This is a provocation. They are trying to get a reaction that allows a further crackdown. See, In Re J6. It’s also a provocation to get Trump to declare his candidacy for President before the midterms.
Democrats would love to turn 2022 into a referendum on Trump rather than the deliberate destruction of the national borders and inflation.
Would the FBI and DOJ do such a thing? Aren’t they “above” politics? The then FBI Director James Comey admitted to trying to set up the new President Trump by alerting him to the Steele Dossier, and then leaked the story of the briefing to CNN, which gave license to report on the false allegations in the dossier. So yes, the FBI and DOJ would do such a thing, and have done such a thing to Trump. All the more reason to keep your heads about you.
Don’t take the bait. Being stupid isn’t tough, it’s just stupid.
There was a time when I would not have thought this kind of thing possible from even the most crazy Democrat. That time is long past.
Does the left really expect this not to come back and haunt them.
Closing thought: I would hate to be a 20 year vet of the FBI seeing this kind of thing and wondering what happened to this agency.
Outside of sheer incompetence, a theme has emerged from the Joe Biden administration. When they need help, the White House calls on people they deem to be experts.
Here’s a dirty secret of politics, or if your prefer, of advancing a preferred narrative. Anyone can find an “expert,” more on them in a bit, to support any opinion. It works in journalism too, the media wing of the Democrat Party.
When the discovery of the Hunter Biden laptop was revealed by the New York Post nearly two years ago–the mainstream media, social media, and of course the Biden campaign immediately moved to denounce it. The casus belli for journalists, Facebook, Twitter, and the like–Biden brought this up in a presidential debate–was that its emergence three weeks before Election Day in 2020 had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation,” according to 51 former national security experts, led by James Clapper, a director of National Intelligence under Barack Obama. Every one of these “experts” either lied, signed on to something they knew little about, or just simply wanted to do whatever it took to prevent the reelection of Donald J. Trump.
Eighteen months later, the New York Times admitted Hunter’s laptop, which provided voluminous evidence of his influence peddling centered on his being the son of a powerful politician, was authentic. The 51 experts can expect subpoenas from the House Judiciary Committee next year, assuming the Republicans take control of the House. Every one of these “experts” should have their security clearances permanently revoked.
Biden of course won the election. As a result of his policies, such as cancelling the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, blocking new permits for drilling on federal land, gasoline prices soared and remain high. Although the economy was well into recovery mode two years ago, Biden signed into law the unfunded American Rescue Plan. Many experts at the time claimed it would not fuel inflation. They were wrong. Just as those national security “experts” were wrong on Hunter’s laptop.
When inflation began its ascent, the White House cited 15 Nobel laureates in economics who said that Biden’s Build Back Better bill, enacted in late 2021, would not fuel inflation. They were wrong too. Inflation is now at levels not seen since the early 1980s. Last year Biden and other “experts” were saying inflation was “transitory.” Liberals reading this post will blame inflation on the War in Ukraine, you know, “Putin’s price hike.” Sure, the war likely has an effect on inflation, but the scourge was with us before Russia’s invasion Ukraine.
Build Back Better was originally part of a much larger bill, the green energy stuff was split off and later discarded after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) said he wouldn’t support it. Well, Build Back Better Part Two is back, laughably renamed the Inflation Reduction Act. And to bolster its support, the Biden White House has–are you ready?–called on experts, this time, four former Democratic Treasury secretaries and one Republican, who claim, among other things, that the Inflation Reduction Act will “fight inflation” One of those ex-Treasury secretaries is Larry Summers, who warned last year the Biden White House, “We’re taking very substantial risks on the inflation side.”
A good journalist would track down Summers and ask him specifics on why this bill really will fight inflation.
Earlier I mentioned that journalists have a role in advancing political narratives. For example, at Forbes,Rhett Buttle offers a slobbering French kiss of propaganda, which is accompanied by this headline, “Experts Agree: The Inflation Reduction Act Accomplishes A Lot For Small Business And Working Families.” While late in the piece Buttle manages to write about the bill, “some who represent select corporate interests in Washington don’t completely agree” with the hype. But if Buttle was truly a journalist, he would have tracked down opponents of the Inflation Reduction Act and presented a balanced article.
