Are we in the Midst of a Color Revolution?

For John, BLUF:  The Democrats lost in November and now they are protesting, thinking, perhaps, that that will cow the voters who voted for Donald J Trump, and cow the President Himself.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The liberals’ license:  How the left finds release in an age of rage

From The Hill, by Professor Jonathan Turley, 5 April 2025, 10:30 AM ET.

Here is the lede plus four:

“We should replace our piece of crap Constitution.”

Those words from author Elie Mystal, a regular commentator on MSNBC, are hardly surprising from someone who previously called the Constitution “trash” and urged not just the abolition of the U.S. Senate but also of “all voter registration laws.”

But Mystal’s radical rhetoric is becoming mainstream on the left, as shown by his best-selling books and popular media appearances.

There is a counter-constitutional movement building in law schools and across the country. And although Mystal has not advocated violence, some on the left are turning to political violence and criminal acts. It is part of the “righteous rage” that many of them see as absolving them from the basic demands not only of civility but of legality.

They are part of a rising class of American Jacobins — bourgeois revolutionaries increasingly prepared to trash everything, from cars to the Constitution.

Jacobins:

Commonly known as the Jacobin Club (Club des Jacobins) or simply the Jacobins (/ˈdʒækəbɪnz/; French: [ʒakɔbɛ̃]), was the most influential political club during the French Revolution of 1789. The period of its political ascendancy includes the Reign of Terror, during which well over 10,000 people were put on trial and executed in France, many for "political crimes".[3][4]

The author, Elie Mystal, is a graduate of Harvard Law School.  One wonders, some times, what exactly they are teaching down county.

Am I going to have to read Mr Mystal's book to understand if he even has something to reploce our current controlling document.  I grant the Constitution is not perfect, and in the beginning had compromises to get each of the thirteen states on board.  On the other hand, it has worked to provide a certain degree of prosperity for a large portion of the population and opportunity for the rest.

Yet, we see people burning Tesla vehicles and attacking dealterships.  In Lowell we have had a Tesla shot on the street.  Now, on Saturday we had demonstrations trying to reverse the results of the November past election.  Do we all still live in a Democracy?  Time will tell.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Free Speech

For John, BLUF:  I worry that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz does not understand Free Speech the way the Founding Fathers did and I do.  Maybe he doesn't understand Democracy.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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THEY BELIEVE THAT RIGHTS AREN’T ABSOLUTE,
BUT POWER IS

From Instapundit, by Professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds.

Here is the first social media post in this larger blog post:

Gad Saad
@GadSaad
What we are seeing is precisely why the West was such an anomaly in the history of mankind.  Specifically, the reflex to suppress speech with which the rulers/elite disagree is the default reflex, and we are seeing a return to it.  The West is facing the classic Herculean fork in the road.  Take the easy or hard road in defending free speech.

This post by Professor Saad was in response to this 𝕏 post:

BBC Newsnight
@BBCNewsnight
Aug 9
"[Elon] Musk is trying to pretend freedom of speech as some absolute right.  It's never been an absolute right."  Keir Starmer's biographer Tom Baldwin says there should be more regulation of social media. #Newsnight

This is a fight for the West, for the Anglo-Saxon tradition of free speech and the idea of competing ideas in the search for truth and for a better future.  The problem is, if we squash free speech then we stunt our future.  We end up with hundreds of years of stagnation.

One person laid the issue at the feet of Wokeness:

Robert ₿reedlove
@Breedlove22
Wokeism is a psyop designed to destroy basic definitions to undermine rational discourse and divide people.  When people are unable to use speech to resolve conflicts, then their only alternative is force, and in the domain of force The State is unrivaled.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Fighting Trump All the Way

For John, BLUF:  I expect Democrats to fight a Trump Second Term through Inauguration and beyond.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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If Trump wins in November, expect a real insurrection from Democrats

Here is the sub-headline:

Hostile to freedom, fair elections, and America itself.

From Behind the Black, by Blogger Robert Zimmerman, 6 March 2024 3:29 pm.

Here is the lede plus five:

The reaction by Democratic Party politicians and pundits to the Supreme Court ruling on March 4, 2024 — voiding the effort by Colorado to throw Donald Trump off its ballot — reveals some very fundamental realities that must be faced by all Americans. To put it bluntly: These Democrats have no intention of accepting a victory by Donald Trump in the upcoming election, even if he should win by a majority so vast that no amount of election rigging can disguise it.

