Bidenflation Bites Again

The Biden White House and the left-wing media are desperately trying to spin today’s inflation report as a sign of progress. Only in the left’s fevered mind can 6.4% inflation over the last year, which was higher than the experts predicted, be “good news.” 

Here’s what Biden and his media allies won’t tell you – inflation has outpaced wages for 22 months in a row – almost the entirety of the Biden/Harris Administration.  

That means your paychecks aren’t buying as much at the grocery store. (Did your paycheck go up 6.5% last month?) Meanwhile, orange juice is up 12.4%. Breakfast cereals are up 15%. Eggs are up 70%! The cost of electricity is up 11.9%. 

It’s no wonder that more and more Americans say they are “financially worse off” now than they were one or two years ago.

A Timely Reminder

I know there is a big debate right now about who the Republican nominee should be in 2024. (See below.) But two things were on my mind this morning when I got up that I want to share with you.

First, Donald Trump created the Space Force because he understood the importance of space in the future military conflicts. Late night comedians had a field day. The political establishment laughed at him. Think about that as we reflect on the events of the past two weeks.

The second thought that came to mind is that embassies and consulates are considered the sovereign territory of the nation they represent.  They have a very special status that protect them. 

This is why dissidents in a particular country often seek asylum at the embassy of a Western nation. Law enforcement officials do not enter foreign consulates or embassies except under the most extreme circumstances. 

During the Trump Administration, many governors, including Republican governors, often went to Chinese consulates around the country hoping to attract communist Chinese investment in their states. 

On multiple occasions (here and here), then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned state and local officials about influence operations run out of communist Chinese consulates to compromise American politics at every level. Here’s what Pompeo told the nation’s governors:

“Beijing produced a report that assessed all fifty of America’s governors on their attitudes toward China. They labeled each of you friendly, hardline, or ambiguous. I’ll let you decide where you think you belong, [but] someone in China already has. Many of you, indeed, in that report, are referenced by name.”

I always assumed he didn’t “name names” because it was a bipartisan list.

That brings me to the Chinese consulate in Houston, Texas. Multiple southern governors and U.S. politicians had visited with and posed for pictures with the head of the consulate seeking investments in their states. 

Meanwhile, Chinese intelligence officials in that consulate were implicated in efforts to aid left-wing radicals and stoke racial division in the U.S. They also meddled in the 2020 elections. 

The Trump Administration determined that the Houston consulate was a center for communist Chinese spying and espionage and shut it down, over the objections of many in the media and in corporate America.

No Concern For Palestine

There’s a crisis in Palestine, but you wouldn’t know it from the Biden Administration’s silence. Of course, I’m referring to East Palestine, Ohio, not a fictional Muslim state in the Middle East.

Eleven days ago, a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, and a fire erupted. Eventually, the Biden Administration decided that the best course of action was to initiate a controlled burn. Residents in the area were forced to evacuate their homes.

In the days that followed, it became increasingly evident that this was a major environmental disaster. Fish and animals in the area are reportedly sick and dying.  

People who returned to their homes are reporting serious health issues.

When it comes to the environment, we live in a hyper-aware atmosphere. We’ve declared war on our own energy industry in the name of saving the planet. Whole industries are being threatened because of climate change or some species of rodent no one has ever heard of. 

Where are all the green groups now? Where is the EPA? 

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who has yet to demonstrate much understanding of transportation issues, was silent for more than a week about this railroad disaster. He’s been too busy lecturing us about his concern that there are too many white construction workers.

As Ohio Sen. J. D. Vance put it, “The problem we have is that we are ruled by unserious people who are worried about fake problems instead of the real fact that our country is falling apart in some of the most important ways.”

Our prayers go out to the people of East Palestine, Ohio, and the surrounding area. State and local politicians should be speaking up loudly. Why are the good people of Middle America being ignored?  

Well, we know what the liberal elites think about Middle Americans. They’re “deplorable and irredeemable.” They’re “Christian nationalists” and “semi-fascists” who are “clinging bitterly to their guns and Bibles.” 

Normally, the left would be all over this. There is a big push on the left to connect race and environmental “justice.” But the whole area affected by this environmental disaster is vintage Middle America and reliably conservative.

Maybe that’s why the radical Biden Administration doesn’t appear to care much because they haven’t figured out a way to exploit the disaster in East Palestine, Ohio, to advance their left-wing agenda.

The Surrender Caucus

Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley jumped into the 2024 Republican presidential race today. And, of course, leftist media outlets are denouncing her announcement video as “dark.” 

Other potential candidates are expected to jump into the race in the weeks and months ahead. One possible contender is New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, who has staked his claim as a leader of the GOP’s “Surrender Caucus.”

Speaking on CBS’s “Face The Nation” this weekend, Sununu said he was a “federalist” and a “free market advocate,” and not at all like that “big government authoritarian” Ron DeSantis. Referring to DeSantis’s fight with Disney, Sununu said:

“Remember what’s going to happen. Eventually, they’ll have power in a state or in a position and then they’ll start penalizing conservative businesses and conservative nonprofits and conservative ideas. That is the worst precedent in the world.”

Where have you been, Mr. Sununu?! 

The left started the culture war, not the right. The left has been penalizing conservative businesses, nonprofits and ideas for years! But Gov. Sununu clearly has no intention of fighting over those “messy” values issues.

Sununu’s statement speaks volumes about his commitment to fighting and defeating the radical left. Contrast that display of spinelessness to far-left, neo-Marxist Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman, who was hospitalized again last week.

Fetterman knew what his condition was after his stroke last year. Yet he risked his own life to run because he’s that dedicated to his neo-Marxist vision of America. But Governor Sununu wants to preemptively surrender in the culture war. 

When there was a 50/50 chance for Republicans to get the Senate back last year, polls showed the New Hampshire Senate race was competitive, and that Governor Sununu could have easily won. But he refused to run, probably because he had presidential ambitions and wanted to run from his perch in New Hampshire. 

To the best of my knowledge, Chris Sununu is in good health, yet he was unwilling to make the sacrifice for the conservative cause that stroke-ridden Fetterman was willing to make for the left.  You don’t need to know any more than that to understand why the left is winning the culture war.