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Ruth King

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Administering ‘Truth’ in our Schools By Janet Levy

By on October 24th, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/10/administering_truth_in_our_schools.html

In George Orwell’s novel 1984, the Ministry of Truth is responsible for falsifying historical events and advancing government-approved versions of the ‘truth,’ such as ‘2 + 2 = 5’ and ‘War is peace.’ The ministry, the propaganda wing of the government of Oceania, one of the fictional superstates in the novel, uses ‘doublethink’ and ‘newspeak’ to obscure, distort or even reverse the meaning of words.

That was a fictional dystopia. But a few current examples will leave no doubt that the Orwellian manufacture of ‘truth’ is very much a salient feature of the American educational system.

Last week, the Palm Beach County School Board, FL,  voted four to three to reinstate William Latson, a former principal of the Spanish River Community High School, Boca Raton, who had emailed a parent: “I can’t say the Holocaust is a factual, historical event because I am not in a position to do so as a school district employee.” His dismissal of  the most well-documented genocide in history, and in a school with the largest Jewish student population in the country at that, caused shockwaves and resulted in his suspension.

In 1994, the Florida Legislature passed the Holocaust Education Bill (SB 660), mandating  lessons of the Holocaust to be part of the public-school curriculum. It said the Holocaust must be taught as “a uniquely important event in modern history, emphasizing the systemic and state-sponsored violence, which distinguish it from other genocides.”

Despite this, Latson was selective in teaching Holocaust material, saying, “I work to expose students to certain things, but not all parents want their students exposed, so they will not be and I can’t force that issue.” This was beyond belief for many in the community: the principal was implying not only that whether the Holocaust happened was open to interpretation, but also that the study of the topic was optional.

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ELECTIONS, FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

The US: An Inspirational Leader in the Middle East by Con Coughlin

By on October 24th, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16679/us-leader-middle-east

By taking a robust approach to some of the region’s more intractable issues… such as relocating the American embassy to Jerusalem, the US has produced a number of profound changes to the regional landscape, the consequences of which are likely to be felt for many years to come.

The breakthrough in the peace process, moreover, has resulted in the region being clearly divided between moderate, peace-loving countries that are prepared to engage in the peace process, and rejectionist regimes, such as Turkey and Iran, that are only interested in causing further bloodshed.

It is these countries, as well as China, Russia, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela that have most to fear in next month’s presidential election if a strong and successful America returns again.

When it comes to confronting the many challenges that face the modern Middle East, the United States has proved itself to be truly inspirational at leading during the last four years.

From achieving a remarkable breakthrough in the Israeli-Arab peace process to curbing the malign activities of Iran’s Islamic revolution in the region, the US has already succeeded in establishing a legacy that is the envy of many of its previous administrations.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Beijing’s Covid Recovery Isn’t So Enviable China touts GDP growth but faces a hard call: rest on a fragile economy or try for a difficult transition? By Joseph Sternberg

By on October 24th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/beijings-covid-recovery-isnt-so-enviable-11603393097?mod=opinion_featst_pos2

Few myths are proving so durable in our pandemic age as the notion that China has somehow cracked the coronavirus code. It hasn’t.

The argument proceeds in two steps. The first is to assert that Beijing’s authoritarian approach to mass lockdowns, followed by intrusive testing and tracing, defeated the virus in a way almost no democratic government has managed. This might be true, but it is also meaningless. It does little good to argue in favor of Chinese methods to control a pandemic when a democratic society would by definition find that authoritarianism a cost not worth paying.

More interesting is the second prong of the Beijing-beats-the-world myth: the economy.

We’re supposed to believe that China’s success in suppressing the virus has facilitated a phenomenal economic recovery—and, by extension, that our economies would be growing again too if only we had batted down Covid-19 as efficiently. The claim was bolstered this week by more good news from Beijing’s statistics gnomes, who reported gross domestic product increased by 4.9% in the third quarter compared with the same quarter last year. China is set to be the only major economy that manages to grow this year.

This might even be true. Chinese economic data are notoriously, oh, what’s the word I’m looking for . . . fake. Headline GDP numbers tell you less about the real state of the economy and more about the Communist Party’s political preoccupations and goals. Still, there is substantial evidence that the Chinese economy is growing to some extent. Important and harder-to-fudge measures such as industrial production and retail sales have improved in recent months.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The Arab-Israeli Peace Cascade Sudan becomes the latest Arab nation to normalize relations.

By on October 24th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-arab-israeli-peace-cascade-11603494933?mod=opinion_lead_pos4

Middle East failures contributed to Republican defeats in 2008 and Democratic defeats in 2016. If Donald Trump loses in 2020, it will be for different reasons. The U.S.-brokered deals normalizing relations between Israel and Arab states are a highlight of his Presidency, and on Friday the White House announced Sudan would join the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in ending its diplomatic boycott of the Jewish state.

These moves have been utterly confounding to Obama Administration alumni. They were certain that a pro-Israel foreign policy would inflame the Arab world, and that Mideast progress depended on accommodating the regime in Iran. In fact, Israel is the region’s chief source of stability and Iran its main source of terror and mayhem, and the Trump Administration treated them accordingly.

