Townhall Review | Commentaries

We now know that the California Democrat Rep. Eric Swalwell is being investigated for his intimate relations with a Chinese spy.

The initial report came from Axios last week—but we’re sure to learn more as details emerge.

To speak in blunt terms: Rep. Swalwell got caught with his hand in a honeypot. He should resign immediately. If he does not resign immediately, Speaker Pelosi should demand that he resign his position on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

One of the key accomplishments of the Trump administration was getting real about China—with the help of Secretary of State Pompeo and the National Security Advisor, the President awakened the nation to the very serious threat from the Chinese Communist Party.

We ought to do all we can to press back against the appeasers and more so against those who are compromised.

Swalwell, I should note, spent years downplaying the China threat and hyping a Russia collusion hoax.

We now know that the California democrat himself was compromised. We have indications that he was not the only one.

He should resign immediately.

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The NASDAQ has gone woke. The stock exchange where investors can trade shares of mostly tech companies has put forward a set of rules that—if approved—will put arbitrary identity politics quotas on all the companies traded on their platform.

Those quotas could include having two board members who “self-identify” as women or as LGBT … or as part of an “underrepresented minority.”

The truth is no minority is more underrepresented in big tech than conservatives. Woke capital is obsessed with sexual and racial minorities. But not viewpoints minorities such as conservatives. Actual diversity does not matter to them. Identity politics comes first, always.

In addition to being a stock exchange, NASDAQ is also a publicly-traded company itself. That means that it, too, is beholden to its shareholders. Maybe it’s time for those shareholders to get involved and demand an explanation for a decision which will likely drive customers to the competition.

I’m Jerry Bowyer.

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Earlier this week, Joe Biden announced that he is appointing Xavier Becerra to become the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

The news brings more clearly into focus what we can now expect from a Biden administration. We were told in advance, now we’re seeing it come into focus.

Xavier Becerra is currently the Attorney General of California and he is far to the left.

It would be hard to create, even in imagination, a nominee for this kind of position who would be of deeper concern to anyone who’s pro-life or pro-marriage or pro-religious liberty.

Given what we know right now of Xavier Becerra, there is no reason whatsoever, not one shred of evidence or hope, that he would not do everything within his power to try to advance the left’s agenda—and at an absolute cost to religious liberty rights.

After all, that’s how he has functioned as Attorney General of California.

The Becerra potential is a clear signal of the worldview clashes that await us under a Biden administration.

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Operation Warp Speed—the Trump Administration’s aggressive program pushing for a vaccine for COVID-19—is on the cusp of success.

We know the vaccines work—and without serious side effects.

Now: Everyone’s got to get it. We need 70-80 percent of America vaccinated to have herd immunity in the country.

Operation Warp Speed is a triumph of science and logistics without parallel. It may be the greatest achievement of the Trump administration.

President Trump gets credit for the Abraham Accords, which have changed the face of the Middle East. He gets credit for the American awakening to the threat from the Chinese Communist Party. He gets credit for three Supreme Court justices and 54 appeals court judges. He gets credit for the greatest economic recovery in history and he gets credit for massive deregulation.

But Operation Warp Speed is probably Trump’s greatest achievement.

It’s reasonable to hope and believe that by March we’ll be at herd immunity in the United States.

It’s great news for a pandemic-weary nation and world.

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According to a new report, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secretly met with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. The significance of this is hard to overstate: it may very well lead to the normalization of relations between Israel and the Saudis—the next phase of the Abraham Accords.

The meeting was brokered by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, one of the leaders of the Middle East peace process—and was only possible due to the Administration’s openness to Israel and firm stance towards Iran.

After the undeniable success of the Trump-Pence-Pompeo Middle East strategy, Biden has picked Jake Sullivan as his National Security Advisor—a leader in appeasing Iran in the Obama administration. It’s a clear signal that Biden intends to return to the failed foreign policy of the Obama years.

The Middle East is an absolutely vital region. It would be dangerous for the Biden administration to turn back.

