While the Corporate Media was busy trying to prop up the NFL's declining ratings (the playoff games were at a nine-year low); positive things were happening in the real world. On Friday, the US Energy Information Administration announced that American oil production as of November, 2017 was at the highest rate since late 1970.
Domestic oil production surpassed 10 million barrels per day. About 2/3 of that number comes directly from the President's lifting of regulation on shale oil extraction. Several consultants within the oil industry say that the full effect of Trump's energy policies have yet to be realized. They are predicting that American production potentially can eclipse Saudi Arabia and at least challenge Russia's petroleum dominance.
To give an example of what this means to consumers, gasoline in 1970 cost 36 cents per gallon (about $2.30 in 2018 dollars). In other words, the current price of gasoline should fall about one dollar per gallon if the current production rate stays stable. But production is likely to go even higher.
One point that we've stressed a lot here is that deflationary economics is essential for a sustained economic recovery. The price of petroleum has been one of the major factors driving our out-of-control inflation rate. In spite of what the phony 'environmentalists' say, the high cost of gasoline as an inflationary catalyst is not because of individual auto-owners. The price effects us collectively in the cost of freight and production.
Americans have been getting price-gouged by shady politicians who pass regulations and restrictions benefiting robber-barons and speculators like George Soros. The price of gas goes up. That's increased costs to farmers and manufacturers. The producers then contract with freight companies, whose fuel costs have also gone up. By the time it reaches the consumer, the consumer is paying increased fuel costs for his groceries or clothing; then gets gouged again at the gas station for his own car.
This is why opening America to oil production again is so critical to full economic recovery. While it's also good news that wages in the US are rising, the increase means little in a long-term sense unless lower prices come with it. This is the mistake that Reagan made in the 1980's and Bush Jr. made in the 2000's. Both boom-cycles led to recession in 1990 and 2007.
The Democrats, in contrast, created economic stimulus with tax-and-spend policies. This too puts money temporarily in the economy, but also creates economic stagnation. Obama's policies never brought us out of the 2007 Recession. Had it not been for the Tech Boom of the mid-1990's, Clinton's policies would have had little or no effect. In fact, Clinton did nothing for the economy except to take credit for what the private sector actually did.
For once, expert predictions about the future of American Oil Production are probably correct. We haven't scratched the surface of the vast Alaskan reserves or reached the full capacity for shale-refining. And projects like Keystone are just starting up as are long-neglected oil fields and refineries. If the Energy Sector continues on this course, we may see levels of prosperity in America again that hasn't been seen in decades. We're already well on the way.
If anybody still cares, this weekend will determine the NFL Championship. But as we occasionally do here (when such stories start piling up) see which miscreants are seeking championship-level victim status.
Let's start with a football-related story:
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, whose tenure in 2017 reached the nadir of a five-year revenue decline, had a tough week. With promoter Vince McMahon's announcement of a new football league and Super Bowl LII already projected to have historically-low ratings: Goodell held a press conference and essentially blamed everyone but himself for the disastrous 2017 showing. Especially the fans---whom Goodell believes are being quite unreasonable. "This whole controversy over the Anthem is a barrier to having honest conversations and making real progress on the underlying issues." he blubbered, without explaining what conversations or issues he was talking about. Yes---translated into plain English, he's telling fans to overlook the protests and his own incompetence in dealing with them: to grow up and focus on the real issues. Whatever that means.
Then, a late entry from The Late Show:
John Mellencamp---an 80's pop-star formerly known as John Cougar---appeared on Stephen Colbert's program to make a public scene. The first big surprise for those of us who grew up during the 80's was learning that Mellencamp was still alive.
Apparently in revenge for not being invited to perform at the Super Bowl, Mellencamp dropped to his knees and gave a 'Black Power' salute---to the applause of nitwit Colbert and his Leftist studio audience. This, of course, was all a publicity stunt; but Mellencamp ran squawking to the media anyway blaming President Trump for "politicizing legitimate protest" after his actions were denounced all over the Internet.
While we're on the subject of Internet denunciations, one of the players in the recent Red Pill attacks on the Meadows Family has apologized (sort of):
Sci-Fi writer Lou Antonelli---who with Brad Torgersen, Dave Freer, and Vox Day---has been circulating a number of false stories about Toby and Foz Meadows issued a formal apology yesterday; claiming that his attempts to doxx innocent people was caused by misreading "faulty IP Address detectors." We tend to believe it was a lot more to do with negative reactions from the literary community. At any rate, Antonelli might have had more credibility if he didn't have an extensive history of this kind of behavior.
