Monthly Archives: March, 2023
14 Facts You MUST Read About the Donald Trump Indictment
Abbott, Cruz, Others Blast New York Indictment of Trump
Gov. Greg Abbott and others Thursday night criticized the New York indictment of former President Donald Trump.
The same groups financially supporting the New York district attorney pursuing criminal charges against the former president also helped finance the defund the police movement in Austin in 2021 and get a district attorney elected to Travis County who’s ensured that many violent felony cases are not prosecuted.
In response to the indictment, Abbott tweeted, “Weaponization of our courts for political grievances is an abhorrent abuse of power. The George Soros-supported NYC DA is only furthering the radical liberal agenda to have elections determined at the jury box rather than the ballot box. America deserves better.”
Soros is a billionaire Democratic donor who has contributed millions of dollars to the campaigns of progressive district attorney candidates, including the New York district attorney who indicted Trump.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said, “The radical left has consistently weaponized our courts to silence conservative voices. The actions by the Soros-backed Democrat DA in NYC is the latest example of this abuse of power.”
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said, “Today is an absolute outrage and tragic day for our country. This left-wing Soros DA has decided to use the power of his office to indict Donald Trump – facts and law be damned!”
Cruz also said, “Today marks a turning point in our country. The indictment of Trump is a moment in the death of the rule of law. Our Founders are weeping – law is supposed to be fair, regardless of political party. It is not meant to be used as a weapon to attack your political enemies.”
U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Houston, said, “A Manhattan Grand Jury at the behest of a weaponized prosecutor; who received a million dollars from Soros, has indicted a former U.S. President. This unprecedented attack against Trump is an assault on everything we hold sacred about our Republic.
“If they can come for him, they can come for you. Our judicial system is not blind or just, it has been weaponized by dangerous people hellbent on remaking our nation into something unrecognizable.”
Not all elected Texas officials agree. Newly elected Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, said, “No one is above the law, not even a former president. As a former public defender, I know the importance of a fair and unbiased judicial process. I urge my fellow Americans to put politics aside & refrain from violent rhetoric. This is a critical moment – we must not fail it.”
Former Texas legislator and now congressman, U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, tweeted, “May justice be served, finally.”
On Thursday, a New York grand jury voted to indict Trump over allegedly misreporting payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016.
Daniels sued Trump for defamation and lost her appeal last year before the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. She owes the president nearly $300,000 in legal fees. After losing her case, she tweeted, "I will go to jail before I pay a penny.”
Trump issued several statements on social media referring to the indictment as “political persecution” and “a Witch-Hunt to destroy the Make America Great Again movement.”
Criticisms of New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s connection to Soros stems from him reportedly benefiting from a Soros-funded Justice and Safety PAC and other similarly funded groups that have focused on getting progressive district attorneys elected nationwide to implement policies that abolish bail, release violent offenders, and defund the police.
Soros’ Foundation to Promote Open Society funneled millions of dollars to the Community Resource Hub for Safety and Accountability, which provides resources to “local advocates and organizations working to address the harm of policing in the US,” according to its website. The hub has partnered with the Justice and Safety PAC and roughly 20 other groups, according to multiple reports, to get district attorneys like Braggs elected.
In Austin, the defund the police movement in 2021 was made possible by Soros funds.
Soros spent $500,000 to defeat a ballot proposition in Austin that would have restored funding to the Austin Police Department. “Billionaire George Soros is involved in Austin's Prop A police staffing initiative,” the Austin American Statesman reported, pointing out that “Soros' Open Society Policy Center transferred $500k to Equity Austin to defeat Prop A.”
Within months of being in office, Garza implemented a new policy to throw out cases including serious felony charges like “aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, assault of a pregnant woman, aggravated robbery, and more,” KVUE ABC News reported. In just four months, Garza rejected 142 felony cases, a 735% increase from the same timeframe in 2020.
Facts About Closing Costs [INFOGRAPHIC]
DeSantis Blasts Trump Indictment, Says He Will Not Agree to Extradition
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis blasted the indictment of former President Donald Trump on Thursday, saying he won’t comply with an extradition order from New York.
“The weaponization of the legal system to advance a political agenda turns the rule of law on its head,” DeSantis said in a statement published on Twitter. “It is un-American. The Soros-backed Manhattan District Attorney has consistently bent the law to downgrade felonies and to excuse criminal misconduct.”
