Displaying posts published in

March 2022

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Zelensky’s Holocaust Denial Should Be a Red Line for Jews Daniel Greenfield

By on March 22nd, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2022/03/zelenskys-holocaust-denial-should-be-red-line-jews-daniel-greenfield/

Ukraine’s leader Zelensky had previously exploited and lied about the Holocaust, but not as much as he did in his attack on Israel.

First, Zelensky appropriated the Holocaust by falsely claiming that Putin’s invasion is another genocide. It’s wrong, but it’s far from genocide.

“That is why I want to remind you of the words of a great woman from Kyiv, whom you know very well. The words of Golda Meir. They are very famous, everyone has heard of them. Apparently, every Jew. Many, many Ukrainians as well. And certainly no less, Russians: “We intend to remain alive. Our neighbors want to see us dead. This is not a question that leaves much room for compromise.”

The Jews actually faced genocide at the hands of the Nazis and the Ukrainians. They face genocide again at the hands of Ukraine’s Iranian trading partners.

No one who hasn’t completely bought into the insane propaganda believes that Putin is about to kill millions of Ukrainians, to march men, women and children into pits and machine gun them, as the Nazis and Ukrainians did to the Jews at Babi Yar.

Continue reading →
MEDICINE AND HEALTH Comments turned off

Most Americans Are Moving On from Covid. Progressive Elites Aren’t By Nate Hochman

By on March 22nd, 2022

https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/03/most-americans-are-moving-on-from-covid-progressive-elites-arent/

Mandates and masks and fear are no longer normal — unless you read or write for the New York Times.

T he chaotic news cycle in Ukraine has overshadowed a significant development domestically — the drastic shift in public opinion on Covid-19 precautions. “Two years after the start of the pandemic, the nation is ready to move on,” Axios reported last week. “64% of survey respondents now favor federal, state and local governments lifting all COVID-19 restrictions, up 20 percentage points since early February.” (Although “three in four say they’d go back to masking if infections increase again where they live,” it noted.) On top of that, “84% say their state of emotional well-being is good, the highest shares for both since May 2020.” And “75% said the country is moving toward a time when COVID won’t interrupt daily life, up from 66% last month.”

Notably, it’s Democrats who are reporting the largest shift in views toward the pandemic. According to recent numbers from Morning Consult, “the share of adults who say COVID-19 is a severe health risk in their local community fell to an all-time low of 17%, driven by a roughly 20-point decrease among Democrats in recent weeks. Just under a quarter of Democrats now say COVID-19 is a severe local risk, compared with 12% of Republicans, a level that has also fallen since late January.” From January 14 to March 13, the share of American adults who see Covid as a “severe” health risk fell 17 points, from 34 to 17 percent. Among Republicans, that number fell 11 points, from 23 to 12 percent. But among Democrats over that time period, it fell 23 points, from 46 to 23.

Continue reading →
FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Our Surreal “Rage of Self-Mutilation” Biden’s shameless negotiations with the Mullahs are nearing completion. Bruce Thornton

By on March 22nd, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/03/our-surreal-rage-self-mutilation-bruce-thornton/

That phrase is how Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn described the 20th century’s catalogue of horrors: two world wars, fascism, communism, Nazism, mass slaughter, the Cold War and its apocalyptic stakes–“oceans of blood and mountains of corpses, Auschwitz and the Gulag,” as George Weigel put it. And that catalogue continues today in Ukraine, with mechanized violence and wanton inhumanity on a scale we haven’t seen since 1945.

Yet today our social, political, and cultural dysfunctions are more insidious, as over the last few decades they have distributed, promoted, and indulged failures of morality, technocratic hubris, and common sense of the sort that were the predicates of all the disasters of the 20th century. Only now they are at a level of surreal silliness and stupidity that would be mordantly funny if the stakes for our civilization weren’t so high.

Now comes proof in the news that the indirect negotiations between the Biden administration and the genocidal clerical regime in Iran are nearing completion. Since its beginning in the Obama administration, this diplomatic attempt to keep nuclear weapons out of the mullahs’ hands has defied facts and logic, and relied on magical thinking. How else other than surreal can we describe a process that aims at merely delaying, rather than preventing, an illiberal, fanatical cabal from obtaining weapons of mass destruction?

