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June 2021

Citizen Patriots Are Fighting Back Marxist propaganda, Critical Race Theory and the deterioration of American schools. Clare M. Lopez

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/06/citizen-patriots-are-fighting-back-clare-m-lopez/

This is the fourth article in this series on Critical Race Theory (CRT). The earlier three may be seen here, here, and here. Their intent was to document the deteriorating situation across America, and especially in our schools, where curricula increasingly focus on Marxist propaganda that teaches children to hate their own country and seeks to instigate racial divisiveness intended to foment civil strife and eventually, a communist revolution. The series began with an explanation of the purely Marxist origins of CRT, its ideological roots in the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the transplant of the Frankfurt School to the U.S. in the 1930s, and the eventual spread of CRT narratives throughout American academia, faith communities, government, media, popular culture, and society in general.

With the Biden administration, and specifically the Department of Education, openly pushing the teaching of CRT in U.S. public schools, the situation is raising alarm among educators, parents, legislators, and ordinary citizens. As embedding of CRT into Ethnic Studies programs in California and other states became widespread over the last several years, parents increasingly began to realize the malignant nature of what was being taught to their children. Tried and true pedagogical methodology that rewards academic achievement, focuses on fact-based education, and operates on meritocracy was being replaced with meaningless policies of “equity”. Everything was reduced to race. Instead of Marxist economic class divisions, CRT substituted ethnic and race labels that identify Americans as either “oppressed” or “oppressors”. Identity by intrinsic, immutable characteristics took the place of Martin Luther King’s “content of one’s character”. The Marxist rot that spread throughout American society with what seemed a startling rapidity took many by surprise. In fact, though, that ideology had long been nurtured carefully, methodically, but below the radar, following Italian communist Antonio Gramsci’s blueprint for a “long march through the institutions”.

But now, it is everyday American citizen patriots who are waking up. Organizations like The Civics Alliance have formed to promote the teaching of the U.S.’s founding principles, accurate history, the brilliant ‘structure of our self-governing federal republic’, and the spirit of individual liberty. The American Cornerstone Institute, founded by former neurosurgeon and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the Trump administration, Dr. Ben Carson, likewise focuses on promoting the first things principles that undergird our Republic: Faith, Liberty, Community, and Life. The Final Report of President Trump’s 1776 Commission offers an excellent outline to “enable a rising generation to understand the history and principles of the founding of the United States in 1776 and to strive to form a more perfect Union” through a restoration of American education grounded in a teaching of that history and those principles that is “accurate, honest, unifying, inspiring, and ennobling.”

The Two Chinas One wants to kill democracy and freedom. Don Feder

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/06/two-chinas-don-feder/

It’s a little-known fact that there are two Chinas.

One China unleashed a pandemic on the world that killed close to 4 million people and has the World Health Organization in its back pocket. The other isn’t even allowed to join WHO.

One China is a destabilizing force, poised to start World War III. The other wants only peaceful relations with its neighbors and the rest of the world.

One China is ruled by a totalitarian regime that crushes dissent, suppresses religious and ethnic minorities and even tries to regulate births. The other is a thriving democracy where civil liberties are protected.

One China spies on us, arms rogue states like Iran, and threatens our security. The other was our ally in World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

One is the hilariously misnamed People’s Republic of China, where the only role the people play is as hostages. The other is the Republic of China on Taiwan, the official name of the nation of 23 million, on the other side of the Taiwan Straits, that the PRC claims as its own.

Beijing calls Taiwan a breakaway province. That’s rich. Since the end of the First Sino-Japanese War (1895), Taiwan has been ruled by the mainland for at most half a dozen years – never by the Chinese Communist Party. One might as well say that America is a breakaway province from Britain.

It’s difficult to describe the systematic brutality and massive human rights violations that go on every day in the Peoples Detention Camp of China.

The fascists next door By Ann Mclean

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/06/the_fascists_next_door.html

Two University of Virginia professors — Manuela Achilles and Kyrill Kunakhovich — taught a history course this spring that reportedly portrays American conservatives as fascists. They weren’t being hyperbolic. They really meant it.

