News of the Week for March 17th, 2024
- Election 2024
- Abortion
- Gun Rights
- Hide the Decline
- Obamacare
- War & Terror
- National News
- Economy & Taxes
- International News
- Opinion
Election 2024
The Republican Rep Who Keeps Saying the Quiet Part Out Loud
On Capitol Hill, reporters know how to find Texas Republican Troy Nehls. After the House of Representatives finishes a vote, Nehls usually leaves the chamber and hurries toward the Capitol steps. Instead of walking straight down the stairs toward his office across the street, Nehls will veer toward the base of one of the building’s grand Corinthian columns. That’s where the Texas congressman then picks up his half-smoked cigar—still smoldering—right where he stashed it.
No Labels? More Like No Candidate
These ought to be the best of times for third parties in American presidential politics. In one corner, Joe Biden’s job approval is below 40 percent, it’s been double digits underwater continuously for eleven months, north of 80 percent of the public thinks he’s too old to do the job for another four years, and polls regularly show that majorities of his own party didn’t want him to run again. He currently polls at 45.8 percent in a head-to-head matchup with Donald Trump — a fatal showing for an incumbent in normal conditions — and that’s the highest point he’s been at since 2022. He drops into the 30s if other candidates are included. Voters tell pollsters by a landslide 67 to 23 percent margin that the country is headed in the wrong direction, and Biden’s party is down 2.4 points and at just under 43 percent in the generic ballot. Biden is, by any ordinary accounting, politically dead.
Ken Buck blasts GOP colleagues after announcing early exit from Congress
Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) described the current congressional term as “the worst year” in his nearly decadelong tenure following his announcement to make an early exit next week, leaving his seat vacant and further shrinking the House Republican majority.
Election officials’ homes ‘swatted’ as presidential race heats up
When a man called to confess he had shot his wife, was armed with an AR-15 and planned to kill himself, police in Jefferson City, Missouri raced to the scene.
Trump considering billionaire TikTok investor Jeff Yass for Treasury secretary
Former President Donald Trump is considering tapping hedge fund manager Jeff Yass to serve as his Treasury secretary if he wins the presidential election in November, a report said Thursday.
McAfee Splits the Fani Baby?
Profiles in Courage, it ain’t. Judge Scott McAfee has just released his much-anticipated ruling on the disqualification motion involving Fani Willis, Nathan Wade, and the prosecution of Donald Trump et al in Fulton County, Georgia. Faced with an absurd set of explanations, courtroom deceit, and obvious political grandstanding from Wills and Wade, McAfee decided to … leave the decision to her.
Republican Senate Slugfest in Ohio Fuels Jitters About Trump’s Candidate
With just days to go before the election, the three-way Republican Senate primary in Ohio has turned into a food fight, fueling concerns about former President Donald J. Trump’s favored candidate, Bernie Moreno.
‘Knock it off’: Speaker Mike Johnson tries to stop Republicans from campaigning against each other in bitter primary battles
House Republicans, who have seen their time in the majority devolve into a seemingly endless series of internal party feuds, now have a new problem: GOP lawmakers targeting other sitting members in their primaries.
Abortion
Dobbs Decision
In a first, Vice President Harris visits Minnesota abortion clinic to blast ‘immoral’ restrictions
Vice President Kamala Harris visited a Planned Parenthood clinic on Thursday, marking what her office said was the first time a president or vice president has toured a facility that performs abortions, as the White House escalates its defense of reproductive rights in this year’s election.
Gun Rights
Sale of Surplus Shotguns Leads to Demands for Destruction
A Massachusetts police department that wants to sell nearly three dozen surplus shotguns to a local gun store to help underwrite the cost of obtaining new shotguns for officers has run into resistance from gun control activists, who instead insist that the guns in question should be destroyed rather than be resold.
Groundswell of Second Amendment Cases Seems Destined for the Supreme Court
Federal courts in blue states seem to be upholding the majority of gun control laws, even after landmark Supreme Court decisions upholding the fundamental right to keep and bear arms
Hide the Decline
Environment &“Green Energy”
NYC Mayor Eric Adams Approves Rules Controlling the Delicious Smokey Aroma of City’s Pizzerias
The regulation will come into effect on April 27.
