EDUCATION Comments turned off

Universities Don’t Celebrate Diversity — They Crush It By Aron Ravin

Posted By on July 6th, 2021

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/07/universities-dont-celebrate-diversity-they-crush-it/

What the ideologically monolithic campus approach to ‘diversity’ forgets.

American universities have made it a part of their mission to embrace so-called diversity. Through a combination of outreach groups, equity officers (so official!), affirmative-action policies, and more, schools across the country have implemented measures to be as “accepting” as possible. To an extent, colleges are right to take steps to prevent the formation of a homogenous student body. Part of a university’s job is to prepare undergraduates for the rest of their lives. If all the students at Columbia were wealthy white kids from the Upper East Side, they wouldn’t be living in an environment that represents the world around them. But as they are so prone to do, the bureaucrats residing in the ivory tower have overcorrected.

As has been described in countless works, intellectual diversity at universities has greatly suffered. The pervasive cloud of wokism has seeped into almost every branch of academia. Law professors cut portions of curricula, such as the study of laws pertaining to rape, Jim Crow, and abuse, to avoid offending their students. Public medical schools punish discussion of “microaggression theory.” Worst of all, untold numbers of faculty have faced repercussions for expressing the slightest disagreement with the woke, hyper-inclusive ideology that progressives peddle.

But it is not only intellectual diversity that suffers in today’s college climate. Even the diversity that admissions officers favor, diversity of background, is weakened by wokeness.

The unhinged drive toward inclusion has resulted in some terribly exclusive practices. According to a report published by the National Association of Scholars, covering 173 private and public universities from all 50 states, over 70 percent of the schools surveyed offered separate, racially designated graduation ceremonies and residential areas. Elite institutions such as Harvard and Columbia have hopped on the bandwagon. But how will the broader student body reap the benefits of a diverse campus if the students opt into self-segregated programs?

One particularly innovative school, Chapman University, a midsize California university, has decided to host not one, not two, but seven individual graduation ceremonies based on students’ various ways of self-identifying. As one can imagine, there are problems with this. For one, it creates an almost comical scenario for Chapman students who fit under multiple categories. Maybe a gay, disabled, and Afro-Latino student should get five graduations! But, more seriously, the profusion of separate ceremonies detracts from the primary purpose of commencement. It is supposed to be a time when students in STEM, humanities, and business programs abandon their differences for the sake of celebrating their accomplishments together. Students toss their caps as one because they have finished as one. It seems wrong to have them throw their caps in separate groupuscules.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

America’s Centers for Disease Confusion By Sally C. Pipes

Posted By on July 6th, 2021

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/07/americas-centers-for-disease-confusion/

Public-health officials have botched their pandemic response and messaging nearly every step of the way.

America’s vaccination campaign is stalling. In late June, pharmacists and other providers were administering roughly 800,000 shots a day — down 80 percent from a peak of more than 4.6 million in mid April.

Because of this precipitous decline, the Biden administration recently admitted it would miss its self-imposed goal of vaccinating at least 70 percent of American adults by Independence Day. So far, only 66 percent have gotten the jab.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) deserve much of the blame for plummeting vaccination rates. Public-health officials have botched their pandemic response and messaging nearly every step of the way — inadvertently stoking skepticism of the vaccines.

Take the CDC’s worst mistake: its decision, in partnership with the Food and Drug Administration, to pause the use of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine for ten days because of a risk of blood clots. The risk ended up being less than one in a million.

That overreaction triggered an immediate drop in public trust in the vaccine. Immediately after the CDC advised halting the J&J shot, the number of daily first doses of all vaccines administered plummeted by some 40 percent compared with weeks earlier.

Recent data have confirmed just how damaging that choice was. According to recent polling, more than 40 percent of unvaccinated Americans say that their biggest concern is that the J&J shot causes blood clots. More than one-quarter believe that every vaccine causes blood clots.

This poor decision-making has been the norm for the CDC since the beginning of the pandemic. The agency’s guidance seems to have been motivated more by armchair psychology than by hard data.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

How Much Longer Will July 4 Be A Holiday?

Posted By on July 6th, 2021

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/07/06/how-much-longer-will-july-4-be-a-holiday/

Though it became a federal holiday only in 1941, Americans have been celebrating Independence Day since the colonies broke away from the British crown. Today, a core of extremists wants to erase our history and at the same time fix it in the public’s mind that this country is illegitimate due to a racist past and present, its colonial foundation, and capitalist system of exploitation. This leaves us to wonder how many more glorious Fourths we have left.

