ELECTIONS, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

On the filibuster, Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin came through in the crunch By Andrea Widburg

Posted By on January 14th, 2022

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/01/on_the_filibuster_kyrsten_sinema_and_joe_manchin_came_through_in_the_crunch.html

Almost a year ago, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell agreed with majority leader Chuck Schumer to an equal power-sharing agreement for the upcoming session, reflecting the 50-50 split between the parties (with Kamala Harris as the tie-breaking vote). In exchange, McConnell agreed to allow the question of the filibuster’s continued existence to be brought up to a vote. He did so because Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema promised not to end the filibuster. That was an incredible gamble but, on Thursday, Manchin and Sinema came through on a filibuster vote. A furious Biden started hollering about the horrors of life without federalizing American elections and made it clear Democrats will keep coming back.

I must admit that I was dubious that either Manchin or Sinema would keep the promise to protect the filibuster. I was certain that they’d find a reason to go back on their word and end the 216-year-old procedural device that blocks a minute majority (such as the Democrats’ majority thanks only to Harris’s vote) from running away with legislation. But they didn’t. If I were in the room with them, I’d apologize for doubting them.

After explaining why she supports the “For The People Act” (and she’s completely wrong on that, as I discuss briefly, below), Sinema elegantly explained why she would not vote to end the filibuster:

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

If the U.S. and Russia are Implacable Foes, Then All Lines of Inquiry Lead to NATO By Alexander Markovsky and Ted Belman

Posted By on January 14th, 2022

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/01/if_the_us_and_russia_are_implacable_foes_then_all_lines_of_inquiry_lead_to_nato.html

In 1961, as a young academic Henry Kissinger had an opportunity to interview President Harry Truman. He asked the former president what in his presidency had made him most proud.

Truman replied, “That we totally defeated our enemies and then brought them back to the community of nations.”

Unfortunately, the U.S. chose not to emulate Truman’s achievement in the years that followed. With the disintegration of the Warsaw Pact, the military threat to Western Europe had ended, but NATO alliance did not disband itself. Mission accomplished was not good news for the military alliance — it needed new enemies and a new mission for self-preservation.

Indeed, NATO had no difficulty adjusting to the emerging world order. A new enemy was invented — Russia was to be treated as a descendant of the “evil empire.” The concept of an alliance was quietly converted into a doctrine of collective security.  The difference is that while alliances are aimed at a specific threat and define the obligation of each partner in case of belligerency, collective security is an ambiguous concept that defines no specific threat and is designed to resist any aggression anywhere in the world. In this new mission, NATO equated peace and security with expanding democratic gains and the proliferation of American values.

In conformance with a new disposition, in the exultant atmosphere of the end of the Cold War, when Russia’s executive power was in a state of paralysis and its military in a state of despair, NATO hastily extended membership to the countries of former Soviet satellite orbit. The projection of a hostile military alliance eastward to within several hundred miles of Moscow could not be long tolerated by Russia irrespective invocations of goodwill.

After the restoration of her economy and years of heavy investment into the modernization of its armed forces, Russia feels strong enough to confront what she considers a serious threat to her security.

Putin proclaimed his strategy, which was akin to a Russified Monroe Doctrine. It aimed to reassert Russian hegemony around its perimeter, or what Russia has long called its “near abroad.” 

Russia’s fear is not unfounded. “If you know a country’s geography, you can understand and predict its foreign policy,” said Napoleon.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Biden Is Out Of Touch With Reality On Inflation

Posted By on January 14th, 2022

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/01/14/biden-is-out-of-touch-with-reality-on-inflation/

These days, when President Joe Biden isn’t lying about being arrested during the Civil Rights struggles of the 1960s, he’s telling equally large fibs about “making progress” on inflation and the economy. Truth is, in the space of less than a year, he’s turned a recovering economy into dross.

Thursday brought yet more disastrous news about the “transitory” upsurge in inflation the media shills and Biden administration economic advisers talk about.

After Wednesday’s consumer price data showed a 7% rise in consumer prices for 2021, the highest since 1982, came worse news for producer prices: They rose a record 9.7% last year, as supply-chain issues and a massive burst of money printing by the Fed created a classic case of too much money chasing too few goods.

Yet, in a statement Wednesday, Biden claimed “we are making progress in slowing the rate of price increases.”

“Progress?” Really? As the New York Post helpfully points out: “Although Biden claimed food prices were falling, the new Consumer Price Index data indicate that food prices actually increased by 0.5% from November to December, up in total 6.3% over 12 months. The monthly rate of increase slowed from 0.7% in November.”

The supply-chain disruption and resulting shortages are also putting pressure on prices. Biden seems to want to simply declare victory and go home, saying just before Christmas: “The much-predicted crisis didn’t occur. Packages are moving. Gifts are being delivered. Shelves are not empty.”

White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain took it a step further, describing the supply-chain chaos as “an overhyped narrative.”

