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September 2022

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Europe’s Energy Crisis by Pete Hoekstra

By on September 16th, 2022

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18907/european-energy-in-crisis

In response to Russia severely restricting or cutting off gas supplies, EU governments will take dramatic actions over the coming months. Germany recently announced it would keep two of the nuclear plants it was shuttering as backups, just in case. EU leaders will then go back to the voters and describe the amazing job they did while failing to mention they were the ones who made the decisions that put their countries in this crisis in the first place.

The entire current crisis was avoidable if the EU had developed a rational plan instead of one based on a daydream, no matter how enticing.

The U.S. needs urgently to examine what is happening in Europe and develop a rational energy transition plan. Any long-term solution must include strategies for reliable power production, affordable sustainable energy and a massively strengthened electrical grid.

Europe’s plan was built on the hope that consumers would accept higher prices, that Russia and Putin would be reliable, and that battery storage technology would be robust enough to cover the times when “the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine.”

This strategy, sadly always doomed to failure, provides a cautionary tale for “solutions” based solely on hope.

The U.S. should not repeat the same mistakes as the EU by continuing down a path that cuts domestic fossil fuel production, bans gasoline-powered vehicles, and ignores that the power generation capacity and energy infrastructure are not in place to achieve an unrealistic and unfortunately unsustainable green agenda.

Europe is facing a growing energy crisis. Individuals and industries are being battered by rising energy costs. On August 31, Russia shut down the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline to Germany for initially what was supposed to be 72 hours, but followed by an announcement of “technical difficulties” that would prevent a resumption. Russian energy giant Gazprom also announced that natural gas supplies to French energy company Engie SA would be immediately reduced. These actions have created significant uncertainty and the threat of much higher energy prices in Europe as the cold winter season approaches.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Liberal Double Standards and ‘Fascism’ Mark Nuckols *****

By on September 16th, 2022

https://townhall.com/columnists/marknuckols/2022/09/15/liberal-double-standards-and-fascism-n2613141

Mehdi Hasan is one of MSNBC’s most popular hosts. For American liberals, he’s a dream come true. Muslim, check. Raised in the United Kingdom, he went to an exclusive prep school in London, founded in 1561, check. He speaks like an English aristocrat, check. He despises America, check. And he has publicly referred to Christians and other non-Muslims as “animals” and “people of no intelligence.” Double check. And he’s always angry.

He did a show this week about how “Fascism is on the Rise in Europe, Not Just in the U.S.” You see, for MSNBC viewers, Europe is the Land of Enlightenment and Progress, except for those vicious right-wing governments in Poland and Hungary. But Hasan had a Yale professor and an Italian Muslim to warn us, you can’t escape fascism in America by moving to Europe, fascism is on the march everywhere these days.

“Fascists” have done well in this week’s elections in Sweden and will be part of a new coalition government. And “Fascists” are poised to do well in upcoming Italian elections. And you only see “fascism” in white-majority countries, like the U.S. or in Europe.

And what is fascism? According to Hasan and his guests, you can see several key elements in the “fascist” Swedish Democrats party and its members. They are against unlimited immigration. Check, fascism. They support traditional family values. They support gay rights, but some members find Gay Pride parades a bit boring, annoying even. Fascism, double check. They respect religious rights, but believe that Muslim immigrants should obey the laws of Sweden and should learn Swedish language, in return for generous social benefits. Fascism, triple check.

And yet, somehow Hasan seems incapable of recognizing simple facts. Now, his audience doesn’t know anything about Islam, the Middle East, Africa, or Europe. But Hasan does, so his ignorance is really just willful blindness.

There are no countries in Africa or the Middle East that welcome immigrants. In South Africa, the only country in Africa wealthy enough to attract immigrants, immigrants from neighboring countries like Zimbabwe are beaten and sometimes murdered. They are certainly not offered social benefit packages and citizenship. In Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman, there are millions of immigrants, mostly from India and the Philippines. They have only “guest worker” status, they can never be accorded citizenship, and they have basically no rights in the courts.

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ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

In the Climate Change Church, the Woke Play Pope By J.B. Shurk

By on September 16th, 2022

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/09/in_the_climate_change_church_the_woke_play_pope.html

The cult of global warming wants all your money.  The more enthusiastically you pay for skyrocketing food and fuel costs — part and parcel of the World Economic Forum’s dreams for a centrally controlled economy — the more piously you can demonstrate that the good “green” spirit has filled you to the brim with virtue.  Are you worthy of Mother Earth’s blessings?  That depends!  Do you drive an electric vehicle?  Are you committed to the eternal gospel that all hydrocarbon molecules are evil and that free market economies cause inclement weather?  Do you regularly condemn “climate skeptics” as charlatans deserving of censorship, persecution, and even death for their lies?  You don’t doubt the prophecies of Klaus Schwab, Barack Obama, George Soros, Al Gore, or any of the other church elders, do you?  To question the climate change prophets is to blaspheme!  To question man-made global warming is to sin!  To question that the “science is settled” is to invite an apocalyptic hell dooming the planet!  Disciples, commit yourself to the climate change church, do what you’re told, preach the “green” dogma to wayward doubters, and without exception, always…penitently…obey!

Climate change zealotry is a scam.  That so many hundreds of millions of human beings around the world have allowed themselves to get caught up in the greatest, most diabolical con game of all time is endlessly vexing.  There is no better example of how dangerous a mind virus can be.  When people are shamed into turning off their critical thinking skills and blindly accepting an idea on faith alone, the damage is never less than immense.  

I don’t know how many times I’ve had some version of this conversation with otherwise rationally thinking people: So you agree that power corrupts and that governments routinely lie?  Oh, of course.  And you recognize that the U.S. government, like all others, has spread waves of propaganda at different points in history to affect public opinion, justify wars, win elections, increase budgets, avoid responsibility for heinous crimes, etc.?  Isn’t that obvious?  Right, okay, but on this one issue — that man’s use of cheap and abundant supplies of hydrocarbon energy, which has raised the global standard of living exponentially over the last century like no other time in human history, is coincidentally so dangerous that it must be regulated and controlled by a handful of wealthy global economic elites who promise to save the planet only if we do as they say and obey — you believe that those same liars are telling the truth?  Of course!  Who could make up such a lie?  It’s backed up by science!  Right. 

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Unidentified and Uncharged Instigator in the Oath Keepers Case With the reputation of the Justice Department and the FBI in shreds, it is reasonable at this point to suspect that any unidentified participant could have been a fed. By Julie Kelly

By on September 16th, 2022

https://amgreatness.com/2022/09/15/the-unidentified-and-uncharged-instigator-in-oath-keepers-case/

The long-awaited trial of the most high-profile January 6 case will begin later this month. Five members of the Oath Keepers, an alleged “militia” group involved in the Capitol protest, face charges of seditious conspiracy and other serious felonies. It is the first trial in a multi-defendant prosecution that has dominated the attention of the Department of Justice, the January 6 select committee, and the national news media.

Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the group, along with Thomas Caldwell, Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson, and Jessica Watkins will face a highly biased D.C. jury pool—the government so far has an undefeated record in January 6 trials composed of Washington, D.C. residents—as they attempt to avoid life in prison for the seditious conspiracy count. (Meggs, Harrelson, and Watkins have been detained in the D.C. gulag denied bail since spring 2021.)

At least a dozen other members of the Oath Keepers currently await trial for their nonviolent participation in the events of January 6. But one person won’t face trial. In fact, it appears this chief instigator isn’t even charged despite a trove of evidence showing how he incited at least one member of the group to engage in criminal behavior that day.

Someone identified only as “1%Watchdog” started a group chat on an encrypted application called Zello, which mimics a walkie-talkie. The channel, named “Stop the Steal J6,” was created on January 1, 2021; by noon on January 6, 2021, the channel had about 170 subscribers including Watkins, prosecutors allege.

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EDUCATION Comments turned off

WHO IS JONATHAN KOZOL THE “GURU” IN UNIVERSITY EDUCATION DEPARTMENTS?

By on September 16th, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/a-student-writes-a-good-paper/

THIS IS AN EXCERPT FROM:A Student Writes a Good Paper Fearing the consequences, she hides. by Danusha V. Goska

Professor Josephine K knew what she was hired to teach. She was hired to teach Jonathan Kozol. Kozol is a recipient of a Rhodes Scholarship, and multiple fellowships from the Guggenheim, Rockefeller, Field, and Ford Foundations. Kozol’s website identifies him as “one of the nation’s most eloquent and outspoken advocates for equality and racial justice in our nation’s schools.” According to Manhattan Institute fellow Abigail Thernstrom, Kozol is a “guru” in university education departments. A survey of departmental reading lists shows Kozol’s name on every one. Chances are that anyone studying to be a teacher in the United States will be required to read Kozol. Indeed, Amazon reviewers of Kozol’s books sometimes mention that his books were required reading for a university class.

Education students reading Kozol’s works learn that America is an “apartheid” country. They learn that “there are expensive children and there are cheap children.” They learn that children are cheap because of “governmentally administered diminishment in the value of children.” Poor children are “locked out of opportunity … for no reason but … the budgetary choices of the government.” Kozol’s readers learn that there are two flavors of human in the US: rich, greedy, racist white victimizers, and poor, disenfranchised, powerless black victims. Rich whites send their kids to early education programs beginning at age two or three. “Low income children” “are denied opportunities” and thus “come into their kindergarten year without the minimal social skills that children need in order to participate in class activities.” Poor children “spend years at home in front of a TV” or in “a slum apartment gazing down into the street.” These deprived childhoods are caused by “high officials of our government” who “rob” black children “of what they gave their own kids.”

Black students, on average consistently perform less well than whites, East-Asian Americans, and Hispanics, on average. Teachers, administrators, and politicians want to solve this achievement gap. A new proposed solution appeared: performance-based learning. Performance-based learning is defined as “emphasizing students being able to do, or perform, specific skills as a result of  instruction.” That is, students learn something, and then demonstrate their mastery through action. Kozol describes this method as having been devised by racist whites to “humiliate” black children who cannot possibly learn anything in America’s schools as they are currently constituted. “There is no misery index for the children of apartheid education.”

Prof. Josephine K’s students learned from Kozol’s National-Book-Award-winning publications that the achievement gap between blacks and other ethnic groups exists because of malicious whites working to hurt blacks.

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EDUCATION Comments turned off

My High School’s ‘Antiracist’ Agitprop Teachers tried to bully me into signing a $375 student government check for a group promoting critical race theory. I refused. By Sahar Tartak

By on September 16th, 2022

https://www.wsj.com/articles/my-schools-antiracist-curriculums-education-teachers-students-open-minded-free-speech-racial-equity-systemic-racism-11663254720?mod=opinion_lead_pos5

I was educated in the school district ranked by Niche.com as America’s third-best. Immigrants from around the world come to Great Neck, N.Y., to raise their children. My best friend’s father was at the Tiananmen Square massacre. My classmates left behind their families in El Salvador. My mother escaped revolutionary Iran, and my grandfather escaped the Nazis.

Lately, though, the area’s diverse and liberal-minded residents may have reason to think their local school officials aren’t as open-minded as they thought. In 2021 Great Neck North High School directed the student government to give $375 of student funds to a “racial equity” group to speak to the student body about “systemic racism.” I was the student government’s treasurer, and I felt we didn’t know enough about the organization and its mission to disburse the funds. So I refused to sign the check.

In response, the teachers who advise the student government berated, bullied and insulted me at our next meeting, which took place over Zoom for my parents to overhear. They began by announcing that my social studies teacher would be present. Together, the three adults told me that the principal himself found my stance “appalling.” I had made them and the school “look bad,” they told me. One teacher said the situation gave her “hives.”

When I suggested that students might not need or want a lecture on systemic racism, my social-studies teacher asked whether I’d also oppose a Holocaust survivor’s presentation.

I objected to that comparison, but she cut me off: “If you’re not on board with systemic racism, I have trouble with that, girlfriend.”

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Bidenomics Sham Is Collapsing

By on September 16th, 2022

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/09/16/the-bidenomics-sham-is-collapsing/

With red lights flashing nearly everywhere, the economy’s prospects look grim. Soaring inflation, crashing home sales, plunging GDP, falling real incomes. No question, the economy is a mess. So why is the Biden administration saying things are going better?

It’s not just this week’s “unexpected” 8.3% inflation jump. Or the scary plunge in stock prices, destroying trillions of dollars in household wealth in just days. It’s that the ruling party, the Democratic Party, seems utterly oblivious to the damage it’s done.

This week, President Joe Biden touted the “progress” made by his administration against inflation, just a day after the report that prices had risen 8.3% overall, and food prices by 11.4%, the fastest since 1979.

“Today’s data show more progress in bringing global inflation down in the U.S. economy,” Biden bragged. “Overall, prices have been essentially flat in our country these last two months: that is welcome news for American families, with more work still to do.”

Prices have not been “essentially flat.” They’re rising sharply, as the data clearly and unequivocally show.

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