News of the Week for Jan. 24th, 2021
- Election Aftermath
- Riots & Revolution
- Corona Virus
- Gun Rights
- Hide the Decline
- Obamacare
- War & Terror
- National News
- Economy & Taxes
- International News
- Opinion
Election Aftermath
FBI moves on alleged members of extremist groups Oath Keepers, Three Percenters
A metal guitarist and the alleged leader of a Colorado paramilitary training group have been charged with allegedly taking part in the riot at the Capitol last week, as the FBI ratchets up its investigation into the role extremist groups played in storming the building.
Dominion sends cease and desist letter to My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell
Dominion Voting Systems on Monday sent a cease and desist letter to My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell over his spread of misinformation related to the 2020 election.
Request Denied: Pentagon Says There Will Be No Military Parade Send-Off For President Trump
President Trump will leave office on Wednesday without the glorious send-off he requested. Trump, who likes to jab a finger into the eyes of presidential traditions, will leave without a military send-off.
New Mexico County Commissioner Charged for Breaching U.S. Capitol
Defendant Arrested in DC After Returning to Participate in Inauguration Protests
Final days: How Trump turned on Barr and embraced the “crazy” Powell
Many Trump aides and allies have been drawn close only to fall out of favor
“It’s Just Bulls***”: AG William Barr Warned Trump His Legal Team Was Lying To Him, Report Says
Attorney General William Barr reportedly warned President Donald Trump that his legal team was lying to him about the election being stolen and that some of their theories were “bulls***.”
The Right-Wing Outlets That Told Trump Fans What They Wanted to Hear
The day after the November election, Christina Bobb had good news for viewers of the One America News Network: “President Trump won four more years in office last night.”
Trump Declassifies ‘Crossfire Hurricane’ Docs on His Way Out the Door
On Tuesday afternoon, on his last night in office, President Trump declassified a cache of documents related to the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.
White House Releases List of 143 Trump Pardons and Commutations
President Donald J. Trump granted pardons to 73 individuals and commuted the sentences of an additional 70 individuals.
‘Seal them in turn on gas’: Three Oath Keepers charged in Capitol riot ‘plotted in advance to kill politicians and celebrated the assault’, charging documents reveal
Jessica Watkins, 38, and Donovan Crowl, 50, were arrested on Monday in Ohio
Trump revokes rule preventing White House staff from lobbying
In a last-minute move, the outgoing president reversed his original order and allowed the revolving door in Washington to continue swinging.
Sponsoring a Flag at Today’s Inauguration Sends a Donation to Planned Parenthood
The Biden Inaugural Committee is hosting a symbolic “Field of Flags on the National Mall” display on the National Mall for today’s inauguration. The display will include nearly 200,000 American flags planted in the Mall to symbolize the many people who can’t be present at the ceremony today due to COVID-19 and security concerns.
Qollapse: Maybe The Real Q Was “All The Friends And Happy Memories” We Made Along The Way, Or Something
What happens when hard reality meets hardened conspiracy theories? It almost never ends well, as we learned at Jonestown, so perhaps the sudden realization that today’s inauguration wasn’t a mass-arrest event could have been worse. On QAnon sites and social media, many — but not all — of the society’s participants realized what it meant.
Biden Begins to Overturn Trump’s Administrative Legacy
On the menu today, Joe Biden gets to work enacting a leftist agenda with some window dressing on the pandemic; contemplating what it would have taken for Donald Trump to overcome his character flaws; and Antifa in Portland declares they “don’t want Biden, they want revenge.”
You Can’t Move On From This Without An Accounting
We were promised a storm and a kraken and all we got was Rudy’s hair dye running down his sweaty face.
In the Last House Race Undecided, the Republican Leads by 29 Votes
The only remaining congressional race still not certified will have to wait until at least Jan. 27—and even after that, legal appeals will likely ensue.
National Guard Kicked Out Of The Capitol, Forced To Sleep In A Parking Garage
Thousands of National Guardsmen descended on the Capitol and surrounding buildings after the riots at the Capitol earlier this month. They were there as a show of force and to discourage anyone who was thinking about a repeat performance during the inauguration. You probably remember seeing photos of guard members packed in various hallways and lobbies at the Capitol
Senate Democrats File Ethics Complaint Cruz, Hawley After Election Challenge
A group of seven Democrat senators filed an ethics complaint against Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley Thursday. They sent a letter to the incoming Senate Ethics panel Chair Chris Coons and Vice-Chair James Lankford Thursday requesting an investigation into several issues. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse took the lead in the letter.
The Senate Impeachment Court of . . . Vice President Harris?
I am so grateful for Dan’s column today, which pores over questions about the imminent impeachment trial that have been bouncing around my head, too.
Riots & Revolution
Portland Antifa Scuffle With Police, Vandalize Democratic Party HQ
It’s a day ending in y so that’s cause for Antifa to riot in Portland. Actually today the mob clearly had a point to make: They aren’t celebrating the election of Joe Biden.
Seattle Mom Thinking About Moving After Incident Involving Her Teen Daughter
We’ve all seen the rising chaos in Seattle over the past couple of years. The city has a serious and ongoing problem with homelessness. Last summer it had a problem with people creating an autonomous zone in the Capitol Hill neighborhood and shutting down a police precinct. It’s still being sued over that. The city’s Police Chief resigned and its mayor said she won’t run for another term. It was only last month that the city finally managed to clear out nearby Cal Anderson Park. While all of this is happening, crime is up, police are resigning and the City Council is still pushing for further cuts to the police budget.
University of Oregon begins disarming police
The University of Oregon will cut its number of armed officers by 26 percent while increasing the number of “unarmed community service officers.”
‘Enough is enough:’ Businesses call for Seattle city leaders to denounce riot damage
Frustrated businesses targeted by vandals on Inauguration Day were forced clean up and explain to their customers what happened.
