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February 2023

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Hear About the Transurrection? No, of Course Not Salvatore Babones

By on February 11th, 2023

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/society/2023/02/hear-about-the-transurrection-no-of-course-not/

“If the much-denounced Jan 6 ‘insurrection’ by Trump supporters is the yardstick, this week’s invasion of the Oklahoma legislature by an angry, chanting mob should have been front-page news. Ah, but then these protesters were trans activists and rent-a-mob leftoids, so different standards must be applied.”
Insurrection! A violent insurgency has once again hit America, even as Joe Biden rose to the podium to deliver his State of the Union Address. Trespassing on government property and hurling racist chants, the mob of mostly white insurrectionists sought to disrupt constitutional government in the name of “individual autonomy” and “personal liberty”.

A mob of racist heterophobes (above) illegally occupied the Oklahoma State Capitol building Tuesday night in an unsuccessful attempt to disrupt Governor Kevin Stitt’s State of the State Address. Putting lives in danger, the transgender activists yelled “this is our house” and “trans lives matter”.

The first phrase has been widely condemned as a revolutionary slogan used by Trump-MAGA Republicans on January 6, 2021. The second phrase evokes the “all lives matter” bumper stickers that were widely condemned as racist in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020.

Oklahoma is deep MAGA country. In the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump defeated  Joe Biden by a margin of 2-1, winning every single county in the state. Thus is comes as no
surprise to see white Oklahomans rising up in insurrection, culturally appropriating BLM rhetoric, and pursuing a self-proclaimed “freedom” agenda in defiance of democratic norms.

Strangely, neither the mainstream media in the United States nor Australia’s ABC have covered the insurrection. In fact, it seems that only one American television network (Fox News) has reported on it. Oh, and the Daily Mail.

The far-right Oklahoma insurrectionists object to pending legislation in the state that would insert big government into the lives of ordinary (?) people. Governor Stitt pointed out in his address that “minors can’t vote, can’t purchase alcohol, can’t purchase cigarettes”, implying that in line with these positions “we shouldn’t allow a minor to get a permanent gender altering surgery”.

He called for a ban on “all gender transition surgeries and hormone therapies on minors in the state”.

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BOOKS Comments turned off

Tocqueville in Arabia: The Anxieties of the Democratic Age From the vantage point of the aristocratic soul, the truant’s freedom offered by the Democratic Age is initially both temptation and horror.  By Joshua Mitchell

By on February 11th, 2023

https://amgreatness.com/2023/02/10/tocqueville-in-arabia-the-anxieties-of-the-democratic-age/

This essay is adapted from the new paperback edition of Tocqueville in Arabia: The Anxieties of the Democratic Age, by Joshua Mitchell (Encounter, 236  pp., $19.99.

The American mood, giddy and triumphal after the 1991 Gulf War, darkened into intermixed rage and despair after the ghastly live-broadcast death spectacle in New York and Washington, D.C., on that sun-lit morning of September 11, 2001. What followed in the way of primitive, not to say unjustified, retribution in the distant mountains and high plateaus of Afghanistan soon transformed and metastasized. 

Thin is the line between commensurate response and pride. On April 9, 2003, less than 19 months later, Baghdad fell to American forces who were now at war with two nations, markedly different from one another, each an inscrutable mystery to our military, to our intelligence agencies, and to all but a few remaining academics who had been trained before gaming and simulations came to constitute due diligence. They do not. 

Tocqueville is well-known for having invented the idea of American exceptionalism. There, in the author’s introduction to his 1835 masterpiece, Democracy in America, he announced that the term does not mean America is special. It means that America is the exception to the rule. What is the rule? The rule is that all the world now has, or once had, aristocratic social conditions. Not least, the Middle East, I add. America is the exception. 

America was born into democratic social conditions, more or less. This difference has momentous implications we must understand if we wish our nation to act wisely in the world. The vast swath of the world that retains its aristocratic social conditions, or is in some transitional phase away from them, will see in America both a rosy promise of liberation from the burden of its own aristocratic past and the haunting prospect of a disorderly, lonely, decadent, Godless future. 

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ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

New geological study proves that the green energy movement is impossible to achieve By Robert A. Bishop

By on February 11th, 2023

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/02/new_geological_study_proves_that_the_green_energy_movement_is_impossible_to_achieve.html

The renewable energy fantasy goal is achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Carpet-bombing propaganda has convinced the public to accept the extravagant claim that technology currently exists to reach net zero carbon emissions. Like carnival barkers, the net-zero fanatics say renewable energy is affordable, sustainable, scalable, and not an economy wrecker. 

