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January 2022

MOVIES AND TELEVISION Comments turned off

An Insider Mocks the Endless Progressive Guilt Trip By Kyle Smith

By on January 24th, 2022

https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/01/an-insider-mocks-the-endless-progressive-guilt-trip/

Jesse Eisenberg’s directorial debut When You Finish Saving the World skewers the culture of liberal self-scourging.

A n intensely determined social worker played by Julianne Moore drives to work listening to equally intense classical music suggesting her utter, lifelong focus on a dramatic struggle for social justice. Then the camera pulls back to reveal the car she’s in: a pathetic, absurd, lawnmower-sized demi-car.

That’s the kind of perfect juxtaposition — funny, cutting, woefully accurate — that characterizes every smartly-designed scene in When You Finish Saving the World, the sly directorial debut of actor-writer Jesse Eisenberg. Eisenberg (who also wrote the movie, which began as a podcast) politely but devastatingly lampoons the sorts of people he grew up with and works among. And the Sundance Film Festival (where slick Beverly Hills dealmakers in $1,500 ski jackets solemnly take part in “land acknowledgment” ceremonies to parade their guilt about being the heirs of colonialism) is the perfect showcase for the film. Sundance (which is a virtual fest this year) has always hosted an intriguing balance of ruthless Hollywood ambition and silly liberal self-scourging. It can only benefit from taking in a bit of satiric blasphemy about its audience’s culture and politics.

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

The Emergence of Arab Zionism? As Arabs turn towards Israel and survival, the West continues in the opposite direction. Melanie Phillips

By on January 24th, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/01/emergence-arab-zionism-melanie-phillips-0/

While western liberals and the UN Human Rights Council double down in their determination to demonise, delegitimise and destroy Israel, support for that beleaguered country is coming from a surprising direction.

In 2020, people were startled by the Abraham Accords between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. Hope was kindled that this unprecedented linkage might herald an end to the century-old Arab war against the Jewish state.

Now there are signs of a new and related phenomenon: the emergence of Arab Zionists.

In the Jewish Chronicle, Jonathan Sacerdoti has reported that a number of Arab influencers, with hundreds of thousands of followers on social media, have emerged to promote Israel and support the Jews.

A Syrian blogger began a video begging the Israeli government to “occupy” the whole of Syria to save more lives. “The Golan Heights is the only area in Syria that hasn’t been destroyed and had its people killed,” he said.

In another video, an Arab academic was moved to tears by visiting Jerusalem’s Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem, promising: “Today, together, Muslims Jews and Christians, we promise you, it will never happen again.”

In Dubai, 39-year-old Loay Al-Shareef, who declares he is a Zionist, said: “It’s very righteous for the Jews to have their ancestral homeland in the land of Israel.”

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Epistle of Paul to the Washingtonians “Rally to the cause of freedom and reject medical tyranny.” Lloyd Billingsley

By on January 24th, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/01/epistle-paul-washingtonians-lloyd-billing

In a recent hearing, Sen. Rand Paul called out Dr. Anthony Fauci for smearing the authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, distinguished medical scientists from Oxford, Harvard and Stanford, as “fringe epidemiologists.” Fauci and NIH boss Francis Collins had “orchestrated a takedown campaign” instead of debating the facts.

“Dr. Fauci doesn’t want to debate,” Paul said. “He wants to squelch debate because ‘he is science’. If you criticize him, you’re criticizing science.” That prompted Paul to author a Fox News commentary in which he cited Nobel laureate F.A. Hayek, author of The Road to Serfdom.

“Most scientists realize that we cannot plan the advance of knowledge, that in the voyage into the unknown—which is what research is—we are in great measure dependent on the vagaries of individual genius and of circumstance, and that scientific advance, like a new idea that will spring up in a single mind, will be the result of a combination of conceptions, habits, and circumstances brought to one person by society, the result as much of lucky accidents as of systematic effort.”

In other words, Paul explained, “the benefits of scientific progress are only realized if science is free from excessive restraint” and “the same arguments against central planning for an economy also hold for science.” When a central planner errs, “the entire economy is threatened.  Likewise, when a central medical planner errs, all patients are threatened.”

