NO, THANKS: Bidenomics Is a Big Turkey, and Not Only at Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is meant to be devoted to thankfulness for family and the many other blessings in each of our lives. But, as most American families sit down to a Thanksgiving meal on Thursday, they will also be met with a specter looming over their financial life—namely, Bidenomics.

Rising consumer prices, falling real incomes, a slowing economy, and housing costs that are through the roof are all just some of the economic maladies visited on American families this year by way of the economic policies of the Biden administration.

Bidenomics is, tragically, nothing new. It is the doubling down of an age-old approach to economic policy, the idea that the government is better at using your money than you are. Through reckless federal deficits and money printing, the Biden administration has sown the seeds of economic malaise.

The American Farm Bureau Federation annually publishes the price of a “Classic Thanksgiving Dinner” that attempts to capture the experience of a typical American family.

The federation’s reported price, pre-Biden, for a Thanksgiving meal for 10 in 2020 was $46.90, but now, for 2023, it is $61.17—an increase of more than 30.4%.

This price increase puts an astonishing burden on American households. However, that is only one of many price jumps during the Bidenomics era. Across all categories of food at home, prices are up more than 20% from when President Joe Biden took office, while energy prices are up well over 35%.

This rampant level of inflation hasn’t, however, been a random or unforeseeable occurrence. It’s the direct and predictable result of massive upticks in federal spending. Whenever the government spends, it does so by forcefully taking funding out of the hands of hardworking Americans.

When a business or household borrows, it does so because the lender has faith that the borrower will be able to earn enough money to pay back the loan in the future. When a government borrows, however, that isn’t the case.

Governments are not capable of earning money through merit alone. Nationalizing industries or raising taxes are clearly coercive. Printing more money is another form of theft, forcefully pouring water into the wine of every American’s life savings.

Since these methods are coercive, government borrowing is as well. When a government borrows money, it agrees to use its unique power to pay back the loan with someone else’s money.

For decades, the Left has propagated the lie that government deficit spending was a magical free lunch because the government didn’t hike taxes to pay for massive spending increases. As inflation has shown, in the end, there is no free lunch, just the government eating your lunch at the money market buffet table.

As the federal debt has ballooned by 44% from $23.44 trillion to $33.75 trillion during the COVID-19 pandemic, so too has the inflation tax imposed on every American.

With Biden and so many other politicians committed to deficits at such an absurd level, there is only one further policy outcome: hyperinflation or sky-high interest rates that crowd out economic growth.

In early 2022, the Federal Reserve switched course, having let prices jump more than 12% in less than two  years, and decided to start increasing interest rates by constricting the money supply. While this has slowed inflation, it by no means has stopped it—or the harm it has done to household finances.

Despite the Federal Reserve’s actions, prices are now up more than 20% since the pandemic started and mortgage rates have spiked from around 3% to 7.5%, pushing that pillar of the American dream, homeownership, even further out of reach for tens of millions of Americans.

This goes to show that if the federal government drives up its deficits and spending, there will be nowhere for families to hide. The following chart shows that as the Federal Reserve stopped printing money to cover federal deficits, it traded an inflation crisis for an interest-rate crisis.

That has dramatically pushed up the first year’s interest cost on a typical mortgage from around $8,500 when President Donald Trump left office to well over $24,000 now.

We can do better than trading high inflation for high interest rates as the economy is slowly strangled to death. This all speaks to the immortal wisdom of President Ronald Reagan, who said, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.’”

As the nation comes together this Thanksgiving to be with loved ones and count their blessings, let us recommit to the principles that led us to such prosperity.

May lawmakers reduce the crushing size and scope of the government to allow Americans to keep the fruits of their labors and get back to building a brighter future for generations to come.

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Thanksgiving is Just One of Five Pilgrim Achievements


The Thanksgiving holiday, which commemorates one part of the Pilgrim story, remains the favorite holiday for many Americans. And for good reasons beyond enjoying a feast. With our country passing through troubled times, it is worth revisiting the Pilgrim’s five significant achievements, which created the seminal story of America, and reveal remarkable insight into who we are and the qualities of character we need to overcome our present challenges.