DeSantis was referring to billionaire Democratic donor George Soros’ Foundation to Promote Open Society funneling millions of dollars to the Community Resource Hub for Safety and Accountability, which provides resources to “local advocates and organizations working to address the harm of policing in the US,” according to its website.
Through the hub, the Justice and Safety PAC and 20 other similar groups have focused on getting district attorneys elected nationwide to implement policies that abolish bail, release violent offenders, and defund the police. In cities like Houston where these policies, including “bail reform,” have been implemented, crime has skyrocketed, in part caused by repeat violent offenders being released onto the streets.
“Yet, now he is stretching the law to target a political opponent,” DeSantis said of New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg. “Florida will not assist in an extradition request given the questionable circumstances at issue with this Soros-backed Manhattan prosecutor and his political agenda.”
On Thursday, a New York grand jury indicted Trump over allegedly misreporting payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016 in exchange for her silence about an alleged affair she had with Trump. The former president denies he ever had such an affair.
Daniels sued Trump for defamation and lost her appeal last year before the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. She owes the president nearly $300,000 in legal fees. After the 9th Circuit ruling, she tweeted, "I will go to jail before I pay a penny.”
Florida Lt. Gov. Jeannette Nunez agreed with DeSantis, saying, “It’s true. Political agendas have no place in a court of law. We are a country of laws, not men. Florida will not tolerate one man, a Soros-backed prosecutor, using our justice system to advance a politically motivated stunt to score points.”
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody also agreed, saying, “Upon learning of the NY DA indictment, I am heartbroken by the damage this targeted prosecution will do to the integrity of our justice system. It is a sad day in the story of the United States.”
Nikki Fried, former Democratic Florida gubernatorial candidate who lost in the Democratic primary to Charlie Crist, took to Twitter to post several comments criticizing DeSantis.
“Breaking the law is un-American and blaming it on George Soros is anti-Semitic,” she said, adding “How pathetic is Ron DeSantis? I mean, the groveling, the poll numbers, all of it.”
She also pointed to DeSantis removing a state attorney who refused to enforce state law, saying, “You know there has been an actual, proven unlawful and unconstitutional weaponization of the law – your removal of State Attorney Andrew Warren.”
Last August, DeSantis suspended Warren of the 13th Judicial Circuit citing "neglect of duty” for his decision not to prosecute individuals who violate the state's 15-week abortion ban.
The governor has the authority to suspend a state officer under Article IV, Section 7 of the state constitution and did so by issuing an executive order. State attorneys are state officers constitutionally elected to serve as prosecuting officers of all trial courts within each judicial circuit and are not subject to impeachment.
“State Attorneys have a duty to prosecute crimes as defined in Florida law, not to pick and choose which laws to enforce based on his personal agenda,” DeSantis said at the time.
Trump, a Florida resident, blasted the indictment, issuing several statements on social media referring to the indictment as “political persecution” and “a Witch-Hunt to destroy the Make America Great Again movement.”
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As Pentagon Struggles to Fill Military Requests, Funding Goes to Diversity, Critical Race Theory
The Pentagon is increasingly struggling to fill the weapons and equipment requests for the in Ukraine. At the same time, taxpayer funds are going to pay for ongoing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion efforts in the military, most recently one controversial Pentagon official pushing anti-police and pro-critical race theory books at schools for the children of military families.
The New York Times recently highlighted the Pentagon’s manufacturing problem with a story headlined: “From Rockets to Ball Bearings: Pentagon Struggles to Feed War Machine.”
The Pentagon would reportedly struggle to manufacture enough precision missiles if conflict with China broke out after sending over a decades worth of Stinger missiles to Ukraine as soon as the war broke out, one of multiple concerning manufacturing issues that have been exposed by the demands of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
“I’ve been sounding an alarm for months about shortcomings [and] shrinkages in our defense production capacity,” U.S> Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said in response to the story. “Mergers [and] supply chain issues are only part of the problem. America is neglecting our biggest resource – people. And our key challenge – workforce training.”
Those difficulties come as the Pentagon increasingly focuses its attention, and funds, on equity initiatives.
Critics say the Pentagon has become distracted. U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, commissioned a report that laid out a series of examples of racial and gender ideology permeating military training, policies and leadership, all at taxpayer expense, as The Center Square previously reported.
In one of those examples, the report points to official training materials in which West Point cadets are lectured on white privilege. The report points to another case where a slide presentation for the Air Force Academy is titled, “Diversity & Inclusion: What it is, why we care, & what we can do,” which warns cadets to avoid gendered language, such as terms like “mom” and “dad.”
