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January 2021

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Why We’re Ending the EPA’s Reliance on Secret Science The agency has long made decisions without allowing the public to scrutinize our underlying data. By Andrew Wheeler

By on January 5th, 2021

https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-were-ending-the-epas-reliance-on-secret-science-11609802643?mod=opinion_lead_pos7

The task of science is one of test and retest, analysis and comparison, over and over. It is slow and careful work, done in the open. Only rarely has science benefited from secrecy, and that is usually for reasons of national security. The geniuses of the Manhattan Project who built the atomic bomb, the mavericks of Cape Canaveral who sent men to the moon, these giants did their work behind high walls, and for good reason.

But the work of the Environmental Protection Agency—to protect human health and the environment—shouldn’t be exempt from public scrutiny. This is why we are promulgating a rule to make the agency’s scientific processes more transparent.

Too often Congress shirks its responsibility and defers important decisions to regulatory agencies. These regulators then invoke science to justify their actions, often without letting the public study the underlying data. Part of transparency is making sure the public knows what the agency bases its decisions on. When agencies defer to experts in private without review from citizens, distinctions get flattened and the testing and deliberation of science is precluded.

Our rule will prioritize transparency and increase opportunities for the public to access the “dose-response” data that underlie significant regulations and influential scientific information. Dose-response data explain the relationship between the amount of a chemical or pollutant and its effect on human health and the environment—and are the foundation of the EPA’s regulations. If the American people are to be regulated by interpretation of these scientific studies, they deserve to scrutinize the data as part of the scientific process and American self-government.

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MEDIA, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

It’s the pro-lockdown lobby that is spreading fake news Covid alarmism is giving rise to myths and misinformation. Brendan O’ Neill

By on January 5th, 2021

https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/01/04/its-the-pro-lockdown-lobby-that-is-spreading-fake-news/

The Kafkaesque quality of the lockdown was on full display at the weekend. We had the extraordinary sight of lockdown supporters accusing critics of the lockdown of spreading disinformation while they themselves were signal-boosting claims that were either categorically untrue or questionable in the extreme. This is the stage of lockdown authoritarianism we have now reached: anyone who questions the lockdown will be branded a liar and a hoodwinker who should be expelled from public life, while the cheerers of lockdown, those self-styled saviours of lives, can say whatever they want with very few repercussions.

The irony would have been delicious if it were not so serious and disturbing. Just as the lockdown fanatics were gunning for Karol Sikora, accusing the ‘positive professor’ of spreading disinformation, it became clear that they themselves have a somewhat difficult relationship with the truth. From both millennial leftists and tragic centrists, Sikora, a celebrated oncologist, has been getting it in the neck for quite a while, on the basis that he has committed the thoughtcrime of criticising harsh lockdowns and failing to predict there would be a second wave of the virus. Yet his accusers have some serious self-reflection to do, because their orgy of Sikora-bashing over the weekend coincided with an explosion of fibs from their own side.

First there was their vaccine disinformation (or, unlike them, let’s be generous: misinformation). Britain’s lockdown fanclub went wild over a New York Times piece which claimed that the UK is adopting a ‘mix and match’ approach to vaccination. This essentially means that this insane country some of us have the misfortune to live in will allow one vaccine to be given in a person’s first shot and an entirely different vaccine to be given for the second shot a few weeks later. The nutters! As the NYT’s haughty, startled headline put it: ‘Britain opts for mix-and-match vaccinations, confounding experts.’

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

NYGOP CHAIRMAN LANGWORTHY CALLS ON ASSEMBLYMAN PERRY TO IMMEDIATELY WITHDRAW CUOMO DETENTION CAMP BILL 

By on January 5th, 2021

“The fact that this bill was even drafted and introduced gives you an incredible insight into the totalitarian, socialist mentality of New York Democrats” 

Albany, New York–January 4th…New York Republican Chairman Nick Langworthy today blasted New York Democrats for their deeply disturbing and unconstitutional legislation that would allow the governor or his surrogates the power to detain individuals whom they deem to pose a ‘threat to public health.’ 

Chairman Langworthy is calling for an immediate withdrawal of the legislation for the 2021 session and blasted Governor Cuomo for refusing to outright condemn the bill’s objective or pledge a veto if it were to pass. 

After the bill was discovered and a backlash ensued, Cuomo and other Democrats tried to downplay the bill’s chances of passage, but not a single one condemned the objective of the legislation or assured New Yorkers that they would not vote for it. 

“The fact that this bill was even drafted and introduced gives you an incredible insight into the totalitarian, socialist mentality of New York Democrats,” fumed Chairman Langworthy. “King Cuomo and his lemmings in the legislature who have abdicated their power to him have already trampled over our constitutional rights with this virus. There isn’t a chance in hell New Yorkers should trust that this couldn’t become a reality.” 

He continued, “Since the day he was elected, Andrew Cuomo has shown an utter disregard for the rule of law, and thanks to his feckless, rubber-stamp legislature, for nearly a year he has been allowed to rule like the dictator he’s always wanted to be. New Yorkers need to wake up–we cannot be complacent about the very real and present danger of our rights being taken from us under one-Party Democrat rule.” 

