Month: January 2021

 Originally published January 6, 2020

https://www.queensjewishlink.com/index.php/opinion/3812-the-curse-of-cuomo

New York Times bestselling author Governor Andrew Cuomo, who literally wrote the book on how to defeat COVID, is a blight on this once-great state.  That’s it.  That’s the article.

But just in case more explanation is needed, Cuomo is completely botching the rollout of the COVID vaccine.  This is no surprise, as he botched the response to COVID in the first place.  However, according to the sycophantic media that praises his every move, he is the embodiment of leadership.  His daily press briefings have earned him an Emmy award and his aforementioned book is a bestseller.

His hypocrisy on the vaccine predates his incompetence on dispersing it to the public.  In September, he publicly sowed doubt and confusion about the efficacy and reliability of the yet-to-be-released vaccine, claiming, “Frankly, I’m not going to trust the federal government’s opinion, and I wouldn’t recommend it to New Yorkers, based on the federal government’s opinion.”  If it wasn’t obvious that this was a ploy to get more people to vote against President Trump, Cuomo spelled it out later.  

When discussing the vaccine rollout in mid-November, Cuomo said that one of the main things they will have to combat is the large number of New Yorkers who are skeptical about receiving the shot.  What changed since his overt doubt in September?  The election happened, and the result was what Cuomo wanted, so now the vaccine can be trusted.  The FDA is the same, the CDC is the same, and the President is the same, but now it wasn’t politically beneficial to be pessimistic about the vaccine.  

However, jabbing at Trump is always good for approval ratings in New York, so Cuomo decides to preemptively blame the President, who just paved the way for the fastest vaccine creation in modern American history, for the dispersal of that vaccine. He said in November that Trump should spend his final months in office “repairing the damage you have done” during COVID.  Governor Cuomo, it was not President Trump who shipped infected elderly back to nursing homes.  It was not President Trump who created a paper mache mountain as a symbol of his own ego.  It was not President Trump who turned that mountain into a poster to immortalize his failure.  It was you, Governor.

Since the vaccine became available, New York has received almost 900,000 vials of the vaccine, yet distributed less than a third of that.  Cuomo’s “Phase 1A” prioritizes healthcare workers in conjunction with nursing home residents, despite the scientific evidence that age is a dominant factor in the severity of the virus.  The New York State government website describing the rollout does not mention any restrictions or prioritization. Compare this to states like Florida, with a larger overall and elderly population, which allows all residents age 65 or older to be eligible for the vaccine, not just those living in nursing homes.  Florida Governor Ron DeSantis trusts science in reality, not just as a platitude.

In Israel, vaccine distribution is exceeding expectations, with the State being the highest per capita rate in the world of administered doses.  This is due to a simple philosophy: No dose goes to waste.  If there are extra doses at the end of a day with no one to administer to, hospital workers go out to the street to pull people in.  That way, no dose is wasted.

Cuomo, on the other hand, is signing executive orders which could fine hospitals up to $1 million if they administer a vaccine to someone who wasn’t in line.  This has resulted in vaccine doses that were not refrigerated and needed to be discarded.  After a holiday weekend of below-average vaccinations, Cuomo threatened to fine hospitals up to $100,000 if they don’t speed up the process.  Cuomo’s response to every problem seems to be to collect money from hospitals.  

If 2020 Cuomo was a problem, 2021 Cuomo could be a disaster.  According to recently proposed legislation, Cuomo could have the power to detain citizens without due process if that person is deemed a health threat.  New York State Assembly Bill A416, if enacted, would essentially allow Cuomo to declare that any communicable disease is enough justification to detain in a “medical facility or other appropriate facility or premises designated by the governor.”  This is a far cry from “15 days to slow the spread.”

The old parable of the frog in the boiling pot comes to mind when determining the course that New York has taken in the past year.  The pot is heating up, but New Yorkers continue to become accustomed to the temperature.  The boiling point is rapidly approaching; how many New Yorkers will hop out before it does, and what will happen to those who remain?

Originally published December 30, 2020

https://www.queensjewishlink.com/index.php/opinion/3775-the-biggest-2020-story-nobody-talks-about

 

The world breathes a collective sigh of relief that 2020 is at an end.  It is superstitious, perhaps, to believe that when the clock chimes midnight on New Year’s, the problems of 2020 will be behind us. Nevertheless, the general public remains hopeful that 2021 will be better than its predecessor. However, as painful as 2020 was, this year saw one of the greatest accomplishments of the Trump presidency: the decimation of Iran as a regional power.

Most people probably forgot that in the waning days of 2019 and beginning of 2020, President Trump ordered a strike against Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in retaliation for a coordinated attack on the American embassy in Baghdad.  While the Democrats and their media talking heads were loudly condemning the strike, claiming it would lead to World War III, there was practically no retaliation, save a strike on an empty American base causing no casualties.  

