53percenter's Blog

WASHINGTON, DC — Communist China is selling its “totalitarian technology” tested on the country’s Muslim Uighur minority to Venezuela and other regimes eager to persecute their citizens, according to a panel discussion hosted by the libertarian Cato Institute on Wednesday.

Cato noted in a statement announcing the event:

In [Muslim Uighur-majority] Xinjiang [province], Chinese authorities are testing their new products for social control, such as drones disguised as birds to surveil citizens and state-issued tracking devices on human bodies. This cutting-edge totalitarianism can easily be exported to other regimes around the world that are eager to spy on their citizens and persecute their dissidents.

Panelist Sigal Samuel — the religion editor at the Atlantic who discussed her findings in August that China is deploying new technologies, “including drones disguised as birds,” to surveil Uighurs (or Uyghurs) — revealed that Beijing has already exported some of its “cutting-edge totalitarianism” tactics to Venezuela.

“There are the many countries to which China’s totalitarian technology is spreading — it’s being exported. Because the same technologies that China is testing out on Uighurs in Xinjiang are now being exported to other places,” she noted.

The editor identified the murderous socialist regime of Venezuela, which engages in repression of its internal critics through detentions and torture, as one of the recipients of China’s “totalitarian technology.”

Without mentioning Bejing’s ongoing crackdown on the Uighurs, Reuters reported on November 14, “Chinese telecoms giant ZTE is helping Venezuela build a system that monitors citizen behavior through a new identification card. The ‘fatherland card,’ already used by the government to track voting, worries many in Venezuela and beyond.”

Samuel revealed that China tested the technology it is exporting to Venezuela on the Uighurs.

“So some of the new tech that the Chinese authorities are trying out on Uighur Muslims is later applied more broadly in China and then exported abroad,” she explained.

Xinjiang provides a testing ground for social control technology, such as state-issued tracking devices, that China can then export to other oppressive countries.

“Chinese firms have already sold their surveillance tech to countries like Venezuela,” Samuel said.

The U.S. and United Nations has acknowledged that China has forced an estimated one million Uighurs into re-education centers where they face systemic torture, disappearances, executions, and arbitrary detentions as part of Beijing’s campaign to ensure its Muslim minority is loyal to the communist party.

First lady Melania Trump has not been treated the same by the media as her predecessor Michelle Obama was, or still is. But with children it’s a different story, even if it’s one the media will never tell.

We begin with this sweet moment captured on video of a group of children greeting the first lady during a White House Christmas event. Their reactions are priceless.

Starting with one little boy getting attention and a big hug, soon they all surround her, all eager to get hugged. One even commented that “she seriously looks like an angel.”

It is apparent from the video that she is quick to respond to the children with affection and care. And they are loving every moment of it.

“Are you the First Lady!?” a boy asked as he embraced Melania Trump during the White House Christmas event.

“She seriously looks like an angel,” another child said. pic.twitter.com/BrLpPfkY2R

— Michael Moates (@freedom_moates) November 28, 2018

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Now, contrast that with a White House Christmas event article published by New York magazine’s blog The Cut. The image used and accompanying first paragraph sum up the sentiment held toward the current first lady in most of the media.

As some others have done, The Cut opted to feature an image of her strolling through a line-up of red Christmas trees. But the introductory paragraph really “sells” the message.

What message is Melania Trump sending with her red Christmas trees of death? https://t.co/zYLt4Xiln4 pic.twitter.com/pOc3okyq0T

— Slate (@Slate) November 26, 2018

The Cut staffer Madeleine Aggeler wrote:

“A woman walks slowly though a forest of blood-red trees, her gaze blank, hard. She walks more, through vast halls adorned with glitter and lights and shrubs. No one is around. Is she some sort of queen who, having vanquished her enemies, is now surveying her spoils of war? No, she is Melania Trump ushering in the holidays.”

For the record, the first lady has explained the choice of red for those Christmas trees. For her it was not a big deal, just something she thought was pretty, fully acknowledging that not everyone will agree.

Melania Trump defends her red Christmas trees pic.twitter.com/ILKfoUQrOE

— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) November 28, 2018

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But did The Cut go that route? Perhaps say magazine didn’t care for the red, or it wasn’t what Aggeler thought was fitting for the White House?

Nope. The blog went for a personal attack, characterizing the woman who has had more than one beautiful moment with the nation’s children as some kind of evil queen.

The country has a lovely first lady, who, by all accounts, has been gracious and kind. She has kept largely out of the fray, venturing out mainly to show more kindness and encouragement to others.

But the establishment media would have us believe, to keep the “President Donald Trump = Dictator/Fascist” narrative running, that she is his evil queen. For the anti-Trump legions, her true heart, of course, is on full display in a parade of evil red Christmas trees.

To children, notoriously known as being good judges of character, she is approachable, huggable, and looks like an angel. To the establishment media, she is evil and a co-dictator, conquering her enemies.

Is it any wonder that the American public has lost confidence in the establishment media?

