Daily News Roundup

NOTABLE QUOTES

Samuel Adams one of the leaders of the Boston Tea Party and a signer of the Declaration of Independence: “It is in the interest of tyrants to reduce the people to ignorance and vice. For they cannot live in any country where virtue and knowledge prevail”

President Trump in an interview on 77WABC radio: Well, look, I’m not looking to have it be the party of Trump, I’m looking to have a great country. I’m looking to have a country that is run by people that know what they’re doing.

Sundance contributor to The Last Refuge: Liz Cheney’s intense focus on President Trump doesn’t make much sense, until you put together her priority within the 2020 election. There is a strong argument to be made that Liz Cheney is an operative working on behalf of the Deep State interests. The Deep State is the larger network of Intelligence Community (IC) officials who control all the institutions within the federal government.

Gary Gindler contributor to American Thinker: China and Russia are aggressively raising their stakes against Taiwan and Ukraine. Why? Just take a sober view of Biden’s America, at war with itself. China and Russia came to a pragmatic conclusion: America in 2021 has neither the desire nor the courage nor the political will to protect itself and its allies.

Lance Gooden (R-TX) tweeted: Four months ago we had energy independence, a secure border, peace in the Middle East, and we were poised for an economic comeback. What happened? Joe Biden.

Joseph Pearce contributor to The Imaginative Conservative: In one of the great ironies of history, we find socialists and anarchists on the side of the new generation of slave-holders. The workers and wage-slaves of the world are being delivered into the hands of the overlords of the globalist future. These socialists and anarchists, obsessed with the slavery that was, sell us into the slavery that is and the worse slavery that is to come.

Dan McLaughlin contributor to National Review: Why is it that Republican politicians get elected and move to the left, whereas Democratic politicians get elected and . . . also move to the left. Almost nobody moves further to the right in office, especially on questions of the size and limitation of government

Glenn Reynolds’ New York Post opinion piece: Today’s Democratic Party is run by educated, well-off people for the benefit of educated, well-off people, with a few bones thrown to the poor so as to obtain their votes. It’s no surprise that when given a financial firehose to play with, its leaders chose to spray the money over, basically, themselves. It’s not like what most people want matters.

Andrea Widburg contributor to American Thinker suggests the reason for President Biden’s sudden mask reversal on Friday: If I had to guess the reason for this sudden turnabout from the Biden administration, I would say the administration is moving toward forcing all Americans to get a vaccine. Since this probably won’t get through Congress, the administration will partner even more closely with private businesses to turn into outcasts anybody who is not vaccinated.

Emerald Robinson Newsmax WH correspondent tweeted: Democrat poll numbers are sinking so badly that they’re trying to cancel the pandemic all at once.

David Hogg Democrat activist tweeted: I feel the need to continue wearing my mask outside even though I’m fully vaccinated because the inconvenience of having to wear a mask is more than worth it to have people not think I’m a conservative.

PRESIDENT TRUMP

From The Desk Of Donald J. Trump 5/15/21: Wall Street Journal has reported (they finally got something right), that 2020 was the “Worst Presidential Poll Miss in 40 Years.” The public opinion surveys ahead of the 2020 Presidential Election were the most inaccurate ever, according to a major polling panel. This was done purposely. The polls were a joke. I won States in a landslide that I was predicted to lose days before the election. Other states had me purposely so far down that it would force people, even fans, to say “Let’s stay home Darling. We love our President, but he can’t win.” And then I would win those states or at least come very close. In one state that I actually won, but the results were rigged, ABC and the Washington Post had me down by 17 points. Even the rigged final result was extremely close. It’s called SUPPRESSION POLLING and it should be illegal. These are crooked, disgusting, and very dishonest media outlets and they know exactly what they are doing. The 2020 Presidential Election was, by far, the greatest Election Fraud in the history of our Country. The good news is, the American people get it and the truth is rapidly coming out! Had Mike Pence had the courage to send the Electoral College vote back to states for recertification, and had Mitch McConnell fought for us instead of being the weak and pathetic leader he is, we would right now have a Republican President who would be VETOING the horrific Socialistic Bills that are rapidly going through Congress, including Open Borders, High Taxes, Massive Regulations, and so much else!

BEHIND THE DEEP STATE

Fox: US warns extremists may strike as virus restrictions ease
A national terrorism alert issued Friday warns that violent extremists may take advantage of the easing of pandemic restrictions to conduct attacks. The alert does not cite any specific threats. But it warns of potential danger from an increasingly complex and volatile mix that includes domestic terrorists inspired by various grievances, racial or ethnic hatred and influences from abroad. Those threats were exacerbated by COVID-19, which spawned conspiracy theories and deepened anger at the government in some quarters over the shutdown of the economy. As virus conditions improve, the alert says new dangers loom. “Violent extremists may seek to exploit the easing of COVID-19-related restrictions across the United States to conduct attacks against a broader range of targets after previous public capacity limits reduced opportunities for lethal attacks,” the bulletin said.
Read more at AP News.