It has paid off. The first peace announcement came in August between Israel and the UAE, which had been working together covertly to beat back Iranian influence in the Persian Gulf. Next came Bahrain, another Sunni Gulf monarchy threatened by Shiite Iran.

The agreement by Sudan, a North African country of more than 40 million, to normalize Israel ties shows that the peace cascade goes beyond the Persian Gulf and could extend across the Arab world. Sudan’s leadership has been moderating, and the Trump Administration recently negotiated a tentative agreement for Sudan to compensate victims of the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Epidemiologists Stray From the Covid Herd Great Barrington Declaration co-authors Martin Kuldorff and Jay Bhattacharya on the costs of lockdown, the science of immunity, and the politicization of the coronavirus pandemic. By Tunku Varadarajan

By on October 24th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/epidemiologists-stray-from-the-covid-herd-11603477330?mod=opinion_lead_pos5

The Covid rebels make an unlikely pair. Jay Bhattacharya was born in Kolkata, an Indian city that pulsates with people. Martin Kulldorff is from Umeå, Sweden, population 90,000. Yet they have much in common. “I almost view Martin like a brother,” says the talkative Dr. Bhattacharya, 52, who moved to the U.S. with his Bengali parents when he was 4. “I mean, we complete each other’s sentences, as you can see.” The feeling is “mutual,” confirms the more phlegmatic Mr. Kulldorff, 58.

Dr. Bhattacharya, a physician and economist, and Mr. Kulldorf, a biostatistician—who study epidemiology at the medical schools at Stanford and Harvard, respectively—are, in the eyes of their critics, dangerous contrarians for opposing Covid-19 lockdowns. Some of the criticism borders on hysteria: A colleague accused Mr. Kulldorff of practicing “Trumpian epidemiology” after he gave an interview to the far-left Jacobin magazine in which he called for a “radically different” approach to pandemic management.

Most pertinently, the two men are the authors—with Sunetra Gupta, a professor of epidemiology at Oxford—of the Great Barrington Declaration. Published on Oct. 4, the declaration is a cri de coeur against lockdowns and other economic restrictions that have hobbled swaths of the world. It asked instead for “focused protection”—a policy of allowing “those at minimal risk of death” to resume their lives while societies concentrate on “better protecting those who are at highest risk.”

I interview the two men jointly by Zoom—Dr. Bhattacharya in California, Mr. Kulldorff in Massachusetts. The former speaks of a “systematic media campaign” against the declaration. He says Google “shadow banned” the text in the days after it was published. “If you typed in ‘Great Barrington Declaration,’ what would happen is that the actual website would appear on the second or third page, buried under a whole long list of negative stories.” (The matter has since been resolved, he says.)

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ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Mr. Biden Will ‘Transition’ You Now He won’t ban fracking. He’ll merely strangle it with regulation.

By on October 24th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/mr-biden-will-transition-you-now-11603495321?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

Joe Biden committed the gaffe of telling the truth about his climate policies Thursday night when he said he wants to “transition” the U.S. from fossil fuels. The Democratic nominee is admitting that he plans to regulate the oil and gas business out of existence, and Americans soon to be “transitioned” may want to pay attention.

“Would you close down the oil industry?” asked President Trump during the debate.

Mr. Biden: “By the way, I would transition from the oil industry, yes.”

Mr. Trump: “Oh, that’s a big statement.”

Mr. Biden: “I will transition. It is a big statement. Because I would stop.”

Moderator Kristen Welker: “Why would you do that?”

Mr. Biden: “Because the oil industry pollutes, significantly.”

The Biden campaign knew their man made a political mistake because after the debate he tried to backtrack by saying he had merely meant that he’d eliminate subsidies for oil and gas. He also insisted he won’t ban shale drilling, known as fracking, though in the primaries he had said he would.

But Mr. Biden was telling the truth during the debate, and his policy proposals clearly show he plans to strangle oil and gas. Behold the transition strategy.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

US Business Activity Soars to 20-Month High in October: IHS Markit By Tom Ozimek

By on October 23rd, 2020

https://www.theepochtimes.com/us-business-activity-soars-to-20-month-high-in-october-ihs-markit_3550124.html

U.S. business activity rose to a 20-month high in October, although the rate of new business growth and new orders eased slightly, in part driven by political uncertainty ahead of the Nov. 3 presidential election and concerns about the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus outbreak.

Data firm IHS Markit said on Friday its flash U.S. Composite PMI Output Index (pdf), which tracks the manufacturing and services sectors, rose to a reading of 55.5 this month—the highest reading since February 2019. A reading above 50 indicates growth in private sector output.

The survey’s flash services sector PMI rose to 56 this month, also a 20-month high, an encouraging sign as services account for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity. Manufacturing held steady in October, with the survey’s flash manufacturing PMI ticking up slightly to 53.3 from 53.2 in September.

“The U.S. economy looks to have started the fourth quarter on a strong footing, with business activity growing at a rate not seen since early 2019,” said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at IHS Markit, in a statement. “The service sector led the expansion as increasing numbers of companies adapted to life with COVID19, while manufacturing continued to report solid growth amid rising demand from households and businesses.”

