EDUCATION Comments turned off

I Paid for Free Speech at Arizona State The university is firing me for organizing an event featuring Charlie Kirk and Dennis Prager. By Ann Atkinson

Posted By on June 20th, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/articles/i-paid-for-free-speech-at-arizona-state-honors-college-kirk-prager-faculty-27c10a72?mod=opinion_lead_pos5

I thought that Arizona State University, my alma mater and employer, was different from other schools when it came to free speech. In 2011 the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression awarded ASU a “green light” rating for its written policies on freedom of expression. The university happily complied when FIRE suggested it adopt the Chicago Principles and protect the “free, robust and uninhibited sharing of ideas among all members of the University’s community.” The ASU Barrett Honors College has even been home to heterodox initiatives like the T.W. Lewis Center for Personal Development, where I served as executive director for the last two years.

But beneath ASU’s written commitment to intellectual diversity lies a deep hostility toward divergent views. The latest trouble started in February when the Lewis Center hosted Robert Kiyosaki, Dennis Prager and Charlie Kirk for an event on “Health, Wealth, and Happiness.” This nonpartisan program was part of a popular speaker series focused on connecting students with professionals who can offer career and life advice.

At the names of Messrs. Prager and Kirk, the faculty of ASU’s honors college were outraged. Thirty-nine of its 47 faculty signed a letter to the dean condemning the event on grounds that the speakers are “purveyors of hate who have publicly attacked women, people of color, the LGBTQ community, [and] institutions of our democracy.” The signers decried ASU “platforming and legitimating” their views, describing Messrs. Prager and Kirk as “white nationalist provocateurs” whose comments would undermine the value of democratic exchange by marginalizing the school’s most vulnerable students.

The faculty protests extended beyond the letter. Professors spent precious class time denouncing the program. On Twitter they lamented the university’s willingness to allow donor input on campus events. Mr. Prager received a death threat, forcing municipal and campus police to enact extensive security measures.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

U.S. military leaders prioritizing protecting themselves rather than the nation? By Eric Utter

Posted By on June 20th, 2023

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/06/_us_military_leaders_prioritizing_protecting_emthemselvesem_rather_than_the_nation.html

The Intercept recently revealed that high-ranking U.S. military officials have intelligence resources charged with protecting their physical well-being…and also their egos…from criticism and potential subsequent “embarrassment,” in particular due to comments posted on social media. This is not a joke. (Okay, it is in one sense, but not literally.)

Yes, according to the left-leaning online newspaper, a new U.S. military unit has apparently been tasked with monitoring social media for mean posts about current and former high-ranking officers. Presumably, stuff like this from Twitter:

This fairly reeks of dictatorships, juntas, and other authoritarian regimes.

Forget defending against China, Iran, North Korea, et. al., the Obiden administration has fundamentally transformed what was previously the world’s most powerful and capable fighting force. It has emasculated it—and tasked it with defending against nationalism, climate change, Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, misgendering, “disinformation,” “domestic terrorists” (i.e. patriots and parents)…and now posts critical of military heads themselves.

Somewhere, George Washington weeps. And Patton rages.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Now They Tell Us: New Report Reveals ‘Critical Vulnerabilities’ in Dominion Voting Machines By Robert Spencer

Posted By on June 20th, 2023

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/robert-spencer/2023/06/19/now-they-tell-us-new-report-reveals-critical-vulnerabilities-in-dominion-voting-machines-n1704516

As we all know, the 2020 presidential election was the most honest, above-board exercise of popular suffrage in the recorded history of mankind, and anyone who suggests otherwise is a racist, bigoted redneck yahoo who wants to install Donald Trump as dictator-for-life of this once-proud republic. That said, however, there has been a steady trickle of revelations suggesting that the 2020 election was not actually the pristine civics lesson that we have been forced to affirm it to have been (on pain of vilification and deplatforming). The latest is the belated release this week of the 2021 Halderman Report, which shows that Dominion Voting Systems voting machines are not quite the unimpeachable fortresses they’ve been touted to be.

This is odd in the extreme, as it was just a few weeks ago that Fox News settled with Dominion for an eye-watering $787.5 million and fired its top host, Tucker Carlson, on top of that, all for suggesting that the election may not have been up to the standard of elections in bastions of democracy such as Cuba or Zimbabwe. But on Sunday, the National Pulse reported that the Halderman Report “lays bare a litany of ‘critical vulnerabilities’ in Dominion Voting Systems’ machines, currently being used in a number of states, and in all voting locations in the U.S. state of Georgia.”

