Friday, April 19, 2024

We Need To Give Children True Social And Emotional Skills, Not Marxism


Some regard Social Emotional Learning (SEL) as an educational necessity; others as a Trojan Horse for neoMarxism indoctrination. Based on my experience as an SEL Specialist in Austin Independent School District from 2014 to 2021, I know that true SEL is important to learning and that the SEL in schools is a Trojan Horse for neoMarxism indoctrination.

Human beings are inherently social-emotional creatures, and their well-being is intricately linked to their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Currently, we are facing a significant youth mental health crisis. Since 2000, there has been a staggering 350% increase in the suicide rate among children aged 10 to 12 years old (Bridge et al., 2015). Nearly 20% of children and young people in the United States aged 3 to 17 are affected by mental, emotional, developmental, or behavioral disorders (Perou et al., 2013). Suicidal behaviors among high school students have surged, increasing by over 40% in the decade leading up to 2019 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2018). These alarming statistics highlight the critical need for actively promoting positive social-emotional outcomes.

In 1994, a group that included Daniel Goleman, author of Social Intelligence and Emotional Intelligence, and educator-philanthropist Eileen Rockefeller Growald established CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning), the organization dedicated to advancing SEL research, practices, and resources in schools. Presently, more than 90% of schools and districts in the U.S. report a focus on developing students’ SEL skills (Duchesneau, 2020). Whether you like it or not, most American K-12 students and educators are receiving SEL.

CASEL formerly explained that,

Social and emotional learning (SEL) is the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships and make responsible decisions.

CASEL identified and defined five SEL competencies:

1. Self-awareness: Recognizing one’s emotions and thoughts and reflecting on their influence on behavior, including the ability to assess strengths and limitations, and possessing a well-grounded sense of confidence and optimism.

2. Self-management: Regulating one’s emotions, thoughts, and behaviors effectively in different situations, including managing stress and impulses, and motivating oneself to work towards and achieve goals.

3. Social awareness: Considering and empathizing with others from different backgrounds and cultures and understanding social and ethical norms for behavior.

4. Relationship skills: Establishing and maintaining healthy and rewarding relationships with different people and groups, including communication, listening, cooperation, negotiating conflict constructively, resisting inappropriate social pressure, and seeking and offering help when needed.

5. Responsible decision-making: Making constructive and respectful choices about personal behavior and social interactions by considering ethical standards, safety concerns, social norms, consequences, and one’s own and others’ well-being.

Those make sense, so it’s easy to see why some people view SEL as the missing ingredient in public education. The competencies seem like tickets to life happiness, success, and peacefully cooperating with others in a liberal democracy.

However, in 2018, CASEL shifted SEL from the above focus on individual life skills and turned to collectivism. For example, in Transformative Social and Emotional Learning (SEL): Toward SEL in Service of Educational Equity and Excellence, the authors focus not on children’s well-being in a liberal democracy but, instead, criticize the cultural, political, and economic traditions of these same democracies. It blames health problems, unethical behavior, and climate change on American society while complaining that schools promote America’s unhealthy acquisitive individualism.

The paper explicitly identifies education’s role in transforming liberalism’s focus on the individual into collectivism:

Education aimed at promoting personally responsible citizenship and its attendant individualism, consumerism, and passivity accords with a dominant neoliberal democracy; this is the dominant model. However, a critical democracy requires education to have collectivism, … as its goal. Accordingly, the field of SEL could aim to prepare students for …critical citizenship.

[snip]

We agree with Nagaoka et al. (2015) that an integrated identity is a desirable developmental outcome among young people. Understanding the nature of healthy integration requires an intersectional approach.

At the end of 2020, CASEL officially rebranded SEL as “Transformative SEL” (TSEL), which it defined as,

a process whereby young people and adults build strong, respectful, and lasting relationships that facilitate co-learning to critically examine root causes of inequity, and to develop collaborative solutions that lead to personal, community, and societal well-being.

