May 25, 2022
Permission to republish original opeds and cartoons granted.
Tragedy strikes and opportunists circle America
By Rick Manning
There are few words available to describe the shock and loathing in the wake of the murder of innocent children. The tragedy at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas crystallizes these feelings as people seek to grapple with what went so wrong with an eighteen-year-old that he would choose to murder children, an adult in the school as well as shot his own grandmother before traveling to the school.
Before the shock and dismay can even take hold and well before any honest understanding about what precipitated the carnage, the president jumped on television in a bald-faced attempt to score political points rather than provide a voice of healing and comfort, asking Congress to renew what he called the “assault weapons ban” on certain semi-automatic rifles.
By setting simplistic battle lines, once again, the opportunity to get to the bottom of root causes and hopefully to prevent potential future attacks have been thwarted by a headlong rush to political rhetoric rather than honest, sensible solutions.
With Biden’s gun ban rhetoric, the opportunity to look at and learn from the assailant and the protective systems in place in the schools to hopefully create a better opportunity to protect our nation’s children from future attacks by the insane are thwarted.
But rather than being a leader, Biden chose to demonize his political opposition through the hollow, meaningless call to “take on the gun lobby,” a hollow line from a man who is a political dependent of those responsible for the national violent crime spree resulting from the defund the police, end cash bail, stop prosecuting property crimes, and open borders policies which have led to violent mobs to overrun our cities.
Maybe someday, our society will be able to have a real discussion about evil and things that can be done to stop pouring it into the ears of our children but when a politician uses the still warm bodies of dead children with zero facts other than a raw political, emotional appeal the opportunity for anything but national sorrow to come from their deaths.
It is sad. And it further divides our already divided country.
America needs prayer for God’s blessing to return to our people and land. The first responders, doctors, nurses and hospital personnel who dealt with the violence first-hand, as do those injured and other direct survivors need our prayers for their complete healing and restoration. The families of those who died – from the children to the teacher to, yes, the shooter’s own family – also need focused, intense prayer for their grief, but also for a superhuman ability to forgive the man who was so possessed by evil that he plotted and perpetrated this carnage. It is through this forgiveness that healing comes as difficult as that may seem to achieve.
America deserves more than failed political rhetoric. Those children deserve more than they typical ghoulish response from politicians who thrive on human suffering seeking gain out of the pain of others.
America needs prayer that we don’t throw away the blessings of freedom in response to evil attacks directed at the DNA of our nation.
It is a time of tragedy. All of America grieves but beware the opportunists who seek political advantage out of this grief.
Rick Manning is the President of Americans for Limited Government.
To view online: https://dailytorch.com/2022/05/tragedy-strikes-and-opportunists-circle-america/
Video: The real reason for insane gas prices
To view online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmRTXbbfkNc
As gas prices soar to record highs, Biden said the quiet part out loud on ‘going through an incredible transition’
By David Potter
As usual, President Biden is out of touch with the American people. On May 23, Biden seemed to celebrate the record high gas prices. With undertones of enthusiasm, he stated that “when it comes to gas prices, we’re going through an incredible transition… we’ll be stronger and the world will be stronger and less reliant on fossil fuels when this is over”. He was referring to the transition of moving America away from fossil fuels to a green energy economy.
Biden said the quiet part out loud. This is no gaffe. What is remarkable is Biden owned up to the authentic, primary contributing factor for gas prices soaring to record highs: pro-woke, green energy policies and deterrents against the American oil industry.
The average price of one gallon of gas in America was $2.36 on Biden’s inauguration day on January 20, 2021. On February 20, 2022, four days prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the average price of one gallon of gas in America was $3.52. This is a 49 percent increase in gas, under Biden’s policies, before the war even started.
Yes, less supply from Russia, one of the world’s top oil producers, does affect global fuel prices significantly, but the corporate media has been telling us that this is all thanks to the actions of Vladimir Putin. But prices were already high with light sweet crude trading between $80 and $90 right before the invasion, thanks to Biden’s inflation.
Biden’s green energy goals remain unrealistic as storing electrical energy generated by wind and solar into batteries is, for now, too inefficient and expensive to be adapted by the masses and could be for many years. Furthermore, wind and solar aren’t growing fast enough to meet surging global demand. We still need thermal electricity.
And Americans are feeling the pinch in their quality of life as a result, with nearly half of Americans, 49 percent, saying recent gas price increases have caused financial hardship for them or someone in their household, including 21 percent who describe that as “serious” hardship. People with a high school education or less at 29 percent and minority Americans at 28 percent, are most likely to cite serious hardship in an April Ipsos poll.
Making matters worse, Biden has damaged the U.S. strategic relationship with Saudi Arabia by once again trying to make a nuclear deal with Iran. When war struck this year, and a global need for more production became apparent, Biden attempted phone calls with Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and others in March about boosting global oil production to offset the war in Ukraine, and they reportedly wouldn’t take his call, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Now, Biden is negotiating with Venezuela instead and easing sanctions there even as production there has collapsed along with its economy and civil society after years of failed socialist policies and deprivation, from more than 2 million barrels a day in the 2000s to a little more than 700,000 barrels today.
