Forcing People Into COVID Vaccines Ignores Important Scientific Information Now more than ever we need substantive debate about decisions that affect the health of hundreds of millions of people, including views counter to official positions. Harvey Risch, Robert W. Malone, and Byram Bridle

https://thefederalist.com/2021/12/14/forcing-people-into-covid-vaccines-ignores-important-scientific-information/

The attacks on free speech and science are unrelenting. Academic publisher Elsevier’s suppression of an article documenting the myocarditis risk of the COVID-19 vaccines, with no excuse or pretext offered, is incredible enough. Viewed alongside Twitter’s censorship of the American Heart Association, YouTube’s suppression of a panel discussion of vaccine mandates on Capitol Hill, and the Orwellian call by National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins for critics of the government’s COVID-19 policies to be “brought to justice,” the trend is positively chilling.

Now more than ever, we need substantive debate about decisions that affect the health of hundreds of millions of people, including views counter to official positions. Instead, we have National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci’s absurd claim “I represent science” as proof of how one-dimensional our COVID-19 policymaking has become.

These are just a few examples of the wave of censorship that has accompanied COVID-19, uniting government bureaucracies with obedient news media, academia, scientific publishing, and powerful Big Tech companies. Above all, this concerted campaign suppresses all disagreement about topics including potential early treatments, the natural immunity of recovered individuals, and the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines. Differing viewpoints on these topics are swiftly labeled “disinformation,” but in fact represent principled dissent based on a large and growing body of scientific evidence.

Universal Vaccination Based on False Premise

Glenn Loury, Chicago born, on woke policy feeding violent urban crime By John Kass

https://johnkassnews.com/glenn-loury-chicago-born-on-woke-policy-driving-violent-crime-and-crushing-black-america/

By John Kass

The rise of violent crime in urban America, nurtured by the policies of liberal defund-the-police Democratic mayors and the woke prosecutors protected by woke newsrooms, is now completely out of control.

And the other day when a CTA bus driver was mercilessly beaten by a mob on Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago—just part of a larger spree of weekend violence–those Chicago politicians whose policies helped fuel the chaos were silent. Paul Vallas, a possible mayoral candidate, posted the horrific video.

I was angry and retweeted, calling out Chicago politicians who didn’t respond.

But Professor Glenn Loury responded. He was born here. If you don’t know about him, you should.

Loury is a well-known professor of economics at Brown University, writer, thought leader, a champion for academic freedom. He makes speeches, writes essays and books, and runs a YouTube podcast called “The Glenn Show,” often with John McWhorter of Columbia University.

The Unseen Side of “Cancel Culture” The threat to free expression goes well beyond high-profile cancellations. Ted Balaker

https://www.persuasion.community/p/the-unseen-side-of-cancel-culture

In the wake of the controversy surrounding his latest Netflix special The Closer, Dave Chappelle received an Emmy nomination for his 2020 special 8:46. Many have gleefully declared that the nod proves that cancel culture does not exist. “Only one grammy nom[ination] each for Dave Chappelle, Kevin Hart, and Louis CK!! Cancel culture strikes again!!” snarked Buzzfeed reporter David Mack.

But such reactions show that this phenomenon is widely misunderstood. I don’t like the term “cancel culture” because it confuses as much as it clarifies, and that’s partly why its most pernicious side is so easy to miss. Dustups involving big stars attract lots of attention—but we shouldn’t judge cancel culture simply by what happens to a celebrity in the crosshairs. Instead, the greatest impact often falls on those far removed from the original scene of the outrage. Cancel culture’s impact is best measured not by grand explosions of controversy, but by what remains unseen and unsaid. Here are some examples.

In 2015 I directed a feature documentary, Can We Take a Joke?, which explores the clash between comedy and outrage culture (“cancel culture” had yet to emerge as a widely-used term). Among the figures featured is Karith Foster, a comedian-turned-diversity trainer who brings humor and a “common humanity” approach (which emphasizes what all people have in common) to the fraught world of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. The film introduced Foster’s ideas to a wider audience. But a new development may stymie her ascent: After getting booked to speak at a well-known California college, she was disinvited. A supportive administrator warned Foster that she had been placed on a watchlist for essentially eschewing what is sometimes called the “common enemy” approach favored by DEI trainers (in which people are defined as “oppressor” or “oppressed” based on race, sex, and other characteristics).

The Soviet-style conditions in which January 6 arrestees molder By Andrea Widburg

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/12/the_sovietstyle_conditions_in_which_january_6_arrestees_molder.html

Every totalitarian regime has foul prisons in which they confine people who dared to oppose the regime. Sadly, in the Age of Biden, it turns out that America is no different. George Parry has written about the conditions at the D.C. jail in which those arrested for the January 6 riots are confined, and what he writes should horrify every person who believes in the Constitution and Due Process of Law.

To fully appreciate what’s happening in D.C., here’s a quick reminder about the rights Americans have before, during, and after being arrested:

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Amendment V

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

What Spielberg Gets (Surprisingly) Right in West Side Story By Jack Cashill

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/12/what_spielberg_gets_surprisingly_right_in_west_side_story.html

I had serious reservations about the Steven Spielberg version of the film classic West Side Story.  Rumors of wokeness haunted the new movie from the first casting call through to its dismal opening weekend.  I expected to wince throughout, but Spielberg did something brave and unexpected.  He gave the Jets a rationale for their existence and their resistance.

The 1961 original did not.  As a 14-year-old living in a “transitional” neighborhood very much like the one the Jets and Sharks inhabited and not far away, I fully identified with the white gang, the Jets.  My friends, even my black friends, did as well.  Despite our affection for our homies, we had a grudging respect for the Puerto Rican gang, the Sharks.  Their guys were arguably cooler, their girls hotter.

Missed by liberal observers, then and now, is that vestigial urban whites saw Puerto Ricans not as another “race,” but as another ethnic group, no more alien than Italians were to Irish or Irish were to Germans in generations past.  Like Tony, we would definitely date their girls if they’d have us.  The absurd racial delineation for “Hispanics” would come later.

As much as I liked the original movie, however, it struck me even then as a confection.  The Jets were too soft, feckless, even, especially Tony, their legendary leader.  They seemed ungrounded, their defiance more cinematic than real.  Spielberg’s critical revision was to root the new version in the real world of New York’s West Side circa the late 1950s.  Much has been said about the “texture” he gave to the Puerto Rican characters, but he gave equal texture to the Jets.  That is what surprised me.  It would have been so easy in today’s environment to portray them as Archie Bunkers in training, Proud Boy wannabes, but he chose not to.

As the film makes clear from the opening scenes, redevelopers were leveling whole West Side neighborhoods to make way for the Lincoln Center complex.  In fact, the producers of the original film used the vacated but as yet un-demolished buildings as backdrop for the street scenes.  In this version, a wrecking ball seems to hover over every shot.  The Jets and Sharks are contesting for limited space in a shrinking universe.

Biden Administration Silent Against Iran’s Mullahs’ Terror Threat by Majid Rafizadeh

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18036/iran-terror-threat

The conflict in Yemen means more to the Iranian regime than merely taunting its Gulf rivals. Rather, it seems to be an ideological crusade to unite the Muslim world under its own Islamist rule, one that will always see any attempts at peace as merely a delay in the process.

One of the Iranian leaders’ main objectives in empowering their militias and terror groups in other countries is to export the Islamic Republic Revolution to other nations. This mission is, in fact, part of Iran’s Constitution.

Iran’s Army and Revolutionary Guards “will be responsible not only for guarding and preserving the frontiers of the country, but also for fulfilling the ideological mission of (Shiite) jihad in God’s way; that is, extending the sovereignty of God’s (Shiite) law throughout the world … in the hope that this century will witness the establishment of a universal holy government and the downfall of all others.” — Iran’s Constitution.

The Biden administration needs, once and for all, to abandon its appeasement policy towards Iran’s ruling mullahs. They are in charge of a predatory regime that has understatedly been called the world’s top state sponsor of terrorism. Yet the current US administration seems hell-bent on empowering them.

In the wake of the largest seizure of arms and fuel from Iranian terror groups to date, the Biden administration has remained silent.

The US Department of Justice announced on December 7, 2021 the successful forfeiture of two large caches of Iranian weapons. The weapons reportedly included advanced arms such as “171 guided anti-tank missiles, eight surface-to-air missiles, land attack cruise missile components, anti-ship cruise missile components, thermal weapon optics and other components for missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles [drones]”. The U.S. Navy also seized Iranian petroleum products from “four foreign-flagged tankers in or around the Arabian Sea while en route to Venezuela. These actions represent the government’s largest-ever forfeitures of fuel and weapons shipments from Iran.”

Iran has good reasons to hang tough in nuke talks: Lawrence Haas

https://thehill.com/opinion/international/586166-iran-has-good-reasons-to-hang-tough-in-nuke-talks

Why won’t Iran cut a deal? Its regime has taken an uncompromising line in renewed talks over its nuclear program. Although that has left the United States and its allies bewildered and frustrated, the regime has solid reasons for doing so.

After all, it is currently managing to weather the tough U.S. and global economic sanctions that were supposed to force the Islamic Republic to compromise. Washington and its allies, meanwhile, are split over how best to approach the talks with Tehran, while — after years of empty bluster — U.S. threats of military force to cripple Iran’s nuclear program simply lack credibility. At the same time, the regime is watching America’s current reaction to other global threats, and clearly finding all of it quite reassuring.