Judge Forbids Kyle Rittenhouse From… Talking To People
Kyle Rittenhouse isn’t scheduled to go on trial until March 29, though his attorney is already requesting more time to prepare. He’ll be facing six counts associated with the deaths of two people and the shooting of a third in Kenosha last year. But he found himself back in front of a judge this week where additional restrictions were placed on him while he remains free on bail. What sort of restrictions? At the request of prosecutors, Rittenhouse is now barred from knowingly talking to or socializing with white supremacists. The strange nature of this order deserves a closer look, but it apparently resulted from a complaint made by someone who saw Rittenhouse out at a bar with his mother recently.
Corona Virus
Detention Centers For COVID Skeptics
Sure, it’s Germany. But don’t think it can’t happen here. If you have harbored the suspicion that covid hysteria is a Trojan horse for totalitarian control over our lives, Germany points the way forward: Germany to hold Covid rule breakers in REFUGEE CAMPS under new crackdown to stop Brit mutant virus explosion.
L.A. County Loosens Air-Quality Regulations for Crematoriums
One of our readers is involved with the international Christian relief organization Samaritan’s Purse, and in recent days helped set up a 54-bed specialized respiratory-care unit in the parking lot of Antelope Valley Hospital in Lancaster, California, in the northern part of Los Angeles County.
The U.K.’s Promising Vaccine Program
The British government’s fumble in controlling the spread of COVID-19, as well as its mishandling of track and trace and its continually mixed messaging regarding lockdowns, risked becoming a legacy of failure. But there is hope yet. By the end of last week, the United Kingdom had vaccinated nearly 6 percent of its population against the coronavirus. This means it is fourth behind Israel, United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain, and significantly ahead of its European neighbors and the United States.
Rewarding Incompetence in State Vaccination Efforts
Back on December 30, West Virginia led the country in the pace of its COVID-19 vaccinations. On that date, the state and its health authorities had administered more than half of their allocated 60,875 doses. At the bottom of the chart at the end of the year was Maryland, which had administered just over 10 percent of its 191,075 doses.
China builds massive Covid-19 quarantine camp for 4,000 people as outbreak continues
China is rushing to build a massive quarantine camp that can house more than 4,000 people, after an outbreak of Covid-19 this month that has left tens of millions of people under strict lockdown.
Sibusiso Moyo: Zimbabwe foreign minister dies from Covid-19
Zimbabwe’s Foreign Minister Sibusiso Moyo has died after succumbing to Covid-19, the government says.
Boston VA Hospital Manages To Destroy Nearly 2,000 Vaccine Doses
Just when you thought things were going to go swimmingly with President Joe Biden’’s “new” plan for the vaccine rollout we run into yet another story of someone stepping on a rake and mucking up the works. At Jamaica Plain VA Medical Center in Boston, workers found an unpleasant surprise awaiting them when they arrived on Tuesday morning. More than 1,900 doses of the Moderna vaccine had “spoiled” overnight and had to be discarded. Unlike some previous cases we’ve covered where workers maliciously destroyed vials of vaccine intentionally, this one turned out to be more of a technical problem. One of the freezers where the vaccine was stored had “failed” without anyone noticing and the vials were deemed unfit for use. But it’s the way that the freezer failed that’s raising questions.
Gun Rights
2020 Saw A Spike In Violent Crime And Gun Sales. Are They Connected?
Official numbers aren’t available from the FBI yet but there’s reason to think 2020 is going to be a banner year in terms of violent crime, especially murder which is up dramatically in most American cities. The rate still isn’t as high as it was at its peak around 1992. Violent crime has been dropping around the country since then. But when the numbers finally do come in it’s very likely 2020 will set a record for the biggest one-year jump in the murder rate in recent history.
Police seize firearms from Black men at Virginia rally for gun rights
Police stopped a car of Black men and confiscated two of their guns at Virginia’s annual “Lobby Day” on Monday while white gun rights activists defied local laws unimpeded in the state capital of Richmond.
In Blow to NRA, Judge Rules N.Y. Lawsuit Can Proceed
State’s attorney general filed suit seeking NRA’s dissolution
Hide the Decline
Environment &
“Green Energy”
The Keystone Eco-Cops
Word is out today that Joe Biden plans to cancel the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline on Day One in office. Leaving aside potential legal difficulties (I can imagine that, depending on the exact status of the permit, Trans-Canada may have a strong case for damages before the U.S. Federal Court of Claims), this is pure symbolism, as it will not reduce the amount of oil consumed in the U.S. by a single barrel. We’ll likely still get nearly as much Canadian oil without the pipeline, though it will have to be shipped by more expensive and more risky rail transport. What—do environmentalists think Saudi oil is low-carbon or something?
Incoming White House Climate Team Blames “Systemic Racism” for Climate Change
‘The only path forward is to design national climate policies that are centered on justice’
Candidate Biden was squishy on fracking. His new climate adviser, a Stanford prof, is not.
Then-presidential candidate Joe Biden made statements about fracking that often contradicted one another.
Biden Cannot Legally Get Us Back Into the Paris Climate Accords; Here’s Why
Joe Biden has made no secret of his intention to get us back into the Paris climate accords. It’s high up there on his laundry list of things to do upon taking office—even though the United States leads the world in reducing carbon emissions, despite not being a part of it anymore.
Germany Weighs Electricity Rationing Scheme To Stabilize Its Now Shaky Green Power Grid
Putting matches in charge of fighting gasoline fires? Even more interference appears to be the German government’s approach to solving the power grid mess that its earlier meddling created in the first place.
Biden nixes Keystone XL permit, halts Arctic refuge leasing
President Biden on Wednesday signed a sweeping executive order that revokes a key permit for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, halts oil and gas leasing at a wildlife refuge in Alaska and carries out several other environmental actions.