Then again, real journalism is dead. Twenty years ago such a piece as the one written by Buttle would contain the sub-headline, “news analysis,” assuming a magazine like Forbes would even publish it. I took some journalism classes at the University of Illinois. If I turned in such an article for an assignment, a professor would have deservedly given me an “F,” enhanced by this underlined comment written in red ink, “This garbage reads like a press release.”
But Biden’s new batch of experts have spoken: The Inflation Reduction Act, which the Senate will vote on Sunday afternoon, will “fight inflation.”
Watch your wallet. Watch the cash in it lose its value.
Disclosure: This blog post should be classified as “news analysis.”
UPDATE 5:15pm EDT: The Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act passed the Senate.
After a tight race, incumbent Representative Peter Meijer lost to Trump loyalist John Gibbs in Michigan’s GOP primary contest for the state’s third congressional district on Tuesday.
There was a time when Meijer’s re-election in the primary might have been considered a sure thing, then Trump endorsed his opponent:
“John Gibbs is a fabulous talent who loves the State, our Military, and our Vets. He will always protect our Second Amendment, our Southern Border, and the Police—there will be no defunding with John!,” Trump said of Gibbs.
Meijer, on the other hand, was one of ten Republicans to vote to impeach Trump over his role in inciting the January 6 Capitol riot. His election prospects seemed to sour after that move, with progressive polling agency Impact Research finding in a February poll that likely voters preferred any other Republican to Meijer by more than 40 points.
The tributes are pouring in for yet another useful idiots for the NeverTrump Democrat Left who has suffered the tragic result of his days of usefulness coming to a close:
I for one am shocked SHOCKED that the left did not repay him for being a stand up guy for their cause and instead used his vote to retire him from congress for mere party gain and join in their grief in their discoveries that the Democrat Left is not populated by honorable people out for the good of the country.
It’s first worth noting that Guy Reffitt never even entered the Capitol Building. He remained outside on the plaza. So he didn’t destroy or steal any property inside the Capitol. It’s also unclear how he could possibly have “obstructed Congress” by standing outside on the plaza. As to his “interfering with police officers,” it’s true that Reffitt did approach the police line, but he never drew his firearm. He shouted at the police, but then retreated when one of them pepper sprayed him.
No word on if the seven plus years Mr. Reffitt got for not entering the capital and not drawing his gun and not touching anyone on January 6th causes any of the people crying over Meijer’s election any grief, but I doubt it.
#unexpetecedly of course.
Update: Forget this one, top of the page mind you:
Maybe the fact that Meijer voted to impeach the cult leader was all the voters in his district needed to know to toss him out. There never has been and, God willing, never will be an impeachment vote against a president as righteous and justified as the one Meijer cast on January 13 of last year, yet the GOP voters of his district punished him for it by taking away his job. That’s not a function of Democratic chicanery or GOP voters “going along” with it. It’s proof of Republican moral rot.
Normally I wouldn’t bother to have even clicked in any piece offered by Allapundit but I’m glad I clicked on this one. Remember the next time these folks ask you for subscription money what they think of conservatives that they are the alternate media for.
Update 2 Just saw this at Ace of Spades:
What an idea — that a paid, professional “conservative media” should, occasionally at least, feature actual conservatives working for it.
Allahpundit @allahpundit
Personal news: My last day at Hot Air will be Friday, September 2
I wonder how many potential subscribers simply walked away after seeing his work. More from the land of Ace
If you’re worried about ol’ Allah, don’t be. He’s got all that Pierre Omidyar grifter money coming — the NeverTrumpers are the highest paid fringe political group in history — and he’s still doing what he loves to do, trolling conservatives.
