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August 2020

The Alarming Progress of the Hate America Left How they have invaded American minds. David Horowitz

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/08/alarming-progress-hate-america-left-david-horowitz/

On the Rotunda of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington is inscribed these words: “I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.” This statement by Thomas Jefferson is the heart of the democracy in whose founding he played so central a role.  It is why the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights is the First Amendment and not the Second, or Fourth, or Fifth.

Today our nation is facing the most serious threat to establish such a tyranny in our entire history.  This threat comes from the political left, which deceptively calls its reactionary creed “progressive.” Its tyranny is advanced under the Orwellian names, “political correctness,” “cancel culture,” “wokeness” and “anti-racism,” which is a recently minted doctrine that condemns every deviation from the leftwing party line as “racist” and therefore worthy of suppression.

The gravity of this attempt to abolish our democracy can be seen in the attack on America’s founding – an attack led by America’s intellectual establishment. Under the rubric of “The 1619 Project,” The New York Times, the Pulitzer and MacArthur Foundations and other arbiters of the culture have promoted the monstrous libel that America was founded as slave state and that the American revolution was designed to preserve this hateful institution which had survived in countries all over the world for 3,000 years.

‘Apocalypse Never’ Takes Direct Aim at Consensus Climate Alarmism By Edward Ring

https://amgreatness.com/2020/08/09/apocalypse-never-takes-direct-aim-at-consensus-climate-alarmism/

A review of “Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All,” by Michael Shellenberger (Harper, 432 pages, $29.99)

This environmental humanist agenda that prioritizes love for humanity is a direct challenge to climate alarmists, who must now answer the question, as Michael Shellenberger writes “are they motivated by love for humanity or something closer to its opposite?”

An important new book by Michael Shellenberger, Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All, attempts to counter the common belief that climate change poses an imminent and existential threat to humanity and the planet. At 285 pages, this is a relatively short and very readable book, but it covers a lot of ground. And with an additional 125 pages containing over 1,000 footnotes, Shellenberger’s arguments are well documented.

The book should be required reading for politicians. It should also be required reading for Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, and the handful of other online communications titans who exercise almost total control over what facts and opinions make their way into public discourse. This book also belongs in the hands of climate activist journalists, for whom a 16-year-old truant is an oracle with unassailable credibility, while contrarian scientists and economists are only targets for smear campaigns.

Who or What Exactly Is Running Against Trump? Victor Davis Hanson

https://amgreatness.com/2020/08/09/who-or-what-exactly-is-running-against-trump/

The inner-Biden at 77 is turning out to be an unabashed bigot in the age of “cancel culture” and thought crimes that has apparently declared him immune from the opprobrium reserved for any such speech.

As we enter the final 90 days of the November presidential campaign, a few truths are crystalizing about the “Biden problem,” or the inability of a 77-year-old Joe Biden to conduct a “normal” campaign.

Biden’s cognitive challenges are increasing geometrically, whether as a result of months of relative inactivity and lack of stimulation or just consistent with the medical trajectory of his affliction. His lot is increasingly similar to historical figures such as 67-year-old President William Henry Harrison, William Gladstone’s last tenure as prime minister, Chancellor Hindenburg, or Franklin Roosevelt in late 1944—age and physical infirmities signaling to the concerned that a subordinate might assume power sooner than later.

In the past, it was to Biden’s advantage to postpone his selection of his female-mandated vice presidential running mate, given the lose-lose choice of either picking a woke young African American female who may polarize swing voters while spending the next three months being vetted in the fashion of California Representative Karen Bass’s Scientology and Fidel Castro issues, or selecting a vetted, but off-putting former National Security Advisor Susan Rice or Senator Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), who does not especially like Biden and would be seen as hovering and rummaging about as an impatient president-in-waiting.

TikTok: China’s Trojan Horse to Indoctrinate America by Gordon G. Chang

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16330/tiktok-china

At the moment, ByteDance is in negotiations with Microsoft and Twitter to sell TikTok. Yet a sale will not by itself end the threat. Any new owner will have to go over line after line of code to insulate TikTok from Chinese interference.

Even an exhaustive review may not be sufficient, because Beijing will still know the general architecture of the software, thereby facilitating further manipulation of the app. As Dabrowa told Gatestone, “My team discovered that a foreign actor may come in the backdoor and change the feed.”

In the meantime, Trump’s 45-day period, plus the time needed to review software, give China plenty of opportunity to interfere in the upcoming American elections.

That means Trump last week with his executive order may have saved American democracy but maybe not his own presidency.

President Donald Trump on Thursday issued an executive order that just might save America’s democracy.

Using emergency powers, he prohibited, after the expiration of a 45-day period, Americans from any transaction with ByteDance Ltd., a privately owned Chinese company, or any of its subsidiaries. Prohibited transactions, the order states, will be those “identified” by the Secretary of Commerce.

The order effectively bans ByteDance’s TikTok, a video-sharing mobile application, from the United States at the end of 45 days.

Russia collusion, a decade of deceit and the advent of a new info war on Americans For the first time, we saw in the 2010s a systematic effort by players in institutions to knowingly and willfully promote falsehoods to achieve bureaucratic and political outcomes or, possibly, to foment division in America, the book Fallout argues.

https://justthenews.com/accountability/russia-and-ukraine-scandals/russia-collusion-hoax-decade-deceit-and-advent-new-info

Robert Mueller had been at the witness table several long hours when Rep. Will Hurd finally chimed in. Now in his mid-70s, Mueller, the Justice Department special counsel who oversaw the Trump-Russia probe was not quite the same crisp-speaking Marine whom Americans had come to know as their FBI director during the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks through his retirement in 2013.

But his experience still loomed as an asset, especially when it came to the art of refusing to bite on politically loaded questions. He had just finished a five-minute, rapid-fire round of questions from Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) that clearly had frustrated the Democrat’s effort to pin him down on questions about former Trump fixer Michael Cohen.

Mueller’s answers were classic dodges. “I can’t adopt your characterization,” he answered Castro at one moment. The next, he added: “I can’t speak to that.” A few seconds later he threw in “I’m not certain I could go that far,” and finished with, “I defer to you on that….I can’t get into details….I can’t speak to that.” Castro yielded back his time, unsatisfied by his effort to get Mueller to bite on his preferred story line.

Hurd, a Republican from Texas, was up next. A former CIA officer, he shared a common intelligence community experience with the former FBI director. But the odds that he would fare better than Castro in extracting new information from Mueller seemed equally long.

I Take a Dim View of Today’s Lightbulbs Watts up with all these new terms like kelvins, lumens and ‘halogen puck’? By Stephen Miller

https://www.wsj.com/articles/i-take-a-dim-view-of-todays-lightbulbs-11597006857?mod=opinion_lead_pos9

I like to think of myself as a smart shopper who knows what to look for when buying a car or a computer—or even a townhouse. But recently I was flummoxed looking at a display of lightbulbs: Which packet of four bulbs should I buy? Since this was a chain pharmacy, there was no one to ask for help. I decided to buy the cheapest pack, but I kept the sales slip. I thought I might want to return the packet after learning more about lightbulbs.

When I got home I found an article on the internet that explained what to look for in a lightbulb. Every writer admits that buying a lightbulb is not easy. There are so many types of bulbs: standard incandescent bulbs, fluorescent tubes, compact fluorescent swirls, halogen pucks and LEDs. Though I had no idea what a “halogen puck” is, I read on, in search of illumination.

I learned about lumens, which measure how bright the light is. Maybe all I need to know about lightbulbs is how many lumens is the equivalent of a 100-watt bulb, which is the lightbulb I used to buy. But I soon realized that I need to choose the kind of lightbulb I want before I check out the lumens. I ruled out fluorescent bulbs because I hate fluorescent light. LED bulbs are popular but they are expensive. They last much longer than other lightbulbs—11 years, according to one account, as opposed to roughly one year for an incandescent bulb. But I’m 79, so why should I spend twice as much money for lightbulbs that probably will outlast me?

An Autopsy of New York’s Mail-Vote Mess Lax deadlines. Late ballots. Carelessness. Missing postmarks. And a warning for Nov. 3.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/an-autopsy-of-new-yorks-mail-vote-mess-11596841128?mod=opinion_lead_pos4

Six weeks after New York’s primary elections on June 23, the final vote tally in the 12th Congressional District remains a mystery. On Monday a federal judge ordered the counting of certain mail ballots that arrived after Election Day but without a postmark to prove when they were sent. Imagine this kind of mess 45 days following Nov. 3.

After primary day, an initial count of 40,000 ballots had Rep. Carolyn Maloney beating progressive challenger Suraj Patel by 648 votes. The canvassing of some 65,000 absentee ballots didn’t start until July 8, but unofficial data last month showed a preliminary rejection rate of 28% in Brooklyn. Mr. Patel joined a federal lawsuit, and Judge Analisa Torres held two days of hearings last week. The court transcript is a bracing read.

Another Massive Boat Parade For President  1,000+ Boats at Lake Okoboji in Iowa (VIDEO)By Cristina Laila

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/08/another-massive-boat-parade-president-trump-1000-boats-lake-okoboji-iowa-video/

There was another massive boat parade for President Trump on Sunday.
More than 1,000 boats were out on Lake Okoboji waving Trump 2020 flags.
Still no boat parade for Sleepy Joe Biden!
WATCH:
THOUSANDS of boaters took part in a Trump Boat Parade in Biloxi, Mississippi on Saturday.
There was also a Trump boat rally in Philly this weekend.
This is what the silent majority looks like.
There are no parades and no enthusiasm for Joe Biden, yet the media keeps reporting that Biden is up by double digits in the polls.

Christmas (Or Martial Law) In August? Marilyn M. Barnewall

https://newswithviews.com/christmas-or-martial-law-in-august/

Everyone to whom I normally send Christmas presents via the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) thought I was crazy when I told them I was sending their gifts in August.  They are already in the mail

Why?

For more than three months I have had a persistent feeling that the Democrat’s new “crisis du jour” will involve the postal service.  It wasn’t until the political battle about mail-in ballots heated up that I thought of a scheme totally worthy of Democrat evil.

Real Clear Politics has reported that “28 million mail-in ballots went missing in the last four elections.”  That was one of many articles on this subject.

The reports about the millions of ballots that are already being mailed, the poor quality of service the USPS is able to provide under “pandemic” conditions and the dilemma Democrats have because of an unelectable candidate suddenly made me think what is likely to happen this November.

My thoughts on this subject are quite different than those of the talking heads on various “news” shows.  They think a delayed ballot count will lead to violence and there will be ongoing questions about the legitimacy of the election when the ballots are finally counted.  Nothing new there; that’s been going on since November 2016.

I agree that it will take far longer than just a few days.  Democrat-controlled states will make sure it does.

I think the scheme is far more insidious than that.  I think it is a well-crafted plan for a different kind of coup to take over the country.

Trump’s political masterstroke [UPDATED] Paul Mirengoff

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/08/trumps-political-masterstroke.php?
UPDATE: Trump has now signed the Order. The obvious displeasure of The Washington Post is further evidence that Trump has made a smart political move.

President Trump says he will sign an Executive Order to ease the suffering of those harmed by the pandemic-related shutdowns and to stimulate the economy. Congress has failed to agree on a new package to accomplish these things.

Trump’s Executive Order would include these four components: (1) a payroll tax holiday until the end of the year, (2) an extension of enhanced unemployment benefits until the end of the year, (3) an extension of the eviction moratorium for federal subsidized housing, and (4) a suspension of student loan payments until further notice.

Questions surround the legality of accomplishing at least some of these things via executive order. Trump’s response to that might be, “so sue me.”

There are also questions about the fiscal impact of some of the measures, at least for those who still care about the national debt. In addition, there are questions about the efficacy of a payroll tax cut and the wisdom of extended generous unemployment benefits.