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August 2021

Andrew Cuomo and the Tragedy of Politicized Feminism By Dominic Pino

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/andrew-cuomo-and-the-tragedy-of-politicized-feminism/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=top-bar-latest&utm_term=fifth

The new report from New York State’s attorney general confirms what many have known for a long time: Andrew Cuomo is a man abusing his position of power to harass women.

Looking at this story from a feminist perspective, one would be completely unsurprised by it. In fact, it’s exactly what one would expect. Men have power and treat women unjustly; that’s the problem that feminism diagnoses and wants to solve.

Yet feminist groups don’t have a lot of credibility to speak out against Cuomo because many of them have endorsed him for public office over the years. The National Organization for Women–New York (NOW-NY) endorsed him for governor in 2018, and their president said, “This was an easy decision. . . . Year in and year out Governor Cuomo has put women’s rights front and center.” The organization’s endorsement says:

Governor Cuomo is building a legacy of real change for the women and girls of New York: raising the minimum wage of which women make up two-thirds of earners; enacting paid family leave; making it harder to discriminate against pregnant workers; and paving a path for young New Yorkers to earn tuition-free four-year degrees.

See the sleight of hand there? Cuomo’s “legacy of real change for the women and girls of New York” is really just progressivism. The minimum wage, paid family leave, and tuition-free college aren’t specific to women (and if you believe men can get pregnant too, as some progressives argue, neither is discriminating against pregnant workers).

There is reasoning behind feminists’ casting their lots with progressivism. They point to disparate-impact issues (such as the “women make up two-thirds of earners” part about the minimum wage) and say that since many progressive policies would benefit women more than men, they are feminist issues.

Conservatives, pretty generally, have been opposed to institutional feminism. Conservative hostility probably played a role in feminists’ believing that adopting progressivism was the best move for the success of their movement. It was enemy-of-my-enemy thinking combined with the simple fact that many feminists were sympathetic to the progressive agenda to begin with.

American immigrants who leave Israel don’t deserve disdain Ruthie blum

https://www.jns.org/opinion/ american-immigrants-who-leave- israel-dont-deserve-disdain/

On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of his parents’ aliyah from the United States, Haaretz political correspondent Chaim Levinson paid homage to his mother and father, who “left behind family, jobs that would have earned them much more money than they were paid [in Israel], more impressive careers and a house in the suburbs a few times the size of the stone building in Jerusalem where [they] settled.”

In an op-ed on Sunday, he pointed out that while their immigration was “traumatic,” it was also a privilege for them to have relocated to Israel.

“We were fortunate to come,” he wrote. “There’s no place more natural for a Jew to live. Israel is home. Israel is the place and the destination. … Israel is, first and foremost, a sense of belonging, of taking part in creating something. There’s no dual loyalty, no alienation. You don’t have to apologize for being Jewish. It’s the fulfillment of the vision of generation upon generation that my ancestors, unlike my parents, didn’t have the privilege to fulfill.”

He continued, “Israel is family. You feel a sense of closeness even with complete strangers. It’s oppressive, but also loving. … It stirs emotions. It causes joy in times of beauty and pain in times of darkness.”

As a former New Yorker who just celebrated 44 years in Israel, I couldn’t agree more with his description and sentiment. Sadly, the point of his piece—titled “Israelis Who Move Back to America Gain in Money and Lose in Soul”—was to criticize those who tried to make a go of it in the Holy Land, yet ended up returning from whence they came.

Rather than view them with empathy—or at least acknowledge their right as individuals to exercise personal choice—he adopts a disdainful attitude.

The Real Story of “The Central Park Karen” New evidence comes to light. And Amy Cooper breaks her silence. Megan Phelps-Roper

https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/the-real-story-of-the-central-park?token=

Amy Cooper was not the internet’s first “Karen” — the pejorative used for a demanding, entitled white woman. But as the Central Park dog walker who called the police on a black birdwatcher last year, she quickly became the paragon of the archetype.

In a video that went instantly viral, we watch as she summons law enforcement to protect her from the man, whose race she mentions three times in a matter of moments: “I’m going to tell them there’s an African-American man threatening my life.”

Just over a minute long, the video flooded social media alongside a second one filmed that same day: the horrifying footage of a Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of a man named George Floyd.

The conflation of these two stories in the public imagination began almost immediately — and not without cause. The Central Park video looked really bad. 

Many accused Amy Cooper of “weaponizing white tears.” They said she was deliberately attempting to sic racist cops on the birdwatcher, Christian Cooper (no relation). Comparisons to Emmett Till were instant.

“It’s important for us to remember that what happened to George Floyd is what Amy Cooper would have wanted to happen to Christian Cooper,” as one YouTuber put it, reflecting a sentiment echoed broadly across Twitter and beyond.

The outcry was overwhelming, and it was supercharged by the mainstream press. The New York Times ran a dozen stories, letters, and Op-Eds in the first week alone. A rattled Gayle King said it felt like “open season” on black men, with Amy “nearly strangling her dog to falsely accuse another black man.” Trevor Noah said that Amy “blatantly knew how to use the power of her whiteness to threaten the life of another man and his blackness.”

By the next day, Amy Cooper had been doxxed, had surrendered her dog, had lost her job, and had issued a half-hearted defense followed by an abject apology. Christian Cooper would go on to become a minor celebrity, penning a story for D.C. Comics inspired by the incident, heralded across the media and even by Joe Biden. “You made an incredible contribution at a very important moment,” the future president said.

The west’s tsunami of antisemitism Diaspora Jews in Britain and America are paralysed by a fantasy of acceptance Melanie Phillips

https://melaniephillips.substack.com/p/the-wests-tsunami-of-antisemitism?token=

In this podcast with Allen Roth, president of Secure America Now, I discussed the “tsunami” of antisemitism in the west and the inadequacy of the responses to it. Forming an “axis of evil that spans continents,” an unholy alliance has developed between leftists and Islamists. Worse still, cultural and political leaders in both Britain and America have been paralysed into virtual silence by moral and cultural relativism, which prohibits any criticism of the developing world; while the campaign against “Islamophobia,” which is used to suppress any criticism of the Islamic world however well-founded, has further colonised the minds of untold thousands.

I also talked about the supine response of Jewish community leaders in both Britain and America. Some are too frightened to tell the truths that urgently need to be told to counter the demonisation and delegitimisation of Israel, including making known the unambiguous anti-Jewish incitement that is pumped out by the supposedly moderate Palestinian Authority. Many others have themselves signed up both to the false narrative about Israel and to the wider onslaught upon truth and morality in the west, which means that tragically they do the Jew-haters’ dirty-work for them.

These Jewish leaders are gripped by the perennial diaspora fantasy that if they only do this or that they will fit in and be accepted and will never again be the victims of prejudice. But bitter history tells us that “fitting in” is always made conditional on something — a lesson that today’s diaspora Jews still refuse to learn.

Please click on the arrow above the picture to listen to the podcast.

Gov. Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women, NY AG probe finds The investigation found that the governor fostered a toxic work environment. ByAaron Katersky andLucien Bruggeman

https://abcnews.go.com/US/ny-ag-probe-finds-cuomo-sexually-harassed-multiple/story?id=79240764

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was found to have sexually harassed multiple women, including current and former state employees, New York State Attorney General Letitia James announced Tuesday morning after a four-month probe into the allegations.

In at least one instance, the investigation determined that the governor sought to retaliate against a woman who leveled accusations against him, identified in a report released by the AG’s office as Lindsay Boylan.

According to James, the probe found that Cuomo and his staff fostered a toxic work environment. Cuomo, in a statement released after James’ announcement, denied any wrongdoing.

The attorney general’s 168-page report, released during her press conference, determined that “the governor engaged in conduct constituting sexual harassment under federal and New York State law.”

“Specifically, we find that the Governor sexually harassed a number of current and former New York State employees by, among other things, engaging in unwelcome and nonconsensual touching, as well as making numerous offensive comments of a suggestive and sexual nature that created a hostile work environment for women,” the report said.

At Tuesday’s press conference, employment discrimination attorney Anne Clark, one of the investigators assigned to lead the probe, presented a litany of findings from the report, including specific examples of the governor making suggestive comments and engaging in unwanted touching that eleven women — some named, others anonymous — found “deeply humiliating and offensive.”

In an instance involving one of Cuomo’s unnamed executive assistants, the governor was found to have “reached under her blouse and grabbed her breast,” according to the report.

Democrats’ election bills ignore the Founders’ principles Jonathan Turley

https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/566044-democrats-election-bills-ignore-the-founders-principles

As the fight over election reform heats up in Congress, the White House is ramping up the rhetoric, declaring that President Biden and Vice President Harris are “incensed by the anti-voter laws that are trampling on our constitutional principles.” It is a mantra repeated on an array of liberal news sites, but the coverage tends to be selective in what constitutional principles are being abridged. “Our constitutional principles” include state power over elections.

While the president decries an “unprecedented attack on democracy,” the federalization of elections being pursued by Democrats actually would contravene what the Framers considered a core protection of democracy. By ignoring those countervailing principles, the Democrats are creating a dangerous blind spot in these proposed laws. The resulting litigation could leave core election rules in doubt heading into the next round of elections.

