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April 2021

Fools’ overture By Eric Utter

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

It hasn’t taken long: Gas prices are rising. As are the prices of other durable and consumer goods, such as timber. Crime is soaring. China is making threatening gestures and Russia is massing troops on the border of Ukraine. There is a crisis on our own southern border, which even President and Lid-Caller-in-Chief Biden accidentally admitted recently, causing White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki to claim that’s not what he really meant to say.

This was all eminently predictable because, as any rational human being knows, actions have consequences. Banning the Keystone Pipeline, printing and spending trillions upon trillions of dollars and threatening to implement preposterous environmental policies, defunding the police and coddling criminals have had the effects that similar actions have always had. They are the only possible results of actions such as these.

Likewise, pretending that China isn’t a serious and imminent threat to U.S. national interests– while simultaneously proclaiming that Russia is, even as you have no stomach to back up your assertions— was almost certain to result in the present crises situations.

But being a progressive means never having to worry about consequences because: 1) you will be too busy blaming everyone else for the devastation you have wrought 2) the national media is your bitch and 3) most Americans are ignorant of history. These facts also mean you never have to say you’re sorry. Not that you would anyway.

Hell, you can make half of the country believe that it is effective to fight racism with racism, sexism with sexism and intolerance by being intolerant.

WHO IS ROBERT SANTOS BIDEN’S PICK FOR “CENSUS DIRECTOR”????

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/04/biden-puts-specialist-illegal-aliens-charge-census-daniel-greenfield/

Biden Puts Specialist in Illegal Aliens in Charge of Census And a member of a racist hate group that wanted to build Mexico in America. Daniel Greenfield

The media is touting Biden’s pick of Robert Santos as historic because he would be the first “census director of color”. Emphasizing the race or ethnicity of Biden’s nominees has become the media’s usual tactic for obscuring their radicalism while accusing their critics of racism.

As a third-generation American whose grandparents came to this country over a century ago, whose parents raised him not to speak Spanish, Santos is hardly an oppressed minority.

During the census, the media repeatedly trotted Santos out to warn that minorities would be undercounted and that the citizenship question would suppress minority participation.

“If the administration tries to take out undocumented folks, that’s going to lead to lot of litigation,” Santos warned.

“There is no question that in my mind that the citizenship question would deter participation by some parts of the public,” he told NPR.

And for a nominee to head the Census Bureau, Santos has a curious specialty: illegal aliens.

The Urban Institute, where he serves as Vice President, stated that his, “specialty areas include undocumented immigrants and other disadvantaged populations”. Santos’ first publication was for a partnership between the Urban Institute and the National Council of La Raza.

Top Ten Most Racist Colleges and Universities: #9 Elon University “White caucusing is one part of a lifelong and multifaceted commitment to antiracism.”

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/04/top-ten-most-racist-colleges-and-universities-9-toptenracistuniversitiesorg/

#9: Elon University

Elon University, a private educational institution located in North Carolina, has resurrected some of the most hateful and offensive features of the Jim Crow era—and all in the name of promoting “equity” and eradicating “white supremacy.”

The School of Education at Elon, which is dedicated to training our nation’s future teachers, sent an email invitation in February 2021 urging “white-identifying” students to join a weekly “White Caucus” Zoom meeting. As the text of the email made clear, no minority students were welcomed or invited.

“A white caucus is a space for white-identifying individuals to engage in conversations that unpack race and systemic oppression,” the email explained. “White caucuses allow white-identfying [sic] allies to have these conversations in a way that does not burden or re-traumatize people of color. White caucuses give white people a space to learn about and process their awareness of and complicity in unjust systems without harming their friends of color.”

Not only was the “white caucus” restricted to “white-identifying” individuals, its content was considered so potentially dangerous that participants were restricted from sharing anything that was discussed at the meetings or from “talk[ing] negatively about others outside the caucus.”

“White caucuses tend to be vulnerable spaces; being critically reflective and honest is a necessary part of unlearning white supremacy culture,” the email stated in an attempt to justify the extreme confidentiality rules.

This email was sent by Jennifer Strange, the school’s coordinator of graduate programs, to all students enrolled in the School of Education. It was also signed by a number of undergraduate students.

The email declared that it was “urgent” that white students join the caucus because “The School of Education mission statement commits to preparing equity-minded leaders…Participating in a white caucus is one step towards fulfilling this commitment for white-identifying students.”

THE ENEMY WITHIN- JASON HILL

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/04/enemy-within-jason-d-hill/

The philosopher E.M. Cioran in his book, The Temptation to Exist, writes: “A decadent civilization compromises with its disease, cherishes the virus infecting it, loses its self-respect… by the same token it admits defeat, worm-eaten, done for. The smell of carrion fascinates and inflames those greedy and garrulous gravediggers we call the Apostles.”

I raise the haunting specter of an infectious virus decimating a civilization against the backdrop of two viruses at present infecting American civilization. One is biological in nature, Covid-19; the other political.

I believe that writer and social philosopher David Horowitz has identified the nature of that second virus. I think that he reasons that it is deadlier than COVID-19, and that its deleterious consequences are far more destructive and long-lasting than any biological infection.

In his latest book, The Enemy Within: How a Totalitarian Movement is Destroying America, Horowitz locates the political ideology destroying every democratic and Enlightenment value on which our constitutional republic was founded. The invasive virus identified by Horowitz is a left-wing reactionary politics ensconced within the Democratic Party.

The philosophical root of this ideology which ties it to several movements that suffuse our culture, whether it be radical feminism, Black Lives Matter, Islamic Jihadism, the equity movements, reparation movements, the trial by media of Justice Brett Kavanaugh or, what Horowitz describes as the racist anti-racist rhetoric of Ibram X. Kendi and Ta-Nahesi Coates, is: “Identity Politics.”

It’s Official: Joe Biden Is The Worst President Ever On Immigration

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/04/20/its-official-joe-biden-is-the-worst-president-ever-on-immigration/

We thought it was a breakthrough of sorts when President Joe Biden finally threw in the towel and admitted he had created a “crisis” on the nation’s border. Alas, just one day later, the White House issued a “clarification.” He was really just talking about Central America, not the border. So it’s now official: Biden is the worst president for protecting our border ever.

We don’t take that charge lightly. But how else can you describe a man who takes a problem that was for all intents and purposes fixed and, within the space of a mere three months, turns it back into a catastrophe? It’s sheer border policy incompetence.

White House spokesperson Jen Psaki, who executes a high-speed 180-degree spin-turn better than anyone outside of NASCAR, said, “the president does not feel that children coming to our border . . . is a crisis“.

Just Saturday, Biden said this: “The problem was that the refugee part was working on the crisis that ended up on the border with young people.”

Sure sounds like he called it a “crisis.” On Monday, Psaki corrected a member of the media who used “crisis,” calling it instead “Challenges on the border.”

Cute semantics, but It’s a form of gaslighting the American public. By pretending an awful crisis that exists and demands attention isn’t really one at all is a kind of misfeasance.

Alexei Navalny Hospitalized in Russia Three Weeks Into Hunger Strike Kremlin dismisses U.S. warnings of consequences if the Putin foe dies in prison: Ann Simmons

https://www.wsj.com/articles/alexei-navalny-hospitalized-in-russia-three-weeks-into-hunger-strike-11618839052

Jailed opposition politician Alexei Navalny was hospitalized Monday, weeks after beginning a hunger strike, as the Kremlin brushed off warnings from the U.S. of repercussions if he were to die while in prison.

His hospitalization came a day after his supporters called for large-scale demonstrations to demand his release after doctors with ties to the opposition leader cited medical test results they said showed he was at risk of imminent renal failure and a possible heart attack.

Mr. Navalny, a prominent Putin critic who is serving a 2½-year prison sentence after being convicted of violating parole conditions, was transferred to a hospital for convicts within the prison system in Russia’s Vladimir region, prison authorities said Monday.

His health condition had been “assessed as satisfactory” and a doctor has been examining him every day, they said. He had also consented to being prescribed “vitamin therapy,” they added, without detailing the nature of such treatment.

John Kerry’s Climate Kowtow How much will Biden trade away in exchange for empty promises?

https://www.wsj.com/articles/john-kerrys-climate-kowtow-11618873552?mod=opinion_lead_pos3

These columns noted last year that putting John Kerry in charge of climate negotiations with China was a recipe for coming home “dressed in a barrel.” After Mr. Kerry’s sojourn to Shanghai last week, the question is: What happened to the barrel?

President Biden’s climate envoy emerged from two days of meetings with counterpart Xie Zhenhua with a joint statement that says little new. The two sides say they “are committed to cooperating with each other and with other countries to tackle the climate crisis.” Both countries will work “to strengthen implementation of the Paris Agreement” limiting carbon emissions. Mr. Kerry didn’t make any big concessions to Beijing, and Beijing didn’t make any new promises about emissions limits it would break anyway.

In one sense that’s a relief. But all this empty hot air isn’t cost free in U.S. prestige and the missed opportunity to engage in more important talks. Making climate the sole focus of an early visit tells the Chinese that the U.S. puts that single issue above everything else in the bilateral relationship. China is happy to jibber-jabber about climate with the Americans if it means not having to engage on Taiwan, Hong Kong, Beijing’s repression of Uighurs in Xinjiang, the South China Sea, North Korea, or intellectual property theft.

But Beijing is clear that it will ignore any carbon-emissions commitments that might impinge on China’s economic growth. “Some countries are asking China to do more on climate change,” deputy foreign minister Le Yucheng said last week. “I am afraid this is not very realistic.”

Instead of triggering a rethink in Beijing, Mr. Kerry’s Shanghai jaunt gave China’s leaders a new opportunity to go on the public-relations offensive. “China welcomes the U.S. return to the Paris agreement and expects the U.S. side to uphold the agreement,” vice-premier Han Zheng told Mr. Kerry in a jab at Washington’s withdrawal from the pact under President Trump. Mr. Kerry also flattered Beijing by all but begging President Xi Jinping to join another global climate confab later this week.

Natanz and anonymous Israeli ‘chatter’ Ruthie Blum

https://www.jns.org/opinion/natanz-and-anonymous-israeli-chatter/

 U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s visit to Jerusalem last week coincided with an explosion at Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility. Shortly after the attack on the uranium-enrichment site, The New York Times reported that though “Israel publicly declined to confirm or deny any responsibility” for the incident, “American and Israeli intelligence officials said there had been an Israeli role.”
Continuing to cite anonymous sources, the Times went on not only to assert that Israel was behind the sabotage, but to wonder “how much advance word—if any—the Biden administration [had] received” about it. The Paper of Record also pointed out that if those unnamed officials were correct in their claim that the blast did so much damage that it set back production at Natanz by at least nine months, “Iran’s leverage in new talks sought by the Biden administration to restore the nuclear agreement could be significantly compromised.”

As though this were a bad thing.

“The close and strong ties that we enjoy with Israel are central to regional stability and security in the Middle East, and we both agree that we must continue to work closely together to enhance the U.S.-Israel strategic partnership,” said Austin. “So, we discussed ways to deepen and expand our long-standing defense relationship in the face of regional threats and other security challenges.”

Netanyahu agreed with Austin that the United States and Israel are “family,” but stressed—as he has been doing for decades—that “there is no threat that is more serious, more dangerous, more pressing than that posed by the fanatical regime in Iran.”

He further stated, “My policy as prime minister of Israel is clear: I will never allow Iran to obtain the nuclear capability to carry out its genocidal goal of eliminating Israel. Israel will continue to defend itself against Iran’s aggression and terrorism.”