RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week
RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week
August 5 to August 11
Featured Investigation
China is stepping up its massive program of repression against Muslim groups in the country's vast northwest – especially the Uighurs – and is using its financial clout to muzzle global outrage over the abuses in diplomatic forums.
Richard Bernstein reports for RealClearInvestigations:
China has gone well beyond its longstanding crackdown on Uighur religious observances in the name of reducing tension – measures like banning the muezzin from calling people to Friday prayer, or forbidding Muslim civil servants from fasting on Ramadan. It has now moved into a new and harsher phase of repression, notably including mass political indoctrination aimed at eradicating ideas and practices that, in the official Chinese view, are behind Muslim extremism and violence. ... [Experts] estimate that at least hundreds of thousands and very likely over a million Uighurs—a bit over 10 percent of their entire population—have been put into the “transformation through re-education” (or “de-radicalization”) centers, which critics of China are calling concentration camps.
But Beijing is able to keep a lid on these human rights violations:
Among the reasons is the implicit understanding made when some countries receive economic benefits, especially investments or loans from China. They are expected not just to refrain from criticizing Chinese human rights violations, but to try and stop other nations from doing so as well. In one conspicuous example last year, financially troubled Greece, after receiving hundreds of millions of dollars of Chinese infrastructure investment, blocked the European Union from issuing a declaration criticizing China for its crackdown on dissidents and the lawyers who defend them. It was the first time that the EU had been unable to issue such a declaration.
At home, the Chinese government is using longstanding tradition of police state actions to intimidate those who might speak out. This has not silenced Mamatjan Juma, a Washington-based reporter for Radio Free Asia who spoke to Bernstein even after almost all of his family members back home have been disappeared, their fate unknown.
“This is the situation that we're in,” he said, “and it's the situation that most Uighurs are living in at the moment.”
The Trump Investigations: Top Articles
Ohr's Handwritten DOJ Notes Suggest Fusion GPS Machinations, The Hill
Dossier Author's Emails to DOJ Suggest Oligarch Involvement, Washington Examiner
Trump Tweet: Dirt Focus of '16 Tower Meeting, Washington Post
Media Hype Trump Tweet as New Admission. It Wasn't. Daily Caller
Other Noteworthy Articles and Series
Signs Point to This Feinstein Ex-Staffer as Accused Chinese Spy
Daily Caller
Building on reports that a longtime staffer for Sen. Dianne Feinstein may have been Chinese spy, this investigation identifies the suspect as Russell Lowe, who worked for 20 years in Feinstein’s San Francisco office. He served as a staff liaison to the Asian-American community before leaving some five years ago. Now at a San Francisco-based nonprofit, Lowe did respond to requests for comment.
Charges Portray Wilbur Ross as a Big-Time Grifter
Forbes
Is Commerce Secretary Wilbur L. Ross one “of the biggest grifters in American history”? That’s the explosive charge in this article. It draws on interviews and public records to allege that Ross – a high-level money manager and investor before joining the Trump administration – “wrongly siphoned or outright stole a few million here and a few million there, huge amounts for most but not necessarily for the commerce secretary. At least if you consider them individually. But all told, these allegations—which sparked lawsuits, reimbursements and an SEC fine—come to more than $120 million.”
EPA Report Shows Ethanol Hurts the Environment
Daily Caller
Ethanol is not just a boondoggle that transfers millions from drivers to farmers, it is also a danger to the environment. A new EPA report determined that ethanol derived from corn and soybeans is causing serious harm to water, soil and air quality.
South Carolina Grand Jury Green Lights 904 Cases in One Day
The Herald
The New York minute might soon be replaced by the South Carolina second after the grand jury in York County gave new meaning to quick, fast, and in-a-hurry. On a single June day, it approved 904 cases – an average of one case every 39 seconds. Defense lawyers are demanding that every indictment be tossed, arguing the grand jury ignored their clients’ constitutional right to have their cases fairly considered.
From Mar-a-Lago: The Shadow Rulers of the Veterans Administration
ProPublica
Palm Beach doctor Bruce Moskowitz, lawyer Marc Sherman, and Ike Perlmutter, the reclusive chairman of Marvel Entertainment, have never served in the military nor been appointed to government office. But they are longtime members of Mar-a-Lago, President Trump’s private club in Palm Beach, Florida. That may explain why, as this article reports, they are “exerting sweeping influence on the VA.”
Serious Flaws Found in Border Wall Planning, Spending
Daily Mail
The Trump administration has spent $20 million on eight prototype border walls that won't be built, according to a Government Accountability Office study. The GAO report criticized the Department of Homeland Security for 'proceeding without key information' in a risk of wasted time and money on the president's signature campaign promise.
Boston Schools Becoming Resegregated
Boston Globe
More evidence that America’s most liberal cities are hothouses for the inequities liberals rail against: Nearly 60 percent of Boston’s schools meet the definition of being intensely segregated — meaning students of color occupy at least 90 percent of the seats. Two decades ago, 42 percent of schools were intensely segregated. Many of these schools are low performing. All the while, the shifting student population is slowly creating more schools where the majority of students are white, climbing over the past two decades from two schools to five.
The Conspiracy to Humiliate Baseball Umpire Steve Fields
Deadspin
A 1979 strike by major league umpires enabled a few minor-league umps to realize their dream of working in the show. When the strike ended, three of the picket crossers were kept – but they were routinely abused by both players and their fellow umps. Deadspin reports that the veterans wouldn’t eat out or even ride cabs with the replacements. Hazing was routine, including the padlocking of an umpire’s mask and cutting the straps on his shin guards. This story focuses on Steve Fields, who was eventually driven from the game.
Where's the Ginger in Ginger Ale? Lawsuits Ask
Buffalo News
Is just a speck, smidgen or scintilla of honest-to-goodness ginger enough to make carbon water and sweeteners “real ginger ale”? That’s the question fueling at least three lawsuits now working their way through courts. One plaintiff is especially aggrieved because she says she was drinking the soda for its health benefits.
Our Fat Pets
New York Times
If you think Americans are fat, get a load of their pets. Sixty percent of cats tip the scales at unhealthy weights, as do slightly more than 56 percent of dogs, according to the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention. “Along with diabetes and arthritis, extra heft puts pets at increased risk for liver and kidney diseases, high blood pressure, heart failure and even some cancers.” Well, they do say pets come to resemble their owners.