Continue reading →
NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Are You Better off Today Than a Year Ago? By Four to One Americans Say NO! Terry Jones

By on March 22nd, 2022

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/03/21/ii-tipp-poll-are-you-better-off-today-than-a-year-ago-by-4-to-1-americans-say-no/

Are you better off today under President Joe Biden than you were a year earlier? And are you financially prepared for a downturn in the economy or a job loss? The March I&I/TIPP Poll suggests most Americans would answer “no” to both of those questions.

The poll asked: “Generally speaking, is your family better off today than it was one year ago, worse off than it was one year ago, or about the same as it was a year ago?”

Fewer than one in five (20%) said they were “better off.” while more than twice that number — 42% — said they were “worse off.” Another 36% said they were “about the same.”

Continue reading →
NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

VITAL QUESTIONS FOR KETANJI BROWN JACKSON

By on March 22nd, 2022

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/03/22/how-is-boofed-pronounced-and-other-vital-questions-ketanji-brown-jackson-must-answer/

By all evidence, Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination to the Supreme Court will be a shoo-in. Not because she’s supremely qualified, but because her nomination — as the press reminds us in every headline — is “historic.” Yes, there are and have been black justices and women justices, but never, ever a black woman justice! Who would dare stand in the way of history?

President Joe Biden assumed that by checking all the correct woke boxes his candidate could escape the sort of vicious scrutiny, rumormongering, character-destroying attacks visited upon Republican nominees – apparently forgetting that Democratic nominees always get a free pass from the media, and from genteel Republicans.

Nevertheless, if Democrats want to at least give the appearance of fairness, they should ask Jackson the same questions they asked the last two Republican nominees to the court.

We’re not talking about those silly questions that might reveal her judicial philosophy. Although there is plenty there worthy of careful scrutiny. Joel Pollak over at Breitbart News put together a handy list of such questions, ranging from: Do you believe current penalties for sex offenders are too harsh? What do you think of Biden’s decision only to select a black woman as a nominee? Do you support critical race theory? Do you agree with the “1619 Project” that America was founded on slavery? Do you support court-packing? Can we have rule of law with an open border?

Democrats have already labeled such questions as racist.

Continue reading →
NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

‘Crime Tourism’ Is Now a Thing in California? Voters just might be ready to reject lawlessness and disorder. By James Freeman

By on March 22nd, 2022

https://www.wsj.com/articles/crime-tourism-is-now-a-thing-in-california-11647894206?mod=opinion_lead_pos11

The Golden State has long been a cultural trend-setter and a popular destination for leisure travel. But this is not a story about loading the kids into a metallic-pea Wagon Queen Family Truckster and heading out west. It seems that California is now attracting an entirely new category of vacationers.

Sid Garcia reports for KABC-TV in Los Angeles:

Law enforcement agencies call it “crime tourism” — groups of thieves from South America traveling to California to burglarize homes…
They’re able to easily obtain tourist visas to travel to California by applying online. Once they have a visa they land at LAX and start their crime spree.
Residents in one Camarillo neighborhood say they’re well aware of the South American burglary crews that have been targeting their community and the surrounding areas.
“Several of my friends have been hit repeatedly,” Camarillo resident John McGrath said… According to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office, last year alone, they handled 100 cases involving crews from South America.

Betty Yu recently reported for CBS station KPIX in San Francisco that law-enforcement officials believe such crews are operating in northern California as well:

A quiet residential town on the peninsula has seen an increase in burglaries over the past four months. Hillsborough police say a specific group could be behind the troubling trend.
Many of the sophisticated burglary crews are coming from South America for “criminal tourism” and they are targeting wealthy communities, according to a community alert sent Sunday.

Continue reading →
FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

A Crisis in U.S.-Middle East Relations Neither the Saudis nor the Emiratis will take Biden’s calls. The U.S. needs to recommit to the region. By Firas Maksad

By on March 22nd, 2022

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-crisis-in-u-s-arab-relations-russia-china-uae-defense-iran-oil-drone-attacks-response-11647893535?mod=opinion_lead_pos5

Mr. Maksad is an adjunct professor at George Washington University’s Elliott School for International Affairs and a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute.

When the leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates decline phone calls from the president of the United States, rebuff his requests to help lower oil prices, and shy away from condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and when the U.A.E. hosts Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in Abu Dhabi, there is no doubt that a major crisis in U.S.-Arab Gulf relations is under way.

This will be exacerbated in the weeks ahead if the U.S. nears an agreement with Iran over its nuclear program, lifting many sanctions in the process. How Washington handles this unfolding predicament will shape the region’s future, and America’s place in it, for decades.

