China Is Trying to Hide Its Latest COVID Surge and No One Should Be Surprised

 

In what should be seen as an unsurprising development, the Chinese Communist Party and its public health apparatus are not being transparent about the situation unfolding in China as a new surge of COVID cases worries world leaders. Of course China isn't being forthcoming about what strains are appearing or how many cases are popping up — China has been trying to skirt blame and stymie research into COVID since it hid critical information about the virus at the beginning of the pandemic. 

Despite attempts by Democrats and other leaders who seemingly took their cues from the CCP early in the pandemic to shield the communist country from scrutiny over COVID-19, it has become clear that China knew more about the virus' origins than they've said. Still, once it became impossible to deny the possibility that COVID came from a Chinese lab in Wuhan, there was little to no accountability for China's thuggish government. As a result, China sees no reason to be transparent now because they've been able to get away with...we don't even know how much. 

Enter The Associated Press, with some pearl-clutching about how China "may not be sharing data now on any signs of evolving strains that could spark fresh outbreaks elsewhere." You don't say. 

Taiwan, which remains under the gun of China's escalating aggression, emphasized that the rest of the world has "a very limited grasp" on information in or from China, and what the world does know is "not very accurate."

What China has said is that their recent surge in cases "is being driven by versions of the omicron variant" and has set up a "surveillance system" that the CCP says will "identify any potentially worrisome new versions of the virus," according to AP. Well, maybe if China hadn't lied about the first COVID strain that spread through the country and then jumped to become a global pandemic the world would trust their new variant surveillance system. Also, why wasn't there one before?

The chief epidemiologist at China's Center for Disease Control — an organization that clearly failed otherwise there wouldn't have been a global outbreak of COVID — claimed this week that "China has always reported the virus straints it has found in a timely way," but that's also a lie. "We keep nothing secret," the CCP's public health official claimed, quite unbelievably. "All work is shared with the world." Except for when it isn't. 

Of course, the generally useless World Health Organization's Director General Tedros Ghebreyesus is still playing the know-nothing game and calling on China to share "more information on the severity of the outbreak" in order to "make a comprehensive risk assessment of the situation on the ground." Ghebreyesus, of course, should know by now that China isn't going to tell the WHO what it's seeing and dealing with. He's been played by (or conspired with) China before to give the CCP cover for its role in COVID's spread, and it seems he's feigning ignorance and giving China the benefit of the doubt again this time. 

As AP's report noted, "China has been accused of masking the virus situation in the country before," and a previous AP investigation "found that the government sat on the release of genetic information about the virus for more than a week after decoding it, frustrating WHO officials." 

As Katie reported on Wednesday, the Biden administration announced new testing requirements for individuals traveling to the U.S. from China — despite the fact that Biden smeared then-President Trump as a racist and xenophobe for placing restrictions on travel from China at the beginning of the pandemic.

El Paso Worried About Public Health and Safety Amid Migrant Homeless Problem

 

El Paso city officials are still reeling from the thousands of illegal immigrants who have crossed into the area this month alone, resulting in hundreds of illegal immigrants sleeping on the streets in the cold and rain. With many being unable to afford bus or plane tickets, the city is stuck with them for now.

Due to the cold weather and shelters at full capacity, there is concern about public health and safety for the illegal immigrants since they are currently relying on donations from the city and residents to survive. CNN reported a few have been able to secure tents but many only have blankets.

"Now, the city of El Paso has been doing cleanups every single day, two to three times a day, to try to help with the sanitation issue, but of course, outside on the street there is no running water. The city did bring port-o-potties, you can see they’re on the other side of the street. That has helped," CNN's Rosa Flores reported.

"They’ve added washing stations as well so that they can have water at least to Wash their hands, brush their teeth. But here’s the other thing, Jessica. The city says they’re also worried about RSV, COVID, the flu. And on top of all of that, there are ticks in this area, so they’re very concerned about that as well," she continued.

There has been a decrease in illegal crossings into El Paso after the Texas National Guard set up barriers along popular areas along the Rio Grande, with barbed wire and shipping containers. Still, there are many who are trying to avoid apprehension from Border Patrol.

El Paso Sector continues to see large number of migrants attempting to evade arrest throughout the sector. This is in addition to migrants surrendering themselves to agents, at the border, in downtown El Paso. This FY23, El Paso Sector has encountered 106,561 migrants. @CBP pic.twitter.com/hhOopEXxTm

— Peter Jaquez (@USBPChiefEPT) December 30, 2022

House Democrats Take Aim at Pete Buttigieg Over Southwest Airlines Fiasco

 

Southwest Airlines’ operations crashed and burned over the holidays, stranding legions of travelers as thousands of flights were canceled. The blame game is in full bloom, as union officials blamed the airline for not updating its software. It’s not just a Southwest problem; every airline had to cancel and reorganize its operations schedule due to the winter storm, which killed over two dozen people in Buffalo, New York. Yet, it’s the level of disruption that’s disconcerting. Delta, American, and United Airlines are all back to normal, having issued fewer than 40 cancellations during the storm. Delta is the king here: they had to cancel only 15 flights. Southwest was a 2,500 flight cancellation disaster. They won’t be fully operational until Friday, but compounding this crisis, there are now thousands of bags lost.

Isn’t the transportation secretary supposed to get a handle on this fiasco? It might not have been Pete Buttigieg’s fault, but this problem landed on his desk, and now he must do something—anything. The former mayor of South Bend couldn’t manage to fix potholes, yet we expect him to ensure airline travel somehow can get back on track. Now, House Democrats are putting Mayor Pete in the crosshairs, as they were already not pleased with the Indiana Democrat’s lackadaisical approach towards combating the alleged deceptive business practices the airline industry inflicts on its customer base (via The Hill):

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), a leading left-wing lawmaker on Capitol Hill, took to Twitter on Thursday to question the Transportation Department’s handling of the debacle that left travelers deserted and frenzied and administration officials scrambling.

“Nearly six months ago @BernieSanders & I called for Buttigieg to implement fines & penalties on airlines for cancelling flights. Why were these recommendations not followed?” the congressman tweeted. “This mess with Southwest could have been avoided. We need bold action.” 

Khanna, who co-chaired Sanders’s 2020 presidential campaign, was referencing a recommendation that the Vermont senator put out in late June asking department officials to demand airlines compensate travelers for canceled or significantly delayed flights and cover their basic expenses like food and accommodations, which Khanna endorsed. 

The California liberal, who is on the House Oversight and Reform Committee, has been publicly critical of Buttigieg’s role in the process and has asked him to use more power to go after what he described in an interview with The Prospect as “unfair and deceptive practices” by the airline industry. 

The Southwest episode has caused fury among passengers trying to navigate unusually long flight delays and cancellations with minimum communication from the airline. 

[…] 

Former Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner, another Sanders presidential campaign co-chair and a recent House candidate, echoed Khanna’s sentiments, while David Sirota, a Sanders ally and alt-left media figure, urged more accountability by mounting pressure on Buttigieg directly to take stronger action.

Pete went on paternity leave during the early stages of the supply chain crisis, so no pity for him catching hell over this circus. 

The New, New Antisemitism

 The old antisemitism was more a right-wing than a left-wing phenomenon - perhaps best personified by the now-withered Ku Klux Klan.

New antisemitism followed from the campus leftism of the 1960s. It arose from and was masked by a general hatred of Israel, following the Jewish state's incredible victory in the 1967 Six-Day War.

That lopsided triumph globally transformed Israel in the leftist mind from a David fighting the Arab Goliath into a veritable Western imperialist, neocolonialist overdog.

On campuses, Middle-East activism, course instruction, and faculty profiles are now virulently anti-Israel - and indistinguishable from anti-Jewishness.

When columnist Ben Shapiro spoke at Stanford University in 2019, left-wing posters were plastered around campus depicting Shapiro as an insect menace. A "BenBGon" bug spray bottle in Nazi fashion unsubtly suggested that a chemical agent is the best remedy to make sure Jews "be gone" from the premises.

The avowed socialist Representative Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., retweeted the old propaganda boast, "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free."

Tlaib knew well "to the sea" could mean only the extinction of Israel itself and its 9 million Jews. She deleted her tweet, but only after an outcry of protest.

Anti-Zionists and leftist Palestinian activists Linda Sarsour and Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. - "it's all about the Benjamins" - often made no effort to hide their antisemitism.

Yet now a dangerous new, new antisemitism is trending, predominantly among African-Americans - especially prominent politicians, celebrities, and billionaires.

The old trope that blacks inordinately were prejudiced against Jews due to past inner-city stereotypes of exploiting Jewish landlords has been recalibrated. It is now repackaged by black elites claiming that their careers are overly profitable to and orchestrated by "the Jews."


