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(51?e Ahuattce The ADVANCE, October 26, 2022/Page 7A
A free press is not a privilege but
organic necessity in a great society.
-Walter Uppmann
COMMENTARY
out of
CONTEXT
A compilation of quotations on a variety of
issues by national, state and regional writers,
well-known personalities, just plain everyday
people and from various publications
collected by the editors of THE ADVANCE.
Quotes for our Times:
"All great change in America
begins at the dinner table."
Ronald Reagan
Andrew Kerr, writer for Washington Free
Beacon: Under scrutiny, Warnock claims
without evidence Walker Is exploiting the
people facing eviction from Ebenezer Bap
tist Church’s low-income apartment.
Columbia Tower filed removal proceed
ings against three additional tenants on
Oct, 12, one day after the Free Beacon
broke the news that the church-owned
building had filed a dozen eviction law
suits against residents of the building since
the start of the pandemic. Two new evic
tion lawsuits seek $115 in past-due rent, plus
$325 in fees.
Warnock told reporters on Tuesday his
church has no involvement in the day-to-
day management of the apartment build
ing. But Warnock is the principal officer of
Ebenezer Building Foundation, the 501 (c)3
charity controlled by Warnock's church
that owns 99 percent of the apartment
building through a network of shell organi
zations. Ebenezer contracted with Colum
bia Residential to manage the property "on
their behalf," the residential management
company told the Free Beacon.
Thaleigha Rampersad, video producer
with the Washington Free Beacon: Stacey
Abrams says she ‘supports law enforce
ment. ’ Her record tells a different story.
During Georgia's gubernatorial debate
on Monday, Democratic candidate Stacey
Abrams said she "supports law enforcement
and did so for 11 years."
Abrams chaired a left-wing group that
doled out thousands of dollars to defund-
the-police activists, however, and has
called on cities to "reallocate resources"
from police departments.
"Our broader conversation has to be
how we transform what we see as public
safety," Abrams told The View.
Tucker Carlson, host of FOX News Chan
nel’s flagship primetime cable news pro
gram, Tucker Carlson Tonight For midterm
elections, Democrats are really running on
fantasy, denial.
The shameless lying, the arrogance, the
stupidity, the total incompetence, the un
fairness, the relentless and vicious racism
toward the majority of the American popu
lation, all of which together amount to, yes,
attacks on democracy itself. If you believed
in democracy, you would not act like this.
No one has ever run a developed country
with this degree of recklessness.
The question is, is anyone ever going
to be punished for it? That's what's really
on the ballot this November 8. So, for Re
publicans, the election should be easy, not
that you should ever for a second underes
timate their ability to screw it up anyway.
They may. But the template for success is
right in front of them. Just run against Joe
Biden.
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Biden Deserves
What He’s Going to
Get on the Economy
The S&P 500 is down
more than 5% since Joe Biden’s
inauguration, and the Dow
Jones Industrial more than 4%.
The Federal Reserve is
ratcheting up interest rates,
raising borrowing costs across
the board.
And one of the most re
spected bankers in the country
is warning of a recession, telling
a conference that “this is seri
ous stuff.”
Yet, there was President
Biden enjoying an ice-cream
cone in Portland, Oregon, say
ing that “our economy is strong
as hell.”
Inflation? It doesn’t worry
him, at least not if the rest of the
world could get its act together.
“Inflation is worldwide,” he
said. “It’s worse off than it is in
the United States. So the prob
lem is the lack of economic
growth and sound policy in
other countries, not so much
ours.”
As polls show the economy
growing in importance for the
midterms — the latest New
York Times poll has 44% of vot
ers saying it’s their top concern,
up from 36% in July — Biden’s
overall performance on the is
sue matters even more, to his
detriment and that of his party.
There are deft political ma-
neuverers who react to circum
stances as necessary, and then
blinkered and mulish politi
cians who can’t or won’t ac
knowledge reality.
There are policymakers
whose worldviews line up with
basic economic laws, and then
those always bound to be con
founded by the real world con
sequences of their ideological
fixations.
There are master commu
nicators who can make anyone
feel better about anything, and
then there are stumblebums
whose evasions and lapses in
logic are painfully obvious.
Joe Biden is emphatically
the latter on every count.
He likes to say fighting in
flation is his foremost priority,
but it’s hard to identify any ma
jor initiative of his that would
be any different if the annual
inflation rate were under 2%
rather than over 8%.
He came into office prom
ising to spend $11 trillion over
the next 10 years, according to
the estimate of Brian Riedl of
the Manhattan Institute, and
has spent as much of it as he
could. When Congress
wouldn’t assent, he spent hun
dreds of billions more by abus
ing his executive authority. The
most significant nod he made
to inflation was to call one
tranche of this spending the In
flation Reduction Act, as if the
name of the bill were more im
portant than its substance.
Otherwise, Biden and his
officials have relied on bad pre
dictions, dubious math and
premature celebrations to try to
get them through.
In June 2021, Treasury Sec
retary Janet Yellen said inflation
would be elevated through the
rest of the year, “maybe around
3%,” but this represented “tran
sitory factors.”
A month later, Biden him
self said inflation would be
“temporary.” Of course, it was
on a path to 40-year highs.
