News of the Week for Jan. 26^th, 2020

• Gun Rights
• Hide the Decline
• Obamacare
• War & Terror
• National News
• Economy & Taxes
• International News
• Opinion

 

Gun Rights

 

YouTube Removes Livestreams of Richmond Gun-Rights Rally
As thousands of Second Amendment protesters flocked to the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond on Monday, YouTube livestreams of the protest started freezing or getting flat-out removed from the video platform.

Virginia 2A: Black Guy Waving Trump Flag, ‘I Am Governor Ralph Northam and I Am in Blackface Today’
Julio Rosas from our Townhall mothership is at the Virginia Second Amendment rally today, and just posted what might be the best civil rights video of the 21st century.

Minorities Fired Up in Richmond: ‘I’m a Black American and Enjoy My 2A Rights!’
The media has been putting out slanderous information that Virginia’s Second Amendment pro-gun Lobby Day is full of “white supremacists.” Citizen-journalists are out on the street interviewing people and one came across a man wearing a “gun saves lives” sticker who had a lot to say about media lies. “The real reason I’m out here is, I do not support in any way, shape or form Governor Northam and the Democrats’ gun control. What I also don’t support is the fact that every news piece you’ve seen on this weekend…they’ve always brought up the issue of race as if it’s nothing but white rednecks and hillbillies out here who care for the Second Amendment.”

Negroes With Guns: The Untold History of Black NRA Gun Clubs and the Civil Rights Movement
Black NRA Gun Clubs Robert Williams With the violent crime rate increasing disproportionately in urban communities, it’s no surprise that a recent phone survey of black voters found that 80 percent felt gun violence was an “extremely serious” problem. However, it seems this surge in violence actually has many in the black community changing their views on gun ownership.

NARRATIVE FAIL: Minorities, LGBT Community, Women Show Up In Force At Pro-Gun Rally
The leftist American mainstream media tried to cast Monday’s pro-Second Amendment rally in Richmond, Virginia, as a white supremacist event that only extremists were planning on attending.

Civil War Redux? Some Virginia Counties May Want to Secede to Join West Virginia Over Gun Control
It’s far fetched and no one is taking it seriously — yet. But there are some Virginia counties that border West Virginia that are talking about secession from the Old Dominion and joining the Mountain State.

VA Legislators Pass New Gun Control Day After 2A Rally
Before yesterday’s rally for the Second Amendment in Virginia even began, Virginia Democrats were smearing it as a dangerous “racist” rally. We were warned that everyone from white supremacist groups to fringe militias and possibly even antifa would be showing up. Governor Ralph Northam declared a state of emergency ahead of the rally, preventing anyone from carrying firearms at the capitol building, and signaling to the media that danger was afoot. “They’re not coming to peacefully protest. They are coming to intimidate and cause harm,” be said at a press conference.

 

Hide the Decline

Environment &
“Green Energy”

 

Critics blast Calif. bill to mandate climate change lessons, call it brainwashing and indoctrination
Teaching California students about climate change may soon become mandatory. Public school teachers in California would be required to teach students as young as six-years-old about climate change under a recently proposed bill.

Germany Rejected Nuclear Power—and Deadly Emissions Spiked
After Fukushima, the country opted to decommission its nuclear reactors. The US has a lot to learn from what happened next.

Climate Racism? Black Climate Activist Cropped from Greta Photo
Black climate activist Vanessa Nakate was cropped from an AP image.

 

Obamacare

Government in Healthcare

 

Supreme Court refuses to hear expedited ObamaCare appeal
The Supreme Court on Tuesday denied a motion from a coalition of Democrat-led states asking the justices to speed up the review of a federal appeals court decision that put the future of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in doubt.

The Culture of Death Brooks No Dissent
I have a piece today on the home page describing the pressure being put on a British Columbia hospice by the government to allow euthanasia – despite it being adverse to the hospice philosophy

Why did the NHS let me change sex? Star witness in court battle against clinic that fast-tracked her gender swap aged 16 reveals what happened when she made a cry for help
Keira Bell, aged 23, describes herself as being ‘stuck between the two sexes’

 

War & Terror

 

Tougher Terrorism Legislation In The U.K.: Will It Be Effective?
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s new government is trying to make the most of its first 100 days in office with plans to put a new counter-terrorism bill before Parliament in March. Some aspects of it have been announced today (January 21), mainly, that automatic release on licence of terrorists with extended determinate sentences will end, that there will be a mandatory 14 years in prison for those preparing acts of terrorism or directing a terrorist organisation, and that terrorists will be monitored more closely in jails.