The first reaction to that decision was a major tell. Jean Griswold is the secretary of state of Colorado who had taken Trump off the ballot, claiming he was an insurrectionist even though that was merely her opinion as Trump has not only never been convicted of that crime, he has not even been charged with it. Immediately after the court rejected her actions unanimously, she tweeted the following:

I am disappointed in the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision stripping states of the authority to enforce Section 3 of the 14th Amendment for federal candidates. Colorado should be able to bar oath-breaking insurrections from our ballot.

Spurred by her blind hatred of Trump, Griswold’s refusal to deal with reality here is disturbing, to say the least. First, the court made it very clear, unanimously, that the states don’t have this authority when it comes to federal elections. That she as a lawyer could not recognize the plain legal arguments here that were agreed to by even the most radical leftists on the court indicates how blind she has become to reasonable disagreement.

Second, Griswold clearly thinks she by herself, based on nothing but her opinion, has the right to determine who is or is not an insurrectionist. In a country where by law and a very long tradition all people are innocent until proven guilty, by what law does she think she has that right?

The bottom line is that Griswold reveals the mindset of the Democrat Party. They are mentally unprepared to accept a Trump election victory, no matter what, and will do anything to block his victory.

I think Mr Zimmerman may be underplaying the hostility of Progressives to Mr Trump and his reelection.  I have been reading about a broad range of people, with a broad range of ways of thwarting the election and inauguration of Mr Trump.  Then there are the eg,) of the nation talking about thwarting Mr Trump if he makes it to the Oval Office.

It would appear that the Progressives have adopted as their motto "We had to destory the village in order to save it.".  that is a pretty stark view of the situation.  I winoder wht the villagers thought?

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Put Down the Cheeseburger

For John, BLUF:  Be affraid.  Our betters, the bien pensant are coming for your meat consumption.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Klaus Schwab and the UN Still Want to Purloin Your Sirloin to Make the Weather Gooder

From PJ Media, by Opinion Writer Kevin Downy, Jr, 28 November 2023, 1:05 PM.

Here is the lede plus one:

Klaus Schwab and his flunky buds at the United Nations (UN) are, as advertised, attempting to remove meat from our diet to make the clouds more tolerant.

This isn't surprising since the World Economic Forum (WEF) has, like many tyrants before them, given us their evil playbook.

Who is Klaus Schwab?  The head of the Anti-Western World Economic Forum.

Wikipedia sums up the World Economic Forum this way:

The Forum suggests that a globalised world is best managed by a self-selected coalition of multinational corporations, governments and civil society organizations (CSOs), which it expresses through initiatives like the "Great Reset" and the "Global Redesign".

Like a Matryoshka Doll, there are layers here.  The important one is The Great Reset.  This is the plan to take away the power of the electorate and give it to various non-governmental agencies..

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

President Biden Disrespects the Constitution

For John, BLUF:  In our name, but without our agreement.  This is government by experts over government by democracy.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Biden Uses Cold War Law to Nuke Your Gas Furnace

From PJ Media, by Blogger Stephen Green, 20 November 2023, 9:21 AM.

Here is the lede plus four:

Remember when it was nothing more than right-wing fearmongering that Democrats were going to outlaw your gas appliances? It was a more innocent time, way back in [checks notes] January of this year.

I sure do miss those days. So does my gas furnace.

Democrats went very quickly from "Nobody is going to take away your gas appliances" to "Biden invokes wartime powers to fund electric heaters as he cracks down on gas appliances."

"Wartime powers?" "Electric heaters?" One of these things is not like the other unless there are millions of dollars to throw around to your cronies while putting their competitors out of business. And sure enough, Biden will dole out $169 million of your tax dollars to boost the production of electric heat pumps.

What gives Biden the authority to throw money around like a drunken Congress to further an environmental agenda that the House rejected back in June? A 1950 law called the Defense Production Act (DPA) was meant to protect and promote the production of war materials. Biden is using it to make heat pumps.

And where is this money coming from?  The mislabeled Inflation Reduction Act.

So, the Federal Government isn't exactly banning gas stoves and furnaces, but it is using its power to give heat pumps a price advantage over other options.  This is the Government putting its thumb on the scale.

