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February 2021

1689 or 1776? The Enlightenment Era did begin in 1689 and America is the quintessential Enlightenment nation, but 1776 is still the right choice for America’s founding year. By Robert Curry

https://amgreatness.com/2021/02/08/1689-or-1776/

K. S. Bruce has written a thoughtful and informed commentary urging America to adopt the “1689 Project” in place of the 1619 Project. 

As you probably already know, the 1619 Project is an ugly attempt by the Left to persuade the uninformed that America was founded as a slave nation and is still today a systemically racist one. Bruce proposes 1689 instead because that year marks the beginning of the Enlightenment Era. The year 1689 misses the target, however, as surely as 1619 does. The Enlightenment Era did begin in 1689 and America is the quintessential Enlightenment nation, but 1776 is still the right choice for America’s founding year—which means President Trump’s 1776 Advisory Commission picked the correct year for its report to the nation. 

Because the Enlightenment Era began in Britain, 1689 marks the beginning of the British Enlightenment—but the American Enlightenment was a far cry from the British Enlightenment, and by 1776 the differences were deep and wide. 1689 might be a good pick for the year the British should rally around, but let’s leave that decision to them. 

Enlightenment thinking spread from Britain, but its fate was very different wherever it traveled. The French Enlightenment took a significantly different direction than the British one, and the American Enlightenment took yet another direction from both the British and the French. Voltaire in France was as different from John Locke in England as Thomas Jefferson was from either one of them.

Bruce notes a key distinction between the British Enlightenment and the American Enlightenment in this way:

Locke’s own writings described “life, liberty and the pursuit of property,” which the American Framers adapted to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

COVID-19 Relief Bill Stalled Over Payments to Illegal Aliens By Stephen Green

https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2021/02/09/covid-relief-bill-stalled-over-payments-to-illegal-aliens-n1424190

A trillion or two dollars in the COVID-19 relief bill has been stalled by Senate Democrats insisting on payments to illegal aliens, while millions of Americans remain unnecessarily unemployed and hopeless.

POLITICO reports that Democrats are “split” as “progressives rage” in their effort to send more borrowed money to illegal aliens.

“Split” might be putting it all too nicely.

Whatever the case, it took two POLITICO infotainment writers, Burgess Everett and Marriane Levine, to come up with this awful paragraph:

An effort to restrict stimulus checks to undocumented immigrants is blowing a hole in Democrats’ unity in the Biden era, after a bloc of Democrats sided with Republicans over their more progressive colleagues last week. The immigration status of those seeking new stimulus payments is shaping up as a major point of contention among Democrats as the House and Senate write their coronavirus relief bills, presaging the tough fights ahead among the party’s tight majorities in Congress on a politically volatile issue.

The effort is to restrict stimulus checks from illegal aliens, not to them, and “undocumented immigrants” isn’t the correct legal terminology.

Whatever.

Manchin pushes Biden to reverse Keystone XL pipeline rejection by Josh Siegel,

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy/manchin-pushes-biden-to-reconsider-keystone-xl-pipeline-rejection

Joe Manchin, the most centrist Democrat in a split Senate, is calling on President Biden to reconsider his decision to cancel a permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

Manchin, the chairman of the powerful Energy and Natural Resources Committee, asked Biden in a letter on Tuesday that was shared with the Washington Examiner to consider what rejecting the pipeline means for safety, jobs, and energy security.

Biden’s decision, part of a day-one climate change executive order, has drawn backlash from union leaders who endorsed him and some centrist Democrats who say the cancellation will kill thousands of construction jobs.

The Biden administration is facing questions from these traditional allies on how its clean energy and infrastructure spending agenda will create new jobs that can replace lost work in the fossil fuel industry.

Manchin, who represents fossil fuel-intensive West Virginia, has been among the Democrats who have criticized Biden’s move to cancel the 2,000-mile Keystone XL pipeline that would have run from Alberta in western Canada to Texas.

But by going directly to Biden and calling for him to reverse the decision, Manchin is going a step further.

Soldiering on for the Jews and Israel By Ruthie Blum

https://www.jns.org/opinion/soldiering-on-for-the-jews-and-israel/
A new biography reveals the lifelong battles of Australian-Israeli warrior Isi Leibler.

(February 9, 2021 / JNS) Reading a biography about a friend is a mixed experience. On the one hand, the protagonist is familiar. On the other, he’s a complete stranger, whose story unfolds like that of a fictional character being introduced in a novel.

This is the sense of duality that I had while curled up with Lone Voice: The Wars of Isi Leibler, a tome by renowned Australian-Jewish historian Suzanne D. Rutland.

Before meeting Leibler in person 20 years ago, I knew about the human-rights activist from Australia and his long-standing fight on behalf of Soviet Jewry, his tireless battle against global anti-Semitism and his connection to the World Jewish Congress—an organization from which he subsequently resigned as vice president and whose financial corruption he would launch a campaign to expose.

I was also aware that he possessed one of the world’s largest private libraries of Jewish books, certainly the most extensive in Israel. Visions of a dimly lit room covered floor-to-ceiling in volumes of bibles bound in leather and gold, alongside works of the sages and interpretations of the Talmud, came to mind.
Judging by his aptly named “Candidly Speaking” columns in The Jerusalem Post—all brutally honest and hard-hitting—I imagined the man himself to be a daunting, scholarly figure around whom I would do well to watch my intellectual step.

Greta Thunberg admits to being a puppet, is now under investigation for collusion and conspiracy  By Ethan Huff

https://www.newstarget.com/2021-02-07-greta-thunberg-admits-puppet-investigation-collusion-conspiracy.html

Climate child Greta Thunberg is the subject of a new criminal investigation after she tweeted a list of her scripted marching orders, apparently accidentally, to her 4.8 million Twitter followers.

It appears as though the 18-year-old global warming activist was trying to tweet an “organic” post in support of the farmers protest in India when she mistakenly shared a document from her handlers outlining tactics for rallying left-wing Twitter users to join the movement.

“These are just some suggested posts, but feel free to tweet your own,” read the first bullet point on the document, which Greta quickly deleted once she realized, apparently, what she had done.

“It’s helpful if you add images or videos to your tweets (some images below),” the document went on to explain. “You can also tag others who can either reshare and/or the potential tags listed above to put pressure on them as well.”

Below these instructions was a series of sample tweets with a “CLICK HERE TO TWEET” button for each one. All Greta had to do, it appears, was click on one and pretend it was her own, and voila: instant support from her drone followers.

Reckless rhetoric is a reckless standard in this impeachment By Jonathan Turley

https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/537952-reckless-rhetoric-is-a-reckless-standard-in-this-impeachment

“James Comey used such rhetoric when he said, “The Republican Party needs to be burned down. It is just not a healthy political organization.” Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin likewise claimed, “We have to collectively in essence burn down the Republican Party. We should level them because if there are survivors, if there are people who weather the storm, they will do it again.”

Little more than one year since the first impeachment of Donald Trump, the Senate is poised to pass judgment on him again. There is, however, one notable difference in the trial that starts today. In 2020, his conduct when it came to Ukraine turned on his words alone. This time, a vote to convict could be seen as implicating a host of others in using similarly reckless rhetoric, including some of these Senate jurors.

The search for moral clarity will be lost if Americans cannot distinguish between the behavior of the accused and that of his jury. Polls show half the country favors conviction, so this trial could end up as an indictment of both sides for fueling our divisions. Impeachment was intended to be used in the clearest cases to secure a supermajority vote for conviction. However, Congress itself could wind up appearing like an unimpeached conspirator, not in the riots, but with our national discord.

MORE HEADLINES FEBRUARY 9, 2021

Watch: Joe Biden Stumbles While Boarding Air Force One https://www.breitbart.com/health/2021/02/08/watch-joe-biden-stumbles-while-boarding-air-force-one/
White House Asked to Explain Killing Oil Jobs in Favor of ‘Green’ Jobs That…Don’t Exist https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2021/02/08/white-house-asked-to-explain-killing-oil-jobs-while-green-jobs-dont-exist-n2584403?

Hubris: Elites brazenly gloat they rigged election…and that’s good news for us https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/02/hubris_elites_brazenly_gloat_they_rigged_election__and_why_thats_good_news_for_us.html
Evidence Mounts that Capitol Breach Was Pre-Planned, Eroding Incitement Allegation in Trump Impeachment Trial https://thejewishvoice.com/2021/02/evidence-mounts-that-capitol-breach-was-pre-planned-eroding-incitement-allegation-in-trump-impeachment-trial/
Bill Maher Blames Capitol Riot on Christianity: It Was a ‘Faith-Based Initiative’ https://www.faithwire.com/2021/02/08/bill-maher-blames-capitol-riot-on-christianity-it-was-a-faith-based-initiative/
John Kerry ‘grovelling’ to the world on climate change is ‘sickening’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDqmiGuLTJk

Joe Biden’s Immigration Crisis Is Just Beginning https://townhall.com/tipsheet/juliorosas/2021/02/08/joe-bidens-immigration-crisis-is-just-beginning-n2584381?
 Biden has ‘defunded ICE by memorandum’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?

China on the Move Militarily, Testing Biden https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iX3qqhOJ1Y

Thomas Sowell on Black History MYTHS Promoted by the Left https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDltQlrU5nE
Thomas Sowell on the Current Black Culture https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtyoNSmOYz
ACLU’s ‘Myths and Facts’ About Transgender Athletes Debunked https://www.breitbart.com/sports/2021/02/08/aclus-myths-facts-about-transgender-athletes-debunked/
Biden Claims ‘America Is Back’ Then Pompeo Shreds Him with Just 1 Mic-Dropping Line https://www.westernjournal.com/biden-claims-america-back-pompeo-shreds-just-1-mic-dropping-line/
US to rejoin UN Human Rights Council, reversing Trump’s withdrawal https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/us-to-rejoin-un-human-rights-council-reversing-trumps-withdrawal-658185
Biden: Closed Schools are a “National Emergency”, But Don’t Make Me Open Them https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2021/02/biden-closed-schools-are-national-emergency-dont-daniel-greenfield/
Iran cleric: People who are vaccinated for COVID have ‘become homosexuals’ https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/iran-cleric-people-who-are-vaccinated-for-covid-have-become-homosexuals-658173
Woke Outrage as Few Scotland Players Kneel to BLM Before Historic Rugby Win over England https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/02/07/woke-outrage-few-scotland-players-kneel-blm-before-historic-rugby-win-over-england/

 
 

Virus-free. www.avast.com

BDS: Boycott, Divest and Sanction is out to destroy America by Diane Bederman

https://dianebederman.com/bds-boycott-divest-and-sanction-is-out-to-destroy-ameri

There is an attack on America, today, coming from BDS, Boycott, Divest and Sanction, with the sole intent of destroying the country by attacking her at her very foundation, the Judeo/Christian ethic, which promotes freedom, free speech and free will and underpins the American Constitution.

Remember when Obama derided people who hold on to their guns and religion?

“You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them… They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion…”

Religion?

This was a direct salvo against the ethic that is meant to tie Americans, together.

This revolutionary, evolutionary ethic states all people are born with equal intrinsic value and all life is sacred.  That means we never judge people based on their race, colour, creed, religion or sexual orientation; their characteristics, but rather their character. The ethic that came out of the desert 3500 years ago taught us that we are the subjects of our destiny, not the object of our fate. We are neither born into the manor nor to be subservient.  We have what Jason D. Hill, author of We Have Overcome, professor of philosophy and Honors Distinguished Faculty at DePaul University in Chicago, calls moral agency: free will.  And that same ethic promoted free speech. It was the prophet, Jeremiah, who died defending free speech.

Cybersecurity Threats: The Daunting Challenge Of Securing The Internet Of Things Chuck Brooks

https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckbrooks/2021/02/07/cybersecurity-threats-the-daunting-challenge-of-securing-the-internet-of-things/?sh=5d8691f25d50

The Internet of Things (IoT) broadly refers to devices and equipment that are readable, recognizable, locatable, addressable and/or controllable via the internet. This incorporates physical objects communicating with each other including machine to machine, and machine to people. It encompasses everything from edge computing devices to home appliances, from wearable technology to cars. IoT represents the melding of the physical world and the digital world.

By 2025, it is expected that there will be more than 30 billion IoT connections, almost 4 IoT devices per person on average and that also amounts to trillions of sensors connecting and interacting on these devices. State of the IoT 2020: 12 billion IoT connections (iot-analytics.com).  According to The McKinsey Global Institute, 127 new devices connect to the internet every second.

That is a whole lot of IoT devices and protecting such an enormous attack surface is no easy task, especially when there are so many varying types and security standards on the devices. The prevailing perspective from a security operations perspective on those billions of IoT devices  is that anything connected can be hacked.

What Happened to Officer Brian Sicknick? No one should discount the idea that Democrats and the news media would intentionally promote a totally fabricated story to destroy Donald Trump and vilify his supporters. By Julie Kelly

https://amgreatness.com/2021/02/08/what-happened-to-officer-brian-sicknick/

The claim is so pervasive as not to be questioned: Five people died as a result of the January 6 “insurrection” at the Capitol building, killed by blood-thirsty Trump voters at the president’s behest, out for revenge over a stolen election.

Even though only one death—the shooting of Ashli Babbitt by a still-unidentified police officer—is provable by video evidence, the other fatalities nonetheless are accepted as an article of faith to stoke public outrage about what happened that day.

The most tragic death, the media and lawmakers lament, is that of United States Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick. The 42-year-old New Jersey native was a 12-year veteran of the Capitol police force and himself a supporter of Donald Trump.

Before details about his death could be confirmed, the media quickly insisted Sicknick died after he was attacked at the Capitol. 

“A United States Capitol Police officer died Thursday night from injuries sustained when he engaged with a pro-Trump mob that descended on the U.S. Capitol the day before,” the New York Times reported January 8. The officer, according to the Times, had been “struck . . . in the head with a fire extinguisher, according to two law enforcement officials. With a bloody gash in his head, Mr. Sicknick was rushed to the hospital and placed on life support.”

Sicknick died on January 7. A statement released by the police department later that night vaguely supported the media’s emerging narrative.