HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

China-connected Tencent’s tentacles extend to NASA, too By James Lowe

Posted By on August 30th, 2020

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

President Trump has been leading the U.S. against the Chinese theft of  American data and intellectual property.  The administration has ramped up its pressure campaign by threatening Gen Z social media platforms like TikTok, which observers fear could funnel data to China, and closing the Chinese consulate in Houston for being a source of espionage and intellectual property theft.

Now Trump has taken the unprecedented step of shutting down WeChat, which is owned by the Chinese company Tencent.  As suggested by the president’s executive order, Tencent, like many other regime-connected firms, is a threat because of its apps’ reported collection of large swaths of personal data.  It isn’t in the best interest of the nation’s security to allow the Chinese government easy access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information, which often occurs more than they realize.  

To protect national security, Trump is taking a harder stance than past administrations in the hope that it quells the growing Chinese threat.  Now Congress is doubling down to help him eliminate further threats that this adversary poses to American security.   Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) has introduced two new amendments to the latest NASA Authorization Act, which would require background checks of NASA’s private contractors to ensure that there aren’t any significant connections to China.  These amendments are needed now more than ever — especially when considering Tencent’s proximity to NASA. 

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

While California chases climate change chimeras, danger looms By Andrea Widburg

Posted By on August 30th, 2020

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

California has been in the headlines a lot lately. In the first half of the year, it hogged headlines because Governor Newsom imposed some of America’s most draconian lockdown rules on Californians (although they naturally didn’t apply to protests). While these headlines applied equally to other Democrat-run states, California blazed a new trail in August, when a heatwave caused the state to have rolling blackouts, followed by raging fires.

What was significant about both the blackouts and the fires was that they could have been prevented. Both resulted from California’s obsession with climate change and mindless environmentalism. Now, though, it appears that California is also due for an imminent apocalyptic flood. California can work to save itself, but it’s spending money in all the wrong places.

Although the media were excited about an allegedly record-breaking heatwave this August, the reality is that California has meltingly-hot heatwaves at least twice a year. To the extent some years are hotter than others, the temperatures differ by the single digits.

What made this year different was that the power grid failed over large parts of California. The grid didn’t fail, though, because the heat was too great. It failed because Pacific Gas & Electric company, a California public utility, has bowed to the climate change fanatics and put all of its energies into renewables. Even Governor Newsom had to concede that, when people needed A/C, solar energy failed.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

BIDEN LEAD SHRINKS

Posted By on August 30th, 2020

Ohio county tells story of the seismic shift of working-class voters toward GOP by Salena Zito,

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/ohio-county-tells-story-of-the-seismic-shift-of-working-class-voters-toward-gop

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/elections/trump-vs-biden-top-battleground-states/

Top Battlegrounds 8/30 48.0 45.3 Biden +2.7
Wisconsin
August 30th 48.0 44.5 Biden +3.5
North Carolina
August 30th 47.0 47.3 Trump +0.3
Florida
August 30th 49.0 45.3 Biden +3.7
Pennsylvania
August 30th 49.0 44.3 Biden +4.7
Michigan
August 30th 47.3 44.7 Biden +2.6
Arizona
August 30th 48.0 45.8 Biden +2.2

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

KLAVAN: Black Assimilation Is The Great Threat To Democrats By Andrew Klavan

Posted By on August 30th, 2020

https://www.dailywire.com/news/klavan-black-assimilation-is-the-great-threat-to-democrats

If there was one moment during the Republican convention that caused my official Daily Wire Leftist Tears Tumbler to magically overflow, it was in a speech by former Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley.

“In much of the Democratic Party, it’s now fashionable to say that America is racist,” Haley said. “That is a lie. America is not a racist country.”

Democrats and the media — but I repeat myself — reacted swiftly.

“I’m just hung up a little bit about Nikki Haley,” said hung up ABC Anchor Linsey Davis. “A comment that she made, ‘America is not a racist country.’ I think that that’s a statement that a lot of black people, black and brown people, would take umbrage with.”

Chicago Tribune columnist Dahleen Glanton was blunter, saying the statement made Haley “appear to be either disgracefully ignorant or a blatant liar.”

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

Hydroxychloroquine Follies How a corrupt elite disregards Americans’ health for political and financial advantage. Joseph Hippolito

Posted By on August 30th, 2020

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/08/hydroxychloroquine-follies-joseph-hippolito/

Andrew Wilkow, a host on Sirius XM’s “Patriot” channel, routinely makes a perceptive observation about the conflict between President Donald Trump and the Democratic Party.

Trump could cure cancer, Wilkow said, and the Democrats would defend the rights of tumors.

Wilkow’s observation is not so absurd when applied to the Covid-19 pandemic.

A coalition of “progressives,” the Democratic Party, government bureaucrats and media refuses to promote or make an effective, inexpensive treatment available. Why? So they can politically exploit the pandemic for as long as possible and get the Presidential ticket of former Vice President Joe Biden and California Sen. Kamala Harris elected.

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman inadvertently revealed that strategy when CNN’s Wolf Blitzer interviewed him Aug. 3. Blitzer began by expressing hopelessness about the pandemic.

“I mean, it’s a sad situation what’s going on right now, and I don’t see any end in sight,” Blitzer said. “Hopefully there will be a therapeutic that comes out that can prevent people from getting really sick and dying. Hopefully, there will be a vaccine at some point that will ease this. But right now, it doesn’t seem to have any end in sight. Do you see an end in sight right now?”

Friedman issued a surprising response.

“Oh, I do see an end in sight,” Friedman said. “It’s in November, Wolf. And let me be very clear about this. Wolf, I will walk, I will crawl, I will slither, I will bike, I will hike, but I will be going to the polls to vote for Joe Biden. Because until and unless we replace this president and this administration, we’re going to be having this same conversation every day, all right?”

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

NY Creates Special Rules for the Rich and Famous, But Anyone Else Gets Sent to Jail

Posted By on August 30th, 2020

https://rightwaypundit.com/ny-creates-special-rules-for-the-rich-and-famous-but-anyone-else-gets-sent-to-jail/

As you likely know, the looked forward to MTV Video Music Awards ceremony is coming up rather soon. The event, scheduled for Sunday, is said to be bringing the best of best from the music industry into the Big Apple.

However, as also know, the state of New York, and New York City included, is under strict quarantine orders from Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo. Per the order and the New York State Department of Health, anyone entering the state from one of just about 30 states which currently appear on a travel advisory list must self-quarantine for a minimum of 14 days. If you do not, you could be charged with up to 15 days in jail and or a fine of up to $10,000.

Given the order and the strictness with which it has been carried out thus far, many have asked if the VMAs will be held virtually this year, as the Country Music Awards were.

The answer is frank no.

The VMAs will continue as planned in NYC, with all sorts of stars coming in to perform. Oh, and of course, none of those stars will be required to self-quarantine.

Yep, you read that right. Stars like Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, and many more will be crossing the threshold into New York, coming from states like California – which is most certainly on the travel advisory list – and be allowed to carry on as usual.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Let Them Boycott! By Andrew C. McCarthy

Posted By on August 30th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/08/let-them-boycott/

No one is saying athletes should not have social consciences or forums to express their political views. But the game is not such a forum, not if they expect people to attend or tune in.

O stensibly, the NBA boycotts, which other sports are adopting, are illogical. But then, the animating concept behind the player protests — “systemic racism,” derived from the smear that the nation’s police forces are hunting down young black men — is irrational, a triumph of distorted narrative over critical thinking. Why should the boycotts be any different?

For a work stoppage to be successful, it has to withhold something the potential consumer wants. Or, at least, wants badly enough to be depressed by its absence. Big-time professional sports has been that something for a long time. The sand is running out of the hourglass, though, and that won’t change if the players don’t figure out why.

With some exceptions, the astronomically paid athletes are inexperienced in anything other than their sport — understandably so: They are young, and it takes full-time dedication to compete at their elite level. They are ill-informed, or flat uninformed, about the phenomena they claim to be animated by. They do not approach public policy with an open mind. That, too, is not their fault. Modern-era education has supplanted critical thinking with tribalism, grievance-mongering, and hostility to the free exchange of ideas and viewpoints. It seems paradoxical, given how self-regarding athletes tend to be, but marination in progressive tropes has left them devoid of self-perception. The wealth, the adulation, and the open doors enjoyed by the players, a large percentage of whom are African American, defy the Manichean tale they parrot about America.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Watch for Election Meddling by Iran and Other Adversaries of America by Majid Rafizadeh

Posted By on August 29th, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16403/us-election-interference

Tehran used that influx of revenues to expand its influence throughout the region and beyond, including in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, the Gaza Strip, Venezuela and the tri-border area of Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil. The expansion campaign proved to be immensely successful.