It’s one thing to spike the
football in the end zone; it’s
another, as Biden keeps doing,
to spike the football when it’s
third and long at midfield and
getting repeatedly penalized for
unsportsmanlike conduct.
Last week, he said inflation
over the past three months av
eraged 2% on an annual basis, a
new way of counting meant to
obscure that the real annual rate
was 8.2%.
This was reminiscent of his
Please see Lowry page 9A
the
NITTY
GRITTY
We Need
Republicans to
Deliver Our New
Leadership
As November
elections approach,
the glaring and deeply
troubling headline I
see is Americans be
coming increasingly
alienated from their
own country.
There has never
been a greater need for
a new generation of
leaders to restore clarity about American
principles and plant them in American
hearts and minds.
The Wall Street Journal reports that all
branches of the U.S. military are coming up
short in recruiting goals.
The U.S. Army will fall short by 25%,
meaning 20,000 soldiers. The Air Force and
Navy are also falling short.
The WSJ offers various technical expla
nations as the source of the recruiting prob
lems facing the U.S. military. But most trou
bling is the observation that, per surveys,
“fewer than one in 10 youth are inclined to
serve.”
It makes sense to expect that kids grow
ing up in a country where they are taught
that they live in an evil, unjust, racist nation
will have diminishing enthusiasm to put on
the uniform, no matter how much they are
paid.
A Gallup poll from June showed only
38% of our citizens saying they are “ex
tremely proud” to be an American. This is
the lowest since Gallup first did this survey
in 2001, when 55% said they are “extremely
proud.”
On a similar note, a new Gallup survey
shows trust in all branches of our federal
government has cratered.
The percentage expressing trust in our
judicial branch stands at 47%; in our execu
tive branch, 43%; and in the legislative
Please see Star page 9A
By Star Parker
Warnock a Slum Lord?
By Deborah Clark
Regional Editor
dclarkadvance@gmail.com
Can Senator Raphael Warnock
now add the dastardly title of “slum
lord” to his resume?
Warnock, a Democrat who has
campaigned as an ally of low-income
Georgians and those with disabili
ties, is under serious scrutiny for the
evictions of tenants from his church-
owned, low-income apartment com
plex in Atlanta. One lawsuit, which
resulted in a court-ordered eviction,
was over just $28.55 in past-due rent.
Tenants Evicted During Pandemic
A dozen eviction lawsuits were
filed against Columbia Tower, an
apartment building that caters to the
“chronically homeless” and those with
“mental disabilities.” Tenants filed
lawsuits throughout the course of the
coronavirus pandemic; first in Febru
ary 2020, and most recently in Sep
tember 2022. The lawsuits were filed
about the same time that Warnock at
tacked his political opponents for fail
ing to safeguard struggling Georgians
against pandemic-era evictions.
All of the tenants that Warnock’s
church wanted to be removed were
only late one month on their rent. Ac
cording to court filings, residents have
defended themselves by pointing out
their landlord’s eviction tactics. “If
you don’t pay your rent by the fifth, a
dispossessory notice comes out that
week,” one resident said. “They won’t
accept the payment after the fifth.”
Another two residents said they
offered to pay rent on or before their
due date but the building refused re
ceipt. One resident told the magistrate
he was locked out of his apartment for
one night after his lock was changed,
but was not given a notice to vacate.
Pests, Filth, and Broken Elevators
In addition to eviction threats,
residents of Columbia Tower have
complained that they are plagued by
pests, maintenance problems, and
filth, and at least two people have sued
this year after the elevator allegedly
collapsed on them.
The residents said garbage is left
to pile up in the storage rooms for
days, creating an "overwhelming trash
smell," common areas aren’t main
tained, and the air vents produce a
"sickening" amount of dust.
Tenants also said the elevators of
ten break down, and handicapped res
idents have had to call the fire depart
ment to carry them to their rooms.
Under Investigation
Warnock is the senior pastor and
CEO of Ebenezer Baptist Church.
The church, through Ebenezer Build
ing Foundation, a not-for-profit orga
nization, is 99% owner of Columbia
Tower at MLK Village in downtown
Atlanta.
Warnock receives a salary and a
$7,417 monthly housing allowance
from the church, an arrangement that
allows him to circumvent federal lim
its on outside income for U.S. Sena
tors. Financial statements from 2021
show the church possesses liquid as
sets of more than $1.2 million.
Ebenezer Building Foundation
identifies Warnock as its principal offi
cer, but according to records obtained
by the Washington Free Beacon, it is not
clear what Warnock’s role was in over
seeing Columbia Tower. A repair grant
for which Ebenezer Building Founda
tion filed in June said that Warnock
“works closely” with Ebenezer s exec
utive pastor” in managing the overall
vision, ministries, and operations of
the church.
On October 12, the Securities
and Charities Division in the Georgia
Secretary of State Office sent a let
ter to Ebenezer Building Foundation
demanding that the charity explain
why it is operating in the state without
an active registration.
The Foundation has report
ed since 2011 that it is registered to
operate as a charity in Georgia, but the
Division contends the charity is not
registered with state authorities —
which could subject it to administra
tive penalties.
From 2011 through 2020, the
Foundation reported receiving $2.8
million in charitable contributions,
$4.1 million in program service reve-
Please see Warnock page 9A