News of the Week for June 27^th, 2021

• Riots & Revolution
• Corona Virus
• Gun Rights
• Hide the Decline
• Obamacare
• War & Terror
• National News
• Economy & Taxes
• International News
• Opinion

 

Riots & Revolution

 

Singer Macy Gray Calls for Replacing “Tattered and Divisive” American Flag
“the American flag has been hijacked as code for a specific belief”

More Evidence that Black Lives Matter Is a Fraud
Not everyone associated with the Black Lives Matter movement is a crook, but a lot of them are. We know that Patrisse Khan-Cullors, one of BLM’s founders, has bought more than $3 million worth of luxury real estate in recent months. Being a BLM activist is a lucrative gig, with American corporations throwing hundreds of millions of dollars at the various BLM entities. God only knows what they do with it. Trying to get to the bottom of BLM’s finances is like tracing Mafia money.

Positively 4th Street, Univ. of MN style
George Floyd died in the custody of the Minneapolis police on May 25, 2020. Two days later University of Minnesota President Joan Gabel announced to great fanfare that she was restricting the university’s ties with the Minneapolis police.

After a Year of Violence and Madness, Portland Goes From Dumb to Desperate
Over the past year, Portland, Oregon, has descended into violent anarchy and madness. It chose this destructive path. Its hapless trust-fund baby mayor, Ted Wheeler, let antifa thugs chase him from his posh home. (Voter tip: Don’t elect dopey trust fund kids to power. They lack even the basic life experiences the rest of us have to enable them to do much more than walk and chew gum at the same time. Seriously. Both parties. Keep them as far away from power as possible.)

Woke Ideology Mimics Precursors to Totalitarian Slaughter, Experts Say
Some of the core tenets of the “woke” ideology spreading around the country mimic ideas used to justify many of the most horrendous atrocities of the past century, according to several experts.

U. of Oklahoma Instructors Receive Training on How to Censor, Indoctrinate Students
“raises alarm bells about the state of free expression and freedom of conscience at Oklahoma’s flagship university”

Critical Race Theory: Loudoun County School Board Meeting Erupts, Two Arrested
“We came here to dissent, and this is our house, we’re going to dissent.”

Leaked Docs: Critical Race Theory Seeks to Undermine Equality and the Constitutional Order
In its own words, critical race theory seeks to overthrow America’s system of government. Leaked mandatory training documents from Iowa’s Mississippi Bend Area Education Agency (MBAEA) make this clear.

Amid rising crime, police are ‘very nervous’ about being proactive on the streets
A story CNN published yesterday sets the tone. Reporters spent two nights on patrol with the NYPD and described cops who are concerned about violence spiraling out of control

Restaurants Are Now Adding “Equity” Charges to Customers’ Checks to Fight Oppression
Will making customers pay “equity” charges backfire? Probably.

Mumford & Sons Banjo Player Forced Out over Andy Ngo Support
They really f***ed it up this time, didn’t they, my dear? A few months after Mumford & Sons guitarist and banjo player Winston Marshall tweeted approvingly about the valuable work of journalist Andy Ngo, and thereafter took a “leave of absence” from the band, Marshall has announced he is officially leaving it.

Ex-Officer Derek Chauvin sentenced to 22 1/2 years for killing George Floyd, whose death sparked reckoning on race
Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin has been sentenced to 22 1/2 years in prison for the murder of George Floyd, whose dying gasps under Chauvin’s knee led to the biggest outcry against racial injustice in the U.S. in generations.

Portland Police Reassure Concerned Public That Man They Shot Was White
The Portland Police Department reassured the public early Friday morning the suspect who was fatally shot by police was a white male after protests began to form.

Amazon delivery contractors quit Portland routes, citing “unsafe” work expectations
Two large delivery companies serving the Portland area notified drivers this week they will stop working with Amazon, their only client. In an email to drivers, one of the contractors cited “unsafe” working conditions and a deteriorating relationship with the retail giant.

Democrats Trying to Rewrite History on “Defund the Police”
“We’ve never taken the position as a party that we should defund the police”

CAPTURED: Othal Wallace Arrested at Black Militia Compound in Georgia
Thursday we reported on the shooting of a Daytona Beach police officer by Othal Wallace. Last night, we updated with the $200,000 reward for the capture of Wallace, who was believed to be in the Atlanta area and reportedly associated with the NFAC, a radical anti-white hate group.

The Tragedy of Minneapolis
While it hasn’t yet descended to the level of Portland, the City of Minneapolis is sliding rapidly toward a point of no return. Meanwhile, local politicians are AWOL. They aren’t even coming out against crime, let alone doing anything about it.

 

Corona Virus

 

Report on Andrew Cuomo’s Nursing Home Order Confirms Policy “Did Lead to Some Number of Additional Deaths”
“The Dept. of Health…argued unconvincingly that the admission of 6,326 COVID-positive residents during the period the Health directive was in effect had no impact. That cannot be the case, and has now been shown not to be the case,” the NYSBA Task Force on Nursing Homes & Long-Term Care said.

It took more than a decade for a 1979 Soviet lab leak to be revealed
Sunday the NY Times published an interesting bit of history which seems very relevant at this moment in time. The story takes place in 1979 when there was a mysterious outbreak of pneumonia in Russia which eventually killed 66 people. The outbreak was blamed on contaminated meat but it turns out that was a lie designed to cover up the real cause, a lab leak of anthrax which had spread though the air. One of the doctors who helped in the cover up told the Times what happened.

Jen Psaki Contends the Remaining $1.6 Trillion In Unspent Pandemic Relief Funds Are “Minimal”
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget is attempting to track the federal pandemic relief money as it gets spent. According to their charts, out of the $900 billion authorized to be spent through administration actions, $700 billion has been allocated; out of the $5.9 trillion authorized to be spent through legislative actions, $4.3 trillion has been allocated, and out of the $6.3 trillion authorized to be spent through Federal Reserve actions, only $3.3 trillion has been allocated.

Scientist: Deleted data suggests early viral samples in Wuhan differed from samples linked to animal market
I need to tread carefully here because this study is highly technical, obviously above my pay grade, and was written by someone who’s not drawing firm conclusions about the virus’s origins based on his findings. But the basic conclusion is fascinating and the author, Jesse Bloom, believes his approach is fertile ground for learning more about where the virus might have come from.

NIH: Yes, a Chinese scientist asked us to delete his data from early Wuhan COVID samples — and we did
A follow-up to yesterday’s post about Dr. Jesse Bloom and the curious case of the disappearing genome sequences from viral samples of SARS-CoV-2 harvested from patients in Wuhan early in the pandemic. Bloom went looking for that data in NIH’s database hoping that the genomes from those samples might offer a clue about the virus’s origins. But when he tried to download it he found that it wasn’t there anymore. It was gone, without an explanation.

