China's latest conquest in America is buying up farmland. Will Washington stop it?

Beijing has bought up 200,000 acres already, and Rep. Dan Newhouse said there is bipartisan support for legislation to slow it down. But Democrats are trying to excise mention of the CCP in the bill's language. 

By Natalia Mittelstadt

China's effort to unseat America as the world's economic superpower has a new tactic: It has bought up more than 200,000 acres of U.S. farmland. And while there is bipartisan support for legislation to slow down Beijing's acquisitions, Democrats have added a new wrinkle.

Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), who is leading the legislative charge, says congressional Democrats have removed all references to the communist government of China in an amendment to an agricultural spending bill that originally prevented the Chinese Communist Party's purchase of American farmland.

"[O]ver the last decade, we've seen a huge increase in the acquisition of these kinds of assets — farming in particular — by the People's Republic of China," he said. "And that, to me, is just a direction that, while we can, we should do all we can to stop."

With China purchasing the United States' agricultural assets and becoming more ingrained in the U.S. economy, America might eventually "become dependent on Communist China for our agricultural production," Newhouse warned. "We don't want that to happen. We want to stop that in its tracks."

Only six states have agricultural restrictions on China, Newhouse said, "so this is something that I think is desperately needed in our country to prevent China, Communist China, from taking over our agricultural industry."...........To Read More....

Globalist Pope Francis: Suppressing the Heritage of the Catholic Church

Thu Jul 29, 2021 Thom Nickels 19 comments

The radical handwriting was on the wall the moment Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the Cardinal-Archbishop of Buenos Aires, was elected to the papacy in 2013. 

At his first address to the crowds in St. Peter’s Square as Francis I, he had refused to wear the papal mozzetta. This seemingly insignificant break with tradition was the first red flag signaling that the new Bishop of Rome was a modernist. The second red flag occurred during Francis’ inaugural Mass. At that Mass, Francis’ vestments were noticeably plain. Not just plain, but ostentatiously plain. His white miter, decorated with a simple red cross, matched the miter he wore when officiating at puppet and Tango Masses in Argentina. Kneeling among Armenian rite bishops in their bejeweled tall miters during a prayer service before the crypt of St. Peter, Francis seemed to be making a show of his preference for “simplicity.”

The new pope very quickly won the world’s admiration when it was reported that he paid his own hotel bill after the conclusion of the papal conclave. Non-Catholics who never noticed a pope before were now paying strict attention. Many saw Francis’ emphasis on simplicity as a saintly attribute, especially when he chose not to live in the papal palace but in the Vatican apartments. He was very quickly dubbed the “People’s Pope.”...........To Reads More.....

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin Calls Out Anti-Asian American Discrimination in U.S. During Trip to Singapore Defense Sec’y Austin Trashes Americans While in Singapore

Kristina Wong 28 Jul 2021

 

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called out anti-Asian American discrimination in the United States during a trip to East Asia this week to reassure allies and partners.

“Our partnerships draw strength from our shared belief in greater openness, and our belief that people live best when they govern themselves. Now, our democratic values aren’t always easy to reach. And the United States doesn’t always get it right,”...... “We’ve seen some painful lapses, like the unacceptable and frankly un-American discrimination that some Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have endured in my country in recent months,”

The Biden administration has made diversity a key focus at the Pentagon. Austin is the first African American secretary defense, and the first defense secretary to hire a senior adviser on human capital and diversity, equity, and inclusion issues.........To Read More.... 

My Take - What we've really seen in recent months are losers like this guy spouting clabber that clearly violates their oath of office.  As for all these hate crimes against Asian Americans, who exactly are responsible? Is it white America? Is it Hispanic America?  Is it Asian on Asian Americans?  Or is it black America?  You can only take one guess!  

 This man is a disgrace, right along with Colin Powell who openly supported Joe Biden for President. 

China Aims to Dominate Global Governance

By Steven Neill

A December 2020 report by the U.S. Department of the Navy divulged the following on China's methods for projecting its "true maritime power":

China's aggressive actions are undermining the international rules-based order, while its growing military capacity and capabilities are eroding U.S. military advantages at an alarming rate.  China has implemented a strategy and revisionist approach that aims at the heart of the United States' maritime power. It seeks to corrode international maritime governance, deny access to traditional logistical hubs, inhibit freedom of the seas, control use of key choke-points, deter our engagement in regional disputes, and displace the United States as the preferred partner in countries around the world.

China's aggressive fishing policies coincide with its aggression in other areas as well:...........Yet even with all of the above taking place, the West has consented to and even encouraged Chinese expansion, cedeing to China her path to a dominant role in world governance, allowing and even promoting more significant Chinese influence in the U.N. other world organizations.....................To Read More....

 

Truth and Traditional Wisdom Are Solid Foundations

 By Rich Kozlovich 

Truth is the sublime convergence of history and reality.  Everything has a historical foundation and context. Everything presented to us should bear some resemblance to what we see going on in reality. If what's presented to us fails in either of those categories, it's wrong.

No matter what anyone says, you can’t marginalize the truth! You, can suppress it, you can ignore it, you can avoid it, you can attempt to undermine it, you can attempt to subvert it, you can attempt to organize against it, you can even laugh at it - but if we have the courage and the fortitude to stand and confront the lies, irrespective of the personal costs, the truth is a rock that won't be marginalized, because truth will stand the test of time, and as Benjamin Franklin once said:  "Truth will very patiently wait for us". 

Conventional wisdom may or may not be truth, as it's the latest narrative of the day, and it may not last as long as the next ladies fashion, but traditional wisdom has stood the test of time, and like truth, is a rock that builds and solidly holds up the structure of stable societies.  

But that only works as long as society has the fortitude to defend truth and traditional wisdom, all of which are under attack by those who wish to supplant reason, logic and sound thinking and stable moral foundations with irrational paradigms that have failed humanity forever. 

Victor Davis Hanson: What do we do with a president who refuses to enforce laws?

Hanson points to 'new low bar of impeachment' used against Trump 

By Fox News Staff  

Fox News Hanson: Biden not enforcing laws he took an oath to 'faithfully execute' Victor Davis Hanson of the Hoover Institution wonders why a former president can be impeached for a phone call while a current president has escaped impeachment after failing to protect Americans at the U.S. border. Senior fellow at the Hoover Institution Victor Davis Hanson called out hypocrisy by Democrats for impeaching former President Donald Trump over a phone call, yet allowing Biden to get away with wide-open border policies that are threatening America's security. Hanson argued on "Tucker Carlson Tonight" Monday that "it's madness" Joe Biden is getting away with not enforcing "the laws" that he took "an oath to fully execute."

