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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION

50 STATES AND DC, CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT

The Disturbing Details About Biden’s SCOTUS Pick Just Keep on Coming By Matt Margolis

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2022/03/17/the-disturbing-details-about-bidens-scotus-pick-just-keep-on-coming-n1567263

Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson, was briefly hailed (by some) as a consensus nominee that even some Republicans could support.

I’m starting to think that Republican support will be much harder to get than Biden had hoped.

Last month, we learned that in 1996, Jackson wrote a “Note” for the Harvard Law Review arguing that convicted sex offenders were treated “unfairly” in the courts. Earlier this week, her past work advocating on behalf of Guantánamo Bay terrorists also became an issue that will undoubtedly come up during her confirmation hearings.

Completing the trifecta of disturbing aspects of Ketanji Brown Jackson’s radical record is her repeated embracing of champions of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in lectures and speeches and her belief that “microaggressions” are real.

If confirmed, Jackson won’t alter the court’s ideological balance, but that’s no reason for Republicans not to stand up for American values and vote “nay” on her confirmation.

According to the Daily Wire, “A review of a handful of Jackson’s lectures and speeches from the past seven years shows that the nominee has a strong appreciation for leading proponents of CRT, a progressive idea that holds in part: ‘racism is endemic to, rather than a deviation from, American norms,’ legal scholar Kimberle Crenshaw, who coined the term, wrote in 1989. While Jackson has avoided openly championing CRT, she has complimented its advocates and suggested that the progressive theory informs her legal analysis.”

Is Anyone Actually Fooled by Lia Thomas? By Charles C. W. Cooke *****

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/is-anyone-actually-fooled-by-lia-thomas/

At Swimming World magazine, John Lohn neatly sums up the farce:

“No, this title-winning effort in the 500-yard freestyle should be met with nothing less than a head shake, an eye roll or a shrug of the shoulders. Why? Because Lia Thomas’ victory is an insult to the biological women who raced against her. Against those who fought for Title IX and equal opportunities for female athletes. Against science, and the unmistakable physiological differences between the male and female sexes.”

From the Times:

ATLANTA — Lia Thomas, the transgender woman whose record-threatening times on the University of Pennsylvania’s swim team made her a star of college athletics and a symbol of the debate over sports and gender identity, won an N.C.A.A. championship in the 500-yard freestyle on Thursday.

Thomas, a fifth-year senior who arrived for the swimming championships in Atlanta as the top seed in the 500 and 200 freestyle races, completed the race in 4 minutes, 33.24 seconds, more than a second ahead of the runner-up.

I would like to know who is fooled by this. My suspicion is that almost nobody is fooled by this, but that almost everybody is scared to admit that in public.

However “Lia Thomas” might self-identify, he has the body of a man. This matters, because he is competing in a women’s sports league, and because there are profound biological differences between men and women in that sport, as in almost every other. The Times reports that Thomas “that left opponents far behind and put some collegiate records under new pressure.” Well, yeah. This is because Thomas is a man, and because Thomas’s “opponents” — two of whom were Olympians — are not.

Liz Peek: Manchin Turns Out To Be the Only Adult in the Room

https://www.nysun.com/article/manchin-turns-out-to-be-the-only-adult-in-the-room

Markets rose after Jay Powell finally emerged from his politically-induced coma and announced the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates by 25 basis points, with several more hikes to follow. He also told investors he would likely begin shrinking the Fed’s $9 trillion balance sheet as early as May.

Traders, it seems, welcomed certainty over the muddle that has been Fed policy for many months. Yet, most would agree that the central bank is entering a perilous phase; no one can remember a time when the Fed succeeded in pulling off a “soft landing.”

The yield curve is flattening, sentiment souring and forecasts of growth — including from the Fed — heading south. Many expect a recession in 2023. How did we get here? How did inflation deflate a healthy recovery?

President Biden has blamed Covid-induced worker shortages, supply chain issues, greedy companies, and Vladimir Putin for spiraling prices that are eating into Americans’ paychecks and trashing his approval ratings. Voters blame Mr. Biden, and investors point the finger at Chairman Powell.

The NYT Now Admits the Biden Laptop — Falsely Called “Russian Disinformation” — is Authentic: Glenn Greenwald

https://greenwald.substack.com/p/the-nyt-now-admits-the-biden-laptop?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxNDc5MDI

The media outlets which spread this lie from ex-CIA officials never retracted their pre-election falsehoods, ones used by Big Tech to censor reporting on the front-runner.

One of the most successful disinformation campaigns in modern American electoral history occurred in the weeks prior to the 2020 presidential election. On October 14, 2020 — less than three weeks before Americans were set to vote — the nation’s oldest newspaper, The New York Post, began publishing a series of reports about the business dealings of the Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, in countries in which Biden, as Vice President, wielded considerable influence (including Ukraine and China) and would again if elected president.

