Tag Archives: Identity politics

Jul 17 2020

Toronto Bans Holy Communion in Churches – Is History Repeating?


Armstrong Economics Blog/Canada

Re-Posted Jul 17, 2020 by Martin Armstrong

There we go again… Toronto banned (Catholic and Orthodox) churches from giving Holy Communion. Not long ago, all churches were forced to close for more than two months and public Masses were banned. Now they’re opened, but Communion is banned. This virus is allowing the destruction of religion which was indeed part of the Marxist agenda. It is really amazing how draconian politicians are becoming, which is stirring up the religious right, and was a direct consequence of the Communist Revolution.

While Constantine I the Great had pictured himself with the Roman god Sol, he used Christianity as the excuse to plunder the pagan temples. There too, he used religion to divide the Roman Empire and he justified that there should be only one emperor because there was only one God.

We also find a religious war within Christianity known as Iconoclasm. Following the Byzantine Emperor Justinian (527–565) saw a vast increase in the use of images. It was the year 695AD when Justinian II’s government added a full-face image of Christ on the obverse of imperial gold coins. The change caused the Caliph Abd al-Malik to stop using Byzantine coin types and he introduced the first purely Islamic coinage with only lettering.

The iconoclasm began with Byzantine Emperor Leo III, who issued a series of edicts between 726 and 730 against the veneration of images. This ignited a religious conflict that led to priests being killed for protecting icons.

So religion has often erupted into social conflicts and civil unrest. We see this same issue reemerge during the 16th century when it erupted in Germany in Wittenberg during the early 1520s. It prompted Martin Luther to intervene arguing that the mental picturing of Christ when reading the Scriptures was similar in character to artistic renderings of Christ. Thus, the Lutherans favored sacred art in contrast to the Calvinists who argued for the removal of all religious images. Interestingly enough, it was the governments, in most cases, who removed images in the Reformed Protestant cities and territories of Europe.

There is a cycle to everything.

Jul 16 2020

The New Abnormal is Global Socialism


The new abnormal, heavily advertised and promoted by the Democrat Party and woke sycophants is a huge disaster unfolding

Dr. Ileana Johnson Paugh image

Re-posted from The Conservative Tree House By  —— Bio and Archives—July 15, 2020

The New Abnormal is Global Socialism

“Socialism is government force to control and change society.” – Paul B. Skousen

Ihave seen socialism creep into American education since 1979 when Jimmy Carter established the now massive bureaucracy called the Department of Education which became the blue print of socialist indoctrination in America. Through my experience first as a graduate student and then as a teacher in America, I also witnessed socialism advance in academia.

As a former citizen of a socialist republic for twenty years and after years of examining American society, I have seen in action most of the 46 goals of socialism as described by Paul B. Skousen in his book, The Naked Socialist.

Skousen’s highly accurate list describes the promotion of socialism and the U.N. as “the only hope for the world.” (#1 and #2)

As many Americans know, the U.N. and its many affiliates have managed to convince 178 countries to sign the U.N. Agenda 21 in 1992, later morphed into U.N. Agenda 2030, a document which controls every aspect of our economic and private lives through SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT and subservience to the whims of globalists, beginning with abolishing of private property and destroying the U.S., the last bastion that stands in its way.

The global green economy has been promoted for decades and the Democrat Party has officially forced it through the passing of its Green New Deal, which is neither green, nor new, nor a deal. It is a subjugation of the U.S. economy to the globalist U.N. Agenda 2030. (#4)

We saw the influence of the World Health Organization (WHO), a U.N. affiliate, and its false claims about Covid-19 which pretty much destroyed the robust U.S. economy and left millions unemployed, all for the common good.

Environmentalists and CDC doctors became controllers of everything we do as human beings and business owners. Everything was brought to its knees in a mere five months, including religion, education, and organized sports.

Liberals and the socialist Democrat Party have been advocating no borders and vilifying President Trump for securing the border. (#3)

One-world currency servicing the one world government is already being touted through the cashless society.  A fully cashless economy means EVERYTHING is digital, traceable, and controlled. (#5)

A Cashless Society

No cash means, among many other nefarious elements of control:

  • No odd jobs to make an extra payment for your mortgage or car
  • No summer cash earned during school
  • No cash from Grandma inside birthday cards and on holidays
  • No more piggy banks or savings for a special event/trip
  • No more rainy day fund
  • No more quick sale of that old bike or garage sales
  • No more hiring of teenagers to cut your lawn
  • No more collection for charity

Banks will have total control over every single penny you earn and it will be recorded electronically. If you misbehave or belong to a divergent thinking group, your electronic money will be unreachable until such a time that you have been scored socially adequate. Every movement will be recorded and traceable, no more off the grid economic activity. Every penny in your possession will be taxed and no more jobs under the table. There will be no more criminal and underground economic activity. (#27)

