POLITICS Comments turned off

Sen. Manchin (D- West Virginia) opposes Neera Tanden as Biden’s budget chief, imperiling nomination

Posted By on February 20th, 2021

https://www.aol.com/joe-manchin-comes-against-neera-213200785.html

WASHINGTON — Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia said Friday he will oppose Neera Tanden to lead the Office of Management and Budget, imperiling the prospects of a high-profile nominee of President Joe Biden.

“I have carefully reviewed Neera Tanden’s public statements and tweets that were personally directed towards my colleagues on both sides of the aisle from Senator Sanders to Senator McConnell and others,” Manchin said in a statement.

“I believe her overtly partisan statements will have a toxic and detrimental impact on the important working relationship between members of Congress and the next director of the Office of Management and Budget,” he said. For this reason, I cannot support her nomination.”His statement is a major blow to her prospects in a Senate split between 50 Democratic members and 50 Republicans.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Culture Warrior Xavier Becerra is Unqualified to Lead HSS Department Brian Burch

Posted By on February 20th, 2021

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/culture-warrior-xavier-becerra-is-unqualified-to-lead-hss-department-opinion/ar-BB1dPheY

EXCERPTS:

Becerra has been nominated to lead one of our most important government agencies, tasked with enhancing the health and wellbeing of all Americans. Yet he is a deeply partisan and ideologically driven nominee with no formal education, training or background in medicine or health. His most notable experience could best be described as waging left-wing culture wars while serving as attorney general of California.

Perhaps the most egregious example of Becerra’s commitment to political warfare is his years-long legal battle with the Little Sisters of the Poor, a group of nuns who care for the elderly poor.

Obama administration officials notoriously dragged these nuns to the Supreme Court over a mandate forcing them to provide certain types of contraception and abortion-inducing drugs. After years of litigation, the Supreme Court ruled for the Little Sisters in 2016, and in 2017 the Trump administration granted them full conscience protections.

Becerra, however, wasn’t satisfied. He sued the Trump administration in an attempt to block the protections granted to the Little Sisters and similar faith-based groups.

Becerra’s rigid posture opposed all religious-liberty accommodations, arguing “millions of women in California may be left without access to contraceptives” and that the rule would cause “immediate and irreparable harm” to the state.

These baseless accusations were soon exposed—Becerra’s office couldn’t identify a single person who would lose contraception coverage. Furthermore, Becerra hadn’t sued to overturn similar protections for big corporations, and even admitted there were other resources in California for women seeking contraceptives.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Canada’s Covid Vaccine Failure Among other errors, 70% of the doses the government bought aren’t yet approved by its health officials. By Michael Taube

Posted By on February 20th, 2021

https://www.wsj.com/articles/canadas-covid-vaccine-failure-11613772230?mod=opinion_lead_pos9

If you’re impatient with the pace of Covid-19 vaccine distribution in the U.S., count your blessings. At least you don’t live in Canada. As of Wednesday, my country had administered only 3.52 vaccine doses per 100 people, according to the University of Oxford’s Our World in Data website. The U.S., at 17.00, was doing almost five times as well. The figures were 80.07 in Israel, 25.04 in the U.K. and 5.40 in the European Union.

Why is Canada such a laggard among developed nations? The government of Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau didn’t negotiate contracts with established drug companies. Rather, it quietly approved a working relationship between Canadian researchers and a Chinese vaccine maker, CanSino Biologics Inc. CanSino abandoned its project in August after multiple failures. Ottawa then had to rush through agreements with Pfizer, Moderna and other companies. “I would not have put all our eggs in the basket of China,” Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole told reporters.

When Canada and other countries experienced a significant spike in Covid-19 cases last month (which has now subsided), Pfizer reduced its shipment to my country by more than two-thirds for several weeks. Moderna announced that only three-quarters of its vaccines would arrive in Canada during early February.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Science Needs Criticism, Not Cheerleading ‘When we lower our standards to pretend we know what we don’t know, we diminish the work and misinform society,’ says Prof. John Staddon. By J. Peder Zane

Posted By on February 20th, 2021

https://www.wsj.com/articles/science-needs-criticism-not-cheerleading-11613772365?mod=opinion_lead_pos5

When Prof. John Staddon read the “Statement to the Community Regarding Anti-Racism” sent out by Duke University’s president this summer, he was alarmed. The president, Vincent Price, promised to require “anti-racism and anti-bias training for every member of our faculty, student body, and staff.” To Mr. Staddon, that sounded more like indoctrination than academic inquiry. He responded in an open letter.

Mr. Price declared: “I cannot as a white person begin to fully understand the daily fear and pain and oppression that is endemic to the Black experience.” Mr. Staddon’s rejoinder: “Your reassurance is fine as an expression of empathy. I daresay you feel better, and possibly your African American audience does as well. But feelings differ: Unless the discussion can be moved from feelings to facts, no harmony is possible. Empathy, guilt, and good intentions are a dodgy basis for sweeping resolutions.”