Science journals, Wuhan and a truly bizarre Twitter episode
One of the subtexts of the debate over the origin of the pandemic concerns the role of the scientific journals. The magazines that publish scientific papers have become increasingly dependent on the fees that Chinese scientists pay to publish in them, plus advertisements from Chinese firms and subscriptions from Chinese institutions. In recent years observers have noticed that the news coverage of China in these magazines has begun to look a little less objective than it once did.

 

Gun Rights

 

Brandishing Gun at Home at Intruders, Who Haven’t Identified Themselves as Police Officers, Isn’t a Crime
From Hanson v. Larimer County Bd. of County Comm’rs, no. 1:20-cv-00317-RBJ, decided Tuesday by Judge R. Brooke Jackson (D. Colo.)

“Landmark” decision: Sports retailer cannot be sued for sale of gun used in mass shooting
The Texas Supreme Court is on a roll. Yesterday I wrote about a groundbreaking decision made by the court that Facebook can be held liable for sex traffickers who use the social media platform to recruit and prey on children. Today there is a “landmark” decision to be heralded from the court. A retail sports chain cannot be held responsible for selling a gun used in a massing shooting.

FPC Files Motion for Injunction in Lawsuit Challenging AB 286, Nevada’s Expansive Ban on Self-Built Firearms, Parts
Today, Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) filed a motion for preliminary injunction in its federal Second Amendment lawsuit challenging Nevada’s unconstitutional statutes enacted in Assembly Bill 286, which established a new, confiscatory ban on all unserialized, self-manufactured firearms as well as all “unfinished frames or receivers.” The filings in Palmer v. Sisolak can be found at FPCLegal.org.

 

Hide the Decline

Environment &
“Green Energy”

 

Fire departments struggle with battery fires in electric cars
We have been lectured repeatedly about how electric vehicles are the way of the future and will be required to save the planet. Funding for recharging stations and related equipement was included in the Democrats’ infrastructure bill, assuming it ever even comes up for a vote. The state of California is so confident that electric cars will solve all of our problems that they are banning the construction of new gas stations in a few years.

Why Everything They Said About Solar Was Wrong
Solar Panels Will Create 50 Times More Waste & Cost 4 Times More Than Predicted, New Harvard Business Review Study Finds

Want More Solar Panels? The Parts Might Be Made with Chinese Forced Labor
The typical Democrat supports solar power because it is clean, and generally thinks that the U.S. should not help support Chinese industries that are exploiting labor and helping in the state genocide of the Uyghurs. Very few people realize those two goals are at times in conflict.

Legal experts worldwide draw up “historic” definition of ecocide
Draft law is intended to prosecute offences against the environment

Sunrise Movement activists arrested outside Ted Cruz’s house
Eight protesters were arrested for trespassing during a protest in front of Senator Ted Cruz’s house in Houston. Members of the Sunrise Movement marched from New Orleans to Houston with the intention of protesting against Cruz over climate change. They issued a call to action to fight climate change.

“Ecocide” Drive to Make Environmental Damage Legal Equivalent of Genocide Accelerates
First, there was Deep Ecology, a view that the earth is a living entity and that humans are the vermin species afflicting Gaia.

Biden’s nominee to lead the Bureau of Land Management supported population control (and tree spiking)
Her name is Tracy Stone-Manning and she’s President Biden’s pick to lead the Bureau of Land Management. Yesterday the Daily Caller dug up Stone-Manning’s 1992 graduate thesis which was titled “Into the heart of the beast: A case for environmental advertising.” It contained a series of environmental adds, at least one of which was focused on population control

The Biden Administration Is Skewing Carbon Numbers to Push Regulations
The social cost of carbon is a climate economics construct used to quantify the damages associated with carbon dioxide emissions. The Biden administration wants to use of social cost of carbon in public policy to justify its regulatory agenda. The administration recently invited the public to comment on the Interagency Working Group’s interim technical support document on the social costs of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide.

Tough Questions About Electric Vehicles Unasked, Unanswered by Green Left
“We need plug-in hybrids!” a young leftie once chirped at me after I addressed students on his college campus.

A Drought of Biblical Proportions Is Here
The U.S. is experiencing one of the worst droughts in years. Not “years” as in decades, “years” as in centuries. Scientists project that this summer might be the driest season in 1,200 years. Just for context, that means the last time things were this dry was a few hundred years after Rome collapsed. Extreme droughts like these have important consequences, ones we can’t ignore. Conservationist policies and a reduction in water usage may be needed urgently.

Blackouts Loom in California as Electricity Prices Are “Absolutely Exploding”
Two inexorable energy trends are underway in California: soaring electricity prices and ever-worsening reliability—and both trends bode ill for the state’s low- and middle-income consumers.

Climate Neutral By 2050: European Union Reaches Tentative Climate Deal Ahead Of Biden Summit
The European Union on Wednesday agreed to a tentative climate deal which intends to severely cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and make its 27 member nations climate-neutral by 2050, a move that comes one day before the start of a virtual climate summit hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden.

 

Obamacare

Government in Healthcare

 

Obamacare: Supreme Court dismisses challenge to Affordable Care Act, leaving it in place
The Supreme Court dismissed a challenge to the Affordable Care Act on Thursday in a decision that will leave the law intact and save health care coverage for millions of Americans. The justices turned away a challenge from Republican-led states and the former Trump administration, which urged the justices to block the entire law.

 

War & Terror

 

What’s Up with the Reported Chinese Defector?
News accounts have been swirling for days (though conspicuously not in the NY Times, Washington Post, etc) that a very high ranking Chinese intelligence official (some reports say it is Dong Jingwei, the vice minister for state security) has defected to the U.S., and is confirming the lab leak hypothesis for COVID-19, as well as warning the U.S. of extensive penetration by Chinese agents.

Admiral Gilday, meet Ty Smith
Has the United States Navy joined the institutions pushing Critical Race Theory? Rep. Doug Lamborn had a hard time getting a straight answer from Admiral Michael Gilday in a hearing before the House Armed Services Committee last week (video below).

Biden Admin Renews Push For Nuclear Deal With Iran After Mass Executioner Raisi’s Presidential Win
Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif sees “good possibility” of a Biden-Tehran nuclear deal before August.

Surprise, Surprise, the Taliban Is Retaking Control of Afghanistan
The fact that the Taliban is retaking provincial capitals and “forc[ing] the surrender and capture of hundreds of government forces and their military equipment” indicates that predictions that a U.S. withdrawal would revert the country to its pre-9/11 status are likely to be accurate. The New York Times reports that in the past day, “around a dozen districts have fallen to the Taliban — mostly in the country’s north.”

Georgia hospital system hit with ransomware attack following Biden-Putin summit
Putin has denied Russia’s involvement in the recent wave of cyberattacks against US companies

Are Russian S-400 Air-Force Killer Missiles Invincible? Not a Chance.
U.S. Army forces and their partners in North Africa proved decisively that they can be destroyed.

