Commentary

In today's political discourse, conversations about saving our nation and its future are increasingly common. Key issues such as border security, increasing crime, economic stability, and rising inflation dominate headlines.

Joe Biden polls at or below 40 percent approval. Historically, such unpopularity has made it almost impossible for a president to be reelected. His age advances by the hour. His voice falters, his memory fades, and his gait is reduced to short steps, with his arms, winglike and in tandem, offering balance.

In previous years, people might have missed the irony. But not now—not after the meteoric rise of women's basketball. When the WNBA champs visited the White House last week, reporters didn't cover it out of obligation. They covered it because it was a real story. And President Joe Biden's betrayal of girls sports only made it more of one.

With "Teacher Appreciation Week" now behind us, it's crucial that we pay close heed to the well-being of the students, and the news is not good. Gen Z-ers and the newest crop—Generation Alpha—are struggling, and schools are the focal point of the problem. A new report from Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation surveyed more than 1,000 Gen Z students between the ages of 12 and 18 and found that just 48 percent of those enrolled in middle or high school felt motivated to go to school. Only half said they do something interesting in school every day. On a similar note, a new EdChoice survey reveals that 64 percent of teens said that school is boring, and 30 percent feel that it is a waste of time.

Telehealth has become a health care gamechanger for tens of millions of Americans. We all know the time and effort an in-person health visit takes – travel to the appointment, time off work, hours spent in an office, follow ups that require us to do the whole process over again. But telehealth expansion in the post-COVID world has changed everything.

Panic mode is setting in for President Joe Biden and his struggling 2024 reelection bid as poll after poll shows Biden consistently trailing in swing states and nationally as albatross consumer inflation continues to outpace incomes for millions of Americans. A nationwide Financial Times-Michigan Ross poll taken May 2 to May 6 found a whopping 58 percent of registered voters disapproved of Biden’s handling of the economy. Only 28 percent approved.

When former Soviet KGB agent Yuri Bezmenov defected to the West from Russia, he set about exposing the strategies used within the KGB to spread propaganda and keep the Soviet people in line with the agenda of their political overlords. There were myriad tactics employed in this campaign of what today has been labeled mis- or dis-information. One of the most effective tools for subjugation in the former Soviet Union was known as "demoralization," which Bezmenov explained this way:

Mere days after Columbia's president testified the university was doing "everything it can" against antisemitism, extremist protestors took over the campus, threatening and attacking Jewish students, encouraging others to become "martyrs" like the Hamas terrorists who committed the Oct. 7 massacre, and calling for Oct. 7 to become "every day" for Jews worldwide. After Jewish community leaders called for Jewish students to leave Columbia, President Shafik moved all classes online. Now, similar antisemitic extremism is spreading to other campuses, including Harvard, the University of Southern California, Yale, and Princeton. The police are getting involved. The protests are being praised by Iran's Ayatollah and even Hamas.

Americans can be forgiven for suffering from whiplash regarding law and order. In recent weeks the Biden administration and many news outlets, including USA Today and The Hill, have touted declines in violent crime statistics to argue that America is becoming a safer place.

A few days ago, in examining Harvard’s problems and the ghost of its deposed and disgraced former president Claudine Gay, this column wrote: “Education is supposed to be about reading, writing, and arithmetic—even at the college level. Once upon a time, and not that long ago, students at college read the classics to gain knowledge, learned to write stylish prose, and, for those scientifically minded, studied mathematics and became scientists.” A critic wrote in—as readers are encouraged to do: This is a window onto a big topic. It’s true that education is about the three Rs. But it is also true that there must be a purpose to learning those Rs. There’s actually nothing formally, and technically, wrong with “Educating students who will create . . . a more just and equitable world.” The real question is, What are justice & equity? They would like it to mean taking our stuff and giving it to other people, after keeping their share. But, to paraphrase the Grinch, Justice, perhaps, means a little bit more . . . . In any case, without a sense of purpose, or with a misdirected sense of purpose, the University will never right itself. And as this is the largest questing of Meaning, it is really a religious question that, having turned their backs on religion, they are utterly incapable of engaging, let alone answering.

Recently, Democrats at both federal and state levels have passed or are considering regulations that will grant government health coverage to illegal residents. Bad move for both illegals and legal residents.

None of the five civil and criminal cases currently lodged against former President Donald Trump have ever had merit. They were all predicated on using the law to injure his re-election candidacy—given a widespread derangement syndrome among the left and a fear they cannot entrust a Trump/Biden election to the people. These criminal and civil trials are merely the continuation of extra-legal efforts of the last eight years to destroy a presidential candidate in lieu of opposing him in transparent elections.

It’s no secret that there’s a divide between urban and rural communities in America right now. Whether it’s the proclamation of “white rural rage” or stereotypes of uneducated country dwellers, rural communities are often misunderstood. But just like urban life has its ups and downs, country living has its own advantages, values, traditions, and lifestyles we can learn from.

President Biden’s 2025 budget proposal provides a salient reminder that he is no moderate, despite his attempts to position himself as one.

Monday, a week ago, Holocaust Day was marked by solemn remembrances in Israel and in Jewish communities around the world. It was marked in the U.S., as has been customary, by a presidential address, where Biden said nothing that would garner more than perfunctory notice. Turns out that that was by design. For Biden had already approved a decision that gives cheer to the shade of Hitler and all his modern wanna-be-s — embargoing any arms to Israel that would allow them to keep Hamas from surviving intact and reasserting its plan for death to Israel.