Displaying posts published in

July 2020

Sandmann Lawyer Agrees to Represent Carter Page By Julie Kelly

https://amgreatness.com/2020/07/26/sandmann-lawyer-agrees-to-represent-carter-page/

Four long years after the FBI and the press tried to ruin him, the former Trump campaign associate might finally get the exoneration—and payday—he deserves.

On Friday, Lin Wood, the attorney representing a Kentucky teenager in a number of defamation lawsuits against major media outlets, announced a settlement with the Washington Post. The terms of the agreement between the family of Nicholas Sandmann—the Covington Catholic High School student accused of disrespecting a “native elder” while wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat during the January 2019 March for Life—remain secret. 

Wood and Sandmann settled a similar lawsuit against CNN earlier this year. Cases still are pending against NBC News, ABC News, CBS News, the New York Times, Rolling Stone, and Gannett.

On Sunday, Wood confirmed he will represent another innocent person maligned and defamed by the American news media: Carter Page, the Trump campaign associate who James Comey’s FBI accused of acting as an agent of Russia. 

Page was the target of four Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants. The most powerful, invasive government tools—usually reserved for suspected foreign terrorists—were unleashed against Page as a way to infiltrate and spy on Team Trump.

Former Chicago Bears Coach Has a Message for Kneeling Athletes Beth Baumann

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/bethbaumann/2020/07/26/watch-former-bears-coach-mike-ditka-blasts-nfl-players-that-refuse-to-stand-for-n2573145

““If you can’t respect our national anthem, get the hell out of the country. That’s the way I feel. Of course, I’m old fashioned. So, I’m only going to say what I feel. I think there’s a way you protest and there’s a way you don’t protest,” he explained. “You don’t protest against the flag. You don’t protest against this country that’s given you the opportunity to make a living playing a sport you never thought would happen.”

During an interview with TMZ, Former Chicago Bears Coach Mike Ditka shredded National Football League players that decide to kneel during the national them. According to Ditka, it’s disrespectful to “protest” against the flag and the country that has provided opportunities to professional athletes.

“The whole kneeling thing in the NFL, you’ve got guys saying they’re gonna do it. You know, baseball players, different teams, last night I watched baseball, you got the Red Sox and the As and the Giants, a lot of teams are kneeling, athletes are kneeling. In your league here, you’re the chairman of this league, is that going to be allowed if the women want to take a knee during the anthem?” TMZ asked. “What’s the policy on that from you guys?”

Critical Race Comes to the Folger Shakespeare Library A tale told by leftist idiots signifying nothing. Daniel Greenfield

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/07/critical-race-comes-folger-shakespeare-library-daniel-greenfield/

In 1932, the Folger Shakespeare Library was dedicated on Shakespeare’s birthday with President Herbert Hoover and Robert Frost in attendance. The Library would house the world’s largest collection of Shakespeare First Folios, and and hundreds of thousands of volumes gathered across the centuries.

“In almost unbelievable fullness and richness, we assembled books, pamphlets, documents, manuscripts, relics, curios,” John Quincy Adams Jr, its first director, wrote. “The library is thus more than a mere library; it is also a museum of the Golden Age of Elizabeth, and a memorial to the influence that Shakespeare has exerted upon the world’s culture.”

These days, the Folger Shakespeare Library has a new mission. And it isn’t Shakespeare.

After George Floyd died during a confrontation with police, the director of the Folger Shakespeare Library declared that, “the fight against racial injustice is essential to what we do as an institution.”

What does Floyd have to do with Shakespeare and what does racism have to do with the Folger Library?

The Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations at Rutgers When did it become the role of an English department to devote itself to social justice? Richard L. Cravatts

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/07/soft-bigotry-low-expectations-rutgers-richard-l-cravatts/

A stunning letter written by Rebecca L. Walkowitz, the chair of Rutgers’ English Department, “Department actions in solidarity with Black Lives Matter,” affirms how deeply academia is now in the thrall of racism hysteria, and particularly after the death of George Floyd under the knee of a brutal police officer in Minneapolis. The letter is steeped in the language of social justice, racial equity, white supremacy, and racial oppression, leading one to wonder why an English department—whose function is, nominally, the study of literature and the teaching of techniques of writing and composition—would craft its entire mission and curriculum around an slavish affection with an anti-racist, Black Lives Matter-inspired ideology.

When did it become the role or purpose of an English department—and especially in a public university—to make as a central feature of its teaching social issues which are only tangentially related to the subject matter? This is not a social justice department, or black studies department, or an institute or program that focuses on race, social issues, and activism. So the letter’s stated intention that the English Department will “stand with and respond to the Black Lives Matter movement . . . create and promote an anti-racist environment . . . and . . . contribute to the eradication of the violence and systemic inequities facing black, indigenous, and people of color members of our community,” seems wildly inconsistent with what is, and should be, the role of an English department.

