NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

‘Soft’ Science Has No Place in Government Policymaking Henry I. Miller and Andrew I. Fillat

Posted By on March 17th, 2021

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/03/16/soft-science-has-no-place-in-government-policymaking/

‘Science, at its core, is a social phenomenon.” This observation, from Alondra Nelson, the newly appointed deputy director of President Joe Biden’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), certainly qualifies for a prominent place in the Pantheon of Inane Statements. The core of science is, in fact, the scientific method – posing and testing hypotheses; carefully gathering, examining, and generating experimental evidence; and finally, synthesizing all the available information into logical conclusions.

Nelson’s assertion is inauspicious, but perhaps we should not be too surprised by a “squishy” statement from someone whose undergraduate degree was in sociology, and her doctorate, in “American Studies.” What, we wonder, qualifies her to be deputy director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy? And how does it comport with Biden’s commitment always to rely on “science and truth.” We suspect it is an example of how lip-service to science has invaded the domain of real science.

“Hard” sciences are a framework for understanding physical, chemical, sub-atomic, biological, and other natural or even manmade phenomena. The disciplines of physics, chemistry, biology, and especially mathematics, have nothing to do with society as such, because the phenomena they characterize exist independently of humans. Mathematics is typically the language of this framework, whether it is arcane calculus, probability theory, combinatorics, topology, or some other branch well understood by only a very select group.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Democrats Are Forever Slaves To Wretched Ideas

Posted By on March 17th, 2021

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/03/17/democrats-are-forever-slaves-to-wretched-ideas/

A White House aide wants the president “to start acting now” on reparations without congressional approval. But not even the consent of the House and Senate would legitimize reparations. It’s a policy so divisive, and so impossible to implement, that the idea, which is an ugly societal wedge of its own, needs to be dropped and never brought up again.

While decent Americans have moved past racial politics and are starving for genuine unity, senior adviser Cedric Richmond “sees first-term progress on reparations,” reports Axios, which recently interviewed the director of the White House Office of Public Engagement.

“We have to start breaking down systemic racism and barriers that have held people of color back and especially African Americans,” Richmond said. “We have to do stuff now.”

The U.S. House is considering a bill with 169 cosponsors that “establishes the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans.” The panel would “examine slavery and discrimination in the colonies and the United States from 1619 to the present and recommend appropriate remedies.” A companion bill has also been introduced in the Senate.

Biden, according to his press secretary, “certainly would support a study of reparations,” and Vice President Kamala Harris has publicly endorsed a committee that would explore reparations. Neither of which is a surprise. Just as they can never let a crisis go to waste, Democrats are unable to resist virtue-signaling, and in some cases outright punitive measures against their countrymen, whether warranted or not.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Kim Jong Un’s Sister Warns U.S. Not to Cause a Stink With North Korea Kim Yo Jong takes again to state media to vent anger over computer-simulated U.S.-South Korea military exercises by Timothy Martin

Posted By on March 17th, 2021

https://www.wsj.com/articles/kim-jong-uns-sister-warns-u-s-not-to-cause-a-stink-with-north-korea-11615901802

SEOUL— Kim Jong Un’s sister warned that the U.S. should avoid causing a stink with North Korea if the two countries are to enjoy a peaceful relationship, as a pair of top Biden administration officials traveled to the region.

In a Tuesday state-media report, Kim Yo Jong, the younger sister of the North Korean dictator, railed against combined military exercises between the U.S. and South Korea that began last week. The trainings have for years been scaled-down affairs, having moved to computer simulations. But the Kim Jong Un regime has long been irked by the exercises, choosing to view them as U.S. hostilities.

Ms. Kim mostly levied insults at the Seoul government and didn’t mention President Biden by name. But she singled out the new U.S. administration, which she said has been “trying hard to give off [a] powder smell in our land,” according to the English language version of the report.

“If it wants to sleep in peace for [the] coming four years, it had better refrain from causing a stink at its first step,” said Ms. Kim, deputy director of the North’s propaganda and agitation department.

Ms. Kim has taken on a more elevated role in recent years, serving as Pyongyang’s mouthpiece for relations with the U.S. and South Korea. She hadn’t issued a statement since December, when she attacked South Korea’s then-foreign minister for casting doubts about the legitimacy of North Korea’s claims of having zero Covid-19 cases.

The North Korean state-media missive, a hallmark of the regime’s foreign affairs, came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin were in Japan, with plans to next travel together to South Korea. The visits represent the first foreign trip for each. North Korea’s denuclearization is a key focus for the stops in Tokyo and Seoul.

MEDIA Comments turned off

Is Something Dying in Darkness at the Washington Post? The newspaper corrects its story on a famous Trump phone call. James Freeman

Posted By on March 17th, 2021

https://www.wsj.com/articles/is-something-dying-in-darkness-at-the-washington-post-11615926067?mod=opinion_lead_pos11

Misleading media coverage about Donald Trump and his supporters has been so common in this era that perhaps it no longer qualifies as news. But it can still do harm to public understanding of national events.

