MEDIA Comments turned off

The media glosses over the recession calamity America faces By John Dale Dunn

Posted By on January 6th, 2023

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/01/the_media_glosses_over_the_recession_calamity_america_faces.html

Joe Biden’s media supporters keep assuring us that things are getting better with the economy. However, Joe Hoft, founder of Gateway Pundit, wrote on New Year’s Day of the reality—we are in a recession.  Stop drinking the “we’re OK” Kool-Aid. 

Biden, with help from the Federal Reserve and Congress, wiped out $10 trillion in American wealth in 2022.  This is record-breaking destruction.

Steve Bannon at War Room rolled out a Financial Times chart from earlier in the week showing what an outlier 2022 was when compared to prior years.

The US should be in the right upper quadrant of the chart, but 2022 put the US in the left lower quadrant.  The 2022 situation doesn’t even factor in the effect of the 1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill. The data point on the chart reflects the value of assets in stocks and bonds, with no effort to measure other assets like real estate.  It might be worse if other economic measures are considered. 

Just the other day, the St. Louis Federal Reserve Branch, relying on multiple indicators, declared that we have a recession. This information is no surprise, but it raises questions about what’s happening at the rest of the Fed’s branches.

HISTORY, POLITICS Comments turned off

Our Current House Fight Doesn’t Hold a Candle to the 1855-56 Speaker Vote By Chris Queen

Posted By on January 6th, 2023

https://pjmedia.com/columns/chris-queen/2023/01/05/our-current-speaker-fight-doesnt-hold-a-candle-to-the-1855-56-speaker-vote-n1658942

As I’m writing this, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) just lost his eighth vote to fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming speaker of the House. For all of the weeping and gnashing of teeth, the whole situation is kind of funny — as long as your name isn’t Kevin McCarthy.

It’s been a heck of a week for Congress, and it’s the first time in a century that the vote for speaker went beyond one ballot. But if these folks want to set a record, they have a long way to go.

A lot of the one-and-done nature of selecting a speaker over the past few decades has much to do with the dominant two-party system, but before the 1860s, multiple ballots were common. History shows us that eight votes for speaker went more rounds than this one has gone so far. Six contests went into the double digits, but the longest fight for speaker went a whopping 133 rounds and took about two months.

It all started with the disintegration of the Whig party in 1855, which left no single dominant party in the House. The country was starting to splinter over the issue of slavery, and factions in favor and against slavery in Congress tussled for control. When the House convened on Dec. 3, 1855, to choose a speaker, 21 candidates from several parties put their names into the mix.

Pro-slavery Rep. William Richardson (D-Ill.) was the early leader, but he couldn’t muster a majority of votes. Anti-slavery members began to coalesce around Rep. Nathaniel “Bobbin Boy” Banks (American Party-Mass.), a young teetotaler who started his career in the textile industry, where he earned his nickname.

(Side note: we don’t give our representatives nicknames like “Bobbin Boy” anymore. Maybe that’s the problem, and doing so would make them more humble.)

As the votes continued, Banks began to garner more votes than Richardson, but neither one of them could summon a majority of votes. By the 33rd vote, Banks had 100 of the 113 he needed to secure the speakership.

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Time to stop fearing the Jew-Hating bullies and fight back! Diane Bederman

Posted By on January 6th, 2023

https://dianebederman.com/time-to-stop-fearing-the-jew-hating-bullies-and-fight-back-pikuach-nefesh/

I apologize for the length of this article. It is much longer than most of my blogs. I tried to reduce the words by editing the number of Jew hating incidents reported in 2021-the most recent year of hate statistics…

Time for the Jewish people to worry less about others, Tikkun Olam, and more about Pikuach nefesh: the preservation of human life that overrides virtually any other religious rule of Judaism. We have the moral and ethical right to protect ourselves including carrying weapons to prevent attacks on our people; especially in synagogue. Protecting life is above all other religious considerations.

Rabbi Hillel asked: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And being for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?” The time has come, dear Jews to be for ourselves.

We are living in a time where demonizing the Jews has become culturally acceptable. Jewish students are being bullied for being Jewish and for Israel being a white colonial oppressor against the oppressed Palestinians. Critical Race Theory is targeting Jews.  The time has come for the Jews to stand up to this endless industrialized bullying, this “coercive” aggression that is purpose-driven, not fear- or anger – driven. It’s the type of bullying that demonstrates an absence of ethics and compassion. It is bullying that has a tangible goal, carried out under intellectual control and will involve sufficient violence to achieve its goal, influencing social outcomes. This is the bullying of Jews taking place taking place in the 21st century and it’s time to fight back. Literally.

Although Jewish people constitute less than one-half of one percent of the world’s population, no other people have been as harassed, attacked, impugned more than the Jews from time immemorial. When it comes to the Jews and Israel, facts don’t matter. We live in a world where facts and critical thinking have been overtaken by feelings and wishful thinking.

CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB, P.C.-CULTURE Comments turned off

West Point Begins Its Erasure of Robert E. Lee Alex Parker

Posted By on January 6th, 2023

https://redstate.com/alexparker/2023/01/05/west-point-begins-its-erasure-of-robert-e-lee-n683676

How much has America changed? Well, consider moves being made at West Point.

Over the summer, Washington’s Naming Commission — comprised of four civilians and as many retired military vets — came to final conclusions regarding seven different Department of Defense “assets.” In its report, the group recommended a renaming of sites honoring Confederate General Robert E. Lee, along with Generals P.G.T. Beauregard and William Hardee.

And over the holidays, the United States Military Academy at West Point began the process of purging Lee from its hallowed halls.

As relayed by the Daily News, Superintendent Lieutenant General Steve Gilland released a December 26th statement:

“During the holiday break, we will begin a multi-phased process, in accordance with Department of Defense directives, to remove, rename or modify assets and real property at the United States Military Academy and West Point installation that commemorate or memorialize the Confederacy or those who voluntarily served with the Confederacy.”

“We will conduct these actions with dignity and respect,” he added.

Included in the extraction: a 20-foot portrait of the man who served as superintendent of the United States Military Academy from 1852 to 1855. The 1931 painting of Lee has long towered over cadets in West Point’s Jefferson Hall library.

Monikers being stricken from the school:

Lee Road
Lee Gate
Lee Area Child Development Center
Lee Housing Area
Lee Barracks

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

A Few New Year’s Resolutions for the FBI Will Republican congressional leaders hold the leadership of the DOJ and FBI accountable?by John Nantz

Posted By on January 6th, 2023

https://www.frontpagemag.com/a-few-new-years-resolutions-for-the-fbi/

Last year was a complete disaster for the men and women of the FBI. They’ve been betrayed by apparatchiks at DOJ, led by the mole-like Attorney General Merrick Garland who has behaved like the Grand Inquisitor to Joe Biden’s very real persecution of everything constitutional. Aside from Jim Crow — another Democrat party initiative —our civil rights have never been more threatened, abused, or abrogated.

FBI Director Christopher Wray has presided over some of the most pernicious abuses of power in the history of the FBI. The Watergate scandal, an egregious invasion of executive privilege for which no one has been held accountable, and resulted in the impeachment of President Nixon, pales in comparison to the 2022 list of malfeasance.

The invasion of Mar-a-Lago by a gestapo-like phalanx of FBI agents, directed by DOJ and FBI HQ politicians was breathtaking in its unabashed hubris. And, the deeply collusive behavior of former and current FBI agents at Twitter is profoundly disturbing. It must be noted, however, that though conspiracy theories are tempting to entertain, because they’re simplistic, it is far more likely that these bad actors aren’t conspirators so much as they share a common liberal world view.

Furthermore, it’s not necessarily a bad thing to have former FBI agents working at a social media company. In fact, the FBI does some very necessary work by liaising with big tech to share threat information and collaborate on solutions.

