HISTORY, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The Bay of Pigs 60th Anniversary, Part II A story of betrayal — and heroism. Humberto Fontova

Posted By on April 27th, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/04/bay-pigs-60th-anniversary-part-ii-humberto-fontova/

Outnumbered over ten-to-one by Soviet-led forces and betrayed by their sponsor, these mostly civilian volunteers fought ’til the last bullet. In three days of relentless, close-quarter fighting they made monkeys of the Soviet commanders at the scene and their Cuban lackeys and cannon fodder, inflicting losses of 20-to-one.

Castro and Che Guevara were jittery there for awhile, urging caution in the counterattack. From the lethal fury of the attack and the horrendous casualties their troops and militia were taking, the two Soviet satraps assumed they faced at least 20,000 invading “mercenaries,” as they called them.

Yet it was a band of mostly civilian volunteers they outnumbered laughably. But to hear Castro’s echo chamber (the Beltway media and leftist academics), Fidel was the plucky David and the invaders the bumbling Goliath!

(We discussed the battle in greater detail last week here.)

In fact, if JFK wanted some genuine Profiles in Courage he might have looked at the men he betrayed on that heroic beachhead. Some of the most jaw-dropping heroics, however, came after the shooting ended, after they’d spent their last bullets and knew no more were coming from their ally, the most powerful nation on earth, the same one that enforced a “no-fly zone” half a country wide on another continent (Iraq) with half the U.S Air Force for a decade—but refused to provide one three miles across, 90 miles away, for half a day with two planes.

At any rate, the battle was over in three days, but the heroism was not.

Now came almost two years in Castro’s dungeons for the captured Brigada, complete with the physical and psychological torture that always comes with communist incarceration. During almost two years in Castro’s dungeons, the freedom-fighters lived under a daily death sentence.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Glazov Gang: The Left’s Medical Racism “Progressives” bring their racial hate to medicine.

Posted By on April 27th, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/04/glazov-gang-lefts-medical-racism-frontpagemagcom/

This new Glazov Gang episode features Investigative Reporter Peter Barry Chowka.

Peter discusses The Left’s Medical Racism, revealing How “Progressives” are bringing their racial hate to medicine.

Don’t miss it!

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Biden’s Catastrophic Global Warming Policies If you thought last year was bad, wait until these proposed policies tear through the economy. Bruce Thornton

Posted By on April 27th, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/04/bidens-catastrophic-global-warming-policies-bruce-thornton/

At the “virtual world summit” President Biden announced that he’s committing this country to cut CO2 emissions to half of 2005 levels by 2030. Just trying to reach this ambitious goal will require severely damaging the economy in order to achieve something that won’t stop the alleged catastrophic effects of a rise in temperature that may or may not happen.

If you thought last year’s debacle wrought by self-proclaimed “experts” was bad, just wait until these proposed policies tear through the economy. Once more, the party that “follows the science” will wreak havoc by mistaking a dubious hypothesis for a scientific fact.

As the Wall Street Journal writes, previous such policies have done little to stop what are in fact relatively slight increases in global temperatures. For one obvious thing, whatever suicidal Western nations do, China and India, the world’s first and third biggest emitters, will undo. Even “climate czar” John Kerry admitted that whatever reductions in emissions we accomplish, it will have little impact on warming unless China and India reduce theirs­­––something both countries refuse to do, having made it clear that they will not follow the West into economic suicide.

But didn’t China sign the Paris Accord? Yet under that “parchment barrier,” China is not obligated even to start reducing its emissions until 2030, the same year our emissions are supposed to be drastically reduced. Can nobody in the current administration calculate the huge economic advantage that will accrue to China in ten years? Meanwhile, the communist regime continues to build dirty coal-fired energy plants. And, does anybody believe China’s empty promises, given their record of violating the terms of every agreement it signs with the West, such as WTO and WHO?

Furthermore, that’s just one roadblock. The policies necessary to reduce emissions by the Paris Accord’s 26-28% that Biden and the green lobby want, will be devastating to the economy. As the Journal reports, replacing carbon-based energy with so-called “renewables” would alone ruin the economy, while only lowering global temperatures by a scant 0.17% Celsius, nowhere near the 1.5 degrees that will supposedly stop the predicted global catastrophe. In any case, most of the reduction that occurred during the Obama years was due to natural gas replacing coal––a dividend of the fracking revolution, not Obama’s onerous regulations. So, of course, Biden has banned fracking on public lands, stopped the Keystone pipeline, and continued the animus against nuclear power.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

More parents are speaking up about toxic Critical Race Theory in schools By Andrea Widburg

Posted By on April 27th, 2021

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/04/more_parents_are_speaking_

Just two weeks ago, Bari Weiss published two open letters, one from a teacher at a fancy New York private school and one from a parent whose daughter attended a different fancy New York private school.  Both letters castigated the schools over their deep dives into Critical Race Theory (CRT), which was overtaking education entirely in those institutions.  Since then, events are snowballing in a way that might lead to CRT’s overthrow.  It turns out that lots of parents in New York find offensive the anti-white racism of the misnamed “anti-racism” programs in New York City schools, and they’re beginning to act.

