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April 2021

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Biden Builds Back Obama’s Middle East By Matthew Continetti

By on April 11th, 2021

http://And makes a mockery of his democracy agenda

That didn’t take long. One week after piously and erroneously repudiating the Commission on Unalienable Rights established by his predecessor Mike Pompeo, Secretary of State Antony Blinken revealed the hollow selectivity of this administration’s commitment to human rights and democratic reform.

On April 7, Blinken said he was “pleased to announce” the reinstatement of tens of millions of dollars in aid to the West Bank and Gaza and of some $150 million to support the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). “All assistance will be provided consistent with U.S. law,” Blinken added.

Easier said than done. The Taylor Force Act, signed into law in 2018, withholds aid from the Palestinian Authority until the State Department certifies that the ruling party of the West Bank has terminated payments to family members of terrorists. It hasn’t. That was one reason the Trump administration slashed the aid in the first place. Nor is there evidence that suddenly the Palestinians have curtailed the so-called pay-to-slay schemes that incentivize the murder of civilians and the perpetuation of conflict. On the contrary: They bristle at the idea of changing their corrupt and self-destructive ways.

A second law from 2018, the Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act, holds beneficiaries of foreign assistance legally and financially responsible for terrorism committed against U.S. citizens. This notion — that the Palestinian Authority might actually have to pay a price for its incitement to anti-Semitic violence — so terrified the leadership in the West Bank that it sent a letter to the Trump administration in February 2019 renouncing U.S. aid. I must have missed the make-up note postmarked Ramallah.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

What Should Be Done to Curb Big Tech? A few billionaires currently have the power to decide that some Americans’ speech rights are more sacred than others. Clarence Thomas offers a remedy. Bari Weiss

By on April 11th, 2021

https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/what-should-be-done-to-curb-big-tech

Do your eyes gloss over when you see the words “Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act”? Mine do.

Yet the subject of Big Tech’s might — Should Facebook have the power to ban a president? Should Amazon have the power to ban the sale of a controversial book? Should Twitter have the power to permanently bar a user over a single tweet? And if not, what should the government be doing about it? — is both fascinating and incredibly important.

I don’t think there is a group left in America who is happy about the power that companies like Facebook and Twitter and Google have arrogated to themselves. According to a recent poll from Vox and Data for Progress, 59% of Democrats and 70% of Republicans think Big Tech’s economic power is a problem. It’s hard to think of another issue with that kind of bipartisan consensus.

The nature of your anger, of course, depends on where you sit. (Twitter’s decision to ban Trump in January found 87% approval from Democrats and a mere 28% of Republicans in the same poll.) But the point is that this subject touches everyone. 

So why is so much of the writing about tech so confusing? One of the reasons it confuses, I think, is that the loudest “progressive” and “conservative” arguments are the opposite of what you’d imagine.

Progressives are supposed to be against corporate power. And yet on this subject, they are the ones pushing for more of it. They are enraged that these companies don’t crack down harder on “disinformation,” arguing that the Zuckerbergs and Dorseys of the world put profit above principle when they allow groups like QAnon to run wild on their platforms. Sure, President Trump was banned, but only after he lost the election. Why didn’t it happen earlier? Private companies are not hamstrung by the First Amendment, so why do they hesitate to ban dangerous people whose online words lead to real-world violence?

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CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB, ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Here We Go: New Hampshire Governor Will Sign Bill For Voting Machine Audit

By on April 11th, 2021

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/04/go-new-hampshire-governor-will-sign

A voting machine audit is coming! 

On April 8th, the New Hampshire Senate passed a bill to mandate an audit of the Windham, New Hampshire election results.

All that remains for the audit to take place is a signature from the Governor.

At a press conference, New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu (R) says he will sign the bill.

