Florida’s New History Curriculum Is Pretty Great By Charles Hilu

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/floridas-new-history-curriculum-is-pretty-great/

Ron DeSantis’s state of Florida drew controversy over the Fourth of July weekend after the Miami Herald released copies of slides that the government used in civics training sessions for K–12 public-school teachers, which it partnered with Hillsdale College to create.

The slides cover reasons for the American Revolution and the philosophical underpinnings of the Constitution, while sometimes wading into contemporary debates about American government. The material is mainstream, historically accurate, and not unlike other curricula. Personally, I learned a lot of it a few years ago in high school when I took Advanced Placement U.S. History and Government & Politics. 

Overall, Florida’s syllabus is a good road map for teaching history. Most of the material is simply stating facts, and when it wades into controversy, it backs up its assertions solidly, for the most part. Nevertheless, some educators have complained that the instructional prescription was too Christian and conservative.

One of the central complaints centers on one of the presentations calling the idea that “the Founders desired strict separation of church and state and the Founders only wanted to protect freedom of worship” a misconception.

The state’s claim is certainly controversial, but it is true, nonetheless. While the Founding conception of separation of church and state protected freedom of worship, it was chiefly focused against creating an established church. The Framers did not view all public support of religion as illicit. After all, Congress held church services in the House chamber from when it first moved to Washington, D.C., until after the Civil War, with the speaker’s podium serving as the pulpit. That does not seem like an action of people who wanted religion and government in totally separate spheres.

For those who argue the contrary, the chief piece of evidence, which the Florida curriculum acknowledges, is Thomas Jefferson’s 1801 Letter to the Danbury Baptists, in which he wrote that the First Amendment creates “a wall of separation between church and state.” It is important to note the context of the letter. He was responding to a group of people who were fearful that the government would interfere with their free exercise of religion, and he was attempting to allay their concerns. In no way was he calling for the government to totally distance itself from religion. After all, he would often attend the services in the Capitol.

Don’t Let The Democrats Claim The Mantle Of Freedom

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/07/08/dont-let-the-democrats-claim-the-mantle-of-freedom/

Psychological projection is the act of attributing one’s unpleasant traits to someone else. Psychological deflection is a way of shifting attention away from one’s poor behavior to another person. Both are used expertly by Democrats, who don’t want the voters to catch on to their act.

We could start with any of the Democrats’ many examples of projection and deflection, but let’s focus on one of the most recent instances of a Democratic pot calling a kettle black: California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Florida television ad.

“Freedom is under attack in your state,” Newsom said in a voice a bit less croaky than his usual raspy delivery. “Your Republican leaders, they’re banning books, making it harder to vote, restricting speech in classrooms, even criminalizing women and doctors.

“I urge all of you living in Florida to join the fight or join us in California, where we still believe in freedom. Freedom of speech, freedom to choose, freedom from hate, and the freedom to love. Don’t let them take your freedom,” he finishes with a faux flourish that included a pointed finger meant to underline the sincerity the factory-made man sorely lacks.

The ad is a truly stomach-turning performance (typical of Newsom) for those who truly cherish freedom, and understand what it is – and isn’t. (It’s also filled with lies. Read this master Fisking of the governor’s tales.)

The California of Newsom, who many hope will save the Democratic Party from sinking under the Joe Biden and Kamala Harris millstones, is ranked 48th in the Cato Institute’s Freedom In The 50 States report. It’s where new prohibitions, such as bans on multiple plastic consumer goods, including single-use bags customarily given out by retailers, pop up on a regular basis, and food waste must be composted rather than thrown in garbage cans.

Japan ex-leader Shinzo Abe shot in chest, in heart failure

https://www.aol.com/news/japan-ex-leader-abe-reportedly-031004756-043411862.html

TOKYO (AP) — Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, an arch-conservative and one of the country’s most divisive figures, was shot and critically wounded during a campaign speech Friday in western Japan. He was airlifted to a hospital but officials said he was not breathing and his heart had stopped.

Police arrested the suspected gunman at the scene of the shocking attack in a country that’s one of the world’s safest and has some of the strictest gun control laws anywhere.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Abe was in “severe condition” and he hoped Abe will survive. He called the attack “dastardly and barbaric” and added that the crime occurring during the election campaign, which is the foundation of democracy, was absolutely unforgivable.

Kishida and his Cabinet ministers hastily returned to Tokyo from other campaign events around the country after the shooting. “I’m praying for former prime minister Abe’s survival from the bottom of my heart,” Kishida said at the prime minister’s office after he arrived on a defense helicopter from Yamagata.

A people’s revolt against eco-tyranny From the Netherlands to Sri Lanka, people have had enough of the elite’s green hysteria.Brendan O’Neill

https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/07/06/a-peoples-revolt-against-eco-tyranny/

If police were opening fire on protesters in a European nation, we would have heard about it, right? If there was a mass uprising of working people in a European Union country, taking to the streets in their thousands to cause disruption to roads, airports and parliament itself, it would be getting a lot of media coverage in the UK, wouldn’t it? The radical left would surely say something, too, given its claims to support ordinary people against The System. Cops shooting at working men and women whose only crime is that they pounded the streets to demand fairness and justice? There would be solidarity demos in the UK, for sure.

Well, all of this is happening, right now, in a nation that’s just an hour’s flight from Britain, and the media coverage here is notable by its absence. As for the left in Britain and elsewhere in Europe – there’s just silence. This is the story of the revolting Dutch farmers. These tractor-riding rebels have risen up against their government and its plans to introduce stringent environmental measures that they say will severely undermine their ability to make a living. They have been protesting for a couple of years now, but their fury has intensified in recent weeks. They’ve blocked motorways, blocked roads to airports, set fire to bales of hay, and descended on The Hague. Things are so serious that yesterday, in the province of Friesland, police opened fire. Mercifully, no one was injured.

NATO Family Picture in Madrid: This Will Not Be Erdoğan’s Last Blackmail by Burak Bekdil

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18667/nato-family-blackmail

“I don’t know what Turkey’s trying to extract from them, but at the end of the day that’s what this is about. And maybe if we get in the game, they’ll want to extract from us too, which I will be vehemently opposed to. We don’t need for any extraction to take place or any concessions to take place to have two great democracies join NATO.” — US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez (D-NJ), June 22, 2022.

Talking to Erdoğan in the language he understands best, in early June, the U.S. State Department and the European Commission expressed their support to Greece and its sovereignty over its islands of the eastern Aegean Sea, and called on Turkey to stop airspace violations and overflights, threats and provocative rhetoric.

That means, in Erdoğan’s language, further economic sanctions on Turkey. And further sanctions will mean Erdoğan’s chances for re-election will get even slimmer amid a punishing economic crisis.

Erdoğan controls 90% of the media in Turkey. That is a big asset in politics.

So, the whole choreography, from the beginning, was aimed at a domestic audience who would feel triumphant from Erdoğan’s victory over the infidels.

The “Nordics in NATO” issue is not entirely over. Full accession will require approval from all 30 NATO parliaments. This, and other future issues, will always give Erdoğan new leverage to blackmail the West’s strongest institution.

It was another happy time in Madrid, of half-baked, Kodak-moment pleasantries when the leaders of 30 NATO member states posed for the cameras with broad family smiles. They were on display for Turkey’s Islamist president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, for having removed his veto against the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO. How did that happen? The stick.

American Confidence in the Presidency Drops by 15 Points Compared to Last Year By Eric Lendrum

https://amgreatness.com/2022/07/06/american-confidence-in-the-presidency-drops-by-15-points-compared-to-last-year/

The latest poll from Gallup shows that Americans’ confidence in many major institutions in the United States, including the presidency, Congress, and the Supreme Court, has dropped to a new low this year.

Fox News reports that the poll showed just 27 percent of Americans described themselves as having “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in 14 institutions, which is three points lower than the previous record low in 2014.

With 16 different institutions mentioned in the survey, Gallup noted “significant declines” in 11 institutions in particular, including the presidency and the Supreme Court. Compared to the last poll in June of 2021, American confidence in the presidency has gone down by 15 points, while confidence in the high court has dropped by 11 points. Similarly, Joe Biden’s approval rating has dropped by about 15 points in the same span of time.

Congress remains the lowest-rated institution in the nation. In last year’s poll, only 12 percent of Americans polled reported “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in the federal legislative branch. This year, that number is down to a mere 7 percent.

Five other institutions recorded substantial drops in confidence: The police, the criminal justice system, big business, organized religion, and newspapers. The only major institution to see its approval rating hold steady was organized labor, at 28 percent once again.

Respondents across both political parties, as well as independents, all recorded drops in confidence compared to last year. Republican voters’ confidence in the military fell from 81 percent to 78 percent, while their confidence in the police dropped from 71 percent to 67 percent. Independents’ confidence in the presidency plummeted from 31 percent to just 18 percent. Meanwhile, in the wake of numerous major decisions on abortion, Second Amendment rights, and other issues, Democrats’ confidence in the Supreme Court dropped from 31 percent to 13 percent.

The Disappearing American? There are historical downsides—economic, cultural, social, and military—to nations that shun child-raising. By Victor Davis Hanson

https://amgreatness.com/2022/07/06/the-disappearing-american/

“Help wanted” and “Now hiring” signs are everywhere. Flights, construction projects, and healthcare services are delayed—or unavailable—due to labor shortages.

Hourly and monthly wages spiral. There is a growing disequilibrium between the number of available jobs and the declining pool of workers needed to fill them. 

What is going on?

During the nearly two-year-long COVID shutdown and economic downturn, firms cut costs by laying off millions of employees. 

As a result, some in their early- or mid-60s simply retired early and never came back to work.

Federal and state governments also vastly expanded financial support to the unemployed. Other workers figured they would not make all that much more by working and so are staying home on government checks.

Still other former full-time employees became used to the new, more leisurely lifestyle and are loath to return to a full 40-hour work week.

Employers also are now convinced that a hard recession is on the early 2023 horizon when the trillions of dollars of newly printed money run out.  Many are willing to put up with worker shortages now, rather than hire too many employees only to have them idle when consumer demand soon crashes.

Still other workers fear yet another COVID pandemic and are not eager to return to daily contact with the public.

The government has no idea how Americans remain sick with the mysterious “long COVID” chronic aftermath of the infectious phase of the disease.

Well over 100 million Americans have likely had COVID. An estimated 10-30 percent do not recover for months—or even years.

So, millions of COVID long haulers remain either unable to work or can only work part-time. 

Yet no one yet has fully calibrated the effect of newly disabled millions on the American economy.

Add up all these dark clouds and America is experiencing a perfect storm, in which only 61 percent of the able workforce is currently officially employed.

Human Rights Watch Accuses Palestinian Authority and Hamas of Torture Having made one “fair and balanced” condemnation, will the HRW now go back to what it loves to do best? Hugh Fitzgerald

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/07/human-rights-watch-accuses-palestinian-authority-hugh-fitzgerald/
“Given how grotesquely one-sided Human Rights Watch has been, it was a welcome surprise to find it in late June condemning both Hamas and the PA for their mistreatment of Palestinians.”

The NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) has made quite a name for itself for its incessant and virulent attacks on Israel. Here’s a sample of its many denunciations of the Jewish state:

Israeli authorities methodically privilege Jewish Israelis and discriminate against Palestinians. Laws, policies, and statements by leading Israeli officials make plain that the objective of maintaining Jewish Israeli control over demographics, political power, and land has long guided government policy. In pursuit of this goal, authorities have dispossessed, confined, forcibly separated, and subjugated Palestinians by virtue of their identity to varying degrees of intensity. In certain areas, as described in this report, these deprivations are so severe that they amount to the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution.

The Country Page of Israel/Palestine at the website of HRW repeats the same charge of “crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution” here. 

Israeli authorities are committing the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution against millions of Palestinians. For over 54 years, Israel has occupied Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, relying routinely on forcible displacement and excessive force. In the West Bank, authorities have facilitated the transfer of over 700,000 Israeli settlers, a war crime, confiscated vast swaths of Palestinian land, and made it nearly impossible for Palestinians to build in much of the territory without risking demolition. Israel severely restricts the movement of people and goods into and out of Gaza, with devastating humanitarian impact.

“Apartheid and persecution” – that’s how HRW sums up the sins of the  “colonial-settler state” of Israel. But at the same time, HRW has always minimized the misdeeds of the Palestinians. It has said nothing about the PA’s Pay-For-Slay program that rewards past, and minimizes future, acts of terrorism. It has said nothing about the Palestinian practice of honoring terrorists by naming schools, streets, squares, and sports competitions after them. It has said nothing about the Palestinian schoolbooks that inculcate violent antisemitism. It has said nothing about the Holocaust minimization and outright denial from PA leaders, beginning with Mahmoud Abbas. It has said nothing about Hamas’ practice in Gaza of hiding weapons inside and near civilian buildings such as schools, hospitals, apartment buildings. It has said nothing about Hamas’ holding two mentally defective Israeli citizens as prisoners.

HRW has repeated every charge, no matter how ludicrous,  against Israel.

Iran: Regime Fires IRGC Intel Chief, Arrests Senior General on Charges of Spying for Israel A failing regime in total disarray. Vijeta Uniyal

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/07/iran-regime-fires-irgc-intel-chief-arrests-senior-vijeta-uniyal/

Amid failed Iranian terrorist plots abroad and the assassination of several operatives linked to its nuclear weapons program, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the regime’s military and foreign terrorist arm, appears to be in total disarray.

News reports say that the Iranian regime fired the IRGC’s intelligence chief and arrested a senior IRGC commander on a charge of spying for Israel.

Hossein Taeb, who reportedly masterminded the recently foiled terror plot to kill Israeli nationals in Turkey, has been fired from the post of IRGC’s intelligence chief.

The Times of Israel noted, “Taeb was identified by Hebrew media last week as the Iranian official behind planned attacks on Israelis in Turkey.”

“The reports, citing Israeli security officials, said that Taeb was under intense pressure to carry out an attack, amid growing frustration in Iran over repeated Israeli successes in penetrating Iran’s most secret organizations,” the Israeli news website added.

Taeb’s plot was foiled last week after Israeli intelligence warned the Turkish authorities of an impending terror attack that led to the capture of several Iranian and local operatives in Istanbul.

Some wonderful news out of…wait for it…Saudi Arabia By Andrea Widburg

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/07/some_wonderful_news_out_ofwait_for_itsaudi_arabia.html

Trump may be gone from office, but the beneficial effects from the Abraham Accords just keep flowing (with a little help from both Obama and Biden).

For a long time, Saudi Arabia was one of the intellectual homes of antisemitic and anti-Israel sentiment. The Wahabi clerics whom the Saudi royal house supported held a special animus for Jews and that animus infused education in Saudi Arabia. Now, though, Saudi Arabia is backing away from this hostility to Israel and its textbooks are reflecting the increasingly friendly relationship between the two nations.

Two things are responsible for the change to that dynamic. The first was that Barack Obama worked hard to set Iran on the road to being a nuclear power, something that terrified Saudi Arabia and pushed it closer to Israel. The second was Trump’s Abraham Accords, which sidelined the troublesome Palestinians and encouraged Muslim nations in the Middle East to make separate peace agreements with Israel for both profit and national security.

While Saudi Arabia never officially entered into an Abraham Accords agreement with Israel, Trump (and, I’ve heard, Jared Kushner, who had a good relationship with Prince Mohammed bin Salman) nevertheless managed to create a behind-the-scenes conduit between Israel and Saudi Arabia. The external pressures bringing these two nations together have become even stronger as Biden picks up where Obama left off in terms of sheltering Iran on its way to becoming fully nuclear.