First, of the many groups of settlers who came to America, only the Pilgrims were singularly motivated by a spiritual quest for religious freedom — one that had its origin with the Protestant Reformation a century before. They repeatedly spoke of their voyage to the New World in terms of a flight from tyranny to freedom, comparing themselves to God’s chosen people — the Israelites — who overcame slavery and abuse in Egypt to get to the Promised Land. Similar to the Israelite’s exodus, the Pilgrims had left what they saw as oppressive and morally corrupt authorities in Great Britain and Europe to create a new life in America. Thus, both American Christians and Jews find profound meaning in the Pilgrim’s Thanksgiving story.

Thanksgiving could be thought of as the holiday that made the other American holidays possible. Without the Pilgrims having courage; absolute faith in their cause and calling; and a willingness to sacrifice and risk everything, they never would have embarked on the 94-foot Mayflower — a ship of questionable seaworthiness. Were it not for their faith and determination to find freedom of conscience and live according to their Biblical beliefs there may never have been a July 4th Independence Day or other subsequent American holidays we take for granted and celebrate each year.

After a harrowing passage across the Atlantic — one that included wild pitching and broadside batterings by gale-force winds and ferocious seas that caused the splitting of the ship’s main beam — the Mayflower was blown off course from the intended destination of the established Virginia Colony territory to wilds of Cape Cod. The Pilgrims knew not where they were nor how to proceed, so they beseeched the Almighty for favor in a making landfall in a suitable place with fresh water and fertile soil to establish a new and independent settlement.

Now in sight of land after a frightening voyage, facing hunger from spoiled and depleted provisions, and anxious about settling outside the purview of Virginia Company charter territory, the secular Mayflower passengers were restless and insolent. And this is when the Pilgrims made their second major achievement that would shape the future of America.

Pilgrim leaders John Carver, William Bradford, and William Brewster, recognized that Mayflower passengers, diverse as they were, needed to maintain unity to survive in a potentially inhospitable environment. So, they drafted a governing agreement that would be acceptable to both their Christian brethren and the secular crew members and merchant adventurers — who made up about half the 102 people aboard the Mayflower. That governing document, known as the Mayflower Compact, provided for peace, security, and equality for everyone in their anticipated settlement. With every man aboard signing the Mayflower Compact the Pilgrims established the foundation for democratic self-government based on the will of people for the first time. The Mayflower Compact laid the cornerstone of the U.S. Constitution, which would be drafted and adopted some 170 years later.

The fact that all the Pilgrims survived the squalid and cramped ship quarters during the dangerous crossing of a vast ocean, is no doubt partially attributable to the good fortune that the Mayflower had previously been enlisted as a wine transport cargo ship. Unlike most merchant ships, she had a “sweet smell,” from all her decks and bilges being “disinfected” with wine sloshing and soaking from broken barrels of Bordeaux and high-alcohol port in the many prior crossings of the sometimes-stormy English Channel.

That all changed once the Mayflower’s passengers settled in “New Plymouth,” Massachusetts in December of 1620. The first winter was devastating, with illness afflicting most and over half the Pilgrims dying, including four entire families. But it could have been worse.

The fate of the Pilgrim colonists would surely have been more difficult had they not settled where they did, adjacent to friendly natives of the Pokanoket Indian village that were part of the Wampanoag tribe. And had they not befriended two who providentially could speak broken English — Squanto and Samoset — perhaps none would have survived. Squanto and his fellow native tribesmen would teach the Pilgrims survival skills, showing them how to hunt, fish, and plant various crops, such as corn, squash, and varieties of beans — which were unknown to the Englishmen.

The Pilgrims’ third major achievement was the Pilgrim-Wampanoag Peace Treaty that was signed on April 1, 1621, by Massasoit and leaders of the Plymouth colony. And a remarkable accomplishment it was, for it lasted more than 50 years — longer than subsequent peace treaties made by other colonizing groups with native Indian tribes. The fact that there were bloody conflicts between other colonists and tribes, such as in the Pequot War fought in Connecticut in 1636-1637, makes the Pilgrims stand out for they succeeded in maintaining the longest-lasting and most equitable peace between natives and immigrants in the history of what would become the United States.

