Month: November 2021

Aggressive adversaries with technological capabilities exceeding the Pentagon’s, a declining U.S. defense industrial base, and a Presidential Administration that fails to take national security seriously all point to significant danger in 2022.

As 2021 drew to a close, massive Russian forces were placed on the Ukrainian border, and China made every preparation necessary for an invasion of Taiwan. Both Beijing and Moscow had recently unveiled massive new advanced strategic nuclear weapons that neither the United States nor its allies possessed. The two nations had already tested space weapons designed to destroy American defense satellites, leaving the U.S. deaf, dumb, and blind in the event of an attack. Russian and Chinese forces trained and patrolled together, engaging in incursions near U.S. and NATO airspace and sea lanes.  Putin threatened U.S. forces in the Black Sea.

With all this  clearly evident, the Biden Administration sent a defense budget to Congress that would reduce the Pentagon’s spending power by about 3%, even though America’s armed forces were already overused and exhausted from fighting wars in the Middle East and Afghanistan.

They also still suffered from Obama-era cuts.

Some in Congress, seeking to divert funds to social programs designed to get Democrats re-elected, sought further cuts, despite the obvious hazards faced. They ignore the warnings from clear-eyed eobservers that the decline in America’s defenses are being intentionally ignored.

In March, fifty House Democrats banded together to urge significant cuts to funding for the armed forces. They advocated diverting hundreds of billions of dollars from the Pentagon to “diplomacy, humanitarian aid, global public health, sustainability initiatives, and basic research…climate change and human rights.”

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There have been attempts by the Biden Administration to even limit discussion of defense needs. U.S. Representative Mike Rogers (R-AL), Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee, joined Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and four top Republicans in Congress, sent a letter to Biden administration officials expressing grave concern over reports that the National Security Council has blocked the Department of Defense from making recommendations about changes to the United States’ nuclear declaratory policy through the ongoing Nuclear Posture Review.

In a letter sent to Biden’s appointees at the Defense Department, a number of Representatives warned that “It would be unwise and irresponsible to muzzle the considered advice of the U.S. government’s foremost experts on nuclear deterrence issues at the DOD, and throughout the interagency.  It would also deprive the President of your views, the views of NATO allies, and those of our allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific region.  Further, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is statutorily obligated to provide his best military advice to the Commander-in-Chief on these important issues.”

The issue runs deeper than just the amount of funds available to support an adequate military.  The U.S. defense industrial base has deteriorated. A report from the Ronald Reagan Institute notes:

“The economic and national security threat from China cannot be ignored…The COVID-19 pandemic showed us that we can no longer afford to neglect the resiliency of our supply chains and defer capital investment in national security-critical sectors. … The Task Force identified six major challenges to revitalizing America’s manufacturing competitiveness. These include a significant skills gap, unsatisfactory productivity gains, inadequate investment in infrastructure, a fragile supplier ecosystem, insufficient coordination among government actors, and inadequate architecture for international competition.”

During its tenure in office, The Obama-Biden Administration failed to respond to Putin’s invasion and annexation of Crimea. It failed to even lodge a diplomatic protest when China invaded the Philippines exclusive economic zone. It sharply underfunded and hollowed out the U.S. military. Those devastating mistakes encouraged America’s adversaries, and the error is being repeated again.

Photo: Chinese naval aviation brigade (China Defence Ministry photo)

NASA is moving closer to returning humans to the Moon.

Within the next fourteen months, an unmanned test flight is expected to orbit the moon. A major step in that endeavor was accomplished by securing The Orion spacecraft atop the space agency’s powerful Space Launch System rocket, and the integrated system is entering the final phase of preparations for an upcoming flight test around the Moon. The mission, known as Artemis I, will pave the way for a future manned flight test. 

According to NASA, Artemis missions will return humans to the Moon, “using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before. We will collaborate with our commercial and international partners to establish the first long-term human-robotic presence on and around the Moon. Then, we will use what we learn on and at the Moon to take the next giant leap: sending the first astronauts to Mars.”

The new Moon missions will not duplicate those that occurred in the Apollo program.  Much of it will be oriented towards a future manned flight to Mars.

The Artemis program will seek to find and use water and other critical resources needed for long-term exploration. It will investigate the Moon’s mysteries and learn more about Earth and the universe, learn how to live and operate on the surface of another celestial body and prove the technologies needed before sending astronauts on missions to Mars, which can take up to three years roundtrip.

While the Apollo missions, which began with Apollo 11 in 1969 with the flight of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Mike Collins, were historic, marking the first time humans had ever walked upon the surface of anyplace other than Earth, they did not develop a long-term infrastructure for a permanent presence on the Moon.

America’s manned space program took a nose-dive during the Obama Administration, when funds were diverted towards more politically motivated areas. The Space Shuttle program was prematurely ended, and its replacement, the Orion spacecraft, was delayed.

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The clash between Obama and Congress over the Obama’s diversion of funds  was evident at a Space Sub Committee  hearing, when Chair Steven Palazzo (R-Miss.) noted:

“It is no secret that this Committee is concerned that the support within NASA for the SLS and Orion is not matched by the [Obama] Administration. While this lack of commitment is somewhat puzzling, it is not at all surprising. [Obama] has made clear that he does not believe space exploration is a priority for the nation and has allowed political appointees within the administration to manipulate the course of our human space flight program.”

That White House attitude was completely reversed when Trump was inaugurated, and brought enthusiastic support for human exploration. He instructed NASA  to “Lead an innovative and sustainable program of exploration with commercial and international partners to enable human expansion across the solar system and to bring back to Earth new knowledge and opportunities. Beginning with missions beyond low-Earth orbit, the United States will lead the return of humans to the Moon for long-term exploration and utilization, followed by human missions to Mars and other destinations.”

Trump re-established the National Space Council, placing Vice President Pence as its head. In 2019, the Council ordered NASA to submit a plan for “sustainable lunar surface exploration and development, including necessary technologies and capabilities to enable initial human exploration of Mars.” That provided the groundwork for the current effort.

In some ways, there is a resemblance to the “Space Race” era of the 1960s, when the U.S. competed with the Soviet Union in space.  In the 21^st century, China seeks to become dominant in that domain, with a heavy emphasis on using that realm for military purposes.

Photo: Orion/SLS (NASA)

American families will face devastating increases in energy prices in the coming months.  It is a wholly unnecessary crisis, created by the Biden Administration and the progressive extremists who control it.

Accepting the most radical of approaches to environmental concerns, Biden moved swiftly to curtail U.S. energy production the transportation of natural gas. Almost immediately upon taking office, he cancelled the Keystone XL pipeline, halted new oil and gas leases on federal property, stopped drilling in ANWAR, and targeted federal subsidies for oil and gas production.

Before Biden attacked U.S. energy production, Americans were enjoying the financial benefits of the energy independence the Trump Administration had achieved.  Household energy expenditures had dropped dramatically. Now, oil prices have hit a seven-year high.

Biden also rejoined the Paris Climate Accord, which does more to transfer wealth from industrialized nations to the Third World nations. As the Financial Post has noted,  “Paris is a climate fairy tale. It has always been more about money and politics than the environment.”

Biden’s climate mistakes have been a major gift to Vladimir Putin. Russia’s main source of international income and power is from the sale of energy. While destroying Keystone, Biden made it easier for Putin’s similar pipeline to be developed. Major sales of U.S. energy to Europe, which could have aided the American economy, have been replaced by Moscow, which uses its energy sales as a bludgeon to influence the continent.

America’s NATO allies are suffering as a result of Biden’s inexplicable eviscerating of U.S. energy while encouraging Russia. Moscow has already begun squeezing supplies of energy. Europe was already suffering high prices, since they adopted policies similar to those Biden is now imposing on the U.S.

