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Despite the 'Build Back Better' moniker things seem to be getting worse for a dark winter. Inflation and rising gas prices are hitting us due to reckless spending and constriction upon the oil industry. Not much has gone right in foreign policy while Russia and China act as provocateurs over Taiwan, Ukraine and Belarus at a time when there is a loss of world confidence in the U.S. after the hasty Afghanistan retreat. The administration appears at least tacit to the labeling of parents engaging school boards over CRT as threats or in some circles possibly as "domestic terrorists". How have we descended so far in less than a year? Polarization achieved under the two-party system exercises power on behalf of a lowest common denominator able to bridge the gap between the typical 45%-55% range of shares held by the major parties. So the powers that be are able to legislate their sellouts or diabolical measures more or less through this arrangement under a variety of party proportions. However, as the arrogance of these leaders and the effects of their actions accumulate, the people begin to suffer more and more. Eventually they will react but within a slanted system. We see this today in the CRT debates at local school boards. Parents and populace are rising up over a destructive agenda that raises racial tensions and denies the time for learning the actually useful skills. But why reserve such countering efforts only for education and just at the school boards?

In order to ever fix the system as a whole, the same approach must be taken at the local elections board. Demands must be made to end massive mail-in voting and to abolish impediments to ballot access for independents and third parties. Majority-plurality voting must be replaced with range voting (not rank choice). Range voting reduces the ability of the two state parties to rig primaries and thus general elections as effective shoe-ins for their DNC-RNC darlings. At that point, we will be able to get real citizen officeholders -- not just career politician sell-outs. Doing so would make more possible the passage of term limits, Five-Penny Plan to balance the budget, FairTax, the reprocessing and movement of nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain, electric grid security and ratification of improvements as called for in a convention of states via Amendment V. These types of reform become possible when a fresh citizenry swell the officeholder ranks. If this is not done there will be inadequate numbers of true reformists in our government to propose the sound, commonsense policies and innovative fixes to our problems. While there are some exceptions, overall the sabotage Democrats and decline-management Republicans definitely won't save us. Until that changes it will be the usual money-throwing at problems without accountability while accruing mountainous debt. There is no governing incentive for sufficient change without real competition to the Democrat-Republican duopoly.

As a herald of the innovation you have been missing by accepting the two-party election system as is, this treatise puts forth several cost-cutting proposals, representational improvements, social policy approaches and addresses some infrastructure concerns in ways you would never see considered by the old guard. We offer you this for their lack of vision.

Until there is an antitrust action taken such that reformist independents or third parties can become a substantial part of the government then it's really more of the same breakage and decline management by Democrats and Republicans respectively. Our term limits proposal would make antitrust happen immediately by putting in party limits where no party is allowed to hold a particular seat for more than two-consecutive terms. It makes no sense to have three branches of government ordained under just two political parties.

House terms are only two years and representatives spend too much of that time running for the next election. It seems like from March to November of the second year they are campaigning. By getting rid of consecutive terms in the House, we can then get representatives that devote more of their term working on legislation knowing that they are about to be subject to living under the laws they pass from their stand-alone term. Isolated two-year stints will make for more real citizen representatives as opposed to the careerist types obsessed with constant re-election. Two or three separated full House terms is enough with at least a four-year fallow in-between for House veterans. One full six-year term in the Senate is enough for the bulk who become Senators. Currently, there are only 100 seats at two per state so they should move on to make time for others. Staying in D.C. over six years only works to transform them more into citizens of D.C.

To get elected as a first-term president our term limits proposal says one would have to have been out of office six years beforehand. A first-term vice presidential candidate fallows six years beforehand and they would be elected independent of the president in a separate race on the ballot. First-term presidents will be elected fresh from living amongst the people for a requisite time, not immediately from the machinations of public office.

Also, instead of electing a president of the swing states as we have been doing, we wish to elect a truly national president by eliminating all-or-nothing elector slates and replacing them with a more proportional result for each state. California Republicans, Texas Democrats and all other states' proportions would have to be taken into account by the campaigns. Each state's slate would possibly be under a more congressional share of the electors while half of all states' combined total electors are determined by state legislatures which provides a state-level check alongside a popular vote. This is the basic description of our bicameral electoral college plans.

The previously $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill and the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill are just two recent examples of government doing what it does best -- wasting large sums of your money on false promises and bureacratic red tape. As of posting this treatise, they are having to lower the proposals and the cost on the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill but it still is a massive amount. The original proposal spent on hard green initiatives, pro-union crackdowns, welfare expansion, IRS snooping, bribes for their voter base and citizen-last policies. The social programs, mandates and taxes would directly or indirectly raise the cost of living for all, inflate the debt and weaken the currency plus cause energy disruptions and socialize medicine. The details of the original as-proposed plans reveal their dastardly intentions.

'First proposed in 1966 and named after Columbia University sociologists Richard Andrew Cloward and his wife Frances Fox Piven (both longtime members of the Democratic Socialists of America, where Piven today is an honorary chair), the “Cloward-Piven Strategy” seeks to hasten the fall of capitalism by overloading the government bureaucracy with a flood of impossible demands, thus pushing society into crisis and economic collapse.'

'This was an example of what are commonly called Trojan Horse movements — mass movements whose outward purpose seems to be providing material help to the downtrodden, but whose real objective is to draft poor people into service as revolutionary foot soldiers; to mobilize poor people en masse to overwhelm government agencies with a flood of demands beyond the capacity of those agencies to meet. The flood of demands was calculated to break the budget, jam the bureaucratic gears into gridlock, and bring the system crashing down. Fear, turmoil, violence and economic collapse would accompany such a breakdown — providing perfect conditions for fostering radical change. That was the theory.' ~ Nancy Oakley | November 18, 2018

Now you see why......

'Build Back Better is fully paid for. It reduces the deficit and grows the economy,” Pelosi said on the House floor. .....This is incorrect on all counts.'

'The Wharton School of Business modeled a more realistic scenario in which much of the “Build Back Better” spending is made permanent. It found that government debt would increase by 25% over 30 years — which means trillions of dollars in new debt on the shoulders of taxpayers.'

'What makes this criticism from Pelosi ring so hollow is that she just added a massive tax cut for the rich into the "Build Back Better" plan. Democrats changed the state and local tax deduction, an obscure tax provision that largely benefits rich people who live in blue states, to the tune of $280 billion in tax relief. It almost all flows to high earners.' ~ by Brad Polumbo | November 20, 2021 07:00 AM

'While Democrats’ $3.5 trillion reconciliation package contains major tax hikes and spending increases, it also contains numerous provisions of dubious origin. These provisions reveal Democrats’ priorities: carving out giveaways to the Left’s base by spending on “woke,” wasteful initiatives.' ~ Submitted by IMorales on Monday, September 13th, 2021, 6,30 PM

'All of this spending is on top of the three coronavirus relief bills passed by Congress in April and December, 2020, and March 2021, which included more than $116 billion for transportation. Some 59 percent of the transportation dollars in those bills, or $69 billion, was dedicated to transit systems that had lost more than half of their riders due to the pandemic. In retrospect, considering the supply -chain problems we are experiencing today, that money should have been spent on freight transportation instead.'

'The infrastructure bill is really two bills in one: first, a reauthorization of existing federal spending on highways and transit; and second, brand-new spending on highways, transit, Amtrak, electric vehicles, airports, ports, clean water, clean energy, and broadband. This entirely new spending is almost entirely unnecessary as the infrastructure crisis was mostly fabricated in order to get Congress do what it always does, which is throw money at problems that are perceived to exist, whether they are real or not.' ~ By Randal O’Toole | NOVEMBER 8, 2021 2:24PM

'The $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill is a sham. Not only that, it's a sham that sets up a much bigger round of explicitly partisan spending later in the year. '

'In a climactic vote this afternoon, 19 Senate Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R–Ky.), signed onto the bill, which calls for $550 billion in new spending as part of more than $1 trillion in funding for roads, bridges, waterways, and broadband. The bill also includes essential infrastructure provisions like, er, requiring unproven new drunk-driving-prevention technology on cars, a vaping ban on Amtrak, and new reporting requirements for cryptocurrency.' ~ PETER SUDERMAN | 8.10.2021 2:09 PM

"We talk about price tags. It is zero price tag on the debt," Biden said. "We are going to pay for everything we spend."

-Sure, Joe.-

'The math doesn't add up. In order to achieve the amount of "dynamic scoring" necessary to offset that last $600 billion or so of new spending, the reconciliation bill would have to boost America's economic output by about 3.5 percent by 2031. That's far in excess of what every independent assessment of the package says it will do. In fact, at least one assessment of the package says the bill's tax increases and borrowing will more than cancel out the benefits of heightened spending, dragging growth lower.' ~ ERIC BOEHM | 9.27.2021 4:30 PM

'There are many ridiculous defenses for President Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion spending plan, including the laughable claim that it actually costs nothing. One of the more grounded defenses is that the plan is broadly popular, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.'

'Between the polls and the reluctance or opposition of Democrats who are facing competitive elections, it seems that the reconciliation bill is full of pitfalls. When you dig deeper than the public’s surface-level attitude about feel-good spending, support for the bill is far more precarious.' ~ by Zachary Faria | October 04, 2021 04:55 PM

'In a statement released Wednesday, the West Virginia senator reiterated his firm opinion, that he claims he’s repeated to Democratic leaders and President Biden ad nauseam, that he refuses to endorse expanding government programs of the magnitude that progressive House Democrats are proposing. “We can’t even pay for the essential social programs, like Social Security and Medicare,” he said.' ~ By CAROLINE DOWNEY | September 29, 2021 6:11 PM

'This chart shows the components of the Democratic Party's human infrastructure proposal (in billion U.S. dollars).'

'However, being one of the main themes of the Biden administration’s agenda, investment to combat climate change is also included throughout the bill’s other items, for example in drought and wildfire mitigation – filed under agriculture -, sustainable housing or green transportation.' ~ by Katharina Buchholz | Oct 1, 2021

'House Democrats have consolidated President Biden’s first-term domestic policy initiatives into a massive 2,465-page resolution to expand the nation’s social safety net and combatting climate change.'

'There will be universal Pre-K for 3- and 4-year-olds and a new child care subsidy for working families says the budget blueprint.... It would be available to all families regardless of income, although states would have to cover around half the costs.'

'The bill also authorizes the Justice Department to give $2.5 billion in competitive grants or contracts to local governments, community-based organizations, and other entities to prevent community violence.'

'The Senate Budget Committee claims the investments will be fully offset by increased tax revenues, health care savings, and long-term economic development, although the statement lacks details.' ~ By Marlon Owa | 10/1/2021

'Democrat-only bill for "human" infrastructure'

'Create 80% clean electricity and 50% economy-wide carbon emissions by 2030.'

'The resolution will also propose a new methane reduction and polluter import fees "to increase our emissions reductions," per the aide.'

'Increased funding for historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), pell grants, paid family and medical leave, nutrition assistance and affordable housing.'

'The package would add a new dental, vision, and hearing benefit to Medicare, extend expansions of the Affordable Care Act, expand home care, reduced prescription drugs costs and expand Medicaid coverage to states that haven't done so yet.'

'Improve green cards and pro-worker incentives and penalties.' ~ Alayna Treene, Ivana Saric | Jul 14, 2021

'If passed, the $3.5 trillion budget would mark the largest budget in the history of the United States.'

'The bill also outlines federally funded child care, home care, and housing investments, as well as an attempt to have a path to citizenship for most undocumented immigrants.'

'Among these investments is a clean energy standard that mandates renewable energy or electricity as well as further tax incentives for electric vehicles. These policies would ravage the fossil fuels industry and, if implemented, are likely to cause severe power shortages in the near future.'

'While the Democrats claim to be able to pay for lavish spending by “soaking the rich” in new taxes, history shows that such increases never produce enough revenue. As a result, Democrats will be forced to raise taxes on the middle class in short order, or borrow ever larger sums from foreign governments.'

'Biden administration seeks to balloon the already overinflated Federal government.' ~ BY ALESSANDRO SILVIA | 07/20/2021

'The pro-labor provisions are in the measure because, as American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten recently told Politico, “labor helped craft it.” A spokesman for Weingarten didn’t respond to a request for additional comment by press time.'

'The reconciliation measure “prohibits employers from holding mandatory staff meetings to discuss unionization. It punishes violations with very steep fines—up to $50,000 per employee who attends each,” according to Sherk.'

'The Department of Labor’s budget would be increased by $400 million specifically to fund an “enforcement surge against independent contractors, seeking to reclassify them as employees subject to federal labor laws. Reclassified employees will lose much of the flexibility that independent contracting affords,” according to Sherk.'

'Bans class-action arbitration to settle union disputes: “Arbitration is faster and less expensive than litigation, and also generates far fewer attorney fees"..... Trial lawyers are among the biggest funders of Democratic candidates.'

“Some of the most egregious inclusions are a ‘tax credit’ conditioned on funding union political spending, one-sided penalties that let NLRB bureaucrats bully employers who refuse to hand over workers for union control' ~ Mark Tapscott | September 30, 2021

'Paul Merski, executive vice president for the Independent Community Bankers of America, told NTD’s “The Nation Speaks” program that President Joe Biden’s proposed bank account reporting law being drawn up is a violation of Americans’ financial privacy and is a costly regulatory burden on financial institutions.'

'Merski is referring to the Treasury Department’s proposed plan (pdf) to require financial services companies to track and submit inflows and outflows from every bank account above a minimum threshold of $600 during a year to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), including breakdowns for cash. That would be down from the current threshold of $10,000.'

'Also expressing opposition were 23 state treasurers and auditors, who in a September letter called it “one of the largest infringements of data privacy in our nation’s history.' ~ BY TOM OZIMEK | October 9, 2021

'On Tuesday morning, the Independent Community Bankers of America released the results of a survey conducted with Morning Consult that found that 67% of respondents were opposed to “a proposal that would allow the IRS to collect bank account deposit and withdrawal information from American consumers,” according to a press release from the trade group.'

"Mandating broad new bank reporting to the IRS on all business and personal bank accounts would infringe on the privacy of bank customers," Rainey said on video. "It would also push more people away from a banking relationship and overload the IRS with more data than it can possible process or keep safe.'

'If the IRS reporting measure does advance in the later stages of negotiations, the industry is expected push for lawmakers to significantly raise the reporting threshold beyond the current $600 level.' ~ By Brendan Pedersen September 08, 2021, 9:00 p.m. EDT

Here we find that the reconciliation bill will cost the year-on-year GDP growth rate about 1%. This is not trivial with the rate now usually in the single digit percentage. With rates over the previous decade usually around 3-5% and disregarding the recent 2020-2021 figures due to COVID, the reconciliation bill will thus lower the annual economic growth rate a relative 20-30% assuming similar normal growth ahead.

'Using the Tax Foundation General Equilibrium Model, we estimate that the House Ways and Means proposals would increase federal revenues by about $2.1 trillion over the next decade, before accounting for $1 trillion in expanded tax credits for individuals and businesses, resulting in a net revenue increase of about $1.06 trillion. Excluding tax revenue from increased tax compliance, the proposals would raise $862 billion over ten years.'

'We estimate that the Ways and Means tax proposals would reduce long-run economic output by 0.98 percent and eliminate 303,000 full-time equivalent jobs in the United States. It would also reduce after-tax incomes for the top 80 percent of taxpayers over the long-run.' ~ Alex Durante, Cody Kallen, Huaqun Li, William McBride, Alex Muresianu, Erica York, Garrett Watson | September 16, 2021

Another virus in our midst: "CRT-1619" is a type of communist racial tyranny (CRT) pathogen creeping through the education system. Once it enters the brain of our youths through the subversive indoctrination methods of public instruction, they suffer phobias from exaggerated or ginned-up racial tensions. The purpose is to use America's past racial injustices as a wedge which pits minorities against whites in order to justify carrying out a stealth Marxist agenda promoted as a fix or compensation for America's race struggle. This approach is used instead of the more obvious class struggle that turned other countries into communist states.

The proponents of CRT have denied the Marxist roots of their elixir or even of its existence in the curricula which has exposed them as complete liars. Parents have picked up on this and the authoritarian school boards will not tolerate their dissent. Such boards use various tactics to keep parents against CRT from expressing their views at school board meetings like censorship or designating opinionated parents as terrorists.

The real goals of CRT which are to spread anti-white racism, minority victimology, ethnic dysmorphia and create a generation of malleable Marxist revolutionaries must be exposed, countered and defeated in order to preserve America as a peaceful, collaborative, free-market republic that protects individual rights.

'Contrary to the narrative about white families lashing out against an influx of black students, Loudoun County has roughly the same proportion of blacks as it did 20 years ago; the highest rate of population growth has been among Asians and Latinos, who, according to a recent Rasmussen poll, oppose critical race theory by a two-to-one margin—the same as white voters. In nearby Fairfax County, the leader of the parent opposition is an Indian-American woman, Asra Nomani, who has blasted critical race theory for reducing academic standards and discriminating against high-performing Asians.'