Some manufacturers and service industry companies said the CCP virus crisis had an adverse impact on demand, the report indicated. Other companies said some clients were waiting to place new orders until after Election Day. The survey’s flash composite new orders index dipped to 54.3 this month from a reading of 54.8 in September, although it remained in expansion territory.

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ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Biden Lies Again and Again By Kyle Smith

By on October 23rd, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/biden-lies-again-and-again/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=featured-content-trending&utm_term=second

Joe Biden is a career liar and he lied some more in the debate, for instance when he dismissed the now well-supported New York Post story about Hunter Biden’s business dealing as “a Russian plant.” There is zero evidence for this. He offered this line:

There are 50 former national intelligence folks who said what he’s accusing me of is a Russian plant. Five former heads of the CIA — both parties — say what he’s saying is a bunch of garbage. Nobody believes it except him and his good friend Rudy Giuliani.

There were some headlines from Biden-friendly media to this effect, but this is a gross mischaracterization of the letter from ex-CIA chief John Brennan et al, which merely asserted that the Hunter Biden story sounded like a Russian disinformation op, not that there was any evidence for this. The relevant portion reads:

We want to emphasize that we do not know if the emails, provided to the New York Post by President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, are genuine or not and that we do not have evidence of Russian involvement” [But] there are a number of factors that make us suspicious of Russian involvement.

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ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Trump Won the Debate—But Won Bigly the Post-Debate By Victor Davis Hanson

By on October 23rd, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/trump-won-the-debate-but-won-bigly-the-post-debate/?utm_source=

There was a low bar for Joe Biden in the first debate, given his cognitive challenges. Because he exceeded that pessimism, he won momentum. 

In opposite fashion, there was similarly an expectation that a disruptive Donald Trump would turn off the audience by the sort of interruptions and bullying that characterized the first debate.

He did not do that. He instead let a cocky Biden sound off, and thus more or less tie himself into knots on a host of topics, but most critically on gas and oil. So likewise Trump will gain momentum by exceeding those prognoses. 

But far more importantly, the back-and-forth repartee will not matter other than Trump went toe to toe, but in a tough, dignified manner and beat Biden on points. Biden did not go blank — although he seemed to come close, often especially in the last 20 minutes. Had the debate gone another 30 minutes, his occasional lapses could have become chronic.

What instead counts most are the days after.  The debate take-aways, the news clips, the post facto fact checks, and the soundbites to be used in ads over the next ten days all favor Trump. In this regard, Biden did poorly and will suffer continual bleeding in the swing states. 

We will know that because by the weekend Biden will be out of his basement and trying to reboot his campaign and actually be forced to campaign. 

So we are going to hear over the next week that Biden simply denied the factual evidence of the Hunter Biden laptop computer, the emails, the cell phones, and the testimonies from some of the relevant players as a concocted smear, a Russian disinformation attack. That denial is clearly a lie. It is absolutely unsupportable. And Biden will have to drop that false claim.  

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ELECTIONS Comments turned off

A Big Night — and a Better Day After — for Trump If the president can stick to this script in a disciplined way, that’s going to be a big problem for the former vice president. By Andrew C. McCarthy *****

By on October 23rd, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/10/a-big-night-and-a-better-day-after-for-trump/

P resident Trump would be in much better shape right now if he’d campaigned and debated like the guy who showed up at last night’s debate. To use a boxing analogy, I think he won the match on points, but the margin gets better for him in the post-mortem. Former vice president Biden said some truly indefensible things. Starting this morning and continuing for the next ten days, Republicans will be whistling through the groove-yard of forgotten favorite video clips . . . or, better, GOP favorites that Biden would like to forget.

In fact, the president wasted no time: He had a killer montage up on Twitter before midnight.

Worst for Biden are the energy issues.

First, there is the true thing Biden said that his camp is now desperately trying to walk back or restate: He wants to get rid of fossil fuels, in particular oil. “I would transition from the oil industry, yes,” he said. To put an exclamation point on it, he agreed with Trump that this “is a big statement.” Shortly after the debate, just how big this statement was began to sink in, so Biden went into damage control mode. He insisted he had just been talking about “getting rid of subsidies for fossil fuels.” But that was not true. As the several Biden and Kamala Harris statements in Trump’s tweet demonstrate, the Democratic ticket made their jihad against fossil fuels clear and unqualified, time and again.

Second, and relatedly, there is the false thing that Biden said: He claimed he had never indicated he would ban fracking. To the contrary, he has said he’d get rid of fracking several times; and Kamala Harris — before she started insisting, with a straight face, that Biden had been “very clear” that he would not ban fracking — was herself emphatic in proclaiming the dogmatic Democratic Party position: “There’s no question, I’m in favor of banning fracking.”

If you check out that brief clip of Senator Harris that I just linked, notice — it’s impossible not to notice — the cheering crowd at the gleefully progressive CNN town hall. It will zero you in on the problem Biden-Harris faces: To get to the general election, they had to win the nomination of a party whose verve and lots of whose money is on the far left.

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