House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) and House Energy Action Team (HEAT) Co-Chairs Representative Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) and Representative Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) have protested the White House policy. In a statement recently released, they noted:

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“The Biden Administration has abandoned hard-working families because they once again chose radical anti-energy special interests over lower energy costs and national security for American households. Since taking office, President Biden’s anti-American energy agenda has been on full display as he has killed the Keystone pipeline and halted domestic oil and gas exploration while begging OPEC and Russia to increase production of foreign oil, and is now trying to ram through billions in new job-crushing energy taxes and regulations that will increase costs and inflation even higher on low-income families. Meanwhile, gas prices in America have skyrocketed to a seven-year high and household energy costs continue to increase for hard-working families. On top of that, this Administration has ignored the fact that these anti-American energy policies mean that we, and our allies abroad, will have to get our energy from countries with much worse emissions standards like Russia, Saudi Arabia, and China…”

The path Biden is following has already failed in Europe, where natural gas prices are about six times as expensive as they were just a year ago.  EuroNews reported that “Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki recently said the energy price crisis was to blame on the EU climate policy.”

Hiked energy prices result in higher prices for everything else. U.S. inflation has hit 5.4%, the highest rate since 2008. It may go higher as energy prices continue to soar.

The concept of engaging in clean energy is not terrible. But realism must be factored in. A Heartland Institute study notes that “The financial costs of building the 100% renewable energy world are enormous, but the land area needed to accommodate such diffuse sources of energy supply is just as daunting. Accommodating the 46,480 solar PV plants envisioned for the U.S. …would take up 650,720 square miles, almost 20% of the lower 48 states. This is close in size to the combined areas of Texas, California, Arizona, and Nevada.” USAtoday   reports, “The existing supply of metals needed for clean energy technologies is nowhere near sufficient, not in America nor across the world.”

Nor are the technologies used for “clean energy” without significant drawbacks.  Solar energy destroys vast amounts of natural habitat; windmills destroy wildlife and use huge amounts of nonrecyclable materials.

Photo: Pixabay

Four Years of Wrongful Detention for the Citgo 6

November 21 marked four years since U.S. nationals Jorge Toledo, Gustavo Cardenas, José Pereira, Tomeu Vadell, José Luis Zambrano, and Alirio Zambrano traveled to Venezuela for a CITGO Petroleum business meeting and were not allowed to come home.  After being invited to Venezuela, masked security agents detained all six men and imprisoned them on specious charges without due process or access to a fair trial.  As a fifth Thanksgiving holiday approaches, we continue to seek their unconditional return and the release of all U.S. nationals wrongfully detained overseas.    

The U.S.  will continue to relentlessly pursue the release of these individuals.  To the Venezuelan authorities who have imprisoned them, we ask that they be allowed to return to the United States to reunite with their families.

On the Situation in the South China Sea

Two days ago, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Coast Guard blocked and used water cannons against Philippine resupply ships en route to Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea.

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The United States stands with our ally, the Philippines, in the face of this escalation that directly threatens regional peace and stability, escalates regional tensions, infringes upon freedom of navigation in the South China Sea as guaranteed under international law, and undermines the rules-based international order.

On July 12, 2016, an Arbitral Tribunal constituted under the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention, delivered a unanimous and enduring decision firmly rejecting the PRC’s claims to Second Thomas Shoal and to waters determined to be part of the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.  The PRC and the Philippines, pursuant to their treaty obligations under the Law of the Sea Convention, are legally bound to comply with this decision.  The PRC should not interfere with lawful Philippine activities in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.

The United States stands with our Philippine allies in upholding the rules-based international maritime order and reaffirms that an armed attack on Philippine public vessels in the South China Sea would invoke U.S. mutual defense commitments under Article IV of the 1951 U.S. Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty.

The United States strongly believes that PRC actions asserting its expansive and unlawful South China Sea maritime claims undermine peace and security in the region.

