The French disconnection: Riots show influence of growing radical wing of Islam

posted by Cal Thomas at Washington Times 

Imagine the U.S. canceling the Fourth of July holiday due to high crime in our cities, and you get a sense of what has occurred in France. Cities across France canceled Bastille Day observances on July 14 because of rioting that ignited when a police officer shot and killed 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk, a French citizen of Algerian and Moroccan descent, during a traffic stop in Paris on June 27.

News reports said churches were burned to the ground, and graffiti was scrawled in red paint on a church in Marseilles declaring: “Mohammed was the last prophet.”

Bank branches were ransacked, and ATMs were opened with chain saws. Some shouted “death to the police,” “death to France,” “death to the Jews” and “Hitler was right.” A Holocaust memorial was defaced. Thousands have been arrested.

Kosher restaurants and shops have been looted and burned.

Ayat Oraby, a former Egyptian TV and Muslim Brotherhood affiliate, has contributed her dose of venom to the French riots: “To where is France heading? To hell, God willing!”

Is France now paying a heavy price for admitting so many radical Islamists into the country? As Sorbonne University professor Bernard Rougier has written: “Since the 1970s, France has welcomed an ever-increasing number of immigrants from the Muslim world. … Only a tiny minority have assimilated into French society. The others live as they lived in their countries of origin.”

Guy Milliere, on his webpage for the Gatestone Institute International Policy Council, recently posted these quotes on the subject: “Radical imams came from the Muslim world and allege that France is guilty of having colonized their countries, that Muslims should continue to live according to the law of Islam and that, in the imams’ view, France should pay for its crimes. Many politicians have told the newcomers that France is racist and had exploited them.”

He also posted this one: “Criminal gangs formed and began ruling these neighborhoods. … French political leaders closed their eyes. Meanwhile, these Muslim neighborhoods have grown, and crime from them increased.”

Some politicians have tried to appease the radicals by sending more money to Muslim neighborhoods after riots by mostly young people who believe they have no future. To no avail. Rioting has now spread to Muslim areas of Belgium and Switzerland.

Again, none of this should come as a surprise. As the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi predicted: “We have 50 million Muslims in Europe. There are signs that Allah will grant Islam victory in Europe — without swords, without guns, without conquest — will turn it into a Muslim continent within a few decades.”

In 2018, a House of Representatives subcommittee held hearings on the influential Muslim Brotherhood and what it called its “global threat.”

Then-Rep. Ron DeSantis, Florida Republican, said: “The Muslim Brotherhood’s Supreme Guide, Mohammed Badie, has said that the organization’s goal is to establish a new Islamist caliphate, including the imposition of Shariah law, which is the totalitarian Islamic legal code. We saw what happens when the Brotherhood takes control of a country in Egypt from 2012 to 2013, and the results were chilling, then-President Mohamed Morsi defied the rule of law and granted himself near absolute power. As Egyptian leader Mohamed ElBaredi put it, Morsi usurped all state powers and appointed himself Egypt’s new pharaoh.”

While it is obligatory to say not all Muslims are terrorists, nor do all share the goal of the Muslim Brotherhood, the rioting in France, Belgium and Switzerland shows the influence of the growing radical wing of Islam. It should be a warning, because the extremists have announced that their ultimate targets are Israel and the U.S.

X22, On the Fringe, and more- July 20

 

Should America Dominate the World?

by Edward Ring for American Greatness 

Forty years ago, during the final decade of the Cold War, nobody had any illusions about America being perfect. Without wallowing in the topic, we all knew our nation had ongoing social and economic problems, and that our history was filled with examples of oppression. But for most Americans, understanding the grim reality of life for people living in the Soviet Union provided clarity. It was understood that no country is perfect, and compared to the USSR, living in America was paradise.

