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In Line For Senior Job at State, Sanders Aide Accuses Biden of Illegal Military Action

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(Free Beacon)

A top aide for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) who is reportedly in line to join the Biden administration took to Twitter Friday morning to assail the administration’s surprise airstrike in Syria by U.S. forces, the first military action in the war-torn country authorized by President Joe Biden.

Matt Duss, a Sanders aide who has established himself as a leading anti-Israel activist on the left, wrote that “Congress has not authorized war in Syria,” echoing criticism from many on the left who see the military strike on Syria-based Iranian militias as an illegal and unconstitutional act of war by the Biden administration.

The remark, one of several criticisms leveled by far-left foreign policy observers, comes as Duss is reportedly in line for a job at Biden’s State Department. While his rumored hiring has garnered praise from the Democratic Party’s left flank, it is unusual for prospective hires to accuse their prospective employers of war crimes.

It is not the first time Duss has criticized the president—last year he accused Biden “of undermining [former president Barack] Obama’s peace effort” between the Israelis and Palestinians, saying that Biden’s pro-Israel approach “has been wholly discredited by the last three years.”

It remains unclear what position Duss is in consideration for at the State Department. He is one of more than 100 hundred hires the progressive community is championing for jobs in the Democratic administration in hopes of pushing the State Department further left on foreign policy issues. In addition to his anti-war advocacy, Duss is a longtime critic of the U.S. alliance with Israel and has pushed to limit cooperation between America and the Middle East’s sole democracy.

Duss did not return a request for comment from the Washington Free Beacon.

Duss is not alone in opposing U.S. strikes on terrorist positions in Syria. White House press secretary Jen Psaki questioned the legitimacy of such operations in 2017, when the Trump administration authorized similar military operations against Iranian-linked forces. Vice President Kamala Harris also referred to U.S. military strikes in Syria as illegal in 2018, saying the Trump administration should not be permitted to conduct attacks without congressional approval.

US implicates Saudi crown prince in Khashoggi’s killing

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(AP) — Saudi Arabia’s crown prince likely approved the killing of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, according to a newly declassified U.S. intelligence report released Friday that instantly ratcheted up pressure on the Biden administration to hold the kingdom accountable for a murder that drew worldwide outrage.

The intelligence findings were long known to many U.S. officials and, even as they remained classified, had been reported with varying degrees of precision. But the public rebuke of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is still a touchstone in U.S-Saudi relations. It leaves no doubt that as the prince continues in his powerful role and likely ascends to the throne, Americans will forever associate him with the brutal killing of a journalist who promoted democracy and human rights.

Yet even as the Biden administration released the findings, it appeared determined to preserve the Saudi relationship by avoiding direct punishment of the prince himself despite demands from some congressional Democrats and Khashoggi allies for significant and targeted sanctions.

Questioned by reporters, Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended the approach.

“What we’ve done by the actions we’ve taken is not to rupture the relationship but to recalibrate it to be more in line with our interests and our values,” he said. “I think that we have to understand as well that this is bigger than any one person.”

The conclusion that the prince approved an operation to kill or capture Khashoggi was based on his decision-making role inside the kingdom, the involvement of a key adviser and members of his protective detail and his past support for violently silencing dissidents abroad, according to the report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Though intelligence officials stopped short of saying the prince ordered the October 2018 murder, the four-page document described him as having “absolute control” over the kingdom’s intelligence organizations and said it would have been highly unlikely for an operation like the killing to have been carried out without his approval.

Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry responded by saying the kingdom “categorically rejects the offensive and incorrect assessment in the report pertaining to the kingdom’s leadership.”

Shortly after the findings were released, the State Department announced a new policy, called the “Khashoggi Ban,” that will allow the U.S. to deny visas to people who harm, threaten or spy on journalists on behalf of a foreign government. It also said it would impose visa restrictions on 76 Saudi individuals who have engaged or threatened dissidents overseas.

The State Department declined to comment on who would be affected, citing the confidentiality of visa records. But a person familiar with the matter said the prince was not targeted. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

The Treasury Department also announced sanctions against a former Saudi intelligence official, Ahmad Hassan Mohammed al Asiri, who U.S. officials say was the operation’s ringleader.

Democrats in Congress praised the administration for releasing the report — the Trump administration had refused to do so — but urged it to take more aggressive actions, including against the prince.

Rep. Adam Schiff, chair of the House Intelligence Committee, urged the Biden administration to consider punishing the prince, who he says has the blood of an American journalist on his hands.

“The President should not meet with the Crown Prince, or talk with him, and the Administration should consider sanctions on assets in the Saudi Public Investment Fund he controls that have any link to the crime,” Schiff said in a statement.

Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, called for consequences for the prince — such as sanctions — as well as for the Saudi kingdom as a whole.

Rights activists said the lack of any punitive measures would signal impunity for the prince and other autocrats.

Without sanctions, “it’s a joke,” said Tawwakol Karman, a Nobel Peace Price winner from neighboring Yemen and friend of Khashoggi’s.

While Biden had pledged as a candidate to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” over the killing, he appeared to take a milder tone during a call Thursday with Saudi King Salman.

A White House summary of the conversation made no mention of the killing and said instead that the men had discussed the countries’ long-standing partnership. The kingdom’s state-run Saudi Press Agency similarly did not mention Khashoggi’s killing in its report about the call, focusing on regional issues like Iran and the war in Yemen.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki has told reporters that the administration intends to “recalibrate” the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia. Biden previously ordered an end to U.S. support for the Saudi-led bombing campaign in Yemen and said he would stop the sale of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia but has given few details of his plans.

Though the Biden administration’s relationship with Riyadh is likely to be more adversarial than that of Donald Trump’s, the reality is that Riyadh’s oil reserves and status as a counterbalance to Iran in the Middle East have long made it a strategic — if difficult — ally.