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It’s easy to dismiss the upcoming Senate elections in Georgia as just another vote to decide two more seats in Congress—and that, ultimately, it may not be all that consequential. I’m sure some of our fellow Americans—and more than a few Georgians—wonder what the point of voting is at all, especially given the outcome of the recent presidential elections.

But I’d urge those Georgians with doubts or who wonder if their vote matters to recognize that the upcoming elections in their state do, indeed, matter. A lot.

An unconstrained left means a move toward socialized medicine, the Green New Deal, and much higher taxes for many Americans. The only way that can be stopped is if Georgia voters cast their ballots—either by mail or in person—in the upcoming runoff elections for the US Senate. Your voices will matter, and your votes will be consequential.

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to make a real difference for all Americans.

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The Supreme Court’s recent ruling on religious liberty was a flashpoint—revealing much about our cultural moment.

A large number of leading voices on the left have condemned the ruling. But liberals in the United States used to defend the First Amendment and religious liberty.

Why not so much now?

The short answer is the LGBTQ revolution.

And it comes down to this: None of the rights related to the sexual revolution are enumerated—that is, explicitly guaranteed in the Constitution. Religious liberty, you note, is.

And the Supreme Court has sent a signal this it is not going to just willingly go along with the moral revolutionaries. The Court has not reversed the revolution, but it has at least put itself in the way.

And to its credit, it has at least said so, and said so boldly: Religious liberty is right there in the Constitution: It’s in the text.

Deal with it.

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We’ve just witnessed a big win in the courts for the sanctity of human life.

The decision came from a federal appeals court for the sixth circuit where the court upheld a Tennessee law signed into effect by Governor Bill Lee just this summer.

The legislation was a so-called “reason ban” on abortion, where abortion was declared illegal in the state of Tennessee—if that abortion was to be sought for certain reasons.

Those reasons include seeking an abortion for gender selection and also for the elimination of babies diagnosed with Down’s syndrome.

This is more interesting and more important than many people will realize by looking at a headline, or even reading an article—because the pro-abortion movement has been arguing from the beginning that reasons don’t matter.

They’re absolute zealots for abortion but Tennesseans said otherwise. And the courts recognized their right to do so.

It’s a reminder again for us that elections and the federal courts matter. Sometimes, in matters of life and death.

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Members of the legacy media and the political class keep repeating the mantra “follow the science” by which they mean extended shutdowns and canceled family holidays.

The problem is that epidemiology is not the only science. Economics is a science too, and it deserves its place at the table. While some sectors are recovering quite quickly, many people at the bottom of the income ladder are being devastated financially by this great suppression.

Virology is important, but so is psychology. Loneliness, addiction, suicide, already distressingly high are getting a big boost by lock-down mania. Mental health is part of public health too—and also deserves to be counted.

Follow the science should mean balancing the sciences—including the social sciences.

Reasonable precautions are one thing, broad bans against family gatherings aren’t planning, they’re pandemonium. Family is part of our social immune system.

We dare not sacrifice it in the name of merely physical health.

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An extremely important ruling and defense of religious liberty was handed down the day before Thanksgiving by the Supreme Court of the United States. It was a five-four ruling in defense of the Roman Catholic diocese of Brooklyn, and also a Jewish congregation, but it's not just a win for those two religious bodies. It's a win for religious liberty coast to coast.

For the first time in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Supreme Court of the United States by that five-four majority said, this has gone on too long and government has overstepped. It's gone too far. And in defense of religious liberty, the court handed down a preliminary injunction. This is very different than how the Supreme Court has handled these issues since the beginning of the pandemic and this will send a very clear signal.

But just do the math, five-four. And note this, three of the five justices in defense of religious liberty, three of the five were nominated to the court by President Donald Trump. And they were confirmed by a Senate with a Republican majority. Elections have consequences. And right now our focus, even as we celebrate this win for religious liberty, has to be on that special election in Georgia on the 5th of January. Elections have consequences. Yes. And just remember, that when for religious liberty was one of the consequences of previous elections. Now we understand what's at stake.

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