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Jack Hunter

Posted on August 16, 2021

At this point you just have to laugh at neocon Liz Cheney

Congresswoman Liz Cheney spent the weekend blaming both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump for the tragic chaos that continues to unfold in Afghanistan.

Cheney tweeted on Saturday:

Trump "negotiating with terrorists" is obviously a shot at the former president meeting with Taliban leaders to agree to a plan for a conditions-based U.S. withdrawal. Biden, who did not attempt to meet with Taliban leaders, is now enduring the worst aftermath imaginable, post-withdrawal.

But never mind Trump or Biden. No matter who is president, the withdrawal was always going to be messy. Cheney and other like-minded "warmongering fools" knew this and it has been their strongest argument to stay forever. Cheney's fellow forever war cheerleader, Sen. Lindsey Graham, was even calling for permanent American military bases in Afghanistan a decade ago.

There was never a good solution to ending the U.S.'s twenty year overstay in Afghanistan.

But if your last name is "Cheney," you really should not be talking about it much, according to Twitter:

I could go on, but it would almost literally mean reposting a significant percentage of Twitter over the weekend.

Given their long record of disastrous foreign policy decisions - including the current chaos in Afghanistan - Liz Cheney and the neoconservatives have forfeited their ability to have a credible opinion on American foreign policy ever again. Even if they haven't figure this out yet.

Posted on August 13, 2021

Never Trump Republicans biggest problem with Trump has always been his 'America First' foreign policy

What does every current Never Trump Republican member of Congress have in common besides being against Donald Trump? They are staunchly opposed to the former president's 'America First' foreign policy.

For these Never Trumpers, this is not a bug, it's a feature.

I am not saying that Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney and Adam Kinzinger were not legitimately horrified by the Capitol riot on January 6, 2020. I was too. It was a terrible and embarrassing day for the United States.

I am saying that if President Trump pursued the same foreign policy as George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, you would not have heard as much criticism of Trump from Mrs. Cheney, Romney and Kinzinger. Even about January 6.

Because before January 6, there was March 20, 2003 - the day the U.S. invaded Iraq. I don't have to revisit every granular detail of that debacle to recall what most Americans and the world have long known: The U.S. intervention in Iraq was arguably the worst foreign policy mistake in our nation's history. Trump rightly called the Iraq war "the worst mistake, the most costly mistake in the history of our country."

Liz Cheney does not think the Iraq war was a mistake, and has long appeared to want to repeat that mistake in Iran. Mitt Romney has always adhered to Bush-era neoconservative foreign policy, has long defended the Iraq war, and like Cheney, wouldn't mind doing it again in Iran. Similar to Cheney and Romney, Adam Kinzinger is not a fan of the U.S. pulling troops out of any combat zone at any time.

Not surprisingly, Kinzinger is opposed to the removal of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Here is the congressman's recent comments on that front, including bashing Trump for pursuing troop withdrawal, along with a follow up by advisor to Sen. Rand Paul, Doug Stafford:

Romney predictably hates that U.S. troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan.

And of course for Liz Cheney, permanent war is a religion.

Stafford is right that in 15 years or even 100 years, the chaos happening in Afghanistan right now after troop withdrawal was always inevitable. The only alternative is the U.S. staying there forever.

Which Cheney, Romney and Kinzinger would have no problem with.

There is no time that Cheney, Romney or Kinzinger would advocate for avoiding war or ending a war that the hawkish Washington foreign policy establishment wanted to start or continue.

They will never say it forthright in public, but what the current Never Trump Republicans in Congress hate most is that Donald Trump significantly changed the conversation about what Republican foreign policy should be. Liz Cheney is part of a family that was able to almost exclusively define Republican foreign policy for a generation.

No more. 'America First' has now replaced the tired and disproven 'If we don't fight them over there, we're going to have to fight them here.' After all these war-weary years, fewer Americans than ever believe that anymore.

Fewer Republicans than ever believe it - and Never Trump perpetual war propagandists can't stand it.

Posted on August 12, 2021

Who is allowed to defy the CDC? Everyone but Rand Paul?

After Sen. Rand Paul was suspended from YouTube this week for defying the government's COVID-19 guidelines, CNN became the first major media outlet to report that Dr. Anthony Fauci made similar comments about the ineffectiveness of cloth masks in a 2020 email, similar to Paul.

CNN also reported that just this month the former adviser to President Joe Biden’s transition team, Dr. Michael Osterholm, said during an interview on their channel that “many of the face cloth coverings that people wear are not very effective in reducing any of the virus movement in or out.”

To date, it does not appear that Fauci or Osterholm have been banned from social media.

Progressive journalist Glenn Greenwald wants to know why NPR isn't banned from social media due to their recent public disagreement with the CDC.

It's a good question. Who is allowed to contradict CDC dictates?

NPR: "In a leaked report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made a surprising claim about the delta variant of the coronavirus: It "is as transmissible as: - Chicken Pox,' the agency wrote in a slideshow presentation leaked to The Washington Post on July 26.

Chickenpox is one of the most contagious viruses known. Each individual can spread the virus to as many as '90% of the people close to that person,' the CDC reports.

Is the delta variant that contagious as well?

The short answer is no, says evolutionary biologist and biostatistician Tom Wenseleers at the University of Leuven in Belgium."

No? Who does NPR and this Tom Wenseleers think they are? Perhaps an institution like NPR is allowed to defy the CDC because of their stature?

Many would consider a duly-elected U.S. Senator who is also a doctor at that level too.

Posted on August 11, 2021

Coverage of Rand Paul's YouTube ban reveals the danger of media enforcing their own news narrative

When Sen. Rand Paul was suspended from YouTube for seven days this week, the social media company said he had violated the rules by saying that masks were ineffective against COVID-19.

A YouTube spokesperson told NBC News, "We removed content from Senator Paul’s channel for including claims that masks are ineffective in preventing the contraction or transmission of COVID-19, in accordance with our COVID-19 medical misinformation policies."

So there you have it: Masks are effective. The government says so. Rand Paul said the opposite and now must pay the price.

Check out the headline in the NBC story:

"Falsely claiming."

Paul argues that his mask comments are supported by two peer reviewed articles he cites in the video.

But forget that for a moment. Journalist Glenn Greenwald immediately made the point that President Joe Biden's own former COVID-19 adviser basically has expressed the same view as Paul on mask efficiency.

Better yet, here is former Biden health adviser, epidemiologist Michael Osterholm, on CNN saying exactly the same thing Paul got punished for by YouTube, particularly that only N95 masks work and cloth facial covering are not effective.

"Many of the cloth coverings people wear are not very effective in reducing any of the virus movement, in or out," Osterholm told CNN. "Either you’re breathing out or you’re breathing in."

Olsterholm added, "We need to talk about better masking. We need to talk about N95 respirators, which would do a lot for both people who are not yet vaccinated or not previously infected. Protecting them as well as keeping others who might become infected, having been vaccinated from breathing out the virus."

In the now banned video, Paul said, “Most of the masks you get over the counter don’t work. They don’t prevent infection.” He also cited the superior efficiency of N95 masks.

Paul basically said exactly what Doctor Osterholm said on CNN.

Back to the NBC News headline, which assumes Paul is in the wrong and signals to the reader the same thing before they even read the article. Does the peer reviewed articles Paul cited matter? Does the advice former Biden Covid adviser Osterholm matter?

At all?

Is NBC going to update their story to show there is a credible, expert-backed view that runs counter to the CDC mask guidelines? Of course not.

Because the role of modern major media is not to challenge authorities and pursue truth, but to enforce the narratives and dictates of governments they favor.

This is not new. If the press had an adversarial relationship with former President Donald Trump (which is preferable), it now seeks to paint the Biden administration in the best light.

This dynamic is not always about Republican vs. Democrat. It can be ideological, but also what's best for business.

Over a decade ago, CNN's Jessica Yellen spilled the beans that her bosses at MSNBC during the run-up to the Iraq War in 2003 pushed her and other journalists to present the news narrative in ways that were friendly to the administration and mood of the country, post 9/11.

Yellin revealed to CNN in 2008, "The press corps was under enormous pressure from corporate executives, frankly, to make sure that this was a war presented in a way that was consistent with the patriotic fever in the nation and the president's high approval ratings."

"And my own experience at the White House was that the higher the president's approval ratings, the more pressure I had from news executives — and I was not at this network at the time — but the more pressure I had from news executives to put on positive stories about the president, I think over time...." Yellin added.

