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Tues. Oct.10, 2017
~All Gave Some~Some Gave All~God Bless America
The Truth About Columbus
Italian explorer Christopher Columbus discovered the New World and was once a universally revered figure in the United States. (Photo: Album/Fine Art Images/Newscom) Is this the last time we can celebrate Columbus Day?
A wave of cities have decided to remove the holiday from the calendar and replace it with “Indigenous Peoples’ Day.”
Christopher Columbus, the Italian explorer credited with discovering America, and his legacy are under attack figuratively and, increasingly, literally.
Several Columbus monuments have been attacked and vandalized around the country. The towering Columbus statue at Columbus Circle in New York City now needs 24-hour guards after Mayor Bill de Blasio put it on the list of a commission to review “offensive” memorials.
And according to Far Left Watch, a watchdog organization, Antifa and other left-wing groups plan to deface and attack Columbus statues across the country on Columbus Day.
It is unfortunate to see what was once a uniting figure—who represented American courage, optimism, and even immigrants—is suddenly in the crosshairs for destruction. We owe it to Columbus and ourselves to be more respectful of the man who made the existence of our country possible.
Once Revered, Now Maligned
A few historians and activists began to attack Columbus’ legacy in the late 20th century. They concocted a new narrative of Columbus as a rapacious pillager and a genocidal maniac.
Far-left historian Howard Zinn, in particular, had a huge impact on changing the minds of a generation of Americans about the Columbus legacy. Zinn not only maligned Columbus, but attacked the larger migration from the Old World to the new that he ushered in.
It wasn’t just Columbus who was a monster, according to Zinn, it was the driving ethos of the civilization that ultimately developed in the wake of his discovery: the United States.
“Behind the English invasion of North America,” Zinn wrote, “behind their massacre of Indians, their deception, their brutality, was that special powerful drive born in civilizations based on private profit.”
The truth is that Columbus set out for the New World thinking he would spread Christianity to regions where it didn’t exist. While Columbus, and certainly his Spanish benefactors, had an interest in the goods and gold he could return from what they thought would be Asia, the explorer’s primary motivation was religious.
“This conviction that God destined him to be an instrument for spreading the faith was far more potent than the desire to win glory, wealth, and worldly honors,” wrote historian Samuel Eliot Morison over a half-century ago.
In fact, as contemporary historian Carol Delaney noted, even the money Columbus sought was primarily dedicated to religious purposes. Delaney said in an interview with the Catholic fraternal organization the Knights of Columbus:
Everybody knows that Columbus was trying to find gold, but they don’t know what the gold was for: to fund a crusade to take Jerusalem back from the Muslims before the end of the world. A lot of people at the time thought that the apocalypse was coming because of all the signs: the plague, famine, earthquakes, and so forth. And it was believed that before the end, Jerusalem had to be back in Christian hands so that Christ could return in judgment.
Columbus critics don’t just stop at accusing him of greed. One of the biggest allegations against him is that he waged a genocidal war and engaged in acts of cruelty against indigenous people in the Americas.
But historians like Delaney have debunked these claims.
Columbus critics don’t just stop at accusing him of greed. One of the biggest allegations against him is that he waged a genocidal war and engaged in acts of cruelty against indigenous people in the Americas.
But historians like Delaney have debunked these claims.
Rather than cruel, Columbus was mostly benign in his interaction with native populations. While deprivations did occur, Columbus was quick to punish those under his command who committed unjust acts against local populations.
“Columbus strictly told the crew not to do things like maraud, or rape, and instead to treat the native people with respect,” Delaney said. “There are many examples in his writings where he gave instructions to this effect. Most of the time when injustices occurred, Columbus wasn’t even there. There were terrible diseases that got communicated to the natives, but he can’t be blamed for that.”
Columbus certainly wasn’t a man without flaws or attitudes that would be unacceptable today.
But even as a man of an earlier age in which violence and cruelty were often the norm between different cultures and people, Columbus did not engage in the savage acts that have been pinned on him.
How Americans Once Viewed Columbus
For much of the 19th and 20th centuries, most Americans were taught about Columbus’ discovery of the New World in school.
“In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue … ” went a popular poem about the Italian explorer who flew under the Spanish flag. At one time, Americans marveled at what seemed like an unbelievably courageous voyage across unknown waters with the limited tools and maps of the 15th century.
It is difficult in the 21st century to imagine what Columbus faced as he crossed the Atlantic in search of what he thought was a route to Asia. The hardship and danger was immense. If things went awry, there would be nothing to save his little flotilla besides hope, prayer, and a little courage.
Most people, even in the 1490s, knew that the Earth was round. However, Columbus made a nevertheless history-altering discovery.
The world was a much bigger place than most had imagined, and though Columbus never personally realized the scope of his discovery, he opened up a new world that would one day become a forefront of human civilization.
