US News, Politics, World News, Commentary/Opinion and Video Post.
US News:
New Resolution Would Allow the President To Send U.S. Troops to Ukraine
Earlier this week, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R–Ill.) proposed a new military authorization that would allow the president to introduce U.S. forces to the conflict in Ukraine if Russia uses certain weapons in its ongoing invasion. If adopted, it would be the latest installment in a decadeslong trend of Congress abdicating its constitutional role in the war-making process.
The Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) to Defend America’s Allies Resolution of 2022, according to Kinzinger, represents “a clear redline” that would act as “a deterrent to Vladimir Putin.” Kinzinger has previously called for a U.S.-enforced no-fly zone over Ukraine, and on Sunday he said it isn’t too soon for U.S. politicians to discuss the potential use of military force in Ukraine.
Like military authorizations of years past, Kinzinger’s AUMF is quite open-ended and would give the president a concerning level of power to enter the war in Ukraine. Though Kinzinger claims the AUMF would give Biden “leverage” and “flexibility” in the fight against Putin, that would come at the expense of the constitutionally mandated role of Congress in American war making.
Putting war declarations in the hands of Congress is supposed to ensure that American involvement in armed conflicts is properly debated, with costs and benefits discussed in public view by elected representatives. AUMFs put that power in the president’s hands, allowing for less transparency in conflicts and more unilateral decision making.
And strangely, Kinzinger is proposing an AUMF as many of his colleagues are working to repeal the authorizations that help enable endless wars.
NY Times newsletter breaks down ruinous school closures: ‘Remote learning was a failure’
The New York Times’ David Leonhardt outlined the learning loss experienced by students who stayed home for remote learning in 2020 and 2021. “On average, they lost the equivalent of about 50 percent of a typical school year’s math learning during the study’s two-year window,” he wrote.
“Low-income students, as well as Black and Latino students, fell further behind over the past two years, relative to students who are high-income, white or Asian,” the newsletter said.
“Were many of these problems avoidable? The evidence suggests that they were,” Leonhardt wrote, adding that remote learning did more harm than good. “Many school administrators probably could have recognized as much by the fall of 2020.”
Doctors file civil rights lawsuit against HHS secretary over ‘anti-racism’ incentives in healthcare industry
EXCLUSIVE — A pair of respected doctors, with the support of Do No Harm, filed a civil rights lawsuit against Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Xavier Becerra and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Chiquita Brooks-Lasure challenging a rule that allegedly provides financial incentives for doctors who adopt an “anti-racism” plan.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi Gulfport Division and obtained by Fox News Digital, argues that a new rule released by CMS and HHS which enables higher compensation for doctors who adopt an “anti-racism” plan violates the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015. Several states have joined the lawsuit, including: Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, and Montana.
Mississippi-based Dr. Amber Colville and Kentucky-based Dr. Ralph Alvarado, a Republican State Senator, feel racial discrimination of any kind has no place in medicine, but the plan encourages doctors to consider race as the primary factor in care over individualized medical treatment.
Liberal group calls for protests at conservative Supreme Court justices’ homes
The activists are organizing under the moniker “Ruth Sent Us” and have published the supposed home addresses of Justices Amy Coney Barrett, John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch.
“Our 6-3 extremist Supreme Court routinely issues rulings that hurt women, racial minorities, LGBTQ+ and immigrant rights,” the group’s website reads. “We must rise up to force accountability using a diversity of tactics.”
The group says they will visit the homes on May 11.
The D.C. Police Department has erected fencing around the Supreme Court building in anticipation of escalating protests this weekend. Police have also activated protest-response units through Sunday.
Credit card for conservatives pushes back against ‘woke’ capitalism with every swipe
Rob Collins told “Fox & Friends” Thursday that a portion of every Coign card swipe fee is donated to conservative causes.
“Conservatives are swiping their credit card, every credit card they have, and they’re funding liberal causes, woke causes and corporate America,” Collins said.
“It was just time to start to organize our commerce and our points of view into one card.”
Collins, who funded Coign, said the card is backed by MRV Banks in Missouri and works like any other major credit card. He explained to host Brian Kilmeade that donations come at no cost to the cardholder.
Collins called it “ridiculous” that most credit cards fund causes that “work against” conservative ideals.
“Trillions of dollars of conservative commerce funds billions of dollars of contributions to liberal woke progressive causes that are not an expression of where conservatives are,” he said.
‘The pandemic boom in home sales is over’: Mortgage rates soar to highest level since 2009 as the Fed pressures the housing market
GETTY IMAGES
The Federal Reserve is largely to blame for the fact that mortgage rates increased at a faster pace than might otherwise be expected, according to analysis from Odeta Kushi, deputy chief economist at title insurer First American FAF, -3.31%.
