ELECTIONS Comments turned off

A Victory for Sanity In the Battle Against Mail-In Ballot Madness By Stephen Kruiser

Posted By on October 10th, 2022

https://pjmedia.com/columns/stephen-kruiser/2022/10/10/the-morning-briefing-a-victory-for-sanity-in-the-battle-against-mail-in-ballot-madness-n1635772

Buried among the torrent of dreck I found a bit of good news in a post written by one of our new writers, Catherine Salgado:

The Delaware Supreme Court ruled on Friday that a state law enacting universal mail-in voting and creating same-day voter registration was in violation of the state constitution.

“The Vote-by-Mail Statute impermissibly expands the categories of absentee voters identified in Article V, Section 4A of the Delaware Constitution. Therefore, the judgment of the Court of Chancery that the Vote-by-Mail Statute violates the Delaware Constitution should be affirmed,” the Delaware Supreme Court decision said.

This accorded with a September opinion ruling against universal mail-in voting, but the new decision reversed its previous approval of same-day registration.

Delaware is a bit bluer than the other states that have been fighting for more election integrity, that’s what makes this news so interesting.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Goodbye Columbus? It is only because of the principles enshrined in the Declaration of Independence that we even have a basis to criticize the actions of our forebears. By Mackubin Owens

Posted By on October 10th, 2022

https://amgreatness.com/2022/10/09/goodbye-columbus/

This Monday is the federal holiday called “Columbus Day” to honor a man who was once lauded as a great mariner and courageous explorer, whose exploits led to the European discovery of the Americas. 

But in recent decades, Columbus has been demonized and accused of all manner of atrocities against the indigenous peoples of the Americas.

The attacks on Columbus are part of the broader denigration of Western Civilization as racist, exploitative, and imperialistic. A major source of the assault on both Columbus and Western Civilization is a widely used history textbook by the late Howard Zinn, A Peoples’ History of the United States. Zinn was more of a Marxist polemicist than a legitimate scholar, and the book has been panned, even by left-wing historians who express concern about the damage that politicized history could do to their profession.

As Mary Graber has pointed out in her scathing critique of Zinn, his chapter on Columbus was plagiarized from Columbus: His Enterprise: Exploding the Myth, a book for high schoolers, first published in 1976 by Hans Koning. As she and others, including Robert Royal and Armando Simon, observe, contemporary accounts contradict the portrait of Columbus painted by the likes of Koning and Zinn. He, like most men, was imperfect but far from the moral monster described by these modern leftist writers.

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Ukraine and the Malevolent Legacy of the Obama-Biden Administration The United States is shackled by a near decade of Russian reset and the aggression it invited on By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on October 10th, 2022

https://amgreatness.com/2022/10/09/ukraine-and-the-malevolent-legacy-of-the-obama-biden-administration/

During the current Ukrainian war, the media has created a mythology that the Left was tough on Vladimir Putin’s Russia. And thus, now it simply continues its hard-nosed efforts in Ukraine. 

But nothing could be further from the truth. Aside from Biden’s original panic of evacuating American diplomatic personnel from Kyiv, offering a ride out of Ukraine for the Zelenskyy government that would have effectively collapsed his nation’s resistance, and hesitation in selling Ukraine offensive weapons, there is also a prior legacy that had done a great deal of harm.

Indeed, many of America’s current difficulties in Ukraine originate from the Obama-Biden Administration’s former disastrous policies toward Russia birthed between 2009-2016. 

Remembering the Reset Disaster

Remember the initial premise of Russian “Reset”—the idea and the term were first used by Vice President Joe Biden (“It’s time to press the reset button”)—was based on the myth that the “cowboy” George W. Bush had been too tough on Putin after the 2008 Russo-Georgian War. To Biden and Obama, Bush had unduly sanctioned Vladimir Putin following his opportunistic absorption of South Ossetia in 2008 and attack on Georgia. And thus, the Russian dictator would easily then be wowed by Obama’s legendary charisma and charm from needless hostility to accommodation.

Accordingly, the reformist hope-and-change Obama Administration would rebuild a friendly relationship with Russia. Thereby they would win strategic help from Russia with Obama’s new ambitious agendas for Iran and Syria in remaking a more “equitable” Middle East. Translated that meant “balancing” the region. Thus, by weakening our former overdog allies in the Gulf and Israel while empowering our former underdog terrorist-sponsoring enemies in Tehran and Damascus, Obama sought to create strategic tension.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Stands Against the Canceling of Kanye While progressives seethe. by Christine Williams

Posted By on October 10th, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/sean-diddy-combs-stands-against-the-canceling-of-kanye/

Kanye West is determined to keep on wearing his “White Lives Matter” t-shirt, which he sported at his Paris Fashion Week show, despite fierce and expected backlash from the Left.

Kanye is clearly — as he said in his interview with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson — stating “the obvious.” He is also clearly distancing himself from — and countering — the woke hatred of the Marxist, thieving, destructive Black Lives Matter movement, which has only hurt black Americans.

West’s t-shirt also achieves something else: it presents the picture of a successful and wealthy black man in America who rejects victimhood and embraces ALL races — including white people. This is a nightmare for the woke leftists. And while they convulse in rage over West’s fashion statement, along comes another problem for them: entertainment icon Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs has stepped up in support of West having the right to do and say what he wants on this matter.

Although Diddy stated that the t-shirts were “very tone-deaf,” he also affirmed that people “don’t have to condemn Kanye or cancel him.”

Vanity Fair described Diddy as “the artist and mogul” who is “defining his next era,” and goes on:

The man who turned hip-hop culture into a global lifestyle brand in the go-go 1990s has a lot to think about during the cultural upheaval of the 2020s. “I am the happiest I’ve ever been in life, I laugh the most, I smile the most, I breathe the most,” he tells me. In a word, Combs has love on his mind.

It doesn’t please the woke, the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, or its political and financial supporters, to see a black man happy in America.

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Biden Puts Rogue Regimes Ahead of American Families The outcome will be a disaster. by Erick Erickson

Posted By on October 10th, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/biden-puts-rogue-regimes-ahead-of-american-families/

President Joe Biden is draining the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to keep gas prices low solely because he wants to mitigate voter wrath against the Democrats. This comes as OPEC cuts back production by 2 million barrels a day. That will drive up costs, drive up the repurchase cost for the petroleum reserve and increase our national debt, which has now shot above $31 trillion with interest rates rising and debt service payments rising.

Biden has created this mess in large part because he is subservient to rogue regimes and puts their needs ahead of Americans. The outcome will be an emboldened China and a national security headache for the United States.

One of the reasons OPEC is going to cut production is because the majority of the Arab nations involved in OPEC are furious with Biden trying to cut a deal with Iran. Biden stopped considering the Houthi terrorists, funded by Iran, to be terrorists, and the Houthi then escalated attacks on the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

In advancing Iran’s interests at the peace table, Biden risks further destabilization in the Middle East in large part because no one really believes Iran will stop until it has a nuclear weapon. Iran is no friend of most of its Middle Eastern neighbors and wants to be the dominant power in the Middle East over and against Saudi Arabia. This has alienated him from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and others as China and Russia seek to ingratiate themselves with our longtime allies.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Destroy Columbus Day, Destroy America The Left’s lust for history to change the future. by Thom Nickels

Posted By on October 10th, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/destroy-columbus-day-destroy-america/

A turquoise-colored sign on the door of my bank announcing closure on October 10 because of Indigenous Peoples’ Day inspired me to beat a path to a teller, even though I was not there for banking.

“Excuse me,” I said. “But I have a fun question for you…”

The question was far from fun but I didn’t want to appear strident. “Regarding the sign on the door…. What happened to the holiday called Columbus Day?” The teller rolled her eyes and said the wording on the sign was not the bank’s fault. She explained that the bank had made up a different sign that mentioned Columbus Day but the City of Philadelphia had forced them to scratch out Columbus and insert Indigenous Peoples Day (IPD).

“We didn’t do it,” she assured me.

I recalled how in February 2021 Mayor Jim Kenney signed an executive order effectively changing  Columbus Day in the City of Philadelphia with the (Communist China-sounding) IPD-identifier. That executive order had come after a contentious period beginning in 2020 with the George Floyd riots when left activist mobs attempted to pull down the Frank Rizzo statue (after dousing it in paint and dressing it up in a woman’s bra) located on the steps of the city’s Municipal Services Building since 1998.

As it turned out, the leftists didn’t have to dismantle the statue because Mayor Kenny announced that the city was making plans to remove it and put it into storage.

With the Rizzo statue gone, the Columbus statue in South Philadelphia’s Marconi Plaza became the city’s new Public Enemy No. 1.

Columbus statues were already being removed and beheaded around the country. Across the Delaware River, Camden, New Jersey had dismantled (and smashed to pieces) its Columbus statue in Farnham Park.

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

The West is on the road to energy ruin Green policies have crippled Europe. They will do the same to America by Emmet Penney

Posted By on October 10th, 2022

https://spectatorworld.com/topic/the-west-is-on-the-road-to-energy-ruin/

Since the beginning of the Ukraine war and the sanctions it triggered, energy prices have skyrocketed. President Joe Biden has called this year’s high energy prices “Putin’s price hike.” British prime minister Liz Truss told households that their high energy bills were a fair price to pay for solidarity with Ukraine. Margrethe Vestager, vice president of the European Commission, has encouraged Europeans to take short, cold showers to conserve energy. “When you turn off the water, say ‘Take that, Putin!’” she urged.

But are the high prices really Putin’s fault? He didn’t sanction himself, after all. It’s the West that chose to cut itself off from the Russian fossil fuels upon which it had come to rely. Moreover, the sanctions have failed — Russia’s corporate profits leapt 25 percent between the imposition of the sanctions and the end of August.

So what are the origins of the current energy crisis? When did it really begin?

Let’s play a game. Guess which year these headlines are from: “Curtailed ammonia production in Antwerp and Ludwigshafen.” “High natural gas prices lead to a shutdown of British fertilizer plants.” “Diesel Shortage Amid Soaring Prices: Truck Stops Resort To Rationing.” If you guessed 2022, you’d be wrong. Those are all from September 2021.

The truth is that the energy crisis began to take effect late last year. A combination of post-Covid demand rebound, a wind drought in Europe and depleted fossil fuel storage on the continent all collided to put serious pressure on the world’s industrial systems. Add the longstanding overinvestment in unreliable renewables, nuclear plant closures across the world in the wake of the Fukushima disaster and a global drop of more than 50 percent in oil and gas investment — from $700 billion to $300 billion — between 2014 and last year, and you have everything you need to kick off a global energy crunch. Russian tank treads running from the Donbas to Kyiv just made it all worse.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

64% Of Voters ‘Concerned’ Over Biden’s Mental Health: I&I/TIPP Poll Terry Jones

Posted By on October 10th, 2022

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/10/10/64-of-voters-concerned-over-bidens-mental-health-ii-tipp-poll/

Concerns over President Joe Biden’s recent very public displays of possibly age-related mental impairments have jumped among voters since mid-summer, the latest I&I/TIPP Poll shows. And these worries aren’t partisan, with a majority of all political groups, including Democrats, now expressing concern.

In early August, we asked Americans: “Some people are concerned about President Biden’s mental health. How concerned are you about President Biden’s mental health?” At the time, a number of public displays of unsteadiness, confusion and verbal gaffes seen in the media suggested to many that that the nation’s commander in chief’s mental acuity was questionable.

For instance, 59% overall said they were worried about his mental health. The responses included 82% of Republicans, 56% of independents, but just 39% of Democrats.

We asked the same question in our most recent online poll of 1,376 adults across the country taken from October 5-7, with a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points. This time, the overall number grew to 64%, or nearly two-thirds of all voters.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

A Cold War Program Gets Hijacked National Resource Centers were meant to further U.S. interests, not to spread woke propaganda. By Neetu Arnold

Posted By on October 10th, 2022

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-cold-war-program-gets-hijacked-national-resource-center-security-1950s-critical-race-theory-environmental-justice-k-12-language-11665320013?mod=opinion_lead_pos5

A Cold War-era federal program has wandered far from its national-security mission and into the woke follies that permeate much of American education. For decades, U.S. colleges and universities have received taxpayer dollars through the Education Department’s National Resource Centers, a program intended to bolster U.S. national security at the height of tension with the Soviet Union. But more recently National Resource Centers are promoting unserious academic research or causes irrelevant to national security.

NRC-funded efforts included a training institute last year at the University of Texas, Austin, where teachers of pre-kindergartners through fifth graders were schooled in “(Un)learning patterns of whiteness in literacy teaching.” In May, Stanford University’s Center for Latin American Studies sponsored a webinar about using picture books to initiate “conversations centered on advocacy for LGBT Latina/o(x) youth.” The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia hosted a graduate student who uses critical race theory in her research on Russia and Ukraine.

Many scholars have questioned CRT’s academic rigor, distortions of history, and promotion of racial grievances. In fellowships at Syracuse University and Cornell University, education-school faculty incorporate subjects such as environmental justice into teacher-training programs. New York University’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies held a 10-month program in which teachers use something called “contemporary critical educational theory” to create “culturally relevant” classroom lessons. The propaganda from such NRC-sponsored initiatives becomes more potent when the efforts include outreach for K-12 teachers, who will pass along what they learn to students.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

China: The Immovable Supreme Leader by Amir Taheri

Posted By on October 10th, 2022

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18966/china-xi-leader

Having changed the party’s constitution, he is no longer required to retire at age 68 and, heading to be 70 next year, he may hang on to power for another 10 years. Nevertheless, things may not be as easy as Xi hopes.

The Chinese Communist Party, with a membership of 98 million, is full of young and ambitious men and women who regard Xi and others in his generation of party chiefs as “Red Princes”, sons of first-generation Communists who owe their ascendancy to nepotism.

Then there is China’s huge and rapidly growing military machine, which consumes over $200 billion each year and contains tens of thousands of young, highly educated and ambitious officers who may not see Xi, a man with no military background, as the sole arbiter of the nation’s fate.

Xi faces two other problems.

First, the Chinese economy is clearly slowing down, with hundreds of businesses going bust and tens of thousands of projects abandoned, while stagflation looms on the horizon.

The second is what some see as systemic corruption. Xi has launched a massive anti-corruption campaign, even issuing death sentences for some senior party figures. But many in China suspect that he is using the campaign as a cover for purging opponents in the party.

When he took over as China’s leader 10 years ago, President Xi Jinping was hailed by Western experts and media as a man who would open the path for major political reforms to reflect the rising tiger’s economic transformation. Some even saw him as a wiser version of Mikhail Gorbachev and speculated that he might adopt the end-of-history narrative by accepting democratization as the only option for a modern industrial power.