This is the man and the history that earlier generations of Americans came to respect and admire.
Unfortunately, Zinn and others’ caricature of Columbus and American civilization has stuck and in an era in which radicals and activists search the country for problematic statues to destroy, Columbus is a prime target.
Ku Klux Klan Pushed Anti-Columbus Rhetoric
Much of the modern rhetoric about Columbus mirrors attacks lobbed at him in the 19th century by anti-Catholic and anti-Italian groups like the Ku Klux Klan.
In fact, Columbus Day became a nationally celebrated holiday following a mass lynching of Italians in New Orleans—the largest incident of lynching in American history.
In 1892—the 400th anniversary of the Columbus voyage—President Benjamin Harrison called for a national celebration of Columbus and his achievements. Americans patriotically celebrated Columbus and erected numerous statues in his honor as the country embraced him.
Though American appreciation of Columbus deepened, some groups weren’t pleased.
As the pro-Columbus website The Truth About Columbus points out, the Ku Klux Klan worked to stop Columbus Day celebrations, smash statues, and reverse his growing influence on American culture.
According to The Truth About Columbus, in the 1920s, the Klan “attempted to remove Columbus Day as a state holiday in Oregon,” burned a cross “to disturb a Columbus Day celebration in Pennsylvania,” and successfully “opposed the erection of a statue of Columbus in Richmond, Virginia, only to see the decision to reject the statue reversed.”
Attempts to quash Columbus failed, but they have re-emerged in our own time through the actions of far-left groups who want to see his legacy buried and diminished forever.
This would be a tragic loss for our generation and those of the future.
The bravery and boldness that Columbus displayed in his trek to America have been inherent in the American cultural DNA from the beginning.
We may never have the class, the taste, the sophistication of the Old World upper crust. But what we do have is a reverence for simple virtues of strength, boldness, and a willingness to push the envelope to secure for ourselves a better future than those who’ve come before.
We are a civilization that admires those who push the limits of the frontier, who don’t merely accept what is and want something more. The spirit that drove us west and in modernity, to the moon, is what we celebrate in men like Columbus.
President Ronald Reagan said it best in a Columbus Day tribute:
Columbus is justly admired as a brilliant navigator, a fearless man of action, a visionary who opened the eyes of an older world to an entirely new one. Above all, he personifies a view of the world that many see as quintessentially American: not merely optimistic, but scornful of the very notion of despair.
When we have lost these things, when we no longer have the capacity to celebrate men like Columbus, as imperfect as they sometimes were, we will have lost what has made us great, and distinct.
When we have lost these things, when we no longer have the capacity to celebrate men like Columbus, as imperfect as they sometimes were, we will have lost what has made us great, and distinct.
Sen. Durbin Spills the Beans on Amnesty: Admits ‘DREAM Act’ a Ploy for Open-Ended Amnesty
Democratic leader Sen. Richard Durbin confirmed to Breitbart News that the Dream Act amnesty is open-ended and larger than his advertised number of the 780,000 people who have signed up for the DACA amnesty.
Breitbart News asked Durbin on Wednesday how many people would be included in the amnesty, which is co-sponsored by South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham. Durbin answered by saying:
We’re aiming at the DACA population, which is 780,000, but the Dream Act leaves that open.
Durbin spoke at a press conference arranged by Mark Zuckerberg’s FWD.us advocacy group. The event featured roughly 100 illegal aliens. Breitbart News asked the Illinois Senator when he would have a public estimate for the number of people who would gain from open-ended Dream Act, and he replied:
I don’t know that we have numbers. We can tell you 780,000 DACA. You have got ask how many are eligible for DACA today that didn’t apply, and I dont know what that number is. I really don’t. It is going to be more than 780,000, but I don’t know what it is.
Breitbart News cited the estimates prepared by the pro-amnesty Migration Policy Insitute estimates, which shows that 3.3 million illegal aliens would be eligible to obtain amnesty under the DREAM Act. But Durbin insisted he did not know how many would gain and charged GOP legislators with exaggerating the size of the amnesty and the number of people who would later arrive via chain migration. He said:
I don’t know where those numbers come from. Here is what [critics] are doing. They are projecting 15 years in the future when these Dreamers become citizens and they have the right of citizenship to petition for a spouse, children and parents, and they say, ‘Oh, that means that two or three for each one of those.’ …
I had to explain it to them, the laws of biology make that very difficult because if you came here under the age of 16, and you’ve been here four years, it is not likely that any children you have will have any special status —they will have been born in the United States. So some of the speculation about the numbers is real pretty far faced, and I don’t buy the two million, three million [estimates]. I don’t know where those numbers came from.
Durbin’s lack of an estimate is surprising, partly because he introduced the first version of the bill 16 years ago, in 2001.
