This headline has layers of meaning. First, referencing the preferred progressive definition, people whose relatives were here before ours are getting screwed by the Biden Administration’s energy policy. Its bureaucrats are reinterpreting statutes with the force of law.

 

“The cooperative provides power — at cost — to several small, predominantly indigenous communities located within the Tongass. IPEC [Inside Passage Electric Cooperative] seeks to build several hydroelectric and geothermal projects to replace the expensive diesel generation that these communities currently rely on. But the USDA’s prohibition on roads — including gravel and dirt roads — in the Tongass makes the construction and maintenance of these projects infeasible because they would be accessible only by helicopter,” the foundation reported.

 

On one hand, the Biden administration is trying to outlaw electricity generation with fossil fuels. On the other, the Biden Administration is prohibiting the “green” energy projects needed to replace what they are trying to outlaw. Native Alaskan populations are caught between the two and, without a resolution, will have no power at all.

 

“In the name of conservation, the USDA’s rules are keeping remote Alaska communities dependent on diesel for power generation when green alternatives are available,” charged IPEC’s Jodi Mitchell. “Diesel is one of the most expensive sources of power generation. As a result, these communities pay some of the highest electricity rates in the state and among the highest in the country.”

 

So, thanks for nothing, and here’s a lawsuit.

 

“Despite Congress’ manifest desire to allow roads in national forests as needed for reasonable public access and use, the department claims to have found authority to categorically ban roads in nebulous statutory language,” the complaint charges.

It is under that authority that the department imposed its roadless rule to “harm local communities.” ..

Even accessing “existing facilities, powerlines, and diversion pipes” is problematic under the USDA, the complaint said. Much servicing now is done by helicopter.

 

I’m sure the utility company is trying to cling to its monopoly on energy delivery, so it may not be entirely about the indigenous people, but their arguments are spot-on for everyone whose descendants started families in North America. The entire energy transition exercise is problematic under the regime’s priorities. And by problematic, I mean mathematically impossible.

Everyone will be harmed by this.

 

HT | The Liberty Daily

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An F-35 jet went missing this week when its pilot was forced to eject over the skies of South Carolina. This mishap created an embarrassing situation for our Military. The Marines, with all of the sophisticated equipment of our Military, could not locate the downed jet and went to the public for help finding the wreckage.

The F-35 is our newest, most complex, and expensive addition to our air command. This week’s event exposed a fact the Military would rather have kept under wraps. The entire F-35 program is on track to cost $1.7 trillion over the plane’s lifetime, and the Department of Defense plans to purchase nearly 2,500 F-35s from Lockheed Martin. The problem is the track record of the F-35, with almost half of the jet’s training missions aborted due to faulty components or systems. Unfortunately, the F-35 program is not the first to have disappointing results in recent years. It should alarm all Americans that we are losing our edge in producing a well-equipped and trained defense to protect us worldwide.

On November 22, 2016, while the world watched, the U.S. Navy’s newest, most complex warship ground to a stop in the middle of the Panama Canal, both propellers seized, leaving the ship dead in the water. The warship, the USS Zumwalt, DDG-1000, had to be towed out of the canal. 

The Zumwalt Class destroyer was to be America’s most potent and versatile modern warship. The project failed as only 3 of the planned 32 ships were built.

In the case of the Zumwalt-class, the unit cost ballooned to $5.9 billion per ship in 2009, which was 81% more than initially planned. 

The USS Zumwalt DDG-1000 also lacks various necessary defense features for any modern ship, such as anti-torpedoes, long-range air defense missiles, and anti-ship missiles.

Are these setbacks to our military preparedness the fault of the Defense Department, contractors, politicians, or a combination of all? There is certainly enough blame to pass around, including a lack of quality work by the workers themselves. The solution for Washington will be to throw more money at the problem, but that just fattens the pot for everyone to dip into. I am not a proponent of government studies as they usually are open-ended and fail to produce results. Still, a solution to this failure to equip our Military has to become a priority. We are not keeping up with the advancements of the Chinese Military. They may have already passed us on air and land superiority, and as our Navy is retiring ships without replacements, they will probably have an edge at sea, too.

Today, we are far too concerned with Ukraine and pledging our unlimited support with no endgame or plan. We are earmarking billions in aid and equipment we cannot afford to lose. We are bolstering what will eventually be a losing effort while sidetracking us from being ready to defend ourselves. This should not be a comforting thought for any American, and another reason that we have to remove Joe Biden from the White House. I believe in American Exceptionalism, and if there is one area in which it is most important, it is protecting our homeland. Our foes are not slowing their trek for world dominance, and the best deterrent to any aggression is a powerful United States Military. We do not have that deterrent today.

The post Lost Marine Fighter Jet Another Sign Of A Weakened Military appeared first on Granite Grok.

The so-called pandemic was a test, and a lot of Americans failed. From top to bottom, rights were sacrificed to medical tyranny over a global act of fraud. A fraud that was increasingly visible when the first few weeks of published COVID data went public.

We were locking up, down, and sideways. All for something almost no one needed to fear. And that truth only got clearer from there, and while America had few pockets of liberty and many places pushed back sooner than later, far too many went the other way, and outside the US, places like Canada and Europe were much worse.

EU+QR

I’m unsure who is speaking, but the clip comes from the Mark Steyn Show. And for our purposes, when does not matter becasue then is now if we allow it.

In under a minute, the speaker clarifies how bad things were in Europe for individual rights and freedom in general—the digital equivalent of “papers please,” not just to authorities but anyone who asked.

We do not want people to forget how bad it was or, if they didn’t realize it, that this is the sort of thing for which those looking to scratch their totalitarian itch are looking.

It will come if we let it, and it won’t just be becasue of some flu or other fearmongered health scare, though given their previous success, that angle will play a part. Public Health Emergency might be the three words history reminds us we should if our society survives to have an honest telling.

If they can normalize this sort of control as part of our everyday way of life, we may be less than one generation away from losing what was handed down to us. It’ll be gone before those fanciful EV-mandated drop-dead dates they keep talking about.

 

 

 

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At some point, our society decided that protecting the innocence of children wasn’t a worthwhile endeavor anymore. It is wild how far and fast we’ve fallen. Ten years ago, you couldn’t have imagined that a librarian would get away with suggesting book porn to elementary school students under the guise of healthy sex and gender instruction.

Warning – this post includes unedited “adult” content, available in some schools and public libraries

Not only are they getting away with it, but the Biden administration and the other deranged actors on the far left are protecting them against parents who want it to end — the head of the U.S. Education Department, Sec. Miguel Cardona told the Associated Press he has no respect for the parents who passionately defend their students against these ideological attacks. “I don’t have too much respect for people that are misbehaving in public and acting like they know what’s right for kids,” Cardona said.

