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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION

50 STATES AND DC, CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT

A Very Strange Fellow Is Our Joe, Our “always evolving” president Larry Thornberry

https://spectator.org/joe-biden-constitution-always-evolving/

Our more than slightly off-plumb president is a fount of odd and counterintuitive claims. One of his latest and most cynical is that our Constitution is “always evolving.” I’ll wait here while you think about this for a few seconds.

A few seconds is all that’s needed to see that there is no difference between having a “constantly evolving” Constitution and having no Constitution at all. With an evolving Constitution there’s no guarantee that what it is said to mean on Monday would bear any resemblance to what it will mean on Tuesday. It would simply mean whatever is consistent with the policies and prejudices of the party in power. An evolving Constitution is simply words on old paper, words with no more effect on our laws and the daily conduct of government affairs than a note passed in study hall.

Of course our Joe’s positions on the large issues of the day have been “always evolving” since he chose politics over legitimate work back in the butt end of the Tricky Dick administration. The eccentric voters in tiny Delaware first coughed up this hairball in 1972 and regularly sent him back to the U.S. Senate every six years (I can see their point — it got him out of Delaware) until Barack Obama, needing a white guy to share his presidential ticket, drafted him.

Biden’s policy positions have evolved depending on where the center of gravity of the Democrat Party has been, merging effortlessly from the center-left/reasonably moderate Democrat Party of the ’70s to the present two steps left of WHOOPIE! socialist Democrat Party. The man is a political and philosophical empty suit with no center of gravity of his own. A windsock.

He’s gone from being tough on crime to the current Democrat creed that cops are criminals and criminals are victims faster than you can say focus group. He’s gone from being tough on illegal immigration to the current voter replacement stance of his party — economically stated, “We don’t need no stinking border” — faster than you can say Bienvenidos a los Estados Unidos. It’s no wonder that his handlers keep him away from mirrors, for fear that the world might notice that he doesn’t reflect in them, there being nothing to reflect.

Yesterday’s Sister Souljah Moment, Today’s Costly Silence Charles Lipson

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2022/02/09/yesterdays_sister_souljah_moment_todays_costly_silence_147159.html

President Biden’s quick trip to New York City was the perfect moment to assert a genuine commitment to public safety by calling out Manhattan’s left-wing prosecutor, Alvin Bragg. But Biden and his attorney general blew the opportunity. They said nothing, aside from the usual pablum about safe communities and guns coming in from out of state. That’s not enough, even in very liberal cities like New York.
 
Democrats simply aren’t trusted on crime. That’s hardly new, but it has become much more damaging politically now that voters consider crime one of their top issues. For years, the party has framed its policies as “pro-justice” and “anti-racism,” with little attention to “law and order.” Race gets pride of place, of course, because, in city after city, a disproportionate number of those arrested are African American, mostly young men.
 
Republicans say that what Democrats call “racial justice” really means “soft on crime.” More and more Independents are siding with Republicans on this issue. These critics not only demand safety for themselves. They point out that most of this rising crime harms law-abiding people in poor, minority communities. The arrest statistics, they say, reflect the hard reality of who commits crimes, not biased policing.
 
The parties’ sharply opposed views on crime, law enforcement, and prosecution have become central issues in American politics. It’s an issue that strongly favors Republicans.
 
Some three decades ago, Bill Clinton understood this political landscape and attacked the Democrats’ image head-on by calling out a black celebrity, Sister Souljah. In the aftermath of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, she said, “If black people kill black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people?” Clinton’s angry response reinforced a political argument he made during the campaign: he intended to deter crime by punishing criminals, severely if need be.
 

“It’s Still the Culture, Stupid” Sydney Williams

http://www.swtotd.blogspot.com

Just over a year and a half ago, June 8, 2020, I wrote a TOTD, “It’s the Culture Stupid.” It was two weeks after George Floyd died under Derek Chauvin’s knee. I wrote: “…the permitting of protesters in the wake of George Floyd’s killing was right. The failure to confront and arrest violent rioters and looters was wrong.” It is that failure to distinguish between right and wrong – a failure to punish wrongdoers and to reward virtue – that haunts our nation and its people. Driven by a sanctimonious and intolerant “woke” community, the situation has worsened over the past twenty months.

In 1992, while advising Bill Clinton on his Presidential campaign against George H.W. Bush, James Carville coined the phrase, “It’s the economy, stupid.” The economy had entered recession in July-August 1990 but had recovered by the end of the first quarter of 1991. However, job creation lagged, so the recovery became known as the “jobless recovery.” Unemployment continued to rise into mid-year 1992, which provided Mr. Carville the opportunity to conceive a phrase recalled thirty years later.

