Politics And The Markets 07/08/23

More on the dangers of the giant African land snails that have invaded Florida, note that they carry parasites that can kill. -- www.msn.com/...

Anglican Archbishop declares that "Our Father" excessively patriarchal (as the church struggles to stay relevant, aren't they all?). www.msn.com/... I can imagine that Mike Pence is lobbying for "My Mother", what about "Our Non-Binary"? :)

MEET ADAM FRISCH, running to unseat screwball Lauren Boebert. Adam was born in Montana, raised in Minnesota, and went to college and settled in Colorado. -- en.wikipedia.org/... He lost by a squeaker last year, she will wake up next year as her state's answer to Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin. Fund raising is going very well, www.coloradopolitics.com/...

An Iowa voter who asked Donald Trump a question about border security on Friday has slapped down the DeSantis campaign for trying to use the moment to attack the former president.

Kelley Koch, the Dallas county GOP chair, said late Friday night: “What the DeSantis Team did was wrong. They misconstrued my question in a desperate attempt to attack President Trump. This must be corrected.”

She continued, in an extraordinary rebuke of the DeSantis campaign tactics, especially from a local party official in Iowa: “Iowans don’t like these dirty tricks to score political points. Securing our border is a serious issue and President Trump had it 100 percent secured. The first day of the Biden administration they stopped building and the people of Arizona who I met with have been hurting ever since. The fentanyl coming across our border is a national crisis.”

Commenting explicitly on the answer she got from Trump on Friday, Koch said: “President Trump’s answer was right on the money and I hope to not see another low blow like this from Team DeSantis.”

The news represents yet another campaign flub from DeSantis, who has been embroiled in local astroturfing scandals, as well as recently releasing what was described as the gayest anti-gay ad against Trump.

"JUST NOW: Iowa voter confronts Trump on why the wall is not “finished,” Trump admits he could not build the wall in his first term but claims he will “get that finished” next time.

Trump couldn’t build the wall in his 4 years as president.@RonDeSantis can actually get it done."
— DeSantis War Room 🐊 (@DeSantisWarRoom) July 7, 2023

Dutch government collapses over immigration policy
apple.news/...

Secret talks between High-ranking former U.S. Nat. Security officials and Lavrov+Kremlin officials.

oilprice.com/...
Sean explained this ratio similar to France but manufacturing and services are similar % but going in opposite directions
This state can’t last

Venezuela Looks To Pay Down $20 Billion In U.S. Debt With Oil Exports
oilprice.com/...

Fox News retracted a hit piece against former President Donald Trump and admitted they “inaccurately attributed” an anti-Trump quote to former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price.

Fox News’s story had the following headline: “Former Trump Cabinet member tells him to ‘kiss’ his ‘butt.”

The since-retracted, purportedly exclusive story read, in part:

"EXCLUSIVE: Former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price told Fox News Digital there’s “no way” he will support former President Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential bid.

When asked whether he will endorse Trump, Price said, “After he fired me? No way.” “The only thing that guy has more of than fake tan is narcissism,” Price said in an emailed statement to Fox New Digital. “He can kiss my big medical butt.”"

In 2017, Trump fired Price after Politico revealed he took multiple taxpayer-funded private jet trips for personal reasons.

Dan Diamond, the reporter who broke the Price story in 2017, said Price never communicated with Fox News about the story.

“A source close to Price said he: (1) never heard from Fox News on this matter (2) did not write an email to Fox News on this matter (3) this is not Price’s quote,” Diamond tweeted.

Fox News ultimately retracted its story. Now, the webpage’s headline reads “Correction,” with the following editor’s note, “This article inaccurately attributed a quote to former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price and has been retracted.”

Fox News is the enemy of the people.

Pennsylvania’s Democrat Governor Josh Shapiro claimed to support the idea of school choice. He is on record saying that he did not believe that a school voucher program would harm public schools in any way. He even put it in his education platform before the 2022 election.

Yet when it came time to put his money where his mouth is, he caved to his party, which is in bed with the teacher unions.

Shapiro’s first loyalty is to them, not the parents and children of Pennsylvania.

He sent out a statement indicating he will line-item veto the school choice program in the budget.

This is a total betrayal of the people, but luckily for Shapiro, he is a Democrat, so the media will run cover for him.

Of course, the biggest losers in all of this are the kids who would benefit from school choice.

President Trump at a Dairy Queen in Council Bluffs, IA handing out some frosty Blizzards! twitter.com/...
— Steven Cheung (@TheStevenCheung) July 7, 2023

Lorie Smith, the Colorado website designer at the heart of the Supreme Court’s landmark 303 Creative v. Elenis June 30 decision upholding every American’s freedom of speech, is receiving a barrage of increasingly intense harassment, including serious death threats, following the 6–3 ruling.

“Especially in the last week, despite the victory last week, I do continue to face horrific attacks, people saying they hope I would be raped; they want to burn my house down; they know where I live, and they want to come kill me and my family,” Ms. Smith told The Epoch Times on July 5 in an exclusive interview.

“Our security team is monitoring all of the comments that come in very, very closely to determine the best way to protect Lorie and to take action consistent with the threat,” said Kellie Fiedorek, Senior Counsel and Government Affairs Director for the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the public interest law firm that has represented Ms. Smith throughout her case.

“We cannot share any more about the internal conversations we are having, but it is deeply disheartening to see Lorie experience vicious harassment and death threats over her stand for all Americans’ free speech and the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that just affirmed both those who agree and those who vehemently disagree with Lorie have the right to say what they believe without fear of government punishment,” Ms. Fiedorek said.

Ms. Smith said the intensity of the harassment reached a crescendo as the ruling was imminent during the High Court’s summer decision week at the end of June.

“Just last week, my website crashed with over 10 million attacks, messages saying things that would make your skin crawl,” Ms. Smith said. “It’s sad to me because, at the end of the day, when I am standing to protect those individuals who have submitted those hateful responses, standing to protect me and them as well, of course, it’s heartbreaking.”

This is your "tolerant" Left the fake corporate media is always telling us about. They are like petulant children who don't get their way.

In case you missed it, France entered into a pseudo-civil war this past weekend. Rioters took to the streets, destroyed billions of dollars in local property, violent criminals pulled out their illegal guns, and there was nothing the average disarmed Frenchman could do about it.

These recent riots proved the old adage, "When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns."

France has much stricter gun laws than anywhere in the United States. French citizens do not have the individual right to bear arms, nor carry a firearm in public for self-defense.

What began in France as mostly peaceful protests would end with fully automatic weapons and banned "weapons of war" being used to terrorize the streets of France.

Protesters started by burning cars, starting fires, and shooting off fireworks, but soon began using shotguns to shoot out police cameras.

Criminals soon brought out the bigger guns—semiautomatic AK-style firearms. Video footage revealed the criminals shooting directly into the air in the city center—endangering the surrounding area.

Shortly after that, footage surfaced online of protestors with handguns and belt-fed machine guns marching down the street in broad daylight. Terrorized citizens ran and screamed as security alarms blared.

Meanwhile, average French citizens attempted to stand up to the rioters with wooden bats and other improvised weaponry.

France's gun control did nothing to protect its people.

These rioters didn't care for France's gun laws. They had illegal firearms—such as banned, fully-automatic belt-fed machine guns.

They took those illegal firearms and shot them in public to wreak havoc—without regard for France's ban on the public carry of firearms or the safety of the general public.

France's example has proven that gun control only affects law-abiding citizens.

First china can’t afford an outright route now Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦

How many Americans have actually bothered to read the Constitution, let alone the first ten amendments to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights (a quick read at 462 words)?

Take a few minutes and read those words for yourself - rather than having some court or politician translate them for you - and you will be under no illusion about where to draw the line when it comes to speaking your mind, criticizing your government, defending what is yours, doing whatever you want on your own property, and keeping the government’s nose out of your private affairs.

In an age of overcriminalization, where the average citizen unknowingly commits three crimes a day, and even the most mundane activities such as fishing and gardening are regulated, government officials are constantly telling Americans what not to do.

Yet it was not always this way.

It used to be “we the people” giving the orders, telling the government what it could and could not do. Indeed, the three words used most frequently throughout the Bill of Rights in regards to the government are “no,” “not” and “nor.”Despite what some special interest groups have suggested to the contrary, the problems we’re experiencing today did not arise because the Constitution has outlived its usefulness or become irrelevant, nor will they be solved by a convention of states or a ratification of the Constitution.

It can be traced back to the point at which “we the people” were overthrown as the center of the government. As a result, our supremacy has been undone, our authority undermined, and our experiment in democratic self-governance left in ruins.No longer are we the rulers of this land. We have long since been deposed and dethroned, replaced by corporate figureheads with no regard for our sovereignty, no thought for our happiness, and no respect for our rights.

In other words, without our say-so and lacking any mandate, the point of view of the Constitution has been shifted from “we the people” to “we the government.” Our taxpayer-funded employees—our appointed servants—have stopped looking upon us as their superiors and started viewing as their inferiors.

Unfortunately, we’ve gotten so used to being dictated to by government agents, bureaucrats and militarized police alike that we’ve forgotten that WE are supposed to be the ones calling the shots and determining what is just, reasonable and necessary.

Have you ever wondered why the Constitution begins with those three words “we the people”? It was intended to be a powerful reminder that everything flows from the citizenry. We the people are the center of the government and the source of its power. That “we” is crucial because it reminds us that there is power and safety in numbers, provided we stand united. We can accomplish nothing alone. the Constitution was intended to work as an institutionalized version of the wagon circle, serving as a communal shield against those who would harm us.

Unfortunately, we have been ousted from that protected circle, left to fend for ourselves in the wilderness that is the American frontier today. Those who did the ousting—the courts, the politicians, and the corporations—have since replaced us with yes-men, shills who dance to the tune of an elite ruling class. In doing so, they have set themselves as the central source of power and the arbiters of what is just and reasonable.

Once again, we’re forced to navigate hostile terrain, unsure of how to protect ourselves and our loved ones from militarized police, weaponized drones, fusion centers, Stingray devices, SWAT team raids, the ongoing military drills on American soil, the government stockpiling of ammunition, the erection of mass detention centers across the country, and all other manner of abuses.

Read the smoke signals, and the warning is clear: the government is on the warpath.

If we are to have any hope of surviving whatever is coming at us, it’s time to circle the wagons, folks.

A new study commissioned by the European Federation for Transport and Environment revealed that toxic emissions of sulfur oxides from 63 cruise ships belonging to Carnival Corporation were 43% higher than all the combustion engine vehicles in Europe. This stunning statistic comes as EU leaders have decided to ban small combustion engines for cars by 2035. But what about 'green' cruise ships? Only crickets...

"The most polluting cruise ship operator was MSC Cruises, whose vessels emitted nearly as much sulphur as all the 291 million cars in Europe. When looking at parent companies, as in our original 2019 report, the Carnival Corporation comes on top with the 63 ships under its control emitting 43% more sulfur oxides than all of Europe's cars in 2022," the study said.

For cruise ship operators to achieve carbon-neutral status, this might take decades. According to the study, about 40% of cruise ships in the order books of global shipyards are dual-fuel LNG engines. "When running on LNG, these ships will cause less air pollution, but they are more damaging than fuel oils from a climate perspective due to methane slip from their four-stroke engines," the study noted.

Cruise ship order books currently have limited to no zero-emission vessels in shipyards. The most immediate fuel switch is from heavy fuel oil to LNG.

The study shows Carnival's vessels pollute more than Europe's cars and then some, but what's mindboggling is that EU lawmakers went after cars first in their 'greenification' crusade. Why not cruise ships?

Canadian forestry officials predicted on Thursday that the ongoing, out-of-control wildfires burning across the country and polluting large swathes of America will continue through August, breaking records for the amount of territory burned.

Canada has already documented one of the most severe wildfire seasons in recent memory, the result of a variety of factors, including a lack of forest management, the absence of a national fire service, and underfunding of regional fire agencies. Quebec, one of the most-affected provinces, made the bizarre decision in June to reject firefighters from Montreal, according to the city’s mayor, to wait for firefighters imported from France and other foreign countries.

Despite recruiting thousands of emergency personnel from America, France, Costa Rica, Portugal, South Korea, and other countries, 639 fires were burning throughout Canada as of Wednesday, over half of them classified as “out-of-control.”

The fires have sent mammoth plumes of polluted air across the Canadian landscape and down to the United States, particularly devastating the air quality of the American Midwest and the Mid-Atlantic. In early June, New York City documented the worst air quality of any city on the planet; neighboring New Jersey experienced the worst air quality in half a century. Detroit, Michigan, across the border from Canada, and Chicago, Illinois, suffered similar dangerous smoke plumes towards the end of June.

The government of President Joe Biden has blamed “climate change” rather than government mismanagement for the wildfires, offering criticism-free aid to fellow leftist Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Trudeau has allowed the various provincial governments affected to attempt to address the wildfires independently, creating a lack of coherent deployment of firefighters and poor coordination. The government’s lack of management also means Canada’s provinces have had to organize firefighters imported from 11 nations — America, France, South Korea, Costa Rica, New Zealand, and South Africa, among others — into teams to address the hundreds of fires functionally.

Canada has no national fire service and no federal forest management service. It does not practice active forest management — the removal of flammable underbrush and other dangerous debris from the forests before the fire season starts — nationwide; provinces independently decide how much management to engage in. Quebec reportedly abstained from forest management this year. Canada also has no equivalent to America’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), only the largely defanged Public Safety Canada (PSC) agency.

High-level officials in Ottawa and Washington blame the allegedly inevitable effects of “climate change” for the ongoing international ecological crisis. “We’re seeing more and more of these fires because of climate change,” Trudeau insisted in June, shortly before departing to Kyiv, Ukraine, to meet President Volodymyr Zelensky.

No mention of the arsonists starting many of the fires.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Friday lashed out at a New York Post reporter for asking if the cocaine found at the White House belongs to the Biden family.

The White House on Thursday refused to deny the cocaine belonged to a member of the Biden family.

This prompted the New York Post’s Caitlin Doornbos to ask Karine Jean-Pierre to clear things up.

“Can you just say once and for all whether or not the cocaine belonged to the Biden family?” the New York Post reporter asked Karine Jean-Pierre.

Karine Jean-Pierre lashed out at the media for “irresponsible reporting” on the Biden cocaine scandal and falsely claimed the Bidens were not at the White House on Friday.

“So…we’ve answered this…for the last 2 days…There has been some irresponsible reporting…To ask that question is actually incredibly irresponsible,” Karine Jean-Pierre said.

“The Biden family was not here! They were not here! They were at Camp David. They were not here Friday. They were not here Saturday. They were not here Sunday. They were not even here Monday!” KJP falsely claimed.

Fact-check: Hunter Biden was indeed at the White House on Friday.

According to a pool report: “Poolers saw Jill Biden, Baby Beau, and Hunter Biden climb into presidential SUV. President Biden followed a few minutes later. Motorcade rolling to Fort McNair as of 6:34 pm.”

What is irresponsible is all the lying and gaslighting coming from the mouth of Karine Jean-Pierre.