The Washington Post has recently made a significant change to a story it published in January, which now carries the following notice at the top:

Correction: Two months after publication of this story, the Georgia secretary of state released an audio recording of President Donald Trump’s December phone call with the state’s top elections investigator. The recording revealed that The Post misquoted Trump’s comments on the call, based on information provided by a source. Trump did not tell the investigator to “find the fraud” or say she would be “a national hero” if she did so. Instead, Trump urged the investigator to scrutinize ballots in Fulton County, Ga., asserting she would find “dishonesty” there. He also told her that she had “the most important job in the country right now.” …The headline and text of this story have been corrected to remove quotes misattributed to Trump.

The Post was forced to amend its story by last week’s publication of a recording of the phone call by the Journal’s Cameron McWhirter.

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

The Hole in Biden’s China Strategy: Central Asia Both Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan could help the U.S. combat Beijing and advance human rights. By Kamran Bokhari

Posted By on March 17th, 2021

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-hole-in-bidens-china-strategy-central-asia-11615934414?mod=opinion_lead_pos7

The brewing competition between the U.S. and China is the defining conflict of the 21st century. The White House’s recent Interim National Security Strategic Guidance Document, crafted to convey President Biden’s vision for how America will engage with the world, is all about the U.S. vs. China. Yet it fails to mention the region where America has its lightest footprint on the planet: Central Asia.

China is building a land bridge to Europe and the Middle East that runs through Central Asia. The new administration will have to account for the region in its strategic thinking if it hopes to re-engage the world after four years of President Trump’s “America First” policy.

The low priority that Mr. Biden’s team assigns to Central Asia is a legacy of successive administrations dating to the 1991 implosion of the Soviet Union. The U.S. has since engaged Central Asia, but only in a tactical or transactional manner. Take the 2015 establishment of the C5+1. This U.S.-run diplomatic forum has continued to be the channel through which Washington distributes aid to and organizes meetings between the five Central Asian states: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. But it hasn’t brought Washington anywhere close to being able to compete with Beijing and Moscow in the region.

Thirty years since the U.S. gained access to Central Asia, long tucked away in the Kremlin’s shadow, it is time to develop a broader strategy for the region—one that takes into consideration the rapidly evolving geopolitics in Eurasia, as Beijing seeks to fill the vacuum created by Russia’s receding influence.

CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

BIDEN’S SELLOUT TO THE MEXICAN DRUG CARTEL

Posted By on March 17th, 2021

https://www.creators.com/read/daily-editorials/03/21/has-joe-biden-sold-america-out-to-the-mexican-drug-cartels-f3261#increaseFont

I told you so. It’s become crystal clear I was right on the money. I’ve said for two years now on my national radio show that the best thing that could ever happen for the Mexican drug cartels would be a Democratic presidential victory.

Mexican drug kingpins have waited their entire lives for this fantasy. They must be singing, dancing and toasting champagne right now, because President Joe Biden is the greatest gift ever bestowed upon the Mexican cartels.

Experts estimated the money made on drug trafficking by the cartels at around $500 billion a year. That’s half a trillion dollars a year — “trillion” with a T.

Who quotes that figure? Republican senators. See what Georgia Sen. David Purdue said in 2019: “At half a trillion dollars — $500 billion — that makes the cartel business and the drug traffic just in Mexico alone coming across to the United States bigger than Walmart, to put it in perspective. So this is larger than our largest companies.”

But that figure is bipartisan. Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein quotes a figure in a similar range: “The illicit drug trade is a business, valued at anywhere between $426 and $652 billion.”

That was all before Joe Biden’s lax open-borders policies.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Georgia Judge Indicates Absentee Ballots Could be Unsealed for Investigation into Potential Fraud Reagan McCarthy Reagan McCarthy

Posted By on March 16th, 2021

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/reaganmccarthy/2021/03/16/loeffler-n2586334

A watchdog in Georgia filed a lawsuit for absentee ballots to be unsealed in Fulton County on account of allegations of potential fraud. Judge Brian Amero indicated on Monday that the ballots could be unsealed, as mandated by Georgia law, in order to dispel a lack of confidence in the 2020 election’s integrity.

“We want to do this in such a way that dispels rumors and disinformation and sheds light,” Amero said at a hearing regarding the ballots on Monday, per the Atlanta Journal Constitution. “The devil’s in the details.”

Former Senator Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), who is heading a new group focused on restoring election integrity and voter confidence, supports the move to “unseal and investigate” absentee ballots.

“Georgia voters deserve to have confidence that their voice – and their vote – is heard. Unfortunately, the many irregularities we saw in the 2020 elections have eroded trust in our electoral process,” Loeffler said. “We fully support the move to unseal and investigate absentee ballot process in Fulton County. Transparency is the first step toward restoring integrity and accountability in our elections, and we look forward to the investigations’ findings.”

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Paralyzed by Fear? Johns Hopkins Doctor Notices Something Peculiar About the COVID Vaccine Guidelines: Matt Vespa

Posted By on March 16th, 2021

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2021/03/15/paralyzed-by-fear-johns-hopkins-doctor-notices-something-peculiar-about-the-cdc-n2586291

Dr. Marty Makary of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine was bold in his projection that we’ll have herd immunity by April. This has been disputed by those who are nowhere near his level of expertise when it comes to public health, but I get the pushback since it shreds the Democratic Party’s COVID lockdown regime. In an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, Makary says that we’re underestimating natural immunity and with the pace of vaccinations, we’ll reach that critical benchmark towards reclaiming normality by tax season. 

“About 1 in 600 Americans has died of Covid-19, which translates to a population fatality rate of about 0.15%. The Covid-19 infection fatality rate is about 0.23%,” Dr. Makary wrote. With those figures, he estimates that two-thirds of the country has already had the infection. We’re rapidly approaching 100 million vaccinations. It’s not an insane projection, but one he says other health experts are afraid to push for fear of impacting the rate of vaccinations. That’s not their job, he argued. Good health news should be disseminated, not buried. There was pushback, and there will be more when he recently wrote about the vaccine protocols.

The good doctor cited an Israeli study that shows those given the Pfizer vaccine are virtually “bulletproof” four weeks after the first dose. That’s the keyword right there. So, we can be returning to normal if the CDC wasn’t so busy peddling exaggerated threats about the virus and being stricken with fear, which Makary noted with their latest guidelines. Is it ‘follow the science’ or ‘be afraid, be very afraid’?

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Secretly taped Facebook executive said the company is too powerful and should be broken up by Nihal Krishan,

Posted By on March 16th, 2021

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/secretly-taped-facebook-executive-company-too-powerful-broken-up

A senior executive at Facebook was secretly recorded saying that the social media giant harms the world, that it needs to be broken up, and that CEO Mark Zuckerberg should be removed.

A video released Monday of Benny Thomas, Facebook’s global planning lead, shows him candidly expressing his opinions about his employer to an undercover journalist from Project Veritas, a right-wing activist news outlet founded by James O’Keefe.

“I work for a company that is doing a lot of damage in the world,” Thomas said in the video.

“It’s doing a lot of good, but it’s doing a lot of damage,” he added.

Thomas said that other platforms that Facebook owns, such as Instagram, Oculus, and WhatsApp, “need to be separate companies” because it’s “too much power when they’re all one together.”

“I would break it up, and I would remove [Mark Zuckerberg] as the CEO,” Thomas said.

In a recent survey of 1500 tech industry employees, 77% said Big Tech companies like Facebook, Apple, Amazon, and Google have too much power. Only 8% disagreed.

MEDIA Comments turned off

Bombshell Correction Sums Up the Political Media’s Corruption By David Harsanyi

Posted By on March 16th, 2021

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/03/bombshell-correction-sums-up-the-political-medias-corruption/

As long as liberal subscribers value partisan porn over accuracy, this woeful trend won’t change.

L ast week, the Wall Street Journal published a piece detailing a six-minute call — with audio — between then-president Donald Trump and the Georgia secretary of state’s chief investigator, Frances Watson. At the time, Watson was conducting a forensic audit of 2020 mail-in ballots in a few Georgia counties.

This week, the Journal’s reporting precipitated the Washington Post to offer a correction to their initial story that went like so:

Two months after publication of this story, the Georgia secretary of state released an audio recording of President Donald Trump’s December phone call with the state’s top elections investigator. The recording revealed that The Post misquoted Trump’s comments on the call, based on information provided by a source. Trump did not tell the investigator to “find the fraud” or say she would be “a national hero” if she did so. Instead, Trump urged the investigator to scrutinize ballots in Fulton County, Ga., asserting she would find “dishonesty” there. He also told her that she had “the most important job in the country right now.” A story about the recording can be found here. The headline and text of this story have been corrected to remove quotes misattributed to Trump.

There is, of course, a crucial difference between a president instructing an investigator to “find the fraud” so she can become “a national hero” and a president telling an investigator he believes she will find fraud if she looks. To contend that Trump was “misquoted” or that the quotes were “misattributed” is to critically understate the dishonesty in the original story. Indeed, it is fair to say that the quotes were fabricated by someone, not misattributed, and then they were published by every major news outlet in the country as a verified fact. Even the Post’s headline for its follow-up — “Recording reveals details of Trump call to Georgia’s chief elections investigator” — intimates that the tape merely helps in updating the initial reporting rather than completely decimating it.

The single anonymous source used for the story seems to be Jordan Fuchs, the deputy secretary of state, whose office was under pressure from the president at time. Fuchs still claims that the story accurately portrayed the spirit of the conversation that was relayed to him, maybe by Watson. The tape tells a different story.