The backlash against this reporting was immediate and intense, leading to suppression of the story by U.S. corporate media outlets and censorship of the story by leading Silicon Valley monopolies. The disinformation campaign against this reporting was led by the CIA’s all-but-official spokesperson Natasha Bertrand (then of Politico, now with CNN), whose article on October 19 appeared under this headline: “Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say.”

BIDEN’S TEST TO TREAT COVID PLAN: BAD POLICY BY HENRY MILLER M.D.

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/03/17/bidens-test-to-treat-covid-plan-good-sound-bite-bad-policy/

Henry I. Miller, a physician and molecular biologist, is a senior fellow at the Pacific Research Institute. He is the co-discoverer of a critical enzyme in the influenza virus and was the founding director of the FDA’s Office of Biotechnology.

As someone who has closely followed and written extensively about the development of COVID-19 vaccines and drug treatments since the beginning of the pandemic, one pronouncement in President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech raised red flags: “We’re also ready with antiviral treatments. If you get COVID-19, the Pfizer pill reduces your chances of ending up in the hospital by 90% … And we’re launching the ‘Test to Treat’ initiative so people can get tested at a pharmacy, and if they’re positive, receive antiviral pills on the spot at no cost.”

Highly effective antiviral pills, given out in a timely way – and free. Good sound bite, but bad idea – which Biden’s medical advisers should have warned him about.

The “Pfizer pill,” Paxlovid, consists of two kinds of tablets – drugs called nirmatrelvir and ritonavir. The first of these is the actual antiviral agent, while the second inhibits an enzyme that degrades the first, thereby increasing the concentration of nirmatrelvir in the blood. The problem is that ritonavir has problematic interactions with a huge number of commonly prescribed drugs, especially in the patient population most in need of COVID-19 treatment: Paxlovid is available under an Emergency Use Authorization for adults with a positive COVID-19 test “who are at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19, including hospitalization or death” – in other words, the elderly and others with one or more comorbidities.

FOUR CHARTS PROVING THAT BIDEN IS LYING ABOUT PUTIN AND INFLATION

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/03/17/four-charts-prove-biden-is-lying-about-putin-an

THE PRESIDENT’S EXCUSES ARE RISING FASTER THAN PRICES

As inflation has continued to climb, so have the number of President Joe Biden’s excuses for why he’s not to blame. First, it was a “transitory” effect of the economy rebounding from COVID lockdowns. Then it was the result of supply chain problems because ports didn’t operate 24/7. Then it was due to a lack of competition among beef suppliers. Then it was greed. Now he’s settled on Vladimir Putin.

None of it is true. But the White House is so determined to take advantage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine it invited TikTok “influencers” to propagandize them. The mainstream press had already fallen in line, delivering stories about why Biden is not at fault. (The New York Times, for example, ran a “fact check” headlined: “Republicans Wrongly Blame Biden for Rising Gas Prices.”)

But Biden is to blame. He set off the current inflationary spiral with the $2 trillion “rescue plan” he and his fellow Democrats jammed through at the start of 2021. They claimed the money was desperately needed to get the economy back on track (it wasn’t) and dismissed warnings from even liberal economists that dumping all that money (while paying people not to work) at a time when the economy was rapidly rebounding would spark an inflationary spiral.

10 biggest COVID mistakes – Americans deserve an apology from the medical experts The American people, and children in particular, deserve an apology Dr. Marty Makary

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/10-biggest-covid-mistakes-americans-apology-dr-marty-makary

The medical establishment has marched in lockstep on COVID-19, presenting a consensus of expertise as they marginalized physicians who had different opinions. Two years into the pandemic, it’s fair to ask, how did public health officials do? 

Surface transmission 

Wash your hands like crazy (at least 20 seconds) and pour alcohol-based solutions on your grocery bags to stop COVID transmission, you were told for months. Despite being an expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci immediately applied the influenza surface transmission model to COVID. The logical starting hypothesis should have been that COVID was aerosolized. 

There are only three coronaviruses that cause serious illness in humans: SARS, MERS and COVID. SARS and MERS spread by air. Why did Dr. Fauci think COVID was so different? The NIH could have done the definitive experiment in one day to get the answer. It’s OK to be wrong in science, but not for months when the National Institutes of Health could have spent a fraction of its $42 billion budget to instantly establish how COVID spreads.  

No hospital visitation 

The barbaric policy of banning loved ones from holding the hand of their dying loved one and saying goodbye was a human rights violation that spanned much of the pandemic. All the so-called experts and the medical establishment were complicit, allowing this cruel policy to be instituted while abandoning their duty to respect the dignity of human life. As a physician, I can assure you there are things worse than dying. 