The guy who is forever complaining about conservatives forever “owning the libs” continues perverting what is supposed to be a “news site of conservative views and opinion” into a nonstop exercise in “owning the cons:”
That may or may not be true but here’s the real question that’s worth asking:
Regardless of my opinion of Allahpundit and his current Opinions at Hotair he was one of the most senior writers in the place and thus likely had a lot of clout over what got linked, what made the headlines section etc. Given his seniority there that would not be out of line but I suspect those choices might have proved costly given the “Join VIP” model to comment.
It will be interesting to see if there is a change of direction in terms of the headline and how much linkage places like the Bulwark etc get once he’s gone.
Given that Sept/Oct is the leadup to election 2020 that pivot might be very significant.
“The fliparoo theory of PolitiFact is now confirmed,” Dan Bongino said early in his July 28 podcast, “The fliparoo theory is this: If a fact-checker, airquotes, PolitiFact, says something is true it is probably false. If PolitiFact says something is false it’s probably true.”
Which means, of course, that we are now in a recession. PolitiFact, in a piece written by propagandist Louis Jacobson entitled, “No, the White House didn’t change the definition of ‘recession,'” he fact-checked a claim that originally came from an Instagram post. In seemingly 10,000 words, meant to overwhelm low-information voters, Jacobson ruled that statement false.
Jacobson is wrong, he’s gaslighting us. We are in a recession.
And Jacobson is not alone.
The Biden White House, led by the embarrassment of a press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, has been redefining “recession” for at least a week. For decades, the generally accepted definition of a recession has been two successive months of negative GDP growth. In the first quarter of 2022, the American economy shrank by 1.4 percent, and it contracted by 0.9 percent in the second quarter. These are facts.
“However, the two-quarter threshold cited in the Instagram post has never been official,” Jacobson said in his so-called fact-check. “It’s more like a rough guide,” he continued, “one piece of a complicated puzzle.” Translation: the wise and oh-so-brilliant Jacobson is right, and you are a semi-literate yokel for accepting the commonly agreed upon description of a recession.
In another overly long fact-check, Newsweek’s Tom Norton, another hack apologist, also ruled “false” the claim that the Biden White House is redefining what a recession is. “Furthermore, the White House website doesn’t have a dictionary or catalog of all political terminology and jargon it uses (that is the case for other governments, such as those of the UK and Canada, too),” Norton offered.
Wow. I’m convinced. Not.
In Norton’s Newsweak–or is it Newspeak?— fact-check, Norton quotes Secretary of Treasury Janet Yellen, who, by the way, was wrong about inflation being “transitory,” that it is really up to a secretive private organization to determine a recession. Who knew? “There is an organization called the National Bureau of Economic Research that looks at a broad range of data in deciding whether or not there is a recession,” she revealed.
Another fact-check fabulist, the Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler, appears to be on vacation so he hasn’t weighed in on the leftist-induced recession debate. Three years ago, while fact-checking Donald Trump, Kessler wrote, “A recession is two quarters of negative economic growth.” But Joe Biden wasn’t president then.
Another prominent (along the lines of someone having an ugly prominent nose) fact-checker, USA Today, also hasn’t recently given its opinion on what a recession really is. Oh, what’s this? In a 2020 fact-check USA Today informed us, “A recession is generally defined as two consecutive quarters of declining GDP, or gross domestic product, a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced during a specific time period.”
But on the other hand, Snopes is bowing to the Democrat Party mantra about recessions. Referring to a couple of social media messages, “The tweets quoted above may give readers the misleading impression that the Biden administration literally tried to revise the criteria economists use to determine when a recession has occurred. But that was not the case,” Bethania Palma chimes in for Snopes.
It is the case. Snopes is lying.
Here are some media talking heads talking not too long ago, based on who I see here and the chyrons, using the classical definition of a recession, in a montage compiled by the Media Research Center. You know the, you know the thing, as Biden likes to say, two consecutive quarters of declining GDP growth. C’mon man!
But, assuming briefly we are not in a recession when will we be in one? The Biden administration won’t say. Is it a recession when we have three successive quarters of declining growth? Four? Five-and-a-half?
Or will it be a recession only when there is a Republican president?
Dan Bongino is right. The fliparoo theory of “fact-checkers” is now confirmed.
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