Category Archives: Federalist

America cutting off Russias central bank from its U.S. dollar reserves could carry huge consequences that the D.C. establishment hasnt considered.

Heres how the Wall Street Journals Jon Sindreu framed what happened: After Moscow attacked Ukraine last week, the U.S. and its allies shut off the Russian central banks access to most of its $630 billion of foreign reserves. Weaponizing the monetary system against a Group-of-20 country will have lasting repercussions.

Reserves are globally accepted foreign currency that a foreign central bank holds to back and protect its own currency the pound, the yen, and the euro are considered reserve currencies, but the primary reserve currency is the U.S. dollar. The dollar is the worlds reserve currency because a large amount of global commerce is priced in dollars, and the U.S. legal system and open capital markets mean American dollars can buy American assets while the owner is protected by the rule of law.

This status as the worlds reserve currency gives Washington immense power, because at the end of the day all dollar transactions must undergo clearing and settlement (fancy words for transferring ownership then recording who owns dollars) at U.S. banks connected to the institution that controls the U.S. dollar, which is the U.S. Federal Reserve.

That power from the global reserve status of the dollar allows America to sanction foreign countries even when they dont do any trade with America, in part because foreign institutions say, in Europe trading with potentially rogue regimes desperately need access to this U.S. dollar system.

Increasingly, America has upped its use of this sanctions power. The latest examples are with Iran under the Obama and Trump administrations, and Afghanistan under the Biden administration after the American-backed government in Kabul collapsed. Again, use of the dollar abroad can violate sanctions even if no American is involved in the transaction, because clearing and settlement occur on American soil.

After Russias invasion of Ukraine, the Biden administration cut off the Russian central banks ability to use its $630 billion in reserves. Money is only money if you can use it to buy something, and if it keeps its purchasing power. This is why Bitcoin, which trades more like a commodity with higher volatility and is correlated with the Nasdaq and inverse VIX volatility gauge, is not money, while gold is money.

According to the Journals Sindreu, the move will prompt Russia to shift its central bank holdings, which back the value of the ruble, toward Chinese assets and gold. Sindreu correctly points out this will lead to more trade regionalization and deglobalization.

It also boosts the Chinese renminbis (RMBs) status as a competing reserve currency. Previously, the knock on the RMB was that China lacks rule of law and one might not actually be able to use the RMB to buy Chinese assets, or one might not be able to eventually get money out of China. Now, for many parts of the world, the dollar increasingly has similar problems.

But the impacts could be even further reaching. Aside from simply making the RMB a slightly stronger competitor against the dollar, in a fight where the dollar still clearly has the upper hand, the move emboldens China and helps its economy.

Sanctioned countries, or countries that might get sanctioned, are now dependent on doing business with China, and the Western elite is likely too dependent on China to fully penalize or sanction China for being the central economic hub for the growing list of countries excluded from the Wests economic system. This gives China a monopsony-like status to buy Russian or Iranian energy at a discount.

Lest you think the countries on the sanctions list are only the ones that keep neocons up at night, Europe ran the risk of being sanctioned because of trade with Iran. The Biden administration has also recently and stupidly threatened India with sanctions, because of its ties to Russia.

This overuse of this sanctions power, which increased also under Obama and Trump, risks much of the world losing confidence in the dollar as the worlds reserve currency, and attempts to circumvent the current monetary system that gives the D.C. elite so much power. Russia and China are already looking for ways to completely de-dollarize and trade outside of the dollar system.

The impact for normal Americans is complicated. The dollars reserve status has been a drain on Middle America and a boost to D.C. elites, because it means D.C. politicians can overspend and boost the financialization of the economy even while Americas manufacturing base has atrophied since the 1970s (which happens to be when the current system of the fiat dollar, not backed by gold, was started).

Normally, buying too much from countries like China would require American politicians to spend less, and the American economy to eventually import less and produce more here at home. Because the dollar is the worlds reserve currency, foreign trading partners have sat on the dollars they received instead of demanding the U.S. produce goods in return. This is a bad setup, and clearly not sustainable.

Pursuing monetary reform to rectify these imbalances would be how a forward-thinking and well-informed political class transitioned America smoothly into something better. But thats not our political class, and most Republicans and Democrats are completely clueless on these issues. Instead, Americas current corrupt political class behaves like the sanctions power and dollars reserve status can never run out, treating it carelessly and rashly.

Far from ushering in a smooth transition away from a system that has benefited the coastal elite over Middle America, they are rushing Americans toward less purchasing power and massive shortages and price increases here at home. Its incredibly dangerous and shortsighted.

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Why Cutting Russia Off From Global Banking Will Bite The United States - The Federalist

The White House repeatedly uses the Russia-Ukraine conflict to blame Russian President Vladimir Putin for the crises President Joe Biden created. Even when Americans point out the administrations hypocrisy, the White House refuses to take responsibility for the domestic problems that it knows could result in the downfall of Democrats in the upcoming midterm election.

Inflation goes up today, the presidents statement blames the Putin Price Hike. Are you guys just going to start blaming Putin for everything until the midterms? Fox Newss Peter Doocy asked during the White House press briefing on Thursday.

Psaki, of course, refused to give Doocy a straight answer and instead told reporters that weve seen the price of gas go up at least 75 cents since President Putin lined up troops on the border of Ukraine.

Doocy countered by asking why the White Houses statement on Januarys high inflation didnt indict the Russian president then, especially if he was so guilty for causing the problems afflicting Americans since January of 2021, but Psaki didnt bite.

Biden and his team at the White House will absolutely keep blaming Putin for all the domestic crises weighing on Americans because they have nothing to lose by refusing responsibility and everything to gain in the 2022 midterms.

Things in the U.S. are not going well for the Biden administration. The presidents approval rating may have slightly climbed after he made dozens of empty promises and lies at his State of the Union address but his first year in office was a complete disaster.

Under Bidens watch, the U.S. Southern border was overwhelmed with illegal migration and increased drug trafficking, gasoline prices climbed astronomically, and the supply chain crisis hurt Americans already struggling under the weight of steadily increasing inflation.

Instead of taking responsibility for these problems and laying out solutions to fix them, the Biden administration has repeatedly deflected blame onto the pandemic and even corporate greed. One year into steadily rising and record-high energy costs, Psaki still had the guts this week to claim that high gas prices and expensive goods that have been plaguing Americans for months are Putins fault.

She also said they are temporary and not long-lasting even though the White House and the president himself previously insistedthat price hikes wereexpected and would be temporary. Eight months after their predictions, inflation is at a 40 year high and is expected to climb higher in the coming months.

As a result, Americans do not view the administration or Democrats favorably. Just recently, Biden and his leftist allies have tried to ditch their own detrimental Covid agenda in an attempt to win over frustrated voters. So far, their plan to satiate Americans, 40 percent of whom recently testified that they were nervous under the Biden presidency, is not working.

Americans largely vote with their pocketbooks. When gas costs $7 a gallon in parts of the country because Biden wants to broker deals with foreign enemies instead of reinstating American energy independence, voters who agree thateconomic conditions are their top priority are not happy. Recent polling suggests that more Americans, 51.6 percent, disapprove of the president and vice president than approve.

Biden and his team have epically failed in multiple ways. Despite the administrations efforts to call U.S. attention to a foreign conflict, Americans affected by Bidens incompetence wont forget all of the domestic crises hes created and then tried to ignore.

The White House has nothing to lose by blaming Putin and everything to gain by ignoring the crises Biden created. The more the administration spins the narrative, with the help of corrupt corporate media, to absolve themselves of blame, the better Democrats believe they will do in this years key election.

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

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Biden Will Absolutely Blame Putin For Everything Until The Midterms - The Federalist

After months of uncertainty and a 99-day lockout by club owners, Major League Baseballs management and players finally reached a labor agreement last week. The agreement didnt take long to move to the implementation phase, as an abbreviated spring training started over the weekend, with exhibition games beginning on Thursday.

The timing of the deal means baseball fans will get to see a full, 162-game season. Opening Day will come on April 7, one week later than originally scheduled. Postponing the seasons start date by a week means teams will play more double-headers to get in all 162 games, but may help fans in the Northeast and Midwest, who often have to brave frigid late March conditions when the season starts so early.

Just as important, the season will be in full swing by April 1575 years to the day after Jackie Robinson (re-)integrated baseball. For baseball not to play games on a milestone anniversary of the most important cultural event in American sports history would have represented a major failure of the sports leadership.

But for all the upsides of the game returning, the agreement comes with several drawbacks. Notably, the National League will now adopt the designated hitter, going along with a trend started by the American League nearly half a century ago. The move wont just mean that pitchers will never have to learn how to hit to play in the majors. It also means that aging veterans can hang on to their careers even if they become too slow or clumsy to play the field, expanding baseballs version of the welfare state.

A similar theme runs through other elements of the agreement. Instead of attempting to solve what ails baseball through market incentives incorporated into the agreement, it instead will try to do so through regulatory edicts. As with government, baseball could learn the hard way that clumsy solutions imposed from on high bring unintended consequences.

A February column from Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated demonstrated the story behind the story of baseballs labor strife all winter. In his telling, baseball players felt burned by their last labor deal and wanted a reset.

Over the past few years, teams newfound interest in analytics has made them less interested in signing mid-career free agents in their late 20s or early 30s. With players having shorter careers, the players union pushed for big increases in minimum salaries, so young players can cash in right away. They also wanted an increase in the luxury tax threshold, where teams with payrolls above that threshold must pay revenue to other clubs. This in many ways functions as a de facto salary cap.

Other problems related to analytics plague the game. Defensive shiftsin which players congregate to one side of the infieldmake it more difficult for batters to put the ball in play. The shifts, along with analytical metrics, encourage teams to prioritize home runs. The combination of overpowering pitcherswho dont have to throw for many innings, due to deeper bullpensand hitters swinging for the proverbial fences leads to more strikeouts.