The rebranding required redefining the five competencies:

Self-awareness: the ability to recognize one’s own biases; to understand the links between one’s personal and collective history and identities; and to recognize how thoughts, feelings, and actions are interconnected in and across diverse contacts.”

Self-management: appropriate expressiveness, perseverance, and being agentic in addressing personal and group-level challenges to achieve self- and collectively defined goals and objectives.

Social awareness: involves understanding social norms for constructing behavior in diverse interpersonal and institutional settings.

Relationship skills: communicating clearly, listening actively, cooperating, resisting selfishness and inappropriate social pressure, negotiating conflict constructively, seeking help and offering leadership when it is needed, and working collaboratively whenever possible.

Responsible decision-making: requires the ability to critically examine ethical standards, safety concerns, and behavioral norms for risky behavior; to make realistic evaluations of benefits and consequences of various interpersonal and institutional relationships and actions; and to always make primary collective health and well-being.

There are societal ramifications for prioritizing assigned group identities over individual identities, assuming an oppressed/oppressor identity, and seeing a constant power struggle between groups in a society. Research shows that highlighting group differences increases prejudice and reduces empathy. (Lammers et al. (2012).) Worse, this worldview causes people to dehumanize others and become more aggressive. TSEL fosters division and grievance over cooperation and progress.

TSEL programs may also lead to higher rates of mental health issues, not lower ones. Neuroscience says four mental states are constituents of well-being: resilience, (positive) outlook, generosity, and attention, all of which improve with practice. Those who perceive themselves as victims or part of the problem, a TSEL practice, are less likely to bounce back from adversity, weakening resilience. Accusing America is an oppressive country riven by discord hinders a positive outlook and kindness.

Given that children spend a large part of their lives in school, there must be an alternative to TSEL if we are to have mentally healthy children and a coherent, cohesive society that values individualism over collectivism (i.e., socialism, communism, and fascism. Empowered Humanity Theory (EHT) is based on neuroscience, psychology, and evolutionary biology and centers on human dignity and a desire to strengthen our common humanity. EHT promotes developing three attitudes and engaging in three Pathways of Practice.

The three attitudes are:

Developing a Value-Centered Identity: Embracing chosen core values over assigned intersectional stereotypes promotes psychological resilience, authenticity, and well-being (Hofmann et al., 2016; Park et al., 2010; Crocker & Wolfe, 2001).

Cultivating a Dignity Lens: Highlighting shared humanity rather than differences diminishes prejudice, aggression, and cruelty by fostering empathy, understanding, and cooperation (Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006; Van Bavel et al., 2012). Conversely, emphasizing differences perpetuates bias and conflict, exacerbating intergroup tensions and discrimination.

Prioritizing Mindsets of Inquiry and Compassion above fear and judgment: Prioritizing inquiry and compassion over fear and judgment enhances well-being and fosters societal harmony. Research shows that fear-based thinking increases stress, while inquiry and compassion promote curiosity, empathy, and problem-solving, leading to greater resilience and happiness (Phelps et al., 2006; Klimecki et al., 2013, 2014)

The 3 Pathways of Practice are:

  • Practices that build awareness and equanimity
  • Practices that celebrate our common humanity
  • Practices that build kindness and compassion for self and others

While CASEL drives American culture towards global collectivism through SEL, it's crucial to recognize similar global organizations reshaping liberal societies worldwide. Coincidentally, CASEL is also involved with these organizations and aspirations. A key to maintaining a society that values liberty and sovereignty is removing CASEL-informed SEL from schools nationwide.





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X22, On the Fringe, and more- April 19

 




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Because Of Trudeau’s Disastrous Policies, Canada’s Standard Of Living Is Falling Far Behind The United States

 



INSIGHTSPENCERFERNANDOhttps://spencerfernando.com/2024/04/19/under-trudeaus-disastrous-policies-canadas-standard-of-living-is-falling-far-behind-the-united-states/

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Congressional Spending Goes Full Weimar



It has become a speculative game in the blogosphere to predict what black swan calamities could lead to a breakdown in civil order and the imposition of some form of martial law.  Wars and rumors of war abound.  We have already seen a container ship mysteriously knocking down a bridge and closing a key port.  Other such scenarios include massive cyber-attacks that shut down the grid and block communication and transportation networks nationwide.  The speculation on the variations of such events is virtually endless.

