RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week

RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week
July 25 to July 31, 2021

Featured Investigation:
The Moment in 1986
When Critical Race Theory
Ousted the Civil Rights Movement

Defenders of critical race theory describe it as simply a "way of looking at race" in history and society – and ridicule the “fact-free GOP freakout” (MSNBC'S formulation) over its adoption in schools.

But in RealClearInvestigations, Eric Felten finds much to belie that benign portrayal in examining CRT’s academic origins in its radical proponents’ own words. And in the process he illuminates an overlooked turning point in American history: the moment in 1986 when, on a bucolic New England campus, CRT ousted the civil rights movement and color-blindedness gave way to explicit race-consciousness.

Highlights:

• Felten's key reference is a 1995 textbook,“Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Formed the Movement,” edited by radical academics including Kimberlé Crenshaw, pioneer of “intersectionality.”
• In a foreword, activist Cornel West declares that CRT is not just an academic approach but a “politically committed movement.”
• CRT arose from an acrimonious break between the “crits” – white critical theory scholars – and upstart “race crits” at a conference that the crits held in 1986 at Pine Manor College in Massachusetts.
• There the race crits turned on their baffled white allies, publicly accusing their fellow progressives of racist recidivism.
• The race-crits viewed their erstwhile allies as just another group to be judged by the color of their skin: white.
• Largely freed of the stodgy views of the white radicals, the academics developed the ideology making dramatic headway today, one that likens assimilation to genocide.

Featured Investigation
Flight and Teacher Unions:
Masks for Thee,
No Mandatory Vaccinations for We

Democrat-aligned flight attendant and teachers unions on the front lines of disputed COVID safety protocols are ardent enforcers of mask mandates for the public but do not require their members to get vaccinated, Steve Miller reports for RealClearInvestigations.

Vaccination is widely acknowledged as the most vital step in stopping the spread of the highly infectious new Delta variant, while masking is viewed as of secondary importance and many are highly skeptical of its effectiveness and critical of its inconvenience.

Miller reports:

• The American Federation of Teachers does not require its members to be vaccinated but insists on masks for the nation’s mostly unvaccinated schoolkids despite their low vulnerability to COVID-19.
• The Association of Flight Attendants also does not require vaccinations for its members while it continues to urge federal authorities to allow flight attendants to police passengers for masking – a policy that has led to fisticuffs on some flights.
• Attendants union President Sara Nelson claims that while most passengers are “compliant” with mask mandates on airplanes, the number of in-flight conflicts between passengers and flight attendants is “at an all-time high.”
• In response, some flight attendants are beginning self-defense training to deal physically with passengers who might react violently to mask orders.
• There appears to be a disconnect between the unions and their close allies in the Biden administration, which has always urged vaccination and refers to the current outbreak as a “pandemic of the unvaccinated.”

Featured Investigation
Opinion: A Fresh Reminder
of Russiagate's Fallen Guardian(s) of Integrity

The silence from major news outlets has been deafening -- but why aren't they instead cheering thunderously in vindication?

The topic at hand is a piece in the Guardian two weeks ago purporting to reveal a Holy Grail of Trump-Russia collusion: unearthed secret "Kremlin papers" that authorized a malicious plot to undermine American democracy through Manchurian candidate Donald Trump -- plans supposedly bearing the signature of Vladimir Putin himself.

But the Guardian piece was greeted with a virtual news blackout, and Aaron Maté of RealClearInvestigations thinks he knows why: With Joe Biden now in office, dubious coverage advancing the debunked Russiagate narrative no longer suits a political and media establishment that relied on it as a means to undermine his predecessor. There’s that, plus the fact that the Guardian’s lead reporter, Luke Harding, has proven perhaps a bit more over his skis than other colleagues in conspiracy-mongering.

Still, as Maté writes, there was a time when Harding found himself in much friendlier media company:

• Harding’s article is not much different than the sloppy coverage that, for example, won a 2018 Pulitzer Prize for the New York Times and Washington Post.
• Just as in the new Guardian effort, those outlets also used anonymous sources, insinuations, and hedged language to advance the Russiagate narrative.
• The unnamed "experts" in Harding’s new piece echo the ex-national security officials who said Hunter Biden's laptop was Russian disinformation.
• In 2017, Harding penned a No. 1 bestseller, “Collusion,” well-received on the left.
• Harding's past bombshells-turned-duds include his report that ex-Trump aide Paul Manafort and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange held secret meetings in Ecuador’s embassy in London – one of the most surveilled locations on the planet.

