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Why Iran Considers Biden a ‘Weak’ President by Khaled Abu Toameh

Posted By on February 22nd, 2021

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17090/iran-biden-weak-president

The Arabs say they are worried because Iran sees Biden as a “weak” president, and that is why the mullahs in Tehran and their proxies in Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Lebanon have increased their terrorist attacks in the Middle East.

Arabs are turning to the Biden administration with the frank plea: Your weak approach to the Iranian regime is already threatening whatever precarious stability exists in the Middle East. It is already emboldening terrorist groups. We are begging you: do not back down to Iranian threats.

Such messages show that many Arabs share Israel’s concern over US and European efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. It is, frankly, the last thing the Arabs want. It will only lead to war and set back the region more years than one would care to count.

It is only one month into his term in office, and US President Joe Biden is already facing criticism from Arabs over his administration’s soft policy toward Iran.

The Arabs say they are worried because Iran sees Biden as a “weak” president, and that is why the mullahs in Tehran and their proxies in Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Lebanon have increased their terrorist attacks in the Middle East.

“In Tehran’s eyes, Biden is a pushover,” wrote Abdulrahman Al-Rashed, former editor-in-chief of the Saudi newspaper Ashraq Al-Awsat.

“It has only been eight weeks since President Joe Biden was sworn into office, but Iran has already tested him on several fronts. First, thousands of the Iran-backed Houthi militia rushed to threaten the densely populated city of Marib in Yemen. Afterwards, Iranian militias targeted Basra and Baghdad, and more recently, Erbil and Iraqi Kurdistan, with dozens of missiles, killing and wounding several individuals in a US facility. Then Lokman Slim, Iran’s most prominent and vocal opponent in Beirut, was murdered and his body was found on the sidewalk.”

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Biden, whether from spite or dementia, has ignored Texas By Andrea Widburg

Posted By on February 22nd, 2021

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/02/biden_whether_from_spite_or_dementia_has_ignored_texas.html

Over a week after a massive storm hit, Texas is slowly warming up, the snow is melting, and power is returning. What Texas hasn’t seen is President Biden. Instead, he’s been enjoying an easy schedule, playing computer games with his granddaughter while Kamala Harris handles the phone calls to foreign leaders. If he were a Republican, rather than a Democrat, the media would be castigating him as the worst leader ever. Instead, though, the media is praising him for not showing up, lest he look too much like Trump.

The Valentine’s Day storm that hit Texas wasn’t the worst snowstorm ever, but it was certainly one of the worst storms to hit a state that always does things in a big way. Immediately after the storm hit, 4 million people were without power, and almost half the state’s population without reliably safe drinking water. Roughly 35 people died in Texas because of the storm.

A reader sent us pictures from a major grocery store in central Texas, showing that the shelves were stripped as bare as they were during the height of lockdown panic last year:

Thankfully, things are improving:

A warming trend brought welcome relief. In Tennessee, where Memphis was walloped with 10 inches of snow, temperatures soared into the high 50s on Sunday. In battered Texas, Houston’s temperature climbed into the 70s, and Austin was almost there.

[snip]

About 20,000 Texas homes and businesses remained without power Sunday afternoon, according to poweroutage.us, a utility tracking website. 

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Is the Biden Administration Stumbling Into War? Nothing is more dangerous than stronger powers, even inadvertently, sending signals that are interpreted as weakness by weaker powers. By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on February 22nd, 2021

https://amgreatness.com/2021/02/21/is-the-biden-administration-stumbling-into-war/

What causes wars?

Innately aggressive cultures and governments, megalomania, the desire for power, resources, and empire prompt nations to bully or attack others. Less rational Thucydidean motives such as fear and honor and perceptions of self-interest are not to be discounted either. 

But what allows these preemptive or aggressive agendas to reify, to take shape, and to leave tens of thousands dead?

The less culpable target (and wars are rarely a matter of 50/50 culpability) also has a say in what causes wars. The invaded and assaulted sometimes overlooked or contextualized serial and mounting aggression. They displayed real military weakness or simple political ineptness that eroded deterrence. They failed to make defensive alliances with stronger nations or slashed defense investments that made the use of deterrent force impossible. 

In sum, without deterrence and the clear potential in extremis to do an aggressor damage, there can be no meaningful peace negotiations, no “conflict resolution”—unless one believes a Hitler, Stalin, Mao, or Kim Il-sung can become a reasonable interlocutor across the peace table.

Weakness as Strength, Strength as Weakness

But there are also other more subtle follies that can turn tensions into outright fighting. And they are relevant in the current global landscape as we go not just from one president to the next, but from a realist and tragic view of foreign policy to an idealist and therapeutic one. 

One catalyst for war is a lack of transparency about the relative strengths and will of potential enemies. 

If, even unwittingly, President Biden projects the image that the Pentagon is more concerned about ferreting out wayward internal enemies than in seeking unity by deterring aggressors, then belligerents such as China, North Korea, and Iran and others will likely—even if falsely and unwisely—wager that the United States will not or cannot react to provocations, as it has done in the past. And accordingly, they will be emboldened to provoke their neighbors with less worry about consequences. 

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Questions the GOP Should Ask Merrick Garland It’s unlikely Garland will do anything to restore the Justice Department’s reputation but Republicans should at least try to make him publicly commit to do so. By Julie Kelly

Posted By on February 22nd, 2021

https://amgreatness.com/2021/02/21/questions-the-gop-should-ask-merrick-garland/

Senate confirmation hearings for Merrick Garland, Joe Biden’s pick for Attorney General, begin Monday. The wanna-be Supreme Court justice instead is poised to take the reins of a Justice Department tainted by egregious political prosecutions from James Comey’s Crossfire Hurricane to the destructive Robert Mueller special counsel probe. 

Despite years of assurances, only one Justice Department employee has been held criminally responsible for the lawless investigation into Donald Trump and his presidential campaign, which included the use of illegally-obtained FISA warrants to spy on Trump associates. On his way out the door, former Attorney General William Barr refused to litigate flagrant instances of election fraud that potentially swayed the outcome of the 2020 election in favor of Joe Biden.

Unpunished for acting as the law enforcement arm for the Democratic Party, the Justice Department is now accelerating its hunt for Americans who dared to support Donald Trump in 2020. The Justice Department launched its “Capitol breach” investigation last month; Michael Sherwin, the acting U.S. Attorney for the D.C. office, which is overseeing the entire effort, warned the probe will be “unprecedented” in scope and scale.

More than 200 people have been arrested already and charged with various crimes for their involvement in the January 6 chaos. Most offenses deal with trespassing, disorderly conduct, or disrupting an “official” government proceeding.

Nonetheless Garland, in his inflammatory opening statement, will assure the Senate Judiciary Committee that he intends to prioritize the agency’s nationwide manhunt. “From 1995 to 1997, I supervised the prosecution of the perpetrators of the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building, who sought to spark a revolution that would topple the federal government,” Garland’s prepared statement reads. “If confirmed, I will supervise the prosecution of white supremacists and others who stormed the Capitol on January 6—a heinous attack that sought to disrupt a cornerstone of our democracy: the peaceful transfer of power to a newly elected government.”

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New Studies Suggest One COVID Vaccine Shot May Be Enough for Some Patients By Bruce Carroll

Posted By on February 22nd, 2021

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/brucecarroll/2021/02/21/new-studies-suggest-one-covid-vaccine-shot-may-be-enough-n1427147

There has been some very good news this week about the prospects of returning back to normal from the COVID pandemic earlier than thought. The first ray of sunshine is that herd immunity may be just weeks away in the United States.

This morning comes news that one of the reasons we are speeding toward herd immunity is that the various COVID vaccines are providing enough protection with just one dose.

Covid-19 survivors who have gotten a first dose of Covid-19 vaccine are generating immune responses that might render a second shot unnecessary, potentially freeing up limited vaccine supply for more people, several new research papers suggest.

The research, while preliminary, found that the previously infected people generated protection against the disease quickly and at dramatically higher levels after a first shot of the current two-shot regimens when compared with people who were vaccinated but hadn’t been sick.

“Everyone should get vaccinated. Not everybody needs two shots,” said Viviana Simon, a professor of microbiology at New York’s Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and an author on one study. “As long as we can’t deliver as much vaccine to everybody who wants it, I think it’s an important consideration.”

This is important news which, if it holds up under more study and scrutiny, would help offset the bumpy vaccination rollouts many countries seem to have faced over the last few weeks.

Giving just one dose means health officials could redeploy excess doses to more people and speed the reach of vaccinations, which vaccine experts and health authorities say is crucial as new forms of the virus increase transmission. Limited initial supply has contributed to the bumpy rollout of the vaccine and forced governments to favor high-risk individuals ahead of others.

IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Biden Under Pressure From 18 State AGs to Reinstate ICE’s Operation Talon Targeting Sex Offenders By Stacey Lennox

Posted By on February 22nd, 2021

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/stacey-lennox/2021/02/21/biden-under-pressure-from-18-state-ags-to-reinstate-ices-operation-talon-targeting-sex-offenders-n1427174

When President Biden signed his executive order for a review and update to ICE enforcement procedures, he also put Operation Talon on hold. Operation Talon is a  nationwide ICE operation that arrests and removes convicted sex offenders illegally in the United States. The effects of this order have been immediate, with the cancelation of a joint operation to arrest at-large sex offenders:

ICE had been planning a nationwide operation in partnership with the U.S. Marshals targeting at-large sex offenders, but it was scuttled by the new directive. According to one of my ICE sources, most of the targets do not clearly meet the new standards, especially in California, where sex offenders routinely get to plead down to far lesser charges, especially if it helps them avoid deportation, and where certain sex crimes, such as sex with a minor, are not classified as felonies as they are in other states. Another ICE officer told me that they had more than two dozen deportable sex offender targets at large in his area who now will be free to re-offend.

As Biden has essentially thrown open the border to migrant caravans and the cartels that traffic human beings over the border, reducing the enforcement in this area is appalling. His executive order halted most immigration enforcement, with “aggravated felons” being the notable exceptions—but only if their aggravated felony occurred in the last ten years. According to a list compiled by the Center for Immigration Studies, illegal immigrants with the following convictions and in the following numbers will no longer meet the criteria for deportation:

Sexual Assault: 1,478
Sex Offense: 825
Smuggling Aliens: 603
Lewd or Lascivious Acts with a Minor: 505
Kidnapping: 305
Sexual Exploitation of a Minor: 231

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Schumer & Pelosi vs. Freedom of Conscience Jeopardizing a fundamental right. Terence P. Jeffrey

Posted By on February 22nd, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/02/schumer-and-pelosi-would-deny-americans-freedom-terence-p-jeffrey/

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were ferocious advocates of religious freedom — when the question revolved around consuming peyote.

In the 1980s, as the Supreme Court’s summary would later explain in the case of Employment Division v. Smith, a “private drug rehabilitation organization” in Oregon fired two employees “because they ingested peyote.”

These employees, however, did not ingest the drug for recreational purposes. They did it, the court’s summary explained, “for sacramental purposes at a ceremony of their Native American Church.”

Even so, Oregon denied the two unemployment payments “under a state law disqualifying employees discharged for work-related ‘misconduct.'” 

The issue for the Supreme Court: Was Oregon violating the First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion?

In an opinion written by Justice Antonin Scalia, the court ruled it was not.

“We have never held that an individual’s religious beliefs excuse him from compliance with an otherwise valid law prohibiting conduct that the state is free to regulate,” the court stated.

“Subsequent decisions have consistently held that the right of free exercise does not relieve an individual of the obligation to comply with a ‘valid and neutral law of general applicability on the ground that the law proscribes (or prescribes) conduct that his religion prescribes (or proscribes),” said the court.

IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Biden Cripples Immigration Law Enforcement When Executive Orders handcuff agents – and set law violators free. Michael Cutler

Posted By on February 22nd, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/02/biden-cripples-immigration-law-enforcement-michael-cutler/

On February 18, 2021 the Washington Post reported, Biden memo for ICE officers points to fewer deportations and strict oversight.

Here is how that news report began:

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers will need preapproval from a senior manager before trying to deport anyone who is not a recent border crosser, a national security threat or a criminal offender with an aggravated-felony conviction, according to interim enforcement memo issued by the Biden administration Thursday.

The narrower priorities are expected to result in a steep drop in immigration arrests and deportations. Biden officials said the new guidelines — which will be in effect for the next 90 days — will allow the agency to make better use of its resources while prioritizing public safety threats.

Having spent 26 years as an INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) special agent provides me with a unique perspective that I have provided at numerous congressional hearings and when I provided testimony to the 9/11 Commission.

As I read Biden’s Executive Orders and the various proposals for immigration law changes and massive amnesty programs, I am disheartened and frustrated.  What was the point to the hearings and the 9/11 Commission when the President promulgates policies that not only ignore the 9/11 Commission but actually take America in precisely the opposite direction from where we should be going?

With the stroke of his pen, and without legislation, Biden has profoundly undermined immigration law enforcement.

EDUCATION, HISTORY Comments turned off

1776 truth vs 1619 falsehoods by Larry Arnn

Posted By on February 22nd, 2021

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/the-1776-commission-and-american-education

One of the clearest signs that we are in a debate over the central meaning of our country, and therefore of our rights and of us, is the controversy about the status of the American founding. That controversy rages. I was appointed chairman of the President’s Advisory 1776 Commission by former President Donald Trump. Its purpose was to advise on chiefly two things: preparing for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026 and proposing ways to teach American history better.

The commission issued its report unanimously a few days before President Biden took office. He canceled it and removed its report from the White House website on the first afternoon he was president. Since then, he has said several things to excoriate the report and its authors. The chief cry is that it seeks to whitewash the story of slavery. In fact, the story of slavery is extensively addressed. The main points are simple and indubitably true: Slavery existed in the United States for 150 years before the nation was formed by the Declaration of Independence. Those who wrote that Declaration of Independence stated emphatically and repeatedly that slavery was wrong. The leading founders are nearly uniform in this view, and it seems to have been the sense of most of the public.

The immediate fruit of this sentiment was that slavery was abolished in more than half of the country within 20 years. In 1787, when the Northwest Ordinance was passed, our government grew for the first time. It was the first time a free government had done so. It did so without the benefit of colonies but rather with a plan quickly to form states and the citizens of those states to be equal with those of the existing states. This ordinance concerned the five states in the Northwest Territory, regarded by the founders as a precious resource. Article 6 of the Northwest Ordinance provides that there is to be no slavery with these words:

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Why we need an inquiry into January 6 I agree with Nancy Pelosi: Roger Kimball

Posted By on February 22nd, 2021

https://spectator.us/topic/inquiry-january-6-capitol-brian-sicknick-truth/

I support Nancy Pelosi’s call for a ‘9/11-style inquiry’ into the mêlée at the Capitol on January 6. I do so not because I think there is any valid analogy between the terrorist attack on the United States by Muslim fanatics on September 11, 2001 and the low-level riot at the Capitol. There isn’t. On 9/11 some 3,000 innocent people were murdered, billions of dollars of property was obliterated and important symbols of American economic and military might were attacked, utterly destroyed in the case of the World Trade Towers, seriously damaged in the case of the Pentagon. On January 6, a pro-Trump rally got out of hand despite the president’s instructions to proceed to the Capitol ‘peacefully and patriotically’.

Despite the chasm-like discrepancy between the events, Democrats instantly seized upon the riot, elevated it into an ‘armed insurrection’, and bewailed the assault on ‘our democracy’.

Indeed, so quick was the construction of this narrative that the cynics among us speculated that the riot, if not exactly premeditated by anti-Trump forces, was at least foreseen as an exploitable possibility. Something similar can be said about the deployment of the phrase ‘our democracy’. In this case, the first-person-plural possessive is very clearly intended to be exclusive, not inclusive. No one wearing a MAGA hat or waving a Trump banner is included in that ‘our’. The thousands of loyalty-tested National Guard troops and the tall, razor-wire-tipped fence hastily erected to surround the Capitol communicated the same message. It’s Us vs Them, comrade: talk about ‘unity’ and ‘our democracy’ but practice division and exclusion. Nancy Pelosi called the Capitol ‘the people’s house’, the ‘citadel of democracy’, but the armed troops and the fence bespoke a different reality.