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February 2021

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Crucifying Jordan Peterson The Times of London does a hit job. Bruce Bawer

By on February 4th, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/02/crucifying-jordan-peterson-bruce-bawer/

Jordan Peterson was a relatively unknown clinical psychologist and University of Toronto professor until his brave 2016 challenge to a draconian Canadian law on transgender pronouns drew widespread attention. Millions watched his brilliant, wide-ranging YouTube lectures about life, truth, feelings, personality, and values. For a while there he seemed ubiquitous, giving interviews and lectures around the world and, in the process, becoming the planet’s most famous living public intellectual. He published a massive bestseller, 12 Rules for Life.

Then, suddenly, he disappeared. For the last two years he’s been in medical hell, experiencing torturous pain and being brought to the brink of death by a puzzling malady that took him, in search of answers, to hospitals, clinics, and rehab centers in Canada, the U.S., Russia, and Serbia. Meanwhile his wife was diagnosed with a rare and deadly cancer from which she now seems, miraculously, to have recovered. On top of everything else, he, his wife, and his deeply devoted adult daughter all contracted the COVID virus.

Emerging from this nightmare and prepared to step back onto the public stage, Peterson agreed to a major interview with Decca Aitkenhead for the Sunday Times of London. The story appeared on January 31; on the same day, Peterson posted on YouTube a recording of the nearly three-hour Zoom conversations that he and his daughter, Mikhaila, had with Aitkenhead. In the recording (which as of Wednesday had accumulated half a million hits), Peterson is friendly and forthcoming, but emotionally fragile as a consequence of his long torment; at one point he breaks into tears and has to step away from the microphone. Mikhaila, for her part, spends an hour and a half telling Aitkenhead the full story of Peterson’s illness, complete with vivid particulars. And Aitkenhead poses throughout as entirely sympathetic, sounding more like a compassionate social worker than a journalist.

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

[WATCH] Democrat Senator Destroys Biden’s Executive Order Axing the Keystone Pipeline By Matt Margolis

By on February 4th, 2021

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2021/02/03/watch-democrat-senator-destroys-bidens-executive-order-axing-the-keystone-pipeline-n1422774

Senator Jon Tester, the Democrat from Montana, ripped Joe Biden’s decision to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline on Tuesday.

“I’ve been a supporter of the Keystone pipeline. There have been two caveats and they’ve been basic caveats: you do it to the safety standards and you respect private property rights. I think the Keystone pipeline folks could have done a better job getting the Fort Peck Tribe on board and they need to continue working to do that. But, in the end I think it’s a good project,” Tester explained. “I believe in climate change but I also think this one pipeline isn’t going to turn it around—isn’t going to turn our climate around. It’s not going to make it a markedly worse situation.”

Tester insists that his belief in man-made climate change and his support for the pipeline do not contradict each other. “These might sound like two different philosophies butting heads but I’ll tell you, in my real life, I’m a farmer,” he said. “And we’re not where we need to be in this country for, you know, replacing diesel fuel with something else, in a tractor, for example, or a semi that’s going down the road. We will get there, but it’s going to take some good policies from Washington, D.C., and it’s going to take some money invested in R&D.”

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‘We Don’t Have Time to Screw Around’: Sinema, Manchin Targeted by PAC Run by Former AOC Staffers By Stacey Lennox

By on February 4th, 2021

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/stacey-lennox/2021/02/03/sinema-and-manchin-targeted-for-primary-challenges-in-2024-through-a-pac-run-by-former-aoc-staffers-n1422783

Democrat Senators Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) are being targeted in 2024 for primary challenges through a PAC set up by former AOC staffers. Saikat Chakrabarti and Corbin Trent run the No-Excuses PAC. Both were involved in the founding of Brand New Congress and the Justice Democrats, which seek to recruit and elect progressive radicals to Congress. Their poster child, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, is their model Congress member, and both men served on her staff in Washington, D.C.

In the 2018 cycle, these two organizations teamed up to primary sitting Congress members with more progressive candidates. They also picked up a few existing members who had been elected previously. They were successful in surprising incumbents in deep blue districts who did not take them seriously. As Speaker Nancy Pelosi noted at the time, in the districts where these candidates ran, a glass of water with a “D” on it could win. They are not the candidates who earned Democrats the House majority. In fact, credit is given to their radical rhetoric for Democrat losses in the House in the 2020 cycle.

In 2020, two candidates, Cori Bush (D-Mo.) and Marie Newman (D-Ill.), achieved the same Democrat-for-Democrat exchange in deep blue districts during the 2018 cycle. There were no net gains for the party, and outside of these areas, both their primary and general election candidates were defeated. Some were shellacked. Neither group has ever placed a senator nor won an election against a Republican in a red or purple district.

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

SPLC Keeps Conservative and Christian Nonprofits on the ‘Hate Group’ List, Doesn’t Mention Antifa By Tyler O’Neil

By on February 4th, 2021

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/tyler-o-neil/2021/02/03/did-the-splc-just-admit-its-hate-group-number-isnt-a-reliable-measure-of-hate-n1422928

On Monday, the far-left smear factory the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) released its annual list of “hate groups” for the previous year, in this case, 2020. The SPLC had to acknowledge that the list of “hate groups” declined, but the organization insisted that “hate” had not declined, so its “hate groups” are of limited value when it comes to measuring hate. This admission comes after years of accusations — from former employees, mainstream conservatives, and some liberal leaders — that the “hate group” number is inflated or a fundraising scam.

The SPLC claimed to identify 838 active hate groups in 2020. “Though numbers have dropped 11% overall, we are still recording historic highs,” the organization claimed. “In 2015, the numbers jumped from 784 to 892, and they have remained well above 800 for the duration of the Trump presidency.”

The SPLC insisted that hate did not decrease in 2020, even though the number of “hate groups” supposedly did. “It is important to understand that the number of hate groups is merely one metric for measuring the level of hate and racism in America, and that the decline in groups should not be interpreted as a reduction in bigoted beliefs and actions motivated by hate,” the report states (emphasis added).

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HUMOR AND SATIRE Comments turned off

Democrats Announce It Is Safe To Reopen Now That Federal Government Has Tested Negative For Trump

By on February 4th, 2021

https://babylonbee.com/news/democrats-announce-it-is-safe-to-reopen-now-that-federal-government-tested-negative-for-republican

U.S.—Democrat leaders around the country are declaring it is now safe to reopen since the federal government’s tests have come back negative for Trump.

“The key indicator we were looking for before we could begin the reopening process was that Trump wasn’t president,” said Governor Gavin Newsom. “While we are at the worst point yet in this pandemic, it now makes sense to open– even though the science said the exact opposite last year when it was comparably mild. Because now, all the tests are indicating we have tested negative for Trump.”

Governor Cuomo agreed, saying that all his key science experts — the ones who haven’t quit yet in disgust — are advising him to go ahead and reopen since the tests are coming back negative for Trump. “When the tests were positive some weeks ago, we were pretty concerned,” Cuomo told a reporter down by the docks as he threw a dead senior into the harbor. “Now, the tests are all looking really good for Democrats, so we’re gonna go ahead and get started.”

Governor Whitmer last year cast a spell on Michigan so it would be always winter and never Christmas, but she says she is canceling the spell now and encouraging Michiganders to celebrate “the true Christmas: Biden getting elected.”

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Dems’ COVID-19 Bill Is A Grab-Bag Of Leftist Goodies — Not Stimulus

By on February 4th, 2021

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/02/04/dems-covid-19-bill-is-a-grab-bag-of-leftist-goodies-not-stimulus/

After a group of 10 Senate Republicans duly trudged to the White House on Monday to show their “bipartisanship” on yet another COVID-19 stimulus bill, President Joe Biden did the predictable: He looked at their outreached hand of political comity and spat on it. Just as well, since the only thing the Democrats’ plan will “stimulate” will be more debt.

Biden and his party were never really interested in bipartisanship at all, despite their claims to the contrary. The whole point of this choreographed Kabuki political theater was to humiliate the Republicans, who foolishly took Biden and the Democrats at their word.

Republicans had suggested a more-or-less stripped-down bill of “just” $600 billion, compared to the Democratic wish-list of $1.9 trillion, which includes such non-COVID-19-related items as a $15-an-hour national minimum wage, a $350 billion bailout for poorly run states and cities, $170 billion for K-12 schools and colleges, $25 billion for “rental assistance,” and so on. Democrats also want checks of $1,400 for most households.

Republicans seek checks of $1,000, but would exclude families with more than $50,000 in income from the handouts. Their spending on all other aid is roughly two-thirds what the Democrats seek.

In rejecting compromise, Biden gave Congress a green light to totally ignore Republican input by passing a stimulus package through reconciliation, not the normal budget process. That will require a simple majority of 51 senators, not a supermajority of 60, to pass.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Less than 5% of five million people deemed ‘Palestinian refugees’ meet the criteria for this status. By Richard Goldberg and Jonathan Schanzer

By on February 4th, 2021

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-u-n-refugee-agency-with-few-actual-refugees-

Lost amid President Trump’s unceremonious send-off were a pair of Jan. 14 tweets from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo : Of the more than five million people identified as “Palestinian refugees” by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, fewer than 200,000 meet the criteria for refugee status.

This is a breach of trust by a U.N. agency, but Unrwa is not the only one to blame. One administration after another, Democrat and Republican, enabled Unrwa to perpetuate its fiction. It’s time for a new U.S. policy that promotes regional peace, advances Palestinian human rights and defends the U.S. taxpayer.

History can explain, in part, how this mess was created. In 1948, five Arab armies invaded the fledgling state of Israel but lost. Unrwa was established to care for Arab residents displaced by that conflict. The organization was dedicated solely to Palestinian Arabs—independent of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, which took responsibility for all other world refugee populations.

Unrwa became part of a new Arab narrative: Millions of Palestinians were trapped as refugees, living in destitution and yearning for home. Until these people achieved their “right of return,” the Arab world insisted, the Middle East would never see peace. Meanwhile, Israel absorbed 800,000 Jewish refugees who were exiled from Arab states.

Over time, America somehow allowed itself to become Unrwa’s leading donor. From 1950 to 2018, American taxpayers contributed more than $6 billion, even as legislators from both parties raised concerns about the agency. Employees moonlighted as terrorists. Schools were used to store weapons and launch rockets against Israel. Concerns in Congress mounted over waste, fraud and abuse.

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Liberalism’s Ministry of Truth Academics and the progressive press mull state media controls.

By on February 4th, 2021

https://www.wsj.com/articles/liberalisms-ministry-of-truth-11612395404?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

The academic establishment and progressive press want you to know two things: First, conservative claims of social-media bias are bogus. As Silicon Valley firms police content, their decisions are, miraculously, wholly uninfluenced by ideological preference.

Second, there is an urgent need for a much wider crackdown on political speech, perhaps led by the Biden Administration and requiring the creation of new government agencies. In other words, all that conservative suppression that’s, er, not happening? We need more of it.

New York University’s Stern Center for Business and Human Rights released a brief this week that is being amplified in the press entitled, “False Accusation: The Unfounded Claim that Social Media Companies Censor Conservatives.” It argues that “some conservatives believe their content is suppressed on partisan grounds when, in fact, it’s being singled out because it violates neutral platform rules.”

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EDUCATION Comments turned off

Civics and History Education Is at a Crossroads By Michael DiMatteo

By on February 4th, 2021

https://www.realclearpublicaffairs.com/articles/2021/02/03/civics_and_history_education_is_at_a_crossroads_658767.html

In the current academic climate, teaching social justice has become more important than content. This is especially true in the fields of history and civic education. For example, teacher training at the University of Illinois is centered around social justice, as more than one student teacher has related to me during informal interviews. Where once the emphasis was on such topics as Bloom’s taxonomy and classroom management, social justice topics seem to have taken precedence.

If alarm bells are not going off in your head right now, they should be.

Those of us who teach history or civics, whether at the high school or collegiate levels, are at the forefront of this battle. (Yes, it is not incorrect to call this a battle.) History is oftentimes in conflict as those who want to forward a political agenda are often pitted against those who seek to teach honest historical inquiry so that students, through prudent study, can arrive at their own conclusions.

History is not wrong. Those who teach it with a bias in order to forward a set of political ideals are.

Historiography, the way history is researched and told, has tentacles of different stripes based largely on time period. The Ancient Greeks and Romans told their histories in an effort to influence morality and what they considered to be the qualities of good men. Eventually, days and dates were included so as to preserve the great deeds of kings and queens for posterity’s sake, with critical histories being published only after the death of a monarch.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

A Pax Sinica takes shape in the Middle East David Goldman

By on February 4th, 2021

https://asiatimes.com/2021/02/a-pax-sinica-takes-shape-in-the-middle-east/

The emerging Sinocentric bloc of Turkey, Iran and Pakistan could leave America’s ally India isolated and weak

A “Pax Sinica” is emerging in the Middle East and Central Asia in plain sight, albeit unnoticed by American planners. The main brace of the strategic architecture is an emerging alliance between Pakistan, a Chinese economic dependency, and Turkey, which relies increasingly on China for financing and trade. Chinese media reported the Turkish foreign minister’s visit to Pakistan Jan. 12 to 13th as a key step towards such an alliance.  And if Turkey and Pakistan ally, “Iran has no choice but to find a way to join the Turkish-Pakistan camp,” in the view of a Chinese military site reposted by NetEase.

I first raised the prospect of a “Pax Sinica” in the Middle East in 2013, and noted last year that a much-discussed (but so far only discussed) Sino-Iranian investment deal of up to $400 billion was “a move on a global game board in response to American efforts to hinder China’s breakout as a technological superpower.” The Turkey-Pakistan rapprochement of the past several months adds a new dimension to China’s ambitions in the region.

While America focused on the peace agreements between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain and Sudan, China maneuvered among the only three Muslim states with significant military capacity and economic potential. The $2 trillion Belt and Road Initiative will provide the economic foundation for Chinese hegemony from the Indian Ocean to the Black Sea. The emerging Sinocentric bloc of Turkey, Iran and Pakistan will leave America’s ally India isolated and weak, Chinese planners believe. It’s geopolitics played on the principles of Go, whose object is to encircle and isolate the opposing pieces.

The “Abraham Accords” between Israel and several Arab states have symbolic importance, and expose the Arab-Israeli conflict as the least interesting fault line in Western Asia, as former Israeli ambassador Michael Oren wrote Jan. 12. They are the result of American weakness rather than strength; Trump’s declared intention to remove American boots from the region’s ground left the Gulf States to fend for themselves against Iran and Turkey. The Gulf monarchies decided that Israel was less objectionable than Iranian Shi’ites or the Turkish-backed Muslim Brotherhood. But Israel and the Gulf States cannot quite fill the gap left by the strategic withdrawal from the United States. China means to fill it by working with Turkey, Iran and Pakistan.

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