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The Message Of Iran’s Execution Of A Wrestling Champion Ali Safavi

Posted By on September 29th, 2020

https://issuesinsights.com/2020/09/26/the-message-of-irans-execution-of-a-wrestling-champion/

Last Saturday, despite a global outcry, the Iranian regime brutally executed a 27-year-old wrestling champion. Navid Afkari was arrested during peaceful anti-regime protests back in 2018. Amnesty International called the execution a “travesty of justice.” And the International Olympic Committee (IOC) sad it was “shocked” by the announcement.

A high-profile campaign around the world had been sparked to force the regime to stop the execution. That included the World Players Association representing 85,000 athletes worldwide, along with other major sports groups and athletes in Iran and around the world. But in the end, Afkari, who proclaimed his innocence until the end, was executed so hastily that the regime even robbed him of a final family visit.

In tape recordings and letters from prison, Akfari had explained some of the torture he had endured: “They put a plastic bag over my head and almost suffocated me. Using batons and other hard objects, they beat hard on my hands, abdomen, and legs. … They tied me forcefully and poured alcohol down my nostrils.”

Both of his brothers have also been sentenced to decades in prison after being tortured. Their grieving mother, Bahieh Namjoo, said in a video posted on social media: “They tortured my sons to confess against Navid. This was a sham trial. My children could not defend themselves.”

The Iranian people are facing devastating circumstances and are on the verge of rising up. Decades of endemic state corruption and economic mismanagement by state officials have left millions of Iranians struggling to make ends meet. In 2018 and 2019, millions in close to 200 cities called for democratic regime change.

That is precisely why the regime sentenced Afkari to not one, but TWO, death sentences. The regime wanted to send a message of intimidation to the rest of the population in order to prevent further protests in a very tense environment. But the execution actually sent the complete opposite message. It revealed the regime’s incredible fragility.

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Revolution by Shenanigan By Kevin D. Williamson

Posted By on September 29th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/09/revolution-by-shenanigan/

EXCERPTS

Democrats propose to do away with the Constitution and impose a new one that none of us has agreed to live under.

Today’s shenanigan is tomorrow’s precedent.

The American constitutional order is a blend of democratic and undemocratic institutions, a result of the compromises that were necessary to create one nation out of 13 very different colonies, with different economic and political interests, different cultures, different religious habits — the genuine diversity of 18th-century American life. We have a federal system in which the states and U.S. government exercise a kind of dual sovereignty, with the states remaining powers in their own right rather than mere administrative subdivisions of the national state. The status of the states is reflected in the Senate, where each state enjoys equal representation regardless of population, and in institutions such as the Electoral College. Other antidemocratic measures in our constitutional order include judicial review and, most important, the Bill of Rights, which are constraints on the powers of temporary democratic majorities.

The Democrats currently are at war with the American Constitution. They believe that it is unjust that on two recent occasions their party has lost presidential elections, which happen in the Electoral College, in spite of winning a greater number of total votes across all the states. They dislike that the Senate gives power to less populated, rural, and largely Western states that are more conservative than are the big, densely populated urban areas in which Democrats thrive. And they are irritated that the First Amendment prevents them from imposing a federal censorship regime on political speech.

The Democrats’ approach to the Senate has been politically incompetent. When they were in power, they resented the effective maneuvering of the minority party, and so eliminated the filibuster in the matter of most federal judicial appointments, an innovation that they are regretting in the worst way right about now. Republicans extended the filibuster-free process to nominations for the highest court.

Now, some Democrats propose to simply create new Senate seats for their party by declaring the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico to be states, which would be illegal in the former case and unwise in the latter. But in the matter of Puerto Rico, they have the Texas-annexation shenanigans of the 19th century as precedent.

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China Says Killing Americans over Taiwan is ‘Morally Justified’ by Gordon G. Chang

Posted By on September 29th, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16554/china-taiwan-killing-americans

Beijing is sending aircraft near Taiwan “almost every day” and directing them to approach in all four directions.