It has been difficult to find any major black leader who has not trafficked in antisemitism, whether Jesse Jackson ("Hymietown"), Al Sharpton ("tell them to pin their yarmulkes back"), Louis Farrakhan ("gutter religion") or former President Barack Obama's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright ("Them Jews").

Yet what is different about the new, new antisemitism is the open defiance, often even or especially when exposed.

Kayne West was met with pushback after warning, "I'm going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE." Yet he trumped that by soon praising Adolf Hitler.

The Black Hebrew movement absurdly claims blacks are the real Biblical Jews, and Jews the imposters. Black Lives Matter clumsily disguised its antisemitism when claiming Israelis were committing mass genocide in the Middle East.

When novelist Alice Walker was chastised for praising virulent antisemite David Icke (he claimed that Jews formed a cabal of "lizard people"), she too was unremorseful. Walker retorted that Icke was "brave" for publishing his nutty rants.

Rappers from Public Enemy and Ice Cube to Jay-Z and Kanye West all spouted anti-Jewish venom. And billionaires, from the late Michael Jackson to LeBron James, dabbled in antisemitic talk, the first in lines from lyrics, the second in retweets.

In the hate-crime statistics, blacks as perpetrators are overrepresented, and, as victims, Jews and Asians are overrepresented. "Knock out the Jew" occasionally resurfaces as a common sport among New York city black youth.

In our "woke" age, race is seen as an indemnity policy for any self-described victim. Thus even elite blacks, as the still oppressed, cannot be seen as oppressors against "white" Jews.

Wokeism's competitive victimization often embraces Holocaust denial. That way the systematic slaughter of 6 million Jews in an industrial fashion does not overshadow the need for a reparatory legacy to atone for slavery and Jim Crow.

When Whoopi Goldberg claimed the Holocaust was not about race and was, for a while, suspended from her morning chat show, she only temporarily apologized. Goldberg this week returned to claiming that the Holocaust was only a crime by white people against white people.

In her ignorance, she was oblivious that Hitler and the Nazis did not believe Jews to be fully human at all.

Among black elites in professional sports and entertainment, the belief that Jews inordinately are represented as agents, executives, or commissioners is considered proof of exploitation - and often ridiculously reduced to master-slave psychodramas.

Marquee professional athletes like Kyrie Irving, DeShawn Jackson, and the retired Stephen Jackson only reluctantly backed off their blatant anti-Jewish messaging.

If the athletes of the NFL and NBA are approximately 60 percent or more African American, then they are merely diverse. But if Jews in the entertainment and sport hierarchies appear more frequently than their 2.4% demographic, then as a "cabal" they supposedly pose a threat to black livelihoods.

Black antisemitism is spreading in strange, dangerous ways.

Why? Woke orthodoxy offers cover by insisting that supposed victims can never be victimizers. A leftist-dominated media hides or contextualizes the hatred promulgated by its constituents.

Jewish-American groups remain predominantly liberal. And too often, they conveniently overlook black antisemitism, given the demands of left-wing intersectional solidarity.

So, expect the new, new antisemitism to grow more common - and more toxic.

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New Twitter Files Reveal How Government Censored Debate on COVID-19

 

The latest installment of the Twitter Files reveals how the federal government worked to censor and quash debate about the COVID-19 pandemic, including information about the disease's origins and the efficacy of vaccines.  

On Monday, the details were revealed. 

2. So far the Twitter Files have focused on evidence of Twitter’s secret blacklists; how the company functioned as a kind of subsidiary of the FBI; and how execs rewrote the platform’s rules to accommodate their own political desires.

— David Zweig (@davidzweig) December 26, 2022

4. The United States government pressured Twitter and other social media platforms to elevate certain content and suppress other content about Covid-19.

— David Zweig (@davidzweig) December 26, 2022

6. At the onset of the pandemic, according to meeting notes, the Trump admin was especially concerned about panic buying. They came looking for “help from the tech companies to combat misinformation” about “runs on grocery stores.” But . . . there were runs on grocery stores. pic.twitter.com/duzk2I1Y7T

— David Zweig (@davidzweig) December 26, 2022

8. When the Biden admin took over, one of their first meeting requests with Twitter executives was on Covid. The focus was on “anti-vaxxer accounts.” Especially Alex Berenson: pic.twitter.com/yBNeF2YbD3

— David Zweig (@davidzweig) December 26, 2022

10. Berenson sued (and then settled with) Twitter. In the legal process Twitter was compelled to release certain internal communications, which showed direct White House pressure on the company to take action on Berenson.

https://t.co/CHt0s7ZqfQ pic.twitter.com/dFgRmyRB3z

— David Zweig (@davidzweig) December 26, 2022

12. Culbertson wrote that the Biden team was “very angry” that Twitter had not been more aggressive in deplatforming multiple accounts. They wanted Twitter to do more. pic.twitter.com/lZTQV3yKeZ

— David Zweig (@davidzweig) December 26, 2022

14. But Twitter did suppress views—many from doctors and scientific experts—that conflicted with the official positions of the White House. As a result, legitimate findings and questions that would have expanded the public debate went missing.

— David Zweig (@davidzweig) December 26, 2022

The list goes on, with more coming next week.

Much more to The Twitter Files: Covid Editon than this introductory thread.

Follow-up piece to come next week, featuring leading doctors & researchers from Harvard, Stanford & other institutions. https://t.co/TeEeCvMZa2

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 26, 2022

But Twitter wasn't the only social media platform to censor information related to the pandemic. More specifically, questions about Dr. Anthony Fauci's role in the frankensteining of viruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which the NIH heavily funded under his watch. 

In spring 2020 Fauci worked with Facebook to eliminate any mention of the lab leak theory on the platform. 

A newly surfaced email from CEO Mark Zuckerberg, which was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request from Buzzfeed, may explain why Facebook was censoring the information. 

"Tony: I wanted to send a note of thanks for your leadership and everything you're doing to make our country's response to this outbreak as effective as possible. I also wanted to share a few ideas of ways we could help you get your message out but I understand you're incredibly busy, so don't feel a need to reply unless these seem interesting," Zuckerberg wrote in an email to Fauci on March 15, 2020, adding that he wanted to help get "authoritative" information out to the masses. 

Fauci responded to Zuckerberg directly and worked with him on a number of messaging projects for the platform. 

When Fauci was asked about the lab leak theory in April 2020, he downplayed the idea. Facebook then started removing posts and conversations about the lab leak theory from their platform.

After a year of suppression and proof the lab leak theory was true, Facebook issued a mea culpa. 

"Facebook will no longer take down posts claiming that Covid-19 was man-made or manufactured, a company spokesperson told POLITICO on Wednesday, a move that acknowledges the renewed debate about the virus’ origins." 

"Facebook’s policy tweak arrives as support surges in Washington for a fuller investigation into the origins of Covid-19 after the Wall Street Journal reported that three scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology were hospitalized in late 2019 with symptoms consistent with the virus. The findings have reinvigorated the debate about the so-called Wuhan lab-leak theory, once dismissed as a fringe conspiracy theory."

On Christmas, Christians Remain Persecuted Around the World

 

As Christians in the United States and all around the world celebrate Christmas, those who follow the teachings of Jesus remain some of the most persecuted people on earth. 

According to data compiled by Open Doors, an international network dedicated to helping persecuted Christians, thousands of believers were killed in 2022 for their faith. 

Over 360 million Christians living in places where they experience high levels of persecution and discrimination

5,898 Christians killed for their faith

5,110 churches and other Christian buildings attacked

4,765 believers detained without trial, arrested, sentenced or imprisoned

Authoritarian, communist governments are the perpetrators, in addition to Islamic terrorist organizations.

"Christian persecution takes place under authoritarian governments. In places like North Korea or Eritrea, authoritarian governments seek to control all religious thought and expression as part of a comprehensive plan to tightly oversee all aspects of political and everyday life. These governments regard some religious groups as enemies of the state because they hold religious beliefs that may challenge loyalty to the rulers," Open Doors reports. "In places like the Middle East and Nigeria, Islamic extremist groups terrorize communities and churches, killing those they consider to be “infidels” (often in coordinated bombings), raping and kidnapping women and burning down homes and churches. Their victims can be fellow adherents of a religion—for instance, Boko Haram attacks on Muslims in Nigeria—but they always target Christians out of hatred for other faiths."

Earlier this month the U.S. Department of State announced additional funding for programs encouraging religious tolerance around the world but more specifically, in Nigeria.

Yikes! Life Is Getting Shorter in America

 

It's one thing when government raises your taxes, suffocates your business with regulations or censors your tweets. It's far worse when government is to blame for actually shortening your life.

