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Leaving the Democrats

I was brought up a military brat.  My father did 22 years in the United States Air Force.  In 1954 when he joined, they promised if he made a career of it, he and his wife, my mother, would be taken care of for life.  He got out in 1976 after extending his service a couple of extra years so I would not have to switch high schools in Florida.

We moved out west after my father retired and I finished high school.  In 1978, I got a job in the wood products industry at a particleboard factory and began work a schedule that just became normal to me. seven days on, two days off, working nights, weekends, and most holidays.  I wore “save the whales” t-shirts at work.

The industry came under attack because of environmental concerns for the spotted owl.  The lumber and wood products industry in the West was decimated over the next 15-20 years.  We tried to muster support from our government, but our efforts fell on deaf ears.  Eventually after 22 years, the facility I worked at closed.  The ability to do what we did, which was to recycle sawdust and discarded wood into a usable product, became too expensive as we had to go further and further away for our raw materials.  The logging industry was gone because of environmentalism and government policies to put animal concerns ahead of humans.

The spotted owl (the Mexican spotted owl in the southwest) was noted later on to be mating with other ‘species’ of owls.

It occurred to me if they can call an owl of a different color another species, then this should be applied to humans.  By a definition of species, we are all our own species based on external color, size and shape, etc..  Why were we not being looked after by our government in our lives?  We paid taxes and worked our butts off, only to be told we were killing the planet.  Where was the Human Protective Agency?  Why was I paying taxes to have the government pay bureaucrats to work against me?

In the 90s, I watched the Clintons. Bill at that time seemed to be a pragmatist but Hillary, the unelected first lady, tried to take over the healthcare system.  I saw it as a blatant power grab by an overly ambitious person in government.  By this time, we were well into the spotted owl era, and my distaste for the government sticking its nose into our lives was huge.  My save the whales t-shirts were history long before this.

Now, my parents were Roosevelt Democrats who fed on the nightly news: Huntley-Brinkley, Walter Cronkite.  That was the source for news.  In their minds, republicans were the evil ones trying to take away their VA benefits promised to them in the 50’s.  They believed the nightly news.  There was no internet, no counterpoint.  When I reached adulthood, we argued over politics a lot more than we should have.  My Mother actually believed the SPLC was a conservative organization.  We believed the same things really as she espoused conservative positions, but she thought the Democrats had her back on it all.  I swore to my mother I would never vote for a party that would put a damn bird above a human.

It has only gotten worse.

After securing a job at a hospital, I watched ObamaCare tear through healthcare and then almost immediately watched as our pension benefits were frozen as a result of having to comply with new rules and regulations.  My wife and I lost 3000 dollars a month in future retirement income as a result of her company having to reorganize, and my pension is a private plan. Not a single Republican voted for the ObamaCare scam. But hey, 70 million dollars later the hospital has EPIC.  My Chart anyone?  I understand the CEO of that company has a lot of ties to Obama.

 

Hospitals now have departments of people working just to make sure all of the I’s are dotted and T’s crossed and the punctuation is correct just so we get paid for taking care of those on Medicare and Medicaid.  I can imagine on the other end that the government bureaucracy has people just looking for mistakes and ways not to pay out.  It is really mindboggling.

I watched my father get piss-poor treatment at the VA hospital, waiting months to get appointments and then just handed more drugs.  He struggled with issues from Agent Orange exposure in Vietnam.  He had back surgery there without any physical therapy follow-up.  He could not straighten out his back to lie down or stand up straight after the surgery.   He died in 2011 after having to live and sleep in his easy chair for years due to the pain. I want to say he was taken care of for life as promised years before without sounding sarcastic.  But I can’t.

I watched as my mother walked away from the Democrats.  She quoted Reagan…. they left her.  She voted for President Trump.

I never went to college, I am totally self-taught.  I am a doer of many trades and master of none.  I have had a great life in the greatest country on earth.  All along the way, the Democrats have stepped on me, taxed me more, lied to me, called me names, and demand I give up my rights.  Democrats were the ones pushing environmental causes at the expense of humans and government takeover of healthcare.  They have mismanaged everything they get their hands on, and then blame others for their own deeds.  I watch them lie and cheat and twist words.  Democrats have alienated their own base to the point they have to argue for foreigners to come into this country illegally in order to vote for Democrats, mainly by calling those of us opposed to this “racist.”

In all fairness, the weak Republicans in our government have hardly stood in their way.  But that is another day, another rant.

I am now called racist, homophobic, misogynist, and Islamaphobic.  A gun-toting, Bible-believing bitter clinger.  A deplorable.  A white nationalist.  Nazi. I can’t remember all of my Democrat party subtitles.

But I am middle class. I have been given nothing by our government and have given too much to it.  And it always wants more, telling me I have to pay my fair share.  It is a sad state when you get to a point in life of maximum dollars earned that it is taken away by higher tax brackets and the loss of deductions.

I will never vote for anyone advocating for more government control.  Or for anyone who is trying to denigrate me by name-calling or label-making.  The reason is my life.

I was brought up a military brat.  My father did 22 years in the United States Air Force.  In 1954 when he joined, they promised if he made a career of it, he and his wife, my mother, would be taken care of for life.  He got out in 1976 after extending his service a couple of extra years so I would not have to switch high schools in Florida.

We moved out west after my father retired and I finished high school.  In 1978, I got a job in the wood products industry at a particleboard factory and began work a schedule that just became normal to me. seven days on, two days off, working nights, weekends, and most holidays.  I wore “save the whales” t-shirts at work.

The industry came under attack because of environmental concerns for the spotted owl.  The lumber and wood products industry in the West was decimated over the next 15-20 years.  We tried to muster support from our government, but our efforts fell on deaf ears.  Eventually after 22 years, the facility I worked at closed.  The ability to do what we did, which was to recycle sawdust and discarded wood into a usable product, became too expensive as we had to go further and further away for our raw materials.  The logging industry was gone because of environmentalism and government policies to put animal concerns ahead of humans.

The spotted owl (the Mexican spotted owl in the southwest) was noted later on to be mating with other ‘species’ of owls.

It occurred to me if they can call an owl of a different color another species, then this should be applied to humans.  By a definition of species, we are all our own species based on external color, size and shape, etc..  Why were we not being looked after by our government in our lives?  We paid taxes and worked our butts off, only to be told we were killing the planet.  Where was the Human Protective Agency?  Why was I paying taxes to have the government pay bureaucrats to work against me?

In the 90s, I watched the Clintons. Bill at that time seemed to be a pragmatist but Hillary, the unelected first lady, tried to take over the healthcare system.  I saw it as a blatant power grab by an overly ambitious person in government.  By this time, we were well into the spotted owl era, and my distaste for the government sticking its nose into our lives was huge.  My save the whales t-shirts were history long before this.

Now, my parents were Roosevelt Democrats who fed on the nightly news: Huntley-Brinkley, Walter Cronkite.  That was the source for news.  In their minds, republicans were the evil ones trying to take away their VA benefits promised to them in the 50’s.  They believed the nightly news.  There was no internet, no counterpoint.  When I reached adulthood, we argued over politics a lot more than we should have.  My Mother actually believed the SPLC was a conservative organization.  We believed the same things really as she espoused conservative positions, but she thought the Democrats had her back on it all.  I swore to my mother I would never vote for a party that would put a damn bird above a human.

It has only gotten worse.

After securing a job at a hospital, I watched ObamaCare tear through healthcare and then almost immediately watched as our pension benefits were frozen as a result of having to comply with new rules and regulations.  My wife and I lost 3000 dollars a month in future retirement income as a result of her company having to reorganize, and my pension is a private plan. Not a single Republican voted for the ObamaCare scam. But hey, 70 million dollars later the hospital has EPIC.  My Chart anyone?  I understand the CEO of that company has a lot of ties to Obama.

