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April 2020

Whittaker Chambers through the Eyes of Rebecca West By Peter Baehr *****

https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2020/04/20/whittaker-chambers-through-the-eyes-of-rebecca-west/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_

West understood more clearly than anyone the allure of Communism for educated Westerners

Bolshevism’s appeal to Western intellectuals is a mystery we still struggle to explain. Why did artists who despised patriotism show a larger loyalty to Russian chauvinism? Why did writers defend a regime that repeatedly imprisoned, tortured, and killed writers? In short, why did intelligent people who lived in free countries worship at the altar of despotic states? Few thinkers studied this enigma more carefully than the British critic Rebecca West (1892–1983).

That is not an achievement we associate with her name. Rebecca West is more likely to be recalled for The Return of the Soldier (1918), an innovative psychological novel; or for Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (1941), that grand bio-travelogue of Yugoslavia on the cusp of war. Her reports on the Nuremberg trials, and the post-war trials of British fascists, also continue to find readers, especially among students of journalism. West’s writings on Communism, by contrast, lie unread, unsung. Many of them sparked controversy in her own day, and are well worth revisiting in ours.

In articles, book chapters, and book reviews spanning six decades, she returned to the allure of Communism for educated Westerners. (Its attraction for militant members of the industrial working class was no real puzzle, she said, not least because Marxism deified the proletariat.) Reviewing the second volume of Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago for the Sunday Telegraph, West bitterly recalled that “25 years ago a large part of the Western European and American population of intellectuals were, with disgusting single-mindedness, pimping for Stalin.”

We Still Are Not Controlling the Borders By Kevin D. Williamson

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/04/trump-administration-border-security-us-borders-still-not-under-control/

Another American murdered by an illegal immigrant, despite Trump’s promises to end this kind of crime.

D onald Trump rose to political power waving the bloody shirt of Kate Steinle, who was shot and killed by an illegal immigrant from Mexico, one who already had been convicted of a raft of felonies and deported five times. Donald Trump promised he would put a stop to that.

He hasn’t.

The outrage over Steinle’s death was understandable — and, worse, the man who killed her, José Inez García Zárate, was acquitted of murder and manslaughter charges and, incredibly enough, even (on appeal) of the charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm, though he indisputably 1) is a felon, and 2) was in possession of a gun at the time he shot it and killed Kathryn Steinle. Expect to hear a good deal less about the death of 16-year-old Franklin Mercado, who was stabbed to death in what police believe was a gang retaliation and dumped in a park in Dallas.

Among those charged in his death is 25-year-old Jonathan Alexander Gonzalez-Rosales, a gangster from El Salvador, a member of something the U.S. government designates a “transnational criminal organization,” illegally present in the United States, known to law enforcement, and under a removal order.

See if you can spot the weak link: In 2017, Gonzalez-Rosales appeared in a San Antonio court on unrelated charges and came to the attention of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO). They filed an “immigration detainer” and issued him a notice to appear. He was released from ICE custody in February 2018 after posting bond, and his hearing was set for July. Of course, he did not show up for his hearing. Of course, the authorities lost track of him. Of course, nothing was done until he had murdered a 16-year-old.

He was picked up Tuesday in Dallas on the murder warrant. He’ll be in ICE custody until he is turned over to Dallas. In theory, he will be deported after the murder case is resolved. Don’t be surprised if he is right back in the middle of another mess on our side of the border.   DON’T BOTHER READING THE REST OF WILLIAMSON’S UNREGENERATE BASHING OF DONALD TRUMP

Joe Biden and the End of Tolerance By John Hirschauer

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/04/joe-biden-lgbt-agenda-end-of-tolerance/

Joe Biden’s ‘Plan to Advance LGBTQ+ Equality’ signals the end of tolerance and the beginning of something else.

Joe Biden’s recently released “Plan to Advance LGBTQ+ Equality” is a collection of ideas, gestures, and slogans that the former vice president (or his handlers) hopes will “advance” the amorphous cause of “equality” for the “LGBTQ+ community.” The plan talks a lot about “equality” — Biden promises, variously, to “resume the march for equality,” support “equality and inclusion,” and “champion global equality” — without once defining what he means by “equality,” or how society at large is supposed to know when we have achieved it.

