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Ruth King

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Confidence in Leadership by Lawrence Kadish

By on April 25th, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19603/confidence-building-in-leadership

Military journals report that the United States is preparing to make the Pacific island of Guam a veritable “fortress.”

One suspects no one has used that phrase since the days just before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor when the United States finally woke up to the fact that the Land of the Rising Sun had every intention of owning the Pacific. History would go on to record that our decision to fortify Guam would come too late as our isolated defenders would eventually be forced to surrender to overwhelming enemy forces. Few would survive their imprisonment.

Today, military analysts say that 21st century Guam could be overwhelmed by Chinese drones, missiles, and carrier-borne fighter-bombers to ensure that our extensive military outpost could not interfere with any potential invasion of Taiwan. It is the reason the Pentagon is racing to place resources and weaponry on that island in hopes it will deter what some believe is the inevitable Chinese attack on Taiwan.

All of this begs a larger question.

Is America’s Commander in Chief capable of responding strategically to the threats facing our nation? And even a broader question. Does he have the confidence of the American public that he is right person for the job at a time when we are witnessing an inconceivable land war in Eastern Europe and a Chinese military that is deliberating seeking to isolate our allies while engaging in provocative military activities designed to test our resolve.

The Marines have a saying, “Know your enemy.”

So, it would be instructive to review what one historic Chinese philosopher long counseled.

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MEDIA Comments turned off

Cable news in chaos after 3 major departures

By on April 25th, 2023

Driving the news: Shocking news broke Monday that two top cable news anchors had been fired — less than a day after NBCU CEO Jeff Shell was unexpectedly fired for an inappropriate workplace relationship.

Fox News on Monday said the network and its star primetime host Tucker Carlson “have agreed to part ways,” after more than a decade. Carlson’s last program was Friday, April 21, per the network, meaning Carlson did not get a chance to sign off to his viewers.
CNN, shortly after, announced that Don Lemon had been fired. Lemon said in a Twitter post that he was “stunned.” He said he was informed by his agent Monday morning that he had been terminated.

Drama had been encircling both Carlson and Lemon for months.

Fox’s decision to part ways with Carlson occurred just days after Fox News reached a historic 11th hour settlement with Dominion Voting Systems for over $787 million. A trove of material uncovered during pre-trial discovery implicated Carlson.

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MEDIA Comments turned off

Don Lemon became ’embarrassing distraction’ for CNN, lost newsroom with endless antics: Insiders Lemon’s days had long been numbered, CNN insiders say of anchor’s firing By Joseph A. Wulfsohn , Brian Flood , David Rutz | Fox News

By on April 25th, 2023

https://www.foxnews.com/media/don-lemon-became-embarrassing-distraction-cnn-lost-newsroom-endless-antics-insiders

Don Lemon said he was shocked at his firing by CNN Monday, but insiders say it was a long time coming for the embattled host whose 17-year tenure came to an abrupt end after months of controversies.

Just hours after what ended up being his final broadcast on the network, Lemon announced on Twitter that he had been terminated and found out through his agent. To put a stamp on what was no longer a tenable relationship, CNN essentially called one of the faces of its network a liar, saying Lemon’s account was “inaccurate.”

“When you are demoted, reprimanded and sent to manner class – and still don’t learn your lesson, the logical next step is termination,” one CNN insider told Fox News Digital. 

While things hadn’t looked bright ratings-wise for Lemon over the past several years, the beginning of the end was in February when he made misogynistic comments about Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, saying she was past her “prime” at 51 years old. Lemon was forced to issue multiple apologies and CNN boss Chris Licht, in a rare public rebuke of an employee, ordered him to take “formal training.” 

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MEDICINE AND HEALTH Comments turned off

What Happened in Hospitals During Covid? By Stella Paul

By on April 25th, 2023

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/04/what_happened_in_hospitals_during_covid.html

Hospitals should be places you can trust to provide comfort and healing when you’re most vulnerable. But that trust may have been shattered by brutal Covid protocols that critics claim turned many hospitals into hellscapes of systematic medical murder.