Not content with making a course in African-American literature a requirement in the English curriculum, every aspect of the pedagogy and instruction is suffused with layers of obsessive victimology and racism, including sponsorship of workshops that seek to “cultivate critical conversations for Writing Program instructors around the disproportionate impacts of covid-19; state power; racism; violence; white supremacy; protest and resistance; and justice.” 

What is the theory here? That familiarity with and concern for racial justice is the single topic on which students should focus their writing. That knowledge of these highly-charged, political issues is necessary for clear and cogent writing? What if students who enroll in courses taught by these indoctrinated professors have alternate views about race, or Black Lives Matter, or the existence of white supremacy, or the legitimacy of protests, violent or otherwise? Are they allowed to express those views? Can they vocalize and write about a different view of race? Clearly not.

Turkey Openly Declares Commitment to Jihad on Non-Muslims While statues of American heroes come toppling down, Turkey honors a mass-murdering, pedophilic slaver of history. Raymond Ibrahim

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/07/turkey-openly-declares-commitment-jihad-non-raymond-ibrahim/

While monuments to heroic Americans of a former age—including abolitionists who died fighting slavery—get toppled and dishonored, a land-grabber, mass-slaver, terrorist, and pedophile—Ottoman sultan Muhammad II—was recently honored by the president of Turkey.

During his recent public address celebrating the July 10, 2020 decree to transform the Hagia Sophia, which for a millennium had functioned as Eastern Christendom’s greatest church, into a mosque, Turkish president Erdoğan repeatedly saluted Sultan Muhammad (1432-1481), also known as al-Fatih (“the Conqueror”), for violently transforming Christian Constantinople into Islamic Istanbul. 

Of the apparently intolerable decades when Hagia Sophia served as a museum (1935 to the recent decision), Erdoğan began by quoting a Turkish poet:

Hagia Sophia, O magnificent temple, do not worry: the grandchildren of Muhammad al-Fatih will overthrow all the [Christian] idols and convert you into a mosque; they will perform their ablutions with tears and prostrate; tahlils [recitations of the Islamic credo] and takbirs [cries of “Allahu akbar”] will replenish your empty domes … Your minaret balconies will light up in honor of Allah and his Prophet Muhammad. The whole world will think that Muhammad al-Fatih has resurrected.  This will be Hagia Sophia; this will be a second conquest, a new resurrection”

Erdoğan’s and much of Turkey’s adoration of and desire to emulate Muhammad al-Fatih—this, to quote Erdoğan, “happy, blessed servant of Allah,” who in fact behaved like an ISIS chieftain—should (but won’t) be cause for alarm.

Consider: Sultan Muhammad’s sole justification for conquering Constantinople was that Islam demands the subjugation of “infidels,” in this case, Christians. He had no other “grievance” than that.  In fact, when he first became sultan, he “swore by the god of their false prophet, by the prophet whose name he bore,” a bitter Christian contemporary retrospectively wrote, that “he was their friend, and would remain for the whole of his life a friend and ally of Constantinople.” Although they believed him, Muhammad was taking advantage of “the basest arts of dissimulation and deceit,” wrote Edward Gibbon. “Peace was on his lips while war was in his heart.”

During the siege of Constantinople, he regularly exhorted his followers with jihadi ideology, including by unleashing throngs of preachers crying, 

Palestinians: The Priorities of Muslim ‘Scholars’ During COVID-19 by Khaled Abu Toameh

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16276/palestinians-muslim-scholars-covid19

These religious leaders say they are also worried about other “epidemics” that post a threat to Arabs and Muslims, such as peace with Israel and women’s rights.

The Muslim “scholars” also seem concerned about the possibility that Palestinian women may be coming closer to being given rights that are now accorded only to men. For these religious figures, the prospect of women being treated equally and with respect appears to be more of a threat than the coronavirus.

Across the globe, people are preoccupied with preventing the spread of the coronavirus and rescuing the global economy. The world’s best minds are racing against time to invent a vaccine that will save the lives of millions of people threatened by COVID-19. The pandemic has caused panic about basic living conditions, health and livelihood.

Palestinian Islamic leaders, meanwhile, are busying themselves with the religious implications of menstruation. For these leaders, it is peace with Israel, not the virus, that is imperiling the health of Arabs and Muslims.

These Muslim leaders appear to be more interested in preventing women from working under unbiased conditions than about those individuals suffering from the pandemic. They also seem to be more interested in demonizing Israel than in dealing with the demon called COVID-19.

As Palestinians are facing a sharp increase in the number of coronavirus cases detected in Palestinian cities, villages and refugee camps in the West Bank, their Islamic religious leaders are responding in their usual way: inciting against Israel and Jews.

These religious leaders say they are also worried about other “epidemics” that post a threat to Arabs and Muslims, such as peace with Israel and women’s rights.

By July 23, the number of Palestinians diagnosed with the coronavirus since last March reached 8,411, according to the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Health. Seventy-one Palestinians have died after contracting the disease, the ministry said.

Turkey on the Warpath by Uzay Bulut

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16278/turkey-warpath

The Erdogan regime has been militarily targeting Syria and Iraq, sending its Syrian mercenaries to Libya to seize Libya’s oil, and continuing to bully Greece. It is now provoking ongoing violence between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

“Until the Syrian people are free, peaceful and safe, we will remain in this country.” — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Reuters, July 21, 2020.

“Crimes committed against Yazidis [in Syria] include forced conversion to Islam, rape of women and girls, humiliation and torture, arbitrary incarceration, and forced displacement.” — Yazda.org, May 29, 2020.

One of Turkey’s main targets also seems to be Greece…. If such an attack took place, would the West abandon Greece?

Turkey is currently involved in quite a few international military conflicts — both against its own neighbors such as Greece, Armenia, Iraq, Syria and Cyprus, and against African nations such as Libya and Yemen. These actions by Turkey suggest that Turkey’s foreign policy is increasingly destabilizing not only several nations, but the region as well.

In addition, the Erdogan regime has been militarily targeting Syria and Iraq, sending its Syrian mercenaries to Libya to seize Libyan oil and continuing, as usual, to bully Greece. Turkey’s regime is also now provoking ongoing violence between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Fake actor (Jussie Smollett) attends fake protest By Ethel C. Fenig

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/07/fake_actor_attends_fake_protest.html

A year and a half ago, fading actor Jussie Smollett claimed he was attacked by two masked white men who shouted anti-homosexual and anti-black slurs at him, while dousing him in bleach in the late hours of a freezing night in Chicago. 

The city of Chicago later charged him with paying two Nigerian brothers, black by the way, who lived in the city to stage the attack.  The charges against Smollett were later dropped but the city is now suing him to recoup its costs in the case which is continuing.

That was then.  This is so now.  Saturday, on a warm summer day in New York, Smollett joined a group shrieking …yep!…”black lives matter” outside…yep! Trump Tower.

Smollett wore a blue T-shirt and jean shorts for the protest and was recognized by his distinctive equal sign tattoo on his right arm. It’s not clear what group he was protesting with. 

And you thought 2020 couldn’t get more bizarre!

Newsweek and CNN accuse Trump of attacking ‘protesters’ By Civis Americanus

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/07/newsweek_and_cnn_accuse_trump_of_attacking_protesters.html

Voters must similarly rely on information provided by the Fourth Estate to make informed decisions on Election Day. A strong argument can be made that fake news and distorted news that defrauds citizens is ethically identical to election fraud. This is, in turn, a strong argument for holding media outlets to the same ethical standards as the U.S. Military Academy’s Honor Code and disregarding sources that don’t measure up.

The U.S. Military Academy’s Honor Code states, “Cadets violate the Honor Code by lying if they deliberately deceive another by stating an untruth or by any direct form of communication to include the telling of a partial truth and the vague or ambiguous use of information or language with the intent to deceive or mislead” (emphasis is mine). Lying is cause for expulsion because military professionals must rely on the accuracy of information with which they are provided.

I once regarded Newsweek and CNN as mainstream news sources, their recent actions have lost my trust.

Newsweek: Police Use “Chemical Agents” on “Protesters”

Newsweek reported, “Virginia Police Use Chemical Agents on Protesters After City Dump Truck Set on Fire,” which reinforces Media Bias/Fact Check’s assessment that Newsweek is not only left-biased, it gets a rating of “Mixed for factual reporting due to multiple failed fact checks by IFCN fact-checkers.”

The sensationalistic headline conveys the impression of First World War Germans in gas masks and spiked helmets, along with Dr. Poison from the Wonder Woman movie, spraying peaceful demonstrators with chemical weapons, although it is at least honest enough to stipulate that a city dump truck was set on fire. Only when we read the body of the article do we find the details. The “chemical agents” — nonlethal tear gas, of course — were used after one or more arsonists (not “protesters”) set the truck on fire and, in addition, rioters committed other violent felonies as well.

Florida Is A Case Study In Media-Induced COVID-19 Panic

https://issuesinsights.com/2020/07/27/florida-is-a-case-study-in-media-induced-covid-19-panic/

What do all these news accounts have in common?

“Florida Sets Yet Another Coronavirus Record: 173 Deaths In A Day”

“A record 173 Floridians died from the virus Thursday, an average of more than one every eight minutes.” 

“The 134 new confirmed deaths is the second-largest increase on record, coming five days after the largest one-day jump of 156 last week.”

“COVID-19 has ravaged Florida, with more than 237,000 people testing positive and 2,013 dying from the virus in July alone.”

So what characteristic do all of the reports share? They are all false.

It is not true that 173 people died from COVID-19 “in a day” in Florida. Nor did 134, or 156 on previous days.

It is also untrue than 2,013 had died in July when that story was published. 

All of these scary headlines are based on the number of deaths reported by the state on any given day. This is not the same as the number of deaths that occurred on those days.

The difference might seem trivial. But it’s crucial because the press is using the timing of Florida’s death reports to whip up a frenzy about COVID-19 running riot in the state.

Take a look at the chart below. The blue bars are the number of deaths reported in four days last week. Notice the sharp uphill climb? That’s the story the press has been telling.