NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

What Is Democracy? Roger Kimball Roger Kimball

Posted By on November 1st, 2022

https://www.theepochtimes.com/what-is-democracy_4831266.html?utm_source=ref_share&utm_campaign=copy&rs=0

Leaving aside the attack micro-drama involving Paul Pelosi, the Democrats seem to have two issues going into the midterm elections: abortion and democracy.

Neither seems to be getting much purchase with voters.

For reasons that seem puzzling to Democratic strategists, making the slaughter of the unborn (or, for some “make them comfortable” Dems, the recently born) a major plank on your platform just didn’t resonate with most women.

Or, rather, it resonated negatively, partly because it was transparently a cynical attempt at political manipulation, and partly because, for the vast majority of women, motherhood is an important part of their lives. The prospect of blighting that part of themselves doesn’t rally the troops.

Appeals to “democracy” is a little more complicated, but no less saturated with cynicism.

As attentive readers will have noticed, the word “democracy” is appealed to whenever it looks as though Democrats might lose.

One sign that this is about to happen is the promiscuous deployment of the phrase “our democracy.”

They really mean it. It’s not your democracy, peon.

If you voted for a Republican, you voted “against our democracy.”

As I have put it elsewhere, what “democracy” means to them is “rule by Democrats.”

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Turkey: 243 Sleepless Nights for Erdoğan by Burak Bekdil

Posted By on November 1st, 2022

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19026/erdogan-sleepless-nights

Yöneylem’s poll also found that 63% of respondents say Turkey is being “badly governed,” and 58.7% say that they “would never vote for Erdoğan.” Only 33.3% of the respondents said they would vote for Erdoğan while 55.6% said they would vote for the opposition candidate.

The numbers predict an easy win for the opposition and a historical defeat for Erdoğan. Clearly, 2023 will be the first election since 2022 in which Erdoğan is not the clear favorite. But a smooth, democratic transfer of power is unlikely.

Six opposition parties, CHP, IYI and four small groupings with different ideologies, have come together to pick a joint presidential candidate against Erdoğan. The most likely candidate will be CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, a social democrat…

In this complex picture, Turkey’s Kurdish minority, representing 11%-13% of the national electorate, will probably be the kingmaker. Erdoğan’s ultra-nationalist (and anti-Kurdish) policies have distanced Kurdish voters from his AKP, although Islamist Kurds still have a tendency to vote for him.

A new spiral of terror attacks may make Turks feel they must unite behind their president. Billions of dollars flowing unofficially into the Turkish economy, from friendly countries like Qatar and Russia, may make starving Turks feel like they will soon be better off.

Alternatively, Erdoğan could be tempted to manipulate the election result.

What happens if Erdoğan loses the presidential election by a narrow margin, and the AKP and MHP lose their parliamentary majority — a total end of the Erdoğan era, in other words? A near civil war.

Erdoğan’s violent loyalists will blame the defeat on a foreign plot, accusing the CIA, the Mossad, you name it.

In every post-June 2023 scenario, Turkey just looks like a slow-sinking ship.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey’s Islamist president, has been invincible since he burst on the political scene three decades ago. In 1994, he was elected mayor of Istanbul, Turkey’s biggest city. In 2002, he was elected prime minister and, in 2014, president of Turkey. Since 2002, he has not lost a single parliamentary, municipal or presidential election. The dream story, however, may be over in June 2023 when Turks will vote in twin presidential and parliamentary elections.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Scandal-Ridden San Francisco FBI Field Office Involved in Pelosi Investigation Given the highly partisan nature of the FBI, and the San Francisco field office in particular, there is no reason to believe FBI brass will do anything more than run cover for the Pelosis. By Julie Kelly

Posted By on November 1st, 2022

https://amgreatness.com/2022/10/31/scandal-ridden-san-francisco-fbi-field-office-involved-in-pelosi-investigation/

No one should accept at face value the strange account of what happened to Paul Pelosi, husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), at their California home last week.

Plenty of factors—a wholly dishonest news media, unsubstantiated claims the attacker was a foiled assassin who planned to kill the speaker of the House, and Mr. Pelosi’s recent legal troubles, to name a few—feed justified skepticism surrounding the alleged break-in and hammer attack that occurred in the wee hours of October 28. Details continue to change while leading Democrats including Hillary Clinton blame the incident, without evidence, on Republicans and Donald Trump.

This situation is yet another example of how the public’s complete lack of faith in major institutions is fueling doubt and suspicion. Unfortunately, that level of distrust extends to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a once-revered agency that has blown its reputation in service to the Democratic Party. And news that the San Francisco FBI field office is taking a lead role in the Pelosi investigation offers little comfort that the American people will ever find out the truth of the matter.

The San Francisco field office, like the bureau’s Washington, D.C. headquarters and many other offices across the country, is mired in scandal. It’s particularly true as it relates to the FBI’s cozy ties to Big Tech—and the San Francisco FBI office is ground zero for that quid pro quo relationship. Rather than investigate the nearly 300 Big Tech companies within its Silicon Valley jurisdiction for various offenses such as election interference, the San Francisco FBI office appears instead to be in cahoots with these powerful corporate interests to do the Democratic Party’s dirty work.

Few people benefit more than Nancy Pelosi, who of course happens to live in San Francisco. Democratic candidates and lawmakers are flush with campaign donations from Big Tech; in 2020 alone, Facebook and Twitter—the latter located in Pelosi’s congressional district and the former located just outside its boundaries—donated at least $5.5 million to Democrats and only a paltry $435,000 to Republicans, a 12-1 ratio in favor of Pelosi’s party. Conversely, threats made by leading Democrats to break up Big Tech or hold congressional hearings into alleged malfeasance have been slow-walked since Pelosi reclaimed the speaker’s gavel.

HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

Democrats are systematically destroying our military By Andrea Widburg

Posted By on November 1st, 2022

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/10/democrats_are_systematically_destroying_our_military.html

A little over a week ago, the Heritage Foundation issued a report that did not get the attention it deserves. The report is entitled “2023 Index of U.S. Military Strength,” and it details how significantly the U.S. military has declined under the not-so-tender care of the leftists in charge of the White House and the Pentagon. Indeed, if one considers China to be our greatest geopolitical foe, it’s questionable whether our military has the ability to fight, let alone win.

The 2023 Index has an executive summary that pretty much says it all:

As currently postured, the U.S. military is at growing risk of not being able to meet the demands of defending America’s vital national interests. It is rated as weak relative to the force needed to defend national interests on a global stage against actual challenges in the world as it is rather than as we wish it were. This is the logical consequence of years of sustained use, underfunding, poorly defined priorities, wildly shifting security policies, exceedingly poor discipline in program execution, and a profound lack of seriousness across the national security establishment even as threats to U.S. interests have surged.

The summary explains that “The condition of America’s military power is measured in terms of its capability or modernity, capacity for operations, and readiness to handle assigned missions.” These metrics are measured against specific military objectives: defending American soil, successfully concluding a major war that poses a serious threat to America, and preserving “freedom of movement within the global commons (the sea, air, outer space, and cyberspace domains) through which the world conducts its business.” Except for the Marines, which have managed to resist the Pentagon’s “woke” obsessions, every one of America’s forces is in increasingly dire straits.

The threats are those you would expect: Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, and other bad actors. What’s depressing is the grades assigned to the various branches of the military.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

The ‘Hands Off Our Kids!’ Election By J.B. Shurk

Posted By on November 1st, 2022

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/10/the_hands_off_our_kids_election.html

It is often said that good political campaigns are forward-looking.  Obama sold “hope and change.”  Trump promised to “Make America Great Again.”  With control of Congress and the presidency heading into the 2022 midterm elections, what future are Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats offering to lure voters toward their side?  It appears to be one in which boys are celebrated as girls, education is reduced to political indoctrination, and Green New Deal policies continue to exacerbate food and fuel costs.

What is the Democrats’ argument for re-election?  Despite staggering inflation, crime, and illegal immigration, things could be much worse?  If you loved masks and lockdowns, get ready for more?  You’ll forget about the pain at the pump once war with Russia officially begins?  Celebrate the future by mutilating and aborting the children of today?  Whatever future Democrats are selling voters, it is bereft of hope, is riddled with pain, steals from Americans’ depleted savings, and leaves those growing up today with little but spare change.

Should the midterm vote end up going decidedly in Republicans’ favor, perhaps it will be remembered as the “Save Our Kids” election.  More than any other issues, Democrats are enthusiastically vocal about their support for unrestricted abortion and gender reassignment surgeries for confused children.  Their rallying cry could be, “Vote for us, and we’ll help you dispose of unwanted children or at least redesign them according to taste.”  Those might feel like winning issues to a gaggle of champagne socialists imbibing w(h)ine spritzers over brunch, but to Americans who cherish marriage and family life, they seem downright ghoulish.  Once you throw in video footage of Creepy Joe Biden, whose senility remains unobservable only to the White House press corps, regularly invading the personal space of young girls squirming in distress, the Democrats’ midterm message looks like little more than a grim promise to sniff, maim, and murder America’s children on demand.  If you hate children, that’s some future!

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The Murder of Political Prisoners in Tehran An evil regime exhibits its barbarism. by Struan Stevenson

Posted By on November 1st, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-murder-of-political-prisoners-in-tehran/

There is growing international concern at recent developments in Iran and in particular at the increasingly vicious tactics employed by the theocratic regime in its bid to crush nationwide protests. Media reports state that there have been more than 200 deaths so far as the uprising enters its fifth week. However, information provided by resistance units of the main opposition Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) inside Iran indicate that more than 400 people have been killed. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and the paramilitary Basij have used batons, steel rods, tear gas, shotguns and live ammunition to kill and maim mostly young protesters, many of whom are women and young girls. More than 20,000 people have been arrested. The insurrection has now spread to 193 cities and involves all 31 provinces in Iran.

The latest outrage took place at the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran. Following widespread protests from political prisoners inside Evin, a fire was reported in the prison on the evening of October 15th. Spokesmen for the regime claimed an “accidental” fire had begun in a sewing room and according to state-run media reports, four prisoners died of smoke inhalation. They later revised that figure to eight. In fact, it now appears that the death toll was much higher and there is mounting evidence that the entire incident was pre-planned by the regime in order that they could mount a lethal assault on the protesting political prisoners. Witnesses said that up to sixty prisoners, mostly from Ward 7, were killed by prison guards and by the IRGC, Basij and Special Police Force (NOPO).

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

A Transitioner Posts Her Uterus on TikTok By Lincoln Brown

Posted By on November 1st, 2022

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/lincolnbrown/2022/10/31/a-transitioner-posts-her-uterus-on-tiktok-n1641525

“Surgeries like the one this person underwent should be approached with a degree of solemnity. These are life-changing procedures, and as I have said, they cannot be undone. And when the vagaries of society change and transgenderism is no longer interesting or popular, it won’t be a matter of making a trip to the Gap to catch up with the times. For some, there will be no going back, no matter how much they may want to.”

A TikTok user has had her uterus and cervix, complete with fallopian tubes, removed and placed in a jar. Think twice before you click on the video below, not just because it indeed shows a healthy human organ in a jar, but because it is an altogether uncomfortable thing to watch.

I hope that she is comfortable with this stage of her transition because there is no putting her uterus back. Aside from being an LED-lit conversation piece, what she has is a jar of medical waste, which is normally incinerated. And she seems perfectly happy with one of her internal organs being turned into a paperweight. And if she sees this transition through to the ultimate end, will she be as proud of the phalloplasty scar on her forearm?

If she should change her mind later in life, which has been known to happen, in some cases as soon as a patient has come out of the anesthesia, will that piece of preserved flesh still look so attractive on her bookshelf?

Having come of age in the 1980s, I remember the wide array of clothing and hairstyle choices. I remember in high school, I started out mimicking the look of the members of Duran Duran, and as time went on and that group drifted down the charts, I ended up looking a little more preppy by the time graduation rolled around.

In my late 30s, in a valiant but also lame attempt to remain on the cutting edge, I got two tattoos, one on each shoulder. In retrospect, I wish I had not got either of them. Not because I have anything against tattoos; I just made the decisions impulsively and probably for all the wrong reasons.

Styles come and go. And it was easy for me to change my look with a trip to the mall. Well, multiple trips since I worked during high school and had to save for a clothing budget. And if I decide that I want to get rid of my tattoos, it will cost some money and there may be a little scarring, but my life will be largely unchanged. Those things are reversible. Altering your body, outside of letting a piercing close up, is not so easy.

MEDIA Comments turned off

The Press Has Officially Lost Its Grip On Reality

Posted By on November 1st, 2022

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/11/01/the-press-has-officially-lost-its-grip-on-reality/

Journalists these days bemoan the adherence to “both sides” reporting. Too often, they say, it misleads readers into thinking there are two legitimate sides.

“I’m convinced that journalists — specifically those who cover politics — must keep a sharp focus on truth-seeking, not old-style performative neutrality,” wrote former Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan.

Because, you see, democracy is at stake.

Sullivan didn’t need to preach this sermon, because the press has already been living by this credo.

The problem is that dumping “old-style neutrality” hasn’t made news coverage more accurate, it’s just led the news media even further into the swamp of hysterical partisanship.

It’s left them prone to hoaxes and forced them to issue countless retractions and corrections. Any story that makes Republicans look bad gets paraded around before lifting a fact-checking finger — from Russia collusion to Jussie Smollet to the supposedly racist Catholic schoolboys.

Immediately after the attack on Paul-Pelosi, the press jumped to the conclusion that his attacker was some sort of MAGA nutjob. He’s hardly that.

Just as bad, the non-neutral, truth-seeking press does its level best to keep the public in the dark about any scandals (Hunter Biden, anyone?) and crises that make Democrats look bad — a challenge that gets harder by the day.

Truth, it turns out, now matters far less to the “truth-seeking” press than ever.

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Climate Doomsday Is Nigh—Again And the U.N. says it’s your fault for eating meat, among other sins.

Posted By on November 1st, 2022

https://www.wsj.com/articles/climate-doomsday-is-nigh-again-united-nations-environment-climate-change-fossil-fuels-11666989086?mod=opinion_lead_pos2

Human beings, the wretches, continue to disappoint the savants at the United Nations, and never more than on climate change. The global body announced last week that despite all of the world’s climate sacrifices and trillions of dollars in renewable spending, we’re all still doomed unless mankind makes radical changes in lifestyles and standards of living.

The 2015 Paris climate agreement required countries to commit to reducing their emissions to keep the world from warming more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. It’s already warmed about 1.1 degrees. Not that the alms offered up by President Biden and European leaders will do much good.

According to the U.N. report, all climate policies currently in place will result in warming of 2.8 degrees. Most countries haven’t implemented policies to meet their emissions targets. But even if they did, temperatures would still rise by 2.6 degrees. And if Western countries meet their “net-zero” goals? The world would warm 1.8 degrees.

Ponder that. Even if Europe and the U.S. banish fossil fuels from the electric grid, ban gas-powered vehicles, and find a way to capture CO2 from factories, the world still wouldn’t avoid the U.N.’s climate doomsday. One reason is that China, which emits two-thirds more CO2 than Europe and the U.S. combined, has only committed to peaking its emissions by 2030.

Thus, the U.N. report says drastic changes in human behavior are needed. To take one example, about a third of emissions come from the global food system. According to the report, about seven gigatons in CO2 reductions—roughly equal to those from today’s global natural gas production—by 2050 will need to come from people eating less meat.

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

UK Trapped In The Green Energy Cul-de-Sac Francis Menton

Posted By on November 1st, 2022

https://us7.campaign-archive.com/?e=a9fdc67db9&u=9d011a88d8fe324cae8c084c5&id=7648e06456

Often I have referred to the situation that the UK, Germany, California and others have set themselves up for as “hitting the green energy wall.” But now that the UK has actually gotten there and has begun to deal with the consequences, I’m not sure that “hitting the wall” is the best analogy. A better analogy might be “driving into the green energy cul-de-sac.” After all, when you hit a wall you can probably just pick yourself up and turn around and be on your way. In the cul-de-sac you are trapped with no evident way of getting out. You might be in there for a long time.

This is where the UK finds itself today. For well more than a decade, they have been aggressively and intentionally pursuing the green energy fantasy. The Net Zero emissions target was made mandatory by legislation in 2019. They have built hundreds of wind turbines and solar panels, while at the same time closing almost all of their coal mines and coal power plants. That has left them largely dependent on natural gas to back up the intermittent renewables. They have plenty of natural gas right under their feet in a large shale formation, but for years they dithered about allowing fracking to produce the gas, and then in 2019 they imposed a blanket moratorium on fracking. With production from their North Sea gas fields declining, they must buy gas on the European market. And although they don’t buy much gas directly from Russia, the European market has been driven to great heights by the cutoff of Russian supplies. Result: average annual residential energy bills in the UK, which were around £1000 as recently as earlier this year, went up to about £3000 this month, and have been projected to go as high as £5000 by this coming April absent some sort of government intervention.