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Biden’s proposed Iran deal will fail By Anony Mee

Posted By on January 16th, 2021

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/01/bidens_proposed_iran_deal_will_fail_.html

C’mon man! When was the last time you successfully stuffed a genie back into the bottle? Or convinced a conman to complete the kitchen remodel after you fully paid him upfront? Iran already has gotten just about everything it wanted from this agreement, and the United States almost nothing. It’s fourth and 85 yards with 12 seconds left in the game, and the kicker went out with a twisted knee in the third quarter. Enough metaphors there, I think, to get the point across.

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) limited Iran’s enrichment of uranium to a mere 3.67%. They are almost up to 20% which means that about 80% of the work required to enrich to 90% is done. Iran could have weapons-grade uranium on hand in a matter of weeks.

During the campaign, the Democratic candidates uniformly castigated President Trump for pulling out of the JCPOA. Somehow, they seemed to believe that one-sided adherence to terms ensured the viability of a two-party agreement. Even their platform appears to acknowledge Iran as a reliable partner in world affairs. “Democrats will . . . prioritize nuclear diplomacy, de-escalation, and regional dialogue.” Regional dialogue? Since the rise of the ayatollahs, Iran has managed to take a dump on just about everyone in the neighborhood. Right now too, Iran is a dumpster fire of human rights abuses.

“Democrats . . . believe the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) remains the best means to verifiably cut off all of Iran’s pathways to a nuclear bomb.” Nuclear bombs, in general, require at least 90% enriched fissile material, missiles, launch platforms, and a guidance system, depending on the type of attack envisioned. This past week Iran has been playing with drones that can stand in for both missiles and platforms, and that have remote guidance systems. Today’s oil shipping traffic to Venezuela gives it land-based potential in the Americas, as well as ship-based. If they plan for low-tech delivery of a dirty bomb or an EMP attack, the need for a precise guidance system may be moot, if detonation in a general area is ensured. Let’s be realistic — Iran has too many pathways to a nuclear attack on the United States for the JCPOA to cut them all off.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Our Mounting Orwellian Nightmare By Jeffrey Folks

Posted By on January 16th, 2021

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/01/our_mounting_orwellian_nightmare.html

So we are to imagine that those who objected to Biden’s having stolen the election are responsible for the violence at the Capitol?  And that, going forward, any public official who questions Biden’s win should be removed from office, and that any corporate leader who objects should be fired?  All this when the truth is that Trump in all likelihood won the election.

It is the perfect example of Orwellian speech.  In his classic essay “Politics and the English Language,” Orwell spoke of the condition where “words and meaning have almost parted company.”  If that “almost” is a measure of Orwellian speech, then today’s Democrat leaders are beyond Orwellian.  Their words and meaning have parted company entirely.

As Orwell also stressed, the decline of language is both cause and effect of the decline of politics.  When politicians and media begin speaking nonsense, it is the symptom of an underlying corruption of political thinking.  The idea that the president should be removed from office for having defended the electoral process is truly bizarre, but it has been repeated throughout the liberal media and by most liberal politicians and even by some conservatives.

One might say progressives like Nancy Pelosi have become “unhinged,” but that would let them off the hook.  It would suggest that they don’t quite realize what they are doing.  But what they are doing is the result of crafty political calculation.  They want to tie President Trump with the Capitol violence to the point that he can never run again.  The same political deviousness lies behind suggestions that he should not be in control of the nation’s nuclear arsenal because of his supposed mental instability.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Habibullah Ahmadi Escapes Mandatory Life Sentence for Savage Murder of Anne Widholm Out in less than a decade? Lloyd Billingsley

Posted By on January 16th, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/01/habibullah-ahmadi-escapes-mandatory-life-sentence-lloyd-billingsley/

Last November Habibullah Ahmadi, 24, was found guilty of second-degree murder in the October 8, 2017, beating of Sara Anne Widholm in Windsor, Ontario. The 75-year-old grandmother did not die until December 17, 2018, but according to Dr. Balraj Jhawar, the beating left her in a “worse state than death.” For this heinous crime, a Tuesday hearing revealed,  Habibullah will not receive the worst possible sentence.

