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January 2021

Erase and Criminalize by Chris Farrell *****

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16950/erase-and-criminalize

There is a concerted effort to tar every Trump supporter with the brush of Capitol mob protester. That is a lie. It is deliberate and malicious. It is a plan to intimidate and silence.

Facebook is purging all content referencing “stop the steal” — although there is ample evidence of voting irregularities and cause for election reform. Twitter is suspending and expelling hundreds of thousands of users. President Trump is among them. Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei, who leads public cheers of “Death to America!”, is not.

Trump gave a speech stating: “if you don’t fight like hell you’re not going to have a country anymore.” That remark is supposed to qualify as “incitement to insurrection.” What a pathetic, transparent lie! Think of the number of times innumerable politicians have invoked “fight” to express encouragement for active public policy engagement. We “fight” for healthcare, justice, human rights, entitlements, civil rights — even peace.

The criminality of Hillary’s outlaw email server, the phony Russia Hoax, the fake Ukraine Impeachment, FISA Warrant abuse, the politically contaminated and compromised FBI — that all gets a “pass” — but Trump telling supporters to fight for their country — THAT is impeachable?

Biden did not win in a landslide. Many feel disenfranchised.

Welcome to America’s Cultural Revolution.

The Double Standards and Hypocrisy of Social Media Giants by Majid Rafizadeh

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16938/social-media-hypocrisy

What, however, about Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who constantly tweets anti-Semitic and incendiary tweets and whose regime the US Department of State called “the world’s worst sponsor of terrorism”? Khamenei, in fact, has become so emboldened on Twitter that, on it, he publicly calls for annihilation of Israel and denies Holocaust.

According to Twitter’s “Violent organizations policy”: “There is no place on Twitter for violent organizations, including terrorist organizations, violent extremist groups, or individuals who affiliate with and promote their illicit activities… Our assessments under this policy are informed by national and international terrorism designations…”

More shocking, in November 9, 2014 Khamenei posted a tweet laying out how to annihilate Israel “Why should & how can #Israel be eliminated? Ayatollah Khamenei’s answer to 9 key questions. #HandsOffAlAqsa”. Khamenei actually posted a screen shot exactly detailing the process to destroy Israel. These tweets are still up.

“I kid you not! At a Knesset hearing on Antisemitism, @Twitter rep tells me they flag @realDonaldTrump because it serves ‘public conversation’, but not Iran’s @khamenei_ir call for GENOCIDE, which passes for acceptable ‘commentary on political issues of the day'” — Human rights lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky, July 29, 2020.

Several social media giants recently made a controversial move by banning US President Donald Trump while allowing leaders of what the US Department of State has called the top state sponsor of terrorism, the Iranian regime, to operate freely on their platforms.

Wish granted, Good and Hard Peter Smith

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2021/01/wish-granted-good-and-hard/

EXCERPTS:

Finally, to perspective; a quality sadly missing from much of today’s commentary, plagued as it is by presentism. This incident does not leave Trump’s legacy in tatters. Nor does it diminish the template he created for prosperity at home and peace abroad. Strong borders, fewer regulations, lower taxes, stronger military, tough love for allies, tough measures against China, innovative and brave initiatives for peace in the Middle East. This template will not appeal to Democrats but it most definitely will inform the next Republican administration. Assuming there will be a next Republican administration.

Donald Trump, properly viewed, was (is for little while longer) a great president. He slipped up at the last; pained by his conviction that the election was stolen. I think he felt personally aggrieved and disappointed. But I also think he thought he was fighting for truth, justice and the American way. Of course, the Trump-haters will only ever point to his personal motive.

It was messy. Nonetheless, the evidence of shenanigans in compiling and counting the votes piled up. As I’ve said, some of it caught on video. Mainstream journalists lacked interest. That says it all. Political hacks to a man and woman. Me, I am with Trump. Deeply sceptical that 81 million Americans (51.4 per cent of vote) voted for a guy in the basement whose mind is failing.  Obama managed just 66 million (51.1 per cent) in 2012.

