“Ours may become the first civilization destroyed, not by the power of our enemies, but by the ignorance of our teachers and the dangerous nonsense they are teaching our children. In an age of artificial intelligence, they are creating artificial stupidity.” – Thomas Sowell
‘Jim Crow’ & Racism: Please read the Kay Coles James column below. She is the outgoing President of the Heritage Foundation, a long time conservative leader and a friend.
She tells it like it is.
Run, Ronna, Run!: If I was asked for my opinion, which no one has😊, I would encourage Ronna McDaniel to run for Governor of Michigan.
Here are the facts:
- Whitmer has been a disaster
- Ronna has a laudable record as Chair and as a leader
- The Michigan Republican Party is very strong under Ron Weiser & Meshawn Maddock
- The Senate & House Republican majorities are up for re-election – think reverse coattails
- Ronna is an excellent fundraiser and Weiser is one of the best fundraisers
- The national political environment is shifting toward Republicans
- Progressive, Liberal Democrats going too far – across the country
- Defund the Police, Lock Downs, Draconian Executive Orders are NOT popular
With a weak incumbent, a strong challenger, a well-funded campaign and a positively trending political environment…you have the makings of a great election year!
–Saul Anuzis
Click Here for Past Commentary from Saul
60 Plus Weekly Video Rewind
Statehood push for Washington DC gets a boost from Biden, MSM study finds serious bias, and Pelosi makes a stunning comment about George Floyd!
Links to the articles discussed in the video:
https://justthenews.com/government/white-house/white-house-signals-support-washington-dc-statehood
https://www.oann.com/study-msm-coverage-heavily-slanted-in-bidens-favor/
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/pelosi-thanks-george-floyd-sacrificing-justice
Media pushes false narrative of racism
The riots that have erupted after the killing of Daunte Wright reinforce a familiar pattern. This response is rooted not only in tragedy, but in a distorted perception of reality.
Chelsea Handler, for example, suggested that people of color have a “50-50” chance of being shot by police.
This is a complete distortion, but fits a broader pattern. My latest report for the Manhattan Institute, based on multiple surveys, shows that being exposed to news and social media, having left-wing views on race, and being anxious or depressed explains a great deal of how much racism a person perceives.
And when someone says racism in America has risen, this perception is almost entirely a figment of their imagination. In fact, racist attitudes and behaviors have been declining for decades.
Progressives are deeply invested in the critical race theory narrative that America is a racist society that seeks to victimize people of color, especially black Americans. They believe this consciousness will lead us toward racial justice. But while the concrete benefits of this radical narrative are difficult to prove, the costs — in the form of lost black lives and prosperity — are painfully measurable.
‘Jim Crow’ Smears Against State Voting Reforms Insult Black People
As a black woman who grew up in the segregated South, I’m shocked and appalled with the race-baiting from mostly white left-wing politicians who are throwing around the “Jim Crow” label to score political points in the debate over strengthening our voting laws.
To paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen’s line from the 1988 vice presidential debate with Dan Quayle: I knew Jim Crow. Jim Crow was no friend of mine. And these common-sense voting laws that states are adopting are no Jim Crow.
Frankly, it’s insulting that politicians are trying to manipulate black folks like me into thinking that voting reforms that actually protect our right to vote are somehow racist. It’s insulting to be lied to, and—yes, I’m going to say it—it seems awfully racist to be thought of as so ignorant and gullible.
These state election reforms are about one thing—making it easier for American citizens to vote, while making it harder for cheaters to cheat.
Yet everyone from President Joe Biden to The New York Times to Coca-Cola and those in Hollywood are labeling voting reforms adopted in Georgia and other states as voter suppression and the new Jim Crow. There’s even a Senate hearing this week being held around this lie called, “Jim Crow 2021: The Latest Assault on the Right to Vote.”
RNC chair McDaniel floated possible Michigan governor run
The just-reelected party chair told committee members this week she’s considered challenging Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel told party officials Wednesday that she’s considered stepping down from her post to challenge Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2022.
McDaniel’s remarks came during a closed-door meeting on Wednesday with RNC members in Dallas, where she was giving an after-action report on the 2020 election. At one point, McDaniel expressed frustration about Whitmer, her home-state governor, saying the first-term Democrat had severely mishandled the coronavirus pandemic. McDaniel grew emotional as she described how her two children, who are in the public-school system, had been unable to return to in-person learning.
