Tuesday, March 28, 2023

Don’t Play Nuclear Chess against Russia

The Phyllis Schlafly Report
By John and Andy Schlafly

NATO’s expansion of war in Ukraine continues, misguided by unelected globalists who demand that rulers subordinate national interests to global governance. As the 2024 elections get under way, Donald Trump is the only candidate in either party who speaks out against reckless war-mongering that could spark World War III.

While Trump was expounding his pro-peace platform at an overflow weekend rally in Waco, Texas, Russian President Vladimir Putin was moving tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus along the northern border of Ukraine. Belarus is allied with Russia, so nothing can be done to prevent this.

Russia’s move horrified clueless Western globalists, who thought they had checkmated Putin by having him indicted by the International Criminal Court. Putin is obviously unfazed by that self-appointed tribunal, which lacks jurisdiction over him in Russia.

Tactical nuclear weapons are designed to deliver atomic bombs against battlefield targets, rather than destroy civilian infrastructure as was done to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. For over 75 years dropping nuclear bombs has been unthinkable, but launching nuclear arms against tanks and soldiers could be an initial step to all-out nuclear war.

What is unthinkable at the beginning of a war can become inevitable as war drags on and people are hardened by its atrocities. The vicious use of chemical weapons unfortunately became prevalent as World War I wore on, to the point where both sides began wearing gas masks.

Neither Biden nor NATO should be playing a game of nuclear chess with the grandmasters in Russia. As Biden and entrenched D.C. politicians of both parties scheme to involve the United States further in a border war on the other side of the globe, only Trump among the presidential candidates is outspoken against it.

The American people, particularly the all-important young voters, want no part of a confrontation with Russia, with the possibility that battlefield nukes could eventually be deployed. Biden and the Leftist leaders of NATO, however, continue to provoke Russia to the point where it moves nuclear weapons into position for possible battlefield use.

Pulitzer-Prize winning investigator Seymour Hersh released his account last month accusing Biden of having ordered the destruction of Russia’s Nord Stream pipelines. Less than two weeks later, another massive explosion seriously damaged the Russian built, 12-mile-long Kerch Bridge that connects Russia to Crimea.

Last year Biden declared, “If Russia invades, there will no longer be a Nord Stream 2, we will bring an end to it.” Indeed, after Russia invaded Ukraine, underwater explosions by mines evidently laid by skilled navy divers at the bottom of the Baltic Sea did destroy 3 of the 4 Nord Stream pipelines that deliver Russian natural gas to Western Europe.

The sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines forced 35 tons of chemical weapon residue to resurface after lying dormant on the seabed since being dumped there after World War II. This harmful disturbance included arsenic and mustard gas chemical agents.

In addition, the sabotage of this pipeline caused the release of 115,000 tons of natural gas in merely six days. Such a massive release of hydrocarbons would require 600 million trees a year to absorb, yet not a word from the Biden Administration about the environmental harm that resulted.

Biden’s State Department point person for Ukraine, Victoria Nuland, even said she was “very gratified” that the Russian pipeline had become “a hunk of metal at the bottom of the sea.” The Deep State’s gratification surely includes knowledge of who committed this crime, which they conceal from the American people.

The European Union concluded it was sabotage, not an accident, that destroyed these nearly 1,000-mile long pipelines that provided inexpensive energy to Western Europe. Biden refuses to confess who did it, but a President Trump would tell us.

Biden and the Deep State should not try to defeat a Russian army that has access to battlefield nuclear weapons in its own backyard. This escalating war has pushed Russia into a stronger alliance with another adversary holding many nuclear warheads, Communist China.

On Sunday Communist North Korea fired two warning missiles against the arrival nearby of a U.S. aircraft carrier. Biden has limited bandwidth for conflicts halfway around the world, and North Korea might exploit Biden’s obsession with Russia.

Recent polling shows Biden’s approval has dropped to nearly his all-time low, with only 38% of Americans approving of his job performance according to a survey by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Voters under age 45 are walking away from Biden more than any other group.

If we don’t win this next election, 2024, I truly believe our country is doomed,” Trump told his crowd of many thousands on Saturday. Young voters are historically anti-war, and Trump can save our country by campaigning against this war.

John and Andy Schlafly are sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016) and lead the continuing Phyllis Schlafly Eagles organizations with writing and policy work.