In their analysis, the wellspring of fascism is not worship of the all-powerful, totalitarian state — which conservatives totally reject — but the traditional American virtues of family and patriotism.

I first learned of this class from a young friend of mine. Here is her description: 

Recently, I enrolled in a fascism class thinking it would be a great way to weed through the constant accusations that politicians make about who is fascist and who is not. The class started out great. We studied Hitler and Mussolini and other fascisms in Europe, then moved to Asia to look at Japanism, but the more the course progressed, the more I was confused about what fascism actually is. My professors chose to leave fascism undefined and allow each student to come to their own conclusion. That seems pretty reasonable, right? I thought so, too.

That is, until we started a unit on American fascism. All of a sudden only conservatives were fascist, only Christians could be racist, only Trump supporters could be violent. The professor argued that traditionalists, those with a rural past, constitutionalists, and those who “fetishized patriarchal masculinity” were all hallmarks of fascism. Essentially, anyone with the slightest bit of conservative thought is now akin to Adolf Hitler.

The scary thing about it was not just that we were being taught lies, but rather that at first it made perfect sense. I could see how “American fascism” aligned with Nazi Germany and Mussolini’s Italy. After going back through the material we had previously studied that semester and doing outside research, I realized just how much information had been left out. Nowhere does the course mention that Nazi means “national socialist.” Nowhere do we dive into how exactly Mussolini amassed as much power as he did (through a SOCIALIST agenda).

CONSERVATIVE AGONISTES; SYDNEY WILLIAMS

https://swtotd.blogspot.com/

Most of us conservatives who take our politics seriously have struggled with the phenomenon that was (and is) Donald Trump. We were taught that character matters, but we also know that so do issues. When they collide, on which side should we stand?

All of us, regardless of political leanings, struggle to fit today’s partisan political environment into the moral universe we inherited. As a conservative, I struggle to keep my moral compass firmly fixed in a world turned increasingly woke, where facts are subordinated to the narrative, where truth is relative and where censorship is applied. As an essayist, it is not my function to convince the reader of the righteousness of my positions, but to explain why I believe as I do. The ethical standards I apply to political thought are based on my parents, lessons from school and college, from travel and conversations, and from reading.

I grew up during and just after World War II, when distinctions between good and evil seemed clear. We were raised to respect our elders, especially parents, and taught manners and civil behavior. We were read to from Aesop’s Fables with its universal moral lessons, and we were taught accountability and personal responsibility. In school, we saluted the flag and sang the Star-Spangled Banner. We were patriots, believing in the good of America. We knew she was not perfect, for we had learned our Founders met “to form a more perfect union,” not a perfect one. Memorial Day was a big holiday for us, as was the 4th of July. We celebrated, as separate holidays, the births of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. While we were taught humility, we were proud (and felt fortunate) to be Americans.

Yet, beneath that surface of 1950s calm lay social inequalities of which we were partially aware. Women were not treated as equals in the job market and segregation was a fact of life, and not just in the South. However, from our studies of American history we knew that progress had been made over the decades. And from our studies of world history, we learned of the uniqueness of the United States – not perfect, but better than the countries from which our ancestors had emigrated. That knowledge did not make us complacent; it made us aware of how we could effect change for the common good. In our later teens and early twenties, we witnessed historic changes in Civil and women’s rights, and we embraced those changes.

With the election of Raisi, it’s time to get real with Iran By Barry Shaw

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/06/with_the_election_of_raisi_its_time_to_get_real_with_iran.html

If you thought that Iran could not get more extreme, think again. It just did. Remember the name Ebrahim Raisi. He is the new leader of Iran. 

His ambitions were clear for decades. He marks himself out from the rest by wearing a black turban. This is significant. It is a personal statement, as well as a commitment of faith, in which he declares himself (wrongly) as a descendent of the Prophet Mohammad. In other words, his words, his orders, come from Allah himself. 

Photo credit: khameni.ir

He is omnipotent.

He was there, as a student, demanding overthrow of the Shah of Persia in 1979 that led to the Islamic Revolution.

After the Revolution, he joined the judiciary and became the Deputy Prosecutor in Tehran at the age of 25. 