Soleimani was the number-two man in Iran, and his position was so important it would be the equivalent of combining the roles of Vice President, Secretary of State, and Secretary of Defense into one job.  Next to this good news is the ugly way that the media portrayed it.  Iran held massive, mandatory funeral services for Soleimani, which ABC’s Martha Raddatz referred to as “moving.” A New York Times reporter praised Iran for “showing more restraint” than Trump.  

On “The View,” Chuck Schumer, with the prodding of the sycophantic “View” hosts, bashed Trump’s motives for conducting the attack. “[I] am totally unconvinced that there was any imminence that required an immediate attack.”  Joe Biden wrote in a statement that this was a “huge escalatory move” and it “tossed a stick of dynamite in a tinderbox.”  Even during the Vice-Presidential debate in October, Kamala Harris was still arguing the necessity of killing Soleimani, claiming that the minute retaliation showed that Trump didn’t care about American troops.  She must have forgotten that Soleimani was directly responsible for the deaths of countless American soldiers.  

Another important and underreported assassination was the killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, Iran’s top nuclear scientist.  While it was never confirmed, credit for the ingenious plot to take out this threat went to the Israelis.  Apparently, it took a dozen operatives within Iran to take out Fakhrizadeh, and the operation was so smooth that no agent was injured.  Anyone who ever worried about a nuclear Iran should have slept soundly that night. 

Much like hatred of Trump, the Left also hates Israel.  Any anti-Iranian action is inevitably good for Israel, therefore it is reviled by those on the Left.  Former head of the CIA under President Obama and noted serial liar John Brennan made his disgust known.  He condemned the assassination, calling it a “criminal act,” “murder,” and “state-sponsored terrorism.” He then spoke directly to the Ayatollah, saying that Iran should “wait for the return of responsible American leadership on the global stage.” Nothing says “responsibility” like piling tens of billions of dollars onto a pallet and shipping it off to the largest state sponsor of global terrorism, as the Obama administration did.  

The assassination was also condemned by the United Nations, the European Union, and The New York Times. Based on those condemnations alone, anyone can assume that it was the right thing to do.
Iran is also losing regional influence due to the Abraham Accords, which is one of the greatest accomplishments by not only President Trump, but any president in decades.  The Abraham Accords shone a light on the myth of the Palestinian Veto, and created a normalization of relations between Israel and multiple Arab Nations. So far, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco have signed on, with more nations on the way.  

For years, the foreign “intelligence” community has claimed that what Trump accomplished was impossible.  Former Secretary of State John Kerry claimed in 2016 that “There will be no separate peace between Israel and the Arab world.” Kerry elaborated further, and what he said was so incredibly wrong that he should be laughed out of Washington. 

“I want to make that very clear with all of you. I’ve heard several prominent politicians in Israel sometimes saying, ‘Well, the Arab world is in a different place now. We just have to reach out to them. We can work some things with the Arab world and we’ll deal with the Palestinians.’ No. No, no, and no.  I can tell you that, reaffirmed within the last week because I’ve talked to the leaders of the Arab community, there will be no advanced and separate peace with the Arab world without the Palestinian process and Palestinian peace. Everybody needs to understand that. That is a hard reality.”  However, since Kerry is a prominent Democrat, he remains in a high-ranking position in the upcoming Biden administration.  

The signing of multiple peace deals is truly historic, and should earn President Trump the Nobel Peace Prize.  However, it was barely a blip in the news coverage.  Most of the coverage was about how the signing ceremony wasn’t concerned enough about COVID.  This Peace Deal, though, is essentially an alliance against an aggressive Iran.  In addition to sharing of technologies and embassies, the increased communication can and will lead to sharing of intelligence, which will help curb the ever-present threat Iran poses to the region.  

One of the truly tragic parts about 2020 was that the media was so determined to get Trump out of office, they refused to cover his incredible accomplishments. While they lied to the American public, they pushed forward a man who helped make Iran a threat in the first place.  Early talks from the Biden transition show that he’s interested in re-entering the Iran Deal and lifting sanctions, which will give Iran even more power and contribute to the destabilization of the region. 

2020 saw Iran fall; hopefully it won’t be resurrected in 2021.

 Originally published December 23, 2020

https://www.queensjewishlink.com/index.php/opinion/3729-all-eyes-on-georgia

As the end of the year approaches and the future of Washington politics is taking shape, the Senate race in Georgia is taking on far greater importance than a normal runoff election would.  Should the Democrats win, there will be a 50-50 split in the Senate (with Vice President Harris as the tie-breaker), a Democrat House majority, and a Democrat President.  There will be little to nothing to stop the socialist leftwing of the Democratic Party from enacting their policies.