“Second-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence,” wrote Trevor Wilhelm in the Windsor Star, but Habibullah Ahmadi would not get a life sentence. Instead the hearing focused on “when Ahmadi should become eligible for parole.” The range is 10 to 25 years, and prosecutor Renee Puskas argued that the convicted murderer “should not become eligible for parole for 14 to 17 years,” at best nearly a decade less than the possible maximum.

The Windsor Star report included no photo of murder victim Anne Widholm and no photo of Habibullah Ahmadi. Indeed, no photo of  the murderer has appeared in any report on the crime and trial. In similar style, no public statement has emerged from “Windsor man” Habibullah Ahmadi or any of his family, friends, fellow students or co-workers in the Canadian city.

According to the Star, Widholm suffered from “injuries” including skull fractures, but in a criminal proceeding these amount to “wounds” inflicted by the hand of another. The victim “fell into a coma,” but had actually been beaten into a coma by Habibullah Ahmadi, 21 at the time of the crime.

“High on marijuana and magic mushrooms,” Wilhelm wrote, “he randomly attacked Widholm” as she walked the trail. This ignored the reality that Ahmadi pleaded guilty and the defense failed to prove that marijuana and magic mushrooms played any role. As justice Bruce Thomas said in November, Ahmadi “had the intention to cause Sara Anne Widholm bodily harm” and was “likely to cause her death, and that he was clearly reckless as to whether death ensued.”

The contention that Habibullah Ahmadi “randomly attacked” the grandmother was at odds Dr. Jhawar, who did his best to keep the 75-year-old alive after she suffered the worst wounds he had ever seen. As Dr. Jhawar told the Windsor Star in 2017, it was “not just another random attack.” On Tuesday, the victim impact statements offered other enlightenment.

MEDIA, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

US Media: ‘Telling China’s Story Well’ by Judith Bergman

Posted By on January 16th, 2021

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16885/us-media-china

“If foreign audiences know that a piece of information comes from an official Chinese media source, they are likely to interpret it as ‘propaganda’ rather than ‘news,'” wrote China expert Anne-Marie Brady in 2015…
Fortunately for the CCP, China could rely on large segments of mainstream US media to help it….
The CCP evidently knew the West well enough to calculate that framing the debate [on the coronavirus] in terms of racism would be a highly successful strategy that would play into the divisive issue of identity politics in the US and Europe.
The CCP could not have done it, however, without the media’s lack of critical judgment of China’s behavior, as well as the media’s utter lack of interest in the CCP’s quest for global domination and, according to FBI Director Christopher Wray, its willingness to achieve it “by any means necessary.”

One of the foremost tasks of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) under Xi Jinping is, at his directive, to “tell stories about China well and spread China’s voice well; enable the world to see a multidimensional and colorful China; present China as a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development, and an upholder of international order”.

When the coronavirus pandemic broke out in December 2019 in Wuhan and the Chinese authorities allowed it to spread to the rest of the world, “telling China’s story well” suddenly became an acute concern. It was necessary to save the regime’s face, deflect blame and seek to portray China as heroically battling the pandemic, instead of the reality of having caused it. China went into an even more energetic propaganda mode than usual, seeking to control the narrative about the virus at every turn.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Trump Signs Memo to Secure Government-Backed Research and Development Against Foreign Interference By Tom Ozimek

Posted By on January 16th, 2021

https://www.theepochtimes.com/

President Donald Trump on Thursday signed a presidential memorandum that seeks to secure U.S. government-supported research and development (R&D) against interference and exploitation by foreign powers.

Trump’s action seeks to enhance protections for United States R&D efforts, given their open and collaborative nature, and in light of their importance to national security and in keeping the country economically competitive, the White House Press Secretary said in a statement.

The memorandum “ensures that Government-supported research can occur in an open environment and foster new discoveries for the benefit of our Nation while also protecting intellectual capital, discouraging research misappropriation, and ensuring the responsible management of United States taxpayer dollars.”

