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Ruth King

ISIS in Mozambique ‘beheading’ children, reports say “One mother told the agency she had had to watch as her 12-year-old son was killed in this way close to where she was hiding with her other children.”

https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/isis-in-mozambique-beheading-children-reports-

ISIS-linked extremists are reportedly beheading children in Mozambique, the BBC claimed on Wednesday.

The global jihadist movement has largely been defeated in the Middle East, but the genocidal Islamist extremism that it once sought to bring to Iraq and Syria is now being carried out in areas in Africa. For many years, various groups linked to Al Qaeda or Islamist extremists percolated across the Sahel and in Somalia. They have now spread down to Mozambique and its Cabo Delgado region.

When claims of ISIS extremists infiltrating and taking root in Mozambique first appeared years ago, some scoffed at the notion. This was the same narrative that cast doubt on Boko Haram in Nigeria. In 2012 an article at The New York Times claimed that there was no proof that a “well-organized, ideologically coherent terrorist group called Boko Haram even exists.”

Mixed Messaging and Silencing Campaign Fuel Vaccine Skepticism If politicians and public health authorities want someone to blame for people’s reluctance to get a vaccine, they should take a long look in the mirror. By Julie Kelly

https://amgreatness.com/2021/03/18/mixed-messaging-and-silencing-campaign-fuel-vaccine-skepticism/

It took a Mexican comedian to do the job the American news media refuses to do.

During a series of pointed questions, Dr. Anthony Fauci admitted the COVID-19 vaccines won’t stop people from contracting the virus; the shots only lessen the symptoms if a recipient is later infected with SARS-CoV-2.

“There’s a 95 percent chance you will not get a symptomatic infection,” Fauci told Eugenio Derbez last week. “We are unsure right now what the protection is against infection because it’s conceivable you could get vaccinated, get exposed, get infected, not know it . . . but you could have virus in your nasal pharynx.”

Fauci continued spinning. Since no one knows whether the vaccine prevents transmission, Fauci warned, even vaccinated people must wear a mask if “they’re around people who are vulnerable to infection.” It will be at least a few more months before researchers know for certain the risk level of a vaccinated person infecting someone else, Fauci said.

Derbez clearly made the deified public health expert—you can now buy a t-shirt telling the world you received your “Fauci ouchie,” referring to the vaccine—squirm. Accustomed to softball interviews by swooning American journalists, Fauci was unprepared to face tough questions.

But his responses exposed the confusing, and frankly unconvincing, promotional campaign for COVID-19 vaccines. Americans generally understand vaccines to be a safeguard against getting a harmful virus, not an immunity booster to make the resultant disease more manageable. This is especially true of a highly contagious virus that can be lethal to the elderly, obese, or immuno-compromised. No one expected the vaccine merely would act as an injectable version of DayQuil or a vitamin pack but with unknown side effects.

Legitimate Questions

After a year of hyperbolic fear-mongering and warning life only could “return to normal” after widespread immunizations, the COVID chicken hawks are finally coming home to roost. Questions abound.

How will “normalcy” return when someone can still contract and transmit the virus after vaccination? What’s the point of getting the shots if you, and everyone else, must still wear a mask? If mask-wearing and social distancing must continue until we have more solid answers about vaccine efficacy, why not delay the program until more is known? If getting the vaccine doesn’t protect my family or neighbor, why bother? What about stories and data showing moderate to severe side effects, which in some cases are more debilitating than the disease itself?

Unfortunately, those rational inquiries apparently make you a dreaded “anti-vaxxer.” Americans are instructed not to doubt anything coming from the very same authorities who’ve been wrong on everything since the start of the pandemic. Suspicions are silenced rather than honestly addressed. And it all looks very familiar.

