HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

Trump Confronts Chinese Regime’s Technological Invasion Chinese apps used to spy on and hack Americans. Joseph Klein

Posted By on August 13th, 2020

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/08/trump-confronts-chinese-regimes-technological-joseph-klein/

The Chinese communist empire has weaponized social media, telecommunications and cloud computing to expand the reach of its infiltration and surveillance capabilities way beyond its borders. Americans’ personal data and intellectual property are prime targets for the regime’s malign activities, which have gone on for decades without any blowbacks of consequence. In fact, globalists have encouraged the integration of China into the world economy, falling prey to the ancient Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu’s stratagem that “All warfare is based on deception.”  But the time has finally arrived for China to pay the piper, thanks to President Trump.   

The Trump administration is seeking to quarantine Chinese-owned apps and China’s digital infrastructure under its “Clean Network” program, announced by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on August 5th.

“The Clean Network program is the Trump Administration’s comprehensive approach to guarding our citizens’ privacy and our companies’ most sensitive information from aggressive intrusions by malign actors, such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP),” Secretary Pompeo said in his press statement. This represents a sharp ramp-up of the technology cold war between the United States and the communist regime.

The Clean Networks program includes the removal of “untrusted” Chinese-owned apps from U.S. mobile app stores like those run by Apple and Google. The Trump administration has previously targeted China’s ByteDance-owned TikTok’s United States operations, which the administration wants to either eliminate or require their complete sale (including the transfer of all relevant software code) to a U.S. company such as Microsoft.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Francis Menton: Chicago-Circling the Drain

Posted By on August 13th, 2020

https://us7.campaign-archive.com/?e=a9fdc67db9&u=9d011a88d8fe324cae8c084c5

My first blog post on the subject of Chicago was way back in 2012. In that post, I placed Chicago in the special category of American cities that I called the “basket cases” — places with declining populations, astoundingly high rates of violent crime, in every case mostly black on black, and, of course, uninterrupted rule by leftist Democrats for generations. I had this to say about Chicago:

You may ask, is Chicago really basket case? . . . The downtown is in good shape, with new condos and office towers; the near north side is upscale and attractive.  But the population has gone from a peak of 3,620,962 in the 1950 census to just 2,695,598 in 2010.  [And if instead of staying downtown you take] the Green Line el south from the loop to the end of the line, . . . you will observe huge deteriorated public housing projects surrounded by vast vacant areas and abandoned private buildings.

The violent crime rate also clearly qualifies Chicago for the label of basket case. Murders hit a peak of 756 in 2016 (about 28 per hundred thousand people, compared to a rate for the U.S. as a whole of about 5 per 100,000). After a few years of modest declines, murders are on track to equal or top the 756 this year, with 440 through July. In fact, July 2020 just set a new record for most murders in a month, with 105.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Black Lives Matter terrorized families at the Chicago Ronald McDonald House By Andrea Widburg

Posted By on August 13th, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/08/black_lives_matter_terrorized_families_at_the_chicago_ronald_mcdonald_house.html

Your daily reminder that mobs have neither morals nor conscience – and that the recent mobs are the Democrats’ domestic terrorism arm.

One of the appalling stories to emerge from the Black Lives Matter mob’s rampage in Chicago on Sunday night was the fact that looters attacked the Ronald McDonald House. Any American who’s watched television in the last 45 years knows about the Ronald McDonald House charity.

The charity, established in 1974, maintains houses near hospitals so that families with hospitalized children have a free, safe, and supportive place to stay. Often, children stay there as well when they have outpatient procedures. In Chicago on Sunday night, however, the Ronald McDonald House was no longer safe; it was terrifying.

CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

OMINOUS RUMBLINGS FROM THE RESISTANCE FEVER SWAMPS Byron York

Posted By on August 13th, 2020

http://click1.trkwashingtonexaminer.com/ViewMessage.do;jsessionid=C2CFC83D3551B665CB69EEDB61F85

Remember last week’s newsletter about the Transition Integrity Project? It’s the group of anti-Trump former government officials, political operatives, and journalists who held a war games exercise to look at various scenarios for the 2020 election.

Most news reports focused on the group’s assertion that President Trump would not leave office if he lost the vote, although in fact both of the group’s scenarios in which Joe Biden won ended with the defeated Trump leaving the White House and Biden taking office on inauguration day, January 20, 2021.

What most news reports did not tell you was that there was one scenario in which there was a clear victor and the loser refused to accept the results of the election. That was when Trump, as in 2016, lost the popular vote but won the Electoral College. In that scenario — an indisputable Trump victory by the process set out in the Constitution — Democrats and Biden refused to accept the result. They made wild demands in exchange for conceding, like statehood for Washington DC and Puerto Rico, and breaking up California to add new Democratic senators. A standoff ensued. In the end, according to the Transition Integrity Project scenario, inauguration day arrived with the situation “unresolved.” The group’s report said: “It was unclear what the military would do in this situation.” Remember — this was a scenario in which President Trump clearly won re-election and Democrats refused to accept the results.

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Nuclear to Replace Wind and Solar By Norman Rogers

Posted By on August 13th, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/08/nuclear_to_replace_wind_and_solar.html

If you still believe in the global warming hysteria movement, you should face reality and dump wind and solar for nuclear.

In the words of James Hansen, the scientist most responsible for promoting global warming, wind and solar are “grotesque” solutions for reducing CO2 emissions. Michael Shellenberger, a prominent activist, has the same opinion. Hansen and Shellenberger, as well as many other global warming activists, have come to the conclusion that nuclear energy is the only viable method of reducing CO2 emissions from the generation of electricity. Nuclear reactors don’t emit CO2. Coal and natural gas do.  Hydroelectric electricity does not emit CO2 either, but opportunities for expansion are limited. In the United States most of the good sites have already been developed.

Wind and solar are grotesque because there are many problems. Promoters of wind and solar simply lie about the problems. Reducing emissions of CO2 by one metric tonne, 1000 kilograms or 2204 pounds, is called a carbon offset. Carbon offsets are bought and sold, usually for less than $10 each.  If you build wind or solar plants to displace electricity from natural gas or coal plants, you will generate carbon offsets. Each carbon offset generated will cost about $60 if electricity from a coal plant is displaced. If electricity from a natural gas plant is displaced the cost per carbon offset will be about $160.  Wind and solar are expensive methods of generating carbon offsets.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Kamala Harris Lies Repeatedly in First Speech as Biden’s Running Mate By Kyle Smith

Posted By on August 13th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/kamala-harris-lies-repeatedly-in-first-press-conference-as-bidens-running-mate/

In her first speech since Joe Biden selected her as his running mate, Senator Kamala Harris told multiple lies. To wit:

“The president’s mismanagement of the pandemic has plunged us into the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression,” Harris said.

False. The pandemic and its associated lockdowns, not the president, are responsible for the economic contraction. Donald Trump is not the president of the euro zone, which suffered through an even more dire economic contraction in the second quarter: minus 40.3 percent, on an annualized basis, as against minus 32.9 percent in the US. The U.K. suffered a contraction of 59.8 percent, also on an annualized basis. Donald Trump is not the prime minister of the United Kingdom. The U.S. economy did slightly better than Germany’s in the second quarter. And it’s questionable to compare the current crisis to the Great Depression, which was not only deep but lasted more than a decade. The U.S. added 1.8 million jobs in July and Goldman Sachs predicts 25 percent (annualized) GDP growth in the current third quarter, which would mark an end to the U.S. recession after two quarters. 

“Just look where [Trump and Mike Pence] have gotten us. . . . Millions of kids who cannot go back to school,” Harris said.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Kamala Harris’s Relentless Pursuit of Power By David Harsanyi

Posted By on August 13th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/08/kamala-harris-relentless-pursuit-of-power/

There is no power Harris has held that she hasn’t abused.

T he New York Times contends that Joe Biden’s vice-presidential pick Kamala Harris is a “pragmatic moderate,” which is either the usual misleading bias or a sign that the Overton Window is about to fall off the edge of the political spectrum. To judge Harris by her own words and deeds is to be confronted by a candidate who is more antagonistic towards the Constitution than perhaps any to appear on a presidential ticket in modern times — and maybe ever.

The fact that Harris will say and do anything for power is evident in her very acceptance of Biden’s offer. It’s going to be fascinating to watch Harris explain why she is running with man who only months ago she strongly insinuated was a racist. “There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day, and that little girl was me,” Harris explained, as she hit Biden on his history of working with segregationists to oppose busing laws in the 1970s.

It will be even more fascinating to hear the moral calculus Harris employs to rationalize running with a rapist. This isn’t George Bush and Ronald Reagan making up after tussling on “voodoo economics.” Concerning allegations of sexual misconduct against Joe Biden, Harris once said, “I believe them, and I respect them being able to tell their story and having the courage to do it.” One of the women Harris was referring to was Tara Reade, whom accused Biden of sexually assaulting her in 1993, when she worked as an aide for the then Delaware senator. “I believe them” doesn’t lend it itself to much interpretation.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Getting to Know Kamala Harris How Biden’s running mate blocked a hospital rescue to help the SEIU.