Payne: Virologist: NIAID grantee funded Wuhan coronavirus studies used in gain-of-function research
In a tense exchange Tuesday with Sen. Rand Paul, longtime NIAID Director Anthony Fauci categorically and repeatedly denied his institute has funded gain-of-function research. A prominent Columbia University virologist claims that in the years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic a U.S. nonprofit funded coronavirus experiments in Wuhan, China the results of which were used in “gain-of-function” virology research at the University of North Carolina. Dr. Vincent Racaniello made the claim amid ongoing controversy over a recently resurfaced interview between himself and Peter Daszak, the president of the U.S. infectious disease nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance. Both EcoHealth Alliance and the scientist leading the research at UNC have been heavily funded over the years by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which has been directed since 1984 by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the public face of the federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic under Presidents Trump and Biden.[…] Racianello’s half-hour interview with Daszak took place in early December 2019 at the Nipah Virus International Conference in Singapore. Significant attention has been given to a segment in which Daszak appears to allude to having participated in “gain-of-function” experiments,
Read more at Just The New.

ELECTION 2020

See Arizona 2020 Election News at today’s The Prickly Pear column Arizona News – May 17, 2021.

GOP

McLaughlin: John Tillman Shows How Conservative Activism Can Work
You know you have made it in the world of conservative activism when the Washington Post decides to run a hit piece on you — and you’ve really made it when the Post can hardly even find much to complain about except to call your efforts “a stealth persuasion machine,” quote some grumpy left-wing gadflies, and fret that your arguments might persuade people to your point of view. That’s where John Tillman is now. A businessman by background, Tillman sold off his primary business in the mid 2000s and decided to bring his experience in the competitive world of commerce into the political space of defending free markets. He set up shop in Illinois — not easy ground for a conservative — for the most conservative reason of all: It was home. His philosophy was simple: “If the policy empowers people, I’m for it. If the policy empowers government beyond its constitutional limit, I’m generally against it.” This is not, to put it mildly, the governing philosophy of Illinois or of the city of Chicago. But every David needs a Goliath. […] Why is it that Republican politicians get elected and move to the left, whereas Democratic politicians get elected and . . . also move to the left. Almost nobody moves further to the right in office, especially on questions of the size and limitation of government. As Tillman told me, he analyzed the behavior of legislators and policy-makers as being driven by three factors, in descending order of importance: . . . One might read this as a modern version of Thucydides’s formulation of “fear, honor, and interest.” Tillman sees it as a vise, pressing down on political figures from three directions.. . . The second nut Tillman sought to crack was . . .
Read more at National Review.

BIDEN/HARRIS/OBAMA REGIME: TRANSFORMING FOREIGN POLICY

VDH: How to Ensure a Middle East War in Five Easy Steps
The new American Middle East policy is an extension of the new American domestic policy. […] But why all this violence now? Of course, experts say the pretexts are cancellations of elections in the West Bank. And there is the need for the corrupt Palestinian Authority to find an enemy to scapegoat other than corrupt rival Hamas. Of course, they say, the Jews are—for the 1,000th time—“desecrating” the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and that the Israeli government is in a mess of disunity, without a unified majority voice. Of course, they say, there is the pretext of a court case over former pre-1947 property in Jerusalem—a bitter, but nevertheless still mostly private matter handled by the courts for years without an intifada. Yet between 2017 and 2021 there was relatively little violence in Israel and on the West Bank. Whatever our ideologies and politics, we all know the one reason why there is chaos now and not then. And that constant in itself is a primer on the Middle East. The Trump Administration . . . […] It was within such a four-year matrix that terrorists thought it was better not to attack Israel. But if we were looking to achieve the exact opposite, then calm can become war in five easy steps: 1) Revive Iran . . .
Read more at American Greatness.

