In his new book Deception: The Covid Cover-up‚ Sen. Rand Paul notes that Dr. Anthony Fauci‚ in government for more than 50 years‚ was never once confirmed by the Senate. Other powerful federal officials also evaded Senate confirmation through a partisan process that demands exposure and reform. In 2020‚ the Government Accountability Office (GAO) ruled that Chad Wolf‚ acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security‚ and Ken Cucinelli‚ senior official performing the duties of the deputy secretary‚ were both “serving illegally‚” according to the Federal Vacancies Reform Act (FVRA). GAO officials deferred to the DHS on who should serve and “the consequences of actions” taken by Wolf and Cuccinelli. As California labor commissioner Su supported Assembly Bill 5‚ a frontal assault on workers’ independence. Democrat Reps Bennie Thompson and Carolyn Maloney charged that “GAO’s damning opinion paints a disturbing picture of the Trump administration playing fast and loose by bypassing the Senate confirmation process to install ideologues.” (READ MORE from Lloyd Billingsley: Lessons from the EPA’s Agent 007) According to the Constitutional Accountability Center‚ at least 15 Trump officials “do not hold their positions lawfully.” This figure “surely understates the severity of the problem” and “this pervasive evasion of the Senate’s advice-and-consent requirement is deeply troubling — and hugely consequential.” Contrast that with the record of the Biden administration. In February‚ the GAO ruled that appointees at Immigration and Customs Enforcement‚ Office of Management and Budget‚ Office of Violence Against Women‚ the Federal Labor Relations Authority‚ and the Agency for International Development were “serving unlawfully.” The GAO was not concerned whether appointees were performing their duties effectively‚ and it was all a matter of labeling. ICE simply changed “acting director” Tae Johnson to “senior official performing the duties of director‚” and ICE was no longer in violation of the Vacancies Act. By contrast‚ Ken Cuccinelli held a similar “performing the duties” title‚ but the GAO ruled him to be serving unlawfully under the FVRA. Politicians did not complain that Johnson was an ideologue‚ that Biden officials serving unlawfully was deeply troubling and hugely consequential‚ and that the administration was illegally filling an office with an “acting” official. That happened with Julie Su‚ Biden’s pick for Labor Secretary. Several Democrats were dubious and the Senate never held a vote. Then on September 21‚ GAO general counsel Edda Emmanuelli Perez ruled that the Vacancies Act’s time limitations did not apply to Su’s service‚ so she could remain atop the labor department without Senate confirmation. This was bad news because Julie Su is an anti-worker ideologue. As California labor commissioner Su supported Assembly Bill 5‚ a frontal assault on workers’ independence. As Californians know all too well‚ she is an administrator of stunning incompetence. (READ MORE: Trans-Forming California) Su headed California’s Labor and Workforce Development Agency (LWDA)‚ which oversees the Employment Development Department (EDD) responsible for unemployment claims. On Su’s watch‚ the EDD sent out more than $31 billion in fraudulent unemployment claims‚ many to criminals out of state‚ and out of country. A federal government “accountability” office empowered the most unaccountable person American workers could imagine. Democrats and their media allies did not complain that this particular evasion of the Senate’s advice-and-consent requirement was deeply troubling. For all but the willfully blind‚ it is hugely consequential. Joe Biden is a big fan of California’s AB-5 law‚ and hopes to impose something similar on workers nationwide. By greenlighting Julie Su‚ the GAO helps make that possible. In effect‚ the GAO functions as a supreme court for the federal bureaucracy‚ and the Vacancies Act as an ersatz constitution. GAO attorneys deploy the Act to oppose those they dislike and support those they approve. The Act should be amended to ensure that destructive ideologues such as Julie Su cannot serve without Senate confirmation. Dr. Anthony Fauci did so for decades‚ but his case is different. Dr. Fauci twice declined the offer of President George W. Bush to become head of the National Institutes of Health. In that office‚ Fauci knew he would face confirmation hearings and have a limited term. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases which Fauci headed since 1984‚ had no such limitations. The NIAID boss‚ whose bio shows no advanced degrees in molecular biology or biochemistry‚ came to command public health policy‚ medical research spending‚ and a budget of more than $6 billion. That vast concentration of power enabled Fauci to pay off people to get what he wanted. That includes a cover-up of Covid origins‚ as Sen. Paul‚ a medical doctor‚ shows in Deception. (READ MORE: Senate Confirmation Not Required) Congress must hold Dr. Fauci accountable‚ to the full extent of the law‚ however long it takes. Congress must make the NIAID director subject to Senate confirmation and limit the director to one four-year term. All NIAID and NIH grants should be posted on the internet in real time and in downloadable form. These measures will help prevent a resurgence of white coat supremacy. As the people know from experience‚ that is no basis for a system of government. Lloyd Billingsley is a policy fellow at the Independent Institute in Oakland‚ Calif. The post Through the GAO‚ the Deep State Chooses Government Leaders appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

     In my last article‚ I described what I called ignorance to the third degree: ignorance that is proud of itself‚ that boasts of having discarded vast fields of human knowledge.  Since any sane person will be a bit embarrassed when faced with what he knows nothing about‚ this ignorance to the third degree does not come by nature.  You have to be schooled into it.  That is the aim of much of our schooling: to produce the sort of aggressive ignorance that is happy to consign to the garbage heap almost all of the literary‚ artistic‚ philosophical‚ theological‚ and broadly cultural works of people who lived in that universal darkness called the day before yesterday.  Such schools are efficient incinerators.  Tennyson?  Down the trap he goes. But I said that there might be an ignorance to the fourth degree‚ an ignorance that traduces the very means whereby we acquire knowledge. It is one thing to climb down into a sheer pit.  It is another to cut the rungs of the ladder as you go down.  Ignorance to the fourth degree renders you incapable of being anything other than ignorant. This ignorance‚ as I see it‚ is also something that must be schooled into you‚ as unassisted nature cannot produce it; and it must be affirmed again and again‚ lest in some unguarded moment you do some simple and human thing and it revives the mind. Among women‚ if feminist scholars themselves may testify‚ logic itself is to be rejected as “binary‚” in favor of listening to people talk about themselves. Ignorance to the fourth degree assumes three forms‚ which I will describe in order of increasing madness.  The first is the assumption that people of the past have nothing to teach us‚ because all real knowledge is cumulative‚ such as in the physical sciences‚ or as in technological progress.  From this perspective‚ to read Jane Austen to learn about men and women is as silly as hiring a horse and carriage to get from Boston to Hartford.  You may do it as a quaint hobby‚ if you like‚ but it has no meaning or purpose otherwise. (READ MORE: The Modern Phenomenon of Ignorance to the Third Degree) Aside from the inadequacy of this view of how the sciences proceed‚ it is simply not applicable to other fields of knowledge. Transfer the example from the past of our own culture to the present of some other culture.  “Not — English!” said Dickens’ self-satisfied bigot‚ Mr. Podsnap‚ whenever he encountered something other than what fit nicely into his system of prejudices. Imagine someone saying it is moronic to go and live among the most traditional of the reindeer-herding Laplanders‚ to learn something about a tight community and a difficult yet surprisingly cheerful way of life; moronic‚ he says‚ because those Lapps still use reindeer hides to construct their temporary shelters‚ rather than our highly developed pine-sticks and sheets of chalk.  And what can they watch on television‚ when they are out on the tundra? That would be to hang a sign around your neck‚ reading‚ “I am a bigot‚” but we can say exactly the same thing about your attitude toward other cultures far different from yours‚ cultures whose distance is temporal rather than latitudinal. If you can learn from the Lapps‚ you can learn from Jane Austen‚ and for at least one reason (there are more)‚ which is that she and they are not like you.  A still more important reason is this.  What the Lapps do‚ what the people of any culture do‚ is‚ until modern wealth has swept most of the power of sheer necessity aside‚ a function of the distilled wisdom of many generations of people whose most immediate aim was to survive another winter. The penalty for getting fundamental things wrong — such as the distinct characters of the sexes — was that you did not get another chance to get them right.  This wisdom of the ages‚ preserved in proverbs‚ song‚ and folkways‚ is the collective counterpart of the wisdom of a single person who‚ fortified with traditional understanding‚ looks steadily upon human actions and thinks carefully and sensitively about them; a Jane Austen‚ a Walter Scott‚ a Charles Dickens. It is ignorance to the fourth degree to scoff at learning from them. That brings me to the second form that this ignorance takes.  It is to say or to imply that nothing worthy of being called knowledge can be had in any case from observation of human actions‚ unless it can be quantified as the result of some carefully controlled scientific experiment.  In other words‚ physics gives us the form of all true knowledge. Everything else is a sloppy generalization or plain bunk. The truth is almost the reverse.  Suppose you want to get to know John.  Do you measure his bones?  Do you put his hair under a microscope?  Do you analyze his blood?  What does that give you‚ but data about parts of a physical body‚ and those parts too as abstracted from the body?  To get to know John‚ the last thing you need to do is to quantify. You must talk to him‚ walk beside him‚ laugh with him‚ share a meal with him‚ listen to his stories; and you must do so not as a distant analyst desiccating fragments of his reality‚ but as another fully human being. To know John is not like knowing the gravitational pull of the moon.  And‚ as old Aristotle instructed us‚ the means of knowing‚ and the means of demonstrating that you do know‚ depend upon the object of your knowledge. It is worse than silly to demand mathematical proof that John is a good man.  It is like demanding that the moon tell us its dreams. It is not sane. (READ MORE from Anthony Esolen: Let’s Clear the Junk Out From the Colleges) This mad requirement renders us ineducable in human things. Whenever someone asks you for “the study” to show what is obvious to anyone with eyes‚ you should conclude that ignorance to the fourth degree is in play.  As for those sociological studies‚ it has been a long time since Emile Durkheim and Auguste Comte‚ and the results of quasi-scientific sociological inquiry at best have but confirmed‚ at great expense and with much loss of acuity‚ what people of ordinary observation have known from time immemorial. And this brings me to the third and most terrible form of ignorance to the fourth degree: the rejection of reason itself. This rejection‚ as I observe‚ takes forms characteristic of the sexes.  Among men‚ it tends to restrict reason to logical deductions from empirically demonstrated premises; and that abandons to unreason almost everything in human life.  Such people are reduced to saying that if you are independently wealthy and all you want to do is to play video games for twelve hours a day‚ every day‚ that is your choice‚ and reason‚ strictly speaking‚ can have nothing to say about it.  If two consenting adults wish to play Russian roulette‚ each one staking his entire living on the result‚ so long as neither one has any dependents or prior debts‚ reason cannot condemn them‚ no more than it can condemn a young person in the Netherlands from calling upon the death van to come and take away her life‚ merely because she does not feel like living it anymore. Madness‚ then — what the Stoics‚ Confucius‚ the Japanese samurai‚ the Huron warrior‚ the old Roman farmer‚ and the Christian in prayer would all recognize as utterly unreasonable‚ a wastage of human power‚ dereliction of duty‚ numbness to the profundity and the beauty of life.  Such numbness is predictable from masculine abstraction. Among women‚ if feminist scholars themselves may testify‚ logic itself is to be rejected as “binary‚” in favor of listening to people talk about themselves; so that those narratives wherein the narrator is least to be trusted are to be privileged over demonstrable facts and rational deduction. (READ MORE: The University Is Now the Surveillance State) In the event‚ these two prove to be much the same thing.  The suicide in Rotterdam is to be tolerated‚ even celebrated‚ because‚ if we listen to the man‚ the statement that human life is sacred has no meaning and is unreasonable‚ and‚ if we listen to the woman‚ human life is sacred only if it is sacred to you‚ and “sacred” means what you choose it to mean‚ according to your feelings and the story of your life. How to get clear of this mess?  I will have some recommendations.  Stay tuned. The post Ignorance to the Fourth Degree appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Recent polls that showed Donald Trump leading Joe Biden in battleground states has caused a panic among those committed to a Democratic victory in 2024. Rather than reflecting on why the public‚ particularly an increasing share of working-class black‚ Latino‚ and Asian Americans‚ are moving towards the Republican Party‚ they have doubled down on their usual strategy of demonizing the opposition.  