WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

What Nicolas Sarkozy’s conviction means for us By Peter Skurkiss

Posted By on March 2nd, 2021

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/03/what_nicolas_sarkozys_conviction_means_for_us.html

A Paris court  has just found former French president Nicolas Sarkozy guilty of corruption and sentenced him to three years in prison, two of which have been suspended. The presiding judge said Sarkozy, who served from 2007-2012, used his position to peddle influence and violate state secrecy for political gain. Interestingly, the key evidence against the former president dates back to tapped telephone calls in 2014.

I am in no position to say whether this is an example of the rule of law being applied to the high and mighty or instead a selective prosecution and some form of political payback. I will note that Sarkozy is still influential among French conservatives and that his conviction hurts them. Also, he’s been out of office for eight years. 

My point in bringing this French matter up is not the Sarkozy’s conviction per se but what it might portend for the U.S. The hive’s vendetta against Donald Trump has been far from satisfied with the installment of Joe Biden as president. Trump is still extremely popular with the Republican base. And as his CPAC speech shows, the Orange Man is not going anywhere. Instead, Trump casts his shadow over the political dialogue in the country like no one else can. As such, he is a continuing threat to the globalists and the deep state. 

The groups that make up the hive fear and hate Trump with equal intensity. With Sarkozy’s conviction, they are dreaming of what might be possible in the U.S. They will reason among themselves that precedent has been broken in an advanced western country with the conviction and sentencing of a former head of state. What better way to take Trump off the board than to do something similar here? And to repeat, Sarkozy has been out of office for over eight years and the main evidence against him goes back to 2014. Yet still they went after him.

MEDIA Comments turned off

Washington Post Fact Checkers Called President Trump a Liar to Cover Up Biden’s Corruption Daniel Greenfield

Posted By on March 2nd, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/03/washington-post-fact-checkers-called-president-daniel-greenfield/

Once upon a time, the media used fact checkers to check its own facts before publishing a story. And then the media stopped checking its facts and started smearing everyone else.

The media’s false claim that Russia had somehow rigged the 2016 election to help President Trump win with “disinformation” became the basis for a media movement pressuring Big Tech to let the media’s fact checking censors silence conservatives with their ‘fact checking’.

Even as the media discarded all of its remaining standards, it claimed truth as its standard.

“This is an apple. Some people might try and tell you that it’s a banana,” CNN lectured viewers. “They might scream banana, banana, banana over and over and over again.”

At the Washington Post, which had declared war on President Trump early on, fact checking became its own industry. Glenn Kessler, the head of the Post’s fact checking team, and two junior members published a book last year titled, Donald Trump and His Assault on Truth. It was the last hurrah for the team which shut down its presidential fact checking operation in 2021

But Kessler and the Post continued touting its fake database claiming that President Trump had made “30,573 false or misleading claims” even while making it clear that the game had changed. When Joe Biden falsely claimed that there was no vaccine when he came into office, Kessler insisted that it was a “verbal stumble, a typical Biden gaffe”, but not false or a lie.

IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Biden’s Immigration Bill Would Be an Act of National Suicide Figures don’t lie – but liars can figure. Michael Cutler

Posted By on March 2nd, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/03/bidens-immigration-bill-would-be-act-national-michael-cutler/

On February 28, 2021 the New York Times reported: Biden’s Immigration Plan Would Offer Path to Citizenship For Millions.

In reviewing the Biden administration’s catastrophic immigration proposals, the first question that should come to every American’s mind is, how does this benefit America and struggling Americans?

This is especially true because the Biden immigration bill would likely result in the lawful admission of more than 100 million immigrants!

I wrote about this issue in my article: “What Biden’s Immigration Policies Would Do To America: America’s adversaries can’t wait for this massive betrayal.” 

Incredibly this fact has been ignored by the mainstream media, but we will explore the true magnitude of the Biden Amnesty shortly.

News coverage of immigration almost always focuses on the aliens and those who profit from the admission of foreign workers but never on the citizens of our nation.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Ballot Harvesting Ban Case Hits the Supreme Court Daniel Greenfield

Posted By on March 2nd, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2021/03/ballot-harvesting-ban-case-hits-supreme-court-daniel-greenfield/

Where are we on voter integrity?

Anyone expecting the Supreme Court to affirmatively protect voter integrity was kidding themselves. We’re far enough behind the ball that we’re hoping that the Supreme Court protects the rights of states to ban grotesque violations like ballot harvesting. 

It’s easy to spit and dismiss that out of hand, but if you want to imagine the political system being a whole lot closer to doomsday, preventing states from stopping ballot harvesting would do it. But there are also bigger stakes in the mix in Brnovich v. DNC.