 

Secretary Cardona openly dismissed thousands of American parents who have been speaking out at school board meetings:

“I don’t have too much respect for people that are misbehaving in public and acting like they know what’s right for kids.” pic.twitter.com/QafoiKwAdB

— Nicki Neily (@nickineily) September 22, 2023

 

Adults who push “Drag Queen Brunch” or story hours at local libraries or stock elementary schools with sexually explicit materials are perverts. There is no sense in sugarcoating the obvious. It’s not hard to see that these people want to indoctrinate children into their weird sex cult. Why else would they have books about Timmy going down on Johnny in elementary school libraries or encouraging Rebecca to become Rob if not to sexualize children?

 

.@CCSDK12 is trying to hide the fact that they offer kids porn so they BLOCKED the libsoftiktok domain across their entire district.

They offer the pornographic book “Gender Queer” which depicts oral sex and masturbation to ELEMENTARY KIDS!

Story here: https://t.co/jtvZBsm46C pic.twitter.com/M8BHi1Ul1s

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) September 22, 2023

 

Our kids need to learn about building good moral character. Schools used to foster this in students by starting the day in prayer, saying the pledge of allegiance and sometimes reciting a school song. This routine grounded the students in faith and patriotism — teaching them to value God, their country and their community. (RELATED: ROOKE: Deion Sanders Epitomizes The Revival America Needs Right Now In Young Men)

Modern classrooms have an entirely different value system. If present at all, American flags are positioned in the far corner of the classroom. God, prayer and any form of Christianity were ripped out of school during the Free Love era. In its place, our students pledge allegiance to flags representing sexual preferences and fetishes outside of traditional life.

In a Sept. 12 Senate hearing, Republican LA Sen. John Kennedy read from two books — “All Boys Aren’t Blue” and “Gender Queer: A Memoir.” The words were so graphic Fox was forced to bleep almost every word of Kennedy’s monologue.

“I got a new strap-on harness today,” Kennedy read from “Gender Queer: A Memoir” by Maia Kobabe. “I can’t wait to put it on you. It will fit my favorite dildo perfectly. You’re going to look so hot. I can’t wait to have your cock in my mouth. I am going to give you the blowjob of your life. Then I want you inside of me.”

 

.@SenJohnKennedy reads passages from Bokmål All Boys Aren’t Blue and Genderqueer

“I put some lube on and got him on his knees and I began sliding into him from behind,” Kennedy read.
pic.twitter.com/AKxz6J50zC

— Nicole Silverio (@NicoleMSilverio) September 12, 2023

 

This is the material children are encouraged to engage with. It helps to desensitize them to sex and provoke risky behavior. Parents would go to jail if they took their 10-year-old child to a strip club, but for some reason, our society sees no issue with them sitting in a bar watching grown men fling their genitals around in a mini skirt. Drag shows are performative sex acts. Anyone suggesting children would learn to be more inclusive by spending extended time with men pretending to be women does not have their best interest in mind.

 

What on earth is “It’s not gonna lick itself” supposed to be referring to in this drag performance with CHILDREN in the audience??

They still gonna claim this stuff is just to educate kids on different identities?

pic.twitter.com/oCMUDsTlOt

— Megan Basham (@megbasham) June 5, 2022

 

It’s time they felt humiliated again. Our children aren’t given to us to be used for their sexual pleasure. We have an innate responsibility to protect them. In any other context, arrests would be made, and trials by juries of their peers would sentence them to prison. Every person born on this Earth has human dignity that should be upheld, but that does not mean sacrificing our children so that deviants can avoid feeling shame when they act out their sexual fantasies in public.

 

Mary Rooke | Daily Caller News Service

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline, and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

 

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During WWII, when Germany was bombing England, C.S. Lewis narrated over the radio a series of letters called “The Screwtape Letters.” After the war, this series of allegories were combined in a book by the same name.

The devil, Screwtape, was writing to his nephew, Wormwood, with daily instructions on how to manipulate the human mind with demonic activity. In the last chapter of the book, Lewis tells of a scene in hell where Screwtape addresses an audience of graduating demons. During this speech, Lewis projects a hidden truth describing the nature of Public Schools today. How does he connect education with Democracy?

Lewis’s words are screaming from the past to warn the future of our Republic, the dangers of how majority rule, “democracy” creates the “abolition of education.”My understanding of the premise he based his thesis on: “I’m as good as you are.,” it is a natural thought process which in a democracy is exploited to gain popular support with promises of equality. When the majority rules under the false promise of equality, would-be dictators force equality on the people. Therefore, God-given free will is sacrificed on the altar of “I’m as good as you are equality” as the new norm. Lewis drew a vivid word picture with his far-seeing allegoric perspective. As equality in education grows, permeating every fabric of society with saturation by force, it lifts up mediocrity and discourages superiority by holding it down. This process is inevitable in a society where the majority rules.

His wisdom paints a dark picture where the Deep State does not want great men in democracies. Our Republic has been hijacked by what is taught in the schoolroom. Since WWII, we have had greatness in technology, but that is a product of one generation standing on the shoulders of previous generations. But how many great leaders have we produced? This is exactly how Marxist influence divides at the individual level. There is no room for the brilliant student to accelerate his education because that makes the rest feel inferior. This philosophy directly impacts the great middle-class foundation of our free nation. Look around; the decline in education to produce doctors, scientists,  and mathematicians has created a market for foreign students to follow their high-achieving careers on our shores.

Free Public Education is the tenth step of the Communist Manifesto. Lewis knew this result of free education in a Democracy in the 1940’s. Today’s parents instinctively know true education doesn’t exist apart from God. Gone are the days of focusing on reading, writing, and arithmetic. Instead, a child’s curriculum is filled with CRT and hyper-sexualization agendas.

Concerned parents should keep September 28th open from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The local Chapter of The John Birch Society will host a program featuring Shawn McBreairty covering these UNESCO/Department of Education curriculums; Shawn has appeared on Tucker Carlson, Faulkner Focus and the Ingrahm Angle, among many other programs. He also Hosts the Maine Source of Truth podcast. The event will be held at the Marion Gerrish Community Center at 39 W. Broadway in Derry, NH. All attendees must register RSVP at https://form.jotform.com/232328201086044. Or, Please call 207-391-0970 for further information.

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The Bangor Daily News (BDN) reports that Soros-funded non-profits were not funded to buy 22 Maine Newspapers in one fell swoop. They admit to supporting the group but claim they don’t tell them how to spend the money.

 

The foundation tied to Democratic megadonor and philanthropist George Soros denied Tuesday a report stating it donated money specifically to help a national nonprofit purchase Maine’s largest newspaper chain earlier this year.