These columns are also posted on PhyllisSchlafly.com, pseagles.com, and Townhall.com.

Tuesday, March 21, 2023

Investigate the Investigators

The Phyllis Schlafly Report
By John and Andy Schlafly

Our Constitution provides ample remedies for the problems facing our Nation. Instead of waiting for the impending indictment of Donald Trump by the New York County District Attorney, our elected representatives can and should act swiftly to smoke out how improper this prosecution is.

Prosecuting attorneys enjoy enormous discretion to bring charges to grand juries, who are willing to indict even a “ham sandwich” upon request. But if a county prosecutor is allowed to indict the leading presidential candidate from the opposing party, our national elections would no longer be democratic.

On Monday the chairmen of the House Judiciary Committee and two other House committees signed and sent a letter to the New York County D.A., Alvin Bragg, demanding information about the unprecedented charges concocted against Trump. This letter led by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) states “we expect that you will testify about what plainly appears to be a politically motivated prosecutorial decision.”

Bragg has reportedly based his charges on an incident that was well known to the Americans who elected Trump in 2016 and voted for him again in 2020. Other prosecutors who had already examined the same widely publicized facts found them not to be criminal, yet this Democrat D.A. has dredged up ancient history in an obvious effort to impede Trump’s reelection in 2024.

While Bragg wastes his time trying to prosecute a former president for his non-criminal conduct, Senator JD Vance (R-OH) recently tweeted that he “allows violent criminals to walk the streets of New York City.” Referring to George Soros and his funded prosecutors like Alvin Bragg, Sen. Vance says “these people are trying to turn America into a third-world country.”

Our Constitution provides ways to respond, as it always does, by vesting the most power in the House of Representatives. That body can and should compel testimony and the production of emails by the rogue prosecutor’s office before it interferes with our upcoming presidential election.

The Speech or Debate Clause found in Article I of the Constitution confers broad immunity on House leaders and their staffs to take effective action to protect the integrity of our presidential election against such wanton interference. One Soros-funded prosecutor cannot properly hold our entire country hostage to a politically motivated indictment.

Last year the D.C. federal courts even expanded the power of the House to demand compliance with its subpoenas, in order to help the J6 Committee investigate Trump supporters. What was good for the goose then is good for the gander now, as the Republican majority should churn out subpoenas to investigate every nook and cranny of this retaliation by Democrats against Trump.

Investigate the investigators” Trump truthed on Sunday on his Truth Social platform, where Trump has posted messages nearly hourly in recent days. Instead of campaigning for president as he should be allowed to do, Trump is forced to respond to a bogus indictment by a Democrat county prosecutor.

This sham indictment was immediately condemned by one of the lesser-known Republican presidential candidates, Vivek Ramaswamy. He criticized Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis, who were slow in condemning Democrats’ misuse of prosecutorial power and failed to defend Trump.

The New York City prosecutor “should be held accountable for the crime of ‘interference in a presidential election,’” Trump truthed on his Truth Social platform Sunday night. Biden’s Department of Justice is filled with Trump-haters, so the responsibility of providing a necessary check-and-balance on this abuse of power falls on the Republican House of Representatives.

Remember, the same animals and thugs that would do this to perhaps 200 million people … are the communists, Marxists, RINOs, and losers that are purposefully destroying our country,” Trump added. House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY) truthed on Trump’s platform, “The two-tiered justice system in America is fully on display” with this prosecution of Trump.

Coincidentally, the House Republicans have been convening in Florida for their annual House Republican Issues Conference. Atop their agenda should be how to protect the leading Republican candidate for president from what a county prosecutor is doing right now to Trump.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who has already shown his effectiveness by standing strong against raising the debt ceiling, asked House committees to review what federal funding goes to county prosecutors who are interfering with national candidates like this. While that is a good first step, more is needed to protect our presidential elections against county prosecutors.

The House should immediately conduct a full investigation into who is pushing for an outdated assertion of discredited charges against Trump, even as presidential debates are set to begin in less than five months. The silver lining is that the American people may finally realize how prosecutions are increasingly being weaponized for political gain.

John and Andy Schlafly are sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016) and lead the continuing Phyllis Schlafly Eagles organizations with writing and policy work.

These columns are also posted on PhyllisSchlafly.com, pseagles.com, and Townhall.com.

