Va. Dems Yank Gov. Youngkin Appointees from Key State Boards

Mark Pellin
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Va. Dems Yank Gov. Youngkin Appointees from Key State Boards

(Mark Pellin, Headline USA) In a move labeled as leftist vindictiveness and partisan spite, Virginia Democrats have yanked three highly qualified Republican members from three of the state’s highest-profile governance boards.

The coup saw Democrats last week block Gov. Glenn Youngkin-appointee Suparna Dutta from the state board of education, as well as a pro-law enforcement member from the state parole board. Democrats also blocked the appointment of state Health Commissioner Dr. Colin Greene.

“In an appalling show of partisanship, today Senate Democrats attacked the integrity of three highly qualified members of my administration,” Youngkin wrote in a statement last week.

Dutta was given the boot after she had the audacity to defend proposed changes to history and social science standards in Virginia public schools. Those changes include  alleged radical standards such as the “Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are remarkable documents” and that socialism and communism are “incompatible with democracy and individual freedoms,” reported Fox News.

“I think socialism is just about as bad as communism,” Dutta said. “It co-opts the important decisions belonging to families and individuals.”

Democrat lawmakers disagreed and voted to block her appointment to the board of education, a move that Youngkin called “shameful”.

“She is a mother and advocate for parents’ rights, she is an immigrant and an advocate for Asian American rights, she is an engineer and advocate for STEM in education,” Youngkin wrote about Dutta. “She is not only qualified, she epitomizes parental involvement in our schools and we need her voice on our Board of Education.”

Youngkin offered similar praise for Steven Buck, who Democrats removed from the parole board, as “a career prosecutor who has put criminals away at the local level and investigated fraud for the Attorney General’s office.” The governor suggested the move was in direct retaliation for Buck’s work “exposing Adrianne Bennett’s criminal misconduct.”

Buck contributed to Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares’s blistering report of the state’s “parole-granting frenzy” during the pandemic, which Miyares called “the epitome of putting criminals first and victims last,” according to NBC’s WSLS. The report alleged former Virginia Parole Board chair Adrianne Bennett violated court orders, policies and procedures and falsified discharge records.

For Buck’s work to uncover 137 murderers, rapists and armed robbers who were released in violation of long-standing rules, Democrats removed him from the parole board.

Likewise, Democrats blocked the appointment of Virginia Health Commissioner Dr. Colin Greene, after she claimed there was no “compelling” evidence of racism’s alleged impact of infant and maternal mortality rates, according to WRIC.

“Democrats are repeating loudly their clear beliefs: parents don’t matter, criminals first victims last, and petty politics above Virginia’s best interests,” Youngkin wrote. “It’s shameful. Virginians deserve so much better.”

Virginia Senate Democrats are expected to block any moves by state House Republicans to have the three appointees confirmed.

Sen. Mike Lee Stands Out Amidst Muted Response to Report that U.S. Blew up Nord Stream

Ken Silva
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Sen. Mike Lee Stands Out Amidst Muted Response to Report that U.S. Blew up Nord Stream

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Major media outlets have sought to downplay last week’s blockbuster report  that the U.S. blew up Russia’s Nord Stream natural gas pipelines, while most U.S. politicians have remained silent on the matter—with the lone exception being Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah.

“I’m troubled that I can’t immediately rule out the suggestion that the U.S. blew up Nord Stream. I checked with a bunch of Senate colleagues. Among those I’ve asked, none were ever briefed on this. If it turns out to be true, we’ve got a huge problem,” Lee said on Twitter last Wednesday, reacting to the report from Pulitzer prize-winning reporter Seymour Hersh.

The possible reason for the lack of congressional knowledge about the attack is detailed in Hersh’s report: Congress didn’t need to be notified of the plan because it was downgraded from being a covert operation, Hersh wrote.

The reason it was downgraded was that President Joe Biden publicly threatened Nord Stream 2 after the CIA came up with a plan of attack. “If Russia invades … there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it,” Biden said on Feb. 7, 2022.

According to the report, the operation was then downgraded to a “highly classified intelligence operation with US military support.” Hersh’s source said that because of the change, there was “no longer a legal requirement to report the operation to Congress.”