The SR-72 ‘Son Of Blackbird’ Could Fly at Mach 6 (With a Big Catch)
Does it even exist or will it ever exist?

China Is Testing Carrier Killer Missiles for an Assault After Sundown
The DF-26, a weapon that is regularly shot off by China, can reportedly travel distances as far as 2000 nautical miles to destroy maneuvering targets at sea.

Russian and British forces square off in the Black Sea
Russia claims to have fired warning shots at a British destroyer in disputed waters off Crimea

US advanced computing has “shrunk to alarming state” compared to China’s, warns defence contractor
Head of Northrop Grumman Kathy Warden says Chinese progress in the sector is “particularly problematic” for America

Taiwan’s foreign minister says ‘we need to prepare’ for military conflict with China
China’s escalating military intimidation of Taiwan shows the self-governed island “needs to prepare” for a possible military conflict, Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said in an exclusive interview with CNN.

The National Guard Just Simulated A Cyberattack That Brought Down Utilities Nationwide
This year’s Cyber Yankee exercises simulated the increasingly likely scenario of cyberattacks crippling huge sections of the nation’s infrastructure.

Hacker reveals smart meters are spilling secrets about the Texas snowstorm
Power companies won’t disclose who was protected from blackouts—but smart meters may be leaking insights.

Report: U.S. will evacuate Afghan interpreters and translators
Yesterday, per the Washington Post, I criticized the Biden administration for having no plan in place to evacuate Afghan interpreters, translators, and others who provided similar services to the U.S. in the struggle against the Taliban. These folks, who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with us in the war on terrorism, are bogged down in a visa application process that, according to the Post, is woefully inadequate. Thus, they were likely to be stranded in Afghanistan when, as seems inevitable, the Taliban conquers that country.

Nike: “Of China and For China”
Nike is between a rock and a hard place — or, rather, between two global powers, one of which is complicit in ongoing crimes against humanity.

IAEA: China Says that Nuke Plant Is Working Fine, and That’s Good Enough for Us!
About a week and a half has passed since CNN reported the U.S. government spent a week assessing a report of a leak at a Chinese nuclear power plant, after a French company that part owns and helps operate it warned of an “imminent radiological threat.” The good news is that so far, nothing has blown up and radiation detectors in Hong Kong and other places nearby have not shown any unusual readings.

Lloyd Austin Refuses to Define ‘Extremism,’ But the Signs Are Extremely Ominous for Conservatives…
Even though the Department of Defense (DOD) carried out a military-wide “stand-down” training on “extremism” early into Joe Biden’s tenure, the DOD still has not promulgated an official definition of extremism. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin refused to give a definition at a congressional hearing this week, and on Thursday, the DOD confirmed to PJ Media that it has not adopted a definition. However, a working definition that the Army Recruiting Command apparently uses to screen applicants should raise alarm bells for conservatives.

China was preparing for a Third World War with biological weapons – including coronavirus – SIX years ago, according to dossier produced by the People’s Liberation Army in 2015 and uncovered by the US State Department
Chinese scientists have been preparing for a Third World War fought with biological and genetic weapons including coronavirus for the last six years, according to a document obtained by US investigators.

As NASA Goes Woke, China Unveils “Roadmap” for Manned Mission to Mars and Base on the Moon
Chinese space program is driven by the CCP’s ambition for global military, economic domination.

 

National

 

Fighting Back Against Evil
Critical Race Theory is perhaps the great evil of our time. It is racism, pure and simple. Its key precepts are: 1) The most important thing about a person is the color of his skin. 2) You have rights not as an individual, but as a member of a group. 3) People of the same race have the same or similar personality and character traits. John C. Calhoun was the Democratic Party’s leading theorist in 1830, and he remains the Democrats’ leading theorist today.

SCOTUS Rules Unanimously NCAA Violates Antitrust Law by Limiting Athlete Education Compensation
“…the NCAA must allow colleges to recruit athletes by offering them additional compensation and benefits, as long as they are tied to education.”

Unanimous Supreme Court Rules for Student Athletes Against NCAA
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) violated the rights of student athletes by restraining their compensation. Specifically, the NCAA violated the Sherman Anti-Trust Act by unduly restraining colleges from compensating student athletes.

American University Has Maoist Self-Incrimination Session, Decides It’s ‘Islamophobic’
Self-incrimination was a common feature of the “struggle sessions” of Communist China’s Cultural Revolution: someone who was accused of ideological deviation broke down, under intense browbeating and often torture, and accused himself or herself of all manner of wrongdoing, amid tearful repentance and vows never to deviate from the party’s line again. Now that America is beginning its own Cultural Revolution, it is no surprise that these “struggle sessions” are coming here. We already see entirely innocent people, such as (most recently) Ellie Kemper, breaking down and confessing to sins they did not commit, and much, much more of this is coming. At American University in Washington, they’re getting a jump on the mob by accusing themselves before anyone else has accused them.

Does Seven-Term Senator Charles Grassley Have One Good Fight Left In Him?
Iowa Senator Charles Grassley has been serving the people of his state in one office or another since 1959. He was a state representative from 1959 to 1975, represented his district in Congress from 1975 to 1981, and has served since then as senator.

Majority of liberal college students not proud to be American, favor socialism, NDSU survey finds
North Dakota State University announced a new survey June 17, revealing 57% of current left-leaning undergraduates consider themselves unpatriotic.

RI School Superintendents Group: “We all know many of our citizens live in a separate news reality with Fox, Newsmax and their ilk”
Documents obtained by Legal Insurrection Foundation reveal that Rhode Island School Superintendents Association was working with “our union friends” to modify public records laws, while demonizing parents like Nicole Solas who sought records of Critical Race and Gender teaching.

Gay Man Accidentally Slams Pickup Into Florida Gay Pride Parade – Leftists Blame … Gov. Ron DeSantis
Before the facts were known, Fort Lauderdale mayor claimed the accident was an assassination attempt on Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Axios: White House considers ending Title 42 by July 31
Joe Biden has been briefed on two options to end Title 42, the Trump-era policy that allows the U.S. to expel illegal migrants because of public health concerns. Trump used Title 42 to mitigate the coronavirus pandemic. Title 42 allows the CDC the authority to order law enforcement at the border to quickly deport illegal migrants to avoid the spread of the coronavirus. The Biden administration has continued the policy.

“It’s a long tradition in Rhode Island”: Sheldon Whitehouse’s systemic racism
We’ve been hearing a lot about “systemic racism” lately, especially from progressives in Congress. For instance, let’s consider Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), who has had a few things to say on the subject in relation to the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. Whitehouse also belongs to a group called the Bailey’s Speech Club, which has no members of color at all.