What we face is more onerous. Economies go through booms and busts, while cultures are fundamental to who we are. A self-important, moralizing wokeism offers a new and different threat. Traditionally, our culture has been embedded in families – passed down from one generation to the next. It is confirmed in civil behavior, in our schools, churches and communities. It is institutionalized in our Declaration of Independence, Constitution and reflected in Constitutional amendments. It has been enhanced as our country absorbed immigrants from all over the world. But the underlying rules and customs that allowed this country to survive and to thrive should persist – that we are all, no matter our race, ethnicity or gender, created equal and have equal protection under the law, that private property is protected, that we live in a nation of laws not men, that we should be judged by our character, not the color of our skin or gender, and that success is a function of merit, ability, effort and diligence, and that civility, respect and tolerance are necessary for a free, civil and democratic society to exist.

The ADL Must Apologize to America’s Jews: Charles Jacobs

Like too many Jewish organizations, the ADL been taken over by radical leftists who have subverted its original mission by promoting a progressive ideology at the expense of protecting the Jewish community. As the recent Whoopi Goldberg incident illustrates, the ADL seems morally confused.

Whoopi Goldberg was suspended from The View for two weeks for saying that the Holocaust was about white people killing other white people. According to Goldberg — who was simply repeating current woke ideology — Jews are white, and so Hitler could not have hated them because of their race. The Holocaust was, she said, merely another case of “man’s inhumanity to man.” Jews who were shocked by Goldberg’s outburst were further shocked to learn that Whoopi Goldberg was actually using the ADL’s definition of racism.

A few years ago, ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt redefined racism to align with woke ideology. Racism, the ADL declared, now meant the “marginalization and/or oppression of people of color based on a socially constructed racial hierarchy that privileges white people.”

Under this definition, only white people can be racists. Acts of bigotry directed at whites — now including Jews — would not qualify as racism, and hate crimes committed by people of color would not qualify as racism. This definition of racism, which derives from an insidious ideology, has infiltrated the ADL and actually feeds anti-Semitism.

The Capitol Police have been fully weaponized against Republicans By Andrea Widburg

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/02/the_capitol_police_have_been_fully_weaponized_against_republicans.html

If you visited D.C. in the days before COVID and January 6 madness, and wandered around (or got permission to go into) the Capitol, you saw Capitol police officers on duty. They were doing pretty much what all police officers do, which is to stand guard at vulnerable spots, making sure no one did anything naughty (e.g., graffiti) or downright dangerous (e.g., gun or knife attacks, etc.). However, beginning with January 6, 2021, it became apparent that Nancy Pelosi’s Capitol police officers have a different mandate: Defend the Democrat party hold on power.

On January 6, the Capitol police failed to protect the Capitol. We know this because Capitol police chief Steven Sund, after being fired on January 7, 2021, explained that he requested backup from the National Guard, which never arrived, and that his people just weren’t ready. Trump stated that he requested that 10,000 National Guard troops be deployed to the Capitol before January 6 to provide protection for his rally. According to him, congressional leaders said no. What really happened remains a mystery despite the “investigation” by the January 6 Committee. You’d think they would have figured that one out.

Also bizarrely, on January 6, someone (the Capitol police?) opened from the inside the Capitol’s 20,000-pound doors, which are secured by powerful magnetic locks. We then saw footage of the same Capitol police graciously welcoming people inside, which led many innocents to believe that they had the perfect right to be inside the People’s House.

For those of us (like me), who think that January 6 was an entrapment scheme, it would appear that the Capitol police were part of the plan.

The ugly nature of progressive race views By Mark R. Zuccolo

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/02/the_ugly_nature_of_progressive_race_views.html

We’re entering a new era of discrimination, dressed up in better sounding terms. It must not become the new normal.

When it comes to race, we are witnessing an ugly return to segregation, unequal treatment, and forced outcomes. A re-examination of our concept of race is becoming overdue.

Race is not just the coloration of one’s skin, as it may widely vary in hue and intensity and over time in the same group of individuals. For example, not all Caucasians are fair-skinned, and not all Africans are black. Generally, we ascribe to a geographic location (original or changed by migration) a racial characteristic, whereby Europe and parts of America are majority “white,” Africa is “black,” Asia is “yellow,” etc. These are mere historical shorthand words that are visual in origin and fail to convey the true meaning of race. They are what the human eye may see or have seen, and they are incomplete descriptions, at best. Indeed, these “colorations” have become stereotypes and have been further compromised by the introduction of slur words equivalent to each race group.

So what is race and how can we best go beyond our simple awareness of it, understand it more thoroughly, and make good use of that understanding in interpersonal relationships?