The victims’ stories have been muffled by the mainstream media, but they’re starting to break through. For one thing, lawsuits against three hospitals have been filed in California by 14 bereaved families who claim their loved ones were killed by a deadly protocol. Meanwhile, activist organizations like Protocol Kills, the FormerFedsGroup Freedom Foundation, and American Frontline Nurses are collecting and documenting stories from bereaved families about what happened to their loved ones when they entered a hospital hoping for healing and, instead, were led to bizarre and tortured deaths.

I find it heartbreaking to read their stories, which share a haunting similarity, a feeling of being trapped in a highly organized nightmare. The ritual progresses in predictable stages: first, the patient is isolated from family, who are unable to advocate for their loved one or monitor what’s happening. Next, the patient is diagnosed with Covid-19 or Covid pneumonia, even if they came to the hospital because of a broken arm. Then, they’re bullied into getting remdesivir, a highly toxic drug which killed 53 percent of Ebola patients who had the misfortune to take it. Next, according to the California lawsuit, “They are placed on a BiPap machine at a high rate, making it difficult for them to breathe. Their hands are often tied down so they can’t take the BiPap machine off their face.”

I know this is getting unbearably painful to read, but stay with me to the bitter end to memorialize the victims’ suffering.  As the patients writhe in agony, psychiatrists are brought in to diagnose them with agitation and sedate them. Now, shot up with remdesivir, sedated with drugs that make it tough to breathe against the BiPap ventilator, and strapped down in restraints, the victims are denied food and sometimes even water.  Should they try to summon help, they may find the hospital played a vicious trick on them, placing their phone and call button for the nurse out of reach. In the final stages, they are intubated and slowly die alone, left to rot into a skeletal corpse with bed sores. Is this America?

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BOOKS Comments turned off

Triumph of Race Over Merit Bringing all of us down – and fast. by Bruce Bawer

By on April 25th, 2023

https://www.frontpagemag.com/triumph-of-race-over-merit/

In The Diversity Delusion: How Race and Gender Pandering Corrupt the University and Undermine Our Culture, Heather MacDonald, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and contributing editor of City Journal, painted a grim picture of the damage done by university administrators desperate to diversify their student bodies at all costs. Identity studies programs, MacDonald made clear, exist not only because of the desire of progressive professors to promote postmodern ideology, but also because such courses, which involve little more than complaining about purported oppression and parroting inane jargon, are far easier for underqualified students to wrap their minds around than something serious and useful. In the same way, the introduction of “critical race studies” provides a handy route through law school for black kids who’d never be able to negotiate a traditional legal curriculum.

Of course, low-achieving black and Latino applicants also get admissions preferences – which in the long term aren’t really good for them, since those for whom the bar has been lowered invariably fall behind. One of the more frustrating aspects of this rank injustice is that Asians, who effectively get punished for being smart, working hard, and earning high test scores, have a right to kick up holy hell but rarely do, while many blacks and Latinos who get special treatment – not just affirmative action, but scholarships and other benefits – can’t stop raging about racism.

The Diversity Delusion came out in 2019. On May 25 of the following year, a thug named George Floyd died during an unpleasant encounter with the Minneapolis police, and pretty soon everything MacDonald wrote about in The Diversity Delusion got even worse. Suddenly it was all about race: America had stepped into the looking glass and entered the harebrained world of Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DiAngelo, whose strange new road rules – and their dire consequences – are the subject of MacDonald’s new book, When Race Trumps Merit: How the Pursuit of Equity Sacrifices Excellence, Destroys Beauty, and Threatens Lives.

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ELECTIONS, MEDIA Comments turned off

Corrupt Media Fight Election Accountability With Democrat-Manufactured Lies By: Shawn Fleetwood

By on April 25th, 2023

https://thefederalist.com/2023/04/24/corrupt-media-fight-election-accountability-with-democrat-manufactured-lies/

Legacy media claim so-called ‘election deniers’ are constantly threatening and harassing election workers throughout the country. But the facts say otherwise.