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HISTORY, ISRAEL Comments turned off

The Mystery of Theodor Herzl A young secular Viennese writer had an experience 125 years ago that would lead him to change Jewish history forever. He could never explain it. Can anyone else? Rick Richman

By on January 5th, 2021

https://mosaicmagazine.com/essay/israel-zionism/2021/01/the-mystery-of-theodor-herzl/?utm_source=

Not since Moses led the 40-year Exodus from Egypt did anyone transform Jewish history as fundamentally as Theodor Herzl did in the seven years from the publication in 1896 of his pamphlet The Jewish State to his historic pledge in 1903 on the subject of Jerusalem at the Sixth Zionist Congress. Then he died suddenly in 1904, at the age of forty-four.

In 2017, on the centennial of the 1917 Balfour Declaration, Britain’s historic promise to facilitate a Jewish national home in Palestine, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Declaration resulted “largely thanks to Herzl’s brilliant appearances in England.”

Herzl created something out of nothing. He turned Zionism into a mass movement. He created the organizational and economic tools for the World Zionist Organization. Perhaps above all, he gained access to kings and counts . . . and this was no small thing [because a Jewish statesman] did not exist at the time, . . . certainly not one who was a journalist and playwright, and who was only thirty-six years old. It was unthinkable.

How did a man opposed by Orthodox rabbis (who believed a Jewish state should await the messiah), Reform rabbis (who wanted a Jewish state relegated permanently to the past), assimilated Jews (who feared accusations of dual loyalty), Jewish socialists (who considered any type of nationalism reactionary), and Jewish public figures (who thought the whole idea absurd) create a worldwide movement? How did a young writer with no political connections, no ties to Jewish organizations, and no financial backing beyond his own resources negotiate with leading figures in the Western world’s ruling empires, engaging in what Netanyahu called “inconceivable diplomatic actions” that would lead to the Balfour Declaration and eventually the creation of the state of Israel?

Those are important questions. Even more important a question is that of why Herzl did all this, given his minimal ties to Judaism and the Jewish people during his early adulthood. While he had a bar mitzvah and attended a predominantly Jewish high school, he had sought assimilation ever since his days as a university student in Vienna. Nor was he religiously observant as an adult: when his son was born in 1891, he did not have him circumcised. On December 24, 1895, six weeks before the publication of The Jewish State, Herzl was at home lighting a Christmas tree for his three children.

For many years, biographers believed Herzl became a Zionist after covering the Dreyfus trial in 1894 in Paris, as a foreign correspondent for a Viennese newspaper. More recently, however, scholars have shown that Herzl’s embrace of Zionism had virtually nothing to do with that case.

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ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Sidney Powell On The Global Prayer For US Election Integrity

By on January 5th, 2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivFxwlMgaJg&feature=youtu.be

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ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Peter Navarro Says Inauguration Day Can Be Postponed By Tom Ozimek

By on January 4th, 2021

https://www.theepochtimes.com/peter-navarro-says-inauguration-day-can-be-postpo

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said in an interview on Fox News that the Jan. 20 date of Inauguration Day could be changed.

Navarro made the remarks on “Justice With Judge Jeanine” on Jan. 2, in the context of a recent call by 11 Republican senators for Congress to appoint an electoral commission to conduct an emergency 10-day audit of the election results.

Program host Judge Jeanine Pirro asked Navarro about his expectations for the effort, saying, “All this has to happen before January 20. Do you have any hope that this can succeed?”

“Vice President Pence, he has the authority to give that 10-day window to do what needs to get done,” Navarro said. “I cannot imagine when he looks at the facts he won’t vote the right way on that.”

Pirro responded by saying that the “10-day window” could change the date for certification of electoral votes planned for the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress, chaired by Pence, when lawmakers certify the votes cast for the U.S. president by members of the Electoral College.

“January 20 cannot be changed; that’s constitutional,” Pirro added, presumably referring to Section 1 of the 20th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which states: “The terms of the President and the Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January … and the terms of their successors shall then begin.”

“It can be changed, actually,” Navarro said. “We can go past that date. We can go past that date if we need to. And we have got to get this right. … We need to take [the election] back for the people.”

Pirro didn’t ask Navarro to clarify further. The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Navarro’s remarks.

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ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Ignoring And Ridiculing Election Fraud Concerns Will Not Make Them Go Away If nothing else, conservatives must all be on board with addressing the disastrous crisis of trust this election has produced. By Stella Morabito

By on January 4th, 2021

https://thefederalist.com/2021/01/04/ignoring-and-ridiculing-election-fraud-concerns-will-not-make-them-go-away/

Restoration of trust in due process is the central goal of the statement issued by Sen. Ted Cruz on election integrity. He and the 11 other senators who signed it understand something that few officials and pundits—particularly many self-described conservatives—are willing to admit: to certify electors without a comprehensive investigation into thousands of allegations of fraud in the 2020 election would be a betrayal of Americans’ trust as well as an egregious violation of their oath to protect the Constitution.

