Radical Left-Wing Billionaire Funding Hunter Biden Art Shows, Raising Ethical Concerns By Eric Lendrum

https://amgreatness.com/2021/11/01/radical-left-wing-billionaire-funding-hunter-biden-art-shows-raising-ethical-concerns/

The latest round of art shows featuring paintings and other artwork by Hunter Biden are being funded by a radical far-left billionaire with a history of political activism, according to the Daily Caller.

An exhibition of Biden’s work took place on October 1st at the Milk Studios in Los Angeles; Milk Studios is owned by billionaire businessman Moishe Mana. Mana has repeatedly donated to the Democratic Party, and was also behind several vulgar art displays with political messages behind them, including an infamous nude sculpture of President Donald Trump.

Between 2015 and 2018, Mana donated over $115,000 to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and various Democratic candidates around the country. He was a donor and strategist on the 2016 presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, and co-hosted a fundraiser for Clinton in the closing weeks of the election where he auctioned off artwork to support her bid for president. One of Mana’s most infamous stunts was his public offer of $2,000,000 to a charity of then-candidate Donald Trump’s choice if he released his tax returns.

Anna Massoglia, an investigative reporter at the non-profit watchdog group Open Secrets, said that “the studio being opened by a political donor who has been involved in Democratic fundraising efforts involving art in particular and using art as a tool for other political purposes, really changes the way that this can be looked at.”

“This would not be the only time that the political donor who opened the studio has used art for activism or political purposes,” Massoglia continued. “It is also not the only time art has been used as a payment method or a way to curry favor with different politicians or to even exchange for various influence operations generally…we don’t know what other favors may be given behind the scenes and what connections are being made at these art shows.”

When the Daily Caller reached out to Mana for comment, he responded with profanity by telling the reporter, Jack Greenberg, “go f**k yourself [you] piece of sh** garbage,” and also called Greenberg “a nazi jew.” He also claimed that the Caller is owned by “a crazy bad guy,” without specifying to whom he was referring.

Hunter Biden’s foray into the world of art has raised numerous complaints of ethics violations from across the political spectrum.

Where Are the Real Domestic Terrorists? It’s malfeasance for powerful government authorities, including Joe Biden, to intentionally mislead the American people by stoking unjustified fears of a pending domestic terror attack. By Julie Kelly

https://amgreatness.com/2021/11/01/where-are-the-real-domestic-terrorists/

In a political stunt so obvious that only Representative Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) fell for it, the Lincoln Project on Friday reportedly deployed five Democratic activists dressed as white supremacists to a campaign event for Glenn Youngkin, the Republican candidate for governor of Virginia.

The optics were intended to conjure images of the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville; dressed in white shirts and khaki pants, the five human props carried tiki torches, a symbol of the protest that resulted in the death of one young woman in August 2017. Youngkin, like all Republicans, the Lincoln Project LARPers tried and failed to show, can only rise to political power on the tiki torch-wielding shoulders of racist preppies loyal to Donald Trump.

While the stunt immediately was mocked and condemned by the Right—and buried by the national news media—it highlighted the myth that violent white supremacists pose a dire national security threat. And it’s not a narrative solely promoted by journalists or washed-up Republican political consultants burning leftist cash; the falsehood that “domestic violent extremists,” code for Americans on the political Right, are the homeland’s biggest danger has the imprimatur of the Biden White House and powerful federal agencies.

In his inauguration speech, Joe Biden promised to defeat the “rise in political extremism, white supremacy, [and] domestic terrorism.” Characterizing the events of January 6 an “insurrection” carried out by white supremacist right-wing militias and using that as a pretext, one of Biden’s first official acts was to instruct his national security team to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the threat of domestic terrorism and submit the report within 100 days.

Acts of domestic terrorism, according to federal law, are

activities that involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State; appear to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population, to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion, or to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.

That definition could apply to everything—or nothing at all. Many Americans might understandably argue the destructive and deadly rioting in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death last year meets that criteria far more than a four-hour disturbance in the Capitol on January 6. After all, the post-Floyd political climate has led to a spike in violent crime in cities across the country, jeopardizing the safety of millions of innocent Americans on a daily basis.

But Joe Biden and the ideologues who populate his administration are not targeting Black Lives Matter or Antifa activists; they’re too busy obsessing about unruly parents at school board meetings and Trump supporters who “paraded” in the Capitol earlier this year.

