The Larger Issue in Gaza

For John, BLUF:  The war between Hamas and Israel is being blown up into a bigger conflct.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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THE ISSUE IS NOT THE ISSUE

From Power Line Blog, by Blogger Steven Haywrd, 30 October 2023.

Here is the lede plus one:

Ever since David Horowitz broke from the radical left back in the 1980s, he has been trying to warn conservatives that they don’t really understand the core principle of the left, and the depths of the left’s power-mad depravity.  Conservatives too often think that the Israel-Palestine conflict, or civil rights, crime, income inequality, transgender ideology, climate change, etc, etc., are discrete issues to be argued against the left with reason and facts.  To which Horowitz replies:  The issue is not the issue—the issue is revolution!  (And a key corollary is: the more violent, the better.  Hence the approval and celebration of Hamas on October 7.)

The aftermath of October 7 ought to have revealed this truth more vividly than any event of the last 50 years.  October 7 provided the spark for massive pro-Hamas demonstrations throughout the world and especially on college campuses.  It is legitimized and brought out of the shadows the anti-Semitism long latent on the left, just waiting for a catalyst to organize spontaneously to vent their rage and hate.  But it represents more than this.

I believe the larger view is captured in this news photo out of London:

I object to the banner for using the term "White".  I think they mean Caucaasian.  The banner suggests some eugenics issues, perhaps that Caucasians are genetically unable to coexist with homo sapiens.  Shades of Adolph Hitler and Msrgsret Sanger.

I think this local dustup between Hamas nd Israel is being blown up into a Caucasians vs People of Color conflict.  One can substitute Colonialist for Caucasian.  It is “The West” vs the rest.

With those Jewish Faith in Israel being descendants of those who lived there two thousand years ago and the Palestinians being descended from those who lived in the same general area two thousand years ago, I am not sure I would be drawing stark racial comparisons, but then I am not someone who is against the free market, common law, freedom of expression and the renaissance and scientific revolution.  I guess these demonstrators think that Genghis Khan was a Caucasian, or at least Caucasian adjacent.

I am hoping President Joe Biden will come up with a way of calming these younger Americns of college age.  For one thing, I don't like hearing chants of "Genocide Joe."  I would hate to see all those expensively educated men and women turned into a modern day Klan, riding against the Jews and those of us who support them.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Great Reset Issues

For John, BLUF:  No, not safe for children.  Also not safe for those without a history exploring mindset.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Brave New Whirled

Here is the sub-headline:

When fascism is sold as progress, and eugenics is sold as a transhumanist upgrade to nature’s random mistakes, you’re at the mouth of the elite’s man-made maelstrom

From Protein Wisdom Reborn, by Blogger Jeff Goldstein, 18 November 2022.

Here is the lede plus two:

The World Economic Forum is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation.

The Forum engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas.

So begins the mission statement of the World Economic Forum, one of a constellation of global NGOs whose vision for the future is dressed in the rhetorical finery of “sustainability,” “renewables,” and “transhumanism” — all marketed as upgrades to the human condition — but whose roots are tied inextricably to what I’ve called neo-feudalism, which conjoins a central global currency, a punitive surveillance state, and the rebranding of eugenics to make it more palatable to those in an increasingly stratified global class system who (the plan is) will be pushed by a love of convenience into accepting a form of paternalistic feudalism, while also being subjected to a reworking of their consciousnesses and the deliberate reduction of their numbers. Chip technology, injectables, and bio-electronic nano tech are meant to “improve” humanity, the promise goes.  And yet, it is being designed more to control us, to the point where changes in DNA structure are both possible and patentable.

Somewhere in man these is this believe that mankind is perfectable.  When it is tied to a belief in God it leads to people trying to improve themselves.  Sometimes it leads to the idea of imposing that improvement by cohersion.  That is bad.  Whatis worse is some pseudo-scientif belief in eugenics.

This article lays out a look at perfecting man, and the mating of government to corporations to the selective breeding of a better race (and elimination of inferiors).

