ANTI-SEMITISM, EDUCATION Comments turned off

Welcome to the ‘No-Go Zones’ for Jews at Berkeley Law School What they reveal about pro-Palestinian “activism” – and about Berkeley Law School. by Richard L. Cravatts

Posted By on October 20th, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/welcome-to-the-no-go-zones-for-jews-at-berkeley-law-school/

When Law Students for Justice in Palestine (LSJP) at Berkeley’s law school promoted a bylaw that would create what critics have characterized as “no-go zones for Jews,” they may not have anticipated the thunderous and widespread denunciation they have since experienced for their toxic and radical tactic to marginalize and alienate Zionists and Jews on campus.

“LSJP is so excited to announce that multiple student affinity groups and clubs at Berkeley Law have adopted a pro-Palestine bylaw divesting all funds from institutions and companies complicit in the occupation of Palestine, and banning future use of funds towards such companies!” the group wrote in an August Instagram post. “LSJP is calling ALL student organizations at Berkeley Law to take an anti-racist and anti-settler colonial stand and adopt the bylaw into their constitutions ASAP!”

In addition to urging the student groups to commit to supporting the ongoing boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel, the bylaw also included very troubling language that seeks to expunge any speech by individuals who might be considered pro-Israel or pro-Zionist, especially speech meant to correct the many factual and historical inaccuracies in the pro-Palestinian narrative inherent in this insidious bylaw.

“[I]n the interest of protecting the safety and welfare of Palestinian students on campus,” the suggested language read, groups who adopt this bylaw “will not invite speakers that have expressed and continued to hold views or host/sponsor/promote events in support of Zionism, the apartheid state of Israel, and the occupation of Palestine.” [Emphasis added]

And in language which is Orwellian in its attempt to paint bigotry as virtue, cooperating student groups, the bylaw read, will proclaim that they are “publicly stipulating the organization’s position of anti-racism and anti-settler colonialism to speakers, ensuring that proposals for speakers emphasize the organization’s desire for equality and inclusion,” all of this for the purpose, of course, of creating “a safe and inclusive space for Palestinian students and students that are in the support of the liberation of Palestine . . . .”

ELECTIONS, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Pelosi’s ‘Winning’ Message To Voters: Quit Griping About Inflation

Posted By on October 20th, 2022

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/10/20/pelosis-winning-message-to-voters-quit-griping-about-inflation/

To all those suffering from skyrocketing prices, struggling to make ends meet, going to food kitchens to feed their families, breaking the bank just to fill up their tanks, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has a message for you.

Quit your griping and vote Democratic.

That is the “new and improved” messaging that Pelosi thinks will win over voters in November.

And no, we are not kidding. In an interview with Punchbowl News published on Wednesday, here’s what she said:

Inflation’s an issue, but it’s global. It’s global. … What’s [the Republicans’] plan? They ain’t got nothing. When you bring down unemployment, inflation goes up. … So, in any case, [President Joe Biden] brought unemployment [down], cut it in half. Inflation is there but it’s global and not as bad as it is in some countries. We’ll have to message it better in the next three weeks ahead. I think we’re in great shape. Other people don’t want to believe that.

Let’s break that down.

“It’s global.” Not exactly.

The U.S. inflation rate is worse than 13 of the G20 nations. Canada’s has been steadily declining since June. And several European countries are suffering higher prices thanks to their decision to impose the idiotic “clean energy” mandates Biden wants to import. Energy costs in Germany, for example, were up 44% in September.

In any case, telling people “everybody’s suffering, so don’t feel so bad,” is not what we’d call a winning message.

ELECTIONS, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Who Denies Election Results? There is nothing “unprecedented” about challenging election results. And for Democrats, there’s nothing unprecedented in trying to manipulate them. By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on October 20th, 2022

https://amgreatness.com/2022/10/19/who-denies-election-results/

A Democratic myth has arisen that Donald Trump’s denial of the accuracy of the 2020 vote was “unprecedented.”

Unfortunately, the history of U.S. elections is often a story of both legitimate and illegitimate election denialism. 

The 1800, 1824, 1876, and 1960 elections were all understandably questioned. In some of these cases, a partisan House of Representatives decided the winner.  

Presidential candidate Al Gore in 2000 did not accept the popular vote results in Florida. He spent five weeks futilely contesting the state’s tally—until recounts and the Supreme Court certified it. 

The ensuing charge that George W. Bush was “selected not elected” was the Democrats’ denialist mantra for years.

In 2004, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and 31 Democratic House members voted not to certify the Ohio election results in their unhinged efforts to overturn the election. Those denialists included the current sanctimonious chairman of the January 6 select committee, U.S. Representative Benny Thompson (D-Miss). 

After 2016, crackpot Democratic orthodoxy for years insisted that Donald Trump had “colluded” with Russia to “steal” certain victory from Hillary Clinton. 

Clinton herself claimed that Trump was not a “legitimate” president. No wonder she loudly joined #TheResistance to obstruct his presidency. 

The serial denialist Clinton later urged Joe Biden not to concede the 2020 election if he lost.  

Also after 2016, left-wing third-party candidate and denialist Jill Stein vainly sued in courts to disqualify voting machine results in preselected states. 

A denialist host of Hollywood C-list actors in 2016 cut television commercials begging members of the Electoral College to violate their oaths and instead flip the election to Hillary Clinton. 

Clinton herself had hired foreign national Christopher Steele to concoct a dossier of untruths to smear her 2016 campaign opponent, Donald Trump. 

The FBI took up Clinton’s failed efforts. It likewise paid in vain her ancillaries like Christopher Steele to “verify” the dossier’s lies. 

The bureau further misled a FISA court about the dossier’s authenticity. An FBI lawyer even altered a document, as part of a government effort to disrupt a presidential transition and presidency. 

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Democrats take ‘fake news’ to new lows By Jack Hellner

Posted By on October 19th, 2022

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/10/democrats_take_fake_news_to_new_lows.html

Democrats are expanding their misinformation campaign, devising new avenues to promote a false narrative. In a stunning revelation, The Washington Examiner reported that over the course of the last year, Democrats have launched fake “local media outlets” to swing elections in favor of their candidates. According to the article:

Democrats have launched a number of feigned local news outlets in key swing states as a way to push party-aligned content ahead of the midterm elections, according to reports.

At least 51 apparent local news outlets have cropped up in the last year across 10 battleground states under names such as the Milwaukee Metro times or the Mecklenburg Herald, according to Axios. The sites operate by aggregating stories about sports and other local news while mixing in heavily slanted political content propping up Democratic candidates.

They’ve stooped to literal fake news outlets to promote themselves, which some might consider election interference, all while they lecture the public about the threat of Republicans and continue with the January 6 theatrical performance.

WaPo — which seeks to elect Democrats and push the leftist agenda everyday — complains about newspapers who push a partisan agenda. They hilariously act like they are unbiased. Yet, the WaPo and the NYT both won Pulitzers for peddling lies about Russia collusion for years.

How many times does the media have to see the absolute corruption and partisanship of the FBI as they target Trump and other Republicans with fictional crimes, while protecting criminals like Hillary and Biden, before they tell the public the truth instead of pretending that they are apolitical and that no one is above the law?

We recently learned the FBI offered Christopher Steele $1 million to take a fictional dossier and “prove it” true. Even though the FBI knew it was a manufactured document paid for by Hillary and the DNC, they used it to lie to the FISA court as a pretense to spy and entrap. Why aren’t the FBI criminals, like Comey, in jail for committing a massive fraud on the American people? How much money?

How many instances of massive corruption does the media, FBI, and other Democrats need to see to care?

The media has known about the Biden family corruption long before they campaigned for him. Back as 2012, it appears the Biden family was actually colluding with Russian oligarchs:

A real estate company with ties to first son Hunter Biden received more than $100 million from a Russian billionaire for property investments across the US that date back a decade, sources have told The Post.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

High School Test Scores Are Plummeting, and Not Just Because of the Pandemic English, reading, math and science are so 2005. Robert Spencer

Posted By on October 19th, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/high-school-test-scores-are-plummeting-and-not-just-because-of-the-pandemic/

The numbers are as shocking as they are undeniable: American high school students are more ignorant and ill-equipped than they have been in decades or more; in fact, it’s likely that their abilities are at their lowest level ever. The Washington Free Beacon reported Thursday that “average scores on the ACT [American College Testing] college admissions test dropped to their lowest in 30 years, revealing more evidence of the pandemic’s alarming impact on American education.” But it’s not just the pandemic. This is the result of the wokeification of the American public school system. Far too many teachers are spending their time filling their students’ heads with trans and Critical Race Theory nonsense instead of giving them an education. It’s dereliction of duty on a grand scale.

The Free Beacon added that “the average composite score for the class of 2022 was a 19.8 out of 36, according to a report released Wednesday, falling under 20 points for the first time since 1991. This year’s graduates endured the effects of the pandemic for three of their four high school years.”

The pandemic wasn’t even close to being the only thing they endured. In Georgia, PJM’s Chris Queen reported in August, “Gwinnett Schools are now adding gender propaganda to the mix with what one group calls ‘inappropriate gender lessons’ on school-issued Chromebooks that parents can’t access when logging into their children’s accounts on other devices.” In San Juan Hills High School in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., teacher Danielle “Flint” Serio has an entire “queer library” in her classroom. And down the road at Madison High School in San Diego, a teacher has defined “fascist” with words including “Trump,” “white,” “Christian,” and “heterosexual.” The Republican Party, this sage wrote on his classroom whiteboard, “is a fascist organization that no longer fits the category of a conventional Democratic Party.” In a rural, conservative school district in Minnesota, the ninth-grade curriculum includes a book that features explicit rape scenes.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

From Russia to the FBI, with Love How the FBI agent who spied for Russia set the stage for the FBI’s betrayal of the American people. by Lloyd Billingsley

Posted By on October 19th, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/from-russia-to-the-fbi-with-love/

Igor Danchenko, the primary source for the infamous dossier deployed against Donald Trump in 2016, was acquitted Tuesday of lying to the FBI. If the verdict seems surprising, consider the back story. Danchenko, a Russian national, was once on the FBI payroll.

As Julie Kelly explains, that made the Russian part of the bureau’s untouchable “sources and methods,” protecting him and any documents referencing him from congressional and other outside scrutiny. That invites a look at another man on the bureau’s payroll, the FBI agent who spied for Russia and escaped scrutiny for 15 years.

According to the FBI, Robert Phillip Hanssen was “the most damaging spy in Bureau history,” arrested on February 18, 2001, and charged with espionage on behalf of Russia and the former Soviet Union. The FBI man, who swore an oath to enforce the law and protect the nation as an FBI agent, “provided highly classified national security information to the Russians in exchange for more than $1.4 million in cash, bank funds, and diamonds.”

Hanssen held “key counterintelligence positions” and beginning in 1985, he used encrypted communications, ‘dead drops,’ and other clandestine methods to provide information to the KGB and its successor agency, the SVR. The information he delivered compromised numerous human sources, counterintelligence techniques, investigations, dozens of classified U.S. government documents, and technical operations of extraordinary importance and value.”

EDUCATION, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

What the Firing of Prof. Maitland Jones Says about Our Democracy Too many people have been let into the future. by Jason D. Hill

Posted By on October 19th, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/what-the-firing-of-prof-maitland-jones-says-about-our-democracy/

The swift firing of the renowned chemist Maitland Jones by New York University is still being discussed in the academic world and even among the commentariat that generally would have moved on to the next topic the day after the event had occurred.

Perhaps there is something perturbing about an 85-year-old esteemed professor who had had a distinguished career at Princeton before joining NYU being fired under such nefarious circumstances. After 82 of his 350 students signed a petition complaining that his organic chemistry course was too difficult, and that they did not like the way he ran his course, he was discharged. They further claimed that he lacked empathy; empathy towards those students who had family problems and mental health issues. But basically, his workload was regarded as too demanding against the backdrop of myriad courses students had to take aside from chemistry.

That less than a quarter of his students (23.4%, actually), could marshal enough power to have him discharged from a career spanning over five decades is frightening and disgraceful. Not one of the students came forward and publicly identified him- or herself. They signed a petition anonymously—these cowardly perverse members of the Olympics Oppression team who fail to realize that college is designed to provide one with skill sets and information in particular fields and then to certify that the individual has mastered them. Universities and colleges, too, are not just educative institutions. They are ones that, in the ideal sense, weed out those who are unfit to be in them; that is, those who fail to qualify to meet the standards required to be certified as mastering the skills and knowledge in a field, whether it be in chemistry, medicine, history, nursing, the law, or philosophy. We are, though, wedded to the egalitarian progressive idea that everyone who enrolls in a university has a constitutional and democratic right to graduate. Hell hath no fury like a parent whose child, after repeatedly failing all his courses, is given an honorable and noble piece of advice: The academic life is not meant for you. You’re smart, and your smarts lie in a trade school. You’d actually make a superb plumber, or carpenter.

But back to Professor Jones. How did we arrive at a point in our society where 82 village idiots had the temerity to make such preposterous demands, and were granted the institutional power to have their intellectual superior fired from his professorship?

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Israel-Lebanon maritime accord vs. Israel-Arab peace treaties: impact on US interests Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger

Posted By on October 19th, 2022

https://bit.ly/3TafFML

The US-engineered and guaranteed Israel-Lebanon maritime/gas accord is supposed to follow in the footsteps of the Israel-Arab peace treaties with Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco, reducing regional terrorism and instability, inducing moderation and enhancing US interests.  Does it?

Hezbollah and Lebanon

*The Shiite Hezbollah – Iran’s proxy and globally recognized terrorist organization – is a dominant player in the increasingly imploding, failed-state, Lebanon, politically, militarily, socially, educationally, religiously and journalistically.

Hezbollah has dramatically bolstered its capabilities and clout since its establishment in 1982 – by Iran’s Shiite Ayatollahs – as a vehicle to export the Shiite Islamic Revolution, extend the Ayatollahs’ reach from the Persian Gulf, through Iraq, Syria and Lebanon to the eastern Mediterranean, and undermine the US strategic posture in the Middle East. 

Hezbollah has collaborated with Iran’s Ayatollahs in the Middle East, West Africa and throughout Latin America, all the way to the US-Mexico border. It has gained substantial sway due to its major contribution to the survival of the Assad regime.  Hezbollah has benefited from the Ayatollahs’ financial support, combat training, and the supply of precise missiles and predator unmanned aerial vehicles.  

*Hezbollah’s dominant role in Lebanon’s decision-making has led the pro-US Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain to ostracize Lebanon and suspend financial aid to Beirut, lest it bolsters Hezbollah’s stature.

Israel’s maritime accord vs. Israel-Arab peace treaties

*Israel’s peace treaties with the relatively-stable, pro-US, anti-Iran and anti-terrorist Sunni Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco, with the blessing of Saudi Arabia, which generated a critical impetus to the Abraham Accords. Their policy and vision do not extend beyond their own national boundaries. 

MEDICINE AND HEALTH Comments turned off

Moderna CEO says most people don’t need COVID booster–and young people should consider not getting the shot: David Strom

Posted By on October 19th, 2022

https://hotair.com/david-strom/2022/10/18/whoa-moderna-ceo-says-most-people-dont-need-covid-booster-and-young-people-should-consider-not-getting-the-shot-n504221

The COVID narrative is breaking down. While the CDC and most state governments are unsuccessfully pushing us all to get yet another COVID booster shot, the CEO of Moderna says the quiet part out loud: relatively few people would benefit from getting the booster because, like the flu, COVID is only dangerous to people who are aged or have significant co-morbidities.

Not everyone needs to get an annual Covid booster, according to the head of pharma giant Moderna who also likened the virus to seasonal flu.

Stéphane Bancel said his company’s shots should mainly be targeted at over-50s and people with underlying health conditions.

His comments seem to be at odds with the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) which is urging everyone over the age of five to get boosted.

Covid is now predominantly only killing the most vulnerable because the US has built up strong immunity through high infection rates and repeated vaccine rollouts.

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

Biden costs average Americans $34,000 in retirement savings in 2022 —study By Monica Showalter

Posted By on October 19th, 2022

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/10/biden_costs_average_americans_34000_in_retirement_savings_in_2022_study.html

We already know that Joe Biden has cost Americans an average of $6,000 in paycheck power from the inflation that has come of his billions and trillions in government spending, including his mockingly misnamed “Inflation Reduction Act” of 2022.

While Biden has at various times claimed that inflation comes from Russia, greedy oil companies, Republicans, or chicken factories, and in any case is transitory, if not zero, inflation is something serious economists recognize as a monetary phenomenon.  Inflation, after all, is priced in money, and monetary agencies such as the Federal Reserve print up the cash it takes for all that government spending. The inflation comes from Joe.

But inflation is hitting far more than just pocketbooks and savings accounts — it’s also eating away at Americans’ retirement savings, in their 401(k)s and other retirement accounts.

Economists Stephen Moore and E.J. Antoni decided to calculate just how much in a column for the New York Post.  They did the math:

We’ve just completed an analysis of how the highest inflation rate in almost 40 years has impacted the retirement funds of ordinary Americans. Here is what we found.

Not surprisingly, since President Biden took office, monthly savings have collapsed, falling 83%. (We could never understand how Biden could say with a straight face that Americans are saving more. His “transformation” of the US economy has had just the opposite effect.) Many millions of Americans who are living paycheck to paycheck just don’t have the money after paying the inflated bills to save much.

But to add insult to injury, even what has been already saved and invested by older Americans over past years and even over several decades has been erased from these accounts.

Thanks to the thief of inflation.

Inflation has not only cut the value of stocks, and bonds, for that matter, it has reduced the value of the savings that are still left.