• John Kennedy:  Biden Lied to the American People, He Believes in Open Borders

The President of the United States takes an oath to faithfully execute the laws of the United States as his duty as president. And we've impeached the president for a phone call. And under that low bar, the new low bar of impeachment, what do we do with a president who says to the American people, I'm not going to enforce the laws that I took an oath to faithfully execute? It doesn't make any sense. It's madness. - Victor Davis Hanson

Who Are the Real Fascists in America?

 By Rich Kozlovich 

The publisher of America Spectator is Melissa Mackenzie who also publishes a Newsletter, to which I subscribe. Her latest commentary in this newsletter is entitled, "FASCISM: America's Social Credit System", where she points out something that can only be considered seriously dangerous, and a bit frightening,  saying: 

Do you disagree with the government? You might be an extremist. Watch out! You'll be banned from using the American finance system. 

And then she adds this announcement from PayPal Holdings:

PayPal Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:), in partnership with ADL ( the Anti-Defamation League), today announced a new partnership initiative to fight extremism and hate through the financial industry and across at-risk communities. This is the latest effort by PayPal in combating racism, hate and extremism across its platforms and the industry. 

 

She goes on to note:

 

"Democrats run all institutions now and they're determined that no conflicting world views get expressed or funded. More than that, they're intent on ruining the lives of anyone who disagrees."

What's really interesting is this unending claim that Trump supporters, and Trump himself, are fascists.  That's what happens when real history isn't taught, and words are deliberately misused, mischaracterized and defined incorrectly to suit the narrative of the moment. 

Who really are America's fascists? 

Fascism is all about government power, control and expanding government into every aspect of our lives, ergo, more government and more regulations.    But Trump cut taxes, reduced the regulator burden on America and reduced government.  All of which his supporters want, less government, less taxes and less regulations. So how could he and his supporters be fascists?  

However, It's the Democrats who hold the power, and it's the Democrats who want more power, more money, more regulations and bigger government, and it's the Democrats who are partnering with Big Business to discover and destroy anyone who disagrees with their unconstitutional power grab, all of which they've defined as an effort to " root out right-wing extremism". And how does the government define "right wing extremism"? Anyone who disagrees with them.  And anyone who does won't be allowed to conduct business with these commercial entities.  

She goes on to say: 

"We keep seeing the Biden administration using Big Tech and other businesses to hold on to and cement more political power. That's fascism. And here's this little gem: The intelligence gathered through this research initiative will be shared broadly across the financial industry and with policymakers and law enforcement. Sorry, you can't speak, do business, assemble, but it's private businesses so you must be anti-free market it if you're against it. This is dangerous. Wake up! "

Exaggeration?  No, we're already seeing this happening all over the nation, including to farmer in Michigan who has been ordered not to appear with his produce at the next farmers market by the City Council of the city of East Lansing, Michigan because he had the nerve to espouse his Catholic belief that marriage was between a man and woman. 

Imagine that!

Where are the Texas fugitives?

July 28, 2021 By Silvio Canto, Jr.

Every morning, I pick up my Dallas Morning News and check the front page.  I can't recall the last time that "The Texas 57" were a headline or front page story.  I don't see them anywhere.   Maybe they are busy Zooming each other in the nation's capital.

President Biden won't see them.  I think that's common sense given that the President is 78 and you don't want him around people who have got COVID.  Nevertheless, the "57" are not happy............The "Texas 57" are facing a few realities:Nobody is talking about them.  At the same time, they get more hysterical every time that someone turns on a microphone; and, the U.S. Congress is not helping much, according to this analysis in the Texas Tribune:    ..........To Read More....

My Take - Let's pause and enjoy this schadenfreude moment.  

Okay, now, let's think about this.  What do they think is going to happen to them when they return to Texas?  

First, they're stiffing their constituents.  The claim there's no taxpayer money in involved for this little hissy fit of childish petulance, but the governor has kept the Texas legislature in session until they return and do their jobs.  Cost?  A million or more, and all of these Texas Legislators, who are still getting paid their salaries, are also getting a per diem rate of $221.00 a day as long as the legislative session continues.  Even if they're not in the state, and now Texas Democrat party is asking people for donations to provide "care packages" for these misfits.  

I wonder just how well this is going to play with their constituents back in Texas in the next election?

The woke doctors of the future will know pronouns but not medicine

By Andrea Widburg

Long ago, I knew many students at one of the prestigious University of California medical schools. I remember that they were taught that men and women are different. They have different DNA, reproductive organs, bodies, and brains. They require different treatments, too. That’s now passé. Katie Herzog writes that medical schools have gone woke, and woe betide the professor who dares to acknowledge different sexes.

Bari Weiss, at whose Substack blog Herzog’s latest article appears, summarizes Herzog’s article:

Katie’s latest reporting illustrates some of the most urgent elements of that threat. It focuses on how biological sex is being denied by professors fearful of being smeared by their students as transphobic. And it shows how the true victims of that denial are not sensitive medical students but patients, perhaps most importantly, transgender ones. 

Weiss is not exaggerating. The article opens with a med school professor groveling to his students – literally groveling and begging for forgiveness – because he inadvertently used a gendered term: “Pregnant women.” Nor is this hearsay. Herzog’s informant, a medical student named Lauren, has the professor on tape.

According to Lauren, many teachers will not even acknowledge biological sex. Instead, they teach that sex is a matter of gender and gender, in turn, is merely a social construct.  This madness doesn’t come from the professors, claims Lauren. Instead, it’s driven by the students: ..........These medical students are the equivalent of the Hitler Youth or Mao’s students during the Cultural Revolution..............In Maoist China, patients died in droves when the medical students decided that their teachers were insufficiently enthusiastic revolutionaries and drove them from the hospitals...........There’s no time for diffidence. Push back now before free speech equals death..............To Read More....

 

Oh Look! A Herd of Rugged Individualists!

(Editor's Note:  This goes back to 2012 and the original title was The Herd of Independent Minds, which I changed, as this change seems more appropriate now.  As for our Trekkie friends out there.  Here you thought the Borg Collective was science fiction!  RK) 

By Victor Volsky August 22, 2012

Just about any gregarious conservative can register the same complaint: his friends of a liberal persuasion firmly believe in evolution, the hydrocarbon menace, technogenic global warming, and the virtues of green energy; they are convinced that racism is still rampant in America, that all the ills of inner-city schools can be cured by throwing more money at them, that criminals are actually victims of society, that voter fraud is a myth concocted by evil conservatives, that cheating at the polls is a sacred right of minorities, that illegal immigrants have committed no crime even though the word "illegal" is self-explanatory, that George Bush attacked Iraq at the behest of Halliburton to grab Iraqi oil...

In short, it is always the same mantra, demonstrably stupid and illogical, yet fervently espoused by all ardent liberals, irrespective of their social status or educational attainments.

