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What We Learned In The Special Counsel’s Latest Spygate Indictment – The Federalist

Posted: November 11, 2021 at 6:25 pm

The indictment of Igor Danchenko, the primary sub-source of Christopher Steeles infamous dossier, reveals that the FBI electronically recorded several previously undisclosed interviews with the Brookings Institution researcher. Separately, it raises suspicions, according to congressional sources, that his Brookings superior Fiona Hill may have committed perjury when testifying about Steele during President Trumps first impeachment.

The existence of electronic records of Danchenko speaking to the FBI far more extensively than previously known creates the possibility that much more will come out about the origins of the Steele dossier and the way the opposition research was weaponized. And those under scrutiny in Special Counsel John Durhams investigation of the origins of the Trump-Russia affair will have to wonder whether information to which they previously attested jibes with the Danchenko recordings.

According to Durhams Nov. 3indictmentof Danchenko, the FBI conducted interviews with him in March, May, June, October, and November of 2017 well beyond the three days of interviews at the beginning of 2017 previously disclosed in the Trump-Russia affair. (Deep in the Justice DepartmentInspector Generals reporton surveillance court abusespage 186there is a passing reference to interviews with the primary sub-source in March and May 2017.)

Unlike the early interviews, which were memorialized in a consolidated write-up of notes taken by agents and provided to lawmakers in heavily redacted form, at least three of the later interviews were recorded legally but without Danchenkos knowledge those conducted March 16, May 18, and June 15. The indictment is silent on whether the October 24 and November 16 interviews were also surreptitiously recorded.

It has been known since July 2020 that Danchenko was the primary source of spurious rumors and alcohol-lubricated gossip about Donald Trump compiled by opposition researcher and former British spy Steele. The indictment unsealed last week states that in 2010, it was Think Tank Employee-1 Fiona Hill who introduced Danchenko to U.K. Person-1 that is, Steele. The next year Danchenko began working as a contractor for Steeles company, Orbis, which the indictment refers to as U.K. Investigative Firm-1.

Hill, a longtime intelligence analyst who became a deputy assistant on the Trump administrations National Security Council, was a key witness in the Ukraine-related impeachment of President Trump.As part of the impeachment proceedings, Hill gave closed-door testimony to House lawmakers and investigators for the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the Committee on Oversight and Reform and the Committee on Foreign Affairs.

During that testimony in October 2019, Hill answered many questions emphatically and apparently without leaving herself wiggle room. Hill did not express the sort of memory fog that often afflicts well-coached, evasive witnesses.

Asked whether she was aware of any interaction between Mr. Steele and Ukrainians, Hill did not say to the best of my recollection or I dont remember specifically, or even a simple no. Instead she expanded her answer to deny not only any knowledge of Steele and Ukrainians but to deny any knowledge of anything Steele-related: I have no knowledge whatsoever of how he developed that dossier. None. I just want to state that.

Lawmakers are particularly interested in that statement. The Danchenko indictment states that Hill introduced Danchenko both to Steele and to an unnamed public relations executive, since identified as Charles Dolan Jr., a Hillary Clinton ally. Republican members of the House Permanent Select Committee are questioning whether Hill could have had no knowledge whatsoever of how the dossier was developed when she had a central role in connecting those key players. RealClearInvestigations was unable to reach Hill through her former attorney.

Its hard to believe Fiona Hill introduced Danchenko both to Steele and to Dolan, yet had no idea of the purpose of the introductions she herself was making or what resulted from those introductions, a source familiar with the thinking of House Republicans tells RealClearInvestigations. So, yes, Republicans on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence are taking a look at that.

This article is republished, with permission, from RealClearInvestigations.

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Therapists Have Betrayed The Parents Of Gender-Confused Kids – The Federalist

Posted: at 6:25 pm

Theres something rotten in the state of my profession, the mental health field. While therapists are usually the first to reach out to trauma victims, theres one group we neglect. Even worse, we blame the victims.

Im referring to parents of gender-confused kids, whose stories I am hearing firsthand in my office. Parents come to me because Ive publicly objected to my professions faulty views about gender identity and its treatment. How many parents are unable to find help? Judging by the number of recently created organizations and online groups where such parents gather, there are thousands, and the numbers grow by the day.

My patients, and those in the parent-run groups, are shocked, overwhelmed, confused, and anxious. Theyre not sleeping or eating. Many have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Why have they turned to one another for help? Why dont more come to us psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and counselors? Were the ones with the degrees and experience.

They dont turn to us because we have failed them.

Of course young people are also victims of the trans craze, but my focus here is their parents distress. It is massive and demands acknowledgement.

Following their teens bombshell announcement, most parents initially consult with gender therapists or clinics. The vast majority tell them they must unconditionally accept their childs chosen identity, use a random, unfamiliar name, and help Sara bind her breasts and Michael tuck his genitals.

Parents object, suggesting a slower process and deeper exploration. They insist: we know our child! The ideologues dismiss their parental instincts. They see their discomfort, but brush it off.