Tuesday, March 14, 2023

Ban Transgender Operations on Children

The Phyllis Schlafly Report
By John and Andy Schlafly

An emergency appeal reaches the U.S. Supreme Court from West Virginia, which is trying to safeguard girls’ sports teams against biological males pretending to be girls. A well-reasoned federal district court decision upheld its law against a constitutional challenge on behalf of an 11-year-old, but then a majority-Democrat panel on the Fourth Circuit suspended the good law.

This case is being called the most important yet in the transgender movement, which is suddenly invading nearly every school and government program. Chief Justice John Roberts ordered a response to West Virginia to be filed by noon next Monday, March 20, and already amicus briefs in support of West Virginia’s necessary law have been filed.

The lower federal courts held that transgenders are entitled to a heightened form of protection under the Constitution, and that issue is now before the Supreme Court. Two years ago the Supreme Court ducked a case concerning an attempt by a school board to keep biological boys and girls out of each others’ restrooms.

In that lawsuit arising from Gloucester High School in Virginia, the Supreme Court denied a petition for certiorari on this issue of forcing transgenderism on schools. That handed transgender activists a victory by leaving intact the Fourth Circuit ruling against the school board, which declared transgender conduct to be a new constitutional right and a Title IX federal right in schools.

Aided by desires to attract attention, hordes of children are declaring an interest in being transgender now. Last month it was reported that several 5th graders told their teacher that they wanted to become transgender, and when the teacher asked the Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital for advice its response was to affirm the behavior, without suggesting that the parents be informed.

What they are teaching in schools today is insane,” Trump declared Monday at a campaign stop in Davenport, Iowa. “I will bring parental rights back into our school system,” he vowed by promising to cut off federal funding to public schools that push the liberal agenda.

Trump and nearly all Republicans have denounced the unfairness about biological boys invading girls’ sports, shattering girls’ records, and sometimes even causing physical injury to girls in contact sports. More is at stake than merely the integrity of girls’ sports: transgender operations inflict lifelong harm on children, and no ethical consent can be given for that.

Banning biological boys from girls’ sports would stem some of the motivation, as competition in school sports is intense with pride and college scholarships hanging in the balance. Some parents whose boys are not good enough to win on a boys team may be just fine with trying to transform them into girls if it means trophies, championships, and scholarships will result.

Billions of taxpayer dollars are flowing to medical universities willing to take the money and perform operations and treatments, to acclaim by liberals who see this a way to accomplish goals that Phyllis Schlafly warned against 50 years ago. Social media applauds those on TikTok and elsewhere who announce with a dance video or photos that suddenly they self-identify with the opposite sex.

Conservative legislatures are slow to turn off the faucet, or fire hydrant, that is watering all this. The Republican Missouri state senate adjourned one day in disarray rather than debate legislation to stop encouraging this harmful gender dysphoria in children.

A Canadian physician who was a leader on transgender treatments decades ago admits now that it was a mistake. “We were wrong,” Dr. Susan Bradley recently announced.

They’re not as irreversible as we always thought, and they have longer term effects on kids’ growth and development, including making them sterile and quite a number of things affecting their bone growth,” she added. “I had this skepticism in the back of my mind all the time that maybe we were actually colluding and not helping” the children who wanted to switch genders.

Republicans are in a majority in most state legislatures, which are convening now but many will adjourn this spring for the year or, as in Texas, adjourn for two years. Last year Texas Republicans transferred $105 million to the Texas Child Mental Health Consortium, which partly funds promotion of transgenderism in schoolchildren.

Legislation is being considered now in Texas to ban transgender procedures on children, as South Dakota enacted and Gov. Kristi Noem signed. Last week West Virginia, which reportedly has more transgender youths than any state, passed a bill banning transgender procedures on kids, but its governor has not yet said whether he’ll sign it into law.

These good state laws are immediately challenged in federal court by the well-funded transgender movement. Trump has the best record of any politician in making strong judicial appointments, which are needed now more than ever.

John and Andy Schlafly are sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016) and lead the continuing Phyllis Schlafly Eagles organizations with writing and policy work.

These columns are also posted on PhyllisSchlafly.com, pseagles.com, and Townhall.com.

