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The Game that Left Iran in Historic Impasse by Amir Taheri

Posted By on March 14th, 2021

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17163/iran-historic-impasse

This is why many, even among the critics of the regime, insist that showing any interest in this year’s presidential election, slated for June, is not only a waste of time but active participation in a massive political deception.

Today the pro-US faction, also backed by Britain, still hopes to revive the scenario by fielding a candidate in June. But that would require a much bigger effort by President Joe Biden to inject massive cash into Iran’s morbid economy, grant major diplomatic concessions to the “New York Boys” and contribute to creating a feel-good atmosphere.

Even then, the scenario may not work.

Khamenei… could propel one of his minions in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, his main support base, into the presidential slot and pave the way for one of his sons to emerge as the next “Supreme Guide”.

“Not worth a bucketful of spit!” This is how US President Harry Truman described the vice-presidency when he himself filled that slot under President Roosevelt.

Today, some commentators believe that he colorful description could be applied to the position of the president in Iran.

This is why many, even among the critics of the regime, insist that showing any interest in this year’s presidential election, slated for June, is not only a waste of time but active participation in a massive political deception.

How relevant are such analyses?

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Big White Lies By Hezekiah Kantor

Posted By on March 14th, 2021

https://amgreatness.com/2021/03/13/big-white-lies/

A revitalized and restorationist Republican Party will never take shape until white America finally gets off its knees.

“This government has failed us . . . We need a self-help program, a do-it-yourself philosophy, a do-it-right-now philosophy, an it’s-already-too-late philosophy.”
— Malcolm X, “The Ballot or the Bullet”

A new poll of more than 1,000 registered voters released by Echelon Insights offers a startling glimpse into the psyche of Joe Biden supporters. Among Democrats, the top three issues over which they say they are “extremely” or “very concerned” are “Donald Trump supporters,” “white nationalism,” and “systemic racism.” 

Among the actions Biden took during his first week in the White House was to rescind President Trump’s ban on critical race theory training in the federal government. We can now expect the cultural revolution to resume in the federal bureaucracy, a bureaucracy that will now explicitly demonize huge segments of what is (supposed to be) our country. 

My purpose, however, is not to criticize our ruling regime. No, I’m here to criticize psychologically conquered white people and to denounce white liberal supremacy. The former constitute so much of the governing class within the Republican Party and the latter are at the top of every major U.S. institution, public and private. It is time to be critical of the innumerable half-truths and white lies that pass for discourse in our decadent age.

Our Dumb, Racialist Civic Vocabulary

Who is a “white supremacist” according to our ruling regime? According to students at the University of Washington, it is George Washington. Who is a “white nationalist?” Apparently, it is anyone who objects to open borders, reads Patrick Buchanan, or worked for Donald Trump.

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Maternity Flight Suits and Other Admonitions When the Gods of the Copybook Headings return maternity flight suits will not be part of the drama. By Roger Kimball

Posted By on March 14th, 2021

https://amgreatness.com/2021/03/13/maternity-flight-suits-and-other-admonitions/

Just about the first thing Lloyd Austin did after being confirmed as Joe Biden’s Secretary of Defense was to issue a service-wide order commanding officers issue a one-day “stand down” within sixty days to “address extremism within the nation’s armed forces.” “What extremism?” you might be asking, and you would be right to ask. 

No matter what Lloyd Austin or the media tells you, the trouble with the U.S. Armed Forces is not political extremism but the enervating rust of political correctness. As Victor Davis Hanson has shown, the upper echelons of the U.S. military were purged by Barack Obama. If they are politicized today, it is firmly in the direction of the woke ideology of identity politics.

Thus we have the commander-in-chief, Joe Biden, speak about the “intensity of purpose” that will be devoted to “designing body armor that fits women properly, tailoring combat uniforms for women, creating maternity flight suits, updating requirements for their hairstyles.” This was not a joke—or, rather, it was not said in jest. 

Perhaps the Biden means to prepare the distaff side for a different sort of Battle of the Bulge. True, he would be modestly more reassuring about the U.S. military if he could remember the name of his defense secretary or the name of the building where he works. “I want to thank the—former general . . . the guy who runs that outfit over there.” Oh, dear. 

Meanwhile, the Army is about to revise its standards for physical performance downwards so that women will be able to compete more effectively with men. Once upon a time, the Army’s slogan was “Be All That You Can Be.” Today, it might as well read “Be Whatever You Want.” Among the avalanche of executive diktats signed by Joe Biden in his first weeks in office is a directive approving sex reassignment surgery for active duty personnel. 

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FOR ISRAEL’S BOYS OF SUMMER WAITING TIME

Posted By on March 13th, 2021

https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2020-03-24/israel-baseball-olympics-p

For Israel’s first Olympic baseball team, it’s wait until next year-  March 2020

Never has Israel won an Olympic medal in a team sport. The chances would have been 50-50 this summer.

Israel had qualified for one of the six spots in the Olympic baseball field. On Monday, Team Israel announced that four-time All-Star Ian Kinsler had obtained Israeli citizenship and signed up for the team.

On Tuesday, the Olympics were postponed, a particularly cruel blow to Israeli baseball officials who have toiled for years to establish the sport in a country that loves basketball and soccer above all. In the 2017 World Baseball Classic, an underdog Israeli team and its “Mensch on the Bench” mascot beat powers Cuba and South Korea in a magical run.

While the WBC is a niche event, the Olympics command a worldwide stage. Because of the size of a baseball team, Israel would have sent its largest delegation ever to the Olympics. And, with Israeli baseball officials planning youth fields outside Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, the Olympics could have spurred the development of the sport in Israel like nothing else.

“Baseball is not popular in Israel,” outfielder Jeremy Wolf said. “This was going to make a huge impact with the kids who would see us on television.

“So, when you get rid of the eyeballs of the Olympics, we’re just going to have to keep momentum going so, in 2021, when it happens, people are still going to be interested.”

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 SHOCK REPORT! FBI Sends in Armored Vehicle with Turret, 2 Vans, 6 FBI Vehicles, 3 Local Police Vehicles to Arrest Young Father Who Attended Jan. 6 Rally – – Please Help…Jim Hoft

Posted By on March 13th, 2021

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/03/shock-report-fbi-sends-military-vehicle-turret-2-vans-6-fbi-vehicles-3-local-police-vehicles-arrest-young-father-attended-jan-6-rally-unbelievable-interview/

Joshua James was arrested this week and is being charged in connection to the violent events of January 6th in Washington D.C.

Joshua James is an Iraq War veteran. He was wounded in a bomb blast in Iraq. And Joshua is being held by the FBI without bail.

Joshua is the breadwinner in his family. He receives retirement pay from the military. He has three young children including a 3-year-old. 

His wife is a commission-based part-time realtor.  She tells us she brings in little income.

The FBI lured him out of his home in Alabama by pretending to be a customer needing a pressure washing.

Then an Army armored vehicle with a turret on top, 2 FBI vans, 6 FBI vehicles, 3 local police and sheriff’s vehicles pulled up and ransacked their home.

Audrey James, his wife, was forced to sit outside for 8 hours with her 3-year-old while the FBI searched their home and broke a light fixture.

Joshua James is a war hero, a veteran, a Godly man, a provider, and a business owner. Joshua James DID NOT commit any violent crime. He attended the January 6th speech by President Trump at the Ellipse along with a million other Americans.  He volunteered to work security with other members of the Oath Keepers.

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The Campus as Factory Corporatist progressivism and the crisis of American higher education Jacob Howland

Posted By on March 13th, 2021

https://www.city-journal.org/american-campus-as-a-factory

Universities were already in big trouble when 2020 rolled around. The combination of skyrocketing tuition (up more than double the rate of inflation since 1980) and an increasingly inferior education had made college a hard sell for many American families, and demographic trends looked likely to put further pressure on declining enrollments. But that was all B.C.—Before Covid-19, which is shaping up to be a potentially lethal event for the American academy.

When the virus emptied campuses in mid-March of 2020, schools had to refund payments for spring room and board and forgo income from sports, while still paying coaches. Small colleges lost millions in revenues, and big universities lost hundreds of millions. Professors scrambled to adapt to an online medium that was unsuited to teaching and learning across a range of disciplines, from performance arts to laboratory science. Students found themselves back in their parents’ homes, staring at classes on Zoom, from which, they quickly discovered, it was easy to hide (just turn off the video). Administrators who had sold their universities more as “high-touch” summer camps with “wraparound student services” than as academically rigorous institutions suddenly realized that the market for their product had all but disappeared. According to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, nationwide freshman enrollment is down a whopping 16.1 percent this academic year, while overall undergraduate enrollment is down 4 percent. Industry-wide program eliminations, layoffs, furloughs, and pay cuts are well under way.

What will college education look like A.D.—Après le Déluge? University administrators are generally not inclined to let a crisis go to waste, and the coronavirus is no exception. Since April 2019, I’ve been writing and speaking about the academic destruction of the University of Tulsa, where I taught from 1988 to 2020. It has become clear to me and my colleagues that what is in store for higher education as a whole is visible in microcosm in the sorry fate of our institution. If you cherish liberal education—if you believe that American colleges and universities must aspire to form free citizens, broad-minded individuals capable of independent judgment and action—you may wish to stop reading now. My tale, as Hamlet’s ghost says, will harrow up thy soul.

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Nolte: NY Times Spread Fake News that East Coast Beaches Would Be ‘Gone’ by 2020

Posted By on March 13th, 2021

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/03/12/nolte-ny-times-spread-fake-news-that-east-coast-beaches-would-be-gone-by-2020/

“[M]ost of the beaches on the East Coast of the United States would be gone in 25 years,” the fake New York Times told the world 25 years ago, all the way back in 1995.

Fact check: It’s 2021 and America’s East Coast beaches are doing just fine!