But Red-Pills and Alt-RINOs are quite handy with the Victim Card and this one is no exception:
British police arrested Ethan Stables en route to attack a homosexually-themed bar with a machete. Stables allegedly planned to commit mass-murder in such a way that Moslems would be blamed. How did the police upend the plot so quickly? Well, Stables posted his entire plan on Facebook and somebody reported him. Stables is quite angry that "SJWs" would violate his right to privacy and free expression by denouncing this obviously public-spirited project.
And another political whiner:
Chicago Congressman Luis Gutierrez---of whom we wrote earlier this week---is blaming "Right-Wing spin doctors" for allegedly misrepresenting his outburst during the State of the Union Address. Gutierrez told the credulous Corporate Media that he was rushing off because he was late for an interview (though his story about which media outlet this was varies). Regardless, he did have enough time to fire off hysterical posts on Twitter bashing Trump as a 'racist'.
And a pair of other Democrats round off the list:
Nashville Mayor Megan Barry (right) and Police official Robert Forrest (left) got caught in an adulterous affair (both are married to other people). That's not though the whole story. Because Forrest was the head of the mayor's security detail, his travel expenses were paid for out of city funds. As the mayor's travels have come under scrutiny, some question the trips the pair made to places like Paris and Athens along with six major US cities in less than a year. Both claim that the trips were 'business related'; and that they are victims of others out for their jobs.
After a list like that, whichever team loses the Super Bowl won't feel so bad about losing afterwards. But then again, a lot of NFL players are good candidates for the list themselves.
After decades of official and de facto discrimination against Christians, the US Department of Justice announced today that the same legal protections afforded religious minorities will now protect everyone universally.
The DOJ included a 20-point Memorandum on Religious Freedom in the official guidelines issued to all US Attorneys. Last year, President Trump ordered this inclusion, and the Memorandum was completed on October 6th. Here are the highlights:
"2. The free exercise of religion includes the right to act or abstain from action in accordance with one's religious beliefs." This clause, which is based on legal precedent, forbids the State to impose upon individuals obligations forcing them to violate their religious principles. This essentially nullifies---for example---public schools forcing students to accept homosexuality via so-called Sensitivity Training. And that's only one example. And it gets better:
"3. The freedom of religion extends to persons and organizations." This is really significant. The term 'organizations' is defined explicitly as "churches and other religious organizations, schools, private associations, and businesses."
That's pretty self-explanatory and clear. It reverses decades of covert Deep-State persecution of Christians: like forcing Christian schools to teach shams like 'gender-neutrality'; or forcing Christian charities to offer abortions, etc. It also is going to stop Christian-hating State Attorneys-General---like Washington State's Bob Ferguson---from singling out Christian businesses for persecution under bogus 'discrimination' pretexts.
"5. Government may not restrict acts or abstentions because of the beliefs they display." No more forcing the removal of religious iconography from public view, in other words.
So far, we've touched on three points of this astounding document and all of them are things we've waited, hoped, and prayed for for years. This document does not prohibit States per se of engaging in this kind of harassment; but it does that they will no longer have the support of the US Government in so doing. In fact, the Federal level legal system is going to oppose them.
Here are some other groundbreaking points:
"19. Religious employers are entitled to employ only persons whose beliefs and conduct are consistent with the employer's religious precepts."
Wow. Did we imagine even a year ago that we would see this in America again? The document explains that "entities which are organized for religious purposes and engage in activities consistent with, or in furtherance of such purposes have an express exemption from Title VII prohibitions against religious discrimination in employment." So now legal freebooters are going to be unable to file frivolous lawsuits by planting activists in religious organizations then suing them afterwards for 'discrimination'.
"20. As a general matter, the Federal Government may not condition receipt of a federal grant or contract upon the effective relinquishment of a religious organization's hiring exemptions or attributes of its religious character."
This is also self-explanatory: the pernicious practice of barring Christian groups from serving the government through conditions that these organizations couldn't possibly accept---is gone.
Nothing like good news to lift spirits going into the weekend. This Memorandum has effectively smashed the Cultural Marxists' attempts---at every turn---to dismantle American Christianity. From now on, Christians will no longer feel alienated from our Government. As Jeff Sessions always says, "We have your back."
Democratic Congressman Luis Gutierrez became the latest victim of a nationwide phenomenon known as Trump Derangement Syndrome during yesterday's State of the Union address. Regular readers know of several well-documented TDS attacks from all walks of life.
TDS strikes without warning but is always activated by either personal or symbolic representations of President Trump, his family, or even his officials. Vice-President Pence and Education Secretary DeVos, for example, have seen TDS breakdowns in their presence though neither Trump nor his family was anywhere within hundreds of miles of them.
