ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Cross-Examining the Climate Change Cultists What it means when someone wants to prevent cross-examination. Kurt Schlichter

Posted By on August 2nd, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/08/cross-examining-climate-change-cultists-kurt-schlichter/

If you want to watch the pinkos fret, simply state the indisputable truth that what they call “climate change” is a massive hoax. Their fallback is inevitably that “science” – which they purport to love except when it demonstrates that there are only men and women and that you can’t change the sex you are born as – has decreed that because we peons insist on not living in caves like primitive tribesmen (okay, non-binary tribespeople) the Earth is going to cook. And, of course, the only solution is to do a whole bunch of things that leftists always wanted to do anyway. There’s no time to think, no time to reflect, and certainly no time to argue. Why, who are you to question the scientists?

Well, I’m a lawyer. I question scientists for a living. 

Now, I have no scientific training to speak of. I majored in communications and political science, so the only science I studied at UC San Diego had to do with the physics of foaming when I poured Coors into a glass, as well as the mechanics of human reproduction. Don’t expect me to discourse deeply on the heat retention coefficient of CO2 – I don’t even know if that is a thing, but it sure sounds sciency.

Instead, I hire scientists in most every case I try. Sometimes I hire several in different disciplines. The other side does too, and here’s the weird thing – at trial, the other side’s scientists always, always, disagree with my scientists.

EDUCATION, ISRAEL Comments turned off

The Lethal Indoctrination of Children in Palestinian Education How UNRWA-run schools incubate anti-Semitism and terror. Richard L. Cravatts

Posted By on August 2nd, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/08/lethal-indoctrination-children-palestinian-richard-l-cravatts/

Signaling yet another unfortunate reversal of Trump-era policies, President Biden was in Bethlehem in the West Bank on July 15th to affirm U.S. support for the long-aggrieved Palestinians.

During that meeting with PA President Mahmoud Abbas, Biden suggested that “Palestinian refugees deserve to live in dignity, to see their basic needs addressed, and to have hope for the future,” and one remedy for their condition, of course, is U.S. aid, namely, “an additional $201 million for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) to continue delivering critical services to Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.”

UNRWA, the UN’s division dedicated solely to the Palestinian refugees, has been the subject of much scrutiny and criticism, which is why in 2018 the Trump administration eliminated further funding for the controversial agency. That approach was a good step, since UNRWA, established when some 400,000-700,000 Palestinians were made refugees with the founding of Israel, has perversely served as a political and diplomatic tactic by which the hapless Palestinians have languished stateless, as if in amber, used as a hammer with which to bludgeon Israel by blaming the Jewish state for the condition in which these refugees, including millions of the descendants of the original refugees, now find themselves. The slavish attention paid to this particular group of refugees suggests that their importance is based on the symbolic import of their existence as Israel’s victims, thus the budgetary and organizational commitment to UNRWA’s operations.

Specifically, UNRWA employs some 30,000 people to tend to the needs of only 5.7 million people identified as Palestinian refugees (or 190 refugees for every employee) while The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, the division responsible for every other refugee in the world, some 59 million people, has only 18,000 employees (3277 refugees for every employee).

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Wit and Wisdom of Kamala Never has someone so empty of everything come this close to running everything. Daniel Greenfield

Posted By on August 2nd, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/08/wit-and-wisdom-kamala-daniel-greenfield/

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris might be the single worst pair of communicators to occupy the White House. Both Joe and Kamala are wedded to teleprompters because he has too much to say and she has nothing to say. Teleprompters are there to keep Joe Biden from telling wildly inappropriate stories about his leg hairs or announcing an impromptu surrender to China, but they’re also there because in her natural state Kamala is incapable of saying anything at all.

Presidents and their veeps are supposed to be a balance of strengths and weaknesses like a good marriage, but instead Biden and Kamala are a bad marriage in which their weaknesses are mirror opposites, but also so far apart that they’re incapable of balancing each other out.

Neither Joe or Kamala have any real skills. They both got to where they are as a combination of political accidents by men who were attracted to their weakness and incompetence.

Obama picked Biden because the failed presidential candidate was an old white man who would be too inept to build his own power base or function independently of his team. And Obama proved correct when Biden not only failed to declare his independence during eight years as his second banana, but even after Obama twice refused to endorse his presidential run is still dependent on Obama’s people to tell him what to do, where to go and what to say.

Kamala was handpicked by Willie Brown for her willingness to sleep with a much older man. And to represent Willie’s interests on various commissions. Despite no apparent skills or real track record, she advanced through the ranks because she was a hollow vessel. Having very little in the way of a mind of her own, she could be counted on to do what her bosses wanted.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Why It’s Time for Defense Secretary Austin to Resign The compounded failures of a progressive ideologue. Amber Smith

Posted By on August 2nd, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/08/why-its-time-defense-secretary-austin-resign-amber-smith/

Amber Smith is a former Pentagon official and U.S. Army Kiowa Warrior helicopter pilot and veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan. She is the author of ‘Danger Close’.

