The Cruel Progressive Creed Undoing Civilization  The Left’s progressive wasteland is an acceptable price to pay for the terrifying visions of its anointed. By Victor Davis Hanson

https://amgreatness.com/2021/06/27/the-cruel-progressive-creed-undoing-civilization/

Debt is suffocating us. Our currency is on its way to being Lebanonized. 

Most major American cities are broke, dirty, unsafe, and run by either corrupt incumbents, neo-Marxists, or both. The law is optional,  and applied asymmetrically on the basis of race and ideology. The past is found guilty by the laws of the present and so it is being undone.

The military budget is on a trajectory to be the smallest in terms of GDP allotment since World War II; its careerist officers, for their own short-term interests, are now demonizing and will soon be driving away the very demographic that has suffered percentage-wise the greatest casualties in recent wars and was once unquestionably the foundation of the military. 

There is no U.S. border; it is an abstract construct that millions will illegally cross in the next few years, ostensibly because they will become future soldiers in the progressive wars for America to come. The idea of merit that built America is a dirty word, replaced by medieval tribalism of hiring and promotion by superficial appearance. 

In just five months, Joe Biden created a desert and called it progress.

Progressivism is billed as many things. But its foundational brand is devotion to supposedly “scientific” principles to improve the human condition. That Enlightenment project demands greater social welfare expenditure and therapeutic education to “improve” human nature itself. And all this can sometimes require necessary force.

Such utopian dreams of mandated equity attract all sorts to the cause. There are the naïve who feel socialist redistribution, if at last done right just this once, can really, really create social equity and inclusion. Many of the sympathetic rich assume they will be exempt from the tough medicine that follows from their own guilt or sense of civic duty. Some are opportunistic and parasitical careerists piggy-backing on the chaos. Others are social and psychological zealots who find meaning and relevance as wannabe soldiers marching to utopia.

But inherent in such 20th-century hubris is the concession that there will be lots of collateral damage in reordering society. When imposing abstract, but uncompromising theories onto the otherwise unenlightened people, eggs will have to be broken to bake the new omelet. And from what we have seen in the last few months, the progressive toll is becoming every bit as excruciating as our woke custodians are indifferent to it. 

As a general rule, anytime anyone anywhere announces that he has a master plan to reorder society and “fundamentally transform” or “reset” it by creating larger government, more rules, and an elite hierarchy to oversee compliance for the recalcitrant, then run. You can rest assured ultimately the architect will change the language, demonize and marginalize new opponents, given the omelette always needs more eggs. They will subvert institutions, and, if need be, resort to violence to ensure change.

Supreme Court Cheerleads for First Amendment by Alan M. Dershowitz

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17505/supreme-court-first-amendment

[The decision] sends a powerful message that the Supreme Court is still in the business of protecting offensive speech, even as big tech, universities and many progressives have tried to justify pervasive censorship of speech with which they disagree.

[T]he most dangerous form of contemporary censorship comes not from the government, but rather from private parties who themselves have the First Amendment right to censor speech with which they disagree. In other words, what we are experiencing is an attack not on the First Amendment itself, but rather on the culture of free speech that the First Amendment is designed to protect.

Today many such institutions punish students and applicants for social media statements they may have posted when they were the same youthful age as the cheerleader. Nor is the punishment always based on neutral or objective standards. It tends to be imposed far more on conservative students who have violated political correctness norms of the left. It is rarely, if ever, imposed on left-wing students, especially students of color, who make statements that are deeply offensive to conservatives and/or white heterosexual men. The constitutional reach of the First Amendment permits such selective punishment by private institutions, but the culture of freedom of expression does not.

In an 8-1 decision, the United States Supreme Court reminded a nation that seems to have forgotten freedom of speech about the importance of the First Amendment.

Justice Stephen Breyer wrote a thoughtful decision denying public schools the power to discipline high school students for talking the way high school students tend to talk among themselves outside of school. A 14-year-old cheerleader had made the mistake of sending a rant to a few friends, one of whose mothers was a coach.

Sociology professor claims shelter dogs killed due to white supremacy By Eric Utter

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

Do you know why some dogs in shelters end up perishing? Simple neglect? The sad status of being unwanted? Global warming?

