WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

China Cracks Down on Religion Even Harder by Judith Bergman

Posted By on March 2nd, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15638/china-religion-crackdown

“In practice, your religion no longer matters, if you are Buddhist, or Taoist, or Muslim or Christian: the only religion allowed is faith in the Chinese Communist Party.” — A Catholic priest, AsiaNews.it, December 31, 2019.

One mother, who is a member of The Church of Almighty God, said that her son told her to abandon her faith when he returned home after school. “My son told me that if I get arrested, our entire family will be finished. He threatened to jump off the building to end his life if I continued practicing my faith,” she recently told Bitter Winter.

One shop-owner told Bitter Winter, “A few years ago, many shops sold religious couplets. In 2018, the government started banning them. Last year, all couplets were confiscated from shops, and this year, sellers are threatened to be fined and imprisoned. No one sells them in Shangqiu anymore. Who dares to risk?”

China, meanwhile, maintains that its human rights record is admirable. According to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang, “The Chinese people are in the best position to judge China’s human rights condition, which is at its historical best.” — Time.com, January 15, 2020.

China is increasing its already extremely severe suppression of religious freedom. More than a year ago, at a November 2018 hearing of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, the President of the Religious Freedom Institute, Thomas F. Farr, described China’s religious suppression as “the most systematic and brutal attempt to control Chinese religious communities since the Cultural Revolution.”

On December 30, 2019, China’s Communist Party (CCP) announced new “Administrative Measures for Religious Groups”. The measures — which came into force on February 1, 2020 — stipulate that religious organizations exist to promote the CCP and its ideology, according to Bitter Winter, a magazine on religious liberty and human rights in China.

POLITICS Comments turned off

Democrats, Progressives and Socialists Exposing the danger. Bruce Hendry *****

Posted By on March 2nd, 2020

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/03/democrats-progressives-and-socialists-frontpagemagcom/

Starting today we are publishing in serial form an essay by Bruce Hendry on the existential crisis our nation is facing. The crisis has been caused by a dramatic shift to the left by one our two main political parties. Tragically, the leaders of the Democrat Party seem to have learned nothing from the social catastrophes created by socialist illusions in the past century.

By declaring himself a socialist – although “communist” would more accurately reflect his lifelong commitments – presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has done our country an enormous favor. When the Berlin Wall came tumbling down in 1989, it ended a 72-year international civil war that liberated over a billion people from the chains of a totalitarian system. Yet there was a deafening and costly silence on the part of the victors over this historic result.

While millions in the former Soviet bloc gathered to praise President Reagan and America as the heroes of their liberation, western leaders were curiously mute. By the time the Wall fell, Reagan was no longer president. Under his successor, George H. W. Bush, there were no victory laps taken. No major events to celebrate the victory of the Free World or to drive home the lessons learned from this past – the bankrupting of whole continents, the engineering of famines in the Soviet Union, which had previously been the “bread basket of Europe,” the murder of more than 100 million people in peacetime for standing in the way of the socialist planners.

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Could the End of the Afghanistan Misadventure Finally Be At Hand? Wilsonian nation-building failed. It’s time to discard it as a foreign policy strategy. Mon Mar 2, 2020 Robert Spencer

Posted By on March 2nd, 2020

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/03/could-end-afghanistan-misadventure-finally-be-hand-robert-spencer/

Afghanistan “is not going to become Switzerland overnight,” an American official said as the U.S. and the Taliban signed a peace accord on Saturday morning, and you have to admire his understatement. The United States has sacrificed the lives of numerous heroic service members and squandered trillions for nearly two decades now in the fond hope that it could remake Afghanistan into Switzerland, and the one good thing about this “peace accord” with the Taliban is that it heralds the long-overdue end of this fool’s errand.

The old assumptions, although they have led to policies that have multiply failed, are still prevalent. The usual objections are being made. In its story on the peace accord, the Washington Free Beacon reported that “a group of Republican members of Congress” had petitioned the Trump administration, asking the President not to go through with the agreement. “They and other critics say the Taliban cannot be trusted to implement peace and that the moment U.S. forces vacate the country, terror forces will again rise to power.”

This echoed a statement from former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who said: “We are never going to get the U.S. military out of Afghanistan unless we take care to see that there is something going on that will provide the stability that will be necessary for us to leave.”

The unnamed American official said: “Everybody has the same goals. No one wants to see the return of the Islamic Emirate.” Well, sure. Everybody, that is, except the Taliban, who are still determined to reestablish their Islamic Emirate in Afghanistan. Once the American troops finally leave, “terror forces” will indeed make every effort to “again rise to power.” There will not be “stability” in Afghanistan. Does that mean that we have to keep troops there forever? Or should the United States focus on what is best for America in Afghanistan, working to ensure that the Taliban cannot engage in international jihad terror activity, and otherwise leaving the Afghans to their own devices?

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Manic reforms, depressed scores By Curtis Hier

Posted By on March 2nd, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/03/manic_reforms_depressed_scores.html

Our public education system is bipolar.  Its reformers are manic, but the test scores are depressed.

Bipolar disorder is a serious condition afflicting nearly six million Americans.  Unfortunately, it’s also a metaphor for our public schools. Symptoms of mania include rapid speech, grandiose ideas, and wild spending sprees.  Education “reformers” exhibit all three.

The so-called reformers of education have been rapidly and frenetically speaking seemingly forever. TED Talks and TEDx Talks and podcasts and workshops and panels and keynotes and in-service sessions and slide shows. Many, many slide shows.  It’s a lot of talking.  

Reformers have been writing rapidly and frenetically too.  As of this writing, an Amazon book search for “education reform” reveals over 20,000 titles. Google provides 272 billion results.  “Scholarly articles” for education reform yields 3.1 million sources. 

Seemingly everybody’s been published on the subject, many people with little or no experience teaching children.

When I began teaching, some of the grandest of grandiose ideas were playing out, like open space classrooms. Teachers were finally driven to distraction and erected bookshelves and crates, anything to block out other classes.  Dividers went up, and soon rooms were evident.  

Whole language was being phased out as the preferred method of teaching reading, but it left me facing a string of high-school students over a span of several years who could not spell.  Millions of students across the country were victims of the “reading wars.”

MEDIA, POLITICS Comments turned off

If you think Democrats and the media are politicizing coronavirus, you’re right By Andrea Widburg

Posted By on March 2nd, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/03/if_you_think_democrats_and_the_media_are_politicizing_coronavirus_youre_right.html

The media routinely call Trump divisive and controversial, forgetting that they are the ones stirring up the divisions and the controversy. Looked at objectively, Trump’s presidency is consistent with the American mainstream through Reagan. Indeed, even though some values have changed since Reagan’s time, Trump is still well within American norms. It’s the media that’s advocating for divisive and controversial policies, both at home and abroad.

Mostly, the media’s name-calling has been merely irritating. After all, people who wish to do so have been able to separate the wheat from the chaff. The habit, however, went from irritating to dangerous with coronavirus’s appearance on the scene. From the first day, the media decided to use coronavirus as a way to destroy Trump’s reelection chances.

To that end, the media has consistently lied about how Trump has handled the disease. American Thinker detailed some of those lies on Sunday. That post, however, pales in the face of an epic Twitter thread that Steve Guest, the GOP’s Rapid Response Director wrote on the same day. It’s a long thread because there are so many instances of the left’s rank dishonesty in politicizing the coronavirus, so this post will only repeat some of it. However, you really should read the entire thread if you want to understand how badly the Democrats and the media are gaslighting the American people:

You can find the entire Twitter thread here.

The Democrats and their media handmaidens are lying to you because they can. There are no consequences for what they’re doing. Democrat politicians keep collecting votes from hardcore supporters or from credulous members of the public and media figures keep their jobs. Indeed, the only thing that will make a leftist lose his or her job is daring to oppose leftist convention wisdom.

POLITICS Comments turned off

Bye, Buttigieg By Jim Geraghty

Posted By on March 2nd, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/bye-buttigieg/

Pete Buttigieg is leaving the presidential race. His decision comes as a surprise; this morning, his campaign was still urging supporters to get out the vote on Super Tuesday.

A decent number of Buttigieg supporters are now up for grabs in the Super Tuesday states. Buttigieg is at 13.3 percent in the RealClearPolitics polling average of Massachusetts, 13 percent in Colorado, 11.5 percent in Virginia, 9.5 percent California, 7.5 percent in Texas, 6.8 percent in North Carolina.

(As of Thursday, more than 2.7 million voters in California had returned ballots in early voting. Hope they didn’t vote for Tom Steyer or Pete Buttigieg.)

Last week, Morning Consult asked Buttigieg supporters who their second choice was and found them splitting pretty evenly: Sanders 21 percent, Joe Biden 19 percent, Warren 19 percent, and Mike Bloomberg 17 percent. If Buttigieg supporters do split that way, each of those four candidates would get another 2 to 3 percent, which could put some of them above the 15 percent threshold in certain states.

FOREIGN POLICY, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The Afghan Withdrawal Deal Trump agrees to a 14-month timeline if the Taliban honor their security commitments.

Posted By on March 2nd, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-afghan-withdrawal-deal-11583106215?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

President Trump has made clear he wants all American troops out of Afghanistan, and on Saturday the U.S. signed an “agreement for bringing peace to Afghanistan” with the Taliban. The coming months will tell if this is a genuine path to peace or political cover for a U.S. exit.

The good news is that this agreement is better than what the U.S. had seemed to accept in September. The Taliban have killed thousands of Americans, and Mr. Trump shouldn’t reward them with a Camp David signing ceremony as he first suggested.

The Taliban, or at least their representatives, have agreed to negotiate with the elected Afghan government for the first time. The Taliban want to establish an Islamist emirate and have previously refused to talk to the Kabul government. The Taliban have also promised to reduce their attacks on Afghan civilians and troops, as a week long test leading to Saturday demonstrated is possible.

For the first time the Taliban have also forsworn support for al Qaeda and are promising to prevent Afghanistan from being a safe haven for any group planning attacks against the U.S. This is the reason the U.S. sent troops to the country after 9/11, and the deal makes clear this is the main American priority.

POLITICS Comments turned off

‘Mayor’ Pete Runs Out of Obama Speeches to Pilfer. Drops Out of Democratic President Race. By Victoria Taft

Posted By on March 2nd, 2020

https://pjmedia.com/election/mayor-pete-runs-out-of-obama-speeches-to-pilfer-drops-out-of-democratic-president-race/

Mayor Pete Buttigieg has told his staff that he’s pulling out of – suspending – his Democratic presidential campaign.

The former South Bend, Ind., mayor had his campaign staff leak the news to media outlets Sunday afternoon. Buttigieg was expected to speak to supporters in South Bend Sunday night.

ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The “Israeli Apartheid” Accusation

Posted By on March 2nd, 2020

Who are the real perpetrators of apartheid? 

This new Glazov Gang episode features Diane Bederman, the author of the new book, The Serpent and the Red Thread: The Definitive Biography of Evil.

Diane discusses The “Israeli Apartheid” Accusation, and she asks: Who are the real perpetrators of apartheid? 

Don’t miss it!Watch Video: CLICK HERE.

https://jamieglazov.com/2020/03/01/glazov-gang-the-israeli-apartheid-accusation/

HISTORY Comments turned off

The lost congressman: What happened to Jeremiah Haralson?

Posted By on March 1st, 2020

https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/in-depth/news/2020/02/26/jeremiah-haralson-lost-congressman-alabama/2823015001/

The lost congressman

He was a slave at 18.

A state legislator at 24.

A congressman at 28.

And a prisoner at 48.

Jeremiah Haralson lived a remarkable life. Then he vanished.

Jeremiah Haralson listened as the ex-Confederate accused him of forgery. It was Feb. 13, 1877, and Haralson, a congressman from Selma, had testified to a U.S. Senate subcommittee about the violence and fraud that cost him his re-election to Congress from Alabama’s Black Belt.

Malcolm Graham, on hand to represent the state Democratic Party, dismissed Haralson’s descriptions of racial terror with a cynical languor. Local Democratic leaders told him no such intimidation occurred, and these cursory denials satisfied the former Confederate congressman.

So Graham tried to make Haralson the criminal. During questioning, Graham asked Haralson about the testimony of another witness who claimed that Haralson had forged an election ticket to get votes in Lowndes County.

“He said there were 163 votes cast for you there, and that there would not have been one if the voters had not been imposed upon by a counterfeit ticket you had circulated there,” Graham said.

Haralson could recite precinct names and vote totals from memory. Lowndes County was not strong for him. That was true. But people there knew Haralson: The son of a prominent Lowndes County planter once held him in bondage.

“I have a few personal friends in the county, you know, old man,” the former slave told the former defender of slavery. “There are a good many there that know me, and they vote for me on personal grounds.”