Arizona Senate to Start Major Audit of 2.1 Million 2020 Presidential Election Ballots By Samuel Allegri

https://www.theepochtimes.com/arizona-senate-to-start-major-audit-of-2-1-million-2020-presidential-election-ballots_3780224.html

The Arizona Senate, which is controlled by Republicans, is ready to start a major audit of 2.1 million ballots for the 2020 presidential election, with the recount will be done by hand this time.

The state Senate said in March they would be conducting a “broad and detailed” audit, adding that they will test voting machines, scan ballots, look for IT breaches, and perform a hand count.

The state-issued subpoenas needed in order to execute the audit have been pending since mid-December and were ruled as valid (pdf) on Feb. 25.

Since then, lawmakers have been working on the specifics for the audit. Karen Fann, the Arizona Senate president, told Just the News that the audit process will commence during the next week.

Fann said the state’s Republicans have faced “sabotage” by Maricopa County’s Board of Supervisors and that the process has been hindered.

“The Maricopa BOS has refused to allow us to perform the audit at their facilities,” Fann said, “and has gone so far as to refusing to even answer simple questions such as ‘how are the ballots sequestered?’”

“It’s taken the Senate two and a half months to win in court to uphold our right to issue subpoenas for election materials and another 6 weeks of researching to select the audit team to perform the full forensic audit.”

She said previously that their intention was “never about overturning the election, it was about the integrity of the Arizona election system.”

Race-obsessed Brearley school claims victimhood when challenged By Andrea Widburg

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

Andrew Gutmann, who was pulling his daughter out of Brearley, an expensive private school in New York (annual tuition $54,000), wrote an open letter explaining exactly what was wrong with its “anti-racist” racism. A walk through the school’s website and the school head’s response to Gutmann’s letter prove that, if anything, he understated how bad things really are there.

Brearley, in New York, caters to rich leftists. It has a cachet. From Jane Foley Fried, the head of the school, on down to every administrator and faculty member, everyone is highly credentialed.

On its “statement of beliefs” page, Brearley boasts that it “challenges girls of adventurous intellect and diverse backgrounds to think critically and creatively and prepares them for principled engagement in the world.” If one goes by the school’s response to Gutmann’s letter, there is no evidence that either the faculty or the students have any critical thinking skills.

The same page includes statements about Brearley’s “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” and its being “Antiracist.” The school’s website also has a page dedicated to “Diversity and Equity.” It repeats the “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” and “Anti-racist” statements, but the important item is a lengthy calendar showing the energy and time the school dedicates to “diversity.”

There are constant meetings and seminars for parents and students, all of them led by various facilitators, and most of them divided along racial lines. I cannot urge you strongly enough to check out the calendar because it is a stunning example of the accuracy of Guttman’s claim that:

It cannot be stated strongly enough that Brearley’s obsession with race must stop. It should be abundantly clear to any thinking parent that Brearley has completely lost its way.

[snip]

I object to mandatory anti-racism training for parents, especially when presented by the rent-seeking charlatans of Pollyanna. These sessions, in both their content and delivery, are so sophomoric and simplistic, so unsophisticated and inane, that I would be embarrassed if they were taught to Brearley kindergarteners.

[snip]

I object to Brearley’s vacuous, inappropriate, and fanatical use of words such as “equity,” “diversity” and “inclusiveness.

(Again, if you haven’t read Gutmann’s letter, you must — and then share it with others.)

Brearley responded with a letter from Principal Jane Fried. It demonstrated how the wokerati invariably cast themselves as victims. And I do mean victims: Fried speaks of physical and psychic terror as if Gutmann had threatened their lives rather than challenging their beliefs.

When Ideology Is a Cover for Child Abuse By Madeleine Kearns *****

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/04/when-ideology-is-a-cover-for-child-abuse/?itm_campaign=headline-testing-when-ideology-is-a-cover-for-child-abuse

There are war crimes, and there are ‘culture war’ crimes.

 E ven in wars, there are standards. The United Nations defines “war crimes” as “violations of international humanitarian law (treaty or customary law) that incur individual criminal responsibility under international law.” By way of analogy, culture-war crimes constitute horrors done in the name of advancing some ideological agenda that would shock the conscience of any morally sane person, regardless of his or her political bent.

For instance, there are plenty of voices on the left (as well as on the right) who maintain that it is wrong to chemically castrate a child, stunt his natural growth, and risk his health and mental well-being by deceiving him about a fundamental aspect of his nature, i.e., his biological sex. And further, that it is wrong to subject a child to clinical experiments that will sterilize him and impair his sexual function, all because a widely contested and incoherent ideology demands that this be done.

There are also some voices on the right (as well as on the left) who think that their various ideological sacred cows are more important than preventing such abuse. Whatever the cover they choose to adopt — transgender ideology, “compassion,” business interests, “limited government” — their part in this medical scandal amounts to a culture-war crime.

Enter Asa Hutchinson, the Republican governor of Arkansas, who earlier this month vetoed a bill prohibiting the prescribing of puberty-blocking drugs to gender-confused youth as well as prohibiting doctors from performing sex-change surgeries on minors. Hutchinson told CNN that this is about the Republican Party pursuing a “message of compassion.”

He is not the only one. As Isaac Schorr noted on the Corner earlier this week, Commentary magazine’s otherwise astute Noah Rothman thinks that “Asa Hutchinson Is Right” in vetoing that bill.

Officials: One Hundred Arrested in Brooklyn Center Riot, Emergency Curfew Put in Place By Brittany Bernstein

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/officials-one-hundred-arrested-in-brooklyn-center-riot-emergency-curfew-put-in-place/

Police implemented an emergency curfew in Brooklyn Center, Minn. on Friday and arrested an estimated 100 people as rioting broke out outside police headquarters in response to the police-shooting death of Daunte Wright, officials said.

City officials had attempted to forgo a curfew on Friday for the first time since protests began on Sunday when a Brooklyn Center police officer fatally shot 20-year-old Wright during a traffic stop. The officer, who officials said intended to discharge a Taser and not a handgun, has resigned and has been charged with second-degree manslaughter.

Mayor Mike Elliot had tried to “take a different approach” in not implementing a curfew, though rioting led officials to announce at 10:30 p.m. that a curfew would be put in place from 11 p.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Saturday. 

The directive came after rioters breached a barrier surrounding the Brooklyn Center police department around 9:30 p.m., according to FOX 9 of Minneapolis. Police responded with flash bangs and pepper spray, pushing the group back so officials could repair the fence.

Leftists Try to Cancel Zionist Leader for Criticizing Tlaib and Omar, and Noting that BLM Is Anti-Semitic By Robert Spencer

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/robert-spencer/2021/04/17/leftists-try-to-cancel-zionist-leader-for-criticizing-tlaib-and-omar-and-noting-that-blm-is-anti-semitic-n1440726

The Boston Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC), a coalition of Jewish organizations, is set to meet on April 27 to decide whether or not to expel the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) over charges that it is “white supremacist.” Of course, everyone to the right of Pol Pot is a white supremacist these days, as far as the left is concerned. The real sin of ZOA’s national president Mort Klein is that he dared to criticize leftist powerbrokers and to point out that Black Lives Matter (BLM) is not the saintly organization of establishment media myth, but a viciously hateful and anti-Semitic group. Simply telling unwelcome truths about people and causes the left idolizes gets you lumped in with the KKK in this insane age.

It all started last year with a petition from leftist Jewish groups J Street, the Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action, Women of Reform Judaism and others, calling for the ZOA to be expelled from the Boston JCRC because Klein had made statements that supposedly ventured into “xenophobic and racist territory,” and thus ZOA’s membership was “not compatible with and is in conflict with the mission of JCRC.”

The petition stated: “So long as ZOA enjoys a seat at the American Jewish communal table, we are collectively signaling that their views are a welcome and tolerable part of our communal life. American Jewish institutions must make clear that Klein’s pattern of abuse and bigotry can have no place in our Jewish communal life.”

Among Klein’s “xenophobic and racist statements” were critical remarks about revered, untouchable figures on the left, including George Soros, Barack Obama, and Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Ramallah) and Ilhan Omar (D-Mogadishu). Why, only a racist could have any remotely negative word to say about them!

