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Alexei Navalny Hospitalized in Russia Three Weeks Into Hunger Strike Kremlin dismisses U.S. warnings of consequences if the Putin foe dies in prison: Ann Simmons

Posted By on April 20th, 2021

https://www.wsj.com/articles/alexei-navalny-hospitalized-in-russia-three-weeks-into-hunger-strike-11618839052

Jailed opposition politician Alexei Navalny was hospitalized Monday, weeks after beginning a hunger strike, as the Kremlin brushed off warnings from the U.S. of repercussions if he were to die while in prison.

His hospitalization came a day after his supporters called for large-scale demonstrations to demand his release after doctors with ties to the opposition leader cited medical test results they said showed he was at risk of imminent renal failure and a possible heart attack.

Mr. Navalny, a prominent Putin critic who is serving a 2½-year prison sentence after being convicted of violating parole conditions, was transferred to a hospital for convicts within the prison system in Russia’s Vladimir region, prison authorities said Monday.

His health condition had been “assessed as satisfactory” and a doctor has been examining him every day, they said. He had also consented to being prescribed “vitamin therapy,” they added, without detailing the nature of such treatment.

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

John Kerry’s Climate Kowtow How much will Biden trade away in exchange for empty promises?

Posted By on April 20th, 2021

https://www.wsj.com/articles/john-kerrys-climate-kowtow-11618873552?mod=opinion_lead_pos3

These columns noted last year that putting John Kerry in charge of climate negotiations with China was a recipe for coming home “dressed in a barrel.” After Mr. Kerry’s sojourn to Shanghai last week, the question is: What happened to the barrel?

President Biden’s climate envoy emerged from two days of meetings with counterpart Xie Zhenhua with a joint statement that says little new. The two sides say they “are committed to cooperating with each other and with other countries to tackle the climate crisis.” Both countries will work “to strengthen implementation of the Paris Agreement” limiting carbon emissions. Mr. Kerry didn’t make any big concessions to Beijing, and Beijing didn’t make any new promises about emissions limits it would break anyway.

In one sense that’s a relief. But all this empty hot air isn’t cost free in U.S. prestige and the missed opportunity to engage in more important talks. Making climate the sole focus of an early visit tells the Chinese that the U.S. puts that single issue above everything else in the bilateral relationship. China is happy to jibber-jabber about climate with the Americans if it means not having to engage on Taiwan, Hong Kong, Beijing’s repression of Uighurs in Xinjiang, the South China Sea, North Korea, or intellectual property theft.

But Beijing is clear that it will ignore any carbon-emissions commitments that might impinge on China’s economic growth. “Some countries are asking China to do more on climate change,” deputy foreign minister Le Yucheng said last week. “I am afraid this is not very realistic.”

Instead of triggering a rethink in Beijing, Mr. Kerry’s Shanghai jaunt gave China’s leaders a new opportunity to go on the public-relations offensive. “China welcomes the U.S. return to the Paris agreement and expects the U.S. side to uphold the agreement,” vice-premier Han Zheng told Mr. Kerry in a jab at Washington’s withdrawal from the pact under President Trump. Mr. Kerry also flattered Beijing by all but begging President Xi Jinping to join another global climate confab later this week.

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Natanz and anonymous Israeli ‘chatter’ Ruthie Blum

Posted By on April 20th, 2021

https://www.jns.org/opinion/natanz-and-anonymous-israeli-chatter/

 U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s visit to Jerusalem last week coincided with an explosion at Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility. Shortly after the attack on the uranium-enrichment site, The New York Times reported that though “Israel publicly declined to confirm or deny any responsibility” for the incident, “American and Israeli intelligence officials said there had been an Israeli role.”
Continuing to cite anonymous sources, the Times went on not only to assert that Israel was behind the sabotage, but to wonder “how much advance word—if any—the Biden administration [had] received” about it. The Paper of Record also pointed out that if those unnamed officials were correct in their claim that the blast did so much damage that it set back production at Natanz by at least nine months, “Iran’s leverage in new talks sought by the Biden administration to restore the nuclear agreement could be significantly compromised.”

As though this were a bad thing.

“The close and strong ties that we enjoy with Israel are central to regional stability and security in the Middle East, and we both agree that we must continue to work closely together to enhance the U.S.-Israel strategic partnership,” said Austin. “So, we discussed ways to deepen and expand our long-standing defense relationship in the face of regional threats and other security challenges.”

Netanyahu agreed with Austin that the United States and Israel are “family,” but stressed—as he has been doing for decades—that “there is no threat that is more serious, more dangerous, more pressing than that posed by the fanatical regime in Iran.”

He further stated, “My policy as prime minister of Israel is clear: I will never allow Iran to obtain the nuclear capability to carry out its genocidal goal of eliminating Israel. Israel will continue to defend itself against Iran’s aggression and terrorism.”

MEDIA Comments turned off

The Media Lied Repeatedly About Officer Brian Sicknick’s Death. And They Just Got Caught. Just as with the Russia Bounty debacle, they will never acknowledge what they did. Their audience wants to be lied to for partisan gain and emotional pleasure.Glenn Greenwald

Posted By on April 19th, 2021

https://greenwald.substack.com/p/the-media-lied-repeatedly-about-officer?token=

It was crucial for liberal sectors of the media to invent and disseminate a harrowing lie about how Officer Brian Sicknick died. That is because he is the only one they could claim was killed by pro-Trump protesters at the January 6 riot at the Capitol.

So The New York Times on January 8 published an emotionally gut-wrenching but complete fiction that never had any evidence — that Officer Sicknick’s skull was savagely bashed in with a fire extinguisher by a pro-Trump mob until he died — and, just like the now-discredited Russian bounty story also unveiled by that same paper, cable outlets and other media platforms repeated this lie over and over in the most emotionally manipulative way possible. Just watch a part of what they did and how:

As I detailed over and over when examining this story, there were so many reasons to doubt this storyline from the start. Nobody on the record claimed it happened. The autopsy found no blunt trauma to the head. Sicknick’s own family kept urging the press to stop spreading this story because he called them the night of January 6 and told them he was fine — obviously inconsistent with the media’s claim that he died by having his skull bashed in — and his own mother kept saying that she believed he died of a stroke.

But the gruesome story of Sicknick’s “murder” was too valuable to allow any questioning. It was weaponized over and over to depict the pro-Trump mob not as just violent but barbaric and murderous, because if Sicknick weren’t murdered by them, then nobody was (without Sicknick, the only ones killed were four pro-Trump supporters: two who died of a heart attack, one from an amphetamine overdose, and the other, Ashli Babbitt, who was shot point blank in the neck by Capitol Police despite being unarmed). So crucial was this fairy tale about Sicknick that it made its way into the official record of President Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate, and they had Joe Biden himself recite from the script, even as clear facts mounted proving it was untrue.

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Canada: No Country for Young Men By David Solway

Posted By on April 19th, 2021

Canada has signed away its future. A country that once had a great deal going for it—abundant natural resources; a vibrant energy sector; a viable debt-to-GDP ratio; a tradition of civic decorum maintained even during a brief period of Quebec-secessionist discord; an aversion to foreign adventures; and a commendable standard of living, among the highest in the world—has squandered its many advantages and blessings in an excess of poor electoral decisions and civic indifference to its national welfare. 

Of course, like any country, Canada has had its share of problems—language issues between French and English, a much-abused, asymmetrical equalization or fund-transferring formula between provinces, the Native victimhood industry—but it had managed to deal with them without protracted or endemic violence such as one sees in many other nations.

But there is no doubt that the country is dying. One has watched a steady disintegration of national unity and prosperity over the last generation. Some place the shipwreck of the country’s prospects with Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau’s National Energy Program in 1980, the first move in the gradual destruction of Canada’s oil and gas producing regions, located primarily in the province of Alberta. Others target a dreary succession of incompetent, high-taxing prime ministers, culminating in the electoral victories of Justin Trudeau, inarguably the least qualified and most unpriministerial holder of high office in the entire history of Confederation.

The list of his misdemeanors, spendthrift excesses, and corrupt practices, circulated by Gordon Miller, a director of Canadians for Language Fairness, is unparalleled. We’ve had eccentrics in office many times, dating from the Father of Confederation John A. MacDonald, who was often in his cups. William Lyon MacKenzie King was a table rapper who communed with the spirits of his mother and his dog (though Michael Bliss in Right Honorable Men praises King as “Canada’s most highly-educated prime minister”). Pierre Trudeau posed as a sandal-wearing swinger and used his “swashbuckling hippie style” to advantage, effectively polarizing the nation. But nothing like the political reprobate and misfit Justin Trudeau has ever befallen this nation before. One recalls Canada’s 13th prime minister John Diefenbaker’s remark that “You can’t stand up for Canada with a banana for a backbone.” Nor with a banana anywhere else on your anatomy.

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Hypocritical Pelosi Says Maxine Waters ‘Should Not Apologize’ and Did Not Incite Violence Reagan McCarthy

Posted By on April 19th, 2021

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/reaganmccarthy/2021/04/19/pelosi-on-waters-n2588172

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) weighed in on the growing controversy surrounding a member of her caucus, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA). The Democrat congresswoman instructed protesters to “get more confrontational” with demonstrations, ahead of the verdict in the George Floyd trial.

“We got to stay on the street. And we’ve got to get more active, we’ve got to get more confrontational. We’ve got to make sure that they know that we mean business,” Waters said to a group of protesters.

House Republicans quickly condemned Waters’ unhinged comments that undoubtedly will incite violence. GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) called on Speaker Pelosi to take action.

GOP Conference Chair Liz Cheney also called on Pelosi to act.

“This is dangerous and reckless. No elected official should ever incite violence. Speaker Pelosi must act,” she wrote in a tweet.

Pelosi showed no remorse for Waters’ disgusting rhetoric. The Democrat leader said that the congresswoman’s words did not incite violence and that Waters should not apologize.

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Biden Set to Push Critical Race Theory on U.S. Schools By Stanley Kurtz

Posted By on April 19th, 2021

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/biden-set-to-push-critical-race-theory-on-u-s-schools/

The woke revolution in the classroom is about to go federal. In an early but revelatory move, President Biden’s Department of Education has signaled its intent to impose the most radical forms of Critical Race Theory on America’s schools, very much including the 1619 Project and the so-called anti-racism of Ibram X. Kendi. (Kendi’s “anti-racism” — which advocates a massive and indefinite expansion of reverse discrimination — is more like neo-racism.) Biden is obviously co-opting conservatives’ interest in reviving traditional U.S. history and civics to deliver its perfect opposite — federal imposition of the very ideas conservatives aim to combat.

Biden’s Department of Education has just released the text of a proposed new rule establishing priorities for grants in American History and Civics Education programs. That rule gives priority to grant “projects that incorporate racially, ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse perspectives.” The rule goes on to cite and praise the New York Times’ “landmark” 1619 Project, as well as the work of Critical Race Theorist Kendi, as leading examples of the sort of ideas the Biden administration wants to spread.

The programs immediately targeted by Biden’s new priority criteria for American history and civics grants are small. Once in place, however, those criteria will undoubtedly influence the much larger and vastly more dangerous “Civics Secures Democracy Act.” That bill would appropriate $1 billion a year, for six years, for history and civic education. Support for leftist “action civics” is already written into the priority criteria of the bill itself. I have argued that additional anodyne-sounding priority criteria in the Civics Secures Democracy Act — criteria favoring grants targeted to “underserved” populations and the mitigation of various racial, ethnic, and linguistic achievement gaps — would be interpreted by the Biden administration as a green light to fund Critical Race Theory in the schools. The new draft federal rule for grant priority in American history and civics education makes it clear that this is indeed the Biden administration’s intent.

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

U.S. and China agree to cooperate to “tackle the climate crisis”

Posted By on April 19th, 2021

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-china-climate-change-joe-biden-john-kerry-agreement/

Seoul, South Korea — The United States and China, the world’s two biggest carbon polluters, agreed to cooperate to curb climate change with urgency, just days before President Joe Biden hosts a virtual summit of world leaders to discuss the issue.
 
The agreement was reached by U.S. special envoy for climate John Kerry and his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua during two days of talks in Shanghai last week, according to a joint statement.
 
The two countries “are committed to cooperating with each other and with other countries to tackle the climate crisis, which must be addressed with the seriousness and urgency that it demands,” said the statement, issued Saturday evening U.S. time.

Meeting with reporters in Seoul on Sunday, Kerry said the language in the statement is “strong” and that the two countries agreed on “critical elements on where we have to go.” But the former secretary of state said, “I learned in diplomacy that you don’t put your back on the words, you put on actions. We all need to see what happens.”
 
China is the world’s biggest carbon emitter, followed by the United States. The two countries pump out nearly half of the fossil fuel fumes that are warming the planet’s atmosphere. Their cooperation is key to the success of global efforts to curb climate change, but frayed ties over human rights, trade and China’s territorial claims to Taiwan and the South China Sea have been threatening to undermine such efforts.

Noting that China is the world’s biggest coal user, Kerry said he and Chinese officials had a lot of discussions on how to accelerate a global energy transition. “I have never shied away from expressing our views shared by many, many people that it is imperative to reduce coal, everywhere,” he said. 

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Chinese Communist Defense Contractors Reaped $200- $400 Million In U.S. Covid Relief Payments By Adam Andrzejewski

Posted By on April 19th, 2021

https://www.realclearpolicy.com/articles/2021/04/19/chinese_communist_defense_contractors_reaped_200-_400_million_in_us_covid_relief_payments_773081.html

Yes, it is PPP for the CCP.

A Covid relief program – Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) – meant to help U.S. small businesses on Main Street was hijacked by 125 defense firms with strong ties to the Communist Chinese Party (CCP). A legal loophole sent millions of taxpayer dollars to Chinese companies.

The $660 billion Paycheck Protection Program created in March 2020 to help struggling small businesses in the U.S. has allowed American subsidiaries of foreign companies to get the forgivable loans, sending millions to Chinese companies, according to The New York Times.

The paper cited a study from strategy consulting firm Horizon Advisory that combed through loan data available to the public and found that more than 125 companies that Chinese entities own or invest in had received $192 million to $419 million.

At least 32 Chinese companies received loans of more than $1 million, the report found.

Nanjing Xinbai, a Chinese state-invested company whose controlling shareholder is tied to the Communist Party, owns Dendreon Pharmaceuticals, a California-based biotech company, which received a loan worth $5 million to $10 million.

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What the statistics show about police shootings and public safety By Rep. Peter King (Retired-NY District 2)trict

Posted By on April 19th, 2021

https://thehill.com/opinion/criminal-justice/548740-what-the-statistics-show-about-police-shootings-and-public-safety

Whatever the verdict in the trial of former Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin for the killing of George Floyd, that case — and the tragedy of another death, this time of 20-year-old Daunte Wright during a traffic stop in nearby Brooklyn Center, Minn. — should not be used to advance the narrative of systemic police racism and brutality nationwide. No one has done more to save and protect Black lives — indeed, all lives — than the men and women in police uniforms.  

Among the victims in today’s social and racial upheaval are the overwhelming majority of innocent, hardworking people living in minority communities who are being victimized by nationwide spikes in violent crime. Their communities already are beset by a lack of job opportunities and quality education — neither of which is their fault, nor the fault of the police — yet now they are beset by increased crime as well. Police have become victims, too, as they are expected to do the impossible while being attacked from all sides and portrayed as excessively violent or trigger-happy. 

Any discussion of policing and crime, including police interactions with minorities, is complicated and often turned into an emotional debate by an array of factors, including the sources and causes of crime itself. 

But let’s consider some statistics on police actions.

In New York City in 2018, 36,000 NYPD officers answered more than 6.1 million calls. In all of those calls, a total of 35 police shooting incidents were reported — despite one common refrain that the city’s police are trigger-happy. Of those 35 incidents, six involved police suicides or attempted suicides and four involved animals. So we are talking about barely .01 percent of shooting incidents, or 99.9 percent of police calls in which no shots were fired by the police.  

Not exactly a shooting gallery.