https://townhall.com/tipsheet/...-since-2014-n2602830

Gas Prices Hit High Not Seen Since 2014

on Friday retail gas prices hit a $3.423 per gallon average for regular unleaded fuel — a high not seen in nearly eight years.

One month ago, the national average was $3.288/gallon and one year ago gas was nearly $1 cheaper at $2.443/gallon.

Let's Go Brandon !

In California, gas is now averaging $4.63/gallon, and those filling up in Oregon, Washington, Illinois, and Pennsylvania are all paying more than $3.58/gallon. The cheapest state average for gas is currently $3.061/gallon in Mississippi.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
I don’t get this at all unless they’ve cooked the books for Brandon. Everywhere I go around here it looks like businesses are struggling to find workers yet we are being told that we have this huge increase in people going back to work? I don’t buy it


January Payrolls Huge Beat: 467K Jobs Added As December Revised Massively Higher

Don't believe it for a moment. Your eyes and ears tell you the truth. This administration cannot and should not be believed on any level on any topic. They needed a positive to offset all the rampant failure, and they manufactured one.

quote:

Originally posted by gearhounds:

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
I don’t get this at all unless they’ve cooked the books for Brandon. Everywhere I go around here it looks like businesses are struggling to find workers yet we are being told that we have this huge increase in people going back to work? I don’t buy it

January Payrolls Huge Beat: 467K Jobs Added As December Revised Massively Higher

Not everyone in the government believes it either, evidently.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opin...eople-return-to-work

Here is another report full of doubt.

https://www.zerohedge.com/mark...unning-payrolls-beat

quote:

Originally posted by wcb6092:
Here is another report full of doubt.

https://www.zerohedge.com/mark...unning-payrolls-beat

It's Cash for Clunkers all over again. Fake out the numbers today to try and get a quick win, and watch the next six months plummet as a result (assuming BLS doesn't keep fraudulently cooking the books). Let's see how many financial 'experts' seriously question February and March's numbers when they bear no relationship to January's.

Judge lets convicted Hunter Biden business partner freely roam globe while awaiting sentencing

Federal judge's lenient treatment for Devon Archer renews debate about a dual system of justice, as Jan. 6 and Russia defendants faced travel restrictions.

https://justthenews.com/accoun..._campaign=newsletter

From Paul Manafort to the Jan. 6 defendants, federal prosecutors and courts routinely seize passports and impose travel restrictions on those charged with or convicted of crimes to eliminate any flight risk.

But those same standards have not been applied to convicted defendant Devon Archer, Hunter Biden's longtime business partner and collaborator at the allegedly corrupt Ukrainian gas firm Burisma Holdings.

Court records reviewed by Just the News show the trial judge in Archer's case has allowed the Biden buddy to take more than three dozen global trips since he was indicted in 2016 and convicted two years later for fleecing an Indian tribe.

More than half of those trips — which span from Communist China to Turks and Caicos — have come since a jury convicted Archer on two felony counts of securities fraud in the summer of 2018.

File
DevonArcherConviction.pdf
The permission for Archer's globetrotting was revealed in a Nov. 12, 2021 letter from his defense lawyers, who asked and received permission from U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams, an appointee of President Barack Obama, for his 41st trip since he was first charged by federal prosecutors.

"I write to respectfully request the Court's permission for Mr. Archer to travel on vacation with his family from November 23 to November 28, 2021, to Jamaica for the Thanksgiving holiday," defense attorney Craig Wenner wrote. He added for good measure: "The Court previously approved the same trip this time last year."

You can read the letter here:

File
DevonArcherTravelOrder11-15-21.pdf
Judge Abrams — whose elite liberal family in New York includes famous First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams and TV legal analyst Dan Abrams — obliged once again by affixing her signature approving the request.

Remarkably, Abram's husband was a federal prosecutor in Robert Mueller's Russia investigation and part of the team that seized passports and restricted travel for high-profile defendants like Paul Manafort and his business partner Rick Gates.

Archer did not face the same restrictions. As he awaited trial since summer 2016 and since his conviction in summer 2018, Archer has been allowed to travel freely across the globe.

His travel log, enumerated in the court documents, reads like the travels of an American secretary of state: Russia, Mexico, China, Spain, Italy, the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan and Ukraine, the money laundering capital of Latvia, Hong Kong, London, Singapore and the French Antilles, to name a few.

You can see the travel approvals here:

File
DevonArcherTravelOrder11-15-21.pdf
Archer's lead defense attorney, Matthew Schwartz, works at the same Boies Schiller Flexner law firm where Hunter Biden also once practiced law. Schwartz did not return a call seeking comment Thursday.

