- The Left Hates You. Act Accordingly.
Submitted by Kurt Schlichter via Townhall.com,
They hate you.
Leftists don’t merely disagree with you. They don’t merely feel you are misguided. They don’t think you are merely wrong. They hate you. They want you enslaved and obedient, if not dead. Once you get that, everything that is happening now will make sense. And you will understand what you need to be ready to do.
You are normal, and therefore a heretic. You refuse to bow to their idols, to subscribe to their twisted catechisms, to praise their false gods. This is unforgivable. You must burn.
Crazy talk? Just ask them. Go ahead. Go on social media. Find a leftist – it’s easy. Just say something positive about America or Jesus and they’ll come swarming like locusts. Engage them and very quickly they will drop their masks and tell you what they really think. I know. I keep a rapidly expanding file of Twitter leftist death wish screenshots.
They will tell you that Christians are idiots and vets are scum.
That normals are subhumans whose role is to labor as serfs to subsidize the progressive elite and its clients.
That you should die to make way for the New Progressive Man/Woman/Other.
Understand that when they call Donald Trump “illegitimate,” what they are really saying is that our desire to govern ourselves is illegitimate. Their beef isn’t with him – it’s with us, the normal people who dared rise up and demand their right to participate in the rule of this country and this culture.
They hate you, because by defying them you have prevented them from living up to the dictates of their false religion. Our rebelliousness has denied them the state of grace they seek, exercising their divine right to dictate every aspect of our puny lives. Their sick faith gives meaning to these secular weirdos, giving them something that fills their empty lives with a messianic fervor to go out and conquer and convert the heathens.
And the heathens are us.
Oh, there are different leftist sects. There are the social justice warriors who have manufactured a bizarre mythology and scripture of oppression, privilege, and intersectionality. Instead of robes, they dress up as genitals and kill babies as a blasphemous sacrament. Then there are the pagan weather religion oddballs convinced that the end is near and that we must repent by turning in our SUVs. Of course, the “we” is really “us” – high priests of the global warming cult like Leonardo DiCaprio will still jet around the world with supermodels while we do the ritual sacrificing of our modern comforts. Then there are the ones who simply worship themselves, the elitists who believe that all wisdom and morality has been invested in them merely because they went to the right college, think the right thoughts, and sneer at anyone living between I-5 and I-95.
But all the leftist sects agree – they have found the revealed truth, and imposing it upon the benighted normals like us is so transcendently important that they are relieved of any moral limitations. They are ISIS, except with hashtags instead of AKs, committed to the establishment of a leftist caliphate.
You wonder why the left is now justifying violence? Because they think that helps them right now. Today it’s suddenly OK to punch a “Nazi.” But the punchline is that anyone who opposes them is a “Nazi.”
You wonder why they ignore the rule of law, why they could switch on a dime from screaming at Trump for refusing to preemptively legitimize a Hillary win and then scream that he is illegitimate the moment she lost? Because their only principle is what helps the left win today. That’s why the media gleefully, happily lies every single day about every single thing it reports. Objectivity? When that stopped being a useful thing, it stopped being a thing at all.
They are fanatics, and by not surrendering, by not kneeling, and by not obeying, you have committed an unpardonable sin. You have defied the Left, and you must be broken. They will take your job, slander your name, even beat or kill you – whatever it takes to break you and terrify others by making you an example. Your defiance cannot stand; they cannot allow this whole Trump/GOP majority thing to get out of control. They must crush this rebellion of the normal, and absolutely nothing is off the table.
We’ve seen them burn UC Berkeley and how the police controlled by the leftist state government of California stood by and watched as Americans were beaten by the mob. Why? Because the government of the State of California approves of the violence. Do you think it’s a coincidence that California is doing everything it can to disarm its normals?
The Left won’t say it out loud – at least not yet – but make no mistake. If violence is what it takes for the Left to prevail, then violence we will have. You saw it, and you were meant to. Berkeley was a message about the price of dissent where leftist hold sway. And they seek to hold sway everywhere
How to we respond?
The first step is to end the denial. Open your eyes. See what is happening. Don’t allow yourself to be deluded by false nostalgia for a past period of cultural peace that existed only because, at that time, the Left was winning. They hate you. Look at Twitter. Look at Facebook. Try and tell yourself that leftists are just nice people who disagree with you on a few policy details. Stop fooling yourself.
Understand that this must get much worse before it can get better. We may wish to stop the cultural/political struggle, but they can’t stop. Their religion tells them we are greedy, racist, sexist, homophobe morons who hate science and love Hitler. How could they tolerate us? How could they ever allow us power?
They can’t. Their sick ideology and false theology requires that we be enslaved or exterminated – we can’t be tolerated, and we certainly can’t be allowed to hold the reins of power. I hoped that my novel People’s Republic, about what lies at the bottom of this blood-soaked slippery slope, would be rendered moot by the GOP’s victory in November. I was wrong. The Left has redoubled its efforts.
So the only outcome is that one side wins and the other loses. There’s no truce to be had, no possibility of a tie. And the frightening thing is that the Left is so foolish, so stuck in its bubble that it has no understanding that it can only push so far before the people with all the guns and all the training push back. That’s the problem with kids who were raised on participation trophies and who never got into a fistfight – they don’t consider the possibility that they will lose, and lose hard.
We must ensure they do. Understand your enemy. Understand that the Left will exploit your principles and morals to make you disarm yourself – figuratively and literally. Don’t play their game; don’t fall for their manufactured outrages. Never concede their lies, never take their side against the people defending your liberty. Most of all, accept the truth that if we let them win we will spend the rest of our lives on our backs with a giant Birkenstock pressed into our collective face.
They hate us. And however they come at us, we need to be prepared to fight.
- Fake News for Fake People in an Engineered Fake Culture
America really is the land of the dreams. Dreams, take many forms; hallucinations, nightmares, delusions, bad trips.
Fake News is really descriptive; how about Fake culture, fake people, fake life. Is America real? You wouldn’t think there are people living here if you walk down most streets, all you see is cars, the occasional dog walkers, and the radiant glow of the TV screen. Just forget it all!
You know, nothing captures the fake culture better than music – music is the backbone of mainstream American culture (unfortunately) – in other cultures the backbone can be science, socialization, or in primal societies, dancing around a fire at night wearing masks and costumes.
There’s no better characterization of fake news than the famous “Dirty Laundry” by Don Henly.
I make my living off the evening news
Just give me something-something I can use
People love it when you lose,
They love dirty laundry
Well, I coulda been an actor, but I wound up here
I just have to look good, I don’t have to be clear
Come and whisper in my ear
Give us dirty laundry
We got the bubble-headed-bleach-blond
Who comes on at five
She can tell you ’bout the plane crash with a gleam in her eye
It’s interesting when people die
Give us dirty laundry
Can we film the operation?
Is the head dead yet?
You know, the boys in the newsroom got a running bet
Get the widow on the set!
We need dirty laundry
You don’t really need to find out what’s going on
You don’t really want to know just how far it’s gone
Just leave well enough alone
Eat your dirty laundry
Kick ’em when they’re up
Kick ’em when they’re down
Kick ’em when they’re stiff
Kick ’em all around
Dirty little secrets
Dirty little lies
We got our dirty little fingers in everybody’s pie
We love to cut you down to size
We love dirty laundry
We can do “The Innuendo”
We can dance and sing
When it’s said and done we haven’t told you a thing
We all know that Kraft is king
Give us dirty laundry!
American culture has been bought and sold to the Corporation generations ago. This recent meme about Fake News really captures the ‘reality moment’ America is having, and isn’t it fitting, a ‘reality TV star’ is President of the United States of America. “Reality” TV is the same ironic oxi-moron metaphor as Fake News – Reality TV – isn’t real. On the surface, it means – it’s not a scripted ‘program’ but the hidden innuendo – is that it’s REAL, as in REAL LIFE, which IT’S NOT!
Fake News is for Fake people (being from Boca Raton, FL author can attest there really is such a thing as a ‘fake’ person!)
But, what is real anyway?
fs
People are real. Objects are real.
Money is not real. Ideas are not real. Concepts, are abstractions.
So there you go – we’ve taken you down the rabbit hole far enough. If you want to know what’s at the end of the hole, pay, and you will see!
- And The Oscar Goes To… Chuck Schumer
It appears President Trump was correct… “fake tears”? You decide…
Necessary… Or Evil?
We wonder if Schumer will be the star of the next Heineken commercial?
- Sean Hannity Goes Nuclear on GOP Obstructionists for Not Acting on Trump’s Agenda
On his radio show this afternoon, Sean Hannity chimped out and called out republican shills who’ve been obstructing President Trump’s agenda by twiddling their thumbs and not writing bills to fund infrastructure projects, tax cuts and healthcare reform.
Essentially, Trump is at the mercy of a very corrupt and globalist shilling GOP — led by a man (Paul Ryan) who is as vacuous as his democratic counterparts.
Hannity promised to call them out, one by one, and to make their phones ring non-stop if they didn’t get off their asses and start working for the American people.
Epic takedown.
Content originally generated at iBankCoin.com
- Senate Votes To Gag Elizabeth Warren After Anti-Sessions Outburst
Not The Onion. Following a scathing speech against Trump's nominee for Attorney General, Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell said Senator Elizabeth Warren had "impugned the motives and conduct of our colleague from Alabama," violating the so-called 'Rule 19'. By a vote of 49-43, Senator Warren was then barred from speaking on the floor until Senator Sessions nomination debate is complete (likely tomorrow evening).
Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), who was presiding over the the Senate during the Massachusetts Democrat's speech – who at times was repeating words being said to him by GOP Senate floor staff – initially interrupted Warren to warn her that she was on the brink of violating the rule.
As The Hill reports, the drama on the Senate floor comes after McConnell interrupted Warren's speech accusing her of breaking the upper chamber's guidelines.
“The senator has impugned the motives and conduct of our colleague from Alabama,” McConnell said from the Senate floor.
“I call the senator to order under the provisions of Rule 19.”
Under the Senate’s “Rule 19,” senators are not allowed to “directly or indirectly, by any form of words impute to another Senator or to other Senators any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming a Senator."
Warren offered a blistering speech against Sessions's nomination, arguing he wouldn’t stand up to Trump’s “campaign of bigotry.”
“He made derogatory and racist comments that should have no place in our justice system,” she said.
“To put Sen. Sessions in charge of the Department of Justice is an insult to African-Americans.”
Warren quoted a 1986 speech from the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) who referred to Sessions as a “throwback to a shameful era” and a “disgrace” to the Justice Department.
McConnell defended the decision, noting Warren had been warned.
"Sen. Warren was giving a lengthy speech. She had appeared to violate the rule. She was warned. She was given an explanation," he said after the vote. "Nevertheless, she persisted."
McConnell on Warren: "She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted"
Great life advice pic.twitter.com/asdIqPc3Fz
— Brianna Sacks (@bri_sacks) February 8, 2017
McConnell also specifically pointed to Warren quoting a letter from the late Coretta Scott King, civil rights activist and wife of Martin Luther King Jr., as evidence that she had broken the rules.Coretta Scott King wrote in 1986, during Sessions's failed confirmation hearing for a federal judgeship, that he “had used the awesome power of his office to chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens" as a U.S. attorney in Alabama. When Warren said she was "surprised" by McConnell's actions and asked to continue, the Republican objected and was backed up by Daines, effectively ending Warren's speech.
Warren rejected McConnell's move, tweeting to her millions of followers that
"I will not be silent while the Republicans rubber stamp an AG who will never stand up to the @POTUS when he breaks the law."
Of course, Democrats did what they do best in response – unleashed a social media frenzy of hurt fellings capped by the hashtag #LetLizSpeak.
But Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) – the Senate's top Democrat – had the last word… "If the average American heard someone read a letter from Coretta Scott King … they would not be offended, It seems to me that we could use Rule 19 almost every day on the floor of the Senate. This is selective enforcement."
- Army Preps For Urban Warfare In MegaCities: "Mass Migration, Disaster, And Inner-City Turmoil"
Submitted by Mac Slavo via SHTFPlan.com,
There will be war in the streets of America. Things have been engineered that way.
The scenarios are many, the issues are complex. The current anger from the left, who are violently protesting against President Trump, is just one aspect of it.
But the Pentagon and the U.S. national security structure is increasingly looking towards the shifting demographics around the globe – people have moved from rural areas, and shifted into cities. Where ever conflict stirs, there will be a need for military and SWAT response to the call. Entire cities will be locked down; door to door sweeps will often have violent ends.
Baghdad could be brought home to the streets of America, and the military already knows it.
The powers that be are deeply concerned about the unfolding situations with migrants, illegal immigrants, potential terrorists, political factions, violent protests, arson and riots.
Increasingly, they are training for and expecting a homegrown conflict that will call for them to restore order in a major cities – and even hunt down suspects block to block, like in the Boston Marathon bombing incident, while making some significant infringement of our civil liberties.
During the past several years, there have been reports about unannounced urban warfare drills in major U.S. cities, sometimes in coordination with major events; there have also been military training scenarios that have maintained a consistent theme of civil unrest, economic breakdown and widespread riots.
For years the alternative media has warned about the US military possibly being used against the American people in a time of economic collapse or any sort of martial law scenario.
Drills such as Vigilant Guard 2010 have brought widespread attention to the fact that portions of our own military are training to take on crowds of American citizens demanding food and Constitutional rights in a time of crisis.
Now, a new release by the website Public Intelligence, once again confirms that as recently as February and March of 2012, US troops at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington were conducting training scenarios for a civil disturbance domestic quick reaction force.
A series of photos of the drills shows US troops with crowd control riot shields on the opposite side of actors portraying what can only be described as American citizens.
What do the elite know that we don’t?
Now, a major military scholar is calling for the creation of “megacities combat units” – a proposal that is a major and drastic departure from warfare of the past, which has been designed away from cities. Now, military and paramilitary units, as well as local law enforcement, much engage the population itself – with all the unpredictability afforded by a real life, complex situation filled with combatants, non-combatants and friendlies behind any and all doors, etc.
With a heightened focus on terrorism and reigning in undocumented immigrants, there will be a tendency, if we are not careful, for a heightened militarized and police state atmosphere to arise – both at home, and in everyplace that they take the fight.
Major John Spencer, a former Ranger Instructor and scholar at West Point’s Modern War Institute called for an armed unit ready for megacities deployment in an op-ed:
Every year, more and more of the world’s population moves into cities. The number of megacities is growing exponentially. Both of these global patterns and their inevitable consequences for military operations are well documented. Yet we still do not have units that are even remotely prepared to operate in megacities. If we want to find success on the urban battlefields the US Army will inevitably find itself fighting on in the future, that needs to change.
Throughout history, military forces either sought to avoid or simply had no need to engage in urban combat. Most military doctrine, and the strategic theory it is built upon, encourages land forces to bypass, lay siege to, or—if required—isolate and slowly clear cities from the outside in. The great armies of the world have historically fought for cities rather than in cities, a distinction with a significant difference. In cases where military forces had no choice but to operate within cities, the environment, almost without exception, proved very costly in both military and civilian casualties. Today, many armies have accepted that global population growth and urbanization trends will increasingly force military operations into crowded cities, and military forces must therefore be capable of conducting the full range of operations in large, dense urban areas.
Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley recently remarked that the Army “has been designed, manned, trained and equipped for the last 241 years to operate primarily in rural areas.” But that is about to change. Milley continued:
[…]
The conclusions of the SSG research are clear: megacities are unavoidable, they are potentially the most challenging environment the Army has ever faced, and the Army is unprepared to operate in them.
[…]
One ongoing military study of megacities is the NATO Urbanization Project. […] In the project’s most recent experiment, the NATO team conducted a wargame to determine the capabilities needed to achieve the goals of three likely missions in 2035: response to mass migration, natural disaster, and inner-city turmoil. Within these missions, the wargame specified that a brigade conduct three operations in a megacity—joint forcible entry, major combat, and subsequent stability operations—without unacceptable levels of military or civilian casualties.
[…]
Of course, urban warfare is not exclusively a future phenomenon. Much has been learned from urban battles in recent history: the Siege of Sarajevo (1992–95); the Battle of Mogadishu (1993); Russian operations in Grozny (1994–95 and 1999–2000); US operations in Baghdad (2003) and Fallujah (2004); Lebanese operations in Nahr al-Bared, Lebanon (2007); and the Second Battle of Donetsk (2014–15). But the broad lessons of these cases have yet to truly inform Army training for urban combat, which for most units consists mainly of tactical training (e.g., room clearing drills with four-man teams). The Army would be much better served by the creation of an entire unit dedicated to preparing to operate in dense urban environments, particularly megacities.
Any way you slice it, the military and the national security infrastructure are watching for cracks in the system.
People are at their wits end, and many are on the edge of poverty – and for many, it just won’t take much more to set them loose, and let riots erupt. Whether the system wants those to spread, or wants to suppress and contain them, they know they are coming.
Population pressures, and clashing groups within growing city centers are creating more problems, and compounding old ones.
If the economic stability of a given region were to give way, nearly every megacity would spiral out of control and descend into absolute madness – whether or this continent or any other.
via Nicholas West:
Rather than trying to guess what specific crisis may spill over into violence, or bring things to a stand still in traffic or electronic commerce, just consider the piling pressure that is growing in the techno hubs and swelling urban population centers.
New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston and dozens of enormous cities around the world are all completely vulnerable. Depending upon the political situation, unrest, violence or whatever else could spread across the entire Eastern half of the U.S., and the entire country could face collapse as it has never before known it. It is only a question of timing and circumstance.
Preppers should take all this into account. Modern life may make a connection to the city unavoidable prior to the collapse, but being insufficiently away from major urban centers is definitely a liability in times of crisis. Even outlying neighbors can be subject to looting, natural disaster, grid shutdown, riots, and many other situations. Make arrangements to shelter away from the city, and make sure you can get there safely and quickly when something goes down.
Do not rely on the services or goods of these cities, and get out while you still can. There are some very major crises brewing right now. They are preparing; you should, too.
h/t Nicholas West, Activist Post
- Goldman Stunned By Collapse In Gasoline Demand: "This Would Require A US Recession"
While energy traders remain focused on weekly changes in crude supply and demand, manifesting in shifts in inventory of which today’s API data, which showed the second biggest inventory build in history, was a breathtaking example of how OPEC’s “production cut” is clearly not working, a much more troubling datapoint was revealed by the Energy Information Administration last week when it reported implied gasoline demand.
To be sure, surging gasoline supply and inventories are hardly surprising or new: they remain a byproduct of the unprecedented global crude inventories leftover from two years of failed OPEC policy which resulted in a historic glut. Last January, overall crude runs were up 500,000 bpd as refiners shifted away from diesel and other products to gasoline to chase more attractive margins amid a mild winter and sluggish diesel demand. The move led to an overbuild of gasoline stocks that lingered into the summer, punishing margins when they should have been at their strongest. This January, crude runs are at historic levels, up by roughly 300,000 bpd over last year.
So yes, both gasoline stocks and supply remains at extremely high levels, but what set off alarm bells is not supply, but demand: the EIA last week reported that the 4-week average of gasoline supplied – or implied gasoline demand – in the United States was 8.2 million barrels per day, the lowest since February 2012. And, as Reuters adds, U.S. refiners are now facing the prospects of weakening gasoline demand for the first time in five years.
Unlike excess supply, which may have numerous factors, when it comes to a plunge in end product demand the implication can be
only one: the US consumer is very ill, especially when considering that gasoline use has grown every year since 2012, despite fears that demand has topped out amid the growth of fuel efficient cars, urbanization and a graying population.Upon learning the data, the industry’s immediate concern was about refiners and what it means for already sagging margins: U.S. gasoline demand is closely watched by traders since it accounts for roughly 10 percent of global consumption. U.S. refiners amassed large inventories that punished margins last year, but record gasoline demand and robust exports helped provided a firewall against further slippage. Now the industry faces the prospects of higher crude prices following global production cuts and fresh federal data that suggests their gasoline demand safety net may be eroding.
“It’s tough to base conclusions solely on the weekly data, which can be off significantly,” said Mark Broadbent, a refinery analyst with Wood Mackenzie. “If the demand is low as it the data shows, then it’s a going to be real problem for refiners.”
But it could be a far bigger problem in what it means for the broader economy.
* * *
Enter Goldman which cuts right to the point: “A 6% fall in US demand would require a US recession”
As Goldman analyst Damien Courvalin notes, “implied demand data points to US gasoline demand in January declining 460 kb/d or 5.2% year-on-year. In the absence of a base effect, such a decline has only occurred in four periods since 1960 during which time PCE contracted.”
Goldman then adds that “to achieve the 5.9% decline suggested by the weekly data, our model requires PCE to contract 6%, in other words, a recession.”
So is the gasoline demand data accurate, and is a recession quietly gripping over the US, even as most other indicators are calmly flashing green?
Here Goldman refuses to believe the official data, instead reverting to its own model, which “adjusts” the data, to goalseek the decline to appear more manageable.
Given that the December PCE printed 2.8% growth, in line with its
performance throughout 2016, we find such a sudden collapse unlikely… our revised model for gasoline demand, which regresses year-on-year change in demand on analogous growth in PCE, pump prices, efficiency, number of public holidays and base effect, points to a 30 kb/d or 0.3% decline. Alternatively, given our economists’ forecast for PCE to grow 2.6% in 1Q17, such a decline would require a yoy efficiency gain of almost 20% vs. the maximum historical gain of 8%. Finally, the potential reduction in demand on account of the Presidential Inauguration on 20 January is offset by one less weekend day vs. the same period in January 2016.Goldman then calculates what it believes is the accurate collapse in implied gasoline demand, instead of the 460k b/d reported by the EIA:
Our analysis identifies weekly yield and exports as systematically deviating from their final values and such biases suggest that demand could be revised higher by 190 kb/d. The EIA’s real-time export data still includes estimates and we see potential for the recent shifts in the Mexican gasoline market to exacerbate the overstatement of US exports by an additional 185 kb/d given (1) lower PEMEX refinery turnarounds, and seasonally lower demand exacerbated by the January 16% hike in prices. Adjusting for these lower exports points to US gasoline demand declining only 85 kb/d yoy in January, in line with our macro model.
Next, Goldman pulls the oldest trick in the book and suggests that it is not implied demand that is plunging, but supply that is soaring and is simply not being captured by the government:
we view the larger than seasonal ytd builds in US gasoline stocks as driven by transient supply factors rather than persistent demand issues. In the case of Mexico, we expect that at current set prices, gasoline demand will decline by 25 kb/d yoy in 2017, with demand falling by 75 kb/d if prices gradually reached global prices this year.
In conclusion, Goldman chooses to ignore the data, and to base its conclusion on its own fudged data:
Looking forward, we reiterate our outlook for strong global demand growth in 2017 and view the recent US gasoline builds as reflective of transient regional shifts in gasoline supply instead. Given our outlook for strong consumer spending in 2017, we believe that US gasoline demand growth will remain resilient this year at 60 kb/d, albeit below last year’s 150 kb/d growth because of higher prices. From a global perspective, these declines remain modest, especially compared to the 510 kb/d 2016 demand growth from the 40 countries we track.
So is Goldman right implying the EIA gasoline demand data is wrong, or is Goldman once again incorrect – as it has so frequently been over the past year – which would mean that, as the bank itself admits, the US consumer, and economy, are in the throes of a deep recession? We hope to get a partial answer tomorrow, when the DOE reports the latest weekly inventory data.
- House Republican Introduces Bill To Abolish Dept. Of Education On Same Day DeVos Confirmed To Run It
In a slight bit of irony, a Republican Representative from the state of Kentucky, Thomas Massie, introduced H.R. 899, a bill written to abolish the Department of Education in it’s entirety, on the same day that Vice President Pence cast the unprecedented, tie-breaking vote to confirm that department’s new Secretary, Betsy DeVos.
Apparently Massie is “in to the whole brevity thing” as the entire bill consists of a single sentence:
“The Department of Education shall terminate on December 31, 2018.”
We wonder how many legal hours were billed by expensive D.C. attorneys in the drafting this legislation?
Massie provided a little more insight in a press release that included comments from some of the bill’s seven other Republicans sponsors, including: House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (Utah) and Reps. Justin Amash (Mich.), Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Jody Hice (Ga.), Walter Jones (N.C.) and Raúl Labrador (Idaho).
Department of Education shall terminate on December 3On the day of Betsy DeVos’ scheduled Senate confirmation for Secretary of Education, Massie said, “Neither Congress nor the President, through his appointees, has the constitutional authority to dictate how and what our children must learn.”
Massie added, “Unelected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. should not be in charge of our children’s intellectual and moral development. States and local communities are best positioned to shape curricula that meet the needs of their students. Schools should be accountable. Parents have the right to choose the most appropriate educational opportunity for their children, including home school, public school, or private school.”
“For years, I have advocated returning education policy to where it belongs – the state and local level,” said Rep. Walter Jones, an original co-sponsor. “D.C. bureaucrats cannot begin to understand the needs of schools and its students on an individual basis. It is time that we get the feds out of the classroom, and terminate the Department of Education.”
“I’ve always been a proponent of empowering parents, teachers and local school boards who best know our children and their needs,” said Rep. Raul Labrador, another original co-sponsor. “Eliminating the U.S. Department of Education is the most important step we in Congress can take in returning decision making to the local level.”
“Education of our students should lie primarily with parents, teachers, and state and local officials who know how to meet their individual needs best,” said freshman Rep. Andy Biggs. “Since its inception, the Department of Education has grown into an unrecognizable federal beast, and its policies have helped foster Common Core across the country. It is time the one-size-fits-all approach by the federal government is ended and authority is returned to the local level.”
Well, this is awkward…the only thing that would be more awkward would be if the person taking over the Department had previously been the one to call for it’s abolishment…oh wait, that happened.
- Authoritarians At The Gate: How One High School Is Ripping Its Community Apart
We strongly advise you to put down all sharp objects before reading the following…
Submitted by Mark Glennon via WirePoints.com,
Not since the Vietnam War have I seen as much strife and personal hostility within an otherwise friendly community.
Thank the administration of New Trier High School in north suburban Chicago. This story is about the madness on college campuses now being crammed down into a public high school. More importantly, it’s about an angry brawl now growing rapidly.
Oblivious to how identity politics have divided the country, the school is holding an attendance-mandatory All-School Seminar Day with the stated goal of “understanding today’s struggle for racial civil rights.”
That sounds fine, but the problem is that it serves no such goal. The agenda is brazenly and unquestionably one-sided, divisive, political and radically left. Understanding civil rights, as New Trier sees it, doesn’t mean challenging students to sort through competing ideas. It means force-fed dogma.
Results were entirely predictable. Conservative and moderate parents, including me, erupted over what we see as propaganda masquerading as education cloaked in the language of togetherness. We’ve publicly made a simple request: Add balance to the program by including topics and speakers to expose students to a fair range of ideas.
Balance, that’s it. If the school is unwilling to add that balance, then the seminar should be cancelled or, at a minimum, attendance should be made optional. Those feeling that way put up a website linked here and have launched a petition drive linked here.
Reaction to the request for balance was also predictable. Program supporters took to social media saying critics want to censor out discussion about race, don’t care about civil rights, are bad parents for trying to shield their children and, of course, that we’re racist.
Sure we’re racist – as program supporters see things. Systemic, invisible racism is the core theme of the program. As one workshop description puts it, “Most systemic racism is invisible…often to both ‘sides’…until you know it’s there. Once you know it’s there, you can’t stop seeing it.” Our racism is so clear, in other words, that it should be taught as fact and not one of many viewpoints.
Hostility is growing much more intense and personal. Before we get to that, some background:
The School District
New Trier High School is often ranked among the best in the country. It covers very prosperous suburbs north of Chicago and is overwhelmingly white. The township was traditionally conservative and Republican but is now solidly liberal and Democratic, based on the last election cycle and polls I’ve seen.
New Trier High School’s main campus
The Seminar
Let’s look at some samples of the workshops.
- One of the invited speakers is a rapper named John the Author. Here’s a segment from his work:
Divide and conquer, white supremacy the silent monster
I see you sneaking in the corner trying to have some karma
We ain’t looking to know your honor, No your honor we (?) problem
The resolution is an economic revolution,All in the name of retribution, you ready? Let’s do it,They integrated then infiltrated through immigration
The richest folk in our neighborhood ain’t even our neighbors
They take the dollar back across town, don’t you dare tell me to calm down
(?) mister doghouse,We want it all now, it’s time to push ‘em all out—I’m ready to start now- “A People’s History of Chicago” will look at race “in the tradition of Howard Zinn.” Zinn wrote A People’s History of America, about which black, conservative economist Thomas Sowell wrote,
It speaks volumes about our schools and colleges that far-left radical Howard Zinn’s pretentiously titled book, “A People’s History of the United States,” is widely used across the country. It is one indictment, complaint, and distortion after another. Anyone who relies on this twisted version of American history would have no idea why millions of people from around the world are trying, sometimes desperately, to move to this country. The one virtue of Zinn’s book is that it helps you identify unmistakably which teachers are using their classrooms as propaganda centers.
- Another segment is “Spent: A simulation to see how long you can survive on minimum wage.” Any bets they won’t be simulating how long you can survive on no wage, which countless economists argue is the result for some from minimum wage laws?
New Trier didn’t let the topic for the seminar, racial civil rights, stop them from throwing in a couple other progressive favorites:
- In one segment, “SOARS’ creator, Scheherazade, discusses the role arts can play in creating a national movement to end sexual violence.”
- Another segment on the Equal Rights Amendment will ask, “Why hasn’t it been ratified? Do we even need it anymore? Let’s talk about it!”
It doesn’t help that some presentations are just plain silly:
- There’s “Disney and Racial Stereotypes: Watch classic Disney animated films and discuss how these films influence childhood development of racial identities.”
- Another says, “Come to the Northfield Library and read picture books to a group of children (ages 3-5). The picture books will focus on themes of embracing diversity, accepting others and oneself, and social justice.”
- Then there’s “Racist Memorabilia Through the Ages.”
- My personal favorite is “Microaggressions: Not So Small.” Maybe it should be subtitled “Tolerance for oxymorons!”
The rest of agenda for the day is posted on links here and here. You’ll find only four or five out of the hundred or so that would seem to present even a moderate perspective. Read the whole agenda and you’ll see that this summary written by its critics is valid:
- The Seminar claims: “Identity” is defined by race. Period. It is fixed and determinative. (The term “racial,” “racist,” “bias,” and “systemic racism” suffuse the panel descriptions, together appearing over 80 times. Meanwhile, in a Seminar Day devoted to, “Understanding Today’s Struggle for Racial Civil Rights,” a working definition of the term “civil rights” is not offered.)
- The Seminar claims: People of the same race think and feel the same way about most or all things.
- The Seminar claims: Disparities between races are de facto evidence of “systemic racism.” Not, for instance, government policies that confine poor children to failing inner city schools, devastate black families, and encourage crime and dependence.
- The Seminar claims: “Systemic racism” should be the root of all discussions.
The “Tolerant” Strike Back at the “Haters”
Things really hit the fan when program critics put up their own site that allows incoming comments. Here are a few of the emails received. Senders included their names with their emails, unafraid to say these things to their neighbors, though I’ve deleted names here:
- “Go fuck yourselves. Honestly, what you are trying to do is pathetic. ‘Diversity programs don’t work’? What’s your alternative, segregation?” That’s from a New Trier grad who says she didn’t understand race until she went to college at [a private, elite liberal arts school whose name I’ll withhold]:
- From a New Trier Parent: “The district would not need to spend money on this day if the majority of parents, like yourselves, were not racial assholes.”
- From a New Trier student: “Get your fucking KKK looking asses back to your house and shut up.”
I guess comments like that are quite reasonable if you accept the central teaching of the seminar, which is that we’re all racists. Plenty more like that from hatred’s enemies can be found on this link. I certainly would not be surprised if equally nasty things are being sent by some critics of the seminar to its defenders, but that’s really the point: Is this seminar promoting understanding and rational discussion?
The School’s Response
New Trier’s administration has been mostly silent, except for release recently of this FAQ and and some short comments to the press.
First, the school’s Superintendent defends the program by saying, “I have had well over 300 phone calls, emails, and letters of support saying ‘Don’t change it, it looks fabulous,'” she said. “The direct communication we’ve had has been far more in support than in opposition. In fact, I’ve never seen this kind of outpouring of support on an issue in my life as an educator.”
We pay her $419,000 and God-knows-what pension to set educational content by counting popularity beans? Would she exclude the liberal voices (which are properly included) if she were in some school district in the South where those views might be overwhelmingly unpopular? She offers no reason for refusing to add other perspectives.
And her method of counting is faulty because of another horrible problem, as to which she’s seemingly blind: Critics of the program are stifled by fear of the controversy and retribution, so she’s not hearing from them. We’ve heard from any number of program critics who won’t dare say or do anything. One active member of our opposition, who has a business in the community, asked us to be extremely careful not to mention either her name or business, fearing the consequences. Some even fear retribution by very progressive teachers against their kids.
New Trier’s Superintendent also didn’t mention that, for a similar program last year, about 40% of New Trier kids did not attend.
Those kids may be smarter than the adults on this. While some are vocally on one side or another, plenty see through it. I asked one how he thinks his fellow students view the program. He thought just under half shrug it off as “more SJW [social justice warrior] nonsense.” He added that he thought many of the liberals who like the program think it’s unbalanced.
In the FAQ, the school emphasizes that the program is not political. Oh, please. It’s straight out of the playbook used by countless Democrats in the last election cycle. It’s about as “not political” as the poster on the right, which went up in the school on Inauguration Day. You decide if that, and the seminar, are political.
Illegal?
Politicking in schools has legal limits. New Trier also has a written policy requiring that discussion of controversial topics “present a balanced view.” I don’t know whether New Trier crossed the legal line, but a separate group is researching that now and will file a lawsuit if they conclude it has.
Cost
Operating costs per day when school is in session is slightly over $533,000, according to responses in a FOIA request from New Trier. The school’s FAQ adds that the seminar has an additional budget of $30,000.
At a recent New Trier school board meeting, in defending the program, an Assistant Superintendent of Student Services said the preparation was a “huge effort” and “exhausting.”
* * *
It would be easy to rattle off a list of topics that would make New Trier’s seminar day more balanced and genuinely educational. Moderates and conservatives might not agree on that list, but this controversy could easily have been avoided with even a lazy attempt. I’ll suggest just one topic that would have helped, the virtue of which should now be evident to all:
How identity politics have ripped America apart and undermined the quest for racial harmony.
UPDATED 2/6/17 to increase the compensation paid to the New Trier Superintendant from $315,000 to $419,000. For further information on compensation and political nature of the rest of the school’s administration, see this article.
*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints. Opinions expressed are his own.
Digest powered by RSS Digest
Saving...