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Che Guevara

Best of the Web: Democrats make mockery of Barr 'hearing'

Andrew C. McCarthy
National Review
Tue, 28 Jul 2020 20:39 UTC
william barr attorney general
US AG William Barr, worthy of the honorific.
If it's a "hearing," Bill Barr asked with an irked tongue in cheek, "aren't I the one who's supposed to be heard?"

His frustration was more than justified. Judiciary Committee chairman Jerry Nadler (D., N.Y.) and the other Democrats who control the House demanded for months that Barr come to a "hearing" and "testify." But of course, it wasn't anything like an actual hearing, and they didn't want him to testify — as in actually answer questions. The session was a coveted election-year opportunity for Democrats to berate the attorney general of the United States in five-minute installments, accusing Barr of corruption, perjury, violating his oath, betraying the Constitution — at one point, even of killing thousands of COVID-19 victims (apparently, by being attorney general during a pandemic).

Especially at the beginning of the hearing, Barr easily parried the hostile questions — soliloquies with question-marks at the end. He picked apart their misstatements and disingenuous premises, and answered with aplomb. Democrats thus dropped the threadbare pretense that this was a hearing. In the main, the rest of the afternoon was devoted to raging, mock-anguished perorations about how Trump is a dictator and how Barr is helping him destroy our democracy.

These were punctuated by the occasional petulant demand that Barr answer "yes or no" a question that was either loaded or incoherent. When Barr would begin to answer, there would be foot-stomping, indignant, "I'm reclaiming my time" interruptions, claims that there was no question pending (usually after a question had just been posed), and then more Democrat filibustering about how the American people could clearly see that Barr was afraid to answer their questions . . . that they wouldn't let him answer.

It was an embarrassing spectacle.

Comment: Here's just one 'questioning' of the United States Attorney General that took place yesterday. This basically went on for 4 hours! Barr was stoic and funny in handling the Democrazis on this occasion, but the author is correct that the hyper-partisan nature of US politics spells doom for the US...


Actually, hang on... here's another sample of yesterday's 'hearing':




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Die

Best of the Web: This is a critical point in US history. We've entered a dangerous, chilling period that could lead to a race or civil war

Mitchell Feierstein
RT
Wed, 29 Jul 2020 19:19 UTC
U.S. flag burns
© REUTERS/Ringo ChiuA U.S. flag burns by protesters at Donald Trump's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame during an anti-Trump rally in in Los Angeles, California, U.S., July 4, 2020
American democracy is in peril. Russiagate, Stormy Daniels, a politically motivated impeachment... the repeated coups d'états to try to remove an elected president, all show that Democrats will stop at nothing to overthrow Trump.

The Democratic Party and its willing cabal of party activists will do anything in its power to get rid of Donald Trump. This cabal works hand in hand with their friends over at the fake news media who report that the widespread rioting, race wars, looting and arson are nothing more than "peaceful protests." The stark choice on offer for the 2020 US Presidential election is a modified Trump or Biden's unknown handlers.

Documents declassified by the Director of National Intelligence John Radcliffe and released last week are excellent examples of this cabal in operation. These prove that in 2016, the top law enforcement agency in the USA, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, used "defensive briefings" to illegally spy on the president-elect to help further the fatuous and baseless Trump/Russia allegations. Were Obama and Biden involved? This was a coordinated attempt to stage a coup d'état against the 45th democratically elected president of the United States of America, Donald J Trump.

Comment: It doesn't matter who wins or loses in November, the manipulators will continue to play their games while the rest of society suffers.

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Gold Seal

Best of the Web: Impressions from an informal meeting with Asma al-Assad, Syria's first lady

Eva Bartlett
ingaza.wordpress.com
Wed, 29 Jul 2020 18:28 UTC
asma assad
© facebook.com/AsmaalAssad.FirstLady/
I had been sitting in a small entrance room for what seemed less than a minute when the door opened and Syria's first lady, Her Excellency Asma al-Assad, greeted me with a warm smile, welcoming me inside a slightly larger sitting room. In official meetings I had had over the years in Syria, I was accustomed to a secretary or assistant escorting me into the meeting room. Asma al-Assad, however, does things up close and personal.

Over the years in Syria, I had heard from people I encountered that she and President Assad routinely meet with their fellow Syrians in crowded venues, mixing and engaging with the people. I had also seen countless photos and videos of the Assads visiting Syrians in their homes around the country.

While I have been to Syria over a dozen times in the past seven years, it had never occurred to me to request a meeting with the first lady. But when that opportunity recently presented itself, I leapt at the chance to speak with one of the most beloved figures in Syria, and to hear her thoughts on her country, her fellow Syrians, and on the plights they are all in. And as it turned out, it was a chance to hear her poignant insights on her role as a mother, a citizen, the wife of the President and a leader in her own right.

Even before assuming the role of Syria's first lady, Asma al-Assad made it a priority to focus on the development of Syria, and over the years since she's headed organizations focusing on a range of development issues, including financial, educational and vocational. To effectively work on the many issues she does, her level of awareness of Syrians' situation on the ground is crucial.
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Cross

Best of the Web: Why is wokeness the only protected religion in America?

Micah Curtis
RT
Wed, 29 Jul 2020 18:17 UTC
George Floyd mural
© Getty Images / Joshua Lott for The Washington PostA woman prays outside Scott Food Mart at a makeshift memorial and a mural for George Floyd in the 3rd Ward on June 9, 2020 in Houston, Texas
With a law being proposed by the Senate to withhold Covid relief funds to states that discriminate against the religious, a question needs to be asked. Why does the Church of Woke get special treatment?

The First Amendment of the American Constitution outlines that the Government will not show favoritism for or against any religion. As such, persecution against religious groups is decidedly unconstitutional. Keep in mind that the Puritans were fleeing England for America for exactly that reason. However, with the Covid-19 situation we've seen quite a bit of hammering down on religious services.

Gatherings of the Church of Woke, however, don't get such scrutiny.

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) introduced the SACRED act (Safeguarding Americans from Coronavirus and Religious Exercise Discrimination) that would withhold Covid-19 relief funds from states that have hammered on the religious for exercise of religion. This would include situations such as Jews being fined during a New Jersey funeral for not practicing "proper" social distancing.

In another example, a drive-thru Christian church service in Mississippi saw people being ticked $500 each for attending. There is now a lawsuit being filed against the police for this action. Keep in mind they stayed in their cars. There was also the situation of Rodney Howard, though his case was much earlier during the pandemic, bringing much more scrutiny. Many churches were forced to shut down by the government, and as a response President Trump declared them essential in May.
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Sheriff

Best of the Web: Myth of systemic police racism

Heather Mac Donald
Wall Street Journal
Tue, 02 Jun 2020 18:17 UTC
Atlanta police
© REUTERS / Elijah NouvelagePolice officers stand guard during a Juneteenth protest in Atlanta.
George Floyd's death in Minneapolis has revived the Obama-era narrative that law enforcement is endemically racist. On Friday, Barack Obama tweeted that for millions of black Americans, being treated differently by the criminal justice system on account of race is "tragically, painfully, maddeningly 'normal.' " Mr. Obama called on the police and the public to create a "new normal," in which bigotry no longer "infects our institutions and our hearts."

Joe Biden released a video the same day in which he asserted that all African-Americans fear for their safety from "bad police" and black children must be instructed to tolerate police abuse just so they can "make it home." That echoed a claim Mr. Obama made after the ambush murder of five Dallas officers in July 2016. During their memorial service, the president said African-American parents were right to fear that their children may be killed by police officers whenever they go outside.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz denounced the "stain . . . of fundamental, institutional racism" on law enforcement during a Friday press conference. He claimed blacks were right to dismiss promises of police reform as empty verbiage.

This charge of systemic police bias was wrong during the Obama years and remains so today. However sickening the video of Floyd's arrest, it isn't representative of the 375 million annual contacts that police officers have with civilians. A solid body of evidence finds no structural bias in the criminal-justice system with regard to arrests, prosecution or sentencing. Crime and suspect behavior, not race, determine most police actions.
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Fire

Best of the Web: Portland 'looks like downtown Baghdad' as 'homemade bomb explodes at protest'

Danielle Cinone
The Sun
Wed, 29 Jul 2020 15:35 UTC
explosives bomb portland courthouse
© TwitterVideo captured what appears to be an explosive device being detonated at a Portland Courthouse
Portland was left "looking like downtown Baghdad" after violence erupted at protests and a homemade bomb exploded in a fireball outside a federal courthouse.

A "Molotov cocktail, or similar destructive device" was hurled at a federal building in the early hours of Tuesday morning in Oregon's largest city. Violent protests have plagued the city of Portland since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

A Deputy US Marshal, who requested to remain anonymous and has been working outside the courthouse for weeks, called his surroundings "scary."

"You open those doors out, when the crowd is shaking the fence, and - on the other side of that fence are people that want to kill you because of the job we chose to do and what we represent," he explained.

"I can't walk outside without being in fear for my life. I am worried for my life, every time I walk outside of the building."

Comment:

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Dollars

Best of the Web: How LGBT nonprofits and their billionaire patrons are reshaping the world

Jennifer Bilek
The American Conservative
Mon, 27 Jul 2020 00:01 UTC
transgender flag
© Ink Drop/Shutterstock
Transgender ideology is being pushed on us by corporate interests through their philanthropic arms.

In an August 2018 New Yorker article, Elizabeth Kolbert asks, "Are today's donor classes solving problems or creating new ones?" Kolbert describes a form of charity that aims to not just help people but to improve them. This "improvement" aligns with the giver's particular vision of what constitutes improvement, of course. And the people who need to be improved are treated as children — for whom the donor, naturally, gets to decide what is best.

Kolbert describes how this form of giving becomes exploitation. We might add: not just exploitation, but elite-driven, highly self-interested social engineering. We see these characteristics on brilliant display in the philanthropy behind the modern LGBT movement.

Comment: See also:

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X

Best of the Web: Facebook, Google/YouTube, Twitter censor viral video of doctors' Capitol Hill coronavirus press conference

Allum Bokhari
Breitbart
Mon, 27 Jul 2020 00:01 UTC
America's Frontline Doctors
Facebook has removed a video posted by Breitbart News earlier today, which was the top-performing Facebook post in the world Monday afternoon, of a press conference in D.C. held by the group America's Frontline Doctors and organized and sponsored by the Tea Party Patriots. The press conference featured Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) and frontline doctors sharing their views and opinions on coronavirus and the medical response to the pandemic. YouTube (which is owned by Google) and Twitter subsequently removed footage of the press conference as well.

The video accumulated over 17 million views during the eight hours it was hosted on Facebook, with over 185,000 concurrent viewers.

Comment: This level of censorship is truly without precedent. Taking down a press conference, unarguably a news event, hosted by a Republican Senator, of board certified doctors, and similarly taking down a communication by the President of the United States is both brash and dangerous. Big Tech has gone well beyond being too big for their britches.

UPDATE: The censorship continues. From RT:
Trump Jr. locked out of Twitter account for sharing controversial video defending HCQ as Covid-19 cure
28 Jul, 2020 15:01

Donald Trump Jr has been given a "temporary lockout" from his Twitter account after violating the social media company's "misinformation policy" by sharing a video defending hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) as a Covid-19 "cure."

"This is a must watch!! So different from the narrative everyone is running with!" Trump Jr., the president's eldest son, originally wrote when sharing the video. The clip has been removed repeatedly from social media sites.

...

President Donald Trump tweeted the very same video - he has spoken of the antimalarial's benefits in the past, though studies have shown varying results - and the tweet was removed, but he appears to have not been suspended like his son was, as he has tweeted since then.

...

Twitter said through a spokesperson that this is not a "suspension," but instead a "temporary lockout." To end the "lockout," Trump Jr. must willingly delete the tweet himself. It has been replaced on his page with a message that simply reads: "this tweet is no longer available." The same message can be found on the president's Twitter page in place of his own tweet that shared the video.

The video itself was originally streamed by conservative news outlet Breitbart and featured doctors, proclaiming themselves to be 'America's Frontline Doctors,' talking about the benefits of HCQ and claiming masks are not needed to stop the spread of coronavirus. The credentials of some in the video have since come into question, and the video has been actively purged from social media pages for spreading "misinformation" about the current pandemic.

Trump Jr's Twitter lockout has only added fuel to the fire for people already accusing social media companies of bias against conservatives.

"If you don't think this is about CONTROL, YOU AREN'T PAYING ATTENTION," Blaze TV host Sara Gonzalez tweeted in reaction.

"Despicable,"wrote political pundit and strategist Bryan Dean Wright.

Last month, US Attorney General William Barr announced a broad antitrust investigation into big tech companies, including an examination of their online practices, with potential actions likely dropping before the summer is up.


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People 2

Best of the Web: The myth of pervasive misogyny

Cory Clark and Bo Winegard
Quillette
Mon, 27 Jul 2020 06:56 UTC
mannequins
© Sara Kurfeß
Many feminists and progressives argue that the West is plagued by pervasive misogyny. In fact, this claim is made with such frequency, and is so rarely challenged, that it has become part of the Left's catechism of victimhood, repeated by rote without a second thought. The only real question is how powerful and pernicious the misogyny is. Real-world data, however, suggest a different narrative, complicated by the fact that men have worse outcomes in many domains. For example, they are much more likely to be incarcerated, to be shot by the police, to be a victim of violent crime, to be homeless, to commit suicide, and to die on the job or in combat than women. Furthermore, they have a shorter life expectancy and are less likely to be college educated than women. Although these (and similar) data can be reconciled with the pervasive misogyny theory, they should at least give pause to the open-minded. The best data from contemporary social science tell a rather different story and suggest that the very persistence of the pervasive misogyny narrative is itself a manifestation of the opposite: society is largely biased in favor of women.

The world, of course, is a messy place and disparities between men and women may have many causes. This is why carefully controlled social science is useful for examining the extent, direction, and nature of sex-related biases. Although the details can get complicated, the basic idea behind most bias studies is pretty straightforward. Researchers present participants with identical information that has some bearing on the abilities of males or females while manipulating which sex the information is about. For example, they might ask two groups of people to evaluate identical essays, telling one group that it was written by a man and the other group that it was written by a woman. If participants who believed the essay was written by a man evaluated it as more compelling, more intelligent, more insightful, and so on than participants who believed it was written by a woman, psychologists would consider that a bias in favor of men. Similarly, if one asked two groups of people to evaluate identical scientific studies that discovered that either men or women performed better on a measure of leadership, and participants who read that men outperformed women regarded the study as higher quality than participants who read that women outperformed men, psychologists would consider this a male-favoring bias (everyday people consider such patterns to be biases as well).
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Biohazard

Best of the Web: Eco-genocide, genetically engineered mosquito armies and subduing populations

Whitney Webb & Raul Diego
The Last Vagabond
Sat, 25 Jul 2020 00:00 UTC
Bill gates mosquito
The enemies of life are breeding their own agents of ecological destruction aided and abetted by an incompetent EPA and a rubber-stamp government in Florida, which just gave unanimous approval for the release of hundreds of millions of genetically modified mosquitoes by a company with deep ties to Bill Gates, the US military, and Big Ag.

In a move sure to stun future generations — should we survive long enough to have any — seven Florida government agencies, including those charged with protecting its health, agriculture and environment, made a complete mockery of the trust afforded to them by the people of the state to oversee these vital matters and may have just pulled the trigger on a catastrophic environmental collapse.

The unanimous approval to allow the deployment starting this summer of over 1.2 billion genetically modified mosquitoes in Key Haven, Monroe County, Florida over a period of two years could very well decimate a substantial part of Florida's natural flora and fauna, taking dozens of endangered species to the brink of extinction and irrevocably changing the habitat of the thousands of local birds, plants, amphibians and insects that make up Florida's ecology.
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