What We’re Reading Today: Biden’s Bad Month, Kids In Cages Woke Coke … And More

 Issues & Insights    "Headlines that caught our eye.

COVID Mania

Fauci: Vaccinated people still can’t dine indoors ‘because of the safety of society’ — Washington Times

10 Crazy Examples of Unrelated Waste and Partisan Kick-Backs in New ‘COVID’ Bill — FEE

Biden Era

Neera Tanden’s nomination is sinking, Xavier Becerra’s should sink too — Powerline

An Awful First Month for the Biden Administration — Fox News

Biden’s Attempt to Resurrect Iran Nuclear Deal Off to Bumpy Start — MSN

Actions Don’t Match ‘Unity’ Rhetoric — The Hill

Congressional Democrats bully cable providers to drop Fox, Newsmax, OANN — Washington Times

Biden Takes On Trump’s Migrant Policies and Confusion Reigns at the Border — New York Times

Media Bias

Media Can’t Get Enough of Biden’s ‘Empathy’ — Washington Free Beacon

‘Kids in Cages’ Rhetoric Disappears: WaPo, CBS Report on ‘Shelters,’ ‘Migrant Facilities’ at the Border — Legal Insurrection

Here’s a look at a few more examples of media hypocrisy as “kids in cages” become “shelters” under the loving embrace of Joe Biden — Not the Bee

Nolte: PolitiFact Finally Admits Brian Sicknick Not Killed by Fire Extinguisher — Breitbart

Capitol Protests

Capitol violence marked by security breakdowns, witnesses tell senators in wide-ranging hearing — Just the News

Law enforcement officials lay out evidence Capitol riot was ‘coordinated’ attack — The Hill

Big Tech   Amazon yanks bestselling book about transgender issues from online store without explanation — Just the News

Misc  REPORT: Former Obama Staff Colluded With Iran to Undermine Trump — PJ Media

'Slavery ended over 130 years ago': Former NFL player Herschel Walker says Black Americans shouldn't get reparations

AfterMath; Rich Terrell

 Yahoo.com  "Herschel Walker said during a US House hearing that Black Americans should not receive reparations.

" 'Reparations teach separation," Walker argued. "Slavery ended over 130 years ago."

"The Democratic-led House is poised to create a commission to study reparation proposals. 

"The former NFL player Herschel Walker on Wednesday said Black Americans should not receive reparations for slavery.

"A virtual congressional hearing on the issue was being held for House Resolution 40, sponsored by Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, which would create a commission to study reparation proposals.

"Walker, a standout athlete at the University of Georgia who won the Heisman Trophy in 1982 before launching a long professional football career, questioned the logistical feasibility of reparations and dismissed the idea itself as divisive.

" 'We use Black power to create white guilt," he said early in his opening statement. "My approach is biblical. How can I ask my Heavenly Father to forgive me if I can't forgive my brother?' " . . .

Obama comes out of the woodwork, touts reparations for blacks - American Thinker

. . . "Which happens to be the wokester signature issue of the day, now that the federal government is turning on the money spigots for every cause under the sun.

"Fox pointed out that this wasn't Obama's earlier position on reparations, an idea he opposed during his 2008 election. But instead of saying he'd changed his mind owing to the need to be "on the cutting edge" of fashionable leftist thought, and therefore still relevant, the vacay-happy ex-president declared that only the resentful bitter clingers of this country were responsible for stopping him in his redistribution-of-the-wealth socialist dream. In other words, whitey did it.

"Naturally, he was supercilious and patronizing, demonstrating clearly enough that he hasn't changed a bit: . . ."

Out of ammo, Democrats yell 'racism' as Biden's nastiest left-wing cabinet picks go down in flames  . . . "Becerra not only has far left positions but a record as vindictive prosecutor, going after the Little Sisters of the Poor to force them to support abortions against their consciences, to take just one example, and there are many more. He's also got the odor of corruption: His 2008 nomination for U.S. Trade Representative fell apart after news emerged that he lobbied for leniency for a drug trafficker after the latter's rich dad made big donations to the Democratic Party. Pay for play, Xav? He's also an extremely unpleasant person:" . . .

Thank God for the Proud Boys said Ann Coulter-

  Ann Coulter

..."Liberals want their antifa/BLM goons to be free to intimidate, hospitalize and — in at least two cases last year — murder their opponents. That’s why they must criminalize men who protect the innocent."...

"A little more than a year ago, 2,000 antifa tried to shut down my speech at UC Berkeley, according to police on the scene. The Berkeley police chief had ordered her officers to stand outside the building like mute ninjas, and make no arrests, unless they personally witnessed a felony being committed in front of them.

"So barring a bank suddenly popping up on the sidewalk and an antifa attempting to rob it, I had no official protection from 2,000 violent, mentally disturbed thugs.

"Thank God I had the Proud Boys.

"There had been no warning of the antifa mobilization against me until an hour before the event, when they showed up, with a thousand of them at each entrance to the building where I was to speak.

"Luckily, I’d invited about 20 Proud Boys from northern California chapters to attend my speech. If I hadn’t, I might not have made it to the campus at all. (If antifa had won, at least you would have heard about my visit to Berkeley, because the media would have reported on it triumphantly.)

"The College Republicans had booked a private room for dinner in an Oakland restaurant for earlier that evening, so I invited the Proud Boys to meet me there 45 minutes before the students arrived. We all had to recognize one another, in case they were needed to help deal with any violence during my speech.

"College Republicans are absolutely fantastic, but generally are about as prepared for hand-to-hand combat as I am.

"By contrast, the Proud Boys are brawny, tattooed brutes. Many are ex-military. Some worked security for a living, so my bodyguard planned to use a few of them as auxiliary troops, and the rest would get VIP seats so they could be spread throughout the audience in case of pandemonium.

"As I was taking pictures with the Proud Boys at the restaurant, a freakish transgender in combat boots, fishnet stockings and a man-bun snuck into our private room via a back staircase. It seems that a rainbow-haired waitress had spotted me during the 30 seconds I was passing through the public part of the restaurant, and had called in my location to her antifa pals." . . .

In Oregon, groups of yellow-shirted women posing as Antifa "Moms", there to protect their screaming, menacing young from civilized people, offer their bodies as human shields for the adoration of MSNBC, CNN, and other American Pravda. TD

Members of Moms United for Black Lives Matter stand with arms
linked in Portland, Oregon, as tear gas is fired at rioters on July 29.

Out of ammo, Democrats yell 'racism' as Biden's nastiest left-wing cabinet picks go down in flames -

With nothing out there to defend Tanden, Chu and her pals are crying racism, sexism, any ad hominem claim they can on this nomination whose oversized baggage is just to costly for anyone with a brain to vote for. It's a thin charge. Tanden's flameout is based on her own actions. Same with Becerra and Haaland. The racism charge is cheap but it's apparently all they've got left.

Any chance "Beto" O'Rourke would condemn this incident? Auntie Maxine sure didn't!

 American Thinker   "Remember when patriotism was the last refuge of the scoundrels? At Joe Biden's White House, it's now 'racism,' with a side of 'sexism,' being used as a means to garner Senate support for problematic cabinet picks.

"It's definitely the latest party line on why some extremely nasty cabinet picks of his are going down in flames in obtaining confirmation at the Senate. It's not anything to do with them, it's just all that racism and sexism in that Democrat-controlled Senate that's to blame for the first big fail to come for team Biden.

"According to Politico (Hat tip: Power Line)

Women’s rights activists and allied Democrats are growing increasingly vocal about what they call the unfair targeting of women and people of color nominated by Joe Biden to top posts in his administration.

Their fears had been bubbling for weeks, as Biden’s nominees of color came under sharp attack from conservative groups or saw their nominations delayed or opposed in greater numbers. But the worries burst out into the open over the weekend as Neera Tanden’s nomination to lead the Office of Management and Budget neared defeat at the hands of a Democrat.

“There's a double standard going on,” said Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), head of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. “Her nomination is very significant for us Asian American and Pacific Islanders. I do believe that this double standard has to do with the fact that she would be a pioneer in that position.”

"Oh, really? File under 'preposterous.' " . . .

Red Alert: Democrats take first steps to censor conservative TV channels OANN, Newsmax, and Fox News -

 American Thinker  "In a shocking development in the ongoing censorship debate, two influential Democrat members of the House of Representatives have taken the first steps to challenge the continued availability of conservative channels Newsmax, OANN, and Fox News on mainstream cable, satellite, and streaming television platforms.  Multichannel News reported on the story yesterday in an article titled "House Dems Pressure Distributors to Justify Carrying Fox News, Others."

California Democrats Reps. Anna Eshoo and Jerry McNerney have written to a dozen cable, satellite and streaming companies calling on them to better combat disinformation — which they principally identify as Fox, Newsmax and One America News Network (OANN) — and grilling them on what they plan to do about it.

"Among other things, the letter to the companies by Eshoo and McNerney attacked the three conservative news channels as "misinformation rumor mills and conspiracy theory hotbeds that produce content that leads to real harm."

"The Democrats' February 22 letter to Comcast, AT&T, Dish, Verizon, Roku, and the seven other companies demanded that they respond to a laundry list of seven intrusive and intimidating questions: . . ."

The five most irresponsible liberal news networks (lifezette.com)  "The American people do not trust the press. That is shown in poll after poll. The only institution that scores lower is Congress. But an honest effective press is vital to a republic. The five media outlets below betray that principle for cheap political gain.

5. ABC: From the days of Sam Donaldson during the Reagan administration to Clinton shill George Stephanopoulos today, ABC has made sure to carry water for the Democrats. However, they do it very badly. Their evening new show is popular with liberals, but doesn’t play well outside the NYC/Los Angeles bubble. They follow every leftist fad and attack angle.

4. NBC: They are at the point they have become comical. Gone are the unbiased days of David Brinkley and Chet Huntley. They have been replaced by leftist robots who will mouth any absurdity no matter how silly as long as it fits the Democrat message. Their nightly news is sinking and their morning shows are so debased that preschoolers feel intellectually superior to the interviewers. They ceased to be legitimate over a generation ago.

3. CBS: Walter Cronkite was considered America’s newsman. Though liberal, he had won his spurs in WWII, going on bombing missions with the U.S. 8th Air Force over Europe. Nobody like that at CBS anymore. The network is filled with airheads and soap opera stars masquerading as media. Out of the big three broadcast networks they are the most liberal and the most irrelevant.

2. MSNBC: Do we even have to say this? Rachel Maddow, Joe Scarborough, Brian Williams—do we have to go on? Officially not exclusively a news network, but with a large prime-time opinion staff, they are proud of the leftist stances. They are constantly found to be wrong, yet they go on without a pause. They are the unofficial opposition to…America.

1. CNN: Don Lemon, Jim Acosta, etc. You get the drift. They combine the worst of both worlds, they’re stupid and they’re leftist. Their ratings are so bad (much to the president’s delight) only the slow and the deranged watch them anymore. Even MSNBC is legit compared to them. They are the modern equivalent of a Soviet news rag, but with worse graphics.g, yet they go on without a pause. They are the unofficial opposition to…America."   

MSNBC’s Reid: GOP A ‘Three-Legged Stool’, Including ‘Archie Bunker…Angry White Male Wing’ | Newsbusters

In 2015, High-Profile MSNBC Anchors Oppose Network’s Hard News Pivot (breitbart.com)

Boycott the Gaslight Media and Save America -

  American Thinker  "There is one major lesson that conservatives and frankly all Americans must learn: never accept at face value the reporting of any news event.   By foolishly acquiescing to the version of a story put out by the denizens of the mainstream media, the citizenry allows the ruling oligarchy to set the narrative and exploit the inevitably fabricated incidents that further their cause.  In place of “mainstream media,” they ought to be called Gaslight Media, for their role is not to report the truth, but rather to manipulate the public into a mental state conducive to obedience. As defined medically, gaslighting is:

…a form of psychological abuse where a person or group makes someone question their sanity, perception of reality, or memories. People experiencing gaslighting often feel confused, anxious, and unable to trust themselves.

"These statists are aware that once their version of a story has been repeated ad nauseum for days or weeks the bulk of the populace will accept it as the truth, thus, achieving near-permanent status in the national discourse."  More...

This nation is at a crossroads.  The left-wing ruling oligarchy dominates nearly all societal institutions.  But they cannot succeed in their effort to transform this nation’s political system into a one-party oligarchy without the active role of the Gaslight Media.

Victims of the gaslight media of the gaslighters themselves?:

America's national leaders, doing whatever it is that they do.

The Cancel Culture Mob Got Gina Carano and Is Eyeing Fox News. Here’s Why It’s Wrong. -

  Foundation for Economic Education (fee.org)

"Just because a solution is a free market response does not make it the right response, and in this instance cancel culture is compounding many of the root problems it seeks to eliminate."

"As the nation continues to grapple with the fallout from the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, prominent members of the media are calling for the erasure of right-wing media outlets like Fox News, One America News Network (OANN), and Newsmax, which they say contributed to the riots.

"Max Boot, a columnist for the Washington Post, wrote a piece titled, “Sadly, Fox News Can’t Be Impeached” in which he called these television networks “collaborators” in inciting a violent insurrection. Boot went on to ask, “Where is the accountability for right-wing propagandists like [Tucker Carlson] who recklessly splashed around the lighter fluid that ignited on Jan. 6?” and suggested pressuring cable giants to suspend their platforms if they do not “clean up their acts.”. . .

. .  ."Boot is not alone in his thinking. Journalists from the New York Times (which frequently cancels its own writers), MSNBC, and CNN all got in on the action." . . .

Neera Tanden's nomination to head White House budget office in peril as Collins, Romney say they will vote against her

 Alexander Nazaryan·National Correspondent  "The nomination of Neera Tanden to head the powerful Office of Management and Budget appears increasingly imperiled, with Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Mitt Romney and Utah, both Republicans, announcing on Monday morning that they would vote against the nominee." . . .

Those developments leave little wiggle room in an evenly divided Senate and could make Tanden — who heads the liberal Center for American Progress and is a longtime Clinton ally — the first failed Biden Cabinet nomination.

"At issue is Tanden’s storied legacy of incendiary tweets, which have frequently criticized and mocked Trump, congressional Republicans and progressives like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. In doing so, her tweets have complicated the new administration’s stated goal of returning Washington to pre-Trumpian norms of civility.

" 'Sen. Romney has been critical of extreme rhetoric from prior nominees, and this is consistent with that position,” the senator’s press secretary, Arielle Mueller, told Yahoo News. “He believes it’s hard to return to comity and respect with a nominee who has issued a thousand mean tweets.” .  . .

RIP Neera Tanden's Twitter feed - POLITICO

Neera Tanden's unremorseful bullying should disqualify her from Biden's cabinet | | The Guardian    "It isn’t fair women are consistently judged more harshly than men – but we don’t fix it by holding women to lower standards"

Neera Tanden: Wait, You Think That Senator Is Going to Save the Nomination? | National Review  . . . "This might prove to be a rather difficult task for Tanden, given that she seems to have disdain for Republican senators of all persuasions, be they moderate or ideological, young or old, male or female, from the Midwest, the South, or the Northeast. Tanden is among the least “unifying” of any of Biden’s cabinet picks, and thus does not appear to be well suited for the role of director of OMB, to put it mildly." . . .

Kira Davis: The Only Thing Ted Cruz Did Wrong Was Apologize

 

Political Cartoons from Townhall

Kira Davis: The Only Thing Ted Cruz Did Wrong Was Apologize – RedState  . . . "The real reason no one should give a rip about Cruz’ Cancun kerfuffle is that unlike his liberal peers, he isn’t out there every day lecturing the entire country about staying home. He’s not accusing healthy, productive people of murder just because they want to celebrate a birthday with family or attend a funeral in person. He’s not calling snitch lines to out desperate restaurant owners who refuse to completely close their doors in the hopes of avoiding bankruptcy.

"The mayor of Austin scolded his city’s residents for entertaining the idea of attending family gatherings for Thanksgiving..from his condo in Mexico.

"The mayor of Chicago closed down schools and businesses and forced tens of thousands of Chicagoans into bankruptcy and poverty even as she continued to visit her own hair salon for cuts.

"Governor Gavin Newsom shut down nearly every restaurant in the state except the ones at his personal winery and of course, The French Laundry where he was caught with a large group of friends dining maskless and indoors. Prior to his disastrous dinner, Newsom admonished Californians every day to stay home, obey the “science” and make personal sacrifices for the “greater good.” Not unrelated, Newsom is now on track to become only one of a handful of American governors who have been recalled.

"Then there is Newsom’s “auntie” Nancy Pelosi, who purposefully delayed stimulus money for suffering Americans even as she appeared on late night tv talk shows to model her $12,000 subzero freezer filled with pricey ice cream. Like Lightfoot, Pelosi was also happy to make exceptions to business closures and masks when it came to her own hair." . . .

Can we still promote free speech?

 I’m Standing Up For Free Speech - If That’s A Problem You Know Where To Find Me - (andmagazine.com) . . . " I was there [on January 6th] to exercise my rights of freedom of speech and assembly. . . . "I was there because I believe we are in the midst of a titanic battle for the soul of this nation, and that if we are not vigilant and resolute we are going to wake up one day very soon and realize we are living in a real-life dystopian nightmare in which Big Tech, corrupt politicians, massive government bureaucracies and the corporate media run this nation and our democracy has become nothing but a façade." . . .

McDonald's to Punish Executives if They Hire Too Many White People...Celine Ryan questioned the program and wrote in HumanEvents.com describing the move as “McQuotas.' ”

The death of free speech - American Thinker  . . . "Ours is now an oppressive society, with freedom of speech sadly becoming a thing of the past.  Many Trump-supporters are uncomfortable voicing their views.  America is becoming more like China, where the Big Tech giants tell everyone what to believe.  As in China, if Americans act or speak against the socialist agenda, they are censored or lose their jobs. 

"This new environment has fostered a society where no one can discuss political issues." . . .

Saint Joseph’s U Math Prof. Gregory Manco Targeted For Cancellation Over Tweet Opposing Reparations    “I intend to fight this…. We have to take a stand against this awful and destructive trend in American life, where many people with non-leftist political beliefs are made to live in fear.”

Biden Fires U.S. Attorney Investigating Democrat Corruption

"Chicago’s U.S. attorney John Lausch was closing in on decades of Democratic crime"

 Neon Nettle  "Joe Biden has fired an Illinois U.S. attorney amid an operation investigating decades of Democrat corruption in the state.

"U.S. Attorney John Lausch’s office indicted Democratic Chicago alderman Edward Burke who has been serving since 1969.

"Burke had been in the crosshairs of prosecutors for over forty years but it wasn’t until Lausch came into office that he was finally indicted.

"Lausch was also running a case targetting the most powerful state politician in the United States - Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan.

"After years of inaction, Lausch had set his sights on Madigan, whose aides and cronies have been indicted for various crimes of influence over time." . . .

Biden VS girls sports | Michelle Malkin

 Biden VS girls sports | Michelle Malkin - Choice Clips (whatfinger.com)   "Michelle Malkin dives into just how far ‘the woke left’ has gone in regards to new regulations pushed by the Biden administration, that affect student athletes and possibly their level of competition. – via Michelle Malkin Sovereign Nation, Saturdays at 7PM ET on Newsmax TV"