Government

Power is Abused

Way back in 2008, I wrote on my blog about the threat that the Patriot act posed to this country. Less than a year later, I warned people that President Obama was expanding the definition of ‘terrorist’ so he could use his powers under the Patriot Act against the right.

As far back as 2009, then President Obama went so far as to say that veterans of the US military were a potential terrorist threat. Some Veterans’ groups even defended the President’s statements.

Glen M. Gardner Jr., national commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, disputed claims that Homeland Security analysts were describing veterans as terror threats.

“The report should have been worded differently, but it made no blanket accusation that every soldier was capable of being a traitor like Benedict Arnold, or every veteran could be a lone wolf, homegrown terrorist like Timothy McVeigh,” said Gardner, a Marine veteran from Round Rock, Texas. “It was just an assessment about possibilities that could take place.”

It wasn’t long after that when President Obama declared that American citizens could be targeted for assassination without trial, as long as he declared them to be terrorists. Here is what was said at the time:

The director of national intelligence affirmed rather bluntly today that the U.S. intelligence community has authority to target American citizens for assassination if they present a direct terrorist threat to the United States. According to U.S. officials, only a handful of Americans would be eligible for targeting by U.S. intelligence or military operations. The legal guidance is determined by the National Security Council and the Justice Department.

It wasn’t just veterans- Christians were also targeted with the terrorist label. Those warnings went unheeded.

We didn’t have to wait long to see things escalate. Here we are, under the very next Democratic President, and veterans are again the enemy. The press is touting the danger. The President is claiming that police and veterans are white supremacists who pose a terror threat to the country.

So what is he going to do about it? A hint lies across the Pacific, in China. The Chinese government has been training its computer hackers to develop exploits that it can use against its citizens and other nations. It has done so by prohibiting its hackers from international competition. This tactic was used to great effect in tracking down Uyghur Muslims, sending them to camps, and generally being the asshoe that it is.

Back in January, Biden hired a former GWOT spook to head up his use of government power in the planned war on the right. The idea is Orwellian. Picture this: The government is prohibited from searching your home without a warrant. It says so, right there in the Bill of Rights. The brilliant idea they come up with is to hire a burglar to break into your house, steal your papers, and then give them to the police. That is part of the brilliant plan.

The government’s position is that they are free to hire people under contract to circumvent the protections of the Constitution, and as long as those people are not actually on the government payroll, this is completely constitutional. No sane court would uphold that idea. So of course, they need to pack the court.

They are using private companies as well as government agencies- the post office and Internet providers, for example, to spy on Americans. Just like the Chinese are doing.

Once that is done, well ANYTHING is permissible. After all, those evil veterans are all white supremacists, they are demented, and they deserve whatever happens to them, according to the President’s own comments in February. Read it for yourself, here is a link to the transcript:

And you see what’s happening, the studies that are beginning to be done, maybe at your university as well, about the impact of former military, former police officers, on — on the growth of white supremacy in some of these groups.

You may remember, in one of my debates with the former president, I asked him to condemn the Proud Boys and he wouldn’t do it. He said “Stand by,” stand ready, or whatever the phrase exactly was.

It is a bane on our existence. It has always been. As Lincoln said, we have to appeal to our better angels, and these guys are not — and women — are, in fact, demented. They are dangerous people.

When I said 12 years ago that the powers from the war on terror would be used against American citizens, I was told it couldn’t happen. Now I am warning you that drone strikes, summary executions, and concentration camps are coming. Please listen this time, before it is too late.

By Divemedic, ago

Wait for the appeal

The courts have finally put a stop to the government forcing landlords to absorb the cost of their unconstitutional lockdowns.

That is good, because the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was also getting involved, claiming that collecting the debt from tenants who shafted their landlord was also illegal.

According to the CFPB’s analysis and other data:

Millions of families are at risk of being evicted: In December 2020 about 18 percent of renter households were behind on their rent, which means nearly 9 million households at risk of eviction. In a typical year, there are about 900,000 evictions nationwide. Over 27 percent of households with annual income under $25,000 were behind on their rent.
Stopping evictions saves lives: Research shows that COVID-19 infection rates and mortality rates were higher when eviction moratoria were removed. The CFPB’s rule will help ensure that more renters are able to take advantage of their protections and avoid eviction.
Evictions increase racial inequality: Black and Hispanic households are more than twice as likely to be tenants than white households, and they are also twice as likely to be behind on rental payments as of December 2020, according to a March CFPB report . Evictions impose substantial costs on individuals, families, and children, and having an eviction on your record can make it much harder to find a new rental property. Even an eviction filing can make it impossible for a family to locate new housing.

You see what the real reason is? Blacks are refusing to pay rent at a higher rate than whites, so evictions are racist.

The appeal will come in 3…2…1…

By Divemedic, ago

Inflation

Peter over at Bayou Renaissance Man says that readers claim inflation isn’t here. Let me show you how it sneaks up on you. A Denny’s commercial from 1997:

Note that one of those breakfasts was this one:

2 strips of bacon, two link sausages, two eggs, and two pancakes. This is the breakfast that Denny’s calls the “Original Grand Slam.” For $1.99.

How much is this breakfast now? $9.29, or 467% more than it was 24 years ago. That works out to an annual inflation rate of 6.7%. The published rates for that period were anything from negative 0.2 all the way to 3.0. The official inflation rates say that this breakfast should only cost $3.28 today.

When I was in high school nearly 40 years ago, I remember being able to go to McDonald’s and eat my fill for less than $4. A Big Mac was only $1.09. Krystal Hamburgers were 25 cents. Compare them to today’s prices.

It isn’t just food. In 1999, you could purchase gasoline for less than $1 a gallon. The hit is even larger than that- because in 2005, Congress mandated that all gasoline be diluted with alcohol.

But wages haven’t kept pace. In 2000, the starting pay for a Paramedic right out of school was $14 an hour. Today, that same new paramedic would start at – $13 an hour.

Prices have been increasing at a rate of 6 to 7 percent per year, while wages have remained static.

By Divemedic, ago

PLAN still getting stronger

China just commissioned three ships on the same day: A Ballistic missile submarine, a cruiser, and an amphibious ship/baby carrier.

The baby carrier displaces around 35 to 40 thousand tons, which puts it on par with the Wasp class LHD. The US Navy has nine of these ships, with 5 of them in the Pacific theater.

The cruiser is equivalent to the Aegis cruiser, with phased array radars and 128 VLS missiles.

This newest submarine boosts Chinese to 6 ballistic missile subs. Now these subs are noisier than either their Russian or American counterparts, but they don’t have to be as quiet, because they are staying close to the Chinese coast, where they can be defended by shore based assets.

The current Chinese sub launched missile, the J-2, has a 4500 mile range. This means that only Alaska is within range of these missiles, but that will change in 2025, when the new J-3 missile goes into fleet service with their newest submarines, set to enter the fleet in 2023. The worrisome part here is that the Chinese will more than triple the number of nuclear warheads in their arsenal from 300 to over 1,000 within the next 8 years. Some reports estimate that the number of warheads may be significantly higher- as many as 3,000 warheads.

The Chinese are engaged in a MASSIVE military buildup at a time when the US Navy is weak. Granted, Chinese spending is less than a third of US spending, but the US spending is disproportionately spent on pay and boondoggles like sex changes and promoting more women, while the Chinese are using the money to build more platforms and weapons systems.

The Chinese are increasing military readiness across the board, while the US is decreasing readiness. Within the next decade, the US Navy will be outnumbered and outclassed by PLAN.

By Divemedic, ago