WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Real Socialism The big utopian lie that brings nothing but misery. John Stossel

Posted By on February 11th, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/02/real-socialism-john-stossel/

People hate America’s big disparities in wealth. It’s a reason why, among young people, socialism is as popular as capitalism.

The Democratic Socialists of America want a country based on “freedom, equality and solidarity.” That sure sounds good.

But does socialism bring that?

My new video debunks several myths about socialism.

One reason for socialism’s continued appeal is linguist Noam Chomsky. For generations, his work has taught students that capitalism is “a grotesque catastrophe.”

I assumed the fall of the Soviet Union would put an end to such misinformation. It did — for about a month.

But since then, the lust for socialism has come back strong. Today, Chomsky says that the Soviet Union “was about as remote from socialism as you could imagine.”

EDUCATION Comments turned off

‘Safe Spaces’ and Neo-Segregation for Black Students How diversocrats promote a racist view of the country — and hobble black students. Richard L. Cravatts

Posted By on February 11th, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/02/safe-spaces-and-neo-segregation-black-students-richard-l-cravatts/

Just before the fall semester kicked off for the class of 2020, John Ellison, Dean of Students at the University of Chicago, sent the incoming class a traditional letter welcoming them to the campus community and stressing some of the values that the university honors and promotes.

While sending a letter like this was not particularly unique, Ellison did vary his tone and message when he warned students that their experience at Chicago would, and should, involve challenging oneself to confront views different than one’s own—sometimes radically so—and that students should be prepared to have their own notions challenged, disputed, argued against, even denounced. That, Ellison suggested, is one of the key roles of a university.

“You will find that we expect members of our community to be engaged in rigorous debate, discussion and even disagreement,” he wrote, and “[a]t times this may challenge you and even cause discomfort.” When Ellison referred to the “discomfort” allegedly felt by many students when they confront ideas with which they do not agree, he was recognizing the unfortunate trend being witnessed on university campuses where students not only disagree with opposing views, they want to be sheltered from even having to confront them. More than that, when professors, fellow students, and guest speakers articulate ideology or viewpoints contrary to these fragile students’ own, intellectually frail students frequently move to suppress or punish that opposing speech.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Dems’ Next Plot Against Trump If Senate impeachment trial fails. Joseph Klein

Posted By on February 11th, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/02/dems-next-plot-against-trump-if-senate-impeachment-joseph-klein/

With the Senate impeachment trial underway that is virtually certain to end in acquittal, the Democrats are already planning their next move against Donald Trump. They are looking to use an obscure clause in the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution, written in the aftermath of the Civil War and aimed at disqualifying ex-Confederate rebels from public office, to bar Trump from holding any future public office. Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment allows for the disqualification of individuals from holding federal or state office who both previously (1) took an oath to support the U.S. Constitution as a federal or state government legislator or officer, and (2) then “shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”

The Democrats leading the charge on the Fourteenth Amendment gambit include Senators Tim Kaine of Virginia, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, and Dick Durbin of Illinois, along with Representatives Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida and Steve Cohen of Tennessee. They are being advised by leftist academics who believe that Congress has the unilateral power to pass a joint resolution invoking the Fourteenth Amendment’s disqualification provision against Trump. As far as the Trump-haters are concerned, it is perfectly all right to put aside due process and fundamental fairness, so long as Trump is barred from holding public office ever again.

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Republicans Need to Stop Accepting Progressives’ ‘Facts’ How the self-proclaimed party of “science” is undermining democracy. Bruce Thornton

Posted By on February 11th, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/02/republicans-need-stop-accepting-progressives-facts-bruce-thornton/

As the self-proclaimed party of “science,” progressives assert that their interpretations and explanations of people and events comprise “facts” that only the ignorant or evil refuse to believe. But this faith in science more often reflects the nostrums of scientism: contested ideas or beliefs that present themselves with the jargon, formulas, and quantitative data that characterize real scientific research, but that lack the reproducibility and established foundational facts that support authentic scientific research.

As such, these “facts” of scientism reflect ideological and political aims that appropriate the prestige and authority of science to camouflage their partisan prejudices. Unfortunately, too many Republicans in their public discourse and deliberations accept these “facts” as truth, thus empowering technocratic progressives by legitimizing their malign policies.

Climate change, of course, is a prominent example of this phenomenon. But anthropogenic, catastrophic global warming (ACGW)––the actual theory disguised by the banal, self-evident phrase “climate change”––is not a scientific fact, but a theory with some facts that support it, but others that challenge it. Our foundational knowledge of global climate as of now is too incomplete, and so is unable to create a predictive model because we do not yet fully understand or can quantify how all the numerous components that govern global climate over time interrelate. Yet based just on one element, human-created CO2 concentrations, warmists conclude that doomsday for the planet is around the corner.

Despite that uncertainty, too many Republicans accept the “scientific consensus” and “settled science” canards and support carbon taxes or other policies created by Joe Biden’s executive orders, like the ban on fracking. But carbon taxes, even if ACGW is true, will only increase the price of energy, while doing nothing about the true drivers of increased CO2––China and India.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Strange House Democrat Impeachment Claim of an “Armed” Crowd Daniel Greenfield

Posted By on February 11th, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2021/02/strange-house-democrat-impeachment-claim-armed-daniel-greenfield/

The House Democrat impeachment arguments are terrible. But there’s one odd thing that stands out in their word salads of innuendo and conjecture. 

“Against this backdrop, President Trump addressed a crowd that he knew was armed and primed for violence,” the House Democrat impeachment managers wrote in their rebuttal. “When he stood at the podium before thousands of his supporters, President Trump knew that they were armed and that they were angry.”

These two references to an “armed crowd” are strange because no one has been accused of opening fire at the Capitol Riot. Even the worst actors seem to have resorted to using the usual rioter tools, sprays, poles, shields, and assorted objects that were weaponized, but were not weapons.

The tactical group that set out to breach the Capitol was well prepared but used no firearms to achieve its goals. And it planned its attack days before the event and started it while President Trump was speaking.

What are House Democrats talking about? As usual, no one seems to know or care.

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Biden’s appeasement of Iran begins Paul Mirengoff

Posted By on February 11th, 2021

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/02/bidens-appeasement-of-iran-begins.php

Joe Biden is determined to appease Iran, and the appeasement has already commenced. Its public manifestation centers now on Yemen, and the Houthi rebels there.

The Houthis have long received considerable Iranian financial and military support, including in recent years cruise missiles and drones. They have used Iranian weaponry not just against the government of Yemen, but also against Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Iran’s arch enemies and allies of the U.S.

Thus, as John Bolton says, the Houthis are a threat to the oil-producing Gulf monarchies. As is Iran, of course.

Bolton explains:

In effect, Iran is trying to encircle its Arab enemies, chief among them Saudi Arabia, by installing a friendly regime in their backyard. Among the Arabian Peninsula states, Yemen is the poorest and most notably the only one without oil. Armed conflict and political hostility are the rule, not the exception, there.

The Trump administration recognized the threat posed by the Houthis, but didn’t do much about it. According to Bolton, direct U.S. involvement in the Yemen conflict ended with the 2018 suspension of in-flight refueling of Saudi air operations in Yemen. And Trump didn’t designate the Houthis as terrorists until his last day in office.

Team Biden may wish Trump had done more. That way, the new administration could more dramatically signal its willingness to back Iranian interests and sell out Saudi Arabia.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Don’t Tell Anyone, But Biden Still Has $1.3 Trillion In Trump-Approved COVID Funds To Spend

Posted By on February 11th, 2021

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/02/11/dont-tell-anyone-but-biden-still-has-1-3-trillion-in-trump-approved-covid-funds-to-spend/

Time is a luxury our country does not have.” That was Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer explaining why Democrats are in such a mad rush to pass a massive $1.9 trillion COVID “relief” bill.  

What Schumer, President Joe Biden and other Democrats, and the mainstream media fail to mention is that the government hasn’t spent $1.3 trillion of the previous COVID relief funds yet. If the public knew that, would a majority be in favor of anything like the new Biden plan?

For those with short memories, there have been five COVID relief bills in less than a year, with total spending of $4.1 trillion – all financed by deficit spending. President Donald Trump signed the most recent bill – valued at $900 billion – just six weeks ago. Also, there have been “administrative actions” that add up to $700 billion.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has been keeping close track of the spending with its COVID Money Tracker tool, and finds that there are still $1.1 trillion from those five COVID bills that has yet to be “committed or disbursed.”

About 60% of that is from the last bill Trump signed. But there’s $195 billion left over from the CARES Act passed last March; $125 billion from the Families First Act; and $220 billion still to be spent from the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act, which passed last April.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Former Capitol Police Chief Blows Hole in Dems Case Against Trump by Reagan Reyes

Posted By on February 11th, 2021

https://rfangle.com/politics/former-capitol-police-chief-blows-hole-in-dems-case-against-trump/

Former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund wrote an 8-page letter detailing the events that occurred at the Capitol on January 6. In the letter addressed to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sund’s timeline of events seems to directly refute the Democrats’ claim that the insurrection on Capitol Hill was incited by a speech given by President Donald Trump on the same day. The Democrats’ entire impeachment case against Trump rests solely on the assumption that his speech caused the disturbing events that unfolded inside the Capitol as a joint session of Congress met to certify the electoral votes of the 2020 Presidential Election.

In the letter, Sund, who stepped down as Chief shortly after the insurrection occurred, states that his department “did not fail,” adding that the Capitol Police acted according to the intelligence available prior to the events. There was never any information showing they would be facing a group of “thousands of well-coordinated, well-equipped violent criminals,” intent upon attacking law enforcement officers as they sought to gain access to the Capitol itself.

Sund asserts that he would like to “set the record straight” on the events that took place: “There has been much conflicting information presented by various officials and the media regarding preparations and actions taken at the Capitol that day, and I would like to set the record straight from my perspective.”

POLITICS Comments turned off

Calling out the Unholy Six Republican senators who voted to advance Trump’s impeachment trial By David Zukerman

Posted By on February 10th, 2021

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/02/calling_out_the_unholy_six_republican_senators_who_voted_to_advance_trumps_impeachment_trial.html

The following is copied and pasted from the CBS News website, February 9:

Senators Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania joined all 50 Democrats in voting to uphold the constitutionality of [Trump’s post-presidency impeachment] trial.

First, concerning a certain Senate Democrat: you too, Joe Manchin?

Clearly, the Republican senators listed above have, by their vote against the express language of the Constitution, made common cause with the rabid Senate Democrats and must be primaried next election.  Should the GOP regain their Senate majority in 2022, these senators should be either denied membership on any Senate committee or placed on the most non-consequential of Senate committees.

The Unholy Six have previously made clear their loathing for a now private citizen and have placed their personal disregard of former president Trump far above their duty to the Constitution and their responsibilities to their constituents.  It is worth speculating that these sad excuses for Republicans — call them CRINOs (Craven Republicans In Name Only) — were emboldened by the example of Liz Cheney, who has shown that she can vituperate against the former president with the worst of Democrat anti-Trump propagandists and get away with it.

What profit is there in turning to Republicans for succor against the self-aggrandizing, tyrannical Democrats if they lack the will to call to account the GOP turncoats in their own ranks?  It is to be expected that the power-mad Democrats will place themselves not only above the law, but above our Constitution.  It is unforgivable for elected Republicans to ignore people in their own ranks who are no more committed to the rule of law, to the Constitution, than the malevolent Democrats.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

House Democrats Reject Stefanik’s Amendment to Strip Funding from Institutions with Ties to The CCP Reagan McCarthy

Posted By on February 10th, 2021

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/reaganmccarthy/2021/02/10/stefanik-ccp-amendment-n2584515

“House Democrats ultimately rejected Stefanik’s amendment, in favor of funding institutions with ties to the CCP.”

Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY-DISTRICT 21) introduced an amendment on Tuesday that takes aim at severing any ties that institutions of higher education hold with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Stefanik argues that the CCP is “one of the biggest adversaries” that we face, adding that the regime is “antithetical to our values.”

“The United States must clearly counter this dangerous regime,” she said of the CCP. “And institutions of higher learning that continue to engage in partnerships affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party are ignoring genocidal acts in favor of monetary gain. This does not represent who we are as Americans, or our American values.”

The amendment would strip funding from institutions associated with the CCP.

“…an institution shall not be eligible to receive an allocation under this section if such institution has a partnership in effect with an entity that is— (A) owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by the Government of the People’s Republic of China; or (B) organized under the laws of the People’s Republic of China.”