POLITICS Comments turned off

From Speech To Consumer Choice, Democrats Believe Everything Must Be Policed

Posted By on May 27th, 2020

https://issuesinsights.com/2020/05/27/from-speech-to-consumer-choice-democrats-believe-everything-must-be-policed/

Reading a weekend story in Campus Reform helped us see more clearly what we’ve been witnessing for decades. The political left is driven by an urge to supervise every aspect of our lives. It’s a corrosive impulse that shouldn’t be accepted anywhere in a free nation, let alone practiced. The backlash needs to begin now. If not, our liberty will eventually be overrun.

The story is from Michigan State University, which published an article claiming that video conferencing is full of “unconscious bias.” In it, MSU social science professor Amy Bonomi says:

Unconscious bias includes using language, symbolism and nonverbal cues that reinforce normative social identities with respect to gender, race, sexual preference, and socioeconomic status. For example, when the virtual background of a Zoom meeting attendee has pictures of his or her wedding, it unintentionally reinforces the idea that marriage is most fitting between opposite sexes.

In other words, when left alone, managers and coworkers will say things or show things that the speech police — who exist to ensure that only one side controls the narrative — don’t approve of.

Nothing in recent times illustrates the left’s inclination to control as does its response to the coronavirus pandemic. The Democrats want to keep people and businesses locked down while Republicans, with some exceptions, want to free people and unleash commerce.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Palestinians: The Home Demolitions No One Talks About by Khaled Abu Toameh

Posted By on May 27th, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16065/palestinians-home-demolitions

While international human rights groups and the European Union have also been condemning Israel, they are ignoring home demolitions carried out by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

In February, Hamas notified 50 families… that their homes would be destroyed on the pretext that they were built without a license. The families were instructed to evacuate their homes within two weeks…. Last year, Hamas demolished another house in Khan Yunis belonging to Bassam Duhan, also on the pretext that it was built without a license. Duhan, a father of eight, set up a tent in front of the demolished house. He complained that relatives of senior Hamas officials had also built homes in the same area, but no one destroyed their homes.

Last year, a youth group in the Gaza Strip called on the Arab League and other Arab and Islamic parties to launch an investigation into Hamas’s crimes against Palestinians. Needless to say, the group has never received a reply from the Arab League or any other organization in the Arab and Islamic countries. The appeal came after Hamas militiamen used excessive force to prevent Palestinians from protesting economic hardship and Hamas corruption.

In the absence of an international response, Hamas continues to demolish homes in the Gaza Strip — and other crimes against its own people — with impunity, leaving hundreds of families without shelter.

Hamas, the Iranian-backed terrorist movement controlling the Gaza Strip, is often one of the first Palestinian groups to condemn Israel for demolishing homes of terrorists or Palestinian-owned houses built illegally in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

While international human rights groups and the European Union have also been condemning Israel, they are ignoring home demolitions carried out by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

In the past 10 years, Hamas has demolished not only houses, but also a mosque — a move that has received almost no attention from the international media and human rights organizations or the EU.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Iran: US Chance for a Knockout Punch by Peter Huessy

Posted By on May 27th, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16064/iran-knockout-punch

There are five actions the Trump administration must take: (1) extending the UN arms embargo on Iran; (2) snapping back economic sanctions on Iran (they were originally loosened as part of the JCPOA); (3) shutting down the smuggling and trafficking networks of Hezbollah in the Americas; (4) stopping the Chinese-Iranian oil and gas pipeline developments through Pakistan; and (5) interdicting if possible Iranian tankers filled with gasoline and headed for Venezuela.

The embargo on Iran selling or importing high-technology military equipment, especially ballistic missile technology, must also be one of the administration’s highest priorities. Particularly worrisome is that Russia and China want to sell equipment to Iran that, when combined with Iran’s indigenous missile capability, would greatly accelerate Tehran’s ICBM development program.

The US administration has let it be known that it could still sanction any entity selling Iran advanced weapons, especially ballistic missile technology.

Iranian tankers laden with gasoline are now traveling to Venezuela. The US Navy could easily capture those tankers still at sea. There is ample precedent. Both the US and Great Britain have legally seized Iranian ships bringing missiles to terrorists in Yemen. With a similar action, the US could both deny funds for Iran’s terrorist and nuclear activities and energy desperately needed by the oppressive Maduro regime in Venezuela.

In 2015, the United States, France, Great Britain, Germany, Russia and China signed an agreement that was named the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or the JCPOA. The agreement (which Iran serially violates) ostensibly curtailed Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons — for a short time — in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions against Iran.

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Open Skies: The Cassette Deck of Treaties By Shoshana Bryen

Posted By on May 27th, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/05/open_skies_the_cassette_deck_of_treaties.html

In 1955, President Dwight D. Eisenhower proposed to the Kremlin that the U.S. and the USSR each be permitted to conduct aerial reconnaissance of the other’s territory and collect data on each other’s military forces and activities to enhance confidence that neither was planning a surprise attack. Moscow refused, calling it a license for American spying. Intensification of the Cold War made the issue dormant until President George H.W. Bush revived it in 1999 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The “Open Skies Treaty” was signed and ratified in 2002 and now has 34 members.  According to the Arms Control Association, “All of a state-party’s territory can be overflown. No territory can be declared off-limits by the host nation.” In addition, “Observation aircraft used to fly the missions must be equipped with sensors that enable the observing party to identify significant military equipment, such as artillery, fighter aircraft, and armored combat vehicles.”

