Why is it that food and and energy are not included in the consumer price index? Either way, your cup of Joe is bidding adieu to the index as calculated . They can tweak it all they want, but inflation is inflation. A new report comes out this week.
Here goes:
The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced coffee prices will no longer be factored into the CPI inflation data.
This is another way for the US government to fudge the inflation numbers to help Joe Biden in the middle of a presidential election.
The overwhelming majority of Americans consume coffee every day. According to Drive Research, 73% of Americans drink coffee every day. Consumer prices rose 0.4% in February – less energy and food prices. Grocery prices are up 30+%. Gas prices are soaring.
The US BLS has announced that coffee prices will no longer be factored into CPI inflation data. In fact, the April 2024 CPI inflation report this week will be the first to NOT include coffee price inflation. Well, the obvious next step is to see what happened to coffee prices over the last few months.
Since September 2023, coffee prices are up a MASSIVE 78%. From January 1st of this year through the high in April when this change was announced, coffee prices gained 35%. Starbucks, just reported a 6% decline in traffic as higher prices deter consumers. What is happening here?
This week’s April CPI inflation report will NOT include coffee price inflation.
The all items index rose 3.5 percent for the 12 months ending March, a larger increase than the
3.2-percent increase for the 12 months ending February. The all items less food and energy index rose
3.8 percent over the last 12 months. The energy index increased 2.1 percent for the 12 months ending
March, the first 12-month increase in that index since the period ending February 2023. The food index
increased 2.2 percent over the last year.
Postscript.
After I put this post together, a comment was left on the tweet.
Coffee is not being removed from CPI. Discontinuing the publication of a specific average price series is not the same as removing a good from the CPI calculation. For an explanation, see bls.gov/cpi/factsheets…
The Double Cross: Late Thursday night, just before midnight, for the first time in recorded history — since the House began keeping records — the House Rules Committee relied on minority party votes to overcome objections from the majority and advance a rule bill to the House floor. Essentially merging four bills into one.
“The four bills that we’ve heard testimony on today will be transmitted to the senate as an amendment to the underlying bill,” Burgess said, acknowledging the underlying bill itself was an unrelated “veterans bill.” UPDATE: Bills will be voted on individually but will be joined together in the final version.
The committee voted nine to three, with all four Democrats on the committee voting with five Republicans to move a rule to the House floor, which, if passed with Democrat support as expected, would allow votes on Johnson’s foreign aid package, including a bill that includes tens of billions to fund Ukraine.
Conservative Reps. Chip Roy (R-TX), Thomas Massie (R-KY), and Ralph Norman (R-SC) voted no.
So money for thee’s border and security but none for me as our country is ravaged by our open borders.
Bunk told you so about this fellow Johnson
….a portion of Bunks Box of Gold
If you only listened to the audio of this Mike Johnson clip, and it was 2016, you would say Mike Johnson was progressive Democrat.
“Transformative solutions” is New Age code for bringing us into their concept of the “New World Order.” Same old show as before.
What did we expect we would get in the end after the House voting down conservatives time after time?
What’s frustrating is that we have have dozens upon dozens of legislation and movements making minorities normalized in society, yet we have those who think we’re still in the early 1900’s.
In truth most of us can lay claim to others having “an easier path.” Is this the lesson for his Black son? Had my I.Q been higher, born to a different family, lived somewhere else…. yes I indeed would have had an easier path. Each of us must come to terms with the fact that our destiny is ours to create. The best part of being an American is that we have the best opportunity in the world to make the most of it.
While we rail against our government and its corruption, our system of government offers more opportunity than any other form of government in the world. We are blessed.
Mike Johnson believes that white privilege is real and systemic change is needed.