As the new Congress is sworn in, there may be some cause for a cautious optimism. The new Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Jim Jordan of Ohio, and Republican James Comer of Kentucky, who leads Oversight and Reform have both promised hearings. Well, we’ve heard that before. The Wall Street Journal’s Kim Strasser reports that Republicans are considering the creation of a new Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. Again, we’ve heard that before.

At this point, it’s a lot of talk. Some real action would be a welcome change from the mostly inert Republican Party.

BOOKS Comments turned off

Final Battle: David Horowitz Defines the Fight for America We’re one election away from losing our future. by Daniel Greenfield

Posted By on January 6th, 2023

https://www.frontpagemag.com/final-battle-david-horowitz-defines-the-fight-for-america/

“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country,” Thomas Paine wrote in 1776.

No American who loves our country can look at these past years without feeling that our souls have been tried. At conservative conferences and events there is an inescapable desire for a big picture sense of what we are up against and whether the fight can be won. And that is what David Horowitz offers in his latest book, “Final Battle: The Next Election Could Be the Last”.

Since “Destructive Generation”, Horowitz has spent over three decades chronicling our national crisis in his books and few deny that we are living in the world that he had spent so long warning conservatives would come to pass if the totalitarian ambitions of the Left went unchecked.

“Final Battle” is a fitting title for a culture warrior whose message to conservatives, over and over again, was that they needed to learn to fight. This is a book that describes the fight and its missed opportunities, of those who fought and those who didn’t, and what the next phase, and perhaps the final phase, of the struggle for the country that he loves so much looks like.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

How About A Kill Switch To Shut Down Washington?

Posted By on January 6th, 2023

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/01/06/how-about-a-kill-switch-to-shut-down-washington/

Kris Kristofferson said that “freedom” is “just another word for nothin’ left to lose.” To the political left, freedom is an abomination that must be defined and controlled by the ruling class elites. And what better way to do that than to crack down on automobile travel?

Cars are a favorite target of all progressives and most Democrats. No human invention has increased freedom as much as the automobile. That’s why they have chosen to go to war on cars. It’s a long-term campaign that will take decades to finish. But there are victories along the way, and one of them was won in Washington with the help of Republicans.

According to Bob Barr, a former federal prosecutor and congressman from Georgia, the infrastructure bill the president signed a little more than a year ago includes “​​​​a little-noticed ‘safety’ measure that will take effect in five years.” It “amounts to a ‘vehicle kill switch,’” Barr wrote in the Daily Caller, and every car built after 2026 has to have one.

Of course, the mandate was characterized “as a benign tool to help prevent drunk driving.” But safety is always a pretense for further government intervention and the erosion of liberty. Prime example: The COVID-19 lockdowns we just went through. 

Writing in Motorius, automotive journalist Steven Symes notes that, ​to many, a mandatory kill switch “might sound like a wonderful idea.”

“After all, we’ve seen wanted criminals who have fled from police only to crash into a car with a family inside, killing innocents as they try to avoid capture. Being able to stop the pursuit early and almost instantaneously seems like a wonderful thing, a potential lifesaver any law-abiding citizen would enthusiastically embrace.”

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Netanyahu’s new administration is getting to work By Ruthie Blum

Posted By on January 6th, 2023

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-726798

The contrast between the amount of time that the new Israeli government spent concluding its coalition negotiations and the speed at which it has hit the ground running is spectacular. During the nearly full two months of portfolio-haggling that followed the November 1 Knesset elections, some voters on the victorious side were biting their nails with anxiety, while others grumbled about the apparent pettiness of the politicians they’d put in office.

The sense among the faint-hearted was that the Right’s clear majority was being squandered on minor squabbles. Worse was the fear that the bickering was providing the heterogeneous “anybody but Bibi” bloc – conjoined solely by a shared aversion to Benjamin Netanyahu – with the hope that the coalition would crumble before it had the chance to come into being.