The Washington Examiner reported:

The governor of New Hampshire announced on Thursday that he intends to sign a bill allowing an audit of voting machines used in the town of Windham for the 2020 election.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

When a Jewish Teacher Union Bigwig Maliciously Scapegoats Jews By Rabbi Aryeh Spero

By on April 11th, 2021

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/04/when_a_jewish_teacher_union_b

Randi Weingarten, leader of the AFT (American Federation of Teachers union) has made a malicious smear against the Jewish community that would normally be characterized as anti-Semitic, but it may get a pass because she happens to be Jewish. 

She was asked a very appropriate question: “Why are the teachers across the nation in major cities still refusing to go back and teach children in the classroom in public schools?”  Instead of acknowledging the problem, she strangely shifted into a tirade against the Jewish community.  She castigated Jews by saying, “American Jews are part of the ownership class … who now want to take that ladder of opportunity away from those who do not have it.”  She took legitimate criticism of her union’s refusal to go back to work as a prompt to demonize the Jewish community.  Historically, this was labeled “scapegoating.”  Scapegoating is the practice of dodging and deflecting a legitimate concern by parlaying each issue against the Jewish people or the hard-work result of Jewish financial success and ownership.

Ms. Weingarten is tragically another example of someone denouncing her own people and inciting others against Jews in order to be the darling of the left, thereby climbing the ladder of political power.  She understands that today, power in leftist and minority circles is achieved by those who blame Jews.  This has become the left-wing formula.

If anything, those from the Jewish community, who have been critical of teachers being the last holdouts to return to work while still drawing their salary and full benefits, are acting as plaintiffs for the students in public school who will fall behind as a consequence of their school activities being shelved.  Indeed, they’ve been acting to keep the rungs of the ladder intact.  Thus, one would think there would be significant blowback from the “race police” against Weingarten’s obvious smear of Jews.

But it has not happened.  That is because the laws of “wokeness” on behalf all minorities do not include Jews.  Jews have been excluded from the victimization monopoly; they are not in the pecking order.  You can say anything you want against Jews, just as with whites and Christians, if the accusations can be parlayed into an indictment against those pre-perceived as oppressors of the intersectional officialdom. 

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CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB, ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Attorney Matthew DePerno Releases Michigan Elections Forensics Report – 66,194 Unregistered Ballots Tallied in JUST 9 COUNTIES By Jim Hoft

By on April 11th, 2021

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/04/huge-news-attorney-matthew-deperno-releases-michigan-elections-forensics-report-66194-unregistered-ballots-tallied-just-9-counties/

Michigan Constitutional Attorney Matthew Deperno released his much anticipated Michigan Elections Forensics Report on Friday.

Among the findings:

Modem Chipsets Installed In Voting System Motherboards
66,194 unregistered ballots tallied in just 9 counties.

66,194 ballot voter IDs not found in the October registration database.

Much more to come…

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ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

NO RUTHFULLY YOURS TODAY

By on April 10th, 2021

POSTINGS WILL RESUME TOMORROW

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Despite Biden’s efforts, the mullahs may be in trouble By Hassan Mahmoudi

By on April 9th, 2021

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/04/despite_bidens_efforts_the_mullahs_may_be_in_trouble.html

After years of struggle, Iranians finally gained the right to vote.  Their first election was held in August 1906.  However, one of the complaints Iranians had about the Pahlavi regime was that was the king would decide who would become prime minister or designated candidates for important government positions.  After the Shah’s fall in 1979, the Islamic Republic increased this election engineering.  Iranians now call them “magical elections.”  This year, though, Iranians are done with magic — and even Biden lifting some sanctions may not help.

Iran will hold a presidential election on June 18, 2021.  As always, Ayatollah Khamenei, the supreme leader, using so-called “legal” methods, will pick the head of the Judiciary, the Legislature, and the president.  The way this works is that the “Approving Council” filters out the candidates, and then the “Guardian Council” mass eliminates the candidates in favor of the candidate closest to the supreme leader.

In March, Khamenei himself acknowledged in a speech for the Iranian new year that there are complaints about how the Guardian Council operates.  He urged Iranians to ignore them.  “Our enemies want to destabilize the elections, and for this reason, they accuse the organizers of electoral engineering or accuse the Guardian Council or try to discourage people from voting by inducing the idea of ‘people’s ineffectiveness.'”

But the main issue in this year’s election is something entirely new: the distrust the Iranians feel for the government of Khamenei and President Rouhani has created a gulf too wide to close.  Many no longer consider the government legitimate, leading some to think that the situation is ripe for another revolution.  This is yet another aspect of how weak the regime is.  These are some indicators of that weakness:

Iranian’s economic conditions are getting worse every day with increasing prices, inflation of 65%, government corruption, and the closure of thousands of industrial units and production workshops.  Unemployment, the disappearance of the middle class, and the poor’s crushing poverty have up to half of Iranians living in shantytowns.  This phenomenon has pushed the Iranian economy to the verge of collapse.  (The National Council of Resistance of Iran, while a partisan activist site, has articles with data about Iran’s economic despair.)

The coronavirus pandemic has taken a toll on Iran.  Again, information comes from opposition sites (such as this one), but the facts do seem to bear out claims that the mullahs have handled COVID disastrously.  People say Khamenei has used the coronavirus as a defensive shield for the survival of his regime.  This has created deep mistrust between the people and the government in Iran.

When IRGC missiles downed a Ukrainian passenger plane, killing 176 people, and then tried a cover-up, Iran severely downgraded its world standing.

The bloody crackdown on protests in December 2017 and especially in November 2019 in more than 200 cities, where 1,500 people were killed by Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) security forces, also weakened the regime from within.

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FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Biden Administration to Support Palestinian Dictatorship by Khaled Abu Toameh

By on April 9th, 2021

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17188/biden-administration-palestinian-dict

Sadly, while the Biden administration is talking about the “need to protect [Palestinian] civil society through the reduction of arrests of bloggers and dissidents,” the Palestinian leadership is evidently moving in precisely the opposite direction.

While the Biden administration says it wants to strengthen Palestinian civil society organizations, the Palestinian leadership is working to tighten its grip on these organizations.

The elections are part of Abbas’s attempt to curry favor with the Biden administration and present himself as a leader who cares about democracy and fair elections. The fact is that Abbas is desperate for US funding to preserve his regime and remain in power until his last day.

Abbas’s punitive measures against [Nasser al-Kidwa, a former PA foreign minister] are aimed at sending a warning to these officials that they would meet the same fate should they run outside the Abbas-led list. Abbas is essentially announcing that anyone who challenges him will be expelled from Fatah and deprived of money and employment.

Instead of holding Abbas to account for his repressive measures, the Biden administration seems to be headed toward financially supporting his totalitarian regime.

According to the internal memo, the US is planning to resume unconditional financial aid to the Palestinians in late March or early April. This means propping up Abbas and his associates ahead of the elections and allowing them to step up their campaign of intimidation against any candidate who dares to demand reforms and an end to rampant corruption.

The Biden administration is about to pump millions of dollars into Abbas’s coffers to help him cut off the emergence of new and young leaders and to help him maintain his authoritarian rule over the Palestinians. Once the bounty is paid, Abbas shows all signs of stepping up his repressive measures against his rivals and critics to ensure that he and his Fatah faction triumph in the elections.

The Biden administration is reportedly planning to “reset” US relations with the Palestinians.

An internal memo presented to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on March 1 states: “As we reset US relations with the Palestinians, the Palestinian body politic is at an inflection point as it moves towards its first elections in 15 years.”

The memo reintroduces some of the issues that the George W. Bush and the Barack Obama administrations pushed forward, such as the strengthening of Palestinian institutions, including civil society and media watchdogs.

The document, in addition, mentions the resumption of US financial aid to the Palestinians and “means to advance the prospects of a negotiated two-state solution.”

