Americans in Name Only (AINO) Linda Goudsmit

http://goudsmit.pundicity.com/24928/americans-in-name-only-aino

http://goudsmit.pundicity.com  http://lindagoudsmit.com

Who am I?

Identity is the universal conundrum of the human experience. We want to know who we are, where we came from, and if our lives have meaning. So, who are we?

We begin with our most basic identity. “It’s a boy!” “It’s a girl!” After sexual identity comes family identity, national identity, religious identity, educational identity, professional identity, and so on. Our identity gives us standing. We have identification cards that verify our identity. We have passports, licenses, diplomas, marriage certificates, and so on.

We verify our identity because we value our identity personally, and because ordered liberty requires verification that we are who we say we are. We trust that a hospital board certified surgeon is operating on us. We trust that a licensed pilot is flying our plane. We trust that those entrusted with our health and safety are trustworthy. American life is based on the ability to verify identity, and has established strict penalties for violating identity verification.

American jurisprudence is rooted in the motto “Trust and verify.” We give sworn testimony with an oath. “I swear by Almighty God that the evidence I shall give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” Intentionally lying under oath is the crime of perjury – a felony punishable to up to five years in prison.

Identity is an integral part of the universal human experience because it defines reality. We either are, or we are not, who we say we are. In politics and international affairs, identity has both domestic and international implications.

National identity is the universal conundrum of world politics. We want to know who we are, where we came from, and if our lives have meaning. The 2020 American presidential election is redefining our national identity. What does it mean to be an American?

The smoking gun that proved Barack Obama framed Donald Trump just got declassified

https://patriotpulse.net/the-smoking-gun-that-proved-barack-obama-framed-donald-trump-just-got-declassified/

Barack Obama and his Deep State minions got hit with some bad news.

The truth they tried to suppress is now out in public.

And the smoking gun that proved Barack Obama framed Donald Trump just got declassified.

Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe declassified notes from former CIA Director John Brennan, which revealed that the Obama administration knew the Russians were aware of the Clinton campaign trying to claim Donald Trump was a Russian stooge and that there was an attempt to fabricate a scandal involving Trump and Russia to “vilify” Trump.

“We’re getting additional insight into Russian activities from [REDACTED],” Brennan’s notes declared. “Cite alleged approval by Hillary Clinton–on 26 July–of a proposal from one of her foreign policy advisers to villify [sic] Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security services.”

Brennan and other Intelligence officials took this so seriously that they personally briefed Obama on the matter.

The Federalist reported:

Newly declassified handwritten notes from former CIA Director John Brennan show that the U.S. intelligence community knew in 2016 that Russian intelligence was actively monitoring, and potentially injecting disinformation into, Clinton’s anti-Trump collusion narrative. The intelligence concerning Russia’s knowledge of Clinton’s campaign plans was so concerning to Brennan and other national security officials that they personally informed Obama of the matter in the Oval Office in the summer of 2016. The handwritten notes from Brennan were declassified by Director of National Intelligence (DNI) John Ratcliffe and provided to Congress on Tuesday afternoon.

‘Does Congress Know That This Is How Communism Starts?’: Trump Condemns Big Tech Policing of Free Speech By Janita Kahn

https://www.theepochtimes.com/does-congress-know-that-this-is-how-communism-starts-trump-condemns-big-tech-policing-of-free-speech_3

President Donald Trump on Christmas Eve repeated his concerns over Big Tech censorship a day after he vetoed a defense-spending bill over Congress’s failure to remove liability protections for Silicon Valley’s social media companies.

“Twitter is going wild with their flags, trying hard to suppress even the truth. Just shows how dangerous they are, purposely stifling free speech. Very dangerous for our Country. Does Congress know that this is how Communism starts?” Trump said in a Twitter post on Thursday night.

“Cancel Culture at its worst. End Section 230!” he said.