U.S. life expectancy dropped to 76.4 years, the lowest in 25 years, according to new federal data. Americans should be gasping. What could be more important than having the chance to live a long life?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention repeatedly has blown its responses to health killers like fentanyl, COVID and lung cancer. All the while, life expectancy gets shorter and shorter.

In 1980, Americans had one of the best life expectancies in the world. Since then, the U.S. has lost ground. People live several years longer in France, Switzerland, Italy and other highly developed countries, reaching ages 83 or 84 on average. Residents of the Czech Republic, Chile and Slovenia can expect longer lives than Americans. Even before COVID, the U.S. ranked 29th in life expectancy, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The virus merely widened an already alarming gap between the U.S. and other nations.

Now, life expectancy in these other nations is rebounding from COVID, while American lives continue to be cut short due to other causes.

Start with the failure of our government, especially the CDC, to tackle the leading cause of death among Americans ages 18 to 49: overdosing. Two-thirds of these deaths are from fentanyl.

Nearly 107,000 Americans died of overdoses in 2021, about 50% more than just two years earlier.

Where's the campaign to combat fentanyl deaths? Over the last half-century, U.S. health agencies waged several stunningly successful media campaigns to dissuade Americans from smoking cigarettes. The CDC has done nothing like that to fight this new killer.

Blame the agency's mission confusion. In September 2021, as overdoses soared and COVID raged, the CDC launched a campaign for "inclusive communication." The agency instructed health care workers to avoid stigmatizing words like "illegal immigrant" and substitute "parent" for gender-tainted terms like "mother" and "father." As if political correctness is more important than preventing deaths.

The CDC's failed response to COVID further depressed American life expectancy. Agency head Rochelle Walensky said, "To be frank, we are responsible for some pretty dramatic, pretty public mistakes, from testing to data to communications." The U.S. has had a higher per capita death rate from COVID than other developed countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Spain and Canada.

As COVID fades. the CDC's inaction on another front -- lung cancer screening -- is limiting progress on life expectancy for cancer patients, where the U.S. is otherwise a leader.

Lung cancer is the No. 1 cancer killer, taking about 130,000 lives a year. That's more than breast, prostate and colon cancer deaths combined. Because lung cancer is rarely diagnosed before it spreads, the chances of survival are an abysmal 18%.

But when lung cancer is diagnosed early with a CT chest scan, a patient has an 80% chance of living another 20 years, reports Claudia Henschke, a radiology expert at Mount Sinai Icahn School of Medicine in New York City. That sure beats 18%.

The scan takes 15 minutes lying flat on a table that glides in and out of the scanning machine. There's no squeezing like with a mammogram and no yucky preparation like with a colonoscopy.

The technology is widely available, recommended by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and covered by insurance, but few doctors know to order it, and few patients know to ask. Blame the CDC for this knowledge gap. Only 15% of Americans who need lung screening are getting it.

On Dec. 20, the White House announced a pilot project to "screen and treat" cancer. Oh, sorry, that's not for the U.S. It's for women in Botswana. Laughable if it weren't so tragic.

Ten years ago, Americans were told the biggest health challenge was the uninsured. Congress passed Obamacare. Now only 9% of Americans are uninsured, but the whole nation faces the prospect of shorter life expectancy.

For those lost years, you can thank federal health officials, especially the dysfunctional CDC. Call it the Centers for Decline and Confusion.

Surging Retail Crime Brings More Bad News for Consumers' Wallets

 It's not just violent crime that's hitting communities across America in 2022, there's also less lethal — but still impactful — retail crime that's surging as prices remain elevated and punishments for criminals are rolled back. Walking through stores, Americans are now finding things such as Ben & Jerry's ice cream locked up in their freezer cases. Items like laundry detergent now have anti-theft devices normally reserved for big ticket purchases like iPads. Even buying deodorant now requires an employee to unlock a case like it's a diamond ring in a jewelry store.

If that reality seems bleak, it's because it is. Not only has surging retail crime forced drug stores, major retailers, and grocers to engage in dystopian looking security measures, it's hitting their bottom lines. Big time. 

While we won't know the full scope of the cost to retailers in 2022, we know that 2021 saw retailers' total losses from "shrink" — inventory loss from theft — surge to more than $94 billion. That amount is nearly 1.5 percent of retailers' revenue for the same year. 

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon explained that 2022 didn't bring any reduction in retail crimes such as shoplifting, organized or otherwise. "Theft is an issue. It’s higher than what it has historically been," McMillon said on CNBC amid the recent spike in theft that's impacting Walmart's 4,720 stores in the United States. 

He added that, without action to address the shoplifting surge, "prices will be higher, and/or stores will close."

Target is also facing tough decisions as a result of thefts, reporting earlier in 2022 that they were seeing 50 percent more shoplifting incidents at a cost of some $400 million. 

The result of increased retail crime — whether the organized smash-and-grabs by groups of people or one-off thefts by individuals — means that, as Walmart's CEO noted, prices will increase to make up for losses and locations that continually get hit will likely close. Already, retailers around San Francisco, New York, and else where have shuttered locations where theft was frequent, and others changed their hours to avoid being open during prime crime time. 

Due to lax prosecutorial guidelines in those areas and other cities where Democrats have taken control of district attorney offices while continuing to wage their war on police officers, retail crime — like other offenses — will continue without apprehension or punishment. 

For criminals, the old saying "if you can't do the time, don't do the crime" has been turned on its head to be "do the crime because you won't do time." But for law abiding Americans already struggling to make ends meet due to inflation or having difficulty finding the items they need, this all means things won't get any better. Prices will increase to make up for losses, and store closures will mean more pressure to keep common goods in stock at fewer locations for more consumers.

Supreme Court Rules on Title 42

 

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that Title 42 will stay for a little while longer following a lengthy legal battle after the Biden administration attempted to remove the public health order earlier this year and last week.

Breaking: Title 42 remains in effect for now- ruled by Supreme Court 5-4. This means US can continue to expel illegal migrants based on public health per @ShannonBream— Matt Finn (@MattFinnFNC) December 27, 2022

BREAKING: The Supreme Court keeps the Trump-era Title 42 border policy in effect for now. The court says it will hear argument in February over whether red states can intervene in the litigation over the policy. The vote is 5-4, with Neil Gorsuch joining the three liberals.— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) December 27, 2022

Just in: The Supreme Court has GRANTED a request from GOP states to pause a lower court ruling against the Title 42 border expulsion policy. This means Title 42 stays in place for now.

High court also agreed to take up the case to consider if the states may intervene here. pic.twitter.com/lrgFzc8YQc— Suzanne Monyak (@SuzanneMonyak) December 27, 2022

BREAKING: SCOTUS rules Title 42 must remain in place at the border while legal challenges play out. @FoxNews

However, it continues to be used less and less due to diplomacy, as there are certain nationalities that MX won’t take back & home countries won’t accept repatriation.— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) December 27, 2022

Title 42 allows Border Patrol to quickly expel illegal immigrants to prevent transmission of COVID-19 among themsleves and to agents while being processed. Republicans at the state and federal level said it was necessary to keep Title 42 in place so law enforcement can turn away people amid record-breaking records for illegal crossings. Immigration advocates said the order violates people’s rights to claim asylum and it does not secure the border since no punishments attached to the expulsions means they can cross multiple times.

Title 42 is one of the last border policies carried over from the Trump administration. Once he got into office, President Joe Biden followed through or tried to make good on his campaign promises to make the border less secured, such as halting construction on the border wall, getting rid of the Migrant Protection Protocols, and stopping all deportations during his first 100 days.

Despite Title 42 being in place during the entirety of the Biden administration, there has still been an historic increase in illegal crossings. The border town of El Paso, Texas has been hit hard in recent weeks as that area has become the latest popular spot for illegal immigrants, causing tremendous strain on city resources. Hundreds of both processed and released migrants and people who avoided apprehension from Border Patrol have been sleeping in below freezing temperatures since shelters and churches have no space.

The migrant homeless situation on the streets of El Paso has gotten worse as the encampments have grown in size since last week, all the while the status of Title 42 is still up in the air. The temps are expected to drop to the 30’s tonight —> https://t.co/zDyeRFsnRm pic.twitter.com/cZwjhE0YQq— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) December 21, 2022

China May Be Too Right-Wing for American Leftists

 

China is certainly one of the most totalitarian countries in the world, and such is what endears it to Western Leftists.  Yet, even China hasn’t gone as extreme as American liberals have, and this could be a source of irritation to our radicals.  Except they are too busy destroying America to care much what China is doing.

Still, in several ways, China is more “conservative” than the American left.  I want to examine this interesting point.

But before I do that, let me mention a couple of matters where China is the idol of the American Left and why.  This list could obviously be lengthened, but I will discuss only two points.

