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October 2020

Bring Them In Big Tech oligarchs must answer Congress’s questions about election interference. By Julie Kelly

https://amgreatness.com/2020/10/15/bring-them-in/

As I have reported over the past several weeks, Big Tech monopolies are interfering in the 2020 election on behalf of Joe Biden and the Democratic Party. Their involvement, some rightly argue, is straight-up electioneering and could constitute egregious campaign finance violations since corporations are prohibited from directly donating to political candidates. By banning Republican content while amplifying Democratic Party messaging this close to a national election, Big Tech in essence is contributing potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in free advertisements (in-kind contributions) to Democratic candidates, including their nominee for president. “Twitter, and Facebook…they’re like really, it’s a massive campaign contribution,” President Trump said on Fox Business News Thursday morning.

Their involvement will extend past Election Day and into January 2021 if the results are still unknown. In the interim, Silicon Valley oligarchs plan to crush any online dissent, including by the president of the United States, if a message runs afoul of plans to install Joe Biden in the White House. Even if Trump legitimately wins reelection, any premature declaration of victory will be suppressed or outright removed from social media and Internet search engines.

Whatever attempt there may have been to conceal this orchestrated operation, however, was blown wide open Wednesday after the New York Post published explosive emails and photos retrieved from Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop computer. Communications appear to confirm that Joe Biden met with an executive of Burisma and his son in 2015 despite Biden’s repeated denials. 

DAVID GOLDMAN REVIEWS ANN APPLEBAUM’S “TWILIGHT OF DEMOCRACY”

https://lawliberty.org/book-review/applebaum-pride-prejudice/

Anne Applebaum’s Pride and Prejudice

This is not a book, but rather an Atlantic essay puffed into a $25 sale item with grotesquely large type and comically wide margins. The typography offends the eye almost as much as the content offends the mind. It is a barely coherent rant against ex-friends and political opponents. It is a tantrum from a liberal who expected a univeralist millennium after the fall of Communism and discovered to her horror that national identity still matters.

Half a century of Nazi and Communist occupation nearly crushed the spirit of the nations of Eastern Europe; a decade ago they approached the point of no return for demographic extinction. The new nationalists who now govern Hungary and Poland, the objects of Applebaum’s direst imprecations, have rebuilt vibrant economies, raised birth rates, and established viable democracies out of nearly-ruined Soviet colonies. Despite their missteps—which are frequent and sometimes grave—they have restored hope for the future to lands which not long ago seemed like a cemetary of the human spirit.

Anne Applebaum’s list of little Hitlers includes some ex-friends who came to her 1999 New Year’s Eve party in Poland, when her husband Radek Sikorski was a foreign ministry official, as well as former acquaintances like British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The renegade party guests somehow morphed from democracy activists into Nazis, because they suffer from “authoritarian personalities,” Applebaum avers. Also on her list are “the old Hungarian right, the Spanish right, the French right, the Italian right, and, with differences, the British right and the American right, too.” It is hard to separate Applebaum’s ideological rancor at friends who moved away from the liberal dogmas of 1989 and her personal disappointment over her husband’s career.

Boris Johnson a crypto-fascist? Who but the overwrought Ms. Applebaum noticed! She would have a pint at the pub with Johnson when she was Deputy Editor of the Spectator and he was Mayor of London, but since then she has discovered that the Prime Minister is a liar, a home-wrecking philanderer, and a budding authoritarian due to his opposition to Brexit. She claims that the rising fascists of the British Isles duped their compatriots into voting Leave by lying about money that might be saved for the National Health Service.

Huawei Plays Matador to Trump’s Bull David Goldman

https://www.newsweek.com/opinion

Bulls usually lose bullfights not because they fail to charge, but because they charge at the matador’s cape rather than at the matador himself. President Trump has no qualms about charging at China’s national champion Huawei, but he is charging at the equivalent of the matador’s cape.

Consider Huawei’s handset business, which depends on high-end chips manufactured by Taiwanese foundries. Because the Taiwanese use some American equipment to manufacture the chips, the U.S. has imposed an effective blockade on Huawei’s outsourcing, and China does not (yet) have the domestic capability to make high-end chips. A similar ban blocks Huawei’s access to key American chip-design software.

Huawei will lose market share in the low-margin handset business, and Chinese competitors like Xiaomi will pick up the slack (which explains why the latter’s stock price has jumped this year from HK$8 to HK$22). Huawei will have little difficulty using older chips for 5G base stations, installing the lion’s share of the six million units that China has ordered to build out its 5G network over the next two years.

Huawei’s most important business, though, will emerge unscathed from U.S. sanctions. American strategists think that Huawei is a telecom equipment company. Among other things, Huawei is the world’s largest telecom equipment manufacturer, with a 31 percent market share during the first half of 2020—more than the combined share of the second and third position companies, Ericsson and Nokia. Huawei, though, is first and foremost a big data and artificial intelligence (AI) company—the most inventive and imaginative one in the world. Let’s call this combination “BD/AI,” for short.

Can the Democrats Sell Their Worst Candidate Ever? By Jack Cashill

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/10/can_the_democrats_sell_their_worst_candidate_ever.html

Even before anyone ever heard of Hunter Biden’s laptop, Democrats were facing a marketing challenge unknown in the era of moving images: selling a candidate that no one — with the possible exception of Jill “Edith Wilson” Biden — could possibly be enthused about.

By any standard, especially by progressive Democratic standards, Joe Biden is a flaming mess. No Democrat of any age will have ever pulled the lever for a less attractive candidate. Compared to Joe, Hillary Clinton was JFK. Hillary actually had fans.

Democratic leaders and their increasingly Pravda-like media allies know what a mess Biden is. In 2019, before he emerged as the candidate, they openly shared their misgivings. In early June 2019, for instance, both the New York Times and the Washington Post produced video hit pieces highlighting Biden’s problematic history. These pieces were triggered, wrote the Post, by the fact that the Biden campaign “lifted language without credit, at times word for word, when crafting its education and climate plans.”

The Post video dealt largely with Biden’s plagiarism issues dating back to his first presidential run in 1987. Although the tone of the narration is not as harsh as it should be, the revelations are damning. Biden’s plagiarism comes across like a cry for help. It is hard to decide which was more pathetic: lifting the speeches and hardscrabble life details of Welsh Labour Party’s Neil Kinnock or swiping virtually word-for-word JFK’s memorable 1961 inaugural address.

A follow-up Post article, also from June 2019, noted that Biden’s credibility problems did not end in 1987 with his withdrawal from the presidential race. In 2007, running for president once again, Biden claimed he had been “shot at” in Iraq’s Green Zone. He had not, but this was not the only time he lied about Iraq.

Democrats Are Done with Democracy Those who want to preserve the consent of the governed need to vote accordingly on November 3.By Ned Ryun

https://amgreatness.com/2020/10/14/democrats-are-done-with-democracy/

After a century of progressives hollowing out our constitutional republic from within through their administrative state governing philosophy, their patience has finally run out.

In spite of controlling nearly every major institution in this country, in spite of the massive and sprawling bureaucracy they’ve created to enforce their will, the ignorant masses still do not understand what’s best for them—and in 2016 dared even to elect the Big Bad Orange Man. So progressives have decided enough is enough: now the peasants must submit. They must force us to be “free.” This messy democracy and our constitutional republic are wildly inconvenient and Democrats are done pretending to abide it. 

Democrats have decided that the time for one-party rule is upon us in this country. If you were to look at one overarching theme of 2020, the most important issue at stake on November 3 is: Will our constitutional republic and our democratic process continue, and will the American people still have a voice in deciding where this country goes after Election Day? 

Because Democrats fully intend to take that right away.

Social Media Censoring Of Biden Influence-Peddling Must End Now

https://issuesinsights.com/2020/10/16/social-media-censoring-of-biden-influence-peddling-must-end-now/

It seemed perhaps a bit excessive when President Donald Trump referred to Democratic candidate Joe Biden as a “grifter.” But after reviewing the incriminating emails found on son Hunter Biden’s laptop, if anything Trump’s remark might be an understatement.

We’re writing this knowing full well that the progressive apologists for Democratic Party crimes at social media giants Facebook and Twitter probably won’t let this be shared. They’ve basically dammed up the truth so no one can share it, hoping it will all go away.

It won’t. The news is getting out. And it isn’t good for either Joe Biden or his freeloading son. The evidence clearly suggests that both Bidens profited from the vice president’s office during the Obama administration, in essence selling access for cash.

What’s galling is that Biden had heretofore denied any contact at all with Hunter’s many global partners, saying he had “never spoken” to his son “about his overseas business dealings.”

But the newly discovered trove of emails from Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop says otherwise.

Erdogan Declares War on Arabs by Khaled Abu Toameh

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16608/erdogan-declares-war-on-arabs

“Some countries in our region did not exist yesterday, and they may not exist in the future….” — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, addressing parliament on October 1, 2020.

“His [Erdogan’s] crimes against the Arab peoples must be exposed, such as his massacres against the Syrian people, against the Kurds in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, and in Libya….” — Abdel Aziz Razan, a Saudi adviser at the Center for Arab-Russia Studies, Okaz, October 4, 2020.

Such powerful responses made by Saudis and other Arabs to Erdogan’s contemptuous statements show that the Arabs now understand it is Erdogan and his friends in Iran whom they should fear. In the eyes of these Arabs, Erdogan and his Iranian connections represent the real threat to their security and stability.

In light of such reactions, perhaps more Arab countries will follow the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in signing diplomatic agreements with Israel. The State of Israel, as it turns out, is a strategic and strong ally that can help Arab countries stop Turkey and Iran from spreading their contagion of terror in the Middle East.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is continuing to insult and threaten Arabs, specifically those living in the Gulf.

Many Arabs are concerned about Erdogan’s threats against their countries and his ongoing meddling in their internal affairs. Some Arabs are saying that the time has come to stand up to Erdogan and end his “malicious” schemes against Arab countries.

In the past few days, many Arabs took to social media and other platforms to condemn Erdogan’s latest offensive remarks and veiled threats against their countries.

Trump Fields Questions at NBC Town Hall That He Said Would Be a ‘Set Up’ By Mimi Nguyen Ly

https://www.theepochtimes.com/trump-fields-questions-at-nbc-town-hall-he-expected-to-be-a-set-up_3541245.html

President Donald Trump on Thursday night fielded questions from Florida voters and an NBC News moderator for a town hall in Miami in what he expected to be a “set up.”

The live televised town hall lasted one hour from 8 p.m. ET and was moderated by Savannah Guthrie. The president, just hours before the town hall, told a reelection rally in North Carolina that he was “being set up tonight” by “Concast … because it’s a con job,” referring to the NBC parent company Comcast. He also wrote on Twitter, “I wonder if they’ll treat me as well as Sleepy Joe?”

Guthrie opened the night seeking answers from Trump about when he last remembered having tested negative for COVID-19, and whether he had tested negative on the day of the first presidential debate on Sept. 29. Trump did not provide a definitive answer but said that he “probably did” and that he is “test all the time.” He said he first tested positive on Oct. 1.

The “Today” show anchor asked Trump a series of questions related to the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, also known as SARS-CoV- 2. She asked whether he should have “known better” than to hold events at the White House, such as the one on Sept. 26 to announce the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. Trump responded that the White House conducts plenty of testing, and that as president, he acknowledges the risk of being out and interacting with others but he “can’t be locked in a room some place for the next year and just stay and do nothing,” Trump has been a vocal critic of Biden for campaigning “from his basement.”

Guthrie countered by suggesting that as a leader, Trump should have set an example by wearing a mask. Trump responded by saying that many people are catching the CCP virus and that even those who wear masks are catching the disease.

When asked by a voter whether his views on masks have changed since he contracted the CCP virus, Trump responded, “No, because I was ok with the masks. I was good with it. But I’ve heard many different stories on masks.”

China’s Turning Point A major catastrophe on the horizon? Michael Ledeen

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/10/china-faces-historical-turning-poin

China appears to be on the brink.

The communist regime is threatening our ally, Taiwan — one of several Asian countries seeking closer ties with the United States while China’s domestic turmoil grows.

In a recent column in China’s state-sponsored Global Times, editor-in-chief Hu Xijin warned, “As the secessionist forces’ arrogance continues to swell, the historical turning point is getting closer.”

“The only way forward is for the mainland to fully prepare itself for war and to give Taiwan secessionist forces a decisive punishment at any time,” he wrote.

Taiwan’s opposition party has been seeking closer cooperation with the United States. But, Hu wrote: “The more trouble Taiwan creates, the sooner the mainland will decide to teach Taiwan independence forces a hard lesson.”

China has been angered by the ongoing tour of Asia by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is seeking support for U.S. efforts to contain China. Recently, the Taiwanese Kuomintang Party, or KMT, renewed its effort for the government to reestablish diplomatic ties with the U.S.

The EU’s Discrimination Against Israel An inherited instinct to scapegoat the Jews. Fri Oct 16, 2020 Joseph Puder

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/10/eus-discrimination-against-i

The European Union (EU) discriminating policies against Israel are not new. The EU court approved the labeling of products from Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem. This labeling is reminiscent of the “Yellow Star of David” Jews were forced to wear in Nazi Germany and in Nazi occupied Europe. Israel considers the EU court decision to be unfair and discriminatory. It pointed out that other countries involved in land disputes are not similarly sanctioned. Now the EU has come up with a new discriminating formula in which to single out Israel. It is spelled by the EU as “housing demolitions” in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria for most Israelis).

According to Professor Hillel Frisch of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University, “Entering the phrase ‘housing demolition’ in the EU’s official website yields a shocking result: 18 of the first documents to appear concern Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes in the West Bank. In other words, 80% of the EU reports on this worldwide phenomenon involve a population and an area less than one-tenth of 1% of the world’s population or landmass.”

Ironically, an EU report from 2005, acknowledge widespread discriminatory demolition and eviction within the EU against Gypsy, Roma, and Sinti populations in such countries as Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Portugal.  Housing demolition as a punitive practice occurs throughout the world.  India accuses Pakistan of the practice in Hindu areas in Pakistan’s Punjab region. Egypt evicted thousands of Bedouins in the Sinai to clear the way for housing projects for Egyptians from outside the Sinai Peninsula. In the U.S., likewise, evictions and demolition of homes occur for the purpose of urban renewal.

Israel has continued a practice that dates back to the British Mandate, when British authorities demolished homes of terrorists. Israel has continued the practice as a deterrent against would be terrorists. These terror practitioners know that it would cost their family their home. Moreover, Israel, in following the rule-of-law, has the right to demolish illegally built homes whether the occupants are Arab-Palestinians or Jews.