Category Archives: Federalist

Last week, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ)unveiled three cases, which accused five individuals, including Chinese Americans and Chinese nationals, of stalking, harassing, and spying on Chinese dissidents in the United States on behalf of Chinas Ministry of State Security (MSS), sending shock waves within overseas Chinese communities.

According to the DOJs press release, MSS is more than an intelligence collection agency. It executes the Chinese governments efforts to limit free speech, attack dissidents, and preserve the power of the Communist Party. MSS is known to deploy illegal tactics to intimidate the Communist partys political rivals and dissidents inside China. But in recent years, MSS has felt emboldened to reach its long arms beyond Chinas border to suppress dissenting voices overseas.

Other nations that seek to repatriate criminals in foreign countries usually go through official channels by working with local legal systems. But China decided to take the matter into its own hands. It launched Operation Fox Hunt and Operation Sky Net in 2014. These programs seek to bring overseas Chinese criminals back to China, bypassing judicial systems in other countries.

China claims it has successfully brought more than 8,000 criminals to face justice in China. Among the captured are high-level Chinese officials, businessmen who were accused of committing financial crimes, and political dissidents.

Since the Chinese judicial system has a nearly 100 percent conviction rate, no one who was forced to go back should expect to receive due process or a fair trial. MSSs brazenness has effectively intimidated many oversea Chinese from speaking out on sensitive political issues, fearing either themselves or their families in China may suffer the governments retributions.

MSS often sends undercover Chinese police or security officials overseas, working with spies recruited locally or pressuring Chinese immigrants for assistance. According to areport, In countries likeVietnamand Australia, Chinese agents have simply abducted their prey, whether the targets were dissidents or people accused of corruption. But in the United States, where such kidnappings are more difficult, Fox Hunt teams have relied mainly on coercion.

The United States and China have no extradition treaty. Not surprisingly, the United States is the prime target of MSSs Fox Hunt and Sky Net. FBI Director Christopher Wraysaidthese programs are not the actions we would expect from a responsible nation-state. Instead, its more like something wed expect from an organized crime syndicate. Furthermore, he pointed out, Its outrageous that China thinks it can come to our shores, conduct illegal operations, and bend people here in the United States to their will.

In October 2020, the Trump administrations DOJchargedeight people, including seven Chinese nationals (one of them was police from Wuhan, China), of coercing a Chinese man in New Jersey to return to China to face criminal charges. The intimidation campaign occurred between 2016 and 2019, which included surveillance and online harassment of the mans adult daughter, unsolicited packages sent to the mans home, and a threatening note left taped to his front door.

Last weeks DOJ charges included three cases. One case involved a Chinese national trying to disrupt the political campaign of a naturalized U.S. citizen by planning violent acts. The target was a student leader in the Tiananmen protests who fled to the United States and is currently running for U.S. Congress.

The second case involved a Chinese American who used his support for the pro-democracy movement as acover to spy on other Chinese pro-democracy activists, and report their activities and information to Beijing. According to DOJ, at least one activist he reported a Hong Kong democracy activist was later arrested in Hong Kong. The victim of the third case was Arthur Liu, the father of American figure-skating Olympian Alysa Liu. Arthur fled China after organizing student protests in 1989.

The day before the DOJ disclosed these cases, a Chinese dissident who was also an immigration lawyer in New York City was murdered by a Chinese woman on a student visa. The victim was Li Jinjin, who came to the United States after spending two years in jail due to his participation in the 1989 pro-democracy protest in Beijing. So far, Lis murder has been treated as an ordinary homicide. But given Lis political activism and what we have known about MSS, his murder has raised many questions.

Chinese immigrants feel trapped between a rock and a hard place. The CCP thinks it owns us and can control what we say and do, no matter where we live. We dont know whom to trust within the Chinese community because Chinese government agents and spies are among us. Some in our community willingly do the governments dirty bidding, and others are pressured into it because their families and loved ones back home have been threatened.

Regardless of their reasons, these agents and spies endanger the safety of the rest of us, especially for people like me who dont shy away from criticizing the CCP for the evil it commits. We know that we are constantly being watched. Every time we speak out, we put our families as well as ourselves at risk. Who knows what kind of evil plots are being planned against us.

Outside of the Chinese-American community, we dont always feel welcomed. Criminals see us as easy prey. Anti-Asian hate crimes continue to rise in some of Americas most progressive cities (seehereandhere). It doesnt matter how long we have lived in the United States, some Americans treat us as perpetual outsiders who do not belong. Others believe all people of Chinese descent are spies of the Chinese government and constantly question our American patriotism.

In todays politically divided America, those of us who choose to support the Republican Party fall to the bottom of the American lefts racial hierarchy. Leftist media has no interest in publishing our work or making our voice heard, because how dare we not follow the lefts lead but insist on having our thoughts and beliefs?

Im troubled by the canceling everything Russian madness after Russia invaded Ukraine. Witnessing Russian artists, athletes, and even cats boycotted is an unsettling experience. So many Americans are unwilling to separate Russian people from the oppressive regime.

I cannot help but wonder if China invades Taiwan or gets into a direct military conflict with the United States, will there be a cancel everything Chinese movement? Will I be forced to defend my patriotism? Will both the left and the right cancel me or my books and writings? How many friends will I have left?

I dont know the answers to these questions. I only know that many Chinese Americans feel trapped in an unwinnable situation with hostility from all sides. All I can do is use my platform to urge everyone not to judge all Chinese Americans with a group label or a group identity that the Chinese government defines.

Ayn Rand reminded us, The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Each of us is accountable for our own words and behaviors. Condemn and criticize when there is clear evidence to support your judgment, but please dont cast the blame indiscriminately on all of us. As these DOJ cases have demonstrated, most victims of the CCPs aggressions are people of Chinese descent.

