We are the drain the swamp people

No not Hunter’s “Big Guy” . . . 

THE BIG GUY:

New American Standard Genesis 1

26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the (ak)sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the (al)sky and over every living thing that (am)moves on the earth.” 29 Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the (an)surface of all the earth, and every tree (ao)which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; 30 and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the (ap)sky and to every thing that (aq)moves on the earth (ar)which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so. 31 God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

King James Genesis 1

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. 29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. 30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. 31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

However if you worship gaia  you may like what its current representative on earth had to say today: Biden’s Earth Day Remarks Show Just How Much He Is Deteriorating

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• Amend First District Platform to include opposition to Zuckerberg type election heists   — look for a sign “oppose billionaires buying official election efforts” or related signature sheet. Individual delegates must sign on to the amendment before 11:00 AM.
• Readers can follow this link to our posting of the Republican First District draft platform to be voted on this Saturday.

If readers can find something that even hints at something like ~~ no private money directed to official offices to influence official election duties~~ in the draft Republican First District platform please enlighten me. I will apologize and correct the record if I missed it in my perusal of it. See link.

Now this criticism is not to say that the draft does not cover a lot of bases important to conservatives. It does. For example, for me the right to  life issues will always be the sine qua non of the party platform —  and it is well covered in the draft. But it is not my only issue and I am glad that a number of timely issues are covered — if occasionally in my opinion clumsily drafted or inadequately prefaced.  And so it goes. But how in the heck was the CTCL/Zuckerberg/equivalent of election bribery (as per a Wisconsin judge) left out!?.

Given the extensive reporting of the matter in conservative circles and what should be the instincts of any informed delegate or other Republican office holder in response to the “progressive” pedigree of those pushing such largess and not understand it as anything other than to give them the ability to run a Democrat GOTV effort under official color and co-subsidized by any jurisdiction accepting such targeted grant — well it is just incredible.

One wonders if (charitably) the absence is an embarrassing oversight or the result of people afraid of embarrassing SOS Paul Pate who encouraged county auditors in 2020 to submit to the ruse. It cannot be that there was no example plank to work from by the District Platform Committee (typically composed of delegates from each county) because one such plank was part of the Scott County 2022 Platform. Section 10 , 12th item:

• We Support banning private funding of our elections.

We note that the proposed First District platform has been added to extensively (but not enough) from the ridiculously scant 2020 effort. The fetish of platitudinal platforms does not do justice to issues or citizen involvement unique to caucus systems like we have in Iowa.

The failure to include such a plank opposing private funding of elections cannot be seriously justified as something the legislature is soon to take care of. All manner of planks might be dropped using that excuse and others are still included in the proposal even though they have been dealt with legislatively.  At this time an Iowa proscription on private money funneled through election officials has not been passed.  Referring to  HF2526 which includes a number of election related matters to the Iowa Code Sec 43.20 the “no private money provision” reads: (Bold our emphasis)

  Sec. 5.  NEW SECTION.  49.17  Conduct of elections — funding.
   271.  The state commissioner or a county commissioner or
28political subdivision of the state shall only accept funding
29from the following sources for the purposes of conducting an
30election:
   31a.  Lawful appropriations of public funds from the government
32of the United States.
   33b.  Lawful appropriations of public funds from the state of
34Iowa.
   35c.  Lawful appropriations of public funds from a political
-2-1subdivision of the state for the conduct of an election in the
2political subdivision.

The state commissioner, a county commissioner, or a
4 political subdivision of the state shall not accept or expend
5 a grant, gift, or other source of funding from a source other
6 than those listed in subsection 1, including from a private
7 person, corporation, partnership, political party, nonparty
8 political organization, committee as defined in section
9 68A.102, or other organization for the purpose of conducting
10 an election.
11 3. This section does not prohibit the state commissioner or
12 a county commissioner or political subdivision from issuing and
13 collecting fees as otherwise provided by law.
14 4. This section does not apply to the contribution of a
15 building for use as a polling place pursuant to section 49.21.

I plan to attend the District Convention (I am not a delegate) but hope to be able to circulate or induce a delegate to circulate an amendment to the platform addressing the “Zuckerberg money” issue.  If you are attending please support the effort. If others have taken this up then I would support that effort instead.

There are other matters the platform misses that I hope are addressed as amendments. In the draft, nothing is said about a number of current items that ought to be addressed including, in this time of food insecurity and great inflation, the use of corn acreage for ethanol instead of food, the boondoggle of wind farms.

While there is a resolution calling for public neutrality by RPI Central Committee members regarding primary candidates and presidential caucuses, implicating such activity as untoward, there is nothing to chastise Republican office holders for their failures to support and even opposition to platform planks.