Chinese coal is among the most polluting in the world with a high sulfur content that is destroying the quality of winter air in cities across China while also impacting other areas of the world. Air pollution from China is present along many parts of the western coast of the United States Yet, despite previous pledges, after this year’s COP26 conference which ended last week China is refusing to reduce the amount of coal it uses. Repudiation of the conference agreement will dramatically impact whether the world can reach its goal to cap global warming, according to US officials. This was despite China’s instance of a last-minute change to the agreement that reworded it from “phase out” to a “phase down” in the use of fossil fuels. China also refused to sign a pledge to stop building new coal-fired “unabated” plants. These types of projects in the US and elsewhere require carbon recapture methods to reduce air pollution.

Coal supports 57% of China’s energy consumption and generates 70% of the country’s electricity. Today it operates just over half of the entire world’s operating coal-generating plants. Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, pointed out on Monday that China is making “incremental changes” in its coal usage. In reality the country will not be initiating a coal reduction program until at least 2026. In part this is due to the number of newly built coal-fired plants that still have a long lifespan. Zhao said that these plants can operate through at least 2040.

As the world phases out the use of coal China is facing a shortage and scrambling to obtain more supplies for this winter. It is negotiating long-term contracts with Moscow to develop new coal deposits in Russia and buy additional supplies that it considers critical to its economic modernization programs. The coal crisis may serve to push the two communist giants closer together as it forms a win-win situation for both – simply put Russia needs money and China needs coal. According to Russia’s Deputy Primte Minister, Alexander Novak, “New long-term contracts will be considered in this regard, along with joint development of coal deposits in Russia, the Zashulanskoe coal deposit in the Trans-Baikal region in particular,” which is in eastern Siberia.

China’s coal demand and increased need for LNG is raising the cost of energy in Europe this winter, further stressing global supply chains, and creating strained relations among the large economies attempting to recover from the global pandemic. According to Jack Sharples, an expert at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, “The global energy price rally has affected economies all over the world, as the prices of oil, coal, and gas have risen.”  

Chinese imports of coal from Russia have tripled compared to last year, according to Chinese customs data. “The rising cost of natural gas has also given Moscow and Gazprom, its state-run gas company, additional leverage over Brussels as it pushes for final approvals for its new and controversial Baltic Sea gas pipeline to Germany, Nord Stream 2, which will bypass Ukraine,” according to Reid Standish of Radio Free Europe. 

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Chinese imposition of an unofficial ban on the importation of Australian coal has further exacerbated the energy crisis in China. It also added stress to Central Asian coal producers who are unable to increase production in the short-term due to the logistics of transporting larger quantities. Constraints on the coal supply have caused China to increase its purchases of foreign LNG. Beijing has ordered state-run companies to buy energy at the highest premium costs, if necessary, further driving up global supply costs and constraints. 

Russia now exporting 60% of its production of oil and gas to China. According to Standish, “Russia also is looking at how to ramp up its coal supplies to China and is currently investing $10 billion into railroad infrastructure in its Far East in order to meet future Chinese needs before the country progresses on its transition to alternative energy sources. It appears that it may be a cold winter not only in China, but in many other areas of the world with diminished long-term prospects for improving air quality. 

DARIA NOVAK served in the United States State Department during the Reagan Administration, and currently is on the Board of the American Analysis of News and Media Inc., which publishes usagovpolicy.com and the New York Analysis of Policy and Government. 

 Photo: Pixabay

There has been little media discussion of the important milestone event celebrated today. 

This is the 400^th anniversary of the first Thanksgiving, celebrated in 1621. There are reasons that the biased media has made little note of this extraordinary day.

For the American left, it is an inconvenient commemoration. The achievements of those early settlers on the unforgiving shores of the Northeast represent the principles of courage, self-reliance, devotion to higher principles, and hard work that are the precise opposite of what Progressives prescribe.

The Native Americans taught the Pilgrims much on how to survive in what was to the settlers a strange new world. But those daring men and woman were basically on their own.

