NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The D.C. BLM Insurrectionists Get a Pass It’s okay to riot in D.C., and assault government buildings and police officers again. Daniel Greenfield

Posted By on April 21st, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/04/dc-blm-insurrectionists-get-pass-daniel-greenfield/

The face of the Black Lives Matter insurrectionist who was arrested in Washington D.C. with an axe, a laser, and a “destructive device” will not be plastered by the FBI over any local billboards. 

The BLM insurrections who rioted in Washington D.C. over the death of Daunte Wright, who had choked a woman to steal her rent money, threw fireworks and heavy objects at police. They shone lasers in the eyes of police officers and vandalized the Columbus monument with the obscene and hateful graffiti of a racist black supremacist movement. And they’ll get a pass.

Even when the racist insurrectionist mob chanted, “burn the precinct to the ground.” 

While the D.C. police department has asked for the public’s helpin identifying one of the BLM insurrections who attacked a police officer and is offering a reward, the national media has not picked up the story the way that it did when there was an effort underway to identify the Capitol rioters, nor has the FBI taken to buying billboards asking anyone who knows the thug for tips.

Fighting with a police officer in January was profoundly morally different than doing so in April. 

That’s all the more striking since the D.C. Metro police force is 52% black, while the Capitol Police are 29% black. Black lives don’t matter when they’re also blue. Just ask Captain Dorn.

Only a handful of months after the media agonized over the spectacle of a riot in D.C. and our political class acted as if fights between protesters and police was some inexplicably horrifying event, worse than 9/11 and Pearl Harbor put together, instead of the top outdoor sport of 2020, it’s okay to riot in D.C., assault government buildings, and call for burning them down.

POLITICS Comments turned off

7 Reasons Why Democrats Are Obsessed With Race From the perspective of power politics, it makes perfect sense. Don Feder

Posted By on April 21st, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/04/7-reasons-why-democrats-are-obsessed-race-don-feder/

It’s almost impossible for a Democrat to get through the day without saying something about race – something really stupid.

Last week, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Biden’s UN Ambassador, said white supremacy is “weaved [sic] into our founding documents [including the Constitution] and principles.” You know, like “all men created equal” and “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.” You gotta be a Klansman to believe that stuff.

On the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (Red China, which practically runs the UN, systematically suppresses racial minorities which might challenge its rule), Joe Biden — who once said school busing would create a “racial jungle” — again took aim at the “systematic racism and white supremacy” which he says have long plagued our laws and institutions.

“Racism is real in America and always has been,” squawked Kamala Harris, who practically called Biden racist during the Democrat primary campaign.

If systematic racism and white supremacy weren’t enough, the left insists that we also confront “institutionalized racism,” “white privilege,” “white fragility” (whites who refused to admit their racism) and “whiteness” – in order to reach the promised land of “racial justice,” “racial equality” and “racial equity.”

Democrats call anything that challenges their misrule racist – including Georgia’s election reform (an attempt to “disenfranchise minorities”), gun ownership (In 2008, Obama said Middle Americans bitterly cling to guns and “antipathy to people who aren’t like them”), the Electoral College, the Senate filibuster (“a remnant of Jim Crow”), voter ID laws, capitalism and the Constitution.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Top Ten Most Racist Colleges and Universities: #8 Cornell University Caught restricting enrollment by race.

Posted By on April 21st, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/04/top-ten-most-racist-colleges-and-universities-8-toptenracistuniversitiesorg/

#8: Cornell University

Racially segregated education was ruled unconstitutional more than 60 years ago in the famous Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision, but Cornell University is attempting to revive it in the 21st century.

In a throwback to the era of Jim Crow, a racially-segregated physical education class titled “BIPOC Rock Climbing” was offered at the university during the Spring 2021 academic semester. According to the official course description on the university’s website, course registration was restricted to “people who identify as Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, or other people of color.”  In other words, no whites allowed.

When conservative watchdog group Campus Reform inquired about the discriminatory enrollment criteria for the course—a clear violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prohibits institutions receiving federal funds from discriminating on the basis of race or national origin—the university quickly backtracked. The course description was changed (slightly) and now states that the class is “designed to enable Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, or other people of color underrepresented in the sport of rock climbing to learn the sport and to feel included and supported.”

“The class is open to all Cornell students interested in learning rock climbing with this special focus,” the edited course description now states.

While students who do not fit into these minority categories are no longer strictly prohibited from enrolling, the intent to maintain a segregated racial environment in the class is abundantly clear.

Cornell Senior Director of Media Relations and News, John Carberry, claimed in a statement that “all Cornell students” are “welcome” to enroll in BIPOC rock climbing—a statement that is clearly in contradiction with the original course description.

“While the original description of the course represented an intentional focus on outreach and inclusion, there was never an intent to exclude non-minority students,” Carberry added, noting that “The description of the course has been adjusted accordingly.”

For deliberately encouraging unconstitutional segregation in official university programs, Cornell deserves its place on the list of America’s most racist universities.

Watch the video HERE. 

ISRAEL, POLITICS Comments turned off

Sens. Sanders, Warren call for ‘restricting’ US aid to Israel at J Street confab: Jacob Magid

Posted By on April 21st, 2021

https://www.timesofisrael.com/sens-sanders-warren-call-for-restricting-us-aid-to-israel-at-j-street-confab/

Progressive lawmakers urge Israel to help vaccinate Palestinians, say foreign assistance shouldn’t be used to advance policies that ‘violate Palestinian rights’

Prominent progressive senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren both used their Monday addresses at the J Street lobby’s national conference to call for regulating US aid to Israel, asserting that such assistance should not be allowed to bankroll Israeli policies in the West Bank that damage prospects for a two-state solution.

The stances appeared to mark a shift by more left-wing Democrats away from talk of “conditioning” aid to Israel to “restricting” it.

The former term was used by several candidates during the recent US presidential campaign, including Sanders and Warren — implying that some or all of the $3.8 billion in aid that the US has agreed to give Israel over a 10-year period should potentially be withheld based on actions taken by the Israeli government.

In shifting to talk of “restricting” aid, progressive Democrats, with J Street’s backing, are not calling to limit the amount of already-agreed-upon aid, but are rather seeking greater control of how it may and may not be used.

“If we’re serious about arresting settlement expansion and helping move the parties toward a two-state solution, then it would be irresponsible not to consider all of the tools we have at our disposal,” Warren told J Street in prerecorded remarks played on the second day of the left-wing, pro-Israel lobby’s virtual conference.

“One of those is restricting military aid from being used in the occupied territories. By continuing to provide military aid without restriction, we provide no incentive for Israel to adjust course,” she added.

The Republican Jewish Committee lashed out at Warren’s remarks, calling them “disgusting.”

“To advocate, as Sen. Warren does, that the US pressure Israel to make concessions to the Palestinians while the Palestinian Authority condemns Israel’s existence, incites violence against Israel and Jews everywhere, and continues its ‘Pay for Slay’ salaries to terrorists and their families, is disgusting,” said RJC executive director Matt Brooks.

For his part, Sanders also declared himself in favor of the US using its aid as leverage.

“I strongly believe that we must also be willing to bring real pressure to bear, including restricting US aid, in response to moves by either side that undermine the chances for peace,” he said.

“The truth is that the United States gives an enormous amount of military aid to Israel. It also provides some humanitarian and economic aid to the Palestinians. It is totally appropriate for the United States to say what that aid may and may not be used for,” Sanders argued.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

HOLDING ON TO POWER: AFRICA’S LONGEST-SERVING LEADERS

Posted By on April 21st, 2021

https://ewn.co.za/2021/04/20/holding-on-to-power-africa-s-longest-serving-leaders

Here are some of Africa’s other longest-serving leaders, some of whom change the constitution, crush the opposition and use fear and violence to maintain their grip on power.

N’DJAMENA, Chad – After three decades in power, Chad’s President Idriss Deby died on Tuesday from wounds suffered on the battlefield, the army said in a shock announcement just a day after the 68-year-old was re-elected to a sixth term.

Here are some of Africa’s other longest-serving leaders, some of whom change the constitution, crush the opposition and use fear and violence to maintain their grip on power.

MORE THAN 30 YEARS

Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema is Africa’s longest-serving leader, still in power after 41 years. He deposed his uncle in a 1979 coup, and became “the country’s god” with “all power over men and things”, state radio said.

Obiang, the world’s most enduring non-royal head of state, was last re-elected in 2016.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Derek Chauvin Convicted — but What Comes Next? By Andrew C. McCarthy

Posted By on April 21st, 2021

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/04/derek-chauvin-convicted-but-what-comes-next/

“Nevertheless, there is a serious question about whether Derek Chauvin got a fair trial. That is a separate question from whether the evidence was compelling. And to be sure, the stronger the evidence, the harder it is to show that due process was denied. A reviewing court is apt to conclude that even exemplary due process would not have made a difference.”