None of that bodes well for Washington’s hopes of reviving the 2015 global nuclear agreement with Iran, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (or JCPOA), and then negotiating a broader deal that would cover such matters as Tehran’s ballistic missile program and its terror sponsorship.

With few signs of progress at the talks in Vienna, the Biden administration is moving to tighten the U.S. sanctions that are in place. But, while the sanctions of recent years have clearly battered Iran’s economy — leaving its gross domestic product shrinking, its currency nosediving, and unemployment skyrocketing — the regime believes it can weather the sanctions and continue to make progress on its nuclear and its related ballistic missile programs. The decisions of China and Venezuela to buy Iranian oil and gas, and a $400 billion deal under which China will invest in Iran’s economy and buy Iranian oil at discounted rates far into the future, give Tehran important ways to sidestep sanctions.

Doctor Fauci and the Fear Factor Alistair Crooks

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/public-health/2021/12/doctor-fauci-and-the-fear-factor/

I had just received my copy of Robert Kennedy Jr’s latest book – The Real Anthony Fauci – Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health  [i] for my Christmas reading.  It looked so delicious I read it immediately, just couldn’t put it down. There are several things that I need to say about it.

Firstly, it really is a must-read book.  For anyone who has watched the COVID narrative evolve over the last two years much will come as no surprise, but the detail presented is staggering and some of it totally unexpected. Kennedy uncovers a whole new narrative that has been buried in plain sight. In order to formulate a response to the COVID issue, you really need to consider the entire big picture that Kennedy provides.

Secondly, one must always keep in mind that this book is from a true and trusted Democrat, not someone who can  be dismissed as a ‘right wing nut job’, to quote one of the Left’s favourite contemptuous dismissals of all and any who do not share their opinions and goals. But that also raises an interesting sub-text, one that haunts the book. One of Kennedy’s motives for writing appears to be to protect the legacy of his famous father and uncles in the children’s services and AIDS fronts. Unfortunately for a Democrat, that puts him on the wrong side of Dr Fauci who, as the book documents, has a notorious history of
exploitation of vulnerable children (generally black and in orphanages) and AIDS sufferers, the very people that Kennedy’s kin championed for years and which helped build their political careers and reputations.

“The Power of Persistence” by Lawrence Kadish

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18043/the-power-of-persistence

“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘Press On!’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” – President Calvin Coolidge, “The Power of Persistence.”

As we welcome the holidays, we are compelled to reflect on the past year and then set our vision on the future. Against multiple challenges, whether they are personal, professional, or concerns about the threats facing our great nation, one can find guidance and comfort in the powerful words of personal inspiration from a past President of the United States.

Calvin Coolidge became the 30th President in 1923. Catapulted into power when Warren Harding suddenly died in office, Coolidge was a no-nonsense New Englander. He brought integrity and hard work to the Oval Office. A self-effacing, modest man during the height of the Roaring 20’s, he was known for being a man who chose his few words carefully while seeking an America where hard work was its own reward. Given the opportunity to run for a second full term, historians note he declined what would have surely been an Election Night victory with a simple sentence; “I do not chose to run.”

In his retirement he would write newspaper columns and magazine articles. Among his contributions was a singular observation that carries as much weight in the 21st Century as it did one hundred years ago. Entitled “The Power of Persistence,” he wrote, “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘Press On!’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”

Liz Cheney’s Jan. 6 committee: What kind of mendacious operation is this? By Monica Showalter

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/12/liz_cheneys_jan_6_committee_what_kind_of_mendacious_operation_is_this.html

Ever-determined to play the apocryphal role of Salieri to Donald Trump’s Mozart, Liz Cheney is making a name for herself on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Jan. 6 investigative committee.

One problem: The committee is proving itself amazingly dishonest in its ambitions to Get Trump. Now it’s becoming a pattern.

Here’s the latest out of that dishonest bunch from The Federalist:

Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney went after former President Donald Trump in her prime-time performance on Monday claiming that private messages of the president’s staff revealed an apathetic leader complicit in the riot at the Capitol as the attack unfolded.

“The violence was evident to all — it was covered in real time by almost every news channel,” said Cheney, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s hand-picked vice chair of the Select Committee on January 6. “But, for 187 minutes, President Trump refused to act when action by our president was required, indeed essential, and compelled by his oath to our Constitution.”

According to a detailed timeline of the turmoil by The New York Times, the first building was not breached until about 2:13 p.m. The timeline was corroborated by The Washington Post, which stamped the first break-in at 2:15 p.m. Trump’s first tweet addressing the upheaval shortly followed at 2:38 p.m., when the president made a plea for peace, writing, “Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!