The story is eminently well known: A group seeking to practice their religion freely left Europe on a risky journey across a perilous sea, to settle in a land they knew very little about.  They embarked on their endeavor not with the help of, indeed, in spite of, government. While they were not the first Europeans to arrive in the New World, their voyage was a key factor in the future settlement of the North America continent.

They did not expect to be supported or assisted by any government agency upon their arrival.

As the debate over the Biden-encouraged illegal immigration rages on, many on the left attempt to equate it to earlier periods of immigration, from the Pilgrims straight through to the 20^th Century. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

The very first immigrants to arrive in the Americas probably travelled across the then-frozen Bering Strait, sometime between 10,000-40,000 years ago.  They faced a dramatically different landscape, molded by a harsh ice age. Gigantic animals, including dire wolves, mammoths, short-faced bears, and others who were both a threat and a source of food and materials roamed the land.

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In so many ways, those first arrivals were far more courageous and adventurous than our current society would dare to be. Despite the harshness of their environment and life style, they spread across two continents and developed diverse societies. They developed cultures that had admirable accomplishments and ideas. Some of their concepts were inspirational to the founding fathers of the United States. It is a tragedy that the history between the native and European cultures includes so much bad dealing on the part of the newer arrivals.  What happened to Indian society may have been inevitable.  The way it happened was unnecessary and lacked morality.

Columbus opened up the new world for European immigration. From his first voyage in 1492, an unprecedented period of exploration and development occurred.  The vast distance separating the Old World from the New gave birth to societies that were significantly different from those they left behind. It wasn’t just societies that were changed. Individuals were different as well. Benjamin Franklin noted that Americans were a new type of people, and required their own nation independent of European masters.

Far too many of the illegals pouring across the U.S. southern border arrive not seeking adventure, but a handout.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIRUS), in a report generated BEFORE the massive Biden wave of illegal immigration, outlines the extraordinary fiscal burden imposed on U.S. taxpayers by unauthorized arrivals:

“At the federal, state, and local levels, taxpayers shell out approximately $134.9 billion to cover the costs incurred by the presence of more than 12.5 million illegal aliens, and about 4.2 million citizen children of illegal aliens. That amounts to a tax burden of approximately $8,075 per illegal alien family member and a total of $115,894,597,664. The total cost of illegal immigration to U.S. taxpayers is both staggering and crippling. In 2013, FAIR estimated the total cost to be approximately $113 billion. So, in under four years, the cost has risen nearly $3 billion.”

Thanksgiving commemorates the gratefulness of an adventurous people seeking to build a new life through the sweat of their brow and the hard work of their hands, a trait that came to symbolize much of what is good about Americans. It is a trait progressive have rejected.

Illustration: Pixabay

The vast spending proposed by the Biden Administration ignores crucial defense needs. As the recent shocking Chinese hypersonic missile test reveals, the United States no longer has a technological advantage over its key adversaries China and Russia.

Nor is there a numerical advantage. Moscow fields a larger nuclear force, Beijing, a larger navy.  

Combined with the growing nuclear might of North Korea and the coming atomic weaponry Iran will field, and the size of their militaries, the U.S. and its allies are facing considerable danger.

In 2018, the National Defense Strategy Commission  stated:

“The security and wellbeing of the United States are at greater risk than at any time in decades. America’s military superiority—the hard-power backbone of its global influence and national security—has eroded to a dangerous degree. Rivals and adversaries are challenging the United States on many fronts and in many domains. America’s ability to defend its allies, its partners, and its own vital interests is increasingly in doubt. If the nation does not act promptly to remedy these circumstances, the consequences will be grave and lasting.”

The Heritage Foundation has added additional substance to the discussion. Its recently release Index of Military Strength as outlined troublesome details about the status of America’s armed forces.

Both the Air Force and the Space Force are rated as “weak,” and the Navy is deteriorating. The Index found “that as currently postured, the U.S. military is only marginally able to defend America’s vital national interests, and the majority of the services are trending in the wrong direction. These are worrisome findings, made worse by the limited ability of allies to meaningfully contribute to shared security interests. Meanwhile, America’s key adversaries—China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea—‚are actively making clear advances in their military capabilities, with China reportedly launching a new hypersonic missile just this past week.”