The broad outlines of the killing have long been known. The document released Friday says a 15-member Saudi team, including seven members of the prince’s elite personal protective team, arrived in Istanbul, though it says it’s unclear how far in advance Saudi officials had decided to harm him.

Khashoggi had gone to the Saudi consulate to pick up documents needed for his wedding. Once inside, he died at the hands of more than a dozen Saudi security and intelligence officials and others who had assembled ahead of his arrival. Surveillance cameras had tracked his route and those of his alleged killers in Istanbul in the hours before his killing.

A Turkish bug planted at the consulate reportedly captured the sound of a forensic saw, operated by a Saudi colonel who was also a forensics expert, dismembering Khashoggi’s body within an hour of his entering the building. The whereabouts of his remains remain unknown.

The prince, an ambitious 35-year-old who has rapidly consolidated power since his father became king in 2015, said in 2019 that he took “full responsibility” for the killing since it happened on his watch, but denied ordering it. Saudi officials have said Khashoggi’s killing was the work of rogue Saudi security and intelligence officials. Saudi Arabian courts last year announced they had sentenced eight Saudi nationals to prison in Khashoggi’s killing. They were not identified.

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Madhani reported from Chicago. Associated Press writers Matthew Lee and Ben Fox in Washington and Ellen Knickmeyer in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.

Was Iran Responsible for Attack on Israeli-owned Cargo Ship ?

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A Nasr-1 missile fired from a warship during an Iranian navy military exercise in the Gulf of Oman, January 14, 2021

 I24 News:

An explosion that hit an Israeli cargo ship on Friday is believed to have been caused by a missile fired from an Iranian ship, Channel 12 reported on Friday citing unnamed defense officials.

The MV HELIOS RAY, a boat owned by Israeli businessman Rami Ungar, “was the victim of an explosion in the Gulf of Oman,” Dryad Global, a company specializing in maritime security, said hours after the incident.

Maritime security firm Dryad Global said the MV HELIOS RAY was a vehicle carrier owned by Helios Ray Ltd, an Israeli firm registered in the Isle of Man.

“Whilst details regarding the incident remain unclear it remains a realistic possibility that the event was the result of asymmetric activity by Iranian military,” Dryad said in a report on the incident.

The US Navy’s Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet said it was aware of the incident and monitoring the situation.

Transporting a cargo of motor vehicles, the ship was traveling between Dammam, a port city in eastern Saudi Arabia, and Singapore, at the time of the explosion in northwest Oman, the company said.

Dryad Global had immediately suggested that Iran could be responsible for the explosion, the incident taking place amid heightened tensions between the Jewish state and the Islamic Republic.

The explosion made “two holes of about a meter and a half in diameter,” Ungar later confirmed in a statement to Israeli public broadcaster Kan News, adding the damage was likely caused “by a missile or by mines attached to the boat.”

Reacting to the news that his boat was damaged, Ungar said that something like this “has never happened to me before” and looks forward to what authorities reveal in their investigation.

According to the shipowner, this explosion could be linked to previous attacks on ships in the region.

“I think this is part of the game between Iran and the United States, which is why they are hitting Western ships,” he said.

US officials are expected to inspect the ship upon arrival in Dubai on Saturday morning, Channel 13 reported.

Trump the Dominant Force at Conservative Conference

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AP

(AP) A conference dedicated to the future of the conservative movement turned into an ode to Donald Trump as speakers declared their fealty to the former president and attendees posed for selfies with a golden statue of his likeness.

As the Republican Party grapples with deep divisions over the extent to which it should embrace Trump after losing the White House and both chambers of Congress, those gathered at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday made clear they are not ready to move on from the former president — or from his baseless charges that the November election was rigged against him.

“Donald J. Trump ain’t going anywhere,” said Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, one of several potential 2024 presidential contenders who spoke at the event, being held this year in Orlando to bypass COVID-19 restrictions.

Trump on Sunday will be making his first post-presidential appearance at the conference, and aides say he will use the speech to reassert his power.

The program underscored the split raging within the GOP, as many establishment voices argue the party must move on from Trump to win back the suburban voters who abandoned them in November, putting President Joe Biden in the White House. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and others worry Trump will undermine the party’s political future if he and his conspiracy theories continue to dominate Republican politics.

But at the conference, speakers continued to fan disinformation and conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, with panels dedicated to amplifying false claims of mass voter fraud that have been dismissed by the courts, state election officials and Trump’s own administration.

Indeed, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., another potential 2024 hopeful, drew among the loudest applause and a standing ovation when he bragged about challenging the election certification on Jan. 6 despite the storming of the Capitol building by Trump supporters trying to halt the process.

“I thought it was an important stand to take,” he said.

Others argued the party would lose if it turned its back on Trump and alienated the working-class voters drawn to his populist message.

“We cannot — we will not — go back to the days of the failed Republican establishment of yesteryear,” said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who outlined a new Trumpian GOP agenda focused on restrictive immigration policies, opposition to China and limiting military engagement.

“We will not win the future by trying to go back to where the Republican Party used to be,” echoed Florida Sen. Rick Scott, who chairs the fundraising committee tasked with electing Republicans to the Senate. “If we do, we will lose the working base that President Trump so animated. We’re going to lose elections across the country, and ultimately we’re going to lose our nation.”

Scott is dismissing pressure on him to “mediate between warring factions on the right” or “mediate the war of words between the party leaders.” He has refused to take sides in the bitter ongoing fight between Trump and McConnell, who blamed Trump for inciting the deadly Capitol riot but ultimately voted to acquit him at his impeachment trial earlier this month.

“I’m not going to mediate anything,” he said, criticizing those who “prefer to fan the flames of a civil war on our side” as “foolish” and “ridiculous.”

