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Ruth King

John Oliver and Israel’s ‘War Crimes’ Late-night’s useful idiot. Hugh Fitzgerald

John Oliver is the host of the late-night talk-show “Last Week Tonight.” On May 12, after two days of fighting between Hamas and Israel — the war started with a volley of 140 rockets that Hamas, in Gaza, launched against Israel — Oliver delivered his thoughts on the conflict. He came down hard on Israel. Yuval Yoaz reports on Oliver’s palpable want of sympathy for the Jewish State here: “What John Oliver doesn’t get about the war in Gaza,” Times of Israel, May 21, 2021:

“There is a lot to unpack there,” John Oliver began his opening monologue of “Last Week Tonight” last Sunday, where he sharply criticized Israel for its crushing airstrikes on Gaza strip. “From the use of the phrase ‘tit for tat’ war in a conflict in which one side has suffered over 10 times the casualties, something that speaks to the severe power imbalance that played here.” Oliver’s conclusion: this”severe power imbalance“ often “gets obscured by how we choose to talk about it.”

Oliver is, of course, free to criticize Israel, and, although he himself attests to the great difficulty in judging “the latest chapter in a long story you haven’t read” regarding the conflict in the Middle East, he is also free to draw conclusions and formulate a moral position. But Oliver should do this with the same standard he sets for others. Specifically, he’d better avoid obscuring essential facts in the way he chooses to talk about them.

The prism through which Oliver observes the latest flare-up between Israel and Hamas is that of power disparity. Israel has a strong and sophisticated army, fighter jets, and missile defense systems; Hamas does not. This much is true — there are huge, undeniable gaps in military power between Israel and Hamas.

In fact, the common notion is that these gaps are the exact reason the State of Israel exists: had it not built from the ground up a stronger army force than those of its enemies in the region, it is likely that it would have been erased from the map long ago.

University Denies 1619 Project Creator Hannah-Jones Immediate Tenure Why University of North Carolina trustees made the right decision. Joseph Klein

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/05/university-denies-1619-project-creator-hannah-joseph-klein/

The University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill (UNC) declined to approve Nikole Hannah-Jones for a tenured teaching position immediately. She is the prominent New York Times investigative journalist who created the controversial 1619 Project. UNC offered Hannah-Jones instead a fixed five-year contract to teach at its prestigious Hussman School of Journalism and Media as “Professor of the Practice,” which she accepted, with the prospect of future tenure consideration. UNC’s Board of Trustees made the right call by declining to offer Hannah-Jones a tenured professorship for now. Aside from Hannah-Jones’ lack of academic experience, she has shown herself to be ethically challenged as a journalist.

Hannah-Jones was not cancelled from teaching at UNC. She still is eligible for a future tenured position after review of her teaching and academic research record at the university. Nevertheless, there was outrage on and off campus at the cancelling of Hannah-Jones’ hopes for immediate tenure.

The Raleigh-Apex NAACP issued a statement saying the decision not to approve immediate tenure for Hannah-Jones is a “real case of cancel culture.” Faculty members and student government leaders wrote letters of protest.

The faculty letter claimed that the failure to offer Hannah-Jones tenure “unfairly moves the goalposts and violates long-standing norms and established processes relating to tenure and promotion at UNC Chapel Hill.” The student letter stated: “We cannot stand by as our University routinely diminishes and undercuts marginalized and BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, and people of color] voices in academia in an effort to bend toward partisan pressures rooted in a fear of America’s historical truths.”

Over three dozen students, faculty and community members protested as the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees was meeting on May 20th. Some of the signs they held said “Abolish the BOT,” “#BlackHistoryMatters,” “#BlackWomenMatter,” “Nikole Hannah Jones is all of us,” and “UNC = Klan University lovers of racist ignorance!!”

Over 200 academics, journalists, and celebrities published a letter on May 25th condemning the failure to grant immediate tenure to Hannah-Jones. “The University’s Board of Trustees has failed to uphold the first order values of academic freedom and the free exchange of ideas,” the letter said. 

Biden Frees Al Qaeda Ally Who Plotted to Smuggle Nukes Into US Why settle for helping Iran nuke America, when you can also help Al Qaeda nuke America? Daniel Greenfield

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/05/biden-frees-al-qaeda-ally-who-plotted-smuggle-daniel-greenfield/

With inflation rising almost as fast as gas prices and the cost of a home, Joe Biden ain’t doing much for most Americans. But if you’re an Al Qaeda terrorist, he’s got your back.

Just ask three of Gitmo’s finest who are benefiting from Biden’s generosity.

Saifullah Paracha (pictured above) was a Pakistani businessman and New York travel agent with some big plans. The Gitmo inmate now being set loose by Biden wanted to “do something big against the US.”

9/11 was in Al Qaeda’s rearview mirror and its mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, was plotting a sequel. The Gitmo dossier for Paracha first details a plan to use his “textile business to smuggle explosives into the US” and these “ready-made explosives, specifically C4” would go into shipping containers full of “women and children’s clothing”.

Shipping Al Qaeda’s C4 to America would be more lucrative than dumping sweatshop labor sweatpants because “if al-Qaida used detainee’s textile company for shipping explosives to the US, he would likely be paid additional money beyond the standard shipping fees”. No word on whether there would have been a bonus for every American blown up.

And then things escalated from there with testimony that Paracha allegedly claimed that he, “believed he could obtain unspecified chemicals from Chinese sources”. The fellow he was talking to about the unspecified chemicals, Ammar al-Baluchi, one of the few Gitmo Jihadis whom neither Obama nor Biden had managed to release yet, had helped out the 9/11 hijackers with flight simulators, and manuals, and allegedly chatted with Mohammed Atta.

After 9/11, Al-Baluchi was looking at all sorts of plans for crashing planes into things, like the American consulate in Karachi or London’s Heathrow airport, but there were other options on the table. The nature of the chemicals out of China was never specified, but the KSM lieutenant believed they were” chemical or biological agents” that could be used “as a weapon”.

Paracha reportedly advised Al Qaeda that “one should look for a similar looking chemical and put it in between the good chemicals and it would be very easy to get [through] customs.” With his business experience, he could offer Al Qaeda tips on smuggling such as warning them about the “radiological sensors at ports or places of entry into the US” that would make it difficult to smuggle radioactive materials into the country”.

But Biden’s newest charity case wanted something bigger. The dossier describes the 9/11 mastermind’s associate and Paracha chatting about Al Qaeda getting some “radiological or nuclear items several times” because Paracha wanted “to help al-Qaida ‘do something big against the US.’”

Paracha “also discussed nuclear attacks and attacks against nuclear power plants” and had an idea for “al-Qaida to attack a nuclear power plant”.

Locked and Woke: America’s Largest Defense Contractor Subjects Executives to Racist Reeducation By Bryan Preston

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/bryan-preston/2021/05/26/locked-and-woke-americas-largest-defense-contractor-subjects-executives-to-racist-reeducation-n1450010

Lockheed is the largest defense contractor the United States has. It’s the chief contractor on the F-35 Lightning fighter program. It builds and maintains much of the arsenal of our republic, and even builds advanced scientific systems such as the Hubble Space Telescope.

It is now another woke capture in corporate America, according to documents leaked to investigative reporter Christopher Rufo.

Last year, Lockheed Martin Corporation, the nation’s largest defense contractor, sent white male executives to a three-day diversity-training program aimed at deconstructing their “white male culture” and encouraging them to atone for their “white male privilege,” according to documents I have obtained.