An afterword. Just exactly how much savvy do they have; these so-called conservatives dancing on Trump’s grave? What do they think is now in store for the US and for us all, having played their part in Trump’s demise by four years of merciless sniping?

Trump, More Sinned Against Than Sinning Declan Mansfield

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2021/01/trump-more-sinned-against-than-sinning/

EXCERPTS

The catalyst for the protest on January 6, the day the Senate ratified the Electoral College, was the presidential election in early November, but the causes of the protest go back to the day Trump announced his candidacy to become president. From that day forward, the Establishment acted in every way to undermine, frustrate, and destroy his presidency. It’s one of the most extraordinary stories in modern American political history. And while the ‘resistance’ or the Establishment — it’s hard to tell which is which in this ill-begotten tale — performed their deeds in plain sight, they also gaslighted the whole world. Then, with the chutzpah of chutzpahs, they denied prima facie evidence of their own malfeasance and corruption, and described anyone who questioned their narrative and tactics as insane or stupid. The hypocrisy was breathtaking. Although some of their followers, to be fair, are so stupid they gaslighted themselves.

The larger question, though, is what did people expect when a democratically elected president is subject to a torrent of abuse, of unrelenting mainstream media lies, false accusations of collusion with Russia, and an impeachment based on a gossamer-thin excuse to remove him from office?  Did they expect that nobody would become enraged at what many people viewed as the Establishment thwarting a democratic mandate? Did people really believe that nobody would notice the groundbreaking hypocrisy of the elites or the fact that the establishment was closing ranks against an outsider, one who was viewed by many voters as a tribune of the people? What did people expect when they witnessed Democratic Party politicians defending Antifa and Black Lives Matter, with Joe Biden, for example, refusing to condemn the burning of American cities, saying that Antifa is just “an ‘idea”, all the while blithely ignoring the wanton destruction? What did people expect when Kamala Harris urged people to donate to the legal funds of the rioters? What should people think when Nancy Pelosi said there was ‘no question’ that the 2016 election was ‘hijacked’? Were people to take them at their word or ignore what they said because it was a ‘debate’, as Kamala Harris excused herself after calling Joe Biden a racist and then signing on as his vice-presidential pick? What did people expect when the Democrats said that the Russians had manipulated the voting machines to ensure Trump won the election? What did people expect when there is evidence that the Justice Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency, among others – the security apparatus of America, in other words – were involved in a plot to undermine Trump’s presidency, and which even Barack Obama discussed in the Oval Office?

Good Morning from New Iran! We are far-removed from the constitutional republic we were promised. By Peter D’Abrosca

https://amgreatness.com/2021/01/12/good-morning-from-new-iran/

So, President Trump was banned from Twitter. He was also significantly censored by Facebook, Google, and Apple, and likely will remain muzzled by Big Tech through the end of his presidency, if not longer.

We knew this was coming, though perhaps we thought the social media giants would wait at least until he left office. We know it’s going to get worse after January 20, when Joe Biden assumes the Oval Office. The un-personing of Donald Trump is going to be one for the history books, until the history books, too, are inevitably jettisoned.

Still, our prominent conservative “thought leaders” are unprepared for this reality.

“But the president of Iran gets to keep his Twitter account, and that’s not fair,” seems to be their thematic response.

Yes. That’s exactly right. Donald Trump does not get to have a Twitter account, but the president of Iran, and any other authoritarian hellhole dictator you can list, does. But it is time to stop scribing about the hypocrisy of the technocrats and the media and the radical Left, yelling, “See, look how hypocritical they are!” They are perfectly comfortable with their own hypocrisy. They only care about power.

It is also time to face a harsh reality: today’s American regime has far more in common with the Iranian regime than we’d like to think, and Americans are more like subjects of totalitarian tyrants than citizens who have consented to being governed.

Beware of Democrats Bearing Law-and-Order Platitudes The party of lawlessness and political hypocrisy. Don Feder

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/01/beware-democrats-bearing-law-and-order-platitudes-don-feder/

The Party of Lawlessness has become the Party of Law and Order. The Party of Burn-Baby-Burn now sounds very much like Richard Nixon, circa 1969.

In the annals of political hypocrisy, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. deserves his own chapter.

Following the so-called rioting at the Capitol on Wednesday, Biden stuck out his hollow chest, struck a heroic pose and thundered: “What we witnessed was not dissent; it was disorder. It was not a protest [unlike all of the ‘peaceful protests’ Democrats abetted since the death of George Floyd]. It was chaos. They weren’t protestors, don’t dare to call them protestors. They were a riotous mob, insurrectionists, domestic terrorists. It’s that basic. It’s that simple.”

We pause for applause.

Like the rest of his party, Biden hopes that we were all born yesterday.

It took the President-elect three months — from May 25 to August 30 — to weakly condemn the violence, arson, assaults and murders that were rocking the nation. Of course, in ritualistic fashion, he also condemned “police violence” and mythical right-wing militias. Antifa is “just an idea” he assured us. Far from calling the Black Lives Matter thugs a riotous mob, insurrectionists or domestic terrorists, he’s yet to criticize them in any way.

But when President Trump castigated the lawlessness and called for a return to democracy, he was “throwing gasoline on the fire,” said Sheriff Joe.      

The Dons Behind Biden Why Biden thinks the Chinese Communists are “not bad folks” and “not competition for us.” Lloyd Billingsley

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/01/dons-behind-biden-lloyd-billingsley/

“Biden Gets China,” headlined the January 2, 2012 report in The Atlantic. As author Steve Clemons explained, “Vice President Joe Biden will take the lead on the administrations next phase China policy.”  This marked a shift to a “strategy of engagement with Biden at the top,” that allows the US to deal with China’s likely next president from a Vice President to a Vice President/Next President status — and to continue both the Departments of State’s and Treasury’s ongoing engagement with other designated key Chinese leaders.”

As Clemons explained, the move to put Biden at the top was “orchestrated” by Thomas Donilon, once described by James Mann in Foreign Policy as “Obama’s Gray Man” and seldom mentioned in the press. So Americans have cause to wonder what, exactly, Thomas Donilon is about.

According to AllGov.com, Donilon worked in the Carter White House and four years later served as campaign coordinator for Walter Mondale. In 1985, the University of Virginia law grad served with the Democratic National Committee and the next year joined the staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee but “he remained interested in helping get Democrats elected to the White House.”

In 1988, “Donilon first advised Sen. Joseph Biden” then went on to serve as senior counsel on President Bill Clinton’s 1992 transition team, and chief of staff for secretary of state Warren Christopher. Donilon became assistant secretary of state for public affairs and participated in the expansion of NATO and the relationship between the U.S. and China. His background showed no scholarly work on that country or any other.

From 1995 to 2005, Thomas Donilon was chief lobbyist of the Federal National Mortgage Association, better known as Fannie Mae. As CNN reported, Donilon left the company before it imploded and “was forced to pay $400 million to the federal government for misstated earnings during his time there.” Donilon also attempted to interfere with an audit by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight and tried to launch a separate investigation into the OFHEO itself.

Pakistani Muslim Cleric: Israel Belongs to the Jews “Not for the Palestinians.” Hugh Fitzgerald

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/01/pakistani-muslim-cleric-israel-belongs-jews-hugh-fitzgerald/

If you thought there was no way to top the news about the normalization of ties between Israel and four Arab states – the U.A.E., Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco – well, this just in from Pakistan may do it: a leading political and religious figure in the country has just announced that Israel belongs solely to the Jews. It was never meant for the “Palestinians.” The amazing report is here: “Pakistani cleric: We should recognize Israel,” by Dean Shmuel Elmas, Israel Hayom, December 20, 2020:

Pakistani political and religious leader Maulana Muhammad Khan Sherani announced Saturday, Dec. 20, at a conference, that he supports the normalization of his country with Israel, according to a report by British-Pakistani writer Noor Dahri.