This article was originally published at Helen Raleigh Speaks.

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Thanks to Spies, Chinese Americans Face Threats At Home And Abroad - The Federalist

As we acknowledge World Down Syndrome Day this week, we two mothers recall vivid memories of sitting alone in our obstetrician-gynecologists offices and experiencing firsthand the push for pregnant women to get early prenatal genetic testing. One of us decided to decline this testing, and one of us decided to proceed, although we both had already decided we would let our babies continue to live out their precious lives no matter what the test revealed.

Alarming to both of us, however, was the similar sales pitch used by the OB/GYN offices to convince us that we needed this test. Youre definitely going to want the test, right? Are you sure you dont want it? It tests for things like Down syndrome and other rare diseases, and you know, Down syndrome children dont run as fast, jump as high, or do as well academically. And youd want to know early, right?

Every pregnant woman in America knows the drill: sometime in the first trimester, the doctor offers to do prenatal genetic testing. With just a few vials of blood, these tests promise to tell new parents about potential genetic problems their child may have, including Down syndrome, cystic fibrosis, and other rare conditions. The pamphlets about the testing promise peace of mind, total confidence, and clear answers things that would appeal to anyone, but especially to new parents!

Theres just one hitch: some of these tests are mostly wrong. In a groundbreaking report published last month, The New York Times revealed that at detecting various rare and serious genetic issues, prenatal genetic screening tests provide incorrect results as often as 83 percent to 91 percent of the time.

Despite this alarming record, prenatal genetic testing is increasingly billed as a routine part of pregnancy care. The absurdly high number of false-positive screening results for various rare genetic disorders not only causes deep emotional harm to new parents, but even more tragically, in some cases motivates doctors and genetic counselors to incorrectly use these erroneous results to encourage women to abort their perfectly healthy children.

It is essential for women to understand that these genetic screening tests are exactly just that: a screen. They do not have the capability to definitively diagnose any genetic condition with 100 percent confidence or accuracy. As noted by the Charlotte Lozier Institute, an organization that researches and publishes data regarding abortion-related issues, too little emphasis is placed on the fact that these tests are merely screening and not diagnostic tests. While the manufacturers recommend that a positive indication on the test should be confirmed with an invasive test such as an amniocentesis, some parents are choosing to abort their unborn children based entirely on these screenings.

Testing companies provide physicians patient literature that urges parents to test for these potential genetic problems in advance, as this will purportedly allow parents to prepare themselves. But all too often, parents feel coerced into aborting a child they have been told will either be unable to survive outside of the womb or have a lesser quality of life compared to other children.

According to The Guardian, Rebecca Price and Patrick Kiely were advised by medical staff to abort their son, Christopher, after two test results in 2019 indicated he had Trisomy 18, also known as Edwards syndrome Sadly, when the couple went through with the advised abortion, another test result revealed Christopher did not in fact have Trisomy 18 The high court in Dublin announced that Rebecca Price and Patrick Kiely will receive damages after five consultants from Merrion Fetal Health clinic, the hospital, and a lab admitted negligence.

Yet the prenatal testing business continues falsely promising highly accurate tests and peace of mind.

Although it is difficult to find reliable published data regarding exactly how many prenatal tests are done, one company, Natera, reports that it performed 400,000 tests for a single genetic condition in 2020, according to The New York Times. One study found that four out of every one thousand tested pregnancies ends in abortion because of a detected fetal anomaly. Even if the tests were correct, this would be a tragedy.

It is also important to understand that the exact prognosis and outcome for many of the rare genetic conditions tested are often unclear. Numerous studies in neonatal palliative care literature illuminate a clear theme: physicians frequently underestimate the quality of life for children with these relatively rare genetic conditions, whereas parents often describe their experiences with their children as precious and valuable.

Many patients with these rare genetic conditions may even survive much longer than anticipated with appropriate support. These rare conditions, once labeled terminal, are now more appropriately described as life-limiting, as they are expected to either shorten the life expectancy of the child to various degrees or present various challenges.

Parents who have chosen to continue to carry a child to delivery despite a life-limiting condition frequently report that the time that they have with their little ones, whether minutes or years, were some of the most beautiful and meaningful times of their lives. Parents who, instead, decide to abort their child based on an adverse prenatal genetic diagnosis unfortunately often experience profound emotional and psychological trauma, which is often underrecognized or even ignored by many physicians.

This trauma can take months or even years to resolve, and unlike the grief that accompanies a natural miscarriage or stillbirth, often manifests as psychosomatic disturbance and debilitating guilt. With the availability of perinatal hospice and neonatal palliative care programs all over the country, designed to gently guide families through the care of a child with a life-limiting condition, the added physical and psychological trauma that accompanies abortion for both the parents and the child is avoidable.

The reality is that parents are aborting children because a corrupt testing industry has succeeded in selling the lies that a) every pregnant woman needs this prenatal genetic testing; b) the testing is completely accurate (parents routinely report not being informed that a false positive was possible); and c) if the testing detects an anomaly, abortion is the appropriate response. Many women have even reported being abandoned by their medical provider and discharged from a medical practice after choosing to continue to carry a child with a life-limiting condition. That is horrific.

Countless women who have taken these tests and received an adverse screening result for their child, yet chose to continue and not abort their child, found that the screening was wrong, and their child was perfectly healthy. For those whose screening was correct, the childs life was honored not violently interrupted and the parents and family were afforded closure as the childs life ended naturally, in the arms of loving parents, siblings, and grandparents.

But, tragically, there are many parents who have taken the advice of testing companies and of misguided or corrupt medical professionals, aborting children who deserved to be loved and supported regardless of their diagnosis.

Prenatal testing companies false claims have stolen from innumerable parents a lifetime of love and happiness with their beautiful children. Its time for accountability. We cant bring back the countless children who were lost at the hands of a corrupt and flawed prenatal testing industry, but we can speak out to protect future victims.

Alison Centofante is the founder of Centofante Strategies, LLC and an active public speaker, activist, and writer with more than ten years of experience speaking on abortion. She is the mother of two. Dr. Kendra Kolb is a practicing neonatologist in Pennsylvania, providing care for newborns with a variety of medical conditions including prematurity, genetic abnormalities, and other issues. She is a mother of three.

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How Many Have Aborted Healthy Children Due To Faulty Prenatal Tests? - The Federalist

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has a plan to mitigate soaring gas prices where residents pay more per gallon than any other state in the nation: a giveaway to the rich.

On Wednesday, the governors office unveiled a plan to give $400 per registered vehicle to each Californian, regardless of income, with an $800 cap per individual but not household.

Were taking immediate action to get money directly into the pockets of Californians who are facing higher gas prices as a direct result of Putins invasion of Ukraine, Newsom said in a press release in a regurgitation of White House talking points to blame record prices at the pump on Russian aggression.

The $9 billion in direct payments are slated to benefit Californias high-income earners with multiple cars. Even owners of electric vehicles would collect payments.

Californians who dont own vehicles would be excluded from the checks. Only $2 billion in the proposal is set aside for three months of free public transportation courtesy of taxpayers, complemented by a partial sales tax holiday on diesel and suspension of inflationary adjustments to excise taxes on fuel.

This package is also focused on protecting people from volatile gas prices, and advancing clean transportation, Newsom added. The proposal also promotes electric cars by allegedly fast-tracking projects on electric vehicle infrastructure.

Earlier this month, gas prices reached new heights with a national average of $4.33 per gallon, according to AAA travel agencys gas tracker. The national average as of Thursday stood at $4.33, still more than 20 cents above the prior record set in 2008 when prices reached $4.11. California residents are coping with the highest prices of any state, at an average of $5.88 per gallon. Some areas have seen prices eclipse $6.

Those without vehicles are still affected by the rapidly rising cost of gas, which presents inflationary ripple effects throughout the economy with higher prices to manufacture and transport basic goods.

While Newsom plans to give gas cards to the states wealthy, Democrats in the state legislature have constructed an alternative proposal to dole out targeted relief to those most affected by rising energy prices. Democrat Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon and Senate President Pro Temp Toni Atkins want to send $200 cash payments to every California taxpayer and dependent, with eligibility for checks capped at household incomes of $250,000.

I appreciate Gov. Newsoms work on developing another option to bring relief to Californians experiencing the rising cost of fuel and consumer goods, Atkins told the Los Angeles Times. The Senate is focused on ensuring that state money is targeted to those who actually need relief, and we look forward to working with Gov. Newsom, Speaker Rendon and our Legislative colleagues.

While offering short-term relief, neither plan addresses the underlying issue of high gas prices created as a direct consequence of Democrats suppression of domestic energy production, starting with the White House. Instead, like with schooling, state subsidies are likely to spike prices in the long run. The phenomenon is known as the Paradox of Subsidies.

States are constrained from increasing American energy production with limited options in comparison to the federal government, which reserves jurisdiction over about a third of the nations lands. Gas prices began their immediate ascension upon President Bidens day-one orders to cancel domestic energy projects and suspend new oil and gas leases on federal lands, killing opportunities and incentives for producers to sustain operations in the wake of rising demand. The Biden administration has sent mixed signals to the oil and gas industry with demands to ramp up exports of liquified natural gas (LNG) while refusing to endorse more investment.

One policy lever pulled by governors is to suspend gas taxes using state surpluses from excessive Covid relief to absorb the revenue shortfall. Governors in Connecticut, Maryland, and Georgia have already signed gas tax holidays for this spring, while lawmakers in Michigan, and Florida are considering similar measures.

Billions in leftover Covid stimulus could be reallocated to states that also wish to suspend the tax but require the funds to do so.

Tristan Justice is the western correspondent for The Federalist. He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at Tristan@thefederalist.com.

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Gov. Gavin Newsom's Gas Card Giveaway Is A Subsidy For The Rich - The Federalist

When Russia invaded Ukraine two weeks ago, some were quick to quip that Vladimir Putin had single-handedly killed Covid. As the story goes, worldwide collapse of public support for Covid restrictions, abysmal approval ratings for the Biden administration, and internal Democratic party polling warning of a political bloodbath in November necessitated a shift in the news cycle away from the pandemic. In characteristic lockstep, jurisdictions around the world began hastily walking back their mandates because, you know, science.

Putins war in Ukraine certainly provided a much-needed diversion from Covid woes. Yet we should not conclude that the unconscionable precepts underpinning the pandemic response have been definitively shelved, and content ourselves with gawking at the unfolding disaster in Eastern Europe. Indeed, the hoaxers who used the pandemic as an excuse to crush fundamental liberties are the same warmongers who want you riled up over Ukraines borders and transfixed by a regional dumpster fire that their own meddling, grubby hands have been pouring gasoline on for years.

Those behind the trucker convoy that has descended on D.C. have proven less easily distracted. As we mark the two-year anniversary of 15 days to slow the spread, the truckers understand better than anyone that Covid is not dead until every childs face is uncovered, every emergency order rescinded, every public health edict shredded, and every worker fired over vax mandates reinstated or compensated. To prevent the Covid cartel from ever pulling this stunt again, every lockdown-advocating, mask mandate-imposing, vax pass-wielding politician and public health mystic needs to answer for the destruction they have caused.

At a press briefing last week with Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and representatives of the Peoples Convoy, one reporter seemed confused as to the point of the truckers protest, given that many mandated have now been lifted. Even conservatives like The Daily Wires Matt Walsh have superciliously questioned what difference any of this makes.

Cruz explained it this way: It makes a difference to everyone whos lost their jobs over these mandates. For Johnson, its about bringing the truth to the American public. He argued that although our response has been a miserable failure the people that foisted this response on us will never admit they were wrong.

Many of these tyrants are not only failing to acknowledge wrongdoing, theyre also not even conceding defeat. The White House has stated that President Joe Biden will veto any resolution passed by Congress to repeal the federal state of emergency, claiming the virus continues to pose a risk, and the federal government must be prepared to respond to potential future variants. The Biden administration also just extended the mask requirement for airlines and airports.

The trickle-down effect of this belligerent fear-mongering is evident in school districts nationwide, including San Francisco and Boston, as well as institutions like George Mason University, that still cling to mandates. New York City Mayor Eric Adams just announced that masks will continue to be required for all settings for children younger than five. Worse, the citys new color-coded system for the Covid alert level reveals that lockdowns are very much still on the table.

Elsewhere in the world, repeals of mandates conceal sneaky clauses permitting future draconian action if the despots so choose. Austria has already announced a U-turn on its egregious general vaccine mandate, which would have entailed roughly $4,000 fines for adults who refused to comply. Yet EU Minister Karoline Edtstadler emphasized this is only a temporary suspension, which allows the legal framework to be kept in place in case another, more dangerous variant became dominant in the future.

Similarly in Germany, where authorities announced the lifting of Covid restrictions by March 20, masks and testing will still be mandatory in some settings and individual states can continue to impose vax passes. The new legislation is supposed to guard against future waves.

Indeed, Health Minister Karl Lauterbachwarned on Friday that the pandemic was certainly not over, the situation in Germany was critical, and the easing of restrictions was to blame for the record high daily case numbers. He also speculated that without a general vaccine mandate, autumn could bring a new surge of infections, a view shared by Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

This Covid forever hysteria is by no means confined to outliers. One hundred and thirty politicians, officials, Hollywood A-listers, and other grifters just signed an open letter insisting that the pandemic is not over, warning western leaders against complacency, and urging more spending on vaccines, testing, and PPE.

This attitude underscores the argument by Peoples Convoy spokesman Brian Brase that this is not just an American but a global issue, describing it as a renaissance of freedom. States of emergency and mandates must be rescinded worldwide, and investigations launched into the public health measures adopted by our elected and non-elected officials. If not, the pandemic campaign will continue, with a continually-stocked arsenal of variants, surges, and boosters serving as weapons with which to dominate populations and punish dissenters.

It was never the prerogative of politicians, health agencies, and international organizations to snatch our rights away. Enormous suffering has been inflicted as a result, and the working and middle classes throughout the world are shouldering the burden of this outrage.

A 2020 UNICEF analysis projected that an additional 150 million children will be plunged into multidimensional poverty. UNICEFs latest findings, using data from 35 countries, revealed that at least 68 percent of households with children have lost income since the start of the lockdowns. Roughly a quarter of adults living with children reported going without food for a day or longer. Among households with children who were attending school before the pandemic, only one-half reported children participating in any educational activities after authorities shut down schools.

Here in the United States, where millions of students were forced out of their classrooms for the better part of a year, studies warn of serious language and literacy deficits among children in the earliest grades. The long-term cognitive, emotional, and physical impact of muzzling our little ones against their will, including elementary school students, toddlers, the hearing impaired, and other special-needs children for several hours a day may never be fully comprehended.

Those who crowed about an overall 5 percent drop in U.S. suicides for 2020, did not seem particularly concerned by indicators that suicides for blacks and Latinos surged during that period. Another sobering statistic is the 30 percent jump in drug overdoses during 2020 to an estimated 93,331 deaths, the highest number ever recorded in a 12-month period.

Thousands of Americans have lost their jobs thanks to vax mandates, despite the admission by Centers for Disease Control Director Rochelle Walensky that vaccines do not prevent transmission and revelations the CDC has been withholding key data on vaccine and booster efficacy. Late last year, the largest health care provider in New York fired 1,400 doctors and nurses who didnt want the injection.

Corporations including Google, Facebook, Tyson Foods, Verizon, Nike and Columbia Sportswear have all imposed vaccination requirements for staff. Even a Catholic Priest in Vermont, who has served as pastor of his parish for two decades, was just dismissed by his bishop for resisting the dioceses intrusive vax and mask policy.

Now the authors of this debacle expect us to ignore the wreckage and ogle at Ukraine, or whatever freakshow they parade before us next, while they get to withhold and dispense freedoms as they desire, whenever the political moment is right.

Covid will not be killed by Putins war in Ukraine, or any other impeccably timed, amnesia-inducing catastrophe. It will be destroyed by ditching the fake science and superstition, recognizing the peoples sovereignty over their own lives, and holding accountable the gang of self-serving officials and petty tyrants who spent two years crushing us.

Carina Benton is a dual citizen of Australia and Italy and a permanent resident of the United States. A recent West Coast migr, she is now helping to repopulate the countrys interior. She holds a masters degree in education and has taught languages, literature, and writing for many years in Catholic and Christian, as well as secular institutions. She is a practicing Catholic and a mother of two young children.

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Covid Isn't Over Until Every Official Who Abused It Is Held Accountable For The Destruction They Caused - The Federalist

Presumably because of her inspirational performance as czar of the Southern border crisis, President Joe Biden sent Vice President Kamala Harris to Poland to represent the United States as Europe and NATO grapple with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. That trip resulted in moments like a really awkward outburst of cackling in response to a question about Ukrainian refugees, a reaction Harris has delivered before in response to serious questions about things like the deadly U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the migrant crisis at our own border.

But Harris has another special talent, in addition to her incredible penchant for laughing at all the wrong moments. She has an incredible ability to say absolute gibberish and then look genuinely inspired by herself. We can all benefit from a little of that inspiration, reminding us that lying is what Biden Press Secretary Jen Psaki has been doing, and the day she does it is every day.

Or was it that paying higher gas prices is what weve all been doing and the time for it is every day? Or that inflation is rising and the time it does is every day?

Either way, shes an inspiration, putting to shame even our cultural bastions of profound wisdom like Deep Thoughts with Jack Handey.

In Harris honor, here are some high-quality motivational posters featuring some of her most inspirational quotes. Feel free to print them out and frame them, alongside your certificate of getting your seventh Covid booster and your Ive never been to Europe vintage travel poster. Or post them on Twitter to show everyone how much you admire strong women and love paying more money for groceries. Be inspired, and youre welcome.

There was this profound reminder, from Harriss inspiring spiel suggesting that Americans struggling at the gas pump just shell out $56,000 and change for an electric car.

There was also this teambuilding charge, from a November trip to France. (The only thing that would have made it more inspirational is if shed said it in a French accent but that was a different point on the trip.)

Then there was this resurfaced insight about her voter base from 2014, which may be the truest thing shes ever said.

And of course, Harris helpful foreign policy expertise was on display in a radio interview earlier in March.

She also has profound insights as to what living in rural America is actually like.

And then there was this remark about the countrys Covid response, which is so wise it could be applied to literally almost any situation (unless, of course, what youre doing is bad like shutting down the country or causing inflation or trying to start a war, in which case it is time to stop doing what you have been doing every day and do something else).

Then, in a February speech at the White House, Harris proved her sanguine ability to leave the teleprompter behind.

In addition to uncomfortably laughing at a question about Ukrainian refugees, Harris used a press conference in Poland last week to deliver this inspiring reminder of what we know, and what we dont.

Finally, her most iconic phrase, which she has a seemingly endless ability to work into any conversation.

Elle Reynolds is an assistant editor at The Federalist, and received her B.A. in government from Patrick Henry College with a minor in journalism. You can follow her work on Twitter at @_etreynolds.

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Kamala Harris Quotes As Motivational Posters, Because The Time To Be Inspired Is Every Day - The Federalist

Less than nine months after Meghan McCain signed off as the conservative co-host of The View, the panel of leftist ladies has turned to offering their full endorsement of a fascist police state with no on-air pushback.

On Monday, ABCs daytime political talk show hosts made headlines demanding President Joe Bidens Department of Justice (DOJ) probe Fox News Tucker Carlson and former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard as Russian assets. The same Department of Justice targeted parents last fall who made objections to race-based curriculums and integration of radical gender theory into schools as domestic terrorists.

I think the DOJ, in the same way that it is setting up a task force to investigate oligarchs, should look into people who are Russian propagandists and shilling for Putin, said longtime substitute co-host Ana Navarro filling in for Sara Haines. Thats being, if you are a foreign asset of to a dictator, it should be investigated.

Carlson and Gabbards apparent crime? Public dissent to the media-manufactured consensus that American intervention in Ukraine is in U.S. interests.

Navarros radical suggestion went unchallenged on air, with no pushback even from the former Trump White House Communications Director Alyssa Farah Griffin, auditioning for the conservative chair left vacant by McCain. Griffin, however, now a CNN commentator, is no conservative crusader having capitalized on the media incentive to play the Republican who attacks other Republicans.

In the absence of any repudiation of the idea that political dissidents be prosecuted by state actors, Whoopi Goldberg supported the approach.

They used to arrest people for doing stuff like this, Goldberg said. If they thought you were colluding with a Russian agent, if they thought you were putting out information or taking information and handing it over to Russia, they used to actually investigate stuff like this. And I guess now, you know, there seems to be no bars. (Its unclear whether Goldberg was referring to the United States unjust practice of rounding up Japanese Americans suspected of being foreign agents during World War II, or some other historical event.)

Is there any evidence that Carlson or Gabbard were deliberately colluding with Russian agents to manipulate public opinion? If there was, the panel co-hosts amplifying a conspiracy theory promoted by Hillary Clinton three years ago failed to offer any. Griffin, whose job in the conservative seat is to refute extreme ideas on air, did nothing to counteract the echo chamber playing to the programs more than two million viewers. Instead, the conservative tryout sat silent after supporting Utah Sen. Mitt Romneys indictment of Gabbard as guilty of treason.

Navarro spent the afternoon on Twitter doubling down on authoritarian demands that the Biden administration criminalize dissent on Ukraine.

Navarro, who self-identifies as a Republican but cant explain why, argued because Gabbard and Carlsons talking points have been adopted by Russian state television, the pair are required to register as foreign agents.

In contrast, McCain offered a preview of what might have been said to the shows massive audience had she or another genuine free speech activist been present instead of Griffin.

I strongly support the most robust intervention possible to help Ukrainians. Putin is a thug and a monster, and this war must end now, McCain wrote on Twitter. I am also friends with [Tulsi Gabbard] and we have robust, respectful political arguments and differences.

For months the networks flagship daytime program has struggled to recruit a permanent conservative co-host to replace McCain. The search parameters nearly guarantee the networks pick will not be someone who would offer substantive and consistent pushback to the hive mind playing out on screen.

Politico Playbook outlined the criteria producers and the incumbent co-hosts were looking for in December:

Sources close to the show said that the search has stalled as executives struggle to find a conservative cast-member who checks all the right boxes. They will not consider a Republican who is a denier of the 2020 election results, embraced the January 6 riots, or is seen as flirting too heavily with fringe conspiracy theories or the MAGA wing of the GOP. But at the same time, the host must have credibility with mainstream Republicans, many of whom still support Donald Trump.

Of course, such constraints indicate broad definitions of what it means to be a denier of the 2020 elections results or flirting too heavily with the MAGA wing of the GOP. In other words, the co-hosts dont want a new panelist who represents the Republican base ready to offer a serious challenge on air.

The end result is a rotating audition of panelists who are selective in what they counter, leading to the extremism broadcast Monday.

Tristan Justice is the western correspondent for The Federalist. He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at Tristan@thefederalist.com.

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Lack Of Ideological Diversity On 'The View' Is Breeding Dangerous Ideas - The Federalist

Every time some member of the ruling class says inflation is transitory or we predict it will come down by the end of the year, I read it as confirmation things are going to get worse. Thats because these are the same people who told us just a few months ago that inflation wasnt happening until it was so obvious that the screen people had to switch narratives.

Its also because U.S. corporate media, which today drives national politics, has been for some time the American Pravda. You have to read between the lines, sometimes backward, to understand what is really going on.

These are, recall, the same people who also tell us every election is questionable except 2020s, some men are women, babies arent people, war is bad but we should get into another one, and critical race theory is a mirage. They simply cant be trusted on anything.

In fact, a rule of thumb Ive developed based on watching the media lie so many times is that whenever the ruling class insists on something, its a pretty good bet to assume the opposite is closer to the truth. It works extremely well to combat propaganda stampedes.

The people telling us that inflations not happening but its Vladimir Putins fault do so in direct contradiction to empirical demonstrations of the opposite. Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman, for one, demonstrated that inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon i.e. directly caused by governments essentially printing money.

Its the money supply, stupid. And hoo boy, has our government been printing money. Its not only gone on a money-printing bender using the magical blank-check excuse of covid, but hundreds of billions of deficit-funded dollars Congress already chucked out of helicopters hasnt even gone into circulation yet. Massive Federal Reserve money creation likely hasnt finished hitting the markets, and the minuscule interest rate hikes on the Feds table this week arent close to the levels needed even to start addressing that situation.

In addition, state and local governments are hoarding some $800 billion of already passed Covid stimulus. Approximately $1 trillion more in infrastructure spending is also still not out the door. This is all yet to be spent while the federal government has already expanded the dollar supply (M2) more than 40 percent since February 2020. So were seeing historic inflation right now long before Congress has finished blowing up the balloon.

This is the same Congress telling us that balloon needs even more air. Besides Democrats constant insistence that we need trillions more in unfunded spending for an even bigger welfare state, Republicans just helped them pass another porkfest omnibus that keeps all the palms greased and the countrys structural problems unaddressed, like usual. This is a Congress that sends billions to a foreign country while our own is in complete disarray.

Washingtons complete dysfunction and constant, dangerous denials of reality indicate that more inflation and other crises are already baked into the economic cake. Anyone saying otherwise is an idiot or lying.

Another confirmation that inflation is going to continue for the foreseeable future is that the people whose responsibility it is to get this situation under control seem to live in la-la land. Congress is completely controlled by magical thinking and has been for so many years, to the point its legit to wonder if they all live in an alternate universe inside Meta headsets. Given how much power Twitter hashtags have over government priorities, this metaphor is already pretty close to reality.

In Congresss alternate universe, spending trillions of dollars Americans and their grandkids dont have and cant possibly ever earn is not only a great idea, it will solve the problem of not having enough money. Spending is saving!

The decades-long persistence of this type of unserious abdication of leadership underscores that it is a systemic problem. Along with Democrats, Republicans voted for the legislation that gave us todays inflation, and they help maintain the conditions under which it will continue. The same system giving us historic inflation and other unaddressed national crises is not exactly positioned to solve those crises.

Anyone with half an education who did not live in congressional la-la land could see that bombing the supply chain under Covid and then blanketing the most in-debt country in the history of humankind with even more fake dollars would cause an economic crisis. It doesnt take fancy degrees to understand that spending a lot of money you dont have is for fools. Plenty of hillbillies and high-school dropouts know that.

Since all Congress apparently knows how to do is spend money Americans dont have, thats what they did in historic amounts because Covid, thereby directly causing historic inflation. Witless Republicans willingly assisted in the fake panic Democrats fanned over Covid to shower campaign donors with piles of cash and Americans with just enough leftover bits of cash to shut them up about trading their constitutional rights for this mess of government pottage.

The same people who got us into this mess sure as shootin aint going to get us out. People in the ruling class make enough income that they can buy Teslas that run on coal-fired electricity while the rest of us stay home because we cant afford to fill up our Camrys. They also self-insure from the national crises they create by using those crises to gain even more power.

The ruling class loves creating crises, because destroying their fellow citizens lives and livelihoods allows them to seize more power while other people panic. Until enough Americans get wise to this bipartisan dynamic and amass enough effective pushback for long enough to stop it, things are only going to get worse.

More here:

Ruling Class Response To Inflation Proves It's Only Going To Get Worse - The Federalist

Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah voted with a room filled with several bare-faced Democrats on Tuesday to keep the federal mask mandates for toddlers as young as two years old.

During a Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions hearing over the bipartisan PREVENT Pandemics Act, Romney voted no to lifting mask and jab mandates in the federal Head Start program.

The current U.S. Department of Health and Human Services standards for the Head Start program require universal masking for all individuals two years of age and older and Covid-19 jab proof for all adults involved in the program.

Republican Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana introduced an amendment to the PREVENT Pandemics Act which was was designed to prevent HHS from implementing or enforcing their regulations regarding mask or vaccination protections in the Head Start program again.

