WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

China and Russia—With Help from Biden—Attack the Dollar by Gordon G. Chang

Posted By on August 11th, 2022

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18787/china-russia-attack-dollar

Russia and China have launched another attempt to develop a “new global reserve currency.” In other words, they are again attacking the dollar.

There is only one country that can dethrone the dollar, and it is not a BRICS nation. It is the United States. President Joe Biden is China’s and Russia’s biggest ally in “dedollarizing” the world.

Russia’s ruble, although showing surprising strength of late, is tied to a country in long-term—and seemingly irreversible—decline. Moreover, the Russian Federation, thanks to its aggression and barbarism in Ukraine, is cementing its role as a pariah.

Who wants to hold a weak Chinese currency that is racing toward the edge of the cliff?

Furthermore, Xi Jinping, the Chinese ruler, believes in “absolute” control of every aspect of society. The idea of free convertibility, therefore, is almost certainly anathema to him. So until China completely abandons its model of economic development and removes Xi as ruler, the renminbi cannot dethrone the dollar. The Chinese failure to make their currency widely acceptable means, as a practical matter, the BRICS currency will never get off the ground.

What are the attributes of a global reserve currency? It must be stable, it must be underpinned by a large and strong economy, it must be freely convertible, and it must be used widely.

Americans should not remain overconfident. The only reason the greenback is still the world’s reserve currency is because there is no practical alternative. China and Russia, however, are busy trying to figure out how to engineer a replacement.

“The issue of creating an international reserve currency based on a basket of currencies of our countries is being worked out,” said Vladimir Putin in June, at a meeting of the BRICS—Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa—grouping.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Soldiers for the Gender Revolution Left-wing activists have smuggled radical gender theory into more than 4,000 schools. Christopher F. Rufo

Posted By on August 11th, 2022

https://www.city-journal.org/gsa-clubs-smuggle-gender-ideology-into-k-12-education

Radical gender theory has made sudden inroads in America’s schools. Many parents have watched in confusion as their children repeat the movement’s slogans and adopt synthetic sexual identities such as “non-binary,” “pansexual,” and “genderqueer.” The next question for many families is: Where does this surge in left-wing sexual ideology come from? One answer: from a network of professional activists, who have smuggled university-style gender theory into more than 4,000 schools under the cover of “gender and sexuality” clubs, or GSAs.

The main national organization behind this campaign, the GSA Network, is a professionally staffed nonprofit with a multimillion-dollar annual budget. GSA Network serves as an umbrella organization for more than 4,000 “gender and sexuality alliances” across 40 states. Once called the Gay-Straight Alliance Network, the group rebranded in 2016, reflecting a new focus on “the limits of a binary gender system.” The individual chapters, which operate in elementary, middle, and high schools, often use the language of “LGBTQ inclusion” and “anti-bullying” in their public relations, but behind the scenes, the central organization is driven by pure left-wing radicalism that extends far beyond sexuality.

According to the organization’s publicly accessible materials and administrative documents, the GSA Network’s ideology follows the basic framework of radical gender theory: white European men created an oppressive system based on capitalism, white supremacy, and “heteronormativity”—that is, the promotion of heterosexuality, the male-female binary, and bourgeois family norms. In order to fight back, racial and sexual minorities must unite under the banner of “intersectionality” and dismantle the interlocking “systems of oppression.”

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Israel’s war on Gaza-based Palestinian terrorists – a wake up call Ambassador (Ret.) Yoram Ettinger

Posted By on August 11th, 2022

https://bit.ly/3p5Y7DV

The August 2022 Israeli war on Gaza-based Palestinian terrorists serves as a wake up call for Israeli and Western policy makers and public opinion molders, who are determined to observe/assess the volcanic and treacherous Middle East through the accommodating and relatively-peaceful Western lenses.

For example:

*The August 2022 war on Palestinian terrorism is a wake up call to the Israeli and Western “Palestine-Firsters.” Once again, Arab countries showered the Palestinians with an embracing-talk, but refrained from a supportive walk, militarily, financially or politically. Hence, the 2022 Arab walk was consistent with the Arab conduct during all previous military clashes between Israel and Palestinian terrorism: the First and Second Intifada of 1987-1993 and 2000-2005, the 1982-85 war against the PLO in Lebanon, and the four wars against the Gaza-based Hamas terrorists in 2008-9, 2012, 2014 and 2021.

*During the last few days, I participated in several TV panel-discussions with experts from Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. All of them concurred with my perspective on the non-centrality of the Palestinian issue in Middle East affairs, displaying indifference or hostility toward the Palestinians. They echoed the Arab image of Palestinians as a role-model of intra-Arab subversion, terrorism and ingratitude, as documented by the Palestinian intra-Arab track record.  

*In contrast to Western conventional wisdom, Arab policy makers are convinced that the proposed Palestinian state would be a pro-Iran, pro-Russia and pro-China rogue/terrorist entity, fueling domestic and regional turbulence, and intensifying the existing threats to the survival of every pro-US Arab regime.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Climate Change: The Latest Excuse for Slaughtering Christians by Raymond Ibrahim

Posted By on August 10th, 2022

  https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18781/climate-change-excuse-slaughter

“And it is striking how quickly politicians and commentators trot out the same discredited banal narrative that the drivers for such carnage are climate change and lack of resources. They say that the causes are ‘complicated,’ with hardly a mention of the Jihadist ideology that is behind the endless atrocities of ISIS and Boko Haram. And then they say that everyone [Christian and Muslim] suffers and there is a sort of equivalence with victims coming from varied religious backgrounds. They should tell that to the families whose loved ones are targeted, day in and day out, and see what sort of response they receive.” — Lord Alton of Liverpool, June12, 2022.

“[T]he shocking murders in a church in #Nigeria are attributable to Ideology, Insecurity and Impunity – along with indifference by the Buhari Government. Nor can climate change be blamed for executions, abductions and murders.” — Lord Alton, Twitter, June 6, 2022.

“[P]oliticians need to be more honest about what drives the carnage.” — Lord Alton, June 12, 2022.

Politicians have found a new straw man: climate change. There are certainly many things we can gradually do not to pollute or wreck our planet, but blaming it for the pervasive slaughter of Christians by Muslims in northern Africa is not one of them. It seems, sadly, that what drives the persecution of Christians there, and elsewhere, is doctrine, not climate change.

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

And Berger got a $50K fine for stealing classified intel? By Jack Cashill

Posted By on August 10th, 2022

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/08/and_berger_got_a_50k_fine_for_stealing_classified_intel.html

To understand how deep the corruption is at the Department of Justice, and not just at the top, all one needs to do is compare the treatment of former Clinton National Security Advisor Sandy Berger and former President Donald Trump.

Whatever concoction the DOJ serves up to frame Trump, it will not match what Berger actually confessed to doing.

In April 2002, former President Bill Clinton designated Berger as his representative to review intelligence documents in advance of the various hearings on 9/11. As a 2007 report by the House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform made clear, Berger did not exactly welcome this assignment. The archivists told the House committee, in fact, that Berger “indicated some disgust with the burden and responsibility of conducting the document review.”

To fulfill his obligation to the Clintons, however, Berger was prepared to sacrifice his reputation and very nearly his freedom. According to the House report, Berger made four trips to the National Archives. He did so presumably to refresh his memory before testifying first to the Graham-Goss congressional committee and then to the 9/11 Commission. He made his first visit in May 2002, his last in October 2003.

During at least three of those visits, he stole and destroyed an incalculable number of documents. “The full extent of Berger’s document removal,” said the House report, “is not known and never can be known.”

ANTI-SEMITISM, EDUCATION Comments turned off

Jews at CUNY Call for the Destruction of Israel Using the ‘as a Jew’ accusation against the Jewish State. Richard L. Cravatts

Posted By on August 10th, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/08/jews-calling-destruction-israel-cuny-richard-l-cravatts/

“Unfortunately, it is easy on university campuses, even for Jews, to demonize Israel and even call for its destruction, and certainly it requires no bravery in academia, where moral narcissists console each other in an echo chamber of good intentions and virtue-signaling, willing to sacrifice academic integrity, actual reasoned debate, and the safety and viability of the Jewish state in the process.”

As if further confirmation were needed to designate the CUNY system as an egregious purveyor of anti-Israel activism—often replete with anti-Semitic expression—the university is being made to answer for its failure to protect Jewish students and faculty with a new Title VI complaint filed on July 19th by The American Center for Law and Justice.

The complaint, sent to Catherine E. Lhamon, Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education, contended that “CUNY has become a hotbed for discrimination and antisemitism” and demanded an investigation into “the discriminatory exclusion and harassment that takes place in the CUNY system, and the administration’s failure to do anything concrete to address the issue . . . in what appears to be a systemic and intentional refusal to confront antisemitism and protect the rights of Jewish students and faculty.”

The lawsuit documents anti-Israel, anti-Semitic incidents as far back as 2013 and includes the latest examples of CUNY’s systemic animosity to Israel, Zionism, and, seemingly, Jews. “Just a day after the faculty endorsed BDS,” in 2022, the complaint read, “CUNY Law honored graduation speaker Nerdeen Kiswani—the very same woman who has, among other things openly condoned violence against and the killing of Zionists . . ; glorified intifada and called for its globalization; honored leaders of a terrorist group; and called for ‘Zionist professors’ and ‘Zionist students’ to be removed from CUNY campuses.”

HOMELAND SECURITY, IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Biden’s Handlers Released 324 Unvetted Afghan Evacuees on Terror Watchlist Into the U.S. It’s all going according to plan. Robert Spencer

Posted By on August 10th, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/08/bidens-handlers-released-324-unvetted-robert-spencer/

Biden’s catastrophically botched withdrawal from Afghanistan was bad enough in itself, diminishing America’s standing in the world and projecting an image of weakness that has encouraged and emboldened enemies of our nation worldwide. The fallout from it, however, could be incalculably worse. A Defense Department (DoD) whistleblower has revealed that 324 of the Afghans whom U.S. forces brought to the United States as the disaster in Afghanistan was unfolding appeared on the department’s Biometrically Enabled Watchlist (BEWL), which includes terrorists, and yet were admitted into the country without being vetted. No one who has been watching the spreading dumpster fire that is the Biden administration could possibly be surprised.