 

Hospitals now have departments of people working just to make sure all of the I’s are dotted and T’s crossed and the punctuation is correct just so we get paid for taking care of those on Medicare and Medicaid.  I can imagine on the other end that the government bureaucracy has people just looking for mistakes and ways not to pay out.  It is really mindboggling.

I watched my father get piss-poor treatment at the VA hospital, waiting months to get appointments and then just handed more drugs.  He struggled with issues from Agent Orange exposure in Vietnam.  He had back surgery there without any physical therapy follow-up.  He could not straighten out his back to lie down or stand up straight after the surgery.   He died in 2011 after having to live and sleep in his easy chair for years due to the pain. I want to say he was taken care of for life as promised years before without sounding sarcastic.  But I can’t.

I watched as my mother walked away from the Democrats.  She quoted Reagan…. they left her.  She voted for President Trump.

I never went to college, I am totally self-taught.  I am a doer of many trades and master of none.  I have had a great life in the greatest country on earth.  All along the way, the Democrats have stepped on me, taxed me more, lied to me, called me names, and demand I give up my rights.  Democrats were the ones pushing environmental causes at the expense of humans and government takeover of healthcare.  They have mismanaged everything they get their hands on, and then blame others for their own deeds.  I watch them lie and cheat and twist words.  Democrats have alienated their own base to the point they have to argue for foreigners to come into this country illegally in order to vote for Democrats, mainly by calling those of us opposed to this “racist.”

In all fairness, the weak Republicans in our government have hardly stood in their way.  But that is another day, another rant.

I am now called racist, homophobic, misogynist, and Islamaphobic.  A gun-toting, Bible-believing bitter clinger.  A deplorable.  A white nationalist.  Nazi. I can’t remember all of my Democrat party subtitles.

But I am middle class. I have been given nothing by our government and have given too much to it.  And it always wants more, telling me I have to pay my fair share.  It is a sad state when you get to a point in life of maximum dollars earned that it is taken away by higher tax brackets and the loss of deductions.

I will never vote for anyone advocating for more government control.  Or for anyone who is trying to denigrate me by name-calling or label-making.  The reason is my life.

via American Thinker

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Don Jr. to Chris Cuomo: ‘Fredo’ Isn’t an Ethnic Slur, ‘It Just Means You’re the Dumb Brother’

Donald Trump Jr. is mocking CNN host Christopher Cuomo for claiming his nickname “Fredo” is an ethnic slur against Italians, telling the primetime anchor that the now-viral moniker “just means you’re the dumb brother.”

“Hey @ChrisCuomo, take it from me, ‘Fredo’ isn’t the N word for Italians, it just means you’re the dumb brother,” President Donald Trump’s eldest son tweeted to Cuomo on Monday evening.

Trump was one of many voices pushing back against Cuomo, who is seen arguing in an explosive undercover video that the term “Fredo” is a racially charged term. Throughout the video released on YouTube Monday by an independent journalist with the title “That’s the Point with Brandon,” Cuomo threatens physical violence against a man after he calls him “Fredo” in public.

[Editor’s Note: YouTube has removed the video from “That’s The Point with Brandon.”]

The nickname is a reference to the Godfather’s Fredo Corleone character, the inept second son of the Corleone mafia family. The nickname for Cuomo was popularized by Breitbart News editor-at-large John Nolte and frequently used by radio talkshow legend Rush Limbaugh to mock the CNN host, as well.

The backlash for Cuomo’s “n-word” comparison was fierce and bipartisan:

A partial transcript of Cuomo screaming at two unidentified men about being called “Fredo” is as follows:

INDIVIDUAL #1: I thought that’s who you were.

CHRIS CUOMO: No, punk ass bitches from the right call me Fredo. My name is Chris Cuomo, I’m an anchor on CNN. Fredo is from The Godfather. He was that weak brother. And they use it as an Italian aspersion. Any of you Italian?

INDIVIDUAL #1: I got a little bit Italian.

CUOMO: Are you Italian? It’s a fucking insult to your people.

INDIVIDUAL #2: I didn’t know that.

CUOMO: It’s an insult to your fucking people. It’s like the N-word for us. Is that a cool fucking thing?

Later in the clip, Cuomo suggests he’s prepared to fight with the man who called him the nickname.

INDIVIDUAL #1: I don’t have a problem with you man.

CUOMO: You’re going to have a fucking problem.

INDIVIDUAL #1: What? What are you going to do about it?

…

CUOMO: Take a swing. No, no. Come on boy. You want to call me shit, call me shit then. I’m right fucking here. I’ll fucking wreck your shit. I’ll fucking wreck your shit.

According to a count conducted by Newsbusters, Cuomo used said “fuck” around 25 times. CNN spokesperson Matt Dornic defended Cuomo’s threats, tweeting: “Chris Cuomo defended himself when he was verbally attacked with the use of an ethnic slur in an orchestrated setup. We completely support him.”

As the video of Cuomo went viral on social media, some began sharing prior CNN segments where the term “Fredo” was used — without objection from the Cuomo Prime Time host himself. Trump Jr. shared a snippet of Cuomo’s program which aired in January of network contributor Ana Navarro referring to the president’s eldest son as “Fredo.”

“Does CNN’s head of PR still think ‘Fredo’ is an ethnic slur after watching this? Because if it’s the N word for Italians like @ChrisCuomo says, I don’t understand why Chris seems so at ease with someone saying it here. An excuse just as fake as his news,” Trump Jr. tweeted.

via Breitbart News

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Exclusive—Allen West: ‘There Has Never Been a Clearer Choice’ than 2020

Former Rep. Allen West (R-FL), a star of the Tea Party movement, is joining forces with a pro-Trump super PAC to ensure the president is reelected in 2020.

West, who served one term representing Florida’s 22nd congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives before moving to Texas, told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview he was compelled to act because of how far Democrats have moved leftward.

“The next election is critical, without a doubt there has never been a clearer choice between two different and opposing philosophies of governance,” he said. “The line has been drawn between progressive socialism and constitutional conservatism.”

“Either we abide by our Constitution and the rule of law, or we allow Democrats to trash it, institute their own rules, and take away our individual rights and freedoms,” West continued. “More and more people are understanding that is what this election is all about.”

In order to enlighten individuals about those consequences, West is teaming up with the Committee to the Defend the President, a pro-Trump super PAC, to help educate and register one million new voters in Pennsylvania, Florida, Michigan, and North Carolina ahead of 2020.

A significant portion of these new voters will be those who may not necessarily identify as conservative but “believe in securing our border, believe in the Second Amendment, are pro-life, and pro-military,” as Ted Harvey, the group’s chairman, told Breitbart News in June.

“We’re going after people that have been disenfranchised in the political process for one reason or another,” Harvey said at the time.

The Committee plans to build on the success it has seen over the past few election cycles. Formerly known as Stop Hillary PAC, the group spent more than $6 million during the 2016 presidential election, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Most of the money was spent on targeted advertising highlighting former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s handling of the Benghazi attacks.

After the election, the Committee transitioned to fighting off what it saw as an organized attempt by the left to derail the Trump presidency.

Harvey previously said:

When we saw Democrats throwing a national temper tantrum after the election—literally the very next day having organized uprisings all across the country to discredit the election and the incoming administration—we decided to dedicate ourselves 100 percent to defending the president and his agenda from the left-wing media and Democrats.

Those efforts have been multifaceted, ranging from media campaigns informing voters about Trump’s accomplishments in office to targeted ads countering the the Democrats’ call for impeachment.

