News of the Week for February 4^th, 2024

• Election 2024
• Abortion
• Gun Rights
• Hide the Decline
• Obamacare
• War & Terror
• National News
• Economy & Taxes
• International News
• Opinion

Election 2024

 

The RNC will meet privately after Trump allies pull resolution to call him the ‘presumptive nominee’
The Republican National Committee is meeting behind closed doors this week as some allies of Donald Trump had hoped to put the group’s stamp on the former president early in the 2024 GOP presidential nominating campaign.

‘Unless You’re a Purist, We Don’t Want You Voting’
The Nevada GOP wanted to ensure a Trump win. They wound up making the state irrelevant.

Nevada Presidential Primary: It’s All Over but the Shouting
Well, the presidential primary votes are in – at least, the early votes and most mail-in ballots. We won’t know who “won” until after Tuesday’s in-person Election Day ballots are cast and any late mail-in ballots are counted.

 

Abortion

Dobbs Decision

 

Mississippi Abortion Initiative Divides State
Democrats have made no secret of the fact that they plan to run on abortion in this year’s elections. (What else are they going to run on? Bidenomics?) They are ramping up efforts in a number of traditionally red states to put the issue on the ballot, most recently in Mississippi and Missouri. Unfortunately, Republicans are being drawn into these battles and not always in ways that come off as flattering. That’s particularly true in Mississippi, where conservatives are not fighting to win the argument, but instead attempting to use legislative maneuvers to keep the question from being put to the test at all.

Six Pro-Life Activists Face Over 10 Years in Prison for Violating FACE Act in Tennessee
How about those who have vandalized pregnancy centers and churches? How about those threatening Jews, blocking roads and runways? Those aren’t FACE Act related but still illegal.

Gun Rights

 

Biden Reportedly Is Planning To Unilaterally Mandate Background Checks for All Gun Sales
A watchdog group cites ATF “whistleblowers” who describe a proposed policy that would be plainly inconsistent with federal law.

 

Hide the Decline

Environment &“Green Energy”

 

The Gas Stove Debate’s Losers Take a Victory Lap
Readers who can recall events from only one year ago might remember the passionate national debate sparked by the Biden administration’s effort to drag the country, kicking and screaming, into a carbon-neutral future.

 

Obamacare

Government in Healthcare

 

Organ-Harvesting Requested from Those to Be Killed by Euthanasia in Quebec
A little good news: Legalizing euthanasia for the mentally ill in Canada has been pushed back again, not because authorities think it is ethically twisted, profoundly negligent, and morally wrong — all of which are true — but because there are not enough mental-health professionals to decide which patients would be okay to kill. Oh, well. As they say, any port in a storm.

War & Terror

 

‘Collective rapes’ surge as weapon in Haiti’s gang war
Mislande’s nightmare began as it does for so many women and girls here, with a trip across a gang-controlled area to buy tomatoes, onions and other vegetables to sell in her neighborhood.

State Department reviewing options for possible recognition of Palestinian state
Secretary of State Tony Blinken asked the State Department to conduct a review and present policy options on possible U.S. and international recognition of a Palestinian state after the war in Gaza, two U.S. officials briefed on the issue told Axios.

Putin ‘forms new Africa mercenary group’ with same name as Nazis
The new group is called the Africa Corps and shares its name with the Nazi forces which fought in North Africa in the Second World War.

They Firebombed My Office
I wasn’t entirely forthcoming in this post about why I haven’t written much the last few days. It is true that I have been in Washington, mostly to attend the Michael Mann v. Mark Steyn trial. I will write up my thoughts on the trial (or at least, those portions I have seen) when I have time.

Nuclear missile found in US man’s garage
A rusting rocket discovered in a man’s garage in Washington state is in fact an inert nuclear missile, police have said.

 

National

 

Omar the Magnificent
Suppose you are a House Democrat who has been in office for 15 or 20 years, dutifully working your way up the ladder as a chair of a subcommittee, raising money for the caucus, etc., and you heart that Ihlan Omar is booked on one of the premier Sunday morning network news shows. Look, even Nancy Pelosi can’t stand Omar and the rest of the squalid “Squad.”

Alaska Airlines Plane Appears to Have Left Boeing Factory Without Critical Bolts
Regulators put limits on Boeing 737 MAX production; grounded MAX 9 jets have resumed flying after required inspections

U.S. Sells its Helium Stockpile to Highest Bidder, Potentially Impacting a Wide Array of Industries
Helium is used in the manufacture of semiconductor ships and in medical imaging equipment.

School Board in Stamford, CT, Votes to Remove Veterans Day and Columbus Day From School Holidays
“Honoring Christopher Columbus in statues, parades or the holiday has become a divisive issue given his role in the evolution of colonialism and slavery”

The FAA’s Hiring Scandal: A Quick Overview
An Air Traffic Control nightmare

Insanity Everywhere: Law and Order SVU Edition
A black man can rape a white woman and should be able to get away with it.

Montana Family Loses Custody Of Teenage Daughter After Expressing Opposition To Her Gender Transition
A family in Glasgow, Montana is accusing the state’s child protective services of “kidnapping” their teenage daughter after the girl began to identify as a transgender “boy.” Krista and Todd Kolstad spoke to Reduxx about their ordeal, revealing that the child had been removed from their care and was now going to be sent to Canada.

Montana governor defends removal of 14-year-old from parents who opposed gender identity
Republican Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte told The National Desk (TND) Monday state officials acted within their legal limitations by removing a child from parents who objected to their transitioning gender identity.

American Miseducation
The Free Press has just posted the 20-minute documentary American Miseducation (video below). The documentary is reported by the Free Press’s Oliva Reingold, who provides background on it here.

Why was a gruesome YouTube video of a decapitated head left online for hours?
This story includes graphic descriptions some readers may find disturbing

Cornell Has 1 Administrator for Every 2 Undergrads
It seems like something has gotten into the water supply at Cornell University in upstate New York. The Ivy League school has seen more than its share of unrest and strange activities in recent years, particularly since the beginning of the war in Gaza. Little of it seems to have anything to do with the biology and horticulture programs that the college is famous for, instead focusing on political movements and social justice. But what brought about this sea change? The College Fix has come across some data that might help explain this phenomenon. The school has gone on a hiring spree over the past decade or so, creating positions for a rapidly growing number of professionals, many of them not involving teaching any classes. As of last year, their ranks have swelled to the point where there are nearly half as many administrators as there are students. And a large number of the new administrators are focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

Cops allegedly beaten by rowdy migrant mob near Times Square — with suspects later freed without bail: horrifying video
Shocking video captured the moment a migrant mob pounded a pair of cops near Times Square over the weekend — but the busted cowardly suspects were still released back onto the street without bail, sources say.

Denny’s Closing Only Restaurant in Oakland Due to Crime
“However, the safety and well-being of Denny’s team members and valued guests is our top priority. Weighing those factors, the decision has been made to close this location.”

California introduces first-in-nation slavery reparations package
The set of bills notably excludes direct cash payments.

Metro Transit reminds riders to not defecate on trains or sexually assault passengers
“Transit property is not a public restroom,” the new rules read.

Oregon university will no longer give D- and F grades
Citing a wrongheaded “GPA fixation,” Western Oregon University leaders have announced plans to abolish D- and F grades for students.

Hiding Your Felonies: Tiara’s Law
What could be worse? You want to dance sexually provocative strip shows in front of children, but everybody knows you are a felon who has sex crimes in your background?

Decolonizing STEM
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics are too White, so they need to be “decolonized,” according to the DEI fanatics.

Big Trouble in Cracker Paradise
Just a few years ago, Portland, Oregon, was seen as a sort of progressive utopia, and it’s not really a secret why this was so: Portland is the whitest major city in America. Progressive like to talk about “diversity,” but they prefer to admire it from a comfortable distance, you understand.

Teacher tells students not to identify as ‘straight’ – because it’s offensive
Implies others are ‘crooked’

Court Disqualifies All but Two of Oregon’s Republican State Senators from Reelection
I wrote back in November about a legal effort to disqualify ten of the twelve Republicans in the Oregon state senate from running for reelection for using a tactic popular among Democrats to bring legislative majorities to a halt.

Short Circuit: A Roundup of Recent Federal Court Decisions
Legal phantoms, Frankenstein’s monster, and a wrong-door SWAT raid.

Florida Limits on Ownership of Real Property by Chinese Citizens Are Preempted by Federal Law
So an Eleventh Circuit panel tentatively concludes, preliminarily enjoining the statute; one judge would hold that the limits violate the Equal Protection Clause.

New Form of Racism Has Been Discovered
Moving is racist, when white people do it. When a white person chooses to relocate, the consequences are racism. To understand this, you have to understand what Steve Sailer dubs “Dirt Theory”: Any geographical location where black or brown people live is “Tragic Dirt,” afflicted by poverty and violence, and the only solution to their problem is to move them to white-occupied “Magic Dirt,” where everybody is rich and all the kids have high test scores. At least, this is how liberals seem to believe the world works, and have made “Dirt Theory” the basis of their attitude on such issues as immigration. In their disordered minds, people like Harvard Professor Raj Chetty believe that analysis of geographic data about poverty, crime, etc., will yield insights about the causes of these phenomena — places matter more than people.

NY Times Shocks The World, Publishes Piece Critical Of “Transgender” Medical Mutilation Of Children
“‘You’re made to believe these slogans,’ he said. ‘Evidence-based, lifesaving care, safe and effective, medically necessary, the science is settled — and none of that is evidence based’.”

 

Economy & Taxes

 

Judge Orders China’s Evergrande to Dissolve (Will It Happen?)
Evergrande was once China’s top real estate developer, but ever since it defaulted on loans in 2021 the company has been in a kind of slow-motion collapse. With more than $300 billion in debts and contractors who hadn’t been paid, there seemed to be no way for the company to recover.

Northern California Poultry Industry Slammed Hard by Avian Flu Outbreak
Elephant seal pup population in Venezuela wiped out, first penguin infections reported, and two people seriously infected by H5N1 in Cambodia. Research indicates the virus has mutated to target the brains of mammals.

 

International

 

Meet Nube: Mysterious, Nearly Invisible Dwarf Galaxy Challenges Dark Matter Model
‘We Do Not Understand How A Galaxy With Such Extreme Characteristics Can Exist’

Rolling your eyes is a microaggression, civil servants told
More than £160,000 has been spent by the government since 2021 hiring consultants to train staff to see perceived slights, a Times investigation has found

Red Guards in Mexico?
In Mexico, Rodrigo Iván Cortés, a former Congressman of that country, has been convicted of “political violence” for social media posts on gender, referring to Mexican Congressional representative as “man who self-ascribes as a woman”. In addition to a fine, he has been sentenced to publish an apology (written by the court) on his social media accounts, daily for 30 days. He was also was entered into the National Registry of Persons Sanctioned in Political Matters against Women. A petition has been filed on his behalf with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

 

Opinion

 

The Daily Chart: Bring Back Arranged Marriages?
Remember the Obama 2012 campaign’s infamous “Life of Julia” video, which envisioned a world in which the State had replaced men entirely as the support structure for single women? That astoundingly revealing video and slide show seems to have been scrubbed from the internet (although as the link above demonstrates, the Biden Administration has exactly the same dependency-promoting mindset), but course there are Wayback Machine versions you can see if you missed this horror snuff film.

When Losing Becomes Profitable
The Republican National Committee has been meeting in Las Vegas. Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk arranged counter-programming in Vegas with a handful of hyper-online alt-right activists and fringe celebrities floating Taylor Swift conspiracy theories and demanding accountability for Ronna McDaniel, the RNC Chairwoman, and the RNC as a whole for losses in 2018, 2020, and 2022. Kirk, who at thirty owns a nearly $5 million home on a golf course in Arizona and a place on the beach in Florida, wants donors to give Turning Point their money instead of the RNC.

Should We Teach to Empower Students or to Keep Them as “Sacred Victims”?
A black professor argues that “anti-racist” instruction is counterproductive.

Does ‘Anti-Racist’ Teaching Help Black Students or Hurt Them?
The big fad in education these days is “anti-racist” teaching. College leaders and professors who want to stand out are apt to crow about how they are making their schools and courses “anti-racist” so as to combat the omnipresent evil of racism in America. Fortunately, there is some resistance from educators who see it as counterproductive.

My Supreme Court Amicus Brief in Trump v. Anderson—the Section 3 Disqualification Case
The brief explains why a criminal conviction is not necessary for Trump to be disqualified from the presidency under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.

What People Miss in Eisenhower’s Farewell Address
We took his advice about the military-industrial complex, but we failed to learn his overall lesson about the need for balance and statesmanship.

What Exactly Is Meant by ‘America First?’
The primary slogan of the Trump movement is the simple, now-iconic appeal to “Make America Great Again.” Indeed, “MAGA” is so ubiquitous that it is now a metonym for the movement itself. But if the Trump movement has a second catchphrase after “MAGA,” it would be “America First.” Donald Trump himself routinely vows that he is an “America First” politician. Myriad Republican congressional candidates now tout themselves as “America First,” typically with an eye toward securing a coveted Trump endorsement. And many prominent conservative commentators, often with close ties to Trump’s orbit, frequently beat the drums of “America First.”

The Objection that Enforcing Section Three is “Undemocratic”
Perhaps the most common objection to enforcing Section Three is that doing so would be “undemocratic” in some sense. Taking Section Three seriously, and applying its constitutional disqualification rigorously, it is said, would interfere with the right to vote. It would impair the right of the people to select their own leaders. It would be contrary to democracy. It would be downright unAmerican!