Whether or not you agree there was massive electoral fraud in the 2020 presidential election does not really matter at this point. Every American should be deeply concerned if nearly half of all voters are convinced that large-scale fraud handed the election to the Biden-Harris ticket. Some may hope the conviction will fade with time, but more likely the distrust will deepen, especially since it comes despite non-stop denials and censorship about fraud by both Big Tech and Big Media.

Rasmussen’s poll indicates that 47 percent of voters believe fraud swayed the election (and 75 percent of Republicans). Some dismiss Rasmussen as leaning to the right. But even standard left-leaning pollsters such as Quinnipiac and Reuters consistently claim that half of Republicans believe there was massive fraud.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION, POLITICS Comments turned off

Illinois Democrats Line Up to Help CAIR Fundraise by Steven Emerson

By on January 4th, 2021

https://www.investigativeproject.org/8689/illinois-democrats-line-up-to-help-cair-fundraise

In yet another example of political expediency overcoming better judgment, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and other top Democrats are all slated to speak Jan. 17 to help the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) Chicago chapter raise money during its annual banquet.

CAIR, as we have reported many times, has roots in an American-based Hamas-support network, a conclusion reached by the FBI and upheld by a federal judge. CAIR was “a participant in an ongoing and ultimately unlawful conspiracy to support a designated terrorist organization,” federal prosecutors wrote in 2007, “a conspiracy from which CAIR never withdrew.”

Rhetoric from CAIR officials does little to dispel the assertion.

The Chicago chapter is led by Ahmed Rehab, who last year took to social media to write “F*** Zionism.” Rehab was angry that the French National Assembly adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) anti-Semitism definition. “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination,” the crux of Zionism, is among the main examples of anti-Semitism cited. The definition specifically states that criticizing Israeli policies or actions “any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.” It is the rejection of the Jewish state that crosses the line.

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CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB, ELECTIONS Comments turned off

BREAKING: Patriot Jovan Pulitzer’s Team Is Being Shot At! – After They Were Given Directive to Identify Fraudulent Ballots in Fulton County By Joe Hoft

By on January 4th, 2021

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/01/breaking-patriot-jovan-pulitzers-team-

Jovan Pulitzer and his team have the ability to save America.  Now they are being shot at.

Jovan Pulitzer and his team have the ability to determine the validity of millions of ballots in a day. He spoke last week in Georgia and offered to review the absentee ballots in Fulton county for free.  He said he could go through the 500,000 or so absentee ballots in the Atlanta based county in a couple hours and determine which ones are valid and which ones are frauds.Pulitzer could save the union.  With his approach, he can audit millions of ballots in a short period of time and have all the swing state votes forensically reviewed in a matter of days.

We pointed out nearly a month ago that Pulitzer’s method for reviewing ballots is the answer to address the horrendous fraud in this year’s election.Late last Wednesday, the Georgia Senate passed a motion to have Pulitzer and his team go through the ballots there.

@JovanHPulitzer
·
Jan 3

#WARNING our team members who live in Atlanta are being attached. One team members home took 5 shots through the windows in a drive by. Right through his daughters bedroom window. The #BiasAndHateMustStop

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P.C.-CULTURE Comments turned off

War of the worlds: Cancel Culture versus Western Culture Diane Bederman

By on January 4th, 2021

https://dianebederman.com/war-of-the-worlds-cancel-culture-versus-western-culture/

Allan Bloom, author of the Closing of the American Mind,1987, wrote that  many of us find our purpose and our intellectual and spiritual connection to the world through the stories and wisdom of the Bible, unlike many people who live with “an open-ended future and the lack of a binding past” and are in “a condition like that of the first men in the state of nature spiritually unclad, unconnected, isolated, with no inherited or unconditional connection with anything or anyone.”

The west is at war. A battle between two cultures that are diametrically opposed to each other.  I believe this war is only possible because we stopped teaching the Judeo/Christian ethic that underpins freedom. Niall Ferguson wrote in 2011: “Maybe the ultimate threat to the West comes from our own lack of understanding and faith in our own cultural heritage.”

The West, promoting freedom, free will, free speech, the knowledge that one is the subject of their destiny because one has the right and the obligation to choose his/her path, and this new culture; Cancel Culture, what writer Wesley Yang refers to as “the successor ideology;” is a culture that takes us back to a time of an artificially designed hierarchy which  promotes the belief that one is the object of one’s fate, hampered, held back, by race, colour, creed religion or sexual orientation. A culture that promotes standing on the shoulders of giants, not to rise up and reach for the stars, but bury them in the dust and then blame others for their personal failures.

Cancel culture is the Siamese twin of Progressivism: “Given the predilection to progress, the past is viewed as an inferior state of existence with various afflictions that wither away over time.”

Cancel culture has no use for the individual.Instead of uniting behind the social contract, the general will and the COMMON good, cancel culture is intent upon dividing us into competing tribes:divide and conquer. Cancel culture did not insidiously infiltrate ours; rather it hit us head on, without mercy and little resistance.

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