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January 2023

Florida Unemployment Rate Drops To 2.5% As Red States’ Economies Continue To Outperform Blue States

https://theleoterrell.com/florida-unemployment-rate-drops-to-2-5-as-red-states-economies-continue-to-outperform-blue-states/?utm_source=jeeng&utm_medium=email

On Friday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced that his state’s unemployment rate dropped to 2.5 percent in December, far below the national average. The news follows the pattern of Republican-led states outperforming Democrat-led states in economically recovering from the pandemic. 

“Florida continues to outpace the nation and withstand negative headwinds due to federal policy,” DeSantis said. “I look forward to building off our success with record tax relief in the upcoming legislative session.”

As explained in a press release from DeSantis’ office, Florida’s unemployment rate in December was “2.5 percent, 0.1 percentage point lower than the previous month’s rate and 1.0 percentage point lower than the national rate of 3.5 percent.”

“Florida’s statewide unemployment rate has been lower than the national rate for 25 consecutive months since December 2020,” the press release continued. “Between December 2021 and December 2022, Florida’s labor force grew by 361,000, or 3.5 percent. This was faster than the national labor force growth rate of 1.6 percent over the year.”

“Between December 2021 and December 2022, total private sector employment grew by 425,800 jobs (+5.3 percent), faster than the national private sector job growth rate of 3.3 percent over the year,” the press release added. “As of December 2022, Florida employers have added jobs for 32 consecutive months since May 2020. Florida’s private sector over-the-year job growth rate has exceeded the nation’s for 21 consecutive months since April 2021.”

DeSantis’ College Appointees Like Chris Rufo Show The Battle For America’s Academies Is Far From Over Samuel Mangold-Lenett

https://thefederalist.com/2023/01/26/desantis-college-appointees-like-chris-rufo-show-the-battle-for-americas-academies-is-far-from-over/

Fixing education has to start sometime, and it has to start somewhere; it looks like that time is now, and that place is Florida.

SARASOTA, Fla. — In early January, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed a group of six conservative academics and activists to the board of trustees of the New College of Florida in Sarasota. Some of the individuals nominated to the small liberal art school’s board include Chris Rufo, who has led the charge against the proliferation of critical race theory (CRT) and gender ideology in America’s classrooms and boardrooms; renowned constitutional scholar Charles Kesler; and Matthew Spalding, the current dean of Hillsdale College’s Van Andel Graduate School of Government.

Shortly after the announcement was made, DeSantis’ chief of staff, James Uthmeier, indicated that a priority of the new trustees would be establishing a curriculum specifically dedicated to “classical” education, giving New College further distinction from the rest of the institutions of higher learning that are currently a part of Florida’s state university system.

Speaking with The Federalist, Rufo suggested that by embracing classical education, New College could stave off the bureaucratic materialist bloat that has come to characterize and bog down much of higher education. Colleges have “adopted this kind of empty materialist enterprise that has squashed the more significant spiritual and intellectual enterprise of learning,” he said. “And I think classical schools are really at the forefront of saying, ‘we’ve lost our way, let’s look to the past to try and make a more meaningful present.’ Maybe then we’ll actually have something that matters to people.” 

New College’s approach to learning would become similar to that of classical schools like Hillsdale College in Michigan. As Uthmeier said earlier this month, “It is our hope that New College of Florida will become Florida’s classical college, more along the lines of a Hillsdale of the South.”

Vladimir Lenin and the American Left Study history to find out what ‘progressives’ have in store for us. by Mark Lewis

https://www.frontpagemag.com/vladimir-lenin-and-the-american-left/

At the Chinese Communist Party’s 20th Congress in October 2022, Xi Jinping’s report included the following statement: “Over the past decade, we have stayed committed to Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory…” Karl Marx was a scumbag (study his life), Deng Xiaoping was the thug who killed over 3,000 protesters at Tiananmen Square in June 1989, and Mao Zedong was the greatest mass murderer in human history (read more about him here). These men are the forerunners and mentors of Leftists in America today. This is the Left, folks. Study history to find out more about what these men were and believed. And thus, what their American offspring have in store for our country.

