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50 STATES AND DC, CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT

Congress Summons Its Speech Regulators A hearing shows how Big Tech is becoming a government enforcer.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/congress-summons-its-speech-regulators-11616711928?mod=opinion_lead_pos3

On Thursday the CEOs of Facebook, Google and Twitter sat before the House Energy and Commerce Committee as Democrats thundered that they should censor more political speech, and what was notable was how routine this ritual has become.

The Journal reports this was Mark Zuckerberg’s “fourth appearance before Congress since last July, and the third for both Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Google’s Sundar Pichai. ” The gatekeepers of online expression increasingly resemble government regulators, navigating threats and exhortations from politicians.

The hearing topic was “disinformation,” and it followed the same committee’s hearing last month targeting conservative media. The term “disinformation” is elastic, covering anything from election and health hoaxes to political expression that Democrats disfavor. Rep. Mike Doyle, the subcommittee chair, said in his opening statement that the sites the CEOs oversee are “havens of hate, harassment, and division,” and declared, “we will legislate to stop this.”

That sentiment was echoed by Rep. Henry Butterfield, who said social-media platforms are “being used to undermine social justice movements.” He said Congress may have to “compel you, perhaps with penalties, to make meaningful changes” to employee composition.

Republicans also laid into the platforms, especially their impact on minors and progressive bias in moderation. But the message from the majority party was clear and unified: Clamp down on more political speech, pronto, or risk the consequences. Rep. Jerry McNerney said the removal of disinformation “isn’t happening quickly enough.”

Progressives have deputized Big Tech executives as de facto regulators of American debate.

A tame press conference for a lame president The air of unreality that suffused the Biden presser was stultifying Roger Kimball

https://spectator.us/topic/tame-press-conference-america-joe-biden/

Just a sec. Let me check my notes. Ah, right. Hurgh. ‘My message to the American people is: help is here. Hope is on the way.’

‘Can I go home now?’ he asked with his eyes.

Joe Biden looked like he wanted to call an end to his first presidential press conference before he even got started. But he soldiered on. Having prepared for a few weeks to talk to — what, seven? Eight? — carefully selected members of the press, he was not about to give up on this chance to bask in some adulation.

And boy was the adulation ever on offer. ‘Was it because you were such a a nice man that you had more success than the awful Voldemort who proceeded you?’ oozed one female correspondent.

No that’s not a direct quote. The original was more embarrassing.

Joe Biden held his press conference today because it was getting too embarrassing not to hold a press conference. One of the alphabet Dem-friendly channels said the president faced ‘tough questions‘ about his administration handling of the disaster on our southern border.

No he didn’t. He faced a few mild questions from essentially friendly reporters who were hand-picked by his minders to be sure they were on side, which is to say, on his side.

There were only a few really cringe worthy moments. Yes they were doozies.

But much more concerning was the Truman Show-like set up of the event. The air of unreality that suffused the proceedings was stultifying. Here we had an old, senile man pretending to be president while a handful of flaks pretended to be reporters. Every issue that was raised was wrapped up in a tissue of lies and misrepresentation.

Take immigration. Donald Trump had reduced illegal immigration to almost zero. Joe Biden lied when he said otherwise. Trump had closed down most of the Obama-era holding pens for children. Biden had to reopen them when he opened the border.

The Nature of Chinese Contempt for Us China welcomes U.S. self-loathing that it interprets as weakness and decadence to be exploited not as self-reflection to be admired, much less emulated. By Victor Davis Hanson

https://amgreatness.com/2021/03/24/the-nature-of-chinese-contempt-for-us/

Last week in Anchorage, Alaska, Chinese diplomats dressed down Biden Administration Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. Both seem stunned by the Chinese broadsides. 

Apparently, as elite Americans readily confess to inherent white supremacy and racism—highlighting the complaints of BLM and Antifa—the Chinese are happy to agree that such admittedly toxic Americans should not dare to criticize China’s racist policies. 

Not since newly elected President John Kennedy was humiliated at the Cold War Vienna summit in June 1961 by USSR strongman Nikita Khrushchev have American diplomats been so roughly manhandled by a Communist government.  

China’s defiant provocations are not just verbal. Nor are they aimed only at our high officials. 