Paul Pate ought to be held in contempt for his promoting of CTCL money knowing the pedigree of the proponents.

And I do not think it is just me in considering that Chuck Grassley’ and the entire Iowa congressional delegation were as weak as they could be regarding the election fraud of 2020 and their pathetic statements regarding the events of January 6, 2021 parroting distortions and beltway thumb-sucking about an overwhelmingly peaceful demonstration.

By January 6, observation of the general election results of 2020 exhibited strong compelling video and other evidence including sworn testimony regarding fraudulent activity using mechanisms or a frequency that could produce large numbers of illegal votes, extreme violations of transparency inimical to confidence in the vote, executive enactments in violation of state constitutions, incredible anomalies and patterns in key states sufficient to alter electoral college outcomes. That the Iowa delegation in Congress saw their only role in the matter of election integrity as the ministerial rubber-stamping of something so suspect, so engendering of division, it was unbecoming of this great republic and the history and laws of this land.

Such a failure to take any action to merely delay the counting of electoral ballots pending an audit and for state legislatures to come into session and examine how valid the vote was in their states as submitted by Senators Cruz, Cotton and other senators well versed in the Constitution, federal regulations and American history — gave all appearances of ushering in the most damaging subversive governing regime possible.

And pardon my further venting from these pages:

Miller-Meeks votes to go along with Pelosi January 6th commission

Marco Rubio’s scathing commentary about Jan. 6 inquisition bill Miller-Meeks supported

Will Senators Grassley and Ernst apologize for parroting lies and spin about Jan 6th. 

Sen. Ernst issued an ahistorical near hysterical screed in response to Jan. 6 mostly peaceful demonstration

If this information and analysis (see links) does not put the skids on Jan 6th proforma certification of electors, then we are doomed as a republic.

Comparative justice: Officer involved shooting Jan. 6 in D.C. and April 11 in Minnesota

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Here is one concern:

Ukraine? “Not our problem”, Tucker Carlson, and, some others on the right seem to be saying…what do you think?    dlh

(‘Maybe Putin will settle for the Sudetenland’; where have I heard something similar to that?)

THANK GOD, IT’S JUST A ‘MINOR INCURSION’!; (Just Ask the Folks at Mariupol)

“Russia will be held accountable if it invades, and it depends on what it does,” Biden said, when asked how he would hold Russia accountable for an invasion.
“It’s one thing if it’s a minor incursion, and then we end up having a fight about what to do and not do, et cetera.(uttered by our president, days before the Russian invasion of Ukraine).

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In an e-mail today this summary of the main points of the US District Judges ruling invalidating the mask mandates issued by the CDC.  It is by  Twila Brase, RN, PHN President and Co-founder of Citizens Council for Health Freedom (CCHF).  Meme items imparted by V’PAC our collection and do not necessarily represent the views of CHF or Judge Mizelle.

I have read U.S. District Court Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle’s excellent decision against the Biden mask mandate for travel, which went into effect late Monday night. The TSA says they will not enforce the mask mandate, and every airline says face masks are now optional.

The U.S. Department of Justice, which appealed the ruling yesterday, said on April 19, “The Department continues to believe that the order requiring masking in the transportation corridor is a valid exercise of the authority Congress has given CDC to protect the public health. That is an important authority the Department will continue to work to preserve.”

This is a lie. The CDC has no such authority to preserve. In a 59-page ruling, Judge Mizelle clarifies:

• WRONG DEFINITION: Despite CDC claims that the 70-year-old Public Health Services Act [PHSA] permitting sanitation gives it authority to mask the public, Judge Mizelle said sanitation is limited to cleaning tangible items, not covering people’s mouths.
• WRONG LEGAL BASIS: While the CDC has the right to detain and quarantine people entering the U.S., the law doesn’t give it the power to conditionally release Americans to travel within the U.S., dependent on the wearing of a mask.
• OUT OF BOUNDS: The CDC found “a power over public health” that is “a function of state police power” despite there being no indication that Congress “intended for the CDC to invade the traditionally State-operated arena of population-wide, preventative public-health regulations.”
• VIOLATED ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURES ACT (APA): “The CDC did not allow for public participation through notice and comment before issuing the Mask Mandate.” Judge Mizelle said the CDC’s single sentence, claiming Covid as their “good cause” rationale for forgoing public participation, was “insufficient.”
• ARBITRARY AND CAPRICIOUS MANDATE: The CDC exempts individuals who are “eating, drinking, or taking medication” from the mandate, and children under two years old. The judge notes, “The Mandate makes no effort to explain why its purposes – prevention of transmission and serious illness – allow for such exceptions.”
• MY FAVORITE PART OF THE RULING: “Since the CDC did not explain its decision to compromise the effectiveness of its Mandate by including exceptions or its decision to limit those exceptions, the Court cannot conclude that the CDC ‘articulated a rational connection between the facts found and the choices made.’” [emphasis mine.]

Compromise indeed. At snack time mid-flight, it is somehow OK for all 300 airline passengers to be mask-free. This exception demonstrates a serious lack of seriousness. Americans could have stopped playing make-believe, but as Judge Mizelle said, this mandate was not without harm. Those who refused could be fined, kicked off planes, grounded for life, shamed, and humiliated.

To try to retain the CDC’s power to mask you at will, the DOJ has appealed the ruling. This is a fight they must lose and we must win. The mask is a sign of their power over you—and your submission. Rejoice in the courage and rightful ruling of Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle. Then resolve to never submit again.

Grateful for freedom,

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) mask mandate for airplanes and other forms of public transportation was struck down on April 18 by a federal judge.

U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle said the CDC rule exceeded the agency’s statutory authority because its implementation violated administrative law. Mizelle, a Trump appointee based in Florida, directed the agency to reverse the policy nationwide in response to a lawsuit filed by the Health Freedom Defense Fund.

The CDC violated the Administrative Procedure Act because it didn’t give notice before imposing the mandate in February 2021, Mizelle wrote in a 59-page summary judgment.

“At the time when the CDC issued the mandate, the COVID-19 pandemic had been ongoing for almost a year and COVID-19 cases were decreasing,” she wrote. “This timing undercuts the CDC’s suggestion that its action was so urgent that a thirty-day comment period was contrary to the public interest. So too, the CDC’s delay in issuing the mandate further undercuts its position.”

Public comment, in this case, is necessary, the judge wrote, because the mandate would “constrain their choices and actions via threats and civil and criminal penalties.”

Mizelle also found that the mandate, which was imposed in February 2021, exceeded the CDC’s statutory authority.

The agency had claimed that the Public Health Services Act of 1944 gave it the power to regulate travelers, but the judge disagreed, finding that the law only grants the agency the ability “to directly regulate individuals only if they are traveling into the United States from abroad or are ‘reasonably believed to be infected with a communicable disease in a qualifying stage.’”

The CDC and the White House didn’t respond to requests for comment.

It’s not clear if the Department of Justice will try to file an appeal or how quickly the ruling will be implemented across the United States, namely at airports. Several weeks ago, the CDC announced that it would extend the mask mandate until at least May 3, despite calls from airline companies and groups to end the policy

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It has been said that politics is war conducted by other means.  I think maybe it ought to be thought of as such — not the bloody part and only assuming proper sides and a republic as the playing field.  One reason often given for opposing term limits is that mature experienced politicians are likely to compromise, supposedly for the good of the country. But looking at the results from perpetual office holders compromise has not had a whole lot to recommend it given the leviathan created under its guise. Compromise is more like a irreversible ratchet for more government and bureaucracy.   The longer the “mature seasoned adults” are in the embrace of the beltway (and themselves) it seems government just keeps getting bigger — more programs — less freedoms.  Term limits can help to cut the tentacles / grabasstic* impulses of the swamp denizens.  The picture above could have come from a National Geographic issue showing the procreators of the leviathan. It depicts what goes on when supposed “opposites” (liberals and conservatives) hang around together a lot.

And this is their offspring:

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A little late in posting for some of the prescriptions mentioned in this article at ncregister.com but not too late to plant the seeds for next year). The cultural mentions in the article are quite good although in the last few years we have noticed that some retail outlets and even restaurants have closed on Easter Sunday that we remember being open in previous years.

How to End the Invisibility of Easter

John Grondelski CommentariesApril 16, 2022

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• School choice will improve public schools
• A winning issue for Republicans — widespread support for school choice especially among disadvantaged minorities

The title of our post today makes as much sense as the refrain from the usual suspects regarding school choice funding to wit (twit): “public dollars should (only) be used to support our public schools.”  We responded to the parroting of that line by State Representative Mary Masher (D- Iowa City) writing to The Iowa Standard Saturday.  Read her views at the link.  Our view follows:

REP. MASCHER: Republican disagreement on Education Savings Accounts for families has led to legislative stalemate. 

Democrat Mascher says “I firmly believe public dollars should be used to support our public schools.” Well under proposals before the legislature they will be. Perhaps she meant only used to support public schools. But either way her position conceptually has real consistency problems unless she is advocating that in the area of education Pell Grants, and Iowa Tuition Grants, school busing, should not benefit private school students. It also does not square well with even allowing tax deductions or exemptions for private school fees or institutions.

Consistency would require her to oppose the use of any tax support, treasury payment, exemption or benefit when a state created entity exists, even when private entities pre-existed the state entity as was the case with education and which is also the case with health care delivery and social services. Her position (may I use that pronoun) would seem logically to implicate that the state ought not buy any service from any private entity and should only transfer payments when the entity is a tax dependent entity.

The core goal of the state should be to facilitate basic education (indeed be limited to it) not the perpetuation of government run schools with all their inefficiencies, insufficiencies excessive cost and may I add cultural corruptions. It should be presumed the person being supported is the student (under the guidance of the tax-paying parent) not government employees.

As to the thought that special education students would be abandoned or short-changed, no-body is saying that government schools cannot exist but it should be acknowledged that private entities were the first to step in to education special needs children, including the blind and disabled. The extra costs are often real and a student diagnosed with such needs can have the extra costs added to any formula for reimbursement. Again the goal ought to be education not state bureaucracies. The tax dollars, adjusted for need should follow the student under the prime tutelage of the parent.

Regrettably there are Republicans parroting the “public dollars should be used to support our public schools” line and they should be called to task in primaries.

Related commentaries and memes:

Why do public school teachers send their own children to private schools at a rate 2X the national average?  

Remembering the usual suspects attacks on trump’s Secretary of Education

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In Menlo, Iowa the other day Biden got a bit off script

White House leaky diaper patrol says Biden’s accusation about Putin being guilty of genocide (stated here in Iowa by the way) was just sort of a personal feeling or something. It was supposedly off script. Of course “Resident Joe” doesn’t have actual strong feelings against real genocide (nor any actual understanding of the concept).  Consider his “personal feelings” about Xi and China:  From the New York Post: President Biden is dismissing the genocide against the Uighur population in China, dubbing the mass internment a “different norm” — despite the State Department this month responding to “atrocities” in the camps, following reports of systemic rape and torture.

This commentary by Gary Bauer at American Values expresses some sentiments we share about the Ukraine situation.  Bold our emphasis.

Biden: Leading The Free World?

Joe Biden is using every horrible day of the carnage being inflicted on Ukraine by Vladimir Putin as a political opportunity for himself and the left. 

The globalists that dominate the U.S. government and left-wing political strategists see the Ukraine war as an opportunity to distract the American people from the damage they’re doing to our country. 

In addition, the conflict gives Biden an opportunity to be seen as “Commander-in-Chief” and “Leader of the Free World.” He is neither. Nonetheless, Biden and his strategists believe patriotic Americans will eventually rally around him, particularly if the conflict drags on. 

It’s revealing that no one in key positions in Washington is calling for serious negotiations to find a compromise to end the war. It’s revealing that the always vocal, left-wing anti-war movement isn’t staging mass protests against Joe Biden right now.

Meanwhile, Biden’s own rhetoric makes it less likely that peace talks and negotiations that could end the death and destruction will take place. 

His rhetoric makes it more likely that Vladimir Putin will fight to win or die trying. Only a fool would assume that if Putin is cornered, he won’t use the ultimate weapons at his disposal.

In Iowa yesterday, “tough guy” Biden very intentionally claimed that Putin is engaged in genocide. Virtually every European leader distanced themselves from Biden’s remarks. French President Emmanuel Macron, locked in his own tough reelection campaign right now, said he would not repeat Biden’s accusation.

Macron sees Putin’s invasion as “brutal” and “madness,” but he urged Biden to be careful with his language. Macron said we should try “to rebuild peace.” He added, “I’m not sure that verbal escalations serve this cause.”

But “tough talk” combined with his typical weakness serves Biden’s cause. The danger is that his bombastic rhetoric and his ignorance of history can cause the heartbreaking devastation of Ukrainian cities to spread to cities in the rest of Europe.

I am no fan of Macron. But as a Frenchman, he knows the devastating toll of Europe’s land wars. In World War I, France lost two million people. France was occupied during World War II. England lost its empire, even though it was on the winning side.

The next few weeks could far surpass the savagery of the first 58 days of the Russian/Ukrainian war. May 9th is observed in Russia as Victory Day, marking the end of World War II, and honoring the 27 million Russians who died in that conflict. Putin will want to point to success in Ukraine on May 9th, just a few weeks away. 

As I write, there is an eight-mile convoy of Russian tanks headed into Donbas, and Ukrainian forces are massing to meet them.

We need, at a time like this, a sober, mentally competent president who understands strength and is prudent with his words. Instead, we have Joe “Come On Man” Biden with cackling Kamala Harris waiting in the wings.

God help us

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Children of the (lack of) corn

Will it be:

~~ “Damn the food crisis and full speed ahead with corn in your tank”~~

OR

Given the emergency situation created by grain disruptions due to the war in Ukraine, for humanity’s sake Republicans should take the lead in their own states and prioritize food production in policies and through moral suasion

We should ask of the politicians in this state — are they out to protect ethanol or people?  Farmers would be happy with the latter and should receive market prices for supplying their products to feed people efficiently.

It is crisis time. All marketing mandates, promotions and favored tax treatments for ethanol use as an automotive fuel should be ended.

Whether it is Joni Ernst or Charles Grassley or most other Republican personages in/from this state — they make political hay of late about food inflation and security  — rightly decrying Biden’s various inflationary edicts and pointing out the effects of the war in/on Ukraine as necessitating our aggressive support of Ukraine in order to stabilize food prices.

But ruminate on this letter from Joni Ernst (along with the other links provided) while trying to digest her and her fellow Iowans insistence that ethanol “market mandates” be instituted for ethanol’s use as motor fuel.

Home | Newsroom | Helping Iowans | Contact  “This is a food security crisis.” Dear Friend – As Vladimir Putin continues his bloody, lawless war on Ukraine, one thing is becoming clearer every day: his war is causing a global food security crisis . Approximately 400 million people around the world are dependent on Ukraine and Russia for food, and that production this year will drop 40-45% in Ukraine because of the war. Russia is using food as a ‘quiet weapon’ and is targeting agriculture in Ukraine. Click here  or on the image above to see Fox News’ coverage of my comments on how Russia is using food as a ‘quiet weapon’ in their war. This week, I joined fellow member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Senator Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), in hosting members of Ukrainian Civil Society, Dr. Hanna Hopko, Daria Kaleniuk, and Maria Berlinska, for a discussion about Russia’s war in Ukraine and what it means for global food security and agriculture. Click here  or on the image above to watch KCCI’s coverage of the panel I hosted on the war in Ukraine and its impact on agriculture. The best and quickest way to address the food security crisis is for Ukraine to win the war, and they can win this war  if the United States and our allies get them the support they need. V’PAC note not part of Ernst communication — The Ukraine war is only part of the food inflation problem and it looks more and more like the quickest way to address food security is to end ethanol for fuel incentives and mandates. Ernst communication continues: I also joined Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business this week, along with Ukrainian Civil Society member Dr. Hanna Hopko, to talk about this crisis: Click here  or on the image above to watch my interview with Fox Business. To see more coverage of our panel this week and the global food security crisis from Putin’s war, click HERE .

The disconnect is their promoting ethanol marketing requirements instead of calling for farm acreage to be used for food instead of  wasteful ethanol production to be burned in cars.

For humanity’s sake they should be calling on farm policy if anything to incentivize food production and disincentivize inefficient ethanol production. That should “incentivize” Biden’s people to open up domestic oil production.

If ethanol for fuel is so wonderful let the market pay the true cost based on zero subsidies or mandates of any sort. People know what is good for them.

Farmers should use the power of their ‘victory gardens’ by favoring those grain dealers who favor their products for food/feed production or limit their auctions or supply contracts to food production. Because of the current emergency farmers and grain merchants should be empowered to void those contracts already issued to ethanol manufacturers focused on internal combustion engine fuel mixtures.

The articles below go back five to ten years or more decrying the use of ethanol for fuel as not green and a boondoggle, an inefficient way to produce fuel and or cattle feed. The pictures above where clipped from some of these articles.

https://news.algaeworld.org/2016/08/blunder-biofuel-mandate/

https://oilfreefun.blogspot.com/2012/09/forget-fearing-big-bad-wolf-so-called.html

https://dailytorch.com/2012/10/decency-demands-an-end-to-all-ethanol-fuel-requirements-now/

Corn Ball Economics

https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2011/03/german-buyer-strike-stops-ethanol/

https://www.theburningplatform.com/?p=9361

Biofuels Starving World’s Poor

http://www.ice-age-ahead-iaa.ca/scrp/pnnb000.htm

https://www.ibtimes.com/here-how-ethanol-subsidy-scam-screwing-americans-corn-consumers-globally-255333

https://oilfreefun.blogspot.com/2012/09/forget-fearing-big-bad-wolf-so-called.html

farm-babe-cattle-eat-corn-myth-vs-reality-livestock-nutrition

https://www.upi.com/Business_News/2012/07/30/Meat-lobby-wants-corn-to-ethanol-relief/50011343677885/?u3L=1

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