” of Trump voters. He also said that Trump was right about a lot of things, including NATO, immigration, trade reform, and China. Until now, the elite seemed to go along with Biden’s demonization of Trump and his supporters, his conflation of protesters with insurrectionists, and the Manichean description of the 2024 election as a referendum on democracy itself. Dimon is a powerful voice in opposition to that narrative.

Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman also criticized Biden’s record, focusing on the debt, the borders, and his overall management of the economy. Like Dimon, he is from the investor class. This faction among the elite is a bit less ideological, and it appears willing to make peace with Trump because he was generally good for the bottom line and helped the American economy become more stable, prosperous, and equitable. They also seem justifiably wary of the consequences for themselves and their social class if progressive elite management continues along its current trajectory.

It is hard to predict economic downturns, but the belt-tightening needed to control inflation will eventually slow things down, perhaps a great deal. Since the gleeful talk of a Great Reset several years ago, there seems to be a sense of dread among the elites that massive belt-tightening will be necessary. Much of their messaging has been aimed at preparing the masses for their grim future. Perhaps they know something we do not, but, even with the forewarning, such a turn will not be good for the continuation of the current elite class.

The elites have lost a lot of credibility worldwide. The response to COVID was a man-made disaster, as was the virus itself, and their loose money policies fueled current high levels of inflation. Similarly, hubristic attempts to maintain American dominance have led to the diminution of our military dominance, as a series of conflicts have unfolded and revealed real limitations of the power of the western world to influence events in Ukraine, Israel, and now South America. And, all over the world, populist parties keep winning or otherwise revealing widespread discontent with the current system, which functions in part by snuffing out any embers of resistance from an independent middle class.

Compromise for Survival

The rapprochement of economic elites with the Trump movement is reminiscent of the idea that FDR “saved capitalism” by cultivating a robust social safety net at the height of the Great Depression. Rather than continuing the uncompromising, top-down imposition of elite values, the olive branch to Trump and his supporters could actually relieve some pressure within the system. The New Deal’s precedent of success—when measured by the maintenance of social stability—must be informing some of the recent messaging.

There have been open predictions from economic elites that Trump will win the 2024 election. This serves to remind other factions within the elite that rigging another election in the manner of 2020 could cause a real and sustained revolt. Under the current polling and circumstances, any such result would be patently unbelievable, even more dramatically than 2020.

Of course, reform has dangers of its own. Perestroika, in the latter part of the Soviet Union’s existence, was supposed to shore up and improve the resilience of the communist regime. Instead, it unleashed centrifugal forces that led to a wholesale collapse of the Soviet Union and a replacement of the communist party nomenklatura with a counter-elite of aggrieved, nationalist reformers.

Alternately, if I may make another analogy to Russia, perhaps this is like Putin’s stabilization of the post-Soviet Russian state. Dimon, Schwarzman, and their fellow travelers may be signaling their openness to a deal between the business elites and the populist state, one which increases social justice, while not depriving the existing owners of their wealth and status.

Putin famously told the oligarchs that if they stayed out of politics, the state would not go digging into the murky and mostly fraudulent means by which the oligarchs assumed their wealth. Most of the oligarchs stuck to the deal, and the Putin-era Russian state is many times stronger and more stable than the chaotic Yeltsin regime of the 1990s. And the oligarchs are still filthy rich, but mostly irrelevant politically.

Analogies to the Soviet Union and the post-Soviet space are useful. The Soviet Union was a large empire that failed suddenly and dramatically, ushering in a decade of high crime, economic regression, and social instability. Avoiding such a fate for the American empire would be in almost everyone’s best interest.

The elites’ legacy policy of demonizing and grinding down the middle class is running into internal opposition. This is actually a healthy and encouraging sign. It means at least some of the elites are scared and sense that their privileges have exceeded their merits. And it means some of them are open to being just and sensible, if only out of enlightened self-interest.



Blue America Is Where The American Dream Dies And Anarcho-Tyranny Thrives



The city of Oakland, Calif. is billing small business owners for using public safety services after defunding its police department. The California city is clearly more concerned with accommodating criminals than those who make an honest living.

In a video recently shared by Almadea County supervisor candidate Chris Moore, a restaurant owner explains he received an invoice from the city after a police check-in following a robbery.

“They came one hour after we got robbed,” the small business owner said. “They walked through and put up a piece of wood with duct tape.” 

“For the city to not only fail to protect…small businesses but on top of that give us an invoice for doing the work that they did seems fully irrational… It’s literally the definition of kicking someone when they’re down,” he said.

It’s no wonder hundreds of businesses and hundreds of thousands of residents have fled California in recent years. The state that not all that long ago was a middle-class utopia has become filthy, dangerous, and too expensive for anyone between vagabond and multimillionaire. And it’s all by design.

The radical leftist tenure of California is a tale as old as time. Rulers seek to extract wealth from powerless, law-abiding citizens while heaping honor and privilege upon those who reflect, advance, and enshrine their power.