Lenders, consequently, must hike the rates they offer consumers so that they can continue to sell their loans to investors — those sales are what generates the funds used to produce more mortgages.
“While some additional Fed tightening is already baked into today’s average mortgage rates, ongoing inflationary pressure remains likely to push mortgage rates even higher in the months to come,” Kushi said.
Hiking short-term interest rates isn’t the only way the Fed influences the mortgage market. The central bank itself has been a buyer of mortgage-backed securities since the start of the pandemic. So now that the Fed will be shrinking its balance sheet of bonds, including these securities, there could be an impact on liquidity in the mortgage market. Lenders would need to make up the difference by raising rates.
Kudlow: It’s going to be hard to escape a recession
FOX Business host Larry Kudlow discusses Jay Powell’s announcement that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates by 0.5%, the highest increase in 20 years.
US nuclear commander warns of deterrence ‘crisis’ against Russia and China
Richard sits on the Nuclear Weapons Council, and his appearance came during the first hearing assembled by the Senate Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee. The panel was set to hear testimony from the interagency panel’s six voting members who are tasked with managing nuclear policy.
“The nation and our allies have not faced a crisis like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in over 30 years,” said Richard. “President [Vladimir] Putin simultaneously invaded a sovereign nation while using thinly veiled nuclear threats to deter U.S. and NATO intervention.”
He went on to note that China is “watching the war in Ukraine closely and will likely use nuclear coercion to their advantage in the future. Their intent is to achieve the military capability to reunify Taiwan by 2027 if not sooner.”
Richard said China has doubled its nuclear stockpile within two years, despite expectations it would take Beijing until the end of the decade to do so.
Mother of NYPD Officer Ambushed, Shot Dead in Broad Daylight
The New York Post reports that 51-year-old Anna Torres answered a knock at the door of “her two-story, single-family home at 94-59 109th Ave” and was shot twice.
One of the bullets struck Torres in the head; she was pronounced dead at the scene.
The shooting suspect, 41-year-old Giuseppe Canzani, fled the scene, but turned himself in to the 106th Precinct about an hour after the shooting.
NBC New York notes that police say there is “no reason to believe that this incident occurred because of his [Torres’s son’s] employment with the police department.”
The NYPD is looking into whether Torres and Canzani knew each other.
Bodycam Footage Shows Officers Shooting Robbery Suspect in Campbell County
NYPD overtime projected to surpass allotted budget by $142M+ in 2022 amid ‘unprecedented’ crime climate
A spokesperson for the office noted that the statistics reflect all NYPD overtime, including that for civilian members, but more than 80% comes from uniformed officers.
“I would guess that this fiscal year, with the violence being up as high as it has been, they’ve been doing more and more of that violence reduction overtime. It’s putting the extra cops out on the streets,” said Terence Monahan, who served as the NYPD’s Chief of Department – the highest-ranking uniformed police officer – from 2018 to 2021, under Police Commissioners Dermot James O’Neill and Dermot Shea.
So far in 2022, police have grappled with high crime rates and reverberations from changes made in prior years, explained Monahan and Maria “Maki” Haberfeld, chair of the Law and Police Sciences Department at New York City’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Total crime year-to-date as of May 1 remained high compared to the same time in 2021, with a 41.6% increase, the NYPD’s latest crime statistics show. Shootings and murders were down year-to-date and for last month, compared to April 2021, the department said.
Politics:
Biden announces Jen Psaki’s replacement
President Joe Biden announced on Thursday that Principle Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will be replacing Jen Psaki as Press Secretary when Psaki leaves her post next week on May 13.
“I am proud to announce that Karine Jean-Pierre will serve as the next White House Press Secretary,” Biden said in a statement.
The transition will make Jean-Pierre the first black White House press secretary.
Sen. Susan Collins Says She’ll Still Vote Against Abortion Rights Bill Next Week
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) will not support a bill to codify abortion rights into federal law when it comes up for a vote next week, she told reporters Thursday, reiterating her belief that the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA) goes too far despite the Supreme Court appearing poised to soon overturn Roe v. Wade and let states outlaw abortion.
Collins voted against WHPA when it previously came up for a Senate vote in February—and failed 46-48—along with fellow pro-abortion rights Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va).
Collins and Murkowski have separately introduced their own abortion rights bill that would more narrowly preserve the right to the procedure, saying in February that it would preserve abortion rights without “undercutting statutes that have been in place for decades.”
‘Do You Not Admit This Is A Problem?’: Ron Johnson Takes Mayorkas To Task Over Border Crossings
At yesterday’s Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) confronted DHS Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas over the border.
