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In War, It’s Total Victory or Nothing By Steve Feinstein

Posted By on July 11th, 2020

https://www.realclearhistory.com/articles/2020/07/09/in_war_its_total_victory_or_nothing_498690.html

There’s a longstanding maxim that states that only the complete destruction of one’s enemies will suffice. Merely winning a particular battle is not enough. If they survive the defeat and can come back to fight another day, then the ultimate victory is not assured. In contrast, the contest still hangs in the balance and the outcome of any one battle may not be the overriding determinate of the final result.

This thought is summed up in the work “The 48 Laws of Power,” a best-selling 1998 book by American author Robert Greene. Law 15 states, “…. a feared enemy must be crushed completely. If one ember is left alight, no matter how dimly it smolders, a fire will eventually break out. More is lost through stopping halfway than through total annihilation. The enemy will recover and seek revenge. Crush him, not only in body but in spirit.”

Examples of this truism abound in history. There are several examples of when tactical battles were won but the bigger strategic objective was lost, with disastrous long-term consequences.

Dunkirk 1940
After Nazi Germany’s 1940 spring offensive against Western Europe, the last remaining Allied combatants — France and Great Britain — found themselves defeated and cornered in the French coastal town of Dunkirk. Over 300,000 French and British troops (along with a small number of Polish forces that had survived the campaign against Germany the previous September) were trapped after marauding German Panzer forces had crushed the inexplicably weak and uninspired French army in what was perhaps history’s most one-sided major land engagement.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Alex Berenson explains why US schools ‘should be open’ with ‘no restrictions’ despite pandemic ‘You don’t shut down the schools,’ ex-NY Times reporter tells Bill Hemmer. ‘You don’t shut down society’

Posted By on July 11th, 2020

https://www.foxnews.com/media/alex-berenson-schools-should-reopen-no-restrictions

Former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson told Fox News’ Bill Hemmer on the “Hemmer Time” podcast that his preferred response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic “is not that different than what people who are experts on infectious disease were saying we should do about flu pandemics.

“That means,” added Berenson, “you don’t shut down the schools. You know, maybe you temporarily shut them down if there’s a large rash of cases for a week or two. But you don’t shut down the schools. You don’t shut down society. You don’t force people to wear masks in public unless there’s really good evidence that doing so is going to reduce transmission, which we don’t have.”

Berenson, the author of “Unreported Truths About COVID-19 and Lockdowns,” has drawn a large social media following — and become a divisive figure — for his skepticism about the effectiveness of lockdowns and mask-wearing in stopping the spread of the virus.

He told Hemmer that a case to “temporarily shut down the country … for a week or 10 days or two weeks” could have been made around mid-March, as confirmed cases began to multiply in early hotspots like New York City.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Arick Wierson & Bradley Honan:Democrats, it’s too soon to cheer Trump’s defeat

Posted By on July 11th, 2020

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/09/opinions/too-soon-to-cheer-trumps-political-demise-wierson-honan/index.html

(CNN)One need not listen hard these days to hear the sound of Democratic pollsters and pundits gleefully cheering that the end of President Donald Trump’s term in power is finally in sight — Joe Biden’s Inauguration Day on January 20th, 2021.

Such Democratic groupthink goes as follows: the Covid-19 pandemic has killed more than 130,000 Americans and shows no signs of letting up; the economy has been plunged into the deepest recession in decades; and amid ongoing protests in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death, Democrats are fired up and ready to vote as never before.

Moreover, a diverse array of national polls couldn’t be clearer: Trump is in deep trouble nationally — with Joe Biden leading him by double digits.
Democratic strategists seem to believe this means that Biden has successfully cut into the President’s support among key parts of his political coalition: white voters, suburban voters, independents and voters who are middle aged and older. And the latest polling shows that even GOP strongholds like Georgia and Texas could be in play this fall.

It seems Democrats are all too keen on taking a victory lap before they pass the checkered flag.
Those declaring Trump politically finished should recall the words attributed to the famous American novelist Mark Twain. As the story goes, Twain’s death was rumored when his cousin fell ill and reporters couldn’t locate him while touring in Europe. Upon learning of his supposed demise, Twain, according to his biographer Albert Bigelow Paine, told a reporter that “the report of my death has been grossly exaggerated.”
As Paine tells it, the rumor appeared to emerge because Twain’s cousin, who shared his legal surname of Clements, fell ill and papers were reporting that Twain was possibly dying. The chattering classes may be in for a nasty November surprise. There are lots of reasons to suspect that Donald Trump may be the Mark Twain of American politics — in that reports of his political demise may be grossly exaggerated.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Fauci Is a Deep State Fraud The pandemic’s guru, unfortunately, behaves as an ordinary creature of the Washington swamp. By Angelo Codevilla

Posted By on July 11th, 2020

https://amgreatness.com/2020/07/10/fauci-is-a-deep-state-fraud/

I knew for sure that Anthony Fauci is a fraud after listening to him for about 10 seconds—as anyone who listens carefully would have known as well. President Trump had been charging the Chinese government with obscurancy and deception in its handling of the novel coronavirus outbreak. Fauci had dealt intimately with the Chinese on that matter. His National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Centers for Disease Control had partially financed the notorious Wuhan laboratory where Chinese scientists were researching the virus. Fauci knew a lot.

A reporter asked Fauci if he agreed with Trump that the Chinese have not been fully forthcoming about the scope of the pandemic. Fauci answered that although the Chinese had lacked candor in previous years, this time they had turned over “the sequence of the virus.” Spoken like a wily swamp reptile!

His words were factually correct. The Chinese had turned over all they knew about the virus’s “sequence”—namely, its genetic structure. But the reporter and the audience neither knew nor cared about that. They were interested in the Chinese government’s misrepresentations of the virus’s contagion, fatality rate, and so forth. That is what they had dissembled and lied about. 

Fauci’s answer artfully deceived the audience into believing the opposite of the truth. Thus did Fauci help plant a dagger between Trump’s shoulder blades and help his party—the Democrats and the deep state—extort the American people’s compliance to their agendas.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Calling out the Head Cheerleader for Cop Killers It is past time to throw down with the self-described communist and full professor, Joshua Clover of UC Davis. By Lloyd Billingsley

Posted By on July 11th, 2020

https://amgreatness.com/2020/07/10/calling-out-the-head-cheerleader-for-cop-killers/

During the George Floyd riots, Weber State University criminal justice professor Scott Senjo posted tweets that displeased the school’s bosses. Senjo apologized, resigned, then rescinded his resignation. Weber State then placed him on leave and now announces that Senjo is “no longer employed at the school.”

North of the border, University of British Columbia board of governors chair Michael Korenberg “liked” tweets by Dinesh D’Souza, a tweet wishing Donald Trump a happy birthday, and a tweet critical of Black Lives Matter. The Antifa-affiliated “UBC Students Against Bigotry,” protested Korenberg’s “likes” and he duly resigned, issuing a groveling apology and a statement that he supports Black Lives Matter. 

In such a totalitarian environment, it might be instructive to focus on a university professor who made statements of utter depravity yet managed to keep his job with the full approval of the administration. This takes us to Davis, California, a short stretch down Interstate 80 from the state capital of Sacramento. 

On January 10, 2019, convicted criminal Kevin Limbaugh gunned down Natalie Corona, 22, a rising star in the Davis Police Department. The community hailed Corona as a hero who paid the ultimate price for her service. Thousands of people, including police officers from across the country, attended a memorial for the slain officer. 

Over at UC Davis, on the other hand, one professor openly supports the murder of police officers. 

That would be Joshua Clover, a full professor of English and comparative literature, whose publisher Verso Books describes him as a Communist. Born in Berkeley in 1962, Clover is an alumnus of the prestigious Boston University and the Iowa Writers Workshop. He once bagged an NEA grant as well as the Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

A Challenger of the Woke ‘Company Policy’ Glenn Loury, the Brown economist, on his winding journey from South Side Chicago to Reagan Republican, to the left and back to the right. By Tunku Varadarajan

Posted By on July 11th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-challenger-of-the-woke-company-policy-11594405846?mod=opinion_lead_pos6

“There are, Mr. Loury stresses, many aspects of American life “in which race will assert itself. And I want not to seem to be failing to acknowledge that.” There is certainly some discrimination in policing and the courts, he says. “But it can explain maybe 15% or 20% of the gap between black and white incarceration rates, not the whole thing.” Most of the difference, he insists, turns on the behavior of people.“If you want to call that racism, then you’re calling everything racism.”