For those therapists, the parents are the problem. Not the childs social anxiety, autism, irrational thinking, or social media addiction. No, the issue is mom and dads refusal to embrace their teens two-week-old identity and allow a kid to run the show.

The therapist shares that assessment with parents, sometimes in front of their child. In doing so, the gender specialist strikes heavy blows against a family in crisis, who turned to her with hope and trust: she undermines parental authority and weakens the parent-child bond.

As if thats not enough, she refers them, following a hasty, incomplete evaluation, to an endocrinologist for hormones to block development. Safe and reversible, the therapist reassures the parents. Your child needs them now. In fact, its already late.

She speaks with authority and confidence. Theres a consensus among professionals, she explains. If you reject our advice, the risk of losing your child to suicide is increased.

She threatens this about their child the center of their lives, their most precious relationship! The therapist may have spent only a short time with him or her, but she knows whats best.

The parents go home, emotions reeling. Some decide to trust the expert and theyre soon at the endocrinologists office, signing consent for drugs that will prevent their teens physical, emotional, sexual, and cognitive development. Their child looks happy; they pray it lasts.

Others dive into the research. Sooner or later they are startled to learn the truth: If teens go through natural puberty theres a 60-90 percent chance of desistance (outgrowing transgenderism, aligning with ones biology). Changing names, pronouns, and presentation can be a slippery slope and decrease desistance. Once on puberty blockers, desistance is very rare.

Blockers are controversial, have a history of lawsuits, and their off-label use in healthy children is experimental. There is a risk of suicide in gender-questioning teens, but there is no evidence that transition lowers that risk.

Parents learn that the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Finland carefully examined the dangers of hormonal treatment of minors and minors ability to give informed consent for such treatments. As a result, those countries made U-turns in their policies; patients must wait until they are 18 for medical intervention.Similar concerns are coming out of New Zealand and Australia.

Bottom line: parents who look further than gender clinics and therapists discover a heated debate regarding how to help kids like theirs. Theres a consensus among experts, they were told. Are you kidding? There is no consensus whatsoever.

So the parents search for a therapist who wont immediately affirm the new identity, but instead take it slowly, get to know their child, and figure out the appeal to her of a new identity. A clinician with a more cautious, nuanced approach thats all parents want. Another shock: there are almost none.

Counting psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and counselors, there are more than a million therapists in this country. I located a group of therapists who believe in long-term, exploratory talk therapy for gender-questioning youth, and there are only 60 members, with many outside the United States.

My patient Cheryl is an example of a traumatized parent. Her 18-year-old autistic daughter, her only child, identifies as a man and has been on testosterone for six months. Cheryl is convinced she and her husband were misled by a gender clinic and that Eva did not have adequate evaluations and therapy. For the first time in her life, Cheryl is taking psychiatric medication for her constant crying, sleeplessness, and anxiety.

Cheryl feels shes at odds with everyone: Eva, family members, friends, schools, doctors, therapists, politicians, the media, and the culture. On how many fronts can one person fight?

I was not surprised when Cheryl told me, Sometimes I wish my daughter had cancer. The whole world would be there for me.

Doctors at Johns Hopkins tell Cheryl to embrace her childs evolving sense of self. But when she first heard the lowered pitch of Evas voice, Cheryl threw up. A double mastectomy is planned; the thought of it floods her with panic and horror. She fears for Evas physical and emotional health, including her sexual health.

Cheryl also grieves for the biological grandchildren shell never have. But theres nothing to be done about any of it. Horror, fear, helplessness, and grief are Cheryls constant companions, outside of the days when she just feels numb.

There are thousands of parents like Cheryl. Where are the psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and counselors who will validate their experiences without judgment? How is it were able to serve the emotional needs of sexual offenders and murderers but not the traumatized, grieving parents of transgender children?

Its because to do so would challenge the entrenched narrative in our field: that denying biology is part of normal development, and if transphobic parents would just accept that, it will be all rainbows and unicorns for their kids.

Few of us challenge that narrative, at least publicly, so parents have turned to one another in droves to cry, rage, and brainstorm. But they cant even meet openly; the woke environment forces them underground. They fear losing their jobs and relationships, even their child, if exposed. Hence the secret meetings, private Facebook pages, made-up names, and extensive vetting. They hide in the dark as if theyre guilty of some awful crime.

This is an appalling betrayal of parents.To my colleagues: weve lost all credibility because of our surrender to a destructive, unscientific ideology. Weve harmed thousands of parents and children, and theyve had it with us.

Not too long ago, doctors performed frontal lobotomies as a cure for severe mental illness. They severed connections in the brain with crude instruments inserted through the eye socket. It was a barbaric but mainstream procedure, performed on about 40,000 people.

Right now in the United States, girls as young as 13 are having mastectomies and minor boys are castrated. What will it take to put the breaks on the massive transing of children? Call me a cynic, but Im guessing a few huge lawsuits.

Trust me, the lawyers are coming, and victims will finally have a public platform. They will tell the world of the nightmare that descended on their precious children and families, leaving them traumatized and broken.

I eagerly await that day. Until it comes, I will be meeting with Cheryl every week, validating her story, helping her cope, and weeping along with her.

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How The Right Can Join Forces To Defeat The Woke Ruling Class – The Federalist

Posted: at 6:25 pm

Conservative intellectuals recently gathered in the free state of Florida for three days of spirited debate about the challenges facing America and how to confront them.

Much has been written about the differences exposed by the wide spectrum of thinkers at the second National Conservatism Conference, where I moderated a panel and was thus reimbursed for my travel by the conference organizers. These differences between and among participants from nationalist conservatives to anti-Marxist liberals are and were very real and meaningful.But NatCon 2 also revealed commonalities in this nascent movement that transcend our division indeed, that must transcend our division, given the stakes.

I observe three points of fundamental agreement.First, we see a common set of threats that we believe imperil the American way of life.Second, we believe that the way these threats have been combated or not has proven a failure, demanding change.Third, we are united by core beliefs deeper than our differences, understanding we will not have a society to hash out these differences without a vigorous defense of the most basic things.

We are in a cold civil war at home, and facing a substantially greater Communist threat from abroad in Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-ruled China than we did during the actual Cold War from the Soviet Union.

The conflict at home pits a woke ruling elite against those who would dare dissent from its rule. These differences manifest in culture, taste, and aesthetics but also of course in politics. In the political realm, they concern the nature of our regime who rules, how, for whom and our conception of justice.

Our ruling regime is not just the administrative state, or the whole federal government, but every power center with which our state is partnered from business to media and education. If you preach diversity, inclusion, and equity (DIE), or environmental, social, and governance (ESG), you are just as much a part of the regime as the alphabet soup of federal bureaucracies.

With the ruling class controlling the commanding heights of society, and unable to tolerate dissent, it pursues increasingly tyrannical means in pursuit of increasingly tyrannical ends.In so doing, it threatens to unmake America unmooring it from the values and principles on which it was founded and guaranteeing social chaos and disfunction, poverty, and misery.

Compounding this threat is Communist China. The ruling class has been invested in its rise for decades, and increasingly emulates it as it seeks a monopoly on power.Communist China desires to be the dominant world power, which necessarily means displacing the United States, which would be not only subordinate to, but subservient to it.These are existential, intolerable threats.

That national conservatism has drawn so many divergent thinkers reflects an understanding that times demand setting aside disputes and focusing on the main thing: That we are in an ideological, geopolitical, and cultural war for survival, and we must be on a war footing.

That our woke ruling class and China are both bidding for hegemony can be attributed to a variety of causes which do matter, although not as much as the fact that their power plays demonstrate our failure to counter them, and demand a new approach.

The left marched through the institutions unimpeded. Now, its indoctrinated helm our preeminent institutions. Neutrality and value-free liberalism proved no match for dogged illiberals, who exploited liberty and justice to erode them both in our schools, in our workplaces, and beyond.

Some would argue we have failed morally or spiritually, which the decline of our institutions has contributed to, and reflects. Absent a moral and virtuous people, the families that produce and sustain it, and the communities that bind it, why would we expect anything different?

Chinas rise with U.S. elite backing can be attributed to greed and naivete that trade with China would make it more liberal rather than that it would pocket the gains and use them against their trading partners. Engagement with China was also rooted in a belief that economic efficiency and market access would outweigh the costs of the creative destruction inflicted on communities and of the CCPs empowerment. Lastly, it reflected ignorance among our elites, who neither understood China nor the America they were supposed to be representing.

Regardless, we all seem to recognize the need for change for confronting problems using different tactics and strategies than we have previously because the times, circumstances, and threats necessitate it.Ceding putatively private institutions to those who loathe the country and sneer at its Deplorables out of a belief said institutions ought to be apolitical, and worst case we can build our own, is a losing formula when the opposition politicizes everything.

Refusing to wield power because of fear of the precedent it might create knowing ones opponent will do anything to achieve its goals, among them crushing us is suicidal.

We cannot abide a Big Tech that destroys the marketplace of ideas; a Big Business that indoctrinates employees in wokeism and demands their submission to it; an academy that teaches children their country is evil and they are too if born with the wrong skin color; we cannot abide these things any more than a tyrannical deep state or two-tier justice system.

We must employ every lawful means to end the public and private onslaught against us, and towards rebuilding America qua America.We must counter a China seeking economic, military, and technological dominance with just as ambitious an effort of our own.

We will differ on the means to achieve these ends. Friends Chris Rufo, Rachel Bovard, and Josh Hammer have provided much food for thought in this regard to right things on the domestic front a prerequisite to grappling with problems on the foreign one.Most important is acknowledging we must creatively and courageously fight.

Unlike during the Cold War, Americans do not believe in the same things, and just differ on policy. It is not clear an enemy in this case a far more formidable one in China can unite us, because we are so divided about what we are defending, and even about whether we should defend it.

We do not have the privilege of simply worrying about tax rates, or social welfare programs, or pork, because we disagree about the fundamental nature of our country, its history, and people.This is in part why there is a national conservatism movement because two visions of America have emerged, they are incompatible, and one has lacked a clear voice.

Here is an effort to articulate what unites the tens of millions of the unheard, if not silenced, un-Woke:

The ruling class from Washington, D.C., to Wall Street, to Silicon Valley, Hollywood, and across all of our institutions of politics, commerce, culture, and education, is at war with these ideals.

National conservatives seek A normal country in an abnormal time, to play on the words of Amb. Jeanne Kirkpatrick, who might unite them more than some might think based on her neoconservative branding.To restore and re-found a normal country in these abnormal times will require a counter-revolution; it will require courage and tenacity.

We owe our progeny nothing less.

Ben Weingarten is a Federalist senior contributor, senior fellow at the London Center for Policy Research, and fellow at the Claremont Institute. He was selected as a 2019 Robert Novak Journalism fellow of the Fund for American Studies, under which he is currently working on a book on U.S.-China policy. You can find his work at benweingarten.com, and follow him on Twitter @bhweingarten.

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White House Tells Businesses To Ignore Court Blocking On Vaxx Mandate – The Federalist

Posted: at 6:25 pm

The White House is directing businesses to ignore the judicial freeze on its COVID coercion mandate and plow forward with requiring the COVID-19 jab for all workers at businesses with 100 or more staff.

So people should not wait. We should continue to do move forward and make sure that theyre getting their workplace vaccinated, White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Monday during a press briefing.

After the Occupational Safety and Health Administration released a preview of the rule last week that would mandate all businesses with 100 or more employees require the shot, a federal appeals court blocked the Biden administrations vaccine orders over the weekend. Now, President Joe Bidens team is advocating for businesses to undermine the judicial block and move forward with mandating their own COVID-19 vaccine stipulations anyway.

We say: Do not wait to take actions that will keep your workplace safe, Jean-Pierre said. It is important and critical to do, and waiting to get more people vaccinated will lead to more outbreaks and sickness.

Jean-Pierre, much like the OSHA rules text, claimed that mandating the shot is about keeping people in a workplace safe.

What were seeing is more businesses and school closures and most lost jobs keep us stuck in a pandemic that were trying to end. Like, we do not want that to happen. Were trying to get past this pandemic, and we know the way to do that is to get people vaccinated, she said.

As the proposedemergency temporary standard stands, private companies with 100 or more employees must mandate the COVID-19 jab for their workers. Any businesses that want to give their employees the illusion of the choice to reject the shot are allowed to implement an exception policy that forces anyone who doesnt get the jab to undergo regular COVID-19 testing and wear a face covering at work in lieu of vaccination. The government agency will not require businesses that provide the second option to their employees to pay for the testing or masks.

Jordan Davidson is a staff writer at The Federalist. She graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism.

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Dems’ ‘Bipartisan’ Infrastructure Bill Erases Sex And Hurts Women – The Federalist

Posted: at 6:25 pm

Democrats presented their so-called bipartisan infrastructure legislation as the tamer of the Biden administration-backed bills in front of Congress this fall, but the text actually included another culture war win for leftists.

Under section 60307 of the recently passed deal, American institutions that receive funding from the infrastructure legislation are denied the ability to acknowledge scientific facts about sex.

No individual in the United States may, on the basis of actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, or disability, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity that is funded in whole or in part with funds made available to carry out this title, the infrastructure bill reads.

The use of the word perceived automatically punishes entities for acknowledging sex in areas such as sports, where men who claim to identify as female try to play on womens teams.

Institutions that do not comply with this woke carve out risk oversight and legal action from the administration.

As Federalist contributor Rachel Bovard noted, 13 House Republicans and 18 Senate Republicans OKed the bill when it came across their desks but got played in the process. Multiple GOP members claimed they simply wanted money for roads and bridges, but they ended up compromising on one of the biggest culture war items in the process. Bovard wrote:

So to claim that a vote for the infrastructure legislation was merely a vote for roads and bridges, devoid of any other major political context, is just willfully ignorant of the obvious and openly stated politics at work. A vote for the infrastructure bill was very clearly a vote for the reconciliation legislation.

This reconciliation legislation, which has already undergone cuts following massive feuds between progressives and holdouts on the Democrat side, seeks to codify radical climate law and other leftist wish-list items.

Jordan Davidson is a staff writer at The Federalist. She graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism.

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Denying Schools Are Teaching Critical Race Theory Won’t Make It Popular – The Federalist

Posted: at 6:25 pm

Many Democrats are responding to their electoral drubbing in Virginia with total denial. Concerns over education radicalism, especially critical race theory, were essential to Republican victories, but the cultural leftists who steer the Democratic Party these days keep insisting this is a fake controversy created by right-wing activists.

Either they are idiots, or they think we are. Probably both.

That critical race theory and its allies permeate public education is indisputable, and there are a multitude of examples. For instance, the Virginia Dept. of Education website promoted CRT even as Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe denied it was in Virginia schools. Fairfax County Public Schools paid anti-racist huckster Ibram X. Kendi $20,000 for a one-hour chat session and spent another $24,000 on his books.

Leftists could defend this propagation of critical race theory and related ideas, or they could acknowledge that parents have legitimate worries and change course. Instead, they are denying everything. Responding to a story about a backlash to California watering-down its math curriculum in the name of racial equity, Ross Douthat joked: Looks like another fake controversy designed and launched by one specific hard-right activist, working within the institutional conservative messaging industry.

But a lot of Democrats really seem to think that they can sell this spin to voters. More remarkable still, many of them seem to believe it, a conviction that further demonstrates the extent to which critical race theory has conquered their minds. The sort of separation they are trying to create between CRT and what is happening in education is only plausible for true believers who accept the entire intellectual framework.

Consider the usual argument for why CRT is not being taught in public schools, which is that it is an advanced academic theory mostly found in law review articles and grad school seminars, so of course it isnt being taught to children. This is like arguing that Thomism isnt being taught in a Catholic middle schools theology course unless students are assigned readings from the Summa Theologica.

Of course, Thomism can be taught without being assigned the works of the angelic doctor, and critical race theory can be taught without readings from academics such as Kimberl Crenshaw. In both cases, the concepts and jargon are omnipresent in shaping the subject, even if the original source is not always cited.

Todays left is as dependent on the ideas of CRT as Catholic theology is on the writings of St. Thomas. Most Democrats adopt the CRT patois of systemic racism and white privilege and genuflect before its shrines. This helps explain why some of them are able to, with apparent sincerity, insist that it isnt being taught in public schools.

After all, a faithful theology teacher would probably describe himself as teaching the truth of the Catholic faith, rather than Thomism. Likewise, for true believers, the academic work of critical race scholars is but one exploration of the fundamental American reality of racism.

Such teachers see themselves as imparting the truth about our nation, whose history they see as one of white oppressors and non-white oppressed. For such a teacher, telling children that racism has been the essence of the USA for its entire existence is teaching them the truth. Training white children to dwell on their privilege, and black children to count their oppressions, is just teaching them the truths about life in systematically racist America.

This is how educators whose work is steeped in CRT can deny that they teach it they believe the dogmas of CRT so thoroughly that the source seems irrelevant and academic to their work. This is not to say that there is no motivated reasoning involved. They would prefer to describe their program as mere anti-racism, or as one of diversity, equity, and inclusion, as a less biased label gives dissenters something to hang their objections on and to rally against.

Those pushing a top-down cultural revolution do not want a label, because that makes it harder to delegitimize opposition to their agenda. They believe that dissent from their position is by definition racist, so they think it beside the point whether their ideas and language can be specifically traced to CRT scholars and their allies. For them, CRT is just an academic part of anti-racism. The point is that America is wicked and must be cleansed.

But calling voters racist is a bad electoral strategy. So Democrats and their media allies have motivation to try to define CRT in a very narrow way even as they push its ideas onto students. This sort of pedantic point appeals to the midwits that dominate leftist Twitter. The thought bubbles are practically visible: Ah-ha! They are treating critical race theory as a general ideology, instead of an academic movement! We have them now; it was just a right-wing con the whole time!

Even if they have talked themselves into believing this, it wont work on the broader public. The parent revolt will continue not because conservatives have made CRT into a boogieman, but because parents are horrified at the radical racial indoctrination being pumped into public schools. Critical race theory is as good a label for this as any, but the name matters less than the insanity it represents. Denying this and quibbling over labels will not make the Democrats education policies popular.

Nathanael Blake is a senior contributor to The Federalist and a postdoctoral fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

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Vaxxed Infectious Disease Experts Are Too COVID-Panicked To Go Out – The Federalist

Posted: at 6:25 pm

While most people in red states have resumed in-person shopping, schooling, and social events, even without masks, infectious disease experts still appear to be too panicked about COVID-19 to leave home.

More than a year and a half after COVID-19 first came onto Americans radar and nearly a year since the COVID-19 jab became available to the public, public health experts say they are still scared to return to the same normal that so many others in the country have.

In a survey of 28 health experts, epidemiologists, immunologists, and virologists, STAT found that a majority were willing to sacrifice in-person social events and activities such as working out in a gym, traveling on public transportation, and even family holiday gatherings to stay home and theoretically avoid the virus.

When asked whether they would be comfortable joining a Thanksgiving gathering with people of all ages and vaccination statuses, 12 of the 28 said they wouldnt go. Four of the 14 who said they would attend said that the reason someone was unvaccinated would play a role in their decision whether to go. One evolutionary biologist remarked that she was fine with unvaccinated guests who were ineligible for the shot but would not break bread with any eligible parties who opted not to get the jab.

Too young: yes. By choice: no, Carl Bergstrom of the University of Washington said.

Even after getting a full dose of the COVID-19 jab and indicating they would wear a mask, most experts testified that they believed the risk of contracting the virus from someone who was unvaccinated, even though vaccinated individuals can and do pass and contract the virus, was too large for them to assume.

To the question of whether they would urge older relatives to skip Thanksgiving dinners that involve unvaccinated guests, 16 said yes, 12 said no, and two indicated the question wasnt applicable to their situations. Im the elderly relative, said Eric Topol, founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, who added he wouldnt be sharing his Thanksgiving table with anyone who was not vaccinated, STAT reported.

When asked whether they would attend an indoor concert or sporting event, if mask wearing was not required and enforced, 23 of the 28 surveyed said no.

With a good-fitting N95, the risk is low, Sarah Cobey, an associate professor of viral ecology and evolution at the University of Chicago, told STAT. But this sounds like a situation with shouting or singing at close quarters. Unless others were recently tested and ventilation were excellent, my enthusiasm would be dampened enough to tip the cost/benefit ratio.

For months, public health experts have leveraged their messaging amplified by Democrat tyrants and the corrupt media to push people to stay home. Promises such as two weeks to slow the spread have long been abandoned for new messaging that indicates a permanent pandemic. This stance is championed by people who profit from it, who are close to the Biden administration, and who are constantly amplified by corporate media outlets.

Just this week, one of the chief COVID-19 panic-porn instigators Michael Osterholm told NPR that Americans should keep panicking about the virus.

There is more than enough human wood for this coronavirus forest fire to burn, he said, which NPR framed as a problem largely caused by unvaccinated individuals.

Dr. Anthony Fauci has also contributed to the permanent pandemic with not-so-subtle hints that its just too soon to tell if families can safely gather for Christmas this year.

Jordan Davidson is a staff writer at The Federalist. She graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism.

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Biden Can’t Keep It Straight On Paying Illegals $450K In Reparations – The Federalist

Posted: at 6:25 pm

The latest prong of the Biden administrations open borders strategy is its negotiations to give away hundreds of millions of dollars to illegal aliens. The Wall Street Journal reported on October 28 that the administration is negotiating to pay criminal illegal entrants as much as $450,000 per person, and up to almost $1,000,000 per family.

The hopeful recipients were arrested for committing a federal crime: illegal entry into the United States in violation of 8 U.S. Code 1325. When arrested, some were separated from the minors accompanying them, whom they claimed were their children. The administration justifies the proposed payments as legal settlements to compensate the illegal entrants for alleged mental trauma from having been separated from family members.

Such separations, of course, are standard when any parent is arrested and detained for any crime. For example, those imprisoned for trespassing at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 were separated from their children when they were arrested.

There can be little doubt that the prospect of getting almost a million dollars from the U.S. government will further incentivize hundreds of thousands of would-be entrants from all over the world to take a chance on winning this particular lottery. Not only do illegal entrants get to stay in the United States, jumping ahead of hopeful legal immigrants, but they may get a windfall of hundreds of thousands of dollars, in addition to free medical care, free public education, and other gratuitous benefits proposed by the Biden administration.

There is no doubt that even President Joe Biden understands how outrageous this proposal is. His first public comments about it show that, like millions of other Americans, he thought such payments should never even be considered. After those initial disapproving comments, however, Biden and others have tried to change the narrative. In the process, Biden has contradicted himself and made an incoherent mishmash of his policy.

After a press conference at the conclusion of the G-20 meeting in Rome, Fox News Peter Doocy asked, Mr. President, is it true were going to give $450,000 to border crossers who are separated? Biden did not respond, but just rubbed his brow and looked down.

Doocy raised the issue again at a press conference six days later, to which Biden simultaneously blamed Fox News for attracting the flood of migrants and accused it of spreading fake news about the proposed $450,000 payments: If you guys keep sending that garbage out, yeah. He then added, But its not true It will not happen.

Doocys question was not a surprise, and Bidens response was not just a careless slip of the tongue. Biden had almost a week to consider it after the initial Wall Street Journal report and Doocys question in Rome. Bidens quick and unequivocal denial suggests he shares the widespread outrage at the idea of paying illegal entrants up to a million dollars per family when the only reason they had been separated was that they had broken U.S. law.

But one day later, the administration made clear that Biden was, in fact, perfectly comfortable with what he had just said, will not happen. In a press conference on November 4, Deputy White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre essentially declared Bidens one-day-old statement inoperative.

[T]he president is perfectly comfortable with the Department of Justice settling with the individuals and families who are currently in litigation with the United States government, he said.

At another press conference on November 6, Biden denied saying what he had said three days earlier. When a reporter questioned him about his statement to Doocy that the report about payments was garbage, Biden said, I did not say that.

Biden then squarely contradicted his prior unequivocal denial that such payments would occur. Waving his finger at the reporter, he added, If, in fact, because of the outrageous behavior of the last administration, you come in across the border, whether legal or illegal, and you lost your child You lost your child! Hes gone! you deserve some kind of compensation, no matter what the circumstances. What that would be, I have no idea.

This latest Biden statement was both dishonest and incoherent. It was dishonest because his new position that it is up to the DOJ and I have no idea what the payments should be cannot be reconciled with his original unambiguous promise that possibl[e] payments of up to $450 thousand per person will not happen.

Biden was further dishonest when he mischaracterized what Doocy had asked. Doocy said only that there had been reports that payments of up to that amount might possibly be made. Bidens mischaracterization was a clear effort to try to wiggle out of his earlier unambiguous promise that it will not happen.

