Here is the Heritage Take on the top issues today.Please reply to this email to arrange an interview.
Congress Must Authorize 9/11-Style Commission to Investigate Biden Administration’s Afghanistan Failure <[link removed]> – The American people deserve answers. To get them, Congress should immediately authorize and empower an independent commission to investigate the Biden administration’s withdrawal strategy, and the decisions that have been made in recent days once the crisis was apparent. Similar to the 9/11 Commission, this investigation should be thorough, leaving no agency, no office, and no individual involved untouched. None of the tragedies we’ve witnessed needed to happen. It is incumbent on our leaders to find out why they did. From the president of the United States all the way down the chain, no one should be spared from accountability.
<[link removed]>Thank
you for the new terror war, Mr. President. Now what? <[link removed]> – The president also has to prepare for another round of the terror war. So: Secure the border. Stop hounding and persecuting conservatives and have Justice and Homeland Security go back to focusing on the real terrorists — Islamist extremists. Rebuild effective counterterrorism partnerships worldwide. We also have to rethink our relations with enabler states like Pakistan. And we need to abandon the Iran deal once and for all. Finally, we need an independent nonpartisan commission right now to unpack Biden’s failures in Afghanistan. It’s not just about holding people accountable — we need to understand what we are now up against. Sorry, Mr. President. No more vacations and campaign swings. It’s time to get back to the job of defending Americans. Heritage expert: Jim Carafano <[link removed]>
Wisconsin Lost Track of 82,000 Ballots in State Biden Won by 20,000 <[link removed]> – The U.S. Election Assistance Commission asks local election officials to provide numbers on how many mail ballots were not returned as voted, were undeliverable, or were otherwise “unable to be tracked.” The U.S. Postal Service inspector general found 13% of mail ballots in the 2018 election used the official tracking system. The inspector general says ballots in the “unknown” column could have been put in the wrong mailbox or thrown out with unpaid bills. Reid Magney, spokesman for the Wisconsin Elections
Commission, objected to the findings, in a detailed email statement. The statement asserted the legal foundation report does not use data from the Election Administration and Voting Survey report. Instead, Magney said, the information appears to be from raw data from the Election Assistance Commission. “Their figures for ballots sent, undeliverable ballots, and rejected ballots count are all incorrect—in some cases by a wide margin,” Magney told The Daily Signal in the email statement. Heritage expert: Fred Lucas <[link removed]>
<[link removed]>New UN climate-change report didn’t merit overheated
headlines <[link removed]> – Just one day after the latest IPCC report, the journal Climate Dynamics published a paper potentially exposing a fundamental flaw in how the IPCC attributes extreme weather to climate change. More studies continue to highlight persistent problems with climate models exaggerating warming. That said, what does this first installment of the IPCC report say? Here are a few highlights: 1) The IPCC estimates warming since 1850 amounts to 1.1°C. 2) The most extreme projections for warming — those deemed “most likely” in the 2014 Assessment Report — have been downgraded to “low likelihood.” 3) It finds no discernible trends for hurricanes, winter storms, floods, tornadoes or thunderstorms. It does find trends in heat waves, heavy precipitation and some kinds of drought. Not surprisingly, these findings were scarcely mentioned in media coverage of the report. After all, bad news sells. Hence, we get headlines dripping with catastrophism — nuance and accuracy be damned. Unfortunately, politicians are all too ready to follow suit, claiming “the science” as a mandate for action and acceptance of extreme policy prescriptions. Too often they use “the science” as a shield to avoid defending what are actually policy choices or to deflect accountability for the costs of those policies. Heritage expert: Katie Tubb <[link removed]>
A Blunder By The Fed – Or Congress – Could Drive Consumer Prices Still
Higher <[link removed]> – Now Congress is contemplating another $4.5 trillion in deficit spending, with $1 trillion disguised as infrastructure and $3.5 trillion as a more generic spending package. There is no lack of consumer demand or job opportunities, so additional deficit spending – even if marketed as an infrastructure bill – will most likely lead to even more upward pressure on prices. Countless government regulations – only a fraction of which are listed here – already drive up consumer prices, including those for
food and energy. These artificially higher prices hurt consumers even during normal times, when people are not struggling to deal with a pandemic. If Congress wants to help Americans, now is the time to start eliminating these government-imposed economic roadblocks. They put upward pressure on prices – and if it isn’t clear already, Americans really don’t like paying higher prices. Heritage expert: Norbert Michel <[link removed]>
Xi Jinping Openly Attributes His Genocidal Tyranny To Marxism <[link removed]> – The United States should organize and host a summit for democracy and countries commit to defending against authoritarianism and advancing human rights at home and abroad. It should also create a Ministerial on Religious Freedom, modeled after the ministerial pioneered by former Ambassador Sam Brownback, to advance religious freedom in China and around the globe. The United States should forge closer relationships with Taiwan and India. It should negotiate Free Trade Agreements with Taiwan, Japan, and other key partners in the Indo-Pacific. In addition, the United States should apply sanctions to those who have violated U.S. intellectual property rights by cyber means. The U.S. Agency for Global Media should strengthen its messaging in countering Beijing’s public opinion warfare. Finally, the United States should request the International Olympic Committee to review Communist China’s suitability to host the 2022 Olympics. Given the deadly plight of the Uyghurs, now is not the time for the international community to kowtow to those who would benefit the most from hosting the Olympics: Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party. Heritage expert: Lee Edwards <[link removed]>
-