As we noted on Monday, most of us consider ourselves to be either “extremely” (44%) or “very” (23%) proud to be Americans. A mere 6% of the country said it was not proud to be an American.

Good news, no? But just below the surface, the numbers from our I&I/TIPP poll are alarming.

Only 36% of those from 18 to 24, the future of this country, said they were proud to be Americans. Sixty-four percent of Democrats, who hold majorities in the White House and U.S. House, share power in the Senate, and truly dominate the media, and the entertainment industry and culture, say they’re proud to be Americans. This isn’t disturbing, but it doesn’t inspire confidence, since 85% of Republicans hold the same view. That’s a significant divide.

There’s also a sizable gap between the 18-24 group and older Americans. Six in 10 (59%) of those from 25 to 44 say they’re proud of their American heritage, while 75% in the 45-64 group feel the same. Nearly nine in 10 (86%) over 65 are proud to be Americans. 

The lack of respect for our earned liberty among young adults is particularly concerning in light of what is clearly a concerted effort to delegitimize America and cast it as a systemically racist, oppressive, violent, and imperialist regime. Consider what we’ve seen and heard just in recent days:

The day before the Fourth, the New York Times, overflowing with politicized stories and opinion pieces it knows its readers are hungry for, published an article headlined “A Fourth of July Symbol of Unity That May No Longer Unite.”
National Geographic decided Saturday was a good day to plant the idea in our collective consciousness that fireworks are racist.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Drop the Georgia Election Lawsuit The suit is an all but certain loser in light of Brnovich v. DNC.

Posted By on July 6th, 2021

https://www.wsj.com/articles/drop-the-georgia-election-lawsuit-11625517739?mod=opinion_lead_pos2

Attorney General Merrick Garland is the front-runner so far for 2021’s bad timing prize. The Justice Department last month rushed out a lawsuit claiming that Georgia’s new election law violates Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act only days before the Supreme Court laid down standards that make the lawsuit a nearly certain loser.

Justice knew the likely timing of the Court’s ruling in Brnovich v. DNC, so a fair guess is that Mr. Garland succumbed to White House and progressive pressure to make a political statement to support Democratic efforts in Congress to federalize state election laws in H.R.1.

Bad call. Now federal judges hearing the case will have to contend with Justice Samuel Alito’s five principles in Brnovich as they assess the Georgia statute.

It won’t be easy to find legal fault under those principles. Mere voting inconvenience can’t be considered disqualifying, since all voting imposes some inconvenience. Any specific voting provision, such as the number of drop boxes, must also be considered in the overall context of a state’s voting rules. Georgia’s rules are generally lenient and don’t especially burden the ability of minorities to vote.

Perhaps Justice can find a federal judge somewhere to rule against Georgia, but such a ruling is unlikely to survive on appeal to higher courts. The legal and political result of the lawsuit is therefore likely to vindicate Georgia Republicans during the 2022 election season or leading up to 2024, depending on how the lawsuits proceed. Mr. Garland would be wise to drop the suit in light of Brnovich, lest his term at Justice be marred by the continuation of this patently political lawsuit.

HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

Does the Pentagon Take China Seriously? Its leaders warn of the threat from Beijing, but their budgets suggest otherwise. By Elaine Luria (D-VA District 2)

Posted By on July 6th, 2021

https://www.wsj.com/articles/does-the-pentagon-take-china-seriously-11625503914?mod=opinion_lead_pos6

U.S. defense leaders have a problem: What they say doesn’t line up with what they do. The mismatch is apparent in the latest Pentagon budget, and a “say-do” gap undermines the trust of Congress and the American people.

Military leaders identify China as our No. 1 challenge, often calling Beijing “an increasingly capable strategic competitor,” as Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley has warned, or a “pacing” threat. Yet the budget request reduces the ability of the Navy and the Air Force—the services that would have outsize roles in any conflict in the Western Pacific—to respond to threats in that region. Meanwhile, the budget promises undeveloped weapons that may take decades to enter the fleet, funded by a “divest to invest” strategy.

The Navy wants to retire 15 ships, including seven guided-missile cruisers and four littoral combat ships, while procuring only two surface combatant ships and two submarines. (Congress’ budget draft would buy another destroyer and limit the retirements.) Naval aviation procurement dropped 15.6% over 2021 even as the Navy speeds up F/A-18 retirements. The USS Ronald Reagan, based in Japan to counter a threat from China, is overseeing the Afghanistan withdrawal in the Middle East because no other aircraft carrier is available. Meanwhile, China is building warships at an astonishing rate. In 2010 the U.S. Navy had 68 more ships than the Chinese navy. Today, it has 63 fewer, a swing of 131 ships in 10 years.

