Category Archives: Federalist

France announced on Friday that the country will pull its ambassadors from the U.S. and Australia after Australia ditched its existing submarine deal with France in favor of a U.S. partnership.

President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday that the U.S. struck a deal with Australia and the United Kingdom that administration officials said would provide the Land Down Under with the technology and capability to deploy nuclear-powered submarines. Its a move that, even though it hurt an ally, the administration claimed was necessary to push back on Chinas desire to control the South China Sea.

We need to be able to address both the current strategic environment in the region, and how it may evolve, Biden said. Because the future of each of our nations and indeed the world depends on a free and open Indo-Pacific enduring and flourishing in the decades ahead.

It is believed to be the first time France withdraws ambassadors from the two countries, BBC reported, referring to the United States and Australia. French diplomats in Washington had already cancelled a gala to celebrate ties between the US and France in retaliation.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said that the retaliatory decision to remove ambassadors, which was ordered by President Emmanuel Macron, comes in the wake of unacceptable behavior between allies and partners whose consequences directly affect the vision we have of our alliances, of our partnerships and of the importance of the Indo-Pacific for Europe. He also said it feels like a stab in the back after Australia canceled its roughly $40 billion deal with France for diesel-electric submarines in favor of another deal with the United States.

We built a relationship of trust with Australia, and this trust was betrayed, Le Drian said. This is not done between allies.

Le Drian also said he is angry and bitter and that this brutal, unilateral and unpredictable decision reminds me a lot of what Mr. Trump used to do.

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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Is This What Global Respect Looks Like? France Recalls Ambassadors From US - The Federalist

The Washington Post published extremely serious allegations against Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley yesterday, although of course the paper tried to make the centerpiece of the story former President Donald Trumps erratic behavior.

From WaPo:

Fearful of Donald Trumps actions in his final weeks as president, the United States top military officer twice called his Chinese counterpart to assure him that the two nations would not go to war, a senior defense official said Tuesday after the conversations were described in excerpts from a forthcoming book.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley told Gen. Li Zuocheng of the Peoples Liberation Army that the United States would not strike. One call took place on Oct. 30, 2020, four days before the election that defeated Trump. The second call was on Jan. 8, 2021, just two days after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by supporters of the outgoing chief executive.

Milley went so far as to promise Li that he would warn his counterpart in the event of a U.S. attack, according to the book Peril, written by Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa.

The story here, however, is not Trump, no matter how much the corrupt corporate media would have it be so. The story is that a military leader defied civilian control over the direction of Americas foreign policy, and did so through secret talks with our chief adversary on the global stage.

Under every president, we hear about [name] derangement syndrome; there was Bush Derangement Syndrome, and Obama Derangement Syndrome. But only Trump Derangement Syndrome seems to have led the ostensible upholders of norms and democracy to treat as no big deal actual violations of democracys most sacred norms in the service of thwarting Donald Trump.

Civilian control over the military is not something to be jettisoned when you disagree with the peoples choice. Generals playing politics at the highest levels of the military is a game as old as the country, but secretly speaking with Americas foreign enemies to defy the policy decisions of the elected leader of the United States crosses a line, a bright red one. With all the blabber about norms, here is one that truly matters.

The American people deserve to know the content of those phone calls. If this reporting is true and it must be taken with a grain of salt given Bob Woodwards track record Gen. Milley must be fired and, depending on the content of the calls, may even be justly prosecuted.

Under the guise of saving democracy from Trump our media, intelligence services, government bureaucrats, and corporate overlords have kamikazed faith in every one of the institutions keeping America the stable democracy it has blessedly remained for over 200 years. Millions of Americans feel the system is so rigged that they despair of anyone in our ruling elite being held responsible for any action, no matter how obviously over the line.

Let us hope that, in the case of Gen. Milley and his alleged flaunting of bedrock principles not only of the American system, but any non-banana republic, those Americans are wrong.

Inez Feltscher Stepman is a senior contributor at The Federalist. She is also a senior policy analyst at Independent Women's Forum and the Thursday editor of BRIGHT, a women's newsletter. Find her on Twitter @inezfeltscher.

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Milley's Alleged Secret Calls Are One More Reason Americans Think The System Is Rigged - The Federalist

The Biden administration is cutting back on sending free doses of monoclonal antibodies to red, southern states where they were used as ahighly effective treatment for COVID-19 patients.

In a new policy shift that began Monday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced the distribution of monoclonal antibodies to states will now be centralized, moving away from the previous process which was based on direct orders and demand.

HHS will determine the amount of product each state and territory receives on a weekly basis, an HHS spokesman told the Washington Post. State and territorial health departments will subsequently identify sites that will receive product and how much.

HHS did not explicitly explain the reasoning for restricting delivery of the treatments but claimed its new system will help maintain equitable distribution, both geographically and temporally, across the country, providing states and territories with consistent, fairly distributed supply over the coming weeks.

Florida is just one of the Republican-led states affected by this change. For weeks leading up to the change, Florida was one of seven southern states including Alabama, Texas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, and Louisiana that have been using about 70 percent of the national supply.

Now, its leaders are scrambling to reckon the states COVID-19 treatment regimes with the newest bureaucratic for no specific reason. Gov. Ron DeSantis office said that the treatment reduction came with no warning and little explanation from the federal government.

They had a vague statement about equity but sorry that doesnt cut it. No explanation of how the allocation was determined. No explanation of why its only Florida and a few other red states being restricted. No warning, a DeSantis aide told Real Clear News Philip Wegmann.

Days before the HHS announcement, Biden promised that the administration would increase the average pace of shipment across the county of free monoclonal antibody treatments by another 50 percent. The White House also pledged in the presidents Path Out of the Pandemic plan that the administration would implement this change in September.

Monoclonal antibody treatments have been shown to reduce the risk of hospitalization by up to 70% for unvaccinated people at risk of developing severe disease. As hospital systems experience increased COVID-19 cases, many have identified monoclonal antibody treatment as a key tool to improve health outcomes, prevent hospitalizations and reduce the strain on overburdened hospitals, the plan reads.

Now, its clear that the White Houses goal will fall short as the national supply has considerably decreased and states should expect lower amounts of therapeutics available for shipment in the coming weeks, as a Texas health department spokesman warned.

This reeks of politics. This is the Biden administration punishing Florida, Sen. Marco Rubio said in a video posted to Twitter. Theyre saying to states like Florida, Oh yeah, youre not gonna have mandates? Youre not gonna do what we want you to do? Well then guess what, were gonna cut off your antibody treatments and your access to them.'

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 Cuts Back Highly Effective COVID-19 Therapy From Red States - The Federalist

Less than a week after President Joe Biden announced his tyrannical vaccine mandate, Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs said his county would not comply with the lawless order.

In Knox County, we know what we stand for. We stand for freedom. We stand for the rule of law. We stand for the Constitution, Jacobs, who is also professional wrestler Kane of WWE fame, said in a letter addressed to the president. And you can rest assured that we will stand against your blatant and egregious executive overreach.

The order mandates that all businesses with 100 or more employees require COVID-19 vaccines or weekly testing for all workers. The Tennessee mayor, who also defended his county from statewide stay-at-home orders, said citizens would suffer drastically from vaccine mandates.

As the chief executive of an organization that employees 2,700 individuals, your action adds financial, legal, and regulatory burdens that will ultimately impact Knox County taxpayers, he said. In addition, it potentially hinders our ability to attract quality employees since many folks in our community will not work somewhere that unjustly imposes vaccine mandates.

Tennessee Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III wrote a similar letter to Biden on Thursday, saying the mandate likely violated federal law. He is one of 24 Republican state attorneys general demanding that Biden remove the unlawful and harmful mandate.

This vaccine-or-test mandate appears to be an unprecedented expansion of federal power and fails to consider the steps individuals, employers, and our state have already made, Slatery said.

Slatery mentioned specific concerns about the mandate, including that the order fails to recognize religious liberty, free speech, and bodily autonomy.

As a fellow elected official who has sworn an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution just as you have, I am alarmed by the alacrity with which you issued this order, contradicting both Article 1, Section I which vests legislative power in the Congress and the Tenth Amendment which recognizes the sovereignty of the states or the people over matters the Constitution does not delegate to the federal government, Jacobs wrote.

Referencing a retweet by Ron Klain, Bidens chief of staff, that said, OSHA doing this vaxx mandate as an emergency workplace safety rule is the ultimate work-around for the Federal govt to require vaccinations, Jacobs said the Biden administration was intentionally abusing its power and gloating like the cat who ate the canary.

Mr. President, if we, as elected officials, ignore, disregard, and contravene the laws which bind us, how can we expect our fellow citizens to respect and follow the laws which bind all of us as a society? he asked.

We are not the country we claim to be, Jacobs continued. America needs to figure out what this nation stands for or risk losing freedom.

As an American, I am appalled by your statement: This is not about freedom or personal choice, Jacobs admonished Biden, quoting Bidens speech last week. On the contrary, in America, it is always about freedom.

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Knox County Mayor: We Will Not Comply With Biden's 'Egregious' Mandate - The Federalist

Congressional Democrats proposed tax hikes, which are endorsed by the Biden administration, will violate the White Houses promises to spare Americans who make less than $400,000 annually from any tax increases.

President Joe Biden and the White House are framing the Democrat-led tax increases as a historic middle-class tax cut, but their promises to put the dollar burden on just the wealthy and large corporations are false.

New data from the Joint Committee on Taxation shows that the Democrats $3.5 trillion spending bill would raise taxes for middle-class Americans in less than six years.By 2027, Americans making as little as $30,000 a year would be subject to tax hikes. In 2031, these increases are designed to climb even more for Americans making $50,000 or more annually. Millions of businesses will also be affected by these increases.

Its a plan that Biden and his team appear to endorse but one that clearly violates their promises on the campaign trail and from the Oval Office that normal Americans would be spared from paying more money to the government.

The President remains committed to his pledge from the campaign that nobody making under $400,000 a year will have their taxes increased, White House press secretary Jen Psaki repeated in March. Later, she qualified her statement by claiming that only families would be spared by the $400,000 limit and that any married individuals who bring in $200,000 or more each could be affected by the hike.

If you make less than $400,000 per year, Ill never raise your taxes one penny. But if youre at the very top, its time to pay your fair share. We need to reward work in this country not just wealth, the presidents Twitter account stated.

The White Houses official Instagram account posted the same quote days later and claimed, The Build Back Better Agenda is a historic tax cut for the middle class paid for by making sure the wealthy pay their fair share.

Republicans called out the Biden administration for misleading Americans with enticing rhetoric and said that climbing taxes will absolutely bankrupt America for future generations.

Democrats have already broken their promise not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $400,000 per year.Whether its higher prices or higher taxes, Democrats are taking a sledgehammer to Americans paychecks, National Republican Congressional Committee Spokesman Mike Berg said in a statement.

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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Report: Democrat Tax Hikes WILL Raise Taxes On Middle Class - The Federalist

The funniest man in the world has died.

Norm Macdonald is often spoken of as a comedians comedian, which serves as a backhanded compliment, implying that hes an acquired taste, and if you dont get him, well, go watch some more Kevin Hart.

In my experience, the opposite is true. A Norm Macdonald joke is best understood as a feat of strength, almost as if it were designed in response to a dare: how can I make you laugh at this horrible, terrible thing? How can I make an audience explode at an absurd pun? How can I take a two-line street joke and turn it into a six-minute tale of Russian sadness?

It is the comedy equivalent of deciding out of nowhere to lift a car with your bare hands, and Norm seemed to love it every time.

We didnt have cable growing up, and I was too young to watch Norms original SNL run as Weekend Update anchor. So it was only when I got to college and Comedy Central ran old SNLs on repeat all afternoon that he became the permanent background to my life. The plethora of clips on Youtube today create the ability to take your darkest day spent in a hospital and turn to a clip of Norms combination of acid tongue and impish glee and spur unrestrained laughter and relief.

Please, if you have not done so before, consume them. I cant do justice to the amount of funny there is contained within. There is no line he would not cross, there was nowhere he would not go for a joke he believed in. Or as he told it:

I did this joke in which I showed that picture of the girl running away from napalm in Vietnam. I said, In gossip news, Woody Allens dating again. Lorne told me not to do it, and I told him he was wrong, that people would like it. Then I did it in dress rehearsal and there was this insane audience reaction that went on for two minutes: hate. I was completely wrong.

Or was he? If the point of the joke is that the audience loves you, cheers for you, claps for you, is it really a joke? Does it deserve the laugh if no one is offended? Norm is often held up as a model for the newsy jokesters that followed him to far more popularity and hit shows and money but he didnt just seem disinterested in clapter, he seemed actively interested in turning it against the audience. That remains my favorite Weekend Update aside, about the pie charts on car accidents: So, now you dont know what the hell to do.

Norm was an incredible talk show guest, perhaps the last of his kind a connection that extends to Rickles and Rivers.

You never knew what you would get with him. There was no need for canned stupid games or singalongs or skits he could talk about anything and find humor in anything and turn things around on a dime. The Moth joke so famously associated with him occurred to him in the break, since he didnt know he had an extra segment with Conan. The segment was six minutes, so he took that long to tell the joke.

He was also a surprisingly skilled interviewer. His show, Norm Macdonald Live, which morphed into a Netflix property unfairly stomped on by an interview where he criticized the excesses of MeToo, features a surprising number of moments where he asks famous and oft-interviewed guests questions that probe more deeply into their methods or beliefs than youve ever heard before. And then in classic Norm fashion, he would do his best to get them to tell offensive jokes which he repeatedly swore he did not write.

I met him during his book tour in Washington, D.C., at the event where he told the baby harp seal story.

Afterward, Norm made me one of the handful of people he followed on Twitter, where we had lengthy intermittent conversations about Charles Portis who he called the greatest comic novelist since Mark Twain the state of comedy, family life, and more. I told him honestly that the Moth joke was the first video I played for my daughter. Last year as New York was going through hell, he said we must have a steak dinner when the empty panic dissolves. This spring, when Fox gave me the opportunity to host Primetime, I tried, repeatedly, to have him come on he demurred, but offered words of support, and said he was waiting on a vaccine so he could cross the Canadian border. Ill keep you posted, he wrote to me in June.

There is a loneliness to Macdonalds comedy, particularly in his book, which you all should read the eulogy at the end is particularly moving now. It doesnt surprise me that he didnt tell anyone he was sick as Anthony Jeselnik, himself a darker inheritor to much of Norms acid approach, observed.

Norm could talk about anything. At that dinner that never happened, Id probably talk to him about God, which he raised with Jerry Seinfeld at around the 26-minute mark.

Where his comedy touched on issues of faith and death, he could surprise you by turning from utterly sarcastic to incredibly thoughtful. His bit about fighting cancer came to mind immediately upon the news yesterday, perhaps the only commentary he wanted to offer on his own ordeal:

Im pretty sure, Im not a doctor, but Im pretty sure if you die, the cancer dies at the same time. Thats not a loss, thats a draw.

RIP, you old chunk of coal. I still owe you that steak.

Originally posted here:

There Will Never Be Another Norm Macdonald - The Federalist

A newly released study has found that nearly half of those hospitalized for COVID-19 in 2021 may have been admitted for another reason entirely, or were mild or asymptomatic for the respiratory virus.

Conducted by a team of researchers from Harvard Medical School, Tufts Medical Center, and the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System, the yet-to-be peer-reviewed analysis examined electronic records for nearly 50,000 COVID hospital admissions at more than 100 VA hospitals across the country.

According to The Atlantic, researchers checked to see whether each patient required supplemental oxygen or had a blood oxygen level below 94 percent and if either of these conditions was met, the authors classified that patient as having moderate to severe disease; otherwise, the case was considered mild or asymptomatic.

The study found that from March 2020 through early January 2021before vaccination was widespread, and before the Delta variant had arrivedthe proportion of patients with mild or asymptomatic disease was 36 percent, the report read. From mid-January through the end of June 2021, however, that number rose to 48 percent. In other words, the study suggests that roughly half of all the hospitalized patients showing up on COVID-data dashboards in 2021 may have been admitted for another reason entirely, or had only a mild presentation of disease.

The report later notes the increase was even greater for vaccinated hospital patients, with 57 percent experiencing mild or asymptomatic disease. Moreover, the study found unvaccinated patients have also been registering with less severe symptoms, on average, than earlier in the outbreak, with 45 percent of cases being mild or asymptomatic since January 21.

The studys findings raise serious concerns over whether similar trends are playing out in hospitals across the country. According to Dr. Shira Doron, one of the studys co-authors, refining the definition of hospitalizations is critical when discussing COVID-related public policy measures that affect entities such as schools and businesses.

As we look to shift from cases to hospitalizations as a metric to drive policy and assess level of risk to a community or state or country, we should refine the definition of hospitalization, she said.Those patients who are therewithrather thanfromCOVID dont belong in the metric.

Shawn Fleetwood is an intern at The Federalist and a student at the University of Mary Washington, where he plans to major in Political Science and minor in Journalism. He also serves as a state content writer for Convention of States Action. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood

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Study: Nearly Half 2021 COVID Hospitalizations Weren't For Severe Cases - The Federalist

LOS ANGELES, Calif. Frustrated California voters may have lost the battle to recall Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sept. 14, but the war to unseat him in 2022 is just beginning.

Multiple outlets officially called the referendum on removing the governor a failure on Tuesday night, less than one hour after polls closed. Some California residents were stunned, but others said they are determined to use the power they amassed to create the recall to keep fighting to hold the governor accountable for his tyranny.

The movement or the feeling on here was a very strong one of disenfranchisement, and the recall movement reignited or theres been a resurgence of people who just got up and said Yeah, we can do something, Chairman of the Conservative Party of California Jon Matthews said.

Los Angeles GOP executive board member Julie Haff told The Federalist that even though results indicate the governor will keep his seat, Newsoms trust in his track record clearly faltered in a way passionate voters can still use.

If he was so confident in the job that hes doing, why did he need to have millions and millions of dollars spent on this? Why does he have to have [President Joe] Biden, [Vice President Kamala] Harris, and others come in and help rally for him? He should be able to stand the job hes doing and feel confident with the job hes doing, Haff said. Hes not talking about the job hes doing, hes talking about the Republicans. I dont think hes doing a good job and obviously, there are millions of other Californians that dont feel like hes doing a good job, because why would we be here today?

Newsom and his national Democrat cronies framed the recall as a shallow effort by Republicans who are still operating under Trumpism. During a rally to keep Newsom in office in Long Beach, Biden compared leading Republican candidate Larry Elder to Trump.

Im gonna make this as simple as I can: You either keep Gavin Newsom as your governor or youll get Donald Trump. Its not a joke.

On election day, Newsom, who outraised his gubernatorial opponents by millions, lamented how the GOP is literally trying to dismantle democracy.

They are quite literally trying to dismantle democracy and trust in this country Ill accept the will of the voters no matter what it is. Period, full-stop, the governor said.

The Democrat governor repeated these talking points in his victory speech on Tuesday, which came less than one hour after polls on the West Coast closed.

Just in the last few days, the former president put out, saying this election was rigged. Democracy is not a football. You dont throw it around we may have defeated Trump, but Trumpism is not dead in this country, Newsom said

Pinning the recall on partisanship instead of the real issues plaguing Californians such as homelessness, crime, wildfires, and overbearing COVID restrictions, Haff said, not only insults voters but overlooks the diversity behind the recall movement.

I know a lot of friends and people that I know are independent and we even have some people that have called our office and they said Where do I sign up to be a volunteer? Im an independent but I dont like the direction that California is going in and its not the state I recognize, Haff said. This is a nonpartisan recall.

Matthews, who moved to California in 1959, said the state has changed and its up to voters to change it back.

It was the most Republican state in the union when I moved out here, and it has turned into the exact opposite, he said. And its only because of the apathy that has settled in so many voters. Were still a pretty conservative state, its just those people arent voting and theyre not doing anything because theyve just kind of given up. And so were just hoping that if we can maintain them or the morale and keep the movement going and keep building on it that perhaps by next year when the governors election comes up that we can make a mark.

Elder is clearly a fan favorite among Californians hoping to unseat Newsom. The states passion for the Republican broadcaster, Matthews said, should be harnessed for the 2022 gubernatorial election.

If we can get the governor and get the secretary of state out, those are the only two people we need to change in California to turn things around, Matthews said.

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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Californians May Have Lost On Recall, But The War On Newsom Isn't Over - The Federalist

The FBIs pattern of unresponsiveness is troubling and has left countless victims unprotected, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley said Wednesday at the Senate Judiciary Committees hearing into the bureaus botched handling of the Larry Nassar investigation.

Grassley has been trying to meet with FBI Director Christopher Wray for more than a year after the FBI weaponized an information leak against him and Sen. Ron Johnson.

In May, Sens. Johnson and Grassley pressed FBI officials after seemingly confidential information was leaked to the public after a secure briefing in August 2020. The senators pointed to potential partisan leaks to reporters which the Wall Street Journal noted were used to smear Mr. Johnson and his report on Hunter Bidens foreign business dealings, suggesting that hed ignored FBI warnings and thus may have been manipulated by the Kremlin.

Before that, in a letter back in May 2019, the senators had pointed to texts and emails from Peter Strzok and Lisa Page that demonstrated the need to investigate leaks from agencies or entities other than FBI.

Grassley said on Wednesday that Wray would not address the senators concerns about the leaks from the August briefing. The bureau followed the same pattern of non-responsiveness in the Larry Nassar case, Grassley added.

In July, a report from the Department of Justices Office of the Inspector General confirmed that the FBI turned a blind eye to allegations against disgraced doctor Nassar while he abused hundreds of young women, including Team USA Olympic gymnast Simone Biles.

Ive asked Director Wray to meet with me regarding a very troubling briefing that I received August 2020 from the FBI, and which was later weaponized against me and Sen. Johnsons oversight, Grassley said in Wednesdays hearing, referencing the leaks he condemned in May. Director Wray and his staff have ignored my request to meet, mimicking the pattern here with the Nassar case non-responsiveness.

Although Grassley and Johnson requested a meeting with Wray and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, he alleged that Wray had been consistently unresponsive.Parallel to the FBIs previous delays and inaction, Grassley said, is the bureaus neglect in the Nassar case.

Children suffered needlessly because of multiple agents in multiple offices that the FBI neglected to share Nassars allegations with their law enforcement counterparts at the state and local levels, Grassley said.

As former chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Grassley previously convened a hearing on the importance of protecting young athletes from abuse. In 2018, Grassley testified before the Senate Commerce Committee and about his concerns with the FBIs handling of the Nassar investigation. The recent inspector general report on the FBIs handling of Nassar found that the FBI knew of Nassars abusive streak for years and did nothing.

When the report was released this summer, Senate Judiciary Committee leaders confirmed Wednesdays oversight hearing to hold the bureau accountable. The FBI owes the American people an accounting for its failure to protect these children, and explanation for how it plans to do better in the future, Grassley said in July.

Clearly, the bureaus corrupt and incompetent leaders placed publicity and image before victims protection, Grassleysaid at Wednesdays hearing.

Ensuring that truthful information was provided about the FBIs role in this investigation was clearly not the main priority. This is a serious problem at the heart of the FBI, not a case of a few errant agents, he said.If theres one thing the inspector generals report illustrates, its this: We need to make sure the bureau is both more effective and held more accountable.

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Grassley: FBI Refuses To Answer About Illegal Leaks And Botched Investigations - The Federalist

Sometime this summer, my colleague Chris Bedford had to be dragged kicking and screaming to discuss the infrastructure negotiations on Federalist Radio Hour. His instinct, we ultimately agreed, was correct.

Why, wondered Chris, should we spend a second worrying about deficits while the culture is crumbling around us? Why should we waste precious time fretting over the growth of the state when children are being mutilated in the name of social justice, with the full support of our institutions?

Chris came around.President Bidens new federal vaccine requirements show the dangers of treating these issues as mutually exclusive. Indeed, many on the right are increasingly tempted to treat them as such, exhausted by the useless Republican establishment and animated by the swift radicalization of our institutions.

Its boring and sounds tired, I know, but ballooning state power is not a silly fear of Zombie Reaganites and insufferable libertarians. Its a vehicle of cultural tyranny as much as economic. Its a tool for the political establishment to bulldoze our culture from their sad office buildings here in Washington.

As the chattering class debates Bidens sweeping vaccine policy, the vast scope of the Occupational Safety and Health Administrations (OSHAs) power is coming into focus. Biden invoked the Labor Department agencys authority in announcing the policy, tasking them with overseeing its implementation under the scope of their powers.

See this reference to Cass Sunsteins explanation of that scope for a harrowing reminder on the federal bureaucracys growth. Whether Bidens policy should fail in court is a different question than whether it will.

Heres how the New York Times described the agencys authority to carry out Bidens rule:

OSHA has the authority to quickly issue a rule, known as an emergency temporary standard, if it can show that workers are exposed to a grave danger and that the rule is necessary to address that danger. The rule must also be feasible for employers to enforce.

Such a standard would pre-empt existing rules by state governments, except in states that have their own OSHA-approved workplace agencies about half the states in the country. States with their own programs have 30 days to adopt a standard that is at least as effective, and that must cover state and local government employees, such as teachers. Federal OSHA rules do not cover state and local government employees.

This brings us to the definitions of emergency, grave, and necessary. The reasonably necessary or appropriate standard Sunstein highlighted is incredibly broad. Legal interpretations will obviously vary, but we neednt delve into debate over constitutional law to consider that Biden, his party, and his supporters in politics and the public are happy with his interpretation.

The popularity of that interpretation is a statement on our sprawling federal bureaucracys latent power to control our freedoms and our culture from D.C. Im vaccinated and personally hope all my loved ones are too, but peoples hesitance is entirely reasonable, as Matt Mehan of Hillsdale argues below.

But our immense cultural sorting renders the unvaccinated into toothless MAGA rubes in the eyes of our cultural elites, whose hands control the powerful levers of our massive bureaucracy. Their trigger fingers are itchy.

Two of the political establishments most powerful publications, Politico Playbook and Axios AM, gave telling treatment to Bidens decision on Friday morning. Playbook decided the neutral take on Bidens mandate was to treat it objectively as federal authority, and refer to the position that its not in his authority as stubborn and deadly.

Presuming, similarly, that Biden had done something relatively uncontroversial, Axios AM wrote a classic Republicans pounce, deciding the primary news value was the GOP reaction to Bidens policy, not the policy itself. These casual insights into the worldview of an elite cultural leftist are important. The reality that Bidens policy will be popular with a decent slice of the broader public is important as well.

Elites love corporate power, but they also love federal power. (Unless, of course, Donald Trump is exerting it.) Note that the Chamber of Commerce and Business Roundtable both supported Bidens vaccine requirements.

As the patterns of socioeconomic sorting worsen, the bureaucracy will grow and its stewards will be more eager to use it and more disconnected from the country they oversee. Some of the public will become numb to federal power grabs, many people will even welcome them.

From Bidens child tax credit extension, which conditions nearly all families to depend on the federal government every month for aid, to his extension of the federal eviction moratorium, this president and his elite champions are not worried about these power grabs. The blueprint for Democrats infrastructure bill is more proof of that. Their goal is to create a leftist elites utopia, blending cultural leftism with neoliberal economics and imposing it on America by any means necessary.

Mocking libertarians is a conservative tradition, made all the more fun in recent years as many reflexively defend Big Tech and woke capital. But reflexively dismissing their dry warnings about liberty does not serve conservatives well in this perilous moment.

Simply put, weve let our government become very big as its stewards have become very radical. Its a vehicle for their cultural revolution, not a distraction from it.

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The Revolution Will Be Bureaucratized - The Federalist