The Open Society Foundations, which Soros began in 1979 and supports an array of liberal and charitable causes around the world, has long been publicly listed as a supporter of the National Trust for Local News, the nonprofit that purchased the Masthead Maine network of 22 newspapers in July for an undisclosed price.

 

BDN doesn’t try to hide the links between groups or individuals, but it does go out of its way to report on local interests associated with the takeover.

 

The national trust purchased the newspapers in collaboration with the Maine Journalism Foundation after Masthead Maine owner Reade Brower publicly indicated his intent to sell his media empire in March. The new group of sites is dubbed the Maine Trust for Local News.

 

Nothing to see here. Just move along. And I suppose we could, but Soros-funded groups have been buying up newspapers all over the planet. It has purchased newspapers in Poland, the UK, Spain, and likely elsewhere.

The Left has been pouring money into setting up “newspaper-like” web portals that publish sports and local content surrounded by progressive news and opinion.

Millions have been invested in helping local papers set up climate alarmism desks that focus on pimping the Climate Cult narrative.

In other words, the philanthropic billionaires on the political Left, who all happen to be anti-American globalists, are openly buying the news in America but not Maine.

Pardon me if I don’t believe you.

And not becasue you want to tilt them left; they were already there. You are buying them and propping them up so they don’t fail.

 

The post Who Bought 22 Newspapers In Maine – A Soros Foundation Denies They Did It, But They Lie … appeared first on Granite Grok.

Thomas Sowell has given us a penetrating criticism of the approach to justice taken by many political philosophers, especially John Rawls and his innumerable followers. He says that they construct an image of the way society ought to be but fail to ask whether their plans are feasible. His criticism is well-taken, although he does not offer an adequate account of the rights that people have.

He says about Rawls:

In much of the social justice literature, including Professor John Rawls’ classic A Theory of Justice, various policies have been recommended, on grounds of their desirability from a moral standpoint—but often with little or no attention to the practical question of whether those policies could in fact be carried out and produce the end results desired. In a number of places, for example, Rawls referred to things that “society” should “arrange”—but without specifying the instrumentalities or the feasibilities of those arrangements.

Later, Sowell remarks that “the exaltation of desirability and neglect of feasibility, which Adam Smith criticized, is today still a major ingredient in the fundamental fallacies of the social justice vision.”

Sowell agrees with Rawls that many inequalities in people’s conditions seem arbitrary and unfair if viewed as the outcome of a plan. But once we realize that in a free market, no such plan exists, it is evident that criticism of the market on the grounds that it permits unjust inequalities is misplaced. Life is just “like that,” and attempts to undo these inequalities will likely fail and have bad results.

Sowell’s argument follows Friedrich Hayek, about whom he says:

Clearly, Hayek also saw life in general as unfair, even within the free markets he advocated. But this is not the same as saying that he saw society as unfair. To Hayek, society was an “orderly structure,” but not a decision-making unit, or an institution taking action. That is what governments do. But neither society nor government comprehends or controls all the many and highly varied circumstances—including a large element of luck—that can influence the fate of individuals, classes, races, or nations.

As an example, Sowell cites studies that show first-born children tend to be more successful academically than children who have older brothers or sisters. Is this something that requires remedial action by the government? he asks. The very thought is ridiculous. We must, Sowell thinks, simply live and let live.

It is certainly true, as Sowell suggests that issues of feasibility severely constrain what those who seek “social justice” can do, but he has not shown that these issues reduce the space for action to nothing. At times, he implicitly posits a false antithesis between rejection of social justice entirely and acceptance of a comprehensive conception of social justice that he calls “cosmic justice,” which would attempt to redress all inequalities deemed undeserved. (I hasten to add that I reject social justice altogether, but to defend this position adequately requires an account of rights, which Sowell doesn’t provide.)

In support of his criticism of social justice, Sowell makes a dubious argument. People who support social justice often take as one of their prime examples the need for special programs to aid blacks because discrimination against them, both at present and in the past, has put them at a severe disadvantage compared to whites. But empirical evidence doesn’t support the claim that current inequalities in income between blacks and whites stem primarily from discriminatory treatment, he argues.

Sowell is a master of deploying evidence, and anyone who wants to challenge him about the causation of inequality faces a difficult, if not altogether impossible, task. But a supporter of social justice might argue that the requirement to redress discriminatory treatment isn’t an empirical claim about the sources of current inequality but a moral demand. People who hold this view might think that even if you are now doing very well, you are still entitled to compensation if you have suffered from discrimination. (Once more, I do not favor this view, quite the contrary, but an adequate response to it must involve moral theory.)

It’s more important, though, to bear in mind the strength of Sowell’s argument than its limits. Feasibility issues greatly limit the scope of social justice, even if they do not preclude it completely. And we can more unreservedly agree with another excellent point that Sowell makes. He says:

Ironically, many intellectual elites—then and now—seem to regard themselves as promoting a more democratic society, when they preempt other people’s decisions. . .Their conception of democracy seems to be equalization of outcomes, by intellectual elites. This would confer benefits on the less fortunate, at the expense of those whom these surrogates consider less deserving . . . [Woodrow Wilson] favored government by surrogate decision -makers, armed with superior knowledge and understanding—“executive expertness”—and unhindered by the voting public. Woodrow Wilson’s response to objections that this would deprive the people at large of the freedom to live their own lives as they saw fit, was to redefine the word “freedom.”. . . By simply depicting government-provided benefits—dispensed by surrogate decision-makers—as an additional freedom for the recipients, President Wilson made the issue of people’s loss of freedom disappear, as if by verbal sleight of hand.

Sowell has made a vital point. You are free if others do not aggress against your person and property; if they do so but give you benefits, you aren’t free. Sowell eloquently says:

The “complexities” of this Wilsonian definition of freedom are certainly understandable, since evading the obvious can become very complex. When Spartacus led an uprising of slaves, back in the days of the Roman Empire [Republic], he was not doing it to get welfare state benefits.

As Bishop Joseph Butler remarked long ago, “Everything is what it is, and not another thing.”

David Gordon is Senior Fellow at the Mises Institute and editor of the Mises Review.

David Gordon | Mises Wire

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China is building coal plants faster than a Democrat can stuff a ballot box, earning it the glorious distinction of being the world’s leader in CO2 and air pollution emissions.

But the usual suspects aren’t losing their minds. Greta has never protested there, and extinction rebellion is extinct.

China owns most of the mines, digging up rare earth metals to make the graven green idols of the new energy left. China is also a leader in ocean pollution and ocean plastic, but bringing any of that is Asian hate speech. A problem Cult stenographers at Reuters are addressing head-on. Yeah, China emits a lot of CO2, but it’s different.