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This is how Heritage summarizes the status of each branch:

Army: Marginal. The U.S. Army is aging faster than it is modernizing, receiving an overall “Marginal” rating. A force only about 62% the size it should be earns the service a “weak” rating for capacity. However, 58% (18) of its 31 regular brigade combat teams (BCTs) are at the highest state of readiness, thus earning the Army a score of “very strong” on readiness and conveying the sense that the service knows what it needs to do to prepare for the next major conflict.

Navy: Marginal, Trending to Weak. The Navy is rated “marginal” on a downward slope to “weak” in readiness. It desperately needs a larger fleet of 400 ships, but current and forecasted levels of funding will prevent this from occurring for the foreseeable future.

Marine Corps: Strong. The Marine Corps rating is an improvement from its 2021 Index rating of “marginal.” The score changed for two reasons: 1) The 2021 Index changed the threshold for capacity, lowering it from 36 infantry battalions to 30 battalions in acknowledgment of the Corps’ argument that it is a one-war force that also stands ready for a broad range of smaller crisis-response tasks, and 2) because of the Corps’ extraordinary efforts to modernize and enhance its readiness during the assessed year.

Air Force: Weak. This Air Force rating is a downgrade from an assessment of “marginal” in the 2021 Index. Though the Air Force possesses 86% of the combat aircraft that this Index recommends, public reporting of the mission readiness and physical location of these planes indicates that it would be difficult for the Air Force to respond rapidly to a crisis. Its ability to recruit and retain pilots adds to its challenges.

Space Force: Weak. The Space Force receives its first score in this year’s Index. While it has transitioned missions from the other services without interruption in support, it does not have enough assets to track and manage the explosive growth in commercial and competitor-country systems being placed into orbit. The majority of its platforms have exceeded their planned life span, and modernization efforts to replace them are slow and incremental. The force also lacks defensive and offensive counter-space capabilities.

Nuclear Capability: Strong, Trending to Marginal. Progress in modernization efforts, combined with assurances from senior leaders that the forces remain reliable, warrants a more optimistic assessment than previous editions. The conditional score reflects today’s greater risk of a degradation in nuclear deterrence. Current forces are assessed as reliable today, but nearly all components of the nuclear enterprise are at a tipping point with respect to replacement or modernization, and have no margin left for delays in schedule.

Almost daily we are reminded that America is not the country in which you and I grew up. There are cultural trends that clearly show we are a nation rapidly changing, and not for the better. Somehow, the Left finds it offensive to portray America in a positive light. To do so is to convey a sense of American superiority; that we view American culture as exceptional. No change more clearly reflects this way of thinking than the recent announcement by Jim Lee, Chief Creative Officer for DC Comics, that Superman will no longer be fighting for “Truth, Justice and the American Way, but rather for “Truth, Justice and a Better Tomorrow.” Why the change? Is the American Way no longer worth defending? Is it racist? Does it imply white nationalism?

According to Variety, the change is meant “to better reflect the storylines that we are telling across DC and to honor Superman’s incredible legacy of over 80 years of building a better world.” I think there is something much larger and more sinister at play- and it’s by design. Granted, the original mantra didn’t begin with the first Superman comic books, but rather from the Superman radio serial in the early 40’s as a way to support the American war effort. “The American Way “motto was revived for the “Adventures of Superman” TV series starring George Reeves that began airing in the late 1950’s.

All of the mantras for which Superman has fought over the decades have included “truth” and “justice. “The change in the Man of Steel’s mission statement may seem benign, but it is part of a growing trend in this country to downplay America’s achievements and to show disdain for the principles that made us great.

 No part of our culture is safe from so-called “wokeness,” which is plaguing our great nation. Everything that Americans hold near and dear is under attack: our Constitution, our institutions (especially churches), the Founders, Christopher Columbus, are all in the Left’s crosshairs. Now, even Superman has fallen prey to this new zeitgeist in which any mention of America is considered offensive.

