CHRIS QUEEN: Outwitting, Outplaying, and Outlasting the Left. “It’s always worth celebrating when someone on the right manages to survive the left’s censorship, so here’s a recent example.”
Archive for 2023
November 7, 2023
IT’S COME TO THIS: Scoop: Biden Demands Gun Control for Israelis.
DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: Shocked by the Jew-Hate on College Campuses? I Wasn’t.
What was taking place at Harvard was not unique, but a story that was unfolding on campuses across the nation. At Columbia, at Georgetown, and at other campuses across the country, Gulf countries had given millions of dollars to create academic centers, integrate faculty and visiting scholars into the university ecosystem, and to create “outreach initiatives” to spread their worldview.
For decades, this money has been swirling around the Ivy League and other elite schools. While the funding in and of itself did not originate antisemitism on campus, these countries rightly understood that the campuses were a powerful vessel through which to launch into the mainstream an anti-Western worldview that was once confined to the fringe.
This worldview is anchored by a toxic stew of postcolonialism, postnationalism, and postmodernism. These intellectual frameworks were first articulated in the humanities in the late 1960s and found fertile ground in area studies programs like Middle Eastern studies, gender studies, and ultimately disciplines like history and literature.
In the classroom, the language of “power” and “privilege” began to permeate formal instruction, and the organizational agenda of student groups and administrative policy. Transposed onto the paradigm of power was the idea of race. This crude ideology suggested those who are deemed to be “white” are “oppressors” while those with darker skin are “oppressed” and lack agency.
Jews and Israelis—never mind that the majority of Israelis are from North Africa and the Middle East—were whitewashed, perceived as beneficiaries of “white supremacy.” On campus, Jews were falsely labeled as being part of the white majority, which helps explain why they are left out of the vast DEI bureaucracies that now dominate campus life.
Over time, large swaths of academia began to adopt this “heroes and villains” worldview, which stipulates that Israelis are villainous colonizers and Palestinians are innocent victims. As unimaginable as it is for anyone with a conscience to imagine tearing down posters of children kidnapped by Hamas, if you have been steeped in a worldview that says that these children are part of racist state that does not have a right to exist, you can begin to understand how college-educated Americans are doing just that.
If you have heard “Israel is a colonial-settler state” (no, Israel is the indigenous homeland of the Jewish people dating back 3,000 years); or “Israelis are really Khazars, not Jews” (no, Jews are a Semitic people); or “Zionism is racism” (no, Zionism is the basic belief in the right of the Jewish people to self-determination); or “Israel is engaged in ethnic cleansing” (no, 20 percent of Israel’s population is Arab and the population of Palestinians both in Gaza and the West Bank has continued to increase); or “Jews are part of a powerful, white majority” (no, they are a tiny minority that constitutes 0.2 percent of the world’s population), you have encountered this worldview.
As Jonah Goldberg noted a couple of weeks ago, “There are more Arabs living in Israel today than there were Arabs living in all of so-called Palestine in 1948. In other words, if Zionism is the explicit practice of genocide against Palestinians, the supposedly uber-competent Israeli war machine is really, really, bad at genociding. They’re so bad at it that reasonable observers—in short supply these days—might conclude that they’re not actually interested in genocide.”
SHAKEOUT: Astra, low on cash, defaults on loan.
Astra had been working to raise additional funding. The company said in a separate Oct. 23 SEC filing that it had signed a non-binding term sheet with JMCM Holdings LLC to be the lead investor in a loan of up to $25 million. The funds, Astra said, would be used to pay off the August loan and for “general corporate purposes.”
In the new SEC filing, Astra said it is in “continued discussions” with other investors about financing, but could not guarantee it could close any deal, or that the terms of any funding would be the same as what it disclosed in October.
In an Aug. 14 earnings call, Astra executives said they were working to identify strategic investors for both its Astra Spacecraft Engines spacecraft propulsion business as well as its Rocket 4 launch vehicle in development. The company had laid off a quarter of its workforce between the beginning of July and early August and shifted others from rocket to satellite propulsion work, delaying work on Rocket 4.
Always sad to see in such an exciting industry but with so many startups the shakeouts are inevitable.
LOL, IT’S A POLITICAL TRIAL, OF COURSE IT’S HAVING A POLITICAL IMPACT: FAFO, Trump Trial Edition. “So Trump is giving speeches and, as the judge said, trying to turn his appearance into a political rally. What did he think was going to happen? Is there any conceivable reason why Judge Engeron, or the Attorney General, should have expected anything different? . . . Because everyone knows this is a political prosecution by representatives of the Democratic Party, Judge Engeron and Attorney General James have no moral high ground to stand on. They wanted to see Donald Trump on the witness stand, and that is what they are getting.”
JOHN HINDERAKER: Audrey’s Manifesto.
The leaked pages show Hale to have been full of hate for the “crackers” with “white privlages”–she murdered nine-year-olds–who attended the school. They exhibit the mental disturbance you would expect from someone who is about to commit mass murder, knowing that she will be killed in the process.
But they don’t include much, or anything, about her ideology or her motivation. “Trans” leaders had called for a “Trans Day of Vengeance” to “stop trans genocide,” to take place just a few days after Hale’s murder spree. Was that coincidence, or did activists influence Hale to enact her own “day of vengeance”? We still don’t know.
If the political alignments were reversed, everyone would be sure.
INTENTIONAL NATIONAL SABOTAGE: CDR Salamander: Germany’s Delusions Come Home to Roost.
Some blame Merkel, but she only took a raging fire and threw a bomb on top of it all. This was a long running project of the self-loathing left that most Western nations have, enabled by the supine cowardice of the center-right who was too worried they might be called icky names.
Don’t forget, those warning the problem were called names, some had their pre-Elon twitter accounts suspended or removed, people lost jobs, had institutions and friends disassociate themselves from them, etc. History and logic were on our side, but it did not matter.
But here we are.
They were warned.
HARDBALL: Starbucks to Union Employees: Sucks to Be U.
Monday the company announced another 3% pay increase — and new benefits — for most retail workers but long-term employees will enjoy a 5% bump. Starbucks North America exec veep Sara Trilling said the pay raises are “what makes us all partners. And an important way we do this is by investing in our partners’ journey, to bridge to a better future at Starbucks and beyond.”
But not if you belong to a union.
Much more at the link.
THEY SHOULD BE PROSECUTED, AND SUED, UNDER THE CIVIL RIGHTS CONSPIRACY STATUTES: RealClearInvestigations: Documents Shed New Light on Feds’ Collusion with Private Actors to Police Speech on Social Media.
In the runup to the 2020 election, cybersecurity experts at the Department of Homeland Security and Stanford University decided they had discovered a major problem.
The issue was not compromised voter rolls or corrupted election tallies but a “gap” in the government’s authority to clamp down on what it considered misinformation and disinformation – a gap identified by DHS officials and interns on loan to the agency from the Stanford Internet Observatory. Given what SIO research manager Renee DiResta described as the “unclear legal authorities” and “very real First Amendment questions” regarding this gap, the parties hatched a plan to form a public-private partnership that would provide DHS with an avenue to surreptitiously censor speech.
The collaboration between DHS’ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency and the Stanford outfit would quickly expand into a robust operation whose full extent is only now becoming clear. RealClearInvestigations has obtained from House investigators records revealing in previously undisclosed detail the nature and mechanics of the operation – the SIO-led Election Integrity Partnership.
They show at a granular level the thousands of tweets and Facebook posts on topics from mail-in voting to aberrant election results – arguably core protected speech – that the public-private partnership flagged to social media platforms for censorship, much of which the platforms would suppress.
The evidence shows EIP – sometimes alongside CISA – pressuring platforms to target speech that included statements by then-President Trump; opinions about election integrity rooted in government records and even think-tank white papers; and speculative tweets from statesmen and everyday citizens alike. RCI details notable instances here.
EIP scoured hundreds of millions of social media posts for content disfavored by the government about election processes and outcomes, and collected it from the operation’s governmental and non-governmental partners to identify the offending speech.
The consequences should terrify would-be offenders for decades.
NORMALLY I SHARE MY BOOK PROMO AND VIGNETTE POST ON SUNDAY, BUT YESTERDAY, FOR REASONS RELATING TO CATS I HAD TO GO TO BED EARLY: Book Promo And Vignettes By Luke, Mary Catelli and ‘Nother Mike.
GET YOUR KIDS OUT OF PUBLIC SCHOOL, IF YOU LOVE THEM: Stop lying about the benefits of public education.
Yes, I know. Many of you think it’s impossible. But look into it. There might be local co-ops that help you manage it.
THEY’D BE HARD PUT TO BE WORSE: Staggering number of Americans feel country trending in wrong direction, many say GOP better at the economy: poll.
However, remain calm. I think this is all part of propaganda aimed at getting FJB to not run next year.
FIRST, THIS IS THE SHEIK ROUND UP. DIVIDE BY TEN, AND EVEN THEN IT’S STILL PROBABLY EXAGGERATED: Israel’s ground invasion ramps up as Gaza death toll surpasses 10K, Palestinian officials say.
Second: No surrender, no cease fire. Hamas started the war. This is the definition of FAFO.
HE’S NOT WRONG! Jewish College Students: Stop Whining and Grow Some!
THEY ALSO AREN’T AWARE THE MARXISM THEY LEARNED IN COLLEGE HAS NO CONTACT WITH REALITY: Elites Are Confounded by Populist Sentiment.
HIDING AMONG CIVILIANS IS THE REAL WAR CRIME: More Evidence of Hamas Using Gaza Hospitals for Launching Rockets, Hiding Tunnels and Terrorists.
PRAY FOR HER, EVEN IF YOU ARE NOT REALLY A BELIEVER: Israeli Eight-Year-Old Girl Presumed Dead Now Thought to be Alive in Gaza.
THEY’RE NOT STUPID. THEY’RE MUSHROOMS. KEPT IN THE DARK AND FED SH*T: Middle East Arabs know Hamas is wrong and Israel is right, even if America’s stupid college students don’t.
I VERY MUCH HOPE ROGER IS RIGHT: This Time Israel Will Finish The Job.
A TEST WORTH APPLYING: The Jews in the Attic Test.
RAPES DON’T NORMALLY COME WITH HONEYMOONS: The ‘Bidenomics’ Honeymoon Is Officially Over.
IT WAS KEPT UNDER LOCK AND KEY BECAUSE IT SHOWS WHAT DIE (NO USE DISGUISING IT AS DEI) EDUCATION DOES: BREAKING: Nashville Transgender Shooter’s Manifesto Leaked, Huge Revelations on Motive (Updated).
VALUING STARTUPS IS A CRAP SHOOT AT BEST (AND THIS ONE WAS UNUSUALLY FULL OF CRAP): WeWork, once most valuable US startup at $47B, succumbs to bankruptcy.