The consequence of the Department of Defense COVID vaccine mandate? A self-inflicted national security threat to readiness, recruitment, retention and ultimately to the all-volunteer force. Secretary of Defense Loyd Austin made a foolish decision to throw away battle tested, combat proven service members with years of priceless war fighting experience and leadership who were an incredible asset to the fighting force. This deliberate decision has caused irreversible damage to the military and the force’s ability to accomplish the mission.

Austin should resign for his failures to maintain necessary force end strength, the worst recruitment crisis since the Vietnam war, for playing politics with soldiers’ careers over the COVID vaccine mandate, and the botched Afghanistan withdrawal. His failure to intervene early in order to tackle these issues prior to becoming full-fledged crises has significantly degraded the military’s capabilities, readiness and national security. 

But Austin’s failures started long before COVID. 

MOVIES AND TELEVISION Comments turned off

Michelle Obama 2024: A review of Joel Gilbert’s new film By Thomas Lifson

Posted By on August 2nd, 2022

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/08/emmichelle_obama_2024em_a_review_of_joel_gilberts_new_film.html

I confess that, having paid pretty close attention to the lives of Barack and Michelle Obama ever since the entry of the couple into presidential politics in 2003, I was surprised at how much I learned from filmmaker Joel Gilbert’s new film.  Michelle Obama 2024: Her Real Life Story and Plan for Power, offers a deeper look into the former first lady — and, in Gilbert’s opinion, the likely 2024 Democrat nominee — than I had ever experienced.  (You can read Joel’s recent AT article derived from the film here.)

It is a hugely entertaining look as well.  Gilbert travels to the key locations in Michelle Obama’s life, starting with the apartment complex her family first lived in, the schools she attended (quite a story there!), and the places she worked, as well as the places she and her husband made key moments in his political rise.

This is a very personal film, with Gilbert guiding viewers on this tour, and sometimes talking on camera with important persons in her life, including Michelle Obama’s mother, Marian Robinson, through a closed screen door on her house.

It is a testament to the honesty and thoroughness of the filmmaker that I came away from the film with a heightened appreciation for the efforts of Fraser and Marian Robinson in raising their children, older brother Craig and Michelle, as well as a deeper understanding of how thoroughly marinated in politics Michelle has been since early childhood.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Harvard Study: Only 8% of Capitol Rioters Wanted ‘Insurrection’

Posted By on August 2nd, 2022

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/07/31/harvard-study-only-8-of-capitol-rioters-wanted-insurrection/

A comprehensive study by Harvard University of the motivations of those who participated in the January 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol found that only 8% wanted to start an insurrection or civil war — contrary to claims by the January 6 Committee.

The Harvard Crimson reported last week:

In the most comprehensive study to date of what motivated the Trump supporters to attack the Capitol, Shorenstein Center researchers found that 20.6 percent of the rioters, a plurality, were motivated to take part in the riot because they supported Trump. Another 20.6 percent of the rioters cited Trump’s fraudulent claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged as their primary reason for participating in the Jan. 6 riot.

…

The third most common reason for attacking the Capitol: a desire to start a civil war or an armed revolution, according to the study. Almost 8 percent of defendants indicated it was their main motivation.

In an interview, Fagan said she was surprised by how frequently support for Trump and concerns about the election were cited as primary motivations for joining the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The FBI Twice Interfered in the 2020 Election to Sabotage Trump. Now What? The evidence is amassed and verified—the only unknown is what Republicans will do next. By Julie Kelly

Posted By on August 2nd, 2022

https://amgreatness.com/2022/08/01/the-fbi-twice-interfered-in-the-2020-election-to-sabotage-trump-now-what/

It could be the whopper of the year.

“I can tell you that in every case we follow the facts and the evidence and the law and we do so without regard to politics or ideology,” Matthew Olsen, head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, solemnly assured the House Judiciary Committee during a hearing last week.

Olsen was responding to a question by U.S. Representative Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) about the decision to arrest several men for supposedly conspiring to abduct and assassinate Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2020. “The alleged Whitmer plot was announced on October 7, 2020 within a month of the U.S. presidential election,” Bishop asked Olsen. “How come that [was the] timing for the FBI’s announcement of this plot?”

Olsen refused to explain why, opting instead to commit borderline perjury by insisting the Justice Department turns a blind eye to politics—all evidence accumulated over the past six years to the contrary.

But now that two men have been acquitted after defense attorneys convinced a Michigan jury in April that the FBI entrapped their clients—the jury deadlocked on two other defendants who face a new trial next week—Bishop’s question demands an answer. And it won’t come from a dangerously-weaponized Justice Department focused almost entirely on prosecuting Americans who protested Joe Biden’s election on January 6, 2021 and with its sights now trained on indicting Donald Trump.

Despite Olsen’s stonewalling, the answer to Bishop’s question is in plain sight. Just as it did with phony claims of Russian election collusion in 2016, the FBI fabricated a scandal in 2020 aimed at sabotaging Trump right before a national election.