The argument that America, by a wide margin, is the lesser of two evils, does not get the traction today that it got during the Cold War. But there is no justification for its diminished relevance. Despite alarming new challenges to the rights and freedoms of American citizens, the gap between America and its contemporary rivals, Russia and China, is as wide as it’s ever been. And in the case of China, the magnitude of the threat they now pose to American global leadership is far more than anything the USSR could have once posed.

These considerations give rise to a pair of sobering questions: First, is China an expansionist nation, committed to growing powerful enough to dominate the world and impose its vision of human rights onto all of humanity? Second, before we level well deserved criticisms on American foreign and domestic policies, shouldn’t we compare these policies to those practiced by the Chinese government? Forty years ago, those questions mattered. Today, we need to revisit these questions.

Does China Intend to Dominate the World?

China is committed to an expansionist strategy. In just the last century, an era during which Western powers were relinquishing their claims to foreign colonies, China has annexed Inner Mongolia, Tibet, and Xinjiang. The Chinese have absorbed Hong Kong, cracking down on human rights they had pledged to uphold. They have lopped off chunks of Indian Kashmir as well as the northern portion of Indian state of Assam. The Chinese openly declare their intention to absorb the independent nation of Taiwan. They’re even claiming virtually all of the South China Sea, in defiance of every other bordering nation.

China’s expansionist tensions with neighboring nations and Borg like assimilation of the occupied nations within its borders should provide clues to how it treats all its citizens. China’s population is more than 90 percent comprised of the Han ethnic group, and they are probably the most surveilled, micromanaged population on earth. Any dissent that deviates from the collective is immediately suppressed.

One may go on endlessly about allegedly parallel encroachments on the rights of Americans to express dissent, but it isn’t remotely comparable to what Chinese people go through. The regime of Xi Jinping has turned China into the world’s biggest prison camp, with nearly 1.4 billion inmates. Law enforcement extends well beyond criminal behavior to “social behavior,” where not just what you do, but what you say, what you think, and how you worship are all strictly regulated.

China’s economic aggression is well documented and points to an unavoidable conclusion; nations that do business with China are going to be systematically robbed of their technological edge and their financial stability. According to Fortune, one in five corporations say China has stolen their intellectual property in the past year. Estimates of how much this costs the U.S. economy range as high as $600 billion per year.

China’s economic war with the United States has been unrelenting. Over the past 25 years the cumulative U.S. trade deficit with China is nearly $6 trillion. China retains some of its trade surplus with the U.S. in the form of debt, currently an estimated $1.6 trillion.

Another way China is expanding its economic reach and influence in the world is through the “Belt and Road Initiative,” a modern version of the ancient Silk Road connecting East to West. In theory this is a laudable series of infrastructure projects linking China with trading partners across Asia, Europe, Africa and beyond with a series of highways, railroads, and modernized seaports. But participating nations are realizing that Chinese investment carries a high price.

The way China intends to control the railroads and seaports being built across this new Silk Road is by using the so-called debt trap. This is a practice whereby China lends billions of dollars to an economically weaker country for them to construct infrastructure. Chinese firms then pour in materials and labor to build the project, which means the Chinese loan funds are repatriated right back into Chinese hands. Then when the debtor nation can’t afford to pay back the loan, the Chinese seize ownership of the project as collateral.

An article published by the Washington Post provides an extensive list of nations already victimized by China’s infrastructure debt trap. They include Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Montenegro, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan. Some of these projects involve debt nearly equal to the entire GDP of the host nations. In many cases, Chinese-only gated communities are constructed, sometimes entire cities, swarming with Chinese security forces.

China’s economic imperialism is also reflected in its global buying binge. Using the savings generated from their huge trade surplus, China is buying companies and real estate all over the world. The United States is one of the only nations in the world that allows foreign companies to purchase controlling interests in U.S. companies, and China has taken full advantage of that. Michele Nash-Hoff, writing for Industry Week, posed this question: “Did we let the USSR buy our companies during the Cold War? No, we didn’t! We realized that we would be helping our enemy. This was pretty simple, common sense, but we don’t seem to have this same common sense when dealing with China.”