When asked by a Twitter user whether the Biden administration blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines would constitute an impeachable offense, Lee responded with one word: “Yes.”

Outside of denials from the White House, CIA and State Department, Hersh’s report has not been discussed by officials in the federal government.

Meanwhile, mainstream media outlets have sought to downplay the report.

For instance, Business Insider’s Mia Jankowicz wrote that Hersh is a “discredited journalist” whose story served as a “gift to Putin.”

Attacks such as Jankowicz’s received pushback from journalists such as Pulitzer prize-winning reporter Glenn Greenwald.

Someone who works for “Business Insider,” [Jankowicz], has never broken a story of note in her life. This is how she and that site describes Hersh’s report on the US blowing up Nord Stream,” Greenwald said with a note of incredulity.

“Who gives a shit if a news report is a ‘gift to Putin’? What a dumb and childish mindset. The only question an actual journalist asks: is this story true? Propagandists are concerned with ‘who does this story help or hurt?’” he said.

Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.

DeSantis Plans to Ban ESG ‘Woke Banking’ in Fla.

Dmytro "Henry" Aleksandrov
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DeSantis Plans to Ban ESG ‘Woke Banking’ in Fla.

(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced proposed legislation on Monday that is designed to end ESG woke banking in the state, stating that it was an “elite-driven phenomenon” that sought to impose policies that the public would never favor.

During his press conference, DeSantis said that ESG — also known as environmental, social, and governance standards — is a “mechanism to inject political ideology into investment decisions, corporate governance, and really just the everyday economy.” DeSantis plans to eliminate ESG’s influence in the state by withdrawing government support from banks that use it and creating protections for citizens, according to the Daily Caller.

DeSantis highlighted ways he believes the standards negatively impact the country and all Americans, including the examples of the United States’ dependence on communist China, violating the company’s duties to their shareholders and undermining the democratic process.

Part of his proposal would put into statute a resolution he issued last August that banned state pensions from considering ESG.

Without regard to ESG, the resolution directed Florida’s fund managers to “invest state funds in a manner that prioritizes the highest return on investment for Florida’s taxpayers and retirees.”

The proposal would also protect Florida residents against discrimination by big financial institutions for their “religious, political or social beliefs.”

DeSantis pointed out that the standards often discriminate against conservative groups, like Second Amendment advocates and companies like The GEO Group, a Florida-based private corrections company that holds a contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

During the press conference, Brandon Wexler, owner of Wex Gunworks, said that Wells Fargo, the bank he’s been using for 25 years, shut down his account after he received a letter from the company that stated that it doesn’t lend to “certain types of industries.”

DeSantis’s proposed legislation will also prohibit financial institutions from copycatting China by using “Social Credit Scores” in banking and lending decisions, ban the housing of state or local funds in institutions that promote ESG and ensure that ESG is not used in investment decisions or issuing bonds at the state and local level. The legislation will also direct the attorney general and commissioner of financial regulation “to enforce these provisions to the fullest extent of the law.”

“The goal of corporate activism seen in environmental, social, and governance investing (ESG) is to bypass democracy and transform capitalism to serve an ideological agenda,” Florida House Speaker Paul Renner Renner said in a statement.

“We will not allow these martini millionaires to push unsafe and unsound investment practices that silence debate in the political process, weaken investment strategies for Florida retirees and discriminate against any individual’s beliefs.”

Woke EU Gives $3.5M to Soros Foundation

Dmytro "Henry" Aleksandrov
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Woke EU Gives $3.5M to Soros Foundation

(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) The European Union confirmed that it will give $3.5 million to help fund George Soros’ Open Society Foundation, according to Věra Jourová, the vice president of the European Commission.

Despite Soros’s reputation as a radical left-winger, the EU has decided to jump into active cooperation with the Open Society Foundation, which will receive over $3.53 million in grants for two projects falling under the so-called “Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Programme”, reported Breitbart.

Some of the supposed goals of these projects are to “raise awareness on rights and values through support to civil society organizations” and to promote “EU values” in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary — the countries that are not fully infected with the woke virus yet.

The two projects began in January of this year, with both lasting for a total of 36 months.

Some European politicians already criticized the recent decision.

