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Cries for Freedom: Biden, Are You Listening? Crisis in Iran and Cuba. Clare Lopez

Posted By on August 6th, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/08/cries-freedom-biden-are-you-listening-clare-lopez/

Iran’s new president, Ebrahim Raisi, has not even been sworn in yet, but tensions both within Iran and around the Middle East are ratcheting up a in serious way. Protests that began in Iran’s southwestern Khuzestan Province over electricity blackouts and water shortages amidst the worst drought in 50 years have now spread nationwide. The Iranian people are in the streets in many of the country’s major cities, including the capital, Tehran. They have been massing in the streets and closing major roads and highways. Many Iranians blame regime corruption and mismanagement for the severe lack of electricity and water during the worst of the region’s blistering summer heat. In fact, Iran’s hydroelectric system is near collapse. And while Iranians first took to the streets of Khuzestan to protest the water shortage, their chants now are calling for the fall of the regime itself (“Death to the Islamic Republic”) and “Death to Khamenei!”, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic.

The timing of these protests coincides with the elevation of Ebrahim Raisi to the presidency, with his inauguration scheduled for Thursday, 5 August 2021. Raisi’s June “selection” was openly arranged by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a presidential campaign and voting that was boycotted in protest by most of the Iranian electorate. Raisi rose to power in the ranks of the judiciary and was the Judiciary Chief before being tapped as Iran’s next president. He is known and reviled for his savage violations of human rights, especially in his role on the Death Commission that sent tens of thousands of Iranian prisoners, many of them belonging to the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), to their executions in 1988. In typical fashion – and likely preview of Raisi’s presidential role as the regime’s enforcer — Tehran has unleashed its security forces against the people, using live fire against demonstrators, disrupting Internet service, and carrying out sweeping arrests.

The intensity of Iran’s unrelenting domestic upheaval combines with an escalation of regional tensions that together are pummeling the regime. Sensing that developments are spiraling out of its control, the Tehran regime is lashing out in multiple directions, both at home and abroad. The situation in Lebanon is deteriorating as Iran’s jihadist proxy, Hizballah, is facing an ongoing economic and governmental crisis that shows no signs of abating. Recent rocket fire out of Lebanon into Israel has been met with retaliatory artillery strikes by the IDF, which also has been conducting air strikes inside Syria targeting Iranian weapons deliveries. Additionally, Israel has been launching maritime strikes against ships carrying Iranian oil and weapons in regional waters. Beset within and without, the Iranian regime hit back at Israel on Friday 22 July 2021 with a drone strike off the coast of Oman in the Arabian Sea against a Liberian-flagged oil tanker operated by an Israeli-owned firm. The attack against the Mercer Street killed two crew members. Although Iran initially denied being behind the attack, an Iranian TV network later admitted responsibility, claiming it was retaliation for an Israeli strike inside Syria.

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Under Fire from Social-Justice Warriors, Classical-Music Organizations Grovel By George Leef

Posted By on August 6th, 2021

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/under-fire-from-social-justice-warriors-classical-music-organizations-grovel/

If you don’t really have any talent, the surefire way of getting attention these days is to claim that some institution is racist. For several years now, the malcontents have been griping about classical music, claiming that it is “too white” and “not inclusive.”

Naturally, the leaders of orchestras and opera companies and other groups have abased themselves before the critics and are hastily trying to make amends by hiring “diversity” administrators and putting more works by “underrepresented minority” composers on programs.

For a thoroughly depressing read about this, Heather Mac Donald has written an essay for City Journal that lays out the ugly facts.

Sadly, nobody in the classical-music world seems to have the nerve to tell the SJWs that there is no racism in it and hasn’t been for many decades.

Mac Donald’s concluding paragraph explains the truth:

Without home transmission, the best hope for creating more black classical musicians is to restore widespread music education. The antiracism advocates have said little about that imperative, however. It’s easier to extract racial quotas from compliant organizations than it is to engineer a change as profound as exposing students to a vanishing musical aesthetic. Packing off every opera and orchestra administrator to implicit bias training will not produce a single competitively qualified black musician. Nor will potential students be inclined to pick up the violin after learning that its repertoire belongs to a white supremacist tradition. But more power is to be gained by pushing the racism line than by pursuing the unlikely rebirth of public school music training. So the search has been on to find racial scapegoats.

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Over 800 Migrant Children Detained at Border in Highest Daily Total This Year By Zachary Evans

Posted By on August 6th, 2021

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/over-800-migrant-children-detained-at-border-in-highest-daily-total-this-year/

Border Patrol agents detained 834 unaccompanied migrant children at the U.S.–Mexico border on Wednesday, according to data released by the Department of Health and Human Services.

That number is the highest since the Biden administration began reporting daily total apprehensions of migrant children earlier this year.