1.  China’s one-party, totalitarian system.  The Democrats would love to have a one-party state in America.  There are no elections in China, except within the CCP, and the common people have no say in what political viewpoint rules their country.  It’s Marxism/socialism/Xi-ism or nothing.  Having no elections is easier than stealing them.  There is also no ”separation of powers” in the Chinese system.  The Democrats idolize that, too.  They can’t get around it (yet) in America, but if they could pack the Supreme Court, and take over both houses of Congress and the Presidency, separation of powers would be meaningless.  But it still exists.  Oh, for the Chinese system, dreams the American Marxist!

2.  The COVID-19 lockdowns.  The CCP has recently eased these restrictions somewhat, which must have disappointed American liberals, but China could re-institute them (and might) at a moment’s notice.  And that’s the key here.  The lockdowns are not as important as the definition of “freedom.”  In a totalitarian state, all power resides in the government.  Thus, any “freedoms” the people have come from the government.  Freedoms given can obviously be taken away.  In the American system, of course, our freedoms come from God, and we have a constitution to protect us (theoretically) from government tyranny.  The American Left hates that system passionately, and again, has wet dreams about instituting the Chinese system here.  Only you and I are preventing them from doing that.

Ending the lockdowns will actually help the Chinese people, though their leadership doesn’t care about that.  There has been an explosion of new Covid cases since the lockdown policy was relaxed, and this will enable people to develop a natural immunity to the virus, the strongest weapon against it, and something that should have happened long ago.  The CCP’s future policy, however, will depend totally on how the government perceives its need to control the people, not on what is good for their health.

Let me now shift to some areas where the Chinese aren’t quite so orthodox to American Leftists.

1.  There is no illegal immigration into China.  I knew an American English teacher who long overstayed his visa in China.  They finally caught him and threw his butt in jail for a month.  Then they kicked him out of the country with a “don’t ever come back.”  What a novel concept.

China protects its borders.  They don’t want the riffraff of the world invading, diluting their culture, dividing the country into 1,000 splintered sects, and destroying the unity of the people and nation.  China has limited “minority” problems and doesn’t want more.  Not what American liberals think is best, obviously.

2.  China cares nothing about “globalist” or “green” ideology.  Oh, the CCP pays lip service to “globalism” and the “green” agenda, all while buying more oil and building more coal plants.  Look at what they do, not at what they say.  The only “globalism” China believes in is the entire globe serving them, and the only “green” they worship is the color of money (American capital investment) and their country’s military uniforms.  The Chinese military is being trained to fight wars (another novel concept), unlike the utterly brainless American Leftist ideal of turning the armed forces into an experiment in social engineering and “equity.”  We better not fight a war with China any time soon.

3.  China thinks “woke” is a joke.  A few months before I left China, I posted, on a Chinese social media platform, a picture which had a British Labour MP saying, “Some women are born with penises.”  I received several hoots and hollers from Chinese people who thought that was hilarious.  “Beyond stupidity,” was one totally accurate response.  You see, the one thing the Chinese do NOT want is an infiltration of Western moral decadence.  They see what it is doing to America, and thus Xi Jinping is very carefully managing the influx of that kind of garbage into his country.  Divorce is going up some in China, and one will run across the occasional homosexual.  But homosexuality is still frowned upon in most of China, and homosexuals are still in the closet.  The nuclear family remains the most important institution to the Chinese people, and as long as it doesn’t threaten the government, the CCP will leave it alone.  In fact, it better.  The one thing that would almost certainly destroy Marxism in China is if the CCP tried to do there, to the family, what American liberals are doing to it in America.  There is no mutilation of children or “transgender” movement in China waving its genitals in the faces of minors.  Those people would disappear faster than “free Hong Kong” dissidents.  To the Chinese, perversion is perversion, they understand what it is, and that it destroys the family, which they know is the foundation of civilized culture and society.  They laugh at and mock American moral degeneration.  Such will annihilate us, and they have sense enough to know it.  It’s a shame we don’t.

China has a despicable, murderous, totalitarian government, with a lot of thieves, liars, and cheats.  It’s why I left the place.  But, in general, the Chinese are good people with a whole lot more common sense than what is being displayed by the American Left today.  China is winning because America is playing with itself.

DeSantis Delivers Another Blow to Teachers Unions

 

Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis is taking on the teachers unions by asking the legislature to eliminate automatic union dues reductions from educator paychecks. 

“Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida promised Monday to sign a bill into law that would increase teacher pay by a record amount — but he also wants to clamp down on teachers’ unions. The plan DeSantis outlined at a school board retreat in Orlando would have teachers send a check to their unions every month rather than automatically deduct the dues from their paychecks,” Business Insider reports. “DeSantis’ plan would create a new hurdle for organized labor in Florida, whose “Right to Work” status is already enshrined in the state constitution. Under current law, Florida workers can opt out of joining a union, which in turn restricts unions from collecting dues from employees who benefit from negotiated worker protections.”

1 2 3 4 5 6

NEW: Gov. Ron DeSantis says he wants a “Paycheck Protection” bill passed.   He says it prevents government from deducting union dues from teacher paychecks. Instead, teachers would need to write checks to the unions.   “That maximizes freedom to choose" pic.twitter.com/7ouyogmATm — Lydia Nusbaum (@LydiaNusbaum) December 19, 2022

In addition, DeSantis is touting Florida as a state respectful of parental rights in education. 

1 2	In Florida, we are committed to protecting parents’ right to be involved in their child’s education, and we are proud to be leading the charge nationwide. pic.twitter.com/fExLdQqOHL — Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) December 12, 2022

Rand Paul Exposes the Ridiculous Things Government Wasted Your Money on This Year

 

Republican Senator Rand Paul is out with his annual Festivus report, detailing how much taxpayer money the federal government wasted throughout the year. 

“This year, I am highlighting a whopping $482,276,543,907 of waste, including a steroid-induced hamster fight club, a study to see if kids love their pets, and a study of the romantic patterns of parrots. No matter how much money’s already been wasted, politicians keep demanding even more,” Paul states in the report. “As always, the path to fiscal responsibility is often a lonely journey, but as I’ve done in years past, I will continue my fight against government waste this holiday season. So before we get to the Feats of Strength, it’s time for my Airing of (spending) Grievances!”

The list of waste includes using COVID relief funds to construct an 11,000 square foot spa, using COVID relief funds to purchase luxury cars, unused hotel rooms for illegal immigrants, studying the romance between parrots, studying the social life and collective intelligence of ants, using mice to study racial aggression and much more. 

“As if spending your money to research how humans feel and express love may sound ridiculous enough, the government is now funding research to see how parrots express love,” the report found. “In fact, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) granted Cornell University $689,222 to study social communication in parrots, studying patterns such as social outcomes, if they kiss, and how males make sexual advances.”

This marks the eighth edition of the #Festivus Report as I continue working to alert the American people to how their federal government uses their hard-earned money. Read it here: https://t.co/JeLZjzzDxG pic.twitter.com/eGQIaiGG6i— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) December 23, 2022

Good morning everyone and welcome to everyone’s favorite holiday – #Festivus! pic.twitter.com/g8xM8QER9y— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 23, 2022

The report comes less than 24-hours after the Senate, with help from Republicans, passed a monstrous $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill packed with pork. It also passed in the House. 

I attempted to hold both parties accountable by forcing votes on these rules but per usual, a majority in the Senate – including Republicans – chose to run up the debt, ignore our own budget rules, and abuse your tax dollars. The American people don’t want this.— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 22, 2022

I wonder how long it would take the clerk to read this… pic.twitter.com/iaphBzTEsS— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 20, 2022

Republican Senator Rand Paul is out with his annual Festivus report, detailing how much taxpayer money the federal government wasted throughout the year. 

