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February 2021

Kavanaugh and Barrett’s Share of the Shame The Trump-appointed justices’ alliance with the liberal wing of the Supreme Court is not a betrayal of Republicans or the president who appointed them. It’s a betrayal of the Constitution. By Julie Kelly

https://amgreatness.com/2021/02/25/kavanaugh-and-barretts-share-of-the-shame/

With Election Day looming and early voting underway, Judge Amy Coney Barrett pledged at her confirmation hearing in October she would not act as a Republican “pawn” in any election dispute.

Democrats and the media, anticipating a close vote in the Electoral College, warned Barrett would rule in favor of the man who nominated her if the ultimate decision reached the Supreme Court as it did in 2000; Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) demanded Barrett recuse herself “in any case involving Donald Trump’s election.”

Blumenthal, in essence, got his way. Democrats must be thrilled—laughing all the way to 2022 and 2024—at the de facto recusals by Justices Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh in every post-election lawsuit petitioned before the court, even those not filed by the Trump campaign.

Kavanaugh and Barrett, sold to the country as “originalists” who would counteract the bench’s Left-leaning jurists, instead joined their liberal colleagues and Chief Justice John Roberts to reject each case. In doing so, Barrett and Kavanaugh broke their promise to defend the Constitution and gave their imprimatur to lawless state elections—a clear and present danger to the future of the country.

Unilateral Action

The first sign of trouble came in December. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit on December 7 asking the court to delay the December 14 deadline for states to certify electoral votes. It was a last-ditch longshot attempt to do the work the U.S. Department of Justice, Democratic state attorneys generals, and lower courts refused to do: adjudicate provable election fraud before it was too late.

The Moral Vacuity of Pro-Palestinian Social Justice Moral narcissism and unquestioned lies. Richard L. Cravatts

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/02/moral-vacuity-pro-palestinian-social-justice-richard-l-cravatts/

In August, Florida State University was one of several universities to have adopted the now widely accepted IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, signaling that university leaders and others outside of academia have begun to see the wisdom of having guidelines by which to identify and, hopefully, eliminate hate from their respective institutions. Not surprisingly, some progressive groups—including even Jewish ones—have condemned the IHRA definition, claiming that it will chill their speech and punish their ideology, even though the use of the definition does nothing of the sort. Israel-haters and anti-Semites can still continue to defame the Jewish state and single it out for opprobrium, condemnation, and slander but now they can be called out for their behavior.

Something called the Progressive Israel Network (comprised of Ameinu, Americans for Peace Now, Habonim Dror North America, Hashomer Hatzair World Movement, Jewish Labor Committee, J Street, New Israel Fund, Partners for Progressive Israel, and Reconstructing Judaism and T’ruah, left-leaning groups all) felt compelled to announce that, while, of course, they were all for defeating the world’s oldest hatred, they found the IHRA definition to be particularly unhelpful in their relentless quest to demonize Israel and critique the Jewish state. The IHRA definition, they announced ominously, is actually being weaponized to suppress progressive efforts to attack Israel, that the definition “is being misused and exploited to instead suppress legitimate free speech, criticism of Israeli government actions, and advocacy for Palestinian rights.”

IfNotNow, another group whose mission seems to be to hector lawmakers into distancing themselves from Israel and embracing the Palestinian cause without question or conditions, even hosted an event in January to discuss “how the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism has been destroying the progressive movement” by “criminalizing the BDS movement and “squashing free speech” of progressives obsessed with signaling their loathing of Israel and their tireless efforts to fight for social justice for the ever-aggrieved Palestinians.

That has meant that students, and left-leaning faculty, as well, are urged to advocate for social and economic goals described in decidedly liberal intellectual formulations such as “social and economic justice,” “distributive justice,” and “the global interconnections of oppression,” this latter view ideal for conflating, at least in liberal imaginations, the shared complicity of America and Israel in their long-term oppression of the indigenous people of the fictive nation of Palestine and the alleged “occupation” of their land.

Dr. Fauci’s New York State of Mind When truth is what helps Democrats – and keeps people living in fear. Lloyd Billingsley

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/02/dr-faucis-new-york-state-mind-lloyd-billingsley/

According to a January 30 report by New York Attorney General Letitia James, thousands more nursing home residents may have died from COVID-19 than New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has publicly acknowledged. As investigators learned, nursing home deaths had been undercounted, even in facilities the state health department had made public.

As ProPublica noted, “the true death toll among nursing home residents was not mentioned in Cuomo’s much-publicized memoir on his leadership successes handling the pandemic.” The story launched an outcry, even among Democrats and the establishment media.

On February 15, Gov. Cuomo defended his pandemic response and the next day, Biden advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci appeared on CNN with Jim Scietto. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Scietto recalled, had “argued that his state was following federal guidelines when he ordered those long-term care facilities to accept patients returning from hospitals. I wonder, can you clarify that. Was he really following federal guidelines to do this?”