“Hu Xijin is not just urging China to commence a war to murder millions of Taiwanese, he wants China to be able to kill millions of Americans as well.” — Richard D. Fisher, Jr., military analyst and senior fellow at the Virginia-based International Assessment and Strategy Center, Taipei Times, September 21, 2020.

China’s ruler, therefore, needs something to distract restive Chinese people as well as unhappy senior leaders. We may think that Xi Jinping should be cautious, but from where he stands, he now has incentives to start a crisis, especially if he thinks President Trump, seeking re-election, will not respond.

China, violating previous understandings, has been sending large numbers of fighter aircraft and bombers into Taiwan’s airspace this month.

At the same time, China’s ruling Communist Party is issuing threats. The flights of military aircraft are not warnings, the Communist Party’s Global Times newspaper stated in an editorial on September 18. “They are rehearsals on taking over Taiwan. What is needed is a political reason that can turn them into real battle to smash Taiwan independence forces.”

Fortunately, bad weather is coming. The November-through-January period is not conducive to conducting invasions across the Taiwan Strait. Nonetheless, China is clearly gearing itself for war.

Beijing calls the island “sacred” Chinese territory, but Taiwan has never been part of communist China, the “People’s Republic.” In fact, Taiwan has never been formally recognized as part of any Chinese state. People on the island, in survey after survey, overwhelming consider themselves “Taiwanese,” not “Chinese.”

Beijing nevertheless insists it has sovereignty over Taiwan, which formally calls itself the Republic of China. The People’s Republic has been sending planes near Taiwan’s territory to make a point.

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The Dangerous New Iran-Qatar-Turkey-Hamas Alliance by Khaled Abu Toameh

Posted By on September 29th, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16553/iran-qatar-turkey-hamas

Abbas has already damaged the Palestinians’ relations with some Arab countries by condemning the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain for signing peace treaties with Israel…. Now it appears that the Palestinians are also headed toward ruining their relations with Egypt because of Abbas’s decision to make peace with Hamas and appease Iran, Turkey and Qatar.

“Qatar has provided Hamas with more than a billion dollars since 2012… Qatar did not provide these funds out of a humanitarian standpoint and to help the residents of the Gaza Strip. The Qataris did so to help Hamas and its leaders and to enable Qatar to establish a foothold in the region.” — Egyptian writer Hashem al-Fahkrani, Al-Youm7.com, September 21, 2020.

“Those who believe that Hamas’s first goal is to resist Israel are mistaken. Its first and only goal is to receive money. Hamas’s slogan is: Loyalty to anyone who pays the most.” — Hashem al-Fahkrani.

Yet, the Palestinian leadership and the international community appear distinctly indifferent the looming danger of this newest axis of evil. For them, the only fate worse than death is normalization between the Arabs and Israel. Abbas has once again pegged his hopes and those of his people on entities that would obstruct the Palestinians and destroy Israel.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s continued rapprochement with the Iran-backed Hamas is jeopardizing the Palestinians’ relations with Egypt. Egyptian media outlets have resumed their scathing attacks on the Palestinian leadership in general, and the Islamist movement that has been ruling the Gaza Strip since 2007 in particular.

The Egyptian attacks came on the eve of a meeting in Turkey between leaders of Abbas’s Fatah faction and Hamas. At the meeting, held under the auspices of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Hamas and Fatah leaders discussed ways of ending their dispute and holding long overdue Palestinian presidential and parliamentary elections.

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U.S. and China: Emerging Technologies and the Race to Control the Future by Lawrence A. Franklin

Posted By on September 29th, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16527/us-china-technology-race

Chairman Xi seems to want to secure a commanding lead in the emerging hi-tech disciplines to create a sense of inevitability about China’s rise to world domination.

Now, a Chinese physician and virologist, Dr. Yan Limeng, who fled China and is in hiding in the U.S., has said that China released the virus “intentionally” — perhaps, one surmises, as a way of torpedoing both President Trump’s prospects for re-election and his effort to alter trade deals that have favored China by $600 billion a year. Meanwhile, Twitter thoughtfully deleted Yan’s clearly important account.