Posted By on August 13th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/getting-to-know-kamala-harris-11597273754?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris made their first appearances as a campaign ticket on Wednesday, and Americans still know little about the running mate who may be President sooner rather than later. One way to fill in the gap is to inspect Ms. Harris’s record as California’s Attorney General, and one revealing episode is the way she used her power to blow up a deal to rescue struggling Catholic hospitals.

The saga started in 2014 when for-profit Prime Healthcare Services made an $843 million bid for six insolvent hospitals operated by the Catholic Daughters of Charity Health System. The hospitals had been bleeding cash for years due to inflexible labor contracts and miserly Medicaid payments.

Prime Healthcare was the only bidder that agreed to assume Daughters’ $300 million liability for worker pensions, and it scored high on the bidding criteria that included financial wherewithal and service quality. Nurses, physicians and the public supported the deal.

But the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW), which represented 2,000 hospital workers at Daughters, opposed Prime’s takeover because the company refused to sign a neutrality agreement that would let them organize all of Prime’s hospitals. Only four of Prime’s 15 hospitals in California at the time were unionized.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

$14.8 Billion In Federal Funding Flows Into Just Five Major U.S. Cities Where Civil Unrest Looms & Police Stand Down by Adam Andrzejewski

Posted By on August 13th, 2020

https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandrzejewski/2020/08/08/148-billion-in-federal-fun

Open The Books: Transparent Government Spending
www.openthebooks.com

After the George Floyd protests broke out across major U.S. cities, some mayors and police chiefs were accused of issuing stand-down orders to their police officers. Nightly news streamed video footage of the looting, rioting, and general mayhem that ensued in the absence of a civil order.

“Autonomous zones” sprung up in progressive cities and were described as part of a “summer of love.” Mayors pushed to defund local police departments. Center-right politicians called these cities “lawless” for refusing to protect the life, liberty, and property of its residents.

In Seattle, the highly compensated city council voted to defund their police department. In Congress, an effort led by U.S. Sens Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Joni Ernst (R-IA) pushed to defund these cities of their federal aid.

President Donald Trump indicated a willingness to review the situation. However, nobody knew exactly how much federal funding was “at stake.”

Our auditors at OpenTheBooks.com quantified $14.8 billion in federal contracts and grants flowing into five major cities where civil unrest looms and policing is restrained: Seattle, Portland, New York, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco.

We mapped the flow of federal funds during fiscal year 2019 to all units of government based within the city location. Here’s how it breaks down:

Portland, Oregon (Federal awards: $252.5 million | pop. 653,115) A family of four, on average, received $1,548 in federal subsidies ($387 per person).

IMMIGRATION, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

‘Sanctuary’ NYC Creates Its Own ‘Border Patrol’ Once again, leftist hypocrisy rears its ugly head. Michael Cutler

Posted By on August 13th, 2020

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/08/sanctuary-nyc-creates-its-own-border-patrol-michael-cutler/

Back on March 18th of this year, I wrote an article, “Because of the Coronavirus, Borders Suddenly Matter” which noted that New York State even establishes internal borders.

The irony is that for decades New York City and other cities have adopted “Sanctuary” policies that, to one extent or another, block federal immigration law enforcement officers from interacting with local and state officials. The level of cooperation between local officials and federal immigration authorities or lack thereof, varies greatly from one jurisdiction to another, but as of late, has all but ended in many such jurisdictions across the United States.

The State of New York even has taken to providing illegal aliens with driver’s licenses while blocking DMV (Department of Motor Vehicle) information from federal immigration agencies including the U.S. Border Patrol, Customs and Border Protection inspectors at ports of entry, and ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) as I reported in my recent article, “New York State Blocks ICE and Border Patrol Access to DMV Database.”

Governor Cuomo has outrageously taken to calling ICE agents “thugs.”

Meanwhile the 9/11 Commission made it abundantly clear that international terrorists, and not just the 9/11 hijacker-terrorists, exploited key vulnerabilities to enter the United States and embed themselves within the immigration system, hiding in plain sight as they went about their deadly preparations. The very same immigration system that the city most devastated on September 11, 2001 — New York — has acted most aggressively to undermine and subvert.