The “Twitter Files” have been coming out in installments over the last couple weeks or so, documenting how the FBI, CIA, the Democratic party, almost every major news outlet, and tech giants like Twitter collaborated to label any information that might make people want to vote against Democrats as “misinformation,” and using that label to justify hiding the information from public view. The centerpiece of this collaboration was the Hunter Biden laptop story, reported by the New York Post shortly before the 2020 election. 50 members of the U.S. intelligence community signed a letter, which, if you read it carefully, said that the laptop could be Russian “disinformation,” although there was no evidence that it was Russian disinformation, and they really had no way of knowing whether it was Russian disinformation, but that it looked like like the kind of sneaky trick that Russia would pull, knowing that it would… Read more →
EppsNet Archive: Democrats
Twitter Files and Two-Party Politics
Most major media outlets united to disseminate an absolute lie concocted by the CIA: the Biden archive was "Russian disinformation." Not one media outlet that spread this lie has admitted that they did this or explained what happened. https://t.co/BYsLbH5lbR — Paul Epps (@paulepps) December 10, 2022 The media outlets listed above, along with most others, will not and cannot recognize any scandalous or improper behavior by leading Democratic politicians. Ask them to name any. The same is true for individuals who are quite happy to parrot the statement that Twitter is a private company that was perfectly entitled to enforce its Terms of Service. Hence, a nothing burger. I don’t know if anyone is even arguing that point. However, the Terms of Service violation cited for killing the laptop story had to do with hacked materials. Of course, there were no hacked materials and there was no evidence of hacked… Read more →
Thomas Jefferson on the Midterm Results
My fellow Americans – I thought Republicans would fare better than they did in the recent midterm elections. My reasoning was that Joe Biden and his administration have taken so much away from us that Americans would never vote to continue down the same path. Some of my readers may be financially well-to-do. If you fall into that group, I ask that you consider some of what I’m about to say from the perspective of the majority of your countrymen who live near, at or below the median level of income. Biden has taken away the ability to buy a tank of gas at an affordable price. the ability to buy groceries without gasping in shock at the total cost. the ability to retire comfortably. Retirement accounts have been drained due to the performance of the investment markets and inflation rates have gone through the roof. The ability to retire… Read more →
Musk vs. Markey: A Battle of Wits With an Unarmed Man
.@elonmusk could respond to my tweets but failed to respond to my letter by yesterday’s deadline and answer basic questions about Twitter verification. Congress must end the era of failed Big Tech self-regulation and pass laws that put user safety over the whims of billionaires. https://t.co/BEn6n9EitW — Ed Markey (@SenMarkey) November 26, 2022 Pardon me for stating the obvious but Senator Ed and a lot of other pissy little congresspeople were fine with Big Tech’s self-regulation when that meant censoring people and ideas that they didn’t like. They’re also fine with the whims of billionaires like Zuckerberg, Soros, (former billionaire) SBF and so on when those whims include making massive donations to Democratic candidates and causes. A quick Web search on Ed Markey reveals that he went to law school, went into politics, has apparently never done a productive day’s work in his life, but he wants to tell the… Read more →
Messaging vs. Reality
I live in California. Gavin Newsom’s main flaw is that he’s very stupid. Democrats are not getting destroyed on messaging. I don’t even know what the Republican message is. I know the Democratic message is “MAGA Republicans, extreme MAGA Republicans, fascists.” Now that is a losing message, I grant you, because Democrats who aren’t insane, for whom politics does not play a destructive force in their life, have friends, neighbors, co-workers, family members, etc., who are Republicans and understand that while Republicans have different political views, they aren’t trying to put Democrats in gulags. Democrats are getting destroyed by reality. Republicans are running on GDP, inflation, lying about inflation, recession, lying about recession, gas prices, food prices, stock market, crime, border security, fentanyl deaths, energy independence, foreign policy, supply chain, social corruption, silencing, lies, pronouns and fucking with children. Actually, now that I think about it, maybe the Republicans could… Read more →
In Which We Learn That You’re Much More Likely to be Killed by a Bed Than by a Political Extremist
‘We are a tinderbox’: Political violence is ramping up, experts warn — Los Angeles Times Politically motivated violence has ebbed and flowed throughout U.S. history. Currently, America is going through an upsurge in right-wing violence, according to researchers who track attacks and other incidents. They say today’s climate is comparable to that in the mid-1990s, when a similar wave of right-wing violence culminated in the 1995 bombing of the federal office building in Oklahoma City, which killed 168 people. I’ll call bullshit on that. In fact, to avoid having to repeat myself, I’ll call bullshit on most of the article. It’s extremely slanted. There were 9,625 threats against members of Congress and their families last year, according to the Capitol Police — more than twice as many as in 2017. How many of the threats were carried out? I’ll estimate zero. “Death threats” are the biggest scam . . .… Read more →
If I Had a Hammer . . .
My first thought on the Paul Pelosi hammer attack story was that it had to be fake. First, is it possible that the Speaker of the House doesn’t have the minimal level of security needed to prevent her husband from being assaulted in their own home? Second, I’m pretty certain that an 82-year-old man would not survive a battle against me and a hammer. I haven’t had any practice at it but that’s the point. How many hammer blows to the skull can an 82-year-old survive? I’d put the over-under at one. Paul Pelosi was heard to say after the attack, “My goddamn congressperson better do something about the level of crime in this city . . . oh, wait . . .” Third, “Democrats” and “violent crime” are becoming synonymous as midterm elections approach, so maybe there would be a way to find a high-profile story linking Republicans and… Read more →
The Right Side of History?
No, are you a mental patient? I'd like to retire but can't because my 401(k) cratered and inflation is thru the roof. But keep drinking the Kool-Aid, MFer. https://t.co/K0mPszyWL0 — Paul Epps (@paulepps) October 23, 2022 Read more →
Inflation Numbers and Unemployment Numbers
Latest inflation report came out today (BLS is the Bureau of Labor Statistics): Annual inflation via BLS just out: 42.9% airline fares33.1% utility gas30.5% eggs18.2% gasoline17.2% chicken15.7% coffee15.2% milk14.7% bread10.1% furniture9.2% vegetables8.2% all items8.2% fruit8.1% ham7.6% women apparel7.2% used cars6.7% rent3.7% men apparel — Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) October 13, 2022 Core inflation excludes energy and food, so we get to say that inflation is at 8.2%, which is still the highest in 40 years, but most of the items on that list are energy and food, and many are a lot higher than 8.2%, so the 8.2% number doesn’t do justice to the enormity of current inflation. Biden economic adviser Jared Bernstein said this: What the president said was that a recession is far from inevitable and I think what he was referring to there is the strength of our job market. Look, you just don’t have a recession when… Read more →
Thomas Jefferson: MAGA Republicans
My fellow Americans – I have to confess I have not figured out the difference between a “MAGA Republican” and a plain old Republican. A “Make America Great Again” Republican. It doesn’t sound so bad. And with that still unresolved, we are now confronted with “extreme MAGA Republicans,” who apparently want to make America extremely great again. .@RepJeffries on midterms: "Extreme MAGA Republicans apparently do not believe in democracy anymore. […] We'll have an opportunity to make our case to the American people […] and the consequences of what might happen if extreme MAGA Republicans are allowed to seize power." pic.twitter.com/T4LAMCxuyx — The Hill (@thehill) September 29, 2022 Midterm elections are not far away and if I were a Democrat, I wouldn’t be looking forward to them with great optimism. Every Democratic policy has failed. They are under water with the economy, we are in a recession based on the… Read more →
Republican Extremists
Shannon Brandt, 41, struck and killed [18-year-old Cayler Ellingson] with his Ford Explorer SUV early Sunday in an alley. His mother said Ellingson called and asked her if she knew Brandt (she did). The boy called again a short time later and said that “‘he’ or ‘they’ were chasing him.” The mother could no longer reach him after that. Court documents said, “Brandt admitted to striking the pedestrian with his car because he had a political argument with the pedestrian and believed the pedestrian was calling people “to come get him.” He claimed the teen was part of an unspecified Republican “extremist group.” Brandt was released on bond. — dailysignal.com He was a MAGA Republican, a threat to the country like Joe Biden said. So I crushed him with my truck. To make America safe for democracy. Read more →
5 Reasons We’re Not Helped by More Gun Laws
The most common statistical sleight of hand when it comes to showing charts of gun murder rates per capita by country, with the United States always in the lead, is that these charts, somewhere in the fine print, and sometimes not at all, note that they’re only charting so-called “developed” countries, meaning that the U.S. is being compared to countries like Japan and France, but that Latin American countries and African countries, among others, are left out. So — 50+ people shot to death in a Nigerian church? Doesn’t count because Nigeria is not a “developed” country. And so on. (The other thing you have to pay attention to is whether a chart is showing gun murders or gun deaths. The U.S. has a very high suicide rate compared to most other countries — more than 60 percent of our gun deaths are suicides — so rolling the suicides in… Read more →
What the Gun Debate Misses
From Kevin D. Williamson: Almost every single substantive gun-control proposal put forward by our progressive friends is oriented toward adding new restrictions and regulatory burdens to federally licensed firearms dealers and the people who do business with them: what they can sell and what they cannot sell, to whom they can sell, under what conditions they may sell, etc. But, as I often remark, gun-store customers are just about the most law-abiding demographic in the United States. The best information we have comes from the Department of Justice, which found in 2019 that less than 2 percent of all prisoners had a firearm obtained from a retail source at the time they committed their crimes. Criminals mostly don’t get their guns at gun stores — because they mostly can’t. The great majority of murders committed in the United States — upwards of 80 percent — are committed by people… Read more →
Electric Car Maker to Vote Republican?
