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Iran Plays Hide-And-Seek with the IAEA Will we ever find out what is going on at the new plant in Isfahan? Hugh Fitzgerald

Posted By on April 13th, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/04/iran-plays-hide-and-seek-iaea-hugh-fitzgerald/

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is the body responsible for monitoring and inspecting Iran’s nuclear program. Iran has in the past has kept hidden from the IAEA certain sites, of whose existence the agency became aware only after the Mossad managed to locate and bring to the West in 2018 Iran’s entire nuclear archive, which provided the evidence of those top-secret well-hidden sites. But even where the IAEA knew of the existence of sites where Iran’s nuclear program was proceeding, its inspection teams were in some cases required to give Iran a long lead time of warning before going to a particular site, which allowed Iran to remove any incriminating evidence of activities it was not permitted to engage in, including the enrichment of uranium to a level of 60%, just below weapons grade. And Iran continues to keep certain sites off-limits to the IAEA inspectors altogether, like the facilities built deep inside the mountain at Fordow, or underground at Natanz.

This past December, after months of wrangling, the IAEA was at long last allowed to inspect the site at Karaj, where Iran had a workshop that made centrifuge parts. It seemed like a clear victory for the IAEA, but it was short-lived. For now Iran has moved all of its machines out of Karaj to its site at Natanz (it’s not clear if it is an aboveground, or underground, facility). In addition, Iran has set up a another site in Isfahan, where it will also produce parts for advanced centrifuges. A report on these sites, and Iran’s managing to play hide-and-seek with the IAEA, is here: “Iran moves equipment for making centrifuge parts to Natanz – IAEA,” Reuters, April 6, 2022:

Iran has moved all its machines that make centrifuge parts from its mothballed workshop at Karaj to its sprawling Natanz site just six weeks after it set up another site at Isfahan to make the same parts, the UN nuclear watchdog said on Wednesday.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

NYC Setting New Record In Antisemitic Crimes Daniel Greenfield

Posted By on April 13th, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2022/04/nyc-setting-new-record-antisemitic-crimes-daniel-greenfield/

Crime is up in general. With Democrats eliminating bail and diverting criminals to all sorts of non-penal programs, thugs have nothing to fear and they can get arrested, be out again, and then arrested again. This has obvious consequences for a range of crimes, including antisemitic attacks which, in New York City, tend to be the work of a criminal or aspirational criminal population of the kind that Democrats have labored to shield from the penal system.

The NYPD says there were 86 anti-Jewish hate crimes in the city in the first three months of this year. At this rate, annual totals would far exceed the 242 reported in 2019 – itself a record before the number dropped during the COVID lockdown.

I don’t doubt that the numbers will keep on rising, beyond the general increase in crime, our society is only becoming more broken. 

In an incident that took place on a Saturday evening earlier this month, which is the end of the Jewish Sabbath, teens armed with a sword threatened and made anti-Semitic remarks to six yarmulke-wearing boys on the Upper West Side, according to the NYPD 

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Disbarring Trump’s Lawyers David Brock wants them to pay the price for representing someone he hates. Matthew Vadum

Posted By on April 13th, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/04/disbarring-trumps-lawyers-matthew-vadum/

Left-wing character assassin and inveterate liar David Brock has created yet another cancel-culture group, this time aimed at punishing lawyers who dared to defend the Trump campaign in post-election litigation or challenged the 2020 presidential election results.

In other words, the Left is now in the business of crushing lawyers for trying to do their job as lawyers. The fact that these attorneys lost in court, and in some cases were sanctioned by judges, isn’t enough for Brock – he and his comrades want their blood because they tried to help Donald Trump.

The stated goal of The 65 Project, a so-called dark money group, is to spend millions of dollars to disbar 111 pro-Trump lawyers in 26 states, ruin their lives, and make them homeless for participating in election lawsuits that courts rejected. The group has already initiated bar complaints and reportedly intends to lobby the American Bar Association and state bar associations for new rules forbidding certain kinds of  election challenges and to adopt model language stipulating that “fraudulent and malicious lawsuits to overturn legitimate election results violate the ethical duties lawyers must abide by.”

The new group aspires to frighten conservative legal talent away from any future Republican efforts to challenge elections, such as this year’s midterms, and 2024. Democrat consultant Melissa Moss, a veteran of the Clinton administration reportedly came up with the idea.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Poll: 68 Percent of Americans Less Likely to Do Business with Disney over Sexualized Content By Brittany Bernstein

Posted By on April 13th, 2022

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/poll-68-percent-of-americans-less-likely-to-do-business-with-disney-over-sexualized-content/

More than 68 percent of general-election voters say they are less likely to do business with Disney after reports that it plans to include sexual ideology in new content for children, a new poll found.

The Trafalgar Group’s new National Issues Survey on Disney, which was sponsored by the Convention of States Action, found that more than 69 percent of respondents said they were likely to support “family-friendly alternatives” to Disney. 