Trump and his administration have repeatedly underscored the risks of unbalanced policing of user content on social media platforms, claiming that the companies are engaging in conduct that limits conservative viewpoints and stifles free speech. The president and the Justice Department have urged Congress to roll back legal protections under Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act for companies that have engaged in censoring or political conduct.

Section 230 largely exempts online platforms from liability for content posted by their users, although they can be held liable for content that violates anti-sex trafficking or intellectual property laws.

The law allows companies to block or screen content “in good faith” if they consider it “obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable.” The protections, however, weren’t intended to apply to services that act more like publishers than online platforms, outgoing Attorney General William Barr said in a speech in May.

Ignore the leftist hype: The Blackwater pardons were the right thing to do By Andrea Widburg

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/12/ignore_the_leftist_hype_the_blackwater_pardons_were_the_right_thing_to_do.html

On December 22, President Trump issued 15 pardons. Among those pardoned were Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, and Dustin Heard. If the names are unfamiliar, you might recognize them collectively as the Blackwater private contractors. In September 2007, these former veterans ended up in a shootout in Nisour Square, Baghdad, that left 17 Iraqis dead and 20 wounded. Slatten got life in prison; the other men each got 30 years. The left would like to see them continue to rot in jail, but President Trump made the right decision to let them go.

I have to admit that, for no good reason, I did not pay too much attention at the time to the original shootout in Iraq or to the men’s railroading over the course of several years after the shootout. That’s why I was at a loss for words when a leftist friend called me to ask accusingly, “So, what do you think of your President Trump now for pardoning those mass murderers?”

That friend wasn’t the only one taking that stand. Several leftists I know on Facebook posted a New York Times article about the pardon. The following is just the title but, after reading it, you really don’t need to waste your time (and it will be wasted) reading the rest of the article:

Blackwater’s Bullets Scarred Iraqis. Trump’s Pardon Renewed the Pain: Iraqi witnesses against Blackwater guards were promised justice after a mass killing in Baghdad in 2007. ‘Today,’ one said, the bullets still in his leg, ‘they proved to me it was just theater.’

The way things roll on the left is that you can simultaneously be angry at Trump for wanting to draw down America’s military presence in Afghanistan and the rest of the world, while still accusing him of being an imperialist and lambasting him for pardoning men involved in a war Trump didn’t even support.

Biden Meddles with Donald Trump’s Middle East Legacy at his Peril by Con Coughlin

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16866/biden-trump-middle-east

It is worth remembering that, when President Trump took office, the region was still reeling from the dire consequences of former US President Barack Obama’s inept and naive handling of the region.

By early January 2017, when Mr Trump took office, Iran was squandering the tens of billions of dollars it received for signing the nuclear deal, which Mr Obama had helped broker in 2015, on expanding its malign influence across the landscape of the Middle East.

Mr Trump’s Middle East legacy… completely redefined the landscape of the region from the chaos and conflict that prevailed when Mr Obama left office. Nowadays, the momentum in the region is moving towards peace, not conflict….

[T]he challenge for the incoming Biden administration now will be to see how it can pursue a different foreign policy agenda without jeopardising the very significant achievements that have been accomplished during Mr Trump’s tenure.

Certainly, if the incoming Biden administration makes any serious attempt to undermine Mr Trump’s legacy in the Middle East, it will do so at its peril.

The incoming Biden administration has indicated that one of its top priorities will be to adopt a new approach in Washington’s dealings with the Middle East. In particular it wants to revive the flawed nuclear deal with Iran as well as re-establish a dialogue with the Palestinian leadership, which imposed a three-year boycott on the Trump administration.

Yet, while the new Biden team, the majority of whom are relics from the Obama administration, are keen to assert a new policy agenda for the region, they also need to take care that, in so doing, they do not squander the impressive legacy US President Donald Trump has built up in the region.