The petition also claims that Klein’s criticism of Black Lives Matter “extended well beyond acceptable discourse on race.” This was because Klein tweeted: “BlackLivesMatter is an antisemitic, Israel hating Soros funded racist extremist Israelophobic hate group.” And: “I urge the SPLC to immediately put BlackLivesMatter on their list of hate groups. BLM is a Jew hating, White hating, Israel hating, conservative Black hating, violence promoting, dangerous Soros funded extremist group of haters.”

U.S. Cautions Israelis About Natanz Leaks to Keep Biden From Being ‘Embarrassed’ at Nuke Talks By Rick Moran

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2021/04/17/u-s-cautions-israelis-about-natanz-leaks-to-keep-biden-from-being-embarrassed-at-nuke-talks-n1440704

Never interrupt the United States when it’s in the middle of surrendering to Iran.

U.S. officials told the Israeli government to stop commenting about the Mossad operation that targeted the Natanz nuclear facility last weekend because it was embarrassing the U.S. at the talks to revive the nuclear deal in Vienna.

Times of Israel:

Washington has conveyed to Israel in no uncertain terms that the “chatter” about its alleged involvement in the blast at the Natanz nuclear facility early this week must stop, warning that it is dangerous and detrimental as well as embarrassing to the Biden administration as it attempts to negotiate a return to the nuclear deal with Tehran, Channel 12 news reported Friday.

The unsourced report said the message was conveyed to Jerusalem through several channels in recent days.

I’m sure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said something like, “Yessir, Mr. President. We’ll get right on that.” In fact, Netanyahu is probably tickled about making the Biden administration uncomfortable while also tweaking Iran’s nose in the international press.

Biden Caves to Radicals: Will Increase Refugee Admissions After Saying He Wouldn’t

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2021/04/17/biden-caves-to-radicals-will-increase-refugee-admissions-after-saying-he-wouldnt-n1440717

The Biden administration announced on Friday that the president will sign an emergency presidential determination to hold the number of refugee admissions at 15,000 — the same number that Trump admitted his final year in office.

But after an outcry from radicals, Biden did an about-face and indicated he would actually increase refugee admissions this year.

“The president’s directive today has been the subject of some confusion,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in an afternoon statement.

No, no confusion at all. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said to Biden “jump” and Biden asked, “how high?”

Biden had promised on the campaign trail to raise the number of refugees. Activists were hoping that up to 125,000 refugees would be allowed this year. With the pandemic and the surge at the border overextending immigration resources, Biden’s initial goal of allowing 62,500 people into the U.S. wasn’t going to be realized.

Posturing is No Policy on Iran by Amir Taheri

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17289/iran-policy-posturing

A nuclear armed Islamic Republic might be no more than a nuisance for the US, as is North Korea for example, while it would be an existential threat to Israel.

But what if the whole nuclear issue, built by former President Barack Obama as the core of the “Iran problem”, is a diversion designed to put real or imaginary foes on a wrong trajectory?

So, is Iran enriching uranium to build a bomb?

He [Obama] cited a “fatwa” by “Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenei that forbids Muslims from building the bomb. (Needless to say possibly apart from Obama no one has seen the fatwa.)

What if what many see as the Islamic Republic’s nuclear policy is a posture… not a policy? That posture serves the Khomeinist regime’s interests by shifting the focus away from the real mischief and crimes it has been committing inside and outside Iran for four decades.

Its “exporting revolution” has already contributed to triggering and prolonging the war in Yemen. Without its involvement, the Syrian civil war may not have led to what is the greatest tragedy the world has seen in the new century. By creating Hezbollah, the mullahs have led Lebanon to the brink of ungovernability, not to say systemic collapse. By supporting the most radical rejectionist groups, the mullahs have also helped block the road to an Israeli-Palestinian coexistence accord.

To forget all that, not to mention the seizing of scores of hostages and the killing of hundreds of US, British and French soldiers with roadside bombs and terror attacks in Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan, and over 100 terror operations in 22 countries across the globe, would be the height of naiveté and a sure sign of moral decadence.

Two months or nine months? This is the question making the rounds with regards to the latest “incident” at Natanz nuclear center where Iran is engaged in a massive uranium enrichment program. Attributed to Israeli secret services, the incident disabled some 5,000 centrifuges put in full operation two months ago as a means of exerting pressure on the new administration in Washington.

