The CDC: Too much power given to an agency

One February morning in 1997, I was at a gas station in Burlington, North Carolina.  At the counter someone was complaining about new cigarette laws requiring that people under a certain age must show their photo ID.  He said it was a stupid law.

"Wait, let me explain something," said the bearded man behind the counter.  "What you are protesting against is not a law.  You are instead protesting a regulation.  A law is something that has gone through the legislative process and is voted into being by people that you vote for and who are accountable to you.  You don't get to vote for people who make regulations.  They can do whatever they want to do.  They don't answer to you at all."

It remains one of the most eye-opening exchanges I've ever witnessed.  It changed my perception of things.  Ever since that morning, I have cast a wary eye on things like mask-wearing: is it a law, or is it regulation?

For the past two years the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has mandated wearing of masks in public places.  And worse, there have been the mandated "get vaccinated or else" proclamations.  Most of those have come from decree by Joe Biden (I refuse to honor him with the title "President").

NONE of this has been "law".  Congress did not order masks or "vaccinations".  That's what unelected government bureaucrats ordained.  And no matter what a sitting president demands, he or she does not have the authority to insist that civilians get jabbed (the military is another matter, and the Supreme Court just decided 6 to 3 against members of the armed forces who want to refuse the shot: Thomas, Gorsuch and Alito were the dissenting justices).

Masks and "vaccines" against COVID-19 have become the most egregious and blatant power grab in American history.  Thankfully, earlier this week a federal judge struck down mask mandates on public transportation.  You may have seen the photos of airline passengers tearing their masks off and rejoicing.

The Biden "administration" hates that.  And they are already trying to appeal it or work around the judge's decision.

Remember people: it's NOT a law that we've had to be putting up with for the past two years.  It's a REGULATION.  One whipped up out of thin air by our alleged "betters".  A thing dreamt of by people we don't vote for and who will probably never be held accountable.  For the damage and injury done, both physical and mental.

I received the COVID vaccine very early on.  As a health care worker, and someone who is in constant contact with the general public, getting "vaccinated" made sense.  I'll never know if it worked to ward away COVID.  I do know that I contracted COVID late this past December (the symptoms were mild).  But in hindsight if I had a chance to have a do-over, I would not have received the shot.  As much as being an "up yours" to people like Fauci and Biden as it would be to regard my own health and well being.

Remember: if the mask mandate comes back, you don't have to comply.  Because that's not a real law at all.  And it never was.

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Remember my prediction from this past January?

 Here it is if you've forgotten: my most serious prediction ever...

 

Make a note of this.  January the Sixth, Two Thousand and Twenty-One.  Just before 1 p.m. EST.

If I'm wrong about this I'll eat my fedora.  No really, I will.

Here it is:

I do declare that four years from today, the United States will be in the WORST condition it has been in, in at least the past fifty years.

Hold me to this.  Do it.

I am dead-#@%$ serious.

 

 

 That was ten months ago.  Much less than the forty-eight I allocated to Biden.

Out of control inflation.  Soaring gas prices.  Less food.  Energy costs set to skyrocket.  A military more dedicated to being "woke" than defense readiness.  Americans still stranded in Afghanistan.  Supply chains strangled because of over-burdening regulation on truckers.  Vaccine mandates.  No effective counter to a China becoming more belligerent by the month if not quicker.  The list goes on...

But hey: no more mean tweets!!

"Let's go Brandon."

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Joseph Biden's accomplishments during his first three days of office

Let future historians note that within 72 hours of his inauguration as President of the United States, Joseph Biden has:

- Severely raised the price of insulin by rescinding directives of Donald Trump to the Department of Health and Human Services

 

- Deployed more military forces to Iraq

 

- Deployed more military forces to Syria

 

- Eliminated some 70,000 private sector jobs

 

- Cancelled permits for the Keystone XL pipeline that would have employed thousands

 

- Broke his promise about fracking made during his campaign for president

 

- Signed executive orders which will make the United States no longer a net energy exporter and will instead place the country back to relying on foreign oil.

 

- Eliminated women’s sports...

 

-  ...and by the same stroke of a pen allowed grown men into high school girls' locker rooms

 

- Mandated the wear of mask at any federal facility... but he and his family violated that order several times following his inauguration

 

- Gave access to our power grids back to China

 

- Admitted he did not have a COVID plan

 

- Stopped the border wall construction

 

- Rejoined the Paris Accord that subjects the United States to enormous penalties while letting true polluters of the environment - such as communist China - go unpunished

 

- Made the National Guard brought in for the inauguration sleep in a freezing parking garage

 

- Allowed Red China to violate Taiwan's airspace with military aircraft and naval vessels raising tensions in the Far East.

 

- Restarted payments of American tax payer dollars to the World Health Organization

 

- Witnessed the return of terrorism from ISIS

 

- Directed a supplementing of our fuels needs from Russia and Venezuela

 

- Lifted travel ban into the United States on countries most harboring terrorists

 

- Ordered the immediate release of violent criminals from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.

The preceding list was found on another forum, edited for some clarity.  Most of this I already knew while other things, like Biden's ordering the emptying of ICE facilities, happened just today.

In addition, the price of gasoline is set to soar following not only the Keystone line's cancellation but also Biden's plan to drastically increase federal gas taxes and maybe even a mad scheme to tax per mile traveled.

And for sake of any historians in years to come who may find these words and wonder about the mood of the moment:

There is no real prevailing sense among the people of America that there is sitting right now a President of the United States.  Many if not most people in this moment believe that Joseph Biden was not legitimately elected but instead came to power as a result of voting fraud.  I say "most" whether some of those will admit to it or not.  There is something very wrong with America right now, and we all know it.

The list I provided is just for the first three days since Biden was sworn in.  It does not inspire much confidence for the next four years.

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Censored by Twitter

Well, it happened.  But from the looks of things I am in plenty of good company.

Last night I made a tweet on Twitter.  The now much-beleagured company that along with Facebook (is that a possible RICO charge?) has been censoring any mention of yesterday's New York Post story about Joe Biden and his son Hunter and their dealings with Burisma.  Among other things.

There is a photograph of Hunter Biden using a crack pipe.  Or maybe meth.  I don't know.  Meth would be a lot nastier.  But I know this photo exists.  I know because I have seen it.

So last night I made a Twitter post, along the lines of "the question that should be asked of every journalist, news outlet, and social media giant: Why should we trust you?"

Below that I added: "P.S.: there is a photo of Hunter Biden with a crack pipe."

I just checked my Twitter page.  That post has vanished.  Without warning or notice.

It's possible that a Twitter employee deleted it. It's also possible that they have adjusted their algorithms to automatically search and destroy anything negative pertaining to the Bidens.

However or whatever happened, it's not that big a deal.  I'm actually rather honored that of all the zillions of tweets flying right now about Hunter Biden, that mine was apparently targeted for termination.  The Twitter account page itself is still there (at twitter.com/theknightshift) but I wouldn't be surprised if that went MIA without warning sometime either.

 The more that Twitter and the other "Big Tech" companies pull stuff like this to an increasing number of people, the more they are looking at having their protections stripped and being broken up.  It happened before with the phone companies.  It could happen again.  Nothing is "too big to fail".  I've wondered if anyone has considered that Facebook and Twitter have become means of communication between people, companies, and organizations like churches and civic groups.  Depriving people of that or banning them from participation is almost tantamount to obstructing delivery of the mail service.  Or denying phone service on the basis of personal political beliefs.

And of course, Twitter and Facebook are behaving not so much as platforms as they are publishers.  There is a vast difference between the two.  Big Tech is trying to have it both ways.  And it's wrong.

Well, as I said: it's no skin off me if the post was deleted or even if my entire Twitter feed is destroyed.  Who knows: maybe there's a class action lawsuit that could come of Twitter's antics.  I wouldn't mind getting in on that action.

EDIT 10/16/2020 8:26 am EST:  The tweet is back where it was.  Oddly, I looked at its interactions and it has only been seen twice.  The other night it got up to around 200 or so within a short period of time.  Not speculating, just making a note of that.

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Obama Administration brings back Bush-era "free speech zones"

Students at Wright State University who were protesting against Joseph Biden when he visited the campus last week were quarantined a quarter-mile away from the Vice President by the Secret Service. This happened not once, but twice. The rationale given by the Secret Service: they "didn't want the protesters to be too close to the motorcade."

Before any Republicans or Romney supporters cry "foul" about this, it would be well to remember that this exact same thing was routine policy during the presidency of George W. Bush! But that fact hasn't deterred a number of people on "conservative" websites from claiming that the Secret Service is violating the First Amendment, that Obama is violating the Constitution ad nauseum... when Obama's predecessor, a Republican president, was also insulating himself from public dissent with the very same methods, and on a much more chronic basis. Very many of Bush's following at the time had no problem whatsoever with the First Amendment rights of protestors being quashed. But now that the shoe's on the other foot...

"Free speech for me, but not for thee." I guess depending on who has the power, more animals really are more equal than others.

I don't want to hear any whining about Obama or Biden's use of "free speech zones" from past or present supporters of George W. Bush. As far as I'm concerned, come January we'll have had at least twelve years of regime by successive egomaniacs with narcissistic disorder. And I don't give a flying rat's butt which party either one belongs to.

So people: what's it going to take for us to quit supporting this sham?

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Vice-President Biden sez: We have to KEEP SPENDING to keep from going bankrupt

Read about it here.

I would say that this country is in the hands of madmen... but then I cannot but think that we have been that way for quite some time.

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Awright, a bit of Inauguration Day humor...

A friend suggested this tonight, and lo and behold someone already made a YouTube video of the idea...

Congratulations, President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, your lovely daughters, and Vice-President Biden and his wife Dr. Jill Biden. This is your day. And I think I speak for most of us when I say, our prayers are with you and we ask that the Lord will give you the wisdom and diligence that you will need in the days, months and years ahead.

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My belief on politics and religion in a nutshell

We do not need any more elected officials who believe that God is telling them to change the world.

What we need and cannot get enough of are elected officials who are letting God change them instead.

(And if more common folk would be willing to let God control them instead of trying to control the world for God, this would be a much happier place anyway...)

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Ron Paul says there's no difference between McCain and Obama

Today U.S. House member Ron Paul, who has been a candidate in this year's presidential election, called on voters to end the "charade" of the two party system and look to traditionally third parties for leadership, citing that there was no fundamental difference between Democrat candidate Barack Obama and Republican contestant John MCcain. Paul also announced that he had refused to endorse McCain, a fellow Republican.

From the CNN story...

Instead, Paul will give his seal of approval to four candidates: Green Party nominee Cynthia McKinney, Libertarian Party nominee Bob Barr, independent candidate Ralph Nader and Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin.

Paul said he's supporting the third-party candidates because the two major parties and media had "colluded" to avoid discussing issues and falsely presenting the difference between McCain and Obama as real.

"I've come to the conclusion, after having spent many years in politics, is that our presidential elections turn out to be more of a charade than anything else, and I think that is true today. It is a charade," he said.

Paul offered an open endorsement to the four candidates because each signed onto a policy statement that calls for "balancing budgets, bring troops home, personal liberties and investigating the Federal Reserve," an aide to the congressman said.

Paul said a strong showing by the third-party candidates would express the public's frustration with the current system.

"I have no doubt that the majority is on our side," Paul added, citing public opinion polls. "We represent the majority of the American people."

I don't doubt that. Most Americans do want solid principles and moral integrity in their public officials. But there are a myriad of obstacles that get in the way of people who are serious about serving others from doing so. Neither the Republican or Democrat party leaderships have an interest in allowing the truly selfless and competent from having a shot at high office... or low office for that matter. In fact, as the past few elections have demonstrated, the Republicans and Democrats prefer to have, well... idiots as their front-runners! They're the ones who promise to uphold the status quo the most, without "rocking the boat" too much. The corporate press? That's why it never gives any serious consideration or airtime to the third party candidates either: because it's grown too lazy and content, and it prefers a dumbed-down citizenry than one encouraged to think and stand on its own. Candidates like Ron Paul would mess up what has been too good a thing for them.

But the bigwigs in the two major parties and the mainstream media are blind to the fact that without a serious infusion of new blood, America is withering and dying in our own generation.

I see Barack Obama, and I see a man who is stuck in the same mindset as the Sixties, and he's trying hard as he can to channel the memory of John Kennedy toward his own favor. I see John McCain, and I see a very bitter man lacking any confidence (remember, he left his wife just so he could have a younger woman... which screams out feelings of inadequacy in my book) who is still a prisoner of Vietnam.

Neither of these men - or their running mates - is going to bring America to the bright and shining future that our children and theirs deserve to have. They are going to keep us stuck here, with no clear vision or identity besides "we aren't that other party..."

We can't keep playing this kind of game anymore: the one that expects us to believe there's a real difference between the Democrats and Republicans. We can't afford it any longer.

The alternative is to keep "voting for the lesser of two evils" until a rotten and decrepit America is finally driven into the ground. At that point, will it matter who happened to have been at the wheel when it did?

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Is it just me...

...or has the 2008 electoral race for President of the United States suddenly turned into a Blake Edwards movie?

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