NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Adam Schiff may be the biggest loser of Russia probe declassification Review of Democratic House Intelligence Committee chairman’s public statements finds many contradicted, some linked to Russian disinformation. By John Solomon

Posted By on May 6th, 2020

https://justthenews.com/accountability/russia-and-ukraine-scandals/adam-schiff-may-be-biggest-loser-russia-probe

In a packed hearing room two months into Donald Trump’s embattled presidency, Rep. Adam Schiff played the willing protagonist by dramatically reading into the congressional record some of the most explosive claims from Christopher Steele’s dossier.

At the time, Steele’s dossier had recently burst on the scene, and the Trump White House was under siege as a far-reaching FBI investigation examined allegations — later disproven — that former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page and others tried to collude with Russia to hijack the 2016 election.

“According to Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer who is reportedly held in high regard by U.S. intelligence, Russian sources tell him that Page has also had a secret meeting with Igor Sechin, CEO of Russian gas giant Rosneft,” Schiff declared at a March 20, 2017 House Intelligence Committee hearing.

“Sechin is reported to be a former KGB agent and close friend of Putin’s. According to Steele’s Russian sources, Page is offered brokerage fees by Sechin on a deal involving a 19 percent share of the company,” the California Democrat added.

CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB Comments turned off

The Worldwide Lockdown May Be the Greatest Mistake in History Dennis Prager

Posted By on May 6th, 2020

https://townhall.com/columnists/dennisprager/2020/05/05/the-worldwide-lockdown-may-be-the-greatest-mistake-in-history-n2568180

The idea that the worldwide lockdown of virtually every country other than Sweden may have been an enormous mistake strikes many — including world leaders; most scientists, especially health officials, doctors and epidemiologists; those who work in major news media; opinion writers in those media; and the hundreds of millions, if not billions, of people who put their faith in these people — as so preposterous as to be immoral. Timothy Egan of The New York Times described Republicans who wish to enable their states to open up as “the party of death.”That’s the way it is today on planet Earth, where deceit, cowardice and immaturity now dominate almost all societies because the elites are deceitful, cowardly and immature.

But for those open to reading thoughts they may differ with, here is the case for why the worldwide lockdown is not only a mistake but also, possibly, the worst mistake the world has ever made. And for those intellectually challenged by the English language and/or logic, “mistake” and “evil” are not synonyms. The lockdown is a mistake; the Holocaust, slavery, communism, fascism, etc., were evils. Massive mistakes are made by arrogant fools; massive evils are committed by evil people.

The forcible prevention of Americans from doing anything except what politicians deem “essential” has led to the worst economy in American history since the Great Depression of the 1930s. It is panic and hysteria, not the coronavirus, that created this catastrophe. And the consequences in much of the world will be more horrible than in America.

CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB Comments turned off

Why Don’t I Hate Donald Trump? Peter Darrow

Posted By on May 6th, 2020

www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/05/why_dont_i_hate_donald_trump.html 

Why do you not like Donald Trump? I asked my brother.  “Because he is a d—” was his reply.  Such a deep, meaningful answer!

I had never been a political person.  To be honest, politics bored me.  In any debates, I always took the middle option as I did not have the knowledge and experience to express an opinion.  It was not until Trump began his campaign that I started to investigate whether I was right- or left-wing.

Why I never felt the same way as my brother is a question I have often asked myself.  Prior to his campaigning and his presidency, I never felt any hatred for the man.  Having an interest in property, I read his books and enjoyed watching The Apprentice, and not once did I feel any animosity.  Trump was such an admired figure by many businesspeople, celebrities, and politicians prior to his announcement that he was running for president.  Yes, he had his detractors, but there was none of the vile hatred you see today.

For some reason, I was extremely hopeful that Trump would run for president when the rumors were flying around that he would do so.  Maybe it was instinctive that the world needed a change.  When Obama was elected, I was a fan, and there was a great sense of hope that he would achieve great things.  Oh, how disappointed we all were!

MEDIA Comments turned off

TELL A LIE AND WIN A PULITZER- THE NEW YORK TIMES

Posted By on May 6th, 2020

https://issuesinsights.com/2020/05/06/tell-a-lie-win-a-pulitzer/

Maybe you missed the news that the august New York Times won yet another Pulitzer Prize, this one for its much-debunked “1619 Project.” If you didn’t, we have a question: Is there any better illustration for why Americans now hold the big media in such low esteem?

Nikole Hannah-Jones of the Times won the Pulitzer for Commentary on Monday, proving once again that the American media and its guiding institutions have continued to move far left, and that includes the Pulitzer Prize judges. Among major media, none have made the sinistral shift more determinedly than the New York Times under Executive Editor Dean Baquet.

