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April 2021

Bay of Pigs has lessons for our time By Lawrence J. Haas

It was 60 years ago this week that an uncertain new president launched an ill-conceived military venture of astonishing naivety. The scheme was straightforward and audacious: 1,400 U.S.-trained Cuban exiles would land at the Bay of Pigs and ignite a populist uprising that would topple a Soviet-backed communist revolutionary by the name of Fidel Castro.

It was an unmitigated disaster.

With an army of 25,000, Castro quickly quashed hopes of an uprising as his forces killed more than a hundred exiles and imprisoned most of the others, and President John F. Kennedy suffered an embarrassing global setback just three months into his presidency.

Worse, the disaster came just weeks after JFK had launched his Alliance for Progress, which was supposed to set a new tone in U.S.-Latin American relations. Rather than continue to back right-wing regimes that supported U.S. interests in the region, the United States would provide billions in aid in exchange for political and economic reforms that would improve the lives of hundreds of millions of people.

The Alliance was designed to burnish America’s image in Latin America, but the Bay of Pigs buried those hopes by resurrecting the specter of U.S. imperialism in a region that had seen more than enough of it.

The fiasco had a silver lining, however, for it forced JFK to take stock, re-evaluate his approach to global challenges, see the world clearly, and act accordingly – in essence, to learn from his mistake.

It’s an approach that remains both important and timely, however different are the challenges that President Joe Biden now faces.

FROM RICHARD BAEHR: RACISM IN EDUCATION

 The powerful drive to actively discriminate based on race has gained enormous steam since George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis.  We are now almost a full year  into the “national reckoning on race” and we see how it is playing out. One big shift is the momentum  for eliminating any measure in schools or the workplace which might be merit based, and  measure achievement, or ability and in which certain “marginalized groups” show poorly. United Airlines has committed to hiring 50% of its new pilots from a new pilot training program  who are women or are members of  specific racial groups or gender. One might think that pilot excellence, and  safety of passengers were the top considerations in hiring- not the race or gender of the pilot. But you would be wrong. Richard Baehr

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/04/princeton-routs-rest-of-ivy-league-in-diversity-sweepstakes.php

 On the college front, the news is  sordid. This week, most of the Ivy League colleges and universities released the racial breakdown of their incoming classes.  The competition appears to be over which school can admit the smallest white percentage of the freshman class. This year’s champion is Princeton, with Harvard second.

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/04/race-based-preferences-in-ivy-admissions-arent-about-diversity.php

A college admissions counselor who has discussed this issue with admissions officers at ivy league schools says the admissions officers admit that what is going on is not due solely to a desire to admit enough of various minority groups to achieve diversity,  but to punish whites, who have been privileged too long

“What, then, is the real reason why Princeton has cut back so sharply on admitting whites? According to the college counselor referred to above, some Ivy league admissions officers admit that their efforts are about payback, not diversity. Their stated view is that whites have long been “privileged” in America and that now nonwhites should be favored as reparations for our unjust history and culture. “

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/ohio-state-employs-150-diversity-officials-to-add-more-professors-focused-on-social-and-racial-justice?utm_campaign=article_rail&utm_source=internal&utm_medium=article_rail

Another development- enormous investments by companies, colleges and other organizations in diversity, equity and inclusion bureaucracies, and anti-racism training. These efforts have created what is probably the fastest growing professional class in America- the diversity officers and anti-racism trainers. 

 
 

The border is even worse than you think Byron York

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/the-border-is-even-worse-than-you-think?

MISSION, Texas — Anyone paying attention to the news knows the situation on the U.S.-Mexico border is terrible. Anyone who actually visits the border discovers it is worse than that.

Here is what is most striking about the government’s response to the unprecedented surge of illegal border crossers: It is entirely improvised. Jury-rigged. Thrown together in a scramble to accommodate thousands of migrants who were not coming just months ago. And the reason it is being improvised is that during his first days in office, President Joe Biden blew up the foundation of the government’s handling of migrants. With a series of executive actions, Biden threw out key policies with nothing ready to replace them. And he did it using rhetoric that invited migrants to rush to the border — more than 172,000 in March alone, including nearly 19,000 unaccompanied children.

Now the government’s leading agencies, Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Department of Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, are desperately trying to put together a new system to deal with the damage Biden’s hurried and irresponsible acts have done. Under administration orders, they are no longer really trying to prevent people from entering the U.S. illegally. Rather, they are attempting to humanely house and feed the thousands prior to releasing them into the country. The border’s guardians are overwhelmed and increasingly giving way to bureaucratic pressure to let most people in.

There is no better example of what is going on than the situation under the Anzalduas International Bridge that connects Mexico to the United States in Mission, Texas. It is about a mile walk through woods and a dirt road from the Rio Grande. U.S. officials have set up a temporary processing center for migrants whose smugglers have let them off on the riverbank in the dead of night and who have trudged to the bridge, guided at first by little signs with arrows, and then by the weird glow of huge temporary lights set up under the bridge. When they arrive, they get in line inside plastic fencing that guides them to a table where they give U.S. officials their rudimentary information and then to benches where they will sit through the night waiting for a bus to take them to the dangerously overcrowded U.S. detention center in Donna, Texas.

Everything Is Infrastructure Democrats redefine the word to promote an American Jobs Plan that is anything but. by David Keltz

https://spectator.org/infrastructure-pete-buttigieg-biden/

On Friday, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg held his first press briefing at the White House to pitch President Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan.

Buttigieg, ever the salesman, described the so-called American Jobs Plan (AJP) as “the best chance in our lifetimes to make a generational investment in infrastructure.”

But as I’ve written previously in The American Spectator, Biden’s proposal is neither a jobs plan nor an infrastructure bill. It amounts to a Green New Deal wish list that will raise corporate tax rates to 28 percent, increase regulations, and raise income tax rates to their highest level since 1968. The middle class will not be spared this tax burden.

Only 6 percent of the $2.3 trillion package is devoted to roads, bridges, and highways. And Moody’s Analytics estimates that it will create only 2.7 million jobs, not the 19 million that Biden, Buttigieg, and other administration officials spent weeks falsely promising.

In order to sell this non-infrastructure bill, Buttigieg has had to redefine the word “infrastructure.”

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “infrastructure” means “the basic systems and services that are necessary for a country or an organization to run smoothly, for example buildings, transport and water and power supplies.”

Palestinian Elections: What the Biden Administration Does Not Want to Know by Khaled Abu Toameh

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17259/palestinian-elections-biden-administration

Hamas and the PFLP have rejected all the agreements signed between Israel and the PLO, including the Oslo Accords. Yet, these terrorist groups have no problem running in an election held under the umbrella of the Oslo Accords.

[I]t is already evident that some of them have no intention of complying with the wishes of the State Department about “renouncing violence and terrorism” or accepting the “two-state solution.”

Representatives of some of the lists running in the election, in fact, are promising the exact opposite. They are saying that they are committed to continuing the fight against Israel and have absolutely no intention of recognizing Israel’s right to exist.

These Palestinians oppose any recognition of Israel’s right to exist; they oppose any form of normalization with Israel; they oppose any peace talks with Israel and have repeatedly denounced any peace process with Israel as an act of treason.

Abu Zuhri and the Hamas leadership are sending the following message to the State Department spokesman: If you think Hamas will renounce violence and terrorism or accept the so-called two-state solution, you are sadly deluding yourself.

This dangerous exploitation of the Oslo Accords, however, does not seem to bother the US administration or the European Union when they talk about the need for the Palestinians to have free and democratic elections.

Like Hamas, the PFLP also vowed to pursue the fight against Israel “until the liberation of all of Palestine” — in other words, all of Israel.

Under the current circumstances, it seems that Palestinians who support terrorism and do not accept the “two-state solution” are headed toward dominating the next Palestinian parliament and government.

Now that the Hamas and the PFLP candidates have been approved by the Central Elections Commission, the US or the rest of the international community can prevent this plot from materializing by making it clear that they will not recognize any future Palestinian government with terrorists. This demand should be made before, not after the elections.

During a press briefing on April 1, US State Department Spokesperson Ned Price talked about the upcoming Palestinian elections and the “two-state solution.” On the elections, the first in 15 years, Price said:

“The exercise of democratic elections is a matter for the Palestinian people to determine. We note that the US and other key partners in the international community have long been clear about the importance of participants in that democratic process, renouncing violence and renouncing terrorism, recognizing Israel’s right to exist.”

On recognizing Israel’s right to exist, Price said:

“The two-state solution is precisely what will allow Israelis and Palestinians to live side by side in dignity and security, securing the interests – in the interests of Israelis, in the interests of Palestinians together. That’s precisely why are we are supporting this two-state solution, just as previous administrations of both political stripes have.”

Two days later, the Palestinian Central Elections Commission announced that 36 lists have submitted electoral slates for the parliamentary elections, scheduled for May 22.

The Mendacity of Joe Biden and the Ruling Elites By Steve McCann

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/04/the_mendacity_of_joe_biden_and_the_ruling_elites.html

Biden is not an absent-minded grandfatherly and politically moderate occupant of the White House but the most dishonest, deceitful and mendacious person in a position of power in American history.

An ex-business partner and I were recently reminiscing about an encounter we had with then Senator Biden at MBNA’s new corporate offices in downtown Wilmington in 1996. (MBNA was then the world’s largest independent credit card issuer.)   Biden was running for re-election, so he was glad-handing anyone within reach, and we were, unfortunately, in the line of fire having just left a meeting and walking through the lobby.  Flashing a toothy grin, dripping with condescension and insincerity, he grabbed my hand and said, “Good to meet you, hope you’ll vote for me in November. Like your tie.”  

Fighting the urge to go and wash my hands and thinking of his disastrous 1987 presidential campaign and history of political sleaze, I said to my partner, after Biden had pressed his flesh, “Damn, I hope that oily bastard is never elected President.”

The chance meeting at the MBNA building was appropriate as Biden was not only a Senator from Delaware but was so blatantly acting as MBNA’s chief “lobbyist” that he was often referred to as “The Senator from MBNA.”   In 1996, MBNA hired Joe’s son, Hunter, fresh out of law school, having never worked in finance or banking, as a “senior vice president” making $100,000.00 per year ($168,00.00 in 2021 dollars) plus a substantial signing bonus. 

It was after this run-in with Joe Biden that I began to pay more attention to his fabulist tendencies, lack of character and compulsive lying.  While his cognitive decline is an ancillary factor in what the American people see today, the reality is that he has always been someone who will do or say anything to advance his personal aspirations.  Which has always been more than just mundane financial or material accumulation.  Biden has long harbored the dream of being praised in the history books as the next Franklin Roosevelt, the demigod in the pantheon of Democrat party icons.   His impatience to achieve that goal had him seriously considering a presidential run in 1980 when he was 37.  His first bid for the presidency was in 1987 at 44.

Good news from Iran: The Israelis are still working to stop the Iranian nuclear program By Michael A. Thiac

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/04/_good_news_from_iran_the_israelis_are_still_working_to_stop_the_iranian_nuclear_program.html

One of the many disasters of the Obama years was the Iran nuke deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

In exchange for one-billion seven hundred million dollars (400 million in cold, hard, cash), we got…their promise they will be good.

Well, no one expected the Iranians to keep their word, and yes, they have continued to work towards nuclear weapons. But today we’ve heard of some good news from the Iranian desert. Their nuclear research facility took a hit.

According to the New York Times on Sunday:

A power failure that appeared to have been caused by a deliberately planned explosion struck Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment site on Sunday, in what Iranian officials called an act of sabotage that they suggested had been carried out by Israel.

The blackout injected new uncertainty into diplomatic efforts that began last week to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal repudiated by the Trump administration.

Iran did not say precisely what had caused the blackout at the heavily fortified site, which has been a target of previous sabotage, and Israel publicly declined to confirm or deny any responsibility. But American and Israeli intelligence officials said there had been an Israeli role.

Abbas’ Parliamentary List Includes Terrorists and Their Relatives Flaunting the willingness to reward Palestinian jihadists. Hugh Fitzgerald

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/04/abbas-parliamentary-list-includes-terrorists-and-hugh-fitzgerald/

So much has been happening with the Palestinians and their new friends in Washington. First, there was the announcement by Linda Thomas-Greenwood, our ambassador to the U.N., that the U.S. would be giving $15 million to the PA, presumably as a token of American affection and esteem. No one mentioned that this violated the Taylor Force Act, which prohibits American aid to the Palestinians as long as the “Pay-For-Slay” program continues. And it is continuing. But the Biden Administration is so eager to lavish money on the Palestinians that it is willing to take a chance that Congress won’t raise a fuss about Taylor Force. And so far it hasn’t. To make matters still worse, now the Biden Administration says it will send another $80 million to the Palestinians. That constitutes another, even bigger, violation of the Taylor Force Act. And yet that news was met with the same inexplicable silence from Congress. And while we are at it, we have a question for Biden, Blinken et al. What exactly have the Palestinians done to deserve having the spigot of American aid turned back on? They did nothing. Absolutely nothing.

But it gets worse. Mahmoud Abbas has announced his list of candidates for the Palestinian parliamentary elections that are to be held on May 22. A report on that list is here: “Report: Abbas’ Party List for Upcoming Elections Includes Terrorists and Their Relatives,” by Benjamin Kerstein, Algemeiner, April 1, 2021:

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party has placed convicted terrorists and relatives of terrorists in high positions on its list for the upcoming PA elections, Israeli public broadcaster Kan reported Thursday.

Second on Abbas’ party list is the widow of one of those responsible for the notorious 2001 attack that killed Israeli 10-month-old Shalhevet Pass, during the second intifada.

Putting this woman second on the party list for the Palestinian parliamentary elections is a sign of the respect in which she is held by Mahmoud Abbas. After all, she is the widow of Mahmoud Amru, who took deliberate aim at a Jewish baby sitting in her stroller, and killed her, thus becoming a true Palestinian hero. By honoring his widow as a way of paying tribute to Amru himelf, Abbas is deliberately flaunting his willingness to reward terrorists, even beyond what Pay-For-Slay provides.

Hunter Biden Calls Laptop a ‘Red Herring’ as Daily Mail Publishes Shocking New Photos and Texts By Debra Heine

https://amgreatness.com/2021/04/09/hunter-biden-calls-laptop-a-red-herring-as-daily-mail-publishes-shocking-new-photos-and-texts/

During a television interview Thursday, Hunter Biden refused to admit that the infamous MacBook Pro—which exposed his family’s sketchy overseas business wheeling and dealings, as well as his own depraved, drug-induced sexual escapades—is his, even though the authenticity of his laptop has been verified by multiple sources. The scandal-plagued younger Biden asserted that any reporting on the bombshell cache of 103,000 text messages, 154,000 emails, more than 2,000 photos and dozens of videos, was a “red herring.”

He has recently admitted however that the laptop “could” be his, although he couldn’t remember dropping the device off at the repair shop.

The Daily Mail, which has conducted its own forensic investigation of the MacBook Pro, on Thursday published shocking, never-before-seen photos from the cache, including a horrifying pre-dental treatment close-up of Hunter Biden’s “meth-mouth,” and a photo of him frolicking on a bed with two prostitutes.

Texts published by The Daily Mail reveal:

• How he begged his father to run for president in 2019 to salvage Hunter’s own reputation
• How he repeatedly dodged police action against him, despite constantly dealing with drug pushers and prostitutes and having multiple run-ins with law enforcement
• Hunter was guarded by a Secret Service agent while on a 2018 drug and prostitute binge in Hollywood, despite not being entitled to protection at the time and amid denials from the federal agency
• Joe Biden was afraid his text conversations with Hunter were being hacked even as they discussed his White House bid
• How Hunter’s laptop is brimming with evidence of apparent criminal activity by Hunter and his associates including drug trafficking and prostitution.

Can the Great ‘Awokening’ Succeed? Victor Davis Hanson

https://amgreatness.com/2021/04/11/can-the-great-awokening-succeed/

Wokeism is creating a future group of politically incorrect Trotskyites on a proverbial rendezvous with a Mexican ice pick, given that by birth they will never be woke enough for the new Stalinism.

We all know that we are living in revolutionary times. The origins, ascendence, values, laws, and future of the United States are all under assault by self-described, though accurately described, revolutionaries.

It is a Jacobin, Bolshevik, or Maoist moment. All aspects of life, well beyond politics, are now to be ideologically conditioned. Everything from kindergarten messaging, cartoons, workplace reeducation, and television commercials to college admissions, baseball games, and the airlines are to be “fundamentally transformed” along racial lines.

Long gone is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream of a colorblind society. Gone, at least at the state level, is confidence in the melting pot of assimilation, integration, and intermarriage (although mixed marriages and multiracial children are at an all-time high).

Gone are even the affirmative-action doctrines of proportional representation and disparate impact. (Yet the two mandates were always arbitrarily applied, in the sense that the U.S. Postal Service and the professional football and basketball leagues never paid much attention to racial quotas based on demographic percentages, which apparently only applied to white and Asian “overrepresentation” elsewhere).

Wokeism, however, is essentially tribal. It seeks to identify particular nonwhite constituencies, unite them not by identical class, not by similar skin color, not by collective similar history, not by shared experience, not by mutual cultural affinities, not by longstanding historical alliances, but simply by two premises:

1) Those of the woke collective are either claimants to being “nonwhite,” and thus victims of racism, or they are architects and supporters of the wokeist agenda, and: 2) they can thereby all either directly leverage reparatory concessions in hiring, admissions, careers, compensation, and general influence or ensure the revolutionary guillotine exempts themselves.

A cynic might add that much of this new racialism is a product of globalteering, and seeks to cater to huge foreign markets—China especially—by both “looking more like the world,” and delighting America’s critics, while appeasing far less moral audiences and consumers abroad than a perceived shrinking market at home.

Still for the woke revolution to succeed, a number of experiments will have to go its way.