New York University students, at an overseas satellite Shanghai China campus, were manhandled and jailed by Chinese authorities. Not long ago U.S. diplomats in China were subject to Chinese COVID-19 anal swab testing—supposedly “in error.”  

These examples of continued humiliation and harassment could be multiplied. Yet they are simply the current public face of China’s insidious and systematic theft of U.S. patents and copyrights. It brazenly violates trade agreements, as well as manipulates its currency, dumps products below cost on world markets, cyber-assaults, expropriates Western technology, and stonewalls accurate information on the origins of COVID-19. 

If China gives out money, it logically believes it owns the recipient. New York University in the last five years has received some $47 million in Communist Chinese-affiliated gifts. So Beijing apparently believes that it now “owns” NYU, and can send any message it likes to its clients. 

Stanford University recently was cited by the U.S. Department of Education for failing to report over $64 million from Chinese sources since 2010. No surprise that China, in a demonstration of their contempt, recently sent a visiting researcher to Stanford, who turned out to be connected with the Chinese military. 

Hollywood claims that it is woke. But recently it was disclosed that some directors had selected their actors on the basis of skin color. They were obeying China’s requirements for American films to enter the lucrative Chinese film market, slated to become the world’s largest in 2021. 

DR. RACHEL LEVINE CONFIRMED

Dr. Rachel Levine, President Biden’s pick to be assistant secretary for health, made history on Wednesday by becoming the first openly transgender person confirmed by the Senate to a federal position, and immediately vowed to “promote policies that advance the health and well-being of all Americans” and to fight for transgender youth.

The Senate vote, 52 to 48, followed a contentious confirmation hearing that became a flash point in the battle over transgender rights. Dr. Levine, a pediatrician and former health secretary in Pennsylvania, will assume her post at the federal Health and Human Services Department at a challenging time, just as Mr. Biden is trying to lead the country out of the coronavirus crisis.

In a statement shared with The New York Times, Dr. Levine said she was “humbled” by the Senate’s approval and thanked the L.G.B.T.Q. community for its support.

“As Vice President Harris has said, I recognize that I may be the first, but am heartened by the knowledge that I will not be the last,” she wrote. “When I assume this position, I will stand on the shoulders of those who came before — people we know throughout history and those whose names we will never know because they were forced to live and work in the shadows.”

D.C. Drive For Statehood Reminds Us Of What’s Gone Wrong With Our Country

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/03/25/d-c-drive-for-statehood-reminds-us-of-whats-gone-wrong-with-our-country/

The campaign for Washington, D.C., statehood has come up yet again. If nothing else, this shows how far out of control the federal government has become.

The drive to make D.C. America’s 51st state isn’t new. But, with a Democratic president and a Democratic majority in Congress, the ruling class is in a mood to consolidate its power, and with the Democrat-media industrial complex demanding that everything must be seen through the lens of race, it’s now an overheated topic.

For decades the pro-statehood forces have complained about being subject to taxation without representation. (We’ll have more to say on this later.) Today’s argument is centered on race. It is “a historically black city,” according to the district government, with 47% of residents black, 41% white.

“This is not about politics. It’s about a fundamental voting and civil rights issue,” says House Oversight Chair Carolyn Maloney, who is of course a Democrat, the party that’s pushing hard for H.R. 51, which “provides for admission into the United States of the state of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth.” (We’ll have more about the party’s power grab later, too.)

To hear David Litt, a speechwriter for Barack Obama, tell it, “the D.C. statehood fight is part of an ugly effort to disenfranchise black and brown people.” Opposing views, he says, “echo the last gasps of the Jim Crow era.”

Herd Immunity Is Near, Despite Fauci’s Denial His estimate that it’ll take a 70% to 85% vaccination rate ignores those who have already been infected By Marty Makary

https://www.wsj.com/articles/herd-immunity-is-near-despite-faucis-denial-11616624554?mod=opinion_lead_pos5

Anthony Fauci has been saying that the country needs to vaccinate 70% to 85% of the population to reach herd immunity from Covid-19. But he inexplicably ignores natural immunity. If you account for previous infections, herd immunity is likely close at hand.

Data from the California Department of Public Health, released earlier this month, show that while only 8.7% of the state’s population has ever tested positive for Covid-19, at least 38.5% of the population has antibodies against the novel coronavirus. Those numbers are from Jan. 30 to Feb. 20. Adjusting for cases between now and then, and accounting for the amount of time it takes for the body to make antibodies, we can estimate that as many as half of Californians have natural immunity today.

The same report found that 45% of people in Los Angeles had Covid-19 antibodies. Again, the number can only be higher today. Between “half and two-thirds of our population has antibodies in it now,” due to Covid exposure or vaccination, Mayor Eric Garcetti said Sunday on “Face the Nation.” That would explain why cases in Los Angeles are down 95% in the past 11 weeks and the positivity rate among those tested is now 1.7%.

Undercounting or removing the many Americans with natural immunity from any tally of herd immunity is a scientific error of omission. When people wonder why President Biden talks about limiting Fourth of July gatherings, it’s because his most prominent medical adviser has dismissed the contribution of natural immunity, artificially extending the timeline.

After the Boulder Mass Shooting Comes the Debate about Motive The only certain conclusion we should draw for now is that the Left can’t have it both ways. Andrew McCarthy

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/03/after-the-boulder-mass-shooting-comes-the-debate-about-motive

“When it was supposedly a white man, he was a white supremacist and a “terrorist.” Now that he’s a Syrian Arab Muslim, he is suddenly someone with anger issues and mental problems. Any other possibilities come to mind? Like maybe he’s just an Arab Muslim out to kill Jews? Of course, I’m not saying that. That’d be jumping to conclusions.”  D.P.S.

For anyone who doubts that we are living through Obama 2.0, the mass-murder attack at the King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, Colo., should be an eye-opener.

A young Muslim male immigrant from Syria carries out an ostensibly senseless shooting spree, killing ten innocent people in cold blood. A full day goes by without his being publicly identified, even though the authorities had him in custody, had identified him, and were searching his home and interviewing family members. Based on past experience with such delays, sensible people begin to wonder if there’s an effort to spin the story in a certain way so that the benighted American public won’t leap to conclusions based on negative stereotypes of Muslims.

Finally, he is identified as a 21-year-old Muslim man named Ahmad Alissa — the media sticking to a less obviously Islamic rendering of his name than “Al Issa,” which is how the suspect refers to himself. (Isa is Arabic for Jesus, whom Islam regards as a prophet.)

And now, inevitably, the Will we ever know the motive? narrative has commenced, with the New York Times, as ever, leading the way.

Update On Bill de Blasio Report Card — Income Inequality Francis Menton

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2021-3-23-update-on-bill-de-blasio-re

“It is hard to come away with any conclusion other than that de Blasio’s endless blather about income inequality was just a sick joke. He had no idea how income inequality had originated, and no idea how to diminish it. What he has done in 7+ years in office is increase the City budget from about $73 billion to $94 billion annually, in a time of little to no inflation. Another $20+ billion per year to the bureaucracy to accomplish absolutely nothing. It’s the very definition of progressivism.”

Last month, shortly after New York Mayor Bill de Blasio reached his seventh anniversary in office, I had a post giving him a “report card” on his achievements, or lack thereof. As you may know, de Blasio is term-limited at eight years, so he is now in his last year. In fact the contest to replace him is well under way, with the primary (that will likely determine the result) scheduled for June 22.

My February post on de Blasio covered subjects like taxes, spending, crime, schools, and rent regulation. On all of those, his performance has been abysmal, if not worse. But recently it occurred to me that the post had omitted to cover another subject that de Blasio himself has consistently emphasized as being his signature issue. That subject is income inequality.

How has de Blasio done on this issue? The answer is, disastrously. Despite — or maybe because of — de Blasio’s policy initiatives and greatly increased public spending, measured income inequality has actually increased. That result will of course not come as any surprise to Manhattan Contrarian readers. Things like income inequality are just not subject to cure, or even amelioration, by government tax-and-spend programs. So de Blasio’s failure was inevitable. But that has not stopped him and his supporters, let alone his most likely successors, from continuing to believe that the next round of such programs and spending is finally going to work.

The U.S. Intelligence Community, Flouting Laws, is Increasingly Involving Itself in Domestic Politics Glenn Greenwald

https://greenwald.substack.com/p/the-us-intelligence-community-flouting?token=eyJ1c2

A letter from House Intelligence Committee members demands answers from the DNI about illegal breaches of the wall guarding against CIA and NSA domestic activity.

A report declassified last Wednesday by the Department of Homeland Security is raising serious concerns about the possibly illegal involvement by the intelligence community in U.S. domestic political affairs.

Entitled “Domestic Violent Extremism Poses Heightened Threat in 2021,” the March 1 Report from the Director of National Intelligence states that it was prepared “in consultation with the Attorney General and Secretary of Homeland Security—and was drafted by the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Department of Homeland Security (DHS), with contributions from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).”

Its primary point is this: “The IC [intelligence community] assesses that domestic violent extremists (DVEs) who are motivated by a range of ideologies and galvanized by recent political and societal events in the United States pose an elevated threat to the Homeland in 2021.” While asserting that “the most lethal” of these threats is posed by “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists (RMVEs) and militia violent extremists (MVEs),” it makes clear that its target encompasses a wide range of groups from the left (Antifa, animal rights and environmental activists, pro-choice extremists and anarchists: “those who oppose capitalism and all forms of globalization”) to the right (sovereign citizen movements, anti-abortion activists and those deemed motivated by racial or ethnic hatreds).

The U.S. security state apparatus regards the agenda of “domestic violent extremists” as “derived from anti-government or anti-authority sentiment,” which includes “opposition to perceived economic, racial or social hierarchies.” In sum, to the Department of Homeland Security, an “extremist” is anyone who opposes the current prevailing ruling class and system for distributing power. Anyone they believe is prepared to use violence, intimidation or coercion in pursuit of these causes then becomes a “domestic violent extremist,” subject to a vast array of surveillance, monitoring and other forms of legal restrictions:

Passover and the Mutually-Beneficial US-Israel Bond Yoram Ettinger

Passover recap

1. According to Heinrich Heine, the 19th century German poet, “Since the Exodus, freedom has always spoken with a Hebrew accent.”  

2. Prof. Yehudah Elitzur, one of Israel’s pioneers of Biblical research, maintained that the Exodus occurred in the second half of the 15th century BCE, during the reign of Egypt’s Amenhotep II.  Joshua reestablished the Jewish Commonwealth in the Land of Israel when Egypt’s rulers, Amenhotep III and Amenhotep IV, were preoccupied domestically. Moreover, the Tel el Amarna tablets, which were discovered in Egypt’s ancient capital city, documented a 14th century BCE military offensive launched by the “Habirus” (Hebrews and other Semitic tribes), corresponding to Joshua’s battles.

3. Passover is a Jewish national liberation holiday, highlighting faith, humility and solidarity. It emphasizes patriotism, optimism, defiance of the odds, liberty, gratitude and education; the historic legacy which is the foundation for an enhanced future, and the ancient Jewish roots in the Land of Israel. Passover is one of the three historic Jewish pilgrimages to Jerusalem, in addition to Shavou’ot (Pentecost) and Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles). 

4. Passover spotlights the centrality of women. Yocheved, Moses’ mother, hid Moses and then breastfed him at the palace of Pharaoh, posing as a nursemaid.  Miriam was Moses’ older sister and advisor.  Batyah, the daughter of Pharaoh, saved and adopted Moses (Numbers 2:1-10).  Shifrah and Pou’ah, two Jewish midwives, risked their lives, sparing the lives of Jewish male babies, in violation of Pharaoh’s command (Numbers 1:15-19).  Tziporah, a daughter of Jethro and Moses’ wife, saved Moses’ life and set him back on the Jewish course (Numbers, 4:24-27).

Da’ye’noo Passover hymn and the US-Israel bond

Da’ye’noo (“it would suffice” in Hebrew) is a Passover hymn, which expresses appreciation for 15 benefits bestowed by God upon the Jewish people – though one benefit would have sufficed – such as the Exodus, the Parting of the Sea, the historical events at Mount Sinai, and the return to the Land of Israel.

The US-Israel bond may be assessed in a similar manner:

*If the US Founding Fathers had considered the United States as “the modern day Promised Land” and the Biblical Jubilee as a role model of liberty; but had not been inspired by the legacy of Moses in the formulation of the Federalist Papers, the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights and US civic culture; it would suffice (Da’ye’noo).