Muslim Congressional Candidate Accepts Money from Islamist Leaders Barbara Sharief’s tour of radical mosques pays off. Joe Kaufman

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/11/muslim-congressional-candidate-accepts-money-joe-kaufman/

Broward County Commissioner Barbara Sharief is one of many Democrats vying for the congressional seat (Florida CD20) previously held by now-deceased US Representative Alcee Hastings. Whoever wins the November 2nd Democratic Primary will most likely be the district’s next officeholder, and Sharief has placed herself in a good position for victory. Her support is a matter of controversy, though, as part of it has come from radical mosques and terror-related groups. This includes money contributions, as her latest campaign financial disclosure reveals funds from Islamist leaders. Will Sharief allow her votes in office to be bought by extremists?

Since Barbara Muhammad Sharief has been running for US Congress, she has made it a point to visit all of the radical mosques in the area. During a candidate forum in September, she said she was “extremely blessed” to be able to do so. Sharief spoke at the Islamic Center of Boca Raton (ICBR), which was co-founded by a Hamas website designer and a former assistant to Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Sami al-Arian, and she spoke at Pembroke Pines-based Darul Uloom, which has been a haven for al-Qaeda operatives and whose imam was thrown off a number of community boards for his public vitriol against homosexuals.

In August, Sharief was the “Special Guest” at an event sponsored by ICNA Relief USA, the US social services division of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA). ICNA has numerous links to South Asian terror. For over three decades, the group has harbored former death squad commander Ashrafuz Zaman Khan, allowing Khan to serve in ICNA’s top leadership positions. ICNA has sponsored events promoting the terrorist groups Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Hamas. Sharief has taken numerous photos at various events with ICNA Relief USA Chief Operating Officer Abdul Rauf Khan, an individual who has used social media to target Jews and gays.

Virginia Parents Have Had Enough of ‘Woke’ Lies at Their Schools By Asra Q. Nomani

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/11/virginia-parents-have-had-enough-of-woke-lies-at-their-schools

Asra Q. Nomani is vice president of strategy and investigations at Parents Defending Education and a former Wall Street Journal reporter.

A diverse movement of concerned parents has arisen to oppose critical race theory.

Falls Church, Va. — Since Wednesday, October 6, Fairfax County Public Schools staffer Rob Kerr has been teaching a weekly two-hour course to teachers here at Marshall High School called, “AC-1608: How to Be an Antiracist Educator.”

If you happen to be white, look out — through the lens of this teaching, you’re racist. Consider this module in Kerr’s course: “Exploring and Understanding Whiteness,” which includes listening to a podcast by Bettina Love. She is the founder of the radical Abolitionist Teaching Network, whose core philosophy is that America’s schools, and especially its white teachers, are “spirit murdering” black children.

The Fairfax County “Antiracist Educator” syllabus, revealed here for the first time, borrows key concepts from the dour, divisive doctrine known as critical race theory, which holds that all white people are intrinsic oppressors of all minorities and especially black people. Lessons include “the Creation of Racist Systems,” “the building blocks of racism in the United States,” not to mention the ills of “whiteness.”

Education officials and politicians deny critical race theory is taught in K–12 schools, in a pattern of deception that parents are facing nationwide. We’ve heard of white lies, where folks fudge the truth. These are “woke” lies. But we’re now standing up with moral courage as unapologetic parents in a mama bear — and papa bear — movement. And we’re not just standing up against critical race theory. There’s a whole list of dubious woke education polices we’re fighting. These include: the elimination of merit exams for entry into once-elite schools; the elimination even of advanced math; the curating of pornography by some school libraries; and the cover-up of sexual assaults in schools.

Indeed, we’re seeing a “revenge of the parents.”

Karl Marx’s choice for Treasury secretary By Lloyd Billingsley

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/11/karl_marxs_choice_for_treasury_secretary.html

Joe Biden’s nominee for comptroller of the currency in the Treasury Department is Saule Omarova, a Moscow State University alum and recipient of a Lenin scholarship. Omarova wants Americans to have accounts with the Federal Reserve instead of independent banks. The Kazakhstan native is touching off both support and opposition. 

“It’s not every day that we’re presented with a nomination for a Lenin scholarship recipient who attended the Moscow State University and wants to end banking as we know it in the United States,” South Dakota Republican John Thune told reporters. Sen. Pat Toomey wants Omarova to turn over a copy of her thesis, “Karl Marx’s Economic Analysis and the Theory of Revolution in The Capital,” which was still on Omarova’s CV in April of 2017. 

Banking committee Democrats who hold doubts about Omarova are playing it close to the vest while others are outspoken in her favor. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, prime mover of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, touted Omarova’s “impressive qualifications and expertise in banking.” Sen. Sherrod Brown attributed opposition to “red scare McCarthyism” and hailed Omarova as someone who “fled communist oppression.” Republicans and Democrats alike might have their doubts about that. 