The policies on the table include Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, and an open border.  Each of these alone will force the government to borrow more and more money, something that the United States cannot do in perpetuity.  However, what’s at stake is greater than spending money that the government doesn’t have. The Democrats have shown willingness to fundamentally change the system so they are never out of power again.  They can end the legislative filibuster, like they ended the judicial filibuster in 2013.  This means that they will only need 51 votes to push through their policies instead of 60.  They can add Puerto Rico and Washington DC as states, ensuring that they have four more Senators in perpetuity.  They can pack the Supreme Court, and the activist judges they seat will rewrite the Constitution as they see fit. 

Even Democratic voters should balk at these proposals.  At this point, a majority of State Legislatures are Republican controlled.  These states will not sit idly by while the federal government is irreparably damaged.  Secession talk has already begun on right-wing talk radio, and while that’s a far-cry from reality, it’s a dangerous path to go down if remaining a single country matters anymore.  

For those who hope that the Democrats, should they be in control of the House, Senate and White House, will either be a moderate party or an ineffective one, the political landscape may say otherwise.  Should the Democrats win in Georgia, Chuck Schumer will be Majority Leader; he will be in charge of what bills are brought to the floor of the Senate.  Schumer, who is up for re-election in 2022, is already worrying about a primary from his left, especially from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.  So he’ll work to boost his leftwing resume so he can avoid that eventuality.  

Even within the Senate, it’s not like the candidates in Georgia are moderate Democrats; they are incredibly radical left-wing socialist Democrats.  Republicans incumbents David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler are taking on Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, respectively.  Both Warnock and Ossoff are in the political mold of Bernie Sanders.  

Reverend Raphael Warnock, who openly praised Marxism in his 2013 book, has videos of his own radicalism being unearthed daily. Also in 2013, he praised notorious anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan, saying that Farrakhan was an “important voice.” Warnock invited another anti-Semite, Jeremiah Wright, to speak at his church in 2014.  In 2015, Warnock referred to Israel as an “apartheid” state and that it’s “a land of violence and bloodshed and occupation.”  In 2016, he compared Netanyahu to segregationist George Wallace.  Warnock has some of the most notorious anti-Semites of the day campaigning for him, like Linda Sarsour, Rashida Tlaib, and Ilhan Omar.  

Warnock’s radicalism isn’t limited to the Jewish people and Israel; he has a particular animosity towards America as well. He claimed that “nobody can serve G-d and the military,” essentially claiming that the millions who have served in our Armed Forces are G-dless.  He called Republicans “gangsters” and “thugs” who “launched a vicious and evil attack on the most vulnerable people in America.”  What did Republicans do to earn such vitriolic attacks?  They passed a tax cut in late 2017.  Warnock’s views on abortion are so radical that two dozen black pastors wrote a letter decrying those views after he referred to himself as “a pro-choice pastor.”

The other Democrat is Jon Ossoff, who made national headlines when he ran a losing Congressional campaign in a 2017 special election.  He was a darling character of the Hollywood left, a group that accepted his wealthy background and espoused socialist views.  

Ossoff has a major scandal brewing, as his media company has taken money from organizations linked to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).  He’s also taken money from Al Jazeera and J-Street.  From a policy perspective, Ossoff is as leftwing as many members of the Democratic Caucus, which means that he will be on board with as many radical policies as they can ram through before the next election.

Given the danger of losing these seats, Republicans are walking a tightrope in Georgia.  On the one side, a majority of Georgians believe that the election in November was not conducted fairly.  On the other side, Republicans from around the country are encouraging Georgians to turn out and vote.  

This is why it’s incredibly important for Republican leadership, from President Trump down to the local member of the Assembly, to loudly and repeatedly encourage all Georgians to vote.  The goal should be to overwhelm the system, not let it win.  Even from New York, those who care about the future of the country should be encouraging anyone they know in the area to vote, or should contribute to the Perdue and Loeffler campaigns.  

The eyes of the country are on these Georgia races, and the fate of the country will be determined based on their outcome.  Republicans must show up in droves to ensure that the nation will have a fighting chance going forward.  

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 Originally published December 16, 2020

https://www.queensjewishlink.com/index.php/opinion/3683-the-crime-of-the-century

With the Electors in each state casting their votes, it seems that Joe Biden will be inaugurated President on January 20. This is truly unfortunate for the nation and the world, as President Trump’s foreign and domestic policies have yielded some of the most accomplished – albeit unconventional – four years in the White House in decades.  This, and other reasons, are why so many are still clinging to hope that a constitutional loophole can be found to keep Trump in office.

Make no mistake about it: This election was stolen – but not in any way that can be legally overturned.  Biden barely stuck his head out of the basement, but he didn’t need to. The election was won for him by three culprits: the media and Big Tech, the states, and the poll workers.

First, the media and Big Tech, which ran Biden’s campaign for him.  Not only did they spend the entirety of the Trump presidency covering the administration overwhelmingly negatively (over 90% negative coverage on “objective” sources), they actively suppressed negative stories about Biden.  The first and most obvious example is Hunter Biden, Joe’s son and the recipient of millions of foreign dollars trading on his father’s name.  When the New York Post broke the story about Hunter, Twitter blocked its account and didn’t allow any tweet of the story.  Facebook suppressed dissemination of the link “pending a fact check.”  The media ran with the story that this was “Russian disinformation.” Now that the election is over, the media can cover Hunter’s sins.

Another major story that saw little daylight was the accusations from Tara Reade, the former Biden staffer.  Without getting into the details, Reade provided far more corroborating evidence of her accusations than Christine Blasey Ford did against then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, yet it was a month before any major media outlet published the accusation, only to portray it as a “questionable story.” The “60 Minutes” interview that Reade did only aired in Australia.  This is the same media that declared Michael Avenatti a contender for the Democratic nomination because he represented Stormy Daniels.  

The media and Big Tech also refused to cover Trump’s massive successes in the months leading up to the election, namely the Middle East peace deals and Operation Warp Speed. The peace deals between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, and other countries are far more historic than Biden getting elected, yet it is Biden and Harris who were named Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year.”  It would surprise no one on the right side of the political aisle if Trump is snubbed for the Nobel Peace Prize.  

As for Operation Warp Speed, the media scoffed at Trump when he declared that a vaccine would be available by the end of the year.  Over and over, the talking heads at NBC, ABC, CBS CNN, MSNBC, and many other networks and publications declared that it would take a “miracle” for a vaccine to be developed by the end of the year.  As late as November 2, a day before the election, Aaron Rupar from left-wing Vox said, “Trump is now promising that the coronavirus vaccine will be available in ‘a couple of weeks,’ which is the surest indication yet that we’re not close.”  All of this coverage amounts to a massive in-kind contribution to the Biden campaign.

Then there are the shady electoral practices done by four swing states, detailed out in the lawsuit that Texas filed, but rejected by the Supreme Court due to lack of “standing.”  In short, states unconstitutionally changed their own rules on mail-in ballots because of COVID.  We are a nation of laws, and an election is only legal because of those laws. If Trump received 100 million votes on a Twitter poll to be re-elected, that wouldn’t mean anything because that’s not a lawful election. Same should go for the laws in these states; their electoral process was not legal. Nonetheless, the Court said that Texas cannot sue other states for the laws in those states.  

So now there are a massive number of ballots that came into states to be counted – over 80 million around the country.  To count them all, according to witness testimony, ballot counters were told to accept ballots regardless of signature match or if they were properly filled out.  This led to a far smaller ballot rejection rate than we’ve seen in recent elections.  In some cases, a ballot received in 2018 was 30 times more likely to be rejected than one received in 2020.  Since the margin of victory in multiple states was less than one percent, most of the mail-in votes went to Biden, and rejection rate was abnormally small, the lax ballot counting rules could have easily swung this election.

None of this is to say that Joe Biden won’t be the legally-elected president come Inauguration Day. He will.  It is to say that an uninformed electorate, states playing with their voting laws, and a lenient counting process all combined to pave the way for the crime of the century: a legal election of a president.  It shouldn’t surprise anyone that millions of Trump voters are in disbelief.  

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 Originally posted December 9, 2020

https://www.queensjewishlink.com/index.php/opinion/3642-no-it-s-not-just-a-mask

For the better part of a year, there has been a growing political divide between those who would wear a mask and those who wouldn’t. Each side of the divide is boggled by the rationale of the other side, and there seems to be little actual debate between the two. For Democrats, wearing a mask is a small sacrifice for the greater good. For Republicans, it’s just one step on an increasingly slippery slope that America is tumbling down.

Let’s make one thing clear: While masks should be worn indoors and in close-quartered spaces, the efficacy of masks is unproven in the real world. In laboratory environments, when subjects don the appropriate gear with the appropriate training, of course masks and PPE are effective. But we don’t live in a lab, and not all masks are the same. Neck gaiters, for example, actually are shown to do less than no mask at all, as particles become aerosolized and dispersed farther when wearing a neck gaiter. No amount of public service announcements will stop people from allowing masks to slip beneath their noses or above their mouths. The most effective masks, the N95s, are usually only available to hospital staff.

So when Joe Biden proclaims that on the day he enters office (assuming, of course, that President Trump’s legal challenges are unsuccessful), he will ask people to wear masks for “just 100 days,” it is incumbent upon any freedom-loving American to ask a few questions.

First, where did that number come from? After proclaiming for months that he would “follow the science,” he cannot provide the scientific evidence that shows that 100 days to slow the spread will be any more successful than the “15 days to slow the spread” that’s been occurring for the past eight months. Second, what is the success criterion for Joe Biden? Can he explain the numbers that would have to occur before he declares victory? Will Wyoming still be forced to wear a mask if New Jersey has a high level of infection? Third, what is the limiting principle? If the mask mandate is to prevent disease, will this be commonplace every flu season?

Republicans are clearly skeptical of a government that seems to have a small request but is obviously getting drunker on its own power. New York City shut down its schools, despite not being a vector of transmission, because of pressure from teachers’ unions. Los Angeles shut down outdoor dining, even though that, too, is not a vector of transmission. A viral video this past week showed a restaurant owner sobbing as she displayed her “dangerous” outdoor eating area, which was shut down by the city, next to a “safe” eating area, which looked identical, approved by the city. The approved area was for cast and crew of a television show that was filming on location.

That double standard pales in comparison to the hypocrisy displayed by Democratic mayors, council members, and governors regarding their own COVID orders. Newsweek compiled a list of a few examples. Austin Mayor Steve Adler issued a dire warning about leaving your home…while on vacation in Mexico. Denver Mayor Michael Hancock wrote, “Pass the potatoes, not COVID… Avoid travel”…while sitting in an airport on his way to Mississippi. Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser violated her travel regulations when she traveled to Delaware to congratulate Joe Biden in person. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot shut down salons, yet in April she got a haircut. Her excuse was, “I’m the public face of this city. I’m on national media and I’m out in the public eye.” Her appearance is necessary, while everyone else’s is not.

But wait, there’s more. California Governor Gavin Newsom violated his lockdown to attend an indoor, maskless, $350-a-plate dinner with Californian healthcare officials. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo planned to have his 89-year-old mother along with his daughters for Thanksgiving after he told everyone else to eat Thanksgiving alone. Nancy Pelosi got her hair done in a closed salon and then blamed the salon owner.

Hypocrisy may not be the right word, as they are not being hypocritical; they are simply lying to the public. When they say that it is too risky for these activities, and then they embark upon them, they are really saying that they are capable of assessing risk, and the public is too stupid to assess risk.

Democrats may look around and think that’s an accurate statement: People are too dumb to assess risk. That is the essence of the political divide around masks, and all COVID-related mandates. Conservatives, by nature, view people as individuals, and individuals can be reasoned with and can make the correct decisions for themselves. Those on the left view people in terms of groups, and determine that the group must be disciplined as one.

The slippery slope does not occur when states ask you to wear masks; it occurs when they mandate masks. Then they shut down the restaurants, bars, barbers, and other small businesses while allowing the large ones to stay open. Then they write unconstitutional laws about how many people are allowed in homes at a given time, close travel, close schools, close offices, and any number of other infringements that have already happened and continue to happen.

So when a politician or pundit says, “It’s just a mask, what’s the big deal?” realize that it’s much more than a mask, and be skeptical of the request. Because while a vaccine is in the offing, and there’s an end in sight to this pandemic, there is no end in sight for those in power to want to wield that power, any way they can.

 Originally published December 2, 2020

https://www.queensjewishlink.com/index.php/opinion/3599-exhausted-from-rigging-election-media-now-prepare-to-hibernate

A return to normalcy was the stated goal of the Biden campaign, and the media is eager to comply. In a “normal” Washington, the supposed firefighters of the truth forget that they have a job and a duty to the American people. Between 2009 and 2016, the media’s main job was to create a fictional President named Barack Obama who was good at his job, as opposed to the actual Barack Obama who was anything but. Now that they deemed Biden the winner of the 2020 election (despite the fact that ongoing lawsuits and lack of concession or certification mean that he is not yet President-Elect), the media are ready to “return to normalcy,” which is being the lapdog of the Democrats.

The media have earned their break. They have spent four years doing their jobs of holding the President of the United States accountable, even when they have to create the scandal of the week out of thin air. Many Republicans have little issue with the media scrutinizing the President, so long as the standard is applied to both sides. It is not. The “objective” news media have consistently had 90-plus percent negative coverage of President Trump. They refuse to cover negative stories about Joe Biden, and they ignore positive stories about Trump. This rigged the election in Biden’s favor.

Newsbusters (Media Research Center) recently reported that in seven swing states, six of which went to Biden, Biden voters were unaware of significant stories. Testing eight different stories, they have determined that 82% of the 1,750 people polled were unaware of at least one of these major news stories, and 5% were unaware of all eight. Seventeen percent of respondents said that they would not have voted for Joe Biden had they been aware of one or more of these stories. That would have easily shifted the election to Trump.