Enough already! If you ever even begin to start believing anything anyone in Republican leadership tells you just watch this. Pay close attention to those that don’t seem bothered by this. They’re not our friends. pic.twitter.com/rj2NMGBarg
For example, after questioning from Massie, Chairman Michael Burgess (R-TX) acknowledged the rule contains language that merges the four bills together, sending the different components together as one package to the Senate as part of Johnson’s complicated scheme to exploit the urgency to pass aid to Israel to ensure Ukraine funding can pass Congress.
The Democrats smell blood in the water with the 3 or more Gopers who are unwilling to be counted on when the rubber meets the road for close votes such as the Mojorkas impeachment vote. The conniving Dems think they have found a way to parley this in a way to supersede Johnson and actually have Dem Leader Jeffries step in with the gavel for a vote on the Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan Aid Bill.
This brought to you by The National Catholic Reporter:
“House Democrats are prepared to use every available legislative tool to make sure we get comprehensive national security legislation over the finish line,” said Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries last week. It’s about time he unleashed the prospect of a discharge petition in the House of Representatives, forcing a vote on aid to Ukraine and Israel.
…
Jeffries’ words suggest the end may be coming for the miserable Hastert Rule, the unofficial governing norm implemented by former Speaker Danny Hastert that holds the speaker only brings legislation to the floor if it has majority support from his own caucus. Comprehensive immigration reform was broken on this rule, among other important pieces of legislation.
A discharge petition allows a majority of the whole House to bring legislation to the floor, and would, in this fraught moment of political polarization, remind members of Congress that they may represent a district and a party, but they serve the entire country.
What is more, it is a tool to embolden Republicans who do not want to run every vote by the Trump campaign to see if he signs off on it. Donald Trump would rather see Republicans nix aid to Ukraine so he can resume his bromance with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Read more
The Discharge Petition Route is not an easy path but will they try? I bet they will. Rumors started several weeks ago that they were putting this plan in motion. It explains the Dems insistence that the bill remain a “supplemental” as opposed to a stand alone bill.
What is it with this Ukraine? There is more to it, much more and it is dark. Very dark. Just one example that is getting no attention.
says President Biden rejected Russian President Putin’s proposal for a ceasefire in Ukraine in late 2023 and early 2024, even as Biden pushed for another $60 billion in assistance to Ukraine to attempt to defeat Russia, a defeat that is unlikely.
NOTE: Putin wanted to freeze the conflict as it stands but the request was turned down by the United States. NOTE: The publication reports that despite signals from Putin in 2023, both sides failed to initiate meaningful discussions as the U.S. insisted on involving Ukraine in any ceasefire talks, ultimately leading to the breakdown of the contacts.
NOTE: The bulk of the money does not leave the United States. It goes to the military-industrial complex.
NOTE: The explanation is that if you don’t enrich the complex Putin would invade NATO and your sons and daughters would fight in Europe, so it’s better to just fund the war now so that your sons and daughters are safe here in the United States.
The big sell by Biden. Actually the big “tell”
A man who tried to tell the truth. Exchanged the Afghan war for Ukraine.
A point of view that agrees. Majorkas we just learned thanks to a FOIA request, was the one who denied Secret Service protection for Robert Kennedy Jr. Hmmm,
POSTSCRIPT JUST IN!
Peace is not their goal.
This is not an endorsement but RFK Jr. tells the truth about the war in Ukraine (hint: money laundering)
“The supplemental represents an attempt by the foreign policy blob/deep state to stop President Trump from pursuing his desired policy, and if he does so anyways, to provide grounds to impeach him and undermine his administration,” Vance wrote in a letter sent to congressional Republicans on Monday. “All Republicans should oppose its passage.”
Buried within the supplemental advanced by the Senate is $13.7 billion for the Defense Department’s Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. As highlighted by Vance, House Democrats impeached Trump in 2019 over the latter’s decision to withhold foreign aid to Ukraine, including “$250 million through the … Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative.”
Desperate to damage their primary political opponent, Democrats outlandishly claimed this constituted a “quid-pro-quo” because Trump expressed concern during a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky over then-candidate Joe Biden’s family’s corrupt foreign dealings in the European nation.