 

National

 

San Francisco DA Touts Progressive Ambitions for Already Troubled City
Chesa Boudin spent his childhood influenced by members of a radical left and violent domestic terrorist organization. During college, he worked as an English translator for Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez.

College Republicans accuse university of threatening to sue off-campus venue to stop their event
The next three venues backed out of hosting, too

Trump, Betsy DeVos go to bat for religious student groups
The U.S. Department of Education has proposed a new rule aimed at protecting religious freedom.

Denver Post Columnist Fired After Arguing There Are Two Sexes
‘There are only two sexes, identified by an XX or XY chromosome’

Rick Scott guilts Europeans for visiting Cuba
In another bold to move to put pressure on the regime in Communist Cuba, Florida Senator Rick Scott penned an open letter to European and Canadian citizens, asking them to reconsider traveling to Cuba and to “understand the full implications” of their respective trips to the island nation.

McConnell’s Curveball: Senate Must Vote To Admit House Evidence In Impeachment Trial
“Senators will make their first moves today,” says CBS News, but Mitch McConnell has already made his first. In the rules that McConnell unveiled last night, the Senate will offer both sides equal time to make their cases, but envisions the Senate remaining in session for 16 hours at a time in order to expedite the process on the calendar. Any witnesses will have to get a majority vote as expected, which was also the case in the Bill Clinton impeachment trial in 1999.

University of Washington lecturer claims he was demoted after pointing out male & female differences
A UW lecturer claims he was demoted after voicing support for the fired Google employee who pointed out differences between men and women.

Project Veritas: Sanders Campaign Staffer in S.C. Wants to Put Republicans in Gulags, “Guillotine the rich”
Last week, Project Veritas released videos exposing how a Bernie Sanders field office in Iowa employed Kyle Jurek, an antifa-supporting, Gulag-loving, recently arrested Communist who has alarming opinions about the need to “reeducate” large swaths of American voters in Gulags and how cities need to burn if Sanders doesn’t win the nomination.

Understanding California’s confusing March elections
California’s statewide presidential primary election is upon us, and if you thought previous elections were confusing, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

‘Guillotine the rich’: Sanders staffer says he’s ready for armed ‘revolution’
Video shows man identified as ‘paid’ South Carolina field organizer

Education reformer left China to escape socialism. He’s running for Congress to stop it in America.
“Radical progressives” push race preferences “to cover up their policy failure”

University of Alabama promotes program ONLY for ‘Black, Hispanic, Native American, and/or LGBT+’ students
The program touts a commitment to “diversity,” but excludes many ethnic and demographic groups.

Another college ditches girls-only programs after crusading professor files complaints
The same every time: “no fines, no apologies, no admission of guilt”

Protesters in Puerto Rico Call for Governor’s Resignation After Aid Found in Warehouse
Hundreds of protesters in Puerto Rico demonstrated outside the governor’s mansion and capitol building in San Juan, calling on Governor Wanda Vazquez to resign. The protest stems from a video showing tons of disaster relief supplies — some of it from Hurricane Gloria in 2017, that was discovered in a warehouse. A video of a crowd storming the warehouse went viral on social media last week, leading to nationwide outrage.

Ex-Grammy Boss Neil Portnow Accused of Raping Female Artist in Blockbuster Complaint From Ousted CEO
Neil Portnow, the former CEO of the Recording Academy, stepped down after being accused of raping an unnamed recording artist, according to a blockbuster claim filed on Tuesday by his successor.

South Dakota Hearing on Whether to Ban “Transgender Medicine” for Children
Today in Pierre, S.D., lawmakers are holding the very first state hearing on whether to ban surgical and chemical sex-change treatments for minors. The Vulnerable Child Protection Act would prohibit medical sex-change treatments for children under the age of 16 and make those directly involved guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor. It would not prevent children from being socially transitioned.

Oakland bans criminal background checks on potential tenants
The Oakland City Council on Tuesday approved an ordinance that would prohibit landlords from asking about a potential tenant’s criminal history or rejecting them out of hand for having a record.

Teen detransitioners are telling their stories on YouTube
“Detransitioning” is a touchy topic for the trans community. Individuals who medically transition only to figure out later that they were never truly trans are a probably unsurprising phenomenon. It’s only common sense that a certain number of people who take the leap into hormone treatments or cosmetic surgery may end up having a change of heart.

Bernie Sanders In The 1970s: Having A Job Is A Lot Like Slavery
A poll published just over a week ago by Vice found Sanders and Biden statistically tied among black voters. Just two days ago, Biden was asked about the poll and denied that Sanders was leading him among any segment of black Americans.

Hint: They’re Not “Supreme”
These three losers – Luke Austin Lane, 21, Jacob Kaderli, 19, and Michael Helterbrand, 25 – decided that what they needed to do was to overthrow the government and start a race war:

Seattle-Area Voters To Vote By Smartphone In 1st For U.S. Elections
A district encompassing Greater Seattle is set to become the first in which every voter can cast a ballot using a smartphone – a historic moment for American democracy.

Republican Senators Are Literally Playing With Kids’ Toys During The Impeachment Trial
According to reports, Republican senators are passing the time during the impeachment trial with fidget spinners.

Lordy, There Are Tapes: 2018 Recording Appears To Capture Trump Calling For Yovanovitch’s Ouster
It’s amazing that we haven’t seen more secret recordings of him surface during his presidency. He’s not a stickler for communications security, he has a knack for turning allies into enemies who might have reason to betray him (hi, John Bolton), and he’s prone to surround himself with dubious cronies like Michael Cohen and Omarosa with a penchant for secretly recording conversations.

U. Minnesota still silent after student sentenced to six months in Chinese prison for Twitter posts
Minnesota’s U.S. Senators also decline comment

George Soros partners with colleges to ‘transform higher education’
Billionaire Democratic megadonor George Soros is launching a new network to “transform higher education.”

Georgetown prof: Judgments of gender identities are ‘not biology’
A Georgetown University professor says that judgments about one’s gender identity are “not biology.”

Governor Ron DeSantis announces plans to eliminate Common Core education
Florida

Federal Judge Concludes UConn Sexual Assault Hearing Likely Violated Due Process, orders university to temporarily reinstate accused student for Spring semester.
From Doe v. Univ. of Connecticut, decided Thursday by Judge Michael P. Shea

Short Circuit: A Roundup of Recent Federal Court Decisions
Fireburn, puppycide, and the DOJ beggars belief.

Minnesota college helps ‘white students only’ deal with ‘the nasty little racist inside them’
To commemorate MLK Day, a Minnesota college hosted a plethora of events aimed at helping white students confront their alleged “racist tendencies.”

 

Economy & Taxes

 

California’s AB5 Leaves Women Business Owners Reeling
Aimee Benavides has built a thriving career as a translator and interpreter while homeschooling her nine-year-old daughter, who has autism, and 11-year-old son, who is heavily involved in STEM enrichment classes. What makes it all possible is the home-based business she started in 2010, after leaving a full-time job in the court system.

China virus outbreak may wallop economy, financial markets
News that a new coronavirus that has afflicted hundreds of people in central China can spread between humans has rattled financial markets and raised concern it might wallop the economy just as it appears to be regaining momentum

Newspaper column: Clark County teachers union pushing huge tax hike
The Clark County teachers union this past week launched two tax hiking ballot initiatives that would raise Nevada taxes by $1.4 billion – devastating the state’s economy and doing nothing to actually improve the quality of education.

 

International

 

Venezuela’s Juan Guaidó Meets With Pompeo in Colombia, Heads to Davos
Venezuela’s interim president hopes to meet with his counterparts in Europe to achieve further action against Nicolás Maduro’s regime

Maduro: Venezuela ready for talks with U.S.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said Venezuela is prepared for direct negotiations with the U.S. to begin repairing relations and improve Venezuela’s damaged economy.

You Can’t Cancel Fried Chicken!
A predictable dustup over sexism has arisen in Australia over a KFC ad that has caused KFC to apologize and pull the ad.

Comedy Loses Another Legend: Monty Python’s Terry Jones Has Died
Comedy fans around the world were dealt a huge blow on Wednesday morning with the news that Monty Python legend Terry Jones had passed away on Tuesday

Maduro Thugs Raid Juan Guaido’s Offices While He’s Out Of The Country
After Juan Guaido’s opposition party was locked out of the National Assembly building this month, forcing them to meet inside of a theater, tensions continued to rise in Venezuela. Armed groups of civilian militia members known as “colectivos” (essentially a brute squad) have been harassing their members in the streets along with Maduro’s National Guard.

Coronavirus In China: Source Found As Death Toll Rises
While it is impeachment, impeachment, impeachment nonstop on cable news, other stories are out there and some of them warrant attention. Take, for instance, a health scare that is ravaging China. A coronavirus has been identified and the source of it has been determined as health officials cope with a rising death toll.

Fake German doctor who coaxed women to electrocute themselves jailed
A man who impersonated a doctor in order to persuade women and girls to electrocute themselves has been jailed for 11 years in Germany, officials say.

France: Smoke Grass, Kill a Jew, Skip the Trial, Go Free
Paris, April 4, 2017. Sarah Halimi, a 66-year-old Jewish woman, is thrown from her third-floor balcony or window. Her body lands in the building’s courtyard. Her murderer first had tortured her. Neighbors had heard screams and called the police. Nine officers came, but when they heard through the door a man shouting “Allahu Akbar”, they ran downstairs to wait for reinforcements. When Kobili Traoré finally surrendered, he said, “I killed the sheitan” (Arabic for “Satan”). While torturing his victim, he said, he had recited verses from the Qur’an, and the Qur’an had “ordered him to kill a Jew”. He said he had spent the previous day in a nearby mosque. He was placed in a mental institution, where he told the psychiatrist who examined him that he smoked marijuana.

China Quarantines Wuhan in Response to Continuing Coronavirus Outbreaks
Davos discussions include impact of Wuhan Virus on employees and the global economy.

Maduro, the Butcher: Two Years After the Assassination of Rebel Pilot Óscar Pérez
Óscar Pérez, the leader of the rebels, was shot in the head along with seven other members of the movement as per orders issued by Nicolás Maduro on the national joint broadcast

Disguised Russian Soldiers Participate in Military Missions in Venezuela
Venezuelan military personnel is reportedly guarding the Russian soldiers who are disguised wearing Venezuelan Army uniforms

‘Lock suspected coronavirus patients in a room and leave straight away!’ UK doctors given extraordinary instruction by health bosses amid fears contagious Chinese disease has made its way to Britain
Public Health England issued warning after reported cases in Scotland, N Ireland

Secret Ties to Chávez and Maduro Could Come to Light for Uruguay’s Government
There is a feeling in Uruguay that there are many things that wil be revealed and they will harm the excellent reputation of prominent leftist figures

Bolivia’s interim government confirms Evo Morales hid illegal payments to Cuba for “fake doctors”
As the investigation in Bolivia into the corrupt administration of ousted socialist president Evo Morales continues, the ties to Cuba’s Castro dictatorship become clearer.

‘We Want to Get Into Parliament’: Pro-Islamic Party Seeks to Establish Itself Across Sweden
Among other things, the Nuance party, whose founder was expelled from the Centre Party over alleged ties with the Turkish nationalist group the Grey Wolves, wants Islamophobia to be classified as a separate crime, and seeks a special status for Sweden’s Muslims, like that enjoyed by Jews, Roma and Sami.

Dan Hannan says Boris Johnson WILL reverse Heath’s betrayal and reclaim UK waters
BORIS JOHNSON will undoubtedly reverse Edward Heath’s betrayal and reclaim control of British waters, Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan told Express.co.uk.

China’s battle with the Wuhan coronavirus is shackled by a toxic relationship with information
In the past several weeks, a biting joke has been widely shared on Chinese social media: The new coronavirus is patriotic, so it goes, because it infected only one of China’s 33 provinces and municipalities before venturing outside of the mainland.

5 million residents left Wuhan before lockdown, mayor reveals, as 1,000 new confirmed cases expected in city
Health commission says battling the epidemic is becoming more complicated as the Chinese State Council extends the Lunar New Year holiday to February 2

 

Opinion

 

Joe Biden Used To Be Right: Government Child Care Hurts Families
1980s Joe Biden made a strong case to see child care tax credits as a social policy that shapes society’s choices and values. He was right.

Norway’s PM loses majority for admitting ISIS fighter
The Washington Post reports that Norway’s prime minister has lost her parliamentary majority because one of the parties in her coalition withdrew in protest over the repatriation of a suspected ISIS member from a Syrian camp. The Prime Minister, Erna Solberg of the Conservative Party, says she will try to govern with a minority coalition.

Why We Must Defeat Socialism
Today, we find ourselves at a crossroads in the history of our great nation—a nation founded upon the simple, self-evident truth that we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

Ideology or just bizarre? 10 dumbfounding gender studies courses on tap this semester
The field of women’s, gender and feminist studies hardly looks serious

Journalists Can’t Stop Giving Mitch McConnell Badass Nicknames
Democrats and journalists—to the extent that there is a meaningful difference—can’t stop coming up with nicknames for Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) that make the Senate majority leader sound like a total badass, which he is.

The Senate impeachment dance
The impeachment of President Trump has never been about actually removing him from office. The Democrats has always known they would fall 15 to 20 Senate votes short of accomplishing that.

Broke: Cocaine Mitch. Woke: Midnight Mitch
Ed mentioned this the other day but it seems to be spreading. It’s little more than a footnote in the entire impeachment follies, but some Democrats have been hoping to gain media traction by assigning a new nickname to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. After he unveiled plans for the lengthy Senate trial sessions that would last well into the night, his detractors in both the media and the minority took to referring to him as “Midnight Mitch.” Here’s one example from Maxine Waters.

Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been A Member Of The Federalist Society?
The Judicial Conference Doesn’t Want Judges to Be Members.

Liberal legal establishment wrongly attacks conservative Federalist Society
Not content with stifling dissent at overwhelmingly leftist law schools, the progressive legal establishment is now threatening to trample conservative judges’ freedom of association. Their proposal should be shot down, and its remains should be buried.

An Important Free Speech Victory Against the SPLC
The Southern Poverty Law Center, as Power Line readers know, is one of America’s pre-eminent hate groups. It smears those with whom it disagrees, and the media, politicians, and, in some cases, law enforcement are happy to take its hate campaign seriously. So fighting back against the lavishly funded, but utterly corrupt, SPLC is important.

False Dilemmas and Real Binaries: Patterns of Error in Logic and Rhetoric
In his book SJWs Always Lie, Vox Day makes the important distinction between logic (the mental process by which we seek truth) and rhetoric (the language of persuasion). Both logic and rhetoric are skills necessary to statesmanship, because the political leader must first analyze the problems of public policy (logic), then explain the problem and convince others to support his proposed solution (rhetoric). As any student of history knows, it is often the case that there are good arguments on both sides of any public-policy controversy. The classic example of this is the Athenian expedition to Sicily during the Peloponnesian War. Thucydides in his famous History presents the argument made for the expedition by Alcibiades, and the opposing argument by Nicias. Alcibiades “won” the debate – in the sense that he persuaded the Athenian assembly to approve the expedition – but as the subsequent disaster proved, Nicias was entirely correct in arguing against the expedition.

The Double Voting Problem
It’s 2020, which means election year is upon us. And although Washington is currently preoccupied with the impeachment melodrama going on in the Senate, we should not lose sight of problems in our voter registration and election process that imperil the integrity of upcoming local, state, and federal elections.

Those shocking bourgeois values
In one traditional form of pornography, from the Victorian “A Man With a Maid” to the more recent “Fifty Shades of Grey,” a young woman is initiated — sometimes uncomfortably — into the mysteries of adult sexuality. In the end she is, at some level at least, grateful for the new horizons that’ve opened up to her.

Schiff Blows Up GOP Support With “Head On A Pike” Reference
Rep. Adam Schiff had one job. All Schiff and his fellow House managers had to do were to present their case for the impeachment of President Trump before the U.S. Senate, and the American public. Instead of bringing a few senators onto his side, especially on the idea of calling witnesses, Schiff angered the GOP senators with his reference to the “heads on a pike” news story.

The Montana Blaine Amendment Case and the Need for a Consistent Approach to Discrimination on the Basis of Religion
Conservatives want courts to consider the governments’ bigoted motives in enacting anti-Catholic Blaine amendments, but not when it comes to Trump’s travel ban. Liberals tend to be inconsistent in the opposite way.

Happy anniversary, Citizens United: May free speech still ring free across the land
Ten years ago today the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed the free speech portion of the First Amendment, declaring in the case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that a federal law prohibiting people from spending their own money to make their political opinions and desires known could not pass constitutional muster. The decision has been under constant attack by Democrats ever since.

The China Myth Exposed
From early in our nation’s history, America’s intellectuals have mostly looked down on their own country and yearned for it to be like someplace else–someplace more sophisticated, and more in tune with “modern” intellectual currents, whatever they might be at the moment. That is a long history, which I will skip over. In our own time, American intellectuals have claimed that Soviet Russia, Germany and Japan were harbingers of the future that the U.S. needed to imitate. In each case, the point was that we had to shed our archaic freedoms and enter the brave new world of central planning under the control–benign, of course!–of intellectuals and bureaucrats. Strangely, however, American free enterprise has managed to outlast and surpass all of those supposedly more advanced challengers.