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LIZ PEEK: THE STATE OF THE UNION UNDER BIDEN IS DISMAL

Posted By on March 2nd, 2022

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/596263-reality-check-state-of-union-under-biden-is-dismal?rl=1

Pity the creative writing team at the White House franticly preparing President Biden’s State of the Union address. With Europe at war, inflation soaring, crime rampant, illegal immigration at historic levels and parents irate over their kids’ education, how can they portray Biden’s presidency as a success?

Especially in light of a new Harvard-Harris poll showing that 62 percent of Americans think Russian President Vladimir Putin would not have invaded Ukraine if Donald Trump were still president. A poll, moreover, that shows only 38 percent of respondents approve of Biden’s job performance.

Biden will begin with the tragic events in Ukraine. Here is what he’ll say:

1) Through strenuous diplomacy, he has brought NATO together as never before;

2) Because he has led the European Union (EU) in imposing severe sanctions, Putin has agreed to negotiations;

3) The United States will continue its aggressive pursuit of carbon neutrality and renewable fuels, thus reducing our dependence on Russian oil.

4) Oh, and he’s sorry gasoline prices are so high, but it’s all Putin’s fault.

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Biden Misses the Moment in His State of the Union Address He had supportive words for Ukraine against Russia, but he offered no domestic or defense policy reset.

Posted By on March 2nd, 2022

https://www.wsj.com/articles/joe-biden-misses-the-moment-in-his-state-of-the-union-address-white-house-congress-putin-russia-energy-11646193813?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

President Biden is no Olaf Scholz. The new Chancellor upended decades of center-left German defense and energy policy this week after Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, and Mr. Biden had a similar opportunity in his State of the Union address Tuesday. He missed the moment. The President remained on the same policy course of his first year, albeit dressed up in new anti-inflation packaging.

More defense spending to meet the threats from autocrats? No. A new appreciation for the contribution of fossil fuels to American and European security? Not a word. A note that government spending contributed to the highest inflation in 40 years? Nope. A word of praise for the private Pharma innovation that developed Covid therapies and vaccines? He proposed government price controls instead.

Mr. Biden did offer stirring support for Ukraine and its fight for freedom, which received bipartisan applause. His Administration deserves credit for helping to rally Europe and other nations to impose sanctions and provide more military aid. He was properly condemning of Mr. Putin.

But his self-congratulation ignored the failure to deter the Russian autocrat. “We were ready” if Mr. Putin invaded, Mr. Biden said. But if the U.S. had been ready, Mr. Putin wouldn’t have invaded. The Russian invaded because he thought the West would do little. And Mr. Putin finds himself in a struggle now because of the bravery of 41 million Ukrainians, not the strength of Europe or the United States.

What we also didn’t hear was a vow that Russia will not be allowed to conquer and hold Ukraine. There was no warning to Mr. Putin not to launch missiles into residential neighborhoods or surround and starve cities into submission like a medieval siege. This was not Harry Truman at the dawn of the Cold War calling the world to meet a new danger.

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Sydney Williams: Some Friendly Advice for President Biden

Posted By on March 2nd, 2022

http://www.swtotd.blogspot.com

Right after President Obama’s inauguration in 2009, Rahm Emanuel, who served as White House Chief of Staff, famously said to never let a crisis go to waste. This evening, President Biden, facing the crisis that is Ukraine, should heed that advice when he speaks to the nation.

In a flurry of woke progressivism, the Administration has lost its way. The southern border is inundated by unvetted, unvaccinated illegal immigrants. Inflation is at 40-year highs. Schools that teach Critical Race Theory and encourage students to question their genders are upsetting parents. Crime rates have soared, especially in low-income areas of inner cities. People have grown weary of mask and vaccine mandates. School test scores, already low, have declined further.

Democrats, to survive in November, should go back to their roots of being the Party for working people – the middle class, small business owners, people who do not have the luxury to work remotely or send their children to private schools. They should abandon their left-wing, authoritarian over-reach. Despite being well-funded, the far-left, as defined by Senator Bernie Sanders, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the rest of “the Quad,” is represented by only nine percent of voters, according to an op-ed in Saturday’s The Wall Street Journal, an op-ed written by Elaine Kamarck and William Galston, both Democrats.