According to Vance, the aforementioned Ukraine funds “expire on September 30, 2025 — nearly a year into the possible second term of President Trump,” meaning if the Republican president were to follow through on his pledge to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict and halt funding to Kyiv, the supplemental would provide Democrats with the opportunity to launch another bogus impeachment hoax.
Ah, like vultures circling a dead carcass, the millionaires and billionaires feast at the thought of rebuilding Ukraine. Last I heard, Zelensky had not won any war. He too circles Davos, this time for more than armaments, and funding for his government and his people’s pensions.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy met some of the biggest names in global finance on Tuesday morning on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. The Ukrainian leader spoke with JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon, Blackstone’s Steve Schwarzman and Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio among others.
CGI plans to announce the launch of the CGI Ukraine Action Network, as well as numerous financial pledges, to support nonprofits working in the country.
The CGI Ukraine Action Network is the result of a collaboration between Hillary Clinton and Olena Zelenska, first lady of Ukraine, that began last year. The new organization, which will be formally announced Tuesday, is designed to mobilize existing CGI partners, as well as new leaders from around the world, to create and finance new commitments for Ukrainians, according to CGI. Numerous monetary commitments for Ukraine are also set to be announced Tuesday.
UPDATE:J D Vance exposes the Biden-Clinton cash pipeline to Kiev: “The U.S. is sending the World Bank $25 Billion. And then the World Bank is sending the money to the Clintons. And then the Clintons are sending it to Ukraine
In a 67-32 cloture vote, the Senate crossed party lines, with several RINO senators joining Democrats to move the foreign aid bill forward. The bill is still in play. This is not a stand alone bill. Amendments will be forthcoming.
UPDATE III Schumer is back at it… exactly as planned. VOTING NOW ON SUPPLEMENTAL FOR ISRAEL UKRAINE AND TAWAIN. The trap is set. Schumer lost. He could only get to 58 BUT the bill is still in play. Last I heard they were working on amendments to the bill including the border in order to bring the whole bill forward and get to 60.
Update II. Procedural vote defeated. I am surprised Schumer brought it forward.
UPDATE: Procedural vote this afternoon. Schumer forges ahead.
Washington —
Although Senate Republicans appeared resigned to oppose the procedural vote to open debate, with the conference in large part either opposing the border deal released on Sunday or seeking more time to review it, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer planned to forge ahead with the vote on Wednesday.
“For the security of America at the border, for the security of Ukraine and Israel, we’re going to keep at it,” Schumer told reporters on Tuesday. “We will move further forward. Stay tuned.”
Indeed, Schumer appears to have a backup plan — to put the other elements of the supplemental funding package up for a procedural vote should the broader package that includes the border security agreement fail, according to a Democratic aide. Outside of the border elements, the national security supplemental includes military aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, along with humanitarian assistance for Palestinians in Gaza. (Source)
Back to the story
It never was about aid to Israel. Not about Aid to Ukraine.
A package aimed at giving $17.6 billion to Israel failed to pass the House of Representatives on Tuesday.
It had been facing a veto threat from the White House, which is pushing for Congress to consider Israel aid as part of a larger $118 billion supplemental security package, along with pushback from GOP hard-liners who wanted the price tag offset by spending cuts elsewhere.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., unveiled the legislation over the weekend while blasting the Senate and White House for excluding the House from talks over a supplemental security funding and border policy bill.
….It ultimately failed to reach enough support, despite 250 lawmakers voting for it and 180 against. Forty-six Democrats voted in favor of the bill while 166 voted against. On the Republican side, 14 lawmakers voted down the Israel aid and 204 voted for it.
… (Aid to Israel)
“After nearly four months of waiting for the Senate to act, House Republicans, working in good faith, placed a clean, standalone bill on the floor — a major concession we were willing to make given the gravity of the situation to address Democrats’ stated concerns with the prior aid package,” the speaker said.
