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Another Ivy League Says They're Suspending Pro-Hamas Students

 Columbia University threatened and has now gone through with suspending pro-Hamas student agitators setting up encampments on campus. A statement from Cornell University President Martha E. Pollack on Monday signaled that they too will go through with suspending students, as CNN highlighted as part of their live updates. 

The statement was merely titled "Update on campus events," and never goes into the specifics of what those "campus events" of pro-Hamas encampments entail. The Israel-Hamas conflict that began after Hamas perpetrated a terrorist attack against our ally in the Middle East is never mentioned at all. 

What the statement does mention is how those facing trouble did not have to let the trouble get this far:

It is important that everyone knows the details about what has been happening here at Cornell. Last Thursday, a group of individuals formed an encampment on the Arts Quad. A student group had previously requested permission for an art installation there, consistent with our policies; however, they were dishonest in their request, stating that there would not be tents and that the art installation would be removed by 8 p.m. on Thursday.

Upon learning of the encampment very early Thursday morning, my leadership team immediately offered an alternative location between Day Hall and Sage Chapel, which would have been significantly less disruptive. With an approved permit in hand, the protesters could have remained in the alternative location, per our policies, thereby avoiding disciplinary sanctions. The individuals requested and received multiple opportunities, over a five-hour span, to consider their options, but ultimately decided not to move. They were then reminded several additional times that afternoon and evening that if the tents were not taken down, they would be subject to disciplinary action for violating the university’s time, place, and manner rules. With full knowledge of the sanctions to come, they again refused to comply, and we moved forward with a first set of immediate temporary suspensions.

We met with a group of the student participants on Saturday and again on Sunday, discussing the encampment and again offering them the opportunity to move to the alternate location. They declined. Therefore, more temporary suspensions, along with HR referrals for employees engaged with the encampment, are forthcoming.

The terrorist sympathizers could have continued on with their pro-Hamas, anti-Israel demonstrations elsewhere on campus and were given multiple chances to do so. They refused, though. 

There was also a statement with such a warning issued on Saturday, from Joel M. Malina, the vice president for university relations, about an "Update on unauthorized encampment on the Arts Quad."

Such a statement began with a focus on free speech. "Free expression is a core value of our university, and the right to peacefully protest on our campus has a deep and respected history," read the first sentence. The statement did close, however, by addressing just what it is that these agitators support:

"We are also deeply distressed by chants made at some of the rallies near the encampment, particularly the phrase, “There is only one solution: Intifada Revolution.” The protesting group has repeatedly stated that their protest is political and not antisemitic, but these chants belie that claim. We implore all Cornellians to consider the impact of their words as well as their intentions as we navigate the immense pain and suffering that many are experiencing.

Local news outlet WENY reported that four students were suspended over the encampment on April 26, including PhD student Momodou Taal who has lamented that pro-Hamas agitators on campus have had their visa status threatened. "They have deliberately targeted students with precarious positions such as visa status," he whined, even though he notes he was given "a grace period."

His post also contained telling language about the university, such as how "It is clear that they are more concerned with appeasing their Zionist donors and keeping their hands drenched in blood than over the expressed refusal of their students and workers."

Cornell University has temporary suspended me alongside 3 other students/grad workers. They have deliberately targeted students with precarious positions such as visa status. They have given me a grace period but I am no longer permitted on campus. I know they have done this as a…

— Momodou ✊🏿 (@MomodouTaal) April 26, 2024

Cornell has recently made headlines in other ways over such concerning protests. Recall that Cornell Professor Russell Rickford shouted over a megaphone that he found the October 7 attack to be "exhilarating" and "energizing." This took place days after that attack resulted in 1,200 Israelis killed through unspeakable means, including babies and Holocaust survivors. Victims were also tortured, raped, and taken hostage, with many still in captivity. 

Rickford was placed on leave, but the New York Post reported on Monday that he was back on campus last Thursday to encourage the agitators. "The liberated territory is a concept. The liberated territory is in your head," he was quoted as saying at a rally by the Cornell Daily Sun. "Anytime you are ready, you can become a resident, an inhabitant, a member of the occupied territory, of the forces of liberation."

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"The university did not comment further on Rickford’s presence on campus or if it violated any rules," the report mentioned. 

Joe Biden’s Plot to Halt Innovation

 

America has long been known as the home of innovation. Many of the most successful companies the world has ever seen were born here. In the modern era, the seven largest technology companies in the world were all founded in America. America is a beacon of entrepreneurship – whether the desires of the hopeful entrepreneur are to establish and maintain a profitable small business, or to create a multinational juggernaut, all of this and more is possible in the United States – or at least it used to be. 

Joe Biden just declared war on our nation’s great entrepreneurial spirit. 

His 2025 budget calls for hiking the top capital gains rate from 28 percent to 44.6 percent. As Americans for Tax Reform laid out, "The proposed Biden top capital gains tax rate is more than twice as high as China’s rate. China’s capital gains tax rate is 20%.” Do we really want to be a nation with a higher capital gains tax rate than China?

Many were left scratching their heads after this proposal was revealed, especially given that research shows that increasing the capital gains tax destroys innovation and the reverse is also true. A 2019 study found that reducing the capital gains tax significantly increased "the amount of investment in start-up firms." Economist Allen Sinai found that "capital gains tax reduction increases savings, capital spending and capital formation, economic growth, jobs, productivity and potential output." If reductions in the capital gains tax rates have proven to increase the growth of the economy, why would Biden seek to do the opposite?

Our economy follows incentive structures. If you disincentivize growth, you can expect a slowdown. If you minimize the taxation penalties for those looking to invest in our economy, you can expect growth as a result. 

Capital gains taxes are a form of double taxation (and you could even argue they’re a form of triple taxation). You’ve already paid income tax before you’ve made your investment. Then there is a built-in inflation tax when you sell your investment off years down the road. Taxing the gains made on an investment creates yet another hurdle that investors have to put up with

Let’s say you invested $10,000 in company X in 1994 and you sell your shares for $30,000 today for a return of $20,000. Well, the dollar has sharply depreciated since 1994. In fact, the value of a dollar has halved in the past 30 years. 

So, your return is effectively only $10,000, and yet Joe Biden wants to take 44 percent of the $20,000 realized profit. Many are beginning to ask themselves, why should I take the risk to invest in that environment?

A higher capital gains tax will mean fewer investors. Fewer investors will mean less innovation and fewer great American companies.

Biden and his allies justify this tax increase as a way to reduce wealth inequality, but his own administration notes that there is actually a deeper racial motivation to the proposal. 

The Biden Treasury Department wrote that the current capital gains tax rate “disproportionately benefit[s] White taxpayers, who receive the overwhelming majority of the benefits of the reduced rates.”  

Racial resentment as a guiding principle for tax policy is not a recipe for success and utilizing the economy as a weapon to enforce your social goals is a dangerous game. 

Given Biden’s stated goal is to politicize the tax structure in order to punish those who he believes are a threat to his power, it should come as no surprise that there’s an even crazier tax proposal hidden in this budget plan. The Biden administration also wants to tax “unrealized gains.” Taxing unrealized capital gains means you penalize individuals for momentarily successful investments regardless of if they’d sold them or not. In other words, Americans would owe taxes on earnings they haven’t actually received yet as realized income. 

Biden will defend himself by noting that his proposed 25 percent tax on unrealized gains will only be imposed on individuals with more than $100 million in assets, but the problem is – with policies like these, why would anyone desire to accumulate that level of wealth any longer in this proposed environment? 

If Joe Biden’s policies are enacted, expect American billionaires to flee and our economy to suffer, as not only will we lose Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, Larry Ellison, and many more, but importantly we’ll lose the great entrepreneurs of the future. 

Brave business owners risk everything with the hopes that they will be able to reap the rewards of their risk as they increasingly provide value to their customers. Joe Biden wants to eradicate the chances that they’ll ever be able to. 

As Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan noted in 1997 “while all taxes impede economic growth to one extent or another, the capital gains tax is at the far end of the scale.”

A serious nation would promote entrepreneurship, innovation, and growth at all costs. The Biden administration has made it abundantly clear he has no such desire. We as citizens of this great country can only hope that Biden is out of office so his goals are never realized.  

Iran’s Nightmares

 

Details of the recent limited Israeli retaliatory strike against Iranian anti-aircraft missile batteries at Isfahan are still sketchy. Nonetheless, we can draw some conclusions.

Israel’s small volley of missiles hit their intended targets, to the point of zeroing in on the very launchers designed to stop such incoming ordnance.

The target was near the Natanz enrichment facility. That proximity was by design. Israel showed Iran it could take out the very anti-missile battery designed to thwart an attack on its nearby nuclear facility.

The larger message sent to the world was that Israel could send a retaliatory barrage at Iranian nuclear sites with reasonable assurances that the incoming attacks could not be stopped. By comparison, Iran’s earlier attack on Israel was much greater and more indiscriminate. It was also a huge flop, with an estimated 99 percent of the more than 320 drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles failing to hit their planned targets.

Moreover, it was reported that more than 50% of Iran’s roughly 115-120 ballistic missiles failed at launch or malfunctioned in flight.

Collate these facts, and it presents a disturbing corrective to Iran’s non-stop boasts of soon possessing a nuclear arsenal that will obliterate the Jewish state.

Consider further the following nightmarish scenarios: Were Iranian nuclear-tipped missiles ever launched at Israel, they could pass over, in addition to Syria and Iraq, either Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the West Bank, Gaza, or all four. In the cases of Jordan and Saudi Arabia, such trajectories would constitute an act of war, especially considering that some of Iran’s recent aerial barrages were intercepted and destroyed over Arab territory well before they reached Israel.

Iran’s strike prompted Arab nations, the U.S., the U.K., and France to work in concert to destroy almost all of Iran’s drones. For Iran, that is a premonition of the sort of sophisticated aerial opposition it might face if it ever decided to stage a nuclear version.

Even if half of Iran’s ballistic missiles did launch successfully, only a handful apparently neared their intended targets — in sharp contrast to Israel’s successful attack on Iranian missile batteries. Is it thus conceivable that any Iranian-nuclear-tipped missile launched toward Israel might pose as great a threat to Iran itself or its neighbors as to Israel?

And even if such missiles made it into the air and even if they successfully traversed Arab airspace, there is still an overwhelming chance they would be neutralized before detonating above Israel.

Any such launch would warrant an immediate Israeli response. And the incoming bombs and missiles would likely have a 100% certainty of evading Iran’s countermeasures and hitting their targets.

Now that the soil of both Iran and Israel is no longer sacred and immune from attack, the mystique of the Iranian nuclear threat has dissipated.

It should be harder for the theocracy to shake down Western governments for hostage bribes, sanctions relief, and Iran-deal giveaways on the implied threat of Iran successfully nuking the Jewish state.

The new reality is that Iran has goaded an Israel that has numerous nuclear weapons and dozens of nuclear-tipped missiles in hardened silos and on submarines. Tehran has zero ability to stop any of these missiles or sophisticated fifth-generation Israeli aircraft armed with nuclear bombs and missiles.

Iran must now fear that if it launched two or three nuclear missiles, there would be overwhelming odds that they would either fail at launch, go awry in the air, implode inside Iran, be taken down over Arab territory by Israel’s allies, or be knocked down by the tripartite Israel anti-missile defense system.

Add it all up, and the Iranian attack on Israel seems a historic blunder. It showed the world the impotence of an Iranian aerial assault at the very time it threatens to go nuclear. It revealed that an incompetent Iran may be as much a threat to itself as to its enemies. It opened up a new chapter in which its own soil, thanks to its attack on Israel, is no longer off limits to any Western power.

Its failure to stop a much smaller Israel response, coupled with the overwhelming success of Israel and its allies in stopping a much larger Iranian attack, reminds the Iranian autocracy that its shrill rhetoric is designed to mask its impotence and to hide its own vulnerabilities from its enemies.

And the long-suffering Iranian people?

The truth will come out that its own theocracy hit the Israeli homeland with negligible results and earned a successful, though merely demonstrative, Israeli response in return.

So Iranians will learn their homeland is now vulnerable and, for the future, no longer off limits.

And they will conclude that Israel has more effective allies than Iran and that their own ballistic missiles may be more suicidal than homicidal.

As a result, they may conclude that the real enemies of the Iranian nation are not the Jewish people of Israel after all, but their own unhinged Islamist theocrats.

Why insanity system in Dungeons and Dragons sucks

 

If a character’s Sanity score drops to 0 or lower, she begins the quick slide into permanent insanity. Each round, the character loses another point of Sanity. Once a character’s Sanity score is reduced to a point below zero equal to her Wisdom score, she is hopelessly, incurably insane

Mechanics

Let’s talk about madness and insanity in role-playing games. This is a pretty controversial topic, and to make sure I get this right, I’ve been in touch with my friends in the Mental Health field as well as some close friends who live with their own mental health conditions.

Some systems give purely mechanical detriments to make characters “insane.” This is how the D&D 5e DMG does it on page 259-260. Congratulations, your character is now blind for 3 hours! However, the D&D system is built on powering up your character. This is epic fantasy. Some people like it when their characters suffer horrible mental trauma, and those people play Call of Cthulhu. So, my first problem with the way mental health conditions are included in the game is that it goes against the basic upwards flow of the system.

Additionally, the PHB and the DMG emphasize that people can play the game and role-play at whatever level they feel comfortable. Just want to hack some orcs? Good for you. Want to write a novella for your backstory? Go for it! But that leads us to another problem: in the DMG, the “indefinite madness” table manifests as a new flaw gained by your character. This means, if your character was just a simple hack-and-slasher, there’s no consequence to the roll. This works against the idea that a player should be free to role-play at any level with a given mechanic.

However, I think both of these points are missing a bigger issue.

The symptoms of actual mental health conditions are often portrayed as the problem, but often they are a coping mechanism for a larger problem. The best example is OCD: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. It’s not just “being a neat freak” or “liking things to be organized.” It’s because your brain is obsessing over something that makes you anxious and unable to focus on the rest of your life, and you begin to practice a repetitive activity (a compulsion) in order to calm down your brain.

Many mental health conditions are actually the brain doing its best to adapt to unusual situations. Hearing a voice that isn’t yours in your head is unusual. Talking to yourself in your own voice and convincing yourself not to listen is the brain’s way of adapting.

I do want to note that some people’s minds deal with trauma differently, and I think that’s beyond the scope of this post. I can’t claim that these ideas apply to people with chronic mental health conditions.

So, instead of taking the usual route of “here’s how your character is worse now that you’re insane”, I wanted to give the players an ability they’d want to use: a power of the mind, with a drawback.

Essentially, the character experienced something traumatic, unusual, horrifying, or mind-bending. But that doesn’t really change who they are. The brain just has to take the time to adapt back to an understanding of reality. So, each ability listed below has a drawback (how the brain is adapting) and a time limit (how long it takes to heal).

But if we just gave people a drawback and a time limit, that’s no different than what the DMG does. we want the player to accept the ability, because the character’s brain would want to heal. So every ability has a benefit as well.

As these are temporary benefits, they won’t affect the game too much, and the drawbacks are small enough that a character can continue their upwards growth while they work through the problems. This is also useful from a session planning perspective: if you’re in a dungeon and you expect to get through about 4-5 hours of in-game time, what about the character who just rolled a long-term madness and is unconscious for 7 hours?

With all of that in mind, here are some of the abilities I’ve devised for how a PC might adjust their mind after a traumatic event.

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Mental Reactions to Trauma

Circumspect:

• For the duration, you can never have disadvantage on an Intelligence-based ability check
• You cannot regain HP on a rest unless you spend at least an hour of the time away from your allies, talking through the events that lead to you gaining this ability. This becomes the only action you can take during a short rest if your are using hit dice to regain HP
• Ends after 30 days

Daydreamer:

• Once per day, you may automatically pass an Intelligence-based skill check
• Ends when you have used the ability 30 times
• For DM: roll 1d10 when the player uses this ability and modify the information they receive accordingly

d10 Roll	Information
1-4	False information, that the PC would have no way of knowing
5-7	False information
8-9	Truthful information, that the PC would have no way of knowing
10	Truthful information

Destructive:

• While not in combat, you regain 1 HP whenever you permanently and intentionally destroy an object that is small or larger
• Whenever you regain HP with this ability, all non-hostile creatures within 30 feet (including other members of your party) must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw of 8 + your character level or be frightened for 1 minute. A creature can repeat this saving throw at the end of their turn to end the effect.
• Ends when you have healed 300HP from this ability

Distracted:

• Whenever you are targeted by an attack roll, roll 1d8+12. Treat the number rolled as your AC against that attack
• Ends when you have been hit by 30 attack rolls

Facade:

• For the duration, you have advantage on Charisma ability checks and saving throws made to influence hostile creatures or avoid effects from hostile creatures.
• For the duration, you have disadvantage on Charisma ability checks and saving throws made to influence indifferent or friendly creatures or avoid effects from indifferent or friendly creatures.
• Ends after you have made 10 Charisma saving throws with disadvantage

Hampered:

• For the duration, whenever you take damage, that damage is reduced by half. Any damage prevented this way must be tracked on your character sheet as Delayed Damage.
• At the end of a long rest, you may choose to take all your Delayed Damage as hit point damage. This damage cannot be reduced in any way. If you elect to not take your Delayed Damage, you must instead add an amount of damage to your Delayed Damage equal to your character level.
• If, at any point, your Delayed Damage reaches an amount equal to 10 x your character level, you take the damage immediately. The rules for instant death due to massive damage (PHB pg. 197) do not apply to this damage, and if you are reduced to 0 hit points in this way, you are unconscious but stable.
• Ends when you have taken 200 Delayed Damage.

Heartbroken:

• Choose a PC or NPC related to how you gained this ability.
• Whenever the PC/NPC is within your line of sight, you have disadvantage on all Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma ability checks and saving throws.
• Whenever the PC/NPC is out of sight, you have advantage on all Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma ability checks and saving throws.
• Ends when you have made 15 Wisdom saving throws with advantage (not necessarily due to this ability)

Hyper-Aware:

• Your passive perception score increases by 10
• Whenever you make an attack roll, whether ranged or melee, choose the target randomly among all available targets within the range of the attack
• Ends when you have made 50 attack rolls

Moody:

• Each day at dawn, roll 1d20:

d20 Roll	Outcome
1-10	You gain disadvantage on all rolls made for the next 24 hours
11-20	You gain advantage on all rolls made for the next 24 hours

• Ends when advantage rolls equal disadvantage rolls, with a minimum of 3 days

Nervous:

• At the beginning of combat, make a Wisdom Saving Throw of 15
• On a success, take 20 on initiative
• On a failure, you are surprised for the first round of combat
• Ends after 30 initiative rolls

Obsessive:

• For the duration, you can never have disadvantage on a wisdom-based ability check
• You cannot regain HP on a rest unless you spend at least an hour of the time in quiet, methodical contemplation. This becomes the only action you can take during a short rest if your are using hit dice to regain HP
• Ends after 30 days

Phobic:

• Choose a creature or creature type, preferably one related to how you gained this ability
• Whenever you kill a creature of that type, you may spend hit dice to regain HP as if you had finished a short rest
• You have vulnerability to all damage dealt by those creatures
• Ends when you reach 100 points by the following system:

Creature CR	Points Gained
2 or less	1 point per kill of that creature type
3-8	2 points per kill of that creature type
9-13	5 points per kill of that creature type
14-17	10 points per kill of that creature type
18-23	25 points per kill of that creature type
24+	50 points per kill of that creature type

Prescient:

• Once per day, you may receive a clue about a future event related to a person, location, or item
• Ends when you have used the ability 30 times
• For DM: roll 1d10 when the player uses this ability and modify the information they receive accordingly

d10 Roll	Information
1-4	False clue, the event is against the party’s goals
5-7	False clue, the event is beneficial to the party’s goals
8-9	Truthful clue, reveal an irrelevant future event about the target
10	Truthful clue about a relevant future event

Rapport:

• As an action while you have this ability, you may touch an ally and heal them for an amount of HP no greater than your maximum HP – 1. When you do so, you take damage equal to the amount healed
• When an ally within 5 feet of you takes damage, make a Wisdom saving throw of 15. On a failure, you take that amount of damage instead
• Ends when you have taken 150 damage due to failing the Wisdom saving throw of this ability

Repressed:

• During a short rest, you may permanently remove a skill, weapon, language, or tool proficiency in order to fully heal your HP.
• Ends when you have used the ability 5 times

Restless:

• Choose a creature or creature type, preferably one related to how you gained this ability
• You have advantage on attack rolls made against those creatures
• If you fight a creature of that type, you cannot gain the benefits of a long rest for 24 hours. If you stop to rest for the night, you will only gain the benefits of a short rest
• Ends when you have missed 15 long rests due to this ability

Rude:

• You have advantage on intimidation and deception checks, but disadvantage on all other charisma checks and saving throws
• Ends when you have made 15 Charisma saving throws

Temperamental:

• When you make a Charisma-based Ability Check or Saving Throw, roll 1d6. On an even roll, treat your Charisma modifier as if it were that number. On an odd roll, treat your Charisma modifier as if it were that number, but negative. Your Proficiency bonus still applies normally to the roll if applicable.
• Ends when you have been forced to make 10 Charisma saving throws

Unease:

• Choose an environment or room type (e.g. arctic, swamp, close quarters, open field, etc), preferably one related to how you gained this ability
• Whenever you finish a combat in that environment and have at least 1 HP remaining, you may spend hit dice to regain HP as if you had finished a short rest
• You have vulnerability to all damage dealt to you in that environment
• Ends when you finish 30 combats in that environment, whether or not you gain the benefit from this ability

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Modifying these abilities to fit your game might be necessary. For a game focused on dungeon crawling, 30 days or 15 long rests might be quite a while, whereas a wilderness travel game might find them too short.

I think the sweet spot is to let the player feel the effects of the ability for just a little longer than they might like. Reinforce the idea that this is something they are doing subconsciously, that it ends when it ends, not when they want it to.

I’m looking forward to trying these out in my sessions. Some of them are pretty cool mechanically, and I think my players will really take them to heart. That definitely wouldn’t be the case if I was just using the purely negative effects in the DMG.

The museum wants me to play Dungeons and Dragons after I asked staff what they do for hobbies. I said what’s better?….Nintendo or DnD or Magic the Gathering or pickups, or campers? Maybe they knew the insanity system in Dnd and commit me to the St. Peter state hospital. I collected the books. I find it weird that Dork Den never buys used DnD books and charges $50 new on all of them. Then the dork den managers cooks the books on Magic the Gathering packs. I saw a $39 MtG pack off amazon priced at $139 at Dork Den. Lots of magic the gathering packs are over $100 here. At least they play commander compatible with star city games.

Why is anime special? Expert finally at bluray.com forums

 

Bluray.com forums saved my life. It gave me a purpose in the abyss! I reached 700 posts and am an expert. https://forum.blu-ray.com/

Why is anime special?

Part of that, I think, is because you’re not watching someone act, so it’s easier to identify with the animated character because part of your brain isn’t always focused on “Oh, that’s [fill in an actor’s name here]”.

Also, the animation is often more expressive because it uses anime-shorthand. Is a character acting childish? Suddenly they’re presented as chibi. Are they steaming over something? Suddenly smoke is pouring out of their heads, or that ominous purple haze. You couldn’t get away with this kind of thing in live-action. It would look silly. In anime, it’s par-for-the-course.

And animated characters don’t age, as humans do. No one is ever going to see Lum or Inuyasha with a bad face-lift, trying to look 25 years younger than they are.

In addition, things can be animated that simply can’t be achieved with special effects, no matter how sophisticated they are. In a live-action film, if what we’re seeing gets too far away from reality, it gives away the game and you think “oh, it’s special effects. Yawn.” In anime, nothing is real, so nothing stands out as less real than anything else – ironically, making things easier to accept as a viewer.

You can also portray things in anime that, because we’re always aware that it’s not real, you couldn’t get away with in a live-action film. The scene with Riko’s arm in Made In Abyss, for example, would be too intense for live-action – and can you imagine a live action Strike Witches? No, no, no. Don’t even try.

Finally, there’s the sheer artistry of the images put before us that (when they’re at their best) beat anything a live-action film can offer. Just imagine a live-action Monogatari … I sure can’t. The art is an integral part of watching anime, and our appreciation of the artwork is part of the overall aesthetic appeal, quite different than the appreciation of the cinematography of a live-action film.

I feel Anime in the 70’s-80’s with a 50/50 hit and miss from 90-94ish was special…mostly everything that has been pumped out since sucks…I think the version of Anime they have today along with stuff like Pokemon is more geared towards people who are not that great at drawing so they put out extremely easy to draw art with over simplified structures so that it’s more inclusive for a less creatively inclined youth…current anime (at least what i’ve seen advertised since the late 90’s and on) seems extremely sex filled and fetish driven. I personally much prefer Unico, Akira, Blue Force, and Ghost in the Shell style artwork. New stuff like say Avatar (not James Cameron) is excellent so the genre isn’t a complete waste but man oh man is the anime landscape a stark desert of craptacular pencil work.
Japan for decades has been showing what animation is truly capable of and how certain things work because they’re animated. Interestingly, they did at first view animation similarly to the west where it was seen as something for children, but then things changed (From the booklet included with the first Patlabor movie DVD LE.). Granted, Japanese animation has its own limitations (Ex: Adult casts are rare, high school is a very common setting), but it’s not as limited in scope as what is done in the west, especially theatrically (Ex: Kids CGI movies is all you get in theaters most of the time, we lost the option of 2D in the 2000s, which is a shame)

There’s also of course the crazy and interesting plots and characters in stuff, the tropes, as well as the infusion of Japanese culture in lots of works.

Pro-Hamas Students at CA State Polytechnic University Went January 6 With Police

 

I’m sure there will be more details about this event later, but what are we doing here? We have footage of pro-Hamas students at California State Polytechnic University in Arcata, who barricaded themselves inside a building, which led to a confrontation with police.

Police are in riot gear as Pro-Palestinian protesters have barricaded themselves in and taken over a building at a State Polytechnic University in #Arcata #California.

The five minute video documents the battle between #Hamas supporting #Antifa communists and local police. pic.twitter.com/ZSeejRJxpg— Elliot (@elliotreports) April 23, 2024

🚨#BREAKING: Police are in riot gear as Pro-Palestinian protesters have barricaded taken over a building at a State Polytechnic University

📌#Arcata | #California

Currently, multiple law enforcement officers are equipped in riot gear and have shields after dozens of… pic.twitter.com/sEHwadBLU0— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) April 23, 2024

🚨#UPDATE: Here’s Footage from earlier showing dozens of pro-Palestine protesters blocking the entrance of a building at California State Polytechnic University with barricading the entrance with couches, chairs, desks, and other items. pic.twitter.com/mFgAsD05pU— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) April 23, 2024

It’s one of the many instances of young people causing a stir for all the wrong reasons. The Democratic Party establishment and American Jews had to have received whiplash over the past few weeks, as a growing segment of the base has shown that they’re antisemitic, anti-Israel, and have zero qualms about supporting people who would fly buildings into skyscrapers. 

It’s why the Biden White House is walking a tightrope, albeit very poorly, with these incidents nationwide. Biden condemned the anti-Semitism at Columbia University’s terror camp. 

“I condemn antisemitic protests…I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians,” said Biden yesterday. 

It’s the same with Israel herself: Biden says there will be ironclad support for Israel following the Iranian ballistic missile barrage last weekend but also reportedly told Tehran to keep their strikes “within certain limits.” He’ll bash Israel for its anticipated ground operation into Rafah, the last Hamas bastion in Gaza, but continue to re-arm the Jewish state. 

It’s this foreign policy see-saw that young voters cannot tolerate—they want to see Israel destroyed. And these people vote, so in a way, Biden must cater to antisemites if he doesn’t want to lose critical states, like Michigan, come November. 

These students who are duking it out with police in the clips above are the voters Biden’s people have to cling to—perhaps that’s a sign that your party has gone too insane, no?

Trump Comes to Johnson’s Defense

 

Former President Donald Trump offered his defense of House Speaker Mike Johnson as the Louisiana Republican is coming under fire from conservative Republicans over the foreign aid bill and FISA, among other priorities. 

The 45^th president said in a radio interview with Chris Stigall that the speaker was in a tough spot due to the GOP’s slim majority in the lower chamber. 

“Remember, the speakership we’re talking about has, you know, we’re a majority by one. One vote,” Trump said. 

“And you can’t really get too tough when — Look, we all want to be tough guys and all, and I have a lot of friends, and frankly I have friends on both sides,” Trump continued. “You know, if you look at the vote, a lot of Republicans, a lot of good Republicans, voted for it. But Mike is in there and he’s trying, and some people were disappointed, and a lot of people were very disappointed that nothing happened with the border. I’ll straighten out the border.”

The former president was referring to the $95 billion foreign aid package that divided Republicans and has some on the right calling for Johnson’s ouster.  

Johnson ultimately defied his conservative critics, pushing to the floor a series of four bills providing overseas assistance but detaching those funds from a separate border security bill, which failed on the floor during Saturday’s votes. He framed the aid as a simple but crucial continuation of America’s responsibility to democratic allies facing threats of their own.

The package, which more than 100 House Republicans voted against, included roughly $61 billion for Ukraine, $26 billion for Israel, $8 billion for allies in the Indo-Pacific, and a package of additional national security measures that features a potential ban on the popular TikTok app. The bills must still pass the Senate before going to President Biden’s desk.

Trump hosted Johnson at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida earlier this month and offered his support for the embattled Speaker, who is under fire from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a staunch ally of the former president. (The Hill)

Last week, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) warned Trump that his continued support of such spending may cost him politically. 

If Trump supports this monstrous, unpaid for foreign aid debt buster, he will lose the very supporters who comprise his vanguard.
Mark my words. https://t.co/X972oGsSog— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) April 17, 2024

Harvard Takes Action Against Pro-Hamas Student Group

 

Harvard College suspended the Palestine Solidarity Committee for the remainder of the Spring semester and threatened permanent expulsion if they fail to “cease all organizational activities,” The Harvard Crimson reports. 

The move comes as pro-terrorist demonstrations have overtaken parts of campuses at Columbia and Yale Universities. 

PSC, which has been on probation since March, was notified via email of the temporary suspension for failing to register a protest and violating use-of-space guidelines. 

The PSC was one of several student organizations, including some unrecognized student organizations, to stage a rally in Harvard Yard on Friday in solidarity with student activists at Columbia, more than 100 of whom were arrested on Thursday by the New York City Police Department.

During the rally, attendees marched and chanted outside the offices of administrators in the Yard, concluding on the steps of Widener Library.

The group also found itself at the center of controversy in the immediate aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, when the PSC published a statement co-signed by more than 30 other student groups that stated it held “the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence” from Hamas’ attack. (The Harvard Crimson)

“The organization will not be recognized and will not have access to university benefits and services during this time, including but not limited to use of campus space and appropriate use of the Harvard name,” the email reads. “If the organization continues to operate and commits additional violations during this suspension, the organization risks permanent expulsion, as provided in the Resource Guide.”

In a statement responding to the temporary suspension on social media, PSC said the movement cannot be stopped.

“For the past 6 months, PSC has faced unprecedented repression — doxxing, racist harassment, and targeted administrative crackdowns — as we’ve protested the ongoing genocide in Gaza,” the PSC post said. “After being placed on an illegitimate and retroactive probation, PSC has been suspended.”

“We call on the Harvard community to fight against repression and join the movement for Palestinian liberation,” the statement continued. “History is watching you.”

‼️‼️BREAKING: Harvard PSC has been SUSPENDED. Despite admin’s attempts to silence students speaking out against the atrocities committed in Palestine, they will never suspend the movement. pic.twitter.com/JmfVsrxPiO— Harvard for Palestine (@HarvardPSC) April 22, 2024

Psst…I Think the President Is Totally Senile

 

ok, I don’t want to shock you, but I think that our alleged President is senile. Really. Hear me out. Now look, I understand that the regime media teaches that he is a vigorous go-getter taking the lead on important issues and making America safer, more prosperous, and more equitable, but I’m concerned, folks. Maybe I’m off base, but I’m having doubts. I think the evidence is increasingly clear that he’s a senile old pervert who showered with his daughter, as well as a neo-communist serial liar whose inability to tell the truth is matched only by his grubby corruption. Other than that, he’s fine.

And I am glad he’s the Democrat nominee for President. I believe he’s going to hold onto that office with his bony claws right up through election day. And I think he has a substantial chance of losing to Donald Trump. I didn’t use to, but I’m happy to say America is waking up. Voters can’t ignore Grandpa Badfinger’s failures and foolishness any longer.

The people purportedly helping him are actually hurting him, which is great to watch. I particularly loved when he decided to tell the world that cannibals consumed Uncle Bosie. Now, let me say that again because I want to ensure you got it. The alleged President of the United States looked at the camera and told America that cannibals ate his uncle.

Cannibals did not eat his uncle.

And you would think that this bizarre lie about his uncle being an hors d’oeuvre would’ve been enough, but in the same series of incoherent sentences, he also managed to confuse Pearl Harbor with D-Day, get the day of the week wrong, and draw in Beau Biden’s death, which now occurred in action in Iraq, or Afghanistan, or wherever else it is useful for him to claim it happened. At least he left out his classic lie that the other driver in the accident that killed his first wife was drunk. This milking the death of relatives thing has become a habit.

He told this particular set of lies in the course of slandering Trump about the troops. Honest Joe was reviving that old “losers and suckers” lie that all of us veterans recognize as a lie. Joe Biden’s not a veteran. That’s because of another lie. Whatever happened to that asthma that kept our Commander-in-Crusty out of ‘Nam anyway? Was a stammer enough to get a deferment, too?

There I go, picking on him because of his stammer. Oh, and his senility, lies, corruption, and perversion, but yeah, also his stammer.

And then his handlers had him stagger into a gas station to show how Scranton Joe is a real person who knows how to interact with real people. We saw a bunch of citizens who didn’t even feel obligated to stand up in the presence of the President. That’s the kind of aura of leadership we want – local yokels shrugging at the shuffling zombie coming in for a quick photo op with the swing state rubes before heading back out to the Delaware beach house he bought with Chinese bribes. He didn’t bring Hunter with him, which is probably good because somebody might’ve accidentally got him filching coins out of the take a penny, leave a penny tray. Of course, had that happened, the regime media would not have run it. They did not run the story of Hunter’s perversion-ridden, corruption-filled laptop because that was allegedly Russian disinformation. The First Failson’s peccadillos, of course, are the fault of Putin for reasons, and shut up because you’re a transphobe.

They covered for Joe on Cannibalgate as well. Hilariously, the story about his bizarre I-tied-an-onion-to-my-belt-which-was-the-style-at-the-time ramblings was headlined “Biden is off on details of his uncle’s WWII death as he calls Trump unfit to lead the military.” Falsely claiming that your uncle goy tossed into a boiling pot and consumed by local tribesmen is not messing up some minor detail. Saying something happened in the late morning rather than the early afternoon is a minor detail. Asserting that  Dahmerriffic individuals with bones through their noses munched on Uncle Bosie is a major detail. Now, we all appreciate the service of Uncle Bosie, even though he wasn’t the super jet pilot war hero Biden pretends he was to burnish Joe’s own pathetic reputation, but cannibals didn’t eat him, and whatever glory accrues to him does not transfer to his nitwit nephew.

I’m laughing at all the Democrat politicians taking a look at all the polls which show Donald Trump ahead in the battleground states. If you recall, Trump has never been consistently ahead before. He wasn’t ahead in 2016 consistently, and he was barely ever even in any poll in 2020. But now he is, consistently, and they’ve got to be scared. They’ve got to be especially terrified because of the tendency of people to hide their support for Donald Trump. The silent Trumpers are a real threat. Now, a sane party would somehow get rid of the desiccated zombie they have nominated, but the one smart thing Joe Biden never did was take out the greatest insurance policy any politician ever had – Kamala Harris. She’s even more despised than he is, though she’s about as coherent.

Much of the talk about how he will be shuffled off stage and somebody else will be slipped in to bring in the big win is all just magical thinking. It’s Biden. They bought that ticket to ride and they’re riding it to the end of the line. 

I did something no one’s ever done with Joe Biden, which is underestimate him. I underestimated his amazing power to fail. He has failed at everything. The economy is a disaster. You can’t go to McDonald’s, order two Big Macs, a large fries, and a small Diet Coke, and walk out without paying 30 bucks. Hell, try and buy a house. America’s a foreign policy joke. Biden attacks our allies and defends our enemies. And remember that pier he was going to build to feed the terrorists in Gaza? That doesn’t appear likely to happen, not because he suddenly realized how stupid the idea was, but because the Navy ships he sent there either broke down or caught fire.

This guy is a disaster, a catastrophe, a walking, whisper-talking clusterfark, and the Democrats own him. He’s all theirs. He’s not going anywhere. They nominated him, and now they’ve got to deal with it. The bogus kangaroo court conviction that Donald Trump is facing in New York is not going to save Biden – can you imagine somebody at this point thinking, “Well, a jury of New York liberals and a judge whose daughter works for the Democrats convicted Trump of something I can’t quite explain so I’m going to accept inflation and national humiliation in order to re-elect Joe Biden?” Nope.

This guy is going down, and I don’t mean tumbling down the stairs of Air Force One, but you know that’s in the cards, too.

Minnesota State Sen. Arrested for Burglary, Raising ‘Big Implications’ Over Razor-Thin Majority

 

Early on Monday morning, Nicole Mitchell was arrested at a Detroit Lakes, Minnesota for first degree burglary. She isn’t just any suspect, but a Democratic state senator from Woodbury, Minnesota, located over 200 miles about three and a half hours away. Local news outlet KFGO noted that “[t]he county attorney’s office is reviewing the report before determining whether Mitchell will be charged.”

“Mitchell is a Democratic state senator who was elected in 2022 and former meteorologist for KSTP-TV in Minneapolis. She is currently a Lt. Colonel in the Air Force Reserve, serving as a meteorologist for the Air Force’s ‘Hurricane Hunters’. She was also an anchor on The Weather Channel from 2004 to 2011,” the report also mentioned.

The story also earned national attention, as The New York Post reported that “Becker County Sheriff Todd Glander told The Post that he expected a criminal complaint against the lawmaker to be filed Tuesday.” 

“A spokesperson for the Minnesota Senate Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party said in a statement the party was “aware of the situation and has no comment pending further information,” that report also mentioned. 

Minnesota Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson is quoted as saying “The public expects Legislators to meet a high standard of conduct. As information comes out, we expect the consequences to meet the actions, both in the court of law, and in her role at the legislature.”

The Libs of TikTok X account posted about the arrest as well, which include pointing out and poking fun at how Mitchell had, less than a week before, posted about how she had a “[m]eaningful conversation” with the pro-gun control Moms Demand Action, where “community members” had been sent to “advocat[e] for common sense gun reform & safer communities” at the state legislature.

BREAKING: Minnesota State Senator Nicole Mitchell (D) was just arrested for 1st-degree burglary.

This comes a few days after she publicly advocated for building “safer communities.”

You just can’t make this stuff up 🤣 pic.twitter.com/nccInYfGeg— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 22, 2024

It was in 2022 that Democrats gained a trifecta, controlling not only the state Senate, but also the Minnesota House of Representatives, with Democratic Gov. Tim Walz winning reelection. That being said, Democrats only have a one-seat majority in the state Senate, and a six-seat majority in the House.

Andrew Wagner, the executive director for Minnesota House Republicans, reposted the local news coverage, noting “big implications for #mnleg Senate control if DFL State Senator is convicted for 1st Degree Burglary.”

While the state Senate is not up for reelection this cycle, the House is, and is considered to be a competitive state for those races.

Former Rolling Stone Editor’s Biting Attack on the NYT’s ‘Adults’ Piece About Speaker Johnson

 

Matt Taibbi once again proves why he needed to go independent regarding his reporting. This article, like most, would never have passed the quasi-politburos that have sprouted up in establishment publications. He zeroed in on The New York Times’ ‘adults’ piece, where Gail Collins and Bret Stephens apparently praised Speaker Mike Johnson for eschewing the “MAGA” factions of the GOP to pass Ukraine aid, FISA renewal, and government funding. 

On the conservative side of things, yes, Johnson’s actions made the case over the weekend to boot him. The problem is there’s no one else who would do better. Who would want the job is another issue. It’s one of those situations where I would agree to pull the trigger on this, but it’ll devolve into a circus that could hand a Democrat, Hakeem Jeffries, the gavel. 

The FISA reversal is one of Johnson’s most disappointing developments. He was dead-set against it but got a briefing from the spooks and then reversed course—it doesn’t get swampier than that. Taibbi also noted the correlating pieces in The New York Times that backed FISA, juxtaposing that with the “adults” piece, noting that it takes a special entitlement for one to call those with whom one disagrees children. However, one can make the case that Democrats make that argument with their silly positions, but he tied that to what he sees as this absurd notion of being an “adult” in the political world. To Taibbi, the adults in the room aren’t revolting a la Johnson to the conservative wing of the GOP base; they’re ingraining a new ethos of being against being on the public’s side and being woefully unaware that this supposed special club has been at the forefront on truly horrific policy decisions (via Racket News): 

We’re creating a class of “adults” who believe it’s their patriotic duty to be above taking the public’s side. A nominal liberal in the Bush or Obama years could feel safe objecting to an intrusive state on behalf of, say, a converted Muslim like Brandon Mayfield. Mayfield was a veteran who’d never been to Spain, but was arrested after a faulty FBI fingerprint match linked him to a Madrid train bombing. Federal snoops used FISA to sneak undetected into Mayfield’s house and office repeatedly and take DNA swabs, nail clippings, and cigarette butts, even fiddle with his 12-year-old daughter’s computer. “I became very paranoid that someone was going into my room,” the girl said. 

[…] 

The concept of “adults in the room” assumed central importance in the Trump years. After his election, citizens were assumed to be incapable of correct choices, so no more looking at things from the vantage point of little girls’ bedrooms. Adults must be allowed to keep us safe. Who are the “adults in the room”? The numbers are probably like Orwell calculated in 1984, with a political establishment led by the 1% (Orwell had it at 2%, calling them the Inner Party) and administered by a nomenklatura of educated loyalists comprising a little over 10% of the population (the “Outer Party”). The Inner and Outer Parties Orwell described as the brain and hands of the state, surrounded by childlike prole-deplorables who make up the remaining 85% of the populace. 

[…] 

When James Mattis resigned as Trump’s Secretary of Defense six years ago, not-yet-Substacker Matt Yglesias seethed in Vox that this wasn’t the end for “adults in the room,” just the end of the myth that any ever existed. After all, “The only real grown-ups in American politics are in the Resistance,” and “the real grown-ups are the ones who’ve been outside the room trying to get him out of office.” 

With Trump out, the dynamic is inverted: the only adults are those on the inside, working to keep the Beast out by any means necessary. The Times, CNN, the Washington Post (which slobbered over Johnson in a piece called “Mike Johnson showed courage and rose to history’s call on Ukraine”) and others just made it crystal clear that this dividing line is about sides and nothing else. While Russell Brand, RFK, Jimmy Dore, Dave Chappelle and countless others are pilloried as right-wing grifters, we’re defining as “adults in the room” everyone from Cheney to Michael Hayden to Bill Kristol to David Frum. The latter ten years ago invoked outrage from self-styled progressives everywhere with his amazing Orwellian defense of FISA… 

[…] 

America’s “adults in the room” have been on a remarkable streak in the last twenty-odd years of not being right about really anything at all, including what policies to avoid (e.g. disastrous Mideast wars or inequality-accelerating bailouts) if you want to keep the public from flocking to someone like Donald Trump. Saying “Transparency is Bad” and “Surveillance is Good” and expecting people to salute your adultness is a particularly potent formula for losing audience, which these types unfortunately don’t tend to see as a problem…

 …Why can’t people just agree with us adults? Well, no matter if they don’t. If they can get enough people like Johnson to turn, they can make disobedient blocs like the Freedom Caucus “irrelevant to the governance of the House of Representatives,” as the Times put it today. That’s the dream, isn’t it? Making the right voters irrelevant? Isn’t that what being “committed to democracy” means? 

Forget the next speaker, Mike Johnson sucking, although he is, and the state of the 2024 race; it once again circles back to how there is a political class who hates us. Who has allies deep within the security state to ruin us, which ironically makes the case to produce more Donald Trump-like candidates? Voters, Left and Right, would likely want this system, this swamp, busted up, right? The problem is this side knows they can turn people on a dime and make them proper adults.

America No More…

 

After watching with over a hundred others the newly released movie, Civil War, I left the theater stunned, and I was not alone. Was it a good movie? Just a deeply unsettling one! Could it really happen? You don’t even want to imagine it! But with Biden’s assault on America continuing and Trump reemerging as the favored GOP candidate, the American division is growing. More and more citizens are getting angrier as their standard of living is in jeopardy and illegals are getting benefits citizens can only dream of. 

Spoiling the movie’s plot is never appropriate, but when Western forces from Texas, Florida, and even California take on the elected President, the country is left in a civil war. We watch as desensitized media professionals cover the death of hundreds of American citizens. To the film’s media, the war is just a once-in-a-lifetime story that deserves to be captured one picture at a time. After all, it’s the media’s job. They are just feeding citizens what they want—blood, gore, winners, and victims. What would happen if America descends into such chaos? This movie provides one disturbing view, one that, God help us, must never happen. 

One thing is clear, when a country loses trust in its leader’s ability to preserve their cherished freedoms and ensure equal treatment under the law, even insurrection seems somehow possible. That is a nightmare no American should have to entertain, but more and more Americans seem to be losing hope in the future of our country. They don’t trust elections. Many don’t even like the Presidential choices presented to them. 

The Founding Fathers valued freedom enough to unleash a revolution against the greatest power at the time. Enough citizens joined them in securing what most at the time believed impossible, independence. Yes, insurrection hatched our beloved America. Belief in equal rights and freedom are powerful forces that have always driven patriotic Americans to action. 

Even with our differences, most Americans believe in property rights, voting rights, law enforcement to keep us safe, freedom of speech, and personal responsibility. Unfortunately, more and more Americans feel these values are in question, and they are not sure America can be saved!

Many Americans no longer even believe that elections will produce a lawful winner. They don’t trust the voting machines. They want paper ballots that can be counted. They don’t believe multiple days are needed. Hasn’t one day of voting always been enough? They want required IDs and signed mail-in ballots. They fear ballot harvesting is just another name for ‘manufacturing” all the votes you need to ensure a fraudulent victory. Are American fair elections no more!

Many no longer believe that the enforcement of law is fair and sure. While former President Donald Trump has been charged with multiple “crimes,” President Joe Biden’s similar actions aren’t even charged. Hunter Biden’s influence peddling with money set aside for the “Big Guy” are not even covered in the mainstream media. The Dept. of Justice is quick to charge Trump, but with the Bidens, we hear nothing but crickets. People who commit crimes are being let go instead of being held accountable. Is American law and order no more!

Under President Trump, our border was finally more under control. Under Biden, his open border has been continually flooding our country with illegals from around the world. They come expecting benefits at the expense of taxpaying citizens. Illegals overwhelm services in our urban areas. Legal immigrants had to wait years to enter and are fuming at this invasion of illegals rushing to the front of the line and expecting to be accepted, supported, and allowed to become citizens. Is America’s secure border no more!

We thought in America, your home was your castle. If you work to buy the home of your dreams, you were sure that your property rights were secure in a community that you loved. But today, squatters are taking over vacant homes and fending off owners who want them to leave their property. Illegals are being told to come to America, find an empty home, and move in. In the name of equity, governments are rezoning the suburbs and requiring the building of low-income housing where it is not wanted. Are America’s property rights no more! 

Do you believe America is lost? Do you believe nothing can reverse this march to chaos? Do you believe that it is time to buy your own guns to protect your family when the government won’t? Is a civil war coming? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you are in danger of losing the optimistic attitude that has characterized Americans for two centuries. This is our country. This is not the time for surrender. It’s time to fight to preserve America the best way you can—vote for candidates who promise to preserve the rights you value most. 

Your vote does matter. There are no perfect candidates, but the party positions make a difference in this critical election. If you want law and order, secure borders, fair elections, property rights, and a return to personal responsibility, there is only one party to support. Vote for every GOP candidate you are given the opportunity to support, or it may very well be America no more!

An Utterly Laughable Hypocrisy

 

Greetings, everyone, and unhappy Tax Day; today is the day we send our hard-earned dollars to a federal government that cannot balance its checkbook. We are constantly berated about paying a fair share and incessantly pummeled with rhetoric about government investments, truly an oxymoronic reference—emphasis on moron. Now, I could go on and on about the insidious hypocrisy of sending our resources to a federal government that wastes it on ideological boondoggles, but that is not the point of this missive. There will be many others who will cover this absurd situation where we find the net interest on our debt now surpasses the amount we spend on our national security and defense.

And that is what I seek to discuss in this week's offering.

Recently, some 19 retired military Generals and Admirals, along with former top civilian defense officials, filed an Amicus (Friends of the Court) Brief with the US Supreme Court. Their brief outlines their opposition to former President Donald Trump's plea for immunity from prosecution for actions taken during his tenure as president. Now, get this: they believe that the SCOTUS granting of such poses a significant threat to national security. The SCOTUS will hear this case on April 25th. This group is warning that there will be threats to our national security and democratic principles if former President Trump's claims of presidential immunity for official acts were to be accepted. Now, I just had to repeat the assertion of this group because you have to understand the sheer and utterly laughable hypocrisy they present. The money quote from their 38-page brief is, "Should the theory of absolute immunity prevail, it will risk jeopardizing America's standing as a guardian of democracy in the world and further feeding the spread of authoritarianism, thereby threatening the national security of the United States and democracies around the world."

Ha! 

No, you cannot make this stuff up. Here are folks, including some who were on the original laughable hypocrisy of the 51 intelligence officials who declared Hunter Biden's laptop as Russian disinformation, saying that Trump is a threat to our national security.

How about Joe Biden selling off our Strategic Petroleum Reserves to our No. 1 geopolitical foe, China? Or how about undermining our very own oil and gas industry and reversing the path of our energy independence and dominance? Now we are begging hat in hand once again to those who seek the demise of our country. And just months ago, Biden signed an order to freeze our export of liquified natural gas (LNG), which forces more of our global allies to seek that resource from another geopolitical foe, Vladimir Putin and Russia.

I ponder if they would consider this to be a threat to our national security. Or the fact that Joe Biden abandoned over $80B of US military equipment to the Taliban in Afghanistan in a complete strategic, operational, and tactical debacle he praised as a success...to include the deaths of American Marines, Soldiers, and Sailors. How about the fact that Afghanistan is now, once again, a thriving base of operations for Islamic terrorist groups, namely ISIS-K, who just enacted a brutal terrorist attack in Russia? Any threat to our national and global security?

I wonder if these 19 retired Generals, Admirals, and senior civilian defense officials think opening up our borders to millions of illegal immigrants, including single military-age males, poses no threat to our national security? Heck, FBI Director Christopher Wray just testified to such not too long ago before Congress. Not to mention the hundreds of thousands of Americans who have lost their lives due to the chemical warfare agent fentanyl—which emanates from China. There can be no debate that it was Joe Biden and his unconstitutional 90+ executive orders that opened our border to invasion that's a threat to our national security. I guess these delusional individuals just do not see it that way.

Biden has continued the decimation of our military readiness, capability, and capacity. Our force cannot meet recruiting and retention objectives...but hey, our Armed Forces know their proper pronouns, accept mentally disturbed gender dysphoric individuals and embrace cultural Marxism.

And authoritarianism?

What do you call it when you mandate what type of appliances, vehicles, and amount of water in toilets Americans can have? What do you call it when you weaponize the federal government agencies against your ideological opponents, like parents who want better educational opportunities, not indoctrination, of their children? What do you call it when you seek to designate said parents as "domestic terrorists," kick in the doors of pro-life activists in the middle of the night and infiltrate the Catholic Church? But you say and do nothing when supporters of an Islamic terrorist group that killed and took Americans hostage on October 7th, 2023, take to our streets and chant "Death to America"?

I wonder if these 19 Generals, Admirals, and senior civilian defense officials agree with Joe Biden that no amendment to the US Constitution is absolute? Hey, those of you who signed onto this letter and took an oath to support and defend the Constitution, speak up, please! Or how about using the federal government in coordination with private sector tech information companies to censor the freedom of speech and expression of Americans? Is that not a threat to our democratic principles and Constitutional rights? I suppose the signatories of this Amicus Brief think it is perfectly fine to have illegals voting in our elections and count them in our census?

I think y'all reading this piece have now gotten the point. Once again, this is an utterly laughable hypocrisy that evidences the two-tiered system of justice, basically altering right and wrong in our Republic. These people who signed their names to this Amicus Brief are no friends of our Constitutional Republic, nor the TRUE American people. They are nothing more than politicized hacks, puppets, cymbal clanging monkeys who are the ones who pose a threat to the very existence of our country. They are the friends of the progressive socialist leftists and Marxists and shamefully have exposed themselves as such. Every one of them should be condemned.

But hey, I am a forgiving fella, and I will allow you, the treasonous and delusional 19, to withdraw your support for this Amicus Brief; you have 24 hours after the publishing of this piece. If you refuse to do so, then your names will go right there with Benedict Arnold, who was once a revered hero of our Revolutionary War...until his personal feelings became more important than our national interest.

Joe Biden, not Donald Trump, is the greatest threat to our national security and representative democracy. He is our biggest measure of authoritarianism. His fecklessness and weakness have brought the world to this point of global chaos and calamity. Anyone believing otherwise is in denial of facts and is aiding and abetting the assault on the foundations of our republic.

Communists Betray Workers, Teachers Unions Betray Students, Civil Rights Organizations Betray Blacks

 

The Communist Party of the Soviet Union -- like most communist parties -- came to power as the great defender of workers.

In reality, the Soviet Communist Party didn't give a hoot about Russian workers. The party was nothing more than a totalitarian organization that used workers to gain power -- and then suppressed the proletariat, just as it suppressed every other group. One of the first things the Communist Party did after attaining power was disband independent labor unions and prohibit workers' strikes. Yes, the "workers' party" banned strikes.

The one major exception was the Chinese Communist Party, which came to power as the great defender of peasants. And the CCP slaughtered about 60 million of them.

This has been the modus operandi of every left-wing group everywhere: Claim concern for some group, and use that group to fool people -- specifically, naive liberals, who share few values with the Left but have frequently served as useful idiots for the Left. Liberals do so to this day.

Teachers Unions

Teachers unions are nothing more than left-wing groups that use alleged concern for students to attain and retain power. The reality, however, is while they care about teachers, they harm students far more than they help them.

One example is teachers unions' opposition to school choice. Those who actually care about students support the right of parents to choose their children's schools -- just as many teachers do when they send their own children to schools of their choice.

A second example is teachers unions' making it nearly impossible to fire incompetent teachers.

A third example was teachers unions' demands that schools lock down for nearly two years during the COVID-19 era. The unions did so despite there being no scientific evidence in support of school lockdowns and despite ample warnings that many children would suffer intellectually, scholastically, emotionally and psychologically.

Moreover, wrote John H. Cochrane of the Hoover Institution in the Wall Street Journal, "When schools went remote, parents found out what was actually going on inside the classrooms. Teachers were coaching students to hate themselves, their country and their religious traditions and sexualizing young children."

The last point brings us to a fourth example: Teachers rob young students of their sexual innocence with premature talk of, and books that deal with, overt sexual activity, and the infamous use of drag queens to perform in front of children as young as 6 years old.

Just how left-wing teachers organizations are was made clear by the sympathetic left-wing magazine The Nation in January:

"A rank-and-file campaign inside the National Education Association is demanding the president stop 'sending military funding, equipment, and intelligence to Israel.' ... But the rank-and-file campaign goes beyond (that). ... Members want the NEA (National Education Association) to revoke its endorsement of Joe Biden for the 2024 presidential race until the president ... stops 'sending military funding, equipment, and intelligence to Israel.'"

That was only two months after Oct. 7.

Civil Rights Organizations

Most civil rights organizations are also essentially left-wing groups. They use alleged concern for blacks to attain and retain power, but they harm blacks considerably more than they help them.

A glaring example is the near-universal opposition of civil rights groups to school choice despite the fact that black Americans overwhelmingly support it. According to a 2023 RealClear Opinion Research poll, 73% of blacks support school choice -- two points more than whites. They do so because large majorities of black students in public schools perform far below grade-level standards.

The reason the largest civil rights organization, the NAACP, opposes school choice has nothing to do with concern for blacks. It is that the left-wing position -- again, the NAACP is a left-wing organization -- on school choice is dictated by teachers unions.

Other civil rights organizations' positions that harm blacks include labeling as "racist" the most effective solution to racism: widespread colorblindness; supporting separate dorms and graduations for black college students; and support for lowering academic and professional standards to facilitate black advancement.

Feminist Organizations

Feminist organizations are additional examples of essentially left-wing organizations. The group they use to attain and retain power is women. Just as other left-wing interest groups, they harm the group on whose behalf they allegedly fight -- in this case, women -- far more than they help them.

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The most obvious example is the support of major feminist organizations for men who say they are women participating in women's sports.

From the website of the National Women's Law Center:

"The National Women's Law Center (NWLC) unequivocally supports the inclusion of trans women in women's sports. And if you call yourself a feminist, you should too."

From the website of The Women's Sports Foundation (WSF):

"The Women's Sports Foundation supports the right of all athletes, including transgender athletes, to participate in athletic competition. ..."

In 2022, the WSF wrote a letter to the NCAA protesting any diminution of the right of biological males who say they are females to participate in women's athletics. The letter was cosigned, as expected, by LGBTQIA+ organizations but also by two major feminist organizations in addition to the Women's Sports Federation: the National Organization for Women and the National Women's Political Caucus.

Damaging women has been the primary legacy of organized feminism for the last half-century. That there are more depressed women, especially young women, today than at any other time in modern American history is directly attributable to left-wing influence generally (no religion, no country, no future) and to feminist doctrines specifically: Career is more important than marriage and family, and women can do just fine without a man to love and be loved by.

LGBTQIA+ Organizations

Perhaps the ultimate example of left-wing contempt for the groups they claim to represent is "Queers for Palestine." Palestinian queers have no rights; they face persecution and even death if they expose themselves to their society. Israeli queers are by far the safest, happiest and freest in the Middle East. But hating Israel is the left-wing position. At any cost.

‘Our Constitution Was Made Only for a Moral and Religious People

 

“Our Constitution was made only for moral and religious people.  It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”—John Adams 

I believe I have demonstrated in many articles that Leftists hate God and religion more than anything else because they cannot allow the slaves in their Marxist system to have any higher allegiance than their totalitarian government masters.  It is also obvious, however, that Leftists loathe history almost as much as they do God and religion because true history (especially American history) is as devastating to their cause as God is.  But then, their god, Marx, said, “Keep people from their history and they are easily controlled.”  The Democrat Party and their adherents are doing everything possible to accomplish just that.

Recently, I referred the Adams quote at the beginning of this column to a Leftist.  His response was, “Conservatives have always taken that quote out of context.”  No, conservatives have not done so, the quote means exactly what Mr. Adams said, as I shall prove in this series.  But this is typical Leftist historical revisionism.  While America’s Founders certainly did not establish a theocracy, from that fact Leftists draw the utterly erroneous conclusion that our Founders meant that religion should have absolutely no influence except in private affairs—and even then, should be regulated by the government, a la China.  Letting religion (God) influence policy is anathema to these people.  But this Leftist ideological canard would, frankly, be totally shocking to our Founders.  They did not establish a theocracy, but neither did they intend that religion would have no part to play in American affairs outside the home.  God is the God of…everything, including government, not just the God of private life.

I also quoted my Leftist correspondent Andrew Jackson’s statement, “That Book (the Bible) is the rock on which our Republic rests.”

“But, but, but,” the Leftist responded, “Jackson was a slave owner.”  This kind of hypocrisy and illogical argumentation is typical of Leftists.  In their own eyes, Leftism is the “god” of humanity.  They establish the acceptable (always evolving) moral standard and judge everyone, including previous generations, by it.  They never try to put history into its context; they always judge others, even in history, by their current, modern, continually changing Leftist standard.  That’s why they can condemn anybody they don’t agree with.  If you don’t measure up to THEIR canon of behavior, you are a horrible human being, a Nazi or racist or “white supremacist”—often worth disposing of entirely, thank you, Chairman Mao and General Secretary Stalin.

But the hypocrisy here is clearly manifest.  People who murder unborn babies, mutilate children, allow near-mass murder in the streets of cities they govern, and destroy countless lives through lying, unscientific transgender dogma, have absolutely no right to judge anyone else about anything.  EXCEPT—those things are part of the current, ever-changing Leftist “morality,” thus not to be condemned.  But, the problem is, IF morality is, as they insist, “ever-changing,” how can they condemn slaveholders for submitting to the “ever-changing” morality of their own time?  Hypocrisy, thy name is Leftist.

Unfortunately for Leftists, Jackson’s quote is the exact truth.  Nearly everybody in early America believed that the Bible was the foundation of American society.  “But, Jackson was a slave owner!”  This brings us to another absolute of Leftist historical revisionism and ideological hypocrisy:  find a flaw, or an imperfect motive, in the messenger, and that immediately frees us from having to believe or submit to any truth he/she teaches.  Because Jackson was a “slave owner,” that automatically means we don’t have to believe anything he says.  Donald Trump is a terrible person who writes mean tweets, so we shouldn’t listen to anything he says.  That standard, of course, doesn’t apply to Democrats.  Uh, modern-day Democrats, not Jacksonian Democrats.

However, truth is truth is truth, regardless of who speaks it.  We are responsible for believing and obeying the truth, even if the devil teaches it.  None of us (especially Leftists) are pure, including the men who founded our country.  But the impurity of life or motive doesn’t change the truth, as much as Leftists wish it did.  “The truth is incontrovertible.  Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is” (Winston Churchill).  Incidentally, quotes about the influence of the Bible and Judeo-Christian morality on America by earlier generations of great Americans could be multiplied exponentially.  But Leftists can’t have that.  They want to morph American history into opposition to Christianity so that they can create the godless, totalitarian government THEY want.  And make you the new Democratic Party slaves.

Leftist hypocrisy is everywhere.  Another example:  they need to get guns out of the 

hands of the murdering criminals they’ve created in cities they govern before they start trying to take them away from innocent Americans who have never hurt anybody with their firearms.  But again, that isn’t what this is all about.  It is totally about absolute power and controlling other people, the cardinal element of Leftist ideology.  Power, not freedom, is their mantra.  And they won’t take guns away from monsters because they need societal chaos.  The more chaos there is in a society, the more need there is (they believe) for the government to step in and “control” that society.  In other words, more power for the government (i.e., them).  A responsible, moral, self-controlled, virtuous person is the LAST thing the Left wants because people like that don’t need government!  The Leftist wants more murder in American streets increased moral perversity and unrestrained hedonism.  Such things are the very source and foundation of their grasping for power.

This brings me back to John Adams and his quote at the beginning of this essay, and why the Left hates him so much and must lie about his statement.  More on what Adams actually meant in my second article in this series.