“The weakness and stupidity of America’s right has allowed false narratives to cement in the minds of the public. It’s killing our freedoms. It’s killing our jobs. It’s killing our families. It’s killing our schools. It’s killing our nation.”
– The Compound Fractures of Identity Politics
Political Theater & Our Toxic Political Environment: It was never the goal of the House to find out what happened on January 6th and then assign blame. No investigation, no due process, doctored evidence, selective evidence, and hence, a completely politicized impeachment. They were attempting to assign complete and total blame to President Trump, regardless of the facts.
Anyone who participated in stirring up emotions and empowered rioting, looting and violence, both verbal and physical, is/was part of the problem.
· Yes, President Trump contributed to the toxic political environment.
· But yes, President Biden contributed to the toxic political environment…directly suggesting he punch out the sitting president.
· And yes, Vice President Harris contributed to the toxic political environment by encouraging bailing out rioters and looters and joking about violence.
· Speaker Pelosi and several Democratic Members of Congress openly encouraged and/or dismissed left wing violence.
· Mainstream Media GREATLY contributed to the toxic political environment by demonizing President Trump and his allies and ignoring the radical agenda of ANTIFA, Black Lives Matters and others…while encourage the “woke” cancel culture.
Plenty of blame to go around. None are exempt from some responsibility for the toxic political culture we currently live with.
The Democrats continue to politicize this situation because it appears that the ONLY thing that unites them is their anti-Trump mantra. This is bad for the country.
Move ON – Move Forward: The progressive liberal Democrats won the election, impeached Trump twice, shamelessly and ruthlessly had their allies in the mainstream media almost constantly pound on Trump at every chance they got. After four years or shameless “resist” and most recently, with their “woke” cancel culture…enough is enough! (Click for the Washington Times article that quotes Saul’s commentary)
America is ready to move on. The political banter is getting old. How many times can you say the same thing over and over again? At some stage, the Democrats have to stand for something more than just being anti-Trump.
If you’re not willing to move on…at least move forward.
Republicans, and yes Trump, pushed for and achieved energy independence…Democrats are trying to roll that back.
Republicans & Trump created energy policies that lowered U.S. emissions far below the goals of the Paris Accords without stifling American industry…Democrats are rolling that back.
Republicans & Trump lowered taxes and deregulated the economy…Democrats are rolling that back.
Republicans & Trump kept our country at peace, lowered the temperature in the Middle East, put Russia and China on notice, and isolated Iran…Democrats are rolling that back.
If Trump was part of ANY policy, the progressive left of the Democratic party is rolling it back…just because of their “woke” cancel culture. More Executive Orders in the first 30 days than any other President in American history. More purely partisan proposals, with NO effort to build bi-partisan bridges, more than any other American President.
This is NOT a good thing. This will only further divide our country.
The Democrats won…they are in control…it is their responsibility and obligation to reach out to the other side. And you can’t do that by constantly attacking everything and everybody you disagree with just because they supported President Trump.
The progressive left’s “woke” cancel culture IS the greatest threat to America as we’ve known it. The enemy within, unwilling to talk, debate, compromise or look for consensus IS a very big part of the problem. The Democrats now control EVERY lever of power. It is their responsibility and obligation to lead.
Someone has to start. President Biden’s rhetoric after his election and at the inaugural were hopeful and optimistic. But his actions, staffing and allies actions are vindictive, hateful and openly looking for revenge.
The President claims to be the leader of his party. It is his responsibility in this position to have his actions and language match his rhetoric. If he wants to move the country forward, if he honestly wants bipartisanship, he is the ONLY one who can lead his party toward a reconciliation with Republicans and half of the country that is yearning for his leadership.
Bring our Troops Home…from DC: This is ridiculous. Intelligence agencies said there were no credible threats at the inaugural or going forward, yet we have more fences and troops “defending” the ruling elite than we do at our border. Think about that…
We need to return to the rule of law. That means arrest and prosecute people who riot, loot, destroy property or attack others. When society (Democratic led states & cities) creates an environment where it’s OK to turn demonstrations into riots…and then not arrest or prosecute the bad guys…the bad guys assume they can get away with it anywhere.