Senators Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) and Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) have called upon the DoD to investigate. On Thursday, they wrote to DoD Acting Inspector General Sean O’Donnell about their “concern over new allegations raised by a Department of Defense (DoD) whistleblower. This information may show the Biden Administration’s failure to vet those evacuated from Afghanistan was even worse than the public was led to believe. The following allegations demand an immediate investigation by your office.” There should indeed be an investigation, but in these days of the hyper-politicization of everything and concomitant wokeification of the government bureaucracy, a genuinely illuminating investigation is about as likely to happen as Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis getting the Democrat nomination for president in 2024.  

MEDICINE AND HEALTH Comments turned off

Monkey Business on Monkeypox That such a bizarre illness could provoke such risible rhetorical and mental gymnastics by our elite institutions to stick to the narrative proves how successful its crafters have been. By Casey Chalk

Posted By on August 10th, 2022

https://amgreatness.com/2022/08/09/monkey-business-on-monkeypox/

Monkeypox has America’s public health establishment in a bit of an awkward spot. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra last Thursday labeled monkeypox a public health emergency. “We’re prepared to take our response to the next level in addressing this virus, and we urge every American to take monkeypox seriously and to take responsibility to help us tackle this virus,” he said. 

Sounds, well, serious. But in reality, monkeypox so far has not proven to be a virus that can strike anyone at any time. Since May 18, the United States has confirmed just over 7,100 monkeypox cases, with the vast majority of those cases occuring among men who have sex with men. There are only about 10 known pediatric cases globally. 

Compounding the confused messaging is the tenor of the public awareness campaign. In late July, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of World Health Organization, suggested that homosexual men might consider “for the moment, reducing your number of sexual partners, reconsidering sex with new partners.” The CDC on Friday similarly updated its guidance regarding monkeypox, suggesting to gay men: “Limit your number of sex partners to reduce your likelihood of exposure.” It also warned that, “spaces like back rooms, saunas, sex clubs, or private and public sex parties . . . are more likely to spread monkeypox.” 

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Mar-a-Lago Raid is a Preview of a Rigged 2024 Election The Democrats will prosecute their way to victory. Daniel Greenfield

Posted By on August 10th, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/08/mar-lago-raid-preview-rigged-2024-election-daniel-greenfield/

On Thursday, FBI Director Christopher Wray cut short his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee to fly the FBI’s private jet to his family’s vacation home. At the hearing, Wray had admitted that disciplinary action against FBI personnel involved in Russiagate abuses had been “slowed down” and refused to call Russiagate a “hoax”.

On Monday, President Trump revealed that Mar-a-Lago had been raided by “a large group of FBI agents”. Any warrant for such a raid would have been signed off on by Attorney General Merrick Garland and his associates in the Biden administration which expects to face the former president in the next election. Wray, who quietly listened to complaints about the politicization of the FBI from Senator Grassley and Cruz, among others, would have known what was coming.

The New York Times reported that, “according to two people familiar with the investigation, appeared to be focused on material that Mr. Trump had brought with him to Mar-a-Lago, his private club and residence, after he left the White House.”

Back in May, the paper revealed that a federal grand jury investigation had been convened over boxes of “government documents, mementos, gifts and letters” taken to Mar-a-Lago. There was no federal investigation when the Clintons left the White House with $190,000 worth of “china, flatware, rugs, televisions, sofas and other gifts”. The FBI didn’t come knocking at Chappaqua.

This isn’t about the documents. Just as Russiagate was not about the Russians. It’s not about the 15 boxes of documents, letters and assorted presidential records and gifts that were hurriedly packed up and sent off to Mar-a-Lago, most of which were later returned when the National Archives requested them, this is about the 2024 presidential election.

The assorted Trump investigations were not motivated by concerns about national security, political norms and they’re certainly not driven by sudden worries about mishandling classified documents. And yet the same media which spent years explaining why mishandling classified documents was no big deal when the Clintons did it will explain why it’s a big deal now.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Islamic Suspect Arrested in Killings of Fellow Muslims in New Mexico By Diana Glebova

Posted By on August 10th, 2022

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/suspect-arrested-in-killings-of-fellow-muslims-in-new-mexico/

Police identified a suspect on Monday believed to be responsible for murdering several Muslim men in the past few months in Albuquerque, N.M. The suspect, also a Muslim man, was identified as 51-year-old Muhammad Syed and was taken into custody Monday night, according to the Albuquerque Journal.

He was charged with the murder of Aftab Hussein and Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, and police believe two other murders may be connected to the string of homicides.

Hussein was found shot to death in the parking lot of his apartment building on July 26, and Hussain was shot and killed outside his apartment on August 1.

Police say evidence indicates that Syed knew the victims “to some extent,” and that there could’ve been a conflict before the shootings, according to the outlet.