New York Post - USA (2020-11-14)

New York Post, Saturday, November 14, 2020

nypost.com

America’s oldest continuously published daily newspaper

A

steady stream of MSNBC contributors

is going to work for Joe Biden — a neat

reminder of the left’s hypocrisy in

complaining that conservative news

organizations are “propaganda outlets.”

The outrage only runs in one direction.

This year, MSNBC was basically nonstop

free advertising for the Biden campaign.

(And, before that, a prime shill for Russia-

gate conspiracy theories that all proved

false.)

Indeed, MSNBC just had to fire Jon

Meacham as a paid regular commentator: It

turns out the historian wrote Biden’s accept-

ance speech at the Democratic convention

this summer and his October speech in Get-

tysburg without letting the network know.

It wasn’t until he wrote Biden’s first real

speech after the election — and analyzed it

on air, without disclosing he’d worked on it

— that MSNBC discovered the blatant con-

flict of interest and let him go.

Despite his deceptions, he’s still welcome

on-air, albeit with his ties disclosed and not

as a paid contributor.

Several other MSNBC regulars are leav-

ing to work for Biden’s transition team —

and quite possibly his administration.

Ezekiel Emanuel, an oncologist and ar-

chitect of ObamaCare whose brother

Rahm was White House chief of staff for

President Barack Obama, was an MSNBC

medical commentator until Biden named

him to his coronavirus advisory board this

week.

Barbara McQuade and Richard Stengel

also lost their paid MSNBC gigs upon join-

ing Biden’s agency-review team, which

works on the transition in federal depart-

ments and agencies.

McQuade, a legal analyst, law professor

and former Obama-appointed US attorney,

is on the Justice Department review team

while political analyst Stengel heads the

team reviewing the US Agency for Global

Media.

It’s a fitting place for Stengel, who

worked as a public-affairs specialist in the

Obama State Department. “My old job at

the State Department was what people

used to joke as the chief propagandist job,”

he told the Council on Foreign Relations in

2018. “I’m not against propaganda. Every
      country does it, and they have to do it to
      their own population. And I don’t necessa-
      rily think it’s that awful.”
      If only other MSNBC hacks were so frank
      about their work.

A

merica’s election results were barely in

before Iran started telling Arab states to

bend the knee, claiming Joe Biden won’t

stand up to the murderous regime as Presi-

dent Trump has. It’ll work, too, unless Biden

signals real resolve.

President Hassan Rouhani cheered

Trump’s defeat as the end of an “intrusive

factor” in the Middle East. Foreign Minister

Javad Zarif then warned via Twitter: “A sin-

cere message to our neighbors: Trump’s gone

in 70 days. But we’ll remain here forever. Bet-

ting on outsiders to provide security is never

a good gamble.” He urged neighbors to start

talking to Iran “to resolve differences.”

Mideast nations will soon be unable to

“buy security,” lectured Foreign Ministry

spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh, but “Iran is

always ready” to provide it.

It’s a protection racket: Appease us now or

suffer later, because we’ll soon become the

regional hegemon — just as US policy as-

sumed in the Obama-Biden administration.

The regime is also bullying Biden, who

has vowed to restore the Obama nuclear

deal — warning that Washington must pay

for the pain inflicted by Trump’s sanctions

as the price of re-entry.

US allies plainly want Biden to stand up.

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz

Al Saud, for example, just urged the world to

take “a decisive stance” against Tehran’s

continuing efforts “to obtain weapons of

mass destruction,” stressing “the dangers of

Iran’s regional project, its interference in

other countries, its fostering of terrorism, its

fanning the flames of sectarianism.”

Those who live closest to the Islamic Re-

public see the dangers. Biden should heed

their warnings.

I

t didn’t take long for 2021 mayoral wannabe

Comptroller Scott Stringer to lay down his

big-spender marker. In a letter to Mayor

de Blasio, Stringer made his case for “shov-

el-ready” projects to boost the city’s strug-

gling economy.

He wants a burst of borrow-and-spend to

jump-start capital projects put on hold by

the pandemic. Make use of low interest rates

and the city’s good credit rating, he urges.

In fact, it’s a play for the support of con-

struction-trade unions — a key Democratic

constituency. His proposal would put a lot

of unemployed construction workers back

to work, especially since private-sector

work seems sure to contract.

Last month, the New York Building Con-

gress, a construction trade association,

warned that the pandemic led construction

spending this year to fall $10 billion short of

the $55 billion spent in 2019.