Closing schools 

Biden’s Vast Oil Conspiracy The President takes to Twitter to show what he doesn’t know about the retail gasoline market.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/joe-bidens-vast-oil-conspiracy-gasoline-prices-11647468748?mod=opinion_lead_pos2

President Biden is adopting Donald Trump’s habit of venting his political frustrations on Twitter. “Oil prices are decreasing, gas prices should too,” Mr. Biden tweeted Wednesday. “Oil and gas companies shouldn’t pad their profits at the expense of hardworking Americans.” Sorry, Mr. President. There’s no vast industry conspiracy to raise gasoline prices.

Gas prices almost always rise faster than they fall, as the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis explained in a 2014 report. “When oil prices rise after being steady for some time—gasoline prices shoot up quickly,” the Fed paper explained. “In contrast, when oil prices fall after being steady for some time, gasoline prices retreat slowly.”

Individual retailers set gas prices based on what they expect their future fuel deliveries to cost. But they have no clue right now due to all of the global uncertainty. Oil prices have plunged this past week in part because the United Arab Emirates said it would urge OPEC to pump more. But the cartel might not.

Markets also forecast that China’s lockdowns, if they continue, will dampen global growth and fuel demand this year. But they may not. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also raised hopes on Tuesday that peace talks with Russia were beginning to “sound more realistic.” But the war could go on for weeks. Who knows what crude prices will be a week or even a few days from now.

By the way, the vast majority of the nation’s 150,000 gas retailers are mom-and-pop operations. Fewer than 5% are owned by refiners. Profit margins are only about 10 to 15 cents a gallon even when prices shoot up. These small businesses aren’t padding their profits. They’re trying to hedge against big losses if oil prices spike.

Markets are complicated, we know. But maybe Mr. Biden could try to understand how they work, for a change.

Biden Blames the Jews for His Ukraine Policy The president and his people try to seal a new Iran deal by hanging their appeasement of Putin on Israel BY Lee Smith

https://mailchi.mp/aefbe22de134/krd-news-must-read-biden-blames-the-jews-for-his-ukraine-policy?e=9365a7c638

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/biden-blames-jews-ukraine-policy

Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was precipitated by assurances from China, Germany, and the United States that each of Russia’s major trading partners either backed his position or had zero interest in getting in his way. President Joe Biden’s invitations to Putin to bite off more chunks of Ukraine made it clear that America was not interested in a fight with the Russian dictator in his own backyard. Surely, the mighty Putin would make quick work of the Ukrainians. After all, he helped put down the Syrian rebellion to preserve Iran’s stake in Syria, and thereby sealed Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with the clerical regime in Tehran. So why make a big fuss, especially since at the same time Putin is intent on breaking Ukraine, he is also brokering the new Iran deal with U.S. negotiators in Vienna?

The problem for Biden is that Putin is not winning his war in anything like the quick and easy fashion that the White House and other world powers apparently expected. Moreover, the prospect of a dictator murdering thousands of Ukrainians in Europe in a prolonged war may be a tougher pill to swallow for so-called Western elites than the same dictator helping to murder half a million Syrians.

Biden’s position has thus become difficult, even with a captive media eager to read from a script in which the president of the United States bravely rallies NATO to do something, while in fact doing as close to nothing as politically possible. Luckily, the White House has a playbook for situations in which the contradictions between appearance and reality threaten to overwhelm the ever-changing storylines about who is responsible for, say, $6 per gallon gas. The playbook, like the Iran deal, is a legacy of the Obama administration, and a variation on an age-old incantation: “Blame the Jews.”

In the case of Ukraine, blaming the Jews might seem like a stretch—the Jewish state is a regional power in a region far from Ukraine. But senior Capitol Hill sources told Tablet that the Biden administration is trying to put Israel in the line of fire by pushing Jerusalem to mediate between Kyiv and Moscow. The point is to position Israel to catch the blame if Putin doesn’t relent, or the stubborn Ukrainians prove unwilling to surrender enough territory to end the war on terms that the Russian president finds acceptable.

The WEF: World Economic Forum Versus Western Culture Diane Bederman

https://dianebederman.com/the-wef-world-economic-forum-versus-western-culture/

We are in a war. And it is not with Russia.

It is a far more serious war.

It is the World Economic Forum versus Western Culture.

It’s past time that we all learn about the WEF and the people behind it. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Klaus Schwab, Bill Gates, George Soros and Anthony Fauci, medical czar. Each one of them is EVIL. And each one is attacking our Judeo/Christian ethic that underpins our culture.

Here is more on George Soros of WEF and Open Society

I never thought I would be writing about the WEF because what I heard about it was so off the wall, it had to be a conspiracy theory. Why? Because it sounds like something from the Twilight Zone. Actually, the WEF sounds more like the future that George Orwell warned us about in his book 1984; written in 1949 – a warning about totalitarianism.