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August 2023

‘Elites’ cannot hide from the consequences of their actions By J.B. Shurk

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/08/elites_cannot_hide_from_the_consequences_of_their_actions_.html

In classical Greek mythology, hubris is a fatal flaw that inevitably leads to tragedy.  No matter how admired the hero, any mortal who dares to behave like a god is punished in the end.  Mankind never seems to learn this lesson.

The “elites” of every generation delude themselves into believing that they are superhuman and inherently different from those they consider beneath them.  They are not.  Whatever afflicts ordinary people will eventually come for those who build extravagant sanctuaries intended to rival Mount Olympus.

No “elite” ideology has caused as much suffering as communism for a simple reason: it is a false doctrine that feeds on hubris.  “Communism begins where atheism begins,” Marx wrote.  It permits “elites” to deify themselves.  Because of that delusion, it remains a “spectre” that still “haunts” the world.  

Wherever Marxism has reared its ugly head, it ultimately brings death and desolation.  Wherever communist “elites” believe that they can rule over a land of peasants while remaining safe and secure behind castle walls, those barriers eventually prove as fragile as any Potemkin village constructed from empty promises and outright lies. 

No matter how many hundreds of millions of lives socialism and communism have destroyed, Western “elites” remain enamored of Marxism.  Any system that eliminates private property for all but the aristocratic few and cultivates a slavish devotion to the State is attractive to arrogant human beings who believe it is their birthright to control others.

The “spectre of communism” haunting the world today comes in the form of the World Economic Forum’s “Great Reset” or the United Nations’ planned technocratic tyranny.  It exists wherever one group of “experts” believes it has the moral prerogative to tell everyone else how to live and what to do.  Vladimir Lenin argued both that “medicine is the keystone of the arch of socialism” and that the “establishment of a central bank is ninety percent of communizing a nation.”  Together, central banks and global health authorities are the gateway drugs for communism.

Fresno Lab: China’s Operation to Exterminate Americans by Gordon G. Chang

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19858/prestige-biotech-china

There were on site at least 20 potentially infectious pathogens including those causing coronavirus, HIV, hepatitis, and herpes.

We know enough to be alarmed, however.

The lab was supposed to be producing COVID-19 and pregnancy tests, but the facility contained items inconsistent with that explanation. The seizures at the lab strongly suggest China’s regime is preparing to spread disease in America, undoubtedly in the months before a war.

In all probability, it is from locations like this one where China will “fire the first shot” in the next war.

General Chi Haotian, when he was China’s defense minister two decades ago, reportedly gave a secret speech advocating the extermination of Americans with disease. His plan was to clear out the hills, plains, and valleys of North America so that the Chinese people could settle in the vast spaces left uninhabited.

Since then, the mass murder of Americans has been a popular theme in Chinese society. The Communist Party, which tightly controls discourse in the People’s Republic of China, permits and even encourages incitement to kill Americans . “We are ahead of schedule in terms of overtaking the United States…. There will be no problem reaching this goal in 2027. The U.S. will not survive.” — LI Yi, prominent Chinese sociologist, October 2020.

Americans now have to assume that China’s Communist Party is executing a plan to exterminate Americans.

Will Americans, now warned, act to protect their society? After the discovery of the kamikaze lab near Fresno, they should act first and ask questions later.

Americans now have to assume that China’s Communist Party is executing a plan to exterminate Americans.

Welcome to Trans Kindergarten School districts across California are on a recruitment spree. by Larry Sand

https://www.frontpagemag.com/welcome-to-trans-kindergarten/

School districts across California are on a recruitment spree, doing what they can to enroll the state’s 4-year-olds into their year-old pre-K or “transitional kindergarten” (TK) program. Districts are trying to sell parents on TK by using school banners, bus bench ads, billboards, and texting and robocall campaigns. The $2.7 billion plan aims to have 400,000 4-year-olds enrolled by 2025, but it has been off to a sluggish start. Estimates from the Legislative Analyst’s Office put average daily attendance for the 2022-2023 school year at about 91,000, well short of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s estimates.

