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Don't buy the hype, 'rogue' prosecutors driving violent crime surge, not guns <[link removed]> –
Guns don’t commit crimes, neither do knives and hammers, people do. It’s a red herring to focus on guns rather than the harder issue of how to enforce the law fairly and hold criminals accountable. It is not true that crime is rising in every big city — it’s true that it’s rising in cities that have elected rogue prosecutors including George Gascón in Los Angeles, Chesa Boudin in San Francisco, Kim Foxx in Chicago, Larry Krasner in Philadelphia and others. Big cities are going to be hellholes until people, the people most impacted by these crimes, the Black and the Brown people, realize this. These policies are resulting in more deaths and more violence and they’ve had enough. Heritage Expert: Cully Stimson <[link removed]>
 
Unmasking CDC’s Latest Mask Study: How Government Gets It Wrong Again <[link removed]> – Coming soon to your Twitter feed: another Centers for Disease Control and Prevention poster <[link removed]> on the virtues of
mask-wearing <[link removed]>. The poster tells us that cloth masks <[link removed]> reduce the odds of testing positive by 56%, surgical masks by 66%, and N95s and
KN95s by 83%. The made-for-Twitter visual mischaracterizes the findings of the Feb. 4 study. That study was so poorly designed that the confidence intervals—the range of possible results, similar to the “+/-” in public opinion polls—were large enough to render its findings meaningless. At least they attached an asterisk to their poster, acknowledging that the entire poster was based on findings that weren’t even statistically significant. Perhaps they hope that no one will actually read the fine print. Heritage Expert: Doug Badger  <[link removed]>
 
How the Ukraine Crisis Could Become a Disaster for Russia <[link removed]> – Putin holds two good cards: force and energy. If the transatlantic community commits to strengthening its deterrent forces—strategic as well as conventional—and building real energy security that allows Europe access to affordable and reliable energy, Putin will be left with a losing hand. Moscow, Beijing, and the Islamists all want the same thing: a disbanded transatlantic community and a weakened, disorganized, vulnerable Europe. Taking Putin’s bullying out of the mix makes their job a lot harder. Regardless of how Ukraine plays out, we have seen again Putin’s two most potent weapons for messing with the West: force and energy. Those have to be checkmated. Heritage Expert: James Carafano <[link removed]>
 
State Lawmakers Are Combating Racism the Right Way. Here’s What You Need to Know <[link removed]> – Every parent wants to protect <[link removed]> their child from prejudice. Yet some activists and writers claim that state lawmakers’ proposals to reject educators’ use of critical race theory in K-12 schools is a “campaign” <[link removed]> that “thrives on caricature.” State proposals that defend teachers and students from these activities must be “careful” to “restrict racialist abuse.” <[link removed]> State lawmakers are considering proposals that defend teachers and students from being forced to believe ideas that clash with their personal values and America’s founding ideals, including ideas that violate <[link removed]> the Civil Rights Act of 1964. State proposals to reject critical race theory should protect teachers and students from prejudice by prohibiting compelled speech. Heritage Expert: Jonathan Butcher <[link removed]>
 
How to Earn Voters’ Trust: The Heritage Foundation’s Election Integrity
Scorecard <[link removed]> – The Heritage Foundation on Dec. 14 launched its Election Integrity Scorecard <[link removed]> to give states and their residents and lawmakers a clear picture <[link removed]> of whether their election laws and regulations meet best practices standards for fair,
secure, and honest elections; to illustrate where vulnerabilities exist; and to provide them with information on how to fix them. It’s important to understand what the scorecard is—and what it isn’t.  It’s an interactive tool that analyzes the election laws of all 50 states and the District of Columbia (since D.C. residents are able to vote in the presidential election) and grades each state on how well those laws protect voters and the integrity of the election process. What the scorecard decidedly is not is an analysis of how the November 2020 election was conducted, something that some critics don’t seem to understand. What we hope is that voters, legislators, and election officials will use the Election Integrity Scorecard to improve the election process in their state. Heritage Expert: John Malcolm <[link removed]> and Hans von Spakovsky  <[link removed]> 
 
GoFundMe’s Sordid History of Censorship of Conservative Causes <[link removed]> – The popular crowdfunding site GoFundMe has taken down yet another conservative donation campaign. GoFundMe’s excuse for closing the donations page down doesn’t pass the smell test, because it has a long history of deplatforming conservative causes while conspicuously leaving leftist crowdfunding efforts alone. To the leftists in charge at GoFundMe, anything contrary to their narrative can be construed as “hateful” or “discriminatory,” and therefore, ripe for takedown. GoFundMe’s bias in deciding what stays and what goes on its platform becomes even more evident when one looks at the types of violent leftist content that’s allowed to remain. Heritage Expert: Douglas Blair <[link removed]>

Now Is the Time for Conservatives to Combat Big Tech’s Totalitarianism <[link removed]> – Every American should be concerned about Big Tech’s willingness to shut off direct access to digital information, its demonstrated pattern of information manipulation, and its impact on America’s culture of free speech. Beyond this, the growing symbiosis between Big Tech and government, the constriction of digital life, the pernicious targeting and exploitation of the next generation, and the expansion of digital surveillance will accelerate the stratification of American society. If current patterns are not disrupted, conservatives will bear the brunt of this tech-enabled classification system implemented hand-in-glove with the government. It’s time for conservatives—and any thinkers willing to challenge prevailing leftist narratives—to push back against the trend toward totalitarianism in America that is being ushered in with the help of Big Tech.Heritage Expert: Kara Frederick <[link removed]>

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