Displaying posts published in

March 2025

The escalating leftist violence against conservatives from Trump and Musk on down By Andrea Widburg

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/03/the_escalating_leftist_violence_against_conservatives_from_trump_and_musk_on_down.html

The news lately has been filled with stories of the escalating violence against conservatives. We already saw it last year with the two assassination attempts against Donald Trump, but it’s now spread to Musk, Vance, and conservatives generally. As with the blasphemous song a so-called “transgender” person sang at the Bernie rally, I can’t say I’m surprised. Some things are predictable, and leftist violence, especially when you’ve driven your supporters insane, is especially predictable.  

I don’t need to rehash the Butler assassination attempt that Trump survived by a millisecond and millimeter. Nor do I need to remind you about the wannabe assassin at Mar-a-Lago.

But for the left, two missed assassination attempts aren’t a sign of societal breakdown; they’re a sign of failure, which needs to be remedied. So it was that a UCLA professor (that is, a man making his money on the public dime) is urging the military to engage in a violent coup against President Trump.

Immigration and Fertility by Nation As birthrates drop in developed nations, mass immigration reshapes demographics, raising concerns about cultural integration, intelligence decline, and the long-term stability of advanced economies. By Edward Ring

https://amgreatness.com/2025/03/12/immigration-and-fertility-by-nation/

“But one thing is certain: the human population is rapidly declining in every developed nation on earth. How we adapt to that, and who we invite into our nations, should involve a discussion that includes all variables.”

When a nation’s population grows, it’s easier for that nation to experience economic growth. This is the conventional economic wisdom that has been unchallenged for centuries. And there was little reason to challenge this axiom, because throughout human history, the global population trend has been one of perpetual increase. But as birthrates are crashing in wealthier nations, without exception, it may be time to reexamine what constitutes healthy economic growth and how it may be achieved without increasing population.

The way Western nations have chosen to respond to crashing birthrates is to rely on mass immigration. Tens of millions of people are being encouraged to migrate from poor nations where fertility remains high into rich nations with low fertility. This gives rise to challenges that remain unresolved and indeed may worsen as people arrive by the millions from cultures with dramatically different values and beliefs than the host culture.

Let’s assume for a moment that these cultural clashes can be resolved. That’s making a huge leap of faith, but let’s envision a world where, as the developed nations saw their indigenous population diminish, they were steadily replaced by immigrants from high-fertility nations. This is not mere speculation. Based on current trends, within a generation, indigenous populations in developed nations will become minorities, outnumbered by immigrants.

So notwithstanding how these nations would maintain social stability in the face of replacement levels of immigration, and notwithstanding how the indigenous cultures would merge with the immigrant cultures into something unrecognizable by any historical comparisons, what else can we surmise might characterize these new and blended populations?

One of the most salient determinants of individual success is an individual’s general intelligence, and what’s true for individuals is also true for nations. The data on average IQ by nation is available online, and when checking multiple sources here, here, and here, the overall figures were remarkably consistent. What is also true, although the scatter plot does reveal some outliers, is that in the world today, the higher the national average IQ, the lower the fertility. The converse is also true.

Urgently Needed: A President Trump 21st Century ‘Manhattan Project’ for Fusion Energy to Secure Global Leadership by Lawrence Kadish

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21465/manhattan-project-for-fusion-energy

Tariffs, Ukraine, DOGE, the budget, NATO, the Middle East; the headlines are dominated by daily issues that demand our attention, but they also serve to distract us from the strategic issues that will determine who will be the dominant superpower during the remaining years of 21st Century.

So, it should come as no surprise that China is currently investing billions of dollars to create unlimited power by seeking to conquer the challenging technology of fusion power.

Media reports suggest that Beijing is investing anywhere between $1 billion and $1.5 billion annually into fusion research. One Washington energy insider told the press, “…What’s more important than the number, it’s actually how fast they’re doing this.”

Equally telling is one report, which observed that China’s patents on crucial aspects of fusion technology are more than any other country, including our own.

China’s pursuit of unlimited energy is not just about powering cities and electric vehicles. The most major breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI) will come about when one country’s computers have access to unlimited power. The country that can lead in AI development will become the next global superpower.

Americans understand the threat. It is important to revisit a national survey recently conducted by President Donald J. Trump’s pollster, McLaughlin & Associates. A significant majority of citizens recognize the danger and want Washington to safeguard our future by investing in fusion energy.

Trump has much on his plate, but the poll revealed that three-in-five voters are concerned that China’s fusion energy leadership could place America’s leadership in jeopardy. The issue should receive the funding priority from Washington that it demands.

A former Columbia professor applauds the defunding By Thomas Lifson

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/03/a_former_columbia_professor_applauds_the_defunding.html

I almost cheered out loud when I read that the Trump administration has cancelled $400 million in funding for Columbia University, despite the fact that when I taught there about three and a half decades ago, I no doubt directly benefitted from federal money flowing in, enjoyed my colleagues, and was treated very well. My animus and support for the cuts derives from the reluctant conclusion that as an institution, it has been corrupted, and nothing less than traumatic levels of change are required. The level of change required includes firing administrators, faculty, and admissions officers, expelling students, and revising hiring and admissions criteria. Only fear of financial catastrophe will suffice to strengthen sufficiently the spines of trustees and the administration.

Consider this abuse:

Some Columbia University professors canceled in-person classes on Monday in support of Mahmoud Khalil, the student activist and foreign national whom the Trump administration moved to deport over his pro-Hamas campus organizing. The cancellations — which came amid a pressure campaign from the school’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter — put the professors at odds with Columbia’s provost, who emailed “faculty colleagues” Monday morning to issue “a reminder that faculty must meet all scheduled classes.”

Faculty who cheat their students in order to make a political point should be immediately fired. They are defrauding the young minds whose families have coughed up the exorbitant tuition Columbia (and every other prestige college) charges: $71,170 per year. That works out to a quasi “ticket price” per hour of classroom instruction of $182 to $228, depending on whether a student takes 4 or 5 courses per semester. (See Columbia’s requirements, regulations and costs posted online for the underlying data.)

Imagine a theatre cancelling a performance that people spent over $200 to attend and refusing to refund the tickets.

It’s obvious that deeply politicized faculty, staff, and students are so numerous that they dominate the campus and poison the atmosphere, making the campus unsafe for Jews and any other minority that they may decide to target. They can’t be “reformed” because, as ideologues, they will resist.

Tal Fortgang The Rise of Civil Terrorism Radicals seek the demise of the West through organized criminal mayhem—here’s how to stop them.

https://www.city-journal.org/article/civil-terrorism-anti-israel-radicals?utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-

Masked criminals attacked several Citibank locations in New York City one night last September. They brandished no guns and demanded no cash. Instead, they squeezed epoxy and cemented stickers on debit-card readers, damaged door locks, and vandalized windows with profanities and threats of future violence. Rather than keep their identities hidden, the marauders filmed their work and posted it to their enterprise’s Instagram page. “Unity of Fields,” the recently rebranded group formerly known as Palestine Action US—the new name comes from a Palestinian Islamic Jihad call for violence across the world—included a lengthy caption in the post, exhorting followers: “These actions are not hard to do. Please escalate for Palestine and humanity. We will not rest until Palestine is liberated from the river to the sea.”

Over the last few years, but especially since Hamas massacred Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023, this type of organized criminal mayhem has increasingly become part of American life. The criminal bands that have arisen act for ideological reasons. They operate where they believe that they have the most latitude: on college campuses and in Democratic-controlled jurisdictions. And their beliefs are overwhelmingly left-wing: radically environmentalist (“Just Stop Oil”), anarcho-socialist (Antifa), and, most often, anti-Israel.

A framework beyond protest politics and civil disobedience is needed to understand this phenomenon. Today’s left-wing agitators deploy random acts of lawlessness designed to inconvenience and disrupt as many civilians as possible, hoping to pressure them to get the government to change course. This tactic is reasonably described as a form of terrorism, though the activists aren’t murderous like al-Qaida or Hamas—they don’t use guns, bombs, or threats of unpredictable bloodshed. Instead, they engage in civil terrorism.

Though some of these groups, like Antifa, are loosely connected networks of the like-minded, the ascendant anti-Israel, and more broadly anti-Western, outfits come with brand names. Within Our Lifetime, Jewish Voice for Peace, Palestine Action, Samidoun, Students for Justice in Palestine, Party for Socialism and Liberation, Palestinian Youth Movement, IfNotNow, and more—the names signal that the chaos they sow is intentional. Like Unity of Fields, they take credit for their actions and try to stoke more unrest through social media. They put their names on the banners, signs, and other paraphernalia that their members and sympathizers display at “direct actions.”

“Inside Cyber: How AI, 5G, and Quantum Computing Will Transform Privacy and Our Security” by Chuck Brooks

In a nutshell, Artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, 5G, IoT and others will require new approaches and understanding for cybersecurity as they offer uses for cyber-defenders but also cyber-offenders.

For example, Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be able to help make decisions more effectively by prioritizing and acting upon data. Speech recognition, learning planning, and problem-solving are some of the fundamental tasks for which computers with AI are built. While AI and ML are valuable instruments for businesses, hostile governments, and malicious hackers are already using AI and MI as tools to find and exploit an organization’s cyber defenses.

Quantum Computing  operates by utilizing the unique characteristics of atoms and subatomic particles. It will allow for completely new forms of cryptography, analytics, and calculation at incredibly fast speeds. Unfortunately, the same computational capacity that makes it possible to tackle complicated problems can also be used to compromise cybersecurity. This is because current cybersecurity protocols usually encrypt sensitive data, like passwords and personal information, using pseudo-random numbers. However, quantum computers can break the techniques used by traditional computers to generate random numbers, which poses a serious risk to any organization that uses standard encryption tools.

5G will enable faster networks with greater capabilities and reduced latency or lag times will be possible for businesses thanks to 5G. For the business community, 5G will have enormous advantages. Higher traffic capacity and enhanced dependability are only two of the many advantages that advanced 5G and wireless networks will offer. The ability to access broadband will empower millions of people. Unfortunately, hackers will be able to use the speed and connectivity to their advantage too, enabling the rapid proliferation and targeting of malware.

The Internet of Things (IoT) includes all hardware and software that can be read, recognized, located, addressed, and/or controlled over the internet. The growth of the Internet of Things has totally changed how cyberattacks work and how big the attack surface is getting. Because IoT devices don’t have security built in, hackers have many ways to get past cyber defenses and steal data.

Insanity, Immorality, Conspiratorial Antisemitism, and Foreign Funding Fun stuff in today’s title! Just as it began to look like we might be reining in our national plunge into insanity, Qatari money promoted conspiratorial antisemitism among right-of-center influencers. Bruce Abramson

https://bda1776.substack.com/p/insanity-immorality-conspiratorial?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=4

Now, on to the topic of the day. Follow the money! Or at least look for it.

Over a decade ago, I began to notice that more and more of my friends were spouting dangerous, hateful, nonsensical garbage. Then I noticed that the problem was hardly restricted to my friends. There seemed to be a groundswell of support for charged beliefs running counter to all available evidence.

You all know some of the top line absurdities, but just to clarify with a few examples: Men cannot become women, the U.S. is not overrun with violent racist cops, and a climate catastrophe is not imminent.

Then came Covid and all bets were off. For three years we were fed a steady stream of nonsense—pronouncements that not only proved to be wrong after the fact, but that made no sense when they were first uttered—yet plenty of “serious” people accepted them as Gospel. Asking basic questions was treated as blasphemy.

Totalitarianism emanated far beyond the weaponization of public health. Violent race rioters burning down business districts were mostly peaceful. An election employing the least credible procedures in American history was the most secure our country had ever seen. Unarmed trespassers wandering through a donnybrook in the Capitol Building sought to bring down the American government. Eliminating cheap and efficient energy was the key to our economic success. An obvious dementia patient was sharp as a tack and in full command of the country.

It was hard to escape the feeling that we were living in an insane asylum—and that the worst of the inmates were firmly in charge. The only plausible alternative was even scarier: We were living through a moral inversion, in which decency was vilified and villainy extolled.

Teacher Wins in Court After Being Fired for Refusing to Use Preferred Pronouns By Eric Lendrum

https://amgreatness.com/2025/03/11/teacher-wins-in-court-after-being-fired-for-refusing-to-use-preferred-pronouns/

On Monday, a teacher in Wisconsin who had been fired for refusing to use the “preferred pronouns” of students who believed themselves to be “transgender” won a legal settlement with his former employer.

As reported by the Daily Caller, Jordan Cernek had been an English teacher with the Argyle School District until his contract was not renewed, after two students in the 2022-2023 academic year demanded that staff refer to them by their preferred names and pronouns. Following his termination, Cernek sued the school district in July of 2024, claiming a violation of his First Amendment right to freedom of religion, as well as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The lawsuit was filed on Cernek’s behalf by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty.

“Mr. Cernek has a sincerely held religious belief that God makes no mistakes when it comes to sex and gender and that calling a transgender student by a name or pronouns at odds with their biological sex would cause Mr. Cernek to affirm that God made a mistake in creating a transgender person as a male or a female,” the lawsuit read in part. “In Mr. Cernek’s religious view, affirming a transgender person’s identity through the use of preferred names and pronouns would be speaking a falsehood and violate his religious beliefs.”

Court records reveal that the school had initially agreed to a religious exemption for Cernek, before suddenly revoking the agreement and ordering him to use the students’ preferred names and pronouns.

The case was dismissed in February following the announcement that both parties had reached a settlement. The school district confirmed in a statement that it had agreed to pay the amount of $20,000 to Cernek.

Purim Guide for the Perplexed 2025 Ambassador (Ret.) Yoram Ettinger

1. Purim is a Jewish national liberation holiday – just like Passover and Chanukah – which highlights the transition of the Jewish people from subjugation to liberty. It is celebrated seven days following the birth and death date of Moses – a role model of liberty, leadership and humility.

Purim is celebrated from the evening of March 14 through the day of March 15, 2025.

2. Purim’s historical background: 

^A Jewish exile to Babylon and Persia was triggered by the 586 BCE destruction of the 1st Jewish Temple and the expulsion of Jews from Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria by the Babylonian Emperor, Nebuchadnezzar.
^Persia replaced Babylon as the leading regional power. 
^In 538 BCE, Xerxes the Great, Persia’s King Ahasuerus, the successor of Darius the Great, proclaimed his support for the reconstruction of the Jerusalem Jewish Temple, the resurrection of national Jewish life in the Land of Israel, and the recognition of Jerusalem as the exclusive capital of the Jewish people. 
^In 499-449 BCE, King Ahasuerus established a coalition of countries – from India to Ethiopia – which launched the Greco-Persian Wars, aiming to expand the Persian Empire westward.
^Persia was resoundingly defeated (e.g., the 490 BCE and 480 BCE battles of Marathon and Salamis), and Ahasuerus’ authority in Persia was gravely eroded.

3. “Purimfest 1946” yelled Julius Streicher, the Nazi propaganda chief, as he approached the hanging gallows in Nuremberg (Newsweek, October 28, 1946, page 46).  On October 16, 1946, ten convicted Nazi war criminals were hanged, similar to Haman’s ten sons, who were hung in ancient Persia. An 11th Nazi criminal, Hermann Goering, committed suicide in his cell, similar to Haman’s 11th child, who committed suicide following her father’s demise (according to the Talmud’s Megillah tractate 16a).

Our Constitutional Rights and Freedoms Trump Manners and Civility The elite enemies of our freedoms require us to “fight, fight, fight.” by Bruce Thornton

https://www.frontpagemag.com/our-constitutional-rights-and-freedoms-trump-manners-and-civility/

Long before Donald Trump berated Ukrainian president Volodymir Zelenskyy, the president has been criticized for his lack of decorum, manners, politesse, and political “norms.” From snubbing Hillary Clinton during his first inaugural address, to discarding “diplomatic niceties” when talking with foreign leaders,” as the AP put it in 2019, Trump’s boorishness and vulgarity has been the Dems’ go-to smear.

But complaints about manners and proper behavior generally reflect the mores and sensibilities of privileged elites defined by birth, wealth, and credentials––all policed by professional and political guilds. In a democratic republic in which all citizens are politically free and equal, such rules often function as gate-keepers to keep hoi polloi in their place, at the expense of crafting policies that serve national interests and security. Worse, they are tools for silencing rival factions’ free speech rights by question-begging labels like “misinformation” or “hate-speech.”

Ever since the birth of democracy in ancient Athens and its enfranchisement of the poor and uneducated, the issue of free public speech had been contested. Indeed, empowering the citizen masses to vote in elections, openly deliberate and speak out about policy, and hold office, was the heart of democracy, the public confirmation of the citizens’ freedom and equality––as the extant ancient antidemocratic complaints from antiquity illustrate.

Moreover, to protect the right of free speech the Athenians had very few restrictions on insults and mockery.  Ancient comedy, performed at state-sponsored religious festivals, and managed by citizens, was also a political institution unbridled by rules of decorum. Classicist K.J. Dover writes of comedy in the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. that “every Athenian politician we know of from historical sources was accused by comic playwrights of being ugly, diseased, prostituted perverts, the sons of whores by foreigners who bribed their way into citizenship.”

Nor was it just poetic license: political debate in the Athenian Assembly, the legislative body of the state, was just as vulgar. Sordid sexual practices, disreputable parentage, and taking foreign bribes were standard charges made in speeches, including in trials. As the philosopher Democritus said, “Freedom of speech is the sign of freedom.”