Bidens November 6 statement also demonstrates the incoherence of his new thinking about the payments. He said all illegal entrants separated from a child deserve the payments, no matter what the circumstances. So, according to Biden, fault and illegal conduct are irrelevant; the facts do not matter. That is an incoherent prescription for unlimited payments without any boundaries.

All of those still in jail because of their alleged illegal entry into the Capitol building on January 6 will no doubt be comforted to know that that the presidents view is that they are entitled to compensation for family separation, no matter what the circumstances.

The proposed payments to those who have invaded our country are more evidence that this administration has its priorities wrong. If the DOJ can devote hundreds of FBI agents and U.S. attorneys to the investigations and trials of those charged with crimes in connection with their illegal entry into the Capitol on January 6, then surely it can devote the necessary resources to investigate and battle the grab for taxpayer money by those who have been charged with illegal entry into the United States.

Bidens initial reaction shows that he shared the outrage over these payments. His handlers changed his position to serve the politics of his open border policy.

John Lucas is a practicing attorney who has tried and argued a variety of cases, including before the U. S. Supreme Court. Before entering law school at the University of Texas, he served in the Army Special Forces as an enlisted man and then graduated from the U. S. Military Academy at West Point in 1969. He is an Army Ranger and fought in Vietnam as an infantry platoon leader. He is married with five children. He and his wife now live in Virginia.

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Democrats Are Right To Be Scared About Losing The Parent Vote – The Federalist

Posted: at 6:25 pm

Polling in the Virginia elections just concluded this week showed parents breaking for Republicans over education policies, which has Democrats alarmed.

On MSNBC Wednesday, a former Obama campaign manager declared, in an urgent tone, The one thing that we need to make sure that Republicans in 2022 dont become is the party of parents. Because we need to be the party of parents.

Its too late; thats already happening. Even the hoax-mongering New York Times can see it, and theyre afraid too.

On Nov. 4, the Times issued a hysterical article covering the Virginia results with the same motif. Republicans Pounce on Schools as a Wedge Issue to Unite the Party, read the headline, followed by this malicious smear in the subheading: Rallying around what it calls parental rights, the party is pushing to build on its victories this week by stoking white resentment and tapping into broader anger at the education system.

Get that? Parental rights in scare quotes and insisting its racist to complain about the clearly subpar quality of instruction offered to most American children in public schools.

The multiracial coalition of parents who want neo-racism out of their childrens publicly funded schools might have something to say about that, as might the multiracial GOP politicians elected Tuesday night in Virginia, but we already know The New York Times doesnt exist to report facts it exists to control opinion.

Democrats have reason to be afraid of losing the parent vote, and theyre demonstrating that fear by deploying the only weapon they have left: false accusations of racism. The truth is, its an existential threat to their party if American parents as a demographic begin shifting to the Republican Party and that is already well on its way.

An October report from the Institute for Family Studies finds there is marked polarization in desires related to marriage and childbearing by income, religious attendance, and partisanship as COVID-19 abates.

The report shows the majority of voters ages 18-55 who identify as Republicans are married, at 56 percent, while just 40 percent of Democrats aged 18-55 are married. That 16-point gap persists among parents in that same age range: 61 percent of Republicans in that age range are parents, as are just 45 percent of Democrats.

As with other pre-existing social trends, lockdowns accelerated all this. In a Newsweek article about the report, family policy researchers Brad Wilcox and Isabel Sawhill summarize further aspects of this trend: The rich, the religious and Republicans reported the greatest overall increase in the desire to marry while the poor, secular Americans and Democrats reported less or no increase in marriage interest.

The report also finds COVID fear-mongering has depressed lefty voterss already anemic desire to marry (marriage predicts fertility) and have children. It finds that right-leaning voters were more likely to be more rational and less frightened about COVID, which gave them social and familial advantages with major political implications.

Republicans have been more open to socializing since COVID-19 struck, likely making it easier for the unmarried in their ranks to date, the report says. And there is evidence they weathered COVID-19 somewhat better emotionally. We find, for instance, that 16% of Republicans reported being sad most of or all the time, compared to 19% of Independents and 20% of Democrats aged 18-55, according to the IFS/Wheatley May-June survey.

Republicans emotionally better-adjusted response to COVID likely played a role in helping right-leaning Americans turn up as the only partisan group whose desire to have children didnt decline in the wake of COVID-19.

This is more evidence that Democrats fear-mongering about COVID will politically backfire in the long run. And not just in concentrating fertility among their political opponents, but also in detaching families from the lefts No. 1 recruitment facility public schools. Extended and irrational school lockdowns definitely contributed to families discontent with public schools that helped push Youngkin across the finish line.

What are some implications of all this?

For one, this also makes Democrats the party of unhappier people, since married parents are the most likely to report theyre happy than are singles, as Wilcox and Sawhill note:

At a moment marked by social distrust, political polarization and declining in-person interaction, Americans who are married with children have an advantage when it comes to built-in social support. As stressful as family life can be, men and women who have formed families are less likelyto report feelings of loneliness and meaninglessness. In fact, men and women aged 18-55 who are married with children are more likely tosay they are very or pretty happy, especially compared with those who are not married and do not have childrenalthough its unclear whether thats because family life creates happiness or because the happiest among us are more likely to get married and have children.

The politics of resentment are indeed bitter, as weve seen vividly already. Mary Eberstadts Primal Screams documents the connections between family disintegration and political extremism. If family alienation allies itself more tightly with the Democrat Party, we can expect more politics of rage from them ahead.

Representing people with less investment in the future through parenting children will also drag on Democrats ability to provide a positive vision for the country and our communities. It also makes Democrats less likely to see issues from parents perspective, Wilcox noted to me in an email about the IFS report findings. This could help explain The New York Times and other media leftists inability to understand parents political defense of their children in Virginia as an act of love, not white resentment or any kind of resentment at all.

It also makes Democrats less likely to express support for marriage and families through public policy. This is another problem, because marriage and family formation are existential issues, not just for political parties, but for the good of the country. Without children and the self-restraint and creativity that love for them fosters, the countrys future is at risk.

A main way for the left to stave off the threat all this poses to their electoral dominance is another longstanding strategy: converting peoples kids through the education institutions they dominate. But in their frenzy to get Trump by weaponizing COVID, Democrats may have set up a series of ticking time bombs that detonate on this most important political territory.

More of those time bombs are set to go off. We havent seen half of the devastating effect of school lockdowns, for example, on todays school-age generation. All that is yet to come. It will shock and motivate parents, and change their minds about Democrats, even more.

Another key question this all raises is whether Republicans are ready to capitalize on this massive opportunity by acting decisively on behalf of the families who are giving it to them. Its clear what they want. Its also clear they will not take I cant for an answer.

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Biden Puts Another Pipeline On The Chopping Block – The Federalist

Posted: at 6:25 pm

The Biden administration is looking at a shutdown of Michigans Line 5 pipeline, White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed to reporters Monday.

The Army Corps of Engineers is preparing an environmental impact to look through this, Jean-Pierre said in a press briefing, after denying reports that President Joe Biden is preparing to revoke the Canadian pipelines permit as happened to the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in office.

A new environmental impact under this administration, however, is often a precursor to the projects cancellation. Jean-Pierre said the study would help inform any additional action or position the U.S. will be taking on the replacement of Line 5.

Politico broke the news Sunday that the White House was actively surveying the market consequences of a shutdown. The Line 5 pipeline operated by the Calgary-based energy company Enbridge transports about 540,000 barrels of crude oil and other petroleum products per day from western Canada through Michigans Upper and Lower Peninsula. The pipeline begins in Superior, Wis. and ends in Sarnia, Ontario.

Line 5s shutdown would deal the biggest blow to Michigan residents, where the project supplies 65 percent of the Upper Peninsulas propane demand and 55 percent of the entire states propane, according to Enbridge. As Americans approach winter with repeated warnings from the Energy Department of higher power prices, propane users will be hardest hit, already expected to pay up to 94 percent more than last year over the six-month heating season, according to season projections from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. By comparison, homes heated by electricity are expected to face up to a 15 percent increase and those heated by natural gas face as much as a 50 percent spike from the year prior. The price shocks could mean hundreds of dollars in higher heating bills.

The quiet deliberations inside the White House provoked more than a dozen Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill to send a letter demanding the administration hold back.

As we enter the winter months and temperatures drop across the Midwest, the termination of Line 5 will undoubtedly further exacerbate shortages and price increases in home heating fuels like natural gas and propane at a time when Americans are already facing rapidly rising energy prices, steep home heating costs, global supply shortages, and skyrocketing gas prices, wrote lead author Rep. Bob Latta, R-Ohio, on Nov. 4, as reported by Politico.

Line 5s shutdown would follow the late-summer completion of Russias Nord Stream 2 feeding natural gas into Germany with Bidens blessing. The White House waived sanctions for the projects construction in May enhancing Russian leverage over Europe with its supply of natural gas, as nations too reliant on wind and solar struggle in a low-wind season. The European Union reported in 2019 that 41 percent of member nations gas imports came from Russia.

President Biden has pledged to follow the same formula as European nations faced with an energy crisis after nearly half a dozen banned hydraulic fracturing. Within months Biden has suppressed oil and gas production with a cascade of taxes and regulation leading to high gas prices that the administration concedes it has no plan to bring down.

At this time, I dont have anything new to share, Jean-Pierre said Monday.

Biden himself conceded gas prices at seven-year highs are unlikely to come down until sometime next year.

I dont see anything thats going to happen in the meantime thats going to significantly reduce gas prices, Biden said during a CNN town hall last month, placing blame on OPEC for refusing his request to raise oil output after the presidents destruction of domestic production.

In early October, Enbridge announced the nearly $3 billion-dollar completion of the Line 3 pipeline replacement project in neighboring Minnesota ending at Superior, Wisconsin. The projects finish came after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ordered aging pipelines to be replaced.

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