It’s most high-profile effort, however, came in 2018, when the committee invested in races across the country to see Trump’s allies elected. One of those successful efforts took place in Tennessee, where the committee spent $1 million backing Marsha Blackburn’s campaign for the United States Senate.

The committee plans to utilize the lessons from those efforts to help Trump and the GOP sweep to victory in 2020. For that goal to be achieved, West said it would take a “strong ground game” that starts with the average American and ascends higher.

“Everyone used to somewhat ridicule Barack Obama for being a community organizer, but that’s exactly what we have to do,” West said. “We have to build from the ground up, this cannot be a top-down driven strateg. It needs to come from the people.”

His role, in particular, will be important not only as an adviser, but also someone who can combat the Democrats’ narrative.

“It’s very important that we have voices that can go out and take the offense against the progressive, socialist left and challenge them,” West said. “We cannot allow them to get away with their insidious, ideological agenda and their ad hominem attacks.”

For that offense to be successful, West asserted, the Committee and Republicans, in general, need to make inroads with communities outside of their base.

“It’s vital we take the message to traditional areas and communities that maybe would not be receptive to constitutional conservatives,” he said. “We cannot take anything for granted.”

One such area Republicans might find fertile territory is urban and metropolitan regions, which tend to favor Democrats despite decades of mismanagement.

“The left believes their control of major urban centers is a key to them taking victory,” West said. “We need to be able to point out the failures, much as the president has been able to do, that Democrats have caused in such areas.”

via Breitbart News

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Airport In Dallas Goes Silent As Remains Of Vietnam War Veteran Come Home After 52 Years

This week, the remains of Col. Roy Knight Jr. were returned to Texas.

He left the United States in 1967 to serve in the Vietnam War but was shot down and lost. Last week, his remains were finally identified and his son, who is now a pilot, flew his remains home.

A journalist who was at the airport chronicled the scene in a series of tweets.

See Below:

Here’s a short video from ABC News:

What an inspiring and amazing story.

Welcome home, Colonel.

Cross posted from American Lookout.

The post Airport In Dallas Goes Silent As Remains Of Vietnam War Veteran Come Home After 52 Years appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

via The Gateway Pundit

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Millennials lose it when the guy who owns their favorite companies fundraises for Trump

While the multiple mass shootings and stabbings in the U.S. in the past few weeks upset many, nothing exercised the minds of wealthy fit liberals as learning that the investor of their favored, elitist, expensive gyms, or as the wealthy fit liberals refer to them, fitness centers, they attend was hosting a fundraiser last night for…President Donald J. Trump (R).  And hosting it, no less, in the exclusive, elitist playground of the East Cost liberal and wealthy: the Hamptons.

Entrust it to Vox, to ponder the dilemma of the oh, so self-labeled hip who exercise at, or work out as they refer their imposed sweat inducing contortions at, Equinox and Soul Cycle, to keep their butts tight and their minds closed.

But it can be particularly surprising to consumers when brands that have cultivated progressive and inclusive images are found to be associated with campaigns or causes that stand for the opposite.

Stephen Ross is a billionaire real estate developer (reported net worth: $7.7 billion) and owner of a private investment firm that has backed many of the latter kind of brands. He’s also hosting a fundraiser for the Trump 2020 campaign at his Hamptons mansion on Friday, August 9, where tickets will range from $100,000 for a lunch and photo opp to $250,000 to attend a roundtable discussion, according to the Washington Post.

Rich people hosting fundraisers for Trump is not itself particularly notable, but the fact that Ross’s firm has financed companies beloved in part for their progressive images has caused many patrons to call for a boycott. Among the brands Ross has invested in are Equinox, which has supported LGBTQ charities in the past; the spinning behemoth SoulCycle; the organic tampon brand Lola; and the budget gym Blink Fitness, as well as food chains like Momofuku and its pastry offshoot Milk Bar, and the fast-casual pizza spot &pizza.

OMG!  What to do?

New York Magazine to the rescue with additional information on those boycott targets for the morally outraged, tight-bodied, and narrow-minded.  And it is extensive.

When the news broke that Stephen Ross, a real-estate executive and venture capitalist, was set to throw an extravagant fundraiser for Donald Trump in the Hamptons on Friday, reverberations of shock and horror were felt in millennial communities far and wide, from Brooklyn to downtown L.A. to Austin and Portland, Oregon.  Why?  Because Ross is the chairman of the Related Companies, a parent company of both Equinox and SoulCycle, where many a young urban professional flocks daily to sweat out their existential dread. …

Unfortunately it gets even worse.  Ross has a hand in so many millennial lifestyle entities that there are probably a few influencers whose entire feeds must be cleansed of products tied to Trump cash.  If you think you’re untouched, don’t be so sure[.] … The giant, tangled rat king of capitalism means that unless you live like my friend John, who still has a flip phone and claims to have never ordered anything online, you’re part of a teeming network of unsavory dealings.

But anyway, here is a list of all the pertinent things Ross partly owns as you decide how much of your life must be canceled[.]

Read the list to learn how those with unfit morals will suffer.  Then, exercising your rights, smile and then go for a nice walk.

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr.

While the multiple mass shootings and stabbings in the U.S. in the past few weeks upset many, nothing exercised the minds of wealthy fit liberals as learning that the investor of their favored, elitist, expensive gyms, or as the wealthy fit liberals refer to them, fitness centers, they attend was hosting a fundraiser last night for…President Donald J. Trump (R).  And hosting it, no less, in the exclusive, elitist playground of the East Cost liberal and wealthy: the Hamptons.

Entrust it to Vox, to ponder the dilemma of the oh, so self-labeled hip who exercise at, or work out as they refer their imposed sweat inducing contortions at, Equinox and Soul Cycle, to keep their butts tight and their minds closed.

But it can be particularly surprising to consumers when brands that have cultivated progressive and inclusive images are found to be associated with campaigns or causes that stand for the opposite.

Stephen Ross is a billionaire real estate developer (reported net worth: $7.7 billion) and owner of a private investment firm that has backed many of the latter kind of brands. He’s also hosting a fundraiser for the Trump 2020 campaign at his Hamptons mansion on Friday, August 9, where tickets will range from $100,000 for a lunch and photo opp to $250,000 to attend a roundtable discussion, according to the Washington Post.

Rich people hosting fundraisers for Trump is not itself particularly notable, but the fact that Ross’s firm has financed companies beloved in part for their progressive images has caused many patrons to call for a boycott. Among the brands Ross has invested in are Equinox, which has supported LGBTQ charities in the past; the spinning behemoth SoulCycle; the organic tampon brand Lola; and the budget gym Blink Fitness, as well as food chains like Momofuku and its pastry offshoot Milk Bar, and the fast-casual pizza spot &pizza.

OMG!  What to do?

New York Magazine to the rescue with additional information on those boycott targets for the morally outraged, tight-bodied, and narrow-minded.  And it is extensive.

When the news broke that Stephen Ross, a real-estate executive and venture capitalist, was set to throw an extravagant fundraiser for Donald Trump in the Hamptons on Friday, reverberations of shock and horror were felt in millennial communities far and wide, from Brooklyn to downtown L.A. to Austin and Portland, Oregon.  Why?  Because Ross is the chairman of the Related Companies, a parent company of both Equinox and SoulCycle, where many a young urban professional flocks daily to sweat out their existential dread. …

Unfortunately it gets even worse.  Ross has a hand in so many millennial lifestyle entities that there are probably a few influencers whose entire feeds must be cleansed of products tied to Trump cash.  If you think you’re untouched, don’t be so sure[.] … The giant, tangled rat king of capitalism means that unless you live like my friend John, who still has a flip phone and claims to have never ordered anything online, you’re part of a teeming network of unsavory dealings.

But anyway, here is a list of all the pertinent things Ross partly owns as you decide how much of your life must be canceled[.]

Read the list to learn how those with unfit morals will suffer.  Then, exercising your rights, smile and then go for a nice walk.

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr.

via American Thinker Blog

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Where are all the videos of white nationalist violence?

Impeachment over Russian Collusion seems off the table, so the left must come up with a new “crisis” to hector and badger the 60-odd million Americans that voted for Donald Trump.  Enter from stage far left “White Nationalist Violence.”

It’s all the rage.  It’s what the cool kids are talking about.  Amongst all of the hype you would think there are numberless video examples of White Nationalist Violence.

You would be wrong.  There’s a lot of discussion about White Nationalist Violence, but no video examples to be found.

I am certain that Google, now alerted to the problem, will come up with video evidence of White Nationalist Violence, but they really should have been better prepared; the left can’t afford to invent a new talking point lie and not have every leftist outlet ready to support that lie immediately.

As for Antifa violence, Google is all about it for the moment.  Portland West alone provides example after example of masked thugs committing heinous acts of violence upon little old people unable to outrun a pack of harmless leftists with love in their hearts and clubs in their hands.

We’ve been told that High Tech is a fast-moving business; let’s see how quickly Google moves to find all those AWOL videos of White Nationalist Violence and post them as proof of the crisis in America today.

You and I know all of this “Crisis of White Nationalism Violence” effluence boils down to leftist rage at deplorables who refused to vote for the Official Candidate of the FBI.

Democracy dies when buried alive under a suffocating mountain of leftist propaganda.

Impeachment over Russian Collusion seems off the table, so the left must come up with a new “crisis” to hector and badger the 60-odd million Americans that voted for Donald Trump.  Enter from stage far left “White Nationalist Violence.”

It’s all the rage.  It’s what the cool kids are talking about.  Amongst all of the hype you would think there are numberless video examples of White Nationalist Violence.

You would be wrong.  There’s a lot of discussion about White Nationalist Violence, but no video examples to be found.

I am certain that Google, now alerted to the problem, will come up with video evidence of White Nationalist Violence, but they really should have been better prepared; the left can’t afford to invent a new talking point lie and not have every leftist outlet ready to support that lie immediately.

As for Antifa violence, Google is all about it for the moment.  Portland West alone provides example after example of masked thugs committing heinous acts of violence upon little old people unable to outrun a pack of harmless leftists with love in their hearts and clubs in their hands.

We’ve been told that High Tech is a fast-moving business; let’s see how quickly Google moves to find all those AWOL videos of White Nationalist Violence and post them as proof of the crisis in America today.

You and I know all of this “Crisis of White Nationalism Violence” effluence boils down to leftist rage at deplorables who refused to vote for the Official Candidate of the FBI.

Democracy dies when buried alive under a suffocating mountain of leftist propaganda.

via American Thinker Blog

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The Fallacy of Red Flag Laws

Democrats are using the shootings in El Paso and Dayton to call for more gun control. Regrettably, Republican leaders are joining the call. From President Trump, to U.S. Senate Judiciary Chairman, Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to U.S. Senator Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), Republican leaders are calling for the enactment of so-called “Red Flag” laws. Sadly, our political leaders are quick to give up our constitutional rights just to look like they’re doing something to prevent the next mass shooting. Yet, even with more gun control, the shootings will continue; but our constitutional rights will be gone.

In response to the latest shootings, the president declared, “We must make sure that those judged to pose a grave risk to public safety do not have access to firearms and that if they do, those firearms can be taken through rapid due process. That is why I have called for red flag laws…” Although these laws may be well-intentioned, they’ll be disastrous to our rights, subject to abuse, and ineffective in addressing the real problem.

Nevertheless, State Sen. Tom Killion and State Rep. Todd Stephens, both Republicans, have proposed our own Red Flag law. Through this bill, a law enforcement officer or “family or household member” can petition the court, without your knowledge, claiming you present an extreme risk of harm to yourself or others. The judge will review the petition, again, without your knowledge or involvement, and if he finds that you’re an extreme risk, he’ll issue an Interim Extreme Risk Order compelling you to relinquish your firearms and prohibiting you from possessing same.

(By the way, you can rest uneasy because the definition of “family or household members” includes your ex-wives, ex-girlfriends and your mother-in-law! Any chance this bill, like its sister-law, the Protection From Abuse Act, will be abused in divorce, custody, or property dispute cases?)

Once the order is issued, and still without notice to you, the sheriff will arrive at your door and “request” that you immediately relinquish your firearms. (Actually, the law gives you 24 hours to relinquish, otherwise you’ll be charged with a crime and hauled off to jail). Either way, it’s a recipe for disaster. In Maryland, a man was recently shot and killed by law enforcement officers who attempted to confiscate his firearms via an extreme risk order. Only when the sheriff arrives are you notified of what already happened to you in court. The entire process involved in the Interim Extreme Risk Protection Order violates your right to due process and several other constitutional rights.

You do have a right to a hearing within 10 days. But it’s unlikely the judge will reverse himself and more likely he’ll enter the final order, which can last for up to one year — all the while you’re dispossessed of your firearms and prohibited from exercising your Second Amendment rights. Furthermore, in deciding to enter either order the judge may look back over the past two years and consider nonviolent conduct such as, “abuse of controlled substances or alcohol,” whatever that means, “any criminal conviction that involves controlled substances or alcohol,” which includes DUI and possession of small amount of marijuana, and a “recent acquisition of a firearm.” So even exercising your Second Amendment rights can be used to deny you the same.

In addition to its constitutional infirmities, this Red Flag bill does not do much, if anything, to prevent the next mass shooting. Like all gun control laws, it assumes the gun is the problem instead of the psychotic person ready to pull the trigger. As President Trump correctly stated, “Mental illness and hatred pull the trigger. Not the gun.” A review of the most notorious mass shooters reveals that they all suffered from severe mental disorders; they all should have been institutionalized. Although a Red Flag law may have taken away their guns, it would have left them free to live among us. Is it possible the next mass shooter, even though subject to an extreme risk order, might stumble upon one of the 400 million firearms in circulation in America?

Almost as an afterthought, this Red Flag bill does permit judges to consider using the Mental Health Procedures Act to seek the involuntary commitment of a person deemed to be an extreme risk. But judges, law enforcement, county mental health officers and family and household members already have that power. And patients in mental health facilities do not have access to firearms. Wouldn’t it be safer and more effective to focus law enforcement and judicial resources on removing the next potential mass shooter from our community and placing him in a mental health facility where he’ll receive the treatment he needs, instead of using Red Flag laws filed by ex-wives or ex-girlfriends to disarm those with DUI and drug convictions?

Inpatient mental health treatment for those who present a clear and present danger to themselves and others should be the focus of our efforts. Yet, it seems that those in favor of these Red Flag laws are more concerned about confiscating firearms than preventing the next mass shooting.

Marc A. Scaringi, Esq. Mr. Scaringi is an attorney in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a radio talk show host of “The Marc Scaringi Show” on WHP 580AM and I Heart Radio and a Donald J. Trump endorsed Delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention. Follow Marc on Twitter @MarcScaringi

Democrats are using the shootings in El Paso and Dayton to call for more gun control. Regrettably, Republican leaders are joining the call. From President Trump, to U.S. Senate Judiciary Chairman, Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to U.S. Senator Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), Republican leaders are calling for the enactment of so-called “Red Flag” laws. Sadly, our political leaders are quick to give up our constitutional rights just to look like they’re doing something to prevent the next mass shooting. Yet, even with more gun control, the shootings will continue; but our constitutional rights will be gone.

In response to the latest shootings, the president declared, “We must make sure that those judged to pose a grave risk to public safety do not have access to firearms and that if they do, those firearms can be taken through rapid due process. That is why I have called for red flag laws…” Although these laws may be well-intentioned, they’ll be disastrous to our rights, subject to abuse, and ineffective in addressing the real problem.

Nevertheless, State Sen. Tom Killion and State Rep. Todd Stephens, both Republicans, have proposed our own Red Flag law. Through this bill, a law enforcement officer or “family or household member” can petition the court, without your knowledge, claiming you present an extreme risk of harm to yourself or others. The judge will review the petition, again, without your knowledge or involvement, and if he finds that you’re an extreme risk, he’ll issue an Interim Extreme Risk Order compelling you to relinquish your firearms and prohibiting you from possessing same.

(By the way, you can rest uneasy because the definition of “family or household members” includes your ex-wives, ex-girlfriends and your mother-in-law! Any chance this bill, like its sister-law, the Protection From Abuse Act, will be abused in divorce, custody, or property dispute cases?)

Once the order is issued, and still without notice to you, the sheriff will arrive at your door and “request” that you immediately relinquish your firearms. (Actually, the law gives you 24 hours to relinquish, otherwise you’ll be charged with a crime and hauled off to jail). Either way, it’s a recipe for disaster. In Maryland, a man was recently shot and killed by law enforcement officers who attempted to confiscate his firearms via an extreme risk order. Only when the sheriff arrives are you notified of what already happened to you in court. The entire process involved in the Interim Extreme Risk Protection Order violates your right to due process and several other constitutional rights.

You do have a right to a hearing within 10 days. But it’s unlikely the judge will reverse himself and more likely he’ll enter the final order, which can last for up to one year — all the while you’re dispossessed of your firearms and prohibited from exercising your Second Amendment rights. Furthermore, in deciding to enter either order the judge may look back over the past two years and consider nonviolent conduct such as, “abuse of controlled substances or alcohol,” whatever that means, “any criminal conviction that involves controlled substances or alcohol,” which includes DUI and possession of small amount of marijuana, and a “recent acquisition of a firearm.” So even exercising your Second Amendment rights can be used to deny you the same.

In addition to its constitutional infirmities, this Red Flag bill does not do much, if anything, to prevent the next mass shooting. Like all gun control laws, it assumes the gun is the problem instead of the psychotic person ready to pull the trigger. As President Trump correctly stated, “Mental illness and hatred pull the trigger. Not the gun.” A review of the most notorious mass shooters reveals that they all suffered from severe mental disorders; they all should have been institutionalized. Although a Red Flag law may have taken away their guns, it would have left them free to live among us. Is it possible the next mass shooter, even though subject to an extreme risk order, might stumble upon one of the 400 million firearms in circulation in America?

Almost as an afterthought, this Red Flag bill does permit judges to consider using the Mental Health Procedures Act to seek the involuntary commitment of a person deemed to be an extreme risk. But judges, law enforcement, county mental health officers and family and household members already have that power. And patients in mental health facilities do not have access to firearms. Wouldn’t it be safer and more effective to focus law enforcement and judicial resources on removing the next potential mass shooter from our community and placing him in a mental health facility where he’ll receive the treatment he needs, instead of using Red Flag laws filed by ex-wives or ex-girlfriends to disarm those with DUI and drug convictions?

Inpatient mental health treatment for those who present a clear and present danger to themselves and others should be the focus of our efforts. Yet, it seems that those in favor of these Red Flag laws are more concerned about confiscating firearms than preventing the next mass shooting.

Marc A. Scaringi, Esq. Mr. Scaringi is an attorney in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a radio talk show host of “The Marc Scaringi Show” on WHP 580AM and I Heart Radio and a Donald J. Trump endorsed Delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention. Follow Marc on Twitter @MarcScaringi

via American Thinker

Enjoy this article? Read the full version at the authors website: https://www.americanthinker.com/

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Education Failing Young Americans…Yet Again

It is a dismal picture.  In his 1993 book Inside American Education: The Decline, the Deception, the Dogmas, Thomas Sowell lamented that “when nearly one-third of American 17-year-olds do not know that Abraham Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation, when nearly half do not know who Josef Stalin was, and when about 30 percent could not locate Britain on a map of Europe, then it is clear that American educational deficiencies extend far beyond mathematics.”  Yet a quarter of a century later, the 17-year-olds in my classrooms do not even know what the Emancipation Proclamation is, let alone who authored it! 

In 1998, Heather Mac Donald noted that report cards and objective tests were traded in for “overheated rhetoric about fighting institutional racism and [the redistribution of] power.”

In his 2010 book Spoilt Rotten: The Toxic Cult of Sentimentality, Theodore Dalrymple aimed his pen at Great Britain, where “educational theory, subsequently provided with a patina of science by committed researchers, is full of absurdities that would be delightfully laughable had they not been taken seriously and used as the basis of educational policy to impoverish millions of lives.”

Despising routine and rote … [the] educational theorists came up with the idea that children would learn to read better if they discovered how to do so for themselves.  This is only slightly more sensible than sitting a child under an apple in the hope that it will arrive at the theory of gravity.

Thus, “romantic educational theory” is deliberately used to dummy down students, make school unbearable, and prepare these students to become useful idiots of a leftist society.  This was also documented by Dan Gagliasso in 2012.

Stumbling over words and not deciphering their meaning results in muddied comprehension.  Dalrymple writes that when asked to “put into their own words what the passage meant that they [the students] had just stumbled through,” their response was “I don’t know; I was only reading it.”  As Robert Weissberg documents, “upping the number of diplomas [does not] equate to imparting measurable knowledge” when “lax standards” exist. 

The educational establishment banished cursive penmanship from schools.  That cursive writing helps improve neural connections, increases writing speed, and improves fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination is casually dismissed with the retort that no one will be writing anymore; they are all using computers.  Thus, American students cannot even read U.S. fundamental documents or, for that matter, their grandparents’ letters.

In another collection of potent essays titled Black Rednecks and White Liberals (2005), Thomas Sowell has a chapter titled “Black Education.”  It is a scathing indictment of the oft-used liberal response that economically disadvantaged minority students simply cannot succeed academically.  Sowell debunks this and describes how the Dunbar High School in Washington, D.C. consistently had results that equaled or exceeded national norms on standardized tests from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s even though most of the students came from parents who were laborers, messengers, and janitors. 

Sowell asks, “[H]ow did an 85-year history of dramatic success abruptly turn into … failure, virtually overnight, by the politics of education?”

Government insistence on school desegregation brought in “inadequately educated, inadequately motivated, and disruptive students,” and a school once thought of as a jewel “became just another failing ghetto school.”  Thus, 85 years of high achievement at Dunbar High School “vanished  into thin air.”  Racial integration was the “battle cry” — results be damned.  Busing students to schools far from home for the sake of racial balance has had “no more empirical evidence to support it, unless endlessly repeating the word ‘diversity’ … is considered to be evidence.  How is it, for example, that a racially homogeneous nation like Japan could have its students better educated that those in the U.S.?”  In fact, “the diversity bureaucracy has finally swallowed an entire college,” as explained in 2018 by Heather Mac Donald.

Throwing more money into school districts has not changed the abysmal educational results, either.  In his July 2019 article, Max Eden discussed a study from Johns Hopkins University “describing the conditions of public schools in Providence, R.I.  The report contained a laundry list of problems …  that plague America’s public schools, such as the inability to fire bad teachers and discipline unruly students, and the need for massive reams of bureaucratic paperwork to get anything done at all.  Here’s what wasn‘t a problem: lack of funding.  Providence spends $17,192 per pupil every year.”  In fact, “America spends more on education than any other major developed nation.”