Yes, Biden Wants to End Fracking
We know Joe Biden wants to end fracking not only because his campaign literature promised to achieve “a 100 percent clean energy economy and net-zero emissions” in a few decades but because he explicitly asserted as much on numerous occasions.
The Ominous Meaning of the Keystone Diktat
President Biden’s diktat canceling the Keystone XL pipeline is thought to signify his total slavishness to the climate campaigners, for whom pipelines have become like garlic and holy water to a vampire. This is correct, but the larger significance of it is much more ominous. If anything, the critics of the decision are under-reacting.
Did Joe Biden Just Make Our Power Grid Vulnerable to Foreign Adversaries Again?
On May 1, 2020, President Trump signed Executive Order 13920, “Securing the United States Bulk-Power System,” to prevent foreign adversaries from creating and exploiting vulnerabilities in the United States bulk-power system.
What Is The Carbon Tax And How Does It Work?
The Carbon Tax is a controversial policy in Canada with ardent defenders and critics. Opinions vary on the tax as some think it is required to fight climate change and others think it is just another way for the government to tax them. What really is the point of the carbon tax and how does it work?
Biden Moves To Block Oil And Gas Leases On Public Land And In New Mexico That Could Be A Big Problem
This week the Biden administration put a 60-day hold on new oil and gas leases on public lands. While this is only temporary at the moment, the expectation is that this moratorium will become permanent sometime soon. This shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone who has been paying attention because Biden promised prior to the election that he would do this.
Obamacare
Government in Healthcare
Video captures patient crawling out of hospital after staff dismiss pleas for help
Official apologizes to family, spokesperson says staff ‘were dealt with accordingly’
Washington Bill to Let Non-Doctors Participate in Assisted Suicide
When selling the legalization of assisted suicide, activists always promise that strict guidelines will protect against abuse.
Biden Picks Pa.’s Dr. Levine as Assistant Health Secretary; Would Make History If Confirmed
President-elect Joe Biden has tapped Pennsylvania Health Secretary Rachel Levine to be his assistant secretary of health, leaving her poised to become the first transgender federal official to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
Distractions: Biden’s New HHS Pick Historic, All Right — In COVID-19 Nursing-Home Policy Double Standards
Get ready for lots of media fawning over the appointment of Rachel Levine to become assistant secretary at HHS. This morning, news outlets have already begun hailing Joe Biden for his historic choice of appointing the first transgender nominee to a Senate-confirmed position. But Levine has other history that should be more directly applicable — and to raise more questions about Biden’s judgment
The first Black man to lose his job under Biden: Surgeon General responds to being pushed out
Jerome Adams left like he came into the office of Surgeon General: With class.
War & Terror
The Fight Intensifies over China’s Forced-Labor System
With the world fixated on the crisis in Washington this month, few noticed that a united, international front of democracies took significant steps to crack down on the Chinese Communist Party’s Xinjiang forced-labor scheme last week.
Genocide in Xinjiang
The United States of America has led the world in holding the perpetrators of the most heinous human rights abuses accountable. From the Nuremberg Trials, to the creation of the Genocide Convention in 1948, to the declaration of ISIS’s recent genocide against the Yazidis, Christians, and other religious minorities in Iraq and Syria, Americans have given voice to those who have been silenced by evil, and stood with the living who cry out for truth, the rule of law, and justice. We do so not because we are compelled to act by any international court, multilateral body, or domestic political concern. We do so because it is right.
Biden Administration Adds, Then Quickly Deletes “West Bank and Gaza” From U.S. Ambassador to Israel Twitter Account
President Joe Biden’s administration immediately changed the U.S. Ambassador to Israel’s Twitter account to reflect the West Bank and Gaza.
Deadly suicide attack rocks central Baghdad, first in 3 years
Two men blew themselves up in a crowded Baghdad market on Thursday, killing at least 32 people in Iraq’s first big suicide bombing for three years, authorities said, describing it as a possible sign of the reactivation of Islamic State.
Biden”s Pentagon Nominee Vows To Purge Ideological “Enemies … Within Our Own Ranks”
Vows to “rid our ranks of racists and extremists,” but given the left’s expansive definitions of “racists” and “extremists,” politics cannot be far behind.
National
Psychedelic Schools for “Shamans” Are Popping Up Like Mushrooms
Even before Oregon and Washington, D.C., decriminalized medical psilocybin, the active ingredient in “magic mushrooms,” in November, a market was emerging for schools that teach mental and medical health professionals how to use psychedelics in their treatment. The vanguard industry is booming despite a host of regulatory unknowns, as practitioners educate themselves on the therapeutic potential of psilocybin—and other drugs such as cannabis and methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)—while betting on imminent federal legalization.
Trump’s Census Director To Quit After Trying To Rush Out ‘Indefensible’ Report
The Trump-appointed director of the U.S. Census Bureau is stepping down close to a week after whistleblower complaints about his role in attempting to rush out an incomplete data report about noncitizens became public.
All Eyes on Joe Biden and His Democratic Congress
On January 20, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. will take office as the 46th president of the United States. Conservatives must focus on exposing his administration and combatting the same kind of insidious Grand Narrative that the Obama administration 3.0 will pump into the ether, abetted by the legacy media.
Professor Ibram Kendi to launch massive, nationwide racial inequity data tracker
Billed as “the nation’s largest online collection of racial inequity data”
Everything You Need to Know About Kamala’s Niece, Resistance Grifter Meena Harris
The extremely online purveyor of ‘woke’ apparel has problematic ties to Big Tech
The terrifying scourge of “multiracial whiteness”
The Washington Post reveals why so many “white supremacists” are in fact not white. It’s scary
Seattle Councilmember Still Working On A Plan To Layoff Police Officers By Race
Back in July, Seattle City Councilmember Lisa Herbold got into an argument with now-former Police Chief Carmen Best about defunding the police. Chief Best was pointing out, correctly it turns out, that cutting staff would also result in firing much of the most diverse crop of new officers the city had ever hired. That’s because under union rules layoffs happen on a last in, first out basis. At the time, Councilmember Herbold suggested a novel solution to that problem: Lay people off based on race rather than time on the job.
