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Ruth King

The Con of the Surrender Cons If legacy conservatism had its own statue, it would be one big slippery slope curving left and capped with a white flag. By Julie Kelly

https://amgreatness.com/2020/06/22/the-con-of-the-surrender-cons/

The column, written in the heated aftermath of George Floyd’s killing, sounded like a typical anti-American screed published in the New York Times or posted on MSNBC.

“Racism in America is a fatal wound,” the author lamented. “Every time another incident occurs we put a Band-Aid on it, but the Band-Aid keeps falling off. Band-Aids are not enough to ever stitch this country back together.”

She went on: “Nothing can bring George Floyd back to life. But if his horrific and needless death proves to be a turning point to make Americans finally end the ugly racism that stains our nation’s history and afflicts us like a cancer of the soul, he will leave behind a legacy we sorely need.”

That inflammatory, crude condemnation of America—not to mention the glorification of Floyd, a man with a criminal record who was doped up on drugs and committing another crime when the fatal encounter occurred—was made by Kay Coles James, president of the Heritage Foundation. James, the first woman and first African American to head the conservative think tank, like so many on the performative Right, jumped on the Left’s latest anti-America crusade while betraying the constituency her organization purports to represent.

Embracing the Left’s Language

It is a reflex, unfortunately, that’s commonplace on the establishment Right, an infuriating capitulation to our country’s most insidious foes. The Left intends to destroy the nation and use race as the carpet-bomb—and that approach is working even as blacks continue to make solid economic, occupational, and educational gains.

So, what was James’s point? There is no evidence Floyd’s death had anything to do with race. One incident, or even a random handful, hardly proves her diagnosis that racism is a “fatal wound” to America. The unfolding mayhem and chaos that followed Floyd’s death would have been a perfect opportunity for James to explain why conservatives, not radicals on the Left, have better solutions to improve the lives of all minorities. James, after all, has a triumphant personal story of her own; her success is a testament to our country’s unparalleled progress on matters of race and equality.

Coronavirus Cases Are Climbing Again. So What?

https://issuesinsights.com/2020/06/23/covid-19-cases-are-climbing-again-so-what/

THE LEGACY MEDIA ARE SCARING THE PUBLIC BY HIDING RELEVANT DATA

A dozen states have seen record highs in new coronavirus cases, blares the news media, accompanied by dire warnings of a “second wave” of the disease because those awful Republican states reopened too soon. Once again, however, the mainstream press is needlessly scaring the public by hiding the relevant context.

One news outlet put it this way: “The U.S. reported more than 33,000 new coronavirus cases on Saturday – the highest total since May 1 – while the surge of infections in several states is outpacing growth in coronavirus testing.”

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow tried to tamp down the panic by declaring that there is no second wave. “There are some hotspots. We’re on it,” he said.

Even if there is a “second wave,” it doesn’t mean anything in and of itself.

For one thing the Centers for Disease Control has long predicted that coronavirus cases would increase as the country reopened, for the simple reason that the lockdowns were never intended to stop the spread of the disease, only to slow it down. Remember? Flatten the curve?

The point of the lockdown was to give the country the time to ramp up testing, look for treatments, and increase medical supplies. By curbing the spread, health officials could more readily identify hotspots and conduct contact tracing, and the health care system could cope with any increase in demand. Which, as Kudlow points out, is exactly what’s happening now.

A Brief History of Antifa: Part II Antifa in the United States by Soeren Kern

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16149/antifa-history-part-2

“The only long-term solution to the fascist menace is to undermine its pillars of strength in society grounded not only in white supremacy but also in ableism, heteronormativity, patriarchy, nationalism, transphobia, class rule, and many others.” — Mark Bray, “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook,” 2017.

“They’re coming from other cities. That cost money. They didn’t do this on their own. Somebody’s paying for this…. What Antifa is doing is they’re basically hijacking the black community as their army. They instigate, they antagonize, they get these young black men and women to go out there and do stupid things, and then they disappear off into the sunset.” — Bernard Kerik, former commissioner of the New York City Police Department.