On April 13, Bari Weiss published a statement from Paul Rossi, a teacher at Grace Church High School in Manhattan.  He explained how CRT had become the central pillar of the school’s educational philosophy and was damaging the students.  Three days later, Weiss published a similar letter that Andrew Gutmann, whose daughter attended Brearley School, another expensive private school, had written to other parents.

In subsequent days, we learned that Rossi lost his job and that the head of the school had admitted that he was harming his white students by calling them racists — only to deny that charge later.  Thankfully, Rossi had him on tape.  We also got to see the head of Brearley completely ignore the substantive charges against her school and, instead, claim that Gutmann was victimizing students by insisting that CRT is a problem.

It turns out that Rossi and Gutmann aren’t the only ones upset by the prevailing leftist wisdom in their communities.  The New York Post reports that other parents are beginning to speak up and speak out:

Until last summer, Harvey Goldman had no idea that his 9-year-old daughter was learning about George Floyd’s death and Black Lives Matter as well as her own “white privilege” at the $43,000-per-year Heschel School in Manhattan.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Jerome Powell and the Coming Inflation By Howard Richman and Jesse Richman

Posted By on April 27th, 2021

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

Usually, the Federal Reserve acts as a counterweight when Congress and U.S. presidents follow inflationary policies. We haven’t had an incompetent Federal Reserve chairman since Arthur Burns and G. William Miller produced simultaneous inflation and recession, an economic malady known as “stagflation.” Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell may not be as bad as Burns and Miller, but he does seem to be making one economic mistake after another.

Like Miller, Powell is that rare exception: a Fed chair without a background in economics. Being an American today is a bit like riding on a bus driven by someone who lacks a CDL.  It might work out okay, but some white knuckles on the curves are well justified.

Powell’s First Mistake – Raising Interest Rates under Trump

Powell’s first mistake occurred when he raised interest rates during President Trump’s successful economic boom that occurred without inflation. President Trump’s economic advisor Peter Navarro indicated that this might have cost Trump the election (at about the 10-minute mark):

Everybody knows me and Mnuchin weren’t exactly bosom buddies. Whenever I wanted to put a little dig in Steve all I had to do was remind the boss [President Trump] that it was Mnuchin that appointed Jay Powell who the boss thought was the worst Fed Chair in modern history who cost us the election because that SOB raised interest rates well before he should have.

Powell’s increase in interest rates was not needed because President Trump’s supply-side economics was simultaneously increasing Aggregate Demand and Aggregate Supply, and thereby producing economic growth with little change in price level.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Time to End Outdoor Mask Edicts The CDC is moving too slowly in updating its advice to comport with the scientific evidence. By Scott Gottlieb

Posted By on April 27th, 2021

https://www.wsj.com/articles/time-to-end-outdoor-mask-edicts-11619383852?mod=opinion_major_pos6

When fighting a crisis like Covid-19, health officials can never take for granted the public’s willingness to comply. The measures imposed—social distancing, wearing masks—require sacrifice. As conditions improve, policy makers must show they’re willing to ease restrictions as swiftly as they imposed them, and a critical early test will be on wearing masks outside.

Wearing masks and restricting large gatherings were essential to controlling the pandemic’s worst peaks. But infection levels are dropping and vaccination rates rising. This is the time to revisit rules on masking and distancing in low-risk outdoor settings like parks and sports venues. Easing these rules would move more activity outdoors, which reduces viral transmission.

In states such as Texas and New Hampshire, governors have lifted restraints on the size of outdoor gatherings and the need for masks. Connecticut, Rhode Island and others have announced plans to relax outdoor requirements in May. But the policy process in Washington is moving too slowly. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidance still prescribes social limits while outside. Many governors are reluctant to step out ahead of the agency. About half of states still require people to wear face coverings in all public settings.

The virus won’t be eliminated. Some 40,000 Americans are hospitalized and some 55,000 cases are diagnosed each day. But more than 80% of Americans over 65 are protected by a vaccine, and infection rates are declining rapidly in most states—including Michigan, this month’s worst-hit. Vaccines are available to anyone over 16 in every state. Soon the problem will be a surplus of doses.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

‘Woke’ Corporations Use the Chinese Model They make a profit and suppress dissent at the same time.

Posted By on April 27th, 2021

https://www.wsj.com/articles/woke-corporations-use-the-chinese-model-11619476547?mod=opinion_lead_pos5

The opposition of market capitalism to state-oriented socialism and communism was the basic conflict in 20th-century political economy. But like many an economic and political theory, this durable model for delineating the possibilities—free markets vs. a “command economy”—cannot survive today’s Chinese state.

Capitalism and communism, opposed in ideology, turn out to be compatible in the real world. And perhaps the conceptual opposition is also collapsing in the West, as capitalism goes woke and sneaker commercials become indistinguishable from AOC campaign materials except by their production values.

“Leftism” as we know it crystallized in the 19th century largely under the aegis of Marxism, which described capitalism as an exploitative and murderous ideology that lionized greed. Leftists’ solution, as expressed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’s “The Communist Manifesto,” was government control of the economy under the “dictatorship of the proletariat.”

But the dictators turned out to be people rather than an abstract historical force, so it wasn’t a solution to human greed after all. Turning over all manufacturing and agriculture and trade to the party simply meant concentrating all the wealth and power in a few hands. It made the Soviet government, for example, a new oligarchy.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Anyone Remember Biden’s ‘Unity’ Pledge? He Sure Doesn’t

Posted By on April 27th, 2021

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/04/27/anyone-remember-bidens-unity-pledge-he-sure-doesnt/

Those foolish enough to believe that President Joe Biden would usher in a new era of peace and harmony in America must be sorely disappointed by how his administration has performed so far. If anything, people are more polarized than ever, and by constantly appeasing the far left of his party, Biden is only making matters worse.

This week, the polling firm TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence launched a new “TIPP Unity Index” to track just how divided the nation is.

The finding is that a mere 33% say the country is united, while 61% think it’s divided. In other words, the only thing Americans agree on right now is that they don’t agree on much. At the extremes, 35% say the country is “very divided,” while only 15% believe it’s “very united.”

That translates into an initial TIPP Unity Index rating of 37.8, the report says. Anything below 50 signals disunity.

“The United States requires greater unity now more than ever,” writes Raghavan Mayur, president of TechnoMetrica, “and our current leaders’ actions must transcend mere words and genuinely reflect the spirit.” (The TIPP poll has been the most accurate on presidential races for the past five elections.)

This new unity index will be a perfect way to measure whether Biden does anything to bring us together on his watch.

So far, he’s failed completely.

ELECTIONS, POLITICS Comments turned off

Liz Cheney Won’t Rule Out 2024 Presidential Run By Brittany Bernstein

Posted By on April 27th, 2021

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/liz-cheney-wont-rule-out-2024-presidential-run/

Representative Liz Cheney (R., Wy.) says she is “not going to rule anything in or out” when it comes to a potential 2024 presidential bid.

“Ever is a long time,” Cheney said in an interview with the New York Post that was published Monday.

Cheney, the third-ranking GOP lawmaker in the House and a vocal critic of former President Trump, also told the outlet that while she believes Republicans could take back the presidency in 2024, she thinks lawmakers who supported his effort to overturn the 2020 election results should be disqualified from running.

“I think we have a huge number of interesting candidates, but I think that we’re going to be a in good position to be able to take the White House,” she said. 

“I do think that some of our candidates who led the charge, particularly the senators who led the unconstitutional charge, not to certify the election, you know, in my view that’s disqualifying,” said Cheney, the daughter of former vice president Dick Cheney.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Critical Race Theory: The Enemy of Reason, Evidence, and Open Debate By Peter J. Wallison

Posted By on April 27th, 2021

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/04/critical-race-theory-the-enemy-of-reason-evidence-and-open-debate/

How this pernicious ideology rejects rational inquiry and objective truth.

O n September 22, 2020, President Trump issued Executive Order 13950, “Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping.” The order contained the kind of emotionally charged language about critical race theory that is seldom seen in these legalistic documents: “This ideology is rooted in the pernicious and false belief that America is an irredeemably racist and sexist country; that some people, simply on account of their race or sex, are oppressors; and that racial and sexual identities are more important than our common status as human beings and Americans.”

The order quoted from training materials being used by government agencies and from statements of the agencies themselves, such as this from the Treasury Department: “Virtually all White people, regardless of how ‘woke’ they are, contribute to racism.” The department, according to the order, “instructed small group leaders to encourage employees to avoid ‘narratives’ that Americans should ‘be more color-blind’ or ‘let people’s skills and personalities be what differentiates them.’” Trump’s order was revoked by President Biden on his first day in office.

By this time, however, the ideas that had prompted Trump’s concerns had already begun to disturb the lives of the American people who encountered them. In a suit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada on December 20, 2020, Gabrielle Clark, the mother of William Clark, a twelfth-grader in a Nevada charter school, complained about the school’s refusal to accept her son’s objection to what was being taught in a recently revised civics course. Ms. Clark, a widow, is black. Her son’s father, however, was white, and her son was light-skinned enough to be considered white.

In her complaint, Clark stated that a new curriculum at William’s school “inserted consciousness raising and conditioning exercises under the banner of ‘Intersectionality’ and ‘Critical Race Theory.’” “The lesson categorized certain racial and religious identities as inherently ‘oppressive,’ . . . and instructed pupils including William Clark who fell into these categories to accept the label ‘oppressor.’”

Despite Clark’s and her son’s objections to what he was being required to admit about himself and his racial heritage, the school insisted that he take this course and gave him a failing grade — imperiling his chances for college admission — because of his refusal to admit that he harbored the views that were being pressed upon the class.