RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week
Jan. 26 to Feb. 1, 2020 Despite top historians decrying what they call its falsehoods and distortions, a race-conscious New York Times rewrite of American history is being adopted in classrooms across the country, John Murawski reports for RealClearInvestigations. The 1619 Project is teaching tens of thousands of American schoolchildren that the United States was founded not in liberty in 1776 but in the bondage of slaves arriving in Virginia in 1619. Murawski reports: - Since publication in the New York Times Magazine last summer, the 1619 Project has been adapted for more than 3,500 classrooms in all 50 states.
- Five school systems, including Chicago and Washington DC, have adopted it district-wide.
- School systems are largely doing this by administrative fiat, not through a public textbook review process.
- The 1619 Project is part of the ongoing "ethnic studies" or "woke history" movement sweeping the nation's schools, which proponents say corrects a version of history distorted by "whiteness."
- Random House plans four 1619-themed books for young readers, including a special illustrated edition. Ten Speed Press has a "graphic novelization" in the works.
- As journalism, the Times project is a bold departure from traditional news aiming to provide readers with impartial information and a range of perspectives.
- The project's leader, Nikole Hannah-Jones, says her goal for the project is a "reparations bill" - financial reparations for slavery and subsequent racial discrimination.
- There's no such thing as objective history, she says.
- A school official in minority-heavy Buffalo, N.Y. calls the effort a godsend, "a curriculum of emancipation, a pedagogy of liberation, for freeing the minds of young people."
- Henry Louis Gates Jr., the black Harvard academic, took issue with Hannah-Jones for ignoring the role of African chieftains who kidnapped blacks for the slave trade.
- Gordon Wood, a leading historian of the American Revolution, says that without corrections, the only way to use the 1619 project for education would be "as a way of showing how history can be distorted and perverted."
Read Full Article Iran Crisis Puts Lobby
for Obama Nuclear Deal
Back In Gear The Iran-linked lobby behind the controversial Obama nuclear deal abandoned by President Trump is exerting its influence anew in Washington, amid heightened tensions over recent deadly episodes, including the American drone killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Suleimani. Mark Hemingway reports for RealClearInvestigations: - On Jan. 7, after Iran fired missiles at U.S. bases in Iraq, the Washington-based National Iranian American Council issued a statement saying, "Donald Trump owns this 100%."
- The next day, Jan. 8, it co-hosted a "No War With Iran Strategy Call" that featured presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, along with Reps. Barbara Lee and Ro Khanna, both California Democrats.
- On Dec. 12, weeks before the crisis was touched off by an Iranian-led attack on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, the group backed a letter signed by 17 Democratic members of Congress urging a lifting of sanctions on Iran.
- On Dec. 13, the group announced that it had placed a former intern in the office of Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich, who had also signed the anti-sanctions letter.
- Two other signers also have staff with NIAC ties: Rep. IIhan Omar, D-Minn and Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif.
- Trita Parsi, a founder of the group, is frequently asked to provide the Iranian-American view on Capitol Hill and in the media.
- This high profile is drawing scrutiny because of the group's presumed ties to the Iranian government.
During the campaign to sell the 2015 Obama-Iran nuclear deal, the same group became an integral part of the fabled "echo chamber" that reportedly exploited Washington reporters regarded by the administration as malleable. Obama adviser Ben Rhodes described them as so green they "literally know nothing." Read Full Article Paul Sperry's Notebook:'
Whistleblower' Censorship
On Facebook and in the Senate In the first installment of "Paul Sperry's Notebook," a new occasional feature, the RealClearInvestigations reporter explores censorship of his groundbreaking reporting on Trump-Ukraine "whistleblower" Eric Ciaramella by Facebook ... and at President Trump's Senate impeachment trial. Sperry's investigations of Ciaramella and his government colleagues (here and here) were backstage Topic A last week at the trial. But you didn't hear about this because, for most media, the "whistleblower" is He Who Must Not Be Named, or even doubted. When Sen. Rand Paul submitted a written question about Ciaramella to Chief Justice John Roberts, he declined to read it aloud for House impeachment managers to answer. Which poses a troubling mystery: How did Roberts know Ciaramella was the whistleblower when the Kentucky Republican did not outright say he was the whistleblower on the question card? Did the presiding justice consult beforehand with Adam Schiff or other House managers? If so, did the Chief Justice of the United States violate his own impartiality oath in a historic trial with the presidency at stake? Read Full Article The Trump Investigations: Top Articles Other Noteworthy Articles and Series Kids Forced Into Fake Families to Exploit Border Loopholes
Washington Times
Are U.S. laws leading to rampant child abuse because in an effort to preserve families, they're cutting slack to border-crossing adults with kids? That's the question that drives this article, which reports on the surge of fake families crossing the southwestern border in recent years after smuggling cartels figured out how easy it is to pretend to be a family and earn what most illegal immigrants want: quick release into communities, where they disappear into the shadows. This article reports that smugglers match children with single adults in Central America and send them on the treacherous journey north together, armed with fake documents. In some cases parents "gift" their children to a migrant. In some of the most shocking cases, smuggling rings "recycled" children by sending them north with one migrant, returning them to Central America and then sending them with someone else. Some of the children who remain in the U.S. do not wind up in the classroom, but the fields, where they labor under harsh conditions. Leaked Files Expose Secret Market for Web Browsing Data
Motherboard/Vice
Avast - an antivirus program used by hundreds of millions of people around the world - is selling highly sensitive web browsing data to many of the world's biggest companies. This article reports leaked user data, contracts, and other company documents, from a subsidiary of Avast called Jumpshot, "shine new light on the secretive sale and supply chain of peoples' internet browsing histories. … Some past, present, and potential clients [of Jumpshot] include Google, Yelp, Microsoft, McKinsey, Pepsi, Home Depot, Condé Nast, Intuit, and many others. Some clients paid millions of dollars for products that include a so-called ‘All Clicks Feed,' which can track user behavior, clicks, and movement across websites in highly precise detail." 'Scam PACs' Tug at Hearts to Reap Millions
Reuters
Scammers have long used the telephone to solicit money in the name of worthy causes - veterans, firefighters, victims of deadly diseases - and then kept the loot. Here's a new twist: Many outfits are set up as super PACs with little regulation, empowered by the courts to raise and spend money in unlimited amounts. They are not subject to the laws governing charity fundraising. In fact, "scam PAC" operators and fundraisers are often old hands of the charity world, with a history of run-ins with regulators, state and federal records show. Ring Doorbell App Packed With Trackers
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Ring isn't just a product that allows users to surveil their neighbors. The company also uses it to surveil its customers. An investigation by EFF of the Ring doorbell app for Android found it to be packed with third-party trackers sending out a plethora of customers' "personally identifiable information." Four main analytics and marketing companies were discovered to be receiving information such as the names, private IP addresses, mobile network carriers, persistent identifiers, and sensor data on the devices of paying customers. The danger in sending even small bits of information is that analytics and tracking companies are able to combine these bits together to form a unique picture of the user's device. A separate article in The Intercept reports on the rise of "smart" video monitoring networks as businesses and homes plug their cameras into police systems, and rapid advances in artificial intelligence give closed-circuit television networks the power of total public surveillance. In the not-so-distant future, it reports, police forces, stores, and city administrators hope to film your every move — and interpret them using video analytics. Unproven: Stem Cell Clinic Treatments for Knees and More
Science News
Stem cells sold at clinics are driving what's thought to be a $2 billion global industry. Facebook pages announce seminars. Local newspapers are wrapped in ads vowing "relief without surgery." Stem cells are billed as treatments for everything from autism to multiple sclerosis to baldness. Most commonly, the ads focus on orthopedic issues, especially aching knees. This article reports that an important point gets left out of the cheery ads: There's not enough science to justify using stem cells for any of the advertised conditions, including joint pain. None of the treatments advertised have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Very few of the orthopedic studies in humans have been scientifically rigorous, and none have shown stem cells regrowing cartilage. It's not even clear whether treatments being touted as "stem cells" contain viable stem cells or whether the contents should be defined as stem cells at all. How Amazon Escapes Liability for Its Riskiest Products
The Verge
Amazon.com may be one of the biggest, most influential companies in the world, but it also claims that it's often just a passive vessel connecting companies with customers. This stance has worked well in the courtroom because if something goes wrong with a product bought from a third-party seller on the site - like the hair dryer that burned the woman's house in this article - Amazon can deny any liability. But its position has become more of an issue as lawyers and journalists have revealed that the online seller does not have a robust process for vetting third-party sellers. The Wall Street Journal, for example, reported this year that more than 4,000 banned, unsafe, and mislabeled products were on the company's platform, ranging from faulty motorcycle helmets to magnetic toys labeled as choking hazards. The company says the best remedies here are a self-regulating market - bad customers reviews will weed out the bad actors - and a healthy dose of caveat emptor. Drag Queen Story Hour Spreading Across America
Daily Caller
Drag Queen Story Hours started out as niche events on the West Coast, but these events - aimed at children as young as age 3 - have spread to libraries and schools across the United States, dividing local communities. The official Drag Queen Story Hour website boasts 45 independently operated chapters across the United States, in New York City, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and more. The story hour has two international chapters: one in Tokyo and one in Berlin. The American Library Association has backed the movement and offers a plethora of resources on its website "to support libraries facing challenges." Books used during Drag Queen Story Hours focus on gender identity and same-sex relationships. |