Omarova came to the United States on an exchange program with the University of Wisconsin and lamented the fall of the Soviet Union. In a May 9, 2020 interview with Chris Hayes of NBC, Omarova said “I feel guilty for having left the country at such a momentous time, because obviously they couldn’t hold it together without me.”

In the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, scholarships were handed out primarily on the basis of fidelity to Marxist doctrine, not academic expertise or merit. A ballpark figure for the contributions of Marx and Lenin to economics is zero, so the thesis should prove a fascinating read. The Soviet Union was an economic basket case, but it’s the American financial system Omarova views as dysfunctional. 

Commemorating the Balfour Declaration By Michael Curtis

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/11/commemorating_the_balfour_declaration_.html

Before World War I, the area of Palestine was a region of the Ottoman Empire with a small Jewish population. After the start of World War I, the British government began considering changes in the Ottoman Empire, the sick man of Europe, which had entered the war on the side of Germany and the Central Powers in October 1914. Among other proposals, Prime Minister David Lloyd George favored partition of the empire. In the Middle East, the last generally recognized sovereign power was the empire, and the area of Palestine was a district, not a political entity.

The Balfour Declaration was not a declaration but a letter of November 2, 1917, written by Scottish-born Arthur Balfour, former prime minister and foreign secretary, to Lord Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community.  Balfour, who was raised as a Protestant in the evangelical tradition, had been a friend of Chaim Weizmann, the most important Jewish personality of his day,  since 1906 when they opposed the Russian pogroms.   The Balfour letter was the result of prolonged discussion in the British cabinet and with Zionist leaders, and the subject of several drafts of the letter. Various individuals have been suggested as the primary author, including Lord Milner and Leopold Amery, but there is no definitely acknowledged single writer.

The declaration stated that “His Majesty’s Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object.”   In the statement, two factors are clearly understood: nothing should be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.

The declaration gave rise to conflicting emotions: Jewish hopes and Arab disappointments. Lord Rothschild remarked that “for the first time since the dispersion, the Jewish people have received their proper status by the declaration of one of the great powers.”

The declaration was the first public support for Zionism by a major political power since Cyrus, the Persian king who liberated the Jews from their Babylonian exile in the 6th century BC.

How Journalism Abandoned the Working Class What explains the media’s obsession with race and power? It has very little to do with social justice and everything to do with class. Batya Ungar-Sargon

https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/how-journalism-abandoned-the-working

If you read this newsletter you are acutely aware of the transformation of the mainstream media over the last decade and, especially, over the past couple of years. But few have offered a fully satisfying answer to the question of why. 

Why is it, for example, that between 2013 and 2019, the frequency of the words “white” and “racial privilege” exploded by 1,200 percent in The New York Times and by 1,500 percent in The Washington Post? Why was the term “white supremacy” used 2,400 times by National Public Radio in 2020?

What changed? Why was there suddenly a relentless focus on race and power? And who—or what—was driving it?

At last those questions have been answered with unusual clarity by Batya Ungar-Sargon in her new book “Bad News: How Woke Media is Undermining Democracy.” 

Batya, who is an opinion editor at Newsweek, is hard to pin down politically. I first met her in 2018 and I would have described her then as woke. These days I’d call her a left-wing populist. (She’s part of an endangered species: a person willing to change her mind.) But what I appreciate most about Batya, and what I think you’ll find when you read the essay below, is someone who is able to put ideology aside and pursue to illuminate why the news is broken, how it is fueling one war (culture) to distract from another (class), and how that might be changed. — BW

Joe Biden is asleep at the wheel The only thing worse than not showing up is showing up and making a fool of yourself by Dominic Green

https://spectatorworld.com/topic/joe-biden-asleep-wheel-cop26-glasgow/

Did Joe Biden fall asleep during the opening speeches of the COP26 climate jamboree in Glasgow? It’s hard to blame him if he did. A conference dedicated to saving the planet is generating nothing but hot air, some of it carboniferously heavy with the exhaust of the armada of private jets that brought the guests. But it’s Biden’s job to stay awake, look lively and remember his lines.

The footage shows a frail man who’s jetlagged, pushing eighty and trying his best to absorb the torrent of heated eco-bilge that’s being pumped into his ears. But he’s only human. The presidential eyelids start to flutter as a speaker pleads “on behalf of everyone, disabled and non-disabled…to stop the destruction of this magnificent planet.” Biden gives a desperate, hostage-like look at the camera, but there’s no way out. The shutters are coming down. Soon, the president of the United States is heading down, down, down to the Land of Nod.

Yet again, the president’s feebleness is there for the world to see — or not. On Friday, Biden became the first American president in living memory not to go live before the cameras with the Pope. Was it because they’ve fallen out over abortion — or because Biden’s team didn’t want a jetlagged president to embarrass himself and his nation?

Meanwhile, “poopy pants Biden” trended on Twitter after Amy Tarkanian, the former chairwoman of the Republican party of Nevada, suggested that “the word around Rome” was that Biden’s private audience had to be extended because the president had suffered a “bathroom accident” in the pontiff’s presence.

These allegations cannot be substantiated without producing the presidential pants, but their tone shows how close Biden’s public appearances are to low comedy, and how quickly he has soiled his image in the American public’s estimation. He is underwater in the polls, his agenda is stalled in Congress, and when he does eventually appear in public, he blames everyone else.

The putative leader of the West is missing in inaction. On Sunday, after the G20 summit in Rome, the leaders of nineteen G20 states lined up for a photo at the Trevi Fountain. Only Joe Biden wasn’t there.

Ballooning Ivy League Endowment Forecasted To Top $1 Trillion By 2048 Adam Andrzejewski

https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandrzejewski/2021/10/31/ballooning-ivy-league-endowment-forecasted-to-top-1-trillion-by-2048/?sh=3d82b6263a37

Why are Harvard, Yale, and Princeton charging $80,000 or more for tuition, room, and board?

The Ivies added $44 billion to their endowments this year, and new estimates show their collective endowment could exceed $1 trillion by 2048.

Organized as charitable non-profits, the Ivy League is a cash generation machine. Their collective endowment now stands at approximately $188.2 billion, which is up from $144 billion in 2020.

Now, critics are questioning whether the Ivies have gamed the federal, state, and local tax systems to operate as educational charities. These schools pay little or no taxes on their investments, endowment gains, and property.

Here are the new endowments by school: Harvard ($53.2 billion), Yale ($42.3 billion), Columbia ($13.5 billion), Brown ($6.9 billion), Dartmouth ($8.5 billion), UPENN ($20.5 billion), and Cornell ($10 billion). (Princeton is the only school not yet reported; however, we forecast their endowment at $33.3 billion, up 25 percent from $26.6 billion in 2020.)

Harvard’s endowment now stands at over $10 million per undergraduate student. Yale is just shy of this number at $9 million. Brown, far behind its colleagues, boasts just over $1 million in endowment assets per undergrad student.

However, the Ivies billion-dollar optics problem is soon to become a trillion-dollar optics problem. The size of their endowments is set grow substantially over the next couple of decades.

Our auditors at OpenTheBooks.com forecast that the collective endowment of the Ivy League could surpass $1 trillion by 2049. This buildup of wealth for supposedly charitable educational purposes will trigger a host of public policy, legislative, and legal arguments. For example, Harvard alone could have $300 billion, or nearly $60 million per undergraduate student in endowment assets, by 2049.

COP26 And The Hubris Of Our Political Overlords Francis Menton

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2021-10-31-cop26-and-the-hubris-of-our-political-overlords

So we look upon our world leaders and laugh at their foolishness and hubris. It’s all we can do.

There is a very reasonable argument to be made that the climate-related Conferences of Parties (COPs) that occur annually under UN auspices are terrible things. They cost (i.e., waste) enormous resources, and they have the potential to do great damage to the world economy and the well-being of the people. Fair enough. But on balance, my view is that it’s a good thing we have them. I can think of no other comparable activities that put on such dramatic and widely-viewed display the immeasurable foolishness and hubris of our political overlords.

By the time you read this, COP26 will likely have opened in Glasgow, Scotland. Thousands will be in attendance. Most every country of the world has sent at least some high-level delegation, and the majority are sending the President or Prime Minister. U.S. President Joe Biden will be there in person, along with PM Boris Johnson of the UK, President Emanuel Macron of France, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, and comparable heads of state from across Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, Oceania, and North and South America. U.S. climate envoy John Kerry used his usual portentous tone to set the stage (as quoted by the BBC):

America’s climate envoy John Kerry says the COP26 climate change summit in Glasgow is the “last best hope for the world to get its act together”.

The idea is that hundreds of global leaders, not a one of whom has much if any idea how the world’s energy systems work, will come together to agree and order that those systems must be completely discarded and replaced. Currently, all the world economies run mostly on fossil fuel energy; but these political leaders are oh so much smarter than that, so they will order that use of such energy must be reduced and then ended, and associated carbon emissions will of course decline commensurately. These people equally have no idea how or whether the newly-ordered alternative energy systems might work, or how much the new systems might cost when fully implemented. Those things, you see, are mere engineering details, too insignificant to warrant the attention of great potentates. What they do know is, as the magnificent Barack Obama put it in 2008, “this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal. . . .”