President Donald Trump has notified the parties that the U.S. is withdrawing from Open Skies, effective in six months. He did not irrevocably slam the door on the treaty but, as he did with the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty and the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA, the “Iran deal”), he made clear that the U.S. would not remain a party to a treaty that does not serve American interests. “Russia didn’t adhere to the treaty. So, until they adhere, we will pull out,” he told reporters.

Amid the customary shrieking — by European countries and Democrats — that accompanies the President’s efforts to align American security policy with American interests, three things should be understood:

The Russians were cheating in their overflights of the United States
The Russians were cheating the United States in our overflights of Russian territory
Satellite technology today can easily replace airplane surveillance

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

It’s time to checkmate run-amok COVID-19 states By Carey M. Golden

Posted By on May 27th, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/05/its_time_to_checkmate_runamok_covid19_states.html

Hopefully, many of the things that lay heavy upon the nation right now will be in our collective rear-view mirror in the near future. These things include constant mention of pandemic and crisis, hourly radio reports and TV news reports of coronavirus infections and deaths, face masks, the pronouncements of “experts” like the little gnome man and the scarf lady, and ubiquitous signs and messages that implore us to stay home and stay safe (OBEY!) 

All of this is aimed at creating and reinforcing a state of fear and panic because scared people are easier to manipulate.  
     .
What will not, and must not, fade from our memory and consciousness is the stench of the actions of state governors and state officials who acted with little regard for the constitutional rights of their citizens. They imposed state-of-emergency edicts that were arbitrary, illogical, capricious, inconsistent and had little, if any, effect in controlling the virus “crisis.” It is hard to fathom why small businesses have had to close while Costco, Target, Home Depot, Lowe’s and other giant stores were allowed to stay open. Small businesses, whose owners have invested their lives and fortunes, were ordered closed in a fiat which jeopardized their very existence. These businesses were declared “non-essential,” but they are quite essential to their owners and very often their customers! The effect of thid business shut-down by state officials has been incredibly costly and as effective as medieval blood draining. The social costs haven’t even begun to be known.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Ayatollah Khamenei and the Unhinged Mind of a Religious Zealot Iran’s Supreme Leader calls for a “final solution” to Israel and the “liberation of Palestine.” Ari Lieberman

Posted By on May 27th, 2020

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/05/ayatollah-khamenei-and-unhinged-mind-religious-ari-lieberman/

This past Friday, Israelis of all backgrounds and political persuasions celebrated Jerusalem Day, which commemorates Israel’s liberation of the eastern part of the city during the Six Day War of 1967. While Israelis were celebrating and reflecting on their admirable achievements, it was an entirely different affair in the Islamic Republic of Iran where Iranian authorities organized and orchestrated anti-Israel demonstrations in commemoration of Quds Day. The hateful rallies came with all the expected banalities including the requisite burning of Israeli and American flags and effigies.

The demonstrations were accompanied by the usual over-the-top rhetoric by Iran’s so-called Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who likened Zionism to a “virus,” and Israel to a “cancerous tumor,” that must be destroyed and whose destruction is imminent. In a twitter rant, the mercurial supreme mullah leader called for a “final solution” to Israel’s existence, invoking Nazi-like genocidal language and promised that “Palestine [would] be free.”

This sort of bombast is to be expected from Iran’s virulently anti-Semitic leadership. This isn’t the first time that Khamenei referred to Israel as a “cancerous tumor,” and the employment of Nazi-like verbiage is unsurprising given that the mullah leadership frequently indulges overt Holocaust denial and sponsors Holocaust denial exhibits.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Kafkafornia Clamps Down Attorney General Becerra grabs guns, Gov. Newsom deploys “trace force” of 20,000. Lloyd Billingsley

Posted By on May 27th, 2020

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/05/kafkafornia-clamps-down-lloyd-billingsley/

“Gun violence is the last thing our communities and children should have to fear during a public health crisis. Background checks can save lives and DOJ’s firearms operations help make that happen. At the California Department of Justice, we’ll keep doing our part to keep firearms out of the hands of violent and dangerous individuals.”

That was California attorney general Xavier Becerra last week, but his announcement failed to cite any example of actual “gun violence.” The former congressman, once on Hillary Clinton’s short list as a running mate, was hailing raids that confiscated firearms from people who had committed no crime.

According to the Sacramento Bee, the state DOJ mounted “a dozen operations to confiscate firearms and ammunition possessed by owners who failed background checks.” This is the background check California requires for all purchases of ammunition. Failing this particular check is not the same as committing a crime.