Hmmm: DeSantis tops Trump in “approval” straw poll at Western Conservative Summit
My condolences to the governor on his “victory” here, as it’s destined to offend the biggest and most fragile ego in the GOP. As DeSantis’s star continues to rise, Trump will increasingly feel threatened by it. The only thing less tolerable to him than losing a national election to Biden, I’d imagine, would be losing his base to another Republican.

Is UNC a Welcoming Place for Conservative Students?
Colleges and universities always tell us that they want diversity, but the wrong kind of diversity can make you an outcast.

Oregon students shouldn’t have to prove they can write or do math to get a diploma, lawmakers decide
A bill to prohibit Oregon schools from requiring students to show they can read, write and do math at a basic high school level is headed to Gov. Kate Brown after lawmakers gave final approval Wednesday.

The Backlash against Critical Race Theory Is Real
No matter how much progressives want to claim otherwise, parents are genuinely concerned about a divisive worldview being imposed on their children.

The questions SCOTUS isn’t answering on LGB and transgender issues
Last week there was a ruling from the Supreme Court that Ed covered here, dealing with the intersection of religious freedom and LGBTQ rights. As far as the battle that Catholic Social Services specifically prevailed in goes, Ed broke that down well enough that I don’t need to rehash it again today. But one analysis from NBC News touched on a topic that addresses a broader issue and it’s worth digging into. Jo Yurcaba, writing for NBC, looked at the extremely narrow scope of a much broader issue that the court addressed in the decision. Rather than painting their findings with a broad brush, the justices picked out one specific aspect of the applicable law and essentially folded the entire ruling around those few sentences.

U.S. Public Schools Lost 1.3 Million Students During COVID-19 Pandemic
The public school system in the United States lost nearly 1.3 million students over the 2020-21 school year, Education Week reports, based on its analysis of currently available state-level data.

Kristen Clarke attacks law barring boys from participating in girls’ sports
Kristen Clarke, now the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, has filed a brief on behalf of the United States arguing that a West Virginia law barring boys from participating on girls’ sports teams violates Title VI and the Equal Protection Clause. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia cast a key vote confirming Clarke. Ed Whelan aptly calls this a case of no naïve deed going unpunished.

Transgender Olympian Said She Would Burn U.S. Flag on Podium if She Won
U.S. BMX Freestyle rider Chelsea Wolfe, a male-to-female transgender person who qualified as an alternate in the Tokyo Olympics, threatened to “burn a US flag on the podium” if she won.

Slave Stories History ‘Forgot.’ Black People Owned Slaves Too
Justus Angel and Mistress L. Horry were wealthy landowners in South Carolina’s Colleton District in the 1830s, in what is now Charleston County. The couple owned 84 slaves each for a total of 168, at a time when most of their peers owned a handful. Their slaves worked their plantation and made them rich. Angel and Horry also traded slaves for profit, showing no regard for dissolving slave families. They were no kinder or crueler to their slaves than anyone else. They were considered “slave magnates” because of the number of slaves they owned. They were referred to as the “economic elite.” They were also black.

New Documentary Highlights the Harm of “Gender Affirming” Health Care Model on Children
“The pediatrician said if I didn’t affirm my daughter’s identity, and I didn’t get her the help that she needed, and she killed herself, I was going to feel awfully guilty—right in front of my daughter.”

CRT Battlefront: Rhode Island School Superintendents’ Plan To Limit Public Records Requests Runs Into Possible ACLU Roadblock
RI ACLU Director Steven Brown: “we have expressed our opposition to the only version of an amendment I have seen, and we would not support a bill that simply gave the Attorney General blanket authority to make such a determination”

WaPo Goes Full Critical Race in VIDEO: “White Body Supremacism is not Episodic; It’s Structural”
Coming to a school and job training near you: “understanding your whiteness and the ways that white supremacy benefits you is an important part of becoming self-aware.”

Video shows man vandalizing Pride Intersection; arrest made
One person has been arrested and accused of defacing the LGBTQ Pride Intersection in Delray Beach.

Majority Again Says We’re on the Wrong Track
The question pollsters keep asking about whether the country is heading in the right direction or on the wrong track has yielded mostly depressing numbers for most of this century, but this spring the “right direction” number reached its highest point in years. In several polls, pluralities or even majorities agreed that we were on the right track. In January, in the days immediately preceding Joe Biden’s inauguration, we saw horrible numbers of COVID casualties and there was widespread revulsion about the Capitol riot on January 6, so it isn’t surprising that the right-track number hit as low as 11 percent in one survey. The RealClearPolitics average of polls yielded a low of 22 percent for the right-track number on January 16, which is lower than the lowest point that figure reached even during last year’s summer of COVID and riots.

UT’s Critical Race Collective’s five tenets – and the questions they raise
The Critical Race Collective, located at the University of Tennessee, lists five tenets of critical race theory that open the door to questions about the theory and its application at a university and society.

House Republicans Demand To Know How A Left-Leaning Group Allegedly Channeled Private Funds To Election Agencies
A group of House Republicans sent a letter Monday to the left-leaning group Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL), calling on them to explain where the hundreds of millions of dollars they were given during the COVID-19 pandemic went, saying the group spent less than one percent on personal protective equipment (PPE).

What I Learned From the Bloomberg Equality Briefing on Driving Inclusive Transformation in Corporate Equity
One of the biggest challenges facing American corporations today is figuring out how to performatively express support for the various social justice causes that educated young professionals tend to support in a performative fashion.

Seattle Pride Event To Make White Attendees Pay “Reparations Fee,” City Human Rights Commission Blasts, Doxxes LGBT Critics
A Seattle LGBT Pride event, Taking B(l)ack Pride, is seeking to charge white attendees a “$10 to $50 reparations fee” in order to “keep [the] event free of cost for Black and brown trans and queer community.” When two Capitol Hill Pride organizers complained, the Seattle Human Rights Commission blasted them on social media in a tweet that included their unredacted phone number, and the pair were forced to apologize.

Is CRT a cult? This video makes me feel like CRT is a cult…
Is it just me, or are the people in this video emitting super strong Jonestown vibes?

Republicans Block Democrats’ Sweeping “Voting Rights” Legislation
Senate Republicans on Tuesday used their filibuster power to block debate on Democrats’ sweeping federal elections bill, dealing a fatal blow to one of President Biden’s early major agenda items.

The Bottomless Abyss of CRT
John writes below of the role of Derrick Bell in the development of Critical Race Theory back in the 1970s and 1980s, and in 1992 he published a short story called “Space Traders” that quickly became a staple in the black grievance literature about how hopelessly racist America is.

A 9-Year-Old Tells It Like It Is
Where I live, the number one issue is exploding violent crime. The number two issue is Critical Race Theory in the schools, which the overwhelming majority hate. I posted here a video that has gone viral of a 15-year-old boy addressing my own local school board on the evils of CRT, which is deeply embedded in the public schools. Now, here is another one: a nine-year-old girl in a suburb just South of mine calling her school board to account for reneging on its promise to ban political posters, including BLM posters, from the schools

War on standards, bar exam edition
Black law school graduates fail the bar exam in disproportionate numbers. That’s not surprising when one remembers that, thanks to racial preferences, Blacks are admitted to law schools with worse credentials — college grades and LSAT scores — than are Whites and Asian-Americans.