According to two people familiar with her comments, McDaniel also told the roughly 140 members in attendance that she’d given thought in recent months to running against Whitmer in next year’s midterm elections.
How serious McDaniel is about running for governor is unclear. Several people familiar with her remarks say that, while she has given consideration to waging a 2022 campaign, she was speaking more out of frustration on Wednesday.
White liberals more likely to have a mental health condition
White liberals are more prone to mental health disorders than individuals who identify as conservative or moderates, according to a Pew Research Center survey.
Sixty-two percent of Whites who classify themselves as “very liberal” or “liberal” have been told by a doctor they have a mental health condition, as compared to 26% of conservatives and 20% of moderates, the study found.
Young White people who identified as “very liberal” were almost one and a half times more likely to report mental health problems than those who considered themselves “liberal.”
Although the Pew Study was published last year, Zach Goldberg, a doctoral candidate, consolidated the data on Twitter, which sparked a column by news magazine Evie trying to dissect why this actually is.
Mr. Goldberg speculated the disparity may be because White liberals were more likely to seek mental health evaluations than other ideologies. This could be a simple, and true, answer.
China’s Xi condemns ‘unilateralism of individual countries’ amid tensions with US
China’s president lashed out at “unilateralism” and countries that attempt to “force” their own rules upon others during a speech Tuesday seen as a critique of U.S. foreign policy.
While not specifically criticizing the U.S. by name at the Boao Forum for Asia, Xi delivered criticism of countries that sought to “decouple” and “build barriers” between other nations, which he said helped nobody, according to multiple media reports.
“International affairs should be handled by everyone through consultation,” Xi said during a virtual address, according to The Associated Press. “Rules made by one or more countries should not be forced upon others.”
“A big country should look like a big country by showing that it is shouldering more responsibility,” he continued, Reuters reported.
Xi also pledged that China would not seek to “seek spheres of influence” or “expand,” remarks that come as tensions between the U.S. and China over the island nation of Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its territory, are at an all-time high.
Master List Of Official Russia Claims That Proved To Be Bogus
On March 16th, 2021, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released a much-hyped, much-cited new report on “Foreign Threats to the 2020 Elections.” The key conclusion:
We assess that Russian President Putin authorized, and a range of Russian government organizations conducted, influence operations aimed at denigrating President Biden’s candidacy and the Democratic Party, supporting former President Trump, [and] undermining public confidence in the electoral process…
The report added Ukrainian legislator Andrey Derkach, described as having “ties” to “Russia’s intelligence services,” and Konstantin Kilimnik, a “Russian influence agent” (whatever that means), used “prominent U.S. persons” and “media conduits” to “launder their narratives” to American audiences. The “narratives” included “misleading or unsubstantiated allegations against President Biden” (note they didn’t use the word “false”). They added a small caveat at the end: “Judgments are not intended to imply that we have proof that shows something to be a fact.”
As Glenn Greenwald already pointed out, the “launder their narratives” passage was wolfed down by our intelligence services’ own “media conduits” here at home, and regurgitated as proof that the “Hunter Biden laptop story came from the Kremlin,” even though the report didn’t mention the laptop story at all. Exactly one prominent reporter, Chris Hayes, had the decency to admit this after advancing the claim initially.
With regard to the broader assessment: how many times are we going to do this? We’ve spent the last five years watching as anonymous officials make major Russia-related claims, only to have those evidence-free claims fizzle.
From the much-ballyhooed “changed RNC platform” story (Robert Mueller found no evidence the changed Republican platform was “undertaken at the behest of candidate Trump or Russia”), to the notion that Julian Assange was engaged in a conspiracy with the Russians (Mueller found no evidence for this either), to the story that Trump directed lawyer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress (“not accurate,” said Mueller), to wild stories about Paul Manafort meeting Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy, to a “bombshell” tale about Trump foreknowledge of Wikileaks releases that blew up in CNN’s face in spectacular fashion, reporters for years chased unsubstantiated claims instead of waiting to see what they were based upon.
America’s Longest War: A Visual History of 19 Years in Afghanistan
The war in Afghanistan has spanned the administrations of presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump. A few months into his administration, President Biden announced a full U.S. troop withdrawal by Sept. 11, the 20-year anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
“I’m now the fourth United States president to preside over American troop presence in Afghanistan,” Mr. Biden said. “Two Republicans, two Democrats. I will not pass this responsibility on to a fifth.”
The costs to America have been high. The lives of more than 2,400 U.S. troops have been lost, and military expenses have exceeded $2.26 trillion, according to Brown University’s Costs of War project.
A conditional peace deal signed in February 2020 between the U.S. and the Taliban was meant to pave the way for warring Afghan factions to bring years of fighting to an end. But subsequent power-sharing talks between the Afghan government and Taliban stalled as both sides waited to see what position the new U.S. president would adopt. Mr. Biden’s promise to leave Afghanistan for good, regardless of the conditions on the ground, lessens the incentive for the Taliban to make concessions in those talks.
U.S. officials say they are concerned the U.S.-backed government in Kabul might be unable to prevent the Taliban from widening its control over swaths of the country, allowing extremist groups to operate there and undoing advances in governance, including on women’s rights.
The stakes are immense. The resurgent Taliban now control or contest more territory than at any time since the war began. Afghanistan security forces remain dependent on U.S. air and ground support. The coming months will determine whether any peace holds or whether Afghanistan slides back into violence.
Here is a look back at the war that has run more than 19 years, longer than World War I, World War II and the Korean War combined.
Is It Time For Conservatives To Support A National Popular Vote?
And that’s really the point, after all. The presidential election is a national event, and it seems like it should be treated as such. Instead, the current system sees presidential candidates campaigning in, and making promises to, swing states only. In 2020, Michigan, Florida, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and North Carolina received the bulk of campaign visits, while states like Montana, Tennessee, Alabama, Oregon, Washington, and many more received a grand total of … zero.
n fact, 12 states received fully 96% of the general election campaign visits. If you’re a resident of one of those states, think you might have gotten a campaign promise or three? Conversely, how many campaign promises did Kentuckians receive? I live in Tennessee, and I don’t remember either Biden or Trump lobbying for my vote or promising me a damned thing. And worse, what does a president in office do when they know they must win, say, Michigan, in order to have a shot at a second term? Might this come at the expense of residents of another state? Wouldn’t it be better if ideas were vetted based on how they impacted the entire country instead of just a few states?
Sure, there are potential drawbacks, but one of them isn’t that it’s unconstitutional. The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact has already been enacted into law by the legislatures of 16 states, a power that the Constitution clearly grants. You might point out that those states are all currently run by Democrats, and you’d be correct. However, it’s also gaining traction in red states like Arkansas, Missouri, and Tennessee.
As Democrats cement their stranglehold on power, look for more and more Republicans to sign on to this idea as a last-ditch measure to open the playing field and try to beat Democrats by forcing them to defend their noxious ideas all over the map instead of just a few places. Hell, what have we got to lose?
The Stealthy ‘Healthy Ports’ Plan
The union failure to organize an Amazon warehouse in Alabama shows the independence of modern workers. But never fear, President Biden’s infrastructure plan is here with stealthy coercion to aid Big Labor.
Mr. Biden wants $17 billion for ports, inland waterways and ferries—which could be beneficial amid port congestion. But note the fine print: “This includes a Healthy Ports program to mitigate the cumulative impacts of air pollution on neighborhoods near ports, often communities of color.”
What’s a Healthy Ports program? The Biden Administration hasn’t laid out its details. But at the state level the model has been used to force independent truck drivers into the Teamsters. A case study is the Clean Trucks program adopted by the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in 2007, ostensibly to reduce diesel emissions. The plan banned trucks made before 1989, phased in higher emissions standards, and imposed a new cargo fee.
But the Port of Los Angeles gave the real game away with a provision banning independent owner-operator truckers. Within five years only employees of big trucking companies would have had access to the port, on the fact-free claim that these firms would invest in cleaner trucks. The plan also required trucking companies to sign a “concession agreement” that essentially gave the port control over employment practices.
Democrat vs Republican
A woman in a hot air balloon realizes she is lost. She lowers her altitude and spots a man fishing from a boat below. She shouts to him, “Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am.”
The man consults his portable GPS and replies, “You’re in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above a ground elevation of 2,346 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude.
She rolls her eyes and says, “You must be a Republican!”
“I am,” replies the man. “How did you know?”
“Well,” answers the balloonist, “everything you tell me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to do with your information, and I’m still lost. Frankly, you’re not much help to me.”
The man smiles and responds, “You must be a Democrat.”
“I am, replies the balloonist. “How did you know?”
“Well,” says the man, “You don’t know where you are or where you’re going. You’ve risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise that you have no idea how to keep, and now you expect me to solve your problem. You’re in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but, somehow, now it’s my fault!”