American Globalism – The Alternative to China

The evidence that China is an expansionist nation is overwhelming. In addition to China’s territorial aggression and predatory economic policies, there are the precedents of history. Throughout recorded history, expansionist empires have risen and fallen. Across all continents and through the millennia, regardless of geography or ethnicity, empires have fought wars of conquest. Today is no different. America will rise to the challenge of China, or China will dominate the world. And this gives rise to the second question: How do America’s foreign and domestic policies compare to China’s, and how can they be better calibrated to unite Americans and set an attractive example for people in the rest of the world?

Only in this context can the American government’s current cultural priorities and globalist ambitions be fairly evaluated. Most American conservatives will agree that a month-long display of gay pride flags in front of every government building in America and every embassy America has in foreign nations, is pushing the woke narrative to ridiculous extremes. But compared to what? Compared to the Iranian regime hanging homosexuals from construction cranes? The Ugandans making homosexual acts subject to the death penalty?

Conservative Americans have ample reason to criticize the way establishment institutions, certainly including the federal government, have pandered to the extremist wing of the LGBTQ+ lobby. That the cultural pendulum will swing back to some more universally tolerable position is quite likely, and soon would be better. But which is worse? Nations where homosexuals are executed, or nations where activist gender extremists are overly indulged?

America’s Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, meeting with Chinese diplomats in Alaska two years ago, was criticized for acknowledging American imperfections, saying “we have the humility to know that we are a country eternally striving to become a more perfect union.”

Blinken, and his boss, Joe Biden, may be leading America down a perilous path. But Blinken was right to acknowledge that America is “eternally striving to become a more perfect union.” The debates we are having in America over identity and equity may be tedious and threatening, and with good reason, but it’s a process at work in American society today that is unthinkable in China. America’s rival in the world is a fascist police state. For all of its flaws, and for all of its dangerous drift into decadence, America is a better place to live than China. The existential importance of that fact should not be lost on anyone, whether they are woke malcontents or appalled conservatives.

Moving towards a more perfect union will not be easy. Restoring colorblind meritocracy and reestablishing reasonable gender norms will take time, but is probably inevitable. The woke have simply gone too far. An even greater threat to a desirable Pax Americana, however, concerns how America’s establishment is responding to the “climate crisis.” Current policies, designed to stifle development of hydroelectric, nuclear, and natural gas sources of energy, are guaranteed to weaken America and alienate the world. They will impose a tyranny of surveillance and rationing in developed nations, and they will cause chaos, poverty, and endless war in developing nations. They are outrageous and will drive nonaligned nations into alliances with China.

It may be that the greatest test of American democracy in the 21st century will be whether or not the cabal of oligarchs that have hijacked America’s energy policy can be overcome by a media that has finally come to its senses and a population that awakens from its brainwashed stupor. Without adequate supplies of energy, civilization will falter and individual freedom will die. Claiming that adequate energy can be delivered worldwide exclusively via wind and solar power, without also relying on hydro, nuclear, and natural gas is a blatant, misanthropic, opportunistic lie. This lie, unchallenged, will fatally undermine the credibility of American leadership in the world.

Answering the question “should America dominate the world” requires recognition of an immutable prerequisite: If America does not, someone else will. And for all of its many flaws, some of them horrifically and even murderously misguided, when compared to empires of the past and rivals in the present, America’s empire is remarkably benevolent. That fact used to matter, and it still does. We would do well to embrace it, even as we work towards something better.

How The Left Weaponizes ‘Kindness’ To Manipulate You Into Giving Them What They Want

Manipulating Americans en masse is simple if we can be convinced that something we are doing — or not doing — is unkind.

by Stephanie Lundquist-Arora for The Federalist

Notions of American kindness during and after the pandemic have expanded far beyond the Golden Rule.

A friend from Eastern Europe told me she learned about our obsession with “being nice” during her senior year in high school while living in the Midwest as an exchange student. In order to be well-loved in the United States, above all else, you must be kind, she observed. When she makes plans with Americans, she questions if they are asking her to “grab coffee” just to be nice, or if they actually want to meet.

I was skeptical about her observations at first, but then I considered the way we describe the people we like. “She is so nice,” we say. You never hear, “She is honest and direct.” It often seems we prefer being nice over being genuine.

Manipulating Americans en masse is simple if we can be convinced that something we are doing — or not doing — is unkind. Video rental businesses understood this well in the 1980s: “Be kind, please rewind.” So we did.

But during the pandemic, corporate media inundated the public with messages dictating what to do in order to be “kind” — directives much more intrusive and disruptive to life than simply rewinding videotapes or returning grocery store carts to the corral. Many in power pointed to “the science” to argue we had to isolate ourselves, maintain an arbitrarily determined six-feet social distance, keep our children out of schools, wear masks, and take an experimental shot. If we did not comply, we likely were killing someone’s grandmother. And really, what could be unkinder than that? 

Even asking questions became socially unacceptable. When we scrutinized the effectiveness of these policies and vocalized concerns about citizens’ freedom under what was basically martial law, we were called selfish. When some raised concerns that the Covid shot was understudied and could cause severe health complications, they were chastised as “anti-vaxxers.”

President Joe Biden informed us just how unkind it was not to get the shot when he referred to Covid-19 as “a pandemic of the unvaccinated.” Repeatedly, we heard messages from the president and many others that we needed to be kind — Americans must do what they are told, wear their masks, and get vaxxed.

The propaganda to weaponize American kindness was overwhelmingly effective. Meanwhile, the media largely ignored early reports of myocarditis as one of the side effects of the shot. Big Tech even joined the “kindness” crusade by creating algorithms that prevented social media users from seeing vaccine skepticism.  

Many believed Biden when he said Covid-19 was not transmissible with the jab, and many Americans felt comfortable mingling after months of isolation. At certain social gatherings and venues, guests were required to show vaccine cards — few things say “celebration” more than “Show me your medical documentation.” Ironically, this pervasive social requirement was in an effort to seem “kind.”

However, it is clear that one side of these debates has a monopoly on what constitutes kindness. When the students of Fairfax County, Virginia, were allowed to enter schools maskless in March 2022, many were afraid of retribution from teachers and peers.

My son, one of the few maskless students in his school at that time, was bullied for his choice. Another student told him to “mask up and cover your ugly face.” On the same day, my son’s classmate called her mother during school because she was terrorized in the cafeteria for not wearing her mask. This is the type of “kindness” associated with virtue signaling.

As we’ve moved past Covid, many commentators have highlighted the policy mistakes and crackpot “science” disguised as “kindness” throughout the pandemic. One suggested “amnesty” is needed to move forward together. In order to grant a pardon, though, we have to reach a public agreement on what was said and how it was wrong. It’s impossible to offer forgiveness to policymakers who refuse to acknowledge wrongdoing.

I am still waiting for an apology from our school district for illegally suspending my sons for 39 cumulative days on “dress code” violations for not wearing masks. Despite my appeals, the school district refuses to expunge the suspensions from my sons’ records. School board members should know that kindness includes apologizing for mistakes.

Because of our “unkind” advocating for equal opportunity, social justice activists call us “white supremacists.” When we stand up for equal opportunity in admissions to colleges and to Fairfax County’s magnet Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, followers of the ironically racist “anti-racist” doctrine ridicule Asian Americans as “allies of white supremacy.” The insult is false and manipulative — there are few more effective ways to say someone is “mean” than to call him a “white supremacist.”

Some, such as Fairfax County’s school board members, also believe “kindness” means denying biological realities, or at the very least, staying quiet in their dissent. Males claiming to be women are entering female locker rooms and bathrooms regularly. Many female students in secondary schools feel unsafe using facilities during school hours. Even after the 2021 sexual assault incidents in public schools in Loudoun County, Virginia, American politicians continue to uphold so-called “transgender rights” over female safety.

Former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines talks about how NCAA officials pressured swimmers to be “kind” to Lia Thomas, the “transgender” swimmer born a male, who was allowed to share women’s locker rooms. Meanwhile, some school districts are changing scientific words in public schools’ sex education curricula from males and females to “assigned males/females at birth.”

If we publicly assert that we have problems with any of this, activists are quick to disparage our character. They call us bigots, or even transgender children killers. Activists manipulate emotions by claiming that if transgender teens don’t get everything they want, they or their transgender friends will kill themselves. In Fairfax County’s school board meeting speeches, we have been told this ad nauseam — nice people don’t kill transgender children. Kind people stay quiet and allow males to enter female spaces.

This is the ultimate weaponization of kindness.

Undoubtedly, we are better served when we scrutinize what kindness entails — and it has far more to do with virtue than niceness. For example, preserving freedom for future generations of Americans is virtuous; protecting civil liberties for our children is the right and kind thing to do. Our kindness in practice must be based on such virtue if we are to remain pensive and discerning.

So when we say to our acquaintances, “Let’s go for coffee,” it would be preferable if we were being both genuine and kind.

Ron DeSantis' 'Mission First Military' Plan Would Put the Armed Forces on the Path to Success

streiff reporting for RedState 

Florida Governor and 2024 GOP presidential contender Ron DeSantis has released his plan to change the military from a Petrie dish for D+ Sociology majors back into the Number One fighting force in the world. His campaign has posted his Military Reform Plan titled “Ron DeSantis’ Plan for a “Mission First” Military,” and it is well worth the read.

The plan is divided into four major sections; each focused on addressing one of the chronic problems that infected the US military sometime during the Clinton regime.

Rip Political Agendas Out of Our Military

This section has two major themes. First, get rid of the Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity infrastructure. Second, promote flag officers/general officers (FOGO) who are focused on warfighting. As a note, the intention to demolish the DIE bureaucracy is mentioned in other sections, but I won’t cover them unless they are something unusual.

End Woke Operating Policies

Here DeSantis targets a wide range of practices that have developed over time. The first one is drag shows on military bases. I couldn’t agree more. Why this perverted bullsh** is tolerated is unfathomable. Why the Navy thinks drag shows aboard underway ships are acceptable can have no rational explanation outside of sexual grooming (Rum, Buggery, and the Lash Makes a Comeback as the US Navy Fights Recruiting Woes; Well, Better Hold the Rum).

He proposes to “[p]rohibit the Department of Defense from conducting business with advertising with left-wing firms that blacklist conservative news sources.” I’m in favor of that in principle, but I don’t know how you get there in a way that would survive legal challenges.

DeSantis would revoke Biden’s Executive Order 14004 that allows transgender personnel to serve in the military, with the military picking up the tab for drug treatments and surgery. This is a no-brainer. I’m 100% in favor of immediately discharging transgenders. I’m also in favor of returning to the pre-“don’t ask, don’t tell” era where homosexual conduct was punishable under the UCMJ.

Ban Woke Indoctrination

Service Academies and Military Education

DeSantis wants to ensure the military needs the disciplines taught by the service academies. West Point offers a “minor” in “Diversity and Inclusion Studies.” This is nonsense, if not outright fraud, waste, and abuse. What has happened in the last couple of decades is that the four service academies have curricula that are much more suited to elite women’s liberal arts colleges than to military academies. This infestation runs throughout the military education system. The National War College, the capstone educational opportunity for lieutenant colonels and colonels who hope to grow up to be FOGO, offers courses in English Literature. I am a big fan of officers being literate, but if you haven’t made the effort by the time you have 25 or so years of service, it probably ain’t happening.

Critical Race Theory

Ban Critical Race Theory at the service academies and in any military instruction.

Flags

No government building should raise any flag except the U.S. and military flags (except flags from foreign countries for official events, POW/MIA flag).

I would expand this to George Floyd murals but abolishing PRIDE flags is a good start.

Recruiting and Social Media

Stop woke recruiting themes and restrict military social media accounts to commenting on subjects outside their mission or recruiting.

School Choice

The plan would allow school choice for parents with children in the DOD Schools system. I’m not sure what kind of a groundswell of enthusiasm there is for this program as there aren’t a lot of schools DOD schools operating in the US, but it can’t hurt.

Veterans Benefits

End equity plans that prioritize certain veterans for benefits over others based on their race.

VA programs are not my bailiwick, but any program that requires a racial box-check to participate should be burned to the ground.

Restore Military Standards

Eliminate Racial and Gender Preferences

Nothing can be of greater national importance in the military than restoring military standards and discipline (Army Starts Sham Investigation Into Bondage Fetish Colonel and His Friends Because They Think You’re Stupid). DeSantis has a few basic starting points. First, physical fitness standards should be gender-neutral (SHOCKER. Transgender Military Members Are Exempt From Fitness and Weight Standards). Physical fitness standards exist to establish a baseline of strength and agility, and the idea that men and women should have different standards has always been dumb. Clint Eastwood, in his role of “Dirty” Harry Callahan, said it best.

He proposes prohibiting racial or gender quotas in recruiting or promotions. Again, this is common sense stuff, and the fact that it is looked at as being “outside the box” is horrifying and a condemnation of Secretaries of Defense and service chiefs going back 30 years.

Reinstate Un-Vaccinated Servicemen

The vendetta the Department of Defense carried out against vaccine-hesitant servicemembers during COVID was an atrocity, and no effort should be spared in hunting down and punishing everyone involved in developing or implementing the policy. DeSantis wants to reinstate anyone discharged because of refusing the COVID vaccine or changing the character of service on their discharges should they not wish to return and to award backpay. Here I think DeSantis misses the mark a bit. When our prisoners of war were released from Vietnam in 1975, they were promoted to the rank they would have held had they not been captured. If the vaccine-hesitant troops are reinstated, they should return at the rank held by their peers and with credit for time-in-service and time-in-grade as if they had never been discharged.

Prioritizing Lethality, Readiness, and Capabilities, Not Ideology and Climate Change

This item requires the Department of Defense to cease its focus on climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, and environmental justice and pay attention to national defense. It also pulls the plug on the dangerously stupid electric vehicle policy.

Stop the Weaponization of Tools Intended to Root Out Legitimate Threats to Good Order and Discipline 

In the last two years, the military has used the vacuous and vague mission of “countering extremism” to target conservative Christians serving on active duty. DeSantis would end this witchhunt.

Break the Swamp & Promote Accountability

The section has six main points.

DeSantis wants to depoliticize the FOGO corps by going after retired general officers who attack the president. Article 88 of the UCMJ covers uttering “contemptuous words against the President, the Vice President, Congress, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of a military department, the Secretary of Security, or the Governor or legislature of any State, Commonwealth, or possession in which he is on duty or present.” I think this is technically possible, but I’m not sure it is a great idea. But retired generals and admirals need to be actively discouraged from using their rank to interject themselves into partisan politics unless they are running for office.

The document would stop the policy of granting courtesy security clearances to retired military and intelligence officials who also act as consultants and talking heads in the media, “[t]his should include removing security clearances from the 51 individuals who signed on to the Hunter Biden laptop “disinformation” letter in October 2020.” I don’t see how this can be argued against. There is no doubt that people like John Brennan monetized their former jobs and active security clearance. This crap has to stop.