Congress’ Christmas Tree Bill Loaded with Climate Ornaments Julie Kelly

https://amgreatness.com/2020/12/24/congress-christmas-tree-bill-loaded-with-climate-ornaments/

The goodies tucked inside the COVID “relief” bill are just a down payment on future climate compromises. It might not be the Green New Deal, but close enough.

Americans on both sides of the political aisle—and politicians as divergent as President Trump and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.)—are justifiably outraged at the $900 billion pork barrel spending bill disguised as COVID-19 “relief” that won congressional approval on Monday.

The president is pushing back, posting video messages that detail the bill’s giveaways to foreign countries and special interests unrelated to easing the devastating economic consequences of shutdowns ordered by Democratic and Republican governors alike. 

There is no end in sight to these punitive, costly decrees, which have done nothing to stop the spread of a virus that cannot be stopped; viruses outsmart humans almost every time and considering the sad crop of human leadership in the world right now, it’s not exactly a high wall for any pathogen to scale.

One group, however, is very pleased with this monstrosity of a bill: environmentalists. “Climate change,” just as it was for his previous boss and BFF, is a top priority in a Joe Biden Administration. Team Biden will work quickly to restore most if not all of Barack Obama’s climate change agenda, a legacy Donald Trump successfully razed.

The presumptive president promises to address the “existential threat” allegedly caused by manmade climate change; he’s regrouping Obama’s climate band, including former EPA administrator Gina McCarthy, who used her agency to thwart Congress and almost single-handedly advanced Obama’s extreme climate policies, and former Secretary of State John Kerry. As Biden’s “climate czar,” Kerry, a chief negotiator on the Paris Climate deal, will fulfill Biden’s pledge to re-enter that pact.

Thanks to House Democrats and Senate Republicans, however, Biden is getting a head start on his climate change wish list. 

What the Lockdown Leviathans Don’t Get We want to live, yes, but we also want to live lives of meaning, purpose, connection, and contentment. By Tal Bachman ****

https://amgreatness.com/2020/12/24/what-the-lockdown-leviathans-dont-get/

Sure—usually “it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas” by, say, the end of November.  But Meredith Willson’s classic Holiday tune didn’t quite come true this year.

After all, here’s just a starter list of things that were either banned or restricted this holiday season: Christmas family gatherings; Christmas concerts; Christmas tree lighting ceremonies; Christmas parties; Christmas worship services; Christmas sing-alongs; Christmas season sporting events; Christmas shopping trips; and even Christmas visits with Santa. 

More broadly, nearly every conceivable social activity, aside from popping out to a grocery store to stave off starvation (or, possibly, suicide) for another week, was either banned or severely restricted this year for millions of us.

Don’t like it? Don’t worry, said the experts: If you’re feeling a mite lonely after nine months of house arrest in Papillon-like solitary confinement, just throw a rollicking Christmas “social” event in which you stare, all alone, at a computer screen on a Zoom call, as the most ruthless, repressive, imperialist regime on earth monitors everything you say, and then instantly disables your account if you dare to criticize it. (Soon, no doubt, it won’t only be the Chinese government doing the monitoring and disabling, but our own—supposing it hasn’t merged with the CCP by then).

“Anti-Racist Grading” Means Not Expecting Kids to Know 2 + 2 = 4 Daniel Greenfield

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2020/12/anti-racist-grading-means-not-expecting-kids-know-daniel-greenfield/

Here’s a preview of “anti-racist grading”. What’s anti-racist grading? The math on that simple. Anything you attach “anti-racist” is nullified. Thus “anti-racist policing” means no policing. Anti-racist carpet cleaners make your carpets dirty instead.

And anti-racist teaching? Since none of you are the products of anti-racist education, I’m sure you can already figure that equation out. But here’s the work shown.

One thing we understand from Universal Design for Learning is that there are multiple ways a kid can express their knowing. And so if you know 2+2=4, one way you can express your knowing is by writing it. Another way you can express your knowing is by discussing it. A third way is by creating a model that shows it. A fourth way is by illustrating it and a fifth way is by performing a play. But in too many schools, only one way is considered legitimate. So if you write it, you get an A and that’s it. There might be 100 kids in the school who know 2+2=4, but if only two of those kids can write it, then only two of those kids will receive As. That is profoundly discriminatory.

Awesome. No wait, profoundly awesome. In an anti-racist way.

Kids will no longer need to learn that 2 + 2 = 4 because it’s assumed that they already know it. And they can express that knowingness by performing a play whose theme is that capitalism is evil because it insists that 2 + 2 = 4.

The main beneficiaries of this anti-racist education will be minority students who will be left even more unprepared for the real world, and even more dependent on the subsidies and privileges of the anti-racist system and its anti-racist non-plantation that is totally a plantation. 

Who knew how true Animal Farm would really be.

Two bad. Four also bad. All numbers are bad. Only anti-racist numbers are good. And there’s only one anti-racist number. Zero. 

A Christmas Message for Dr. Fauci HELL NO. This is America! Wayne Allyn Root *****

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/12/christmas-message-dr-fauci-wayne-allyn-root/

This can’t be a mistake. No one can be this dumb. No one can be this clueless. Not even Democrats. Not even moronic Democratic governors. Not even nanny-state government bureaucrats like Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Fauci jasked Americans to cancel Christmas. He said, “…it’s just one of those things you’re going to have to accept.” He reported he would not even allow his own three daughters to come home for Christmas this year. He wants all Americans to “painfully” isolate. He says he and his wife will be spending the holiday alone.

I have a message for Dr Fauci: “First, not just no. HELL NO. This is America. This is a free country. If we want to celebrate Christmas, we will. If we want to go to church, we will. If we want to spend the holidays with our children, we will. We’re adults. We make our own decisions. This isn’t a nanny state. It’s not the Soviet Union. It’s not Nazi Germany. We don’t need government bureaucrats telling us what to do, how to live our lives or how to spend the holidays.

Second, you’re a typical Ivy League egghead. You’re too smart for your own good. You have IQ but clearly no emotional intelligence. And certainly no common sense.

Third, how can I see this nicely? SCREW YOU. I love my family. I love my children. I love Christmas. I don’t know you. I don’t owe you. And I don’t answer to you.”

Fauci and his crowd of moronic Democratic governors are control freaks. But no one is listening, certainly not conservatives, not Trump deplorables, not patriots and not Christians. We love Christmas. We love our families. And no one is taking that away from us. Not in America.

Ocasio-Cortez Calls Amazon Jobs a Scam Yet another socialist tries to explain the purpose of business. Jason D. Hill

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/12/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-calls-amazon-jobs-scam-jason-d-hill/

Americans spoke loud and clear when Bernie Sanders and his brand of socialism were defeated in the Democratic primaries. They said no to socialism and all that was promised with it. Socialism is just not in our political DNA, Americans pointed out. Even those who voted for Joe Biden thought they were electing a liberal centrist; someone closer to near-fiscal conservatives, rather than rapacious, wealth-appropriating socialists. They might be wrong. But I think that they rejected socialism when they voted against Bernie Sanders.

Yet here is that naïve activist masquerading as a politician, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, making a crass and abrasive demand for socialism by attacking a symbol of the free market: Amazon. Last week, AOC came out in a series of incendiary attacks against Amazon, accusing the company of providing sham jobs for workers because it left them homeless. In a series of tweets on Twitter, AOC referenced a Bloomberg News article which reported that more than 4,000 Amazon employees are on food stamps.

AOC immediately tweeted: “A Job that leaves you homeless & on food stamps isn’t a job. It’s a scam.” She further went on to state that Amazon’s jobs are a “scam” because they’re not creating financial security for workers.

Mixing categories in a way that first year students of logic would not, AOC went on to state: “This is why “Amazon jobs” aren’t it & we should instead focus our public investments + incentives on small businesses, public infrastructure, & worker cooperatives that actually support dignified life.”