Weekend Reads: The ‘Soul-Trying Times’ We Were Warned Of

Posted by Maggie on July 16, 2022 in From the editors

These are the times that try men’s souls; the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. – Thomas Paine

Some excellent reads to share.

The Biden “F” Troop Administration is “F”-ing Us All Up:

Miranda DeVine: No business at the White House: Biden’s inexperienced lackeys unlikely to pull US out of inflation doom

You’ve heard the saying, “Get woke, go broke.”
Well, that is exactly what is happening to America as President Biden prioritizes woke concerns such as climate change and gender and racial “equity” over sound economic management.
With inflation hitting a spine-chilling record 9.1%, there is fat chance of his know-nothing administration having the competence and know-how to pull us out of this doom spiral.
It’s no accident, either, since Biden deliberately has appointed people who tick the right “diversity” boxes, in terms of their physical appearance, with no concern about whether they are qualified to oversee a $6 trillion federal government.
A staggering new report from the Committee to Unleash Prosperity shows that most of Biden’s top officials have zero experience in business…
… the average business experience of Biden appointees is only 2.4 years and the median years of business experience is a big fat zero…
Most of Biden’s economic team are lawyers, community organizers, lobbyists, or government employees…
The contrast is stark with the Trump administration, where the average Cabinet member had 13 years of business experience, more than five times that of Biden’s team, and the median years of experience was eight, compared to the current zero.
Donald Trump had 45 years in business, his Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross 42 years, Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette 14 years, Small Business Administration administrator Jovita Carranza 18 years, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin 25 years, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo 14 years, Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue 27 years, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos 23 years.
The result was a vibrant economy that lifted all boats. Sadly, the economic sunshine of the Trump years is a faded memory now that the wokesters are in charge…

Read the whole thing. Incredible but not surprising.

Newt Gingrich: Biden’s big government socialism means that nothing works right in America … And his socialist (see: printing and using money at-will) extends far past the U.S. to Ukraine under contributing to their war chest, and now in the Middle East with promised U.S. dollars for everyone he dares shake hands with.

With old Joe out of the country Gavin Newsome is running for running-for President:

Victor Davis Hanson: Gavin Newsom’s Weird Idea Of ‘Freedom’

In a run-up to what is likely to be a 2024 presidential bid, Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom hit upon the bizarre idea of boasting in commercials that California is America’s true “free” state.
Part of his ad campaign is to attack Florida – currently run by Newsom’s possible rival, Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Yet, with the most burdensome regulations and high tax rates, Newsom’s California is arguably the most unfree state in the union.
In return for these steep costs, the state’s public institutions, infrastructure and services are among the country’s worst…
Amid Newsom’s anti-Florida ad campaign, the governor was vacationing at the upscale digs of his Montana in-laws – escorted by his ample state-paid security detail. That is odd, given Newsom’s California labels Montana a homophobic hellhole, and will not even reimburse state employees who dare to convention there…
So it is Orwellian for Newsom to brag about a “free” California that supposedly will entice Floridians or Texans. In truth, over the last decades hundreds of thousands of Californians and billions of dollars of wealth fled the now inert California for a far freer Florida and Texas, among other states…

The growing possibility/probability that January 6 was an inside job, and not by sitting POTUS Trump…

Julie Kelly: What is Adam Schiff Hiding? Schiff tucked an amendment into the National Defense Authorization Act that would prohibit any evidence collected in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act from being used in investigations. Why?

Jeffrey Rosen had a secret on January 6, 2021.
The then-acting attorney general—Rosen was appointed on December 24, 2020 to replace departing Attorney General William Barr—had assembled a team of elite and highly skilled government agents at Quantico, a nexus point between the FBI and U.S. military, the weekend before Congress met to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election. At the same time he was rejecting President Donald Trump’s last-minute appeals to investigate election fraud, Rosen was managing a hush-hush operation in advance of planned rallies and protests in Washington on January 6.
“Rosen made a unilateral decision to take the preparatory steps to deploy Justice Department and so-called ‘national’ forces,” Newsweek reporter William M. Arkin disclosed in a bombshell report earlier this year. “There was no formal request from the U.S. Capitol Police, the Secret Service, or the Metropolitan Police Department—in fact, no external request from any agency. The leadership in Justice and the FBI anticipated the worst and decided to act independently, the special operations forces lurking behind the scenes.”
Those assets, according to Arkin, included “commandos” with shoot-to-kill authority. And among them were members of the military.
“The presence of these extraordinary forces under the control of the Attorney General—and mostly operating under contingency plans that Congress and the U.S. Capitol Police were not privy to—added an additional layer of highly armed responders,” Arkin writes. “The role that the military played in this highly classified operation is still unknown, though FBI sources tell Newsweek that military operators seconded to the FBI, and those on alert as part of the National Mission Force, were present in the metropolitan area.”
Little else is known about Rosen’s secret mission. His testimony to the House Oversight Committee in May 2021 was just as obscure. Rosen, who publicly bragged to the January 6 select committee about his attempts to deter Team Trump from pursuing vote fraud days before the Capitol protest, said the FBI opened a multi-agency operation center, which included the Department of Defense, at FBI headquarters on January 5. “Each of these federal agencies supplied personnel to staff the [center] 24/7 beginning on January 5 and 6, and continuing for a period thereafter,” he said.
To avoid “interfering” in ongoing investigations, Rosen then declined to answer any questions from lawmakers at the time…

MORE:

Elise McCue: Democrat Bill Would Offer Puerto Rico All The Benefits Of U.S. Citizenship With None Of The Obligations: Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Nydia Velázquez, D-N.Y., and Steny Hoyer, D-Md., are pushing the Puerto Rico Status Act, which could grant the territory double benefits of independence and U.S. citizenship for life.

Sen. Tom Cotton: We Need to Investigate ESG ‘Climate Cartel’ ‘Contributing to $5 a Gallon Gas’… In addition to what’s causing this…

Beth Whitehead: Here’s Why The Media Don’t Want You To Know About The Massive Protests Going On Around The Globe: Discontent with left-wing policy failures is triggering massive protests all over the world. Just don’t expect to read all about it in the New York Times.

Jordan Boyd: American Press Is Ignoring The Dutch Farmer Protests Because They Hurt Its Climate Fearmongering Campaign: The American media has failed to report on the Dutch farmer’s concerns in any depth, much less address the implications of the protests and the climate policies that triggered them.

Jim Thompson: Twitter Is Suppressing Hunter Information to Protect ‘The Big Guy’

Matt Margolis: We Now Know Who ‘Pedo Peter’ on Hunter Biden’s iPad Is, and I Have Serious Questions

Ace: Alice in Wonderland “Justice:” Biden Makes Good On His “Sentence First, Verdict Later” Pledge and Punishes Border Patrol Agents, Despite an Investigation Clearing Them Of Having “Whipped” Illegal Aliens

Adam B. Coleman: Why I — and other black Americans — signed that letter denouncing attacks on Justice Thomas

Dylan Housman: ‘Our Country Is Turning Into Afghanistan’: Men In Liberal Cities Scramble For Vasectomies After Roe Overturned

Joel B. Pollak: Despite Record Prices, California Cities Ban New Gas Stations to Fight Climate Change: Cities in California are banning the construction of new gas stations in an effort to fight climate change, despite record-high gas prices and the lack of scientific evidence that banning gas in California will have any effect on global temperatures.

BONUS: From The Boss…