Pollak: Biden Kills Up to 70,000 Jobs on First Day in Office
President Joe Biden’s first day in office may have been historic in more ways than one: he may have set a single-day record for the number of jobs killed by an American president.
Biden revoked the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, as promised. In so doing, he killed some 11,000 direct jobs that the pipeline’s construction was to have created, and an estimated 60,000 indirect jobs in secondary, related industries.
Over 1,000 workers already on the job — mostly union workers — will be laid off as a result of the decision, even if it is litigated, as many expect it will be, in the courts.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) confronted Secretary of Transportation nominee Pete Buttigieg over the Keystone XL decision on Thursday morning, during Buttigieg’s confirmation hearing. If the administration was serious about infrastructure, Cruz asked, why was it killing an infrastructure project with “good, paying union jobs”?
When Buttigieg said the idea was that “net” jobs created in more climate-friendly industries would be positive, Cruz retorted that that was little comfort to the Keystone XL workers who were being laid off: “So for those workers, the answer is somebody else will get a job?”
The Association of Oil Pipe Lines complained, as did the United Association of Union Plumbers and Pipefitters — though the union may only have itself to blame: it endorsed Biden in August, after he had promised to kill the pipeline in May.
Biden also halted the construction of the border wall on the U.S.-Mexico boundary on Wednesday. While the projections for jobs there are somewhat unclear, one analysis (by an opponent of the wall) in 2017 estimated that the wall, if fully constructed, would create 10,500 jobs.
Moreover, on Thursday, the Biden Administration announced that it had suspended oil and gas permits on federal land Wednesday. It is unclear how many jobs that will cost — but the outlook is not good.
Most presidents promise to create jobs. Biden killed up to 70,000 jobs in his first 24 hours — and the true total may be even higher.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His newest e-book is How Not to Be a Sh!thole Country: Lessons from South Africa. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
Democrats Expose Dynamics of the Oligarchy
A legal, democratic recall election is now a “coup” attempt by extremists.
“This recall effort, which really ought to be called ‘the California coup,’ is being led by right-wing conspiracy theorists, white nationalists, anti-vaxxers and groups who encourage violence on our democratic institutions.”
That was California Democratic Party chair Rusty Hicks, in a January 12 press conference, joined by Fresno city councilman Nelson Esparza who called the recall “treasonous.” That language prompted Ben Christopher of CalMatters to clarify the matter.
“Unlike a coup, which is an illegal seizure of power,” Christopher wrote, “a recall campaign is a democratic mechanism written into the California constitution that allows voters to remove an elected official by popular vote.” This legal, democratic mechanism is what the California Democrats call “treasonous,” and it models what national Democrats have been deploying since 2016.
The “composite character” David Garrow charted in Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama, whose Dreams from My Father was a novel, transformed a democratic nation into an authoritarian arrangement where the outgoing president picks his successor and deploys the DOJ and FBI to support her and attack her opponent. The overconfident Hillary Clinton failed to campaign in key states and vilified Trump supporters as a “basket of deplorables.” Trump campaigned tirelessly and the people elected him president.
“The central fact to appreciate about Donald Trump,” Roger Kimball explains, “is that he was elected without the permission, and over the incredulous objections, of the woke oligarchy that governs us.” As in California, Democrats regarded a democratic mechanism for choosing the president as illegitimate. By the time of Trump’s inauguration, the coup attempt was already in progress and for the next three years on full display in the Russia and Ukraine hoaxes. The 2020 election is best seen as the continuation of the Democrat coup attempt.
“Every honest person knows the 2020 election was rigged,” writes Kimball, who cites William Briggs on how the “woke oligarchy” works. The party that cheats is also in charge of investigating the accusations of cheating. The media calls cheating a conspiracy theory, and rulers move to expel or cancel those who even question the cheating. According to Briggs, “That party will win by virtue of its power. This is the way power works.” For his part, Kimball shows what our particular form of oligarchy means in practice.
The people do have a voice, “but it is a voice that is everywhere pressured, cajoled, shaped and bullied.” The people have a choice, says Kimball, but “only among a roster of approved candidates.”
In 2016 the Democrat candidate should have been Bernie Sanders, but “the way power works” brought in Hillary Clinton. In 2020, the party was responsible for counting the votes is in charge of investigating the accusations of cheating, so the nation gets addled retread Joe Biden, choice of the oligarchy. In similar style, the DOJ and FBI, which spearheaded the coup attempt against President Trump, are responsible for investigating the coup, so there will be no criminal charges against Comey, Strzok, McCabe, Ohr et al.
For Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, there was no treason and no crime, only “a massive system failure by senior leadership,” in the DOJ and FBI. For the oligarchy and its collaborators, the real problem is the power of the people to remove politicians from office by legal means.
In 2003, Californians of all parties recalled Democrat Gov. Gray Davis, who couldn’t even keep the lights on. Current Gov. Gavin Newsom is basically Davis plus an emergency order that empowered him to govern as a full-on autocrat. Among other actions, Newsom locked down the state, brought back the blackouts, spent $1 billion on masks from a Chinese company, and looked the other way as convicts scammed the unemployment system for $2 billion.
The lawful process to recall the disastrous Newsom is a “California coup,” according to Rusty Hicks, who has an election back story of his own. Hicks became state Democrat Party boss after charges of sexual harassment forced former state party chair Eric Bauman to resign. Democrat staffer William Floyd charged that Bauman forcibly performed oral sex on him several times and sued Bauman over sexual harassment, assault, battery, negligence and civil rights violations.