Biden, Trump and the Beltway

NSA Confirms Tucker Carlson’s 'Unmasking' The Record
CIA Leaks Drove Trump Justice Dept. Investigations Intercept
FBI Rocked by Illicit Romances, Workplace Harassment Just the News
Trump Senate Fave Herschel Walker's Turbulent Past Associated Press
Dem Donor Ed Buck Guilty in Slaying of 2 Blacks Daily Beast
Democrats Lose Ground on School Equity Plans Politico

Other Noteworthy Articles and Series

How Jobless Aid Fraud Exploded in the Pandemic
ProPublica
Pandemic relief fueled one of the biggest fraud waves in American history as criminals filed bogus claims for unemployment benefits, this article reports. They included a Bronx man who allegedly received $1.5 million in just ten months; a California real estate broker who raked in more than $500,000 within half a year and a Nigerian government official who is accused of pocketing over $350,000 in less than six weeks.

Fraudsters have filed [claims] in high volumes, sometimes obtaining payments from multiple states, despite the fact that a jobless person is barred from getting assistance in more than one state. One person, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, used a single Social Security number to file unemployment insurance claims in 40 states. Twenty-nine states paid up, sending $222,532. But the problem extends far beyond a plague of solo scammers. A ProPublica investigation reveals that much of the fraud has been organized – both in the U.S. and abroad. Fraudsters have used bots to file online claims in bulk. And others, located as far away as China and West Africa, have organized low-wage teams to file phony claims.

KKK Murder Plot: Grab Him Up, Take Him to the River
Associated Press
This article intends to be an exposé of white supremacists working in the penal system – and, in fact, it involves white corrections officers affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan who eventually set out to murder a black former inmate. But, like the plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer last year, this case raises as many questions about the FBI as it illuminates the inner workings of hate groups. In both instances, the bureau’s confidential sources appear to have been prime movers of the plot. In the Florida case, it was a confidential informant (CI) who first suggested murdering the inmate in retaliation for a prison fight with a guard.

The guards gave [the CI Joseph] Moore a paper with a picture of [the former inmate] Williams, his name and other information. [Prison guard] Driver described the fight, and how he and his family had worried for weeks about a false positive test for hepatitis C [because Williams had bit him].

“Do you want him six feet under?” Moore asked.

Driver and [fellow guard] Moran looked at each other, then said yes.

The article does a convincing job of depicting the prison guards as dangerous bigots. But it fails to raise fundamental questions about whether law enforcement thwarted or helped manufacture a crime.

Disinformation for Hire, a Shadow Industry, Is Booming
New York Times
Internet influencers no longer just push beauty products or vacation packages; now they are also paid to spread falsehoods about COVID-19, smear political candidates and undermine government policies not only in the United States but everywhere from France and Germany to Egypt, Brazil and the Central African Republic. This article reports:

Private firms, straddling traditional marketing and the shadow world of geopolitical influence operations, are selling services once conducted principally by intelligence agencies. They sow discord, meddle in elections, seed false narratives and push viral conspiracies, mostly on social media. And they offer clients something precious: deniability. “Disinfo-for-hire actors being employed by government or government-adjacent actors is growing and serious,” said Graham Brookie, director of the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, calling it “a boom industry.”

Feds Give Millions to 'Defund the Police' Supporters
Washington Free Beacon
The federal government provides tens of millions of dollars each year to the Vera Institute of Justice, a nonprofit group that supports the movement to defund police departments and dismantle the criminal justice system. The Brooklyn-based organization, which calls itself a "justice reform change agent," receives the bulk of its federal funding ($89 million last year) to represent illegal aliens and refugees seeking entry to the United States. In addition to harboring radical views on policing, Vera has thrown its weight behind left-wing prosecutors who swept into office across the United States on the promise to reform the criminal justice system.

Why Private Schools Have Gone Woke
Washington Free Beacon
This article identifies an overlooked factor to explain why so many prestigious private schools have become so woke: the National Association of Independent Schools, which sets the accreditation standards for more than 1,600 American private schools, including the country’s most elite secondary schools. The association keeps a list of "approved accreditors" and outlines "principles of good practice" it expects them to enforce, including the promotion of "diversity, inclusion, equity, and justice" through "cross-cultural competency." If schools do not comply with these standards, they risk losing their accreditation and the perks that come with it, including access to the association’s marketing tools.

Coronavirus Investigations

West Virginia: Covid Lockdowns Fueled OD's Washington Post
How Astrazeneca Threw Away Its Shot Politico
France Warned U.S. in '15 on Wuhan Lab It Helped Build Daily Caller
China’s Rebuff of WHO’s New Covid Probe Alarms Experts Politico
Sparked by Pandemic Fallout, Homeschooling Surges Associated Press
The Most Influential Spreader of Corona Misinfo Online New York Times