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Gaining Power Hasn’t Made the Left Any Less Insane

by Glenn H. Reynolds
NYPost.com

Many years ago, the columnist Megan McArdle postulated a law of politics: “The devotees of the party in power are smug and arrogant. The devotees of the party out of power are insane.”

This was a pretty good summary of the Clinton, Bush, Obama and Trump years. But no more. The Democrats have taken control of the presidency and both houses of Congress. But based on the evidence of the past week, that hasn’t made them any less crazy.

First, there was the unleashing of the Big Tech titans against the Twitter alternative Parler. For years, people who complained about ideological bias at Facebook and Twitter were told to just build their own platforms. But when an alternative emerged in the form of Parler, the giants conspired to suffocate it. Amazon kicked Parler off its hosting platform, while Apple and Google banned the app from their stores. Parler may not survive the one-two blow.

Parler’s crime? Some people who organized the Capitol Hill riot used its services.

Continue Reading at NYPost.com…

Janet Yellen Suggests ‘Curtailing’ Cryptocurrencies Such as Bitcoin, Saying They Are Mainly Used for Illegal Financing

Janet Yellen on Tuesday suggested lawmakers “curtail” the use of Bitcoin amid terrorism concerns.

by Harry Robertson
Business Insider

Janet Yellen, President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee for treasury secretary, suggested on Tuesday that lawmakers “curtail” the use of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin over concerns that they are “mainly” used for illegal activities.

There has been a surge in interest in bitcoin; its price has soared by about 300% in the past year. Bitcoin was down 7.59%, to $34,183.57, on Wednesday, while Ethereum was down 9.74%, to $1,259.97, after hitting an all-time high of more than $1,430 on Tuesday.

Yellen’s comments suggested the incoming Biden administration could be hostile to cryptocurrencies and ramp up regulation. Watchdogs around the world, from the European Central Bank to the UK’s financial regulator, have recently expressed concerns about cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

Continue Reading at Markets.BusinessInsider.com…

Do Unto Others…

by Karl Denninger
Market-Ticker.org

… as they did to you for the last four years.

Therefore, with regard to anything that issues from the orifice of Biden or Harris, well, I think you can figure it out.

But just in case you’re illiterate I’ll make it simple.

HAPPY COMMUNISM DAY.

We have officially inaugurated the Chinese Communist-Funded Biden Family and a self-admitted prostitute (all politicians are, but this one literally sucked and ****ed her way to power) to the WHITE House.

Oh no! Can I actually say WHITE House without Burn, Loot and Murder immediately displaying their best and only talents?

As for what’s coming with Jo-N-Ho?

Continue Reading at Market-Ticker.org…

National Guard Turned Backs on Biden Motorcade

National Guard members appear to snub incoming president.

[Ed. Note: Alex, I’ll take “Things NOT Seen on CNN Today” for $500.]

by Adan Salazar
Info Wars

Members of the US National Guard refused to acknowledge Joe Biden as his motorcade drove by following his inauguration, footage shows.

Instead of turning to face the new president, several members of the National Guard tasked with providing security for the event turned their backs to him as the presidential motorcade made its way to the US Capitol.

[…] “You won’t see this on mainstream,” commented one Twitter user. “Many NG had their backs turned as JB went by.”

It’s unclear whether the guardsmen had been ordered to stare at the vacant lot as Biden’s motorcade passed.

The video comes as the FBI conducted what amounts to a “loyalty test,” vetting the political leanings of the entire 25,000 squadron dispatched to DC and eliminating 12 members from their ranks over supposed ties to extremism following the January 6 events at the Capitol.

Continue Reading at InfoWars.com…

One of Biden’s First Actions in Office Will Be to Exercise Powers He Admits He Doesn’t Have

Biden’s willingness to extend a nationwide eviction moratorium, while declining to mandate masks nationwide, demonstrates a worrying inconsistency in his views on presidential powers.

by Christian Britschgi
Reason.com

If you were hoping President Joe Biden might break from former President Donald Trump’s broad view of executive authority, don’t hold your breath. On Wednesday afternoon, Biden plans on extending the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) eviction moratorium through the end of March.

That moratorium prohibits landlords—under penalty of stiff fines and even jail time—from evicting tenants for non-payment if they file a hardship declaration stating that they are unable to pay rent because of the pandemic and their eviction would result in them moving into a crowded living situation.

