RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week

RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week
June 13 to June 19, 2021

Featured Investigation:
Welcome to Wokespeak:
Its Logic-Defying Rhetoric
Is Making Heads Spin

Woke paradoxes now abound in American public discourse, John Murawski reports for RealClearInvestigations. What strike many as illogical ideas are being pushed by activists, causing confusion, frustration and moral whiplash in a swiftly changing society. Case in point: “White flight” from cities and its exact opposite, “gentrification,” are both condemned as racist.

But that’s hardly the only example of rhetorical contradiction, Murawski reports:

• Activists like Ibram X. Kendi contend that to be “antiracist” is to see all cultures “as equals." Yet it's impossible to read Kendi's work as anything but loathing of prevailing “racist” culture.
• Kendi and others also argue that color discrimination is forbidden, except if it is done in the name of “antiracism.”
• After deciding that “Black” should be capitalized when referring to African Americans, some news outlets refused to do the same for “White” on the ground that people of European descent do not have shared cultural values. Yet these same outlets routinely include references to white culture and white supremacy as sources of “systemic racism.”
• Social justice advocates continually appeal for an honest conversation about race, where all perspectives are respected. But the public is also getting the inverse message: Be quiet so marginalized voices can be heard.
• Murawski quotes critics who argue these paradoxes are rhetorical traps that cause confusion and moral paralysis; and defenders holding that the paradoxes are resolved once one recognizes racist power structures that must end.

Featured Investigation:
Left Foot In, Children's TV
Is Doing the Wokey Pokey

Kid-friendly TV shows routinely address sex and race from a woke, LGBTQ perspective, Christian Toto reports for RealClearInvestigations. And more and more they’re facing a backlash, as when PBS’s New York-area affiliate featured “Lil Miss Hot Mess” reading from the performer’s new book “The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish” -- on a program aimed at children aged three to eight.

There’s much more, as Toto surveys the Great Awokening’s robust profile in children’s programming, and the reactions to it:

• Outlets such as Netflix, Cartoon Network, and NBCUniversal’s Peacock Kids feature content for children covering gay, transgender and nonbinary characters, and plot lines such as characters coming out and same-sex marriage.
• Netflix is preparing an animated version of the board book “Antiracist Baby” by Ibram X. Kendi, based on his adult work.
• Nickelodeon recently announced that its reboot of “Rugrats” will feature a single lesbian mom.
• Barack and Michelle Obama are executive producers on a Netflix series of animated music videos debuting July 4 as "an exuberant call to action for everyone to rethink civics.”
• Proponents of the message-laden TV fare say it continues the didactic mission of shows such as “Sesame Street.”
• But other parents and conservative activists aren’t having it. Children as young as 3 are “not at an age where sexuality is appropriate for them,” says one conservative.
• The trend could well flow from above, as networks’ corporate parents go through woke transformations. Disney, for example, promotes critical race theory in the workplace.

Investigative Issues:
An Interview With
Donald Trump, Unbowed

In a wide-ranging interview from his corner office atop Trump Tower, an unfiltered Donald Trump showed he has lost none of his edge as he attacked President Biden’s ethics, demanded reparations from China for COVID-19, and advanced his claim that the 2020 election was stolen.

Highlights from RealClearInvestigations Deputy Editor Ben Weingarten's recent talk with the former president:

• Trump claimed China could “blackmail” President Biden “like nobody’s ever been blackmailed before” as a consequence of the Biden family’s dealings with the Chinese.
• Trump believes a Wuhan lab leak sparked the global pandemic and says China should pay $10 trillion in reparations.
• Trump said he would not pull America out of the 2022 Winter Games in China; it would be “unfair to the athletes."
• On the 2020 election: “I don’t believe that a message of defund the police, open borders, sanctuary cities, no freedom of speech … gets 50% of the vote. I think you get 50% because [Democrats] cheat like hell in the elections … and that’s what they want to do to the whole country.”
• He described Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell as a "stupid bastard." 
• The Biden administration has “totally lost control” of the U.S.-Mexico border, he said, calling Biden’s plan for billions in aid to Central America weak and foolish.
• On John Durham, Russiagate investigator: “Where the hell is Durham? Is that an embarrassment, or what? I wonder if Durham’s ever even going to come out with a report. They have him scared.”

Biden, Trump and the Beltway

How Trump, Allies Pressured DoJ to Overturn '20 Vote Washington Post
Hunter Biden's Art to Sell for $500K to 'Anonymous' Buyers Daily Mail

Other Noteworthy Articles and Series

Guess Why Hackers Avoid Russia
Washington Post
The ransomware hackers suspected of targeting the Colonial Pipeline and other businesses have one cardinal rule: Don’t target Russia or friendly states. A cyberexpert quoted in this article said criminals design ransomeware code that “will not install on systems that have a Russian-language keyboard, are coming from Russian IP addresses or have the Russian-language packs installed. … In these underground forums, they explicitly say there’s no going after Russian targets. And that allows them to operate with impunity. . . . They are not operating at the behest of Russia, but they’re operating with the tacit acknowledgment of Russia.” The reason is clear, says a former Russia-based hacker: “In the West you say, ‘Don’t . . . where you eat.’ ” Targeting Russia could mean a knock on the door from state security agents, he added. But attacking Western enterprises is unlikely to trigger a crackdown. Russian leader Vladimir Putin signaled this hands-off policy in a 2016 interview with NBC News, when asked why Russia was not arresting hackers believed to have interfered in the U.S. election. “If they did not break Russian law, there is nothing to prosecute them for in Russia.” In a separate article, NBC News reports on a growing number of reports of cyberattacks against water systems across the country.

