CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB Comments turned off

McDonald’s Executives Will Have Bonuses Cut if They Hire Too Many White Men for Top Positions By Jack Davis

Posted By on February 22nd, 2021

https://www.westernjournal.com/mcdonalds-executives-will-bonuses-cut-hire-many-white-men-top-positions/?

Race and gender in hiring are two keys to financial success for top McDonald’s executives, according to the company as it sets its course for the future.

A press release on the McDonald’s website says that part of the bonuses awarded to top company executives will be based upon their efforts to hire women and what the company terms “historically underrepresented groups” for top corporate positions.

“Beginning in 2021, the Company is incorporating quantitative human capital management-related metrics to annual incentive compensation for its Executive Vice Presidents,” the company said.

“In addition to the Company’s financial performance, executives will be measured on their ability to champion our core values, improve representation within leadership roles for both women and historically underrepresented groups, and create a strong culture of inclusion within the Company,” the company said.

The company has clear goals. By the end of 2025, 35 percent of the people in jobs that are at the level of senior director and above will be from underrepresented groups. That metric was at 29 percent in 2020, according to the company.

BOOKS, EDUCATION Comments turned off

The Danger of Unassailable Ideas Treating beliefs as truths makes it impossible for the academy to do its job Ilana Redstone and John Villasenor

Posted By on February 22nd, 2021

https://www.discoursemagazine.com/culture-and-society/2021/01/12/the-danger-of-unassailable-ideas/

Open inquiry is supposed to be the foundation of the academic endeavor. And yet today, that endeavor is constrained by a set of unacknowledged beliefs that administrators, faculty and students at colleges and universities increasingly treat as unassailable truths.

As we argue in our new book, Unassailable Ideas, many of these beliefs have in recent decades migrated from the edge of academia to its very center. Three of these beliefs in particular now shape how the academy conceptualizes research, teaching and its administrative role, a phenomenon that restricts how classes are taught, which questions can be asked and how problems are solved.

The first of these beliefs is that any effort that aims to undermine traditional frameworks is automatically viewed as good. In making this claim, our aim is not to mount a defense of conventional discriminatory power structures. However, it should be possible to rightly condemn them and simultaneously point out that not all efforts designed to fight against them are well thought-out. Sometimes the goals of a particular effort will be worthy, but the methods to achieve them won’t be.

The second belief is that discrimination is the cause of all unequal group outcomes. In other words, absent discrimination, all intergroup differences in representation in various aspects of life—from education to family structure to employment—would cease to exist. While discrimination is clearly a force that should be combated, this second belief precludes any consideration of the potential role of preferences, priorities and culture that might also play a contributing role.

The third belief is in the primacy of identity, where identity is defined by attributes such as race, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, etc. We are not suggesting that identity along these lines isn’t important: it is. Rather, we are suggesting that there can also be value in non-identity-centered perspectives.

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Conspiracy Theories and Anti-Semitism What’s new about today’s hatred and why it’s dangerous for America Charles Lipson *****

Posted By on February 22nd, 2021

https://www.discoursemagazine.com/culture-and-society/2021/02/22/conspiracy-theo

Today’s conspiracy theories, like their predecessors, frequently target Jews. This age-old hatred was on shameless display during the Capitol riots, where one thug wore a “Camp Auschwitz” T-shirt. He was not alone. A Rutgers University report found that at least half a dozen neo-Nazi or white supremacist groups were involved in the riot. Still more extremists without any formal affiliation joined them, according to research by Robert Pape and Keven Ruby.

Among right-wing groups like the Proud Boys, anti-Semitic tropes are commonplace. They are staple features of QAnon conspiracy theories, which mark Jewish names with triple parentheses to label them as usurpers and predators. Some groups borrow from Nazi propaganda and denounce Jews as “not members of the white race.”

Anti-Semitic vitriol like this is not new. What’s new is its rationale, which is now divorced from medieval and early modern religious doctrines. Indeed, anti-Semitism is now part of a broader ideology of illiberalism that endangers America’s long-standing principles of individual rights and tolerance.

Historical Anti-Semitism

In the Middle Ages and the early modern era, anti-Semitism was largely a product of religious tensions coming from an overwhelmingly Christian society and directed by the Catholic Church, not only at Jews but at Christians they deemed heretics. That’s changed dramatically as the West has become more secular. The old curse of “Jews as Christ killers” has waned. So has the bizarre “blood libel” that Jews kill Christian children to drain their blood and mix it into unleavened bread for Passover.

These ideas weren’t just noxious; they were deadly. They not only excluded Jews from an overwhelmingly Christian society, but they justified lethal attacks. Among the most prominent were those that accompanied the First Crusade (1096–1097). As Christian warriors left for Jerusalem, they massacred whole Jewish villages in the Rhineland. Their compatriots in France did the same.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Justice Clarence Thomas Dissents From Supreme Court on Election Case: ‘We Need to Make It Clear’ By Jack Phillips

Posted By on February 22nd, 2021

https://www.theepochtimes.com/justice-clarence-thomas-dissents-from-supreme-court-on-election-case-we-need-to-make-it-clear_3706242.html

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas issued a dissenting opinion regarding the high court’s decision not to take up a case challenging the Pennsylvania Nov. 3 election results.

The court on Monday announced it won’t take up lawsuits challenging a Pennsylvania state court decision that relaxed ballot-integrity measures, including a move to extend the ballot-receipt deadline during the November election by three days due to the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus. Former President Donald Trump and Pennsylvania’s GOP urged the court to take up a review of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling.

“This is not a prescription for confidence,” Thomas wrote on Monday, adding that “changing the rules in the middle of the game is bad enough.” Thomas, considered by many to be the most conservative justice, said the court should have granted a review.

“That decision to rewrite the rules seems to have affected too few ballots to change the outcome of any federal election. But that may not be the case in the future,” Thomas wrote (pdf). “These cases provide us with an ideal opportunity to address just what authority nonlegislative officials have to set election rules, and to do so well before the next election cycle. The refusal to do so is inexplicable.”

Other than Thomas, Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch also dissented.

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Biden’s big con – here’s what president, Democrats afraid to tell you about COVID, the economy Liz Peek

Posted By on February 22nd, 2021

www.foxnews.com/opinion/biden-big-con-democrats-covid-economy-liz-peek

Joe Biden is conning the American people. He is lying about COVID and he is lying about the economy. We are not in the midst of a dark long winter. We are on the cusp of a bounteous blooming spring. 

President Biden doesn’t want you to know the good news. Why? Because then you will refuse to write him and his Democrat colleagues a big fat $1.9 trillion blank check.  

And, because if the virus disappears in the next few months, even the most gullible CNN-watching Biden groupie will know that Donald J. Trump conquered COVID, not Joe Biden.

Some radicals might even conclude that President Trump’s Operation Warp Speed has delivered a miracle. 

Consider the facts. COVID cases have dropped by more than 70% in recent weeks, more than the “experts” predicted. Fatalities, which lag cases, are also plummeting. Vaccine delivery is ramping up, and already some 15% of Americans have received a shot.

Johns Hopkins’ Dr. Mark Makary, writing recently in the Wall Street Journal, concludes that the welcome collapse in virus cases, which began in January, cannot be attributed solely to the end of holiday festivities or the start-up of vaccines. He says it also suggests that the medical community is vastly underestimating the number of people in the country who have contracted the virus, are asymptomatic, and who have developed immunities.  

CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Joe Biden Held Hostage Day 34 John Green

Posted By on February 22nd, 2021

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/02/2_21_2021_20_3.html

Joe Biden conducted the most anemic presidential campaign in history. Using COVID-19 as an excuse, he stayed off the campaign trail for months, limited press access, and held strange rallies with no voters in attendance. 

When he called a voter “fat” and challenged Donald Trump to a fist-fight, we knew he was past his prime and his prime was never very impressive. Nobody has ever admired Joe for his intelligence, wisdom, statesmanship, or creativity. 

No, it was obvious he was merely a transport mechanism to deliver the White House to the political left — rather like a political trojan horse — with a “coexist” bumper sticker.

While we expected that a Biden presidency would have nothing to do with Joe Biden, I certainly didn’t expect it to look like this. Is it just me, or do his executive order signing ceremonies look like creepy hostage situation videos? 

·         Prisoner sitting at a desk — check

·         Prisoner appears disoriented and confused — check

·         Prisoner reading a statement clearly written by someone else — check

·         Masked captors flanking the prisoner to keep him on script — check

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Why Iran Considers Biden a ‘Weak’ President by Khaled Abu Toameh

Posted By on February 22nd, 2021

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17090/iran-biden-weak-president

The Arabs say they are worried because Iran sees Biden as a “weak” president, and that is why the mullahs in Tehran and their proxies in Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Lebanon have increased their terrorist attacks in the Middle East.

Arabs are turning to the Biden administration with the frank plea: Your weak approach to the Iranian regime is already threatening whatever precarious stability exists in the Middle East. It is already emboldening terrorist groups. We are begging you: do not back down to Iranian threats.

Such messages show that many Arabs share Israel’s concern over US and European efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. It is, frankly, the last thing the Arabs want. It will only lead to war and set back the region more years than one would care to count.

It is only one month into his term in office, and US President Joe Biden is already facing criticism from Arabs over his administration’s soft policy toward Iran.

The Arabs say they are worried because Iran sees Biden as a “weak” president, and that is why the mullahs in Tehran and their proxies in Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Lebanon have increased their terrorist attacks in the Middle East.

“In Tehran’s eyes, Biden is a pushover,” wrote Abdulrahman Al-Rashed, former editor-in-chief of the Saudi newspaper Ashraq Al-Awsat.

“It has only been eight weeks since President Joe Biden was sworn into office, but Iran has already tested him on several fronts. First, thousands of the Iran-backed Houthi militia rushed to threaten the densely populated city of Marib in Yemen. Afterwards, Iranian militias targeted Basra and Baghdad, and more recently, Erbil and Iraqi Kurdistan, with dozens of missiles, killing and wounding several individuals in a US facility. Then Lokman Slim, Iran’s most prominent and vocal opponent in Beirut, was murdered and his body was found on the sidewalk.”

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Biden, whether from spite or dementia, has ignored Texas By Andrea Widburg

Posted By on February 22nd, 2021

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/02/biden_whether_from_spite_or_dementia_has_ignored_texas.html

Over a week after a massive storm hit, Texas is slowly warming up, the snow is melting, and power is returning. What Texas hasn’t seen is President Biden. Instead, he’s been enjoying an easy schedule, playing computer games with his granddaughter while Kamala Harris handles the phone calls to foreign leaders. If he were a Republican, rather than a Democrat, the media would be castigating him as the worst leader ever. Instead, though, the media is praising him for not showing up, lest he look too much like Trump.

The Valentine’s Day storm that hit Texas wasn’t the worst snowstorm ever, but it was certainly one of the worst storms to hit a state that always does things in a big way. Immediately after the storm hit, 4 million people were without power, and almost half the state’s population without reliably safe drinking water. Roughly 35 people died in Texas because of the storm.

A reader sent us pictures from a major grocery store in central Texas, showing that the shelves were stripped as bare as they were during the height of lockdown panic last year:

Thankfully, things are improving:

A warming trend brought welcome relief. In Tennessee, where Memphis was walloped with 10 inches of snow, temperatures soared into the high 50s on Sunday. In battered Texas, Houston’s temperature climbed into the 70s, and Austin was almost there.

[snip]

About 20,000 Texas homes and businesses remained without power Sunday afternoon, according to poweroutage.us, a utility tracking website. 

