NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Nihilism of the Left In pursuit of its utopian omelet, the Left cares little about the millions of middle-class Americans it must break to make it.  By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on April 4th, 2022

https://amgreatness.com/2022/04/03/the-nihilism-of-the-left/

The last 14 months have offered one of the rare occasions in recent American history when the hard Left has operated all the levers of federal government. The presidency, the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the permanent bureaucratic state are all in progressive hands. And the result is a disaster that is uniting Americans in their revulsion of elitists whose crazy ideas are tearing apart the fabric of the country. 

For understandable reasons, socialists and leftists are usually kept out of the inner circles of the Democratic Party, and especially kept away from control of the country. A now resuscitated Bernie Sanders for most of his political career was an inert outlier. The brief flirtations with old-style hardcore liberals such as George McGovern in 1972 and Mike Dukakis in 1988 imploded the Democratic Party. Their crash-and-burn campaigns were followed by corrective nominees who actually won the presidency: Southern governors Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. 

Such was the nation’s innate distrust of the Left, and in particular the East Coast elite liberal. For nearly half a century between the elections of John F. Kennedy and Barack Obama, it was assumed that no Democratic presidential candidate could win the popular vote unless he had a reassuring Southern accent. 

How did the extreme Left manage its rare takeover of the country between 2018 and 2020? Certainly, Obama’s election helped accelerate the woke movement and energized identity politics. One could also argue over the political opportunities in 2020 following the devastation of COVID-19. 

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

America and the Two Chinas By Laura Lam

Posted By on April 4th, 2022

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/04/america_and_the_two_chinas.html

Credible sources suggest that Xi Jinping plans to attack Taiwan in the fall. Indeed, this is inevitable given the war in Ukraine. However, any attack would be the end of a very long path through Chinese and American history.

To fully understand what is playing out, one must look at the past to understand how Taiwan came into being, what Mao Zedong’s goals were, what President Nixon’s rapprochement offered, and how Xi Jinping views China’s role in Southeast Asia.

China was ruled by the Manchu’s Qing Dynasty for 267 years before its overthrow in 1911. This was followed for a half-century by military failures, revolts, famines, and civil wars. The imperial regime had also signed a series of unequal treaties with Western countries. Since the Opium War, successive demands from Western powers and Japan had left China with a paralyzed economy.

At age 19, Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975) expressed his strong nationalistic feelings with a desire to “expel the Manchu Qing and to restore China.” He prepared for a military career at the Baoding Military Academy. He continued with four years of training at the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in Tokyo.

Returning to China, Chiang joined the National Revolutionary Army—the military arm of the nationalist Kuomintang (which Sun Yat-sen founded). In 1926, Chiang became the army’s commander-in-chief, known as “ Generalissimo.” It was Chiang who ended the Civil War (1916-28) and reunited China. In 1928, he formed the Republic of China (Taiwan included) As head of state, Chiang followed Sun Yat-sen’s Chinese version of Abraham Lincoln’s governing philosophy for America: “government of the people, by the people, for the people…”

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Putin Won’t Go, Russia Won’t Collapse–So What Will Biden Do About Ukraine? By David P. Goldman

Posted By on April 4th, 2022

https://pjmedia.com/spengler/2022/04/03/putin-wont-go-russia-wont-collapse-so-what-will-biden-do-about-ukraine-n1586600

Another seance with the ghost of Cardinal Richelieu explains Putin’s objectives in Ukraine: Russia will ruin and depopulate Ukraine, the way Richelieu reduced large parts of Germany to cannibalism during the Thirty Years War. Shortly after I conjured the spirit of Europe’s greatest (and nastiest) strategist, the Telegram channel of Russia’s most fanatic nationalist, Aleksandr Dugin, featured the item below:

NATO says the military phase of the conflict in Ukraine is far from over. Of course, no one will let Zelensky make peace.

Ukraine is not a subject, but an object, where the Zelensky regime is not an actor, but a tool.
“Therefore, it is necessary to take into account the intentions of the enemy and use the period of the military phase of the operation to continue the methodical destruction of the military infrastructure of Ukraine, and taking into account NATO’s course of prolonging the conflict, it is advisable to consider moving on to the destruction of industrial facilities in the territories of Ukraine that lie outside our interests, especially paying attention to those objects that Ukraine, for obvious reasons, will not be able to restore. Later, such a convenient opportunity to complete the deindustrialization of Ukraine may not present itself.

An “opportunity to complete the deindustrialization of Ukraine.” Putin isn’t defeated or baffled or confused. He’s turning the crank on the meatgrinder. One doesn’t have to read too far into these lines to conclude that Putin hoped that Zelensky would cut a deal on his terms once Russia invaded, but when Zelensky refused to cut a deal, Putin moved to Option B, which is to erase most of Ukraine from the face of the earth. That’s not as difficult as it sounds. Putin will keep the bits he wants in the Southeast (Donetsk and Luhansk), leave the West to factory farming, and pound the rest to rubble with artillery and air power.