Life after death for the neoconservatives Biden’s embrace of neocon dogma will accelerate a Chinese-Russian-European coalescence that will dominate the world economy David Goldman

https://asiatimes.com/2021/03/life-after-death-for-the-neoconservatives/

Delusions die hard. The obsession of American foreign policy after the fall of communism was pro-Western democracy in Russia, and the foreign policy establishment has never forgiven Vladimir Putin for returning Russia to the sort of authoritarian governance it has endured for all but a few brief years of its history.

The obsession is back with Joe Biden – and, with it, the neoconservatives who dominated the failed administration of George W Bush.

For several reasons, President Biden’s March 16 denunciation of Putin as a “killer” without a soul ranks among the dumbest utterances ever by an American leader – and that’s a crowded field. To begin with, heads of state do not insult each other this way, except in wartime.

Secondly, the Biden administration proclaims its concern about competition from China, but American pressure has pushed Russia into a reluctant but resilient alliance with the Middle Kingdom.

Third, Washington will need Moscow’s tacit cooperation to revive the Iran nuclear deal, a key Biden foreign policy objective, and calling Putin out hardly furthers this objective.

Fourth – and most important – Western Europe is determined to improve its relations with Russia. Biden’s outburst will persuade Paris and Berlin that this administration is as loopy as the last one.

The “Russia question” appears to have surfaced in response to a March 16 US intelligence community assessment that “Russian President Putin authorized, and a range of Russian government organizations conducted, influence operations aimed at denigrating President Biden’s candidacy, and the Democratic Party.”

The 15-page public document is fluff. We heard it all before in December 2020, when fifty former intelligence officials denounced news reports of Hunter Biden’s corrupt ties to Ukrainian oligarchs as Russian disinformation.

Lies in the Cognitive War Against Israel Striking down the falsehoods – one libel at a time. Richard L. Cravatts

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/03/lies-cognitive-war-against-israel-richard-l-cravatts/

Editor’s note: Below is Part I in a 2-Part Series on ‘Lies in the Cognitive War Against Israel’. Part 2 will run in our next issue.

“That Israel has become of the embodiment of evil, that its racism, militarism, and oppression now are so powerful that they cross borders and infect minority communities in America, and that the Jewish state can now be held responsible for bigotry on campuses far from its own borders indicates how powerful the anti-Israel narrative has become, and how the obsessive hatred by activists against the Jewish state ensures that the oldest hatred shows itself in yet another hateful permutation.”

In the cognitive war against Israel, supporters of what historian Bat Ye’or called Palestinianism have come to accept the fact that Israel will not be defeated employing traditional tools of warfare. Instead, the Jewish state’s enemies, abetted by the academic and media elites in the West, have been using different, but equally dangerous, tactics to delegitimize and eventually destroy Israel in a cognitive war.

By dressing up old hatreds against Jews and transforming it into what comprises the “new anti-Semitism,” combined with a purported goal of seeking social justice for the oppressed and repackaging ugly biases as academic scholarship, professors, student activist groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), and Israel’s other ideological foes have found an effective, but odious, way to ensure that the Jew of nations, Israel, is still accused of being: a racist, apartheid oppressor of an indigenous people; white European Jews with no historical connection to the Holy Land who are colonial usurpers of Muslim land; the main impediment to Middle East peace; and a brutal military occupier of land on which illegal “settlements” are built as a way of subjugating an existing innocent population in the quest for a Great Israel that will swallow even more territory to which the Jews have no legitimate claim.

This is the current narrative in what Melanie Phillips has called “the world turned upside down,” an inversion of truth and fiction, calumnies and lies targeting the Jewish state in an effort to elevate the Palestinian cause, delegitimize Israel, and make Israel a pariah in the world community. But this narrative, unfortunately, is based on a presentation of lies, a series of repeated tropes about the malignancy and illegality of Israel that has little to do with facts, history, or reason. These lies are repeated promiscuously until they accepted as fact, a Goebbel-esque tradition which creates a new truth through the unrelenting repetition of falsity, disingenuity, and distortions of reality.

