Biden's Heartfelt Appeal for Unity Likely to Be Unavailing

Michael Barone

by Michael Barone: "We must end this uncivil war," Joe Biden proclaimed shortly after he became the 46th president on Wednesday. Hours earlier, in his last moments as the 45th president, Donald Trump extended "best wishes" to the "new administration." Graceful words, but accompanied by sharp and, in some cases, deserved attacks. Our presidents since George Washington have come to office through an inevitably adversary process, and while they may inspire "unity" on occasion, that's more the exception than the rule.

That process has become especially adversary in times of close division, like the polarized partisan parity prevailing since the 1990s. Joe Biden is the fifth consecutive president taking office with his party holding majorities in both houses of Congress. But those majorities proved evanescent for both his two Democratic and his two Republican predecessors, and his party's current margins in the House and Senate are just as precarious as then-President George W. Bush's were 20 years ago.

This polarization is sharp because it's based not so much on economic issues, which can often be settled by splitting the difference, but on deeply held moral values by which people live or seek to live their lives. Solomonic solutions can remain unacceptable to those with strong feelings on both sides.

What we shouldn't expect, and what Biden is unlikely to deliver, are bipartisan compromises of the type that were frequent during his 36 years in the Senate but have become rarer, if not quite nonexistent, in the last dozen years.

Examples include transportation and communications deregulation during the administrations of former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, Social Security repair in 1983, immigration and tax packages in 1986, welfare reform in 1996 and the Medicare fix in 1997 that led to a couple of balanced federal budgets.

Most were the products of not partisan control but divided government at a time when Republicans seemed to have a lock on the presidency (for 20 of the 24 years between the 1968 and 1992 elections) and Democrats a lock on Congress, or at least the House (where they held 243 of 435 House seats between the 1958 and 1994 elections).

With little hopes of overturning the other side's lock, politicians made deals to get half a loaf and maybe a bit more. But in polarized partisan parity, in which control of the White House and of both houses of Congress has alternated, politicians have an incentive to wait till their side gets the White House and both sides of Capitol Hill.

So, Washington hasn't seen such bipartisan achievements since Bush and then-Sen. Edward Kennedy hammered out their education bill in 2001. Bush couldn't get Democrats interested in Social Security changes in 2005. Then-President Barack Obama couldn't negotiate a budget deal with then-House Speaker John Boehner in 2013. Bush and Obama failed to get immigration legislation in 2006, 2007 and 2013.

And note what happens when one party gets control and legislates. Then-President Bill Clinton tried to pass health insurance legislation in 1993 and lost his Democratic majorities in 1994. Obama did pass health insurance legislation in 2010 and lost even more House seats.

Obamacare remained unpopular while Obama was in office, but changing Obamacare became unpopular when Trump and Republicans tried to in 2017 and when Democrats won the House in 2018. The lesson I draw is that voters gripe about health insurance to pollsters and politicians, but when they see a plan that threatens their own arrangements, they prefer the status quo.

In a time of polarized partisan parity, passing major bipartisan legislation is mostly impossible, and using partisan majorities to pass longtime wish lists usually boomerangs on those in power.

Biden's inaugural address was light on legislative issues. "We face an attack on our democracy and on truth" -- justified but not unifying criticism at Trump's lengthy refusal to concede defeat and Trump supporters' assault on the electoral process two weeks ago -- "and a raging virus, growing inequity, the sting of systemic racism, a climate in crisis, America's role in the world."

But Biden's coronavirus policy looks very much like Trump's. As for "growing inequity," actually, pre-virus, incomes had been getting more equal. As for "systemic racism," we've had civil rights legislation since even before Biden was elected senator, and accusations that anything more than a handful of Americans favor the "white supremacy" he highlighted are not very unifying. Neither are his attacks on "lies" if that means attacks on free speech.

Recent polls show Trump falling and Biden's numbers not rising above partisan levels, below the honeymoon levels incoming presidents once got. His appeal for unity sounded heartfelt, but it will be of little avail if he pursues the sharp partisan agenda of which there were numerous hints in his text.
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Michael Barone is a Senior Political Analyst for the Washington Examiner and a Resident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a Fox News Channel  and co-author of The Almanac of American Politics

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Biden’s America: One Nation or Us Versus Them?

by Patrick Buchanan: On inauguration night, antifa mobs attacked the Democratic Party headquarters in Portland and torched American flags in Seattle, the same kind of left-wing mobs that gave us a long hot summer of rioting, looting and arson… Has Biden ever condemned by name these mobs the way he did the mob that invaded the Capitol on Jan. 6?

“We have met the enemy and he is us,” said Walt Kelly’s cartoon character Pogo, half a century ago, about what we Americans were doing to our environment.

Rereading President Joe Biden’s inaugural address, Pogo’s remark comes to mind.

Biden began on a lofty, hopeful and familiar note:

“This is a great nation. We are a good people.”

He ended in the same vein: “So, with purpose and resolve, we turn to those tasks of our time. Sustained by faith. Driven by conviction. And, devoted to one another and the country we love with all our hearts.”

Within the address itself, however, Biden recited what he believes to be the historic crimes of the nation and the sins of the soul that torment a considerable portion of our population.

Among the afflictions from which America suffers, said Biden, are “political extremism, white supremacy” and “domestic terrorism.”

How do we overcome these evils?

Said Biden, “Unity is the path.”

But how can good Americans unite with white supremacists and domestic terrorists? Ought we not separate ourselves and do battle with them? And who exactly are they?

Surely, among the enemy is the mob that invaded and trashed the Capitol on Jan. 6. But what of the hundreds of thousands who came out for Trump rallies? What of the 75 million who voted for Donald Trump?

Are all the deplorables outside the company of the saved? Are they, as Hillary Clinton once said of them, “irredeemable”?

“Today, we celebrate the triumph not of a candidate but of a cause,” said Biden, “the cause of democracy.”

The clear implication here is that a victory for Trump on Nov. 3, would have been a defeat for democracy. How unifying is that?

“Today, on this January day,” said Biden, “my whole soul is in this: Bringing America together. Uniting our people. And uniting our nation. I ask every American to join me in this cause.”

He then enumerated the characteristics of our enemy: “Anger, resentment and hatred. Extremism, violence and lawlessness.”

Yet, on inauguration night, antifa mobs attacked the Democratic Party headquarters in Portland and torched American flags in Seattle, the same kind of left-wing mobs that gave us a long hot summer of rioting, looting and arson after the death in Minneapolis of George Floyd.

Has Biden ever condemned by name these mobs the way he did the mob that invaded the Capitol on Jan. 6?

Biden went on to describe U.S. history as he sees it, as a long Manichaean struggle for the soul of America.

“The forces that divide us are deep and they are real. … Our history has been a constant struggle between the American ideal that we are all created equal and the other harsh, ugly reality that racism, nativism, fear and demonization have long torn us apart.”

But if our history has been an endless struggle against racism, nativism and demagoguery, and today’s struggle is against rampant anger, resentment, hatred, extremism, violence and lawlessness, as well as “white supremacists and domestic terrorists,” how can we credibly call ourselves a “great nation” and “good people”?

While Biden identifies the demonic character of the enemy, he does not name them. Who are they? How can we defeat them if the president will not identify them? And if they are evil and we are good, then why should we unite with them rather than ostracize and crush them?

In Joe’s depiction: “We can see each other not as adversaries but as neighbors. We can treat each other with dignity and respect. We can join forces, stop the shouting and lower the temperature. For without unity, there is no peace only bitterness and fury.”

But is “fury” not a legitimate attribute of those fighting the hateful enemies Biden describes?

“Today in this time and place, let’s start afresh. All of us. Let’s begin to listen to one another again. Hear one another. See one another. Show respect for one another.”

This call to unity is followed by another call, to “reject the culture in which facts themselves are manipulated and even manufactured.”

After this, Biden went off on a tear against mendacity.

“Recent weeks and months have taught us a painful lesson. There is truth and there are lies. Lies told for power and for profit.”

All our leaders have a duty and responsibility “to defend the truth and defeat the lies.”

But who are the liars? And if we are to do battle against the liars, why did Biden declare a minute later: “We must end this uncivil war.”

It was said of Warren Harding’s inaugural address that it was “an army of pompous phrases marching across the landscape in search of an idea.”

Joe Biden’s inaugural was the most confusing, contradictory and incoherent ever delivered from the steps of the Capitol, reflective of the mind of its author and the state of the Union he now leads.

Good luck, Mr. President. You will need it, and so will we.
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Patrick Buchanan (@PatrickBuchanan) is currently a blogger, conservative columnist, political analyst, chairman of The American Cause foundation and an editor of The American Conservative. He has been a senior adviser to three Presidents, a two-time candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, and was the presidential nominee of the Reform Party in 2000.

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Celebrate Life, Disrespecting America, Abusing The Guard

Gary Bauer

by Gary Bauer: Sanctity Of Human Life Day
Today is National Sanctity of Human Life Day. The day marks the somber anniversary 48 years ago of the Supreme Court's notorious Roe v. Wade decision effectively legalizing abortion on demand in America.

Twice in our nation's history the Supreme Court has ruled that a whole class of individuals were not "people" and thus were not covered by the promises of the American founding. The first occasion was the Dred Scott case.

In 1857, the Supreme Court ruled that Scott, a black slave who for many years resided in free states, was property, not a person, so he had to be returned to his "owner." The poison released by that decision almost destroyed the nation.

In 1973, the court did it again. It ruled that unborn children were not "people" deserving of protection under the law. The poison of that decision is eating away at our souls too.

Sadly, the left refuses to recognize the gross injustice of abortion. It celebrates the destruction of innocent unborn children, and demands that men and women of faith be forced to subsidize the annual slaughter of hundreds of thousands of children.

Before leaving office, President Trump issued a proclamation recognizing today as National Sanctity of Human Life Day. I'm glad he did because you know the current occupant of the Oval Office won't.

Trump urged each of us to "celebrate and support every heroic mother who chooses life," and to defend "every innocent and unborn child, each of whom can bring unbelievable love, joy, beauty, and grace into our nation and the entire world."

Disrespecting America
All of President Biden's executive orders have been problematic to varying degrees. (See below.) But why would a so-called "moderate Democrat" insist on immediately abolishing a commission that holds up America as a shining city upon a hill? Why would the 1776 Commission be offensive to a moderate?

Well, no one should be surprised by Biden's action because he isn't a moderate. He wouldn't condemn the attacks on our historic monuments and national heroes. You may recall that Speaker Nancy Pelosi actually defended the attacks, saying, "People will do what they do."

If you're on the left, there is a list of things you absolutely cannot do. For example:

• You cannot secure the border.
• You cannot in any way condemn the cancel culture, which is trying to smear and silence conservatives.
• You cannot be pro-life.
• You cannot defend the American experiment, and you dare not say that this was a noble and decent country from the beginning.
• You dare not remind people that slavery was a universal evil, the sad norm throughout human history, and that it was the words of our founding fathers that signaled the death knell of slavery.

Telling the truth about America is what Donald Trump meant when he said, "Make America Great Again," and Democrats rushed to condemn him.

And just as President Trump warned, we went in short order from banning the Confederate flag to disrespecting the American flag. We went from tearing down statues of Robert E. Lee to tearing down statues of Abraham Lincoln.

The unifying theme of the left seems to be hatred of America.

So Much For Unity
As I noted yesterday, all the talk about unity is just that – meaningless talk. Democrats are using demands for unity as a means to silence opposition.

If they were serious about unity, Joe Biden could have said a few words in his inaugural address condemning political violence, "whether it is a violent mob attacking Capitol Hill or Antifa attacking our cities." But he didn't say that.

He had another opportunity after Antifa rioted in Portland and Seattle Wednesday. But Biden and other Democrat leaders didn't say anything. And they won't because the left finds political violence useful.

Job-Killer Joe
Joe Biden was in office barely 24 hours before his actions resulted in job losses. Another of his "Day One" executive orders was to terminate the Keystone pipeline.

Not only did this decision cut America off from a stable source of energy from a friendly ally, but it resulted in the destruction of more than 1,000 construction jobs, mostly among blue-collar union workers.

Most Americans oppose Biden's order, and fear it will cost more pain at the pump. They're right. But this gift to China, Russia and Iran is just the first of many radical Biden/Harris policies that defy common sense and will destroy good-paying jobs.

I am pleased to report that there is growing resistance to Biden's executive orders in Congress, in the states and among the grassroots. There have also been a couple of encouraging victories in the courts in recent days. (Here and here.) And there will be more such victories in the days ahead.

Abusing The Guard
As you know, 25,000 National Guard troops were ordered to Washington, D.C., following the Capitol Hill riot to preserve security during the inauguration. They were promptly insulted and smeared by left-wing politicians as potential racists and threats to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

By the way, these were the same left-wing politicians who did everything they could to stop President Trump from bringing the National Guard to Washington, D.C., to restore order during the summer riots.

But with the inaugural festivities over, the troops were relegated to parking garages with no Wi-fi and just two toilets for several thousand soldiers.

"Yesterday dozens of senators and congressmen walked down our lines taking photos, shaking our hands and thanking us for our service," one Guardsman told Politico. "Within 24 hours, they had no further use for us and banished us to the corner of a parking garage. We feel incredibly betrayed."

It's not entirely clear why this happened. There are reports that a member of Congress complained that the Guards weren't wearing masks even though they are under orders to do so at all times.

But pictures of National Guardsmen crammed into the garage set off a firestorm. Several Republican governors ordered their National Guard troops to return home in response to this outrage. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer insisted he would "get to the bottom of this."

Well, the commander-in-chief is a Democrat. The Senate majority leader is a Democrat. The speaker of the House is a Democrat. Who else could order our National Guardsmen to spend the night in a cold garage with two bathrooms?

By the way, the left is not completely done with the National Guard yet. While many Guardsmen are leaving Washington, D.C., at least 7,000 troops are expected to remain in Washington as part of an "enduring mission."

What mission? There were zero incidents during the inauguration, and there's nothing going on now.

But if the reports that thousands of troops are staying are accurate, then the nation's capital is "occupied." Why? I trust the National Guard, but I don't trust Biden, Schumer, Pelosi or the mayor of Washington, D.C.
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Gary Bauer (@GaryLBauer)  is a conservative family values advocate and serves as president of American Values and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families

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Biden Promises Pain

America’s new placeholder president speaks.
by Matthew Vadum: Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., 78, was installed North Korea-style as the placeholder president of the United States of America on January 20, surrounded by 25,000 U.S. troops, along with hundreds of socially-distancing well-wishers in front of an empty National Mall populated with a vast forest of planted American flags to distract from the fact that no one was there.

How long he will last before Nancy Pelosi invokes the 25th Amendment to replace him with the predatory Obama wannabe Kamala Harris is anyone’s guess.

The speech came as the Washington Post admitted hours after militia members were charged in connection with the January riot that former President Donald Trump had nothing to do with the civil disturbance that delayed our Potemkin parliament’s certification of electors a few hours. This was, of course, the riot after which Biden, statist simpleton that he is, scolded lawmakers who thought they were running for their very lives for not stopping to put face masks on.

In the process Biden misgendered his own home state House member, saying he was “so proud of my congressman right here in the state of Delaware, Lisa Blunt Rochester,” for trying to distribute masks to other lawmakers during the riot. Reportedly, some Republicans declined the offer, prompting Biden to growl, “What the hell’s the matter with them? It’s time to grow up.”

No one needed to worry about riots in the nation’s capital, not only because of the armed soldiers and out-of-state police that occupied the city, but because the nonentity who blundered his way into becoming the leader of the free world does not inspire passion, except perhaps in the most radical precincts of the Left. While he enjoyed his first half-day in the Oval Office busily trying to erase the legacy of Orange Man Bad by executive fiat, mostly peaceful Antifa rioters marked the occasion in Seattle, Denver, and Portland, Oregon.

The man who administered the oath of office to Biden, Chief Justice John Roberts, is arguably largely responsible for Biden’s so-called victory because he signed on to a series of decisions that ignored election law and put Trump, whom he hates with a passion, at a disadvantage.

In one case, on October 19, 2020, Roberts inexplicably betrayed his own oath of office by voting with the three liberal justices to refuse a stay in Republican Party of Pennsylvania v. Boockvar. With only eight justices on the Supreme Court at the time, this resulted in a tie 4-4 vote denying a Republican request to stay the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s blatantly unconstitutional ruling that usurped the power of the state legislature and forced state election officials to accept mail-in ballots received up to three days after Election Day. The GOP presciently argued the extra time was an invitation to fraud, especially because the Pennsylvania court ruled election officials had to accept ballots late even if they lacked a postmark.

Roberts ignored the Electors Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which vests the power to determine state election procedures in state legislatures alone. Article II of the Constitution provides that “Each State shall appoint [electors for president and vice president] in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct.” The courts have long held that the legislative power here is “plenary,” meaning unqualified and absolute, so when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court acted it did so unconstitutionally.

The Supreme Court ruled in McPherson v. Blacker (1892) that “the appointment and mode of appointment of Electors belong exclusively to the states under the constitution of the United States.”

“The legislative power is the supreme authority except as limited by the constitution of the State, and the sovereignty of the people is exercised through their representatives in the legislature unless by the fundamental law power is elsewhere reposed.”

The Supreme Court affirmed this legislative power as recently as 2000 in Bush v. Gore.

When Florida lawmakers saw that Democrat Al Gore was trying to steal the election by gaming the courts, they threatened to ignore the statewide popular vote and appoint electors pledged to Republican George W. Bush. The Supreme Court reminded the litigants that state legislatures have the final say. “The individual citizen has no federal constitutional right to vote for Electors for the President of the United States…”

But instead of following the law, Roberts decided to stick it to the Trump campaign and snuff out any momentum his campaign might have had a chance of developing in courts across the nation.

Eager to get started destroying the American republic, the cadaverous former vice president was sworn in at 11:48 a.m., 12 minutes before Noon when the 20th Amendment specifies an incoming president’s term actually begins.

Squinting, and at times barking out the words on the teleprompter like someone with a wildly malfunctioning hearing aid, the newly inserted chief executive stumbled over a text that was weighted down with clichés, sentence fragments, and what passes for patriotism in Democratic Party circles. It was a bargain-basement inaugural address.

A co-conspirator in the ultimately successful four-year-plus-long rolling coup that used, among other things, Hillary Clinton’s fake Russian dossier and taxpayer-funded U.S. intelligence agencies to undermine the duly elected 45th president of the United States, the corrupt, lying serial plagiarist, groper of females of all ages, and hair sniffer, outlined his planned assaults on economic freedom, the First and Second Amendments, as well as the coming wave of repression directed against his enemies.

“Few people in our nation’s history have been more challenged, and found a time more challenging or difficult than the time we’re in now,” Biden said.

“A once-in-a-century virus that silently stalks the country. It’s taken as many lives in one year as America lost in all of World War II. Millions of jobs have been lost. Hundreds of thousands of businesses closed. A cry for racial justice some 400 years in the making moves us. The dream of justice for all will be deferred no longer. A cry for survival comes from planet itself. A cry that can’t be any more desperate or any more clear now. A rise in political extremism, white supremacy, domestic terrorism that we must confront and we will defeat. To overcome these challenges – to restore the soul and to secure the future America – requires so much more than words.”

He’s right.

Words are not enough.

Doing what Biden and his far-left base want to do requires brute force because sane Americans won’t allow it. Normal Americans oppose slavery reparations paid by people who never owned slaves to people who were never slaves. They don’t want to kill the economy by banning gasoline-fueled cars to save an environment that doesn’t need saving. They don’t want to turn America into a giant prison to control a virus that spares almost all its victims. They don’t want what Biden is selling.

The Chinese Communist Party-promoted virus that causes the disease COVID-19 has ravaged the land, if the questionable official body count for the disease is to be believed. Biden, who refuses to blame the People’s Republic for its murderous biological attack, wants to expand on the failed containment policies including universal mandatory mask-wearing and continuing the economy-killing lockdowns that have thrown millions out of work. He wants to use more force to compel compliance with pandemic mitigation efforts.

Biden’s allies, left-wing Democratic governors like New York’s Andrew Cuomo, California’s Gavin Newsom, and Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer, condemned thousands of elderly Americans to COVID-19 deaths in elder care facilities.

Pennsylvania’s Health Secretary Rachel Levine, the Butcher of Harrisburg, sent infected old people to such facilities. Levine is Biden’s token transgender nominee to be Assistant U.S. Secretary of Health.

America is systemically racist, argued Biden, who for most of last year’s nationwide Antifa-Black Lives Matter riots following the drug-caused death of George Floyd remained silent about the lawlessness and destruction as his bloodthirsty running-mate Kamala Harris cheered them on, saying they “should not let up.”

In the hours after taking the oath, Biden rescinded President Trump’s executive order banning Marxist-invented Critical Race Theory in federal training, and killed his 1776 Commission that sought to move American education away from a Howard Zinn-style curriculum that unduly emphasized race-related injustices of the past.

Biden previously endorsed the communist Green New Deal which would return the United States to the 1800s in a few years, so unsurprisingly he falsely claimed that the environment was in grave danger in his speech. The Green New Deal “is a crucial framework for meeting the climate challenges we face,” his campaign website states.

Joe “You Ain’t Black” Biden’s ominous statement that “political extremism, white supremacy, domestic terrorism” are on the rise and must be confronted should be particularly worrisome to anyone concerned about civil liberties. This is because we know he wasn’t referring to his friends on the Left. He was smearing 75 million Trump voters as potential enemies of the state.

The leftists who run the Democratic Party believe that anyone outside of their ranks is a potential enemy. And they have funny ideas about what constitutes racism. Remember that when principled conservatives opposed Barack Obama’s socialist juggernaut they were reflexively denounced as racist. The only reason to oppose Obama was “racism – straight up,” washed up actress Janeane Garofolo whined at the time.

The activists of the Tea Party movement who filled townhall meetings as Obama and Biden were forcing Obamacare down the throats of the American people, were similarly denounced at the time by leftists as domestic terrorists. Biden obviously plans to apply the label to Trump supporters to discredit and marginalize them, along maybe with throwing some of them into prison for their political beliefs if he can get away with it . And since some of the January 6 rioters had military backgrounds, he is already setting in motion a disturbing Stalinist-style purge of the armed forces.

Then there was the Orwellian part of Biden’s address in which he seemed to be outlining plans for a new Thought Police or maybe a citizen-dominated Thought Militia.

Biden said, “we must reject the culture in which facts themselves are manipulated and even manufactured.”

“Recent weeks and months have taught us a painful lesson. There is truth and there are lies. Lies told for power and for profit. And each of us has a duty and a responsibility, as citizens, as Americans, and especially as leaders – leaders who have pledged to honor our Constitution and protect our nation — to defend the truth and defeat the lies.”

This sounds much like Barack Obama urging his supporters to “get in the face” of his opponents.

The ”lies” to which Biden refers concern the justified worries of Americans about election fraud. Anyone who says Biden or the Democrats stole the election from Trump may be targeted in some way. As I wrote earlier this week, Republican lawmakers and lawyers are the first to be attacked but more harassment and persecution are coming.

And this supposed duty to defend truth and defeat lies isn’t something the Founding Fathers would have recognized. They believed, in the words of the Declaration of Independence that exalted “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Americans are supposed to be free to believe what they want.

People have to be left alone to figure out the world for themselves, without compulsion from the government or politically correct censorship at the hands of Mark Zuckerberg’s 12-year-old content moderators jam-packed into electronic sweatshops.

Joe Biden will never get that.

And his inability to comprehend this quintessential aspect of what it is to be American is going to get people killed.
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Matthew Vadum writes for FrontPag Mag.

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The Prospects for Religious Liberty Under Biden

We can expect the Biden administration to be far less friendly toward this First Amendment right.
by Michael Swartz: In one of his final acts as president, Donald Trump declared today, January 22, Sanctity of Human Life Day. Trump’s declaration — already archived by the federal government — stated today was a day to “celebrate the wonder of human existence and renew our resolve to build a culture of life where every person of every age is protected, valued, and cherished.”

We don’t know if this Trump proclamation can be rescinded by Joe Biden, but it led us in our humble shop to wonder how this date will be observed: as a commemoration of the sanctity of life on a date that’s otherwise a grim reminder of Roe v. Wade? Or as a glorious celebration of legalized abortion? (If the latter, brace yourself for Roe’s golden anniversary two years hence.)

While Biden is a professed Catholic — only the second such president in our nation’s history — his track record on abortion is troubling indeed. As NBC News put it, “[Biden’s] position on abortion has evolved throughout his career. Most recently, in 2019, he dropped his long-standing support of the Hyde Amendment, a decades-old policy restricting federal funding for abortions, after having faced mounting criticism. He has also vowed to codify Roe v. Wade and to fight state-level policies limiting access to abortion.” Get that? “Evolved.”

It doesn’t get a whole lot better in other realms of religious liberty. However, James Freeman of The Wall Street Journal strikes a hopeful tone, noting that the Biden administration has had a court case involving religious freedom and gender “transition” procedures dropped into its lap by a North Dakota appeals court. “[Biden] should immediately call off this federal campaign against religious liberty,” declared Freeman, “rather than forcing Tuesday’s winners to continue to slog their way through the court system against a vengeful Washington bureaucracy.”

The reality, however, is that Biden campaigned against religious rights. On the eve of the election, our Thomas Gallatin warned voters, “A vote for Biden is a vote against religious liberty and freedom of speech. It’s a vote against tolerance. It’s a vote against the core ideal of religious liberty upon which America was built.” In this case, Gallatin was decrying the Biden pledge of passing the Equal Rights Amendment in his first 100 days, creating a “right” of sexual “identity” regardless of biological sex (a.k.a. the science).

Biden has since doubled down on this threat, selecting a person born biologically male but living as a woman as the new assistant secretary for health. Dr. Rachel Levine (born Richard) is a pediatrician who was appointed to a Pennsylvania state post by a Democrat governor in 2017, six years after he “transitioned” and four years after divorcing his female wife. Once again quoting Gallatin, “This perfectly underscores the Democrats’ radical agenda, which seeks to undercut the very fabric of truth. Levine may be a skilled pediatrician, but he clearly is suffering from serious mental delusions. In the recent past, placing an individual with such a serious mental issue in such a position of authority would have been unthinkable. Yet today it is not only celebrated, but anyone who dares to object is vilified as a bigot.”

Followers of Christ believe it’s perfectly reasonable to question the mental wellbeing of those who defile their bodies while ignoring the Scriptural reference that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. That, of course, doesn’t give us license to demean or mistreat them. Corollary to that, those who believe in that manner may feel they can’t participate in the charade of allowing someone to change their gender. That’s the stance taken in the North Dakota court case alluded to above, Religious Sisters of Mercy v. Azar.

And the answer may have to be found in the courts, at least for the next two to four years. (That timeframe assumes that a potential Republican-controlled Congress would have the guts to dare President Biden to live up to his proclaimed religious beliefs.) Given that a new coalition of legal groups has made it its mission to “wage relentless legal warfare” against the racism of Critical Race Theory, perhaps we can use that model to strengthen existing groups that advocate for religious freedom as well.

Whereas the Trump administration fought for religious liberty, the Biden administration will likely fight against it. Indeed, in the upcoming months we’ll have to render unto Caesar what is his. But that doesn’t mean we have to willingly give an inch for what isn’t.
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Michael Swartz writes for The Patriot Post

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Break Area for Thousands of Guard Troops Abruptly Moved from Capitol to Garage with Single Restroom

by Matthew Cox: U.S. Capitol Police abruptly relocated the break area for thousands of National Guard members providing security in Washington, D.C. off Capitol grounds today and into a crowded garage with limited restroom facilities, prompting an outcry from some troops.

Roughly 26,000 Guard members were rushed into D.C. to support federal law enforcement for Wednesday's inauguration of President Joe Biden after a violent riot on Jan. 6 led to a breach of the Capitol.

A week ago, Guard troops were photographed resting on the floors of the Capitol while on breaks during 12-hour guard-duty shifts.

Politico reported that one day after the uneventful inauguration ceremony, Guard members were told to take their breaks in a parking garage "without internet reception, with just one electrical outlet, and one bathroom with two stalls for 5,000 troops."

"Yesterday dozens of senators and congressmen walked down our lines taking photos, shaking our hands and thanking us for our service," one Guard member told Politico. "Within 24 hours, they had no further use for us and banished us to the corner of a parking garage. We feel incredibly betrayed."

The news comes after the Guard announced today that 15,000 Guard members will be rapidly leaving D.C. to return to their home states over the next 10 days.

The National Guard Bureau put out a statement Thursday night, stressing that the Guard continues to support the U.S. Capitol Police to secure the area around the Capitol and other monuments in D.C.

"As Congress is in session and increased foot traffic and business is being conducted, Capitol Police asked the troops to move their rest area," according to the statement.

"They were temporarily relocated to the Thurgood Marshall Judicial Center garage with heat and rest room facilities.

"We remain an agile and flexible force to provide for the safety and security of the Capitol and its surrounding areas."

Some troops seemed to take the move in stride, as one Guard member told Politico that there may be an "important reason for us to vacate, and it just hasn't been well communicated yet."

Two soldiers were concerned about being in the tight space with just one restroom during the COVID-19 pandemic, and told Politico that "at least 100 Guard members had tested positive" for the virus.

On June 15, District of Columbia National Guard officials said that 43 Guard members had tested positive for COVID-19, but were unable to confirm an updated number when contacted Thursday night.

Now that the inauguration has passed, some Guard troops could begin leaving as soon as this weekend, Guard officials said today.

Approximately 7,000 Guard troops are expected to remain in D.C. through the end of January.
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Matthew Cox writes for Military.com.

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America’s Great Purge (and Israel)

by Caroline Glick: President Joe Biden and the small crowd assembled on the Washington Mall for his inauguration Wednesday celebrated the event as “democracy’s day.” But in truth, the state of democracy in America today is nothing to celebrate.

The talking heads on TV, Democrats and a smattering of anti-Trump Republicans insist that the fault for all of America’s political woes lies with former president Donald Trump and the senators and congressmen who joined him in questioning the results of the election in several swing states.

For refusing to set aside evidence of widespread election fraud, they stand accused of inciting an insurrection and so endangering the foundations of American democracy. Trump was impeached for his statements at the January 6 rally. And Democrat lawmakers are calling for Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley to be expelled from the Senate for questioning the electoral college votes from states with widespread allegations of election fraud.

The accusers forget conveniently that Democrat leaders from Nancy Pelosi to Hillary Clinton have insisted since November 2016 that Trump’s electoral victory was “illegitimate” and the job of good Americans was to “resist” his “regime.”

They forget as well that Democrat lawmakers objected to the certification of the electoral college ballots in 2016. And when their objections failed to overturn the election results, a protest broke out in the visitors’ gallery of the Capitol. Several protesters were arrested.

No one in the media or in the coastal elite ever accused Pelosi and Clinton of inciting an insurrection even as hundreds of thousands of protesters filled the streets demanding that Trump be overthrown.

Republicans still unafraid of being called domestic terrorists and insurrectionists insist that if the violent protesters in the Capitol on January 6 were insurrectionists, their “insurrection” was but a pale glimmer of the insurrection mounted in the streets of America’s cities throughout the spring and summer, with the enthusiastic support and financial backing of Democrat leaders and their corporate sponsors. 700 police officers were injured, dozens of citizens were killed, tens of thousands of businesses were destroyed and vandalized during the Antifa and BlackLivesMatter riots. Property damage and losses were assessed at $2 billion. Government buildings were besieged, burned to the ground and vandalized.

The truth is that both Democrats and Republicans are wrong. Politicians from all sides and at all levels of government have long questioned election results. And no matter how strident their rejection of the results may have been, their actions never undermined America’s democratic foundations.

Likewise, America has been the site of mass protests since before the Revolution. The right to protest is considered so sacred that it is protected in the First Amendment of the Constitution. There are laws governing where the line between protests and lawbreaking lies. And policing protests is as American as the protests themselves. Protests do not threaten American democracy.

The great danger to American democracy is not to be found in the streets. It is certainly not to be found in politicians debating how votes were counted and collected.

The grave danger to American democracy emanates from the unprecedented fusion between the Democrat Party and corporate America. Political philosopher Angelo Codevilla referred to this unity of forces as a ruling “oligarchy” that is replacing the American Republic.

The emerging “oligarchy” is currently enacting something that can rightly be dubbed, “The Great Purge.”

The Great Purge, an event without precedent in American history, isn’t about one side seizing the levers of power for itself. It is about one side denying the other side the right to even vie for power.

The purpose of The Great Purge is not to replace Trump loyalists with Biden loyalists in positions of power in government. Such replacement happens as a matter of course every time a new administration comes into office. The purpose of the Great Purge is to “cancel” the Republican Party and its voters as a legitimate political force and so transform the United States into something approaching a one-party system. To achieve this goal, the Democrats in government and their partners in the corporate and big tech media are using their power to repress, silence, ruin and criminalize tens of millions of private citizens for the “crime” of supporting Trump and the Republican Party.

The Big Tech giants’ coordinated cancellation of all of Trump’s social media accounts almost simultaneously was the opening gambit. It was rapidly followed by Congress’s light speed impeachment of Trump for his alleged role in fomenting the violent protest at the Capitol. Like the social media ban, the impeachment flew through with no debate, no due process, no evidence through the good offices of Democrat lawmakers and their Republican allies who wish to make an example out of Trump. There is every reason to believe that in the coming months and years, the members of the ruling class will continue to abuse their power to destroy Trump whether by bankrupting him or prosecuting him. They must continue to pursue him. For if he perseveres, then they will have failed.

At some point in the near future, Trump will face a Senate trial. As he left the White House on Wednesday morning, Trump had yet to secure legal counsel for the trial. The reason he has no lawyers doesn’t owe to sudden shortage of good defense attorneys in Washington. It owes to fear of the purge. Qualified lawyers are afraid to represent him.

And they should be.

Cleta Mitchell has long been a fixture in Washington legal circles. A senior partner at Foley and Lardner law firm, Mitchell was a member of Trump’s legal team in his electoral challenges in Georgia. When word got out that she was representing him, Democrat operatives from the Lincoln Project began threatening her firm with a client walkout.

The day after the Lincoln Project began threatening the firm’s business, Mitchell announced her resignation. Within an hour of her announcement, all mention of Mitchell was scrubbed from the firm’s website. One of Washington’s top attorneys had been “cancelled.”

Weeks before, the Lincoln Project did the same thing to two other law firms whose partners were representing Trump’s legal challenges to the Pennsylvania election results. The attorneys saved themselves from immediate cancellation by immediately cancelling their representation of the President of the United States.

Since January 6, petitions of lawyers and law students demanding that Senators Cruz and Hawley be disbarred for lawfully challenging the electoral college votes of disputed states have garnered thousands of signatures. Harvard students are demanding the university withdraw the degrees of Trump advisors and political allies.

Regular Americans who participated in the protests – outside and inside the Capitol – are also being purged. Doctors, lawyers, state lawmakers, policemen and others whose only “crime” was being present have lost their jobs after being “outed.”

Therese Duke, a nurse’s assistant from Massachusetts was one of those “purged.” Duke participated in a protest on January 5 – the night before the Capitol siege — at Freedom Plaza in Washington. She was videoed as she wept, with blood flowing down her face after being punched by a policewoman. Duke’s daughter, a member of the “woke” revolution outed her mother in a leering post on Twitter. The next day, Duke was fired from her job at University of Massachusetts Memorial Health Care. She told a local newspaper that she doesn’t believe she will be able to get another job.

As bad as things are becoming in the private sector, the smoke signals being sent out from Washington are even more alarming. Since January 6, Democrat lawmakers have been preparing legislation that would apply counter-terror laws passed to fight foreign terror groups abroad to investigating and fighting Americans suspected of membership in “domestic terror groups.” Former military, law enforcement and intelligence leaders are pushing for such a move. General Stanley McChrystal, who commanded U.S. forces in Afghanistan spent the past year campaigning against Trump.

Last week McChrystal told Yahoo News, “I see a similar dynamic in the evolution of al Qaeda in Iraq, where a whole generation of angry Arab youth with very poor prospects followed a powerful leader who promised to take them back in time to a better place, and he led them to embrace an ideology that justified their violence. This is now happening in America.”

Former CIA director John Brennan then detailed who the enemy is. Aside from Trump and “lawmakers,” Brennan said the new enemy is comprised of “an unholy alliance of religious extremists, authoritarians, fascists, bigots, racists, nativists and even libertarians.”

Former FBI director James Comey made the goal of the purge explicit. “The Republican Party needs to be burned down or changed,” he told the Guardian.

He figures people would be happy to go along with that.

“Who would want to be part of an organization that at its core is built on lies and racism and know-nothingism? It’s just not a healthy political organization.”

Unfortunately for Israelis, this isn’t just America’s problem. Thanks to New Hope Party Chairman Gideon Sa’ar, Israel is now importing some of the instigators of the purge. Sa’ar has reportedly hired four founders of the Lincoln Project to run his campaign against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Likud ahead of the March elections.

The Lincoln Project is run by former Republicans who have devoted the last four years of their lives to helping Democrats by demonizing Trump, Republicans and Republican voters. Their efforts met with negligible success in the 2020 elections. Trump increased his vote total by 11 million over 2016.

Trump didn’t lose because Republicans stopped supporting him. He lost because the Democrats massively increased their voter base. The Lincoln Project’s performance was so dismal that Cong. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez demanded that it give its outstanding funds – raised from Democrat donors – to Democrat organs that had actually won the election.

But since its election failure, the Lincoln Project as come into its own. When Ocasio Cortez said Democrats should make a database of Trump administration officials to prepare a blacklist, she was pilloried as a totalitarian. But when the “former Republicans,” from the Lincoln Project said they were compiling such a list, it went over without protest. And ever since, the Lincoln Project has led the way in blacklisting and cancelling everyone from Trump’s attorneys to hotels and vacation websites that served Trump supporters who came to Washington on January 6. It is now calling for the firing of everyone from a county election board chairwoman in Georgia to Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

For four years, Israelis have gasped at the similarities between the Israeli left’s unrelenting efforts to destroy Prime Minister Netanyahu, in partnership with the media and the legal fraternity, and the efforts of their American counterparts to destroy Donald Trump.

Sa’ar decision to integrate the instigators of America’s great purge – a purge that is already endangering the democratic order of the most powerful democracy on earth – into Israel’s political bloodstream bodes ill for Israel’s future. And it most certainly tells us something alarming about the direction Sa’ar is interested in taking the country, if his campaign to become the next prime minister succeeds.
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Caroline Glick is the Senior Contributing Editor of Israel Hayom. and the Director of the David Horowitz Freedom Center's Israel Security Project. For more information on Ms. Glick's work, visit carolineglick.com.

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Unifier in Chief

Biden Preached Unity and Bringing the Country Together While Slamming Trump Supporters and Promoting Impeachment 2.0.
Editorial Cartoon by AF "Tony" Branco

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A Call for Unity Among Republicans

Biden’s call for unity rings hollow as his party seeks to silence all opposition. We will not be silenced. Instead, we must become stronger by uniting as a party in our just cause of liberty and freedom.
by Catherine Mortensen: In his inaugural address, President Joe Biden used the word “unity” eight times but failed to denounce the growing cancel culture coming from the Left that is tearing our country apart. He did not even acknowledge the censorship by Big Tech. He did not acknowledge the nasty campaign to blacklist former Trump appointees and deny them future employment. There can be no unity in a country where those in the majority seek to purge all dissenting views. Rather than seek to unite with people attempting to silence us, we must seek unity within our own ranks.

I have been a registered Republican since I voted for George H.W. Bush in 1988. I was a college student living in Boston at the time. My father, a career Air Force officer, and the rest of my family were stationed in Okinawa, Japan. Somehow my legal address was still with my parents because I had to request an absentee ballot to vote. It required a little extra effort, but I was determined to vote.

My father inspired my lifelong desire to be politically engaged. Growing up I learned that the first vote he cast for president was for John F. Kennedy in 1960. That was the first and only time he ever voted for a Democrat and as far as I know, he never regretted it. Kennedy espoused the views most Republicans hold today – the idea that we are to serve our country, not the other way around.

Today’s GOP is not pefect. But it is a place that welcomes all who embrace freedom and liberty. GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel was on Fox News this week and invited all to unite.

“We are only going to win back the majority if we unite,” McDaniel said. “The Democrats are the cancel culture party. We’re the party for everyone. So let’s just make sure we extend a hand to every American and talking about cutting taxes, deregulation and the promise of this country, and freedom of speech and religion. And that’s how we’ll draw people with positivity.”


The Republican Party was born out of our nation’s struggle to end slavery. We are the party that ended that terrible scourge that so divided our nation 160 years ago. We have always been the party that fights for the forgotten man and woman. We are the party of the hard-working Americans who aren’t looking to the government to solve their problems.

We are the party that stood up to the labor unions when they became the bullies of the free markets. My grandfather was a loyal union member in the 1950s and 60s, back when unions represented the little guy. He was a native Hispanic from a tiny farming village in Northern New Mexico, who thanks to union wages and hard work was able to elevate his family to the middle-class.

We are the party of peace through strength. That’s how we won the Cold War and achieved the lasting peace we enjoy today. I was a high school student when Democrats denounced President Reagan’s hard-line approach with the former Soviet Union. They claimed we were on the brink of nuclear annihilation. They were wrong. Republicans were right.

We are the party that fights for a strong economy that creates jobs. We are the party that protects paychecks from high government taxes. We fight for lower taxes. We eliminate government regulations that hamper job growth. We unleash our nation’s vast energy resources.

That is not to say our party has always been right, because we haven’t been. The party has disappointed me many times over the years. It disappointed me when it incrementally grew the size and scope of the federal government over the last half-century. It disappointed me when it created the massive government surveillance state after the 9-11 attacks.

But, at a time when Democrats control all the levers of power in Washington, D.C., our best chance of saving our country and fighting government tyranny will come from a strong, united loyal opposition. History will show that we were in the right. We are the big tent party that welcomes all voices who share our love of freedom.

While we are in the minority in the Senate, Republicans still have legislative tools and options for stopping the Biden agenda. For example, in the Senate, we can use the filibuster to stop Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer from packing the Supreme Court and adding the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico at states. We can use it to stop Democrats from implementing the public option for socialized medicine and passing the Green New Deal.

Biden’s call for unity rings hollow as Big Tech and institutional elites on the Left seek to silence all opposition. We will not be silenced. Instead, we must become stronger by uniting as a party in our just cause of liberty and freedom.
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Catherine Mortensen is Vice President of Communications at Americans for Limited Government.

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The $165,000 Question

by Paul Jacob: How far will the enemies of liberty go?

Well, almost all the way to armed robbery, for the latest outrage by foes of individual rights looks an awful lot like just that, plain armed robbery.

The victims?

The owners and staff of Atilis Gym in Bellmawr, New Jersey.

On January 13, at the behest of Governor Phil Murphy, state officials seized the assets of the gym. These assets included $165,000 in the business’s bank account, all of which, says co-owner Ian Smith, had come from donations and online sales of T-shirts and other apparel.

For months, the owners of Atilis have been involved in a pitched battle with the state of New Jersey over orders to shut down the gym, which they have kept open despite those orders (for which disobedience they were arrested in July). Atilis has been pursuing litigation to overturn the order, revocation of its license, and fines ($15,000+ per day) that the state has imposed to punish the defiance.

Smith is asking for our help as he and his business partner confront Leviathan.

“This was never about protection, it was always about control,” he says. “Please continue to support us in any way possible. Please share as much as you possibly can this story and help us continue our fight.”

Visit the Atilis Gym website to buy merchandise, and visit the gym’s GoFundMe page to “support the efforts to reopen and stay open” and to help staff and members cope with the financial hardships imposed by the shutdown order.

And subsequent armed robbery.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Paul Jacob (@Common_Sense_PJ) is author of Common Sense which provides daily commentary about the issues impacting America and about the citizens who are doing something about them. He is also President of the Liberty Initiative Fund (LIFe) as well as Citizens in Charge Foundation. Jacob is a contributing author on the ARRA News Service.

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‘Uncle Tom’ Blacklisted by Hollywood

by Larry Elder: Actor Ben Affleck once explained why he found it difficult to watch Republican actors on screen. “It’s…hard,” explained Affleck, “to get people to suspend disbelief. … When I watch a guy I know is a big Republican, part of me thinks, I probably wouldn’t like this person if I met him, or we would have different opinions. That (expletive) fogs the mind when you should be paying attention and be swept into the illusion.”

This likely explains why “Uncle Tom,” the documentary on which I worked as executive producer, gets no love from the lists of best documentaries of 2020. A critical and financial success by any measure, the gross earnings of “Uncle Tom,” so far, exceed seven times its cost and counting. It recently became available on iTunes, Amazon Prime and Walmart online, as well as on store shelves.

Former CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson recently wrote about the film’s snub with the headline: “Censored: Larry Elder’s ‘Uncle Tom’ film.” But the Hollywood trade publications Variety and Hollywood Reporter? Silence.

The Chicago Tribune’s John Kass, a political writer, wrote a piece headlined “What Frightens the American Left: Larry Elder’s New Documentary ‘Uncle Tom.'” Kass writes: “Is there anything more frightening to the American political left and their high media priests of the woke world than Black Americans who think for themselves and refuse to kneel? … And so, they are demeaned by Democratic politicians and either ignored outright or marginalized as race traitors, sellouts and ‘Uncle Toms.’ It’s a way to humiliate them, shut them up, and cancel them. And the party’s handmaidens of the media play along. But that’s one reason why Larry Elder’s stunning new film, ‘Uncle Tom: An Oral History of the American Black Conservative,’ is so important, especially now.”

Each of the following three year-end lists of “best” documentary films of 2020 ignores “Uncle Tom,” despite an IMDb viewer rating higher than any on the lists — in most cases, far higher. (IMDb, the Internet Movie Database website, assigns films a rating, from one to 10, based on viewers’ reviews.)

First, Polygon’s list: 1) “Dick Johnson Is Dead,” 7.5 (IMDb rating); 2) “Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets,” 7.3; 3) “Welcome to Chechnya,” 7.9; 4) “Collective,” 8.4; 5) “You Don’t Nomi,” 6.7; 6) “The Go-Go’s,” 7.5; 7) “Mucho Mucho Amor,” 7.2; 8) “I Am Greta,” 5.2; 9) “Mayor,” 7.5; 10) “City Hall,” 7.3.

Next, Paste Magazine’s top-25 list, listed alphabetically, without rankings, contains some of the same films, but many others are not on the first list. The new additions are: “76 Days,” 7.1; “David Byrne’s American Utopia,” 8.3; “The Annotated Field Guide of Ulysses S. Grant,” N/A; “Boys State,” 7.7; “City So Real,” 7.4; “Crip Camp,” 7.8; “Epicentro,” 6.8; “Feels Good Man,” 7.6; “Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds,” 7.0; “The Grand Bizarre,” 6.7; “Heimat Is a Space in Time,” 6.8; “The History of the Seattle Mariners,” N/A; “I Walk on Water,” 6.7; “Malni — Towards the Ocean, Towards the Shore,” 6.2; “The Metamorphosis of Birds,” 7.8; “The Painter and the Thief,” 7.6; “Sunless Shadows,” 7.3; “Time,” 7.2; “Vick,” 7.4.

Finally, there’s IndieWire, an independent film website whose 2020 “best of” list (unranked and listed alphabetically) also ignores “Uncle Tom.” The films on its “best of” but not already listed above include: “All In: The Fight for Democracy,” 6.3; “Athlete A”, 7.7; “Gunda,” 7.4; “The Mole Agent,” 7.6; “The Social Dilemma,” 7.7.

Not a single film on these three lists achieved an IMDb rating of 8.5 or more. Not one. “Collective” registered the highest at 8.4. How did “Uncle Tom,” again, shut out on all three lists, rate on IMBD? 8.9. Not a typo: 8.9.

Finally, of the last 10 Oscar winners for Best Documentary, none has a higher IMDb rating than “Uncle Tom.” None. Only one matched its 8.9 rating. See you at the Academy Awards?
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Larry Elder (@larryelder) is a best-selling author and radio talk-show host, an American lawyer, writer and radio and television personality who is also known as the "Sage From South Central." To find out more about Larry Elder. Visit his website at LarryElder.com for list of other articles.

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Will Biden Place Political Correctness Ahead of Military Readiness on Transgender Policy?

A police officer stands guard on July 26, 2017, as protesters gather in
New York City's Times Square near a military recruitment center in 
opposition to then-President Donald Trump's decision to reinstate
restrictions on transgender individuals serving in the military. 

by Thomas Spoehr: At his Tuesday confirmation hearing, President Joe Biden’s nominee to be secretary of defense, retired Gen. Lloyd Austin, asked about service by transgendered people in the military, replied that if “you are fit, and you’re qualified to serve, and you can maintain the standards, you should be allowed to serve.”

That is indeed the correct answer—but apparently not the path Biden intends to pursue. On Wednesday, new White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced that Biden intends to reverse existing military transgender policy “in the coming days and weeks.”

The existing policy—that of former President Donald Trump and then-Defense Secretary James Mattis—allowed transgender individuals to serve, provided they did not suffer from a condition called gender dysphoria.

Despite being widely referred to as a “transgender ban,” the policy provided more leniency and opportunity than policy that had been in effect for decades prior to 2017.

Biden’s apparent intent to discard that policy would ignore the important distinction between those transgender individuals who suffer from gender dysphoria and those who don’t.

Gender dysphoria is a medically recognized psychological condition that results from an incongruence between one’s sex assigned at birth and one’s gender identity.

In late 2017, Mattis began a six-month study to identify the best policy for the Department of Defense with regard to service by transgender individuals.

In the course of that review, he found Department of Defense clinical and U.S. survey data that reflected individuals with gender dysphoria attempt suicide at rates between eight and 10 times the average for individuals not suffering from gender dysphoria.

Further, the study found individuals with gender dysphoria experience severe anxiety at between eight and nine times the rate of individuals without gender dysphoria.

What’s more, the report found no evidence that medical treatment, including gender-reassignment surgery, reliably remedies gender dysphoria.

Military service is inherently stressful. Military suicide rates already exceed the U.S. average. Exposing individuals already predisposed to mental injury—such as those with gender dysphoria—would be immoral and simultaneously present a clear risk to military readiness.

For that reason, Mattis enacted a nuanced policy that allowed service by transgender individuals free from gender dysphoria—giving the lie to those who refer to the current policy as a “ban.”

However, he deemed individuals suffering from gender dysphoria to be ineligible for military service, joining a list of other medically disqualifying conditions, such as asthma, severe depression, or anxiety.

The policy struck the best possible compromise permitting those who—as Austin described—are “fit and qualified” to serve their country while preventing service by those for whom military service presents a clear risk.

News that Biden intends to quickly overturn existing policy ignores those important considerations and instead prioritizes campaign promises made to the trans community over the need to maintain a strong and ready military.

America’s military is already under pressure to do more with less. The last couple of years have witnessed military budgets that do not keep up with inflation. The services are smaller than their leaders say they need to be, while our adversaries are increasing their capabilities at an alarming pace.

The military counts on having a commander in chief who will have its back and support policies that will make it more, not less, capable. If this change is implemented by Biden, it will be an early sign he values political correctness above military readiness.
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Thomas W. Spoehr is a retired Army Lieutenant General and is director of the Center for National Defense at The Heritage Foundation.

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On 48th Anniversary of Roe, Supreme Court will Decide Whether to Hear Case to Overturn It

U.S. Supreme Court

The case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, challenges the state law prohibiting the direct killing of preborn children after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
by Patrick Delaney: On January 22, the 48th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to decide whether it will take up a major abortion case out of Mississippi.

A ruling in favor of Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban, should the court decide to hear the case, would essentially mean overturning Roe, which imposed abortion on demand across the country in 1973.

The case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, challenges the state law prohibiting the direct killing of preborn children after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The state’s Gestational Age Act makes no exceptions for incidents of rape or incest after this period, but only for medical emergencies or cases in which there is “severe fetal abnormality.”

Mississippi 15-week #abortion ban case (Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, 19-1392) has been relisted by #SCOTUS for conference on Friday, Jan. 22 – the 48th anniversary of the #RoevWade abortion decision: https://t.co/Gyf4wI5Qlh https://t.co/oqcNSk4P3h

— Samuel Lee (@samuelhlee) January 19, 2021

In 2018, less than 24 hours after it was signed into law, a federal judge struck down the law, and his ruling was upheld by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2019.

Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch requested the Supreme Court consider the case last June, and then in October filed a supplemental brief offering additional arguments based on references to a recent decision of the court regarding hospital admitting privileges in Louisiana.

“The petition asks the court to clarify its jurisprudence on abortion to allow states like ours to enact laws that further their legitimate interests in protecting maternal health, safeguarding unborn babies, and promoting respect for innocent and vulnerable life,” Fitch said in a June statement. “We are hopeful that the court will accept our case and allow Mississippi to defend innocent life as the legislature and the people of this great state intend.”

The original June request asked “whether all pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortions are unconstitutional,” and whether these kinds of laws “should be analyzed under Casey’s ‘undue burden’ standard or Hellerstedt’s balancing of benefits and burdens.”

More importantly, the petition asks the Court to address the “contradictions” in its use of viability “as a bright line for measuring abortion legislation” since Roe v. Wade. “The viability line that Roe articulated was always, as Justice O’Connor recognized, on a collision course with itself for it failed to give full credence to the fact ‘that the State’s interest in protecting potential human life exists throughout the pregnancy,’” it says.

Consequently, if the Supreme Court decides to hear the petition, it will have the opportunity “to consider and decide whether Roe’s viability dicta should be validated or repudiated.”
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Patrick Delaney shared this article in Life Site News

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Tags: atrick Delaney, LifeSite.News, On 48th Anniversary of Roe, Supreme Court, will Decide Whether to Hear Case, to Overturn Roe To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!<