American Silliness: Dec 20, 2017

University teaches white employees how to overcome the ‘discomfort’ of being white  . . . "to help white employees deal with their “whiteness” so they could become better equipped to fight for social justice causes, according to organizers."

Student suspended for debating Islamic extremism with Muslim peer in debate club  . . . "A Missouri high school that suspended a student for making critical comments about Islamic extremism says he’s not allowed to appeal the finding of wrongdoing." . . .

The free speech movement of the early sixties might sound good these days, but it had more in common with today's SJW's than one might hope.

Prof: Trigger warnings 'serious threats' to teaching English  . . . "In a list of six possible consequences of trigger warnings, he argues that they “foster a culture where student fragility is promoted over the development of resilience,” and can “encourage students to avoid intense literary moments that they may perceive as too powerful.”

"Trigger warnings could also “handicap English teachers by censoring or casting certain literary moments as taboo,” and cripple “artistic freedom by arbitrarily sanctioning what is and what is not appropriate for class discussion and student experience,” he notes." . . .

First the statues, now the trees. 

Parents pull kids from class as Ivanka Trump visits CT school  "Some" parents; no word in this on how many. If it were just two, the press would have made big news out of the matter. From the comments: 

So sorry that these hateful parents are modeling their bad behavior and judgement to their children. Isn't the women's movement, suppose to be about respecting and honoring intelligent and successful women, no matter their political views ? Such hypocrites. 
Right or left in politics, Ivanka is an extremely intelligent articluate business woman and parents should raise their children to be respectful of all adults. I don't think "brain washing" was on Ivanka's agenda. It was disgraceful how the ultra liberal left ran the Ivanka Trump clothing line out of retails stores.

Hillary Clinton's favorability rating hits 25-year low

Melissa Quinn  "The public’s image of Hillary Clinton is the worst it’s ever been since Gallup started tracking her favorability more than two decades ago, according to a new poll.

"Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, has a favorable rating of 36 percent, according to the poll from Gallup released Tuesday. Sixty-one percent of adults have an unfavorable view of Clinton, a new high.

"The current favorable rating for the former secretary of state is a new low, and the worst it’s been since 1992 when Gallup first began tracking the public’s image of Clinton just before she became first lady.

"Clinton’s previous low came at the end of August/early September during last year’s presidential campaign, when just 38 percent of adults polled had a positive image of her.

"Her favorable rating also hit 38 percent in April 1992, according to Gallup.

"During the 2016 election, about 40 percent of adults viewed Clinton positively, and though her image was better than Donald Trump’s, Gallup said her favorable ratings were among the “worst ever measured for presidential candidates.”

"In the year after the election, however, Clinton has failed to boost her public image, unlike other presidential candidates who lost, according to Gallup." . . .

A Democratic ‘Blue Wave’ In 2018? Not So Fast

Tony Branco

The Federalist   "A string of recent GOP defeats suggest a 'blue wave' in next year's midterms. It's a nice theory, but Democrats simply aren't up to the task."

. . . "But the main problem with the blue wave theory of 2018 is that it asks too much of the Democratic Party, which is riven by as much division and confusion as the GOP is, if not more. As Ed O’Keefe and Dave Weigel reported recently in The Washington Post, Democrats “can’t agree on what the party stands for. From immigration to banking reform to taxes to sexual harassment, many in the party say it does not have a unified message to spread around the country.”

"The left-wing base of the Democratic Party seems content to go out and run on a promise to impeach the president on some grounds or other, even as centrist Democratic candidates that don’t toe the Bernie Sanders-Elizabeth Warren line on everything from health care to Wall Street regulations are left to fend for themselves. What’s worse, they have no economic message. (Remember the Democrats’ “Better Deal” rollout back in July? Sort of had to do with the economy? Me neither.) 

