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Canadian Elites Created The Ottawa Crisis, And They Have No Idea How To End It :John Daniel Davidson

Posted By on February 9th, 2022

https://thefederalist.com/2022/02/08/canadian-elites-created-the-ottawa-crisis-and-they-have-no-idea-how-to-end-it/

There are no clear off-ramps for the protesters, and no one in a position of authority seems to know how to deescalate the situation.

Corporate media outlets like The Atlantic and The New York Times have been telling us for years now how Hungary and Poland are incubators of authoritarianism that represent an existential threat to democracy. But it turns out we should have been worried about Canada and Australia, of all places.

If you had told me 18 months ago that Australia, a democratic country that once seemed to exude rugged individualism, would devolve into a Covid police state that imprisons its citizens in quarantine camps and deploys riot police to crush lockdown protests with brute force, I wouldn’t have believed you. But here we are.

Now comes Canada, where the “Freedom Convoy” of truckers that arrived in Ottawa more than a week ago to protest Covid vaccine mandates has effectively shut down Canada’s capital. The mayor declared a state of emergency on Monday after the city’s law enforcement authorities talked openly about calling in the military over the weekend. 

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Blinkmanship The talk of sanctions and crushing defeats from Antony Blinken and Joe Biden has an air of unreality, like Baghdad Bob’s claims of the Iraqi Army’s victories during the U.S. assault on Iraq in 2003.  By Christopher Roach

Posted By on February 9th, 2022

https://amgreatness.com/2022/02/08/blinkmanship/

Because of increasing specialization, most of today’s top government officials have spent their entire lives in government service. They lack the gentleman-amateur chops of a Dean Acheson or the business background of someone like Donald Trump. The results are not encouraging. 

One thing you learn in business is that bluffing is dangerous. It’s easier to make promises than to keep them, and that often it’s better to be ambiguous, to say nothing, or, if necessary, to communicate only in private. 

A good counterexample would be Barack Obama with his infamous “red line” in Syria. He said the Syrian government’s use of chemical weapons against civilians would cross a red line resulting in serious consequences and retaliation. Yet when Bashar al Assad allegedly approved the use of chemical weapons against a rebel civilian enclave, Obama did nothing. 

Setting aside the merits and demerits of our Syria policy, this is just bad business. It is the type of thing a coddled academic with no real life experience would think is a great idea, but something an ordinary real estate agent, bar manager, or car salesman knows is a bad idea. Threats box in the speaker and are only as effective as his perceived ability and willingness to back them up.

Biden’s life experience has done little more than Obama’s to prepare him for the moment. While he has been bloviating in the U.S. Senate since the 1970s, he has not covered himself with glory. His contributions to foreign policy typically have revealed him to be thoughtless and unsophisticated, opposing the mission to kill Osama bin Laden, among other things, while supporting the Iraq War. 

EDUCATION, ISRAEL Comments turned off

Amnesty International’s Pseudo-Scholarship More lethal ammunition for the campus cognitive war against Israel. Richard L. Cravatts

Posted By on February 9th, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/02/amnesty-internationals-pseudo-scholarship-richard-l-cravatts/

In May, while Hamas was firing more than 3000 deadly rockets from Gaza with the express purpose of murdering Jewish Israelis, members of academic communities around the world were falling over themselves to express their solidarity, not with the beleaguered citizens of the Jewish state again under attack, but with the genocidal psychopaths of Hamas and the Palestinian people they are said to represent.

The ideological enemies of Israel could not have been more pleased. The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel, the odious organization which put out the original call for efforts to slander the Jewish state, as one example, noted gleefully that “300 academic departments, program centers, unions and societies worldwide [had] endorsed statements supporting Palestinian rights, and statements from individual scholars, staff, students and alumni have garnered more than 15,000 signatures in what the campaign describes as ‘an unprecedented wave of solidarity.’”

Using almost the identical language, laced with descriptions of “colonialism,” “oppression,” “occupation,” “ethnic cleansing,” “human rights,” and “violations of international law,” these academic statements—oozing out of Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Berkeley, CUNY, among many other universities — revealed a profound ignorance of history and fact, and attempted, unsurprisingly, to paint Israel solely as the party to blame for the condition in which the Palestinian Arabs now find themselves.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Truck Trudeau Hereditary rule is the most risible – and the most loathsome. Lloyd Billingsley

Posted By on February 9th, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/02/truck-trudeau-lloyd-billingsley/

In the dead of winter, thousands of Canadians have been streaming into Ottawa, led by a massive convoy of truckers protesting draconian Covid mandates that have harmed their ability to earn a living. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau refused to meet with the protesters and slammed the freedom convoy as “an insult to memory and truth.” Fils Justin thus invites memories of himself and Trudeau père.  

As Edward Gibbon noted, hereditary rule is always the most risible, and apart from the connection with his father, Canadians would be hard pressed to find any merit in Justin Trudeau his own self. He has no scholarly achievement, no record of publication, and no experience running business. To adapt a phrase from Ray Bradbury’s afterword to Fahrenheit 451,  Justin Trudeau has never said anything that would make a sub-moron’s mouth twitch. On the other hand, he does have a comic side.

Earlier in his brilliant career, Justin was fond of performing in blackface, singing “The Banana Boat Song,” a hit for Harry Belafonte. Trudeau now considers this racist but the revelation prompted no resignation. So no surprise that Justin Trudeau criticized “racist flags” in the convoy and spoke out over a perceived slight to a war memorial.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

There’s Apartheid in the Holy Land, but Not in Israel Palestinian law makes selling land to Jews a crime punishable by death, often without trial. By Eugene Kontorovich

Posted By on February 9th, 2022

https://www.wsj.com/articles/theres-apartheid-in-the-holy-land-but-not-in-israel-amnesty-international-palestine-racial-discrimination-disfavored-group-11644338888?mod=opinion_lead_pos6

The report by Amnesty International accusing Israel of apartheid—a likely preview of similar moves at the United Nations and the International Criminal Court—has been widely debunked, including in these pages. Yet what is remarkable about its 200 pages of distortions is the evidence of real apartheid-like policies that Amnesty leaves out. There are reasons to be concerned about the emergence of apartheid in the Holy Land—but not the ones Amnesty cites.

The defining characteristic of apartheid—what distinguishes it from generic racial discrimination—is the rigid separation of groups in public spaces and positions of power. This is the apart in apartheid.

Thus, a sign of apartheid could be a government policy that bans real-estate sales or transactions to the disfavored group. Apartheid is suggested by policies that carve out massive zones where the disfavored group cannot live or work, create ethnically homogenous zones, and restrict the disfavored group to ghettos. One might consider it apartheid if a government enforced a policy of extrajudicial execution of members of a disfavored group.

All these policies are practiced in the West Bank and Gaza—by the Palestinian Authority government against Jews. What makes the “Israel apartheid” meme particularly despicable is that is not just a lie, it is an inversion of the truth. In all areas controlled by Israel, Jews and Arabs mix openly. Yet the Palestinian Authority has for decades ruled over Gaza and about half the West Bank—and all the areas under its jurisdiction are Jew-free.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Connecticut School Asked Eighth Graders to List Sexual Preferences during Lesson on Consent By Brittany Bernstein

Posted By on February 9th, 2022

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/connecticut-school-asked-eighth-graders-to-list-sexual-preferences-during-lesson-on-consent/

Parents in Enfield, Conn. are outraged after a health class assignment asked eighth graders to list their sexual likes and dislikes and boundaries, according to a new report.

Documents obtained by the nonprofit group Parents Defending Education show students were subjected to a lesson called “Pizza & Consent” that told students, “we can use pizza as a metaphor for sex!”

“If you’re a vegetarian, but your friend is a meat-lover, sharing a pizza is going to bring up a lot of issues. You don’t know who you can share pizza with unless you ask!” the assignment said. “The same goes with sex! You have to check in with your partner(s) and ask for their preferences.”

The assignment features a blank pizza with space to share pizza preferences “in relation to sex.” Pizza toppings were likened to sexual likes and dislikes. The assignment used “kissing” and “giving oral” as examples of toppings students could choose for their pizza.

“Obviously, you might not be able to list all of your wants, desires and boundaries, but hopefully you’ll start feeling more comfortable about discussing them,” the assignment read.

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

The Afghanistan Debacle Looks Worse and Worse By David Harsanyi

Posted By on February 9th, 2022

https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/02/the-afghanistan-debacle-looks-worse-and-worse/#slide-1

The more we learn about the administration’s Afghanistan withdrawal, the more it becomes clear that its decisions were driven by political considerations and panic.

A s the Biden administration’s chaotic and inept withdrawal from Afghanistan was unfolding in August 2021, a suicide bomber murdered 13 American servicemembers, and at least 170 Afghans, at the Abbey Gate outside Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport. It was one of the deadliest attacks on our troops in our 20 years in that nation.

“Know this,” Biden said after the bombing. “We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay.” This turned out to be face-saving political theater. Three days later, an air strike killed ten Afghans, seven of them children. Not one of the dead, as far as we know, was an “ISIS facilitator,” as the administration had alleged.

In fact, the Pentagon now says that the bombing was the work of a lone terrorist rather than a “complex” network, as the Biden administration had initially maintained. At the time, General Mark Milley not only referred to the strike as “valid” and “righteous” — let’s concede for a moment that he was basing this on the best available information — but went further to describe a “secondary explosion” and a supposed plethora of evidence justifying the bombing. None of that, it seems, was true. It seems increasingly likely that Biden was going to blow someone up to project his toughness.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Message of Canada’s Trucker Protest They are saying that it’s time for the pandemic emergency orders to end.

Posted By on February 9th, 2022

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-message-of-canadas-trucker-rebellion-covid-vaccine-mandates-restrictions-justin-trudeau-11644361250?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

Canadian truckers opposed to a Covid-19 vaccination mandate used their rigs on Monday to block the Ambassador Bridge connecting Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, the busiest international land-border crossing in North America.

This latest act in a week-long show of civil disobedience is more akin to political life in France or the U.S. That it happened in restrained Canada is a signal to the political class across the West: Large swaths of humanity are done with Covid-19 restrictions, mandates and excessive meddling in their lives. They want to go back to making their own health-risk assessments.

The Ambassador Bridge, which carries some $323 million in goods daily in cross-border trade and an estimated $137 billion last year, reopened Tuesday morning. Yet truckers continue their protest in Ottawa, which is disturbing the peace and worse in that usually peaceable Canadian capital.

The truckers should be prosecuted if they break the law, as we argued for Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matters protesters on the left. But as the Omicron virus shows itself to be less lethal and positive test rates fall, the truckers are sending a message to democratic governments that it’s time for the pandemic emergency orders to end.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Liz Peek:’Authorities’ panic over COVID protests, dissent – here’s why Challenges to lockdowns and mask mandates have been viewed as undermining society

Posted By on February 9th, 2022

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/authorities-panic-covid-protests-dissent-liz-peek

What are the “authorities” so afraid of?  

Why are Canadian truckers protesting vaccine mandates considered a threat? The Freedom Convoy has garnered enormous popular support but is condemned by the liberal media and dismissed by Canada’s unpopular Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as a “small fringe minority.” 

Prodded by Canadian authorities, GoFundMe moved to confiscate and redistribute $10 million raised to support the drivers, prompting such outrage that they pivoted to returning the money to the original donors. A like-minded U.S. group, “Convoy to DC 2022,” attracted 130,000 members to its Facebook page before it was taken down by the social media giant.  

Meanwhile, Joe Rogan has come under blistering attack for hosting on his podcast a cardiologist and infectious disease expert who questions the efficacy and safety of the COVID vaccines. Rogan is viewed as such a threat that the White House – in effect, the president of the United States – is trying to shut him down. 

You have to wonder, why is the establishment in full panic mode every time someone challenges their COVID orthodoxy?  

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Andrew Cuomo Says He Feels ‘Vindicated’ and Won’t Rule Out a Political Comeback By Rick Moran

Posted By on February 8th, 2022

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2022/02/08/andrew-cuomo-says-he-feels-vindicated-and-wont-rule-out-a-political-comeback-n1557305

In the last several weeks, five New York district attorneys announced they were not going to prosecute former governor Andrew Cuomo on sexual misconduct charges. The fact that sexual misconduct is very difficult to prove in court — especially against a political heavyweight like Cuomo — played a large role in the DAs’ decisions not to go to trial.

Several of those prosecutors went out of their way to say that not pursuing charges against Cuomo should not take away from the credibility of the women who accused him.

Nevertheless, Cuomo has declared that he’s been “vindicated” and may seek office again.

The Hill:

Cuomo, however, sees the decisions from the district attorneys as absolving him from allegations, despite the state attorney general releasing a report last year that concluded the then-governor had sexually harassed 11 women — the report that led to his resignation in August.

“It turns out in a remarkably short period of time that it did become all bogus. 11 became zero,” Cuomo told Bloomberg in a telephone interview on Friday.

“If you do an honest summary, which is what I get from people on the street, I have been vindicated,” he added.