In that capacity, he sat as one of four judges in a secret tribunal set up in 1988 that became known as the “Death Committee.”

This committee of judges retried political prisoners who had already been sentenced, but instead of commuting their sentences they decreed death on what human rights groups have described as thousands of men and women.

After execution, they were buried in unmarked graves. 

After Ayatollah Ali Montazeri, considered a moderate, complained about the mass executions, calling them “the biggest crime in the history of the Islamic Republic” he lost his position as the successor of Khomeini. That went to hardliner Ayatollah Khamenei who became Supreme Leader after Khomeini’s death.

Raisi went on to serve as the chief prosecutor of Tehran before becoming the State Inspectorate Organization head and later in 2014 the Iranian Prosecutor General. 

Fake Science: COVID and Global Warming By Norman Rogers

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/06/fake_science_covid_and_global_warming.html

The scientists guiding our COVID response have been exposed as driven by politics, not science. Dr. Fauci says that attacks on him are attacks on science. We are supposed to believe that persons that cloak themselves with science are infallible and honest. Really?

If one of their fellow scientists departs from orthodoxy, scientists sign petitions denouncing him.  That happened to Dr. Harvey Risch of Yale because he dared to suggest that hydroxychloroquine might be useful for treating COVID.  

Given the COVID example, it is now not so incredible to think that the scientists promoting global warming have ulterior motives. The Texas A&M University atmospheric sciences faculty sign a loyalty oath to global warming. The editor of the academic journal Remote Sensing was forced to resign because he published a perfectly legitimate paper critical of climate models. Cancel culture is strong among the global warming scientists. Every effort is made to cancel dissenters. There is no such thing as an early career scientist skeptical concerning global warming. He could never get a job, even if somehow he could get his Ph.D.  This is not because the science is solid. It’s because orthodoxy is ruthlessly enforced to protect the career interests of the global warming establishment.

In case you are wondering, the name “global warming” was changed to “climate change” because the globe wasn’t warming. The climate is always changing, so the advocates can claim that normal variation is proof of climate change.

Global warming has been thoroughly exposed as a fraud by many authors including highly qualified atmospheric scientists. Yet global warming is still a canonic belief in influential circles. The president wants to greatly expand the development of wind and solar energy in order to prevent global warming. Even if one accepts the junk science of global warming, according to the tenets of global warming theory, wind and solar are completely ineffective for preventing the imaginary crisis,. Straight forward computation shows that wind and solar, exclusive of subsidies, cost 5-10 times more than the natural gas energy they displace. Only gas usage is displaced. The gas generating plants must remain, fully staffed, ready to spring into operation when sun or wind is deficient.

The Attack on an Alzheimer’s Drug Progressives suddenly discover federal spending they don’t like.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-attack-on-an-alzheimers-drug-11624314809?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

Public-health and media critics failed to stop federal approval of Aduhelm, Biogen’s new drug for Alzheimer’s. So now they’re mounting an assault on the drug’s cost to stop Medicare from paying for it. Their sudden and rare concern for the federal fisc is illuminating, and not in a good way.

“It’s unconscionable to ask seniors and taxpayers to pay $56,000 a year for a drug that has yet to be proven effective,” Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden tweeted after the Food and Drug Administration approved Aduhelm this month. “Medicare must be able to negotiate a fair price for prescription drugs.” He means impose price controls, while others want Medicare to restrict coverage of the drug.

The healthcare policy shop Altarum last week projected Aduhelm would increase prescription drug spending by more than 8% by mid-decade. The sages at Axios hype: “Biogen’s new Alzheimer’s treatment could be experts’ nightmare drug spending scenario: An extremely expensive product that millions of desperate patients could be eligible for—and it may not even work.” Note the bow to “experts.”

Nobody has said Aduhelm is a cure, but it is the first treatment following hundreds of failures that has shown evidence in clinical trials of removing amyloid plaque—a hallmark of the disease—and slowing cognitive decline.

‘Phase Two’ Iran Talks Go Kaput The Biden team continues to misjudge Tehran at every turn.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/phase-two-iran-talks-go-kaput-11624314762?mod=opinion_lead_pos2

So much for “phase two” of the Iran nuclear talks. Iran’s president-elect Ebrahim Raisi won’t take office until August, but on Monday he announced his government won’t negotiate over ballistic missiles or its support for proxies destabilizing the Middle East.