"Anti-Trump Sentiment Won’t Be Enough For Democrats"

"Democrats might do well next year in certain swing states and districts, but they won’t sweep Republicans out of power simply by being against Trump — especially since Trump, despite his inveterate tweeting, actually has some legitimate accomplishmentsto point to at the end of his first year in office. If they want to win in deep-red states next year, Democrats will have to offer a positive vision for the country. There’s no sign so far they have one to offer." . . .

Obama's obstruction of Hezbollah drug-trafficking investigation to not offend Iran

The following posts are following up on the Politico story by Josh Meyer: The secret backstory of how Obama let Hezbollah off the hook

By David French at National Review: How Obama Appeased Iran by Turning a Blind Eye to Hezbollah’s Crimes  . . . "It all seems so quaint now. When Obama pulled back, our enemies surged. When he gave them an inch, they took a mile. There was no good-faith response, only the gleeful exploitation of newfound strategic advantage. When Obama finally re-engaged, American force was able to stop our enemies’ advance. But by then, the damage was done, and we’re still learning the extent of it today. We already knew that Obama gave Iran piles of cash, prisoners, an immense economic stimulus, and access to international arms markets in exchange for signing the nuclear deal. We now know — thanks to Politico — that the administration’s mercies extended even to Iran’s vicious terrorist allies.

"And for what? Obama’s defenders cling to the hope that Iran’s nuclear program has been delayed (a hope that relies a great deal on trusting Iran, which has never proven wise in the past), but in the meantime we’ve merely strengthened our enemy." . . .  Keep reading.

Now, this is presidential obstruction

(At the time of this posting we find nothing about this on NBC, nor CBS, ABC.)

. . . "The message the task force received was that their work could not interfere with a diplomatic charm offensive directed at Iran and Russia. By the time Trump took office, US efforts to stop Hezbollah had been derailed. Worse than that, as it became clear that Obama had zero leverage in the negotiations, there was little he wouldn’t do to keep the ayatollahs happy.

"In order to win the release of US citizens being held hostage by Tehran after the nuclear deal had been concluded, the United States was no longer just turning a blind eye to Hezbollah transferring criminal profits there. In 2016, Obama sent $400 million packed onto wooden pallets as part of a ransom payment to Iran of unfrozen assets." . . .

Hezbollah, narco-terrorism, and the Awans  "Yesterday, Scott called attention to the blockbuster story in Politico about how President Obama derailed a law enforcement campaign targeting drug trafficking by the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah. Obama did so because he was desperate to secure a nuclear deal with Iran.

"I agree with Scott that the Politico story is well worth reading in full, despite its length. The report is, as Scott says, “incredibly rich.”

"I want to call attention to one small potential nugget. Part I of the story is called “A global threat emerges.” It is subtitled “How Hezbollah turned to trafficking cocaine and laundering money through used cars to finance its expansion.”

"The “used cars” reference made me think of a post I wrote about the Awan scandal. This scandal, readers may recall, involves House staffers, most notably staffers of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, with ties to Pakistan who are accused of stealing equipment from members’ offices without their knowledge and committing serious, potentially illegal, violations on the House IT network.

"In my post, citing George Raisley of Richard Viguerie’s Conservative HQ, I wrote:" . . .

Mainstream media silence on Politico report that Obama allowed Hezbollah drug running to appease Iran

Legal Insurrection   "Meanwhile, Trump is vigorously going after Hezbollah’s criminal networks, particularly in Latin America."

"So far there is near silence from the mainstream media about the blockbuster Politico Magazine investigative report on how the Obama administration from the top down interfered with U.S. law enforcement efforts to take down Hezbollah’s drug running of cocaine into the U.S. in order to facilitate the Iran nuclear deal.

"I summarized the Politico findings in my post, Obama allowed Hezbollah cocaine running into U.S. in quest for Iran nuke deal.

"I cannot find any mentions of the Politico story in any of the major newspapers or networks (except for Fox News). The same people who endlessly repeat shoddy reporting by other mainstream outlets when it comes to anti-Trump conspiracy theories, don’t feel the need to report on the Politico story. My hunch is that they are devoting resources to try to question the Politico story.

