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September 2020

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There is something very wrong with some in the top ranks of America’s military By Andrea Widburg

By on September 10th, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/09/there_is_something_very_wrong_with_some_in_the_top_ranks_of_americas_military.html

With Bob Woodward’s anti-Trump book about to be published, the media is focusing entirely on the easily debunked claim that Trump mishandled the Wuhan virus by “lying” to the American people. What the media is ignoring, however, is a much more serious claim, which is that former Secretary of Defense General James Mattis plotted to overthrow Trump and his administration. This fact, if true, supports my long-time fear about the damage Obama inflicted on the upper echelons of the Pentagon.

The Conservative Treehouse caught the Mattis item:

According to a pre-release excerpt from the Washington Post Bob Woodward writes about a discussion between General James Mattis and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats about a plot to overthrow the elected government of the United States.

[snip]

What do you call a conversation between the Defense Secretary and the head of the U.S. intelligence apparatus where they are talking about taking “collective action” to remove an elected President?  That’s called sedition…. A seditious conspiracy.

It began to be clear last October that the Obama administration (with some help from Bill Clinton’s presidency) had seeded the Pentagon with leftist generals whose allegiance was to the Deep State, to cultural leftism, and to the infamous and profitable “military industrial complex” that Eisenhower warned about in 1961.

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Even Fauci can’t tolerate Bob Woodward’s lies about Trump and COVID By Andrea Widburg

By on September 10th, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/09/even_fauci_cant_tolerate_bob_woodwards_lies_about_trump_and_covid.html

A conservative friend of mine called me in some distress. Her elderly parents, who are politically conservative, are voting for Biden because they think that Trump mishandled the Wuhan virus. Democrats are targeting this demographic – aged people who still reasonably fear getting infected — which is why they’re trumpeting Bob Woodward’s claim that Trump lied about the virus and that people therefore died unnecessarily. The allegation, though, is false and needs to be debunked hard and fast.

The Democrat’s current problem is that the Wuhan virus is receding, which decreases people’s sense of panic, an emotion that Democrats have been using to help position Biden as the “safe” choice. Although people are still getting infected, they’re younger, so the mortality rate has plummeted.

When it comes to the elderly, who are the most vulnerable, states such as New York, New Jersey, Michigan, and Pennsylvania have already killed them thanks to the policy of forcibly introducing infected patients into nursing homes. Other states protected their elderly and are steadily getting better at treating them, limiting their chances of dying.

The people who are getting infected now are younger people who have almost no chance of dying from the Wuhan virus – and for those unfortunate enough to get seriously ill, again, we know better how to treat them. Additionally, it appears that the body will repair the damage that the virus causes to people’s hearts and lungs.

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MOVIES AND TELEVISION Comments turned off

The Coming Backlash to the Oscars’ Diversity Mandate By Kyle Smith

By on September 10th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/09/the-coming-backlash-to-the-oscars-diversity-mandate/

Far from appeasing the hashtag activists, the Oscars have merely announced that the quota wars have begun.

I t’s easy to make fun of the Oscars’ new set of diversity requirements: Are we going to have to watch Lieutenant Colonel Anne Hathaway tossing grenades at Jerry in the next WWI movie? In the media, the initial response has been to gush praise for this “landmark,” “watershed” moment in which the Academy Awards have mandated hiring quotas for any film that wishes to be eligible for Best Picture (but not any of the other awards).

In about ten seconds, I predict, the Left is going to be furious. “We’ve been had,” they’ll surely scream. Let’s look at the details.

In order to qualify for Best Picture consideration, films will have to meet two out of four specified criteria. The first is the showiest but also the silliest, calling for diversity in casting and themes; it’s unworkable if you’re starting, as do a great many Oscar contenders, with an established historical record. You can’t pretend that Ford v. Ferrari or The Irishman was about minorities or women or gay liberation or handicapped people. Most producers of top-quality films will simply laugh off that top-line requirement and try to hit two of the other three. Which won’t be that hard.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Standing Up for Freedom . . . By Jay Nordlinger Prague’s Mayor Zdenek Hrib

By on September 10th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/09/prague-mayor-zdenek-hrib-stands-for-freedom/

Vaclav Havel was the leading dissident in Communist Czechoslovakia, and the first president after the Fall of the Wall. All over the world, he became a byword for freedom, democracy, and human rights. There is still a Havel tradition in the Czech Republic, even if it is not the dominant one.

