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August 2023

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Justice Requires Fair Procedures by Alan M. Dershowitz

By on August 23rd, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19919/justice-requires-fair-procedures

“Justice, justice you shall pursue,” the Bible commands (Deuteronomy 16:20); and that, in doing justice, one must not “recognize faces.”

The late US Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter once observed that the history of liberty is largely a history of procedural fairness. Our constitution embodies that history by reading “the due process of law.”

Lately, however, many so-called progressives have been willing to ignore procedural safeguards and due process in their campaign to get former President Donald Trump — to misuse the law in an effort to prevent the leading Republican candidate from running against the incumbent candidate for president. In doing so, they are violating the second principle of justice: “Do not recognize faces.” That commandment is the basis for the blindfolded statute of justice.

Some progressives who would ignore procedural safeguards to get Trump acknowledge that this is because they regard him as especially dangerous and therefore undeserving of due process. Special injustice for an unjust man!

Injustice, once practiced against an unjust person, will serve as precedent for deploying it against just persons.

Another weapon is scheduling. They are trying to get convictions in friendly locations before the 2024 elections, and willing to risk reversal on appeal, which would occur only after the election. Accordingly, they are seeking very early trial dates…. No decent defense lawyer would agree to try a case with so little time to prepare. Yet a group of prominent “get Trump” Republican lawyers has filed a brief supporting that unconstitutional rush to injustice.

These and other “get Trump” lawyers should read the Judeo-Christian commands to do procedural as well as substantive justice, and not to recognize faces. If they follow those wise commands, they will stop trying to “get Trump” or potentially any of us. Instead, they will pursue justice without regard to the face, name or party of the person being investigated and prosecuted.

Whatever one thinks of former President Donald Trump, everyone who cares about liberty for all must oppose the weaponization of laws and procedures that are aimed at him, lest the weapons be turned on us.(Image source: iStock)

“Justice, justice you shall pursue,” the Bible commands (Deuteronomy 16:20); and that, in doing justice, one must not “recognize faces.”

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MOVIES AND TELEVISION Comments turned off

The Oppenheimer File: Missing Cast and Forgotten Back Stories Crucial historical facts concealed By Lloyd Billingsley

By on August 23rd, 2023

https://amgreatness.com/2023/08/21/the-oppenheimer-file-missing-cast-and-forgotten-back-stories/

In the early going of this marathon film, J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) tells a hostile government committee that his testimony should be understood in the context of his life and work. Context also is important for movies, but Oppenheimer keeps key back stories off the screen.

Viewers see the “Hitler Invades Poland” headline from September 1, 1939, but do not see or hear anything about Josef Stalin’s Communist forces invading Poland on September 17, 1939. This joint invasion started WWII and came about because of the Stalin-Hitler pact of August 23, 1939. Viewers see nothing about the Pact, and no headline such as “Stalin Invades Finland,” marks November 30, 1939.

While the Pact was in operation, Hitler’s National Socialists (Nazis) invaded Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, and took over France by the summer of 1940. Under the Pact, the Nazi and Soviet intelligence forces collaborated and Stalin handed hundreds of Jewish Communists over to the Gestapo. Jewish scientists in America would have been well aware of that deadly exchange, but not a word in Oppenheimer.

Viewers never learn that for nearly the first two years of the war, Stalin and Hitler were allies. The Communist Party USA collaborated with pro-Nazi groups in America and did everything in its power to keep the United States out of the conflict. In Oppenheimer, no Communist is asked to account for what he or she did during the Pact, and why they stayed in the Party after many others left, never to return.

The Communist Party USA was founded, funded and controlled by the USSR and members pledged loyalty to the Soviet regime. Oppenheimer portrays Party members as misguided liberals concerned about the conflict in Spain. Viewers hear about “the brigades” but no character explains that the Abraham Lincoln Brigades were a Communist Party militia that opposed anti-Franco groups such as the Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista. The POUM fighters included George Orwell, author of 1984, Animal Farm, and Homage to Catalonia. See also Cecil Eby’s Between the Bullet and the Lie.

Inquiries about Oppenheimer’s “left wing” associations fail to note that the Party had an open and secret membership, as Whittaker Chambers detailed in Witness. John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr cite evidence that Oppenheimer was a member of a secret Party unit at UC Berkeley, where his friend Haakon Chevalier, a professor of French literature, was an active Communist. In the movie, Jefferson Hall plays Chevalier, and Oppenheimer resists his request to pass on information to the Soviets.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Where are the 650 children of King Kamehameha Elementary school? By Susan Daniels

By on August 23rd, 2023

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/08/where_are_the_650_children_of_king_kamehameha_elementary_school.html

Governor Josh Green, while pushing the climate change narrative on news show Face the Nation, said that King Kamehameha Elementary school burned to the ground. He said that 650 students attended the school. How many are accounted for?

Residents of the scarred island told me that everything on the news is a lie. The mayor of Maui, Richard Bissen, said that 850 people are still missing. The same day the governor said 1,100 are missing. If they actually know how many are missing, then they must know who is not. Where are the children of Lahaina?

The truth is they have no idea how many people are missing because there is no way to gauge how many tourists were in Lahaina when the fire swept through. And in 2022, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Hawaii had the fourth highest homeless rate in the nation and most of them, I am told, were in Lahaina.

Bissen was asked by reporters ten days after the disaster how many children were missing. He responded: “I don’t know.” When pushed by increasingly angry reporters he said he’d tell them if he knew. He knows or has a good idea. His body language says so.

It is now common knowledge that the schools were closed that day and children were either home alone or with grandparents since their parents were all at work.

We have all seen the hundreds of burned-up cars lining the single road in and out of Lahaina, yet the politicians claim that only 111 people have died. So where are all the elementary-aged kids? The inept mayor doesn’t want people to know.

We are told that cars melted in the heat in the 2000-degree heat. A body is cremated at between 1400-1600 degrees. The smaller the body the less time it takes. Ashes and bones were shoveled into body bags, according to residents, and they ran out of the 450 bags they had. But only 111 people died?

Stationed on the neighboring island of Oahu are 27,000 military troops who could have been sent immediately to help:10,000 Marines at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, 12,000 Navy sailors, and 5500 Air Force personnel at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. That was not done.

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MEDICINE AND HEALTH Comments turned off

Is Wokeness Taking Over and Worsening the Medical Industry? By Catherine Salgado

By on August 23rd, 2023

https://pjmedia.com/culture/catherinesalgado/2023/08/21/is-wokeness-taking-over-and-worsening-the-medical-industry-n1720871

A lot of people started to notice during COVID-19 that some doctors seemed more interested in government policies and narratives than in excellence in healthcare. But with recent stories on radical leftism in hospitals and medical education, it seems necessary to ask just how much woke has permeated the medical field and whether it will bring down the quality of healthcare in the U.S. Could individuals eventually even be denied medical care based on political affiliation?

Two recent stories illustrate the infiltration of leftist politics in the medical field. I already reported on the Mayo Clinic offering a course that examines “racial equity,” “structural racism,” and alleged “anti-Blackness.” It appears to be a course for doctors, nurses, and medical staff to be indoctrinated in critical race theory (CRT).

Robin DiAngelo, one of the guest lecturers, wrote the New York Times bestseller “White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism.” If that isn’t bad enough, her “area of research is in Whiteness Studies and Critical Discourse Analysis, tracing how whiteness is reproduced in everyday narratives.” Whatever that means. And what does any of this have to do with providing excellent medical care?

Now Campus Reform is reporting on San Diego State University (SDSU) using Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) standards to judge potential applicants for a professor of cancer biology. “Candidates must satisfy two or more of the eight Building on Inclusive Excellence (BIE) criteria,” the job listing states. What are those criteria? SDSU thoughtfully provides them—here are a few:

Candidates that meet BIE criteria: (a) are committed to engaging in service with underrepresented populations within the discipline, (b) have demonstrated knowledge of barriers for underrepresented students and faculty within the discipline…(d) have experience or have demonstrated commitment to integrating understanding of underrepresented populations and communities into research…(f) have experience in or have demonstrated commitment to research that engages underrepresented communities…and/or (h) have research interests that contribute to diversity and equal opportunity in higher education.

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EDUCATION Comments turned off

College Rip-Off Why it’s good that fewer people go. by John Stossel

By on August 23rd, 2023

https://www.frontpagemag.com/college-rip-off/

It’s August. Many young people head off to college.

This year, fortunately, fewer will go.

I say “fortunately” because college is now an overpriced scam.

Overpriced, because normal incentives to be frugal and make smart judgements about who should go to college were thrown out when the federal government took over granting student loans.

Why?

Because our government basically vomits money at everyone who applies.

If private lenders gave out the loans, they’d look at whether they were likely to be paid back. They’d ask questions like: “What will you study? You really think majoring in dance will lead to a job that will pay you enough to allow you to pay us back?”

Government rarely asks these questions. Bureaucrats throw money at students. Many don’t benefit. Many shouldn’t even be going to college. Today, nearly half of the students given loans don’t graduate even after six years.

Many feel like failures.

College is good for people who want to be college professors or who major in fields like engineering and computer science that might lead to good jobs. But that’s not most people. Government loans encourage everyone to go to college, even if they’re not very interested in academics.

Government’s handouts also invite colleges to keep raising tuition. Over the past 50 years, college cost rose at four times the rate of inflation. Four times!

Years ago, I reported how colleges were suddenly wasting money on luxuries like fancy gyms and even day spas. Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that it’s gotten worse: The University of Oklahoma bought a monastery in Italy for study abroad students! The University of Kentucky built a theater where students play video games.

“Why not raise tuition?” asks the typical college president. “Uncle Sam pays the bill!”

When I went to Princeton, tuition was $2,000. Now its $60,000.

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ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

There’s More To Story Than ‘Climate Change’ — The Media Must Keep Pushing And Asking Questions About The Lahaina Fires Linnea Lueken

By on August 23rd, 2023

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/08/23/theres-more-to-story-than-climate-change-the-media-must-keep-pushing-and-asking-questions-about-the-lahaina-fires/

The legacy media, quick to attribute every natural disaster to climate change, has actually done some good reporting recently on the tragic wildfires that destroyed the town of Lahaina and killed probably more than 100 people as many are still missing. Media reports were not so honest at first.

In the initial days after Lahaina burned, of course, outlets like The New York Times breathlessly said climate change made Hawaii “a tinderbox.”

This is despite the fact that, regardless of the public perception of Hawaii that the Times authors give, “a far cry from the dry landscape normally associated with fire threats,” the island state is actually one of the most fire-prone in the country. This is due in large part to its unique geography, which allows eastern trade winds to dump water on the eastern volcanic slopes – leading to the familiar verdant rainforest. But the western sides of Maui and the other islands in the chain are a lot drier naturally, and are home to dry grassy hills.

This effect was compounded by a passing hurricane to the south. Because the wind goes from a high-pressure zone to a lower-pressure zone, the low pressures of Hurricane Dora far to the south aided in the accelerated downhill wind speeds on Maui. These high, dry winds knocked around power cables that may have led to the initial sparks, which were then turned into firestorms that swept downhill and through town. 

So, are hurricanes to blame? No. Despite media claims, data show hurricanes are not getting more frequent or extreme. Is drought the culprit? Also, not likely. While the Times cited a 2015 study that claimed Hawaii was seeing less rainfall, available drought severity and coverage data seem to refute this.

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MEDICINE AND HEALTH Comments turned off

We Won’t Be Masked Again 

By on August 23rd, 2023

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/08/23/we-wont-be-masked-again/

A summer surge of COVID-19 has some wondering aloud if we should return to mask mandates. For now, the official line, despite the media effort to rekindle coronavirus hysteria, is that it’s unlikely. But we heard that before, in 2020, right before public health officials dropped their mask tyranny on us. If they do it again, we have an obligation to say no.

Are we calling for civil disobedience? Are we suggesting that Americans resist orders that are not laws but are instead decrees issued by despots? Absolutely, and without reservation.

Masks are dehumanizing. When we cover our faces, we no longer look like people. We look like monsters, freaks from bad science fiction movies. Half-blank faces stare back at us as our ability to communicate is skewed. A masked society is a hideous society.

When we wear masks because we are told to, we subjugate ourselves, surrender our agency to others. We symbolically kneel before abusive authorities that should have no authority over us. Are we free people or are we subordinates to politicians and an administrative structure that has accrued illegitimate power?

Masks project fear. Who wants to live in a world that is frightened, driven by panic, hiding behind a facade of protection? It was demoralizing to see the extremes that people went to to cover their faces during the pandemic. (Some of those in the video referenced here were clearly using caricatures to spoof the mandates, but we don’t need those again, either.)

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Continuing Atrocities: Blasphemy Laws in Pakistan by Mohshin Habib

By on August 23rd, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19917/atrocities-blasphemy-laws-pakistan

“What began as accusations against two Christian brothers has escalated into a devastating wave of violence, resulting in the destruction of over 20 churches and 500 homes. The situation remains tense as the community grapples with the aftermath of this unfortunate incident.” — Pakistan Christian Post, August 18, 2023.

“Both men were taken into custody on the next afternoon and handed to the Counter-Terrorism Department, Punjab for investigation. Section 295-B relates to desecration of the Koran and carries a punishment of life in prison. Section 295-C relates to insulting Muhammad and is punishable by death.” — Morning Star News, August 18, 2023.

After the Pakistani Supreme Court’s 2018 acquittal of Asia Bibi, a Christian who was charged with blasphemy and kept in solitary confinement for eight years until TLP members held protests across Pakistan. Muhammad Afzal Qadri, a TLP co-founder, also called for the murder of the three Supreme Court justices involved in hearing Bibi’s appeal, stating: “The Chief Justice and two others deserve to be killed.”

“Videos circulating on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms showed a violent mob dragging a half-dead man on the streets of Sialkot, Pakistan on December 1, 2021. Young men were throwing stones at him and kicking his body as he was dragged mercilessly by those who called themselves the ‘protectors’ of the sanctity of the Prophethood. The videos go on to show ghastly scenes of the mob burning a corpse as dozens of men not only look on, but use their cell phones to take selfies….” — Atlantic Council, January 15, 2022.

On July 8, 2023, police arrested a 35-year-old Christian for allegedly sharing a post on Facebook, although “Even the imam of the village mosque told them that the post contained nothing derogatory against Islam, and that they should desist from stoking religious tension.” — Morning Star News, July 12, 2023.

“Pakistani authorities need no more evidence to see how dangerous the blasphemy laws are – they are abused to make false accusations that can, and have, led to unlawful killings and even whole communities being attacked and their homes burnt.” — David Griffiths, Director of the Office of the Secretary General of Amnesty International, August 25, 2020.

No changes in the situation have yet been observed.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Washington Admits Fraudulent Accounting Again CBO flags a $66 billion Beltway bamboozlement.

By on August 23rd, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/articles/washington-admits-fraudulent-accounting-again-53587f09?mod=opinion_lead_pos11

You have to laugh or cry when the Congressional Budget Office issues an occasional reminder that lawmakers use bogus accounting to hide from taxpayers the true cost of federal programs. Give CBO credit for honesty as it points out how required official estimates are at odds with real-world bookkeeping. Last week CBO explained how its new report on federal support for consumer and business lending measures the downside:

The report shows two kinds of estimates: those currently used in the federal budget, which are made by following the procedures specified in the Federal Credit Reform Act of 1990 (FCRA), and those referred to as fair-value estimates, which measure the market value of the government’s obligations…
Using FCRA procedures, CBO estimates that new loans and loan guarantees issued in 2024 would cost the federal government $10.9 billion over their lifetime. But using the fair-value approach, CBO estimates that those loans and guarantees would have a lifetime cost of $76.7 billion.

The fair-value estimate is 10 times what Beltway accounting claims?! This suggests a fraud so large that it might persuade even former Enron adviser Paul Krugman to rescind his 2021 endorsement of “budget chicanery.”

A government that habitually embraces such financial shenanigans over decades could someday run up a debt of $32.7 trillion.

Now that someday has arrived, the question is when the reckoning will occur. Dan Clifton of Strategas writes in a note to clients today that “the next president will face a once in 40-year shift in monetary policy, fiscal policy, and geopolitics that requires serious governing.”

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HISTORY, ISRAEL Comments turned off

A bit of history never goes amiss. Victor Sharpe (2011)

By on August 23rd, 2023

President Obama’s lugubrious policy of denigrating America whenever he visits developing Third World countries includes craven, mournful apologies for perceived past American sins to some of the world’s worst thugocracies. British Prime Minister, David Cameron, alas, appears to be sinking to the same level in apologizing for alleged British sins.

The Prime Minister was recently in Pakistan — that Muslim nation that has just seen U.N. officials beheaded and scores of people murdered by frenzied Muslim mobs upset at the burning of a Koran by an American Christian pastor.

Of course, burning the Jewish Torah (first five books of the Bible), the Bhagavad-Gita, (Hindu Gospels), the Tripitaka (Buddhist holy book) and the entire Bible itself would never engender beheadings or murders: such horrors are left to the followers of Islam.

But David Cameron has some problems with history, it seems. His words imply that Britain is responsible for all the ills between India and Pakistan — stating that Britain’s, “imperial legacy was to blame for the current conflicts in many parts of the world’s trouble spots.” He continued, “As with so many of the world’s problems, we are responsible for the issue in the first place.”

According to Nile Gardiner, Mr. Cameron, while on a trip to Washington last July, 2010, also described Britain as the “junior partner” to America in fighting the Germans in 1940. Are we to understand that Prime Minister Cameron does not know that Britain fought alone once war was declared on September 3, 1939 and that the US did not enter the war until December 7, 1941, and then only because the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor?

Again, according to Nile Gardiner, writing in the London Daily Telegraph on April 5, 2011, Cameron’s predecessor, Gordon Brown, had responded to an earlier attack on Britain by Thabo Mbeki, then South Africa’s president, by declaring that, “… the days of Britain having to apologize for its colonial history are over,” and that, “we should celebrate much of our past, rather than apologize for it.”

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