A plurality of Democrats say they want President Biden to step aside and not seek a second term in the White House next year, according to a new national survey
Forty-four percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters questioned in a Monmouth University Poll released on Monday said the president should step aside and allow someone else to run as the Democratic Party’s standard-bearer in 2024. A quarter of respondents said Biden should seek re-election next year, with 30% saying they had no preference.
The poll’s release comes as the president gears up to run for re-election. Biden has repeatedly said he intends to seek a second term in the White House, but he has yet to make any formal announcements. However, the president hinted toward a re-election campaign during a speech early last month to party leaders and activists at the DNC’s winter meeting, which was held this year in Philadelphia.
It has been eleven years since Lois Lerner presided over (and then apologized for) the IRS targeting of conservatives during the 2012 election.
But her“inappropriate… error of judgment”may just have been turned up to ’11’ as during the day when independent journalist Matt Taibbi was in Washington DC delivering testimony to the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government on March 9, an IRS agent visited his home in New Jersey, leaving a note demanding he contact the agency within four days.
(Natural News) The modern Axis of Russia, China, North Korea and Iran is continuing to test the resolve and ability of our mind-addled geriatric president, this time in Syria.
To his credit, Biden launched retaliatory strikes on Thursday, March 23, against Iranian proxy forces in Syria after they launched a suicide drone attack on a U.S. base there, killing a contractor and wounding five American troops.
But, according to experts who spoke to Fox News Digital, the U.S. can no longer afford to take a reactive stance toward Iran, as the total number of troops killed by Iran-backed groups continues to rise, as detailed in a Pentagon report.
“Iran’s regional strategy of working through proxies and carve outs is continuing unabated,” Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow and Iran expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the network. “The open question is, when will the Biden administration ditch tit-for-tat strikes and work to rollback Iran’s Shiite militia network in the heartland of the Middle East?”
Following the death of the U.S. contractor and injuries to six other Americans that were caused by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps crashing a UAV into a building, President Biden ordered a series of retaliatory precision airstrikes in Syria on Thursday. As per reports, those airstrikes resulted in the killing of eight Iranians.
The Pentagon stated that the UAV responsible was assessed to be of Iranian origin by U.S. intelligence. As a result, Biden authorized the military to take retaliatory action. The Pentagon confirmed that the U.S. engaged in “proportionate and deliberate action” aimed at limiting the risk of escalation.
But Taleblu said such limited strikes – Biden has never been very good at foreign policy despite his years on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee – will only invite more aggression from the Iranians.
“Washington can expect more, not less, drone and rocket attacks on U.S. positions,” he continued. “Washington needs a better response ratio to Iran-backed attacks, be they in Syria or Iraq or emanating from one domain but striking the other.”
“Pulling punches in Iraq and doubling down in Syria is unlikely to change Iran’s regional calculus,” he added.
According to a 2019 report by the Pentagon, the total number of Americans killed in Iraq by Iran-backed groups was around 608, which represents a 20 percent increase from previously reported figures.
House Foreign Affairs Committee member, Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY), told Fox News host John Roberts on “America’s Newsroom” Friday, March 24, the administration is showing that “weakness invites aggression.”
“When you are engaged in an effort to provide sanctions relief to the Mullahs in Tehran, this invites aggression,” Barr told Roberts. “The sanctions relief that the Biden administration is proposing to deliver to Tehran would actually embolden these proxy terror groups, and it would help Iran finance the very terrorists who attacked our assets and American soldiers just last night.”
Taleblu agreed with that perspective, emphasizing that policymakers must ensure that deployed troops have sufficient air defense coverage to prevent and defeat the persistent rocket and drone threat.
According to Bill Roggio, the managing editor of the Long War Journal, the situation in Syria is particularly challenging since the days of a more forceful presence in the region “are long gone.”
“As critical as we could be with [the occupation of] Iraq, there are at least Iraqi military units and Iraqi political groups that we could work with,” Roggio said. “In Syria, there’s not a lot of good allies.”
Roggio pointed out that achieving a more conclusive military outcome in Syria would necessitate deploying “tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of troops” and an extended occupation, which the United States has no appetite for, particularly after the experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan.
On Monday, March 20, DeSantis delivered a speech at a news conference accusing the Joe Biden administration of weaponizing the collapse of the financial sector by introducing CBDCs.
“The Biden administration’s efforts to inject a central bank digital currency is about surveillance and control. Today’s announcement will protect Florida consumers and businesses from the reckless adoption of a ‘centralized digital dollar’ which will stifle innovation and promote government-sanctioned surveillance,” said DeSantis.
“What are they going to want to do here? If you go and buy too much gasoline, they won’t allow you to use this to make a transaction. Who knows? Maybe they won’t let you purchase a firearm.”
Federal Reserve, government putting pressure on American economy to roll out CBDCs
DeSantis believes that if the Federal Reserve were to issue a CBDC in the United States, it will mean the federal government will acquire even more power over American citizens. He pointed out how CBDCs are “all about surveilling Americans and controlling the behavior of Americans.”
The governor also suggested that the Fed and the federal government are responsible for the series of crises affecting the American economy – such as high inflation, key policy rate hikes and “pressure on banks” – and that these crises are preceding the rollout of a digital dollar.
With a CBDC, the government would have even more control over the American economy and “a direct view of all consumer activities,” said DeSantis.
The governor pointed out how certain countries that are already using CBDCs are not faring very well, especially China. He noted how the Chinese digital yuan CBDC is being used “to monitor citizen behavior, allowing for the surveillance of spending habits and to cut off access to goods and services.”
DeSantis noted that he is unimpressed with the Fed’s claim that the digital dollar would bring about certain benefits, such as providing banking services to the so-called “underbanked” as well as the Fed’s claims of a digital dollar helping to protect the environment.
He also called on other states to adopt similar legislation to fight against the use of the digital dollar. His speech noted that Texas is already considering passing similar legislation.
Learn more about the potential expansion of CBDCs in the United States at CryptoCult.news.
Watch this episode of the “Health Ranger Report” as Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, talks about how the government is seeking to annihilate cryptocurrencies to pave the way for the digital dollar.
In a March 9 statement, crypto exchange Okcoin confirmed the suspension of trading for New York City’s NYCCoin and MiamiCoin for the city of Miami. Both the mayors of the Big Apple and the Magic City backed the crypto tokens, and even touted that the digital coins benefited their respective communities.
According to Okcoin, its security team noticed “unexpectedly low liquidity levels” for both tokens in January 2023. The statement added: “Our first response was to reach out to professional market makers about improving liquidity. However, it became clear that efforts to add liquidity would take time – leaving us with the suspension of trading as a last resort.” (Related: Cryptocurrency firm Midas Investments closes platform following losses in wake of FTX collapse.)
“The concern with low liquidity is that malicious, third party actors can manipulate prices, launder stolen funds and perpetrate other frauds. While none of these risks have occurred, we wanted to get ahead of any possible misconduct. So we moved immediately to address and stop these events from occurring.”
Okcoin’s suspension of trading for both tokens took effect on March 16, a week after the announcement was released. The coins were made unavailable for trading, selling or buying on that date. However, Okcoin said NYCCoin and MiamiCoin tokens can still be kept there or withdrawn and traded on another exchange.
The crypto exchange nevertheless assured token holders that trading for the CityCoins will be restored “as soon as possible” and it is “working to restore CityCoin trading on [its] platform.”
Portion of CityCoins allocated to city programs
Okcoin did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and the office of Miami Mayor Francis Suarez was not available as of writing. Meanwhile, a representative for the office of NYC Mayor Eric Adams said NYCCoin has “no affiliation” with the city.