“This is an international issue, I support recognition of Israel,” Sherani said. “Educated Muslims need to understand that the Quran and history prove to us that the Land of Israel belongs only to the Jews. King David built the house of God in Jerusalem for the Israelis and not for the Palestinians.”

The honorific “Maulana” means that Sherani is a learned Muslim cleric. He is also a formidable figure in Pakistani politics, having served in Pakistan’s National Assembly from 1988 to 2018, save from 1999-2002, and from 2007 to 2013. In other words, he’s served at the national level for more than 20 years. But he’s never made such a remarkable statement, recognizing that “the Land of Israel belongs to the Jews”: It is “not for the Palestinians.”

One cannot help but wonder if this declaration was sua sponte, an expression of Maulana Muhammad Khan Sherani’s deeply held beliefs, uttered without consulting anyone else, and expressing his desire to push forward the case for Pakistan to normalize ties with the Jewish state. Of course, other Muslim states have normalized relations with Israel, but all of them took care to formulaicly express their hope for the establishment of a Palestinian state. This Pakistani cleric has in breathtaking fashion stated uncompromisingly the case for the Jewish claim to the Land of Israel that the ghost of Zev Jabotinsky could not have bettered.

Russo-Turkish Relations Trade, proxy wars, and antipathy toward the West. Joseph Puder

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/01/russo-turkish-relations-joseph-puder/

Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, relations between Turkey and Russia have improved, largely on account of trade. The two nations consider each other as a major trading partner. Russia is Turkey’s largest provider of energy, while Turkish companies operate in Russia. Significantly, Turkey’s dictator, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has defied the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), in which Turkey has been an important member. It announced in September, 2017 its plan to purchase from Russia’s strongman, Vladimir Putin, the S-400 surface-to-air missile system, despite strong objections from the U.S. and all other members of NATO. 

During the Cold-War, Muslim but secular Turkey was the southern anchor of the West, and of the U.S. in particular, against the Soviet Union. U.S. President John F. Kennedy had nuclear missiles placed in Turkey aimed at Moscow. When, however, the Cuban missile crisis occurred in 1962, as a price for the Soviets removing their nuclear missiles from Cuba, which intended to threaten the U.S., the U.S. was secretly compelled to remove its missiles from Turkey as part of the deal. Turkey was allied with the West, and had sent troops to fight alongside the U.S. during the Korean War.

The story of Russo-Turkish relations is one of imperial wars between the Russian Romanov Tsars and the Ottoman Turkish Sultans, both with imperial ambitions to expand their respective territories. Hostilities between these two empires began in the last quarter of the seventeenth century. The first clashes occurred in the Ukraine, where the Turks held large portions of the land, and enslaved Slavic boys and girls, as well as women to serve as concubines in harems of the Ottoman Sultan/Caliphs. The Crimea was another stage in the 1687-1689 war between the two empires.

The Cold Civil War: Social Media Bans Threaten Free Speech For All

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/01/13/cold-civil-war-heats-up-social-media-bans-threaten-free-speech/

After last week’s Washington, D.C., protests, it didn’t take long for the Big Tech billionaires who own, control and run much of the internet and social media to reveal what they truly are: willing tools, a Fifth Column even, of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party and enemies of free speech. A reckoning is due.

In a scene reminiscent of “The Godfather,” the Big Tech companies moved aggressively last weekend to “settle all family business” by deplatforming President Donald Trump, his supporters, a swath of the conservative movement, and anyone else who dares to voice an “unWoke” opinion.

Triggered and emboldened by a direct request from former First Lady Michelle Obama, Twitter did as told, leading to a bizarre cascade of “me-too” social media activity. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat all blacklisted Trump and, in some cases, his followers.

“After close review of recent tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them – specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter – we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence,” Twitter said, via a statement.