Hence Stringer’s push for the (near-bank-

rupt) city to borrow big — to win support

for his mayoral campaign.

In the real world, the Office of Manage-

ment and Budget has reportedly frozen cap-

ital projects thanks to the city’s precarious

finances — a move a comptroller who

wasn’t running for mayor would cheer.

You’ll need to do better than this, Scott.

MSNBC’s Revolving Door

Iran’s Test for Joe

Stringer’s Latest Naked Pander

[email protected]

E-MAIL: [email protected] or WRITE to The Editor, The New York Post, 1211 Avenue of the

Americas, New York, NY 10036. Include name, address and daytime phone number. No unverifiable

letters will be published. The Post reserves the right to edit all letters.

The New York Post is published by N.Y. P. Holdings Inc., 1211 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10036.

Rupert Murdoch, Chairman; Sean M. Giancola, Publisher; Stephen Lynch, Editor-in-Chief;

Mark Cunningham, Editorial Page Editor

Reviving an Evil Practice:

AOC’s List of Pro-Trumpers

The Issue: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s call for

keeping lists of people who supported President Trump.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-

Cortez says she wants to

make a list of all Trump

supporters to be used

against them in the fu-

ture (“Lists Are for Ty-

rants,” John Podhoretz,

PostOpinion, Nov. 12).

That’s exactly what

Fidel Castro did in Cuba

when he took over and

murdered thousands and

tortured and jailed tens

of thousands more.

In America you are

supposed to be able to go

to the polls and vote for

whomever you want to

without the fear of retali-

ation. In Ocasio-Cortez’s

world, that will no longer

be true.

Maybe she should just

have them all rounded up

and sent to re-education

camps so she can keep an

eye on them.

William Dancosse

Vernon, Conn.

Sign me up for the

“Trump Accountability

Project” archive list.

I understand Rep. Al-

exandria Ocasio-Cortez

and Hari Sevugan want

to hold people accounta-

ble for supporting

Trump. Be my guest.

They can Google me and

find a wealth of evidence.

Are they planning to

put my ilk in detention/

internment camps like

those Japanese Ameri-

cans were put in during

World War II? I guess

this could be part of Joe

Biden’s plans to bring all

Americans together.

Wayne L. Johnson

Alexandria, Va.

Ocasio-Cortez would

like to keep a list of

Trump supporters so

they won’t be able to

downplay their support

for the president in the

future.

She might find that this

someday comes back to

bite her on her obnox-

ious rump.

She is an example of

the worst aspects of the

younger generation —

entitled and pretty clue-

less. I hope I’m around to

see her comeuppance.

Maxine Uretsky

Brooklyn

The column about AOC

refers to the terrible days

of Joe McCarthy, the

House Un-American Ac-

tivities Committee and

the vicious anti-Ameri-

can “lists” that were so

destructive to the lives of

individuals and the spirit

of our country.

The trouble is that a

self-righteous political

imbecile like AOC knows

nothing about this coun-

try’s history, the period

Podhoretz refers to and

the “moral calamity” the

“lists” represented.

AOC’s college educa-

tion clearly equipped her

to be the bartender she

was rather than the gov-

ernment official she

became. Jay Roberts

Jericho

The City’s Crowd Hypocrisy

The Issue: Karol Markowicz’s column on the city’s

failure to shut down election celebrations.

Has Karol Markowicz

forgotten the simple tru-

ism that two wrongs

don’t make a right (“Peak

Virus Hypocrisy: Biden

Parties, A-OK,” Post -

Opinion, Nov. 10)?

The fact that Gov.

Cuomo and Mayor de

Blasio are too hypocriti-

cal and gutless to con-

demn gatherings that

align with their politics

doesn’t mean that nor-

mal people should “do

what you want and don’t

wait for permission.”

Following the example

of immoral buffoons like

Cuomo and de Blasio

and the heedless, igno-

rant throngs that use

politics as an excuse to

party is never the right

or decent thing to do.

David Rabinovitz

Brooklyn

I would like to thank

The Post for Marko-

wicz’s column.

It was right on target

and couldn’t have been

said better. It unbiasedly

portrayed the fact that

the majority of New

York City residents are

fed up (regardless of po-

litical-party affiliation).

The column targeted

all different aspects of

how our lives and our

children’s lives are being

affected by the pan-

demic and the double

standard of our governor

and mayor regarding the

selective enforcement of

the rules. This type of

voice needs to be heard.

Rebecca Tzvika

Brooklyn

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez