This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A social media statement from RNC Research has revealed the huge and extended absences from the White House during Joe Biden's presidency.
So far anyway.
The report documents he's taken 305 days of vacation.
See the result here.
Comments, all anonymous, that followed the posting varied, including many that revolved around the theme that it was not necessarily bad to have Biden on vacation.
"C'mon RNC, why are you complaining? Give him another ice cream cone and send him back to Delaware. The country will be a whole lot safer."
Another, identifying himself as "Jesus," said the fact he's been able to "accomplish so much" while literally being absent "would make republicans (sic) embarrassed."
Another noted: "Imagine how much worse things would be if he worked full time."
"More gets 'accomplished, when Corn Pop is on vacation," also appeared, as did, "Longer he's away from WH, less damage he can do."
"Who knew POTUS was a part-time gig!" said yet another.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The Biden presidency has been beleaguered by exploding inflation for Americans.
Hit by rates as high as 9.1% just a few months back, Americans are paying thousands of dollars a month more for the same lifestyle that had under President Trump – if they have those extra thousands of dollars.
Low- and middle-income families have been hit hardest because inflation has caught up with their food and energy costs – elements that no family can simply eliminate from a budget.
Then the Federal Reserve under Biden has repeatedly pushed interest rates higher, costing those same families, at least any with a credit card, car, or other debt, more there, too.
Now Fox News is reporting that even Democrats are fed up.
Fifty-nine House Democrats have joined with GOP colleagues to insist the White House assess the inflationary effect of Biden’s executive orders before they are issued.
Fox explained, "The bill is the latest effort by Republicans to pump the brakes on Biden administration policies that they say are causing the highest inflation levels seen in decades. But the bill was also supported by 59 Democrats, and easily passed in a 272-148 vote."
It would require that any executive order that has an annual budgetary effect of $1 billion or more would have to first be studied by the administration for its possible inflationary effects on the economy, which Republicans say would make Biden think twice about imposing costly new rules on the public.
Biden's orders already have had catastrophic effects on families, with his orders against fossil fuel projects pushing fuel prices into the stratosphere and his climate change ideologies also hitting Americans' pocketbooks.
Some Democrats still opposed the precautionary move, with Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., blaming the higher costs faced by millions of Americans on COVID and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
She claimed that "There is no evidence that government spending or executive orders by President Biden have increased inflation."
Other Democrats even claimed that Biden's $1.9 trillion "Rescue Plan" and $700 billion "Inflation" spending plans helped "tame" inflation.
Economists have been more realistic, confirming those acts "drove inflation higher."
Fox provided the background: "Republicans have vowed to control congressional spending now that they run the House and argued that Biden also needs to be put in check because he is too casually issuing orders that lead to higher prices for Americans. The GOP has cited two examples of Biden executive orders that have had inflationary effects — one that revoked the Keystone XL pipeline permit, and another in late 2021 that requires the government to move toward buying only electric-only vehicles over the next decade."
House Oversight and Accountability chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said the facts are that "Pushing one big-spending policy after another, President Biden has continued to throw fuel on the inflationary fire. That fire is rapidly consuming the wages of our constituents. They have had to pay higher and higher prices for everything from eggs to electricity, all while inflation pushes their real wages further and further behind."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Election fraud and election interference are becoming more and more of a problem across the United States, which saw the 2020 presidential race results influenced, perhaps corrupted, by the $400 million plus that Mark Zuckerberg handed out, through foundations, to most leftists in local elections offices.
They often used it to recruit voters from Democrat districts.
Then there was the outright suppression of accurate – but very damaging – reporting about the Biden family's international business operations and the millions in profits that found their way to the family of the then-Democrat nominee for the office.
A poll after the election revealed that Joe Biden likely would have lost that election, giving President Trump his second straight term, had people generally known of those dealings.
Now a report at The Federalist is charging that the Biden Department of Homeland Security already is scheming to influence future elections.
And use taxpayer money to do it this time.
The reporting by Shawn Fleetwood reveals that the DHS has issued a statement about its plans to spend billions of dollars on various grant programs.
One of the focal points to which taxes will be pushed is "election security," the report said.
"In its latest attempt to interfere in the electoral process, the Biden administration announced on Monday that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is planning to award millions of taxpayer dollars to local governments throughout the country for so-called 'election security' purposes," it explained.
That's part of "more than $2 billion" for several "2023 preparedness grant programs" that purportedly are to be used to respond to "acts of terrorism."