One of the highlighted sections in the Biden proposal is the former vice president’s pledge to ensure that “the discriminatory lifetime ban on blood donation” for gay men — a ban he claims is “based on stigma” — remains lifted, and promises to implement “regulations [that] are based on science.” The Obama administration first moved to lift the lifetime ban on homosexual blood donation in 2015, and the Trump administration loosened regulations even further, recently dispensing with guidelines that required men to abstain from homosexual sex for at least one year in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Biden never engages with the facts that begot the ban in the first place, namely, that gay men, despite comprising roughly two percent of the American population, make up nearly 70 percent of the national HIV caseload. Since post-donation blood tests occasionally fail to detect the presence of HIV, disqualifying would-be donors who have engaged in homosexual sex was a prudential measure designed to protect the recipients of donated blood.

Another Reporter Masks Affiliation With Chinese Propaganda During Presidential Briefing By Petr Svab

https://www.theepochtimes.com/another-reporter-masks-affiliation-with-chinese-propaganda-during-presidential-briefing_3305588.html

For the second time, a reporter working for a media controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) failed to disclose this affiliation when prompted by President Donald Trump during his daily press briefing on the CCP virus epidemic.

After Trump prompted the reporter, Ching-Yi Chang, to state his question, Trump asked him where he’s from, seemingly inquiring about the outlet Chang was associated with.

Chang responded he’s from Taiwan.

While that is where he was born, he works for Shanghai Media Group, a company owned by the Chinese regime.

This is the second time in the past several days a reporter from an outlet controlled by the CCP has attended the briefings and was less than forthright about his or her affiliation.

On April 6, a similar incident happened with Youyou Wang, a reporter with Phoenix TV.

Trump Was Right, Cuomo Was Wrong About Ventilator Needs By Mollie Hemingway

https://thefederalist.com/2020/04/08/trump-was-right-cuomo-was-wrong-about-ventilator-needs/
The media treated Cuomo’s claims of needing 30,000 ventilators as legitimate, and the Trump administration’s competing claims as dubious.

President Donald Trump was pilloried by the media for questioning whether New York would actually need 30,000 additional ventilators or 40,000 ventilators total as claimed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in late March. New models from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation show that New York already reached its peak projected ventilator usage on April 8, with a projected need of 5,008. The actual use may have been even lower.

As of press time, no media outlets revisited their reporting on the matter.

Who Is WHO Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus? By Jeff Reynolds

https://pjmedia.com/trending/who-is-who-director-tedros-adhanom-ghebreyesus/

As calls mount demanding the Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) resign, one might be forgiven for asking: Who is the head of the WHO? Where did Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus come from, and what qualifies him to lead the WHO?

As WHO continues to respond to the global coronavirus pandemic that originated in Wuhan, China, the agency has faced increased criticism for its coddling of the communist Xi Xinpeng regime. Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, has had particularly harsh criticism for WHO:

Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has also joined the chorus, retweeting President Trump’s speculation that the U.S. should reexamine its funding of the WHO:

Many have questioned why the WHO has repeatedly praised China’s response to the pandemic it caused. The director, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has come under increased scrutiny not only for his questionable response to the pandemic itself, but also for his background, which could go a long way toward explaining why he seems so sympathetic to communist China.

Ocasio-Cortez Faces Well-Financed Challenger in June Democratic Primary By Stephen Green

https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/ocasio-cortez-faces-well-financed-challenger-in-june-democratic-primary/

Is it time for AOC to make way for MCC in the Battle Royale of Dueling Hyphenated Congresscritters?

CNBC anchor Michelle Caruso-Cabrera filed to run against sitting Democratic Congresscritter and onetime bartender Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez back in February, and will soon report to the Federal Election Commission just how well-heeled her campaign really is. A New York Post story claims that Caruso-Cabrera “will report having $800,00 in cash on hand — minus expenses paid” when she files with the FEC later this month. It’s safe to conclude that with more than two months to go before the primary vote, Caruso-Cabrera is already a million-dollar candidate.

Word broke yesterday that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is reportedly planning to endorse Caruso-Cabrera, probably because they don’t want to be the first with their backs up against the wall after AOC’s glorious people’s revolution. Scott Reed, senior political strategist at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said, “Michelle is one of the most qualified and competent candidates we have met with this cycle.” He’s pledged to use the Chamber’s considerable networking heft to keep the donations flowing into MCC’s coffer. Caruso-Cabrera presents herself as a moderate, pro-business Democrat in the Clinton (Bill, not Hill) mold.

