ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Can Trump Escape The ‘MAGA Extremist’ Label? I&I/TIPP Poll Terry Jones

Posted By on May 24th, 2023

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/05/24/can-trump-escape-the-maga-extremist-label-ii-tipp-poll/

It has become increasingly common to hear both the media and Democratic politicians describe so-called MAGA followers of Donald Trump as “extremists.” Whether true or not, that label appears to have stuck among a large share of the American electorate and could pose a major challenge for Trump going forward, the latest I&I/TIPP Poll shows.

In early May, we asked Americans the following question: “Do you agree or disagree with describing Trump supporters as MAGA extremists?” The online poll of 1,480 adults across the country was taken from May 3-5. The poll has a margin of error of +/-2.6 percentage points.

The overall results suggest a possible electoral hurdle for the Trump campaign: Among those queried, 50% agreed that Trump supporters could be described as “MAGA extremists.” Roughly 39% said they disagreed.

Broken down a bit further, 34% said they “strongly agreed,” while 27% said they “strongly disagreed.” Another 16% said they agreed “somewhat,” versus 12% said they disagreed somewhat.

Not surprisingly, there was an overwhelming response depending on a person’s political affiliation. Some 70% of Democrats called MAGA followers “extremist,” compared with just 24% of Republicans and 46% of independents.

P.C.-CULTURE Comments turned off

Wokesters in Search of Nonbinary Birds Another dispatch arrives from the exciting frontiers of politicized science.James Freeman

Posted By on May 24th, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/articles/wokesters-in-search-of-nonbinary-birds-1d65ed47?mod=opinion_lead_pos11

The politicization of formerly respected scientific publications is one of society’s more disturbing recent trends and it seems that yet another periodical is willing to surrender its claim to authority.

Laura Helmuth, Editor in chief of Scientific American, recently tweeted:

White-throated sparrows have four chromosomally distinct sexes that pair up in fascinating ways
P.S. Nature is amazing
P.P.S. Sex is not binary

Other Twitter users were not impressed. Ms. Helmuth’s missive now carries an attachment from Twitter:

Readers added context they thought people might want to know
White-throated sparrows have 2 sexes with 4 unique chromosome combinations.
There are still just 2 sexes that produce either sperm or eggs.
The female types are the white-striped females and the tan-striped females. The male birds are white-striped males and tan striped males.

One can debate whether and how Twitter should address errors in user comments, but it’s clear that the operators of the social media platform are not the only ones raising an objection to the claim of a sparrow with four sexes

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

A Lawsuit to Protect Pensions From Climate Politics Workers say New York pension funds can’t use their savings to serve Bill de Blasio’s policy goals.

Posted By on May 24th, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-york-city-workers-lawsuit-pension-fund-investment-climate-politics-bill-de-blasio-ae9ba435?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

New York City leaders have boasted about using worker retirement savings to advance their climate agenda. They may come to regret it after several city workers this month sued their pension funds for putting climate over financial returns.

This could be a significant test of politicized investment by public pensions. New York law and regulation impose strict fiduciary duties on trustees of such funds. Plans are required to invest “for the exclusive benefit of the participants and beneficiaries” and with “care, skill, prudence and diligence.” State courts have ruled that trustees owe a “duty of undivided and undiluted loyalty” to retirees and workers.

Yet three big public pensions—the New York City Employees’ Retirement System, Teachers’ Retirement System of the City of New York, and Board of Education Retirement System of the City of New York—have instead made investment decisions based on climate goals. The three plans manage about $150 billion.

Former Mayor Bill de Blasio led this climate socialism in 2018 when he declared that city pension plans would have to divest fossil-fuel-related assets within five years to show the city is “leading the fight against climate change.” The mayor, city officials and union representatives control the boards of the three pension funds, which complied with his orders.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Turkey’s Elections: Nationalist Identity Politics Wins Out Over Misery by Burak Bekdil

Posted By on May 23rd, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19672/turkey-elections-nationalist-identity-politics

There will be a second round for the presidential vote on May 28, but an opposition victory seems unlikely.

Turkey is a country where average schooling is 6.5 years. In other words, the average person is a 7th grade drop-out. Ninety-five percent of Turkish citizens have never travelled abroad.

Many Turks are captivated by identity politics: Ideology over everything else. Erdoğan’s Islamism and nationalism still matter to tens of millions of starving Turks. This is their make-believe world: that Erdoğan will one day rebuild the glorious days of our Ottoman ancestors.

