NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The disgrace that was the Biden press conference Joe Concha,

Posted By on March 28th, 2021

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-disgrace-that-was-the-biden-press-conference/ar-BB1eZV0j?li=BBnb7Kz

President Biden called on 10 reporters to answer 30-some questions during his long-awaited first formal press conference on Thursday. But the hour-plus event was a disgrace for some in the press and a dubious performance by the president.

The questions for the president were meek and vague, failing to extract any specific information about policies or solutions to the myriad problems faced by the administration. Take, for example, this activism disguised as a question from PBS’s Yamiche Alcindor on why the president needs to abolish the filibuster in the name of racial equality while combating evil Republicans in their efforts to prevent minorities from voting. Or something like that.

“When it comes to the filibuster, immigration is a big issue, of course, related to the filibuster, but there’s also Republicans who are passing bill after bill trying to restrict voting rights. [Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer’s calling it in an existential threat to democracy,” Alcindor, who plays an objective journalist on TV, said to the president after being the second reporter chosen by Biden’s handlers for him to call upon. “Why not back a filibuster rule that at least gets around issues, including voting rights or immigration? [South Carolina Congressman] Jim Clyburn, someone, of course, who you know very well, has backed the idea of a filibuster rule when it comes to civil rights and voting rights.”

That’s not even bias in broad daylight. That’s outright activism in pressing the president on national television to move forward with abolishing the filibuster to advance an agenda she supports. Alcindor also failed to quote Biden’s own words back to him from a speech he called, at the time, one of the most important of his career: “It is not only a bad idea, it upsets the constitutional design and it disservices the country,” Biden argued in 2005 against eliminating the Senate filibuster. “No longer would the Senate be that ‘different kind of legislative body’ that the Founders intended. No longer would the Senate be the ‘saucer’ to cool the passions of the immediate majority.”

P.C.-CULTURE Comments turned off

The Hymn to Him Michael Kile

Posted By on March 27th, 2021

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2021/03/the-hymn-to-him/

As the gender storms rain down on Capital Hill and feminist rage spreads across the land, another Higgins has escaped the attention of our vigilant media: the phonetics professor in My Fair Lady (MFL) and that song. For some people, MFL is still jolly good fun: an Edwardian comedy of manners kept alive in the last half century by a few memorable songs, thanks to the 1964 American musical drama film, itself an adaptation from Lerner and Loewe’s 1956 Broadway and London stage musical.

Wouldn’t it be loverly if everyone felt that way about it? They certainly did in the 1960s. The 1964 film, with Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle and Rex Harrison as Henry Higgins, was a critical and commercial success. The second-highest grossing film that year, it won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Director. The American Film Institute in 1998 named it the 91st greatest American film. It was ranked eighth in the AFI’s 2006 Greatest Movie Musicals list.

MFL’s popularity, however, is on life-support. More and more folk are determined to see it as another example of the patriarchy in action. For them, Henry Higgins and Colonel Pickering, two older upper-class males exploit Eliza, a young Cockney Covent Garden flower-seller. They bet, for God’s sake, on whether stern elocution lessons and tuition in manners could change her into a  lady. With a Little Bit of Luck, it does, but how dare they try to improve her chances in life’s lottery!

MFL is all about transformation. Yet how many remember that both musicals, and a 1938 film, were based on a 1913 stage play, George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion; or that Shaw’s inspiration was an ancient Greek myth in book ten of Ovid’s Metamorphoses?  The Roman poet’s first sentence: “My purpose is to tell of bodies which have been transformed into shapes of a different kind.”  In this case, the dramatic shape depends on directors and actors, as much as on writers and copyright law.

Shaw spent more than two decades trying to rescue his play from chaps determined to romanticise it, as explained in this video. He must have fumed when he saw the 1938 Metro Goldwyn Mayer billboard: “He [Higgins] took a girl off the street and made a lady of her in an amazing experiment to trick society. A thrilling, wise, witty and romantic photo-play.” Yet it was his most popular and financially successful work.

The before and after photos of Eliza had this caption: “Any girl can do it. You need a guy and a trunkful of clothes!” A speech bubble has Wendy Hiller saying to Leslie Howard (below): “Swear at me … even black my eye … but when you’ve made a girl love you … don’t you dare ignore her!” It is probably on the syllabus of a coercive-control workshop.

MY SAY: Comments turned off

MY SAY: HAPPY AND SWEET PASSOVER 2021

Posted By on March 27th, 2021

Tonight, after a year of separation and pandemic, my family will gather to celebrate Passover with a retelling of the Jewish exodus from slavery in ancient Egypt, good and plentiful traditional food, political bickering, laughter, love and a prayer for the souls of the Warsaw ghetto who resisted as Rita Kramer details below.

This year so many former Pharaohs have turned to accommodation and recognition of Israel and they too will reap the blessings of Israel’s amazing research and development of life enhancing technology and science.

Thanks to the efforts of President Donald Trump, “this year in Jerusalem” will herald the arrival of diplomats from many nations to their relocated embassies in the nation’s ancient and eternal capital.

May God bless America and Israel and people of good faith everywhere. rsk

HISTORY Comments turned off

BURIED HISTORY: 1943 PASSOVER IN THE WARSAW GHETTO BY RITA KRAMER ****

Posted By on March 27th, 2021

http://www.ruthfullyyours.com/2015/04/03/buried-history-1943-passover-in-the-warsaw-ghetto-by-rita-kramer/

“What we were unable to cry and shriek out to the world we buried in the ground….So the world may know all….We would [have been] the fathers, the teachers and educators of the future….But no, we shall certainly not live to see [the recovery of the archive], and so I write my last will. May the treasure fall into good hands, may it last into better times, may it alarm and alert the world to what happened…in the twentieth century….We may now die in peace. We fulfilled our mission. May history attest for us.” David Graber 19 year old.”

When families gather around the Seder table, many recall the dark Passover of 1943 and the climax of the months-long battle in which the small number of men and women remaining in the Warsaw Ghetto rose up against the Nazi murderers. They knew they were doomed but they were determined to go down fighting. We honor them as heroes.

There are many ways to be heroic. Because of tradition and circumstances Jews were not bred to be fighters. They were thinkers, readers, writers. And among the most heroic of those trapped in the Warsaw Ghetto was a historian named Emanuel Ringelblum, who determined to record life in the Ghetto in its reality, not as it might be misrepresented later in elegiac memorials or accusations of passivity by those who would not really know what it had been like.

In the interwar years Ringelblum had been one of the leading historians of Jewish life in Poland from the earliest times of settlement to the present, when a renaissance of learning and cultural creativity was taking place among the Jews of cities like Vilna, Lodz, and Warsaw. At the time, the greatest number of Jews anywhere in the world lived in Poland. And Warsaw, the largest Jewish community in Europe, was their intellectual center.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Iranian Regime, Houthis Celebrate Biden Administration’s Policy by Majid Rafizadeh

Posted By on March 27th, 2021

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17195/iran-houthis-celebrate-biden

By removing the Houthis from the terrorist list and cutting off US support to confront the militia group, the Biden Administration has emboldened and empowered the Houthis and given them a free pass.

That is most likely why the Houthi terror group has ratcheted up its missile attacks. More than 40 drones and missiles were reportedly launched by the Houthis at Saudi Arabia in the month of February alone.

In spite of the mounting evidence of crimes committed by the Houthis, the Biden Administration decided to hand an undeserved political victory to Iran’s regime. Let us hope that the Biden Administration reconsiders, and stops rewarding Iran for its malign behavior as well as jeopardizing the strengthening peace and stability that has finally been taking off throughout the Middle East.

The Biden Administration has completely reversed the former administration’s firm policy on the Houthis in the Yemeni civil war.

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo designated Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels, also known as Ansarallah, as a “foreign terrorist organization” in January 2021. The move was intended to hold the terror group accountable, as Pompeo clarified:

“These designations will provide additional tools to confront terrorist activity and terrorism by Ansarallah, a deadly Iran-backed militia group in the Gulf region. The designations are intended to hold Ansarallah accountable for its terrorist acts, including cross-border attacks threatening civilian populations, infrastructure, and commercial shipping.”

But after less than a week in office, the Biden administration began reviewing the designation and revoked the designation of Yemen’s Houthis as a terrorist group.

Why would the Biden Administration remove a militia group, which commits crimes against humanity, recruits, injures and kills children, from the terrorist designation? According to Human Rights Watch’s World Report 2020:

“Since September 2014, all parties to the conflict have used child soldiers under 18, including some under the age of 15, according to a 2019 UN Group of Eminent International and Regional Experts on Yemen report in 2019. According to the secretary general, out of 3,034 children recruited throughout the war in Yemen, 1,940—64 percent—were recruited by the Houthis.”

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

To the Parapets, Defenders of Free Speech! Anyone who aims to chill, curtail, infringe, or end free speech has outed themselves as an aspiring tyrant and must be stopped. By Thaddeus G. McCotter

Posted By on March 27th, 2021

https://amgreatness.com/2021/03/26/to-the-parapets-defenders-of-free-speech/

To date, a number of observers have diagnosed and condemned the rancid ideology and insidious aims of the true threat to America: the radical Leftist American Communists or Am-coms. 

In his anti-socialist manifesto, Evan Sayet coined the term and dissected the totalitarian designs of The Woke Supremacy; Lisa De Pasquale satirically skewered the intrinsic insanity and hypocrisy of our self-anointed “moral superiors” in The Social Justice Warrior Handbook: A Practical Survival Guide for Snowflakes, Millennials, and Generation Z; and most recently, Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.), a leader of exceptional intellect and moral courage, condemned the intolerance behind the regressive policies and neo-racist practices of the often less-than-non-violent “woke folk.”

But it is not just observers from the center-Right decrying the Am-coms. Granted, this oppressive movement will be called many different things depending on who across the political spectrum is discussing it, but the recognition of its dangers remains. Some of the most poignant critiques have come from intellectually honest journalists who are not on the Right, such as Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi. Both ably set forth the Am-coms’ goal of controlling the media and Big Tech to censor political opponents. Taibbi, for example, exposes the “troubling views” of Columbia law professor Timothy Wu, who feels the First Amendment is “obsolete.” In doing so, Greenwald and Taibbi provide the first step in identifying and defeating the Am-coms.

There is no surer way to identify an Am-com than by his lust for censorship.

MEDIA Comments turned off

Media Suddenly Much Less Interested in Guy Busted w/6 Guns in Supermarket Daniel Greenfield

Posted By on March 27th, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2021/03/media-suddenly-much-less-interested-guy-busted-w6-daniel-greenfield/

When this story first broke right after the Boulder supermarket shooting, the media thought it had a train full of narrative. But the Boulder shooter turned out to be a Syrian Muslim forcing the media to play defense while telling everyone not to pay attention to the identity of the shooter.
And the guy with all those guys in the Atlanta Publix? He doesn’t fit the narrative either.
A 22-year-old accused of taking six guns and body armor into a busy Atlanta grocery store will remain in jail after waiving his first appearance hearing Thursday.
Rico Abednego Neequaye Marley faces 11 felonies after authorities said he walked into the Atlantic Station Publix on Wednesday afternoon armed to the teeth. He was arrested after a shopper spotted him with a rifle in the men’s restroom about 1:30 p.m. and alerted the store’s employees, Atlanta police said.
According to an incident report, Instacart shopper Charles Russell entered the restroom and heard “clicking sounds” coming from a bathroom stall.
Marley has the expected record for a member of the Democrat base.
Jail records show Marley was arrested by Chamblee police on a simple assault charge in January 2018. He was arrested again four months later on a theft by receiving stolen property charge in DeKalb County, court records show.
Sorry guys, just an ordinary criminal. Not at all the Trump voter you were looking for. Better luck next time.

When this story first broke right after the Boulder supermarket shooting, the media thought it had a train full of narrative. But the Boulder shooter turned out to be a Syrian Muslim forcing the media to play defense while telling everyone not to pay attention to the identity of the shooter.

And the guy with all those guys in the Atlanta Publix? He doesn’t fit the narrative either.

A 22-year-old accused of taking six guns and body armor into a busy Atlanta grocery store will remain in jail after waiving his first appearance hearing Thursday.

Rico Abednego Neequaye Marley faces 11 felonies after authorities said he walked into the Atlantic Station Publix on Wednesday afternoon armed to the teeth. He was arrested after a shopper spotted him with a rifle in the men’s restroom about 1:30 p.m. and alerted the store’s employees, Atlanta police said.

According to an incident report, Instacart shopper Charles Russell entered the restroom and heard “clicking sounds” coming from a bathroom stall.

Marley has the expected record for a member of the Democrat base.

Jail records show Marley was arrested by Chamblee police on a simple assault charge in January 2018. He was arrested again four months later on a theft by receiving stolen property charge in DeKalb County, court records show. 

Sorry guys, just an ordinary criminal. Not at all the Trump voter you were looking for. Better luck next time.

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

The CCP Is a Threat. Why Won’t the President Call It One? By Jimmy Quinn

Posted By on March 27th, 2021

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/03/the-ccp-is-a-threat-why-wont-the-president-call-it-one/

What recent speeches by Biden and Blinken say about the administration’s wrongheaded emphasis on cooperation with China.

Top Biden administration officials have largely kept their promises to vigorously compete with China. Building on the Trump administration’s China policies, they’ve pressed Beijing on its horrific human-rights abuses, bolstered U.S. support for Taiwan using the previous administration’s framework, and built out the Quad of Pacific democracies. In addition to that, the Biden team’s own focus on multilateral action has started to yield some results: This week, they announced sanctions on Chinese officials, coordinated with the U.K, the EU, and Canada, to punish CCP officials for their role in the Uyghur genocide.

But this flurry of activity has been joined, puzzlingly, with a deliberate effort to leave room for meetings such as last week’s rancorous U.S.-China summit in Alaska and President Biden’s decision to invite the CCP’s general secretary to a global climate summit.

To hear Biden appraise the challenge posed by the CCP is to listen to a meandering description of his recent phone conversation with its general secretary Xi Jinping, as he did yesterday. “I made it clear to him again what I’ve told him in person on several occasions: that we’re not looking for confrontation, although we know there will be steep, steep competition.”

No one wants a military conflict, but if calling out an authoritarian regime’s human-rights abuses and international bullying is anything, it is confrontation. In other words, the policies and statements of the president’s own administration belie a need to call the situation what it is, and not a sugarcoated version of the truth.

The problem is not that officials have backed down from speaking out on the CCP’s transgressions. On a trip to Tokyo earlier this month, Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused Beijing of using “coercion and aggression to systematically erode autonomy in Hong Kong, undercut democracy in Taiwan, abuse human rights in Xinjiang and Tibet, and assert maritime claims in the South China Sea” in violation of international law. If that doesn’t put a fine enough point on matters, Blinken has accused the Party of genocide in Xinjiang and referred to Taiwan as a “country” (a notable use of the term for a top U.S. official) as the mainland continues its airborne harassment of the world’s only Chinese democracy. Blinken and Biden both have defined this contest as a fundamental battle between democracy and authoritarianism in the 21st century.

POLITICS Comments turned off

Biden nominates swing vote Sen. Joe Manchin’s wife for $160K federal job

Posted By on March 27th, 2021

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/mar/26/joe-biden-nominates-swing-vote-sen-joe-manchins-wi/

President Biden intends to appoint the wife of the Senate’s top swing vote, West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin III, to a plum federal position that pays upwards of $160,000 annually.

The White House announced on Friday it would nominate Gayle Connelly Manchin, a former president of the West Virginia state board of education, to serve as federal co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission.

The organization is responsible for spurring economic development and investment in the 13 states that make up the region of Appalachia — which spans from northern Mississippi to Pennsylvania.

If confirmed by the Senate, Mrs. Manchin is slated to replace Tim Thomas, a former staffer for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. The role comes with a salary of approximately $163,000 annually, according to a federal pay database.

Mrs. Manchin’s nomination comes as her husband has become a vital political player in Washington, D.C.

MEDIA Comments turned off

USA Today fired the Diversity editor who jumped to conclusions about the identity of the Boulder shooter John Sexton

Posted By on March 27th, 2021

https://hotair.com/archives/john-s-2/2021/03/26/usa-today-fired-diversity-editor-jumped-conclusions-identity-boulder-shooter/

When authorities in Boulder, Colorado named the supermarket shooter this week, there were a whole lot of people on the left who had egg on their face. That’s because many had wrongly assumed the shooter must be white. I wrote an entire post based on a Twitter thread just collecting some of the many blue checked lefties who made this mistake.

One of the most conspicuous people to make this error was Hemal Jhaveri. As Dave Rubin pointed out she had tweeted this about the shooting: “It’s always an angry white man. Always.” Only in this case, it wasn’t.

Jhaveri isn’t just some rando leftie on Twitter. She was the Diversity and Inclusion editor at USA Today Sports. Today Jhaveri wrote a piece on Medium explaining she was fired shortly afterwards.

On Monday night, I sent a tweet responding to the fact that mass shooters are most likely to be white men. It was a dashed off over-generalization, tweeted after pictures of the shooter being taken into custody surfaced online. It was a careless error of judgement, sent at a heated time, that doesn’t represent my commitment to racial equality. I regret sending it. I apologized and deleted the tweet.

By Tuesday morning, after the shooter was identified as Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, several high profile alt-right Twitter accounts picked up the tweet as an example of anti-white bias and racism against whites…

There was social media outrage, threats and harassment towards me, and by the end of the day, USA TODAY had relieved me of my position as a Race and Inclusion editor.

Was her firing reasonable? To be honest, I’m not sure. On the one hand I’m against canceling people over tweets, especially old tweets someone put up when they were a dumb teenager.

On the other hand, I do think there are times when someone’s tweets are not compatible with their job. For instance, I think the SF School Board made the right call to strip Alison Collins of her leadership position based on her tweets about Asians. Collins hasn’t really apologized and hasn’t deleted the tweets. She clearly still believes Asians use “white supremacist thinking” to “get ahead.” And that’s just not a tenable position to hold if you are part of a district that is 30% Asian people.