Politico noted, "But then a shocked Cooper jumped in, asking, 'You had pressure from news executives to put on positive stories about the president?"

"Not in that exact.... They wouldn't say it in that way, but they would edit my pieces," Yellin said. "They would push me in different directions. They would turn down stories that were more critical, and try to put on pieces that were more positive. Yes, that was my experience."

What is NBC News experience with this president as opposed to the last one? Again, will the outlet update their story to reflect Osterholm's CNN comments to show that there is a credentialed alternative view on mask efficiency?

No, they will instead they will instead just leave it as this: "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and countless public health experts, including epidemiologists, have said since the start of the pandemic that masks protect against the spread of Covid."

One formerly high-ranking epidemiologist disagrees. So does one U.S. Senator who is also a doctor.

But when your job becomes creating and enforcing news narratives rather than just reporting the facts, truth and the honest pursuit of it no longer matter.

Posted on August 10, 2021

Cuomo resigns over sexual harassment claims, he should have already been impeached for senior deaths

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo reportedly resigning on Tuesday is big news. What should be bigger news is why he was allowed to remain in office the last six months.

Arguably no other COVID-19 policy was more disastrous than Gov. Cuomo's order to force COVID-positive seniors back into nursing homes at the beginning of the pandemic. We later learned, and Cuomo finally admitted, that his administration had fudged the number of nursing home deaths to present a better public image.

"More than 15,000 New Yorkers in care homes have died since the start of the pandemic," the BBC reported in February.

The outlet also noted, "But - until late last month - the state's health department had logged just over 8,500 fatalities."

So Cuomo lied. By half.

So many seniors dying because of bad policy is alone enough to warrant impeaching and removing Cuomo. That he tried to hide the actual number of deaths tells us he knew how bad it would look, yet still worse, his solution was to cover up and feed misinformation to his constituents.

As Sen. Rand Paul observed, "I really think Governor Cuomo ought to be impeached for the worst public policy, public health decision maybe in a century, sending patients with coronavirus back to nursing homes."

"Almost half the people who died in New Jersey and New York died because of that public policy decision and died in nursing homes," he added.

If the nursing home scandal had not happened, yes, Cuomo should be stepping down after New York's attorney general found that the governor had sexually harassed women. Cuomo has 11 accusers.

But his time as governor shouldn't have even lasted this long. That it has tells us all we need to know about elite power and how successfully getting away with murder simply depends on who you are.

Posted on August 9, 2021

Young Americans for Liberty’s ‘Revolution 2021’ their best national conference yet

I have spoken at almost every Young Americans for Liberty conference. Each has always impressed in its own way. But after finishing this year’s Revolution 2021 in Orlando, I can tell you with confidence that it was the best national conference YAL has ever presented.

For starters, it was the largest.

Over 1000 students attended this year, where they had an opportunity to hear from such liberty luminaries as exiled whistleblower hero Edward Snowden, Fox Business’ Kennedy, WWE wrestling star and Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs, and of course, the man himself, Ron Paul.

Paul was predictably the biggest hit of the weekend, where organizers kept telling the students that Dr. Paul would be doing a livestream since travel was too difficult.

He did do a livestream Friday night... for about ten seconds—then the video shut off, the lights went down and Guns n’ Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle” blared. When Paul hit the stage, the students lost their minds.

See for yourself. Here are some reaction tweets.

Texas Republican rockstar Don Huffines was a big hit, as was Virginia liberty Republican Nick Freitas and others. I was fortunate to take part in a criminal justice reform breakout session Friday morning and also a Ron Paul movement circa 2008 retrospective with my old friends, Michael Maresco, Tom Woods and YAL spokesman Eric Brakey.

Perhaps my favorite part about any YAL convention over the years is that I don’t know most of the people there. Of course, there is the YAL staff and some guest speakers that I have met multiple times over the years. Of course, I do know at least some of the students and other young people who come.

But not knowing most of them means the liberty movement is alive. Having more attendees than ever means it’s growing. Seeing only the same old faces would just be a reunion, not a movement.

Holding such a successful and inspiring event post-pandemic, in a time when more Americans than ever now understand intimately how quickly their liberties can be taken, bodes well for our future. Libertarians should capitalize by speaking to the millions of Americans who today probably guard their liberty more jealously than ever.

Onward and upward. Young Americans for Liberty should be a primary force in shaping whatever comes next.

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