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Ruth King

Alex Berenson: Coronavirus truth and why the media establishment hates me so much

Editor’s note: Author Alex Berenson first posted this essay on Twitter, but given its length, he decided to run it as a single piece of commentary on his website, AlexBerenson. In a note to readers, he writes: “‘Blue-checks’ is Twitter slang for people with verified accounts, who are often prominent reporters. As is sometimes pointed out, I also have a blue check, though I am no longer part of the media establishment.”

I’ve thought a bit about why the media blue-checks hate me so (and, let’s be honest, they do hate me so). I’m nobody, really; I don’t have a prime time news show or a syndicated column; I have all of 103,000 followers on Twitter. But I am a particular burr for three reasons:

I’m a class traitor. Not just because I worked for The New York Times for 10 years and wrote lots of hardball pieces about companies (not to mention our failures in Iraq) that make me tough to dismiss as a right-wing nutter, much as they’d like to try.

No, I’m a class traitor in another, arguably more important way, too; the media/academic left tries to cudgel its opponents with an attitude of mocking scorn and intellectual superiority. The president has been a useful foil for them in this (as they have been for him).

Alex Berenson’s coronavirus booklet hits Amazon after Elon Musk, others call out online retailer for ‘censorship’ By Brian Flood |

https://www.foxnews.com/media/amazon-alex-berenson-coronavirus-booklet-censorship-claims

Amazon is selling former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson’s booklet on coronavirus after initially claiming it didn’t meet the online retailer’s guidelines – as help rolled in from the likes of journalist Glenn Greenwald and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who considered the move blatant censorship.

“Unreported Truths about COVID-19 and Lockdowns: Part 1,” which included an introduction and a section on death counts and estimates, was expected to hit Jeff Bezos’ Amazon on Thursday but Berenson said he woke up to an alarming email.

“They said, ‘we’re rejecting this,’” Berenson told Fox News. “It didn’t say, ‘you can appeal,’ it didn’t say, ‘here is who you should email if you have a question.’ It just said, ‘This is rejected.’”

Berenson responded by launching a protest on Twitter, calling the move “outrageous censorship from a company that gained hugely from lockdown” as millions are forced to shop online.

The new face of anti-Semitism in America is increasingly black, liberal and famous. Nolan Finley

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/columnists/nolan-finley/2018/12/30/finley-new-face-anti-semitism-black/2413724002/

Last weekend, LeBron James, the biggest name in basketball, posted on Instagram the lyrics to a song by the rapper 21 Savage.

The line James typed out to his followers feeds off the ancient libel against Jews, that they control the world’s money supply: “We been getting that Jewish money, everything is Kosher.”

James quickly apologized, saying he didn’t understand the historical context of the slur, or even that it was offensive.

The NBA and James’ Los Angeles Lakers accepted that lame excuse, and now want to move on. No mandatory sensitivity training for James, no scrutiny of pro basketball for evidence of a broader problem. Starbucks should cry foul.

James is in good company. Alice Walker, African-American novelist (“The Color Purple”), is being called out for her embrace of the notorious British Jew hater David Ickes, and for a poem she penned condemning Israel.

Welcome to the Revolution You Paid For The one thing that is undeniably the fault of the rich By Edward N. Luttwak

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/luttwak-revolution?utm_source=tabletmagazinelist&utm_campaign=d5ac98588f

“That “socialism,” a phenomenon that was only ever empirically successful in the kibbutzim of Israel, and was an immiserating failure in every other country where it was ever attempted in any form, is now the de facto ideology of the Democratic Party, is the ultimate result of the porcine indifference to ideas of the rich and very rich who think that giving money to Harvard or Princeton is morally preferable to buying a yacht. But yachts do not corrupt youth with false religions or plunge nations into civil war.”

The American Revolution that started in 1776 has never ended. It just takes naps now and then.

The planters, merchants, and bankers who channeled the republican uprising against His Majesty King George III were exemplars of a commercial civilization entirely dependent on contract law, for whom the government’s first duty was to protect property rights and then, eventually, individual rights. If anyone can take and eat my corn crop, why would I grow it? But on June 26, 2019, in Miami, the mayor of New York City, one “Bill” de Blasio, rebelled against the fundamental axiom of American civilization when he said: “There is plenty of money in this world, and there’s plenty of money in this country, it’s just in the wrong hands. Democrats have to fix that.”

That is when the property holders of New York City should have submitted an application for the mayor’s removal from office to the local branch of the appellate division of the New York State Supreme Court. Their failure to do so reflects the inherent aversion to conflict of merchants and bankers: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II might still be sovereign in these parts if Southern planters had not joined the uprising against her direct ancestor. However, planters are scarce in New York City.

De Blasio’s offer to be the Democratic Party’s candidate was declined but his proposal has been accepted by his party. Joe Biden—regardless of his personal beliefs—will have to promise to “fix” the problem by taking the money from the “wrong” hands to give it to the “right” hands. The “right hands” is variously definable but for one thing: They cannot be hands that earn money, or if they do, they must not earn more than a little, because otherwise they would be “wrong” hands. Of course, an organization of some kind will have to accomplish the transfer, thereby incidentally acquiring enormous power over all the “wrong” hands and also all the “right” hands.

What Is Fact-Checking without Facts? By Andrew C. McCarthy

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/06/what-is-fact-checking-without-facts/

On the New York Times’ disgrace

‘Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”

How quaint seems this trenchant observation by the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan, one of the greatest progressive thinkers of the 20th century’s latter half. Not because of the patriarchal pronoun presumptions of the aging white cis male; I refer to Senator Moynihan’s very assumption that there are facts. That there is an objective reality on which we can all agree, even if we disagree about what it means. And equally important, that there is a way of getting to facts, a common language of reason that enables us to investigate, communicate, and explicate.

Senator Moynihan would not recognize that paragon of 21st century progressivism, the New York Times.

On Thursday, with its snowflakes in meltdown, the Times issued an apology. What triggered the staff? Was it an earthquake, perhaps? A mass-casualty attack? An assassination? A cinnamon rugelach shortage at Zabar’s? No, this unspeakable atrocity was an op-ed . . . by a conservative Republican senator . . . and a combat veteran from, you guessed it, the South!

Oh, let’s not be too hard on them. It took a full day of mau-mauing before the Times said “Uncle” — or whatever non-binary relation we use to convey surrender these days. The Upper West Side can rest assured there’ll be no more Tom Cotton screeds to churn bile through the avocado toast — they can go back to the thoughtful essayists of Hamas and the Islamic Republic of Iran. No more unnerving mentions of federal statutes like . . . dare I utter it . . . the Insurrection Act that have been on the books for two centuries. Fear not, the Gray Lady’s opinion pages will now get back to the laws that aren’t on the books — for example, did you know that “without legal protection, a pedophile cannot risk seeking treatment or disclosing his status to anyone for support”? (And hey, hey, hey, what’s with the his?)

My Say: June 5, 1944 Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower gave a speech to U.S. soldiers, the day before the invasion of Normandy.

The average age of the assembled troops was 26 with many younger than twenty. They were there to protest tyranny.

As poet Hannah Senesh said “Blessed is the heart with strength to stop its beating for honor’s sake” rsk

Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force:

You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.

In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world. Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped, and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely.

But this is the year 1944. Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations1 have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man-to-man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned. The free men of the world are marching together to victory.

I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty, and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory. Good Luck! And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.

Riots, Brought To You By District Attorneys Who Won’t Prosecute

https://issuesinsights.com/2020/06/05/soros-investments-in-far-left-district-attorneys-campaigns-yields-bitter-fruit/

Radicalized district attorneys in cities across America are putting violent rioters and looters back on the streets, and letting other hardened criminals walk. More than anyone, one man is responsible for this outrage: Billionaire socialist George Soros.

St. Louis is a case in point. There, prosecutor Kim Gardner let 36 people arrested for looting and rioting go scot-free, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Gardner’s office used the pathetic excuse that it needed “essential evidence” from the police, implying it had none.

One wonders how people caught in flagrante delicto could simply be released. The answer is, Gardner is a far-left acolyte of Soros, having been the recipient during her 2016 election of no fewer than three separate donations from a Soros-backed political-action committee.

It’s not the only example of Soros’ malign influence. Philadelphia District Attorney Lawrence Krasner, who was elected with Soros money, reportedly “has no interest” in prosecuting rioters in the city. As infuriating as this and other instances of prosecutorial misconduct are to many of us, it’s likely we’ll see more of it in the future.

Tiananmen vigil in Hong Kong draws thousands despite coronavirus-related ban

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3087623/tiananmen-vigil-

Police stand back as crowds pour into Victoria Park in Causeway Bay and take up a couple of soccer pitches
Show of defiance comes on a politically charged day as legislature passes a law criminalising disrespect for national anthem

Thousands flooded Hong Kong’s Victoria Park on Thursday night for the annual candlelight vigil to mark the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, defying a ban on the mass gathering imposed by the police for the first time on health protection grounds.

Police, who had warned they had thousands of riot officers ready and would enforce anti-coronavirus
 rules limiting groups to a maximum of eight people each, stood back as the crowds poured into the park in Causeway Bay and took up a couple of football pitches.

The peace was broken only in Mong Kok when protesters blocked Argyle Street and plain-clothes police officers used pepper spray and batons to stop them. Sources said at least four people were arrested.

Palestinians in Turkey: What Erdogan Says vs. What Erdogan Does by Khaled Abu Toameh

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16086/palestinians-turkey-erdogan

While Erdogan is paying lip service to the Palestinian cause and praising Hamas, which is designated as a terrorist group by the US, EU, Canada and Australia, Palestinian refugees who fled to Turkey from Syria are complaining of discrimination and mistreatment by the Turkish authorities.

According to Palestinian sources, there are about 10,000 Palestinian refugees in Turkey who are suffering from discrimination and living in dire conditions.

The suffering of the Palestinian refugees fleeing Syria begins the moment they arrive at the border with Turkey, Thuri Tamim, a Palestinian refugee, told the Palestinian Refugees Portal, an independent website covering news related to Palestinian refugees.

If Erdogan really wants to help the Palestinians, he can start by ordering his government to stop arresting and harassing Palestinian refugees. If he really wants to help the Palestinians, he can stop playing host and cash cow to Hamas, a terrorist group that has brought nothing but misery to Palestinians and Israelis alike.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan excels at making statements in support of the Palestinians. His actions, however, suggest quite a different attitude about the plight of thousands of Palestinian refugees who fled to Turkey from Syria in the past two years.

For a start, Erdogan does not even recognize these refugees as Palestinian — although they carry ID cards issued by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) as well as other documents defining them as Palestinian.

Erdogan considers these refugees Syrian, not Palestinian, because they arrived from Syria and their temporary travel documents were issued by either the Syrian government or UNRWA.

Social Justice Cancels Social Distancing Being wrong is one thing, but demanding that everyone except a select few submit to draconian government rules is its own kind of injustice. Julie Kelly

https://amgreatness.com/2020/06/04/social-justice-cancels-social-distancing/

And just like that, social distancing is canceled. At least for some.

After submitting to house arrest orders for the past three months in order to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus, Americans may have noticed a slight change in the rules this past week. There are no duct-taped outlines on city streets telling unruly mobs protesting the death of George Floyd where to stand. Rioters are not instructed to loot stores in opposite directions on downtown streets in order to avoid contact. Face coverings are optional but certainly useful when attempting to avoid identification by local law enforcement.

Drs. Deborah Birx and Anthony Fauci are not seizing the White House press podium to lecture lawless thugs about keeping grandma safe from COVID-19. Social media shamers, the same ones who just a few weeks ago were publicly denouncing fun seekers in the Ozarks, are in silent solidarity with social distancing rulebreakers in downtown Chicago, Minneapolis, and New York City. The Atlantic isn’t accusing Democratic leaders of unleashing “an experiment in human sacrifice” and CNN’s Chris Cuomo isn’t calling groups congregating to break windows at pricy boutiques and assault police officers “fools” for not staying six feet apart.

In fact, the rules have changed so much and so quickly that the very same “experts” who demanded we adhere to unproven (and possibly counterproductive) social distancing dogma now explain why these rules don’t equally apply.