To me the big question is why the Administration didn't go to Congress to get these funds authorized and apropriated.  That would seem like the proper way to do things.  This makes the actions of Senator Tommy Tuberville (holds on military general and flag officer promotions over violation of the Hyde Amendment) make even more sense.  It is like the Biden Administrstion doesn't really respect the Constitutional process.  In the end, the ends do not justify the means.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Corruption of the Mind

For John, BLUF:  There are signs that Academia has become a hotbed of Anti-Semitism.  Why would we send our children there?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Yet Another Anticolonialist Professor Getting a Plum Job After Attacking Israel

From , by Mr David Strom, 6 November 2023, 6:31 PM.

Here is the lede plus six:

I have been incredibly (and justifiably) harsh on most of the anti-Israel protesters and academics, but I do believe that there is plenty of room for debate about Israel’s response to the 10/7 attacks. People of goodwill can disagree on the best path forward for Israel.

But damn, there really are few people of goodwill out there. Most of the protesters and Israel-bashers as just antisemites and/or anti-White/anti-Western.

This is true both of the protesters in the streets and the academics who have openly sided with Hamas or at least Palestinian radicals. Most of them just hate Jews, almost all make it clear that they want Israel wiped off the maps. “From the river to the sea” means that precisely.

For some reason, New York City is not just the home of more Jews than any other city in the world but is also antisemitism central in academia. I just wrote about how the City University of New York is filled with vile antisemites, and now I see that NYU just hired a professor who felt “affirmed” by Hamas’ rape and murder rampage on 10/7.

“Affirming.” How nice.

NYU announced the appointment of Eve Tuck, a professor of critical race and indigenous studies at the University of Toronto, on Oct 9 — just two days after Hamas terrorists massacred 1,400 Israeli civilians.

Though her work is focused on native peoples, she has found common cause with Palestinian terrorism — including defending Hamas’ deadly rampage.

What has happened ot higher education?  I guess I could settle for the students not learning history in their K-12 education.  Not learning about World War II, about the Holocost, about the Holodomor, about pograms against the Jews  But, it seems to be spreading across the teaching faculty.  That is scary.  It wuld radicsally change this nation, as Natoinsl Socilism did Germsny after World War I, and not for the better.

Higher Education was, I thought, about explore all aspects of an issue and coming to a reasnoable set of conclusions.  It appears I was wrong.  It appears to be bout imposing one's prejudices on young minds, changing the path of Western Civilization of Democracy.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

First Amendment Protected

For John, BLUF:  On the 4th of July a Federal Jusge told the Biden Administrstion to stip colluding with social media companies to suppress free speech.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Poetic Justice for the Biden ‘Ministry of Truth’

From American Greatness, by Opinionator Roger Kimball, 9 July 2023.

Here is the lede plus fourteen:

At some point in this column, I have probably had occasion to quote these famous lines from Walter Scott’s poem “Marmion”:

“Oh, what a tangled web we weave

When first we practice to deceive.”

In another, better world, I like to think, the Bidens and their protectors and puppet masters would ruefully be contemplating Scott’s admonitory observation.

In this world, however, I suspect that—until quite recently, anyway—they had smugly sided with J.R. Pope’s sly amendment to Scott’s moralizing couplet:

“But when we’ve practiced for a while

How vastly we improve our style.”

I note that Pope’s amusing title for his observation is “A Word of Encouragement.”

Many of us feel a great contradiction at the heart of the Biden phenomenon.

On the one hand, he—“Big Guy” Joe—and his entire Snopes-like family—coke-head Hunter, “Dr.” Jill, the litter of grasping, on-the-make siblings—all seem like ciphers, the veritable incarnation of Gertrude Stein’s description of Oakland, CA: “there’s no there there.”

Indeed, from this point of view, Joe’s painful mental and, increasingly, physical vacancy seems to be the objective correlative for the entire Biden enterprise. It’s as if the nasty brother of the scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz suddenly came to life and occupied the White House. “If I only had a brain,” he snarls softly to himself, frightening everyone around him.

And that “as if” brings me to the extraordinary “other hand.” Joe Biden is President of the United States, still, if just barely, the most important political office in the world. Amazing. How could that be? Talk about going from zero to one!

Of course, history is littered with the spectacle of destructive lunatics and incompetents in high office, as such names as Caligula, Nero, Commodus, and Elagabalus remind us. (As an aside, I hereby note that Elagabalus is poised for a rerun, so perfectly does that epicene, “gender fluid” freak epitomize some of the central pathologies of our time).

The Bidens have yet to achieve the notoriety of such grimly illustrious predecessors. Nevertheless, these past months have not been kind to the Biden conglomerate.

And here is a seven page summary of the Court Order:

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
WESTERN DISTRICT OF LOUISIANA
MONROE DIVISION

STATE OF MISSOURI, ET AL.		CASE NO. 3:22-CV-01213
VERSUS		JUDGE TERRY A. DOUGHTY
JOSEPH R BIDEN JR., ET AL.		MAG. JUDGE KAYLA D. MCCLUSKY

This is important work.  Important in terms of our right to free speech and important in terms of having a fair and open debate on things that matter to us as Citizens.  Think of the suppressing of the Great Barrington Declaration,  Wikipedia notwithstanding, the Great Barrington Declaration, shunned by the Bureaucracy, turned out to have important points.

If we can't handle free and open debate then we can't claim to have a democracy.  We will have lost our Republic.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Our Lost Hope For a Western Oriented Russia

For John, BLUF:  We sent some talented people to help in the transition from the Soviet system, but they failed.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Russia’s Great Transformational Failure

Here is the sub-headline:

Hopes that post-Soviet Russia would join the ranks of prosperous liberal democracies have proven to be a chimera

From Tablet Magazine, by Postdoctoral Fellow Ms Maria Snegovaya, 28 September 2022.

Here is the lede plus one:

The collapse of the Soviet system led to a period of hope in Russia.  Throughout the 2000s, it was popular to describe Russia as a “normal country.”  The changes it went through during its transition from Soviet communism to a Westernized, market-based economy and parliamentary system were agreed to be irreversible, setting the stage for the country to eventually join the club of liberal democracies.

Thirty years later, however, it seems clear that Russia’s much-heralded modernization effort was a failure.

In the early 1990s, the political scientist Claus Offe explained the nature of the unique challenges faced by countries across the post-communist region, which he called the triple transformation:  the political transition from autocracy to democracy; the economic transition from planned to market economy; and a national transition from empire to nation-building.  While post-communist countries saw varying degrees of success, it is the failure to modernize along all three dimensions that distinguishes Russia.

As we look across the Globe we see Democracy, in various forms, the Communist Chinese approach of Social Credit and the Russian approach of authoritarianism.  To my surprise, and disappointment, the Russian model is gaining support in some areas.  However, notwithstanding the bleating from some in the US, authoritarianism does not appear to have a foothold here.

This is where a good foreign information program might be of value.  While I doubt such a program could overthrow the Social Credit syetem (it will have to undo itself by thwarting all aspects of freedom) it can help other nations cope with authoritarian aspects of thei government.  We have Madison Avenue.  We should be able to sell democracy and the freedom aspects of capitalism.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

What is it With Maricopa County?

For John, BLUF:  No, I am not denying that Joseph Robinette Biden is President, duely elected in 2020.  But, I am saying we need to avoid even the appearance of fraud in our elections.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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How Maricopa County defeated election disinformation — for now

Here is the sub-headline:

From NPR, by Reporter Kirk Siegler, 11 November 2022, 11:37 AM ET.

Here is the lede plus three:

Maricopa County Chairman Bill Gates is the first to tell you he's in a bizarre position.

The longtime Republican activist, who once even served as the Arizona state GOP's own election lawyer, is now the target of violent threats and other intimidation by far right extremists.

"This isn't about partisan politics. It's not about conservative versus liberal.  This is about truth versus lies," Gates told NPR.

He's incredulous that he is being attacked by members of his own party, "given my background, all the Republican clubs that I started up, the things that I did to make sure that there wasn't fraud going on in elections on behalf of the Republican Party."

I guess that is one spin on the story, but it misses the elephant in the rooom—the inability of Maricopa zcounty to get the ballots counted.  And, apparently, of Arizona Law to work toward getting the bsllots counted,  Even third woorld countries do a better job at counting than Maricopa County  Worse, the constant adding of ballots offers the opportunity for individuals to introduce new, fraudulent, ballots.

I am not alone in thinking something is wrong with the inability of Maricopa County to get their ballots counted.  Blogger Ssrah Hoyt referenced an item from Legal Insurrecction.  The New Neo, who is from Massachusetts, links to the same article.

Taking days and days to get the results of an election is both undemocrtic and unAmerican,  Arizona, and other places, like Nevada, can, and should, do better.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Terrorism or Vandalism

For John, BLUF:  intellectual Honesty is in short supply these days.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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What's the difference?

From Althouse, by Professor Ann Althouse, 9 May 2022.

Here is the lede plus one:

It's interesting, the differences that matter to people, the endless quest to distinguish alligators from crocodiles and psychopaths from sociopaths, but what I wanted to know was the difference between vandalism and terrorism.

I'm reading "Madison anti-abortion headquarters hit by apparent Molotov cocktail, vandalism, graffiti" in the Wisconsin State Journal:  "Vandals set a fire inside the Madison headquarters of the anti-abortion group...."

It is obviously terrorism.  It was done to cause terror, rather than just make a mess of things.  However, how one classifies the event is a good indicator of one's position on this issue and on Democracy.

I think, for sure, a clear headed thinker does not call it terrormism when the other side does it and vandalism when one's own side does it.

Hat tip to Ann Althouse.

Regards  —  Cliff

Free Communication

For John, BLUF:  One of the reasons we have tensions within our democracy is that we don't trust the other side to protect our right to speak out.  As George Orwell said:  “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Biden’s FCC Commissioner Nominee Gigi Sohn Wants To Nuke Right-Leaning Broadcasters From Air

From Conservative Review, by Mr Jordan Boyd, 18 January 2022.

Here is the lede plus four:

President Joe Biden’s nominee for commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission hates Fox News and wants the federal agency to regulate conservative broadcasts because she disagrees with them.

The White House first announced Gigi Sohn as Biden’s FCC nominee in October.

“Gigi is one of the nation’s leading public advocates for open, affordable, and democratic communications networks,” the Biden administration claimed. “For over thirty years, Gigi has worked to defend and preserve the fundamental competition and innovation policies that have made broadband Internet access more ubiquitous, competitive, affordable, open, and protective of user privacy.”

Sohn’s inclination towards censorship and partisan regulation, however, torpedoed her chances of confirmation. Biden re-nominated Sohn at the beginning of the year but her chances of gaining Republican support are once again slim considering her history of criticizing and painting TV networks she disagrees with as threats to our democracy that need to be punished.

In one 2019 tweet, Sohn hinted that Fox News should be scrutinized because they “have played their own role in destroying democracy.”

I thought the headline and early paragraphs were a littly hysterical, but then I read on.  Frankly, her views on Fox would be OK with me, if they were coupled with strong support for the First Amendment and the importance for democracy of airing all views.♠  Sadly, that doesn't seem to exist in her public utturances.

I am happy to see her on the FCC, as long as she is willing to support the free speech rights of all Americans, as did the ACLU,♥ back in the day of demonstrations in Skokie, Illinois.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  "I wholly disapprove of what you say—and will defend to the death your right to say it.”  Voltaire
♥  Funnily enough, today is the day, back in 1920, that the American Civil Liberties Union was founded.  Happy Birthday, but I am not sending a gift.

Today's Holiday

For John, BLUF:  Today is a Federal Holiday and a moment to ponder how we go forward with our Americsn Project.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Dr Martin Luther King, Jr

I think Dennis Galvin, of Westford, put well Dr King's place in our history.  On the Lowell City Life Show this Friday last he described Dr King is the missing Founding Father.  Dr King was the person who advocated for the equal rights of all people.

Here is Dr King's "I Have A Dream" speech (28 August 1963):

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

It would be nice.  And something for all of us to strive for.

Regards  —  Cliff

Wokeness v Democracy

For John, BLUF:  The Author, Ms Bari Weiss, knows of what she speaks.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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We Got Here Because of Cowardice. We Get Out With Courage

Here is the sub-headline:

Say no to the Woke Revolution

From Commentary Magazine, by Writer Bari Weiss, November 2021.

Here is the lede plus one:

A lot of people want to convince you that you need a Ph.D. or a law degree or dozens of hours of free time to read dense texts about critical theory to understand the woke movement and its worldview.  You do not.  You simply need to believe your own eyes and ears. Let me offer the briefest overview of the core beliefs of the Woke Revolution, which are abundantly clear to anyone willing to look past the hashtags and the jargon.

And now you need to go to the article.

"Wokeness" is allowing a group of bullies to shut dow the free speech of many other citizens.  It filters a bunch of bad stuff, but also truths,  Truths free men and women, even if in jest, should feel free to speak,  No freedom to speakmeans no free elections, which means no democracy.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Policing School Committee Meetings

For John, BLUF:  It appeaars that the Biden Administration, for some reason, has decided the back the hand, with Federal power, of petty tyrants running local school committees.  Not everywhere, and not even most places, but too many places.  This is a mistake.  If we strangle democracy at the lowest level, what happens about that?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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School board meetings show only that freedom is messy

From The Wshington Exminer, by Reporter Salena Zito, 10 October 2021, 12:01 AM.

Here is the lede plus three:

Eighty years ago, dairy farmer Jim Edgerton stood up at a town hall meeting in his hometown of Arlington, Vermont, to voice his disagreement with the town councilors’ decision to build a new school.  Edgerton was the only person at the meeting or in town who objected to the proposed building.

His opposition was mostly unremarkable, but he held his ground nonetheless.  No one would have known about it had not Norman Rockwell, a newcomer in town, been there.

As he watched Edgerton exercise his freedom of speech, the famous illustrator of Americana could not stop thinking about the State of the Union address President Franklin D. Roosevelt had delivered on Jan. 6, 1941, in which he warned that the values and liberties the public took for granted were under attack.  Rockwell would go on to illustrate that moment, making Roosevelt’s words relatable by depicting them in use in small-town America.

It is inconceivable that the federal government today wants to squash that freedom through vague rules and intimidation.  Garland seems to be making the calculation that the Jim Edgertons of this world will cower under the concern the government is watching them.

Wikipedia says it is in the public domain.

The local School Board or School Committee is the first rung of Democracy.  This last week, in Chicago, 98 people were shot and 10 died.  This is pretty normal.  Shouldn't the FBI be out there trying to save Black Lives in Chicago, rather than doing the work of the local police in policing School Committee meetings across the Fruited Plain?

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

To Draft or Not

For John, BLUF:  Achieving fairness for all is an uneven process.  One of the issues of little consequence, but much symbolism is including women in the draft (or the Militia).  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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House panel backs requiring women to register for the draft

From Politico, by Reporter Connor O’Brien, 2 September 2021.

Here is the lede plus one:

The House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday voted to require women to register for the military draft on Wednesday, making the change one step closer to becoming law after senators endorsed the move this summer.

During late night deliberations on the committee's annual defense policy bill, lawmakers voted 35-24 to adopt an amendment from Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.) to expand registration for the Selective Service System beyond men.

Why?  I would like to think fairness and equality.  However, Reporter Stephen Green, writing in PJ Media, today, provides some Democratic Party advantages to this legislation.

To be fair, Rep Chrissy Houlahan served on active duty, at Hanscom AFB, near Bedford, Massachusetts, leaving active duty as a Captain.

While I favor including women in the draft registration, with generous exemptions for pregnancy, I am opposed to imposing a draft on the American People at this time.  It would either be very expensive or it would result in a serious dilution of the quality of our Armed Services.

In sum, Women will never be equal to men if they do not have the same responsibilities for defending the Republic, which includes registering for the Draft.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Is Social Credit Coming?

For John, BLUF:  Social Credit, as understood here is the Chinese Communist Party System, calling "for the establishments of unified record system for individuals, businesses and the government to be tracked and evaluated for trustworthiness."  If you don't have credit, you can't do business.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Democrats Move to Take Over Your Credit Score and Go Full 'Woke' – Just Like Communist China

from PJ Media, by Reporter Victoria Taft, 11 July 2021, 3:21 PM ET.

Here is the lede plus three:

That was fast.  Here come the Chinese-like social credit scores.

Leftist Democrats, but I repeat myself, are making no secret of their plans to become more like their comrades in China.  They support vaccine passports for COVID mRNA shots in order for people to receive certain social rewards such as going to school or attending a Major League Baseball game, just like the social credit score system in the People’s Republic.  Now, Democrats and Congresswoman Maxine Waters, the chair of the House Financial Services Committee, want your FICO score to go full “woke.”

They’re not even trying to hide it.

USA Today reports that in testimony before Waters’s committee on June 29, the counsel for a group called the National Consumer Law Center, Chi Chi Wu, a product of Harvard and Johns Hopkins, gave away the game on how her law-fare grifting group and people like them want to change FICO credit scores.  Wu and her fellow travelers got a warm reception at the three-hour-plus hearing.

Plainly, social credit, as understood in this context, is anathma to democracy.  When the Government and industry tracks your life based on their perception of your trustworthiness, then you are not free, but are a puppet.  The social credit score determines you educational opportunities, your job progression, your standing in your society.

It is all bad.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Bibi Out

For John, BLUF:  It was bound to happensometime, and there seems to be a derth of good times for it to happen.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Netanyahu Loses Office, Making Way for Naftali Bennett

The source is MSN, but the article is from The New York Times, by Reporter Richard Pérez-Peña, 13 June 2021.

Here is the lede plus one:

The long and divisive reign of Benjamin Netanyahu, the dominant Israeli politician of the past generation, officially ended on Sunday, at least for the time being, as the country’s Parliament gave its vote of confidence to a precarious coalition government stitched together by widely disparate anti-Netanyahu forces.

Israel’s Parliament, the Knesset, approved the new government by just a single vote — 60 to 59, with one abstention.

The Reporter, Mr Pérez-Peña, does not seem to have a neutral view of Mr Benjamin Netanyahu.  That doesn't seem very professional.

As Blogger Glenn Harlan Reynolds says of the leadership change, "I don’t expect this to end well."

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

An Education View From Korea

For John, BLUF:  These folks have seen the way China and North Korea have changed education and in doing so have destroyed (classic) liberal ideas about education and democracy.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Left-wing education destroying the world’s liberal democratic system

From One Korea Network, by Professor Jebong Lee, 14 April 2021.

Here is the lede plus three:

Many people believed that communism had come to an end after watching the collapse of the former Soviet Union and the communist states of Eastern Europe. And as communist China transformed itself into a more free-market economy, we expected that as their economy developed and its society became more diversified, it would inevitably lead them to develop into a freer and more democratic system.

However, the Communist ideology has not changed at all and its methods have evolved. They have infiltrated into all aspects of society—home, school, church, politics, economy, culture, media, etc., while calling themselves the New Left and Liberals.  Communist China also developed a new method of controlling the people by means of new technologies and have revised their strategies to further communization, such as dissemination of Communist ideas, industrial espionage, and mass indoctrination of pro-Chinese personnel through the Confucius Institutes.  Meanwhile, we were seduced by low-cost Chinese goods and have forgotten about the slave labor of the Chinese people and have even turned a blind eye to the pains of the Uighurs who have become victims of organ harvesting.  We didn’t even know that our children were taught in school that the Republic of Korea should not have been established, and that school education is being destroyed by teachers who reject the liberal democratic system.  Even though they knew that students’ rights were being violated, teachers pretended not to know because they are afraid of radical left teachers’ unions.  This article explains the threat of the world’s left-wing ideologies, specifically the infiltration methods of Communism into education, and will attempt to explain the reality of education in Korea, which has become a tool of left-wing educators.

The Spread of Left-wing Ideological Education

There are five main ways by which Communist ideas infiltrate into Western education, which are explained as follows:  (1) direct introduction, (2) blocking traditional ideas and culture, (3) encouraging a decline in basic learning skills such as reading, writing, etc., (4) infiltration of perverted notions of economic, gender, and class liberation, and (5) propagandizing selfishness, greed, and a mentality of self-indulgence.  On the other hand, in Asian communist countries like China, they destroy traditional culture and slaughter scholars and use “the art of deceiving people with distorted education and propaganda while cutting the pulse of cultural transmission.”  (Gupyong editorial department, 2019: 3-5)

In fact, left-wing ideological concept have continuously evolved.  They have developed into many fields, such as traditional Marxism, Neo-Marxism, subordinate theory, liberation theology, cultural colonialism, leftist feminism, leftist-postmodernism in academia and school education, and ideas and theories related to this are taught as subjects in many universities around the world.  Not all of their effects on academic development are negative.  There have been some modifications to the liberal democratic system, some that are self-declining, and others that have evolved.  However, the most worrisome thing about this is that many of these ideologies are intentionally aimed at overthrowing the liberal democratic system and the fact is that these theories serve as the ideological motivations of radical left-wing activists.

I don't see this as an imminant threat, but I do see it as a possible longer term future.  Of course, in things like this them do seem to be going along OK, and then the bottom drops out and it is too late.

Regards  —  Cliff

The Right to be Wrong

For John, BLUF:  We are facing a crackdown on dissident views the Victorians or the Puritans would be proud of.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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YouTube pulls Spectator editor interview with Trump lawyer John Eastman

Here is the sub-headline:

Big Tech threatens to ban nonprofit for discussing alleged election fraud

From The Spectator US, by "Cockburn", 5 April 2021, 9:54 am.

Here is the lede plus one:

Over three-quarters of Republicans believe that there was widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election and about a third of all Americans believe that President Biden’s win was illegitimate.  When tens of millions of Americans lose faith in the system, that spells serious trouble for democracy.  A normal and healthy country would allow a fair and open debate about whether or not fraud occurred, and, if so, how much fraud and what evidence exists to back up these claims.  Instead, Big Tech platforms have repeatedly censored any mention of voter fraud at all.

Such was the case late last week when YouTube and Vimeo pulled a video interview with Trump lawyer John Eastman.  Cockburn’s colleague and The Spectator‘s Washington editor, Amber Athey, is a fellow at the Steamboat Institute and was invited to conduct the interview with Eastman at an event in Colorado.  The event was called, ‘What Really Happened?  An Insider’s Perspective on Representing the President and Claims of Election Fraud.’

Information does want to be free, but Big Tech is going to try to stifle it.  Thus the old fashioned sin of gossip will still flourish in the age of electronics.  Unless we go to a totalitarian regime, where all fear being reported to "the authorities" by friends and relatives, people will exchange information on the side.  It is slower that the Main Stream Media, but works as well.  It is what fueled the exchange of ideas in pre-Revolutionary War America.  Even in the Soviet Union there was the Samizdat Press.

However, today we do face the practice of Social Credit, as practiced in China.  To quote Wikipedia,

The social credit initiative calls for the establishments of unified record system for individuals, businesses and the government to be tracked and evaluated for trustworthiness.  Initial reports suggested that the system utilized numerical score as the reward and punishment mechanism; recent reports suggest there are in fact multiple, different forms of the social credit system being experimented with.  Numerical system has been implemented only in several regional pilot programs, while the nationwide regulatory method has been based primarily on blacklisting and whitelisting.  The credit system is closely related to China's mass surveillance systems such as Skynet, which incorporates facial recognition system, big data analysis technology, AI and Project Maven.

But, back in the United States, we are doing a cancel culture thing, where one is considered PNG (persona non grata) for holding the wrong views.  Thus Big Tech censoring certain produced materials.  Until we rebuild a concensus that information needs to be free, so that approaches to problems can be democratically determined, we will have censorship,  Until we learn to tolerate the views of others we will not be a Democracy in the best sense of the world.  We need to learn that people have the right to be wrong.  They don't have the right to impose their wrong thinking on others, but they have the right to hold wrong views.

Hat tip to my Wife.

Regards  —  Cliff

Battle Lines Among Friends

For John, BLUF:  As talk of eliminating the filibuster shows, there are those who would "destroy the village in order to save it".  That seems foolish, unless the Democratic Party believes HR-1 would give them a permanent lock on elections.  That would be foolish.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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BATTLE LINES BEING DRAWN

From Powerline Blog, by Blogger John Hinderaker, 18 MARCH 2021.

Here is the lede plus one:

The conflict in which we are now engaged is stark.  The Left hates America and wants to destroy (or “fundamentally transform”) it.  The Democratic Party, having drunk the Critical Race Theory kool-aid, is now openly anti-American.  So those are the battle lines: on one side, those who love our country and want to preserve it.  On the other, those who hate our country and want to destroy it.

Unfortunately, our public education system is almost 100% in the hands of the haters, organized and mobilized by the teachers’ unions.  Our children are steadily being indoctrinated in anti-Americanism.  But here and there, a few politicians stick up for our country.

Two he mentions are Governor Ron DeSantis, of Florida, and Governor Kristi Noem, of South Dakota.  Both look good to me for 2024.

One thing that needs to be made clear, at the beginning, is the problem with extremism.  If we get to regarding the other side as being impervious to negotiation and compromise, not part of the Democratic process, then we have damaged the thing we value, our democracy.  They may be dirty, rotten, pinko communist blowhards (DRPCB), but they are our Brothers and Sisters.  The may hate our system of Government and our social standards, but they are working within them,♠  and so should we.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Except for ANTIFA, and their ilk.  They wish to go straight to revolution, in order to establish a Bolivarian like revolution, a la Venezuala.  They would be talking violence to establish and maintain such an arrangement.