Hicks won the state party post with support from 57 percent of delegates, which nixed prospects of a runoff with African American Kimberly Ellis. The Emerge California activist ran for Democrat Party chair in 2017, narrowly losing to Eric Bauman and contesting the results, “keeping the party friction alive for months and turning off some members of the party establishment,” as the Associated Press reported.
According to Politico, the Democrat Party “paid millions of dollars to settle sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuits against Bauman.” The party conducted an investigation into Bauman’s conduct but last year approved candidate Rusty Hicks declined to release the results. Hicks’ effort to “deny the truth and hide the evidence,” party members charged in a letter, “sends the message that serial harassers and assailants are still welcome in the party.”
In 2008, Rusty Hicks served as California political director for the composite character formerly known as Barry Soetoro. In eight years, he transformed the nation into the oligarchy it has now become.
The FBI and DOJ are political players operating above the law. Voter fraud is standard practice. The truth counts for nothing and the voice of the people is bullied. The people must choose from a roster of approved candidates. And the people’s attempt to recall a politician by constitutional, democratic means becomes an attempted coup.
Leftist Policies and Soaring Crime Rates
All while the Dems continue their attack on the Second Amendment.
Progressives are consistently clueless. Taxes go up and productivity goes down. What’s that about? Give illegal aliens welfare benefits and more come. Don’t see the connection.
Cities burn and gun sales are at an all-time high. Can’t figure it out?
A January 14 story in The Boston Globe was headlined, “A more general anxiety: Gun Sales have soared in the past year.”
The paper discloses that, “demand for firearms skyrocketed in Massachusetts in 2020,” which it attributes to “the pandemic, coupled with racial equity protests and a divisive presidential election.”
“Racial equity protests,” what a charming way to describe riots in 130 cities, that led to blocks looking like Dresden after the bombing, assaults on the police and civilians, and murder. None of this was lost on Middle America, which saw elected officials unwilling or unable to protect the innocent.
It took President Biden three months to condemn the riots, and then in the most vague and general terms. Baring something unforeseen, Sheriff Joe and his posse will govern the country for the next four years. And they wonder why gun sales have gone through the ceiling.
Nationally, there were 21 million FBI background checks in 2020, breaking the 2016 record of 15.7 million. A gun store owner in Western Massachusetts told the Globe that he couldn’t keep his shelves stocked, and 40% of the purchasers were first-time buyers. Nationally, the number of black people buying guns jumped 60%. The number of women buying a gun almost doubled.
The rioters demanded defunding the police, and municipalities couldn’t wait to capitulate. Police in Minneapolis (where the George Floyd “racial equity protests” began – led by Marxists and anarchists) lost $1.1 million.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, who David Boaz of the Cato Institute calls “America’s Marxist Mayor,” slashed $1 billion from the NYPD budget.
Los Angeles cut $150 million, Portland $15 million and Seattle $23 million. Everywhere, it was the same story: violent protests, followed by political equivocation, followed by cutting police budgets, followed by surging crime rates. Only a progressive could fail to connect the dots.
Chicago had 750 murders last year, 50% more than in 2019. New York had 437 homicides (up almost 40%), and Los Angeles saw a 30% increase in homicide.
Democratic mayors groveled nicely. De Blasio’s daughter joined the mob. When the rioting – forgive me, the racial equity protests -- started, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said he was waiting for the rampage to burn itself out. Four months later, he was still waiting.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot got tough – when it came to protecting her home, which at one point was guarded by 140 police officers.
Democrats had stock responses to the mayhem – “mostly peaceful protests,” “what about ‘police violence?’” and “Antifa is an ‘idea’ not a movement.” (Did you ever get beaten unconscious and left bleeding in the street by an idea?) Black Lives Matter, whose co-founder described herself as a “trained Marxist,” was heralded as the successor to Martin Luther King and the Freedom Riders.
Blacks and whites, men and women, witnessed the carnage, heard the rhetoric, saw the response and flocked to the nearest gun store.
While Democrats defended the rioters and cut police funding, Biden is making it easier to import gang members, drug dealers and career criminals. A caravan of 9,000 from Honduras is headed for the border.
“Not another foot” of border wall will he build, Joe of the Jungle told the Washington Post this summer. Trump’s policies have been largely successful at stemming illegal immigration. His successor will fight the crisis at our southern border by offering free health care and amnesties to illegals – the lifeblood of the Democrat Party.
Gun prohibition is on the horizon. Good Democrat crime-buster that he is, Biden will fight soaring crime rates with tighter gun control that includes outright confiscation.
The man who once told us that there were 150 million gun deaths between 2007 and 2018, which would be close to half the total population of the United States (the actual number is 148,000, including acts of self-defense), is putting in charge of his anti-gun initiatives the man who loudly proclaimed, “Hell yes, we’re coming for your AR-15s and AK-47s.” Beto O’Rourke can’t even tell the difference between a semi-automatic and fully-automatic rifle. (Come on, man, they’re all “military-style assault weapons.”) Joe and Beto -- Sergeant York meets Yosemite Sam.
Biden’s candidate for Secretary of Health and Human Services says “gun violence” should be treated as a public health issue. Mandatory buy-back programs might be the vaccine.
So, to recapitulate, Democrats watched the cities burn last summer, crime rates are soaring, if you call 9-11 you’ll listen to a pre-recorded message or, perhaps, be switched to a prayer line. With Biden in office, the border will be wide open to alien predators and your Second Amendment rights will be under constant attack.
And progressives can’t figure out why people are buying guns in record numbers.
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