They don’t know what to do because this reflects so badly on the person they spent 8 years defending and covering for. Obama sacrificed Americans addicted to and dying from cocaine in order to appease Iran. That should be on the front page of every major newspaper and on every major newscast, but it’s not." . . .

Obama protected Hezbollah drug ring to avoid ‘rocking the boat’ on Iran deal: Report  "A Drug Enforcement Administration team says they were tracking a $1 billion per yer drug-and-weapons ring run by Islamist terrorists, only to have the Obama administration kneecap them to avoid “rocking the boat” with Iran.

"U.S. officials told Politico for a report Monday that a 2008 task force called “Project Cassandra” was undermined by the former president as he tried to seal a nuclear deal with Iran." . . .

Communism-loving journalists shaping our news accidentally outed themselves UPDATED

Thomas Lifson  "Two decades after the fall of the USSR and the rejection of communism throughout Eastern Europe, where captive nations were virtually enslaved by Stalin and his Soviet successors, major media institutions employ jornalists who admire the monstrous system. Communism was every bit as viciously bloody as its socialist brother Nazism, and by most reckonings has been even more lethal in its death toll, at roughly 100 million.

No remotely influential media organ would employ an open Nazi, but Buzzfeed seems to have a soft spot for admirers of communism.  Buzzfeed’s UK Science editor Kelly Oakes foolishly exposed her inner totalitarian on Twitter: “All I want for Christmas is full communism now,” only to withdraw the tweet when the monstrousness was exposed.

James Woods, however, captured it, and passed it along to his many followers:

. . . "So far, Buzzfeed has not responded to the incident, and so far as we know, Ms. Oakes remains in her position, where she influences coverage of many issue related to science. She, evidently, escaped inclusion in the list of 100 Buzzfeed employees laid off recently." . . .


Socialism is crushing and killing Venezuela's poor  . . . "What we are seeing here is the most obvious thing in the world: not only does socialism fail every time it's tried, eventually running out of other people's money when there's nothing left, but it has a special way of targeting and harming the poor, first taking away their freedom, then taking away their food, and then lying about it.  It's effectively violence reinforced by lies and lies reinforced by violence, as Aleksander Solzhenitsyn once wrote." . . .

Some ask, could the Seattle train wreck be terrorism?

Apparently not, but the  terrorist warning is necessary. Anyway, here is the latest on the train: Train Was Going 80 MPH In A 30 MPH Zone According To The NTSB

Brian C. Joondeph  . . . "Al Qaeda has its own magazine. Call it Vanity Fair for the jihadist. The magazine is called Inspire. Check out the cover of issue number 17."

. . . "They devoted an entire issue to teaching followers how to derail trains in the U.S. and Europe. Detailed instructions. From Business Insider:

The magazine also features a detailed 18-page-long guide on how to build a "derail tool" with cardboard, an empty plastic container, part of a rubber tyre, pipes, iron wires, screws, sheet metal, and cement. The apparatus does not require any electronic or construction tools so followers can "remove any traces for suspicion."

When placed on train tracks, the tool is expected to interfere with the train's movement and cause it to divert from its tracks.

As the perpetrator does not physically need to be on the train during the derailment, the operation "is not a martyrdom op" and "can be repeated," the magazine said. It will also be "easy to hide your tracks from forensics" after the attack, it boasted. . .

 UPDATE: Immediately Following Amtrak Derailment, The Conspiracy Theory Trolls Began Their Campaign . . . "Whether the cause for the increased speed was operator error or some mechanical malfunction is one of those questions we’ll have to wait on the answers to.

"Whatever the case, the conspiracy theorists – Russian bot accounts and mindless purveyors of “fake news” – were out in force, cooking up social media tales designed to exacerbate the masses." . . .

Still, this is still doable as a terror tactic, but let's not go into detail.

Muslim “Feminist” Beloved By The Left “Supervised” Sexual Assault Of Other Muslim Women

DC Whispers  "Linda Sarsour has become something of a feminist celebrity here in the United States in recent years, most notably because she is Muslim and for her willingness to repeatedly attack Donald Trump publicly. This celebrity has allowed her to raise tens of millions of dollars for her Arab American Association, travel the world giving interviews and leading “feminist” marches like the ones that followed Mr. Trump’s inauguration early last year. Third-tier celebrities like Alyssa Milano have repeatedly applauded Sarsour’s efforts. 

"Well, guess what? Apparently Linda Sarsour is no feminist but rather a stooge working for Muslim men who see her as merely a tool to further enact anti-women/anti-gay/anti-American policies here in the United States. Sarsour’s duplicity even goes so far as her allegedly overseeing the mistreatment of women she worked with by Muslim men who Sarsour then defended as “God-fearing.' ”  .

.

. . . Fathelabab recounts how she came to Sarsour after being repeatedly sexually assaulted by a Muslim man who lived in the same building as the Arab American Association. Sarsour called her a liar, saying that the Muslim man was God-fearing, told her to stop complaining and threatened to write her up for disciplinary action.Sarsour further regularly body-shamed Fathelabab, saying that “something like this didn’t happen to women who looked like me” and threatened legal action against Fathelabab if she went public with the story. . . .

Linda Sarsour accused of enabling sexual assault  "Arab-American activist Linda Sarsour has been accused by a former employee of enabling sexual assault and harassment against her.

"Sarsour, who forever endeared herself to feminists for inspiring the Women's March on D.C., has now put women's rights activists in the uncomfortable position of either supporting her or throwing her under the bus.

. . . 

"The pretzel logic it takes for feminists to embrace a woman whose religion excuses and even promotes unwanted sexual advances from men would be mystifying if we didn't know better.  A faith that denies women personhood, identifying them as property and sexual objects, cannot be compatible with feminism under any circumstances.

. . . 

"Sarsour needn't worry.  This story – with the exception of Fox News and a couple of other outlets – has already disappeared down the rabbit hole.  Asmi Fathelbab becomes perhaps the first woman who was sexually assaulted to be disbelieved and, moreover, whose story has been deliberately squelched to advance the political agenda of feminists.  Inconvenient facts like this will not disturb the narrative of a heroic Arab-American woman battling oppression and the white male hierarchy. "

Trump’s Doctrine: ‘Principled Realism’ Comes to the Fore

Roger Kimball  "Congress requires every administration to submit an outline of its national security strategy. This is usually a behind-the-scenes exercise, carried out by the national security team. But with his speech at the Reagan Building today, Donald Trump put his administration’s ideas about foreign policy and national security under klieg lights at center stage. The lodestar: “principled realism.” More fully: Putting America First is the best strategy not only for the United States but also for the civilized world.

"President Trump’s speech, and the nearly 60-page document that lays out his administration’s strategy in detail, is a model of moral clarity and forthright Realpolitik. It is appropriate that the speech was delivered in the Reagan building. Just as Reagan had the courage to describe the Soviet Union accurately, as an “evil empire,” so President Trump’s America First strategy distinguishes sharply between “those who value human dignity and freedom and those who oppress individuals and enforce uniformity.” He explicitly places China, Russia, and North Korea, along with jihadi terrorists and “transnational criminal organizations” in the latter category.

"Leading, Period:   Pragmatism is a signature element of President Trump’s approach to solving problems, foreign and domestic. As his chief of staff John Kelly noted in an October press conference, Trump’s agenda is simply “what’s good for America.” His approach is governed not by ideology but by “outcomes,” by what works to advance America’s interests.

"Barack Obama famously sought to “lead from behind.” Donald Trump seeks to lead, period. Undergirding that ambition is the clear-sighted recognition that American principles are based on a respect for individual rights, economic dynamism, and limited, accountable government.

"Again, where Obama sought to let a little air out of the idea of “American exceptionalism,” Trump offers a full-throated endorsement of the idea. “Our founding principles,” he said, “have made the United States among the greatest forces for good in the world.” . . .

SO MUCH FOR THE MORAL HIGH GROUND: Top Democrats Change Their Minds On Franken, Want Him Not To Resign

Daily Wire

"Two weeks ago, when it appeared that Alabama Senate Republican candidate Roy Moore could cruise to victory despite credible allegations of molestation of a 14-year-old girl and a 16-year-old girl, Democrats went all-in on their #MeToo strategy: they decided to dump Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) on the side of the road to grab the moral high ground on sexual abuse. Franken reluctantly announced his resignation, all the while indignantly maintaining his innocence.

"Then the voters of Alabama cast Moore out into the darkness. And the Democrats have no ability to claim the moral high ground — Moore isn’t around to use as a whipping post. Which means, of course, that top Democrats now want to walk back Franken’s resignation.

"Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) stated, “What they did to Al was atrocious, the Democrats.” He called Democratic attempts to oust Franken, “The most hypocritical thing I’ve ever seen done to a human being — and then have enough guts to sit on the floor, watch him give his speech and go over and hug him? That’s hypocrisy at the highest level I’ve ever seen in my life. Made me sick.”

"Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT), who called for Franken’s ouster, has secretly told Franken he regrets doing so, according to Politico. Two other senators who sided against Franken apparently told Politico the same thing.

"Why? Because Democrats aren’t interested in wiping out sexual abuse. They were interested in the political hay to be made by pretending to care about doing so."  . . .

conservativedailynews

I Turned My Coworker Into HR When She Gave Me A Christmas Card, And She Changed My Heart

The Federalist

A person who gives a gift featuring his or her sacred religious iconography is reaching out, showing kindness and sharing his or her faith with others.

Greene

. . . "It is so easy to be offended, so easy to feel hostility and suspicion. Victimhood is attractive because it gives people permission to be judgmental without consequence and feel superior in doing so. It creates a sense of being special, enlightened, and above it all. But this merely traps people in a cycle of bitterness and loneliness as they fight the urge to simply enjoy the holiday season with everyone else. Ironically, the fact that they receive the same gift as everyone else demonstrates their inclusion in the group rather than highlighting their difference.

"As a Jew, I can say that I appreciate Christians’ gestures during this time of year. Although it has become more risky over time, I encourage Christians to continue providing them. That kind woman could have ignored me after the first year when I threw her card in the trash in open sight. But she didn’t, and that matters.

"Kindness matters. Even when the objects of your kindness reject your efforts, just know that deep down you are touching a part of them that they will hopefully come to appreciate in time. Not everyone will, but just enough of us can be rescued to be worth the effort. Your small act of generosity means more than you know.

Chad Felix Greene is a political and social writer focusing on truth in media, conservative ideas and goals, and true equality under the law. He has written and illustrated Jewish children’s books and writes for online publications.

Move over ‘white privilege’ — now there’s ‘centrist privilege’

The College Fix  "In this politically “polarized-more-than-ever” era, one might think being a moderate — or centrist, if you will — would be something of a badge of honor.

"Not a chance, says Chapman University’s Matthew Q. Joy — it’s actually a privilegeakin to that best known of all privileges, “white privilege.”

"And the reason it’s a privilege is because the Republican Party has become soconservative as to make “recognizing opposing viewpoints and reaching compromises” impossible.

"Oh. Of course!

"In an op-ed in the student paper The Panther, Joy chides even President Barack Obama for utilizing his centrist privilege; instead of keeping his promise of universal healthcare, he dared to compromise with Congressional Republicans on his landmark legislation … which left millions still uninsured.

"Obama “never faced significant backlash for this,” Joy says, and “society lauded him a liberal icon.”

"In addition, during last year’s presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton balked at emulating Bernie Sanders’ call for a $15-per-hour minimum wage, instead opting for $12 … which “still wouldn’t allow any minimum wage worker to afford rent.” Yet, she too was was lauded as a “Democratic hero” and “allowed to mask herself as a progressive.” . . .