The take away for us all is to be wary of those promising to remake society as a better version of itself.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

The SCOTUS Decision Leaks

For John, BLUF:  The deliberate leaking of a DRAFT SCOTUS decision on an abortion issue is an ethical blot on the Staff of the Supreme Court.  It would also be a point to examine larger social issues.  Not going to happen.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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WHEN THE MOBIUS LOOP COLLAPSES:

Posted at InstaPundet, by Mr Ed Driscoll, 3 May 2022, 2:22 pm.

Here is the tweet:

Dave Smith
@ComicDaveSmith
Progressives have given away their two favorite go to responses on abortion.

“My body my choice” rings pretty hollow after Vax mandates.

“It’s a women’s issue” is tough if there’s no definition of woman.

8:46 AM · May 3, 2022·Twitter for iPhone

The mobius loop is a connected strip of paper with no inside or outside.

At the end of the day, this is scoring points, but misses the key point, as long as women get pregnant there will be abortions and as long as there are abortions there will be the taking of human life.

My own position is that abortion is wrong, but, given our pluralistic society, abortions should be legal through the first trimester, perhaps the first five months.  After that there should be no taking of life.  Those who perform partial birth or post partium abortions (infanticide) are guilty of manslaughter.  I would allow no late term abortions for rape.  There is no incest exception, as incest is rape.  The life of the Mother should always be a consideration for the mother.  Delayed decisions should not be rewarded.

Not often discussed is the sociology of this issue.  For example, there is that fact that since the time of Ms Margaret Sanger abortions have been focused on Black Women.  Does this have anything to do with the eugenics and racist views of Ms Sanger?  The next question is why abortions need to be available for the full nine months of a pregnancy?  It would seem responsible women would quickly know they are pregnant.  Some realize almost immediately.  Others take a month or so to realize.  The "I'm just getting fat" line seems pretty weak.  Further, are parents, schools and girlfriends not helping young women to form an understanding of the responsibilities involed in having sex.  Responsibilities to one's partner and in the event of conception.  While I am not advocating use of anti-pregnancy actions, they are inherently better than abortion, after life has begun. Abortion should not be the ultimate birth control method.  Planning on that is irresponsible.  Responsible adults want to have fun, but they should be prepared to be responsible for the results of their actions. Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Clueless in Newsland

For John, BLUF:  Is it that they all think alike or that they all don't think?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Here is the Tweet in Question

From @politicalelle, Ms Erielle Davidson, 7:53 PM - 11 Jul 2018.

Here is the tweet:

Erielle Davidson Retweeted Joe Concha
lol the media bubble is real

@JoeConchaTV
MSNBC's Katy Tur: "Based on where Americans stand on the issues, Americans have really moved in a much more progressive direction over the years. Do you think it’s appropriate to continue to take such a strict originalist view of the Constitution given it’s 2018 and not 1776?”

Even if the electorate had, there is always a long term advantage to having the originalist view of the Constitution as a sea anchor, to make sure our Republic doesn't drift away.

Remember when we thought eugenics was a good idea?  No?  Well, it was a hundred years ago.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Pope Says No

For John, BLUF:  Forty percent of the Commonwealth budget is for health care.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Pope: Abortion is a ‘white glove’ equivalent to Nazi crimes

This is an AP Story in The New York Post, on 17 June 2018.

Here is the lede plus five:

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis denounced abortion on Saturday as the “white glove” equivalent of the Nazi-era eugenics program and urged families to accept the children that God gives them.

Francis spoke off-the-cuff to a meeting of an Italian family association, ditching his prepared remarks to speak from the heart about families and the trials they undergo.  He lamented how some couples choose not to have any children, while others resort to pre-natal testing to see if their baby has any malformations or genetic problems.

“The first proposal in such a case is, ‘Do we get rid of it?'” Francis said.  “The murder of children. To have an easy life, they get rid of an innocent.”

Francis recalled that as a child he was horrified to hear stories from his teacher about children “thrown from the mountain” if they were born with malformations.

“Today we do the same thing,” he said.

“Last century, the whole world was scandalized by what the Nazis did to purify the race.  Today, we do the same thing but with white gloves,” Francis said.

And, as the cost of medical care continues to rise, we will go from the "right to die" to the "duty to die".

The Pope is right here.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Tear Down This Monument!

For John, BLUF:  I would rather keep the monuments and use them as teachable moments.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Nazi History Behind ‘Asperger’

From The Old Gray Lady, by Ms Edith Sheffer a senior fellow at the Institute of European Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, 31 March 2018.