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Germany, in Historic Reversal, Abandons Pro-Putin Russia Policy by Soeren Kern

Posted By on March 1st, 2022

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18283/germany-russia-policy

The measures represent a complete reversal of Germany’s post-Cold War Russia policy — which focused on pursuing economic ties rather than confrontation with Moscow — and mark a definitive end to the era of former Chancellor Angela Merkel.

“We are living through a watershed era. And that means that the world afterwards will no longer the same as the world before. The core question is whether power is allowed to prevail over the law. Will we allow Putin to turn the clock back to the 19th century and the age of great powers? Or can we muster the strength to keep warmongers like Putin in check. That requires strength of our own. Yes, we fully intend to secure our freedom, our democracy and our prosperity.” — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Bundestag, February 27, 2022.

The significance of the German U-turn cannot be overstated: Germany will become the biggest spender on defense in Europe.

In a major policy reversal, the German government has also decided to suspend technical certification of the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which would double shipments of Russian natural gas to Germany by transporting the gas under the Baltic Sea.

“Olaf Scholz is changing decades of German foreign policy in a single speech. Russia went too far and now Germany is waking up. Incredible.” — Marcel Dirsus, German political scientist.

“I have to say I don’t recognize Europe as it responds to Putin’s gangsterism against #Ukraine. This is my second tour in Germany and all of a sudden I see the Continent grow a spine. Way to go!” — Andrew Michta, veteran transatlantic security analyst.

“Watching Scholz in Bundestag today is watching decades of German foreign policy change in a few minutes before your eyes.” — Andrew Gray, politics editor for Politico.

“Putin knew well why he invested so much in friendly relations. Germany was open to that. But the attack on Ukraine changed everything. Comes certainly as a shock to Putin.” — Ulrich Speck, German foreign policy analyst.

“It is hard to overestimate how much Putin’s attack on Ukraine changed Germany. Less than a week ago Nord Stream 2 was still alive, delivering lethal weapons to Ukraine taboo & cutting Russia out of Swift out of the question. Putin’s invasion changed Germany. Turning point.” — Michael Knigge, German journalist.

“Germany basically doing what Donald Trump demanded that they do — to widespread ridicule — for the four years of his Presidency. I know it galls people to hear it, but Trump was right about some very big things.” — John McGuirk, Irish political commentator.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has announced a paradigm shift in German defense and energy policies in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He said that Germany will substantially increase defense spending and take immediate measures to reduce its energy dependence on Russia.

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The Improbable Rise and Endless Heroism of Volodymir Zelensky How the comedian turned Ukrainian president gained control of something no army can wrest away: the narrative. By Michael Idov

Posted By on March 1st, 2022

https://www.gq.com/story/improbable-rise-endless-heroism-volodymyr-zelensky?utm_source=pocket-newtab

As I write this, Volodymyr Zelensky, the most improbable national leader in the world, just might be the world’s most popular. By now everyone knows his life story’s surreal outline: a comedian who rose to fame with a portrayal of a president becomes the real thing, then transcends it.

A huge part of Zelensky’s global resonance is that he seems to fit a type everyone knows the world over, because, thanks to millennia of persecution, the type exists the world over: a Jewish wiseacre. The idea of one of those (of us, I should say), becoming a wartime icon is in itself a perfect Jewish joke. It’s Woody Allen in Bananas, it’s Dustin Hoffman in Ishtar, it’s Ben Stiller in Tropic Thunder. Except in real life. Risking real death.

The true story of 44-year-old Zelensky’s rise is a tad more complicated, and speaks more to the incredibly messy cultural tangle that exists between Russia and Ukraine than to any easy stereotype. His business and comedy roots lie in KVN, a longtime Russian showbiz phenomenon whose title is an acronym for a musty Sovietism—“The Club for the Jolly and the Resourceful.” KVN is a bizarre but admittedly original concept: Imagine if sketch comedy functioned as a pro sport, with city teams battling one another for a spot in the major league, and the top matches televised.

