EDUCATION Comments turned off

Mark Bauerlein The Trustee Solution Florida’s experience proves that a strong governor and a few savvy and fearless conservatives can advance higher education reforms.

Posted By on July 31st, 2024

https://www.city-journal.org/article/the-trustee-solution-for-higher-education

Conservatives who have witnessed higher-education reforms fail to stop the spread of political correctness have good reason to be dismayed. There is, however, a promising tactic available to them right now, at least in some states, that requires little manpower and no extra cost. All it takes is a determined governor plus a few individuals experienced in academic politics and practice. Consider Florida.

In December 2022, a staffer in the office of Governor Ron DeSantis asked if I would serve as a trustee of New College of Florida, the small honors college in the state system founded in Sarasota in 1964. I agreed, as did Christopher Rufo, Charles Kessler, Matthew Spalding, and, later, Ryan Anderson. By the time of our first board meeting in late January 2023, word of our appointment had spread, and dozens of news stories fashioned a narrative: conservative vandals ruin liberal arts gem. Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the hall with megaphones and placards, while 200 students, professors, parents, and activists crowded inside to deliver public comment laced with invective. 

What happened next provided a lesson for the Right: a few conservatives and a strong governor can enact genuine reform—if they exploit the proper power center. Over the next several months, amid faculty and administrator hostility, media attacks, censure from scholarly associations, nonstop lawfare, and reproofs from politicians (California governor Gavin Newsom even came to Florida to commiserate with protesters), we fired the president and general counsel, hired a new president, ended DEI operations, denied early tenure to five candidates, abolished the gender studies major, recruited donors and new professors (sometimes over faculty opposition), and steered curricular revisions in a classical direction.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

This Is Still Our Country By J.B. Shurk

Posted By on July 31st, 2024

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/07/this_is_still_our_country.html

It is a crazy time to be alive.  We have economic uncertainty, threats of war, political violence, and social turmoil.  An assassin nearly took President Trump’s life.  Puppet President Biden has been recycled for a younger model.  The Olympic Games openly mocks Christianity and celebrates transvestitism.  The EU, Russia, China, Iran, Israel, and the U.S. are all tiptoeing toward a little nuclear tête-à-tête.  Apprehension saturates the air.

Still, if you were a time-traveler from the future surveying the world as it unfolds today, you might whisper, “What an amazing time to be alive.”  That is a luxury that those who look back through history often enjoy.  Those living through chaos rarely write about trying times as marvelous adventures.  They are too busy struggling to survive.  

I do not wish to minimize the struggles that we will continue to experience, but I do want to take a small step back and recognize this moment for what it is: a hinge on the door of history opening up a new era for humanity.  The hallway we’ve been walking down for many decades has come to an end.  The door before us is shaking loudly as we fight for what reality will take shape on the other side.  Our situation is perilous and consequential.  

Future generations — buttressed by a misguided belief that their world was always foreordained — will dream about having been alive in our time, just as many of us have contemplated what it would have been like to fight in the trenches of WWI, endure the volatile interwar period, or beat back totalitarianism in the mid-twentieth century.  Ours is not an easy time…but it is one ripe with significance.

Is this a contest between communism and capitalism?  Is it a war between West and East?  Is it a clash of civilizations, cultures, religions, and traditional beliefs?  It is all of that and more.  At its heart, the revolution that is picking up speed throughout the world centers on one essential conflict: state supremacy versus individual freedom.  