But in speeches throughout the day, the GOP turmoil was front and center. Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., lit into Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the No. 3 House Republican, who has faced tremendous backlash for her vote to impeach Trump for inciting the Capitol riot.

And as the program was wrapping up, Trump issued a statement endorsing Max Miller, a former staffer who has now launched a campaign challenging Ohio Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, another Republican who voted in favor of impeachment.

Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former Fox News Channel host and Trump Jr.’s girlfriend, offered a pointed message to those who stand in opposition to the former president, who will not arrive at the conference until Sunday but was present in spirit in the form of a large golden statue erected in a merchandise show booth, where attendees could pose for pictures with it.

“We bid a farewell to the weak-kneed, the spineless and the cowards that are posing in D.C. pretending that they’re working for the people,” she said. “Let’s send them a pink slip straight from CPAC.”

Trump Jr., who labeled the conference “TPAC” in honor of his father, hyped the return of his father and the “Make America Great Again” platform to the spotlight.

“I imagine it will not be what we call a ‘low-energy’ speech,” he said. “And I assure you that it will solidify Donald Trump and all of your feelings about the MAGA movement as the future of the Republican Party.”

Yang walks back tough anti-BDS stance during Muslim Democratic Club forum

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New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang in 2019. Credit: Lev Radin/Shutterstock.

(JNS) Andrew Yang, the current frontrunner in the Democratic primary for New York City mayor, walked back his firm stance against the BDS movement and promised to meet with Palestinian American leaders on the issue.

“My view on BDS is that because of its failure to disavow certain organizations that have expressed violent intentions toward Israel that I disagree with it, but I have complete respect for people who have a very different point of view,” he said at a mayoral forum hosted by the Muslim Democratic Club of New York on Wednesday, reported Politico.

Yang said he has an issue with organizations that don’t disavow “very, very violent tactics” towards Israel, though he doesn’t have an issue with individuals or activists “making a case for what they think is right.”

He added that his Jan. 22 op-ed in The Forward may have “confused those two.”

In it, he strongly denounced the BDS movement, saying “a Yang administration will push back against the BDS movement, which singles out Israel for unfair economic punishment.”

He also said that BDS is “rooted in anti-Semitic thought and history, hearkening back to fascist boycotts of Jewish businesses.”

However, the mayoral candidate and one-time U.S. presidential candidate has been challenged by pro-Palestinian activists upset over his comparison between the BDS movement and Nazism. Earlier this week, Yang was accosted by pro-Palestinian activists on the issue while touring businesses in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Linda Sarsour, a pro-Palestinian BDS activist, who questioned Yang at the mayoral forum, said she believes that his stance does not come from a place of “bad intentions,” but that it was a “stretch” to say BDS is similar to Nazi boycotts of Jewish businesses, according to Politico.

Yang said he would “be happy to sit with Palestinian leaders, activists, folks who are engaged” in the issue. “I am very eager to learn, I’m very open-minded, and I would appreciate the opportunity.”

German Psychiatrists Raise Alarm on Lockdown Impact on Children’s Mental Health

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AP

(AP) – Pollina Dinner returned to school in Berlin for the first time this week after two months of lockdown. The 9-year-old third-grader was thrilled to see her classmates and teachers again but frets about the coronavirus pandemic’s effect on her life.

“I’m not afraid of the coronavirus, I’m afraid that everything will continue like this – that my school will close again, I won’t be able to see my friends, and that I can’t go to the movies with my family,” the girl said, fingering her blue medical mask and sighing deeply. “And wearing this mask is even worse than all the shops being closed.”

Psychiatrists, psychologists and pediatricians in Germany have voiced growing alarm that school closings, social restrictions and other precautions are magnifying the fear, disruption and stress of the pandemic among Germany´s 13.7 million children and teenagers, raising the prospect of a future mental health crisis.

“We don´t have any long-term studies yet, but there´s lots of anecdotal evidence of a crisis-driven rise in hospitalizations and overflowing psychologists´ practices,” Julia Asbrand, a professor of child and youth psychology at Berlin´s Humboldt University, told The Associated Press.

A recent survey by the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf found that about one child in three is suffering from pandemic-related anxiety or depression or is exhibiting psychosomatic symptoms like headaches or stomach aches. Children from poorer and immigrant families are disproportionally affected, according to the survey.

Pollina, who immigrated from Russia with her family in 2019, worries about forgetting much of her German since she only speaks Russian at home. She’s one of 150 youngsters from underprivileged families who, before the pandemic. regularly spent time after school at a youth support program on the eastern outskirts of the German capital.

Arche – Ark in English – is based in Berlin’s Hellersdorf district, a neighborhood of drab concrete buildings constructed during the former Communist regime of East Germany. Some children are still allowed to come in person, but only once every two weeks. The rest of the time, the social workers and educators try to stay in touch through video chats while helping their young clients with remote learning.

“Many have completely withdrawn and don´t want to get out of their rooms anymore. They´ve gained a lot of weight, are playing online games nonstop and don´t have any more structure in their everyday lives,” Arche founder Bernd Siggelkow said.

The second major lockdown in Germany started before Christmas. Students in grades 1-3 were allowed to return to classrooms this week with reduced class sizes and limited lessons. The government hopes to ease further restrictions in coming weeks and has said that the re-opening of all schools is a top priority.

However, there’s concern the country is slipping into a third wave of infections due to more contagious variants of the virus. Virologists have repeatedly said it is still unclear to what extent the virus spreads from children attending school into homes and communities. More than 2 million people have contracted the virus in Germany and almost 70,000 have died of COVID-19, although only 10 under the age of 20, according to the country’s disease control center.