Havelians, if you will, traveled to Taiwan last week, in a show of support for that brave, beleaguered democracy. Communist China was very unhappy. The trip was a “despicable act,” said a Chinese foreign-ministry spokesman. The foreign minister himself, Wang Yi, said that the delegation’s leader — Milos Vystrcil, president of the Czech senate — would “pay a heavy price.”

A second foreign-ministry spokesman, however, pointed out that the Czech government had “distanced” itself from Vystrcil and his delegation. They did not “represent the government’s policy,” said the spokesman — and he was absolutely right.

The Czech president, Milos Zeman, is a warm supporter of the Chinese government, and of the Russian government as well. This shows the split in Czech society (and Europe more broadly). I will have more to say about Zeman, Xi Jinping, and Vladimir Putin in due course.

Zeman said that the senate president had engaged in a “childish provocation.” He further said that the senate president would be excluded from any further foreign-policy briefings by the government.

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Seoul Cracks Down on Dissent Against North Korea Seeking accommodation, the government audits human-rights groups and seeks to outlaw speech. By Joshua Stanton and Sung-Yoon Lee

By on September 10th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/seoul-cracks-down-on-dissent-against-north-korea-11599693108?mod=opinion_lead_pos9

South Korea is the second-greatest threat to human rights on the Korean Peninsula. President Moon Jae-in ordered a crackdown in July on activists protesting North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un’s crimes against humanity. South Korea’s national police have undertaken politically driven audits of more than 100 human-rights organizations, and the president is pushing for new laws to criminalize speech.

Mr. Moon has staked his legacy on improving relations with Pyongyang, but in practice that’s meant taking cues from its vicious dictatorship. On June 4, Kim Jong Un’s sister Kim Yo Jong denounced South Koreans who use balloons to send leaflets across the demilitarized zone. Calling them “human scum” and “mongrel dogs,” Ms. Kim demanded that Seoul “make a law to stop the farce.” Hours later, Seoul said it would ban the leaflet campaigns. Police raided activists’ offices, and the Unification Ministry, which oversees relations with North Korea, revoked the operating licenses of two organizations.

Mr. Moon has also used Korea’s illiberal “criminal defamation” law, under which truth is no defense. He has filed at least 10 defamation lawsuits, personally or through surrogates, against opponents during his political career, including three in April 2017, the month before he was elected and took office. Since then, lawmakers from his party have demanded that Google Korea take down political commentaries they deem “fake news” and used tax probes to target opponents. Police have even investigated campus posters parodying Mr. Moon’s policies.

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EDUCATION Comments turned off

Cornell faculty-student group demands racial quotas, criticizes ‘colorblind’ practices Sam Dorman

By on September 10th, 2020

https://www.foxnews.com/us/cornell-faculty-student-group-demands-racial-quotas-criticizes-colorblind-practices

The group also wants to prevent undergraduate admissions from being based on SAT/ACT scores.

Dozens of Cornell University faculty, staff, students, and alumni signed onto a letter attacking “colorblind” practices, insisting that the university institute racial quotas and recruit “clusters” of non-White individuals.

The letter, published Monday, launches into a long list of immediate and long-term demands after accusing the Ivy League university of “symbolic” efforts in response to racism.

“As an institution Cornell aspires to the highest principles of civic duty,” the letter reads. “Yet every ‘colorblind’ event, mechanism, and process at the university — from new faculty orientations to selection of endowed positions — perpetuates racial disparities and reinforces an unjust status quo.”

To remedy that, the letter proposes setting benchmarks for the proportion of trustees and faculty of color.

“Increase representation of Black faculty to 7 percent in 2025 and to 10 percent in 2030,” the demand reads.

“Increase representation of other faculty of color to 20 percent in 2025 and 25 percent in 2030, in line with the percentage of new PhDs conferred in the US. Create benchmarks for increasing BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, and People of Color] faculty in those departments and disciplines with the most severe underrepresentation.”

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