Biden's America Last Program

[GURPS]

US Appeals Court Orders Biden Admin to Conduct Gulf Oil, Gas Auction Within 37 Days​

A federal appeals court in New Orleans gave the Biden administration 37 days to move forward with the sale of oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico, dismissing challenges from environmental groups in a ruling on Tuesday.

The decision comes after a series of legal battles, primarily citing concerns over endangered whale species.

The three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the attempts by environmental groups to block the leases, which had been delayed due to legal challenges related to whale protections.

The pending sale, initially announced in March, faced delays from its original date on Sept. 27, extending to Nov. 8 amid ongoing legal disputes. In late October, the appeals court further postponed the sale pending arguments specifically addressing endangered whale species, scheduled for Nov. 13.

 

[GURPS]

FTC cracks down on food industry for paid dietitian ‘influencer’ posts​

• The Federal Trade Commission has issued warnings to two food and beverage industry groups and 12 online influencers for not adequately disclosing paid social media posts promoting sweeteners and sugary products.
• The influencers were reportedly hired by the American Beverage Association and the Canadian Sugar Institute to promote their products on Instagram and TikTok.
• The FTC stated that the posts reviewed by health influencers endorsing sugar-containing products did not have proper disclosures, potentially violating federal law and subjecting the trade groups to penalties.

FTC Warns Social Media Influencers and Trade Groups Over Deceptive Aspartame and Sugar Endorsements​

The FTC alleges that the American Beverage Association (AmeriBev) and the Canadian Sugar Institute may have violated the FTC Act by failing to adequately disclose they hired influencers to promote the safety of aspartame and the consumption of sugar-containing products.
AmeriBev is a government lobbying group representing the beverage industry in the United States. Its members include producers and bottlers of soft drinks, such as The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo, and Keurig Dr Pepper. The Canadian Sugar Institute is a food industry association representing all Canadian refined sugar manufacturers.

"It's irresponsible for any trade group to hire influencers to tout its members' products and fail to ensure that the influencers come clean about that relationship," said Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection.

"That's certainly true for health and safety claims about sugar and aspartame, especially when made by registered dieticians and others upon whom people rely for advice about what to eat and drink."

 

[GURPS]

Top House Democrats evacuated from DNC headquarters as police clash with protesters calling for Gaza ceasefire
​

• Protesters calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war clashed with law enforcement outside the Democratic National Committee headquarters, resulting in the evacuation of lawmakers.
• Top House Democrats, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and House Minority Whip Katherine Clark, were present during the clash between protesters and police.
• Activist groups organized a candlelight vigil near Capitol Hill, urging Congress to call for a ceasefire and criticizing the police's response to the peaceful demonstration.

 

[GURPS]

How Biden’s mandated vehicle "kill switch" could affect gun owners​

 

[GURPS]

The Department of Defense (DOD) could drop nearly $270 million in taxpayer funds to further the diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEI) agenda from fiscal years 2022 to 2024.

The DOD has scaled up its spending on DEIA in the past three years, jumping from $68 million in fiscal year 2022 to $86.5 million in fiscal year 2023. But the figure surged another $28.2 million to $114.7 million in the department’s initial request for fiscal year 2024.

If the DOD’s initial request for DEIA funding is included in the final legislation, the department will have spent $269.2 million on diversity initiatives across fiscal years 2022, 2023, and 2024, an average of $89.7 million per year.

Biden’s Pentagon has repeatedly pushed for further adoptions of the DEI agenda in its operations. The department’s Strategic Management Plan for fiscal years 2022 to 2026 listed one of its goals as “inculcate DEIA principles across all DOD efforts.”

“DEIA has impacts on both the Department’s workforce and its mission, and therefore it should be examined beyond the traditional human resources lens by which it historically has been viewed,” the strategic management plan reads, also touting the department’s effort to “institutionalize the advancement of DEIA and the value of diversity to the Department’s mission.”

Biden’s Pentagon Slated To Spend Nearly $270 Million On Diversity Agenda

The Department of Defense (DOD) could drop nearly $270 million in taxpayer funds to further the diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEI) agenda from fiscal years 2022 to 2024. The DOD has scaled up its spending on DEIA in the past three years, jumping from $68 million in fiscal year...

www.dailywire.com

 

[GURPS]

‘New Years’ Nightmare’: IRS Targets Gig Workers, Sends 30 Million New Tax Forms​

Starting this year, a new IRS rule required that third-party payment networks like PayPal, Venmo, Amazon, and Square issue Form 1099-K when a user receives more than $600 in gross sales from goods and services transactions in a single year. Earlier, the threshold of gross sales was over $20,000.

As a result, many taxpayers who never received Form 1099-Ks in the past will receive them this year, according to a Nov. 15 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). This could “exacerbate confusion among some taxpayers, such as gig workers, who may not understand the taxability of their payments and taxes owed.”

[clip]

Commenting on the GAO report, the House Ways and Means Committee criticized Democrats for burdening everyday Americans with the new tax rule.

“Thanks to Democrats, more Americans who mow lawns or sell concert tickets and used couches through Venmo or PayPal will have those transactions scrutinized by the IRS starting in January 2024 thanks to a lower reporting threshold for IRS form 1099-K,” said a Nov. 16 press release from the committee.

The GAO report “shows that the IRS will send at least 30 million new 1099-K tax forms to Americans’ mailboxes come January, even though the agency has no plan on what to do with the new information—and it is unlikely most Americans will understand how to fill them out.”

Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) called the additional tax forms “a new years’ nightmare for millions of Americans and a mess for the IRS.”

The 1099-K form applies to people who are engaged in activities like gig work and casual sales who make side or extra income via selling their services or goods. 1099-K is an “information return” form submitted by third parties like PayPal. Individual taxpayers can use these returns to complete their tax filings. The IRS uses 1099-K to verify income and taxes reported by taxpayers.

 

[GURPS]

Social media burns Biden over 'fire hazard' flaming birthday cake: 'America represents the cake'​

A photo was posted on the president's X account featuring his flaming treat that was immediately burned by social media users for its "carbon emissions" and being a "fire hazard" given the amount of candles.

"As Biden celebrates his birthday —America represents the cake. Regardless of whether you are Republican, Democrat or Independent we are all feeling the heat from Biden’s failed policies," commentator Mehek Cooke posted.

 

[GURPS]

Obama's ex-director of the National Security Council is unmasked as man seen unleashing Islamophobic abuse at halal cart vendor where he mocked Quran over Israel's war against Hamas​

• Gotham Government Relations 'ended all affiliation' with Stuart Seldowitz
• The original video shows Seldowitz speaking to a halal cart vendor using slurs
• 'If we killed 4,000 Palestinian kids? It wasn't enough,' he says at one point

 

[Dakota]

Obama's ex-director of the National Security Council is unmasked as man seen unleashing Islamophobic abuse at halal cart vendor where he mocked Quran over Israel's war against Hamas​

• Gotham Government Relations 'ended all affiliation' with Stuart Seldowitz
• The original video shows Seldowitz speaking to a halal cart vendor using slurs
• 'If we killed 4,000 Palestinian kids? It wasn't enough,' he says at one point

 

[GURPS]

UGH WTF is wrong with people

 

[GURPS]

DHS sued over college program that linked conservative groups to neo-Nazis​

“The Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevent Grant Program has been administered across several administrations and it provides funding for communities to expand their prevention and intervention activities or address gaps in current prevention capabilities.”

The newest Democratic propaganda in schools: 'Fake news' classes​

The Democratic Party’s panic over losing control of narratives in schools has led it to pursue a new path to propagandize to children: mandatory “media literacy” classes to teach students about “fake news.”

Media literacy lessons are now mandatory in California in English, science, history, and even math classes throughout every grade level, thanks to a law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) last month. Delaware, Illinois, and New Jersey are also among the states requiring these lessons. Among other things, the California law worries about the effects of “online misinformation” that has “threatened public health.”

You can guess how easily such lessons can, and will, be abused. California is the same state that tried to crack down on doctors who contradict “contemporary scientific consensus,” a consensus that was routinely wrong during the COVID-19 pandemic. What do we think California’s “fake news” lessons will have to say about climate change, for example? Or about abortion, another area where California has tried to mislead people while trying to force Democratic-approved narratives on pro-life crisis pregnancy centers?

 

[GURPS]

Las Vegas Teenagers ARRESTED AND CHARGED With Murder For Beating White Student To Death!​

 

[GURPS]

Immigration Polling Looks Bad, So Maybe Dems Should Change Policy​

Open borders were never good public policy. But as I have argued many times, Democrats were using the policy to harm the Red states where they just assumed the border crossers would accumulate, destroying the budgets and public safety of the deplorables.

But now that a fraction of those 8-10 million border crashers have migrated into Blue states, it’s time to change direction.

Remarkable polling results came out of New York on Monday. Even Democrats in this Siena College poll are saying things that sound somewhat reminiscent of the views of immigration hawks in the GOP:

• Nearly as many New York Democrats said migrants coming to the state over the past 20 years have been a “burden” (35 percent) as said they have been a “benefit” (37 percent).
• 75 percent of New York Democrats said the recent influx of migrants to the state was at least a “somewhat serious” problem. Nearly half (47 percent) said it was a “very serious” problem.
• 53 percent of New York Democrats agreed with the statement that “New Yorkers have already done enough for new migrants and should now work to slow the flow of migrants to New York.” (The alternative was that the state should “accept new migrants and work to assimilate them into New York,” a position with which 41 percent of the Democratic respondents agreed.)

Perhaps I am being a bit unfair to Aaron Blake, who is simply reporting on the politics of the issue. Or, perhaps, I am being kind now to a hometown boy (he used to write for the Star-Tribune, our hometown paper). In either case, the way this issue and so many others are discussed shows how ridiculous our public policy discourse is.

Open borders were a demonstrably bad idea, and as Blake shows the popularity of a border wall was relatively high both before and now after Trump’s presidency, and the only reason why it was controversial with the public was that Democrats hated Trump, and Trump wanted a border wall.

 

[GURPS]

A fascinating story broke yesterday, headlined in CNBC as “High-end brothels serviced elected officials, tech and pharma execs, military brass: Feds.” I’ll skip the picture.

‘Impeccable’: Investigators Reveal Details on Brothel Ring Serving Politicians, Military Officials​

The new details about the criminal organization, which operated in luxury apartments in Massachusetts and Virginia, were revealed in an affidavit submitted to the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts on Wednesday by Department of Homeland Security Special Agent Zachary Mitlitsky, the New York Post reported.

Han, whom the agent described as the leader, allegedly “concealed over one million dollars in prostitution proceeds.”

“I believe that Han’s financial and business record keeping was impeccable,” he stated.

Mitlitsky argued that the alleged co-conspirators could have access to even more money that investigators haven’t found yet, thus posing a flight risk, and should remain in custody until their hearings.

“Han maintained ledgers detailing the daily activity of her brothels. At the time of the search warrant execution, one such ledger was open to a page showing the stage names, appointment dates and times and earnings of the women,” Mitlitsky detailed, noting that one of the names on the ledger matched a woman discovered to be at the Tysons, Virginia, branch of the brothel network when law enforcement executed a search warrant. She had allegedly been pimped out by the suspects.

 

[GURPS]

You Won't Believe How Much the Northern Border Saw In Illegal Crossings​

According to data, the United States' northern border with Canada saw a 550 percent increase in migrant apprehensions in the last fiscal year.

There were 6,925 apprehensions in the Swanton sector in fiscal year 2023 between October 2022 and September 2023. This is compared to 1,000 in the same sector the previous year, covering New York, New Hampshire, and Vermont, and just 365 in FY 2021.

Swanton Sector Chief Patrol Agent Robert Garcia hit the panic button and requested Border Patrol agents to volunteer to transfer up north.

 

[GURPS]

Joe Biden Ignores Rising Inflow of Chinese Illegal Migrants​

“When [President Joe] Biden and Mr. Xi met last week during an international summit in San Francisco, for instance, immigration was absent in their discussion,” the newspaper reported:

Instead, they talked about fentanyl, American business investment in China and export controls, among other topics.
In the past, American diplomats have tried to work with the Chinese government to persuade it to repatriate its citizens, and the response has tended to be the same.
“They would just plain refuse to acknowledge the person was Chinese,” said Michele Thoren Bond, a former assistant secretary of state who worked on these issues. “It is not credible that a country that documents and monitors its citizens as closely as China does not have photos of every citizen,” Ms. Bond added.

In 2015, for example, federal officials tried to deport more than a dozen violent Chinese migrants back to their home country, Reuters reported. “But, not for the first time, China failed to provide the necessary documents, and three months later not one of those arrested has been deported, and many have been released from custody,” Reuters said.

U.S. officials do not pressure China to accept deported migrants largely because U.S. corporations and investors want to preserve their lucrative exports from China to U.S. markets.

Without China’s approval, Chinese migrants would have to be flown to a third country — and officials of both parties have done little to enable that policy.

Similarly, Biden’s officials do not pressure Mexico’s government to take back illegal migrants because they rely on Mexico to streamline the flow of worldwide economic migrants into the United States.

 

[GURPS]

Biden Official Jake Sullivan Dodges Question On Whether Negotiating With Terrorists Endangers Americans Around World​

Welker’s question comes after the Biden administration paid $6 billion to Iran to secure the release of five U.S. citizens that were being unlawfully detained by the Islamic Republic.

“Look, we’ve been in the business since the beginning of the Biden administration – and President Biden has taken a leadership role in this – in taking steps to bring home Americans who are unjustly detained or being held hostage overseas,” he said. “And we’ve been willing to make hard decisions to do that because as the president said, he has no higher priority than to bring Americans home. When the United States had one policy or another, people were taking Americans hostage.”

“So from our perspective, this isn’t about precedent. It isn’t about policy,” he claimed. “It’s about a simple principle: if there’s an American citizen being held overseas, we are going to do everything in our power – using diplomacy, using influence, using leverage – to be able to get those people home safely to their families. That is the commitment of President Biden.”

 

[GURPS]

The Consumer Price Index, the figure published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics that measures the price change for goods and services over a 12-month period, is a 3.2 percent increase from November of 2022 to November of 2023. That is 1.2 percent higher than the figure the Federal Reserve has consistently stated is its goal for inflation, 2 percent. The overall CPI has not dipped below 3 percent in the past 31 months, and it was recorded at 6 percent or higher for nearly a year and a half. All of that, including eight months of 8 percent or higher inflation, has been experienced during President Biden's tenure.

Sen. Wicker rightly ties the economic policies spearheaded by President Joe Biden to the economic ills currently facing the U.S. If inflation is too much money chasing too few goods and services in an economy, then it stands to reason that spending more in an already high inflationary environment is going to add to the problem. Nevertheless, the Biden administration, in conjunction with Democrats in Congress, have pushed more and more spending, including the counterintuitively entitled "Inflation Reduction Act" piece of legislation.

Sen. Wicker points out the Biden administration's spending problem.

President Biden spent his first year in office forcing two trillion dollars in spending through Congress. Prominent economists predicted this would cause inflation. We can see they were right every time we count cash at the register, swipe our card at the pump, or browse the internet for Christmas gifts.

Spending is only part of the problem illustrated by Sen. Wicker. The burdensome regulations have added to the economic ills. If a business has to allocate more money, more time, more manpower, and more resources to comply with federal regulations, some of which are highly questionable at the very mildest description, that business is going to be left with less money, less time, fewer resources, and a more constrained ability to hire. The inevitable result will be fewer jobs, fewer goods produced and services offered, and a reduction in the quality of the goods produced and services offered.

Sen. Roger Wicker explains how Biden's economic policies work against the American free market

twitchy.com

 

[GURPS]

Biden must be reminded Hamas is a terrorist group as he panders to Muslims in secret, publicly backs Israel​

No American should need to be reminded that our government has designated Hamas a terrorist organization. But apparently one very important American does need to be reminded.

That would be Joe Biden.

The news that the president apologized for casting doubt on Hamas’ casualty reports in Gaza is stunning. All the more so because Biden made his apology in secret.

He backed down in a meeting with five Muslim Americans, a fact that suggests Hamas has garnered sympathy if not outright support among some Americans and immigrants from Muslim lands.

That’s troubling in its own right, but Biden’s apology signals he’s willing to pander to them privately while publicly supporting Israel.

 

[GURPS]