It didn’t take long after the 2020 election for legacy media to conjure up a new smear to use against conservatives. For two years, leftists have employed the malicious term “election denier” to silence any American with legitimate concerns about the integrity of U.S. elections.

Alarmed at the grossly mismanaged election in Maricopa County, Arizona, last fall? According to the media, you’re an “election denier.” Worried about the real voter suppression that took place in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, and Harris County, Texas? You guessed it, “election denier.”

But in the lead-up to and following the 2022 midterms, media began incorporating this smear into their next phony narrative, which is that these so-called Republican “election deniers” are constantly threatening and harassing election workers throughout the country. Prior to the Nov. 8 election, for example, left-wing outlets ran hit piece after hit piece warning that Republicans were secretly plotting to disrupt local precincts on Election Day.

And while their doomsday predictions (unsurprisingly) never came true, that hasn’t stopped Democrats from attempting to convince the public there’s a widespread conspiracy of Trump supporters threatening local election officials. Within the past several weeks, NBC News and The New York Times have run exposés highlighting election officials in Virginia and Texas, respectively, who recently resigned amid confrontations with fellow Republican officials.

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BOOKS, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

How Strong Is the Power of American Capitalism? By Rainer Zitelmann

By on April 25th, 2023

https://pjmedia.com/columns/rainerzitelmann/2023/04/24/how-strong-is-the-power-of-american-capitalism-n1690018

David Brooks wrote an article on “The Power of American Capitalism” in the New York Times on April 20, 2023. As someone who wrote a book called The Power of Capitalism a few years ago, I welcome the sentiment: capitalism is stronger than ever, despite all the doomsayers. Brooks cites a report published by The Economist on American economic performance over the last three decades. Using an avalanche of evidence and data, the main thrust of the article is that far from declining, American capitalism is dominant and accelerating. Brooks cites a host of facts, including:

Back in 1990, for example, America’s gross domestic product per capita was nearly neck and neck with that of Europe and Japan. But by 2022, the U.S. had raced ahead.

In 1990, the U.S. economy accounted for 40 percent of the nominal G.D.P. of the G7 nations. By 2022, the U.S. accounted for 58 percent.

In 1990, American income per person was 24 percent higher than the income per person in Western Europe. Today, it is about 30 percent higher…

In 1990, the U.S. economy accounted for about 25 percent of global G.D.P. In 2022 it still accounted for roughly 25 percent, The Economist found.

This is good news indeed. But what should be added is that much of America’s economic growth has only been possible because of the spread of capitalism around the world in the decades from 1990 to 2020. Developments in China, in particular, where unprecedented growth has been achieved since Deng Xiaoping’s reforms began in the early 1980s, have also boosted growth in the United States. Contrary to the widespread perception in the U.S. that unequal trade with China is to blame for many of America’s woes, capitalist globalization has also significantly benefited American companies operating around the world. When countries like China, Vietnam, and India grow, it does not hurt the U.S.  America benefits too.

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ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

You’ll Have No Power And You Will Like It

By on April 25th, 2023

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/04/25/youll-have-no-power-and-you-will-like-it/

While campaigning in 2019, Joe Biden guaranteed “we’re going to end fossil fuels.” What he didn’t say is that eliminating fossil fuels will create a troublesome scarcity of electricity. He also didn’t say that was part of the plan, even though it just might be.

Now with the power of the presidency behind him – again we ask, how could such a disastrous event happen? – Biden is just a few pages of paperwork away from forcing natural gas- and coal-fired power plants to sharply cut their greenhouse emissions. If the emission caps can’t be met, power plants will then have to adopt carbon capture technology, which is quite expensive.

Our friends at the Committee to Unleash Prosperity had an interesting response to the news.

“Ben Franklin,” they said, “is often heralded as the man who discovered the power of electricity. Joe Biden wants to be the president who abolished it.”

Output cuts that will be required under the proposed regime “are so stringent,” says the CTUP, that “fossil fuel plants – which supply around 65% of America’s power – would be technologically incapable of complying.” The only way they will be able to stay open and generating power is if Americans’ utility bills are raised “dramatically.” If not, they close, and the power they produce is gone.

The administration knows this. The administration doesn’t care. The administration, driven by the hard-left zealots that run the Democratic Party, wants the rest of us to make do with less.

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OPINION Comments turned off

Kay S. Hymowitz The Transgender Children’s Crusade With its vision of autonomous young people in touch with their innermost desires, gender identity negates all we know about growing up.

By on April 25th, 2023

https://www.city-journal.org/article/the-transgender-childrens-crusade

If you’re unfamiliar with Jazz Jennings, you’re missing one of the paradigmatic characters of early-twenty-first-century America. Jazz—this isn’t her birth name, for reasons that will become clear—was a boy born to a southern Florida couple in 2000. Nothing was unusual about his infancy; but by the time he was two, he was showing a marked preference for clothing and toys ordinarily chosen by girls: mermaids, princesses, all things pink—the whole shebang. Soon, he began insisting that he was a girl. His mother remembers him asking when the good fairy would come and turn his penis into a vagina. His “gender dysphoria,” as the medical world calls an emotional alienation from one’s sexed body, continued to trouble him until his parents decided to let him adopt a new name and pronoun, wear girl’s clothes, and present himself as a girl, a process known as social transition. At his fifth birthday, he debuted his new identity: “I got to wear the sparkly bathing suit for my party. I was a girl,” Jazz recalled later.

Transphobia in the United States is said to be ubiquitous and deadly, but for Jazz and family, transition presented extraordinary opportunities. In 2007, Jazz and her mother were interviewed by Barbara Walters. After that, a documentary, I Am Jazz: A Family in Transition, aired on the Oprah Winfrey Network. A best-selling book, I Am Jazz, was next; it has a place on the shelves of school libraries around the country and an award from the American Library Association, and it has been the occasion for public readings in schools, churches, and other community centers. In 2015, Jazz’s career reached its pinnacle. The TLC network launched a reality-show series starring Jazz and her family; it’s now in its eighth season. That year, Johnson & Johnson also named Jazz a spokesmodel for its Clean & Clear skin-care line. In 2018, she designed a bra in partnership with Knixteen, a teen underwear company. She is a much-in-demand LGBTQ influencer, with millions of followers on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. She was signed by Creative Artists Agency, representatives of Anne Hathaway, Sandra Bullock, and other A-listers. The coup de grace in her rise came when she received an acceptance letter to Harvard. We don’t know how much she has earned from some of these seemingly lucrative enterprises, but it’s safe to say that her Harvard tuition shouldn’t be a problem.

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ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE, HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

The Pentagon Tilts at Windmills Interior’s offshore wind leases could interfere with military training.

By on April 25th, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-pentagon-tilts-at-windmills-7acd2c73?mod=opinion_lead_pos3

We know climate change tops the White House agenda, but it’s still depressing to see it supersede even national defense. Witness how the Department of the Interior rolled over Pentagon warnings that offshore wind installations in the mid-Atlantic could interfere with military training.

President Biden has set a goal of generating 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2030. Waters off the coasts of North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware are prime real estate for wind farms because they are relatively shallow. But they are also training grounds for the Navy and Air Force, including North Carolina’s Dare County bombing range.

Offshore wind turbines three times the height of the Statue of Liberty could interfere with training and radar. As the Energy Department explains, “if not mitigated, such wind development can cause potential interference for radar systems involved in air traffic control, weather forecasting, homeland security, and national defense missions.”

National defense appears to have been a fifth or sixth thought for Interior, which is in charge of offshore wind leases in federal waters. Interior last November identified six potential leasing areas after consulting with the fishing industries, environmental groups, shippers, the wind lobby and states in the region.

Interior said it considered input from these “stakeholders” as well as state and local renewable energy mandates and “information on domestic and global offshore wind market and technological trends.” Notice who was missing: the Pentagon. Four of the six potential lease areas were flagged by the Defense Department as “highly problematic” on a map dated last Oct. 6 that was published by Bloomberg News.

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