The number of children in custody of U.S. Customs and Border Protection rose to 2,784 on Wednesday. Unaccompanied children are typically held in CBP facilities before being transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees care for unaccompanied minors. There are currently 14,523 children in HHS facilities.

The release comes after the Department of Homeland Security estimated that 210,000 migrants crossed the southern border in July, in court documents filed on August 2. That number includes an estimated 19,000 unaccompanied minors for the month of July, in what would be the highest monthly total since the year 2000.

The Biden administration has struggled to process hundreds of thousands of migrants who have illegally crossed into the U.S. in recent months. Border agents encountered 188,829 migrants in June, the highest monthly total in a decade, along with 180,641 migrants in May, 178,850 in April, and 173,265 in March.

On Monday the administration renewed a Title 42 policy allowing border agents to expel migrants directly back into Mexico without a court hearing, citing the risk of coronavirus spread. However, unaccompanied minors are exempt from that policy.

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Climate Change Doesn’t Cause All Disasters Warming annually causes about 120,000 heat deaths but prevents nearly 300,000 cold deaths. By Bjorn Lomborg

Posted By on August 6th, 2021

https://www.wsj.com/articles/climate-change-natural-disasters-ahr-river-flood-germany-wildfire-risks-11628177742?mod=opinion_lead_pos6

Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it. That old quip, often attributed to Mark Twain or his friend Charles Dudley Warner, now guides most news coverage of severe weather. The media say that natural disasters are a result of climate change and we need to adopt radical policies to combat them.

But this framing tells only a small part of what is scientifically known. Take the recent flooding in Germany and Belgium, which many, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, are blaming on climate change. Yet a new study of more than 10,000 rivers around the world shows that most rivers now flood less. What used to be a 50-year flood in the 1970s happens every 152 years today, likely due to urbanization, flood-control measures, and changes in climate.

Some rivers still flood, and reporters flock there, but more scare stories don’t mean more global flooding. The river Ahr, where most of the German flood deaths occurred, had a spectacular flow on July 14, 2021, but it was lower than deadly flows in 1804 and 1910. The real cause of increased fatalities from riverine flooding in Germany and many other places is more people building settlements on flood plains, leaving the water no place to go. Instead of more solar panels and wind turbines to combat climate change, riverside communities need better water management. And foremost, they need a well-functioning warning system so they can evacuate before disaster strikes.

Here, Germany has failed spectacularly. Following the deadly European floods in 2002, Germany built an extensive warning system, but during a test last September most warning measures, including sirens and text alerts, didn’t work. The European Flood Awareness System predicted the floods nine days in advance and formally warned the German government four days in advance, yet most people on the ground were left unaware. Hannah Cloke, the hydrologist who set up the system, called it “a monumental failure.”

But of course, blaming the deadly floods on climate change instead of taking responsibility for the missed early warnings is convenient for politicians like Ms. Merkel, who, during a visit to Schuld, a devastated village on the Ahr, said, ”We must get faster in the battle against climate change.”

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MUST-SEE VIDEO: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Tucker By Andrea Widburg

Posted By on August 6th, 2021

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

“Orbán is something rare in politics and unknown in America: He’s not just a politician but a statesman who puts his country’s interests front and center.”

On Thursday, Tucker Carlson conducted a fairly in-depth interview with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. It was a fascinating look at a classic liberal: Liberty-oriented values that don’t veer into anarchy, strong principles, and a healthy nationalism. The left has used “nationalism” as a dirty word since Hitler, as they seek a borderless world they control, but healthy nationalism means doing what Trump did: Putting your countrymen first, without regard for other nation’s demands that you subordinate your country to them – and that’s what Orbán does.

Orbán was born in Hungary in 1963 when it was still under Soviet control. As a child, he was a devoted communist, but his two years of military service turned him into a conservative.

Ironically, in 1989, it was a scholarship from the Soros Foundation that first took Orbán out of the communist bloc and saw him study political science at Oxford. He entered politics in 1990 and has consistently run as a liberty-oriented conservative, who believes in traditional Judeo-Christian values, a strong national identity, and individual liberty.

For most Americans, Orbán, who has been Prime Minister since 2010 (his second term in that office) might not have been a recognized name were it not for the fact that, in 2015, Angela Merkel opened Europe’s gates to millions of Muslim migrants, most of them single men. Orbán, despite being a member of the EU, refused to get with that program. If people want to immigrant to Hungary, he said, they must comply with its immigration laws, rather than just walking in.

Orbán has also presided over Hungary’s passing a set of laws that, while they would have been normative three or four decades ago, are now decried as gross violations of LGBTQ+ human rights.