Next spring Glenn Loury will teach a new course on freedom of expression to students at Brown University, where he’s a professor of economics. “We’ll read Plato, Socrates, Milton, John Stuart Mill, George Orwell and Allan Bloom, ” he says, stressing that Bloom’s best-known work, “The Closing of the American Mind: How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today’s Students,” is as relevant as it was when published in 1987.

Mr. Loury is thinking about adding “the Paxson letter” to his syllabus, so that his students might critique it. That June 1 missive to “the Brown Community” from Christina H. Paxson, Brown’s president, asserted that “oppression, as well as prejudice, outright bigotry and hate, directly and personally affect the lives of millions of people in this nation every minute and every hour.” It committed the university to “programming, courses, and research opportunities” that promote “equity and justice.”

Mr. Loury scorns the letter as Ms. Paxson’s “company policy” and “the Black Lives Matter view of the world reflected from the Brown University college president’s office.” On June 5, he published a rebuttal in City Journal. Ms. Paxson’s letter was signed “by everybody,” from deans to the general counsel and even the investment manager for Brown’s $4.2 billion endowment, Mr. Loury tells me by Zoom from his home in Providence, R.I. “That made it an official policy,” he says. “I don’t think universities should have official policies about contentious political issues.”

If they do—“if we foreclose debate over contentious issues by declaring that there’s only one way for a decent person at this university to think about them”—“how can we fulfill our mission of teaching our students to think critically?” Scholarly inquiry ought to consist of an exploration of the evidence, the “moral commitments,” the political issues and the historical context. The Paxson letter makes these “hard questions” more perilous to ask.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The racism and sexism at America’s woke institutions By Andrea Widburg

Posted By on July 11th, 2020

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

You may recall that an organization called Sleeping Giants was one of the primary movers and shakers behind the corporate boycott side of the left’s cancel culture. Most famously, it was the tip of the spear in the attack against Breitbart after Trump’s election. Now, one of its founders stands accused of racist and sexist behavior. This is an increasingly common charge against woke companies, and it makes sense, not just because employees are marinated in victimhood, but because of the moral hazard doctrine.

Moral hazard describes a situation in which someone who is insulated from consequences is more likely to engage in risky behavior. Although the term is mostly used in economics, we see it routinely in people’s overall conduct.

For example, you might have noticed that, as cars get safer, people are more likely to take driving risks, such as tailgating or weaving through traffic. Likewise, as football helmets seemingly became more sophisticated, the game changed with players using their heads as battering rams. Sadly, the high incidence of ALS shows that the helmets weren’t as safe as people thought they were.

A variation of moral hazard also shows up when people have behaved virtuously in one area of life. Draped in their moral superiority, they think they have a pass in other areas. A perfect example comes from bicycles. As a former Bay Area resident, I can tell you that many urban bicyclists are deeply impressed with their moral purity in eschewing polluting automobiles. Borne upon a cloud of self-righteousness, they entirely ignore not only bicycle safety rules but general traffic safety rules. In their minds, their one act of virtue is a hedge against all risks.

And that gets us to the stories about accusations of racism, sexism, homophobia, and other bad behaviors at excessively woke organizations. These companies tout all the appropriate leftist virtues: They despise Trump, hate Republicans generally, fight climate change, donate millions to Black Lives Matter, offer 52 gender options for their employees, and so on. One would think, then, that women, minorities, and people on the LGBTQ etc. spectrum would be thrilled at these places . . . but they’re not.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The Vatican Plays Politics with China By Mario Alexis Portella

Posted By on July 11th, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/07/the_vatican_plays_politics_with_china.html

This past Sunday, Pope Francis spoke to the Catholic faithful during the traditional Angelus prayer.  Many throughout the world, especially those in Hong Kong, anticipated that the Bishop of Rome would speak out against the suppression of political and religious freedom by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) the week prior — as per protocol, the pope normally gives an exegetical explanation of Scripture followed by a brief address, normal on an international current event.

To the dismay of many, Francis made reference to the resolution adopted by the United Nations Security Council that proposed some measures to deal with the devastating consequences of the coronavirus, particularly for areas in conflict zones — the request made is for a global and immediate ceasefire by countries that are currently engaged in combat with each other.