Nina Jankowicz’s Own Disinformation EXPOSED By Sen. Hawley
Republican Sen. Josh Hawley pressed Department of Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas on hiring Nina Jankowicz as the head of President Joe Biden’s disinformation governance board.
Trump says ‘MAGA is saving America,’ in response to Biden
EXCLUSIVE: Former President Trump on Thursday told Fox News Digital that “MAGA is saving America,” and slammed President Biden for being “divisive” when he called MAGA the “most extreme political organization that’s existed in recent American history.”
“MAGA is saving America,” Trump told Fox News. “Our country is going to hell. MAGA is saving America.”
“Inflation, incompetent withdrawals from Afghanistan, leaving hostages horribly wounded, soldiers, $85 billion of military equipment – MAGA is saving America,” Trump continued.
The former president said the U.S. is “no longer respected throughout the world.”
“Ukraine should have never happened,” Trump said, declaring that “Russia would have never gone into Ukraine” under his leadership.
“MAGA is saving our country,” Trump said again.
Tucker Carlson: “voters might have their rightful say over what to do about abortion”
Tucker Carlson: “Finally, after 49 years, voters might have their rightful say over what to do about abortion, as is their right.”
Savage Tucker Brutally Mocks The Democrat ‘Weak Men And Unhappy Women’ Party’s Unhinged Responses
“They were so upset that voters in other states, states they don’t live in, might have the right to exercise democracy and vote on abortion, that they attack the police.”
Tucker Carlson congratulates JD Vance on his win of the Ohio GOP Senate Primary
Homeland Security Republicans seek info on Mayorkas’ disinfo board, demand list of social media companies
“This Committee will carry out rigorous oversight of this board,” the Republicans continue. “In addition to further explanation regarding the establishment of the board, the American people deserve continued transparency surrounding the board’s discussions, decisions, and actions.”
Lawmakers on the right and left have criticized the board immediately following Mayorkas’ announcement.
Many are also skeptical of the executive director heading up the board, Nina Jankowicz, who previously was a disinformation fellow at the Wilson Center, for repeating statements dismissing the Hunter Biden laptop story “Trump campaign product” and a “Russian influence op.”
Dr. Rand Paul Grills Secretary Mayorkas over Biden’s ‘Ministry of Truth’ – May 4, 2022
World News:
Elad attack: Three dead in central Israeli city
Image caption,Police are still hunting for the attackers
Two attackers – one armed with a gun, the other an axe – targeted passers-by at a park in the city, Israeli media report.
Police are hunting for the suspects.
The attack came as Israel marked Independence Day, a public holiday marking the establishment of the country.
Local authorities in Elad have ordered residents to stay indoors.
Most of the city’s population are members of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community.
“The joy of Independence Day was cut short in an instant. A murderous attack in Elad that shocks the heart and soul,” said Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, posting on Twitter.
Israel Marks 74th Independence; U.S. Senate Votes Against Revival of JCPOA- TV7 Israel News 05.05.22
1) Israel celebrated its 74th Independence Day today, with festive celebrations, as Prime Minister Naftali Bennett proclaims that the Guarantor of Israel will not abandon it – in accordance with His Word.
2) The U.S. State Department highlights that Iran remains weeks away from nuclear breakout – weeks that are measured based on technical assessments.
3) The U.S. Senate votes in favor of a non-binding measure that opposes the revival of the nuclear agreement with Iran unless the Islamic Republic’s “other” malign activities are also properly addressed.
Commentary/Opinion:
Why Putin may be ‘MORE LIKELY’ to use nukes against Ukraine
Author and former Navy SEAL Jack Carr knows a little something about Russia. With several published thriller novels that focus on geopolitical issues, he’s certainly done his research.
So, he joins Glenn to war-game possible scenarios from the current situation in Ukraine.
He explains why Putin’s original drive to invade Ukraine may have been to grow his military; plus, Carr explains the reason why Putin may be ‘a little more likely’ to use nukes:
‘[Russia is] an animal in a corner and it’s fight or flight…they’re in survival.’
How Vocal Minorities are Slowly Shaping The World We Live In
Dr. Peterson, James Orr, and Arif Ahmed discuss bureaucracy and free speech at The University of Cambridge, isolation, social media, the Pareto principle, fear-shaped mental illnesses, how a “confident minority” turns into an “unassailable orthodoxy” and why, if left unattended, free speech issues – like wounds – worsen long before they improve.
People are emboldened now: Carolla
Comedian Adam Carolla weighs in on the left’s strategy following the Supreme Court abortion case leak on ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight.’
Ep. 1762 An Epic Meltdown Caught On Video -The Dan Bongino Show
In this episode, I address an epic meltdown by a liberal commentator during a livestream. I also cover the release of troubling new video of the DHS Minister of Truth.