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Tuesday, June 21, 2022

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Democrat Voters Blame Biden for Inflation

Ed Morrissey: One can only play dodgeball for so long before they got bombed by their own side. Joe Biden’s attempts to dodge responsibility for inflation by shifting blame to Vladimir Putin and greedy corporations have not fooled too many people, according to a new TIPP poll conducted in partnership with Issues & Insights. The “Putin price hike” line isn’t even selling among Democrats, a majority of whom blame Biden in significant part for soaring inflation (HotAir). Issues and Insights: Of those responding, 64% said Biden was “responsible,” choosing either “very responsible” (38%) or “somewhat responsible” (26%). Just 25% answered “not responsible”, with 17% saying “not very responsible” but a far-smaller 8% saying “not at all responsible.” “Not sure” was 10% (Issues and Insights).

Kremlin Spokesman Refused to Guarantee Safety of Americans Captured in Ukraine

Axios: Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told NBC News Monday international rules of war wouldn’t apply to two Americans that Russian forces captured in Ukraine and he wouldn’t rule out death sentences for the vets. The U.S. State Department issued a statement to Axios and other outlets calling on the Kremlin “as well as its proxies” to “live up to their international obligations in their treatment of any individual, including those captured fighting in Ukraine.” Geneva Conventions protections include ensuring “prisoners of war must at all times be humanely treated” (Axios). NBC: “It depends on the investigation,” Dmitry Peskov told NBC News senior international correspondent Keir Simmons when he was asked whether Alexander Drueke and Andy Huynh would “face the same fate” as two British citizens and a Moroccan who were sentenced to death by Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine this month. The families of Drueke, 39, and Huynh, 27, reported them missing last week. Peskov said Drueke and Huynh were “involved in illegal activities” in Ukraine, firing on Russian troops. “Those guys on the battlefield were firing at our military guys. They were endangering their lives,” he said. “There will be a court, and there will be a court decision,” Peskov said. “They should be punished,” he added, calling Drueke and Huynh “soldiers of fortune” (NBC).

Chevron CEO Pessimistic About United States Building Another Oil Refinery, Ever

Institute for Energy Research: Chevron CEO Mike Wirth does not expect another oil refinery to be built in the United States ever again, due to federal government policies. The last significant refinery built in the United States was in 1976. (A small refinery came online in 2020 in North Dakota). Over the last two years, due to reduced demand from the pandemic and President Biden’s stated policy to reduce the demand for petroleum products, U.S. refineries have been shut down or repurposed to become biofuel refineries. In a business where investments have a payout period of a decade or more, it is unlikely for investment to be spent on policies where the demand is to be reduced (IER). HotAir: The Democrats, now led by Joe Biden, have been warning everyone for years that they were going to find a way to move the world away from the use of fossil fuels. Biden promised to “end fossil fuels” on the campaign trail and enacted policies moving in that direction starting on his first day in office. The oil and gas industry was listening and they’ve responded accordingly… Nobody is going to flush that much cash into such a project when Uncle Sam is threatening to effectively outlaw your product in the next decade. And once a refinery is shut down or converted to produce biofuels, it can’t simply be “switched back on” or reverted to oil processing at the drop of a hat (HotAir).

Report: One in Five Pregnancies Ended in Abortion in 2020

National Review: The new Guttmacher data suggest that the abortion rate increased by approximately 7 percent between 2017 and 2020. The increase was fairly widespread, as 28 states reported an increase in the abortion rate over this time period. That said, there was more variance in state abortion-rate fluctuations than is typical. Some states experienced large abortion-rate declines due to abortion facility closures, while others experienced substantial abortion-rate increases due to a rise in women obtaining abortions from out of state (National Review). Albert Mohler: The bottom line in all of this, is actually made clear by The New York Times as it summarizes that in the year 2020, one out of every five pregnancies ended in abortion. That means, that if you line up all the women who had pregnancies during the period of the year 2020, 20 out of the 100, or put it another way, one-out-of-five chose to end the pregnancy by abortion, killing the unborn child, terminating the life rather than to carry the baby to term. One out of five, we really are looking at something that’s beyond description as an atrocity or even as a national crisis, but we’re also looking at the fact that about half of the states in the United States are ardently pro-abortion even as about half are increasingly pro-life, that just shows you a divide over a basic worldview or moral issue this staggers the imagination (Albert Mohler).

Mother of Fallen Officer on DA Gascon: “He's destroyed so many lives”

Fox News: The parents of a slain California police officer are demanding Los Angeles DA George Gascon be recalled for his far-left policies, after their son and his partner were killed in the line of duty. Jose Santana and Olga Garcia joined “Fox & Friends First” to discuss their son’s tragedy and why they pin the blame on what critics call Gascon’s “radical” policies. “It’s not fair, Gascon needs to be recalled immediately,” Garcia told co-host Griff Jenkins. “He’s destroyed so many lives, and he’s completely destroyed ours. We’re just completely devastated” (Fox News). Newsnation: Monday morning, Santana’s mother Olga Garcia spoke out about the violence police officers face and shared memories of her son in an emotional interview on NewsNation. “George Gascon gives criminals more rights than police officers. He has insane ideas about criminals. They just get like a slap in the hand. Police officers are afraid to even do their jobs, or to defend themselves because Gascon would put them in jail. He’s for the criminals. He is not for victims. And as long as he continues to be in office is going to destroy more families,” Garcia said. There is an ongoing recall effort to remove Gascon from his position, and the petition to recall him has already received half a million signatures. “If that criminal would have been locked up, they both would be here today,” Garcia said (Newsnation).