"Under Joe Biden’s presidency, DHS has routinely identified targeting 'domestic violent extremism' as its top priority. Of course, such proclamations are never in reference to violence carried out by leftist groups such as Antifa or Black Lives Matter, but rather right-of-center people and organizations that threaten the regime’s narratives and policy goals," the report said.
The DHS doesn't explain "what the agency means by "election security," the Federalist report said. But another report about 2023 grants cites "cybersecurity," "operational coordination" and "long-term vulnerability reduction."
"The document also lists numerous examples of potential projects local election offices could invest their grant money in, such as 'online harassment and targeting prevention services' and 'physical/site security measures — e.g., locks, shatterproof glass, alarms, access controls, etc,'" it said.
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has suggested such grants will go to urban regions, "where voters routinely favor Democrat candidates over Republican ones."
"Recall how private funding from partisan actors such as Mark Zuckerberg was injected into government election offices primarily in the blue, urban areas of swing states, creating what amounted to a Democrat get-out-the-vote effort," the report said.
The Federalist reported, "The new directive is hardly the first example of Biden or his administration attempting to insert themselves into state and local election administration. In March 2021, Biden signed an executive order mandating that all federal agencies, and thus the partisan bureaucrats who staff them, 'expand citizens' opportunities to register to vote and to obtain information about, and participate in, the electoral process.'"
The actual DHS announcement said the new urban areas being given cash include Austin, Texas; Honolulu, Hawaii, Jacksonville, Florida, and Nashville, Tennessee, bringing to 40 the number of urban areas getting special funding.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
There are few high school or college football or basketball teams that would cheer for being No. 25.
And that's the state of economic freedom for the United States, according to a new report.
Fox News has documented the American position in the index of global economic freedom has fallen … again.
And it's been at a low point for several decades.
It is the Heritage Foundation's 2023 Index of Economic Freedom that has concluded the United States dropped to 25th place globally over what researchers behind the evaluation charge are the country's runaway government spending as well as its deficits.
The evaluation considered the positions of 184 nations from 2021 to 2022.
The report concluded that the economy worldwide mostly is "unfree."
"This really should be a wake-up call if you're looking at the United States," explained Joel Griffith, a research fellow in the Thomas A. Roe Institute for economic policy studies at The Heritage Foundation.
"We've been doing this report now since the 1990s, and based on our metrics, this is the lowest the United States has ever ranked in the index as far as the total score."
The report explained, "Especially notable is the continuing decline within the ‘mostly free’ category of the United States, whose score plummeted to 70.6, its lowest level ever in the 29-year history of the Index. The U.S. is now the world’s 25th-freest economy. The major causative factor in the erosion of America’s economic freedom is excessive government spending, which has resulted in mounting deficit and debt burdens."
The United States, which is forecast to add $19 trillion to its debt in the coming years, dropped a full five places from just a year ago.
Griffith continued, "We've seen a lot of countries across the world engaging in dangerous monetary policy with their central banks printing too much currency and with overspending. The United States has been one of the worst offenders over the past two and a half years, and that's a large part of why we have sunk in the rankings when it comes to our debt load and government size, which is really dragging us down and making us less competitive."
The report blames excessive government spending by the U.S. administration of Joe Biden as the reason for the troubling results.
The freest economies? Singapore, Switzerland, Ireland, and Taiwan.
The Environmental Protection Agency confirmed that they will not be testing for dioxins in East Palestine, Ohio after a train derailed and authorities burned hazardous materials sending a large chemical plume into the air.
The train derailed on February 3rd and three days later large amounts of vinyl chloride were burned to avoid an explosion. The controlled burn may have been necessary but it polluted a massive area and Americans are in danger. The EPA is seemingly dragging its feet and now it appears they are outright refusing to take every precaution to protect the health of those in the danger zone.
Dioxins, or persistent organic pollutants, and can cause “cancer, reproductive and developmental problems, damage to the immune system.”
East Palestine residents have reported a slew of different ailments since the derailment and subsequent chemical burn-off. There is a strong possibility thousands of Americans have been harmed and the health impacts could be devastating.
The EPA's attitude towards the East Palestine disaster is apathetic at best, and deliberate at worst. The Biden administration seems more concerned with downplaying the disaster at the expense of American health.
EPA Region 5 administrator Debra Shore claimed on Monday that, "Dioxins are ubiquitous in the environment. They were here before the accident; they will be here after, and we don’t have baseline information in this area to do a proper test. But, we are talking to our toxicologist and looking into it."