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

The ‘Religiofication’ of Climate Change By Scott Sturman

Posted By on April 4th, 2022

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/04/the_religiofication_of_climate_change.html

Climate change is the unofficial state religion of the Biden administration.  In his commentaries on mass movements, Eric Hoffer warned of the “religiofication” of practical purposes into holy causes and noted, “Blind devotion and religiosity leads to belief that the movement is virtuous and a source of strength.  The adherent identifies as a supporter and defender of a holy cause.”  

The Supreme Court has not established a formal definition of religion.  Standards differentiating religious and similar non-religious beliefs remain elusive.  The Second Circuit Court noted that for the purposes of the First Amendment, beliefs that constitute a religion are evaluated on whether the beliefs are sincerely held.  The 10th Circuit Court quoted philosopher William James’s definition of religion: “the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they consider the divine.” 

Barbara Burnett attempted to define religion from a twentieth-century perspective, drawing on Clifford Geertz’s thesis of applying five tests based on symbolic anthropology.  Judge Adams of the Third Circuit Court distilled the definition to three points, honoring Supreme Court precedent and the practical needs of the courts.

Climate change fulfills both Geertz’s anthropological and Judge Adams’s legal tests to qualify as a religion.  The movement deals with fundamental questions dealing with the sacred planet.  The believer’s passions are deeply held, comprehensive, and nurtured and promulgated by an array of organizations representing all aspects of worldwide society.  The true believer views climate change as a good vs. evil phenomenon.  The threats to the planet are not theoretical, but realistic and personal.  The liturgy of the religion is promoted by a network of teachers who disseminate its beliefs, practices, ceremony, and rites.

Climate czar John Kerry stated that walking away from global warming at Kyoto sent a message of duplicity and hypocrisy and that ignoring the twelve-year doomsday forecast issued in 2019 spelled certain disaster for the planet.  When criticized for using a personal jet to accept a climate award in Iceland, he placed the onus on others and replied, “If you offset your carbon, it’s the only choice for somebody like me who is traveling the world to win this battle.” 

MEDICINE AND HEALTH Comments turned off

FDA Shuts Out Its Own Experts in Authorizing Another Vaccine Booster Decisions like this only reinforce the perception that Covid policy is driven by groupthink and politics. By Marty Makary

Posted By on April 4th, 2022

https://www.wsj.com/articles/fda-shuts-out-its-own-experts-in-authorizing-another-booster-covid-vaccine-pandemic-science-11649016728?mod=opinion_lead_pos7

The Food and Drug Administration last week authorized Americans 50 and over to get a fourth Covid vaccine dose. Some of the FDA’s own experts disagree with the decision, but the agency simply ignored them. It will convene its advisory committee this Wednesday to discuss future vaccine needs. That’s like having lawyers present arguments to a judge who’s already issued a verdict.

Eric Rubin, editor in chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, sits on the advisory committee. He told CNN last month that he hadn’t seen enough data to determine whether anyone needs a fourth dose whose immune system isn’t seriously deficient.

Another committee member, Cody Meissner, agrees. Dr. Meissner, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at Tufts Children’s Hospital, told me last week that the fourth dose is “an unanswered scientific question for people with a normal immune system.”

A third member of the committee, Paul Offit of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told the Atlantic that he advised his 20-something son to forgo the third shot, which the FDA recommends for everyone 12 and over.

At the crux of the broad opposition to second boosters is the recognition of B- and T-cells, which public-health officials have long ignored. They talk only about antibody levels, which tend to decline in the months after vaccination. B- and T-cells, activated by the primary vaccine series or an infection (and augmented by a single booster in older patients), are highly and durably effective at preventing serious illness from Covid. An additional vaccine dose induces a fleeting high in antibody levels, offering only mild and short-lived protection against infection.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Terrorism, Ukraine, Taiwan and the Outsourcing Wars What all the wars of this century have in common. Daniel Greenfield

Posted By on April 4th, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/04/terrorism-ukraine-taiwan-and-outsourcing-wars-daniel-greenfield/

In the 90s, Russia was a spent force. The consensus was that free enterprise had defeated Communism. And it had. Russia isn’t fighting for Communism, but for market dominance.

A generation later we’re watching what may be the largest outsourcing war of a new century.

Russia, like China, rebooted its economy by exploiting the growing desire of western liberalism to accommodate environmentalists and socialists by offshoring their ‘dirty’ industries.

The United States outsourced its manufacturing to China which took on everything from making dollar store trinkets to recycling our used soda bottles while our elites focused on preparing the populace for the “jobs of the future” that would all involve using a computer. Now the PRC has a rising middle class and America has a falling one. China is building entire new cities for its middle class while the American middle class can no longer afford to buy a house or a car.

Europeans outsourced the responsibilities of powering their cities and heating their homes to Russia. While they tinkered with windmills and solar panels, Russia built an energy monopoly. Now it’s expanding its monopolistic control the way that most powers and empires used to.

Russia may want all or part of Ukraine for nationalistic reasons, but, more importantly, because of pipeline routes and energy reserves. The underlying motive for this war is gas and the European nations decrying the invasion were the ones who provided the motive for the war.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Disney’s Child Sacrifice The “family entertainment” giant bows down to the deities of “woke” ideology. Joseph Hippolito

Posted By on April 4th, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/04/queering-mouse-joseph-hippolito/

The world’s most respected producer of family entertainment has decided to sacrifice children to the deities of “woke” ideology.

Disney — which gave the world Mickey Mouse, Disneyland and other beloved aspects of popular culture — announced it will actively promote normalizing homosexual and transgender identity while resisting any opposition to the LGBTQ agenda.

The entertainment giant made that decision as part of its fight against two Southern governors trying to protect children and reinforce parental authority. Disney opposed a Florida bill, which Gov. Ron DeSantis signed March 28, that prohibited school authorities from encouraging “classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in primary grade levels.”

Meanwhile, Disney joined other corporations such as Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft in opposing Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s order to investigate sex-change operations on children as illegal and possible child abuse. In a Feb. 22 letter the governor sent to Jaime Masters, commissioner for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, Abbott wrote:

“It is already against the law to subject Texas children to a wide variety of elective procedures for gender transitioning, including reassignment surgeries that can cause sterilization, mastectomies, removals of otherwise healthy body parts, and administration of puberty-blocking drugs or supraphysiologic doses of testosterone or estrogen.”

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Even Higher-Tech Lynching of Justice Clarence Thomas By J. Christian Adams

Posted By on April 4th, 2022

https://pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/2022/04/01/the-even-higher-tech-lynching-of-justice-clarence-thomas-n1586269

Justice Clarence Thomas, during his 1991 confirmation process, characterized the personal attacks against him as a “high-tech lynching.” If only he could have seen then what his old foes are up to now.

Call it a higher-tech lynching.

The Left has gone wild, turning every corner of the internet, Twitterverse, and cable news into a renewed personal assault against Justice Thomas, but this time also his wife Ginni Thomas.

In fact, the Left has decided to attack Justice Thomas through his wife. Let’s put aside the diabolical implications of the tactic of attacking a husband through his wife, and explore the merits of the tactic.

It goes like this. Ginni Thomas has a life separate from her husband’s role on the Supreme Court. She has her own beliefs, her own friends and professional acquaintances, and she voices her opinions. Because the Left hates Justice Thomas occupying a seat on the Supreme Court for reasons we will get to, annihilating him through any possible means must follow.

Ginni Thomas, so the battle plan goes, is active in conservative causes, and she shouldn’t be. Ginni communicated with President Trump her views that establishmentarian staff at the White House were blocking his agenda, and she should have kept quiet.

Ginni Thomas texted Mark Meadows her views about the 2020 election, and nobody, of course, should ever speak about that.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

RONALD LAUDER AND RUTHIE BLUM ON ISRAEL

Posted By on April 3rd, 2022

Why is there so little coverage and so little protest. ?”No “Jewish Lives Matter” no “We Are All Israelis Now.”

VIDEO

https://www.instagram.com/tv/Cb22nGaFZXw/?utm_medium=share_sheet

COLUMN

Ruthie Blum- JIHAD BY ANY OTHER NAME

https://www.jns.org/opinion/jihad-by-any-other-name/

BOOKS Comments turned off

Beyond the Reach of Debate, Evidence and Logic: Michael Greene

Posted By on April 3rd, 2022

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/review/2022/04/beyond-the-reach-of-debate-evidence-and-logic/

Even as the wave of wokeness seems at its peak, there are signs it could be about to break. ‘Defund the police’ is being replaced in many US cities that embraced it in 2020 with ‘Refund the police’. The 2021 Virginia gubernatorial race was won by Republican Glenn Younkin, in part a voter rejection of the teaching of critical race theory in schools. President Biden’s deep trough of climate change and social spending demanded by the Democrats’  Bernie Sanders wing crashed in the Senate. The re-emergence of serious geopolitics with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has re-oriented energy policy in Europe and elsewhere. And women are pushing back against the transgender activists to protect their sports and facilities from encroachment. It’s encouraging, despite the depressing grip woke agendas have rapidly gained in many public and private organisations.

Encouraging, too, is that the once isolated critical voices, such as Jordan Peterson, are becoming a choir, even if not yet a massed choir.

Joining the chorus is John McWhorter, an associate professor of linguistics at Columbia University and regular New York Times columnist. And he’s black. He wrote his new book, Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has
Betrayed Black America, on his porch in the summer of 2020, when the US was engulfed in the civil unrest following the killing of George Floyd.