'America’s fastest-growing cities, shows that parents oppose critical race theory in the public school curriculum by a massive 42-point margin, and a strong majority of black and Hispanic parents oppose critical race theory and support removing “concepts such as white privilege and systemic racism” from the curriculum. The reality, contra Slate and NBC News, is that most parents, including minorities, oppose critical race theory.' ~ Christopher F. Rufo | September 26, 2021

'The NSBA deliberately misrepresents debates at school board meetings as “threats” and sometimes vociferous and angry speech as “violence.” The letter refers to dozens of news stories alluding to “disruptions,” “shouts,” “arguments,” and “mobs” but, contrary to its core claim, cites only a single example of actual violence against a school official: a case of aggravated battery in Illinois, which is obviously condemnable, but hardly the justification for a national “domestic terrorism” investigation'

'This is a deeply politicized and dangerous escalation in the debate about critical race theory in public schools. For months, critical race theory proponents, including teachers’ unions, have struggled to respond to critics, and new survey data now show that strong majorities of all racial categories oppose CRT in public school. But as their standing in the polls has collapsed, the education establishment has turned to more heavy-handed tactics.'

'In congressional testimony last week, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona refused to say that parents are the “primary stakeholders” in their children’s education; this week, Attorney General Garland is attempting to drive an even bigger wedge between parents and public schools.' ~ By Christopher F. Rufo | October 6, 2021 5:17pm

'Parents opposed to critical race theory (CRT) in California classrooms are outraged over accusations from school boards that criticism of ethnic studies curriculums based on CRT and other neo-Marxist ideologies is linked to domestic terrorism.'

“What you won’t see is this tired terrorist mom doing is burning down buildings, destroying property, physically assaulting people throwing Molotov cocktails out my car window, or murdering anyone,” she said, referring to incidents during the 2020 summer riots. “I’m a law-abiding citizen who wants a fair and healthy education for my children.”

'Fiehler said some school boards have taken steps to disrupt the conversation on CRT and other important topics, including censoring videos of public meetings on YouTube to remove parents’ comments and removing chairs to limit the seating capacity at meetings.'

“We’re either going to get this nonsense tampered down, or people like me are going to leave the state. There’s no reason to stay in a place that is completely anti-American and growing to be anti-white under the guise of anti-racism. It just defies logic and reason,” he said.' ~ By Brad Jones | Updated: October 8, 2021

'Many parents of ALL colors are pushing back against CRT education – because in truth – it’s not a FACT. It's a theory that is unproven – and can never be proven – but would be VERY divisive as it pits one group of children as “victims” and the others as "oppressors"

'Well, parents aren’t having it – and are showing up in DROVES to school board meetings to let their displeasure be heard and to make their cases as to why this controversial theory shouldn’t be taught in schools.'

'So, without citing ONE specific case, Merrick Garland released a memorandum on the issue that expressed concern about a “disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff who participate in the vital work of running our nation’s public schools.”

'This isn’t something the federal government needs to get involved in – it’s a waste of resources.' ~ Posted by Shawn Ambrosino | Oct 5, 2021

“It is bad psychology to tell people who do not believe that they are racist—who may even actively despise racism—that there is nothing they can do to stop themselves from being racist—and then ask them to help you. It is even less helpful to tell them that even their own good intentions are proof of their latent racism. Worst of all is to set up double-binds, like telling them that if they notice race it is because they are racist, but if they don’t notice race it’s because their privilege affords them the luxury of not noticing race, which is racist.” ― Helen Pluckrose

'No one is asking for schools to not teach about slavery and Jim Crow, or shy away from any other painful parts of our history. What parents are asking for is that critical race theory, a divisive sociological ideology that stands opposite of the West’s liberal tradition, does not become the lens through which all of history and social interaction is contextualized—especially when it comes to teaching kids in K-12. Teaching the painful parts of history shouldn’t be controversial, but it also falls on parents to raise their children to be good people who treat their fellow Americans with the dignity and respect they deserve. This is dangerous to the Left’s agenda. '

'Parents know that they don’t have to put up with CRT in schools and that they can be change-makers by showing up to local school board meetings, running for school board, or pulling their kids out of public schools. How the CRT battle fares on the local level will determine its course nationwide.' ~ By Adam Brandon | August 02, 2021

“I think that’s a terrible way to start kids off into life, by telling them they are oppressed, especially today. Black Americans are the most successful black people in the entire world, so why in the world would we tell black children or any child that they are oppressed? If you tell a child they can’t do something, eventually, they won’t even try.”

'King acknowledged the challenge with such oversight, saying, “It’s not like they have a critical race theory book, where the teachers are like, ‘okay, boys and girls, pull out your critical race theory book.’ It’s not like that. They weave it into regular, official curriculum.” ~ By Paulina Enck | JUNE 16, 2021

'NBC reporter Brandy Zadrozny went on MSNBC Wednesday to complain about how parents who oppose critical race theory curriculum in schools are using Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) requests to find out about what their children are being taught.'

'There are reports of curriculum which labels all White people as oppressors or supporting systems of White supremacy. In Buffalo, some of the school district's instructional materials included the assertion that "all white people play a part in perpetuating systemic racism." An elite K-8 school in New York City, separated students based off their skin color. Students of color were " embraced" while White students were taught about the "prevalence of Whiteness and privilege" Parents complained their children were made to "feel awful" about their "whiteness."

"Did you ever think we would see so-called 'reporters' like @BrandyZadrozny bemoaning FREEDOM OF INFORMATION and demanding the public only believes the official government line on everything? WATCH THIS state propagandist who sounds like a valley girl," Raheem Kassam wrote.' ~ By Yael Halon | Published June 17

'For a parent to qualify for the “White Abolitionist” club, one would have to be “dismantling whiteness and not allowing whiteness to reassert itself.”

'In essence, this theory claims that “whiteness” is inherently evil, and must be stomped out.'

'Many public schools have adopted this line of thinking, and parents, shockingly, have taken exception to their young children being labeled as either perpetual racists or eternal victims.'

“Critical Race Theory is pretty much going to be teaching kids how to hate each other,” one black father explained to a school board meeting in Bloomington, Illinois.'

'This agenda falls in line with the typical leftist methodology: Keep it a secret, especially from the parents.'

'In Raleigh, North Carolina, for example, an organization called Equity Collaborative was scheduled to offer a course to public school teachers called “Intro to Critical Race Theory.”

'The North State Journal reported that the course was canceled by the district after the Journal filed a records request for the course materials.' ~ MASON BEASLER | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25, 2021 @ 12:31 PM

'Parents Against Critical Theory (PACT) is a grassroots advocacy and outreach organization that is adamantly opposed to Critical Race Theory in all forms. Founded in September 2020, PACT has been dedicated to bringing awareness to people across the country regarding this regressive, divisive, and destructive ideology in our schools, society, and exposing those who are responsible. We also believe that freedom of speech and diversity of thought are fundamental structures of a free society and should always be protected and celebrated.'

'PACT has taken a stand against this insidious ideology, and we are actively helping Americans across the country who recognize the imminent threat that Critical Race Theory presents to our country, their community, and are helping them get organized to fight back.'

Critical Race Theory Debunked (Paperback)

'Critical race theory is one of the hot button issues of the current era. But what is it? What does it actually claim? Here, a definition is given based on five premises promoted under the general banner of CRT, and the premises analyzed and rebutted. The self-professed Marxist influence behind aspects of CRT is noted, accepted, and explored. The unhelpful nature of CRT- and in some cases its use by the corrupt- is acknowledged.' ~ by Tarl Warwick | published July 23, 2021

'The author of the project herself openly verified its fabrications, admitting that “she got it wrong when she reported that ‘one of the primary reasons’ the colonists revolted against England was to preserve the institution of slavery. '

'At the heart of nuanced social justice training lies a subset of ideologies most infamously aligned with Critical Race Theory and the Marxist movement. This training is known as the 1619 Project, and the notably Marxist ideologies which support its founding principles would make any well-read scholar write off the project as political doctrine that cannot exist outside the realm of metaphorical fiction.'

'The main function behind implementing this type of an ideology to young students has long been thought to introduce the Marxist principles of collective responsibility, intersectionality, and victim mentality. Interestingly enough, not all socialists support the 1619 Project’s implications. The World Socialist Website labels the Project as a “fraud,” criticizing the repeated alteration and dishonesty of the project.'

“The 1619 Project curriculum is not an educational enterprise. It is a tool of political indoctrination. No school system should endorse it. No teacher should use it. And no student should be misled by it, nor punished for rejecting its fatally flawed premise.' ~ By Maria Buenano | Jan. 26, 2020

'The central premise is that America was not founded in 1776, or in the early colonies, or when the Constitution was ratified. According to this new interpretation, the functional founding of America occurred when the first enslaved Africans arrived on the North American continent.'

'The letter refers to “matters of verifiable fact” that “cannot be described as interpretation or ‘framing’” and says the project reflected “a displacement of historical understanding by ideology.” Wilentz and his fellow signatories didn’t just dispute the Times Magazine’s interpretation of past events, but demanded corrections.'

'Americans have made less progress than they think, and in which black people continue to struggle indefinitely for rights they may never fully realize. Inherent in that vision is a kind of pessimism, not about black struggle but about the sincerity and viability of white anti-racism. It is a harsh verdict, and one of the reasons the 1619 Project has provoked pointed criticism alongside praise.'

“To teach children that the American Revolution was fought in part to secure slavery would be giving a fundamental misunderstanding not only of what the American Revolution was all about but what America stood for and has stood for since the Founding,” Wilentz told me. Anti-slavery ideology was a “very new thing in the world in the 18th century,” he said, and “there was more anti-slavery activity in the colonies than in Britain.”

'The project’s pessimism has drawn criticism from the left as well as the right. Hannah-Jones’s contention that “anti-black racism runs in the very DNA of this country” drew a rebuke from James Oakes, one of the Wilentz letter’s signatories.' ~ By Adam Serwer | 7:35 p.m. ET on December 23, 2019

'The New York Times’ 1619 Project entered a new phase of historical assessment when the paper published a scathing criticism by five well-known historians of the American Revolution and Civil War eras.'

'But the debate may also be scored on its many disputed factual claims. To advance that discussion, I accordingly offer an assessment for each of the main points of contention as raised by the historians’ letter and Silverstein’s response.' ~ Phillip W. Magness | December 23, 2019

'As William Hogeland wrote for Slate recently, the 1619 Project spurred such reaction in part because of its message, which disturbed the kind of people who have severe and untreated addictions to founding fathers, but in part because of the way the place and manner of its publication collapsed every context: academia, legacy media, social media, education, politics. “One random summer Sunday, the New York Times Magazine, of all things, unveiled for its big, middlebrow reading public what seemed to be a wholesale reframing of the nation’s entire history,” is how Hogeland put it.'

'If I have a quibble with this mosaic of a book, which achieves the impossible on so many levels—moving from argument to fiction to argument, from theme to theme, and backward and forward in time, so smoothly—it’s the amount of 2020 in it.' ~ BY REBECCA ONION | NOV 16, 2021 11:33 AM

'Nikole Hannah-Jones’ Pulitzer Prize-winning 1619 Project, first published as an issue of the New York Times Magazine in August 2019, argues for a reframe of American history, dating the story of the country from the arrival of a group of enslaved people in the ship White Lion on Virginia’s stolen shores, rather than from the signing of the Declaration of Independence. And that is the story told in The 1619 Project: Born on the Water'

'The result is often that Black history for children is retold in ways that reinforce the message that principles of liberty and equality always prevailed over slavery, Jim Crow, and racism. Many authors and illustrators have provided this uplifting message in creative and inspiring ways. However, the takeaway for young people may be that no matter how traumatic and violent our collective national past might have been, the United States has always been a land of freedom, opportunity, and equality under the law for everyone if they just work hard enough.'

'These stories must uplift, hope, and heal while presenting the truth of slavery’s echoes in the present.'

'Given the multitude of challenges that diverse books for young readers face in today’s anti-critical race theory political environment, it feels more important than ever to ensure all children receive accurate stories about our past, so that we can move into a shared future.' ~ BY EBONY ELIZABETH THOMAS | NOV 20, 2021 5:55 AM

It would appear from all that has transpired over the pandemic period that masks worn by the general populace really are of little effect. If anyone is going to bother then they should be using N-95 or better masks. In the early stages of the pandemic, lockdowns and other restrictions were worth attempting to slow the initial spread of the disease to give us more time to assess COVID severity and to protect hospital resources. Over time as the death rate remained relatively low for most of the population the very harsh, universal lockdowns could ease while concentrating instead our prevention efforts about the aged and those with co-morbidities. While vaccines have become less effective at preventing all infection, they still provide significant protection against hospitalization, death and long-term effects for some months afterward.

Allowing states and local governments to determine their own COVID policies makes sense as they have different densities and demographics resulting in differing transmission rates and thus various needs of preventative measures. Also these differences in approach have worked generally well in all subjects as the states provide us with fifty different laboratories to assess strategies through a diversity of scenarios. Also local and state regulations are easier to manage as opposed to having a one-size-fits-all from D.C.

If the virus had more widespread severity or fatality it would be understandable to have more stringent measures but at this point with the vaccines, relative youth immunity and hopefully achieving herd immunity or the virus becoming more typical in nature; it is time to mostly return to normal while maintaining precautions about the more susceptible groups, embracing new treatments and reacting to any future outbreaks locally and regionally.

'Also called surgical masks, these are loosefitting disposable masks. They're meant to protect the wearer from contact with droplets and sprays that may contain germs. A medical mask also filters out large particles in the air when the wearer breathes in.'

'An N95 mask is a type of respirator. It offers more protection than a medical mask does because it filters out both large and small particles when the wearer inhales.'

'A cloth mask is intended to trap respiratory droplets that are released when the wearer talks, coughs or sneezes. It also acts as a barrier to protect the wearer from inhaling droplets released by others.' ~ By Mayo Clinic Staff | Aug. 24, 2021

'Anderson cites multiple medical studies on masking that fall into one of two categories: observational studies or randomized controlled trials, dubbed RCTs. He notes that much of the scientific community has based its masking guidance on observational studies rather than RCTs. (Note: Anderson is referencing cloth and surgical masks, not N95 respirators).'

'The one trial that specifically tested masks against COVID-19 was a 2020 study in Denmark with 4,800 participants. The researchers found that “1.8 percent of those in the mask group and 2.1 percent of those in the control group became infected with Covid-19 within a month, with this 0.3-point difference not being statistically significant,” ~ by Kaylee McGhee White | August 12, 2021 11:28 AM

'We do not have quantitative, certain knowledge of the degree of protection afforded by non-pharmacologic interventions. I can cite or “cherry-pick” studies (verb choice depends on whether you agree or disagree with me) but cannot reach a definitive conclusion. We cannot “follow the science” because, at this moment in time, science is not showing us the way forward.'

'If masks and social distancing are so effective, why are there so many COVID-19 cases? Great question, and there is no good or bad answer. We have no previous experience for comparison. COVID-19 is novel, unlike influenza. We cannot draw valid comparisons using population data because we need to know the ages, co-morbidities, and exposures, and we simply do not have that information.' ~ By Chuck Dinerstein, MD, MBA | August 18, 2021

'Clearly, some people do not want you to see what politicians do behind the scenes. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, a strong advocate for mandatory masking, was caught off camera laughing about how wearing masks is an act of “political theater.”

'Studies do show masks can help in the case of direct respiratory droplets, which would matter if somebody is coughing, breathing, or sneezing directly on your face. That happens normally in a tight and highly confined space.'

'Oxford went on to say that “that despite two decades of pandemic preparedness, there is considerable uncertainty as to the value of wearing masks.” They prophetically warned that this has “left the field wide open for the play of opinions, radical views and political influence.”

'Hawaii suffered one of the most economically devastating lockdowns of all the U.S. states. It was also an early mover on mandating masks both indoors and outdoors, but cases still went up by almost 1,000 percent.'

'Why don’t masks work on the general public? For one, if you read the fine print on most consumer masks you will see something along the line of “not intended for medical purposes and has not been tested to reduce the transmission of disease.” Masks can work well when they’re fully sealed, properly fitted, changed often, and have a filter designed for virus-sized particles. This represents none of the common masks available on the consumer market, making universal masking much more of a confidence trick than a medical solution.' ~ By Yinon Weiss | OCTOBER 29, 2020

“The critics can point out the limitations to lockdowns and say, ‘See the lockdown isn’t perfect and the vaccine isn’t 100 percent effective.’ While they are correct, they are missing what’s important, which is that public health measures all reinforce each other and help reduce the risk of exposure to COVID-19 by a lot,” Hirsch told Healthline."

'Dr. Scott Braunstein, medical director of Sollis Health in Los Angeles, explains that lockdowns are a temporary measure that are used to slow the spread of disease and help buy time for scientists to track the spread, learn more about the disease, and develop treatments.'

'During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, this was the goal of lockdowns, which was referred to as “flattening the curve.”

'In fact, some critics of lockdowns will compare cities or states in the United States where there were stricter quarantine measures to those that were more relaxed, and use this as evidence that the stricter measures were ineffective, Braunstein pointed out.'

“Economic pressures led many governors to relax restrictions earlier than was advisable. People in certain parts of the country felt that acts such as wearing masks and social distancing were a symbol of political party, and willfully disregarded any precautions as a way to show loyalty to a party or leader,” he said.' ~ Written by Cathy Cassata on April 1, 2021

'The collateral damage of lockdowns, which has been well documented, includes widespread poverty, depression, bankruptcy, and unemployment. Meanwhile, the benefits of lockdowns remain murky.'