In California, government actors use taxpayer money to strip people of safety via police while coddling their clients. Criminalsillegal aliensmilitant gender goblins, et al., are emboldened, while business owners, homeowners, and other people plagued with the scourge of normalcy are denigrated as a matter of state policy.

This is how blue states operate. Anarcho-tyranny is meant to keep you docile, scared, confused, defenseless, and poor. People become so concerned with the basics of life that they are unable to resist radical ideology, anti-human policies, and the bat-crap-insane economic decisions forced down their throats.

It’s what the late Samuel Francis described in the ‘90s as “the combination of oppressive government power against the innocent and the law-abiding and, simultaneously, a grotesque paralysis of the ability or the will to use that power to carry out basic public duties such as protection or public safety.”

“It is characteristic of anarcho-tyranny that it not only fails to punish criminals and enforce legitimate order but also criminalizes the innocent,” Francis said.

Recall the 2020 George Floyd riotsMurderers, vandals, and larcenists were overwhelmingly let off the hook, while police across the country were unable to protect their communities due to stand-down orders, cultural pressure, and widespread calls to defund their departments.

The 2020 Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone in downtown Seattle was a secessionist movement that provided a haven for rape and murder. Police and emergency services were prevented from entering under threat of violence, and businesses were extorted for “protection.” Meanwhile, Kyle Rittenhouse — who was reportedly in Kenosha, Wisconsin to help protect his community from the 2020 chaos — had the book thrown at him after shooting three men in self-defense.

Daniel Penny, who in 2023 restrained a sporadic career criminal with a pension for violence, recently had his motion to dismiss indictments filed against him in New York thrown out. Yet violent criminals routinely have their charges dropped and roam the streets of the Empire State with impunity.

This is where we are today. Blue America — which extends throughout the national managerial state and its corpo-cultural vassals — will bring its jackboot down on your neck until you relent and accept gleefully embrace its rule.



You Can’t Defend ‘Democracy’ And The Administrative State

There are few things less ‘democratic’ than empowering a bunch of unaccountable, unelected bureaucrats to make laws.



The government shows up at your business and demands you pay the salaries of the regulators who lord over you. If you refuse, you’ll be ruined. You have little recourse. You’ve never even voted on the policy because no law implementing it exists. Bureaucrats in D.C. cooked up the idea, and a political appointee signed off on it.

That’s what Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, a case brought by New England fishermen against Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, is all about. It may finally end or weaken Chevron deference, which refers to a 1984 decision that inadvertently empowered the administrative state to take wide-ranging, illiberal powers over American economic life. I mean, the case of the fishermen is basically a modern reenactment of “taxation without representation.”

Yet when the Supreme Court took up oral arguments in Raimondo, the three leftist judges didn’t focus on the constitutionality of Chevron deference, but rather lamented the alleged problems of stripping government experts of their power. Here is how The Washington Post’s Ruth Marcus frames the arguments:

But the fundamental question was clear: Who decides? From the liberal point of view: unelected judges or regulators with expertise and accountability? From the conservative vantage point: judges constitutionally empowered to say what the law is or unelected bureaucrats?

It’s difficult to comprehend how any jurist who swore to uphold the Constitution could agree with the “liberal point of view.” Justices are “unelected” by design. It’s not a gotcha. It’s the point. And it is literally their job to “decide” the constitutionality of the laws and their implementation. Failing to do so is an abdication of their duty. Yet the contemporary left treats SCOTUS as if it were some autocratic Star Chamber for doing its job.

Nowhere, on the other hand, does the Constitution say one word about unelected bureaucrats deciding the law. The executive branch, as the name strongly suggests, is tasked with executing laws as written. The right initially cheered Chevron as a way to blunt judicial activism. But the allowances for “reasonable” decision-making when ambiguity exists in the law have been so abused that agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency will regulate every puddle and molecule of carbon dioxide.

Then again, the claim that regulators have unassailable “expertise” or real accountability is also a myth.

Democrats act as if they have a monopoly on apolitical, policy expertise. You remember when Joe Biden assured us that “no serious” economists were predicting high inflation? They say this sort of thing all the time. But there are almost always major disagreements over the efficacy and scope of regulatory policy, which is why politics exists, and why Democrats are keen on bypassing Congress and debate.

Moreover, the notion that government regulators are the best and brightest and attain their position through merit is complete bunkum, as anyone who’s paid more than five minutes of attention to the government already knows. This is especially true of political appointees, whose most valued skills are navigating bureaucracies and risk aversion.

Indeed, bureaucrats do not function under a notion of “accountability” that most normal people would recognize. When was the last time an agency cleaned house because its policies had failed? When was the time the administrative state was reined back in any genuine way? How many regulators or appointees are ever fired? If you were as bad at your job as Alejandro Mayorkas, you’d be out of work forever.

That said, even if regulators were blessed with extraordinary work ethic, exceptionally creative minds, and all the best ideas, they would still have zero right to create laws out of whole cloth.

Yet all the most vocal defenders of saving American “democracy” happen to think Chevron deference abuses are integral to governance. Read left-wing punditry on the topic, and you might walk away with the impression that federal agencies didn’t even exist until 1984.

The histrionics over the potential death of Chevron deference is just another example of the left’s abandonment of anything resembling a limiting principle. It’s all consequentialism, all the time. Anything Democrats dislike is an attack on “democracy.” When the court hands the abortion issue, unmentioned anywhere in the Constitution, back to voters, virtually every leftist in the country warns that “democracy” is under attack. When the same court threatens to stop unelected technocrats from doing whatever they like, democracy is again being threatened. It doesn’t even make any sense.

What Chevron deference does is incentivize Congress to write vague laws and presidents to abuse their power. It creates instability, as every administration implements its own preferred interpretation of the law. It threatens to further destroy the separation of powers. It was a huge mistake. And, as opposed to most of the left’s hysterics these days, it’s a real threat to “democracy.”



💗 The 2024 MovieGuide Awards to air on GAF this Spring!

 


Source: https://www.movieguide.org/news-articles/danica-mckellar-trevor-donovan-to-host-31st-annual-movieguide-awards.html

Movieguide ®, the number one family review service for movies and television shows, has officially announced the nominees for its 31st Annual MOVIEGUIDE® Faith & Values Awards Gala & Report to the Entertainment Industry. Hosted by Great American Family stars Trevor Donovan and Danica McKellar, the Awards Gala will take place on Friday, February 9th at the iconic Avalon Theatre in Hollywood and will broadcast on Great American Family later this spring.   

“Last year we saw a lot of strong and inspiring films and TV on the big screen and in the comfort of your living room, and we are excited to celebrate various bodies of work and talent,” says Robby Baehr, Movieguide® CEO. “To then be able to have the Awards Show broadcast on Great American Family is icing on the cake. We all share aligned visions to inspire and bring home to viewers, so this partnership is a perfect synergy.”

The event will honor the Best 2023 Movies for Mature Audiences, the Epiphany Prizes for the Most Inspiring Movie and Television Program, The Faith & Freedom Awards for Movies and Television, and the Grace Awards for Most Inspiring Performance in Movies and Television.

“The Movieguide Awards focuses on honoring quality family-friendly entertainment that deliver strong and inspiring faith-filled stories of faith, hope, joy, and redemptive love,” added Movieguide founder and publisher Dr. Ted Baehr. We are excited to celebrate another year of honoring entertainment with faith and values.”

Here is the list of nominees for the 31st Annual Movieguide® Awards, in alphabetical order:

EPIPHANY PRIZE® MOVIES

  • AFTER DEATH
  • BIG GEORGE FOREMAN
  • JESUS REVOLUTION
  • JOURNEY TO BETHLEHEM
  • ON A WING AND A PRAYER

EPIPHANY PRIZE® TELEVISION

  • A CHRISTMAS BLESSING
  • DIVINE INFLUENCER
  • MURF THE SURF: JEWELS, JESUS AND MAYHEM IN THE USA: Episodes 1.1-1.4
  • A PARIS CHRISTMAS WALTZ
  • A THOUSAND TOMORROWS: Episode 1.3

BEST MOVIES FOR FAMILIES

  • JOURNEY TO BETHLEHEM
  • SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE
  • SUPER MARIO BROS. THE MOVIE
  • TROLLS BAND TOGETHER
  • WONKA

BEST TELEVISION EPISODE FOR FAMILIES

  • A CHRISTMAS BLESSING
  • DIVINE INFLUENCER
  • A MILLION MILES AWAY
  • A PARIS CHRISTMAS WALTZ
  • A THOUSAND TOMORROWS: Episode 1.3

BEST MOVIE FOR MATURE AUDIENCES

  • BOYS IN THE BOAT
  • GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3
  • GODZILLA MINUS ONE
  • JESUS REVOLUTION
  • SOUND OF FREEDOM

BEST TELEVISION EPISODE FOR MATURE AUDIENCES

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FAITH & FREEDOM AWARD® FOR MOVIES

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FAITH & FREEDOM AWARD® FOR TELEVISION

  • ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE
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  • A MILLION MILES AWAY
  • MURF THE SURF: JEWELS, JESUS AND MAYHEM IN THE USA
  • TETRIS

GRACE PRIZE® FOR MOVIE PERFORMANCE

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    • Forest Whitaker
  • JESUS REVOLUTION
    • Kelsey Grammer
    • Joel Courtney
    • Anna Grace Barlow
  • JOURNEY TO BETHLEHEM
    • Fiona Palomo
    • Joel Smallbone
  • ON A WING AND A PRAYER
    • Dennis Quaid

GRACE PRIZE® FOR TELEVISION PERFORMANCE

  • A THOUSAND TOMORROWS:  Episode 1.1-1.3
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  •  DIVINE INFLUENCER
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  • A CHRISTMAS BLESSING
    • Lori Loughlin
    • Jesse Hutch

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