NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

U.S. Government Now Confiscating Private Legal Fund Donations to Jan. 6 Defendants By Ben Bartee

Posted By on May 31st, 2023

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/benbartee/2023/05/30/u-s-government-now-confiscating-private-legal-fund-donations-to-jan-6-defendants-n1699148

Via the Associated Press (emphasis added):

Less than two months after he pleaded guilty to storming the U.S. Capitol, Texas resident Daniel Goodwyn appeared on Tucker Carlson’s then-Fox News show and promoted a website where supporters could donate money to Goodwyn and other rioters whom the site called “political prisoners.”

The Justice Department now wants Goodwyn to give up more than $25,000 he raised — a clawback that is part of a growing effort by the government to prevent rioters from being able to personally profit from participating in the attack that shook the foundations of American democracy.

An Associated Press review of court records shows that prosecutors in the more than 1,000 criminal cases from Jan. 6, 2021, are increasingly asking judges to impose fines on top of prison sentences to offset donations from supporters of the Capitol rioters.

The U.S. legal system is now transparently weaponized against what the DHS has alternatively described as “domestic terrorists” and “white supremacists” — according to the Department, the #1 terror threat in the country.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Colonel Richard Kemp on the IDF’s Achievements “The most moral army in the world.” by Hugh Fitzgerald

Posted By on May 31st, 2023

https://www.frontpagemag.com/colonel-richard-kemp-on-the-idfs-achievements/

Colonel Richard Kemp, who led British troops in Afghanistan and has fought in another half-dozen campaigns, has long been a defender of the IDF, which he has described as “the most moral army in the world.” He looked at what Israel achieved in the first four days of Operation Shield and Arrow and come away with a heightened appreciation for the Israeli military. More on his observations on the campaign can be found here: “‘A grave slur against IDF’: UN plays right into Islamic Jihad’s hands,” by Colonel Richard Kemp, Ynet News, May 11, 2023:

Operation Shield and Arrow has been carried out to date with breathtaking effectiveness. The shield of Iron Dome and David’s Sling have prevented major loss of life among the civilian population, although so far one man has been tragically killed and some have been injured, despite a barrage of 547 deadly rockets fired at Israel at the time of writing [as of Friday, May 12, that number had increased to 937].

Israel managed to decapitate Palestinian Islamic Jihad, taking out by the fourth day of battle six of its senior commanders, including both the head, and the deputy head, of the PIJ’s rocket program. The IAF struck 197 targets in Gaza, including PIJ weapons storehouses, weapons fabrication plants, training centers, rocket launchers, and underground tunnels.

The arrows of targeting intelligence, air strikes and missile attacks have decimated the Gaza terrorist leadership and destroyed many of their weapons. No other military is capable of defending its people with the ferocity and precision the IDF has been showing.

How precise was Israel? It managed to locate the precise apartments where PIJ commanders had been hiding, and hit exactly those targets, sparing all but a handful of civilians – mostly, the wives and children of the commanders, though in the initial attack on May 9, three civilians living in an apartment adjacent to the one the IAF had targeted, also died. It managed to follow, from the skies, PIJ leaders as they moved from one apartment to another. In one case, the Israeli pilot held his fire while a PIJ leader was still with his family in an apartment, waiting until he had left them and gone, alone, to another hiding place, where he assumed he would never be found. And at that point, the Israeli pilot proved him wrong.

HISTORY, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Stranger in Moscow On this date in 1988, Ronald Reagan told Soviet college students about freedom – and the future. by Bruce Bawer

Posted By on May 31st, 2023

https://www.frontpagemag.com/__trashed-19/

Thirty-five years ago today, on May 31, 1988, Ronald Reagan, who was in the last year of his presidency and was in Moscow for the last of his summits with Mikhail Gorbachev, delivered a landmark speech to an audience of students at Moscow State University, a hub of scientific and technical research. The occasion was unprecedented, and the speech itself a masterstroke: with palpable enthusiasm, Reagan talked up the ongoing technological revolution that heralded a new information age, and urged the young Soviets to embrace freedom and peace so that they could be part of it:

Standing here before a mural of your revolution, I want to talk about a very different revolution that is taking place right now, quietly sweeping the globe without bloodshed or conflict. Its effects are peaceful, but they will fundamentally alter our world, shatter old assumptions, and reshape our lives. It’s easy to underestimate because it’s not accompanied by banners or fanfare. It’s been called the technological or information revolution, and as its emblem, one might take the tiny silicon chip, no bigger than a fingerprint.

Reagan outlined some of the many ways in which our lives were being – or were about to be – transformed, from weather forecasting to instant computer translations to the mapping of the human genome. All of these developments, he underscored, were products not of government planning but of independent experimentation by individuals, some of them very young people – the near-contemporaries of those Moscow students – tinkering in their own garages. And their achievements, he pointed out, would have been impossible without the gift of freedom – a subject on which he proceeded to expound to that audience of Communist vassals with his customary eloquence:

Freedom is the right to question and change the established way of doing things. It is the continuing revolution of the marketplace. It is the understanding that allows us to recognize shortcomings and seek solutions. It is the right to put forth an idea, scoffed at by the experts, and watch it catch fire among the people. It is the right to dream – to follow your dream or stick to your conscience, even if you’re the only one in a sea of doubters. Freedom is the recognition that no single person, no single authority or government has a monopoly on the truth, but that every individual life is infinitely precious, that every one of us put on this world has been put there for a reason and has something to offer….

Cognizant that those students had learned the importance, in scientific and technological development, of ingenuity, innovation, and experiment, Reagan cannily played on this learning in his attempt to hook them on the idea of freedom. But he also mentioned other fruits of Western liberty that he knew would appeal to them: for example, he enticed them with the then unimaginable notion that someday, like their counterparts in the West, they might actually be able to spend a summer backpacking around Europe. “Is this just a dream?” he asked. “Perhaps, but it is a dream that is our responsibility to have come true.” In fact, it would come true in three years. Similarly, he floated the idea of sharing U.S. magazines and TV shows with the USSR by satellite. Of course, the Internet would soon make those items, and a great deal more, available to Russians.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

The Death of the Professor in the Age of Chat GPT The rise of AI . . . and human extinction. by Jason D. Hill

Posted By on May 31st, 2023

https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-death-of-the-professor-in-the-age-of-chat-gpt/

For years I have been stating that the university as we know it has been over for a while. I have also stated that the professoriate is dead. Especially for most of those who exist in the social sciences and the humanities, this demise is not necessarily a bad thing. I have written about the professoriate’s hatred of America and of capitalism, the ascendent socialist mindset, and the Marxist indoctrination by the professoriate of our youth. Despite these thoughts and insights, I never thought that I would stand before a class and feel my complete irrelevance as an educator; feel like a relic and some strange creature that should be retired instantly. And all because of an AI language model called Chat GPT.

Chat GPT is an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot developed by OpenAI and released in November 2022. The tool itself and professors are in an arms race against each other – and professors are losing. It usually takes weeks to collect students’ papers after posting an assignment.  Deadlines are mostly a thing of the past. When Chat GPT was first launched, however, I had at least nine students turning in well-crafted, eight-page papers within an hour of posting the assignment.

After being a professor in the classroom for twenty-six years, I still spend an inordinate amount of time preparing for my classes. They are a combination of short lectures interspersed with discussion from students. I call on students frequently to respond to what they have read, and to offer analyses made by other students on the assigned readings. This allows us to form a community of thinkers and discoverers—of both fact and values. As a philosophic community we form a “brain attic.” Knowledge is shared collectively but processed individually. At any point each person can share his or her rendition of the facts and concomitant analysis of said facts.

Recently students have been coming to classes late or not at all. Some come to record the classes and type pertinent questions gleaned from the lecture into Chat GPT. Others are fact checking every utterance I make against the wisdom of the AI program. But when I asked a student for his reasoned viewpoint to a point John Locke made in his classic “A Letter Concerning Toleration,” the student typed the question into his computer and said: “It says here that….” and proceeded to read off the AI generated response. In the manner of most students, he made zero eye contact with me. Today, fewer and fewer students are looking at their professors during conversations, lectures and even during in-class discussions. I am speaking of polite and basically good human beings whose socialization via social media has left them bereft of appropriate social skills.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Biden family is under the protection of the nation’s top lawmen By Michael Goodwin

Posted By on May 31st, 2023

https://nypost.com/2023/05/30/biden-family-under-the-protection-of-the-nations-top-lawmen/

Here’s a novel concept: The FBI is not above the law. 

In theory, of course, it’s true, as in no American is above the law.

But is it really true in the sense that its leaders can be brought to justice if they break the law? 

That’ll be the day. 

Ever hear of Jim Comey, Andrew McCabe and Peter Strzok?

They were J. Edgar Hoover without the charm, spied on a presidential campaign without sufficient evidence, lied to the courts and never paid a price. 

In fact, each got a lot richer thanks to the big shots who monetize the Hate Donald Trump fan clubs in cable TV and publishing houses. 

Playing hardball 

The unmistakable lesson is that crime, or something very much like crime, paid handsomely in their cases.

If they weren’t above the law, they were certainly beyond its reach. 

So we must believe that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was speaking hopefully, not literally, when he told Fox Tuesday morning that unless FBI Director Christopher Wray turns over a document alleging Joe Biden sold his office as part of a $5 million bribery scheme when he was vice president, Congress will move to hold him in contempt. 

“I personally called Director Wray and told him he needs to send that document,” McCarthy said.

“We have jurisdiction over this . . . And if he does not follow through with the law, we will move contempt charges against Christopher Wray and the FBI. They are not above the law.” 

To which Wray effectively replied, go ahead, make my day, with the FBI later refusing to give up the document.

Republicans can pass their contempt citation, but it’s up to the Justice Department to turn contempt into a prosecution. 

And anybody who thinks Attorney General Merrick Garland is going to prosecute Wray for shielding the Biden family hasn’t been paying attention.

IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

New York’s Migrant Influx Tests the Sanctuary City’s Limits Already Mayor Eric Adams is asking a judge to excuse the city from its court-approved ‘right to shelter.’ Jason Riley

Posted By on May 31st, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-yorks-migrant-influx-tests-the-sanctuary-citys-limits-mayor-adams-f3264896?mod=opinion_lead_pos8

When Texas Gov. Greg Abbott began busing illegal immigrants to Northern cities last year, he said he wanted to call out progressive sanctuary-city elitism and draw more attention to a humanitarian crisis with which border states have been struggling for decades. Mr. Abbott has succeeded and then some.

Big-city Democrats who once dismissed the complaints of Republican officials such as Mr. Abbott are now begging for mercy. Chicago declared a state of emergency in the wake of its migrant influx, and the District of Columbia was compelled to establish an Office of Migrant Services. Earlier this month in New York, which has seen the arrival of more than 70,000 undocumented migrants since last spring, Mayor Eric Adams asked a judge to allow the city to suspend its longstanding “right to shelter” rule.

“It is in the best interest of everyone, including those seeking to come to the United States, to be upfront that New York City cannot single-handedly provide care to everyone crossing our border,” Mr. Adams said in a statement. “Being dishonest about this will only result in our system collapsing, and we need our government partners to know the truth and do their share.”

New York is spending an estimated $5 million a day to house and feed these new arrivals. It tried placing them in homeless shelters, which quickly filled to capacity. Next, they were sent to hotels, dormitories and even unused jail cells. Mr. Adams tried persuading upstate counties to accept some of the migrants, but he lacks jurisdiction to force the issue and pushback has been stiff. The courts may be his last option.

New York’s right-to-shelter rule is the product of a 1979 lawsuit brought by homeless advocates. In a subsequent settlement, the city agreed to provide universal housing to men, and later to women and families. Because of the settlement, the state’s top court never issued a ruling on the matter. “One presumes that the city settled the case to avoid the inflexibility that a final high court ruling would have created,” the Manhattan Institute’s Nicole Gelinas wrote in City Journal recently. “But in the current crisis, the city has done nothing with the flexibility that it retains.”

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Will Your Next Auto Be An EV? Most Say No: I&I/TIPP Poll Terry Jones

Posted By on May 31st, 2023

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/05/31/will-your-next-auto-be-an-ev-most-say-no-ii-tipp-poll/

Policymakers inside the Biden administration have repeatedly assured Americans that electric vehicles (EVs) are an unavoidable and essential part of the “net-zero” carbon emissions world that they’re trying to regulate into existence. But despite hefty subsidies and future bans of gasoline-powered cars, Americans aren’t ready to jump on the EV bandwagon, the latest I&I/TIPP Poll shows.

For our most recent online public opinion poll of 1,412 drivers, taken from May 3-5, we asked a straightforward question of consumer intent: “How likely will you consider buying/leasing an electric vehicle for your next car?”

Among those responding, 53% said they were “not likely” to consider an electric car, while 39% said they were “likely” to. The poll has a margin of error of +/-2.6 percentage points.

But, to spout an inevitable cliche, the devil once again lurks in the details. Just 16% of those answering the poll said they’re “very likely” to consider an EV, versus 23% who said they were “somewhat likely.”

On the other side, more than a third — 36% — said they were “not at all likely” to consider an EV. Another 17% said they’re “not very likely” to do so.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

THE DURHAM REPORT AND HISTORY SYDNEY WILLIAMS

Posted By on May 31st, 2023

http://www.swtotd.blogspot.com

In his 1982 story of a small Irish village, Passing the Time in Ballymenone, American historian Henry Glassie (1941-) wrote: “History is not the past but a map of the past, drawn from a particular point of view…” All histories reflect the author. But good historians account for that, differentiating between actual events and their personal opinions. The Founding Fathers were conscious of history when they selected Washington as the capital of the new United States in 1790. It was a “federal enclave,” separate from both the commercial/industrial north and the agrarian south. It was not beholden to one party or one faction.

However, over time, as its bureaucracy increased and as public sector unions took sway, Washington changed; so that today in the District, according to the Pew Research Center, Democrat registrations, among federal government employees, outnumber Republican registrations two to one. While the leaders of Washington’s agencies reflect whichever party is in power, permanent federal government employees are, on balance, sympathetic to the Democrat Party.

The purpose of the Durham Report was to shine light on nefarious attempts to affect the outcome of the 2016 election – to address the widely accepted view that Donald Trump colluded with Russia to affect the outcome of the Presidential election that year. It also offers an alternative (and more accurate) perspective on subsequent efforts to undermine Mr. Trump’s Presidency. The Report details how the nation’s premier investigatory and intelligence services, in cooperation with the Clinton campaign, falsely implicated Mr. Trump as having colluded with Vladimir Putin to sway the election.  

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Foreign Interference? How Non-Citizens Are Voting in American Elections by J. Christian Adams

Posted By on May 30th, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19679/non-us-citizens-voting

You probably know the [National Voter Registration Act] as “Motor Voter.” It is the federal requirement that requires state motor vehicle offices to offer voter registration and the ability to update your address.

Sounds convenient? Now, we have data showing one of the side effects of Motor Voter is to put non-citizens onto American voter rolls.

[W]e have collected extensive records of non-citizens asking to be removed from the voter rolls. Sometimes those records reveal how the foreign citizen was registered to vote, and the Motor Voter process represents the vast majority of cases.

Chicago officials provided registration records where some foreign nationals even checked “NO” to the question of whether the person is a United States citizen, and were still registered.

The Pennsylvania State Department admitted that due to what election officials referred to as a “glitch” that they had been accidentally registering foreign nationals to vote for two decades. They have been fighting for over five years to conceal details, including the number of foreign nationals the Commonwealth registered to vote by mistake.

The reports from Maricopa County and Chicago are not an inventory of every non-citizen vote, but only those who informed election officials they were not American citizens. So, the catalog of confessed non-citizens is almost certainly just the tip of the iceberg.

What can be done about non-citizens registering to vote?

Congress can solve the problem by allowing states to validate citizenship effectively. This could be as easy as providing a passport, birth certificate or other evidence of being an American at the time of voter registration.

Another easy fix is for Congress to add citizenship to the National Voter Registration Act’s reasonable voter list maintenance requirements for states. Motor Voter does not put the same obligation for states to keep voter rolls free from non-citizens as it does, for example, dead voters.

This month marks the 30th anniversary of President Bill Clinton signing the National Voter Registration Act into law. You probably know the law as “Motor Voter.” It is the federal requirement that requires state motor vehicle offices to offer voter registration and the ability to update your address.

Sounds convenient? Now, we have data showing one of the side effects of Motor Voter is to put non-citizens onto American voter rolls.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

DIE Litmus Tests are Robbing the Campus By Janet Levy

Posted By on May 30th, 2023

https://www.americanthinker.com/

Universities are forums for the free exchange of ideas, for learning how to think, not what to think; for debate, not indoctrination.  Unfortunately, that can no longer be said of American universities.  Open inquiry and critical thinking untainted by ideology have been supplanted by leftist dogma, including Critical Race Theory and social justice advocacy.  Except at the increasingly rare institution offering a classical liberal arts education, it has become impossible for impressionable students to earn a degree without becoming steeped in leftist rhetoric and the extreme ideas of race and gender.  They end up believing that America was built on racism and defining themselves as either oppressors or victims.

These ideological intrusions were insidiously mainstreamed from the seventies onward, especially in the humanities departments, by gradually building an ecosystem fostering faculty members who are left-leaning and sidelining those who are not.  Universities are now taking this to the next level by precluding the recruitment of independent thinkers and conservatives.  They are requiring prospective faculty to submit a loyalty oath to the tenets of diversity, inclusion, and equity (DIE; sometimes DEI) as a de facto litmus test of their political affiliation.

Examples abound of universities where DIE statements are a prerequisite for consideration for any job.  At Arizona’s public universities, they are a standard feature of the hiring process for all faculty, professional, and staff positions.  Some institutions in the state require prospective candidates to demonstrate their allegiance to DIE ideology even before a review of their qualifications takes place.  At the University of Washington, support for DIE principles is de rigueur, and faculty applicants must justify their commitment by describing their past actions and explaining how they will continue to pursue DIE goals if appointed.  The University of Pennsylvania website gives applicants guidelines for composing effective DIE statements.  And at all campuses of the University of California (U.C.), faculty applicants must submit DIE statements that will determine if they merit consideration, regardless of their academic credentials or their teaching and research plans.  From their statements, applicants are evaluated for DIE awareness and experience and their plans for advancing DIE on campus.  They must agree to treat individuals differently based on their race, sex, and gender identity.