 

It makes sense from an economic and geopolitical perspective to power China’s vehicle fleet using domestic electricity rather than imported crude oil.

The question is then whether China can meet its climate goals by switching increasingly to NEVs, which will be powered by a coal-heavy electricity grid for decades to come.

China used coal for about 63% of its electricity generation in 2022, with hydropower coming in second at 14%, and other renewable energies such as wind generating 9% and solar 5%.

China is also the world’s biggest installer of renewable power sources and is expanding its nuclear fleet as well, but coal is expected to remain the bedrock of electricity production, even as its share of generation gradually decreases.

But even using a predominantly coal-fired grid to charge NEVs is better from a climate perspective, insofar as an electric vehicle powered by a 60% coal-fired grid will produce lower lifecycle emissions that a similar ICE vehicle.

The author is crazy excited about China doing whatever it takes to reduce oil imports, even if it means burning tons of dirty coal. They’ve even done the math for us. An E need only drive 79,000 miles, even on coal, for the profile to reduce emissions. They then promise these vehicles will last to 170,000, so ta-dah, coal is better, and isn’t China wonderful?

As I understand it, China doesn’t use or require stack scrubbers. The author does not calculate the carbon cost of replacing the lithium pack, which will never make it to 170,000 miles and may even need ot be replaced twice to achieve that. There is no calculation for other realities like power loss, bleed, declining range, and how EVs are easily “totaled” from even the simplest of auto collisions.

Or that China will likely never shoot itself in the face by demanding EV embrace or anything approaching the electric future envisioned by Western progressives.

What it is doing is burning coal to shore up its military-industrial complex and commercial global dominance and using cheap, abundant energy to advance its global political agenda while selling the rope to the West with which its elites have chosen to hang us all.

And if you complain about that, I can only assume you’ll be called a racist, even though Democrats hate Asians almost as much as white Europeans.

HT | Real Climate Science

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The second GOP debate for the 2024 primary will take place this Wednesday, and not only will there be fewer people on the stage, but there will be a different sense of urgency about them.

The six candidates likely to be on stage are Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, former U.N. ambassador and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, U.S. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, biotech investor Vivek Ramaswamy, and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. To many, myself included, Ron DeSantis has been a surprise and disappointment. Perhaps the distraction of running a state and doing it very well has taken his eye off the prize, or maybe our expectations of his presence on the national stage were set too high.

He came into the race in a solid second place, only behind former President Trump, but has not connected with the folks of Iowa and New Hampshire and has dropped steadily in the rankings. Maybe not at the point of desperation yet, but DeSantis has to have a monumental night on Wednesday. His policies are sound, but his likeability numbers are dragging him down. He has to come out and convince viewers and voters that he is as Presidential as Gavin Newsom. There was talk of a made-for-TV debate between DeSantis and Newsom, and I think that testosterone-driven event would speed his decline.

Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy have been steady, and Vivek has moved into second in some polls. The others need to show why they are even in the game. Being in the single digits at this point should convince you that you may want the job, but America does not see you in the Oval Office. Pence and Scott are good men and have a message of hope and unity, but that message alone is not loud enough to make a difference. Chris Christie is not a good man, and his only purpose to be in the race is personal. He hates Donald Trump and wants to denigrate him at every opportunity. Many have tried that approach, asking the entire Democrat Party how that is working for them, but nothing seems to drag the polling numbers down; it only seems to bolster them.

In reality, do these debates have any importance in the 2024 Race? I think not. Unless the Democrats can find a way to legally keep Trump off the ballot and force Biden to the sidelines, it appears that America wants a rematch or a re-do. This scenario will be as ugly as an Ali vs. Frazier rematch. I do not think you will see Biden threaten to take Trump behind the barn this time unless it is to write initials in the snow. One thing that will be obvious if these two men stand on the debate stage together is what many of us have been saying for months: it is not age but acuity, and Trump will make Biden look like the feeble older man he is.

The debate will happen this week, and there will be more to come, but these sessions are not even an audition for a second spot on the ticket. If Trump is successful in surviving politically until the main event, I think he will snub all of the established possibilities for a running mate and surprise the world. I have no idea who it might be, but it will be worth tuning in for and probably more interesting than the debate.

The post The Second GOP Debate Will Have A Different Look And Feel appeared first on Granite Grok.

Black Democrat Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson announced he was switching to the Republican Party. It is a bold move in a city like Dallas, and if nothing else, the Democrat party is pissed, so at least one good thing came out of it.

But I’m not sure how a party jump will accomplish anything unless the goal is to prove a Republican mayor can oversee a crime-riddled urban plantation like Dallas. Look!, It’s not just Democrats wrecking American cities.

Time will tell, but Eric Johnson has sounded all the proper alarms and is saying the right things.

 

“The future of America’s great urban centers depends on the willingness of the nation’s mayors to champion law and order and practice fiscal conservatism,” Johnson wrote. “Our cities desperately need the genuine commitment to these principles (as opposed to the inconsistent, poll-driven commitment of many Democrats) that has long been a defining characteristic of the GOP.”

He added: “In other words, American cities need Republicans—and Republicans need American cities.”

Johnson’s announcement makes him the only Republican among the mayors of the 10 most populous cities in the US.

The ten most populous cities in the US account for the majority of poverty, crime, and illiteracy, and Mayor Johnson (snicker) was elected as a Democrat with 98% of the vote, according to CNN. Needless to say (this is where we repeat it anyway), the Texas Democrat Party is not amused.

“[T]he voters of Dallas deserved to know where he stood before he ran for reelection as Mayor,” the chair and vice-chair of the party said. “He wasn’t honest with his constituents, and knew he would lose to a Democrat if he flipped before the election.”

“This feeble excuse for democratic representation will fit right in with Republicans — and we are grateful that he can no longer tarnish the brand and values of the Texas Democratic Party,” they added.

The voters of Dallas deserve peace and prosperity, even if they can’t figure out how to vote for some of that.

Violent crime in Dallas is nearly double that of Texas and more than double the national median rate. Property crime is also roughly double that of the US average, with total crimes averaging 150 per square mile, 5.6 times greater than the US average. The poverty rate in Dallas is close to 18%. It’s everything you’d expect from systemic Democrat rule, but what can be done?

Mayor Johnson is saying the right things, but Dallas is a captured franchise of the Democrat political machine. Every office and every position of leadership is controlled by the (now) opposing party or its union representative. Nothing moves unless you move it yourself, which would begin with exercising whatever executive authority you have as Mayor to remove and replace people in key positions.

Can you? Wcritical you? And is there enough time to show progress before discovering how your party primaries you out when it is time for re-election? And remember that they will bring thugs to Dallas to make things look bad or worse. Antifa and BLM riots. General chaos and Mayhem.

