News of the Week (July 19th, 2020)

Posted on July 19, 2020 by The Political Hat

 

News of the Week for July 19thth, 2020


 

Riots & Revolution

 

Vandals Tear Down 9/11 Memorial Flagpole in New York
Police in New York are looking for the vandals who cut down a flagpole at a memorial honoring five firefighters who died in the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Portland #BlackLivesMatter Rioters Manufacture “White Supremacist” Hoax
The #BlackLivesMatter/#Antifa mob in Portland, Oregon, has been “protesting” — which is to say, rioting — for the past six weeks. The “mostly peaceful” protesters in Portland are a horde of dangerous criminals, and no one is safe on the streets of Portland so long as this vile crew is allowed to continue congregating there. Did I mention that Portland is a Democrat-controlled city in a Democrat-controlled state?

Orwellian Marxists Claim Free Speech Letter Is an Attempt to Silence Minorities
In recent years, America has witnessed the rise of a terrifying “cancel culture.” Those who dare question the left’s stifling orthodoxy on issues like transgender identity, institutional racism, and claims of systemic oppression have found themselves subject to an outrage mob and censured, fired, or worse. Earlier this week, 1960s-style liberals like J.K. Rowling and Noam Chomsky wrote a letter in Harper’s lamenting this cancel culture’s attack on free speech. On Friday, 163 pro-cancel culture journalists, academics, and activists shot back with a letter of their own, accusing the likes of Rowling and Chomsky of using “coded language” to try to silence supposedly marginalized voices in the name of “free speech.”

College Democrats of America’s leadership implodes amid internal accusations of racism, elitism
“They needed a villain,” says former College Democrats of America president

Professor: Term “low-hanging fruit” is a microaggression because it reminds blacks of lynching
The official definition of the term low-hanging fruit is “a thing or person that can be won, obtained, or persuaded with little effort,” according to the Oxford dictionary.

Thomas Sowell to Mark Levin: concept of systemic racism “has no meaning”
“It really has no meaning that can be specified and tested in the way that one tests hypotheses”

Time Op-Ed: Forget Statues. We Need To Start Renaming The Whole Map
Maybe it’s just me, but it almost seems like there’s a contest going on among the progressive faithful to see who can go the furthest and the fastest when it comes to erasing history. The beginners (or simply the lazy) stick to pulling down statues of Confederate soldiers or possibly Columbus. The more creative ones pick out paintings or statues of the Founding Fathers or other random slave-owners from the 16th through 18th centuries who went on to achieve some level of fame. Special award status goes to the cretins who are trying to cancel the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Students want prof fired for allegedly falling asleep during anti-racism zoom call
Professor Patricia Simon is being condemned by students after she allegedly fell asleep on a zoom call.

An outrageous prosecution in Atlanta turns scandalous
The charge of murder brought against Garrett Rolfe, the Atlanta police officer who shot and killed Rayshard Brooks, seemed dubious the moment it was filed. On examination, it became clear that the prosecution is outrageous.

How Is the Left of the ’60s Different From the Left of Today?
How do the radical movements of today—Black Lives Matter, Antifa, and others—compare with their counterparts of the 1960s, such as the Black Panthers and the Weather Underground?

California faculty union demands free tuition for black students, removal of armed campus cops
The California Faculty Association, a union for faculty in the California State University system, is calling for free tuition for black and indigenous students, a mandatory ethnic studies course, and for the defunding and removal of armed campus police, among other demands

A Brief Note on the Burning of San Gabriel Mission
The San Gabriel Mission, founded in 1771 and located about twelve miles east of Los Angeles, burned the other day. My heart hurts. I grew up about five miles from the old mission, and my grandmother of blessed memory is buried in its cemetery. I helped carry her to her grave.

Perils of wokery, &c.
On whiffs of the Cultural Revolution; the musical Hamilton; Dr. Anthony Fauci; college daze; and more

Shamed Straight?
In Impromptus today, I begin with the wokery that now plagues us, and that carries a whiff of the Cultural Revolution in China. Just a whiff, but pungent enough. I wrote my column before news broke of Bari Weiss’s resignation from the New York Times.

Abolitionist Mural at Vermont Law School Deemed Racist
“Apparently, the real problem is that the mural shows whites helping blacks.”

Abolitionist mural called “racist”
Vermont Law School will paint over a mural depicting abolitionists helping blacks escape slavery because several students and alumni complained

When the Young Toppled the Old and Reset the Clock to Zero: ‘The Killing Fields’
The Killing Fields is one of the most important films ever made. It’s also difficult to watch if you know much about the true story it depicts.

Columbus’ Proposed Police Witch Hunt Will Send Chills Down Your Spine
The city council of Columbus, Ohio, is considering legislation to screen police officers for any connection to “hate groups” (including secretly harboring the beliefs of “hate groups”), citing the ever-so-reliable Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Former SPLC employees have confessed to taking part in a hate-for-pay scheme, exaggerating the number of “hate groups” in order to bilk donors, and the SPLC faces numerous defamation lawsuits regarding that “hate group” accusation. Even so, a city council member told PJ Media that the council will define “hate group” in such a manner as to include organizations accused by the SPLC, and to go further.

Seattle Reconfiguring Hiring To Favor “Social Justice Advocates”
Despite all of the damage and unrest, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan is still refusing any federal help in restoring the rule of law to her city. If they’re going to handle the problem themselves, so be it, I suppose. But what does she plan to do? In yet another instance of bowing to mob rule, Durkan and the City Council have decided that the way to calm the masses is to change the way they hire municipal government workers. What that has to do with the death of George Floyd is anyone’s guess, but the new plan certainly sounds woke enough to fit the 2020 narrative. Going forward, if you want a job with the city, you’ll need to prove your social justice credentials before anyone worries about whether or not you’re actually qualified for the job you’re seeking.

The Effort To Cancel Academic Steven Pinker Isn’t Going Well
A group of 620 academics signed an open letter to the Linguistic Society of America arguing that the group should distance itself from academic and author Steven Pinker. The reasons? Most of the offenses listed are rather vague references to tweets from as far back as 2014, but the gist of the letter is that Pinker isn’t sufficiently supportive of Black Lives Matter. The letter claims the signatories don’t want to “cancel” Dr. Pinker but then immediately admits that, actually, many of the signatories may believe that

Berkeley To Have Unarmed Civilians Perform Traffic Stops
We’ve long since reached the stage where pointing out something totally insane going on in Berkeley, California is generally received with a combination of yawns and sad, knowing nods of the head. But even with that sort of a track record, the liberal enclave has announced plans for a new “law enforcement” initiative that should still give everyone pause. Having already determined that they need to slash their police budget by a full 50% (because starving the evil cops of funding will clearly cure all of society’s ills), the city is planning to pull actual police officers almost entirely out of the loop from one of their most common and important roles. Instead of having trained, uniformed officers conducting traffic stops, they will be dispatching “unarmed civilian city workers” to handle these chores. And yes, I’ll once again invoke the tired old phrase we’ve all become accustomed to. What could possibly go wrong?

NY Times: What Lies Beneath Anti-Racism Training Is An Attack On Capitalism, Rationalism And Excellence
The NY Times has published a lengthy feature titled “‘White Fragility’ Is Everywhere. But Does Antiracism Training Work?” That title is misleading in some ways because the piece only briefly touches on the question of whether training sessions held by people like Robin DiAngelo (author of White Fragility) work. The answer to that question is that there’s no real evidence they do and maybe some evidence that they are likely to create a backlash. But none of that research seems to penetrate the bubble in which people like DiAngelo thrive.

CHAZ/CHOP Cases Still Being Prosecuted: Attempted Arson At A Police Precinct And The Shooting Of A Protester
Tuesday a man was arrested on a federal arson charge for trying to set fire to a police precinct that was at the center of the former CHAZ/CHOP protest area in Seattle. A press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the western district of Washington identified the attempted arsonist as Isaiah Thomas Willoughby, age thirty-five.

What It’s Like To Be A Black Police Officer On The Front Lines Of Portland’s Nightly BLM Protests
There have been a seemingly endless series of Black Lives Matter protests in Portland, some of which eventually get declared riots as the protesters get out of hand. One week ago KGW8 was on hand for a press availability where Officer Jakhary Jackson was questioned by Lt. Tina Jones about what it’s like to be on the front line of those nightly protests. His responses were eye-opening to say the least.

Black Lives Matter sculpture erected in UK town removed after 1 day
A sculpture of a Black Lives Matter protester installed without authorization on the site where a monument to a 17th-century parliamentarian and slave trader was ripped down by protesters last month was taken down by the city after just one day, according to a report.

How Black Lives Matter’s Hatred Of The Family Feeds Its Desire For Revolution
By preserving culture and supporting children, the nuclear family consequently becomes the highest and most effective form of empowerment.

Orthodox Privilege
“Cancel culture” is arguably the dominant force in American life today. Many see the squelching of dissenting views as a threat to free society. A group of prominent, mostly liberal writers recently wrote an open letter in Harper’s denouncing “an intolerance of opposing views, a vogue for public shaming and ostracism, and the tendency to dissolve complex policy issues in a blinding moral certainty.”

UConn student government leaders resign because they’re white
One of them pressures other whites to resign as well

Reports: Camouflaged Feds Grabbing Vandals — And Protesters? — In Portland And Carting Them Off In Unmarked Vans
How widespread this is, and whether they’re targeting vandals or casting a much broader net at demonstrators, are open questions as I write this. The two stories about this circulating today, one from WaPo and the other from Oregon Public Broadcasting, claim that “protesters” are being snatched as well.

4 Things to Know About the Mob Violence in Portland
Residents of the Portland area have “become accustomed to chaos,” says William Deatherage, 22, a recent college graduate who has lived in a suburb of the Oregon city since he was 5 years old.

Minneapolis Declares Racism a Public Health Emergency
We are literally in the middle of a global pandemic, but sure, let’s make racism our top health emergency

White Lives Don’t Matter: Democrats Encourage Murderous Racial Hatred
#BlackLivesMatter is a racial hate movement promoted by Democrats who believe that it will help them win elections. The essential message of the movement’s propaganda is that all white people are evil racist oppressors. If any white person dares object to this hateful message, his objection will be cited as proof that he is a racist. The wave of criminal violence inspired by #BlackLivesMatter is not an accidental consequence of this propaganda; violent crime is the desired result because Democrats have embraced a radical “worse is better” mentality. The worse conditions become in the black community, the more motivativation there will be for black voters to go to the polls in November, and (because Democrats always get about 95% of the black vote) this increase in turnout will mean that Democrats win more elections.

George Washington U. Reading List Includes Book That Equates Conservatism With Racism
“Conservatism as a philosophy and ideology … is and always has been hostile to the aspirations of Africans in America, incompatible with the struggle for freedom and equality”

UNDER SIEGE: Antifa Rioters Throw Cans, Shoot Fireworks at Cops in Battle for Columbus Statue
Chicago descended into a war zone on Friday night as a protest at the Christopher Columbus statue in Grant Park devolved into a violent riot, complete with assaults on police and an attempt to pull down the statue of the Genovese Catholic who connected the Old World and the New.

San Francisco Police Commission votes to install “Black lives matter” posters in every station
San Francisco’s Police Commission voted Wednesday evening to display a “Black lives matter” poster in every station throughout the city, despite objections from the rank-and-file’s union.

Juniata College calls cops on student for sending email that mocked diversity demands
Suspended him because “hateful email” also violated unspecified campus rules

In Defense of The Letter
The chilly climate for dissent is real

Why is Wokeness so white supremacist?
When you have lost NYMag: Is the Anti-Racism Training Industry Just Peddling White Supremacy?

Pompeo denounces “Marxist” 1619 Project as gift to Chinese Communist Party
The New York Times’s 1619 Project is an attack on “the American way of life” that aligns with the Chinese Communist Party, according to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Crayola Enters The Face Mask Wars… Just In Time For Back-To-School Shopping
It’s a new world out there for everyone, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, and that includes back-to-school supplies for students. This year parents are tasked with providing face masks for their children, as they will be required to wear them. Crayola knows an opportunity when it sees it.

An Oregon Criminal Prosecution of Federal Officers Could Be Removed to Federal Court
State Prosecutors would then prosecute state criminal offenses in federal court.

Antifa Rioters Break Into Portland Police Union and Set It on Fire as Mayor Hamstrings Federal Troops
On Saturday evening, two groups of antifa and Black Lives Matter rioters terrorized Portland, squaring off against police and federal troops. One group attacked the Portland Police Bureau’s North Precinct and the Portland Police Association (PPA) — the police union — while the other group targeted the federal courthouse and Justice Center, returning to set yet another bonfire at the ruins of the elk statue nearby. Antifa broke into the PPA and set it on fire. Before the violence began on this 51st day of unrest in Portland, Mayor Ted Wheeler (D-Portland) decided to hamstring federal troops, aiming to prevent local law enforcement from teaming up with them.

Universities implement mandatory anti-racism training for students, faculty
Universities across America have implemented anti-racism training, required on certain campuses.

Portland’s Mayor Is Still On The Side Of The Rioters
While I’d have loved to come to you this morning with some good news out of Portland, Oregon, I’m afraid that there isn’t much in that category to be found. The situation on the streets there continued to deteriorate last night, with rioters once again attempting to seize control of public property, both state and federal, eventually setting fire to the Portland Police Association building. The federal building in downtown Portland was similarly attacked, with rioters tearing down barricades that were constructed to prevent the mob from overwhelming the facility. In response, as shown in one of the more underwhelming headlines to be seen at CNN in recent memory, the police “asked the protesters to leave” or face possible arrest. Presumably, they are still acting under the direction of Mayor Ted Wheeler.

The Insane Grift of ‘Diversity’ Training In Federal Agencies
According to Christopher Rufo, a so-called “diversity” training is continuing apace within the federal government. Using the term “diversity” to explain the content is a complete sham. The foundations of the program are critical race theory. It assigns thoughts, values, and behaviors to people by race as if skin color creates homogeneous populations.

Antifa Rioters Break Into Portland Police Union and Set It on Fire as Mayor Hamstrings Federal Troops
On Saturday evening, two groups of antifa and Black Lives Matter rioters terrorized Portland, squaring off against police and federal troops. One group attacked the Portland Police Bureau’s North Precinct and the Portland Police Association (PPA) — the police union — while the other group targeted the federal courthouse and Justice Center, returning to set yet another bonfire at the ruins of the elk statue nearby. Antifa broke into the PPA and set it on fire. Before the violence began on this 51st day of unrest in Portland, Mayor Ted Wheeler (D-Portland) decided to hamstring federal troops, aiming to prevent local law enforcement from teaming up with them.

‘They’re Liars!’ Screams a Black Woman as She Pours Paint Over BLM Mural
This may be one of the most underreported aspects of the entire “conversation” about race in America that’s been happening these last few months.

Police union HQ burns, feds clash with Portland protesters
Portland Police Bureau officers and federal police used force against separate crowds on Saturday, July 18.

#BlackLivesMatter and the Political Mythology of “Systemic Racism”
You have probably never heard of Jamarcus Glover or Adrian Walker, a couple of dope dealers with criminal records (including possession of firearms as convict felons) who police say were running their operation out of a house on Elliot Avenue in Louisville, Kentucky. Cops had the house and the two dealers under surveillance and, according to an affidavit, detectives observed Glover and Walker making frequent visits to an apartment at 303 Springfield Drive, about 10 miles south of the dope house on Elliott Avenue. According to the affidavit, Glover listed this as his home address and had been seen picking up at least one package there. Detectives believed that Glover might be using the Springfield Drive address to receive or conceal his narcotics supply.

Cisco Fires Employees for Criticizing Black Lives Matter During Online Diversity Forum
Another example of criticism of Black Lives Matter movement falsely being equated with racism: “the world’s largest networking company, said it fired ‘a handful’ of workers for inappropriate conduct because it ‘will not tolerate’ racism”

Noxious diversity training in federal government flourishes under Trump
Christopher Rufo reports that “critical race theory — the far-left academic discourse centered on the concepts of ‘whiteness,’ ‘white fragility’ and ‘white privilege’ — is coursing through the federal government’s veins. Under a GOP administration, no less.”

18 police officers were hurt in a Chicago protest. ‘We were outnumbered and unprepared,’ one says
Eighteen Chicago Police officers were injured in a protest Friday, the department said in a statement.

 

Corona Virus

 

China & Kazakhstan disagree over designation of “new” virus as worse than COVID-19
The disagreement smacks of China’s aggressive approach to dominate the region by any means necessary.

What Miniature Lab-Grown Brains Reveal About the Effects of Covid-19
Organoids are helping scientists study the coronavirus

Groundbreaking: Scientists Create An Air Filter That Kills The Coronavirus
The coronavirus is spurring on all kinds of innovation and creativity from the scientific community as well as the business community. The main focus now is on developing a vaccine and therapeutic drugs to combat the virus. Businesses have shut down normal production of products and switched to manufacturing essential medical equipment, like ventilators, as well as personal protection equipment to meet the needs of hospitals and first responders. All of this is good.

O.C. Board of Education tells schools social distancing isn’t necessary for students and masks could be “harmful”
The Orange County Board of Education voted Monday to push for the reopening of campuses without many of the widely recommended coronavirus safety protocols.

Moderna reports success in Phase 1 of coronavirus vaccine trials
There’s a little bit of good news on the Wuhan coronavirus front. Moderna Inc’s experimental vaccine for the virus proved to be safe and to provoke immune responses in all 45 healthy volunteers in an ongoing Phase 1 study.

Immunity to Covid-19 could be lost in months, UK study suggests
Exclusive: King’s College London team found steep drops in patients’ antibody levels three months after infection

How to Be an Anti-Intellectual
A lauded book about antiracism is wrong on its facts and in its assumptions.

Teenager dies of bubonic plague in Mongolia
A teenager died of the bubonic plague in western Mongolia after eating an infected marmot, a sign the disease may be spreading after reports of it emerged earlier this month.

WHO calls for help in fight against Ebola in DRC
As the world grapples with a deepening coronavirus pandemic, the World Health Organization has called for international support in its fight against a growing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

 

Election 2020

 

Wisconsin’s Vote-By-Mail Looked Bad. It Was Actually Worse
Back on April 7th, Wisconsin held the first in-person primary election since the pandemic outbreak began. Well, it was at least partially “in-person”” but the state attempted at the last minute to turn it into some sort of hybrid, combining a smaller number of in-person polling places with the option to request mail-in ballots. And the results were predictably chaotic. There was confusion regarding where and how to vote and the massive increase in mail-in voting meant the results were delayed far longer than normal. In short, it was a mess.

California rejected 100K mail-in ballots because of mistakes
More than 100,000 mail-in ballots were rejected by California election officials during the March presidential primary, according to data obtained by The Associated Press that highlights a glaring gap in the state’s effort to ensure every vote is counted.

Today’s Great Mystery: Why Did California Trash Over 100,000 Mail-In Ballots In March?
Seems like a good question, especially since Gavin Newsom recently signed legislation making California a vote-by-mail state. In the primary that took place weeks before that move, the state ended up throwing more than one hundred thousand mailed ballots into the trash. Why?

Should Biden Give Up On Texas?
That’s a burning question on the occasion of him dropping half a million bucks or thereabouts to run a new TV ad in the Lone Star state. He’d have to be a sucker to waste money on Texas this year when there are so many more promising targets on the map, argues Sarah Longwell. I think that’s right and I suspect Team Biden agrees. The new ad buy is probably more of a “psy op” aimed at encouraging the media narrative that Biden has Trump on the run even in red states than it is the beginning of an earnest play to win the state.

Trump On The Confederate Flag: Look, People Love It
Displaying the flag is freedom of speech, he says, which is true, but Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the anthem was also freedom of speech. Where was this argument on Kaepernick’s behalf when the NFL decided to ban anthem protests before games a la NASCAR deciding to ban rebel flags at races?

Battle in ‘Bama: Tuberville Wins Alabama Senate Republican Primary Runoff In A Walk
Former Trump Attorney General Jeff Sessions faces off against former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville in tonight’s runoff to determine which of them advances to the general election in the fall.

The Biden Campaign Starts Spending Money in Texas
The “mid six figures” that the Biden campaign is going to spend on television ads in Texas is probably going to generate its worth in good press alone. Regardless of whether the Biden campaign genuinely thinks it can win Texas, spending $500,000 or so on TV ads in July will make Democrats feel even more confident, perhaps make some Republicans nervous or dispirited, and who knows, maybe spook the RNC or Trump campaign into spending money in the Lone Star State. It will probably spur at least one news cycle of “Joe Biden has huge momentum” stories that campaigns love and that will probably infuriate President Trump.

Will Biden’s War on the Suburbs Become a Campaign Issue?
In remarks Tuesday in the White House Rose Garden, President Trump promised to reverse what is arguably the most radical action of the Obama-Biden administration: promulgation of the rule on Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH). Trump went beyond his tweet of a couple of weeks ago, when he said he “may” end the rule. Now he says he will in fact “take out” AFFH. This will need to be by amendment or modification, since the Obama-Biden AFFH is actually a wild over-reading of the phrase “affirmatively further” in current law.

Some Scary Propositions
Ever since Gov. Hiram Johnson in 1911 instituted the right to initiative, recall, and referendum, California has embarked on an unparalleled level of direct democracy — something that has turned elections over propositions into more heated affairs than elections over candidates. Although such majoritarianism is the centerpiece of century-old progressive politics, conservatives often have embraced it as their only way to circumvent Democratic legislative majorities.

Trump Rises Seven Points In A Week Against Biden In New Rasmussen Poll, But…
Last week it was Biden 50, Trump 40, a shocking result given Rasmussen’s usual Trump-friendly lean. A week later it’s Biden 47, Trump 44.

Split Ticket? Two New Polls Show Congressional Republicans Doing Surprisingly Well
Were not going to declare a trend based on two polls, but what’s shaping up here is a major storyline for the fall if it’s borne out by further polling.

Trump presses attack on Biden’s war on the suburbs
Yesterday, we asked whether President Trump will make Joe Biden’s war on the suburbs an issue in this campaign. Today, Stanley Kurtz reports that Trump already has.

Tens of thousands of mail ballots have been tossed out in this year’s primaries. What will happen in November?
More than 18,500 Floridians’ ballots were not counted during the March presidential primary after many arrived by mail after the deadline.

The Future Shape of the Senate
The Constitution divides the Senate into three “classes” that face the voters on six-year cycles. Under today’s political dynamics, the class that faced the voters in 2018 was favorable to the Republicans, while the class that faces the voters in 2020 is favorable to the Democrats.

Trump Sketches Campaign Themes, Promises More on Suburbs
President Trump’s remarks on regulatory reform on the South Lawn of the White House yesterday were much more than a recap of past achievements. The president laid out key campaign themes and linked them to overarching concerns such as democratic versus bureaucratic control, endangered law and order, and, ultimately, the survival of liberty itself. The Democratic “unity platform” (unity between Biden’s pliancy and Sanders’s socialism) shows all too clearly that order and liberty are indeed under threat from a bureaucracy that may soon be stocked with leftist radicals.

Common Core Tries to Buy a Senate Seat
Millions of American parents have always heard conservatives complaining about Common Core, but never understood until they had to homeschool their kids in the last few months. Five thousand years of doing math one way are out the window thanks to corporate innovation, greed from textbook publishers, and an interest in having good little automatons who can work for the Fortune 500 without competing against them.

3 Weeks After Primary, N.Y. Officials Still Can’t Say Who Won Key Races
Tens of thousands of absentee ballots in New York are still uncounted and many races have yet to be called. What will November look like?

Chuck Grassley: I Wouldn’t Hold A Hearing On A SCOTUS Vacancy Before The Election
He first said this in 2016, then reiterated it in 2018, then reiterated it yet again for reporters yesterday. The McConnell standard for election-year vacancies is, of course, that they shouldn’t be filled if the presidency and the Senate majority are held by different parties. That’s not the case this year so it’s full speed ahead for Cocaine Mitch if any seats on the Court open up before November.

 

Gun Rights

 

Missouri governor says St. Louis couple ‘had every right’ to wave guns at protesters
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson (R) defended the St. Louis couple who was seen in viral footage last month pointing guns at protesters outside their home and said they “had every right to protect their property.”

11 Incidents in Which Lawful Gun Owners Made a Difference
As the Supreme Court continued its decadelong silence in protecting the Second Amendment, Americans last month nevertheless proved that they understand the importance of the right to keep and bear arms.

US Gun Sales Surge in “Seismic Shift” Amid COVID-19, Widespread Protests
There has been a rise in gun sales in the US as concerns about personal safety increase amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to both recent data and firearm experts.

 

Hide the Decline

Environment &
“Green Energy”

 

Burger King Claims to Reduce Cow Farts in Bizarre New Video
There is nothing new under the sun, except for maybe this weird hyper-environmentalist song about reducing cow farts

Federal Court Allows Dakota Access Pipeline To Keep Pumping Oil, Dealing Blow To Environmental Activist
The multi-billion dollar Dakota Access Pipeline can continue pumping oil for the time being, a federal court ruled Tuesday.

 

Obamacare

Government in Healthcare

 

Another great idea
This reminds me somewhat of the Sesamecare site which “takes the reduced-fee, cash only model and expands it to include primary care and dental visits, eye exams and MRIs, and other services.” So there’s precedence: “I’m building a network of cash friendly medical providers in the DC Metro area.”

 

War & Terror

 

21 Taken to Hospitals as Firefighting Effort Continues in USS Bonhomme Richard Fire
A fire that broke out Sunday morning in amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6) sent 17 sailors and four civilian workers to local hospitals, Naval Surface Force Pacific officials said.

Florida man lights Catholic Church on fire with parishioners inside
A Florida man lit a Catholic Church aflame on Saturday, while people inside prepared for morning Mass.

For first time ever, US officially rejects China’s “unlawful” South China Sea claims
The U.S. released its very first official statement rejecting most China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea as “unlawful.”

US Navy Destroyer Performs Freedom-Of-Navigation Operation In South China Sea
Monday the U.S. State Department rejected China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea saying the PRC had no rights to any territory beyond 12-nautical mile territorial limit.

Chinese Military Exercises Threaten to Invade Taiwan
China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is currently staging a military exercise across from the Taiwan Strait that looks as if it plans to culminate in an amphibious assault on an island in the South China Sea.

Burning USS Bonhomme Richard Signals More Trouble for Navy
The latest incident in a long line of recent trouble suggests continued internal weakness

VPN providers rethink Hong Kong servers after China’s security law
In recent decades, Hong Kong has been considered a haven for data centers given its strategic location in Asia, a legal system trusted by international businesses and reliable internet connectivity. Many virtual private network (VPN) operators keep servers in the city, serving mainland users who want to conceal their internet activity or access websites blocked by the Chinese authority.

Iranian Spies Accidentally Leaked Videos of Themselves Hacking
IBM’s X-Force security team obtained five hours of APT35 hacking operations, showing exactly how the group steals data from email accounts—and who it’s targeting.

Trump considering banning all Chinese Communist Party members and their families from US
President Donald Trump and members of his administration are in the early stages of discussing plans to block members of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from entering the U.S., according to four sources familiar with the discussions who spoke with The New York Times.

 

National

 

University of Kentucky faces lawsuit over removal of mural
The University of Kentucky planned to remove a mural from a building on its campus because of its portrayal of enslaved Africans and Native Americans.

Guess Which Phrase You Can’t Place on a Jersey on the NBA’s Custom Store
The NBA’s online store allows buyers to purchase jerseys with customized phrases. The one phrase you can’t put on a jersey? “FreeHongKong.”

Damaged Human Lungs Can Be Repaired by Attaching Them to Pigs, Experiment Shows
The sad reality of terminal lung illnesses is that there are simply far more patients than there are donor lungs available. This isn’t just because of the low number of donors, which would be problem enough, but many donor lungs are significantly damaged, rendering them unusable.

Justice Ginsberg Hospitalized With Possible Infection
The U.S. Supreme Court’s leftwing Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was hospitalized today, according to a statement from the court reported by CNN.

Museum Curator Resigns After He Is Accused of Racism for Saying He Would Still Collect Art From White Men
Irate employees of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art said the removal of Gary Garrels was “non-negotiable.”

Resignation Letter of Bari Weiss
It is with sadness that I write to tell you that I am resigning from The New York Times.

Professor emeritus, frequent campus speaker Angela Davis says she’s a communist…again
In a recent virtual town hall, former Black Panther and Professor Emeritus Angela Davis said she identifies as a “communist” and “anti-capitalist.”

San Francisco reporter details ‘disaster’ of city’s ‘hotels for homeless’ program: ‘It is pandemonium’
‘You are talking drug-fueled parties, overdoses, deaths’

Five shocking finds about the “transgender craze seducing our daughters”
The College Fix speaks to author of new book about transgender peer contagion

Transgenderism and Teen Girls
Wall Street Journal writer Abigail Shrier was recently interviewed by Joe Rogan about her new book, Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters.

An Oxford Professor Raises Some Interesting Points About The Nature Of Free Speech
Teresa Bejan is an author and an associate professor of political science at Oxford University. Today Prof. Bejan wrote a really interesting Twitter thread on the nature of free speech and how some of the people who deny the existence of cancel culture seem to be missing the point. I think the key point here is that the opposite of free speech it’s just silence but “unfree” speech which is socially compelled. It’s not enough to have the legal right to speak if you fear for your job or your safety for doing so.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg undergoing chemotherapy for recurrence of cancer
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg revealed Friday that she is undergoing chemotherapy for a recurrence of cancer — but insisted she had no plans to retire.

Viral “Bunny Ebola” Slams Rabbit Populations Throughout Southwestern U.S.
Wildlife protection officials are now concerned about the ramifications for other animals dependent on the rabbits.

John Lewis, Giant of the Early Civil Rights Movement, Is Dead
John Lewis, a leader of the March on Washington in 1963, the founder of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, and a man who continually put his life on the line for his belief in freedom for all Americans, is dead at the age of 80.