In this article, I want to home in on Vladimir Lenin, who Xi also mentioned, and who was the major instigator and theoretician of the communist revolution in Russia in 1917. I only have space to share with you a few quotes from this man whom, again, the Left idolizes. You’ll get an idea of what Lenin was and what the Left is.

1. “We must hate—hatred is the basis of communism. Children must be taught to hate their parents if they are not communists.” Hate is indeed a major characteristic of the Left; it is probably the main motivation for most of them. They have no clue what love is. Contrast Lenin’s words with the following: “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you” (Jesus, Matthew 5:44). Which system would you rather live under?

2. “A lie told often enough becomes the truth.” Most decent people think lying is wrong, but not Leftists. Anything to advance the cause is morally acceptable. And American Leftists certainly follow this adage of Lenin, hoping the American people will eventually accept their lies as truth. Sadly, too many do.

3. “Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.” This is frightening but is one of the reasons the Left is trying to “groom” children now. Indoctrinate them, as early as possible, with Leftist propaganda. It’s right out of Lenin’s playbook.

CHINA’S USEFUL IDIOTS BY NATE HOCHMAN

https://www.nationalreview.com/2023/01/chinas-useful-idiots/

A nation that is obsessed with apologizing for itself is ill-prepared to confront external threats.

The anti–“zero Covid” protesters in China may be finished with the CCP, but the CCP isn’t finished with them. After making a public show of easing some Covid restrictions, Xi Jinping and his army of Stasi-like thugs set about making an example of those involved in the regime’s monthslong embarrassment. The show of force against the protest movement was typical of dictatorships that rely, at least in part, on fear as a mechanism for maintaining power. But the efforts to delegitimize the anti-regime demonstrations had an ideological component as well. A New York Times piece on the crackdown today reported:

The party is also working to discredit the protesters by casting them as tools of malevolent foreign powers. Beijing has long dismissed dissent at home — from calls for women’s rights to pro-democracy activism to ethnic unrest — as the result of Western-backed subversion. The protests against “zero Covid” were no exception: One Chinese diplomat suggested that some of the demonstrators had been “bought by external forces.”

Describing the detention of four Chinese women who were alleged to have been involved in anti-regime activities, the Times reported: “The police have asked the women about their use of overseas messaging platforms or involvement in feminist activities, such as reading groups. . . . Chinese propaganda has decried feminism as another tool of foreign influence.” As a descriptive matter, feminist movements in China probably do draw inspiration from Western ideology. Yet the irony in Beijing’s narrative is that Chairman Xi still has plenty of enablers in the West — particularly among the left-wing cultural movements tied to the kind of activism his regime decries.

This is not to say that the progressive forces that have emerged from academia in recent years — fourth-wave feminism, critical race and gender theory, and so on — are pro-CCP. When pressed, most of their advocates would likely mouth bromides about the Chinese regime’s human-rights violations and its oppression of women. The Left, for the most part, is not motivated by an admiration for China, as segments of it were toward the Soviet Union. What today’s progressives are motivated by is a distaste for the idea of America having a set of “national interests,” let alone any serious efforts to defend them.

Another Wave of Joe Biden J-O-B-S Losses By Victoria Taft

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/victoria-taft/2023/01/27/another-wave-of-joe-biden-j-o-b-s-losses-n1665451

Let me tell you about a little something important, Fat. It happens to be the “number one job facing the middle class and it happens to be a three-letter word: Jobs!  J–O–B–S!  Jobs!” So declared then-Vice President Joe Biden on behalf of his boss, Barack Obama, back in 2008, the last time the economy was shredded.

Here we are all these years later and Joe Biden, millions of dollars richer, is presiding over another disastrous economy made worse by his government overspending. He must think we all have sons funneling us cash from money laundering operations with Ukraine and China or something.

But no Negative Nellies are allowed here. The president says the economy’s just great, and how dare you say anything any different, Jack, unless you want to do a pushup contest right here and now to settle it.

This week, the Big Guy was broken out of the White House and rushed off to a curated collection of union members to tout what a great economy he has built back better. He put his foot down and whispered; he growled about how he had “no intention of letting the Republicans wreck the economy” that he and the Democrats have done such a top-notch job of destroying.

