Sen Bill Hagerty (R-TN) pointed out during the hearing that inflation rose from 1.4 percent in January 2021 to 7 percent by the end of the year.
Russia had not yet invaded Ukraine and would not do so for several months.
Since the Ukrainian invasion, inflation has risen another 1.6 percent.
Hagerty asked Powell directly if he thought the war in Ukraine was the primary inflation driver.
Powell replied that inflation was high prior to the war breaking out. Concluding that the war was not the primary driver of our current inflation.
So yet again, we have President Biden saying something that is demonstrably untrue.
Either the President is trying to mislead the American People, or the President is so out of touch with reality that perhaps his whole presidency should be called into question.
Even if Biden himself is incapable of executing the duties required of his office, if his staff was competent, they could at least run the country. It’s been rumored for years, that Eleanor Roosevelt did just that while FDR was lying gravely ill in his bed.
Any one of Biden’s staff could have called Federal Reserve Chairman Powell and asked if the words they were putting in Biden’s mouth were remotely true.
Worse still, the highly over staffed White House Media corps published this on Twitter.
How many hits does this administration have to take before they’re out the door?
For Christ’s sake, Trump was impeached TWICE on far less demonstrable “evidence”.
In Biden’s case, we have President Biden repeately lying to the American People. We have his Son, Hunter apparently selling access to then Vice President Biden. We have Hunter claiming that his father does whatever Hunter tells him to. We have emails from Hunter Biden’s (Now Confirmed) laptop that at the least, suggest that Hunter was paying cash to his father related to VP Access to close foreign business deals. We have Biden himself on video bragging about pressuring a foreign government to fire a prosecutor who was looking into Hunter Biden’s business dealings. (That one only cost the taxpayers a Billion in foreign aid.)
Trump was called upon to take cognitive assessments without demonstrating any of the symptoms that Biden shows at virtually every public appearance.
If you were at all curious about the claims that there are two rules of law in this country. Look no further than the disparity above. Had Trump been accused of any single one of the things Biden appears to have been touched by…
Donald Trump would be in prison doing hard labor. His entire family would be in prison, right down to Barron.
I’ve come to the conclusion that the “Truth” about the Jan 6th Riots won’t come out in our lifetimes. I further believe that whatever “Truth” will be the sanitized carefully massaged version written by the victors.
As with all history… It becomes what those in power want it to be.
I’m to the point in all this where I agree with Ilhan Omar. “Some people did some things…”
I just threw up in my mouth a little typing that. Jesus! How can it be that I agree with Ilhan Omar about anything?
I am curious to see what the ratings were for the hearing. I wonder if I’m alone or if the majority of my fellow citizens are right there with me.
The people in power have spoken about the radicalization of citizens toward terrorism. I can’t think of a much better tool to radicalize average people than the tone deaf responses on real issues, that are coming out of Washington D.C.
So whatever happens from here on out is on them. All of them, regardless of party.
Reports about the guy from California who was arrested outside a Supreme Court Justices home. Armed, and with tools to enter the home has been squelched. Apparently, the man was threatening harm to a sitting justice over Roe v Wade and gun control. According to Bill Maher an article can be found in the New York Times, on page A20.
The irony of demanding more gun control was apparently lost on this individual, since he was carrying guns to harm a conservative Justice. The man is apparently a liberal, progressive, Democrat… This is probably why the story is buried on page 20. Had this moron been a Republican going after a liberal judge… The story would warrant 24/7 news coverage Front page across the planet.
Even Bill Maher called out the NYT on its bias. How biased do you have to be to have Bill Maher take offense?
At the same time a credible threat was being booked at the police station, Congress decided against providing additional security for the Justices. This while protests in front of the Justice’s homes are being permitted.
In violation of the law!
Here’s a question. How does anyone know where the Justices live in the first place? I’d imagine that bit of information would be somewhat protected, or there’d be threats all the time on a justice and their families.
There was a time when I was a boy that society taught us all a few basic things.
No matter how much you dislike or disagree with the President you will end up in jail if you threaten him or her.
You cannot threaten a member of Congress, or the Judiciary unless you want to end up in jail.
You should not attack someone physically over a difference of opinion, even if you think they’re so wrong as to be sitting to the right hand of Satan himself. That too was a quick ticket to jail.
Protests are fine, when it looks like things are getting out of hand it’s time to go home. Staying for a riot was a ticket to jail.
(As an aside, My parents told me they wouldn’t bail me out of jail for stupidity.)
These weren’t all laws… (Some of course are,) these were compromises that insured the society didn’t devolve into anarchy and the inevitable blood bath that accompanies anarchy.
We were taught that it was okay to express disagreement with the President, Congress, or the Judiciary, and that no-one could take that right from us. We were taught that the law would even protect us while legally, (Peacefully,) expressing our opinions.
My how things have changed!
I know that The Slippery Slope argument is a fallacious one. There is no way to predict all the possible outcomes of a given action or series of actions.
That being said, I would argue that The Slippery Slope argument has some merit in that it may help define a set of probabilities. One or more of those probabilities may prove false but they may also prove true.
An extreme example: If you release a known serial killer of women into a population of women and by some miracle the killer doesn’t kill. Releasing 10 serial killers of women into the same population based on a sample of one, is a slippery slope. The probability is that one or more of those killers will kill again.
In that example, no-one should be the least surprised when women start turning up dead.
When we allow people to make threats, and take no action on those threats, we shouldn’t be surprised that more threats are forthcoming. Nor should anyone be surprised when someone makes good on their threat.
When we allow months of rioting to happen and see police standing by, observing destruction, arson, and looting, and doing nothing about any of it. Should we be surprised when angry people protesting, turns into a riot? The place and reason for the riot are irrelevant (non-partisan if you will).
By allowing riots for other things without taking action, we have tacitly approved of riots, and therefore fallen down a slippery slope. Anyone could have seen what was going to happen on Jan 6th.
The onus is upon those who failed to take action based on easily predicted outcomes.
Regardless of what Then President Trump said or didn’t say, or when. Regardless of your (or Congressional leaders,) like or dislike of President Trump.
The Jan 6th riot was not only easily predictable, it was equally preventable.
President Trump himself reportedly offered to call up the National Guard to provide additional security for the Capital. He did this while encouraging people to come and express their opinions.
This implies the President Trump had made a logical prediction based on the numbers of people that were showing up. He knew he was on a slippery slope and that mitigation was warranted.
The speaker of the house Chose to put personal animus above security, and refused the National Guard presence.
Here, President Trump failed.
Regardless of The Speaker’s refusal. President Trump should have ordered The National Guard to take posts securing the Capital and the city anyway. Just in case.
By Jan 6th it was too fucking late. Had people coming into the city seen The National Guard positioned to take action, it’s probable the events of Jan 6th would have gone much differently.
Having hearings, subpoenas, contempt of congress, and all the surrounding bullshit, the Jan 6th committee is engaged in, is nothing more than trying to find someone to blame.
This all could have been resolved simply.
Realize that blame is useless. Accept what happened, and make sure that it doesn’t happen again.
President Biden was declared the winner of the election. It’s a done deal. Move the fuck on.
The members of the Jan 6th committee would have been better served returning to their offices and making sure that riots were no longer to be even tacitly approved. For any reason, at any time or place.
They could have served the people of this country by conveying that the full weight of the law would come down on anyone engaged in rioting after the events of Jan 6th, and the previous summer.
Give everyone a pass, with the proviso “Never Again!”
They could have admitted, without admitting, the blame lay with them and the permissive attitude of the previous Summer. They could have in a bi-partisan way, told the people of the country that this behavior would not be tolerated. Then actually started laying the groundwork for the much vaunted healing President Biden promised.
They needn’t have spent 8 million dollars destroying the perceived enemies of one political party. In doing so, to my eye, they have painted themselves in a not too different light than Stalin’s show trials.
I suspect they’ve offended a lot of Americans like myself who cannot believe what they’re seeing.
Congress is looking a lot more like they’re trying to usurp the Judiciary and a lot less like lawmakers. The questions raised about limits on Congressional power are very concerning to me personally.
From the transcripts I’ve skimmed, this is shaping up a lot like the Trump Impeachments.
Then, as now I was thinking… Big Deal, So WHAT?
Personally, I’d love it if one of the witnesses stood up and told the committee, “Sit Down! Shut Up! Now get to work on dealing with real issues you political hacks!”
That won’t happen. But I’d pay to see it!
I thought I’d skim more of the transcripts, Now… I don’t think I will.
I’m done. This country is lost, thankfully I won’t live long enough to see it flush itself down the shitter. 10-15 years tops and while this place will still be called America… What that once meant will be lost.
The day they come to take everyone’s guns. Make no mistake they will. Is the day that the US Constitution will finally be nothing more than toilet paper and this land will descend into a marxist totalitarian regime.
Nikita Khrushchev said the communist party would win. I think he was right.
“Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state? It’s the unspoken truth of humanity that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life’s joy in a mad scramble for power. For identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel.” ― Loki of Asgard
This just in… Only 19 million viewers, across ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, and CNN, watched the hearing. I guess I’m thinking just like the majority of American Citizens.
Apparently, most everyone had something better to do…
Where’s my safe space? Where’s my bottle? Where’s my reparations? Okay, a bit sarcastic…
I am offended though. After the horror of Elementary School kids being shot in their own classroom, Elementary School Kids? The politicians, the media, and everyone else jumped in with both feet to start pushing gun control again.
Our moronic halfwit in chief had to shoot his mouth off again with his “Deer in Kevlar,” and “People couldn’t buy cannons,” bullshit. So Joe, you’re saying that back at the founding of this country we could go and buy Human Beings, but not a Cannon?
You do realize Joe, that early cannons could be produced by a decent blacksmith with a large enough quantity of iron and a knowledge of casting large metal objects. Those cannons, had no moving parts! If you get down to it, an early cannon is nothing more than a large pipe with one end blocked and a small hole for a fuse. I swear, the moron in chief would do so much better if he just kept his mouth shut.
I digress…
I’m offended that these people couldn’t let the nation take a breath. They couldn’t allow us a freakin moment to process the enormity of what happened.
Instead, these animals had to try to capitalize politically on the tragedy.
Shame on them! Shame on them all!
It’s since come out that the killer wasn’t a deranged white supremacist. (Apparently an LA Times reporter was disappointed about that.) Although the shooter was certainly deranged!
He’d purchased the weapons legally, submitting to the required background checks. He had a number of red flags that were completely ignored. He shot his grandmother after saying he was going to do it on FaceBook, then he went back to Facebook to say he’d shot his grandmother.
He posted on Facebook his intention to shoot a school. He sent via a social media platform, unsolicited photos of guns to a female who was a complete stranger.
He had, according to two different acquaintances from his High School, cut his own face, (for the fun of it…) Others who attended High School with him said that he’d always been a bit off, scary, overly aggressive, or easily enraged.
He is reported to have been shooting at the school, after crashing his vehicle and making his way over a fence onto school grounds.
It took police 10 minutes to respond to the reports of shots fired. There was no School Resource Officer at the school, (in other words, there was no-one present to mount any kind of defensive action.) Some reports are saying that this killer had time to barricade himself in the classroom, and that he may have entered through an unlocked exterior door.
There are many questions to be answered where it comes to the police response.
One for example is that an off duty Border control agent received a message from his wife about an active shooter incident, while he was in a barber’s chair. This Agent has a child in that particular school and armed himself with a shotgun he borrowed from his barber. Then he went to the school and entered the wing where his child’s classroom was located. He helped get students from that wing, including his child out of the school and to safety.
The question here is, how does an unarmed off duty boarder agent have the time to arm up, get to the school, make entry, and start getting children out of the school with help from a few deputies, while the main force of police is still standing around in front of the school?
I think the hearings and testimony will be most interesting to read through.
To be sure, this is a tragedy. It is not however the fault of the gun, the gun manufacturers, the NRA, or gun lobbyists (as Chief Moron in charge would have us believe).
This tragedy is 100% the fault of a single deranged individual. It was his hand that loaded the gun, his hand that pulled the trigger, and his insanity that drove his actions.
The failure here is not that he could legally pass a background check and purchase a weapon.
The failure is that no-one paid any attention to the insanity the person before them presented. Even if they did pay attention, there was nobody to call, and no method to get this person the help they needed or the hospitalization they deserved.
Some of his coworkers have spoken about how easily he became agitated or angry while at work. It’s not like nobody noticed, “This child ain’t right.”
If someone reported him to the police, the police had no actionable violations, even if they had arrested him he’d be out in 8 hours or less. If someone reported him to social services, they had nothing more than a 72 hour hold they could put him in and probably no hospital with an open bed.
That’s the situation I live with in my neighborhood. There’s a female human, (I use that term loosely,) up on the next block who routinely screams she’s going to shoot, stab, castrate, bludgeon, or otherwise kill the man she lives with. Her behavior is no longer limited to just her house or property. Now her physical violence is being inflicted on the neighborhood. Her verbal violence has become commonplace over the past 20 years and no-one pays much attention to her ranting and raving.
The police can’t touch her, social services can’t touch her, and it’s my belief that she’s a ticking time bomb. Her saga will only end when she’s harmed someone and shattered and unknown number of lives.
Sounds familiar doesn’t it?
It sounds a lot like the Texas shooter, or the Brooklyn grocery store guy, or, or, or…
The problem to address is not the guns. The problem that needs to be addressed is a fundamental one.
Where does my right to be safe and secure in my person and property begin, and where do a deranged person’s rights end?
If lawmakers want to make laws and spend money, why don’t they start by working on mental health legislation?
There are a shit ton of Americans who have one or more guns in their homes who have never gone on a shooting spree. On the other hand, there are a lot of Americans who are, (or were,) in real need of mental health services and can’t access them. Those folks are the folks that have a propensity to go on shooting sprees and kill innocents.
Just for clarity’s sake. AR-15 does not stand for Assault Rifle 15. It stands for Armalite Rifle model 15.
Many gun manufacturers make AR-15 rifles, each with their own flourish and manufacturer label. At its heart, an AR-15 is an AR-15, and all of them work the same way. The legal ones are semi-automatic, (one round per trigger pull,) all are based on the original modular design of the Armalite Rifle company.
One can be purchased legally in most states for anywhere from $800 to $3000, depending on options.
Our politicians are quick to seize on the AR-15 as something that must be controlled. Okay, so they want to ban assault rifles. What exactly is an assault rifle? If politicians succeed in banning AR-15s. They’ll only remove a portion of available guns. What about the other guns? The rifles and handguns that aren’t banned? A lever action rifle, or a pump action shotgun, a revolver, or a semi-automatic pistol, all fling a wad (or wads) of lead at high velocities. All can inflict injury and all can cause death.
When lawmakers are talking about gun legislation what are they trying to legislate? The number of rounds that can be fired before reloading? The speed at which rounds can be fired? The caliber of the rounds being fired? What exactly are they trying to control?
Because the lawmakers are so imprecise about what they’re legislating, it leads me to believe that they’re trying to take away all guns. Regardless of the constitutional violation of doing so, if lawmakers were to succeed in removing all guns. (An impossible task) I’m sure that people would simply migrate to Compound or Recurve Bows. Or as in the case of the UK, knives.
The point is, some people will always seek to kill other people. In the case of deranged individuals, the weapon is far less important than the motivation. I think it was in Japan, one knife wielding crazy person wounded 20 people on a subway platform. I don’t recall how many died. This guy was walking through the crowd stabbing people and a lot of the people on the platform didn’t realize there was a threat at first.
Which leads back to addressing the real source of the problem. Mental health. Lawmakers need to enact legislation that provides the services to address mental health issues and where necessary remove individuals from society at large that are obviously a threat.
People who, for instance fantasize about killing, people who consistently state they’re going to kill someone specific or people at large, people who post threats on social media, etc.
When a neighborhood calls the police repeatedly about a disturbance where someone is screaming, “I’ll shoot you, I’ll stab you, I’ll kill you,” perhaps the police should send the person somewhere that they can get help. What should not happen is that the neighborhood stops reporting the issue because nothing is ever done.
School teachers are taught to look for signs of abuse in children. Perhaps they should also be taught to look for signs of mental health issues, and report them. Early intervention is much better than having to stop an active shooter.
So many of our politicians, pundits, and wags, jump up on their soapboxes after a tragedy like the Texas shooting. They demand, “Commonsense gun control”. I say they’re screaming to fix a symptom, not the disease.
New York and California have some of the most restrictive gun laws in the nation. I think both state have “Red Flag” laws where the guns of an individual can be seized and held in police custody until the owner is proven fit and competent.
I ask how is it possible that you can have a grocery store in New York become a killing ground? How is it that you can have a San Bernardino Shooting at a county office? If gun laws worked, these shooters wouldn’t have had the guns in the first place.
How about we take the elephant in the room outside? Let’s rise to the challenge of addressing that mental illness isn’t being treated, but it should be.
To our politicians, pundits, and wags. At least have the decency to let the bodies cool before making your political grandstand moment.