Justices rule for cursing cheerleader over Snapchat post
The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a Pennsylvania public school wrongly suspended a student from cheerleading over a vulgar social media post she made after she didn’t qualify for the varsity team.

Supreme Court sides with high school cheerleader in free-speech dispute over profane Snapchat rant
The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled for a Pennsylvania cheerleader whose profane off-campus rant cost her a spot on the squad, saying the punishment violated her First Amendment rights.

Scientists identify 29 planets where aliens could observe Earth
Astronomers estimate 29 habitable planets are positioned to see Earth transit and intercept human broadcasts

World Gone Upside Down: Buffalo Elects Socialist Mayor While NY City Could Very Well Elect a Law-And-Order Democrat
Buffalo, the second-largest city in New York, elected a woman, a political novice, and a socialist as mayor on Tuesday night. India Walton defeated 4-term incumbent Mayor Byron Brown by 1500 votes.

School Board Walks Out in Virginia County As Parents Criticize Transgender Policy, Critical Race Theory
A School Board meeting in Loudoun County, Virginia, scheduled to discuss a proposed transgender policy, came to an abrupt halt Tuesday evening after the board ended public comment and proceeded to leave the room.

“Parents Will Prevail” – Rhode Island Mom Nicole Solas Reacts To Resignation of Pro-Critical Race School Board Member Who Smeared Her
South Kingstown (RI) School Committee Chair Emily Cummiskey resigns. Solas: “I am still owed a public apology and retraction but Cummiskey’s resignation sends a new message: parents will prevail. Retaliation against parents seeking information about their child’s education will backfire…”

An Unexpected Planetary Feature Has Just Been Found on Venus
Venus may be a toxic hell-planet, but new evidence suggests it might have more in common than Earth than we realized.

You Won’t Even Believe What’s Triggering the Thought Police Now
Back in 2013, campus activists started demanding the policing of speech. They pushed to ban “microaggressions” (words or phrases that may offend certain minorities often unintentionally) and demanded “trigger warnings” before professors assigned certain controversial reading materials. Recently, the Prevention, Advocacy & Resource Center (PARC) at Brandeis University released a new list of verboten words and phrases — and “trigger warning” itself has been canceled, along with words like “victim,” “addict,” “survivor,” “tribe,” “picnic,” and even the phrase “people of color.”

Morning Consult: Plurality of Republicans, independents view CRT negatively
The dash to define CRT remains open, according to a new Morning Consult poll, but its advocates are definitely trailing at the moment. The largest plurality of Americans have never heard of critical race theory, and a majority have either not heard of it or have no opinion (35% and 17%), respectively. But of those who have heard of it, negative views outweigh positive views 29/19.

A Busy Morning at the Supreme Court: Student Speech, Union Organizing, Executive Power, and Fleeing Suspects
There’s a lot to chew on in this morning’s cases, and I will have more thoughts as I’ve gone through them.

Biden Administration: This Crime Wave Is the Perfect Time to Abolish Cash Bail
The Biden administration is sufficiently worried about rising crime rates to focus upon the issue this week. But they’re not quite sufficiently worried about rising crime rates to reconsider their commitment to ending cash bail, as Biden promised on the campaign trail

Down a Black Hole
Even the hard sciences are no longer immune to the ongoing racial hysteria.

Trouble for Dems in Battleground States
Earlier this month, the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the Republican Governors’ Association employed OnMessage Inc. to conduct a poll of 26 states where important Senate and gubernatorial races are shaping up in 2022. The poll included 1,200 likely voters, but it is not clear how those voters were distributed among the 26 states. Of the states that were surveyed, ten were classified as red, nine as purple, and seven as blue. The red states included Florida and Ohio, while the only large blue state surveyed was Illinois. Minnesota was among the blue states included in the poll.

DeSantis Signs Legislation Supporting Intellectual Diversity in Higher Ed With Consequences for “Indoctrination”
“budget cuts could be looming if universities and colleges are found to be ‘indoctrinating’ students”

9th Circuit Reinstates Lawsuit Challenging California Board Room Gender Quota Law
Finds that shareholder of corporation has standing to sue: “because [the shareholder] has plausibly alleged that SB 826 requires or encourages him to discriminate on the basis of sex, he has adequately alleged that he has standing to challenge SB 826’s constitutionality”

Transgender runner CeCe Telfer ruled ineligible for US Olympic trials
Transgender runner CeCe Telfer’s Olympic dreams have been put on hold.

NY appellate court suspends Giuliani’s law license over election-fraud claims
As the saying goes, elections have consequences — and so does submitting “demonstrably false and misleading statements to courts” about them. A state appeals court in New York suspended Rudy Giuliani’s law license this morning, ruling that when acting as Donald Trump’s attorney in election challenges, Giuliani violated his duties as an officer of the court. The decision declared “uncontroverted evidence” of misconduct, and might portend similarly harsh consequences for other attorneys involved in these challenges

Whitehouse: On second thought, my beach club is more diverse than my yacht club
How diverse can Bailey’s Beach Club be if Sheldon Whitehouse never noticed it? The Senate Democrat from Rhode Island has gotten questioned about the all-white club ever since getting into politics in 2006. It came up again in 2017 with GoLocal Providence, and again last summer in the Free Beacon.

Florida Supreme Court tosses a quota
The Business Law Section of the Florida Bar adopted a policy regulating the composition of faculty at section-sponsored continuing legal education programs. Subject to certain exceptions, the policy imposed quotas requiring a minimum number of “diverse” faculty, depending on the number of faculty teaching the course. The policy defined diversity in terms of membership in “groups based upon race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, and multiculturalism.”

Death toll in Florida collapse rises to 4; 159 still missing
With nearly 160 people unaccounted for and at least four dead after a seaside condominium tower collapsed into a smoldering heap of twisted metal and concrete, rescuers used both heavy equipment and their own hands to comb through the wreckage on Friday in an increasingly desperate search for survivors.

Top GOP pollster: To win, “we need Trump to go away”
There is some good news for House and Senate Republicans in the latest Battleground Civility Poll. The results indicate that the GOP stands on the cusp of winning back the House and Senate if it can build out its base and reach just a few more wavering voters, such as older and suburban women. But a longtime Republican pollster and co-director of the Georgetown University Battleground Poll said there is a big hurdle in the way. “We need Trump to go away to get them,” said Ed Goeas.

America’s continued move toward socialism
Just half of younger Americans now hold a positive view of capitalism — and socialism’s appeal in the U.S. continues to grow, driven by Black Americans and women, according to a new Axios/Momentive poll.

Trump executive may face criminal charges this summer
The Manhattan district attorney’s office appears to have entered the final stages of a criminal tax investigation into Donald Trump’s long-serving chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, setting up the possibility he could face charges this summer, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

They Seemed Like Democratic Activists. They Were Secretly Conservative Spies.
The young couple posing in front of the faux Eiffel Tower at the Paris hotel in Las Vegas fit right in, two people in a sea of idealistic Democrats who had arrived in the city in February 2020 for a Democratic primary debate.

Biden Administration to Sue Georgia Over Election Integrity Law
The Biden administration is planning to sue the state of Georgia over its recently signed Election Integrity Act, which was signed by Republican Governor Brian Kemp.

Pence Wants the Trump Magic — Without Trump
During a speech at the Mecca of establishment Republicanism, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, Pence said he will “always be proud” of his role in certifying the election of Joe Biden. That remark appears to be tailor-made to pick a fight with the notoriously thin-skinned Trump, who is always looking for a political scrap.

Virginia Library Invites “Preschoolers,” “Babies,” “Toddlers” For “Drag StoryBook Hour”
A library in Fairfax, Virginia, is targeting “school age children,” “preschoolers,” and “babies and toddlers” as the audience for their “Drag StoryBook Hour” scheduled for Saturday, June 26, as part of celebrating “Pride Month.”

Pence on January 6th: There’s more at stake than just party or one election
And with that, Mike Pence surgically detached himself from MAGA World, if not Donald Trump himself. Appearing at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library with Reagan’s famous words “A Time for Choosing” hovering behind him pregnant with meaning, Pence spoke out for the first time about the January 6 debacle at the Capitol. Without naming Trump, Pence rebuked “those in our party” who wanted him to violate the Constitution and block the counting of electoral votes from states the Republican ticket lost.

Biden Lawsuit against Georgia Election Law Illustrates Radicalism of DOJ and Its Civil Rights Chief
As our Caroline Downey reports, the Justice Department will today announce that it is suing Georgia over the latter’s election-integrity law. This is ridiculous. The law provides for voting far more extensive than the Constitution’s minimal standards, and well beyond what, about five minutes ago, were state-law norms. The lawsuit is yet another sign, as if we needed one, that the Biden Justice Department is the Obama DOJ 2.0, an activist tool that puts the awesome law-enforcement power of the federal government in the service of woke progressivism.

Boys vs. Girls at the Supreme Court!
It won’t go down in history as a case of epic importance, but in one of its final days of the term, the Supreme Court of the United States gave us the first 6–3 ruling in which the six male justices formed the majority (opinion written by Justice Neil Gorsuch), with the three female justices joining a dissent penned by Justice Amy Coney Barrett — who must have been assigned the writing duties by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the senior justice on the short side. The case is Hollyfrontier Cheyenne Refining v. Renewable Fuels. Ed Whelan will check me if I’m wrong, but I believe this is the first dissent Justice Barrett has written since joining the High Court.

Remember That Time Sheldon Whitehouse Badgered a Judicial Nominee about His Club Membership?
When he isn’t spinning conspiracy theories, destroying faith in judicial system, or baselessly accusing his political foes of corruption, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is probably relaxing in one of three posh all-white clubs. If one has any sympathy for him, or believes bringing up his associations is unfair, let’s remember Whitehouse is only being asked to live by his own standards.

Kamala Harris’s Layover in El Paso
The vice president finally dropped by El Paso this morning for a four-hour tour, after months of resisting such a visit.

Supreme Court Limits Government’s Power to Aid Unions
This week, the Supreme Court decided Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid, a challenge by agricultural producers in California against a regulation under the state’s agricultural unionization law that compelled producers to allow union organizers to “take access” of their property for three hours a day for up to 120 days per year to conduct union organizing activities. The growers argued that that regulation constituted a legal taking of their property for which they had not been compensated, and the Supreme Court, in an opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts, agreed.

Texas Democrats sue Governor Abbott for defunding the state legislature after walk-out
We knew it was coming. More than 50 Texas House Democrats and legislative staffers, along with the Texas AFL-CIO signed on to a petition for a writ of mandamus. It was filed Friday. They are taking it straight to the Texas Supreme Court.

Parents Explain How Loudoun County Became Ground Zero in the Culture Wars
There has been no shortage of them this year. Parents explain why.

Asian Enrollment Slashed at Top Virginia High School After Admissions Changes Subject Of Lawsuit
Parent’s group at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology: “Fairfax County Public Schools has also broken the hearts of many deserving students by waging a crusade against Asian students at the school, first by proposing a random lottery and later by implementing the current race-balanced ‘holistic’ admissions system that amounts to social engineering.”

Homeland Security ‘highly concerned’ theory Trump will be reinstated in August will spark violence: Top counterrorism official tells Congress staff have ramped up monitoring of ‘extremist’ online communities
John Cohen expressed his fears to the House Committee on Homeland Security

Short Circuit: A Roundup of Recent Federal Court Decisions
Keeping an eye on Baltimore, taking a bite out of parking crime, and tasing a special-needs student.

Kendi and Reynolds’ Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You, a Remix—A Partial List of Errors
Many high schools and middle schools are assigning this ‘antiracism’ book associated with Critical Race Theory; besides being ideologically pernicious, it’s bad history.

DOJ sues Georgia over its voting law
The Biden Justice Department announced yesterday that it is suing Georgia over the voting procedures the state recently adopted. The suit alleges civil rights violations under Section 2 of he Voting Rights Act. It will be prosecuted by Kristen Clarke, the racist head of the Civil Rights Division, with the help, presumably, of her brainy principal deputy, Pam Karlan.

Americans Are Confused, But the Democrats Are In Trouble
The Harvard/Harris poll surveyed over 2,000 Americans a few days ago. The results are interesting, in some ways confounding and in other ways encouraging. You can look at the whole thing and draw your own conclusions.

National Archives’ report: Rotunda is structurally racist, needs safe spaces and trigger warnings
It’s time to “reimagine the Rotunda”. That is the conclusion reached in a report released by the National Archives’ task force on racism. The National Archives Rotunda is an example of structural racism and the Founding Fathers are portrayed too positively. Who knew that the Rotunda is in need of safe spaces and trigger warnings?

Virginia state PTA getting creative over critical race theory battle
Not too long ago, we discussed the need for more parents and other community members to get more actively involved in their children’s education by running for positions on the school board or in the PTA. At the time, I was discussing a more general approach to curbing liberal indoctrination and orthodoxy in our school systems, but the current debates over critical race theory seem to be making it even more of a popular idea. It’s one that was taken up by the parents of many students at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia. A group of anti-CRT parents ran in the recent PTA elections and won a majority of the seats on the board.

North Carolina Senate Moves to Put Brakes on Critical Race Theory After Ibram Kendi Speaks at School Conference
On June 16th, leading Critical Race Theory proponent Ibram X. Kendi was the keynote speaker at the virtual Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Summer Leadership Conference. He was reportedly paid $25,000 for the appearance.