Slow down the Pentagon-Defense Contractor board of directors-Defense Contractor lobbyist pipeline. How many retired officers, like James Mattis, leave the military and immediately become a member of the board of directors of a major defense contractor? The answer is a lot. There are ethics laws about post-service employment, but they aren’t that hard to evade unless you work directly in procurement. Someone has to stick a wheel in the spokes of the “military-industrial complex” bribery machine so that we, the taxpayers, can feel confident we are getting the weapons our nation needs and not what some company is using a retired general to sell to us.

Fire anyone who lies under oath to a federal official or Congress.

DeSantis will Impose the “Milley Rule.” That is, he will “[f]ire immediately any joint chiefs officer who contacts an enemy counterpart without the knowledge of the president and overrides the authority of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.”

Within six months, DeSantis will review all 4-star officers and force to retire those “determined to have promoted policies to the detriment of readiness and warfighting.” (Unexpectedly, the USAF Finds Itself With a Critical Shortage of Pilots While It Says It Has Too Many White Officers). Follow up with a review of all 3-star officers and their equivalents in the civil Senior Executive Service. Unless this happens, nothing else on the list will happen. He should take a page from George C. Marshall’s playbook and cull a lot of senior officers and replace them with younger and more mission-focused men and women. Removing generals, admirals, and civilian SES personnel is not very hard.

Turn the Tide Against Biden’s Military Recruitment Crisis

Restoring Pride (not PRIDE) in the Military

Have the White House actively support a volunteer military and develop educational materials about the military’s role in US history for schools. Work to identify barriers to enlistment and retention, combat politicization, and share the findings of these efforts with the public.

Expand Recruiting

Here DeSantis advocates increasing the number of Junior ROTC and civics education programs, working with “the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition to promote military recruitment,” and creating a special education savings account for military families.

Summary

On the whole, I think DeSantis has done a great job of identifying the problem. Executing the plan is going to cause a lot of problems which is no reason not to do it. As far as I’m concerned, the key parts of the plan are eradicating the DIE infrastructure from employees to people who have spoken at DIE conferences. Anyone who has collaborated with this menace should get no mercy. The second part is to ruthlessly force into retirement admirals and generals who have contributed to the collapse of discipline and standards. They must be identified before he takes office and given their walking papers on Day One.

If those two things are accomplished, the rest of the program will fall into place. If not, then the whole thing is dead in the water.

🌹 GAF to air the Rose Parade on New Year's Day

 Source: https://itsawonderfulmovie.blogspot.com/2023/07/great-american-family-to-air-annual-rose-parade.html#comment-form

Great American Family reminds viewers to stop and smell the roses!🌹

Deadline is reporting, "Great American Media will be coming up roses on New Years Day: The network has signed a multi-year pact with the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association to become the new cable home for the parade."

The news has spread across Great American Family's social media platforms, and you can read the full press release from Great American Media below...

View this post on Instagram

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Press Release:

GREAT AMERICAN FAMILY 

AND THE PASADENA TOURNAMENT 

OF ROSES® ASSOCIATION 

SIGN MULTI-YEAR DEAL 

TO BRING LEGENDARY 

ROSE PARADE TO NEW 

CABLE HOME

Beloved 2024 Parade Theme: “Celebrating a World of Music”

NEW YORK, NY – July 20, 2023 – Great American Media and the Pasadena Tournament of Roses® Association proudly announce one of the world’s most beloved events, the 135th Rose Parade® Presented by Honda has a new cable television home, Great American Family, and will be seen LIVE from Pasadena, California, January 1, 2024 (8 a.m. PT). The agreement is a multi-year deal which reunites leadership at Great American Media with the Pasadena Tournament of Roses.

The 2024 Rose Parade theme is, “Celebrating a World of Music,” and features 20 of the world’s best marching bands from America’s hometowns and bedrock national institutions, as well as, from diverse corners of the world. The iconic Rose Parade is truly America’s celebration of hope and promise as state-of-the-art floats bedecked with flowers and other natural materials glide 5 ½ miles from Orange Grove Blvd., past the stately former Wrigley Mansion (now home to the Tournament of Roses) before making a turn down famed Colorado Blvd. where millions view the spectacle. For those not along the parade route, Great American Family welcomes all on New Year’s Day to the 135th Rose Parade with its majestic floats, equestrians, marching bands, entertainment performances, and the traditional flyover the San Gabriel Mountains by the U.S. Air Force B-2 Spirit.

“It’s an honor to be back working alongside the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association to televise this classic event,” said Bill Abbott, CEO of Great American Media. “The Rose Parade perfectly embodies the mission of Great American Family by bringing joy and celebration to participants and spectators alike, and I have had the pleasure of seeing first-hand the positive impact on communities made possible by the Tournament of Roses Foundation’s meaningful outreach efforts. We look forward to our continued partnership in the years to come.”

“The Rose Parade theme, “Celebrating a World of Music,” unites us all through the universal language of music and we can’t wait to watch the thousands of musicians march down Colorado Blvd. together with our fabulous floral floats and equestrian units on New Year’s Day. The Tournament of Roses has partnered with Great American Family as our new broadcast partner for the Rose Parade, and we couldn’t be more excited to bring this iconic tradition to households nationwide, delivering an unparalleled viewing experience for families across the country and around the world,” said Alex Aghajanian, 2024 Pasadena Tournament of Roses President.

ABOUT GREAT AMERICAN FAMILY

Great American Family is America’s premiere destination for quality family-friendly programming, including original holiday movies, rom-coms and fan-favorite series that celebrate faith, family and country. Great American Family is home to year-round seasonal celebrations including Great American Christmas, the network’s signature franchise featuring holiday themed movies and specials. Founded in 2021, Great American Family is part of the Great American Media portfolio of brands. Follow Great American Family on Twitter: @GAfamilyTV Facebook: @GAfamilytv Instagram: @gactv

About the Pasadena Tournament of Roses® and Rose Parade® presented by Honda

The Tournament of Roses is a volunteer organization that hosts America’s New Year Celebration® with the Rose Parade® presented by Honda, the Rose Bowl Game® and a variety of accompanying events. The Association’s 935 Members supply more than 80,000 volunteer hours, which will drive the success of 135th Rose Parade, themed “Celebrating a World of Music”on Monday, January 1, 2024, followed by the 110thRose Bowl Game. Visit www.tournamentofroses.com, like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

Smells Like a Trap to Me

Murdoch Outlet Promotes Corporate Chair Ronna McDaniel

 Warning Trump Not to Avoid Murdoch Outlet Debate

posted by Sundance at Conservative Treehouse

The transparency of the puppeteers continues.  The latest example is the New York Post (Murdoch outlet) promoting a story of the RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel, appearing on Fox News (Murdoch outlet) to warn President Trump not to avoid the RNC debate hosted by Fox News, the Murdoch outlet.

The private corporation (RNC) has a vested interest in Trump delivering credibility to the organization.  The Fox News corporation has a vested interest in Trump delivering credibility and ratings to the organization.  Whether President Trump decides to attend or not, the desperation expressed by the two corporations is a little funny.

The Freudian slip in this soundbite “20 million dollars” is also funny.  WATCH: 

[NEW YORK POST] – Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel has cautioned that it would be a mistake for GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump to skip the party’s primary debates.

“I think he should be on the stage. I want everybody on the stage that qualifies, obviously,” she told Fox News Wednesday. “It’s a mistake not to do the debates, but that’s going to be up to him and his campaign.”

McDaniel cited two main reasons why she feels it’s in Trump’s best interest to jump into the upcoming verbal slugfest despite holding a massive polling lead over his rivals. “One, short-term, you want to win the nomination, you got to get in front of the whole primary voters,” she said. (read more)

There’s only one thing these three corporations care about, money!