It looks increasingly likely that Dr. Caitlin Bernard, the OBGYN who originally made the claim to the Indianapolis Star, lied about the 10-year-old child rape story in order to sell a sympathetic abortion narrative to the public.   An ideologically compliant and incurious media then promoted the false story, which led to Joe Biden repeating the story as part of his pro-abortion speech and executive action.   It’s Jussie Smollett all over again.

The Washington Post previously tried and failed to verify the story and wrote an article saying the only attribution for the claim comes from Dr. Caitlin Bernard {link}.  There is zero evidence the story is true, and considerable evidence the story was a complete hoax.  Including the lack of any police report and no documentation of any rape despite a legal responsibility to do so.

Now Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is saying his office has no evidence of a raped ten-year-old child who was impregnated, including a request for lab results. Yost also noted that Ohio law would have allowed for an abortion in such a case.  First, the summary of the likely hoax.  WATCH:

.

Below is the segment with Ohio AG Dave Yost:

(more…)

You might remember the manufactured media controversy that erupted when President Trump tweeted a picture of himself eating a taco bowl on Cinco De Mayo.  The media and left-wing moonbats went nuts, calling it a racist belittlement of the Hispanic community.

Well, today, someone convinced Dr. Jill Biden that it would be a great idea, a brilliant exhibition of her connection to the Latino community, for her to compare the diversity and unique nature of Latino’s to “breakfast tacos.”  Seriously folks, you just cannot make this stuff up.

But wait, it gets worse.  Mrs. Biden doesn’t even know how to pronounce the word “bodegas” as it was loaded into her teleprompter.  WATCH (05:44, prompted):

[Transcript] …”Raul helped build this organization with the understanding that the diversity of this community—as distinct as the bodegas of the Bronx, as beautiful as the blossoms of Miami, and as unique as the breakfast tacos here in San Antonio—is your strength.”

.

That’s right America.  If you are black and don’t support Joe, “you ain’t black,” and if you are Latino and do not self-identify as a taco, well, you just might not be a democrat.

(more…)

This is not The Onion or any form of spoof.  This is real life, and it is happening today.

Amid a heatwave throughout most of Texas, The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, is urgently asking Texas residents to conserve electricity because “it has projected a shortage in energy reserves Monday “with no market solution available.” Voluntary conservation is needed between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Monday.”

The problem, as the Texas power authorities have identified it, is outlined via NBC News:

According to ERCOT, factors driving the need for this important action by customers:

• • • Record high electric demand. The heat wave that has settled on Texas and much of the central United States is driving increased electric use. Other grid operators are operating under similar conservative operations programs as ERCOT due to the heatwave.

• • • Low wind. While solar power is generally reaching near-full generation capacity, wind generation is currently generating significantly less than what it historically generated in this time period. Current projections show wind generation coming in less than 10 % of its capacity.

Conservation notifications are issued when projected reserves may fall below 2300 MW for 30 minutes or more, according to ERCOT. (link)

(more…)

“Seek first to understand, then to be understood”

1.) First, please READ THIS ENTIRE THREAD – and the full text of any discussion thread you wish to participate in.

2.) PLEASE STAY ON TOPIC – do not post something unrelated to the specific matter and content of the thread subject. There is ALWAYS a daily open thread available for any subject you feel should get attention. Never place unrelated, “O/T”, or “Off Topic” comments on a thread unrelated to the topic. It is not ok to say: “sorry, O/T but”… or any iteration therein, it is actually quite rude.

The Treehouse operates on the ‘old school’ standards and practices of civil discourse amid the original blogging community, long before social media took over.

3.) PLEASE NARROW YOUR THOUGHTS – Quality beats quantity. Please construct your comments to target specific areas and not broad generalizations about the discussion topic at hand. If you have four or five disconnected points, break them up into individual comments; that allows people to respond to the specifics.

4.) PLEASE AVOID GENERALIZATIONS – Do NOT speak in riddles. Words like “he, she, they, it, them” should rarely be used. Spell out “who” using the name, spell out who “they” are at the beginning of every sentence in your paragraph; so that there is clarity as to who you are talking about. Please avoid using acronyms.

(more…)

In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the JoeBama Administration and Presidency.

“This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can’t be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won’t be done. The Founders’ Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.”

“But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.”

~ Mike Vanderboegh

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

(more…)

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

(more…)

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) of Japan, the party of current Prime Minister Kishida Fumio and former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has scored a major election victory.