Green Destruction: German Forest that Inspired Grimm’s Fairy Tale Being Felled for Wind Turbines
Interestingly, no eco-activists are blockading the roads into Reinhardswald (site of Sleeping Beauty Castle), or tying themselves to trees to protect the “old growth forests”
Obamacare
Government in Healthcare
California Plans to Kill Terminal-Illness Requirement for Assisted Suicide
I am always amazed when people still believe legalized assisted suicide/euthanasia is about terminal illness. It isn’t. That limitation is an expedient — an-entry level policy, if you will — to make assisted suicide seem less radical, to get a law enacted, and to persuade people to accept the principle that killing is an acceptable answer to suffering.
War & Terror
Rogue Russian soldiers invade their own country
Three separate units of Russian-born soldiers clashed with Moscow security services and claimed to have captured a village in the biggest cross-border incursion since the war began.
Pro-Ukraine Insurgents Claim Russian Village, Vow to ‘March on Moscow’
Ukraine-aligned rebel Russian units fighting their way across the shared border aim to “march on Moscow,” one volunteer has told Newsweek from close to the shifting front line.
Trump’s Plan on Ukraine: Just Let Russia Win
Trump just rug-pulled the China hawks on TikTok
The CCP and its allies have bought themselves a new champion.
House passes bill that could lead to a TikTok ban; fight shifts to the Senate
The House approved the legislation, dubbed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, that calls for China tech giant ByteDance to divest TikTok or the popular social video app will effectively be banned in the U.S.
China warns proposed TikTok ban will ‘come back to bite’ US
Beijing warned on Wednesday that a proposed ban on Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok would “inevitably come back to bite the United States”.
Putin Declaration Shows How Cutting Off Ukraine Hurts Prospects for Peace
On the menu today: It’s a heck of a time to be in Europe. Vladmir Putin declares that now that Ukraine is running low on ammunition and supplies, he has no interest in peace talks — demonstrating that the contention that cutting off U.S. aid to Ukraine would force both parties to the negotiating table was an erroneous assumption. Meanwhile, Polish prime minister Donald Tusk spits hot fire about the U.S. Congress’s inability to pass a Ukraine aid package, and German chancellor Olaf Scholz blurts out that French and British military personnel are helping the Ukrainians target Russians with long-range missiles. Oh, and a little-noticed note about why President Biden might particularly appreciate Prime Minister Tusk criticizing House Speaker Mike Johnson.
West Point Removes “Duty, Honor, Country” from its Mission Statement
Another in a continuing series of body blows to our nation’s military and the service academies in particular.
Everything’s Fine: West Point Drops ‘Duty, Honor, and Country’ From Its Mission Statement
I have been pretty hard on clueless Army Secretary Christine Wormuth during the year and a half I’ve been scribbling here. When you see her as the ballerina atop the melting, gooey, sticky sundae that is the current state of the United States Army itself, you realize the decline is thanks to the intrepid leadership of decades of Milleys and Austins in the upper echelons. Wormuth didn’t build the failing base her wokeness happily pirouettes on. She’s just making sure there’s enough syrup running down the sides to thoroughly cover the formerly solid underpinnings an increasingly corporate Army brain trust had already started melting.
Demands for Ukraine to Negotiate with Russia Are Calls for Ukraine to Surrender
From the pope on down, those who insist that Ukraine must submit to Russian aggression and commit to negotiations with its would-be conqueror insist they have Ukrainians’ best interests in mind.
Johnson Will Send Ukraine Aid Package to the Senate After all
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has bowed to pressure from Senate Republicans and will send a Ukraine aid package to the Senate soon.
How Cuba Recruits Spies to Penetrate Inner Circles of the U.S. Government
Washington has long underestimated Havana, which often shares intelligence with Moscow and Beijing
Yemen’s Houthis obtain hypersonic missile, upgrade weapons arsenal – report
Last week the Houthis’s leader warned that the group would begin attacking ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope in Africa’s southern tip.
