Victimhood: The New American Culture

victimhoodWho is a victim? Are you?

Everyone according to the Globalists, a.k.a. Left a.k.a. Progressives, is a victim (except “privileged” whites).   The minute that a new supporter becomes a Globalist, that new supporter is grouped and put into a victim class based on the findings of the Progressive left by your race, religion, gender, intelligence, health, looks, sexual preference, etc. You get the point.  America has hundreds of groups to create categories for separation to be used later to divide and conquer.   The left does not see individuals, only groups of victims.

If you listen to Michael Moore at the women’s March, all women are victims.  It does not matter how you view yourself, to the Globalists, you are a victim. Psychologically if you are told you are a victim often enough, you will act and behave like a victim.

The women’s March was quite telling for most people were complaining about things that didn’t happen, and probably will never happen.  Why were they there?  Most were there because in school, victims learn the PRECAUTIONARY Principal and act accordingly.  What that means is: if I can dream it up, then it might happen so I must restrict everything today in anticipation. This way their intolerable “life” can be turned into their “utopia” forced on everyone. Utopia forced on others. How does that work?

Their new laws are restrictive to the majority.  Kind of undemocratic, don’t you think?   This Precautionary Principal now applies to policy we have.

Examples:

  1. Our climate policy is not rooted in fact, instead computers are used with algorithms that will predict what will happen in the future under certain circumstances.
  2. NOAA’s catch shares destroyed the fishing industry. Volumes of fish were deleted by computer. If the computer deletes fish, NOAA can claim shortages.
  3. Claiming that the location of a building private, public, charter, home schools will create better students. The only thing that “fixes” education is changing the curricula.

Many causes make no sense, like abortion.  Globalists have decided that a baby doesn’t have life until it is born. Yet if we discover one single cell on Mars then we say we have discovered life.  Therefore by this scientific description, an abortion terminates life. The real question is, ‘Does a woman have the right to terminate life or does an unborn life form have a right to exist?’

“The central project of the liberal welfare state is to build a society based on a high-minded ethic of altruism rather than narrow self-interest. The whole point is to create a new kind of person whose humane commitments are driven by a more cosmopolitan sensibility beyond his parochial attachments to self, family, and clan.” REUTERS/Mark Blinch

What is actually happening is that we are allowing others to modify our behavior and create laws and policies that make no sense, and are often offensive to the majority. Who actually is the victim? Is it the majority now forced to follow laws they do not believe or is it the minority who think they may be oppressed in the future?

What are the women fighting for?  Many were fighting for the right to have an abortion.  Wait a minute, they already have that right. Others were fighting for equality in the work place.  Wait a minute, the statistics show equality in the work place. The Constitution guarantees that ALL ARE CREATED EQUAL.  It doesn’t say, blacks, Jews, Latinos, women.  The laws in America are for ALL.  If children were taught that in school, think of all the associations, club, groups that would no longer be necessary.

What is behind all of this?  Helping victims?  No, sorry its money. Victimhood creates emotions and emotions can be turned into money. The Globalists are all about money.

Victims are created by a common cause. That cause will generate money (donations) from others who feel emotionally connected to that cause.  Thus the group – not individual mentality – is born.  The Globalists do not care about individuals, only causes.

Why do Globalists need the money? That money is used to create and train people who will be future activist and rioters.  Check out Discover the Networks where you will find the organizations set up to train future activists as well as Organizations Funded Directly by George Soros and his Open Society Foundations.  Hundreds of millions have been spent and more to follow. Victimhood makes money!

Before we go further, let’s define victim: a person who has been attacked, injured, robbed, or killed by someone else.  In politics, the injury is more mental than physical.  Victims of political action are guided into feeling a certain way, building anger until the anger takes over the personality.  Any other feeling becomes intolerable. To think contrary to the group becomes unbearable and intolerable.  The student learns to hate.  Remember, you have to be taught to hate.

Where does all of this hate come from?   Hate is now taught in school.  You don’t start your life immersed in hatred. You must learn.  One just has to listen to the interviews of the crowds at the “gatherings”. Once you learn hate, intolerance is its evil partner.  Once that happens, your thoughts are easy to control.

The mistake we make is to think that the propaganda applies only in college.  Wrong again. This Data Mining in elementary school makes it easy to instill hate in the young by questions and then reinforce those feeling with the “correct” answers. It then makes it easy for the “computer” to begin to categorize the victims and alter behavior to the desired response in kindergarten.

The student, through careful wording and hidden meanings, can become part of a particular category.  The child will then be “accepted”.  “Being accepted” to a young child is often all they need to mold their future behavior.   The group mentality is then formed based around feelings, not fact.  Individuals take a back seat to the group.  Self- reliance, common sense, individual success are thrown aside in order to create a more perfect group of victims.  A child who thinks “outside the box,” is often kicked out of the box.

Young students can suffer the trauma of being separated from their family beliefs.  How often have you heard, “Old people don’t know anything. Don’t trust people over 30. You parents aren’t as smart as the teacher.  School is your new family?”

Through early indoctrination using the victim model, victims become the new cash cow of the Globalists. The cause creates control over the individual. Many individuals grouping together gives POWER to the group pushing the cause. Emotion of the cause creates the desire to help. Help comes in the form of donations. What a cycle.

Victims suffer because they are black. They suffer because they are women. They suffer because they are LGBT or anything that the tears people apart, changing what is “normal” separating them from the rest of the population.  At any given time victims can be called upon to act/mobilize with their fellow victims.  All are always victimized by: the whites, by their employers, the 1%, by the Christians, by the Jews, by the Constitution.  In essence you are a victim and therefore you need the government to help.  Just hop aboard the Globalist train, where you will find hoards of victims.

In order to get you into survival mode and not victim mode, I have a question. With all the money we have spent “on causes”, Why do we still have victims?  I’ve been hearing the same mantra since the sixties. Nothing has changed. Billions have been spent to eliminate that behavior.  Yet, nothing has changed.  All of that money has been spent.    Could it be the goal is not to change anything?  The real goal is to generate money.

Once you are part of that victim group with a cause (truth and facts be damned!) the media, Hollywood, teachers, lawyers, judges and professors stir the emotions. The propaganda slants the “news” to fit the narrative. The group believes that the majority feels the same. Yet statistics often show that the real victims of the cause are usually less than 3% of the population.  Why are new laws being made to support less than 3% of the population when ALL Americans are to be protected.  Aren’t the 3% part of ALL. Sighting a cause forces the 97% to adhere to the new laws. Why?  CONTROL.  Another goal of the Globalist Puppeteer is CONTROL. What drives these Globalists? MONEY, POWER, CONTROL

Look at the results of this new victim culture in America:

  1. 9/11 Americans became victims
  2. In the name of security, the Patriot Act was passed.  The Act created the NSA with power and authority to survey every American citizen and store the data in a huge facility in Utah.
  3. In the name of safety, the NDAA was signed giving the President the power to spy on Americans without warrants under certain circumstances.  (Do you think anyone pays attention to the circumstances?)  A President can just order the stored data to be delivered without a warrant.
  4. Obama EO 12333 allowed all intelligence agencies to share warrant less data without warrants.
  5. Do you feel more safe?  Is giving up your privacy worth being spied on for “national security” sake?  Don’t you feel like Nanny is watching you?

The Globalists usually create the atmosphere for victimization.

Hillary and Obama had women working for them a who were paid less than men in the same job. Hollywood is notorious for paying their women less than men. Yet they screamed loudest for equality in the work place.  Where was the outrage?

Now you know the process to control you, what can you do?  I am just one – will my voice be heard?  The good news is, “WE the People,” are a lot smarter then we are given credit for.  The past election proved that we have the numbers. The question is, will we do our part? What is our part?

The concept of America is that individuals will become the best they can be.  School is designed to provide the skills to be used by students, enabling them to make informed decisions in their future.  Once skills are learned, these individuals can work together and create the exceptionalism that drives America.  Today school no longer teaches those skills. You can’t be a victim and become the best, unless you consider that you will be the best victim.

Being successful requires self reliance, common sense, ability to think for yourself outside the box.  School was to assist you with the as the ability to check your emotions, deal with facts and think before you act. Since those skills are no longer taught in school it becomes our responsibility to reverse the irresponsible curricula. Students who are not taught about American exceptionalism, freedom and liberty, will not fight for American exceptionalism, freedom and liberty. We see the results of that failed education in America’s snowflake population.

The Globalists won this round.  In order to change America into a culture of Victims they have taken over the schools.  In order to “take back” anything, we have to look at where the cancer grows.  It grows in school. It is the curricula of victimhood that has created generations of victims incapable of thinking for themselves. So as POTUS gives education back to the states and local communities, will you participate and put together a new American, success curricula?  Will you go to school board meeting and monitor texts for truth, not values?  America is at a unique time in history. Once again the People are engaged.  Let’s channel our energy to a challenge that is in our control, the local schools.

America’s future is in our hands. If you can volunteer to help America’s children, contact me.

Orlando’s Muslim Professor Areeje Zufari — Profile of a ‘Radical Islamic Supremacist’

Areej Zufari photo

Areeje Zufari

This column provides the background of Professor Areeje Zufari, a Professor of Humanities and Coordinator of the Humanities Speakers Series at Valencia College located in Orlando, Florida. Zufari gained attention when she told her students “that the crucifixion of Jesus was a hoax and that his disciples did not believe he was ‘divine.’”

But there is much more to this story.

Joe Kaufman, an investigative journalist for FrontPage Magazine and Chairman of Americans Against Hate a civil rights organization and terrorism watchdog group, filed an affidavit No. CT-003545-04 naming Professor Zufari and her then husband Maher Ghawji a medical doctor based in Memphis, Tennessee. The affidavit reads in part:

8. Maher Ghawji has admitted to his wife of being a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, a violent political movement whose members are sworn to “defend Islam” with their “blood.” He accepted this status with a group of friends, during a trip they had made to Cairo, Egypt (Exhibit 1). He left Syria around 1982, the year a government-led massacre took place in the town of Hama – a Brotherhood stronghold – which resulted in the deaths of 10,000 to 40,000 people (Exhibit 2). Following the massacre, members of the Brotherhood fled Syria, some leaving for the U.S. or Europe, some joining up with Osama bin Laden to fight in Afghanistan (Exhibit 3).

9. During his court deposition, on June 4, 2004, Maher Ghawji admitted to the court and to his wife of being a Wahhabi, an adherent to a fanatical religious form of Islam emanating from Saudi Arabia (Exhibit 4 – page 26).

[ … ]

11a. Maher Ghawji’s son, Louis, has written about how his father wants to “get rid” of all Jews and how his father wants him [Louis] to become a suicide bomber. In an e-mail he sent to a friend on June 24, 2004, he wrote, “And because he [Maher Ghawji] wants to get rid of all Jews and everybody should be muslim and if not all others are idiots and blah blah blah muslim allah blah blah blah wants me to go blow up myself so he would be proud of me…” (Exhibit 5).

11b. Both of Maher Ghawji’s sons have discussed how their father hates Jews. In the July 2, 2004 chambers interview with Louis and K.K. Ghawji, the children state the following: K.K. Ghawji: “So, but also, when he watches the TV and hears about Jews, he doesn’t – he’s like saying I hate the Jews, it is – ” Louis Ghawji: “He’s always wondering like every time there is one Jew dead, it is always a big fuss…” (Exhibit 5).

12. About Palestinians becoming suicide bombers, Maher Ghawji stated in his June 2004 deposition, “I think this will generate this, I’m not sure, spirit of blowing themselves up or feeling in despair; and when you’re in despair evidently like they live, and these people has no education, fifty percent jobless, have no running water after the invasion of Israeli to the Gaza Strip and West Bank, destroy all their infrastructure, evidently they feel miserable; and I said these people — I don’t see why not.” (Exhibit 4 – page 82).

Read the full affidavit…

Areej-with-Maher-at-Wedding

Areeje Zufari at her wedding to Dr. Maher Ghawji. Photo: Joe Kaufman.

According to Jacob Engels from the Central Florida Post:

…Zufari had given Polston a failing grade without explanation, after the two disagreed over Zufari proclaiming during the first class that the Crucifixion of Christ was a hoax… as was the idea that Jesus’s disciples did not think he was “divine.”

Polston reached out and demanded an explanation from the professor, but she instead reported him to the Dean of Safety for making her feel “unsafe.”

The straight-A student would ultimately be suspended on March 24th and then face outlandish allegations by Zufari, later that day.

She accused him of skulking around in the brush outside the classroom, but video surveillance from a Dr. Phillips restaurant and neighborhood gate cameras prove Polston was nowhere near the school at the time.

Now the Central Florida Post has uncovered a lawsuit filed in Orange County, FL in 2007 that contains bombshell allegations against Zufari and provide insight into her radical Wahhabi leanings. SEE THE LAWSUIT BELOW.

Read more…

Zufari Lawsuit by Jacob Engels on Scribd

EDITORS NOTE: Ms. Areeje Zufari Amazon.com profile notes:

Professor and writer Areej Zufari was born in the United States to Middle Eastern parents. Her interest in Middle Eastern culture began during her childhood in Arkansas where she also discovered her love for writing and painting. She earned a Masters degree in Liberal Studies from Rollins College and a Bachelors degree from Southern Methodist University. After 2001, she took on the demanding role of Director of Media and Communications for the Islamic Society of Central Florida. Her experiences speaking in the media revealed to her the numerous misconceptions Americans hold about the Middle East and Islam. Inspired by the importance of education to promote peace, Zufari enrolled in Hartford Seminary and earned a graduate certificate in Islamic Chaplaincy. Now, as a professor at Valencia College in Orlando, Florida, Zufari teaches Humanities courses full-time and writes during her weekends and summers. [Emphasis added]

Discover the Networks reports:

Imam Muhammad Musri, who oversees seven mosques from the Islamic Society of Central Florida, believes that Arab Christians claiming to have converted from Islam “are lying and . . . were actually Christians all along.” “They are using tales of conversion,” he says, “to get financial backing from evangelical ministries.” Taking a jab at Christianity’s many Protestant denominations, he adds, “We don’t want the Muslims to end up with 700 determinations of Islam.” Musri’s speeches are sold and distributed by the Islamic Society of North America.

Ms. Zufari’s Faculty FrontDoor profile reads:

arab-spring 22

Ms. Zufari’s Faculty FrontDoor profile picture titled “Arab Spring”. Graphic courtesy of Ms. Zufari and Valencia College.

Welcome! I am a Professor of Humanities at Valencia Community College’s East Campus.

I teach the Middle Eastern Humanities, 20th Century Humanities, Renaissance & Baroque Humanities.

Human creativity is one of the most fascinating subjects, and Humanities courses allow us to jump into the creative fields in an integrative manner.

My courses emphasize student interaction and critical thinking. If you are interested in taking one of my courses, please send me an email. I would love to hear from you.

Phone: 407-582-2349

Email:azufari1@valenciacollege.edu

Office: East Campus

Ms. Zufari’s elective Middle Eastern Humanities course syllabus reads:

Course Description:

The course covers topics such as Middle Eastern religions, philosophy, literature, architecture, visual arts, music, and the effects of modernity on the Middle East.

Major Topics:

Students will have the opportunity to study the culture of the Middle East in an integrated manner that focuses on the dominant ideas and major trends, including:

  • Characteristics and Distinctions of Middle Eastern Culture
  • Themes, styles, and impact of Middle Eastern Literature
  • Concepts and impact of the religion of Islam
  • The effects of religion on Middle Eastern peoples
  • Characteristics and trends in Middle Eastern Art
  • Characteristics of Middle Eastern Architecture
  • The Effects of Modernity on the Middle East

Texts:

  • Beyond the Headlines: A Deeper Look at Middle Eastern Culture by Areej Zufari

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Georgetown University and Radical Islamists: It’s a Family Affair

The case of Yale

‘This Is Not a Debate’ – Yale’s fight for free speech

Australia: Muslim leader says people who leave Islam should be put to death

Somali refugee sentenced to 3 years for attempted sexual assault of mentally disabled woman

When we first reported this case, it was learned through an apparent miscommunication by lawyers for the defendant that he had only arrived in the country the week before the incident occurred in July of last year. Now we learn he was a wandering Somali who had first been resettled in Idaho three years ago and had drifted from state to state ever since.

Before this case hit the news we had heard about the mayor there supporting the proposed opening of a direct resettlement site in Aberdeen and that citizens were upset. Click here for our first story on Aberdeen.  I then visited the city during my travels throughout the Midwest and West last summer where I was mostly interested in seeing meatpacking towns that were being changed with the influx of refugee laborers.

mike-levsen-mayor

Aberdeen Mayor Mike Levsen

Here is what happened in an Aberdeen court yesterday, from Leo Hohmann at World Net Daily:

Liban Mohamed, a 39-year-old Somali refugee living in Aberdeen, South Dakota, was sentenced Monday to three years for attempting to sexually assault a severely mentally handicapped woman at a group home.

Speaking through an interpreter, Mohamed said he didn’t know English. Yet, he was seen communicating with his lawyer in English.

Judge Richard Summers sentenced Mohamed to five years, with two years suspended for a total of three years and gave him credit for time served of 228 days. Mohamed is not a U.S. citizen, but he has been living in the United States on a green card.  [I assume there was no order for deportation after he finishes his sentence, will he be wandering to your state in three short years?—ed]

The incident happened July 30, 2016, just three days after Mohamed had arrived in Aberdeen to work at the Demkota Ranch beef-processing plant. He’d been in the country for about three years at that point, having been first resettled in Idaho. He then moved to Missouri, Kansas and on to South Dakota.

It’s not the only case recently of a Somali refugee running afoul of the law. Another man from Somalia, 24-year-old Abdirhman Noor, was charged with the attempted murder of two men on July 8, 2016, outside the Foxridge Apartments in Aberdeen. Noor jumped bail, failing to show up for a pretrial hearing in February. He has been missing ever since.

Still, the mayor of the small city, Mike Levsen, supports the continued arrival of refugees, many of whom are put to work in the local meatpacking plant and at a molded fiberglass plant.

The Liban Mohamed case was also notable for the way it was handled by the local media in and around Aberdeen.

Despite the facts – that a helpless woman was preyed upon by a refugee who had arrived in town just days earlier – coverage by the local newspaper, the Aberdeen News American, and local TV was non-existent until WND brought it to light.

When it did finally report the story, the News American refused to tell its readers that the perpetrator, Mohamed, was a refugee and buried the story on page 3.

The Brown County Sheriff’s Office refused to give WND a mugshot of Mohamed.

There are many more details.  Continue reading here.

I wonder what his arrest, his legal counsel, his interpreters and his incarceration is costing the taxpayers of South Dakota? So much for refugees adding to local economies!

Aberdeen citizens might wish to review the ‘Rutland model’ regarding mayors.

Mayor Levsen gave a state of the city address last month. Note: “immigrants” adding to Aberdeen population.

Index finds Rallying Home Purchase Market in 2016

Today, AEI’s International Center on Housing Risk (ICHR) and First American Financial Corporation release the AEI/First American National Housing Market Index (NHMI), the first index ever to analyze sales transaction volume for the entire home purchase market.

The national housing market continued its rally in the fourth quarter of 2016. On an annualized basis, 5,810,000 sales transactions were reported, which is up 350,000 transactions, or 6.4 percent, from 2015.

  • 2015 had already seen demand grow by 340,000 transactions or 7.6 percent from 2014.
  • The home purchase market also closed out 2016 with strong growth as transactions increased 9.1 percent in the fourth quarter compared to a year ago.
  • Cash sales continued to trend down accounting for only 29 percent of all transactions in 2016, down from 30 percent in 2015 and 36 percent in 2013.
  • Filling its void was government-backed lending, which accounted for 55 percent of all transactions in 2016, up from 53 percent in 2015 and 50 percent in 2013. 
  • The AEI/First American National Housing Market Index (NHMI) is the first index to report on the entire home purchase market.
  • Transaction numbers are also available on the state and metro area level for unprecedented geographical detail.

The NHMI combines ICHR’s data on the federal agency market (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Federal Housing Association, Veterans Affairs, and Rural Housing Services) with data provided by First American via DataTree.com for the private side of the mortgage market and for cash and non-institutionalized lender sales. The combined data set nearly covers the volume of the entire market at the national, state, and metro levels. To account for the small amount of incomplete data, housing data are scaled to estimate total volume at the various reported levels.

In contrast to existing estimates of home sales, the AEI/First American NHMI is based on comprehensive loan- and transaction-level data and does not involve extrapolations from a survey or sample of the housing market. Other published data are based on surveys or samples, necessitating assumptions about the entire market. The NHMI is the only metric that (i) compiles data from virtually the entire housing market, (ii) provides views into the data from many key perspectives, and (iii) is published quarterly with minimal time lag.

The AEI/First American NHMI is released quarterly by AEI’s ICHR. It provides counts for home purchase transactions undertaken with institutional financing or other financing, as well as cash sales. In addition, dollar volumes, loan counts, average loan amounts, and market shares for primary owner and secondary owner/non-owner tenure types will be provided at the national, state, and metro area level for each of the five loan agencies (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the FHA, the VA, and Rural Housing Services), as well as for the private (non-agency) loan sector in order to give an accurate and detailed picture of activity in the home purchase and the mortgage loan markets. Today’s release reports on transactions from the fourth quarter of 2016. The quarterly time series tracks housing data back to the fourth quarter of 2012 and is based on almost 23 million home purchase transactions. The number will grow with each additional quarter of data.

“The NHMI-Primary Owner Purchase Loan volume index rose to 141 in 2016: Q4, as compared to 124 in 2015:Q4 and 116 in 2014:Q4,” noted Edward Pinto, co-director of the American Enterprise Institute’s (AEI’s) International Center on Housing Risk. “Based on these and other data, I expect 2017 purchase originations to continue to grow robustly.”

“The total value of residential purchase transactions in the U.S. housing market approached $1 trillion in 2016, coming in at $965 trillion for the year. The share of cash sales continues to decrease, but remains a significant portion of the overall market at 29 percent,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist at First American. “Entering the busy spring home buying season, I expect prices to continue to rise and transaction volumes to continue to grow, spurred on by the strong sellers’ market and increasing Millennial, first-time homebuyer demand.”

The NHMI for the first quarter of 2017 will be released on June 26, 2017.

To arrange an interview with Ed Pinto, please contact AEI Media Services at mediaservices@aei.org or 202.862.4870.

To arrange an interview with First American Chief Economist Mark Fleming, please contact First American’s corporate communications team at 714-250-3298. Mark Fleming’s unique research and analysis of real estate, mortgage risk and housing trends is available at www.firstam.com/economics.

About First American

First American Financial Corporation (NYSE: FAF) is a leading provider of title insurance, settlement services and risk solutions for real estate transactions that traces its heritage back to 1889. First American also provides title plant management services; title and other real property records and images; valuation products and services; home warranty products; property and casualty insurance; and banking, trust and investment advisory services. With revenues of $5.6 billion in 2016, the company offers its products and services directly and through its agents throughout the United States and abroad. In both 2016 and 2017, First American was recognized by Fortune® magazine as one of the 100 best companies to work for in America. More information about the company can be found at www.firstam.com.

About AEI

AEI’s International Center on Housing Risk provides research, commentary, and new tools for measuring housing and mortgage market trends. Mr. Pinto is the codirector of the ICHR, a resident fellow at AEI, and a former executive vice president and chief credit officer for Fannie Mae.

VIDEO: Muslim members of UN asked — ‘Where are your Jews?’ Hypocrisy exposed!

These countries exiled nearly a million Jews in 1948, and now they are posturing about Israel’s supposed “apartheid” policies, when Arab Muslims in Israel serve in the Knesset. The hypocrisy is astounding, and generally never noted.

Bravo to Hillel Neuer for calling out these self-righteous hypocrites.

“UN Watch Fires Back at Countries Accusing Israel of Abuses, ‘Where are your Jews?,’” by Jack Heretik, Washington Free Beacon, March 24, 2017 11:16 am

UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer shot back at countries accusing Israel of apartheid and violence against Palestinians, asking them where the Jewish populations in their countries have gone.

During a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council on Monday, several Middle Eastern countries took turns bashing Israel, saying that it has imposed apartheid and violence against Palestinians. A Palestinian representative was joined by Qatar, Sudan, Syria, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia in criticizing Israel.

Neuer was then recognized to respond to the accusations from the representatives, as well as those from a UN report.

“Everything we just heard, from the world’s worst abusers of human rights, of women’s rights, of freedom of religion, of the press, of assembly, of speech, is absolutely false and indeed Orwellian,” Neuer said….

“Israel’s 1.5 million Arabs, whatever challenges they face, enjoy full rights to vote and to be elected in the Knesset, they work as doctors and lawyers, they serve on the Supreme Court,” Neuer said….

“How many Jews live in your countries? How many Jews lived in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco?” Neuer pointed out. “Once upon a time, the Middle East was full of Jews.”

Neuer went through a list of those countries asking, “Where are your Jews?” after stating how many Jews used to live there.

“Where is the apartheid, Mr. President?” Neuer asked.

“Why are we meeting today on an agenda item singling out only one state, the Jewish state, for targeting? Where is the apartheid, Mr. President?” Neuer said.

For a substantial amount of time following Neuer’s remarks, the council was silent.

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No statutory authority underpinning refugee program in so-called Wilson-Fish states

The Refugee Act of 1980 does permit a state to withdraw from the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program, but here is the catch: Back in 1984 Congress passed an amendment to the act that was then completely abused by the bureaucrats in the federal government who did not want to stop sending refugees to those states.  They came up with a program (created through regulations with no backing in the law) to pass the responsibility off to non-profit groups.

Here James Simpson writing at the Daily Caller tells us more about the illegal program:

The Thomas More Law Center has initiated a lawsuit on behalf of the Tennessee General Assembly. The suit charges that the government is violating both the U.S. Constitution’s Spending Clause and the 10th Amendment by forcing Tennessee to cover the costs of refugee resettlement in the state even though Tennessee dropped out of the program in 2008.

Under the 1980 Refugee Act, the federal government promised to provide 100 percent of the state share of refugee cash and medical welfare costs for the first 36 months of their resettlement. That constituted a significant savings for participating states, especially considering that refugees use welfare at very high rates. However, by 1991 the feds had stopped reimbursing states altogether. The refugee program has become an unfunded mandate.

Adding insult to injury, starting in 1995, the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), began assigning a private refugee resettlement contractor (called Voluntary Agency or VOLAG) to keep the resettlement program running in states that drop out. This would ensure a continual flow of refugees to the state.

In addition to welfare, refugees bring significant other costs, including interpreters, English classes for students, medical and other services. For example, in 2016, Amarillo, Texas Mayor Paul Harpole complained, “We have 660 (refugee) kids who don’t speak English and the U.S. Department of Education says they have to be at grade level within one year. It’s a ludicrous requirement — they don’t even know how to use the bathroom.”

Simpson then points out that states which withdrew, and which then were turned over to a non-profit group to run, received many more refugees after the non-profit (VOLAG) began calling the shots along with the feds. His table  at right shows the dramatic jump in numbers when unelected non-profit group leaders placed refugees in unwilling states and effectively began spending state tax dollars.

Continue reading to learn more about the illegal placement of refugees in states that have wished to not participate in the program.

BTW, Texas recently dropped out of the USRAP—will the governor join Tennessee lawsuit???  Will Maine’s governor join the suit? How about Christie in NJ or Brownback in Kansas? See here.

More on Simpson, here.

RELATED ARTICLE: Australia plans to take mostly Syrian Christians for resettlement…

Real vs Fake Health Care Reform, and How to Tell the Difference by Jeffrey A. Tucker

You want to know why the “freedom caucus” has balked at passing the Trump-backed Ryancare health care proposal?

Because the package does not address the core problem of the existing system. They are leaning – correctly – on a brilliant insight from F.A. Hayek.

Let’s think this through.

What was the most fundamental problem with Obamacare? It attempted to set up an artificial market that lacked the most salient feature of markets: genuine competition. Real competition. I don’t mean teams struggling for control. I mean an institutional setting in which producers can innovate. They face free entry and exit. Their well-being depends on serving the consumer.Obamacare has flopped because it disabled what remained of the competitive system with defined benefits packages, mandates that everyone be covered, requirements that everyone must purchase, and geographic limits on service provision. All these together took health care out of the realm of markets and made it a form of central planning.

And so: Obamacare resulted in soaring premiums, soaring deductibles, shoddy access, and ever-increasing bureaucracy. It became untenable. Objecting to it doesn’t have to be a matter of ideology. The contraption just didn’t work.

The core insight of the “freedom caucus” comes from Hayek and his fascinating piece “The Meaning of Competition”:

It is only through competition that we can assume that these possible savings of cost will be achieved. Even if in each instance prices were only just low enough to keep out producers which do not enjoy these or other equivalent advantages, so that each commodity were produced as cheaply as possible, though many may be sold at prices considerably above costs, this would probably be a result which could not be achieved by any other method than that of letting competition operate …

Yet the current tendency in discussion is to be intolerant about the imperfections and to be silent about the prevention of competition. We can probably still learn more about the real significance of competition by studying the results which regularly occur where competition is deliberately suppressed than by concentrating on the shortcomings of actual competition compared with an ideal which is irrelevant for the given facts.

I say advisedly “where competition is deliberately suppressed” and not merely “where it is absent,” because its main effects are usually operating, even if more slowly, so long as it is not outright suppressed with the assistance or the tolerance of the state.

The evils which experience has shown to be the regular consequence of a suppression of competition are on a different plane from those which the imperfections of competition may cause. Much more serious than the fact that prices may not correspond to marginal cost is the fact that, with an entrenched monopoly, costs are likely to be much higher than is necessary …

Competition is essentially a process of the formation of opinion: by spreading information, it creates that unity and coherence of the economic system which we presuppose when we think of it as one market. It creates the views people have about what is best and cheapest, and it is because of it that people know at least as much about possibilities and opportunities as they in fact do. It is thus a process which involves a continuous change in the data and whose significance must therefore be completely missed by any theory which treats these data as constant.

Let me paraphrase and apply: no, there will not be a perfect world. Total freedom is not a political option right now. So what’s the priority for any reform? The most crucial institutions in any society are the signaling systems of prices that reflect existing knowledge and possibilities.

When those are malfunctioning, nothing else works. Costs go up, quality goes down, innovation stops, and the sector starts to atrophy.

Competition Restoration Means Health Care Restoration

The first priority is that competition must be restored through some measure of deregulation. The mandates must go. The pre-set benefits packages must die. Insurers must gain control over their business affairs and customers have to be able to shop and choose.

We must regain flexibility to inspire innovation and achieve profitability. This must happen or else premiums will keep going up. This is a requirement. Obamacare failed because it disabled the market. Any reform must restore that market. This is more important than any other feature of reform.Trumpcare or Ryancare or whatever you want to call it does not do that. It replaces a mandate to buy with a tax incentive to buy. Otherwise it leaves the problem of the absence of genuine competition in place. True, the alternative doesn’t do anything about the transfer of payments, but, if you follow Hayek, you know that these are less important to eliminate than are the barriers to competition.

The restoration of competition will discover for us things we do not know about service provision: treatments, plans, new institutional arrangements, new forms of insurance, new methods for serving the public. Competition will grow the market and make profitability the test of success or failure.

If that does not happen, premiums will keep increasing, quality will go down, access will continue to shrink, and public anger will grow as a result.

Now is the time. Again, it is not about ideology. It is about a system of health care insurance that actually works to serve the common good.

Jeffrey A. Tucker

Jeffrey A. Tucker

Jeffrey Tucker is Director of Content for the Foundation for Economic Education. He is also Chief Liberty Officer and founder of Liberty.me, Distinguished Honorary Member of Mises Brazil, research fellow at the Acton Institute, policy adviser of the Heartland Institute, founder of the CryptoCurrency Conference, member of the editorial board of the Molinari Review, an advisor to the blockchain application builder Factom, and author of five books. He has written 150 introductions to books and many thousands of articles appearing in the scholarly and popular press.

RELATED ARTICLE: Is Trump Sabotaging Obamacare? – POLITICO Magazine

RELATED VIDEO: Senator Rand Paul Doesn’t Want the GOP to Fail at Obamacare Replacement Plan.

EDITORS NOTE: Learn real skills from successful entrepreneurs at FEEcon: June 15-17 (Register by May 15).

It’s Fake News to Call the ‘Freedom Caucus’ the ‘Rebellious Far Right’ by Jeffrey A. Tucker

My hope is that this article will settle this nonsense once and for all. It won’t. Fake news outlets will persist as long as they are allowed to get away with it. It’s a smear and an outright lie but it goes on often, especially recently.

The Background

First of all, as you undoubtedly know, there is a faction within the House of Representatives gaining consciousness of the great task of our time: to get government out of the way of the productive forces of freedom, and to do this in every area of life. It is called the “Freedom Caucus,” and their influence just brought down the false alternative to Obamacare that preserved all its essential features.

Given the upheaval in the Republican Party, these people are developing a new understanding of themselves. They stood up to Trump. Clearly, they don’t exist on the common left/right spectrum.In how they handled the great Obamacare/Ryancare debacle, they should be called “libertarians,” because this is the word that has emerged to describe them in our times.

But more correctly, they should be called “liberals,” because they are the successors to the great cause of human liberation that began in the late Middle Ages, extended through the Enlightenment, drove the revolutions against power in the 18th century, ended slavery and the subjugation of women in the 19th century, and fought socialism and fascism in the 20th century. In the 21st century, they’ve championed digital innovation, privacy, and technological progress.

Here is good tutorial.

What They Believe

This group, which is undergoing a revival in many forms in our times, is trending toward being a consistent force of freedom. It’s not there just yet but the trend line is unmistakable and good. It’s not just about lower taxes, though they do desire that. They also want free trade, free migration as an ideal, free speech, deregulation, penal and prison reform, and an end to wars of all sorts. In short, they see the free society as the answer and government as the problem.

They have few connections to what is called the Left, except in areas like prison reform, drug decriminalization, and free speech. But neither do they share the values of the emergent far Right we’re seeing in Europe or the United States. They reject authoritarians of all sorts, which is why they are not reliable friends of the Trump administration. They will back him when he is right but fight him when he is wrong. They are independent in this way, recognizing that both Right and Left are forms of statist ideology, two flavors of the same cause.They are often called “conservatives” in American political lexicon, and sometimes they too have to embrace this term because it has resonance with the media and the voters. But they don’t like it, and it doesn’t really describe them. They do not want to conserve any old habits of government. They want government out of the way precisely so market forces and society in general can discover new and better ways of doing things.

Now, having described the Freedom Caucus in the House as best I can, consider what the New York Times says. The article “Trump Becomes Ensnared in Fiery G.O.P. Civil War” is by Glenn Thrush (twitter.com/GlennThrush) and Maggie Haberman (twitter.com/maggieNYT). Here is what they write:

In stopping the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, the Republican Party’s professed priority for the last seven years, the rebellious far Right wing of his party out-rebelled Mr. Trump, and won a major victory on Friday over the party establishment that he now leads.

You see that? The “rebellious far Right wing.”

The Real Far Right

Any reader would equate that designation with Marine Le Pen in France, Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, the Golden Dawn in Greece, Jobbik in Hungary, Norbert Hofer in Austria, and so on. Actually, you can read all about the rise of the far Right in Europe in a very authoritative source: the New York Times, in an article published only a few months ago.

Their policies are by now predictable. They want protectionism, restricted immigration, some form of industrial economic planning, a strong welfare safety net, and, very often, they favor national health care systems.In fact, even in the United States, the most highly-trafficked Nazi website (please forgive me for not linking) came out with a front page editorial on the day of the Republican vote that came out explicitly for nationalized health insurance.

These policies are not pro-freedom. They have more in common with an interwar-style fascism. Most people who hang out on Twitter know them well. They are masters of the troll, self-proclaimed edge lords who tweet racist, anti-semitic, and nativist slogans and memes all day and all night. There are whole packages of software designed to block them.

Libertarianism is different, very different, from the alt-right, the far Right, the fascist right, the Nazi right, and so on.

Rebellious, Yes; Far Right, No

With health care, in particular, you see a striking difference. The Freedom Caucus opposed the Trump/Ryan plan because it preserved the statist features of Obamacare. It did not introduce market competition. They knew, as a matter of personal conviction and experience, that the replacement would not work. They acted out of principle but also out of a genuine knowledge of the sector, what has broken it, and how it must be fixed.

These reporters really must find a way to clean up their language, or risk sowing a very dangerous confusion. It is ridiculously misleading to persist in these old habits of describing any non-Leftist as associated with the “far Right.” It smacks of propaganda. These reporters have to do better if they want to describe the emergent liberal faction of the Republican party with any accuracy.On a personal note, I adore the New York Times. I read it thoroughly every day. I don’t agree with it, but I find it an indispensable source of news. I would like to see the ideological reporting of this paper improve.

If you tweet to these reporters, please be nice. No trolling. They are human beings. They are trying to do their best. They just need a bit of help. It is crucial they get this right.

Jeffrey A. Tucker

Jeffrey A. Tucker

Jeffrey Tucker is Director of Content for the Foundation for Economic Education. He is also Chief Liberty Officer and founder of Liberty.me, Distinguished Honorary Member of Mises Brazil, research fellow at the Acton Institute, policy adviser of the Heartland Institute, founder of the CryptoCurrency Conference, member of the editorial board of the Molinari Review, an advisor to the blockchain application builder Factom, and author of five books. He has written 150 introductions to books and many thousands of articles appearing in the scholarly and popular press.

RELATED ARTICLE: Is Trump Sabotaging Obamacare? – POLITICO Magazine

RELATED VIDEO: Senator Rand Paul Doesn’t Want the GOP to Fail at Obamacare Replacement Plan.

EDITORS NOTE: Learn real skills from successful entrepreneurs at FEEcon: June 15-17 (Register by May 15).

In California, Florida and Illinois 50% of all babies are born on Medicaid

Terence P. Jeffrey in his March 24th, 2017 column In 24 States, 50% or More of Babies Born on Medicaid; New Mexico Leads Nation With 72% writes:

In 24 of the nation’s 50 states at least half of the babies born during the latest year on record had their births paid for by Medicaid, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

New Mexico led all states with 72 percent of the babies born there in 2015 having their births covered by Medicaid.

[ … ]

In California, Florida and Illinois, for example, 50 percent of all babies were born on Medicaid in the latest year on record.

Read more…

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) report Implementing Coverage and Payment Initiatives: Results from a 50-State Medicaid Budget Survey for State Fiscal Years 2016 and 2017:

Medicaid has become one of the nation’s most important health care programs, now providing health insurance coverage to more than one in five Americans, and accounting for over one-sixth of all U.S. health care expenditures. [Emphasis added]

The KFF report concludes that, “Medicaid programs now play a significant leadership role in the health care systems in every state.”

Kaiser Family Foundation published a map showing the percentage of babies by state who are born on Medicaid:

babies born medicaid by state

You may view a chart with the details of each states births paid for by Medicaid by clicking here.

american_health_care_actMedicaid reform is much needed and will be part of the next version of the House of Representatives American Health Care Act (AHCA). The AHCA website lists 8 Need-To-Know Facts About the AHCA, one of which addresses Medicaid:

6. Modernizes and strengthens Medicaid by transitioning to a “per capita allotment” so states can better serve the patients most in need.

KFF gave this analysis of “per capita allotment” contained in a previous House Republican Healthcare Plan:

The House Republican Plan (“A Better Way”) released on June 22, 2016, includes a proposal to convert federal Medicaid financing from an open-ended entitlement to a per capita allotment or a block grant (based on a state choice).

This proposal is part of a larger package designed to replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and reduce federal spending for health care.  Often tied to deficit reduction, proposals to convert Medicaid’s financing structure to a per capita cap or block grant have been proposed before.

Such changes represent a fundamental change in the financing structure of the program with major implications for beneficiaries, providers, states and localities.

Read more…

There was a time in America when babies were paid for by their families. Perhaps it is time for government to get out of the baby funding business and let families take control?

Refugee Resettlement is ‘Changing America by changing the people!’

This story at WRAL.com is meant to be one of those warm and fuzzy stories about ‘welcoming’ refugees (and diversity) to a southern city and how mean old Donald Trump has slowed their progress in changing Durham.

The last line of the story by reporter Tess Allen is the most instructive:

A new community is being built in Durham, one that is constantly evolving, one with a mix of faces, languages and cultures. And World Relief Durham and its volunteers plan to be there every step of the way.

Turning red states blue by seeding diversity. Map showing where all of North Carolina’s refugees came from in 2016.

Here are a few bits worth highlighting:

World Relief depends on federal funding for the majority of their financing. They receive a per capita grant dependent on the number of refugees coming into their area. That money helps support the agencies’ offices, staff and, mostly, the refugees themselves.

Matthew Soerens

With the dramatic decrease in refugee arrivals that would accompany the reinstatement of this order, World Relief’s funding will drop equally dramatically. The Durham office, for example, will lose one-fourth of its federal funding, or about $250,000 a year. Nationwide, five World Relief offices will close and 140 staff members will be laid off.

[….]

Soerens [Matthew Soerens, World Relief’s U.S. director of church mobilization] also said that the loss of funding is why it’s increasingly important for their Good Neighbor teams to help refugees find jobs. World Relief can no longer afford to cover rent for families for more than a couple of months.

Wasn’t finding refugees a job a top priority all along? Or, it didn’t matter so much when they were flush with federal dollars.

Is Soerens saying that, because they (at World Relief) need to pay their staffs and keep offices open, they are going to be stingy about refugee rent going forward? Sounds like it to me.

If you feel like reading all the good news about good neighbors, continue reading here.

For our complete archive on changing North Carolinago here.  See especially my post on the 2016 Presidential election.

For more on World Relief’s finances, go here.

See what else Soerens said by clicking here.

RELATED COLUMNS: 

Comment worth noting: It might be too late for some American communities

Democrats put Nebraska voter registration forms in refugee welcome baskets

Not everyone in the Jewish community thinks it is wise to import Middle Eastern Muslims to U.S.

Here we go again, refugee numbers jump, 342 since Wednesday

In 24 States, 50% or More of Babies Born on Medicaid; New Mexico Leads Nation With 72%

VIDEO: Why the Liberty Movement in Europe Is Rocking So Hard by Jeffrey A. Tucker

I was truly startled by the energy, enthusiasm, intelligence, and passion of the people who attended LibertyCon – sponsored by the European Students for Liberty – in Prague this year. I was honored to be a speaker, but especially excited to have my first exposure to a remarkable movement taking shape in Europe, one that is wholly dedicated to realizing liberty as the key to the future.

It was liberty that built Europe and liberty that will save it from the authoritarians who are grasping to control its political and economic future.  I saw among those one thousand attendees a strong reason for hope.

The City

It was my first visit to Prague, so please forgive my wild infatuation with this city. It is one of the great cities on the continent and mercifully untouched by war. Its roads and streets are as complex as anything I’ve encountered outside of Rome: circuitous, irrational, narrow, and paved with bumpy cobblestones guaranteed to make a mess of any dress shoe.

And everywhere you look, you see beauty of a very special sort. You look at 500 years of achievement in building civilization, and you see the integration between the past, present, and future. It is true across all the arts, from the music (here is a solid example of 16th century polyphony from Prague) to the architecture.

The entire city is a reminder of what freedom makes possible, a society in which the sacrifices and deeds of one generation are enjoyed by the next, so that every new generation enjoins a kind of benefaction from those who came before.

Oddly, this is a rare sight in today’s world. War, central planning, depression, and political upheaval have created terrible scars in the historical narrative, so the continuity that should be part of the human experience over time goes missing. This has been true in Atlanta, for example: a glorious modern city that has continually had its past erased by fire, political experimentation, and demographic upheaval. This is true in a place like Rome too, where the past is preserved but the present is strangely absent because of controls and restrictive planning.

But in Prague, you see it. You see the story of the growth of modernity in the buildings, bridges, churches, castles. You see a clock on a building and, if you know the history of technology, you can isolate within 50 years when it was constructed. But not far away is a glorious new piece of art that reflects the style of our times. There is nothing discordant about it. One style is not an attack on the other. Nothing is repudiated. Everything is a lovely expression of the style of its time. The present is not at war with the past.

And this is rather remarkable given the history of communism in Prague. In 1938, the city was occupied by German armies, leading finally to the famous Prague Uprising. It was never bombed from the air during the war, never became fodder like so many European cities. The Soviets moved into a liberated Prague and de-liberated it for the remainder of the Cold War. But the tyranny was limited due to the Prague Spring and the bravery that stopped the imposition of Stalinist rule in 1968. This became a foreshadowing of the best of all the revolutions of 1989: the Velvet Revolution that brought market reforms and new freedom. The liberalization did not go far enough (education and healthcare remained in state hands), but the city flourished anew.

The scars of the period are not physical, but perhaps they are cultural (as my Czech friends tell me). As a result, the city remains an inspiring tribute to the freedom, peace, and beauty that is possible in this world. Does it have a bright future? Like every other city in Europe, it is threatened by reactionary political movements of the left and right, people and interests who do not believe in freedom. It is these which the liberty movement has arisen in Europe to oppose, and also add an inspiring vision of what is possible with a new commitment to liberalism in economics, politics, and culture.Sidenote on McDonald’s

Of course my guides showed me the McDonald’s in Prague, the first one that opened after 1989. I was duly impressed, but my guide wanted me to understand the bigger significance:

“When those golden arches appeared in Prague, it was a huge cultural moment. It was an indication that the emergent Czech Republic would be part of the civilized world of commercial cities. It had a future and that future was about capitalism, which means service to the people. This is not just an ordinary restaurant. It was and is a symbol of hope.”

Intellectual Sophistication

The students and activists are dedicated readers, and very serious about ideas. The European liberty movement admires the size and scale of the institutions built by their American counterparts, but Europe has its own unique strengths. What I found here is a notable intellectual sophistication. They are also serious about their commitment to liberty – and not easily tricked by leftist and rightist movements competing for their affections.The young people at this conference have parents and grandparents who remember socialism in their lifetimes. This memory has informed their self identity and emboldened their commitment to a free Europe. Every country has its own activists, study groups, fledgling organization, businesses, and specializations. LibertyCon, an annual gathering, serves as a kind of organizing tool for education, socializing, and networking. And given the dearth of opportunities in Europe, the students cling to this event, and draw energy from meeting and socializing with their compatriots from their own country and many other countries.

There is huge diversity here, but a unity on principle. In my talk, I went to great lengths to trace two strands of anti-libertarian thought alive in the current political environment. I offered my opinion that there is not much future to the social-democratic project of the postwar world. Its ethics are at war with its economics, and its political vision increasingly at odds with the values of the people they seek to serve. A bird’s eye view of their historical prospects reveals a long decline in their influence over the future of Europe.

If that is true, what is next? There are new nationalist (nativist, protectionist, and racist) movements seeking to capture the institutions built by the social democrats. What they offer is not freedom but another central plan, based on dreams of demographically homogeneous populations feeding off large welfare states ruled by a leadership principle. This is not an alternative to social democracy but another menace to freedom. It is up to the libertarians to understand this and reveal it to others, as well as provide an alternative vision of the future.

Another Example

What I appreciate so much about the European movement is just how earnest it is. Let me give the example of Paralelní Polis. It is a beautiful space in Prague that was formed as a venture inspired by the rise of distributed networks and cryptographic currencies. The founders saw in these technologies the possibility of self managing communities, so they did something remarkable: they set one up!The building is now home to the Institute of Cryptoanarchy, a workspace, and 3D printing center that serves coffee and beer in exchange for Bitcoin (and the BTC ATM is right there on the premises). They sponsor lectures, display art, and generally serve as an intellectual font for the movement. The culture of this one space is so exciting that people want to be there. Even on the Sunday I visited, the place was teeming with activity. And I was delighted to use Bitcoin to pay for my coffee.

This is only one example of thousands of charisms that exist within the European liberty movement. Every country has its own iteration and own particular focus, whether in Romania, Israel, Italy, Spain, or the Netherlands. As I heard about the books, the seminars, the salons, the meetups, the conferences, and the institutions being formed, I was truly in awe. And their humility regarding the whole thing was notable in both a good and bad way. They could afford to be more openly proud of what they are building despite all odds.

The Europeans and their Future

It is true that authentic liberalism is embattled in Europe: neglected in academia, ignored by the press, and marginalized in politics. What this means for anyone who so self-identifies is a necessary toughness of mind and a determination to proceed ever more boldly despite facing such grim odds. It is this very toughness and determination that is their biggest asset. They truly believe. That is the first condition for building a successful future.My only concern is this. I get the sense that European libertarians underestimate the strength and power of their own movement. They do this because they imagine that they are small and lacking in influence. But that will change as passions intensify and history calls forth their voices in public life. They must redouble their efforts with full knowledge that the future is winnable by ideas pushed by people who believe in the rightness of their cause.

Liberty is the cornerstone of European civilization. There is no substitute. No bureaucracy, no leadership, no new plan rooted in collectivist notions can achieve the flourishing of life that everyone is seeking.

Liberty is the answer. It has fallen to this remarkable group of young men and women I met in Prague this past week to show the way.

Real skills for professional success from successful entrepreneurs. Learn more at FEEcon.org

Jeffrey A. Tucker

Jeffrey A. Tucker

Jeffrey Tucker is Director of Content for the Foundation for Economic Education. He is also Chief Liberty Officer and founder of Liberty.me, Distinguished Honorary Member of Mises Brazil, research fellow at the Acton Institute, policy adviser of the Heartland Institute, founder of the CryptoCurrency Conference, member of the editorial board of the Molinari Review, an advisor to the blockchain application builder Factom, and author of five books. He has written 150 introductions to books and many thousands of articles appearing in the scholarly and popular press.

VIDEO: British Appeasement to Islam

London-attacker

Photo of London attacker who was shot by police and died at the scene of the attack on the grounds of Parliament.

“FOUR people are dead – including police officer and terrorist – and 20 more injured – after killer mowed down pedestrians on Westminster Bridge before killer is shot attacking police in Parliament grounds,” by Richard Spillett, Tim Sculthorpe, Martin Robinson, Alexander Robertson and Mark Duell, MailOnline, March 22, 2017:

Four people are dead after a terrorist brought carnage to central London today, mowing down pedestrians on Westminster Bridge and attacking police with knives in the grounds of the Houses of Parliament.

At least 10 people were hit on the crowded bridge when a 4×4 drove along the pavement, knocking down pedestrians before crashing into a fence below Big Ben.

An intruder, described by a witness as ‘middle-aged and Asian’ and carrying two knives, then managed to break into the grounds of the Parliament and stabbed a police officer before he was shot and injured. The policeman has since died.

It is currently believed one attacker was involved, killing three people, including a policeman, and leaving at least 10 pedestrians and two other police officers seriously injured.

Read more…

MEMRI reports,

A user on the pro-ISIS Telegram channel “Tactical Retreat” wrote: “The final outcome of the London raid, which targeted the Parliament building, was four dead Crusaders and 40 wounded, among them soldiers and police officers. The attacker was also killed. The Anglo-Saxon security apparatuses have not revealed his identity, but they did say he carried out the attack in response to the calls by the Islamic State to attack in the heart of the countries [that belong to] the Crusader alliance [the international coalition against ISIS]. We ask Allah to bring the harshest torment upon the Anglo-Saxon Christians, and to accept the one who carried out the attack among the martyrs if he [really] is, as I believe, one of Allah’s Muslim worshippers.”

ISIS graphic posted on Twitter.

ISIS graphic posted on Twitter.

Rukmini Callimachi at on Twitter wrote the below after the London attack:

1. London police are treating incident near parliament as terror. I’m monitoring ISIS channels & there’s no claim. What there is is chatter: pic.twitter.com/fHdByU7jz1

2. Pro-ISIS channels are rejoicing at the bloodshed including one that has created a poster to go with the violence. (Thanks @sweattloafer) pic.twitter.com/jSb6xzDgy0

In July 2005, four British suicide bombers inspired by Al-Qaeda attacked London’s transport system during rush hour, killing 52 people. Two weeks later, there was an attempt to carry out a second wave of attacks.

British Leaders have appeased Muslims since 9/11/2001.

Prime Minister Tony Blair said Islam is a “Religion of Peace” as did Prime Minister David Cameron. According to the Qur’an and Hadith, Mohammed commands Muslims to wage jihad (holy war) against non-Muslims until the world is under a Muslim Caliphate and Islamic (shariah) law is established globally.

Quran (2:191-193)

“And kill them wherever you find them, and turn them out from where they have turned you out. And Al-Fitnah [disbelief or unrest] is worse than killing… but if they desist, then lo! Allah is forgiving and merciful. And fight them until there is no more Fitnah [disbelief and worshipping of others along with Allah] and worship is for Allah alone. But if they cease, let there be no transgression except against Az-Zalimun(the polytheists, and wrong-doers, etc.)” (Translation is from the Noble Quran)

Quran (2:216)

Fighting is prescribed for you, and ye dislike it. But it is possible that ye dislike a thing which is good for you, and that ye love a thing which is bad for you. But Allah knoweth, and ye know not.”

Read more Quran quotes here…

Resistance to Islam (al-Fitnah) is what drives attacks like the one in London. A hate for the Western ideals of liberty, equality and religious freedom are taught in Islamic elementary schools and at the highest levels of Islamic Jurisprudence.

History tells us that appeasement leads to more violence.

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5 Charts That Will Shift Your Perspective on Poverty by Chelsea Follett

Angus Deaton, the Nobel-prize winning economist (who also sits on the advisory board of HumanProgress.org), recently reiterated his belief that on the whole the world is getting better–if not, as he accepted, everywhere or for everyone at once. Perhaps that comes as no surprise, but the idea that the world is getting better in regards to poverty is actually a deeply unpopular view.

Ask most people about global poverty, and chances are that they’ll say it is unchanged or getting worse. A survey released late last year found that 92 percent of Americans believe the share of the world population in extreme poverty has either increased or stayed the same over the last two decades.

Americans aren’t alone in that belief. Across all surveyed countries, an only slightly smaller majority–87 percent–believe that extreme poverty has risen or remained an intractable problem.

There are a number of cultural and psychological explanations for the persistence of such pessimism. Bad news makes for good headlines and tends to dominate media coverage. Psychologically, people tend to idealize the past and recall dramatic and unusual events more easily than steady long-term trends. They may also use pessimism as a means of virtue signaling.

Indeed, of those rare people who realize that extreme poverty has declined, almost all underestimate the extent of that decline. In fact, global poverty has halved over the past 20 years­–but only one person in 100 gets it right.

Unsurprisingly, people in areas that have seen the most dramatic reductions in poverty are the most likely to be more aware of what’s really going on. But even in China, where hundreds of millions of people have risen out of destitution over the last four decades, half of the population remains ignorant of the broader collapse in world poverty that has occurred within their lifetimes.

To help bridge the gap between public perceptions and reality, here are five charts, based on data we’ve collected at HumanProgress.org, that illustrate the extraordinary progress humanity has made.

Throughout most of human history, extreme poverty has been the norm. This famous hockey-stick chart, arguably the most important graph in the world, illustrates what happened when the Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution caused income to skyrocket­–forever changing the way we live, and perhaps even the way we think.

Humanity, as this chart shows, produced more economic output over the last two centuries than in all of the previous centuries combined. And this explosion of wealth-creation led to a massive decrease in the rate of poverty. In 1820, more than 90 percent of the world population lived on less than $2 a day and more than 80 percent lived on less than $1 a day (adjusted for inflation and differences in purchasing power). By 2015, less than 10 percent of people lived on less than $1.90 a day, the World Bank’s current official definition of extreme poverty.

Not only has the percentage of people living in poverty declined, but the number of people in poverty has fallen as well – despite massive population growth. There are also more people alive who are not in penury than there have ever been. From 1820 to 2015, the number of people in extreme poverty fell from over a billion to 700 million, while the number of people better off than that rose from a mere 60 million to 6.6 billion. (Extreme poverty is again defined here as living on $1.90 a day, adjusted for inflation and differences in purchasing power.)

Globally, poverty is about a quarter of what it was in 1990. And the graph below from Johan Norberg’s excellent book, Progress: 10 Reasons to Look Forward to the Future, illustrates how the decline of extreme poverty has raised living standards and brought about other tangible improvements. As poverty has lessened, so have child mortality, illiteracy, and even pollution in wealthy countries – all are now less than half of what they were in 1990. Hunger has also become much rarer. You can learn more about how increased prosperity has led to progress in other areas by watching this video from a forum inspired by Norberg’s book.

If progress continues on its current trajectory, the Brookings Institution estimated in 2013 that extreme poverty (this time defined as living on $1.25 a day, again adjusted for inflation and differences in purchasing power) will all but vanish by 2030, affecting only 5 percent of the global population. This is what they considered to be the “baseline” or most likely scenario. In the best-case scenario, they predicted that by 2030 poverty will decrease to a truly negligible level, affecting only 1.4 percent of the planet’s population.

The facts are unambiguous: despite public perceptions to the contrary, extreme poverty has declined significantly, to the point where its end may actually be in sight. So next time you hear someone bemoaning a supposed rise in world poverty, encourage them to have a look at the evidence for themselves.

Reprinted from Human Progress.

Chelsea Follett

Chelsea Follett

Chelsea Follet works at the Cato Institute as a Researcher and Managing Editor of HumanProgress.org.

The Importance of Proper Sleeping Positions: What You Need to Know

Do you find yourself waking up with unbearable aches and pains? Does your stiff neck or sore back prevent you from feeling rejuvenated and truly rested?

For most of us, sleeping positions aren’t something we give a second thought to since they’re habits that we’ve formed early on in life. While we can’t picture ourselves sleeping in any other ways, studies show that the way we sleep can have a significant impact on our general health.

Why is it important to mind how we sleep?

Assuming each of us spends an average of eight hours of sleep a day, then we dedicate one-third of our lives to sleeping. That is a significant amount of time, and if we spend it all on a single position that isn’t healthful can be detrimental to our well-being.

Awkward sleeping positions can stress our neck and spine, instead of providing our body its needed support. Unideal positions can also put pressure on other parts of our body and cause discomfort and adverse effects in the long run.

Through the years, people have linked poor sleeping positions with neck and back pain, muscle cramps, fatigue, impaired circulation, headaches, sleep apnea, digestion problems, premature wrinkles, and heartburn.

If you or anyone you know is suffering from these health problems, then it might be time to reassess the way you sleep at night, so you can enact the changes you need to get better.

woman sleepingAssessing the best positions for sleeping

When experts determine a person’s best position for sleep, they will consider the support the body receives from the kind of mattresses an individual uses in general. They will also identify if any point in the body experiences excess pressure and if the neck and spine are in proper alignment or not.

Different sleep positions

Supine Position

Many people would agree that sleeping on one’s back is the most optimal position for sleeping. That’s because the head all the way to the spine are in a neutral position, which will lessen pressure on the other areas of the body.

Sleeping in a supine position will help prevent neck and back pain, and reduce acid reflux. It will also minimize chances of having premature wrinkles as well as maintain a person’s breast health. However, this position will likely promote the snoring of an individual.

Prone Position

Sleeping on one’s stomach can help ease the intensity of a person’s snoring. However, it is not the best position to sleep in should you want to take care of your overall health.

When you sleep in a prone position, it is unlikely for you to keep your spine and neck properly aligned. Without the proper support, it is possible for you to have back and neck problems. Also, sleeping on your stomach will put unnecessary pressure on some of your muscles and joints, and will likely disrupt your breathing.

baby sleeping with toy bearOn Your Side / Fetal Position

Lying on your side is the most common alternative to the supine position. And by far, most people prefer sleeping on their sides than any other position.

Unlike sleeping on one’s back, side sleeping can help keep a person’s airways open. And so, to an extent, it prevents snoring. However, contracting your body inward will put unnecessary pressure on your diaphragm. And that, in turn, can obstruct your breathing.

Also, side sleeping does not promote the proper alignment of your body’s neck and spine. As a result, it can lead to severe shoulder pain and stiff neck.

So, while side sleeping can reduce snoring and acid reflux, it can also cause shoulder and neck pain, complications in breathing, distortion of breasts, and premature wrinkles, particularly on the side where there is extra pressure.

To avoid the adverse effects one can associate with the fetal position it is best to stretch your body by keeping your legs and neck aligned and relatively straight, instead of pulling them inwards.

Takeaway

If you feel tired or you wake up with your body aching, it might be time to try out a new sleep position. Even small changes like untucking your legs and keeping them aligned with your neck as you sleep on your side can have significant effects on your sleep and health.

And aside from the sleeping position you choose, comfort will also enhance the quality of your sleep. That is why it is also important to have a bed that’s cozy enough to help you have a good night’s sleep.

Are the Rockville Rapists Unaccompanied Alien Children?

That is the question I have about the story you can’t possibly have missed over the last day or two.

Questions abound! Is he older than 18? Did he arrive among the waves of so-called ‘Unaccompanied Alien Children? Was he in the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement or one of its contractors? And, of course, why had he not been deported? Did the Montgomery County, MD sheriff protect him?

Were the pair (one from Guatemala and the other from El Salvador), who are behind bars in Maryland for dragging a 14-year-old girl into a boys bathroom and raping her considered ‘refugees’ by the Obama Administration that would have been in charge of them if they turned themselves in at the border as part of the flood of ‘children’ that invaded our border for years during the Obama presidency, so-called UACs?

Keep an eye out for any news about whether they were actually under the protection of the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement. 

BTW, some question whether the 18-year-old (9th grader) was 18, or indeed much older.

As a Maryland resident, I can assure you that Montgomery County, Maryland, where the alleged assault occurred, has long been a county famous for coddling illegals who get to the state.

Here is Leo Hohmann’s shocking report at WND:

Two illegal-alien teenagers who were placed in ninth-grade classes at Montgomery County Schools, Maryland, have been arrested and charged with the brutal rape of a 14-year-old girl, and at least one of the boys had a pending deportation order from ICE.

The boys, identified as Henry Sanchez, 18, of Guatemala and Jose Montano, 17, of El Salvador, approached the young girl in the hallway near the gymnasium inside Rockville High School during school hours about 9 a.m. on Thursday.

[….]

Maryland is perhaps the most welcoming state for illegal aliens and refugees in the Eastern United States, with Montgomery County the most welcoming county in the state. Maryland gives in-state tuition rates to illegal-alien college students, and its legislature is considering a bill that would declare Maryland the country’s first sanctuary state. Montgomery County is already a sanctuary county, denying 63 ICE requests to turn over illegal-alien criminals last year, Fox News reported.

These policies helped create a culture that allows a young girl to be raped and sodomized in a bathroom stall by two illegal-alien boys, at least one of whom was ordered to be deported, border hawks told WND.

[….]

Sanchez and Montano were living in the Aspen Hill neighborhood of Rockville, and they have been charged with first-degree rape and two counts of first-degree sexual offense. They were denied bond by a judge who said they were dangerous and a flight risk.

If convicted, they could get life in prison. [What an investment for American taxpayers, two more in the slammer for life!—ed]

[….]

William Gheen, president of Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, said this is a rare case where the news of a rape of a student on school property managed to leak out into the local media.

rockville rapist

Twitter post by Ann Coulter.

Much more here with details of the police report and quotes from Marylanders.

Well the story did break out of the local news and made it to at least Fox News. I haven’t seen it reported on CNN broadcast news, have you?

We have an extensive archive on the so-called Unaccompanied Alien Children mostly teenage boys from Central America. Although they had been coming for years, a huge flood of them crossed our southern border in 2014, with another huge wave in 2016.

Their ‘care’ is through the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement (in Health and Human Services) and consumes the largest portion of that agency’s budget.  Two federal refugee resettlement agencies—US Conference of Catholic Bishops and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services—get millions each year to manage the ‘children.’ Other contractors have gotten in on the lucrative federal grants awarded for really what amounts to care for illegal aliens.  These ‘children’ are NOT legitimate refugees!

I’ve long suspected that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, which sent an envoy to Central America in 2013, and then wrote a report warning of the flow coming, actually lit the fuse for the 2014 border invasion, see here.

Trump’s people now run ORR, someone should be able to find out if these two alleged Rockville rapists were on ORR’s radar screen or in their care.

Click here for more on UACs.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Four-Time Deported Gang Member Arrested For Stabbing Two Women, Raping Toddler

Univision: Obama Policy Led To Rockville Rape

Supt. Montgomery County Schools says it is federal govt. that screens unaccompanied minors

Two Illegal Aliens Raped a 14-Year-Old Girl In a Maryland High School Bathroom

Some Illegal Immigrant Foster “Children” Are 22 Years Old

Rape focuses critical attention on ‘sanctuary’ states | Fox News

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