Even though children are not at as much risk of severe COVID-19 complications as older adults, they may be more vulnerable to the collateral mental health effects of the pandemic, according to experts.

An analysis by German health insurer DAK regarding youth psychological issues confirms the first-person observations of the staff at Arche.

The evaluation, which was obtained by German news agency dpa, showed that the number of children and teenagers hospitalized for psychiatric treatment in Berlin almost doubled during the first half of 2020, when schools were closed for over two months during the country’s first lockdown, compared with first six months of 2019.

The statistic underscores the psychological strain the pandemic is putting on young people but does not illustrate the scope of the problem, Christoph Correll, the director of child and youth psychiatry at Berlin´s Charite hospital, told dpa.

“Hospitalizations are the tip of the iceberg,” he said.

Teenagers, especially girls, are more prone to eating disorders and self-harming, and many children’s psychological problems are going undetected while parents are overwhelmed and teachers, social workers and pediatricians don´t have regular contact with students, clients and patients, experts warn.

Psychology professor Asbrand worries that the mental health of children and teenagers has not gotten enough attention during the pandemic. Together with other professionals in the field, she wrote an open letter to the government this month to push for youth needs to get better addressed in the ongoing health crisis and prioritized when society reopens.

An immediate action government authorities could take to help mitigate possible problems would be to allow groups to gather for school and youth sports, in line with hygiene and distancing precautions.

“We all don’t know yet how this is going to develop long-term, but we must focus on youth mental health now,” she said.

While attending Arche this week for help with homework assigned online, 16-year-old Robin Reyer said not being able to hang out with friends has been one of the hardest parts of the pandemic restrictions.

“I want to celebrate birthdays again, go out and play soccer with my friends in the park or meet them at Burger King,” he said while taking a break outside in the spring sun.

“Now, I’m only allowed to meet one friend at most,” he said. “That really sucks.”

Derek Chauvin Growing tension in Minneapolis as trial looms in Floyd death

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Concertina wire sits between fenced barriers outside the Hennepin County Government Center, Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2021, in Minneapolis, as part of security in preparation for the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. The trial is slated begin with jury selection on March 8. Chauvin is charged with murder the death of George Floyd during an arrest last May in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

(AP) — Barbed wire and concrete barriers surround the courthouse where the former Minneapolis police officer charged with killing George Floyd will soon go on trial, a sign of the deep uneasiness hanging over a city literally set ablaze almost a year ago in the anger over his death.

Mayor Jacob Frey and Gov. Tim Walz, both Democrats, were sharply criticized for failing to move faster to stop last summer’s looting and destruction, which included the torching of a police station. Anything less than a murder conviction for Derek Chauvin is likely to test them — and the city — once again.

Jury selection begins March 8 with opening statements March 29. Floyd, who was Black, died May 25 after Chauvin, who was white, pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck while he was handcuffed and pleading that he couldn’t breathe. Chauvin faces second-degree murder and manslaughter charges; three other fired officers go on trial in August.

Thousands of people took to the streets of Minneapolis after Floyd’s death. Many demonstrated peacefully. But for several nights, the unrest spiraled into violence, with stores looted and set ablaze along the Lake Street commercial artery that included the 3rd Precinct police station, which was home to the officers who arrested Floyd. The station itself was eventually abandoned by police and burned by rioters. Some nervous neighborhoods formed watch groups, setting up checkpoints and sometimes armed patrols. The violence finally subsided after National Guard troops arrived in sufficient numbers.

As the city moves to make the courthouse virtually impenetrable, some people worry about what might happen elsewhere if Chauvin is acquitted.

Elias Usso’s pharmacy on Lake Street had been open less than a year when it was destroyed by fire and water. He blames Chauvin personally for what he considers “the murder of an innocent man” as well as the destruction that followed — estimated at more than $350 million in Minneapolis alone.

“One police officer did that,” Usso said. “Something has to change.”

 

His Seward Pharmacy has reopened with help from donors. In between vaccinating customers against COVID-19, Usso — an Ethiopian immigrant and a Black man — talked of still feeling the emotional turmoil over Floyd’s death and the unrest, and his concerns about the trial.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen to my business. We’re waiting to see,” Usso said. “But I will continue to give service to our neighbors and delivering prescriptions to grandma and grandpa. If something happens, we’re going to continue.”

Frey said more than 3,000 law enforcement officers from across the state and Minnesota National Guard soldiers will be at the ready when the case goes to the jury, expected in late April or early May.

Frey last week declared that Minneapolis remains “open for business,” and said people should go about their lives as usual.

But the security going up around the Hennepin County courthouse, City Hall and the jail — all in the heart of downtown — is extraordinary. It includes three rings of concrete barriers, two topped by chain-link fencing with a trough in between filled with coils of razor wire. The innermost fence is topped with barbed wire, and ground-floor windows at all three buildings are boarded up.

Protest leaders are on edge, too. They accuse authorities of creating a police state downtown that could trample their freedoms of speech and assembly.

“It’s not going to dissuade us from protesting. We’re determined to let our voices be heard,” said Linden Gawboy, an activist with the Twin Cities Coalition 4 Justice 4 Jamar, which formed after the police killing of Jamar Clark in Minneapolis in 2015.

It’s not just the courthouse that’s barricaded. The state Capitol in St. Paul has been ringed with temporary fencing ever since last summer’s unrest. Inside, lawmakers have squabbled for weeks over providing extra state money for security during the trials, though Walz and other officials say they’ll manage one way or another.

“There’s going to be very high emotion on all sides of this, and we’ll be prepared,” Walz said.

Julie Ingebretsen, owner of a Scandinavian food and gift market on Lake Street that was founded by her Norwegian grandfather, said she’s not boarding up, though she expects some will in the miles-long commercial corridor that includes many immigrant- and minority-run businesses. Some have never taken down the plywood that they put up last summer.