While the EPA is "looking into it," Americans in East Palestine are suffering from strange symptoms, and the EPA's assurance that all well seem to be misleading.
Headaches, rashes, and other respiratory issues have been cropping up in East Palestine and the surrounding area since the massive chemical burn-off.
One voice calling out the EPA is Stephen Lester, science director at the Center for Health, Environment, and Justice. He stated during a town hall in East Palestine that the EPA's “one major mistake" is ignoring dioxins.
Lester said, "The level of dioxin that gets into a body, a person, an animal, a cow, that could lead to health problems is extraordinarily low. It does not take very much. I’d be very concerned if I had a farm, especially if I was aware, as some people described in that meeting, that the black cloud from the burning had settled onto their property."
It is hard to imagine the EPA dragging its feet as it has in an environmental crisis of this scale if the political party of the sitting President was different.
While thousands of pounds of vinyl chloride were burning in Ohio, President Biden was visiting Ukraine and promising America's unwavering support and endless billions to finance Ukraine's war against Russia.
Even the media response to the crisis was remarkably subdued considering the massive impact this disaster has on both American health and the environment.
The EPA is likely not testing for dioxins as there is a good chance that testing will remove any plausible deniability the Biden administration has as to the danger Americans are in. There is no crisis killing Americans if the EPA simply refuses to test the area.
House Republicans have made it quite clear that they intend to impeach and hopefully remove Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas from office, but at least one member has gone further and suggested that Mayorkas ought to be arrested and imprisoned over his failure to secure the border that has resulted in the deaths of American citizens.
During a committee hearing on Tuesday, Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) said that he would "arrest" Sec. Mayorkas for certain state and federal criminal violations if granted the opportunity to do so, the Daily Wire reported.
That remark from Higgins, a former law enforcement officer, came during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on Tuesday to examine how "every state is a border state" now thanks to the "border crisis" caused by the policies of Mayorkas and President Joe Biden.
"Our border is wide open and out of control, and Americans are dying because of it," Rep. Higgins said. "And I know Secretary Mayorkas is watching this, or having his team of attorneys watch this. Good, because over the course of the next year, this committee is going to lay out our case against you, sir."
"If I could arrest you for violations of Louisiana revised statutes, I would," the Louisiana Republican said.
The Washington Examiner reported that Higgins, who is still a reserve law enforcement officer in his home state, then proceeded to list off a handful of state and federal statutes that he believed Mayorkas was guilty of having violated.
That included state statutes for "negligent homicide" and being a "principal to any criminal action," both in relation to "thousands of murders" of American citizens, whether by fentanyl overdoses or criminal illegal aliens.
Higgins would also charge Mayorkas with violating 18 U.S.C. 1001 for having "knowingly and willfully lied to this body -- again and again and again -- about our border," as well as 18 U.S.C. 242, for having "deprived Americans of their very life."
A moment later, Rep. Higgins highlighted a young woman named Sami who had died of a fentanyl overdose, and urged the secretary to "remember her name." He then seemed to suggest that Mayorkas would have ample time to do so while presumably spending the rest of his life in prison.
"I'm going to see to it that you have plenty of time in the course of your remaining life to remember the names to 200,000 Americans who are dead because of fentanyl coming across a border that you have blown wide open," the congressman said.
Our southern border is controlled by cartels, and Mayorkas is responsible… pic.twitter.com/zRNVIzetyC
— Rep. Clay Higgins (@RepClayHiggins) February 28, 2023
Rep. Higgins' obvious passion for the issue of border security shouldn't be at all surprising, given his law enforcement background and the fact that he serves as the chair of the House Homeland Security Committee's Subcommittee on Border Security, according to a Jan. 30 press release.
"America faces a serious threat," Higgins said in a statement at that time. "This administration has lost operational control of our southern border, the cartels quickly outmaneuvered Mayorkas, millions of illegals have crossed into our country, fentanyl is flooding across our border, violent crime has spread into every community, we lose billions every year because of a weak cybersecurity infrastructure, and for two years the Biden DHS policies have escaped accountability due to a lack of oversight from the previous Democrat-led House."
"Under the Republican majority, we will work tirelessly to ensure the safety and security of the United States," he added. "Drug traffickers and criminals who enslave vulnerable human beings celebrated when Biden was inaugurated, but the party’s over for the cartels. Biden and Mayorkas will be held accountable for their treasonous open border policies."
Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg has already been widely criticized for his apparent incompetence in dealing with several transportation-related crises over the past two years, and now his critics can add blatant hypocrisy and potentially even corruption to the mix as well.
Buttigieg has come under fire from a watchdog group and is subject to an inspector general investigation for frequently using government-owned private jets for his travel while simultaneously lecturing Americans about climate change and the dire need to reduce carbon output, the Conservative Brief reported.
Fox News reported in December that a government watchdog group known as Americans for Public Trust had called out Sec. Buttigieg for taking at least 18 flights on private jets owned by the Federal Aviation Administration instead of flying on commercial airlines.
The flights generally seemed to align with the secretary's public schedule and visits to certain states to highlight federal grants for infrastructure projects and other official business, though on at least some occasions it also appears that Buttigieg mixed personal affairs in on those otherwise official trips, and some of those private jet flights were to foreign nations.
The outlet noted that Buttigieg's predecessor, former Transporation Sec. Elaine Chao, had been sharply criticized for using the FAA jets a few times in 2017, and former Health and Human Services Sec. Tom Price was even forced to resign over his own frequent use of private jets for both business and personal travel.
"Everyday Americans face flight [cancellations] and long wait times because Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has completely mismanaged air travel," APT executive director Caitlin Sutherland told Fox News at the time of that report. "Yet, he gets to avoid all that by taking taxpayer-funded private jets to destinations with readily available commercial airline options."
"And for someone so holier-than-thou on reducing emissions, Buttigieg sure doesn’t seem to mind the pollution caused by his literal jet-setting," she added. "This is hypocrisy at its finest, and these troubling expenses to taxpayers must come under immediate scrutiny."
That Fox News report in December cited a DOT spokesperson as defending Sec. Buttigieg's use of private jets as no big deal since he more often than not flew commercial, and also suggested it was ok because there were times when it was deemed to be "more efficient and/or less expensive" for him and others to use the private jets instead of commercial planes for his travel.
It is unclear how much the private flights for Buttigieg cost taxpayers in comparison to commercial flights, and it is worth noting that while the use of private jets by government officials certainly isn't prohibited, federal law nonetheless requires that all flights be made in the most efficient and cheapest manner possible.
The issue raised by the watchdog group may now result in some trouble for Buttigieg, as Fox News reported separately on Monday that the DOT inspector general has launched an audit of the secretary's private jet usage.
APT's Sutherland told the outlet on Monday, "After Americans for Public Trust helped determine Secretary Buttigieg’s excessive use of taxpayer-funded government jets, we are pleased to see that his air travel is now under investigation."
"Everyday Americans have faced unprecedented flight cancelations and disruptions, but Buttigieg has continued to fly private, even on a Coast Guard plane and even when commercial options were readily available," she added.
For what it is worth, in response to the news of the inspector general's audit, a DOT spokesperson told Fox News, "We welcome this independent audit moving forward in order to put some of the false, outlandish, and cynical claims about the Secretary’s mode of travel to rest. The fact remains that he flies commercially the vast majority of the time."
Sec. Buttigieg himself said in a tweet on Monday, "Glad this will be reviewed independently so misleading narratives can be put to rest. Bottom line: I mostly fly on commercial flights, in economy class. And when I do use our agency’s aircraft, it’s usually a situation where doing so saves taxpayer money."
MS-13 is arguably the most brutal and ruthless street gang that, in fact, has become so widespread and influential in various countries as to now be considered a "transnational criminal organization" that, at times, engages in acts of terrorism.
The Department of Justice announced last week that it had indicted more than a dozen members of MS-13 on a variety of criminal charges, including three high-ranking leaders of the gang that were recently arrested and taken into federal custody, the Conservative Brief reported.
The indicted and arrested individuals now face federal charges related to conspiracy, racketeering, and narco-terrorism, and at least four of those who were indicted face human trafficking charges as well.
In the DOJ press release on Feb. 23, it was revealed that the three top-ranked MS-13 leaders had been arrested a day earlier by the FBI and Homeland Security when they arrived at the airport in Houston, Texas, after having been apprehended and expelled to the U.S. by Mexican authorities.
Those three individuals, who made their initial court appearances that morning, were identified as Vladimir Antonio Arevalo-Chavez, Walter Yovani Hernandez-Rivera, and Marlon Antonio Menjivar-Portillo.
Of the remaining 10 indicted MS-13 gang members, four were believed to still be at large while the other six were believed to be in the custody of the El Salvadoran government, and arrangements were being explored for them to be extradited to the U.S. to face federal charges.