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Is the Biden Administration Stumbling Into War? Nothing is more dangerous than stronger powers, even inadvertently, sending signals that are interpreted as weakness by weaker powers. By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on February 22nd, 2021

https://amgreatness.com/2021/02/21/is-the-biden-administration-stumbling-into-war/

What causes wars?

Innately aggressive cultures and governments, megalomania, the desire for power, resources, and empire prompt nations to bully or attack others. Less rational Thucydidean motives such as fear and honor and perceptions of self-interest are not to be discounted either. 

But what allows these preemptive or aggressive agendas to reify, to take shape, and to leave tens of thousands dead?

The less culpable target (and wars are rarely a matter of 50/50 culpability) also has a say in what causes wars. The invaded and assaulted sometimes overlooked or contextualized serial and mounting aggression. They displayed real military weakness or simple political ineptness that eroded deterrence. They failed to make defensive alliances with stronger nations or slashed defense investments that made the use of deterrent force impossible. 

In sum, without deterrence and the clear potential in extremis to do an aggressor damage, there can be no meaningful peace negotiations, no “conflict resolution”—unless one believes a Hitler, Stalin, Mao, or Kim Il-sung can become a reasonable interlocutor across the peace table.

Weakness as Strength, Strength as Weakness

But there are also other more subtle follies that can turn tensions into outright fighting. And they are relevant in the current global landscape as we go not just from one president to the next, but from a realist and tragic view of foreign policy to an idealist and therapeutic one. 

One catalyst for war is a lack of transparency about the relative strengths and will of potential enemies. 

If, even unwittingly, President Biden projects the image that the Pentagon is more concerned about ferreting out wayward internal enemies than in seeking unity by deterring aggressors, then belligerents such as China, North Korea, and Iran and others will likely—even if falsely and unwisely—wager that the United States will not or cannot react to provocations, as it has done in the past. And accordingly, they will be emboldened to provoke their neighbors with less worry about consequences. 

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Questions the GOP Should Ask Merrick Garland It’s unlikely Garland will do anything to restore the Justice Department’s reputation but Republicans should at least try to make him publicly commit to do so. By Julie Kelly

Posted By on February 22nd, 2021

https://amgreatness.com/2021/02/21/questions-the-gop-should-ask-merrick-garland/

Senate confirmation hearings for Merrick Garland, Joe Biden’s pick for Attorney General, begin Monday. The wanna-be Supreme Court justice instead is poised to take the reins of a Justice Department tainted by egregious political prosecutions from James Comey’s Crossfire Hurricane to the destructive Robert Mueller special counsel probe. 

Despite years of assurances, only one Justice Department employee has been held criminally responsible for the lawless investigation into Donald Trump and his presidential campaign, which included the use of illegally-obtained FISA warrants to spy on Trump associates. On his way out the door, former Attorney General William Barr refused to litigate flagrant instances of election fraud that potentially swayed the outcome of the 2020 election in favor of Joe Biden.

Unpunished for acting as the law enforcement arm for the Democratic Party, the Justice Department is now accelerating its hunt for Americans who dared to support Donald Trump in 2020. The Justice Department launched its “Capitol breach” investigation last month; Michael Sherwin, the acting U.S. Attorney for the D.C. office, which is overseeing the entire effort, warned the probe will be “unprecedented” in scope and scale.

More than 200 people have been arrested already and charged with various crimes for their involvement in the January 6 chaos. Most offenses deal with trespassing, disorderly conduct, or disrupting an “official” government proceeding.

Nonetheless Garland, in his inflammatory opening statement, will assure the Senate Judiciary Committee that he intends to prioritize the agency’s nationwide manhunt. “From 1995 to 1997, I supervised the prosecution of the perpetrators of the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building, who sought to spark a revolution that would topple the federal government,” Garland’s prepared statement reads. “If confirmed, I will supervise the prosecution of white supremacists and others who stormed the Capitol on January 6—a heinous attack that sought to disrupt a cornerstone of our democracy: the peaceful transfer of power to a newly elected government.”