To some in the West, the behavior of some of America’s Arab Gulf partners typifies the sort of erratic decisions made by strongmen such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin. But does that explain why most of America’s other Middle Eastern allies—Israel, Jordan, Turkey and Egypt—also are expanding ties to Russia and China at America’s expense? Are all these countries led by irrational strongmen?

No, America’s Middle Eastern partners have rationally concluded that they need to diversify their foreign-policy options given Washington’s reluctance to uphold its defense commitments. Dramatic scenes of the disorderly U.S. exit from Afghanistan confirmed that America is in retreat. For Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. in particular, the lack of a meaningful American response to Iran-sponsored drone attacks on airports and oil facilities in 2019 and 2022 was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Continue reading →
NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Pain in the Gas Inflated by taxes and regulations, prices at the pump are higher in Democratic-leaning states. Steven Malanga

By on March 22nd, 2022

https://www.city-journal.org/gas-prices-higher-in-democratic-leaning-states

The average price of one gallon of regular gasoline in the United States rose by a dollar, to $3.31, during Joe Biden’s first year in the White House. Now, supercharged by war in Ukraine, the price has soared to $4.27 per gallon. That average, though, is misleading. The actual price of gas at the pump varies widely by state, with nearly a $2-per-gallon difference between the costliest and the least expensive states. While some of those differences have to do with geographic factors that affect distribution costs, state policies—including taxes and regulations—also play a significant role in the vastly different burden consumers face around the country.

The highest gas prices are found disproportionately in high-tax, heavily regulated Democratic states, while the lowest gas prices show up in so-called red or purple states. California leads the way at a whopping $5.78 per gallon, followed by Nevada, Washington, Oregon, Arizona, Illinois, Connecticut, and New York among the lower 48 states (Hawaiian and Alaskan geography make any comparisons with the rest of the country difficult). At the bottom sits Kansas, at $3.81 per gallon, followed by Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Iowa.

The price of a barrel of oil accounts for about 56 percent of the cost of this gas. Taxes on average compose about 15 percent of the price, and distribution and marketing costs amount to the rest. State gas taxes are an obvious culprit, but extraordinary fuel standards beyond the national level force up prices, too—as do regulatory constraints on building pipelines and refineries, which inflate distribution costs.

Continue reading →
NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Huntergate and Putin remind us of the danger of propaganda Liz Peek

By on March 22nd, 2022

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/huntergate-putin-danger-propaganda-liz-peek

What do liberal elites in our country have in common with Vladimir Putin?

People like Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Alphabet chief Sundar Pichai and New York TimesExecutive Editor Dean Baquet know that knowledge is power. They understand that managing the flow of information, silencing critics and providing false narratives is every bit as effective in taking control as armored columns and hypersonic missiles.

This column was meant to be about Vladimir Putin’s hideously effective misinformation campaign, and how we should combat it. He has destroyed Russia’s independent press, sabotaged internet access and consequently hidden the truth about his unprovoked attack on Ukraine from the Russian people.

Hunter Biden’s laptop got in the way.

It is impossible to rail about Putin’s egregious lies to his countrymen without acknowledging that in our own purportedly free nation, we have witnessed the very same tactic. This is not hyperbole, as Joe Biden might say; this is true.

Continue reading →
WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Chinese missiles can likely sink US carriers: report Congressional Research Service quotes US commanders saying Chinese anti-ship ballistic missiles can now hit moving targets David Goldman

By on March 22nd, 2022

https://asiatimes.com/2022/03/chinese-missiles-can-likely-sink-us-carriers-report/

A March 8 Congressional Research Service (CRS) report on China’s naval capabilities cites the view of top US commanders that China’s arsenal of anti-ship ballistic missiles (ASBMs) can hit moving targets, effectively closing an area a thousand miles from China’s coast to the American Navy.

The report states: “A December 3, 2020, press report stated that Admiral Philip Davidson, the commander of US Indo-Pacific Command, ‘confirmed, for the first time from the US government side, that China’s People’s Liberation Army has successfully tested an anti-ship ballistic missile against a moving ship.’ China reportedly is also developing hypersonic glide vehicles that, if incorporated into Chinese ASBMs, could make Chinese ASBMs more difficult to intercept.”

Some of the assessments by senior US flag officers have been cited before, but the CRS report gives them additional weight in the context of an overall assessment of Chinese capabilities.

If Chinese missiles can effectively clear the coast of American vessels to a distance of 1,500 kilometers or more, the United States has no effective way of defending Taiwan against a prospective Chinese armed landing.

Continue reading →