P.C.-CULTURE Comments turned off

Monumental Misdirection at the Mellon Foundation By Brian T. Allen

Posted By on November 29th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/11/monumental-misdirection-at-the-mellon-foundation/

Hundreds of millions for woke public art aimed to stoke victimologies.

M ost monuments are boringly bad, aesthetically mediocre, and engaging mostly when pigeons, unimpressed by great causes or men, do what pigeons do to outdoor art. Their judgments are ecumenical and evacuational.

Pigeons also would probably disagree with me on one point. We have too many monuments. You’d think the tortured, 20-year path of the Eisenhower Memorial in Washington would put people off monuments for a while. It’s not as ugly as it might have been. Oddly, it’s best seen at night, when the big mesh screen makes sense, though who’s walking around the Washington Mall these days after dark?

The Mellon Foundation thinks we need new and improved monuments. Lost in the COVID catastrophe is last month’s big news that the Mellon Foundation has committed $250 million over five years to pay for new monuments or historic storytelling spaces, freshen existing ones with context relevant to today, and remove monuments no one wants because they are bad art or they no longer edify.

That’s a huge amount of money and the primary commitment of the country’s biggest arts and humanities foundation. It’s to be taken seriously and followed closely. This is the foundation’s first step in implementing a strategic shift announced in June. For years, it supported blue-chip arts-and-humanities projects. Now, it’s in the social-justice business. It’s focusing its money on “building just communities enriched by meaning and empowered by critical thinking where ideas and imagination can thrive.”

BOOKS Comments turned off

Natan Sharansky and the Meaning of Freedom By Matthew Continetti

Posted By on November 29th, 2020

https://freebeacon.com/columns/natan-sharansky-and-the-meaning-of-freedom/

Life lessons from the dissident, politician, and activist.

Natan Sharansky has been a computer scientist, a chess player, a refusenik, a dissident, a political prisoner, a party leader, a government minister, a nonprofit executive, and a bestselling author. He never expected to be a school counselor.

But the coronavirus dashes expectations. In early March, when the virus began to appear in Jewish communities outside New York City, Sharansky found himself online, in an unaccustomed position. He began to share with students and parents whose schools were closed how he had coped during years in confinement.“At first, it seemed absurd, even obscene,” Sharansky writes in his latest book, Never Alone, coauthored with the historian Gil Troy. “How could my experience of playing chess in my head in my punishment cell compare to being cooped up in gadget-filled homes wired to the internet — with computer chess — especially because this isolation is imposed to protect people, not break them?”

What Sharansky realized is that the costs of lockdowns do not depend on the reasons behind them. The sudden and seemingly arbitrary interruption of individual plans, movements, and relationships causes psychological harm. Sharansky recorded a brief YouTube video for the Jewish Agency — you can watch it here — offering his five tips for quarantine. Recognize the importance of your choices and behavior, Sharansky advised. Understand that some things are beyond your control. Keep laughing. Enjoy your hobbies. Consider yourself part of a larger cause.

“Surprisingly,” Sharansky writes, “this short clip went viral, reaching so many people all over the world within a few days that it made me wonder why even bother writing this book.” His reaction was another example of his droll and often self-deprecating wit. The video, however helpful it may be, does not match the power and wisdom of Never Alone. Part autobiography, part meditation on Jewish community, the book ties together the themes of Sharansky’s earlier work, from his prison memoir, Fear No Evil (1988), to his defense of cultural particularity, Defending Identity (2008). It is a moving story of emancipation and connection, of freedom and meaning.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Zuckerberg-Funded Group Comes Into Spotlight in Election-Related Court Cases By Zachary Stieber

Posted By on November 29th, 2020

https://www.theepochtimes.com/zuckerberg-funded-group-comes-into-spotlight-in-

A group that received hundreds of millions of dollars from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is accused in post-election lawsuits of contributing to constitutional violations in key battleground states.

The Center for Tech and Civic Life, a national nonprofit based in Illinois, provided funding to over 2,500 election offices across the country to run elections amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Funds were used to pay poll workers, put up ballot drop boxes, and acquire mail-in ballot equipment and supplies.

More than $6 million was doled out to officials in Fulton County, Georgia, and to five cities in Wisconsin, according to lawsuits filed this month. The funds were sent to facilitate violations of state law, the lawsuits allege.

