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August 2020

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China’s Persecution of Uyghur Muslims: The Silence of the Islamic World by Lawrence A. Franklin

By on August 19th, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16351/china-persecution-uyghur-muslims

The globe’s most influential Muslim international forum, the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), in a resolution drafted in March last year, in fact commended China’s efforts in its care of the country’s Muslims.

The silence of the oil-rich kingdom of Saudi Arabia is, in part, explained by the at least $75 billion of investment deals reached in the last few years. Moreover, China is Saudi Arabia’s largest trading partner. However, Saudi Arabia’s failure publicly to support Uyghur Muslims shreds the Kingdom’s claim to be the “Defender of the Faith.”

Perhaps a more realistic but cynical explanation for the seemingly incongruous alliance between China and the globe’s Islamic governments is the collegial compatibility of authoritarian regimes. None of these tyrannical entities wants international observers to arrive inside their sovereign realms to investigate human rights abuses of minorities….

More strategically threatening to the existing liberal international order may be a decision by the world’s Islamic states and other Third World countries not to condemn Beijing in the event that China might emerge as victor in the new Cold War.

When Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the entire Islamic world united behind their fellow Muslim Afghans and cooperated with the West to force the USSR to withdraw. By contrast, China’s Communist security forces have transformed their ethnic Uyghur majority province of Xinjiang into a huge concentration camp, but the world’s Islamic states have refused to criticize Beijing.

The world’s most influential Muslim international forum, the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), in a resolution drafted in March last year, in fact commended China’s efforts in its care of the country’s Muslims. Shortly after, in July 2019, twenty-three Muslim countries supported a United Nations Human Rights Council resolution praising the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) efforts “for protecting and promoting human rights through development.” This statement rebuffed an earlier Human Rights Council resolution drafted by 22 Western countries urging China to refrain from violating the human rights of the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang.

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ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Never Trump Lobbyists and Consultants Address the DNC “Swamp Lobbyists Against Trump.”Daniel Greenfield

By on August 19th, 2020

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/08/never-trump-lobbyists-and-consultants-address-dnc-daniel-greenfield/

John Kasich took the virtual stage at the Democrat National Convention as the former Republican governor of Ohio. But that’s what he did for a living. Not what he does now.

Kasich’s current address isn’t in Ohio. It’s in the swamp.

Earlier this year, The Kasich Company, a firm founded by Kasich and Beth Hansen, his chief of staff and the operative who ran his failed presidential campaign, hired a lobbyist to work on coronavirus tax provisions as well as sundry “Federal Regulatory and Legislative Matters”.

The Kasich Company doesn’t do such prosaic things as list its clients or give any specifics of what it does and where it does it, but the former governor’s company does promise to, “deliver successful strategies to overcome local, state and federal obstacles”.

The kind of “obstacles” that have to be overcome with the aid of a lobbyist.

Anyone who followed Kasich’s career, his cynical effort to jump on the Tea Party bandwagon, followed by an even more cynical tilt leftward, won’t be surprised to see him in the swamp.

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Against “Black Lives Matter” Factual evidence, peaceful streets, and open discourse are the hallmarks of democratic governance. Because BLM flouts all of these values, it deserves our condemnation. By Jason Richwine

By on August 19th, 2020

https://amgreatness.com/2020/08/18/against-black-lives-matter/

Although they operate under the banner of social justice, the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and its allies are a pernicious force. The false narratives, the toleration of lawlessness, and the punishment of dissenters have left our society in disarray. Americans of all races and political stripes should reject these tactics.

The problems with BLM start with its false claim that white police and civilians are systematically killing black people. Allied media have promoted cases that seem to fit this narrative, such as the deaths of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery, but the outrage is selective. In a country as large as the United States, reporters can find individual incidents to support just about any narrative they want.

The statistics on race and crime tell a very different story than the one advanced by the anecdotes favored by the media. First, black Americans are far more likely than non-blacks to commit violent crime. Blacks accounted for 37 percent of all arrests for violent crime in 2018, including 53 percent of murder arrests, despite constituting only 13 percent of the population. It is this fundamental disparity in base rates of crime that generates so many encounters between blacks and police in the first place. Once we adjust for base rates, police are less likely to fatally shoot black suspects compared to white suspects—a fact that is entirely at odds with the BLM narrative.

Even the evidence that police may be rougher with (but not more likely to kill) black suspects needs to be viewed in the context of base rates. While we should welcome any reforms that will make law enforcement more fair and effective, police cannot be blamed for noticing that some groups tend to be more dangerous than others. Black men are 6 percent of the population but have perpetrated 42 percent of cop killings over the past decade. That fact is surely relevant when police are required to make threat assessments with limited information.

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ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Progressives’ Empathy Hypocrisy Michelle Obama and the cheapest form of virtue-signaling. Bruce Thornton

By on August 19th, 2020

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/08/progressives-empathy-hypocrisy-bruce-thornton/

On the Democrat Convention’s first day, Michelle Obama gave a presentation taped from her Martha’s Vineyard estate. The leitmotif of her talk was “empathy,” embedded in a list of examples illustrating the Republicans’ lack of this quality. Aside from her examples being duplicitous, equally revealing was the utter lack of empathy from progressives when it comes to people who are not politically useful to them.

First consider the mendacity and distortions in Ms. Obama’s oration:

They [the “empathetic woke”] see people shouting in grocery stores, unwilling to wear a mask to keep us all safe. They see people calling the police on folks minding their own business just because of the color of their skin. They see an entitlement that says only certain people belong here, that greed is good and winning is everything because as long as you come out on top, it doesn’t matter what happens to everyone else. And they see what happens when that lack of empathy is ginned up into outright disdain. They see our leaders labeling fellow citizens enemies of the state while emboldening torch-bearing white supremacists. They watch in horror as children are torn from their families and thrown into cages, and pepper spray and rubber bullets are used on peaceful protestors for a photo-op.

Michelle’s got it backwards: it’s usually the mask-wearing Karens shouting at people without masks. And it’s unclear how she knows what’s in the mind of people who call the police when a black person is involved. Surely behavior, whether justly suspicious or not, is the reason people call the cops. Citizenship is not an “entitlement,” it’s a right for the native born. For others, it’s a right earned by successfully going through the legal process for becoming a citizen. Those are the “certain people who belong here,” and our government is empowered to determine the conditions for allowing in others. Michelle, Gordon Gekko called and wants his 37-year-old “greed is good”cliché back. It’s been exploded by the advance in global wealth––according to the World Bank average real global per capita GDP increased from $5,446.18 in 1990 to $16,233.96 in 2016––created by all those greedy free-marketeers.

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ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Not the Onion: The DNC Includes Elizabeth Warren in Native American Caucus By Tyler O’Neil ?????!!!!!

By on August 19th, 2020

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/tyler-o-neil/2020/08/18/not-the-onion-the-dnc-includes-elizabeth-warren-in-native-american-caucus-n807359

On Tuesday, the Democratic National Convention (DNC) apparently included Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in its Native American Caucus meeting. While Warren has apologized for claiming a Native American identity after her disastrous DNA test flop and President Donald Trump has repeatedly mocked her as “Pocahontas,” it seems the DNC decided it would be a good idea to highlight the controversy.

“I’m excited for the DNC Native American Caucus meeting today. Please join [Deb Haaland (D-N.M.)], [Sharice Davids (D-Kan.)], [Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass)], and me (and whole bunch of other good folks) today!” Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan (D-Minn.) tweeted on Tuesday. Flanagan is a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe.

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ELECTIONS Comments turned off

5 Things to Know About Night 2 of the Democratic National Convention By Tyler O’Neil

By on August 19th, 2020

https://pjmedia.com/election/tyler-o-neil/2020/08/18/5-things-to-know-about-night-2-of-the-democratic-national-convention-n807423

The Democratic National Convention (DNC) continued for a second night on Tuesday. PJ Media has been watching this not-exactly-prime television so you don’t have to. Check out our liveblogs from Monday night and last night, and follow us live on Wednesday and Thursday night.

1. You weren’t watching? Neither were most Americans.

The first night of the DNC on Monday was a snoozefest, and the ratings reflected that.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the common hour-plus coverage of the DNC on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC averaged 18.68 million viewers, down about 28 percent compared to the opening night of the 2016 Democratic convention. The broadcast networks suffered the biggest drops: ABC, CBS, and NBC added up to 6.7 million viewers at 10 p.m., down from the 11.6 million who tuned in to those channels in 2016.

Monday night featured Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Michelle Obama, and Govs. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) and Gretchen Whitmer (D-Mich.). If the ratings tanked so badly on the night featuring Bernie Sanders and Michelle Obama, why would they get better for night 2, which featured the star power of… Dr. Jill Biden? Yes, former President Jimmy Carter spoke — without video — and Bill Clinton also spoke, on the same day a viral photo showed him getting a message from one of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims (YIKES!).

Sure, night 2 featured Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), but she complained that she’d only get 60 seconds to speak, and she did only speak for 96 seconds. Don’t worry, she smuggled in “colonization” into those seconds.

What Planet Is He on? John Kasich Promises Moderates That ‘Decent’ Biden Won’t Turn ‘Sharp Left’

2. Democrats nominated some candidate or whatever

On Tuesday night, Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., the former vice president and former senator from Delaware, officially became the Democratic nominee for president. Delegates from 50 states and 7 territories gave their support to Biden or Sanders.

The nominations ran on interminably, but it was cool to see the different backgrounds. Since Democrats held a virtual convention due to the coronavirus pandemic, delegates from each state appeared in separate videos to nominate Joe Biden. Just watch the video without the sound on, and you can skip listening to the Democratic pablum.

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HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

The Jihad Terrorist in New York City You Heard Nothing About By Robert Spencer

By on August 19th, 2020

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/robert-spencer/2020/08/18/the-jihad-terrorist-in-new-york-city-you-heard-nothing-about-n806283

While the New York Police Department zealously guards Mayor de Blasio’s infamous “Black Lives Matter” street graffiti in front of Trump Tower, other, more serious endeavors continue that, if the city had a rational mayor, might actually have a better claim on the NYPD’s time and resources. Those include Islamic jihad terrorism.

Last Tuesday, a New York-based convert to Islam with the emphatically Christian name of Jesus Encarnacion got 15 years in prison for attempting to aid a jihad terror group.

The Justice Department’s account of his activities makes for hair-raising reading, and reminds us yet again that Bill de Blasio, like other Leftist mayors and governors, is chasing phantom problems (Russiagate, the USPS “scandal,” and many, many more) while there are real and pressing troubles that warrant his attention.

Jesus Wilfredo Encarnacion, heedless of the fact that many, if not most, Americans, at least those on the Left, take jihad terrorism to be yesterday’s news and no longer a threat to the United States (if it ever was), was a fearless keyboard warrior who called himself “Jihadistsoldgier,” “Jihadinhear,” “Jihadinheart,” “Lionofthegood.”

Ercarnacion, however, was not content to wage jihad only on his computer screen. He got his prison sentence for plotting to join a Pakistani jihad terrorist organization, Lashkar e-Tayyiba (LeT), which has carried out numerous jihad massacres, including the infamous Mumbai attack of November 2008, in which jihadis murdered 172 people. The State Department considers LeT to be a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

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Former CIA Officer Accused of Spying for China in Tale Worthy of a Spy Thriller By Rick Moran

By on August 19th, 2020

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2020/08/18/former-cia-officer-accused-of-spying-for-china-in-tale-worthy-of-a-spy-thriller-n805213

A CIA officer who retired in 1989 has been indicted on espionage charges by the Justice Department. Alexander Yuk Ching Ma is being accused of spying for China since 2001 and may have given Chinese intelligence ways to hack CIA communications as well as the names of human assets spying against China.

The way that the FBI finally trapped Ma is worthy of being included in the next blockbuster spy film. They sent an operative to impersonate a Chinese intelligence official who was “investigating” the way Ma had been treated over the years, including how much he had been compensated. Needless to say, the traitor hung himself in no time.

NBCNews:

A video recording showed Ma counting $2,000 in cash provided by the undercover operative, who said it was to acknowledge his work on behalf of China. Investigators said Ma, who was born in Hong Kong, explained that he “wanted ‘the motherland’ to succeed” and admitted that he provided classified information to the Ministry of State Security and continued to work with some of its same representatives who were at the 2001 meeting.

Ma’s treachery began with a series of meetings in a Hong Kong hotel room where he spent three days with Chinese intelligence, giving up secrets. The Justice Department press release mentions one meeting that was videotaped where Ma was seen counting out $50,000.

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ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

In the Muslim world, the push is on to normalize ties with Israel By Andrea Widburg

By on August 19th, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/08/in_the_muslim_world_the_push_is_on_to_normalize_ties_with_israel.html
Trump has cut the Gordian knot, showing Muslims that the Palestinians are their past and Israel is their future.

Osama bin Laden, a bad man who still understood the Arab and Muslim mind, said, “When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature they will like the strong horse.” In slightly more than three-and-a-half years, Donald Trump has turned the United States-Israel alliance into a strong horse. That’s why the UAE made official its relationship with Israel, and that’s why other Arab and Muslim nations are signaling that they will follow.

President Trump, with help from Jared Kushner, did something extraordinary. When Trump entered the White House, the Middle Eastern status quo since 1967 had revolved around the Jewish state of Israel and its relationship with the Muslim Palestinians, a relationship that was often a pawn in the Cold War. In 1974, a new wrinkle occurred with the oil shortage, which elevated the importance of Arab backwaters in Western eyes.

Another wrinkle was the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which pitted Shia Iran against both Israel and various Sunni Muslim nations. Sunni nations were conflicted because Iran made them share a common enemy with Israel, yet they had a Muslim-based moral obligation to support the Palestinians – with the added wrinkle that the Arab nations intensely dislike the Palestinians, whom they view as whiny trouble makers. More wrinkles came along when Iran-funded Hezbollah aligned with the Palestinians against Israel.

At this point, the Middle East situation was as wrinkled as one of those shar pei dogs. And indeed, if I were inclined to bore and confuse you, I could throw in innumerable other wrinkles, including Chinese, Soviet/Russian, or Turkish interference and the effect of the two Gulf Wars.

The crowning wrinkle was Barack Obama’s and Joe Biden’s insistence on the Iran Deal. Iran was sinking economically, but Obama and Biden threw it a hefty financial infusion while greenlighting its nuclear program. Suddenly, a radical, unstable, apocalyptically-oriented theocracy was on its way to a nuclear bomb, courtesy of the United States of America.

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ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Stacey Abrams, the imaginary governor, attacks a strawman Trump By Andrea Widburg

By on August 19th, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/08/stacey_abrams_the_imaginary_governor_attacks_a_strawman_trump.html

Stacey Abrams, who unsuccessfully ran for governor of  Georgia, and then made a national name for herself by insisting that she had actually won, was fantasizing again at the virtual Democrat convention. This time, she claimed that Trump was a do-nothing coward. Whether one likes Trump or not, those are the two least realistic words ever to describe him. Abrams’s strawman president is worth noting because so much of what’s happening at the DNC is fake.

Like Hillary Clinton, Stacey Abrams has managed to make a career out of being a loser. Abrams is so certain that voter suppression (i.e., cleaning deadwood out of the Georgia voting rolls) caused her to lose that she still insists that Governor Brian Kemp is not the governor. Instead, in her mind, Abrams is governor. Abrams has also distinguished herself by writing bad romances and by pushing aggressively to become Biden’s vice-presidential candidate.

Abrams’s disconnect from reality continued at the DNC when she used her time to accuse President Trump of “cowardice” and contended that he only knew how to “deny or distract.” And while she was fantasizing, she also made the utterly bizarre statement that Joe Biden is a “public servant who can lead us out of this crisis just like he’s done before”:

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