“Democrats have been unable to present any substantive policy objection in the current legislation. It is clear they are now committed to using Israel aid as leverage to force through other priorities that do not enjoy nearly the same degree of consensus. Leveraging Israel aid as it fights for survival is wrong. The White House and congressional Democrats should be ashamed.”
Here are Bunks thoughts. I am no expert on procedures but from what I gathered from Fox’s Maria Bartiromo and her concerns to Speaker Johnson. She referenced a story in Axios.
So the deal? Watch now for a resurrection. Amendments to the bill. Take up the “supplemental” Israel Ukraine portion of the bill. Once done and voted upon, no longer the 60 votes are needed, it moves to the House for “compromise” where we have already seen how dicey that can be with the impeachment vote yesterday of Majorkas. A miracle occurs and the majority of the Border portion of the bill magically reappears since there have been amendments.
You keep hearing how Schumer keeps saying “we need to take up the supplemental bill.” Why else did the Dems vote against aid to Israel yesterday if its so important? Why else does Biden insist the two bills be tied together?
And our rubber neck McConnell the old fox? Wouldn’t trust him one bit.
Just for giggles, Schumer shows his hand and angst with our favorite gal, Mika over at MSNBC… first three minutes tells you what it’s all about. Chuckie boy, why do we need these bills are wrapped up on one big package? An inquiring mind here.
The House Speaker pushes through another Continuing Resolution. This time Johnson needed more Democrats that Goppers to pass it. Says it all doesn’t it. Disaffection with Johnson grows.
The Conservative Tree House nails it with the headline
After Vowing No More Continuing Resolution Spending Bills Last Year, Guess What the Republican Majority UniParty Just Passed.
Sundance proceeds with a masterful review of just how inane the whole budget process is and how far they have yet to go:
Yup, another kick-the-can continuing resolution spending bill has passed the House. This extension lasts until March 1st and 8th.
The short-term CR negotiated in part by House Speaker Mike Johnson, passed the House on a 314-108 vote margin. 207 Democrats and 107 Republicans voted for it. Yes, that’s correct; more democrats supported the CR than republicans, and this is with a republican house majority.
It’s a Democrat CR bill being brought up by a Republican House Speaker and passed by the UniParty. Almost half of the Republicans voted against it (106), while just 2 Democrats voted no. The DC UniParty in its full glory.
“Our Speaker, Mr. Johnson, said he was the most conservative speaker we’ve ever had, and yet here we are, putting this bill on the floor,” said. Rep. Eli Crane of Arizona in a floor speech ahead of the vote, adding that the situation is what “led to us to vacate Speaker McCarthy in the first place.”
Steve Bannon takes on the issue with Johnson in his inimitable style.
Steve Bannon On Speaker Johnson: “I Don’t Need A Theologian, I Need A Speaker Of The House” Skip the ads by clicking on the bottom of the clip.
Sundance ends the discussion with
Madness…..
Complete and utter dysfunction.
It is more than well worth riding over to the Conservative Tree House for the description of the steps to the process yet to unfold.
While the U.S. is heavily focused on the missing Secretary of Defense, the latest Sex lies and videotape of Clinton and assorted miscreants, we might want to gaze across the pond and take a look at what is happening there. Schwab and his “New World Order” are having a set back in Germany. The French? It appears that they would prefer being replaced by the hordes moving in, and are not happy about Macron’s move to the right with his coalition government if reports out there by the MSM are true.
Perhaps it’s Schwab’s pompous determination on how and who should live or die is finally catching on disfavor among the unwilling victims who seem to be awakening from their somnolence in Germany? So maybe the “Great Reset” is being figured out as perhaps not so great.
The we have France and Macron, finding he too is running into a rough patch.
French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne has resigned
Add German Scholz’s name to the list of the unhappy voters.
First Germany:
Farmers won’t accept the ‘planned famine’ engineered by Scholz’s inane climate alarmist policies.
The headline:
German Farmers Stage Largest Protest Ever, Blocking Roads All Over the Country – Movement Opposes Climate Alarmist Policies and End to Subsidies
German farmers are staging their largest-ever protest, with thousands of tractors blocking roads across Germany, including in the capital, Berlin.
The farmers are demanding that the government abandon plans to cancel agricultural benefits.
The rallies are expected to last a full week, and among the first demonstrations across the country, several hundred tractors and other vehicles gathered in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.
“Farmers are demonstrating against plans by Germany’s government under Chancellor Olaf Scholz for the suspension of agricultural subsidies. The governing coalition is made up of Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens and the neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP).
On Thursday, the government announced that it would walk back some of the planned cuts to subsidies, which the German Farmers’ Association (DBV) considers to be an insufficient measure.”
In all the abundant MSM coverage, never it is mentioned the anti-globalist nature of the movement, rejecting the deranged crackdown on fertilizer use, as well as the targeting of over 3,000 farms to comply with the Climate Alarmist policies of the floundering Scholz coalition.
France’s Macron launches political reset with PM change
PARIS, Jan 8 (Reuters) – French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne resigned on Monday, as President Emmanuel Macron seeks to give a new impetus to his second mandate ahead of European parliament elections and the Paris Olympics this summer.
(The second woman Prime Minister of France’s equity choices bites the dust)
Macron did not immediately name a successor for Borne, who will stay on as a caretaker along with the rest of the government until a new one is formed, the presidential palace said in a carefully choreographed move.
The change was made after a year marred by political crises triggered by contested reforms of the country’s pension system and immigration laws..
All in all, our so called allies are having their own political battles.
In the New King James Version of the Bible, Matthew (25) tells us, “But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them: Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.” So, in giving credit where it is due, Abraham Lincoln didn’t offer this advice.
Naturally, politicians seized upon the idea and offered us their hope for the future: a tent big enough to accommodate everyone. Well, that isn’t working out entirely in the way everyone expected. Common sense tells us that no tent is large enough to accommodate.
Second, if a political party stands for a specific (well-advertised) set of principles, doesn’t changing those values to accommodate a larger tent population work to the party’s disadvantage?
Last, how cohesive can we be as a nation when we’ve divided ourselves into 188 different nuanced languages?
Let’s investigate. In the entire history of the United States, it is only a recent phenomenon that any true American wanted to belong inside someone else’s tent (politically or in any other way than to eat or sleep). Traditionally, true Americans reject collectivization.
That is, until around 1990, when it seems that many Americans crossed over into the land of stupidity. Since then, non-traditional Americans have raised their offspring to join the Lemmings.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that this mass adoption of collectivization is a good thing. The history of it paints a different tale. Before you get on the bus, make sure you know where that bus is taking you.
One revelation about that direction appeared recently on the Extreme Left Weather Channel. The queer Nazi who does their Pattern program said that he’s proud of communities around the nation who are conspiring to force people into purchasing electric cars. You know — to save the planet.
So that cat is out of the bag, and the dimwits on the Weather Channel are not the first to release it. Recall Barack Obama’s Science and Technology advisor, John Holdren, openly advocated for the forced abortion and sterilization of people to help reduce Earth’s human population.
No doubt, as with most other Democrats, he was speaking of black folks a la Margaret Sanger. Honestly, one does wonder how so many black Americans support the very people who advocate for the removal of the black race through mass sterilization. God help us!
For a long time, that large tent was the province of Democrats. Then, the Republicans, feeling left out, wanted to enlarge their tent, too. So then, let the games begin. The question to ask, though, is this: do we need two political parties advocating for national suicide?
To accommodate every possible point of view, the party must be willing to relinquish one or more of their principled policies — if there are any in either party. Accommodating the newest member of Sawdust City is not how we progress; it’s how we digress.
