ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Election-Year Censorship

Posted By on August 24th, 2022

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/08/24/election-year-censorship/

Social media companies were part of what Time magazine called “​​an extraordinary shadow effort” whose objective was to prevent Donald Trump from being reelected in 2020. Two years later, and surely emboldened by their success, they are back, their sights set on throwing the midterm elections to the Democrats.

There can be no doubt that social media is aligned with the left in a political cleansing of Republican candidates and voters. According to the Time article, The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election, “a well-funded cabal of powerful people” “successfully pressured social media companies to take a harder line against disinformation and used data-driven strategies to fight viral smears.”

Of course “disinformation” and “viral smears” were anything that hurt Democrats and helped Republicans. Truth was never a consideration.

And neither is it today.

“Two of the leading platforms responsible for censoring the bombshell New York Post Hunter Biden scandal stories before the 2020 presidential election are gearing up to censor free speech to combat so-called ‘misinformation’ ahead of the 2022 midterm elections,” the Media Research Center reported last week.

According to the MRC account, Facebook’s parent company Meta, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Twitter have “pledged to target ‘misleading narratives’ by suppressing election content they deem to be false, misleading, or dangerous.” 

Meta has publicly acknowledged that it’s fielding a “dedicated team focused on the 2022 midterms to help combat election and voter interference,” and even indicated, says the MRC, “that government may even collude with the platform in censoring content.” 

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Rep. Nadler ousts colleague Maloney in New York House Democratic primary brawl by Carly Roman

Posted By on August 24th, 2022

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/rep-nadler-ousts-colleague-maloney-in-new-york-house-democratic-primary-brawl

Rep. Jerry Nadler triumphed on Tuesday over his onetime ally Rep. Carolyn Maloney in a primary race that pitted the two incumbent Democrats against each other for control over a newly drawn congressional district.

Nadler, who under New York’s outgoing congressional lines represented a district that hugged Manhattan’s west side and continued into parts of Brooklyn, will become the Democratic Party nominee to embark on what will likely be a cruise-control ride to the November finish line in the 12th Congressional District after a double-digit victory over Maloney, according to the Associated Press.

“Well New York…we did it! I’m so deeply grateful for your continued support and trust—I promise to keep on fighting for New Yorkers in Congress. Onwards!” Nadler tweeted.

The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee positioned himself as the more progressive candidate in his bid to represent the heavily Democratic district, touting endorsements from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and New York’s left-wing Working Families Party and slamming his opponent for her votes in support of the Iraq War and the Patriot Act. Nadler focused on national issues, drawing heavily on his background as a leading voice in favor of the two efforts to impeach former President Donald Trump.

CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Trump Warrant Had No Legal Basis A former president’s rights under the Presidential Records Act trump the statutes the FBI cited to justify the Mar-a-Lago raid. By David B. Rivkin Jr. and Lee A. Casey

Posted By on August 24th, 2022

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-trump-warrant-had-no-legal-basis-mar-a-lago-affidavit-presidential-records-act-archivist-custody-classified-fbi-garland-11661170684

Was the Federal Bureau of Investigation justified in searching Donald Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago? The judge who issued the warrant for Mar-a-Lago has signaled that he is likely to release a redacted version of the affidavit supporting it. But the warrant itself suggests the answer is likely no—the FBI had no legally valid cause for the raid.

The warrant authorized the FBI to seize “all physical documents and records constituting evidence, contraband, fruits of crime, or other items illegally possessed in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§793, 2071, or 1519” (emphasis added). These three criminal statutes all address the possession and handling of materials that contain national-security information, public records or material relevant to an investigation or other matters properly before a federal agency or the courts.

The materials to be seized included “any government and/or Presidential Records created between January 20, 2017, and January 20, 2021”—i.e., during Mr. Trump’s term of office. Virtually all the materials at Mar-a-Lago are likely to fall within this category. Federal law gives Mr. Trump a right of access to them. His possession of them is entirely consistent with that right, and therefore lawful, regardless of the statutes the FBI cites in its warrant.

Those statutes are general in their text and application. But Mr. Trump’s documents are covered by a specific statute, the Presidential Records Act of 1978. It has long been the Supreme Court position, as stated in Morton v. Mancari (1974), that “where there is no clear intention otherwise, a specific statute will not be controlled or nullified by a general one, regardless of the priority of enactment.” The former president’s rights under the PRA trump any application of the laws the FBI warrant cites.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

The Palestinian Authority’s stealth attempt to take over Judea and Samaria David Isaac

Posted By on August 23rd, 2022

(The Palestinian Authority’s stealth attempt to take over Judea and Samaria – JNS.org)

“The illegal building that’s taking place by the Arabs has increased so dramatically in the last year that it’s out of control. If we judge according to where these activities are happening, they’re definitely in places which you can see they’re trying to create facts on the ground,” says Efrat Mayor Oded Revivi. Diligently following a master plan worked out over 10 years ago, the Palestinian Authority is laying claim to large tracts of Israeli state land through illegal building. Resembling Potemkin villages, many structures stand empty, hollow, windowless, alone or clumped together. The land grab has been hugely successful because Israeli countermeasures have been so feeble, Jews living in the area tell JNS.

“Their side is focused, determined and has a well-developed plan. Our side is unfocused, indecisive and in many cases not even aware of what’s going on,” said Michael Sperber, a family lawyer who lives in Efrat, a city of 15,000 about a half-hour’s drive south of Jerusalem in the Judean hills.

Sperber, a long-time resident of Efrat (he served as deputy mayor 15 years ago) has taken it upon himself to document illegal Arab construction in the area. From Dagan, the city’s northernmost neighborhood, Sperber has a window seat onto Arab buildings advancing from Bethlehem across the narrow valley below and up toward Efrat.

Efrat Mayor Oded Revivi told JNS that, “The illegal building that’s taking place by the Arabs has increased so dramatically in the last year that it’s out of control. If we judge according to where these activities are happening, they’re definitely in places which you can see they’re trying to create facts on the ground.”

Revivi noted that if the illegal structures are not hooked up to the sewage system this could lead to pollution of underground reservoirs, and if they are erected too close to roads then this could prevent the widening of lanes in the future.

CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Liz Cheney’s Agony By Richard McDonough

Posted By on August 23rd, 2022

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/08/liz_cheneys_agony.html

EXCERPT

Liz Cheney, who sits on the Jan. 6th Committee, has made her political agenda clear from the beginning.  Although an “investigation” is supposed to be a search for the truth, Liz Cheney made agonizingly clear many times that she didn’t need to wait for the results of the investigation.  From the beginning her stated aim was “make sure that Trump never gets near the White House again.”  Permanent Washington also made their aim clear.  The Jan. 6th Committee “investigation” was for her, and many others, mere political theatre to achieve a predetermined political agenda.

Had Cheney been interested in the truth, she might have insisted that the committee seat the appropriate number and type of Republicans to cross-examine the prosecutorial witnesses.  She did not do so.  At every turn she interpreted any testimony in the worst way possible for Trump, e.g., she has recently stated that Trump “commanded” a “heavily armed mob” to try to stop the counting of electoral votes.  She and her Jan. 6th Committee have, however, given no evidence whatsoever that Trump “commanded” an armed mob to use violence to stop the counting of electoral votes.  Her very strong statement requires that she prove both causality and intent.  However, the committee has only demonstrated a degree (even that not clear) of correlation between Trump’s remarks and the riot, namely, that Trump made some remarks and some people went to the Capitol and rioted.  The committee has not proved that Trump’s remarks caused the mob to riot at the Capitol or that Trump intended that his remarks cause the mob to riot at the Capitol.  Demonstrating causality or intent is never easy in social situations: “Since intent is a mental state. it is one of the most difficult things to prove.” It is certainly not easy given the very murky events surrounding Jan. 6th, events that the committee in their “Star Chamber” has conspired to keep murky.  For Liz Cheney, however, everything about Jan. 6th is as clear to her as her seething hatred of Donald Trump.

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Are Green Pet Projects Delaying the Next Energy Breakthrough?

Posted By on August 23rd, 2022

https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/08/are-green-pet-projects-delaying-the-next

Biden’s latest green boondoggle funnels money to known energy losers, while curbing the technologies that could prove truly transformative.

Joe Biden’s latest spending binge doubles down on decades of failed government policies, propping up the wind and solar industries while entirely ignoring vast areas ripe for potential energy breakthroughs.

Biden’s so-called Inflation Reduction Act pledged to invest $369 billion in so-called “green” energy sources such as wind and solar power over the next decade, giving a windfall of cash to energy types favored by environmentalists. The IRA aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 40 percent by 2030.

America already poured almost $450 billion, even more than the amount provided by Biden’s legislation, into “green” energy between 2010 and 2019. Yet solar and wind power provided only 1.5 and 3.4 percent, respectively, of the energy produced in the U.S. in 2021, according to the Energy Information Administration. The use of solar and wind power has either temporarily increased carbon dioxide emissions or, at best, been responsible for about 1 percent of the decline in emissions, a process much more attributable to the switch from coal power to natural gas.

Pumping vast sums of money into solar and wind isn’t a new phenomenon. In fact, it has been going on for almost half a century, as government favoritism towards these technologies goes right back to the origins of the technologies. (In 1974, an economical solar-power device was the object that drove the plot in the then-near-future James Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun.) The solar-energy backers were wrong, and their boondoggle has cost American taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. Today, solar and wind power get, respectively, 250 and 160 times the subsidies per unit of energy generated that nuclear-fission power does, according to Forbes.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Liz Peek: Democrats’ spin Biden success and wish upon a star for midterm magic but don’t you believe it

Posted By on August 23rd, 2022

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/democrats-spin-biden-success-wish-upon-star-midterm-magic

Are Republicans really about to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory? 

That’s what the liberal media would have you believe. For the past few weeks the New York Times, Washington Post et al – the usual message boards for the Democratic National Committee – have been celebrating Joe Biden’s slightly rising poll numbers and legislative “accomplishments.”

“Biden is on a roll” trumpeted the Times recently, quoting White House aides claiming the president has enjoyed a “string of victories [that] compares favorably to the two-year legislative record of most any other modern president.” 

According to the Times, Biden recently descended from Air Force One with a “jaunty step, a playful manner and a huge grin” – that’s how reinvigorated the 79-year old president is. Once again, the Times reports, within the halls of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Biden is being likened to LBJ or FDR.

Politico ran a piece under the headline, “Wait, Is Biden a Better President Than People Thought?

The simple answer is: no. Biden is still an unpopular, ineffective president whose recent promise to get out on the campaign trail (now that he has recovered from COVID) must have Democrat candidates shaking in their boots. 

Few want the president at their side when they are trying to explain to Americans why egg prices are up 38% in the past year and why Covid-19 still haunts the land despite Biden’s promise that the vaccine would kill off the virus. They can’t imagine Biden’s response when voters ask how our booming economy fell into recession, or why Democrats are allowing some 2 million people to enter the U.S. illegally this year. Or when Americans ask how the president plans to make our cities’ streets safe again. 

EDUCATION Comments turned off

‘Anti-Racism’ and Common Sense:By Peter Kirsanow

Posted By on August 23rd, 2022

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/anti-racism-and-common-sense/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=blog-post&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=top-bar-latest&utm_term=fourth

A  short time ago, the National Museum of African American History sported a poster that most normal adults would describe as moronic if not blatantly racist. The poster purported to list indicies of “Whiteness,” such as hard work, individualism, objectivity, nuclear family, respect for authority, and delayed gratification. These weren’t presented as universal qualities to strive for regardless of race. Rather, these were  tools of oppression,  contributors to unfairness, and characteristics of white supremacy.

CRT/anti-racism training tells little white kids that they’re privileged and/or oppressors by virtue of their race. Common sense counsels that such training will almost necessarily yield negative outcomes, some of them severe.