The recent Department of Defense's comptroller’s budget report points to millions of dollars in equity funding as well.
“Ensuring accountable leadership by adding nearly $500 million in FY 2023 to implement the recommendations of the Independent Review Commission (IRC) on Sexual Assault in the Military, enhancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) programs, and addressing extremism in the ranks,” the comptroller report said.
"The Department will lead with our values – building diversity, equity, and inclusion into everything we do," the report added.
The report points to $86.5 million for "dedicated diversity and inclusion activities."
"Additionally, to facilitate, inform, and advance agency progress on issues relating to DEIA, DoD established the DoD Equity Team (DET) in 2021," the report said. "The DET addressed a broad range of DEIA issues, including the need for increased diversity within the talent pipeline; challenges pertaining to DEIA data collection, analysis, and management; and integration of D&I curriculum into leadership development training."
Major Charlie Dietz, a DOD spokesman in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, pushed back against the GOP report after its release.
“Diversity, inclusion, and equality at its core is about leveraging the strengths of all our people, advancing opportunity, addressing potential barriers or discrepancies, and – fundamentally – ensuring people are treated with dignity and respect," he told The Center Square at the time of the report’s release. "We always talk about weapons systems, yet every one of us will agree that our greatest weapons system are our people. So that’s why our policies to better leverage our people and increase unit cohesion are important here.”
The Pentagon’s Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion has come under increased scrutiny after one of its employees was caught tweeting anti-white comments online.
Open the Books, a government spending accountability group, helped uncover Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) chief, Kelisa Wing, who published a string of racist tweets and has a history of promoting her own critical race theory-themed books.
Open The Books said discovered Wing pushed “radical ideologies premised on Marxist and Critical Race Theory frames; questionable ethics; substantial conflicts of interest; and even side businesses.”
In her tweets, Wing said she was “exhausted by white folx” and blasted “caudacity,” a slang term for boldness among white people.
"[T]his lady actually had the CAUdacity to say that black people can be racist too…” she tweeted. “I had to stop the session and give Karen the BUSINESS… [W]e are not the majority, we don't have power.”
Lawmakers raised questions about Wing during a hearing last week. U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., peppered Gilbert Cisneros, the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, with questions during the hearing, but he had few answers.
“Have you read Kelisa Wing’s books, titled ‘What is White Privilege?,’ ‘What Does it Mean to Defund the Police?,’ and ‘What is the Black Lives Matter Movement?’” Stefanik asked. “Are you aware that these books are in DoDEA’s K-12 schools throughout the country?”
Cisneros said no to both questions. He did say the DOD does not condone Wing’s tweet.
Wing has been removed from her involvement with military schools but was not fired.
“I will take it as a result that we delivered,” Stefanik said. “She should have been fired completely, but she was at least moved somewhere else, not dealing with our kids’ educational systems.”
Critics said Wing’s scandal and removal is just the beginning. For now, it highlights an ongoing battle over the role of federal funding for controversial equity initiatives, especially when federal agencies are struggling with their primary responsibilities.
“It took multiple investigations from us and multiple hearings from Congress to finally get some answers and some action from the Department of Defense," Adam Andrzejewski, Open The Books CEO, said. “Unfortunately, there are still outstanding questions for the Pentagon, including whether they plan to eliminate the role or find a replacement for Wing. The DoD also should account for how much public money is being spent on DEI material and trainings all across the Defense Department.”
Ron Johnson Says Media Censorship of Protasiewicz Allegations Is ‘Scandalous’
Dan Kelly Calls Protasiewicz Allegations ‘Credible,’ Lawsuit Threat ‘Wildly Troubling’
Jon Ehr Adamantly Repeats on Audio That Janet Protasiewicz Used Racial Slurs, Physically Abused Husband
Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Jill Karofsky Says Protasiewicz Racial Slur Claims Are ‘100% Made Up’
Gov. Evers Pitches Doomed Legislation to Overturn Wisconsin’s Pre-Roe Abortion Law
(The Center Square) – Less than a week after declaring a Republican-backed plan to add exemptions to Wisconsin’s near total ban on abortions dead-on-arrival, Gov. Tony Evers and statehouse Democrats are pushing their own abortion legislation.
The governor on Tuesday said he wants to restore abortion access in Wisconsin to what it was before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
“I have been clear from the beginning that I won’t sign a bill that leaves Wisconsin women with fewer rights or freedoms than they had before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe,” Evers said at a Capitol news conference.