All 13 were determined to be part of "MS-13’s command and control structure" who played "significant leadership roles in the organization’s operations in El Salvador, Mexico, the United States, and throughout the world."
"Today’s action makes clear that there is no hiding place, anywhere in the world, for the leaders of violent gangs that terrorize American communities," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. "The Justice Department will continue to use the full force of our law enforcement authorities to disrupt and dismantle MS-13 and other transnational criminal organizations and hold their leaders accountable."
"The FBI will continue to vigorously investigate and hold transnational organized groups like MS-13 and their leaders accountable for the continued violent and terrorist criminal activities they orchestrate," FBI Director Christopher Wray. "Today’s indictment demonstrates the FBI’s reach and commitment to seeking justice against those individuals who jeopardize American lives and liberty. We will never stop working in coordination with our international partners to protect our respective citizens from MS-13 and other gangs wherever they are."
Meanwhile, as U.S. authorities work to take down the leadership of MS-13, the government of El Salvador, where the gang is most prevalent, have been engaged in a nearly year-long all-out war against MS-13 and its rival, the 18th Street Gang, in a massive crackdown on gang membership altogether, according to the Washington Examiner.
That effort was marked in January with the opening of what is believed to be the largest prison in the world, the Terrorism Confinement Center, which is estimated to have the capacity to hold as many as 40,000 criminal gang members and terrorists.
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele declared a nationwide state of emergency in March 2022 to begin the crackdown, which unfortunately suspends some constitutional rights, but announced last week that the effort has proven successful thus far with more than 64,000 arrests of suspected gang members and a substantial drop in the nation's previously sky-high homicide rate.
It is unclear how many of those who have been arrested have actually faced trial and been convicted as of yet, or if any have been acquitted or released.
The Salvadoran government also revealed that it had just transferred its first batch of around 2,000 convicted gang members to the new megaprison, where they will live an incredibly harsh and highly regimented life for years or even decades as punishment for their crimes and gang affiliation.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is an exceptionally outspoken supporter of former President Donald Trump and is equally vociferous in her opposition to the progressive policies put forward by Democrats, which has made her a top-hated target of the far-left.
That was allegedly evidenced on Monday when Greene claimed that she was verbally "attacked" in a restaurant by a woman and her son, the Conservative Brief reported.
The conservative congresswoman from Georgia did not specify where, exactly, she was accosted and harassed, however.
In a tweet posted Monday night, Greene wrote, "I was attacked in a restaurant tonight by an insane woman and screamed at by her adult son. They had no respect for the restaurant or the staff or the other people dining or people like me who simply have different political views."
"They are self righteous, insane, and completely out of control," she continued. "I was sitting at my table, working with my staff, and never even noticed these people until they turned into demons."
"People used to respect others even if they had different views. But not anymore. Our country is gone," Greene added.
According to The Hill, a spokesperson for Rep. Greene who was present for the alleged verbal assault seemingly confirmed that it happened and provided a few additional details.
They said the woman had first "introduced herself politely" to the congresswoman before suddenly "berating" her, at which point the woman's son joined in and "started screaming expletives at the top of his lungs and came closer."
The spokesperson further said, "I had to get in between him and the table because I had no clue what he’d do." They also noted that the woman and son eventually left after being asked to do so by the restaurant's staff and that the police had not been called to respond to the incident.
Given that Greene has previously been subjected to death threats and promises of violence from some, per The Hill, it is not surprising that the congresswoman and her staffers would be quite on edge after being accosted and harassed, and threatened in person in a public place.
Unfortunately for Rep. Greene, there wasn't much sympathy to be found in the comments in reply to her tweet, as many of her partisan opponents gleefully reveled in the alleged treatment that she reportedly received.
As Rolling Stone reported, many of the commenters essentially stated that Greene got what she deserved, given her own alleged history of verbally harassing others with whom she disagrees, such as Parkland shooting survivor and gun control activist David Hogg while walking outside around Washington D.C., or a confrontation she once had on the steps of the Capitol building with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) -- though Greene wasn't exactly screaming profanities or issuing threats in either incident.
Meanwhile, Greene has been under sustained critical fire from both the left and right for her recent suggestion that the United States consider a "national divorce" to split apart red states from blue states in a bid to avoid an ideological civil war.
While there is perhaps room for some debate on the idea, it seems highly unworkable and likely to result in partisan violence no matter what, to say nothing of the myriad questions about how the nation's vast and widely dispersed assets and resources would be divvied up among the separate states.