Zelensky’s troupe, called Quarter 95, repped Kryvyi Rih—a Ukrainian city—but performed in Russian, which was then considered not only normal but expected. He was team captain (under the nickname “Vovan”). Once Quarter 95 hit the big time on Russian TV, Zelensky and two partners, Sergei and Boris Shefir, formed a production company under the same name. Their studio produced dozens of shows and events for both countries’ markets, including the Ukrainian Dancing with the Stars, which Zelensky himself won in 2006 (and yes, that would be like Simon Cowell winning America’s Got Talent).

Around the same time, Zelensky began to produce, co-write, and sometimes star in trashy Russian comedies, most of them directed by a U.S.-educated filmmaker named Marius Vaysberg. The first one is representative: 2009’s Love in the City, about three friends living it up in New York when a curse from a magic fairy (played, in a moment of either inclusivity or homophobia or both, by flamboyant pop star Filipp Kirkorov) leaves them impotent until they find true love.

Even as he turned toward politics, Zelensky didn’t exactly leave his comedy career in the rearview.

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Who Is Responsible for the Death of Matthew Perna?   For the first time in over a year, Joe Biden’s Justice Department has nothing to say about a January 6 defendant. By Julie Kelly

Posted By on March 1st, 2022

https://amgreatness.com/2022/02/28/who-is-responsible-for-the-death-of-matthew-perna/

Matthew Perna’s heartbroken family will say goodbye to him this week.

After more than a year of enduring nonstop torment by the U.S. Justice Department, the D.C. District Court, and the news media over his minor involvement in January 6, Perna, 37, hanged himself in his garage on Friday night.

His funeral is scheduled for Wednesday.

In a loving yet raw obituary, his family minced no words about who they hold responsible for his suicide:

Matthew Lawrence Perna died on February 25, 2022 of a broken heart. His community (which he loved), his country, and the justice system killed his spirit and his zest for life. He attended the rally on January 6, 2021 to peacefully stand up for his beliefs. He entered the Capitol through a previously opened door (he did not break in as was reported) where he was ushered in by police. He didn’t break, touch, or steal anything. He did not harm anyone, as he stayed within the velvet ropes taking pictures. For this act he has been persecuted by many members of his community, friends, relatives, and people who had never met him. Many people were quietly supportive, and Matt was truly grateful for them. The constant delays in hearings, and postponements dragged out for over a year. Because of this, Matt’s heart broke and his spirit died, and many people are responsible for the pain he endured.

As I explained in my column Sunday, Matthew Perna did nothing wrong on January 6. He entered an open door manned by two Capitol police officers who did not attempt to stop him or hundreds of other innocent Americans from going inside the building. Matthew did not carry a weapon, assault a police officer, or damage any property. His family said he stayed within the rope lines and took photos that afternoon.

BOOKS, MEDIA Comments turned off

Freedom Center Fellow Canceled By NPR It’s time to fight fire with fire. Jason D. Hill

Posted By on March 1st, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/03/freedom-center-fellow-canceled-npr-jason-d-hill/

In October of 2021, I returned to the National Public Radio show Watching America, with host Dr. Alan Campbell, for an interview about my recently-published book, What Do White Americans Owe Black People: Racial Justice in the Age of Post Oppression. I had had a delightful interview with Dr. Campbell the year before for my previous book, We Have Overcome: An Immigrant’s Letter to the American People.

In the ensuing weeks following that October interview, I inquired about its status. I was told that the “higher-ups” at NPR were disturbed by the book, the interview and, just as importantly, the author. They found me, my ideas, and the book too controversial, too offensive. Let it be known that both the producer of the show and Dr. Alan were upset by this decision. They were and remain brave and remarkable individuals devoted to the free and open exchange of ideas.

 In fact, the producer of that show, having grown weary of battling with management over content and freedom of expression, has resigned from NPR on principle. She is a hero in my eyes.

The “higher-ups” – the management and leadership apparatchiks who can only be described as part of the woke supremacists and cancel culture bureaucrats – are the real villains. They have become the artificial arbiters of what constitutes truth, creators of taste, and standard-bearers of morality in matters of the intellect. I am not alone here. A few conservative friends—mildly so—have confided in me that they too have been canceled by NPR.

But what exactly are they afraid of in a book that aims to explore the entitlement culture we live in; one that challenges the idea that all economic asymmetries and disparities between the races must be the result of systemic racism, and a residual effect of slavery?

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The Democrats’ Never-Ending Supreme Court Hypocrisy By David Harsanyi

Posted By on March 1st, 2022

https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/02/the-democrats-never-ending-supreme-court

Democrats keep escalating the judicial nomination battles and then demand that the other side unilaterally disarm.

Yesterday, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Dick Durbin, told CNN’s State of the Union that he has “reached out to many Republicans, asking them to keep an open mind and to meet with Ketanji Brown Jackson, ask the hard questions, ask for materials — we’ll provide them. It’s in the best interest . . . of the U.S. Senate for this to be bipartisan.”

Is it? In October 2020, Durbin announced that he would be a “no” on Amy Coney Barrett before asking her a single “hard question” or requesting any “materials,” as did a bunch of other Democrats. Did Durbin have an open mind on Barrett? Or Brett Kavanaugh? Then–minority leader Chuck Schumer, as well as members of the Judiciary Committee such as Richard Blumenthal and Mazie Hirono — who not only spread fake rape allegations about Kavanaugh but argued that the nominee didn’t deserve the presumption of innocence — refused to even meet with Barrett. Schumer claimed that the Barrett nomination would “go down as one of the darkest days in the 231-year history of the United States Senate.” Was that in the best interest of a bipartisan Senate?

When it comes to Supreme Court nominations, Democrats are under the impression that they have the right to dictate the terms of hearings, and nominees always conveniently aligning with their political aims, whether they win or lose elections.

P.C.-CULTURE, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

British intelligence agencies surrender to wokeness By Eric Utter

Posted By on March 1st, 2022

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/03/british_intelligence_agencies_surrender_to_wokeness.html

Something called a “Mission Critical” toolkit has been disseminated amongst British intelligence agencies MI5, MI6, and the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), according to the Daily Mail. The Daily Mail published the leaked documents showing that the intelligence agencies are promoting inclusive language, attempting to do away with verbiage that could “reinforce dominant cultural patterns,” and urging Britain’s spies to declare their preferred pronouns and add them to their email signatures.

This new guidance was allegedly approved by Sir Stephen Lovegrove, the U.K.’s national security adviser. But wait, isn’t the title “Sir” a vestige of bygone days? Is it not binary in nature, as well as being classist? Does it not itself “reinforce dominant cultural patterns?”

The toolkit, shared internally in early December, purportedly states: “Sharing your pronouns, if you are comfortable doing this, helps to create an environment in which this is normal.” It notes, “In national security, look out for words and phrases, such as ‘strong’ or ‘grip,’ that reinforce the dominant cultural patterns.” (Really? Well, not to worry then; the dominant cultural patterns won’t be dominant for long.)

Documents in the toolkit also allegedly state, “Avoid jargon, hierarchy or gender biases,” and strongly caution against the use of the term “manpower.” Sir Lovegrove would disapprove.

“Use gender-neutral language to reflect people’s diversity and reduce stereotypes and assumptions, for example about job roles and functions which need not be gender-defined.”

The toolkit tells staff that they should “understand your unconscious bias,” “be aware of intersectionality,” “acknowledge your privilege,” and “consider refusing to speak on all-male panels.” In that kind of climate, I think I would refuse to speak at all.

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

A Reckoning Approaches for Obama’s EPA Abuses Daniel Greenfield

Posted By on March 1st, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2022/02/reckoning-approaches-obamas-epa-abuses-daniel-greenfield/

The Supreme Court’s willingness to consider West Virginia v. EPA strikes at the original beating heart of the power grab perpetrated by the Obama administration.

The media is vehemently denying that West Virginia v. EPA is still relevant. The Biden administration claims that it has no intention of resurrecting its abuses. Yet in a legal environment and court environment where the abuses of the Obama administration have often been quickly buried, the determination to keep pursuing West Virginia v. EPA is laudable.

And the Left and its enviro-profiteers are understandably worried because West Virginia v. EPA has the potential to bring light into the great darkness of unlimited regulatory power that they have wielded for so long. 

Once the Left got its EPA, the agency has seized unlimited power, asserting control over literarily everything. The manufacture of a global crisis shifted the terms from real pollution issues in identifiable bodies of water to the power to regulate and control every single shred of human activity in the United States.