Despite learning from the native Indians how to plant, cultivate ,and harvest new crops in their first year, the Pilgrims complied with their sponsoring Virginia Company charter that called for settlement farmland to be owned and worked communally and for harvests to be equally shared. This socialist common property approach created disincentives to work. William Bradford recorded in his memoirs that while “slackers showed up late for work… everybody was happy to claim their equal share… and production only shrank.”

Although no one is certain of the exact date of the first Thanksgiving, we know it was a Pilgrim initiative, celebrated in November 1621 to give thanks to God for their survival — having lost so many during that first winter in Plymouth, and for the first harvest — meager though it was. When Massasoit was invited to join the Pilgrims, it was assumed that he wouldn’t bring more guests than the 50-odd Mayflower survivor hosts. Massasoit arrived with twice that number, well-stocked with food, fowl, and game of all kinds — including five deer. There was more than enough for everyone, and it turns out that the first Thanksgiving celebration would last three days, punctuated by Indian song, games, and dance, Pilgrim prayers and even a military parade by Myles Standish.

The Pilgrims fourth major achievement was the rejection of socialism and the adoption of private enterprise. After the meager Thanksgiving harvest, the second season of collective farming and distribution proved equally disappointing. Governor Bradford had seen enough, recording that the system “was found to breed much confusion and discontent and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort.” So, before the 1623 season he scrapped socialist farming and replaced it with private ownership of land for each of the families. As a result of becoming responsible for their own welfare and gaining freedom to choose what to grow for consumption or trade, the Pilgrims’ productivity surged.

The fifth factor that distinguished the Pilgrims was their model relational behavior. While tolerance enabled them to keep relative harmony within their diverse community, they also looked outwardly to serve and help others. In March of 1623, it came to be known that Massasoit was on the brink of death from an unknown illness. Senior Pilgrim elder Edward Winslow immediately set out on a forty-mile journey to administer medicinal broth, natural herbs, and prayers to Massasoit. Astonishingly, upon making a full recovery within days, he remarked, “Now I see the English are my friends and love me; and whilst I live, I will never forget this kindness they have showed me.”

In summary, the Pilgrims’ five achievements and the qualities of character that made them exemplary are as relevant today as ever. A contemporary Thanksgiving makeover might include: rekindling a quest for adventure; developing the faith to hold on to a vision of a promised land no matter what; mustering the courage to go against the crowd and defend the truth; gaining the resolve to endure hardship; revitalizing respect for and tolerance of people of different beliefs; rejuvenating a joyful willingness to sacrifice for others; and renewing the predisposition to extend love, assistance and gratitude at every appropriate opportunity.

Scott Powell is senior fellow at Discovery Institute. This article is a vignette out of his latest acclaimed book, Rediscovering America, which has been a #1 new release in history for eight straight weeks at Amazon. Reach him at scottp@discovery.org

Image: Robert Walter Weir

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“We’re In The Middle Of A Revolution” – Victor Davis Hanson Warns Tucker: “The Next 12 Months Will Be The Most Explosive In History”

"We’re In The Middle Of A Revolution" – Victor Davis Hanson Warns Tucker: "The Next 12 Months Will Be The Most Explosive In History"

Historian Victor Davis Hanson sat down with Tucker Carlson to discuss his perspective on the current political climate in the US, asserting that American liberalism is characterized by dishonesty, and warning about what he sees as liberal efforts to introduce a highly intolerant age.

"It’s hard for most Americans to comprehend the total dishonesty of American liberalism."

VDH says Trump represents a significant threat to the specific vision held by liberals, who are employing a "critical legal theory," in which traditional moral values are abandoned in favor of whatever gains power.

"Liberals are now telling us they plan to protect American democracy and that’s the clearest possible sign that they intend to end it."

Most specifically, Hanson told Carlson that:

"I think they’ve come to the conclusion that Trump is an existential threat and by association, half the country is to their vision of what they want to transform us into, and so they feel that whatever means necessary are justified."