A recent statement issued by William Evanina, director of the US National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC), warned the American public that other countries are using “covert and overt influence measures” to sway the vote. The Iranian regime is named one of three countries, alongside Russia and China, about which the NCSC is particularly concerned.

The American public needs to be extremely vigilant of the attempts by adversaries of the US to interfere in the upcoming election to manipulate the public vote in favor of the candidate who they think will be most malleable in agreeing to their demands.

When it comes to what policies should be pursued towards the ruling mullahs of Iran, the difference between the former Vice President Joe Biden and President Donald J. Trump is striking.

The Trump administration has been in favor of the “maximum pressure” policy, cutting the flow of funds to the Iranian regime and its proxies, reducing Tehran’s oil exports, and isolating the regime in the region and globally. Now, the Iranian regime is facing an unprecedented level of pressure, which, if it continues, can threaten the ruling mullahs’ hold on power. As a result of this maximum pressure policy, the Iranian leaders have cut their funding to their allies, militia and terror groups.

BOOKS, ELECTIONS Comments turned off

A Tyranny Perpetual and Universal? Is the leftist dream now within reach? If President Trump loses, we will find out. By Michael Anton

Posted By on August 29th, 2020

https://amgreatness.com/2020/08/28/a-tyranny-perpetual-and-universal/

After “Is 2020 another ‘Flight 93 election?’” the question I most often hear is “What happens if Trump loses?” 

The answer to the first question, unfortunately, is yes, but more so.

The tl;dr summary of the answer to the second is: much more of the same. More of all the trends, policies, and practices that revolutionized American life in the 1960s, that enrich the ruling class and its foot soldiers at middle America’s expense, erode our natural and constitutionally guaranteed rights and liberties, degrade our culture and its people, and dishonor our heritage and history. The war on those who self-identify as Americans, and only as Americans, who love their country despite its flaws—who are certain in their bones that its strengths and glories vastly outweigh its historic and present shortcomings—waged by those who hate America and Americans, who want to destroy the former and crush the latter, will go on.

Two important questions are whether that war will intensify or abate and whether it might abate overtly but intensify covertly. Those questions will be explored in what follows.

First, though, a necessary caveat. A tiresome, sophistic, bad-faith, and inevitable rejoinder to my argument will go something like this: “Trump is the president; therefore, you guys are in charge; this ‘ruling class’ of whom you speak includes him, and you. So you’re lying and contradicting yourself when you criticize an alleged ‘ruling class’ running the country in ways you don’t like.”

No. The only accurate statement in the above summary is “Trump is the president.” And thank God for that; we’d be much worse off if he weren’t.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Today’s College Classroom Is a Therapy Session The tough guys are gone. Instructors are expected to foster ‘safe,’ ‘nurturing,’ ‘antiracist’ spaces. By Joseph Epstein

Posted By on August 29th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/todays-college-classroom-is-a-therapy-session-11598654387?mod=opinion_lead_pos6

Now retired after having taught 30 years in the English department at Northwestern University, I continue to receive announcements from the school. One not long ago carried the heading “Seven Honored with Teaching Award.” I read it wondering if these models of superior teaching might in some way illuminate the question of whether the value of in-person education is worth the risk of coronavirus exposure.

What I learned is that, of Northwestern’s seven 2020 McCormick Teaching and Alumnae Award recipients, a majority are so “welcoming” and “supportive,” so ready “to foster inclusive and anti-racist learning spaces.” One of the recipients seeks to integrate “methodological rigor, impactful engagement, and human sensitivity” into every aspect of her teaching. A student says of another awardee that the “nurturing and supportive environment” of his classes much improved his learning. The department chair(man? woman?) of yet another of the award winners says that her “classrooms are a rare phenomenon: a safe and nurturing forum for learning and debate. . . .” If this sort of thing goes on at universities, it must be redoubled in high schools and elementary schools.

Reading about these award-winning teachers makes one wonder if teaching has become the pedagogical equivalent of psychotherapy. Ought teaching to be primarily about building self-esteem in students, “nurturing” and above all making them feel “safe?” And what do you suppose an “inclusive and anti-racist learning space” looks like?