The program, hosted on Zoom for a cohort of 13 Lockheed employees, was led by the diversity-consulting firm White Men As Full Diversity Partners, which specializes in helping white males “awaken together.” The Lockheed employees, all senior leaders in the company, included Aaron Huckaby, director of global supply chain operations; retired Air Force lieutenant colonel David Starr, director of the Hercules C-130 military transport program; retired Air Force lieutenant general Bruce Litchfield, vice president of sustainment operations; and Glenn Woods, vice president of production for the Air Force’s $1.7 trillion F-35 fighter jet program. (Lockheed Martin did not return request for comment.)

Perhaps this is among the reasons the F-35 is wasting so much taxpayer money. The company that makes it is not focused on its mission.

The same company that led the Lockheed training, White Men As Full Diversity Partners, also led similar racial training at the sensitive Sandia National Labs according to Rufo.

Is this company systematically targeting America’s defense contractors for its divisive racial trainings? Congress must investigate.

But with the Democrats in charge, Congress will do nothing.

Biden Administration Denies GOP Lawmakers Access to Border Facility By Caroline Downey

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/biden-administration-denies-gop-lawmakers-access-to-border-facility/?utm_source=

The Biden administration denied a group of 12 Republican lawmakers access to a DEA migrant facility in El Paso, Texas Tuesday.

The GOP members were restricted from entering the El Paso Intelligence Center, Fox News reported, despite making multiple attempts. The Republican delegation said that by blocking access the Biden administration was preventing them from fulfilling their “constitutional duty to have oversight over these facilities that are paid for by taxpayer dollars.”

“All I can say is, I don’t know what they have to hide,” Representative Brian Babin remarked. “For some reason, we were not allowed in. I can only imagine what is it that they want to hide and not show the very representatives of the American people that have oversight over this facility that fund it and that authorize it. What don’t they want us to see?”

One legislator claimed the administration was trying to obstruct data regarding the severity of the border crisis created by the massive influx of migrants entering the country over the last few months.

“This is not something we surprised them with,” Representative Mike Garcia commented. “We’ve been trying to get in there for a couple of weeks and it’s coming from the top. It’s coming from the White House. They don’t want us to see what it is. You can make a conjecture about why they won’t let us in there. In my opinion, they have data they are gathering at this intelligence center which clearly indicates that our open borders are actually a more serious than the average American understands right now.”

Another congresswoman said that Biden is barring the group entry to obscure  information about the government’s initiatives to combat drug cartels.

“I would have liked to have the opportunity to visit with the FBI and the agents there to learn more about what the drug cartels are doing and what strategy we’re employing to stop them,” Representative Vicky Hartzler said, “but we were denied the opportunity.”

A Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent stationed at the El Paso location told Fox News that U.S.-Mexico border experienced a surge in drug smuggler crossings in March and suggested that border officials are worried the situation could worsen.

Four House Dems Label ‘Squad’ Statements on Israel ‘Antisemitic at Their Core’ By Zachary Evans

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/four-house-dems-label-squad-statements-on-israel-antisemitic-at-their-core/?utm_source=

Four House Democrats condemned their colleagues on both sides of the aisle for fueling anti-Semitism in an open letter on Tuesday.

“We . . . reject comments from Members of Congress accusing Israel of being an ‘apartheid state’ and committing ‘act[s] of terrorism,’” read a letter signed by Representatives Josh Gottheimer (D., N.J.) Elaine Luria (D., Va.), Kathy Manning (D., N.C.), and Dean Phillips (D., Minn.). “These statements are antisemitic at their core and contribute to a climate that is hostile to many Jews.”

The letter added, “Sadly, we have learned from our history that when this type of violence and inflammatory rhetoric goes unaddressed, it can fuel increasing hatred and violence, and lead to unspeakable acts against Jews.”

Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.), Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.), and Cori Bush (D., Mo.) have referred to Israel as an “apartheid” state. Representative Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) referred to “Israeli air strikes killing civilians in Gaza” as “an act of terrorism” during last week’s fighting between Israel and Palestinian armed groups in the Gaza strip.

After pro-Palestinian demonstrators attacked Jews in New York last week, Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter that “we will never, ever tolerate antisemitism” in the city “or in the world.”