And this is an issue since Hanson pointed out that while some conservatives were speaking up, they are also fighting a culture in the Republican Party that preferred to "lose nobly" as opposed to winning elections in an "ugly" manner.

Hanson emphasizes that the traditional boundaries and norms are being renegotiated, from the Senate filibuster and the Electoral College to societal understandings of gender and language, raising concerns that:

"We’re in the middle of a cultural, economic, political revolution," but "we think that we’re still playing within the same sidelines or parameters, and we’re not. Everything’s under negotiation.”

Hanson argues that the legal actions against Trump are politically motivated and biased and designed to send a message to the half of America that will not simple ‘comply’:

“The idea is now that we now have the power to do this, and because we have the power to do it, it’s moral and right, and if you don’t like it, what are you doing to do about it?”

Finally, Hanson issues a call to action of sorts, noting that “There are legitimate efforts to rectify and stop this madness and let’s see what happens in 2024."

"You need leaders who will tell people we are in a Jacobin takeover of this country, and the old get along at any cost does not work,” Hanson said.

"I hope everybody can keep their head because I think the next 12 to 18 months are going to be the most explosive in our history since the Great Depression."

Watch the full interview below:

Tyler Durden Tue, 10/03/2023 – 08:45

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GOP Rep. Vows to Block Biden from Weaponizing Treasury to Unleash ESG

“The House Financial Services Committee will hold the Administration accountable for its continued efforts to force their political priorities through our financial system,” Chairman Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) vowed Tuesday, reacting to the Treasury Department’s release of nine “principles” for financial institutions to follow. “With Treasury’s most recent guidance, the Biden Administration is again prioritizing its progressive climate agenda over sound economic management,” Chairman McHenry said in a statement, warning that, while Treasury claims its standards are “voluntary,” institutions will be punished if they don’t comply: “Regulators should be focused on immediate risks to our financial system—not climate policy beyond their expertise and statutory authority. ‘With only a thin veil of setting ‘voluntary standards,’ these so-called principles will almost surely be enforced as though they are laws by unelected federal regulators and Treasury officials who continue to overreach.” “It’s clear Treasury’s intention is to direct credit to politically favored activities in order to appease far-left climate activists,” Chairman McHenry said, promising that his committee “will hold the Administration accountable” for using the Treasury Department to coerce compliance with its political goals. Indeed, Treasury’s nine “principles” encourage financial institutions to invest in, and provide credit to, companies that comply with radical leftist Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) ideology – while shunning those (such as producer of traditional energy) that don’t: “Financial institutions should assess client and portfolio company alignment to their (i.e., financial institutions’) targets and to limiting the increase in the global average temperature to 1.5°C.” (Principle 4). “Financial institutions should align engagement practices — with clients, portfolio companies, and other stakeholders — to their commitments.” (Principle 5) “Incorporating net-zero objectives into resource allocation and business planning…Financial institutions should develop and execute an implementation strategy that integrates the goals of their commitments into relevant aspects of their businesses and operating procedures.” (Principle 6) “Financial institutions should establish robust governance processes to provide oversight of the implementation of their commitments.” (Principle 7) “Financial institutions should, in the context of activities associated with their net-zero transition plans, account for environmental justice and environmental impacts, where applicable.” (Principle 8) The Treasury Department’s advice tells financial institutions to “reallocate financing, investment, and advisory services away from clients and portfolio companies that over time act in ways inconsistent with a financial institution’s commitment and transition plan. In those cases, such reallocation can reduce a financial institution’s exposure to companies facing high transition risk.” Furthermore, financial institutions should be prepared to defend their business decisions, Treasury says: “An institution providing transition finance should be able to explain how its financing results in reductions of its client’s or portfolio company’s emissions. “For example, a financial institution could provide capital to a steel company that is acquiring lower-emitting electric arc furnaces. An institution providing transition finance should be able to explain how its financing results in reductions of its client’s or portfolio company’s emissions.” The Treasury Department’s ESG advocacy doesn’t stop with financial institutions, however. On Tuesday, the Treasury Department convened a meeting of the Treasury Advisory Committee on Racial Equity, whose members advise Treasury Department leadership on “economic and fairness” initiatives – such as “rebalancing enforcement priorities toward high-income, high-wealth individuals, large corporations, and complex partnerships.” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Climate Counselor Ethan Zindler also met with leadership from philanthropies in order to counsel them on how to skew their donations and grants to favor those who support green energy and seek to eliminate carbon emissions. Editor’s Note: This piece was originally published on MRCTV.org.

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Democrats Say It’ll Take A Lot More Than Eyewitness Testimony, Bank Records, Audio, Video, & Complete Confessions For Them To Believe Biden Did Anything Wrong

Democrats Say It’ll Take A Lot More Than Eyewitness Testimony, Bank Records, Audio, Video, & Complete Confessions For Them To Believe Biden Did Anything Wrong

Via Babylon Bee,

As evidence of bribery and corruption by the Biden family continues to mount, Democrat lawmakers in the nation’s capital have expressed heavy skepticism, saying they will need a lot more than just eyewitnesses, financial records, audio and video recordings, and admissions of guilt from parties involved for them to believe any of it.

"Nah, I’m not buying it," said California Congressman Eric Swalwell.

"If you’re wanting me to believe President Biden and his family have been involved in a far-reaching money-for-favors scheme for years, you’ll need to show me a lot more than rock-solid, irrefutable evidence. If the Biden family was corrupt, I think I would have heard about it from my Chinese spy girlfriend."

The Biden administration maintains absolute innocence, despite an ever-growing collection of evidence that would indicate otherwise.

"The President and his family have done nothing wrong," said White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who is a woman and also black and also gay.

"It’s completely normal for families to enrich themselves by selling political influence to foreign corporations and governments. Any assertion to the contrary is simply Republicans grasping at straws. Also, I will not be taking any more questions regarding bribery allegations."

As rumors swirled that additional audio recordings of President Biden accepting bribes may soon be released, Democrats continued to brush them off.

"I see nothing wrong here," said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

"So he’s on tape taking bribes. It’s not like it proves he took bribes or something."

At publishing time, Republicans in Congress said they were waiting on several more truckloads of evidence before beginning impeachment proceedings.

Tyler Durden
Sat, 08/12/2023 – 15:30

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AMERICANS NOT FOOLED – Two Thirds of Americans Believe 2020 Election was Rigged, The Feds Incited Jan 6, and the Bidens are a Crime Family 

This article originally appeared on JoeHoft.com and was republished with permission.

Two out of three Americans are awake and not woke.  They see that truth behind the many lies from the Democrats and their corrupt media and Big Tech.

In April, a poll at Rasmussen Reports reported that two-thirds of Americans suspect that the Feds incited the Jan 6 riots.

Rasmussen Poll Shows that a Majority of Americans (65%) Suspect Feds Incited J6 Riot

This poll was before the former head of the Capitol Police spoke with Tucker Carlson and shared that Jan 6 was all a setup to get President Trump.

In May, a poll by Rasmussen Reports found that 62% of Americans believed that the 2020 Election was stolen.  This number has grown over time.

WE ARE WINNING – 62% OF VOTERS BELIEVE 2020 ELECTION WAS STOLEN – HIGHEST PERCENT TO DATE

Also in May, a super majority of Americans per a Rasmussen poll showed that they believed the Biden gang’s crimes related to foreign influence peddling were a big deal.

Super Majority of Americans (69%) Believe the Biden Gang’s Crimes Related to Foreign Influence Peddling Are a Big Deal

These poll results agree with a Daily Mail poll from today that show:

Americans by wide margins say President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, violated a law against peddling foreign influence, a DailyMail.com poll shows, amid swirling allegations about the first family’s business dealings.

Fully 63 percent of voters say the president breached the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which obliges people to declare foreign interests, when he served as vice president and his son worked with the Ukrainian energy firm Burisma.

Americans know the truth and are going around the many lies from the globalist, evil, criminal, communist and corrupt left and their fake media pushers. 