The election was held only three days after Shinzo Abe was assassinated, and the results reflect the Japanese people giving Fumio the opportunity to cement the legacy of the man he replaced.   Prime Minister Abe was an advocate for reforming the Japanese pacifist constitution, which has not been modified or amended since 1947.

Current Prime Minister Kishida Fumio, the leader of the LDP, now has a super-majority in the upper house, controlling more than two-thirds of the seats.  Fumio will have this majority for at least three years and will be able to structure amendments to the Japanese constitution, a life-long ambition of Shinzo Abe who was a hawk to the influence of Chinese aggression in the region.

With the people supporting him, Kishida Fumio now has a major mandate to fulfill the legacy of Abe and keep a focus in the economic and security needs of the average Japanese citizen.  This is a rare moment of almost universal control within the Japanese political system.  Western media are writing the typeset with furrowed brows and gritted teeth.  Meanwhile, the Beijing dragon is fuming behind the panda mask.

(more…)

A quietly released study from the U.N. Human Rights Commissioner [See Here pdf] looking into allegations of war crimes conducted during the Ukraine -vs- Russia conflict, specifically looked into allegations of Russian military targeting a nursing home facility in the eastern region of Luhansk.

What the UN investigation revealed was that Ukraine military soldiers had intentionally used the nursing home as an active base to launch military strikes against Russian forces. The Associated Press was forced to reveal, “Ukraine’s armed forces bear a large, and perhaps equal, share of the blame for what happened in Stara Krasnyanka, which is about 580 kilometers (360 miles) southeast of Kyiv. A few days before the attack, Ukrainian soldiers took up positions inside the nursing home, effectively making the building a target.”

The issue of the Ukraine military, intentionally and with purposeful forethought, using civilian locations to embed their military units, highlights the inherent dangers associated with western propaganda during the conflict.  In fact, the effort to create civilian casualties seems more purposeful as a strategy to gain western media support and create stories that can be used to advance sympathy toward Ukraine, even if it means putting their own civilians in harm’s way.

(more…)

Barrons has an interesting article on an increase in bank auto repossession rates connected to defaults [see here].  Essentially, used car prices have surged significantly and the timeline seems to indicate the temporary covid-19 stimulus spending had a lot to do with the increase in demand.

According to data assembled by CoPilot, used cars are currently priced approximately 10,000 higher than they would be without any pandemic related influence, supply side or demand side.  Banks and financial institutions loaned money into the climbing market price.  However, the artificially inflated car prices now create a bubble where the liability on the books is significantly higher than the repossessed asset is worth.

A higher rate of auto loans are now defaulting for both sub-prime and prime borrowers (double for both), indicating the former buyers are under financial pressure and can no longer make their car payments.  The loan to value ratio was as high as 140% when the banks made the loans, a more traditional or normal ratio is 80%.

The banks have a vested financial interest in limiting the number of repossessed vehicles they allow into the used car auction market in order to keep the book value of the cars as high as possible.  Those banks and financial institutions have recently rented more storage space for the vehicles being repossessed.

(more…)

Unfortunately, (a) she’s not talking about energy or oil production/supply; and (b) she believes it.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, a comprehensively incompetent and unqualified person selected to run the commerce department, blames, without hesitation, a “fundamental lack of supply” for the cause of U.S. inflation [04:38].  She’s not pretending, Raimondo genuinely believes this.

I have struggled with the question of whether it’s incompetence or intentional ideology that drives some of these cabinet members to say stupid stuff.  In the case of Commerce Secretary Raimondo, it is clearly incompetence.  In order to believe that a lack of supply is driving inflation; which is not coincidentally the same demand-cause opinion held by the federal reserve; a person has to ignore the dozens of key economic indicators that show consumer demand has contracted, inventories are climbing, and orders to manufacturers have dropped.

Even Samsung, one of the largest producers of electronics sold in the United States, has told all their suppliers to stop sending the component goods used to manufacture their products because orders for finished goods have plummeted.  Hell, consider this…. THE COMMERCE DEPARTMENT, yes, that’s right, the Department that Raimondo is in charge of, has collected the data showing RETAIL SALES have DROPPED.  Yet here she is blaming a lack of supply for inflation.  WATCH:

It is not a lack of supply driving supply side and producer inflation. It is the massive increase in material, processing and transportation costs associated with Biden’s energy policy that are impacting supply-side inflation.   Demand has contracted, inventories are climbing, manager orders have plummeted, and consumers are squeezed.  Yet this knucklehead thinks recession is unlikely.

Gina Raimondo was also on Meet The Press, with another knucklehead, Chuck Todd.

(more…)