Fierce Patriots

Conservative Political News

  • Subscribe

<![CDATA[Politics]]>

Let's Not Shoot at Russians – Let's Tariff Their Petroleum (and Everything Else)

by Leave a Comment

(The opinions expressed in guest op-eds are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of RedState.com.)

We have literally zero national interest in the border skirmish between Russia and Ukraine. As absorbed as DC seems to be with that remote, nothingness tiff, the only purpose it can actually serve is as a visual aide for a border DC should be defending:

“Hey DC: Let’s pretend Mexico is Russia and we’re Ukraine.”

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) should have ended five minutes after the Soviet Union did since the entire point of NATO was to protect Europe from the Soviet Union. But this is government — where nothing ever ends.  Had Cro-Magnon Man’s prehistoric governments started a Saber-Tooth Tiger Treaty Organization, the US would still be over-funding it.

And we LOVE committing ourselves to wars over remote, nothingness tiffs.  There are 194 countries on the planet.  We are by various treaties obligated to go to war in defense of 67 of them.

Our pushing NATO membership further and further into eastern Europe — closer and closer to Russia — is a key contributor to Russia’s ongoing, rolling annoyance level. Thank goodness Ukraine ain’t yet a NATO member.  Else we would, by NATO requirement, HAVE to go to war with Russia should they invade Ukraine.  (Ukraine would be #68.)

Meanwhile, Russia is now a shambling, hollowed-out shell of its former self.  If this is high school — and life is high school extended — Russia is the Recording Secretary of the Chess Club.  The European Union (EU), meanwhile, is — relatively speaking — the football team’s middle linebacker.

Russia’s population is 146 million.  Its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is $1.7 trillion.  The EU’s population is 447 million.  Its GDP is $18.8 trillion.

And we have a NATO to obligate US to go to war — to protect the football player from the chess player.  Government is stupid.

As that pathetic GDP number indicates, Russia has no actual economy of which to speak.  Save for the petroleum on which it stands.  Russia is a gas station — with a country attached.

Russia Is World’s Second Biggest Oil Producer

Then-President Donald Trump made the US a net oil exporter.  (Successor President Joe #EmptyShelvesBiden exterminated that.)  Nevertheless…

Russia Continues Raising Fuel Oil Exports to United States

Oh yes, Europe ain’t the only stupid ones.  We import Russian petroleum, too.

And, of course, DC Democrats are into Year Two of assiduous navel-gazing — during which they are trying to determine just how much US economic self-destruction they can get away with doing in the name of changing the weather.

Beating Dead Horses: Forget ‘Build Back Better’ and Get Bipartisan Already

Climate Change: An Excuse for Democrats to Transform the US Economy

The Biden Administration Admits It’s Killing the Economy for No Reason

Russia?  Not so much.

Russia’s Vladimir Putin Skips COP26 Climate Summit

Russia’s Oil Output Could Peak In 2023

Russia Eyes Big Plans for Coal Production and Exports

Oh yes — we import Russian coal, too.  And while we trip over our own feet with our attempts to go solar and wind….

Putin Says Russia Won’t Repeat Others’ Mistakes in Transition to Green Technologies

We keep discussing the very many economic impositions we could emplace upon Russia should they invade Ukraine.  What follows is the very best one.

Which we should enact upon their petroleum, and coal — and anything else they export to us.  Regardless of whether or not they violate the selective sanctity of an international border.

The ‘Border Adjustment Tax’: Great Tax Reform – That Gets Us Great Trade Reform

Build Back Never: Let’s Carbon Tax Them – Not US

‘Greenwash’: The US Is the Only Country Actually Engaged in Economic Suicide

Putin using cheap energy means everything they do is cheaper.  As we make everything more and more expensive by using expensive energy. This is radically unfair to US producers.  Who are getting undercut and undermined (SWIDT?) by cheap Russian imports.

So we should impose border adjustment tariffs upon Russian imports. To at least attempt to address the huge advantages Russia has as a result of the cheap energy they use — that Democrats are eliminating here.

Wait, Huh? Harris Condemns Human Trafficking, Then Blames COVID-19

by Leave a Comment

What can be said about Kamala Harris that hasn’t already been said? Never mind — we don’t have all day. Let’s just focus on Harris hypocritically condemning human trafficking while simultaneously lauding the Biden Border Crisis and its continuing onslaught on America by an ever-increasing number of illegal aliens.

Ah, but there’s more. And it’s bizarre.