The Left will set Dallas on fire to smoke you out of office, and being a black man will not protect you.

Having said all that, good on you for daring to stand up for the people of Dallas or at least saying things that need to be said. The Democrat party has destroyed America’s cities and stranded millions on their new urban plantation of crime, drug abuse, poverty, homelessness, and disease. But you have to do more than say you are a Republican.

We’ve got plenty of those already and they aren’t helping anyone but themselves.

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I would add to what Rand says that we need to protect our own border. The situation at our Southern border reeks Uniparty corruption just as much as funding the corruptocracy called Ukraine. The GOP wants an open-border because the donor-class wants cheap labor. The Democrats want an open-border because they want votes (Democrats are as happy to have … indeed probably prefer … illegal votes to legal votes) and to “transform” America. As a result, a population the size of Kentucky has crossed illegally into the United States. They’re not coming here because they want to be Americans. They’re radically different from legal immigrants (generally).

They’re coming here not to assimilate but to continue being Mexicans, Guatemalans, Hondurans, Cameroonians, Ethiopians, etc., etc. etc.. … while taking advantage of all the “free stuff” the Biden-Regime is providing to juice illegal immigration. The Woke-Left sees everything through the prism of woke. They practice the latest iteration of Socialism … Socialism based on woke, as opposed to class (Marx) or race (Hitler). To the race-obsessed Woke-Left, an America that is less White is a better America.

Convince a majority that they are part of some “marginalized,” “discriminated against,” etc., etc. etc. group and that their only hope of ending the discrimination, hate, marginalization, etc., etc., etc., is to give Democrats political power … eventually permanent political power. It’s evil and un-American. And yet the GOP is willing to look the other way because their donor-class can profit off of America’s “transformation.”

Do not be deceived by Zelensky, Rand Paul (@RandPaul) says, Ukraine is corrupt: "They’ve canceled the elections ..They banned the political parties, they’ve invaded churches, they’ve arrested priests, so no, it isn’t a democracy, it’s a corrupt regime."pic.twitter.com/EWUDsa4TKt

— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) September 21, 2023

 

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When a Democrat promises unity, they mean division. When they say transparent, they mean opaque, obscured, hidden. So, when the Biden Administration suggested it would be the most transparent, they meant what they said by their own understanding.

Short of a court order, and even with one, getting details is a tough row to hoe, especially regarding informed consent for the much-beloved covid “family” of vaccines*. The idea that you’ve been provided – as required by law – any risk factors associated with The Jab is absurd. But why should the Bidenistas try to meet any standard but their own? Millions accepted the injections based on the tagline “safe and effective.” Any question or deviation from the approved narrative was met with institutional resistance.

COVID ushered in a political public health police state, and the skeeving bastards couldn’t get enough. Dr. Roberty Malone, speaking to the problem in Canada, reminds us that,

 

What few are aware of is that this thoughtcrime punishment is being visited on many other Ontario physicians who had the temerity to provide early treatment for COVID disease, particularly those administering the forbidden treatments of Ivermectin, Hydroxychloroquine, Vitamin D, Vitamin C, Zinc and other inexpensive, off patent repurposed drugs or over-the-counter supplements.

Additional speech- thought- and medical practice crimes include failure to properly employ worthless cloth or paper dust masks to prevent coronaviral transmission, as well as granting medical and religious exemptions from receipt of toxic COVID “vaccines” which an abundance of data indicate are neither safe nor effective at preventing infection, replication, spread, hospitalization or death from disease associated with SARS-CoV-2 positive PCR tests.

 

Canada has proven everything wrong anyone had to say about the pre-socialization onramp of American medicine under Obamacare: the death panels are real and growing in number from local public health boards to their root at the FDA and CDC, which admits to having but is refusing to release, new details on vaccine-induced myocarditis.

 

Asked for more current data, the spokesman acknowledged the agency has it but is not making it public. “When appropriate, the updated safety data will be published,” the spokesman told The Epoch Times in an email. He did not answer when asked why the meeting was not an appropriate time.

“The CDC has acknowledged that heart inflammation is a complication of mRNA COVID-19 shots and, yet, the only published data released by CDC officials about that complication is a seven week study that ended on Oct. 23, 2022. Where is more specific myocarditis/pericarditis data related to bivalent COVID shots for the past 10 months?” Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder and president of the National Vaccine Information Center, told The Epoch Times via email.

 

Right out of the gate, that data can’t be good. If it were, it would have leaked to the media PR departments at CNN, MSNBC, the NYT, and Washington Post. We’d never hear the end of it. So, it’s bad and needs massaging, like everything else about this public health emergency.

And the bivalents? That was more voodoo and sleight of hand, like Comirnaty – a rebranding sold as an approved reformulation, but it was the same old whore in a new dress. And the side effects continue, regardless of the packaging; many are dangerous and life-altering, unreported or under-reported by design. Reporting is discouraged. An intentional dearth of information that is then used as evidence that the data is too incomplete to base policy.

Deliberate data deficiency to prevent transparency and accountability.

The covid vaccine Death Hockeystick was about as blatant a safety signal as you could find but not obvious enough to stop the chemical slaughter, suggesting the purpose was not to save lives but to end them. Hiding vaccine-induced heart damage is just part of the program.

And now we’ve got The Jab 3.0 (or is it 4.0?). Original, Comirnaty (same thing, new name), Bivalent, and now this: reformulated, we are told, to address the rapidly evolving mutations of new variant-offspring of Omicron, effective the way an untended net stops goals from being scored or perhaps the goalie gets credit for the assist.

A new variant offspring of the pharmaceuticals whose introduction spiked vaccine deaths and resulted in a swelling of cases of myocarditis whose numbers the CDC and FDA have but are unwilling to share with the people they insist line up for the next round of treatment.

If you express concern for your patients in Canada, you could be sent to a medical re-education camp and forced to sign a loyalty letter promising to do what you are told, whether or not you think it is in your patient’s best interest.

Doctors must be bureaucrats first and caregivers last, by order of the all-powerful state – and in an assisted suicide-crazy place like Canada, that can’t be good for Canadians.

Who needs death camps when public health care becomes an enforcement arm of a political regime that need not answer to anyone about anything?

 

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In prior installments of this series, state and national standardized test scores in New Hampshire and Vermont contradict the current narrative that the COVID pandemic shutdown caused children to suffer “learning loss.” Instead, the data reveals that the test scores have been deplorable for more than two decades and that they were in decline well in advance of the pandemic shutdown.

As elementary schools are tasked with teaching children how to read, we’ve looked at several in our region to assess both their scores and how they teach reading. Our reports on the Croydon Village School and Killington Elementary School reveal that there’s little, if any, evidence of “pandemic learning loss.” The Washington Elementary School seems to have been negatively affected by the pandemic shutdown. We were unable to determine whether or not the Albert Bridge School in Windsor was affected as Vermont won’t report its school-specific scores due to the school’s small size.

We now look at the Grantham Village School (GVS) in Grantham, NH.

Sydney Leggett has been the superintendent of the Grantham School District for six years. GVS houses Pre-K through grade 6. With 275 students, it has one class for Pre-K and two classes per grade beyond that, with an average of 18 students per class. The school has 14 classroom teachers, 4 specialists (music, art, library media specialist, physical education/health), two education case managers, one reading specialist and one reading and math interventionist.

Superintendent Leggett said they have not noticed a change in student achievement since the pandemic. The New Hampshire Student Assessment System (NHSAS) data supports her statement. The NHSAS is administered yearly to students attending traditional public and charter schools in grades 3-8.

The Grantham NHSAS Reading chart (below) shows that 84% of GVS students scored proficient or above in reading in 2017. That percentage fell to 76% in 2019. In 2021 it rose to 77%, declining very slightly to 76% in 2022. Clearly, GVS’ scores weren’t affected by the pandemic shutdown. Still, though GVS students are significantly outperforming NH’s statewide reading scores, one out of 4 students aren’t reading at grade level.

Leggett said this performance is the result of the community working strongly together to focus on student needs. The school held an expanded summer program for two years in a row, for those who didn’t normally attend summer school, so they could keep building skills. Paraprofessionals had individual contact with students for a year and a half during the pandemic period.

Leggett commended the many parents who created an environment in their homes to help students learn.

One parent, who spoke with me on the condition of anonymity, said that many parents in this wealthy community were hiring tutors or paying for online supplements to help their children learn to read before the pandemic; something common in affluent communities across the country. This is also supported by the podcast series “Sold A Story” (cited below) as being a regular occurrence.  The pandemic shutdown caused more parents to engage outside services.

It is well known that when parents are involved in their children’s learning, they perform better in school, although hiring tutors isn’t what people usually think of when they say “involved.” This may account for the above average performance of GVS students on the NHSAS.

For reading instruction, GVS started using the Fountas & Pinnell (F&P) “cueing” curriculum about 7 years ago. The idea behind “Cueing Theory” is that it’s easier for children to learn to read if they start with whole stories and whole sentences and do not try to read individual words. Teachers cover up words in a story and tell students to look at the picture, look at the first letter, and think of a word that makes sense. The theory says that by practicing this approach, children can figure out how to read on their own.

The science of reading research indicates that this isn’t how good readers learn to read, but rather how poor readers try to compensate for not being able to read. The science of reading research is summarized in an engaging podcast series called “Sold a Story,” produced by Emily Hanford, an investigative education journalist at American Public Media.

Leggett said they realized, after a few years, that the F&P program was not providing students with foundational early reading skills. They now supplement it with other programming that focuses on decoding and phonological awareness. The science of reading supports teaching early readers how to decode and learn the sounds that letters make. It also found that, if cueing is the main approach, students still may not learn to read fluently.

Grantham Village School is still trying to improve student literacy. The majority of the staff took the NH Department of Education intensive LETRS training last year — Language Essentials for Teaching Reading and Spelling. LETRS helps teachers understand the science of reading in order to help them teach better.

While the science of reading has shown that the cueing approach is misguided and might harm children, even if used with other methods, Leggett said that GVS continues to use Fountas & Pinnell for the parts they think are worthwhile.

The school now also uses FUNdations, which follows the science of reading. Leggett said that FUNdations has been working well for them. It uses the MTSS (Multi-Tiered System of Support) program to measure reading, math and social-emotion learning. Instructional teams meet with their interventionist regularly to group students by their needs, according to the data.

Superintendent Leggett said it’s not always about the program, it’s about the instruction.

— This story is part of a series in which we show how the pandemic shutdowns in Vermont and New Hampshire affected student performance on state and national standardized tests. We’re also taking a look at how some elementary schools in our area teach reading. Next, we’ll present the final installment in this series, which will include conclusions based on the data. Prior installments in this series were published in the Eagle Times on September 9, 12, 14, 16, 19 and 21.

This article was originally published by the Eagle Times. It has been edited slightly.

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Lt Gov. Mark Robinson is back. We featured his inspired remarks a few days ago (if you missed them). He’s been getting about, standing on his principles, and making waves. But he is not splitting hairs or mincing words, and in this clip, he says there are only two genders.

He says it, and then he explains it in a way in which the Left will lose their collective mind. So, yes, it’s a great way to start your Monday morning!

 



 

..

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The GOP lost another special election. It wasn’t just the candidate, it wasn’t Trump. It was the GOP establishment that lost the election. The Committee to Elect House Republicans (GOP in NH) created the candidate’s web page. The Issues section is so bland it could have been written about a Democrat.

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“Serving our community priorities and Interests, Protecting our Constitutional Rights, Restoring the NH Way of Life, Supporting our Emergency Responders and Veterans, Lowering the cost of living.”

If I am a voter, this tells me nothing. It has no specifics, no reason to choose this candidate vs. the other guy.

The Republican State Leadership Committee (GOP in DC) ran a Facebook ad that screamed, “Don’t let Democrats take the State House!” but again gave voters no reason to support our guy. To anyone who took the effort to look closely, it complains about Illegal Immigration. Really? Is that what the DC GOP thinks is the biggest issue in NH?

The Committee to Elect House Republicans ran a Facebook ad urging voters to “Elect proven leader our guy” and “the other guy is a Radical.” It closed by saying that our guy is “committed to putting communities first, defending constitutional rights, and supporting emergency responders and veterans.”

Again, nothing but Motherhood and Apple Pie. Just another politician of the UniParty saying nothing.

By contrast, the Democrat’s Facebook page had specifics: He is for “lower property taxes, supporting public schools and teachers, trusting women to make decisions for their own reproductive health, protecting our environment and natural resources.” He does NOT want “to take away your guns, gas stoves, gas engine cars and trucks, or your rights” or “defunding the police or emergency services.”

And as icing on the cake, the Democrat and his wife have homeschooled their kids.

The GOP had no message. The Democrat had a message. We can’t fight something with nothing.

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Anti-marriage propaganda is all over TikTok right now. The formula of the videos is almost always the same. A woman contemplating marriage and a family has a vision of the future in which she realizes that her husband will be simultaneously controlling and checked out. She sees the “burdens” this life could bring as children come into the mix and, ultimately, chooses to run away.

It’s meant to make marriage-aged women hate men and condition them to think their lives will still be lonely and loveless, even with a husband.

 

Another anti marriage propaganda Tiktok pic.twitter.com/1HbmbBy67D

— Nugs (@Nugjokes) September 19, 2023

 

But that, of course, isn’t real life. A husband is everything. He is the base on which a woman gets to build her life. Yes, a lousy husband creates a terrible home and a hurting wife. But a good husband is a blessing. Together, they create a home filled with passion and love. Not every marriage is a barren wasteland. Most are loving and filled with laughter.

If women want joyful marriages, they should look for men who understand that their purpose is to love and protect the family — first his wife and later his children too. He should want to keep his wife safe and treasured, not just physically but emotionally and spiritually. Any attack on her is an attack on him. Marriages built like this last until that poetic last breath.

Women want to feel safe, but a husband is not some security accessory to have in case of a scary situation. They have just as important a role as men in keeping the divine balance of marriage. The wrong woman can cause the same destruction in a relationship as an abusive man. Honorable men deserve to be loved and cherished by their wives. (RELATED: ROOKE: Women Aren’t That Complex)

 

 

When women ignore their nature, it causes discontent. Denying that women are emotional creatures is disrespectful. This emotion is the greatest gift we bring into this world. We have the ability to deeply care for our friends, children, and husbands. When looking for a husband, a woman should choose a man who sees the value her emotions could bring to his family.

 

this is trending on tik tok

pretty crazy how mass adopted the psy ops are pic.twitter.com/YTPZnkFkp8

— GC (j/acc) (@GRITCULT) August 10, 2023

 

The key is the willingness of the husband to protect and the wife to honor. Marriage isn’t 50/50. There is no such thing as meeting halfway or only giving it 50 percent of your effort. Selfish people who value their “independence” can’t fathom the bond that forms when both of you give every ounce of yourself to creating a strong marriage.

A good man doesn’t want to enslave his wife. He supports her in the home so that her role is fulfilling. Protecting the family has its own hardships. Still, motherhood is the most critical and taxing job women perform. A husband who appreciates her will work to aid her on the hard days, like when all the kids are sick and the house is burning down around her. He sees the cracks forming and immediately goes to work fortifying her, loving her amid the chaos.

No, it’s not easy. Nothing worthwhile comes without hard work. But, gosh, it is a beautiful way to live your life. When the other option is empty sex and soul-crushing corporate culture, a messy house with loud children sounds like heaven. These videos want women to return to their lonely apartments like it’s some triumph over men. But it really only serves to destroy the path for women to find true happiness through a husband who adores her and children to nurture.

 

Mary Rooke | Daily Caller News Service

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline, and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

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Democrats cheat. Just ask Bernie Sanders. They’ve robbed him at least twice, and what did he get for it? Bernie Bros didn’t feel the Bern. Not at all. They moved on, embracing similar tactics to help the guy who robbed Bernie win an election. Tactics used by Democrats against another Democrat in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

 

The current mayor, Joe Ganim, has been in office since 1991. A felon, Ganim went on a seven-year hiatus beginning in 2003 to serve time in a federal correctional institution after being convicted of a slew of corruption charges. But in December 2015, he was sworn back into the mayor’s office.

Ganim is currently running for reelection to his eighth term as Bridgeport mayor. One week ago, in the Democrat mayoral primary, he eked out a win over challenger John Gomes by 251 votes. A few days later, the Gomes campaign released a video showing a Ganim supporter making numerous pre-dawn trips to the ballot box outside the Bridgeport government center:

(source) The video, which was posted to the Gomes campaign Facebook page, shows a woman dropping stacks of papers into an absentee ballot box outside the government center in Bridgeport, where the city’s registrar of voters office is located.

 

I’m not sure there’s anything here to see. After all, numerous examples of thoroughly documented Democrat mules stuffing ballot drop boxes in Dinesh D’Souza ‘s documentary didn’t mean anything. If you look up 2000 mules, Wikipedia, the Democrat’s online encyclopedia, says,

 

The film falsely claims unnamed nonprofit organizations supposedly associated with the Democratic Party paid “mules” to illegally collect and deposit ballots into drop boxes in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin during the 2020 presidential election.

 

A Democrat mule stuffing a ballot box in Bridgeport, CT, can’t be true either, certainly not to progressives who are beholden to the approved narrative on such matters, even if they’ve captured it on film. But here’s the Gomes campaign stepping off the Democrat plantation to suggest that a woman “recommended for criminal charges following an investigation into complaints about absentee ballot handling in Ganim’s tight 2019 primary against Sen. Marilyn Moore,” has illegally stuffed another ballot drop box.

 

BREAKING: Democrat Mayoral candidate John Gomes of Bridgeport, Connecticut has filed a lawsuit challenging his party’s primary results after a bombshell video showed a Democrat clerk inserting illegal ballots into a drop box

“On primary night our campaign was victorious at the… pic.twitter.com/vF8Yi2vBTR

— George (@BehizyTweets) September 18, 2023

 

Good luck with that; just remember what Democrats do to people (including Democrats) who dare to disapprove of their tactics. They treat them like Republicans.

 

HT | PJ Media

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Do you remember Sun-King Sununu’s “Governor’s Economic Reopening Task Force”? A presumptuous and pretentious name for a bunch of political hacks who knew NOTHING about epidemiology, but issued all sort of “guidance” … a lovely euphemism for JUNK science … to “keep us safe from COVID.” For example, in May 2020 they recommended that Hampton Beach could “reopen” but parking lots could only operate at 50 percent capacity. There was and is no science behind that “guidance.” The 50 percent was a totally arbitrary number.

Another example is that walking on the beach was safe, but sunbathing was not. Restaurants could offer outdoor seating up to “50 percent” capacity … whatever the hell that means. I’m not kidding … check here if you think otherwise. Again … THERE WAS AND REMAINS NO SCIENCE behind any of the “Task Force” guidance … it was all an exercise in deception and control by Sun-King Sununu and his ilk.

Stated slightly differently, the “Task Force” intentionally deceived us … presenting their totally arbitrary and capricious recommendations as based in ‘the science.” All that the Sun-King’s COVID-scam accomplished was to hurt the local economy, drive real Republicans out of New Hampshire, attract Leftists to New Hampshire, AND … the ultimate purpose of it all … allow no-excuse absentee-voting in order to help Biden win the State’s electoral votes.

In a normal world, anyone who participated in this sham “Task Force” should be punished not rewarded. But New Hampshire is NOT a normal world. Instead, the Chair of the “Task Force,” D.J. Bettencourt, has been rewarded with a cushy government job. It pays … six-figures in fact … to have been one of the Sun-King’s COVID-hucksters.

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Extinction Rebellion is a well-funded left0Wing direct Action environmental movement. From street theater, to pondering public suicides, to gluing themselves to things, its advocates are some of the dumbest, sorry, I meant to say fringist Climate Cult activists out there. They also kill fish to make a point.