The report, which according to the National Pulse was “compiled by Prof. Alex Halderman and Prof. Drew Springall as part of the lawsuit Curling v. Raffensperger,” explains how “ballot scanners and ballot marking devices (ICX) ‘can be exploited to subvert all of its security mechanisms’ and that ‘ICX could be used to change the votes of individual Georgia voters.’” And if it can be done in Georgia and the same machines are in use elsewhere, it can be done in other states as well.

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The Greens’ Program: The Suicide of Europe by Drieu Godefridi

Posted By on June 20th, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19744/europe-green-suicide

Beyond Growth is the annual ideological gathering of European environmentalists, and their countless relays in the world of government-funded, supposedly “non-governmental” organizations (NGOs).
What do most people remember when they look at the Beyond Growth report? The European Parliament. The link between Beyond Growth’s radical proposals and the European Parliament is presented as perfectly natural: If the European Parliament wants radical environmentalism, how could you, a small local voter, oppose it?
Most [activists] announce what, if they attain power, they will do. Let us, then, listen to the “proposals” of a charming, smiling Ms De Wever…
[T]he reasoning seems to go, it was the West, embodied by Adam Smith in 1776, that “invented” economic growth, and the West at the time was largely white, so by destroying white supremacy we destroy the very idea of economic growth.
If, according to Adam Smith, economic growth for everyone is the key to being lifted out of poverty – with the goal of making the poor richer, not the rich poorer – then destroying growth does not appear as an economic model that will provide much help. Worse, there are now those pesky choices such as: Would you rather encourage growth by allowing people in poor countries to use fossil fuels — coal, oil and natural gas — or drive these people even further into poverty by denying them fossil fuels?
This reluctance to describe “the world after” [“degrowth”] is understandable. In the context of a Europe that is up to its eyebrows in debt and already taxing its citizens just to pay the interest on the debt, reducing economic output means facing the question of who will be left to die first. Healthcare, for instance, is already being rationed and has seemingly become more about cutting costs than delivering services, and more about growing an administrative bureaucracy with massive paperwork than investing in more doctors and better and timely patient care.
The dream EU of environmentalists starts to look like a version of Atlas Shrugged: a dystopian country in which private businesses suffer under increasingly burdensome laws, regulations and bureaucrats.
[D]espite attempts by the state to enslave minds by force, people emerge victorious in their commitment to freedom. The human mind is the power that moves the world, not coercion.

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Secretary of State Blinken’s Peculiar Visit to China Not a single reported Chinese apology – let alone acknowledgment – of China’s invasions of U.S. sovereignty. by Joseph Klein

Posted By on June 20th, 2023

https://www.frontpagemag.com/secretary-of-state-blinkens-peculiar-visit-to-china/

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken traveled to China this past weekend for meetings with senior Chinese officials, months after canceling his trip there in the wake of the Chinese spy balloon encroachment of U.S. airspace. He met with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang for hours, followed by a meeting with China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi. It was uncertain whether China’s President Xi Jinping would agree to give an audience to Secretary Blinken until, with about 45 minutes notice, Xi and Blinken ended up meeting for about a half hour.

Secretary Blinken conveyed the same message in person to China’s leadership that the Biden administration has been uttering for months. Keep the channels of communication open “to ensure competition does not veer into conflict,” Blinken told Wang Yi.

China’s message during Secretary Blinken’s visit was also the same as its leaders have uttered many times before. According to China’s view of why tensions between China and the United States have risen so sharply, the U.S. has failed to show due respect for China’s vital national interests, particularly regarding China’s territorial claim to Taiwan. “State-to-state interactions should always be based on mutual respect and sincerity,” President Xi remarked.

A few days before Secretary Blinken’s visit, China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang spoke more bluntly during his phone call with Secretary Blinken. He demanded that the United States “show respect” for China’s core concerns and “stop undermining China’s sovereignty, security and development interests in the name of competition.” That is a bit rich coming from the country which sent a spy balloon over U.S. sovereign airspace earlier this year to surveil sensitive U.S. military sites, and which set up a secret Chinese police station on U.S. soil.

There was not a single reported acknowledgement of responsibility by China’s leaders, much less an apology, for China’s invasions of U.S. sovereignty and security. Then again, they see no reason to do so with President Biden in the White House. President Biden showed how weak and out of touch with reality he is when he said, shortly before Secretary Blinken’s arrival in China, that the spy balloon incursion was more “embarrassing” for China’s leadership “than it was intentional.”

Secretary Blinken’s face-to-face meetings with China’s leaders were not only a waste of time. As Republican Representative Elise Stefanik of New York warned, Secretary Blinken’s trip would only serve to “legitimize” the Chinese Communist Party’s “continued subversion of our sovereignty.”

The Biden administration would rather patch things up with China as an end in itself than confront the Chinese regime’s increasingly provocative actions. Recently, for example, one of China’s warships came within 150 yards of an American destroyer conducting a freedom-of-navigation exercise with Canada in international waters. And one of China’s jet fighters flew directly in front of an American surveillance plane flying in international airspace. The Biden administration’s response was a feckless call to “keep the lines open with the Chinese to make it clear how unacceptable those particular intercepts are.”

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

We have been normalizing child sacrifice for far too long Diane Bederman

Posted By on June 20th, 2023

https://dianebederman.com/we-have-been-normalizing-child-sacrifice-for-far-too-long/

June 12 is recognized globally as the World Day Against Child Labour. By definition, child labour is “work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development.”

I recently spoke to a young woman who is planning to buy a Tesla. To save the planet, of course. Great, I said. But, what about the child labour involved in creating the batteries; mining the lithium?

Well, she answered, child labour has been with us a long time – Nike, Adidas and so many others have their products made in China and third world countries using child labour.

True. Sad, but true. And very astute. But, just because child labour already exists, do we just turn a blind eye and carry on?

At what point do we say no?

Why are we normalizing child sacrifice?

Why do we not speak up against evil when first confronted?

Why do we remain silent?

To what end?

Money, in the case of product; and for child suicide bombers…?

Let’s start with child labour for cheap product.

Child labour laws were implemented in the USA with the federal child labor provisions, authorized by the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA), also known as the child labor laws. They were enacted to ensure that when young people work, the work is safe and does not jeopardize their health, well-being or educational opportunities.

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

God Save the Queen and Biden’s Foreign Policy He’s as confused about Afghanistan, Ukraine and the Middle East as about the British monarch. Gerard Baker

Posted By on June 20th, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/articles/god-save-the-queen-and-bidens-foreign-policy-blinken-china-iran-deal-ukraine-79c598c0?mod=opinion_lead_pos7

‘God save the queen, man!” said Joe Biden, in an unexpected windup to remarks in Connecticut about gun control last week. Like many of his utterances, the strange outburst prompted widespread confusion. What could this latest eructation from the presidential brain mean?

He knows that Elizabeth II, for 70 years the usual subject of the prayer, is already beyond the good Lord’s earthly protection, surely? He was at the funeral, and apparently awake throughout. Perhaps with all those tasteful Pride Month displays around the White House last week, his loyalty has been captured by a queen of the drag variety. Or maybe it was just an indication that he’s decided the nation needs to amp up the deference it’s been showing the first lady, and a more regal honorific than “Dr. Jill” will now be expected.

But to me the remark made a curious sort of sense, inadvertently reflecting the confused, uncertain and slightly out-of-touch approach to the rest of the world that characterizes the administration’s foreign policy.

What else could explain the news last week that the Biden team is putting together a deal that isn’t a deal with the ayatollahs in Iran?

The plan, according to multiple reports, is for Iran to agree not to enrich its uranium too close to the 90% level needed for weaponization and to release some American hostages, in exchange for sanctions relief and other assistance.

Aside from the naiveté you need to think that Tehran will abide by an agreement that doesn’t even require a signature, the tentative deal betrays trademark confusion and inconsistency in Biden administration policy.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Why Barack Obama Attacks Tim Scott A black conservative President would rebut the former President’s racial and political narrative.

Posted By on June 20th, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/articles/barack-obama-tim-scott-nikki-haley-republicans-democrats-2024-race-9400eac?mod=opinion_lead_pos2

As America’s first black President, Barack Obama entered office with a promise of improving race relations and reducing political discord. Eight years later, rancor was worse as Mr. Obama’s Administration exploited race as a political weapon on voting rules, criminal justice, and preferences for jobs and much more. This explains why the former President is now attacking South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott.

Last week Mr. Obama, who doesn’t riff by accident, went after Mr. Scott and Nikki Haley, two of the GOP’s minority candidates for President. “I think there’s a long history of African-American or other minority candidates within the Republican Party who will validate America and say, ‘Everything’s great, and we can all make it.’ I mean, Nikki Haley, I think, has a similar approach,” Obama said on David Axelrod’s podcast.

“I’m not being cynical about Tim Scott individually. I am maybe suggesting that the rhetoric of ‘Can’t we all get along’” has to be “undergirded with an honest accounting of our past and our present,” Mr. Obama said. He added that people can be “rightly skeptical” when a Republican, “who may even be sincere in saying, ‘I want us all to live together,’ doesn’t have a plan for how do we address crippling generational poverty that is a consequence of hundreds of years of racism in this society.”

Ms. Haley and Mr. Scott both rebutted the former President’s patronizing comments. “There’s no higher compliment than to be attacked by President Obama,” Mr. Scott said. “Whenever the Democrats feel threatened, they pull out—drag out—the former President, have him make some negative comments about someone running, hoping that their numbers go down.”

Mr. Scott is right, and it’s worth asking why.

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Time To Buy Stock In Candle Companies- An Energy Policy by Design is going to Send us Into Darkness

Posted By on June 20th, 2023

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/06/20/time-to-buy-stock-in-candle-companies/

Summer arrives in the Northern Hemisphere on Wednesday and it’s likely to be a cruel one in the countries where policymakers are forcing a green energy transition. Enlightened, these people are not.

There’s a lot of truth to the old joke that goes: “What did socialists use before candles? Electricity.” The green energy “revolution” is taking us backward, to an era in which there won’t be enough electricity to meet the demand.

Members of the House Subcommittee on Energy, Climate, and Grid Security were told last week to expect “potentially catastrophic consequences” due to dispatchable generating sources being retired “far too quickly” in the race to replace those sources – natural gas, coal and nuclear, which are available on demand – with renewables, primarily wind and solar. Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner Mark C. Christie told the congressmen that lawmakers’ and activists’ obsession (our characterization) with green energy threatens “our ability to keep the lights on.”

Though obvious to us all, it’s important to continually point out that wind can’t produce electricity when it doesn’t blow and solar can’t generate power when it’s dark (or the sun is screened out by smoke from forest fires that are caused by man’s refusal to properly manage forests, not his emissions of carbon dioxide).

Christie also told subcommittee members that PJM Interconnection, a regional power transmission organization that serves 13 states and the District of Columbia, is expected to lose 40 gigawatts of generation capacity by 2030 due to early retirements of generating units.

Roughly 90% of the lost capacity is energy spun out by dispatchable sources, mainly coal and gas, which produce at the flick of switch. Meanwhile, as PJM unplugs dependable sources, it will need an additional 13 gigawatts by 2030, and California, where the petty tyranny is outlawing automobiles with internal-combustion engines, which are to be replaced by electric vehicles, won’t have enough energy to chase away the dark in the coming decades.

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

The Ukraine-American Gordian Knot The illegal efforts of Ukrainians to lobby for arms shipments will prove counter-productive. And if not curtailed, the interference will turn off Americans enough to cut this tangled Ukrainian knot. By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on June 19th, 2023

https://amgreatness.com/2023/06/18/the-ukraine-american-gordian-knot/

Most Americans sympathize with Ukraine and were and are willing to supply it with defensive weapons to repel Russian aggression. 

Proof of that goodwill is the virtual draining of U.S. weapon stocks—from stockpiles of anti-tank weapons and large-caliber artillery shells to anti-aircraft and surface-to-surface missiles. Yet the more the United States gives, the more Volodymyr Zelenskyy demands—and the more the American people acquiesce in sympathy for his plight. 

Given such U.S. largess, Ukraine currently enjoys the third-largest defense budget in the world, behind only the United States itself and China in annual outlays. That gargantuan expenditure is a result almost exclusively of American massive arms shipments and other NATO countries’ arms transfers, all based on a commitment to help Ukraine repel Russian aggression. Officials in Russia, Ukraine, and the United States have all agreed that the war is a high-stakes proxy conflict between nuclear Russia and nuclear NATO. 

The original mission, as assumed, was to aid Ukraine in pushing the invader back to the prior post-2014 borders, de facto established by prior Russian invasions that had absorbed the disputed eastern border and Crimea. Then supposedly, negotiations would begin to adjudicate the ancient border disputes that had led to the first iteration of fighting in 2014. 

The Disputed Ukrainian-Russian Border 

Ukraine’s latest counteroffensive could, in fact, get close to achieving that goal of reclaiming much of the ground taken after February 2022. 

But apparently, the war’s aims have now shifted to reestablishing the 2013 Ukrainian-Russian border. That is an ambitious agenda and, in the past, neither President Barack Obama nor Donald Trump nor Joe Biden had ever signed on to it. Oddly, those on the Left calling for the utter defeat and humiliation of the Putin regime and the retaking of Crimea (and who also gave us 2009 Russian “reset”) had rarely voiced such agendas after the 2014 aggression during the Obama Administration. (And remember that was not Putin’s first rodeo; he had invaded Georgia and absorbed South Ossetia in 2008).