The eight stories contained three negative stories about Biden and five positive stories about Trump. The three negative stories about Biden were the Tara Reade sexual assault allegation, the Hunter Biden laptop scandal, and the fact that Kamala Harris was the most leftwing Senator in 2019 (more left than Bernie Sanders). The five positive Trump stories were the 33.1% economic growth, the 11.1 million new jobs, the Middle East peace deals, energy independence, and operation Warp Speed, which allowed at least three vaccines to be developed in record time.

The media hid these stories from the public because they hate Trump and Republicans. Now that they consider their job complete, they are beginning to go back to normal, which is being a mouthpiece for the Democrats.

For every new appointment that Joe Biden makes to his cabinet, the media swoon. Yamiche Alcindor, the “objective” White House Correspondent for PBS, said that the Biden appointees “felt like the Avengers, it felt like we are being rescued from this, this craziness we’ve all lived through these past four years and now here are the superheroes to come and save us all.” The talking point of the team being “apolitical, “diverse,” and “humble” spread from ABC to NBC to CBS.

This is a glimpse of what is to come should Biden be inaugurated in January. When Biden twisted his ankle while playing with his dog this past weekend, the media hid it for 24 hours. Biden received a CT scan for an ankle injury, but that does not require questions. Trump’s every move for the weeks before his COVID diagnosis, however, was under severe scrutiny.

The media gushed over Biden’s appointment of an all-female press team, screaming headlines from The Washington Post and the Hill, but ignored when Trump was the first to have a female Press Secretary at the same time as a female Communications Director. They ignored when Kellyanne Conway became the first female campaign manager to win a presidential campaign. This is par for the course, considering that the media ignore the 18 Republican women who won their Congressional races this year. The “historic” label only applies to Democrats.

This is what “normal” looks like: a hibernating media who refuse to cover the Democrat in office, a complacent group of bureaucrats who consistently fail and get rehired again and again. This is the swamp in a nutshell. “Normal” is a lie. A complicit media isn’t normal. Don’t let it become so.

 Originally published November 25, 2020

https://www.queensjewishlink.com/index.php/opinion/3557-election-reform-must-be-the-senate-gop-s-first-priority

With the massive allegations of voter fraud laid out by Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, and the rest of the Trump team, it’s obvious to all that the 2020 elections were a massive disaster. Regardless of who takes the oath of office in January, election reform should be a bipartisan issue at the top of everyone’s list. Unfortunately, it seems that Democrats consistently want to open the floodgates to further fraud, so it will be up to the Senate Republicans to write the bill and force Democrats to vote against it. Here are just a few of the policies that must be implemented to secure our elections.

National Voter ID Laws

The most obvious way to secure elections is also the most controversial, at least for Democrats. For anyone who thinks logically, an ID should be necessary to vote, to ensure that the person who is registered is the person voting. Those who claim that requiring an ID is racist are guilty of the soft bigotry of low expectations. Why are there some groups unable to get IDs? Additionally, there are massive campaigns in every state to register people to vote. There is no reason why there cannot be that same campaign to get people a picture identification. If Costco can print out a membership card with a picture on it in 30 seconds, the government should be able to do it, as well.

Purge Voter Rolls Every Two Years

In even-numbered years, there are federal elections for the House of Representatives, the Senate, and (every four years) the Presidency. This gives enough time in odd-numbered years to purge the voter rolls to ensure that people who are dead for decades don’t “accidentally” cast a ballot. Have people log onto their local government website, confirm that they are still residents, and they will not get purged. Anyone who fails to do so will have to reregister.

Election Day a Federal Holiday

One of the biggest complaints is that people do not have time before or after work to go to the polls. Making Election Day a federal holiday will give time off for Americans to go vote. Since this will be a burden on employers, this can also be an excuse to downgrade Labor Day.

Mail-In Voting Is Severely Restricted

Mail-in voting could be the number one issue in the 2020 election cycle. The system is so ripe for failure that it should be more of a joke than a hanging chad. Voters can get disenfranchised if they do something wrong, and counters can toss out legal votes if the procedure isn’t followed. All mail-in ballots, with a few exceptions, like soldiers and civil servants overseas, should be illegal. Some legitimate excuses could be the physically infirmed who cannot go to the polls, or Election Day conflicts with a religious holiday. Vacation is not an excuse.

Outlaw Out-of-Country Counting

The Trump team alleged that ballots are counted in other countries, like Germany. If this does occur, it should be outlawed.