Ominously, China appears to be doubling down on its effort to checkmate the West’s capability to use space-based systems during conflict. If China can successfully blind U.S. systems by offensive cyber operations or outright destruction of U.S. systems by anti-satellite attacks, the war-fighting advantage currently possessed by the West can be annihilated.

The costs to the US of falling behind could well prove catastrophic.

The United States is in a “Tech War” with China, the victor will control the global dissemination of information. The winner will also write the world’s rules and standards for emerging technologies in the digital economy.

Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Chairman Xi Jinping threw down the gauntlet to the U.S. in a May 2017 speech, where he outlined the plan for establishing a Chinese-supervised “Digital Silk Road.” President Xi realizes that the information dimension of modern war is bound up with China’s apparent overall objective of unseating the United States as the leader of the existing liberal democratic world order.

Xi seemingly wants to secure a commanding lead in the emerging hi-tech disciplines to create a sense of inevitability about China’s rise to world domination. The U.S. still has the time, talent and resources to secure a victory over China in this contest for global leadership, provided that the U.S. has the will, self-discipline and flexibility to institute a total societal mobilization over decades.

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NYT Bombshell Essentially Boils Down to This: Trump Paid Millions in Taxes, Owes No Debt to Russia By Stephen Green

Posted By on September 29th, 2020

https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2020/09/28/nyt-bombshell-trump-paid-millions-in-taxes-owes-no-debt-to-russia-wait-what-n974892

“Trump Paid Millions in Taxes” isn’t nearly as scandalous a headline as “Trump Paid Only $750 in Taxes,” although, to be fair, it does have the advantage of being true.

“Trump Paid Millions in Taxes” isn’t nearly as scandalous a headline as “Trump Paid Only $750 in Taxes,” although, to be fair, it does have the advantage of being true.

Alexandria Brown dug deep into the New York Times‘ story to see if there was any truth to the shrieking headlines:

As Brown further noted, “Trump PAID, as in transferred to the US Treasury, $1 million in 2016 and $4.2 million in 2017. Note also that most of the overpayment was rolled forward, not refunded.”

People who own and run businesses take losses in some years, and pay little or nothing in taxes, and make great sums in other years and pay much more in taxes.

They also take advantage of tax breaks, tax credits, and tax incentives — just like you and I do.

Here’s a screencap from the actual NYT report:

The Treasury was millions of dollars richer in 2016 and 2017, thanks to checks signed “Donald J. Trump.” But thanks to our overly complicated tax code, the line-item amount Trump technically paid for those years was $750.

Fact Check: Are you kidding us with this nonsense, NYT?

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Next Time Someone Tells You Non-Citizens Don’t Vote in U.S. Elections, Tell Them About Christine Chernosky By J. Christian Adams

Posted By on September 29th, 2020

https://pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/2020/09/28/meet-a-canadian-citizen-who-voted-in-american-elections-n975812

I have waited more than two years to write this piece. During those 26 months, I have been waiting for one single news outlet to cover the case of Christine Chernosky, a Canadian citizen who voted in an American presidential election.

Remember the name: Christine Chernosky.

Despite all of the news outlets that cover elections, including well-funded philanthropic projects such as Pro Publica, the American Prospect, and even the fey leftist law professor who fancies himself the oracle of all the latest election news, Rick Hasen – not one single news outlet mentioned Christine Chernosky, the alien who voted in the presidential election.

We will get to why in a moment, but first some context.

I and others who study elections closely have been saying for at least five years that the greatest foreign influence on American elections is foreigners voting in them.

The problem has been documented in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and especially in sanctuary cities. It isn’t hard to find problems either. So many aliens are getting on the rolls that they write letters asking to be taken off when they realize it fouls up their naturalization applications to be breaking federal law by registering to vote.

Pennsylvania has allowed thousands, if not more, aliens onto their voter rolls. To add insult to injury, they are hiding the extent of the problem. I have been locked in federal litigation with Pennsylvania for years trying merely to obtain the government records associated with the mop-up Democrats in Pennsylvania’s executive branch attempted.

They have been playing hide-the-facts the whole time.

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Trump’s Unhappy Returns We advised in 2016 that he release his taxes. Now others will do it for him.

Posted By on September 29th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-unhappy-returns-11601333853?mod=opinion_lead_pos3

The New York Times has spun out 10,000 words claiming that Donald Trump paid little or no income tax for many years. The Times says it can’t release the actual tax documents lest this compromise its sources, and Mr. Trump denies paying so little but won’t release his returns.

Voters can decide whom to believe, but one fact to note is that the story doesn’t assert illegal behavior. The IRS presumably signed off on the Trump returns, except in one case in which it is disputing a $72.9 million deduction claimed by Mr. Trump. This is a fight rich people have with the IRS all the time, often ending in Tax Court.

The report makes much of a deduction Mr. Trump took for business consulting fees that match payments his daughter Ivanka reported in separate filings. There may be legitimate reasons for those fee payments, and Ms. Trump ought to clear the matter up.

Is it a scandal if Mr. Trump legally exploited the tax code’s treatment of chronic business losses to pay little tax? Hardly. Mr. Trump admitted this himself in a 2016 debate. Congress littered the code with loopholes aimed at assisting real-estate businesses, among others. Democrats write a tax code to please their corporate donors and then selectively attack CEOs or businesses that use the loopholes.

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The Real Cost of Wind and Solar By Norman Rogers

Posted By on September 29th, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/09/the_real_cost_of_wind_and_solar.html

The entire renewable electricity industry is actually a government boondoggle

The main problem with either wind or solar is that they generate electricity erratically, depending on the wind or sunshine. In contrast, a fossil-fuel plant can generate electricity predictably upon request. Blackouts are very expensive for society, so grid operators and designers go to a lot of trouble to make sure that blackouts are rare. The electrical grid should have spare capacity sufficient to meet the largest demand peaks even when some plants are out of commission.  Plants in spinning reserve status stand by ready to take over if a plant trips (breaks down). Injecting erratic electricity into the grid means that other plants have to seesaw output to balance the ups and downs of wind or solar.

Adding wind or solar to a grid does not mean that existing fossil fuel plants can be retired. Often, neither wind nor solar is working and at those times a full complement of fossil fuel plants, or sometimes nuclear or hydro plants, must be available. Both wind and solar have pronounced seasonality. During low output times, as for summer wind, the fossil-fuel plants are carrying more of the load. Of course, solar stops working as the sun sets.

Wind behaves erratically hour to hour. Even though the Texas 18,000-megawatt system has thousands of turbines spread over a wide area, the net output is erratic changing by thousands of megawatts in a single hour. These shifts must be balanced by fossil-fuel plants slewing their output up and down to compensate and keep load matched to generation.

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There’s a game-changer out there that should end the Wuhan virus paranoia By Andrea Widburg

Posted By on September 29th, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/09/theres_a_gamechanger_out_there_that_should_end_the_wuhan_virus_paranoia.html

The 15-day lockdown that Americans agreed to in March to prepare hospitals for a possible influx of Wuhan virus patients has lasted for over half a year in some places. It’s disrupted businesses, education, and family life while harming people’s mental and physical well-being. On Monday, though, a game-changer hit the scene when President Trump announced an affordable rapid test for the Wuhan virus. The new test can be self-administered and will produce a result in around 15 minutes.

The Epoch Times reports:

President Donald Trump announced on Sept. 28 that the U.S. government will start distributing 150 million rapid COVID-19 tests to states this week in a bid to help governors safely reopen K–12 schools and economies.

Of the total, the administration is dedicating 100 million tests for schools and measures to help reopen economies. An additional 50 million tests will target the most vulnerable elderly population in nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and home health and hospice sites.

[snip]

There are no restrictions on how the 100 million tests meant for schools and economies can be used, but the Trump administration will urge governors to prioritize for settings that need rapid, low-tech methods of testing, such as schools, first-responder facilities, and areas where outbreaks are detected, [Admiral Brett] Giroir [M.D., assistant secretary for Health, in the HHS] said. The administration plans to ship 6.5 million tests from the school allotment this week.