The presidential memo reinforces the Trump administration’s efforts to maintain American leadership in the field of science and technology.

“America must remain the world’s leader in S&T [science and technology] during this era of great power competition, and today’s signing builds on the long and successful history of actions taken by President Trump to protect American technology from adversaries,” the press secretary said.

“This whole-of-government approach to R&D security will protect America’s technology and innovation advantage. Whether in trade, military cooperation, or S&T research, President Trump refuses to let other countries take advantage of America,” the statement added.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

How the U.S. Could Lose to China Ben Weingarten

Posted By on January 16th, 2021

https://americanmind.org/salvo/how-the-u-s-could-lose-to-china/

America’s unserious political class is totally unequipped to deal with the threat.

The Chinese Communist Party is deathly serious in its pursuit of global hegemony, which, if achieved, would be a nightmare for all who believe in liberty and justice.

By contrast, can it be said of our political class that it is deathly serious about anything fundamental to preserving our way of life?

As 2021 dawns, contrast how the CCP ended last year, with how America’s leaders started this one.

The CCP should have come out of 2020 badly wounded, withering under severe isolation and punishment from a newly resolute West spurred to action over China’s primary culpability in the cover-up and spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, it rang in the new year with a diplomatic, economic, and strategic coup—all with the aid of the West.

China and the European Union agreed in principle to an investment pact that the EU’s president described as “an important landmark in our relationship with China” that would “provide unprecedented access to the Chinese market for European investors.” This was quite a reward given China’s depredations—from the coronavirus casualties on Europe’s streets, to the victims of the crackdown on Hong Kong, to the prisoners in the mushrooming Xinjiang gulags.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

How the Left Hijacked Civil Rights For centuries black Americans debated how to overcome racism—but they always emphasized human agency and individual responsibility. By Robert L. Woodson Sr. and Joshua Mitchell

Posted By on January 16th, 2021

https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-the-left-hijacked-civil-rights-11610748711?mod=opinion_lead_pos5

The civil-rights movement, led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. , helped deliver America from the historic sins of slavery and Jim Crow by forcing the nation to confront the full humanity of its black citizens. King’s words and actions glorified America by transfiguring its racial wound and revealing its redemptive promise. Yet today many black leaders have lost sight of King altogether and are aiding and abetting the crucifixion of their own people. Rather than hope, they see despair; rather than the Easter Sunday of true liberation, they offer the bleak Good Friday of never-ending misery.

The history of black American responses to slavery and Jim Crow generally followed three paths. They were hotly debated, but all emphasized human agency, sought liberation, and rejected despair.

First, there were the recolonization or “back to Africa” movements championed by the likes of Marcus Garvey. These movements sought an exit from America.

Second, there were the insurrectionists of the 19th century, who believed that black Americans should engage in armed rebellion or vocal opposition so that they might find a home in this country. Here lie Nat Turner and, later, W.E.B. Du Bois. They wanted to have their resistant voice heard in America.

Third, there were accommodationist movements of the sort undertaken by Booker T. Washington, who thought that loyalty to America was the best course.

Exit, voice, loyalty—however different these strategies were, each supposed that human agency mattered, that oppression wasn’t destiny. That is why, even amid great struggle, black Americans responded by building their own institutions and businesses. Great universities, medical schools, hotels, restaurants, movie companies and even a flight school sprung up. All of this was self-financed—and made possible by two-parent families, churches and other cultural institutions that provided shelter against the outside storm of racism.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

The 1776 Report A Trump commission tries to correct the historical record.

Posted By on January 16th, 2021

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-1776-report-11610754084?mod=opinion_lead_pos4

President Trump established the 1776 Commission with an executive order last year for the purpose of producing a counter-balance to the political left’s largely negative interpretation of American history.

The commission’s report, set for release Monday, won’t silence criticism of America, as liberal teachers groups feared. That isn’t in the power of the federal government, let alone an advisory commission. Instead, the 1776 Report makes the case for the American creed and a less radical way to teach history.

“Neither America nor any other nation has perfectly lived up to the universal truths of equality, liberty, justice and government by consent,” the report states. “But no nation before America ever dared state those truths as the formal basis for its politics, and none has strived harder, or done more, to achieve them.”