While the guilty verdicts are rational and defensible, the speedy nature of the decision could lead to problems for prosecutors in the appellate process.

D erek Chauvin has been convicted on all three counts.

For those who’ve watched the Chauvin trial, the only quick verdict that seemed rationally possible was a verdict of guilty. While I’ve been more skeptical than most commentators about the intent proof on the two murder counts (felony murder and depraved-indifference homicide), I thought the evidence on the manslaughter count — “culpable negligence,” for which it is unnecessary for prosecutors to prove criminal intent — was daunting.

Consequently, if we are sticking just to the testimony in the trial, it would be implausible — I’m tempted to say, impossible — that a rapid acquittal could have been defended as rational.

As things have turned out, the jury deliberated for less than a day. As this is written, the reporting indicates that the jury submitted no notes to the court to ask questions about the record, to request to hear any testimony reread, to seek any finer-point guidance on the law that controls the case. (I am hedging about the reporting because some matters in the case, particularly those involving the jury, have not been public.)

Word that the jury had so quickly reached a verdict signaled that Chauvin would be convicted.

The logic of the quick verdict is defensible. If the jury started with the felony-murder charge, Count One, they would have needed to find that Chauvin’s restraint and subdual of George Floyd evolved into a criminal assault. To convert what began as a lawful detention into a criminal assault, the jury would have focused on the fact that, for several minutes after Floyd had stopped breathing and lost his pulse, Chauvin maintained the back-and-neck hold — even for a minute after the ambulance arrived.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Tokyo Flexes Its Talons Suga was hawkish on China, but the soft-power U.S.-Japan alliance needs work. Walter Russell Mead

Posted By on April 21st, 2021

https://www.wsj.com/articles/tokyo-flexes-its-talons-11618871351?mod=opinion_featst_pos3

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s visit to the White House is being hailed in both countries as a major success. On the American side, officials rejoiced that Mr. Suga aligned Japan with U.S. talking points in Asia. As the prime minister said at a joint press conference, America and Japan both “oppose any attempt to change the status quo by force or coercion in the East and South China seas and intimidation of others in the region.” References to the Taiwan Straits and the situation in Xinjiang added to the impression that Tokyo is becoming more forthright in supporting a tougher U.S. line.

On the Japanese side, there was also much to be happy about. President Biden chose Mr. Suga for his first Oval Office meeting with a foreign leader, an unmistakable sign of the priority the Biden administration attaches to the relationship. Better still, American officials didn’t press the prime minister for a list of specific commitments that might have been difficult to sell at home—or that would ignite a firestorm in the volatile relationship between Beijing and Tokyo.

Mr. Suga hedged comments on Taiwan and Xinjiang carefully. On Taiwan, he said at the joint press conference that the summit “reaffirmed” the U.S.-Japan consensus. On Xinjiang he said that he had “explained Japan’s position and initiatives” to the president. Neither the press conference nor the joint statement Messrs. Biden and Suga issued after their discussion used the word “genocide.”

While Washington and Tokyo broadly agree about the risks of China’s behavior, Japan still prefers to stay a few steps behind America. Geography, economics and history all connect Japan to China. While officials in Tokyo fully understand that China’s growing military might and territorial assertiveness require a robust Japanese response, neither the country’s business community nor the public wants to be too confrontational with a neighboring superpower. On military and human rights issues alike, the Japanese consensus is shifting, but Tokyo’s postwar tradition of cautious diplomacy won’t change overnight.

And then there is the American question. The oscillations in U.S. policy under both President Obama and President Trump left Japan with a severe case of whiplash. Mr. Obama’s flaccid response to China’s construction of artificial islands in the South China Sea horrified Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government. Mr. Obama made the Trans-Pacific Partnership the centerpiece of his Asia policy, but Mr. Trump campaigned against it before rejecting the deal in office.

Tokyo cannot be 100% sure where the Biden administration’s China policy is going. While Mr. Suga was in Washington, John Kerry was in China pushing for a grand bargain on climate. The Biden administration’s rhetoric on issues ranging from Taiwan to Xinjiang is hawkish, but Mr. Biden has proposed a small cut to the defense budget, adjusted for inflation. Under the circumstances, Mr. Suga’s most prudent course was to avoid offending anyone in Washington without unduly shocking China—and this is what he seems to have accomplished.

The alliance with Japan is the single most important international relationship America has. Without Japan’s economic weight, technological capabilities and geographical position, the U.S. cannot build an effective coalition to balance China. But without strong and stable American support, Japan can’t last as an independent great power in China’s front yard.

BOOKS, EDUCATION Comments turned off

Woke culture is ‘infecting schools’ and turning education into indoctrination by ‘poisoning’ children’s minds, ‘Woke Inc’ author warns By Ariel Zilber

Posted By on April 21st, 2021

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9487093/Woke-culture-infecting-schools-turning-education-indoctrination-author-warns.html

American schools are ‘going down the tubes’ because they have been ‘infected’ with ‘woke culture’ that has ‘sacrificed the idea of excellence’ by ‘indoctrinating’ students, according to a leading critic.

Vivek Ramaswamy spoke out in response to two separate controversies that impacted elite New York City prep schools where parents complained their children were being brainwashed with anti-racism ideology.

Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur and the author of Woke, Inc, compared the wave of ‘wokeness’ in schools to China’s Cultural Revolution of the 60s and 70s, when the people were indoctrinated with Maoism by the Communist Party.

Ramaswamy added: ‘We have also sacrificed the idea of excellence and when we have gotten rid of excellence, I think our schools are going down the tubes.’  

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

There will be no riots protesting the shooting of 7-year-old Jaslyn Adams By Thomas Lifson

Posted By on April 21st, 2021

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/04/there_will_be_no_riots_protesting_the_shooting_of_7yearold_jaslyn_adams.html

The shooting death of 13-year-old Adam Toledo in a Chicago alley is a horrible heartbreak, but what about the death of 7-year-old Jaslyn Adams?  Adam Toledo’s death has sparked protests and riots in Chicago and all over the country, but I suspect Jaslyn’s will be just another statistic.

Madeline Kenney, Jermaine Nolen, and Cindy Hernandez of the Chicago Sun-Times report:

A 7-year-old girl was killed and her father was seriously wounded in a shooting Sunday afternoon as they were getting food at a McDonald’s drive-thru in the Homan Square neighborhood.

The father, Jontae Adams, 28, and his daughter, Jaslyn, were in a silver Infiniti about 4:20 p.m. at the McDonald’s, 3200 W. Roosevelt Road, when they were shot, Chicago police said. A McDonald’s employee, who asked not to be named, said two people got out of a gray car and started shooting at the victim’s car. (snip)

Police said the shooting was believed to be gang-related, and less than three hours later, two people were shot in their car at a Popeyes in Humboldt Park, which investigators believe is connected to the McDonald’s shooting.

There is no police body cam video of Jaslyn’s death, of course, because it was gangbangers who likely killed her as collateral damage.  Gangs are killing hundreds of people in Chicago each year.  The latest figure (from April 14) I can find for shootings in Chicago (the overwhelming number of which are gang-related) is 864 people so far this year, 218 more than last year.

MEDIA Comments turned off

Some Real Truths About Fake News Peter Roff

Posted By on April 21st, 2021

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/04/21/some-real-truths-about-fake-news/

The folks who came up with the term “fake news” – no one has ever claimed credit for it – probably rue the day they did. Originally the term was going to be used to discredit anything that appeared in an outlet that wasn’t part of the media elite which contradicted the dominant liberal narrative or painted progressives and their policies in an unfavorable light.

Oh, for the schemes of mice and men, as Robert Burns put it.

Before those behind this grand experiment in thought control could get all the fact-checkers, news outlets, and academics ready to make it work, Donald Trump appeared on the scene and expropriated the term. In the blink of an eye, what was supposed to be an ad hominem attack on Fox News and other conservative outlets came to be synonymous with liberal media distortions of the day’s news. 

Now, say published reports, it appears “fake news” is a real thing and, just as the liberals alleged, there are a couple of Murdochs behind it all. Only it’s not Rupert. It’s his younger son from his first marriage James who, along with his wife Kathryn reportedly made significant contributions to a political action committee linked to a genuinely fake news operation allied with the Democrats.

The younger Murdoch, who at one time occupied senior management positions in companies owned by his father as well as a member of the News Corp. board of directors, severed his ties with the family business several years ago, allegedly over concerns of information bias. How odd it is then that he and his wife are now linked to a $500,000 contribution to Pacronym, a super PAC that, according to its website is “affiliated with ACRONYM” – a group that Federal Elections Commission records indicate funded a pseudo-news outlet called “Courier Newsroom,” which circulated Democratic Party and anti-Trump propaganda disguised as legitimate reporting.