Durbin’s admission that the Dream Act is open-ended raise the stakes for the Republican Party because the vast majority of likely beneficiaries lean Democratic — and because subsequent chain migration could deliver millions of lower-skilled, government-dependent legal immigrants to the polling booths in 2028 and 2032.
The bill allows beneficiaries to get citizenship in five years, or three years if they marry an American.
The DACA amnesty has provided benefits to 800,000 illegals, including roughly 690,000 who are currently enrolled. But Durbin’s Dream Act offers benefits to a much large number of illegal immigrants.
The pro-amnesty Migration Policy Institute said 1.8 million illegals are “immediately eligible” for the Dream Act amnesty, and 1.5 million “may become eligible … in the future.”
Most of the 1.5 million would sign up for the amnesty because they would gain huge benefits, including irrevocable and lifetime legal and financial aid from the federal government for themselves and all their descendants. Also, the 1.5 million includes 387,000 young children who can apply as they grow older. The others are 1.1 million high school dropouts who could apply after they merely enroll in — not pass — a high-school education course.
Those two groups of 1.8 million and 1.5 million add up to 3.3 million people who can get the Dream Act amnesty.
The Dream Act also offers citizenship to the resident population of the foreign people who were given “Temporary Protected Status” after fleeing from natural disasters in Haiti, El Salvador and other countries. That number is at least 300,000.
Researchers at Princeton University produced a 2013 report showing that the Mexican beneficiaries of the 1986 amnesty research sponsored an average of six family members to the United States. Roughly 90 percent of the DACA beneficiaries are from Mexico.
If Congress enacts an amnesty offering permanent residency to 700,000 DACA recipients and there are no other changes to our legal immigration system, that amnesty will result in a surge of potentially double that number of chain migration immigrants. The most effective way to mitigate this surge in chain migration is to eliminate entire categories of immigrant visas and green cards that are now reserved for the extended family members of prior immigrants (siblings and adult sons and daughters), and thus facilitate chain migration.
Dream Act chain-migration would likely be different from the 1986 chain-migration, partly because many of the younger siblings of the Dream Act beneficiaries won citizenship by being born in the United States. But few of the parents are citizens, and most would likely be eager to seek citizenship for both security and retirement benefits. In turn, the parents may try to bring in their siblings, although regulatory caps my limit chain-migration of siblings from Mexico.
A back-of-the-envelope calculation shows that if only 2 million Mexicans use the Dream Act amnesty to sponsor relatives at one-third of the rate seen after the 1986 amnesty, the Durbin-Graham amnesty will deliver at least 4 million extra migrants via chain migration.
But if 3 million Dream Act beneficiaries co-sponsor people at the post-1986 rate, the result will be 10 million to 20 million foreign nationals coming to the United States, including roughly 3 million to 6 million legal immigrants into the state of Texas.
A different version of the Dream Act, dubbed the “SUCCEED Act,” would offer amnesty to roughly 2.5 million people, but would delay naturalization out to 15 years, versus the three-to-five-year delay in the Dream Act.
The SUCCEED Act delay would likely reduce the chain-migration — but would still offer millions of poor foreign people the priceless opportunity to become legal immigrants, citizens, and voters. The SUCCEED Act is sponsored by two GOP Senators, Oklahoma’s James Lankford, and North Carolina’s Thom Tillis, who is a strong advocate of cheap-labor outsourcing.
“I believe — just my personal belief as a Christian — the greatest thing you can have other than salvation in Christ on Earth is American citizenship,” Lankford said during a September 27 softball interview by Dana Perino on Fox News Tonight.
NumbersUSA, an immigration reform group, has published a side-by-side comparison of the complementary Durbin and Lankford bills, which shows that that the Dream Act could bring in 17 million foreigners, while the SUCCEED Act would successfully bring in 13 million people.
Business groups strong favor additional immigration, partly because immigrants help lower the cost of labor and also act as additional customers. Taxpayers, however, would pay for much of that stimulus via the federal aid that is provided to lower-income, lower-skilled immigrants and citizens.
According to the CIS report;
Over the last 35 years, chain migration has greatly exceeded new immigration. Out of 33 million immigrants admitted to the United States from 1981 to 2016, about 20 million were chain migration immigrants (61 percent) …
Of the top immigrant-sending countries, Mexico has the highest rate of chain migration. In the most recent five-year cohort of immigrants studied (1996-2000), each new Mexican immigrant sponsored 6.38 additional legal immigrants.
Chain migration is contributing to the aging of the immigration stream. In the early 1980s, only about 17 percent of family migrants were age 50 or over. In recent years, about 21 percent of family migrants were age 50 or older — a rate that is more than 24 percent higher. This trend has implications for the fiscal consequences of immigration.
Trump has previously stated that an amnesty deal for DACA illegal aliens would have to include new curbs to reduce the subsequent surge of chain migration to the United States. Trump is also backing the RAISE Act, which would sharply reduce chain migration.
Four million Americans turn 18 each year and begin looking for good jobs in the free market.
But business groups have used their political power to tilt the labor market in their favor, via the federal policy of importing 1 million consumers and workers each year. The government also hands out almost 3 million short-term work permits to foreign workers. These permits include roughly 330,000 one-year OPT permits for foreign graduates of U.S. colleges, roughly 200,000 three-year H-1B visas for foreign white-collar professionals, and 400,000 two-year permits to DACA illegals. Universities employ roughly 100,000 foreign guest workers.
That Washington-imposed economic policy of mass-immigration floods the market with foreign labor, spikes profits and Wall Street values by cutting salaries for manual and skilled labor offered by blue-collar and white-collar employees. It also drives up real estate prices, widens wealth-gaps, reduces high-tech investment, increases state and local tax burdens, hurts kids’ schools and college education, pushes Americans away from high-tech careers, and sidelines at least 5 million marginalized Americans and their families, including many who are now struggling with opioid addictions.
The cheap-labor policy has also reduced investment and job creation in many interior states because the coastal cities have a surplus of imported labor. For example, almost 27 percent of zip codes in Missouri had fewer jobs or businesses in 2015 than in 2000, according to a new report by the Economic Innovation Group. In Kansas, almost 29 percent of zip codes had fewer jobs and businesses in 2015 compared to 2000, which was a two-decade period of massive cheap-labor immigration.
Americans tell pollsters that they strongly oppose amnesties and cheap-labor immigration, even as they also want to favor legal immigrants, and many sympathize with illegals.
Because of the successful cheap-labor strategy, wages for men have remained flat since 1973, and a growing percentage of the nation’s annual income is shifting to investors and away from employees. The business-funded Hamilton Project shows that the shift is transferring $1 trillion per year away from 160 million employees to the nation’s employers and investors.
Researchers Develop ‘Smart’ Bandage That Can Speed Healing
by NATE CHURCH
Researchers from Harvard, MIT, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln are developing a smart bandage that can release medication and speed the healing process.
These “intelligent bandages” are made from cotton coated with an electrically conductive substance, then further surrounded by a gel capable of storing medications like antibiotics or painkillers. The individual fibers are controlled by a device no larger than a postage stamp affixed to the bandage, receiving signals from your mobile device. The bandage heals wounds three times as fast as normal.
Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at Nebraska Ali Tamayol elaborated in a press release:
This is the first bandage that is capable of dose-dependent drug release. You can release multiple drugs with different release profiles. That’s a big advantage in comparison with other systems. What we did here was come up with a strategy for building a bandage from the bottom up.
Tamayol said that this technology “can be applied to many different areas of biomedical engineering and medicine,” which is good news for people suffering from long term or chronic wounds. Right now, there are an estimated 25 million Americans in need of just such a solution.
Perhaps even more notably, such treatment could be invaluable to soldiers in the field. According to Tamayol:
Soldiers on the battlefield may be suffering from a number of different injuries or infections. They might be dealing with a number of different pathogens. Imagine that you have a variable patch that has antidotes or drugs targeted toward specific hazards in the environment.
Tamayol and his associates are not the only ones advancing the science of wound care. Bandages with nanoscale sensors that transmit data to healthcare providers are in development, as well as heat-responsive bandages that heal faster.
Follow Nate Church @Get2Church on Twitter for the latest news in gaming and technology, and snarky opinions on both.
VP Pence Leaves NFL Game After Anthem Protests
Vice President Mike Pence has left the 49ers-Colts game after about a dozen San Francisco players took a knee.
The former Indiana governor flew in so he could watch Peyton Manning's jersey retirement ceremony on Sunday. Manning will become the first Indianapolis-era player in Colts history to have his number retired and will also be inducted into the team's Ring of Honor.
But Pence didn't stick around long.
Pence said on Twitter : "I left today's Colts game because @POTUS and I will not dignify any event that disrespects our soldiers, our Flag, or our National Anthem."
I left today's Colts game because @POTUS and I will not dignify any event that disrespects our soldiers, our Flag, or our National Anthem.
The White House also issued a statement from Pence, in which he says Americans should rally around the flag. Pence said: "I don't think it's too much to ask NFL players to respect the Flag and our National Anthem."
Pence is a noted sports fan and it's second major event he's attended in his home state since taking office in January. He also attended May's Indianapolis 500, a family tradition.
But Pence couldn't come to Manning's statue unveiling Saturday afternoon, which was attended by a number of luminaries including NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
Instead, Pence spent most of Saturday honoring victims of the Las Vegas shooting before returning to his home state.
Arizona Senator Gets Bad News About His Career
Benjamin Welton
Judge Roy Moore proved in Alabama that being a “swamp creature” is no longer a winning strategy. Now, one Arizona Republican is quickly proving that being anti-Trump is an express ticket to Loserville.
By all appearances, Senator Jeff Flake appears to be on track to losing his seat in the Senate. Outsider Kelli Ward, who has received support from President Trump, is currently leading her rival.
This year, Flake won high praise from the mainstream media for writing his book Conscience of a Conservative, a text dedicated to repudiating “Trumpism.”
Flake’s brand of “conservatism” conserves nothing and, in fact, concedes the high ground to the Democrats.
Pro-Trump Republicans, who increasingly make up the base of the Republican Party, recognize this and are lining up their support behind anti-Establishment candidates.
Ward has also received some coaching from Steven Bannon, the former White House strategist and the current CEO of Breitbart.
Under Bannon’s wing, Ward will pursue the nationalist-populist agenda that won Donald Trump the White House in 2016.
“People are fooling themselves if they think Jeff Flake is anything but a walking dead member of the United State Senate,” said Andy Surabian of the pro-Trump Great America Alliance.
Other pro-Trump advocates have lined up in order to celebrate what appears to be Jeff Flake’s implosion.
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee wrote on Twitter in response to an article about Flake’s unpopularity: “What??? You mean 53 million @realDonaldTrump voters are saying ‘Nananana Nananana Hey Hey Goodbye’ to swamp rats?”
Even worse news for Flake concerns his growing unpopularity with Republican donors, many of whom share the senator’s antagonism to President Trump. Many of these donors worry that Flake is not strong enough to head off Ward, thus bringing in another firebrand like Judge Roy Moore.
President Trump, who is reportedly very angry over the fact that Jared Kushner and Mitch McConnell encouraged him to support Luther Strange, seems to have learned his lesson, and is backing Ward over the “toxic” Flake.
If Ward wins, it will provide further evidence that “Trumpism” is much bigger than President Trump himself. The nationalist-populist brand of the “New Right” has proven to be a winning formula with American voters in the heartland, and no amount of grandstanding about “true conservatism” is going to change that.
The Republican establishment is worried because it sees that its days are numbered. Surely, big changes are on the horizon.
“This is a populist nationalist conservative revolt. It’s a revolt against the elites in this country. It’s a revolt against the globalists among those elites,” Bannon said in the wake of Moore’s victory in Alabama.
In Bannon’s eyes and in the eyes of millions of MAGA supporters, this movement will not only tackle RINOs like Flake, but will also attack those interested parties who use their money and influence to support globalist causes. These entities include Wall Street and multinational corporations, both of which have a history of donating money to the Republican Party.
This revolution seeks to take on all comers, whether they be Republicans, globalists, or the Democrats.
Newt Gingrich: NFL may abandon National Anthem
by Paul Bedard
The Dallas Cowboys, led by owner Jerry Jones, center, take a knee prior to the national anthem prior to an NFL football game against the Arizona Cardinals, Monday, Sept. 25, 2017, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York)In its bid to skirt the issue of professional football players and coaches protesting America at the beginning of games, the NFL might just stop playing the National Anthem, warns former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
In a note to supporters, the author of the recently-released book "Understanding Trump,"said, "My fear is that the NFL will succumb to pressure and try to sidestep the problem by no longer performing the National Anthem before games." He added, "This would be the worst path to take."
Teams last weekend struggled with the new issue pushed into the public arena by President Trump with the confusion displayed best by one team, the Dallas Cowboys, who kneeled then stood for the presentation of the flag.
Gingrich said that the debate is a perfect time for a national talk on patriotism:
"As a nation, we need to have a serious debate: Will we renew our patriotism and respect our shared history, or will we allow our American institutions to decay? Are we going to ignore our traditions out of fear of ridicule from the Left, or are we going to proudly continue to be ‘the land of the free and the home of the brave?'"
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at pbedard@washingtonexaminer.com
Retired NFLer Burgess Owens Identifies Biggest Threats To Blacks
The left is poisoning minds.
screenshot/Fox News ChannelByROBERT KRAYCHIK
“We’re having a fight...within the black community against Marxism and socialism,” said retired NFL safety Burgess Owens on Saturday’s Fox & Friends.
Owens told host Chris Wallace that leftist ideology is fomenting anti-Americanism as well as feelings of hopelessness within the black community. Protests against the flag, Owens continued, demonstrate a lack of respect:
We have a country that’s giving every American, black and white, the greatest opportunities in the history of mankind, including the millionaires who stayed on the sideline today. So understand, we’re at a fight; we’re having a fight, but it’s a fight within the black community against Marxism and socialism. That’s our fight.
You have young men who do not understand the gratitude [for being American] that they should have been taught. …
This is something that’s been going on for decades in our community – the hopelessness, the belief that this country’s not for them has been happening for a long time.
Owens has spoken out about leftist manipulation before, on September 29:
Owens told host Chris Wallace that leftist ideology is fomenting anti-Americanism as well as feelings of hopelessness within the black community. Protests against the flag, Owens continued, demonstrate a lack of respect:
We have a country that’s giving every American, black and white, the greatest opportunities in the history of mankind, including the millionaires who stayed on the sideline today. So understand, we’re at a fight; we’re having a fight, but it’s a fight within the black community against Marxism and socialism. That’s our fight.
You have young men who do not understand the gratitude [for being American] that they should have been taught. …
This is something that’s been going on for decades in our community – the hopelessness, the belief that this country’s not for them has been happening for a long time.
Owens has spoken out about leftist manipulation before, on September 29:
Let me tell you what the flag represents and what our country represents: it’s a place of hope, it’s a place of second chances, and we have these young men that are literally millionaires…with billions of dollars represented on that sideline, and they have no clue that we the people — they — are the solution, because they’ve been brought up in this socialist, liberal, Marxist environment in which they’re not given hope…
The Democratic Party has failed the black community for decades. I’m sick and tired of us being portrayed as a hapless race, that white people did all these things to us, because we don’t know our history. So let’s man up, learn our history, find out that not only did we give a lot to this country, but we got a lot from this country. We’re the freest country in the history of mankind.
Familial disintegration and single parenthood within minority communities are functions of “Democratic policies,” said Owens on September 25:
The Democratic Party has failed the black community for decades. I’m sick and tired of us being portrayed as a hapless race, that white people did all these things to us, because we don’t know our history. So let’s man up, learn our history, find out that not only did we give a lot to this country, but we got a lot from this country. We’re the freest country in the history of mankind.
Familial disintegration and single parenthood within minority communities are functions of “Democratic policies,” said Owens on September 25:
We have come to the point because of liberalism, because of what Democratic policies do, 70% of black men do not stay around. They don't have these parents and these fathers to tell them what they should be proud of and how they should stand up for this process…
This is what is happening – liberals at the top, elitists, they are using my race, they are bringing misery to my race and then using this misery to make sure they keep their power.
This is what is happening – liberals at the top, elitists, they are using my race, they are bringing misery to my race and then using this misery to make sure they keep their power.
Congress seeks IG probe of radio
This undated file photo distributed on Sept. 3, 2017, by the North Korean government, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, second from right, at an undisclosed location in North Korea. As North Korea steps up its nuclear weapons ... By Bill Gertz
Four members of Congress have asked the State Department inspector general to investigate whether China coerced the Voice of America into canceling a live radio interview with a Chinese dissident.
“We believe that an independent and impartial investigation is needed to determine whether Chinese government intimidation or interference influenced [VOA] management’s decisions to curtail a planned live broadcast with Chinese businessman-turned whistleblower Guo Wengui,” Sen. Marco Rubio and Reps. Christopher H. Smith, Edward R. Royce and Robert Pittenger stated in an Aug. 28 letter.
The Republican lawmakers said an April 19 interview with Mr. Guo on VOA was cut short over a dispute between VOA management and employees in the Mandarin-language service of the official radio station. Five VOA employees were placed on administrative leave after the incident.
According to the lawmakers, Mr. Guo sought to expose “extensive evidence of corruption in the Chinese Communist Party, including allegations of collusion between China’s Ministry of National Security and Chinese corporations.”
Mr. Guo is a billionaire businessman who recently broke with the Chinese government and began revealing details of alleged corruption among senior Chinese leaders. In response Beijing has pressed the U.S. government to return Mr. Guo, who applied for political asylum last month.
The dissident’s first public appearance was scheduled for Wednesday at the Hudson Institute, a Washington think tank. But the event was canceled amid pressure from China, according to a Hudson spokesman.
The congressional letter quotes one of the suspended VOA employees, Mandarin service head Sasha Gong, as saying VOA management was informed about the interview and its content well in advance of the curtailed interview.
Ms. Gong also asserted that the Chinese government went to extraordinary lengths to stop the broadcast, including threatening VOA with a cancellation of visas for reporters in China, and multiple demands by the Chinese Embassy to cancel the Guo interview. According to Ms. Gong, the Chinese threats and protests led senior VOA leaders to intervene in the interview.
“It is clear that the Chinese government was committed to stopping this interview from taking place,” the letter states.
The State Department IG was asked to investigate whether the Chinese government threatened to cancel visas of VOA reporters and to look into whether communications took place between VOA management and the Chinese Embassy in Washington. The IG also was asked to look at whether VOA managers sought to alter the Guo interview plan before or after threats were made by the Chinese and whether the Chinese Embassy sought VOA’s cooperation in editing, changing or canceling the interview.
VOA has denied mishandling the interview and said the reporters involved did not follow proper procedures. VOA also has launched an inquiry of the incident by a private investigator.
“We believe there are many elements of this case that merit an independent and thorough review conducted by the office of the inspector general, rather than by any outside groups,” the congressmen said.
“We believe that an independent and impartial investigation is needed to determine whether Chinese government intimidation or interference influenced [VOA] management’s decisions to curtail a planned live broadcast with Chinese businessman-turned whistleblower Guo Wengui,” Sen. Marco Rubio and Reps. Christopher H. Smith, Edward R. Royce and Robert Pittenger stated in an Aug. 28 letter.
The Republican lawmakers said an April 19 interview with Mr. Guo on VOA was cut short over a dispute between VOA management and employees in the Mandarin-language service of the official radio station. Five VOA employees were placed on administrative leave after the incident.
According to the lawmakers, Mr. Guo sought to expose “extensive evidence of corruption in the Chinese Communist Party, including allegations of collusion between China’s Ministry of National Security and Chinese corporations.”
Mr. Guo is a billionaire businessman who recently broke with the Chinese government and began revealing details of alleged corruption among senior Chinese leaders. In response Beijing has pressed the U.S. government to return Mr. Guo, who applied for political asylum last month.
The dissident’s first public appearance was scheduled for Wednesday at the Hudson Institute, a Washington think tank. But the event was canceled amid pressure from China, according to a Hudson spokesman.
The congressional letter quotes one of the suspended VOA employees, Mandarin service head Sasha Gong, as saying VOA management was informed about the interview and its content well in advance of the curtailed interview.
Ms. Gong also asserted that the Chinese government went to extraordinary lengths to stop the broadcast, including threatening VOA with a cancellation of visas for reporters in China, and multiple demands by the Chinese Embassy to cancel the Guo interview. According to Ms. Gong, the Chinese threats and protests led senior VOA leaders to intervene in the interview.
“It is clear that the Chinese government was committed to stopping this interview from taking place,” the letter states.
The State Department IG was asked to investigate whether the Chinese government threatened to cancel visas of VOA reporters and to look into whether communications took place between VOA management and the Chinese Embassy in Washington. The IG also was asked to look at whether VOA managers sought to alter the Guo interview plan before or after threats were made by the Chinese and whether the Chinese Embassy sought VOA’s cooperation in editing, changing or canceling the interview.
VOA has denied mishandling the interview and said the reporters involved did not follow proper procedures. VOA also has launched an inquiry of the incident by a private investigator.
“We believe there are many elements of this case that merit an independent and thorough review conducted by the office of the inspector general, rather than by any outside groups,” the congressmen said.
Energy Department on EMP attacks
North Korea’s most recent underground nuclear test included disclosures by the Pyongyang government that it plans to use its new hydrogen bombs for electronic magnetic pulse, or EMP, attacks.
The latest underground test blast was assessed as being a very large nuclear weapon, possibly a hydrogen bomb or an EMP weapon.
The latest underground test blast was assessed as being a very large nuclear weapon, possibly a hydrogen bomb or an EMP weapon.
And the latest threat from Pyongyang has been to conduct an atmospheric test of a nuclear device over the Pacific.
EMP is the very-high-voltage wave created when a nuclear weapon is detonated. Set off at high altitude, it can disrupt or destroy all electronics within an area stretching up to 1,000 miles.
The threat has raised concerns that the U.S. government is ill prepared to respond to such an EMP attack that some analysts say could cause massive casualties in the United States resulting from the shutdown of electric power. The Energy Department, in
coordination with the private Electric Power Research Institute, produced a study on the EMP danger that warns more needs to be done to understand and respond to the threat.
“An EMP can also potentially disrupt control centers for power systems and for oil and gas networks (and other industries as well),” the report, “Joint Electromagnetic Pulse Resilience,” states
“Given the critical importance of reliable electric power and energy supplies for security and economic well-being, it is essential that the United States improve the nation’s ability to protect, mitigate, respond to, and recover from the potentially devastating effects of an EMP.”
“An EMP can also potentially disrupt control centers for power systems and for oil and gas networks (and other industries as well),” the report, “Joint Electromagnetic Pulse Resilience,” states
“Given the critical importance of reliable electric power and energy supplies for security and economic well-being, it is essential that the United States improve the nation’s ability to protect, mitigate, respond to, and recover from the potentially devastating effects of an EMP.”
According to the report, several nations are capable of attacking the U.S. and its allies in an EMP attack, and still more are trying to acquire the capability. In addition to North Korea, China and Russia are believed to be working on EMP weapons.
A nuclear EMP detonation “is such that it can occur with little or no warning, severely limiting the ability of operational-based strategies to limit damage as there is insufficient time to put such strategies in place,” the report said.
“Therefore, the response to EMP (particularly [High Altitude] EMP) threats involves measures that harden assets to reduce their vulnerability to damage and improve response and recovery actions to limit the duration of any outage,” the report said.
The report calls for more study on the threat and identifying critical infrastructure that would be impacted by such an attack. Testing and mitigation for EMP attack also is needed, along with preparing responses and recovery capabilities.
Except for certain military facilities, few protection and mitigation measure are currently in place to respond to EMP strikes, the report said.
Protecting stockpiles of electrical equipment is one recommendation.
“EMP has the potential to cause substantial impacts to the nation’s infrastructure, and in particular the electric grid,” the report concludes.
The study, however, stops short of recommending the purchase and stockpiling of critical electronic components, such as transformers and switches, that could be used to more rapidly replace EMP-destroyed equipment.
Dunford on Afghanistan
The military’s most senior general this week indirectly criticized the Obama administration for withdrawing troops from Afghanistan too soon.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford told the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that Afghanistan remains a military stalemate against the Taliban terrorist group 16 years after U.S. troops entered the country to oust the al Qaeda terror group after the 9/11 attacks.
“This situation has developed since the NATO mission in Afghanistan transitioned to an advisory effort,” the Marine general stated.
Since 2015, he said, U.S. military forces advised and accompanied Afghan special operations units. But support to conventional forces has been curtailed. Aviation and intelligence backing for the Afghans also were reduced and, as a result, undermined Afghan combat operations.
“My military assessment is that we drew down our advisory effort and combat support for the Afghan forces too far and too fast,” Gen. Dunford said.
“As a result, the Taliban expanded territorial and population control and inflicted significant casualties on the Afghan army and police, while we lost campaign momentum.”
A “failure analysis” was conducted by the Pentagon last spring, and a new strategy developed that seeks to break the stalemate and bolster Afghan forces. The new approach expands advisory efforts to the tactical unit level and increases combat support.
“We believe these adjustments will improve the ability of the Afghans to conduct offensive operations, defend critical terrain and reduce Afghan casualties,” the four-star general said. “The emphasis is on providing effective support to the over 300,000 Afghans we have trained and equipped so they can secure their own country.”
The idea is for the Afghans to “take the fight to the enemy,” Gen. Dunford said, adding that Afghan government corruption poses the greatest roadblock to success.
The new military objectives, Gen. Dunford said, are clear and achievable, focused on defeating Islamic State and al Qaeda and ensuring that terrorists cannot plan and launch attacks against the United States.
Finally, Gen. Dunford said the ultimate objective in Afghanistan is to force an “Afghan-led peace process” to end the conflict.
That is an outcome critics say is unlikely considering the radical Islamist ideology of the Taliban calls for the total Islamization of the country.
Contact Bill Gertz on Twitter at @BillGertz.
POTUS Drops MAJOR Hint About The Next Step in North Korea Nonsense
By Andrew West
Over the last 48 hours, there has been quite a bit of movement in the saga involving U.S President Donald Trump and North Korea’s “Supreme Leader” Kim Jong Un.
The two world leaders have been trading barbs for virtually the entire time that Donald Trump has been in office, with Kim sensing an opportunity to gain diplomatic ground during the White House transition. Accompanying Kim’s big-mouthed posturing are a pair of successful intercontinental ballistic missile launches and the likely underground testing of a thermonuclear device that could possibly find itself attached to the aforementioned projectiles.
This, rightfully, hasn’t sat well with President Trump, who has never been shy about expressing himself and his feelings regarding those who look to harm the United States. Trump has met Kim’s threats of turning the U.S. to “ash and darkness” with stern language of his own, claiming that the U.S. could “destroy” the nation as a whole with a “fire and fury” the liked of which the world has “never seen”.
This weekend, Trump has taken it up another notch, as the nation fears a possible Columbus Day ‘surprise’ from the hermit kingdom.
“US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that ‘only one thing will work’ to solve the North Korean crisis, although he did not explicitly specify what that would be.
“‘Presidents and their administrations have been talking to North Korea for 25 years, agreements made and massive amounts of money paid……’ the president tweeted.
“‘…hasn’t worked, agreements violated before the ink was dry, makings fools of U.S. negotiators. Sorry, but only one thing will work!’ he continued in a second tweet.
“It’s unclear whether Trump was referring to the nuclear option when he said ‘only one thing will work.’ A senior administration official told Business Insider that the White House had ‘nothing else to add’ to the president’s tweets, and the State Department did not return a request for comment.”
What we once believed about North Korea’s aggression/capitulation strategy of years past seems to be out the window in the current era.
Where the U.S. would simply meet Kim Jong Un’s threats with subtle sanctions and a shying away from outright conflict, President Trump has embraced the role of American protector to an unprecedented degree. His tough talk for the dainty dictator of the DPRK has put Kim in the hot seat, forcing the young despot to act, knowing fully well that any military aggression will be met with an end to his reign.
G’ day…Ciao…
Helen and Moe Lauzier
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