But since when did Democrats become pro-war? Why would they defend someone like Liz Cheney, who ostensibly represented everything they claim to despise?

The answer is simple: They only pretend to be antiwar when it suits them. If they can score a few cheap political points against their most hated political opponent, they will welcome every single bloodthirsty warmonger with open arms. //

GreenLanternMD
2 hours ago
I remember reading that, after Clinton was elected following 12 years of Reagan and Bush, one leftist looked out on some troops and said, “Those are ours now,” and realizing that they really weren’t really antiwar at all. In the same sense, leftists hated the CIA and FBI until they were in charge.

The upshot is that leftists and neocons are authoritarians, more alike than different, consolidating behind Harris and (God forbid) Walz, while the free speech, antiwar, and now MAHA Democrats and MAGA Republicans and embracing a more skeptical paleolibertarian view of government. It’s a realignment that has needed to happen for a century.

Appalachian Liberty
@Liberty_Xtreme
·
Follow
A group of coal miners from West Virginia have finished building a road from Big Chimney in under a week.

A road that North Carolina Government Officials said would take several months to a year for them to do. #appalachianstrong
4:45 AM · Oct 26, 2024. //

Men doing the work. Celebrities doing the complaining. The contrast cannot be clearer. I admit that I don’t know the politics of those West Virginians, and I don’t know who they are voting for president, but I think I can make an educated guess. Is there any doubt that an EPA hack will step in soon and demand that the Big Chimney terrain be returned to a mass of boulders because the coal miners didn't pull permits and didn't get an environmental study? //

NavyVet Blue State Deplorable
7 hours ago
I don't think EPA will try to do anything; they see the Trump Train a'coming down the track, so they are too busy scrambling and trying to burrow in somewhere. The last thing they want to do is make public asses of themselves right now.

Joe Swyers
12 hours ago
The following was written by Robert Teesdale decades ago.
I've not found it again on the net, yet. Maybe others here more adept at internet sleuthing
So I post it in full here. Please pass it along.
Maybe the censors got to it -- and you will see why when you read it.

Coming Trials
There are moments when one is chilled... when one feels the truth of a spoken word, or a gesture - or when one hears with the heart, and not merely with the imperfection of the ears.
Such a moment came to pass in my own life, many years ago.
It was a lingering summer in southern Ohio, hot and dusty and lazy in the dying afternoon. I sat in a small-town barbershop, having my hair cut and trading quiet conversation with the locals.
The conversation turned to hunting, and then to guns - and as always, to the inherent rights of our people which have always been held as a bulwark against the natural tyranny of Men.
We discussed the latest gun-control laws, and how they infringed upon those same rights. We spoke of the anger we each felt. Of the simple wrongness of it, and of the consequences of this progression.
Our words were carefully chosen - for even then, before the ascension of William Clinton to the presidency and the disgusting abrogations of freedom that followed - we were aware that such talk amongst the People was not approved of.
It was dangerous, we knew. Seditious. Militias ran amok, and the force of the law waited with eager anticipation to intervene.
Young and old, we sat there. Talking. Sharing our thoughts quietly... and asking each other where it was leading.
Someone said with a shake of the head, "I don't like where this is headed." We all nodded agreement... and then I sat in sorrowed fear as I heard the next words spoken.
An old man, sitting in a leather-and-steel chair by the entrance, leaned over and spat grimly into the dust of the Midwest that blew gently along the road outside. His words were cold, and contained a sad and unmistakable finality.
"It's coming," he said.
We all fell silent.
....

Our people are marching in the streets, demanding justice - and demanding that our rights be respected, lest they be defended by more than merely passionate arguments.
Men are no longer afraid to speak their minds. The power of fear that was held over those who dared to give voice to their patriotism has subsided... and now it is openly asked in our homes, in our shops and in our places of work.
What will happen when that line is crossed?
For there is no longer any question that it has been drawn... and no longer a question of whether to draw it was right.
In this day, when I speak to people and hear their words... when I look into their eyes and take their hands in my own - the question is no longer if revolution is possible, or if it could be done.
The questions now are how...
...and who will lead.
I fear for our nation.
For we stand at the brink. And those who bring us there, with a blind faith in their own special privilege and a dismissive contempt for the rights of the People - ignore the fearful resolve that burns within the breasts of millions of souls that will not acquiesce.
Our nation is not immune to civil war. It is not immune to the deadly and horrific strife of citizen against citizen... of brother against brother, of fathers leading sons against cousins.
There are ninety million firearm owners in America. Such a serpent should bear respecting... rather than used as a convenient scapegoat for the hypocritical lashes of those who seek to rule this nation.
And how close are we?
I see leaders arising. And rather than exhorting men to action, I see them working desperately to pacify.
I do not see them urging the loading of rifles... but rather a waiting, and a pleading for more patience and faith in the power of the vote to preserve our freedom.
I see them working to prevent bloodshed, not to instigate it. And this ominous sight fills me with foreboding.
We are not trying to create a revolution.
We are trying to stop one.
I hope that old man was wrong.
But in my heart, a sorrowed chill lingers.

I would suggest that the primary reason why so many of us are stressed out about politics is because the federal government has become so bloated, so intrusive into our lives, that it matters quite a bit which politicians are in charge at a given time. The people we elect can determine whether we can carry a firearm, consume a substance, be sent to war, or be victimized by violent criminals.

Indeed, if a disaster like the COVID-19 pandemic hits, we have to worry about whether our elected officials will push for onerous lockdown orders or impose mandates requiring us to choose between a vaccine or being able to make a living.

This is all because the federal government has expanded much further than the framers of the Constitution would have desired. We have an overabundance of laws that cannot even be reliably counted because they are so plentiful.

What if we could wave a magic wand and cut the government down to about half its size? Yes, that would still be too much government for my tastes, but it would be far better than what we have right now. If the government were smaller and weaker, then decisions over who should be running it would matter far less than they do now because the state would not have as much power to affect our lives.

Less government would amount to less stress because we are freer to live as we see fit without Big Brother looking over our shoulders. The fact that almost two-thirds of the populace is stressed about the upcoming election highlights the real issue we should be facing: The federal government is far too powerful, and until this changes, we will continue to be stressed about who occupies the White House and Capitol building.

There’s going to be a presidential election in a couple weeks, but few think that we’ll know for sure the next president on November 5—what used to be known, quaintly, as “Election Day.”

Most likely, it’s going to be weeks, maybe even months, before we see a victor. And here’s a prediction: The Sturm und Drang will come in five phases: litigation, negotiation, discreditation, devolution, and then, monetization. I can explain.

Elon Musk has been going all-in to stump for former President Donald Trump.

He was in Pennsylvania this weekend doing a town hall in Harrisburg. He covered a lot of topics including one not touched upon enough: that there's too much focus on a college education as a path to success. //

I think the value of a college education is somewhat overweighted. Too many people spend four years, accumulate a ton of debt and often don't have useful skills that they can apply afterwards.

I have a lot of respect for people who work with their hands and we need electricians and plumbers and carpenters and that's a lot more important than having incremental political science majors.

I think we should not have this idea that in order to be successful you need a four year college degree.//

He also spoke about the problems presented by "the Machine" that we must defeat.

Kamala is just a puppet, if the teleprompter breaks, she doesn't know what to say. I just call it "The Machine'" When the Biden puppet was not working out, they got a new puppet. It's all the same machine. It's undemocratic what was done to Biden. It's bizarre to claim Trump is a danger to democracy when what happened to Biden was entirely undemocratic. Yeah, so, it doesn't make sense. //

Elon Musk @elonmusk
·
Tomorrow, I will tell the story of how SpaceX was forced by the government to kidnap seals, put earphones on them and play sonic boom sounds to see if they seemed upset

Colin Wright @SwipeWright
This story of strangulation by over-regulation from @elonmusk about the government requiring @SpaceX to asses whether their rockets could potentially hit SHARKS and WHALES is side-splittingly hilarious. 🤣
Embedded video
3:55 AM · Oct 20, 2024. //

GreenLanternMD
an hour ago edited
This isn’t at all about enforcing regulations, it’s about using them to control and obstruct whatever government employees don’t want to happen based on their personal and political beliefs. The government is the bad neighbor who’s been elected president of your HOA. //

EMCM(SS)
an hour ago
A “Department of Government Efficiency” will fix nothing. It will become another layer in the bureaucracy preventing anything from getting done. The system is the problem.
We don’t need government efficiency, we need government elimination. //

CaptainCall EMCM(SS)
an hour ago
It will create a thousand jobs for attorneys who will be lined up to sue every time a job is cut or an agency impacted. The only way it works is if the Rs win both houses and commit to cutting funding on the recommendations of the DGE, and that ain't gonna happen. //

mopani EMCM(SS)
2 minutes ago edited
First, every government entity needs to have a sunset clause.

Second, Trump has got to remove "baseline budgeting" (where next year's budget is based on whether the agency spent all of last year's budget, then adds a percentage increase) and go back to zero based budgeting, where every agency budget is zeroed and they have to itemize and justify their budget needs every year.

Additionally, those budgets then have to be adjusted government-wide to fit projected revenue for the coming fiscal year. And if the projection is too high and revenue is lower, then every department gets their budgets cut proportionally to fit revenue.

That will keep them busy fighting among themselves and free up the rest of us to get on with our lives.

It will keep them fighting among themselves and free up the rest of us to get on with our lives.

A recent report chronicles the struggles of a handful of federal employees as they learn to cope with the reality that Donald Trump just might win the election.

It is unintentionally one of the funniest things you're going to read this election cycle.

POLITICO covered the group heralding from various government agencies as they came to terms with the fact that their jobs might be on the line if Trump defeats Kamala Harris. They suggest a new administration would be "vindictive" and eliminate their jobs. As such, they prep for the inevitability.

A large portion of these federal workers are fleeing the EPA, transferring to departments that won't be as target-rich for a Trump administration eager to eliminate waste and over-spending.

But the outlet also gets down into the weeds, noting one couple who is being forced to put off buying a new car and making home renovations because they're worried about their jobs. //

It's practically an ad in the making for the Trump campaign.

“We have stopped doing any money-spending things because what if we’re without jobs in the next year?” one Interior employee tells POLITICO. “We need all the savings we can get.”

Gosh, that really resonates with the average American who has had to 'stop doing money-spending things' for four years, just so they could afford gas to drive to their two jobs and then pick up a scaled-down list of groceries that their family has to ration on the way home. //

mopani Liberty Oak Tree
a few seconds ago
DC needs to be decentralized. And give the federal lands to the states, put the BLM out of work!

When the government is this big, this overbearing, this out of control, the opportunities for graft likewise grow out of control too - and the attraction to people who are seeking that kind of graft grows out of control along with it.

That's where you get the federal government sending almost $400k to a Chinese company for one magic bus and that same company shoveling campaign contributions to the politicians who made the funding happen.

One hand washes the other. //

Chelan Jim
an hour ago
Electric buses are having issues. An article from Government Technology (govtech.com) on March 2024:

The director of the New York Association for Pupil Transportation said 20 out of 100 electric school buses are down on any given day, due to problems with the buses or with their charging devices.

The article goes on to say:

Traditional diesel buses, for instance, have a failure rate of 1 or 2 percent, meaning that out of a fleet of 100 buses, one or two would be down for repairs on a given day, said David Christopher, executive director

And the electric buses cost about $100,000 more per bus.

Many of the residents we spoke with lost their homes to landslides and flooding during Hurricane Helene.

The Daily Signal asked people a simple question: “What do you want to say to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris?”

An overwhelming majority said that they are frustrated that the U.S. government is spending billions of dollars abroad instead of helping American citizens first.

Frank Butera, a business owner in Lake Lure, said, “It’s nice that you’re helping the illegal immigrants, but it’s time to help us people that paid taxes all our life.”

The Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) is an aggressive domestic program to federally register millions of unsuspecting small business owners under the guise of an “anti-money laundering initiative.”

By the end of this year, Americans will be required to hand over their small businesses’ private data — such as owners’ names and home addresses — to the federal government’s law enforcement database, operated by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), housed under the Department of the Treasury. Such small businesses include limited liability companies, corporations, “and any other entities created by the filing of a document with a secretary of state or any similar office in the United States.” //

The true goal of CTA appears to be setting up yet another new database of citizens to monitor, observe, and punish. The federal government is moving quickly to implement the CTA, as millions of small business owners in the United States have no idea this law even exists (only 13 percent of businesses in California, 5 percent in Ohio, and 4 percent in Pennsylvania have registered). Millions of businesses owners face becoming felons in three months unless they comply.

There are currently seven separate lawsuits challenging the validity of the law. Last year, the House of Representatives passed a bill to give businesses more time to comply, but the bill is sitting in the Senate going nowhere. A recent email from their accountant may have been the first time many businesses realized this law exists. The legal confusion and seeming lack of urgency to inform the public suggest that FinCEN’s true intent is to “catch” millions of small business owners in “non-compliance” so that they can be investigated and audited by Department of the Treasury and punished. Serious criminals will not be concerned about paperwork violations. Mandatory compliance is required by January 1, 2025, or business owners will be subjected to hefty fines of $591 dollars per day (or up to 10 percent of a company’s annual receipts) and up to two years in federal prison. //

President Trump vetoed this unconstitutional power grab, as part of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2021, but his veto was overridden. In an unprecedented act of overreach, the feds are moving to collect data on all small business owners, who make up the backbone of the U.S. economy, for reasons that seem murky at best. And the information collected goes to FinCEN, the counterterrorism arm of the Treasury. Business owners have to register with a terrorism department. This seems to infer criminality on millions of law-abiding citizens.

Under CTA, for-profit business entities with fewer than 20 employees and under $5 million in revenue are in the crosshairs. But businesses that make more than $5 million annually, or employ more than 20 full-time employees, are exempt from this invasive self-reporting requirement that could put owners in prison. That means BlackRock, Amazon, Facebook, Pfizer, etc., can operate “business as usual,” but “Grandma’s Donut Shop” will be required to show her “paper’s please” if she wants to make a living. //

Business registration and entity creation has always been handled at the state level through State Corporation Commissions. With the CTA, even though a business is a registered entity at the state level, if it does not then self-report and register into a criminal database at the federal level, owners will not be able to operate the business. The federal government is overreaching into a state rights issue and creating a massive database in violation of the commerce clause. State attorneys general in every state should be weighing in on this issue. Unfortunately, their silence is deafening.

Media Research Center
@theMRC
·
Follow
Must watch TV as the Press Briefing leads to KJP storming out

Peter Doocy & KJP get heated over Biden sending money to Lebanon without Congressional approval but refusing to do so for North Carolina.

Doocy: "You can't call a question you don't like misinformation."

3:03 PM · Oct 7, 2024. //

But as Doocy pointed out, Biden is "fond" of saying, "Show me your budget and I will tell you what you value.". //

Imagine you're suffering from the hurricane or you have family who are, and you see that, what must you think? Why can't that money be deployed for hurricane relief if it can be deployed for relief for people in Lebanon? And why are you spending it on Lebanon?

Doocy also noted that Joe Biden was posting about how the Small Business Administration disaster loan program was going to be running out of money too, "if Congress doesn't come back."

To most people, Doocy explained, "A taxpayer dollar is a taxpayer dollar is a taxpayer dollar."

"That is not misinformation," he declared. "That is a FACT." //

Froge
30 minutes ago
What is asinine about the money to Lebanon, is the people who need "refugee" money are Hezbollah, their operatives and families who have been defeated by Israel.

So Israel finally gets rid of them and here we are paying for temporary housing for the terrorists. How nice of us.

The Harris administration and Mayorkas’ department were behind the eight ball from the start in coordinating a response. Why? The agency’s Shelter and Services Program – a program providing grants to communities to deal with the rapid influx of illegals – ballooned from $363.8 million in 2023 to $650 million the following year.

That revelation yielded a stark admission from Mayorkas — that FEMA does not have the funding to deal with disasters going forward.

“We are meeting the immediate needs with the money that we have. We are expecting another hurricane hitting,” Mayorkas said. “FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the season.” //

This is what happens when a man whose top credential is his ethnic background and immigration status as opposed to what he can do to effectively run the DHS. Funds go to pet projects that help aid illegal aliens first, while disaster victims become an afterthought.

And while FEMA allocated over $1 billion in funding to provide housing to illegal migrants, Harris — chosen herself by Biden almost exclusively based on gender and skin color — was announcing that the agency was accepting applications for a small stipend to victims of Helene in Georgia. //

FEMA, in a recent press release, revealed that the agency had disbursed roughly $10 million in "flexible and upfront" assistance as a consolation prize for Helene victims. Since then, they have spent roughly $137 million for the recovery effort. That represents just a tick over 13 percent of the budget allocated for the Shelter and Services Program for illegals.

Victims are 13 percent as important in the eyes of the administration. And the plebians can happily accept their $750 stipends when illegals get their rent paid for up to a year.

Georgians and North Carolinians surely recognize where Harris’s priorities would lie over the next four years.

FEMA, under her and Biden’s purview, has morphed into a DEI experiment gone wrong. And they’ve been bragging about it to the public for years. //

FEMA bowing down to DEI practices hasn’t just been limited to using up funding to aid illegals. A disaster preparedness meeting in March of 2023 saw the agency “focusing efforts on LGBTQIA+” victims.

The Daily Mail reported that FEMA was “prioritizing LGBTQ people” because they are “already disadvantaged.” //

Where disaster aid must be prioritized based on greatest need, Harris wants it prioritized by race.

Prior to this administration, there were laws against such obvious discrimination. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in programs or activities receiving federal financial assistance.

Now, such discrimination is openly celebrated. People are dying because of it. And Kamala Harris will only amplify the DEI disaster enveloping this nation if she wins in November.

"Politicians, billionaires and grifters who peddle lies during a time of crisis should be held accountable." The first part of that last part stands: Cooper should definitely be held accountable. The "unprecedented response" he crows about had little to do with him and everything to do with billionaires like Elon Musk, the relief organizations, and the incredible Americans who entered the breach and were the first to respond. Instead, Cooper chose to cozy up to FEMA heads and play at CENTCOM from his cushy office and home in Raleigh, while the people he hindered and maligned were the ones doing the work of saving lives and offering hope.

Although the Federal Emergency Management Agency told Congress last month that it had $4 billion in its Disaster Relief Fund, officials also warned that the fund could have a shortfall of $6 billion by year’s end, a situation FEMA says could deteriorate in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

While FEMA is expected to ask Congress for new money, budget experts note a surprising fact: FEMA is currently sitting on untapped reserves appropriated for past disasters stretching back decades.

An August report from the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General noted that in 2022, FEMA “estimated that 847 disaster declarations with approximately $73 billion in unliquidated funds remained open.”

Drilling down on that data, the OIG found that $8.3 billion of that total was for disasters declared in 2012 or earlier.

Such developments are part of a larger pattern in which FEMA failed to close out specific grant programs “within a certain timeframe, known as the period of performance (POP),” according to the IG report. Those projects now represent “billions in unliquidated appropriations that could potentially be returned to the [Disaster Relief Fund].”

These “unliquidated obligations” reflect the complex federal budgeting processes. Safeguards are important so that FEMA funding doesn’t become a slush fund that the agency can spend however it chooses, budget experts said, but the inability to tap unspent appropriations from long-ago crises complicates the agency’s ability to respond to immediate disasters.

Please donate what you can, try to find a nonprofit to donate to. Uh, church, local PD. A lot of those are taking donations, sheriff's departments. I know my department is running a bunch of stuff to the western part of the state to help donate, but please do not donate to FEMA.

They are hindering a lot of what people are trying to accomplish out in the western part of the state.

FEMA doesn't understand that these Appalachian people are built differently. I'm very familiar with them. They are not gonna stand by idly and have government officials tell them what to do. FEMA's playing a game of FAFO because free men don't ask for permission. Again, please donate and help these people out. They need us now more than ever.” //

FEMA can try their bureaucratic "We're in charge" moves to try and divert resources and true help, but these mountain folks are not going to go quietly. Posts like this one, from law enforcement no less, help to bring even more noise.

After this first video went viral, Deputy DeStefano received lots of response and requests asking where they should send their donations. So, he did a follow-up video encouraging relief organizations and churches in the western part of the state to drop their contact information in the video comments.

"So what has happened," Tuberville continued, "is Mayorkas and this whole group have lied to the American people for three-and-a- half, going on four years." Is there any doubt?

He kept saying our border's closed and this and that. Now, you know, we all been looking for, where are they getting this money from to take care of these people? Other than the fact we knew they’re using the CARES money, COVID money, Inflation Reduction Act money.

Now we know that the group that has been confiscated by this regime other than the DOJ, the FBI, the CIA, everybody involved, now FEMA. They have been taking money from FEMA and paying these illegal immigrants and taking care of them. And it’s all coming out in the light.

"And people [are saying] 'Wait a minute,'" the senator said, "'This is for a natural disaster, not a manmade disaster like the border."

Tuberville then brought the hammer down:

But they’re corrupt. Every day, something comes up now that they’ve been exposed, that they’ve been doing, they shouldn’t be doing. And people should be going to jail. This is treason. And not taking care of these people up and down the East Coast because this.

We don’t have the money. We’re printing $80,000 a second right now, just to keep our country going. They have absolutely, Jeff, run us in the ditch.

Early voting in North Carolina starts in just days, and Appalachian voters in the western, deep-red stronghold of the state are still desperate for help with basic necessities after destruction wrought by Hurricane Helene. A slow-rolled disaster relief response from federal and state government agencies has many wondering if the Democrats in charge are trying to suppress the votes of the predominantly Trump-supporting region. //

The vast majority of the 28 counties and tribal areas included in the emergency declaration are Republican strongholds, and the voters there can make or break a win for former President Donald Trump in the tight swing state he only carried by about 75,000 votes in 2020.

According to an analysis by The Federalist, 604,119 voters in the emergency declaration region cast their ballots for Trump in 2020, while 356,902 chose President Joe Biden. That 247,217-vote difference is more than three times Trump’s margin of victory in 2020.

Trump voters in the affected region also made up 10.9 percent of the total 5,545,848 votes cast in 2020, and the average county voter participation rate is 77.3 percent.

Voter suppression in the disaster zone could be catastrophic for the Trump campaign, and the malaise shown by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Cooper, and the Democrat-run North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) raises significant questions about a life-threatening power play from Democrats and deliberate election interference in order to carry the state for Vice President Kamala Harris in November.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg took to "X," the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, to promise the FAA would stop interfering with private humanitarian flights into hurricane-devasted Western North Carolina:

Elon Musk @elonmusk
Oct 4, 2024
·
Replying to @SecretaryPete
Thanks for expediting approval for support flights.

Just wanted to note that Sec Buttigieg is on the ball.

Secretary Pete Buttigieg @SecretaryPete
·
Glad we could address —thanks for engaging.
7:50 PM · Oct 4, 2024 //

The FAA's effort to force civilian aircraft out of the area seems to be documented in this NOTAM dated October 1 that closes the critical part of the disaster area to all aircraft except those "UNDER THE DIRECTION OF North Carolina task force 8." [That is their spelling, not mine.]

They’ve spent hundreds of millions of dollars on services for illegal immigrants as Americans struggle after Helene. //

While the emergency response agency is typically proactive, with pre-staged supplies ready for immediate rescue operations, that same support was clearly not available to the Appalachian towns where Hurricane Helene wrought havoc. Instead, the Biden-Harris administration restructured FEMA to provide services for illegal migrants with a new bureaucratic mandate to instill “equity as a foundation of emergency management.” Storm preparedness ranks as a third priority for the disaster relief task force under “lead[ing] whole of community in climate resilience.”

According to the government’s website, FEMA has spent more than $1 billion “to provide humanitarian services to noncitizen migrants following their release from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)” under the “Shelter and Services Program” just within the last two years.

Secretary Antony Blinken @SecBlinken
·
The U.S. is at the forefront of humanitarian response to the growing crisis in Lebanon, announcing nearly $157 million in assistance today. We are committed to supporting those in need and delivering essential aid to displaced civilians, refugees and the communities hosting them.
6:04 PM · Oct 4, 2024