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Ruth King

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

A New Nuclear Deal with Iran? by Peter Huessy

By on October 29th, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16702/iran-new-nuclear-deal

How then can the United States get around the Iranian regime’s adamant opposition to any restrictions on its nuclear or missile ambitions and secure a sound nuclear deal?

Even if the United States secured a new nuclear agreement with Iran, or resuscitated the old one, what makes anyone think that Iran would honor a deal any more than it honored the last ones?

Given the seriousness of these issues and the lack of trust in the mullahs, all provisions must not have “sunset clauses” but be permanent.

Even if these six factors may now make it possible to give “diplomacy a chance,” it might be advisable only to try that route if it is reinforced with resolute military force.

The JCPOA it is not only a fraud, it is camouflage for the appeasers of the world to pretend they are doing something about Iran’s nuclear ambitions when in fact they are not doing anything but allowing Iran, after a short delay, to have nuclear weapons…. The mullahs will not change on their own. Diplomatic options are poor and unrealistic.

The JCPOA deal not only fails to stop Iran from having a nuclear weapons and the missiles to deliver them, it also hides Western inaction in confronting Iran’s missiles, nuclear sites and terrorism.

Both US contenders of the presidency, the incumbent Donald J. Trump and the challenger, former Vice-President Joe Biden, have indicated that no matter what the election results are around November 3, they intend to negotiate with Iran. Even if the United States secured a new nuclear agreement with Iran, or resuscitated the old one, what makes anyone think that Iran would honor a deal any more than it honored the last ones?

US choices seem to come down to : (1) keeping the current JCPOA, a seriously deficient semi-agreement that, contrary to what was promised by the Obama administration — that it would prevent Iran from having a nuclear bomb, instead leads straight to Iran’s having as many as it would like; or (2) pin US hopes on a wholesale campaign of diplomatic, political, and economic sanctions against Iran in the hope that Iran might secure an internally generated revolution and overthrow the mullah’s regime.

There are those who say that the current nuclear deal is the best option for the United States. They assert without a doubt that going back to the JCPOA will bring Iran into complete compliance with a non-nuclear future. One adherent of such an approach is apparently former Vice President Joe Biden, with whom the Iranians say, understandably to judge from his financial track record, they would rather “do business.”

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Irony of American History and Russian Disinformation by Chris Farrell

By on October 29th, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16704/russian-disinformation

One must also consider the “arguments” about the “evidence” of Russian disinformation. First off, we have unending “investigations” by various bodies and persons who are not qualified to investigate a price check at Wal-Mart. Here, I speak of persons like Adam Schiff or the members and staff of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Second, we have the “tv experts.” These folks are usually the former heads of the agencies and departments that are actually guilty of the subversion and sedition that got us to this point. Think of John Brennan giving his expert opinion on the innocence and honor of James Comey. When any of these characters (and paid CNN contributors) invokes Russian disinformation (usually quoting each other), you know they are lying. Period.

Of course, anyone who asks questions about any of the logical disconnects and fallacies of any alleged Russian disinformation campaign must be on Putin’s payroll. Ask a question? Sure “comrade,” go ahead!

It is terribly important to be reminded of all these things just a few days before the election. You should go to your polling place in-person and “vote angry.” You’ve been lied to – savagely – for nearly four years. Go ahead and take your electoral revenge.

We have been subjected to four years of large parts of the US government shrieking about Russia and the threats posed by that country to the safety of our republic. How did so many miss their own serial treasons, in concert with the Soviet and Russian governments, dating back to 1917? Let us refresh our recollections of how so many Americans reframed history and disinformation. Some of the following may be “lost history” to you, but that is okay, because we definitely need some reminders before election day.

FDR himself personally schmoozed Soviet Commissar for Foreign Affairs Maxim Litvinov in the White House and acknowledged the USSR diplomatically for no US advantage whatsoever in November of 1933. When Litvinov returned to his embassy from the White House, he openly mocked FDR’s naïveté and gullibility to his staff.