How to account for it? And why are liberals totally impervious to any counter-arguments -- on those rare occasions, that is, when they actually deign to listen to the contrary views? The easiest explanation, of course, would be that those who persevere in beliefs glaringly devoid of any meaning or logic are just plain dumb. But no, there are a lot of highly intelligent people -- in fact, almost the entirety of academia -- among the most vocal proponents of that idiocy. So there must be some other explanation.

And as a matter of fact, there is.... the power of the shaming............ Conservatives are usually reluctant ideological warriors.  For the most part, they want only to be left alone, to live and let live............ the vicious hatred of the left for its conservative opponents, belied by the liberals' constant protestations of their high-mindedness and tolerance............ Today's left is every bit a tribe with its unthinking, fanatical devotion to the tribal code and animal fear of being ostracized............... Liberal intellectuals like to pose as bearers of the culture of reason, as fiercely independent thinkers.  But they are kidding themselves.  They have traded their intellectual primogeniture for the mess of pottage of group identity.  They are fully integrated into the socially and politically dominant tribe, sharing the same visceral likes and dislikes, the same shaming code.  Rather than being autonomous rational actors, they are merely an assemblage of cipher units marching in lock step to the tribal drumbeat. .........To Read More....

Med Schools Are Now Denying Biological Sex

Professors are apologizing for saying ‘male’ and ‘female.’ Students are policing teachers. This is what it looks like when activism takes over medicine. 

 Katie Herzog July 27, 2021 

Today we bring you another installment of Katie Herzog’s ongoing series about the spread of woke ideology in the field of medicine. Her first story focused on the ideological purge at the top medical schools and teaching hospitals in the country. “Wokeness,” as one doctor put it, “feels like an existential threat.”

During a recent endocrinology course at a top medical school in the University of California system, a professor stopped mid-lecture to apologize for something he’d said at the beginning of class. “I don’t want you to think that I am in any way trying to imply anything, and if you can summon some generosity to forgive me, I would really appreciate it,” His offense: using the term “pregnant women.” “I said ‘when a woman is pregnant,’ which implies that only women can get pregnant and I most sincerely apologize to all of you.” 

It wasn’t the first time Lauren had heard an instructor apologize for using language that, to most Americans, would seem utterly inoffensive. Words like “male” and “female.” Why would medical school professors apologize for referring to a patient’s biological sex? Because, Lauren explains, in the context of her medical school “acknowledging biological sex can be considered transphobic.”.........To Read More....

An activist-based PR campaign is poised to claim that the Earth faces a Silent Spring-like ‘insect armageddon.’ Will The New York Times and other media fall for the ‘hysteria con’ once again?

Jon Entine | July 27, 2021 

For the past four years, journalists and environmental bloggers have been churning out story after story that insects are vanishing, in the United States and globally. Limited available evidence lends credence to reasonable concerns not least because insects are crucial components of many ecosystems. 

But the issue has often been framed in catastrophic terms, with predictions of a near-inevitable and imminent ecological collapse that would undermine global biodiversity, destroy harvests and trigger widespread starvation. Most of the solutions would require a dramatic retooling of many aspects of modern life, from urbanization to agriculture.

Considering the disruptive economic and social trade-offs being demanded by some who promote the crisis hypothesis, it’s prudent to seperate genuine threats from agenda-driven hyperbole. How ecologically threatening are insect declines? Should we be in ‘catastrophic crisis’ mode? What should we as a collective society responsibly do? 

Roots of the crisis narrative

The recent hyper-focus on insects traces back to a 2017 study conducted by an obscure German entomological society that claimed that flying insects in German nature reserves had decreased by 76 percent over just 26 years. The study, co-authored by twelve scientists, lit a fire in advocacy circles and became the sixth-most-discussed scientific paper of that year, and remains popular.............Perhaps the inflammatory rhetoric, which continues today, is justified. Or maybe not. .........

Insectageddon is a great read. But what are the facts?

The Times essay read like a convincing polemic, but the ‘catastrophe narrative’ fell flat with the science community, which has spent much of the last four years trying to tame the consequent hysteria...........Of one of the major studies used to promote the apocalypse narrative (“Worldwide decline of the entomofauna: A review of its drivers”, by Sanchez-Bayo and Wychkhuys, discussed below), Sanders noted an appallingly selective and apparently willful misrepresentation and manipulation of the data:...................Professor Sanders has written a stunning 4-part series on what she sees as the manipulation by narrative-promoting journalists and scientists [see: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4].

Roots of the crisis narrative

It’s important to understand how we got from the consensus ‘there is fragmentary but concerning evidence’ of insect declines to ‘the world faces imminent collapse’. The global insect crisis narrative dates back more than a decade, and was originally focused on alarming reports beginning in 2006 of a surge in honeybee mortality............ By 2018, almost every major news organization, from the Washington Post (‘’Believe it or not, the bees are doing just fine”) to Slate (‘The Bees are Alright”) and including many environmental publications such as Grist (“Why the bee crisis isn’t as bad as you think’) were sheepishly acknowledging there never was an imminent worldwide honeybee catastrophe. The New York Times was conspicuously one of the few news outlets to not reconsider its crisis narrative..................

Are pesticides the problem?

Those exaggerations have been challenged repeatedly by high-quality papers and real-world evidence. But while claims of pending  “-pocalypses” occasionally have been walked back by the media, rarely has this been done with the same gusto with which they headlined each successive “Armageddon” ..................Dave Goulson has a controversial reputation in the science community. As the GLP has previously reported, he is an admitted scientist-for-hire, who has produced research with a promised, pre-determined conclusion for activist organizations.............

What do mainstream insect experts conclude?

................While threats to certain species do exist in certain locations, that doesn’t support claims that we face a broad, global population collapse among insects. 

North American insect populations are stable

The deficiencies of these studies when it came to identifying global trends encouraged a team of 12 researchers led by Matthew Moran at Hendrix College in Arkansas to examine the situation in North America................: “There is no evidence of precipitous and widespread insect abundance declines in North America akin to those reported from some sites in Europe.” ........In the press release announcing the study — “Insect Apocalypse May Not be Happening in the US” —  University of Georgia postdoctoral researcher Matthew Crossley stated, “No matter what factor we looked at, nothing could explain the trends in a satisfactory way.” ...........To Read More, Much More......

Viewpoint: Stanford is a world-class science institution … except when it comes to critical thinking about the ‘sustainability myth’ of organic agriculture

Henry Miller | July 27, 2021 

Stanford, which consistently ranks among the top U.S. colleges and universities, is one of the great research institutions in the world. But it is also the source of profound paradoxes — superb science in academic departments, but often uncritically defaulting to embrace trendy, socially attractive notions that actually contradict its well-earned reputation as a cutting-edge, science-grounded institution.