National
Second Child Diagnosed With Measles at Chicago Illegal Immigrant Shelter
Overall it’s the third measles case in Chicago in the past week.
Report: U.S. Embassy In Haiti Evacuating American Personnel Amid ‘Chaos’ From Street Gangs
“Haiti in chaos as armed gangs take over capital, US embassy staff evacuated”
Arizona legislature considering bill to let college students appeal grades in cases of alleged political bias
One Arizona Republican is proposing the creation of a “Grade Challenge Department” for college students to appeal grades in cases of alleged political bias.
Super. New Mexico Man Dies of Black Plague
Sometimes we’re forced to look around and find a problem plaguing the country that wasn’t caused by Joe Biden and his policies. It’s a serious challenge considering just how much has gone wrong lately, but this story just might qualify. There’s no evidence (yet, anyway) that this is Biden’s fault, and when I say “plaguing” the country, I mean it literally. A patient in New Mexico has died of the bubonic plague, known to our ancestors as the black death. This took place in Lincoln County, to the south of Santa Fe. Despite having received medical attention in a hospital, the man passed away. It is unknown where or how he contracted the disease, but he is the second person in the state to die of it since 2020 and several other non-fatal cases have been recorded.
Current State Of Laws Governing Gender Transitions
Once a fringe issue, transgender ideology is now firmly entrenched in American law and life. Children who think they’re transgender are being irreparably harmed as healthcare practitioners recklessly alter their sexual characteristics with drugs and surgeries. The transgender culture war rages on, and the polarized nature of the issue has resulted in a patchwork of conflicting legislation governing so-called “gender transitions” for minors.
Georgia Judge Throws Out Six Counts Against Trump, Five Other Defendants
Inside the dark and toxic underbelly of kids TV: Haunting documentary exposes rampant ‘abuse, pedophilia, and child PORN’ behind Nickelodeon’s most popular TV shows – as actor Drake Bell details the ‘brutal’ assaults he suffered while filming at AGE 15
An upcoming documentary is set to expose the hidden underbelly of children’s TV as former cast and crew make shocking claims about the ‘toxic environment’ at Nickelodeon – including accusations of child abuse and ‘pedophiles on set.’
Maryland city equity official says she wants US to burn to the ground: ‘MY ideology can rise from the ashes’
The equity officer tasked with eliminating racism in College Park called to ‘BURN IT ALL DOWN’ but also says, ‘I don’t want to work’
A New Study Shows That the U.S. Maternal-Mortality Rate Is Overestimated
On Wednesday a study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology found that high and rising rates of maternal mortality in the United States are due to flawed data. Starting in 2003, a pregnancy checkbox was included in the national death certificates. Researchers found that this box was checked for many deaths unrelated to either pregnancy or childbirth. While previous data found that the U.S. maternal-mortality rate increased by a whopping 143 percent since 1999, these new data found that there was only a 2 percent increase since that time.
The ‘Detransition’ Time Bomb
We are physically altering thousands of young kids, because they say something that few if any previous societies would have taken seriously.
DeSantis: Law Enforcement Seized Boat of Haitians Who had Guns, Drugs, Night Vision Gear
“Given the situation that’s happening in Haiti, some brutal reports that are happening, we want to make sure that we’re protecting Floridians.”
Nickelodeon’s ‘house of horrors’: Inside the abuse allegations aimed at Dan Schneider’s kids’ shows
Bryan Hearne never became a big star like Amanda Bynes, Ariana Grande or Drake Bell when he was one of many child actors in the Nickelodeon universe that dominated children’s TV in the late ’90s and early aughts.
Economy & Taxes
Bernie Sanders to Propose a Mandated 32-Hour Workweek
Would reducing the workweek to 32 hours make workers happier? Would it be less stressful? Vermont Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders thinks it’s a great idea and will propose legislation mandating a 32-hour workweek for the same money workers earn in 40 hours.
International
LGBT Indoctrination of Kids in Northern Ireland
When leftists shriek about “banned” books, they are attempting to shout down resistance to sickness like this: “Libraries NI [North Ireland] has purchased a number of books introducing the idea of gender-switching to toddlers and primary school children.”
World’s first major act to regulate AI passed by European lawmakers
The European Union’s parliament on Wednesday approved the world’s first major set of regulatory ground rules to govern the mediatized artificial intelligence at the forefront of tech investment.
Canadian Liberals Complain About Uppity Indigenous People
I absolutely LOVE this story, more than you can possibly imagine. It captures as few others do how Leftists deny the humanity of those they claim to care for.
Progressive NIMBYs Meet Their Match in Vancouver’s Native Americans
There are few things more delicious than seeing the self-righteous suddenly have to make a sacrifice from which they thought themselves insulated. In this case, some of Vancouver’s wealthiest and most progressive neighborhoods are realizing that the American Indians aren’t satisfied with platitudes and would rather build big.
10-foot mysterious metal monolith appears on remote hill, baffling locals
It’s steeling the limelight. A strange and gigantic steel monolith was recently spotted on a hill in Wales — one of several mysterious Toblerone-like structures that have popped up around the globe in recent years.
South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia and Ivory Coast hit by major internet outages
Outages have been reported in countries including South Africa, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Ghana and Burkina Faso.
Japan high courts rule same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional
Several Japanese high courts have rules the country’s ban on same-sex marriages to be unconstitutional. Courts in both Tokyo and Sapporo have ruled that Japan’s current rules regarding same-sex marriage. According to Reuters, the high court in Sapporo explained their decision saying: “Enacting same-sex marriage does not seem to cause disadvantages or harmful effects”.
Vladimir Putin breaks silence as angry Russians burn down ballot boxes ahead of election
Vladimir Putin has claimed Ukraine is carrying out ‘terrorist’ attacks in Russia to disrupt the presidential elections.
Germany: Police operation because schoolgirl posted a smurf video by AfD
In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, a 16-year-old girl is suddenly taken out of class by three police officers in front of her classmates. The offense: She says on TikTok that Germany is her home and not just a place on the map. The student is denounced by her own director.
Opinion
Will the GOP Become The American Judas?
I was on NewsNation yesterday afternoon talking about American national security and, in particular, the looming legislation to force the Chinese Communist Party to give up control of TikTok. The legislation does not shut down TikTok, though the Chinese insist they’d rather shut down TikTok than give up control.
America Shouldn’t Back Into Assuming Responsibility for Gaza
There are a number of valid objections to Joe Biden’s plan to build a pier in Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid. First, Biden is treating Gaza as if its problem was that it lacks access to external aid, when in fact its problem is that Hamas controls the distribution of such aid and diverts it to support its fighters. That falsely implies that Israel, rather than Hamas, is responsible for poor living conditions in Gaza. In fact, more aid arriving from the West will just lengthen the war by keeping Hamas fed and fit.
Burn It to the Ground!
She seems pleasant. In fact, she is exactly what you want in any government official. Kayla Aliese Carter is the City Equity Official of College Park, Maryland, and she is committed to burning it all down, referring to the United States.
One of the Good Guys
Back in 2010, he was one of Jim DeMint’s recruits to run for the Senate. The establishment fought him, but he won the primary. His state Republican Party, however, had melted down and collapsed with several clunker candidates, including a terrible gubernatorial nominee. He lost, but outperformed every other Republican.
What the House vote on TikTok says about Republicans and Trump
Everybody knows that the Republican Party now belongs wholly to Donald Trump and that loyalty to him comes before all of its previously stated views. So why is it that nearly all Republicans in the U.S. House ignored him on the TikTok bill?
‘The Antithesis of Patriotism’
On January 6, 2021, a lie-fed mob attacked the U.S. Congress for the purpose of stopping a constitutional process. Which they succeeded in doing, for several hours. During this time, the president watched the attack on television, with satisfaction.
Let’s Get Ready to Rummmble!
With the possible exception of candidates withdrawing over the next week, the match-ups for this election cycle in Nevada are set. A look at some of the key races while I take a break from my book-writing project…
