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October 2022

The New Progressivism Makes No Room for Jews David L. Bernstein

https://mosaicmagazine.com/picks/politics-current-affairs/2022/10/the-new-progressivism-makes-no-room-for-jews/?utm

In 2016, as “intersectionality” escaped from academia to become a progressive buzzword—and came to to signify a doctrine that all just causes are linked and complementary—David L. Bernstein began to suspect that it was apt to be used against the Jews. As he pointed out in an article published that year, activists argued under the banner of intersectionality that anyone opposed to racism in the U.S. should also oppose the existence of Israel. He thought, however, that there was hope:

While I didn’t say so explicitly, I’d come to believe that the mainstream Jewish community needed to find a way to include the Jewish narrative in the intersectional matrix—to complicate it—so that Jews and Israel were not viewed as the perennial oppressors and Palestinians the perennial victims. Concerned about the growing backlash to my article, I used the opportunity [to participate in a panel discussion with some of my critics] to soften my stance on the topic, stating “I still have much to learn,” and that “intersectionality is a complex, interesting, and nuanced phenomenon that we need to understand, not just from the perspective of the pro-Israel community, but from its own perspective as well.”

Bernstein, at the time still president of the left-leaning Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA), soon learned that there was little room for such a compromise position:

[In 2020], the JCPA pulled together a Zoom meeting for a coalition called Jews for Criminal Justice Reform, which included top Jewish criminal-justice activists from around the country. After an inspiring talk by Paul Fishman—a former federal attorney from New Jersey—on the need to end mass incarceration, we broke up into smaller groups to discuss next steps. A lawyer named Jared, the group facilitator for my breakout session, asked, “What do you all think our criminal-justice reform priorities ought to be?” Ariella, a young professional staffer from a Jewish civil-rights organization, interjected, “Before we talk about strategy, there’s a lot of internal work we have to do in the Jewish community. We need to recognize our complicity in white supremacy and ensure we have black Jews at the forefront of these efforts.”

Report: COVID-19 Led to Major Setback in Students’ Grades, Test Scores Across the Country By Eric Lendrum

https://amgreatness.com/2022/10/24/report-covid-19-led-to-major-setback-in-students-grades-test-scores-across-the-country/

The latest national report from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), commonly known as “the nation’s report card,” reveals the full devastating extent of COVID-19 lockdowns on the nation’s education system, with students across the country seeing a significant drop in grades and test scores.

According to the Associated Press, math scores saw the largest decrease in recent history, with four out of ten eighth-graders failing to grasp basic math concepts. In addition, average reading scores dropped to their lowest levels since 1992. No state saw an improvement in academic performance.

This is NAEP’s first national report since 2019, with no report given in 2020 or 2021 due to the severe restrictions on education as a result of the Chinese coronavirus pandemic. Thus, as the first comprehensive national report on educational standards since the pandemic began, this year’s national report card paints a dire picture for the state of education as it struggles to recover, even a year after the pandemic more or less ended.

“It is a serious wakeup call for us all,” said Peggy Carr, commissioner of the Education Department’s National Center for Education Statistics. “In NAEP, when we experience a 1- or 2-point decline, we’re talking about it as a significant impact on a student’s achievement. In math, we experienced an 8-point decline — historic for this assessment.”

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, describing the results of the study as “not acceptable,” used the findings as proof that the federal government needs to continue giving billions in aid to local schools to recover.

Halloween and Election Day: Days for the Undying Dead When bad ideas are like a horror flick killer, continuously resurrected to kill again. By Vincent McCaffrey

https://amgreatness.com/2022/10/24/halloween-and-election-day-days-for-the-undying-dead/

Some very scary ideas never seem to die. There is a great Geico Insurance commercial playing off horror film tropes, in which several teenagers hide in a shed behind some chainsaws rather than go to a waiting automobile to escape a serial killer. But unlike this commercial, our political tropes are not so funny. The political ideology of socialism has killed and maimed hundreds of millions, haunting us for the last 100 years. Yet political leaders just continue to change the name—national socialism, communism, progressivism—and try again. 

The basic reason authoritarians get away with this is because some academic minds never seem to tire of the idea of trying to make everyone equal. It is not enough to have equal opportunity; they want equal results. The attempts to implement this insanity and the failures are well documented—empirically, historically, and existentially. Nevertheless, new dissertations clog the diploma mills every year as young minds, well-shaped by a politically progressive public school system, attempt to square the circle. 

During the recent funeral ceremonies for Queen Elizabeth II, several seemingly well-educated commentators seemed to offer their support for the idea of the British monarchy, with its stability and traditions, as a better alternative to our messy democracy. Never mind that America isn’t supposed to be a democracy but, rather, a representative republic. It’s still too messy. But Lo! Within just a few weeks that same hallowed British system has collapsed yet again. Who is messy now? 

Similarly, a number of financial commentators have extolled the efficiencies of the “Chinese system.” They really know how to get things done, don’t ya know. They don’t waste energy on political games. A crafty dictator like Xi is better suited to a complex world of shifting priorities. The yuan will soon replace the dollar as the standard for the world. China is already more powerful than the United States, both economically and militarily. etc. etc. Except for the fact that it’s not true, it makes for compelling copy if you are the sort who longs for such certainty. 

J6 Prosecutors Redouble Retaliation and Revenge The U.S. attorney for D.C. says he plans to double January 6 prosecutions in the coming months. Meanwhile, tone-deaf GOP politicians prepare to feed the hand that bites them. By Julie Kelly

https://amgreatness.com/2022/10/24/republicans-in-congress-pile-on-j6-defendants/

The sentencing of Steve Bannon, a longtime confidant of Donald Trump and harsh critic of the Joe Biden regime, wasn’t the only action at the Elijah Barrett Prettyman Courthouse in Washington, D.C. on Friday. Around the same time U.S. District Court Judge Carl Nichols announced his decision to send Bannon to prison for four months following his contempt of Congress conviction, Nichols’ colleagues were handling several cases related to the Department of Justice’s massive investigation into the events of January 6, 2021.

In separate courtrooms last Friday, three men were sentenced to years in prison for their involvement in the Capitol protest, including Matthew Bledsoe of Mississippi, who will spend four years in jail after a D.C. jury found him guilty of obstruction of an official proceeding, a nonviolent felony. A man from Kentucky pleaded guilty to one count of civil disorder in another courtroom. And in courtroom 23A, five members of the Oath Keepers, a so-called “militia” group according to federal prosecutors, entered the fourth week of their seditious conspiracy jury trial.

Once again last week—similar to every other week—the Prettyman courthouse was overrun with January 6 cases; arraignments, detention hearings, status conferences, and plea agreements routinely swamp the daily calendar of nearly two-dozen federal judges in the nation’s capital. A press release issued by Matthew Graves, the Biden campaign advisor and current U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia responsible for the unprecedented criminal investigation and grand jury proceedings targeting Donald Trump, bragged that “more than 880 individuals have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including over 270 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement.”

But Graves’ office is just getting started. The Justice Department recently warned that the government plans to more than double that number over the next few months. “Prosecutors estimate that more than 2,000 people actually entered the Capitol unlawfully that day, which means hundreds more arrests are likely in the months to come,” Politico reported in July. (Graves on Monday also announced the appointment of two D.C.-based prosecutors to investigate voting fraud in the 2022 election and combat “discrimination and intimidation at the polls.”)

New arrests are announced each week in what can only be considered at this point a punative legal crusade against Americans who protested Biden’s election that day.

The prosecution has nothing to do with justice or public safety and everything to do with retaliation and revenge. Further, the overwhelming majority of charges are misdemeanor offenses that nonetheless result in terrifying FBI raids, bankruptcies, job losses, media harassment, and destroyed families for those targeted. The government is undefeated in more than a dozen jury trials for January 6 defendants; jurors living in perhaps the most hyperpartisan city in the country have convicted every Capitol protester on every count in record time as judges refuse to move trials out of Washington, D.C. 

Glazov Gang: Inside the Globalists’ Haunting Depopulation Agenda The global elitists’ crude strategy to do the opposite of “Be fruitful and multiply.”

https://www.frontpagemag.com/glazov-gang-inside-the-globalists-haunting-depopulation-agenda/

This new Glazov Gang episode features Patrick Wood, the Editor-in-Chief of Technocracy.news and the author of Technocracy Rising: The Trojan Horse of Global Transformation.

Patrick takes us Inside the Globalists’ Haunting Depopulation Agenda, unveiling The global elitists’ crude strategy to do the opposite of “Be fruitful and multiply.”  

Don’t miss it!

JustStopOil protesters attack waxwork King Charles with chocolate cake Consider the planet saved

https://spectatorworld.com/topic/juststopoil-waxwork-king-charles-chocolate-cake-madame-tussauds/?utm_source=

The JustStopOil activists are on the loose around Europe again. This time they’ve chosen to stop off at Madame Tussauds in London — the museum of life-sized wax replicas of famous celebrities and icons.

So, who did they set their sights on? Kylie Jenner? Taylor Swift? Or any of the other gas-guzzling, private plane flying celebs? Nope. This time twenty-year-old Eilidh McFadden and twenty-nine-year-old Tom Johnson covered a waxwork model of King Charles III with chocolate cake.

Perhaps in their simple minds, this gesture made sense. Two fingers up to the Establishment and all that. But the new king is known for his extensive environmental campaigning. He even — to the dismay of many — attended the UN’s COP26 climate summit in Glasgow last year.

In a statement the protesters said: “We are here because we seek to protect our freedoms and rights, because we seek to protect this green and pleasant land which is the inheritance of us all.

“The science is clear. The demand is simple: just stop new oil and gas. It’s a piece of cake.”

Clever huh? Well, King Charles is so committed to going green that he converted his beautiful old Aston Martin DB6 to run on wine and cheese.

Illegal Immigrants Glamping in New York Tent City at Taxpayers’ Expense Mayor Adams declares a state of emergency. by Joseph Klein

https://www.frontpagemag.com/illegal-immigrants-glamping-in-new-york-tent-city-at-taxpayers-expense/

New York City’s Democrat Mayor Eric Adams declared a state of emergency on October 7th in response to the thousands of illegal immigrants arriving in the Big Apple by bus from Texas during the last several months. After having floundered at first over how to manage the influx of illegal immigrants into his city, Mayor Adams ended up deciding to house some of them in sparkling new tent city accommodations on Randall’s Island. The facility opened its doors on October 23rd.

The Randall’s Island tent city residents will consist mostly of men from Venezuela. Families with children will be offered hotel lodging, including at a $400-a-night hotel.

The illegal immigrant residents on Randall’s Island are being offered a place where they “can come, rest, relax and kick their feet up after the journey they have been on,” said Emergency Management Commissioner Zach Iscol. That is an understatement.

These illegal immigrants will enjoy such creature comforts as fluff-and-fold laundry service, Wi-Fi, and a lounge with plush couches to relax on while watching flat-screen TVs or playing video games on Xbox game consoles. If they get bored with those activities, they can play ping-pong, foosball, and board games while munching on popcorn. And there are phones that the illegal immigrants can use to make international calls. When it is time to eat, the illegal immigrants will be able to dine on three square meals a day that Mr. Iscol has assured reporters are “all culturally appropriate.”

The voters throw CBS a curve By Silvio Canto, Jr.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/10/the_voters_throw_cbs_a_curve.html

By chance, I was looking for the Cowboys pre-game show and ended up at “Face the Nation.”  What I saw was rather interesting and a good sign about the upcoming midterms.  This is from Fox News:    

A “Face the Nation” focus group featuring a Republican, Democrat and an independent unanimously agreed that “woke culture” has become a prime concern for parents raising children in America.

In a segment called “Eye on America: Election Influencers,” CBS host Margaret Brennan asked a group of parents to get candid about the issues they’ll prioritize when voting and their struggles raising kids in a post-pandemic era.

John, a Texas Republican, cited the “woke” overhaul of U.S. education as a key issue for parents.   

“The whole woke culture affecting our children, all these elementary, middle schools having woke culture pushed on them from the LGBTQ+ community for sexual identify and gender. We should be pushing the actual school studies. Math, social studies, science,” he said. “Not gender studies.”

Lashawn, an Illinois Democrat and mother of eight, largely agreed.  “I can agree with some of his points,” she said. “I will say sex education, I feel like some things are brought to the children’s attention they wouldn’t even think about.”

“Children are really influenced,” she continued. “You can teach them one thing at home, but when they go to school, they’re just as much influenced by their teachers and their surroundings.”

Lashawn said parents should have more of a say over what children are taught.

Stephanie, an independent from Arkansas, also agreed, spotlighting the struggles children are facing as they get back in their classrooms after extended school closures.    

The Student Loan Giveaway Already Has Been Spent By Christopher Chantrill

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/10/the_student_loan_giveaway_already_has_been_spent.html

The Feds released the numbers on federal finances for FY 2022 on Friday. The numbers are in the Monthly Treasury Statement. No doubt you are gasping for the results of Year Two of the Biden Interregnum. Of course, I have published all the numbers on my usgovernmentspending.com.

First, the Deficit. President Biden has proudly announced that he has cut the deficit in half. So he has, from $2.78 trillion in 2021 all the way down to $1.38 trillion in 2022. Here’s what that looks like:

So now we are not quite down to the last deficit before COVID.  Let’s Go Brandon!

The federal debt, of course, is on the ever increase, from $28.4 trillion at the end of FY 2021 to $30.9 trillion at the end of FY 2022. That’s 127 percent of GDP, higher than the end of World War II.

But hey! We’ve been fighting World War Greedy Bankers and World War COVID for the last 20 years! Let’s Go Brandon!

I find the trend in federal debt interesting. As you can see, after World War II the ruling class all got together and decided to bring the debt down as a percent of GDP. That downward trend ended when the Best and Brightest decided to bask in the glory of the Great Society. Debt started upward in the 1980s when Reagan cut taxes while the Democrats refused to cut spending. But debt leveled out in the era of Bill Clinton and the New Democrats before exploding in the real-estate and credit system meltdown of 2008.

November Surprise: There’ll Be No Thanksgiving For Some

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/10/25/2022s-october-surprise-therell-be-no-thanksgiving-for-some/

Many Americans were concerned last year that their Thanksgivings would not be celebrations of plenty but rather bitter experiences of want. This year, those fears have become a harsh reality in Joe Biden’s America, leaving one in four to say they will skip Thanksgiving in 2020 “to save money.”

In November 2021, with the country’s first Thanksgiving under Biden’s unsteady hand approaching, families were facing a holiday meal that was 14% more expensive than the year before. It was only a few months after the Joe from Scranton administration had bragged that a Fourth of July barbecue would cost a full 16 cents less than the year before.

This year, the centerpiece of the Thanksgiving meal could cost as much as 75% more than it did in Biden’s first year on office. The cost of whole frozen hen recently reached $1.99 a pound, well in excess of last year’s $1.15.

“A typical Thanksgiving bird” in the 8- to 16-pound range “now costs $31.84,” the Post Millennial reported over the weekend, citing Agriculture Department data.

The large increase is due in part to an avian flu that has killed 3.6% of the U.S. supply, says the Post Millennial. But even without the thinning of the flock, the cost of a turkey would still hit altitudes far higher than the flightless birds can reach. We know this because the cost of other Thanksgiving meal items are also higher than in 2021.

For instance, the price of stuffing is $3.99 this year, says the Post Millennial, much higher than last year’s $2.29, while “sweet potatoes rose to $3.97 from $3.56.” The price of green beans and pumpkin pie mix are also inflated over 2021.  In a news story headlined “Rising prices set to gobble up Americans’ Thanksgiving budgets,” the Los Angeles Times says “flour is up 24%,” from a year ago while “butter and margarine are up 32%.”