As reported and confirmed by various news agencies throughout the world, there was a bulletin distributed to journalists before the Pope’s Angelus prayer that contained some important words on the crisis in Hong Kong — the speech was to be read immediately after the Angelus exhortation:

“In recent times, I have followed the development of the complex situation in Hong Kong with particular attention and not without concern, and I would like first of all to express my cordial closeness to all the inhabitants of that territory.  In the current context, the issues addressed are undoubtedly delicate and affect everyone’s life; therefore it is understandable that there is a marked sensitivity in this regard. I therefore hope that all the people involved will be able to deal with the various problems in a spirit of far-sighted wisdom and authentic dialogue.  This requires courage, humility, non-violence and respect for the dignity and rights of all.  I then express the vow that social life, and especially religious life, express themselves in full and true freedom, as indeed various international documents provide for it.  With my constant prayer I accompany the whole Catholic community and the people of goodwill in Hong Kong, so that they can build a prosperous and harmonious society together.”

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Europe: Rape Victims Accused of Racism by Raymond Ibrahim

Posted By on July 11th, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16179/rape-victims-racism

“[W]e are neglecting to properly address the religious and racist aspects of grooming gang crimes…. It’s telling them that it’s OK to hate white people.” — Sarah Champion, British Labour MP, YorkshireLive, April 29, 2020.

Advice against alcohol, drugs, and reckless behavior would be more compelling if it were not made under duress.

Even when it comes to rape, then, if the victim is white and the rapist is not, she is no victim at all; worse, she is a “racist” and “hater” who, if anything, apparently deserves what she got and more. “Blame the victim” is back with a vengeance and gaining ground throughout the West.

An increasingly popular idea is that whenever races clash, only minorities can be victims. The notion is hardly limited to the recent riots in America. Elements of such thinking often appear in other contexts.

British women, for instance, including rape victims who drew attention to “Asian” (Pakistani and South Asian) sex grooming gangs, are also being attacked by the “woke” establishment.

Earlier this month in the UK, Sarah Champion, a Labor politician and MP for Rotherham (the epicenter of sex grooming), was accused of “fanning the flames of racial hatred” and “acting like a neo-fascist murderer.” Her crime? She had dared to assert that “Britain has a problem with British Pakistani men raping and exploiting white girls.”

The same elements accusing Champion of being a “murderer” also characterized the UK’s anti-extremism program, Prevent, as being “built upon a foundation of Islamophobia and racism.”

A few weeks earlier, an article titled, “I was raped by Rotherham grooming gang—now I still face racist abuse online,” appeared. In it, a British woman (alias, “Ella”) revealed that her Muslim rapists called her “a white whore, a white b***h,” during the more than 100 times she was raped in her youth by the Pakistani grooming gang.

“We need to understand racially and religiously aggravated crime if we are going to prevent it and protect people from it and if we are going to prosecute correctly for it,” Champion said in a recent interview.

“Prevention, protection and prosecution—all of them are being hindered because we are neglecting to properly address the religious and racist aspects of grooming gang crimes…. It’s telling them that it’s OK to hate white people.”

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Trump tells Treasury to review universities’ tax exempt status By Morgan Chalfant

Posted By on July 11th, 2020

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/506762-trump-tells-treasury-to-review-universities-tax-exempt-status

“Against every law of society and nature, our children are taught in school to hate their own country and to believe that the men and women who built it were not heroes, but that were villains,” Trump continued.”

President Trump on Friday threatened the tax-exempt status of and funding for universities and colleges, claiming that “too many” schools are driven by “radical left indoctrination.”

“Therefore, I am telling the Treasury Department to re-examine their Tax-Exempt Status and/or Funding, which will be taken away if this Propaganda or Act Against Public Policy continues,” Trump tweeted. “Our children must be Educated, not Indoctrinated!”

Trump did not name specific institutions whose tax-exempt status he wants the Treasury Department to review. Most private and public colleges and universities are exempt from taxes because they qualify as 501(c)(3) organizations.

It would fall to the IRS, a bureau of the Treasury Department, to conduct the review that Trump described. However, federal law prohibits the IRS from targeting groups for regulatory scrutiny “based on their ideological beliefs.”