Here is the lede plus three:

My son’s school, David Starr Jordan Middle School, is being renamed.  A seventh grader exposed the honoree, Stanford University’s first president, as a prominent eugenicist of the early 20th century who championed sterilization of the “unfit.”

This sort of debate is happening all over the country, as communities fight over whether to tear down Confederate monuments and whether Andrew Jackson deserves to remain on the $20 bill.  How do we decide whom to honor and whom to disavow?

There are some straightforward cases: Hitler Squares were renamed after World War II; Lenin statues were hauled away after the collapse of the Soviet Union.  But other, less famous monsters of the past continue to define our landscape and language.

I have spent the past seven years researching the Nazi past of Dr. Hans Asperger.  Asperger is credited with shaping our ideas of autism and Asperger syndrome, diagnoses given to people believed to have limited social skills and narrow interests.

Of course not all of the statues of Lenin have been torn down.  There is still one standing in Seattle.  Notwithstanding the horrors he perpetrated and those by his successor, Joseph Stalin.

I always wondered who David Starr Jordan was.  That was the name of one of the five high schools in the Long Beach Unified School District, back when I was in high school.

It was informative about how we came to understand autism.

I wonder what we will do with all these remnants of iconoclastic actions when our cultural standards change and we have moved on to aborting babies who show signs of autism?

Regards  —  Cliff

Life is Worth Living

For John, BLUF:  I worry about people judging whether a life is worth living or not.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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'I Am a Man With Down Syndrome and My Life Is Worth Living'

Congressional testimony that illuminates what a developmental disability means—and doesn’t mean

From The Atlantic, by Writer Conor Friedersdorf, on 30 October 2017.

Here is the lede plus one:

Last week, the actor, Special Olympian, and advocate Frank Stephens gave this testimony to Congress:  “I am a man with Down syndrome and my life is worth living.”

In fact, he went farther: “I have a great life!”

For those conceived with his developmental disability, it is the best and worst of times.  “The life expectancy for someone born with Down syndrome has increased from twenty-five in the early 1980s to more than fifty today,” Caitrin Keiper writes in The New Atlantis.  “In many other ways as well, a child born with Down syndrome today has brighter prospects than at any other point in history.  Early intervention therapies, more inclusive educational support, legal protections in the workplace, and programs for assisted independent living offer a full, active future in the community.”

But as she goes on to explain, “the abortion rate for fetuses diagnosed with Down syndrome tops ninety percent.”  In Iceland, nearly every fetus with the condition is killed.  CBS News reports that “the United States has an estimated termination rate for Down syndrome of 67 percent (1995-2011); in France it's 77 percent (2015); and Denmark, 98 percent (2015).  The law in Iceland permits abortion after 16 weeks if the fetus has a deformity––and Down syndrome is included in this category.”

There are links in the article.

I worry about a eugenics like approach to Downs Syndrome or other fetal disabilities.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

A Pox on Both Sides

For John, BLUF:  Margaret Sanger like on one side and Benito Mussolini like on the other.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Just catching up.

NBC And The BBC: There Were Violent Left-Wing Protesters In Charlottesville

From Hot Air and Reporter John Sexton, Posted on 16 August 2017.

Yes, this does mean that President Trump was correct.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Trotsky on Eugenics

For John, BLUF:  Eugenics is a perversion of science.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Why Did Leon Trotsky Favor Eugenics?

That would be Leon Trotsky, for those of you on the right.  I am assuming leftists all know about Leon Trotsky, born Lev Davidovich Bronstein.

This article from FEE (Foundation for Economic Education) is by Mr Jeffrey Tucker.  It was published on New Years Day 2017.

Here is the beginning of the article:

The unending process of getting history online has produced vast revelations.  The latest discovery to amaze me is an article by Russian communist Leon Trotsky from 1934, as printed in the publication Liberty:  “If America Should Go Communist.”

Trotsky’s 1934 article exudes confidence in how communism could be realized in the United States.  Trotsky, beloved then and now as the Menshevik and later Bolshevik leader, wrote this document in a period in his life in which he was massively popular among American intelligentsia.  He had lived in New York for three months in 1917, and established some strong and enduring ties with communists.  Following his split with Lenin, he lived in exile from 1927 to 1940, when he was assassinated in Mexico on Stalin’s personal orders.