Verducci noted the end result of all these moves: A game with more walks, more strikeouts, and more pitching changes. Not just a slower game, but a more boring game too, with less action, and fewer balls being put in play.

Baseball tried to address some of these pace-of-play issues in the labor agreement, appearing to set the table for a pitch clock, and a ban on the defensive shift, for the 2023 season. But it could have done a more elegant job at reforming the game by instead relying on the old maxim that time is money.

Rather than relying upon a pitch clock as an arbitrary and controversial way to speed up the game, baseball should have used incentives to do so. Specifically, baseball should have linked important financial metrics players cared aboutlike minimum salaries and the luxury tax thresholdto reductions in the average game time over a 162-game season.

To provide a hypothetical example: As of March 1when baseball postponed Opening Day after both sides failed to reach an agreementthe owners proposed a luxury tax threshold of $220 million for three years, while the players wanted a threshold starting at $238 million this year, rising to $263 million in 2026.

The owners and players could have agreed to the players numbers, provided that the average game length gets reduced by 20 minutes. If the average game length stays the same, then the owners numbers control. If the average game length goes down by 10 minutes, then split the difference between the two.

Obviously, baseball players and owners could fine-tune these types of details. But the basic premise holds: Tie players aggregate compensation levels to their ability to speed up the game. It could work far more effectively than setting arbitrary limits like imposing a pitch clock.

Think about it: Which would more effectively get you to speed up your playsomeone ordering you to do so, or you knowing that the extra practice swing in the batters box, or additional nervous twitch on the pitchers mound, could cost you thousands of dollars in salary? The question practically answers itself.

Baseball has a serious pace-of-play problem. The average game length has gone up by 22 minutes since 2005 and now totals 3:11. Lest one think a longer game equates to a better or more dramatic game, consider that Game 6 of the 1977 World Series, in which Reggie Jackson became Mr. October by hitting three home runs on three straight pitches, took a total of only 2 hours and 18 minutesalmost one hour less than the average regular-season game took in 2021.

Although last weeks labor agreement didnt contain explicit financial incentives to speed up the pace of play, Major League Baseball should still offer such incentives to the players. Even if it costs them some money up-front via additional incentive payments, cutting the average game time by, say, half an hour would yield huge financial benefits for baseball. More fans willing to go to games would yield more ticket sales, while more fans watching faster-paced games on TV would create bigger revenues from media contracts.

Tying financial incentives to an increased pace of play represents the ultimate win-win solution for baseball. Which, come to think of it, is probably the reason baseball hasnt tried it.

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The Baseball Settlement Fans Got Isn't The One We Deserve - The Federalist

As the Russian onslaught against Ukraine continues, the Chinese state media has become the latest political entity to advocate for U.S. intervention in the conflict, including a push for troops on the ground and the establishment of a no-fly zone over Ukraine.

Following a virtual speech by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the U.S. Congress on Wednesday, Hu Xijin of the Chinese Communist Partys Global Times began pushing for direct U.S. involvement in the conflict, saying the U.S. shouldnt just incite Ukrainians to die for American interest.

Just applause? its hypocritical, said Xijin in a tweet responding to members of Congress giving Zelensky a standing ovation. If the US really wants to show justice, it should send troops to Ukraine, or at least set up a no-fly zone, and fight Putins troops directly, even [if] that means sacrifice of US soldiers.

In his speech to Congress, Zelensky not only begged the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to install a no-fly zone over his country, but also invoked some of the most historically horrific attacks on America to manipulate Congress into supporting such a policy.

Ladies and gentlemen, friends, Americans, in your great history, you have pages that would allow you to understand Ukrainians. Understand us right now, when we need you right now, he said. Remember Pearl Harbor, terrible morning of December 7, 1941, when your sky was black from the plains attacking you. Just remember it.

Zelensky went on to compare the Russian invasion of his country to the deadly terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Remember September the 11th, a terrible day in 2001, when evil try to turn your cities, independent territories into battlefields, when innocent people were attacked, he said, in a plea encouraging U.S. lawmakers to make emotion-based foreign policy decisions.

A no-fly zone would require NATO to prohibit Russian warplanes from flying through Ukrainian airspace, which would mean NATO fighter jets engaging and shooting down any Russian aircraft they encountered. These actions would also leave the door open for possible Russian retaliation, which could lead to further U.S. military intervention in the region.

Chinas call for U.S. boots on the ground in Ukraine isnt based on any form of compassion for the Ukrainian people, but rather on geopolitical interests. Given Chairman Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) aim of making China a regional hegemon in the Indo-Pacific, it would strategically benefit them to have the United States occupied with fighting Russia in Eastern Europe.

With the attention of the United States directed towards the European continent, China would assuredly utilize such a conflict to advance its geopolitical goals throughout the region. In addition to allowing for greater military pressure on Taiwan, U.S. preoccupation with a war in Europe could provide Beijing with the opportunity to further expand its growing political and economic authority throughout the Asia Pacific region.