'Pandemics are serious problems, but the belief that they can be effectively managed by central planners who refuse to recognize the limits of their own knowledge and power poses a much graver threat to human freedom and prosperity in the long-run.' ~ Jon Miltimore | Wednesday, December 9, 2020

'But with lockdown, science is in danger of being suppressed by politics. Lockdown moved instantly from untested theory to unchallengeable orthodoxy: where dissenters face personal attack. Understandable on social media perhaps, but it has now crept into the British Medical Journal (BMJ) in a recent article about the Great Barrington Declaration (GBD)'

'The BMJ article is full of errors that ought to have never found their way into any publication.'

'If we are to be faulted for anything, it is that we failed to convince governments to implement focused protection instead of damaging lockdowns. One place where we had some success was Florida, where the cumulative age-adjusted Covid mortality is lower than the US national average with less collateral damage. If we are wrong, then as scientists we would welcome a scientific discussion on how and where we are wrong.' ~ WRITTEN BY Martin Kulldorff | 12 October 2021, 3:07am

'A new study published in the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases on Sept. 1 finds vaccination not only reduces the risk of infection and severe symptoms, but significantly cuts the odds of experiencing long-term effects if you’re one of the few who experience a breakthrough infection.'

'According to the findings of 971,504 fully vaccinated people, only 0.2 percent went on to develop a breakthrough infection.'

'When this data was compared with reports from unvaccinated people who got COVID-19, it was found that breakthrough cases were associated with a 49 percent lower risk of symptoms lasting 4 weeks or more after infection.'

'Even when fully vaccinated people develop symptoms, they tend to be less severe symptoms than experienced by unvaccinated people, reducing the risk of hospitalization or death.' ~ Written by George Citroner on September 3, 2021

'People who have had a "hybrid" exposure to the virus. Specifically, they were infected with the coronavirus in 2020 and then immunized with mRNA vaccines this year. "Those people have amazing responses to the vaccine," says virologist Theodora Hatziioannou at Rockefeller University, who also helped lead several of the studies. "I think they are in the best position to fight the virus. The antibodies in these people's blood can even neutralize SARS-CoV-1, the first coronavirus, which emerged 20 years ago. That virus is very, very different from SARS-CoV-2."

'Hatziioannou and colleagues don't know if everyone who has had COVID-19 and then an mRNA vaccine will have such a remarkable immune response. "We've only studied the phenomena with a few patients because it's extremely laborious and difficult research to do," she says.'

'But she suspects it's quite common. "With every single one of the patients we studied, we saw the same thing." The study reports data on 14 patients.' ~ Michaeleen Doucleff | September 7, 2021 9:32 AM ET

'Researchers at Public Health England posted a preprint this week detailing a modest but appreciable dip in vaccine effectiveness against hospital admission and death. This occurred about 20 weeks out from inoculation for recipients both of the mRNA vaccine from Pfizer–BioNTech and the viral vector vaccine from the AstraZeneca — although the effect was most pronounced for older individuals and those with underlying health conditions. Among the elderly, there was also some indication that spacing out the initial two doses of vaccine promoted more durable protective immunity.'

'But any discussion around the need for boosters cannot be had in a vacuum. In addition to considerations of immune kinetics among the immunized, there are also issues of vaccine equity and availability to factor in. And as long as vaccinated people are staying out of hospitals and morgues, then to Katrina Lythgoe, an evolutionary epidemiologist at the University of Oxford, UK, theoretical arguments around vaccine resistance are secondary. “In my view,” she says, “apart from people who are particularly vulnerable, efforts should be directed to getting people, globally, vaccinated.” ~ Elie Dolgin | 17 September 2021

'At four to six months, the relative risk reduction with the Moderna vaccine was 71%. Pfizer was at the same time point only offering a 47% reduction in risk, and AstraZeneca was at that point not doing anything whatsoever to lower risk.'

'So, if governments hadn’t been so hasty to get the vaccines out, and had demanded six months of follow-up rather than two, only the Moderna vaccine would ever have been approved in the first place.'

'There is however a pretty good case to be made for regular boosting of the multi-morbid elderly every four months, preferentially with the Moderna vaccine.'

'the protection generated by infection has been shown to be both durable and broad, in spite of junk science claims to the contrary produced by the CDC.'

'The only way the pandemic ends is by enough people getting infected and developing natural immunity, which is the same way every prior respiratory virus pandemic has ended.' ~ Sebastian Rushworth, M.D. | 5 November, 2021

One has right to wonder about where Biden's loyalties lie as there have been all the reports about his and son Hunter's dalliances involving Ukraine and China. Is Biden compromised and has to make concessions to the Chinese or is he a globalist who supports communist China's rise or both?

'In the days after the disastrous withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan under the direction of President Biden, ceding the country to the Taliban and engendering the perception around the world of American weakness, Chinese military aircraft, including fighter jets, have been flying repeatedly into Taiwan’s air defense zone.'

'Here’s one key reason why Taiwan is so important to the West: semiconductors. Bloomberg News pointed out that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.” is the “world’s largest foundry and go-to producer of chips for Apple Inc. smartphones, artificial intelligence and high-performance computing,” adding, “there is also speculation that Beijing could resort to stealing chip IP, with Taiwan at the heart of those endeavors.”

'After former President George W. Bush bluntly stated in 2001 that the United States had an obligation to defend Taiwan if it was attacked by China, saying America would do “whatever it took” to aid Taiwan, then-senator Joe Biden ripped Bush in The Washington Post, writing, “Words matter. … As a matter of diplomacy, there is a huge difference between reserving the right to use force and obligating ourselves, a priori, to come to the defense of Taiwan. The president should not cede to Taiwan, much less to China, the ability automatically to draw us into a war across the Taiwan Strait.” ~ By Hank Berrien | Sep 6, 2021

'Though these types of exercises have been ongoing, China’s state-run news outlet, the Global Times, directly linked the timing with the recent fall of Afghanistan and parlayed it into a cautionary tale for the Taiwanese Democratic Progressive Party.'

'The Global Times piece continued by asserting that Taiwan is strategically, militarily and economically less important to the U.S. than Afghanistan, thus making any aid from America even less likely should tension turn to war.'

'It’s hard to argue with the Chinese communist state-run media when the withdrawal has been an unmitigated disaster for the Middle Eastern nation while also humiliating the U.S. and breaking our allies’ trust — and now we’re left to contend with the Biden effect.' ~ By Christine Favocci | August 17, 2021 at 5:27pm

'But not everyone is excited about this change. Tom Cotton, a Republican Senator, is deeply critical of this decision, saying that it’s completely unacceptable that Biden and his administration would support Chinese spy companies and ease the pressure against them.'

'Huawei is the #1 phone producer in China. Leaders in Beijing considers it to be a “national champion” and it is central in China’s plan to accomplish their “Made in China 2025” plot. What is “Made in China 2025?” It’s a plan that China has to completely dominate the high-tech manufacturing industry. In fact, the CEO of Huawei used to be a high-ranking officer of intelligence in China’s People’s Liberation army. This could be the biggest mistake of Biden’s Presidency, and that’s saying something.' ~ Author: Tegan Orwell | August 26, 2021

'Podesta, who has known Joe Biden for decades and is close with a number of his advisers, will now be lobbying Team Biden on behalf of the Chinese tech giant which in February 2020 was charged by the U.S. Department of Justice with violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO — a key DOJ tool for going after organized crime.'

“The Biden administration approved hundreds of millions of dollars in chip sales to Huawei even though American auto companies and American factories for overseas brands like Toyota and Nissan are scaling back production and temporarily shutting down their operations because they cannot get enough of the chips needed for modern auto electronics.” ~ by WorldTribune Staff | August 27, 2021

'A new set of emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop have thrown doubt upon President Joe Biden’s claim he didn’t know about his son’s overseas business dealings.'

'This got almost no coverage outside of the Post, the Daily Mail and conservative media. The rest of our legacy media outlets are more concerned with more urgent matters like whether the president ate cookies ‘n’ cream or chocolate chocolate chip ice cream today.'

'The emails also revealed that Cooper flew with Hunter Biden and Joe Biden to Mexico on Air Force Two back in 2016, something Turley said followed “a similar pattern revealed with regard to the China dealings.” Hunter Biden had also accompanied his father to China on board the vice-presidential plane.' ~ By C. Douglas Golden | July 7, 2021 at 6:20am

'Hunter Biden boasted of having "access to the highest level” in China, according to emails of his business contacts published on Thursday.'

'Ho was indicted and convicted for his role in a global money laundering and bribery scheme. Ho, likely under FISA surveillance at one point, tried reaching out to Joe Biden's son for help because he agreed to represent Ho as part of his efforts to work out a liquefied natural gas deal worth tens of millions of dollars with CEFC China Energy leader Ye, who has since disappeared in China.'

'In 2017, Tony Bobulinski, a former business partner of Hunter Biden's, worked with him and others to create a business dubbed Sinohawk to establish a joint venture with CEFC. Bobulinski repeatedly expressed in 2017 messages that he expected the venture to get off the ground with $10 million in startup money from CEFC. A Senate GOP report concluded that millions of dollars were sent by CEFC to accounts linked to Hunter Biden instead.' ~ by Jerry Dunleavy | Updated Sep 23, 2021, 08:45 PM

'This is RealClearInvestigations’ Hunter Biden Reader, a compendium of news reports aggregated across the political spectrum documenting the dubious dealings and apparent influence peddling of Joe Biden's errant son and other family members.'

'The greatest consequence was the stifling of an October surprise of potentially historic proportions: Emails from Hunter Biden's abandoned laptop, suggesting an aspiring president mixed up in corrupt foreign dealings by his son, did not break through to wide public awareness during the 2020 presidential campaign, as polling indicated. To this day, the Wikipedia entry for Hunter Biden makes a single passing mention of "a laptop purportedly belonging to Biden."

'It wasn't until after the election that the New York Post was vindicated: With the laptop in its possession for some time, the FBI revealed that Hunter Biden had long been under investigation, but the probe was kept quiet for fear of tilting the presidential campaign.'

'The Hunter Biden story was suppressed in several ways:

~ By The Editors, RealClearInvestigations | October 27, 2021

We also have the issue of election integrity. Voter I.D. is being vilified as some racist plot yet asking for I.D. is very common in daily transactions such as renting a car, leasing an apartment, buying a plane ticket, lodging in a hotel, opening a bank account, cashing a check, getting medical treatment, buying alcohol, etc. There is no rational racial argument against voter I.D. on account of racism or voter suppression in light of all these other examples. Even those who oppose it on grounds that voter fraud is infrequent neglect the need of the populace to have confidence in the election system especially with tight margin races. Voting by mail needs to return to its original parameters on behalf of those who cast absentee ballots due to travel situations. There have been illegal ballot harvesting incidents and again this makes for more reason towards the need of the populace to have confidence in the system. The opposition may claim ballot harvesting is not happening in significant numbers but we want to keep it that way by having the vast majority of votes cast in-person on election day.

To further secure our election system from controversy, we want independent, non-partisan, accredited outfits to perform parallel counts of the results in real time at the polls. This will be done by each outfit bringing their own tabulation equipment where every ballot is read by each separate counter and all tabulators must agree upon the tally vote-by-vote. Those tabulators may report outward remotely whereas any operational commands or software come by keypad input and ROM disc only. Ballots used would have enhanced security features such as ink that changes color in relation to the time exposed to the open air or to light along with water marks, bar codes, innocuous voter attribute input for ballot reclamation like your bent elbow and knee distances to the floor (Go Metric!). Scratch-off activation (like for lotto cards) and even scratch-and-sniff ballots (banana, cherry, lemon, mint, cinnamon, lavender - designated smells for particular precincts, turnout buzz and your pleasure) would be hard to replicate and more time-consuming to activate functioning as an impediment to any possible ballot dumping.

Perhaps just having the specific candidate names and races printed out via an on-site ink/laser printer at the poll for each voter on generic ballots that are time-barcode stamped by those specific printers for each precinct would provide an adequate degree of disincentive for fraud. Though more expensive per ballot than complete mass-printed ballots (might save on volume produced though), such efforts may be desired by the voters to achieve confidence. Most counts should be completed by election night with relavitely few taking longer. Consider the errant statewide counts' remaining proportions settled by their state legislature after 72 hours barring a result by usual settlement methods beforehand.

'Between 2012 and 2018, 28.3 million mail-in ballots remain unaccounted for, according to data from the federal Election Assistance Commission. The missing ballots amount to nearly one in five of all absentee ballots and ballots mailed to voters residing in states that do elections exclusively by mail.'

'A significant increase in mail-in voting this fall could greatly incentivize “ballot harvesting,” where third parties collect mail-in ballots on behalf of voters and deliver them to election officials. There’s long been a consensus that such a practice incentivizes fraud, and ballot harvesting is illegal in most of the country. Public debate over the issue has intensified in recent years after a GOP operative in North Carolina was indicted for crimes related to ballot harvesting in 2018.'

'There’s little doubt that as the number of mail-in ballots increases, so does fraud. A 2012 report in The New York Times noted that voter fraud involving mail-in ballots “is vastly more prevalent than the in-person voting fraud that has attracted far more attention, election administrators say.'

'Concerns about fraud in mail-in ballots were serious enough that a 2008 report produced by the CalTech/MIT Voting Technology Project recommended that states “restrict or abolish on-demand absentee voting in favor of in-person early voting.” ~ By Mark Hemingway | April 24, 2020

'A 2005 report by the Commission on Federal Election Reform, a bipartisan commission led by former President Jimmy Carter, was clear that election fraud does exist, that it must be deterred to preserve election integrity, that it could make the difference in a close election, and that absentee ballots “remain the largest source of potential voter fraud.” We have an obligation to secure our elections against these vulnerabilities.'

'In fact, one has to consider: Why has a legion of election fraud deniers so suddenly and so rapidly materialized at this moment in history? And why are they against common-sense reforms that the vast majority of Americans support, such as voter ID and maintaining the accuracy of voter registration rolls?'

'Common-sense protections help promote election integrity. Simple steps such as witness signatures on absentee ballots, official postmarks, in-person voting by all who are able, and photo ID at your polling place and with absentee ballots ensure that every American’s vote counts.'

'Our job was to uphold the civil and constitutional rights of all Americans—and that’s what I did. In fact, the Bush administration filed four times as many cases as the Obama administration to enforce the main provision of the Voting Rights Act, Section 2.' ~ Hans von Spakovsky | November 01, 2020

'HR1, which was passed by the House and is moving to the Senate, federalizes elections, bans voter ID and sharing voter registration rolls to determine if someone is registered in more than one area, and forces states to permit presidential voting by mail.'

'60% of Democrats the party pushing HR1, 89% of Republicans, and 77% of unaffiliated voters support voter ID. .....Even likely voters who are African-American (69%) support ID laws.'

'Photo ID is even needed at the Democratic National Convention to receive their official credentials (at the GOP convention too). Heck, you can’t even get into the DNC office in D.C unless you can prove who you are.' ~ by Jeff Dunetz | Mar 18, 2021

While we can hold the Biden administration culpable for the situation at the border, we are not without option in controlling the flow of illegals. The Constitution says in Article I, Section 8, Clause 11: 'Congress shall have the power to....grant letters of marque and reprisal and make rules concerning captures on land and water'. This means Congress can commission privateers or bounty hunters to take property or people captive along the border. Further, Congress has the power in Clause 15: 'To provide for calling forth the militia (state implored paramilitaries) to execute the laws of the union, supress insurrections and repel invasions' which would be applicable when the administration refuses to enforce immigration law and a caravan of illegals rushes the border. Not only that but in cases of invasion for the public safety, writs of habeas corpus can be suspended (Section 9, Clause 2) which means the requirement to review the validity of the holding of a prisoner is waived. Does this provision not give precedence for the suspension of 'catch and release' with regards to immigration and border security in the rushing caravan situations? During such incursions should Congress have removed or limited border agents and other authorities making training for border deployment contingencies more convenient, a Commonwealth president would induce military exercises at or near the border.

So while the administration refuses to assert border and immigration law, Congress instead can be convinced to act on our behalf. With the tight margins in the House and the Senate we should be able to implement border action. So begin lobbying your congressional officeholders to do something along these lines for border security. Those who vote against it should be made aware that they will be primaried and removed over this issue that a large majority support as the approval polls concerning border management illustrate.

Another release valve we could consider on behalf of the cooperative migrant job seekers is to declare free/foreign trade zones that straddle both sides of the border. If the extraneous migrants are given opportunity to work assembling widgets or folding pizza boxes or whatever while making adequate money and are monitored to prevent sweatshop conditions, they will more likely stay put just across the border instead of risking the greater hassle of being smuggled in and then on the constant run. Let them start out in tent cities and if they accrue enough capital then run some electric lines and water. After a while they get their own Wal-Marts and trailers should the settlements be more permanent. We can guide them towards establishing their own city-states along the border that produce needed items for America at lower prices as opposed to relying on China.

If Mexico is tacit to the migrations and various factors hold well then eventually there could be an effective constitutional Sierra Republic across our border. If the working-oriented of those populations get an American style of life then they won't likely bother going further north and we wouldn't have to worry about them being subject to human trafficking in the states nor beholden to our own scheming politicians planting them here as an amnesty-dependent voter base. If some years down the road they want to become a state, they properly regulate their own border and they prove their constitutional merit then allowing them in the Union at that point would be acceptable as an orderly form of mass-annex legal naturalization.

There are ways to be compassionate and humane without resorting to a lawless chaos which actually subjects transnationals and our citizens to great peril. Why are we not focusing on streamlining legal immigration as the priority? It's because leftists want a desperate, free-for-all immigrant voter base.