The Air Force is also following the Pentagon’s “divest to invest” lead. Combat aircraft procurement is down 22% from 2021. The force wants to retire 137 aircraft, more than double the number it plans to buy. After the retirement of 17 B-1s last year, the Air Force’s bomber inventory is at a level top officers have called the bare minimum. Ammunition procurement is down more than 40%. China in recent years has focused on procuring advanced aircraft and has the world’s third-largest air force. In addition, China has an extensive ground-based conventional missile force, including the DF-26, known as the “carrier killer” which is capable of striking Guam.

HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

Up to 1,500 businesses affected by ransomware attack, U.S. firm’s CEO says Raphael Satter

Posted By on July 6th, 2021

https://www.reuters.com/technology/hackers-demand-70-million-liberate-data-held-by-companies-hit-mass-cyberattack-2021-07-05/

Between 800 and 1,500 businesses around the world have been affected by a ransomware attack centered on U.S. information technology firm Kaseya, its chief executive said on Monday.

Fred Voccola, the Florida-based company’s CEO, said in an interview that it was hard to estimate the precise impact of Friday’s attack because those hit were mainly customers of Kaseya’s customers.

Kaseya is a company which provides software tools to IT outsourcing shops: companies that typically handle back-office work for companies too small or modestly resourced to have their own tech departments.

One of those tools was subverted on Friday, allowing the hackers to paralyze hundreds of businesses on all five continents. Although most of those affected have been small concerns – like dentists’ offices or accountants – the disruption has been felt more keenly in Sweden, where hundreds of supermarkets had to close because their cash registers were inoperative, or New Zealand, where schools and kindergartens were knocked offline.

The hackers who claimed responsibility for the breach have demanded $70 million to restore all the affected businesses’ data, although they have indicated a willingness to temper their demands in private conversations with a cybersecurity expert and with Reuters.

“We are always ready to negotiate,” a representative of the hackers told Reuters earlier Monday. The representative, who spoke via a chat interface on the hackers’ website, didn’t provide their name.

Voccola refused to say whether he was ready to take the hackers up on the offer.

“I can’t comment ‘yes,’ ‘no,’ or ‘maybe’,” he said when asked whether his company would talk to or pay the hackers. “No comment on anything to do with negotiating with terrorists in any way.”

The topic of ransom payments has become increasingly fraught as ransomware attacks become increasingly disruptive – and lucrative.

Voccola said he had spoken to officials at the White House, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Department of Homeland Security about the breach but declined to say what they had told him about paying or negotiating.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Scale, details of massive ransomware attack emerge An affiliate of the notorious REvil gang infected thousands of victims in at least 17 countries.

Posted By on July 6th, 2021

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/04/massive-ransomware-attack-498089

BOSTON — Cybersecurity teams worked feverishly Sunday to stem the impact of the single biggest global ransomware attack on record, with some details emerging about how the Russia-linked gang responsible breached the company whose software was the conduit.

An affiliate of the notorious REvil gang, best known for extorting $11 million from the meat-processor JBS after a Memorial Day attack, infected thousands of victims in at least 17 countries on Friday, largely through firms that remotely manage IT infrastructure for multiple customers, cybersecurity researchers said. They reported ransom demands of up to $5 million.

The FBI said in a statement Sunday that it was investigating the attack along with the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, though “the scale of this incident may make it so that we are unable to respond to each victim individually.”

President Joe Biden suggested Saturday the U.S. would respond if it was determined that the Kremlin is at all involved. He said he had asked the intelligence community for a “deep dive” on what happened.

The attack comes less than a month after Biden pressed Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop providing safe haven to REvil and other ransomware gangs whose unrelenting extortionary attacks the U.S. deems a national security threat.

A broad array of businesses and public agencies were hit by the latest attack, apparently on all continents, including in financial services, travel and leisure and the public sector — though few large companies, the cybersecurity firm Sophos reported. Ransomware criminals break into networks and sow malware that cripples networks on activation by scrambling all their data. Victims get a decoder key when they pay up.

The Swedish grocery chain Coop said most of its 800 stores would be closed for a second day Sunday because their cash register software supplier was crippled. A Swedish pharmacy chain, gas station chain, the state railway and public broadcaster SVT were also hit.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Divisive critical race theory spits on the Civil Rights Movement Race hustlers and media charlatans foment division by dismissing progress and rewriting history By Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL-District 190

Posted By on July 6th, 2021

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/jul/5/divisive-critical-race-theory-spits-on-the-civil-r/

The essence of critical race theory would teach my three bi-racial children that I, their Black father, am oppressed by America’s history of White supremacy and that their mother, my wife, is my oppressor. 

But, what does that mean for my children? Does half of them qualify as oppressed, and the other half count as the oppressor? Unfortunately, the jury is still out on answering these obscure questions. 

Critical race theory is divisive at its core. This movement to indoctrinate our children is the definition of reverse racism and spits in the face of the Civil Rights Movement led by American heroes such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Those proposing this wicked curriculum would like to live in an America where every American is judged based on the color of their skin and not the content of their character, which, if I remember my history correctly, is the complete opposite of the teachings of Dr. King and decades of civil rights progress and commitment to creating a more perfect union. Today, radical leftists are upending this longstanding American virtue to push this un-American and divisive agenda. 

If the issue were that American schools aren’t teaching the complete and accurate history to our school children, then I’d agree wholeheartedly, but that is not what CRT peddlers are saying. The Marxist race hustlers and charlatans at the New York Times and in the Democrat Party aren’t in the business of pushing for equity; they are in the business of division. The truth is neither side should advocate for the cherry-picking of American history — neither for nor against our country. Instead, we need a balanced scale that accurately depicts our past, the good, bad, and ugly, that also rightly points out the tremendous progress of our nation. 

EDUCATION Comments turned off

An anti-white video at a pricey private school set off a firestorm By Andrea Widburg

Posted By on July 6th, 2021

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/07/an_antiwhite_video_at_a_pricey_private_school_set_off_a_firestorm.html

If there’s a silver lining to the COVID madness that swept America, savaged the economy, and allowed Democrats to put Joe Biden in the White House, it’s that a combination of distance learning and leftist hubris meant that the cultural Marxism in America’s classrooms hit home – and nowhere with greater impact than in New York, when upper-middle-class, White leftists discovered that the schools to which they’re paying huge sums annually are dedicated to teaching anti-White racism. The latest example was pricey Spence School, a staple for New York society girls. While the story broke three weeks ago, it’s heated up all over again because furious mothers have rejected the school head’s mealy-mouthed non-apology.

The story first exploded when Gabriela Baron, a first-generation American of Cuban descent, wrote a scorching letter to Spence School explaining why she was pulling her daughter out of the school. As the New York Post explained when the story first came to light,

Hispanic tech exec Gabriela Baron fired off a scorched-earth letter to the prestigious Upper East Side institution last week seething that the video — shown to her eighth-grade daughter and classmates on graduation day — “openly derides, humiliates and ridicules white women.

“They sat there in their graduation dresses while the white mothers of the white students – many of whom volunteer, donate, call, email and do whatever the school asks of them – were tarred and feathered in a video their teacher showed them. While their white female teachers were mocked,” Baron raged in the missive, a copy of which was obtained by The Post.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Wokeness in Art and Music By Eileen F. Toplansky

Posted By on July 6th, 2021

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/07/7_4_2021_23_7.html

Daily the Marxists/Leftists/Communists among us infiltrate every aspect of our society.  Consequently,  “the individual shrinks in proportion as the state grows” yet the Left continues to work towards an alleged utopia even though “this ‘ideal society’ would be the graveyard of human greatness.” 

Biden and Harris speak as if  “confused ideas and muddy ponds appear deep” when, in fact, they are empty rhetoric. As Nicolas Gomez Davila pointed out “stupidity is the mother of revolutionary atrocities; savageness is only the godmother” and  “the greatest modern error is not to proclaim that God died, but to believe that the devil has died.”

The true sadness is that “violence is not necessary to destroy a civilization.  Each civilization dies from indifference toward the unique values which created it.”  Hence, literature, history, statues, children’s books, humor, film, art and music are now under attack by those whose only aim is the total evisceration of America and her exceptional values.

Consequently, in the lunacy of wokeness,  how long will it be before Winslow Homer’s images of blacks during the Civil War and Reconstruction years come under attack?  After all, Winslow Homer was a white man who dared to paint black figures during this tumultuous time period.

According to the exhibition text titled Winslow Homer’s Images of Blacks: The Civil War and Reconstruction Years by Peter H. Wood and Karen C.C. Dalton, “[W]hen Winslow Homer displayed ‘The Bright Side in New York City’ in April 1865 — only days after Lee’s surrender and Lincoln’s death — black persons were still not allowed to enter the galleries of the National Academy of Design.”  Clearly this was racism in full bloom and it would be a “full century before art depicting black people would appear on the walls of museums.”