While Ingebretsen’s Nordic Marketplace was looted and vandalized, she said she was fortunate that her store wasn’t burned. She said she feels “cautiously optimistic” now because of personal outreach efforts by Police Chief Medaria Arradondo and other city officials, and their assurances that plenty of police and Guard members will be standing by.

“We’re celebrating our 100th anniversary this year, so we have every intention of celebrating another 100, and not going anywhere,” Ingebretsen said. “We are totally committed to keeping moving forward.”

Joe Biden’s Embrace of Fallacious Critical Race Theory

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John Klar(American Thinker)

The fallacy that America is “systemically racist” is rooted in arguments that the white majority suffers from subconscious racism which contaminates the entire “system.”  Proponents of Critical Race Theory and government-created “Equity” insist they have yet-to-be-discovered solutions, including conditioning of those who suffer “white guilt” and white fragility.”  President Joe Biden has eagerly joined this crusade to…. eliminate subconscious racism!

White Americans are kept in the dark as to the details of this enlightened reprogramming but are told that the Bill of Rights is an impediment to these lofty new goals to eradicate systemic biases.  The first step in eliminating subconscious racism is to stifle conscious thoughts: the liberties of Free Speech and Due Process are viewed as tools of oppression by the white majority.

It is axiomatic that government cannot eliminate subconscious racism.  Yet, government can be very effective at fomenting racism, as numerous current and historical examples demonstrate.  America is about to try its hand at this folly.

Government conditioning to eradicate human evil is hardly novel.  But what happens when government seeks to do great good, by conquering the individual human will to do great evil?  How will the BLM Utopian Police State eradicate human racism?  Is this not the same old reconditioning Kool-aid of Pol Pot and Mao, poured into newly-manufactured George Floyd bottles?

 

Anthony Burgess famously delved into this subject, in 1963.  In his iconic novel “A Clockwork Orange,” a seemingly incorrigible criminal is redeemed using “science” — only, the experiment fails miserably.  Burgess was delving into exactly the issue America’s extremist progressives deliberately obfuscate: the horror of government reprogramming.

In a 2012 essay, Burgess plainly explained what he had tried to express through fiction:

I had read somewhere that it would be a good idea to liquidate the criminal impulse through aversion therapy; I was appalled…. What I was trying to say was that it is better to be bad of one’s own free will than to be good through scientific brainwashing…. I have been derided and rebuked for expressing my fears of the power of the modern state—whether it be Russia, China, or what we may term Anglo-America—to reduce the freedom of the individual…. The behaviorist approach to man, of which Professor Skinner is a great exponent, sees him moved to various kinds of action by aversive and non-aversive inducements. Given the right positive inducements… we shall all become better citizens, submissive to a state that has the good of the community at heart. We must, so the argument goes, not fear conditioning. We need to be conditioned in order to save the environment and the race. But it must be conditioning of the right sort….

The goal of the “American Experiment” was to secure equal opportunity for all.   Efforts at “equity” aim for a sun that will melt the wings of such fairy-like dreams while depriving citizens of even an aspirational hope of equality of opportunity.  Today’s quixotic, counterproductive BLM movement is no different.  One does not abolish racism by decree, any more than lewd thoughts.  One conquers racism through love, not fear and hate.

This transfer of a sort of “dark-church” authority to the secular state is reflected in the COVID panic, and how quickly many Americans wish to abandon the Constitution in trust of Big Brother — and Big Brother Pharma.  Orwell warned of the power of an omnipotent state to inflict unprecedented destruction upon the human condition.  It is ironic that ALL Americans are familiar with Orwell’s books, but so few absorb that his warnings applied to all government structures — not just the Soviet Union.

Burgess explained that his title “Clockwork Orange” derived from “…an old Cockney slang phrase, implying a queerness or madness so extreme as to subvert nature, since what notion could be more bizarre than that of a clockwork orange?”  Today’s world looks more akin to a “Clockwork Black,” in which the techno-state and modern alienation have pushed humanity far away from awareness of its own soul.  Far too many Americans are lining up to be absorbed willingly into that dead machine.

Said Burgess:

[W]hen the social entity grows large, …the governing machine becomes remote, impersonal, even inhuman. It takes money from us for purposes we do not seem to sanction; it treats us as abstract statistics; it controls an army; it supports a police force whose function does not always appear to be protective…. The modern state, whether in a totalitarian or a democratic country, has far too much power, and we are probably right to fear it…. Pre-natal and infantile conditioning makes the slaves happy in their slavery, and stability is enforced not through whips but through a scientifically imposed contentment…. It would seem that enforced conditioning of a mind, however good the social intention, has to be evil.

Clearly, BLM activists (and Joe Biden) have not read Burgess.  Antifa is well-steeped in blackness. The Clockwork Black, ticks.

And so Joe Biden declared that “… he had a mandate to achieve racial justice and root out systemic racism in this country.”  As with other extremists, he defines neither what that term means, nor how he will eliminate subconscious bias.  Instead, he confidently proclaimed:

“Again, I’m not promising we can end it tomorrow, but I promise you we’re going to continue to make progress to eliminate systemic racism, and every branch of the White House and the federal government is going to be part of that effort….”

Exposing in practical terms the limitations posed by Anthony Burgess, Cal Thomas recently opined:

In addition to reinstating mandatory race theory training for federal employees, Biden proposes spending even more money we don’t have to fix a problem beyond the government’s reach. As with original sin, curing racism is best solved internally. It is a matter of the heart. If racism is systemic, meaning it is embedded in white people, how is it possible to eliminate it? Do those on the receiving end of discrimination have a role to play? This is a question Democrats never address. If spending money is the key to limiting racism, more progress should have been made by now.

Such common sense is shunned — soon it will be silenced as a typical gaslighting by a white person who must be silenced.  There are ominous harbingers from the Biden administration:

President Biden signed four executive actions Tuesday aimed at increasing racial equity across the nation, a move the administration said was a big early step in his efforts to dismantle systemic racism, though civil rights groups made it clear they will press for more-sweeping change in the months ahead.

Time will tell how effective this government is at sweeping away subconscious hatreds, rather than inculcate new ones.  The ticking of the Clockwork Black grows audible….

How could such grand designs be anything but “good”?

 

Great Reset: World Economic Forum Removes Tweet Claiming Lockdowns “Quietly Improve Cities” After Backlash

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AP

Jared Evan

The World Economic Forum, the cabal that has championed the Great Reset, was swiftly rebuked on Twitter after the elitist group posted a  tweet about how Covid-19 lockdowns are “quietly improving cities” across the globe.

The Tweet was taken down after the backlash reached a fever pitch and thousands of people responded negatively.

The WEF acknowledged on Twitter that they pulled the Tweet with this follow-up

Another Twitter user captured the eerie video which the WEF attached to the original tweet praising the lockdowns. The video argues that cities are better off because there is less ambient noise in cities, less pollution, clearer skies, and fewer carbon emissions.

In other words, the financial ruination of lockdown cities, mental deterioration of citizens, increases in suicides, drug addiction, poverty, and children having mental health issues (all as the result of long-term lockdowns),  take a backseat to the alleged environmental benefits of the lockdowns, according to the disconnected financial elite who compromise  The World Economic Forum.

The Great Reset has become a widely discussed issue over the last several months, rising from an esoteric topic discussed among “conspiracy theorists” to a hot button issue widely discussed and researched by the general public. The response to the WEF tweet is evidence many people are paying attention to the goals of the powerful elite to drastically change our lives forever, even after COVID’s deadly grip subsides. The people want to return back to normal, and skepticism is rampant.

Fauci: ‘Could Be Close’ to Normal by the End of the Year

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AP

IAN HANCHETT

During a virtual town hall on MSNBC on Friday, White House Chief Medical Adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci stated that “by the time we get to the fall and the winter we may not be back 100% to where we were before this started,” but we “could be close to that by the end of this coming year.”

Fauci said, “Well, it’s difficult to predict. But if we keep going in the direction we’re going now, with the infection rate going down precipitously and more and more people getting vaccinated, I think by the time we get to the fall and the winter we may not be back 100% to where we were before this started, but I think we could be close to that by the end of this coming year. But it’s not going to be next month or the month after. That’s for sure. We have to be patient. It’s going to get better and better. We also, quite frankly, have to keep our eye out on these variants, namely the mutations that have occurred that make the virus a little bit different. The best way to protect yourself against that is, one, do the kind of public health measures we talk about all the time, wearing a mask, physical distancing, and avoiding congregate settings. And two, when the vaccine becomes available, please get vaccinated. The more people that get vaccinated, the better off we’ll be, and the quicker we’ll get back to that normality that you’re talking about.”

House Passes $1.9T Pandemic Bill on Near Party-Line Vote

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(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

(AP) The House approved a $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill in a win for President Joe Biden, even as top Democrats tried assuring agitated progressives that they’d revive their derailed drive to boost the minimum wage.

The new president’s vision for flushing cash to individuals, businesses, states and cities battered by COVID-19 passed on a near party-line 219-212 vote early Saturday. That ships the massive measure to the Senate, where Democrats seem bent on resuscitating their minimum wage push and fights could erupt over state aid and other issues.

Democrats said the still-faltering economy and the half-million American lives lost demanded quick, decisive action. GOP lawmakers, they said, were out of step with a public that polling shows largely views the bill favorably.

“I am a happy camper tonight,” Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said Friday. “This is what America needs. Republicans, you ought to be a part of this. But if you’re not, we’re going without you.”

Republicans said the bill was too expensive and said too few education dollars would be spent quickly to immediately reopen schools. They said it was laden with gifts to Democratic constituencies like labor unions and funneled money to Democratic-run states they suggested didn’t need it because their budgets had bounced back.

“To my colleagues who say this bill is bold, I say it’s bloated,” said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. “To those who say it’s urgent, I say it’s unfocused. To those who say it’s popular, I say it is entirely partisan.”

Moderate Democratic Reps. Jared Golden of Maine and Kurt Schrader of Oregon were the only two lawmakers to cross party lines. That sharp partisan divide is making the fight a showdown over who voters will reward for heaping more federal spending to combat the coronavirus and revive the economy atop the $4 trillion approved last year.

The battle is also emerging as an early test of Biden’s ability to hold together his party’s fragile congressional majorities — just 10 votes in the House and an evenly divided 50-50 Senate.

At the same time, Democrats were trying to figure out how to assuage progressives who lost their top priority in a jarring Senate setback Thursday.

That chamber’s nonpartisan parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, said Senate rules require that a federal minimum wage increase would have to be dropped from the COVID-19 bill, leaving the proposal on life support. The measure would gradually lift that minimum to $15 hourly by 2025, doubling the current $7.25 floor in effect since 2009.

Hoping to revive the effort in some form, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is considering adding a provision to the Senate version of the COVID-19 relief bill that would penalize large companies that don’t pay workers at least $15 an hour, said a senior Democratic aide who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations.

That was in line with ideas floated Thursday night by Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., a chief sponsor of the $15 plan, and Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden, D-Ore., to boost taxes on corporations that don’t hit certain minimum wage targets.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., offered encouragement, too, calling a minimum wage increase “a financial necessity for our families, a great stimulus for our economy and a moral imperative for our country.” She said the House would “absolutely” approve a final version of the relief bill because of its widespread benefits, even if it lacked progressives’ treasured goal.