There was a time in the recent past when the vast majority of adults — regardless of race, educational attainment, or economic background — intuitively grasped that such instruction is galactically stupid, immoral, toxic, false, and destructive. A majority might still think so, even if they’re too cowed to say it.

But that doesn’t appear to include a majority of today’s so-called “elites,” many of whom support and promote such instruction. This portends ill for our society, which seems to be sprouting ruptures in social cohesion by the minute. Indeed, less than 20 years ago, before the germination of anti-racism  training, Gallup reported that 74 percent of white Americans and 68 percent of black Americans thought race relations were good. By July 2021, those numbers had cratered to 43 percent and 33 percent, respectively. Some of that decline may be attributable to discrete events such as the Michael Brown and George Floyd incidents and the media narratives surrounding them.  But the steady harangue of idiotic — and sometimes evil — CRT/anti-racism/DEI training surely contributes.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Arizona’s Campus Disaster Can Be Stopped Stanley Kurtz

Posted By on August 23rd, 2022

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/arizonas-campus-disaster-can-be-stopped/

The woke rebellion against America’s founding principles continues to advance on all fronts. Nowhere is this truer than at America’s universities, the source and stronghold of the cultural revolution. The pushback against the illiberalism of our universities — their betrayal of their own first principles — has so far been a paltry thing. Supposedly, this is because higher education is shielded by academic freedom in a way that K–12 education is not. But that is not the reason we have failed. The truth is, opponents of the woke revolution have barely begun to do what they can to restore liberal education to America’s academy.

The greatest abdication of all is our failure to reform universities by way of trustees (also called regents or governors). University boards of regents can do almost anything. Yet most often they do nothing but rubber-stamp the decisions of administrators. That has to change right now, and it needs to change first in Arizona.

Boards of regents at public universities are responsible to the people of their state. Regents are appointed by governors, and sometimes by legislatures, too. In a few states, regents are selected by popular vote. Yet almost never do we see the appointment of university trustees become an election issue. Well, trustee selection needs to be an election issue right now in Arizona. Here’s why.

Arizona’s public universities have turned themselves into leaders in the national movement to indoctrinate students in the tenets of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI). The showpiece of this campaign is Northern Arizona University’s (NAU) move to require four — count ’em, four — diversity courses for graduation, all of which must be grounded in “critical theory,” the neo-Marxist system that produced critical race theory, critical legal theory, and still more entries in the grand campaign to neo-Marxitize pretty much everything.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Where Is Steven D’Antuono? The head of the FBI’s field office in Washington, D.C., has a lot of explaining to do. By Julie Kelly

Posted By on August 23rd, 2022

https://amgreatness.com/2022/08/22/where-is-steven-dantuono/

A few days after the Capitol protest on January 6, 2021, a tough-talking FBI chief with a Boston accent promised the American people that the bureau would spare no resource in hunting down everyone and anyone involved in the four-hour disturbance that day. 

Steven M. D’Antuono, the newly appointed head of the Washington, D.C. FBI field office, gave the public a stern warning. “The FBI will leave no stone unturned. This is a 24/7, full bore, extensive operation,” D’Antuono explained during a January 12, 2021 press conference at the Department of Justice. “As Director Wray says, the FBI does not do easy.”

His agency, D’Antuono bragged, has a “long memory and a broad reach.” Agents from 56 FBI field offices across the country “will be knocking on your door if we find out you were part of the criminal activity at the Capitol.” He urged people to turn in their co-workers, neighbors, and relatives if they had information that could help the FBI in its dragnet.

Turns out, his comments weren’t just Beantown-style braggadocio. More than 850 Americans since then have been investigated, arrested, and charged for mostly nonviolent offenses related to the January 6 protest. Armed FBI agents have conducted early morning raids at homes across the country, using military style vehicles to batter in front doors while traumatizing families, children, and neighbors in the process. It is a crusade of fear and terror meant to reinforce D’Antuono’s threats that those who dared to demonstrate against the fraudulent election of Joe Biden that day will pay a hefty price. 

Nearly 20 months later, D’Antuono’s office continues to announce new arrests.