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EDUCATION Comments turned off

Waking to the Woke Northwestern University’s president takes a commendable hard line against student rioting—but he helped create the climate for the destructive behavior.Heather Mac Donald

By on October 29th, 2020

https://www.city-journal.org/northwestern-univ-president-schapiro-stands-up-to-rioters

Since June, a group of Northwestern University students has demanded that the school disband its campus police force and sever ties with the Evanston, Illinois police department. On Saturday, October 17, their protests became unruly. Members of NU Community Not Cops (NUCNC) sprayed anti-cop graffiti on private and public property, broke a window at the local Whole Foods market, set at least one trash can on fire, and burned a school banner. The following Monday, Northwestern’s president denounced the violence in the most unequivocal of terms—and was himself promptly denounced as a racist for having done so. But the president, Morton Schapiro, to his enormous credit, has neither apologized nor backed down on his refusal to abolish the campus police department.

The Northwestern episode is doubly instructive. Schapiro is one of the most woke college presidents in the country. Yet he has done something that almost no Democratic politician or progressive opinion leader has dared do with such forcefulness: draw a bright line between Black Lives Matter protests and violence. Had Democratic presidential and vice presidential candidates Joe Biden and Kamala Harris been as unhesitating in their condemnations of this year’s murderous race riots, the country might have avoided the worst of the anarchy.

But Schapiro is to a considerable extent the architect of his own problems. Over the last several years, he has pandered to the maudlin identity politics that lead students at the most prestigious colleges in the country to think of themselves as oppressed. The ongoing conflict at Northwestern should remind college presidents everywhere that they feed the beast of adolescent narcissism and self-pity at their peril.

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ELECTIONS Comments turned off

50 Things a Biden Presidency Would Mean for America Worse than the zombie apocalypse? Don Feder

By on October 29th, 2020

Below are The Top 50 Reasons Why a Biden Presidency Would Be Worse Than The Zombie Apocalypse:

Another lockdown – Which will Kevorkian what’s left of the economy.
 
Amnesties and other incentives for illegal immigration – Joe promised another amnesty bill in his first 100 days to satisfy the urgent need for more Democrat voters. No border wall, ICE defunded, sanctuary cities subsidized.
 
Back to the era of bad trade deals – Give away the store to get it done. Joe understands trade, based on his vast business experience.
 
Biden Care – “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor” – not. Six-month delays for routine tests. Why should Canadians have all the fun?
 
Black Lives Matter — in charge of combating white privilege and institutional racism with quotas, reparations and looting.
 
Biden’s Cabinet — Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, Secretary of State Illhan Omar, Secretary of Commerce Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Secretary of the Treasury Bernie Sanders.
 

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ELECTIONS Comments turned off

5 More COVID Charts Democrats — And The Press — Don’t Want You To See

By on October 29th, 2020

https://issuesinsights.com/2020/10/29/5-more-covid-charts-democrats-and-the-press-dont-want-you-to-see/

When coronavirus cases started spiking in June, Democrats and the press treated it as a fresh sign that President Donald Trump had failed to contain the disease.

“There are now about 30,000 new cases per day in the United States, about 10 times higher than the roughly 3,000 new cases per day in the European Union,” noted one outlet.

“Experts from Europe have criticized a series of failings in the U.S., which they said had left Americans exposed to infection while in Europe, as lockdown eases, infection remains low,” reported another.

Joe Biden emerged from his bunker in the summer long enough to declare that “while other nations took steps to get control over COVID-19, Trump took no responsibility.”

So how do Joe and company explain the fact that coronavirus cases are now exploding in Europe at rates far higher than the U.S., that the share of positive test results is higher in Europe, as is the case fatality rate?

“There’s no question that the European region is an epicenter for disease right now,” said the World Health Organization’s Dr. Michael Ryan. “Right now we are well behind this virus in Europe so getting ahead of it is going to take some serious acceleration in what we do.”

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MEDIA Comments turned off

The New York Times’s “Anonymous” is an insignificant pipsqueak By Andrea Widburg

By on October 29th, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/10/the_new_york_timess_anonymous_is_an_insignificant_pipsqueak.html

In 2018, the New York Times proudly published an anonymously written piece from a purported “senior official in the Trump administration,” knowing that this statement was a lie. “Anonymous” claimed that Trump was an idiot, but that a brave band of “senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda.” In fact, the author was Miles Taylor, a low-level functionary in DHS when he wrote the hit piece.

The anonymous article, published on Sept. 5, 2018, bore the lofty title, “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration: I work for the president but like-minded colleagues and I have vowed to thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.” As noted above, to give the piece heft, the New York Times claimed it came from a “senior official in the Trump administration.” We now know this statement was an outright lie, for the Times admitted that the author’s “identity is known to us.”

The article was a nauseating glue of arrogant piety and self-serving condescension. On the one hand, “Anonymous” insisted that he and others like him “want the administration to succeed,” and even agreed that “many of its policies have already made America safer and more prosperous.” Nevertheless, his brave little band of saboteurs loathed Trump and, no matter how effective he was, they were going to thwart him. It was paragraph after paragraph of smug, self-righteous glop.

In the two years since the article appeared, there’s been lots of speculation about who wrote it. CNN’s Chris Cillizza even wrote a lengthy piece on the subject, putting forward such people as then-Chief of Staff John Kelly, White House counsel Don McGahn, Defense Secretary James Mattis, and even Mike Pence and Melania Trump. Media hacks love to gossip. They still do. They can’t be bothered to investigate Joe Biden’s dirty dealings with the Chinese, but they’ll spend weeks canoodling with each other playing gossip guessing games.

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ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Vote for Joe Biden? Seriously? Biden is Bernie Sanders’s grim party in sheep’s clothing. Daniel Henninger

By on October 29th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/vote-for-joe-biden-seriously-11603926854?mod=opinion_lead_pos8

The 2020 presidential election has been defined by three events: the emergence of the coronavirus in March, the George Floyd protests after May 25, and Rep. Jim Clyburn’s endorsement in February of Joe Biden before the South Carolina primary. There has also been one major nonevent: the Biden presidential noncampaign.

A cold-weather resurgence of the virus in the upper Midwest and Plains States has put the pandemic in front of voters in the election’s final week, while the importance of the other two events in shaping the outcome has faded, especially the Clyburn coronation.

Forgotten by many voters is that back in mid-February, after losing in Iowa and New Hampshire, it looked as if former Vice President Biden’s listless campaign would become his third failed attempt at the presidency.

Mr. Biden had distinguished himself in the primary debates only by surviving them. Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the other moderate alternative to the progressive insurgency of Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, wasn’t gaining traction. Mike Bloomberg landed and left like an evening moth. In short, a path was opening for Vermont democratic socialist Bernie Sanders to secure the party’s nomination.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Masks Are a Distraction From the Pandemic Reality Viruses inevitably spread, and authorities have oversold face coverings as a preventive measure. By Joseph A. Ladapo , M.D.

By on October 29th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/masks-are-a-distraction-from-the-pandemic-reality-11603927026?mod=opinion_lead_pos6

Dr. Ladapo is an associate professor at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine.

A hallmark of Covid-19 pandemic policy has been the failure of political leaders and health officials to anticipate the unintended consequences of their actions. This tendency has haunted many decisions, from lockdowns that triggered enormous unemployment and increased alcohol and drug abuse, to school closures that are widening educational disparities between rich and poor families. Mask mandates may also have unintended consequences that outweigh the benefits.

First, consider how the debate has evolved and the underlying scientific evidence. Several randomized trials of community or household masking have been completed. Most have shown that wearing a mask has little or no effect on respiratory virus transmission, according to a review published earlier this year in Emerging Infectious Diseases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s journal. In March, when Anthony Fauci said, “wearing a mask might make people feel a little bit better” but “it’s not providing the perfect protection that people think it is,” his statement reflected scientific consensus, and was consistent with the World Health Organization’s guidance.