According to Paul, Dr. Fauci’s “fundamental decision to ignore natural immunity has led to a cascade of bad decisions, the effects of which have seeped into all of our lives.”  Long before the current pandemic, Fauci authorized secretive trials of toxic drugs such as AZT on foster children in New York City.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Norway’s Government Welcomes the Taliban to Oslo And flies them in by private jet – at taxpayer expense, of course. Bruce Bawer

By on January 24th, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/01/norways-government-welcomes-taliban-oslo-bruce-bawer/

On April 9, 2002, the Oslo newspaper Dagbladet reported that a man named Ingmar Tveitt, who was a friend of a member of the Norwegian Parliament named Jan Simonsen, had been dining in the Parliament cafeteria on the previous day when security guards asked him to remove his jacket. Why? Because Tveitt, a supporter of Israel, had an Israeli flag pin on his lapel. Some Parliament members found this offensive – even though, as Tveitt pointed out, people were always walking around the premises in Palestinian scarces. Yes, it was a minor incident, quickly forgotten by almost everybody. But that little story stuck in my mind, and I’ve had occasion to recall it now and then, because it told a big truth about the sympathies of Norwegian officialdom vis-à-vis the Middle East

That was twenty years ago. Since then, as the Islamic presence in Norway has steadily increased, Norwegian anti-Semitism, Israel-hatred, and support for Palestine have grown. In recent years, Norway has given Palestinian government bodies about $100 million annually – over $20 per Norwegian taxpayer. Earlier this month, when Norway took charge of the U.N. Security Council, its ambassador to the UN, Mona Juul, said that the Israel-Palestine conflict deserves “more attention” – as if the five million Palestinians hadn’t been getting far more than their share of attention (and Western largesse) for the last half century. Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt, for her part, chided Israel as “inhuman” for listing six Palestinian organizations – all of which Norway helps fund, in addition to the money it transfers to government bodies – as terrorist groups. Even though, by any objective definition, they are terrorist groups.

I was reminded of the Tveitt story this weekend after being apprised of the latest development in the saga of Norwegian involvement in Middle Eastern affairs. The story broke last Friday in the country’s biggest newspaper, VG. “The Taliban,” trumpeted the headline, “is coming to Norway to negotiate.” Norway, I read, had grabbed the brass ring: of all Western countries, it would be the first since the fall of Kabul to welcome a delegation of Taliban leaders to its shores. Reportedly, the distinguished visitors would meet not just with their Norwegian counterparts but also with representatives of the U.S., the EU, the U.K., France, Germany, and Italy, as well as with Afghans living outside Afghanistan, with officials of the Church of Norway and the Norwegian Red Cross, and with sundry journalists and human-rights activists. The meetings, which the Norwegian government had hoped to keep secret, began yesterday and will conclude tomorrow. 

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FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

The West Barks, But the Putin Caravan Moves On The dangerous delusions about “diplomatic engagement.” Bruce Thornton

By on January 24th, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/01/west-barks-putin-caravan-moves-bruce-thornton/

For nearly two decades Russian President Vladimir Putin has challenged the West’s “rules-based international order” seemingly validated by the collapse of the Soviet Union, which Putin has called “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.” During that time, Western leaders have imposed economic sanctions on Russia, and diplomats have scolded Putin for his violation of human rights and the borders of his neighbors, illiberal policies and murders of political rivals, and ongoing attempts to restore the old Soviet domination of Eastern Europe.

But as recent events show, all that tough talk hasn’t slowed Putin down, and if anything has confirmed his contempt for a rich global rival unwilling to face the hard choices necessary for checking his aggression, even though, as the Associated Press said last week, the conflict is heading for a “potentially disastrous confrontation.” With oil prices rising significantly, easing the costs of economic sanctions; China and Iran increasing its cooperation with Russia; and a year of feckless global retreat and appeasement by the Biden administration––including cancelling Trump’s sanctions on the company building the Nordstream 2 pipeline for increasing Russian natural gas deliveries to Europe––Putin may now be calculating that the time is ripe for more aggressive actions to achieve his goal of pushing NATO from Russia’s borders, and restoring its geopolitical clout.

Most recently, Putin has intensified his ongoing pressure against eastern Ukraine by moving nearly 100,000 Russian troops to the border with Ukraine. He’s also sent paratroopers to Kazakhstan to prop up its president, a Putin lackey who is facing serious protests. Many of the protestors have been killed.

