Daily News Roundup
NOTABLE QUOTES
Saul Alinsky in Rules for Radicals: : That perennial question, “Does the end justify the means?” is meaningless as it stands; the real and only question regarding the ethics of means and ends is, and always has been, “Does this particular end justify this particular means?…The end is what you want, and the means is how you get it…The man of action views the issue of means and ends in pragmatic and strategic terms. He has no other problem; he thinks of his actual resources and the possibilities of various choices of action. He asks of ends only whether they are achievable and worth the cost; of means, only whether they will work.”
Brian C. Joondeph, M.D. contributor to American thinker: So many coincidences in a world where they just don’t happen. How much of this did Cuomo know or participate in? Did any past or present elected Democrats pressure him to send weaponized patients into nursing homes to inflate the death counts, creating more fear and panic, justifying the above actions to purloin the election?
Matt Purple contributor to The American Conservative on banning books: You don’t need government to pass a law to shut somebody up; you need only to capture the relevant cultural gatekeepers.
Steve Bannon host of War Room Pandemic: The largest Biden rally ever has been discovered, in a tent city forming in Tijuana, Mexico . . . a tent city of illegal immigrants.
Mark Levin on his radio show: You damn well better not open your salon, you damn well better not open your gym, you damn well better not open your restaurant, no, no, no, or we’re going to fine you $14 trillion and drag your ass and put you in jail while they’re letting criminals out the back door! OK, I got it. But if you’re an illegal alien, don’t ask, don’t tell. This is the world of the left; this is the world of the Democrat Party.”
LADY JUSTICE: NO LONGER BLINDFOLDED
Kelly: A Family on Trial for January 6
The Justice Department, which acts more like a consigliere for the Democratic Party than an impartial enforcer of the rule of law, wants to ruin the Cua family and send a message to others. Bruno Joseph Cua lives on a three-acre farm in central Georgia with his parents and two younger siblings. The 18-year-old likes to fish and build tree houses; neighbors, family friends, and classmates describe him as hard-working, kind, respectful, and patriotic. He’s not into drugs or alcohol—his biggest high last year was organizing Trump truck rallies in his community. […] The Cuas, after hearing the president’s speech on January 6, walked to Capitol Hill. Bruno made his way into the building; the teen later posted on Parler that he “stormed the capital (sic) with hundreds of thousands of patriots. Yes we physically fought our way in.” Now, Bruno Cua sits in jail in Washington, D.C. awaiting trial for his involvement in the January 6 Capitol breach, the youngest of the nearly 300 people so far arrested under the U.S. Justice Department’s “unprecedented” investigation into the events of that day. Unlike tens of thousands of protestors who occupied the nation’s capital for months—including young people who bragged about it in a Washington Post magazine—Cua will be given no mercy. Neither will his parents, Joseph and Alise. […] Bruno’s refusal to accept that Joe Biden fairly won the presidency is more proof he should stay in jail, prosecutors say. “The offenses committed by the defendant illuminate characteristics inconsistent with a person who could follow orders given by this Court, or indeed, any branch of the federal government. The defendant has espoused disbelief in the outcome of the 2020 Presidential election, and violently acted on that world view.” (The government, both judges and lawyers, routinely cite a defendant’s doubt about last year’s election as evidence of wrongdoing.) The criminal case against Bruno, however, is weak.
Read more at American Greatness.
Greenfield: Biden DOJ is Tossing Cases Against BLM Insurrections in Portland
These are not the domestic terrorists that the Biden administration is looking for. They’re allies. And it’s not domestic terrorism if you do it at night. […] Federal prosecutors have dismissed more than one-third of cases stemming from last summer’s violent protests in downtown Portland, when protesters clashed with federal agents. KGW reviewed federal court records and found 31 of the 90 protest cases have been dismissed by the U.S. Department of Justice, including a mix of misdemeanor and felony charges. Some of the most serious charges dropped include four defendants charged with assaulting a federal officer, which is a felony. More than half of the dropped charges were “dismissed with prejudice,” which several former federal prosecutors described as extremely rare. “Dismissed with prejudice” means the case can’t be brought back to court.
Read more at FrontPage Magazine.
GOP
Thau: INSPECTOR GENERAL: McConnell Wife & Trump Sec of Transportation, Elaine Chao Misused Govt Resources for Personal Gain
The Department of Transportation’s Inspector General just released a report citing Trump’s Secretary of Transportation, Elaine Chao for misusing government resources to advance her family’s business concerns. Chao, of course, wasn’t just a member of Trump’s cabinet. She’s also the wife of GOP Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell. Among a number of other troubling improprieties, the report cites Chao for: . . . That last item should be of particular concern. As investigative journalist Peter Schweizer reported in January, . . . […] Moreover, Schweizer’s January report is just the tip of the iceberg regarding Mitch McConnell’s entanglement with a hostile foreign power. In his 2018 book, Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends, Schweizer exposed an alarmingly large number of other tight connections the McConnell family has to the Chinese Communist Party.
Read more at RedState.
Sundance: The Bloom Is Off The Ruse – Report: McConnell Planning Early Exit Before Term Concludes
The Intercept is reporting on something CTH predicted after the 2020 election, Mitch McConnell is working with Kentucky legislature to plan his departure before the end of his term. This is not a surprise. McConnell is fully exposed now; people can finally see through his schemes and understand his motives and maneuvers. (Via The Intercept) Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has compiled a short list of successors in his home state of Kentucky, preparing for the possibility that he does not serve out his full term, Kentucky Republicans tell The Intercept.The list is topped by his protégé, state Attorney General Daniel Cameron, and also includes former United Nations Ambassador Kelly Craft, whose billionaire coal magnate husband is a major McConnell donor, as well as Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams, a former McConnell Scholar. Under current law, the power to appoint McConnell’s replacement falls to Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear. But new legislation McConnell is pushing in the Kentucky General Assembly would strip the governor of that power and put it into the hands of the state GOP. (read more)
Read more at The Conservative Treehouse.