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A grandiose Rep. Cori Bush (D-Wokeistan) says the quiet part out loud By Andrea Widburg

Posted By on August 6th, 2021

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

Rep. Cori Bush (D. Wokeistan) is an honest politician. She’s also narcissistic, histrionic, manic, intellectually corrupt, and has delusions of grandeur but, darn, if she isn’t honest. And the great thing about her honesty is that, when it comes to every Democrat, Progressive, and leftist politician, she says the quiet part out loud. We’ve all known about this quiet part: It’s the one that says that high-level leftists, the ones who want to take our cars, air conditioners, heating, health care, travel rights, and money, do not have to abide by their own rules. Rules are for the little people and, when it comes to Bush’s need for personal security guards while she’s defunding your police, Bush is happy to explain why she’s special.

I have a question for you: Have you ever seen a tax-the-rich, “at a certain point you’ve made enough money” leftist when he or she comes into money, redistribute a single penny of that wealth? I can’t think of a single one.

When Bernie Sanders, who yearns for Cuban socialism, started raking in money for his bucks, he bought a sports car and now owns three houses.

When Al Gore, who insisted that we must give up our cars, and heated-and-air-conditioned homes to save the world, made $330 million selling carbon offsets and unloading his Current TV channel to Al-Jazeera, which the oil-producing, slave-owning Qataris fund, he went big on big real estate. He didn’t redistribute a penny.

When Barack Obama (the one who said “at a certain point you’ve made enough money”) quickly escalated his net worth to more than $70 million dollars thanks to Netflix and book deals, he, like Gore, went on a real estate buying binge, including an oceanfront home right where the climate change is supposed to happen. He also didn’t redistribute his money.

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Nina Turner, Cori Bush and the price of progressivism Far-left members of the Democratic party are ignoring what their voters tell them

Posted By on August 6th, 2021

https://spectatorworld.com/topic/nina-turner-cori-bush-cost-progressivism/

In victory or defeat, the progressives are consistently hurting the Democratic party.

Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri, who lay on the stairs of the US Capitol in a sleeping bag to protest the end of the eviction moratorium, is a perfect case study. Both she and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hammed it up for the cameras this week. Ocasio-Cortez was even cynical enough to throw her mask back on when she realized press photos of their heroic protest were being taken. She wouldn’t want the Twitter trolls to turn on her for going maskless outdoors — the horror!

Luckily for Bush and AOC, the protest worked! President Biden, true to form, caved to their demands. The miserable whiners outside the Capitol managed to crack a smile for a few minutes. Bush was applauded by her army of activists and she grinned from ear to ear while holding a bouquet of roses in her arms. It was a victory! Small landlords across America might never get paid again thanks to these courageous advocates.

But the costs of these pyrrhic socialist victories are growing for the rest of the Democratic party. After all, Biden had to very publicly cave to the pie-in-the-sky progressives. After admitting to reporters that extending the eviction moratorium wasn’t in the cards — or the Constitution — Joe flip-flopped and decided to try it anyway.

One CNN headline read, ‘President Biden shows he’s ready to make drastic moves in the COVID-19 fight — even if he’s not sure they’re legal.’ Au contraire — Biden is very sure that these moves are not legal. Earlier this week, when discussing extending the moratorium he said that the ‘bulk of constitutional scholars say…it’s not likely to pass constitutional muster’. Then again, if it stops the Bernie brats from throwing a tantrum on Twitter, then who cares about ‘norms’ — or the millions of small landlords prattling on about contractual obligations and the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment?

Most of those financially hard-pressed property owners probably voted for Trump, right? Who cares about the moderate Democrats who only backed Biden because they thought he would restore a bit of middle ground to the political landscape?

Now consider how on Tuesday night, former Ohio state lawmaker Nina Turner lost her bid for the state’s 11th congressional district to Cuyahoga County Council member Shontel Brown. Turner’s candidacy was supported by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar. Brown was backed by old-school Democrats like Hillary Clinton and House majority whip James Clyburn.

IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

It Isn’t Immigration, It’s a Government-Sponsored Invasion Laura Hollis

Posted By on August 5th, 2021

https://townhall.com/columnists/laurahollis/2021/08/05/it-isnt-immigration-its-a-gov

Do you know how many people have come across the border illegally so far this year?

According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (USCBP), it’s 1.1 million people, and the numbers are rising every month.

According to the USCBP’s website, more than 75,000 people crossed the border illegally in January of this year. In February, that number climbed to more than 97,000. In March, it was more than 169,000. In April, 173,000. More than 180,000 people crossed the southern border in May. In June, it was almost 189,000. The June number was a 450% increase over June of 2020, and more than 4% increase from May’s numbers.

USCBP just released the figures for July: 210,000 illegal immigrants crossed the U.S. border that month alone. That is the highest monthly total in more than two decades. 