Their gaslighting, trying to convince us what we see with our own eyes is not so, has completely crossed the line of ridiculous.

We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

While some try to gloss over the fact that Christmas is a religious celebration for Christians, preferring to call Christmastime simply the “holiday season,” President Donald Trump approaches the holiday differently.

His speech during the National Christmas Tree lighting ceremony at the White House on Wednesday was uplifting, appreciative and decidedly Christian.

Trump was forthright in celebrating Christ’s birth as the reason for the festivities.

After thanking everyone who made the Christmas decorations possible, the president began his speech with the story of Jesus’ birth from the Gospel of Luke.

“For Christians all across our nation, around the world, this is a sacred season that begins 2,000 years ago when Jesus Christ was born,” Trump said.

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“An angel declared to the shepherds tending their flocks, ‘Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord,’” he said. “There in Bethlehem, Mary and Joseph held in their hands the Son of God, the light of the world, and through Him the promise of eternal salvation.”

“No matter one’s faith or beliefs,” Trump continued, “the Christmas seasons reflects all that is best in the American spirit.”

The president talked about how Christmas is time for rejoicing with family, spreading charity and giving thanks for blessings.

He especially applauded the foster families in the crowd.

“We are especially thankful for the countless Americans who have given their time and passion to help those in need. Here in the audience today are a number of extraordinary foster families and guardians joined by the beautiful children they have welcomed into their homes. … To every child in foster care: You are the precious loved one and gift of God,” Trump said.

The president spoke of Americans as one family when he called to mind those affected by the tragedies and natural disasters of the past year.

“At this time of the year, we renew the bonds of affection between our fellow citizens, and we awaken the faith in our hearts that calls each of us to action,” he said. “As we gather loved ones, our thoughts turn to those who are rebuilding their lives after devastating wildfires, destructive hurricanes and terrible tragedy. We are one American family. We hurt together, we heal together and we will always pull through together. This is the United States of America.”

He honored first responders and those in military service, extending gratitude to them on behalf of all Americans.

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“Their families are all our families, and we thank them so much for their greatness and for the incredible job they do,” Trump said.

The president concluded the speech by asking God to shed His grace on the country and to bless its people.

“We ask God to watch over this nation’s heroes and to shed His almighty grace upon our nation, and we pray that America’s light will shine more brightly and stronger than ever,” Trump said.

The president’s speech was a beautiful celebration of God and His gifts. Let’s remember to acknowledge God and give thanks to Him during the upcoming Christmas season.

We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

As I write this from San Diego, the rain is pouring outside my window, a rare winter rain brought on by an offshore tropical storm blowing in from the west.  It’s heavy, dripping, dropping rain, and it’s getting the entire region good.  Normally, rain is a cause for rejoicing in these parts, because drought is the norm, and rain makes everything turn green.

But you don’t want to be out in that rain, which is where the Tijuana caravan migrants are, just south of San Diego, soaking up rain, mud, germs, cold, bacteria, viruses – and picking up diseases.

Right now, it’s happening in Tijuana, where 6,000 migrants are still camped out.  Fox News reports that more than a third, some 2,200 of them are being treated for lice, scabies, chicken pox, hepatitis, HIV, tuberculosis, and infections.  The San Diego television press reported last night that measles has also been detected in the squalid encampment, where new caravans are arriving even as some pack up and go home.

Screen grab from Fox News, via YouTube.

So much for the insistence from the left that the migrants are disease-free, and any concern about public health issues is easily explained as xenophobia, as Vox claimed.  Boston Public Radio WGBH echo-chambered that in the true JournoList tradition of Vox founder Ezra Klein (it’s as though they talk to each other, no?) seizing on the small discrepancy in a U.S. agent’s claim about “smallpox” when he likely meant “chicken pox” – which sure enough, has turned up among the migrants.

Such a phony, phony argument.  With the latest Fox News report, these media claims did not age well.

Nobody should be camping out in unsanitary conditions in that rain.  What a vile group the caravan organizers are to allow such inhuman conditions to occur.  Any public health official anywhere in the world could tell you that any time you move large groups of people without sanitation, housing, or basic necessities, you are going to get diseases spreading throughout that population.  For the organizers, with their rabidly leftist desire to charge the border and break it down as new Che Guevaras, casualties are a mere detail.  What’s mass casualties compared to the glory of challenging Donald Trump at the gates to the American empire?

And as the left continues to press Trump to allow the migrants in, the reality remains that to allow foreign nationals into the U.S. bearing chicken pox, hepatitis, measles, tuberculosis, infections, scabies, lice – and the whole plethora of new ailments that is sure to come of the plague of rain on Tijuana – is absolutely irresponsible, a recipe for spreading disease into the U.S. citizen population.  In times past, Ellis Island screened out arriving immigrants for any sign of disease.  Today, illegal immigration dispenses with that nicety, and all comers enter.  Open borders means open disease, and for everyone.  Mass illegal migration has since coincided with an amazing collection of new disease outbreaks now being seen in California, the nation’s pestilence capital, and the home of a quarter of the nation’s illegals.  San Diego got a hepatitis outbreak.  Los Angeles has typhus.  Now there’s a polio-like disease that Dr. Brian Joondeph raised questions about.  Uncontrolled borders also correspond to the appearance of heretofore unknown diseases in the Los Angeles area, such as leprosy and chagas disease, the latter of which up until now had been primarily seen in Central America.  What a coincidence.

The rains are coming down hard now, and one can only pity the migrants who were such putty in the hands of these leftist organizers, and more are arriving.  A third of them have got diseases now in their squalid camps, and with the rains pouring, that figure is going to grow exponentially.

Image credit: Fox News, via YouTube, screen grab.

As I write this from San Diego, the rain is pouring outside my window, a rare winter rain brought on by an offshore tropical storm blowing in from the west.  It’s heavy, dripping, dropping rain, and it’s getting the entire region good.  Normally, rain is a cause for rejoicing in these parts, because drought is the norm, and rain makes everything turn green.

But you don’t want to be out in that rain, which is where the Tijuana caravan migrants are, just south of San Diego, soaking up rain, mud, germs, cold, bacteria, viruses – and picking up diseases.

Right now, it’s happening in Tijuana, where 6,000 migrants are still camped out.  Fox News reports that more than a third, some 2,200 of them are being treated for lice, scabies, chicken pox, hepatitis, HIV, tuberculosis, and infections.  The San Diego television press reported last night that measles has also been detected in the squalid encampment, where new caravans are arriving even as some pack up and go home.

Screen grab from Fox News, via YouTube.

So much for the insistence from the left that the migrants are disease-free, and any concern about public health issues is easily explained as xenophobia, as Vox claimed.  Boston Public Radio WGBH echo-chambered that in the true JournoList tradition of Vox founder Ezra Klein (it’s as though they talk to each other, no?) seizing on the small discrepancy in a U.S. agent’s claim about “smallpox” when he likely meant “chicken pox” – which sure enough, has turned up among the migrants.

Such a phony, phony argument.  With the latest Fox News report, these media claims did not age well.

Nobody should be camping out in unsanitary conditions in that rain.  What a vile group the caravan organizers are to allow such inhuman conditions to occur.  Any public health official anywhere in the world could tell you that any time you move large groups of people without sanitation, housing, or basic necessities, you are going to get diseases spreading throughout that population.  For the organizers, with their rabidly leftist desire to charge the border and break it down as new Che Guevaras, casualties are a mere detail.  What’s mass casualties compared to the glory of challenging Donald Trump at the gates to the American empire?

And as the left continues to press Trump to allow the migrants in, the reality remains that to allow foreign nationals into the U.S. bearing chicken pox, hepatitis, measles, tuberculosis, infections, scabies, lice – and the whole plethora of new ailments that is sure to come of the plague of rain on Tijuana – is absolutely irresponsible, a recipe for spreading disease into the U.S. citizen population.  In times past, Ellis Island screened out arriving immigrants for any sign of disease.  Today, illegal immigration dispenses with that nicety, and all comers enter.  Open borders means open disease, and for everyone.  Mass illegal migration has since coincided with an amazing collection of new disease outbreaks now being seen in California, the nation’s pestilence capital, and the home of a quarter of the nation’s illegals.  San Diego got a hepatitis outbreak.  Los Angeles has typhus.  Now there’s a polio-like disease that Dr. Brian Joondeph raised questions about.  Uncontrolled borders also correspond to the appearance of heretofore unknown diseases in the Los Angeles area, such as leprosy and chagas disease, the latter of which up until now had been primarily seen in Central America.  What a coincidence.

The rains are coming down hard now, and one can only pity the migrants who were such putty in the hands of these leftist organizers, and more are arriving.  A third of them have got diseases now in their squalid camps, and with the rains pouring, that figure is going to grow exponentially.

Image credit: Fox News, via YouTube, screen grab.

Actor-comedian Kevin Hart went after critics of his son’s Cowboys & Indians-themed birthday party in a new interview, describing the controversy as “dumb sh*t.”

TMZ reports that on his SiriusXM radio show “Straight from the Hart,” Kevin Hart described hearing about the backlash to his children’s party theme from his wife Eniko, and mocked how some people said it was “insensitive.”

Indeed, some social media users attacked the Hollywood A-lister after he threw a cowboys and Indians themed party for his son. The critics accused him and his wife of offending Native Americans by appropriating their culture, with one commenter saying, “Imagine being so woefully out of touch, that one marginalized group appropriates another…”

The Night School actor said, “The reason why I’m even bringing this dumb shit up is because it shows just how stupid our world is becoming with opinions. People are at a point of an all-time high, to throw racial judgment into the development of a 1-year-old’s birthday party where the theme is Cowboys and Indians, and it’s based around the outfits that are given to these young kids.”

The 39-year-old also said that the party “isn’t something that was just started.”

“This isn’t a racial slur that people are doing and being malicious with. This is a game that’s been played for years,” he said.