Mr. Price affirmed that the “hard work before us” requires the community to “take transformative action now toward eliminating the systems of racism and inequality. . . . That starts with a personal transformation and . . . must end in institutional transformation.” Mr. Staddon countered that “this phraseology will strike many as more like psychotherapy or a call to religious conversion than a policy prescription. What are these ‘systems of racism and inequality?’ How have they affected Duke and how is Duke involved in them? Or are they societal concerns and thus the responsibility not of a university but of government, the church, and civil society?”

This isn’t the first time Mr. Staddon, 83, a tall, English-born American, has challenged the dogma of his peers. A professor of psychology, neuroscience and biology, he is something of a modern Cassandra, warning for more than three decades of the corruption of academia by political activists. As America becomes woke, his scholarly critiques read like prophecy.

But Staddon is a scientist, not a political firebrand. He doesn’t trade barbs over opinions but challenges his colleagues to answer the question that has long been the foundation of Western thought and science: How do you know what you know?

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Why Zionists Must Learn To Laugh By Moshe Phillips

Posted By on February 20th, 2021

https://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/opinions/why-zionists-must-learn-to-laugh/2021/02/18/

“Ze’ev Jabotinsky wrote his greatest novel about the Biblical hero Samson. In the most well-known passage of the book, Samson declares: “Tell [the Jewish people] three things in my name, and not two: they must get iron [i.e., weapons]; they must choose a king; and they must learn to laugh.”

Synagogues are being vandalized. Jews are being attacked. University professors and student governments endorse boycotts of Israel and call IDF soldiers “war criminals.” The UN singles out Israel time and again for criticism as Iran and its proxies threaten to wipe Israel off the map.

We stare in horror at the headlines. Media bias against Israel rages out of control while the leaders of most Jewish organizations are reduced to paralysis, focus on nonsense, or – tragically and shamefully – side with our enemies.

Seeing all these developments, a chorus of pundits predict doom and gloom. Many friends of Israel think the world has gone mad while “experts” see all signs pointing to catastrophe ahead.

I disagree. I believe 2021 could prove to be a decisive year for Zionism in America, and it’s up to those of us who consider ourselves Zionists to decide whether to be incapacitated by worry or move forward with confidence.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Revenge by Executive Order Gabriël Moens

Posted By on February 19th, 2021

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2021/02/revenge-by-executive-order/

As expected, President Biden wasted no time overturning the Trump legacy with many Executive Orders. Since his inauguration on January 20, ther new president has signed 30 Executive Orders, 19 on the first day of his presidency alone.

Executive Orders are presidential directives addressed to federal authorities subject to congressional and judicial oversight. Perhaps the most famous order is the Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln on January 1, 1863. Franklin D Roosevelt signed 3522 Orders, compared with President Trump’s 212 Orders. Some presidents have used this discretionary legislative power sparingly, but certainly since the 1980s, the signing of Orders on their first day in office has provided incoming presidents with an opportunity to destroy the legacy of their predecessors.

There are at least two reasons why this legislative approach to overturning a predecessor’s legacy is a disturbing development. One reason relates to the legislative authority of the president to adopt these measures. Although there is no doubt that, in accordance with Article Two of the US Constitution, the president possesses some degree of discretionary legislative power which usurps the legislative privileges of Congress. Hence, it is an executive power that should be used sparingly.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Arizona Senate Passes Bill Strengthening Its Investigative Powers Amid Maricopa County Vote Audit Dispute By Tom Ozimek

Posted By on February 19th, 2021

https://www.theepochtimes.com/arizona-senate-passes-bill-strengthening-its-investigative-powers-amid-maricopa-county-vote-audit-dispute_3703145.html

The Arizona Senate passed a bill Thursday that would grant the Arizona legislature the authority to subpoena election records like ballots and tabulating equipment, and ignore any laws to the contrary.

The Senate passed Senate Bill 1408 on its third reading in the state’s upper chamber along a 16–14 party-line vote, with Republicans voting for and Democrats voting against.

The bill amends a portion of the Arizona statutes such that county election equipment, systems and records, and other information that is under the control of county personnel “may not be deemed privileged information, confidential information, or other information protected from disclosure.” It also subjects such records to a subpoena and stipulates that they “must be produced” and the legislature’s authority to conduct related probes “may not be infringed by any other law.”

The rule change is to be retroactive as of Dec. 31, 2019, meaning it would apply to records around the November election.

State Sen. Warren Petersen, a Republican, introduced the bill amid a battle between Republican Senate leaders and Maricopa County officials over the attempt by GOP senators to audit the 2020 election.

Republican lawmakers in the Arizona Senate have issued subpoenas to Maricopa County demanding that it turn over a range of election records, calling for a scanned ballot audit and a forensic audit of ballot tabulation equipment and software. But the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors voted against complying with the subpoenas, instead seeking judgment from a court about whether they have to comply. Arizona senators filed a countersuit, asking the court to enforce the subpoenas, which was subsequently dismissed.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Bari Weiss :Whistleblower at Smith College Resigns Over Racism Jodi Shaw made less in a year than the cost of tuition. She was offered a settlement, but turned it down. Here’s why.

Posted By on February 19th, 2021

https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/whistleblower-at-smith-college-resigns?token=

We all know that something morally grotesque is swallowing liberal America. Almost no one wants to risk talking about it out loud.

Every day I get phone calls from anxious Americans complaining about an ideology that wants to pull all of us into the past.

I get calls from parents telling me about the damaging things being taught in schools: so-called antiracist programs that urge children to obsess on the color of their skin.

I get calls from people working in corporate America forced to go to trainings in which they learn that they carry collective, race-based guilt — or benefit from collective, race-based virtue.

I get calls from young people just launching their careers telling me that they feel they have no choice but to profess fealty to this ideology in order to keep their jobs.

Almost no one who calls me is willing to go public. And I understand why. To go public with what’s happening is to risk their jobs and their reputations.

But the hour is very late. It calls for courage. And courage has come in the form of a woman named Jodi Shaw.

Jodi Shaw was, until this afternoon, a staffer at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. She made $45,000 a year — less than the yearly tuition at the school.

She is a divorced mother of two children. She is a lifelong liberal and an alumna of the college. And she has had a front-row seat to the illiberal, neo-racist ideology masquerading as progress.

In October 2020, after Shaw felt that she had exhausted all her internal options, she posted a video on YouTube, blowing the whistle on, what she says, is an atmosphere of racial discrimination at the school.

“I ask that Smith College stop reducing my personhood to a racial category. Stop telling me what I must think and feel about myself,” she said. “Stop presuming to know who I am or what my culture is based upon my skin color. Stop asking me to project stereotypes and assumptions onto others based on their skin color.”

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

It’s Official: The U.S. Has Rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement Katie Pavlich

Posted By on February 19th, 2021

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2021/02/19/its-official-the-us-has-rejoined-the-pairs-climate-accords-n2585004

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced Friday that the United States is officially back in the Paris Climate Accords. 

“On January 20, on his first day in office, President Biden signed the instrument to bring the United States back into the Paris Agreement. Per the terms of the Agreement, the United States officially becomes a Party again today,” Blinken released in a statement. “The Paris Agreement is an unprecedented framework for global action. We know because we helped design it and make it a reality. Its purpose is both simple and expansive: to help us all avoid catastrophic planetary warming and to build resilience around the world to the impacts from climate change we already see.”

“Now, as momentous as our joining the Agreement was in 2016 — and as momentous as our rejoining is today — what we do in the coming weeks, months, and years is even more important. You have seen and will continue to see us weaving climate change into our most important bilateral and multilateral conversations at all levels. In these conversations, we’re asking other leaders: how can we do more together?” he continued. 

President Donald Trump took the U.S. out of the agreement in 2017, saving taxpayers $3 billion, and still continued to cut emissions at rates higher than European countries who stayed in the accords. From Forbes: 

Yesterday, The United Nations released its Emissions Gap Report 2020, an annual assessment of contributions to greenhouse gas and carbon emissions. The report has some notable information amid an array of complicated projections that may or may not come true. It claims, for instance, that “despite a brief dip in carbon dioxide emissions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the world is still heading for a temperature rise.” 

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Censored Hunter Biden Laptop Story Comes Back Around to Bite Twitter By Tyler O’Neil

Posted By on February 19th, 2021

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/tyler-o-neil/2021/02/19/censored-hunter-biden-laptop-story-comes-back-around-to-bite-twitter-n1426849

The former Delaware computer repair shop owner who gave Rudi Giuliani and the FBI emails alleged to be from Hunter Biden’s laptop has again sued Twitter for defamation. John Paul Mac Isaac claimed that Twitter defamed him by censoring a New York Post story over its alleged use of “hacked materials.” Due to Twitter’s suppression of the story, Americans branded Mac Isaac a hacker, costing him business opportunities and ultimately leading him to shut down his business, the lawsuit claims.

“Plaintiff is not a hacker and the information obtained from the computer does not constitute hacked materials because Plaintiff lawfully gained access to the computer, first with the permission of its owner, Biden, and then, after Biden failed to retrieve the recovered data despite Plaintiff’s reuses, in accordance with the Mac Shop’s abandoned property police,” the lawsuit claims. “Plaintiff, as a direct result of Defendant Twitter’s actions and statements, is now widely considered a hacker.”

Mac Isaac filed a similar defamation lawsuit against Twitter late last year, seeking no less than $500 million in damages, but a judge at the Florida court in which he filed tossed the suit over lack of jurisdiction. The new lawsuit aims to address the jurisdiction issue, The Washington Examiner reported.

The new lawsuit claims defamation damages greater than $75,000 and demands that Twitter “make a public retraction of all false statements and to issue a public apology.”

Last October, The New York Post published a bombshell story that implicated then-candidate Joe Biden in his son Hunter’s notorious foreign business deals. Hunter Biden had notoriously cashed in on his father’s name with lucrative deals in Ukraine, China, and elsewhere — while Joe Biden spearheaded Obama administration policy in Ukraine and China.