The idea of having the government in charge of educating 4-year-olds has been promoted for years. Most recently, in his State of the Union speech in February, Joe Biden asserted that “children who go to preschool are nearly 50% more likely to finish high school and go on to earn a two- or four-year degree.”

Right before he became governor in 2019, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom told supporters in San Francisco, “Our role begins when babies are still in the womb, and it doesn’t end until we’ve done all we can to prepare them for a quality job and successful career.”

President Obama touted the preschool idea in his 2014 State of the Union address, claiming research has shown that one of the best investments we can make in a child’s life is “high-quality early education.”

The National Education Association extols the virtues of TK on its website, claiming that children in early childhood education programs are less likely to repeat a grade, less likely to be identified as having special needs, more prepared academically for later grades, more likely to graduate from high school, and be higher earners in the workforce.

But all the rah-rah talk falls apart when the data are examined.

Anything Democrats Don’t Like is a “Threat to Democracy”

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/08/03/anything-democrats-dont-like-is-now-a-threat-to-democracy/

When a handful of Democrats introduced a bill to impose a progressive wealth tax on millionaires and billionaires, they didn’t just say that income inequality was bad. They called it a threat to democracy. Apparently, anything and everything the left doesn’t like is now a threat to democracy.

Reps. Rashida Tlaib, Barbara Lee, Summer Lee, and Jamaal Bowman – four of the most far-left lawmakers in Congress – introduced the OLIGARCH Act (we won’t bother spelling out the acronym) to “tax extreme wealth, reduce inequality, and combat the threat to democracy posed by billionaires.”

“The bill ensures accountability and is an effort to restore democracy,” the press release states.

Tlaib says “billionaires are threatening our democracy.” Not to be outdone, Barbara Lee calls them a “major threat to democracy.”

How exactly do the rich threaten Democracy?

Summer Lee claims that “the 400 richest Americans have 22,000 times the political influence of the bottom 90%” – citing the conclusion of one research paper published 14 years ago.

Lee Siegel The Poison of Accusation Trying to kick up a political storm about educational materials on slavery, the Left just makes things up.

https://www.city-journal.org/article/the-lefts-poison-of-accusation

Among all the instances of elite projection and cynical opportunism over the past few years—the censoring Left sees fascism everywhere; the concept of systemic racism offers a blessed distraction from the purges of #MeToo; the agenda-driven media deplores Donald Trump’s bending of the truth—Joe Biden’s demagoguery has got to be the most glaring. It’s bad enough that the self-appointed savior of indebted students is the same man who, as a U.S. senator from Delaware, was instrumental in passing legislation that made it impossible for students to discharge student debt through bankruptcy; Delaware, after all, is where the credit-card empires have their headquarters. Now we have Biden decrying the country’s “divisions,” even as he multiplies them himself. He has gone from disdainful opponent of busing—Biden in 1975: “I oppose busing, it’s an asinine concept”—to bold defier of “Jim Crow 2.0.”

The latest example of truth-bending and rabble-rousing comes from deputy White House press secretary Andrew Bates. Bates was responding to a comment by Greg Gutfeld, a Fox News host who was discussing a section in the Florida Standards for Teaching Black History that addresses, as the Standards state, “various duties and trades performed by the slaves.” The Standards advise teachers to instruct students in “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” Referring to Viktor Frankl’s classic work on the Holocaust, Man’s Search for Meaning, Gutfeld said, “Frankl talks about how you had to survive in a concentration camp by having skills. You had to be useful. Utility! Utility kept you alive.”

The Biden White House/campaign apparatus leaped. Bates thundered to CNN: “What Fox News allowed to be said on their air yesterday—and has so far failed to condemn—is an obscenity. In defending a horrid, dangerous, extreme lie that insults the memory of the millions of Americans who suffered from the evil of enslavement, a Fox News host told another horrid, dangerous and extreme lie that insults the memory of the millions of people who suffered from the evils of the Holocaust. Let’s get something straight that the American people understand full well and that is not complicated: there was nothing good about slavery; there was nothing good about the Holocaust. Full stop. Americans deserve to be brought together, not torn apart with poison.”

Hungary and the Future of Western Conservatism Simon P. Kennedy

https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2023/07/hungary-and-the-future-of-western-conservatism/

At the centre of Europe lies Hungary, a country of 10 million souls with a long and proud history that can be traced back to the tenth century. Hungary is rapidly becoming the hub of intellectual conservatism in the West. This is in part due to the remarkable success of the stridently conservative Fidesz government, led by Viktor Orbán, which has been in power in Hungary since 2010.

One of Orbán’s leading advisers, and one of the most influential people in the conservative renaissance in Hungary, is Balázs Orbán (no relation; above). He is the political director for Prime Minister Orbán, a member of the Hungarian Parliament, and the chairman of the Mathias Corvinus Collegium in Budapest. He also chairs the advisory board of the National University of Public Service (Nemzeti Közszolgálati Egyetem). However, Balázs Orbán is more than a politician. He is the equivalent of a court scholar, if such a thing still exists in a modern-day parliamentary democracy. He has been a lecturer in law, has completed his Juris Doctor, and is working on his PhD at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. He has also recently published a book, The Hungarian Way of Strategy. For these reasons and more, Balázs Orbán is the ideal person to ask about Hungary’s history, the Fidesz government’s philosophy and success, and Hungary’s perspective on this fraught geopolitical moment. I spoke with Mr Orbán in his offices in Budapest, and the following is an edited version of our discussion.

SK: Hungary is simultaneously understood in the West as a leading light of conservative political action, and a totalitarian dictatorship. Having spent several months in Hungary myself, the former is obviously the truth. But plenty of people in the West believe the latter. What do you think underlies the division of opinion about Hungary?

John D. Sailer When Curing Cancer Isn’t the Priority San Diego State University included a DEI litmus test in its search for a new cancer biologist.

https://www.city-journal.org/article/san-diego-state-universitys-dei-litmus-test

Last year, San Diego State University conducted a search for a cancer biologist as part of an initiative focused on increasing faculty diversity. While ideal candidates’ expertise could be in tumor biology, cancer immunology, or other areas of hard science, they would also be expected to demonstrate a focus on health disparities and a commitment to diversity. SDSU required each applicant to fill out a form describing their contributions to “building inclusive excellence”—their version of the now-ubiquitous “diversity statement.”

Through a public-records request, I have acquired SDSU’s “building inclusive excellence” form. It symbolizes a remarkable statement of the university’s priorities and demonstrates how even the most high-stakes areas of scientific research must now genuflect to social justice.

The form, published on the National Association of Scholars website, requires candidates to describe their “inclusive excellence” contributions across eight categories, which include “demonstrated knowledge of barriers for underrepresented students and faculty within the discipline,” “demonstrated commitment to teaching and mentoring underrepresented students,” “demonstrated commitment to integrating understanding of underrepresented populations and communities into research,” and “research interests that contribute to diversity and equal opportunity in higher education.”

Far from being merely a symbolic nod toward diversity, these criteria have teeth. Per SDSU’s hiring guide, the chief diversity officer appoints separate “Building Inclusive Excellence” screeners, who examine candidates’ “inclusive excellence” contributions. Screeners won’t advance candidates to the final stage unless they meet two criteria. Departments can appeal a screener’s decision, but only with the approval of both the chief diversity officer and the provost. In other words, even cancer biologists now risk limiting their job prospects unless they demonstrate a commitment to DEI.

The Deadly Costs of Biden’s Israel Policy By Chip Roy & Victoria Coates

https://www.nationalreview.com/2023/07/the-deadly-costs-of-bidens-israel-policy/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=next-article&utm_term=first

As terror spikes in Israel, President Biden is getting what he paid for.

Earlier this month, President Biden addressed the recent increase in violence in the West Bank refugee camp of Jenin. After opining that the terrorist attacks against Israel were carried out by “extremist” elements among the Palestinians, the president added an interesting caveat — that the terrorism was to some extent provoked by Israel’s “extreme” right-wing government. In other words, the president of the United States created a moral equivalence between Palestinian terrorists murdering Israeli civilians and the duly elected government of Israel trying to defend them, simply because Israeli politics are not to his liking.

The president would do better to face the grim reality that the over $1 billion in taxpayer-funded foreign aid that his administration has poured into the Palestinian Authority (and the United Nations programs propping it up) over the last two and a half years has done nothing to improve the lives of the Palestinian people and has instead been diverted to fund the very terrorism for which he blames Israel. If Biden refuses to recognize this fact, Congress will have to act to protect the American people from inadvertently funding attacks on one of our closest and most critical allies.

Contrary to the Washington establishment’s preconceived notions of what works in Israel, Trump-era policy proved that defunding the Palestinians for their venomous anti-America rhetoric and abuse of American funds to reward terrorists and their families does not in fact result in a significant spike in violence. This despite the theoretically incendiary corollary policies such as moving the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and recognizing the Golan Heights as sovereign Israeli territory. Rather than stoking Palestinian violence, Trump’s policies led to the first peace deals between Israel and Arab states in 25 years.

The Case for a Special Counsel to Investigate the Bidens By John Yoo & John Shu

https://www.nationalreview.com/2023/08/the-case-for-a-special-counsel-to-investigate-the-bidens/?utm_source=recirc-

To save the DOJ’s rapidly deteriorating reputation, it is high time for Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special counsel.

Consider this clarion call for a special counsel:

There are certain extraordinary moments of crisis when the people’s faith in the integrity and independence of their elected officials is caused to waiver [sic]. These scandals tarnish the view that the Attorney General is an independent executive official who can be trusted to enforce the criminal law in the high offices of the government. To restore the utmost public confidence in the investigation of criminal wrongdoing by high-ranking government officials, the appointment of a special prosecutor then becomes necessary.

It did not come from Senator Charles Grassley or Representative James Comer, even though both men continue to diligently investigate allegations that Biden administration appointees either slow-walked or interfered with Justice Department probes into Hunter Biden’s alleged crimes. Nor did it come from Republican presidential-primary candidates who have called for a special counsel after the collapse of Hunter’s sweetheart plea deal, apparently designed to grant immunity from very serious felony charges.

No, the above quote comes from President Biden himself, in a 1987 article in the North Carolina Law Review defending independent counsels, who at that time possessed far more powers than do today’s special counsels. Writing as Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, Biden argued that the executive branch could not be trusted to investigate and prosecute its own members. Instead of allowing DOJ to conduct such investigations, he argued, Congress could override the normal separation of powers and create independent prosecutors with unlimited budgets and no accountability

Biden strongly supported the appointment of an array of special prosecutors to investigate those involved in the Iran–Contra scandal — cabinet members, DOJ officials, and even expanding to include Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. In a January 1987 interview, Biden stated that the Reagan DOJ, “at a minimum, gives the appearance of attempting to prevent certain information from coming to the fore,” and that, at worst, “someone tried to actively suppress an investigation.” In 2003, Biden and other Democratic senators sent a letter to President George W. Bush demanding a special counsel in the leak case involving CIA officer Valerie Plame. “We do not believe that this investigation of senior administration officials, possibly including high-level White House staff, can be conducted by

Why Everyone Should Go See ‘Sound of Freedom’ By Anthony Gonzalez

https://pjmedia.com/culture/anthony-gonzalez/2023/08/02/why-everyone-should-go-see-sound-of-freedom-n1715508

Yesterday, I decided to go ahead and watch “Sound of Freedom” at my local theater. To say the movie was good would be insulting. It was an eye-opening, inspirational, and incredibly well-made film that captivated me from start to finish.

I didn’t know Hollywood had it in them anymore.

To date, “Sound of Freedom” has generated over $150 million at the box office. It should be noted that it has yet to be released internationally.

Even CNN is calling the film a “box office hit.” Who would’ve thought?

I think of the film as the Mike Tyson of the movie industry. No movie comes close, except “Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One,” which I saw last week. With that being said, “Sound of Freedom” remains at the top of the leaderboard.

The movie highlights the dangers of the child sex trafficking that is going on everywhere around us. I bet many of us aren’t even aware of the crisis, at least not how it operates. I think of child sex trafficking as a silent pandemic, swooshing through the winds, staying in the shadows.