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August 2021

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Larry Elder is The Governor California Voters Don’t Deserve, But Surely Need

By on August 4th, 2021

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/08/04/the-governor-california-voters-dont-deserve-but-surely-need/

The California gubernatorial recall election was a dull affair that looked to be a loser for those who want to remove Gov. Gavin Newsom from office. Then Larry Elder entered the race. Now we get to see how ever-so-tolerant, diversity-obsessed Californians deal with the angst of seeing a black man with a serious chance on the Sept. 14 ballot.

No one would shake up single-party California more than Elder, a talk show host – the “Sage of South Central” – who is also a small business owner, author, and columnist. Though the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger to replace recalled Gray Davis in 2003 was a landmark political moment, it’s small-time compared to the state electing a black libertarian-leaning Republican, one who happens to lead the field of possible replacements by a large margin.

Anyone who has listened to Elder’s radio shows knows he’s smart, that he supports his beliefs with facts. He’s also a happy warrior, not a scold like the current governor, who is an operator; a slickster, ​​who according to veteran California journalist Dan Walters “continues to say and do things to bolster that image”; an angle-player; and one lucky man who has relied on his good looks and extensive Democratic Party IOUs to reach the governor’s mansion.

(Which will be his final political destination. It’s obvious he’s been eyeing the White House, but the presidency is no longer possible for him, even should he survive the recall. He’s too wounded.)

Elder’s top campaign themes are lifting the statewide ban on cash bail, unwinding harshest-in-the-nation pandemic restrictions, expanding school choice programs, and easing the state’s burdensome environmental regulatory framework. If successful, his policies would reduce crime, which has become world famous, thanks to viral videos; free Californians from the grip of elected and unelected officials who have used the pandemic to manipulate and control; repair the state’s once highly regarded schools; and set off the homebuilding boom California desperately needs.

The election of Elder, or any Republican or Libertarian among the nearly 50 candidates, would have an impact all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. Newsom himself has said that if the recall is a success, “it would have profound consequences nationwide and go to not just politics, but to policy and policymaking.” ​​If his party is harmed, as he fears, that would be a bonus for a country that is under the boot of a powerful complex of Democrat elitists hungry to rule rather than govern under constitutional limits.

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FOREIGN POLICY, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Biden Administration “Surrenders” to Germany on Russian Gas Pipeline by Soeren Kern

By on August 4th, 2021

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17603/germany-russia-nord-stream-biden-administration

“The willingness of the administration to make decisions of this magnitude without consulting the countries most exposed will not be lost on other parts of the world. Jerusalem and Riyadh, for example, are no doubt already strategizing around the potential of facing a surprise similar to the one that Washington just delivered to Warsaw and Kyiv.” — Kiron Skinner and Russell Berman, Foreign Policy, July 26, 2021.

“The lesson learned by Germany is that it can pursue its own inclinations of doing business with dictators regardless of principles and with no consequences from Washington. More dangerously, the lesson for Moscow and Beijing is that sanctions for international aggression will never be sustained for very long. The Biden administration has made the fragile international order even less secure.” — Kiron Skinner and Russell Berman, Foreign Policy, July 26, 2021.

“The project creates conditions for Russia’s escalation of military aggression against Ukraine, as well as the continuation of a hybrid war against the EU and NATO…. This Russian pipeline threatens the national security not only of Ukraine, but also of all of Europe.” — Ukrainian Parliament, July 21, 2021.

“The U.S.-German deal is embarrassingly weak. It relies on a vague assurance that after Putin ramps up the blackmail enabled by the deal, Germany will take unspecified actions in response…. Overall, Biden handed Putin the biggest gift he’s received in years. He also signaled to Putin that when push comes to shove, the American president is weak and will bow to political pressure.” — U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, Washington Examiner, July 22, 2021.

“Remarkably, Washington agreed to end its opposition to the project without any recognizable benefit in exchange: Merkel has neither promised increased engagement for NATO nor more clarity about China. The compromise between Biden and Merkel is not a compromise at all, but an American capitulation.” — Robin Alexander, Die Welt, July 21, 2021.

The Biden administration has reached an agreement with German Chancellor Angela Merkel that allows for the completion of a controversial natural gas pipeline between Russia and Germany.

The July 21 deal to complete the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which would double shipments of Russian natural gas to Germany by transporting the gas under the Baltic Sea, has angered the leaders of many countries in Eastern and Western Europe; they argue that it will effectively give Moscow a stranglehold over European gas supplies and open the continent to Russian blackmail.

Both the Obama and Trump administrations steadfastly opposed the pipeline on the grounds that, once completed, it would strengthen Russian President Vladimir Putin’s economic and political influence over Europe.

The Trump administration was especially critical of the pipeline because it will funnel billions of dollars to Russia at a time that Germany is free-riding on the U.S. defense umbrella that protects Germany from that same Russia.

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FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

League of Appeasement: How the West Fails To Take Action on Iran Benny Avni

By on August 4th, 2021

https://www.nysun.com/foreign/league-of-appeasement-how-the-west-fails-to-take/91603/

If ever there were a cause for “collective response,” Iran’s deadly attack on a commercial carrier navigating the busy shipping lanes of an oil-rich region is it — unless, of course, that phrase means no response at all.

On April 2, 1917, in a speech to Congress, President Wilson cited repeated German violations of the principle of “Freedom of the Seas” as casus belli, justifying America’s entry into the European blood-letting later known as World War I.

After that war was won, Wilson went on to promote the establishment of the League of Nations, an unconstitutional, ill-fated attempt to forge a collective global response to threats against world peace.

Zoom forward to last Thursday night, when a Romanian captain and a British security officer aboard the Mercer Street were killed in a drone attack in the Persian Gulf, off the shores of Oman. The Liberian-flagged tanker is operated by Zodiac, a company listed in Britain and owned by Eyal Offer, an Israeli billionaire.

An Iranian website initially reported the attack was retaliation for an Israeli air attack on Iranian targets in Syria, but officials in Iran later denied responsibility. Nevertheless, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Israel possesses irrefutable evidence of Iran’s culpability.

Soon after, Secretary of State Blinken and Britain’s foreign minister, Dominic Raab, also stated Iran was responsible. These allies will launch a “collective response,” Mr. Blinken ominously declared Monday.

Yet before the collective concluded its deliberations over what course of coordinated action it should take collectively, Iran seemed to unilaterally escalate. Earlier today the British navy reported a “potential hijacking” of a ship off the United Arab Emirates’ coast. Additionally, four oil tankers reported loss of control over their Automatic Identification System tracker.

The Iranian news agency IRNA immediately denied Tehran was involved in those attacks, and the country even offered its assistance.

Israel’s foreign and defense ministers reportedly plan to brief diplomats of the United Nations Security Council tomorrow on the Mercer Street evidence. That indicates a Security Council response. Expect Russia, China and others to demand an investigation by the world body before any collective action is taken.

Meanwhile, the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said Monday that Washington remains engaged in talks aimed at reviving the articles of appeasement on the nuclear deal. “Our view,” she said, “is that every single challenge and threat we face from Iran would be made more pronounced and dangerous by an unconstrained nuclear program.”

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

The Warped Vision of a Two-State Solution By Victor Sharpe

By on August 4th, 2021

During eight baleful years, President Barack Hussein Obama made Israel’s life utterly miserable as he pursued relentlessly his warped vision of a ‘Two State Solution’ to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. But that vision, being imagined yet again, would remain national suicide for Israel.

Still pushed by too many in the international corridors of power, it is in reality an appalling euphemism not unlike the German Nazi’s ‘Final Solution’ which ushered in the Holocaust. And now, lo and behold, the Biden/Harris administration — which many see as Obama’s third term — is currently pushing yet again for the disinterment of that rotting corpse known as the ‘Two-State Solution.’

It will spell the destruction of the reconstituted Jewish state and the extermination of its people by a Muslim world that will never accept a non-Muslim nation and will wage eternal war against it — the Dar al-Harb — until it is utterly destroyed. The existing and proposed “Two-State-Solution” ushers in an eventual and guaranteed destruction of the Jewish state.

Of course, if Israel declared its justified rejection of the ‘Two-State-Solution’, such a statement of the truth would be considered inflammatory and assured to provoke another Palestinian Arab outburst of violence and barbarism (dignified by the Arabic term intifada).

But isn’t that what is happening throughout Judea and Samaria (the so-called West Bank) with almost daily atrocities committed by Arab thugs against Jewish civilians?

The over 3,500-year-old Hebrew and Biblical names, Yehuda and Shomron, (Judea and Samaria), refer to the heartland of both the ancient and modern Jewish homeland. But a malevolent world prefers to call the territory the West Bank; what was the mere 19-year-old Jordanian name applied to the land after it and much of Jerusalem was illegally invaded and occupied by Jordan from 1948 until 1967.

The Jordanian Arab Legion, after invading and occupying the territory, immediately began desecrating Jewish graves on the Mount of Olives, using the headstones to build latrines for their troops, destroying 57 ancient synagogues and holy sites, and forcibly expelling Jewish residents from their villages and ancient homes in Jerusalem’s Old City.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

FDA Authorizes Antibody Cocktail as COVID-19 Prevention Treatment BY TOM OZIMEK

By on August 4th, 2021

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_morningbrief/fda-authorizes-antibody-cocktail-as-covid-19-prevention-treatment_

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorized a monoclonal antibody cocktail as a measure to prevent infection in some groups of people who were exposed to the CCP virus, the pathogen that causes COVID-19.

The FDA on Friday announced that it had revised its emergency use authorization (EUA) for REGEN-COV, a treatment consisting of jointly administered casirivimab and imdevimab, expanding its use beyond just the treatment of patients who test positive for the virus.

While the product remains authorized for treating confirmed COVID-19 patients over age 12 who are at high risk of severe illness, the agency said the drug combo can now be given to high-risk groups as a measure after exposure to prevent progression of the disease.

The antibody treatment is only authorized for use in people who have been exposed to the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, not as a pre-exposure preventive measure, the FDA said.

The agency added that REGEN-COV should only be used as a post-exposure prophylaxis by people who are not fully vaccinated or whose immune systems are unlikely to mount an adequate response to the virus, like those who take immunosuppressive medications or who are otherwise immunocompromised.

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