“The recent surge in attacks is horrifying. We stand with our Jewish communities in condemning this violence,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote.

The Tuesday letter also condemned Representative Marjorie Talyor-Greene (R., Ga.), who compared a Tennessee grocery store’s rule requiring employees to display their vaccination status to the requirement for Jews to wear a yellow star during Germany’s Nazi period.

“”[E]lected officials have used reckless, irresponsible antisemitic rhetoric,” the letter states. “These include repeated, unacceptable, and blatantly antisemitic statements made by a Member of Congress comparing facemasks and other COVID-19 public health measures to ‘what happened in Nazi Germany’ during the Holocaust.”

Pompeo Slams Biden’s Shut-Down of Lab-Leak Probe: ‘They Haven’t Lifted a Finger’ By Jimmy Quinn

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/05/pompeo-slams-bidens-shut-down-of-lab-leak-probe-they-havent-lifted-a-finger/

EXCLUSIVE: The former secretary of state fires back amid reports that the Biden State Department cut short a coronavirus-origin investigation he once led.

F ormer secretary of state Mike Pompeo blasted the Biden administration’s efforts to date to get to the bottom of the coronavirus pandemic’s origins, amid reports that the current State Department had ended an inquiry from his watch concerning the possibility of the so-called lab-leak theory.

“They haven’t lifted a finger, as I understand it,” he told National Review in an interview on Wednesday, regarding the U.S. government’s efforts to investigate the COVID-19 pandemic’s origin. “They haven’t even raised it with Xi Jinping, and I don’t know that it was raised when National-Security Adviser Sullivan and Secretary Blinken were in Anchorage. I don’t know that they laid down their demands, nor do I know if they told them in the case that you don’t comply with these demands, here are the costs we’re going to impose on you.”

The former secretary of state’s comments came amid an extraordinary about-face concerning the lab-leak theory of COVID’s origins by major media outlets, Democratic officials, and others who previously had dismissed it. This culminated in an announcement by President Biden on Wednesday afternoon calling for the intelligence community to further investigate and report back within 90 days, noting that community has “‘coalesced around two likely scenarios’ but has not reached a definitive conclusion on this question.” This followed acknowledgement of the plausibility of the lab theory in recent days by Dr. Anthony Fauci, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, and a number of other key officials.

The Biden administration has never denied the findings of a January 15 fact sheet issued by the Trump administration claiming that researchers at a Wuhan lab came down with respiratory illnesses in 2019 and that the facility hosted military research. Officials have, however, kept a cool distance from these revelations, and some even alleged that the Trump administration had, in issuing the fact sheet, “put spin on the ball.”

With support for investigating the plausibility of a leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology now growing, Pompeo suggested it was strange that others had not joined him in raising this possibility in the past. Specifically, he said that top Democratic officials likely had access to the intelligence on which he based his May 2020 claim that a lab-leak origin was supported by “enormous evidence.”

On Election Fraud, The Media Are Repeating Their Wuhan Lab Fiasco

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/05/27/media-repeats-wuhan-lab-fiasco-with-its-election-fraud-coverage/

Remember how, until just this week, anyone who suggested that COVID-19 originated in a Chinese lab was called a Trump-style conspiracy nut? Well, the mainstream media is treating election fraud the exact same way.

Soon after Sen. Tim Cotton said that COVID-19 might have originated in a Wuhan lab, the media pounced.  The Washington Post accused Sen. Tim Cotton of repeating an already “debunked” coronavirus “conspiracy theory.”  Anyone who brought it up got similar treatment.

USA Today called the lab theory a “myth.” The New York Times called it a “fringe theory.” Others called it “baseless.” Fact-checking site Politico said the claim that COVID originated in a lab “is inaccurate and ridiculous. We rate it Pants on Fire!”

Just two months ago, ABC News ran a story headlined: “Sorry, conspiracy theorists. Study concludes COVID-19 ‘is not a laboratory construct’”.

And just days ago, Forbes ran a story declaring that “Science Clearly Shows That COVID-19 Wasn’t Leaked From A Wuhan Lab.”

But now reporters are all furiously backpedaling as the idea that the virus originated in a lab has suddenly gained credibility in the wake of new revelations. Politico even retracted its bogus “fact check.”

Leftist reporter Matthew Yglesias took the time to trace how the media came to decide in lockstep that any claim of a lab leak was a lie, and concluded that the press coverage over the past year was “a huge f—up.”

This revelation of media malpractice, by the way, comes shortly after the press got caught peddling a bogus story that Russia was paying bounties to Taliban who killed U.S. soldiers, and widespread reporting that Capitol Building “rioters” killed Officer Brian Sicknick during the melee.

Yet even as the press grudgingly admits that it horribly mishandled the Wuhan lab leak story and in the process needlessly besmirched those who brought it up,  these same outlets are playing the same game with the election fraud story.

As with the lab leak theory, we have been told repeatedly that there is no evidence to back it up. We’re told that court cases alleging election fraud were dismissed. We’re told, as with the Wuhan lab story, that the experts all agree that there’s no truth to election fraud claims. And we’re told that anyone who suggests fraud took place in the November 2020 elections is a Trump-loving conspiracy nut.

No Lux at Yale By John W. Childs

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2021/05/26/no_lux_145831.html

The fathers of Yale University, founded more than three centuries ago, chose as their motto Lux et Veritas – “Light and Truth.” Well, it looks like the Lux just went out at Yale. And Veritas? We’ll come back to that later. 

It seems that the Yale Corporation has just learned what successful communist regimes have always known: free speech and free elections are dangerous to the establishment. 

In recent years, the board of this venerable institution has been governed largely by . . . Yale University. Typically, Yale handpicks its slate of candidates. However, a token exception in the rules has permitted alumni to petition the university to nominate a candidate for the slate. It’s a rigorous process, requiring so many alumni signatures – more than 4,000 this round – that few made it onto the ballot.  

In the 2021 elections, such a candidate was Victor Ashe, Class of 1967. Ashe, a former mayor of Knoxville, Tennessee, and ambassador to Poland, is something of a conservative – and, horrors, a known donor to Republican political campaigns. He was supported by alumni committed not only to him but also to fielding independent candidates in future years. Ambassador Ashe managed to win enough support to make it onto the official slate. 

Enough of Fauci’s lies!: By Miranda Devine

https://nypost.com/2021/05/26/enough-of-faucis-lies-devine/

Dr. Anthony Fauci was absolutely adamant that the National Institutes of Health has never funded dangerous research on bat viruses in the Chinese lab suspected of being the source of the COVID-19 pandemic, when he was questioned by Republican Sen. Rand Paul two weeks ago. 

“Senator Paul, with all due respect, you are entirely and completely incorrect that the NIH has not ever and does not now fund ‘gain of function’ research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” Fauci said in the fiery Senate hearing on May 11. 

He couldn’t have been more certain. 

Until he wasn’t certain a few hours later. 

That very afternoon, Fauci admitted to “a very minor collaboration as part of a subcontract of a grant we had a collaboration with some Chinese scientists,” during an appearance at Poynter.org’s “festival of fact checking.” 

It’s like being a little bit pregnant. The NIH either funded so-called gain-of-function research to juice up bat coronaviruses in China, or it didn’t. Turns out it did. And it did it by exploiting a loophole in an Obama-administration ban on the Frankenstein research put in place in 2014. 

Fauci’s defensive answer at the Poynter event this month was in response to a mild-enough question about the coronavirus: “Are you still confident that it developed naturally.” 

Rattled by the morning’s confrontation with Sen. Paul, Fauci for the first time admitted he was not at all confident the virus had ­developed naturally and maybe, just maybe, it could have come from a lab leak. But he still tried to have the last word against Paul.