NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Poll: 68 Percent of Americans Less Likely to Do Business with Disney over Sexualized Content By Brittany Bernstein

Posted By on April 13th, 2022

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/poll-68-percent-of-americans-less-likely-to-do-business-with-disney-over-sexualized-content/

More than 68 percent of general-election voters say they are less likely to do business with Disney after reports that it plans to include sexual ideology in new content for children, a new poll found.

The Trafalgar Group’s new National Issues Survey on Disney, which was sponsored by the Convention of States Action, found that more than 69 percent of respondents said they were likely to support “family-friendly alternatives” to Disney. 

The survey comes after an executive producer admitted to advancing a “not-at-all-secret gay agenda” to insert queerness into children’s animation during a Disney staff meeting on Florida’s Parental Rights in Education legislation last month.

“Our leadership over there has been so welcoming to my, like, not-at-all-secret gay agenda,” said Latoya Raveneau, an executive producer for Disney Television in a video obtained by journalist Christopher Rufo. “I was just, wherever I could, just basically adding queerness. . . . No one would stop me and no one was trying to stop me.”

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Another Intifada? Why are you surprised? This is what happens when the canard of “settler violence” is promoted, instead of exposing violence against Jews. And much more Moshe Dann

Posted By on April 13th, 2022

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/325726

The Arabs have been planning this ever since the last one, 20 years ago.

This is what Arafat envisioned when he formed the PLO in 1964, and used (via the Oslo Accords) to implement his goal of destroying Israel.

This is what happens when the PLO Covenant and Hamas Charter, which call for Israel’s destruction, and promote incitement against Israel, are ignored.

This is what happens when the PA has a “pay-for-slay” program that sends money to families of terrorists who were ‘killed-in-action,’ and glorifies them.

This is what happens when children in schools run by the PA/PLO and UNRWA are taught to hate Jews and Israel.

This is what happens when Jews were expelled from the Gaza Strip, which enabled Hamas to occupy it; similarly, destroying “hilltop” Jewish communities and preventing Jews from building in Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem is an anti-Zionist message of surrender.

This is what happens when Hamas, Jihadists and Islamists are empowered, especially by the news media that won’t even call them terrorists.

MEDICINE AND HEALTH Comments turned off

America’s Reliance on China for Pharmaceuticals Could Result in Ukraine Like Shortages David Gortler and Henry I. Miller

Posted By on April 13th, 2022

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/04/12/americas-reliance-on-china-for-pharmaceuticals-could-result-in-ukraine-like-drug-shortages/

Immediately following Russia’s unprovoked invasion, hospitals and pharmacies across Ukraine witnessed a severe interruption in the drug supply chain. Pharmacies were looted and shelves were quickly emptied with no replenishment in sight. In just a few days, the profound benefits of a century’s worth of modern pharmaceutical development were nullified, with lifesaving drugs for heart disease, high blood pressure, infections, diabetes, cancer, and innumerable other conditions suddenly unavailable. 

Americans who think that such shortages could never happen here should think again. In fact, we are already experiencing them. University of Chicago researchers in 2018 surveyed 719 pharmacists at large and small hospitals across the country and found that all of them reported experiencing at least one drug shortage over the previous year, and 69% had experienced at least 50 shortages in that time. The majority were generic injectable pharmaceuticals commonly used in hospitals, including analgesics, cancer drugs, anesthetics, antipsychotics for psychiatric emergencies, and electrolyte solutions needed for patients on IV supplementation. According to the Food and Drug Administration, there are currently shortages of 120 drugs, many of them commonly used and critically important.

One of the reasons is that we, like Ukraine, are at the mercy of foreign sources for our pharmaceutical supply. China has become the world’s largest producer and exporter of the essential “active pharmaceutical ingredients” (APIs) used in the manufacture of drugs in many countries, including the United States. According to the World Health Organization, 36% of pharmaceutical manufacturing plants are government owned, and that figure roughly doubles when calculated on facility square footage rather than facility numbers. Even India, a dominant manufacturer of generic drugs, is dependent on China for its APIs.  

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

GOOGLE JUST DECLARED WAR ON THE MOST ACCURATE POLLSTER IN AMERICA

Posted By on April 13th, 2022

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/04/13/google-just-declared-war-on-the-most-accurate-pollster-in-america-and-on-most-americans/

In March, we reported on the results of our monthly I&I/TIPP Poll, which found that nearly two-thirds of registered voters thought decisions about COVID restrictions were driven by politics, not science. Majorities in just about every demographic, political, and ideological group felt this way.

Nevertheless, Google’s AdSense network stripped its ads from this article because it contains what Google claims is “dangerous or derogatory content” and that we must “fix it” for Google to restore those ads.

Here’s Google’s definition of “dangerous and derogatory content,” copied directly from its AdSense policy page:

We requested that Google review its decision, and on April 10 it informed us that “our review request was rejected.”

Take a look at the story and judge for yourself whether any reasonable human being would say this article meets that definition.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Frank R. James ID’d as person of interest in Brooklyn subway shooting, made threatening online rants By Jorge Fitz-Gibbon, Jesse O’Neill and Craig McCarthy

Posted By on April 13th, 2022

https://nypost.com/2022/04/12/frank-r-james-idd-as-person-of-interest-in-brooklyn-subway-shooting/

A troubled man who railed against Mayor Adams and made bizarre threatening rants on YouTube has been identified as a person of interest in the savage Brooklyn subway attack that injured at least 23 people Tuesday morning, officials said.

Frank James — who warned last month that he was “entering the danger zone” — rented a U-Haul van tied to the N train attack in Sunset Park and is being sought for questioning, police said at an evening briefing.

“Mr. Mayor, I’m a victim of your mental health program,” James said in one lengthy video.

“I’m 63 now full of hate, full of anger, and full of bitterness.”

He also criticized the mayor for not doing more to combat homelessness.

“Eric Adams, Eric Adams: What are you doing brother? What’s happening with this homeless situation,” he said while referring to the subway. “Every car I went to was loaded with homeless people. It was so bad I couldn’t even stand. I had to keep moving from car to car.”

The NYPD said they were increasing security for Mayor Adams after police discovered the videos.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Democrats’ Bidenflation disaster by Byron York

Posted By on April 13th, 2022

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/democrats-bidenflation-disaster

You’ve seen the news — the government says inflation rose 8.5% in March compared to last year. That is up from the annual inflation rate last month, which was 7.9%. Both are the worst since 1981.

There are a lot of stories behind the big number. Inflation is up in every area of the economy. But the worst news concerns some very fundamental human activities: eating, finding warmth and shelter, and moving around. Look deep into the website at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and you’ll see how bad inflation is in those basic areas.

Start with the price of food. You’ve been to the grocery store. You know it is bad. Now, BLS says the price of meat, poultry, fish, and eggs rose 13.7% annually. The price of cereal and bakery products rose 9.4%. Fruits and vegetables, 8.5%. Nonalcoholic beverages, 8%. Dairy, 7%. And other foods that don’t fit into those categories, 10.3%. All of that adds up to the category of “Food at Home,” which BLS says went up 10% in March over last year.

Want to go out to eat? BLS says prices of full-service meals went up 8% in March, while limited-service meals went up 7.2%. There is simply no way to eat, at home or out, without paying more.

Move on to the subject of staying warm. It is hard to believe, but BLS reports the price of fuel oil is up 70.1% in March over last year. 70.1%! Then there is the price of what BLS refers to as “shelter,” which increased 5%. (What does the BLS mean by “shelter”? Here is its definition: “The cost of shelter for renter-occupied housing is rent. For an owner-occupied unit, the cost of shelter is the implicit rent that owner-occupant would have to pay if they were renting their homes.”)

BOOKS Comments turned off

The View from the Cocoon One has to wonder what kind of Beltway cocoon Continetti inhabits.  By Paul Gottfried

Posted By on April 12th, 2022

https://amgreatness.com/2022/04/11/the-view-from-the-cocoon/

A review of The Right: The Hundred-Year War for American Conservatism, by Matthew Continetti (Basic Books, 496 pages, $32)

Sometimes one begins a book with such low expectations that one is delighted to find the printed material is not quite as bad as what one expected. This is precisely my impression of Matthew Continetti’s much touted monograph, The Right: The Hundred-Year War for American Conservatism. As someone who holds the honor of being Bill Kristol’s son-in-law (and who holds his father-in-law’s vacated place at Fox News), and a prominent NeverTrumper to boot, Continetti is hardly an unbiased interpreter of conservatism. A revealing passage from his book tells us clearly where on the ideological divide he stands: “The one hundred years war for the Right is to conceive of it as a battle between the forces of extremism and the conservatives who understood that mainstream acceptance of their ideas was the prerequisite for electoral success and lasting reform.” 

As the world’s most notorious critic of misused political taxonomies, I shall allow myself to quibble about Continetti’s eccentric use of the term “Right.” For him and his well-connected friends, the designation mostly serves as a synonym for “Republican.” There are two groups on his telling, both located in the GOP, that are fighting to be the true face of the Right, but only one passes muster as “non-extreme.” This is where I start to part ways. Today, I would argue, the populist Right is the true American Right because it alone is fighting the cultural Left and its allies in the deep state, media, and educational establishment. I have no idea what makes its neocon and Republican establishment adversaries any kind of Right, since on most domestic social issues and certainly on foreign policy, this group happily cooperates with leftist power elites.

In explaining how the current populist Right came along, Continetti stresses the divisive character of the Iraq War and the failure of the George W. Bush Administration to carry along all self-identified conservatives. That prolonged struggle “delegitimized the conservative movement in the eyes of populist independents, conservative Democrats, and disaffected voters crucial to past GOP victories.” This observation is entirely correct. Bush’s invasion unleashed acrimonious debate at home, and a populist Right was able to consolidate itself by standing in opposition to a course of action heavily endorsed by neoconservative journalists and policy advisers. But cultural and moral issues, often intertwined with economic ones, soon became the sustaining themes of the populist revival, which has taken cultural wars and the plight of the working class more seriously than neocons and establishment Republicans have done.

MEDICINE AND HEALTH Comments turned off

New York’s Child-Masking Madness:By Joel Zinberg

Posted By on April 12th, 2022

https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/04/new-yorks-child-masking-madness/

Mayor Eric Adams can and should disregard the erroneous advice of his health team.

One of the more curious storylines playing out in the early days of Eric Adams’s tenure as mayor of New York City is his stance on masking preschoolers. Adams, who projects a tough-guy, no-nonsense persona, ready to make the tough decisions, has decided to maintain the requirement that schoolchildren under the age of five wear masks even though the science is clear that they face little to no Covid risk and that, as I discuss below, masking that age group comes with a risk of significant harm.

Adams lifted the mask mandate for K–12 schoolchildren in early March and promised he would lift the mandate for preschoolers, ages two to four, on April 4. Then, citing a “slight uptick” in cases, he backtracked.

When a state supreme court justice enjoined city officials from enforcing the requirement on April 1, calling it “arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable,” Adams announced that the city would appeal. That evening, an appellate division justice stayed the injunction, effectively restoring the preschooler mandate until a full hearing takes place.

A week later, Adams announced the mandate would continue for at least another week. He claimed he’d like to lift the mandate but “I’m totally at the mercy of my health team.” That would be the one led by his new health commissioner, Dr. Ashwin Vasan, who continues to recommend masks “for most of us,” particularly for children under five because that age group is not yet eligible for vaccination.

Dr. Vasan’s reasoning makes little sense. The currently predominant Omicron variant — especially the subvariant BA.2 that is now dominant in the New York City area — spreads easily despite vaccination. Mayor Adams, who has just tested positive himself, can attest to that. If masks are necessary for toddlers, they should be necessary for everyone. In fact, Dr. Vasan’s own tweet from March 30 shows that case rates in the city are lowest in the zero-to-four age group and, far and away, highest among 25- to 34-year-olds.

IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Democrats Revolt over Biden’s Border Bungling Carine Hajjar

Posted By on April 12th, 2022

https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/04/democrats-revolt-over-bidens-border-bungling/

With the looming expiration of Title 42, some lawmakers are waking up from the progressive fantasy.

Democrats are being butchered in the polls, with their progressive shift not sitting well with average Americans. According to FiveThirtyEight, President Biden’s approval rating is hovering at 42 percent — that’s more than ten percentage points lower than at the same time last year. His falling approval is mirrored by his party, with 42.5 percent of Americans saying they want a Democratic win on the generic congressional ballot, as opposed to 44.7 percent favoring Republicans.

Despite Biden’s “unity” promise, Democrats are catering to a small, progressive wing whose goals simply do not resonate with Americans. On the April 1 episode of Potomac Watch from the Wall Street Journal, Kim Strassel was discussing Biden’s approval ratings and said:

There’s . . . increasing frustration with Joe Biden that he is pushing an agenda that is out of tune with what most Americans are interested in seeing done. . . . Joe Biden is following the agenda of a very small wing of his party that’s ascendant, the progressive wing, but that is not reflective of national mood or politics.

And yet, progressives think the polling problem is due to not being progressive enough. Last week, for instance, Chris Hayes blamed Joe Manchin and the failure of Build Back Better for “single-handedly” costing Democrats their standing among Americans. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez simply believes that the president isn’t delivering the progressive agenda he promised. On Errol Louis’s podcast, she said that “this isn’t just about middle of the road, an increasingly narrow band of independent voters” (well, actually, it is). She went on: “This is really about the collapse of support among young people, base, feeling like they worked overtime to get this president elected and they aren’t necessarily being seen.”

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Questions Loom After Verdicts in Whitmer ‘Kidnapping’ Trial What did top government officials know and when did they know it? By Julie Kelly

Posted By on April 12th, 2022

https://amgreatness.com/2022/04/11/questions-loom-after-verdicts-in-whitmer-kidnapping-trial/

It’s impossible to overstate the significance of the verdicts handed down last week for four men charged with conspiring to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2020 and use a “weapon of mass destruction” in the process.

Despite sworn testimony from several FBI experts and agents—including the primary FBI informant, Dan Chappel, who was compensated at least $60,000 by the bureau for his involvement—endless federal resources, and favorable rulings by the judge to withhold evidence and testimony, a jury of 12 Americans rejected the government’s case in cold fashion on Friday in a Grand Rapids courtroom. The Justice Department did not win a single conviction; two men walked free after 18 months in prison and two men remain behind bars as prosecutors prepare to re-try them after a hung jury could not agree on their guilt.

What the jury did agree on, however, is that the Federal Bureau of Investigation engaged in entrapment. Defense attorneys, with the consent of Chief District Court Judge Robert Jonker, argued that the FBI attempted to induce their clients into committing the alleged kidnapping crime. 

“When I look at what happened in this case, I am ashamed of the behavior of the leading law enforcement agency in the United States,” Joshua Blanchard, the lawyer representing Barry Croft Jr., who was not acquitted last week, told jurors in his closing statement.