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Why Putin Has Not Been Deterred Exasperated Americans fear Vladimir Putin is deterred neither by sanctions nor by arms sales but follows only his own sense of cost-to-benefit self-interest. By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on January 27th, 2022

https://amgreatness.com/2022/01/26/why-putin-has-not-been-deterred/

Americans want an autonomous Ukraine to survive. They hope the West can stop Russian President Vladimir Putin’s strangulation of both Ukraine and NATO. 

Yet Americans do not want their troops to venture across the world to Europe’s backyard to fight nuclear Russia to ensure that Ukraine stays independent. 

Most Americans oppose the notion that Russia can simply dictate the future of Ukraine. 

Yet Americans also grudgingly accept that Ukraine was often historically part of Russia. During World War II, it was the bloody scene of joint Russian-Ukrainian sacrifices—over 5 million killed—to defeat the Nazi German invasion. 

Americans publicly support NATO. 

Yet most Americas privately worry that NATO has become diplomatically impotent and a military mirage—a modern League of Nations. 

NATO members have a collective GDP seven times larger than Russia’s. Their aggregate population is 1 billion. Yet the majority will not spend enough on defense to deter their weaker enemies. 

The second largest NATO member, Turkey, is closer to Russia than to the United States. Its people poll anti-American. 

Germany is NATO’s richest European member and the power behind the European Union. Yet Germany will soon be dependent on imported Russian natural gas for much of its energy needs. 

In a recent Pew Research Center poll, 70 percent of Germans voiced a desire for more cooperation with Russia. Most Americans poll the exact opposite. 

Worse, 60 percent of Germans oppose going to the aid of any NATO country in time of war. Over 70 percent of Germans term their relationship with the United States as “bad.” 

We can translate all these disturbing results in the following manner: The German and Turkish people like or trust Russia more than they do their own NATO patron, America. 

They would not support participating in any NATO joint military effort against even an invading Russia—even, or especially, if spearheaded by an unpopular United States. 

So, assume that NATO’s key two members are either indifferent to the fate of nearby Ukraine, or sympathetic to Russia’s professed grievances—or both. 

Indeed, most Americans fear that if Ukraine ever became a NATO member, Putin might be even more eager to test its sovereignty. 

Putin assumes that not all NATO members would intervene to help an attacked Ukraine, as required by their mutual defense obligations under Article 5. 

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A Short History of Medicine and Megalomania By Linda Goudsmit

Posted By on January 27th, 2022

https://lobbyistsforcitizens.com/2022/01/27/a-short-history-of-medicine-and-megalomania/

It is helpful to understand the history of medicine, and how it shifted in the early 1900s from the miasma theory of disease to the germ theory of disease. The miasma theory held that sickness was caused by infectious mists or noxious vapors emanating from dirty air and water. You could smell the problem. In many cases this was true, but when it was discovered that many pathogens were invisible and without odor, medicine shifted to the germ theory. 

All this would not have been a problem without John D. Rockefeller, who in the early 1900s was forced to break up his monopoly of Standard oil and reinvest his money. He went into the pharmaceutical business and began funding medical schools across the country. Even this would not have been a problem if Rockefeller had actually been an honest man and a humanitarian. Instead, he was a globalist and a eugenicist without a moral compass who had no problem wiping out populations in Africa where his foundations supplied the money for scientific experiments on unsuspecting black populations.

The irony for me is that holistic medicine was actually the original western medicine with the objective of strengthening the immune system to fight off pathogen in the environment. It is traditional western medicine that is the “alternative” medicine because its fundamental premise is that medications are required to be healthy. I don’t think so. Everything is connected. Consider the chemical glyphosate (Roundup) which was introduced into the environment in the 1970s. Since that time the hormone-disrupting chemical has become ubiquitous. There are more than 750 products with glyphosate in them. Glyphosate is now found in drinking water. The effeminizing effects of hormone-disrupting chemicals can be seen while shopping at Publix! Just look around you – man boobs are not funny. They are symptomatic of hormone dysregulation. 40% of breast reductions are done on men! 

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Evil Florida Except … the state’s good numbers don’t fit the establishment media’s narrative. John Stossel

Posted By on January 27th, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/01/evil-florida-john-stossel/

Omicron spreads. The media say, “Governments must act!”

Many have, bringing back mask mandates and closing schools.

Do these rules work?

No.

My new video shows why Florida’s approach is better.

Gov. Ron DeSantis ended pandemic restrictions last spring and refuses to impose new ones. “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result,” he said. Lockdown states let “hysteria drive them to do really damaging things.”

The media hate him for saying things like that.