Concerning Baltimore schools, in 2017, Armstrong Williams explained that “[i]ndividuals and firms that service the Baltimore school system are making off with literally billions of taxpayer dollars with nothing to show for it[.]  But in the tortured logic of Baltimore’s political bureaucracy, failure is incentivized.  It is at best a massive fraud committed against students who are cheated out of a future, and taxpayers whose hard-earned money is being wasted.”  According to Williams, much of the spending “goes toward the salaries and benefits of far greater numbers of bureaucrats than a school system of that size actually requires.”  Political patronage rules the day.

In 2008, an Atlantic magazine article titled “In the Basement of the Ivory Tower” by  Professor X, an adjunct instructor, bemoaned the fact that nine out of the 15 students she teaches in a course fail.  Part of the reason is that “[m]any jobs that never before required college now call for at least some post-secondary course work.  Yet far too many are unfit for college; they lack the most basic skills and have no sense of the volume of work required; in some cases [they] are barely literate.”  In fact, “they are not ready for high school, some of them, much less for college.”  Charles Murray documented this in 2007 when he stated that “half of all children are below average in intelligence, and teachers can do only so much for them.”

Bruce Deitrick Price has written that “the first thing you notice is that educational officials relentlessly and openly undermine academics.  No direct instruction.  No memorization of facts.  No systematic mastery of any subject.  No concern for grammar, spelling, etc.”  In 2014, Robert Pondiscio asserted that “reading comprehension … is not a skill that is taught but a condition that is created by exposing children to the broadest possible knowledge of the world outside their personal experience.”  But most of what used to pass for core knowledge has been abandoned.  In 2013, Barry Rubin highlighted what is now being taught in fifth grade.  It is alarming.

In the last 30 years, there has been a surfeit of the “latest” educational pedagogy.  Still popular is “whole language,” which results in only fractured language and abysmal reading abilities. There is the flip classroom, where homework is to be accomplished in class and the daily lesson is to be studied by the student at home.  Similar is the inverted classroom, because it is claimed “that the traditional lecture format is incompatible with some learning styles.”  Thus, “to help ensure student preparation for class, students [are] expected to complete worksheets that [are] periodically but randomly collected and graded.”  Of course, this becomes problematic when the students haven’t done the reading altogether, as documented in David Gooblar’s article of 2014.

Then there is peer review, which asks students to evaluate other student writing.  But as one of my more astute students asked, how can a poor writer evaluate a good writer, and to what benefit?  And what of the fact that remedial courses are now de rigueur in institutions of higher learning, documented as far back as October 1977 by Art Buchwald?

In 2010, John Lemuel described how illegal alien students now feature prominently in many colleges.  Taxpayer money shores up the massive bureaucracy involved as schools knowingly break immigration law.

A computer cannot compensate for a teacher properly schooled in his discipline, who uses textbooks that are not politically skewed; avoids identity politics; and understands that students need to be trained, not coddled.  Yet most of the material that passes for “texts” comprises merely articles from left-wing outlets.  There is no actual debate on a topic; the point of view is pre-determined.

The humanities have been thoroughly contaminated, and even the field of mathematics has been infected as the social justice Left now maintains that “when paired with issues of fairness, mathematics becomes a social justice tool that empower students to mathematically recognize and address oppression they see in their own world.”  In their world, “math education is biased in favor of a Western (read: white) narrative,” and, this is an anathema to the Left.

What, then, does make a difference?  Sowell cites examples of schools whose principals deal with students from broken homes and are on welfare.  Yet inside these schools “they [speak] in grammatical English, in complete sentences, and to the point.”  They are expected to adhere to vigorous thinking and precise language skills.  If they misbehave, there are penalties and shaming.  At Marva Collins Preparatory School in Chicago, for example, there is a “no-nonsense, back-to-basics curriculum” centered on phonics and memorization. Higher-level reasoning and literary analysis combined with weekly tests result in student success.

So how many more articles and books will be written before a sea change is made to stop the dummying down of education in this country? 

Eileen can be reached at middlemarch18@gmail.com.

It is a dismal picture.  In his 1993 book Inside American Education: The Decline, the Deception, the Dogmas, Thomas Sowell lamented that “when nearly one-third of American 17-year-olds do not know that Abraham Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation, when nearly half do not know who Josef Stalin was, and when about 30 percent could not locate Britain on a map of Europe, then it is clear that American educational deficiencies extend far beyond mathematics.”  Yet a quarter of a century later, the 17-year-olds in my classrooms do not even know what the Emancipation Proclamation is, let alone who authored it! 

In 1998, Heather Mac Donald noted that report cards and objective tests were traded in for “overheated rhetoric about fighting institutional racism and [the redistribution of] power.”

In his 2010 book Spoilt Rotten: The Toxic Cult of Sentimentality, Theodore Dalrymple aimed his pen at Great Britain, where “educational theory, subsequently provided with a patina of science by committed researchers, is full of absurdities that would be delightfully laughable had they not been taken seriously and used as the basis of educational policy to impoverish millions of lives.”

Despising routine and rote … [the] educational theorists came up with the idea that children would learn to read better if they discovered how to do so for themselves.  This is only slightly more sensible than sitting a child under an apple in the hope that it will arrive at the theory of gravity.

Thus, “romantic educational theory” is deliberately used to dummy down students, make school unbearable, and prepare these students to become useful idiots of a leftist society.  This was also documented by Dan Gagliasso in 2012.

Stumbling over words and not deciphering their meaning results in muddied comprehension.  Dalrymple writes that when asked to “put into their own words what the passage meant that they [the students] had just stumbled through,” their response was “I don’t know; I was only reading it.”  As Robert Weissberg documents, “upping the number of diplomas [does not] equate to imparting measurable knowledge” when “lax standards” exist. 

The educational establishment banished cursive penmanship from schools.  That cursive writing helps improve neural connections, increases writing speed, and improves fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination is casually dismissed with the retort that no one will be writing anymore; they are all using computers.  Thus, American students cannot even read U.S. fundamental documents or, for that matter, their grandparents’ letters.

In another collection of potent essays titled Black Rednecks and White Liberals (2005), Thomas Sowell has a chapter titled “Black Education.”  It is a scathing indictment of the oft-used liberal response that economically disadvantaged minority students simply cannot succeed academically.  Sowell debunks this and describes how the Dunbar High School in Washington, D.C. consistently had results that equaled or exceeded national norms on standardized tests from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s even though most of the students came from parents who were laborers, messengers, and janitors. 

Sowell asks, “[H]ow did an 85-year history of dramatic success abruptly turn into … failure, virtually overnight, by the politics of education?”

Government insistence on school desegregation brought in “inadequately educated, inadequately motivated, and disruptive students,” and a school once thought of as a jewel “became just another failing ghetto school.”  Thus, 85 years of high achievement at Dunbar High School “vanished  into thin air.”  Racial integration was the “battle cry” — results be damned.  Busing students to schools far from home for the sake of racial balance has had “no more empirical evidence to support it, unless endlessly repeating the word ‘diversity’ … is considered to be evidence.  How is it, for example, that a racially homogeneous nation like Japan could have its students better educated that those in the U.S.?”  In fact, “the diversity bureaucracy has finally swallowed an entire college,” as explained in 2018 by Heather Mac Donald.

Throwing more money into school districts has not changed the abysmal educational results, either.  In his July 2019 article, Max Eden discussed a study from Johns Hopkins University “describing the conditions of public schools in Providence, R.I.  The report contained a laundry list of problems …  that plague America’s public schools, such as the inability to fire bad teachers and discipline unruly students, and the need for massive reams of bureaucratic paperwork to get anything done at all.  Here’s what wasn‘t a problem: lack of funding.  Providence spends $17,192 per pupil every year.”  In fact, “America spends more on education than any other major developed nation.”

Concerning Baltimore schools, in 2017, Armstrong Williams explained that “[i]ndividuals and firms that service the Baltimore school system are making off with literally billions of taxpayer dollars with nothing to show for it[.]  But in the tortured logic of Baltimore’s political bureaucracy, failure is incentivized.  It is at best a massive fraud committed against students who are cheated out of a future, and taxpayers whose hard-earned money is being wasted.”  According to Williams, much of the spending “goes toward the salaries and benefits of far greater numbers of bureaucrats than a school system of that size actually requires.”  Political patronage rules the day.

In 2008, an Atlantic magazine article titled “In the Basement of the Ivory Tower” by  Professor X, an adjunct instructor, bemoaned the fact that nine out of the 15 students she teaches in a course fail.  Part of the reason is that “[m]any jobs that never before required college now call for at least some post-secondary course work.  Yet far too many are unfit for college; they lack the most basic skills and have no sense of the volume of work required; in some cases [they] are barely literate.”  In fact, “they are not ready for high school, some of them, much less for college.”  Charles Murray documented this in 2007 when he stated that “half of all children are below average in intelligence, and teachers can do only so much for them.”

Bruce Deitrick Price has written that “the first thing you notice is that educational officials relentlessly and openly undermine academics.  No direct instruction.  No memorization of facts.  No systematic mastery of any subject.  No concern for grammar, spelling, etc.”  In 2014, Robert Pondiscio asserted that “reading comprehension … is not a skill that is taught but a condition that is created by exposing children to the broadest possible knowledge of the world outside their personal experience.”  But most of what used to pass for core knowledge has been abandoned.  In 2013, Barry Rubin highlighted what is now being taught in fifth grade.  It is alarming.

In the last 30 years, there has been a surfeit of the “latest” educational pedagogy.  Still popular is “whole language,” which results in only fractured language and abysmal reading abilities. There is the flip classroom, where homework is to be accomplished in class and the daily lesson is to be studied by the student at home.  Similar is the inverted classroom, because it is claimed “that the traditional lecture format is incompatible with some learning styles.”  Thus, “to help ensure student preparation for class, students [are] expected to complete worksheets that [are] periodically but randomly collected and graded.”  Of course, this becomes problematic when the students haven’t done the reading altogether, as documented in David Gooblar’s article of 2014.

Then there is peer review, which asks students to evaluate other student writing.  But as one of my more astute students asked, how can a poor writer evaluate a good writer, and to what benefit?  And what of the fact that remedial courses are now de rigueur in institutions of higher learning, documented as far back as October 1977 by Art Buchwald?

In 2010, John Lemuel described how illegal alien students now feature prominently in many colleges.  Taxpayer money shores up the massive bureaucracy involved as schools knowingly break immigration law.

A computer cannot compensate for a teacher properly schooled in his discipline, who uses textbooks that are not politically skewed; avoids identity politics; and understands that students need to be trained, not coddled.  Yet most of the material that passes for “texts” comprises merely articles from left-wing outlets.  There is no actual debate on a topic; the point of view is pre-determined.

The humanities have been thoroughly contaminated, and even the field of mathematics has been infected as the social justice Left now maintains that “when paired with issues of fairness, mathematics becomes a social justice tool that empower students to mathematically recognize and address oppression they see in their own world.”  In their world, “math education is biased in favor of a Western (read: white) narrative,” and, this is an anathema to the Left.

What, then, does make a difference?  Sowell cites examples of schools whose principals deal with students from broken homes and are on welfare.  Yet inside these schools “they [speak] in grammatical English, in complete sentences, and to the point.”  They are expected to adhere to vigorous thinking and precise language skills.  If they misbehave, there are penalties and shaming.  At Marva Collins Preparatory School in Chicago, for example, there is a “no-nonsense, back-to-basics curriculum” centered on phonics and memorization. Higher-level reasoning and literary analysis combined with weekly tests result in student success.

So how many more articles and books will be written before a sea change is made to stop the dummying down of education in this country? 

Eileen can be reached at middlemarch18@gmail.com.

via American Thinker

Enjoy this article? Read the full version at the authors website: https://www.americanthinker.com/

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Red Flags and White Supremacists

For the past two years, the left’s ‘go to’ words were “Russia,” “Mueller,” and “collusion.” Mueller’s investigation and report were a big swing and a miss and not surprisingly these words have quickly been erased from the vocabularies of cable news anchors and their panels.

On a dime, coincident with a handful of mass shootings, the left’s new favorite words are “racist” and “white supremacist.” Since the three recent shooters were white, it can only mean they were all MAGA hat-wearing Trump supporters, NRA members, and of course, white supremacists.

Never mind that their actual political proclivities are left or far left of center, based on their manifestos or social media postings. In the eyes of CNN and MSNBC, they are racist Trump supporters just on the basis of their skin color. Think about that. The media and entire Democratic Party are judging an entire group of people on the basis of skin color. Isn’t that the definition of racist?

As the Russian collusion story is in the rear-view mirror for Democrats and the media, it is dead ahead for AG William Barr, U.S. Attorneys John Durham and John Huber, and DoJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz, as the layers of the onion are being peeled back to reveal the seditious origins of the entire hoax. Which is why the media pivoted deftly to a totally new narrative of “white nationalism.”

With the backdrop of the shootings, gun control has predictably reappeared as a Democrat and media talking point. Aside from the usual cries to ban “assault weapons,” whatever those actually are, there are calls for expanded background checks. Never mind that the vast majority of these shooters obtain their firearms legally, passing a background check.

Then there are the “red flag laws,” which is the left’s new approach to confiscating guns. These laws are unconstitutional three ways to Sunday, violating three of the rights within the Bill of Rights. These laws usurp the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms, the Fourth Amendment’s protection from unreasonable searches and seizures, and the Sixth Amendment’s right of the accused to a speedy and public trial.

My home state of Colorado passed such a law this past April, one of the consequences of voters giving Democrats control of the executive and legislative branches of a state. Other states have similar laws and there is now a push for a national red flag law. If President Trump is smart, he will see the color red before signing such a law, if it ever even makes it to his desk, as signing such a law may be a large red stop sign in his quest for a second term as president.

Colorado’s law for example works as follows.

Allows family, household members or law enforcement to petition a court to have guns seized or surrendered based on a showing that someone poses a danger under the “preponderance of the evidence,” a civil standard which means that the defendant is more likely than not to be a threat.

In other words, there is just over a 50/50 chance of accuracy, noting that someone’s guns could be seized even without a mental health professional making a determination of any kind.

A subsequent court hearing could extend a gun seizure up to 364 days, and gun owners can only retain their guns if they meet a burden of demonstrating by “clear and convincing evidence” — a much higher standard — that they are not in fact a threat. Gun owners are “guilty until proven innocent” under this framework.

Evidence could be the word of a disgruntled ex-spouse, neighbor, coworker, or anyone else with a grudge against a legal and law-abiding gun owner. Those with an axe to grind will replace mental health professionals in assessing the accused’s state of mind and potential threat.

In a state like Colorado, having had its share of mass shootings, red flag decisions will likely err on the side of caution, rather than evidence, needing little more than one person’s convincing diatribe to pass the “preponderance of evidence” threshold.

Once guns are seized, the bar is raised significantly to reverse the decision. The Mueller standard of justice now applies, as in “guilty until proven innocent.” The accused must now exonerate themselves, or prove their innocence, before having their guns returned. Good luck with that.