But sadly for his Happy Days Are Here Again narrative, these past few days brought another round of Big Tech and media sector layoffs. This is beginning to be a weekly occurrence as Silicon Valley’s ones and zeros are marched past the La Cimbali latte machine and the chef’s menu board, down the slide, and into the unemployment lines.

Will anyone tell Joe?

Iran Wants a Presence in the Panama Canal By Lincoln Brown

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/lincolnbrown/2023/01/26/iran-wants-a-presence-in-the-panama-canal-n1665426

Between the demoralization of the military and a drop and its numbers, an economy in disarray, a wide open border, a dire lack of oil and weapons, and an administration that seems hell-bent on starting World War III in Europe, conservatives and independents are not the only ones taking notice of the state of the union. Enemies of the U.S. are smelling the blood in the water that is being hemorrhaged by a weakened America. They are emboldened by what will become known in military textbooks as one of the worst military withdrawals in the history of the world and political leaders who are more concerned with pronouns and white supremacy than anything else. And they are testing their limits.

According to a report in the Washington Free Beacon, Iran wants to establish a presence in the Panama Canal as part of a military presence in the Western Hemisphere. The same State Department that just last week was fretting over the fonts its employees use is “monitoring” the situation.

Lest you think this is just a potential eventuality, this could happen as soon as next month. Two Iranian warships have been granted permission to dock in Brazil. One of them is outfitted with “anti-ship cruise missiles, torpedoes, and naval cannons.” A department spokesman told the Free Beacon, “We are aware of these claims by Iran’s navy. We continue to monitor Iran’s attempts to have a military presence in the Western Hemisphere.” The spokesman did not elaborate on the administration’s plans.

The Caesars of the Information Age Donald Trump has been unbanned, but Silicon Valley censorship is still a menace to humanity. Brendan O’Neill

https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/01/26/the-caesars-of-the-information-age/

I thought I would feel some relief when the social-media giants came to their senses and let Donald Trump back on their platforms. Yet now that it’s happened, now that Meta has decreed that Trump has served his time in the virtual wilderness and may once again post on Facebook and Instagram, I just feel unnerved. Unnerved by the extraordinary power these people wield over who may and who may not engage with the billions of souls who gather online. Unnerved by their supranational authority to grant or rescind a licence to speak in the global town square. Unnerved by the historically unprecedented dominion this small clique of the woke rich enjoys over the liberty to utter.

The unbanning of Trump feels less like a victory for freedom of speech than a triumph of Silicon Valley Caesarism. It sends the message that it is for these Emperors of the Information Age to decide who may enter the modern arena of discussion, who may have to be expelled, how long they should be expelled for, and under what conditions they may be permitted to return once their punishment is complete.

Indeed, even though Meta’s statement on readmitting Trump to Facebook and Instagram is justified in the language of freedom of speech – ‘The public should be able to hear what their politicians are saying’, it says, with staggering gall, given it spent the past two years preventing the public from hearing what Trump was saying – it also says it will keep a tight leash on Trump. If he violates any of Meta’s protocols, he’ll be suspended again, they warn, for anywhere between one month and two years. So the politician may speak to the people, so long as he says nothing to offend the arrogant hip capitalists who control 21st-century public discussion. Their message is crystal clear: ‘We’re still in control, and we always will be.’

Trump was banished from social media in January 2021. Following the Capitol Hill riot of 6 January, virtually all of Silicon Valley decreed that he should be unpersoned, blacklisted, silenced. He was kicked off Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Spotify and Twitch. YouTube, Reddit and TikTok brought in stiff restrictions on the expression of pro-Trump sentiment. Google and Apple removed the Parler app from their stores, so that the virtual masses wouldn’t be able to access the one platform that was still allowing Trump to speak.

Gadi Taub should celebrate being ‘cancelled’ Ruthie Blum

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-729794

“Taub should celebrate his cancellation and continue to remind the majority of Israelis that their “lying eyes” are far more reliable than the false truths of democracy-doomsayers with a less-than-noble agenda.”

Israel’s radical daily Haaretz is calling on the public to “join its struggle for democracy.” The self-described “newspaper for thinking people” has always aimed its content at a certain type of high-brow reader, but it long ago ceased pretending to be a professional broadsheet, opting instead to serve as a proud vehicle for left-wing activism. 

Its current campaign is focused on delegitimizing the new government in Jerusalem, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The slogan of its ad – “Democracy doesn’t end with elections” – is perfect for the endeavor. 

It also reveals the true nature of the Saturday-night demonstrations in the streets of the country’s major cities. Though ostensibly about Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s plans to reform the judicial system, they’re actually an expression of disappointment at the loss of the November 1 Knesset elections to the Right.

The best way to obfuscate this inconvenient fact is to pull a twofer: denigrate the victors who won through a democratic process, and accuse them of posing a threat to democracy by virtue of their being in the majority. It’s a neat trick that has some fellow travelers fooled and many others intimidated.

British universities putting ‘trigger warnings’ on Shakespeare, Greek tragedies for being too dark According to ‘The Telegraph,’ several British colleges have placed warnings on ‘Beowulf,’ ‘Hamlet’ and some Greek tragedies.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/british-universities-putting-trigger-warnings-shakespeare-greek-tragedies-being-too-dark

British universities have reportedly begun putting trigger warnings on great Greek and Shakespearean tragedies for students who may be sensitive to their dark content. 

U.K. outlet The Telegraph reported Wednesday that the University of Derby and several other British universities have deemed celebrated tragedies like Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” as “potentially upsetting” for students.

As such, university staff have attached “trigger warnings” to a school literature module that covers classic tragedies, cautioning students that the works are “obsessed” with suffering.

One British university has placed a “trigger warning” on a class featuring works of Shakespeare, thanks to the stories’ dark content. (The Associated Press)

The Telegraph added, “Athenian dramas concerning the deaths of mythical kings, and Arthur Miller’s classic Death of a Salesman, are also on the reading list for the module, which has been given a blanket advisory on how the tragic could be troubling.”

The outlet provided the text of the warning provided by professors for their students, which stated, “Tragedy is a genre obsessed with violence and suffering, often of a sexual or graphic kind, and so some of the content might be triggering for some students.”

The “trigger warning” provided an additional note from the class instructor: “If you feel that your engagement with particular texts or themes is going to present challenges, do speak to me in advance of the class.”

America’s Future is Bleak When Only 27% of the Younger Generations are Proud to be American By Steve McCann

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/01/americas_future_is_bleak_when_only_27_of_the_younger_generations_are_proud_to_be_american.html

I first encountered unabashed pride in being American when I came to the United States in 1951.  I sailed across the Atlantic alone.  Perhaps someone along the way told me tht I was going to the United States; however, as a seven or eight-year-old I knew nothing about the nation that had granted me refuge.  Upon disembarking in New York what stood out was not the awe-inspiring and intimidating skyscrapers seemingly reaching to the heavens, or for the first time in my life seeing a city not lying in ruins from the ravages of war, but that there was a palpable atmosphere of confidence, optimism, self-reliance and above all pride among the people in this new and mystifying country.

I soon learned that this mindset permeated the entirety of this vast nation and had since its founding, thus, enabling it to evolve into the most successful nation-state in the annals of mankind.  While no nation can ever create an ideal society, due to certain immutable characteristics of the human race, no country has come closer to doing so.  It is the only nation in history committed to right societal wrongs, to live by the underlying tenets of Judeo-Christianity and govern itself by means of a written Constitution that reflects those values.

As recently as 2004, 91% of Americans were extremely or very proud to be American and the United States ranked first in the world in national pride.  However, in less than twenty years there has been a stunning reversal that portends a dire future for the United States as a precipitous erosion in national pride has undermined societal confidence, self-reliance, optimism, and cohesion. 

A recent poll revealed that a record low of just 68% of the citizenry are extremely or very proud to be American.  However, underlying that overall dismal outcome is the reality that among the two youngest generations only 38% of Millennials and 16% of Gen Z are proud to be American despite being the beneficiaries of living in a unfathomably prosperous nation that has not known any profound national adversity since the Great Depression. 

What we are seeing play out is the reality of demographic change in America as the younger mal-educated generations account for over half of the populace and are increasingly becoming culturally and politically influential.  Within these generations an overwhelming majority have been indoctrinated by socialist/Marxist ideologues to believe that a capitalist United States as founded is irredeemable and must be transformed.