Monday, 22 February 2021

Daily Digest

Daily Digest

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Neera Tanden’s nomination is sinking, Xavier Becerra’s should sink too

Posted: 22 Feb 2021 05:11 PM PST

(Paul Mirengoff)

There is more bad news for Neera Tanden, Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget. Susan Collins says she won’t vote to confirm Tanden.

On Friday, Joe Manchin broke ranks with the Democrats, saying he will not support Tanden. That means the nominee needs the backing of a Republican Senator.

Collins was the most likely candidate, or would have been if Tanden hadn’t previously attacked her. But Tanden lacked the self-restraint to avoid shooting at even the least conservative of Republican Senators.

Mitt Romney also says he won’t support Tanden. That leaves Lisa Murkowski.

To my knowledge, Sen. Murkowski hasn’t publicly taken a position. At this point, I’m not sure I’d put anything beyond Murkowski when it comes to siding with Democrats. However, it seems unlikely that, with Collins and Romney in opposition, she will rally to aid a nasty hyper-partisan Democrat like Neera Tanden.

Are any other Biden nominees in trouble? Maybe. Reportedly, Joe Manchin isn’t sold on Xavier Becerra, Biden’s pick to run the Department of Health and Human Services.

Becerra is an awful selection, considerably worse than Tanden. As I noted here, Becerra has no experience working at HHS, no medical background, and has never been chief executive of a state or any entity other than an attorney general's shop.

How Becerra can be considered qualified to run HHS is beyond me. It may also be beyond Sen. Collins. She has noted his lack of relevant credentials.

Becerra is also terrible on policy. Becerra is a progressive activist whose experience in health and human services consists mainly in bullying nuns. As Rich Lowry reminds us, Becerra “went out of his way to target an exemption [from the Obamacare mandate] for the Little Sisters of the Poor.” His lawsuit against them “is still caught up in the courts even after it got rebuked by the U.S. Supreme Court last year.”

Becerra. . .chose to pursue this litigation even though it is completely meritless; even though it would, if successful, punish nuns who simply want to carry out their calling to care for the indigent elderly; and even though only ideological zealots intolerant of moral views different from their own can take any pleasure in its continuation.

What a guy. And what a “moderate” Biden is for nominating him.

The Little Sisters of the Poor litigation isn’t the only manifestation of Becerra’s extremism and bullying. The editors of National Review cite others:

In 2017, Becerra filed felony charges against the pro-life activists and citizen-journalists who had gone undercover to expose Planned Parenthood's gruesome practice of selling the body parts of aborted babies to biotech companies. Becerra had not gone after animal-rights activists for similar investigative tactics. In response to Becerra's actions, one writer at the left-wing magazine Mother Jones called the Planned Parenthood videos "a legitimate investigation, and no level of government should be in the business of chilling it." Becerra was rebuked by the liberal editorial page of the Los Angeles Times for his "disturbing overreach."

In 2018, Becerra and the State of California were smacked down by the U.S. Supreme Court in the case NIFLA v. Becerra over a state law forcing pro-life pregnancy centers to advertise abortion.

In 2019, Becerra aggressively opposed the merger of two religiously affiliated hospital chains in California because the resulting consolidated chain could reduce access to both abortion and gender-reassignment surgeries.

In 2020, Becerra was rebuked for his zealous defense of a California law requiring abortion coverage in insurance plans offered by churches. The Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services ruled that California's abortion mandate violated a federal law known as the Weldon amendment, which prohibits federal funding of states and localities that force health providers and insurers to participate in or cover abortion. Becerra refused to comply.

Between Becerra’s lack of relevant experience and his pro-abortion extremism, it may be possible to pick up 51 “no” votes on his nomination.

Let’s hope so. I agree with Yuval Levin:

Even in normal times, when maybe there could be some kind of excuse for treating such an important job as a sop to the radical activist wing of the president's party, Becerra would be an especially inflammatory choice. And these are not normal times.

We are still in the midst of a global pandemic, and the secretary of HHS should be more experienced with the department and its work and with the issues involved, and should not be a figure who will enflame the kinds of fears that will undermine the trust of large swaths of the country in the government's actions, guidance, and priorities.

Masks Today, Masks Tomorrow, Masks Forever!

Posted: 22 Feb 2021 04:11 PM PST

(John Hinderaker)

A friend who is a superb doctor sent along this communication from University of Minnesota Health Services:

Got that? Vaccination changes nothing! Wear masks, wash your hands frequently, socially distance and–above all–stay home! “Until it’s gone,” which is never. My friend comments:

From an experienced medical facility, I expect better. It will never be gone, we will have it like every other coronavirus, like every other flu. Unlike smallpox, it is impossible to eradicate.

Thus, we are reaching the endemic COVID phase soon, the post-pandemic period. So I am guessing they want us socially distanced forever?

For background, this came in an email with a demand we do not travel outside the state without taking a 14-day quarantine.

This is the battle that is rapidly shaping up. As the Wuhan bug fades away, the authorities–the proto-fascist ones, anyway–will hang on to their “emergency” powers and will try to humiliate the rest of us by such measures as forcing us to wear masks and preventing us from traveling. (They, of course, will mock such restrictions privately and will jet around the world without having to tolerate middle-class travelers.) It will be incumbent on normal people, in particular those who are well-informed and therefore not cowed by covid hysteria, to insist on a return to normal life.

The opening shots in this battle are already being fired by the other side, in communications like the one to which my friend objected. You think you will easily get out from under the boots of the self-proclaimed dictators? Think again. It is going to be a fight.

Fighting Against Big Tech Censorship

Posted: 22 Feb 2021 02:13 PM PST

(John Hinderaker)

America’s major tech companies have chosen sides. Thus the news that big tech employees contributed more to Joe Biden’s campaign than any other sector of the economy:

Employees at Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Alphabet, Google's parent company, donated at least $15.1 million to President Joe Biden's presidential campaign, according to Open Secrets.

The donations eclipsed the amount given from employees in the banking and legal sectors, according to The Wall Street Journal. The five companies were also the largest fundraising sources for Biden's campaign.

Far more important than political contributions are the efforts by the social media platforms and other tech giants to suppress conservative speech. These seemingly-coordinated efforts represent by far the biggest threat to free speech in America today.

It seems clear that the most effective avenue to stop this suppression of conservative speech (or, really, any speech that doesn’t fit the narrative of the moment) is through action at the state level. Legislation intended to protect speech on social media platforms, and on the internet generally, has been introduced in at least 15 or 20 states. Here in Minnesota, I participated in drafting a bill that takes an anti-discrimination approach. It bars discrimination against users or user content on the basis of race, sex, religion or political orientation and provides minimum statutory damages of $50,000, along with attorneys’ fees.

That bill has now been introduced in the Minnesota Senate with multiple sponsors, including the Senate Majority Leader. It soon will be introduced in the House. The bill, S.F. 1253, is recorded here and is embedded below.

I am happy to consult with legislators or others in states where similar legislation might be introduced, and can be reached at powerlinefeedback@gmail.com.

Shapes of things (18)

Posted: 22 Feb 2021 12:16 PM PST

(Scott Johnson)

Our friend Roger Kimball is the learned publisher of Encounter Books. He writes to alert us to the statement Encounter has just posted on the suppression of one of its titles by Amazon:

Yesterday, we learned that Ryan T. Anderson's When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment, which Encounter Books originally published in 2018, was removed without explanation from Amazon.com and from its subsidiary Audible.

Encounter Books is committed to publishing authors with differing views on a wide range of issues of public concern. We do this because a free society requires robust debate and spaces where dissenting opinions can be expressed unimpeded.

If Amazon, which controls most of the book sales in America, has decided to delist a book with which some of its functionaries disagree, that is an unconscionable assault on free speech. It will have chilling effect on the publishing industry and the free circulation of ideas. It must not be left to stand unchallenged.

Purchase Ryan T. Anderson's When Harry Became Sally here.

This is Encounter’s précis of the book:

Can a boy be "trapped" in a girl's body? Can modern medicine "reassign" sex? Is our sex "assigned" to us in the first place? What is the most loving response to a person experiencing a conflicted sense of gender? What should our law say on matters of "gender identity"?

When Harry Became Sally provides thoughtful answers to questions arising from our transgender moment. Drawing on the best insights from biology, psychology, and philosophy, Ryan Anderson offers a nuanced view of human embodiment, a balanced approach to public policy on gender identity, and a sober assessment of the human costs of getting human nature wrong.

This book exposes the contrast between the media's sunny depiction of gender fluidity and the often sad reality of living with gender dysphoria. It gives a voice to people who tried to "transition" by changing their bodies, and found themselves no better off. Especially troubling are the stories told by adults who were encouraged to transition as children but later regretted subjecting themselves to those drastic procedures.

As Anderson shows, the most beneficial therapies focus on helping people accept themselves and live in harmony with their bodies. This understanding is vital for parents with children in schools where counselors may steer a child toward transitioning behind their backs.

Everyone has something at stake in the controversies over transgender ideology, when misguided "antidiscrimination" policies allow biological men into women's restrooms and penalize Americans who hold to the truth about human nature. Anderson offers a strategy for pushing back with principle and prudence, compassion and grace.

Let us dedicate ourselves to making this book an underground best-seller in paperback or samizdat, as the case may be. I just ordered my copy from Encounter. Perhaps in an updated edition Anderson can explain how he has been found guilty of wrongthink and offer a strategy to push back against the Big Brothers of Big Tech.

Biden on China: Sturdy resistance or mush?

Posted: 22 Feb 2021 11:39 AM PST

(Paul Mirengoff)

George Will writes that Joe Biden “is keeping his promise of sturdy resistance to China.” But Will cites only weak evidence for that proposition.

Will points to a “sandpapery” first conversation between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi. He also notes that Blinken warned Yang that Washington would hold Beijing "accountable” (whatever that means) for its human rights abuses against the Uighurs.

In addition, Will observes that Biden invited Taiwan's representative in Washington to attend the inauguration, the first such invitation since U.S.-China relations were normalized in 1979. And a U.S. carrier group has been active in the South China Sea.

All of this is fine. But does it really amount to “sturdy resistance.” I don’t think so. Peter Berkowitz seems to share my skepticism.

It’s also questionable whether the fumbling president who delivered the jumble of words in the video below is capable of sturdy resistance to anything. Towards the end of his faltering statement, Biden says:

Culturally there are different norms that each country and their [sic] leaders are expected to follow.

To the extent I can make sense out of his muddled utterances, Biden seems to be saying that American norms require Biden to criticize China’s human rights record and Chinese norms require its leaders to ignore the criticism. That probably means we’ll end up with a normal, accommodating China policy

Biden wasn’t describing sturdy resistance. He was stumbling towards “East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.”

Somewhere in his word salad, Biden says that Xi, China’s tyrant, “gets it.” Yes. I’m afraid he does.
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