Before the Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe, women in Wisconsin could get an abortion up to 20 weeks into their pregnancy. State law also required an ultrasound 24 hours before an abortion.
“This bill will simply restore access to safe, legal abortion in Wisconsin to what it was on June 23, 2022. Nothing more, and nothing less,” Evers said.
The governor’s legislation comes after Assembly Republicans proposed a plan last week that would have allowed for abortions in Wisconsin in cases of rape or incest. Currently, Wisconsin law only allows for abortions in cases where the life of the mother is in danger.
"The Republicans have their bill, the Democrats have their bill, the people of Wisconsin should be able to hear a debate about this issue, not silence," the governor added.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said in a statement Tuesday that the governor doesn’t want a debate. He wants to dictate to lawmakers what Wisconsin’s abortion law should be.
“The Democrat’ news conference was quite a spectacle, with Gov. Evers’ hypocrisy on full display. Last week, Legislative Republicans introduced a bill that’s a reasonable middle ground to the divisive and opposing viewpoints on abortion. Governor Evers immediately said he would veto it," Vos said. "Legislative Republicans have continued to say we’re willing to discuss and find consensus. Instead, Governor Evers issues an ultimatum of no negotiating.”
The governor’s legislation is surely dead at the Capitol. Republicans control the legislature and are unwilling to go back to the state’s pre-Roe law.
The top Republican in the Wisconsin Senate, Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, is even unwilling to call the Republican-backed exemptions legislation for a vote.
Instead, Gov. Evers and Democrats in the state continue their efforts to overturn the state’s abortion law through the courts.
Next month’s election for state Supreme Court will determine if that can happen.
Hunter Biden Scandal Plagues President
The Hunter Biden investigation reached a new level in recent days after lawmakers announced that millions of dollars were transferred from a Chinese energy company with much of it ending up in the hands of the Biden family and associates.
Now, critics say the Hunter Biden scandal could jeopardize the president’s reelection hopes.
“The promise of Joe Biden the candidate was a return to normal. He presented himself as the kindly older guy who had seen and heard everything and would be a transition away from the tumult of Trump,” Republican strategist and Co-founder of South & Hill Strategies Colin Reed told The Center Square. “He wasn’t going to light the world on fire, but he wasn’t going to wreck the car either. The reality of Joe Biden the president has been anything but, especially as the saga of Biden Inc. continues to unfold in real time. It’s beyond clear at this point that the questions cannot simply be dismissed as fake news or politically motivated.”
In a bombshell report last week, House Oversight Committee Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., said financial records show that Biden family members Hunter Biden, James Biden, Hallie Biden, and another unknown “Biden” received $1.3 million in payments from accounts related to Rob Walker, a Biden family associate.
“Questions about the intersection of money and influence sunk the presidential hopes of Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden would be wise to heed those lessons, particularly now that the latest shoe to drop involves purported payments from Chinese business interests,” Reed added.
The entire scandal developed another layer Friday when Hunter Biden filed a lawsuit against the computer repair shop owner, John Paul Mac Isaac, who handed his laptop over to law enforcement after discovering questionable material on it and being unable to reach Hunter.
That lawsuit, though, confirms that the laptop did come from Hunter Biden and not from Russian disinformation efforts, as much of the media and intelligence experts asserted in 2020. Those assertions were used to clamp down on and even censor the story during the 2020 presidential election cycle, possibly affecting the outcome.
Now, the ongoing scandal has provided steady fodder for Biden’s critics, something that is all but certain to continue if the president runs for reelection.
“The only thing Hunter Biden adds to the equation was access to his father,” U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz said after the news broke.
And lawmakers have shown little sign of slowing the investigation. Comer sent a letter Friday to call on John “Rob” Walker to appear for a transcribed interview.
Walker is an associate of the Biden family who the committee says was connected to bank accounts in the Biden network that received over $1 million. The committee said that “most of the payments to the Biden family came after Rob Walker received a $3 million wire from a Chinese energy company.”
“Rob Walker is a key witness in our investigation of President Biden’s involvement in his family’s business schemes,” the letter said. “After receiving a $3 million dollar payout from a Chinese energy company two months after Vice President Biden left office, Rob Walker then sent over a million dollars in incremental payments to Biden family accounts and a similar amount to another Biden family associate. These records reveal that the three parties likely all received a third of the money from China and it is unclear what services were provided in return. When speaking about dealings with the Biden family, Rob Walker once said that exposing him would ‘bury all of us, man.’ Why? The Oversight Committee has many questions for Rob Walker and we look forward to getting answers for the American people.”
