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Childhood used to be a time of innocence. But as our culture has become more and more sexualized, children have become the casualties of adult exploitation.
The New York Times just reported that more than 45 million online photos and videos of children being sexually abused were reported by tech companies, more than double what they found the previous year.
In culture, education, and health care, American children also are increasingly targeted for sexual messages, images, and themes at younger ages. Sometimes, this is even supported by taxpayer money through government-led initiatives.
Our culture is saturated with sexual content that was once considered too risqué for children, and social media has accelerated the spread of pornography to young viewers.
The American Academy of Pediatrics reports that in the United States, 42% of children between 10 and 17 have viewed pornography online.
Social media also has become prime hunting ground for sex traffickers. In March 2019, Instagram was reportedly the leading social media platform for child grooming by sexual predators.
A recent poll of 2,000 teens found that nearly 75% had received pornographic direct messages from strangers, even if they had a private account. And 55% of victims of sex trafficking in 2015 met their abuser through a website, app, or text.
The sexualization of children is occurring in brick-and-mortar spaces too as “drag queen story hours,” in which cross-dressing adult entertainers interact with children in taxpayer-funded local libraries, have appeared across the country.
In education, the United Nations promotes Comprehensive Sexual Education around the world. In America, groups such as Planned Parenthood, Human Rights Campaign, and the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network promote “comprehensive” sexual education, which includes instruction about homosexual practices, transgender theory, and abortion.
Colorado mandates such curriculum for students in elementary school and recently considered stripping away parental opt-out provisions.
Sexual orientation and gender identity curriculum is not limited to sex education. California, New Jersey, and Illinois passed laws requiring schools to teach about the “political, social, and economic contributions of … lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people,” which frequently include dubious assertions about the sexual orientation or gender identity of historical figures that are irrelevant to their achievements.
The House of Representatives recently passed the Equality Act, which would amend Title IV of the Civil Rights Act to include sexual orientation and gender identity as protected characteristics. This curriculum could be required if the Equality Act were to become law.
The Department of Education under the Obama administration pressured schools to implement transgender policies that pose risks to children’s privacy and safety. In Georgia, Pascha Thomas’ 5-year-old daughter was sexually assaulted in a restroom at an elementary school that adopted a gender identity-based access policy without notifying parents.
Efforts to expose children to age-inappropriate content and make parental notification and opt-out difficult or impossible undermine parents’ constitutional right to control their children’s education on sensitive topics such as human sexuality. Public schools should not become a place where children are exposed to radical sexual ideology.
Finally, the increased prevalence of transgender ideology in culture and education has narrowed the treatment options for children with gender dysphoria.
Transgender activists pressure both doctors and parents to consent to “gender-affirming medical treatment” for children who otherwise likely would grow to accept their bodies. Such treatment typically starts with puberty blockers at age 8, cross-sex hormones at 14, and genital surgery for boys as young as 17. In one case, a 13-year-old girl was given a double mastectomy.
The detrimental side effects of hormones, such as increased depression, loss of bone density, and sterility, are well-known. Yet 15 states have banned counseling for gender-dysphoric children that would help them become comfortable with their biological sex.
The Equality Act, if passed, would make medical professionals liable to lawsuits for gender identity discrimination if they declined to do “sex reassignment” procedures on children, regardless of conscientious objection or best medical judgment.
The Trump administration reversed policies under the Obama administration that created the same liabilities, but parents continue to find that the medical system and the legal system are working against them. In Ohio, a couple lost custody of their daughter because they refused to allow her to take testosterone.
Combating the premature sexualization of children by adults requires focused attention from both lawmakers and courageous parents.
On Wednesday, Oct. 9, The Heritage Foundation and Family Policy Alliance will co-host a Summit on Protecting Children from Sexualization to examine these issues in-depth. The summit also will debut the National Parents Resource Guide on the Transgender Trend. RSVP for the event or watch the livestream here.
COMMENTARY BY
Andrea Jones is a member of the Young Leaders Program at The Heritage Foundation.
Emilie Kao is director of the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Religion & Civil Society at The Heritage Foundation. Twitter: @EmilieTHF.
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RELATED VIDEO: The Candace Owens Show: Walt Heyer. Walt Heyer lived as a transgender woman for eight years. In this episode of The Candace Owens Show, he shares his experience with gender dysphoria, sex change, regret, and his moving story of healing and restoration.
A Note for our Readers:
In the wake of every tragic mass shooting or high-profile incident involving gun violence, we hear the same narrative: To stop these horrible atrocities from happening, we must crack down on gun laws.
But is the answer really to create more laws around gun control, or is this just an opportunity to limit your Constitutional right to bear arms?
The researchers at The Heritage Foundation have put together a guide to help you better understand the 8 Stubborn Facts on Gun Violence in America.
They’re making this guide available to all readers of The Daily Signal for free today!
GET YOUR FREE COPY NOW! >>
EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Signal column is republished with permission. © All rights reserved.
My latest in PJ Media:
Wait long enough, and everything comes around again. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), one of the wokest womyn in the world, has this week blazed bold new trails by calling for the revival of not one, but two tried-and-true practices that have inexplicably fallen into neglect in American politics: Jim Crow segregation laws and the arrest of one’s political opponents.
This brave leader said in a Detroit speech that if Trump Cabinet members failed to comply with congressional subpoenas, “they’re trying to figure out, no joke, is it the D.C. police that goes and gets them? We don’t know. Where do we hold them?” Tlaib added: “This is the first time we’ve ever had a situation like this,” and that consequently, she and other Democrat leaders were “trying to tread carefully” into this “uncharted territory.” She volunteered her own district for this noble undertaking: “I will tell them they can hold all those people right here in Detroit.”
Oh, but this territory is amply charted. Tlaib’s vision for America’s future apparently looks a great deal like the past – and present – of authoritarian regimes the world over. The new diverse, inclusive America of Tlaib and her colleagues apparently includes the 2 a.m. pounding on the door and the hustling of a bewildered, pajama-clad conservative by jackbooted stormtroopers into a waiting police van. Then they get hustled off to Detroit, the name of which will take on an air of menace and foreboding, like “Treblinka” and “Kolyma.” And why not? We already have telescreens all over airports and other public spaces pumping CNN propaganda into an unwitting populace 24/7 now; arrests and, presumably, camps for dissenters is the logical next step. After all, that’s what happened in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, and still happens in North Korea and Communist China. The wise Tlaib knows that our future is their past.
Nor is that all. Tlaib Tuesday toured Detroit’s Public Safety Headquarters and told Detroit police Chief James Craig that facial recognition analysts “need to be African Americans, not people that are not. I think non-African Americans think African Americans all look the same.”
That meant, of course, that Tlaib herself, since she is not African American, thinks all African Americans look the same, but she can be forgiven for being so overwhelmed by her passion for justice that she got a bit confused. Here again, the visionary Tlaib knows that William Faulkner, despite being a white male Southerner and hence obviously racist and manifestly evil, was actually right when he said, “The past isn’t dead. It is not even past.” The old Jim Crow laws of the South in Faulkner’s time are Tlaib’s new vision for America: if she gets her way, you won’t be judged by the content of your character, but by the color of your skin.
There is much more. Read the rest here.
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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. © All rights reserved.
National Association of REALTORS held a conference in Seattle. One of the speakers talked about artificial intelligence (AI) and how it will inevitably impact everyone. According to the National Association of REALTORS:
Watch Offrs.com Founder, Rich Swier, present on Predicting What Every Home Owner Will Do Next (Starting with Listing Their Home) at iOi Summit 2019 in Seattle, WA. Since 2012, offrs.com has been a leader in Big Data and Predictive Analytics for real estate agents and brokerages nationwide.
Offrs.com serves thousands of real estate professionals from major national franchise brands and large independent real estate brokerages across the U.S.
Will AI become your personal oracle?
Watch:
To learn more about Offrs.com click here.
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President Donald Trump is a bull in a china shop. He says inadvisable things to inadvisable people, mainly because he is inadvisable—literally no one can advise him.
The vast majority of things Trump says are ignored or brushed off by those who understand the difference between bloviation and manipulation. Still, Trump’s constant stream of noise can make it difficult to tell the difference between the two.