New York: Cuomo Allies Funded Bribe Defense
New York Times
Members of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s inner circle – including one of his sisters – have for years been quietly raising money for Joseph Percoco, a former close aide who was convicted and imprisoned for soliciting and accepting more than $300,000 in bribes from executives with business before the state. As recently as last year, this article reports, the group was helping to fund Percoco’s appeal of his conviction, after some of its members also helped finance a trust fund for his children. In one email sent in February 2020, the governor’s sister, Madeline Cuomo, sought donations from two dozen people, including the governor’s former top political fund-raiser, a former chief of staff, several prominent Albany lobbyists and the head of Northwell Health, the state’s largest hospital system, who is a stalwart Cuomo ally. Gov. Cuomo says he was unaware of these efforts. This is just the latest scandal embroiling Cuomo, the Times reports:

The state attorney general, Letitia James, is looking into accusations of sexual harassment and assault made against Mr. Cuomo by several women. At the same time, federal investigators are looking into his administration’s handling of nursing homes during the pandemic and, separately, whether Mr. Cuomo’s family and other prominent people improperly received special access to coronavirus testing. Federal investigators have also asked about the book that Mr. Cuomo wrote last year, a memoir on his leadership during the pandemic that garnered him a $5.1 million deal.

Liberal New Yorker Mag Not Too Friendly With Labor (Its Own)
New York Times
No magazine is more woke than the New Yorker, so the first surprise this article delivers is that it was not a union shop until this week, when an agreement was reached covering fact-checkers, Web producers and copy editors. Most of its star writers are still classified as “contractors” and do not receive basic benefits such as health insurance. Colleagues were shocked when George Packer told them that, while reporting from Iraq, he had requested and received health insurance before the birth of his first child; their bosses had given them the impression that health insurance was not a possibility. The bigger surprise is the Ayn Rand-esque sentiment rippling through the magazine. Told that the union would provide job security, Emily Nussbaum, a television critic, said she would expect to be fired if she weren’t doing a good job, according to two people there. In a message summarizing the “consensus view,” long-time contributor Adam Davidson wrote:

None of us want to do anything that could jeopardize the magazine we love. We don’t want so strong a union that mediocrity reigns and it’s impossible to get rid of poor performers. We actually kind of like the feeling that we need to continue to earn our place. BUT, most of us would like to be able to get health insurance.

Rise of Black Homeschooling, Funded by Kochs
New Yorker
This article identifies an important trend: Black families are turning to homeschooling in significant numbers. Around three per cent of Black students were homeschooled before the pandemic; by October, the number had risen to sixteen per cent. This is far greater than the national number, which rose to 11 percent of school children from 5 percent. The first half of the article suggests that black families often decide to homeschool because of racism in the school system while also suggesting that the homeschooling movement – which has been especially attractive to some white evangelicals and supported by libertarian philanthropists like the Koch brothers – is racist. But the Detroit mother who is a focal point of the article said: “Parents are not deciding to take their children out because of COVID, Parents are doing [group education] pods because education has failed children in this city forever.” When the reporter asks another mother “if it bothered her to accept money from the conservative-libertarian Koch family, who have spent vast sums of their fortune advocating for lower taxes, deep cuts to social services, and looser environmental regulations,” the woman responded:. “I guess the bigger question is, why don’t we have enough resources so that we don’t have to get money from them? It bothers me, yes – but why do they have so much money that they get to fund all of our shit?” I shouldn’t have to get resources from the Kochs.”

New York: Manhattan DA Candidate's $0 Taxes 
ProPublica
ProPublica continues to mine stolen tax documents to insinuate people who are following the law are doing something untoward. Last week it decided that America should have a wealth tax and then estimated the taxes billionaires such as Jeff Bezos and Warren Buffet should be paying because of unrealized gains in stocks and other investments. This week ProPublica suggested that while people should have to pay taxes on money they have made, they should not receive any deductions or tax credits for their losses. So it went after a leading candidate for Manhattan District Attorney, whose office is targeting a certain former President's taxes -- implying that were she to win, she might be a hypocritically tax-avoiding pot calling the kettle Trump. It reports that Tali Farhadian Weinstein and her husband, hedge fund manager Boaz Weinstein, are very rich – their reported income was as high as $107 million in 2011. Nevertheless, the couple paid no federal tax in 2013 and 2015. Quote:

In two of the years in which the Weinsteins paid no federal income taxes, they reported negative income, losses that appear to be driven by the volatile performance of Boaz Weinstein’s hedge fund. They also claimed and received a refundable tax credit – a total of $5,000 over those two years – designed to help middle- and lower-income families with the costs of raising children. In the other two years in which they paid little or no federal income taxes, they reported adjusted gross income of about a million dollars each year. They were able to reduce their income tax bill in those years by using a variety of deductions. There’s no indication the Weinsteins did anything illegal.