However, one crisis is no black swan and is entirely expected, already happening, and growing in scale by the day.  That would be the ballooning debt crisis.  If Washington does not change its free-spending ways, the debt will become a catastrophe of devastating proportions that will tear the nation apart.  So long as Congress continues its multi-trillion-dollar deficit spending, we will have a financial death spiral, similar to events a century ago in the Weimar Republic of Germany.

The total discretionary spending for the U.S. government in Fiscal Year 2024 is approximately $1.70 trillion.  This amount is split between $886 billion for defense and $688 billion for non-defense programs.  In the fiscal year, the U.S. government is also projected to spend approximately $4.19 trillion on mandatory programs.  These programs include interest on the debt, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, VA, and other programs.  We have an annual structural deficit in excess of $2 trillion that will soon grow exponentially.

Congress needs to get serious about reducing spending.  For starters, they should outright eliminate the Departments of Commerce, Education, and Energy.  All other departments will need cuts as well.  But that is not happening, and instead, they waste money on frivolous services benefiting illegal immigrants and abortion facilities.  Notable allocations include funds for an LGBTQ+ community facility, scholarships for Egyptian students, educational programs for elementary school children by an LGBTQ+ activist group, diversity initiatives at a zoo, and an organization providing clothing and counseling services to teenagers without parental consent.  Not surprisingly, they do not allocate funds to the truly essential need of building a southern border wall.

As a result of their incompetence, the debt is now growing at an accelerating rate.  The $1 trillion move from $31 to $32 trillion took about eight months, and the increase from $33 trillion to $34 trillion took about 100 days.  While these numbers are bad enough, it becomes alarming knowing that another trillion dollars of debt will be added every 90 days, then 80, then 70, and in ever smaller time frames into the future.

Currently, gross interest on the debt is roughly $1 trillion annually.  But in three years, annual interest could surpass $2 trillion.  In 10 years, interest on the debt could reach $5 trillion yearly.  

Ten years ago, the U.S. government issued $264 billion in 10-year Treasury notes, which means that $264 billion worth of 10-year notes are due and payable this year.  Altogether, the Treasury will have to settle $6 trillion of existing debt this year, which includes financing new debt for this year and the rollover of old debt from prior years.  The Treasury financing debt this way is similar to using one credit card to pay off another.

The problem with rolling over old debt is compounded by borrowing at vastly higher interest rates than when those Treasuries were first issued.  So, the old debt will be rolled over this year at about 4.2% to 5.5%, depending on the term.  That’s troubling when most of the debt being rolled over was issued around 2%.  They are doubling the cost to service that debt.  As more of this old, cheap debt comes due and is reissued at higher rates, the cost of servicing the debt will grow exponentially.  That additional expense adds to the deficit, and the vicious cycle feeds on itself.

We are already at historic debt levels while spending frivolously and shoveling money overseas.  The business cycle has not been repealed, and a recession is coming, probably sooner than later.  And when it happens, unemployment expenses will rise, increasing debt while revenues decline.  There is no good way out of this mess, and no one in Washington wants to give it any serious attention.

What follows is an ugly pattern of the debt crises fueling accelerating inflation.  As jobs dry up, the goods on store shelves skyrocket, followed by social unrest and increased centralization from the extreme left or right.  This pattern is as old as history itself.