From last July 1, when the program kicked in, until December, 2019, the state ran 345,000 background checks and rejected a full 62,000 Californians legally entitled to purchase ammunition. The 62,000 included off-duty sheriff’s deputies purchasing shotgun shells to hunt ducks. Database discrepancies meant the 62,000 had somehow “failed” a background check, implying malfeasance. The law-abiding gun owners then became “prohibited persons,” barred from purchasing ammunition and exercising their Second Amendment rights. 

Attorney Ari Freilich of the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, told reporters that dangerous people were “committing a serious crime trying to acquire a product designed to take human life,” and that the background check system was working as intended. The outright confiscation of firearms in April, 2020, confirms that this is the case.

BOOKS Comments turned off

A Man in Full Dan Crenshaw’s inspiring story. Bruce Bawer

Posted By on May 27th, 2020

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/05/man-full-bruce-bawer/

I guess I became aware of Dan Crenshaw, the freshman congressman from Texas, when most other Americans did. Three days before the 2018 election, Saturday Night Live aired a “Weekend Update” segment on which cast member Pete Davidson mocked a few House candidates. Among them was Crenshaw, whom Davidson described as looking “like a hitman in a porno” – the purported joke being that Crenshaw wears an eyepatch. Davidson tagged his jest by saying: “I’m sorry, I know he lost his eye in a war…or whatever.” 

Indeed, Crenshaw was a Navy SEAL in Afghanistan, where, on June 15, 2012, a Taliban bomb severely damaged both of his eyes. Although doctors expected him to be totally blind, surgeons at Walter Reed managed – miraculously – to save his left eye.

Davidson’s tin-eared dig at Crenshaw made headlines around the world – that’s why I heard about it (I haven’t watched SNL in years) – and sparked outrage. There were calls for him to be fired. But Crenshaw didn’t join in the pile-on. Instead, on the following Saturday, after he’d won his election, Crenshaw appeared on SNL, graciously accepted an apology from Davidson, and read a few gags at Davidson’s expense.

That display of class and good humor was impressive. During the year and a half since, Crenshaw has become a familiar face on cable news, and he’s been consistently impressive there, too – articulate, unflappable, and very, very smart. Hence I expected Crenshaw’s new book, Fortitude: American Resilience in the Era of Outrage to be a worthwhile read.

POLITICS Comments turned off

Dem Economist Predicts Most Explosive Recovery Ever. Democrats Predictably Horrified By Megan Fox

Posted By on May 27th, 2020

https://pjmedia.com/election/megan-fox/2020/05/26/dem-economist-predicts-most-explosive-recovery-ever-democrats-predictably-horrified-n428514

Democrats have finally admitted that economic recovery for the American people means defeat for them. They would rather watch us suffer so they can beat Donald Trump. Politico published an article called “The General Election Scenario That Democrats Are Dreading,” which confirms what we’ve all been suspecting: the longer the lockdown continues and Americans are out of work, the happier Democrats are.

What kind of people root for economic ruin over recovery? Democrats.

Jason Furman, a Harvard professor and economist who worked for Barack Obama, gave a presentation in April to a group of bipartisan officials about the coming economic recovery. Democrats on the call were reportedly terrified.

“We are about to see the best economic data we’ve seen in the history of this country,” he said.

The former cabinet secretaries and Federal Reserve chairs in the Zoom boxes were confused, though some of the Republicans may have been newly relieved and some of the Democrats suddenly concerned.

“Everyone looked puzzled and thought I had misspoken,” Furman said in an interview. Instead of forecasting a prolonged depression-level economic catastrophe, Furman laid out a detailed case for why the months preceding the November election could offer Trump the chance to brag — truthfully — about the most explosive monthly employment numbers and GDP growth ever.

MEDIA Comments turned off

The New York Times Continues to Pollute What Used to Be Journalism By Stephen Kruiser

Posted By on May 27th, 2020

https://pjmedia.com/columns/stephen-kruiser/2020/05/26/the-new-york-times-continues-to-pollute-what-used-to-be-journalism-n430112

The Once Mighty Times Is a National Embarrassment

The New York Times is, for better or worse, still the newspaper of record in the United States. That title obviously doesn’t carry the prestige that it once did. The Times has basically won a war of attrition as the newspaper industry across the land continues to fade into irrelevance. If it hadn’t already had such a prominent position in American news consumption, it would be on the verge of disappearing soon too.

The Times just had a particularly offensive Memorial Day Weekend, and I say that as someone who is so used to their biased nonsense that I try not to let it bother me any more.

First — and this may have only offended me — the editorial brain trust at the paper decided to do a gimmicky front page on Sunday that listed the names of Americans  who died from COVID-19. Of course I believe these people should be mourned. What bothered me is that there is a very, very specific group of fallen Americans who we are supposed to remember on Memorial Day Weekend and I found the timing of this to be exceedingly off-putting.

The Times Never Commits Accidental Bias

The timing of the above example was undoubtedly deliberate and intended to deflect from duly honoring our war dead. That was a slight. What the editorial board did to kick off the weekend intended to honor our military dead was egregiously offensive and un-American.