Inflation Continues to Outpace Wages, Data Shows
Inflation has outpaced wages for nearly two years, recently released federal data shows.
A closer look at federal wage and pricing data shows workers are making less overall as the price for all kinds of goods and services rise faster than average hourly wages.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks “real” average hourly earnings, which are wages of Americans with rising inflation taken into account.
“From February 2022 to February 2023, real average hourly earnings decreased 0.3 percent, seasonally adjusted,” BLS said. “The change in real average hourly earnings combined with a decrease of 0.9 percent in the average workweek resulted in a 1.2-percent decrease in real average weekly earnings over this period.”
According to the BLS inflation calculator, since Biden has taken office, the dollar has lost about 15% of its purchasing power. To put it another way, what cost Americans $100 to buy in January 2021 now costs $115.
For some goods, like groceries and energy, the picture is even worse. While workers have seen sizeable pay raises, inflation has risen faster.
Last year, hourly wages increased about 5% but inflation rose 7%.
Critics blame the Biden administration’s trillions of dollars in federal spending and the money-printing that supports it.
“My comment is that as Milton Friedman pointed out, inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon,” Gary Wolfram, an economics professor at Hillsdale College, told The Center Square. “It is when the money supply increases faster than output. For two years, 20 and 21, the money supply, M2, grew by 40%, peaking in early 2022. Since then it has been declining. As inflation appears with a variable lag, again as Friedman noted, inflation began to be a problem. However, we are beginning to see a slowing of inflation due to the decline in the money supply and will this will continue. I am concerned that the Fed’s approach of raising interest rates in order to slow economic activity is actually slowing the reduction in inflation by reducing output.”
Supply chain issues and the Russian invasion of Ukraine have also played a role in increasing the cost as certain goods as well.
Biden’s latest budget proposed trillions in federal spending. Biden has touted the rising wages and deficit cuts, but inflation is still rising faster than wages and the national debt is expected to surpass $50 trillion within a decade.
“We must act now to stop reckless [government] spending and relieve Montanans of the crushing weight of inflation that is taking a bite out of their paychecks,” Sen. Steve Daines, R-Montana, wrote on Twitter.
Experts say this year could be another of high inflation and overall falling wages.
"There was some optimism after the release of February’s Consumer Price Index that inflation is moderating," Randall Holcombe, an economic expert at the Independent Institute, told The Center Square. "Year over year, the inflation rate was 6% in February. But looking at just the first two months of the year, the Consumer Price Index has already risen 1.36%. If that keeps up for the rest of the year, we’ll be looking at more than 8% inflation for the year. It’s too early to declare that we have inflation under control."
What’s Ahead for Home Prices in 2023
Report: Wisconsin Supreme Court Race Price Tag Now Over $20 million
(The Center Square) – The record-breaking spending in Wisconsin’s race for Supreme Court is not ending.
The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign on Monday released a report that shows the price tag for the race between Judge Janet Protasiewicz and former Justice Dan Kelly is now over $20 million.
“About 30 outside electioneering groups have spent $18.1 million on reported independent expenditures and secret phony issue ads in the race, more than three-and-a-half times the previous record,” the Democracy Campaign said in its report. “Groups backing Kelly or opposing Protasiewicz have doled out $9.9 million. Groups backing Protasiewicz or opposing Kelly have spent $5.7 million.”
That’s just the spending from outside groups.
The Democracy Campaign says the candidates themselves have spent millions of dollars as well.
“The most recent reports filed by the candidates showed they spent a total of $2.12 million since they entered the race last year, through Feb. 6th,,” the report noted. “Spending was led by Protasiewicz who has doled out $1.37 million, which is nearly six times the $237,719 spent by Kelly.”
The $20 million price tag for the race smashes Wisconsin’s previous most-expensive Supreme Court race ever. That was the 2020 race which cost $10 million.
The $20 million is also more than the previous most expensive judicial race in the country, which was a $15 million race in Illinois back in 2004.
And the spending isn’t done.
Election Day is two weeks away, on April 4th. The Democracy Campaign says we’ll get another spending update before then.
“The next batch of fundraising and spending reports by the candidates are due March 27th and will likely show several million dollars more in candidate spending,” the Campaign added. “Other news outlets, such as WisPolitics, have reported higher figures than the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. Our numbers are based only on figures already reported to the state by candidates and independent expenditure groups or that we could estimate from so-called ‘issue advocacy’ groups.”