I have to agree with the characterization . . . there are a lot of Democrats who’d rather see you dead if you’re not as loving as they are. In the past I voted Democrat, because they were (mostly) the kindness party. But they have become the party of division & hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican. Now, watch their dirty tricks campaign against me unfold … ? — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 18, 2022 Read more →
Who is to Blame for Buffalo?
From Kevin D. Williamson: Before the blood was even dry in Buffalo, Democrats were asking the most important question: “How can we well-heeled white progressives most effectively use the murders of all these black people to our personal and political advantage?” The murderer in Buffalo didn’t kill anybody you’ve ever heard of, and so the first thing to do if you want to exploit the deaths of all these people — and that is what Democrats intend to do — is to connect the crime to some famous name or prominent institution. It doesn’t matter if there isn’t any actual connection: Just assert it, and that’s good enough for the newspapers and the cable-news cretins and the impotent rage-monkeys on Twitter. The usual suspects: social-media platforms, Tucker Carlson, Donald Trump, the Republican Party, Fox News, the National Rifle Association, etc. The shooter was actually well known in advance as a… Read more →
San Fransicko by Michael Shellenberger
From a podcast featuring Michael Shellenberger: Progressives have controlled California for decades. Democrats have a supermajority in Congress. We spend more than any other state per capita on homelessness and mental illness, and we have the worst outcomes. So I wanted to write “San Fransicko” to both get to the bottom of what’s really going on and also figure out what the solutions are because, obviously, we’re dealing with a catastrophe. I mentioned drug overdose deaths rose from 17,000 to 70,000 by 2017. Last year, drug deaths were 93,000, which is almost three times as many people than die from car accidents and four times as many people as die from homicide. Clearly, we are in the midst of a massive drug crisis, and it felt like nobody was offering a particularly clear explanation of it or offering very good solutions. San Francisco remains one of the most spectacularly beautiful… Read more →
Will $5 Billion Solve LA Homelessness?
Rep. Lieu seeks to fight homelessness with a $5 billion federal program — smdp.com Rep. Lieu is Ted Lieu, who represents California’s 33rd District, encompassing the coastal areas of Los Angeles from Palos Verdes through Malibu, including Santa Monica, where I currently live. Who’s going to pony up the $5 billion, Ted? You, or you’re going to stick it to the taxpayers? The bill would authorize $1 billion in grants annually for five years for local governments to spend on supportive housing models with comprehensive services and intensive case management. Are there examples of this kind of plan actually working somewhere? Because I can give you examples of plans that don’t work right here in your district. There isn’t a Republican elected official for 100 miles. The LA mayor is a Democrat, every member of the city council is a Democrat, any proposal they want to implement, there’s no one… Read more →
Why Can’t Democrats Fix LA?
According to my local paper, the Santa Monica Daily Press, LA’s “unhoused” population is being plagued by an epidemic of mental illness. (The search for euphemisms continues unabated as well. People living on the street used to be “bums,” then “homeless” and now “unhoused.”) One of the puzzling things about Los Angeles is why our political leaders can’t figure out how to solve any of our local problems, for example, what we fondly refer to as “the homelessness crisis.” It’s puzzling because the mayor is a Democrat, every member of the city council is also a Democrat, there isn’t a Republican in sight, so there’s nothing to stop them from enacting any policy they want to. It’s like they really have no idea how to solve any of the problems. It’s possible that in a city in which every elected official is a Republican that they would turn out to… Read more →
Thomas Jefferson: Why Are Democratic Cities Such Disaster Areas?
My fellow Americans – A lot of people ask me, “Tom, why are Democrat-run cities such shitholes?” I was reminded of this by President Biden’s upcoming “soak the rich” tax plan. In my view, there are three Democratic philosophies that destroy American cities. For example, did you know that Detroit in 1950 was the richest city in America? Now it’s a wasteland where half the residents can’t even read. The first philosophy is that Democrats hate rich people because “they don’t pay their fair share.” What is their “fair share”? What is your “fair share” of what someone else has worked for? I would suggest it’s nothing, but Democrats enact punitive tax rates on the most productive people, who then leave town and go somewhere else. The second philosophy is that Democrats hate business because corporate fat cats “don’t pay their fair share.” So they enact anti-business policies, the result… Read more →
Why I Can’t Be a Liberal
I saw a couple of things trending on Twitter today . . . one was the death of Rush Limbaugh, and the other was “Rest in Piss,” a vulgarism that a lot of people were using to celebrate Limbaugh’s death. My own political views aren’t based on left or right, Democrat or Republican. They’re based mainly on freedom and self-reliance. If you can mind your own business, keep your hands to yourself and you’re not defrauding anyone, you can do anything you like, I don’t care. For example, if you want to have an abortion, if you want to marry someone of the same sex, go ahead. These views would align me with people on the left of the political spectrum. I’m also disgusted by the right-wing penchant to inject religion into politics. But I would never, never, never identify myself as liberal, as progressive . . . liberals are… Read more →