“This year, I am highlighting a whopping $482,276,543,907 of waste, including a steroid-induced hamster fight club, a study to see if kids love their pets, and a study of the romantic patterns of parrots. No matter how much money’s already been wasted, politicians keep demanding even more,” Paul states in the report. “As always, the path to fiscal responsibility is often a lonely journey, but as I’ve done in years past, I will continue my fight against government waste this holiday season. So before we get to the Feats of Strength, it’s time for my Airing of (spending) Grievances!”
The list of waste includes using COVID relief funds to construct an 11,000 square foot spa, using COVID relief funds to purchase luxury cars, unused hotel rooms for illegal immigrants, studying the romance between parrots, studying the social life and collective intelligence of ants, using mice to study racial aggression and much more. 
“As if spending your money to research how humans feel and express love may sound ridiculous enough, the government is now funding research to see how parrots express love,” the report found. “In fact, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) granted Cornell University $689,222 to study social communication in parrots, studying patterns such as social outcomes, if they kiss, and how males make sexual advances.”
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Michelle O’s Moment of Unscripted Honesty – Oops! Mark Lewis

This marks the eighth edition of the #Festivus Report as I continue working to alert the American people to how their federal government uses their hard-earned money. Read it here: https://t.co/JeLZjzzDxG pic.twitter.com/eGQIaiGG6i
— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) December 23, 2022
Good morning everyone and welcome to everyone’s favorite holiday – #Festivus! pic.twitter.com/g8xM8QER9y
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 23, 2022
The report comes less than 24-hours after the Senate, with help from Republicans, passed a monstrous $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill packed with pork. It also passed in the House. 
I attempted to hold both parties accountable by forcing votes on these rules but per usual, a majority in the Senate – including Republicans – chose to run up the debt, ignore our own budget rules, and abuse your tax dollars. The American people don’t want this.
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 22, 2022
I wonder how long it would take the clerk to read this… pic.twitter.com/iaphBzTEsS
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 20, 2022

Utah’s Most Famous RINO May Fall Off the Fence

 

It should come as no surprise to Utahns or anyone who identifies as conservative that Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) did not vote along party lines when it came to the $1.7 trillion spending bill/omnibus package. Well, he did vote along party lines, just not the party with which he is affiliated. Romney took to Twitter to explain his rationale:

My thoughts on the government funding bill ↓ pic.twitter.com/yhDE2Eku0i

— Senator Mitt Romney (@SenatorRomney) December 22, 2022

If you couldn’t stand a political version of a time-share pitch, let me summarize it for you:

• It would cost less to pass it this year than next.
• Republicans aren’t organized enough to get a speaker together, let alone budgets.
• They need Senate Democrats to pass a budget, anyway.
• Sure, $1.7 trillion sounds like a lot of money, but it only makes up 1/3 of government spending. The other 2/3, which include social security entitlements, Medicare, and Medicaid, are the real culprits when it comes to debt.
• The Electoral Count Act will stop attempts to overturn elections.
• The bill has some good things in it.
• Utah gets some money out of it.

The Law of Averages would indicate that there are indeed some good things in many bills that make them easier to pass. But mixed in with those “good things” is a plethora of awful things. That, of course, is the price Americans pay to pass a 4,000+ page bill full of items that Congress should have been working on all year long.

And did you catch the jab at the GOP? Republicans can’t pick a speaker, so they can’t create a budget. No, sir, not all members of the GOP want to rush something through for political favors and to score points on the Sunday morning talk shows. A working republic is not supposed to be easy. For crying out loud, Mitt, why don’t you just caucus with the Democrats already?

On top of all this, Romney has said that, should he decide to run again, he would be re-elected, although he has not decided if he plans to throw his hairdo into the ring. And before you start laughing, it isn’t as far-fetched as you may think.

It is true that despite what some uninformed pundits and news outlets may tell you, Romney is not popular with the Republicans in Utah. The word “Romney” is well on its way to replacing “flip” and “fetch” as the substitute Mormons use for swear words. So his chances of getting through a convention are low. He didn’t even bother to attend the last GOP state convention. But Utah’s caucus/convention system is a threatened and endangered species.

Originally, candidates had to stump for their seats. That meant meeting with elected delegates either in a group or even one-on-one to deliver a pitch and win the nod at the convention. But the caucus/convention system has long been under attack, and Utah now permits people to gather a requisite number of signatures to appear on the ballot. While Mike Lee won the convention, one of his left-leaning challengers had enough signatures to run against him in the primary. And I personally watched her supporters do everything possible to submarine the convention process to get her the nomination.

And keep in mind that, while Mike Lee did win his re-election bid, Evan McMullin gave him a run for his money, aided and abetted by Democrat money and a sympathetic press. Utah is not the conservative bastion that it used to be, especially when it comes to the media. Consider this headline from the Deseret News: “Utahns call on Sen. Romney to protect Dreamers.” If you click on the link, you see that the number of protesters at the event numbered about 19. But from the headline, one would think that Utahns by the thousands are in support of DACA. And most people don’t bother to read much below the headline.

It makes perfect sense that Romney leans to the left and votes with the donkeys. He is betting on Democrats retaining power for the foreseeable future. He is also betting that Utah continues to drift blue and that he may be able to ride the fence to victory. And he just might.

Merry Christmas

Red Wing’s “Stone Age”

Thanks to the limestone bluffs and hills that surrounded Red Wing, the town became a Minnesota lime-making and stone quarrying center from 1870 to 1910. Those forty years are sometimes known as the city’s “Stone Age.” Swedish immigrant Gustavus Adolphus Carlson began making lime from local Red Wing limestone in 1871. Within the decade, Carlson’s kilns were producing ninety barrels each day. Red Wing lime producers used kilns to heat limestone to more than 1,640 degrees Fahrenheit. The process drove carbon dioxide from the rock, leaving powdery lime. When mixed with sand and water, lime made a sticky mortar used in construction projects to join brick and stone. It could also be used as plaster. By the mid-1870s, G.A. Carlson owned Pioneer Lime and Stone, along with stone quarries on Red Wing’s two most famous river bluffs, Barn and Sorin’s. He built lime-burning kilns on both. Carlson employed sixty-five workers, nearly all immigrant Swedes like himself. His crews needed to burn one ton of limestone to produce a half-ton of lime. A barrel of lime sold for 75 cents in 1874. Thus, Pioneer Lime and Stone could net $300 in sales on 400 barrels, a typical workday output. Carlson’s firm also sold stone. Carlson’s success led other Red Wing entrepreneurs to start their own firms. Robert Berglund, a former Carlson employee, Gust Lillyblad, and Andrew Danielson were among the most prominent. Berglund and Danielson opened separate quarry and kiln operations on the bluffs leading south out of Red Wing. Berglund’s workers soon challenged Carlson’s supremacy. The masts of stone-lifting derricks made his south Red Wing quarries appear like a little shipyard or harbor. Railroads made use of the limestone rubble left over from blasting and burning. Tracks laid in areas exposed to erosion needed protection from washouts and cheap, yet heavy and durable limestone worked well. Limestone was also often used as a foundation for the new buildings springing up around Red Wing and elsewhere in the region, during the 1870s. Modern technology improved the local lime and stone industries. Carlson’s Barn Bluff quarry featured a ninety-foot perpendicular shaft to a 150-foot tunnel holding a railroad track. This shortcut helped produce stone more cheaply. On Sorin’s Bluff, Carlson originated a cable rail system that allowed the weight of a loaded dump car lowered down the bluff to pull an emptied car back up. Improved explosives also made quarrying easier and more efficient. Quarrymen drilled down through the rock, filled the hole with dynamite and attach a fuse. They added dry sand on top, allowing its weight to pack the charge. If the ensuing blast didn’t free the stone, workers simply repeated the process. By 1900, Red Wing was home to sixteen quarries. Carlson operated six kilns and three quarries in the 1890s. Berglund also flourished. He built his downtown headquarters in 1878-9 and clad it in handsome limestone. Across the street Berglund later built a Red Wing limestone giant, the 1886 Gladstone Building, now on the National Register of Historic Places. Danielson’s quarries provided stone for the piers of Red Wing’s first bridge across the Mississippi River. Red Wing citizens worried when the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul railroad secured a contract in 1906 to remove 200,000 cubic feet of Barn Bluff. They feared such action would eventually destroy the promontory. In January 1907 a dynamite blast injured six workers; three weeks later falling rock killed a laborer. Frequent and startling explosions from the blasting process could be felt all over the city and damaged houses near the bluffs. People in Ellsworth, Wisconsin, ten miles to the north, reported feeling tremors from the concussions. Civic leaders began a movement to buy the quarry-scarred Barn Bluff and preserve the Red Wing landmark as a park. Necessary funds were raised, and on December 2, 1910, the city of Red Wing became the owner of Barn Bluff. The loss of Barn Bluff’s accessible stone and a reduced use of limestone in construction, coupled with a steep decline in the use of lime, dramatically changed the prospects for Red Wing quarry operators. The industry declined in the first decades of the twentieth century, and the last active quarry had closed by 1920. Andreas, A.T. An Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Minnesota. Chicago: A.T. Andreas, 1874. Becker, Carrie Conklin. Red Wing, Minnesota: A Downtown with a Sense of Time and Purpose. Red Wing, MN: City of Red Wing, 1983. Bluemle, John P. “Glacial Lake Agassiz.” North Dakota Geological Survey. North Dakota State Government, May 9, 2007. https://www.dmr.nd.gov/ndgs/ndnotes/agassiz/ Blondell, Sam. “Foundation of the Lime Industry in Red Wing.” Unpublished, undated manuscript in Goodhue County Historical Society collections. Bowles, Oliver. The Structural and Ornamental Stones of Minnesota. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1918. Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn. History of Goodhue County, Minnesota. Chicago: H.C. Cooper, Jr. & Co., 1909. Eide, Berndt M. History of the Lime and Stone Industry in Red Wing, Minnesota, 1850–1916. Unpublished, undated manuscript in Goodhue County Historical Society collections. Hill, Alberta Kirchner. “Out with the Fleet on the Upper Mississippi, 1898–1917.” Minnesota History 37, no. 7 (September 1961): 283–297. http://collections.mnhs.org/mnhistorymagazine/articles/37/v37i07p283-297.pdf Johnson, Frederick L. Goodhue County, Minnesota: A Narrative History. Red Wing, MN: Goodhue County Historical Society, 2000. ———. Red Wing: A Portable History. Red Wing, MN: City of Red Wing Heritage Preservation Commission, 2007. Kunau, G.J. G.A. Carlson Lime Kiln. National Register of Historic Places Inventory–Nomination Form, 1975, copy in Goodhue County Historical Society collection. Posey, Chessley J. “Geographical Influences in the Exploration and Early Development of Minnesota.” Journal of Geography 14 (February 1916): 214–217. ———. “The Influence of Geographic Factors in the Development of Minnesota.” Minnesota History 2 (August 1918): 443–453. Rasmussen, C[hristian] A. History of Goodhue County. Red Wing: Privately published, 1935. Sansome, C.J. “Goodhue County’s Geologic Story.” Goodhue County Historical News 10 (February 1976): 1–2. Schmidt, Edward W. “Geological Ages,” in Franklyn Curtiss-Wedge, History of Goodhue County, Minnesota, 11-17. Chicago: H.C. Cooper, Jr. & Co., 1909. Stauffer, Clinton R. and George A. Thiel. . Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Geological Survey Bulletin No. 23, 1933. Upham, Warren. “History of Mining and Quarrying in Minnesota.” Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society 8 (1898). http://archive.org/stream/historyofminingq00upharich#page/n5/mode/2up Werner, W.C. “Survey and Test on Limestone Quarries in Minnesota.” St. Paul: Minnesota Highway Department Bulletin No. 2, 1921.

Archeological find in Walker may be one of oldest human sites

The ancient stone tools were found on a rugged, jackpine-forested hilltop not far from the shore of Leech Lake. Archeologists from the Leech Lake Heritage Sites Program were there in the fall of 2005 doing a routine survey on a road construction site. Things got strange when the crew came across a small, cellar-like hole in the ground. At first they thought the hole might be a remnant of the fur trade. They called in Matt Mattson, a local expert in fur trade archeology, to check it out. Knife This crude knife was among about 50 stone tools unearthed in Walker. Archeologists say the tools appear to have been made at the end of the ice age, when glaciers may have been visible from the hilltop site in Walker. Photo courtesy of Leech Lake Heritage Sites Program When Mattson unearthed a cap gun and an Orange Crush bottle cap, he and others quickly concluded that kids had dug the hole decades ago, probably in the late 50s or early 60s, to make an underground fort. But when they dug a little deeper, Mattson and the Heritage Sites crew found something else - a flake of stone that appeared to have been intentionally chipped away from a larger piece of rock. "And that was one of those uh-oh moments where, this doesn't fit," said Mattson. "It's the wrong place. It's the wrong depth. And right there we realized something wasn't fitting a normal pattern, as it were." The Leech Lake Heritage Sites Program continued digging over the next few months on the one-acre site. They uncovered some 50 artifacts, mostly crude stone tools used for chopping, cutting or scraping. They're being studied at a lab in Cass Lake. MPR News is Reader Funded Before you keep reading, take a moment to donate to MPR News. Your financial support ensures that factual and trusted news and context remain accessible to all. Donate Today What makes these tools so astounding is their apparent age. Archeologists believe they could have been used between 13,000 and 15,000 years ago, toward the end of the last Ice Age. That was a time when woolly mammoths, mastodons and giant beavers roamed the continent and much of Minnesota was covered by glaciers. Men at work A crew from the Leech Lake Heritage Sites Program excavates the site in Walker. Archeologists speculate that stone tools recovered there could have been used by prehistoric hunters as early as 15,000 years ago. Photo courtesy Leech Lake Heritage Sites Program The artifacts require much more analysis, according to Thor Olmanson, director of the Leech Lake Heritage Sites Program, a for-profit company owned by the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. Olmanson, who is the principal investigator at the Walker site, says that analysis is needed before the apparent age of the site will be broadly accepted by the scientific community. "The initial response is doubt and skepticism, because it's commonly understood that there just isn't anything intact in glacial deposits," said Olmanson. "We're still in the process of analysis of the artifacts and the deposits themselves. So far, the only real indication of the age of the site is the soil deposits themselves, which we have on good authority are quite ancient." If those early age estimates hold true, it puts researchers into uncharted territory. It means humans inhabited Minnesota more than 5,000 years earlier than scientists once thought. It's possible those early humans may have been able to see huge glaciers from that hilltop in Walker, according to David Mather, an archeologist with the Minnesota Historical Society. "We'd always imagined people first colonizing what became the state of Minnesota after the glaciers had melted," said Mather. "But this gives us a pretty vivid picture, assuming this all holds up, of people living maybe on the margins of glaciers of what's now northern Minnesota." Brad Walthof Walker Mayor Brad Walhof says it's not clear how the community's archeological site will affect a major road and development project. Walhof says it's possible the city will end the road at the archeological site, pictured behind him, rather than running the road through the site. MPR Photo/Tom Robertson Mather says he's worried about the future of the Walker site. Right now, it's in the direct path of a road the city wants to build this summer. However, the city hasn't taken ownership of the land yet. That makes the legalities regarding preservation unclear. Mather says, ultimately, scientists will want to study the site for years to come. "Regardless of the specific age, which does seem to be very, very ancient, this is the only one we know of, and we didn't think it was even possible for it to exist here," Mather said. "So if we destroy the only one, then there's no chance, really, for the research or the peer review." The Walker City Council hasn't met yet to discuss its options. Mayor Brad Walhof says officials learned of the archeological discovery just this month. "I was shocked that something like this would be found in our community," said Walhof. "If, in fact, this is the find they say it is, we could have been a tourist attraction for 15,000 years." Walhof says if the city's $1.3 million road project can't skirt around the archeological site, the road would likely dead end. That would effectively end the city's plan for a major residential and business expansion down the hill. Walhof says the silver lining is that Walker will find new fame among history buffs. "It's been the talk of the town within the last several weeks," said Walhof. "A lot of people are already talking about how this could possibly be a big attraction that people would want to come and see. I mean, something like this comes along how often? Once every 15,000 years." The Walker City Council plans to meet Feb. 5 to decide how to proceed with it's proposed expansion project. Assuming the site is preserved, archeologists want to do more digging. But part of the area would likely be set aside for scientists of the future to explore with more sophisticated technologies.

Jeffers Petroglyphs

The Jeffers Petroglyphs site is an outcrop in southwestern Minnesota with pre-contact Native American petroglyphs. The petroglyphs are pecked into rock of the Red Rock Ridge, a 23-mile (37 km)-long Sioux quartzite outcrop that extends from Watonwan County, Minnesota to Brown County, Minnesota. The exposed surface is approximately 150 by 650 feet (50 by 200 m) and surrounded by virgin prairie. "The site lies in an area inhabited in the early historic period by the Dakota Indians, and both the style and form of some of the carvings are identical with motifs that appear on Dakota hide paintings and their quill designs and beadwork. Others are foreign to this Plains Indian tradition and seem to be much earlier in origin."[2] Several old wagon trail ruts traverse the site, one of which is believed to be the old stage coach route from New Ulm, Minnesota to Sioux Falls, South Dakota.[3] The exact age of the petroglyphs is not known, but the earliest petroglyphs are estimated to be from 9000 to 7000 years ago (7000 to 5000 BCE).[4] but some atlatl symbols at Jeffers are a close match with similar symbols at Indian Knoll in Kentucky, which have been dated to 3000 BCE during the Late Archaic Period. Another clue to the age comes from the projectile point carvings, which show a projectile point design used by hunters in the Late Archaic Period. Other carvings, such as thunderbirds, dragonflies, turtles, and shamans, indicate symbols used by later tribes such as the Otoe tribe, Sioux, and Iowa tribe. These are believed to date between 900 CE and 1750 CE. There are over 4000 American Indian images preserved in the bedrock. The bedrock was flattened and smoothed over by glaciers 14000 years ago.[5] Turtle and man art Several archaeologists have hypothesized theories about the purpose of the carvings. Some hypotheses include the practice of hunting magic, performance of sacred ceremonies, or recording historical events in the lives of warriors, shamans, and chiefs. The exact age and purpose of the carvings is only speculation, not established fact. Meanwhile, some Native Americans view the Jeffers site as sacred ground and a very spiritual place, not merely a site to be studied and speculated upon. Jerry Flute, a Dakota elder, was quoted as saying, "To the contemporary Native Americans who reside in and around the state, [Jeffers Petroglyphs] is a very spiritual place. It is a place where Grandmother Earth speaks of the past, present and future." An example of a petroglyph The Minnesota Historical Society purchased the site from W. R. Jeffers, Jr. in 1966[3] and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. It is maintained by the Minnesota Historical Society and is open to the public between May and September. The site is bracketed by two important tracts of tallgrass prairie: Rock Ridge Prairie Scientific and Natural Area to the northwest[6] and Red Rock Prairie, a preserve of The Nature Conservancy, to the east. Here federally threatened prairie bush clover is found, as well as big bluestem, Indian grass, gray-headed coneflower, Maximilian's sunflower, cordgrass and coreopsis. The upland sandpiper, regal fritillary and Poweshiek skipper can be found on these prairies.[7] The visitor center is open from May through September and features hands-on exhibits and a multimedia presentation about the site. Daily natural and cultural history programs are offered about such topics as archaeology, how Native Americans made and used the atlatl, a travois and cordage, and prairie wildlife and plants. Contents 1 Astronomy at Jeffers Petroglyphs 2 References 3 Further reading 4 External links Astronomy at Jeffers Petroglyphs The Starry Night, Prairie Night event is held annually in the park.[8] During this time the park manager allows amateur astronomers to use the park and facilities. Many amateur astronomers attend this event and several members bring their telescopes and allow, and often encourage, others to share their views of the night sky.[9] This site is valued not only because of its historic nature but also because of its dark night skies. The site is much darker than most populated areas in Minnesota and is rated green[10] by the Clear Sky Chart. References "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009. Lothson, Gordon A. (1976). The Jeffers Petroglyphs Site: A Survey and Analysis of the Carvings. Internet Archive. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society. pp. Foreword. ISBN 978-0-87351-100-1. Roefer "History". Jeffers Petroglyphs. Minnesota Historical Society. Retrieved January 15, 2011. "History: Jeffers Petroglyphs". Retrieved March 21, 2011. "Rock Ridge Prairie SNA". Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. 2007. Retrieved April 13, 2007. "Red Rock Prairie". The Nature Conservancy. 2007. Retrieved April 13, 2007. "Starry Night, Prairie Night". "Yahoo Groups – Minnesota Amateur Astronomers message thread titled "Jeffers"". "Prairie Grass Stargaze Clear Sky Chart".

The Traumatic True History and Name List of the Dakota 38

On the day after Christmas in 1862, 38 Dakota men were hanged under order of President Abraham Lincoln. The hangings and convictions of the Dakota 38 resulted from the aftermath of the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 in southwest Minnesota. In addition to the 38 men hanged the day after Christmas, there were terrible injustices committed against 265 others in the form of military convictions and inhuman injustices to more than 3,000 Dakota people who were held captive, then forced to march west out of Minnesota. How It All Started The conflict erupted when treaties restricted the lands of the Dakota people to an area that could no longer sustain them. Promised compensations were slow or non-existent and the Dakota people feared starvation heading into a brutal Minnesota winter. The Dakota also faced terrible racism, one white settler historically quoting, “Let them eat grass.” As skirmishes and interactions between whites and Native people heightened on August 17, 1862, four young Dakota hunters were credited with killing five settlers. A war council was held that evening and a decision was made to go to war. Taoyateduta, Little Crow, supported the decision as is part of the council process, but he was apprehensive as were other Dakota leaders. The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 encompassed 37 days of fighting. The aftermath of the war fatality estimates included 77 American soldiers, 29 citizen-soldiers, 358 settlers and 29 Dakota warriors. U.S. Colonel Henry H. Sibley contacted Taoyateduta in an attempt to stop the fighting but Sibley’s requests, which included taking hostages, were denied. In September of 1862, some Dakota left with their families. Other Dakota leaders surrendered to Sibley, who said he would only punish those who attacked the settlers. Sibley took more than 2,000 into custody. The Military Commission That Sentenced Hundreds to Death An immediate court of inquiry and military commission was created. The panel then sentenced 20 Dakota to prison and 303 Dakota were sentenced to death. The time for the trials took 42 days between September 28 and November 8, 1862. In the years since the convictions, historians often question whether a military commission was legitimate in cases where the main charges were murder, rape and robbery. Additionally, all of those appointed to the commission had fought in the war, which brings to question the bias of those handing out convictions. Another point to consider is that most of the Dakota did not speak English, did not know that they were being tried for crimes and most did not have counsel defending them. President Abraham Lincoln's Decision The largest mass execution in American history occurred under Abraham Lincoln’s watch. On December 26, 1862, 38 Dakota warriors were publicly hanged after being convicted of war crimes. The largest mass execution in American history occurred under Abraham Lincoln’s watch. On December 26, 1862, 38 Dakota warriors were publicly hanged after being convicted of war crimes. Since the war commission was a military proceeding, President Abraham Lincoln had the ultimate say on the punishment, and asked to review all 303 execution convictions. Initially, Lincoln considered approving execution where rape had been proven, but only two men would be executed. Lincoln decided on those convicted of participating in civilian massacres and approved 39 executions, though one was later suspended. Lincoln had made a decision based on convictions that were based on witnesses, who testified in multiple trials, many of whom were also facing charges and possible execution. One witness gave evidence in 55 cases, who was later sentenced to hang (he was not part of the Dakota 38). One of the condemned men, Hdainyanka, Rattling Runner, sent an angry letter to his father-in-law. “I have not killed, wounded or injured a white man or any white persons… and yet today I am set apart for execution.” Angelique EagleWoman, a Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota professor of law at the University of Idaho College of Law criticized the actions of Lincoln. She previously told Indian Country Today, “I think he should have followed general military practice at the time. They should have been released. He made a political decision, made based on the racial hatred… Lincoln was a lawyer, knew that this was improper.” The Execution  The 38 executions were originally scheduled for December 19, but were delayed for fear of mob retaliation. It was not until December 22 that the prisoners learned of their executions. On the 23rd, the condemned men danced and sang and were permitted visits with family to say goodbye. At the same time as convictions were being doled out, a massive wagon train of approximately 3,000 Dakota tribal members and prisoners moved out to Fort Snelling. A crowd attacked the Dakota community on their way out; one baby was pulled from its mother’s arms and beaten to death. As the prisoners made their way to Mankato--the location of the hanging scaffold created for the occasion-- a crowd of men, women, and children threw bricks and stones, seriously injuring prisoners and guards. The hangings took place December 26, 1862. It is believed that at least two men were executed at the mass hanging by mistake—one man answered to a name “Chaske” or “first son” that was misidentified and another young white man, raised by the Dakota, who had been acquitted but was hanged. More than 4,000 people crowded the square. They cheered when the hanging was done. The Minnesota Historical Society’s U.S.-Dakota War website describes the execution and the aftermath: “After dangling from the scaffold for a half hour, the men’s bodies were cut down and hauled to a shallow mass grave on a sandbar between Mankato’s main street and the Minnesota River. Before morning, most of the bodies had been dug up and taken by physicians for use as medical cadavers.” In the days that followed, several prisoners were given pardons due to lack of evidence. Others were taken to a prison camp in Iowa. More than 25% of the thousands who surrendered to Sibley would be dead before the end of 1863. Thousands were exiled to the Dakotas, Montana or as far as Manitoba. The List of Those Who Were Executed The following is a list from Marion Satterlee’s “A Detailed Account of the Massacre by the Dakota Indians of Minnesota in 1862,” published in 1923. The spellings and translations are as Satterlee recorded them. A photocopy of her list and the hand-written list from Abraham Lincoln of those to be executed is found on a page of Minnesota Historical Society’s U.S.-Dakota War website. Tipi-hdo-niche, Forbids His Dwelling Wyata-tonwan, His People Taju-xa, Red Otter

Quit Wasting Our Money, Congress!

Congress constantly receives low poll numbers from the America people, and it is understandable why. It is virtually unbelievable how utterly beyond decency, common sense, frugality, and restraint our legislators are. They reach depths of human depravity and fiscal irresponsibility that must be the envy of every tyrant in history. There are, of course, a few good members in Congress (you won’t need to take off your socks to count them), but they are swamped by the Swamp, by those who could not care less what is best for the nation, who think—well, I don’t know what they think. They DON’T think. Except in the most evil, selfish, self-serving terms possible. YOU are stupid and deplorable. I do know they think that. But we keep sending them there. THAT is what is really scary. Unfortunately, it’s democracy at work. It is why John Adams once wrote, “Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” James Madison, the Father of our Constitution, concurred: “Democracy is the most vile form of government.” Think about our Congress and President, friends, and try to think of ways to disagree with what those two men said.  Adams and Madison obviously had Mitch McConnell, the “LEADER” of the Republican Party in the most powerful legislative body in the world, in mind. McConnell recently said (again!) that aiding Ukraine is America’s “number one priority.” How can ANY American believe that? How do people reach a point where they think like that? What kind of septic tank IS Washington, D.C.? McConnell, if you are going to give the Democratic Party (and Ukraine) everything they want, then what good is the Republican Party? Why should we vote for you? We send you to Washington to stop the Democrats, not kiss their feet. Get lost, McConnell. You are thoroughly, utterly useless to America. This is totally revolting. And beyond nauseating. It gets worse, read on. Congress is about to pass (and Biden will no doubt sign) a new, 4,155-page, $1.7 TRILLION “omnibus spending bill.” How many of the 535 members of Congress do you think will (CAN?) read it before they vote to pass it? Here is some of what Congress is burning YOUR (and your ancestors’) money for: --$212.1 million more to the DOJ to prosecute January 6 prisoners; --$2.4 billion to Ukrainian refugees; --Expressly prohibits Customs and Border Protection funding from being used to improve border security; --BUT allocates $410 million towards border security for Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, and Oman; --and gives almost $1.5 billion for membership in global multilateral organizations, including the UN; --$65 million for salmon; --$3 million for “bee friendly” highways; --Can’t forget the other fish: $65.7 million for international fisheries commissions; --$575 million for “family planning” (i.e., baby murder) in areas where population growth “threatens biodiversity”; --$65 million in two programs for Senator Leahy and a federal building named for Nancy Pelosi; --$3.6 million for the “Michelle Obama Trail”; --$477k for "antiracist" training from the Equity Institute; --$3 million for the LGBTQ+ museum in NYC;  --$1.2 million in "services for DACA recipients";  --$4.1 million in various career programs for one of the richest counties in the US (Fairfax); --$47 billion more for Ukraine as well as a “Ukraine Independence Park” in Washington, D.C.; --$300,000 per year for the Continuous Plankton Recorder, whoever—whatever—that is. If you think that’s just “trivial” money, then you have a whole lot more than I do. No honorable, responsible legislator would spend one dime of their constituents' money on any of that junk. Representative Dan Bishop of North Carolina—apparently one of the good guys—posted the above on Twitter, and I’m sure this is just the tip of the iceberg of the waste, fraud, abuse, and theft that is in that bill.  I tend to be a pretty patient individual, but time is wearing thin. I despise incompetence, theft, corruption, and especially people who take advantage of others. And that is exactly what the United States Congress does, year after year after year. There are very few legislators with one iota of a sense of responsibility to the people who pay their salary. They see us as nothing more than an endless reservoir of money that they can exploit and extort for their own political gain, wasting our hard-earned income on frivolous, useless, UNCONSTITUTIONAL tripe that serves them, not us. Find me the word “salmon” in the United States Constitution (hint: it’s right next to “abortion”). But you can find it in this current bill 48 times. Your money is tyrannized from you and given to somebody you don’t even know and whom you pay again for their product in the off-chance you should want it. But the salmon will certainly know who to vote for next election cycle. And that is ALL that matters to the members of Congress. You—no, your money—is a means to an end: the endless power they lust after for as long as they can hold onto it. And we suckers keep playing their game and electing them back into office. The laughter in the halls of Congress over our stupidity must be constant and never-ending. This is not what our Founding Fathers intended for America. Not even close. But then, this country is no longer anything near what the men who established it intended it to be. Not politically, certainly not morally, nor in just about any other measure one can imagine. Our Founders warned us, repeatedly, about the abuse of power. We haven’t listened. And we are paying the price. We have nobody to blame but ourselves for the garbage we send to Washington.

Will the Republican Party Tell the GOP Base to Go Pound Sand?

Who needs those icky rank-and-file Republican voters who ring the doorbells, make the calls, and write the checks? Not the Republican Party! At least that’s what some at the top of the party pyramid think. Some of this elite cabal is utterly disregarding what amounts to the base’s effective unanimity that current GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel needs to go away. After three terms of ignominious failure, she is pushing for a fourth go ‘round as the Republican National Committee (RNC) head honcho and, incredibly, a declining but still significant portion of the 168 committee members who will elect the new RNC Chair at a swank Cali retreat on January 27, 2023, are still behind her. Re-electing Ronna would be a raised middle finger to the base, prompting the base to return the favor. And the base has a lot more middle fingers. I am backing super-lawyer and long-time RNC member Harmeet Dhillon. We need new blood. We need new ideas and energy. I say we need Harmeet – smart, savvy, and ready for reform. But we also need to make a statement that the GOP is going to hold its leaders accountable for failure not matter how much the party poohbahs want to avoid it. How do we fix this crumbling culture if we refuse to fix ourselves? What is this elitist love of failure combined with a steadfast determination to ignore the will of the actual voters? It’s inexplicable – perhaps it is some form of insanity, with insanity being defined as doing the same thing again and again expecting a different result. Or perhaps they have a good faith belief that after five failed elections in a row Ronna is going to snap her losing streak, though she has not bothered to explain how she proposes to do that or what changes she intends to make. Of course, she does not intend to make any changes, but she will not tell us that because she won’t talk to us. While appearing with Steve Bannon, she explained that she has no intention of bothering to make her case to the GOP base. Instead, she insisted, she would focus her campaign on the 168 committee members. Hear that, GOP base? You plebes should go cool your jets, wait for your betters to make their decision, and then obey. The woman who wants your blood, sweat and (far too many) tears – as well as your hard-earned cash – doesn’t want your input. Well, we’ve got some input, and it’s sure not going to be a check made out to the RNC. Let’s be clear – there is no dispute that the base wants Ronna run out of town. My own unscientific polls – well, they are at least as scientific as climate change – of the kind of GOP stalwarts who make up my Twitter readership have been devastating. On December 5, 2022, Ronna managed to secure a big .6% (!) of the 5,992 respondents. On December 17, 2022, she got a hefty 1.1%(!) out of 4,957 voters. I guess that’s an improvement. She’s gone from totally rejected to statistically insignificantly less totally rejected. An average of .85% support – ouch. Here are a few things more popular than Ronna McDaniel: - Toe fungus - Rage Against the Machine - That perverted colonel who is into puppy sex play - A perverted colonel who is into puppy sex play who also has toe fungus and likes Rage Against the Machine Again, Ronna is not bothering to make her case to you, and why would she? She does not have a case to make. What is the case for Ronna McDaniel IV: Electric Loserroo? - She’s a nice person - She wants to be Chair again - She needs a job - She tried hard - You should not switch horses in midstream As a lawyer, this is the kind of case that we what we refer to as “a total loser.” Nice person? Don’t care. Buy a dog. Wants to be Chair again? I want a pony. Needs a job? McDonalds is hiring. You know she’ll land a cushy gig with the Eagle Forum for Families, Eagles, and America. She tried hard? What, is that exceptional? Is that above and beyond? And we should not switch horses in midstream? When should we switch? Now is the longest possible time until an election – if not now, when? There is no case for Ronna. Yet she still has support. Why? Because she is friends with a lot of the voting members? Loyalty is good, but shouldn’t that loyalty be to the party, not a person? Because a lot of people like the way business is done at the GOP – with emphasis on “business?” Harmeet has made clear she’ll audit the RNC’s (shaky and sketchy) books and crack down on consultant grifting. That’s got to make the consultant class quake. Because if the rubes block her, then the rubes will get the idea that they matter? Sadly, that seems to be a big part of it. You have gotten uppity, serfs. How dare you think you matter? But the base does matter, and the consequences of rejecting the base will be devastating to a party that’s already reeling. What happens if the RNC goes ahead and moons us? If you wanted to find a better way to crush morale, dry up the volunteer pool, and freeze small-dollar donations, tell the base to pound sand and double down on a five-time loser. All the obnoxious texts in the world dunning people for a few bucks is not going to help.  They want you to take what you are given and like it. They want you to knock and dial and write checks, but they don’t want you to have a say. And that’s unacceptable. The good news is that they can hear you. They do hear you. RNC members are fleeing the sinking ship. Ronna’s support is slipping away. It’s less significant than it was before Harmeet got in and challenged her – inertia was her friend – but now there is a choice, and those 168 people purporting to represent us must choose. The RNC committee members are feeling the heat – heat you can increase by reaching out, politely, by finding the three reps from your state at www.HireHarmeet.com and sending them an email telling them what you want. Do not sit this out, people. You matter. And the election for the RNC Chair will tell us if the Republican Party agrees. Choose wisely, RNC.