Gindler: The Beasts Smell Blood
It was under Biden that the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline work continued. It was under Biden that the preparations for the seizure of Taiwan by China entered the final phase. Under Biden, China’s seizure of the South China Sea, suspended by Trump, is close to completion. Under Biden, both Russia and China decided on something that was simply unthinkable under Trump — they forced preparations for open aggression against neighbors. Trump, at the end of a dinner with the Chinese leader, three months into his presidency, fired 60 Tomahawk missiles at Syria. Everything was organized so no one doubted that the missiles were intended for China and Russia’s leaders, although they were fired into Syria. A year later, in February 2018, a platoon of American Rangers defeated a battalion tactical group of Russian mercenaries in Syria. Of the 500 people, few survived, and all 27 tanks and armored vehicles were destroyed in a four-hour battle. Both China and Russia immediately realized that, with Trump, the guy who brought down a billion dollars’ worth of missiles while sweets were being served, it was necessary to remain within the bounds of decency. Under Biden, . . .
Read more at American Thinker.

Hoft: After Witnessing 3 Months of Biden’s Stumbling and Bumbling, China Declares It Is Now “Ready to Defeat” the US
China has pledged to rapidly defeat the US in a military conflict in one of the country’s most explicit warnings yet. China’s Global Times, which is seen as a Government news outlet, published an editorial revealing the threat in response to joint military drills carried out by the US. The US joined drills with Japan, Australia and France this week in an intended show of force against Beijing.
Read more at The Gateway Pundit.

BIDEN/HARRIS/OBAMA REGIME: TRANSFORMING AMERICA

Pearce: Slavery That Was, and Is, and Is to Come
Slavery is an abomination. It is a gross violation of the dignity of the human person. It is no surprise, therefore, that Christians have been at the forefront of the fight against slavery throughout the ages. The ending of slavery in Europe had a great deal to do with the rise of Christianity, and the ending of the African slave trade was primarily the work of Christian abolitionists. The force behind the African slave trade was not white supremacism, as critical race theorists claim, but human pride and greed, irrespective of skin colour, aided and abetted by technological “progress.” Black tribes enslaved neighbouring tribes and then sold them to the white slave-traders. Such wanton wickedness tramples on human dignity and is a stain on human history. “Generations have trod, have trod, have trod,” laments Gerard Manley Hopkins: . . . […] The problem is that slavery comes in other guises. […] If slavery is defined in the narrow sense of the ownership of one person by another, it can be said to have been abolished; if, however, it is defined as the absence of freedom, it is evident that we are living in an age of increasing slavery. We live in an age in which the rights of . . . […] And then there is the slavery that is to be. There is little doubt that the global corporations, aided and abetted by . . .
Read more at The Imaginative Conservative.

Rice: Biden’s America: A S—hole Country
As we sit in lines, waiting to pay more for everything, we might want to ponder that sad reality—and what the remainder of the next four years may have in store. That didn’t take long. So, do you like it in Haiti and El Salvador? Hard as it is to believe, it was only a little more than a year ago—that is, pre-pandemic—that gas cost on average just over $2 per gallon in most parts of the country, most people who wanted to work could work, and when you tuned in to watch women’s sports on ESPN, there were women playing them. This week, . . . What a difference a little more than a year can make. What a difference an election can make. What a difference four months can make. That’s how long Joe Biden has been president. It didn’t take him very long to undo the policies and progress of the previous four years and set America on a course to becoming a country akin to Venezuela with elements of old East Germany. Consider: . . .
Read more at American Greatness.

SECOND AMENDMENT

AP: Second Amendment sanctuaries facing 1st court test in Oregon
The measure that voters in the logging area of Columbia County narrowly approved last year forbids local officials from enforcing most federal and state gun laws and could impose thousands of dollars in fines on those who try. Second Amendment sanctuary resolutions have been adopted by some 1,200 local governments in states around the U.S., including Virginia, Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas, Illinois and Florida, according to Shawn Fields, an assistant professor of law at Campbell University who tracks them. Many are symbolic, but some, like in Columbia County, carry legal force.
Read more at Fox News.

FAUCI’S VIRUS: IT’S POLITICAL

(H/T LMc) WSJ Editorial Board: Lockdowns Didn’t Stop Covid
A new study finds more virus spread inside homes than work places. Covid-19 lockdowns shaved 3.5% off U.S. GDP in 2020 even as the federal government spent more than $2.6 trillion in relief measures. Millions of children fell behind in learning and nearly 100,000 businesses closed for good. Conventional wisdom holds this was worth it because lives were saved by shutting workplaces and schools and telling people to stay home. But a new study by University of Chicago economist Casey Mulligan shows the opposite. After the first month of the pandemic, organizations that adopted prevention protocols became safer places than the wider community. Officials who didn’t see that coming forgot that organizations are rational and look for cooperative solutions that improve the welfare of the group, such as reducing the risks of communicable disease. In “The Backward Art of Slowing the Spread? Congregation Efficiencies during COVID-19,” Mr. Mulligan uses empirical data to test the presumption that the workplace was less safe than the home.
Read more at WSJ.