While Democratic leaders were eager to signal to rank-and-file progressives and liberal voters that they would not yield on the minimum wage fight, their pathway was unclear because of GOP opposition and questions over whether they had enough Democratic support.

House Ways and Means Committee Chair Richard Neal, D-Mass., sidestepped a question on taxing companies that don’t boost pay, saying of Senate Democrats, “I hesitate to say anything until they decide on a strategy.”

Progressives were demanding that the Senate press ahead anyway on the minimum wage increase, even if it meant changing that chamber’s rules and eliminating the filibuster, a tactic that requires 60 votes for a bill to move forward.

“We’re going to have to reform the filibuster because we have to be able to deliver,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., a progressive leader.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., another high-profile progressive, also said Senate rules must be changed, telling reporters that when Democrats meet with their constituents, “We can’t tell them that this didn’t get done because of an unelected parliamentarian.”

Traditionalists of both parties — including Biden, who served as a senator for 36 years — have opposed eliminating filibusters because they protect parties’ interests when they are in the Senate minority. Biden said weeks ago that he didn’t expect the minimum wage increase to survive the Senate’s rules.

Pelosi, too, seemed to shy away from dismantling Senate procedures, saying, “We will seek a solution consistent with Senate rules, and we will do so soon.”

The House COVID-19 bill includes the minimum wage increase, so the real battle over its fate will occur when the Senate debates its version over the next two weeks.

The overall relief bill would provide $1,400 payments to individuals, extend emergency unemployment benefits through August and increase tax credits for children and federal subsidies for health insurance.

It also provides billions for schools and colleges, state and local governments, COVID-19 vaccines and testing, renters, food producers and struggling industries like airlines, restaurants, bars and concert venues.

Democrats are pushing the relief measure through Congress under special rules that will let them avoid a Senate GOP filibuster, meaning that if they are united they won’t need any Republican votes.

It also lets the bill move faster, a top priority for Democrats who want the bill on Biden’s desk before the most recent emergency jobless benefits end on March 14.

But those same Senate rules prohibit provisions with only an “incidental” impact on the federal budget because they are chiefly driven by other policy purposes. MacDonough decided that the minimum wage provision failed that test.

Republicans oppose the $15 minimum wage target as an expense that would hurt businesses and cost jobs.

CPAC 2021: Highlights So Far: Pompeo, Donald Trump JR, Gaetz, Hawley, Bongino, Cruz, and More

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Former President Donald Trump will be making his first post-presidential appearance at a conservative gathering in Florida next weekend, according to an AP report. Photo Credit: AP

Highlights of CPAC 2021 from Orlando.

Sunday afternoon the event will conclude with former President Trump speaking at around 3 PM Eastern time.  You will be able to stream live on TJV, check back for updates.

Below are highlights from Friday and Saturday, courtesy of Right Side Broadcasting 

 

 

Some more Highlights from Friday

 

 

 

CNN’s Jim Acosta Confronted at CPAC Over Lack of Cuomo Scandal Coverage

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A reporter was filming as he confronted CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta at CPAC 2021, asking why the cable news network is ignoring the Andrew Cuomo nursing home scandal.

Taking a page out of Acosta’s own book, The Federalist correspondent David Marcus interrupted a question and answer session to repeatedly ask Acosta, “When are you guys gonna start covering Cuomo?”

 

“We do,” Acosta replies, to which the man responds, “No you don’t. He killed 10,000 people and is accused of sexual assault and you guys want to talk about Ted Cruz.

New Radical Administration Canceling American Values

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By

Kenneth Abramowitz

The radical left-leaning Biden administration is now engaged directly and indirectly in a cultural war against America’s values for Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. You can read more about this in The MultiFront War. Here are a few significant examples:

1) LIFE –

  • The Biden administration advocates for abortion instead of adoption at home and abroad. This policy results in more than 600,000 babies being aborted annually in the U.S. alone, 40% of whom are black babies.
  • The Chinese Communist government and the Biden administration want us to believe that Covid did not originate in China which, most likely, intentionally spread it around the world. This policy absolves China from the responsibility of paying reparations for the pandemic’s horrific harm and destruction that was unleashed on the entire world. To date, this virus has killed more than 480,000 Americans and more than 2.4 million people worldwide.
  • The Biden administration aims to impose gun controls over 98% of generally responsible gun owners, leaving them defenseless in the face of growing violence and crime. Unfortunately, gun controls do not affect criminals.
  • The Biden administration restricts our physicians’ practice of preventative healthcare measures to stop them from using prophylaxis medicines (such as hydroxychloroquine), even though doctors have always been allowed to use pharmaceuticals off label to save lives.
  • The Biden administration stopped the southern border wall construction and ICE agents’ activities, thus facilitating the eventual crossing of millions of undocumented aliens. They include drug traffickers, gang members, terrorists, and Covid spreaders who endanger all Americans.
  • The Biden administration wishes to appease Iran by agreeing to another nuclear deal. Such a step could lead to the existential threat of a nuclear attack on the U.S. and its allies.
  • The Biden administration facilitates Antifa and BLM, who are terrorizing citizens into submission. Asserting radical left false narratives and hatred of America, these two terror organizations attack civilians and law-enforcement alike, and destroy public and private property. Yet, the DOJ, FBI, and DHS do virtually nothing about it.

