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Hunter Biden invoking ‘my father’ resulted in millions flowing from CCP-linked company by Jerry Dunleavy

Posted By on June 30th, 2023

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/justice/hunter-biden-invoking-father-spurred-millions-china-company

Hunter Biden’s threatening messages invoking “my father” resulted in a swift agreement being signed between President Joe Biden’s son and a Chinese Communist Party-linked company and millions of dollars flowing to Biden family accounts.

The bombshell new WhatsApp messages were between Hunter Biden and key intermediaries with the since-defunct Chinese energy conglomerate CEFC whose chairman, Ye Jianming, is tied to the Chinese military. The messages were revealed by an IRS whistleblower.

Hunter Biden sent messages to Chinese businessman Henry Zhao on July 30, 2017, in which he leveraged his father’s name and threatened CEFC executives unless a lucrative deal was worked out with Ye, whose biography said he had been “deputy secretary-general” of the China Association for International Friendly Contact, which the U.S.-China Commission assessed was a “front organization” for the People’s Liberation Army’s General Political Department.

The newly released messages provide key context to previously discovered foreign bank transactions involving Hunter Biden. Within days after the president’s son named dropped his father in a text threat, Hunter Biden and his associated businesses soon received an estimated $5 million in payments from CEFC in 2017 and 2018, with Chinese payments quickly beginning to roll in, according to banking findings from a 2020 Senate report.

“I am sitting with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment has not been fulfilled,” Hunter Biden told Zhao in one of the July 30 messages. “I am very concerned that [Ye] has either changed his mind and broken our deal without telling me or that he is unaware of the promises and assurances that have been made have not been kept.”

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Glazov Gang: Child Trafficking, the Open Border and Willful Blindness The haunting silence of the Left, #MeToo, and our elites.

Posted By on June 30th, 2023

https://www.frontpagemag.com/glazov-gang-child-trafficking-the-open-border-and-willful-blindness/

This new Glazov Gang episode features Judd Dunning, author of ’13 1/2 Reasons Why Not To Be a Liberal’, a Newsmax regular columnist, and the host of ‘Unapologetic! The Judd Dunning Hour‘ on KABC am790.

Judd discusses Child Trafficking, the Open Border and Willful Blindness, analyzing The haunting silence of the Left, #MeToo, and our elites.

Don’t miss it!

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The Supreme Court Finally Gets Affirmative Action Right Ending the blatant contradiction of America’s foundational principles. by Bruce Thornton

Posted By on June 30th, 2023

https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-supreme-court-finally-gets-affirmative-action-right/

After 45 years of bad decisions rationalizing discrimination outlawed by Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 14th Amendment, the Supreme Court finally voted 6-3 to end affirmative action and the use of racial preferences in college admissions. This outcome joins the Dobbs vs. Jackson decision last June as another major pushback against activist Supreme Court jurisprudence, and a restoration of the Constitutional guardrails against an overweening federal government that bypasses the sovereign people and impugns their rights.

Racial set-asides were midwifed in the 1978 Regents of the University of California vs. Bakke decision that created by fiat “diversity” as a “compelling state interest” justifying discrimination. Since then various minor adjustments have been made in other decisions such as Grutter vs. Bollinger (2003) and the two Fisher vs. University of Texas cases (2013, 2016), which validated the magical thinking of “diversity” and the “broad state interests” and “educational benefits” it supposedly serves.

None of these decisions addressed the central begged question in affirmative action jurisprudence. As Justice Clarence Thomas’ dissent in Grutter put it, the majority “refus[ed] to define rigorously the broad state interest” served by “diversity,” and thus demonstrate specifically the “educational benefits that flow from student body diversity,” as Justice Anthony Kennedy said in the second Fisher case.

As a result, over the years “diversity” has metastasized throughout the body politic, from school curricula to entertainment–– and has even reached corporate board rooms in the guise of  “ESG,” environmental, social, and corporate governance guidelines for investment. This expansion has  hollowed out the principle of individual merit, and eroded the notion of individual rights and the virtues of independence and self-reliance. That’s what happens when one branch of the government, the one most unaccountable to the people, enshrines in law a politicized, incoherent idea.

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The hijack of language The duty of conservatives is to reclaim the words that are driving the culture off the cliff Melanie Phillips

Posted By on June 30th, 2023

https://melaniephillips.substack.com/p/the-hijack-of-language?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

The Conservative Party in Britain is in trouble. Many natural conservatives have written it off as rudderless, leaderless and useless. Tory MPs are forming silos of attitudes that they believe define conservatism but which cancel each other out in a welter of recrimination, panic and closed minds. 

As they miserably thrash around, we hear over and over again the irritated complaint: “Don’t go on about the culture wars. Ordinary people have no time for all that nonsense. What they want to hear from us is how to improve their standard of living. Oh, and stopping immigration, of course. Oh, and dealing with crime. All that culture war stuff is irrelevant to them. It’s a distraction from the real challenge: saving the Conservative Party”.

This is myopia on stilts. Culture — the attitudes that shape the zeitgeist and the national conversation — is not irrelevant to politics. It drives politics. Ordinary people may regard the battles of the culture war as taking place in a weird and distant galaxy called Intelligentsia.  But the issues involved have a direct bearing on their lives, their families, their communities and their nation.

If the nation and its culture finally slide off the edge of the cliff, the Tories will slide with it. The Conservative Party will only stand a chance of being saved if the nation and its culture are saved.

But how is the culture to be saved from falling off the edge of the cliff towards which it has been sliding for decades?

To have a chance of saving it, we must understand why it’s been pushed to the edge. Why conservatives, whose role in life is to defend what is valuable, didn’t recognise what was happening and fight to stop it.  

Partly, this is because conservatives tend not to think in theoretical terms. Busy with realities, they have no time for ivory-tower fantasies. So they don’t recognise ideology until it bites them in the face. 

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Pakistan’s Genocide by Uzay Bulut

Posted By on June 30th, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19755/pakistan-genocide

“The conflict resulted in the massacre of an estimated three million East Pakistani citizens, the ethnic cleansing of 10 million ethnic Bengalis who fled to India, and the rape of at least 200,000 women (some estimates put the number of rape victims at closer to 400,000).” — hinduamerican.org

“Hindus were the special targets of this violence, as documented by official government correspondence and documents from the United States, Pakistan, and India…. The Pakistan military’s conflation of Hindu, Bengali, and Indian identities meant that all Bengalis (the majority of people in Bangladesh) were suspect…. In the eyes of the Pakistani military, Hindu, Bengali, and Indian identities were one and the same.” — hinduamerican.org

“Bengali Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, and other religious groups were also significantly affected. By the end of the first month in March 1971, 1.5 million Bengalis were displaced. By November 1971, 10 million Bengalis, the majority of whom were Hindu, had fled to India.” — hinduamerican.org

“II]in the eyes of Western Pakistanis and their fundamentalist Muslim collaborators ‘the Hindus among the Bengalis were as Jews to the Nazis: scum and vermin that should best be exterminated.'” — Rudolph Joseph Rummel (1932–2014), leading American scholar of genocides, quoted by sociologist Massimo Introvigne, bitterwinter.org, November 2, 2021.

The genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by the Pakistani military against millions of people due to their ethnicity, religion, language and political views urgently need to be called out and the perpetrators held accountable.

The genocide committed by Pakistan needs immediate recognition.

“According to Bangladesh Government estimates 3 million people were killed, over two-hundred thousand women were sexually and physically violated, and 10 million people were forced to cross the border into India, leaving behind their ancestral homes and worldly possessions just to save their lives and dignity of their women,” wrote Stichting BASUG (Bangladesh Support Group), a non-governmental organization, together with other Bangladeshi diaspora organizations to the United Nations Secretary General on May 29.

“Over 20 million citizens were internally displaced in search of safety. Newspapers, magazines and publications which are available in libraries and archives all around the world bear testimony to the fact.”

EDUCATION, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Obamas say affirmative action allowed them to ‘prove we belonged’ in college The former first lady said her “heart breaks for any young person out there who’s wondering what their future holds” after the end of affirmative action. By Madeleine Hubbard

Posted By on June 30th, 2023

https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/obamas-say-affirmative-action-allowed-them-prove-we-belonged-college

Former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle on Thursday criticized the Supreme Court’s ruling against affirmative action by stating that they benefited from the policy themselves.

Michelle Obama, who went to Princeton for her bachelor’s degree and Harvard for her J.D., wrote in her statement, which was significantly longer than her husband’s, that she had wondered whether people thought she got into school because of affirmative action. 

“But the fact is this: I belonged,” she also wrote. “So often, we just accept that money, power, and privilege are perfectly justifiable forms of affirmative action, while kids growing up like I did are expected to compete when the ground is anything but level.”

The former first lady also said her “heart breaks for any young person out there who’s wondering what their future holds” after the end of affirmative action. 

Barack Obama only wrote three sentences about the ruling: “Like any policy, affirmative action wasn’t perfect. But it allowed generations of students like Michelle and me to prove we belonged. Now it’s up to all of us to give young people the opportunities they deserve — and help students everywhere benefit from new perspectives.”

President Joe Biden also criticized the court’s decision. 

“Discrimination still exists in America,” he said multiple times. 

Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump celebrated the ruling. 

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The 4 Big Lies (And 1 Terrible Truth) In Biden’s ‘Bidenomics Is Working’ Speech

Posted By on June 30th, 2023

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/06/30/the-4-big-lies-and-1-terrible-truth-in-bidens-bidenomics-is-working-speech/

“I’m happy to call it ‘Bidenomics.’  And guess what?  Bidenomics is working.”

In a 30-minute speech in Chicago this week, President Joe Biden declared that his economic policies — which can charitably be summed up as “borrow and spend, tax and regulate” — are doing wonders for the nation’s economy.

Never mind that just 38% of Americans approve of the job Biden has been doing on the economy.

No. The only risk we face, Biden argued, was a return of that bogeyman known as “trickle-down economics.”

“Folks, let me say this as clearly as I can,” Biden said. “The trickle-down approach failed the middle class. It failed America. It blew up the deficit. It increased inequity. And it weakened the in — our infrastructure. It stripped the dignity, pride, and hope out of communities one after another, particularly through the Midwest, Western Pennsylvania, and heading west.”

Scary!

Or, it would be, if there was a shred of truth to it. The middle class made huge gains during the “trickle-down” Reagan boom and was making huge gains during the Trump boom until the Biden-backed COVID lockdowns gutted it.

Truth is, the only way Biden can make the case for “Bidenomics” is by lying. Examples:

“U.S. has had the highest economic growth rate, leading the world economies since the pandemic.”

Except it didn’t. The U.S. ranks 146th in real GDP growth in the world so far this year, came in 151st place last year, and was 66th in 2021, according to the International Monetary Fund.

“We created 13.4 million new jobs.”

Also false. Because almost 10 million of those were simply refilled jobs lost during the pointless COVID lockdown. Under Biden, the number of net new jobs is less than 4 million — which is nothing to brag about, given that the working-age population has grown by 6.8 million since Biden took office.

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The End of Affirmative Action and the Long Road to Racial Equality Under the Law After going through slavery, Jim Crow and affirmative action, has the Supreme Court finally brought us there? By Ward Connerly

Posted By on June 30th, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-long-road-to-racial-equality-affirmative-action-supreme-court-discrimination-race-diversity-f45c3b8f?mod=opinion_lead_pos7

EXCERPT

I strongly believe that the future of our country demands that we reject our endless pursuit of diversity and equity and claw our way back to our values and the vision embraced by Lincoln and JFK. Ending race-based affirmative action is an important first step in that mission. Over the past 20 years, voters in Arizona, California, Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Washington backed ballot measures to prohibit racial discrimination—including preferential treatment for minorities. Officials in Idaho, Florida and New Hampshire did the same via legislation or executive order.

As one who was born in Jim Crow as a “colored” person and who has lived through all 62 years of affirmative action, my fear has been that this departure from one of America’s most fundamental values—over which we have fought a civil war—was becoming accepted as the preferred policy, rather than the exception, to our constitutional obligation of equal treatment for every person.

Now that the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of equal rights and against race-based affirmative action in college admissions, it is realistic to anticipate some pushback. Change after 60 years rarely comes easy. For my part, and that of the majority who believe in the ideal that has guided America since its inception, this is a time to rejoice, as America will come closer to living in accordance with its creed.

On the day before the high court’s oral arguments in the Students for Fair Admissions cases, I addressed a rally sponsored by Asian Americans for Equal Education. As I sat chatting with Ed Blum, whose organization was the plaintiff, a college student of Asian descent approached. I asked why she considered this case to be important.

“Because it would give me a chance to prove my merit, and the content of my character,” she said. Martin Luther King Jr. would have nodded even more vigorously than I did.

Mr. Connerly is president of the American Civil Rights Institute.

EDUCATION, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

A Landmark for Racial Equality at the Supreme Court The Justices revive the plain meaning of the 14th Amendment in barring discrimination by race in admissions at Harvard and the University of North Carolina.

Posted By on June 30th, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/articles/harvard-unc-students-for-fair-admissions-supreme-court-affirmative-action-john-roberts-clarence-thomas-racial-preferences-f8c998f6?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

The Supreme Court had one of its finest hours on Thursday as it reaffirmed, in logical but forceful fashion, the bedrock American principle of equality under the law. In barring the use of race in college admissions, a six-Justice majority took a giant step back from the racial Balkanization that risks becoming set in institutional stone.

The two cases at issue were brought against Harvard, a private institution, and the public University of North Carolina by Students for Fair Admissions. They each used race to favor some applicants at the expense of others—most often Asian-Americans. In his majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts unequivocally declares their admissions processes to be unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment.

“The Harvard and UNC admissions programs cannot be reconciled with the guarantees of the Equal Protection Clause,” he writes. “Both programs lack sufficiently focused and measurable objectives warranting the use of race, unavoidably employ race in a negative manner, involve racial stereotyping, and lack meaningful end points. We have never permitted admissions programs to work in that way, and we will not do so today.”

It doesn’t get clearer than that, in what is the most significant opinion of the Chief’s career. “Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it,” he writes.

The Court’s opinion is especially bracing because it clears up a half-century of muddled Supreme Court rulings.

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Are the Walls Closing in on Ol’ Joe? You don’t have to choose between the allegations against Biden and Trump. Both could be true. Charles Lipson

Posted By on June 29th, 2023

https://thespectator.com/topic/walls-closing-joe-biden-corruption-hunter-irs-white-house-trump/

Confronted with devastating evidence of Biden family grifting, the president’s advocates are abandoning their old defenses and trying some new ones. 

Some are attempting to change the subject. Nancy Pelosi offers a sterling example. Asked about the latest evidence connecting Joe Biden with Hunter’s corrupt schemes, she replied that she was too busy defending women’s reproductive rights. Not exactly a full-throated defense of the president. Still others are repeating the familiar refrain, “But Trump is worse.” (More on that in a minute.) 

Finally, a shrinking band of Biden supporters are sticking with their old line: you may have caught everyone who shares Joe’s DNA, but you haven’t caught ol’ Joe himself. That’s true, but the evidence of the president’s involvement is mounting and the allegations are detailed. The charges are so obvious and the evidence so serious that even mainstream reporters are asking about them. The president’s press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, stands mute. So does her more competent stand-in, John Kirby. KJP not only told the press she knows nothing, she told them she would not privately ask the president about the charges so she could respond to press inquiries. 

What Joe’s defenders are increasingly reluctant to say is, “He had absolutely nothing to do with the vast sums raked in by his son, brother, daughter-in-law and minor grandchildren. He knew nothing. He had no knowledge of the intricate web of shell companies his family used to move money around and hide its sources and recipients. He doesn’t know any honest business people who have used these covert methods. He did nothing to help his son, Hunter, his brother, James, or other family members. The president is completely ignorant of anything they did and did nothing to help them.” That’s his story. 

Many of Joe’s defenders have backed away from a straightforward declaration that “he’s innocent,” and instead render the Scottish verdict, “Not proven.” So far, they are right — the case isn’t proven yet. But the walls are closing in, both on Joe himself and on his defenders at the Department of Justice, IRS and FBI.