Here’s the relevant portion from the original Times’ article:

A continuing rise in average global sea level, which is likely to amount to more than a foot and a half by the year 2100. This, say the scientists, would inundate parts of many heavily populated river deltas and the cities on them, making them uninhabitable, and would destroy many beaches around the world. At the most likely rate of rise, some experts say, most of the beaches on the East Coast of the United States would be gone in 25 years. They are already disappearing at an average of 2 to 3 feet a year.

The date of the article is September 18, 1995. The headline reads, “Scientists Say Earth’s Warming Could Set Off Wide Disruptions.”

So here we are 25 full years later, a whole quarter of a century later, and the first prediction from these unnamed “experts” has not even come close to occurring, so why should we believe the dire predictions about the year 2100?

We shouldn’t.

Here’s something else that didn’t happen…

Despite these “expert” predictions, and despite the fact tons of leftists live on the East Coast, and despite the fact leftists claim to believe Global Warming is real, in 1995, there was no panicked exodus by those who live on the East Coast. If you believe Global Warming is real… If you believe the “experts”… Why would you not immediately sell your beach house before the rising tide destroyed your multi-million dollar investment?

EDUCATION Comments turned off

So there was a law professor at Georgetown who was a racist. And now she’s gone, but wait — what do we mean by “racist” these days? And why am I a heretic to even ask the question and want real answers? John McWhorter

Posted By on March 13th, 2021

https://johnmcwhorter.substack.com/p/so-there-was-a-law-professor-at-georgetown

A law professor at Georgetown Law School, Sandra Sellers, has been fired because she is racist. She revealed her racism in a Zoom conversation with her colleague David Batson who nodded along to what she said. Batson is now on leave.

Racism is everywhere, it’s our job to stamp it out, and Sellers’ racism was smoked out. She’s out. Social justice has been done.

Sandra Sellers is a racist because she said this:

“I hate to say this. I ended up having this, you know, angst every semester that a lot of my lower ones are Blacks. Happens almost every semester. And it’s like, ‘Oh, come on.’ You know. Get some really good ones but they’re also usually some that are just plain at the bottom. It drives me crazy.” 

Sellers said this in a rather unfiltered manner. The term “Blacks” is hardly a slur but is unideal, for example. She didn’t know anyone was listening.

However, the idea that what she said was racist, and the idea casually aired among Georgetown’s black law students that she isa racist, illustrates an extremely vague usage.

It’s a common one, also, and bears some examination. We are taught not to do this, to assume that if black people and their “allies” call something racist then it just is. Part of this is the idea that impact trumps intent. It doesn’t matter what you (didn’t) mean – what matters is how it felt to me.

But what are the reasons here for the impact felt? If racism is such a defining factor of our society, might we not at least share a certain clarity on what racism is?

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“A Formula for Tyranny and More Racism” Attempts to equalize group outcomes are a contradictory and self-defeating exercise. Glenn C. Loury

Posted By on March 13th, 2021

https://www.city-journal.org/a-formula-for-tyranny-and-more-racism

Editor’s note: the following is adapted from Glenn C. Loury’s testimony to the Senate Banking Committee on March 4, 2021.

Thank you for this opportunity. In speaking about black American disadvantage and its implications for American democracy, I draw on many years of study as economic theorist and public intellectual.

My testimony rests on two observations—about the dynamics of human development and the foundations of racial identity. I will conclude by expressing reservations about government pursuing a program to equalize group outcomes—rather than a program to provide equality of opportunity for all.

First, two statements of principle:

(a) Persistent black disadvantage is an American tragedy—a national, not merely communal, disgrace.

(b) Wherever inequality is a problem, we should address it forthrightly. But we should do so on behalf of a program of human decency, not of racial equity.

For many, these principles will seem to be in conflict. In actual fact, they complement one another.

Now, my two observations:

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Ratcliffe: Biden so concerned with proving Trump wrong, he’ll prove him right

Posted By on March 13th, 2021

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ratcliffe-biden-so-concerned-with-proving-trump-wrong-hell-prove-him-right

Biden is potentially forsaking national security to undermine his predecessor, ex-DNI says.

Former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said Thursday that President Biden appears to be so focused on trying to prove President Trump wrong on several accounts, including Mideast foreign policy,  that it may backfire on him.

Ratcliffe told host Trey Gowdy on “Fox News Primetime” that foreign policy is one specific area where Biden and his administration have essentially taken the exact opposite tact as Trump did during his presidency.

“The Biden administration seems so intent on proving Trump wrong they are going to prove him right at the sake of national security, literally snatch defeat from the jaws of victory,” he said.

“We are enjoying peace in the Middle East because Iran is poorer, weaker and less influential than they’ve been in decades and nobody can argue otherwise with a straight face, and that’s because we pulled out of the JCPOA (Iran nuclear deal) and implemented sanctions that have put Iranian regime on the verge of real trouble and preventing them from engaging in the kind of mayhem across the Middle East that has allowed the peace agreements, the peace accords to move forward.”