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Asia Times’ “China Center” newsletter: The Pelosi visit and the Chinese property market: David Goldman

Posted By on August 2nd, 2022

https://asiatimes.com/

The Biden Administration’s policy signaling on China has been confused and contradictory from the inception of the Administration, and the confusion around House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s rumored visit to Taiwan suggests that Biden’s foreign policy team blundered its way into a prospective crisis. At China Center’s deadline, Pelosi was en route to Asia, without confirmation or denial of a stop in Taiwan.

The seriousness of the present situation cannot be emphasized enough. Remnin University Professor Jin Canrong, one of the Chinese analysts most closely followed by Biden’s national security team, said Aug. 1 in an interview with the “Observer” (guancha.cn) website: “It can be said that in our offshore waters, whether in the Taiwan Strait or the South China Sea, our military has advantages. Our ballistic missiles can cover the entire South China Sea, the air force can basically cover the entire South China Sea, and the navy has certain advantages over several US fleets. In addition, we have obvious advantages given our geographic position in electronic countermeasures and reconnaissance systems. If the US really wants to create friction here, it won’t be cheap.”

In off-record discussions in Washington, several US former top foreign policy officials expressed doubt that Pelosi planned a trip to Taiwan without consulting the White House. How the visit was first mooted suggests an amateurish attempt at plausible deniability. Pelosi did not announce a visit to Taiwan, and no American media outlet has confirmed such plans. Instead, the first mention of a possible visit came from the London Financial Times July 18, citing six separate sources. That is not eavesdropping at a hotel lobby bar, but a deliberate leak. The newspaper also said that the Administration was divided over whether Pelosi should visit Taiwan.

MEDIA Comments turned off

In Paul Krugman’s Upper West Side Bubble, All Is Well

Posted By on August 2nd, 2022

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/08/02/in-paul-krugmans-upper-west-side-bubble-all-is-well/

After Richard Nixon’s landslide victory over leftist George McGovern in 1972, New York Times movie critic Pauline Kael supposedly said: “How could Nixon have won? Nobody I know voted for him.”

This weekend, current New York Times columnist Paul Krugman outdid Kael in the utterly-clueless-liberal-bubble department.

On CNN Sunday, Krugman said that the big problem with the economy today is that media are unfairly writing negative stories about it. “I think that what’s happening now is that there’s been a kind of a negativity bias in coverage,” he said.

Then Krugman went full Kael, telling CNN’s Brian Stelter, “if you ask people, ‘How are you doing?’ they are pretty — they’re pretty upbeat … if you ask people, ‘How’s your financial situation?’ it’s pretty favorable.”

Really? What people?

The folks who attend dinner parties with Krugman in New York’s Upper West Side, for whom inflation is a petty annoyance, if they notice it at all? Are those the people Krugman’s been talking to?

If he talked to families struggling to make ends meet, or find baby formula, or pay their rent, he’d get a far different response than “pretty upbeat.” Because out here in the real world, they’ve watched things go from bad to worse.

If Krugman can’t bring himself to talk to the unwashed masses, at least he could look at recent poll data.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

A DECLARATION OF DISSOLUTION: WISCONSIN SUPREME COURT FIRES THE STARTING SHOT

Posted By on August 2nd, 2022

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/08/01/a-declaration-of-dissolution-wisconsin-supreme-court-fires-the-starting-gun/

“If elections are conducted outside of the law, the people have not conferred their consent on the government. Such elections are unlawful, and their results are illegitimate.” — Justice Rebecca Grassl Bradley, writing for the Wisconsin Supreme Court majority in Teigen v. Wisconsin Elections Commission

A court of law has finally confirmed it: The 2020 election was “illegitimate.” And all the demands for sufficient evidence of voter fraud to reverse the outcome were a red herring.

The truly dispositive factor, as stated by a Republican Wisconsin state legislator in a March hearing and affirmed in the opinion: “If a vote is cast in an illegal process, it’s an illegal vote!”

The reasons for legislatively enacted absentee ballot protections are clear. Justice Bradley quotes the Wisconsin Legislature’s rationale: “(P)revent the potential for fraud or abuse … overzealous solicitation of absent electors who may prefer not to participate in an election … undue influence on an absent elector … or other similar abuses.”

And that’s exactly what unlawfully relaxed provisions occasioned in Wisconsin:

Nearly 3,600 trips by 138 “mules” to drop boxes to traffic 137,551 votes. (Trump lost the state by about 20,000.)
Illegal assistance with absentee ballots by nursing home staff to residents, some with dementia.
“Zuckerbucks” exploiting these changes to “purchase Joe Biden an additional 65,222 votes, without which Donald Trump would have won the state by 44,540 votes.”

But again, per Wisconsin’s Supremes, Donald Trump didn’t have to prove the existence or extent of fraud, only deviation from legislative schemes. Because – nota bene! – the votes’ unlawful nature is the proof.