 

Activists from the Extinction Rebellion movement have been accused of killing fish in the river and fountains of a French town with a bright green dye that they poured in the water to protest against a toxic waste project.

Éric Straumann, the mayor of Colmar, an Alsatian town whose waterside district is known as Little Venice, said dozens of dead fish were found floating on the surface after the protesters dumped drums of fluorescein in the River Lauch at the weekend.

“I witnessed the impact on the aquatic wildlife of this dye, which was dispersed in bulk and remained visible for 24 hours,” Straumann said.

 

Hey, it’s not easy being green.

 

According to Straumann, several neighbors told him that after the dye was spilled, a good number of fish appeared floating dead in the Lauch River. The mayor himself shared a message on social media in disapproval of the event and showing one of the dead fish floating in green waters.

 

Haut-Rhin : le maire de #Colmar accuse les militants écologistes d’Extinction Rebellion d’avoir tué des poissons avec du colorant vert fluo, déversé dans les eaux de la Lauch pour protester contre l’enfouissement de déchets toxiques. pic.twitter.com/U4OWxrAvu2

— Infos Françaises (@InfosFrancaises) September 18, 2023

 

The activist is reported to have dumped large quantities of fluorescein into the water to make it look green. Flourescein’s side effects in humans include (citations removed),

 

“.. nausea, vomiting, hives, acute hypotension, anaphylaxis, and related anaphylactoid reaction,  causing cardiac arrest and sudden death due to anaphylactic shock.

Intravenous use has the most reported adverse reactions, including sudden death, but this may reflect greater use rather than greater risk. Both oral and topical uses have been reported to cause anaphylaxis, including one case of anaphylaxis with cardiac arrest (resuscitated) following topical use in an eye drop.”

 

Sudden death in fish as well, it seems.

Anyone rebelling against extinction should consider reading the warnings on the label before engaging in this sort of direct action. Action over what? Ironically,

 

Extinction Rebellion shared the images on social media and explained that the act of vandalism was done to protest against the French government’s plan to store about 42,000 tons of toxic waste in the region. In an attempt to attract public attention, a man affiliated with the group poured several barrels of green dye into the Lauch River. He has since been arrested.

 

It was a mercy killing.

Rather than allow those poor fish to suffer a normal life with the looming possibility of slow poisoning from potentially leaky waste contamination, boom! Dead.

 

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Last year, punk rocker Johnny “Rotten” Lydon made waves when he was quoted saying, “I never thought I’d live to see the day when the right-wing would become the cool ones giving the middle finger to the establishment, and the left-wing becoming the sniveling self-righteous twatty ones going around shaming everyone.”

Elon Musk tweeted Rotten’s observation about contemporary politics. Conservative Twitter personality Robby Starbuck quickly emphasized the point by declaring, “The right is the new counter-culture now,” with numerous editorials since elucidating the idea.

If the right is the new counterculture, conservatives must embrace policies that enhance their ability to combat the entrenched establishment.

Historically, conservatives were instinctive institutionalists, emphasizing a desire to protect culture, traditions, and institutions. This was best personified by William F. Buckley’s ubiquitous description of a conservative as “someone who stands athwart history, yelling ‘Stop…’” Rebelling against this established order were the liberals raging against the machine.

In recent years, however, the right has been the most ardent critic of the established order. As conservatives increasingly find themselves at odds with the orthodoxies of the federal government, the media, public health bureaucracy, and academia, conservatives need robust privacy protections that ensure their ability to challenge the left’s dominance in society’s key institutions.

When challenging the regime’s narratives, the establishment will often leverage its vast resources to crush dissenters. A few examples illustrate the point.

During the American Revolutionary Era, Thomas Paine published “Common Sense,” a pamphlet articulating the case for American independence from Great Britain. Paine wrote under a pseudonym to protect his identity from royalists.

The revolutionary cause was still controversial as late as 1776, with many colonists still loyal to Great Britain. Divulging his identity in that polarizing climate would have threatened Paine’s revolutionary efforts and denied our Founding Fathers a powerful tool to shift public opinion towards independence.

Similarly, during the height of the Civil Rights Movement in the Jim Crow South, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously repudiated the state of Alabama’s attempt to forcibly disclose donors and members of the state’s NAACP chapter, an effort intended to target people who funded the movement’s disruptive campaigns.

 

 

More recently, the Federal Election Commission long exempted the Socialist Workers Party from campaign finance disclosure requirements, because of Cold War era threats faced by their members. Acknowledging the hostility the party faced, the U.S. Supreme Court wrote, “We are not unmindful that the damage done by disclosure to the associational interests of the minor parties and their members and to supporters of independents could be significant… In some instances, fears of reprisal may deter contributions to the point where the movement cannot survive.”

Today, entrenched interests continue to take punitive actions against those who challenge the status quo. Last year, JPMorgan Chase closed the bank accounts of the National Committee for Religious Freedom and refused to restore access unless NCRF divulged their donors to the bank.

Fidelity Charitable, a division of Fidelity that advises clients on their philanthropic giving, blacklisted Alliance Defending Freedom, the religious liberties law firm that has secured several victories at the U.S. Supreme Court, refusing to refer donors to the organizations unless their giving is publicly disclosed.

When a fundraiser was launched to help support the legal defense of Kyle Rittenhouse, the crowdfunding app GoFundMe shut down the fundraiser, alleging an unspecified violation of its terms of service. Furthermore, those who were able to contribute were doxxed and faced harassment, including one Virginia law enforcement officer who was fired from his job for the offense of donating to the left’s most recent villain.

This is why Republicans in Congress must tread carefully when shining a light on the left’s use of nonprofit organizations: any response that empowers the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to take a more active role in policing the political activity of nonprofits would inevitably be used against conservatives seeking to disgorge entrenched power.

This was demonstrated when the IRS targeted Tea Party groups for extrajudicial scrutiny during the Obama administration, limiting the right’s ability to organize at the height of the 2012 presidential election.

Despite the various rationales for censorship given by the defenders of the status quo, the message is clear: if you dissent, you will be punished. Conservatives need to embrace all of what it means to be a countercultural force fighting against the status quo, which includes securing privacy protections that fuel the battle of ideas in this country.

As conservatives learn to rage against the machine, they will need all of the robust speech and privacy protections guaranteed by our Constitution because their opponents have many institutional tools at their disposal to weaponize against them.

Fortunately, the First Amendment exists to shield the counterculture from the censorious desires of the establishment.

Brian Hawkins is Senior Director of External Affairs of People for United Privacy.

 

Brian Hawkins | Daily Caller News Service

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

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