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Meghan’s empire of cringe Our identitarian era has turned a narcissist into a saint. Tom Slater

Posted By on August 30th, 2022

https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/08/30/meghans-empire-of-cringe/

What do they see in her? That’s the question staring us in the face once again as Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, is trending once again, this time due to a toe-curling interview in the Cut and the arrival of her new podcast, Archetypes. Most Brits have been distinctly unimpressed with Markle since she and Prince Harry abandoned their royal duties in 2020, alleging they were hounded out by a racist palace, a racist press and ultimately a racist public, with zero evidence of this supposedly foul treatment. According to YouGov, just a quarter of the public holds a favourable view of Markle and she ranks 14th – just above Prince Andrew – in the list of the most popular royals. Meanwhile, the liberal media continue to treat Meghan as a hero and saintly victim, splashing ever-more adoring column inches and lavish photoshoots on her.

This new 6,409-word Cut article has to be seen to be believed. It represents a spectacular failure of self-awareness, a bottomless brunch of Californian cringe. It begins with journalist Allison Davis being welcomed into the Sussexes’ vast Montecito mansion – described as ‘the kind of big that startles you into remembering that unimaginable wealth is actually someone’s daily reality’ – before Meghan proceeds to talk about her oppressive treatment in Britain and triumphant reinvention as a sort of faux-humanitarian influencer. The couple’s multimillion-dollar deals with Spotify and Netflix – the piece hints at a new fly-on-the-wall doc in the pipeline – are presented as somewhere between acts of public service and acts of self-realisation. ‘I feel different. I feel clearer. It’s like I’m finding – not finding my voice. I’ve had my voice for a long time, but being able to use it’, Meghan says of her new podcast, aimed at challenging the sexist stereotypes that supposedly hold women back.

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A Litany of Failure Assessing progressive criminal-justice policies Thomas Hogan

Posted By on August 30th, 2022

https://www.city-journal.org/the-failure-of-progressive-criminal-justice-reforms

For the last decade, radical prosecutors and progressive politicians have been proposing and enacting illogical criminal-justice policies, often with little consideration for the real-world effects of these ideas. Enough time has passed for an evidence-based assessment of how these policies have played out in the real world.

Gun Buybacks: Politicians in big cities believe that gun-buyback programs will reduce the violent crime that is spiking in America’s urban centers. But comprehensive research shows no evidence that such programs work. Philadelphia just completed a three-year gun-buyback program that yielded over 1,000 firearms. Not a single recovered firearm was linked to violent crime and, during the course of the program, Philadelphia set new all-time records for homicides. “It’s not reaching the area of the community that’s possessing illegal guns and using them,” says criminologist Joseph Giacalone. “It’s political theater.”

“Violence Interrupters”: Progressive prosecutors tout violence interrupters—former gang members and convicts who mediate disputes on the streets—as a serious weapon against crime. Cities led by “reform” prosecutors, such as Baltimore, Indianapolis, and Philadelphia have staked a lot on this idea. The results have not been encouraging. Multiple violence interrupters have been murdered in Baltimore. In Indianapolis, the former convict in charge of training violence interrupters was arrested for threatening a woman and had to be fired. In Philadelphia, a violence interrupter shot three people in a bar while he was working his anti-violence job. And a recent research paper states that violence interrupters, despite their tough histories, are suffering from severe trauma, mainly because they are being exposed to the type of violence that police officers face every day (imagine that). The real question for violence-interruption programs is whether they might be adding fuel to the fire of violent crime.

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The Short Life (And Amazingly Fast Death) Of The FBI’s Mar-A-Lago Play By: Christopher Bedford

Posted By on August 30th, 2022

https://thefederalist.com/2022/08/29/the-short-life-and-amazingly-fast-death-of-the-fbis-mar-a-lago-play/

Our country is far from healthy today, but a collective laugh at the FBI’s joke of an affidavit is a long-needed step in the right direction.

The FBI’s news cycle just ain’t the same as it once was.

Mere moments after the Department of Justice and FBI released the near-completely redacted affidavit they used to justify raiding former President Donald Trump’s home, their super-dooper-secrecy was the subject of widespread ridicule.

They didn’t even catch a full minute’s peace. No Republican senators rushed to their defense (though a few were notably quiet). There was no “let’s wait and see” from the usual deep state apologists.

Instead, both Republican politicians and center-right media were quick to hit back against what they correctly viewed as a middle finger to both the court that ordered the affidavit’s release, and the American people who expect transparency when the state raids its political opponents.

It’s good to see. It’s strong and healthy that not all Americans nod along when the FBI targets former presidents, murmuring that he must have done something wrong. This wasn’t always the case, though.

Just a few short years ago, the Department of Justice would enjoy the benefit of the doubt, from voters and politicians alike. Seven short years ago, we would have wondered what Trump had done that was so bad the straight-shooters at the DOJ couldn’t even tell us.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

China Threatens to Destroy Elon Musk’s Starlink by Judith Bergman

Posted By on August 30th, 2022

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18793/china-threatens-to-destroy-elon-musk-starlink

Chinese military researchers are threatening that Musk’s Starlink satellites must be destroyed. The problem, however, does not appear so much to be the fear of collision, but rather that China believes that Starlink could be used for military purposes and thereby threaten what China calls its national security.

“[A] combination of soft and hard kill methods should be adopted to make some Starlink satellites lose their functions and destroy the constellation’s operating system.” — Five senior scientists in China’s defense industry, led by Ren Yuanzhen, a researcher with the Beijing Institute of Tracking and Telecommunications, under the People Liberation Army’s (PLA’s) Strategic Support Force, by Stephen Chen, scmp.com, May 25,2022

Soft kill methods target software and operating systems of the satellites, whereas hard kill methods physically destroy the satellites….

Unsurprisingly, China has eagerly copied Elon Musk’s SpaceX to achieve its own space ambitions: China’s Long March 2C rocket, for instance, which China launched in the summer of 2019, had parts that were “virtually identical” to those that are used to steer the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

China’s threats against Musk’s Starlink is more proof that the country is not ready to let anyone stand in the way of its “fierce space game”, as China puts it.

In addition… China is forging ahead with a number of projects that will significantly accelerate the country’s space capabilities.

China has reportedly sped up its program to launch a solar power plant in space. The purpose of the plant is to transmit electricity to earth by converting solar energy to microwaves or laser and directing the energy to Earth, according to the South China Morning Post… It is probable that China got the idea from the US; NASA reportedly proposed a similar plan more than two decades ago but never went on to develop it.

China’s explicit goal is to become the world’s leading space power by 2045. It is important to keep in mind that China’s space program – even what might look like harmless, civil aspects of space exploration… – is heavily militarized.

Chinese military researchers recently called for the destruction of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites, an extraordinary threat for a state to make against a private foreign enterprise.

In December 2021, China filed a complaint with the United Nations, claiming that two of Musk’s Starlink satellites had nearly collided with the Tianhe module of its Tiangong Space Station — in April and October of 2021– and that Chinese astronauts had been forced to maneuver the module of the station to avoid the collision. Starlink is part of Elon Musk’s SpaceX and the satellites are part of a plan to make internet coverage from the satellites available worldwide, with the goal of launching nearly 12,000 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit.

MEDICINE AND HEALTH Comments turned off

Monkeypox Outbreak Leveling Off, No Thanks to Government Joel Zinberg M.D.

Posted By on August 30th, 2022

https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/08/monkeypox-outbreak-leveling-off-no-thanks-to-government/

People have incentives to protect themselves from infection without government mandates.

Something that apparently surprised government bureaucrats and left-wing commentators but is, in fact, completely predictable is happening: The growth in new monkeypox cases is leveling off and may be starting to decline, and the government had little to do with it. In New York City — the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak — the seven-day average of new cases actually peaked at the end of July and has been declining since. Similarly, new cases in California — the other most common site of U.S. illness — appear to have peaked in early August and subsequently declined.

Contrary to what some observers think, there is nothing perplexing about these developments. Economists have long known that people voluntarily change their behavior to avoid the risks and costs of infectious diseases. These changes in individual behaviors usually precede any government action and have a greater impact.

During the Covid pandemic, studies of cellphone-mobility data showed that people started to reduce their time outside the home and that businesses had declines in customer traffic before the government-imposed lockdowns. Canadian economist Douglas Allen reviewed nearly 20 studies that distinguished between voluntary and mandated lockdown effects. All of them found that mandated lockdowns had only marginal impact and that voluntary changes in behavior explained most of the changes in cases and deaths.

The current monkeypox outbreak is unusual in that it involves human-to-human transmission and has been almost exclusively between men who have sex with other men. We would expect members of the gay and bisexual community who value their health to engage in self-protective behavior.

HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

TSA is Allowing Illegal Immigrants on Planes with ARREST WARRANTS for ID Flying the friendly skies at taxpayer expense. Robert Spencer

Posted By on August 30th, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/08/house-republicans-want-know-why-tsa-allowing-robert-spencer/

Could the Biden administration all be some huge joke? A parody or some crazy dark comedy in which a career political hack with rapidly advancing dementia somehow becomes president and bumbles around as his radical handlers begin implementing a dizzying number of measures to weaken America and endanger Americans? Is there anything the Biden administration is doing that would make it clear that this is not actually what’s happening here?

The latest appalling news to come from Biden’s handlers is that they are allowing illegal immigrants to board commercial planes using their arrest warrants as identification. No, they’re not then arrested. They’re just flying the friendly skies, thanks to the munificence of Old Joe. Of course, that’s our money they’re spending, but what else is new?

Fox News reported Tuesday that some Republicans in the House are upset about this and are “calling for the Biden administration to provide additional information on what they call an ‘extremely troubling’ policy that allows illegal immigrants to board planes using civil arrest warrants and other related documents as ID.” Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) and twenty-three other Republicans wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, asking him why the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) allows illegal immigrants to fly around with “civil immigration arrest warrants and deportation orders” as their only identification.

The letter notes that aside from the obvious problems with this, “these documents are not secure documents and can easily be forged, copied, or otherwise manipulated. Given the fact that American citizens are constantly being reminded that their IDs will soon need to be REAL ID compliant to board an airplane, it is extremely troubling that TSA is allowing illegal aliens to use nonsecure documents as IDs to board planes.”

It’s also a testimony to the breakdown of the proper enforcement of the law under this administration’s misrule. An illegal immigrant with deportation orders shouldn’t be able to board a plane anywhere except to a destination somewhere outside the United States. Instead, the deportation papers themselves allow him or her a taxpayer-funded joyride.

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Moral Equivalence – or Moral Idiocy? Impediments to coherent thinking and moral clarity. Bruce Thornton

Posted By on August 30th, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/08/moral-equivalence-or-moral-idiocy-bruce-thornton/

“Moral equivalence” is a rhetorical device that equates two phenomena that are or appear to be equally moral or immoral. It generally is used in two ways. The first reflects, like the dying Mercutio’s “a pox on both your houses,” a disgust with both alternatives. Many voters, for example, believe the choice between Democrats and Republicans to be a false one, as both parties at heart serve the corporate and big-government interests of economic and social elites.

The other version of moral equivalence is more dangerous and insidious. It consciously ignores the fundamental differences, both factual and moral, between two contrasting political policies, factions, or ideologies in order to excuse or rationalize the more dangerous and destructive one. The Cold War and the Israeli-Arab conflicts are the most consequential––and dangerous––examples of this trope.

Both uses of “moral equivalence” are impediments to coherent thinking and moral clarity, though the “pox on both your houses” type is sometimes deserved. There are fundamental similarities that define the bipartisan, managerial elite establishment that for many justify rejecting both parties. That sentiment explains why we have a substantial number of voters who register as “independents,” as well as a substantial populist movement––and why Donald Trump was able to get elected president.

The Left’s typical habit of making Nazism and Soviet communism starkly opposed political systems illustrate the second type. This false contrast harmed our foreign policy by diminishing communism’s lethal totalitarianism and inhuman evil. In fact, Nazism and communism, whatever their superficial differences, in foundational terms were morally equivalent in their disrespect for human life, rights, and freedoms. As such, they were clear moral opposites to the liberal democracies that honor those unalienable rights.

This fact contradicts, for example, the Left’s false moral equivalence between the tyrannical Soviet Union and the free liberal democracies of the West. This canard was used to make the U.S. responsible for the Cold War, and to mask the role of Soviet aggression and subversion in fomenting the conflict. Oliver Stone’s 2012 “documentary” The Untold History of the United States is a textbook example of how a specious, ahistorical moral equivalence is used to make a moral condemnation of the United States as the instigator of the Cold War.

MEDIA Comments turned off

The New York Times and its devouring obsession with President Trump By David Zukerman

Posted By on August 30th, 2022

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/08/the_new_york_times_and_its_devouring_obsession_with_president_trump.html

The first time The New York Times demanded a special prosecutor to investigate President Trump, was less than a month after his inauguration.

From the opening paragraph of its February 17, 2017 editorial, the call for a special prosecutor was based on the fabrication conceived by the Hillary Clinton-based resistance that the president was a Putin agent — and the Times colluded, seeking to overthrow a legitimately-elected president.

Then, on May 11, 2017, a contributor for the publication urged Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to name a special prosecutor to investigate President Trump. Less than a week later, following the firing of FBI director James Comey, Rosenstein tapped Robert Mueller to be special counsel.

Six days after that, the paper published an op-ed calling for an investigation of President Trump’s dismissal of FBI director James Comey, arguing that the firing may have constituted a criminal act by the president.

And just two days ago, the Times took the rhetoric to a new level, and called for the former president to be indicted — apparently in hopes that its editorial lightning will strike again. Having succeeded in pressing Mr. Rosenstein to appoint Mueller to investigate a sitting president after just four months, it appears that the Times is now confident they can replicate the situation and pressure Attorney General Merrick Garland to indict former President Trump. Garland will be as obsequious to the Times diktat as was the craven Mr. Rosenstein. (And with nary a Republican voice in Congress heard in protest!)

Here is the title of the August 28, 2022 New York Times editorial, in boldface letters:

Donald Trump Is Not Above the Law

The Times editorial is predictable in that from February 2017 to the present, the paper has demanded the investigation, the impeachment, the ouster of Mr. Trump. It’s also pathetic, wallowing for six years and counting, in its obsession with the former president. To what end? Banishment to St. Helena, if not imprisonment?

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Cancel Culture Infests Cornell’s Law School By Civis Americanus

Posted By on August 30th, 2022

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/08/cancel_culture_infests_cornells_law_school.html

If you’re a prospective law student, do you want to pay $74,000 a year to attend Cornell University’s Law School whose faculty members publish what looks like a false accusation of murder and can’t seem to do better than play “woke pigeon chess” in the court of public opinion, or $25,400 a year for in-state tuition at the State University of New York in Buffalo? SUNY’s web page says, “Our students graduate to work at the same law firms and earn the same starting salaries as those who attend pricey private law schools.” The difference comes to almost $150,000 over three years and, from where I sit, I don’t see what an attorney gets from Cornell for that kind of money.

Law professor William Jacobson reports, “There’s an effort to get me fired at Cornell for criticizing the Black Lives Matter Movement” and, from what I have seen, Jacobson’s criticisms are accurate. Dean Eduardo Peñalver nonetheless used a Cornell web page to say, “In light of this deep and rich tradition of walking the walk of racial justice, in no uncertain terms, recent blog posts of Professor William Jacobson, casting broad and categorical aspersions on the goals of those protesting for justice for Black Americans, do not reflect the values of Cornell Law School as I have articulated them.”

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Who Are The Real ‘Semi-Fascists’?

Posted By on August 30th, 2022

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/08/30/who-are-the-real-semi-fascists/

President Joe Biden caused quite a stir late last week after accusing supporters of former President Donald Trump of following a political creed of “semi-fascism.” But it’s yet another case of the far-left Democratic Party projecting its own grievous sins on the political opposition.

This was Saul Alinsky’s 13th rule: “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” The Biden administration and the Democrats are following this rule to a T.

They constantly call Republicans, conservatives and those “deplorable” moderate Americans in middle America the most vile names – “racists,” “fascists,” “Nazis,” and worse – and have launched an all-out, non-stop Deep State campaign against the man they fear the most, Donald Trump.

Thus came this not entirely unexpected but wholly unpresidential and hate-filled diatribe by Biden just last week:

“What we’re seeing now is the beginning or the death knell of an extreme MAGA philosophy. It’s not just Trump, it’s the entire philosophy … it’s like semi-fascism,” Biden charged at last Thursday’s Democratic National Committee “Build a Better America” rally in Rockville, Maryland.

“Trump and the extreme MAGA Republicans have made their choice,”  Biden went on. “To go backwards, full of anger, violence, hate and division.

“We’re at a serious moment in our nation’s history. The MAGA Republicans don’t just threaten our personal rights and economic security, they’re a threat to our very democracy,” he added. “They refuse to accept the will of the people, they embrace political violence.”