A March 2022 blog post by Okcoin elaborated on CityCoins. The idea for the city-specific tokens came from localized money, examples of which include the gold florin. Originally from the Italian city of Florence, it was used as a currency in other places for four centuries.
In the modern era, Miami and NYC were the first cities to launch their own localized currencies in the form of NYCCoin and MiamiCoin. According to the blog, what makes the two city-specific tokens unique is that 30 percent of the money spent on mining these tokens goes to their respective cities as a donation. The city can then use the money however it sees fit.
“Since cities benefit from the mining process … they benefit even more as their CityCoin becomes more valuable,” said Okcoin. “This has been one of the more exciting areas for the CityCoin project as cities work with the community to create innovative ways to create value for their coins and for their citizens.”
In one example, the Magic City announced that the $5 million it earned from MiamiCoin mining proceeds would be used to fund a needs-based rental assistance program. Pushing it even further, Suarez himself has even suggested that proceeds from mining the crypto token could be one way to reduce or even eliminate city taxes over time.
But with Okcoin suspending trade for the two city-specific tokens, it remains to be seen how these projects will continue.
In the latest issue of the American Journal of Public Health, the piece titled “Caring for Military-Affiliated Transgender and Gender-Diverse Youths: A Call for Protections” argued that legislative efforts in states have created a “gender-affirming care crisis” for minors by restricting medical treatments. They also said that recent laws exacerbated mental health issues associated with regulations on bathroom use and sports participation.
“Affirming care has only recently become politicized; protection of gender-affirming medical care for military-affiliated [transgender] youths may require a declarative position without tolerance for personal biases, as the DoD has historically achieved for other minoritized groups,” the authors wrote and further urged the department to “publicly declare a position” in favor of cross-gender treatments and take steps to counteract what the doctors view as health-jeopardizing barriers to treatment.
The article further indicated that families with transgender children should be allowed to use a special funding program for temporary travel to other states for the desired treatment similar to the Pentagon’s recently created abortion travel allowance.
“Military dependent and non-dependent [transgender] youths are at high risk for chronic stressors that may lead to poor mental health outcomes and risk-taking behaviors,” the researchers said.
According to reports, the states of Texas, Arizona, Alabama and Arkansas hold 13 percent of the active duty force. As per the DoD write-up, four of the largest military bases across America are located in states that have passed or are considering a ban on insurance coverage for transgender treatments.
According to a study in JAMA Pediatrics, a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal published by the American Medical Association, at least 2,500 children actively sought gender dysphoria services through Pentagon’s insurance plan, Tricare, after it began covering puberty suppression and cross-sex hormone treatment in 2017.
But Stanley Goldfarb, a doctor for the Do No Harm organization, said this argument seems ludicrous. “The notion that seven-year-old children are capable of such decisions is beyond laughable,” he told Fox News. “The existence of a large, perhaps as much as 25 percent cohort of ‘detransitioners,’ suggests the folly of assuming the soundness of childhood decisions.”
WND.com noticed a disclaimer in the article saying that the piece is a reflection of the authors’ opinions and not the official position of the Uniformed Health University or any other DoD entity. However, four of the five authors are affiliated with DoD medical institutions.
Musk condemns transgender medical procedures in children
Meanwhile, even Big Tech mogul Elon Musk publicly decried transgender medical procedures in children. He said in a tweet: “Every child goes through an identity crisis before their personality/identity crystallizes. Therefore, we shouldn’t allow severe, irreversible surgery or sterilizing drugs that they may regret until at least age 18.” (Related: Elon Musk publicly denounces transgender medical interventions for children.)
Musk’s statement came as a response to a video of Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan’s speech posted on Twitter.
The governor said being a “good parent” involves believing children when they identify as the opposite sex. Musk disagreed, pointing out that this is not the case “when they are fed propaganda by adults.”
Check out Transhumanism.news to read more stories on transgender surgeries and puberty-blocking treatments.