The Biden Administration has promoted the phase two idea as something that would follow its desired return to the 2015 nuclear accord. “Longer and stronger” was Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s phrase. The 2015 deal ignored Iran’s ballistic missiles, which the country continues to develop. And the deal said nothing about Iran’s malign support for militias in Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and Hamas in Gaza.

Counting on a follow-on deal was always dubious. Iran wants back into the 2015 deal so the U.S. will lift President Trump’s sanctions and it can gain access to tens of billions of dollars in trade revenue and investment. Once the sanctions leverage is gone, why would Iran make any other concessions?

On Monday Mr. Raisi made that position official. He said sanctions relief is “central to our foreign policy” and called on the U.S. “to lift all oppressive sanctions against Iran.” He also ruled out meeting with President Biden and said Iran’s ballistic-missile program and regional imperialism are “non-negotiable.”

Critical Race Theory Is the Opposite of Education It’s more of a religion. Its practitioners reject the idea of evaluating the merits of competing ideas. By Gerard Baker

https://www.wsj.com/articles/critical-race-theory-is-the-opposite-of-education-11624293824?mod=opinion_lead_pos9

I learned economics from a Marxist.

It was the height of the Cold War, a critical moment when the survival of the West seemed in doubt, an age when many people, even those under no illusions about the unfolding terror of Soviet communism, wondered whether capitalism’s days might be numbered.

My tutor at a famous university in the English heartlands was one of the nation’s most prominent socialist intellectuals. His works anatomized—and anathematized—the capitalist system from the traditional Marxian perspective. His wider writings championed a structuralist view of society and its institutions. He not only inveighed against the supposed moral inferiority of capitalism. He was convinced about the inevitability of its collapse under the weight of its own contradictions.

But Andrew Glyn was first and foremost a teacher, an intellectually insatiable pedagogue with a desire to foster among his students a hunger for a broad understanding of the discipline. His reading list each week included the canon of classical economic thought ( Adam Smith, David Hume, David Ricardo ), John Maynard Keynes and his followers, and a thorough grounding in the modern neoclassical and monetarist works (F.A. Hayek and the Chicago school, Milton Friedman especially).

No thinker—no ideology—was off-limits. It was the early days of the Reagan-Thatcher counterrevolution. Neither seemed guaranteed of success at the time, and we were encouraged—in fact required—both to learn what they were doing and to understand dispassionately its intellectual origins.

No Remorse: China Now Says the Wuhan Lab Deserves a Nobel Prize By Jim Geraghty

https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/no-remorse-china-now-says-the-wuhan-lab-deserves-a-nobel-prize/?utm_source=

The Chinese Foreign Ministry argues that the Wuhan Institute of Virology deserves to win the Nobel Prize for Medicine; a look at the blatant contradictions in China’s propaganda about vaccine diplomacy; a senator shrugs off his membership in an all-white private beach club; and apparently progressives can’t find anything to enjoy this summer.

China: The Wuhan Institute of Virology Deserves the Nobel Prize in Medicine

Late last week, the Chinese Academy of Sciences nominated the Wuhan Institute of Virology for its Outstanding Science and Technology Achievement Prize, specifically naming Shi Zhengli, a.k.a. “Bat Woman,” and Yuan Zhiming, director of the WIV’s Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory.

Chinese state-run media explained that, “The award is mainly given to individuals or research groups who have made or demonstrated significant achievements in the past five years . . . China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson stressed at Thursday’s press conference that scientists working at the WIV should be awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine, rather than being blamed for being the first to discover the gene sequence of the novel coronavirus.”

We must admit, the Institute’s work really has touched all of our lives, hasn’t it? And just think how many medical breakthroughs we’ve seen in the past 18 months from Pfizer and Moderna and Oxford and Johnson & Johnson that never would have occurred if hadn’t been for the earlier work of the Wuhan Institute of Virology? The WIV’s work literally brought the world to a screeching halt. It even made late-night television funny again.