Fauci Blames Coronavirus on Our Failure to Live in ‘Harmony With Nature’ “Living in greater harmony with nature will require changes in human behavior.” Daniel Greenfield

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/03/fauci-blames-coronavirus-our-failure-live-harmony-daniel-greenfield/

“There’s a lot of folks who think that, due to climate change and due to the globalization in general, it is inevitable that we’ll deal with more and more viruses like this,” Dr. Fauci told Meet the Press.

The “lot of folks” in question include the patron saint of the pandemic.

In addition to appearing on every single news show on the planet, Fauci occasionally co-authors papers. But “Emerging Pandemic Diseases: How We Got to COVID-19” in the journal Cell is less of an academic paper and more of a survey and an advocacy editorial. It might not be all that significant except that its co-authors are David M. Morens, the Senior Scientific Advisor at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and Fauci who heads it.

If you didn’t know that its authors are prominent figures in the scientific community, you might mistake its contents for the ravings of hippies at an Earth Day rally a generation ago.

“There are many examples where disease emergencies reflect our increasing inability to live in harmony with nature,” Fauci’s paper insists. “Living in greater harmony with nature will require changes in human behavior as well as other radical changes.”

Who’s Really Running in Israel’s Elections? How the Attorney General and the Supreme Court are devouring Knesset. Caroline Glick

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/03/whos-really-running-israels-elections-caroline-glick/

In about a week, Israel’s polling stations will open and Israelis will elect their representatives to the Knesset for the fourth time in two years. As was the case in the last three elections, the upcoming elections revolve around one issue—Israel’s legal fraternity.

All aspects of public life in Israel today are dictated by the attorney general and the Supreme Court, which have devoured the powers of the Knesset and the government. Over the years, the legal fraternity has acted through judicial and bureaucratic fiat to cancel the checks and balances on its power. Today, the attorney general and the court justices determine their own powers. Not surprisingly, as far as both are concerned, their powers are unlimited.

Whether the issue is deciding who is a Jew, public funding of cultural institutions, public health policy, land use, economic priorities, military rules of engagement, immigration policy, counter-terror policies, or other questions from the mundane to the existential, the only decision makers in Israel are the attorney general and the Supreme Court justices. Elected leaders are at best advisers.

Justice system inspires fear

Has Joe Biden Sold America Out to the Mexican Drug Cartels? Drug kingpins have waited their entire lives for this fantasy. Wayne Allyn Root

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/03/has-joe-biden-sold-america-out-mexican-drug-wayne-allyn-root/

“Now I ask you — use your common sense: Why is this happening? Why would any sane president or political party want to encourage an invasion that will overwhelm our country and risk disease and death — let alone in the middle of a pandemic? This is insanity.”

I told you so. It’s become crystal clear I was right on the money. I’ve said for two years now on my national radio show that the best thing that could ever happen for the Mexican drug cartels would be a Democratic presidential victory.

Mexican drug kingpins have waited their entire lives for this fantasy. They must be singing, dancing and toasting champagne right now, because President Joe Biden is the greatest gift ever bestowed upon the Mexican cartels.

Experts estimated the money made on drug trafficking by the cartels at around $500 billion a year. That’s half a trillion dollars a year — “trillion” with a T.

Who quotes that figure? Republican senators. See what Georgia Sen. David Purdue said in 2019: “At half a trillion dollars — $500 billion — that makes the cartel business and the drug traffic just in Mexico alone coming across to the United States bigger than Walmart, to put it in perspective. So this is larger than our largest companies.”

But that figure is bipartisan. Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein quotes a figure in a similar range: “The illicit drug trade is a business, valued at anywhere between $426 and $652 billion.”

Kamala Harris, Traitor The radical veep’s virtual apology tour begins.Matthew Vadum

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/03/kamala-harris-traitor-matthew-vadum/

Vice President Kamala Devi Harris attacked her own country as violent and racist when she appeared on the world stage with Ireland’s prime minister this week.

She kicked off a St. Patrick’s Day online summit by assailing America in what can be seen as a tribute of sorts to Barack Obama, a mentor of hers who pioneered the globetrotting national self-denunciation when he was president.

Before much was known about a deadly shooting spree at Asian spas in the Atlanta area, Harris seditiously declared on the world stage that it was a hate crime.

“It is tragic,” she told Irish premier Micheal Martin.

“It speaks to a larger issue which is the issue of violence in our country and what we must do to never tolerate it and to always speak out against it. The investigation is ongoing. We don’t yet know, we’re not yet clear about the motives, but I do want to say to our Asian-American community that we stand with you and understand how this has frightened and shocked and outraged all people but knowing the increasing level of hate crime against our Asian-American brothers and sisters we also want to speak out in solidarity with them and acknowledge that none of us should ever be silent in the face of any form of hate.”

Whether “hate” as in “hate crime” was involved in the killings wasn’t clear when Harris spoke, and still isn’t clear at time of writing.

Have We Ever Had A President Like This Before?

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/03/19/have-we-ever-had-a-president-like-this-before/

Some believe that Woodrow Wilson’s wife Edith ran the federal executive branch after the president had a stroke in October 1919. Even the Obama White House said she “functionally” was in charge of the administration “for the remainder of Wilson’s second term.” At least Wilson started his presidency in a sentient state. Not sure the same can be said of Joe Biden.

It’s clear that the 46th president of the United States is impaired. He has yet to face the media, waiting longer to hold his first press conference than any president in the last 100 years. 

Biden’s team has finally scheduled a news conference, announcing Tuesday he’d be up for it on – March 25. Why the long run-up? Will it take his handlers that long to ensure that he doesn’t have a blowout while talking to the press? There’s a transparency problem, as Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany has pointed out. Biden aides are doing nothing to inspire the country’s confidence in the man.

But then again, there’s not much to be confident about. Some recent evidence of note:

“Bubble Biden clearly not up for tough questions – or the job,” says the New York Post headline of Michael Goodwin’s March 16 column. Goodwin reminds readers that after “Biden’s lone interview since taking office,” the White House was forced to clean up his comments about Donald Trump receiving intelligence briefings, the $15 minimum wage campaign, and Iran’s nuclear program.
In late February, Biden famously rambled on about losing track of his thoughts and wondering where he was.
Earlier this month, the bumbling president called Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin “the guy who runs that outfit.”
Biden ended his session at the House Democrats 2021 Issues Conference saying “I’m happy to take questions if that’s what you want me to do,” at which point he was given the modern-day version of the Vaudeville hook to, obviously, prevent him from making yet another public spectacle of himself.
Former White House stenographer Mike McCormick, who spent six years at “Biden’s side as he met with world leaders, delivered speeches and interacted with members of the news media,” told one-time Trump aide Steve Bannon in January that he estimated the president’s cognitive abilities have fallen by half in recent years. 
McCormick told the Washington Free Beacon last September that the Democratic candidate is “not the same Joe Biden,” and that “he’s lost a step and he doesn’t seem to have the same mental acuity as he did four years ago.”

Senate narrowly confirms Xavier Becerra as Health and Human Services secretary

https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/18/politics/xavier-becerra-confirmation-vote/index.html

The Senate narrowly confirmed Xavier Becerra to be the Health and Human Services secretary on Thursday, giving the former California attorney general a crucial role in fighting the pandemic.

Becerra, the son of Mexican immigrants, is the first Latino HHS secretary.
The vote was 50 to 49. Maine GOP Sen. Susan Collins joined Senate Democrats in favor of the nomination. Hawaii Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono did not vote.
During the confirmation process, Becerra stressed his upbringing, his father’s recent passing and his efforts for expanding health care access as California’s attorney general and a 24-year Congressman representing a Los Angeles-based district.