Taiwan Fears Chinese Control by 2025 Taiwan Fears China Could Control Them as Early as 2025 |
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Launching Missiles | The American Spectator | USA News and Politics
Dov Fischer
Imagine a peaceful world. Suddenly, relatively weak Liechtenstein launches rockets into the next-door domain of far stronger Germany. Or posit that Monaco does so against its neighbor, France. These attacks kill dozens, maybe hundreds of people in the attacked countries.
What would then happen? Germany and France are civilized countries. They would assume, at least initially, that this was an accident. These two powerful nations, however, would ensure that nothing like that ever happened again. They would expect that those responsible for this outrage be held accountable for it.
But assume now that the inquiries of France and Germany were rebuffed by Monaco and Liechtenstein. Instead, imagine the latter two maintain that these missile launchings were entirely justified and will occur again in the future — and with greater intensity and frequency. To punctuate their intentions, they even give medals and pensions to those of their citizens responsible for these outrages. Posit, moreover, that these recent attacks are not the first of such episodes, that they have been taking place for decades.
What then would take place? France and Germany would do to Monaco and Liechtenstein what the Allies did to Hiroshima and Nagasaki and (minus the atom bombing) to Dresden. These two strong countries would first declare war against the two weaker countries, and then proceed to pulverize them. Afterwards, they would launch a Nuremberg-type trial for their leaders and those responsible.
Israel and Gaza are roughly analogous to these two other sets of countries. The latter has been attacking the former for lo these many years. What has been the response of the Brobdingnagian nation to the Lilliputian entity? Has the former stopped the latter in its tracks? If one had thought so, one would be wrong.
Instead, the Palestinians locate their launching devices in or near hospitals, children’s playgrounds, residential areas, or elementary schools, and then fire hundreds, even thousands of rockets at civilian population centers. They do so every few years. The Israeli response? They issue a few half-hearted warnings and slaps on the wrist. Then, when Israel is about to mop up the place, they succumb to calls for mediation, compromise, a cease-fire.
Oh, yes. They also employ the purely defensive Iron Dome anti-missile system, which knocks out many but not all of the rockets which emanate from Gaza.
Why does not Israel respond to these unwarranted attacks in the manner that our hypothetical France and Germany undoubtedly would, were they met with similar provocations from Liechtenstein and Monaco?
Behind these decisions lies a long and unhappy tale.
Why then does Israel not borrow a leaf from the hypothetical responses of France and Germany? We can only speculate here. Part of the story is its reliance on the United States. Another part is the well-established Jewish reputation for compassion. Then there is the drawback of the Iron Dome: without it, Israel might have long ago ended these provocations once and for all.
And therein lies the paradox of the recently failed efforts by Democrat House progressives in America to weaken Israel’s Iron Dome defense capability. Without that protective shield that allows Israel the time and patience to prosecute alternatives to stopping Hamas’s rocket fire from Gaza, Israel would have to obliterate her attackers so much more fiercely from the outset. However, thanks to the overwhelming 420-9 bipartisan support that Israel enjoyed in the U.S. Congress vote to approve continued Iron Dome funding, a vote that now has approved a $1 billion supplement for Israel’s Iron Dome defense system, thousands of lives will remain protected on both sides of the aisle.
Rabbi Dov Fischer, Esq., a high-stakes litigation attorney of more than twenty-five years and an adjunct professor of law of more than fifteen years, is rabbi of Young Israel of Orange County, California. His writings on contemporary political issues have appeared over the years in the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the Jerusalem Post, National Review, American Greatness, the Weekly Standard, and in Jewish media in America and in Israel.
Walter E. Block, Ph.D. is the Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair and Professor of Economics at Loyola University New Orleans.
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MYRON SUGERMAN
My very dear friend Stephen Flatow sent me his latest op-ed (Arutz 7), which I am generously sharing with more than 200 valuable friends via Bcc. For those of you who not only buy the New York Times but buy into the New York Times as well, please read Mr. Flatow’s excellent response to an article that appeared in the New York Times. I don’t know if Mr. Flatow buys the New York Times but for certain he obviously does not “buy into the New York Times”, apparently for very good and sound reasons
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/314886
Israel’s critics have a new slogan
Israel-critics think they’re being very clever with this one, because it actually comes from a phrase that was spoken by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. But of course, they’ve taken it out of context. Op-ed.
New York Times
Every couple of years, critics of Israel come up with a new slogan that they hope will pressure the Israelis into making more concessions to the Palestinian Authority. They’ve just trotted out their latest model: “Shrinking the conflict.”
Such slogans are usually invented to try to overcome some obstacle that’s interfering with the left’s campaign to force Israel to accept a Palestinian state in its back yard. The current obstacle is that it’s been more than seven years (!) since Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas has been willing to negotiate with Israel.
If Abbas won’t talk, there’s no way to talk Israel into surrendering half its country. So, Israel’s leftwing critics figure they will wait him out—after all, Abbas, now in the 16 th year of his four year term of office, is 85 and facing various domestic problems. He can’t last forever. While they wait, the pressure-Israel crowd is looking for other ways to engineer Israeli concessions. Hence “shrinking the conflict.”
The Israel-critics think they’re being very clever with this one, because it actually comes from a phrase that was spoken by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. But of course, they’ve taken it out of context and tried to turn it into a weapon against him.
The concept that Prime Minister Bennett has mentioned is that since there’s no way of ending the conflict, then all that’s possible is to “shrink” it somewhat, through small steps aimed at economic improvement for the Palestinian Arabs.
But critics of Israel see “shrinking the conflict” differently—they see it as a new formula for building a Palestinian state, just more gradually. So, they’ve seized on the phrase and are running with it.
In a major feature article last week, Patrick Kingsley, the Jerusalem bureau chief for the New York Times, announced that the concept of “shrinking the conflict” is “taking root in political and diplomatic discourse in Jerusalem.” Translation: the New York Times declares that it’s “taking root,” in the hope that it will then take root.
Kingsley trotted out an “Israeli philosopher”—which presumably makes him an expert on Israel’s military and strategic needs!— who supposedly is an “unofficial adviser” to the prime minister, whatever that means. Much to the delight of the Times, this particular “unofficial adviser” wants “shrinking the conflict” to turn into what he calls “expanding Palestinian self-rule.” He thus became the featured voice in the article, which took up nearly an entire page in the Times.
We’ve seen this kind of cheap sloganeering before. Does anybody remember “Diaspora lag”? The leftwing Israel Policy Forum came up with that one in early 1993, to describe what it claimed was the “problem” of Diaspora Jews “lagging behind” the new left-leaning Israeli government. Israel was getting ready to make major concessions to the Palestinian Arabs, and not all American Jews were falling in line quickly enough, so the Israel Policy Forum (a creation of Israel’s Labor Party) wanted to shame them by portraying them as a bunch of Neanderthals who were “lagging behind” the enlightened, progressive left.
How about “American engagement?” J Street came up with that one. The J Streeters know they can’t get most of American Jews to support forcing Israel back to the indefensible pre-1967 armistice lines. But J Street also knows that historically, American involvement in Mideast negotiations has meant American pressure on Israel to go back to the 1967 lines. So, a few years ago, J Street started taking polls which simply asked American Jews if they favor “American engagement in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.” That sounds pretty innocent, so most of the respondents said “yes.” That’s how J Street hopes to get the trojan horse of American pressure back onto the scene.
The left’s most successful slogan in recent memory is “two-state solution.” It actually began as “land for peace” back in the 1970s, and it had a certain vague appeal to people who didn’t think it through. But most of the Jewish public still thought that “peace for peace” made more sense.
So, the left gradually abandoned “land for peace” and began pushing the phrase “two-state solution,” which likewise has a superficial appeal. After all, if you’ve got two peoples, why shouldn’t they each have a state? Isn’t that fair? Like all slogans, though, its weakness is that it crumbles when people ask exactly where the Palestinian Arab state should be.
That’s because “two-state solution” in practice means that Israel will be pushed back to the indefensible nine-miles-wide lines at its mid-section. That would enable an Arab tank column to cut the country in two in a matter of minutes. If leftwing groups were honest and called this “solution” by its real name, “the nine-miles-wide solution,” nobody would support it.
The same is true for the new “shrinking the conflict” slogan that the New York Times is now promoting. When people realize that it’s just another cover for trying to wring risky, one-sided concessions out of Israel, it will fade into obscurity alongside the various other propaganda lines that have come and gone over the years. Which is exactly where it belongs.
Stephen M. Flatow, is an attorney and the father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995. He is the author of “A Father’s Story: My Fight for Justice Against Iranian Terror.”
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Fellow intelligent patriot,
It’s been busy here at Hillsdale College because we’ve finally completed a project that’s been in the works for a long time.
You’re probably wondering what I’m talking about, so I won’t keep you in suspense any longer.
Here it is:
Our new Hillsdale 1776 Curriculum for K-12 students is finally ready for classrooms across the country!
We’re all very excited and hopeful about this project’s potential impact, and I know you will be as well…especially after I give you more details!
The Hillsdale 1776 Curriculum is a K-12 history and civics curriculum that covers the triumphs and tragedies of American history fairly and comprehensively.
The curriculum was not designed by activists or ideologues but by teachers and professors at Hillsdale College. It’s so important that we are making it available absolutely free of charge.
The massive 2,200-page, 85-lesson curriculum comes from years of diligent study of America, its history, and its founding principles. And it was developed and tested in school classrooms around the country.
As I mentioned, our K-12 Education Office at the College built this curriculum over many months of intense and focused effort—in many ways, its roots extend back to the beginning of the College itself in 1844.
I’m sure you’ve noticed how far too many politicians, media personalities, and sadly even educators are pushing an anti-American narrative on our children.
This means there is now a choice before us: will we allow these education bureaucrats to choose what schoolchildren learn?
Or, will we teach them the whole truth through a sound curriculum that presents a fair, unbiased, and comprehensive view of our nation’s history?
Personally, and I hope you agree that this choice is obvious.
When we provide students with the unbiased history of our country, they will naturally recognize that America is not a place of “oppression” and “injustice” but an exceptional nation worth defending.
You can make the Hillsdale 1776 Curriculum a success by helping us blanket the nation with promotions about it and our other outreach efforts like Imprimis, free online courses, and other educational programs.
Our K-12 education staff spent months putting the curriculum together. And our marketing team has already designed the print and online ads, and we’ve recorded the radio commercials...
...all we need now is your support to keep these promotions running so we can place the Hillsdale 1776 Curriculum into the hands of as many teachers and homeschool families as possible.
Oh...and did I mention that educators (and you) can download the full curriculum for FREE? Well, you can!
The Hillsdale 1776 Curriculum is available for absolutely no cost because it’s a part of our 177-year-old-mission: to provide “sound learning” of the kind needed to preserve “the inestimable blessings of civil and religious liberty.”
We’ve set a goal to raise $1,500,000 for this vital and important effort, and I hope you’ll join us. With students around the country back in their classrooms, we cannot lose a moment promoting this curriculum and our other educational outreach.
Please give your best tax-deductible gift toward our goal at this secure link:
https://secured.hillsdale.edu/hillsdale/support-hillsdale-1776-curriculum
Everything we do to reach and teach Americans of all ages about the principles of liberty depends on the support of informed patriots like you!
That’s because we refuse to accept any government funding...EVERY PENNY—even indirect aid like federal or state student loans and grants.
I’m thrilled to tell you about the Hillsdale 1776 Curriculum. It’s part of our promise to redouble our efforts to restore and defend liberty this year.
Hopefully, you’re as excited as I am to present a fair, unbiased, and comprehensive view of our nation’s history to our nation’s schoolchildren.
Please help us reach our $1,500,000 budget goal. And thank you in advance for preserving liberty for our children and grandchildren!
For our children,
Bill Gray
Class of 2001
Associate Vice President of National Donor Outreach
Hillsdale College
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Dear Fellow American, Socialism appears to be on the rise in our country, especially among the young, and we want to understand the extent of that support. That’s why you have been selected by Hillsdale College to represent your state in a National Survey on Socialism. With your response, you will help Hillsdale College more clearly understand the views of mainstream Americans—views that we will make available to policymakers and opinion leaders. Every month, Hillsdale College is reaching millions of Americans with educational outreach. Your response to this National Survey on Socialism is essential in helping us form the most effective strategy in fighting for the future of our country. So please give your views on the political, media, and cultural forces that are promoting socialism in our country today, by completing this National Survey on Socialism: https://lp.hillsdale.edu/2021-national-survey-on-socialism/ There is no doubt in my mind that, especially among younger Americans, socialism is increasingly attractive—and that this threatens the future of American liberty. As Winston Churchill noted, “Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy.” And education is the surest way to defeat it. If you agree, please stand with Hillsdale College as we promote intelligent patriotism and defend liberty through education. Please represent your state and take the National Survey on Socialism today. Warm Regards,
Larry P. Arnn President, Hillsdale College Pursuing Truth - Defending Liberty since 1844 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ In England, as I understand it , if you engage in barratry the legal costs are paid by you if you lose.The same should be the case in America, when radicals disrupt a campus speech. The burden should be on the disrupter. Free speech does not entitle you to purposefully prevent the free speech of others. Depending upon the degree of disorder caused, punishment should be a severe fine and reimbursement of cost, in addition to jail and/or community service. +++ Fellow Patriot, Insidious leftist ideology has taken hold of our educational system. It’s never been more important that we expose it, because the Left has lit an ideological fire, and that fire is now consuming the minds of young Americans, burning itself through the most aspects of American culture and politics. That’s why it’s of utmost importance that I hear back from you today. I’m no stranger to the authoritarian attitudes on campus; I famously felt the brunt of it when conservative students invited me to speak on the University of California, Berkeley campus. HELP US FIGHT THE RADICAL LEFT Radical leftist groups like Antifa vowed to riot and cause harm to others. The fear of violence from leftist agitators was so great that: It cost $600,000 in security expenses and required hundreds of policemen to ensure that agitators didn’t disrupt or try to cause violence at my speech. The University shut down six buildings on campus during my speech and erected concrete barricades (YES, a wall) to secure the Berkeley campus. For the first time in 20 years, the City of Berkeley voted to allow the use of pepper spray against violent protesters. In the end, police arrested nine leftists for trying to sneak banned weapons into our event—with the likely intent to do harm. It’s no longer just about the Left trying to suppress your conservative views on campus. It’s about using the threat of violence to silence the conservative values you and I share. Meanwhile, schools roll out the red carpet for leftists like Angela Davis, Bill Ayers, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and Bernie Sanders. At Berkeley, taxpayer-funded school administrators tried to derail my event from even taking place. They told me that they didn’t have a lecture hall available, which was a lie. School administrators even cut the venue in half by not allowing students to sit in the balcony—a dirty tactic to minimize attendance. The good news is the radical Left’s attempts to silence me completely backfired. More than 600 students showed up, and we were able to host an engaging and civil event. Then, OVER 10 MILLION PEOPLE watched my speech online (that’s more viewers than any of the major evening newscasts). This victory for the Conservative Movement would have never happened if it weren’t for the Young America’s Foundation (YAF). When Berkeley tried to illegally block me from coming to campus, YAF sued the university — and won. But the radicals who rioted and tried to incite violence at Berkeley are relentless. Their stranglehold on America’s universities has not yet been broken. Young America’s Foundation has been an incredible partner in making sure I am able to share our conservative values with students on campuses across the country. In fact, I speak on campuses exclusively through YAF because I know YAF has the experience and leadership necessary to run the nation’s leading campus lecture program. Today YAF needs your help. Will you contribute $35 today to ensure that YAF can continue to present speakers, including Dr. Arthur Laffer, Katie Pavlich, Senator Ted Cruz, and many others to high school and college students? Without you, the mission to pass along our conservative values to future generations will stall out. Let me tell you a little bit more about what YAF does to advance conservative ideas. Speaking to an audience of Young America’s Foundation students, Vice President Mike Pence noted, “Since its founding in 1960, YAF has been a bulwark of American greatness.” YAF valiantly defends the values we share by educating impressionable young people who have been ideologically poisoned by leftist propaganda for decades, by the very teachers and professors they’re told to trust. YAF’s team is the best at what they do. They are #1: the LARGEST and MOST effective conservative youth outreach organization in America. Here’s why: YAF introduces young audiences to the biggest names in the Conservative Movement through their leading campus lecture program. YAF speakers are the most inspiring conservative voices in America, including Arthur Laffer, Katie Pavlich, YAF’s Ronald Reagan Presidential Scholar and Vice President Mike Pence, Dinesh D’Souza, Lila Rose, Steve Forbes, Lt. Col. Allen West, Speaker Newt Gingrich, Michael Knowles, Dana Loesch, James O’Keefe, NFL star and Congressman Burgess Owens, Star Parker, Fox News’s Jesse Watters, and many others. YAF teaches millions of students across the nation YOUR conservative values through breakthrough conferences, training seminars, and campus activism initiatives and activities. (In fact, YAF is the only Conservative Movement organization that has a full suite of conservative educational programs for high school students!) And YAF preserves and protects President Reagan’s ranch in Santa Barbara, California and Boyhood Home in Dixon, Illinois. They saved these national treasures so young people can learn about Ronald Reagan’s lasting accomplishments. No other organization reaches conservative students with foundational American ideas on a bigger scale than Young America’s Foundation. That’s why I prefer YAF to be my sole sponsor for campus events. They fight for the right to ensure alternative voices are heard on college campuses. They stop campuses from being turned into Leftist echo chambers. I am glad I have YAF on my side and the side of the students. But YAF can’t do this alone. As the Left continues to stoop to desperate new lows to silence conservatives, it’s become more important than ever that our values are shared with the next generation of thought leaders. We both know that the Left doesn’t want a fair discussion of ideas. But that’s why YAF needs your help today. At any moment, a scheduled event could get shut down by campus radicals or administrators, and the YAF team must be ready to engage them on a moment’s notice. Will you contribute $35 or more today so that YAF’s rapid response team will always be ready to leap into action the next time leftists decide to shut down free speech and deprive students of the chance to hear your conservative ideas? Friend, a donation of $35 or whatever you choose does more than you know. The impact amplifying conservative voices will have on the future of our country can’t be overstated. I cannot encourage you enough to consider giving to YAF today. Partnering with YAF today is our opportunity to win a generation that values freedom. I can’t think of a better investment. Ronald Reagan stated, “There is no better way to establish hope for the future than to enlighten young minds.” I look forward to hearing back from you. Ben Shapiro ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ |
| The Victor Davis Hanson Show - The Classicist: "The Dying Citizen" Part 2 |
| interview with Victor Davis Hanson via The Victor Davis Hanson Show Hoover Institution fellow Victor Davis Hanson discusses the problems unelected bureaucrats as well as the destructive effect of globalization. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Syria reports one dead, three wounded in Israeli strike near Palmyra The attack is the second attributed to Israel in as many weeks, after a previous strike on Syria’s largest airbase on Oct. 8. An airstrike in Syria on June 24, 2020. Source: Twitter/Majd Fahd. (October 14, 2021 / JNS) A Syrian soldier was killed and three other people were wounded on Wednesday night in an Israeli airstrike in the area of Palmyra in Homs Governorate, according to official Syrian media. A Syrian military source told the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) that the strike had occurred just before midnight, and had been launched from the direction of Al-Tanf on the Syria-Iraq border. The strike had targeted a communications tower and some adjacent positions, causing material damage in addition to the casualties, according to SANA. According to the report, the strike was the second by Israel in as many weeks, following a “missile aggression” on Oct. 8 that targeted the Tiyas Military Airbase, also known as the T-4 Airbase. The T-4 base, the largest airbase in Syria, is also located in Homs Governorate, to the west of Palmyra. U.K.-based war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has informants on the ground in Syria, reported on Thursday that four Syrian nationals were killed and seven wounded in the strike. The four who were killed had been working for Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iran-affiliated militias; the communications tower and other facilities targeted in the strike had belonged to the militias and were totally destroyed, according to the report. The monitor group further reported that a member of the Syrian military had died of injuries sustained in the Oct. 8 strike, bringing the casualty figure for that incident to three, the other two having been militiamen. That strike, according to SOHR, had targeted a drone training facility. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ New Hunter Biden Revelations Undermines President’s Comments White House Insists Hunter Biden’s Art Buyers Will Remain Anonymous (ConservativeHub.com) – A scandal erupted in July after The Washington Post broke the story White House attorneys helped draft a legal agreement between a New York art gallery and Hunter Biden that intended to conceal the identity of purchasers of Biden’s paintings. The topic recently arose during a White House press briefing after reports emerged lawyers allegedly vetted potential buyers attending an upcoming auction. On October 12, a reporter from the New York Post asked White House press secretary Jen Psaki if that represented a departure from the administration’s earlier position that purchasers would remain anonymous. Psaki responded the screening of attendees of the auction was up to the gallery. Continuing, she insisted the White House didn’t know and would not know the identity of anyone buying Hunter Biden’s paintings. She added President Joe Biden “remains proud of his son” before dismissing the reporter’s follow-up question and moving on to other reporters’ inquiries, declaring there was “lots [of other things] going on in the world.” The purchase of Hunter’s paintings has raised serious ethical concerns involving the possibility individuals could use inflated payouts for the paintings to gain influence over policy-making decisions within the White House. Walter Shaub, former President Barack Obama’s ethics chief, echoed those concerns in a detailed Twitter thread. As he explained, the public has a right to receive answers to grave questions regarding the paintings’ purchasers. Shaub also pointed out the administration’s response would be much different if similar questions arose regarding former President Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, or Chinese President Xi Jinping. Democrats love to campaign on promises to operate with complete transparency. Is it asking too much to expect them to keep their word? Copyright 2021, ConservativeHub.com ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Biden Can't Fix What He Shattered +++ Bill de Blasio Is On the Way Out, But His Mindset Lingers +++ Why is a U.S. Senator Going After a Supreme Court Justice? +++ Guess Who's The New Betting Favorite To Win The 2024 Election +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The War on America by Twisted Logic (American Thinker) By Janet Levy We are living under a regime that's increasingly totalitarian. And it is using an insidious strategy — call it disinformation, propaganda, gaslighting, indoctrination, or outright lying — to achieve the leftists' political and social goal of a "Great Reset" of America. The regime's enforcers, or boosters, are the media, academia, and Big Tech, who together control the narrative with faked statistics, slanted semantics, and endless repetition. They also deploy the psychological tactics of intimidation, shaming, and canceling. At the center sits the government, but the chain of command — who dictates to whom — is often unclear. "Repeat a lie often enough, and it becomes the truth" is a principle often attributed to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. In America today, "woke" social justice warriors are using a continuous barrage of lies to achieve their Machiavellian agenda. Four recent, egregious lies come to mind. In June 2020, Gordon Klein, a UCLA business school professor who has taught at the institution for forty years, was suspended for refusing a student's request to provide an easier exam for black students. Black students, it was propounded, were emotionally distressed after the death of serial felon George Floyd in Minneapolis. The email exchange between Klein and the student, which went viral, was deemed "hurtful," and the professor was unreasonably branded an "insensitive bigot." Antonio Bernardo, the school's dean, organized a smear campaign against Klein and sought permission to fire him. Klein stood his ground, saying he was shocked by the student's request, which he found "deeply patronizing and offensive" to black students. He also assessed, rightly, that granting the request would violate the California constitution's prohibition of "race-based preferences in public education." But such has been the effect of woke indoctrination that, incomprehensibly, students called for his removal and gathered 20,000 signatures on a petition demanding that he be relieved of his teaching duties. In its eagerness to be seen as woke in the current racially charged atmosphere, UCLA chose to ignore the abject harassment of its professor, sided with the crybullies, and suspended Klein. Fortunately, an academic senate committee ruled that instructors are entitled to refuse requests to change grading schemes, and Klein was reinstated three weeks later. But the retaliation against Klein and others continues. The professor, who was denied a merit raise and is suing UCLA, says the controversy devastated his consultancy practice. Apparently, businesses — like large numbers of college students and faculty — value being seen as woke over scholarship, justice, and integrity. Washington's Vaccine Lawsuits In another case, nodding to the nebulous concept of "cultural relativism," a federal judge in Detroit defended female genital mutilation (FGM), a procedure banned since 1996 in the U.S. The judge, Bernard Friedman, in 2018 declared the ban on FGM unconstitutional, then (on Sep. 28, 2021) threw out the feds' case, accepting that the secretive procedure performed on nine minor girls, aged 7 to 12, was merely a "religious ritual." The lead defendant, Dr. Jumana Nagarwala, denied performing FGM and referred to the procedure as benign "shaving" — whatever that means. Federal prosecutors had acknowledged the existence of a "secret network of physicians" who were performing the ritual as "part of a religious obligation and cultural tradition" of the Dawoodi Bohra community, to which the girls, Dr. Nagarwala, and other accused belong. Survivors of the procedure have described it as demonic. They say they have physical and mental scars to show that it went beyond just "a nick" or "shaving," and that it amounted to "gender violence." But even though the U.S. Constitution does not provide for absolute freedom of religion and deems certain religious practices crimes, Judge Friedman thought otherwise. His 2018 decision declaring the ban unconstitutional had been appealed by the U.S. House of Representatives, and in 2021, the STOP FMG Act was signed into law, giving federal authorities more power to prosecute those who perform the procedure. But with woke judges like Friedman at the gates, de facto FGM might well become permissible. The third incident is about the debacle in Afghanistan. The only person under investigation for America's avoidable surrender to the Taliban is Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller, a decorated Marine who's in the brig for telling the truth about the Kabul airport suicide bombing and calling for accountability from military leadership. This while Biden has armed the terrorists with $83 billion in U.S. weapons and stranded thousands of Americans and Afghans who contributed to the U.S. effort in country. The incarceration of Scheller contrasts sharply with the absolving of Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the author of the disastrous withdrawal. This is the same general who bashed Trump and the Republicans, promoted BLM, and called up his Chinese counterpart to say he would warn of any American attack. A patriot has been silenced; a traitor is free to pursue his woke agenda for the military. Perhaps the most bizarre of logic-defying anomalies that are becoming commonplace is the National School Boards Association (NSBA)'s letter to the Biden administration demanding that anti-terrorist laws such as the PATRIOT Act be used against parents protesting against curriculum content and school mandates. Parents have of late been extremely vocal against the teaching of the Marxist Critical Race Theory (CRT), the use of sexually explicit material in the classroom, the promotion of gender fluidity, and implementation of severe COVID-19 restrictions. The NSBA has asked the FBI, the Secret Services, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to "investigate, intercept, and prevent the current threats and acts of violence" by whatever "extraordinary measures" necessary. Mischaracterizing the First Amendment right to assembly and protest as "hate crimes," it has demanded the removal of protesters from school grounds. Social justice warriors use such hyper-charged rhetoric about reasonable dissent to indoctrinate students and to marginalize and censor parents who object to their subterfuge. Virginia's Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Terry McAuliffe, even argued that parents have no right to tell schools what to teach. Vetoing legislation that gave parents the right to decide on books used in schools, he said, "I'm not going to let parents come into schools, and actually take books out, and make their own decision." Even when the books contained sexually explicit material. Not unexpectedly, U.S. attorney general Merrick Garland has instructed the FBI to mobilize against dissenting parents. The examples cited illustrate how the cultural Marxists' agenda has infiltrated our schools, universities, military, courts, and beyond. Together with the government, the woke cabal functions as a quasi-totalitarian regime that advances a deceitful agenda and suppresses — or "cancels" — all contrary views, disguising the truth beyond recognition. The dissonance, and concurrent unease, of the condoning of BLM and Antifa's violence, the exoneration of military incompetence and treason, and the criminalization of legitimate dissent represents a series of "through the looking glass" moments for the average "unwoke" American. As ex-radical and conservative writer and policy advocate David Horowitz declares, "inside every progressive is a totalitarian screaming to get out." +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ |
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