People who experience TDS attacks also invariably do so in public; and usually at the most unbelievably inconvenient times. It comes over its victim like a paroxysm; causing them to commit bizarre and sometimes even dangerous behaviors. The victims act out these dramas---observably similar to tantrums---utterly blind to any consequences to themselves or others.
Luis Gutierrez is the first known victim of TDS among national politicians, although Maxine Waters and Nancy Pelosi have at times exhibited strong potential symptoms. During the portion of the President's speech where he spoke of national monuments to thundering cheers, Gutierrez ran screaming from the Assembly with his hands over his ears.
The breakdown was caught on video, though due to audience applause for Trump whatever Gutierrez was shouting couldn't be heard. Previous cases indicate that TDS victims typically unleash a torrent of profanity during attacks, however; so we may presume the same of the Esteemed Gentleman from Illinois.
Gutierrez' PR spokesmen tried to downplay the incident, claiming that the Congressman urgently had to go to the bathroom, or something. He had calmed down sufficiently to give an interview with the sleazy anti-Trump tabloid Salon a few hours later. It's not known where Gutierrez went or what he did immediately after running from the Assembly; and---given some of the details around other TDS breakdowns---it is probably best to draw a discreet veil over the question anyway.
Fortunately for Chicago---and the US in general---Gutierrez is not running for re-election in 2018. But during the next few months it wouldn't hurt if the Capitol Police and EMS personnel should keep a close eye on him.
So tonight was the much-anticipated State of the Union Address. As a rule, I tend not to like watching these spectacles; there's usually too much political theater for my taste. I get a copy of the text and read it afterwards. Sort of like reading the box-scores instead of watching the game.
The speech was reportedly a huge success in spite of the Media Hyenas' attempts to distract everyone. Even the Deep-State shilling CBS producers were forced to choke back their bile and confess that the speech had a 75% approval rate. The numbers are probably much higher given the way that CBS conducts such surveys.
But on to the Address itself.
The President mostly recited facts and policy-positions fairly familiar to most of us; but---because of the duplicity of the aforementioned MSM---many viewers tonight were likely exposed to this information for the first time. The economy is making tremendous progress and (official) unemployment is down to its lowest level since the Ford Administration. According to Trump, some demographics are seeing their highest employment rates in recorded history.
Make no mistake about it though, our growth-rate is still sluggish. But the Recession which lasted during the entirety of Obama's term is close to its end. Trump predicted that his tax cuts will accelerate this growth---and it likely will. The key though to sustaining that growth will be to curb inflation. The President hinted that he's working to lower healthcare costs---hopefully this a stepping-stone to a full deflationary policy.
Trump then talked about Social Justice, eliding into the subject after a discussion of patriotism. He spoke of upholding the Constitution and religious liberty in particular. This in my opinion was one of the highlights of his speech. We haven't seen these principles actually applied equally in a long time. Though Trump didn't mention it, his Administration has taken an active interest in fighting things like reverse discrimination.
Also, he noted the reforms in the Department of Veterans Affairs and called for a $1.5 trillion investment in national infrastructure. Regular readers here need no explanation about the state of our infrastructure. A trillion dollars is probably a good start, at best. Trump also called for welfare and immigration reforms.
The President also addressed the Opioid Epidemic: a topic that we've discussed here at length as well as his positions on Foreign Policy. On the latter subject, he mentioned the regimes of Cuba and Venezuela before speaking of more distant trouble-spots. The sense that we got from his foreign policy remarks is that he intends to concentrate more upon regional threats than on the failed Pax Americana policy of the Deep-State Era.
The one new policy that Trump announced tonight was reversing Obama's commitment to closing the Guantanamo Naval Base and its prison facilities. Commitment might be a bit of a stretch---considering that Obama seems to have forgotten Guantanamo shortly after his Inauguration ceremony. This is going to be a developing story because Trump didn't state in detail why he intended to keep open the base. Could it be a crackdown on terror cells? Hopefully so.
Overall, the Address wasn't too bad; though not really a landmark speech either. The best part of it all was its optimism, appeals to faith, and Trump's achievements which were largely commonsense solutions to (what seemed to be) insoluble issues. At one point he referenced a family who named an adopted daughter Hope. Hope was the central theme of his whole speech---a genuine belief that things can and will improve.
And very likely his 2019 Address will speak of even better things yet to come.
There were some major announcements this week, from both the White House and the Department of Justice, concerning efforts to suppress the national Opioid Epidemic. Upon the recommendation of a Presidential Task Force, the Administration declared the Opioid Epidemic a National Health Emergency last Autumn.