Under pressure from the Erdoğan government, which apparently feared opposition propaganda on social media, Twitter announced on May 12, two days before the elections, “In response to legal process and to ensure that Twitter remains available to the people of Turkey, we have taken action to restrict access to some content in Turkey today.”

“This [a likely Erdoğan victory] is not only bad news for Turkey but also for other democracies around the world … I don’t know how Turkey will cope with a total economic collapse.” — Daron Acemoglu, a Turkish-American economist who has taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 1993. – Cumhuriyet, May 16, 2023.

A Turkish collapse is likely — but the Turks will probably blame it on the Crusaders while worshipping the man who caused it.

IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Harvard Poll: Nearly 70 Percent of Americans Want a Secure Border By Eric Lendrum

Posted By on May 23rd, 2023

https://amgreatness.com/2023/05/22/harvard-poll-nearly-70-percent-of-americans-want-a-secure-border/

According to a recent Harvard/Harris poll, nearly 70 percent of all Americans want to see tougher border policies implemented to stop the ongoing mass migration crisis.

Breitbart reports that 68 percent of all respondents want to see the border locked down, including 73 percent of independents in swing states. Those polled gave their answers once they were told the following information:

“Over 2.75 million came into the United States illegally over a twelve-month period ending September 2022, and more than 1.2 million have crossed since then. Given these numbers, should the administration continue its current policies or issue new, stricter policies to reduce the flow of people coming across the border?”

Independents overwhelmingly oppose the open border, with 57 percent stating that Biden’s pro-immigration stance is facilitating the mass smuggling of lethal drugs into the country; 53 percent of overall respondents feel the same way. Overall, 27 percent of respondents listed immigration as their top issue, making it the second-highest-ranked issue for respondents, only behind 34 percent who ranked inflation as their top priority.

But when broken down by party affiliation, the poll still found that as many as 48 percent of Democrats still support the current open-borders policies of the Biden Administration, which have directly contributed to the flood of illegal aliens that has been storming the southern border since Biden first took power over two years ago.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Why Is Everyone Protecting Ray Epps? More than a year into January 6 jury trials, Epps, one of the most prolific Capitol protesters, has not taken the stand. By Julie Kelly

Posted By on May 23rd, 2023

https://amgreatness.com/2023/05/22/why-is-everyone-protecting-ray-epps/

Over the past month, speculation has swirled around why Fox News honchos ousted the nation’s most popular cable news host just hours before he was set to begin his nightly monologue. Tucker Carlson reportedly was stunned by the news, which was announced in a terse statement released by the network on April 24: “FOX News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways. We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.”

Subsequent reports suggested any number of reasons why Carlson was yanked off the air, including the company’s settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, a separate lawsuit filed by a one-time producer for “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” political differences with the sons of Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch, and his questioning of the war in Ukraine.

But the timing of his removal—less than 24 hours after “60 Minutes” aired a puff piece on Ray Epps, the infamous January 6 instigator frequently covered by Carlson’s show—fueled rumors that Fox News wanted to silence Carlson before he could respond to several accusations made in the interview. 

Carlson is “obsessed with me,” Epps told reporter Bill Whitaker, who repeatedly used the term “conspiracy theory” to describe claims Epps’ acted as a federal agent during the Capitol protest. “He’s going to any means possible to destroy me.”

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Path to National Suicide By Robert Weissberg

Posted By on May 23rd, 2023

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/05/the_path_to_national_suicide.html

Without unrestricted immigration, nations like the United States cannot survive unless women have about 2.1 children each (the .1 reflects women who do not have children).  The bad news is that the U.S. is falling short in reproducing itself. Occasional exceptions such as the Baby Boom aside, U.S. fertility rates have dropped over the last two centuries and show no sign of rising to the 2.1 replacement level. We are currently at 1.6.

The baby shortfall has huge consequences beyond potentially filling the nation with immigrants. An aging population brings higher healthcare costs, budgets devoured by pensions, shrinking tax bases, labor shortages, empty schools and universities, and a stagnant economy.

Moreover, Africa aside, depopulation is worldwide and, apparently unfixable. Countries as diverse as Japan and Russia have tried the “obvious” solutions such as free childcare and subsidies, but to no avail.  Scandinavian countries offer lavish child-friendly policies but likewise fail to move the needle. Between 2006 and 2021, South Korea spent $200 billion for maternity leave, paid childcare, and similar pro-natal measures, but the fertility rate dropped from 1.1 to .81.  

This should be a major political issue regardless of one’s ideology. The Left surely needs a healthy economy to finance its welfare state while businesses depend on factory and service workers. Nobody wants a shrinking workforce whose principal responsibility is to fund a growing geriatric population. 

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

For Obama, the Cover-Up Was Worse than the Crime By Jack Cashill

Posted By on May 23rd, 2023

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/05/for_obama_the_coverup_emwasem_worse_than_the_crime.html

Jack Cashill’s newest book, Untenable: The True Story of White Ethnic Flight from America’s Cities, is available for pre-order in all formats.

Two enduring aphorisms emerged from the Watergate affair, both directed at then-president Richard Nixon. The one at the outset of the investigation was delivered in the form of a question: “What did he know and when did he know it?” The second came at the end in the form of a warning to future presidents: “The cover-up is worse than the crime.”

Thanks to the Durham report, we know the date that then-president Barack Obama learned about what John Durham calls the “Clinton Intelligence plan.” If CIA Director John Brennan’s notes are to be believed, that date was August 3, 2016.

This was the day Brennan briefed Obama and other key players about the “alleged approval by Hillary Clinton on 26 July of a proposal from one of her [campaign] advisors to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security services.”

To be fair, Barack Obama likely had no more role in the orchestration of the Clinton Intelligence plan than Richard Nixon did in the 1972 bugging of the DNC headquarters at the Watergate. Obama did, however, play the critical role in the cover-up of the Clinton Intelligence plan. It could not have happened without him.

This past Sunday, former congressman Devin Nunes raised the cover-up issue on Maria Bartiromo’s show. Said Nunes, “We now know from Durham that Obama knew and his team knew that in August 2016 this was a dirty trick from the Clinton campaign.”

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Sen. Tim Scott officially throws his hat in the ring – and does an impressive interview FOX News By Peter Barry Chowka

Posted By on May 23rd, 2023

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/05/sen_tim_scott_officially_throws_his_hat_in_the_ring__and_does_an_impressive_interview_fox_news.html

South Carolina Senator Tim Scott officially declared his candidacy for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination in Charleston, S.C. yesterday. (See Andrea Widburg’s first-person account of the event here.)  Later that evening, he appeared live for an interview with former S.C. Rep. Trey Gowdy, who is hosting the 8 PM ET hour on the FOX News channel this week.

Scott has served as the junior U.S. Senator representing South Carolina since 2013.  He is what used to be called a Dark Horse in the race (no pun intended). He is a youthful looking 57, and represented his state in local and state politics before being appointed to the U.S. Senate in 2013 by Gov. Nikki Haley, who is herself a candidate for next year’s Republican presidential nomination. Scott has won re-election three times to the U.S. Senate.

Scott’s interesting and impressive background and career are reasonably and fairly objectively documented at his Wikipedia bio. The lengthy page and the references it cites are a compelling read. My impression of Scott over the years, confirmed by the chronology and highlights of his career, is that he is a man of deep conviction who is extremely articulate in expressing his conservative viewpoint.

And so it was when he appeared on the FOX News channel Monday evening (video here). Needless to say, he received a cordial reception from his former Republican colleague in the Congress, Trey Gowdy, who was guest hosting the hour on FOX for the first of five nights from New York City.  On Sunday nights for the past year, Gowdy has hosted Sunday Night in America from Charleston, S.C., on FOX at 7 PM ET, sometimes repeated later in the evening.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The significance of Shavou’ot(May 26, 2023) Yoram Ettinger

Posted By on May 23rd, 2023

https://bit.ly/3MOJa5G

Shavou’ot (Pentecost) guide for the perplexed, 2023

Shavou’ot is one of the three liberty-oriented Jewish pilgrimages to Jerusalem:  Passover, Shavou’ot (Pentecost) and Sukkot (Tabernacles), which constitute game-changing milestones in the formation of Jewish history, documenting the 4,000-year-old Jewish roots in the Land of Israel, and the unique linkage between the Land of Israel, Judaism and the Jewish people.

Shavou’ot is a historical, national, agricultural and spiritual extension of Passover. Passover highlights the physical liberty from slavery in Egypt; Shavou’ot highlights spiritual liberty, embracing the values of the Torah, the Ten Commandments and six chapters of The Ethics of our Fathers (Pirkey Avot). The eve of Shavou’ot is dedicated to an all-night study of Jewish values.

Shavou’ot is also called the Holiday of the Harvest (ביכורים), since it concludes the harvesting season, which starts during Passover.

Shavou’ot (שבועות) means “weeks” in Hebrew and its spelling is identical to the Hebrew word “vows.”
Shavou’ot commemorates the 40 years of the Exodus, which entailed tough challenges on the road to the Land of Israel, forging the state-of-mind of the Jewish people and the Jewish State.