California Lawmakers Want to Strip “He” From State Laws
Which of the 40 pronouns will the state legislature choose to use in the laws? You know someone will complain if they use “they” or “them” because they identify as “it.”

DOJ Lawsuit Against Georgia Over Voting Law May Backfire
“I’m highly skeptical and I think they may ultimately regret this move. It could indeed clarify this issue in a way the Biden administration does not want” – Professor Jonathan Turley

 

Economy & Taxes

 

The IRS Is At It Again
No sooner have the Democrats retaken the White House than the IRS again feels free to use its power to advance partisan interests. This actually happened in May, but it is just now hitting the news: the IRS denied 501(c)(3) nonprofit status to an organization called Christians Engaged.

How long does California plan to keep this eviction moratorium going?
We’ve been discussing the eventual eviction crisis resulting from government COVID mandates since early last year. Here we are in the summer of 2021 with vaccination rates nearing their targets and businesses trying to reopen around the country, and the eviction moratorium issue has still not been resolved. Out in California, Freedom Day has come and gone, so most people should be getting back to work, school and their other pre-pandemic routines. But the state is still looking at extending the eviction moratorium even further. A “solution” has been offered by Governor Gavin Newsom (more on that in a moment), but even with an alleged fix at hand, the moratorium may be pushed out past the current June 30 deadline.

Biden Embraces California’s Zombified Rail Boondoggle
California has a long history of churning out films about zombies, most of which are made on shoestring budgets.

California Bailout Money Is Paying for Traffic Fines
Last year, there was a panic about whether states would go bankrupt without urgently needed bailouts from the federal government. It’s one of the reasons there was widespread bipartisan support for the initial COVID-relief bill. However, the federal government has not bothered to turn off the money spigot. This has led to a peculiar paradox: Despite falling tax revenues, state governments are running massive budget surpluses. How has California decided to spend its newfound printed wealth? If you guessed rent control, education, and parking fines, then congratulations, you got bingo.

Texas fast-food chain paying teenagers $50,000 salaries to manage restaurants amid labor shortage
A Texas fast-food chain is shelling out $50,000 salaries for teenagers and those in their early 20s to manage its restaurants as executives struggle to find qualified workers amid a nationwide labor shortage.

Democrats Looking to the Wrong Place for SALT Relief
First, we learned that Bernie Sanders is opposed to raising a tax. Now, we learn that he wants to partially restore a tax deduction primarily used by the wealthy.

Canon Uses AI Cameras That Only Let Smiling Workers Inside Offices
This may sound like something straight out of a sci-fi movie, but Canon has rolled out new AI cameras that use “smile recognition” technology to ensure that only happy employees are allowed into its offices.

Majority sour on pandemic-unemployment benefits as inflation soars
The New York Times reports this as a success of GOP messaging. It might rather be the recognition of economic reality. A majority of those surveyed in an NYT/Momentive poll want an immediate end to the pandemic-related unemployment benefits that have stalled rehiring and contributed to supply-chain issues now hammering consumers in the marketplace

No, Socialism Isn’t More Popular Than Capitalism
Media outlets are insistent that capitalism is unpopular, and that a clear majority of Americans, especially young people, prefer socialism over capitalism. A quick look at the headlines from major newspapers reveals stories that start like “Millenials support socialism because . . . ” or “Why are Americans warming to Socialism?” Another example appeared today, as Axios published the article “America’s continued move towards Socialism.” However, this recent Axios report says more about the media than it does about Americans.

Wokeism Is Not New
I was rummaging around again in my archive of old columns from the mid-1990s that never appeared online anywhere, and I found one, from December 1996, that shows the current CRT/”anti-racism” claptrap was rapidly gaining ground way back then

 

International

 

Vancouver School Board Is Eliminating Honors Programs To Achieve ‘Equity’
“By phasing out these courses, all students will have access to an inclusive model of education.”

The campaign to remove a book from a Halifax library
The book is Irreversible Damage by author Abigain Shrier (Ed spoke to her last year). To say the book is controversial would be underselling it by an order of magnitude. Today, Shrier wrote a piece for Bari Weiss blog about the the pushback against the book.

Maduro’s Trial Falls Behind Despite Coordination Between Interim Government and ICC
An audio clip exclusively accessed by the PanAm Post shows that despite the coordination of the interim government and its allies with the International Criminal Court, Maduro’s trial is on the wrong track

Three Key Moments to Remind Us That the UN Is a Nest of Oppressive Regimes
Today, repression has new forms and ways of attacking. It is camouflaged in organizations such as the UN because dictators have understood that the perfect crime is the one that is committed while everyone is watching.

Reports from Cuba: Cuban opponents unite to work for the transition to democracy
Opponents, activists, and independent journalists presented, on Monday, the Council for Democratic Transition in Cuba, an initiative that aims to achieve three foundational aspirations: “a nation with all, an inclusive society, and a republic of rights.”

Tasmanian devils kill every penguin on tiny Australian island
In the process of trying to save one animal, another was decimated.

Cringe! Chinese rappers unite for CCP propaganda
Are you old enough to remember “We are the World” or “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” These were efforts in the mid-80s to raise money for famine relief in Africa. The idea was that teaming up a group of musical superstars would bring a lot of money and attention to issues that otherwise wouldn’t get it. Those efforts were pretty successful. Over a few years, “We Are the World” raised over $50 million (in 1980s dollars) for various relief efforts.

John McAfee found dead in prison after Spanish court allows extradition
Antivirus creator John McAfee, 75, was found dead in his prison cell in Barcelona after the Spanish high court had authorised his extradition to the U.S., the Catalan justice department said, confirming an earlier report from El Mundo newspaper.

New prehistoric human unknown to science discovered in Israel
Hebrew U and Tel Aviv University researchers found remains of a new type of “Homo” who lived in the region some 130,000 years ago.

Knife attack in German city leaves 3 dead, suspect arrested
A man armed with a long knife killed three people and injured five others, some seriously, in Germany’s southern city of Wuerzburg on Friday before being shot by police and arrested, authorities said.

“Dragon Man” skull may be new species, shaking up human family tree
Hidden down a well for decades, the stunningly complete cranium is stirring debate about the increasing number of fossils that don’t neatly fit in the classic human origin story.

The Billionaire Landlord Cartel
Buck Throckmorton at AOSHQ has a long post about what’s going on in the real estate market that everybody needs to read. For a few weeks now, ever since the Wall Street Journal did a feature article about the phenomenon, people have been pondering what this means

Outcry over South Africa’s multiple husbands proposal
A proposal by the South African government to legalise polyandry – when a woman has more than one husband at the same time – has led to howls of protest from conservative quarters.

 

Opinion

 

Immigration Cannot Solve the Challenges of an Aging Society
We hear all the time that America is growing old, and there won’t be enough workers to pay for Social Security or support the economy unless we bring in millions of foreign workers. Putting aside our current employment problems caused by overly generous unemployment benefits, what would continued or even increased immigration’s impact be over the longer term?

If America Is Racist, Why Have Millions of Blacks Emigrated Here? Did Jews Emigrate to Germany in the 1930s?
If America is systemically racist, why have millions of blacks from Africa and the Caribbean come to this country over the past 50 years? Why would they and many millions more want to move from all-black societies to a white-dominated, racist one?

Are black parents fed up with Critical Race Theory teaching?
So says Barrington Martin II, the man who tried to unseat the late John Lewis from Congress in the primary of Lewis’ final re-election bid. Martin plans to run again for the GA-05 seat, hoping to bring his blend of progressive economics and pro-Second Amendment beliefs to challenge the status quo. However, the 33-year-old black special-needs educator has had enough of the progressive Critical Race Theory educational project.

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Lesson in Invisibilization, Unlocking Doors with Keys, and Other Cardinal Sins
Ninety-seven percent of Hispanics in the United States disfavor the term “Latinx.” How, I wonder, must they feel reading the rest of this remarkable Washington Post piece, which, taken in its entirety, may be the silliest thing ever published in a major newspaper.

S. 1 Shows Why the Filibuster Is Needed
On Tuesday afternoon, Senate Democrats plan a motion-to-proceed vote on the so-called “For the People Act,” also known as H.R. 1 and S. 1. The legislation began as a kind of messaging bill a few years ago, but Democrats have talked themselves into treating its passage as utterly essential to the future of American democracy. Such claims are disconnected from the realities of our election system, and are dangerous to the very trust in that system that the bill’s champions claim to want to protect. A Republican filibuster now seems like the only way to avert its enactment, and Republicans should make sure to do just that.

David French and Conservative Opposition to Anti-CRT Legislation
French is the most outspoken conservative critic of the new bills. Do his arguments hold water?

Why Would Anybody Give Beijing the Benefit of the Doubt?
I try not to reflexively suspect the motives of everyone who disagrees with me – emphasis on try, not succeed – but as I encounter arguments that take all of the Chinese government’s denials at face value, and dismiss the considerable circumstantial evidence for a lab leak as just a series of coincidences… I find the mentality and approach pretty mind-boggling.

Crime on the Streets, Racism in the Schools: 2021 Brings the 2022 Playing Field into View
The 2022 midterm elections are still, in political terms, a long way away. The president’s approval ratings still reflect some of the honeymoon effect, declining gradually in the RealClearPolitics national poll average: +20 on January 30, +15 on April 7, +13 on June 10, +9 at this writing. He will be weeks from his 80th birthday by the time Election Day 2022 rolls around. Senate and governor’s races are still a long way from holding primaries or even announcing new candidates and incumbent retirements. House-district maps have not been drawn yet. Congress has yet to pass a budget or determine the final fate of much of Joe Biden’s legislative agenda. The Supreme Court has not even received briefs in a case that could strike down Roe v. Wade by next July 4. A year and a half is a long time in which to have another international crisis, another domestic disaster or mass-protest movement, or any number of other things that could scramble the political playing board in unpredictable directions.

The Shocking Discovery of Other Views: School Board Edition
Growing up in public school, I heard plenty of lefty teachers extol the virtues of participating in government and making your voice heard. Writing a letter to your congressman as a class activity. Touring the state capitol as a field trip. Learning about the various protest movements in American history.

No, Florida Isn’t “Cracking Down” on Free Thought on College Campuses
Over at the Volokh Conspiracy, Jonathan Adler notes that Florida is simply not doing what it is being accused of doing: Namely, cracking down on independent thought on Floridian college campuses. Adler knows this because — shock! — he bothered to read the bill that is being criticized

Make Public Higher-Ed Officials Pay for Wrongdoing
In case after case, administrators at public colleges and universities have maliciously gone after students or faculty members for having expressed opinions deemed wrong (“racist,” “unacceptable,” etc.). It’s pure leftist virtue signaling — “Watch how I slam down these backward thinking deplorables!” But if the person who felt the lash happens to sue, he often wins. The Constitution doesn’t allow government to decide what speech is appropriate and what merits punishment.

John McAfee, Rest In Power
Entrepreneur and two-time presidential candidate John McAfee was found in his cell in a Spanish prison yesterday, dead of an apparent suicide. He was 75.

Don’t Let the Backlash Against Critical Race Theory Become a Victim of Its Own Success
Before it was “Critical Race Theory” (CRT) in the popular culture, it was a constellation of vaguely academic concepts that confused bigotry with enlightenment. It was intersectionality—a thought experiment dressed up as scholarship that led its adherents to think about race and gender in terms of stereotypes. It was “the right to be believed,” which substituted gender for evidence sufficient to convict alleged criminals. It was modern social justice, the theory that enlightened institutions must be empowered to take economic and social goods away from some and distribute them to others based on accidents of birth.

Send A Letter: American Bar Assoc. Proposed Mandated Law School Race Curriculum Will Restrict Academic Freedom and Debate
Imposing these changes would violate professors rights to academic freedom and stifle classroom debate.

Pence’s Standing in the GOP
During a speech at the Reagan Library on Thursday night, former vice president Mike Pence made news when he said the notion the vice president could simply refuse to count Electoral College votes — something Donald Trump publicly urge Pence to do — is one of the most “un-American” ideas imaginable.

Trump or No Trump, We Should Investigate Crimes, Not People
One of the golden rules of the American justice system is that the powers-that-be are supposed to investigate crimes rather than to investigate people. “That guy may have stolen a car: is a good reason to open a case. So is :that guy works a minimum wage job at a 7/11 but owns six Ferraris.” “That guy seems like the sort of guy we dislike,” is not.

Don’t Tear Down the Rule of Law to Indict the Trump Organization
The rule of law is a crucial dividing line between free societies and tin-pot dictatorships. One central element of that is that our constitutions and legislatures write the rules down, and the text of written rules is binding on the government and the citizen alike. Another is that we have the same law for everyone. A person who is wealthy, prominent, or politically important is subject to the same rules as someone who is poor, obscure, or uncontroversial. The combination of written rules and their equal application makes up a system of equal justice and limited government.

The Pride Flag’s Growing Absurdity
It is ugly and scatterbrained and opens the door for any and all oppressed groups to demand inclusion and prioritization.

Joint Statement Against Critical Race Training – Legal Insurrection Foundation Joins Coalition of 24 Other Organizations
“Perpetuating this bankrupt ideology in real life leads to perverse discrimination, disempowerment and victimhood by virtue of race.”

Space and the new struggle for civilisational supremacy
The space race of the twenty-first century has more players, more money and ambitions for Mars. It’s about more than just technological prowess. Space is becoming the new arena for a clash of civilisations.