Hardly a month passes without news of a genuinely significant breakthrough in some field of science or technology. One week it might be the discovery of an unorthodox arrangement of wind turbines that increases energy output; the next, a new healing and antibiotic compound from scorpion venom or the application of artificial intelligence to enable people who are paralyzed to communicate by text. But too often, the university allows its relentless virtue signaling to overwhelm rationality and a commitment to science.

Consider the issue of ‘sustainable agriculture,’ a fungible, feel-good term that allows anyone of any ideological persuasion to endorse enthusiastically; after all, who doesn’t want an ecologically healthier world? .............To Read More.....

Should Rivers Have Rights? A Growing Movement Says It’s About Time

Inspired by indigenous views of nature, a movement to grant a form of legal “personhood” to rivers is gaining some ground — a key step, advocates say, in reversing centuries of damage inflicted upon the world’s waterways.

By Jens Benöhr and Patrick J. Lynch • August 14, 2018 @ Yale Environment 360

Chile is a land of rivers. Along its narrow 3,000-mile length, thousands of rivers and wetlands bring freshwater and nutrients down from the Andes Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. Together, these river systems drain 101 major watersheds that support both terrestrial and marine ecosystems, ranging from arid lands in the north to blue whale nurseries off of Patagonia in the south.

Chile’s second-longest river, the 240-mile Biobío, once tumbled fast and wild through deep gorges and spectacular scenery on its way from the Andes to the sea. The Biobío was one of the world’s great whitewater rafting venues — until the 1990s, when the first of three large hydroelectric dams was built across the river. Over the past two decades, the Biobío dams have flooded more than 13,000 acres, displaced hundreds of families of the indigenous Mapuche people, turned long stretches of this once-unruly river into placid reservoirs, and caused abrupt fluctuations in water levels that have wrecked nesting habitat for native birds and disrupted the river’s natural rhythms.

Today in Chile, despite citizen opposition, hydroelectric development continues at a steady pace. The Alto Maipo dam, currently under construction, threatens the water supply of 7 million people in Santiago. Farther south, construction is about to begin on La Punilla dam on the Ñuble River, which is expected to flood 4,200 acres in the middle of a World Biosphere Reserve. Another conflict is playing out on the breathtaking San Pedro River, sacred to the Mapuche, Chile’s largest indigenous group. A dam that had been abandoned because of concerns it was located in a geologcially unstable region is now back in play, despite overwhelming local opposition from both the Mapuche and their non-indigenous neighbors.

With the number of dams in Chile at 137 and counting, indigenous people, citizens, and environmental activists [including the authors, members of the Chilean Free-Flowing Rivers Network] say the time has come to look at granting legal rights — a form of legal personhood — to the nation’s rivers. This campaign is not occurring in isolation, however, and is taking inspiration from other countries where a small but growing number of courts and legislatures have begun bestowing legal rights upon rivers. Three countries — New Zealand, Colombia, and India — have all taken such steps over the past two years, though the practical ramifications of these declarations remain unclear..............

Each river nook and eddy has its own ngen, meaning a single watershed and its people can be protected by hundreds of spirits. Contaminate or dam a river, even a small tributary, and the ngen will leave, abandoning the place and its people. Since ngen are protectors of both the land and its people — Mapuche literally means “people of the land” — their departure leaves the people who remain to suffer. In Western terms, suffering comes in the form of depression, alcoholism, and other mental and social health issues that have been widely documented in Mapuche communities that inhabit the upper, dammed part of the Biobío’s watershed. Thus, for the Mapuche and other indigenous communities, conservation of the natural environment is also a matter of public health................Under the new agreement, the Whanganui has the same rights as a person. ..............To Read More...@ Yale Environment 360

Nothing Is Ever As It Appears In China: Human Rights, Part I

By Rich Kozlovich

This piece isn't about human rights.  It's about a stunning lack of human rights and the world's willingness to ignore it. 

As we watch the Woke corporations and athletes claiming America is a "racist" nation and insisting blacks are being kept down by "institutional racism", we see these self same groups groveling before the most evil government on the face of the planet.  China, and the Chinese Communist Party!

Here's a government that eschews any rule of law, domestic or international, and is now controlling so much of what major corporations in America are doing.   Their infiltration into America's institutions, including the Congress and now the Presidency, is astounding, dangerous and has to be considered treasonous, all of which I will address in more articles this week and next. 

But this piece deals with human rights, so let's start with the Uighur people of China.  A Muslim group who Michael Curtis claimed in his article,  Is China Committing Genocide against the Uighur People?, are being horribly abused by Communist China saying:

"......moral outrage that must be challenged by the global community in the strongest possible terms. Sacks wrote that the sight of people being shaven-headed, boarded onto trains, and sent to concentration camps was particularly harrowing. They were being murdered, terrorized, victimized, and robbed of their liberties because of the way they worship God."

And in spite of all the evidence of human rights abuses when the International Criminal Court was asked to investigate they refused. Why?  Because it claimed the ICC didn't have jurisdiction, since  China isn't a signatory of the agreement, and they claim "the transfer of Uighurs from other countries did not constitute a crime against humanity".

Strange isn't it how that doesn't seem to bother them when it comes to false charges against the nation of Israel and America, neither of which are signatories of the Rome Statute, and yet they claim they have jurisdiction.  Remarkable, don't you think? I've discussed this at some length in my articles:

• The World as I See It: The International Criminal Court (ICC) is Corrupt to the Core!  
• The International Criminal Court: Leftists Out of Control 
•  The World as I See It: The International Criminal Court

The U.N. Human Rights Council also declined to investigate, which is interesting since it appears the UN seems to think they're qualified to come to America and decide if America is a racist nation. If this was Israel both of these loser groups would have been jumping up and down to investigate and the media would be screaming and demanding it be done.   

Oh, by the way.  Here are the countries sitting on the UNHRC: Bolivia, China, Côte d'Ivoire, Cuba, France, Gabon, Malawi, Mexico, Nepal, Pakistan, Russian Federation, Senegal, Ukraine, United Kingdom and Uzbekistan. 

Well, what about the Muslim controlled nations?  What are they doing about this, remember, between them and their supporters in the UN, they have an unending whine about the rights of Palestinians living in and around Israel, rights they wouldn't have living in the surrounding Muslim controlled nations, so you would imagine they're outraged at the treatment of their fellow Muslims by the government of China.  Right?  Wrong! 