So when an intelligence community whistleblower came forward with an allegation that, on a call with the Ukrainian president, Trump proposed a quid pro quo with the Ukrainian government—release of military aid in exchange for a Ukrainian investigation into Joe Biden and son Hunter Biden—the allegation didn’t appear absurd on its face.
The timeline, after all, seemed to match up: Trump allegedly suspended military aid to Ukraine personally a week before talking with the Ukrainian president, only to release the aid after the holdup was met with public scrutiny.
Then, the Trump administration released a transcript of the call, in which Trump used the typical New York real estate wheeler-dealer language of favors: favors related to investigations surrounding CrowdStrike, the firm tasked with analyzing the hack of the Democratic National Committee in 2016, an investigation that concluded with allegations of Russian interference; favors related to helping Rudy Giuliani investigate the origins of the 2016 Trump-Russia investigation; favors related to investigating the Bidens. The theory seemed to be gaining credibility.
Then it seemed to fall apart. It turned out that the Ukrainian government apparently had no clue that Trump was even withholding military aid—and without such a quid, there couldn’t be a pro quo. The Ukrainian president publicly proclaimed that Trump hadn’t pressured him.
The whistleblower report turned out to be thirdhand gossip rather than firsthand information. And allegations of a cover-up imploded as the Trump administration released information ranging from the transcript to the whistleblower report itself.
And so, Democrats have begun to move the goalposts. Now Democrats are claiming that the State Department is engaged in obstruction, just minutes after claiming that Trump’s Department of Justice had engaged in obstruction. Democrats allege that Trump’s behavior—without allegations of criminal conduct—is enough to justify impeachment.
Now, after Trump predictably took to Twitter to rail against the whistleblower and the Democrats, Democrats claim his behavior amounts to “witness intimidation.”
As the grounds for the impeachment inquiry broaden, it’s becoming clear that the Democrats’ enthusiasm for impeachment outweighed their supporting evidence. They leapt before they looked—and now they’re trying to backfill an impeachment inquiry that must end with an impeachment vote or lay bare the emptiness of the original attacks themselves.
Perhaps Democrats will come up with something. That’s always possible, given the amount of leaking and loose talk around the White House. But barring some sort of cataclysmic revelation, the impeachment effort seems to be stalling out.
And based on the current evidence, it should.
COPYRIGHT 2019 CREATORS.COM
COLUMN BY
Ben Shapiro is host of “The Ben Shapiro Show” and editor-in-chief of DailyWire.com. He is The New York Times best-selling author of “Bullies.” He is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, and lives with his wife and two children in Los Angeles. Twitter: @benshapiro.
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A Note for our Readers:
In the wake of every tragic mass shooting or high-profile incident involving gun violence, we hear the same narrative: To stop these horrible atrocities from happening, we must crack down on gun laws.
But is the answer really to create more laws around gun control, or is this just an opportunity to limit your Constitutional right to bear arms?
The researchers at The Heritage Foundation have put together a guide to help you better understand the 8 Stubborn Facts on Gun Violence in America.
They’re making this guide available to all readers of The Daily Signal for free today!
EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Signal column is republished with permission. © All rights reserved.
The Humanitarian Hoax is a deliberate and deceitful tactic of presenting a destructive policy as altruistic. The humanitarian huckster presents himself as a compassionate advocate when in fact he is the disguised enemy.
The humanitarian hoax of eternal childhood is a deliberate political strategy to destroy America from within by regressing its chronological adults to emotional children unable to think and behave as rational adults. It is a sinister psychological operation (PSYOPS) designed to invert the growth process and deny Americans the emotional maturity required to support ordered liberty and a free society.
The United States of America is the greatest experiment in individual freedom the world has ever known. Our Founding Fathers drafted a Constitution that rejected monarchy, oligarchy, theocracy, and any form of statism that deprived individual citizens of their individual rights. The United States of America celebrates individualism in a socio-economic structure that demands the adult attitudes of self-sufficiency, autonomy, and willingness to compete in a system of free market capitalism.
Freedom is an adult enterprise. Individual rights that support freedom require the individual responsibility of rational adult maturity. A society of emotional children cannot sustain itself. This is the key to understanding the insidious scheme to destroy America from within. Does this surprise you? It surprised me.
The 50th and concluding article in the Humanitarian Hoax series brings me back to its beginnings.
In 2011 I published a philosophy book, Dear America: Who’s Driving the Bus? that presents a useful paradigm to help us all live our lives as more rational and responsible adults. I had written the manuscript in 1995 to help people understand why they behave the way they do. Unable to find an interested publisher, I put the manuscript away in a drawer.
Sixteen years later I decided to self-publish the manuscript, and my editor remarked that Dear America is very political. What? POLITICAL?
I was very surprised. I hadn’t written the book as political analysis, but rather as a self-help guide for individuals and families desiring to live more constructive lives. The paradigm helps people understand why they do what they do, and explains how it is possible to change behavior. My contention is that problems cannot be solved effectively without understanding the nature of the problem thoroughly – my goal has always been consciousness raising.
What I did not understand in 1995 or in 2011 is that the pervasive pressures for regression I was witnessing throughout society on individuals and families was deliberate. It is difficult for the civilized mind to process such intentional destruction. Of course Dear America is political! Regression has a political purpose. Let me explain.
The globalist elite have been trying to control America since Eisenhower warned the nation against the military/industrial complex. The Deep State is the intelligence arm of the globalist elite who are the industrial component of the military/industrial complex.
The globalist elite identified the essential difference between political ideologies: free market capitalism requires emotional growth and independence, collectivism requires eternal childhood and dependence. This was a political bonanza for the globalists and their tactical decision to collapse America from within using mass social engineering. The battle plan was to regress America’s chronological adults to eternal childhood where they could be easily manipulated and controlled – it is revolution without bullets.
Regressed Americans could be seduced to willingly surrender their individual freedoms for free stuff, and the United States would finally collapse under globalist control. The globalists and their conspirators took direct aim at the three supporting pillars of American greatness and our constitutional republic: faith, flag, and family.
It took 60 years to undermine our traditional American values and make collectivism/socialism/
The humanitarian hucksters promised the people the glories of eternal childhood dependence as liberation! They promised to “liberate” Americans from the burdensome adult responsibilities of freedom. The hoax weaponized narcissism and launched Civil War II: The War Between The Selves. WHAT?
Dear America: Who’s Driving the Bus? discusses the infantilizing of America. The book describes the universal psychological growth process and is a reminder that we are each individually the sum of our parts and that we are collectively a society that interacts with each of those parts. A state of mind is not fixed. It is constantly shifting along the growth continuum, anywhere from total, infantile narcissism to responsible adulthood.
“Civil War II is not a race war, an economic war, or a war between states. It is a psychological battle between states of mind that will determine who has the power in our society, who is in control. . . .We all begin as children: helpless, dependent, self-absorbed, and completely lacking boundaries. We exist in a state of fusion unable to distinguish self from other. The task of childhood is to emerge from this state of total narcissism. . . The child learns to identify ’self’ by discovering the reality of ‘other.’
Chronological age is an uncontested biological accomplishment. Psychological growth is another matter entirely. . . Psychological growth is the universal challenge of childhood. Every society in the world needs its children to grow into physical and psychological adulthood in order to continue the cycle of life. Theoretically, if a society were to remain a nation of children it would necessarily collapse and extinguish itself.” (Dear America p.13-15)
Narcissism is the natural and appropriate attitude of infancy and early childhood, but it is inappropriate when one advances into adulthood. . . . The responsible adult works for what she wants. The narcissistic adult either snatches it, or demands that someone provide it, usually her family, or the government via social programs funded by the taxpaying, responsible adult. The narcissistic adult is as demanding as the infant.” (Dear America p. 26)
The globalist elite and the corrupt radical leftist Democrats have revived Soviet collectivism and made dependence fashionable. The Leftists are using educational indoctrination and media programming to infantilize America, shatter traditional American values, and sell collectivism to narcissistic adults.
“Civil War II begins as a personal, internal war and eventually finds its way into external society. First, the child battles ’self’ for control, and then she battles ‘other.’ The inner children of our minds are very egalitarian; they will struggle for control with any rational adult, our own or somebody else’s.” (Dear America p. 18)
The natural and normal inner struggle to grow up psychologically has been deliberately interrupted and politicized to subvert the growth process. The globalist elite need Hillary’s “unaware and compliant public” – a population of infantilized adults who think like children and can be easily controlled. The swagger and adult confidence of Americans in the 50s who made America great has been perversely subverted to achieve childish submission, fear, and fragility that even requires safe spaces from opposing ideas on college campuses.