A major reason why little could be done about the 2020 election is that the Voting Rights Act rigged the system. The Democrats are free to argue that any interference with their electorate is a violation of the Voting Rights Act. Republicans can’t make that argument because political affiliation isn’t protected. That’s also why conservatives can be fired from their jobs for their political views, meanwhile other classes are protected by the legal system.

The Voting Rights Act is the nuclear weapon of Democrat election rigging. And the conservative judiciary has been chipping away at its abuses.

FOREIGN POLICY, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Biden Returns to Obama’s Feckless Foreign Policy No worse friend, no better enemy. Bruce Thornton

Posted By on March 2nd, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/03/joe-biden-returns-obamas-feckless-foreign-policy-bruce-thornton/

It was said of the Roman generalissimo Sulla that there was no better friend or worse enemy than he. This maxim of foreign policy––support and help your loyal allies, and damage and punish your enemies––was proven common sense for millennia. Then came the age of moralizing internationalism, the belief that a “new world order” had made that realist truth anachronistic and primitive, a reflection of our benighted past. Now diplomatic engagement, democracy promotion, foreign aid, and multinational institution see to global security, peace, and prosperity.

As a result, today there is no worse friend, and no better enemy than the West’s foreign policy and national security agencies.

Our foreign policy establishment has long clung tightly to these outworn “new world order”
narratives and paradigms despite the empirical evidence that such appeasing policies embolden and strengthen our enemies and convince them of our weakness. Exhibit number one is Obama’s involvement of the U.S. in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or Iran nuclear deal, a multinational compendium of empty promises, unenforceable conditions, and American danegeld. By the end of Obama’s second term it was obvious that Iran had no intention of giving up its nuclear weapons programs, its development of missiles to carry nuclear warheads, and its jihadist aggression in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen fomented by its proxies.

The last four years provide the evidence of that foreign policy failure. Donald Trump’s more realist Middle East policies signaled to the world that the U.S. was no long an indulgent, dotty Uncle Sam who would ignore provocations and assaults on our security and interests, or reward with foreign aid empty promises scrawled on “parchment barriers.” Instead of the wishful thinking of “diplomatic engagement,” Swiss-cheese agreements, and unreciprocated concessions, Trump took decisive action. He left the Iran nuclear agreement, imposed harsh sanctions on the regime, and punished its aggression with direct attacks on Iranian Republican Guard leaders, the most serious being the killing of Qassem Soleimani, head honcho of Iran’s imperialist Quds Forces abroad.

POLITICS Comments turned off

It’s Joe Manchin’s Moment Will the West Virginia Democrat sink Xavier Becerra’s nomination as health secretary? by William McGurn

Posted By on March 2nd, 2021

https://www.wsj.com/articles/its-joe-manchins-moment-11614641678?mod=opinion_lead_pos8

Will Sen. Joe Manchin nix President Biden’s choice to head the Department of Health and Human Services?

In a Senate split 50-50 along party lines, the Democrat from West Virginia already doomed Neera Tanden’s nomination as director of the Office of Management and Budget when he came out against her. Mr. Manchin’s opposition to a $15-an-hour minimum wage likewise helped force it off the Covid-19 relief bill. The question now is whether he really means to serve as a check on the Biden administration, or whether bringing down Ms. Tanden was a token act designed to buy him a pass for supporting more-extreme picks such as Xavier Becerra, the California culture warrior tapped for health secretary.

As usual Mr. Manchin isn’t saying much, beyond a simple statement a week ago that he hasn’t yet made up his mind. Without his support Democrats can’t force the tie needed to allow Vice President Kamala Harris to cast the deciding vote. Unless of course a Republican senator—say, Lisa Murkowski or Susan Collins—broke ranks too.

At the moment the anti-Becerra campaign is leading with the argument that at a time of pandemic he isn’t a doctor and has no experience in healthcare. But this isn’t much better than the argument that Betsy DeVos wasn’t qualified to be education secretary because she had no education degree or experience as a public-school teacher. What cabinet secretaries most need isn’t a particular expertise—they have many experts at their disposal—but leadership and judgment.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

A Trojan Horse for Woke Education  The Educating for American Democracy project’s “action civics” is the latest in the Left’s efforts to “fundamentally transform the United States of America.”  By John Fonte

Posted By on March 2nd, 2021

https://amgreatness.com/2021/02/28/a-trojan-horse-for-woke-education/

A massive new national project called “Educating for American Democracy” will be launched on Tuesday with the explicit aim of “redefining” and then “harmonizing” American civic education nationwide.

From the days of Thomas Jefferson, Noah Webster, Horace Mann, and the McGuffey readers to Ronald Reagan’s farewell address and the controversy over national history standards, citizenship education (broadly understood) has always been a vital function of American schools for the perpetuation of the American way of life. That’s about to change for the worse.   

Educating for American Democracy (EAD) is a coalition of educators that aims “to transform teaching of civics and history to sustain our constitutional democracy and meet the needs of a diverse 21st century K-12 student body.” EAD in 2019 received start-up funding of $650,000 from the U.S. Department of Education and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). 

Under a cooperative agreement with the federal agencies, iCivics will lead an EAD collaboration in partnership with four other organizations: Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics; Tufts’ Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE); Tufts’ Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life; and Arizona State University’s School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership.     

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Fauci’s Failures Are Firing Offenses

Posted By on March 2nd, 2021

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/03/02/faucis-failures-are-firing-offenses/

Dr. Anthony Fauci has impressive credentials and a lengthy tenure as a top-level government health official dating back to 1984. But his performance during the COVID-19 pandemic has been abysmal, with politicized non-science-based edicts and frequently reversed “medical advice” that have confused and frightened Americans.

Just a week ago, Fauci made what to some was a stunning admission: “We’ve done worse than most any country” in managing the outbreak, he said. We say “stunning” because Fauci, as head of NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is the official most responsible for the U.S. response.

His 2019 pay of $417,608 makes him the nation’s highest paid federal official. As a scientist, he’s held in very high esteem by many, particularly those on the left, who see his sweeping powers – lockdowns, masking, social distancing – as a nifty means of social control. It’s control of 330 million people via social isolation and nonstop browbeating of those who dare to diverge from the oppressive “new normal” we all now experience on a daily basis.

The big problem has been Fauci’s pronunciamentos are often nonsensical, not supported by science or contradictory. “These are my principles,” Groucho Marx once said. “If you don’t like these, I have others.” That’s Fauci.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Making Every Election Like 2020 H.R.1 mandates ballot harvesting and limits voter verification.

Posted By on March 2nd, 2021

https://www.wsj.com/articles/making-every-election-like-2020-11614641809?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

If you thought the 2020 election ran like a finely oiled machine, you’ll love what Democrats plan next. The Senate and House reserved their first bills, H.R.1 and S.1, for voting changes that would make mail balloting in a plague year seem buttoned up. We’ve gone through some details already, but it’s worth another word as the House prepares to vote this week.

Advocates present the legislation as a good-government reform that won’t favor either party. But H.R.1 is packed with provisions that would federalize election rules to dubious result; unsettle longstanding practices; end security measures that local officials think prudent; undermine public confidence; and increase the odds of contested outcomes.

Start with permanent pandemic rules. H.R.1 would create a federal right to a mail ballot, no excuse necessary. Registered voters couldn’t be made to submit “any form of identification as a condition of obtaining an absentee ballot,” except a signature or “affirmation.” State laws requiring mail votes to be notarized or signed by witnesses would be trumped. Late-arriving ballots, if postmarked on time, would be valid nationwide for 10 days after Election Day.

In other words, the bill would entrench last year’s emergency experiment, further turning Election Day into Election Quarter. H.R.1 would give Americans endless opportunities to relive the fun in New York’s 22nd Congressional District, which didn’t have a victor for 97 days. Out of Pennsylvania’s 10,097 late-arriving ballots last year, an alarming 6.6% did not have legible postmarks. A state Senate seat outside Pittsburgh turned on whether or not to count mail ballots that voters neglected to date. One county tallied them. The county next door did not. What if the White House were in the balance?

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

A New Crime Wave—and What to Do About It New York City rejected the policing lessons that led to its success, and violence is surging. Heather Mac Donald

Posted By on March 2nd, 2021

https://www.city-journal.org/new-york-city-violence-surging

For two decades, many New Yorkers had assured themselves that a return to the crime and squalor of the early 1990s was unlikely. Former mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who presided over a 62 percent drop in major felonies from 1994 through 2001, proved that violence was not an urban inevitability. His successor, Michael Bloomberg, drove crime down further, through the 2008 recession and beyond. Both mayors set a benchmark for what was possible, preemptively discrediting any future mayor’s excuse that crime was beyond his capacity to overcome.

That assumption about the permanence of the crime drop was wrong. New York City in 2020 experienced an unprecedented one-year increase in homicides and shootings. Through December 27, 2020, the number of murders was up 41 percent from 2019 and 53 percent from 2018. Shooting victims were up 103 percent from 2019 and 109 percent from 2018; shooting incidents rose 97 percent and 104 percent. In gang-ridden precincts, the spike was even more startling. In Brooklyn’s Brownsville and Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhoods, there were 170 percent more shooting victims in 2020 than in 2019 and 151 percent more shooting incidents. Murder was up 94 percent in these parts of Brooklyn.

It wasn’t just gang areas that were afflicted. On December 29, a roving pack of young bicyclists in midtown Manhattan attacked a BMW, smashing a bike on top of the car and jumping on its windshield. The same group went after a cab minutes later. Office workers in the area have been chased by similar flash mobs.