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Forbidden Campus Speech Who decides what words can and cannot be used in teaching? Richard L. Cravatts

Posted By on January 27th, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/01/forbidden-campus-speech-richard-l-cravatts/

As difficult as it is to believe that someone on a contemporary university campus could be so socially tone-deaf that they would publicly utter an ethnic slur, professors do regularly find themselves the target of indignant parties they have “harmed” with their careless, often inappropriate speech.

Consider, for instance, the case of Jackie Buell, an assistant professor in Ohio State University’s School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, who made an outrageous anti-Semitic slur when she referred to “Jewing down” people in an October 18th online lecture.

“Anybody been to Mexico?” Buell said in a video leaked by a student.

“You know, I mean, Jewing down is a way of the world down there, right? You want to buy a blanket and (it) has $5 on it, and you say, ‘I’ll give you $2 for it.’ They say, ‘No.’ You just start walking away. They say ‘Three dollar,’ right? They just want to get what they can out of it. But now they come to this country. We get people that come in the market all the time that want to Jew us down on the vegetables, right?” [Emphasis added.]

This may well be an example of irresponsible, unconscious anti-Semitism, especially given the fact that professor Buell offered up a lame, almost unbelievable excuse for her utterances when she weakly apologized by saying that she had not intended “to be offensive to any particular group,” presumably meaning Jews in particular, and that, she stupefyingly contended, “I have never associated the word ‘Jew’ with any particular person or group.” 

HOMELAND SECURITY, IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

AG Garland Ignores Vital Immigration Law Enforcement Crippling national security and public safety. Michael Cutler

Posted By on January 27th, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/01/ag-garland-ignores-vital-immigration-law-michael-cutler/

Rampant violent crime across the United States, particularly in cities and states run by radical leftist mayors and governors is of great concern to Americans everywhere and is an outgrowth of the insanity of the defund police movement and “criminal justice reform” which has led to violent criminals being released without bail causing carnage at unprecedented levels.

Perhaps in response to this crisis, on January 21, 2022 the Department of Justice issued a press release:  Attorney General Merrick B. Garland Delivers Remarks at the U.S. Conference of Mayors that provided a transcript of his remarks as they were delivered.

It is important that, as you read the transcript, to remember that the Attorney General of the United States is also the chief law enforcement officer of the United States.  Many federal law enforcement agencies operate under the aegis of the Justice Department but even those agencies that operate under the auspices of other agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security, and the Treasury Department still rely on the federal prosecutors of the Justice Department they partner with to further criminal investigations and prosecutions for all crimes comprehended under federal statutes.

Violations of federal criminal laws are prosecuted by federal prosecutors who are assigned to the U.S. Attorney’s offices located across the United States.

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Turkey: Erdoğan’s Hoax Charm Offensive by Burak Bekdil

Posted By on January 27th, 2022

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18086/turkey-erdogan-hoax

The Turks’ per capita GDP has been falling for the seventh consecutive year, from $12,500 in 2012 to slightly more than $7,000 this year. The Turkish lira has lost more than half its value against major Western currencies in just the past three months.

“The problem with the narrative is there is no evidence Ankara wants better ties or is willing to do anything in which Israel benefits… It [Ankara] thus wants ‘reconciliation’ without actually doing anything.”— Seth J. Frantzman, The Jerusalem Post, December 5 , 2021.

Erdoğan’s charm offensive to win hearts and minds in Washington, however, is not limited to changing his aggressive course against Israel or unfriendly Gulf states.

U.S. President Joe Biden has persistently encouraged Turkey to normalize diplomatic relations with Armenia…. What is the hoax here? Erdoğan’s move to pretend that Turkey is now taking steps for normalization is fake. He will start a process that he never intends never to complete — just in case other efforts might have gone unnoticed in Washington.

The ailing Turkish economy is forcing Erdoğan to reconcile with adversaries, and reconciliation means these adversaries will demand that Erdogan stop supporting Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. That will be the case “in the short-term.” At the first opportunity, however, Erdogan will abandon the reconciliation and resume his support for these terrorist groups.

Erdoğan’s pragmatist-self has only appeared after 12 or so years, as he prepares to fight for his political survival in the 2023 elections. If he feels Gulf money and some kind of U.S. political support has bolstered the Turkish economy sufficiently for him to win in 2023, he will take off his reconciliatory mask and put his usual Islamist shirt back on.

The province of Konya in central Anatolia has historically been a bastion of extreme conservatism and political Islam — meaning supporters of Turkey’s Islamist strongman Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. In the presidential elections of 2018, in this industrial city, he won 75% of the vote.

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John Durham Puts Hillary Clinton on Notice in New Filing: ‘Active, Ongoing Criminal Investigation’

Posted By on January 27th, 2022

https://slaynews.com/news/john-durham-puts-hillary-clinton-on-notice-in-new-filing-active-ongoing-criminal-investigation/

Special Counsel John Durham has put Hillary Clinton, James Comey, Jake Sullivan, and others on notice by calling his investigation into the Trump Russia story an “active, ongoing criminal investigation,” three times, in a new court filing.

Durham has been following the evidence and all signs point to the Hillary Clinton campaign.

Clinton’s former lawyer, Michael Sussmann, will stand trial for lying to the FBI this spring.

Senior Legal Affairs Reporter at POLITICO, Josh Gerstein, said:

“Special Counsel John Durham court filing calls his probe ‘active, ongoing criminal investigation’ 3 times.

“Also says indicted lawyer Michael Sussmann is seeking info on NYT in-person meeting with the FBI

“Also says Sussmann met w/DOJ OIG Horowitz in March 2017 about the alleged Alfa bank/Trump tower cyber link.

“Durham’s office acknowledges they had no idea about this meeting before charging Sussmann.”

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Scared, Stupid, And Easily Manipulated: What COVID Has Revealed About The Nation’s Young

Posted By on January 27th, 2022

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/01/27/scared-stupid-and-easily-manipulated-what-covid-has-revealed-about-the-nations-young/

The saying goes that crises reveal your true nature. If that’s the case, we are in big trouble, because what COVID has revealed about young people in America is not good.

A new Morning Consult poll out this week finds that young people are the most worried about getting COVID of any age group — even though their risk from the disease is negligible.

At the other end of the spectrum, the elderly are much less worried, even though they are at the highest risk of death.

The poll found that 23% of those between ages 18-34 are “very worried about getting sick from COVID-19 within the next year.” That’s the highest of any of the age groups broken out by the survey. Another 35% are “somewhat” worried. Just 38% say they aren’t worried.

Among those 65 and older, in contrast, only 17% are “very worried,” while 39% aren’t worried.

Why in the world are young people so terrified of COVID?

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USA TODAY Opinion Why are Americans confused about COVID? Blame it on poor communication. James Davis

Posted By on January 27th, 2022

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2022/01/26/cdc-covid-messaging-problems-fauci-rochelle-walensky/6563468001/?gnt-cfr=1

CDC chief Rochelle Walensky seeks professional coaching, but public needs more than sleek image. Not hyping threats or demonizing skeptics is a start

Americans don’t trust their public health experts, a serious problem in the best of times but downright dangerous amid a pandemic. Just 44% of Americans trust in the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, while only 40% trust Dr. Anthony Fauci (the nation’s point man on all things COVID) according to an NBC News survey conducted this month. Trust in politicians is even lower.

It’s perfectly understandable why Americans feel this way. At all levels, our public health agencies have been using contradicting claims and supposition masquerading as fact. And it’s not hard to diagnose the root of the problem. To quote the Captain’s speech in “Cool Hand Luke,” “what we’ve got here is failure to communicate.”

Trust and public health

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Biden’s Criteria for Replacing Stephen Breyer His promise to appoint only a black woman is the kind of quota the justices rejected in Bakke. By Jonathan Turley

Posted By on January 27th, 2022

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-college-couldnt-get-away-bidens-high-court-criteria-supreme-court-racial-preferences-justice-breyer-11643236096?mod=opinion_lead_pos5

The announcement of Justice Stephen Breyer’s retirement has whistled the start of that Washington blood sport known as a Supreme Court confirmation. While the filibuster-free process guarantees President Joe Biden that he has the votes to pick anyone acceptable to all Senate Democrats, this fight is different from any in history in one respect. As a candidate, Mr. Biden pledged to select the next justice first and foremost on race and sex.

“I’m looking forward to making sure there’s a black woman on the Supreme Court, to make sure we, in fact, get every representation,” he said in a South Carolina debate. This reportedly helped win him the key endorsement of Rep. Jim Clyburn, the House majority whip.

With the court set to rule on racial preferences in college admissions, it raises the question of whether it is appropriate for a politician to use a criterion that the court itself has found unconstitutional for public educational institutions and unlawful for businesses.

It also means Mr. Biden’s short list will be much shorter than usual. The three leading candidates are Justice Leondra Krueger of the California Supreme Court, U.S. Circuit Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson and U.S. District Judge Michelle Childs. These are all worthy candidates who could have been considered for any vacancy without declaring that they were qualified by virtue of filling a quota—an unfortunate implication for the ultimate nominee.