Children who are indoctrinated toward collectivism/socialism are not allowed to compete (it might hurt someone’s feelings). They are pushed toward passivity and not allowed to strive for excellence. Participation rather than achievement is awarded – every child receives a trophy because awarding achievement might hurt someone else’s feelings. The meritocracy has been abandoned and replaced with a focus on feelings, participation, and group think. Individualism is deliberately rejected in the regressive leftist Democrat vision of America.
Thought precedes behavior. If an individual thinks like a child that individual will vote like a child. If the individual thinks like an adult, that individual will vote like an adult. The 2020 election is a referendum on American sovereignty, independence, and national identity. If our society has been infantilized to the point of collectivism, we will soon find our childish society run by the globalist elite who have been intentionally regressing Americans for six decades through educational indoctrination and mainstream media programming.
All of the 50 Humanitarian Hoax articles in the series are connected by the overarching globalist effort to destabilize America and reduce her people to eternal childhood. The sinister PSYOP (psychological operations) strategy has successfully divided America between rational adults demanding national sovereignty, and infantilized adults demanding socialism and eternal childhood.
Only infantilized adults could accept the weakening of the military, open borders, sanctuary cities, relativism, “convenient” Google Chromebook education, Pearson Education indoctrination, Black-Only College Graduations, the Equality Act, or any other subject covered in the Humanitarian Hoax series as being in the national interest.
The Humanitarian Hoax series exposes Obama’s hope and change as an Orwellian attempt to turn America upside down and inside out. The humanitarian hoaxes are all deceitful political attempts to dupe America into accepting socialism and then, of course, the dystopian new world order of global citizenship promoted by the United Nations.
The November 2020 presidential election will determine the future of America. President Donald J. Trump represents adult independence, freedom, and national sovereignty. The Democrat candidates represent childish dependence and the globalists’ unceasing efforts to replace American democracy with socialism. Here is the dirty political secret of the globalist elite humanitarian hucksters.
Socialism is the prerequisite for the imposition of one world government. One world government is a return to feudalism where the few globalist elite rule the world under the auspices of the corrupt United Nations.
The future will shock the infantilized voters who naively believed their support for collectivism would be liberation, social justice, and income equality. Free stuff is never free – the price for eternal childhood is eternal servitude. The cost of “free” stuff is your freedom.
Civil War II has been waged by the globalist elite to bring socialism to America. The transformation of America was well underway after eight years of Obama’s deceit, and would have been complete if Hillary had been elected. When Donald Trump was elected President in 2016 the globalist elite and their Democrat/RINO conspirators went berserk. The inexorable Democrat march toward socialism was halted. What did they do?
The conspirators launched a coordinated campaign of character assassination against America-first President Donald Trump, and attempted coup d’etat.
Civil War II that began as a personal, internal war has found its way into society. We have arrived at the tipping point of the war between emotional adulthood and eternal childhood – between national sovereignty and globalism. The decisive battle will be fought at the ballot box on November 3, 2020.
President Donald Trump understands the political threat that eternal childhood poses to American productivity and American sovereignty. He understands that American greatness depends on an adult population who embrace the responsibilities and attitudes of adulthood.
President Trump’s promise to drain the swamp is exposing the sinister globalist plan to collapse America. POTUS has boldly taken on the Deep State, the Democrats, the colluding RINOS, and the fake news media.
In 1775 when America was still fighting for its independence, Paul Revere warned the colonists that the British were coming. The colonists understood the attack on their freedom and the need to repel the British.
Today, 243 years later, America is fighting for its independence once again. President Trump is warning America of a far more insidious attack on its sovereignty that began decades ago with the humanitarian hoax of eternal childhood. This battle is fought without bullets. It is a psychological battle between states mind that must be won psychologically to defeat the sinister globalist challenge to our freedom.
Dear America, we must grow up psychologically. We must be adult. We must defeat narcissism. We must reject socialism. We must reject globalism. We must reject the humanitarian hoax of eternal childhood to keep America great, sovereign, and free.
EDITORS NOTE: This Goudsmit Pundicity column is republished with permission. © All rights reserved.
When peddling left-wing equality policy, there’s no selling point quite like claiming there are too many whiteys about. So when there aren’t, you simply dissemble. A case in point is the effort by Mayor Bill de Blasio to “diversify” NYC’s “Elite Eight” public high schools.
De Blasio and his schools chancellor, Richard Carranza, are unhappy there aren’t “enough” blacks and Hispanics at the elite schools, so they’d cooked up a scheme to eliminate the institutions’ admissions exams (which, ensuring that only the most capable students gain entrance, are the only reason the schools are elite in the first place).
While de Blasio has started waffling on the plan — interestingly, coinciding with his presidential run’s termination — you can’t effect such a radical change without some powerful “social justice” angle. So de Blasio’s consistent selling point is, as the New York Post reported uncritically last week, that “he believes that removing the test is ‘the single best way to resolve’ the disproportionate rate of whites and Asians at leading city schools….”
Now, since de Blasio has said of the scheme’s future that they’re going to “start over and listen to everyone,” listen to this, mayor:
You’re peddling a far from innocent white lie — a great big one.
For there certainly is a “disproportionate” number of whites at the elite schools. They’re under-represented.
(Note: since “under- over-represented” is a propaganda term implying there’s something wrong with numerical group outcome disparities, I’ll henceforth use “under population percentage,” UPP; and “over population percentage,” OPP.)
Bearing in mind that non-Hispanic whites constitute 32 percent of NYC’s population and Asians only 14 percent, consider the Elite Eight’s relevant student body statistics:
The two outliers are Staten Island Technical High School, where whites are 49 percent of the student body and Asians 47 percent; and the High School Of American Studies At Lehman College (HSAS), where the white/Asian breakdown is 57-21. Yet perspective is needed.
Unlike the other four boroughs, Staten Island is 65 percent non-Hispanic white and only 7.5 percent Asian; thus, whites are still UPP, and Asians OPP, at its elite school.
As for the HSAS, the New York Post informs that its enrollment is only 387 and that it specializes in history; in other words, it wouldn’t appeal as much to Asians, who tend to be STEM oriented (just ask Andrew Yang, who says he knows “a lot of doctors” because he’s Asian), as it would to liberal-arts-enamored white kids.
Regardless, the white student-body average of the Elite Eight is 27.75 percent and the Asian average 53.5 percent. And though I’ll confess to not being up on Common Core math, I suspect that 27.75 is still less than 32 and 53.5 is still more than 14.
The kicker is that at the Brooklyn Latin School, there are as many Hispanics as non-Hispanic whites (14 percent and 14 percent) and slightly more blacks (15 percent); and at the Queens High School for the Sciences at York College there are as many blacks as whites (6 percent and 6 percent) and slightly more Hispanics (7 percent).
In contrast, there’s not one elite school at which Asians aren’t greatly OPP. Even at HSAS, their 21 percent places them 50 percent above their group’s share of the city’s population, and well outstrips its percentage (4.5) in the school’s borough, the Bronx.
So to state the obvious, making whites’ presence in the elite schools “proportionate” would require granting them affirmative action.
Of course, since it’s inconceivable that NYC’s powers-that-be — Chancellor Carranza in particular — aren’t aware of these statistics, a conclusion is inescapable: They’re lying. Why?
The NYC social engineers’ equality-scheme pretext is that performance differences are due to historical biases and discrimination and to privilege. Yet it’s hard making the case that Asians benefit from such. Could you imagine how far leftists would get parading around bloviating about “yellow privilege”? As it is, angry Asian protesters in Brooklyn this summer swarmed Carranza’s car shouting “Fire the racist!”
The bottom line is that the social engineers need the white boogeyman. Without him as whipping boy, their scheme’s whole rationale collapses.
Another lesson from this story concerns the New York Post’s uncritical repetition of de Blasio’s Great White Lie. Being a more conservative paper, it’s unlikely the Post is practicing deception here. Very likely is that it’s exhibiting a common phenomenon: conservatives’ unwitting acceptance of many liberal suppositions.