“Soros Open Europe Foundation frequently meets and lobbies the European Commission for the promotion of anti-nation, anti-family, anti-life, anti-fundamental rights policies across EU,” Romanian Member of the European Parliament and the Christian Democratic National Peasants’ Party representative, Cristian Terhes, said.

“The fact that his organization got three million euros out of taxpayers’ money from his eurocrat puppets is another confirmation why the EU needs a deep reform; where the states will take back decision-making powers from these unelected and accountable bureaucrats.”

He added that power needs to be “brought back to the people,” and not left to the likes of big-money lobbyists, like Soros or Bill Gates.

Jorge Buxadé, a senior figure within Spain’s populist VOX party, also denounced the decision.

“Globalism and destruction of nations in its purest form, financed with your money,” he wrote.

Viktor Orban, another major conservative figure in European politics, criticized Soros and his octopus-like influence on European society in the past.

“George Soros is one of the most corrupt people in the world. He has plenty of politicians in his pocket who now want to blackmail Hungary and Poland for access to EU funds,” Orban said in 2020.

Dem.-Run Pa. EMS System Teeters on Brink of Collapse

Wire Editor
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Dem.-Run Pa. EMS System Teeters on Brink of Collapse

(Anthony Hennen, The Center Square) Pennsylvania’s hyperlocal emergency medical services system teeters on the brink of collapse and, officials say, it’s up to legislators to intervene before it’s too late.

“If they do nothing, this will collapse — there’s no ifs, ands, or buts about it —this system will collapse if nothing changes,” said Eric Henry, a Crawford County Commissioner and owner of the Meadville Area Ambulance Service.

For years, Pennsylvania has struggled with funding emergency medical services. Those problems have grown as the rural population shrinks, inflationary pressures raise costs, and the system itself becomes more and more fractured.

“Frankly, to be honest, we’ve been sounding this alarm for 10, 11, 12 years that this was coming,” Henry said. “All COVID did was push us over the cliff and because we had to increase our wages to compete with Sheetz or McDonalds or Burger King — at one point, paramedics were making less money than places like Sheetz.”

State funding has increased in recent years after what Henry called “a lot of kicking and screaming from ambulance services.”

Former Gov. Tom Wolf’s last budget provided an $85 million increase for EMS and raised reimbursement rates, as The Center Square previously reported. But operators view the policy as little more than a “band-aid” incapable of fixing decades of problems.

Legislators have also discussed loosening requirements concerning ambulance crews and allowing townships to increase taxes to fund ambulance services.

While those reforms could help, financial issues remain the top concern, Henry said.

“Medicaid and Medicare both provide reimbursement at less than the cost to actually run the call,” he said. “Medicaid at 40% less, Medicare at 30% less.”

Ambulances are legally required to handle calls, even when the health concerns are not life threatening. Giving more flexibility to ambulance services to deny some transport demands could make EMS more financially stable, Henry said.

“As an example, if someone calls us for toe pain or finger pain, if they are persistent about wanting transport by ambulance, we have to take them, and we’re not going to get paid for that trip most likely,” he said. “Frankly, you’re taking an ambulance available out of service for something that doesn’t need an ambulance.”

Changes that make day-to-day operations easier could matter, and so could restructuring EMS operations. Rather than a local approach, Henry argued for a regional one.

He said creating multi-municipal authorities to run EMS would be the “most important” reform legislators could adopt. When townships, boroughs, and small towns combine EMS services, it can spread out the cost borne by taxpayers and improve coordination.

Nearby states, such as Maryland, take a county-level approach rather than the hyper-local approach that dominates Pennsylvania. Changing that status quo, however, will take a lot of work, Henry said.

“Legislators have put this on the back burner and, frankly, I’m pretty disappointed in them,” he said.

The House Republican Policy Committee has scheduled a hearing Wednesday in Harrisburg to discuss policy regarding first responders and public safety ahead of the chamber’s Feb. 21 return to session.

The Senate will likewise reconvene on Feb. 27, after an unexpected one-month hiatus.

Veterans Affairs Made $307M in Duplicate Payments

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Veterans Affairs Made $307M in Duplicate Payments

(Adam Andrzejewski, RealClear Wire) From Jan. 1, 2017 to March 31, 2021, the Veterans Heath Administration, under the control of the Department of Veterans Affairs, made more than 425,000 duplicate payments that cost taxpayers more than $307 million, according to a VA Department Inspector General report.

According to the report, the Veterans Health Administration oversees veterans’ healthcare for the VA. When it authorizes community care for a veteran who is eligible for both VHA and Medicare benefits, VHA is responsible for paying for that care even when Medicare also covers the same service, which has lead to the duplicate payments.

Typically, Medicare is the agency that can recover these payments since it’s primarily the VHA’s responsibility to pay for the care.

These duplicate payments added up quickly, and over a span of 4 years, the VA made close to half a million duplicate payments worth more than $307 million in claims for community care.

The Inspector General report notes that the VA did not have a process in place to identify or manage these duplicate payments. It has also never conducted a review to identify past instances of duplicate payments.

These problems could have been avoided if the agency, which receives $52.9 billion in funding, had simply implemented the accounting controls that any private sector business would have in place.

In response, the Inspector General recommended the VA work with Medicare to share data about payments, as well as identify payments that are likely to be duplicated, and clean up administrative processes before care is provided.

Our veterans deserve better than an agency that can’t bother to implement basic accounting controls.

IRS Rules Refunds from 21 States Won’t be Taxed when Filing 2022 Return

Wire Editor
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IRS Rules Refunds from 21 States Won’t be Taxed when Filing 2022 Return

(Joe Mueller, The Center Square) Taxpayers who received state refunds from Colorado and 20 other states will not be required to report those payments on their 2022 federal Internal Revenue Service return.

“The IRS has determined that in the interest of sound tax administration and other factors, taxpayers in many states will not need to report these payments on their 2022 tax returns,” the organization stated in a news release.

In addition to Colorado, the IRS said people in California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island don’t need to report state payments on their 2022 return. Georgia, Massachusetts, South Carolina and Virginia fall under the guidelines with some stipulations. Alaskans will be included but must follow special guidance regarding payments supplementing the state’s permanent fund dividend.

The IRS guidance noted the pandemic emergency declaration is ending in May, making this an issue only for the 2022 tax year. “…if a taxpayer does not include the amount of one of these payments in its 2022 income for federal income tax purposes, the IRS will not challenge the treatment of the 2022 payment as excludable for income on an original or amended return,” the IRS stated.

Colorado Democrat Gov. Jared Polis told Douglas O’Donnell, the IRS’ acting commissioner, on Friday the money returned to the state’s taxpayers was not taxable, according to a media release from Polis’ office. Coloradans would have paid the IRS approximately $100 per individual, resulting in more than $400 million going to the federal government.

Colorado’s entire congressional delegation sent a separate letter to the IRS urging the agency to continue the 30-year practice of treating refunds from the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights legislation, commonly referred to as TABOR, as non-taxable.

The Colorado legislature approved TABOR last year and repaid $750 to those filing single returns and $1,500 to joint filers. The refund was possible because of excess sales tax revenue.

“The IRS appreciates the patience of taxpayers, tax professionals, software companies and state tax administrators as the IRS and Treasury worked to resolve this unique and complex situation,” the agency stated in a media release.

Earlier this month, the IRS acknowledged it was receiving questions about special tax refunds or payments made by states in 2022. It instructed taxpayers to wait until additional guidance was provided or consult with a tax professional.

“…the best course of action is to wait for additional clarification on state payments rather than calling the IRS,” the agency said on Feb. 3. “We also do not recommend amending a previously filed 2022 return.”

Coloradans and residents of the other 20 states who filed their 2022 returns aren’t required to take any additional action.

“We, like millions of Coloradans, are breathing a sigh of relief that the IRS and federal government have stepped away from taxing our refunds this year,” Polis said in a statement. “This ultimately is the best outcome for families and individuals and we will continue seeking out more ways to save people money. I will continue fighting to maintain this precedent that refunds under TABOR should never be taxed.”

The IRS said a complex situation was created due to the rules evaluating if funds awarded by a state are federally taxable, as state programs distributed a wide variety of payments in 2022.