Another example of this massaging of the language is the National Recreation and Parks Association’s (NRPA) new instructions on how to speak in “woke” terms. According to a column in Red State by Mike Miller, the new language guidelines include tips such as no longer using the term “Americans” to describe Americans and making sure the term “white” is lowercase while the word “Black” is capitalized.

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As the Daily Wire reports: “the new Equity Language Guide for parks and recreation professionals includes meticulous instructions on what words are acceptable or unacceptable when speaking about race, age, gender, sexual orientation and ability.” Evidently, referring to Americans as Americans isn’t inclusive enough. As the guide instructs: “When we talk about parks and recreation serving communities, we are usually talking about how they serve all people, whether or not they are a U.S. citizen.” First of all, a non-profit, which is what the NRPA is, shouldn’t be “serving” anyone who is NOT a U.S. citizen. Also, because the term “alien” is offensive (according to the guide) when referring to people, it should not be used even when referring to plants. These people are insane. The NRPA wants us to believe that this is all to illustrate how language changes over time. Nonsense.

If we really wanted to be sticklers about language usage and grammar, we would banish the term “woke” from our lexicon. It is an example of Ebonics and makes a mockery of the King’s English. The drive to marginalize American culture, as the announcer for The Adventures of Superman might have described it, “is more powerful than a locomotive” and is happening “faster than a speeding bullet.”It’s up to each of us to be the cultural Marxists’ kryptonite.

Ted Flint is a a broadcaster, podcaster, and contributing columnist for the BMG Network.

Illustration: Pixabay

Nero’s fiddling is an apt metaphor for the misplaced priorities of the progressive movement in American politics.

While America’s enemies abroad gain major advancements in military strength, the Biden Administration delivered to Congress a defense budget that essentially reduced the Pentagon’s purchasing power by 3%.

It wasn’t part of a general belt-tightening. In fact, even as the U.S. endured  a $28 trillion debt, the White House actively pursued a stunninng $3.5 trillion legislative initiative intentionally mislabeled as infrastructure, to obscure its real goal: a massive giveaway more designed to a model disastrously employed in Venezuela now and the Soviet Union in the past.

While both Social Security and Medicare face solvency crises in the coming years, which will rob U.S. citizenry of the returns they worked long and hard for, the left proposes granting access to similar benefits to those who never earned them.

Paying for those schemes prioritizes raising taxes over job creation. The sophomoric attempt to hike corporate taxes to pay for these schemes simply chases employment overseas, since the U.S. would have the highest rates of any of its trading partners. The downward spiral would be swift and devastating.

U.S. students are falling  behind their global peers in key areas such as crucial math and science instruction. Their ability to knowledgeably participate in civic activities is endangered by the  progressives who dominate the educational establishment, who prefer to turn their time, attention and resources to a bevy of divisive  propaganda subjects, including the utterly false 1619 curriculum, “critical race theory,” and sexual instruction better left to parents.

Included in the list of misplaced priorities is an unrealistic approach to environmental issues. Yes, attention must be paid to the health of the planet. But pretending that the current, actual needs of humanity for energy can be ignored is sheer nonsense. Programs that halt gas pipelines, fracking, and other forms of carbon-based fuel production, or make the use of gasoline and heating fuels too expensive for vast portions of the population, is elitist arrogance at its worst.  The priority should not be inducing needless suffering. It should be developing the clean energy of the future, including fusion, and those currently available,  nonpolluting sources of today, such as nuclear.

Solar and wind power are of limited use, but they will never produce the amount of affordable power required, and have their own, serious environmental issues. At best, they provide limited amounts of expensive and unreliable energy.

These nation-wide topics gain much of the attention but must share the stage with the misplaced priorities of local, leftist-run state and local governments in matters ranging from ridiculous transportation choices, offensive schemes to alter the character of middle-income communities, and ignoring the reality of crime.

Consider the ludicrous emphasis on bike lanes. Bicycles are used for commuting by less than 1% of the population in most major cities, but an inordinate amount of road space is devoted for their use.

Programs, such as those enacted in California and elsewhere to eliminate single and two family homes in favor of scatter-site housing for the indigent  ignores the hopes and dreams of American families, substituting the  goals of developers who can contribute heavily to politicians over the good of local residents.

Progressives continue to favor the welfare of criminals over the rights of victims and the safety of society as a whole.

The ideology over actual accomplishment is clearly seen in cities like New York, where the City Council, ignoring skyrocketing crime, a failed educational system, and numerous other major issues, spends its time debating whether to remove a statue of Thomas Jefferson from its chambers.

The left’s misplaced priorities endanger national security, the U.S. economy, and the personal safety and finances of the American people. 

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Russia Conducts Destructive Anti-Satellite Missile Test

On November 15, 2021, the Russian Federation recklessly conducted a destructive test of a direct-ascent anti-satellite missile against one of its own satellites.

This test has so far generated over fifteen hundred pieces of trackable orbital debris and will likely generate hundreds of thousands of pieces of smaller orbital debris.  The long-lived debris created by this dangerous and irresponsible test will now threaten satellites and other space objects that are vital to all nations’ security, economic, and scientific interests for decades to come.  In addition, it will significantly increase the risk to astronauts and cosmonauts on the International Space Station and other human spaceflight activities.  The safety and security of all actors seeking to explore and use outer space for peaceful purposes has been carelessly endangered by this test.

The events of November 15, 2021, clearly demonstrate that Russia, despite its claims of opposing the weaponization of outer space, is willing to jeopardize the long-term sustainability of outer space and imperil the exploration and use of outer space by all nations through its reckless and irresponsible behavior.

The United States will work with our allies and partners as we seek to respond to this irresponsible act.  We call upon all responsible spacefaring nations to join us in efforts to develop norms of responsible behavior and to refrain from conducting dangerous and irresponsible destructive tests like those carried out by Russia.

New Sanctions Following Sham Elections in Nicaragua

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The United States is acting to promote accountability for Nicaraguan officials in the wake of the November sham election in Nicaragua.  This week, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed sanctions against the Nicaraguan Public Ministry and nine Nicaraguan government officials.

On November 7, the Ortega-Murillo government held an election that denied Nicaraguans their ability to vote in free and fair elections, following months of repression and the imprisonment of 39 individuals, including seven potential presidential candidates, opposition members, journalists, students, and members of civil society.  For years, the Ortega-Murillo government chipped away at Nicaragua’s democratic institutions and allowed corruption and impunity to reign.

As a result, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced sanctions against the Nicaraguan Public Ministry and nine Nicaraguan officials.  The Public Ministry played a primary role in the regime’s arrests of potential opposition presidential candidates, other leaders of civil society, the private sector, students, and journalists in advance of the elections. The U.S. Department of the Treasury designated the nine Nicaraguan officials pursuant to E.O. 13851 for being officials of the Government of Nicaragua or having served as officials of the Government of Nicaragua at any time on or after January 10, 2007.  These nine individuals facilitate the Ortega-Murillo regime’s repression, including its human rights abuses, or manage institutions that finance the undemocratic Ortega-Murillo regime or otherwise sustain it at the expense of the Nicaraguan people.  For a complete list of new sanctions, see the Treasury release.

With these new sanctions, the United States, joined by our international partners, continues to take concrete actions to respond to the Ortega-Murillo government’s attacks on civil liberties and free and fair elections.  We welcome that Canada and the United Kingdom also imposed targeted measures today.  As the OAS General Assembly made clear on November 12, under President Ortega and Vice President Murillo, the Nicaraguan government moves toward further isolation if it continues to undermine democracy and deny Nicaraguans their human rights.  We stand with the region in calling for a return to democracy in Nicaragua and the immediate and unconditional release of political prisoners.

Illustration: Pixabay