The Post-Partisan Emporium

The Ukraine mirage: Biden to take credit for stopping his own manufactured crisis More rhetoric than reality. Jordan Schachtel Is it better to win a war without firing a shot, or rather, convince people that you stopped a “war” that never had a chance of actually starting?  With poll numbers continuing to tank, and midterm elections right around the corner, the Biden Administration desperately needs a win. It appears they’re enacting a bold strategy that involves first manifesting a crisis and then proceeding to take credit for solving the non-existent crisis they created. For weeks, the White House has been telling us, without evidence, that the Russian military is on the verge of launching a massive land and air invasion into Ukraine. Citing apparent troop movements within Russia’s own territory on their border with Ukraine, the White House has continually signaled that Russia is swelling its numbers for an imminent attack. KYW Newsradio - NOW ON 103.9 FM! @KYWNewsradio President Joe

Thanks to Saint Jimmy (Russia American) for bringing this article to our attention... MOCKING THE MEDIA There’s a truck outside the Desmarais Building at the University of Ottawa, where I work, which has the words ‘Main Stream Media’ painted on its side, with a big red cross through them. The truck’s part of the so-called ‘Freedom Convoy’ that has been occupying much of our downtown for about three weeks now. I can’t say that I support it, and like most people I know I think it’s high time that the truckers drove off back to wherever it is they came from. But the truck I mentioned raises an important question – why the distrust of the ‘mainstream media’? If you want to know the answer, you have only to look at this week’s coverage of all things Russo-Ukrainian. Take, for instance, this picture I took yesterday of the website of  The Sun  newspaper – not exactly highbrow, I know, but popular and thus influential. First off is a decidedly precise prediction of when Russia would invade Uk

THE NICE REVOLUTION CANADA’S (SECOND) POPULIST MOMENT? The Evolved Psyche In recent years, there has been the Velvet Revolution, the Orange Revolution, the Cedar Revolution, and even the Singing Revolution. 1  Leave it to Canadians to create the Nice Revolution. As though driven to live up to their national stereotype, the Canadians who have gathered in Ottawa to protest their government’s draconian COVID measures have displayed a massive outbreak of niceness, kindness and hugs. As some of the signs say, it has been the winter of love. Yes, this is what a populist insurgency looks like in today’s Canada. Now, it hasn’t always been quite like that. As it happens, I wrote my doctoral thesis (for all the good it did me) on the Canadian populist movement of the early 20th century. In large measure beginning as a spillover event from the U.S. populist insurgency of the late 19th century. That was a movement fueled by farmers, rather than truckers. And when I pick up the occasional signal fr

If This Is How America COMPETES, We're Going to Lose Plus: College students and speech, state-funded pre-K fail, and more... ELIZABETH NOLAN BROWN   |   1.26.2022 The America COMPETES Act of 2022 is a sprawling mess of spending and nonsense. House Democrats are rallying behind a 2,912-page bill that's allegedly concerned with addressing supply chain issues and keeping U.S. manufacturing and technology competitive. But like anything Democrats do these days, the bill can't simply address one main issue or a few critical needs. Instead, it tries to insert the government into every aspect of all sorts of industries and markets and pretend that bureaucrats can solve complex social and cultural issues. For instance, this bill addresses everything from "combating sexual harassment in science" to seeing that more science grants go to people with caregiving responsibilities; retention and advancement of women and minorities in science and tech careers; subverting censorsh