His firm's letter, however, did offer one line a defense. Their client "on each and every trip ... has returned on time, and without incident, demonstrating that he is no risk of flight," the letter to the judge boasted.

Most remarkably, Judge Abrams granted the travel permission over the objections of federal prosecutors who protested allowing a convicted felon who fleeced an Indian tribe to globetrot for five years as he awaited trial and then sentencing.

Just the News reached out to defense attorneys, former prosecutors and public defenders and members of Congress, all of whom said they were shocked by Abrams' leniency and said it stood in stark contrast to the treatment of the Jan. 6 defendants and other high-profile defendants whose travel privileges were revoked upon indictment.

"Just in case anyone needs further evidence that we do not have equal justice under the law, the accommodations made for Hunter Biden's convicted business partner take the cake," said Sen Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.), who has spent two years investigating the Biden family's conflicts of interests and national security risks.

"If you're a powerful Democrat ... you get kid glove treatment," Johnson added. "If you're a Republican or ordinary citizen, you better watch out."

Kash Patel, a former Trump administration national security official, said in his two decades as a federal prosecutor and public defender he never saw so much travel approved for a convicted defendant.

"It is simply unheard of for a convicted felon facing years in prison to be permitted to galavant around the world by a federal judge instead of being remanded to custody of the U.S. marshal," Patel told Just the News.

"The treatment of this defendant shows a two-tier system of justice on full display," he added. "What is this judge going to allow Archer to do next, have the U.S. government rent him a private jet?"

Gates, Manafort's business partner who also was convicted of unrelated financial crimes in the Mueller investigation, said Judge Abrams' husband Greg Andres and his team seized both his passport and that of his wife (who wasn't accused of wrongdoing.)

"I wish I could tell you I am surprised by this revelation, but I am not," Gates told Just the News on Thursday night. "During the Mueller probe my passports were confiscated by Greg Andres with the Special Counsel's Office. My wife's passport was also confiscated, which I later learned was highly irregular and unethical.

"No doubt an attempt at intimidating our family," he added. "Many months after the final Mueller report was issued, the judge in my case ordered my passport to be returned. It took several weeks to find anyone that could help. Mueller's team had been disbanded by this point. In the end, I was informed that the passport was lost."

The questions surrounding Abrams' travel approvals are the second time her conduct in the Archer case has elicited scrutiny.

After Archer and two other defendants were convicted in the tribal securities fraud case, the judge vacated the conviction only for Archer.

A federal appeals court last year reinstated Archer's conviction, concluding Abrams should not have set aside the guilty verdict and rebuking the defendants for fleecing an Indian tribe out of as much as $60 million.

"The conspirators harmed not only the Wakpamni but also several investors upon whom they foisted the Wakpamni bonds — which had no secondary market — in order to generate cash for their own personal use," the appeals judges ruled.

"We are left with the unmistakable conclusion that the jury's verdict must be upheld," they added.

File
ArcherAppealsRuling.pdf
The Supreme Court agreed, refusing to overturn the appeals court.

Archer's sentencing has been delayed several times, but it's now slated for the end of this month.

PDFs at link provided.

This is very clear and well written:

Has the US Government Declared War on Its Citizens?

https://www.americanthinker.co...on_its_citizens.html

quote:

Originally posted by wcb6092:

quote:

Originally posted by gearhounds:

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
January Payrolls Huge Beat: 467K Jobs Added As December Revised Massively Higher

Not everyone in the government believes it either, evidently.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opin...eople-return-to-work

Here is another report full of doubt.

https://www.zerohedge.com/mark...unning-payrolls-beat

That third one is just ZeroHedge again. No surprise the 1st and 3rd cites would report the same thing: They're the same site and authors.

I would be cautious of placing too much faith in ZH's articles. There are plenty of articles, blog posts, and web forum posts, but Media Bias/Fact Check: ZeroHedge is a pretty good summation.

(As for Media Bias/Fact Check's credibility: I checked a number of the Usual Suspects and damned if they don't correctly [IMO] report their biases--though they seem a bit soft on their credibility criticisms.)

That's not to say ZH is entirely incorrect, in this case, nor that the Biden Admin isn't making stuff up. I'm just suggesting one maintain a healthy degree of skepticism when it comes to ZeroHedge's claims.

quote:

Originally posted by ersatzknarf:
This is very clear and well written:

Has the US Government Declared War on Its Citizens?

https://www.americanthinker.co...on_its_citizens.html

It sure is, thank you for posting!

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:

I would be cautious of placing too much faith in ZH's articles. There are plenty of articles, blog posts, and web forum posts, but Media Bias/Fact Check: ZeroHedge is a pretty good summation.