After being subjected to federal mask mandates for almost two years, President Biden announced in his State of the Union address under the CDCs new mask guidelines, most Americans in most of the country can now be mask-free, Braun said. I completely agree with him on that. Its time to get our lives back especially based upon science and not the political science.

Brauns amendment was publicly backed by several of his GOP colleagues who noted the low-risk Covid poses to children.

Really, what were doing is just punishing children, Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky said. The rest of America is insulted by you telling them that their kids who are not at risk from dying from this disease, are not spreading it, that somehow were going to force these kids to keep wearing masks. Its unscientific, its inhumane and it stunting their learning.

Despite urgings from other Republicans, the amendment ultimately failed. Even though swing Republicans such as Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins voted to unmask the children, Romney crossed the aisle and helped doom two-year-olds to wearing face coverings even though most adults in cities, schools, and workplaces dont have to any longer.

Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and co-producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire and Fox News. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @jordangdavidson.

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Mitt Romney Just Voted To Keep Masking Two-Year-Olds - The Federalist

Tucker Carlson spouted more pro-Putin propaganda on his Fox News show this week, arguing that the collision between Ukraine and Russia was long coming and that it was provoked by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, with tacit approval from President Joe Biden.

Wait, I got that wrong. It wasnt this week, and it wasnt Tucker Carlson. It was The New York Times. My mistake!

The papers Moscow bureau chief, Anton Troianovski, made that exact case in an episode of the Times The Daily podcast on March 8. Its apparently pro-Putin to say anything other than I stand with Ukraine and Zelensky is hot, but its worth recounting what Troianovski said:that Russia was initially hopeful of a cooperative relationship with Zelensky, but after Biden was elected, the Ukrainian president felt encouraged to take a more antagonistic position on Putin.

Troianovski said it was Ukraines rejection of a Covid vaccine developed by Russia in 2020 that first indicated Zelensky was taking a pro-Western route and being skeptical, being cautious of getting too close to Russia. And thereafter, Zelensky became more outspoken about Ukraine joining NATO, a notion that has always been treated by Russia as a security threat.

Troianovski said that then the transition from President Donald Trump, who was, at best, ambivalent toward Ukraine, to Biden, who had a heightened interest, created more tension. Biden, Troianovski said, comes in, of course, with a message of much greater support for Ukraine to take a path that brings it closer to Western institutions and takes it farther away from Russia.

For Zelensky, Bidens inauguration was a green light, the reporter said. And just so theres no mistake that these are the words of a high-level New York Times correspondent and not some Russia State television message Im relaying on my own, heres what Troianovski said in full:

So what happens is just days after Biden is inaugurated, Zelensky cracks down on a business tycoon in Ukraine named Viktor Medvedchuk. And thats important because Medvedchuk is basically the closest link remaining between Ukraine and the Kremlin. Putin is the godfather of Medvedchuks daughter. Medvedchuk runs a political party that is fairly pro-Russian. He was running several TV channels that were pro-Russian, and early last year, Zelensky closes those TV channels, starts an investigation into Medvedchuk. Last May, Medvedchuk was put under house arrest under suspicion of treason. So Zelensky took all these steps that were very aggressive, and that was something that clearly annoyed Putin greatly and in retrospect was likely one of the factors that exacerbated the situation between Ukraine and Russia.

When Zelensky closed down those TV channels just after Bidens inauguration, he added insult to injury by tweeting at the time, Ukraine strongly supports freedom of speech. Not propaganda financed by the aggressor country that undermines Ukraineon its way to the [European Union] and EuroAtlantic integration.

Troianovskis colleague Michael Barbaro summarized. So Anton, youre saying the shift in the U.S. presidency from Trump to Biden represented to Zelensky that he had more Western support, Barbaro said, and that basically he had some backup if he wanted to cross Putin and so its then that he starts taking more and more aggressive steps to move away from Russia.

Exactly, Troianovski replied, and as [Zelenskys] presidency progressed, he found himself more and more on a collision course with Vladimir Putin.

Blowing air in the face of a dog doesnt mean you deserve to get your nose bitten off, but its a possibility easily avoided by keeping your mouth shut. Likewise, to acknowledge reality isnt to say Russia is justified in declaring war on Ukraine. But maybe it was a mistake for Zelensky, under the impression that Bidens America was eager to fight Ukraines battles, to flex on Putin.

And if the truth is considered pro-Russia propaganda, The New York Times has a lot to answer for.

See the article here:

If It's 'Propaganda' That Zelensky Provoked Putin, NYT Is Guilty Of Spreading It - The Federalist

Two years ago this week, the United States shut down. Churches, schools and businesses went dark. Weddings, funerals, and birthdays went silent. City streets stood empty, with an eeriness closer resembling occupied Paris than the bustling hubs theyd been just days before.

Two years later, as the last of the mask mandates for school children falter and crack, its tempting to believe our nightmare is finally over. Just as the disease is going to haunt us a long while, however, so too will the effects of how we tried to fight it.

Americans relationships with our politicians, bureaucrats, schools, media, police, and churches are fundamentally altered. Indeed, the entire Wests relationships with these major segments of society are forever remade. As we look out on the wreckage of two years of Covid policies, as well as our spiking fuel prices, rocketing inflation, a contested election, a Chinese Olympics, and a land war in Europe, its increasingly clear that, far from standing at the end of a dark era, our civilization teeters unsteadily at the very beginning of one.

Its hard to notice at first. The modern West has become so accustomed to a slow, steady decline the kind Merle Haggard sang about, and Ronald Reagan ran against that complaining about it has become clich; like the angry old man waving his cane.

More than that, its very tempting to view the past two years as separate from our other major problems. But just as Black Tuesday began an era marked by the Depression, the Dust Bowl, the New Deal, the Second World War, and a fundamental reshaping of the American life, so too will the Lockdowns mark the start of a ride we cant get off.

Even in states that have long since shrugged off the bureaucrats Covid demands, trust is broken. The people had believed in March 2020 that if they did their parts, all would soon be well. As President Calvin Coolidge famously said, The chief ideal of the American people is idealism [and] the chief business of the American people is business.

Neither Americans idealism nor our industry were rewarded, however. From March 2020 on, ours was rule not by people, but by bureaucratic diktat.

Our politicians betrayed us: flying abroad, getting haircuts, going maskless, holding parties, and dining out while also closing schools, forbidding gatherings, banning amenities, and demonizing all who resisted or even questioned their orders.

Our corporate media betrayed us: propping up liars and fools, tearing down all who spoke against their champions, and spreading fear and hatred of dissent as far and wide as their words would carry.

Our teachers betrayed us: using Covid to gain a grab bag of vacation time, control over parents, wage hikes, and other unrelated perks, all while punishing school children with years of masks, separation and the educational and developmental retardation those rules cost.

Even our much-vaunted hospital workers betrayed us: keeping dying husbands from their dying wives, grown children from their elderly parents, brothers from their sisters, and babies from their mothers all to ensure Covid safety.

As hard as it seems, much of this might be good. Not that our politicians, media, teachers, and health care are broken as the most important essay of 2021 laid bare but that Americans now recognize just how broken they all are.

Other betrayals, however, are fresher. While corruption among our most powerful religious leaders is older than the Bible itself, when our government declared religion a disposable pastime, many of our religious leaders publicly obeyed. When they bowed before the bureaucrats, a trust was broken, and America was left with one more central civil institution weakened when we needed it strengthened.

The family the political unit as old as the body politic itself also suffered greatly. While American political fights have frayed blood relations since Benjamin Franklin fought his loyalist son, the past two years have seen so marked an increase in familial destruction that few of us are left untouched.

This past Christmas, for example, people across the country told their relatives they would not be welcome if they hadnt taken the vaccine. You probably know more people this hurt than you realize; many of them, sad and embarrassed, hid it, claiming they simply couldnt make the trip this year.

Then there are the grandparents across the country who have never seen their grandchildren. In the past month alone, Ive met two different couples seeing theirs for the first time ever provided they quarantined for two weeks first, and then took a test.

The kind of fear and intolerance it takes to bar your mother from your children extends to broader society, too. Cops, hospital workers, and many others have lost their jobs over refusals to take the shot, while corporate media and its viewers loudly cheered for even harsher penalties. Confronting and reporting on businesses and people who break Covid restrictions is actively encouraged by both government and media.

Our inability to dissent from the latest Covid decree penetrates our society so deeply, liberal comedy show Saturday Night Live is now openly mocking how closely American liberals have had to monitor even their private conversations with friends.

Were now so comfortable with the concept of censoring disinformation, its extended well beyond Covid. These days, its not surprising to see the hosts of a daytime TV show for women casually call for the investigation (and possible imprisonment) of journalists and politicians who express opposition to something they support in this case, an American war in Ukraine.

This sort of thing has become actually monotonous: Censorship, investigation, and even arrest are offered daily as solutions to problems as mundane as political or medical disagreements. Has the phrase Were all in this together ever rung so hollow?

As in past eras of marked trouble, struggle, and decline, not all our problems are plainly linked; but they coalesce in their effects.

We find ourselves more divided than weve been in 150 years, and so less able to handle what comes our way. Many of our civil institutions long sick now seem terminally ill. Distrust and enmity run high, and why shouldnt they?

The result of these divisions: As we plunge into the next series of crises rapid inflation, destabilized fuel prices, the real prospect of world war in Europe we have fewer tools to handle them, less willingness to try, and more suspicion of our fellow Americans than any time in over a century.

Taking it all in, we know that were weaker than when we began 2020. Taking it all in, we know that far from returning to normalcy, were entering a period of deadly turmoil, with enemies foreign and domestic intent on taking advantage of our divisions, our distrust, and our dangerously unsteady economic situation.

Weve been challenged before, even in modern times. The Sept. 11 attacks rocked us like we hadnt seen since Pearl Harbor, yet we soldiered on. Whats finally missing, however, is that general feeling of confidence.

We no longer share an understanding that no matter the monsters wed face and we face many, here and abroad that everything would be OK; that the American Way will go on.

Overriding everything else, Walter Lord wrote in his 1955 book on the sinking of the HMS Titanic, the [disaster] also marked the end of a general feeling of confidence.

Until then men felt they had found the answer to a steady, orderly, civilized life. For 100 years the Western world had been at peace. For 100 years technology had steadily improved. For 100 years the benefits of peace and industry seemed to be filtering satisfactorily through society.

In retrospect, he continued, there may seem less grounds for confidence, but at the time most articulate people felt life was all right. The Titanic woke them up. Never again would they be quite so sure of themselves.

Within two years of the sinking, the First World War began. By its end, its hubris, violence, and indifference to personal suffering destroyed a generation and cut our civilization so deeply, the damage inflicted is still seen written on our world today.

The men who, in relative peacetime, placed supreme confidence in their steel ship against the great blue sea might only chuckle at the hubris of their successors, who had supreme confidence they could master a disease they didnt know.

We in the West, though, can be confident of one thing only: These past two years have cut us deeply, and will haunt us for many more to come.

Whats not yet written is whether we overcome. That will be up to us, and God.

Pray for America.

The rest is here:

Two Years After Lockdowns, The West's Troubles Are Just Beginning - The Federalist