The Burning Platform

Long Before Trump, We Were a Divided People

Guest Post by Pat Buchanan

When have Republicans ever exhibited the home-team enthusiasm they demonstrated during that State of the Union address and the post-acquittal gathering in the East Room? When have working- and middle-class voters shown such support for a Republican as they do for Trump at his mammoth rallies?

In a way, Donald Trump might be called The Great Uniter.

Bear with me. No Republican president in the lifetime of this writer, not even Ronald Reagan, united the party as did Trump in the week of his acquittal in the Senate and State of the Union address.

According to the Gallup Poll, 94% of Republicans approve of his handling of his presidency, in his fourth year, despite the worst press any president has ever received and the sustained hostility of our cultural elites.

Only Bush I in the first months of the 1991 Gulf War and Bush II in the first months of the 2003 Iraq War registered support like this.

Continue reading “Long Before Trump, We Were a Divided People”

2020 Is Going To Get Much Crazier – Prioritize Your Mental Health

Authored by Caitlin Johnstone via Medium.com,

The outrage over the Iowa caucus scandal has continued to burn white hot as more and more establishment manipulations against the Bernie Sanders campaign come into view.

At the beginning of a CNN town hall with Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg last night, immediately following the network’s town hall with Sanders, the event’s host Chris Cuomo announced that 100 percent of the caucus results were now in and the former South Bend mayor had narrowly won the contest. These results had been announced by the Iowa Democratic Party moments before Buttigieg’s town hall appearance.

Continue reading “2020 Is Going To Get Much Crazier – Prioritize Your Mental Health”

THIS DAY IN HISTORY – Virgin Mary appears to St. Bernadette – 1858

Via History.com

In southern France, Marie-Bernarde Soubirous, a 14-year-old French peasant girl, first claims to have seen the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ and a central figure in the Roman Catholic religion. The apparitions, which totaled 18 before the end of the year, occurred in a grotto of a rock promontory near Lourdes, France. Marie explained that the Virgin Mary revealed herself as the Immaculate Conception, asked that a chapel be built on the site of the vision, and told the girl to drink from a fountain in the grotto, which Marie subsequently discovered by digging into the earth.

Continue reading “THIS DAY IN HISTORY – Virgin Mary appears to St. Bernadette – 1858”

KICKIN IT OLD SCHOOL

Via Branco

Click to visit the TBP Store for Great TBP Merchandise

QUOTES OF THE DAY

“It’s not as if socialism is a new idea. It was tried in the 20th century. It produced economic stagnation and despair. In its purest form, it extinguished more than one hundred million people.”

Lew Rockwell

“When we give government the power to make medical decisions for us, we in essence accept that the state owns our bodies.”

Ron Paul

“Being right too soon is socially unacceptable.”

Robert A. Heinlein

“Arms are the only true badge of liberty. The possession of arms is the distinction of a free man from a slave.”

Andrew Fletcher

China and America: Scoping Out the Megacepts

Guest Post by Fred Reed

Today, regarding China and America, we will have Thought Most Potent, adequate to lube a diesel, curdle milk, or seal a driveway. Whole departments of international studies will close their doors in despair. Ha.

Why, we ask, does it seem that the Middle Kingdom advances speedily on so many fronts, while the US doesn’t? The clear conclusion seems to be that China is superior, not across the board, but in enough ways to ensure its soon global primacy. Apparently the only way a Washington incapable of reform can stop this is with war.

To begin, China has a superior political system. Most importantly, it is not a democracy. An American conceit is that democracy is good and more democracy, better. Unfortunately, the truth is that more democracy means worse results. Placing governance in the hands of the empty-headed, dimwitted, and inattentive, these being the most numerous classes, inevitably leads to disaster.

Continue reading “China and America: Scoping Out the Megacepts”

Climate Crisis Solved By New Jet That Runs On Liberal Hypocrisy

Via The Babylon Bee

U.S.—The climate crisis has been getting worse, despite liberal elites’ best efforts to fly all over the country in their private jets lecturing everybody about it.

There seemed to be no end in sight until a new tech startup, Hypocri-Fuel, introduced a private jet that runs on liberal hypocrisy.

Continue reading “Climate Crisis Solved By New Jet That Runs On Liberal Hypocrisy”

National Fire Sale

Guest Post by Jeff Thomas via International Man

Like waves on the ocean, countries tend to go through economic cycles.

First, we have the micro cycles, which tend to rise and fall every few years, but may last a decade or more. Then we have the macro cycles, which tend to take hundreds of years.

In a macro cycle, a nation begins to thrive economically, when the people of that country adhere to a strong work ethic. They invest their money and toil into the economy, make a profit, then either save, purchase goods, reinvest, or a combination of the three.

When the great majority of the people do this, the country thrives economically. The greater the economic freedom (i.e., the less governmental oversight and regulation), the more the country thrives.

Continue reading “National Fire Sale”

Tesla Stock Price Volatility a Sign of “Frothy” Market

From Birch Gold Group

Near the end of a bull run, it’s fairly common for “frothy” conditions to develop in the financial markets. This often occurs shortly before bubbles pop.

According to Investopedia, “Froth refers to market conditions preceding an actual market bubble, where asset prices become detached from their underlying intrinsic values as demand for those assets drives their prices to unsustainable levels.”

Based on this definition, Tesla has definitely been frothy. In fact, its recent jump in stock price was parabolic — potentially a blow-off top. Referring to this near-vertical surge, Matt Maley, Chief Market Strategist at Miller Tabak, told CNBC that he predicted trouble in Tesla’s future:

Continue reading “Tesla Stock Price Volatility a Sign of “Frothy” Market”

George Carlin – The Prophet

Authored by Sven Henrich via NorthmanTrader.com,

Oh how I miss George Carlin. Yes he was mainly known as a stand up comedian, but he was more than that, much more. He was a social critic, he challenged that status quo, he dared to go where society wasn’t prepared to go: Look at ourselves critically. He did it with biting humor, masterful oration and a directness digging into core truths that were not only uncomfortable at times, but needed to be heard and said.

His voice has fallen silent as he passed away a few years ago and I’m sorry to say: We don’t have anyone like George today. I didn’t agree with everything George said and I don’t need to, nor does anybody else, but his talent was to make us think and to view the world with a different perspective and yes he was a prophet.

Continue reading “George Carlin – The Prophet”

How Insurance Impoverishes

Guest Post by Eric Peters

One of the cleverest means by which the majority of people are kept in their place in an oligarchy – which is the system we live within – is via mandatory insurance.

It is one of the hidden mechanisms by which the majority are kept in their place. In a position tantamount to that of a feudal serf, who is permitted to work so that he may continue to pay his fief overlords.

And not cause any trouble by becoming too independent.

Continue reading “How Insurance Impoverishes”

The average US couple could be facing a new tax of $180,360

Guest Post by Simon Black

Today the federal government will release a nearly $5 TRILLION annual budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2021 (which begins on October 1^st of this year).

Needless to say, that’s more money than any government has ever spent in the history of the world.

And there are a few things in particular that are worth highlighting:

First– this budget proposal would create yet another trillion dollar annual deficit. And that’s simply astonishing.

Think about it: this is supposed to be the ‘everything is awesome economy’. The stock market is at a record high. Corporate profits are at record highs. Unemployment is at record lows.

Continue reading “The average US couple could be facing a new tax of $180,360”

VALENTINE’S DAY 2020

Via Daily Time Waster

Democrats Ignore Trump’s Real Violations

Guest Post by Ron Paul

This week the latest Democratic Party attempt to remove President Trump from office – impeachment over Trump allegedly holding up an arms deal to Ukraine – flopped. Just like “Russiagate” and the Mueller investigation, and a number of other attempts to overturn the 2016 election.

We’ve had three years of accusations and investigations with untold millions of dollars spent in a never-ending Democratic Party effort to remove President Trump from office.

Continue reading “Democrats Ignore Trump’s Real Violations”

The Constitution IS the Crisis

Guest Post by Antonius Aquinas

A Review of Murray N. Rothbard’s Conceived in Liberty, Vol. 5

The posthumous release of Murray Rothbard’s fifth volume of his early American history series, Conceived in Liberty, is a cause of celebration not only for those interested in the country’s constitutional period, but also for the present day as the nation is faced with acute social, economic, and political crises. The fifth volume, The New Republic: 1784-1791, stands with Boston T. Party’s 1997 release, Hologram of Liberty, as a grand rebuttal of the cherished notion held by most contemporary scholars, pundits on the Right, and, surprisingly, many libertarians who believe that the US Constitution is some great bulwark in defense of individual liberty and a promoter of economic success.

Volumes 1-4

Continue reading “The Constitution IS the Crisis”

Environmental Concerns in Wuhan (in January 2020)

Please, review my summary of this very interesting article about environmental concerns in Wuhan in January 2020. The images available in this environmental-focused discussion are fascinating in context.

Wuhan, January 2020: Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg

China Wants Activists to Stay Out of Its War on Pollution

By Bloomberg News January 22, 2020, 11:00 PM (see link, below)

In 2014 Premier Li Keqiang declared a “war against pollution” and some concerned citizens from Wuhan decided to travel to Bejing to discuss the issue.

“We were worried and angry when we realized what was causing the stench and making our kids sick,” said Zhang Xijiao, 44, who was detained for a week for making the banner. “But we are like ants, the local government can crush us as they please.”