Should the border still be a point of contention in the next presidential race, the border security candidate(s) should have a bus tour along the border (with proper security detail) going through the border towns plus have their election night headquarters in one of the cities at or near the border to illustrate the importance of this issue. They should also have their vice-presidential candidates touring the border to rub it in against the current vice of the administration.

'On Wednesday, the Biden administration denied Texas’ request for “federal assistance to respond to the thousands of illegal crossings along the border,” which Abbott has appealed.'

'Abbott sent a letter to President Joe Biden on Sept. 20, asking for an emergency declaration saying that “the federal government failed to enforce immigration laws, and in particular, failed to halt illegal crossings on federal property.” ~ by Staff | report Posted: Oct 1, 2021

“The President has a plan for taxes. Where is the plan to protect our southern border?” Democratic Del Rio Mayor Bruno Lozano asked on Twitter. “The VP is able to visit the fun events across the country, while American communities continue to grapple with failed immigration reform. Where is the visit to Del Rio, TX?”

'Now, Border Patrol agents and Mexican authorities are warning another wave of 19,000 Haitians, who have been living in South America safely for years, are on their way. More than 12,000 have been released into the U.S. without mandatory court dates.'

“We could afford to take in a heartbeat another 2 million people [per year],” Biden followed up during remarks to the Asian and Latino Coalition PAC in August 2019.'

'Despite the fact that “strapping” or “whipping” never happened, horse patrols were stopped in Del Rio, eliminating another important tool Border Patrol agents need to do their jobs.' ~ BY KATIE PAVLICH | 09/29/21 07:55 AM EDT

'Border Patrol agents told Fox News that migrant family units, who were unlikely to be removed under Title 42 public health protections (only 19% of family units were removed under Title 42 in August) and instead would likely be processed and released into the interior -- potentially at a nearby bus station -- either that night or in the morning.'

'The Biden administration ended the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) which kept migrants in Mexico as they awaited their immigration proceedings. Separately, they also ended asylum cooperative agreements (ACAs) which meant migrants would claim asylum in Northern Triangle countries instead.'

'The dangers for migrants remain significant. Typically, they are dropped off by a smuggler -- who are typically paid around $10,000 per person -- at the Mexico side of the border. They walk across the brush for hours, where they face extreme heat, treacherous terrain and wildlife dangers like tarantulas and rattlesnakes, before they are then met by a smuggler on the U.S. side.'

'Meanwhile, ranchers in the area told Fox News how migrants will wreck fences as they climb through their property, that gang activity is up in the area, and warned how deaths of migrants in the area are on their way back up to levels not seen since 2012.' ~ By Zoey Khalid, Fox News’ Bill Melugin contributed to this report. | Last Updated Oct 12, 2021

'The governors said that the Biden White House has refused to acknowledge their concerns about the decline of security at the southern border. The rise in human smuggling, now at the highest level in two decades, is hurting their states, they said, even those 1,000 miles away from the border.'

'At the top of the list, the governors call for Biden to commit to continuing Title 42 expulsions, a pandemic-era protocol that allowed for the immediate return of border-crossers to Mexico or their country of origin rather than placement in custody. The Biden administration vowed to end Title 42 as the pandemic improved but has yet to do so. However, the majority of families who come across the border are not being expelled but released into the United States, even though at one point 20% of migrants tested positive for the coronavirus after being released.'

'Many of the governors have deployed their own state National Guard troops to the Texas border and want the federal government to reimburse them for those costs. They also asked for notification from federal officials when unaccompanied children and families are flown or bused to their states.'

“We've tried to meet with the president and be a part of the solution, but he refuses," Ducey said. "Even worse, he ignores us just like he's ignoring the border and the well-being of the American people.” ~ by Anna Giaritelli | October 06, 2021 01:00 PM

'Ducey said he and 25 other governors, some of which were present at the press conference, sent a letter to the White House in September requesting a meeting to discuss border policy, which he claimed went ignored. "We've tried to meet with the president and be a part of the solution, but he refuses," Ducey said.'

"In addition to that they need to resume the deportation of all convicted criminals," Reynolds said. "When President Biden took office the first thing he did was issue an executive order that ordered ICE do limited deportations. That is unacceptable. That should have never happened."

'Rickets finished by saying the Biden Administration needs to "properly resource" the border. "This is not new," he said. "Four previous administrations deployed National Guard troops to the border to be able to help out with this crisis down here. The administration needs to call more soldiers to be able to do that. They can do that under Title X so that the states don't bare the cost. That's what the proper role of the federal government is." ~ Ariana Garcia | Oct. 6, 2021

President Biden Job Approval - Immigration

'Definition of letters of marque: written authority granted to a private person by a government to seize the subjects of a foreign state or their goods'

'Many of our members are current of former Military and Police. As citizens of the United States of America, we also have a duty to preserve and protect the Constitution against all enemies, foreign or domestic. A national network of like minded groups will be necessary to ensure continuity of Constitutional government, and it is our responsibility to preserve that capability independent of government, to keep government accountable, and guard against domestic enemies on a federal and state level, as was always intended under the Constitution.'

'Want to avoid customs authorities in the trade process and even defer paying duties on merchandise? Establish a foreign-trade zone (FTZ) or what is often identified outside the United States as a free-trade zone. Discover the benefits and how to set one up.'

'As you can see, the biggest differences between a foreign-trade zone and free-trade zone are the manufacturing element and location. If you need to manufacture merchandise further, the foreign-trade zone is the route to take.'

'Many U.S. freight forwarders also have established contacts with many of these foreign free-trade zones and can provide information on the appropriate documentation needed to ship goods through them.' ~ BY LAUREL DELANEY | Updated on June 27, 2019

The Afghanistan conflict was rife with corruption and inefficiency. Critics said that the locals could never be acclimated to a free society and we should just pull out. It was not properly nor honestly assessed and in later years there were no updates or defined strategy. Instead of fighting to liberate Afghanistan as a whole it was really an effort to secure city-states like Kabul and Khandahar. The terrain and remoteness gave impetus to this approach. Yet if the mission had been honestly declared to be within the city-state parameters, the corruption had been countered and with little to no casualties in the more recent years then a strategy of securing the city states and letting liberation and modernization radiate outward over a long period of time would have been an acceptable goal. This along with eventually having the option to leave with a stabilized military and government in the city-states for their protection would have been a more viable approach with a cost-effective ability to return for surges if any threats had arisen. Instead, the bunglers went in and preempted victory with nation-building which facilitated massive corruption and internal weakness. Despite the relative progress in the city-states, the Biden administration then came in and pulled the plug without regard to the warnings of Taliban advancement and the Afghan army's unreliability which was caused in large part by lack of logistical support before the withdrawal.

If some threat arises and we have to return, the city-state hub approach should be the honest objective without tolerating the vast corruption and inefficiencies of a dubious national government just to keep up appearances. The city folk left behind were in fact ready to live a life of freedom and modernity but were betrayed by the short-term politics of the Biden administration.

'International plans to provide humanitarian aid to Afghanistan are bound to enrich the hardened terrorists at the core of the Taliban’s new regime, according to a House Republican who deployed to Afghanistan in the U.S. Army.'

“The Haqqani Network is in charge of Kabul, and Kabul has 25-30% of the Afghan populace,” he said. “They have a long history of skimming aid.”

'Waltz maintained that it will be simple for the terrorists to access those funds, even if they arrive at their intended destination in the first place, because they can threaten the recipients. “Do we continue to push international funds through the hands of known terrorist organizations that are actively, right now ... abusing minorities, women, and civil society leaders?” He said. "I think not.” ~ by Joel Gehrke | October 12, 2021 01:08 PM

'Since 2008, various U.S. government agencies have constructed or procured nearly $7.8 billion in capital assets in Afghanistan. Of that, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) found that around 30 percent ($2.4 billion) of the assets were unused or abandoned, had not been used for their intended purposes, had deteriorated, or were destroyed; around 15 percent ($1.2 billion) were being used as intended and a paltry 4 percent ($343.2 million) of the assets were being maintained in good condition. The status of the rest is unclear, as SIGAR notes it has been unable to determine the status of various assets when the relevant reports were published. '

'In its summary of the evaluation report, SIGAR notes that “Most of the capital assets not used properly or in disrepair or abandoned are directly related to U.S. agencies not considering whether the Afghans wanted or needed the facilities, or whether the Afghan government had the financial ability and technical means to sustain them.”

“The lesson of all of this is two-fold,” Sopko said. “If the United States is going to pay for reconstruction or development in Afghanistan or anywhere else in the world, first make certain the recipient wants it, needs it and can sustain it. Secondly, make certain before you spend the money there is proper oversight to prevent this type of waste.” ~ By Catherine Putz | March 02, 2021

'The U.S. government has wasted billions of dollars in Afghanistan, and until now, no one has added it all up. Project after project blundered ahead ignoring history, culture and warnings of failure. And Congress has barely blinked as the financial toll has mounted. Here’s just what the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction found. See for yourself how that money could have been used at home.' ~ by Megan McCloskey, Tobin Asher, Lena Groeger and Sisi Wei, ProPublica, and Christine Lee, Special to ProPublica, December 17, 2015

'There’s over two thousand pages of previously unpublished documents and notes from interviews showing that the U.S. government deliberately misled Americans about the progress of the war in Afghanistan and proffered misleading and dishonest claims that senior officials knew were untrue. The title “Afghanistan Papers” is an unflattering nod by The Washington Post to the Pentagon Papers, which exposed the lies by the government in the Vietnam War.'

'U.S. District Court has yet to rule that the public has a right to know which public officials misled the American people on the war'

'Was al-Qaeda the enemy, or the Taliban? Was Pakistan a friend or an adversary? What about the Islamic State and the bewildering array of foreign jihadists, let alone the warlords on the CIA’s payroll? According to the documents, the U.S. government never settled on an answer.'

'After 18 years, encompassing three presidential administrations from both parties, no one has been held accountable for the vast U.S. taxpayer dollars—not to mention, blood, sweat, and tears—wasted on an exercise for a purpose that even the principle players seem unable to identify.' ~ BARBARA BOLAND | DECEMBER 10, 2019

'Despite concerns about burn pits dating back to Vietnam, they continued to be used in Afghanistan and Iraq because they “provided an easy answer.” Contractors used them to burn as much as 410 tons of solid waste a day during the war, from vehicle parts to Styrofoam to computers to unexploded ordnance and medical waste, at times leaving plumes of black smoke lingering above barracks areas. After soldiers returned home with health concerns, new guidelines were passed in 2009, which sought to phase out the burn pits and replace them with incinerators beginning in 2011.'

'SIGAR, a government entity created to document and prevent waste and wrongful use of American taxpayer money in Afghan reconstruction, alleges the Defense Department spent more than $20 million on eight incinerators that were never used, and turned a blind eye as bases used open-air burn pits to dispose of toxic items such as batteries and tires.' ~ BY NEAL UNGERLEIDER | 02-18-15

'For almost two decades, the U.S. taxpayer has forked out close to two trillion dollars – around three thousand dollars per person – on efforts to bring about a peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan. But as the final contingency of U.S. troops prepares to fly home in the coming weeks, even as the Taliban amplifies its bloodletting across the beleaguered nation, controversy swirls as to what went wrong and how so much money could be disseminated and disappeared.'

'Moreover, more than $500 billion has been compiled in interest, as the U.S. fought much of the war on borrowed dollars, and for years, SIGAR has lamented that this money is merely exacerbating conflicts, enabling corruption, and boosting insurgent outfits. With that, the notion of “ghost soldiers” has and continues to be a big problem – meaning that thousands are being paid despite not showing up for work, being deceased, or not existing in the first place. Yet, someone was taking those paychecks.'

'The U.S. Department of Justice has also had its work cut out over the past two decades arresting and charging both American and Afghan nationals for an endless slew of deceitful opportunities aimed at illegally benefitting from the money thrown blindly into the war machine.'

'Much of the waste and corruption from all sides of the spectrum seem to have carried on, despite it being languished and condemned in reports numerous times, months, and years on end.' ~ By Hollie McKay | Aug 09, 2021 4:30 PM ET

'Still, reckoning with just how massively wasteful the conflict was is a necessary exercise—and one that will hopefully inform future U.S. foreign policy decisions. With any luck, the United States will survive another 20 years without an event like the ones that unfolded on September 11, 2001, but there will inevitably be future calls for military action. When they come, Afghanistan must be remembered not only as a military defeat but as a warning about the inevitable corruption and waste that come with any large-scale government project.'

"Spending was the mission, and we succeeded at it on a grand scale," journalist Matt Taibbi wrote recently in his Substack. Indeed, it's probably best to think of the Afghanistan war not as a war at all—at least not after the initial phase of the conflict had ended with the Taliban being deposed—but as a massive social engineering program run by a largely unaccountable government bureaucracy—one that has never successfully passed an audit but keeps getting budget increases anyway.'

'The real tragedy of the post-9/11 wars is, of course, the American, Iraqi, and Afghan lives that ended in pursuit of…well, we're not really sure. But a secondary tragedy is the failure—a failure that lasted for nearly two decades—of the media and Congress to ask the tough questions about how America's finite fiscal resources were being deployed to pay for it all and to listen to the auditors who were warning about the waste and fraud all along.' ~ ERIC BOEHM | 9.10.2021 12:35 PM

A hangover of overzealous lockdowns along with labor shortages that were caused in part by overly generous money printing to subsidize furloughs have contributed to the supply interruptions we currently are facing. Now on top of that the administration may trigger strikes by issuing broad vaccine mandates affecting the trucking industry amongst other vocations. As of this posting, has the administration looked into using surplus military C-130 cargo planes, frigates, trucks and personnel to help distribute the goods with compensation?

'On a macro level, air and ocean freight are experiencing massive delays and skyrocketing prices. Not only is it peak shipping season but many companies are suffering from supply chain problems due to the residual effects of the pandemic and new COVID-19 restrictions. Natural disasters like typhoons, floods, and wildfires have also affected the freight market, further slowing down supply chains and reducing capacity.'

'Companies are also facing growing consumer demand for foreign-made imports, a shortage of labor, lack of empty containers, congested ports and terminals, and lagging inventory levels. Supply chains have slowed and prices have increased as a result.'

'In recent months, many countries have cut off land access for sailors due to the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus. As a result, the ocean freight industry is experiencing labor shortages similar to those at the height of lockdowns in 2020.'

'Industries also face unique challenges. Cars and electronics, for instance, are hard hit by the shortage of semiconductor chips. Toys coming from Asia are experiencing lengthy shipping delays due to congestion in container lines and ports, as well as a shortage of truck drivers and warehouse spaces. Chicken wings might run out in restaurants and grocery stores because of increased consumer demand, coupled with labor shortages at farms and processing plants.'

'When the pandemic started, shipping companies cut back on capacities as they were afraid of the decline in future demand. As the economy worldwide is coming back to normal, shipping demand has increased but shipping capacity needs time to recover.' ~ Claire Hall | October 12, 2021

"At this point, shortages are guaranteed," Jonathan Gold, vice president of supply chain policy at the National Retail Federation, told Insider. "... We've been warning consumers to manage their expectations for the holiday shopping season for months now. The fact of the matter is the supply chain is stretched to its limit from end-to-end."

'Two of the largest US ports saw a 30% increase in the amount of goods going through them while processing the cargo with 28% fewer workers. In July, the US Labor Department reported that the warehouse industry had a record 490,000 job openings. Meanwhile, the trucking industry has a shortage of over 80,000 drivers.'

'While the record backlog at Southern California ports represents the most eye-grabbing aspect of the supply-chain crisis, every leg of the industry is in chaos, RBC analyst Mike Tran told Insider. Last week, Moody Analytics warned there will be "dark clouds ahead" for the supply chain.'

'Experts predict the disruptions will continue well into 2023, despite efforts from the government to mitigate the issue.' ~ Grace Kay | Oct 21, 2021, 12:55 PM

'The federation warns that motor carriers it represents – who it said supply 80% of the country and move 70% of all freight tonnage — could lose up to 37% of their drivers.'

“...Our data shows that a vaccine mandate may very well further cripple the supply chain throughout the country by forcing up to 13% of drivers to leave the industry entirely.”

'ATA said that given the well-documented shortage of drivers and current stresses on the supply chain, the mandate would critically damage the supply chain in vast swaths of the U.S., significantly impeding the economic recovery, employment, and the holiday season right when retailers and families desperately need a functioning supply chain.'

“Unfortunately, if the administration does not specifically address the concerns expressed in this letter, ATA will be forced to take additional action against the OSHA ETS (Emergency Temporary Standard) and possibly the government contractor mandate to protect our industry, our drivers’ livelihoods and the consumers in 80% of the country who depend on trucks exclusively to obtain the necessities of daily life like food, medicine, and fuel, as well as access to the vaccine,” ATA said.' ~ Eric Miller | October 21, 2021 9:15 PM, EDT

'Why is there only one crane for every 50–100 trucks at every port in America?'

'What is going to compel the shippers and carriers to invest in the needed infrastructure? The owners of these companies can theoretically not change anything and their business will still be at full capacity because of the backlog of containers. The backlog of containers doesn’t hurt them. It hurts anyone paying shipping costs — that is, manufacturers selling products and consumers buying products.'

'There is no “cavalry” coming. No trucking companies are going to pay to register their trucks to haul containers for something that is supposedly so “short term,” because these same companies can get higher rate loads outside the ports.'

'Many supply chain workers are paid minimum wages, no benefits, and there’s a high rate of turnover because the physical conditions can be brutal (there aren’t even bathrooms for truckers waiting hours at ports because the port owners won’t pay for them. The truckers aren’t port employees and port owners are only legally required to pay for bathroom facilities for their employees. This is a nationwide problem).'

'How do you convince truckers to work when their pay isn’t guaranteed, even to the point where they lose money?' ~ Ryan JOHNSON | cica 10/27/21

'The supply lines of February 2020 were impossibly complicated structures that no politician could ever hope to design. Think billions of individuals around the world pursuing their narrow work specialization on the way to enormous global plenty. Put another way, the shelves in economically free countries were heaving with all manner of products based on economic cooperation that was staggering in scope. Brilliant as some experts claim to be, and brilliant as some politicians think they are as they look in the mirror, they could never construct the web of trillions of economic relationships that prevailed before the lockdowns. But they could destroy the web. And they did; that, or they severely impaired it.'

'Let’s instead be realistic and talk about central planning. We know from the 20th century that when politicians, authoritarians or both substitute their intensely narrow knowledge for that of the marketplace that immense want for very little (and lousy) supply is the logical result. Yes it is. When we’re not economically free, bare shelves are the inevitable result.' ~ John Tamny | Oct 24, 2021 10:00am EDT

Imagine the satisfaction on the morning after a major election where Congress, the presidency and your local and state offices have done much more than just repeat another pyrrhic switch between the two statist parties. No, it would be a much greater victory to have a substantial share of independents and third parties holding seats in our government. Finally the duopoly's stranglehold is cast off giving fair chance to a new era of innovative solution, more reasonable compromise and voice to the varied interests across the spectrum. Should a proper governing faction large enough arise, we can finally steer ourselves towards financial sanity while keeping away the specter of budget brinkmanship. As practiced now, they instead raise the debt "ceiling" yet again while trying to avoid default with reckless disregard.

With more representation from the varying factions of the spectrum, binary sellouts about the more difficult issues could be tamed. Instead of the obsession theatre over carbon footprints and climate change hyperbole, other ecological concerns like plastics in the environment, storage of nuclear waste, toxins released in war zones or through industry plus the pharmaceutical by-products peed into our waters could be focused upon with better precision than just the typical major-party drastic or blunted measures.

Having more parties in office, a sufficient number of leverage points could be achieved allowing for what is currently improbable like vastly simplifying the tax code, making corporations rely no more on federal subsidies hopefully due to lobbyists not bothering to petition for such from a government that now has limited powers. Suppose term limits are passed that will put more typical citizens in office as opposed to career politicians. A government of the better candidates could arrive as opposed to a government solely divided to the worst evils. It would be a truly historic day where significant numbers of outsiders to the duopoly got elected, more so than celebrating the race or gender identification of some particular officeholder.

Now this is a depiction of a more ideal scenario as multi-party governance is no guarantee of proper policy but it is more preferable than what an increasingly imposed two-party system provides especially if the multi-party system uses a proper election protocol like range voting.

So who should determine which political parties hold power -- you or the establishment political parties?

'Andrew Yang, a 2020 candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination and a 2021 Democratic candidate for mayor of New York, has announced the formation of the Forward Party.'

'Adjusting to the possibility that the GOP still belongs to Donald Trump, they are also thinking about their options. Conservative commentator Jonah Goldberg has suggested that they, too, create a third party.'

'Finishing second in a state gets you nothing, even when second means 49%. Ross Perot won 19% of the nationally aggregated popular vote in 1992 but gained no electoral votes because he won no states.'

'For instance, in most states, the major parties have nearly automatic ballot access, but other candidates must submit a significant number of petition signatures, pay a fee, or both.'

'Though third-party candidates rarely win legislative seats and have never won a presidential race, they have not been irrelevant to American politics.'

'In Part 2, I will examine the implications of third-party history for the 2024 elections.' ~ By Andrew E. Busch | October 19, 2021

'The last time a new party supplanted one of the two major parties was in the 1850s, when Abraham Lincoln and like-minded activists in Illinois and Wisconsin created the new Republican Party, pushing aside the feckless Whig Party, which dithered on the issue of slavery.'

'As for my suburban-based party, I sense voters there tend to be college educated, tolerant of diverse lifestyles, concerned about government overspending and worried about national economic and social decline. They simply want order, harmony and prosperity.'

'I feel many of my suburban voter base (obviously not limited to suburbanites) consider that America has become fat, sloppy and dependent on government (maybe that’s too harsh), and that we need to hark back to the now-hackneyed yet pertinent John Kennedy exhortation: Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.' ~ By Jim Nowlan | Saturday, November 7, 2020, 12:05 a.m

'The share of independent voters has trended upward in the past two decades, and this fall accounted for 36 percent of the electorate, according to Gallup. A report released Monday projects this unaffiliated population will continue growing over the next 15 years.'

'As the share of independent voters increases, the number of Americans registered with the Democratic or Republican party is expected to dwindle. Thirteen states are expected to see a registration decline or stagnation for both major parties, and another 13 will see a drop in just one party's registration.'

"The United States is going through a political realignment," the report concluded. "Unlike past realignments, which involved the emergence, repositioning, and/or obsolescence of entire political parties, the accelerating national trend of the last 30 years is voter disaffiliation from the Democratic and Republican Parties.' ~ Sara Swann | November 30, 2020

'Following World War II, when political parties were robust, a mere 15% of voters declared themselves independent, according to Pew Research Center. But unaffiliated voters have come to dwarf those claiming allegiance to either party, with 40% of the electorate now declaring themselves as independent, compared to 29% identifying as Democrats and 28% as Republicans, according to an August poll from Gallup. Simple math thus dictates that any candidate must appeal to this rogues’ gallery of voters who abandoned one or both parties, or are simply not enamored of either brand.'

'The Joe Biden presidency which has emerged over eight months is hardly what was promised to – or expected by – those independents, women, suburbanites and moderates who based their votes on the promise that he would bring competence, unity and moderation back to the White House.' ~ By: Tim Donner | September 27, 2021

'From November 2016 through March 2017, about 6,000 Republicans switched affiliations. That number jumped to more than 26,000 from November 2020 through this past March.'

"The Democrats are down 250,000, Republicans are up about 250,000, and yet registered Unaffiliated is up a whopping million registered voters," reports deBruyn. "You're really seeing a shift away from the parties to Unaffiliated."

"I actually believe next year will be the first time in the history of this state that Unaffiliated will outnumber Democrats and Republicans by the November 2022 mid-term elections," Shumaker says. "It means that both parties are going to have to form an issue coalition with Unaffiliated voters in order to win their support.' ~ By Rusty Jacobs | Published May 5, 2021 at 7:00 AM EDT

'The chairwoman of the Republican Party warned that she would advise the GOP's 2024 White House nominee to skip the presidential debates without numerous reforms from the commission that organizes them.'

'McDaniel also slammed the commission for holding the first debate after early voting began in eight states and absentee voting began in 26 states. Many states extended their voting deadlines last year to give people more time to vote because of the COVID pandemic.'

'The reforms she demanded included term limits for the board, a code of conduct, committing to one debate before early voting begins, establishing criteria for debate moderators and a code of conduct for moderators.'

'She also demanded that if any moderator violated the code of conduct the penalties should include 'suspending their employer network from participating in future debates.' ~ By EMILY GOODIN | UPDATED: 00:04 EDT, 3 June 2021

'That same year, Adams left the Democratic Party because he felt that Democrats were too moderate and not politically progressive. Adams felt he aligned with no one in Delaware politically, so he registered as “unaffiliated.” As an unaffiliated voter, Delaware’s constitutional major-party provision and bare-majority provision barred Adams from serving on any of the state’s three highest courts.'

'First, judicial positions were reserved only for Republicans because of the bare-majority provision while Adams was a Democrat. Second, as an “unaffiliated” voter, Adams was ineligible for any position on the state’s three highest courts because of the major-party provision.'

'Tragically, the major-party provision still stands on the rights of nearly twenty-five percent of Delaware citizens who are “unaffiliated” or third-party voters — all of whom are considered so heterodox they are excluded by law from serving on Delaware’s three highest courts.' ~ by Ben Sheppard | March 13, 2020

'Article II of the U.S. Constitution, the part where it says "No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President," is disconnected from realpolitik. If it reflected today's reality, it would read more along these lines:

'No person who cannot overcome arcane ballot access laws in fifty states and is not a billionaire shall be eligible to the office of president except those nominated by the reigning duopoly and condoned by the New York Times and Washington Post or the five polling companies that are contracted to provide polls to the bipartisan, corporate-funded commission on presidential debates lest they be thought to clutter the playing field or deprive one of the other candidates of their rightful entitlement to all the votes that the aspiring person might otherwise take.' ~ by RALPH NADER and THERESA AMATO | National Civic Review, Summer 2001, page 163

'In countries with multi-party structures, every ideological faction gets to have a party all their own. Then once the election is past, the messy process of coalition-building and compromise begins. But here in the U.S., those compromises must be achieved before a general election, usually during a primary season in which one side or the other is defeated, becomes resentful about their defeat, and quickly begins to plot their return to prominence. Parties that allow their internecine hostilities to continue through the fall campaign usually lose general elections. Those that can successfully suppress those intramural differences until after November are more likely to succeed.' ~ BY DAN SCHNUR | DECEMBER 2ND, 2020

'Ms. Gehl and Mr. Porter write that the system is not “broken,” because it is performing exactly as designed. Instead of being accountable to the people, the Democrats and Republicans have “perversely optimized” rules that shape our daily behavior and outcomes to benefit themselves.'

'Two features are to blame: partisan primaries and plurality voting. Partisan primaries take advantage of “safe” [usually gerrymandered] Congressional districts. In such districts, the real race is in the primary. Once the “safe” party’s candidate wins the primary, the general election is usually little more than a formality.'

'As a result, corporations have thrown their weight into distorting antitrust and trust legislation in their own favor, and have encouraged Congress to neglect needed political and social reforms.' ~ By outsidetheline | July 13, 2021

'The two major political parties organize to control our government so they can control the nation, including its commerce, e.g. trade, advertising, finance, communications, food production. By limiting third-party access to the ballot, the two parties maintain perpetual control over commerce.'

'Simply, political parties provide services for money, these services are the lifeblood of commerce.'

'If the two major political parties do not impact commerce, then no one does. Once over this threshold issue, the immunities will disappear if the conduct is unreasonable. The potential of antitrust liability, by itself, should temper the unreasonable anticompetitive conduct of the two major parties.' ~ William L.Kovacs | December 2019

'We work with organizations around the country to reduce the institutional barriers that limit electoral competition, restrict the nonpartisan right to vote, and insulate the two major parties from competition.'

'Being independent is a mindset, not an ideology. It does not mean that you lack an ideology. It does not mean that you don’t have libertarian, socialistic, conservative, or liberal tendencies. Being independent means that you don’t believe so stridently in a perfect philosophy that everyone who doesn’t agree with you must be an idiot … or evil … or brainwashed.'

'Being an independent means you are grown up enough to think for yourself. You are confident enough to allow others to speak. And you are humble enough to think you might learn from someone. We call ourselves the Independent Voter Network because the platform is open to anyone who wants to participate in a civil dialogue, including you -- whatever ideological tendencies you hold.'

When someone says that secession is not a viable option then ask them if they feel the same about one of its causes -- our election system that forces upon us two state parties which is causing more and more the polarization and eventual need to separate. If they want to counter secession then they need to support an open multi-party electoral system that uses the range vote so that the pressures causing us to split apart are relieved. As long as the arrogant political class in power ignores the reasonable demands of unaffiliated voters, centrists, small business owners, legal citizens, patriots, "deplorables", American Nubians, whitey and budding secession movements then more people will conclude that secession is the only remaining option. Explaining and returning us to our personal and property rights under the Constitution, re-instituting federalism, honoring state and local sovereignty, free markets, smaller government, fiscal responsibility and jettisoning wokeism would all reduce the calls to secede but getting there now without switching to multi-party governance may prove difficult. Having multi-party suffrage would better chance and preserve those goals while still allowing for a workable, integral unity.

While the concept of a national divorce is achieving tacit acceptance, we note too the growing number of counties wanting to secede to other states and the recent initiative for the Buckhead district to leave the city of Atlanta and become an independent municipality. Notice how these reasoned, sovereign efforts for creating new states or an independent city are derided by the usual establishment players whereas the outright coups carried out by mobs declaring autonomous zones during riots got covered with more empathy and calls for understanding their desperate plight while they burned down buildings. Instead of instant race-based autonomous zones as were decreed in Minneapolis and Seattle, a more Buckhead approach should be taken in large cities like Baltimore. Baltimore should have a debate about decentralization and allow a process to go forward from being the large, less governable city it is now and transform itself into Baltimore Boroughs where the current boroughs become independent towns having their own mayors, school boards and police departments while instituting budget accountability. Those boroughs who option for things like school choice, defunding teacher's unions and more localized police forces as opposed to defunding police departments will find themselves freer of Baltimore's or whatever large city's dysfunctions.

There are some who say they would never resort to secession or engage in violent revolution. Do they know that the founders who seceded from Britain included the second amendment right to bear arms in order to provide a resistance of last resort against a tyrannical government? To those who say they will never resist taxation, secede nor fight or take up arms as a final option have in effect declared their eventual surrender for when the government has amassed enough power and resources to control the people. Sure, such actions should not be taken for light and transient causes and conflict should be avoided pursuing all peaceful means until exhausted. However, the radical mobs of tyranny place little if any control upon their means to subvert, indoctrinate, mandate, threaten, confiscate, corral and take revolutionary control. Those who say peaceful means and union at all costs have already declared their surrender to the coercion and annexation by the control-freak polis. So one authoritarian nation under identitarianism, wokeism, fascism, Marxism, etc. is something we might subject ourselves to by the attrition of forever seeking only peaceful means? Sorry, some are more rational and will withhold, leave or fight the kidnappers if necessary.

'The poll indicates 52 percent of Trump voters lean towards secession as a solution to the political differences currently gripping the country.'

'Not much lower, 41 percent of Biden voters at least somewhat agree with the same sentiment.'

'Both Biden and Trump voters show a large percentage willing to propose that the sitting President should have unilateral decision-making power without constraints from Congress.'

'The late, great conservative radio icon, Rush Limbaugh, just two months before his death, warned that America appeared to be heading down a path where secession would become more popular.' ~ BY RUSTY WEISS | OCTOBER 1, 2021 AT 10:38AM

'Last year, there were dueling secession books. From the right, George Mason University's F.H. Buckley published American Secession, arguing that “the United States is ripe for secession” and “there’s much to be said for an American breakup” (although Buckley favors what he calls “home rule” for the states, a new constitutional compact giving them much more authority). From the left, The Nation’s Richard Kreitner wrote Break It Up, contending that “we must finally finish the work of Reconstruction or give up on the Union entirely.”

'Substacker David Reaboi wrote a post the other day titled, “National Divorce Is Expensive, But It’s Worth Every Penny,” urging “Red America to think about economic and cultural autonomy for itself, and what it would take to get there.” Texas state Rep. Kyle Biedermann has been agitating for so-called Texit, and Allen West, the former chair of the Texas GOP and now a candidate for governor, has talked of secession.'

'It would matter, by the way, who gets control of the federal government, the most powerful organization on Earth. It has 1.3 million people under arms and a stockpile of 3,800 nuclear warheads. Whether this, not to mention federal lands and other assets, accrues to red or blue America would, to understate it, be a matter of considerable haggling.' ~ by RICH LOWRY | 10/06/2021 07:21 PM EDT

'Bright Line Watch and YouGov released results of a nationwide poll that found citizen support for their state to separate from the US has been on the rise, with 37 percent showing a “willingness to secede.” ~ Zak Failla | 08/01/2021 9:30 a.m.

'We are Christian social conservatives who live in the Yankee Midwest. We believe that conservative states in the US should preserve liberty and traditional values by seceding from the US and forming a loose federation. We believe that this could resolve the culture war. Or, if a civil war starts, “national divorce” could be the solution that ends a civil war.'

'I believe one likely spark for the Second American Civil War will be the result of a coup d’etat carried out by anti-America extremists. It will catch most Americans by surprise. The coup plotters will act quickly to seize the critical levers of power, before any opposition has a chance to react. And they will be aided and abetted by the kinds of people Lenin referred to, contemptuously, as useful idiots.'

'The faculties at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton will pass resolutions of fervent support, and their brainwashed students will rush to enlist in the revolution before all the excitement passes. Likewise, left-leaning foundations and oligarchs will promise financial support. And the Federal Reserve will flood the economy with debased currency.'

'And what will be the agenda of this regime? The first priority is obvious: the confiscation of all privately owned guns. An armed citizenry ready and prepared to defend its rights would be an intolerable threat to the regime.' ~ Mark Nuckols | Jul 21, 2020 12:01 AM

'The United States has been a united country ever since 1865. But what if for whatever reason today, the country split into 2 different countries along the lines of historically Republican and historically Democrat states? Watch to find out and leave your comments!' ~ RealLifeLore | Jun 30, 2017

'The surprising second step – for some – is voting to unsnap your county from a liberal state and try snapping it to another state. If this sounds fictional or illegal, it is neither. If it sounds unlikely, probably so, for now. Still, these voters are sending a signal to local leaders, state legislatures, governors, and members of Congress.'

'States from Maine to Texas, Georgia to Oregon, are finding themselves internally divided – breaking into red and blue, limited versus big government counties. The effect is deep divisions within legislatures, more acrimony between counties, and a greater sense of lost state-wide consensus.'