No, conservatives don’t believe in trumping meritocracy or forced integration, but they may not question assertions of whites’ numerical dominance in a prestigious realm. I mean, isn’t that a given? No, it’s a prejudice.
All this said, awareness of the Elite Eight’s actual demographics won’t deter de Blasio and Co. (it never has); they worship equality of outcome and will just conjure up rationalizations such as, perhaps, how Asians are better able to tap into the system of “white privilege.” Public awareness, however, would help dissolve whatever limited support and moral authority they might enjoy.
But never fear, oh ye social engineer, there’s always another meritocratic mountain to destroy. For example, the average male/female ratio at NYC’s elite schools is 58-42. And, come to think of it, why hasn’t this been de Blasio’s and Carranza’s focus all along? They must be sexists.
Contact Selwyn Duke, follow him on Gab (preferably) or Twitter, or log on to SelwynDuke.com.
© All rights reserved.
On CNN’s OutFront Thursday, CNN contributor and former Barack Obama adviser Van Jones pointed out that Democrats “are in a lose-lose situation” by pursuing the impeachment of President Trump.
“It’s a tricky thing, the impeachment process, because for some Republicans it makes them want to rally around the flag,” Jones said. “When I was anti-Bill Clinton from the left in the ’90s, and then they tried to impeach him, and suddenly Clinton was my best friend. I was like, ‘Leave Bill Clinton alone.’ So I think you get crosscurrents in this thing, and at the same time the Democrats are in a lose-lose situation.”
“If they don’t do something, their own base is going to feel disappointed and feel like maybe Trump gets away with too much,” Jones added. “If you don’t do the impeachment, though, you divide the country further, take the oxygen away from your candidates, and you still don’t solve the problem of [foreign] interference.”
“It’s a big mess,” he concluded. Indeed — a mess that will backfire on the Democrats in 2020.
Jones says he became politically radicalized in the aftermath of the April 1992 Los Angeles riots which erupted shortly after four L.A. police officers who had beaten the now-infamous Rodney King were exonerated in court. “I was a rowdy nationalist on April 28th,” says Jones, “and then the verdicts came down on April 29th. By August, I was a communist.”
[ … ]
Jones’s new approach was modeled on the tactics outlined by the famed radical organizer Saul Alinsky, who stressed the need for revolutionaries to mask the extremism of their objectives and to present themselves as moderates until they could gain some control over the machinery of political power. Jones still considered himself a revolutionary, but a more effective one thanks to his revised tactics.
White House High Holy Days Call
Friday, September 27, 2019
Operator: Hello and thank you for joining today’s High Holy Days call with Jewish faith leaders. Please note that this call is being recorded. At this time all audience members are in listen-only mode to minimize background noise. There will be Q&A at the end of this call, and we will provide instructions at that time. I would now like to formally begin today’s call and introduce President of the United States, Donald J Trump.
Pres. Trump: It’s a great honor to be with you and to host our third annual call with Jewish leaders, rabbis and friends to wish you Shana Tova, a sweet new year. During the High Holy Days, families gather in synagogues across the country and around the world to sound the shofar and pray, reflect and thank God for His many blessings.
As we mark the Jewish New Year, our entire country is reminded of the infinite ways Jewish Americans strengthen our communities, uplift our nation, and deepen our culture. You care for your neighbors, teach your children, cherish our heritage, and you embody the American dream. Throughout history, the Jewish people have suffered unthinkable oppression and persecution, yet they have persevered, endured, thrived, and created a flourishing democracy – the state of Israel.
In the last two and a half years, we have strengthened the everlasting friendship between the United States and Israel. I moved the United States Embassy to Jerusalem. We recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which was something they were trying to have done for 72, or 52 years to be more specific. We’re confronting Iran, a regime that chants “Death to Israel.”
As I said in my recent address to United Nations, America will never tolerate anti-Semitic hate. In recent months, our entire nation was stricken with shock and grief and righteous anger when two horrific anti-Semitic murderers attacked synagogues in California and Pennsylvania. To every survivor, family member and to the entire Jewish community, all of America embraces you with love. We pledge our undying and total resolve to excise the vile placing of anti-Semitism from our world. Earlier this year, I appointed a new special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism. Elan Carr, who is with us now and will provide an update shortly. In the wake of such atrocious attacks, millions have been inspired by Jewish-American heroes who responded to the worst evil with remarkable bravery. During my State of the Union Address, we were all moved by the presence of Pittsburgh survivor, Judah Samet, who also survived the Holocaust. In May, on the National Day of Prayer in the Rose Garden, we were joined by members of the congregation from Poway, California, including Rabbi Goldstein. This afternoon we’re joined on the call by survivors of the Holocaust. We cannot comprehend the persecution and suffering you have endured, yet you have overcome the darkest chapters of human history with the purity of love and goodness in your hearts. We renew our pledge now and always. Never again.
I understand that during this time of year, you often read Psalm 27. We remember the promise of those words that says, “Wait for the Lord. Be strong and let your heart take courage.”
Today, we thank God for His faithfulness and for the countless ways Jewish-Americans bless our nation.
I again want to thank you all for joining this call. Melania and I wish you a very happy, peaceful and prosperous new year. And now I’d like to invite Special Envoy Elan Carr to tell us about his crucial work. Elan.
Special Envoy Carr: Mr. President, thank you so much and thank you for making the fight against anti-Semitism which always refer to as “the vile poison of anti-Semitism,” that’s exactly what it is. Thank you for making this fight a national priority.
Friends on this call, this current week alone illustrates the breadth of the work we’re doing. Three days ago, Tuesday, I was in Warsaw, where I set forth key strategies to combat anti-Semitism to the 57 different national governments in the OSCE region. Then the next day, on Wednesday, I was in Brussels at the European Parliament where the Israeli government and I together confronted the anti-Semitic BDS movement; and during those very same days I was on inter-agency phone calls with Washington addressing the anti-Semitism on US college campuses. This points to the breadth of our work at the President’s direction, we are simultaneously confronting far-right ethnic supremacy, radical-left Israel hatred, and militant Islam. With the Trump’s administration continued leadership, I’m hopeful that we can roll back the rise of anti-Semitism both here at home and abroad.
Thank you all so much. Thank you, Mr. President and Shana Tova.
Pres. Trump: Well, thank you very much Elan. We really appreciate; you’re going to be phenomenal. Do a great job, I have no doubt about it. Your past has been incredible and that’s usually a good indication of your future. Thank you very much Elan.
Special Envoy Carr: Thank you
Pre. Trump: And now, I’d like to call upon a friend of mine, a friend of all of us, Senator Norm Coleman to ask a question.
Senator Coleman: Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President just on a personal note, as Chair of the Republican Jewish Coalition, thank you for all you’ve done to strengthen the US-Israeli relationship. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.
POTUS: Well, thank you, Norm.
Senator Coleman: But my question Mr. President focuses on Iran, and I’m going to thank you again, by the way, for pulling the plug on what you aptly described as the “worst deal ever,” the Obama nuclear deal that gave Iran 150 billion dollars to fund their terrorist networks in the amount of guaranteed debt and nuclear weapons. We’ve also already imposed the toughest sanctions ever hitting Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, cut source, and now central bank. But Iran still bombs Saudi oil fields, it’s law makers and Supreme Leader chant “Death to America,” and it continues to be the greatest existential threat to the Jewish state, Israel.
As we look forward Mr. President, what else can you do to curtail Iran’s nefarious actions?
Pres. Trump: Well, Iran continues its provocative actions and they threaten our partners and allies, and supporting terrorism, developing ballistic missiles, increasing uranium enrichment. You know all about that Norm; and I don’t want military conflict, but we’ve offered to talk, we’ve offered to discuss things.
Right now, Iran is doing very badly, they’re a nation that’s much different than it was when I became president almost three years ago. If you look back, you’ll see that Iran was in more than 18 points of confliction. They were misbehaving in a very bad way in 18 different sections of the Middle East. They were very provocative. They were behind it. I’ve shown great restraint, and hope that Iran likewise chooses peace. I can’t tell you exactly what’s going to be happening, but we’re extraordinarily ready.
A friend of mine asked me a couple of questions the other day and I asked him one, I said, “So which was more important, bringing the Jerusalem into effect by having our embassy go to Jerusalem thereby becoming the capital of Israel, or the Golan Heights?” I said, “Which of those two things in your opinion were more important, Jerusalem or the Golan Heights?” And he said, “Neither. It’s what you’ve done for us with Iran.” And I said, “You know I’ve never thought of it that way, but I probably happen to agree with you.”
But we have done, the embassy in Jerusalem which was such a big deal at the time and promised by many, many presidents and they never fulfilled their promise; and I understood why because once I got here, there was tremendous pressure on me not to do that, but I did it; and the other one was Golan Heights. And as I said for 52 years, they’ve been trying to do something, and I did that also for Israel, and now we’re in the process of Iran and it will work out. I can’t tell you exactly how or why, but it’ll work out because it always does. I have a tendency to make things work out one way or the other. Sometimes, it’s not pretty but it happens. So, you can just rest assured. But Iran is a very bad actor, it’s been a bad actor for a long period of time and we’re going to end that.
So, thank you very much for that question and Helen Erskine, please if you’re there, the Women Zionist Organization. Highly respected person by the way, Helen. So, do you have a question?
Ms. Hershkin: Thank you. Of course, I do. Mr. President, thank you for taking the time to speak with all of us on this call. As you know, I’m speaking today as the National President of Hadassah, the Women Zionist Organization of America, and I’m also the daughter of a World War Two veteran who liberated the mass held in the Nazi concentration camp.
As you mentioned, we remember the horrific attacks in Pittsburgh and Poway, and our concerns about violence amid rising anti-Semitism and extremism remain front and center. To reduce this slip before it’s too late, we believe that the solution may be Holocaust education. Many students are not being taught about the Holocaust in schools including the dangers of bigotry and hatred.
Mr. President, do you believe students in America should learn the lessons of the Holocaust, and how can we work together on this?
Pres. Trump: Well, thank you for a very good question, Helen. I think that American students should learn the important lessons of the Holocaust. I have two great special envoys who look at this issue right here and around the world, and one who you just heard from who is a tremendous special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism. Again, Elan, thank you very much. Cherrie Daniels also works in my administration as a talented special envoy for Holocaust issues. We have many great programs throughout the United States, as you know, to teach this in both the Department of Education and the Department of State are engaged in active work on Holocaust education here and abroad.
This is important as we should promote awareness of these lessons, and just remember that I’ve grown up always hearing “Never forget, never forget, never forget.” And that’s been a very very important part of, I think, what you’re talking about Helen, and we will never forget. Education is very important, and we will keep it very much in the forefront.
Ms. Hershkin: Thank you, Mr. President.
Pres. Trump: Well, thank you and thank everybody. It really has been an honor to be with you and we’ll have many many great years together. Thank you all.
Operator: Thank you to all of our speakers and thank you all in the audience for joining us today.
Miami, FL — U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Rick Scott (R-FL) sent a letter to the Chairman of the National Endowment of the Arts, Mary Anne Carter, raising concerns on the use of U.S. taxpayer dollars to fund an exhibit at Duke University’s Nasher Museum of Art and Northwestern University’s Block Museum of Art, which feature portraits of the infamous Ernesto Ché Guevara. Ché Guevara was an Argentine revolutionary whose sadistic role during the Cuban Revolution included founding Cuba’s first forced labor camp where he tortured innocent civilians.
In the letter, the Senators emphasize that “[t]hose who choose to praise [Ché Guevara] fundamentally ignore Guevara’s role in the mass murder of innocent lives during the Cuban revolution, as well as those who were denied the right to due processes. His hatred for democracy, freedom of press, and homosexuals have been well documented.”
The full text of the letter is below.
Dear Chairman Carter:
We write with great concern regarding a federal grant awarded to the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, TX, where an exhibition titled Pop América 1965-1975 features portraits paying homage to Ernesto “Ché” Guevara. The exhibit has subsequently traveled to the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University as well as Northwestern University’s Block Museum of Art. A description of the exhibit on Duke’s Nasher Museum website claims that these works demonstrate “bold contributions” to “social protest, justice movements and debates about freedom.” This statement is either blithely ignorant or deliberately deceptive, given the exhibition’s inclusion of propaganda celebrating a thug who mercilessly silenced his opponents with bullets.
Ché Guevara was an Argentine revolutionary who was involved in the Cuban Revolution that was led by Fidel and Raul Castro from 1953 to 1959. It is disturbing that U.S. taxpayer dollars are being used to fund an exhibition that glorifies an individual who hated the United States, our commitment to democratic principles, and the values of individual freedom that we so deeply cherish. Those who choose to praise Guevara fundamentally ignore his role in the mass murder of innocent lives during the Cuban Revolution, as well as those who were denied the right to due process. His contempt for democracy, freedom of press, and LGBTQ individuals has been well documented. Humberto Fontova, author of Exposing the Real Ché Guevara, wrote: “The regime that Ché Guevara co-founded is the only one in modern history in the Western Hemisphere to have herded gays into forced labor camps.”
We cannot help but think of the painful memories of many in the Cuban exile community who witnessed or learned of the news that their loved ones were killed by the actions or direct orders of Ché Guevara. He brazenly admitted to the atrocities that he ordered during a visit to the United Nations on December 11, 1964, when he publicly declared after a speech: “Executions? Yes, we have executed, we are executing, and we will continue to execute.” Maria Werlau, the author of Ché Guevara’s Forgotten Victims who spent years documenting the people killed under his orders, wrote: “He was directly responsible for at least 124 killings.”
Executions were not Guevara’s only “bold contribution” to the Cuban Revolution. His desire to eliminate democratic practices and values expanded further to his blatant disregard for human rights and human dignity. In 1959, he told journalist José Pardo Llada: “We must eliminate all newspapers; we cannot make a revolution with free press. Newspapers are instruments of the oligarchy.” In 1961, he founded Cuba’s first forced labor camp to “re-educate” people who had committed “crimes against revolutionary morals,” including LGBTQ individuals, people practicing their religion, and others who opposed him.
Guevara was a sadistic butcher who murdered and tortured innocent people. We do not believe that U.S. taxpayer dollars that appropriated by Congress to the National Endowment of the Arts should be used to glorify or romanticize an individual who so openly disdained American principles and fundamental rights and freedoms. Guevara’s very image is deeply offensive to many Cuban-Americans and other freedom-loving people around the world.
Therefore, we respectfully request you clarify how your agency evaluated the appropriateness of content featured in an exhibit that was partly funded by U.S. taxpayer dollars. A contextualization of the works in question would have provided an important opportunity for education and reflection, and yet a factual history of Ché Guevara’s bloody legacy are not included in the program. We would also like to know what guidelines, if any, are in place to guide and oversee the decision-making process in the future. Lastly, we urge you to ensure that individuals responsible for war crimes or crimes against humanity are not featured in any NEA funded exhibits without clearly and unambiguously highlighting their heinous crimes and memorializing their victims.
We look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
RELATED ARTICLE: US Taxpayers Unwittingly Glorify Che Guevara on the 52nd Anniversary of his Death
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RUBIO, SCOTT PLANTEAN INQUIETUDES POR EXPOSICIÓN QUE INCLUYE RETRATOS DEL CHÉ GUEVARA FINANCIADA POR FONDOS DE CONTRIBUYENTES
Miami, FL – El senador estadounidense Marco Rubio (R-FL) y Rick Scott (R-FL) enviaron una carta a la Presidenta del National Endowment of the Arts, Mary Anne Carter, expresando su preocupación por el uso del dinero de contribuyentes estadounidenses para financiar una exhibición en el Nasher Art Museum de Duke University y el Block Museum de Northwestern University, que presentan retratos de Ernesto Ché Guevara. Ché Guevara, un revolucionario argentino cuyo papel sádico en la revolución cubana incluyó la creación del primer campo de concentración de Cuba donde torturó a civiles inocentes.
En la carta, los senadores enfatizan que “aquellos que optan por alabar al Ché ignoran fundamentalmente el rol de Guevara en el asesinato de civiles inocentes durante la revolución cubana, así como de aquellos a quienes se les negó sus garantías procesales. El odio de Guevara por la democracia, la libertad de prensa y los homosexuales han sido ampliamente documentados”.
El texto completo de la carta en inglés está aquí.
“Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There was never a democracy that did not commit suicide.” – John Adams, letter to John Taylor, 1814.
“The American Republic will endure, until politicians realize they can bribe the people with their own money.” – Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America.
The Democrats want America to become a democracy. The ideal of a Democracy is not only reflected in their name but it is in their political DNA.
The Democrats want to eliminate the Electoral College and choose the President of the United States by popular vote. They also want to give illegals and non-citizens voting rights. They want Americans, and non-citizens, to vote to commit suicide.
An email from the Progressive Caucus titled “It’s time to put an END to the Electoral College” states:
We can’t forget: in 2016, Trump LOST the popular vote to Hillary Clinton. But thanks to the Electoral College, he’s the President.
If we sit back and allow history to repeat itself, Trump could be re-elected next year!
So we’re taking action NOW and raising $15,000 to support Progressives who are working to abolish the Electoral College.
If you believe that the results of elections should reflect the will of the people, chip in now to help end the Electoral College:
[ … ]
Listen, the Electoral College consistently benefits Republicans at the expense of our democracy.
In fact, 2016 was not the first time a Republican won the presidency after losing the popular vote.
So it’s up to Progressives in Congress to put an end to this antiquated system and enact a National Popular Vote, once and for all.
It’s not going to be easy, but with the help of supporters like you, they can make it happen.
If you believe every vote should truly count in our elections, chip in now to help end the Electoral College:
Eliminating the Electoral College has become one of the major talking points of not only the Progressive Caucus but also for some of the Democrat candidates running for president.
America is not a Democracy. The U.S. Constitution was set up by the Founding Fathers to prevent the United States from ever becoming a Democracy.
Article 4, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution reads:
Article 4 – The States
Section 4 – Republican GovernmentThe United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.
Republic
republic n 1 : a government having a chief of state who is not a monarch and is usually a president; also : a nation or other political unit having such a government 2 : a government in which supreme power is held by the citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and representatives governing according to law; also : a nation or other political unit having such a form of government Source: NMW
In the context of the United States of America, both definitions apply.
It’s all about the name. The Republican Party supports the U.S. Constitution and the American republican form of government. Democrats want to change, or even abolish, the U.S. Constitution in order to establish a democracy.
What we are witnessing today is treason led by members of the Democrat Party against a duly elected President. A President who won via the Electoral College.
Treason
treason n the offense of attempting to overthrow the government of one’s country or of assisting its enemies in war
President Trump tweeted the following:
As I learn more and more each day, I am coming to the conclusion that what is taking place is not an impeachment, it is a COUP, intended to take away the Power of the….
….People, their VOTE, their Freedoms, their Second Amendment, Religion, Military, Border Wall, and their God-given rights as a Citizen of The United States of America!
In “The Nature of Government,” Ayn Rand observed, “We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force.”
Is this a coup? Are we approaching an “ultimate inversion” by the deep state?
We report, you will vote your conscience on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2020!
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I’ve been following the polls, media analysis and social media activities since the 2018 midterms regarding suburban women voters. As per our usual arrangement, the media is suggesting the sky is falling for President Trump and Republicans because suburban women are turned off by Trump’s abrasive antics in office.
But the evidence doesn’t really show that.
First, let’s stipulate that it’s almost assured that the polls are continuing to underestimate Trump ballot box support for the simple reason that the angry radicalization of the left and the relentlessly negative coverage by the partisan media has made it taboo in many parts of the country to even voice support for the President. People lose friends and family members’ relationships by saying something positive about Trump out loud. We hear and see it regularly. It’s worth noting also that it does not generally happen the other way; Trump supporters don’t typically cut off from their lives anyone who does not support him.
Given this level of publicly acceptable animosity, there will be a few to several percentage points of Americans unwilling to say they support the President or would vote for him even to a stranger on the phone.
But let’s consider the very real possibility that all the negativity and Trump’s own bull-in-a-china-closet tomfoolery could turn off some suburban women.
The actual facts suggest that the reason is not the china breaking, but much more likely that suburban women — who are known to get a heavy dose of their news information through Facebook — are no longer seeing that information. In fact, Facebook and the rest of the Democrat social media complex began erasing the presence of conservative sites immediately following the 2016 election of President Trump and expansion of the Republican majority in the Senate.
I recently wrote about how the left is, piece by piece, creating an Orwellian Memory Hole down which it can toss almost every piece of conservative news, information and commentary by blocking almost every avenue by which that information is disseminated:
“It is the unholy union of the leftwing mainstream media, the leftwing social media giants, leftwing Google and leftwing website and platform hosts. These are virtually all of the avenues for information outside of old-school radio and TV. Talk radio is already dominated by conservatives, but it also does not reach many people in the middle. Ditto for Fox News.”
This Memory Hole dynamic is already under way and was demonstrated in the 2018 midterms when suburban women voted more heavily Democratic than previously. The media pinned the 40-seat pickup by Democrats along with control of the House on this voting bloc — although it was much more complicated than that, including such rubbish as ballot harvesting in California.
Facebook was initially the most aggressive. Gateway Pundit reported a year ago that Facebook eliminated more than 1.5 billion links to conservative articles in the previous year. That wiped out enormous amounts of access to information right where these suburban women get their information.
Remember, four out of five women age 18-49 have Facebook accounts, and a larger than average percentage of them get their news through the social media giant. Facebook executives are fully aware of this data. Eliminating conservative voices meant that suddenly this voting bloc was getting an avalanche from one side and precious little from the other. That’s bound to move the needle and assuredly did in 2018.
Google is not social media, but its impact on the flow of information to Americans is possibly as great. Recall that a leaked video of top Google executives were emotional, angry and crying after the Trump election. They’ve also been caught saying they would never allow another election of Trump to happen. Project Veritas interviewed a Google engineer who demonstrated how the algorithm is manipulated against Trump and conservative news sites.
All of this combined led the AP to joyfully report this summer that Trump is bleeding support from suburban women.
“Many professional, suburban women — a critical voting bloc in the 2020 election — recoil at the abrasive, divisive rhetoric, exposing the president to a potential wave of opposition in key battlegrounds across the country.
In more than three dozen interviews by The Associated Press with women in critical suburbs, nearly all expressed dismay — or worse — at Trump’s racially polarizing insults and what was often described as unpresidential treatment of people. Even some who gave Trump credit for the economy or backed his crackdown on immigration acknowledged they were troubled or uncomfortable lining up behind the president.”
It’s no mystery why Trump is losing support in the suburbs. The media want you to think its about Trump’s divisive rhetoric and abrasive style. Perhaps. But more likely it’s about the social media giants, led by Facebook, blacking out conservative voices and leaving the information field one-sided to the leftists mainstream media — a story that media will not be telling you.
EDITORS NOTE: This Revolutionary Act column is republished with permission. © All rights reserved.
The feasibility of Trump’s “Deal of the Century” will be dramatically impacted by the nature of the regime east of the Jordan River and its prospective stability
There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact – Sherlock Holmes, “The Boscombe Valley Mystery”.
Israel must, in the most blunt and clear way possible, illustrate to Washington that the prosperity of Jordan is a first rate Israeli security and strategic interest – Former Head of Mossad, Ephraim Halevy, at “Between Jerusalem and Amman: 25 Years since the Signing of the Peace Agreement between Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan”, the Institute for National Security Studies, Sept. 25, 2019.”
With the media in a furor over the election deadlock and the legal woes of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, some of the other substantive issues looming on Israel’s overloaded national agenda naturally tend to be sidelined in the ongoing public discourse.
One such topic, with potentially far reaching significance that received scant media attention, was briefly broached last week: The relationship with Jordan and the rather ominous prospects for the future.
Understandably, in light of the regular flare-ups of violence, far more focus has been given to Israel’s fronts in the North and the South—where in the former, Israel has been engaged in curtailing the Iranian build up in Syria and Lebanon, and, in the latter, in containing the violence on the Gazan border.
This tends to obscure the immense importance of Israel’s eastern frontier with Jordan, and, as a direct corollary thereof, the mountain ridge separating that frontier from the country’s heavily populated coastal plain.
The potential volatility and impact along Israel’s longest border were thrown into sharp relief last week by Ephraim Halevy, former Head of Mossad, at a conference marking a quarter-century since the signing of the peace treaty between Israel and Jordan.
According to Halevy, Israel should lobby the US on the Hashemite Kingdom’s behalf, on the one hand, and on the other hand, the security establishment should be drawing up plans to deal with various possible future alternatives in Jordan. Indeed, he prescribes that “Israel must, in the most blunt and clear way possible, illustrate to Washington that the prosperity of Jordan is a first rate Israeli security and strategic interest.”
Thus, in Halevy’s view, Jordan’s stability and prosperity is a critical Israeli “interest, not a Jordanian one, and it is different from ties with the other countries surrounding us.”
Somewhat ironically, Halevy made his plea less than twenty four hours after the Jordanian monarch, King Abdallah, addressed the UN, devoting half of his speech to castigating Israel.
However, despite Abdallah’s public display of enmity, it is not difficult to understand Halevy’s perspective. After all, under the Hashemite dynasty, Israel’s eastern frontier has, for all intents and purposes, been peaceful since the early 1970s.
Indeed, considering the possible Mid-East alternatives, having an ostensibly moderate, pro-Western regime installed in Amman has undeniable appeal.
Accordingly, Halevy bewailed the fact that Washington has now downgraded the importance it once saw in Jordan, lamenting: “The US has turned its back on Jordan…for three years there has been no American ambassador in Jordan!”
He warned ominously; “…the Jordan issue should have top priority because if, God forbid, something should happen in Jordan, and there will be a different situation across the [Jordan] River and we go back to the situation, in which the border is no longer our longest and quietest border, but our longest and most problematic border, it will be too late!”—cautioning that this could occur within the space of one to two years.
Halevy thus urged that Israeli representatives be dispatched to Washington to advocate US aid to ensure the stability of the Hashemite regime in Amman.
When someone as pro-Jordan and with as close a ties with the monarchy as Halevy issues such a shrill clarion call, it should be treated with the utmost gravity and be clear that the dangers, of which he warns, are indeed imminent.
The Jordanian economy, heavily dependent on imported energy and foreign aid, has been in dire straits for several years now. Dissatisfaction is seething, producing large scale street riots, government reshuffles and erosion of the monarchy’s longstanding base of support.
Although the country is straining under the burden of a million (possibly more) refugees, mainly from Syria, “many Jordanians now point to economic mismanagement and an over-reliance on international aid and International Monetary Fund (IMF) assistance, rather than the Syrian crisis, as the fundamental ill plaguing the country”.
With unemployment spiraling to almost 20% , and the specter of decreasing foreign aid, the king is even in danger of losing the support of his traditional base—the Jordanian Bedouin tribes, which constitute the backbone of the regime. Thus, in March 2019, a protest movement, identified with Jordan’s large Bani Hassan tribe, issued an unusually harsh statement against the King, accusing him and his family of behaving like “demigods” and demanding a change of regime.
In the words of the statement:
“The crisis in Jordan is a crisis of the regime, not of [any particular] government. It is a crisis of corruption that stems from allowing the King, his wife and his family…to do as they like and to expand the powers granted them in Jordan’s constitution. This has led to the emergence of a sector of powerful people who are corrupt and have sown ruin and destruction throughout the land under the personal patronage of the [King and Queen], and to the neutralizing of the Jordanian people and their exclusion from participation in decision-making and in self-governance. We have therefore shifted from the delusional stage of demanding reforms to demanding a comprehensive change to the system of government…“
Significantly, other tribes—such as Bani Abbad and Bani Hamida—also reportedly expressed support for the Bani Hassan statement, and although some tribal dignitaries renounced it, declaring support for the king, it caused considerable consternation in official circles.
Moreover, retired regime officials and military personnel, many of them tribe members, who were formerly part of the establishment, also took part in public protests. A group of politicians and retired military officers calling themselves the National Follow-up Committee issued a statement severely criticizing the king and court for abusing their authority, and called to take measures to limit the powers of the monarchy.
Another source of criticism is the Muslim Brotherhood. Although the movement has “lost much steam” due to internal dissention and the dismal outcomes in countries where the Muslim Brotherhood held power, the movement still exploits the wave of discontent to score political points. Earlier this year, its political branch, the Islamic Action Front, issued a statement attributing the rising unemployment, especially among young people, to the regime’s economic policy and called for changing the political and economic systems.
It seems therefore, that Halevy has ample grounds for his concern. However, the fact that his diagnosis—of how tenuous the Hashemite dynasty’s hold on power might be—is accurate, this does not necessarily mean that his prescribed remedy—attempting to prop up a floundering monarch—should be adopted.
Although prime facie it might appear eminently plausible, we should not forget the fictional Sherlock Holmes’s salutary caveat: There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.
For as deceptively tempting as the idea might be, Israel cannot take upon itself the responsibility for ensuring the current socio-economic edifice of Jordan.
Indeed, Israel has bitter experience with regime-change in countries once reasonably benignly disposed towards it – such as pre-Erdogan Turkey, Iran under the Shah, Mubarak’s Egypt and Lebanon under Bashir Jumaiel.
The latter, in particular, underscores that Israel can do little to ensure the durability of a relatively amiable regime, if domestic forces deem otherwise.
Accordingly, for the authors of Israel’s national strategy, the prudent working assumption must be that the Hashemite regime has a limited—albeit not necessarily known—“shelf-life”.
It would therefore appear, that the emphasis should be placed on the second part of Halevy’s recommendation i.e. that Israel’s security establishment should be drawing up plans to deal with various alternatives in the Hashemite Kingdom.
The instability in Jordan and the prospect of other “various alternatives” (i.e. regime change) assume heightened importance in light of the rumored publication of the long-awaited Trump administration’s “Deal of the Century”, purported to bring the century plus old conflict between Jew and Arab over the Holy Land, to an end.
Although the details of the “Deal” are as yet obscure, it would appear the Jordan is slated to play a major role in it—grudgingly or otherwise. Accordingly, the feasibility of the “Deal”—indeed its acceptability—will be dramatically impacted by the nature of the regime east of the Jordan River and its prospective stability (or lack thereof).
After all, although some may hope otherwise, there seems little prospect that any successor regime in Amman will be more favorably disposed toward Israel than the current one.
This takes us back to the crucial strategic importance for Israel of the highlands of Judea-Samaria and the Jordan Valley. As I have been at pains to point out on numerous occasions, not only are these highlands the only topographical barrier between Jordan and the heavily populated coast plain, but any forces—regular or renegade—deployed on them will have complete topographical command and control of virtually all Israel’s airfields (military and civilian, including Ben Gurion, the only international airport), its major ports and naval bases, is principal traffic axes (rail and road), vital infrastructure installations/systems (electrical power, desalination plants and water conveyance), centers of civilian government and military command and 80% of the civilian population and commercial activity.
All of these will be in range of cheap, readily available weapons that have already been used against Israel from areas evacuated by it and transferred to Arab control.
Thus, the rationale of any plan that entails Israeli evacuation of this vital territory will hinge critically on the nature of the regime-type in Jordan, which abuts it from the East.
For whatever other grave detriments their might be in such a plan, it will matter greatly if Jordan is ruled by a government that strives to reign in forces hostile to Israel, or one that is indifferent to their aggressive intent—or worse, is complicit with it.
After all, should the Trump plan entail significant territorial concessions, Israel may well find itself in a situation in which it will have to contend with a huge expanse of hostile territory, stretching from the fringes of Greater Tel Aviv to the border of Iraq—and perhaps beyond.
Accordingly, Israel’s security establishment should indeed draw up plans to deal with prospective alternatives in Jordan—not only how to cope with them once they arise, but to prevent them from arising at all.
One of the greatest themes in art, literature, and sometimes even real life is when a person sacrifices his or her own life that someone else might live. In my worldview, all such acts point to the single greatest example of them all—Jesus Christ, who offered up His own life, that we might live, if you believe in Him.
What got me thinking about this theme of self-sacrifice for others’ sake was a story reported a few days ago about a dog. Near Orlando, Florida, there was a puppy dog that interposed his body between some children and a poisonous snake—thus, protecting the children. The puppy endured four bites from a coral snake before dying. But the children were safe.
Last year, we were all shocked at another horrific school shooting—the one in Parkland, Florida, near Fort Lauderdale.
Lost in the headlines, it would seem, was a football coach at the school who sacrificed himself, interposing his own body that others might live. His name was Aaron Feis.