San Diego School Superintendent Cindy Marten Named As Biden’s Next Deputy Education Secretary
Marten leaves behind controversial tenure as SDUSD Superintendent
1776 Commission reports
The United States will not survive without a true understanding of its founding. President Trump appointed a commission chaired by Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn with members including Charles Kesler, Matthew Spalding, and Victor Davis Hanson to advance such an understanding. Other members of the commission and contributors to the preparation of the report are set forth on page 41. The commission released its report yesterday.
Schumer, McConnell’s New 50/50 Senate Plan Pretty Much Like … The Old One
A foolish consistency is said to be the hobgoblin of little minds, but what about a wise consistency? The Senate may soon be the testing ground for that question. Rather than re-invent the wheel, Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer appear close to proposing the same power-sharing compromise that existed — briefly — the last time the Senate got split 50/50.
UI prof scrambles to rewrite slavery assignment after student complains on Twitter
A University of Iowa professor is scrambling to re-write a lesson on slavery she’s been teaching for decades because it’s making some students uncomfortable.
Controversy Erupts Over Trump Administration’s Choice of Alabama for Space Command HQ
Claiming the decision is “political,” Colorado lawmakers demand Biden review the pick.
Republican Fundraising and the Case of the Missing Trump
If you have been on Republican fundraising email lists the past several years — even if, like me, you have never given a penny to Donald Trump’s campaigns — you are familiar not only with the regular deluge of such emails, but also with the ubiquity of Trump and the Trump family in the sender line, subject line, text, and merchandise offered in such emails. Trump is everywhere. Until now: Suddenly, he’s gone. After noticing this pattern, I went through my inbox (even the spam folder) and counted up the fundraising emails from official GOP sources since January 7, the day after the Capitol riot. What isn’t said speaks volumes. I categorized these by the sender or domain.
Amid Power-Sharing Negotiations with Schumer, McConnell Pushes for Filibuster Protections
In an email obtained by National Review, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell wrote to Senate GOP colleagues on Monday night that he’s looking to the 2001 agreement between Trent Lott and Tom Daschle as a model for how a 50–50 Senate should share power, but McConnell is also pushing for protections for the legislative filibuster
McConnell: “The Mob Was Fed Lies” and “Provoked by the President”
During remarks on the Senate floor on Tuesday, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell blamed President Trump and “other powerful people” for feeding lies about the election to the mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6
McConnell seeks to protect filibuster in talks with Schumer
The party leaders are still working to hash out an agreement to govern the 50-50 Senate.
Trump Has Discussed Starting a New Political Party
President Trump has talked in recent days with associates about forming a new political party, according to people familiar with the matter, an effort to exert continued influence after he leaves the White House.
The Pardon Parade Didn’t Include Some Notable, Anticipated Names
Everyone was anticipating a big number of pardons on Donald Trump’s second to last day in office, but even some of the wilder estimates came up a bit short. The final figure (assuming there are no more this morning) came in a 143. That’s just one shy of a gross in mathematical terms, but not too many of the seriously gross ones came to fruition. The vast majority of them were people you’ve probably never heard of, including many people serving time for lower-level drug offenses. Don’t expect Trump to get much praise from the media for the “diversity” of his choices, however.
A Harvard Prof Bemoans the Impact of Higher Education
Last year, I reviewed Freddie DeBoer’s book The Cult of Smart, an plea for egalitarianism based on the notion that people don’t deserve their good or bad traits. I didn’t find it convincing. A few months later, another book with precisely the same premise appeared, The Tyranny of Merit by Harvard philosophy professor Michael Sandel.
Trump grants protection to Venezuelan illegal aliens
Here’s another apparent reversal of policy from Donald Trump as he prepares to leave office, at least on the surface. Despite four years of cracking down on illegal immigration and fortifying our border security, President Trump issued an eleventh-hour order of protection for illegal aliens from Venezuela currently residing in the United States. The Deferred Enforced Departure order grants an 18 month reprieve from deportation proceedings and even allows the specified illegal aliens to be granted work permits. This effectively puts them in the same protected class as DACA recipients. The justification for this move is cited as the current, dangerously unstable situation in Venezuela under dictator Nicolas Maduro.
What You Need to Know About Critical Race Theory
Critical race theory is fast becoming part of classroom curriculums and the larger culture in general.
Philly “Empty The Jails” Beneficiary Accused In Double Murder
On Wednesday night of last week, 25-year-old Milan Loncar was out walking his dog in the Brewerytown neighborhood of Philadelphia. It would be the last time he ever left his house. He was shot and killed on the street near his home, allegedly by Josephus Davis. In the immediate aftermath of the killing, Loncar’s family and neighbors had many questions for the city government. Davis was a known criminal with a significant rap sheet who was awaiting trial on the latest crimes of his criminal career. Why was he out on the streets to begin with? The answer should be obvious. For a couple of years now under the current Mayor and his Police Commissioner, Philly has been engaged in an “empty the jails” campaign, a process that’s only been ramped up since they were able to use the pandemic as an excuse. And Josephus Davis was one of the many beneficiaries of that policy.
Hmmm: New Facebook Competitor Adds 2.5 Million Subscribers — In A Single Week
Will MeWe prove to be the “anti-Facebook”? The three-years-plus-old social media platform got a big boost toward that objective over the past week. They added as many users as people who live in the Twin Cities metro area — 2.5 million — based on the platform’s promises to make their subscribers their only customers
Here We Go: Liz Cheney Gets A Primary Challenger
She’s at least a year away from having to worry about this but there’s something to be said for her would-be opponent wanting to strike while the media iron is hot.
Court Blocks Biden HHS From Forcing Catholic Doctors to Perform Transgender Surgery
On Monday, the day before Joe Biden became president of the United States, a federal court in North Dakota defended Roman Catholic health care providers from an Obamacare mandate forcing doctors and nurses to perform experimental transgender surgeries that violate Roman Catholic convictions. The court enjoined the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) from forcing these Catholic physicians to perform transgender surgery.
That Didn’t Take Long: Biden Interior Department Welcome Email Pushes Racial Politics
That was fast. All Department of the Interior employees today received a system-wide email from the incoming Biden administration leadership, which I obtained.
Parents, educators and activists fight back against radical school curriculums
Parents, educators and activists are taking on left-leaning school curriculums in a variety of ways, from speaking out and filing lawsuits to crowdsourcing solutions and creating alternative educational resources.
Harvard profs fight climate change by bringing wooly mammoth back from extinction
A group of Harvard University professors is trying to bring back the woolly mammoth to fight climate change.
What the School Board Members Who Shape Your Child’s Curriculum Really Believe
Over 14,000 school boards, with about 100,000 members, set the course for instruction in classrooms across the country. To understand the views of parents and school board members in debates about K-12 content and policy, The Heritage Foundation commissioned a nationally representative survey.
Light-controlled Higgs modes found in superconductors; potential sensor, computing uses
They write that in lab experiments they’ve found a short-lived “Higgs mode” within iron-based, high-temperature (but still very cold), multi-energy band, unconventional superconductors.
NY Democrat Jamaal Bowman Calls for End of “American Exceptionalism”
New York Democrat Jamaal Bowman was just elected to Congress from the 14th District, but he is already making waves by revealing how much he hates the country he was just elected to represent.
Biden Is Set to Reinstate U.S. Funding for Global Abortion
According to reports, President Joe Biden shortly will issue an executive order reversing the Mexico City policy, which currently prevents U.S. aid money from funding groups that perform or promote abortion around the globe.
Democrats planning budget blitz to pass Biden agenda
Party leaders are publicly holding out hope for GOP support but getting the budget process underway as insurance
Democrats poised to rebuff McConnell’s filibuster demands
Senate Democrats are signaling they will reject an effort by Mitch McConnell to protect the legislative filibuster as part of a deal to run a 50-50 Senate, saying they have little interest in bowing to his demands just hours into their new Senate majority.
Describing Jews as “Privileged,” Ethnic Studies Curriculum Sparks Backlash
California Department of Education curriculum will lay the groundwork for a required ethnic studies class
After Inaugural Rhetoric on Unity, Biden Signs Divisive Transgender Executive Order
In his inaugural address, President Joe Biden stressed he wants to be the president of all Americans—left and right—and bring healing and unity to the nation. Actions speak louder than words. And on his very first day in office, Biden signed a radically divisive executive order mandating the transgender agenda.
Child Sex Trafficking Victim SUES Twitter in Federal Court, Says the Site Facilitated His Abuse
Twitter has a long history of turning a blind eye to child porn on its site. I have been a witness to attempts to mass report accounts on Twitter for posting videos of what appear to be minor children engaged in sex acts on the platform. Twitter doesn’t act to stop it, though it claims that child porn is against its policies. Perhaps they are too busy banning Republicans to do much about the illegal activity on Twitter—who knows?
Music professor sues university for punishing him over defense of “racist” composer
“Almost all” his colleagues defamed him, too
Profs effectively seek to ban books from Trump admin officials
A handful of professors demanded that publishing companies refuse to work with Trump administration alumni.
What’s Next for 1776 Commission and the Fight to Preserve US History
One of President Joe Biden’s very first executive actions was to disband the 1776 Commission and remove the commission’s report from the White House website.
“Uncle Tom” Blacklisted by Hollywood
Actor Ben Affleck once explained why he found it difficult to watch Republican actors on screen.
2020 Saw Unprecedented Murder Spike In Major U.S. Cities
In late December the Associated Press reported that 2020 was on track to become the deadliest year in U.S. history with the total number of deaths forecast to rise 15 percent compared to 2019, primarily due to the coronavirus pandemic. There were also several other smaller contributory factors, however, including higher death tolls from heart & circulatory diseases as well as from the country’s opioid crisis. The U.S. also experienced its most violent year in decades with an unprecedented rise in homicides. The Gun Violence Archive reported that more than 19,000 people died in shootings or firearm-related incidents in 2020, the highest figure in over two decades.
These are the executive orders Biden has signed so far
President Biden wasted no time implementing his agenda and turning the page from the Trump years after he was inaugurated Wednesday, signing a slew of executive actions with more on the way.
TRO denied: Parler loses Round One with Amazon in court
Parler has pledged to return its largely unmoderated social-media platform to service soon, but it won’t happen by judicial order. In its suit against former host Amazon Web Services, Parler had requested an order from the court to force Amazon to restore its services. In a ruling that bodes ill for Parler’s prospects, Judge Barbara Rothstein refused, concluding that restoring Parler’s content didn’t fall within her view of “public interest”
Sixty-Five Million Lives and Counting
Today is the 48th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, in which seven justices found in the Constitution a supposed right to abortion. The decision struck down nearly all restrictions on abortion that most states had in place, and its reasoning made it nearly impossible to regulate the procedure even later in pregnancy.
Gang Of Eight Republicans: Biden’s Amnesty-Only Immigration Bill Is DOA, You Know
How many Senate Republicans will cross the aisle to vote for Joe Biden’s amnesty bill? Counting the original members of the 2013 Gang of Eight that tried to cut a deal on immigration reform, the number so far is … zero. Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham, who both pushed hard for the tradeoff of security for normalization, say they will outright oppose Biden’s new proposal
Braves legend Hank Aaron dies at age 86, daughter says
He is the one man that Muhammad Ali said he idolized “more than myself.” He became known to the world as “Hammerin’ Hank.”
The Washington Post Memory-Holed Kamala Harris’ Bad Joke About Inmates Begging for Food and Water
At a time when legacy publications are increasingly seen as playing for one political “team” or the other, this type of editorial decision will not do anything to fix that perception.
Biden’s first day, a preview of coming attractions?
In his first day as president, Joe Biden had something for almost everyone in his far-left coalition. For the climate alarmists, he signed an executive order revoking the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. For the radical LGBT crowd, he signed an executive order that I read as calling on schools across the country to allow transgender athletes to participate in the sport of their gender identity. (It says, “Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports.”)
Rep. Jamaal Bowman Has Thoughts About The Pillars Of White Supremacy
Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York shared some thoughts on white supremacy on his Twitter account today. It turns out the thing upholding white supremacy is also the thing progressive Dems want to get rid of to push their agenda through.
DA Gascon’s New Rules Prevent Prosecutors From Attending Parole Hearing For Serial Child Rapist
The new rules put in place by District Attorney George Gascon continue to frustrate and amaze crime victims and some deputy DA’s working for him. This latest example of how the new rules play out in real life is one of the worst.
WaPo Caught Stealth Editing 2019 Story About Kamala Harris Mocking Prisoners Begging for Food and Water
Facing backlash, WaPo now links “both versions”
Loyola asks ‘each academic unit’ to teach ‘identity and privilege’
Loyola University Chicago outlined its “Anti-Racism Initiative,” following a summer of protests and riots surrounding racial justice.
Larry King, broadcasting giant for half-century, dies at 87
Larry King, the suspenders-sporting everyman whose broadcast interviews with world leaders, movie stars and ordinary Joes helped define American conversation for a half-century, died Saturday. He was 87.
Democrats: Yeah, Don’t Get Your Hopes Up For That Immigration Bill
So what’s up with that sweeping immigration reform bill that President Joe Biden submitted to Congress? The applause from progressives and socialists across the land was deafening when Uncle Joe originally announced it. Since then, however, some cracks have appeared in that wall. As Ed reported yesterday, the Republicans from the Gang of 8 have all indicated that it’s a non-starter. And now, Democrats, including Biden’s own Press Secretary, are changing their tone in discussing the measure. Last night, the Associated Press picked up on the more “cautious” spin that Jen Psaki is putting on the prospects for any big changes to our immigration laws, and she’s not the only one.
Short Circuit: A Roundup of Recent Federal Court Decisions
Municipal sewage, trafficking victims, and exculpatory evidence witheld.
How Will Women’s Sports Work?
The Wall Street Journal has an appropriately tough op-ed on the Biden executive order which will push all public schools to open up their girls’ facilities to transgender girls — young men who identify as young women.
MyPillow Guy among the Trump acolytes looking to pick up where he left off
“If you did it, I would get behind you,” Mike Lindell said Trump told him about a potential run for Minnesota governor.
Africana Studies prof to offer free lecture on how to survive white supremacy
If you believe the Democratic talking points coming out of Congress and the new presidential administration, the gravest threat facing America today is white supremacy.
Economy & Taxes
Cuomo To DC: Give Me $15 Billion Or I Shoot What’s Left Of My Tax Base
What? Didn’t Andrew Cuomo’s book sales from his COVID-19 memoir How I Cured Disease And Showed I Am the Greatest generate at least that much in tax revenue for New York? Apparently not, as the self-appointed paragon of gubernatorial virtue finds himself short on funds despite having one of the highest tax rates and largest tax bases in the nation.
Taxes and Manufacturing
To Alex’s very interesting “Capital Matters” column on corporate-tax-depreciation reform — and don’t roll your eyes; it is an interesting subject, if you let it be — I would add only this: Tax schedules pushing 30 or 40 years might (might) have made sense in some earlier, slower-moving capitalist era, but, in our time, businesses undergo major reorganizations much more frequently, and few of them are making 39-year plans for any asset. It is possible that almost none of the equipment Tesla is purchasing today to manufacture automobiles will be in use a decade hence.
Biden’s First Act is Economic Insanity
Everyone wishes success to our incoming President. Unlike the crowd that hated Trump, Republicans will not be sitting with their voodoo dolls sticking pins into them in hopes of Biden falling on his face. As much as I would like to applaud Biden’s $1.9 Trillion stimulus plan, it would be an act of economic insanity to do such. Let me explain why.
NYT: Will Biden Repeal Trump’s Tax Cuts — Or Make Them Permanent?
The answer is … yes. Democrats repeatedly pledged over the last two years that they would immediately repeal the 2017 tax-reform bill once back in control of Washington. That included Joe Biden in the earlier part of the primary cycle. Now, however, Biden’s signaling a more cafeteria approach
“Insulting and disappointing”: Unions show signs of voter remorse after Biden reality sinks in
Several unions that eagerly endorsed President Joe Biden during the 2020 presidential election are now learning the hard way what it means to support Democrat policies.
Will Biden’s Policies Lead to Job Losses? Here Are Possible Economic Impacts of 4 of Them.
President Joe Biden’s policies, announced in the first days of his administration, potentially could kill millions of jobs, according to estimates from both government and private studies.
Student-Loan Forgiveness — Who Gains the Most?
The narrative we always hear is that college graduates are suffering under the terrible burden of their student loans and hence the big political push to generously bail them out.
International
Toronto Catholic school board’s website links kids to LGBT resource promoting gay sex
In only three clicks, children can go from the website of Toronto’s Catholic school board to adult homosexual sites where they can learn about “cruising,” “fisting,” and “how to have lesbian sex”
The price of food skyrockets in communist Cuba while the quality plummets
Leaders talk a lot about “monitoring” and sanctioning price gouging by private vendors and stores. But who protects us from the government? The prices in state-run stores were arbitrarily and indiscriminately raised without anyone having the power to stop them.
The Hong Kong migrants fleeing to start new lives in the UK
The UK will introduce a new visa at the end of January that will give 5.4 million Hong Kong residents – a staggering 70% of the territory’s population – the right to come and live in the UK, and eventually become citizens.
Why the 70th Anniversary of the Establishment of the People’s Republic of China Should be a Day of Mourning
The PRC committed the biggest mass murder in the history of the world, and numerous other atrocities and human rights violations, some of which go on at this very moment.
Humans could move to this floating asteroid belt colony in the next 15 years, astrophysicist says
Should we build a ‘megasatellite’ of human habitats around the dwarf planet Ceres? It’s more plausible than it sounds.
Google Threatens to Shut Down Search in Australia
On Friday, Google threatened to shut down its powerful search engine for the 19 million people in Australia if the country adopts Big Tech draft legislation currently before parliament.
BBC sex education programme tells 9-year-olds there are ‘over 100 genders’ and shows kids talking to adults about ‘bi-gender’, ‘genderqueer’ and ‘pansexual’ identities
BBC show tells children as young as nine there are over 100 gender identities
Opinion
The conscience of some conservatives
The Republican Party launches an overdue civil war over Donald Trump
In Defense of Liz Cheney
Liz Cheney undertook a stunning act of political courage last week.
Donald Trump and the post-modernists
George Will sees a relationship between Donald Trump’s lack of regard for the truth and the left’s post-modern lack of regard for the notion of objective truth.
There’s A Lot That Biden Won’t Be Able To Do With A 50/50 Senate
To say that Joe Biden has an “ambitious agenda” would be to put it mildly. The vast majority of the things he’s planning on doing initially will rely on executive orders, seeking to roll back many of the accomplishments of the Trump administration with the phone and the pen. But as both Obama and Trump learned before him, there’s a limit to how much you can get done without the legislature. Also, any truly radical executive orders will be subject to potential court challenges and injunctions, a tool that Democrats wielded to some effect against Trump. But now, many of the courts that will hear those challenges are more fully stocked with conservative Trump appointees.
Saudi Arabia, Torture, and Us
Today on the homepage, I have a piece called “A Saudi Woman: The story of Loujain al-Hathloul, political prisoner.” Here on the Corner, I’d like to make a point about torture. It can knock the confidence and composure out of just about anybody. That’s why they do it — why the torturers do it.
Pushing Back against Campus Intolerance
Perhaps the most frightening thing about our college campuses these days is the extent to which students believe that people who say “bad” things should be silenced. Ideological intolerance is raging and seems to be growing more intense.
Steve Cohen’s Bad Morning
Representative Steve Cohen (D., Tenn.) made two outlandish and so far unsupported accusations during an interview with CNN’s Jim Sciutto this morning. Begin with Cohen’s broadest accusation, presumably spurred by an Associated Press report that the FBI was vetting the 25,000 National Guard troops assigned to protect Capitol Hill and downtown Washington during the inauguration
The End of the Trump Era
In 1982 James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling wrote an article espousing the Broken Windows Theory. Simply stated, it says if you let small crimes and evidence of such become apparent it will lead to larger and more specific crimes. In effect, it gives people a license to continue on misbehaving as they have clear indication that people don’t care to stop the errant behavior. Otherwise, fix the broken windows.
Biden’s Foolish Remarks about Transgender Prisoners
President-elect Joe Biden has said that “in prison, your sexual identity is defined by what you say, not what the prison says.” I wonder what he would make of the “trans woman jailed for 15 years for rape that still gives victim nightmares,” as recently reported by Metro. The 49-year-old man, who “identifies as female but has male anatomy,” brutalized and violated his victim in a way no woman could have.
Ultra-Woke Illinois Mandates Are Top Threat to U.S. Education
Step aside, California. Minnesota, hang your head. Illinois is the wokest of all, and what it does will spread.
Repealing Section 230 Remains A Lose-Lose Proposition
One of the recurring themes over the past few months has been an increasing clamor (oddly enough, on both sides of the aisle at times) for Congress to repeal Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act. Curiously, many conservatives seem to be doing this because of the blindingly obvious and successful efforts of Big Tech to squelch conservative voices. This has been done by deleting posts or even entire accounts on platforms like Facebook and Twitter, as well as others. In a more sinister fashion, Apple, Google and Amazon have deplatformed entire applications such as Parler if they are viewed as being insufficiently woke. Conversely, some liberal/socialist groups have called for the repeal of 230 as punishment for what they apparently view as an insufficient amount of censorship of conservative voices.
The Ridiculous Attacks on the 1776 Report
This week, the White House released its 1776 Report, a much-needed corrective to the historical revisionism that’s infected not only our media, but, far more destructively, our high schools and universities. It’s a straightforward patriotic document; the kind of reading that would be a useful civics lesson for the average citizen, immigrants taking a citizenship test, or certain professors in Princeton’s history department.
Trump Turned Republicans Into Losers
Bad presidential character, not stolen votes or Joe Biden, is the reason Democrats are back in power.
The Madness of the Arizona GOP
What is the point of a political party bent on renouncing its own members?
CRENSHAW: Democrats and Republicans Have Different Definitions Of Free Speech. That’s A Problem.
We don’t agree on the virtue of free speech anymore, and that’s a problem.
QAnon Is Destroying the GOP From Within
Until last week, too many in the Republican Party thought they could preach the Constitution and wink at QAnon. They can’t.
Ah, “Friendship” Is Restored between the Administration and Those Who Cover It
If members of the national media really do intend to cover the Biden administration with the tough questions, scrutiny, skepticism, and fact-checking that they deemed a professional duty and point of pride in the Trump years, they probably ought to stop describing White House press secretary Jen Psaki’s briefing as akin to “running into a friend you haven’t seen in four years.”
For Conservatives, a Break from the Trump Monopoly
For the first time in five years, it is possible to propose and promote conservative ideas without having to go through or around Donald Trump.
Multiculturalism Is Not Pluralism
On the last day of his tenure, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo took to Twitter to declare, “Woke-ism, multiculturalism, all the -isms — they’re not who America is. They distort our glorious founding and what this country is all about. Our enemies stoke these divisions because they know they make us weaker.”
Biden’s Purported Decency
I was on Morning Joe today, and I mentioned a point also made in this morning’s column — that Joe Biden’s decency-and-honesty shtick is baloney.
“Multiracial Whiteness”
“Whiteness” is an elastic concept. It turns out that you no longer have to be white to be white. “White” basically means that you don’t swallow the nonsense being ladled out by the far Left. So, happily, people of all colors are now “white,” according to liberals. Is that unity and inclusion, or what?
The Problem with Liberal Fantasies about Restricting Free Speech
Today is the last full day of the Trump presidency. On the menu today, why a “reinvigorated” Federal Communications Commission couldn’t apply the Fairness Doctrine to cable news the way Washington Post columnist Max Boot yearns to see; the U.S. State Department declares it has “reason to believe that several researchers inside the Wuhan Institute of Virology became sick in autumn 2019, before the first identified case of the outbreak, with symptoms consistent with both COVID-19 and common seasonal illnesses,” and why canceling the Keystone XL Pipeline doesn’t even make sense by the Democrats’ own criteria.
1776 Commission, we hardly knew ye
President Trump’s 1776 Commission presented its report on January 18, just before the inauguration of Trump’s successor. The report came under the immediate and insane assault of the mainstream media. Commission member Victor Davis Hanson, a historian of the first rank, set forth “Thoughts on the 1776 Commission and its report” in a column dated January 21. “[A]t any other age than the divisive present,” he observed, “the report would not have been seen as controversial.” Analysis: True.
‘Everything is Politics’: Why Johnny Doesn’t Know Squat About Civics
American education is in crisis. Almost everyone agrees on that but no one agrees on why. “It’s those damn liberals,” say some. “It’s white privilege!” say others.
Slouching Toward Post-Journalism
The New York Times and other elite media outlets have openly embraced advocacy over reporting.
Try Reading about the Fairness Doctrine before You Demand Its Return
I’m not surprised people disagree with me, and I’m not surprised that no one knows everything there is to know. But I am mind-boggled by allegedly intellectual and thoughtful public figures who don’t bother to do a bit of basic Googling or research before throwing out a radical, sweeping proposal that directly contradicts the Constitution.
Equality Act’s Attack on Religious Liberty, Medical Conscience
President Biden said during the campaign that he supported the Equality Act, which is being sold as a means of guaranteeing equality for LGBT people.
Rage-Monkeys Gonna Rage
Some illiterate jabroni over at RedState is in a lather about my farewell to Trump, so mad that he’s holding down the shift key and writing in all-caps. Like almost everything that ever has been written at RedState or likely ever will be, this is of almost no interest, but one line did catch my eye, with the author advising me that I “really should change employers and go work for a publication and party whose platform aligns more with that attitude.”
The “Dead Consensus” and the Truth
“Trump exposed the dead consensus and rot within the Republican Party, opening the door for a new, more populist GOP.” It’s the mantra of a certain kind of conservative, and their favorite piece of evidence is the following scatterplot of voter ideology in the 2016 election, constructed by the Voter Study Group during the 2016 election.
The Insane Logic of “Whiteness”
“Whiteness” is everywhere, and it is pernicious. It is in an education system in which teachers and professors are actively harming the psyches of young adult students of color. It is in the culinary arts, which has hurt “nonwhite chefs and writers” by failing to “frame interrogations of power around whiteness.” It is in professional athletics, the entertainment industry, high fashion, and the museums you visit. Academia has created an entire pedagogy around the ubiquity of “whiteness,” the influence of which pervades nearly every aspect of American society.
Everything is broken
More or less without exception each one of the executive orders promulgated by the gentleman from Madame Tussauds on January 20 belies the principles of good government, though each one in its own distinctive way. Taking the rationale of any one of them to its logical conclusion, one can infer the others and the tyrannical dystopia they mean to hang around our necks. We’re on the road to find out.
The New National American Elite
America is now ruled by a single elite class rather than by local patrician smart sets competing with each other for money and power
Hush Now, Brown Person, I’ll Do The Talking
Well, here’s a thing. It turns out that “white supremacy” is surprisingly diverse
Systemic Racism and Sexism Are Now Mandatory
I must apologize at the outset for offering to the reader what is by now a truism known to everybody who has had even short periods of sobriety during the last decade. Whatever imaginings the reader may have had during the twentieth century about being a unique individual and about treating others as individuals, the twenty-first century rejected them and saw them off. Notions such as “individual character,” “merit,” and “colorblind assessment” are now seen as bad jokes that were never that funny in the first place, but really smokescreens for the wrong kind of supremacism and oppression.
The rise of neo-socialism in America
You would have to be blind or a Progressive Left ideologue not to see it. It’s almost like watching a slow-motion fatal car wreck happening right before your eyes as you stand by helpless to stop it. The Progressive Left has won the federal elections, and as they say, there are political consequences for those who lose elections. They now have conservatives, former Trump officials, and political supporters squarely in their sights and are not holding back with their political vendetta. The next two years are going to be more than rough for conservatives. To that end, I offer this historical analogy and a lesson from our world history.