University promotes students’ demands, including ‘Black Student Space’ on campus
Black Student Organizations at Western Washington University demanded that construction on a campus building cease in order to create a “black student space.”

Prof. Glen Loury: “You Can Live With Disparities, Or You Can Live In Totalitarianism”
Glen Loury is a professor of economics who teaches at Brown University. Yesterday City Journal published an interview with Loury conducted by one of his former students. Loury, who is black, had plenty to say about the current moment in our culture where “structural racism”” has become an explanation for everything and disparities are seen not as signs of individual choices or group behaviors but proof of the need for more direct control over outcomes. We’ll get to his take on racial disparities in outcomes but first here’s his take on the tenuous moment for civilization we find ourselves in

Michelle Goldberg: The Left Really Does Have A Free Speech Problem
I almost never agree with anything NY Times’ columnist Michelle Goldberg writes but today is the exception. Goldberg was one of the people who signed “the Letter” about cancel culture published by Harper’s Magazine. Today she offers and explanation for that decision

Trump likely to ban undocumented immigrants from being counted in census, reports say
The president’s administration tried to include a citizenship question on the 2020 census until the Supreme Court weighed in.

Short Circuit: A Roundup of Recent Federal Court Decisions
Noxious odors, trained scientists, and aberrantly salacious products.

Michigan Supreme Court Rules Government Can’t Seize Entire Value of Home Over Property Tax Delinquency Worth $8.41
The Court unanimously ruled such a tax “forfeiture” qualifies as a taking for which compensation must be paid.

Conservative group wins battle for university recognition
The Worcester State University Student Government Association originally denied official recognition to its chapter of Turning Point USA.

 

Economy & Taxes

 

Unemployment Claims Come in at 1.3 Million, Continuing Claims Down by 737,750
You see the word “decrease” a lot in the report.

Green Activists Fuel China’s Dominance in a Sector Critical to the U.S. Economy and Green Energy
The Wuhan coronavirus pandemic rightly alerted Americans to the fact that the U.S. supply chain for health care is extremely vulnerable to the very country from which pandemic originated. Another critical supply chain is dependent on China as well, and this one is vital not only for the consumer products Americans use every day but also for military tools that keep America safe — and the very “green” technologies climate activists insist everyone must transition to yesterday in order to save the planet. Yet those very same activists don’t want America to displace China as the manufacturer of these key goods — rare earth elements (REE).

The Fed: A Change for the Worse?
This Bloomberg report by Tim Duy (also discussed by Ramesh in an earlier post) makes interesting reading

 

International

 

Red Flags Raised Over Chinese Research Published in Global Journals
Apparently fraudulent data in dozens of peer-reviewed articles spark fresh worries about “paper mills” used by researchers under pressure to publish

Maduro Tries to Move Venezuelan Foreign Assets to Russia
Nicolás Maduro tried to move Venezuelan assets worth 25 million euros from the Corporación Venezolana de Guayana in Spain to Russia

Edward Colston statue replaced by sculpture of Black Lives Matter protester
The monument depicts the moment Black Lives Matter protester Jen Reid stood on the empty plinth with her arm raised.

Neighborhoods in Cuba’s capital have had no running water for more than 2 weeks
Besides destroying freedom and a robust economy, Cuba’s socialist revolution has also destroyed the nation’s infrastructure. There are neighborhoods in the Cuban capital of Havana that have gone for more than two weeks without running water.

Doctors in Venezuela Die Waiting for Regime’s Aid and Guaidó’s Bonus
The shortage of biosafety supplies for medical personnel and the collapse of the health system have become the trigger for the risk of contagion

Chinese Activist Journalist Stands up Against Torture in Prison
Lu Yuyu, the founder of the citizen media outlet “Not The News,” was released after four years of imprisonment on June 15. He told The Epoch Times that despite the physical and mental torture he suffered in prison, he would never succumb to the Chinese regime.

Arson probe launched over inferno at Nantes cathedral after blaze was sparked near organ inside 1434 gothic church
Army of 104 firefighters deployed to tackle the major blaze in France and gained control after several hours

Jalisco New Generation Cartel Shows Mexican President Who’s Boss
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrado visited the states of Guanajuato, Jalisco and Colima on Friday and received a rather unusual greeting from the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, who consider those provinces their territory.

Wlking Sharks That Can Leave The Water Discovered In Indo-Australian Archipelago
Researchers have found four new amazing species of sharks which use their fins to walk across sea floors and reefs.

 

Opinion

 

In Defense of “Reactionary Liberalism”—A Reply to Osita Nwanevu
I am a liberal conservative, or as the New Republic‘s Osita Nwanevu would have it, a “reactionary liberal.” I lean right-of-center and, as I have argued before, I believe that many of the West’s most cherished values—individualism, due process, free speech and inquiry, and the rule of law—are imperiled by radical progressivism. So, I was delighted to be challenged by Nwanevu’s recent article entitled “The Willful Blindness of Reactionary Liberalism.” Although the piece is highly tendentious, it is a vigorous defense of progressive identity politics and an attack on liberals like me.

Illegal work in Leicester ‘sweatshops’ was allowed to flourish ‘due to fear of racism claims’
Boohoo made an investigation after accusations were made about staff salaries

The Ideological Corruption of Science
Why don’t many people “trust the science” anymore? Perhaps because science, as an institution, has fallen prey to the same ideological infection that has invaded and corrupted many other institutions. But it is too rarely discussed, which is why a Sunday Wall Street Journal column by theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss is so important.

The Ideological Corruption of Science
In American laboratories and universities, the spirit of Trofim Lysenko has suddenly been woke.

I’m Back And You’ll Hate This
But deal it with it.

The detransitioners: what happens when trans men want to be women again?
Laura Dodsworth meets the individuals whose stories are rarely told

The Fathers of Communism Were Racist
There are plenty of good reasons to abandon the teachings of Karl Marx.

Peak Jacobinism?
Even the woke eventually fear the guillotine.

Columbus Yesterday, Serra Today, Spain Tomorrow
If this revisionist history can extend to medieval Spanish studies as the work of Fernández-Morera suggests, then it would most certainly extend to the leyenda negra of the Conquest

The Overproduction of Elites
Ross Douthat mentioned on the New York Times’ The Argument podcast that he’d been thinking a bit about the Russian-American polymath Peter Turchin, some of whose previous predictions seem prescient in 2020. Turchin mentioned the potential for conflict arising from a culture that produces too many elites who turn against one another in a nasty pursuit of too few positions.

Cult Programming in Seattle
The city is training white municipal employees to overcome their “internalized racial superiority.”

Birmingham Officials Punish Pastor for Speech. That Can’t Stand.
Seventy-seven years ago, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson wrote, “If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.”

College Boards Must Reassert Themselves
If it often seems as though our colleges and universities have no adult leadership, allowing radical faculty and crazed students to run wild, that’s because the people who are supposed to be the sensible leaders — the trustees — are usually asleep at the switch.

Debunking the Party Switch Myth
Ever hear that the parties switched around the Civil Rights Era? You probably have but in case you have not the claim goes like this: although Abraham Lincoln was a Republican and the CRA and the VRA were passed by Republicans these were different Republicans because the parties switched. They say that the Dixiecrats in the Democratic Party (southern democrats who were racist) became Republicans (so the racists are now in the Republican party). To be clear, none of what I am about to say should be taken to mean the parties are stagnant. They’re not. Different groups change who they vote for overtime. African Americans used to vote for Republicans and both parties used to be ideologically mixed. See another of my articles here for a quick breakdown of the history of American political parties. This article is to refute a specific claim of change.

It’s also worth asking today: what exactly makes speech “free”?
The sense in play in the current debate about “cancel culture” is that of parrhesia. In Greek, it means literally “saying it all”—that is, speaking one’s mind, what one likes, when one likes, and to whom.

On the Calvinball Field
When I was a kid, I loved Calvin & Hobbes. I still do. Calvin was bad at organized sports as a six-year-old. Instead, he’d play Calvinball with his tiger, Hobbes, where the only rule is that there were no rules except you could never have the same rules twice. Halfway through a game, suddenly the game could change. A soccer game could become capture the flag and capture the flag could end by hitting golf balls via croquet mallets.

The Myth Of Systemic Police Racism Is Leading To Targeted Attacks Against Cops
This is the second piece of a two-part series on how the myth of systemic police racism fuels the war on cops. Read part one here.

Leaders and Soldiers of the Escalating War
It’s not who you think it is

Race and equality
Earlier today, we had as one of our “picks” at the top of the homepage an article called “Race and Equality.” This is an interview with Glenn Loury conducted by one of his former students, Glenn Yu.

The Minority Victims of Whitenessphobia
For minority members, whiteness has become an accusation of acting white.

Ideological World War III Will Destroy United States
80% of students in the Harvard School of Arts and Sciences consider themselves to be progressive/socialist, compared to only 1% who consider themselves to be right-wing

Trump Is Wrong: “AMLO Is a Bad President for Mexico and Entrepreneurs”
Economist Guillermo Barba spoke to the PanAm Post and analyzed the Mexican economic situation during the coronavirus pandemic

“Drop the Knife! Drop It!”
Here’s a simple question: How many times should a cop have to tell you, “Drop the knife”? Like, suppose that you were an idiot who had just caused a six-car traffic pileup in Los Angeles, and when the police showed up on the scene, you were waving around a razor knife.

Churchill on Education
In 1897, when he was a young officer serving in Bangalore, Winston Churchill recorded his ideas on “universal compulsory education,” a policy that he deemed “a somewhat dangerous experiment.” If the policy could not be reversed, what was the appropriate curriculum for boys?

The Utility of White-Bashing
It’s a rhetoric that serves a purpose—which is why it’s not likely to disappear.

Summer classics revisited
It’s my goal in life to read the books I was supposed to read in college. I have looked to the St. John’s College Summer Classics program to help me achieve my goal. This year I took advantage of the Zoom edition of the program to sign up for classes over two weeks, the first on Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain and the second on Faulkner’s Flags in the Dust. I am glad to have read both.

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