The CDC Confesses to Lying About COVID-19 Death Numbers Matthew Vadum

www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/04/the_cdc_confesses_to_lying_about_covid19_death_numbers.html

Can any government statistics on COVID-19 deaths be trusted?

It is an open question now that we are learning that the highly respected, world-class Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been lying to us.

This revelation comes a few days after I wrote here at American Thinker that New York City was lying about COVID-19 deaths.  The normal rules about reporting deaths have been violated by that city in the rush to inflate the body count, presumably to steer more taxpayer money to the Big Apple.

That the CDC isn’t telling the truth to Americans is no conspiracy theory:  it’s right out there in the open for everyone to see.  The CDC openly admits that it is fudging the COVID-19 death figures.

We know this because, among other truth-tellers, a plainspoken small-town physician from Kalispell, Montana, has pulled back the curtain.

Dr. Annie Bukacek, MD, explained in a presentation how death certificates are made.  (See “Montana physician Dr. Annie Bukacek discusses how COVID-19 death certificates are being manipulated,” YouTube, April 6)

Why should anyone care how a certificate of death is made?

AG Bill Barr: Media On A “Jihad” To Discredit Trump And Hydroxychloroquine By Ian Schwartz

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2020/04/09/ag_bill_barr_media_on_a_jihad_to_

In an interview with FNC’s Laura Ingraham, Attorney General Bill Barr said when the 30-day quarantine period ends we must “consider alternative ways of protecting people” that will ensure civil liberties are balanced properly. He stated that the coronavirus response is not an excuse for “broad deprivations of liberty.” Barr also spoke about his concern about the Bill Gates Foundation initiative to tag people who have been cleared of the coronavirus.

“I think we have to be very careful to make sure… that the draconian measures that are being adopted are fully justified, and there are not alternative ways of protecting people,” Barr said Wednesday. “And I think, you know, when this – when this period of time is — at the end of April expires, I think we have to allow people to adapt more than we have and not just tell people to go home and hide under the bed, but allow them to use other ways – social distancing and other means – to protect themselves.”

Barr criticized the media for going on a “jihad” against President Trump to discredit the use of hydroxychloroquine.

Shahid Mahallati: “Temporary” Plant for Manufacturing Nuclear Weapon Cores by David Albright, Sarah Burkhard, and Frank Pabian

Summary

Based on documents in the Iran Nuclear Archive, seized by Israel in early 2018, Iran’s Amad Plan created the Shahid Mahallati Uranium Metals Workshop near Tehran to research and develop uranium metallurgy related to building nuclear weapons. Figure 1 shows this site as it looked in 2002 and 2003, when an existing workshop was renovated and brought into operation. The facility was intended as a pilot plant, aimed at developing and making uranium components for nuclear weapons, in particular components from weapon-grade uranium, the key nuclear explosive material in Iranian nuclear weapon cores. The site was meant to be temporary, until the production-scale Shahid Boroujerdi facility at Parchin was completed.1 However, the Shahid Mahallati facility was capable of making the first cores of weapon-grade uranium, in case Shahid Boroujerdi was unfinished when weapon-grade uranium would have had become available.

The sidebar shows the Amad Plan’s pathway to nuclear weapons, based on information in the Nuclear Archive. Highlighted is the role of Shahid Mahallati in that process of making nuclear weapons.

The Amad Plan was downsized in late 2003 before this plant processed any weapon-grade uranium, although it did process a considerable amount of a non-uranium surrogate material into weapon components. The use of a surrogate material allowed Iran’s nuclear weapons program to learn and practice the fabrication of key nuclear weapon components.

Analysis of commercial satellite imagery confirms the location of the Shahid Mahallati site based on comparison with exterior ground photos, and a chronology of the site’s status is included in this report. The key building of the site, the uranium metals workshop, was apparently gutted and abandoned between late 2010 and early 2011. This action may have been triggered by the Western discovery and exposure in late 2009 of the secret, deeply buried Fordow enrichment plant, formerly called the Al Ghadir project under the Amad Plan (see sidebar).