Somehow, during the Covid-19 lockdown, the nation is running out of change and stores are encouraging people to stop using cash. They say, money is dirty (it is literally and figuratively) and can easily spread disease. We seem to have managed fine since the invention of coins and paper money stashed in strange places circulated for millennia but suddenly they have become public enemy number one. (#5)

The paid mobs of rioters/protesters are holding glossy and preprinted signs advocating the U.N. goal of private property elimination, of private land, of wealth

Control of the Internet and installing a thought police on social media has become a way to silence and censor conservative and libertarian points of view under the excuse that such thoughts violate “community standards.” Such obscure community standards include only leftist opinions. Facebook, Twitter, and Google do a pretty good job of policing opinions they dislike and wish to squash. (#6)

Mobs of violent protesters and rioters and the vagina-hat women’s marches screech about economic equality,  which strictly speaking is impossible. Equal pay is also impossible as we all have different levels of education, qualification, experience, work ethic, skill, willingness to do dangerous and unpleasant jobs, etc. We also have employment laws in place that bar job discrimination based on race, gender, age, ethnicity, religion, culture, or disability. (#8)

In line with U.N. Agenda 2030 recommendations, we have already seen many advances in regulating all transportation under the ruse of pollution limits, fuel efficiency, and preventing further damage to the environment. (#15) This also includes the nationalization of energy production under the excuse of equal access to natural resources. (#16)

The paid mobs of rioters/protesters are holding glossy and preprinted signs advocating the U.N. goal of private property elimination, of private land, of wealth, of suburbia living because it is socially unjust. People can only live well if all land is used for the “common good,” a key word for the communist collective. (#17)

Hollywood and the media have promoted for decades pornography, gender fluidity, and other promiscuous activities in order to destroy the family unit, marriage, and the Christian faith. (#18, #20, #21) Any degeneracy has been portrayed as “normal, natural, healthy.” (#19) Deviations from the two biological sex distinctions have mushroomed. (#22)

Students are controlled through socialist, social justice written textbooks and revisionist history in schools and NGO-driven (non-profits) environmentalism synchronized with U.N. Agenda 21

Using the environment as a ruse, socialist globalists have created a one world governing body (under United Nations) in order to control any economic activity and development as a SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT lynchpin goal.

The population has been forced into making “ecologically correct” choices – low-flush toilets, low-water washers, electric or hybrid cars, recycling, mandatory recyclable packaging, low-energy use appliances, CFL bulbs, solar panels, and rationed electricity access via controlled smart meters. (#32)

Students are controlled through socialist, social justice written textbooks and revisionist history in schools and NGO-driven (non-profits) environmentalism synchronized with U.N. Agenda 21 17 sustainable development goals. (#37)

The media has done a spectacular job of advancing socialism into society by controlling information and misrepresenting reality through daily lies in non-ending indoctrination of the pliable masses and low information voters. The juvenile attacks and insults on the President Donald J. Trump are never-ending and based solely on lies. (#38)

Socialism has marched unimpeded and is now devolving into Marxism, aided and abetted by other sources and means:

Presenting work as optional by providing funds from government for economic stimulus spending, unemployment (caused by the same people issuing the “generous” help from taxpayer dollars or from baseless money printing), endless welfare, illness, retirement. (#40)

Socialism has been a tragedy, failing miserably in all the tyrannical Communist Party-ruled socialist republics

  • Ignoring the Constitution and brainwashing people that it is an old-fashioned document. (#41)
  • Present Founding Fathers and American heroes as exploiters who did not care for the downtrodden. (#42) Making heroes out of cowards who burn the American flag and loot and burn stores while ignoring the real heroes. Use mobs to destroy historical statues and replace them with Marxist symbolism.
  • Discredit American culture and history in schools; present the discoveries and inventions of white men as supremacist and racist; use Caucasian academics to teach that whites are successful because of a media-manufactured construct called “white privilege.” (#43)
  • Government regulations in education, welfare, mental health, social agencies, arts, media, hospital care, doctor care, pharmaceuticals in an attempt to control everything. (#44)
  • Overt installation of socialism, beginning with the socialists in Congress, schools, and academia. (#45)
  • Use chaos and panic driven by the media and a viral crisis (Covid-19) to deploy top-down government control around the world and restriction on personal rights and freedoms—where and how to shop, worship, walk, get food, see a doctor, and how long to wear an oxygen-reducing mask. (#46)

The new abnormal, heavily advertised and promoted by the Democrat Party and woke sycophants is a huge disaster unfolding. Socialism has been a tragedy, failing miserably in all the tyrannical Communist Party-ruled socialist republics, but, if you ask the average indoctrinated and well-fed American students, they think that socialism/communism are better alternatives to the “evil” capitalism. I know firsthand, it is a gross distortion of reality.

Jul 16 2020

Can’t Lean On Black Lives Matter, Only Kneel Before Them


‘Lean on Me’ is a beautiful, hand-clapping song. ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’, America’s much revered National Anthem.

Judi McLeod image

Re-posted from The Canada Free Press By  —— Bio and Archives—July 15, 2020

Can’t Lean On Black Lives Matter, Only Kneel Before Them

Abad idea whose time has come: It started when Black Lives Matter protesters began temporarily suspending their signature chants, screeches and wailings during protests to sing super talented Bill Wither’s song,’Lean on Me’—an idea that crash landed at the L.A. Times with a suggestion that the song should replace the National Anthem.

But Baby, It’s Gotta’ Be Cold Outside’ when a catchy, hand-clapping tune can replace the 206-year-old ‘Star-Spangled Banner!

“An op-ed from The Los Angeles Times raised eyebrows for calling on “The Star-Spangled Banner” to be canceled as the national anthem. (Fox News, July 14, 2020)

“imposing and fussy.”

“Contributing writer Jody Rosen began his column by slamming a San Francisco monument of Francis Scott Key, who famously wrote the lyrics to “The Star-Spangled Banner,” as “imposing and fussy.”

“After noting that the Key statue had been taken down by rioters, Rosen appeared to offer a justification for the vandalism as he, too, was a slaveowner.”

Rosen authored the book ‘White Christmas: The Story of an American Song’.  How long before the revisionist culture delists the song because of its first word?

“The wave of reckoning and revisionism that is sweeping the country may have to come for the national anthem,” Rosen wrote, pointing to viral claims that “The Star-Spangled Banner” is a “racist song” that stems from Key’s poem “Defence of Fort M’Henry,” which invokes slaves. (Fox News)

“Rosen listed several songs that have been floated around to become the next national anthem, including John Lennon’s “Imagine,” James Weldon Johnson’s “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” as well as other iconic American tunes like “God Bless America,” “America the Beautiful,” and “This Land is Your Land.”

“Nope, none of these songs will do,” Rosen argued. “At a moment when the United States is in the grip of multiple crises — convulsed by debates over racism and injustice, ravaged by a pandemic, with a crumbling economy and a faltering democracy — the very idea of a national anthem, a hymn to the glory of country, feels like a crude relic, another monument that may warrant tearing down. But if we must have an anthem, it should be far different than the one we’ve got now, positing another kind of patriotism, an alternative idea of America and Americanness. It would also be neat if it was, you know, a decent song, which a citizen could sing without crashing into an o’er or a thee, or being asked to pole vault across octaves.”

“The LA Times writer concluded that such a song should be Bill Withers’ “Lean on Me.”

“It’s a modest song that puts on no airs. It speaks in plain musical language, without a trace of bombast, in a tidy arrangement that unfolds over a few basic chords. It doesn’t march to a martial beat or rise to grand crescendos. The lyrics hold no pastoral images of fruited plains or oceans white with foam, no high-minded invocations of liberty or God. ‘Lean on Me’ is a deeply American song — but it’s not, explicitly at least, a song about America,” Rosen explained. “Yet it has long been a kind of national anthem. ‘Lean on Me’ is one of just a handful of songs to have reached No. 1 on the Billboard pop charts in two different versions… It is surely among the most widely sung American songs of the past half-century.”

“Rosen noted all the famous singers who have performed the hit song, like Stevie Wonder, Bon Jovi, Mary J. Blige, Garth Brooks, Shawn Mendes and Nick Jonas, and how the song was sung at Black Lives Matter protests across the country in recent weeks and was used as a tribute to first responders towards the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak.

“What do all of these singers hear in ‘Lean on Me’? They hear a message of friendship and fellow-feeling so straightforward it may at first appear banal,” Rosen continued.

“When you bolster that sentiment, as Withers does, with some handclaps and a funky bassline, the words ring even truer. It’s a message you could build something on, a pretty solid foundation for a decent society. It can bear the load.”

“Rosen’s suggestion, however, was widely panned on social media.

“It’s almost like they’re trying to reelect Trump,” Tom Bevan, RealClearPolitics president and co-founder, reacted.

“Let’s replace it with ‘Everybody’s Special’ from Barney and Friends,” Ben Shapiro joked.

“Let’s just Etch-a-Sketch everything and start the country from scratch, shall we? Saves time…” The Hill media reporter Joe Concha suggested.

“First they wanted you to kneel, and now they want to replace the national anthem. This is an erasure of our history and tradition—plain and simple,” Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., warned.

“There has been a cultural shift following the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Floyd, a Black man, died after a White police officer held his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes.

“The television shows “Cops” and “Live PD” were canceled, “Gone With the Wind” was temporarily pulled from HBO Max and re-added with historical context. White actors have withdrawn from voicing characters of color on animated TV shows, brands like Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben’s have been retired, and episodes of sitcoms featuring blackface have been removed from streaming platforms. And the Washington Redskins will be retiring its longtime franchise name.”

But no one seems able to read ‘The End’ after any of the above.

‘Lean on Me’ is a beautiful, hand-clapping song.  ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’, America’s much revered National Anthem.

As for BLM’ adopting ‘Lean on Me’ as its own,  nothing American can lean on BLM which only wants an entire nation to kneel to them.

“Lean on Me” at Batavia Black Lives Matter protest

Jul 16 2020

Yesterday’s Slave Owners and Today’s Statues are Not Killing 3000 Black and White Humans per Day


Punishing Memories and Monuments

Rev. Michael Bresciani image

Re-posted from the Canada Free Press By  —— Bio and Archives—July 15, 2020

Babies

Defending righteous causes is one thing, but becoming a moral hypocrite is quite another.

Roe V. Wade landed on  Planet Earth in 1973 and declared that it would be one small step for moral reprobates and liars, and one giant leap for hypocrites.

Planned Parenthood and an army of selfish women, indifferent men and politically twisted advocates of slaughter, have since stormed the congress for cash to keep the purge alive, while wasting  babies at a rate of almost 3,000 a day.

The “woke” are fast asleep and The BLM has no idea about what lives matter

Ideologues and activists have provided a plethora of slogans and a vast field of arguments to justify and perpetuate the lie that lazy, self-indulgent, and perfectly selfish women are practicing good health, by aborting their unborn babies.

The abortionists want to force the use and perpetuation of abortifacients on organizations like The Little Sisters of the Poor, but can’t seem to find enough personal control in their own moments of peak lust to get some prevention. The result is, many dead, perfectly healthy and possibly very useful and productive human beings.

There are always a few good causes left to die for, but no one would argue that self-indulgence is one of them. But then, it is not their lives the indulgent are paying with.

If all or any part of their redundant and ever so tiring argument fails, there is always the classic and thoroughly effective final volley of fire known as – It’s the law of the land.

There is no restoration in the midst of reprobation!

When any movement or part of society is unable to see or even note its own hypocrisy you have passed from pretty bad to full blown reprobation.

Reprobation cannot hide under the trend of the day because it is a great swollen and fully obvious insult to everything that is normal, much less sacred. Now is the time to recognize the hypocrisy, or perish in its inevitable product.

The “woke” are fast asleep.

The BLM has no idea about what lives matter.

The Cancel Culture has cancelled itself

The Cancel Culture has cancelled itself, even if those who are cutting off others don’t recognize that salient simple fact.

Antifa is just a step below Isis and its adherents should return to their parent’s basements and the video games.

Trump haters have long since dumped their cause under the heading of extreme, absurd and mostly useless. After the Russia hoax and half dozen other false starts – that too has become boring and idiotic.

Biden, Sanders, Pelosi, Ilhan Omar and AOC have tried to sell us a bag of rotten fruit (socialism) that has failed anywhere in this world where it was ever tried.

Pulling down a few statues, renaming sports teams and bending the knee is like trying to fix rotten wood with a coat of paint.

So what should we do?

Mother used to say it all the time – just cut it out.

Headlines that Betray the Hypocrites – You can judge a book by its cover after all!

After writing for over 35 years and publishing for 15 years, this writer has discovered some interesting facts. It is easy to tell what Americans are thinking by what they are reading.

I have tried to warn some writers, that their article titles are the hook for the rest of their work. Short titles like, How to Relax, get about 90 percent less reads than titles that are lengthy, challenging and informative. The title of the article is equivalent to the cover of the book.

A compendium of current titles can reveal the collective pathology of a rising or falling nation.

Here, in this cross section of titles and headlines you can see a serious fall. These are the headlines that should reveal and decry our hypocrisies rather than giving them fuel.

The first one comes from the Internet’s noted satire and tongue in cheek site called ‘The Babylon Bee’.   It is a perfect example of how a title can carry rebuke or truth even though it is meant for comedy:

Nation That Kills 3,000 Babies A Day Feels Morally Superior To Slaveowners From 200 Years Ago

The rest are not meant for comedy and it is abundantly clear that there isn’t a stitch of humor in what they reveal.

How badly we are treating our children

Family of 1-year-old killed in Brooklyn slams ‘cowards’ who shot him: ‘What about baby lives?’
If Black Lives Matter, Defund Planned Parenthood, Not The Police

“LGBT education pack” features six-year-old engaging in sexual activity, as pedophilia becomes normalized

Since every one of these article titles has something to do with how badly we are treating our children, then here is an entire list of 29 titles on children wasted and disregarded for your perusal.

These titles are the tip of the spear or the blade of the sword. If they cut you to the heart then something good has been accomplished.

If you are offended by these titles consider this warning about offenses.

“But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” (Mt 18:6)

Jul 15 2020

You Can’t Recall Me!


Recall Gavin Newsom

California governor Gavin Newsom just shut down California–again. His mandate closes malls, churches, restaurants, and many small businesses. Many businesses cannot withstand another protracted shut down and how did ‘King Gavin’ get to trample on the businesses and constitutional rights of Californians in the first place? How convenient that the shut downs are happening in a presidential election year. The Democrats could not get Trump out of office with their fake Russia collusion scandal. Impeachment didn’t work either. It looks like they trotted out their big ‘pandemic’ gun to destroy Trump. If the economy is destroyed, so be it.

California’s economy was already being destroyed before the overblown virus came along. Gavin’s incompetence and failures brought suffering to Californians. Under his watch, California experienced record homelessness, open borders, rising crime, failing schools and unaffordable housing. Pension debt has exploded. He locked up citizens for months while emptying prisons. Now he wants to lock up citizens again. It’s time for a mass uprising. It’s time to recall Gavin Newsom.

For more information, please visit

https://recallgavin2020.com

Jul 15 2020

Voting by Mail Shouldn’t Be A Partisan Issue, But In Reality IS, Citizen Obama


Coronavirus Killing 2020 Votes

Judi McLeod image

Re-posted from the Canada Free Press By  —— Bio and Archives—July 14, 2020

Voting by Mail Shouldn’t Be A Partisan Issue, But In Reality IS, Citizen Obama

Already providing criminals a Get Out of Jail Free Card, the Democrat-exploited pandemic will turn Election 2020 into a 100% mail-in-vote.

On the basis of sparing prisoners from catching Covid-19, Democrat governors are setting rapists and murderers free, with California Governor Gavin Newsom planning to release some 8,000 prisoners next month alone.

“Resistance” leader former President Barack Obama is now calling on Americans to register to be able to vote by mail in Election 2020.

How “non-partisan” is that?!

Related:
How the Democrats are Well on Their Way To Stealing Election 2020
The Real Mob Behind The Street Mobs

“Former President Barack Obama on Monday urged Americans to register to be able to vote by mail amid a broad push from Democrats to get as many Americans as possible to use mail-in ballots for November’s presidential election and beyond. (Breitbart, July 13, 2020)

Obama’s 2008 ‘Hope and Change’ campaign slogan lives on in 2020.

Obama’s going all in on a Big Lie by saying “voting by mail shouldn’t be a partisan issue—especially during a pandemic.”

How can it help but be “a partisan issue” with his wife, Michelle being the driving force behind voting by mail through her ‘When We All Vote’ initiative with celebrity Tom Hanks?

Michelle Obama is non-partisan?

“Voting by mail shouldn’t be a partisan issue–especially during a pandemic. Everybody should be able to request an absentee ballot, and make their voice heard in every election,” Obama wrote on social media. The former president then shared a vote.org link to register to receive an absentee ballot. (Breitbart)

How “non-partisan” is that?!

“In late June, Obama sent out an email soliciting donations to combat “voter suppression” by advocating vote-by-mail. As Breitbart News reported: “The message was sent out by Obama on behalf of All On The Line, a campaign launched by the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC) which was formed after Obama’s political organization Organizing for Action (OFA) merged with his former Attorney General Eric Holder’s National Redistricting Action Fund (NRAF).” (Breitbart)

“President Donald Trump has repeatedly slammed Democrats for pushing vote-by-mail, warning it could “destroy this country.”

“We’re not going to destroy this country by allowing things like that to happen.

“We’re not destroying our country,” the president has said. “This has more to do with fairness and honesty and, really, our country itself.”

“Last month, Attorney General William Barr warned mass mail-in voting “absolutely opens the floodgates to fraud.”

“Those things are delivered into mailboxes. They can be taken out. There’s questions about whether or not it even denies a secret ballot, because a lot of the states have you signing the outside of the envelope,” Barr told Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “So, the person who opens — person who opens the envelope will know how people voted. There’s no — right now, a foreign country could print up tens of thousands of counterfeit ballots, and [it would] be very hard for us to detect which was the right and which was the wrong ballot. So, I think it can — it can upset and undercut the confidence in the integrity of our elections. If anything, we should tighten them up right now.”

“Nonetheless, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed an executive order in May permitting all registered voters in the state to vote by mail in the upcoming presidential election due to concerns over the Chinese coronavirus pandemic. Earlier in July, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) also signed legislation allowing all eligible residents to vote early via mail for state primary and general election contests.”

Hillary Clinton: We Have to Be Ready if Trump Doesn’t ‘Go Quietly

“The U.S. Postal Service reported that hundreds of absentee ballots in Wisconsin’s April primary election never made it to voters or went uncounted because of postmark problems. Nearly 1 million people used mail voting because of the pandemic. Election officials stated that the problem occurred because of a computer glitch with the mailing labels. Safeguards have been put in place, election officials said, to ensure it won’t happen again. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, July 10, 2020)

In the midst of all this the 2016 Barack Obama endorsed Hillary Clinton is firing rockets from the sidelines in case the Mail-In vote fails: (Daily Beast, July 14, 2020)

‘Hillary Clinton: We Have to Be Ready if Trump Doesn’t ‘Go Quietly’

“WARNING SHOT

“Clinton also explained why Trump “had to” commute Roger Stone’s sentence in order to “cover up” his “illegitimate” 2016 victory.”

Meanwhile, the Coronavirus is providing the most effective election tool the Democrats ever had, proving that the pandemic is killing us in more ways than one.

Jul 15 2020

The Cost of a Failed System


The survival of our nation depends on tackling education reform

Dr. Sam Clovis image

Re-posted from the Canada Free Press By  —— Bio and Archives—July 14, 2020

The Cost of a Failed System

It is not uncommon to see a couple of really clever bumper stickers around most any town in America that are timeless:

“If you can read this, Thank a Teacher. If you can read this in English, Thank A Soldier.” And, “If you think education is expensive, try paying for ignorance.”

Well, we may not always appreciate our freedoms, and we may balk at paying higher property taxes that support local schools. However, our failing (failed) public education system costs us a lot more than just what we expend in taxes.

In recent years, the cost of educating a child has risen around $14.4K a year (in 2019 dollars). Overall, we expend over $739 billion a year to support our public schools. Yet, because we still have over 3.4 million drop-outs a year, we must pay the social costs associated with the failures of our system that are not accounted for in any other calculations. Here are some of those annual costs:

  • Out-of-Wedlock births. Most of the illegitimate births in the country are visited on those who do not graduate from high school (40% of all births, 77% of Black births, over 57% of Hispanic births). Annual cost—$300+ Billion.
  • Healthcare. Those who do not graduate from high school create a negative impact on healthcare costs that other must support. Annual cost—$260 Billion.
  • Illegal immigration. Americans are on the hook for educating at least 15 million children associated with those who are in the country illegally. The children of illegal immigrants drop out at rates significantly higher than those here legally. Annual cost—$218 Billion.
  • Incarceration. Of the 2.2 million (down from 2.4 million in 2011) people in prison today, 68% are high school drop-outs. Annual cost—$124+ Billion.

In just these four areas, the annual unsupported cost is over $902 Billion annually. Reducing these costs by half would mean an additional $4-6K a year for each family. Eliminating these costs could mean a new car, a year’s tuition at a private school, a contribution of healthcare savings account or an additional $500 a month or so to one’s pension plan.

Reforming our public education system has a huge pay-off for the country. Criminal justice reform would help, as well. If we could fix one more thing, it would be mental health reform. Yes, this gives one a great deal to ponder.

Approaches to Educational Reform

There are three philosophical approaches to education reform, and there are four modern reform movements competing for dominance in altering public education in America today. In this section, I will provide a brief description of each. The three philosophies are as follows:

  • Essentialism. This approach is characterized by a top-down, national standard structure that emphasizes core curricula (common core) and uniform educational outcomes. This approach is pushed by many in the national education establishment.
  • Progressivism. This approach focuses on individual fulfillment and social justice. The social-justice movement is supposedly the main thrust of the woke movement going on in the country right now. As is typical of all things progressive, egalitarianism in outcomes is dominant as is teaching relativism in ethics. This approach, unfortunately, has dominated public education in America for the past two generations.
  • Holism. This approach is traditional and idealistic in that the philosophy embraces transcendentalism. Our military academies and many private institutions advance the enrichment of mind-heart-body-spirit. This interdisciplinary approach to education focuses on personal development in all these areas. (I am partial to this approach)

The best of the modern k12 reform movements emphasizes different elements of the total educational experience for students. Those elements are:

  • Core curricula (not Core Curriculum). English, Math, Science, Economics, Civics, History—Not social sciences
  • Standards (not necessarily standardized testing).
  • Accountability. (Students, teachers, administration, district, state)
  • Choice. (The full spectrum of choice options)

Like a good energy strategy (“all the above”), education reform must follow the same path. We must take advantage of all possible solution sets to bring education back to the people. The survival of our nation depends on tackling education reform. One would hope for such an effort on the part of our informed citizenry.

The Impact of Progressivism on Education in America

Anyone who has read this or other newsletters I have published will know that I think progressives and progressivism are the greatest danger to liberty in America today. Where progressives have had the most impact and have done the most damage to this country has been in their gaining control of public education. Taking advantage of an evolving culture, progressives have used unionization and collective bargaining as tools for putting a stranglehold on education processes and outcomes. Add to this the intentional, deliberate erosion of the nuclear family, especially among minority populations, and we are faced with a nation dumbed down to the point that young Americans no longer recognize or acknowledge the exceptionality of this noble Constitutional experiment.

Progressives have influenced curricula in nearly every school district in the country. Their approach is insidious and sinister in that they influence how textbooks are written and then influence how textbooks are purchased. When progressive-leaning states like California with millions of children in their public school systems decide on textbooks to support progressive curricula, other states will be compelled to buy the mainstream books from the major publishers or look for less-available and more expensive textbooks from other publishers. Many of these books contain revised American history (Howard Zinn’s history book comes to mind) or have been written to advance particular agenda that are quite contrary to the mainstream values of the citizenry. In an exemplar that came into my possession, a grammar school reading book celebrates same-sex relationships and environmentalism. Add to this books that advance ideas about Darwinian evolution and are void of acknowledgement of all possible scientific theories explaining the development of the human species, and we have a perfect storm where indoctrination hip-checks education right out of the way.

The progressive agenda advanced in the current education establishment mutes any support of American exceptionality and embraces the notion that America is a super-power only because of exploitation of workers who do not get to share in profits of their labor. Further, progressives constantly inculcate the idea that man is the ultimate arbiter in life and that the perfection of man is the goal of government—a government that knows best and is best situated to direct the economy of a nation.

If one thinks back to the Great Society of LBJ, one can find the seeds of the current expansion of progressive thinking in public education. When prayer left our schools, progressivism was given an opening into which was poured the poison that has nearly crippled this nation.

As a professor, I was a witness to the products of our public education system. Many students, unfortunately, were adrift and easy pickings for progressives bent on taking down this nation. Be on guard.

Public Unions And Education

Beginning in 2012, education scholars like Terry Moe from Stanford and other scholars such as Paul Peterson and John Chubb exposed the pernicious effects teacher unions were having on public education (Moe’s research continues to excoriate public education). In the process of updating this newsletter, I found several other academics who have taken up the effort to raise warning flags about what is happening in our largest urban school systems. When the academic community turns on something as progressive as public unions might be, one has to raise one’s eyebrows. Where public unions are doing the most damage is exactly where the nation needs the most help in education reform—large urban school districts.

Teacher unions today have some 4.9 million members who contribute some $600M in dues each year. In 2016, nearly $37 Million was contributed to political candidates or lobbying activities annually. Of that $37M, some 99% went to Democrats or left leaning lobbying groups.

This is how teacher unions disrupt the educational environment across the country. Union members select candidates to run for school boards and then support their candidacies with a flood of funds. These union-supported candidacies are successful some 75% of the time in the larger urban districts. Once the union-selected board members are in place, the unions then collude with these bought-and-paid-for politicians, all at the expense of the district constituencies. Further, these board members then support the selection of textbooks, the design of curricula and the hiring and firing of administrators. Of all the money collected from union members, only 4% actually goes to support educational outcomes in the classroom. The nation is hardly getting its money’s worth when the game is so incredibly rigged against parents and students. BTW, some 40% of teachers in urban districts send their own children to private schools.

If one really wants to change the direction of the nation, one must be willing to find and support board members who will bring accountability back into the education system. Where are the governors and legislators in red states on this?

Jul 15 2020

Doofus Joe Channelling Chairman Mao Through Obama Bot Anita Dunn?


Biden has been coming on during the 2020 Election Campaign, like a doofus. But he didn’t get it from Dunn’s body coaching, because it comes naturally

Judi McLeod image

Re-posted from the Canada Free Press By  —— Bio and Archives—July 13, 2020

Doofus Joe Channelling Chairman Mao Through Obama Bot Anita Dunn?

Ominous indeed, not just for America but for the entire West that pro-China Joe Biden is leading all presidential polls.

Obama bot Anita Dunn, who is Senior Strategic Adviser to Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, is a huge fan of murderous former China Chairman Mao Zedong and on the record for lavishing him with praise.

“Anita Dunn, the Senior Strategic Adviser to Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, said that China’s Chairman Mao Zedong is her “favorite political philosopher”, “whom I turn to most” for answers to important questions. (America Report, June 24, 2020)

“Mao is the barbaric founder of Communist China who killed 80 million of his own people, according to the Washington Post.

“Anita Dunn issued a lengthy public statement praising communist Chairman Mao while serving as the Obama/Biden administration’s White House Communications Director.”

Back in 2009 when she made her statements, Dunn tried to walk them back, claiming she was only being “ironic”.

But as Canada Free Press columnist Kelly O’Connell pointed out, she extolled her praise for Mao in a speech to school children:

“White House Communications Director Anita Dunn extolled Chairman Mao in a 2009 speech to school children. Dunn is not obscure, but was originally one of four top consultants to Barack’s presidential campaign (a group including Obama’s current chief advisor, David Axelrod). (CFP, Jan. 17, 2010)

White House Spokeswoman Anita Dunn: ‘Mao Tse Tung is My Favorite Political Philosopher’

“Dunn’s husband is Robert Bauer, Barack’s personal lawyer and new chief White House Counsel.

“Echoing Maoist support were Manufacturing Czar Ron Bloom and Ex-Green Jobs Czar Van Jones, proving administration Maoism is not isolated.

“Dunn, on her favorite “…political philosophers: Mao Tse-tung…I turn to most to basically deliver a simple point which is ‘you’re going to make choices; you’re going to challenge; you’re going to say why not; you’re going to figure out how to do things that have never been done before.”

“So Dunn embraces Mao’s radical policies, and one must assume she considers his death toll and reign of terror acceptable collateral damage. Bill Ayers, U.S. Marxist terrorist and Obama mentor was also influenced by Mao, saying after America was overtaken by communists, 25 million resisters might have to be murdered, according to ex-Weatherman Larry Grathwohl.”

“…She is the Chairman Mao fan whose ‘body language’ coaching sessions helped Barack Obama to enter the White House—and now David Cameron is hoping her skills will steer him into Downing Street. (Daily Mail, April 10, 2010)

‘She showed Obama how to look smart without looking smug, how to look compassionate without being condescending, how to shed the appearance of being self-involved and arrogant,’ says Brenda Moore, an electoral expert for the Republican Party.

‘She showed how to make women trust him with power and that’s what she can do for Cameron.’

“Ms Dunn has told Cameron to ‘project stability’ by standing centre-on to the podium, holding both sides of it when he makes a key point, projecting a forward-looking gaze and walking with a ‘relaxed but in-charge stride’.

“He has also been told to use a series of arm gestures when answering questions which ‘suggest accommodation and compromise rather than confrontation’ and to use his eyes so that they never look ‘shifty’, or dart about, but stay centred and calm.

“Ms Dunn, 52, who also worked on Jimmy Carter’s Presidential  campaign, claimed in a speech  in Washington last year that the Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong was one of her ‘favourite political philosophers’—before later claiming the remark was intended to be ironic.

“During the American TV debates, Obama followed her advice to knit his brows and look as if he was concentrating intently as a question was asked, before changing his facial expression and relaxing the slight frown into a smile as he came up with the answer.

“She also persuaded Obama to project the role of his wife Michelle, so that women saw it was an equal marriage – a move which has been emulated by Cameron with his wife Samantha.”

 

Jul 15 2020

Black Death Plague Returning in Asia


Armstrong Economics Blog/Disease

Re-Posted Jul 15, 2020 by Martin Armstrong

I have explained that Socrates shows that this coronavirus is nonsense. The risk of a more serious disease comes in 2022. There are three new diseases forming in Asia. First, there is a new coronavirus that causes pneumonia, which is far more lethal than this concocted version that appears to have been manufactured to set in motion this Great Reset. Next, we have swine flu which has also just appeared and is far more serious than the nonsense they have used to kill the economy. Believe it or not, our RELIABLE sources have CONFIRMED that there are a few cases appearing of the Black Death — the bubonic plague — which killed around 50% of the population during the 14th century.

An old word of caution has been, “Be careful what you wish for!” This currency nonsense has been exploited to terrorize the population in order to deliberately redesign the world economy. There is ABSOLUTELY no historical precedent to lock down the entire world economy/population. You quarantine the sick, not the healthy. By forcing people to wear masks, they are breaking the bonds of civilization. From here on out, many will look at anyone else as a potential threat. That is the goal, for it prevents organized resistance. You cannot tell any facial expressions if they are joking or nasty. This is how you destroy society and it was the very objective of the Communists. We seem to be following the playbook of Joseph Stalin.

Jul 15 2020

Redesigning the World – The Great Reset


Armstrong Economics Blog/Climate

Re-Posted Jul 15, 2020 by Martin Armstrong

COMMENT: Melbourne is getting locked down again. 5 million people on lockdown for 6 weeks at least! ‎People will only be allowed to leave home to go to work (if they can’t work online), grocery shopping, or for medical reasons.
‎All because of 191 alleged virus cases.

Catalunya is now mandating obligatory masks even where there are no people. In all public places incl. if you’re the only person there (say in a deserted park or street at a time when there is no one else).
They’re also openly saying masks and “social distancing” will be part of life now for the long term, i.e. forever or until everyone is vaccinated.

Meanwhile, Spain has extended the moratorium on payment of mortgages and rents for another 3 months (until end of September). No doubt they’ll keep extending it much longer than that. So, since March people don’t need to make their monthly mortgage and/or rent payments. In theory, the unpaid mortgage debts are just accumulating and will need to be paid once the moratorium ends (yeah, good luck with that). Rents won’t be paid, obviously, because there is no realistic way landlords could get this accumulated unpaid money from tenants. At present (and likely at least until the end of the year) they can’t even evict any tenant.
So everything will keep getting extended….and everyone will still pretend that once the “virus” is gone (or everyone is vaccinated) things will just switch back on and everything will return to normal.

PG

QUESTION: What about the rest of the billionaires. Can’t they see what these people are up to? Why have they not come to you to try to promote Socrates worldwide?

GW

REPLY: They think the people will simply surrender all their rights, their future incomes, and their assets just as Marx did. This is going to be very critical, for the rise in civil unrest Socrates has been forecasting is becoming obvious to many. The number of inquiries we are getting on a global scale is very interesting.

I have had no inquiries of that sort. You would think that some who are more Libertarian would start to take notice. But I doubt they will do so until it actually begins to threaten them directly. They fail to understand that this is a serious agenda and it is being well-organized and EXTREMELY well-funded. I would love to hear from some who are Libertarians — but I am not sure there are any. Most seem to be suffering from a guilt complex of earning too much and think they have to give back to the world by joining this New Green World Order that will ensure their own demise. They do not understand the politics behind the scheme.