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February 2020

The Necessary (Temporary) Democratic Party Suicide The Democrats and the United States need a Sanders candidacy, so the existing party can be completely defeated, humiliated, and rebirthed. Conrad Black

https://amgreatness.com/2020/02/27/the-necessary-temporary-democratic-party-suicide/

The “Gong Show” of a Democratic presidential primary debate Tuesday night just made it clear how desperately this intellectually bankrupt rag-tag team of harpies and hustlers truly is. They are the heirs of the Clinton-Obama place men who mismanaged America, corrupted the Justice Department and the intelligence services, and created such a scarcity of serious candidates for the presidency.

The former mayor of New York City announced he was seeking the nomination because the 20 declared candidates were inadequate. He was correct—but so, on the face of things, is he inadequate. The debate in Charleston on Tuesday was like a scene from Lord of the Flies as a disorderly, screechy group of misbehaving superannuated juveniles spoke and shouted over each other, waving their arms in the air and exchanging epithets. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), her hopes withered by her mendacity, robotic uniforms, and humorless righteousness, is reduced to hurling vitriol at Mike Bloomberg.

Bloomberg was more responsive than in his first debate, but still exuded a presumption that everyone in America is enviously fixated on the Big Apple, and his attempts at humor bombed somewhat embarrassingly. It is hard to believe that more than $400 million has already been spent trying to promote the idea that this is the redeemer of Trump’s (increasingly well-satisfied) America.

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), finally targeted as the frontrunner, was querulous and belligerent, shouting back at the audience and more demonstrative and short-tempered than ever. He is almost majestic, barricading himself into his praise of Fidel Castro and not budging an inch on the authoritarian extravagance of his compulsory medical care plan that would sweep away the satisfactory arrangements that 180 million Americans have already made with their physicians of choice.

It is the majesty of a persevering and cranky old man, but it is also acoustically irritating nonsense and anyone who imagines that the American electorate is going to put this raving, neo-Marxist, charmless, cantankerous old dervish into the White House is in the same fantasyland as the candidates.

The Academic Blacklist Climate Alarmists Don’t Want You To Know About J. Frank Bullitt

https://issuesinsights.com/2020/02/28/the-academic-blacklist-climate-alarmists-dont-want-you-to-know-about/

The global warming faithful are always quick with the talking points about a “scientific consensus” that doesn’t exist, and the tale that 97% of scientists say man is causing the planet to overheat. But we’ll never hear them discuss publicly how researchers who don’t agree with the narrative have been blacklisted.

What are they afraid of?

Of course the climate alarmists will never admit such a list even exists. But Roger Pielke Jr., who teaches science, environment, and technology policy at the University of Colorado, says it does.

“A climate advocacy group called Skeptical Science hosts a list of academics that it has labeled ‘climate misinformers,’” Pielke recently wrote in Forbes. “The list includes 17 academics and is intended as a blacklist.” 

Pielke says we know this through a Skeptical Science blogger “named Dana Nuccitelli.” According to Pielke, Nuccitelli believes that Judith Curry should be “unhirable in academia” based on her statements about global warming.

Nuccitelli tweeted that “Curry’s words, as documented … are what make her ‘unhirable.’” Both the blog and Nuccitelli of course deny there’s a blacklist.

The “unhirable” Curry is no crank. She is the former chair of Georgia Tech’s School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, and is a fellow of both the American Geophysical Union and American Meteorological Society. She stepped down from her position at Georgia Tech at the insistence of an administrator, she told Pielke. The Earth and Atmospheric Sciences dean had heard from “several activist climate scientists who had a very direct pipeline to” the dean’s office, and had expressed their “extreme displeasure” over Curry’s presence at the school, she said.

Greece’s Migrant Crisis: “A Powder Keg Ready to Explode” by Soeren Kern

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15649/greece-migrant-crisis

“People have seen their properties destroyed, their sheep and goats have been slaughtered, their homes broken into. A few years back, when there were 5,000 migrants on the island, things seemed bad enough. Now there’s a sense that the situation has really got out of hand.” — Nikos Trakellis, community leader in Moria, on the Greek island of Lesbos.

“I fear for the safety of our people, the residents of Lesbos. For the situation to change, many refugees have to be transferred to the mainland and new arrivals from Turkey must be stopped. If not, we are doomed.” — North Aegean Regional Governor Kostas Moutzouris.

“Welcome in Greece are only those we choose. Those who are not welcome will be returned. We will permanently shut the door to illegal human traffickers, to those who want to enter even though they are not entitled to asylum.” — Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

Greek officials have said that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan personally controls the migration flows to Greece and turns them on and off to extract more money and other political concessions from the European Union.

Turkey, which currently hosts nearly four million Syrian refugees, has said it cannot handle a new influx. It has repeatedly threatened to re-open the floodgates of mass migration to Europe.

A plan by the Greek government to build new migrant camps on five Aegean islands has sparked violent opposition from local residents, who fear that the facilities will encourage yet more mass migration from Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

The government says that the new camps, expected to be operational by July 2020, are needed to alleviate overcrowding at other locations that have been the focus of international criticism. Local residents counter that the migrants should be transferred to mainland Greece.

On February 25, more than 500 locals prevented construction workers from accessing the site of a proposed new migrant camp at Karava Mantamadou on Lesbos. Riot police used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse the crowds.

Similar clashes occurred on Chios, a large Greek island located less than 20 kilometers from Turkey, from where tens of thousands of migrants depart each year in hopes of eventually reaching mainland Europe.

The new site on Lesbos will be a so-called closed camp that tightly controls access and will replace the current open-access camp at Moria. The closed camps will allow migrants to go out during the day but will require them to be locked in at night. The objective is to control their movements and prevent them from escaping to the mainland.

Associate Professor at US University Arrested for Allegedly Lying About China Links By Cathy He

https://www.theepochtimes.com/associate-professor-at-us-university-arrested-for-allegedly-lying-about-china-links_3253589.html

Federal authorities on Feb. 27 arrested an assistant professor of engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, (UTK) on charges relating to allegedly lying about links to a Chinese university while receiving funding from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Anming Hu, an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering at UTK, was indicted by a grand jury on Feb. 25 and charged with three counts of wire fraud and three counts of making false statements, the justice department (DOJ) said in a press release.

Prosecutors allege that Hu in 2016 managed to obtain funding from NASA for a research project by hiding his affiliation with Beijing University of Technology (BJUT) where he was a professor in its Institute of Laser Engineering.

Federal law prohibits NASA from funding any projects done in collaboration with China or Chinese universities, the DOJ said.

Hu’s arrest is the second arrest in a month of a U.S. academic over an alleged failure to disclose ties to Chinese universities. In late January, Charles Lieber, chair of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University, was arrested for allegedly lying about funding he received from a Chinese state-sponsored recruitment program.

“This is just the latest case involving professors or researchers concealing their affiliations with China from their American employers and the U.S. government,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers said in the statement.

When the Leftist Mob Comes For You They are coming for everything you have. Katie Hopkins

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/02/when-leftist-mob-comes-you-katie-hopkins/

[Author’s note: This article is dedicated to my friend and fellow fighter, Phil Haney.]

What could be more harmless than a British cup of tea?

That’s what our new Chancellor Rishi Sunak must have thought as he shared a benign tweet about making his team a cup of tea while they prepare the budget he has to deliver to British Parliament on March 11.

“Nothing like a good brew,” he said.

He could never have known what was about to befall his brand of choice, Yorkshire Tea.

For the crime of their product featuring in a picture with the Conservative Chancellor, there were demands for a boycott, a ban and worse, much worse. So much so that the Yorkshire Tea employee on the receiving end of all this hate made a personal plea from the Yorkshire Tea account:

‘We’ve spent the last three days answering furious accusations and boycott calls…as the person who’s been answering these tweets, I know it could have been much worse. It’s easier to be on the receiving end of this as a brand than as an individual…But for anyone about to vent their rage online, even to a company – please remember there is a human on the other end of it and try to be kind’.

This is the madness of our times. A social media employee from a tea company imploring people to stop being so cruel, all because it was being drunk by someone from a political party they oppose.

This phrase she used — Be Kind (#BeKind) — has been trending in the UK for much of the week after the suicide of a young and vivacious TV personality, Caroline Flack. She was the captivating host of a popular TV show called Love Island and winner of the BBC Strictly Come Dancing competition in 2014.

Islamic Republic is Now Ground Zero for Deadly Coronavirus Iran’s Vice President for Women and Family Affairs becomes latest victim of COVID-19 pandemic. Ari Lieberman

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/02/islamic-republic-now-ground-zero-deadly-ari-lieberman/

On Thursday, Iran’s Ministry of Health announced that thus far, 26 people infected with the coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, have died and that there were an additional 245 confirmed cases. The latest victim of the disease is Masoumeh Ebtekar, Iran’s Vice President for Women and Family Affairs. In 1979, she was the spokeswoman for radical Islamic fundamentalists who invaded the American embassy in Tehran and took 52 American diplomats and citizens hostage for 444 days. On Tuesday, Iran’s Deputy Health Minister was quarantined due to infection. Several other Iranian parliamentarians have become infected as well.  

Globally, the coronavirus has a fatality rate of between 2 and 3 percent. In Iran, if official figures are to be believed, more than 1 in 10 die from the disease. Clearly, Iranian officials are lying about the extent of the disease and its rapid spread throughout the country. The Islamic Republic has also been the source of dozens of cases outside Iran. Countries including Afghanistan, UAE, Lebanon, Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan and even Canada, have all traced infected travelers to Iran.

Radio Farda, citing reports by Canadian researchers say that the levels of those infected in Iran is much higher than government officials are willing to admit. According to the researchers, it is statistically possible that as many as 18,000 people are infected in the county. That figure is only expected to grow exponentially given the level of obfuscation by the government and the decrepit state of Iran’s healthcare facilities.

The Direct Primary Care Solution for America’s Health Care Woes by Rep. “Chip’ Roy (R- Texas- District 21)

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/02/direct-primary-care-solution-americas-health-care-woes/
It could free us from insurance domination of health care.

Austin — “the live music capital of the world” — is a lovably “weird” city and home to many musicians and artists. Willie Nelson, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Townes Van Zandt, and Janis Joplin all called it home at one time or another. Great venues like Antone’s, the Broken Spoke, and Stubb’s kept the music scene alive for years, and as it continues to evolve, they serve as storied reminders of what has always made Austin great — a vibrant arts scene.

When I was in law school at the University of Texas, I remember rushing to buy the 2-CD KHYI set each year for the best music of the day. But I also recall that the proceeds from the sale of the set went to providing health insurance for artists. This was a way people in the arts community looked after one another.

Unfortunately, while the creative community remains alive in Austin, the rising cost of housing, driven both by demand and by property taxes, and the skyrocketing cost of health care are crushing many of the artists who live gig to gig and paycheck to paycheck. Since 2013, insurance premiums have gone up more than 60 percent across the board, while private-market premiums have doubled and even tripled. While Washington “leaders” dither and waste time, some creative doctors are using a fast-growing direct-primary-care (DPC) model that may well save the day.

“METSI Care,” a recently opened DPC clinic on 6th Street in East Austin, is built on the model of the black-bag doctor. In this model, you pay a doctor for health care at a reasonable monthly fee and the doctor provides the services directly, rather than insurance (or government) bureaucrats telling you what you get, or what’s “in network.” The two doctors running METSI when I visited are focusing their care — in part based on personal interest and passion — on those in the music, entertainment, technology, and service industries. While they are targeting artists, it is important to note their doors are open to all who knock.

Trump on pace for record Hispanic vote…Stephen Dinan

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/feb/26/donald-trump-wins-over-hispanics-despite-strict-im/

He was told being strict on illegal immigration would doom him among Hispanic voters.

Yet President Trump has defied their predictions, from the moment he delivered his iconic address to the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2013 — warning the Republican Party that legalizing 11 million illegal immigrants was political suicide — through the 2016 presidential election and into the White House.

Now nine months out from his second Election Day, and despite a tenure in the White House that has involved building a border wall, stepping up deportations and insulting some Latin American nations as “s—hole” countries, Mr. Trump is as strong as ever among Hispanic voters, according to the polls.

One poll puts his approval rating as high as 44% and shows him winning 41% of the Hispanic vote in a head-to-head match-up with Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont. That would best his 2016 showing of 28% support and put him in the running with President George W. Bush for the highest share of Hispanic votes for a GOP candidate.

“Latinos have lost the fear of Donald Trump,” said Alfonso Aguilar, who ran the Department of Homeland Security’s citizenship office in the Bush administration and now runs the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles.

New Way Forward Act is totally backward By Lance Voorhees ****

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/02/new_way_forward_act_is_totally_backward_.html

If you were deported after doing prison time for sexual assault, drug dealing, or other aggravated felonies, the New Way Forward Act could be your ticket back across the border. The catch? You must legally challenge your deportation order, but do not be dismayed. If this pending legislation is enacted, American taxpayers will pay your legal fees and pony up for your plane ticket as well.

Now teach your fellow felons to follow this three-step roadmap and get a piece of the American pie.

STEP 1 — Hire your Free Attorney

Under the NWFA’s “ALTERNATIVES TO DETENTION,” the Secretary of Homeland Security must “establish programs,” including “appearance assistance services.” This is code for “Reverse your Deportation with Free Attorney.” If you were convicted of a serious crime, don’t sweat it. The Act redefines “serious crime” as a felony that would imprison someone five years or more.

STEP 2 A — Get your Free Plane Ticket

Under the bill’s sub-heading, “RIGHT TO COME HOME,” it states, “The Secretary of Homeland Security shall provide transportation for aliens,” and it will be at “Government expense, to return to the United States for further immigration proceedings.” Make sure you pocket your frequent flier miles.

New Sanctions Turn the Screws on Venezuela’s Maduro By Ken Blackwell

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/02/new_sanctions_turn_the_screws_on_venezuelas_maduro.html

Vladimir Putin relishes using Russia’s political and economic power to destabilize and disrupt nations. One example of such activity is in Venezuela, where Russia has been propping up Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro through billions in loans and buying oil with the Russian company Rosneft.

Maduro is one of the most brutal dictators of our time, and the Trump administration is actively working to oust Maduro from power. Millions of citizens have fled Venezuela. The country is overrun with violent drug cartels and Russian and Cuban military units operate freely within the country. Maduro’s government now runs on illegal sources of income such as gold mining, which destroys Venezuela’s environment and widespread drug trafficking, which has brought in many bad players, including Hezbollah, further destabilizing the nation. Venezuela’s legitimate economy and social structure have almost completely collapsed.

In a new effort to get tough on Maduro, the president’s team recently imposed economic sanctions on Rosneft Oil to thwart Russia’s efforts to help Maduro. It’s a smart move.