The coordinated violence raises questions about how Antifa is financed. The Alliance for Global Justice (AFGJ) is an organizing group that serves as a fiscal sponsor to numerous radical left-wing initiatives, according to Influence Watch, a research group that collects data on advocacy organizations, foundations and donors…. The Open Society Foundations, Tides Foundation, Arca Foundation, Surdna Foundation, Public Welfare Foundation, and the Brightwater Fund have all made contributions to AFGJ, according to Influence Watch.

One of the groups funded by AFGJ is called Refuse Fascism … an offshoot of the Radical Communist Party (RCP)…. The group’s slogan states: “This System Cannot Be Reformed, It Must Be Overthrown!”

Editor’s note: This is Part II of a series on the history of the global Antifa movement. Part I described Antifa and explored the ideological origins of the group. Part II examines the history, tactics and goals of the movement in the United States.

U.S. President Donald Trump recently announced that the American government would designate Antifa — a militant “anti-fascist” movement — as a terrorist organization due to the violence that erupted at George Floyd protests across the United States.

116 Republican House Members Support Israeli Control Over Parts of West Bank Daniel Greenfield

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2020/06/116-republican-house-members-supporting-israeli-daniel-greenfield/

This is what actually being pro-Israel looks like.

JNS – Republican lawmakers on Monday released a statement of support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to apply Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley and parts of  Judea and Samaria.

The letter, which was signed by 116 of the 198 Republicans in the House, was led by Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), Foreign Affairs Committee Republican Leader Michael McCaul (R-Texas) and Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) and David Kustoff (R-Tenn.)

The sovereignty measure would apply Israeli law to parts of Israel that were liberated in 1967. It ought to be non-controversial, but here we are anyway.

As Rep. Scalise notes, “The move follows several letters led by Democrat Members of Congress threatening the collapse of bipartisan Congressional support for Israel. The Republican letter affirms common democratic values between our nations and voices strong support for President Trump’s Vision for Peace Plan.”

Here’s the letter.

June 22, 2020

Dear Prime Minister Netanyahu:

We write to reaffirm the unshakeable alliance between the United States and Israel, to emphasize that Israel has the right to make sovereign decisions independent of outside pressure, and to express our support for you as you make such decisions in your capacity as Israel’s democratically-elected prime minister.

We are aware of and deeply concerned by threats being expressed by some to retaliate against Israel as it makes decisions to ensure defensible borders. It is shortsighted to threaten relations with Israel, a long-time friend and critical ally that shares our democratic values. We support the Trump administration’s engagement with Israel on the Vision for Peace Plan, which was based on the critical premise that Israel should never be forced to compromise its security. We assure you that we will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel and oppose any effort to apply pressure.

As you know well, the Palestinians have rejected Israel’s bids for peace time and again and have shunned the Trump administration’s efforts to bring peace to the conflict since the administration’s earliest days, even before the President’s vision was unveiled. The Trump administration’s new approach offers the promise of success where past efforts have failed, recognizing Israel’s vital national and security interests while providing for a fair and reasonable compromise with the Palestinians, should Palestinian leadership opt finally to prioritize peace.

It is our hope that this plan brings peace, security, and prosperity to a region that has long endured conflict. As dedicated friends of the Jewish state, we reaffirm our steadfast commitment to the relationship between our two nations and Israel’s right to sovereignty and defensible borders.

Intifada Realism What can happen in America when radical Islam allies with the radical Left. Lloyd Billingsley

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/06/intifada-realism-lloyd-billingsley/

Some years ago, Maryland insurance broker Tom Clancy spotted a news story about a Soviet submarine that cut loose and headed west. That prompted Clancy, a naval historian of sorts, to write The Hunt for Red October, about how the defection might have gone down.

Preston Fleming, a veteran of “11 years of government service in places like Beirut, Cairo, Tunis, Jeddah, and Amman,” noticed the original Intifada in the West Bank and Gaza. That prompted the vision of an Intifada in the United States. In Fleming’s Root and Branch, the stateside Intifada gears up after an electromagnetic pulse attack by Iran, Pakistan and North Korea, but the EMP assault gets no description until 70 pages into the narrative.

From the Canadian border to Connecticut, there was no electricity, natural gas, no drinking water, and no sewer treatment. EMP impaired telephone circuits, cellphone towers, computers and vehicle electronics, so there was no gas at the pumps, no food in stores, no cash at ATMs, and no meds at hospitals. This was an ideal atmosphere for “the looting, the rioting, the home invasions, the gun battles between criminals and neighborhood militias, and the total breakdown of social order.”

This disturbs Roger Zorn, American-born owner of a French security company, and long aware of jihadist terror in France. At one point, “the intifada had spread by now to twice as many American cities while Islamist-inspired terror attacks had grown increasingly sophisticated.” The jihadi explosive devices had “morphed from car bombs to bicycle and motorcycle bombs, truck bombs, and even explosive-laden boat bombs.” Shootings had progressed from “random snipings to sophisticated assassinations against law enforcement officers and National Guard troops.”

Why Trump Isn’t Taking Action in Seattle The leftist tantrum is an information operation – and Trump is winning it. Kurt Schlichter

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/06/leftist-tantrum-information-operation-and-trump-stanley-kurtz/

It’s certainly frustrating to watch a pack of reeking leftist scumbags declare a portion of an American city an “autonomous zone” – what is it with Democrats and their secession fetish? – but do not get frustrated because Donald Trump has not sent the 101st Airborne in to powerwash the human grunge from Seattle’s feces-bedecked streets. That’s what the Democrats want. And Trump – a better strategic thinker than all the media geniuses, hack politicians, and Afghan War-losing generals who cry about him – is not only not going to give them the victory they crave. He’s going to jam their cheesy plan down their throats.

The libs’ plan to win in November corresponds to Trump’s plan to crush them yet again. Skeptical? Consider this. In the five years since he rode down that escalator bringin’ hell with him, how many times have they come at Trump and won? Zero. He’s spent half a decade on the edge of doom and he’s still here. Why would you think that the walls are suddenly closing in now? You shouldn’t.

Let’s understand the strategic scenario. The long-term strategic objective of the leftists is to turn the United States into Venezuela, and they want to be Maduro. The major strategic objective that will put them in position to do so is victory in the November elections. Everything happening right now is part of their overall strategy to achieve that objective.

But what kind of operation are they using to achieve that objective? There are two types of operations relevant here – kinetic and information. A kinetic operation is actual warfare. It’s violence designed to defeat the enemy and cause his surrender by either physically destroying him or occupying his territory and compelling surrender. An information operation is designed to affect the perceptions, and thereby the actions, of the target. Kinetic ops tend to do something to the enemy; and info op tends to get the target to do something to himself.

Appetite for Destruction: Lincoln, Grant, Churchill statues coming down, Lenin going up By Eric Utter

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/06/appetite_for_destruction_lincoln_grant_churchill_statues_coming_down_lenin_going_up.html

Statues and monuments to some of the most important Western historical figures of all time have been summarily defaced and destroyed in recent weeks, including those of Columbus, Washington, Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant and Winston Churchill. None of these figures had a damn thing to do with the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, but that shouldn’t surprise anyone because the wanton destruction of symbols of the West’s past has nothing to do with the killing of Floyd, either.

 Columbus “discovered” the New World and died well over 100 years before the first slave ship came from Africa to America. Washington was one of the most principled men who ever lived and was “The Father” of the country that has done more to advance human freedom than any other. Lincoln saved that country while freeing the slaves. He directed a war effort that saw nearly 350,000 union troops die…in part to put an end to slavery – and died a martyr himself. Grant defeated the Confederacy, trashed the Ku Klux Klan and fought to protect the newly won rights of black people in the years after the war. Churchill stood alone in the West against the Third Reich and its NAZIs for over 17 consecutive months.

So what is the orgy of anarchy and destruction about? It is nothing short of a planned assault on the West and the values it used to hold so dear. It is a Marxist insurrection hoping to bring about the end of the U.S.—and the West—as we knew it. It is anti-capitalist, anti-rule of law, anti-Christian and anti-freedom. The leaders of Antifa and BLM have openly admitted this. Even if they hadn’t, it is abundantly clear to see for any sentient being connecting the dots. It is also utterly racist, classist and intolerant.

Teddy Roosevelt Gets Canceled A statue of America’s 26th President will come down in New York City.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/teddy-roosevelt-gets-canceled-11592867171?mod=opinion_lead_pos3

The Committee for the Removal of Public Monuments has bagged its biggest trophy to date. On Sunday New York Mayor Bill de Blasio acceded to a request from Ellen Futter, president of the American Museum of Natural History, to remove the equestrian statue of Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States, that fronts the museum entrance on Central Park West.

“The Statue has long been controversial because of the hierarchical composition that places one figure on horseback and the others walking alongside, and many of us find its depictions of the Native American and African figures and their placement in the monument racist,” Ms. Futter wrote in a letter to the mayor. She added, “While the Statue is owned by the City, the Museum recognizes the importance of taking a position at this time. We believe that the Statue should no longer remain and have requested that it be moved.”

The Roosevelt statue has long been a target for progressives. Last year the museum organized an exhibition, “Addressing the Statue,” which did a poor job of exploring the issues involved. As our critic Edward Rothstein wrote at the time, “[T]he exhibition actually does very little to help explain the statue or to put it in context. And while it claims to want to participate in a ‘national conversation’ by presenting a variety of views, its own weigh down the scales.”

This current anti-monument wave degrades what originated as a legitimate grievance: the presence of Confederate monuments, many erected during the Jim Crow era to perpetuate the Lost Cause myth and advance white supremacy. But that idea has been taken over now by what has turned into a mob intent on willy-nilly eradication of chunks of American history.

State Dept. Classifies Additional Chinese Media Outlets as Foreign Agents By Tobias Hoonhout

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/state-dept-classifies-additional-chinese-media-outlets-as-foreign-agents/

Four more Chinese media outlets with operations in the U.S. are being labeled as “foreign missions” to highlight their close ties to the Chinese Communist Party, the U.S. State Department announced Monday.

China Central Television, China News Service, People’s Daily, and the Global Times are all joining the list of designated foreign actors, State Department spokesperson Megan Ortagus said in a press release. The announcement comes after five other Chinese media conglomerates were designated as foreign missions in February.

“The decision to designate these entities is not based on any content produced by these entities, nor does it place any restrictions on what the designated entities may publish in the United States,” Ortagus said. “It simply recognizes them for what they are.”

The distinction does limit the number of visas distributed to the outlets, as “foreign missions must adhere to certain administrative requirements that also apply to foreign embassies and consulates in the United States.”

After the State Department’s decision to first implement the new rules in February, China retaliated by stripping the press passes of American reporters at the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Washington Post.

A Presidential Campaign Simile: Storm-Tossed Galleon By Victor Davis Hanson

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/a-presidential-campaign-simile-storm-tossed-galleon/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=featured-content-trending&utm_term=first

Right now, Trump’s ship has been hit in succession by sudden headwinds and violent storms of impeachment, the contagion, the lockdown, the tragic killing of George Floyd, and both the ensuring peaceful protests and violent looting, rioting, and arson. The result is that his voyage to port has nearly stopped. Even warped polls suggest that in the past few days he has caught little wind in his sails, while Joe Biden, asleep at the wheel, lets his crew ever so slowly capture a tiny breeze or two and drift ahead.

But to Trump’s rear, the powerful tailwinds of summer and autumn are rising. And they are considerable: the enfeebled candidacy of a cognitively impaired Joe Biden who at some point must emerge from his basement and remind the world he is inert; the contention over Joe Biden’s hard left-wing diversity VP selection that is de facto the Democratic presidential candidate; the looming indictments of John Durham; the steady recovery of the economy; the likely eventual waning of the virus; the loosening of the lockdowns, especially given the asymmetrical blue-state exemptions given to millions of protestors and rioters who never practiced social distancing as they looted stores, entered restaurants to harass customers, and crowded together to shout and spray; and, most important, the growing public pushback against the looting, burning, shooting, and rioting. All that is a powerful collection of favorable windy currents.

If Trump lets these fresh winds at his back catch his full sails and ride the waves, then he will coast to port and victory