The number of illegals is already more than twice the total number of those who crossed the border during the entire last year of former President Donald Trump’s term — and these are just the ones we know of. 

CARTOONS | AF Branco

View Cartoon

This is not merely a crisis; it is an existential threat.

First, these are election-changing numbers. As we’ve seen, a few thousand additional votes here and there can flip important counties in battleground states, and in so doing, affect the outcome of elections. We’re now talking about millions. Newsweek put it this way: the number of people who have come to this country illegally so far this year is already large enough to “create the tenth largest city in the U.S.”

Regardless of what the migrants’ own objectives for coming to America are, the Democrats’ plan is for these people to vote. Democrats in Congress have been pushing for “amnesty” for illegal immigrants, granting them citizenship and the right to vote. They’re currently trying to use the budget “reconciliation” process, which would enable them to pass such legislation this summer – well before the 2022 midterms, and without any Republican support. 

How many undocumented immigrants are in the U.S.? The “official” number, at least before the 2021 surge, was around 11 million. But organizations like the Foundation for American Immigration Reform estimate that it is quite a bit higher. FAIR’s estimate in 2019 was closer to 15 million.

Even if it is the lower number, at this rate, more than 2 million people – or twenty percent of the number of illegals already here – will have come into this country illegally by the end of 2021. If this continues — and there are no indications that it will stop — how many people will have entered the country illegally by the end of Biden’s first term? 8 million? 10 million?

IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Shocking Photos Show the Horrifying, Inhumane Conditions of Biden’s Border Crisis By Matt Margolis

Posted By on August 5th, 2021

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2021/08/05/new-photos-show-the-inhumane-conditions-of-bidens-border-crisis-n1467244

Joe Biden’s laying out the welcome mat for illegal immigrants has resulted in “a human disaster at multiple crossing points,” according to photos provided to the Washington Examiner by the former acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Mark Morgan.

“This is crazy what’s happening,” Morgan told Paul Bedard of the Washington Examiner. Morgan’s photos of several crossing points show cages (yes, cages) of illegal immigrants, absolutely disgusting bathroom facilities, and thousands of migrants crammed under bridges as they wait to be processed in 100-degree heat.

“It’s nuts. There are 4,000 people under that bridge. We’ve had storms. They were outside …100 degrees outside,” he said.

“The White House said migrants are being handled in a humane and orderly way,” Morgan said. “This isn’t humane or orderly, and it’s not the Border Patrol’s fault. They are doing all they can to deal with the disaster created by Biden.”

One photo provided to the Washington Examiner shows a toilet at the Anzalduas International Bridge holding area at the Rio Grande River near Mission, Texas.

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CRT Roundup: Fairfax County Schools Sent Second Graders Video Vilifying Cops: ‘I Feel Safe When There Are No Police’

Posted By on August 5th, 2021

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/08/critical-race-theory-roundup/

Over the last year, teachers and administrators nationwide have weaponized K-12 education, injecting progressive politics into classrooms, and indoctrinating students with novel social justice dogma, including theories that call for racialized curriculums and reverse discrimination to achieve racial equity.

Mainstream media outlets and left-wing commentators have accused conservatives of demonizing critical race theory, and turning an obscure academic theory into a rightwing “bogeyman.” But there sure are a lot of examples of it turning up in schools across the country, from big city Democratic strongholds to suburban districts in red America. The following are summaries of just a small number of the fights that have erupted in the last year.

Fairfax County Schools Sent Second Graders a Video Vilifying Police: ‘I Feel Safe When There Are No Police’

Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) sent second-graders a “summer learning guide” in July which included a Youtube video titled “Woke Kindergarten” that vilified the police.

Centered around the importance of “feeling safe,” the video, which was obtained by Parents Defending Education, presents a slideshow of photos featuring groups of young African Americans, some of whom are holding Black Lives Matter signs.

“We deserve to feel safe in our homes… I feel safe when there are no police. And it’s no one’s job to tell me how I feel. But it’s everyone’s job to make sure that people who are being treated unfairly……feel safe too,” a narrator says.

The “suggested texts” section of the summer learning guide also recommends students listen to “Good Trouble by Ki,” which instructs students on the merits of civil disobedience.

The narrator of another video, intended for seven-year-olds, tells students, “sometimes it’s good to get into trouble.” The video also presents a sequence of photos depicting social justice demonstrations, some from the modern day and some taken during the Civil Rights movement of the mid-twentieth century.

In a reference to Representative John Lewis’ 2020 speech in Selma, Alabama commemorating Bloody Sunday, the video adds, “John Lewis was a freedom fighter who got in a lot of good trouble.”

“Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and redeem the soul of America,” Lewis declared at the 2020 event.