The actions against Ukraine are a continuation of aggression going back to the Obama administration in 2014, when Putin seized Crimea from Ukraine, then invaded eastern Ukraine with “little green men,” Russian soldiers in unmarked green uniforms.

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FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Washington in Slumber By Elliott Abrams

By on January 24th, 2022

https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/01/washington-in-slumber/

Sleepy Washington is likely on the verge of being awakened by a major world crisis.

Washingtonians may not fully grasp the impression their city gives to foreign visitors these days. It is one of somnolence. Too many shops or restaurants are closed, temporarily or permanently; the traffic is light; the streets largely empty. As a suburbanite, I drive into Washington for meetings and find I never have to use a parking garage these days. Downtown is sufficiently deserted to make finding a parking meter easy. Thus, to foreign visitors, it often seems that the city is asleep and nothing important is happening right now.

They are right. What, after all, is happening on Capitol Hill? Nothing — or rather nothing but kabuki. Despite knowing what the outcome will be, the Democratic leadership forces votes that will be lost. Perhaps they are thinking this will be useful in November, but for the moment, it means that Congress is doing nothing of serious value.

And what is going on in the executive branch? On the border issues, nothing. On Covid, nothing: The president has said this is mostly a state issue, and anyway, most Americans have given up relying on so-called experts in the federal government. Americans can sign up now for three free masks, a pathetic measure of government action. The “energy in the Executive” of which Hamilton wrote consists nowadays of travel and speeches, and the only thing that gets this president energized is an opportunity to attack his domestic opponents.

On foreign policy, the president is waiting for Putin’s next move. This puts the United States in a position of reaction, issuing repeated warnings of a vague and general nature. Of real action, such as sending 10,000 troops to Poland or announcing a shipment of 2,000 anti-tank missiles to Ukraine, there is none. The only significant thing that happened in the foreign-policy world in the last week or two was the president’s disastrous press-conference error in saying that a small incursion into Ukraine by Putin would not be a very big deal. This was such an amazing mistake that the White House issued a correction in the nature of a retraction within one hour of Biden’s speech. But such errors give insight into the mind of the president, and this insight will have been profoundly unnerving to every American friend or ally anywhere in the world. Those who are dependent on Joe Biden for their security will have shivered last Wednesday evening. Think of it: This is the most dangerous, immediate national-security issue, and it was certain to come up at the press conference, yet the president was not only inarticulate but actually unable to state U.S. policy clearly.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Bari Weiss’ Smackdown on COVID Restrictions Sets Twitter Ablaze By Nick Arama

By on January 24th, 2022

https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2022/01/23/bari-weiss-smackdown-on-covid-restrictions-sets-twitter-ablaze-n511172

There’s no doubt that Bill Maher is a liberal. But he’s an unusual liberal, for these times, who will recognize certain truths and allow them to be aired on his show, “Real Time with Bill Maher.”
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As we noted on Saturday, Maher took on Justice Sonia Sotomayor for the misinformation she spread about COVID during Supreme Court oral arguments about Biden’s vaccine mandate on private businesses.

But Maher certainly let the genie out of the bottle when he let journalist/podcaster Bari Weiss speak on his show. Weiss used to work for the NY Times before she tossed them over for greater reality.

Weiss didn’t hold back when it came to blasting COVID restrictions, calling what had been done to children in the closing of schools a “catastrophic moral crime.”

“We were told you get the vaccine, you get the vaccine and you get back to normal. And we haven’t gotten back to normal. And it’s ridiculous at this point,” Weiss said. “I know that so many of my liberal and progressive friends are with me on this, and they do not want to say it out loud because they are scared to be called anti-vax or to be called science deniers or to be smeared as a Trumper. I’m sorry, but if you believe the science, you will look at the data that we did not have two years ago, and you will find out that cloth masks do not do anything. You will realize that you can show your vaccine passport at a restaurant and still be asymptomatic in carrying Omicron. And you realize, most importantly, that this will be remembered by the younger generation as a catastrophic moral crime.”

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FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Amid missile test surge, much of Biden’s North Korea policy still unknown Experts warn administration not doing enough as Kim Jong Un continues to advance weapons programs.By Aaron Kliegman

By on January 24th, 2022

https://justthenews.com/government/security/amid-missile-test-surge-much-bidens-north-korea-policy-still-unknown

As North Korea starts 2022 with a barrage of weapons tests, the Biden administration’s policy toward the country remains largely undefined to the public, raising questions about how Washington will respond to what could be a year of North Korean provocations and brinkmanship with the U.S.