2. LIBERTY –

  • The Biden administration aims to abolish our freedom of speech by allowing social media companies to silence those who believe in the Constitution.
  • The Biden administration is implementing racial discrimination by vilifying 65% of the population, which is white, accusing them of white supremacy. Actual white supremacists account for a minuscule number of the white population.
  • The Biden administration has declared a class and race war against our children. They are denying adequate school choice for 85% of the K-12 students, condemning many to failing public schools, mostly in poor, inner-city areas.
  • The Biden administration advances policies intended to indoctrinate our students with false narratives regarding socialism, communism, social justice, critical race theory, and misguided ideas about gender and sex discrimination. Anti-Christian ideas are encouraged, while anti-Semitism is disregarded, and Islamist ideologies are looked upon favorably.
  • The Biden administration is determined to corrupt the political process by changing election rules, approving uncontrolled mail-in ballots with inadequate controls over voter and citizenship IDs.
  • The Biden administration labels thoughts that conform to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights as “Hate-Speech“.

3) THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

  • The Biden administration is promoting lawless sanctuary cities that endanger not only the citizens living there, but all Americans.
  • The Biden administration eliminates millions of jobs in the name of the false narratives of climate change. Its excessive minimum wage hikes stifle private businesses to increase the number of citizens dependent on government hand-outs, thus increasing its control over them.
  • The Biden administration uses Covid as an excuse to close schools despite the minimal risk to the students and teachers.
  • The Biden administration uses the Covid excuse to shut down private businesses, without providing adequate compensation.
  • The Biden administration advances discrimination against women by allowing transgender women (biological men who claim to be women) to unfairly compete in women’s sports.

How long will ordinary Americans tolerate the Biden administration’s depraved policies to obliterate our unalienable Rights to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness? In the immortal words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr: “HOW LONG? NOT LONG!”

BE THERE: Rally at SNL-NBC HQ this Saturday night, LIVE to tell them Antisemitism is NEVER Funny!

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izuayehu Tesfaye/AP Images for T-Mobile

Remember to show up at SNL-NBC HQ This Saturday Night, LIVE
Join Dov Hikind, founder of Americans Against Antisemitism as well as Sid Rosenberg of ABC radio and many other voices to protest NBC’s spate of antisemitic-flavored programming on:

SATURDAY NIGHT
February 27, 2021
9PM EST
“30 ROCK”
49 W. 49 St., NY, NY,
Between 5 & 6 aves.

We’re coming together simply to send a loud message to all who need to hear it at Saturday Night Live and their employers at NBC: Antisemitism is NEVER Funny!

No one needs to get cancelled but lots of people need to get educated about Jew-hate!

Mr. Potato Head and the propaganda imposed on children

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Landon Freeman(AMERICAN THINKER)

I’m sure many or most of you have seen the headlines by now.  In a not so unexpected move in today’s political climate, Hasbro announced that Mr. Potato Head toys would be re-branded as “Potato Heads” in a misguided effort to, as one article puts it, “break away from traditional gender norms.”

Now, for some time, I’ve wanted to write about the forced politicization of previously non-political entities.  I thought about it even more after hearing of the whole “be less white” fiasco with Coca-Cola.  Though greatly tempted to transfer my passionate thoughts onto paper, I held back for a time.  However, this recent announcement by Hasbro was the final “woke” straw that broke my proverbial back of restraint, standoffishness, and procrastination.


Photo credit: Hasbro, via Twitter.

When innocent children’s toys are unnecessarily politicized with agendas that pose great harm to kids’ well-being, then yes, I’m definitely going to speak out and let loose.  No more procrastination here.  That’s a habit I’ll gladly kick to the curb if I feel that I should speak out to protect children.

To be blunt, I do pity the kids of today.  No, that isn’t sarcastic pity or anything of the sort.  Indeed, I’m being genuine.  In many ways, their upbringing is and will be quite different from those of past generations.  They’ll be bombarded with leftist propaganda and widespread brainwashing tactics, and they’ll observe a mass politicization of businesses, movies, videogames, and other entities that were previously considered neutral.

Being 25, I’m one of the last few who were allowed to grow up in a relatively normal America.  As a kid, I didn’t have politically correct nonsense shoved down my throat 24/7.  If I or my family wanted to enjoy one of the various forms of entertainment, we could certainly do so without said entertainment being laced with heavy political rhetoric and propaganda.  If anything, entertainment was an escape from the political realm, and we didn’t have to see obnoxious woke ads for razors, restaurants, candy, or a variety of other products.

Now, however, our zeitgeist and political and social environments are quite different.  The amount of propaganda and blatant lies now imposed on children is tantamount to serious child abuse, and it deeply concerns me.  Children are being told they can simply switch sexes with the snap of a finger; that LGBT lifestyles are fully “normal”; and that conservatism, Christianity, and “whiteness” are existential problems that need to be crushed swiftly and quite brutally.  With the left controlling so much of our society, they’ve had all the needed resources to enact this brainwashing scheme, and they’re quite dedicated to their immoral and repugnant cause.

Yes, while it is true that we’ve been in an ongoing culture war for some time, the war’s significance and seriousness have been greatly magnified due to the left’s fervent, ongoing attempt at stealing our children away from us.

I don’t have children yet, though I do plan on having kids in the near future.  I know that in our current time and environment, I’m going to have to do all I can to teach them the truth, when to recognize lies and the everlasting relevance and solidity of God’s word.  I’d advise similar strategies for all current and future parents.  Children are not as resilient as some have been led to believe.  Indeed, that’s a popular and quite dangerous psychological myth.  The truth is that kids are impressionable and can be molded by those seeking to harm and brainwash them.

We must do all that we can to protect them and carefully guide their growth, development, and well-being.  While it’s arguably a cheesy and tired saying, children really are the future and many on the left do recognize this.  That’s why there’s such an effort to mold them into little obedient leftists in the hopes of destroying everything that makes our nation and society so great.  I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m not going to let that happen.  I’ll certainly have a long, drawn out verbal and intellectual battle on my hands, but I’ll stand firm.  I hope other parents and concerned citizens will stand with me.