“The week-long uncertainty about whether the IRS was going to tax state refunds was a disaster,” Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colorado, said in a statement. “As chair of the Senate subcommittee on IRS oversight, I will demand answers for why the IRS explored this radical change, and why this took place in the middle of filing season. And as the IRS looks to the 2023 tax year, I will continue to fight to keep TABOR tax-free.”

Poll: Americans Sour on Illegal Immigration

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Poll: Americans Sour on Illegal Immigration

(Casey Harper, The Center Square) – Newly released polling data shows that as people living in or entering the country illegally continues to soar, Americans’ feelings on the issue are changing.

Gallup released new polling data showing that Americans’ satisfaction with the current immigration level has declined to 28%, a 6-point drop.

“This is the lowest reading in a decade, though not the least satisfied Americans have been on this issue over the past 23 years,” Gallup said. “U.S. public satisfaction with immigration was scarcest in 2007 and 2008, at 23% and 24%, respectively, whereas it reached 40% to 41% at its highest, in 2017 and 2018.”

The decreased satisfaction comes alongside a spike in illegal immigration since President Joe Biden took office.

Data from U.S. Custom and Border Protection showed at least 156,274 people entered the country last month alone. Illegal immigration at the southern border has roughly quadrupled since 2020, though it fluctuates month to month.

The numbers are setting records in many states.

That influx is expected to rise even more if Title 42 is lifted. The measure is a Trump-era border policy that allowed border agents to expel migrants in the name of preventing the spread of COVID-19.

The rising illegal immigration has led to more political tension on the issue, including on full display during Biden’s State of the Union address last week.

When Biden lamented the fentanyl crisis during his speech, Republicans shouted out, making clear they thought he was to blame for allowing illegal immigration to spike. Fentanyl is largely transported across the southern border by drug cartels.

Fentanyl overdoses have spiked alongside the immigration, which could be changing Americans’ opinions on the issue as well.

“The flip side of 28% of Americans being satisfied with immigration is that 63% are dissatisfied,” Gallup said. “In a follow-up question, most of the dissatisfied group (64%, equivalent to 40% of U.S. adults) say they want immigration decreased. Far fewer, 8% of Americans, are dissatisfied because they want it increased, while the remaining 15% are dissatisfied but want the level to remain the same or are unsure. The percentage who are dissatisfied out of a desire for less immigration has risen sharply over the past two years, increasing from 19% in 2021 to 35% in 2022 and 40% today.”

FBI- and CIA-Trained Asset Drafted Proud Boys J6 Document: Defense

Ken Silva
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FBI- and CIA-Trained Asset Drafted Proud Boys J6 Document: Defense

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) An FBI- and CIA-trained intelligence operative drafted a key piece of evidence being used in the ongoing Jan. 6 Proud Boys sedition conspiracy trial, defendant Dominic Pezzola said Friday in a  motion seeking a mistrial over the matter.

Pezzola filed his motion after prosecutors introduced a document entitled “1776 Returns” as evidence the previous day. Assistant U.S. Attorney Conor Mulroe told the jury that the document—found in a Telegram message with Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio—describes plans to lay siege to Capitol Hill by strategically occupying most of the congressional office space around the Capitol.

Government portrayed the 1776 Returns document as being created by Tarrio or the other defendants, when in fact it originated with FBI- and CIA-trained asset Samuel Armes, Pezzola said.

Pezzola cited an interview Armes conducted with the Jan. 6 Select Committee, which was published on Dec. 14, 2022, after the 1776 Returns document was already ruled admissible as evidence against the Proud Boys.

In that interview, conducted last July, Armes told the J6 committee that he initially began working on a document to plan for worst-case scenarios as a “wargaming” exercise amidst the civil unrest of mid-2020. That document ended up being passed to Tarrio through a mutual friend, Erika Flores, and ended up morphing into what’s now the 1776 Returns record, according to Armes.

Armes said he was trained to conduct wargaming strategies when he was being “groomed” to work for the FBI or CIA while attending the University of Southern Florida. He further told the committee that he was never an employee of the FBI or CIA, but that he has worked for the State Department and for U.S. Special Operations Command out of MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa.

Armes, who works in the cryptocurrency industry, said the document he initially started was drastically altered by the time it was given to Tarrio—though by who, he doesn’t know.