According to a 2020 report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the United States is already falling behind Chinas growing influence in Southeast Asia, with the results of the survey paint[ing] a picture of clearly ascendant Chinese influence in Southeast Asia, complex and diverging views of China, and deep concerns over U.S.-China strategic competition and its impact on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The responses from the various Southeast Asian nations were, however, collected prior to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in Wuhan, China.

So, while Americas political leadership may feel inclined to embroil our country in another endless war, Chinas push for U.S. military engagement in Ukraine should serve as a wakeup call to Washingtons elite that such a policy prescription is a disaster waiting to occur.

Shawn Fleetwood is an intern at The Federalist and a senior at the University of Mary Washington. He also serves as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood

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If China's Pushing For US Involvement In Ukraine, Assume It's A Bad Idea - The Federalist

Does Ukraine have a bioweapons research program, and if it does, is the United States involved in it? In a characteristically insightful op-ed, Glen Greenwald noted that a colloquy last Monday at a meeting of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee between Sen. Marco Rubio and Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland shed light on that question.

Both Russia and China have suggested that Ukraine has a bioweapons research program, and Rubio, apparently confident that Nuland would rebut those claims, asked her if they were true. To Rubios apparent surprise, Nuland replied, uh, Ukraine has, uh, biological research facilities and we are now in fact quite concerned that Russian troops, Russian forces, may be seeking to, uh, gain control of [those labs], so we are working with the Ukrainians on how they can prevent any of those research materials from falling into the hands of Russian forces should they approach.

Rubio, who had begun the questioning by noting that he had only one minute of time left, chose not to pursue Nulands (apparently reluctant) admission. Rather than asking her to detail whether Ukraines biological research facilities were engaging in bioweaponry research (and whether the US was supporting that activity), Rubio used his remaining time to get Nuland to affirm that if a biological attack were to happen, Russia would be the guilty party. Obligingly, Nuland agreed that she was sure of that.

As Greenwald notes, this brief exchange raises a number of questions that our government needs to answer. Among them:

As Greenwald emphasizes, these are only questions, not claims of fact. We simply do not know, for sure, what is going on in Ukraines biological research facilities. The Ukrainian research program may well be designed solely for innocent and valid purposes such as animal health (e.g., combating swine fever virus) as Robert Pope, the Director of the Defense Departments Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, has contended.

Mr. Pope affirms that the Russians may be seeking to gain control of the research facilities in order to fabricate evidence that would be used to substantiate their claims. Our urgency in preventing them from entering the facilities might be due to fear that that would happen. It would not be motivated by a desire to conceal or destroy evidence of Pentagon involvement in illegal bioweapons research.

The Pentagons Cooperative Defense Threat Program originated three decades ago as, essentially, an effort to undo the work of the large-scale Soviet bioweapons program, find alternative employment for the 65,000 scientists who had worked for it, clean up and monitor the sites where the illegal research had been done and promote research that would contribute to public health in the countries, including Russia, where the Soviet labs had been located. (Russia was initially favorable to the program.) According to Pope, the US has worked with 26 labs, some large, others small, in Ukraine and provides direct material support to six of them.

The evidence may bear out the Pentagons account. But the mere fact that Russia and China are unreliable sources and may well be spreading disinformation does not mean that suspicions about our own government or Ukraines are unfounded. Our government may be trying to prevent the Russians from obtaining evidence that would back up their charges and seeking to preempt the effects of such disclosures by putting out our own disinformation.

More investigation by Congress, the media, foreign governments, and international organizations is required. We cannot presume that State and Defense Department officials involved with Ukraine and its biological research programs are disinterested witnesses telling the world the whole truth and nothing but the truth. There are solid reasons to doubt the veracity of Dr. Anthony Faucis accounts of the NIHs role in funding research in Wuhan; why not that of other officials with skin in the game? Which brings us to the reliability of Rubios witness: Victoria Nuland.

According toSalonmagazine, Nuland, Bidens Under Secretary of State, is stuck in the quicksand of 1950s U.S.-Russia Cold War politics and dreams of continued NATO expansion, an arms race on steroids and further encirclement of Russia. Nuland is married to the prominent neoconservative writer Robert Kagan, and was a foreign policy adviser to then-Vice President Dick Cheney from 2003-5, later migrating to Hillary Clintons foreign policy staff.

She has risen in the State Department since then and even played a role in the Russiagate conspiracy. Her activities included pushing Fusion GPS conspiracy theories in the State Department, and then disseminating these conspiracy theories into the broader Obama administration all while she was planning on serving a Hillary Clinton administration if Trump lost.

If you are searching for an Avatar of the Deep State, dial Nuland.

Lets go back to Ukraines Maidan Revolution of February 2014 a US-backed coup or revolution that brought down the legitimate, elected (but also corrupt, dishonest, and pro-Russian) Yanukovych government of Ukraine.

The events marked a critical turning point in US-Russian relations. It sealed the end of President Obamas fumbling attempt at a Russian reset. It helped confirm Vladimir Putins belief that US democracy promotion was a guise for extending the US sphere of influence and encircling Russia with hostile neighbors. And some of the key players in those events eight years ago Victoria Nuland, Jake Sullivan, Joe Biden are running US policy on Ukraine today.

When Nuland was an Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, piloting US policy in Ukraine in 2013 and 2014, she revealed that the US had invested over $5 billion in democracy promotion in Ukraine since 1991. She also took it for granted that Ukraine had a European future from which, apparently, Russia would be excluded.

Then in February 2014, as the Yanukovych government began to crumble in the face of popular demonstrations, Nuland had a telephone conversation with the US Ambassador in Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt. The conversation was intercepted (presumably, by Russian intelligence) and released. (The US has not denied its authenticity). The transcript is available online.

Together, Nuland and Pyatt began to handpick the personnel to lead the post-Yanukovich government. According to Richard Sakwa, a leading British scholar of Russian and Ukrainian affairs, [a]lthough the mantra of the Atlantic powers was that Ukrainian sovereignty should be respected, the tape revealed that the US had clear ideas on who should assume power [I]t reveals a high degree of US meddling in Ukrainian affairs. Nuland rejected one opposition leader, Vitaly Klitschko and nominated another, Arsenty Yatsenyuk (who indeed was anointed as the next Prime Minister).

Then Nuland and Pyatt discussed how to bring this result about. Nuland wanted to bring in the UN, to put an international seal of approval on the deal, and expressed using the traditionally nuanced language of diplomacy her dissatisfaction with our European allies efforts: I think, to help glue this thing and to have the UN help glue it and, you know, fuck the EU.

Nuland also informed Pyatt that the US would wheel in then-Vice President Joe Biden at the appropriate time to bless the regime change. The BBCs lightly edited version of the transcript reads:

When I wrote the note [US vice-presidents national security adviser Jake] Sullivans come back to me VFR [direct to me], saying you need [US Vice-President Joe] Biden and I said probably tomorrow for an atta-boy and to get the deets [details] to stick. So Bidens willing.

Reflecting on this episode in his magistral 2018 bookRepublic in Peril,the international relations scholar David Hendrickson writes:

The renewal of the cold war with Russia in Europe was the most lamentable, and perhaps even most inexplicable, blunder of the Obama presidency. Victoria Nuland marched into Kiev with as much lan as any neoconservative could muster, successfully encouraging the February revolution, but the grim and predictable result was a stark deterioration of U.S.-Russian relations and the breakdown of the post-Cold War peace.

Nuland and many D.C. politicians including Rubio are not in search of the truth here, rather they have an agenda of military confrontation with Russia. This agenda is both wildly irresponsible, and completely ignores the overwhelming will of the American people to stay out of Russias invasion of Ukraine.

Because of the lack of honestly from the D.C. political class, honest politicians and media professionals need to be dogged in their search for answers. Recall that China, as well as Russia, has accused the US of promoting bioweaponry research and not only in Ukraine. According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, The US has 336 labs in 30 countries under its control, including 26 in Ukraine alone. It should give a full account of its biological military activities at home and abroad and subject itself to multilateral verification. And Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian has argued that the United States, as the party that knows the laboratories best, should release relevant specific information as soon as possible, including what viruses are stored and the research that has been carried out.

That seems like a perfectly reasonable request: if the US and Ukraine truly have nothing to hide, why not disclose what viruses have been stored and what research has been carried out in Ukraine? And why not submit to independent, international verification of the kind we demanded when Iraq was suspected of creating weapons of mass destruction?

Moreover, why shouldnt the US welcome Russia and China to submit their alleged evidence to international scrutiny? Russia has called for a special meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the purported US bioweapons program. If this is merely Russian propaganda distracting from Putins aggression in Ukraine, America should have the means to thoroughly demonstrate this fact before the world.It could call for a special Security Council meeting itself.

And meanwhile, let the global community, including the US, call on Russia not to take control of still less, to damage Ukraines biological research facilities. Let the facilities be isolated, as far as possible, from both parties to the ongoing conflict and from us, and let them be cordoned off (like a crime scene) by some kind of international police force.

If Russia and China are lying, the world needs to know. If the US is lying, the world needs to know that too.

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This Deep State Veteran's Answer On Alleged Biolabs In Ukraine Is Cause For Concern - The Federalist

In response to Iowas recent legislation banning males from participating on female sports teams, a March 3 article at CNN accused Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds of using transphobic language to justify the need for the ban. After Texas Gov. Greg Abbotts order rightly labeling the genital mutilation of minors as child abuse and urging such abuse to be reported, a Feb. 26 op-ed in the Los Angeles Times described the move as a toxic cocktail of what about the children? hand-wringing, unregenerate transphobia and MAGA-friendly demonizing of medical expertise.

MSNBC talking head Joy Reid brought far-left Democrats on her show on Feb. 22 to call homophobic and transphobic Floridas bill banning public schools from teaching sexual orientation or gender identity to kindergarteners through 3rd-graders.

Its a common tactic from those on the left: accuse their political and ideological opponents of suffering from various phobias or disorders, whether it be homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia, xenophobia, or Asian phobia. Its a clever rhetorical move: if your opponents opinions are not motivated by reason and argument, but irrational fear, then you dont need to acknowledge or refute those opinions.

In this game, the problem isnt the argument, but the person, who is caricatured as bigoted, racist, or sexist. And if your interlocutor is that irredeemably evil, the solution isnt to debate such a person, but to ridicule and silence him.

Of course, this is not arguing in good faith. It is instead one of the oldest logical fallacies in the book: the ad hominem, in which one party seeks to delegitimize the other (and his position) by attacking him. But theres also a deep irony that this tactic is so frequently employed by leftists, for it is many left-wing policies that promote and engender various psychological maladies.

Consider for example the way our academic institutions have groomed younger generations to view themselves as so weak and vulnerable that even encountering an alternative opinion is viewed as a threat to their emotional well-being. The slogan that words are violence has migrated far beyond college campuses into corporate media and the way many on the left understand debate. Students at institutions of higher education from the University of North Texas to Middlebury College to Evergreen State College have aggressively and often violently expressed their unwillingness to have conservative voices on campus.

These students are the next generation of our cultural elite, beginning to dominate not only academia, but media, entertainment, government, and corporations. Their demand for safe spaces, where they will never be confronted with ideas that might question or criticize their identities and life decisions, have seeped into the federal government. Their belief that offensive free speech should be limited is becoming more widespread, as calls for restrictions on hate speech grow yet what constitutes hate seems to be anything that might refute their racial, sexual, or gender ideologies.

This points to another trait encouraged by leftist elites: narcissism. Media and prominent publishers offer endless content promoting the idea that those of supposed victim classes (be they racial, gender, sexual, or anything else) have every right to obsess over their alleged victimization and demand redress and special treatment. It doesnt matter how tenuous such claims of oppression may be and most are, given they are vocalized by those with elite status, making good money in the freest country in the world. These ersatz victims constantly complain that no matter how much our society favors them, it is never enough.

Finally, we must mention the rise and normalization of alternative sexual identities, with an ever more confusing list of genders. We are expected to know (and respect) a risible number of pronoun options that have no connection to reality.

Not long ago, believing yourself to be a different sex than you are was considered a mental disorder that required medical treatment. Now, leading federal officials identify as transgender and businesses are exhorted to encourage trans-friendly workplaces.

Yet simply claiming to have a new gender identity doesnt make it so, given the chromosomal and teleological nature of our bodies. And as Federalist contributor Walt Heyer regularly notes, championing transgenderism, especially for youth, aggravates rather than relieves mental illness.

None of these are simply conservative critiques. We know Gen Z has the worst mental health of any generation in America in what many scientists and pundits are calling a public health crisis. Researchers and reputable surveys have tracked the rise in narcissism among younger Americans, with the addictive, self-worshiping qualities of social media playing a significant role. And medical professionals not subservient to the LGBT lobby have warned of the damage caused by puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgical mutilation, including potential sterility, sexual dysfunction, thromboembolic and cardiovascular disease, and malignancy.

Its enough to ask the question: which ideologies actually encourage mental illness? For as much as the left accuses the right of suffering from a groundless, admittedly creative list of phobias, leftist institutions are the ones promoting mental illness in America.

Students are coddled into believing their identities and actions are sacrosanct (unless, of course, they are conservative), never to be questioned or critiqued. The media multiply victim narratives, kindling a tribalistic narcissism that expects special treatment. And our young are told the feelings of disorientation and depression caused by societal change and normal hormonal changes during adolescence are best addressed by radical, damaging medical abuse.

The lefts ideological platform has mainstreamed a variety of mental illnesses, some of which were acknowledged as such until the aggressive politicization of psychology and sociology over the last couple of generations. The result will be generations of Americans ill-equipped for the responsibilities of civic life, as well as a substantial drain on our economy, given this weak-kneed, narcissistic, gender-dysphoric class will likely require medical care and other subsidies for the entirety of their lives.

Indeed, even their talk of phobias allegedly ubiquitous on the right is a component of this mental derangement. It is what First Things editor R. R. Reno calls bigot-baiting, when the media and academia warn their left-wing base that conservative bigots and their various phobias present an existential threat to leftists well-being.

The irony and hypocrisy of all of it would be funnier if it wasnt harming our nation and our neighbors, who need the mental strength and emotional intelligence to combat the multitudinous domestic and foreign threats that we currently face. Do China or Russia care about safe spaces? For the sake of the country, its time to put the phobias, real and imagined, to rest.

Casey Chalk is a senior contributor at The Federalist and an editor and columnist at The New Oxford Review. He has a bachelors in history and masters in teaching from the University of Virginia and a masters in theology from Christendom College. He is the author of The Persecuted: True Stories of Courageous Christians Living Their Faith in Muslim Lands.

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Today's Left Projects Its Mental Disorders Onto The Right - The Federalist

The government is hiding information about spending, but Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa wants to change that with a new watchdog bill.

Requests under the Freedom of Information Act have grown significantly over the last decade, but slow bureaucrats are not responding to taxpayers within the proper time frame or with accurate information. As the backlog grows, Americans are left wondering just how much of their money the government is squandering each day, but the FOIA process repeatedly falls short.

Under Ernsts Watchdog Act, government agencies would be subject to hounding from a Director of Open Government, or DOG, in the White House. The DOGs exclusive responsibility would be to act as the first liaison between Americans demanding records and answers about bureaucratic spending and the government staffers who have thus far delayed any response.

The DOG would also evaluate agencies and give each one a numbered grade based on the timeliness and completeness of the information provided to the public, according to a press release from the Senators office. This point system is not only designed to expose an agencys noncompliance to the public but also prevent any grade inflation by publishing numbers that can be compared to those tracked by the U.S. Government Accountability Office or other watchdog organizations.

Currently, any problems with the FOIA system require legal action that many Americans dont have time for or cant afford. Under Ernsts proposal, any complaints about denied requests or a lack of timeliness would also go through the new DOG, which Ernst reassured would be funded with already existing dollars that are at the Office of Management and Budget.

Armed with information, citizens can hold the government accountable and expose malfeasance, but only if the laws are followed, she said in a speech to her Senate colleagues.

The Republican was first inspired to take action after the National Institutes of Health had not been forthcoming about its funding relationship with the EcoHealth Alliance and the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Under her new legislation, the White House would press NIH to comply with records requests.

Ernst, who gave her recent squeal award to unelected bureaucrats and political hacks who are keeping taxpayers in the dark, previously introduced several bills designed to hold the government accountable for overspending and for taxpayer projects delayed by bureaucratic hoops, but many of them lacked enforcement. Her hope with the Watchdog Act, however, is that even more citizens will feel emboldened to expose corruption in the swamp via information requests because they have someone on their side whos responsible for giving them answers.

We cant have gatekeepers of truth in a free society, she said. That is why under my bill, those who censor information, rather than those who share it, will be held accountable. The best way to restore trust in our public institutions and to discredit misinformation campaigns is by shining a light on whats really going on in Washington.

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

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Government Is Hiding Its Spending. This Watchdog Bill Could Change That - The Federalist

Disgraced grandma-killer, alleged sexual harasser, and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo cropped up on Sunday to blame cancel culture for his sins catching up to him, demanding a chance to tell my truth.

Cuomo started the speech with a self-pitying remark that Ive gone through a difficult period, complaining that the press roasted me and my colleagues were ridiculed, my brother was fired. Later in the address, he blamed the political sharks in Albany who smelled blood and exploited the situation for their own political purpose.

He had the audacity to construe himself as the victim, whining Twitter and newspaper headlines have replaced a judge and a jury. He went on to bizarrely blame Tea Party Republicans for creating a cancel culture that is about intolerance and exclusion before throwing in an accusation that former President Trump is the transcendent threat to our nations very democracy.

Cuomo used the fact that none of his criminal allegations of sexual misconduct have been brought to trial to feign victimhood. He blamed New York Attorney General Letitia James, who launched a brief campaign to become the governor of New York last October, for politicizing her probe into his behavior. (And maybe she did, although that doesnt automatically make Cuomos accusers stories untrue.)

Cuomo doesnt get to pull the cancel culture card, though. I dont say that just because he seems like a despicable, slimy person, although he does. I dont say it because cancel cultures biggest victims are the everyday, non-famous people who lose jobs, friends, and reputations for infractions against what the left deems acceptable, although thats absolutely true.

Nor do I say that because Cuomo is a leftist, and the corrupt leftist media/Big Tech cabal is nearly always the perpetrator of actual cancel culture against their political opponents. Although thats also true; after trying to shut down everyone from Nick Sandmann and Kyle Rittenhouse to then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh based on nothing but salacious lies, Democrats dont get to suddenly complain when theyre bit by their own pitbull.

Remember: when Kavanaugh was confirmed, Cuomo himself released a statement saying it would haunt us for as long as he is on the court and To Dr. Blasey Ford and all survivors of sexual assault, we believe you and we will fight for you. Hes also said There must be zero tolerance for sexual harassment in any workplace. (Careful what you ask for, bud.)

But thats not the main reason Cuomo doesnt deserve to cry cancel culture.

The truth is, Cuomo has gotten off lucky. As bad as the allegations of groping and other sex pest behavior are, they dont rise to the level of sending thousands of New Yorks most vulnerable to their agonizing deaths, then trying to cover the scandal up yet thats exactly what he did.

In a March 25, 2020 directive, the Cuomo administration notified nursing homes that they would be required to accept Covid-positive residents, at a time Covid was not yet endemic. This policy saw more than 9,000 Covid patients sent into nursing homes, where thousands of grandmothers and grandfathers subsequently died alone, barred from spending their last moments with their families.

An initial state report of Covid deaths in nursing homes showed 8,740 deaths, many no doubt caused by the consequences of Cuomos directive.

But then, a previously unpublished number came out that was far higher: 12,743 deaths. An investigation by Attorney General James found Cuomo had undercounted the initially reported number by as much as 50 percent. Shortly afterward, Cuomos top aide Melissa DeRosa confessed that his office had purposefully hidden the real numbers, for fear of a federal probe.

[Related: My Mother Died Alone After Andrew Cuomo Trapped Her In A Nursing Home With COVID]

Cuomos financial ties to hospitals that pushed to send their patients into nursing homes make the scandal even more sinister. As Federalist contributors Willis Krumholz and Robert Delahunty explained a year ago:

The State Health Department compelled nursing homes to accept patients who had tested positive for coronavirus. The policy was pushed by the non-profit hospital association, the Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA). The GNYHAisone of the most influential forces in New York politics. Cuomo received $1 million from GNYHA in his reelection campaign, and the donation was engineered to remain secret until after hisinauguration.

Sexual harassment by powerful men is bad. So is the falsification or concealment of information relating to a deadly infectious disease and government wrongdoing. But far, far worse is using political and legal authority to cause the agonizing deaths of a large number of elderly and other vulnerable people confined to nursing homes, and to do that as a cynical favor to monied corporate donors.

In a truly just world, Cuomo would be brought to account for his politically motivated and criminally deadly actions, not just for being an alleged perv. His sexual harassment allegations gave his media fan club a way to get him out of the public eye without a firestorm over the nursing home scandal, and if Cuomo was smart, hed be thankful.

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

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Heck No, Andrew Cuomo, You Don't Get To Pull The Cancel Culture Card - The Federalist

Mark Sherman| The Associated Press

Gorsuch new book calls for civility and better legal access

Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch's new book calls for civility, and better access and understanding of the legal system for Americans.

Hannah Gaber, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON Justice Neil Gorsuch is speaking this weekend to the conservative legal group that boosted his Supreme Court candidacy, in a session at a Florida resort that is closed to news coverage.

Gorsuch is billed as the banquet speaker Friday at the Florida chapter of the Federalist Societys annual meeting, which is being held at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista.

The schedule on the organizations website notes, The banquet is closed to press. Neither the Federalist Society nor the Supreme Court immediately offered any explanation.

More coverage from USA TODAY:

The two-day meeting also will feature former Vice President Mike Pence and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, as well as a session billed The End of Roe v. Wade? that will be moderated by a federal judge appointed by former President Donald Trump.

The high court is weighing a major rollback of abortion rights, and could overrule the 1973 Roe decision.

Abortion debate: Speakers debate abortion in 30-second chunks as Florida's controversial bill gets early OK

The Federalist Society typically allows reporters to cover its meetings. That was the case in 2017, whenGorsuch addressed more than 2,000 peopleat a black-tie dinner at Washingtons Union Station, seven months after he joined the Supreme Court.

Gorsuchs ascension to the nations highest court owes at least in part to his inclusion on a list of possible nominees that the Federalist Society helped compile and that Trump issued during his 2016 campaign for the presidency.

Shortly after taking office, Trump nominated Gorsuch for the seat left vacant bythe death of Justice Antonin Scaliain February 2016. Republicans who controlled the Senate refused to confirm former President Barack Obamas nominee, Merrick Garland.

With DeSantis and Gorsuch on the schedule, the meeting features two prominent public figures who have made a point of not wearing masks during the coronavirus pandemic.

At high court arguments in January,Gorsuch was the only justice who did not wear a mask on the bench. His seatmate, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, has had diabetes since childhood and did not attend arguments in person, although she did not ascribe her absence to Gorsuchs decision.

Disneys website says, Face coverings are required for all Guests (ages 2 and up) in all indoor locations, regardless of vaccination status.

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Justice Gorsuch in Florida for Federalist Society talk ...

Updated Mar. 8, 2022. One hundred forty lies and counting.

More than one year into President Joe Bidens time in the White House and the end to his lies is nowhere in sight. Here is part three of The Federalists rigorous coverage keeping the Biden administration accountable with substantive fact-checking throughout the presidents tenure.

You can find part two of The Full List Of Every Lie Joe Biden Has Told As President here.

Shortly after he announced Russian oil would no longer be imported into the U.S., Biden claimed that he never stifled the U.S. oil and gas industry.

Its simply not true that my administration or policies are holding back domestic energy production. That is simply not true, Biden insisted.

The truth is, Biden has done nothing but sabotage the U.S. oil and gas industry and replaced it with his green energy policy agenda. The president used his first year in office to wreck domestic production by suspending oil and gas leases, axing projects such as the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in office, canceling Arctic drilling leases, and pushing a cascade of taxes and regulation on the industry.

As a result, domestic gas prices were rising dramatically well before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Painful prices at the pump have quickly become asore spot for Americans, many of whom have indicated theyre looking for a change in the November midterms.

Originally posted here:

The Full List Of Every Lie Biden Has Told As President: 140 And Counting - The Federalist