The Unz Review Digest - October 16, 2020
Ranking first by a wide margin was Jef Costello’s concerned focus on the growing indications of a potentially disputed 2020 election, with violence a very possible outcome. Just a couple of weeks ago, a major poll three leading thinktanks and reported by Politico demonstrated that over the last couple of years growing numbers of Americans on both the Left and the Right have begun to believe that violence is justified if the other side wins, with the numbers rapidly escalating from around 8% in late 2017 to roughly one-third today. These figures seem unprecedented in modern American history, and are a very dangerous sign of what might soon be in store for us. The issue provoked over 300 comments totaling more than 40,000 words.
Three closely related articles addressed some of the specific flashpoints, with Philip Giraldi’s second-ranking piece focusing on the sordid dishonesty underlying last year’s impeachment process against President Trump based upon the Ukraine controversy, with Ukrainian immigrant Alexander Vindman playing a key role. Meanwhile Max Parry discussed a new book on Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Kamala Harris, strongly arguing that her background and policies would pose serious dangers to American society, a situation intensified by the strong likelihood that elderly Joseph Biden’s obvious incapacity would soon put her in the Oval Office. And in fifth place but coming up very fast was columnist Michelle Malkin’s detailed analysis of the shooting death of a pro-police protester in Denver at the hands of a pro-antifa activist, arguing this clearly constituted yet another unjustified political murder.
Our fifth most popular featured article was Steve Sailer’s discussion of the latest ideological capitulation of our academic world, with renowned Caltech agreeing to rename the building honoring its former president Nobel Laureate Robert Millikan on grounds that in a private letter written three generations ago, he doubted the intellectual ability of blacks.
Finally, rounding out our most popular articles is my own very lengthy analysis of the history of American white racialism from last week, with the discussion now rapidly approaching 1,000 comments and 160,000 words.
On October 1st, with little fanfare, Politico published an extraordinary opinion piece that may be the most important thing I’ve read all year. Titled “Americans Increasingly Believe Violence is Justified if the Other Side Wins,” the essay was penned by three “senior fellows” at the Hoover Institution, New America, and the Hudson Institute, as well...
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Another “expert” with an agenda surfaces
During last year’s impeachment process directed against President Donald Trump, Congress obtained testimony from a parade of witnesses to or participants in what was inevitably being referred to as UkraineGate. It centered around an investigation into whether Trump inappropriately sought a political quid pro quo from Ukrainian leaders in exchange for a military assistance package....
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With the 2020 U.S. presidential election less than a month away, there is widespread speculation concerning Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s mental and physical fitness at 77 years of age if he were to defeat incumbent Donald Trump on November 3rd. The former Vice President and Senator from Delaware would surpass his opponent as the oldest...
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Do Colorado patriots' lives matter? On a sunny Saturday afternoon, after gathering with Benghazi Marine hero John "Tig" Tiegen at Civic Center Plaza in Denver to show pride in America, hundreds of citizens departed a peaceful "Patriot Muster" feeling inspired. They filed out of the park bedecked in Old Glory, Thin Blue Line flags and...
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From a New York Times book review that provides a useful way to think about the Great Awokening's "de-compartmentalization" of science from the Woke faith ("All races and genders are created equal, but some are more equal than others") that is threatening scientists and thus science. BOOKS OF THE TIMES Modern Science Didn’t Appear Until...
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One morning a couple of years ago I received an urgent email from a moderately prominent libertarian figure strongly focused on antiwar issues. He warned me that our publication had been branded a "White Supremacist website" by the Washington Post, and urged me to immediately respond, perhaps by demanding a formal retraction or even taking...
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Carol Delaney, Columbus and the Quest for Jerusalem, Free Press, 2012, 319 pp. $17.00 (softcover) What sort of man was Christopher Columbus? Why did he cross the Atlantic and what did he do in the New World? The fashion is to despise him as a greedy, genocidal racist and slave driver, but Prof. Carol Delaney...
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This war is officially a war between Azerbaijan and the (unrecognized) Republic of Nagorno Karabakh (RNK) aka “Republic of Artsakh” (ROA) which I shall refer to simply as Nagorno Karabakh or “NK”. As is often the case, the reality is much more complicated. For one thing, Erdogan’s Turkey has been deeply involved since Day 1...
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Amid a new surge of COVID-19 in New York City’s Orthodox Jewish communities, NY Governor Andrew Cuomo decided to temporarily close public and private schools in several areas with large Orthodox populations. Watch CBS’ News report: Unsurprisingly some Jews are upset. Less surprising is the fact that a few Jewish leaders have pulled the ‘antisemitic...
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Once upon a time it was possible to rely on much of the mainstream media to report on developments more or less objectively, relegating opinion pieces to the editorial page. But that was a long time ago. I remember moving to Washington back in 1976 after many years of New York Times and International Herald...
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Everything about US-China hinges on the result of the upcoming US presidential election. Trump 2.0 essentially would turbo-charge its bet on decoupling, aiming to squeeze “malign” China on a multiple Hybrid War front, undermine the Chinese trade surplus, co-opt large swathes of Asia, while always insisting on characterizing China as evil incarnate. Team Biden, even...
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Many people have very strong beliefs about intelligence testing. All too often those beliefs are negative and unrepresentative of intelligence research. For intelligence researchers, it is a bemusing, irritating, and depressing state of affairs. Steven Pinker, being interviewed at the International Society for Intelligence Research conference in Montreal in 2017, when asked why public understanding...
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We never stop hearing about Heather Heyer. She was the young woman who died at the Unite the Right protest in Charlottesville in 2017. A jury convicted James Fields of hate crimes and a judge sentenced him to life in prison for ramming his car into demonstrators. They judged it a deliberate action. A man...
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For decades, people have debated whether Hispanics can become loyal Republicans. The Left thinks not, and touts the growing Hispanicization of the US as the cornerstone of a permanent Democrat majority. Meanwhile, the GOP claims Hispanics are “natural conservatives” and that many will become Republicans. My research leads to three conclusions. There is a significant...
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More than a dozen young visiting scholars from China had their visas abruptly terminated in a letter from administration of the University of North Texas (UNT), Denton, on August 26, in a letter dated …August 26! The letter informed the students that they could return to campus from their lodgings to pick up belongings, but...
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Multiple European Union states are breaking with post-war liberal conventions and openly imprisoning prominent political opponents and intellectuals for ideological crimes. The tactic being used by these governments is "rule through law," as opposed to rule of law. The strategy is commonly deployed in nations like Saudi Arabia against journalists, intellectuals and opposition figures who...
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See also: “They Might As Well Put Bones Through Their Noses”— John Derbyshire On The Corruption Of Scientific America Posting on the contents of my email bag earlier in the week, I mentioned that many, many listeners and readers had directed my attention to the October 2nd statement by a committee of the Mathematical Association...
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As the judicial persecution of French dissidents intensifies, it is becoming more difficult to keep track of even the most punitive measures. Thus, I only recently learned that the French civic nationalist and publisher Alain Soral was sentenced last month to pay €134,400 ($158,500) to the International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism (LICRA), the French...
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In both the United States and Europe there has been an increase in the passage of laws that are intended to protect Jews. Indeed, one might say that one of the few growth industries in Donald Trump’s United States has been the protection of Jewish citizens and their property from a largely contrived wave of...
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Thousands of communists, anarchists, and international NGOs have descended on Athens to celebrate a Greek court's decision to declare nationalist opposition party, Golden Dawn, a criminal organization. The ruling is a historic departure for post-war liberalism, which traditionally frowns upon putting members of parliament in prison for their beliefs. All 18 elected MPs, including Golden...
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