In a Tuesday speech delivered from the fake Oval Office TV set across from the White House, as reported by Breitbart, Harris focused her comments on the challenges facing The President’s Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking Persons. It was another typical Kamala Harris performance.

Trafficking is an extremely heinous and profitable business. Let’s be clear: When we’re talking about human trafficking, we are talking about some human beings who are essentially buying and selling other human beings.

I don’t want to go all “Mr. Obvious,” here, but when you have all but installed one-way northbound people movers all along the Southern border and hired welcoming mariachi bands to play festive songs as illegal aliens continue to surge across the border, should you be surprised by the reality of people smugglers paid to “safely” escort said illegal aliens to the border? What do Biden and Harris expect?

And what does Harris blame, in large part, for the surge in trafficking? COVID-19. No, really.

Experts suggest that the number of people at risk has also grown during COVID-19. So we must address, with a sense of urgency, what is happening in our own backyard.

Incidentally, on Planet Kamala, I wonder if “must address” is synonymous with “the time to do” stuff.  As we reported last week, Harris, after being asked by a reporter if it was time for the Biden administration to make changes to its COVID strategy, brilliantly observed:

It is time for us to do what we have been doing. And that time is every day. Every day it is time for us to agree that there are things and tools that are available to us to slow this thing down.

Wait — huh?

Harris kicked the ball down the field, calling on businesses and political leaders to end human trafficking.

To be sure, the economic impact of forced labor is significant.  And it undermines our own supply chain, displacing American workers, driving down American wages, and creating an unlevel playing field for responsible American businesses.

It undermines our own supply chain, displacing American workers, driving down American wages, and creating an unlevel playing field for responsible American businesses.

What was true then is true now: It will take all of us to address human trafficking.

Stop the tape. Memo to Kamala:

You’re talking about what happens after traffickers bring illegals to the border. Whether those illegals are smuggled through tunnels or allowed to freely walk across the border, to paraphrase Hillary, what difference does it make? They still flow into the country, unabated, courtesy of the Biden administration.

What am I missing, here, Kamala?

Consider the following headlines:

As Kamala’s Failure Pile Gets Bigger, More Lame Excuses Get Dropped

Tulsi Gabbard Is the Latest Dem to Slam Biden on Border Crisis; Calls for Return to Trump Policy

Stand-up Comic? Biden Lackey Says Kamala Harris ‘Has Done a Tremendous Job’ on Border Crisis

Ron DeSantis Zeroes in on the One Thing That Would Make Joe Biden Secure the Border

“As a nation,” Harris said, “we must require serious consequence and accountability for those who commit these crimes,” adding: “And we must work to stop these crimes before they happen.”

OK, I got this one. How ’bout we remove the people-movers and mariachi bands from the border, for starters. Then let’s stop shipping illegals across America in the dead of night.

Finally, let’s knock off the policy and stop announcing that we will no longer deport illegal aliens solely because they are undocumented, as our intrepid DHS chief Alejandro Mayorkas did in September.

The list goes on, but let’s start with these no-brainers and go from there, shall we?

Marble Halls & Silver Screens With Sarah Lee Ep. 119: The 'Biden Foreign Policy Fumbles, Macbeth, and Red Dragon Cinema' Edition

by Leave a Comment

Things are heating up in Eastern Europe and Biden is determined to make sure we get burned by it. Basically, there’s the threat of war brewing — no one’s really sure at this point if it’s anything more than a threat — because Vladimir Putin is making moves like he might want to invade Ukraine (although he’s insisting that’s not what the 100,000 troops near the border would do), and Biden is willing to commit U.S. troops to stop it, says the man in the Oval Office.

There’s a lot to unpack on the Ukraine situation, and I’m no expert on the history of the region; but I do know Putin would very much like to get the Soviet Bloc band back together. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the Russian leader’s been pretty clear about wanting to be the guy to reclaim some of the nation’s former glory (see: Crimea).

But there’s another, far more practical, consideration, at least to European nations like Germany: energy. Natural gas to be precise.

[A]bout 40 percent of natural gas consumed in Europe comes from Russia. And this dominance is enhanced by the major customer being Germany, which explains why it is being marked “absent” from most of the diplomatic pressure that is aimed at Moscow. By all means, allow yourself a wry smile about Berlin’s history, but the result is that British military transports avoided flying through German air space last week to deliver anti-tank missiles to Ukraine. More such munitions are coming from the U.S. but their flight paths are not clear.

A side lesson in political realities: Germany’s particular dependence on Russian natural gas is also a consequence of going “green.” The country has moved away from nuclear power and coal to generate electricity. Natural gas was supposedly the solution. Russia has been a reliable supplier, but the real cost is only now becoming apparent to many.

…

We are facing an unusual event: An energy-centric crisis that isn’t Middle East-focused. But that is not to say it won’t have implications for that region. High oil prices are good for oil-rich countries and bad, i.e. destabilizing, for those that missed out on hydrocarbon wealth. Sanctions-hit, but oil- and gas-wealthy, Iran will benefit, all the more so if it is perceived to be withstanding American pressure to restrict its nuclear activities. Talks in Vienna seem to be concluding without agreement.

A legitimate question many are posing is why the U.S. might want to get involved in this situation. Is there some reason that pushing back against Russia is in America’s interest? Sure, we’ve had diplomatic relations with Ukraine since the bloc collapsed, but they’ve never been a particularly stable place. And they’ve certainly had their fair share of corruption.

Some of it even comes perilously close to the guy in the Oval.

So this doesn’t seem as much like an America problem as it does a Biden problem. Which has been the difficulty with his presidency from the beginning…and it doesn’t look like it’s destined to change any time soon.

Then of course there’s the time-tested truth that war distracts from failed domestic policy (of which there is much) and also has the added benefit of being quite profitable for that infamous military-industrial complex.

The neo-cons appear to be back wearing Democrat clothes.

I cover all that on the show today, as well as offer thoughts on the eerie but compelling “Macbeth” (trailer below). And there’s a bit about China dissing Hollywood. Because of course they are.

Give it a spin.

The show lives on Spotify and you can also find me at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, FCB Radio’s Spreaker, and Deezer.

Those Who Don't Know History Are Doomed to Look Exceedingly Unintelligent

by Leave a Comment

I get why The Elite peddle Socialism-Communism-Collectivism. They know it’s a terrible system that has murdered 100+ million people and left trillions destitute. But they know they will be inside the castle when the drawbridges go up and the world comes crashing down. So their lives will be unaffected – and they will be in charge of the ruins. So, they peddle Socialism.

That we have even a single regular person clamoring for Socialism – is a mass-condemnation of humanity.

Yes, K-12 government schools and colleges are Leftist claptrap factories and indoctrination centers. And have been for many decades.

But for the last decade-plus – we have had mass access to the Internet. The one-stop shop for all the information in the history of humanity.

And yes, Big Tech has been censoring the daylight out of the Web. But the Internet is a HUGE place. While Big Tech scrambles to keep up with and silence current events – they can’t possibly get to all the accumulated historical information.

There is PLENTY of evidence online that Socialism is TERRIBLE. All there for the enlightening – virtually free of charge. Yet, we have many tens of millions of Americans who are too incurious and apathetic to access it.

To quote the late Harry Truman:

“There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know.”

Why am I a total, apocalyptic cynic? This is one of the main reasons why. We should know better, we have facile access to the information to know better – and we don’t.

Of course, this willful ignorance applies to WAY more than just the championing of Socialism. Human nature doesn’t change – so history is replete with the very many echoes of the same human stupidities.

To wit: Anyone still championing unilateral trade disarmament in the face of globalist subsidies and slave labor – is exceedingly unintelligent.

President Donald Trump – and then the China Virus government lockdowns – have demonstrated that we need to massively re-insource what we have spent decades stupidly outsourcing. And ensure that we protect our domestic producers – especially on all things national security.

And, of course, food is the preeminent national security item.

Except – look: Yet another exceedingly unintelligent person who knows NOTHING about (very recent) history….

The US Sugar Program: Why Americans Pay More for Sugar:

“The (Tariff-Rate Quota) TRQ charged by the U.S. sugar program allows the country to import a certain amount of sugar at a low tariff rate. But if the U.S. imports more than the set amount of sugar, the tariff rate increases.

“Instead of protecting sugar farmers, the federal government’s policies need to focus on improving the economic well-being of our nation by providing consumers with inexpensive goods. Getting rid of the U.S. sugar program will help the government in that goal.”

We’ve engaged in this moronic “fake free trade uber alles” policy for the last half-century-plus. It is precisely why we woke up during the pandemic to find we don’t make anything anymore. And that instead, China – the China Virus manufacturer – makes LOTS of our stuff.