The Declaration of Independence’s claim that “all men are created equal” was a revolution in itself, a turning point in world history. To reduce America to its violations of that principle, as do many contemporary writers, is to miss the distinguishing part of the story that roused freedom lovers and terrified tyrants everywhere—and still does. Martin Luther King Jr., whose birthday we celebrate Monday, could make America better by insisting it be truer to its own founding principles.

Those steeped in recent academic accounts of the U.S. may wonder how the 1776 Report can say core U.S. principles are “true” and still call itself history. That’s because it reads the Declaration not as archaeology or dissimulation, but as a live claim that demands adjudication.

Can anyone be surprised to hear that undergraduate history enrollments lately have hit new lows, facing worse drop-offs than any other department?

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Fuhgeddaboudism Wait, what left-wing violence? When? Last summer? Really? by Daniel J. Flynn

Posted By on January 16th, 2021

https://spectator.org/capitol-riot-fuhgeddaboudism/

“People forever mired in an imaginary future when they redeem humanity through the power of their ideas naturally do not possess the time for the very real past in which the power of their ideas looted an immigrant’s American Dream, murdered a retired elderly African American policeman guarding a friend’s property, and torched businesses already burned by lockdowns — and then called it “social justice.” This happened. This happened recently. Should we all pretend it didn’t? And should people not bothered by any of that deliver gaslighting moral lectures about whataboutism to all the normal people horrified by all of it?”

“This was all orchestrated by this president who gave them their marching orders,” Al Sharpton told MSNBC viewers this week about the Unquiet Riot on Capitol Hill. Neither Freddy nor the seven customers who stayed in his “fashion mart” after closing were available for comment.

Inciting a riot does not serve as a prerequisite for gaining on-air employment at MSNBC. But it’s not a disqualifier.

Fuhgeddaboudism demands that we collectively erase context and develop amnesia for not only history but for what happened every night last summer.

Sharpton, who announced, “We will not stand by and allow them to move this brother so that some white interloper can expand his business,” before an armed man shot customers in Freddy’s Fashion Mart and torched it with people still inside in 1995, knows something about incitement (and mucking up facts, as the African American owners, not Freddy, aimed to move a black-owned record store).

“If the Jews want to get it on,” Sharpton said days before the Crown Heights Riots that led to Yankel Rosenbaum’s 1991 death, “tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house.” At the funeral of the black child hit by a car in a Jewish funeral procession that set off the riots, Sharpton further inflamed matters by referring to Jews as “diamond dealers” (a remark more temperate than the “Hitler Did Not Do the Job” banner displayed at the memorial service).

Any invocation of double standards regarding the Capitol Hill riot elicits calls of whataboutism, kind of a tu quoque for people who flunked Latin, from the New York Times and other redoubts of fuhgeddaboudism. This latter phenomenon seems the more relevant to the current situation. Fuhgeddaboudism, a kind of Jedi Mind Trick for people who did not watch Star Wars, demands that we collectively erase context and develop amnesia for not only history but for what happened every night last summer.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Trump Receives Morocco’s Highest Award for Middle East Work

Posted By on January 16th, 2021

https://www.theepochtimes.com/trump-receives-moroccos-highest-award-for-middle-

President Donald Trump on Friday received Morocco’s highest award for his work in advancing a normalization deal between Israel and Morocco, a senior administration official told Reuters.

In a private Oval Office ceremony, Princess Lalla Joumala Alaoui, who is Morocco’s ambassador to the United States, gave Trump the Order of Muhammad, an award given only to heads of state. It was a gift from Morocco’s King Mohammed VI.

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and Middle East envoy Avi Berkowitz received other awards for their work on the Israel-Morocco deal, which was reached in December.

The United States in the last five months helped broker deals between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco. The agreements are aimed at normalizing relations and opening economic ties.

The Kushner team had been working on reaching more agreements between Israel and the Arab world. But time has run out and no more are expected before Trump leaves office on Wednesday.

By Steve Holland