What does this have to do with white supremacy? This past week, Trump supporters are now all “white nationalist” racists. Or as one University of California professor claimed, “white nationalist terror supporters.” The Southern Poverty Law Center identifies hate groups including white nationalist, male supremacy, Christian identity, and anti-immigrant.

How long will it take before states, or the federal government, if a red flag law becomes nationalized, to view any and all Trump supporters as “posing a danger” based on their skin color, gender, religion, and opposition to open borders?

I suspect that of the 62 million Trump voters in 2016, significantly more were gun owners than the similar number of Hillary Clinton voters. What better way to disarm the population than to go after those who own guns, in this case, Trump supporters?

Would a red flag law be applied to dangerous leftist groups such as Antifa? Not likely as these laws are being enforced by liberal Democrats. If you think I’m exaggerating the leftist sentiment toward Trump voters, “Death camps for Trump supporters” fliers turned up at various locations on Long Island this week.

Not only Trump supporters, but also those who don’t buy into the man-made global warming hoax. Bill Nye, the bow tie guy, “is open to criminal charges and jail time for climate change dissenters.” Is it a stretch for some bureaucratic panel to determine that someone not buying into the climate change movement “poses a threat” and shouldn’t be allowed to possess a firearm?

Is the “white supremacy” talk just a way for flailing Democrat presidential candidates to attempt to gain some traction in their campaigns? Or is this “white nationalist” rhetoric a way to paint Trump supporters with a broad brush as a means of confiscatory gun control?

Red flag laws will have the effect of disarming those best able to stop a shooter. But that’s not the real goal of these laws. Instead it’s a new approach to thwarting the Second Amendment. President Trump is hopefully thinking long and hard about signing on to such measures, as this has the potential to be his “read my lips, no new taxes” moment.

 

Brian C. Joondeph, M.D., is a Denver-based physician, freelance writer, and occasional radio talk show host whose pieces have appeared in American Thinker, Daily Caller, and other publications. Follow him on Facebook,  LinkedIn, Twitter, and QuodVerum.

For the past two years, the left’s ‘go to’ words were “Russia,” “Mueller,” and “collusion.” Mueller’s investigation and report were a big swing and a miss and not surprisingly these words have quickly been erased from the vocabularies of cable news anchors and their panels.

On a dime, coincident with a handful of mass shootings, the left’s new favorite words are “racist” and “white supremacist.” Since the three recent shooters were white, it can only mean they were all MAGA hat-wearing Trump supporters, NRA members, and of course, white supremacists.

Never mind that their actual political proclivities are left or far left of center, based on their manifestos or social media postings. In the eyes of CNN and MSNBC, they are racist Trump supporters just on the basis of their skin color. Think about that. The media and entire Democratic Party are judging an entire group of people on the basis of skin color. Isn’t that the definition of racist?

As the Russian collusion story is in the rear-view mirror for Democrats and the media, it is dead ahead for AG William Barr, U.S. Attorneys John Durham and John Huber, and DoJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz, as the layers of the onion are being peeled back to reveal the seditious origins of the entire hoax. Which is why the media pivoted deftly to a totally new narrative of “white nationalism.”

With the backdrop of the shootings, gun control has predictably reappeared as a Democrat and media talking point. Aside from the usual cries to ban “assault weapons,” whatever those actually are, there are calls for expanded background checks. Never mind that the vast majority of these shooters obtain their firearms legally, passing a background check.

Then there are the “red flag laws,” which is the left’s new approach to confiscating guns. These laws are unconstitutional three ways to Sunday, violating three of the rights within the Bill of Rights. These laws usurp the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms, the Fourth Amendment’s protection from unreasonable searches and seizures, and the Sixth Amendment’s right of the accused to a speedy and public trial.

My home state of Colorado passed such a law this past April, one of the consequences of voters giving Democrats control of the executive and legislative branches of a state. Other states have similar laws and there is now a push for a national red flag law. If President Trump is smart, he will see the color red before signing such a law, if it ever even makes it to his desk, as signing such a law may be a large red stop sign in his quest for a second term as president.

Colorado’s law for example works as follows.

Allows family, household members or law enforcement to petition a court to have guns seized or surrendered based on a showing that someone poses a danger under the “preponderance of the evidence,” a civil standard which means that the defendant is more likely than not to be a threat.

In other words, there is just over a 50/50 chance of accuracy, noting that someone’s guns could be seized even without a mental health professional making a determination of any kind.

A subsequent court hearing could extend a gun seizure up to 364 days, and gun owners can only retain their guns if they meet a burden of demonstrating by “clear and convincing evidence” — a much higher standard — that they are not in fact a threat. Gun owners are “guilty until proven innocent” under this framework.

Evidence could be the word of a disgruntled ex-spouse, neighbor, coworker, or anyone else with a grudge against a legal and law-abiding gun owner. Those with an axe to grind will replace mental health professionals in assessing the accused’s state of mind and potential threat.

In a state like Colorado, having had its share of mass shootings, red flag decisions will likely err on the side of caution, rather than evidence, needing little more than one person’s convincing diatribe to pass the “preponderance of evidence” threshold.

Once guns are seized, the bar is raised significantly to reverse the decision. The Mueller standard of justice now applies, as in “guilty until proven innocent.” The accused must now exonerate themselves, or prove their innocence, before having their guns returned. Good luck with that.

What does this have to do with white supremacy? This past week, Trump supporters are now all “white nationalist” racists. Or as one University of California professor claimed, “white nationalist terror supporters.” The Southern Poverty Law Center identifies hate groups including white nationalist, male supremacy, Christian identity, and anti-immigrant.

How long will it take before states, or the federal government, if a red flag law becomes nationalized, to view any and all Trump supporters as “posing a danger” based on their skin color, gender, religion, and opposition to open borders?

I suspect that of the 62 million Trump voters in 2016, significantly more were gun owners than the similar number of Hillary Clinton voters. What better way to disarm the population than to go after those who own guns, in this case, Trump supporters?

Would a red flag law be applied to dangerous leftist groups such as Antifa? Not likely as these laws are being enforced by liberal Democrats. If you think I’m exaggerating the leftist sentiment toward Trump voters, “Death camps for Trump supporters” fliers turned up at various locations on Long Island this week.

Not only Trump supporters, but also those who don’t buy into the man-made global warming hoax. Bill Nye, the bow tie guy, “is open to criminal charges and jail time for climate change dissenters.” Is it a stretch for some bureaucratic panel to determine that someone not buying into the climate change movement “poses a threat” and shouldn’t be allowed to possess a firearm?

Is the “white supremacy” talk just a way for flailing Democrat presidential candidates to attempt to gain some traction in their campaigns? Or is this “white nationalist” rhetoric a way to paint Trump supporters with a broad brush as a means of confiscatory gun control?

Red flag laws will have the effect of disarming those best able to stop a shooter. But that’s not the real goal of these laws. Instead it’s a new approach to thwarting the Second Amendment. President Trump is hopefully thinking long and hard about signing on to such measures, as this has the potential to be his “read my lips, no new taxes” moment.

 

Brian C. Joondeph, M.D., is a Denver-based physician, freelance writer, and occasional radio talk show host whose pieces have appeared in American Thinker, Daily Caller, and other publications. Follow him on Facebook,  LinkedIn, Twitter, and QuodVerum.

via American Thinker

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Identity Politics Violence is Tearing America Apart

Identity Politics Violence is Tearing America ApartThree years ago, a bloody summer of black nationalist violence claimed the lives of eight police officers with the massacre of five police officers by Micah X. Johnson in Dallas and the murder of three police officers in Baton Rogue by Gavin Long.

Johnson had declared his support for the Black Lives Matter racial nationalist group and told police that he wanted to kill white people, and especially white police officers.

via CanadaFreePress.Com

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