Almost overnight, the recommendations flipped. The reason? The risk of asymptomatic transmission. Health officials said mask mandates were now not only reasonable but critical. This is a weak rationale, given that presymptomatic spread of respiratory viruses isn’t a novel phenomenon in public health. Asymptomatic cases of influenza occur in up to a third of patients, according to a 2016 report in Emerging Infectious Diseases, and even more patients had mild cases that are never diagnosed. Asymptomatic or mild cases appear to contribute more to Covid-19 transmission, but this happens in flu cases, too, though no one has called for mask mandates during flu season.

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ELECTIONS Comments turned off

The Bidens and Tony Bobulinski Joe owes the public a response about the family’s business.

By on October 29th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-bidens-and-tony-bobulinski-11603927190?mod=opinion_lead_pos3

Joe Biden is asking voters to elect him on the strength of his character, honesty and judgment. Which is why Mr. Biden owes a response to new allegations about his son Hunter’s business deals.

Tony Bobulinski on Tuesday sat with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson to provide details of a 2016-17 business venture involving Hunter, Jim Biden (Joe’s brother), and CEFC China Energy, a conglomerate tied to the Chinese government. Mr. Bobulinski, a Navy veteran and financier, was recruited by Hunter and associates to serve as CEO, and the interview shed more light on hundreds of emails and documents he recently made public

Mr. Bobulinski said that in 2017 he twice met with former Vice President Joe Biden, as part of a Biden family effort at “wining and dining” him to “take on the CEO role.” He pointed to documents in which Hunter and others refer to Joe’s involvement in the deal, including an email from Hunter partner James Gilliar that proposed the “big guy” get 10% of the company equity, held in Hunter’s name. Mr. Bobulinski says “the big guy” is Joe. He also related a conversation in which he said Jim Biden said the answer to questions about Biden family involvement with foreign entities was “plausible deniability.”

Mr. Bobulinski sounded credible. He said he wants to clear his name of accusations that he was a tool of foreign election-meddlers, and he repeatedly declined opportunities to speculate or get partisan. He said he felt a duty to American citizens “to go on record and define the facts for them and let them do their own work, let them decide how they view those facts or not.”

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ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Logic of Trump: Let Us Count The Reasons

By on October 29th, 2020

https://www.nysun.com/national/logic-of-trump-let-us-count-the-reasons/91317/

It is a squeeze to reduce the number of logically indisputable reasons why President Trump should be reelected to a single column, but I will attempt it. Reelection is the only way of restoring the conditions that Mr. Trump created that eliminated unemployment prior to the onset of the COVID-19 crisis.

This, coupled to his near-elimination of illegal immigration (against fierce Democratic resistance), generated greater percentage income growth amongst the lowest 20% of income-earners than among the top 10% — a noteworthy start on addressing the universal income-disparity problem.

Only a Trump victory would ensure retention of the present relatively low personal and corporate income-tax rates and the avoidance of insane, highly damaging, and counterproductive shutdowns in cowardly terror of the coronavirus, which only mortally threatens 1% of the population, who can be isolated and protected.

Only a Trump victory would prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear military power within five years and North Korea from resuming its missile tests over Japan and South Korea. There are no grounds for confidence that the Democrats would maintain a firm but not belligerent economic and strategic containment strategy towards China, coordinated with India, Japan, South Korea, and other key allies in south and east Asia and Australasia.

We know that if Mr. Trump were defeated, the country would be subjected not just to the self-flagellating provisions of the Paris Climate Accord, but also to the $100 trillion Green Terror assault on the petroleum industry and a bone-cracking rise in electricity costs after closing gas-fired electricity plants.

The Democrats remain committed to giving the Palestine Liberation Organization and Hamas a veto over any resolution of their conflict with Israel, and since they do not accept the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state, that would ensure continued stagnation, attrition, and terrorism, financed by a newly enabled Iran. The Trump strategy is steadily lining up the support of the Arab states in favor of a comprehensive solution that would give Palestine a modest state and a great economic incentive for peace, and security at least for Israel.

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