The Uyghur people are a Turkish group. So why, as Patrick Goodenough points out in his December 20th article, "Uyghurs Alarmed as China Ratifies Extradition Treaty With Turkey, Long a Haven For Exiles", is Turkey considering a treaty that would force Uyghur's back into the hands of their oppressors?  He notes:  

More than one million Uyghur and other minority Muslims are reported to have been held in re-education camps in the region since 2017............“After Uyghurs flee China, the Chinese government relentlessly pursues Uyghur refugees and uses its power and influence to pressure host countries into returning Uyghur refugees and asylum seekers,” it said, adding that more than 300 such cases have been confirmed over the last two decades – a number that does not include those secretly returned to China.  “Upon their return, Uyghurs are subjected to enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention, torture, and other serious human rights violations.”

And while western nations have a need to be concerned about the potential of Muslim terrorist activity, it wasn't the Muslim world that spoke up.  I was the United States who challenged China over their abuses of this Muslim group. Their response to America's challenge over this?

“Disinformation on Xinjiang fabricated by some American politicians is the biggest ‘lie of the century,’” he said, evidently a barbed response to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s description of the atrocities as the “stain of the century.”

And get this:

“Xinjiang enjoys social stability, economic growth, ethnic solidarity, harmony among religions and better livelihoods, and people of all ethnic groups including Uyghurs are living a life of happiness, tranquility and peace,”...... “By contrast, there's systemic racial discrimination and police brutality in the U.S. judicial and law enforcement systems.”

We'll be coming back to their claims of "police brutality in the U.S. judicial and law enforcement systems", however, that piece of clabber from the Chinese envoy was on December 20, 2020.  Then just nineteen days later, on January 8, 2021, Andrea Widburg posted this piece, Chinese communists boast about Uighur women’s sterilizations saying: 

"The Chinese Embassy in the United States proudly announced on Twitter that its sterilization policy for Uighur women in “residential communities” was actually liberating them by protecting them from the horror of being baby-making machines. It was an eerie echo of Barack Obama’s pronouncements about the necessity of early birth control as a way to protect his daughters from the punishment of a baby,  As you read this keep in mind that Twitter bans the United States president from its site, but not the Chinese Communist Party. 

 If you read the article you'll find the Orwellian language becomes even more convoluted. But the facts are: 

China has been systematically assembling Uighurs in concentration camps and using them for slave labor and forced organ donations.

On July 11 this year Kelly O'Connell asks, Is Devilish China the Globe's Most Evil State?  Why such a provocative title? O'Connell goes on to explain: 

• First, there are no Human Rights. 
• Second, the society is composed upon Marxist principles with some capitalism. 
• Third, the government is designed upon atheist secular ideals, so bans religion.
•  Fourth, the government has launched a large-scale human organ transplant business. 
• Fifth, there is no law-above-the-law to check any of the above problems. 
• Sixth, influenced by secular media, Americans have a blase’ attitude towards China and don’t understand how dangerous the world’s biggest country is, and many don’t care about the real facts. 

 He goes on to say:

 

China reaps a billion dollars yearly on human organ sales. And, given China’s rejection of human rights laws, religion and the concept of the human soul—there is no reason not to take organs from citizens and steal their organs for sale. 

 

Consider this headline: “Forced Organ Harvesting: “I’m going to China, they’re shooting my donor.” While claiming to stop using the organs of executed prisoners in 2015, studies in 2019 report the practice still goes on. See: “China forcefully harvests organs from detainees, tribunal concludes.” ........

China is considered an open air prison under constant surveillance whose population is under constant threat of arbitrary arrest. Over 236 million Chinese are affected by human trafficking. 

Christian churches are currently being burned and pastors jailed and murdered. See “In China, they’re closing churches, jailing pastors – and even rewriting scripture.”

 Sadly, American Christians are unaware that Chinese use millions of religious minorities, including Christians, as factory slaves. See Christian Human Rights Activist Urges Believers To Avoid Products Made By China’s Slaves.............

And corporate behemoths, who brag about defending US human rights and being woke—like Nike—use such slave labor. See Xinjiang forced labour reported in multinational supply chains. 

See Reports: China Sells Minorities Into ‘Forced Labor’ to Benefit Apple, Foxconn, Others & China’s Forced Labor Problem & New bill would punish America’s corporate giants relying on Chinese slave labor. In short, Christian Americans must arise and demand we stop using China as our National Dollar Store and support countries who don’t use and murder religious minorities for free human organ transplants.

This is such a big topic I'm breaking this down into two parts, and depending on how it flows,  possibly three.  Understand, this goes far beyond the Uighurs.  There are other groups suffering human rights abuses in China, and they're even kidnapping people living in foreign nations.  All of whom seem to just disappear. 

 Part II will be presented tomorrow. 

“That’s Not Happening and It’s Good That It Is”

A quick and dirty guide to regime propaganda

Michael Anton

Gaslighting getting you down? Feel like the regime has dialed the Megaphone up to, and past, eleven? You’re not crazy. It’s definitely happening and likely to get worse as our masters’ ability to cope with reality further worsens—or worse, they gain the complete and absolute control they seek. They’re both scornful and terrified of dissent, which explains why they incessantly shriek at us and lie to our faces.

So, to help you navigate the twitstorm, I present a guide to seven of the regime’s most common, oft-deployed lies. This is not meant to be comprehensive. I’m sure there are tactics they use that either I haven’t crystalized or that aren’t front-of-mind at the moment. I encourage others to expand the catalogue with their own observations. The better we can understand how they try to manipulate us, the better we can resist and counter it all.

Let’s start with the Unholy Trinity of ruling class horse manure. These first three are similar, but subtle differences determine the ways they’re used in differing circumstances.

The Law of Merited Impossibility - The coinage is Rod Dreher’s and goes back to the early debates on homosexual marriage. As Dreher formulates it, the Law of Merited Impossibility holds: “That will never happen, and when it does, boy will you [homophobes, transphobes, racists, sexists, whatever] deserve it.”..................

The Celebration Parallax - ...........The Celebration Parallax may be stated as: “the same fact pattern is either true and glorious or false and scurrilous depending on who states it.” In contemporary speech, on any “controversial” topic—or, to say better, regime priority—the decisive factor is the intent of the speaker. If she can be presumed to be celebrating the phenomenon under discussion, she may shout her approval from the rooftops. If not, he better shut up before someone comes along to shut him up.................

The Law of Salutary Contradiction - Which brings us to the Law of Salutary Contradiction, whose formulation is: “That’s not happening and it’s good that it is.” ..............

The Smails Exhortation -  In their eyes, we deserve nothing. We have no reasonable wants nor any just complaints. Our only role is to accept getting nothing and learning to like it.............

The Lie-Back Imperative - This tactic, and the next one, are related to what Steve Sailer has called “The War on Noticing.” The regime knows it’s in a difficult rhetorical position. The heart of its argument is that some people are inherently innocent and good while others are inherently guilty and bad and must be treated accordingly. .............