ANTIFA, Proud Boys, Black Live Matter and other anarchists and revolutionaries have been empowered by politicians…and let’s say it, on BOTH sides of the aisles. I understand about symbolism and the attack on our Capitol was criminal…but so was the burning of our streets across the country. A life is a life, a building is a building, a criminal is a criminal…justice must be blind.
Let’s remember, President Trump offered additional National Guard troops to safeguard the Capitol in general, yet Speaker Pelosi and the Democratic Mayor of D.C. refused the extra support that could have STOPPED the riot before it started because of political “optics.”
Don’t let the government use the excuse of rioting, incompetence and lack of political will to deal with extremist to create a police state. Every day, your civil liberties are disappearing in front of your eyes because we turn a blind eye to violence in the name of political correctness.
Calling Independent Democrats: Pelosi & Schumer seem to have blinded most Democrats in their caucus regarding their responsibilities to represent their constituents. They are forcing these “sheep” to vote purely on party lines, ignoring their home constituencies. So where are the independent, moderate Democrats representing working class Middle America?
Any group of Democrats who could put together about 10-12 votes can control the House…talk about the power to change things…if they have the guts to represent their constituents!?!
How about a…
Democratic Energy Caucus: There are plenty of Democrats who represent states and constituencies that make America energy independent. Many represent the thousands of union workers whose jobs were killed with the killing of the Keystone Pipeline.
Democratic Auto Caucus: Talk about Middle America! Millions of Americans are represented by Democrats in auto manufacturing and auto supplier states and districts. The middle class was built on the Auto Industry…and the Green New Deal will kill the domestic auto industry.
Democratic Intelligence/Defense Caucus: In the last few elections a new slew of supposedly “strong defense” Democrats who served in the military and among our intelligence agencies won seats in Congress. They were going to “mainstream” the Democrats and make sure America was strong and ready to defend herself. Where are they? Where have they been? Democrats advocate cutting defense spending and gutting our intelligence services while creeping in a “1984” mode of domestic surveillance.
Democratic Civil Libertarians: There used to be Democrats who were fearful of big government, big brother, and other three letter agencies that could/would spy on Americans in the name of security & terror related concerns. Now they blindly back draconian legislation that could drastically restrict our freedom of thought, speech, and assembly.
Democratic Progressive Caucus: AOC (#AlexandriaOcasioSmollett) and her “squad” are loud, but don’t seem to have the guts to do squat! They get lots of coverage for threatening moderate Democrats and claim they can take out Democrats in primaries…but so far, other than scaring Schumer in New York…they speak (yell) loudly and carry a little stick.
Democratic Pro-First Amendment Caucus: No thanks, cancel woke culture prevails. Ministry of Truth?!?
Democratic Pro-Life Caucus: I guess not.
Democratic Pro-Second Amendment Caucus: In hiding.
Democratic Manufacturing Jobs Caucus: Hoping no one notices.
Democratic Balanced Budget Caucus: Say what?!?
Eventually Americans will see what happened to their parent’s Democratic Party…and they will look for an alternative. Republicans need to provide answers, programs, vision, and alternatives that matter to Americans across the board. As we have seen (and hopefully learned) elections are about choices and right now most of the country is frustrated and thinks there’s slim pickings.
Balance Budget Amendment: With Congress and the White House in the hands of progressive liberals, now more than ever we have to complete the effort to call for an Article 5 Constitutional Convention to pass a Balance Budget Amendment.
Join the effort at with the BBA Task Force which explains: The U.S. national debt ($27.9 trillion) is now 7 times federal revenue ($3.6 trillion), a serious imbalance that will cost us over $600 billion (16.5% of federal revenue) in 2021. We’ve already seen a $1 trillion spike in the 2020 deficit in just the last month as the Corona-virus stimulus starts to add up. It is hard to calculate where we will be at the end of the year, but the one thing we can say for certain is that it will be on for the record books.
The root cause of the problem was best explained by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee when it concluded, “the many statutory constraints enacted over the years to control spending failed because no Congress can bind a succeeding Congress by simple statute.” Therefore, only a balanced budget amendment (BBA) will do. Given Congress’ 75-year failure to propose a BBA, the states must do so by calling an Article V convention.
Join this fight to get a Balance Budget Amendment and it will be much less important as to what political party controls Congress.
–Saul Anuzis
Click Here for Past Commentary from Saul
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60 Plus Weekly Video Rewind
The RNC launches new “Election Integrity” committee, Joe Biden stretches the truth about vaccines, and talk radio legend Rush Limbaugh passes away at age 70.
Links to the articles discussed in the video:
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/reaganmccarthy/2021/02/17/rnc-electionintegrity-n2584903
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-claim-covid-19-vaccine
https://www.foxnews.com/media/rush-limbaugh-dead-talk-radio-conservative-icon
(PLEASE read…EXCLLENT discussion! -Saul) The Compound Fractures of Identity Politics
“our classical liberal traditions of fierce competition of ideas, mutual tolerance, political compromise, and individual freedom are visibly withering”
Every citizen fatality in the custody of a government official—like George Floyd’s excruciating death in Minneapolis—deserves a solemn response and ultimate accounting, including both criminal investigation and broader assessment. The fear and fury flowing from recent law-enforcement casualties, however, have been inflamed and manipulated by opportunists to produce something much more sweeping.
Hard facts and data about our systems of law and policing are being ignored. Emotional hysteria is increasingly substituted for reasoned problem-solving. There is enormous pressure to conform to approved ideological assertions, and people expressing alternate views are often railroaded. Broad attacks on social order, widespread destruction of public and private property, and new waves of street crime have unfolded. There is open hostility toward the fundamentals of American justice and governance. It is now routinely claimed that “the United States government was founded on racist intellectual premises and economic practices that institutionalized oppression of people of color that continues to the present day” (to quote the Seattle Public Schools). U.S. society as a whole is characterized as a “system of oppression.”
In consequence, our classical liberal traditions of fierce competition of ideas, mutual tolerance, political compromise, and individual freedom are visibly withering. Yet there is scant resistance to any of this among elites. Journalists, social leaders, academics, clergy, businesspeople, and many politicians show little awareness that essential American principles are being washed away. Liberal leaders and liberalism itself are being superseded by forces much more inflexible and despotic.
At the root of our current crisis lies the dogma of identity politics. Created on university campuses and incubated among the young for more than a generation, this ideology now surges through the media, commerce, the nonprofit sector, and government. Identity politics asserts that civilization is a battle among groups, with dominant forces ruling by oppressing and manipulating the disempowered. It “atomizes society into different interest groups according to sex, race, sexual preference,” as author Douglas Murray summarizes in The Madness of Crowds, and “presumes that such characteristics are the main, or only, relevant attributes of their holders.” Once they have adopted a worldview defined by color, sexuality, and economic grievance and have built up levels of offense and outrage sufficient to justify a radical reorganizing of American society, proponents of identity politics are said to be “woke.”
The First Step Toward Righting America Is Refusing To Believe The Left
The weakness and stupidity of America’s right has allowed false narratives to cement in the minds of the public. It’s killing our freedoms. It’s killing our jobs. It’s killing our families. It’s killing our schools. It’s killing our nation.
Did you know that you can see The Great Wall of China from outer space? Is that not absolutely incredible? I heard this cool little fact from a friend some time ago and began telling everyone I knew about this cool trivia nugget.
What really blew me away was how almost everyone I told had already heard this and agreed with me that it is a very cool fact. A man-made wall you can see from outer space. That is just incredible.
I mean, it would be incredible, if it were true. You see, it is not true—not even a little. NASA and multiple individual astronauts have debunked this myth. Yet much of the general public believes it to be a fact, as NASA points out.
But why? The narrative. That is why. There is nothing more powerful (and destructive) in today’s world than the narrative.
The narrative, as I define it, is simply an assumption or set of assumptions widely accepted by the general public as facts. As we know, facts cannot be changed. That is why they are facts.
This is also why it is so critical to ensure the general public gets an accurate narrative. Otherwise, if the base set of publicly believed facts is wrong, every step after that will also be incorrect. It’s like getting swallowed up by an avalanche and digging ferociously in the wrong direction.
Why the Republic Can Hold
Almost from the moment it began, the year 2020 seemed to be building toward some terrible climax. We can barely remember it now, but in the waning days of 2019, the House of Representatives approved articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump along partisan lines, setting the stage for 2020 to open with the drama of a Senate trial. A partisan acquittal came in early February — and then things really got wild. The global Covid-19 pandemic, the consequent economic downturn, the police killing of George Floyd, and the subsequent protests that morphed into riots in many cities all left Americans with the sense that the country was spinning out of control.
These mounting crises brought out the worst in our elected officials. The Republican president appeared feckless in the face of the virus, as his reality-television model of the presidency ran aground when confronted with a real crisis. His efforts to talk the virus out of existence were almost as embarrassing as the willingness of other elected Republicans to play along for the sake of the president’s mood. Progressive mayors, governors, and national politicians followed suit, proving worthless in the face of escalating violence and disorder, refusing to defend the property and safety of those living in their cities — supposedly their core constituency. Presidential candidate Joe Biden’s fitful criticism of the summer’s violent rioting fell largely on deaf ears, while his running mate, Senator Kamala Harris, didn’t hesitate to visit a Wisconsin man shot by police during a domestic dispute as he appeared to be grabbing something from his car. She neglected to visit the two Los Angeles police officers hospitalized after being shot in an ambush attempt on their lives — an incident that occurred in her home state.
For many on the right, 2020 was also a year of mounting fear of cultural-political catastrophe, as the strength of the progressive grip on the commanding heights of American commercial, cultural, educational, and entertainment institutions became increasingly evident through a rolling “woke” revolution. For many on the left, the year saw rising fear of an authoritarian threat to our democracy, which seemed to point toward grave dangers for the election. Some kind of reckoning seemed imminent.
And yet, the year 2020 ended rather anti-climactically. The election proceeded with fairly little disruption, and although Trump and his most ardent followers refused to accept its outcome for some time, that outcome might have eased some of the worst fears on both sides. The public had rejected the president, albeit mildly and half-heartedly, while also denying Democrats the sorts of congressional majorities that might have enabled them to act on their more radical ambitions.
This was a frustrating outcome for many progressives, delighted as they were to see Trump lose. In recent years, they have come to realize that the actual barriers to progressivism’s goal of a fully egalitarian order engendered by identity politics and rooted in global humanitarianism are the American nation and the constitutional government that orders it. As Joshua Mitchell argues in American Awakening, virtually every plank of the Democratic platform now aims at a kind of spiritual purity that transcends the capabilities and limitations of the federal government. These planks do not reflect a disconnect between the party and its base — on the contrary, according to a Politico poll conducted in June, close to a majority of Democrats support defunding the police, while 2020 primary exit polls found that between 47% and 60% of Democratic voters have favorable opinions of socialism. Views held by that many members of a party will not be ignored by its leaders.
Progressives want to construct a social-justice empire ruled by those the old America victimized while ignoring the giant constitutional and policy steps that have brought much of that victimization to an end. But can they achieve the breakthroughs their ambitions demand and their ideology grandiloquently justifies? Or are the highest ambitions of the left, and therefore the worst fears of the right, bound to be rendered moot by our governing institutions? Did 2020, that annus horribilis, somehow manage to end with a real cause for hope in our constitutional order?
It’s Time to Get the National Guard Off of Capitol Hill
In the aftermath of January 6, Capitol Hill was transformed essentially into a military installation, surrounded by high razor-wire fencing, patrolled by National Guardsmen and other security forces, and accessible only via checkpoints.
These were sold as short-term measures, only to last through the inauguration and impeachment. Well, impeachment has come and gone, but it doesn’t seem as if the Capitol area will look much different anytime soon.
To be sure, there are fewer troops: On Inauguration Day, there were some 25,000. Now it’s around 6,000. But already there have been worrying changes to initial assurances, as well as public statements that suggest a more permanent military-style footprint for the Capitol.
… The large-scale presence of National Guardsmen on the Hill should end. These troops have done their duty admirably, but it’s time to go home. New security protocols may be necessary at the Capitol — certainly the police should be better prepared for protests that might run out of control — but they should be carefully thought-through and calibrated. And they shouldn’t include a tall razor-wire fence that symbolically separates our elected representatives from the people they serve.
The U.S. Capitol is one of the marvels of our open society. It shouldn’t be made to look like it belongs in a closed one.
Washington, D.C., Shouldn’t Be an Armed Camp
Policy-makers shouldn’t act as if every day is another potential January 6.
Washington, D.C., is not, counter to what you might think, a war zone.
The city isn’t divided down the middle between the forces of the United States government on one hand and secessionist rebels on the other. Insurgents aren’t mortaring Reagan National Airport. Neither Virginia nor Maryland is about to declare war on the district.
And yet thousands of National Guard troops are still in the city, and security measures undertaken in the immediate aftermath of the riot at the U.S. Capitol remain in place.
This is bad policy and bad symbolism. It is too much, too late. It is a classic bureaucratic overreaction to a failure that can’t be undone by theatrical measures after the fact.
If a fraction of the current National Guard troops had been present at the Capitol on January 6, the mayhem and national trauma might have been avoided. According to press reports, various officials didn’t like the “optics” of having the National Guard on call prior to the protest or rapidly deploying it during the violence — and so, instead, we got the optics of a rabble breaking into the Capitol and, now, the optics of ongoing security overkill.
Biden’s ‘Commonsense’ Gun Controls Make Little Sense
This week President Joe Biden marked the three-year anniversary of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, by urging Congress to “enact commonsense gun law reforms.” The implication was that the gun controls Biden favors would prevent crimes like the Parkland massacre.
There is little reason to think that’s true. The bills Biden is eager to sign would instead arbitrarily limit Second Amendment rights and threaten the viability of the industry that makes it possible to exercise them.
Biden wants to prohibit production and sale of “assault weapons” and require that current owners either surrender their firearms to the government or follow the same tax and registration requirements that apply to machine guns. Yet he concedes that the 1994 federal “assault weapon” ban, which expired in 2004, had no impact on the lethality of legal firearms.
The problem, according to Biden, was that manufacturers could comply with the law by “making minor modifications to their products—modifications that leave them just as deadly.” But there is no way around that problem, since laws like these are based on “military-style” features, such as folding stocks, threaded barrels, and bayonet mounts, that have nothing to do with a weapon’s destructive power.
Even if the government could eliminate all guns with those features, would-be mass shooters would have plenty of equally lethal alternatives. Several of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history were carried out with weapons that would not be covered by Biden’s ban.
It’s a Blacklist, Pure and Simple
Today’s cancel culture harkens back to the excesses of the McCarthy era.
Cancellations had a precursor in the Hollywood Blacklist.
Why should anyone get upset about the ongoing wave of cancellations across the culture, when the government isn’t involved?
This isn’t a First Amendment issue, we are told, rather private entities making their own decisions to disassociate themselves from people who have said or done controversial things.
This line of argument, often made by cancellation apologists, is lacking in a number of respects, including that there is no reason it wouldn’t also justify the Hollywood Blacklist that the Left considers one the darkest moments in American history.
Democrats Squander Their Impeachment-Trial Moment
Where were the details of Trump’s actions while the riot raged? Where was the evidence to support their specific charge of incitement?
If you figure the fate of Donald Trump and the future course of constitutional governance in the United States hinge on how Justin Trudeau feels about the January 6 riot on Capitol Hill, you would have loved being in the Senate chamber watching Democratic House managers’ prosecution of the impeachment case.
On the other hand, if you were wondering what happened to Brian Sicknick, the Capitol police officer who died after the siege, and whom the Democrats formally allege was brutalized by rioters at then-President Trump’s urging, you’d have come to the wrong place.
After more years in the trial biz than I care to count, this was a first for me. In every trial I have ever prosecuted, supervised, or analyzed, if a killing was alleged, then the killing became the central focus of the prosecution’s case. If it was an especially egregious homicide — and Democrats allege that Officer Sicknick was struck in the head with a fire extinguisher by the mob of Trumpies — prosecutors always took their time: opening the case with it, closing the case with it, and in between proving it up in chilling detail.
The impeachment prosecutors mentioned Officer Sicknick’s death almost in passing in their opening, and then seemed to forget it was in their impeachment article during their presentation of evidence. When lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin (D., Md.) closed the case on Thursday afternoon, I counted about five mentions of Thomas Paine but not a single utterance of the name Brian Sicknick. That doesn’t seem like common sense to me.
That is not to say the prosecution did not include hair-raising video of police officers being assaulted and abused. Nor does it mean that Officer Sicknick’s tragic death at age 42 is beside the point. As I said this week in a column on the subject, his demise may well be traceable to the Capitol riot even if the House Democratic prosecutors have misrepresented how it happened. Having set in motion the events that led to the riot, President Trump is accountable for the damage the riot caused.
Exposing Fact-Checker “Mistruths” on 2020 Election Lawsuits
Virtually all “fact-checkers” are members of the Democrat-media complex. They are an important component of the Left’s political tactics seeking to discredit contrarian voices they deem not to be “politically correct” and undermining dissent on Democrat agendas. Not surprisingly, “fact-checking” has nothing to do with checking the facts, but rather is a tactic to discredit material that effectively undermines the Democrat-media narrative. A good example is Snopes:
If you look up election fraud in 2020, Snopes will tell you that it didn’t happen. But if you look up the Trump Campaign colluding with Russia, then Snopes will tell you that that did happen. And if you look more into that “collusion” on Snopes, it will tell you that the information Trump declassified regarding Obamagate and what happened to Michael Flynn is “unverified,” which unfairly erodes its credibility.
So, [according to Snopes], stories that benefit Democrats are all “real” while stories that would benefit the Trump Campaign or align with Republican talking points are “unverified” or “untrue.”
“Whataboutism” Is A Nonsense Word That Defends Hypocrisy
When someone accuses you of whataboutism, you can be pretty certain you are right and they can’t refute it.
Whataboutism is all the rage. It reminds us to be very careful with words one suddenly sees all over the place, ones that were scarcely uttered just a few years ago. The reason for the surge in use is that opponents of Donald Trump, especially those on the right who use whataboutism most, need to defend the ridiculous double standards applied to Trump’s actions and those of the left.
The term has reached a fever pitch during the second impeachment of Trump. There is obvious hypocrisy at work comparing the single riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and the summer of violence the nation endured last year. For progressives this is easy. They think the violent protests of 2020 were fine. But anti-Trump conservatives can’t really do that. They don’t support Vice President Kamala Harris helping to bail out rioting arsonists and know that if Trump had done anything like it he would have been crucified for it when Harris clearly wasn’t.
To get themselves out of this dilemma they appeal to “whataboutism.” The idea has its roots in the Soviet Union, which would use it to deflect from its own horrible actions by pointing to bad actions done by the United States. It is a version of the tu quoque logical fallacy, but with a big difference. In the latter, a personal failing of the person making the accusation is appealed to, not an apples to apples comparison of events with similar contexts.
How Democrats Plan To Amp Up Government Discrimination
‘Equity’ is the buzzword of the new constitution trying to strangle the old one. It holds that government must treat Americans differently according to identity politics categories.
eep your eye on the word “equity,” for it is going to be an important part of your life in the next four years. Not interested? That doesn’t matter; equity has an interest in you.
Still not concerned? If you are affected by the taxes, laws, and regulations passed and implemented by the legislative and executive branches of government, or by the court decisions handed down by the judicial one, then you will be affected.
Or if you are affected by the everyday interpretations of any laws and regulations made by the unelected and un-enumerated branch of government, the permanent bureaucracy (where most power now resides), then you will be affected by “equity.”
If you read the news or are written about by a pompous fourth estate that now sees itself as the stenographers of Big Government and technocratic administration, then you will be affected by ubiquitous “equity.” So, yes, all 330 million Americans are likely to see “equity” enter their lives.
Even if I have your attention now, you may be tempted to say, OK, fine, but isn’t equity just the same as equality, just more modern-sounding? No. Do not confuse the two. They are not even cousins; they are opposites, or better yet, sworn enemies.
Election Do-Over? Latinos For Trump Sue to Shut Congress Down Over Civil Rights Violations
Biannca Gracia has a long history of conducting voter engagement campaigns for Hispanics and Latinos in Texas, in minority outreach for the RNC in Texas, and she is about to lead what she calls the “biggest Civil Rights Action Case since Dr, Martin Luther King Jr.”
“Because of the illegal way the government used emergency powers for COVID to override our voting rights, we did not have our voices heard, and as minorities, we are supposed to have our votes protected. That is what the voting rights acts are about, and the Government did not do their due diligence,” Gracia said.
“We want the entire Congress to shut down because they are unconstitutional and operating illegally, and we are suing all 50 states. We are the Majority. We are the Middle 90%, who had our rights violated by the US Government,” Gracia told me. “The 5% for the Democrat party and the 5% in the Republican party are not in our lawsuit,” she said. “That leaves the Middle 90%.”
The Democrats Just Reintroduced a Labor Law that Would Destroy Uber—And It Could Actually Pass This Time
With control of Congress and the White House, Democrats are making labor policy one of their first priorities. Ironically enough, that’s actually bad news for independent contractors and gig economy workers across the country.
The legislation at the core of their agenda is the PRO Act, which Democrats just re-introduced with sponsors including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer. Among many other things, the bill would severely restrict the legal definition of independent contractors in a way that would largely end the gig economy as we know it.
We’ll Have Herd Immunity by April
Amid the dire Covid warnings, one crucial fact has been largely ignored: Cases are down 77% over the past six weeks. If a medication slashed cases by 77%, we’d call it a miracle pill. Why is the number of cases plummeting much faster than experts predicted?
In large part because natural immunity from prior infection is far more common than can be measured by testing. Testing has been capturing only from 10% to 25% of infections, depending on when during the pandemic someone got the virus. Applying a time-weighted case capture average of 1 in 6.5 to the cumulative 28 million confirmed cases would mean about 55% of Americans have natural immunity.
Now add people getting vaccinated. As of this week, 15% of Americans have received the vaccine, and the figure is rising fast. Former Food and Drug Commissioner Scott Gottlieb estimates 250 million doses will have been delivered to some 150 million people by the end of March.
There is reason to think the country is racing toward an extremely low level of infection. As more people have been infected, most of whom have mild or no symptoms, there are fewer Americans left to be infected. At the current trajectory, I expect Covid will be mostly gone by April, allowing Americans to resume normal life.
My Interview About Getting Back to Civil Debates & Disagreements. For Country!
Saul Anuzis, Former Chairman of the Michigan Republican Party
How to have better arguments online
The troubled times we live in, and the rise of social media, have created an age of endless conflict. Rather than fearing or avoiding disagreement, we need to learn to do it well.
In 2010, Time magazine made Mark Zuckerberg its person of the year. It described Facebook’s mission as being to “tame the howling mob and turn the lonely, antisocial world of random chance into a friendly world”. During the first decade of mass internet use, this was a popular theory: the more that people were able to communicate with others, the more friendly and understanding they would become, the result being a more peaceable and harmonious world.
In 2021, that vision seems painfully naive. Howling online mobs clash day and night, and some of them commit real-world violence. The internet is connecting people, but it isn’t necessarily creating fellow feeling. At its worst, it can resemble a vast machine for the production of mutual antipathy.
Technology is at least partially responsible for a world in which toxic disagreement is ubiquitous; in which offence seems to be constantly given and taken; in which we do ever more talking and ever less listening. The Silicon Valley entrepreneur Paul Graham has observed that the internet is a medium that engenders disagreement by design. Digital media platforms are inherently interactive and, well, people are disputatious.
As Graham puts it, “agreeing tends to motivate people less than disagreeing”. Readers are more likely to comment on an article or post when they disagree with it, and in disagreement they have more to say (there are only so many ways you can say “I agree”). People also tend to get more animated when they disagree, which usually means getting angry.
Liberal groups building $22 million ‘Latino Anti-Disinformation Lab’
Liberal advocacy groups are building a $22 million “Latino Anti-Disinformation Lab” led by Media Matters for America president Angelo Carusone, Voto Latino president María Teresa Kumar, and former Democratic National Committee chair Tom Perez.
Media Matters, liberals’ leading media watchdog, and Voto Latino, a liberal voter registration group focused on Hispanic voters, announced the new effort to combat what they perceive as misinformation and disinformation about democracy and public health aimed at Hispanic communities.
“The need for this initiative is clear. In the months leading up to the 2020 general election, voters were subject to higher levels of mis- and disinformation than ever before,” said the groups in an announcement. “Spanish and English language voter fraud misinformation, fear-mongering tactics, and disinformation about COVID-19 spread throughout the media and on mainstream social platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Whatsapp, YouTube, and other online communities. This included a significant increase in false information targeting communities of color, disproportionately impacting Spanish-speaking audiences over the age of 40.”
Farewell, Rush Limbaugh: A Voice Like No Other
His death is a powerful loss to conservatism. His life was an inspiration and a lighthouse.
The man with talent on loan from God now confronts Him directly, to return the loan. And maybe to hear an Almighty “mega dittos?” We hope that awaiting Rush Hudson Limbaugh III is the promise of divine succor, of a joy unworldly, one transcending the airwaves that for a generation and then some carried his special, enthusiastic voice — which daily spoke and propagated words of common sense that instructed (mostly: there was always verbiage reserved for trolling humorless liberals and castigating the enemies of this last best hope of Earth) and inspired — that indeed became the premier voice of conservatism. A consummate patriot, a happy warrior and a Cassandra too, an entertainer, the man of shtick and humility who day in and out, over decades, informed and formed millions, who connected with them in such numbers never before experienced, has passed away after a prolonged and brutal battle with cancer. His death comes as no surprise, but having come, it brings with it deserved sorrow and reflection. We assume too calumny from the graceless and the grave dancers.
The particular affliction that occupied his life’s last chapter was so egregious it would likely have felled a normal human swiftly. But Rush Limbaugh was no normal human. Somewhere within the lovable little fuzzball was a wellspring of remarkable determination: The weeks turned into months and then into a year, one of combating his wretched illness, but also of embracing God’s graces, and appreciating, with great humility and sincerity and frequency, the tsunami of prayer and love from his devoted listeners and Dittohead fans — all that while remaining in the saddle. There was to be no retirement. Like John Wayne’s character in The Shootist, there was a consequential battle to be fought, and a rising leftist tide which demanded confrontation, cancer or no cancer.
To say Rush Limbaugh was all in on behalf of Donald Trump would be quite the understatement. Even before the 2016 elections, Rush could be found defending the controversial candidate. His support was fulsome, never retreating to a “binary” argument, but always augmented by an ultimate reality: America was in political and cultural peril from the Left, and the Democratic Party it had consumed. The fervor of his programs this past fall — trying to rally votes for Trump, promising that a Biden presidency would bring with it an epic socialism that would transform America, for the far worse — and then into the post-election, when promised kraken never materialized, are proof of at least one thing: Rush Limbaugh had given his all. Was the phrase “died trying” ever so epitomized?
Remembering Rush Limbaugh
Statement From 60 Plus National Spokesman and Entertainment Legend Pat Boone:
“IF…I say, IF America can still preserve and record our history truthfully, as we have till now…it will faithfully record that Rush Limbaugh was the Patrick Henry of our time, speaking for millions of his fellow citizens, ‘GIVE ME LIBERTY, OR GIVE ME DEATH!’
This was and is his echoing cry, with his last breath…on behalf of us who still cherish America and our freedoms.
Oh God, give us more Rush Limbaughs!”
-PAT BOONE
Statement From 60 Plus Founder and Chairman Jim Martin:
“Rush Limbaugh was a truly gifted speaker and a once in a lifetime talent. He inspired a generation of conservatives to believe in America.”
-Jim Martin
Statement From 60 Plus President Saul Anuzis:
“Rush was a legend & conservative icon, whose impact on the conservative movement will never be truly appreciated. Whether you loved him or hated him he was the best at what he did.”
-Saul Anuzis