China Concludes Anti-Ballistic Missile Testing Sunday Evening

CNN: China successfully conducted an anti-ballistic missile test on Sunday night, according to the country’s Defense Ministry, part of ongoing military efforts to enhance the country’s defensive capabilities. It was a land-based mid-course missile tested within China’s borders, the ministry said in a brief statement, adding the test was defensive in nature and not targeted against any country. Anti-ballistic missile systems are meant to shield a country from potential attacks by using projectiles to intercept incoming missiles, including intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). Some analysts liken it to shooting down a bullet with another bullet (CNN). Washington Examiner: U.S. military officials, for their part, have acknowledged a misgiving that China’s nuclear upgrades are “increasingly inconsistent with a stated no-first-use policy,” raising the specter of a preemptive strike. And Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invocation of nuclear weapons to deter Western intervention on behalf of Ukraine has stoked anxiety in the Indo-Pacific that other nuclear-armed regimes might follow suit (Washington Examiner).

Iran Admits to “Industrial Sabotage” At Iranian Military Research Center After Scrutiny

Daily Wire: Iran finally admitted what the world suspected when a top official acknowledged Monday that a mysterious explosion last month at a military research center was no accident. The May 25 explosion at a facility in Parchin that killed one engineer and injured another was attributed to a drone attack by western media. It followed the assassinations of key defense officials and other clandestine efforts to impede the Islamic Republic’s alleged efforts to develop nuclear weapons. But at the time, Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics insisted the explosion was an accident. On Monday, Iranian media outlets quoted Imam Hussein University President Hasani Ahangar attributing the explosion to “industrial sabotage” (Daily Wire). Times of Israel: Iran’s nuclear program has been the target of a campaign of sabotage, cyberattacks and assassinations of key scientists that it has blamed on Israel. Israel has vowed it will not let Iran obtain nuclear weapons. Israel did not comment on the incident at Parchin, but it mirrored others that have taken place recently in Iran and Lebanon where Jerusalem has sought to target Tehran’s production and transfer of drone technology to proxy groups across the Middle East (Times of Israel).

Athletes Praise Swimming Governing Body’s Decision to Protect the Integrity of Aquatic Sports

Fox News: Former Olympic gold medalist and Title IX advocate Donna de Varona applauded FINA, swimming’s international governing body, for approving a new policy that would limit the participation of transgender women from competing in high-level women’s swimming events (Fox News).Townhall: In an interview after the news broke, Australian Olympic gold-medalist swimmer Emily Seebohm told Sky News Australia that she is “finally happy that we have a decision” and that “we just didn’t know what was going to happen.” “It’s hard to commit fully to our sport if we have no idea the direction it’s going to go,” she added. “We can all move on. We can all just go back to the sport that we love…and know that we are getting in the pool and it’s going to be a fair, level playing field and that’s what we want” (Townhall). Guardian: Australian Olympic champion Cate Campbell has supported Fina’s vote to restrict transgender women from taking part in elite female swimming competitions, saying she had “wrestled long and hard” with her views on the polarising issue before concluding that fairness is a “cornerstone” of professional sport (Guardian).

Canada to Invest $30 Billion in Defense to Counter Russian and Chinese Threats in Arctic

Wall Street Journal: Canada on Monday pledged to spend over $30 billion over the next two decades to help detect and track military threats from Russia and China in the Arctic. This would mark one of the biggest outlays by Canada in decades on bolstering its defense capabilities, and would deliver on a promise to the U.S. to modernize its capabilities to help defend the continent as part of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or Norad. Military analysts have repeatedly warned Norad radar and satellite-image capabilities in the North require a dramatic upgrade, given Russia’s development of a new generation of long-range air- and sea-launched cruise missiles, and hypersonic missiles. China is also developing missiles. Canadian officials say the threat to the North has escalated following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February. Former military commanders say Russia now has the ability to sustain military operations across the high Arctic, given their recently refurbished military installations across its northern coast. The melting polar ice cap is also leaving the once impassable Arctic Ocean ice-free for longer periods, creating new vulnerabilities for the North American continent (Wall Street Journal). ABC: The announcement at an Ontario air force base comes amid numerous warnings from U.S. and Canadian military officials and experts that NORAD is badly showing its age. “As autocratic regimes threaten the rules based international order that has protected for decades, and as our competitors develop new technologies like hypersonic weapons and advanced cruise missiles, there is a pressing need to modernize Canada’s NORAD capabilities,” Defense Minister Anita Anand said (ABC).

10.

Yahoo Poll: Americans Do Not Want Biden or Trump, But a New Candidate for President

Daily Wire: A new poll revealed that the majority of the American public wants a fresh face in the Oval Office, and not a recycling of President Biden or former President Trump. A June 10th Yahoo/YouGov poll found a whopping 64% of respondents felt Biden should not run for reelection in 2024… The results were not much better for Trump. The poll found that 55% of respondents felt Trump should not run for reelection in 2024 (Daily Wire). Daily Mail: The poll found that if an election were carried out between the two presidents today, Trump would narrowly win with 42 per cent of voters over Biden’s 39 per cent (Daily Mail).

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