When the Constitution was written, the Framers expressly warned of the need to keep the federal government at bay in elections. South Carolina constitutional convention delegate Charles Pinckney noted that “great care was used to provide for the election of the president of the United States independently of Congress; to take the business as far as possible out of their hands.” It was done, he explained, because Congress “had no right to meddle with it at all.” Many Framers feared the power of the central government and wanted to prevent the abuses of Great Britain in the use of executive powers.

This view was reflected in the Electors Clause of Article II, Section 1, which confines the power of Congress to determining “the day on which [electors] give their votes; which day shall be the same throughout the United States.” Where Congress is left with the timing of such elections, states are left the manner in which those elections are held.

Not only did this state control over elections advance the purpose of decentralization of authority, it reflected the strong federalism principles in the Constitution. States were viewed as “laboratories of democracy,” with each pursuing different approaches to governmental functions, including elections. They also were closest to the voters, who could more readily change laws and policies on the state level.

‘Violations’ the UN Security Council Does Not Care About by Khaled Abu Toameh

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17608/violations-un-security-council

Such Security Council sessions have become routine and almost always end up with statements denouncing Israel after hearing complaints from PA officials about Israel’s alleged “violations” and “aggressions.”

Yet the Security Council meeting, which was held last week, did not hear a word about human rights violations and aggressions committed by the PA in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

[Nizar] Banat, the anti-corruption activist and vocal critic of the PA leadership, was allegedly bludgeoned to death on June 24 by more than 20 Palestinian security officers.

More than a month has passed since his brutal murder but the Security Council has not found the time to address this grave incident.

The Security Council has undoubtedly not heard of the case of Emad Al-Tawil, a 27-year-old Palestinian who died on June 25 after being beaten by Hamas security officers. Tawil was a resident of Nuseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.

The Security Council and international human rights organizations and journalists most likely did not hear about the case of Hassan Abu Zayed, a 27-year-old Palestinian from the Gaza Strip, who was shot dead by Hamas “border guards” on July 23.

The Palestinian human rights abuses and the crackdown on political activists and journalists are ignored not only by the UN, but also by the Biden administration.

Instead of pressuring Palestinian leaders to cease imprisoning, torturing and killing their people, the Biden administration is, absurdly, searching for ways to strengthen the PA leadership.

Apparently, in the eyes of the Biden administration, strengthening PA leaders means allowing Palestinian security officers to beat political activists to death, drag women by their hair on the streets of Ramallah, and imprison and intimidate journalists. The Security Council members, meanwhile, take their unjustified obsession with Israel to new heights as Palestinians are taken to prison or the graveyard at the hands of the PA and Hamas.

At the request of the Palestinian Authority (PA), the United Nations Security Council was again called to hold a session to discuss Israeli “violations” and “aggressions” against the Palestinians. The PA also demanded that the Security Council discuss the professed ongoing Israeli “siege” of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Such Security Council sessions have become routine and almost always end up with statements denouncing Israel after hearing complaints from PA officials about Israel’s alleged “violations” and “aggressions.”

Yet the Security Council meeting, which was held last week, did not hear a word about human rights violations and aggressions committed by the PA in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The Security Council did not hear about more than 75 Palestinian social media users, political activists and journalists who were arrested by the PA security forces in the West Bank just in the past few weeks.

The arrests came in response to widespread protests over the death of anti-corruption activist Nizar Banat, who was reportedly beaten to death by Palestinian security officers who raided his home in the city of Hebron.

Another Partisan Stunt by the U.S. Capitol Police A kid-glove approach to federal officers blatantly participating in a political operation designed to help Democrats and undermine Republicans is not just wrongheaded, it’s dangerous.  By Julie Kelly

https://amgreatness.com/2021/08/02/another-partisan-stunt-by-the-u-s-capitol-police/

Harry Dunn began his testimony last week before the January 6 select committee by asking for a moment of silence in honor of Brian Sicknick.

The U.S. Capitol police officer, testifying under oath, claimed his “fallen colleague . . . died from injuries he sustained in the line of duty defending the Capitol of our beloved democracy.” The committee members and the audience complied.

Dunn’s remark, quite simply, is a lie. Brain Sicknick, 42, died on January 7 of a stroke caused by blood clots near his brain, a tragic and untimely death that the District of Columbia medical examiner did not tie to the events of the previous day.

It is just the latest example of how the U.S. Capitol Police, a federal agency funded by American taxpayers, has taken a leading role in fabricating the mythology of January 6. 

Top brass and rank-and-file officers such as Dunn intentionally continue to mislead the public about what happened that day—especially through the falsehood that Trump fanatics killed a cop during the Capitol protest. “Officer Sicknick was responding to the riots on Wednesday, January 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol and was injured while physically engaging with protesters,” according to a press release issued January 7, 2021. “He returned to his division office and collapsed.  He was taken to a local hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.”

Tuesday’s testimony by Dunn and fellow Officer Aquilino Gonell added to the long list of theatrics and political stunts involving Capitol Police officers related to January 6. For the past several months, this rogue agency has acted as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) political enforcers rather than as an objective law enforcement agency.

USCP captured at least 14,000 hours of video from January 6 but refuses to make the footage available to the public. The agency also is attempting to withhold recordings from defense counsel and the news media. An affidavit filed in March by the department’s general counsel confirmed the footage will remain “in the legal control” of USCP.

As part of the legislative branch, the USCP is exempted from Freedom of Information Act rules. No one can legally demand access to the tapes. The agency insists the massive trove of video must remain under seal in order to prevent would-be insurrectionists “who might wish to attack the Capitol again.”

AMA to Urge End of Sex ID on All Birth Certificates By Wesley J. Smith

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/ama-to-urge-end-of-sex-id-on-all-birth-certificates/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=featured-content-trending&utm_term=third

It is astonishing how the transgender moral panic has swept actual science aside. The American Medical Association Board of Trustees (BOT) just passed a resolution that will have the AMA lobbying to end the designation of sex in all future birth certificates.

The resolution distinguishes between the “Certificate of Live Birth” — which is used for simple data collection and vital statistics — and a “Birth Certificate,” which is proof for the born person that he or she was indeed born. (Can I still say that?)

The AMA wants biological sex recorded for the former as a private matter of record-keeping. But it will now urge that birth-certificate forms carry no designation of sex to prevent future discrimination based on identity and to allow the person to decide later what sex they really are. From the June 2021 BOT recommendation 15:

Vital statistics data is a fundamental source of health information. In the U.S., the Standard Certificates of Live Birth form is the primary means by which uniformity of data collection and processing is achieved. Birth certificates, on the other hand, are issued by the government to individuals as proof of birth. Sex designation, as collected through the standard form and included on the birth certificate, refers to the biological difference between males and females. Today, the majority of states (48) and the District of Columbia allow people to amend their sex designation on their birth certificate to reflect their individual gender identities, but only 10 states allow for a gender-neutral designation, typically “X,” on the birth certificate.

Existing AMA policy recognizes that every individual has the right to determine their gender identity and sex designation on government documents. To protect individual privacy and to prevent discrimination, U.S.  jurisdictions should remove sex designation on the birth certificate.

So, rather than permit people to have their records changed, as happens now in all but two states — and to accommodate the potential future subjective, emotional desires of the very few — the objective biological reality for the many (in all but an infinitesimal number of births) must be sacrificed:

Our American Medical Association will advocate for the removal of sex as a legal designation on the public portion of the birth certificate, recognizing that information on an individual’s sex designation at birth will still be submitted through the U.S. Standard Certificate of Live Birth for medical, public health, and statistical use only. (Directive to Take Action)

The headline says it all: ‘Over 1,000 victims, 126 dead, just 2 convictions: 6 years of mass shootings in Chicago’ By Thomas Lifson

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/08/the_headline_says_it_all_over_1000_victims_126_dead_just_2_convictions_6_years_of_mass_shootings_in_chicago.html

Parts of Chicago no longer are governed by the rule of law. In place of ordered civilization, criminal gangs operate with impunity, the residents living in a state of terror, afraid to tell police anything that would aid in capturing the criminals. The true exercise of power is in the hands of those who would be called warlords in other contexts, but (at least for now), the term is too harsh for most ears.

The Chicago Sun-Times has produced a stunning story capturing the extent of lawlessness today, with both granular detail and an overview. After describing one mass shooting:

About two hours after the shots rang out, an alarming dispatch pierced through police radio: Another mass shooting had just rocked the Marquette Park neighborhood, roughly six miles away.

Three alleged gang members had sprayed bullets at a crowd hanging out in the 6200 block of South Artesian Avenue, enjoying the summer night. Twelve people were hit, among them Nyoka Bowie, 37, who suffered a fatal gunshot wound to her chest. Like Grimes and many other victims of mass shootings — defined by the Sun-Times and some researchers as incidents in which four or more people are wounded — she apparently was not the intended target.

In both cases, there was a large number of witnesses and surviving victims, yet no arrests have been made. That is all too common in Chicago, where police say they do not prioritize the cases despite the especially harsh toll such shootings have on a community.

Only one person has been charged in any of the at least 39 mass shootings so far this year, according to a Sun-Times analysis of city data and court records.