Look back to the Weimar Republic of Germany in the years following the First World War.  Faced with budgetary deficits due to war reparations, the German government printed money wildly to meet its expenses.  The result was hyperinflation.  The runaway inflation caused the cost of a loaf of bread to rise from 3 Marks in 1922 to 80 billion Marks in November 1923.  Prices were rising so fast that people hurried to spend their pay during lunch hour before it lost any more of its value.  Foreign trade and the German ability to pay reparations became impossible, while personal savings were wiped out.  Commercial dealings in Germany were replaced by barter, and food riots broke out.  The drop in the value of their wages devastated the working class.  This instability, coupled with the Depression a few years later, undermined the republic’s foundations, leading to the rise of Adolf Hitler.

Left unchecked, this Weimar-style hyperinflation trend could happen in the United States as an accelerating debt load causes financial collapse and civil upheaval.  Congress has a spending problem and must get serious about reducing it.  As painful as spending cuts will be, inaction will be far more painful in the long run.  Driven by spending growth, deficits will balloon even in years without a recession or a major war.  If Congress fails to discipline its spending habits, rising interest costs will snowball and collapse the economy.  With Washington’s culture of easy money, a new direction toward frugality will take a lot of work.  However, it is indispensable for America’s long-term economic prosperity.

Every day, we are getting closer to the point of no return.  We know that we’re headed in the wrong direction, and if we stay on this path, we’ll go full Weimar, carrying our cash not in wallets but in wheelbarrows.



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America Ignores Major Military Infrastructure Problems At Its Peril


With Biden’s weakness inviting aggression from America’s rivals, the infrastructure problems plaguing the U.S. military cannot be ignored.



For generations, the U.S. military has acted as a bulwark against hostile foreign actors threatening the American homeland. But what happens when the military hardware required to project that deterrence doesn’t work, is outdated, or decrepit?

On Wednesday, the House Armed Service Committee held hearings analyzing the 2025 fiscal year budget requests for the Air Force and Navy. Throughout their testimony, military officials and specialists answered questions about current problems facing the force and how to address these issues moving forward.

At one point during the committee’s Air Force hearing, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., probed officials about the F-35. That’s a class of fighter jet produced by Lockheed Martin that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently described as the Pentagon’s “most ambitious and costly weapon system and its most advanced fighter aircraft.”

Gaetz asked Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall III what percentage of F-35s are “fully mission-capable.” For Americans concerned about U.S. military readiness, the answer was less than reassuring.

After consultation with Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin, Kendall told Gaetz that only 55 percent of F-35s are deemed operationally available, a figure the secretary said is “not a good number.” This prompted Gaetz to question the veracity of those figures, citing March 2023 testimony from Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael Schmidt, the head of the F-35 program, who said that, as of February 2023, the “full mission capable rate” of these jets is less than 30 percent.

Allvin clarified there is a difference between “operational availability” and “mission capable,” but noted he would “not dispute” the accuracy of Schmidt’s testimony. (The term “full mission-capable rate” refers to the “percentage of planes capable of flying all their missions,” according to Bloomberg News).

The percentage Kendall provided matches the F-35 mission-capable rate disclosed in a September 2023 GAO report. That analysis found that the “F-35 fleet mission capable rate—the percentage of time the aircraft can perform one of its tasked missions—was about 55 percent in March 2023, far below program goals.”

Plane Problems

The problems with the F-35 program aren’t new. It has suffered setbacks for years.

Defense News published a report nearly three years ago detailing seven “critical technical deficiencies” identified by the F-35 Joint Program Office. While the total represented a decline from the 11 issues reported by the JPO in January 2021, the remaining problems were “classified as category 1B issues, which represent a ‘critical impact on mission readiness.’” 

The aforementioned September GAO report (partly) blamed the F-35’s poor “mission capable rate” on “challenges with depot and organizational maintenance.” The office noted the program “was behind schedule in establishing depot maintenance activities to conduct repairs,” and, as a result, “component repair times remained slow with over 10,000 waiting to be repaired above desired levels.” It also said the Pentagon’s overreliance on contractors for depot maintenance is hampering repair costs. 

“At the same time, organizational-level maintenance has been affected by a number of issues, including a lack of technical data and training,” the report reads.

The F-35s have also had software issues — enough that the Pentagon stopped accepting deliveries of them in July 2023. According to Defense One, program leaders signaled earlier this week they could “resume taking the jets if their balky software upgrade can be released in a stable if limited form.” While the update “could come as early as July [2024] … a combat-ready version of the software won’t arrive for another 12 to 16 months.”

The Government Accountability Office estimated in May 2023 that the F-35 program is “more than a decade behind schedule” and $183 billion over budget. Additional reports detailing the F-35’s maintenance, availability, and cost issues can be found here and here.

Don’t Forget the Navy

As many issues as the F-35 has, it’s hardly the only military craft suffering from routine problems. The U.S. Navy’s littoral combat ship (LCS) is a prime example.

In September 2023, gCaptain, a maritime news outlet, published an extensive report examining how the LCS is becoming “one of the worst boondoggles in the military’s long history of buying overpriced and underperforming weapons systems.” Each LCS “cost more than twice the original estimate,” according to the analysis, which also highlighted the ships’ “mechanical failures” and inability “to carry out the missions envisaged by their champions.”

Despite experiencing these mechanical failures and issues for years, the LCS was regularly pushed by government and industry leaders, who, as gCaptain noted, “repeatedly dismissed or ignored warnings about the ships’ flaws.”

“One Navy secretary and his allies in Congress fought to build more of the ships even as they broke down at sea and their weapons systems failed,” the report reads. “Staunch advocates in the Navy circumvented checks meant to ensure that ships that cost billions can do what they are supposed to do.”

Report author Joaquin Sapien of ProPublica contended that private contractors “who stood to profit” from their deals with the government reportedly “spent millions lobbying Congress, whose members, in turn, fought to build more ships in their home districts than the Navy wanted.” He also noted how the mischievous collaboration between these entities and the Pentagon presents a “vivid illustration” of what former President Dwight D. Eisenhower once referred to as the “military industrial complex.”

“The LCS program offers another clear lesson, one seen in almost every infamous procurement disaster,” he wrote. “Once a massive project gains momentum and defense contractors begin hiring, it is politically easier to throw good money after bad.”

Spend Smarter, Not Harder

While not as large as entitlement spending, military expenditures are a significant portion of the federal budget. Last month, for example, Congress spent $825 billion in U.S. taxpayer money to fund the Pentagon’s 2024 fiscal year spending. That is slightly less than the nearly $850 billion President Biden has requested for the 2025 fiscal year.

As with any problem that rears its head in the Washington, D.C. swamp, the solution from the political and industrial class is to throw money at lobbyists and contractors. At that point, the effectiveness and sustainability of U.S. military craft is less important than the financial perks enjoyed by lobbyists and industry leaders.

With Red China on the rise and Biden’s weakness inviting aggression from America’s biggest adversaries, the infrastructure problems plaguing the U.S. military cannot be ignored. Ensuring efficacy within the force and restoring crippled hardware requires smarter oversight and spending decisions from Congress. Only time will tell if its members get serious enough to do so.



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Boys and Men: Problems They Face in Today's Anti-Masculine World


It hasn't always been easy to be a man. Fortunately, my brother and I had a great example; our father was a man of iron integrity, unshakable will, and great physical endurance. He wasn't a big man — I doubt he ever weighed more than 140 pounds — but he more than made up for it by force of personality.

He was also a man who loved and doted on our mother for the 71 years of their marriage. Everything I know today about being a man, a husband, a father, and a grandfather, I learned from him; not long after he died, my brother and I were talking about him, sharing old stories, and I opined that "...we two, you and I, are the men we are because of him." My brother agreed. 

Dad was also a man of a different time, a child of the Depression, a WW2 veteran, who raised his family in the '50s and '60s. Now? Well, it's an interesting time to be a man. It's probably an even more interesting time to be raising sons, not that I'd know — my wife and I have four daughters (which explains why my hair has gone all white), and I believe that girls are probably easier. The only time I was forced to deal with teenage boys, for example, was when one came to pick up one of our girls for a date, and I was taught how to intimidate young men by a legion of professionals. I do have three grandsons — fortunately, their parents are raising them along traditional lines.

That's not always the case these days. Boys and young men are facing a lot of challenges that would have been unheard of a few decades ago, and I have a few ideas as to why that is. 

First of all: The lack of strong fathers is a big part of the problem facing American boys today. I was indeed fortunate to have a strong and strong-willed father, as I've described, who taught me the meaning of masculinity, respect, integrity, honor, and the value of a good work ethic. The Old Man was a hell of a great role model. He’s been gone for six years this month, and I still am and always will be trying to live up to him. Boys need such role models to teach them how to be men. All children need fathers, of course; they need good role models in both parents. But boys, in particular, do better when they have strong, honest fathers in their lives. As of the latest census, almost 18 million children in the United States have absent fathers; that's a catastrophe, especially for boys.

Second, education in the United States has been deteriorating for some time. There have always been problems; I went to a small-town Eastern Iowa high school that focused primarily on preparing young men to be either good farmers or to hold jobs on the assembly line at John Deere or one of the other large local manufacturers. My high school experience yielded me very little, with a couple of rare exceptions, one being an American Literature teacher who got me interested in reading great books and my time as the opinion editor of our high school newspaper, which at the time seemed a lot like giving a maniac a loaded gun (boy howdy did I start a lot of yelling matches) but it seemed to have prepared me well for doing, well, what I'm doing now. And not all education comes from schooling; I worked, from the time I was twelve or thirteen, farm work in the summers, running a trapline in the winter; when I was 16, I got a job in town, selling hunting and fishing gear in the Woolco in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and immediately started putting my learnings in work ethics to work. But today, the education system seems stacked against boys; they are reviled as "toxic," and if they act as normal, healthy boys do, they are drugged into passivity.

Third and finally, there just aren't outlets for boys and their energies as there were. Sports, of course, are a great way for boys to blow off steam. So are the outdoor sports: Hunting, fishing, or just being outside. Not so long ago, boys — and girls — spent the long summer days outdoors, often being cautioned to come home "when it gets dark." Now? That would get the parents a visit from Child Protective Services.

These days, times are just... weird.



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Journalisming: MSNBC Host Pretty Sure Rising Gas Prices Due to Russian-Saudi Plot to Elect Trump


Mike Miller reporting for RedState 

In this episode of You Can't Make It Up, MSNBC Already Did...

With grocery prices steadily climbing, gas prices again on the rise, and overall inflation continuing to hammer tens of millions of Americans, the quasi-official Democrat media continue to pull out all the stops in their desperate attempt to prop up embattled Joe Biden and burn Donald Trump's campaign to the ground.

On Wednesday, MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle took home the trophy. 

"The 11th Ruhle" host twisted herself into a ridiculous pretzel as she heroically (in hopelessly biased fashion) tried to absolve Biden of blame. Since Trump hasn't been in office for more than two years, she couldn't blame Trump.

But wait. Ruhle is no amateur. She decided she could blame those who (she thinks) want Trump to win in November. In this case, "those" are none other than Russia and Saudi Arabia. Yep, as Stephanie sees it, Russian dictator Putin and the oi-rich Saudis have concocted a plot to torpedo Biden and elect Trump.

Here's how Ruhle kicked off the festivities:

We know that inflation is driving Americans crazy. If you are unsure, just call your mother. For many, it is their biggest complaint right now and because President Biden is in the White House, he gets the blame. 

Stop the tape. Translation: "None of this is Biden's fault, but because he's the president, he unfairly gets the blame." From a pretend journalist who'd cut Trump to shreds if he were president, of course. 

Ruhle continued:

But over the last few months, one thing he has been pointing to is low gas prices. But unfortunately, if you look closer, recently, they have been steadily and quietly going up. Now, this is a common thing going into the summer. More people drive more. It pushes up demand. That is normal. 

But there are other reasons as well. Ones that might be more deliberate, even political. Like Saudi Arabia and Russia continuing to cut oil production until June and remember when production is down, prices go up.

It gets better.

As Ruhle asked one of her guests, former Bernie Sanders adviser Chuck Rocha, what he thought, she answered her own question with the ridiculous Russia-Saudi plot idea.

Chuck, what do you think? These prices are not the fault of President Biden. Tim just laid it out, we’ve got the highest oil production in U.S. history and some overseas oil producers who would sure like to help DJT.

These people walk among us, gang. 

Rocha took the blatant hypocrisy route in response.

Let me be clear that the Republicans know how to use this and will use this against Joe Biden. One of the most brilliant, small political things I saw done that was very, very powerful, last year, when I went to the pump, there was a sticker of Joe Biden with a finger pointing “I did that.” They were sticking it on gasoline pumps saying he’s the reason the gas pump was so high. 

Coupla things, Chuck.

First, Biden and the Democrats continue to try to pin Biden's intentionally-caused illegal alien crisis on Trump. Second, Biden tried to blame his chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan on Trump. Third, Buck-Passing Biden, more than two years in the White House, tries to blame everything on Trump because his narcissism prohibits him from accepting responsibility for anything. 

And don't even get me started on Biden's actions against drilling on federal lands. 

So please, Chuck.

Meanwhile, Stephanie Ruhle is a fool. Hey— I made a rhyme.



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Watch This Purple-Haired Democrat Demand for More Ukraine Funding In Massive Rant

Sarah Arnold reporting for Townhall 

Democrat Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) took to the House floor to absurdly rant about how the United States needs to fork over millions of dollars more in aid to Ukraine, calling for immediate action. 

“For months and months, we have been diddling around while people are dying in Ukraine,” DeLauro said. “It was Donald Trump who said, ‘Don’t give Biden a win.’ You think about that.” 

“Don’t talk about what weapons we want to give them; we’re not giving them what they need now,” she added. “We should have picked up that Senate bill, brought it to the floor, and voted on it immediately. We would be out of here today doing it!”

A three-part supplemental $95 billion aid package is currently being mulled over by Republicans and Democrats. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is being criticized by his fellow GOP colleagues, claiming he sold his soul to the Left and succumbed to pressure to advance funding to Ukraine.

A provision of the bill will give $10 billion in economic assistance to Ukraine as a re-payable loan. 

Meanwhile, Republicans clashing with Johnson say he has “betrayed” his party.


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The Difference Between Trump's Bodega Visit and Biden's Gas Station 'Photo-Op' Is Truly Remarkable

Sarah Arnold reporting for Townhall 

Support for the two 2024 election candidates looks very different, and it’s good news for those who want the United States back to the way it was before Democrats assumed office.  

After spending hours in a Manhattan courtroom on Wednesday, former President Donald Trump was met with an abundance of support while visiting a local New York City bodega. 

“Trump, Trump, Trump," "Four more years," and "We love Trump,” could be heard from the streets of the city as the 2024 hopeful addressed the crowd. The crowd filled with dozens of supporters began singing the National Anthem as the former president approached them. 

The energy was abundant, lively, and full of hope as Trump promised to Make America Great Again. 

Nothing compares to his presence— however hard President Joe Biden tries. 

Just hours later, Biden visited a Sheetz gas station in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, but the reaction from those in the store was laughable and embarrassing. 

Wearing his signature aviators, the president stopped into the convenience mart and picked up a box of snacks before leaving just a few minutes later. 

It is important to note that there was no cheering, no chanting “We love the president,” and no wave of supporters who hurried to take pictures with Biden. 

Instead, he got a few onlookers and made his way out the door just as fast as he entered. 

Unless you consider this as a warm welcome for the president: 

Trump's visit to a local bodega and Biden's quick gas station 'photo-op' is a clear indicator of who is likely to succeed in the upcoming November election. 


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