Author: Frank V. Vernuccio, Jr.

Are there more than two sexes? Can releasing criminals from jail result in safer streets? Will homes be heated and goods shipped if 80% of our energy supply is cut off? Is it safe to ignore very real threats from abroad?

Those issues are vital, but they do not dominate much of our national conversation. Instead, a panoply of false claims and artificial disputes grab the headlines and the lion’s share of the news. The reason for that absurdity is to distract from the clear and manifest failure of leftist policies on the true challenges of our current time.  

The philosophy espoused by the Left has, for a century, resulted in dire economic misery, mass deaths, and an almost total loss of freedom.  That is why its proponents have chosen the path of illogic, dissembling, and pretending that past conflicts still exist.

That strategy works well when most of the media and academia are on your side. Those pointing out the obvious are ridiculed, labelled with insulting terms, denied opportunities, and censored.

There is abundant evidence of leftist failure.

 Do you recall life in America two years ago? Gasoline averaged $2.60 a gallon. Inflation was 1.23%. The Russians had been kept within their borders for four years. The North Koreans had pulled back from nuclear and missile testing. The Middle East was experiencing a rare moment of significantly improved relations, thanks to U.S. diplomacy. The U.S. military was focusing on protecting the nation, not engaging in “woke” politics.  The Army had met its recruiting goals. Illegal crossings at the U.S. southern border had declined by 53% over 2019. Total crossings were the lowest since 2017.

After just under two years of leftist domination of American politics, gasoline is $3.86 a gallon. Inflation is 7.7%. The Russians have invaded Ukraine.  The Taliban now has $7.7 billion worth of U.S. military equipment. The North Koreans are vigorously firing off missiles and appear to be ready to restart nuclear testing. The U.S. Army came 15,000 soldiers short of meeting its 2022 recruiting goals, making the year the worst on record since the services switched to an all-volunteer force nearly 50 years ago The Biden White House has restarted discredited attempts to censor free speech. Under that Administration, illegal immigration has reached historic highs. Its media allies urgently downplay extraordinary scenes of large numbers of military-age males waving flags charging across the border and assaulting border patrol personnel.

Not all issues revolve around Washington. Two areas that were and continue to be dominated by the left, education and city management, highlight the disastrous impact of its failed policies.

“Bail Reform” has unleashed a massive crime wave. Taking just one jurisdiction as an example, New York City, crime increased an average of 20.05%.

Leftist domination of America’s public education has produced failure on an epic level. The United States invests more in K-12 public education than almost all other developed countries, yet U.S. students remain poorly prepared to compete with global peers.

This litany of deteriorating statistics in key areas should have resulted in a national conversation on the failure of the Left, but this has not occurred. Instead, those raising wholly reasonable objections to the drive to end fossil fuel use are dismissed as “Climate deniers.”  Outraged parents complaining about failing schools are labelled “domestic terrorists.” Those presenting statistics about bail reform’s overt failure, and Russia’s largest-in-the world nuclear arsenal or China’s largest-in-the world Navy, are ignored.

False narratives are created and highlighted. Absurd political claims are madw that voting for anyone other than a leftist is a threat to democracy. Ideologically corrupt officials seek to turn the population against itself, pitting blacks against whites, woman versus men, straight against gay. Grievances long since resolved are advertised as though they were current.

This is a massive recipe for failure, on a scale never before seen in American History. The future of the nation depends on shattering these ridiculous illusions.

Illustration: Pixabay

The politicization of every facet of American life is tearing the nation apart.

There was a time, not so long ago, when you watched a sporting event and didn’t care about which candidate the athletes voted for, or which party the team owner contributed to. You bought groceries based on the product, not the politics of the manufacturer. When you watched entertainment shows, you weren’t bombarded with propaganda. Journalists were encouraged to confine their opinions to the editorial page.

But then China developed a “social credit” system as a method to exert tyrannical control over every aspect of their citizens’ lives, a concept picked up by American college campuses.  Leftists turned it into an obsession.  They called it “Intersectionality,” defined as an “ytical framework for understanding how aspects of a person’s social and political identities combine to create different modes of discrimination and privilege.”

Woke politicians signed on, reaching its high (or low, if one favors personal freedom) during the Biden Administration. The whole power of government was turned into a partisan weapon for the purpose of perpetuating left-wing ideals.

Hermeet Dhillon, writing for Imprimis, called out the politicized Department of Justice for its actions. “…the DOJ today appears to be increasingly motivated by partisanship. Compounding the problem, it has access to the powers of the modern surveillance state…the DOJ was in the midst of a year-long campaign of spying on Project Veritas—a campaign that involved no fewer than 19 clandestine subpoenas, orders, and warrants obtained from nine magistrate judges. The secrecy of this spying campaign was maintained through the use of wide-ranging gag orders, including at least two that were obtained without notice to the judge overseeing the Project Veritas case. Through this spying campaign, we now know that the DOJ obtained approximately 200,000 Project Veritas emails from Microsoft and countless text messages (and heaven knows what else) from Apple, Google, Uber, and other still unknown companies.”

The Wall Street Journal provides this example: “In an effort to ’promote diversity and inclusion,’ the State Department is funding “drag theater performances” in Ecuador through cultural grants. “

National Review adds this: “Beginning in fiscal year 2023, the Department of Energy will require applicants for research funding to explain how their research projects will incorporate the tenets of diversity, equity, and inclusion.”

Even the Pentagon signed on. Consider this note from American Military News: The Air Force has taken ‘full responsibility’ for leaking a confidential personnel file of a service member and Republican congressional candidate, which revealed a sexual assault she suffered on duty in Iraq… The Air Force leaker gave the files to a Democrat research firm in the lead-up to the midterm elections.”

The corporate world became a battleground. Corporate executives who opposed the Chinese Social Credit system in America spoke out at their own risk. A New York Post article describes one instance: “Jennifer Sey was Levi’s brand president and on track to be the jeans company’s CEO. But when she complained online about extended school closures and their effect on children, she was attacked and falsely labeled a “COVID denier” who wanted to get former President Donald Trump re-elected. Levi’s management gave her a choice: Shut up or leave. As she explains in her new memoir, “Levi’s Unbuttoned,” Sey felt she had to quit her dream job on principle… Sey explains how many of today’s CEOs — lacking any backbone, yet desperate to be seen as ‘good’— cave to performative woke mobs.”

Internet search engines were among the most virulent advocates of this politics over truth concept. Fox News has reported that “Google is manipulating search engine results to harm Republicans in critical Senate races, according to the Media Research Center. “

Not surprisingly, since colleges have been the leading advocates of the Chinese concept of “social credit,” education has been on the front lines of the problem.  A Heritage study found that “our children are being indoctrinated. The education system designed to teach them how to think critically has been weaponized by the radical left to push an anti-American agenda… the left propagandizes through the normalization of its views and positions as nonpolitical.”

Much more unites us than divides us. By attempting to permeate every aspect of life with Leftist propaganda backed by various forms of social and financial punishment, these social credit antagonists seek to achieve goals which they could not win at the ballot box.  

Illustration: Pixabay

2022 is in the rearview mirror, and for most, that didn’t happen soon enough. 

It was the year that common sense and common decency were shunted aside by ideologues who saw the suffering they caused as irrelevant to their pursuit of Progressive goals. In affairs both foreign and domestic, on issues as broad as international affairs and as domestic as local school boards, absurd policies reigned supreme.

The Biden Administration pushed the fiction that alternative energy could replace fossil fuels.  The assault on U.S. energy independence initiated an inflationary spiral that continues to cripple the world economy and bankrupt families, all without producing any benefit to the environment particularly since China, the world’s largest polluter, ignores the whole idea. The White House doubled down on irrational economics by spending profligately, on areas that produce no long-term benefits. The national debt has reached $31 Trillion, and consumer prices jumped to an absurd 9.1% hike.

2022 was the year in which lies reigned supreme. Despite clear, televised contrary evidence broadcast into homes every night, the President and his aides continue to insist that the U.S. Southern Border is under control.  Unprecedented numbers of illegals literally storm across.  In at least one instance, a horde of military-aged young males carrying the flag of their home nation aggressively attacked border patrol agents. Illegals rushed into southwestern states, leading local officials to declare an invasion and begging Washington for help, which never came. Human trafficking, fentanyl pushing criminals are the chief beneficiaries.

Lies have been the hallmark of 2022. The evidence that federal agencies conspired with social media outlets to warp the 2020 election is now clear, thanks to the unsealing of records following the Elon Musk takeover of Twitter.  It is also clear that Rep. Adam Schiff utterly lied about “Russian Collusion,” yet he continues to remain unpunished.

As Russia prepared its invasion of Ukraine, the Biden Administration not only failed to take steps to dissuade it, it actually encouraged the illegal move when Biden bizarrely stated, on January 20, 2022, that he would tolerate “a little invasion.”   

Lies were prominent in domestic affairs.  Americans were told that remote learning was the only proper response to the pandemic. U.S. school children will suffer for years because of it. Private and parochial schools managed to stay open with no harm to their students.  But one good result came from the action: Parents got a glimpse into the horrific garbage that was being shoved down their kids’ throats, both in subjects that schools traditionally teach and in topics that reflect the mental disorders of some adults.   Political propaganda and woke nonsense replaced objective teaching of civics and history.

Topics that have no place in school curriculum were inserted.   In one jurisdiction, New York City, it was reported that $200,000 was spent on drag queen shows. Objecting to this usurpation of parental prerogatives in personal issues is not being “anti-gay” or “anti-LGBTIQQ.”  School officials and teacher-union bullies have no right to intervene into personal areas that are the rights of parents to decide. The actions of the Biden Administration to label outraged parents as “domestic terrorists” deserve universal condemnation.

Academic and editorial fools tried to tell us that men could give birth, and that there were more than two physical genders.

As Washington surrendered control of the borders, state and local officials gave up control of the streets to the worst criminals. Violent crime, including murder, assault, rape, and robbery in Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, Seattle and Washington, D.C. rose up to 40%.  Despite the clear statistics, elected officials insisted there was no crime wave, and continued with their absurd bail reform and decriminalization policies.

2022, and its irrationalities, are over. America’s 2023 resolution should be to undo the damage done by the collection of dishonest and incompetent elected officials and progressive ideologues who caused so much harm to the nation.

Illustration: Pixabay

As many as 37 million Chinese could have been infected with Covid-19 in a single day this week. China’s December total of Covid-19 infections now appears to stand at around 248 million people or 18% of China’s total population. The infected roughly make up a population the size of Indonesia. “The scale of infections and death, suggests that the virus has spread beyond major urban centers such as Beijing and Shanghai into the countryside… [and] presents a major challenge for China as its rural healthcare infrastructure is ill-prepared to handle a mass wave of infections. Yet, despite the serious nature of the pandemic, the Chinese government decided to lift restrictions for Chinese wishing to travel outside the country. It is seen by some analysts in the West as an attempt to level the playing field by reinfecting foreign populations around the world. 

Re-weaponizing the virus is only one branch of China’s aggressive foreign policy. For the first time in the history of Russian-PRC relations Russian naval assets are expressly practicing implementation of a blockade together with their Chinese counterparts. The joint naval exercise was held from December 21-27 near islands off of Taiwan. The Global Times reports that “due to the background of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the fact that the military exercise area is the closest to Taiwan in the past 10 years, the misunderstandings and misinterpretations arising from this joint military exercise are more than in previous years. US and Western public opinion is watching the military cooperation between China and Russia with vigilance.”

The naval drills have carried express political implications, from the mock-blockade of Taiwan following Speaker Pelosi’s visit there to one of the largest assemblies of a Chinese carrier group shortly after Japan announced its new, more aggressive national security strategy, according to the Jamestown Foundation. “Joint Sea 2022” appears to be a reaffirmation of Russian support for China in any potential cross-strait conflict. As tensions increase, US Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith suggested that the implications of the military cooperation are far-reaching and that China and Russia are increasingly sharing a “toolkit of strategies to undermine NATO.”
  

A Global Times editorial published this week adds that “Some subjects of the exercise, such as anti-submarine and air defense, involve relatively sensitive data, reflecting the high strategic mutual trust and transparency between China and Russia, which will be further deepened and enhanced along with the exercise.” In addition to raising the two countries’ capabilities in maritime combat and joint operations, the exercise is a further indication that China is not turning inward nor is it backtracking on its aggressive stance in the East China Sea. The Russian Foreign Ministry defends the so-called “no limits” relationship between the two communist nations by labeling it as a “counterweight to the United States.”

Russia and China, according to The Hill, have engaged in multiple military drills since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine last February, including nuclear-capable bomber flights in May that took place during President Biden’s visit to Japan. A September joint exercise involved more than 2,000 Chinese troops, and the two countries in November flew bombers in joint patrols over the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea. China and Russia are continuing to develop their mutually convenient friendship with the world as witness to drills that reflect a growing defense cooperation between the two countries. What is concerning to analysts is how far the cooperation will go in the coming year. Neither country has an extensive list of countries friendly to them or their causes. According to the Russian News Service TASS, Chinese President Xi Jinping is scheduled to speak with the Russian President before the end of the year. There is no indication that the relationship will change. Although China’s rise to power over the last few decades has skewed the relationship in Beijing’s favor, it still needs Moscow to distract the world from the CCP’s misadventures. Taken individually, each event cementing their bilateral relationship does not represent a new, more dangerous level of security threat to the world. In combination over time, however, the Russia-China relationship may end up destabilizing the free world and potentially lead to kinetic warfare in Asia, Central Asia, or Europe.

Joe Biden is America’s oldest President, but his inflationary policies are decidedly anti-senior citizen.  The threat to the financial viability of older Americans is both manifest and deeply substantial.

The stunning hike in inflation, from about 1.3% under President Trump to the current 7.7% after barely two years of Democrat control of the federal government, is destroying the solvency of older Americans.

An Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC) analysis  revealed that “President Biden’s anti-energy, pro-tax and spend policies, supported by congressional Democrats, are destroying seniors’ lifetime savings, pensions, 401k, SEP, equity, and cash holdings. Seniors struggled with more mandates and bureaucracy, less accountability. They pay high taxes, higher prices for rent and medicine, work longer, retire later, socialize less. Their views – love of country, character, faith, and history are disparaged. This is Biden’s legacy, a war on seniors.”

Numerous studies have outlined how the inflationary policies of the Biden Administration harm the elderly. Despite some pretensions to address the issue, including so-called “anti-inflationary” legislation that actually hikes the spiral of increasing government spending, the problem will continue to worsen unless there is a complete change in policy. Unfortunately, in recent comments, both Biden and his allies in the Senate have signaled no such change in course.

That so-called “anti-inflation” legislation disproportionately burdens seniors while doing nothing substantial to cut rising costs. Casey B. Mulligan and Tomas J. Philipson have found that it will lead to benefit cuts and premium increases for seniors. They explain that Medicare’s popular drug-coverage program is headed for a painful amputation.

A Kiplinger Study notes that “Retirees’ sources of income tend to be vulnerable to large inflation spikes. Employees can at least make the case for inflation-based raises, but retirees don’t have that option. If you’re a retiree, most of your income is likely either tied to markets or is in fixed income, two sources that are highly affected by inflation. Pensions are a mainstay of retirement income for many. But this source of income is struggling to match pace with inflation. Most private pensions don’t offer cost of living adjustments, or COLAs, which means that if you’re a retiree relying on pension income, you’ll receive the same payments regardless of their diminishing value.”

The problem is multi-faceted. Many key Democrat influencers are now advocating forcing their woke political views on pension plans, a concept known as “ESG”, which stands for environmental, social, and governance. The Center for Retirement Research notes that the evidence suggests that these types of investments yield lower returns.

 Continued inaction in rescuing Social Security’s solvency is a looming threat. A Heritage study explains that “Social Security’s future is not secure. The program is running out of time and money, and recent increases in debt and spending have crowded out options for reform. Democrats’ plan for Social Security would hasten insolvency and exacerbate shortfalls. A financial examination of the concept makes it clear that it  would hasten Social Security’s insolvency by two years (to 2032) and increase the program’s already massive shortfalls by an additional 21%”.

All of those dollars taken from paychecks for Social Security are not in special account reserved for future payments. They go into the general treasury. When massive new spending programs, such as President Biden’s decision to forgive student loan debt, or to provide benefits to illegal aliens, this places a strain on that treasury, and thus endanger social security’s ability to guarantee future payments.

Biden has sought to deflect attention from these issues by falsely claiming credit for recent social security increases, which address inflation.  In reality, Social Security cost-of-living adjustments occur automatically, based on a formula tied to inflation. Seniors have received increases almost every year for the past decade.

Photo: Pixabay

As the threat from China grows, the importance of the U.S.-Japanese alliance expands.

Ely Ratner, the assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific Affairs, speaking at the Mount Fuji Dialogue in October stated that “China’s aggressive and coercive military activities in the Taiwan Strait and in waters surrounding Japan … are provocative and destabilizing. China is seeking to establish a new normal concerning Taiwan, and this threatens regional peace and security.  Meanwhile, over the last year, we have seen a dramatic increase in People’s Liberation Army non-standard and unsafe air intercepts in the region, designed to coerce and intimidate U.S. and allied forces operating lawfully in international airspace.”   

The Council on Foreign Relations notes that There are more than eighty U.S. military facilities in Japan. More U.S. service members are permanently stationed in Japan than in any other foreign country.

Bloomberg News reports that “Japan is set to approve what could be its biggest increase in defense outlays since the end of the war, putting it on a path to become one of the world’s top military spenders.In a Defense Ministry budget request for fiscal 2023 expected by the end of August, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s ruling party is looking to double spending over five years from this year’s 5.4 trillion yen ($39.5 billion). Outlays of that scale could propel Japan from ninth in the world for military spending to a likely third spot behind the US and China, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, or SIPRI, which tracks defense spending.”

Ratner also emphasized that North Korea is a third threat with its continuing development of nuclear weapons and its missile program in violation of international law, he said. “These hostile activities are dangerous, reckless and damaging to regional and international security.  Moreover, we share serious concerns over the DPRK’s escalatory and destabilizing messaging related to nuclear weapons use.” 

The Assistant Secretary emphasizes “These threats call for responses and the United States and Japan are working together to strengthen the treaty alliance between the two nations and modernize deterrence capabilities. We are fundamentally enhancing the alliance’s deterrence and response capabilities to ensure that we maintain a competitive edge…This includes reinforcing extended and integrated deterrence, improving information and cyber security, deepening cooperation in space, cyber and emerging technologies, and coordinating on bilateral planning for contingencies.”

The U.S. State Department maintains that The U.S.-Japan Alliance is the cornerstone of U.S. security interests in Asia and is fundamental to regional stability and prosperity. The Alliance is based on shared vital interests and values, including: the maintenance of stability in the Indo-Pacific region: the preservation and promotion of political and economic freedoms; support for human rights and democratic institutions; and, the expansion of prosperity for the people of both countries and the international community as a whole.

Key regional actors are also enhancing defense cooperation with Tokyo. A Wall Street Journal report  disclosed that Australia would deepen defense cooperation with Japan. The two nations will train in Australia’s north, “the latest move by U.S. allies to respond to strategic tensions with China.”

The massive purchase of F-35 fighter jets will dramatically improve Japan’s military capabilities. Tokyo spends more on defense than just eight other nations.  Despite the continued existence of Article 9 of the nation’s “Peace Constitution,” the nations armed forces, which represent about 1% of GDP (amid calls to double that figure) are increasingly modern and capable.

The need is clear.  In addition to China, threatening actions by North Korea and Russia continue to seek to bully the nation. Moscow and Beijing have cooperated in joint naval maneuvers that clearly target Japanese and American interests in the area.

The many changes in the U.S. voting system, and the various controversies that surround balloting in the current environment, require an a closer examination.

The National Bureau of Economic Research has found that claims about voter ID limiting minority participation are wrong.” U.S. states increasingly require identification to vote …we find that the laws have no negative effect on registration or turnout, overall or for any group defined by race, gender, age, or party affiliation. These results hold through a large number of specifications.”

The Atlanta Constitution-Journal has found that Despite a voter ID law, minority turnout is up in Georgia, contrary to massive claims to the contrary. Elections data reviewed by the AJC show that participation among black voters rose by 44 percent from 2006 — before the law was implemented — to 2010. For Hispanics, the increase for the same period was 67 percent. Turnout among whites rose 12 percent.

Other studies concur in the conclusion that “voter ID laws don’t “suppress” anyone’s vote. This latest study echoes the conclusion of others…finding that voter ID laws don’t reduce voter turnout, including among African-Americans and Hispanics. These voters were just as likely to vote in states requiring photo identification as in those that don’t.”

There are changes that have had a significant impact impact.  Studies by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission reveal that “The total number of voters who voted early, absentee or by mail more than doubled from 24.9 million in 2004 to 57.2 million in 2016, representing an increase from one in five of all ballots cast to two in five of all ballots cast. The number of U.S. citizens voting early more than doubled from nearly 10.2 million early ballots cast in 2004 to 24.1 million early ballots cast in 2016. In 2016, 16 states showed a combined percentage of greater than 50 percent of votes cast early, by mail, or via absentee voting.

A Heritage Study by John Lott warns that “Early voting is a ‘reform’ that states should reconsider. Its disadvantages seem to outweigh its benefits. While early voting may seem more convenient, it appears to have the opposite effect of what its proponents sought… it seems obvious that early voting increases the already skyrocketing cost of political campaigns.”

An equally and perhaps more important issue concerns the information voters rely on to cast their ballots.

Unfortunately, much reporting is clearly biased. While both Democrats and Republicans can both point to sources biased for or against them, most media outlets tend to favor the left.

Indeed, there is substantive evidence that a left-biased Department of Justice pressured Facebook to censor the Hunter Biden Laptop story.  Doing so many have altered the outcome of the 2020 election.

In reviewing just one race used as an example, The Washington Examiner found that  87% of GOP coverage was negative.

Beyond the quality of information, the growth of early voting has enhanced the lack of information voters may have available, particularly those who cast votes before candidate debates take place.

In Pennsylvania, Democrat John Fetterman suffered a disastrous debate loss against his GOP rival. Reporter Joel Pollak   found that “Nearly half of all vote-by-mail ballots in Pennsylvania had already been cast before [the] U.S. Senate debate, which was judged a disaster — even by Democrats — after Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D), recovering from a stroke, struggled to form coherent sentences.”

The ease of casting a ballot by mail, internet, or in month-long voting periods increases the number of those participating in elections.  However, it also encourages those with only a casual interest in the issues or the candidates to give their support without adequate research or before all the information is available.

Almost a century ago, Franklin D. Roosevelt worried that “Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely.”

Illustration: Pennsylvania official govt. site