'What this movement means – beyond recalculation of state borders – is important. People are tired of being told what to do, dictated to by out-of-touch leaders and cities, tired of feeling powerless, marginalized for their traditional, political, ethnic, historical, economic, or geographic identifiers.'

'Finally, watch 2022 elections for control of state legislatures, governorships, and both chambers of Congress begin earlier, get nastier faster, and produce a major channeling force for one of the highest levels of popular discontent with leaders at all levels of government in living memory.' ~ By AMAC, Robert B. Charles | Posted Thursday, May 27, 2021

'State legislators in three conservative western Maryland counties are seeking permission to secede from the state to join neighboring West Virginia.'

'Congress has only granted approval to change state boundaries on three occasions: In 1792, when Kentucky was carved out of what was then Virginia; in 1820, when it cleaved what became Maine off of Massachusetts; and in 1863, when it admitted counties that had once been a part of Virginia into the Union as West Virginia.'

'But the request is by no means unique: Counties in about half the states have sought, at one point or another, to leave their home states. In recent years, conservative rural counties in states like Washington, Oregon and California have sought to join neighboring states or carve out a new one of their own; voters in five Oregon counties voted for nonbinding resolutions seeking to join Idaho.' ~ BY REID WILSON | 10/21/21 01:26 PM EDT

"This election proves that rural Oregon wants out of Oregon," said Mike McCarter, president of the advocacy group Citizens for Greater Idaho.'

'He added, "If we're allowed to vote for which government officials we want, we should be allowed to vote for which government we want as well."

'On the political front, organizers predict that voters in Oregon "will be glad to get rid of 'Trump-voting low-income counties.' " They also say that with fewer Republicans in the legislature, Oregon's Democratic lawmakers wouldn't have to worry about political deadlock.' ~ BILL CHAPPELL | May 20, 2021 3:57 PM ET

'A group of disenfranchised Colorado residents are exploring the possibility of annexing from their home state and changing boundary lines so their entire county becomes part of Wyoming.'

'Wyoming, with about 579,000 residents, has been the nation’s least populated state for more than three decades. If the Weld County movement were successful, it would boost Wyoming’s population by more than 50 percent and Vermont could become the country’s least populated state.' ~ BY MORGAN GSTALTER | 01/29/21 08:34 AM EST

'But a proposal filed Monday by a Roswell Republican would take those divisions a step further by allowing counties to petition the Legislature to actually secede from the state – either to join a neighboring state or create a new state.'

'If approved by the Legislature and statewide voters, the proposed constitutional amendment would allow counties to launch an effort to formally disengage from New Mexico through a unanimous vote of county commissioners — or a voter petition drive.'

'In New Mexico, much of the regional discontent is based in the state’s Republican-leaning southeastern region, which is sometimes known as Little Texas due to cultural similarities and a reliance on the oil industry as a top economic driver.' ~ By DAN BOYD | Feb. 3, 2021, at 10:00 a.m.

'The Buckhead City Committee (formerly the Buckhead Exploratory Committee) is a diverse group of residents with a broad range of expertise who have united to improve the quality of life in our community. Our goal is to improve the safety in our streets, ensure that our city services align with our tax dollars, build infrastructure and preserve our parklike setting through keeping tree canopy and zoning.'

'Join friends and neighbors across Buckhead to support Buckhead becoming its own city! Our referendum will be in November of 2022, but we still need to get the word out.'

'… no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.'

'The language of the provision is a bit unclear. Does the second clause above (“nor any State be formed”) refer back to, and continue the discussion, of “new states”? That would mean that the provision does not govern the transfer of territory from one state to another.'

'Bearing in mind these obstacles, the state secessionists’ best bet would be to have some local referendum or Convention that would overwhelmingly favor joining another state. Then the receiving state would sue in the Supreme Court’s original jurisdiction. The interstate disputes jurisdiction extends to all kinds of disputes. The receiving state would have to argue that general principles of republicanism and democracy militate for people who have overwhelmingly (say 75%) expressed their desire to join another state should be allowed to do so.'

'There is no requirement that states be continuous, as Michigan’s northern peninsula demonstrates.' ~ by Eugene Kontorovich | October 11, 2013 5:52 am

While America plays catch-up to Russia and China in hypersonic missile technology and refurbishes its nuclear arsenal, we feel it is worth the money to invest in missile networking advances plus researching, testing, deploying new missile defenses. A series of intercept missile batteries supplementing any usual lower-48 cache should be deployed on the Aleutian Islands as well as proper Alaska, Canada, Greenland in order to defend against Russian, North Korean and Chinese threats.

In the South Pacific we would consider deploying missile batteries at various places in the U.S. Pacific Islands Region. With agreement we would consider deploying in the Philippines, Indonesia Archipelago, Australia, New Zealand, etc. and farther to the east in Mexico, Central and South America. Similar can be said for our bases, territories or upon agreement in the West Indies, Bermuda, Macaronesia or Ascension Island in order to counter missile threats from Russia and Iran.

We also have to begin taking measures to have missile, laser and other capabilities to defend our satellites.

'With scores of nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles, China already has the ability to strike the US mainland with devastating force. However, the hypersonic missile test – which the Chinese say was a peaceful spacecraft launch – can be read as a warning from Beijing that it could defeat, through its technological prowess, US missile defences.'

'The US plans to spend up to $1.5tn to overhaul its nuclear arsenal by rebuilding each leg of its nuclear triad – with new warheads, submarines and bombers being commissioned.'

'China’s crushing of any shred of resistance in Hong Kong, in breach of its promises to maintain the region’s freedoms, suggests a desire to return the country to its historic position as the unchallenged power in east Asia.' ~ The Guardian editorial | Mon 18 Oct 2021 14.18 EDT

Comments:

'There is still a large gap between the US on China on almost every front. China is also facing numerous problems including an ageing population, power shortages, massive environmental degradation and alienation from many of its neighbours.'

'However given their one party dictatorial system they can certainly make decisions much more effectively than a hugely polarised US which seems more interested in its absurd culture wars than anything else.' ~ Twinsen

'There are currently about 44 missile interceptors in underground silos throughout Alaska and California. The system is designed to defense against missiles from nations like North Korea and other rogue actors. A missile attack from say Russia or China would easily overwhelm the system due to the amount of incoming warheads. '

'Should a single missile come streaking out of the sky towards the United States, the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system would be more likely to succeed than fail. However, under less-than-ideal weather conditions or against a salvo of missiles, the GMD system effectiveness could significantly decline and is a good argument for further GMD testing and dollars.' ~ By Caleb Larson | September 13, 2021

'today the missile threat to North America has increased to its highest levels since the 1980s. Long distance, over the horizon (cruise, ballistic, and hypersonic glide) missiles from air, sea, and land platforms over the Arctic are being demonstrated, developed, and deployed by the near peers. Intrusions into North American airspace are happening more frequently and with much more sophistication and complexity.'

'Reports that China may have tested a new hypersonic weapon have grabbed the world’s attention and divided national security experts about its strategic significance and whether the U.S. was falling behind in a new arms race.'

'Leaders of the U.S. missile defense enterprise have increasingly voiced concerns that the current U.S. approach to national and regional missile defense is unsustainable and that existing defenses must be augmented with emerging capabilities to reduce the cost of missile defense and keep pace with advancing adversary missile threats.'

'Broadly, the review proposes to expand the role and scope of U.S. missile defenses by focusing not only on ballistic missiles, but also other types of missile threats, such as regional cruise and hypersonic missiles. It also proposes placing greater emphasis on the importance of space and new technologies to intercept missiles during their boost phase when they are traveling at their slowest. The review also calls for integrating offensive attack operations more closely with missile defenses and to supplement the defense of the U.S. homeland with the Aegis Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IIA interceptor.' ~ Contact: Kingston Reif | Last Reviewed: August 2019

'A July report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has indicated that efforts to develop reliable long range air defences have continued to struggle, with two out of three flight tests aiming to integrate the Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile systems failing. The issues were attributed to software problems.'

'Networking various air defence systems has major potential benefits, most notably the possible use of American THAAD systems in South Korea and AEGIS systems deployed by the Navy in East Asia to provide targeting data which could help cue ballistic missile defence systems on the U.S. mainland itself against Chinese and North Korean launches. The fact that U.S. missile defence tests have repeatedly relied on unrealistic mock targets, which use predictable flight paths and have no significant countermeasures, has repeatedly raised questions regarding how effective its missile defences actually are.' ~ By Military Watch Editorial Staff | June-15th-2021

'The U.S. military has a renewed sense of urgency in defending space assets following Russia’s successful missile launch that hit and destroyed a satellite.'

“We’re doing this mission area by mission area. We need to take our missile-warning assets, we need to add layers of orbits, hybrid capabilities, smaller satellites, and commercially provided capabilities,” she continued. “That will all complicate Russia targeting our prime missile-warning capabilities.” ~ by Mike Brest | November 18, 2021 10:25 AM

'The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) is a United States and Canada bi-national organization charged with the missions of aerospace warning, aerospace control and maritime warning for North America. Aerospace warning includes the detection, validation, and warning of attack against North America whether by aircraft, missiles, or space vehicles, through mutual support arrangements with other commands.'

'To accomplish these critically important missions, NORAD continually adjusts its structure to meet the demands of a changing world.'

'To accomplish the aerospace control mission, NORAD uses a network of satellites, ground-based radar, airborne radar and fighters to detect, intercept and, if necessary, engage any air-breathing threat to Canada and the United States.'

'The United States of America holds claim to 16 territories outside of the United States. These range from Puerto Rico, with over 140 smaller islands and over 3 million residents, to uninhabited territories (and disputed territories) such as Bajo Nuevo Bank, Navassa Island, Serranilla Bank, and Wake Island. The United States has many political, defensive, social and other reasons to claim these territories as important lands of the United States.'

Location of the Aleutian Islands:

Location of the West Indies:

Location of Bermuda:

Location of Macaronesia (Azores, Madeira, Canary, Cape Verde) for the east Atlantic island options for missile batteries.

Quick Macaronesia overview.

'Ascension Island is remote, south of the Equator and midway between Africa and South America.'

Fast, sleek trains look like the future of rail. It should be if they save time, energy, are more environmentally sound and are cost-effective. Perhaps energy-wise they are conservative but concerning time and price they have proven otherwise with government involvement. Unless the population is dense enough (proximity not mentally) and people are willing to rail instead of drive, the record of government rail projects indicates a certainty of tracking into waste.

Instead of pushing high speed rail quickly and all at once, government should let private transportation companies and investors determine where and when such projects will unfold. If there is a return on the investment of laying new track and there is pent-up demand then high speed rail will find its way at a reasonable pace.

If a high speed freight rail line from say Brownsville, TX to Tijuana, Mexico would bring an advantage to certain east-west cargo vessels transferring containers to rail versus sailing a longer path through the Panama Canal then it might be worth looking into. If a high speed rail project from Russia to Alaska via a Bering Sea chunnel and beyond through their respective continents can provide an advantage in the trade of freight or complete/compete say a Belt and Road initiative then it's worth looking into. However, such grand projects directed by improperly checked government promises should best be avoided according to previous record.

'USHSR was founded in 2009 as an independent nonprofit organization with the mission to build widespread public, business, and political support for a major federal investment in America's national rail network.'

'High speed trains outperform both flying and driving combined in every measure - capacity, mobility, convenience, speed, safety, efficiency, cost, energy consumption, profitability, national security, carbon footprint, physical footprint, economic development, smart growth, and more.'

'Our trainsets offer more space and larger luggage storage than an airplane, without the hassle of long TSA lines or crowded baggage claim. Our spacious coach cars let you easily move about so you aren’t stuck in your seat for the duration of the ride, and our café cars serve as a market-place on wheels with endless options to choose from. Oh yeah, did we mention our trainsets are dog-friendly?'

'We are the best in safety as the largest train control company in the world, and our proven technology meets ETCS standards. Our trainsets are proven and reliable with more than 1000 Siemens Mobility trainsets in use around the globe that have logged close to two billion miles in passenger operation.'

'With high speed rail you can live in one part of the country and work in another without sacrificing time or money to do so. The fastest mode of ground transportation, high speed rail can bring together regions and make large distances seem a little smaller. With the projected rail investment, there is no distance that is too far.'

'Bullet trains are also dramatically more energy-efficient than planes and automobiles. The International Energy Agency reports that even though the rail sector carries 8% of the world's passengers, and 7% of global freight transport, it only represents 2% of Earth's transport energy demand. Even better, three quarters of passenger rail activity is on electric trains, making the rail industry the only form of transportation that is widely electrified today. So yeah, getting a country on rails is way cooler — and better for the world — than manufacturing billions of electric cars.'

'To be fair, right after Japan first introduced bullet trains to the world, the U.S. tried to hop onboard (you're welcome) from the get-go. All the way back in 1965, according to Marketplace, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the High-Speed Ground Transportation Act. While construction began immediately — and did have some early success on the East Coast — the U.S. attempts ran into frequent mechanical problems, resulting in depleted funds by 1975.'

'The U.S. has higher car ownership rates than other nations, so these countries are far more open to the idea of putting higher taxes on vehicles to cut demand — sometimes to the point of taxing purchasers an additional 150 percent on the car's base price. You think a tax like that would ever fly in the U.S.? Not in this lifetime.'

'Competition is supposed to be the key factor that makes the whole U.S. system work, but the airline industry pours buckets of cash into lobbying against high-speed rail, trying to ensure that the tracks never get built.'

'RailFreight reports that CRRC Tangshan, an arm of the China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation, has unveiled an HSFR line. The vehicle reaches a max speed of 350 kilometers per hour (217mph), and could be a game-changer for the freight industry, due to the increasing demand in both B2B and B2C markets for fast delivery of goods.'

'American freight may have larger market share than its Asian and European counterparts, but our freight trains are a long way from becoming high-speed.....Furthermore, 70mph is the upper limit of current American rolling stock, and increasing speeds would be expensive.'

'In theory, America’s Class 1 freight companies could build high-speed tracks on their own property, but it would require investments in new rolling stock, electrification, and training. (The per-mile cost of high-speed track ranges from $2.2-2.6 million.) The cost-benefit analysis of funding all these capital expenditures is questionable.' ~ By Scott Beyer | March 26, 2021

'Despite the planning community's long-running embrace of transit, the latest data suggests the public prefers to get around in their cars and SUVs.'

'They take Southwest Airlines, which offers low-cost, quick flights serving the major airports. Yet former Gov. Jerry Brown had focused his attention on building a $100-billion high-speed rail system that, if it ever is completed, will have ticket prices higher than airfares and will take nearly twice as long as flying to get from the Bay Area to Southern California. What is the point?'

'This highlights the real problem with transit. Planners, not consumers, drive it. Real private enterprises—as opposed to firms receiving taxpayer-funded subsidies to build government-directed projects—would never build a rail system based on an "if we build it, they will come" model. They would build systems that meet customer needs rather than fulfill wishful fantasies.' ~ STEVEN GREENHUT | 2.1.2019 12:00 AM

'A new report by the European Court of Auditors (ECA)—the E.U.'s spending watchdog—found that the continent's web of high-speed rail lines are "not a network, but an ineffective patchwork" that suffers from chronic cost overruns, delays, and poor performance.'

'Had these European countries stuck to building or upgrading conventional rail lines, says the ECA, "costs involved could in fact have been far lower, with little or no impact on operations."

'Originally sold to voters at the low, low price of $68 billion, the Golden State's bullet train now costs $98 billion and will not be fully operational until 2033.'

'Given the continued cost overruns, delays, and politicized design decisions, Brown has already succeeded in delivering a European-style rail experience.' ~ CHRISTIAN BRITSCHGI | 6.26.2018 1:00 PM

'But even if – by some impossible miracle – the government spent the money wisely and efficiently, long-distance rail doesn’t make sense.'

'After the government helped ruin private passenger rail in the post-WWII years, it took over the remaining passenger rail routes in the 1970s under the Amtrak brand. Amtrak was supposed to become self-supporting, but it has consumed tens of billions of taxpayer dollars over the years.' (Chris Edwards)

'Amen. If inter-city rail travel makes sense, it can and will attract funding from the private sector.'

'Sadly, President Biden wants to move in the opposite direction. His so-called infrastructure plan makes taxpayers foot the bill.' ~ by Dan Mitchell | Posted on April 3, 2021

'Robert Poole, director of transportation policy at the Reason Foundation, a free-market think tank, disagrees with that projection. "My biggest problem with this is the idea that there is a large unrealized demand for this sort of train travel," he said. "I don't think we have any evidence for that, and the cost of trying to stimulate it is is very large.'

'Freight railroads are notorious for causing major delays to passenger trains. Only one of Amtrak’s 15 long-distance trains achieved better than 80% on-time arrival in 2020. Six failed to achieve better than 60% on-time performance. The Sunset Limited train, which runs between Los Angeles and New Orleans, arrived on schedule for just one in three trips in 2020.'

'Freight railroads may resist the addition of more passenger trains or require Amtrak to make expensive upgrades to the freight lines.'

'He explained that America's freight railroads are optimized for efficiency. "To the extent that we, by deliberate policy, put a lot more passenger trains on to those freight rail lines, it's going to reduce the efficiency and cost effectiveness of transporting freight by rail rather than by truck." ~ By Dan Zukowski | Published Oct. 20, 2021

'Anthony Haswell, considered the father of Amtrak, stated 30 years after it began that:

'In that time, Amtrak has cost the taxpayers a lot more than $20 billion…but that they have gotten back a pretty skimpy return. The trains were not only costly, they were slower than trains were 50 to 60 years earlier, and they were often late…I am personally embarrassed by what I helped to create.'

'From a public policy standpoint, there is no justification for the federal government to own and operate a national railroad passenger system that is essentially irrelevant to the transportation marketplace.'

'In other words, intercity buses carry about twice as many passenger miles as Amtrak, while airlines carry a hundred times as many.'

“It is time politicians resist the siren song of Amtrak,” said Tobin. “It’s a 19th Century solution to 21st Century problems.” ~ BY ADMIN | MAY 5, 2021

'Congress is continuing its usual pattern of short-funding needed maintenance so that it can fund new projects. After all, if all of the money in the bill went to the Northeast Corridor, senators and representatives in the rest of the country would have little reason to support it.'

'One of the Northeast Corridor projects funded in the bill is new tunnels under the Hudson River, which are expected to cost $3 billion a mile, more than just about any other tunnels in history. When Slate writer Henry Grabar asked Amtrak CEO William Flynn how he could justify such a high cost, Flynn responded that he didn’t think it was that expensive. Grabar concluded that Amtrak didn’t care about the cost.'

'Union work rules, political incentives to waste money, and lengthy environmental and legal review processes aren’t going to disappear if someone from France or Japan gives Amtrak advice.'

'Second, the countries Grabar names are hardly paragons of sound finance. The Japanese National Railways went virtually bankrupt in the 1980s from building and operating money-losing rail lines, and the government bailout led to two decades of economic stagnation. Spain has mortgaged its future in an attempt to unify the country by connecting every provincial capital with Madrid with high-speed trains that often run nearly empty. China’s national railway is nearly a trillion dollars in debt. France has gone out of its way to hide billions of dollars of high-speed rail subsidies from the European Union' ~ By The Antiplanner | August 5, 2021

'Some experts, including Beijing Jiaotong University Professor Zhao Jian, believe that China's high-speed rail program will lead to a debt crisis far worse than the Evergrande crisis (which was manufactured by the government to punish wealthy housing developers). Americans can count ourselves fortunate that we at least dodged this bullet train.' ~ By Randal O’Toole | NOVEMBER 8, 2021 2:24PM

Just as in the discussion above about HSR (high speed rail), government should make allowance for private industry in the quest for space realty and resources. There's no point in government doing something that private industry can do more efficiently and at lower cost. For space projects, we also ask if a particular mission or endeavor is necessary. Satellites used to protect the country from missiles or asteroids would be reasonable efforts. Having a rescue vehicle that pushes faltering satellites back into orbit or returns stranded crews back to earth would be well worth the cost. Are manned missions to the moon or Mars justifiable in cost to the government? If private efforts are willing let them take the lead. Besides national defense, the return on investments should be the impetus for choosing projects in space. Mining the moon or asteroids would eventually bring a return. Some point out that the innovations and developments occurring about space travel itself justify the cost. For whatever reason or by whatever interest -- public or private -- the most cost-effective methods should be taken. For instance, the Skylab II approach to making a space station using empty rocket stages could be employed similarly for the Gateway space station project. The Dream Chaser private vehicle makes for an excellent option as a mini-space shuttle.

'Nelson is "pushing hard" to become NASA administrator by leveraging his personal relationship with Biden, according to Ars Technica. But critics are pushing back, describing the 78-year-old ex-senator as a relic of the old guard whose track record supporting major in-house projects spells danger for the burgeoning commercial space industry.'

'Nelson is also closely linked to the Space Launch System (SLS), an expendable launch vehicle widely seen as a major NASA failure. The program was established in 2011 after congressional leaders including Nelson demanded a NASA program to build its own large rocket in exchange for an Obama administration push to open contracts to private companies, the Commercial Crew Program. As part of the deal, Congress required the SLS rocket to be largely built out of old Space Shuttle parts, which protected manufacturing jobs in Nelson’s home state.'

'SLS has been panned in the space industry as a boondoggle. "We don't need a rocket made of re-tread space shuttle parts," said one space insider who asked not to be identified. Its close competitor, SpaceX’s Starship, is on track to deliver larger payloads to space at much lower costs. On Monday, space company Rocket Lab announced its new large reusable rocket. "Other than small launch vehicles, there's no reason to be developing a fully expendable rocket after the year 2022. They're obsolete," said Joel Sercel, founder of space company Trans Astronautica.' ~ Santi Ruiz | March 2, 2021 6:00 pm

'The United States needs a clear vision for space, which NASA should manage. NASA, in turn, can best achieve this vision by budgeting wisely and working with commercial operators such as SpaceX and Blue Origin instead of wasting money building it itself.'

'Less than a year ago, NASA flew Americans to the International Space Station on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. It was the first time an American rocket launched from American soil since the Shuttle in 2011, and it was enabled by the programs that Nelson wanted to cut. Indeed, much of this century’s commercial space race can be attributed to NASA’s Commercial Cargo and Commercial Crew programs.'

'About a decade ago, the agency estimated that its traditional cost-plus contracting regime would have cost taxpayers $4 billion to acquire the Falcon 9 rocket. But it cost SpaceX $443 million, a mere tenth of a comparable rocket. This is largely a product of the fixed-cost contract model. In total, the Commercial Crew program alone saved the agency between $20 billion and $30 billion. That estimate stands in stark contrast to the $17 billion NASA has already spent on the SLS Program' ~ By WILL RINEHART | April 22, 2021 3:56 PM

'NASA’s inspector general said Wednesday that it estimates the Artemis program — as laid out by the Trump administration — will cost nearly $86 billion from fiscal year 2012 through fiscal year 2025. The inspector general’s office said about $35 billion of that cost has already been spent over the last eight years, but the bulk of the funding required for the program — more than $50 billion — will need to be budgeted over the next five years.'

'For comparison, NASA spent around $288 billion on the Apollo moon program and related efforts between 1960 and 1973, according to an inflation-adjusted estimate by The Planetary Society.'

'NASA is also planning to launch a mini-space station to orbit the moon. The lunar outpost, or Gateway, will serve as a way station for astronauts traveling between Earth and the lunar surface, providing a location for refueling of reusable lunar landers, a safe haven for Artemis crews, and a research platform in deep space.'

'But the Gateway has encountered delays of its own, and NASA officials last year said they would consider bypassing the Gateway for the first Artemis lunar landing mission.' ~ February 10, 2021 | Stephen Clark

'Gateway is not expected to be ready in time for the first couple of crewed flights as current plans are for completion late into the 2020s. The station is planned to have the six modules that will house places for the crew to sleep, conduct science experiments, and even an airlock for spacewalks. Canada will also be providing an upgraded robotic arm named Canadarm3 for the station as they did for the ISS and Space Shuttle.' ~ Seth Kurkowski | Jan. 15th 2021 2:07 pm

'Skylab was the first space station operated by the United States. It spent six years orbiting Earth until its decaying orbit caused it to re-enter the atmosphere.'

'As Apollo began to wind down in the early 1970s, NASA began an Apollo Applications Program to fly unused hardware from the moon program. One idea, proposed by famous Apollo rocket engineer Wernher von Braun, would be to build a space station out of an unused rocket stage. The design evolved over the years as NASA struggled with reduced funding.'

'The space station's orbit decayed faster than expected due to intense solar activity heating up Earth's atmosphere. NASA, faced with the inevitable, adjusted the station as best as it could so it wouldn't hit populated areas upon re-entering on July 11, 1979. A math mistake led to pieces falling in Australia, but fortunately nobody was hurt.'

'NASA is planning on constructing a lunar space station in the 2020s, which is called the Deep Space Gateway. This would allow astronauts to do long-duration stays at a location further from Earth – valuable practice for colonizing Mars, while still being close enough to quickly turn around and go home if a problem arises.' ~ By Elizabeth Howell | July 10, 2018

'With a little tinkering, the upper-stage hydrogen propellant tank of NASA's huge Space Launch System rocket would make a nice and relatively cheap deep-space habitat, some researchers say. They call the proposed craft "Skylab II," an homage to the 1970s Skylab space station that was a modified third stage of a Saturn V moon rocket.'

'Griffin and his colleagues envision placing Skylab II at the Earth-moon Lagrange point 2, a gravitationally stable location beyond the moon's far side.'

'Over the past year or so, NASA has been drawing up plans for a possible manned outpost at EM-L2. A station there would establish a human presence in deep space, serve as a staging ground for lunar operations and help build momentum for exploring more distant destinations, such as asteroids and Mars, advocates say.' ~ By Mike Wall | April 02, 2013

'Known as America’s Spaceplane, Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser spaceplane is a multi-mission space utility vehicle designed to transport crew and cargo to low-Earth orbit (LEO) destinations such as the International Space Station.'

'The vehicle is designed for high reusability, reducing overall cost and a quick turnaround between missions. The ability to launch on top of multiple launch vehicles and land at a wide variety of runways makes Dream Chaser a flexible option for reliable transportation.'

'Dream Chaser is 30 feet, or 9 meters, long which is roughly ¼ the total length of the space shuttle orbiters and can carry up to five crew members.'

'Dream Chaser can be customized for both domestic and international customers through vehicle configuration, launch site, destination, landing site, duration and a host of other variables. We have entered into agreements with multiple international space agencies and together we are developing technologies, applications and missions for Dream Chaser-based space systems.'

SNC's Dream Chaser® Concept of Operations ~ Jul 3, 2014

Meet Dream Chaser, The Next-Generation Space Plane | Countdown to Launch ~ Nov 21, 2019

Dream Chaser, can it be the "mini" Space Shuttle? ~ Jan 5, 2019

Dream Chaser's Battle To Launch ~ May 27, 2021

'SPARKS, Nev., September 17, 2018 – America’s next generation spaceplane will soon be available in stores. Mattel, Inc. toymaker is releasing a Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) Dream Chaser spacecraft Matchbox® toy, which will be sold in stores starting in September.'

• All NEOs {Near Earth Objects} have a low surface gravity, while many of them have Earth-like orbits, making them easy targets for spacecraft.
• Since 1998 many nations started to track and scan NEO’s, they are called the Spaceguard.
• More than ten near-Earth objects have already been visited by spacecraft.
• Private companies have drafted many preliminary plans for commercial asteroid mining. These objects could indeed be a great source of materials.

'There are many missions planned for the visiting of near-Earth asteroids. Some of them were intended as early as 1971. Currently, a sample taken from an NEA is expected to be delivered in December 2020 by the JAXA’s Hayabusa mission.'

'Another spacecraft, OSIRIS-Rex, is also expected to return samples from some Trojans by 2023. There is also the Near-Earth Object Surveillance Mission or NEOSM – an effort to characterize the orbit of most of the potentially hazardous asteroids larger than 140 m / 460 ft. This mission is planned to be launched by 2025.'

'In space, humans are prone to fatal radiation from galactic cosmic rays and solar energetic particles, and this is a major obstacle when it comes to deep-space missions. But in a study published Wednesday in Advances in Space Research, University of Central Florida researchers proposed that a shield made of asteroid clay would be a simple and effective way to protect astronauts.'

'Asteroid clay has up to 10 percent better shielding power than materials from the moon and even aluminium, which is currently used for shields during shorter missions.'

“It’s kind of expensive to drag things off the surface of the Earth,” Britt says. “If you’re going to do exploration of Mars or the moon, it’s a good idea to use local resources, and one of the local resources are asteroids.”

'Besides mining for shield material, asteroids can be invaluable for water, building material, and fuel. Some countries, like the U.S. and Luxembourg, have already started plans to mine asteroids for resources.' ~ ROSALIE CHAN | 3.15.2017 5:13 PM

The popular catchphrase "buy American" is an attempt to get America back into manufacturing plus helping our own economy. There is no doubt that we need to build up our manufacturing base and not be too reliant on foreign sources. Yet not every product is best produced domestically whether for the civilian market or military. Some countries have a knack or corner on producing particular items like Belgian chocolate or material like natural rubber from the southern tiers of Asia. Certain products are produced at lower expense in other nations for various organic reasons. In these cases, America should get the most or highest quality for the dollar whether civilian or military in use.

As far as weapons, America has some history of buying foreign military hardware. We actually owe our victory in the Revolutionary War to imported weapons. Today, while we should expand our manufacturing base, we should also get the best military hardware from reliable sources at best price. Of course, we should purge the Chinese stuff and find other producers. Note that in military procurement, Congress has had instances of acquiring domestic particulars in such a way as to line the pockets of certain home constituents and military-industrial interests which should be kept in check versus getting the best quality, variety or deal on equipment.

'Now fully committed to the war, France supplied arms, munitions, supplies, and uniforms. French troops and naval power were also sent to America, reinforcing and protecting Washington’s Continental Army.' ~ By Robert Wilde | Updated September 23, 2019

'Franklin’s team of negotiators sent Silas Deane to Paris under the guise of a merchant looking for goods to buy for resale to Native Americans. Deane’s real quest was very different: He sought military engineers, along with clothing, arms and ammunition for 25,000 soldiers. Oh, and credit from the French to pay for it all. '

'Ultimately, France provided about 1.3 billion livres of desperately-needed money and goods to support the rebels. Estimates suggest that at the colonists’ October 1777 victory at Saratoga, a turning point in the war, 90 percent of all American troops carried French arms, and they were completely dependent on French gunpowder.' ~ BY SUZANNE MCGEE | SEP 9, 2020

'Supplying its troops with the weapons required to win the Revolutionary War was a critical, complex and ever-present issue for the new American nation. When the war began in 1775, there were few factories in America capable of producing firearms, swords and other weapons—let alone in the quantities necessary to sustain an army for several years.'

'A growing number of American manufacturers produced weapons on government contracts, as the domestic arms industry expanded to try to meet the demand, but they could not sustain the American troops through a long conflict. Success on the battlefield ultimately depended on the hundreds of thousands of arms supplied by France and Spain. Shipments of arms and ammunition from France began arriving in 1776 and continued for the rest of the war.'

'A Revolution in Arms features nearly forty weapons of the Revolution—British, French, American, Spanish, Hessian and Scottish armaments drawn largely from the Institute’s collections—as well as accoutrements and tools used to fire and maintain the weapons, and documents that provide context for how these arms were acquired, transported, altered and used.'

'In the normal course of things, even if the United States were falling behind in tanks or some other weapon, it would normally catch up by devoting more resources for development and acquisition. But U.S. weapons development and procurement has become so glacial—the F-35 fighter is just entering service now, more than twenty years after the first development contract was awarded—that it takes decades to develop a new tank.'

'To some extent, this problem was inevitable. Weaponry is the most diffuse of technologies; whether tanks or night vision sensors, what one nation fields, others will soon copy. It is the blindest of patriotism to assume that American arms are the best simply because they are American.'

'Nor would this be the first time America has imported weapons before. The Pentagon uses Israeli drones and Swedish antitank weapons, while too many spare parts for American military hardware are today made in China.' ~ by Michael Peck | February 4, 2017

'Federal contractors face a late-summer deadline to ensure they’re not using banned Chinese equipment and services to fulfill their federal contracts, a top White House federal acquisition official stressed.'

'That provision prohibits government contractors from using technology and services tied to Chinese equipment manufacturers that have been deemed cybersecurity threats by the U.S. government. Those companies include telecommunications gear-makers Huawei and ZTE, as well as video surveillance manufacturer Hikvision.' ~ BY MARK ROCKWELL | JUL 15, 2020

'Podesta, who has known Joe Biden for decades and is close with a number of his advisers, will now be lobbying Team Biden on behalf of the Chinese tech giant which in February 2020 was charged by the U.S. Department of Justice with violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO — a key DOJ tool for going after organized crime.'

“The Biden administration approved hundreds of millions of dollars in chip sales to Huawei even though American auto companies and American factories for overseas brands like Toyota and Nissan are scaling back production and temporarily shutting down their operations because they cannot get enough of the chips needed for modern auto electronics.” ~ by WorldTribune Staff | August 27, 2021

'The Saab next-generation Live MCTIS Training System will replace the U.S. Marine Corps’ current Instrumentation and Tactical Engagement Simulation System (ITESS) equipment. Through innovative use of technology and a well-proven training philosophy, Saab offers world leading training solutions and capabilities enabling interoperability and true realism for land forces. Saab offers solutions for live training, live fire training, virtual training, and training services.' ~ 17 JUNE 2021

'The AN/SPN-50(V)1 radar system, which is one of the U.S. versions of Saab’s Sea Giraffe Agile Multi Beam radar, will function as the primary air traffic control surveillance radar for manned and unmanned aviation aboard the Navy’s nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and amphibious large decks.' ~ 28 APRIL 2021

'We take great pride in Saab’s 35-year history of delivering our combat-proven family of weapon systems to the U.S. Armed Forces,” said Erik Smith, President and CEO of Saab in the U.S.'

'Saab’s Carl-Gustaf system (designated MAAWS in the U.S.) has a long and proven record with the U.S. military. The reloadable multi-purpose system has been in service in the U.S. since 1990, a program of record for the U.S. Army since 2013, and in 2018, the U.S. Army announced it will acquire the latest version of the weapon – the Carl-Gustaf M4 (designated M3E1 in the U.S.).' ~ 19 JULY 2021

'T-7A Red Hawk is an all-new, advanced pilot training system designed for the U.S. Air Force to train the next generation of combat pilots for decades to come. The aircraft has benefited from Saab and Boeing’s “breaking the norm” approach to military aircraft design, engineering and production, which saw the preceding T-X aircraft go from concept to first flight in just 36 months.' ~ 1 OCTOBER 2021

Pilots, defense analysts, engineers, aviation enthusiasts along with others who measure and compare military hardware and the like will give thousands of differing views on the comparative functionality of such devices. Opinions and conclusions abound on such subjects. The F-35 is no exception and with all of its new technology, ambitious multi-faceted design to fulfill various roles, goals and promises -- accordingly a lot would have to be worked out. Along the way there have been delays, fixes and setbacks which happens with all new weapons programs. One thing no one can deny is the high cost associated with the plane. The question is becoming -- will it ever be fully ready and fulfill all its promises?

About all of this there has been good press and bad press or propaganda according to whom you talk to. Is the government pushing a boondoggle failure upon us and covering up years of graft or is it all exaggerations of the negative in order to keep our enemies complacent and unexpecting of the F-35's coming dominance?

We include here very skeptical reports about the F-35. If they turn out to be inaccurate or reasonably curable then we can be relieved. However, we would still ask is the cost to operate the plane really ever going to be worth it? Would we have done just as well or better to have settled for near fifth generation planes in service along with the F-22 while having more resources to sooner develop and deploy the next generation of fighters?

'There have been so many problems with the F-35, it’s difficult even to summarize them. Pilot blackouts, premature part failures, software development disasters, and more have all figured in various documents over the years. Firing the main gun can crack the plane. The Air Force has already moved to buy new F-15EX aircraft. Multiple partner nations that once promised F-35 buys have shifted orders to other planes.'

'Brown indicated he’s not interested in buying more F-16s, because not even the most advanced variants have the full scope of features the USAF hopes to acquire. This would presumably also disqualify the “F-21” Lockheed-Martin recently announced for the Indian market. Instead, Brown wants to develop a new fighter with fresh ideas on implementing proven technologies.'

'Congress will have a voice in this discussion, so it’s far from a done deal, but after over a decade mired in failure, someone at the DoD is willing, however quietly, to acknowledge that the F-35 will never perform the role it was supposed to play.' ~ By Joel Hruska | February 25, 2021

You will be shocked and dismayed by this indepth, dismal report on the F-35:

'The report also questions the program office’s amorphous management plan for future deficiency fixes and upgrades needed for the F-35—an aircraft that remains in every official sense nothing more than a massively expensive prototype.'

'If DOT&E’s prediction that the facility will not be ready until mid- to late 2021 proves accurate, it is unlikely that a production decision will be made until 2022, by which time the F-35 program will be able to legally purchase its first beer.'

'The real-world impacts of the F-35’s delays and ever mounting burden on the budget are significant. The delays force the Pentagon to keep older planes in service longer, and paying the ever-increasing costs of the F-35 fleet while still trying to start other new weapon programs the services want leads them to raid the funds set aside to pay for adequate flying hours to keep up the skills of the pilots, and spare parts and maintenance for the legacy aircraft. That has led to an increase in aviation accidents over the past decade, due both to deteriorating maintenance and atrophying pilot skills.'

'Following years of disappointing news about the F-35’s troubled cloud-based maintenance and logistics network, the Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS), the Pentagon finally threw in the towel in 2020 and will spend $550 million over the next 5 years to build an entirely new one. The Operational Data Integrated Network (ODIN) is slated to replace ALIS by the end of 2022, but DOT&E warns that the Pentagon’s development and deployment plans are unrealistic.'

'Clearly, one path out of this debacle is to cut our losses on the F-35 in order to work full-speed on replacing the legacy planes with far more combat-effective close-support and air-to-air fighters that we could reliably deploy in adequate numbers without breaking the bank for our taxpayers. Don’t we owe it to our troops to do exactly that?' ~ BY DAN GRAZIER | FEBRUARY 23, 2021

Years ago the YF-22 and the YF-23 competed to become America's next jet fighter. The YF-22 submitted by Lockheed Martin was chosen and would become the F-22 Raptor. Northrop-McDonnell Douglas' YF-23 remained a prototype. However, today it has gained a cult following as the fighter jet that should have been. Now that the prematurely canceled F-22 is out of production with its tool line dismantled, some are calling for a modernized version of the YF-23 to be constructed as it has a longer range, better stealth and other advantages. Just as the F-15, F-16 and F-18 lines have been kept in production with modernized iterations for decades, it would make sense to consider doing so for the YF-23 especially since Japan has been looking to upgrade their fighter jets to stealth sooner rather than later. Doing that would bring down production costs for any American procurement. Japan's more immediate stealth needs, continual delays along with the great costs of the F-35 program make a YF-23 revival a more practical option. Making the YF-23 a true Phoenix would help with all that plus it has an eager fanboy following to boot.

'In fact, the YF-23 reportedly scored ahead of the Raptor in most categories—demonstrating higher sustained supersonic super-cruise capabilities and longer range. Furthermore, it had an even lower Radar Cross Section, particularly from the side and rear, further reducing the range at which it could be detected.'

'Ironically, were the Air Force given the choice today between greater maneuverability or longer range and greater stealth, it would almost certainly choose the latter. This is because theorists believe future air wars may be fought primarily beyond visual range—making detection capability rather than agility the most important factor. Furthermore, reliance upon short-range fighters constrains them to operating from forward bases highly exposed to enemy missile attacks—and these days the Air Force must contemplate operations over the expanses of the Pacific Ocean.' ~ by Sebastien Roblin | September 8, 2019

'Ultimately, while the YF-23 could just about match the F-22’s acrobatics, Lockheed won the perception war by demonstrating their fighter’s capabilities in a more dynamic way. Lockheed test pilots showed off the aircraft’s ability to utilize a high angle of attack, fired missiles, and executed maneuvers that placed more than 9Gs worth of force on the airframe. While the YF-23 could have done the same, Northrop didn’t in the demonstration. Many contend that it was this salesmanship, rather than strictly platform capabilities, that helped the YF-22 stand out in the minds of defense officials.'

'The YF-23’s combat radius was significantly greater than the F-22s, which, when coupled with its slightly better stealth profile, meant the YF-23 could fly further into contested airspace (where refueling isn’t an option) than its Lockheed competitor. Today, that capability would be coveted among Navy officials, as the branch continues to work toward finding ways to extend the combat radius of carrier-borne fighters.' ~ Alex Hollings | July 21, 2021

'This gem of historical reference has been largely overlooked even as the YF-23 has risen to near legendary status, becoming one of the most enigmatic and fascinating modern aircraft in history. What's so important to underline is that Metz worked for both Northrop and Lockheed and is not known for hyperbole. Yet even after flying the pre-production F-22, a far more mature machine than the YF-23 ever was, he makes it quite clear that Northrop's offering was on par with Lockheed's, if not superior.'

'Sandburg talks about how the YF-23's massive tailerons were so powerful that they largely mitigated the perceived advantages of the YF-22's thrust vectoring.' ~ BY TYLER ROGOWAY | APRIL 5, 2019

'Today, many are quick to proclaim that it deserved to win against Lockheed's YF-22. That is certainly debatable, especially considering the aircraft's unique attributes in relation to the realities of air combat today and the fact that YF-23 checked every box on the USAF's rubric just like its competitor. Yet one of the questions I get asked the most is what would an F-23A have looked like? The F-22A changed significantly in form from its YF-22 technology demonstrator progenitor and the truth is Northrop's offering would have as well. '

'Beyond being more refined, the F-23A is a narrower and somewhat elongated design iteration of the YF-23, which would have likely helped improved its already blistering kinematic performance and excellent radar cross-section metrics.'

'So without further adieu, behold, Northrop's masterpiece that wasn't, the F-23A 'Black Widow II': ~ BY TYLER ROGOWAY | NOVEMBER 14, 2018

The Only Plane That Could Beat The F-22 Raptor ~ Oct 18, 2020

Is this the only fighter that could beat the F-22? ~ Jul 15, 2021

Only This Plane Could Beat The F-22 Raptor ~ Apr 6, 2021

The Stealth Diamond - YF-23 Gray Ghost & Black Widow II ~ Oct 13, 2020

YF 23 Black Widow Could it Return? ~ Nov 23, 2020

Japanese Reborn YF-23 Will Make China and Russia Panic ~ Nov 6, 2021

Reborn YF-23 Will Shock China and Russia Soon! ~ Nov 5, 2021

Here's a site dedicated to all kinds of YF-23 info and paraphernalia.

Another variety to consider for the American fighter jet fleet would be the Swedish Gripen JAS-39. There are several iterations. There are older models comparable to the F-15E through the F-18 Super Hornet. A great advantage is its lower operating costs. The more recent iterations of the Gripen multirole E/F series have more advanced radar and lean more so on updatable electronic jamming and warfare as opposed to immutable stealth considering that stealth may eventually be overcome by advances in radar. Gripens have been designed in an environment necessary to counter Russian jets plus they are able to land on highways with shorter refueling and service periods achievable by smaller crews. The various iterations of the Gripen fill the gap between our legacy F-15 through F-18 lines with the newest Gripen closing in on F-22 and F-35 in utility. Since Gripen E uses American engines and is partnered with Boeing there is inherent domestic capital and contract interest in its procurement and use.

By including Gripen in our fleet we would share more interoperability with NATO allies. Also, there has been unfortunate talk of strong-arm tactics used to push our allies into purchasing U.S. aircraft. If this is accurate or true then by procuring foreign military assets we can better reconcile with our partners especially after the Afghanistan fiasco. Let us better our practice through a mutual and voluntary back-scratching where we buy more of theirs and they buy more of ours. We can gain by having a more varied arsenal at our disposal as not every mission or adversary would need of us to use our most advanced or more expensive hardware when some iteration of say a Gripen may suffice. Our domestic production is still in play as Gripen has allowed its importers to construct the aircraft frames domestically so our stateside manufacturers can still get a piece of the pie by doing same and producing spare parts and unique accessories for our needs just as other countries may do for some of our military exports. Plus having more competition in procurement will help drive costs of military hardware down.

'Sweden started developing the Gripen in 1979 as a replacement for its J-35 Draken and JA-37 Viggen fighters. The basic requirement was a Mach 2.0-class fighter with good short-field performance. Sweden expected to disperse its aircraft in case of an invasion, which meant that the aircraft had to be able to operate from 2,600ft by 30ft strips. The jets also had be serviceable away from the comforts of a proper airbases since the most likely operating areas were going to be highways.'

'Over the years, there have been two previous iterations of the Gripen. The original A and B models gave way to the much-improved C and D model aircraft. Saab is currently developing an advanced next-generation Gripen model called the JAS-39E/F Gripen NG that is likely to be delivered to the Swedish air force in 2018. It will also fly with Brazil’s air force.'

'The E/F variant adds greater range and payload capability while vastly improving the Gripens’ avionics. Perhaps the most important feature is the new British-built Selex Raven ES-05 active electronically scanned array radar, which replaces the old mechanically-scanned PS-05/A. The Gripen also has comprehensive networking capabilities. The new Gripen’s maximum takeoff weight is increased to more than 36,000lbs up from around 31,000lbs for the C/D variant.' ~ by TNI Staff | March 11, 2021

'The latest JAS-39 variant is the Gripen that is a new fighter aircraft system. Developed to counter and defeaat advanced future threats, according to Saab the E-series is for customers with more pronounced threats or wider territories to secure. The E-series has a new and more powerful engine, improved range performance and the abilitiy to carry greater payloads.'

'The only plane that Gripen E should be compared with will be the F-35, points out Englund. The F-35 is so healthy that an adversary will not even know what hit them. Gripen E looks just like a Gripen but is a completely new fighter, with completely new features and capabilities more or less only comparable to the F-35 with the difference that Gripen E is not built with stealth technology even if it has a lower RCS {Radar Cross Section} than any other Eastern and Western fighter except F-35 and F-22 and probably but not certain, the Russian and Chinese fighters. Gripen will be equipped with a GaN (gallium nitride) based EW-suite which probably will make it a ghost. {invisibility}' ~ GDC bureau | January 7, 2021

'In a BVR {Beyond Visual Range} combat, the F-22 raptor, F-35 and Gripen have the overwhelming advantages against Russian Su-35 as these fighter jets have low radar cross section and low observable profile at the opponent’s radar. Armed with advanced BVR missile, the F-22 raptor, F-35 and Gripen are able to take first shot before Su-35 can see these aircraft.'

'The Gripen E has a U.S.-made engine, the GE F414, which is also the engine of the F/A-18 Super Hornet and India’s HAL Tejaz.... If the Royal Canadian Air Force select Gripen then the airframe will be manufactured in Canada.'

'Its operating cost per hour is less than a tenth of that of the F-35’s.'

'The latest version of the Gripen fighter jet was unveiled in May 2016 by Swedish aircraft maker, Saab. Boeing is a partner in the aircraft. The Gripen E prototype 39-8 ‘Smart Fighter’, the aircraft is aimed at markets not yet cleared to buy the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The E fighter, the sixth variant in the Gripen family, is slightly bigger than previous versions, has a stronger engine and updated radar systems.'

'Sweden’s ability to develop its own state-of-the-art fighters has long depended on blending home-grown and imported technology. Harvesting technology rather than inventing it becomes more important as commercial technology takes a leading role and becomes more global.' ~ By Ryan Smith | October 31, 2018.

'It’s the kind of agile avionics performance that is being mandated for U.S. manufacturers as the military seeks to field smaller fleets of “Digital” fighter aircraft far more swiftly and apply new capabilities to new and existing types extremely fast, with software updates even potentially occurring while the aircraft is in flight.'

'It has been officially stated by Saab that the company has a strategy of trying to counter the benefit of stealth design technology in a threat aircraft. The use of an IRST is part of the overall sensor suite that is designed to help the Gripen partially remove the cloak of a stealthy platform.'

'Gripen E itself does not feature geometric stealthy design features, with Saab’s view that with software and hardware technology changing at such a rapid pace, stealth aircraft will ultimately become more visible to radars. As any airframe is very hard to change or reconfigure in the future, without enormous time and cost, Saab decided the better approach is to stay in-step with the competition by using rapidly evolving technologies other than stealth to help win the war, such as advanced electronic warfare.'

'One of the aces up Gripen E’s sleeve is therefore its electronic warfare system or EWS. It’s completely new in the Gripen E and provides what Saab refers to as a “digital shield.” The idea was to continuously and exponentially grow and develop the system to meet future threats. The embedded EWS combines active and passive systems to help protect the aircraft, which is combined with a 360-degree spherical missile approach warning system.'

'Saab has spent a tremendous amount of time fuzing the Gripen E’s range of sensors and presenting swathes of data to the pilot in an uncomplicated and intuitive manner.'

'Moreover, Jane’s has reported that the Gripen has the lowest operational cost of any modern fighter.'

'The Gripen has a reputation for being pilot-friendly, with easy to grasp displays and a relatively uncomplicated interface. '

'Saab has been relatively open with technology transfer, and has facilitated the inclusion of local firms in the manufacturing of some components. This has made the Gripen an attractive option for governments that struggle to explain their defense spending to skeptical publics.'

'All that said, some have alleged that the Gripen has succeeded for reasons other than its fundamental quality.'

'The “software first” approach has made upgrades easy and affordable compared to the rest of the market, where improvements are notoriously expensive.'

'Saab has also demonstrated a willingness to adapt to customer requirements, even toying with the idea of a carrier-capable Gripen when it seemed that India and Brazil might be interested in such a variant. ' ~ by Robert Farley | May 20, 2021

'In September, two of the Air Force's highest-ranking officers warned that the service was running out of time to develop the new assets and capabilities it needs to stay ahead of emerging threats.'

"We are going to have to get out of the business of keeping seven fighter fleets in play all the time." Hinote told reporters during the conference. "That's too expensive. It's too many fleets."

'The Air Force also hopes to retire the venerable A-10 ground-attack aircraft by 2030. The four models left in service would be the F-22, the F-35, the F-15E and EX, and the F-16.'

'The Air Force plans to buy a least 144 F-15EXs. Along with the F-15Es in service, they will add muscle and numbers to the fleet without sacrificing quality, Air Force officials say.' ~ Benjamin Brimelow | Nov. 2, 2021

Note that the source link following this one indicates by extrapolation that the Gripen E is likely better rated than the F-15E, F-16, F-18 Super Hornet and it would seem to have a good chance of having better or comparable operating costs. Plus the Gripen E has an American engine and Gripen would likely allow U.S. firms to help build the plane in the U.S. like they will allow Canada on theirs. The Gripen is also adaptable to custom technical accessories and improvements. (Tell your congress person.)

This site allows one to compare various fighter jets in terms of operational cost, Beyond Visual Range (BVR) capabilities, dogfighting, etc. Note however that the Gripen categories on this site refer to the older versions of the fighter so the newer Gripen E would actually rate higher in some of the abilities listed.

F-16 vs Gripen E - Which would win? ~ Sep 3, 2020

F16 vs Saab Gripen The Philippines fighter competition ~ Aug 11, 2021

Jas 39 Gripen E – What Makes Gripen So Special ~ Nov 12, 2020

Saab Offer The New E-Series Gripen Fighter Jets To Czech Air Force ~ Nov 18, 2021

Gripen E, Electronic Warfare Cloak ~ Aug 7, 2021

The Navy's new missile could make non-stealth fighters viable again ~ Oct 22, 2021

Here's the company site for the Gripen E should you want to buy one.

A more affordable and compact version: