Paradigms and Demographics

Saturday, April 20, 2024

P&D and The Week That Was

Truth is the Sublime Convergence of History and Reality

De Omnibus Dubitandum (Everything is to be questioned)

This Link will take you to My Commentaries. This Link will take you to My Commentaries by topic. This Link will take you to My Global Warming Commentaries

By Rich Kozlovich

We've seen a recent protest by Google employees that really backfired. They took over Google offices disrupting the work and apparently even doing some kind of damage. And they were fired. Well, one of these nitwits was Google's child safety officer... whatever that means... but she's also a pro-rape propagandist, spewing out truly irrational, and I think incomprehensible blather, which I won't replicate here, so follow the link, but she wasn't fired for that, she was fired for being part of that protest. You have to wonder what's wrong with the minds of Google's power structure, because none of this has anything to do with moral values or principles.

Here's the real story.

Good riddance: Google boots 28 pro-Hamas employees who staged disruptive anti-Israel protest April 19, 2024 by Monica Showalter Given that so much of Google's talent is Israeli talent, Google knows which side its bread is buttered on......The protest was over a $1.2 billion cloud contract Google had signed with Israel several years earlier (with Amazon) called Project Nimbus. The protestors wanted Google to flush that money down the toilet and come join them for some virtue-signaling......The other thing is that Google, being a business, knows which side its bread is buttered on. Tech in particular is an industry that requires brainpower talent, and Google doing what these radicals want is bound to alienate the one thing Google values more than anything at all within its company, its Israeli brainpower, mainly used for its cutting edge research and development.......According to this 2012 Forbes magazine article, Google has sought out Israel for its critical research and development for quite some time and has a huge operation there:.......

The so-called backbone Google's executives demonstrated is in reality all about money and business, not morality. At the end of the article the author states:

Google isn’t the real world; it’s more like a daycare for mentally sick adults. And it seems the inmates who were running the asylum are starting to realize that even the most unhinged corporations have their limits. It’s a shame that being pro-rape isn’t enough to get you fired from Google, which just goes to show the depth of the cesspool we’re dealing with. However, the good news is that they’re not too big to fall. Much like the US, Google is facing its own kind of internal demolition at the hands of radical left-wing crazies, like Dr. Kate S. Sure, it’s a slow burn, but one that could eventually lead to their downfall, God willing.

Let's start today's edition with John Droz, Jr's The Media Balance Newsletter: 4/15/2024, and he's right when he says you won't find what he's offering anywhere else in one place, followed by ten commentaries of my own, and thirty five well done and thought out commentaries by others, and four links total at the end.

My Commentaries

Commentaries

Migrants Bringing Measles and TB Across the Border By Kelli Ballard
Links to CA News Sites Could Disappear from Google By Kelli Ballard
Judiciary Committee Holds Free Press Hearing Sarah Cowgill
Trump Looking Better in the Rearview Mirror Leesa K. Donner
Could Israel Be Joe Biden’s Waterloo? By Tim Donner
Saving K-12 Private Schools By John Droz, Jr.
Johnson Won’t Raise the Bar to Oust a Speaker – And It May Save Him By James Fite
The Unreal Politics of Unreal Men By Daniel Greenfield
Majority of Young Muslims in UK Want Islamic Law By Daniel Greenfield
Launched from Iran, Made in America By Daniel Greenfield
No Cars for the Working Class By Daniel Greenfield
Swastikas Are Progressive Now By Daniel Greenfield
The Greenfield Gazette
The Greenfield Gazette
Is the Tide Turning to Freedom? By Robin Itzler
GOP Leadership Ignores J-6ers By Robin Itzler
Government Plays With Jobs Numbers By Robin Itzler
Are We Now a Radical Socialist Nation? By Robin Itzler
2024 Election: Nine Swing States By Robin Itzler
Minneapolis: When radical socialist Dems are in charge By Robin Itzler
Criminal Illegals Squat Their Way Into Americans’ Homes By John Klar
Ever More Audacious Efforts To Suppress Mainstream Conservative Speech By Francis Menton
New York Shows Off Its Expertise In Central Planning: The Buffalo Billion By Francis Menton
Illustrating The Absurdity Of New York's Energy Transition By Francis Menton
The Drift to Statism in the Western World By Dan Mitchell
The U.S., Argentina, and the Importance of Long-Run Growth By Dan Mitchell
Dumb Idea of the Month: Currency Devaluation By Dan Mitchell
Everything You Need to Know about the Value-Added Tax By Dan Mitchell
In One Image, Everything You Need to Know about the Washington-Created Welfare State (Part II) By Dan Mitchell
An Inaccurate – But at Least Not Hypocritical – Leftist By Dan Mitchell
ESG Is Dead, Long Live DEI? By Andrew Moran
Biden Begins the Spin on the Iran Attack By Dave Patterson
Biden Warned Iran, but They Hit Israel Anyway – So Now What? By Dave Patterson
Whatever happened to... (Part 3) By Michael D. Shaw
Hypersonic Hype By Peter Zeihan

Links

Permanent Links

45 Communist Goals to Destroy America as Listed in the1963 Congressional Record
My Seven Rules of Geopolitics

Constant as the North Star

You know that little voice in your head that keeps you from saying the things you shouldn't say? Yeah, I don't have that.

Saving K-12 Private Schools

What seems daunting is actually rather simple

John Droz jr. Apr 19, 2024 @ Critically Thinking About Select Societal Issues

I’m a proud product of Catholic education. I had Sisters of St Joseph for grammar school, Xavarian Brothers for high school, and Jesuits for college (Boston College). I went off the reservation for graduate school (Syracuse), but the die had been set.

I attribute my skills and interest in Critical Thinking to the fine teachers I had.

Attentive readers of my commentaries are well aware that I have been extensively involved with the K-12 education business, for both public and private schools. IMO both need to be preserved, which means that both need fixing.

The main (of several) threat to the public school system is that anti-American Left-wing ideology is taking over the curriculum in almost every subject area, but especially in Science and History.

The fix for this starts with Conservative organizations (e.g., Heritage & AEI) paying a LOT more attention to the curricula. Although they typically say that education is a top priority, curricula have been largely ignored. Not surprisingly, the Left is aggressively taking full advantage of this shameful neglect.

Additionally, State Education Superintendents (and State Boards of Education) also need to give the curricula a lot more attention. This business of giving deference to education administrators who oversee curricula, is toxic nonsense — as many of those people are a major part of the problem. This deference has led to multiple bad outcomes, like the purposefully deceptive Social Emotional Learning (SEL) scam.

This is just a bit of background, as this commentary is about Catholic Schools.

K-12 Catholic schools used to be successful as many parents strongly wanted to have their children taught Judeo-Christian standards, and were willing to pay for this. However, times have changed (in many ways) — but most Catholic schools are still relying on this archaic model.

Another outdated part of the Old Model is that the default solution to every financial challenge is to have another fund-raiser (rather than do things differently to prevent the financial problem).

Just one example of how times have changed is that the number of Catholics attending weekly Mass has dropped precipitously over the last few decades. It stands to reason that when parents are less attached to Judeo-Christian standards, their interest in having their kids be taught Judeo-Christian standards will also decrease.

Considering that the cost of K-12 Catholic schools can be substantial, the question is: will these parents be willing to pay a premium cost for what is (in effect) a public school plus a religion class? The answer for many parents is NO.

The good news here is that COVID has provided the solution!

For the first time, parents had the opportunity to look over the shoulders of their children to see what they were being taught. Two problems quickly became apparent:

1 - their children are being told WHAT to think rather than HOW to think, and
2 - the WHAT part is largely Left-Wing, atheistic, and anti-American.

The result of this is that there has been an unprecedented increase in Home-Schooling.

However, very few parents want to home-school their children, as (to do it right) this requires an enormous amount of time, effort, and competence on their part. Further, their child would largely miss out on the positive social benefits of interacting with other classmates, as well as lose out on extra-curricular activities. (E.g., I was the editor of my high school’s weekly Newspaper which was a fabulous experience.)

The light bulb should go on at Catholic (and other private) schools: that this new set of needs should be the basis for a New Model. They should be loudly telling parents:

1 - their children will be taught HOW to think (i.e., Critical Thinking skills), and
2 - their children will be given a Judeo-Christian, pro-American, classic education.

As a refresher, here are some of the MANY benefits of being a Critical Thinker… If you can’t intuitively see the merits of this New Model, then look at how a real-world example has been a resounding success — at a relatively low cost besides!

The Bottom Line here is that (since times have changed rather radically) Catholic Schools need to be aware that they must adopt the New Model. The slow learners will suffer the fate of those who laboriously put all their memories on VHS tapes.

Here are other materials by this scientist that you might find interesting:

Check out the Archives of this Critical Thinking substack.
WiseEnergy.org: discusses the Science (or lack thereof) behind our energy options.
C19Science.info: covers the lack of genuine Science behind our COVID-19 policies.
Election-Integrity.info: multiple major reports on the election integrity issue.
Media Balance Newsletter: a free, twice-a-month newsletter that covers what the mainstream media does not do, on issues from COVID to climate, elections to education, renewables to religion, etc. Here are the Newsletter’s 2023 Archives. Please send me an email to get your free copy. When emailing me, please make sure to include your full name and the state where you live. (Of course, you can cancel the Media Balance Newsletter at any time - but why would you?

The Biden ‘Don’t’ Policy Fails Miserably Again

When the most powerful country in the world is not credible, conflict is inevitable.

by Dave Patterson | Apr 19, 2024 | Articles, Military Affairs, Opinion

President Joe Biden thinking he can stop enemies of the United States from harming it and its allies by sternly admonishing “don’t” has become widely discredited. It is a symbolic billboard message on a dangerous road for US national defense. The air strike by 310 Iranian one-way attack drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles was Tehran’s way of saying, “We saw your billboard and could not care less.” Biden’s deterrence failed. As Bill Gertz explained in The Washington Times...........To Read More...

Mixed Messages as Israel Retaliates Against Iran - By Mark Angelides Apr 19, 2024 - The game of Middle East smoke signals continues. Early Friday morning, April 19, Israel conducted a retaliatory strike against Iran. According to multiple reports, an attack took place in the Isfahan province, which is known to be the site of one of Tehran’s nuclear facilities. Information available so far suggests that this was more a warning a shot across the bow than a direct escalation. But how will Iran see it? Iranian officials have confirmed that there were explosions around Isfahan, but it seems so far they’re hoping to minimize any sensationalism. Second Brigadier General Siavash Mihandoust told state media there was “no damage” to the nuclear site and that the reported sounds of explosions were from the Iranian defense systems targeting a “suspicious object.” Other officials said that these “objects” were drones*, not missiles............

Migrants Bringing Measles and TB Across the Border

Diseases that had been eradicated in the US are going through shelters and into neighborhoods once again.

by Kelli Ballard @ Liberty Nation News Apr 19, 2024 Tags: Articles, Healthcare, Opinion

The swarms of migrants flooding into the US are bringing much more than just financial problems and a rise in crime. They’re also causing a resurgence in diseases that America has mostly eradicated. Sanctuary cities are reporting outbreaks of measles and tuberculosis among the undocumented in shelter facilities and schools, where illegal immigrant children are not required to be vaccinated. Some officials are concerned that this is only the beginning.

Migrants, Measles, and Tuberculous

Chicago has been hit pretty hard with infectious diseases, most likely spreading from shelter facilities for migrants. As of April 5, there have been 57 confirmed cases of measles since March, Newsweek reported. “The majority of cases have been linked to the city’s largest migrant shelter in the Pilsen neighborhood.” The Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) said there are plans to give second doses of the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine to affected shelters and that of the 57 cases, 33 are children under five years old.

On top of that, now there are cases of tuberculous (TB) in a few different shelters in the Windy City, although the Chicago Department of Public Health did note that the city does see between 100-150 cases of TB in an average year, but that they will be monitoring this situation.

Chicago Alderman Raymond Lopez (D) has voiced disapproval for the city’s sanctuary policy and claimed Mayor Brandon Johnson, also a Democrat, and his administration for ignoring public health concerns when it comes to immigration. He posted on X:

“Performative politics and hurt feelings kept City Hall from avoiding the obvious looming disaster. Anyone who demanded action to protect our residents was called racist, xenophobic, and anti-immigrant by fringe politicians.

“And now here we are: measles, now tuberculosis both ‘confirmed’ in Chicago. Shame on every mouthpiece that worked so hard to keep this secret.”

In New York, TB and measles aren’t the only diseases to worry about. Polio is popping up, as well. The last confirmed case, prior to last summer, was in 1990. Commissioner Ashwin Vasan said only about 50% of migrants arriving in the Big Apple are vaccinated, but when it comes to polio, the vaccination isn’t the only concern, it’s how they received it. In the US, polio vaccines are injections, but a lot of other countries use an oral vaccine that has the live virus and can be spread through feces into the sewer system. Former Health Commissioner Mary Basset cautioned that “the danger of polio is present in New York Today,” referring to the presence of polio in wastewater in most parts of NYC, the New York Post reported.

Dr. Patricia Schnabel Ruppert, Rockland County health commissioner, warned: “When we see one case of paralytic polio, that means there are probably hundreds and hundreds of cases that are out there in the community but not diagnosed, because 75% of the cases are asymptomatic,” The Post stated.

Most of the countries migrants are coming from and sometimes traveling through do not have the same vaccinations as Americans. “Many people who recently arrived in NYC have lived in or traveled through countries with high rates of disease,” Commissioner Vasan explained. In the Big Apple, the TB rate is 6.1 cases per 100,000 and is more than double the national rate, detailed The Post. “Close to nine out of 10 (88%) of these TB cases are people born outside the United States.”

Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, a New York City-based double board-certified doctor told Fox News the outbreaks in Chicago was predictable: “To be honest, I’m not surprised. We have open borders with all sorts of people coming in from countries from all over the world bringing in various illnesses, viruses, disease and bacterial infections.”

As of March, illegal immigrant children did not have to be vaccinated to attend school, unlike US-born students who have strict vaccination policies to follow. In NYC, migrants were given waivers for the 2023-2024 school year. Since August 2020, nearly 40,000 migrants arrived in Chicago. “Migrants who are stopped at the border and then released into the general population are rarely medically screened or given vaccines,” Fox News explained. “Legal migrants, like Green Card holders, are required to be vaccinated for a range of inoculations as part of their approval process.”

Dr. Marty Makary, a Johns Hopkins health policy expert and surgeon told Fox News that the shelters are a concern. “The reports of the crowding are that it is the worst it’s ever been in recent history.” He added, “However, the amount of time spent in the shelter has decreased, suggesting that people may manifest the infection after their time in the shelter.”

Critics of the way the Biden administration is dealing with the border crisis are blaming the president and his administration and warn that the issue will only get worse. TB, for example, can take a while to show symptoms. Meanwhile, the infected person can be spreading it to others. While there is a treatment, it can take six months to a year of taking antibiotics. But now health officials warn there is a new strain resistant to medication.

Since October, there have been 1,151,488 illegal immigrant encounters by Customs and Border Protection officers, and that doesn’t count the “gotaway” migrants. It is terrifying to realize that the border crossers are usually not medically screened and half of them are likely not vaccinated and could be carrying diseases Americans thought were gone for good, at least in our nation.

Johnson Won’t Raise the Bar to Oust a Speaker – And It May Save Him

Much like McCarthy before him, Johnson finds himself damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t.

By James Fite @ Liberty Nation News, Apr 19, 2024 Tags: Articles, Opinion, Politics nt">

Despite continued threats to his position, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) assured his colleagues Thursday, April 19, that he won’t seek to implement a minimum threshold on a vote to oust him. The speaker had reportedly been flirting with the idea of ending the current rule that allows a single House member to bring a motion to vacate, but as rumors that he might try grew, so too grew the threat against his leadership. As dangerous as maintaining the status quo may seem to Johnson’s position, it very well might have saved him.

A Growing Concern

Johnson’s assurances, however, haven’t proven very reassuring to some. Despite now saying he won’t try to raise the threshold, Speaker Johnson had previously told reporters that the mechanism “has been abused in recent times,” adding, “maybe, at some point, we change that.”

“Since the beginning of the 118th Congress, the House rule allowing a Motion to Vacate from a single member has harmed this office and our House majority,” Johnson wrote in a post on X. “Recently, many members have encouraged me to endorse a new rule to raise this threshold. While I understand the importance of that idea, any rule change requires a majority of the full House, which we do not have.”

So, yes, he did conclude: “We will continue to govern under the existing rules.” But it’s clear that’s only because Johnson knows he doesn’t have the support required to do otherwise.

Both Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Lauren Boebert (R-CO), who thus far have not backed their colleague, Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), in her calls to oust Johnson, have said that they would vote to vacate should the speaker attempt to change the rules. “It’s a red line for me, for sure,” Boebert said. “I think a motion to vacate is something that could put the conference in peril, and Ms. Boebert and I were working to avoid that,” Gaetz explained. “Our goal is to avoid a motion to vacate. But we are not going to surrender that accountability tool, particularly in a time when we are seeing America’s interests subjugated to foreign interests abroad.”

“Normal” Just Ain’t What It Used to Be

At the GOP retreat last month, Johnson referred to bringing back the Pelosi-era rule requiring a majority of one party to call for a vote to vacate the speakership as returning to a “more normal process on the House floor again.” But “normal” is a relative term, and a more historical perspective certainly doesn’t support Johnson’s use of the word in this case.

The privilege to vacate the chair first appeared in Jefferson’s Manual, a list of parliamentary rules written by Thomas Jefferson for his own guidance in leading the Senate during his vice presidency. It has been 187 years since the House voted to adopt those rules, allowing the provisions of the manual to “govern the House in all cases to which they are applicable and in which they are not inconsistent with the standing rules of the House and joint rules of the Senate and House of Representatives.” The privilege of vacating the speakership has existed since then as it is now – a motion to vacate can be called and, should the majority of the House agree, the speaker is removed.

Only since former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) reclaimed the gavel in 2019 has there been a specific number of representatives required to force that vote. In other words, by removing this threshold so that a single member could make a motion to vacate, Republicans did return the House rules to normal in 2023.

Will Johnson Hold the Gavel?

Rep. Greene introduced a motion to vacate the speakership last month after Johnson helped pass a $1.2 trillion government spending package, but she has not yet triggered a vote on it – nor has she said when she might. What she has done, however, is repeatedly mention it whenever Johnson does something not to her liking. So far, Greene has managed to drum up little in the way of support for her motion – and, as Liberty Nation previously reported, at least some Democrats have offered to stand behind the speaker if and when the vote to vacate comes up.

Additionally, there’s a fair amount of drama fatigue in the House GOP. “Her theater and this constant effort to hold Congress hostage has to come to an end,” said Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-NY) Wednesday. “I’m going to have no part in it,” he added. According to the New York lawmaker, “a good number of my colleagues – conservative and moderate – believe that enough is enough.”

Thus far, the only other Republican to openly declare support for Greene’s motion to oust the speaker is Kentucky’s Thomas Massie. If a vote were called today, it seems quite likely that Johnson would still hold the gavel when the dust settles. So, while a single person can force a vote – and Greene very well might do so after the latest Ukraine spending proposal goes to the floor – that vote seems unlikely to spell the end of Johnson’s speakership. Most Republicans, even among the Freedom Caucus, don’t want to repeat the chaos that comes with removing a speaker, but they do want to keep the choice.

Read More From James Fite

The Drift to Statism in the Western World

April 19, 2024 by Dan Mitchell @ International Liberty

Three years ago, I wrote about the erosion of economic liberty in Western Europe (specifically, the 15 nations that comprised the European Union between 1995-2004).

Sadly, here’s a more up-to-date chart showing that the loss of economic freedom is a problem for the entire western world (the advanced nations of North America, Western Europe, and the Pacific Rim).

As you can see, a big increase in economic liberty during the era of the “Washington Consensus” followed by a decline since the turn of the century.

Sadly, only three nations – Israel, South Korea, and Taiwan – improved their economic freedom scores between 2000 and 2021. Every other country declined.

Moreover, it pains me to acknowledge that the United States suffered the biggest decline, dropping from 8.84 to 8.14.

The situation has become so bad that even the New York Times has noticed. Here are some excerpts from a story by Patricia Cohen.

More than 2,500 industrial policies were introduced last year, roughly three times the number in 2019, according to a new study. And most were imposed by the richest, most advanced economies — many of which could previously be counted on to criticize such tactics. …the trend is worrying some international leaders and economists who warn that such top-down economic interventions could end up slowing worldwide growth. …“There are different ways of shooting yourself in the foot,” M. Ayhan Kose, the deputy chief economist of the World Bank, said about the trend of rich countries pursuing industrial policies. “This is one way of doing it.” …The current wave of policies…is a stark contrast to the classic open markets, hands-off government ideology championed by the citadels of capitalism in recent decades. …After years of complaints about China’s subsidies of private and state-owned industries, the United States and Europe have increasingly copied Beijing’s playbook, undertaking multibillion-dollar industrial policies.

The article focuses solely on industrial policy and protectionism.

And those are awful policies. to be sure.

But there are other problems as well, such as a rising fiscal burden of government and inflationary monetary policy.

It’s rather strange that those mistakes were not mentioned. Or, perhaps not so strange since the reporter was talking to people at the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. And the IMF this century has been controlled by political types who preach a dirigiste message of bigger government and higher taxes.

That’s presumably distressing to the many competent economists who work there.

I’ll close by citing an additional passage that is very discordant.

…faith in the superiority of free-market policies was deeply shaken in recent years by a string of global jolts — the pandemic, supply chain meltdowns, soaring inflation and interest rates, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and rising tensions between the United States and China.

Why on earth did the reporter assert that faith in free enterprise was shaken by things that have nothing to do with capitalism?!?

Free markets didn’t impose economic lockdowns. Free markets didn’t cause inflation. Or geopolitical conflicts.

May as well blame capitalism for rainy days and red lights. Sigh.

Ever More Audacious Efforts To Suppress Mainstream Conservative Speech

April 18, 2024/ Francis Menton @ Manhattan Contrarian

You are undoubtedly familiar with many efforts of the fascist left to use its control of government offices, bureaucracies, and other institutions to delegitimize and silence mainstream conservative speech: things like the Censorship Industrial Complex, otherwise known as pressure by government functionaries to induce social media platforms to shut down wrongthink on topics ranging from Covid to climate change to Trump; de-monetization of perfectly reasonable sites like PJ Media or Watts Up With That; the political prosecutions of presumptive Republican nominee Trump, including locking him in a courtroom to prevent him from campaigning; and many more such.

This week along comes a new and quite extreme instance that you may have missed. A European group called the National Conservatives scheduled a two-day conference for Tuesday and Wednesday in Brussels. The signature issue of the National Conservative movement is immigration, which they want to restrict; but beyond that their Conference appeared to feature a wide range of voices from Europe’s right, including some prominent elected officials.

Examples of speakers were Nigel Farage of the UK (one of the leaders of the Brexit movement, and now leading a political party in the UK called the Reform Party, that looks likely to win significant seats when the next election is held); Suella Braverman, a Conservative MP in the UK, and recently, if briefly, the Home Secretary (which is one of the top cabinet positions); Eric Zemmour of France, head of a political party called “Reconquête!”, and winner of about 7% of the votes in the last presidential election; and Viktor Orban, current (and since 2010) Prime Minister of Hungary.

And then what happened next? Several “mayors” of Brussels attempted to shut the conference down. (It appears that Brussels has multiple mayors, one guy who has some overall jurisdiction, and then separate mayors for each of many smaller districts that make up the city.). The New York Times has a piece here; and an independent journalist named Melanie Phillips, who is based in Israel and was one of the scheduled speakers, has a piece here. The two pieces present very similar facts, but Ms. Phillips’s piece is more detailed. The title of Ms. Phillips’s piece is “The Brussels Gangster State.”

First, Ms. Phillips describes the National Conservative movement:

National Conservatism, a movement underpinned by the thinking of the Israeli-American philosopher Yoram Hazony, promotes the nation state and the defence of its historic values against the nihilism of the post-moral, anti-western and anti-human ideologies that pass for much progressive thinking.

You can understand why people on the left would disagree with that. But instead they consider it so extreme that it must be silenced. Here is the technique:

Bowing to left-wing protests, a Socialist Party Brussels mayor, Philippe Close — who last year invited Tehran mayor Alireza Zakani, a member of Iran's tyrannical Islamist regime, for an official visit — pressured the NatCons’ venue, Concert Noble, to cancel the event. Concert Noble, a high-end event space, duly caved.

The conference organizers were sent on a scramble to get a new venue. They came up with a second venue, a hotel called Sofitel. And then a second Brussels mayor (also of the Socialist Party) pressured that venue to throw out the conference, and it too caved.

And then at the very last minute, the organizers came up with yet a third venue. And yet a third Socialist Brussels mayor got into the act to try to get that venue to cancel:

With remarkable persistence and determination, the organisers located a third conference venue, a nightclub called Claridge. They worked most of Monday night setting up from scratch all the equipment, food and other supplies necessary for a two-day conference. By the time the conference registration opened at 8 am on Tuesday morning, it was all up and running — a formidable achievement. This was, however, far from the end of the story. For yet another Socialist Party Brussels mayor, Emir Kir, issued an order to shut down the conference.

This third mayor is Emir Kir. Ms. Phillips quotes the reasons given by Mr. Kir to seek cancellation of the conference:

[NatCon’s] vision is not only ethically conservative (e.g. hostility to the legalisation of abortion, same-sex unions, etc.) but also focused on the defence of “national sovereignty”, which implies, amongst other things, a “Eurosceptic” attitude…. He also said that some of the speakers “are reputed to be traditionalists” and that the conference must be banned “to avoid foreseeable attacks on public order and peace”.

So when the conference opened on Tuesday, police officers showed up at the behest of Mr. Kir and “demand[ed] a shutdown with ‘immediate effect’ on the grounds that the opinions of Farage, Braverman and other speakers could lead to public disorder.”

The owner of the third venue, a Tunisian-Belgian named Yassaad Ben Yaghlane, stood his ground. The conference organizers turned cameras on the police to embarrass them into not shutting the conference down. By Tuesday afternoon, the Prime Minister of Belgium, Alexander de Croo (a center-right politician, not part of the Socialist Party), had weighed in on the side of having the conference go forward. But Kir would not back down. The conference organizers then went to court to get an injunction, which was initially denied. And then they went to an appeals court:

[T]he NatCons’ lawyers filed a plea to a more senior court, in a final attempt to get some sense out of the Brussels judiciary. At 2 am on Wednesday morning, that court ruled against the mayor. The barricade was lifted. The conference could go ahead as planned.

Really, what are these people so afraid of? Actually, the answer is simple: the right wing and anti-immigration parties look to be gaining significant ground in the European elections scheduled for early June.

It is likely that the antics of the three Socialist mayors of Brussels will backfire in terms of the political effect they were hoping for. The Times quotes Nigel Farage:

“This is what we are up against. We are up against an evil ideology. We are up against a new form of communism,” declared Nigel Farage of Britain. Mr. Farage, a former member of the European Parliament and a champion of national sovereignty, who helped drive his country’s exit from the European Union, was getting ready to speak when the authorities arrived. “This is like the old Soviet Union. No alternative view allowed,” he said.

UPDATE, April 19: SOMEWHAT RELATED: You may have seen that after Columbia University President Nemat Shafik testified before Congress on Wednesday, Columbia then finally called the cops on Thursday to clear anti-Israel protesters who had set up encampments in its main quadrangle and who were blocking access to parts of the campus and classes. However, don’t confuse that action by Columbia with its restricting the ability of these protesters to continue to protest. In fact, the protests continue — just in places where they are not obstructing campus activities, at least not too much.

Yesterday evening, after the police had cleared the obstructing protesters on the Columbia campus, I had occasion to walk by the main entrance to the campus at Broadway and 116th Street. There was a small (perhaps 50 people) but loud protest in progress just outside the gate, with the usual slogans being shouted (“Free, Free Palestine!”; “No Justice, No Peace!”). Several police were present, but not interfering. To enter the campus via the main gate, you would have had to walk through the protesters, who were somewhat threatening. I suppose you could have done it, but in a few minutes observing, I didn’t see anybody trying. (There are other gates for entering the campus, but this is the main one.)

When I headed home a little after 10 PM, the protest seemed to have finally dissipated, at least for the night. And then there turned up on the subway, sitting across from me, three kaffiyeh-sporting young women, apparently heading home themselves after a long day of demonstrating.

I don’t have any problem with these people having their demonstrations, however idiotic. I just think the same rules should apply to everybody.

Friday, April 19, 2024

The Greenfield Gazette

By Daniel Greenfield @ The Point

New NASA Mars Crew Has a Muslim, No White People - April 17, 2024 - “To reach out to the Muslim world… to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering.” There’s the Right Stuff (pictured above) and the Woke Stuff. NASA no longer has the right stuff, so all it’s got is the DEI stuff. Remember this? In July 2010, NASA chief Charles Bolden, an Obama appointee, told Al Jazeera that his boss had given him three priorities… none of them involving space exploration. The foremost priority for the agency once tasked with sending a man to the moon was “to reach out to the Muslim world… to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering.” How many of you remember Obama’s “Muslim List”?............

Leftists Attack Sen. Tom Cotton for Calling for Self-Defense Against Leftist Violence - April 17, 2024 - When terror supporters attack , the Left calls it speech, but when people fight back, it’s suddenly violence. When terror supporters attack you, the Left calls it speech, but when Sen. Tom Cotton suggests fighting back, the Left calls it violence...............Under leftist jurisprudence, pro-life activists can be arrested for standing in front of abortion clinics, but the ‘Death to America’ crowd can stop traffic on bridges and highways with no recourse..............

The Trump Prosecutors Have Lost the Confidence of the People - April 17, 2024 - 1 in 5 Dems and 4 out of 10 independents think the justice system is rigged against Trump. The media is pushing this AP poll as evidence that the trials have demonstrated Trump’s ineligibility for office. The numbers aren’t great, but they’re worse for the system. Much as the Left trashed the credibility of the media to get Republicans, they’ve now trashed the credibility of the justice system to get Trump. Only 31% of the public is very confident that state prosecutors in New York are treating Trump fairly. Another 22% are middling while 44% are not at all confident. Even 17% of Dems are skeptical, among Independents, 44% to 47% are skeptical. The numbers get worse for state prosecutors in Georgia and worse still for federal prosecutors...............

White Producer Sues Al Roker for Not Being Diverse Enough - April 17, 2024 - Roker is being sued for not discriminating against white writers. Nearly every studio and outlet now has DEI requirements which translate into discriminating against qualified talent over diversity quotas. They’ve led to occasional lawsuits and government legislation to end this practice of illegal discrimination, but this is a unique lawsuit filed by a white producer against Al Roker, for not discriminating against white writers. A white liberal attacking a prominent black personality for not being DEI enough is a good snapshot of an insane racist industry where discrimination is driven more by white ideologues than minority talent........The world’s worst white man is suing a black man for discriminating on the basis of race… because he didn’t discriminate on the basis of race......

Biden Refuses to Testify Before Congress About Chinese Business Dealings - April 16, 2024 - If you’re a Trump administration official and you refuse to appear in front of a partisan witchhunt committee, you can go to prison, but if you’re Joe Biden and you turn down an invite, well then you’ve somehow erased its existence.At least that’s the theory that the media is going with in heralding Biden’s refusal to testify before the House Oversight Committee as the “end of the investigation”. Refusing to testify doesn’t actually end an investigation. But Team Biden is hyping a response letter from Biden’s counsel as if it were some sort of slam dunk. “Did you ever ask your brother James Biden about the source of the funds he used to pay or repay you?”................

Military Continues Covering Up Abbey Gate Bombing for Biden - April 16, 2024 - “Not preventable at the tactical level”. U.S. Central Command released its latest phase of the report on the Abbey Gate terrorist attack which killed 13 American servicemembers during Biden’s botched evacuation from Afghanistan. Predictably the report claims that the attack was not preventable even though there had been calls to close the gate, Marine snipers had identified the bomber who had been released by the Taliban after Biden’s decision to abandon Bagram Air Base and the terrorists who were there and asked for permission to take him out, but were denied. Was Abbey Gate preventable? Obviously. At multiple levels. Beginning with Biden’s decision to abandon Bagram to the same punishing rules of engagement that prioritized Muslim civilians over American soldiers................

New PAC Wants Muslim Immigrants to Run for President - April 16, 2024 - “This is the last form of acceptable bigotry in American society” Should Cenk Uygur of the Young Turks run for president or be deported? A sane country would have deported the obnoxious Turkish influencer who instead decided to run for president on a platform of attacking Israel during the Hamas war and insisting that despite the Constitution, he should be allowed to be president......

Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Communist Daughter, Who Cheered Oct 7, Suspended - April 19, 2024 - And she’s playing the victim. While messed up kids can go from any background, when you’re the child of whatever weird incestuous, adulterous Islamist-Socialist grift, Rep. Ilhan Omar has going on, the odds are against you. So whether it’s nature or nurture, Isra Hirsi, Omar’s daughter, has a sickle and hammer in her profile and evil in her heart............The media and the Left are full of claims that “peaceful students” were arrested in a peaceful protest. Here’s what some of those peaceful students looked like....

Israel Hits Targets in Iran on Supreme Ayatollah’s Birthday - April 19, 2024 - Happy birthday! Hope you like rubble. The Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei may not be having a happy 85th birthday as Israel responded to the hundreds of drones, cruise, and ballistic missiles fired by the Islamic terrorist state into Israel with attacks of its own. Details of the attack are still pending, but reportedly the targets are Iranian air bases and the attack scope is limited. While Israel had wanted to retaliate immediately, there was immediate pressure from the Biden administration not to “escalate” by fighting back. My own guess would be that Israel targeted some of the Iranian facilities where the attacks had originated from in demonstration strikes meant to show that it could strike deep into Iran..............

“You Are Quite Openly Jewish. This is a Pro-Palestinian March.” - April 19, 2024 - “I am not accusing you of anything, but I am worried about the reaction to your presence.” Ever since the failed Sunak government ousted Suella Braverman for telling the truth about the Met Police’s ‘Dhimming’, the evidence that the woke bobbies are pandering to terrorists and suppressing their opponents continues to grow. The Met Police banned the display of English flags..............Watched while the Union Jack was burned.....While defending the display of Swastikas at pro-Hamas rallies...........And then arrested Iranian protesters for signs denouncing Hamas..................

The New “Police Defunding” is About Funding Illegal Aliens - April 19, 2024 - The old “police defunding” was about cutting cops to pay for social services to criminals. The new one is about funding illegal aliens. The old “police defunding” was about cutting cops to pay for social services to criminals. The exciting new “police defunding” is about cutting cops to pay for social services for illegal alien invaders. Take it from Denver.............Newcomers is a great euphemism. Much better than the attempt to rebrand violent teenage criminal thugs as “justice-involved youth”. They should also start calling criminals “newcomers” like that “newcomer stole my cars”...............

Congressmembers Held Secret Meetings With China Over TikTok - April 19, 2024 - Treason. Remember when we were told that TikTok was not a Chinese Communist company by all the people it had bribed? Remember when we were told that it had nothing to do with the Chinese Communist regime? It was all lies. And if you still don’t believe me, believe the CCP which is now lobbying Congress...........

It’s Not Illegal to be an Illegal Alien, It’s Illegal to Call an Illegal Alien That - April 19, 2024 - Like space aliens or illegal aliens without green cards?” Consider this both a tongue twister and a paradox that demonstrates the disastrous state of the nation. Some years back, the thought police launched a campaign (similar to many that we continue to see today) to eliminate the legally correct term “illegal alien” from the dictionary and public discourse. Biden even had to recently apologize for calling a young American woman’s vicious murderer, an illegal alien.

Obama conducted his own mass amnesty of illegals while his headwaiter-in-chief opened the borders to a mass invasion on an almost incomprehensible scale since the Mongols stormed China or the Turkish Muslim Jihad invaded Europe. (Both then and now.) So while it’s technically illegal to be an illegal alien, that law won’t be enforced, but the social sanctions on anyone calling an illegal alien that are far worse even with the lack of any laws. (The same goes for a man who decides to shower with young girls while arguing that he’s really a ‘transgender woman’.).................

The Beast is Here

By Rich Kozlovich

Recently I read this piece, What rough beast, its hour come round at last, by someone who styles himself as Charles Martel, with a picture of him wearing a crown. Whether of not that's his real name I will leave up to you. But, for the uninitiated, Charles Martel, AKA, the Hammer of France, was the de facto ruler of France, and prevented the Muslim Moors from overwhelming Europe by defeating them at the Battle of Tours in 732 C.E.

Well, I didn't know what the "rough beast" phrase meant, so I did a quick search and found out that's a much quoted line taken from a poem, by William Butler Yeats:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again; but now I know

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Okay, that's the reason I never read poems. So what's all that mean? This was right after WWI, and we really do need to try and understand the impact of all the destruction, death, and suffering that war made on people's minds and hearts.

Western civilization before 1914 considered itself beyond that kind of insanity. Germany and France were considered Europe's cultural centers for education, science, and philosophy. The common people saw a world of wondrous advancement, with hopes and visions of a bright future for their children. That was not to be.

WWI was the most significant event in modern history, and was merely a prelude to WWII, irreversibly destroying 2000 years of progress leaving a dark and frighten world without pity, plagued by a "tidal wave darkened by blood", with "pure destruction and lawlessness spread across the world."

What they saw then is what we're seeing now. I've read three books on historical cycles, and while I recommend reading those kinds of books, understand, they're difficult at best, if for no other reason they don't share a common lexicon. But they all agree on one thing. We're now at the end of a historical cycle.

"The center cannot hold, merely anarchy is loosed upon the world, the ceremony of innocence is drowned, the best lack all conviction, and the worst are full of passionate intensity"

All end cycle scenarios depict a plague of economic collapse and violence. The beast is here.

Victor Davis Hanson: American Civilization Is in Freefall, It’s All Mounting - “You can see it’s all mounting,” Victor Davis Hanson says in the clip below. “It’s a civilization in freefall.” When you know the problem and can’t fix it, society collapses. These people causing this are very, very wealthy, all from political families, they all know each other, and they are all hard left. They never pay the consequences of their actions...........The US abandons the melting pot and encourages people to behave as they would in their countries. There is no unity and assimilation so it becomes lawless. There is no law in Biden’s America.
America Is Hurtling Toward a Full Blown Hot Civil War - It never ceases to amaze me at how little so many people in this country have done to train their minds to critically analyze information. They have eyes to see and ears to see, and yet, somehow the truth of any major issue still seems to evade them, or they simply refuse to recognize the truth with it standing right in front of them, slapping them in the face. So many things are currently plumb damned fouled up by this Biden regime and going awry on their own through the dynamics set in motion by this anti-American, lawless regime, that it’s nearly impossible to properly address them all in a single commentary. But I’ve tried to give the Reader as comprehensive an assessment as I possibly can with this piece.......

NPR's Skin is Thin

Truth is the sublime convergence of history and reality.

By Rich Kozlovich

On April 17, 2024 I published this piece, My Gazette: Media Collapse and Corruption II, and I opened up starting with NPR, and two cartoons, including this one, discussing the exposure of NPR being a taxpayer funded propaganda organ for leftism, and they didn't like it.

"Yet, NPR turned a “blind eye” to the Hunter Biden laptop story, the laptop was indeed newsworthy and that it revealed a “connection to the corrupt world of influence peddling." Furthermore, "when it became known that [Hunter Biden's] laptop was indeed real — and not Russian disinformation as 51 former intelligence officials had claimed, NPR did not fess up to its “misjudgment.”'

'Apparently he's been suspended, and I'm sure soon to be fired, by Woke NPR CEO Katherine Maher who thinks “We All Have Different Truths". Really? Nah, get real Kate, truth is singular. It's either truth, or it's not, and when it's not, in the past it was called a lie. But then, that was in the past".

Well, this story has taken on legs, and Silvio Canto Jr. noted: NPR makes the case for its own defunding saying:

Diversity at NPR is a one-way street going left.....I don't care if NPR wants to pander to the wokes or preach their message. We can turn off the radio or switch to something we'd rather hear. We can go somewhere else and get more balanced information. Unfortunately, our taxes are funding a portion of the NPR or PBS programming. It forces us to finance something that we don't support and that's not right.

Then we have a group that has no trouble besmirching others and yet has a mighty thin skin, NPR freaks out as conservative activist resurfaces CEO's wild tweets:

'I can't stop crying with relief,' she wrote after Biden won presidency “She wrote on X in May 2020 that while ‘looting is counterproductive,’ it was ‘hard to be mad about protests not prioritizing the private property of a system of oppression founded on treating people’s ancestors as private property.’”

An NPR reporter claimed on Tuesday that conservative activist Christopher Rufo was "targeting" the outlet's CEO Katherine Maher because he shared her old social media posts, reflecting pro-Democrat and progressive ideals.

NPR last month, showed her support for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020 while criticizing former President Trump. She also espoused progressive ideals and critical race theory language, like how she regretted using a protest sign that stated, "This is crazy" because it was "abelist."

Given her history it seems pretty clear she is an issue all by herself, as Lucas Nolan notes "how she ruined" Wikipedia "by turning away from “free and open” discussions on the “online Wikipedia” because that goal represents a “white male westernized construct.”'

Well, I've not posted a lot about NPR over the years, but I have posted these eight articles.

NPR: State-Affiliated Media? by John Hinderaker April 5, 2023
We Now Know Why NPR Called Hunter Biden's Laptop a 'Non-Story 'By Katie Pavlich December 20, 2022
NPR at 50 Years: Still a Liberal Sandbox By Tim Graham May 7, 2021
Pernicious incitement to looting being pushed by NPR By Andrew Thomas August 31, 2020
'Gross' Distortion By Lloyd Billingsley February 21, 2019
NPR Is Seeking a Science Editor. Science Education Not Required. By Alex Berezow — February 5, 2018
Brent Bozell: NPR And PBS, The Biggest Harassment Hypocrites By L. Brent Bozell III and Tim Graham | December 1, 2017
The Conservative Fairy Tale That Won’t Go Away December 19, 2013 by Colin Flaherty

There are some things that ring clear as a bell. They've always been far left, they really are thin skinned, they're not concerned about truth, they're not concerned with facts, they're only concerned about narratives, and they are guilty of, at the very least, lies of omission, and Maher is now going to drive them even farther left. And this is the woman that called Donald Trump a ‘deranged racist sociopath’. Imagine that. And they're tax payer funded.

What could possibly go wrong?

Is the Tide Turning to Freedom?

By Robin Itzler, From Her Patriots Neighbors Newsletter

Editor's Note: This is a selected commentary from Robin's weekly newsletter Patriot Neighbors. Cartoons may be added by me, if you wish to get the full edition, E-mail her at PatriotNeighbors@yahoo.com to get on her list, it's free. RK

With our prayers and involvement, we must have hope of saving our republic. Let’s look at some recent wins that show the tide might be turning in the direction of Conservative Judeo-Christian values. However, we need Republican LEADERSHIP, which seems to be in short supply.

NAIA, (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics):

In another win for women’s right, the NAIA has banned biological males from competing in women’s sports. NAIA is a national athletic governing body for about 250 mostly small colleges across the United States. This is the first national college governing body that is making it mandatory for athletes to compete based on their BIOLOGICAL sex. It was approved by the NAIA’s Council of Presidents in a 20-0 vote. To thank NAIA president Jim Carr: Email: jcarr@naia.org Phone: 816-595-8000 Write: 120 W. 12th Street, Suite 700, Kansas City, Mo. 64105

CALIFORNIA:

If you’re tired of reading about spineless college presidents who kowtow to pro-Hamas students, you’ll appreciate Pomona College President Gabrielle Starr. A group of terrorist supporters trespassed into the administrative building. Starr showed up and informed the terrorist lovers they had 10 minutes to vacate the building. Of course, they didn’t believe her. After 10 minutes, the police arrived in riot gear and arrested all the protesters who were inside the building. Then Starr SUSPENDED every student who participated in that unlawful gathering. Non-students were banned from the campus. To thank President Starr for her outstanding actions: Email: Link below Phone: 909-621-8000 Write: 333 N. College Way, Claremont, CA 91711

IDAHO:

Republican Governor Brad Little signed House Bill 538 that removes requirements from state school districts regarding teachers having to use a trans student’s preferred pronouns. Educators no longer must worry about being sued if they call a BOY a BOY although the child thinks HE is a GIRL. According to the signed legislation, pronouns should match the student’s biological birth. (Insert applause here.) To thank Gov. Little: Email: Link below Phone: 208-334-2100 Write: P. O. Box 83720, Boise, ID 83720

INTERNATIONAL

SWEDEN—The Scandinavian country of 10.6 million has a big problem with immigration—legal and illegal. That’s why the government reintroduced border control that is effective from November 12, 2023 through May 11, 2024. The Swedish government says it must control immigration as current numbers are a threat to public order and internal security.

In “Sweden Looks Into the Abyss,” Stefan Hedlund writes:

“Present-day Sweden carries the dubious distinction of having the highest rate of gangland killings in Europe. It boasts the lowest average age of serious offenders, with children in their low teens being arrested for murder. Increasing segments of suburbs are officially classified as “especially vulnerable areas,” where it is “hard, bordering on impossible” for the police to operate. In layman’s terms, these are no-go zones, where local clans rule and where first responders will not enter without flak jackets and police escort.

“An early warning was provided in 2017 when United States President Donald Trump made a quip about rioting in Sweden: “You look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this!”

Who indeed? At the time, such comments were met with disdain and ridicule. “Today, it is not so funny anymore.

“Sweden has transitioned from being a model of inspiration to becoming a warning example.”

Satan's War on People of Faith is Still Raging! by W. H. Lamb.

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Friday, April 19, 2024

The Greenfield Gazette

The Beast is Here

NPR's Skin is Thin

Is the Tide Turning to Freedom?