Imagine everyone’s surprise, then, when it finally coagulated minutes before the deadline with hardly any hitches. More astonishingly, the swearing-in ceremony on Thursday caused the previous weeks of worry to evaporate in one fell swoop – for supporters, at least. Those opposed to the most right-wing government in the country’s history channeled their mourning into combat mode.

This hasn’t had the effect they desired, however. On the contrary, warnings on the part of now-former prime minister Yair Lapid and his ilk about the imminent demise of Israeli democracy at the hands of extremists have only strengthened the resolve of the recently instated incumbents to fulfill their campaign promises.

AS A review of the past week alone reveals, they really mean to get down to business. Last Saturday, for instance, Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli ordered the halt of an agreement approved by his predecessor, Nachman Shai, to give millions of tax shekels to a left-wing organization associated with the progressive Zionist Berl Katznelson Foundation and the radical New Israel Fund.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Europe at the Mercy of Qatar? by Drieu Godefridi

Posted By on January 6th, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19289/europe-corruption-qatar

The stadiums for the FIFA World Cup in Qatar were built in conditions described as slave-like and hellish. For ten years, armies of Asian workers were put to work for miserable wages in wretched living conditions. According to the Guardian, since the emirate was awarded the World Cup, 6,500 workers died on Qatar’s construction sites. This carnage did not predestine Qatar for praise from the Socialist Group in the European Parliament.

“The recent backroom deal approved by the Bureau to appoint a new EP Secretary-General is emblematic of an institution that thinks that rules for ethics and integrity should only apply to others.” — Michiel van Hulten, director of Transparency International EU, December 10, 2022.

That the Socialist Group, the second-largest in the European Parliament, was so easily bribed by little Qatar, to the extent of cheering on the “labour law reforms” of a slave emirate, is yet to be confirmed by the courts. It is also possibly just the “tip of the iceberg.”

Other geopolitical actors, who are known to have an interest in the resolutions of the European Parliament, have even more considerable means at their disposal.

Belgian federal police recently found €150,000 ($157,700) in cash at the Brussels home of the Vice-President of the European Parliament, Eva Kaili (Panhellenic Socialist Movement), who was then arrested and charged with corruption. She remains in jail. Also arrested were Luca Visentini, secretary general of the International Trade Union Confederation, and former socialist MEP Pier-Antonio Panzeri. Francesco Giorgi, Kaili’s domestic partner and former parliamentary assistant to Panzeri, was also arrested. The home of MEP Marc Tarabella (Socialist Party) was searched.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

With Schools Ditching Merit for Diversity, Families of High Achievers Head for the Door By Vince Bielski,

Posted By on January 6th, 2023

https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2023/01/04/with_schools_ditching_merit_for_diversity_families_of_high_achievers_say_were_out_of_here_872909.html

Alex Shilkrut has deep roots in Manhattan, where he has lived for 16 years, works as a physician, and sends his daughter to a public elementary school for gifted students in coveted District 2. 

It’s a good life. But Shilkrut regretfully says he may leave the city, as well as a job he likes in a Manhattan hospital, because of sweeping changes in October that ended selective admissions in most New York City middle schools.

These merit-based schools, which screened for students who met their high standards, will permanently switch to a lottery for admissions that will almost certainly enroll more blacks and Latinos in the pursuit of racial integration.  

Shilkrut is one of many parents who are dismayed by the city’s dismantling of competitive education. He says he values diversity but is concerned that the expectation that academic rigor will be scaled back to accommodate a broad range of students in a lottery is what’s driving him and other parents to seek alternatives.

Although it’s too early to know how many students might leave the school system due to the enrollment changes, some parents say they may opt for private education at $50,000 a year and others plan to uproot their lives for the suburbs despite the burdens of such moves. 
 
“We will very likely leave the public schools,” says Shilkrut, adding that he knows 10 Manhattan families who also plan to depart. “And if these policies continue, there won’t be many middle- and upper middle-class families left in the public schools.”