More to the point, with two political parties competing for which of them has the largest tent, does it occur to anyone that our society, like bacteria on a Petri dish, incessantly reproduces and divides — and doesn’t this explain the recent bizarre development of America’s sexual preference alphabet soup? How much more is there to accommodate?
Should either party welcome a Hamas terrorist because of their unique point of view? Seriously? Should we make room inside the tent for every depraved sexual peccadillo? Do rational people reach out to embrace ideas guaranteed to destroy traditional American values?
If we do that, how does the enlarged tent accommodate “normal people?” Answer: it doesn’t. It does accommodate the abnormal, though, and that (on both sides of the aisle) appears to be their “collective” direction.
Mr. Lincoln said, rather directly, that the nation must have it one way or the other—all or nothing. If we must relinquish our moral values to maintain a unified house, then let the house collapse.
As for the collective direction, I’m not having it. Are you?
The grifters are setting up shop this time for Ukraine. Why not since they made out so well in Haiti. Ask Haiti how the long fingers of Bill and Hillary worked out for them.
The Clinton Global Initiative will launch a new network to provide ‘humanitarian aid’ to war-torn Ukraine.
Of course.
Recall, that Bill Clinton last year announced the Clinton Global Initiative will be hosting a leadership summit in New York in September after a 5-year hiatus. Well, their off to the races with even the Pope throwing his hat in apparently.
According to the Associated Press, the Clinton Global Initiative will be launching a new network dubbed CGI Ukraine Action Network:
CGI plans to announce the launch of the CGI Ukraine Action Network, as well as numerous financial pledges, to support nonprofits working in the country.
The CGI Ukraine Action Network is the result of a collaboration between Hillary Clinton and Olena Zelenska, first lady of Ukraine, that began last year. The new organization, which will be formally announced Tuesday, is designed to mobilize existing CGI partners, as well as new leaders from around the world, to create and finance new commitments for Ukrainians, according to CGI. Numerous monetary commitments for Ukraine are also set to be announced Tuesday,
In 2022, CGI announced more than 140 commitments, including a $1 billion plan from Water.org, co-founded by actor Matt Damon, to help 100 million people in Africa, Asia and Latin America get lasting access to water and sanitation. This year, leaders including World Bank President Ajay Banga, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, World Central Kitchen founder Jose Andres and Ford Foundation CEO Darren Walker, will attend and make their own commitments, which are required for attendance at the conference.
What he does is EXPOSES the Clinton Foundation: “Clinton tried to bribe me!” We know that Haiti was the Clinton’s piggy bank. Here we go:
She defrauded the people of Haiti…
“I spent 4 hours with Bill Richardson to tell Bill Clinton not to invade Haiti. A week later the embassy called me and told me that Bill Clinton has a messenger for him.
He came and told me to sign with Bill Clinton, join his movement and Clinton will make me the richest man in Haiti.
I told him he is a principled man and I will not sell out…
Haiti has been a honey pot of gold for the Clinton machine and their friends. Beginning with her brother and ending with one in prison. The latest dump should be headline news,
This is the latest, but not the first story that dripped out.
A donor to the Clinton Foundation reached out to Hillary Clinton’s office to promote a Haiti hotel project that later received support from the U.S. government and Bill Clinton, according to emails released by the Department of State. (Take a full look, but I think you got the drift.)
Hillary Rodham Clinton’s brother, Tony Rodham, sat on the board of a self-described mining company that in 2012 received one of only two “gold exploitation permits” from the Haitian government—the first issued in over 50 years.
The tiny North Carolina company, VCS Mining, also included on its board Bill Clinton’s co-chair of the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC), former Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive.
Now the latest:
An official at the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, a federal agency under the guidance of the State Department, wrote a memo on Jan. 26, 2010 to her superiors recommending funding for a construction project in Haiti.