The Sun-Sentinel reported (2/22/18) on Feis’ funeral held at the Church by the Glades (a non-denominational evangelical congregation) in nearby Coral Springs:
“People called him ‘the mayor of Parkland,’ said former coach Mike Virden during the service. ‘Because if you needed anything or anyone, he was the guy to go to.’”
Marjory Stoneman Douglas’s football program tweeted the day after the shootings: “It is with Great sadness that our Football Family has learned about the death of Aaron Feis. He was our Assistant Football Coach and security guard. He selflessly shielded students from the shooter when he was shot. He died a hero and he will forever be in our hearts and memories.” [Emphasis added]
NBCNews.com reported (2/15/18),
“The death toll, witnesses said, would have been even higher had it not been for Feis. They said that when the gunfire broke out, Feis quickly draped himself over students, acting as a human shield. ‘He shielded two kids from being shot. He took the bullets himself,’ Julien Decoste, a student who survived by hiding in a closet with classmates, told NBC News. ‘As I was being escorted out of the building, I had to step over him. Right then and there … I knew: He had to have been dead or injured.’” [Emphasis added]
Jesus said, “Greater love hath no man than he lay down his life for his friends.” Aaron Feis’ sacrifice should not be forgotten.
I am a student of history, including church history. One of the great heroes of history often overlooked, except perhaps in some Catholic circles, is Maximilian Kolbe. He was a Polish priest, who like many other non-conformist Christians ended up in Hitler’s concentration camps. Kolbe ended up in Auschwitz, where he died in 1941.
A prisoner had escaped from Auschwitz, and so the Nazi guards arbitrarily chose ten names of prisoners to die of starvation as punishment and as a warning against any future escape attempts. One prisoner’s name randomly chosen was Franciszek Gajowniczek, who had a wife and children back home. Kolbe went to the authorities and asked if he could die in the man’s place. I’m sure the Nazis were taken aback by such a request, but they allowed it to happen. Kolbe died so that the other man might live.
In literature, one of the greatest novels of all times is Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. I reheard the story again recently as a book on tape.
What a brilliantly crafted novel, climaxing with the theme of self-sacrifice. Sidney Carton, the hitherto ne’er do well, realizes he can be redeemed by sacrificing himself so that the main protagonist may escape the guillotine.
The novel opens with the famous line, “It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.” And it closes with Carton’s words: “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”
All of these examples of self-sacrifice, from history to nature to literature, point to the greatest of all sacrifices.
Around 700 BC, Isaiah the prophet looked into the centuries ahead and declared, “All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
The only perfect human being who ever lived, Jesus Christ, became sin for us. And sin was punished on the cross. He who was innocent bore our sin in His place. He did this that we might become righteous in God’s sight through faith in Him and thus have everlasting life. As a great Christian hymn puts it, “In my place condemned He stood…Hallelujah! What a Savior!”
TRANSCRIPT
I’m Michael Voris coming to you from Rome in advance of next week’s Amazon Synod.
Although a majority of Catholics probably don’t think in these terms when pondering Rome and the Vatican, it is a pool of intrigue, of personal politics of destruction, of competing agendas based on personalities.
Truth is, it’s always been this way to one degree or another, it’s just that pilgrims and visitors don’t think about it because, well, they don’t have to.
But, according to Church Militant friends in the Vatican — and yes, we do have friends inside — what’s very different under the papacy of Francis is the vindictiveness and pettiness that is the normal course of business here.
Things have gotten so bad, in fact, that people who work here have taken to calling this pontificate “The Reign of Terror.”
Despite the politics and machinations underlying all the intrigue, the truth is there is still actual work that needs to go on. Running a billion-plus person operation does require that people show up every day and actually do actual work.
For example, there are marriage cases that need to be reviewed, priests cases that need investigation, accounting issues that need auditing, personnel decisions and so forth.
In addition to the spiritual aspect, which has been relegated to the back of the bus, there are also temporal concerns which need addressing — the show, as they say, must go on.
And that is why the intrigue is so dangerous. It has reached such levels of personal vindictiveness that the actual work of the Vatican has come to a virtual standstill.
Various cardinals and archbishops have many, and deep, secrets to hide; and between the threat of blackmail, or being exposed as not being on board with the trajectory of the Francis papacy, or just plain old revenge, there is a pall of fear hanging over the Vatican.
Take, for example, just the area of finances, the costs to run the place day to day. The Wall Street Journal in fact highlighted this just yesterday.
For example, the Holy See’s deficit doubled in 2018 to roughly €70 million, which is nearly $80 million U.S.
In response, Pope Francis has ordered the head of the Vatican’s financial oversight council, Cdl. Reinhard Marx, “to study all measures deemed necessary to safeguard the economic future of the Holy See and to ensure that they are put into effect as soon as possible.”
There are a number of reasons that the deficit is ballooning.
First, there are simply less donations coming into the Vatican.
When it was announced that Francis took some of the Peter’s Pence collection last year — half a million — and gave it to support the migrant influx into the United States from Central America, many American Catholics called it quits.
The enormous scandal involving the U.S. Papal Foundation which broke in the wake of the Theodore McCarrick scandal also gave many Americans pause about donating a dime to the Vatican.
Likewise, Legatus, an association of U.S. Catholic business owners, also publicly stated it was withholding its annual donation of almost a million dollars until the sex and money scandals were cleared up.
Additionally, the seemingly non-stop circus of synods and extraordinary meetings and last February’s sex summit all combine to drain the budget. And this month’s Amazon Synod has extraordinary costs associated with it. Even heresy has a hefty price tag.
And if dealing with budget deficits and financial shortfalls isn’t difficult enough just on its own, when you layer on top of that personal agendas, the Vatican has become one big, dysfunctional mess.
For example, there is a practice here politely known as “demotion by promotion” — meaning when it’s determined someone needs to be pushed out because they disagree with the Pope or his henchman who are running the show day to day, a person is either made an example of, like Cdl. Raymond Burke or Cdl. Gerhard Müller, or that person is simply shipped up and out to another assignment, like a nuncio office somewhere else on the planet.
The moving of influential personnel out of the Vatican and into the diplomatic corps is a routine practice, a signal sometimes, in fact, that Francis sees those men as enemies who cannot be at the Vatican.
They are removed by promotion; that way everything appears copasetic but in reality is just a cover for malfeasance and revenge and punishment.
Another fallout from this huge dysfunction is that the middle management, the folks who actually administer the day-to-day operations of the various curial offices, are being fired, shifted around, demoted, transferred and laid off.
This has created a massive headache in administration because first, there is a huge shortage of bodies to get the actual work done, and second, many of the people being axed were the ones with experience, who knew how the wheels turned — in short, how to get things done.
There is hardly one curial office that has not been severely impacted by this, including the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith — the CDF — which handles some of the most difficult cases in the Church.
There is an enormous backlog which is causing havoc, and the situation is directly attributable to Pope Francis’ dismissal of senior middle managers who knew all the protocols and how to keep the machine moving.
But the CDF isn’t the only congregation impacted, and it’s not just a financial calculus going into these decisions.
It’s also ideological — in fact, according to our sources, it’s largely ideological.
According to them, Francis is, in their words, turning the Vatican into North Korea.
The operating principle inside these walls is fear. For all the talk about caring for humanity and reaching out to the most vulnerable, none of it should be believed.
The truth is for those who work for the Pope in the Curia, his papacy is a tyranny racked with fear, uncertainty, constant instability and revenge — all masked over by a false humility.
Some of this actually bubbles to the surface from time to time, like when Pope Francis publicly scolds them at annual meetings, insulting them and accusing them of various things, like gossip and pettiness.
The reality, according to sources, is that Francis has set up an out of control, unaccountable, alternative curia, and, to do so, has denuded the existing staff and offices, creating havoc and mayhem behind the scenes.
His alternative curia is, for example, responsible for locking down all information regarding the Theodore McCarrick investigation and to deflect all inquiries, in short, waiting the scandal out until interest in it has passed.
But this costly alternative curia is also leading the charge against Church doctrine in reformulating and carefully parsing existing teaching.
Lots of Catholics are becoming red-pilled to the outward manifestations of this. What they do not see is what we have just reported: a scuttling of tradition, protocols, best practices and good accounting practices, all at the service of creating an alternative-style Catholicism.
It takes a lot of energy and effort to dismantle a 2000-year-old Church.
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