“You know, Jim, I can’t,” Fauci responded. “I mean, excuse me. I really am – I’m honestly not trying to erase your question, but I’m not really sure of all the details of that, and I think if I, if you make a statement, it might be wrong or taken out of context. So, I prefer not to comment on that.” In reality, Fauci had already clarified the details. As Fox News recalled, last July Dr. Fauci told PBS that, unlike other parts of the country, New York responded “properly” and “correctly” to the pandemic.

In December, Dr. Fauci appeared at a Cuomo press conference but in February, Fauci declined to say whether the governor was following federal guidelines when he ordered elderly patients into nursing homes. This from a man routinely billed as the nation’s top infectious disease expert.

Muslim Cleric Condemns Ban on Female Genital Mutilation Somehow he hasn’t gotten the media’s memo that FGM is un-Islamic. Robert Spencer

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/02/muslim-cleric-condemns-ban-female-genital-robert-spencer/

We’re constantly told in the West that female genital mutilation (FGM) is a cultural practice that has nothing whatsoever to do with Islam, but as is always the case with the leftist establishment narrative, reality is otherwise. The latest reminder of that all-important fact comes from Gambia, where the learned imam Abdoulie Fatty (he isn’t one) has condemned – on Islamic grounds — attempts by human rights campaigners to ban FGM.

Gambia’s The Voice reported Monday that “one of the Gambian top Imams has condemned a ban on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in the country and talked hard on campaign groups which he said are spreading falsehood about FGM everywhere.” Fatty chose the most important forum of any given week for Muslims, the Friday sermon, to issue this condemnation: he made his statements “as he descended on campaigners against FGM in his last Friday sermon (khutbat) at a Mosque in around Bartex prior the congregational Jumaat prayer.”

Fatty “emphasised that FGM has been in practice since the time of Prophet Ibrahim (ASW) and ‘it was witnessed by Prophet Muhammad (SAW) during his time, too.’”

“My dear Muslim people,” the genial imam exhorted his audience, “I am advising us on the fear of God – all of us, let’s follow the teachings of Islam. My dear Muslim people we used to hear it and hearsay and they have a wake campaign and that is the reason why we do this type of sermon anytime they came back but they will meet us like the sun in the sky.”

Mark Levin Warns Storm is Coming in Relations Between Israel, U.S. “The Biden administration is deeply hostile to Israel.” Caroline Glick

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/02/mark-levin-warns-storm-coming-relations-between-caroline-glick/

Mark Levin, the conservative Jewish American radio broadcaster with more than 14 million daily listeners, has a gloomy forecast for the future of American media coverage of the United States, of Israel and of ties between the two countries.

Ahead of the launch of the Hebrew-language edition of his bestselling book, Unfreedom of the Press, Levin tells Israel Hayom that to understand the nature and depth of the danger that the U.S. media poses to democracy in America, you have to understand the way that the U.S. media treats Israel.

“I think the American people — forget about the elites — I think the American people and the Israeli people have such a connection, and such a love for each other,” he says.

“We get in this country from our media … that Israel is an apartheid society; it’s a racist society. It’s the same things they say about our country, they say about Israel. So it’s kind of hard to write a book — what I called Unfreedom of the Press — and ignore what’s going on in Israel.”

“It’s also hard to ignore it as a Jew,” he adds. “I see the overlays. I see the animus towards Israel, the animus towards the United States.”

For decades, Israelis and Israel’s supporters in America complained about the anti-Israel bias of the U.S. media. But in Unfreedom of the Press, Levin explains that the problem is far worse than mere bias.

Mandatory Vaccinations Arrive in UK While Britain’s children face the mandatory swab. Katie Hopkins

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/02/uk-and-mandatory-vaccinations-frontpagemagcom/

For once in our lives we Brits have made it to the top of a league table, but for all the wrong reasons.

According to academic types at the University of Oxford, Brits are enduring the sixth strictest lockdown in the world and the second harshest in Europe. Only Cuba, Eritrea, Ireland, Honduras, Lebanon and Peru have faced tougher lockdowns, and most of those places are no stranger to a military coup or a bread line or two.

It does not end with lockdown. Lockdown was never the destination. In Britain, lockdown was only ever a pathway to mandatory vaccination, using unmarked backroads to mask the destination. But we’ve finally arrived.

As things stand, mandatory vaccinations are not currently legal in the UK.

And yet, this week’s headlines included ‘No jab! No job!’, indicating that employers will mandate vaccinations in new work contracts, forcing the unvaccinated out of work.

If that weren’t enough, they are coming for our kids, too. Most parents with children in state schools received a letter just like this:

‘Students will not be allowed to enter the school or return to lessons until they have been tested once and found to be negative.’

In short, without a negative COVID test, your child is not coming in to school.

Biden Invites Tidal Wave of Illegals into the U.S. Welcome to the business boom for smugglers of illegal migrant children. Joseph Klein

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/02/biden-inviting-surge-more-illegal-aliens-us-joseph-klein/

Joe Biden, the open borders president, is proposing amnesty legislation to provide the 11 million plus illegal aliens in this country a pathway to citizenship. During his CNN-hosted town hall meeting on February 17, Biden confirmed that such a pathway for citizenship must be included in any immigration bill that he would consider signing. The term “alien” would no longer be used in U.S. immigration law. Until the illegal aliens successfully complete the path to U.S. citizenship under Biden’s “reform” legislation, they are to be referred to as “noncitizen,” which is defined as “any person not a citizen or national of the United States.” 

In the meantime, through executive action, Biden is handcuffing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in arresting and detaining illegal immigrants in the United States for eventual deportation. U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton at least managed to slow things down a bit. He issued a nationwide preliminary injunction on February 23rd against moving ahead with implementation of Biden’s 100 day pause on most deportations. But Biden’s political appointees at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are undoubtedly searching for any loophole they can find.   

Biden is allowing some migrants seeking asylum, who have waited in Mexico for months under the Trump administration’s  “Remain in Mexico” policy, to enter and remain in the United States pending adjudication of their asylum applications. The catch and release policy is back as the aliens melt into communities across the country, where they can compete for jobs with unemployed U.S. citizens and increase the risk of further coronavirus spread.

Biden’s immigration policies are a disaster in the making, and he is just getting started.

The Shame of Joe Biden: John Hinderaker

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/02/the-shame-of-joe-biden.php

Politicians are not, in general, renowned for honesty. Spin is universal and exaggeration goes with the territory. But actual lying–verifiable, damnable lying about an important public issue–is relatively uncommon. Unless we are talking about Joe Biden.

During the campaign, Biden absurdly alleged that President Trump had mishandled the COVID epidemic, and therefore had murdered the several hundred thousand Americans who allegedly died from that disease. The theory was that if Trump had done something differently–God knows what–the U.S. would have been the only country on Earth with zero Wuhan deaths. Reporters went along with Biden’s fantasy.

Since his inauguration, Biden has continued his assault on his predecessor by claiming, repeatedly, that little was going on with regard to vaccinations until he took office, and that the Trump administration “had no plan” to effectuate vaccinations. This, too, is a damnable lie.

The Democrats’ ‘Woke’ Equality Act: Another Awful Idea That Would Radically Change America

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/02/26/the-democrats-woke-equality-act-another-awful-idea-that-would-radically-change-america/

“The bottom line is, this radical, divisive bill won’t unite us, but further divide us. And it’s a sad reminder that we’re only ever one election away from truly crazy things emerging from Congress. The Equality Act is one of them. What’s next?”

The just-passed Equality Act no doubt sounds wonderful to many. Who, after all, can disagree with a bill to “prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation”? But it’s a wretched bill, one that would have many terrible consequences.

Passed Thursday by a 224-206 vote, with only three Republicans in support, the legislation now goes to the Senate, where it’s expected (but not guaranteed) to fail. After all, the same bill also passed the House early last year, only to die in the Senate, where it needs 60 votes to get beyond that chamber’s filibuster. With a 50-50 party split in the Senate, that makes it unlikely to pass this time, too.

But, like a bad meal, the Equality Act is likely to come up again.

As we said, there’s nothing wrong with “equality” for anyone under the law. Our Constitution, indeed, guarantees that under the 14th Amendment. It’s a bedrock of American jurisprudence.

But the Equality Act of today has nothing to do with “equal rights,” at least as most Americans would understand them.

The Censorship Party House Democrats use a hearing to target conservative media.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-censorship-party-11614296803?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

Imagine if a pair of Donald Trump’s allies in Congress had sent a letter to cable company CEOs in 2017 blasting CNN and other progressive media outlets and asking why their content is still broadcast. Then imagine that a GOP-run committee in Congress staged a hearing on the societal menace of fake news and the need for government and business to rein in the hostile press.

The media would have treated that as a five-alarm political fire, an existential threat to a free press, the First Amendment and political norms, and a step toward authoritarian rule. “Democracy dies in darkness,” and all that. Yet that’s exactly what Democrats in Congress did this week, targeting conservative media outlets, but the media reaction has been silence or approval.

On Monday Democrats Anna Eshoo and Jerry McNerney sent letters pressing 12 cable and tech CEOs to drop contracts with right-of-center media outlets including Fox News. Two days later the Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing about “disinformation and extremism” in conservative media. The only notable extremism on display was the majority party’s appetite for regulating and policing the free press.