It’s fair to say that many if not most American communists in 1934 considered themselves Trotskyites, still holding onto hope for some realization of authentic communism as opposed to the growing mess in Russia.

Trotsky’s 1934 article exudes confidence in how communism could be realized in the United States.  The New Deal was starting to be implemented while the National Socialists were intensifying their total control of Germany.  Everywhere, it seemed, capitalism was disgraced, to be replaced by rational economic planning.  Trotsky was merely writing on the far end of the spectrum of the planning consensus.

One Big Conveyor Belt

He writes as if putting his dreams into words could create reality itself.  Keep in mind that this was back when the communists actually believed that they could create more productivity than capitalism.

Here we get to the nub of the Eugenics Question.  Not a great exposition, but one that makes a lot of sense.

After researching this topic now for two years, I’ve framed a rule for thinkers of this period:  scratch a socialist and you will discover a eugenicist who aches to use the state to control who lives and dies.  It turns out to apply to Trotsky as well.

Consider this bizarre paragraph from his 1934 essay:

While the romantic numskulls of Nazi Germany are dreaming of restoring the old race of Europe’s Dark Forest to its original purity, or rather its original filth, you Americans, after taking a firm grip on your economic machinery and your culture, will apply genuine scientific methods to the problem of eugenics.  Within a century, out of your melting pot of races there will come a new breed of men – the first worthy of the name of Man.

To be sure, his views were no different from any other run-of-the-mill intellectual at the time.  Eugenics was a widely held outlook and policy aspiration, from Madison Grant’s freak out about white genocide in 1916 all the way through Gunnar Myrdal’s advocacy of Sweden’s barbaric sterilizations in the name of purifying the race.

Was his push for eugenics driven by racial panic, as was the case with many Progressive Era intellectuals?Even so, one does wonder what Trotsky had in mind.  Was his push for eugenics driven by racial panic, as was the case with many Progressive Era intellectuals?  Was it merely a general desire to improve the genetic composition of the average person? Or perhaps it was actually a political motivation.  Maybe the ultimate answer to the “bourgeois mind” was extermination through sterilization, exclusion, impoverishment, and death in one generation?

Let's face it.  The motley assembly of humans that is America probably does need sprucing up.  However, that is something that should be left to mutual attraction, not some government bureaucracy make genetic decisions for individuals, Margaret Sanger style.

Besides, Leon Trotsky was against chewing gum.  That is very un-American.

We should be thankful Mr Trotsky never lead a revolution in these United States.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

The Progs Hate Men and Caucasians

For John, BLUF:  Just remember there is a bell curve of people and some are way out on the extremes.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Lena Dunham Posts Video Celebrating the ‘Extinction of White Men’ on Twitter

Yes, it is Breitbart.  On the other hand, it is Ms Lena Dunham.  The Reporter is Mr Charlie Nash, who I assume is another one of those deplorable Male Caucasians.

Well, there is no explanation, so no attempt will be made to offer one.

But, you can view the 29 Second video at the link above.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

We Need to Reexamine Progressivism

For John, BLUF:  Strangely, the Democrats stole and distorted the name Liberal, but are really just Progressives.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Mr Jonah Goldberg, writing in The National Review, gives us "Just Because Trump Is ‘Anti-PC’ Doesn’t Mean We Should Celebrate His Vulgarity".

Yes, The National Review has been a little on the anti-Trump side of things.  Mr Goldberg takes a little while to warm to his topic, but he does well at it.

The thing that caught my attention in the article was his discussion of Progressivism, which appear a little over 100 years ago and its sub-factor, Eugenics (and other things♠).  He was referencing a recent review of Professor Thomas Leonard’s Illiberal Reformers:  Race, Eugenics and American Economics in the Progressive Era.  Mr Goldberg, of course, saw it as a more scholarly followup to his own book, Liberal Fascism.  The discussion of the book review is a quick way to see that not everything that came down the pike as Progressivism was good for the nation or good for the individual citizen.♥

Mr Ed Driscoll posted on this at the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Like the minimum wage, designed, at the time, to force out minorities and small shop owners.
♥  By the way, while avoiding, by and large. the label Progressive, Democrats have claimed and warped the term Liberal.  I think Mr Rush Limbaugh, and others, should reclaim "Liberal" for the Republicans and stick the Democrats with "Progressive", good and hard, to partially quote Columnist H. L. Mencken.

Princeton University and President Wilson

For John, BLUF:  Your friends who are Democrat have some apologizing to do.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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From Mr Michael van der Galien, and Pajamas Media, yesterday, we have "'Black Lives Matter' Gets One Right:  Woodrow Wilson Was a Terrible Racist"

The Black Lives Matter movement has frequently been criticized by conservatives, and for good reason.  The organization is undeniably radical and practices race-based intimidation.  For instance, slightly less than two weeks ago, activists attacked white students studying in a library at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.  Their "sin," apparently, was their skin -- the white students were born racists and criminals per the eyes of Black Lives Matter.  The innocent students were slammed against the walls, cursed at, and berated for their supposed racial privilege.

Having said that, even a broken [analogue] clock is right twice a day.  In subject matter, if not tactics, Black Lives Matter got it right for once:

Black Lives Matter activists at Princeton University have taken over the president’s office and say they won’t leave until the school acknowledges former U.S. president Woodrow Wilson as a racist and renames all buildings currently honoring him on campus.

Then the article goes on to detail how President Wilson reversed racial progress in the United States and notes that Mr Glenn Beck was correct in...

...claiming that Wilson "was part of the Margaret Sanger, 'let's kill off the inferior race'" movement.

But, here is the twist, and you knew there was a twist:

But to be consistent, the university must also make an effort to explain to the Black Lives Matter students that Wilson's racism was intrinsically linked to his Progressivism. The dangerous political ideology believes all individuals are servants to the state; I don't expect that correcting this side of the Wilson story will be prioritized over there anytime soon.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Palestinian Involvement in the Holocaust

For John, BLUF:  As hundreds of thousands of refugees pour into Europe, keeping past history straight is important.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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It being Saturday, here is an item from Israel.

"Netanyahu Retracts Assertion That Palestinian Inspired Holocaust".

The reporter is Ms Jodi Rudoren, the Bureau Chief for The Old Gray Lady.

This dustup is about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stating, on 20 October, that then Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, advised Chancellor Adolf Hitler, in November 1941, to burn all the Jews, so they would not immigrate to then Palestine.  The implication was that it was the Mufti who put the idea of the death camps in the mind of Chancellor Hitler.

The historic fact is that Chancellor Hitler was already on his way to the Holocaust and the Mufti was just another person along the way willing to support the German conclusion that eugenics allowed the extermination of certain peoples.

One of the reasons this comment was roundly criticized is that some felt it would provide a wedge for Holocaust Deniers.  That would create its own problems.

After ten days the Prime Minister took to Facebook and admitted he was wrong in his characterization of the meeting between the Palestinian Leader and Chancellor Hitler.

Here, per The New York Times, is the text of the Facebook posting:

“The decision to move from a policy of deporting Jews to the Final Solution was made by the Nazis and was not dependent on outside influence,” Mr. Netanyahu posted on Facebook, in Hebrew and English. “The Nazis saw in the Mufti a collaborator, but they did not need him to decide on the systematic destruction of European Jewry, which began in June 1941.”

He went on:  “Contrary to the impression that was created, I did not mean to claim that in his conversation with Hitler in November 1941 the Mufti convinced him to adopt the Final Solution.  The Nazis decided on that by themselves.”

Too right.

Regards  —  Cliff

Up To 1,500 Died

For John, BLUF:  To save the majority, you have to protect the minorities.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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From ABC News is this report on the 75th Anniversary of Kristallnacht, across Germany.  The Wikipedia report on Kristallnacht is here.  From Wikipedia:

The pretext for the attacks was the assassination of the German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by Herschel Grynszpan, a German-born Polish Jew resident in Paris.  Kristallnacht was followed by additional economic and political persecution of Jews, and is viewed by historians as part of Nazi Germany's broader racial policy, and the beginning of the Final Solution and The Holocaust.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff