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February 2021

When American Lawyers Are Taught to Hate America By Eileen F. Toplansky

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/02/when_american_lawyers_are_taught_to_hate_america.html

It is no longer a surprise why so many American students have come to despise their own country.  The latest example of deliberate misinformation comes from the New Jersey State Bar Foundation (NJSBF).  Claiming that “informed citizens are better citizens,” the NJSBF issued a May 20, 2020 article titled “Explaining the Roots of Institutional Racism.”

Institutional racism was baked into the U.S. Constitution, dating back to when the Founding Fathers were determining how to calculate the number of seats each state would have in the House of Representatives.  Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution states: ‘…shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons … three fifths of all other Persons.’ Those three-fifths persons were slaves.

In fact, the “words ‘slave’ [and] ‘slavery’ do not exist in the Constitution.  Thus, as escaped slave abolitionist, Frederick Douglass stated ‘[a]bolish slavery tomorrow, and not a sentence or syllable of the Constitution need be altered.’  Thus, Douglass steadfastly believed that the government created by the Constitution ‘was never, in its essence, anything but an anti-slavery government.'”

In the “1776 Report” now scrubbed by the Biden administration but available here, one learns that Douglass “initially condemned the Constitution, but after studying its history came to insist that it was a ‘glorious liberty document.'”

The Baby Boomers’ Dismal Legacy In all the fields touched by the people Helen Andrews profiles—tech, entertainment, economics, academia, politics, law—what they passed on to their children was worse than what they inherited. By Chris Buskirk

https://amgreatness.com/2021/02/07/the-baby-boomers-dismal-legacy/

There is no generation about which so much has been said, written, filmed, and sung as the Baby Boomers; most of it by the Boomers themselves who have, from their youth, been absolutely enthralled with . . . themselves. 

Helen Andrews’ new book, Boomers, is a welcome corrective to the steady stream of hagiographic literature produced since the first Boomers picked up a pencil, a camera, and a guitar. It is at once beautifully written, incisive, entertaining, maddening, and flabbergasting. As she writes in the book’s introduction: “they tried to liberate us, and instead they left behind chaos.” I would add that Janis Joplin (of the Silent Generation) predicted this when she sang that freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose. But the Boomers weren’t listening.

If you want to understand the Baby Boom generation you might start with this epigram: Extremism in the defense of vice is our liberty. I don’t think anyone ever put it quite that way, but it could be a Boomer slogan. And it’s part of unlocking the secrets to their generation and to many of the problems they have inflicted on America. Never has any generation in this country—or perhaps any other—so monopolized every aspect of society, for so long, and for such selfish ends while congratulating each other on their selfless righteousness.

Tear apart the family, the churches, the charities, the schools, and everything else in your path; encourage mass drug use, promiscuous sex, and spend, spend, spend-materialism; even saddle your kids and grandkids with tens of trillions of dollars of debt to make sure you can keep the party going “Big Chill”-style, until the very last Boomers depart for the Strawberry fields where it’s always 1967. 

Our Animal Farm The Left’s 1960s dream is America’s 2021 nightmare. By Victor Davis Hanson

https://amgreatness.com/2021/02/07/our-animal-farm/

George Orwell published Animal Farm in August 1945, in the closing weeks of the Pacific War. Even then, most naïve supporters of the wartime Soviet-British-American alliance were no longer in denial about the contours of Moscow’s impending postwar communist aggression. 

The short, allegorical novel’s human-like farm animals replay the transition of supposedly 1917 revolutionary Bolsheviks into cynical 1930s Stalinists. Thereby, they remind us that leftist totalitarianism inevitably becomes far worse than the supposed parasitical capitalists they once toppled.

Orwell saw that the desire for power stamps out all ideological pretenses. It creates an untouchable ruling clique central to all totalitarian movements. Beware, he warns, of the powerful who claim to help the helpless.

Something so far less violent, but no less bizarre and disturbing, now characterizes the American New New Left. It is completing its final Animal Farm metamorphosis as it finishes its long march through our cultural, economic, and social institutions. Leftists may talk of revolutionary transformation, but their agenda is to help friends, punish enemies, and to keep and expand power.

First, remember the 1960s and 1970s agendas of the once impotent, young, and supposedly idealistic leftist revolutionaries.

Reagan: The Movie — Finally By John Fund

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/02/reagan-the-movie-finally/

A great movie about the Gipper is in the works, and none too soon.

Saturday was the 110th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s birthday. Just the day before, I spent some time in California with the team that is finishing a new movie on his life. It’s the first time that a film company has been allowed access to the Reagan Ranch and the nearby Reagan Library for such a project.

When Reagan: The Movie appears in theaters twelve months from now, America will have the big-budget film about the Gipper that should have made a long time ago. The telling of Reagan’s inspiring story and America’s rebound may have been delayed, but it will never be more timely. (You can find out more about the project at reaganmovie.com.)

Just watching 66-year-old Dennis Quaid (The Right Stuff, Soul Surfer) stride through the Reagan Ranch in a cowboy hat and jeans makes you realize the casting for this movie is perfect. Penelope Anne Miller (Carlito’s Way, Kindergarten Cop) is also a smart choice to play Nancy Reagan. The rest of the cast includes Jon Voight, Lesley-Anne Down, and Robert Davi.

CAIR Leader Shares Social Media Posts from Islamist Who Calls Jews ‘Demonic’ Wilfredo Amr Ruiz gets pass from news networks that continue to interview him. Joe Kaufman

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/02/cair-leader-shares-social-media-posts-islamist-who-joe-kaufman/

Now that Hassan Shibly has resigned his position as Executive Director of CAIR-Florida, after his wife’s accusations of domestic violence, it has left CAIR-Florida Communications Director Wilfredo Ruiz in the top leadership position of the group, at least until the group names a new Executive Director. This should result in extra scrutiny for Ruiz, beginning with his recent social media postings copied from Muslim extremist Abdur Rahman al-Ghani, who refers to Jews as “demonic” and “the children of Satan,” and Ruiz’s own anti-Semitic ramblings. Up until now, Ruiz’s radical activity has been ignored by news networks that continue to interview him. Why?

Wilfredo Amr Ruiz has been with the Florida chapter of CAIR, since December 2011. CAIR or the Council on American-Islamic Relations was created, in June 1994, as part of a US Hamas network led by then-global head of Hamas, Mousa Abu Marzook, who was deported from the US in 1997. While with CAIR, Ruiz has also served as legal counsel for the American Muslim Association of North America (AMANA), a group that was condemned by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), in July 2010, for promoting “venomous” anti-Semitic material on its website. Besides being its lawyer, Ruiz founded AMANA’s Puerto Rico and Connecticut chapters.

Since 2017, Ruiz has been involved with the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), the US arm of South Asian Islamist group Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), and is now a representative for ICNA’s WhyIslam. ICNA has advertised Hamas and Hezbollah on its website, and in December 2017, ICNA organized an event featuring Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF), a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the group responsible for the 2008 Mumbai attacks. For decades, ICNA has harbored and placed in its top leadership Ashrafuz Zaman Khan, a JI militant who was sentenced to death, in absentia, for the December 1971 murders of 18 people in Bangladesh.

Maher Bitar and Israel’s Ideological Elections Biden’s choice of an anti-Israeli for the Nat’l Sec Council spells trouble. Caroline Glick

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/02/maher-bitar-and-israels-ideological-elections-caroline-glick/

Israel’s March 23 elections are being presented as a simple referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The media and Netanyahu’s opponents would have us believe that there is no ideological struggle; it’s all just a question of whether you love or hate Bibi.

But this is untrue. The coming elections are primarily about ideology. To understand why this is the case, we need to look no further than U.S. President Joe Biden’s appointments.

Last week, the White House announced that Maher Bitar had been appointed to serve as the senior director for Intelligence at the National Security Council. The position is one of the most powerful posts in the U.S. intelligence community. The senior director is the node to which all intelligence from all agencies flows. He decides what to share with the president. And in the name of the president, he determines priorities for intelligence operations and collection.

The senior director of intelligence also determines what information the U.S. intelligence community will share with foreign intelligence services. Likewise, he decides how to relate to information that foreign intelligence agencies share with the Americans.

As one former senior national security council member explained, “The senior director for intelligence controls the information everyone sees. And by controlling information, he controls the conversation.”

Usually, the sensitive position is reserved for a CIA officer who is detailed to the National Security Council. Bitar, however, is not an intelligence professional. He is an anti-Israel political activist.

Spain: Leftist Politician Praises Islamic al-Andalus, Accuses Spanish Monarchy of ‘Genocide’ Suicidal self-hatred continues to sweep the West. Robert Spencer 3

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/02/spain-leftist-politician-praises-islamic-al-robert-spencer/

El HuffPost, which is what the Spanish language version of the hard-Left propaganda outfit the Huffington Post calls itself, on Wednesday tweeted a statement from Isabel Franco, a far-Left politician who is currently Vice President of the Region of Murcia and Regional Minister of Women, Equality, LGTBI, Families and Social Policy: “In Al-Ándalus three cultures coexisted. It was the Spanish monarchy that caused an enormous invasion, genocide and concealment.”

Well, of course. What else would you expect? What would have been surprising would have been Franco praising the Spanish monarchy and denigrating Islamic al-Andalus. But a Leftist politician of the twenty-first century praising an Islamic regime and denigrating Christian rulers is par for the course these days. Anything else would be “racist,” “bigoted,” “Islamophobic,” “xenophobic” and probably anti-trans or something as well.

If, however, Isabel Franco (pictured above) had been inclined to be honest, she would have plenty to apologize for. The History of Jihad From Muhammad to ISIS, the first and only comprehensive history of the 1,400-year jihad phenomenon worldwide in the English language, shows that Muslim Spain was anything but a model of multiculturalism and coexistence. In fact, it was miserable to live as a Christian there. Christians could never be sure that they would not be harassed. One contemporary account tells of priests being “pelted with rocks and dung” by Muslims while on the way to a cemetery. The dhimmis suffered severe economic hardship: Paul Alvarus, a ninth century Christian in Córdoba, complained about the “unbearable tax” that Muslims levied on Christians.

BLM’s Nobel Peace Prize Nomination Rewarding the destruction of a nation — in the name of “peace.” John Perazzo

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/02/blms-nobel-peace-prize-nomination-john-perazzo/

These are exciting times for Black Lives Matter (BLM) and its comrades. First, they spent most of 2020 raking in countless millions of dollars in donations as compensation for turning dozens of American cities into war zones—an activity they describe as “racial justice” activism. Next, they helped get two their two most influential supporters on Earth, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, installed in the White House. And now, they have been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.

The nomination was put forth by the Norwegian parliamentarian Petter Eide, who lauds BLM for its noble “struggle against racism and racially motivated violence.” In light of the fact that Mr. Eide has represented the Socialist Left party in Parliament since 2017, it is no surprise that he should be impressed by the agendas and tactics of BLM, an organization founded by three self-identified “trained Marxist” revolutionaries: Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi. Under their leadership, BLM has perfected the longtime Marxist strategy of portraying the U.S. as a racist cesspool in desperate need of fundamental transformation. Presumably Mr. Eide believes that such a message, if repeated with sufficient frequency and passion, will promote “peace.”

Perhaps he also believes that yet another Marxist ideal advocated by BLM—the dissolution of “the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure”—will likewise further the cause of “peace.”

While conceding that “people message me to say that BLM is a violent organization,” Mr. Eide dutifully explains that “if some elements of the movement may have been violent, that is not a reason to blame the whole movement.”

Biden Is Increasingly Detached From Reality On The Economy

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/02/08/biden-is-increasingly-detached-from-reality-on-the-economy/

A favorite Democratic cliché is “never let a crisis go to waste.” But with the “urgently needed” $1.9 trillion relief bill, Democrats are inventing the crisis. While they keep depicting the economy as being in a free fall, it is, by historic standards, doing well.

Some Democrats are already coming to realize that piling another $1.9 trillion in deficit spending on top of the more than $3 trillion already targeting COVID relief is an enormous mistake. Here’s what Politico reported last week after liberal economist Larry Summers cautioned that the Biden plan was too big.

Summers, the former Treasury secretary for Bill Clinton and top economic adviser to Barack Obama, puts down on paper what many liberal wonks have been whispering about for weeks: that President Joe Biden’s stimulus bill may be too big, that its overall cost could sacrifice other progressive priorities and that it could harm the economy next year, when Democrats will be defending narrow congressional majorities in the midterms.

Summers warns of “inflationary pressures of a kind we have not seen in a generation, with consequences for the value of the dollar and financial stability.”

Give Summers and those anonymous “liberal wonks” credit, at least, for staying in the neighborhood of reality, something that seems to have escaped “No Malarky” Biden.

George Pratt Shultz As Secretary of State, he helped Reagan end the Cold War by winning it.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/george-pratt-shultz-11612725575?mod=opinion_lead_pos2

President Harry Truman’s Secretary of State, Dean Acheson, called his memoir “Present at the Creation,” an account of rebuilding the postwar world and the realities of a Cold War with the Soviet Union. Former Secretary of State George P. Shultz, who died Saturday at age 100, titled his memoir “Turmoil and Triumph,” an apt description of the historic role Shultz played in ending the Cold War some 40 years later.

Shultz served as Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of State for almost the length of Reagan’s Presidency, from 1982 until 1989. The “turmoil” of his memoir’s title described the world as he took control of foreign policy for Reagan.

The Soviet Union, possessing a huge arsenal of nuclear weapons, was led by Yuri Andropov, a determined communist opponent of the West. Hard to believe now, but Europe then was still divided by what Winston Churchill called an “iron curtain,” which separated the free democratic nations of Western Europe from the closed, Soviet-dominated countries to the east. Millions were imprisoned inside these countries, unable to emigrate. Those who tried to flee could be imprisoned or shot.