"Just when it looked like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) COVID management and messaging was going to get some long-overdue oversight, President Biden made a move to protect this gargantuan example of failed bureaucracy with a proposed $22 billion in new spending for the agency, doubling its budget. ...

The failure of the CDC to manage COVID-19 more effectively points to an endemic problem of bureaucracy -- namely, seeking to appear more relevant as a means to grow bigger. Over the last three decades, the CDC has de-emphasized its principal mission of protecting Americans from novel microbes and viruses that, if uncontrolled, can kill millions. Instead of modernizing its information systems, to choose but one example, the agency has sought a role in solving more high-profile social problems. Shamefully, it has encouraged a promiscuous use of the term 'epidemic' to describe conditions that its methodologies are powerless to affect, including racism, gun violence, child abuse, sex trafficking, opioid abuse, obesity and loneliness. The CDC won't be the agency that ends those crises, and trying to do so only distracts from its critical core mission.

The enormous infusion of funds headed to the CDC is part of the president's newly unveiled COVID National Preparedness Plan, a document that seems a little late in coming. With its publication, the White House spares the CDC critical examination of its performance. Rewarding failure, however, will surely result in an even less effective response to the next pandemic."

Read the entire article here.

"Steve Forbes, chairman and CEO of Forbes Media, outlined the 'basic things' President Biden should do to curb inflation amid the war between Russia and Ukraine.

"On 'Varney & Co.' Monday, Forbes argued that the first thing the administration should do is give 'a green light for U.S. oil & gas production, instead of this crazy war they're waging.'

'"We can increase production in the next few months by 1.5 million barrels a day, and that should be done,' he continued.

"Forbes made the comment as the Biden administration has faced increased criticism from both sides of the aisle in recent days for not taking more action to focus on American energy production in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which has disrupted energy markets worldwide."

Read the entire article here.

"Tesla CEO Elon Musk urged the United States to increase its oil and gas production following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, despite the negative impact on his company.

"'Hate to say it, but we need to increase oil & gas output immediately. Extraordinary times demand extraordinary measures,' Musk tweeted on Friday.

"'Obviously, this would negatively affect Tesla, but sustainable energy solutions simply cannot react instantaneously to make up for Russian oil & gas exports,' he added."

"There's no getting around it. The nation's electricity transmission system is growing increasingly undependable. Aging infrastructure, severe weather, and the rapid pivot away from baseload power to intermittent solar and wind are all contributing. Supply chain problems and local opposition to building new power lines and siting renewable projects are also turning into increasingly tall hurdles. Expectations of increased demand driven by electric vehicles are only compounding the challenge.

"The energy transition is happening but the question we must ask is how do we responsibly manage it? It's becoming apparent that the transition to renewables is vastly more difficult and complicated than some believed. Those who want to shut down every coal and natural gas plant ignore that fossil fuels supply 60% of America's electricity. There's growing alarm that America's haphazard approach to the energy transition is taking apart the existing grid and the reliable generating capacity that long underpinned it far faster than we're adding reliable alternatives. ...

"There remains an opportunity for an energy policy reset -- both at the state and federal levels -- to tackle this reliability and affordability crisis head on. First, we must recognize the need for dispatchable fuel diversity and fuel security. That must also include a commitment to increasing capacity reserve margins in electricity markets instead of letting them continue to shrink. As we grapple with the complexities of the energy transition and the challenges posed by integrating renewable power and building transmission infrastructure, we need a reliability and affordability insurance policy. The insurance we can provide is recognizing the value of the generating capacity we already have and the importance of dispatchable fuel diversity. Responsibly navigating the road ahead means building on the shoulders of our existing baseload capacity, not taking it apart."

Read the entire article here.

"Whether he is reporting news in cryptic sound bites on Twitter or speaking from a gloomy subterranean bunker or darkened streets, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky continues to demonstrate the enormous impact of harnessing powerful messages and sharing them with the right tone and authority.

"In addition to his undeniable bona fide leadership skills, Zelensky is also providing a master class in strategic communications. Political leaders across the globe could learn much from Zelensky's skillfully straightforward talk -- so different from the usual Washington partisan sniping or smoke-and-mirrors repartee we often seen. Zelensky's eloquence has not only captured the attention of the world, it has proven the catalyst to major policy shifts.

"'I need ammunition, not a ride,' was Zelensky's retort when the United States offered to evacuate him out of the capital as Russian forces descended on Kyiv. Politicians know the power of a quotable quip, but Zelensky mastered it like few before him, in part because there's seemingly nothing contrived about what he says. ...

"Zelensky's gripping videoconference with leaders of the European Union reportedly left many participants teary-eyed. Zelensky's passionate pleas hardened the resolve of previously reluctant countries -- such as Germany -- to move forward with crushing financial sanctions against Russia. And his candid admission that his call might be the last time any of them saw him alive hit home with force.

"In part due to Zelensky's actions, Europe has demonstrated the greatest show of unity in decades. Countries across the continent have collectively enacted the most far-reaching sanctions in history, as a direct result of Zelensky's candid pleas to help his countrymen uphold democracy.

"In other words, policy is being shaped in real time during a global crisis as the result of Zelensky's effective and authentic crisis communications."

Read the entire article here.

"[Y]ou can tell that Joe Biden thinks his presidency is going swimmingly. His words weren't defensive. They were triumphalist. He even seemed to promise he would bring the opioid epidemic to an end and, for good measure, would also end cancer 'as we know it.'

"The immodesty of these ambitions, as we stumble out of the COVID era into an uncertain future in which the dollars in our pocket are worth less every week while Europe faces a continental war and a potential refugee flood of colossal size, had a somewhat delusional aspect.

"We're in an unprecedented crisis abroad, following our unprecedented health crisis over the past two years and an inflationary spiral we haven't seen the like of in four decades.

"Maybe we should, you know, focus on those things."

Read the entire article here.

"Free-world financial sanctions are hitting Russia hard, but the best long-term way to pull Vladimir Putin's teeth remains more rational energy policies, in the United States and across the West.

"The ruble tanked Monday, and Russia's stock market didn't even open. All in reaction to the far tougher sanctions the West announced Sunday -- drastic measures inspired by the brutality of Putin's invasion and Ukriane's heroic resistance.

"Yet it's not enough: Putin's regime gets much of the wealth that funds its military from energy sales. And he uses energy as a weapon, blackmailing Europe in particular. ...

"But America needs to do its part. That means abandoning Democrats' short-sighted efforts to strangle the US energy sector, which is producing 1.2 million fewer barrels a day in oil than it did at peak under the last president.

"As Steve Moore notes for The Post, with oil at $100 a barrel, that's $120 million in lost US income every day.

"It also leaves us importing from Russia -- and forced to turn to also-tyrannical regimes in Venezuela or Iran if we boycott the warmonger."

Read the entire article here.

"Vladimir Putin just achieved the impossible: genuine European unity.

"The Russian president's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine has united Europe and the transatlantic sphere like nothing since the fall of the Berlin Wall, as even his erstwhile allies on the Continent abandoned him over the weekend.

"From Sofia to Stockholm, Europe's internal divisions over how to react to Putin's aggression have melted away in recent days as the historic dimensions of the invasion -- the greatest challenge to the West's security architecture in decades -- sank in.

"As images of Russian tanks rolling over the Ukrainian border and families huddled in subway stations filled the airwaves, concerns in national capitals about the local impact of tougher measures, such as barring Russian banks from SWIFT (a linchpin of the global interbank payment infrastructure), gave way to a shared resolve to do whatever it takes to halt Putin in his tracks. ...

"Even as events in Ukraine force the West to question its own strategic and political shibboleths, it is the man who set it all in motion who is likely to experience the rudest awakening. Putin clearly believed he could drive a wedge through Europe with the invasion -- as he has done with success on other fronts over the years.

"But this time, instead of dividing and ruling, the Russian leader has inadvertently created the greatest challenge to his hegemony he has ever faced -- a united Continent."

Read the entire article here.

"The Western sanctions response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine is already wobbling.

"In an uncertain press conference performance, President Joe Biden refused to announce sanctions on Vladimir Putin's person and failed to answer repeated questions as to why he was not doing so.

"Concerned about U.S. energy prices, Biden also pledged that new sanctions would not target the Russian energy industry. Yet, considering that the Russian energy industry is the overwhelming centerpiece of its economy, Biden's decision to shield that industry from sanctions represents a huge win for Putin. The undeniable link between Biden's heavy regulation of domestic energy production and foreign policy weakness is on full display. Biden's publicly emphasized desire to shield Russian energy interests will also encourage Putin to unleash his semi-deniable cyberoffensive actors against the U.S. energy industry.

"That wasn't the only problem with Biden's statement."

Read the entire article here.

"Vladimir Putin has declared WAR on Ukraine and unleashed his terrifying arsenal with a full scale assault on the country - plunging Europe into a bloody new crisis.

"The tyrant declared a 'special military operation' in Ukraine with a dawn raid after months of amassing his forces on the border and brazenly lying to the world about his plans to invade.

"The world is waking up to what could the most horrific crisis since World War 2 as Putin seeks to tear down the world order."