Emord’s Sacred Fire of Liberty, Debt ceiling bill, Responsible fiscal policy, WHO Initiative surveillance, $1 trillion credit card debt, Cannabis user gun rights, 2nd Amendment, Dr. Edward Griffen, Silver Hydrosol, Wash Your Nose, Rest, Digestion, and Healing: The Parasympathetic Focus to Wellness, Silver Special offer and MORE!
June 1, 2023 3-5PM ET
Thursday on The Robert Scott Bell Show:
Sacred Fire of Liberty!
It’s that time of the week where we get to explore the political healing that this country needs so desperately! Jonathan Emord is back to help us dissect the latest political news that’s fit to print:
Conservatives Rage Against Debt Ceiling Bill: ‘Not One Republican Should Vote for This’ Making a deal with President Joe Biden might have been the easy part. Now, with the clock ticking towards a possible default on the national debt, Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R–Calif.) is facing a new challenge that looks pretty familiar: opposition from the right-wing faction within the House Republican caucus, the same group that stalled McCarthy’s election to lead the chamber in January. “I want to be very clear. Not one Republican should vote for this bill,” said Rep. Chip Roy (R–Texas) during a press conference Tuesday afternoon called by the House Freedom Caucus, the formerly libertarian group that’s maintained its reflexive sense of fiscal responsibility even as it has turned more conservative in recent years. But as they did during the January showdown over McCarthy’s speakership, most Republicans will likely vote for the package and avoid a possible default. Unlike in January, McCarthy is likely to get some support from Democrats—a federal default provides little political upside for the party currently occupying the White House—limiting the leverage the House Freedom Caucus can apply. But the group’s objections are not superfluous. Since March, conservatives in the House have made clear they want to see significant spending cuts attached to any debt ceiling increase. The House passed a bill last month to do that: The Limit, Save, Grow Act would have reset the federal budget baseline to where it was last year, effectively cutting the new spending included in the $1.7 trillion omnibus bill that passed in December. It would also have placed stricter limits on future spending growth for the next decade, rather than a two-year cap on nondefense discretionary spending, which is a part of the budget that isn’t really growing anyway.
A Weak Debt-Ceiling Deal Is Better Than None On balance, the deal struck by President Joe Biden and Republicans in Congress to raise the debt ceiling should be welcomed. For sure, the proposal is feeble and the process has been nobody’s idea of how fiscal policy should be conducted — but if the agreement is passed, which cannot yet be taken for granted, it will at least be better than the alternative. First and foremost, the deal would avoid the financial calamity of a possible default on the US government’s obligations. Second, though the agreement is weak on content, it would slightly improve the fiscal outlook. Third, its passage — assuming party leaders can summon the necessary majorities in Congress — would show, against the odds, that compromise in Washington is still possible. No doubt, striking reasonable bargains ought to be a lot less traumatic than this, but if it can still be done at all, that’s something. Significant numbers of Democrats and Republicans think the deal is deplorable — Democrats because the threat of financial destruction is a form of coercion that should be resisted at any cost (up to and including financial destruction), Republicans because the deal leaves public spending on an unaffordable path. Both have a point. But insisting on victory without concessions in a system of divided government is a formula for paralysis, or worse.
WHO Initiative Would ‘Promote Desired Behaviors’ by Surveilling Social Media The World Health Organization (WHO) is proposing a set of recommendations for “social listening surveillance systems” designed to address what it describes as a “health threat” posed by online “misinformation.” The WHO’s Preparedness and Resilience for Emerging Threats (PRET) initiative claims “misinformation” has resulted in an “infodemic” that poses a threat — even in instances where the information is “accurate.” PRET has raised eyebrows, at a time when the WHO’s member states are engaged in negotiations on two controversial instruments: the “pandemic treaty” and amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR). The latest draft of the pandemic treaty contains language on how WHO member states would commit to “social listening.” Under article 18(b), WHO member states would commit to: “Conduct regular community outreach, social listening, and periodic analysis and consultations with civil society organization and media outlets to identify the prevalence and profiles of misinformation, which contribute to design communications and messaging strategies for the public to counteract misinformation, disinformation and false news, thereby strengthening public trust and promoting adherence to public health and social measures.” Remarking on PRET’s “social listening” proposals, Michael Rectenwald, Ph.D., author of “Google Archipelago: The Digital Gulag and the Simulation of Freedom” and a former New York University liberal studies professor, told The Defender: “The WHO’s PRET initiative is part of the UN’s attempt to institute global ‘medical’ tyranny using surveillance, ‘social listening’ and censorship. PRET is the technocratic arm of the WHO’s proposed pandemic treaty, which, if accepted by nation-states, would amount to the surrendering of national and individual sovereignty to this ‘global governance’ body.
Americans owe $1 trillion in credit card debt America’s credit card balance has passed $1 trillion, or it’s about to, depending on whom you ask. The average interest rate on a new card is 24 percent, the highest figure since the Reaganomics era. A typical American household now carries $10,000 in credit card debt, by one estimate, another record. If that doesn’t sound like a lot of debt, try paying it off. At $250 per month, with 24 percent interest, you’ll be making payments until 2030, and you’ll spend a total of $20,318, twice what you owed. And that assumes you never use the card again. “It’s hard to build wealth when you’re paying 20 percent interest every month,” said Ted Rossman, a senior industry analyst at Bankrate.com. The nation’s credit card debt stands at $986 billion, according to the Federal Reserve. The figure has climbed by $250 billion in two years. Some other estimates range higher. A WalletHub report put total card debt at $1.2 trillion at the end of 2022. Just two years ago, the national credit card narrative seemed headed in the opposite direction. Card balances declined from about $850 billion at the start of 2020 to less than $750 billion in the spring of 2021, a time of pandemic penny-pinching and federal stimulus-payment largesse. “In 2021, we saw people paying off a record amount of debt,” said Jill Gonzalez, a senior analyst at WalletHub. “People had been saving through 2020, without much to do.” And then, everything changed. Spending picked up. Saving slowed down. The Federal Reserve commenced an unprecedented campaign of interest rate hikes.
ATF: Until recreational cannabis is federally legalized, pot users cannot own guns The federal agency that regulates the firearms industry sent an advisory on Tuesday warning that Minnesotans who use marijuana cannot legally own firearms, despite a new state law legalizing recreational use. Marijuana for adults is now legal in 23 states and even more have medical cannabis programs. But it’s still a Schedule I controlled substance under federal law on par with LSD and heroin. The St. Paul office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives noted that distinction. It means people who smoke weed or take marijuana edibles are “still federally defined as an ‘unlawful user’ of a controlled substance,” and therefore are “prohibited from shipping, transporting, receiving, or possessing firearms or ammunition,” the agency said in its release Tuesday. “Until marijuana is legalized federally, firearms owners and possessors should be mindful that it remains federally illegal to mix marijuana with firearms and ammunition,” said Jeff Reed, ATF’s acting special agent in charge of the of the St. Paul field division. That warning from the ATF is concerning for Second Amendment rights advocate Rob Doar, vice president of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus. He said he’s long been aware of the state-and-federal cannabis contradiction, whether it’s for medical or recreational use.
Hour 2
Special Guest Dr. Edward Griffen, ND
Edward Griffen, ND graduated from the State University of New York with a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and a minor in Math and Statistics and went on to pursue his Naturopathic Doctorate from the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine in Tempe, Arizona. He spent four years teaching the general education program in an Ultrasound and Magnetic Resonance Imaging program in Phoenix where he developed his passion for education and teaching. Dr. Griffen’s own health challenges led him down the path of nutritional healing through Naturopathic medicine and drives his passion for helping others on their personal quests for optimal health and health sovereignty.
Wash Your Nose? When your hands are dirty or have something on them, what do you do? Pretty obvious that we would say to wash them. When the inside of your nose gets dirty or has something in it, we should probably wash that too. Seasonal Support for pollen and allergens can be as simple as starting with washing our noses. A nasal lavage or rinse is a simple way to support your body during this difficult time of year for people who experience discomfort from pollen and other environmental contaminants. One possibility is a Neti Pot, a container designed to rinse debris and mucous from your nasal cavity using a saltwater (saline) solution. By tipping your head side-ways while breathing through your mouth you can poor the Neti pot in the upper nostril and allow it to fill the sinuses and begin to come out the lower nostril. Repeat on the other side as necessary. Another alternative to wash your nose would be a nasal spray. There are many possibilities of different nasal sprays on the market. Silver nasal sprays are a natural way to cope with the seasonal changes. Within the context of washing your nose, a bioactive silver hydrosol nasal spray or nasal wash can help relieve congestion by thinning mucous in the nose and sinuses, cleansing the nasal passages from pollutants and irritants, and help to ease air flow allowing in turn for clearer breathing – simple cause and effect.
Rest, Digestion, and Healing: The Parasympathetic Focus to Wellness Sleep, Immune Support, and Gut Health. How are these all related? I think about all of these things together any time someone asks me about one of these topics. It’s kind of like the question of what came first, the chicken or the egg. All of these things tie together as parts of the parasympathetic nervous system which is responsible for resting, digesting, and healing. If your sleep is disrupted, you feel worn out and tired all day which can lead to a weakened immune state and cause anxiety which will now disrupt your digestion. If your digestion is poor, this will lead to leaky gut and inflammation that will cause poor immune health and lead to sleep disturbances (waking up with heartburn, difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, etc.). If your immune system is depleted (likely because 70-80 percent of your immune cells are in your gut) you likely have poor digestion and poor sleep. Which happens first? Wherever you first notice the issue of sleep disturbance, poor immune health, or poor digestion, I like to start the return to optimal function in the gut. Cutting out difficult to digest and absorb foods like highly processed packaged foods and adding in foods that are easy to digest like soups and bone broth give the gut a chance to rest and begin the healing process. Drinking herbal teas (peppermint can help to lessen gas, bloating, and indigestion while licorice (glycyrrhiza) can support better digestion while boosting the immune system) and using herbal tinctures can support the healing process. A combination of aloe vera juice and silver with a good probiotic will support the healing of the gut while supporting the biodiversity of the gut microbiome.
Remember Friends, The Power to Heal is Yours!
