Jim Ulvog

Protests emerging around the world against lockdowns and vaccination mandates.

Photo courtesy of Adobe Stock.

For example, multiple protests have taking place all across France for the last 10 weekends or so.

Over the last several months protests have developed in multiple countries. Seems that people are fed up with being told they can’t move around, go to restaurants, or enjoy entertainment without getting government permission to do so.

Here are some of the articles describing people who are fed up:

7/31 – Wall Street Journal – Covid-19 Vaccine Health Pass Feeds French Protest – Photos of protests in France show massive crowds. Estimates are 204,000 people gathered in many cities across the country to protest the so-called Health Pass, which is needed to get into restaurants or movies or museums. There were 14,000 people protesting in Paris at four different locations with 3,000 police officers mobilized to control the crowds.

This is the third weekend in a row with massive protests. Last week there were 161,000 across the country with 11,000 in Paris alone.

7/31/21 – The Local – In Pictures: over 200,000 people protest against health Pass in France – Ministry of the Interior reports there were protests at 184 locations.

Lots of pictures of big crowds in the article.

8/2/21 – The Guardian – Hundreds arrested in Berlin protests against Covid restrictions – The government of Germany does not allow protests against Covid restrictions, according to the article. Regardless, there were 13 protests around Berlin on 8/1.

Police used pepper spray, truncheons, water cannon, and armored vehicle to break up crowds. Over 600 people were arrested.

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

“Battle Cry of Freedom” – A song to celebrate freedom.

“Battle Cry of Freedom” was a popular song during the Civil War.  It was a celebration of the Union and freedom.

One place you can see the song used in movies is “Lincoln.” After the Republicans secured passage of the 13th amendment to permanently end slavery, the Republicans celebrated on the floor of the Senate by singing the song.

The amendment was passed over the harsh, vigorous opposition of the Democrats who remained in Senate. They did not want to set slaves free, even though they were not part of the South.

A video of the song:

Lyrics of the song:

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

$5.5 Million. Cost to taxpayers to cover legal costs of churches forced to close their doors in violation of constitution. Another $9.5M to defend cases.

Things that should not have been banned during the government imposed shutdown. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

Over five million bucks.

That is how much money state and county officials have taken from California taxpayers. Why did they need to take that much money out of our pockets?

Because they can’t read the constitution and thus decided that churches and religious faith are not essential. Due to their lack of reading comprehension they ordered all churches in the state to close their doors.

The Supreme Court found said reading failure to be a flagrant violation of the free exercise clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Thus the state and various counties are starting to reimburse churches for their legal costs.

How much?

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

Additional three settlements in California for violations of First Amendment.

Because of its attacks on the first amendment, the State of California has been doing a lot of this lately. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

Turns out there are even more settlements for religious freedom civil rights violations in California than I have yet covered.

Current tally is over $5 million reimbursement for legal fees in 11 settlements, 8 of which are for repressing free expression of religion. One settlement did not have any dollars attached.

In addition, the state has spent $9.5 million in an effort to defend its willful violation of civil rights.

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

Cost to California taxpayers from state efforts to suppress religion: two more settlements this week, $800K and $500K.

Taxpayers are finding out it will cost us a lot of money for the state of California unconstitutionally doing the above to churches in the state. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

We taxpayers are starting to see how much it will cost us for our state and county officials’ efforts to suppress religion by trying to negate the free exercise clause of the First Amendment.

Two more settlements with local churches were announced this week, Grace Community Church will receive $800,000 for their legal fees and another $500,000 to Cross Culture Christian Center and Cornerstone Church for their legal fees.

Grace Community Church

8/31/21 – The Roys Report – California & LA County to Pay $400K Each in Settlement with John MacArthur’s Church – Taxpayers in the County of Los Angeles will chip in $400,000 and all of us taxpayers in the State of California will hand over another $400,000 to settle lawsuit filed by Grace Community Church against the county over efforts to remove the church’s First Amendment rights to worship. The church has been involved in a long-running legal fight with the county over the county’s efforts to shut down worship, or in the alternative to impose restrictions so severe as to be impossible to worship.

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

“Your papers please”, Australian version.

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

The overlords in Australia, the ruling caste, has gone nuts.

Here’s the long explanation to support that one sentence summary of what’s happening in the country:

They are serious about ‘your papers please.”

8/23/21 – American Thinker – Australia has gone stark, raving mad – New South Wales state which includes Sydney, the largest city in the country, has had a mere 12,588 cases since this past February. For population of 5,200,000 that is a mere 237 cases per 100,000 since February.

In contrast, the United States has had 2,948 cases per 100,000 and California has expienced 1,814 cases per 100K since the end of February.

Because of that horrendous, catastrophic outbreak of Covid-19, the state has imposed a near martial law lockdown. People may only leave their home to go directly to work, grocery shopping, or get medical treatment. I have read elsewhere that if you engage in window shopping on the way to pick up groceries, you will be cited and fined.

In Canberra, the capital, the goal of the lockdown is to completely eliminate the virus. When there are zero infections people be allowed out of lockdown. Zero infections.

It doesn’t stop there.

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

Consumer Price Index again showing strong inflation in July 2021.

The Consumer Price Index, or CPI, shows 0.5% price increases in July with a core increase of 0.3%. While that is the lowest increase since February 2021, half a percent in one month works out to about 6% in a year.

(Discussion cross-posted from Attestation Update because the inflation we are now seeing is a direct and expected consequence of policies at the federal level. Serious levels of inflation impact our economic and political freedom.)

Graph at top of this post shows the monthly change in the primary index along with the core change which excludes food and energy. Graph also shows an average of the preceding 12 months.

The average was running around 0.1% a month for most of 2020 after the shock of the pandemic. You can see the rising monthly increase quite visibly, starting in January 2021. Watch the green line increase from around 0.1% up to currently 0.4%.

The trailing 12 month average is also grim. It shows:

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By Jim Ulvog, ago