According to the proposal, Miami businessman Claudio Osorio and his company InnoVida would build homes on the island using low-cost proprietary panels. Lynn Tabernacki, OPIC’s renewable energy director, noted in the report that InnoVida had “U.S. persons of political influence that are able to assist in advancing the company’s plans.”
“This case represents a new low in the misuse of public funds by Clinton allies,” National Legal and Policy Center chairman Ken Boehm told the Free Beacon last July. “There must be an investigation into why this Clinton donor was using a law firm recommended by Bill Clinton and one of Hillary Clinton’s top fund raisers to improperly obtain millions from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.”“For instance, former President Bill Clinton is personally in contact with the Company to organize its logistical and support needs,” wrote Tabernacki. “Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has made available State Department resources to assist with logistical arrangements.”
Additionally, the Clinton Global Initiative had “indicated that it would be willing to contract to purchase 6,500 homes in Haiti from InnoVida within the next year.”
What was not explicitly stated in the memo, but known to OPIC officials at the time, was that Osorio had a prior relationship with the Clintons. Days earlier, the businessman had shown Tabernacki a video of Bill Clinton speaking at his home in 2007. The speech took place during a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign that Osorio hosted at his Star Island mansion.
Osorio was also a Clinton Foundation donor, contributing between $10,000 and $50,000 to the organization. Additionally, he had hired Clinton’s 2008 finance director Jonathan Mantz to lobby OPIC for the loan request.
Less than 24 hours after Tabernacki’s recommendation was sent, OPIC approved a $10 million loan to InnoVida. But the homes in Haiti were never built. By the following year, InnoVida had declared bankruptcy and its owner had caught the eye of both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the FBI.
In 2013, Osorio was sentenced to 12 years in prison for wire fraud and money laundering connected to the Haiti house-building scam. He was accused of cheating investors out of $40 million, using the money to pay for a Maserati, his Miami mansion, and a ski chalet in Colorado.
All members assemble to give their solemn oath of office when Congress convenes. The pledge reads as follows:
Do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that you will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that you take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which you are about to enter: So help you, God?
And, as expected, all the congress persons, with their right hand still raised, repeat in unison, “I do.” The only thing solemn about this oath is the use of the word as it appears in the oath. No one has ever been prosecuted for failing to follow this solemn oath, no one has ever been tossed out of office for breaking the oath. So, the question is, how solemn is it, really? The answer is not very. It is a hollow formality. It gets no more than a wink and a nod. After affirming, “I do,” everyone inside the nation’s capital goes back to business as usual — and that usual business involves becoming an enemy of the U.S. Constitution and the people who, through their elected representatives, approved of this covenant.
The cycle is repeated every two years — and it’s been going on for a very long time. Since 1789, the U.S. Constitution has been shamefully misinterpreted, abused, and intentionally subverted. Sadly, The result is that America is no longer the land of the free and home of the brave. And, if we are sincere, maybe it never was.
How do we know this is true? I submit, in the same way, Patrick Henry knew it was true. Before the events at Concord and Lexington, Henry pointed to the oppressive government and warned us against complacency. He told us what would happen if we ever accepted the dictates of a central government whose members intentionally distance themselves from “we the people.”
“It is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth, to know the worst and provide for it.”
—Patrick Henry
Mr. Henry, as one may recall, served as the first and sixth governor of Virginia in the post-Revolutionary War period. Today, he is claimed as a partisan by both the political left and right. When he spoke of temporal salvation, he meant preserving the freedom to work and provide as we see fit — that individuals have both the ability and responsibility to plan their own lives without unnecessary government meddling. In Mr. Henry’s day, that freedom was already under attack, and conditions have not improved since then.
Enemies — foreign and domestic
The framers of the U.S. Constitution acknowledged that individuals have certain unalienable rights, among them being life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. God gave us these rights; only God can take them away. So, the purpose of government, as envisioned by the earliest constitutionalists, was to protect these fundamental God-given rights. Has Congress or any administration since Washington’s presidency done this? The answer must be no.