The 1619 Project is aptly titled. It’s not journalism so much as a twisted piece of progressive propaganda that even now is being imposed on thousands of grade-school students as part of our “education” curriculum. It would be funny if it weren’t so tragically true.

The truth is, the essential outlines of the 1619 Project have been knocked down like bowling pins. In its own words, the alternate history proposes “to reframe the country’s history, understanding 1619 as our true founding, and placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of the story.”

As the Times further elaborated, “Out of slavery – and the anti-black racism it required – grew nearly everything that has truly made America exceptional: its economic might, its industrial power, its electoral system, diet and popular music, the inequities of its public health and education, its astonishing penchant for violence, its income inequality.”

HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

Men Accused of Raping Children Among 830 Inmates Freed By Catherine Smith

Posted By on May 6th, 2020

https://amgreatness.com/2020/05/05/men-accused-of-raping-children-amo

Breitbart reports, “two men accused of raping children are among the nearly 830 Massachusetts inmates that have been freed in the last month over concerns of the Chinese coronavirus crisis spreading in prison facilities.”

Convicted child rapist Glenn Christie, 54-years-old, and 29-year-old Matthew Parris, accused of raping two teenage girls this year, have both been released from Massachusetts prisons after the state’s supreme court has ordered the routine release of hundreds of accused and convicted criminals.

As of April 26, Massachusetts officials have released 824 inmates from state prisons since April 3. This means that the state is releasing about 36 inmates every day with no end in sight, all in an effort to empty jails to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

There are about 110 confirmed cases of the coronavirus among inmates in Massachusetts prisons out of more than 310 inmates tested for the virus. A total of 81 correctional officers and 23 other staffers in the state prison system have also tested positive.

Christie was an inmate set free thanks to the court order. In 2018, Christie was convicted for repeatedly raping a 12-year-old boy and was being held for violating his probation conditions.

MOVIES AND TELEVISION Comments turned off

Hillary on Hulu By Krystina Skurk

Posted By on May 6th, 2020

https://amgreatness.com/2020/05/05/hillary-on-hulu/

It is ironic that the former secretary of state fought for much of her life trying to prove that being a woman didn’t hold her back, but when it came to running for president she couldn’t forget the fact herself.

After two failed presidential runs, many Americans might expect Hillary Clinton to fade gracefully into the background, her political life now history. With her recent public endorsement of Joe Biden and the release of a highly glamorized documentary series, however, Hillary is trying to claw her way back into the limelight. For what ends, we don’t yet know.

“Hillary,” the four-part documentary created by Nanette Burstein and aired on Hulu attempts to put Hillary Clinton into context for a generation that did not grow up with her as their First Lady. Collective memories are short—when many today think of Hillary Clinton they picture her 2016 run for president, her time as Secretary of State, or maybe her 2008 run for the Democratic nomination, but the documentary puts Hillary in the context of over 50 years of cultural transformation. Each episode pivots back and forth from the presumed end of Hillary Clinton’s political career to the beginning. It weaves a narrative of a woman who was “too right too soon,” and who stood up for women’s rights when most women saw their options as limited.

The documentary features segments of more than 2,000 hours of behind-the-scenes campaign footage, some of the 35 hours Burstein spent interviewing Hillary, as well as interviews from Hillary’s friends, family, supporters, friendly journalists, and campaign staff. Missing are interviews of any Hillary opponents or critics.

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

In Dealing with Flynn, Comey’s FBI Acted Like the KGB By Christopher Roach

Posted By on May 6th, 2020

http://www.ruthfullyyours.com/wp-admin/post-new.php

What happened to Flynn is quite simply an atrocity. Everyone responsible should lose their jobs, if Flynn’s lawyers betrayed their client they should be disbarred, and the whole crew of plotters should be hauled off to jail. And Michael Flynn deserves his job back.

Michael Flynn was vindicated last week. While conservatives tend to be pro-law enforcement, here they are reminded of how the government’s criminal justice apparatus can be abused. The Russian collusion hoax weaponized our intelligence agencies and the FBI to spy on a political campaign and ruin the lives of numerous patriots, including decorated American general, Michael Flynn. 

Worse, documents obtained by Flynn’s new defense team show the absence of a crime—he apparently forgot some details in an interview with FBI agents, which to their minds became “obstruction” and “perjury”—but also show that the FBI knew there was no crime and still planned to entrap him through an ambush interview in the early days of the Trump administration. 

The Logan Act offense that justified his interview was a pretext; that law has been sitting on a shelf since 1799 and was dusted off to trap Flynn. Every journalist and lobbyist in Washington, D.C. is probably guilty of a violation. The real goal was to get him to talk to the FBI without counsel present, a situation that inevitably leads to some mix-ups and forgetfulness, so that he could be fired. 

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Israel Wins the Battle against COVID-19 Insidious Chinese Coronavirus proves to be no match for Israeli resolve and resourcefulness. Ari Lieberman

Posted By on May 6th, 2020

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/05/israel-wins-battle-against-covid-19-ari-lieberman/

During its brief history, the modern state of Israel has had to endure endless wars, terrorism, political, cultural and economic boycotts, and has triumphed decidedly over all these hardships. The Jewish State, with a population of just under 9 million and about the size of New Jersey routinely ranks among the most powerful nations in the world and its citizens enjoy a standard of living on par with Western nations, an astonishing achievement considering that Israel has been in existence for only 72 years and is surrounded by medieval, genocidal neighbors.

But in late February, it became readily apparent that Israel, indeed the world was facing a much more insidious enemy, an invisible foreign virus, which emerged from the Chinese city of Wuhan. While China was lying to the world and spinning false narratives as to the nature and origins of the virus, Israel’s leaders understood that this was an enemy unlike any other they had faced before, and consequently took immediate and drastic measures to minimize the damage.

Fast-forward to May 1, 2020. Eighty percent of Israeli towns and villages have reported no new COVID-19 infections. Hospitals throughout Israel are reporting no new COVID-19 admissions. Of the nation’s 16,193 confirmed COVID-19 infected, nearly 10,000 have fully recovered. Israel’s mortality rate from COVID-19 is among the lowest in the world, only 231 deaths.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

London Mayor Says Iran is “Ahead of Us In Terms of Combating the Coronavirus” Sadiq Khan escalates the British Left’s war against reality. Robert Spencer

Posted By on May 6th, 2020

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/05/london-mayor-says-iran-ahead-us-terms-combating-robert-spencer/

Does even London’s notorious Muslim mayor, Sadiq Khan, really believe this? IPT News reported Monday that Khan “praised Tehran for being ‘ahead of us in terms of combating the coronavirus. I congratulate the Iranian officials for this.’”

Khan apparently made this spectacularly risible statement in a video conversation with Tehran Mayor Pirouz Hanachi. According to a Tehran Times report, Khan also promised to “discuss the problems that Tehran is facing due to sanctions” with British officials, “and I hope that this is solved in the near future.”

IPT noted laconically that “Iran has been overwhelmed by coronavirus cases, with more than 90,000 people infected and nearly 6,000 reported dead. There is widespread skepticism that Iran is grossly under-reporting the true casualty rate.”

Yes. And Khan has every reason to know that. His congratulating Iran is of a piece with the relentless push we see everywhere: Muslims, we’re told, invented virtually everything that has made life in the contemporary West comfortable. Muslims, our moral superiors constantly insist, established tolerant and pluralistic societies while Europeans were still painting themselves blue and living in caves. In virtually everything, we are told again and again that Muslims are ahead, Muslims were first, Muslims blazed the trail.

One notorious example of this came last October, when the jihadi mouthpiece Al Jazeera reported happily about “a major exhibition in London’s British Museum called Inspired by the East, that explores the significant – yet often unacknowledged – influence of Eastern culture on the West.”

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Our Dangerous Illusions About Risk The most formidable risk we are facing isn’t the coronavirus. Bruce Thornton

Posted By on May 6th, 2020

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/05/our-dangerous-illusions-about-risk-bruce-thornton/

The coronavirus pandemic and the draconian lock-down responses to it have given us an object lesson in just how irrationally we evaluate and compare risk. For all our pretenses that “experts” have enough reliable knowledge to mitigate risk based on facts, we still make policy decisions based on fear, self-interest, or ideology. Even before the current medical crisis, our distorted and excessive aversion to risk has led to policies rife with moral hazard that create new and more dangerous consequences.

There’s no doubt that the current shut-down of the economy and public spaces is a consequence of bad risk assessment. These policies were based on lethality models that lacked sufficient data such as the rate of infection, and that projected numbers of dead later reduced significantly. Stoked by panic and incomplete models, radical self-quarantining was mandated even for the healthy young, and open-air activity proscribed even though a viral load necessary to sicken us requires enclosed, crowded spaces and prolonged exposure to a carrier.

Nor is there any certainty that these policies contributed to flattening out the rate of known infected and dying. Germany to date has had one of Europe’s lowest mortality rates, which many attribute to its early and severe lockdown. But recently the reproduction rate of the virus, the number of people one carrier will infect, has been rising after restrictions were lessened. As the Wall Street Journal  reports, “The upward drift in the reproduction rate now suggests that those measures may not have stopped the disease in its tracks so much as delayed the inevitable—and at enormous cost.”