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July 2019

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Your Tax Dollars At Work: Colleges Hire Army of High-Paid, Ineffective Diversity Officers

By on July 22nd, 2019

https://issuesinsights.com/2019/07/22/your-tax-dollars-at-work-colleges-hire-army-of-high-paid-ineffective-diversity-officers/

A new study finds that diversity among college faculty didn’t budge from 2013 to 2017. But what the study really exposes is a much deeper problem: rampant waste at massively taxpayer-subsidized colleges and universities.

“Colleges and universities have not realized much progress toward ethnoracial and gender faculty diversity in recent years — the exception being a modest increase (between 1-2%) in tenured Asians across institutional types,” the study, published by the Hispanic Journal of Law and Policy, found.

Why does this matter? Because these institutions of higher learning have been dumping truckloads of money to build increasingly bloated diversity offices.     

Economist Mark Perry recently discovered that the University of Michigan has nearly 100 administrative positions devoted to diversity. More than two dozen of them make six-figure salaries. The Chief Diversity Officer makes almost $400,000. The total cost to the school: more than $11 million. That’s enough money, Perry calculates, to give more than 750 in-state students free rides.

The University of Texas at Austin has eight vice presidents in its Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, at an annual cost of $9.5 million. UC Berkeley has 175 diversity bureaucrats.

This year, Georgetown University created a new vice president position to oversee diversity at a school that already has: has an Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Affirmative Action, an Office of Affirmative Action and University Human Resources, a Diversity Advisory Board, a Center for Multicultural Equity and Access, a Working Group on Reporting Incidents of Intolerance, an Initiative on Diversity and Inclusiveness, a School of Medicine Office of Diversity and Inclusion, a School of Medicine Subcommittee on Faculty Diversity and Inclusion, a Law Center Office of Equity and Inclusion, a Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching and Service, and others.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

How a Trivial Dispute Between Two anti-Trump Democrats in a Publix Express Lane Became the Latest Racial Hate Hoax Debra Heine

By on July 22nd, 2019

amgreatness.com/2019/07/21/how-a-trivial-dispute-between-two-democrats-in-a-publix-express-lane-became-the-latest-racial-hate-hoax/

The latest “hate crime” supposedly inspired by President Trump’s allegedly “racist” rhetoric appears to be nothing more than an example of two anti-Trump Democrats behaving badly in public.

Erica Thomas, a Georgia Democrat claimed on Friday that a “white man” in a supermarket check-out line called her a “lazy son-of-a-b*tch” and told her to “go back where you came from.”

Thomas, who is nine months pregnant, tearfully made the claim outside of an Atlanta-area Publix store after the man cursed at her for taking too many items into a supermarket express lane.

“And this white man comes up to me and says: ‘You lazy son of a b*tch,”’ Thomas said, sobbing as she described the confrontation in a video. “He says: ‘You lazy son of a bitch; you need to go back where you came from.”’

As Thomas’s video went viral and the hashtag #IStandwithErica trended on Twitter, Democrat pols like Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Beto O’Rourk jumped in the fray to politically exploit the incident.

Thomas later walked back her comments, saying, “I don’t want to say he said go back to you’re country or go back to where you came from, but he was making those kinds of references.”

As the racial narrative fell apart, the Guardian weighed in with a report incorrectly characterizing Thomas as a Republican:

The “white man” in question is Cuban-American Eric Sparkes, a fellow Democrat who admitted that that he cursed at Thomas for taking too many items into the express line, but denied telling her to “go back where you came from.”

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ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Can’t We All Just Get Along? By Victor Davis Hanson

By on July 22nd, 2019

https://amgreatness.com/2019/07/22/cant-we-all-just-get-along/

Get along? Apparently no—at least until after 2020. Two examples summarize why.

“We don’t need any more brown faces that don’t want to be a brown voice,” said U.S. Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), one-quarter of “the squad” sowing havoc among Democrats in the House. “ We don’t need black faces that don’t want to be a black voice. We don’t need Muslims that don’t want to be a Muslim voice. We don’t need queers that don’t want to be a queer voice.”

Of the Republican Party, MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes said the other day: “It must be peacefully, nonviolently, politically destroyed with love, compassion and determination, but utterly confronted and destroyed. That is the only way to break the coalition apart… Not by prying off this or that interest. They are in too deep. They have shamed themselves too much. The heart of the thing must be ripped out. The darkness must be banished.”

In other words, the new progressive message is that we all must vote monolithically and predicated on our superficial appearance, religion, or sexual orientation. And the Trump base must be destroyed, though annihilated with “love” and “compassion.”

Love It—Or What Actually?
All are presently shocked that Donald Trump would dare suggest that if anyone did not like the United States, then perhaps he or she might, of their own volition, consider leaving the country.

Trump apparently was directing his ire exclusively at particular first-generation congresswomen and suggesting that their anti-American furor logically might lead such unhappy U.S. citizens to consider voluntary deportation.

Perhaps no politician should ever advise American citizens with whom he disagrees to leave the country. But Trump did not suggest mandatory departures—in the manner that Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) had wanted Trump supporter and immigrant Sebastian Gorka deported.

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POLITICS Comments turned off

No One Really Wants to ‘Send Her Back’ By Andrew C. McCarthy

By on July 22nd, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/07/no-one-really-wants-to-send-her-back/

Don’t exaggerate the significance of raucous chants.

The president can be very entertaining, but I don’t pay much attention to political rallies, including his famously raucous ones.

For the faithful, the rallies are fun spectacles, like rock concerts or ball games. I don’t think they can be taken too seriously, except perhaps as a gauge of the president’s support. Not in lieu of polls, but in conjunction. And with healthy skepticism: The polls have a history of undercounting Trump supporters, but the ardor of the Trump base on display at the rallies should not be confounded with national enthusiasm for the Trump presidency — though it may signal more openness to it, especially in light of the increasingly radical alternative.

Which brings us to Wednesday night’s Trump rally in Greenville, N.C., and the ginned-up crowd of Trump fans chanting “Send her back!” That was in reference to Ilhan Omar, who is a naturalized American from Somalia, a radical at the crowded junction between Islamists and leftists, and a member of Congress from Minnesota’s fifth district — the deep-blue Twin Cities area that teems with Millennials and Somali immigrants.

All good populist demagoguery needs a villain. President Trump hardly has the market cornered on this. Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton studied Alinskyite community organizing. The organizer, a self-styled renegade against The Establishment, is instructed to avoid abstractions when picking an opposition target. You’ve got to make it personal, to polarize the adversary in stark terms. Trump’s persona is to hit back harder than he is hit. No surprise, then, that he is a practitioner of this demagogic art, since he is also the Left’s No. 1 target.

Most Republican villains the Left selects (the Bushes, Mitt Romney . . .) respond by trying to prove they’re not really villains. This is a futile strategy. The demagogues making the accusation already know it’s not true. They do it because it always works. Or at least it used to. It’s different with the president, who is from the Leo Durocher School: “I come to play. I come to beat you. I come to kill you!” Trump vexes the Left because he revels in the mud wrestle. Sure, he craves admiration, but he wants to win more, and he doesn’t in the slightest mind winning ugly. In that the Left must see a lot of itself, but that doesn’t mean it has figured out an effective response.

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POLITICS Comments turned off

Chancellor Merkel Supports the Radical Squad Shameful “solidarity” with pro-BDS anti-Semites. Joseph Klein

By on July 22nd, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/274383/chancellor-merkel-supports-radical-squad-joseph-klein

The so-called “squad” – Democrat Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) and Ayanna Pressley (Mass.) – received strong support from German Chancellor Angela Merkel. She blasted President Trump’s tweets attacking the radicals, following in the footsteps of the highly partisan resolution passed by the Democrat-controlled House that condemned President Trump’s tweets as “racist.”

“I distance myself from this decidedly and stand in solidarity with the women who were attacked,” Chancellor Merkel said. “Those [Trump’s statements] are sentiments which are very much in opposition to my impressions [about the U.S.], which I strongly believe in, and it is something that undermines America’s strength,” Chancellor Merkel added.

Evidently, what disturbed the German chancellor the most was President Trump’s suggestion in one of his tweets that the squad members should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.” All four squad members are U.S. citizens. Only one of them, Rep. Omar, was born outside the United States in Somalia and came to this country from a Kenyan refugee camp as a child.  Trump supporters at a campaign rally last Wednesday chanted “send her back,” referring to Omar after the president had singled her out for sharp criticism. Chancellor Merkel, along with much of the mainstream media and other Trump critics, have dwelt on this one Trump tweet, and on the rallygoers’ “send her back” chant that President Trump subsequently criticized. They chose to largely ignore or downplay the factual substance of the president’s critique.

President Trump’s beef with the squad is not grounded in their color, race, or sex. If it were, he also would be singling out other women of color in Congress, including presidential candidate Kamala Harris, with racist and sexist attacks. The president, at times with inartful rhetoric to be sure, has tried principally to focus on the anti-American, anti-Semitic rhetoric delivered by members of the squad. He singled out Omar in particular for her anti-Semitism and hatred of the Jewish State of Israel. There is plenty of evidence to support the president’s accusations.

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IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Democrats and Republicans Passed An Immigration Bill But it went largely unreported. Michael Cutler

By on July 22nd, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/274369/democrats-and-republicans-passed-immigration-bill-michael-cutler

It has been my contention, for many years, that contrary to the lies spewed in the mainstream media that the immigration system is broken while, in reality, the immigration system is not broken, but has become the most efficient delivery system in the United States rivaling Fed-Ex and UPS combined.

What the immigration system delivers is a virtually unlimited supply of cheap and exploitable labor, an unlimited supply of foreign tourists, of foreign students and, for the immigration lawyers, an unlimited supply of clients for immigration law firms.

This was the underlying premise to my article, Sanctuary Country – Immigration failures by design.

This past month, most of the coverage about the Congress focused on the war of words between President Trump and the Democrats, particularly the venomous and frequently Anti-Semitic statements spewed by “The Squad” that consists of four first-term female members of Congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.

A virtual mantra has been created that the reason we have an immigration crisis is because the Democrats will not work with the Republicans (or visa versa).

You would think that if there was any movement to create immigration legislation that the media would jump all over it and put the story on page one in the newspapers and the “A Block” on television programs.  After all, the mythology goes, the Democrats and Republicans have steadfastly taken diametrically opposed positions on immigration.

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EDUCATION Comments turned off

A Celebrity School Purges a Conservative Teacher and Betrays its Values No room for Western Civilization at a school that teaches Latin and Greek. Daniel Greenfield

By on July 22nd, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/274299/celebrity-school-purges-conservative-teacher-and-daniel-greenfield

On the 5th of May, the American Freedom Alliance convened a conference on leftist radicalism. Before David Horowitz stepped up to the podium to discuss the threat of leftist extremism, Dr. Karen Siegemund, the president of the AFA, welcomed the attendees by speaking to our common values.

“Each of us here believes in the unparalleled force for good that is Western Civilization, that is our heritage, whether we were born here or not,” she said.

After Dr. Siegemund and Horowitz’s remarks, a panel discussed radicalism in the school system.

The day after this event, Dr. Siegemund was informed by Le Lycée Français de Los Angeles, the school where she had taught mathematics for four years and where she had studied as a child, that her contract would not be renewed because she had praised western civilization.

The conference, which had addressed leftist radicalism in educational institutions, had struck home.

“On Monday, I was informed that my teaching contract won’t be renewed because of my ‘widely publicized views,’” Dr. Siegemund said. “You know, I’d always known I was vulnerable – of course.  We on the right all know how vulnerable we are. But when it happens – when you actually become a victim, a casualty of this Long March, of the Left’s silencing tactics, it’s truly breathtaking.”

The French and English school set up and run by the Kabbaz family took as its motto, Cogito ergo sum or I think, therefore I am. These days, the radicalized institution has become hostile to the independent thinking that it claims to inculcate in its students. And to the cultural heritage of its origins.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Cow’s Throat Slit “In Accordance with Islamic Law” in Connecticut Home Depot Parking Lot Down with bovine Islamophobia! Diversity is our strength! Robert Spencer

By on July 22nd, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/274387/cows-throat-slit-accordance-islamic-law-robert-spencer

The facts at hand presumably speak for themselves, but a trifle more vulgarly, I suspect, than facts even usually do. The New York Post headline Friday was “Cow slaughtered in Home Depot parking lot after escaping meat market.” The cow was stopped while in the process of committing “Islamophobia”: it escaped a halal meat market in Bloomfield, Connecticut, where it was being prepared to be slaughtered “in accordance with Islamic law.” But “Islamophobia” was averted: the hapless cow had its throat slit in the neighboring Home Depot parking lot.

The Post reports that the local authorities are still suffering from “Islamophobia,” as the Post reports that “the gory scene prompted the closure of the Saba meat store in Bloomfield,” from which the hate-filled cow escaped.

And it made a good run for it. According to the Post, “the cow dashed out of Saba on Saturday and ran across the street to the hardware store — with employee Badr Musaed and a contractor Andy Morrison hot on its trail.” There then ensued a scene that would be laughably absurd if it weren’t a sign of deep-seated and racist hatred of Muslims to think so: “Morrison, who was doing renovation work at the meat store and was armed with a bow and arrow, tried to help Musaed corral the cow while the local police also responded. Dash camera footage obtained by NBC shows the officer trying to box the bovine in with his cruiser — and Morrison attempting to shoot it with his weapon.”

The police report noted: “As the cow ran towards the employees, Morrison shot at the cow, however he missed and the arrow struck the wall of the Home Depot.” But there was no reprieve for this bigoted cow. The Post continues: “Suddenly, Musaed whipped out a foot-long knife and slit the cow’s throat as other Saba employees wrangled the animal.”

A police officer who was on the scene demonstrated that he needs to undergo considerable sensitivity training in order to raise his multicultural awareness and become more welcoming to his Muslim sisters and brothers. He sputtered to the Saba butchers: “You know this is a big — this is a problem. This is not something that can be done.”

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POLITICS Comments turned off

Trump Rally Triggers the Republican Parsons Never Trumpers pander to the Left’s totalitarian rules for speech. Bruce Thornton

By on July 22nd, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/274389/trump-rally-triggers-republican-parsons-bruce-thornton

Immediately following last week’s “go home’ presidential tweet, a chant erupted at a Trump rally in North Carolina that suggested, “Send her back,” referring of course to Rep. Ilhan Omar. Trump himself a day later sort of walked back the chant, supposedly under pressure from the Party establishment and his wife and daughter. Would that instead he had used the opportunity for a lesson in the First Amendment, which protects both the chanters and Omar’s vile anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism, which are much more dangerous and consequential than a hyperbolic chant typical of such rallies events.

There’s no need to dwell on the hysterical response of the left. After three years of question-begging epithets like “racist,” such reactions have become political white noise for all but the cult faithful. It’s the Republican NeverTrumpers who need, once again, to be exposed for their virtue-signaling dudgeon that is music to the Dems’ ears. A catalogue of tweets put together by the Intelligencer provides some examples.

Most of the twitter responses typically come from a belief that transient words that do not lead to actions have some occult power to determine future behavior. Yet many commentators use hyperbolic epithets that, given the long history of much nastier political speech in America, drain the words of any specific meaning. If Ben Shapiro is going to call the chant “vile” and “disgusting,” then what does he call Omar’s anti-Semitic slurs? “Vile double-plus”? It’s the same indiscriminate use of words that has made “racism” into the go-to slur for the left, having been emptied of any precision and accuracy, and now nothing other than a bundle of nasty connotations suitable for any occasion.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

To the EU: Iran’s Mullahs Will Never Be Your Friend by Majid Rafizadeh

By on July 22nd, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14571/iran-eu-mullahs-friends

Despite these attacks, and attempted attacks, the EU, despite its ceaseless moral sanctimony, continues to soften its tone toward Iran, presumably out of a zeal for doing business even with a country designated the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.

The more the EU appeases the Iranian government, the more it empowers it to pursue aggressive and terrorist activities.

The EU needs to stop appeasing the ruling mullahs of Iran who are consistently engaged in terror activities in Europe, and join its old transatlantic partner, the US, in putting even more pressure on Iran’s fundamentalist government.

The extent to which the European Union is willing to go in order to appease the ruling mullahs of Iran, is unfathomable. To witness the EU siding with the fundamentalist government of Iran rather than backing its old transatlantic partner, the United States, is a shock.

Since President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the flawed agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) , Iran’s leaders have been consistently pushing for Europe to do more to appease them; more than it is capable of delivering.

First, the EU came up with a mechanism called the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX). Its purpose was to shield the Iranian government from economic sanctions, in order to assist its ruling clerics — and Europe — in gaining more revenues.

Then, Iran became more aggressive and breached the 300kg limit on enriched uranium, among several other malign actions (here, here and here). The increased level of enrichment was a blatant violation of Iran’s agreement and contrary to the shared international desire — except for Iran’s ayatollahs — to de-escalate regional tensions.

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