The framers of the Constitution understood how and why people behave as they do. No matter what one might think of James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, they understood human nature and realized that human beings are terribly flawed. And because individuals are flawed, government was necessary on two crucial counts: First, to protect the American people from foreign enemies. Second, to protect the American people from domestic lawbreakers — people who would use coercion, fraud, or force to deprive others of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Today, some of these “domestic” enemies wear the black robes of state and federal judges, the business suits of members of political parties in Congress and within the bureaucracy, in cabinet positions, inside the Oval Office, and men and women who wear the uniforms of our “protectors,” whether military or law enforcement. There is no other way to explain corrupt FBI directors, attorney generals, speakers of the house, or presidential wannabes who dream of becoming president one day.
James Madison may not have been one of America’s greatest presidents, but he was no dummy. He knew that as individuals require a firm hand to keep them on the straight and narrow path in their treatment of fellow citizens, so too did the government require oversight.
“It may be a reflection on human nature that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed, and in the next place oblige it to control itself.”
James Madison
Unfortunately for us, the government is not so obliged. Nowhere is this more obvious than observing the current administration’s wide-scale abuses of “we the people” and that myth shaping we see taking place on the stage of partisan debate.
The political manipulation of the American people continues — and this, too, in its attempt, would be fine — if “we the people” had the sense that God gave goats, and we could see how others, seeking power over us, manipulate us to their purposes. I have no faith in the future of America because I have no faith in my fellow citizens, even to recognize when they are being played as fools.
Bunk adds this video=
Anti-Federalist: Patrick Henry WARNS Big Government is NOT VIRTUOUS in 1788
John Fetterman is on the job in his hoodie and gym shorts in the Capitol. Then he attempts to opine on the 14th amendment. Meanwhile, Senator Feinstein doesn’t even know where she is. But the Dems will keep them no matter what because they hold the slimmest of margins. Oh a few who lust for her position are making noises.
Meanwhile it’s is a full force attack for the exit of the GOP House member Santos for expulsion without the benefit of trial and jury. The DOJ is on it. In just a few months they were able to come up with a dozen or more charges. Meanwhile four years later nothing on Hunter Biden.
House Republicans blocked Democrats’ effort to expel scandal-plagued Rep. George Santos from Congress less than a week after the first-term Republican congressman pleaded not guilty to fraud charges.
Democrats pushed a resolution to expel Santos, but Republicans instead voted along party lines 221 to 204 to send the matter to the House Ethics Committee. Seven Democrats voted present, including several on the House Ethics panel to head off concerns of a conflict of interest.
Anyone recall Senator Menendez who ran into trouble in New Jersey? Of course no scalp was required and the DOJ was more than willing to accommodate.
In a shocking turnaround, the U.S. Justice Department has dropped its case against U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez.
In a court in Newark on Wednesday, federal prosecutors moved to dismiss the corruption indictment against the New Jersey Democrat after a federal judge last week acquitted Menendez and his co-defendant, Salomon Melgen, of seven of the 18 counts against them.
Jesse Waters rounds it out with the mayhem occurring in the D.C.scene and it sure is one. Included we get a glimpse and more of Senator Kennedy doing his thing with the nomination of a judge. You know… more of “the thing.”
BUNKERVILLE | God, Guns and Guts Comrades! 
What he does is EXPOSES the Clinton Foundation: “Clinton tried to bribe me!” We know that Haiti was the Clinton’s piggy bank. Here we go:
She defrauded the people of Haiti…
“I spent 4 hours with Bill Richardson to tell Bill Clinton not to invade Haiti.
A week later the embassy called me and told me that Bill Clinton has a messenger for him.
He came and told me to sign with Bill Clinton, join his movement and Clinton will make me the richest man in Haiti.
I told him he is a principled man and I will not sell out…
A week later, Clinton revoked my visa.
”