The Enmity Counteraccusation - This one is perhaps the most brazen. As I put it elsewhere, “the enemy calls you its enemy for recognizing its enmity.”...........To Read More.....

Global Warming? Scott Base Antarctica Endures -115F

Eric Worrall 143 Comments

Guest essay by Eric Worrall (see update below – Anthony)

h/t JoNova; Global warming appears to have brought near record cold to Scott Base in Antarctica, which a few days ago endured -81.7C / -115F, almost 4 degrees below the freezing point of Carbon Dioxide (-78C / -109F). ..........To Read More.....

How I Got Classified as an Anti-Government Domestic Extremist

When the United States says you are the most dangerous threat it faces, your life is about to change for the worse. The Biden Administration has just told conservative Americans they are that threat

By Max Morton June 27, 2021

The Biden Administration recently released its National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism. After reading the fact sheet, which was a bit disconcerting, I downloadedthe full National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism document. By the time I finished reading, I was shocked. Evidently, President Biden thinks I am an anti-government domestic extremist. But that’s not all. Almost all of my friends and most of the people in the small Southern community where I live are anti-government domestic extremists, too. 

So, let’s unpack this “anti-government domestic extremist” business. An integral part of the National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism is an intelligence community assessment published in March. Having spent some time in the intelligence community, I was puzzled as to how agencies with the mission of foreign intelligence collection—and which are statutorily and explicitly restricted from conducting domestic intelligence operations—are now writing Intelligence Community Assessments on U.S. citizens residing on U.S. soil. Notwithstanding the troubling legal aspects, the assessment also lacked evidence to back up its broad assertions that America’s greatest threat comes from domestic extremists.  ............

The alarming presumptions about criminal thoughts and motivations are likely unconstitutional, and should undergo rigorous scrutiny by the relevant oversight bodies. And Congress, instead of enacting new laws to authorize this dystopian overreach, should explicitly forbid it, for this administration and every one after.

If not, then we should all prepare ourselves for what comes next..........To Read More.....

 

Cuba’s Socialism Has Been a Total Failure

July 24, 2021 by Dan Mitchell @ International Liberty

I like cross-country comparisons – such as North Korea vs South Korea and East Germany vs. West Germany – because they can be very informative when comparing the results of socialism vs. markets.

 

One of the most dramatic examples is Cuba vs. Hong Kong.  More than 60 years ago, back when Castro took power, the two jurisdictions had similar living standards.  But as Cuba tried socialism and Hong Kong chose free enterprise, there was a stunning divergence. Cuba is a basket case and Hong Kong is rich.*

In a column for Human Progress, Neil Monnery compares the two jurisdictions.

As the world entered the turbulent 1960s, two men, half a world apart, one a doctor and the other a classicist, both foreigners far from home, were charged with bringing human progress to their adopted countries. …One, Che Guevara, the well-known Argentinean revolutionary, was the architect of Cuba’s communist economic system. The other, Sir John Cowperthwaite, was born in Britain and is largely unknown today. He was central to Hong Kong’s post-war recovery and to its unique laissez-faire, free-market economic policy. …Hong Kong and Cuba had similar GDP per capita in 1960. Since then, Hong Kong’s has grown 14-fold, Cuba’s just twice, leaving Hong Kong seven times more prosperous than Cuba. In 1960, Hong Kong’s GDP per capita was a third of its old mother country, Britain. Now, it is 40 percent higher, matching the United States and Switzerland. …Cuba and Hong Kong demonstrate the compound effect over six decades of state planning versus market forces.

Some folks on the left, when presented with this data, will admit that Cuba has fallen behind in terms of economic development.

But cranks like Bernie Sanders claim that’s okay because Castro and his cronies instead focused on human development.

But that’s a very weak argument. In an article for the Foundation for Economic Education, Hans Bader analyzes Cuba’s track record on education and health.

Castro did not give Cubans literacy. Cuba already had one of the highest literacy rates in Latin America by 1950, nearly a decade before Castro took power, according to United Nations data… Cuba has made less educational progress than most Latin American countries over the last 60 years. …Cuba led virtually all countries in Latin America in life expectancy in 1959, before Castro’s communists seized power. But by 2012, right after Castro stepped down as Communist Party leader, Chileans and Costa Ricans lived slightly longer than Cubans. Back in 1960, Chileans had a life span seven years shorter than Cubans, and Costa Ricans lived more than two years less than Cubans on average. …Today, life spans are virtually the same in Cuba as more prosperous Chile and Costa Rica—if you accept the rosy official statistics put out by Cuba’s communist government, which many people do not.

There are good reasons to doubt official numbers from Cuba. People who visit the island have sad stories to tell.  For instance, in a column last year for the Wall Street Journal, Andy Laperriere explains what he saw on his church-sponsored trips to Cuba.

It’s astonishing some people still cling to a romanticized version of Cuban life under communism. It bears no resemblance to reality. …people who don’t have children’s Tylenol and cheap reading glasses probably aren’t getting world-class medical care. Another striking feature of Cuba is the pervasive idleness. Everywhere you look, people are standing around. They aren’t working, because they get paid almost nothing. …Even the buildings a few blocks from the seat of government in Havana are crumbling. It’s obvious to a visitor that Cubans live in abject poverty. …there are three classes of people in Cuba. The governmental elite live in gated communities and enjoy what Americans would regard as middle-class living standards. The average person who relies on his own income lives in desperate Third World conditions. In between are people with generous relatives in the U.S. They have more disposable income, but their living conditions are comparable to those of the poorest Americans.

What a depressing analysis.  I wrote a few days ago that Cuba may have done a good job of eliminating inequality, but only because everyone was poor.  But that wasn’t right. Like in many socialist regimes, there’s a tiny sliver of the population that enjoys decent living standards.  Or, if you’re the dictator, you live like a king. Here are some excerpts from a 2014 report in the U.K.-based Guardian.

Fidel Castro lived like a king with his own private yacht, a luxury Caribbean island getaway complete with dolphins and a turtle farm, and travelled with two personal blood donors, a new book claims. In La Vie Cachée de Fidel Castro (Fidel Castro’s Hidden Life), former bodyguard Juan Reinaldo Sánchez, a member of Castro’s elite inner circle, says the Cuban leader ran the country as his personal fiefdom like a cross between a medieval overlord and Louis XV. …the vast majority of Cubans were unaware their leader enjoyed a lifestyle beyond the dreams of many Cubans and at odds with the sacrifices he demanded of them. …In 2006 Forbes magazine listed the Cuban leader in its top 10 richest “Kings, Queens and Dictators”, citing unnamed officials who claimed Castro had amassed a fortune.

Let’s close by addressing the argument that Cuba is only poor because of the U.S. trade embargo.

Professor Art Carden addressed that argument in a column for the American Institute for Economic Research.

I think the embargo…should be lifted immediately, as it has given Cuban communists a convenient scapegoat for their country’s problems. The embargo, however, is not what causes Cuba’s woes, and people blaming the embargo overlook the fact that Cuba trades pretty extensively with the rest of the world–how else do you think Canadian and Mexican merchants get the Cuban cigars they hawk to American tourists? It’s not because a Cuban Rhett Butler is smuggling them past a blockade. It’s because Cuba trades freely with the entire world.

You may be thinking that’s just one economist’s opinion. But it turns out that Art’s view is widely shared by other economists, as you can see from this tweet from Professor Jeremy Horpedahl.  Wow, these results are even stronger than the survey showing that economists disagreed with Thomas Piketty’s class-warfare hypothesis.

P.S. Let’s enjoy some Cuba-themed humor. First, our friends on the left sometimes claim free trade exploits developing nations. But, it that’s true, why do they claim Cuba is hurt be an absence of trade with the United States?

Next, here’s a t-shirt suggesting we swap freedom-seeking Cubans for statism-seeking Americans.

I’m in favor of that trade, though I suspect American leftists wouldn’t actually want to live in a socialist country.

P.P.S. I have great disdain for the “useful idiots” who concoct arguments to make Cuba’s repressive regime look good.

*Let’s hope China doesn’t ruin Hong Kong’s economy.

 

Democrat-Media Complex Highly Embarrassed by Anti-Socialist Uprising

Humberto Fontova Jul 24, 2021 @ Townhall.com

“The liberal's arm cannot strike with consistent firmness against communism -- because the liberal dimly feels that in doing so he would be somehow wounding himself," said James Burnham in his classic "Suicide of the West" in 1964.

“We can get bogged down discussing all the changes by the Kennedy administration that doomed the Bay of Pigs freedom-fight, which was planned under the Eisenhower administration with President Nixon as its main booster. But the bottom line is that underlying all those changes was the American liberal’s guilt-complex.. In brief, Kennedy and his people didn’t have their hearts in a mission to forcibly overthrow the communist Castro regime," yours truly said during a Q&A session with the House Committee on Foreign Relations, Capitol Hill, Aug.1, 2007.

And nobody ever accused the Castro regime of being unperceptive about who their friends are To wit: 

"We'd better hope Kennedy wins this election," Fidel Castro confided to a subaltern in 1960. "If Nixon wins our revolution won't last." The Bay of Pigs boondoggle, where a Democratic president denied vital support to Cuban Freedom-fighters trying to topple Castro found Fidel nodding smugly. A year later the Missile Crisis “resolution” where JFK pledged the U.S. to protect Cuban Communism, had Castro slapping his knee and high-fiving his Soviet patrons in vindication and glee.

In 2011 former Democratic president Jimmy Carter visited Cuba. “We greeted each other as old friends,” gushed Carter regarding his meeting with Fidel Castro.

“In 2002, we received him warmly,” reciprocated Castro. “Now, I reiterated to him our respect and esteem."

“Jimmy Carter was the best of all U.S. presidents,” gushed Raul Castro while seeing his American guest off personally and jovially.

In fact for many prominent Democrats Castro’s Cuba resembles the very Land of Oz, with Cubans laughing the days away—“ha-ha-ha! ho-ho-ho! and a couple of tra-la-las!” If this sounds hyperbolic here’s Conscience of the Democratic Party George McGovern after a visit to Cuba in 1975: “Everywhere we were surrounded by laughing children who obviously loved Fidel.”

Here’s the late Frank Mankiewics, a lifelong Democratic factotum who served as campaign chairman for pxresidential candidate George McGovern, press secretary for Senator Robert Kennedy and as head of NPR from 1977-1983. Mankiewics was greatly impressed by “the enthusiasm and unity of the Cuban people...they are proud of their accomplishments and sing songs about themselves and their country that reflect this self-pride.”

Fidel ringingly endorsed Obama the first time around, while greatly fearing for the Democratic candidate’s life. "A profound racism exists in the U.S.," Fidel revealed in an essay dated October 2008. "It's a miracle that the Democratic candidate (Obama) has not suffered the fate of other Americans who dreamed of equality and justice like Malcolm X and Martin Luther King."

“If I were a U.S. citizen I'd vote for Obama for president," gushed Raul Castro’s daughter during an Obama administration-sanctioned visit to San Francisco in may 2012. "I think he is sincere, I think he speaks from the heart." To cheers and applause from the San Franciscan crowd, Raul Castro’s daughter also proclaimed, “what we want is the power of emancipation through socialism."

Fast forward to those fateful 2016 elections: “It’s Hillary’s hour!...The only hope of defeating Donald Trump is Hillary Clinton…the difference between the two candidates is vast. Barack Obama did not exaggerate when he claimed that she was better prepared to be a U.S. President than even he was—or was her husband Bill Clinton," wrote Stalinist Cuba’s KGB-founded and mentored media organ Cubadebate, Oct. 15, 2016.

Now, regarding recent coverage of the Cuba uprising by the Democrats' press auxiliary (the Mainstream Media), Townhall reported just last week that: “The Castro-regime accredited U.S. 'news' agencies (i.e. Mainstream Media) graciously bestowed Havana bureaus aren’t exactly 'reporting' everything that’s been going on in Cuba this week. In fact, this very 'accreditation' (thorough vetting by KGB-mentored specialists, and thinly-veiled threats regarding any 'reporting' from Cuba that contradicts the KGB-founded regime’s propaganda goals) is a guarantee that they can’t."

And wouldn’t you know it? Kalev Leetaru over at Real Clear Politics just published an invaluable study showing that, though CNN and MSNBC (both bestowed Havana bureaus by the Stalinist regime) mentioned Cuba the most in their coverage over the past decade—that coverage suddenly dried up during the past two weeks! Duh?

In fact, Fox News (without a Havana bureau) reported over three times as much on Cuba during the past 10 days as did the media with actual “intrepid reporters” and entire press bureaus “embedded” in Cuba. 

Fascinating, no? But why should any of us be surprised? After all...

“The Toast of Manhattan!” crowed Time magazine in January of 1996. “The Hottest Ticket in Manhattan!” also read a Newsweek story that week. Both articles referred to the social swirl and acclaim that engulfed Fidel Castro upon his visit to New York by the very Manhattan media and business luminaries who barely escaped incineration at his hand. The occasion was the UN’s 50th anniversary celebration, but the Castromania almost recaptured the hysteria for Simon and Garfunkel’s 1981 reunion in Central Park. 

First on the Stalinist dictator’s itinerary was a luncheon at the Council on Foreign Relations. After holding court there for a rapt David Rockefeller, along with Robert McNamara, Dwayne Andreas, and Random House’s Harold Evans, Castro flashed over to Mort Zuckerman’s Fifth Avenue pad, where a throng of Beltway glitterati, including Mike Wallace, Peter Jennings, Tina Brown, Bernard Shaw, and Barbara Walters, who all jostled for photo-ops and stood in line for the warmongering mass-murderer's autograph. 

Diane Sawyer was so overcome in the mass-murderer’s presence that she rushed up, broke into a toothy smile, wrapped her arms around Fidel Castro, and smooched him warmly on the cheek. 

"You people are the cream of the crop!" beamed the mass-murderer to the rapt and smiling throng he’d coming within a hair of incinerating and now surrounded him. 

"Hear, hear!" chirped the delighted guests while tinkling their wine glasses in appreciation and glee. But many more were left panting, because according to the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, Fidel Castro had gotten over 250 dinner invitations from Manhattan celebrities and power-brokers. 

The jailer and torturer of the longest suffering black political prisoners in modern history was bear-hugged by Charles Rangel. The jailer and torturer of the most female political prisoners in the modern history of the western hemisphere was hugged and smooched by feminist Diane Sawyer. The jailer and torturer of the most journalists in the modern history of the Western hemisphere found everyone from Dan Rather to Mike Wallace to Tina Brown lining up for his autograph. The jailer and torturer who abolished private property within his Stalinist fiefdom found David Rockefeller and Mort Zuckerman crowding around him for a handshake. The Communist dictator who abolished capitalism under penalty of firing squad and torture chamber was honored in the board room of the Wall Street Journal with a VIP luncheon.

Woke Budgeting Emerges as More Than an Abject Failure

By Lawrence Kudlow, Special to the Sun | July 24, 2021

Here we are on Friday night and let me say — go woke, go broke. According to the Congressional Budget Office, through June, total federal debt in the hands of the public is $21.7 trillion dollars.

Total debt itself, which includes intergovernmental transfers (like social security, trust funds), comes to $28.5 trillion dollars.

So, call it 100% of GDP. It’s a nice round number and easy to remember. Under current law, the CBO estimates federal debt in public hands will be $35.8 trillion by 2031 in their 10-year forecast.

That is not including any of the new Biden spending proposals, which could be $3.5 trillion (or maybe $4 trillion or maybe $5 trillion) — or maybe more if they really crank up the woke.

The CBO also estimates that the government will spend more than $60 trillion dollars over the next 10 years. Again, that's current law or what's called “current services.” It does not include any new Biden proposals.................To Read More.....

Critical Race Theory’s Chief Marketing Officer

Ibram X. Kendi’s brand of “antiracism” sanitizes for elite institutions the academic Left’s most pernicious ideas.

Christopher F. Rufo  July 23, 2021 @ City Journal

Ibram X. Kendi’s name is everywhere: public school curricula, corporate training programs, even the U.S. Navy’s official reading list. The Boston University professor has become the latest star in the long tradition of racial activism. But despite his laudatory reception in the press, his philosophy would jeopardize the American system of individual rights and equality under the law—and is finally getting the scrutiny it deserves.

Kendi’s rise to prominence was swift. He published a bestselling book, Stamped from the Beginning, in 2016, but after the death of George Floyd in 2020, Kendi’s subsequent book, How to Be An Antiracist, began selling an astonishing number of copies—including institutional sales to public schools, government agencies, and professional organizations, all seeking to understand the ongoing racial unrest. During the conflict, Kendi appeared constantly on television, delivered speeches to elite institutions, and positioned himself as the guru of America’s racial reckoning.

But since the protests have died down, many Americans have realized that Kendi’s brand of “antiracism” is nothing more than a marketing-friendly recapitulation of the academic Left’s most pernicious ideas. While Kendi, born Ibram Henry Rogers, presents himself as a radical subversive, he is really an ideologist of elite opinion, subsidized heavily by America’s corporations and public institutions. Kendi’s work has been used and recommended by Fortune 100 companies, the federal bureaucracy, and the United States military—the very foundations of the power structure he claims to oppose.

Kendi’s thesis—that if the races are equal, then racial disparities can owe only to racism and must be rectified through “antiracist discrimination”—is a simplistic reiteration of critical race theory’s core concepts. As journalist Aaron Sibarium has documented, Kendi has borrowed ideas from critical race theory and translated them into a media-friendly narrative. “When I see racial disparities, I see racism,” Kendi says, excluding other explanations. His logic often descends into circularity: when asked to define the word “racism,” he told attendees at the Aspen Ideas Festival that it is “a collection of racist policies that lead to racial inequity that are substantiated by racist ideas.”

In another nod to 1960s-style radicalism, Kendi also claims to oppose capitalism. “The life of racism cannot be separated from the life of capitalism,” he says. “In order to truly be antiracist, you also have to truly be anti-capitalist.” But Kendi, like fellow traveler Patrisse Cullors of Black Lives Matter, is a prolific capitalist in his personal life. He charged Fairfax County schools $20,000 an hour for a virtual presentation and has merchandised his entire line of ideas, releasing self-help products and even an “antiracist” baby book. He has accepted millions from tech and pharmaceutical companies on behalf of his Antiracism Center. Fighting against capitalism, as it turns out, is a lucrative enterprise.

Posturing aside, Kendi’s actual proposals, from “defunding the police” to restricting free speech, are alarming. Kendi advocates race-based discrimination, arguing that “the only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination.” He proposes a federal Department of Antiracism that would be unaccountable to voters or legislators, permanently funded, and granted the power to suppress “racist ideas” and veto, nullify, or abolish any law at any level of government not deemed “antiracist.”

As Americans begin to consider his ideas more seriously, Kendi finds himself on the defensive. In recent months, he has released a series of short-tempered articles and statements, claiming that “there is no debate about critical race theory” one moment, then distancing himself from critical race theory the next—notwithstanding that, only two weeks before, he had claimed that critical race theory was “foundational” to his work. When he’s put on the spot, Kendi reverts to word games and deflection, rather than defending his position on substance.

Perhaps that is because Kendi’s chief proposal—so-called “antiracist discrimination”—remains deeply unpopular. Despite the recent push to replace equality with “equity,” Americans still support the system of individual freedom, equality under the law, and colorblind public policy. Even in deep-blue California and Washington State, voters have recently rejected affirmative action at the ballot box, notwithstanding heavy support for those measures from multinational corporations and the Democratic establishment.

Kendi fashions himself a revolutionary, but more and more of the public opposes his ideas. Like many activists before him, he will likely be absorbed into the fabric of elite institutions—where supposedly radical ideas are cosseted into conventional wisdom.

Christopher F. Rufo is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. Sign up for his newsletter here.

Photo by Simone Padovani/Awakening/Getty Images

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