Nope. According to Katja Guenther, a professor of gender and sexuality studies at the University of California-Riverside, these canine deaths are due to “capitalism, anthroparchy, white supremacy and patriarchy.”

Of course.

Guenther says, for example, that people of color who abandon their dogs are likely victims “ensnared in the legal system,” forced to leave their animals behind “under the duress of sudden eviction or deportation or arrest.” She even claims that such people believe what they are doing is for the best, because of “the constraints of their knowledge and resources, both of which are limited by the nexus of their class, status as immigrants, and ethnicity.”

Incredibly, Guenther avers that if, say, a Latino man on a bicycle happens to drop a dog “while escaping from mall security officers … after stealing a pair of Wrangler jeans,” it is simply the result of his “status as marginalized.” Moreover, should a woman leave her dog to die at the pound after she has finished breeding her and selling her puppies to buy drugs, it is probably the fault of her “status as a poorly educated queer woman of color.” Wow.

Yet, in her book, “The Lives and Deaths of Shelter Animals,” Guenther claims that allowing your dog to sleep inside your house is actually a manifestation of white privilege. She wants Fido to be locked outside when it’s twenty-below-zero or during violent storms? Doesn’t sound very tolerant and inclusive.

If Joe Goes, What Next? By Jack Cashill

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

Everywhere other than in Big Media newsrooms, Americans speak openly of President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline and wonder whether he can last out his four-year term.  If he cannot last, there are certain things we can be confident will happen and other things about which we can only speculate.  The latter will be much more intriguing.

Should Biden leave office, willingly or otherwise, Kamala Harris will become president.  This is a given.  Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 of the Constitution makes clear that in “case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, the same shall devolve on the Vice President.”

The Constitution, as written, did not address what happens next.  The 25th Amendment, adopted after the assassination of President Kennedy, answered that question, at least in principle.  It reads, “Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.”

In recent memory, there have been two precedents, both involving Richard Nixon.  On October 10, 1973, Vice President Spiro Agnew pleaded no contest to charges of tax evasion and money-laundering and resigned.  Despite Nixon’s landslide victory in 1972, Democrats retained firm control of Congress, with a 50-seat majority in the House and a 14-seat majority in the Senate.  This mattered.  The Democrats all but dictated Nixon’s choice of the congenial, moderate House minority leader, Gerald Ford, to assume the vice presidency.  Ford was nominated two days after Agnew stepped down and confirmed by overwhelming majorities in both Houses of Congress.

 At the time of Ford’s confirmation, Democrats had good reason to suspect that Nixon would soon be forced out himself.  The coordinated Democratic-media plot to oust Nixon as a result of his presumed involvement in the Watergate affair was well underway.  The plot climaxed on August 9, 1974 with Nixon’s resignation.  Ford was sworn in later that same day.

Somali Refugee Stabbed 8 Women in Germany While Shouting “Allahu Akbar” Sun Jun 27, 2021 Daniel Greenfield

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2021/06/somali-refugee-stabbed-8-women-germany-while-daniel-greenfield/

Obviously, the authorities are blaming “psychiatric” problems.

Three women were killed and five others were seriously injured after a 24-year-old man who is also a Somali immigrant attacked the women in Wuerzburg. 

The attack began in a store when the attacker asked where the business kept its knives, regional police president Gerhard Kallert said.

He then stabbed and killed the saleswoman and two other people in the store before running out on the street and stabbing five more women as well as a child.

Regional Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said authorities are investigating an Islamic motive for the attack as witnesses claim the attacker yelled “Allahu akbar” before the rampage.

The suspect, allegedly named Abdirahamn J, was another refugee whose application was denied, but never left Germany. German media sources suggest that there was ISIS material in the homeless shelter where he was staying.

 Abdirahamn, who came to Germany from Mogadishu, began stabbing women at a Woolworth store, as part of his Jihad.

The “Bild” newspaper reported, with reference to an internal notice from the authorities, that the accused had said when he was arrested that he had carried out his “jihad” with the attack. Investigators at the press conference confirmed that the word “jihad” had been used. 

That’s what happens when countries enable Jihad migration.

How George Floyd Got Into British Panties Marks & Spencer launches a range of new – and peculiar – underwear. Katie Hopkins

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/06/how-george-floyd-got-british-panties-katie-hopkins/

“This is not just any cheesecake; this is a Marks & Spencer cheesecake.”