Software Must Be Vetted Federally

In a digital age, paper ballots do not make sense as a primary means of tallying a vote. However, given the inherent risks of a malfunctioning or hacked piece of equipment, the federal government should vet and approve all software used by states. This will reduce the possibility of “ballot-switching,” which happened at least once in 2020

More Polling Places, No Early Voting

These two go hand in hand, as it is currently considered “voter suppression” to stand in line (it’s not). Since early voting, especially combined with lack of voter ID, opens up the possibility of voter impersonation, reducing the time that an illegal vote could be cast is of paramount importance. However, since we don’t want to disenfranchise voters, federal funds should be used to set up more polling places and ensure that they are properly staffed.

Poll-Worker Standards

Poll workers have an incredible responsibility, but have little training, and that training is not universal. Poll workers should have standardized training and should sign a contract, under penalty of prosecution, that they will comply with those standards.

Partisan Poll Watchers

Every polling place should have a Poll Watcher from each political party, and those watchers should be given unfettered access to roam around the polling place. No observations can be made from 20 feet away, and the parties involved deserve to have their candidates be given a fair election.

It’s unfortunate that our electoral system has fallen so dramatically that the outlined steps must be taken. However, an election only has meaning if it can be trusted. These proposals will help build confidence back into a system that so many Americans currently distrust.

 Originally published November 18, 2020

https://www.queensjewishlink.com/index.php/opinion/3510-so-who-won-the-election

Despite the media’s continued insistence, Joe Biden is not yet the President-Elect. He is the projected winner; but until the states certify the vote or Trump concedes, this election is still undecided. However, even if Joe Biden takes the oath of office in January, who really won this election? Is Joe Biden strong enough to withstand the pressure coming in from his left?

Biden, through his near-five decades of public service, has demonstrated that he will constantly be pushed further left. He was all for overturning Roe v. Wade in the 1970s, then was pro-abortion but with restrictions, then said no restrictions but no federal funding, and now is calling for taxpayer-funded abortions. He was for the 1994 crime bill, but is now against it. He was against Medicare for all, but pushed for a “lite” version of it. When Biden campaigned on a “return to normalcy,” nobody asked, “What is normal?” 1992 Bill Clinton or even 2008 Barack Obama would be too right-wing for the Democrats of 2020.

So who is in charge of the Left? There are the usual political suspects, which include Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, the “Squad,” Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer. There are the media suspects, which include nearly every outlet ranging from The New York Times, The Washington Post, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, and others. There are the corporate suspects who join forces with Hollywood to push forward a society that they are wealthy enough to avoid. And they all cave to the activists, embodied by Antifa and the Black Lives Matter movements.

One of their main rallying cries for the past six months has been “Defund the Police.” This is a slogan that began on the streets and has permeated Hollywood, corporations, the media, and the Democratic Party. They graffiti it on windows that they haven’t yet destroyed. They paint it on the streets. Conformity to this core principle is fast becoming a prerequisite to entry into the halls of power on the Left.

This was obvious when Joe Manchin, Democratic Senator from West Virginia, had the audacity to tweet, “Defund the police? Defund, my butt. I’m a proud West Virginia Democrat. We are the party of working men and women. We want to protect Americans’ jobs & healthcare. We do not have some crazy socialist agenda, and we do not believe in defunding the police.” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is all but the leader of the Democrats in the House at this point, replied with a simple picture of her glaring at Joe Manchin in obvious disgust. To date, that “clapback” tweet has over 573,000 views.

Bernie Sanders tried to lie about how pervasive the “Defund the Police” movement is on the Left. On CNN, Sanders said, “Nobody I know that’s running for office talks about Defunding the Police.” The Washington Free Beacon compiled a video of Democratic politicians saying precisely the opposite. AOC said, “Defunding the police means defunding the police. It does not mean budget tricks or funny math.” Ayanna Pressley said, “This movement is not new. I really consider it a refund.” Newly elected representative Jamaal Bowman said, “We need to truly cut $1 billion in NYPD spending.” Cori Bush, who was just elected in Missouri, said, “So yes, defund your butts.” Ilhan Omar said in June, “Not only do we need to disinvest, but we also need to completely dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department.” Many of these people endorsed Sanders when he ran for president in the Democratic primary race.

What will Joe Biden do on this issue? When asked if he would redirect funding from police, he said yes. The 1994 Biden would have scoffed at this, but the wind blows left, so Biden goes left. It should be no surprise that no Democrat denounces the violence in the streets (unless specifically asked about it). This past weekend, Antifa and BLM again attacked Trump supporters in Washington, DC. There are videos of children being yelled at, screaming women running from mobs who hurled objects at them, elderly men knocked to the ground, restaurant-goers dodging fireworks being tossed at them, and a man punched in the back of the head and then repeatedly kicked in the face. Not a word from the Democrats.

So who won the election? Even if Biden receives the electoral votes, will he be a bulwark against this violence? Will he be a leader who stands with the nation’s law enforcement? Or were the real winners the rioters and the looters, who can now continue their lawlessness without fear of reprisal from the Oval Office or a Biden Justice Department? Were the real winners the socialist Left, who will continue to push their agenda and further degrade and destroy the nation? If Joe Biden will not stand up for this nation, who did America choose to lead?

The winner of the election has yet to be confirmed, but if it is Joe Biden standing in front of the Capitol in January, taking an oath on the Bible, you can be certain that the real winners were the violent and socialist Left who will be pushing their policies through his office. Will he do anything to stop it?

 Originally posted November 11, 2020

https://www.queensjewishlink.com/index.php/opinion/3466-what-america-lost-and-what-it-gained

At the time of this writing, there is no certified winner of the 2020 presidential election. Do not inform the Democrats, the media, or Big Tech, however, as they are inappropriately referring to Joe Biden as “President-Elect” while there is pending legal action in multiple states. If President Trump should end his tenure after one term, it will be the most accomplished term in decades, and truly shows what America would lose with him out of the White House.

Trump’s foreign policy has been the highlight of his presidency. He signed new trade deals, stopped aggression from North Korea and Russia, and pushed allies to contribute more to NATO. He withdrew from the UN Human Rights Watch, defunded Palestinian terror, and put new sanctions on Iran. He facilitated the greatest peace in the Middle East in a quarter century. Trump-haters will point to polling of Trump among the residents of America’s allies, but that bears no relevance to his accomplishments around the world.

Compare that to what will most likely come from a Biden-Harris administration. Joe Biden has been wrong on every matter of foreign policy for four decades, so there is little hope that he will get it right now. Harris already said that the Palestinian Authority will be funded, despite the fact that they pay terrorists to murder Israelis. Any further signees to the Abraham Accords will certainly balk at the prospect of joining the stage with Joe Biden. North Korea, China, Iran, and Russia will all be emboldened. NATO will continue to take advantage of the United States because they know that Biden will not have the spine to enforce their promises. It’s the same with the Paris Accords, which Biden will certainly rejoin, despite the fact that there is no enforcement mechanism to the greatest climate polluters on the planet.

Trump also had a knack to facilitate economic growth by cutting regulations in the executive branch. These cut regulations allowed business to thrive without the burden of compliance. That is no longer a given, as Biden was part of the administration that added tens of thousands of pages of regulations annually. This will hurt business and stunt the economic growth needed after the pandemic.

There is good news for anyone fearing a Biden-Harris administration, though, which is that they will not have the legislative backing they needed to accomplish their most extreme predilections, like packing the Supreme Court, ending the filibuster and so on. Currently, the Republicans have a 50-48 Senate lead with two runoff elections in Georgia on the way, and the House differential is razor thin, only a few votes. The Democrats will have a hard time holding together a coalition of the deep-blue radical Left (like the “Squad”) and the purple district moderates. If Pelosi retains the Speakership of the House, she will have a hard time bridging that divide.

Then there are the State Houses, which netted Republicans over 100 seats around the country. This is vital in 2020, as it is a census year. Now Republicans in many states will be in control of redistricting (although not in New York, where Republican members of the State Senate and Assembly may have new constituents to appeal to), so those states may stay reliably Red for a decade.

This should be a source of solace for those dismayed by the results in the Presidential election, although that is still undecided. The election is not over. It took five weeks to decide the election of 2000, and the issues in this election, especially with mail-in votes, makes that election look like child’s play.

The stories of voter irregularities are overwhelming the Trump legal team, who are mounting a strong case to contest the results in multiple states. It is a difficult and confusing road, as each state has its own issues. For example, in Antrim County, Michigan, a glitch in the software used to count ballots counted 6,000 Trump votes for Biden. This glitch was discovered, and the ballots switched – but this same software has been used in 47 of Michigan’s 83 counties. An investigation is underway to determine if other counties’ numbers are incorrect.

In Pennsylvania, it is required by law for all mail-in ballots to be inspected before opening; however, there is evidence to suggest that tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, were not inspected. If the court rules that those must be rejected, and many of those votes were for Biden, the state could flip to Trump.

No Trump voter should be overly optimistic that this election will be overturned, but they also shouldn’t give up, either. Choosing your battles is important in politics – as in life – and this battle is one that must be fought. Five states have a vote difference of less than one percent. Win or lose, the 70 million Americans who voted for President Trump deserve a free and fair election, one beyond question. Every American deserves that.

If you think 2020 can’t get any crazier, consider this: If Biden gets Georgia, and Trump gets Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Nevada, there is a 269-269 tie. Buckle up: The year isn’t over yet.