Tuesday, March 7, 2023

Trump KOs GOP Globalists

The Phyllis Schlafly Report
By John and Andy Schlafly

Last weekend featured dueling political conferences, one flush with cash from globalists hoping that Trump's rival speech would be treated akin to George Washington's Farewell Address. It was wishful thinking by Never-Trumpers, as instead Trump retook control of the GOP.

Trump's nearly 2-hour speech at CPAC, which for many years has been the largest annual grassroots conservative gathering, was astounding for his vigor and enthusiasm. He called for an end of the unsuccessful influence on the Republican Party by the Bush family, Karl Rove, and Paul Ryan, who drove the party into the ground until Trump rejuvenated it.

"This is the final battle," Trump declared to the roaring crowd gathered for him in Maryland, just outside of D.C., even though that is not Republican territory. Trump then rattled off an array of hot-button issues that form the political agenda for ordinary Americans through the presidential election next year.

The contrast between Trump and the worn-out ideas of his media-pandering rivals could not be greater. The hedge fund bosses and phony free traders who assembled at The Breakers, the posh hotel in Palm Beach, Florida, are not the crowd who will be picking the next president or electing candidates down-ballot, and it was a mistake for Trump’s rivals to see that as a path to the White House.

Ironically, it was Trump who gave any prominence to the candidates who seek to replace him as the Republican nominee for president, and their lack of gratitude to him is reason enough to prefer Trump. Nikki Haley was appointed Ambassador to the United Nations by Trump, and she was heckled by conservatives at CPAC after turning against him.

In 2018, Trump propelled Ron DeSantis to the gubernatorial nomination over a better known rival in Florida, where he won reelection in 2022 while finishing second overall in votes to its Trump-supporting Attorney General. DeSantis has not yet criticized Trump publicly, but in his 40-minute speech to globalists compared some Republicans to “potted plants” for allowing Leftists to frame the debate.

That criticism cannot apply to Trump, who relishes a good fight. DeSantis appears to be imitating Trump’s style without giving him credit.

Both Haley and DeSantis are traveling to Iowa, which remains the first contest on the Republican side and thus will set the tone for the primaries that follow. Trump enjoys enormous support among Republican officials in the early primary states, and he met with state leaders from Nevada while his rivals were auditioning before globalists.

Failed former Congressman David McIntosh and his Globalist friends at Club for No Growth, who fought me all the way in 2016, and LOST, and then fought me again in 2020 Senate Races in Ohio, Alabama, North Carolina, New Hampshire, plus more, and LOST AGAIN, are now threatening to spend money against me,” Trump boomed. “No Growth Members know there will be RETRIBUTION!!!”, Trump added.

Trump is right about the Club for Growth, formerly led by Pat Toomey who was one of the few Senators to vote in support of the vindictive second impeachment of President Trump. Toomey then left the Senate and became a director of Apollo Global Management, a private equity firm profiting from globalism and from the notorious “carried interest” tax loophole that Trump tried to end but Toomey was an “all star” in preserving, a lobbyist told Bloomberg.

Club for Growth has lost many elections, and its campaign spending is too small to have any real influence. It spends less than half of 1% of the overall expenditures each election cycle, and Trump refers to it as “The Club For NO Growth, an assemblage of political misfits, globalists, and losers.”

Trump’s landslide victory in the straw poll at CPAC amassed three times as many votes as the distant runner-up Ron DeSantis, and was Trump’s record-setting sixth victory in that poll. That doubles the career victories by President Ronald Reagan in that same poll, and exceeds the four victories by the last GOP presidential nominee prior to Trump, Mitt Romney.

Trump's speech was reminiscent of the Declaration of Independence in listing the grievances of the American People against the globalists who have run our country into the ground. Even the New York Times appears to agree with Trump in warning against further entanglement by the United States in the NATO war in Ukraine.

Steve Bannon quipped about the rivals to Trump, “We don't have time for on-the-job training.” Trump’s rivals look like the seven dwarfs compared with Trump, and just imagine how much he can accomplish in a second term without anti-Trumpers like Ryan and Toomey on Capitol Hill.

Like General Douglas MacArthur vowing to return and then doing so to liberate the Philippines during World War II, Trump will return to the White House to finish the job he started.

John and Andy Schlafly are sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016) and lead the continuing Phyllis Schlafly Eagles organizations with writing and policy work.

These columns are also posted on PhyllisSchlafly.com, pseagles.com, and Townhall.com.