The survey comes after an executive producer admitted to advancing a “not-at-all-secret gay agenda” to insert queerness into children’s animation during a Disney staff meeting on Florida’s Parental Rights in Education legislation last month.

“Our leadership over there has been so welcoming to my, like, not-at-all-secret gay agenda,” said Latoya Raveneau, an executive producer for Disney Television in a video obtained by journalist Christopher Rufo. “I was just, wherever I could, just basically adding queerness. . . . No one would stop me and no one was trying to stop me.”

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Another Intifada? Why are you surprised? This is what happens when the canard of “settler violence” is promoted, instead of exposing violence against Jews. And much more Moshe Dann

Posted By on April 13th, 2022

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/325726

The Arabs have been planning this ever since the last one, 20 years ago.

This is what Arafat envisioned when he formed the PLO in 1964, and used (via the Oslo Accords) to implement his goal of destroying Israel.

This is what happens when the PLO Covenant and Hamas Charter, which call for Israel’s destruction, and promote incitement against Israel, are ignored.

This is what happens when the PA has a “pay-for-slay” program that sends money to families of terrorists who were ‘killed-in-action,’ and glorifies them.

This is what happens when children in schools run by the PA/PLO and UNRWA are taught to hate Jews and Israel.

This is what happens when Jews were expelled from the Gaza Strip, which enabled Hamas to occupy it; similarly, destroying “hilltop” Jewish communities and preventing Jews from building in Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem is an anti-Zionist message of surrender.

This is what happens when Hamas, Jihadists and Islamists are empowered, especially by the news media that won’t even call them terrorists.

MEDICINE AND HEALTH Comments turned off

America’s Reliance on China for Pharmaceuticals Could Result in Ukraine Like Shortages David Gortler and Henry I. Miller

Posted By on April 13th, 2022

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/04/12/americas-reliance-on-china-for-pharmaceuticals-could-result-in-ukraine-like-drug-shortages/

Immediately following Russia’s unprovoked invasion, hospitals and pharmacies across Ukraine witnessed a severe interruption in the drug supply chain. Pharmacies were looted and shelves were quickly emptied with no replenishment in sight. In just a few days, the profound benefits of a century’s worth of modern pharmaceutical development were nullified, with lifesaving drugs for heart disease, high blood pressure, infections, diabetes, cancer, and innumerable other conditions suddenly unavailable. 

Americans who think that such shortages could never happen here should think again. In fact, we are already experiencing them. University of Chicago researchers in 2018 surveyed 719 pharmacists at large and small hospitals across the country and found that all of them reported experiencing at least one drug shortage over the previous year, and 69% had experienced at least 50 shortages in that time. The majority were generic injectable pharmaceuticals commonly used in hospitals, including analgesics, cancer drugs, anesthetics, antipsychotics for psychiatric emergencies, and electrolyte solutions needed for patients on IV supplementation. According to the Food and Drug Administration, there are currently shortages of 120 drugs, many of them commonly used and critically important.

One of the reasons is that we, like Ukraine, are at the mercy of foreign sources for our pharmaceutical supply. China has become the world’s largest producer and exporter of the essential “active pharmaceutical ingredients” (APIs) used in the manufacture of drugs in many countries, including the United States. According to the World Health Organization, 36% of pharmaceutical manufacturing plants are government owned, and that figure roughly doubles when calculated on facility square footage rather than facility numbers. Even India, a dominant manufacturer of generic drugs, is dependent on China for its APIs.  

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

GOOGLE JUST DECLARED WAR ON THE MOST ACCURATE POLLSTER IN AMERICA

Posted By on April 13th, 2022

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/04/13/google-just-declared-war-on-the-most-accurate-pollster-in-america-and-on-most-americans/

In March, we reported on the results of our monthly I&I/TIPP Poll, which found that nearly two-thirds of registered voters thought decisions about COVID restrictions were driven by politics, not science. Majorities in just about every demographic, political, and ideological group felt this way.

Nevertheless, Google’s AdSense network stripped its ads from this article because it contains what Google claims is “dangerous or derogatory content” and that we must “fix it” for Google to restore those ads.

Here’s Google’s definition of “dangerous and derogatory content,” copied directly from its AdSense policy page:

We requested that Google review its decision, and on April 10 it informed us that “our review request was rejected.”

Take a look at the story and judge for yourself whether any reasonable human being would say this article meets that definition.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Frank R. James ID’d as person of interest in Brooklyn subway shooting, made threatening online rants By Jorge Fitz-Gibbon, Jesse O’Neill and Craig McCarthy

Posted By on April 13th, 2022

https://nypost.com/2022/04/12/frank-r-james-idd-as-person-of-interest-in-brooklyn-subway-shooting/

A troubled man who railed against Mayor Adams and made bizarre threatening rants on YouTube has been identified as a person of interest in the savage Brooklyn subway attack that injured at least 23 people Tuesday morning, officials said.

Frank James — who warned last month that he was “entering the danger zone” — rented a U-Haul van tied to the N train attack in Sunset Park and is being sought for questioning, police said at an evening briefing.

“Mr. Mayor, I’m a victim of your mental health program,” James said in one lengthy video.

“I’m 63 now full of hate, full of anger, and full of bitterness.”

He also criticized the mayor for not doing more to combat homelessness.

“Eric Adams, Eric Adams: What are you doing brother? What’s happening with this homeless situation,” he said while referring to the subway. “Every car I went to was loaded with homeless people. It was so bad I couldn’t even stand. I had to keep moving from car to car.”

The NYPD said they were increasing security for Mayor Adams after police discovered the videos.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Democrats’ Bidenflation disaster by Byron York

Posted By on April 13th, 2022

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/democrats-bidenflation-disaster

You’ve seen the news — the government says inflation rose 8.5% in March compared to last year. That is up from the annual inflation rate last month, which was 7.9%. Both are the worst since 1981.

There are a lot of stories behind the big number. Inflation is up in every area of the economy. But the worst news concerns some very fundamental human activities: eating, finding warmth and shelter, and moving around. Look deep into the website at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and you’ll see how bad inflation is in those basic areas.

Start with the price of food. You’ve been to the grocery store. You know it is bad. Now, BLS says the price of meat, poultry, fish, and eggs rose 13.7% annually. The price of cereal and bakery products rose 9.4%. Fruits and vegetables, 8.5%. Nonalcoholic beverages, 8%. Dairy, 7%. And other foods that don’t fit into those categories, 10.3%. All of that adds up to the category of “Food at Home,” which BLS says went up 10% in March over last year.

Want to go out to eat? BLS says prices of full-service meals went up 8% in March, while limited-service meals went up 7.2%. There is simply no way to eat, at home or out, without paying more.

Move on to the subject of staying warm. It is hard to believe, but BLS reports the price of fuel oil is up 70.1% in March over last year. 70.1%! Then there is the price of what BLS refers to as “shelter,” which increased 5%. (What does the BLS mean by “shelter”? Here is its definition: “The cost of shelter for renter-occupied housing is rent. For an owner-occupied unit, the cost of shelter is the implicit rent that owner-occupant would have to pay if they were renting their homes.”)

BOOKS Comments turned off

The View from the Cocoon One has to wonder what kind of Beltway cocoon Continetti inhabits.  By Paul Gottfried

Posted By on April 12th, 2022

https://amgreatness.com/2022/04/11/the-view-from-the-cocoon/

A review of The Right: The Hundred-Year War for American Conservatism, by Matthew Continetti (Basic Books, 496 pages, $32)

Sometimes one begins a book with such low expectations that one is delighted to find the printed material is not quite as bad as what one expected. This is precisely my impression of Matthew Continetti’s much touted monograph, The Right: The Hundred-Year War for American Conservatism. As someone who holds the honor of being Bill Kristol’s son-in-law (and who holds his father-in-law’s vacated place at Fox News), and a prominent NeverTrumper to boot, Continetti is hardly an unbiased interpreter of conservatism. A revealing passage from his book tells us clearly where on the ideological divide he stands: “The one hundred years war for the Right is to conceive of it as a battle between the forces of extremism and the conservatives who understood that mainstream acceptance of their ideas was the prerequisite for electoral success and lasting reform.” 

As the world’s most notorious critic of misused political taxonomies, I shall allow myself to quibble about Continetti’s eccentric use of the term “Right.” For him and his well-connected friends, the designation mostly serves as a synonym for “Republican.” There are two groups on his telling, both located in the GOP, that are fighting to be the true face of the Right, but only one passes muster as “non-extreme.” This is where I start to part ways. Today, I would argue, the populist Right is the true American Right because it alone is fighting the cultural Left and its allies in the deep state, media, and educational establishment. I have no idea what makes its neocon and Republican establishment adversaries any kind of Right, since on most domestic social issues and certainly on foreign policy, this group happily cooperates with leftist power elites.

In explaining how the current populist Right came along, Continetti stresses the divisive character of the Iraq War and the failure of the George W. Bush Administration to carry along all self-identified conservatives. That prolonged struggle “delegitimized the conservative movement in the eyes of populist independents, conservative Democrats, and disaffected voters crucial to past GOP victories.” This observation is entirely correct. Bush’s invasion unleashed acrimonious debate at home, and a populist Right was able to consolidate itself by standing in opposition to a course of action heavily endorsed by neoconservative journalists and policy advisers. But cultural and moral issues, often intertwined with economic ones, soon became the sustaining themes of the populist revival, which has taken cultural wars and the plight of the working class more seriously than neocons and establishment Republicans have done.