Iranian experts say the infernal machine could be back in full gear within two months. Western experts say nine months is a likelier time-span. The “incident” came at a time that Tehran’s envoys were engaged in indirect talks with US diplomats on a possible deal for Iran to reduce its enrichment program in exchange for the lifting of sanctions imposed by Washington, the UN and the European Union.

“Hatred, Enmity, Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide”: The Persecution of Christians, March 2021 by Raymond Ibrahim

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17274/hatred-enmity-ethnic-cleansing-and-genocide

After a mosque leaders’ wife embraced Christianity, and as a form of “retribution,” the imam ordered the rape of three Christian girls related to a local pastor…. — Morning Star News, March 11, 2021, Uganda.

“Intercourse with a girl below the age of 16 is statutory rape in Pakistan, but in most cases a falsified conversion certificate and Islamic marriage certificate influence police to pardon kidnappers.” — Morning Star News, March 12, 2012, Pakistan.

On March 20, a court “changed a sentence of life imprisonment to the death penalty for a Christian convicted of sending a blasphemous text message in 2011″…..Such petitions are “seen often as a service to Islam and as jihad or holy war against blasphemers.” according to the report. — Union of Catholic Asian News, March 29, 2021, Pakistan.

“[O]rthodox Muslims demand to make capital punishment the only penalty for blasphemy”…. The courts increasingly seem to be complying. — Union of Catholic Asian News, March 29, 2021, Pakistan.

“That night, our village was attacked…. I was at home with my four children. We tried to escape to the woods, but they took my eldest son and beheaded him. We couldn’t do anything because we would be killed too.” — Save the Children, March 16, 2021, Mozambique.

“In one of the worst attacks last year, the jihadists turned a village football pitch into an execution ground where they beheaded more than 50 people in three days of savage violence.” — Barnabas Fund, March 30, 2021, Mozambique.

Algeria is becoming less tolerant of religious minorities.

Attacks on Christian Women and Girls

Uganda: After a mosque leaders’ wife embraced Christianity, and as a form of “retribution,” the imam ordered the rape of three Christian girls related to a local pastor; he also planned to attack the pastor’s church. “When my husband interrogated me about being a Christian, I refused to answer him,” the wife later explained:

“Soon a Christian neighbor told me that my husband was out to kill me, hence I should escape with my children. That particular day in the evening hours, I escaped with my five children. I am thankful that the church received us.”

The Supreme Thuggery of Democrats’ Court-Packing Scheme By Andrew C. McCarthy

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/04/the-supreme-thuggery-of-democrats-court-packing-scheme/

The sponsors of this plan are gaslighting the nation with nonsensical explanations.

T hat settles it. Henceforth, for baseball, we need 13 on the field. You know, for “balance.” After all, when the big leagues started playing the World Series in 1903, there were only 16 teams. Now there are 30. If you’re going to have 30 teams, there should be at least 13 players on each side, right? Maybe even 30!

Okay, okay, it’s a stupid idea. But you’ll have to forgive me: I watched Thursday’s Rockin’ Jerry & the Wokes show on the steps of the Supreme Court, and ever since, I’ve felt much stupider.

According to Congressman Nadler (D., N.Y.) and his progressive posse, the high court must be expanded, from the nine-member body it has been for over 150 years to the 13-member tribunal they say we urgently need it to be, because there are now 13 federal circuit courts of appeal. There were only nine circuits when the Supreme Court was set at nine justices in 1869.

This is nonsense, but that is par for the course, because it is not meant to be taken seriously as an argument.

The Dems’ Court-expansion-and-packing project is not a public-policy proposal. It’s thuggery. That explains the zany rationales Nadler et al. offered for it at their presser. Maybe the number should be 13 because that’s how many times they said “racism” (though I could be low-balling here). Or maybe expanding the Court is infrastructure, or part of the existential climate crisis. Makes total sense. See, the less this has to do with logic, the more the justices will have it in the front of their minds that the Left is crazy enough to do anything at this point, so they’d better be careful how they decide these cases — and even about what cases they decide to decide.

The size of the Supreme Court has nothing to do with the number of circuits — no more than the size of the Ninth Circuit bench (29 judges) has to do with that of the First Circuit’s (nine judges), or than the geographic jurisdiction of the Eighth Circuit (seven states) has to do with that of the Federal Circuit (nationwide for limited categories of cases), or of the District of Columbia Circuit (just the city of Washington).