In the meantime, U.S. production is not racing ahead to catch up with the current shortfall, either, because the shortfalls and the high prices are a major feature of the Biden policy. The goal is to incentivize electric car alternatives by artificially driving up prices, the same way the Obama administration transitioned coal power plants to natural gas in the 2010s via punitive regulations.
It’s the chicken and egg, and in this case, the chicken came first, and it’s Joe Biden.
President Biden’s hyper-focus on this “incredible transition” to a new, green economy is harming the people he swore to protect. Make energy more affordable to your citizens by using incentives to boost production. The economy depends on it. The health wellbeing of Americans depends on it.
David Potter is a contributing editor at Americans for Limited Government.
To view online: https://dailytorch.com/2022/05/as-gas-prices-soar-to-record-highs-biden-said-the-quiet-part-out-loud-on-going-through-an-incredible-transition/
John Carney: First New York, then Philly, now Richmond as U.S. Manufacturing hits the skids in May
By John Carney
The slowdown in manufacturing activity on display in reports from the Federal Reserve banks of New York and Philadelphia was confirmed by a survey from the Richmond Fed indicating that factory activity contracted in the mid-Atlantic region in May.
The Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity index dropped 23 points from a positive reading of 14 in April to a minus nine, the lowest reading since May 2020, when much of the economy was still reeling from the onset of the pandemic and lockdowns.
The collapse into negative territory was unexpected. Analysts polled by Econoday estimated the index would hold steady at 14. Negative readings on the index indicate that activity declined for the month.
The Fifth District covers the District of Columbia, Maryland, North Caroline, South Caroline, Virginia, and most of West Virginia.
Both the new orders and shipments components of the index fell into negative territory for the month, indicating a plunge in demand. New orders fell to minus 16 from six in April. Shipments dropped to negative 14 from positive 17.
The employment index, the third component of the composite index, fell to eight from 22 in April. It remains in positive territory, indicating that payrolls continue to grow, albeit at a slower pace than earlier in the year.
The measure of business conditions feel deeper into negative territory. The measure of optimism about conditions in the next six months also fell further into negative territory.
The measures of inflation showed a big increase in price levels, including an acceleration of prices charged by manufacturers. The prices paid index indicated that prices were up 15.13 percent from a year ago, up from the 11.83 percent gain in April and 11.05 percent in March. The prices received gauge showed prices up 9.57 percent, above the 8.93 percent gain in April and 9.16 in March. These figures indicate that inflation may not have peaked in March.
By subscribing, you agree to our terms of use & privacy policy. You will receive email marketing messages from Breitbart News Network to the email you provide. You may unsubscribe at any time.
The outlook for inflation also grew worse. Manufacturers now say they expect to pay 7.29 percent more for materials 12 months from now, up from 6.09 percent in April. The expectations for prices received ticked up to 5.30 from 5.29 percent a month ago.
The Richmond Fed report comes hot on the heels of reports from the New York Fed and the Philadelphia Fed that came in much worse than expected. New York Fed’s Empire State survey of manufacturing showed business activity plunged. The index of general business conditions fell 36.2 points to a negative reading of 11.6 in May. New orders declined and fell into negative territory. Shipments fell at the fastest pace since early in the pandemic and also turned negative. Both the prices paid and prices received indexes moved lower but were still elevated, indicating strong inflationary pressures remain despite the slowdown in orders.
Manufacturing in the Philadelphia area expanded only marginally in May, slowing to nearly stall speed with the weakest growth in two years, a survey from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia showed last Thursday. The index for current general activity o plunged to 2.6 in May from 17.6 in April, the lowest reading since May 2020. Economists polled by Econoday had forecast a reading of 16.1. Unlike New York and Richmond, however, the indicators of demand were positive. The new orders index climbed to 22.1 in May from 17.8. The shipments index rose to 35.3 from 19.1 in April.
Inflationary pressures remained extremely high in the Philly Fed report. The prices paid index moved down to 78.9 from 84.6. The prices received index fell to 51.7 from 55.0. A special question this month asked firms to estimate future price inflation. The estimate for prices a year from now moved up to 6.5 percent from 5.5 percent in the February survey, the last time this question was asked. The estimate for annual inflation over the next ten years moved up to 3.5 percent from three percent. These indicators show that inflation expectations have been shifted by the persistently high inflation this year.
A separate survey compiled by S&P Global showed a broad-based slowdown in economic growth in May but not an outright contraction. The S&P “flash” services index dropped to a three-month low of 53.5 in May from 55.6. The manufacturing index also fell to a three-month low of 57.5 from 59.2. Both were worse than expected. Any score over 50, however, indicates expansion. The composite index fell to 53.8, below even the low range of estimates.
The Richmond Fed report did have some positive news on supply chains. Vendor lead time and order backlogs decreased in May from the record highs earlier this year. In the Philly Fed survey, delivery times were close to unchanged and backlogs rose. The New York survey showed vendor lead times growing.
The Kansas City Fed is expected to report on manufacturing activity in its region in May.
To view online: https://www.breitbart.com/economy/2022/05/24/first-new-york-then-philly-now-richmond-u-s-manufacturing-hits-the-skids-in-may/