Sunday, December 19, 2021

TLDR DIGEST 12/12-19

"Would it be accurate to say that the right’s muddled state consists in a division between those who understand that we’re in a war and those who don’t? A sizeable contingent of the right, such as it is, still believes that solid reporting, thorough scholarship and careful argumentation will win the respect of their ideological adversaries on the basis of fairness and merit. Is that way of thinking a failure to understand the nature of the conflict?  “I think so,” Mr. Podhoretz says. “And I think Trump was the only guy who understood the situation in those terms, whether by instinct or whatever.””


https://www.wsj.com/articles/norman-podhoretz-spiritual-war-for-america-conservatism-republican-trump-youngkin-carlson-11639149560?mod=e2fb&fbclid=IwAR1twUrig9zpPgLLvjql3ie4yHv4BIU9EAdMVpe90OVo23GyJd6rhtQTLJw


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“….a Scottish police policy says authorities will record individuals accused of rape as the gender in which they self-identify, according to several reports.”


“J.K. Rowling wrote in the Sunday tweet, quoting George Orwell's "1984" with her own addition:

 

“”War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength. The Penised Individual Who Raped You Is a Woman”.


“Rowling posted those words with a link to a Sunday Times article titled "'Absurdity' of police logging rapists as women.””


https://www.insider.com/jk-rowling-transphobic-comments-rape-policy-gender-id-2021-12


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“A week before the summit was to take place, the Chinese government hastily convened its own democracy forum and published a white paper called “China: Democracy That Works,” as well as a report titled “The State of Democracy in the United States,” in which it claims to “expose the deficiencies and abuse of democracy” in the United States. These actions have been accompanied by countless articles, press conferences, and, of course, tweets about China’s “democracy” and its alleged superiority to U.S. democracy…But for Beijing, being convinced the “East is rising and West is declining” isn’t enough; other major powers must be persuaded as well. The Summit for Democracy threatens to undermine China’s narrative by portraying the West, and the United States in particular, as resilient. Moreover, the official assessment of China’s rise and the United States’ decline does not mean the CCP can relax; it must struggle to achieve its victory. Like any authoritarian government that cannot be voted out of office yet is always fearful of being ousted violently by the people, the stakes are high. In the eyes of the CCP, genuine democracy poses a threat to the regime’s legitimacy and security.”

https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/12/10/china-response-biden-democracy-summit/?utm_source=PostUp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Flashpoints%20OC&utm_term=37925&tpcc=Flashpoints%20OC


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“Messrs. Putin and Xi will tomorrow convene for a virtual summit to assess their bilateral relations and outcomes, and plan for the coming year. Mr. Putin held a similar conversation with Mr. Lukashenko on Friday. The geopolitical ménage à trois between Russia, China, and Belarus is growing ever-more curious –– and dangerous.”


https://www.nysun.com/foreign/geopolitical-mnage-trois-among-russia-china/91818/


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“Conservatives used to say: “America is a Christian nation.” Everybody knows what they meant by that, even if many people pretended not to understand. We are not a country with a national church or a national faith. We are — or were — a “Christian nation” in the sense that the United States grew out of a Christian civilization and found its political basis in Anglo-Protestant liberalism…But even though 65 percent of U.S. adults identify themselves as Christian, I am no longer convinced that Christianity is the dominant religious faith of the United States. What most of us profess may be Christianity, but what Americans corporately practice is an imperial cult, a religion that puts the state and its officers at the center not only of national political life but national moral and spiritual life.”


https://www.nationalreview.com/the-tuesday/the-american-state-cult/




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““…I tell you one thing that really tipped us off that there was a problem…[I]f somebody gets jumped like that — so let me back up a bit. He went to a Subway sandwich shop at like two in the morning to get a sandwich. Okay, that’s fine. He comes back, gets attacked in a hate crime, supposed hate crime, and during all this scuffle, they poured bleach on him, and all of this, when he got up and went into his apartment building, he still had that Subway sandwich with him. That doesn’t happen.”


““When people get attacked like that, whatever belongings they have out there, they usually leave it until the police can go back with them because they’re afraid. This guy had the sandwich in his hand, and [it had] never been touched. That was a real tip and a clue to us that something was amiss.”


“The former chief also noted that Smollett might not have been criminally charged if he had come forward with an apology and abandoned his claims of victimhood, which he did not do.”


https://www.dailywire.com/news/chief-who-arrested-smollett-says-sandwich-tipped-off-authorities-maybe-wouldve-let-off-with-apology


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“Don’t just turn to tired, old sanctions. Instead, cancel all visas to members of the establishment in one swoop (as Switzerland did with Libya when its former leader, Muammar al-Qaddafi, seized two Swiss businessmen in a fit of rage against Switzerland). Impose a luxury embargo. (Hint: Elites in countries that try the hardest to harm the West love wearing Western designer brands and carrying their belongings in Western designer bags.) The European Union is reportedly working on a trade weapon that will bar countries that coerce EU companies from participating in lucrative EU contracts. Why not use the ban to avenge other acts of aggression? Or, if a country is targeted by a hostile regime, other countries could retaliate on its behalf—and leave the aggressor guessing who’s retaliating until a response is underway.”


https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/12/10/eu-poland-belarus-deterrence-migration-lukashenko/?utm_source=PostUp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Editors%20Picks%20OC&utm_term=38073&tpcc=Editors%20Picks%20OC


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“Seven years ago, the he European External Action Service (EEAS), the diplomatic service and combined foreign and defense ministry of the European Union began a targeted and malicious campaign of disinformation and retaliation against a longstanding EU official for the sole crime of being Jewish—a charge of dual loyalty to one's home country and to Israel that has plagued countless patriots around the world.”

https://www.newsweek.com/we-must-continue-fight-against-jew-hatred-europe-opinion-1656499



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"Ex-Army officer Brittany Ramos DeBarros, a socialist looking to replace GOP Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis, bared more than her soul at an anti-war burlesque show at a Brooklyn bar… the retired captain and Afghan war veteran stripped off her camouflage uniform to nothing but red lingerie, as she gyrated to Edwin Starr’s iconic protest song, “War.””

https://nypost.com/2021/12/11/nyc-candidate-brittany-ramos-debarros-strips-in-burlesque-show/



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“For all their supposed erudition, leftists have always had trouble with symbolism. That is, they tend not to understand that a concept may represent another concept, rather than being the thing itself. They think that by getting rid of bad grades, they can get rid of what the bad grades represent—failure, ignorance, and laziness, on the part of students and teachers both.:


https://amgreatness.com/2021/12/14/the-logic-of-californias-leftists-will-keep-us-all-children-forever/



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“Earlier this month when she announced her candidacy for governor of Georgia, Stacey Abrams said, "I did not challenge the outcome of the election, unlike some recent folks did." That sound you hear is the world's largest record scratch. Despite these desperate attempts to rewrite history, Stacey Abrams is the pioneer of election disinformation. … She is changing her tune now because she knows her past statements are not only campaign fodder for her opponents, but reveals to Georgians her role in our state’s mistrust of elections.”


https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/politics/586015-the-pioneer-of-election-disinformation


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“In an interesting twist, Facebook admitted in court documents that its “fact checks” are opinion assertions, according to observers who have poured over documents filed in a defamation lawsuit brought against the company by journalist John Stossel.  “Stossel’s claims focus on the fact-check articles written by Climate Feedback, not the labels affixed through the Facebook platform. The labels themselves are neither false nor defamatory; to the contrary, they constitute protected opinion,” Facebook’s lawyers argue.”


https://www.outkick.com/facebook-admits-its-fact-checkers-are-just-opinion-taste-makers/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR2oAx8TcxqihcEe2_DRNHFC3HloKtICFIOxRErgqyD-GDinNtD3otNqfy0#Echobox=1639529237


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“Representative Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democrat, tweeted in reaction to the poll that he forbids his staff from using “Latinx” in official communications. “When Latino politicos use the term, it is largely to appease white rich progressives who think that is the term we use,” he wrote. “It is a vicious circle of confirmation bias.”  The pushback is a heartening sign of the limits of elite cultural power, and of the lack of interest of most Latinos in being pawns in the ever more strained and obscure progressive politics of perpetual victimology.”


https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/12/the-failure-of-latinx/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=NR%20Daily%20Monday%20through%20Friday%202021-12-15&utm_term=NRDaily-Smart



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“Another anonymous female swimmer from UPenn told OutKick that she and most of her female teammates are upset because their coach, Mike Schnur, is allowing a transgender athlete to take a woman's spot because he 'just really likes winning.’…the first female swimmer to speak out, anonymously, told OutKick that support is 'fake.' 'When the whole team is together, we have to be like, 'Oh my gosh, go Lia, that's great, you're amazing.' It's very fake,' she said.”

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10314225/UPenn-parents-pen-poignant-letter-demanding-NCAA-change-rules-trans-swimmer-Lia-Thomas.html


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“Jefferson talked of democracy itself and dreamed of what Lewis & Clark might discover in his purchase of Louisiana. FDR talked of the danger of fear itself. Reagan warned of communism and spoke to Americans of the economic principles of liberty. They had moments of vainglory, no doubt, but none of them made themselves, or their opponents, personally the issue.  Does Mrs. Clinton still not get that? Candidate Trump nailed her on the point, mocking her very campaign slogan, “I’m with her.” Mr. Trump responded by telling voters: “I’m with you.” Does she still fail to focus on the substance of what the candidate who defeated her was saying as he flew from one airport rally to another, talking about the devastation wrought in the Rust Belt by Democratic policies?”


https://www.nysun.com/editorials/hillary-clinton-without-tears/91821/



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“If you are not used to the intellectual compartmentalization required of an American politician, it can be jarring to hear, e.g., Senator Sanders demanding “revolution” at 10 a.m. and denouncing “insurrection” at 10:15 a.m.”


https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/12/the-march-of-the-new-american-leninists/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=blog-post&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=more-in&utm_term=first


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“The purpose of the “Islamophobia” artifice is to intimidate analysts and commentators into ignoring the straight line from bellicose verses in Muslim scripture to sharia-supremacist ideology to influential jihadists who recruit young Muslims to do violence in the name of that ideology to the terrorist attacks those recruits commit. That straight line is patent and has been proved in many criminal prosecutions. But if examining it can be made taboo, then sharia supremacists have a leg up when exploiting modes of persuasion other than force — e.g., the media, academia, lawsuits — to promote their ideology and influence government officials.


“After all these years, it should be clear by now that Americans are not generally biased against Muslims as a class — there will always be pockets of bias against virtually every group, but Muslims are successfully integrated in American society, Americans have made enormous sacrifices for Muslim societies overseas, and we have striven to avoid tarring all Muslims with the horrific acts of violence committed against our society by avowed, unapologetic jihadists (the overwhelming majority of whose victims, it should be noted, are also Muslims). What Americans are biased against, with eminent good reason, is sharia supremacism, a systematically discriminatory and misogynist ideology that is antithetical to our constitutional republic.”



https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/12/the-islamophobia-canard-returns/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=blog-post&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=more-in&utm_term=second





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When Democrats went soft on crime in the 1960s and ’70s, it took two Republican presidential landslides and almost two decades for the party to recover its sense. In San Francisco, Mayor London Breed is showing that the turnaround can happen in less than two years…as the calendar turned to 2021, San Francisco saw itself subject to the new style of smash-and-grab looting. Residents knew instantly what was happening across the city. The tech-connected world that San Francisco created allows the city’s residents to easily share the photos and videos from their security systems and smart-home doorbells with each other. Early last month, a campaign to recall Boudin collected enough signatures, and he faces the judgment of voters next June.  Breed has gotten the message and is trying to transform herself into a law-and-order mayor.”


https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/12/san-fran-mayor-has-defunders-remorse/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=top-bar-latest&utm_term=second




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“Kim Foxx is not a real prosecutor but a de-prosecutor. She lets people who have clearly committed crimes walk free on the streets of Chicago. Smollett is only the tip of the iceberg of Foxx’s incompetence. During her first three years in office, Foxx dropped almost 30 percent of felony charges against criminal defendants, including murders and shootings. If Foxx can’t manage an obvious conviction against a two-bit charlatan like Jussie Smollett, how can she deal effectively with truly violent offenders? No wonder criminals are running free in the Windy City, which has seen over 1,000 homicides this year.  Smollett has seen real justice in a courtroom. Chicago voters should administer some electoral justice to Foxx.”



https://www.city-journal.org/jussie-smollett-faces-the-music-when-will-kim-foxx?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Organic_Social&fbclid=IwAR1K2NFesc03z6doWZRRTgCCsE2QhpyEOLx6XUVf_ZQdURYEsfGEBaiXUbk




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“Don’t buy the myth that the committee is bipartisan just because it has two Republicans on board. Cheney and Kinzinger were handpicked to be useful idiots by the spitefully partisan, House Speaker. The committee was illegitimate the minute Pelosi rejected Republicans Jim Jordan and Jim Banks, who would at least have asked why the Capitol was left unprotected on Jan. 6. “


https://nypost.com/2021/12/15/liz-cheney-at-forefront-of-hollow-jan-6-war-devine/














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