Or so the advertising bods at the British High Street bastion of retailing would have you believe.

Marks & Spencer (fondly known as M&S) is as British as a cup of tea, as old as my knees feel, a place of comfort for women of a certain age who know what they like and like what they know. Some might say it’s dependably dull or, as my 72-year-old mother would say, perfectly British.
M&S is also the UK market leader in bras and knickers. If you don’t buy your underwear from M&S, you are a woman of poor standing in my mother’s eyes. And when my own daughters needed their first bras, where else would instinct lead us than Marks & Spencer?

However, in the Age of Madness that we are currently enduring, not even this British stalwart is safe from the squid-like tentacles of Black Lives Matter. After a century and a half of being as reliable as a Ford pickup, the red mist has descended and Marks & Spencer has just launched a range of underwear inspired by — you guessed it — George Floyd.

And here it is for your viewing pleasure:
M&S director of lingerie Laura Charles said:

“The global conversation on racial inequality, following the horrific death of George Floyd, spurred us to go faster in creating a better, more inclusive range. . . .From the product offer to the names, to the marketing, we’ve worked hand in hand with our colleague Culture & Heritage network to deliver a campaign we’re proud of and an underwear range that provides more colors, more sizes and more choice so that all of our customers have the freedom to complement or contrast with their individual skin tone in a way that suits their own personal style.”

Well, isn’t that just lovely? Because of the death of George Floyd, we now have bras and panties in colors that avoid words like tobacco and tan and sound altogether more jazzy: Opaline, Rich Amber, Rose Quartz and Topaz.

Biden’s Press Conference Whispers His deceptions on unemployment benefits, infrastructure bipartisanship, and inflation. Joseph Klein

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/06/bidens-press-conference-whispers-joseph-klein/

“Creepy Joe” started trending on Twitter last week after a bizarre June 24th press conference during which President Biden started answering reporters’ questions in a whisper. Think of Biden as the donkey whisperer to the left-wing progressive base of his party and to his adoring fans in the mainstream media.

Biden weirdly leaned forward during the press conference and whispered to reporters that he “wrote the bill on the environment” (not clear what bill he was talking about). And then, presumably referring to the enhanced unemployment benefits that are incentivizing unemployed people to stay at home rather than fill the millions of current job openings, Biden whispered: “Pay them more. This is an employee’s — employee’s bargaining chip now what’s happening.”

Biden thought he was being clever. But all he showed was that he is a puppet of unions and of far-left progressives who want to pay people not to work.

In New York, for example, the average weekly unemployment benefit including the $300 federal boost has been calculated at $653. The weekly pay for a 40-hour week, using a $15 per hour minimum wage, would be $600. It doesn’t take an economist to see why unemployed residents of New York City, where the general hourly minimum wage is $15, would prefer to stay home and collect higher unemployment benefits than the wages they would earn if they went to work.

Government unemployment benefits were designed as a temporary safety net, not to serve as an employee bargaining chip. Due to the economic devastation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the federal government has temporarily supplemented the unemployment benefit payments that states are providing to workers whose employment was terminated through no fault of their own. But these individuals are supposed to be looking for new jobs at least equivalent to the ones they lost. They are not supposed to just lie around on their couches and wait for the benefits paid for by hard-working Americans to keep rolling in.

Imperfect Greatness By Judd Garrett Objectivity is the Objective

https://www.objectivityistheobjective.com/post/imperfect-greatness

I watched a documentary on legendary, but highly volatile NFL coach Vince Lombardi the other day. In his first meeting with the Packers, Lombardi told his players, “Gentlemen, we are going to relentlessly chase perfection, knowing full well we will not catch it because nothing is perfect. But we are going to relentlessly chase it because in the process we will catch excellence.” Lombardi brought extremely high standards to the Packers, and he demanded that his players live up to those standards because he believed that was the best way to bring out their greatness. Lombardi was loud, stubborn, and irrational at times. He had a quick temper and wore his emotions on his sleeve, but he was universally loved and revered by his players, not because he was a perfect coach, but because he believed in the greatness of his players which brought out the best in each and every one of them, turning a 1 & 13 team into five-time NFL champions. Lombardi was described as,“an imperfect man, trying to create something perfect.”

That description reminded me of our country’s founders; imperfect men who tried to create “a more perfect union.” Our founders had many personal flaws, but their ideals, their principles which became the vision and foundation of our nation were as close to perfect as possible. And even though they did not live up to those ideals in their lives, the system they created has continually moved our nation closer and closer to the perfection of their original vision. People are not perfect, but principles can be. And the founding principles of America are as close to perfect as possible. Unlike Lombardi though, modern historians judge our founders on how imperfect they were as human beings, and not on how close to perfect what they created is. 

This is the way we judge many of our political leaders. Donald Trump, like Lombardi, is a flawed man, who believed in our founders’ vision of America. Trump strived to make America great again because he believed in American greatness, and in the greatness of the American people. Time and again, he stood up for America against forces trying to tear it down, both foreign and domestic. By believing in American greatness, Trump was able to bring the best out of Americans. Prior to the pandemic, America had the lowest unemployment in 30 years, the lowest Black and Hispanic unemployment in history, and the highest wages. We had become energy independent, were winning on trade, and bringing peace to the Middle East. But like our founders, Trump has been judged on his imperfections as a person, and not on his production as President. 

Crenshaw releases complaints from service members about critical race theory exercises ‘Wokeism, identity politics, critical race theory, and blatant political activism have indeed seeped into this critical institution’

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/jun/26/crenshaw-releasing-crt-complaints-servicemembers/

Rep. Dan Crenshaw has begun publicly releasing whistleblower complaints from service members who object to recent military training initiatives which they say incorporate critical race theory instruction.

The Texas Republican and former Navy SEAL officer received the complaints through a whistleblower site he launched in late May in partnership with Sen. Tom Cotton, Arkansas Republican and former Army infantry officer.

“Make no mistake about it, our military is still the strongest in the world,” Mr. Crenshaw said in a video posted on Instagram Friday. “But wokeism, identity politics, critical race theory, and blatant political activism have indeed seeped into this critical institution.”

Friday’s video is part of a series he calls “The Whistleblower Files,” through which he said he plans to release a portion of more than 400 complaints he received and determined to be credible over the following weeks.

The complaint released Friday details required training in which members of an Air Force squadron were separated physically by “points of privilege” such as race and sex in an exercise known as a “privilege walk.”

“So let’s point out the obvious: this is meant to shame people,” Mr. Crenshaw said in the video. “And shame people for something they have no control over. It also literally creates manufactured divisions in an environment that requires camaraderie, and puts down certain service members over others not on merit, but on skin color or gender.”

The complaints follow Pentagon efforts to stamp out extremism in the ranks after current and former troops were identified in the pro-Trump mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. In February, the Pentagon directed military units to hold a one-day “stand-down” to address extremism within the ranks.

“We want to have a reasonable discussion over these issues so we can keep these problems from compounding,” Mr. Crenshaw said in the video, and said all of the complaints released will preserve the confidentiality of the service member.

Mr. Crenshaw said the complaints point to growing politicization within the ranks of a notoriously apolitical institution.

“We’ve seen what it’s done to our college campuses,” Mr. Crenshaw told The Washington Times. “We’ve seen what it’s done to corporations, where people are walking on eggshells constantly, always worried about some kind of complaint being levied against them, always worried about what’s the next insane anti-racism training they’re going to have to go through. And the military is taking that on.”

Putting Climate Models On Trial

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/06/28/putting-climate-models-on-trial/

It’s hot. A number of North American cities have set record-high temperatures. But this is summer and that’s not indisputable evidence that man’s use of fossil fuels is overheating the planet. No matter what the Democrats say, how much the media nag, and how loudly zealots screech, the issue is not settled. There’s still enough doubt about the entire enterprise to fill the yawning gap between Earth and some far-away galaxy.

If climate models were on trial – and they should be – that doubt would be magnified by a new post from the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado Boulder, which confirms “models may overestimate warming.”

“Today’s climate models are showing more warmth than their predecessors, forecasting an even hotter future for the same rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide. But a paper published this week highlights how models may err on the side of too much warming: Earth’s warming clouds cool the surface more than anticipated, the German-led team reported in Nature Climate Change,” says CIRES.

Jennifer Kay, a CIRES fellow and an associate professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at Colorado University, says “the increase in climate sensitivity from the last generation of climate models should be taken with a huge grain of salt.”