90 Miles From Tyranny

Wednesday, January 13, 2021

I Never Thought They'd Catch Up So Fast...

Beijing Biden Pick For Civil Rights Chief Promoted Racism and Anti-Semitism at Harvard..

Kristen Clarke, President-elect Joe Biden's pick to lead the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, advanced pseudoscientific theories of black racial superiority and organized an event with a notorious anti-Semite as a student at Harvard University.

Clarke and a coauthor outlined "the genetic differences between Blacks and whites" in a 1994 letter to the editors of Harvard's student newspaper, which criticized the political scientist Charles Murray's book The Bell Curve. The genetic difference they identify, varying levels of melanin between whites and blacks, accounts for disparate cognitive abilities, physical power, and even spirituality, the pair said. The so-called melanin theory has no basis in science.

"Melanin endows Blacks with greater mental, physical and spiritual abilities—something which cannot be measured based on Eurocentric standards," they wrote.

Clarke's remarks will ignite a white-hot confirmation battle in the Senate at a time of heightened racial tension. Though the incendiary statements are more than 25 years old, several of President Donald Trump's judicial nominees were grilled over comparatively tamer items they wrote as college students, prompting public apologies and even a withdrawal. If confirmed, Clarke would shape federal litigation strategies and lead enforcement of the nation's civil-rights statutes. Tucker Carlson Tonight was the first to report on her writings.

Clarke also came in for criticism from Jewish students after she invited the anti-Semitic academic Tony Martin to campus in her capacity as president of the Black Students Association. Martin, then a professor of Africana studies at Wellesley College, promoted false theories implicating a Jewish cabal in the global slave trade and self-published a book called The Jewish Onslaught just one year before visiting Harvard at Clarke's request. A majority of Martin's faculty colleagues condemned the book as anti-Semitic, according to a 2001 column in the Boston Globe.

"Professor Martin is an intelligent, well-versed Black intellectual who bases his information of [sic] indisputable fact," Clarke said in response to critics of Martin's visit.

Though the views Clarke advanced at Harvard might be excused as harmless dorm-room radicalism, senators from both parties were hard on Trump nominees who made milder remarks as college students.

Ryan Bounds was one such nominee. He was slated for a seat on the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals until a leftwing advocacy group circulated a series of opinion columns he wrote about race-based student groups and campus multicultural initiatives as...

Matt Rosendale, Andy Biggs Call for Liz Cheney’s Ouster as House GOP Conference Chair for Supporting Impeachment

House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Biggs (R-AZ) and Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) called for Rep. Liz Cheney’s (R-WY) ouster as the House Republican Conference chairwoman Tuesday night after she came out in favor of impeaching President Donald Trump.

“There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution,” Cheney said in a statement Tuesday, announcing her support for impeaching Trump.

The announcement engendered a swift denunciation from House conservatives such as Rep. Matt Rosendale and Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), the House Freedom Caucus chair.

“When Representative Cheney came out for impeachment today, she failed to consult with the Conference, failed to abide by the spirit of the rules of the Republican Conference, and ignored the preferences of Republican voters,” Rosendale said in a statement Tuesday.

“She is weakening our conference at a key moment for personal political gain and is unfit to lead. She must step down as Conference Chair.”

“She should resign her position as a conference chair and should not be serving this conference. That’s it,” Biggs told the Washington Examiner.

The call for Cheney’s ouster reached a boiling point Tuesday, even though House conservatives have sparred with the third-ranking House Republican for months.

House conservatives launched a revolt against Cheney last July during a conference, which drew the support of Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Donald Trump Jr.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), a Freedom Caucus cofounder and one of Trump’s top allies in the House, attacked Cheney for the several times she opposed Trump. The Ohio conservative noted that Cheney had attacked Trump’s response to the coronavirus, his Twitter account, and his plans to withdraw from Afghanistan. Jordan said that these attacks do not help Republicans.

Biggs said that Cheney’s attacks against the president undermined the president’s ability to win back the House.

“Dick Cheney says WEAR A MASK. #realmenwearmasks,” Cheney wrote, tweeting a picture of former Vice President Dick Cheney, using the same phrase that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) used to attack the...

Hollywood Blames It On Capitalism, It's More Like Leftist, Collectivism And Fascist Censorship...

Pelosi Names Eric (bang bang fang fang) Swalwell As House Impeachment Manager

Speaker Nancy Pelosi shocked many in Washington by appointing Eric Swalwell as a house managers in the impeachment of President Donald Trump as he continues to face calls for his removal from the House Intelligence Committee due to his alleged intimate relationship with a Chinese spy. Swalwell has been bunkered down to avoid questions from the media and the public, but he will now be one of those prosecuting the case against the President.

He allegedly first met the spy, Fang Fang or Christine Fang, in 2011. She not only raised money for Swalwell but reportedly had a personal relationship with him. She also pushed successfully for his office to accept an intern. He cut ties with her in 2015 after the FBI contacted him. Pelosi made no mention of the scandal in heralding Swalwell’s credentials:

“Congressman Swalwell serves on House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, where he chairs the Intelligence Modernization and Readiness Subcommittee, and on the Judiciary Committee,” Pelosi’s office said in a statement. “He is a former prosecutor and is the son and brother of law enforcement officers. He is serving his fifth term in Congress.”

Usually a speaker selects House managers to reinforce the credibility and integrity of the case against a president. Even before the current scandal, Swalwell was viewed as a member who was a raw partisan. Last year, it was revealed that (despite long denials) the FBI did send an agent to report on his observations within the Trump campaign. As I discussed in a column, Democratic members spent years mocking allegations that there was any spying or surveillance of Trump or his campaign by the FBI. That was just a conspiracy theory. Now however there is proof that the FBI used a briefing in August 2016 of then candidate Trump to gather information for “Crossfire Hurricane,” the Russia investigation. It turns out that it did not really matter after all and Rep. Eric Swalwell did not miss a step. Swalwell declared that such targeting of the opposing party and its leading presidential candidate was “the right thing to do.” That’s it. A conspiracy theory suddenly becomes a commendable act.

Previously, Swalwell also declared that if President Donald Trump refused to...

Curt Schilling: AIG Cancelled Our Insurance Due To My 'Social Media Profile'

Famed Boston Red Sox pitcher-turned-conservative commentator Curt Schilling said Tuesday that American International Group (AIG) had cancelled his insurance plan due to his "social media profile."

"We will be just fine, but wanted to let Americans know that @AIGinsurance canceled our insurance due to my 'Social Media profile,'" Schilling said on Twitter.

Schilling shared a screenshot purportedly showing an AIG employee telling him that while they appreciate that he's been a "long time AIG client since 2004" "it was a management decision that was made collectively between underwriting and marketing teams that could not be overturned."

AIG has yet to respond on Twitter.

Schilling had a bunch of hit pieces written about him last week because he voiced support for the mostly peaceful protesters who...

Report: Trump To Present ‘Bombshell’ Evidence That COVID Came From Wuhan Lab

Will also charge that WHO aided Chinese military in covering up the lab leak

In one of his last acts as President, Donald Trump is set to declassify ‘bombshell’ evidence linking the Wuhan Institute of Virology to the outbreak of COVID-19, according to a report.

Trump’s outgoing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is planning to stage an ‘intervention’, outlining evidence that the coronavirus leaked from the Chinese lab, and is also expected to charge that the World Health Organisation aided China in covering up the catastrophe, the Daily Mail reports.

Senior officials in Washington are said to have claimed that Pompeo will present concrete evidence that the virus was not transmitted naturally from bats, pangolins or any other animal to humans, but came from inside the lab.

Pompeo will also disclose the ties between the lab and and the communist Chinese army, and claim that military experiments were being conducted there.

As regards the WHO, Pompeo is also expected to note that the organisation has consistently failed to get an investigation off the ground, and that its team, scheduled to arrive in China within days still has no plans to investigate the lab.

British government sources have also confirmed that chatter has increased over Pompeo and Trump planning the reveal.

On Monday, the White House issued a statement noting “The world cannot continue to pay heavy prices for its naiveté and complicity in Beijing’s irresponsible and harmful practices – whether it is ending the rule of law in Hong Kong or not cooperating with health officials on the pandemic.”

“The United States is examining further options to respond,” the statement further noted.

As we reported last week, top US National Security officials still believe that the most credible theory on the origin of COVID-19 is that it escaped from...

I came to understand our political situation today by watching gorilla documentaries. Let me explain.

At day’s end, when I’m exhausted, I wind down by finally turning on the television. The last things I usually watch are nature films, on the diverse, fascinating, and mostly apolitical channel CuriosityStream. For a grand total of $12 per year (as of now), you get access to thousands of polished, beautifully produced documentaries on every subject from ancient history to contemporary science. It’s the best entertainment money I’ve ever spent.

Invariably, I look for animal films. First of all, I’m a sucker for God’s innocent creatures, especially the furry ones. But I take delight in all the evidence of direct, Divine design all through the animal kingdom — from speeding sharks to circling condors. I do wish CuriosityStream would air some programming from the Discovery Institute. Its scientists do much better explaining nature via design than Darwinists do with their “just so” stories and smuggled-in teleology. (“Evolution developed the eagle’s eye to make it a better hunter… .”)

The Pyramid Is the Point

One thing I notice among most higher mammals, especially primates: the almost universal preoccupation with hierarchy. In some species, only the highest status female gets to breed. Once she claims that position, usually by bullying other females, it goes mostly unchallenged. But much more prevalent are species where the status that matters is male. The dominant male collects a harem of she-gorillas or sea lionesses, and fathers all the group’s children. Lesser males steer well clear of females, and accept the scraps from hunts, lest they summon the alpha male’s wrath. Often the dominant males will go out of their way to humiliate their lesser brethren, just to remind them who’s boss.

And that’s how to understand what’s happening politically right now in America.

As Lenin Asked: “Who Rules Whom?”

The default, fallen condition of man — absent Grace — can mirror that of the beasts. Despite our Redemption, we still struggle with the side-effects and lasting scars of the Fall. When our cultures reject the Gospel, that primate dynamic comes roaring back with a vengeance. (And even Christian societies are not immune to this perennial temptation.)

The most obvious instance of this arose with Islam. When Islamic warriors conquered their Jewish and Christian neighbors, they developed a system for ruling over vast, non-Muslim majorities. Polytheists they slaughtered outright, but to monotheists like us they offered the promise of safe, second-class citizenship (dhimmitude). We’d have to pay a special, heavy tax. We couldn’t display the emblems of our...