Before leaving Davos on Saturday, President Trump announced a crackdown by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on shady companies trafficking in bogus Opioid detoxification formulas. The agencies issued Cease and Desist Orders to 11 companies who were marketing unregulated medications unapproved by the FDA.
"Health fraud scams like these can pose serious health risks." Trump stated, "These products have not been demonstrated to be either safe or effective and may keep some patients from seeking legitimate, FDA-approved treatment. Selling these unapproved products with claims that they can cure Opioid addiction is a violation of Federal Law. Also, making unsubstantiated therapeutic claims violate FTC regulations against false and deceptive advertising."
Of course, this story was ignored by the Corporate Media---which takes in billions in advertising from Big Pharma annually.
Attorney-General Sessions today announced the creation of a new team called J-Code made up of tech specialists. Their job will be to take down illegal drug traffic that occurs in the so-called 'Dark Web'. Sessions stated that he was inspired to create the new team after FBI agents destroyed a major Internet Opioid ring last Summer. The website Alpha Bay was linked to 40,000 pushers who serviced nearly a quarter-million addicts and were responsible for at least two known overdose deaths. It was the biggest Darknet takedown in history, but the MSM ignored that story too.
Sessions said in a speech today in Louisville that he had completed a reorganization of the Drug Enforcement Agency and launched a new investigative unit within DEA. This unit will analyze Obamacare providers to ferret out ones which are dispensing unusual or suspicious levels of Opioids. According to CDC statistics, 1/3 of overdoses are connected to prescription drug abuse.
As if isn't aggravating enough with the Whacko Left publishing sleazy rumors about the First Family's marriage, the Alt-RINOs in the Manosphere are playing drama-queen too. The Red Pills are busy showing off their manly Alpha leadership by attacking girls again.
The Alpha-bully in question this time is pulp-writer Dave Freer, a toady of Vox Day. It seems that since the downfall of The Daily Stormer, Freer is vying for Andrew Anglin's position as Internet thug par excellence. He's currently viciously attacking Foz Meadows by spreading false rumors about her and her husband. Mrs. Meadows wrote a deeply moving article which indicates that she's had some serious issues relating to her pregnancy. All the more disgusting that she would become a target of abuse for these characters.
There are some readers who may wonder why an issue mostly concerning the literary community is important in a general sense. The reason is that letting the Red Pills get away with this behavior only encourages more of it. We saw about a year ago the vicious attacks hurled against the Gersch Family by the thugs at the now-defunct The Daily Stormer. Dave Freer at The Mad Genius Club blog is doing the same to the Meadows Family. Who knows who will be next? The so-called GamerGate of 2014 gave the Alpha-Boys a taste of blood and they've hiding behind their keyboards fomenting these types of attacks. As Vox Day himself wrote just today about his opponents (both real and imaginary):
"There is only one way to answer these people and that is to fight back at every opportunity; show neither hesitation nor remorse and defeat them resoundingly. Which is exactly what we have done and will continue to do."
So says someone who considers Anders Breivik a hero and role-model for men. And in that same spirit, Dave Freer penned an incredibly stupid post that was alternately self-pitying and self-aggrandizing while snidely insinuating that the Meadows' maintain a 'front-marriage' that covers for homosexual child abuse.
Now then: what is the difference between these Red Pills' actions and those of the Mainstream Media? Didn't we learn recently from Project Veritas that the producers at CNN consider their audiences a bunch of dumb morons who have to be lied to? Freer and Vox Day behave exactly the same way. Changing the political stripes don't matter. Making up lies about Melania Trump or Foz Meadows amounts to the same thing; and both should be denounced.
And then, to make things worse, Freer actually compares himself to President Trump, saying: "He actually said what a lot of people thought, but were too scared to say because of the SJW thought-police "(whatever that means) "Now they discover that millions of people actually shared those opinions."
Wrong: President Trump said what people thought about certain issues and 'millions of people' don't think anything at all about the Meadows Family. I think though that Trump disapproves strongly of Internet bullies targeting innocent people. His own family has experienced far more of that than the Meadows' or Gerschs combined. Freer evidently has delusions of grandeur if he imagines that his petty smear-campaign has the same sociopolitical ramifications as the 2016 Election had.
We on the Political Right don't gain a thing by copying the tactics of the Radical Left. Morally wrong actions are morally wrong regardless of one's political orientation. This is why the Right---as William F. Buckley said years ago---always must be held to a higher standard and always command the moral high-ground. Most people respect moral behavior; and sacrificing our standards for temporary gain is to give up our greatest strength.
