The Worst Totalitarian Since Mao

Pakistan, China's closest and most economically dependent ally, has asked China to ease restrictions on Muslims, and Uighurs living in America are beginning to condemn China's human rights abuses.

The crisis in Xinjiang should be interpreted more as an assault on basic freedoms and the expansion of a totalitarian tyranny than an expression of ethnic superiority.

The human rights abuses in Xinjiang are strikingly similar to what's been happening elsewhere in China since Xi assumed office.

While more than one fifth of all arrests in China in 2017 occurred in Xinjiang, arbitrary detention is a major problem throughout China and appears to be on the rise.

China has lately moved closer to totalitarianism than at any time since the Mao era.

Repression in Xinjiang is more intense because the threat of regional instability is greatest there since its people have separatist sentiments, and have different ethnicities, religions, and identities.

Since 2012, China has in many ways become more like North Korea than America, creating a highly sophisticated system of neo-totalitarianism, with the crisis in Xinjiang a demonstration of that dystopia.


https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-worst-totalitarian-since-mao/

Citizenship and the Census: The battle over a question on the 2020 national survey symbolizes fundamental divisions over what kind of country America should be.

Last March, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross forwarded to Congress a list of proposed questions to be included in the United States 2020 census, including an item asking respondents about their citizenship status.

Secretary Ross's announcement provoked lawsuits from 17 states, several cities, and a coalition of civil liberties organizations that want the question removed, claiming that it will discourage noncitizens from participating in the census.

To the extent that this happens, the plaintiffs say, the census will produce an undercount of the population in states and cities with large concentrations of immigrants, leading to losses in congressional and state legislative seats in those jurisdictions and parallel losses in federal dollars allocated on the basis of the population count in the census.

One could argue that those seats have been distributed at the expense of several states with far smaller numbers of unauthorized immigrants, such as Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and West Virginia-all states slated to lose at least one congressional seat following the 2020 census.

Could those states file lawsuits against the House of Representatives or the Bureau of the Census, claiming that they have been harmed by the population formula for allocating congressional seats to the several states? That question could easily arise in response to the 2020 census, particularly if the citizenship question goes forward as planned.

On a deeper level, the controversy over the census raises questions about what the United States is or should be as a nation-state in the modern world.

The New York Times, in an editorial attacking the citizenship question, claims that the Trump administration is trying to "Weaponize the census to redefine American democracy for a narrow set of people. They're trying to fundamentally change what this country is, and aspires to be, by creating different classes of people." The editorial implies that in the United States, no distinctions can be made between citizens and noncitizens-a manifestly false claim, since the right to vote has always been limited to citizens, and most government benefits are similarly restricted to citizens or legal residents.

https://www.city-journal.org/citizenship-and-the-census-16204.html

U.S., Canada Strike Last-Minute Deal to Replace NAFTA

Among the most significant changes: U.S. dairy farmers will have marginally more access to Canada's market, a win for the U.S.; the mechanism used to resolve trade disputes is being preserved, despite strong U.S. opposition to it; Canadian and Mexican auto imports will have some exemptions from U.S. auto tariffs; and the new trade agreement will have a sunset clause-16 years, up from the five years the U.S. had demanded.

The new agreement shows not only how Trump is willing to risk alliances to get the kinds of agreements he believes benefit American workers, but also how, despite protests, U.S. partners have little choice but to go along with much of what the world's largest economy wants.

For the first time ever, a majority of Canadians hold an unfavorable view of the U.S., which is not only a nato.

While this statement will no doubt be pounced on by Trump's critics as indicative of how the president alienates America's allies and trading partners, the fact remains that the U.S., Canada, and Mexico have a deal that succeeds nafta.

The pact's remaining members are staying in the accord, hoping the U.S. eventually rejoins.

Since the withdrawal, the U.S. has signed a bilateral free-trade agreement with South Korea and entered into talks on one with Japan; both countries would rather deal with Trump than with a resurgent China, which they fear.

Trump has also said the U.K.-which is negotiating a divorce settlement with the European Union, prompted by Brexit-will have a preferential free-trade agreement with the U.S., and he has added that India has sought a bilateral free-trade agreement as well.


https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/10/trump-nafta-canada/571795/

Women Are Not Too Stupid Or Emotional To Bypass Evidence When Considering Assault Allegations

I am a woman, and I don’t think with my genitals.
I am a woman, and I don’t vote with my genitals, either.
I am a woman, and I don’t need to declare that fact to validate my ideas.
I am a woman, and I am able to consider evidence and ideas without using my sex as a shield for weak thinking, or an excuse for reprehensible behavior.

Rachel Mitchell, prosecutor hired by Judiciary Committee Republicans writes 5-page memo sent to all GOP senators on Ford testimony tonight. “I do not think that a reasonable prosecutor would bring this case based on the evidence before the Committee.” pic.twitter.com/h9eCcWPRwH

I am a woman, and just because I’ll never be able to bench press what just about every man can, doesn’t mean I need to take refuge in magical thinking, lies, smears, and identity politics. Women can think just as smart, fast, and hard as men, and I can do it while nursing and gestating new human beings. That’s a woman’s own unique glory, and I’ll stand it against bench pressing any day of the week.
I don’t need people to tell me that because I am a woman the standards of evidence are lower for my claims.


http://thefederalist.com/2018/10/01/women-not-stupid-emotional-bypass-evidence-considering-assault-allegations/

Christine Blasey Ford's College Yearbooks Show Wild Drinking, Beer Bongs On Campus

Brett Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford's yearbooks at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill show rampant and wild drinking by the University of North Carolina students, with numerous photographs of beer bongs on campus plus risqué costume parties, bikini pageants, and a white person in blackface.

Big League Politics has obtained photographs from the "Yackety Yack" yearbooks from 1986, 1987, and Ford's graduation year of 1988.

The yearbooks are stored in the University of North Carolina archives.

Ford was a member of the Kappa Delta sorority, listed in the Greek organization for her last two years on campus.

The yearbooks include dictionary definitions for terms including "Beer" and "Beer Bong.".


https://bluntforcetruth.com/news/exclusive-christine-blasey-fords-college-yearbooks-show-wild-drinking-beer-bongs-on-campus/

Washington Post Writes Garbage Piece Trying to Smear Rachel Mitchell over her Kavanugh Conclusions

The Washington post has reached a new level of parody during the Kavanaugh hearings.

Not a single person they cite actually has the expertise to rebut a career sex crimes prosecutor like Mitchell nor do they even try.

Linda Fairstein, a former sex-crimes prosecutor in Manhattan who is a Democrat, said that Mitchell seemed to misrepresent matters in referring twice to her "Independent assessment" and once to her "Independent review."

A Democrat you say? Well, glad the Washington Post really went deep in the well here to find some non-biased "Experts." For being such an expert, she sure shares none of her actual expertise.

How long was she a sex crimes prosecutor? At what level? Is she an expert in forensic interviewing like Mitchell? Does she have a single thing to offer as a factual rebuttal to Mitchell or are we just naming calling here?

While I'm sure Ms. Menacker is a perfectly fine woman doing perfectly fine work at her awareness group, she is in no way an expert on judging the forensic analysis of sexual assault allegations.

The Washington Post needed to put out something rebutting Mrs. Mitchell.


https://www.redstate.com/diary/Bonchie/2018/10/02/washington-post-writes-garbage-piece-trying-smear-rachel-mitchell-kavanugh-conclusions/

The U.S. Economy Is More Free Than It's Been in Years

Brace yourself for a shock, because this country around you that looks poised to tear itself apart has quietly broken a decades-long retreat from economic freedom, becoming a place more supportive of private business and the ability of individuals to make a living.

"The foundations of economic freedom are personal choice, voluntary exchange, and open markets," write authors James Gwartney, Robert Lawson, Joshua Hall, and Ryan Murphy-though there's rather a lot more behind the numbers, as you might expect.

The report notes that "Countries with greater economic freedom have substantially higher per-capita incomes." In fact, those in the least-free quartile of countries have the lowest per-capita income at $5,649, rising to $11,465 in the third quartile, $18,510 in the second quartile, and $40,376 in the quartile containing the most economically free countries.

"Greater economic freedom is associated with more political rights and civil liberties," the report notes.

The 2012 report mourned that "[f]rom 1980 to 2000, the United States was generally rated the third freest economy in the world, ranking behind only Hong Kong and Singapore," but that it "Has experienced a substantial decline in economic freedom during the past decade."

If you're wondering, the U.S. ranking didn't improve because everybody else is going down the drain more quickly than us; our score actually rose, meaning the country became more free in economic terms.

"Moreover, the increase in economic freedom of developing economies since 1990 has been more rapid than the increase of high-income industrial countries. The institutions and policies of developing countries today are substantially more consistent with economic freedom than was the case in the 1980s."


http://reason.com/archives/2018/10/02/the-us-economy-is-more-free-now