“[Flores] asked if she could see it, and I said sure. And so I ended up sharing it with her on a Google Drive. And after that, I thought nothing of it.  I would’ve never imagined that it turned into the document that I was shown last week, would’ve had zero clue, zero idea,” he said.

“I mean, it’s pretty horrifying to think that that document was even used and actually took from what I had written, which—obviously, you know, it’s horrific for me to even imagine that something that I would’ve written would’ve been used to source this kind of, like, I guess call it ‘terroristic document,’” he added.

However, Flores reportedly told the Jan. 6 Select Committee that the Armes did, in fact, draft the entire 1776 Returns document. When the Jan. 6 Select Committee asked Armes if he could produce his original document, he said he couldn’t find it.

Pezzola requested an evidentiary hearing to determine who really created the 1776 Returns document.

If it turns out that Armes really did author the entire document, “this means that the most damning document in this trial was authored by the intelligence community—someone ‘groomed’ by the FBI itself,” said Pezzola.

“Ultimately, if the information laid out here is true, this seems to require mistrial and dismissal of this entire case, with prejudice,” Pezolla concluded. “At a bare minimum, these new revelations require that all evidence relating to this document be stricken from the record and that the jury be given a stern instruction.”

The sedition trial was set to resume Monday. Presiding U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly has yet to issue a ruling on Pezzola’s motion.

Pezzola faces a seditious conspiracy charge, as do fellow Proud Boys Zachary Rehl, Enrique Tarrio, Ethan Nordean and Joseph Biggs.

Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.

Steinhauer: China Turning Up Heat in Long-Simmering Cold War May Be a Blessing in Disguise

Editor 1
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Steinhauer: China Turning Up Heat in Long-Simmering Cold War May Be a Blessing in Disguise

(Lee Steinhauer, Headline USA contributor) Last week, the entire nation was captivated by the giant Chinese spy balloon which made its way unimpeded across the United States before finally being shot down over the ocean. Since then, several other smaller, unidentified objects have been shot down over American airspace.

But while Americans were rightfully infuriated by this egregious violation of U.S. sovereignty, the balloon is hardly the worst abuse China has committed against the U.S. over the past few decades. In fact, it is some ways down the list.

It is, for instance, far behind China’s massive theft of U.S. technology and intellectual property, or China’s industrial-scale cyber-espionage and economic warfare against U.S. citizens and industries—and we certainly cannot forget about COVID either.

What separates the balloon, however, is that it was visceral and tangible in ways that the others were not. As a result, it as come to represent—as Rep. Michael Waltz. R-Fla., noted—a sort of Sputnik moment for the American public, making evident what has been true for a while: America and China are in a New Cold War.

While the balloon should have never entered U.S. airspace in the first place, we should, in a way, be grateful to it for providing national clarity on the fact that China is our enemy. Now, perhaps, we can dispense with the delusion of continuing to engage with China as we have, and finally do what is necessary to fight back.

This includes ending, once and for all, our senseless dependency on China for our manufacturing, particularly critical technological components, and supplies such as medicine.

We can also no longer abide Wall Street facilitating China’s rise—and, by extension, our own demise—by funding China’s economy, which in turn funds their military. Additionally, Chinese companies such as TikTok and others must be immediately banned from exploiting American data and gobbling up our real estate and farmland.

This is only a sampling of the numerous vulnerabilities that must be eliminated if America is to prevail against China in the New Cold War. Taking any of these necessary actions, however, will undoubtedly elicit howls of protest from America’s China Lobby. But the globalist elites and multinational corporations that compose the Lobby’s membership cannot be allowed to undermine America’s ability to combat China, as they have in the past, for the sake of preserving their Chinese profits.

In this respect, we must emulate again our great patriotic ancestors, including those that defeated the Soviet Union, who not only would have strongly condemned such aid to a U.S. adversary, but considered it downright treasonous, and treated it accordingly.

The New Cold War will not be won with half measures. It will require patriotism, and sacrifice, and national loyalty, even from elites unaccustomed to such things.

For those who believed otherwise, sorry for letting the air out of your balloon.

Lee Steinhauer is a strategic policy and political consultant, known for his book The Art of The New Cold War: America vs China. What America Must Do to Win.

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