The money was sent through agreements that had municipalities run elections in contravention to state law, according to the lawsuits, which were filed by the Thomas More Foundation’s Amistad Project. Accepting funding from a private group like the center is barred by state and federal law, the lawsuits allege.

“There is nothing in Wisconsin state law that allows cities and counties to take in millions of dollars sourced to an incredibly wealthy, interested, and partisan actor (i.e., Zuckerberg) in order to ‘assist’ those cities and counties in administering the vote,” the Wisconsin court filing states. Wisconsin election officials said on Friday that filing was full of “meritless legal arguments.”

CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB, ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Joe Biden’s Path to the Presidency is Eroding With Each Revelation Of Massive Voter Fraud Mark Gray

Posted By on November 29th, 2020

https://canadafreepress.com/article/joe-bidens-path-to-the-presidency-is-eroding-with-each-revelation-of-massiv

As it stands, Joe Biden has not been elected to anything and can only be the president-elect once the Electoral College votes for him on December 14. Until then, he is the potential President-elect and nothing more.

The Electoral College vote can only happen if Trump concedes or all the legal challenges asserting that the election was stolen fail. As Trump won’t concede until all legal and constitutional options are tried and tested, the future of the Republic rests in the hands of judges.

The beauty of the US Constitution is that it is written to protect the Ruled from corrupt Rulers and it does contain a procedure, called a contingent election, to resolve presidential election disputes. Should the courts find that voter fraud did destroy the integrity of the election they can stop the certification of those results which could result in neither Biden nor Trump having the 270 Electoral College votes required to become President.

In such a case, the Constitution pushes the decision back to the State legislatures with each State being given 1 vote in the contingent election, meaning massive California and tiny Rhode Island are considered equals. A simple majority of 26 votes then determines the winner.

The Republicans run 31 of the 50 US States and have control of 26 House delegations so this process is likely to choose Trump simply based on party lines.

BOOKS, KRD NEWS Comments turned off

A POISONED NARRATIVE: MELANIE PHILLIPS *****

Posted By on November 29th, 2020

https://mailchi.mp/cb0ad6e61f1b/krd-news-a-poisoned-narrative?e=9365a7c638

When he was President of the United States, Barack Obama presided over an administration marked by unprecedented hostility to Israel. While he intoned the usual boiler-plate pieties of “candid friendship” deployed by the anti-Israel left and he maintained the security funding for Israel whose erosion would have outraged the American people, he persistently undermined its security and empowered those whose who were intent upon its extermination.

Only now, though, with the publication of his new memoir can we discover the depth of his malevolent ignorance about the history of Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish people.

Dov Lipman has written an analysis of this poisonous account for the Jewish News Syndicate, which you can read here.

Here is a passage from [Obama’s] book which purports to provide the history of the origins of the modern State of Israel:

The conflict between Arabs and Jews had been an open sore on the region for almost a century, dating back to the 1917 Balfour Declaration, in which the British, who were then occupying Palestine, committed to create a “national home for the Jewish people” in a region overwhelmingly populated by Arabs. Over the next twenty or so years, Zionist leaders mobilised a surge of Jewish migration to Palestine and organised highly trained armed forces to defend their settlements.

This is a travesty. Here are some examples of Obama’s eye-watering errors:

* He says in 1917, when the British issued the Balfour Declaration, they were “occupying Palestine”.

They were not. It was then part of the Ottoman empire.  

* Obama writes instead that the British “committed to create a ‘national home for the Jewish people’ in a region overwhelmingly populated by Arabs”.

He totally ignores the fact that the League of Nations, the world body of that time which was creating new states throughout the region after the defeat of the Ottomans in the First World War, mandated in a binding treaty the creation of the Jewish national homeland throughout Palestine. He ignores the fact that, under this agreement, the British accepted a mandate in 1922 to create that Jewish home in Palestine and to that end to settle Jews throughout that land (which consisted of what is now Israel, the “West Bank” and Gaza). He totally ignores that fact that the League stated:

Recognition has thereby been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Pennsylvania Senator: ‘Mounting Evidence’ Shows Election Was Compromised BY Zachary Stieber

Posted By on November 29th, 2020

https://www.theepochtimes.com/pennsylvania-senator-mounting-evidence-shows-el

A growing body of evidence shows the presidential election in Pennsylvania was compromised, a state senator said Saturday.

“There is mounting evidence that the PA presidential election was compromised. If this is the case, under Article II, Section 1.2 of the U.S. Constitution, the state legislature has the sole authority to direct the manner of selecting delegates to the Electoral College,” state Sen. Doug Mastriano, a Republican, said on Twitter.

“This power was given to the state legislature for the purpose of safeguarding the appointment of our president, specifically contemplating corruption and ensuring that the people are not disenfranchised through a corrupt election process,” he added. “Therefore, we are introducing a resolution to exercise our obligation and authority to appoint delegates to the Electoral College.”

Mastriano and other state lawmakers announced Friday they will soon introduce a resolution to dispute the results of the election, alleging that “documented irregularities and improprieties associated with mail-in balloting, pre-canvassing, and canvassing have undermined our elector process and as a result we cannot accept certification of the results in statewide races.”

The resolution calls on the Pennsylvania House of Representatives to recognize the alleged irregularities and improprieties and disapprove of what lawmakers describe as the infringement on the General Assembly’s authority to regulate elections.

CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB, MEDIA Comments turned off

Dr. Fauci, Andrew Cuomo, AOC nominated for Time’s ‘Person of the Year’ By Bernadette Hogan and Carl Campanile

Posted By on November 29th, 2020

https://nypost.com/2020/11/27/fauci-andrew-cuomo-aoc-are-time-person-of-the-year-nominees/

Dr. Anthony Fauci and the essential workers who have labored throughout the coronavirus pandemic are tied neck-and-neck as key nominees for Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year” award, a list on which New York’s  Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have also landed.

The annual poll opened on Wednesday and pulls from reader vote submissions, as individuals are required to vote “yes” or “no” when asked whether or not a specific nominee should be chosen as the overall award winner.

Readers may cast votes of “yes” or “no” to all 80 of the magazine’s nominated candidates.

Final results will be revealed in early December, with Time’s editors selecting an overall winner by Dec. 10.

Fauci, the U.S.’s top epidemiologist who became a national fixture over the last year during the COVID-19 pandemic response, as well as essential employees doctors, nurses, delivery workers, public transit and grocery store employees are leading the publication’s list — as of Wednesday both are tied, after individually receiving a yes by 81 percent of respondents, and no by 19 percent of voters.

Thirty five percent of readers gave Cuomo a thumbs up for the award compared to 65 percent who voted no.

The third-term Democratic governor celebrated winning the 2020 International Emmys’ “Founders Award” last week as well as being a New York Times bestseller with his latest novel, “American Crisis.”

But he’s slightly trailing liberal darling, Bronx Democratic Socialist AOC — who has thus far secured 38 percent yes votes in her favor.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Does Fauci Realize That Millions Already Gave His Thanksgiving Advice the Middle Finger? Matt Vespa

Posted By on November 28th, 2020

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2020/11/27/does-fauci-realize-that-millions

You’ve seen the photos. Airports are packed. Millions have traveled for the Thanksgiving holiday. It’s not nearly as bad as last year, a sign that there are Americans staying put—but did the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and the rest of the COVID Nazis think that America was not going to celebrate Thanksgiving? I mean, Fauci again went on Good Morning America Wednesday to give one last piece of advice:

Well, the final message is to do what we’ve been saying for some time. Keep the indoor gatherings as small as you possibly can. We all know how difficult that is because this is such a beautiful, traditional holiday. But by making that sacrifice, you’re going to prevent people from getting infected.”

Okay, well, George Stephanopoulos, a former Clinton political operative, repeated Chinese propaganda right there. China, by far, has the highest caseload and death rate. It’s where this virus originated. They brought in incinerators into Wuhan at the outset, which we all know weren’t used to destroy trash. So, enough with this ‘US is the worst hit by COVID’ crap. It’s not. Second, the era of the expert is done. No one is listening. If Trump was never elected, or if COVID hit in 2017, we would have had a much more rational approach to this virus. Instead, the liberal media and the Democrats weaponized it, locked down the states they control without the proper vetting of the data and led to the destruction of countless businesses…for nothing. Everything has changed. The recommendations on masks and the warnings of contact through surfaces has all changed. The r-naught figure has changed. The mortality rate changed.  

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Tsunami of voter fraud evidence is about to sweep away media’s claim that Biden won ‘I am afraid large sectors of America’s population are going to be off guard, however, when the states begin to flip’

Posted By on November 28th, 2020

https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/tsunami-of-voter-fraud-evidence-is-about-to-swe

November 27, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – After a slow start, the Trump legal team is now well and truly underway, and intends to show that the November 3rd election was really won by their guy.

In Pennsylvania, a courageous judge has halted the certification while she looks at evidence of fraud.  One question she might want to ask the Democrat Secretary of State:  If there were only 1.8 million ballots requested, how is it possible that you received 2.5 million back in the mail? 

In Wisconsin, a judge is reviewing a petition to throw out 150,000 potentially fraudulent ballots. This effort is led by Phil Kline of the Amistad Project.  Pro-lifers will remember then-Attorney General Kline of Kansas from his years-long efforts to expose late-term abortionists and prosecute Planned Parenthood in that state some years ago.  

In Georgia and Michigan, America’s favorite prosecutor, Sidney Powell has unleashed the Kraken.  Her two 100-page plus lawsuits are chock-full of shocking examples of voter fraud, and have a plethora of affidavits appended. 

A couple of my “favorite” scams:

In Georgia, at least 96,600 absentee ballots were requested and counted, but there is no record that they were actually returned to county election boards by the voter. Were they just created in-house by Democrat operatives?
Again in Georgia, “All 900 military ballots in Fulton county were 100% for Joe Biden.” Try flipping a coin and having it land “tails” 900 times in a row.
In Detroit, there were more votes cast than people of voting age, which seems unlikely on the face of it.  Also, eyewitness report that vote counters were instructed to “pre-date” absentee ballots, and that they were also “overwriting” Trump votes to become Biden votes.

In Nevada, a judge is allowing the Trump team to present evidence of widespread voter fraud in a December 3rd hearing.  Included will be evidence of 13,372 “phantom voters” who didn’t know their birthday or even their sex when they registered, and often put down casinos and RV parks as their home address. Definitely sketchy. 

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Music Legends Van Morrison and Eric Clapton Team for Anti-Lockdown Anthem ‘Stand and Deliver’

Posted By on November 28th, 2020

https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2020/11/27/music-legends-van-morrison-and-eric-clapton-team-for-anti-lockdown-anthem-stand-and-deliver/

Rock music legends Van Morrison and Eric Clapton have teamed up for “Stand and Deliver,” a song that takes coronavirus lockdowns to task.

“There are many of us who support Van and his endeavors to save live music; he is an inspiration,” Clapton said according to Variety. “We must stand up and be counted because we need to find a way out of this mess. The alternative is not worth thinking about. Live music might never recover.”

Clapton also said that the end of live entertainment due to coronavirus lockdowns is “deeply upsetting.”

Proceeds for the track — set to be released on December 4 — will go to Morrison’s Lockdown Financial Hardship Fund, which works to lend financial assistance to musicians left struggling during the global pandemic and the mitigation lockdowns imposed across the world.

“It is heartbreaking to see so many talented musicians lack any meaningful support from the government, but we want to reassure them that we are working hard every day to lobby for the return of live music, and to save our industry,” Morrison added upon release of news of his Clapton collaboration.

According to his website, Morrison’s fund has already disbursed its first allotments. Still, the group promises that more money will soon be raised for a second round of donations to struggling artists.

Van Morrison has already released several songs that are critical of the lockdowns, including “Born To Be Free,” “As I Walked Out,” and “No More Lockdown.”

Morrison’s criticism of lockdowns has stirred controversy in certain circles, especially among government officials. The “Moondance” singer recently drew criticism from Northern Ireland’s health minister Robin Swann who called the protest songs “dangerous.”

“I don’t know where he gets his facts. I know where the emotions are on this,” Swann told BBC in September, “but I will say that sort of messaging is dangerous.” As Rolling Stone reported, Morrison has for decades voiced grievances through song, but “this time, Morrison’s preferred method of venting might also cause harm to others.”

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston.