Rabbis: Democrats’ Double Standard on Anti-Semitism Puts Jewish Community ‘at Greater Risk’

BY TYLER O'NEIL

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/tyler-o-neil/2021/02/05/rabbis-democrats-double-standard-on-anti-semitism-puts-jewish-community-at-greater-risk-n1423447;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

On Thursday, just after the House of Representatives voted to strip Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) of her committee assignments over past statements Greene has since said she regretted, a coalition of 1,500 Orthodox Jewish rabbis condemned the Democrats’ blatant double standard on anti-Semitism. While some of Greene’s statements were anti-Semitic, the rabbis faulted the House for targeting Greene while ignoring heinous anti-Semitism in the Democratic Party.

“Had the House operated by a fair and neutral standard,” Rabbi Yaakov Menken, Managing Director of the Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV) said in a statement, “Rep. Greene would not be the only Member of Congress losing her committee assignments. Let there be no mistake: the American Jewish community is at greater risk today, because partisans chose to ‘virtue signal’ instead of taking real action to fight Antisemitism and hatred.”

CJV sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), urging the House to adopt a “neutral standard” on anti-Semitism that would involve condemning statements from Democrats that came in the past few weeks as well as statements that Greene made two years ago.

The letter noted that Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Minn.), Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), Marie Newman (D-Ill.), and Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) falsely accused the Jewish State of Israel of refusing to vaccinate Palestinians when the Palestinian government has vociferously refused the Israeli vaccine and even repeatedly refused COVID-19 medical aid from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) because the UAE had been working toward normalization with Israel. Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan condemned Tlaib’s accusation as a “modern-day blood libel.”

House Votes to Strip Marjorie Taylor Greene of Committee Assignments

“We applaud you for condemning Antisemitic statements attributed to new Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, and made in videos she promoted,” the rabbis wrote in the letter. “We strongly encourage you to establish a neutral and bipartisan approach, utilizing the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of Antisemitism. The House of Representatives must ensure that Antisemitism is not allowed to flourish on one side by condemning it only on the other.”

“On January 19, Representative Rashida Tlaib stated that Israel was denying access to COVID vaccines to citizens of the Palestinian Authority (PA), including her own grandmother,” the rabbis explained. “The IHRA definition [of anti-Semitism] includes ‘applying double standards [against Israel] by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.'”

The rabbis noted that the Palestinian Authority (PA) has sole jurisdiction over health care according to the Oslo Accords, and the PA rejected Israel’s overtures on the vaccine, preferring to obtain the Sputnik V vaccine from Russia, instead. “All Israeli Arab Muslim citizens and residents over age 60 — like Israeli Jews, Christians, Baha’i and all other citizens — were offered the vaccine by mid-January,” they added.

Yet Tlaib accused Israel of carrying out an “apartheid” policy in denying the vaccine to Palestinians like her grandmother.

“They don’t believe that she’s an equal human being that deserves to live, deserves to be able to be protected by this global pandemic,” Tlaib said. “It’s really hard to watch as this apartheid state continues to deny their own neighbors, the people that breathe the same air they breathe, that live in the same communities.”

Bowman, an ally of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-N.Y.) “Squad” (of which Tlaib is a member), tweeted that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “must ensure that both Israelis and Palestinians have access to the Covid vaccine.” To his credit, Bowman later deleted this tweet.

“I commend Israel for leading the world on vaccinating its people, but I’m disappointed and concerned by their government’s exclusion of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation from these vaccination efforts, despite making COVID vaccines available to Israeli settlers in the West Bank,” Castro said.

Newman claimed that “the Netanyahu administration has a moral and humanitarian obligation to ensure that both Israelis & Palestinians have access to vaccines.”

100 Rabbis: The SPLC Makes Life More Dangerous for Jews by Covering for Radical Islam

While Bowman deleted his tweet, neither Tlaib nor Castro nor Newman have retracted or apologized.

The rabbis noted that Erdan “rightly called this accusation a modern-day blood libel. This is almost correct. In the Middle Ages, the accusers did not first reject Jewish medical assistance before falsely accusing the Jews of causing their deaths.”

“Representative Greene promoted a video referring to ‘Zionist supremacists,’ and Representative Tlaib referred to Israel as racist. The sentiment is precisely the same. No one can deny that this is a bipartisan problem,” the rabbis wrote.

“Working from a neutral standard will help prevent Antisemitism from being relegated to a political weapon. That would place American and global Jewry at greater risk, by claiming to fight hate while permitting it to fester,” the Coalition for Jewish Values warned.

The rabbis focused on a few recent anti-Semitic claims, but many Democrats have long histories of spouting anti-Semitism without censure from their party. Greene has expressed regret and explicitly disavowed many of her previous claims, and she has strongly supported the State of Israel. Those moves do not erase her misdeeds, but they demonstrate far more remorse than Tlaib or Castro have expressed over their statements from earlier this year.

Like the rabbis, I am glad that both Republicans and Democrats condemned Greene’s former comments, although I fear the precedent that Democrats (and 11 Republicans) set by voting to strip Greene of her committee assignments on Thursday.

Given Thursday’s vote, if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) wants to apply an even standard against anti-Semitism, she must hold votes to strip Tlaib, Bowman, Castro, and Newman of their committee assignments — even if these members express regret over their anti-Semitic statements. Otherwise, the rabbis’ warning is correct — Pelosi has cheapened the fight against anti-Semitism by wielding it as a political weapon, which will worsen the threat of anti-Jewish hatred.

Tyler O’Neil is the author of Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Follow him on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.

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As NFL Star Quotes Fake Hitler, SPLC and ADL Accuse Jack Posobiec of Anti-Semitism

US Border Patrol Arrests Group of Eleven Iranian Citizens Crossing Illegally From Mexico

SEE: https://www.algemeiner.com/2021/02/04/us-border-patrol-arrests-group-of-eleven-iranian-citizens-crossing-illegally-from-mexico/;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

United States Customs and Border Protection has arrested a group of 11 Iranian citizens illegally crossing the US-Mexico border, according to a CBP statement Wednesday.

Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents encountered the group, which included six men and five women from Iran, on Monday evening near San Luis, Arizona, in the southwest part of the state.

“The primary mission of the Border Patrol is to prevent nefarious people and devices from entering the United States,” the statement said. “Iran is a designated Special Interest Country and the agents of Yuma Sector work diligently to protect our borders for the safety of our nation.”

The “Special Interest” designation has included other state sponsors of terrorism like Afghanistan and Syria, and border apprehensions of nationals from those countries represent a small fraction of overall apprehensions.

The Yuma Sector Border Patrol arrested eight Iranian nationals in fiscal year 2020, the statement said, out of a total of 22 apprehended agency-wide.

Report: Anti-Israel Activist Heading to Biden State Dept

Matt Duss, central to the anti-Israel movement, may be headed to Foggy Bottom

BY ADAM KREDO

SEE: https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/report-anti-israel-activist-heading-to-biden-state-dept/;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

The State Department is reportedly set to hire a top aide for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) who has a lengthy history of anti-Israel activism and played a key role at the left-wing blog ThinkProgress when an anti-Semitism scandal rocked the publication.

Matt Duss, Sanders’s top foreign policy hand, is expected to move to the State Department, though it is not clear yet what his role will be, according to Politico. Duss will join a growing roster of Biden administration hires who have displayed a deep animus toward Israel, promoted boycotts of the Jewish state, and advocated for a Palestinian "right of return" that would destroy the country’s Jewish composition.

Duss's elevation is likely to serve as a bright line for pro-Israel groups that threaten to undermine their support for the Biden administration. While the Biden campaign took pains to distance itself from anti-Israel activists, including the anti-Semite Linda Sarsour, Duss's inclusion in the administration would be a further signal that the new president intends to govern differently.

Duss, whose writings have been described by a watchdog group, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, as "infected with Jew-hatred," has been a leading voice in the anti-Israel movement for the better part of the last decade. His criticisms of Israel were too much even for the Obama White House, which said it was "troubled" by blog posts penned by Duss and his colleagues at the now-defunct ThinkProgress.

His elevation would mark a key win for the Democratic Party’s far-left flank, which presented the Biden transition team a list of nearly 100 people—many of them, including Duss, fringe figures—whom it wants to see in the administration. When Sanders tapped Duss as an adviser to his 2020 presidential campaign, Jewish and pro-Israel officials expressed outrage, with one accusing the senator of "building a campaign team filled with people who have devoted their careers to running anti-Semitic campaigns and calling them anti-Israel."

Duss drew scrutiny last year for describing Israel's targeted killing of an Iranian nuclear scientist and military official as an act of terrorism. "Responding to the [Mohsen] Fakhrizadeh assassination by reaffirming the commitment to rejoin the JCPOA would be a good way to send the message that terrorism doesn't work," Duss tweeted, referring to the nuclear deal by its acronym.

The Sanders ally gained notoriety in 2011 when he and several other writers at the Center for American Progress’s now-defunct ThinkProgress leveled charges of dual loyalty against Israel’s American supporters, calling them "Israel firsters," a term that was widely condemned at the time as anti-Semitic.

In one 2010 posting on Israel’s deadly confrontation with a violent mob seeking to break its naval blockade of the Gaza Strip, Duss claimed the country’s policies are like "segregation in the American South" and a "moral abomination." Duss is also a defender of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement and said in 2019 that congressional efforts to counter the anti-Israel crowd are a "con and Democrats need to stop playing along."

Republican foreign policy leaders are decrying the move before it is made. "Hiring someone who praises Fidel Castro and defames Israel’s prime minister is another indication that the only unity in Biden’s foreign policy is between the far left and the extreme left," Nikki Haley, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told the Washington Free Beacon.

Rep. Ronny Jackson (R., Texas), a freshman lawmaker who was tapped to serve on the powerful House Foreign Affairs and Armed Services Committees, told the Free Beacon that Biden should shun a figure who "has spewed anti-Semitic hate for years."

Duss’s "disdain for the Jewish people and the American-Israel alliance would be a cancer on the U.S. State Department," Jackson said, adding that his hiring "would be a step in the wrong direction for American foreign policy and for the future of the American-Israel alliance."

The State Department told the Free Beacon it has no personnel announcements when asked about Duss on Thursday.

______________________________________________________________________

SEE ALSO:

https://www.jihadwatch.org/2021/02/hard-left-matt-duss

https://freebeacon.com/national-security/sanders-fills-ranks-with-anti-israel-advocates-tied-to-anti-semitism-scandal/

https://freebeacon.com/national-security/a-confederacy-of-dusses/

https://thehill.com/policy/international/485821-meet-the-adviser-shaping-foreign-policy-for-sanders

Head Of Strategic Command Says U.S. Nuke War With China, Russia a “Real Possibility”

Unless U.S. beefs up its nuclear arsenal.

BY PAUL JOSEPH WATSON

SEE: https://www.infowars.com/posts/head-of-strategic-command-says-u-s-nuke-war-with-china-russia-a-real-possibility/;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

The US Strategic Command (STRATCOM) warns that a nuclear war with Russia and China is a “real possibility” unless the U.S. beefs up its nuclear arsenal.

“There is a real possibility that a regional crisis with Russia or China could escalate quickly to a conflict involving nuclear weapons if they perceived a conventional loss would threaten the regime or state,” Vice Adm. Charles Richard wrote in the February edition of the US Naval Institute’s monthly magazine.

In response, the U.S. Military must “shift its principal assumption from ‘nuclear employment is not possible’ to ‘nuclear employment is a very real possibility,’ and act to meet and deter that reality,” according to Richard.

The STRATCOM chief also asserted that Russia and China “have begun to aggressively challenge international norms and global peace using instruments of power and threats of force in ways not seen since the height of the Cold War.”

Despite the fact that Beijing only has around 320 nuclear warheads compared to the United States’ 6,000, Richard said America would need to modernize its stockpile.

“Even if Beijing doubles its arsenal over the next decade, as the China hawks are predicting, it will still be small compared to Washington’s,” writes Dave DeCamp. “The US would have to eliminate a good amount of its arsenal to convince Beijing to participate in arms control agreements.”

The warning was given as the USS ‘John S. McCain’ was sent for the first time by the Biden administration into the South China Sea near Chinese-controlled islands.

The US Navy said the warship was asserting “navigational rights and freedoms in the vicinity of the Parcel Islands, consistent with international law.”

As we previously highlighted, former Australian Army Major-General and current Senator Jim Molan also sounded the alarm bell on tensions between the United States and China.

“In 1991, the US Navy was 600 warships strong. Now it’s less than 300,” he pointed out, adding, “We are likely in the next three to five years or in the next five to ten years to be involved in a war between China and the United States.”

Last year, Henry Kissinger also cautioned that a catastrophic conflict between America and China that will be “worse than world wars” is inevitable unless the two sides sort out their differences.

 

San Francisco Votes to Rename Schools Named for Founding Fathers~George Washington and Abraham Lincoln are officially cancelled.

SAN FRANCISCO SCHOOL BOARD WHO VOTED TO CHANGE 44 SCHOOL NAMES: 

Board President Gabriela López - Supported

Board Vice President Alison Collins - Supported

Commissioner Matt Alexander - Supported

Commissioner Kevine Boggess - Voted against

Commissioner Jenny Lam - Supported

Commissioner Faauuga Moliga - Supported

Commissioner Mark Sanchez (also a member of the voluntary committee who recommended to the main board which schools should be renamed) - Supported renaming

BY SARA DOGAN

SEE: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/02/san-francisco-votes-rename-schools-named-founding-sara-dogan/;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

In the latest excess of radical left cancel culture, the San Francisco School Board has voted to rename 44 public schools after a biased and historically inaccurate report judged their namesakes to be unworthy of the honor.

Famous Americans whose names are to be stricken from the schools include Founding Fathers George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, as well as less obvious targets such as California Senator Dianne Feinstein, a radical Democrat. Feinstein's crime? While mayor of San Francisco in 1984, she replaced a Confederate Flag which stood as part of a larger display outside City Hall, after it was vandalized and removed by activists. The display featured 18 flags and was intended to showcase the stages of America's history. 

So flagrantly politicized were the renaming decisions, that they sparked the furor of Democratic activist group, Families for San Francisco, which denounced the school board's decision-making process in a lengthy report

Families for San Francisco condemned the School Names Advisory Committee which selected the 44 schools to be renamed, noting that "The Committee was not guided or informed by professional historians or any other parties with the historical expertise required for the Committee to do its work" and  "As a result...The Guiding Principles used by the Committee was a 'Just One Thing' test, where a historical figure was to be removed from a school name on the basis of just a single incident from a list of criteria."

The similarities to leftist cancel culture did not end there. Additionally, the report points out that "The research process consisted of reviewing the names of schools 'pretty quick with some really casual Google searches,'" and "numerous factual errors were made, and relevant historical context was often not processed or considered." Zoom recordings of the naming committee's meetings show that Abraham Lincoln was discussed for under five seconds before being rejected as a suitable namesake for San Francisco schools.

The "Guiding Principles" used by the Committee to make its decisions held that "We will seek to change the names of schools that are named for: Anyone directly involved in the colonization of people; Slave owners or participants in enslavement; Perpetrators of genocide or slavery; Those who exploit workers/people; Those who directly oppressed or abused women, children, queer or transgender people; Those connected to any human rights or environmental abuses; Those who are known racists and/or white supremacists and/or espoused racist beliefs."

As overarching and subjective as these guidelines are, the Naming Committee compounded their failure by failing to apply their own rules equally to all historical figures. Families for San Francisco points to the case of civil rights leader Malcolm X as an example: "The Committee was going to decide quickly not to recommend Malcolm X Academy for renaming until one of the members pointed out there was historical evidence that Malcolm X had “directly oppressed or abused women.” A ten-minute discussion followed that rationalized reinterpreting the Guiding Principles to consider all Malcolm X had done in his life in order not to recommend the school for renaming. To be crystal clear, we agree wholeheartedly that Malcolm X should be judged by the entirety of his life. The same is true of all other historical figures."  

“We are applying impossible standards for naming when even Abraham Lincoln doesn’t qualify for this honor,” Jennifer Raiser, a longtime San Francisco author and activist, told the New York Post. “We are sending a message to our kids that even if you do your best and make some mistakes, you are not good enough.”

When even San Francisco leftists think your attempts to rewrite history and erase America's founding have gone to far, maybe it's time to give your crusade another look. 

To learn more about the Freedom Center's campaign to halt indoctrination in K-12 schools, please visit our website,  www.stopk12indoctrination.org.  To read the K-12 Code of Ethics CLICK HERETo order the Freedom Center’s new pamphlet, “Leftist Indoctrination in Our K-12 Public Schools,” CLICK HERETo donate to our campaign to stop K-12 Indoctrination CLICK HERE.

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Labor leader César Chávez (pictured below) can keep his name on César Chávez Elementary despite his derogatory comments about undocumented immigrants:

Labor leader César Chávez (pictured above) can keep his name on César Chávez Elementary despite his derogatory comments about undocumented immigrants

SEE ALSO:

https://familiesforsanfrancisco.com/Updates/

https://familiesforsanfrancisco.com/gallery/School%20Renaming%20Public%20Comment%20Final%20v2.pdf

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/02/san-francisco-renaming-spree/617894/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9193103/San-Francisco-school-board-votes-rename-schools.html

https://www.courthousenews.com/san-francisco-oks-plan-to-strip-lincoln-and-washington-from-school-names/

https://missionlocal.org/2021/01/the-san-francisco-school-districts-renaming-debacle-has-been-a-historic-travesty/

SAN FRANCISCO SCHOOL BOARD VOTES TO RENAME 44 SCHOOLS OVER 'DISHONOROABLE LEGACIES' OF NAMESAKES: 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN:  U.S. president targeted for his treatment of indigenous people, Abraham Lincoln High School. 

GEORGE WASHINGTON: The first U.S. president and a slave owner, George Washington High School. 

VASCO NUNEZ DE BALBOA: A Spanish explorer targeted by the board over colonization and abuses of indigenous people, Balboa High School.  

MISSION DOLORES: The 7th mission founded by Spanish settlers in their quest to colonize and evangelize the native peoples of California, Mission High School. 

JAMES R. LOWELL:  While initially involved in the movement to abolish slavery, the poet's support wavered over the years, Lowell High School.  

JAMES DENMAN: Founder of first S.F. school and first superintendent, a racist leader who denied Chinese students a public education, James Denman Middle School.  

EDWARD EVERETT: An American statesman who a speech in 1826 in which he appeared to endorse slavery, despite his arguments that he rejected the slave trade and the act of kidnapping someone into slavery, Everett Middle School. 

HERBERT HOOVER: U.S. president: African-American leaders condemned various aspects of the Hoover administration, including his unwillingness to push for a federal anti-lynching law, Herbert Hoover Middle School. 

JAMES LICK: A land baron whose estate funded the controversial 'Early Days' statue depicting Native Americans in a demeaning manner, James Lick Middle School. 

PRESIDIO: S.F. military post established in 1776 as Spain's northern-most outpost of colonial power, Presidio Middle School. 

THEODORE OR F.D. ROOSEVELT: Both U.S. Presidents. Teddy Roosevelt held Racist attitudes toward Cubans, Puerto Ricans and Filipinos during the Spanish-American War; F.D received heavy criticism for his internment of Japanese Americans during the Second World War, Roosevelt Middle School. 

HENRY WARE LAWTON: An officer in the U.S. Civil War, Lawton K-8

CLAIRE LILIENTHAL: A S.F. school board member, two school sites

PAUL REVERE: A Patriot in the American Revolution, Paul Revere K-8

ALAMO: A poplar tree or the site of Texas Revolution battle, Alamo Elementary

PEDRO DE ALVARADO: A conquistador, Alvarado Elementary,

EDWIN BRYANT: The author penned editorials supporting the anti-Catholic nativism movement and a series of racist attacks on Vice President Richard Mentor Johnson for his black common-law wife and two mixed-race daughters, Bryan Elementary

EDWARD HYDE: The English politician and Earl of ClarendonClarendon Elementary Second Community and Japanese Bilingual Bicultural Program

EL DORADO: Mythical City of Gold, El Dorado Elementary 

DIANNE FEINSTEIN: The US Senator replaced a Confederate Flag at City Hall while the Mayor of San Francisco in 1984, Dianne Feinstein Elementary

JAMES GARFIELD: US President, Garfield Elementary

WILLIAM HENRY GRATTAN: An Irish author regarded as controversial due to the inaccuracy of some of his work, Grattan Elementary

THOMAS JEFFERSON: U.S. president and a slave owner, Jefferson Elementary

FRANCIS SCOTT KEY: Composer of 'Star-Spangled Banner', Francis Scott Key Elementary

FRANK MCCOPPIN: San Francisco Mayor, Frank McCoppin Elementary

WILLIAM MCKINLEY: US President, McKinley's expansionist policies are now widely viewed as racist toward indigenous people, McKinley Elementary 

JAMES WILSON MARSHALL: Sawmill worker at Sutter's Mill, who reported the finding of gold at Coloma on the American River in California on January 24, 1848, sparking the California Gold Rush, Marshall Elementary 

JAMES MONROE: US President and slave owner, Monroe Elementary

JOHN MUIR: The naturalist made comments that invoked racist stereotypes made toward black people, John Muir Elementary

JOSE ORTEGA: A Spanish colonizer, Jose Ortega Elementary

JOSE BERNARDO SANCHEZ: A Spanish missionary, Sanchez Elementary 

JUNIPERO SERRA: Elementary, Spanish priest to be renamed due to colonization and abuses of indigenous people Serra Elementary

GEN. PHILIP SHERIDAN: A Union General in the American Civil War, Sheridan Elementary

GEN. WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN: Did not believe in equality between white and black people despiet being a genera in the Northern Army during the Civil War, Sherman Elementary

JOHN SLOAT:  Navy officer and a colonizer who 'claimed/stole' California from Mexico, Commodore Sloat Elementary

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON: Author, Robert Louis Stevenson Elementary  

ADOLPH SUTRO: S.F. mayor accused of discriminating against black people in the 19th century who wanted to visit the baths named after him, Sutro Elementary

DON ANTONIO DE ULLOA: Spanish General and the first Spanish governor of Louisiana, Ulloa Elementary 

DANIEL WEBSTER: U.S. Statesman who urged northerners to respect slavery in the South and to assist in the return of fugitive slaves to their owners, Daniel Webster Elementary

NORIEGA: Unclear, Noriega Early Education School

PRESIDIO: San Francisco Military Post formerly established by the Spanish, Presidio EES

ROBERT F STOCKTON: Navy Commodore who captured California during the Mexican–American War, Stockton EES  

THE GREAT RESET: Dinesh D’Souza Podcast Ep19

In this episode Dinesh makes the case that the "great reset" is really an effort by the Left globally to create a "new man," by persuasion if possible, by force if necessary. AOC goes full Christine Blasey Ford:what's her motive? Dinesh also explains why Republicans sell out Marjorie Taylor Greene while the Democrats protect Ilhan Omar--who has been described as "ISIS with lipstick"-- at all costs. And newly elected Rep. Lauren Boebert joins Dinesh to talk about why she needs to carry a gun in the nation's capital. Dinesh D'Souza is an author and filmmaker. A graduate of Dartmouth College, he was a senior domestic policy analyst in the Reagan administration. He also served as a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He is the author of many bestselling books, including "Illiberal Education," "What's So Great About Christianity," "America: Imagine a World Without Her," "The Roots of Obama's Rage," "Death of a Nation," and "United States of Socialism." His documentary films "2016: Obama's America," "America," "Hillary's America," "Death of a Nation," and "Trump Card" are among the highest-grossing political documentaries of all time. He and his wife Debbie are also executive producers of the acclaimed feature film "Infidel."

Biden’s New Asst Sec of State Worked for Islamic Terror State That Funds Hamas

Effective Advocacy panel with Lara Friedman, Craig Swandby, and Hady Amr

ABOVE: Effective Advocacy panel with Lara Friedman, Craig Swandby, and Hady Amr

BY DANIEL GREENFIELD

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2021/02/bidens-new-asst-sec-of-state-worked-for-islamic-terror-state-that-funds-hamas;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

“I was inspired by the Palestinian intifada.”

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.

“I was inspired by the Palestinian intifada,” Hady Amr wrote a year after September 11, discussing his work as the national coordinator of the anti-Israel Middle East Justice Network.

Biden has now chosen Amr as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Israel-Palestine.

“I have news for every Israeli,” Amr ranted in one column written after Sheikh Salah Shahada, the head of Hamas’ Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, was taken out by an Israeli airstrike.

Amr warned that Arabs “now have televisions, and they will never, never forget what the Israeli people, the Israeli military and Israeli democracy have done to Palestinian children. And there will be thousands who will seek to avenge these brutal murders of innocents.”

He also threatened Americans that “we too shouldn’t be shocked when our military assistance to Israel and our security council vetoes that keep on protecting Israel come back to haunt us”

The future State Department official was making these threats less than a year after 9/11.

Hady Amr had accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and coordinated an organization that had accused Israel of “apartheid” making his appointment, like that of Maher Bitar, an anti-Israel activist appointed as the Senior Director for Intelligence on the NSC, a statement about the Biden administration’s hostile relationship to the Jewish State.

Amr’s job offer from Biden isn’t surprising. The Beirut-born Amr who grew up in Saudi Arabia had dived into politics as the director of ethnic outreach for Al Gore’s failed presidential campaign. And the Biden campaign listed Amr as one of its bundlers who fueled it with cash.

Biden’s move puts Amr, who had repeatedly advocated for a deal with Hamas, and worked closely with a terror state that serves as a major backer of Hamas, in a key policy position.

But Amr isn’t just another foreign policy expert with a history of hostility to Israel.

“What’s exciting about this project is that it’s a joint project of Brookings and the Qatari Government,” Hady Amr had gushed about his old role as the director of the Brookings Doha Center, whose aim he said was to “inform the American public and American policymakers”.

In, “Foreign Powers Buy Influence at Think Tanks”, the New York Times had reported that Qatar, an ally of Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood, was the single biggest foreign donor to the Brookings Institute.

“There was a no-go zone when it came to criticizing the Qatari government,” a visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar in 2009 had told the Times.

Hady Amr had been the founding director of the Brookings Doha Center and had led it between 2006 and 2010. A Times report noted that the institution had forbade criticism of Qatar. Lawyers interviewed by the paper suggested that some of Brookings’ work with foreign governments merited “registration as foreign agents”. Brookings has not only not done so, its key personnel, like Amr, have gone on to work in important positions for the United States government.

Amr moved back and forth between Brookings and the United States Government, working for Brookings Doha and then the State Department, and returning to Brookings under the Trump Administration, before coming back to the State Department under Biden.

Qatar not only provided $14.8 million in funding for the Brookings Doha Center, but its advisory board was co-chaired by Qatar’s foreign prime minister and a member of its royal dynasty while its director had formerly worked for the second of the Qatari Emir’s three wives (and the only wife who also wasn’t a cousin) making it obvious that the organization was under Qatari control.

“The center will assume its role in reflecting the bright image of Qatar,” the Qatari Foreign Ministry had boasted.

Qatar is a major state sponsor of the Islamic terrorist group Hamas. It has been accused by US government officials of being utilized by Al Qaeda and the Taliban for fundraising purposes. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of September 11, operated out of Qatar. He fled after being warned by a member of the Qatari royal family that the Americans were on to him.

“The Qataris had a history of terrorist sympathies,” the NSC’s former chief counter-terrorism adviser wrote. “It has been true that Qatar has served as a sanctuary for leaders of groups that the U.S. or other countries deem to be terrorist organizations.”

Hady Amr’s backing for Islamists mirrored the support for Islamists by the Qatari regime.

At Brookings Doha, Amr had urged that the “Muslim brotherhood organizations across the Muslim World should be engaged”. Then he wondered, “in Lebanese and Palestinian society, the faith-based organizations are seen as the least corrupt… Hamas and Hezbollah are often cited by their populations as being non-corrupt. This needs more analysis. Is this the case?”

Over the past few years, Amr has repeatedly urged negotiations with Hamas. When the Trump administration unveiled its proposed peace deal, Amr co-wrote an article declaring that it should be scrapped in favor of focusing on a deal with Hamas. The article provides some insight into the policies that Amr may advance as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Israel-Palestine.

“By laying out the terms of a three-way Hamas-Israel-PA/PLO deal now, and building an international consensus around it, the United States could create a pathway toward resolution,” the article had argued. That would potentially not only restart Obama’s attempt to impose a plan on Israel, but would do so not only on behalf of the PLO, but also on behalf of Hamas.

The troubling connections between Qatar, an Islamic terrorist state that is allied with Iran, is a major sponsor of the Muslim Brotherhood and its terrorist arm, Hamas, and the influential Brookings Institute think-tank makes Amr’s appointment all the more problematic.

“Our business is to influence policy,” Martin Indyk admitted. “To be policy-relevant, we need to engage policymakers.”

Indyk, a key anti-Israel figure in the Democrat foreign policy establishment, who had worked for Clinton and Obama, had partnered with the Qatari government to set up Brookings in Doha.

Amr’s career was fueled by his work with Indyk and after Brookings, he went to work for the State Department and eventually became the Deputy to the Special Envoy for Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations for Economics and Gaza under Obama. Now, after acting as a big money bundler for Biden, the anti-Israel figure has been rewarded with a major foreign policy role.

Hady Amr is not the only Brookings Doha alumnus to end up in a top policy position. Amr’s appointment may be an opportunity to scrutinize whether employees of an organization that effectively functioned as an arm of a foreign government should be allowed to hold such roles.

Through Al Jazeera and organizations like Brookings Doha, Qatar has worked to support and normalize Islamist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood. Brookings Doha’s leadership made no secret of the fact that its goal was to influence policymakers. But, even more troublingly, the veterans of Brookings Doha, like Amr, are becoming policymakers in their own right.

Should foreign governments like Qatar be able to exercise such an influence over America?

 

Biden Surrenders to Iran’s ‘Death to America’ Jihadis in Yemen Who Attacked USS Mason

BY DANIEL GREENFIELD

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2021/02/biden-surrenders-to-irans-death-to-america-jihadis-in-yemen-who-attacked-uss-mason;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

The Biden foreign policy team is crawling with Obama’s pro-Iranian echo chamber foreign policy trolls and the Iran Lobby was among his biggest bundlers.

Iran’s expansion into Yemen via the Houthis, a Jihadist group whose motto is “Death to America, Death to Israel,  A Curse the Jews, Victory to Islam”, has been backed by the media and the foreign policy establishment which falsely kept blaming the Saudi campaign against the Houthis for the famine when in fact it was the Houthis who had caused the famine by stealing humanitarian aid. This didn’t stop Islamists and the media from keeping the famine lie going anyway.

Or the Biden campaign from adopting it as a talking point.

The Houthis had meanwhile fired on the USS Mason (“Death to America” is right in their motto) and were ethnically cleansing Yemen’s Jewish population.

Despite all that, the Biden administration is now very predictably dropping support for the Saudi campaign against the Houthis, calling for a diplomatic solution, and dispatching a special emissary.

In other words, they’re surrendering to Iran and the Houthis.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, had pushed a terrorist designation for the Houthis on the way out the door, leading to outrage from the Democrats, their media, and even some Republicans. The Biden team is going the other way by rolling over for the, “Death to America” Jihadis leading to another of Obama’s “Victories for Islam”.

The Yemen mess spilled over due to Obama’s Arab Spring. Just wait for the Biden Islamist Winter.

 

Expelling MAGA from Government & Military, Election Fraud Latest, 2nd Amendment DEATH BILL!

In this episode of The Silent War, The Marxist Democrats seek to MAGA & wrong-think Whites in Federal Government & Military. No joke! 2nd Amendment death bill is being introduced!  Updates on the Presidential Election Fraud of 2020-2021

American Thought Leaders: Andy Ngo-Infiltrating CHAZ; Antifa’s Plot to Destroy America; “Unmasked”

Rumble — “In their own words, for their world to live & thrive, America has to die."

Independent journalist Andy Ngo has spent the last four years studying and reporting on Antifa. Even though Andy Ngo’s been doxxed, harassed, and beaten by Antifa so badly he ended up hospitalized with a brain bleed, he still went undercover into CHAZ, the lawless autonomous zone that lasted for three weeks in Seattle last year.

Tonight, Andy Ngo breaks down the inner workings of Antifa, which he details in his new book “Unmasked: Inside Antifa's Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy.”

This is American Thought Leaders, and I’m Jan Jekielek.

New Bill in Congress Essentially Nullifies the Second Amendment

BY SELWYN DUKE

SEE: https://thenewamerican.com/new-bill-in-congress-essentially-nullifies-the-second-amendment/;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

Leftists have made clear that they believe only the government should have guns, and a new bill proposed in Congress would be a huge step toward making this a reality.

Submitted January 4 by Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), the Sabika Sheikh Firearm Licensing and Registration Act (H.R. 127) would, one observer warns, “end your 2nd Amendment rights permanently.”

The bill’s provisions are staggering, in fact, according to analysts who’ve tried to make sense of its technical language.

“First, HR 127 establishes a federal firearms registration system that will be accessible by federal, state, and local governments, including the military — even the GENERAL PUBLIC!” relates writer Howie Katz.

“The system will track the make, model, and serial number of all firearms, their owners, the dates they were acquired, and where they are being stored.”

Note that when The Journal News in Westchester County, New York, printed the names and addresses of registered handgun owners in its coverage area in 2013, it caused an uproar. And one point made at the time also applies to a universally accessible registration system: If someone wanted to rob you, he could know precisely how you were armed or if you were unarmed — and hence easy prey.

In fact, in that incident’s wake, the Rockland County Times “asked several former convicts what they thought about the publication of registration information,” related America’s 1st Freedom in 2016. “The convicts all agreed that it would be an outstanding list for burglars to use.”Moreover, making such records public can render you vulnerable to cancel-culture action in today’s political climate.

Worse still, H.R. 127 is retroactivestates author and blogger Michael Snyder. “Within three months, you would have to report to the government where you bought all of your guns, when they were purchased, and where they are currently being stored,” he writes.

Firearm owners “would also have to report the identity of any person to whom, and any period of time during which, the firearm will be loaned to that individual,” adds Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms chairman Alan Gottlieb.

Of course, this makes it easy for the government to confiscate your weapons in the future. In fact, as in Australia, the historical pattern is for registration to precede confiscation.  

Yet selective “confiscation” could occur long before the collective variety because H.R. 127 also requires licensing, inclusive of a psychological evaluation.  

“The licensing requirement mandates that the license applicant undergoes a criminal background check, and then submits to a psychological evaluation to determine whether the person is psychologically unsuited to possess a firearm,” as Gottlieb puts it. “Successful licensees must show they have an insurance policy which will cost $800.”

By the way, if a poll tax is illegal because it places an undue burden on the poor, why should what’s in essence a gun “tax” be allowed, especially since at issue is a constitutionally guaranteed right?

While Snyder points out that many guys wouldn’t want a government-approved psychologist assessing their mental fitness, more must be said. The reality is that the social sciences in general are a bastion of liberalism.

As Quartz wrote in a 2015 article titled “Social psychologists are almost all liberals — and it’s really hurting the field,” “In 2011, Professor Jonathan Haidt, of New York University’s Stern School of Business, asked a gathering of some 1,000 psychologists to raise their hands if they identified as politically conservative. Exactly three people did.”

Thus is it unsurprising that the social sciences have become what they are: the (pseudo)scientific arm of leftism. That is to say, liberals in politics make a claim, and social scientists provide a specious “scientific” basis for it.

Moreover, we’ve for years heard that conservatives are mentally ill. This columnist states that “Trumpism Qualifies as Psychosis,” for example, and Psychology Today has claimed that trump supporters generally have “5 key” negative traits and that they exhibit distortion of reality.

So what do you think the chances are that deviation from approved orthodoxy would be used, social-credit-score style, to deny gun licensing?

Yet there’s still more. According to Katz, “For the psychological evaluation, a licensed psychologist will interview individuals’ spouses and at least two other family members or associates to ‘further determine the state of the mental, emotional, and relational stability of the individual in relation to firearms. Licenses will be denied to individuals hospitalized for issues such as depressive episodes; no duration for license disability is specified, and it does not matter whether the individual sought help voluntarily.”

“Finally, HR 127 also criminalizes the possession of ‘large-capacity magazines’ (those carrying greater than 10 rounds) and ‘ammunition that is 0.50 caliber or greater,’” Katz also writes.

“There is no grandfathering clause in Jackson Lee’s bill,” he continues. “That means if you have an old rusting .22 rifle sitting in … one of your closets, you will have to comply with all the provisions of the bill or face a heavy fine and possible imprisonment.”

The good news is that H.R. 127 does not as yet have any co-sponsors. The bad news is that it absolutely aligns with Democrats’ aims. So we should expect something of its nature to pass the House in the foreseeable future.

As Snyder points out, all of this is happening at precisely the time crime rates are skyrocketing because of many Democrats’ refusal to enforce just laws and their releasing of criminals onto the streets. So it’s not enough for the leftists to throw a cat to the wolves — they want to declaw him as well.

Of course, all this means far more if we confuse the feds with feudal lords and government with God. These proposals don’t mean as much if we on the state level just say to the feds, “If you can nullify constitutional amendments, we can nullify you.”

Trevor Loudon: America’s ‘Unfolding Socialist Revolution’ & Connections to China’s Communist Party

America is in the midst of an “unfolding socialist revolution,” argues anti-communist activist, researcher, and filmmaker Trevor Loudon. And a number of the individuals and groups involved in this effort have connections to the Chinese Communist Party. This is American Thought Leaders 🇺🇸, and I’m Jan Jekielek.

Biden Reinstitutes ‘Catch and Release’ Along Texas-Mexico Border, Inviting Chaos and Disaster

BY RICK MORAN

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2021/02/04/biden-reinstitutes-catch-and-release-along-texas-mexico-border-inviting-chaos-and-disaster-n1423163;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

Texas law enforcement authorities said that, with little fanfare, the Biden administration has reimposed the “catch and release” policy of releasing illegal aliens into the United States while they await their immigration proceedings.

The U.S. Customs and Border protection told local authorities of the coming changes last week.

Before being released, each illegal must be tested for the coronavirus. Charity organizations and illegal immigration advocates are scrambling to try and test the border-jumpers as quickly as possible so they can be released into their new homes.

Border Report:

McAllen Mayor Jim Darling on Tuesday told Border Report that city officials met with U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials, who told them last week that family units — undocumented migrants traveling with children who cross into South Texas — are now being paroled into the United States as they await their asylum proceedings. This is what occurred during previous border security apprehensions known as “catch and release,” when migrants were allowed to remain in the United States during their immigration proceedings however many years that may take.

Biden on Tuesday also ordered a top-to-bottom review of the Trump administration’s Migrant Protection Protocols program, also known as “Remain in Mexico,” by his newly confirmed Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. Nearly 70,000 migrants seeking asylum since 2019 have been forced to remain in Mexico or other countries during their U.S. immigration hearing process under MPP.

Ending the MPP program invites unmitigated disaster. The migrant wave is building across the region as hope is kindled that Joe Biden will not only allow them into the United States but grant them amnesty and give them green cards to work.

There will be no order to the migration. U.S. authorities won’t be able to control it. Once they start coming, they’re not going to stop unless someone keeps them from coming. That’s what the MPP policy accomplished.

Ending it would result in chaos:

Darling said that adult migrants traveling with children who were apprehended illegally crossing the Rio Grande into South Texas were being released by U.S. Border Patrol agents at the bus station in downtown McAllen. After release, city officials are immediately taking the migrants across the street to the Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley’s Humanitarian Respite Center, where they are receiving a free COVID-19 test. Once cleared by the tests, the migrants are boarding buses bound for cities elsewhere with the promise of appearing for scheduled U.S. immigration court hearings.

“They are doing testing at the Respite Center before they get on buses,” Darling said. “We also have reached out to Greyhound and are working to get more buses because we expect a jump in numbers.”

The Biden administration is telling people to wait. A lot of good that will do. Trump’s deals with Mexico and Honduras are the only things standing in the way of a humanitarian disaster. Biden risks derailing his immigration plan before it even starts if he looks to end those deals.

Maintaining those agreements won’t sit well with his radical base that’s already celebrating the end of several Trump immigration policies. They won’t stop until the U.S. borders are imaginary lines on a map with no meaning and no purpose.

Tragic First-Person Accounts of the Effects of COVID-19 School Closures on Children

BY STACEY LENNOX

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/stacey-lennox/2021/02/04/tragic-first-person-accounts-of-the-effects-of-covid-19-school-closures-on-children-n1422925;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

For reasons unknown, there are still raging debates over whether or not to reopen schools. Simultaneously, schools in states like Georgia and Florida have been open since the fall and managed to keep the children whose parents want them to attend school in person open most of the time. Where they have not been prohibited, private schools opened nationwide. Multiple studies in the U.S. have shown that transmission of COVID-19 is minimal in the school setting, supported by data across the globe.

Even the CDC has recognized this data, citing “scant” transmission in the classroom. Yet nationwide, children are still learning remotely. Most often, continued closures involve irrational demands from teachers’ unions and teachers’ associations. This debate is raging in several counties in Virginia, where it is up to the individual school districts to decide how to provide instruction. One mother, Yael Levin-Sheldon, has had enough.

She has been coordinating a series of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to collect data on the negative impact these closures have had on children. Today, she released the data summary for emergency room visits for self-harm and suicide for children between 10 and 19 in her Central Virginia health region. The incidence of emergency room visits in this age group per 100,000 has gone up year-over-year in every single one of the seven counties. Some of the increases are startling.

In Henrico County, Levin-Sheldon’s home county, the rate went from 34.6 per 100,000 in 2019 to 180.8 per 100,000 in 2020. She was motivated to begin collecting data after advocating for schools in her district in June. In the process of her advocacy, she has been called a teacher-killer and a racist in public meetings and online forums. Levin-Sheldon said she is frustrated because all of the private schools in her area are open. Watching her own children’s behavior changes has been devastating.

Her two children were thriving students who loved school and received good grades. Now, she re-teaches them each evening after their remote learning classes to help them to maintain their grades. However, she has needed to seek professional help for both children. Her older child is exhibiting symptoms of OCD and has developed several compulsive habits, including obsessive handwashing. Her younger child has become emotionally labile, showing a wide range of behavior in short periods, from severe anger outbursts to inconsolable tears in minutes.

Levin-Sheldon says there is a school board meeting on Thursday, but the public is not allowed to attend. She expects no progress as the last teachers’ association demand was to fully vaccinate the teachers a month apart and wait the two weeks for effectiveness. The CDC director said today that that was not required. At any rate, it will not happen in Henrico County until the end of March in the best-case scenario. That is right before spring break, and at best, children may get a few weeks of in-person classes before school is out. Levin-Sheldon said:

I know a number of teachers and don’t blame them. Several are ready to return to school and are afraid to speak up. They are being bullied by the Henricho Education Association. I blame a lack of leadership from the school board and by Superintendent Dr. Amy Cashwell.

In Chesterfield County, Kristin Gladstone has similar frustrations. She has a special-needs high school student who is back to school in-person, only because of the small class size. These students are alone in the building, and the student is missing his regular classroom experience outside of the special education program.

Her freshman has attended school for precisely four days since the original shutdown. When they immediately went back to distance learning, her child looked at her and said, “Mom, I’m just losing hope.” This honors student struggled to get average grades last semester and ended up with two Ds. Now, the child is talking about dropping out of school and suffering from decreased appetite, insomnia, and wild mood swings.

Gladstone is functioning as a mother, teacher, and caregiver, taking care of her terminally-ill mother. It is a daily battle to get her freshman to log into remote class and attempt to complete his work — and hers. She is seeking therapy for her child but firmly believes a return to school would have prevented all of this. Just attending for four days in November started to improve her child’s appetite.

School closures have had devastating impacts outside Virginia, as well. On Tucker Carlson Tonight, attorney Laura Grochocki appeared to share the stories she has collected from clients and her community. She represents Lisa Moore, whose son Travis Till committed suicide during the school closure orders from Illinois Governor  J.B. Pritzker. Grochocki is receiving death threats for taking on this case through her small not-for-profit Remember America Action organization. In the interview, she says Moore’s story is just one of the many she has heard, and the foundation cannot take all of the cases her team would like to:

[There is an] outpouring of people calling us and begging us for help. And parents calling us and asking for someone to help them. And the stories of these parents and their kids. Some kids, not just Trevor Till, but at least ten other cases in Illinois that I am aware of kids committing suicide. And eating disorders and hospitalizations over depression. And thousands and thousands of kids from low-income, diverse and rural communities not able to go to college because they are not going to be eligible for scholarships because they didn’t get scouted their junior year…….The crisis is out of control and no one wants to talk about it.

Grochocki said Remember America Action would have filed hundreds of lawsuits across the county if her team had the resources to do it. She said this case was a simple Equal Protection case because Governor Pritzker allowed professional and college teams to play but teen athletes have been crushed by the restrictions.

It is long past time for our national and local leaders to end this madness. Not all private schools have invested millions in new ventilation systems and plexiglass. Most of the studies have used commonsense hygiene measures and cloth masks with additional cleaning requirements. The need for more federal spending is a ridiculous excuse at this point.

The disadvantages that children, even in good schools and without learning disabilities, will have compared to their peers in places where schools are open is unconscionable at this point. There is no way to know how long the gap will exist or the long-term effects of the mental health crisis. It is high time someone pulls a Ronald Reagan with the air-traffic controllers and tells these teachers’ unions and associations their members can be replaced in short order or they will start docking their pay. The future of too many children depends on it.

WATCH the full segment on Tucker Carlson Tonight. A call is played during the segment where obvious profanity is beeped out.

 

Can Ron DeSantis Teach Media Relations to Weak Republicans?

BY STEPHEN KRUISER

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/columns/stephen-kruiser/2021/02/04/the-morning-briefing-can-ron-desantis-teach-media-relations-to-weak-republicans-n1422945;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

The DeSantis Factor Keeps Getting Stronger

Happy Thursday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. Anyone know where I can get a used submarine in good condition?

The Republican party’s Biden-era adjustment period is a bit all over the place, to put it mildly. We knew that there would be more than a few adjustments to be made after Donald Trump left Washington for the sunshine of Florida, but it’s turned out that there are more than that.

Naturally, most of the party drama involves D.C. Republicans. Too much time inside the Beltway infects even the best people with a severe case of the drama queens, so that’s to be expected. Even the ones you want to like eventually end up not being able to get out of their own way while trying to knock someone else over trying to get to a camera. Expect the worst, and the Beltway Republicans will never disappoint you.

Most of my conservative friends and colleagues prefer not to dwell on this hot mess too much and dream of better days, like 2024. I’m not a big fan of getting too far ahead of ourselves like that, and I’ll be writing a column about that in the next day or two. Still, it’s a useful coping mechanism for many and fleshing out a partial plan is never a completely bad idea.

Whenever the hopes for 2024 are discussed, the name of Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida comes up a lot. There are a lot of Trump supporters who would like to see him return and run again. Among those people, DeSantis seems to be the favorite to run if Trump doesn’t decide to put himself through that again.

It’s easy to understand why DeSantis would be so popular with conservative Republicans who aren’t in the mood for the GOP to backslide and start capitulating to the Democrats all the time. He doesn’t do much of that.

OK, any of that.

Throughout this plague, DeSantis has heeded his own instincts rather than react to the shrieking of the Democrats and their hysterical flying monkeys in the media.

That’s precisely what the Republican party needs — leaders who don’t fall for the false promise of respect from the mainstream media. It was bad enough before Trump won in 2016. The MSM hacks would dangle carrots for witless Republicans. If the Republicans in question did what they were told — like backstab other Republicans — they’d be treated slightly less awfully in the press. As soon as their service was no longer required, it was back to crap treatment as usual.

All of the biased media malpractice was more veiled and coy before Trump made everyone involved rip off their masks and expose themselves for the cancer that they are. That the insidiousness of their ways is now a fully known commodity and there are still so many Republicans who want to play into their hands is rather disturbing to those of us who found Trump’s media battles such a refreshing change of pace. Decades of watching Republicans like Mitt Romney and George W. Bush gleefully submit to being whipping boys for the MSM had left us searching for reasons to stick with the party.

Trump changed all that. If the GOP wants most of those 74 million votes Trump got last year to stick around it better not fall in line behind squishes who are saying, “Thank you sir, may I have another?” while being embarrassed by the likes of CNN.

Speaking of media, we saw social media wield real bias and power in the 2020 election, and all of it for the Democrats. To date, the only pushback Republicans in Congress have managed has centered around strong finger-wagging during sham hearings.

DeSantis and his legislature are working on some actual pushback, which Bryan wrote about on Tuesday:

A new proposal expected to be filed Tuesday would prohibit companies from suspending the account of a political candidate and be subject to a fine of $100,000 for each day the account of a statewide candidate is blocked, or $10,000 a day for other office seekers.

The proposal would also allow consumers to sue if they have been treated unfairly and would authorize the state attorney general to take on the country’s largest tech companies because of anti-competitive practices. Social media companies would be required to reveal how they became aware of any content they censor.

That might not be a complete fix, but it’s more concrete than anything the D.C. GOPers have attempted.

Ignore the mainstream hacks, push back legally against the social media barons when possible. If only DeSantis could impress that attitude upon his fellow Republicans. Some are getting the vibe — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem comes to mind — but a lot more need to get with the program or the GOP will be relegated to a double-masked Democrat mandate hell forever.

Or until China occupies the United States.