18 Fundraisers Aiding Riots, Crime, Abortion, And Genital Mutilation That GoFundMe Didn’t Shut Down By: Elle Reynolds

https://thefederalist.com/2022/02/08/18-fundraisers-aiding-riots-crime-abortion-and-genital-mutilation-that-gofundme-didnt-shut-down/\

For all the company’s efforts to shut down freedom-minded Canadians, GoFundMe has done plenty to help unsavory fundraising campaigns on the left.

While GoFundMe races to confiscate millions of dollars from Canadians protesting the country’s coercive Covid response, the left-wing fundraising site has proven itself very willing to help raise funds for criminal riots, abortions, and genital mutilation.

“We now have evidence from law enforcement that the previously peaceful demonstration has become an occupation, with police reports of violence and other unlawful activity,” GoFundMe wrote in the company’s Friday announcement that it would steal millions from the truckers participating in the “Freedom Convoy” to protest Canada’s Covid mandates, diverting the money “to credible and established charities chosen by the Freedom Convoy 2022 organizers and verified by GoFundMe.” After backlash, the platform announced it would instead refund the money to donors.

Canadian Elites Created The Ottawa Crisis, And They Have No Idea How To End It :John Daniel Davidson

https://thefederalist.com/2022/02/08/canadian-elites-created-the-ottawa-crisis-and-they-have-no-idea-how-to-end-it/

There are no clear off-ramps for the protesters, and no one in a position of authority seems to know how to deescalate the situation.

Corporate media outlets like The Atlantic and The New York Times have been telling us for years now how Hungary and Poland are incubators of authoritarianism that represent an existential threat to democracy. But it turns out we should have been worried about Canada and Australia, of all places.

If you had told me 18 months ago that Australia, a democratic country that once seemed to exude rugged individualism, would devolve into a Covid police state that imprisons its citizens in quarantine camps and deploys riot police to crush lockdown protests with brute force, I wouldn’t have believed you. But here we are.

Now comes Canada, where the “Freedom Convoy” of truckers that arrived in Ottawa more than a week ago to protest Covid vaccine mandates has effectively shut down Canada’s capital. The mayor declared a state of emergency on Monday after the city’s law enforcement authorities talked openly about calling in the military over the weekend. 

Truck Trudeau Hereditary rule is the most risible – and the most loathsome. Lloyd Billingsley

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/02/truck-trudeau-lloyd-billingsley/

In the dead of winter, thousands of Canadians have been streaming into Ottawa, led by a massive convoy of truckers protesting draconian Covid mandates that have harmed their ability to earn a living. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau refused to meet with the protesters and slammed the freedom convoy as “an insult to memory and truth.” Fils Justin thus invites memories of himself and Trudeau père.  

As Edward Gibbon noted, hereditary rule is always the most risible, and apart from the connection with his father, Canadians would be hard pressed to find any merit in Justin Trudeau his own self. He has no scholarly achievement, no record of publication, and no experience running business. To adapt a phrase from Ray Bradbury’s afterword to Fahrenheit 451,  Justin Trudeau has never said anything that would make a sub-moron’s mouth twitch. On the other hand, he does have a comic side.

Earlier in his brilliant career, Justin was fond of performing in blackface, singing “The Banana Boat Song,” a hit for Harry Belafonte. Trudeau now considers this racist but the revelation prompted no resignation. So no surprise that Justin Trudeau criticized “racist flags” in the convoy and spoke out over a perceived slight to a war memorial.

The Message of Canada’s Trucker Protest They are saying that it’s time for the pandemic emergency orders to end.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-message-of-canadas-trucker-rebellion-covid-vaccine-mandates-restrictions-justin-trudeau-11644361250?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

Canadian truckers opposed to a Covid-19 vaccination mandate used their rigs on Monday to block the Ambassador Bridge connecting Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, the busiest international land-border crossing in North America.

This latest act in a week-long show of civil disobedience is more akin to political life in France or the U.S. That it happened in restrained Canada is a signal to the political class across the West: Large swaths of humanity are done with Covid-19 restrictions, mandates and excessive meddling in their lives. They want to go back to making their own health-risk assessments.

The Ambassador Bridge, which carries some $323 million in goods daily in cross-border trade and an estimated $137 billion last year, reopened Tuesday morning. Yet truckers continue their protest in Ottawa, which is disturbing the peace and worse in that usually peaceable Canadian capital.

The truckers should be prosecuted if they break the law, as we argued for Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matters protesters on the left. But as the Omicron virus shows itself to be less lethal and positive test rates fall, the truckers are sending a message to democratic governments that it’s time for the pandemic emergency orders to end.