Recall, it was a mere six months ago that Biden poo-poohed the very idea of inflation, claiming that “no serious economist” believed there was a problem.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

“It Can Happen Here, But Not for the Reasons You Might Think” Sydney Williams

Posted By on January 14th, 2022

http://www.swtotd.blogspot.com

In 1935, while Nazism and Fascism swept across Europe, Sinclair Lewis published a novel, “It Can’t Happen Here.” The story was based on Huey Long, then governor of Louisiana. It tells the story of how “Buzz” Windrip, running on a populist platform and portraying himself as a champion of traditional values, defeats FDR at the Democratic convention and then goes on to win the 1936 election for President. He soon takes complete control of government and, with a paramilitary force, like that of Hitler’s and Mussolini’s, he imposes totalitarian rule.

Is Lewis’ story a lesson for today? Despite accusations from Democrats, I suspect the threat to democracy is more likely to emerge from left field. As Gerard Baker put it in Tuesday’s The Wall Street Journal, regarding Democrats’ desire to preserve political power as we head toward the mid-terms: “…the identification of the domestic opposition as a seditious enemy may be their last, best hope of salvaging something.” After a failed start to his Presidency, it is all Mr. Biden has left.

There is a natural tendency to look to the past as a guide for dealing with today and tomorrow. Professor George Santayana (1863-1952), in his 1905 book Reason in Common Sense, warned: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Wise advice, but perspective is also needed. Politics is a competitive sport, appealing to many who make it their life’s work. Power, prestige and money are on the line. It was unsurprising when outsider Donald Trump, acting as a populist and portraying himself as a patriot and champion of middle-American values, was deemed a threat to democracy. He was narcissistic and loose with facts, and he fed off the resentment of many middle-Americans toward coastal elitists who dominate Washington’s bureaucracies, especially its intelligence agencies, run universities, manage media and entertainment companies, professional sports, Wall Street and Silicon Valley. But was Trump a threat to our democratic system? I think not. Too many forces were assembled against him.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Ten Statistics to Ruin Your Day By Gideon Isaac

Posted By on January 14th, 2022

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/01/ten_statistics_to_ruin_your_day.html

Over the past few years, I’ve encountered various statistics that ruined my day, so to spread the pain, I’ve collected a few here.  Let’s start with:

The nuclear family fades in the USA:

According to a Pew Research study, the United States has the highest number of children living in single-parent households.  Almost one-fourth (23%) of children in the U.S. under the age of 18 live with one parent and no other adult, which is the highest in the world.

Astronomical debt:

Our national debt in 2021 was over 28 trillion dollars.  This was 122% of GDP.  That ratio is important because investors worry about default when the debt-to-GDP ratio is greater than 77% — that’s the tipping point.  To give you an idea of how big a trillion is, the sun is less than half a trillion feet away from the Earth.

Tens of millions can’t read:

More than 30 million adults in the United States cannot read, write, or do basic math above a third-grade level.

But our competitors can read:

China in 2015 awarded 1.2 million bachelor’s degrees in science and engineering, according to the National Science Foundation, six times the number in the United States, and the absolute number of Chinese graduates, as well as the ratio of Chinese to American graduates, have grown since then.

We’re not having kids:

ISRAEL Comments turned off

An anti-Israel Tu Bishvat tribute to remember By Ruthie Blum

Posted By on January 14th, 2022

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-692470

As is customary ahead of Tu Bishvat, Israelis have begun planting trees in honor of the transition from winter to spring. But the traditionally cheerful endeavor was marred on Tuesday, exactly a week before the actual date of the agricultural/spiritual-Jewish festival, by an Arab protest in the Negev. 

The excuse for the demonstration, which turned violent, was the clearing of land in the Moleda area of the region to make way for the saplings. Resident Bedouin responded to the event by throwing rocks at police officers deployed to protect representatives of Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund, the group that organized the happening. 

Some angry Arabs also threw rocks at cars on the adjacent highway, blocked a train and set a vehicle on fire. Two policemen were reported wounded in the fray, and 18 rioters were arrested.

Thankfully, few people were seriously hurt. The episode itself was more than painful, however, as the protest against the tree-planting in the Negev was led by the Ra’am (United Arab List) Party, which is part of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s government. 

Ra’am chairman Mansour Abbas even threatened to stop voting with his coalition partners if the planting in the “disputed land” continues.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Arab Racism and the ‘Jewish State’ by Khaled Abu Toameh

Posted By on January 13th, 2022

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18098/arabs-racism-israel

First, Mansour Abbas did not “call” on the Palestinian people to recognize Israel. He simply stated the fact that Israel was “born as a Jewish state” and that “it will remain a Jewish state.”

Second, there is no connection between accepting Israel’s Jewish identity and the Islamic holy sites, including the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Since 1967, in fact, Israel has allowed the Islamic religious authorities to have exclusive control over the mosque and other Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem.

Remarkably, since the reunification of Jerusalem in 1967, the city has become a haven for coexistence and revitalized religious and cultural expression for all faiths. Freedom of worship at all holy sites is guaranteed for the faithful of all three monotheistic religions.

Ironically, the Palestinian leadership’s false claim that Israel is seeking to “harm” the al-Aqsa Mosque came as Palestinians made two attempts to set fire to Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus, only because it is frequented by Jewish worshippers. The attempts, according to reports in the Palestinian media, were foiled at the last minute by the Palestinian security forces.

Third, the Palestinian leadership’s claim that recognition of Israel as a Jewish state “contradicts religion and history” should be seen in the context of the Palestinians’ denial of any traces of Judaism in Jerusalem.

Notably, while the PA says that it is strongly opposed to the idea of Israel being a Jewish state, it has no problem defining itself as “Arab” and “Islamic.”

There are 56 countries in which Islam plays a significant role. Many of them are countries with Islam as the state religion.

The constitutions of several Arab countries, including Egypt, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Algeria, Oman and Yemen, define them as Arab states where Islam is the religion of the state.

It is worth considering the extreme hypocrisy of this situation: the Arabs (and the Palestinians) continue their long-held policy of defining their countries as “Arab” and “Islamic,” while they deny Israel the right to refer to itself what it always has been — the Jewish state.

This does not bode well for any peace process that the Biden administration is hoping to revive between the Palestinians and Israel.

Those who refuse to recognize Israel as a Jewish state are actually admitting that they do not believe in Israel’s right to exist.

Palestinians and other Arabs are furious because Mansour Abbas — an Arab member of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, and head of the United List Party — announced that he recognizes Israel as a Jewish state.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Money for Indoctrination By John Stossel

Posted By on January 13th, 2022

https://pjmedia.com/columns/john-stossel/2022/01/12/money-for-indoctrination-n154

Glenn Youngkin recently was elected Virginia’s governor partly because he promised to ban teaching of CRT.

CRT stands for critical race theory, which argues that every American institution upholds white supremacy.

Before Youngkin’s surprise victory, the media mocked him for complaining about CRT.

NBC’s Nicolle Wallace said it isn’t even taught in public schools. “That is like us banning the ghosts!” she laughed.

She is wrong.

In my new video, journalist Asra Nomani reveals some rather creepy CRT lessons that are taught in many schools.

Nomani filed Freedom of Information Act requests that forced school districts to reveal how they pay consultants to spread critical race theory.

“We found 300-plus contracts,” says Nomani. “Every day, I’m getting a new contract. For them to deny it is just part of their campaign.”

A CNN guest, history teacher Keziah Ridgeway, admits that CRT influences how some teachers teach. “That’s a good thing, right?” she says. “Because race and racism is literally the building blocks of this country.”

Really? The building block?

No!

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Disgraced FBI No. 2 Calls For Feds To Treat ‘Mainstream’ Conservatives Like Domestic Terrorists By: Evita Duffy

Posted By on January 13th, 2022

https://thefederalist.com/2022/01/10/disgraced-fbi-no-2-andrew-mccabe-calls-for-feds-to-treat-mainstream-conservatives-like-domestic-terrorists/

To Andrew McCabe, January 6 is the key to implementing frighteningly despotic policies that target conservatives.

Have you ever wondered what disgraced former deputy FBI directors do after trying to stage a coup and lying under oath? Apparently, they give talks about “protecting democracy” at top-rated institutions of higher learning. Indeed, this last Thursday the University of Chicago invited former deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe to join a panel of partisans to discuss the Jan 6 “insurrection.” 

McCabe was fired as the deputy FBI director for leaking sensitive information about an investigation into the Clinton Foundation and then lying about it under oath. He also took part in spying on the Donald Trump campaign through a secret warrant granted by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court.

The dossier he used to obtain the surveillance warrant was funded by Hillary Clinton’s campaign and, in an ironic twist, was itself the product of Russian disinformation. McCabe and his allies in corporate media justified all sorts of similar illegal and undemocratic tactics to discredit and attempt to unseat President Trump. 

Of course, neither the University of Chicago nor McCabe acknowledged the irony in him discussing the integrity of “democracy” in America on Thursday evening. In fact, what McCabe said at the University of Chicago event on Jan. 6, 2022 is even more shocking than his invitation to speak in the first place. Below are four of the most appalling assertions and policy proposals McCabe made at the public event.

1. Conservatives Are in The Same Category As Islamic Terrorists 

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Joe Biden’s Approval Rating Sinks to New Low of 33 Percent in Shock Poll By Debra Heine

Posted By on January 13th, 2022

https://amgreatness.com/2022/01/12/joe-bidens-approval-rating-sinks-to-new-low-of-33-percent-in-shock-poll/

Joe Biden has reached a new low in popularity according to a new poll released on Wednesday.

Despite the corporate media’s liberal bias, only 33 percent of voters approve of Joe Biden’s job performance, according to a Quinnipiac University survey.

Spelling doom for Democrats, only 25 percent of independent voters approve of Biden. Congressional Democrats have uniformly supported Biden’s radical agenda.

Among Democrats in the poll, 75 percent approve, 14 percent disapprove and 11 percent did not offer an opinion, down 11 points from two months ago.

The poll also showed that Biden is deeply unpopular with white men and women, young voters and with Hispanics.