We’re now into Year Two of President Joe #EmptyShelvesBiden. Our crushing supply chain shortages would be a whole lot less crushing – if we were transporting things from the Midwest rather than mid-China. There would be far fewer fleets of cargo ships sprawling off of California’s shore. I’d much rather China and other countries have Rust Belts – and not US.

Yet our aforementioned clueless author – seems to know NONE of this. We spent many decades myopically fixating on cheap stuff at the mortal expense of tens of millions of domestic producers. It’s precisely why we are now so incredibly screwed.

And don’t misunderstand – sugar isn’t just for ice cream and cereal. It is a food supply staple. Were there actually any food on your grocery store shelves, you could pull items at random – and find many more than you thought contain sugar.

Protecting sugar farmers is more than a good economic idea – it is a national security imperative.

And the US sugar program – actually pays zero dollars in subsidies. It is, as described, a sliding scale of import tariffs and limits. Why? Because other countries mass-subsidize their sugar.

Brazil subsidizes its sugar at somewhere between $2.5 billion and $4 billion each and every year. And shocker: There are over 100 countries that sell sugar on the world market – and Brazil controls nearly half of that market.

India subsidizes. Heck – even Guatemala subsidizes.

This ain’t free trade. And it certainly ain’t fair trade.

It’s a miracle we still have ANY sugar farmers left – given the massive global subsidies with which they have to contend. Thank God for the sliding tariff-import limits – that our aforementioned author is demanding we end.

We have spent decades cutting exceedingly stupid trade deals. Let’s instead cut better ones – that negotiate away these mass subsidies.

And make the fake free trade market a little less fake – and a little more fair.

When all of that is addressed, we can take a look at our exceedingly tiny sugar program.

Specks and planks, as the Bible says.

And national security.

Because I’d like the US to continue to be able to make its own food.

On the Take: From Chinese Donations to 'Biden Center' to Schumer's Russian Pipeline Cash, It Never Ends

by Leave a Comment

Foreign influence-peddling and the Democrat Party. They go together like cheese and crackers, Oreos and milk, beer and pizza, and Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer: you can’t have one without the other.

More specifically, for today’s story, Chinese and Russian influence-peddling.

Investigative journalist Peter Schweitzer’s new book, Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win, outlines the extensiveness of Chinese Communist Party efforts to influence Biden.

Per the synopsis:

That the Chinese government seeks to infiltrate American institutions is hardly surprising. What is wholly new, however, are the number of American elites who are eager to help the Chinese dictatorship in its quest for global hegemony.

Presidential families, Silicon Valley gurus, Wall Street high rollers, Ivy League universities, even professional athletes—all willing to sacrifice American strength and security on the altar of personal enrichment.

In Red-Handed, six-time New York Times bestselling investigator Peter Schweizer presents his most alarming findings to date by revealing the secret deals wealthy Americans have cut to help China build its military, technological, and economic might. Equally as astonishing, many of these elites quietly believe the Chinese dictatorial regime is superior to American democracy.

Schweizer and his team of forensic investigators spent over a year scouring a massive trove of global corporate records and legal filings to expose the hidden transactions China’s enablers hoped would never see the light of day. And as Schweizer’s past bombshells like Profiles in Corruption, Secret Empires, and Clinton Cash all made clear, there are bad actors on both ends of the political spectrum.

Exhaustively researched, crisply told, and chilling, Red-Handed will expose the nexus of power between the Chinese government and the American elites who do its bidding.

The hapless president of the United States has been a Washington politician for nearly 50 years, yet has managed to accumulate an estimated net worth of at least  $9 million. How?

I’m not trying to connect any dots, here, but I am just sayin’.

According to Schweitzer, as reported by Breitbart, Chinese Communist Party donations to the University of Pennsylvania almost tripled after the university established a “Biden Center” in 2017 and gave the then-vice president a professorship. [ROFL emoji]

Nothing to see here, simply a “coincidence.”

Sweitzer lays out a compelling case, detailing the Biden family’s “very extensive business relationship” with Chinese Communist Party elites — Can you spell “Hunter“? — and how those elites were not shy about celebrating Biden’s election in 2020 as a golden opportunity to further develop their influence over U.S. government agencies and institutions. Noted Breitbart, this included sponsoring a Chinese conference in November 2020, which was so fired up about Biden’s win that Beijing decided to “nuke its video off the Internet just as it began to go viral.”

Oh — I almost forgot.

Guess who was the managing director of the Penn Biden Center in 2019? (Hint: Antony Blinken.)

According to Breitbart, the “Biden Center” was established in part to promote Corn Pop’s pal’s vision of “global leadership” [ROFL emoji] — a vision, Schweizer notes, that viewed Russia as the great looming threat to world peace but had absolutely zero negative to say about China. Hey, and why should it? Joe told us himself, remember? “China’s not gonna eat our lunch. C’mon, man!”

Meanwhile, Chuck Schumer

In this episode of “Try to Control Your Shock and Amazement,” it appears that the intrepid Senate Majority Leader — who helped block sanctions on Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline — received campaign donations from PACs of companies affiliated with two of the European companies that helped block-fund the pipeline, according to a report by Washington Free Beacon.

Via the Free Beacon:

Affiliates of two European companies that fund Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline contributed to the campaign of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), who Republicans say has blocked sanctions on the Kremlin-backed project.

ENGIE North America and BASF Corporation each gave $2,500 to Schumer in September through their corporate political action committees, according to newly disclosed Federal Election Commission records.

ENGIE North America’s parent company and a BASF subsidiary are part of a consortium of five companies that finance Nord Stream 2, which will transport natural gas from Russia to Germany. While President Joe Biden has called the pipeline a geopolitical threat to Europe that helps Russian President Vladimir Putin, last year he waived sanctions on the project.

Oops, Chuckie.

Incidentally, as reported by my colleague Andrew Malcolm in July, Biden is just peachy with Nord Stream 2, even though he nuked the Keystone XL Pipeline on Day One of his occupation of the Oval Office, instantly killing more than 10K jobs — current and planned.

Anyway, the contributions to Schumer came during an aggressive lobbying effort in Washington over sanctions on the 764-mile pipeline. The five European companies that back Nord Stream 2, noted the Free Beacon — Wintershall, ENGIE, Uniper, Shell, and OMV — have paid millions of dollars to lobbying firms to block sanctions.

As Axios reported, Vincent Roberti, a former Connecticut state representative, major Democratic donor, and Nord Stream 2 lobbyist made maximum campaign contributions in 2021 to Schumer and vulnerable Senate Democrats, according to campaign finance records. Among those contributions:

  • $5,800 to Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.)
  • $5,800 to Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.)
  • $5,800 to Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.)
  • $2,900to Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) (the maximum primary contribution)

According to lobbying disclosure records, Roberti’s firm, Roberti Global, has been paid $8.5 million for its Nord Stream 2 lobbying work. Somewhat hilariously — in context — the website touts: “One of the country’s Top Performing Lobbying Firms in 2018, 2019, and 2020.”

Ever-present Democrat Hypocrisy

What news item exposing Democrats for what they are would be complete without a yuuge dose of hypocrisy? After all, the hypocrisy of the left knows no bounds.

In December, House Democrats introduced a bill to block foreign-owned corporations from spending company funds to… wait for it… influence U.S. elections. Via The Hill:

The bill would extend the federal ban on political donations from foreign nationals to multinational companies that are at least partially owned by foreign nationals. Following the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision that allowed corporations to spend unlimited sums to influence elections, some U.S. subsidiaries of foreign-owned companies have made large donations to super PACs.

As transcribed by The Hill, Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause, said in a statement — and this is ironically hilarious:

Americans deserve to know who is trying to influence our voices and our votes, and foreign entities should have zero role in determining American elections.

Have you stopped laughing, yet?

The Bottom Line

Foreign lobbyists have used money to influence U.S. policy through a variety of schemes — often hidden — for decades. While foreign lobbying must be reported, by law, as noted by The Washinton Post, that’s only one conduit used by foreign interests to peddle influence in Washington. Dozens of D.C. think tanks and other policy organizations take money from foreign countries and corporations without ever disclosing the details.

Yet, the “holier than thou” Democrat Party continues to pontificate against foreign influence out one side of its mouth while saying “Please and thank you” out of the other side.

The Democrat Party: You can’t beat ’em. Oh, but we are.

Related on RedState:

Report: ‘Foreign Policy Advisor’ in Sussman Indictment Just Id’d as Big Name in Clinton-Biden World

The White House Is Asked About Hunter Biden’s Laptop and Jen Psaki Can’t Help but Lie

China Takes Victory Lap After Biden Folds to Them Like a Cheap Suit

Senate Investigation Reveals Hunter Biden Used Family Name To Land Deals With Foreign Tycoons