Sadly, while the Biden administration is talking about the “need to protect [Palestinian] civil society through the reduction of arrests of bloggers and dissidents,” the Palestinian leadership is evidently moving in precisely the opposite direction.

Instead of enhancing the role of civil society organizations, the Palestinian leadership is hampering their work by imposing severe restrictions on them.

Instead of boosting public freedoms and bringing democracy to its people, the Palestinian leadership is harshly punishing those who speak out against its policies.

While the Biden administration says it wants to strengthen Palestinian civil society organizations, the Palestinian leadership is working to tighten its grip on these organizations.

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CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB, P.C.-CULTURE Comments turned off

In Service of Progressive Values, US Military Has Become Detached From Reality

By on April 9th, 2021

https://www.theepochtimes.c
om/in-service-of-progressive-values-us-military-has-become-detached-from-reality_3762727.html

To mark International Women’s Day on March 8, U.S. President Biden honoured women in the U.S. military. “We’re making good progress designing body armour that fits women properly; tailoring combat uniforms for women; creating maternity flight suits; updating—updating requirements for their hairstyles,” he boasted.

Maternity flight suits? The idea provoked Fox News host Tucker Carlson to mirthful riffing on the absurdity of such a preoccupation in light of the escalating tension between America and China. This in turn produced apoplectic “revulsion” from Pentagon brass. Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael Grinston tweeted that women “will dominate ANY future battlefield we’re called to fight on.”

Which gives you an idea of how detached from reality the present U.S. military has become in the service of progressive values. Not to mention how detached progressives in general are from the ineluctable truths of evolutionary psychology. In general, women are just not that into combat, and for good reasons related to the survival of our species. Of those relatively few who are, a nugatory handful are up to the physical rigours traditionally demanded of men. Because (I can’t believe I have to say this, but I must, because ideology is hostile to empiricism) the fittest men are bigger, stronger, and faster than the fittest women.

Ironically, science is entirely up to date on this issue owing to the fierce debate over transwomen in women’s sport. That males, even weakened by female hormones, hold inherent physical advantage over females is settled science. Yet here too you find ideologues insisting, against all evidence, that there is no proof of male advantage. (To be fair, I’ve yet to hear any gender ideologue proclaim, “transmen will dominate ANY competition in the Olympics men’s division.”)

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ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Pennsylvania Agrees to Remove Names of Dead Citizens From Voter Rolls: By Jack Phillips

By on April 9th, 2021

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_morningbrief/pennsylvania-forced-to-remove

The state of Pennsylvania agreed to remove the names of deceased people from voter rolls, an election-integrity watchdog group announced after reaching a settlement with state officials.

The lawsuit, (pdf) which was filed by the Public Interest Legal Foundation in November 2020, alleged that some 21,000 registrants who had died were still on the state’s voter rolls at the time of the 2020 presidential election. Pennsylvania agreed to compare its voter-registration database with the Social Security Death Index, and then direct all county election commissions to remove the names of dead registrants.

“This marks an important victory for the integrity of elections in Pennsylvania,” Public Interest Legal Foundation President and General Counsel J. Christian Adams said in a statement in announcing the court’s decision. “The Commonwealth’s failure to remove deceased registrants created a vast opportunity for voter fraud and abuse. It is important to not have dead voters active on the rolls for 5, 10, or even 20 years. This settlement fixes that.”

The lawsuit was filed after the Nov. 3 election and when then-candidate Joe Biden took a lead over President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania. Ultimately, the Pennsylvania Secretary of Commonwealth’s office certified the election.

The foundation said it found that 9,212 of the 21,000 voters had been dead for more than five years, and nearly 2,000 voters had been dead for more than 10 years.

The settlement stipulates that the “Department of State shall transmit to each county commission the names of the individuals registered in each respective county identified as deceased as a result of the comparison undertaken” with the “death data set received” from Electronic Registration Information Center that was then “compared to the full voter registration database … for the purpose of identifying persons who are ineligible to vote by reason of the registrant’s death.”

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