The Trump administration, through the CDC, first issued this moratorium back in September. It was extended through the end of January by the relief bill passed by Congress at the end of December.

Continue Reading at Reason.com…

It’s Time for Republicans to Stop Lamenting and Start Moving Forward

by Sally Zelikovsky
American Thinker

It’s Potemkin Inauguration Day, and I hope 74 million Trump voters are boycotting the farce. But it’s also time to stop wringing your hands and reading emails that the shoe is about to drop and Trump will remain POTUS. Not gonna happen.

Rumors that Trump has some secret arrangement to stay in power with the military’s assistance appear to be disinformation chum to distract the base or keep us hopeful while other things are happening — with the added bonus of sowing confusion, chaos, and discord. Or its purpose is to convince the incoming Biden administration that the Evil Orange Blofeld has a diabolical master plan to wrest control of the country away from the Democrats. Or both. But there will be no surprise ending where Trump swoops in for the kill.

As if on cue, the party of riots that rejected federal troops and advocates for dismantling the police has effectively imposed martial law on D.C. with 25,000 national guard troops.

Continue Reading at AmericanThinker.com…

Heathrow Passengers Face Hour-Long Queues at Passport Control to Prove They’ve Had a Negative Test but Border Staff Claim Some Are Choosing to Be Fined £500 ‘Because They Don’t Want to Share Personal Details’

Border Force officials continue to check each passenger arriving in UK

by Dan Sales, David Churchill and Mark Duell
DailyMail

Heathrow passengers were subjected to an hour-long queue at passport control today as extra Covid checks stretched staff – as it emerged some travellers were willingly accepting non-compliance fines to avoid giving their details over.

Screams of ‘get more staff’ rang out as crowds mounted to get through the secure area.

Travellers flying into Britain are having their Covid paperwork checked by both airlines and Border Force officials in an effort to finally halt new strains of the virus.

They are expected to show proof of a negative test or risk being stopped or fined £500.

Occupational therapist Libby Pannett returned to the UK after her mother’s funeral in New Zealand today – where there were no cases of coronavirus.

Continue Reading at DailyMail.co.uk…

Eviction Bans, Surging Apartment Vacancy Rates Trip Up CMBS Backed by 43 Apartment Buildings

by Wolf Richter
Wolf Street

“Physical occupancy” rate (tenants living in the apartment) v. “economic occupancy” rate (tenants actually paying rent).

A $481-million loan that had been securitized into a Commercial Mortgage Backed Security (CMBS) in July 2019 by JPMorgan Chase and is backed by 43 apartment buildings with 8,671 apartment units in 25 metros, spread over the Midwest and Southeast, has already been put on the servicer’s watchlist, according to Trepp, which tracks and analyzes CMBS.

The comments of the servicer, KeyBank National Association, on why it put the loan on its watchlist are a sign of our times when eviction bans and work-from-anywhere have changed the equation for owners of apartment buildings.

Continue Reading at WolfStreet.com…

Former Vice President Mike Pence Leaves Trump Out of Farewell Message

by Damjan Tutarkov
LaCorte News

In a brief farewell message on his official Twitter account, now-former Vice President Mike Pence omitted any mention of former President Donald Trump.

“Thank you for the privilege of serving as your Vice President these past four years, it has been the greatest honor of my life. On behalf of our Wonderful Second Lady, Karen Pence, and our entire Family, Thank You and God Bless America,” Pence wrote.

[…] Pence’s otherwise undeniable commitment to Trump was put to the test in the days leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol Hill building by hundreds of Trump supporters when Trump reportedly pressured Pence to vote to stop the certification of the election, authority the vice president pointed out he did not possess.

In the days after the Capitol siege, Trump toned down his rhetoric and thanked Pence and the entire Pence family during a farewell address Tuesday.

Continue Reading at LaCorteNews.com…

Halfway to Secession: Unity on Foreign Policy, Disunity on Domestic Policy

by Ryan McMaken
Mises.org

In recent years, especially as media pundits and politicians talk up the idea of “divided” the American population is along ideological lines, talk of secession has become more frequent and more urgent. For several years now, a quarter of Americans polled have claimed to support the idea of secession. In 2018, a Zogby poll concluded 39 percent of those polled agree that residents of a state should “have the final say” as to whether or not that state remains part of the United States.

Do the Needs of Geopolitics Preclude Secession?

If the idea of secession continues to be repeated among a growing number of Americans—as appears likely—expect more serious opposition to the idea on foreign policy grounds. The claim will be that secession must be rejected because this would make the United States likely to fall prey to foreign powers—especially China and Russia—and independence may even lead the new states to make war on each other.

Continue Reading at Mises.org…

“I Am Open”: 50,000 Italian Restaurant Owners Plan to Ignore Lockdown

Huge act of civil disobedience plans to conduct business as usual inspite of “anti-Covid” measures

from Off Guardian

Today – Friday 15th January – over 50,000 restaurants are planning to open, an act of mass civil disobedience against “anti-Covid” lockdown measures which have massively hurt the restaurant business, especially small family-owned businesses.

Spreading through social media under the hashtag #IoOpro (“I am opening”), the movement is largest country-wide act of civil disobedience since lockdowns began.

Italain opposition MP Vittorio Sgarbi has backed the movement, saying in an interview:

Open up, & don’t worry, in the end we will make them eat their fines”.

Italy’s government is already facing internal conflict and crisis, an early election is a possibility.

Continue Reading at Off-Guardian.org…

A Clear and Present Danger

by David Kranzler
Investment Research Dynamics

“Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.” – Eric Arthur Blair, aka “George Orwell”

I knew this country was in serious shit soup when I began to see references in the mainstream media to the somewhat non-peaceful protest in Washington, D.C. on January 6th as “domestic terrorism” and “an attempted coup.” Amusingly, yet alarmingly, Hillary Clinton referred to the people involved as “insurrectionists” and “terrorists.”

Unfortunately, but as prophesied by George Orwell and a few others way back in the 1940’s, the truth has been turned inside-out, as “lies have become truth, war is peace and ignorance is strength. ” I was truly hoping this fait accompli would not engulf the United States in my lifetime. But now I’m horrifyingly watching it unfold before my eyes. However, once you have the misfortune of seeing reality, it’s impossible to “unsee” it. I truly wish I could bury my head in the sand like so many of those around me and make reality disappear.

Continue Reading at InvestmentResearchDynamics.com…

‘This is the Answer’: Megyn Kelly Cheers Formation of Legal Group Fighting Critical Race Theory

by Hank Berrien
Daily Wire

On Wednesday evening, after Joe Biden had been sworn in earlier in the day as President of the United States, Discovery Institute researcher Christopher F. Rufo, who has done yeoman’s work for months exposing the growing and pervasive use of “critical race theory” in institutions and in education, announced he was forming a coalition of legal foundations and attorneys to fight against the use of critical race theory.

Rufo, noting that Biden announced he would end the Trump administration’s 1776 Commission, which had fought against the implementation of critical race theory, tweeted, “Today, President Biden doubled-down on critical race theory in the federal government. In response, I am announcing a new coalition of legal foundations and private attorneys that will wage relentless legal warfare against race theory in America’s institutions. The fight is on.”

Continue Reading at DailyWire.com…

Biden Calls Trump’s Private Letter to Him ‘Very Generous,’ Won’t Reveal Contents

by Anders Hagstrom
DailyCaller.com

President Joe Biden described President Donald Trump’s outgoing letter to him as “very generous” Wednesday, but he declined to divulge exactly what was said.

Biden made the comment during his first public appearance in the Oval Office, where he kicked off his administration by signing a number of executive orders. Trump’s White House announced that he had left Biden a note on the Resolute Desk on Wednesday morning before departing for Florida.

“The president wrote a very generous letter, but because it is private I will not talk about it until I talk to him,” Biden said in response to reporters’ questions. “It was generous.”

Continue Reading at DailyCaller.com…

Joe Biden Removes Winston Churchill Bust, Andrew Jackson Painting from Oval Office

by Charlie Spiering
Breitbart.com

President Joe Biden shuffled the decor in the Oval Office after former President Donald Trump left Wednesday, removing the bust of Winston Churchill and the painting of former populist Democrat President Andrew Jackson.

Instead, Joe Biden added several additional busts to the office, busts of Robert F. Kennedy, Cesar Chavez, Rosa Parks, and former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, according to the Washington Post, who got an exclusive preview of the new decor in the Oval Office.

Trump notably reinstated the bust of Winston Churchill when he became president after former President Barack Obama controversially removed it. Trump kept the Martin Luther King Jr. bust that Obama displayed in the Oval Office, and Biden has also kept it in the room.

Continue Reading at Breitbart.com…