Thus‚ we have seen a ramping up of claims that Trump is a threat to democracy‚ including the New York Times‚ which gave its editorial page to an article supporting attempts to keep Trump off the presidential ballot.These five policy goals‚ not some threat to democracy‚ are what progressives want to forestall. This is the same tactic used with respect to race.  What are their solutions to the persistent large black underclass highlighted by the poor scholastic performance of black 10 year-olds‚ particularly in urban schools‚ and the gun violence that is responsible for more than 10‚000 black homicides annually‚ coupled with the growing lawlessness that victimizes many cities? Progressives propose lowering educational standards‚ decriminalizing antisocial behaviors‚ and offering free money: reparations and universal basic income. And as black Americans who are descended from U.S. slavery languish while other groups‚ including black immigrants‚ move forward‚ what is their response? Blacks are no longer the victims of only white privilege‚ but now are under the thumb of structural racism and white supremacy. This demonizing rhetoric is meant to forestall any exploration of how adverse personal behaviors are an important impediment to increased black success. (READ MORE from Anthony Esolen: Demands for Reparations Hide Liberal Failures) This strategy of resorting to demonizing rhetoric when desired outcomes are threatened explains the recent dynamics surrounding Israel.  Despite the efforts of progressives‚ the Trump Administration initiated the Abraham Accords. It became a remarkable success as one Arab country after another began relationships with Israel‚ increasing trade and contact to the advantage of all parties. The problem for progressives: this was going to leave the Palestinian national cause behind.  This required ramping up the demonization of Israel. Almost simultaneously in 2020‚ a number of human rights groups determined that Israel was practicing apartheid policies.  This despite virtually no change in West Bank policies.  In particular‚ since 2000 only three new Jewish West Bank settlements had been approved‚ reflecting less than 3 percent of the Jewish population in the territories; and Arab deaths from interactions with Israelis were down. Now the rhetoric has been ramped up to characterize the current Israeli offensive as genocidal despite clear evidence that Israel has tried to limit civilian deaths that are well less than one percent of the Gazan population. Thus‚ rather than looking at Palestinian unwillingness to accept a Jewish state‚ progressives have again resorted to demonizing language. Returning to the claim that Trump is a threat to democracy‚ where is his Brown Shirt movement?  Yes‚ somewhat over a thousand of his followers stormed the legislative chambers on January 6th‚ causing remarkably little damage there. However‚ this does not translate into a mass movement to terrorize the country. MAGA followers are overwhelmingly over 50 years old and live in rural areas. If somehow a few hundred would venture into urban areas to make demands‚ they would be overwhelmed by thousands of counter demonstrators.  Indeed‚ the threat to democracy is from those opposed to Trump.  Surely‚ if they can’t keep him off the ballot and he wins the 2024 elections‚ these progressives will be in the streets daily‚ causing mayhem and destruction as they did after George Floyd’s death and now after the Hamas atrocities. (READ MORE: Declining Black Voter Turnout: Apathy‚ Not Voter Suppression) But what is Trump a threat to?  Here are a few policy changes that he or any likely Republican president would initiate: (1) closing the southern border by limiting asylum claims; (2) withholding funds from the Palestinian refugee agency‚ UNHRA‚ until it desists from hiring Hamas members and using their desired hate-filled textbooks‚ as well as from the Palestinian Authority until it offers meaningful conditions for a two-state solution; (3) ending excessive environmental  policies‚ particularly the subsidizing of electric passenger cars which has allowed the professional class to purchase them even though they don’t drive enough to overcome the upfront environmental battery production costs compared to a fuel efficient hybrid; (4) enacting Title IX regulations that give real due process to those accused of being sexual abusers and not enforcing  transgender rights with respect to sports participation; and (5) replacing race and gender policies with a return to merit-based criteria in the furtherance of equal opportunity rather than equity goals. These five policy goals‚ not some threat to democracy‚ are what progressives want to forestall.  But rather than having serious discussions‚ demonizing rhetoric is embraced‚ and now they seek ways to keep Trump seek off the ballot in the name of saving democracy. The progressives are the real threat to democratic processes. It is they who will not accept the results of a 2024 election if any Republican is elected president‚ not simply Trump. This is the outcome of the unwillingness of the Democratic Party to change to policies that serve working Americans. Robert Cherry is an American Enterprise Institute affiliate and author of The State of the Black Family: Sixty Years of Tragedies and Failures: And New Initiatives Offering Hope. The post Trump Is No ‘Threat to Democracy’ appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Sunday Why do people hate Jews? The Jewish religion and faith is the oldest continuously practiced as such in mankind’s history. Jews — an immeasurably small percentage of the world’s population — have been spectacularly productive in terms of science‚ philosophy‚ literature‚ art‚ and music in the world’s history. Just for one example of great importance‚ Jesus Christ was a Jew. The creators of the atom bomb were almost all Jews. The list is endless. But then why do so many humans hate Jews? Jews took a miserable stretch of donkey manure covered desert and turned it into the second largest producer of biochemistry breakthroughs in history. (READ MORE from Ben Stein: Making Sure Fear Strikes Out) Jews created movies and made them into the most influential art form in human life. Why then‚ do people hate Jews? Why do Germans‚ among the most intelligent persons on earth‚ hate Jews so much that they created the Holocaust? Where does such hatred come from on our earth? Is it all envy? Is it because Jews look different from other people with their black outfits and unusual hats? I just do not understand it. Your humble servant has been the victim of real‚ actual anti-Semitism all of my life. As a child my mother endlessly pointed out to me beautiful neighborhoods that were “restricted” against Jews. She also pointed out that feature of country clubs. It made me wild with anger and frustration. In high school‚ a great girl I had been dating broke our “date” for the senior prom because her father would not permit her to go to that super big event with a Jew. It still rankles me. INFURIATES ME. Makes me crazy. My wife‚ a Presbyterian and the finest woman on the planet‚ says this hatred is genetic. Maybe it is. I don’t know. I just know it hurts and never stops hurting. Even now‚ right now‚ after the worst Jew hating event since the Holocaust‚ the Hamas-caust of October 7‚ 2023‚ the United Nations and other haters blame Israel for defending itself after Jewish women were raped‚ had their abdomens sliced open‚ and had their in-utero infants yanked out of them and decapitated in front of them. (READ MORE: Gaza: What Nixon Would Do) Why? When has any other racial group suffered so horribly for no sin? Please dear God‚ stop. Saturday If the Republican Party stands for anything these days‚ I hope and believe it stands for freedom and the rule of law. That’s what it was founded on and what it still stands for as far as I know. Why then has the GOP abandoned the major moving party fighting and dying for freedom in Europe today: the Ukrainians? We have armed them and supported them for roughly two years now. The brave Ukrainians have fought and died for freedom against mighty Russia. Mighty Russia has been shown to be not quite so mighty. Freedom has a chance in Western Europe. This is good news indeed. Why are we now walking away from them? (READ MORE from Ben Stein: My Life at 79) I understand that it’s a way to exert power against Mr. Biden so he tightens up on border security here in the USA. That’s an extremely important and worthwhile goal. I would even call it vital. But just because we do something that’s good for us‚ why do we then have to do something that’s bad for us? Freedom in Europe is not a small goal. It’s a life or death goal. Anyone who follows the lead up to World War II knows that. Why don’t we Republicans know it? The post Why Are Republicans Ready to Abandon Freedom and Ukraine? appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Sorry Israel‚ Elections are More Important to Biden and Pro-Hamas Democrats

Has Biden Already Won Arizona in 2024 Thanks to Lawfare?

January 6 and October 7

Censorship Is Un-American‚ Free Speech Is the Answer

Democrats Have Gotten Even Worse

Leftists’ Civil War Fantasies Are Not Going To Work Out The Way They Think