(As for Media Bias/Fact Check's credibility: I checked a number of the Usual Suspects and damned if they don't correctly [IMO] report their biases--though they seem a bit soft on their credibility criticisms.)

Oh please. You can't be serious. I put a hell of a lot more faith in ZeroHedge than some garbage "Fact Checker."

Seems to me ZeroHedge has been way more credible and accurate in their reporting than the New York Times or Washington Post. That so called fact checker lists the New York Times as "High Credibility." For chrissakes.

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:
Oh please. You can't be serious. I put a hell of a lot more faith in ZeroHedge than some garbage "Fact Checker."

Believe what you wish.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
Believe what you wish.

Claim: That Media Bias/Fact Check site is leftist, propaganda horseshit.

Fact Check: TRUE

https://www.breitbart.com/poli...ws-to-improve-image/

Kamala Harris and her team are trying to put the vice president in positions to succeed. The plan involves getting her on the road — campaigning and selling policy and representing the administration abroad. Harris has also started doing more national news interviews, though such appearances have not always gone well.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

keep her talking

https://freebeacon.com/biden-a...vance-racial-equity/

The Biden administration is set to fund the distribution of crack pipes to drug addicts as part of its plan to advance "racial equity."

The $30 million grant program, which closed applications Monday and will begin in May, will provide funds to nonprofits and local governments to help make drug use safer for addicts. Included in the grant, which is overseen by the Department of Health and Human Services, are funds for "smoking kits/supplies." A spokesman for the agency told the Washington Free Beacon that these kits will provide pipes for users to smoke crack cocaine, crystal methamphetamine, and "any illicit substance."

HHS said the kits aim to reduce the risk of infection when smoking substances with glass pipes, which can lead to infections through cuts and sores. Applicants for the grants are prioritized if they treat a majority of "underserved communities," including African Americans and "LGBTQ+ persons," as established under President Joe Biden's executive order on "advancing racial equity."

Democratic-run cities such as San Francisco and Seattle have distributed smoking kits to residents. Some local governments, however, have in recent years backed away from their smoking kit programs over concerns they enable drug abuse. Louisville, Ky., for example, allowed convenience stores to sell smoking kits but later banned them. Legislators in Maryland ditched their distribution plan after facing backlash from local law enforcement and African-American leaders.

Sgt. Clyde Boatwright, president of the Maryland Fraternal Order of Police, said government resources are better spent on preventing drug abuse rather than making it safer.

Funding for the "harm reduction" grant program is provided through Democrats' American Rescue Plan, which the Senate passed along party lines after Vice President Kamala Harris cast a tie-breaking vote. Other equipment that qualifies for funding include syringes, vaccinations, disease screenings, condoms, and fentanyl strips. The grant program will last three years and includes 25 awards of up to $400,000.

An HHS spokesman declined to specify what is included in the smoking kits. Similar distribution efforts provide mouthpieces to prevent glass cuts, rubber bands to prevent burns, and filters to minimize the risk of disease.

It is against federal law to distribute or sell drug paraphernalia unless authorized by the government.

President Biden's son Hunter is a longtime user of crack cocaine.

Will Hunter design the crack pipes? Unreal.

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:
https://freebeacon.com/biden-a...vance-racial-equity/
An HHS spokesman declined to specify what is included in the smoking kits. Similar distribution efforts provide mouthpieces to prevent glass cuts, rubber bands to prevent burns, and filters to minimize the risk of disease.

Wow! The feds are really getting serious about this war on drugs! They're going to supply filters for crack pipes now.

So........the gov is going to give $30 million to "non-profits" in "underserved communities", so they can provide rubber bands, filters & mouthpieces for crack pipes? Where's the other $29.9 million going? Who's congress critter's family member has that contract?

I may be wrong, but when I think of a bunch of crackheads sitting around smoking dope, I don't see them using a crack pipe with a filter to remove the impurities, or each one using their own mouthpiece.

Whoever thought this shit up isn't just stupid; they're Democrat level stupid!

Poor crack smokers, there won't really be any pipes made for them. Those millions are going to the democrat scam machine.
I wonder how much Hunter was paid to test the effectiveness of the various pipes being considered.

quote:

Poor crack smokers, there won't really be any pipes made for them. Those millions are going to the democrat scam machine.

Yep.
HUGE amounts of tax dollars are funneled into "programs" in "underserved" (urban) areas where the money is actually used to fund supporters of the Democrat political machine. It's an elaborate money-laundering scheme.

So are they going to mail a crack pipe to the "Resident" at my address? They just did that with two Kung Flu home testing kits. I can use the rubber band and the bubble wrap but I'm not sure what to do with the rest of it.