Apollo's Fire - The Cleveland Baroque Orchestra

Vivaldi: La Folia (Madness)

THE CHINA MYTH EXPOSED

Chinese Social Media Influencer

From early in our nation’s history, America’s intellectuals have mostly looked down on their own country and yearned for it to be like someplace else–someplace more sophisticated, and more in tune with “modern” intellectual currents, whatever they might be at the moment. That is a long history, which I will skip over. In our own time, American intellectuals have claimed that Soviet Russia, Germany and Japan were harbingers of the future that the U.S. needed to imitate. In each case, the point was that we had to shed our archaic freedoms and enter the brave new world of central planning under the control–benign, of course!–of intellectuals and bureaucrats. Strangely, however, American free enterprise has managed to outlast and surpass all of those supposedly more advanced challengers. 

Most recently, China has been the favored nation of the future. It has the advantage over Germany and Japan of being straightforwardly authoritarian (if no longer exactly Communist), which endeared it to anti-democratic liberals like Tom Friedman. Thus, liberals have eagerly calculated the future time when China’s GDP–or alleged GDP, as dictatorships have always been better at producing statistics than goods and services–would surpass ours. Given that China has three times our population, that would not seem to be a signal accomplishment. Nevertheless, liberals looked forward to it. 

There was always something a little half-hearted about China adulation, however. When I was a kid, China was synonymous with poverty. Mothers really did say: “Eat your brussels sprouts! There are lots of starving children in China who would love to have them.” In 1979, China opened itself to foreign investment, and thousands of American companies built factories there over the succeeding decades, drawn mainly by the lure of cheap labor. 

Cheap labor, of course, wasn’t always effective labor. One of the major cases of the later stage of my career as a lawyer arose out of the construction of a professional sports facility in the Midwest. A Japanese company won the contract to fabricate and erect the stadium’s roof, and in order to save money, subcontracted the fabrication to a Chinese factory that, in later testimony, was described as “medieval.” The result was a disaster. The quality of the fabrication was so poor that the Japanese company eventually spent more money correcting fabrication errors in the U.S.–for a while, you couldn’t find a welder in the Midwestern states who wasn’t working on the repair project–than it had paid for the fabrication in the first place. But there was no recourse, as China essentially did not have a legal system. 

Then, too, Americans who visited China did not report that it was an incipient paradise. (Unlike liberals who visited the Soviet Union in the 1930s.) For one thing, in most of the country there was no such thing as what we call a bathroom. That made the environment a little hard to romanticize. 

Still, China was viewed as a major geopolitical player, and American administrations kowtowed to it. The Chinese engaged in wholesale theft of American and European intellectual property, without compunction. The country’s trade practices were denounced as illegal and unfair, but nothing came of it. Only when Donald Trump became president did our country begin to assert its rights and interests against the Chinese dictatorship. 

Which brings us to the current coronavirus outbreak. Once again, China is the source of a rather bizarre viral illness. It arose, apparently, in the Chinese city of Wuhan. The source of the virus is believed to be either bats or snakes that were bought for consumption in the Wuhan market in a “warm” state–that is, freshly slaughtered. The virus apparently mutated and jumped from bats or snakes to humans. 

In China, not only snakes and bats, but also rats and bugs–e.g., scorpions–are frequently eaten. Being no cultural relativist, I assume that no one eats snakes, bats, rats or scorpions if he or she has a better alternative. In Venezuela, for instance, no one dreamed of hunting rats for food until that country’s socialist government destroyed Venezuela’s economy and reduced the citizenry to penury. So China’s continuing poverty has now created a world-wide public health problem. 

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When is Donald Trump going to shut down travel to and from China?

WHEN?

Led Zeppelin Bootleg, "Live on Blueberry Hill" - 1970

This is peak Zeppelin. The concert was performed at the LA Forum on September 4, 1970.

0:14 The Immigrant Song 3:27 Heartbreaker 10:17 Dazed and Confused 27:21 Bring It on Home 38:24 That's the Way 45:13 Bron-Yr-Aur 48:50 Since I've Been Loving You 56:20 Organ Solo 1:02:27 Thank You 1:10:15 What Is and What Should Never Be 1:15:19 Moby Dick 1:32:58 Whole Lotta Love 1:50:10 Communication Breakdown 2:01:48 Out On the Tiles 2:05:41 Blueberry Hill

THE DEADLY CORONA VIRUS NOW ENGULFING THE PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF CHINA.

From a colleague of mine who works in China. 

 Dr. Steven Clark Bradley PhD

Maybe this link to his videos --- https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=dr.%20steven%20clark%20bradley%20phd&epa=SEARCH_BOX

PRAY FOR CHINA AND THOSE INFECTED AND DYING FROM THE DEADLY CORONA VIRUS NOW ENGULFING THE PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF CHINA...

I received the following videos concerning the Corona Virus and its terrible spread across the nation of China and now, even across the world. These videos will terrify you and let you know more about what is tearing China apart, at the moment. Many of my fellow teachers, whom I know so well. and with whom I work, are now in China and rarely try to leave their homes, for fear of contracting the deadly illness.

The disease was initially transmitted from bats and then infected livestock. The disease was initially transmitted to humans via tainted meat, from a Wuhan fish market. According to these videos, from within China, the small number stated, as around 1500 being infected, is untrue. The actual number of those infected, with the Corona Virus, is around 100,000.

Now, the entire province of Hubei, where the City of Wuhan is located, which is the point of the Corona Virus' origin, is totally closed down. There are now no flights or train service in or out of any city in Hubei Province. Bus service has now been suspended to any city, in the Shandong Province, which is the province where Qingdao, my city of residence, is located.

It’s hard to tell, at this point, how bad it’s going to get because there is a long 14-day incubation period, prior to symptoms emerging. Thankfully, I am now out of China and in the Philippines. For those who are now out of China, you must decide when you feel you want to return to China, if at all.

For me, I will not return to my job in China, until I know that the Corona Virus is under control, and I will not rely on any reports of all clear from the Chinese Government either. I will only return with a worldwide declaration of all clear from the World Health Organization. Pray for my friends and colleagues, who are literally under house detention, for all practical purposes. All of our lives have been turned upside-down. God is still on His throne and He still answers prayer and I know He will have mercy on the Chinese people.
- Dr. Steven Clark Bradley PhD

Posie Parker Illegal Opinions

CORONAVIRUS - WUHAN

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Lullaby

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Holding Back The Years

Simply Red

IMPEACH TRUMP!

BREAKING: Trump admin announces action against California for forcing churches to fund abortions

'We are putting California on notice that it must stop forcing people of good will to subsidize the taking of human life, not only because it’s the moral thing to do, but because it’s the law.' 

The Trump administration’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced today that California is violating federal law by trying to force churches to pay for abortions. 

The announcement comes the morning of the 47th annual March for Life, at which President Donald Trump is slated to speak. He will be the first U.S. president to ever attend the march, which is the largest human rights demonstration in the world. 

A lengthy legal battle has been underway since 2014, when California enacted regulations forcing all employers to pay for health insurance plans that cover elective abortions, regardless of religious or moral objections to funding abortion deaths. 

Under these regulations, all abortions are considered “basic health care” and “medically necessary.” Churches were not even informed when abortion coverage was added to their health plans, according to Alliance Defending Freedom. 

The HHS Office for Civil Rights announced that it issued a Notice of Violation to the state of California, formally notifying the Golden State that it cannot impose universal abortion coverage mandates on health insurance plans and issuers in violation of federal conscience laws. 

California has deprived over 28,000 people of plans that did not cover elective abortion, but now must cover abortion due to California’s mandate, according to HHS. 

“With this Notice, OCR requests that California inform OCR, within thirty days, whether California will continue to enforce its requirement that all health plans cover elective abortions, or whether it will agree to take corrective action and remedy the effect of its discriminatory conduct,” HHS said in a press release. 

It warned: 

If, after 30 days, OCR does not receive sufficient assurance that California will come into compliance with federal law, OCR will forward the Notice of Violation and the evidence supporting OCR’s findings in this matter to the HHS funding components from which California receives funding for appropriate action under applicable grants and contracts regulations. This action may ultimately result in limitations on continued receipt of certain HHS funds.

Dirt Brothers

Barnyard Pimp

White House Counsel Opens Defense Argument with Adam Schiff's Fake Call He Read During House Hearing

Here's the real transcript of the call.

A Closer Look At The Iraqi Immigrant Woman Challenging Ilhan Omar

In 2004, the Chicago Tribune referred to her as “the most watched TV reporter nobody in America has seen,” and this turn-of-phrase seemed stunningly apt. Baghdad-born Dalia al-Aqidi was 36, and a fixture of Middle East media. 

In sharp contrast to programming on Qatar’s popular Al-Jazeera, Dalia was a leading voice on Alhurra, an American-sponsored television channel broadcasting in the Middle East and delivering a strongly pro-America message. 

Al-Aqidi was the only Iraqi covering the 2004 presidential campaign within the traveling White House press corps, providing news on Washington to millions in the Arabic-speaking world. 

Fifteen years later, the famed Iraqi reporter is running for Congress against the darling of the left, also an immigrant from a Muslim-majority country, a woman named Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. 

Omar was catapulted to leftist fame after being elected to represent Minnesota’s Fifth District in the 2018 midterms and espousing radically left-wing policies. 

She eventually joined forces with three other socialist-leaning, freshman voices in the House, the anti-Trump foursome collectively being referred to as the “Squad.” 

But Omar will have competition in the coming election from al-Aqidi. Dalia came to the United States in 1993 as a refugee, the daughter of Ghazwa al-Alkhalidi, a distinguished Iraqi actress, and Fakri al-Aqidi, a prominent figure in the Iraqi film industry. 

Given her parents’ roles in the arts, her childhood was spent protected under the Iraqi government; however, as Saddam Hussein came to power and Dalia approached her late teens, she and her family realized something was grievously wrong with Saddam’s regime. 

“I had nightmares for years and years that I wake up and I’m in the middle of Iraq during Saddam’s period. People would recognize me and run after me to try to capture me and I was running, running, running,” al-Aqidi told the Chicago Tribune. 

“I left with two suitcases. My grandmother didn’t know. My aunts didn’t, my uncles. No one knew that we were leaving,” al-Aqidi said. “We had to hide the cash between the covers of the suitcase, knowing that if they catch us, we’ll be dead.” 

Following her escape from Iraq, al-Aqidi traveled throughout the Middle East with her mother and infant brother, doing an eclectic mix of paid media stints, including hosting children’s shows, reporting news, and dubbing cartoons from English to Arabic. 

At the advice of those in the Iraqi opposition, al-Aqidi and her mother eventually linked up with Radio Free Iraq in Saudi Arabia, where Dalia was able to hone her media skills more seriously. 

Shortly thereafter, she moved to the United States. Since her arrival nearly three decades ago, Dalia has maintained her foothold in the media, working as a reporter at Alhurra and more recently, as a contributing writer to al-Arabiya. 

She served as an anchor on several television news and commentary programs from Beirut, Lebanon and Tripoli, Libya. Away from the public eye, she led a team of analysts at an intelligence firm, providing cultural background and geopolitical analysis for both government and corporate clients, her work ultimately recognized by both the U.S. and Iraqi governments. 

When I asked Dalia to explain her foray into the congressional space, her answer spoke to the profound duty she feels to replace Omar. “I am running for Congress in Minnesota’s Fifth District because I believe Ilhan Omar is doing irreparable harm to both Minnesota and to America—and she must be stopped,” she said. 

“This wonderful country has given me so much. As an American, and especially as an immigrant and a Muslim, I felt it was my patriotic duty to try,” she said. “Her consistent antisemitism and hateful rhetoric are toxic; they serve only to gain attention for herself at the expense of our fellow Americans.”

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TAKING THE ARTS BACK FROM THE LEFT: Reconnecting Art to Beauty, Enjoyment, and Truth

Tracey Emin: "My Bed"

When Andrew Breitbart stated, “Politics is downstream from culture,” he was echoing an earlier visionary: mystical artist William Blake, who proclaimed “Empire follows art and not vice versa.” We are currently suffering the consequences of a terrible trajectory: long-marching elitists have weaponized contemporary art into an assault on the foundations of Western civilization. 

The systematic undermining of the arts were a prerequisite for the Marxist goal of cultural disintegration. Before elitists began decreeing blatantly absurd claims such as mere words can magically transform men into women, or that Jeffrey Epstein killed himself, our cultural institutions replaced art with artifice. 

What they call “art” is an empty mimicry, lacking substance and significance. This is the clumsy power grab of Postmodernism. Postmodernism is an irrational BAMN belief system which asserts ruling elites can alter reality through the sorcery of sophistry, and deny out of existence the eternal chains of cause and effect. 

Postmodernists have overlaid reality with an artificial construct, dominated by their own peculiar skillsets for lying, bullying, virtue signaling, and ass kissing. Under this totalitarian network, conformity is mandatory for advancement opportunities. Actual innovation and creativity threaten the controlled spoils system Postmodernists depend on. 

The visual arts are in a crisis of relevance due to the Postmodern establishment’s efforts to exterminate genuine artistic experiences. Through administrative malfeasance, our society is denied the inspiration to live up to ideals, the encouragement to think and feel deeply, the yearning to harmonize with truth and beauty. They need us to stay passive, distracted and shallow. 

Postmodern art is a tool of oppression. Postmodernism is the consensus worldview of the New Aristocracy of the Well Connected. But far from being an unassailable citadel, Postmodernism is also the reason their hierarchy is failing. Hollowed out by their own corrupt pretensions, their would-be tool of domination is destroying them. 

Enduring changes start in the arts. 

Today, around the world, people are rising up against governing class arrogance, incompetence, and treachery. This seismic global phenomenon was foretold by a grassroots art movement. In 2000, two English painters, Charles Thomson and Billy Childish, codified what they called Remodernism, an insurgency against the manipulative and destructive Postmodern status quo. 

Remodernism acknowledges the purpose of art: an inclusive means of spiritual communion and connection. This inspiring message is particularly in sync with the values of the United States. Remodernism is the latest iteration of the American character: ordinary people working as explorers and inventors, optimistic, self-reliant and productive. A Remodernist artist formulates expressions of personal liberty to convey higher meaning, personal growth, and connectivity.

Billy Childish: "Wading Out"

Remodernism sees art as a conduit for shareable moments of beauty, enjoyment, comprehension, and truth. Assembling these elements together approaches a state of grace, the ultimate expression of the love bestowed on us by our Creator. We are called to follow His example.  

The Left never expected a counter attack to come from the arts. They thought they had successfully destroyed our legacies, and stifled the wisdom of our traditions. However, the human instinct for art is stronger than the power games of a greedy and fraudulent ruling class. 

The best thing is the Remodern means of attack is not by destruction, but by creation. We have out-evolved them. This is our moment in the mighty continuum of art and life. Remodernism accepts the responsibility for creating a new art for this dynamic era, art that accurately shows who we are, and what we can be.

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Greta Thunberg Incorporated: The Exposé