The post AMERICANS NOT FOOLED – Two Thirds of Americans Believe 2020 Election was Rigged, The Feds Incited Jan 6, and the Bidens are a Crime Family  appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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Walt Disney Would Be Appalled At What His Company Has Become

There’s little doubt that Walt Disney, and by extension the company he founded, was one of the greatest pop culture icons of the 20th century, and that influence continues right into the present day.

Walt’s determination to appeal to both children and their parents represents a core reason for Disney’s enduring legacy. But, at least at first, it was also clear that the Walt Disney Company’s values were rooted in those of America at large. “Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams, and the hard facts that have created America, with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world,” Walt said of the iconic theme park.

And he wanted Main Street U.S.A., the first “themed land” visitors experience when they enter the park, to represent “everyone’s hometown … the heart line of America.”

But the modern Walt Disney Company seems to be at odds with that notion, with many conservatives arguing that it has strayed far from Walt’s wholesome and patriotic vision. In the last few years, the company has become ever more embroiled in the culture wars. It has filled its recent movie and television content with nods to leftist ideologies, from transgenderism to reparations. One executive producer for Disney boasted during a staff meeting about her “not-at-all-secret gay agenda.”

Additionally, the company has become embroiled in a conflict with the state of Florida over the state’s legislation that prohibits schools from teaching children from kindergarten through 8th grade about gender identity and sexual orientation.

In contrast with the leftward drift the company has experienced, its founder took the opposite route — evolving from a relatively non-political businessman into a strident anti-communist and impassioned advocate for American ideals.

Walt Disney was born in Chicago in 1901, but his family moved to Marceline, Missouri, when he was four. There, Disney became interested in drawing, and the family was active in a local Congregationalist church. The Disney family moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and eventually back to Chicago, where Walt took classes at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts.

(Original Caption) Thousands of people in all parts of the world laugh at and enjoy the antics of Mickey Mouse, the star of stars, but few know the pain staking and intricate work necessary in making of the popular films. Scores of artists and sound experts work in the Mickey Mouse Studios just outside of Los Angeles making thousands of drawings and accompaniment under the direction of Walt Disney, creator of Mickey Mouse. This photo shows Disney at his desk in his studio.

Bettmann/Contributor. Getty Images.

After the U.S. Army rejected him for being too young, Disney joined the Red Cross in September 1918 as an ambulance driver, but he arrived in France after the armistice that ended World War I. After his stint in the Red Cross, he initially returned to Kansas City to pursue cartoons as a career but soon traveled to Los Angeles to meet up with his brother, Roy O. Disney. Together, they founded the Disney Brothers Studio, which would eventually become The Walt Disney Company, and began producing short cartoon films. The company achieved its breakthrough with 1928’s “Steamboat Willie,” considered to be the debut of Mickey Mouse and the first fully synchronized sound cartoon.

The creation and success of Mickey Mouse cartoons propelled Disney to the forefront of animation in Hollywood in the 1930s to the early ’40s, cemented by the release of such classics as “Snow White” and “Pinocchio.”

Despite the massive political upheaval taking place in the U.S. in the early 1930s as a result of the Great Depression and the first round of Democratic President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal, Disney was reportedly reluctant to even discuss politics. Joe Grant, who worked on “Snow White,” “Pinocchio,” and “Dumbo,” said that Disney was “very apolitical, believe me,” according to a 2007 biography of Disney by journalist Neal Gabler.

He reportedly voted for Roosevelt in the 1936 presidential election, which Roosevelt won in a landslide based on the mass appeal of the New Deal.

(Original Caption) Walt Disney, celebrated cartoonist and the creator of Mickey Mouse, is shown on the beach at Waikiki playing on a ukulele, while his brother and business manager, Roy, makes him the subject of a movie. Bettmann/Contributor. Getty Images.

(Original Caption) Walt Disney, celebrated cartoonist and the creator of Mickey Mouse, is shown on the beach at Waikiki playing on a ukulele, while his brother and business manager, Roy, makes him the subject of a movie. Bettmann/Contributor. Getty Images.

Disney switched his support to the Republican Party in the 1940 presidential election, an affiliation that he would maintain for the rest of his life. Wendell Willkie, a businessman from New York who had never previously held political office and had only become a Republican in 1939, clinched the GOP nomination as a dark horse at the national convention. There was very little difference between Roosevelt and Willkie on the major issues of the campaign — both supported the New Deal and material support for the Allies in World War II “short of war.”

“In the election of 1936, I just couldn’t go Republican. … Roy and I split. Roy went Republican and I voted for Roosevelt. By 1940 and everything that happened in the next four years, I was right back on the other bandwagon. I became a [Wendell] Willkie man. He was a great man,” Disney reportedly told a writer.

Disney declined to officially endorse Willkie and even expressed his wish to stay out of politics, telling the Willkie campaign in a letter that “a long time ago I found out that I knew nothing whatsoever about the game of politics and since then I’ve preferred to keep silent about the entire matter rather than see my name attached to any statement that was not my own.”

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 and American’s entry into World War II, Disney’s involvement in politics began to change. Half of Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, were occupied by U.S. troops in order to protect a nearby Lockheed aircraft factory from possible air raids (none ever occurred).

Soon, the U.S. government approached Disney with a contract to make propaganda films to help the war effort. The company ultimately made short films for every branch of the military during the war, including the Academy Award-winning 1943 short film “Der Fuehrer’s Face” (in which Donald Duck takes on Hitler) and the more serious “Victory Through Air Power.”

(Original Caption) Prompted by increasing requests from Army, Navy, and Air Corps branches, Walt Disney artists are now working on defense orders for service insignias. Walt Disney shows Air Corps officer Lieutenant Claude Pevey and insignia recently designed for the Navy's torpedo boats, known as the mosquito fleet. Bettmann/Contributor. Getty Images.

Bettmann/Contributor. Getty Images.

His first explicit endorsement of a presidential candidate was given to Thomas Dewey, the Republican nominee in the 1944 presidential election — once again facing Roosevelt.

He allowed Dewey to hold a rally on studio grounds, donated generously to the Dewey campaign, and even gave a speech in support of Dewey in Los Angeles to a rally of reportedly 93,000 people in September 1944. Other Hollywood stars who came out in support of Dewey at the rally included Lionel Barrymore, Barbara Stanwyck, and Cecil B. DeMille.

Roosevelt again won the White House, for an unprecedented fourth term that would be cut short by his death in April 1945, but it was the closest of his presidential campaigns.

It’s been speculated that the rise of unions in Hollywood, and in the Disney company specifically, provided the catalyst for Walt’s political awakening. After a strike by Disney employees in May 1941 while the company was in dire financial straits, Disney became fiercely anti-communist, believing American communists were behind the labor disputes.

“I definitely feel it was a Communist group trying to take over my artists and they did take them over,” Disney reportedly said about the 1941 strike.

However, Disney never discriminated against employees based on their personal political leanings, according to a biography by historian Michael Barrier.

“He was not an aggressive Red hunter; his conservatism had a strongly personal cast. An employee’s politics were not of any particular concern to him if that employee was not challenging him,” Barrier wrote.

The experience with the Dewey campaign as well as the animators’ strike would cause Disney to become more politically involved in the late 1940s and ’50s, and Walt’s conservative values would become more pronounced as time went on.

The difference between the founder of Disney and its modern iteration could not be more stark. Whereas Walt Disney was personally a Republican but tried to stay out of politics as much as possible in his early life, the modern Walt Disney Company seems to have been overrun by avowed leftist ideologues who are determined to inject politics into all of the company’s products.

(Disclosure: The Daily Wire has announced plans for kids entertainment content.)

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French Cops Can Now Secretly Activate Phone Cameras Microphones And GPS To Spy On Citizens

French Cops Can Now Secretly Activate Phone Cameras, Microphones And GPS To Spy On Citizens

Cops in France have been granted the authority to remotely activate a suspect’s cellphone camera, microphone and GPS, after the passage of a provision in a wider “justice reform bill” on Wednesday night.

The bill allows the geolocation of crime suspects, covering other devices like laptops, cars and connected devices, just as it could be remotely activated to record sound and images of people suspected of terror offences, as well as delinquency and organised crime. –People’s Gazette

According to French digital rights advocacy group, La Quadrature du Net, the provisions “raise serious concerns over infringements of fundamental liberties,” and violate the “right to security, right to a private life and to private correspondence” and “the right to come and go freely.”

The group called it part of a “slide into heavy-handed security.”

Lawmakers defended the move – with Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti insisting that the bill would only apply to “dozens of cases a year,” while members of parliament inserted an amendment inserted an amendment which only allows the remote spying “when justified by the nature and seriousness of the crime” and “for a strictly proportional duration” after a judge has approved the surveillance.

Lawmakers also insisted that sensitive professions, such as journalists, judges, lawyers, doctors and MPs would not be legitimate targets, People’s Gazette reports.

Last month, the Senate gave the green light to the provision of the justice bill, which would allow law enforcement to secretly activate cameras and microphones on a suspect’s devices. 

Since 2015, when terrorist attacks rocked France, the country has increased its surveillance powers, and the “Keeper of the Seal” bill has been likened to the infamous US Patriot Act.

“We’re far away from the totalitarianism of ”1984”,” said Dupond-Moretti, adding “People’s lives will be saved” by the law.

Of note, France’s dystopian law is similar to those used by the US FBI in the wake of 9/11, when the government’s use of “roving bugs” came to light in a court case involving an organized crime family.

“Roving bugs” pick up room audio as opposed to traditional wiretaps in which wireless phone conversations and other electronic communications are monitored-subject to court order-by the FBI. Both forms of electronic surveillance are covered by a 1986 law authorizing roving wiretaps, which gives law enforcement flexibility to eavesdrop continuously on suspects who often change locations and use different phones to avoid detection.

Constant movement of suspects was the situation in this case, frustrating the FBI to the point that it applied for and received from a federal judge eavesdropping authority under the roving wiretap statute. With a twist. Government investigators were able to listen to conversations of organized crime suspects even when their cell phones were turned off-at least as far as the suspects were concerned.

U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan rejected defendants’ arguments that “roving bugs” violated their constitutional rights, noting the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 1993 upheld the roving wiretap statute in an identical legal challenge. –rcrwireless.com

How nice.

Tyler Durden
Fri, 07/07/2023 – 05:45

via ZeroHedge News

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Target Caves: Will Stock Mark Levin’s ‘The Democrat Party Hates America’

Target reversed course Thursday and agreed to stock conservative radio host Mark Levin’s forthcoming book, The Democrat Party Hates America, after criticism and outage over the chain store’s apparent hypocrisy.

Levin made the announcement on his Thursday evening radio show, after informing listeners the night before that Target had told his publisher, Simon & Schuster, that it would not stock the book because of its title.

Target had already been in the news in recent weeks due to its decision to stock clothes marketed for Pride month, including what the Associated Press called “‘tuck friendly’ women’s swimsuits that allow trans women who have not had gender-affirming operations to conceal their private parts.” The chain did not supply those suits for children but did include other products for children that had Pride month and transgender themes.

Conservatives were outraged over the store’s apparent willingness to stock items that pushed a left-wing agenda while banning a book from its shelves that reflected a conservative view (it would still sell the book online).

After Breitbart News and others reported that Target had decided not to display Levin’s book, the store came under pressure from conservatives who vowed that they would boycott the store, prompting it to change course.

Levin thanked and congratulated his audience Thursday on his radio show, noting they had acted on their own volition, without any organized boycott effort: “We have a massive audience, an enormously loyal audience.

“So I want to thank you folks — I want to thank some of our friends on Capitol Hill who jumped in — not at my request; I want to thank our friends in the media who jumped in — again, not at my request,” Levin said.

“Enough is enough. We’re sick and tired of this whole thing … And this demonstrates the strength that you have. … It also demonstrates the strength of this platform that I’m on. Millions, and millions, and millions of patriots.”

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

via Breitbart News

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