North Korea on Monday launched short-range ballistic missiles near the capital, Pyongyang, in the country’s fourth missile test in less than two weeks — the most such launches the North has ever conducted to start a year.

It took Pyongyang 10 months to conduct the same number of missile tests last year.

North Korea said the purpose of its latest launch was “evaluation,” describing it as a success.

The test was aimed at “making a selective examination of the tactical guided missiles which are being produced and equipped and verifying the accuracy of the weapon system,” according to North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency. “The Academy of Defense Science has confirmed the accuracy, safety, and operational effectiveness of this weapon system being produced.”

North Korea’s recent missile launches were part of the development of new weapons systems, according to Bruce Klinger, a senior research fellow for northeast Asia at the Heritage Foundation.

“Any improvement in Pyongyang’s ability to attack our allies and U.S. forces stationed there is worrisome,” Klinger told Just the News.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

NYPD’s 911 log shows rapid escalation of domestic call that left cop dead, another seriously injured By Tina Moore and Jesse O’Neill

By on January 24th, 2022

https://nypost.com/2022/01/22/nypds-911-log-shows-escalation-of-call-that-left-cop-dead-another-injured/

Records from the NYPD’s emergency call center show how a seemingly routine Friday evening domestic call in Manhattan quickly turned into a deadly situation.

Before Officer Jason Rivera was slain and Officer Wilbert Mora was critically injured by Lashawn McNeil’s .45 Glock, police had little indication that they were walking into an ambush.

The NYPD received a 911 call from Shirley Sourzes, a woman who was having a dispute with her son in a Harlem apartment at 5:09 p.m., according to the call log obtained by The Post.

“HE IS THREATENING TO DO THINGS TO HER,” the log stated. “HE IS IN THE HOUSE NOW.”

But the log indicated the unidentified woman told the dispatcher that no one in the Harlem apartment had a weapon or was injured. McNeil, in fact, was brandishing a gun with an illegal, high-capacity magazine.

Over the next several minutes, dispatchers wrote that the caller said her son was in her home and was “threatening to do things to her.”

For more than an hour, there were no further entries in the log, until a 6:21 record of “SHOTS FIRED” was entered.

Rivera, Mora and a third cop had arrived at 119 West 135th Street’s apartment 1D and spoke to the woman and another one of her sons in the living room before walking down a long narrow hallway to check on McNeil. The alleged killer then swung the door open and opened fire on the officers, according to previous descriptions. He was shot by the third officer as he tried to flee the apartment and remained in critical condition.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Virginia’s Youngkin gets the DeSantis treatment from media By Joe Concha

By on January 24th, 2022

https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/590908-virginias-youngkin-gets-the-desantis-treatment-from-media

He hasn’t been in office for even a week, but Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) is already getting the same treatment from some corners of the media that his Republican counterpart in Florida regularly attracts.

“So much for the silly narrative that Youngkin was some normal R,” wrote Washington Post columnist Jen Rubin to her nearly 650,000 Twitter followers. “As @TerryMcAuliffe predicted, he’s brought DeSantis anti-mask nuttery to VA. Now at war with several school districts. He’s only been in office a few days. Hey, VA this is what you voted for. Best of luck.”

Gov. Youngkin is already proving himself to be a “Trump in fleece clothing,” lamented Monthly magazine contributing editor Anne Kim. “This is not my Virginia.”

“What makes @GlennYoungkin different from other GOP govs who’ve banned mask mandates is the timing — amid the most infectious variant yet, as record numbers of kids are being hospitalized and staffing shortages are crippling schools,” argued NBC’s Heidi Przybyla.

“Hi there. Arlington county parent here (don’t believe you are @GlennYoungkin but correct me if I am wrong). Thank you to @APSVirginia for standing up for our kids, teachers and administrators and their safety in the midst of a transmissible variant,” wrote White House press secretary Jen Psaki to Youngkin.

And despite Virginia exit polls showing that just one in 10 parents say parents should have little or no say over what schools teach, we get headlines like this one from a Washington Post opinion piece, “In catering to selfish parents, Youngkin is failing Virginia’s kids.”

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