The war that has already begun is the mechanism for answering a straightforward question: how much liberty will each of us be “allowed” to possess, and how much control will governments maintain over their respective populations?  As with all wars, this one concerns the exercise and retention of power.  Somewhat uniquely, however, our war will decide whether we individual humans are ultimately sovereign arbiters over the direction of our personal lives, or whether we are disposable cogs in an all-powerful government machine.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Kamala’s Running Mate Selection Process Takes a Humiliating Turn Matt Margolis

Posted By on July 31st, 2024

https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2024/07/30/kamala-running-mate-selection-process-takes-a-humiliating-turn-n4931181

Kamala Harris’s search for a running mate has hit yet another snag. Previously, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-Mich.) took herself out of consideration, and two others have followed suit since dirt dug up on them made them a lot less likely to be picked. Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-Pa.) has been accused of covering up sexual harassment in his office, and then Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) has been exposed as the co-founder of a spy balloon company that was partially funded by China. This may not preclude Kamala from selecting either, but it likely hurts both of their chances.

Now, another top contender has taken his name out of consideration: Gov. Roy Cooper (D-N.C.).

According to the New York Times, Cooper “has informed [Harris’s] team that he has withdrawn from the vice-presidential sweepstakes, according to two people briefed on the matter.” 

“I strongly support Vice President Harris’ campaign for President,” Cooper said in a statement. “I know she’s going to win and I was honored to be considered for this role. This just wasn’t the right time for North Carolina and for me to potentially be on a national ticket.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Fight Against Treachery by Lawrence Kadish

Posted By on July 31st, 2024

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20821/fight-against-treachery

One does not need to embrace religion to recognize that something beyond our understanding saved former President Donald Trump from death. With the FBI confirming that it was, in fact, a bullet that came to within millimeters of a fatal head wound, Trump has survived an assassination attempt that would have changed the course of American history.

Some call it divine intervention. Others chalk it up to simply fate. It reminds us of those Americans who went to work in the Twin Towers on the morning of 9/11 and those delayed in transit. Today, we each must reflect on the forces that had an assassin miss his target by a literal hair’s breath.

Trump, shaking off the shock of a failed assassination attempt with an appeal to “fight,” stood tall, with blood on his face, his fist in the air and an appeal to “fight,” in defiance of treachery. It was a response that will go down in history.

Not so fortunate was an extraordinary firefighter, Corey Comperatore. As shots rang out at the rally, he lay across his family to protect their lives, taking a fatal bullet. Two others who attended the rally were severely wounded. We are praying for their swift and full recovery.

It may have been divine intervention that saved Donald Trump, but freedom is the Almighty’s gift enshrined in American values, Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights. Americans should be forever grateful to the founding fathers for their breathtaking wisdom and foresight.

FOREIGN POLICY, ISRAEL Comments turned off

Why Has the Biden Administration Donated Close to One Billion Dollars in “Aid” to Hamas since the October 7 Massacre? by Robert Williams

Posted By on July 31st, 2024

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20811/biden-administration-donates-to-hamas

Since October 7…. the total of US taxpayer funds donated to Gaza as a reward since the massacre on October 7 to $896 million, or close to a billion dollars.

A lawsuit, brought in December 2022 and updated in March 2024, by Rep. Ronny Jackson and victims of terror attacks in Israel, alleges that President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken “knowingly and unlawfully” provided more than $1.5 billion in aid to Gaza and the West Bank since taking office. Biden and Blinken have “known for years” that the US aid is providing “material support” for Hamas’ “tunnels, rockets, weapon procurement, and command and control infrastructure,” among other terror structures, the lawsuit stated.

The Biden administration has sought to have the case dismissed twice but failed. On June 28, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas ruled that the lawsuit can proceed, and that there is evidence the Biden administration continued awarding taxpayer cash to UNRWA even after Congress blocked funding to that group due to its support for Hamas’s military infrastructure.

In short, the Biden administration has donated less to Sudan and DRC Congo combined, where a total of nearly 50 million people face starvation, than to Gaza, where 2 million people face no such thing. What is going on? And where is Congress?

According to FBI director Christopher Wray, “the actions of Hamas and its allies will serve as an inspiration the likes of which we haven’t seen since ISIS launched its so-called caliphate years ago.” Iran, officially labeled the world’s leading sponsor of state terrorism by the 2023 US annual Terrorism Report, calls the US “the Great Satan” and continues to vow “Death to America.”

Blinken casually announced in a July 19 interview that Iran had reduced the time it would need to create sufficient fissile material for a nuclear weapon “to one to two weeks.” He then went on to gaslight the audience by claiming that the Biden administration has been “maximizing pressure on Iran across the board.”

Why is the Biden administration, under the pretense of “humanitarian aid,” drowning these terrorist enemies of America in US taxpayer money? And what, if anything, is Congress going to do about it?

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Clips Of Harris Talking Are The New ‘Cheap Fakes’

Posted By on July 31st, 2024

https://issuesinsights.com/2024/07/31/media-now-calls-harris-clips-cheap-fakes/

Credit where due, the New York Times published a report on Monday noting that Kamala Harris has a lot of far-left baggage that she will be struggling with now that the Democratic Party has anointed her as its presidential candidate.

Indeed, she does. And there are reams of videos showcasing her extremist views across the board, fracking, defunding police, abortion, amnesty for illegals, socializing medicine.

But then the Times manages to sabotage its own reporting with this line: “video clips of her old statements and interviews are being weaponized as Republicans aim to define her as a left-wing radical who is out of step with swing voters.” (emphasis added)

Seriously? Showing video clips of Harris when she last ran for president constitutes “weaponizing” them?

This is from the same people who routinely misquote Donald Trump, make up quotes entirely, or try to spin something Trump said as a joke into a national crisis.

In any case, Republicans aren’t weaponizing anything. They are just doing what reporters should be doing, but won’t – informing the public about a person who completely flamed out in her first run for president and whom Biden picked as running mate solely to meet his self-imposed quota.

In a normal presidential campaign, pressing a candidate to justify, defend, or explain away previously expressed views is precisely what the press would do. They’re doing that right now to J.D. Vance.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The hypocrisy of Australia: Condemning Israeli ‘settlers’ while settling Aboriginal land

Posted By on July 31st, 2024

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-812412

Australia, an entire country founded on settler violence, is imposing sanctions on a handful of Israelis whom it accuses of “settler violence.” Talk about hypocrisy!

The Australian government has announced that it is penalizing seven Israeli “settlers” and a youth group that it suspects of clashing with Palestinian Arab rock-throwers.

Folks who live in the “land down under’ know something about “settler violence.” The first foreigner to “discover” Australia was a violent settler named Cap. James Cook. Kids around the world today are taught that he was a famous explorer. And that he was. But the indigenous peoples of the South Pacific remember him a little differently.

In 1770, Cook and his settler gang landed in New Zealand, where they murdered at least eight members of the indigenous Maori tribe. Then they headed west to Australia, landing there on April 29 and shooting a member of the Dharawal/Eora nation who opposed them. It would not be the last act of violence by the Cook settlers.

Eight years later, violent British settlers established a penal colony in Australia. European criminals were not the only dangerous import. The settlers also introduced tuberculosis, smallpox, and measles.

Australia is almost three million square miles in size. That’s 350 times the size of Israel. You’d think the violent British settlers who took over Australia could have left at least part of the country to the indigenous tribes, known as the Aboriginals. But no, the settlers had to have the entire thing. So they expanded, and they expelled, and they murdered. Within a century, the Aboriginals, who had numbered 750,000, were down to less than 100,000.

What was it like for victims of British settler violence in Australia? Hannah McGlade, a member of one of the Aboriginal tribes, the Kurin Minang Noongar, spoke about it at a United Nations forum last year.

ELECTIONS, ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Kamala Harris: Climate Alarmist, Energy Luddite Succeeding in destroying a nation’s economy. by Chris Talgo

Posted By on July 31st, 2024

https://www.frontpagemag.com/kamala-harris-climate-alarmist-energy-luddite/

Thanks to the Biden-Harris administration’s pea-brained energy policies, American families have spent more than $2,500 in higher energy prices since 2021.

Specifically, as detailed in a new policy analysis by The Heartland Institute, under the Biden-Harris administration, energy prices have soared across the board.

In fact, over the past three years, residential electricity prices have increased 23 percent, industrial electricity prices have increased 19 percent, home heating oil prices have increased 69 percent, oil prices have increased 52 percent, natural gas prices have increased 32 percent, and gasoline has increased $0.97 per gallon, or 42 percent.

These steep price increases for energy have taken quite a toll on hardworking Americans, who are also facing persistent inflation outside the energy sector.

To put these statistics in perspective, consider:

“After three years of Biden’s energy policies, the average U.S. driver has spent at least an extra $548 per year in higher gasoline costs while the average household has expended $318 in higher electricity costs.”

Moreover, “Households that use natural gas have spent an extra $586 over the past three years, and those using home heating oil have paid a whopping $3,068 more.”

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

The Dangers of a President Kamala The coming election: Our Republic’s last chance? by Bruce Thornton

Posted By on July 31st, 2024

https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-dangers-of-a-president-kamala/

As of now, Vice President Kamala Harris looks to be Donald Trump’s opponent in November. She’s secured the pledged support of enough delegates to the DNC for the nomination, and Biden’s $100 million war chest for now will go to her campaign, on top of the donations starting to pour in, and the Democrat Committee’s $91 million. Murkier are her chances against Donald Trump, who leads her in head-to-head polls, and whose campaign has been turbocharged by a spectacular Republican convention and a unified party.

But as Hillary Clinton learned in 2016, and Joe Biden just a few weeks ago, events and contingencies we often cannot predict can change everything in a day. That’s why in politics, as in war, one should heed Sun Tzu’s advice to “know your enemy as you know yourself.”

Harris’s weaknesses are well known from her stints as the District Attorney for San Francisco, Attorney General and Senator for California, and Vice President. All three offices are revealing of her leftist bent, “woke” prejudices, and big-government proclivities, but the latter is the most important job for revealing what kind of president she’ll be.

She is certain to follow Biden’s tax-spend-redistribute economic policies. As the Wall Street Journal writes, “So mark her down as endorsing the spending blowouts that caused inflation, the Green New Deal, entitlement expansions and student loan forgiveness. Until she says otherwise, we should also assume she’s in favor of Mr. Biden’s $5 trillion tax increase in 2025.”And don’t expect a President Harris to increase much-needed defense spending to restore our military’s dangerous deficits in both personnel and materiel.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Settler Colonialists In Israel And The United States Francis Menton

Posted By on July 31st, 2024

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2024-7-29-settler-colonialists-in-israel-and-the-united-states

Of all the epithets of the left that don’t make any sense, the term “settler colonialist” is one of my favorites. We live in a world where the ability of people to relocate, even to places thousands of miles distant, has increased greatly over time. These days, many millions of people per year pick up and relocate, or try to relocate, from one country to another. By far the biggest mass migrations going on currently are into the U.S. and into Europe from various poorer countries. This November 2023 piece from NPR puts the number of “migrants” crossing the U.S. Southern border illegally in 2023 at about 2.4 million. That would be in addition to about 1 million legal immigrants to the U.S. each year. The European Commission at this site from April 2024 gives a figure of 42.4 million people living in the EU who were not born there, about 9% of the population. That would suggest something like 1 million or so new arrivals per year.

So are all these people “settler colonialists”? Try to find that term applied to any of these millions of annual migrants, and I will bet that you cannot. The legal entry of millions into the United States, and the illegal invasion of millions more, is cheered on by all on the left. Meanwhile the derogatory term “settler colonialist” is reserved for much smaller numbers of migrants who have been designated as disfavored based on criteria that I have never seen rationally articulated.

And yet, find yourself in a disfavored group making a relocation, and get ready for an unrelenting stream of invective. Of course, Jews are the ultimate such disfavored group.