CHINA: AMERICA’S MORTAL ENEMY
Keating: China poised to surpass U.S. in artificial intelligence, panel warns
Commissioners on the panel warned that China already has leveraged artificial intelligence in malign ways. […] “China’s plans, resources, and progress should concern all Americans,” wrote officials from the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI). “It is an AI peer in many areas and an AI leader in some applications. We take seriously China’s ambition to surpass the United States as the world’s AI leader within a decade.” In a stark message, commission chairmen warned: “America is not prepared to defend or compete in the AI era.”
Read more at Just the News.
BIDEN/HARRIS/OBMA REGIME: TRANSFORMING AMERICA WITH H.R.1, FOR THE PEOPLE ACT
One America News: Institute For Free Speech President Analyzes Impacts Of H.R. 1
House lawmakers passed the H.R. 1 legislation also known as the For the People Act of 2021. One America’s Jennifer Franco spoke with David Keating, the President of the Institute for Free Speech, to discuss the legislation further.
Watch the 6 minute interview at OANN.
Pollak: 37 Things to Know About H.R. 1, ‘For the People Act’
The bill is 791 pages long — a massive piece of legislation, adopted with little examination or debate. Some provisions — like expanding access for voters with disabilities, improving election security, and ensuring that all voting machines use in U.S. elections are also manufactured in the U.S. — are uncontroversial. Others are potentially explosive. Federal control over congressional elections: The bill begins by declaring that “Congress finds that it has broad authority to regulate the time, place, and manner of congressional elections under the Elections Clause of the Constitution.” The Constitution actually gives primary authority to the States, but allows Congress to “make or alter such Regulations.” The House Democrats interpret this provision as dramatically as possible to override the states. Declaring that “States and localities have eroded access to the right to vote”: The bill declares that photo ID, “burdensome” voter registration procedures, purges of ineligible voters, restrictions on vote-by-mail, rules against felons voting, and other measures that states and municipalities have taken to guarantee the integrity of elections are, in fact, “restrictions on the right to vote.” It also suggests these are forms of “racial discrimination” and “systemic racism.” Restricting challenges to H.R. 1 to the federal court system in D.C.: The bill declares that the only courts with jurisdiction to hear challenges to its constitutionality, or to the validity of regulations promulgated under the law, are courts within Washington, D.C. — a notoriously Democrat-friendly jurisdiction. That minimizes the chances that any challenges could be brought to more conservatives courts, or to judges appointed by past Republican presidents. Automatic and online voter registration: The bill requires every state to make sure “all eligible citizens are registered to vote in elections for Federal office” unless individuals opt out. It also requires states to make voter registration available online. It allows voters who have no other signatures on file with the state to supply their signatures when requesting a ballot. The state may not request more than the last four digits of the applicant’s Social Security number. Protection for illegal aliens who are registered to vote: The bill protects non-citizens from prosecution if they are registered to vote automatically and never made an affirmative declaration that they were U.S. citizens. Agencies that register voters are not required to keep records of who declined to affirm their citizenship. Changing personal information at polling places: Voters are allowed to change their address and other information at polling places, other than on Election Day itself, and are allowed to cast regular, not provisional, ballots on that basis.
Read more at Breitbart.
RECLAIMING EDUCATION
Schnyders: Reviving the Liberal Arts in the Age of Cancel Culture
Over the past decade, student protests against speakers, faculty, and peers who express ideas that challenge campus orthodoxies have become common on campuses across America. Several institutions have invited renowned scholars to campus, only for the scholar to be received by protests, chants, and physical violence. Responses like these are an alarming symptom of the widespread crisis of free speech at our colleges and universities and have caused the public to wonder if free expression is still the lifeblood of American higher education. However, it is not just free speech that is under question; the very core of educational institutions is in jeopardy. The disappearance of a rigorous liberal arts curriculum has contributed to the decline of the free exchange of ideas on college and university campuses today. Renewing the study of the liberal arts is essential to resolving the free speech crisis. Founded on the medieval European university model, the initial concept of the liberal arts was based upon the trivium and quadrivium. By studying the trivium (grammar, rhetoric, and logic) and the quadrivium (geometry, arithmetic, music, and astronomy), students developed foundational knowledge and critical thinking abilities. Current liberal arts curricula include . . .
Read more at The Imaginative Conservative.
Purple: I Do Not Like This Woke Flimflam
When I was a boy in school, we were often encouraged to read banned books. Back then, to censor anyone was about the least hip thing you could do, the province of the glowering churchman and the cordless phone-wielding parent, the least cool of 1990s archetypes. Pitted against them was the heroic liberal-minded librarian, who would sooner raise her voice in the study section than deny a book to a curious student. “READ!” cried colorful signs off of every classroom wall. And if you wanted to READ! Judy Blume, Alice Walker, or William Golding, well, then, far be it from anyone else to stop you.
It was a healthy attitude, I think, even if it was a bit precious and overdone. For all of Holden Caulfield’s necking and socking in the jaw, The Catcher in the Rye was not only the most censored book in public schools, it was also the second most assigned. I read it in English class without anyone ever complaining, along with Lord of the Flies and Brave New World. Those puritanical censors never did descend. And while today there’s even a Banned Books Week to revel in that which you’re not supposed to READ!, it would be almost unthinkable for anyone with any cultural power to try to silence Myra Breckinridge or even Lolita. That isn’t to say we no longer censor. Oh, Lord, do we censor. It’s just that our criteria have changed. […] Abolish the past and you impoverish the present.
Read more at The American Conservative.