The goal is to create a first-generation green power grid relying on wind turbine farms, solar array farms, and power storage battery banks replacing fossil fuel and nuclear power plants. In addition, the new power grid would power a global fleet of electric vehicles that would replace the internal combustion engine. 

Western society has taken one hundred fifty years of progress to achieve a fantastically complex energy system using the dense source of cheap hydrocarbon energy, the master resource. Yet, the net-zero devotees believe the complex energy system can be dismantled with minimal disruption and replaced with a low-density renewable energy grid that is intermittent and nonscalable, in less than thirty years. 

Well, I have horrible news for the devotees; the green energy fantasy collides with the laws of thermodynamics. The Greenies never researched whether or not there are sufficient base and rare earth metals and adequate time to mine and build out the technologies to accomplish the net-zero carbon 2050 target date. 

Simon P. Michaux of the Geological Survey of Finland has compiled an exhaustive study dismantling the overly ambitious task of phasing out fossil fuels. His comprehensive analysis focuses on the required physical material resources and the extraction timeframe to create renewable energy generation systems. A PowerPoint summary of his thousand-page study can be downloaded HERE.

The comprehensive study found the current estimated metal reserves are woefully deficient in almost every category. The table below lists base and rare earth metals requirements to build the new grid and EVs. Deficits are yellow highlighted. For example, copper is an integral part of a high-voltage grid system, coming up short by a shocking 3.7 billion tons. Can we dig enough open mile-deep ore pits to meet that shortfall? Improbable.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

How the Administrative State Subverts the Constitution By Janet Levy

By on February 11th, 2023

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/02/how_the_administrative_state_subverts_the_constitution.html

The House of Representatives on February 2 passed a bill — H. Con. Res. 9 —  opposing the “implementation of socialist policies” and “denouncing socialism in all its forms.”  More than a hundred Democrats joined Republicans in a 327-86 vote on the bill, fittingly sponsored by Maria Salazar (R-Fla.), daughter of exiles from Fidel Castro’s Cuba.  Fittingly, too, the bill quoted President James Madison, the father of the Constitution, who wrote that the United States “was founded on the belief in the sanctity of the individual, to which the collectivistic system of socialism in all of its forms is fundamentally and necessarily opposed.”

How did we get to a state when it has become necessary to denounce socialism by legislation?  For indeed, this is an unprecedented time in America: an Axios and Momentive poll of June 2021 found that 51% of young adults (18–34 years) have a positive view of socialism; age groups 35–64 and 65+, too, showed slight upticks in those favoring socialism.

How did Marxist ideology gain ground in the proud home of individual liberty?  From a representative government beholden to “we the people” and committed to guarding our constitutional rights, how did we get to a government that tells citizens what they can and cannot do, all in the name of the public good?

Trust Us, a new film from the Pacific Legal Foundation, is an excellent chronicle of the socialist seduction of America over 100 years.  It traces the implementation of progressive policies from the presidency of Woodrow Wilson, who believed in proactive, expansive government, to the present-day regulatory environment, where unelected, unaccountable “experts” decide on everything from health care to privacy.

This technocracy is rooted in the fin de siècle fascination with the efficient running of giant corporations, particularly with Frederick Winslow Taylor’s “scientific management.”  Taylorism, which many scholars have described as “enlightened despotism,” came into favor in the late 19th century.  Extending the ideas he implemented in factories to government, Taylor believed that expert planning was superior to the instincts of the people and that “consent of the governed” should be supplanted by broad, centralized executive management.  Expert opinion was hubristically seen as superior to that of business-owners with generations of experience, which was dismissed with disdain.

Taylorism was a self-serving idea for progressives, who came to believe that their expert status was the driving force for improving society.  They dismissed the American ideal of the government as a servant of the people and were eager to limit individual rights, categorize people by intelligence and ability, break up jobs into their components, and regiment how they are carried out — all in the name of productivity.

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

6-Year-Old Murdered by Islamic Terrorist in Jerusalem “We saw 6 victims lying next to each other.” by Daniel Greenfield

By on February 11th, 2023

https://www.frontpagemag.com/6-year-old-murdered-by-islamic-terrorist-in-jerusalem/

The wave of terrorism really kicked off with the Palestinian Authority’s announcement that it was ending security cooperation with Israel prior to Biden administration personnel visiting Israel. While the media is trying to make it look like a series of lone-wolf attacks, there’s nothing coincidental about them. Or the focus on Jerusalem.

The latest is another Jerusalem terror attack, this time using the familiar Car Jihad tactic.

A murderous drive-by attack in Jerusalem: 20-year-old Habarach Alter Shlomo Lederman and a 6-year-old boy were killed and five others were injured, some seriously, when a terrorist driving a car crashed into a bus stop at the corner of Golda Meir and Binyamin Mintz streets in the capital’s Ramot neighborhood. The terrorist driving

Lederman “had been standing at the bus stop with his wife, whom he married only six months ago, at the time of the attack. The two were waiting for a bus to the city of Elad, where they had planned to spend Shabbat with his parents. The wife was unharmed.”

The 6-year-old boy has been killed.

Jacov Yisrael Fali, a six-year-old boy. Fali was laid to rest in a small funeral before the start of Shabbat, at the request of his family. Fali’s father, who was moderately injured in the attack, is hospitalized and could not attend his son’s funeral.  Jacob’s 8-year-old brother is still fighting for his life, while his father is also hospitalized in a moderate condition and another brother is in a mild condition

It was another horrifying scene in a long line of horrors perpetrated by Islamic terrorists.

MDA emergency medic Shraga Rosenthal said: “When we arrived at the scene, the sight was shocking. We saw a car near the bus station after it hit pedestrians who were waiting at the station. We saw 6 victims lying next to each other. Of these, 2 children were about 6 years old who were unconscious with severe multisystem injuries. A 27-year-old man and a 30-year-old man were unconscious and 2 other victims were fully conscious with injuries to their limbs. We gave them primary medical care and performed CPR on both children. This is a very difficult event.”

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Iran’s Military at the Panama Canal: Significant National Security Threat by Majid Rafizadeh

By on February 11th, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19391/iran-panama-canal

Iran’s military presence at the Panama Canal, the major maritime chokepoint in the Western Hemisphere — which is controlled by America’s main enemy, China — is a serious national security threat to the United States in more ways than one.

“Iran has been aggressively strengthening its ties to the Western Hemisphere through like-minded socialist regimes in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba. They are also looking for opportunities elsewhere, and it’s no coincidence that Iranian ships are docking in Brazil just a month after a socialist retook power in the country. Instead of supporting the Iran-friendly socialist and left-wing regimes in Latin America, the Biden administration should be strengthening political forces committed to keeping our hemisphere free of antisemitic terror.” — U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, Fox News, February 1, 2023.

[T]he Islamic Republic has been shipping considerable amounts of oil to Venezuela without either country fearing repercussions from the Biden administration.

Iranian ships will be allowed to sail through the Panama Canal “as long as they abide by international norms,” Panamanian authorities said this week. However, according to Reuters: “Panama’s vessel registry, the world’s largest, has withdrawn its flag from 136 ships linked to Iran’s state oil company in the last four years, the country’s maritime authority said this week, pushing back against claims by an anti-nuclear group.” So, you can tell which country is really in charge.

Iran’s military presence at the Panama Canal, the major maritime chokepoint in the Western Hemisphere — which is controlled by America’s main enemy, China — is a serious national security threat to the United States in more ways than one.

The Biden administration, seemingly as usual, has been turning a blind eye to the Iran’s increasing military presence in Latin America. Its latest activities now pose a grave danger to North America’s security and US national interests.

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HISTORY, MOVIES AND TELEVISION Comments turned off

Shaming Americans Ken Burns’s The U.S. and the Holocaust distorts the historical record in service of a political message. Amity Shlaes

By on February 11th, 2023

https://www.city-journal.org/ken-burns-documentary-distorts-the-historical-record

America is forgetting the Holocaust. Only that concern can account for the extraordinary investment that our nation’s premier documentarian, Ken Burns, and its premier cultural arbiter, PBS, made in the production and promotion of the three-part series The U.S. and the Holocaust.

Clocking in at a daunting 395 minutes—quite a number in an era when the average attention span runs much shorter—the series is one of the most extensive treatments of this tragedy ever done in America. PBS’s formidable school-distribution engine will ensure that the extensive educational material that it prepared along with the film (clips for students, a full hour with the filmmakers for teachers) will make it into classrooms nationwide.

Churches and many Jewish groups have lauded it and are hosting special showings. Burns himself has been leading the effort since the series premiered in September. “I will not work on a more important film in my lifetime,” he told the San Francisco Chronicle. Driven, as Burns explained, by their concern “as citizens” over recent events—“the killing of people at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, rising xenophobia, and nationalist sentiment”—he and his team even managed to advance the film’s premiere to September 2022 from an original debut date in 2023, evidence of both Burns’s conviction and his clout with PBS.

The apprehension about public memory of the Holocaust itself is well-founded. As the images of the few remaining D-day veterans at recent Normandy Beach commemorations remind us, those who can tell us firsthand what happened in Europe in the 1930s or 1940s will soon be gone. In a more proximate battleground—the one passing for the common culture these days—what transpired in Europe back then gets abused, sidelined, and, inexorably, lost.

What, precisely, should Americans remember about the massacre of 6 million Jews and their own nation’s role in that fate? Since The U.S. and the Holocaust stands a chance of becoming the history of the Holocaust, the question warrants serious consideration.

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EDUCATION Comments turned off

DeSantis calls the bureaucrats’ bluff Story by Jay P Greene

By on February 11th, 2023

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/careersandeducation/desantis-calls-the-bureaucrats-bluff/ar-AA17jGOb

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) has a plan for freeing public universities from the stranglehold of their diversity, equity, and inclusion bureaucracies. Before DeSantis launched this effort, it was widely believed, even among those who recognized the dangers of DEI, that there was really nothing public officials could do about the problem. Just like the weather, it was simply something we would all have to learn to live with. Public universities were thought to be outside of political control, and academic culture was thought to be too committed to DEI goals. But DeSantis is proving that something can be done. His plan is likely to make significant progress in dismantling DEI in higher education.

DeSantis is showing that DEI is not beyond the reach of elected officials, at least not at public universities. In most states, public universities are state agencies, just like the Department of Motor Vehicles or the Game and Fish Commission. They may have their own boards of trustees, but those boards were created, and can be modified, by legislation, and their activities are governed by state laws and regulations. States can reorganize how public universities are structured to achieve public purposes better, just as they can reorganize the DMV. Lawmakers may alter the size and composition of the Game and Fish Commission, as well as the process for appointing those officials, and they can do the same with the boards of public universities.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Liz Peek: Bad news: Biden’s agenda will drive inflation higher

By on February 11th, 2023

https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/3851981-bad-news-bidens-agenda-will-drive-inflation-higher/

President Biden claims he is laser focused on combatting inflation. His policies say otherwise.

First off, there was little suggestion in Biden’s rambling State of the Union address that exorbitant federal spending – blamed by many economists for sky-high prices – would come down any time soon.  

In addition, Biden’s proposed Buy American program will drive infrastructure costs higher, just as it did under Presidents Obama and Trump.

Add to those two price-inflating factors Biden’s ongoing dedication to unionization, which drives up labor costs, his war on fossil fuels, which has discouraged higher oil and gas production, and his push to increase regulations on businesses, and the Federal Reserve will have its hands full bringing inflation down to 2 percent.

Biden has yet to admit the connection between spending and price inflation. In his speech, he again passed the buck, saying, “Inflation has been a global problem because the pandemic disrupted our supply chains and Putin’s unfair and brutal war in Ukraine disrupted energy supplies as well as food supplies, blocking all that grain in Ukraine.” 

See? It’s all the fault of COVID-19 and Vladimir Putin.

And yet, voters connect those dots, and blame Biden’s blowout budgets for the decades-high hit to middle class real incomes. Consequently, the president dishonestly brags about bringing our deficits down even though the decline is from emergency levels to still elevated totals. We are nowhere near back to “normal.”

In his speech, Biden promised his coming economic plan “is going to cut the deficit by another $2 trillion.” And yet, his address was peppered with expensive new promises.  

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EDUCATION Comments turned off

DEI Spells Death for the Idea of a University Wherever this agenda is allowed to take root, free expression and academic integrity are doomed. By Matthew Spalding

By on February 11th, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/articles/dei-spells-death-for-the-idea-of-a-university-diversity-equity-inclusion-academia-college-hillsdale-new-college-of-florida-open-discourse-1d2ca552?mod=opinion_lead_pos7

The first object of government, James Madison tells us in Federalist 10, is the protection of “the diversity in the faculties of men.” By diversity, Madison meant different opinions to be encouraged to preserve liberty. Equity is an ancient legal concept of justice in particular cases, developed over centuries of English common-law practice. Inclusion simply means to make a part of, as in defining a mathematical set by what it does and doesn’t include.

All good words with respectable origins. Yet in true Orwellian fashion, they have been redefined.

Diversity is no longer a term to describe the breadth of our differences but a demand to flatter and grant privileges to purportedly oppressed identity groups. Equity assigns desirable positions based on race, sex and sexual orientation rather than character, competence and merit. Inclusion now means creating a social environment where identity groups are celebrated while those who disagree are maligned.

“Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion”—the compound form of these modern concepts—is especially toxic. It divides us by social identity groups, ranks those groups on privilege and power, and excludes those who fail to honor the new orthodoxy. Rather than being equally endowed with innate dignity and fundamental rights as human beings—best judged by our character and not skin color—we are supposed to discriminate and confer status based on race, sex and cultural affinity.

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