Sunday, February 18, 2024

Under the Democrats’ Rule, America Has Become A Failed State


Thomas Jefferson wrote about governments that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,” In modern English, government exists to do for men those things they cannot do for themselves: protect the nation, ensure tranquility within the nation and guarantee God-given individual rights are not trampled upon within the nation. Our government has failed in that task. Our nation, therefore, is a failed state.

Another way of looking at Jefferson’s prescription for government is that it is the government’s job to help protect families and communities, enabling citizens to pursue happiness. Of course, that’s hard to do. Of the 110 billion people who have ever lived, most have lived in civilizations that did not even come close to that goal. Indeed, most lived in civilizations where that goal didn’t even exist, or at least the individual rights element of it.

For most of the last 248 years since Jefferson wrote those words about a successful government, and 233 years after Congress ratified the Constitution, binding the nation contractually to those same principles, America largely operated under that contract. Today, however, after less than a quarter century into the new millennia, we must admit that the contract is broken, and America is a failed nation. Our nation no longer serves its people.

The first thing that tells us that the nation has failed is children and families. In theory, citizens do not exist for the state; rather, the state exists for the citizens and, especially, for families, which are a nation’s heart and future. It should work in tandem with parents, whose biological imperative is to protect their young.

Today, however, the government has metastasized so that it is the enemy of families. After destroying the traditional family, states are now dictating to parents that their children can be butchered and there is nothing they can do about it. It’s everywhere: in CaliforniaNew YorkWashington, and even Montana! There is literally nothing in life more natural than a family with children, but states now feel they can literally take children from their parents for the specific purpose of indoctrinating or butchering them. Failed nations do that.

Then there’s the Climate Change hoax. Al Gore has been telling us since 1999 that CO2 is setting the world on fire and that the oceans will cover half the continent within a decade. Disappointingly, 25 years later, Washington DC is still not under water. Global warming is a fiction, but our government drives at least half a trillion dollars being spent annually to “reduce” our “Carbon footprint.” These expenditures are direct (i.e., hundreds of billions of federal, state, and local government dollars) and indirect (i.e., the financial burdens forced on citizens through higher energy prices, higher transportation costs, and built-in green energy inefficiencies).

Every effort is chimerical when you consider human’s actual, minimal CO2 impact. Start with how much CO2 is in the air.

As of May 2022. CO2 in the atmosphere was 421 ppm or .04%. But maybe it’s rocketed up since then? Nope. Apparently, 100 ppm of that 421 ppm was generated during the last 120 years. If we were to do nothing, the level of CO2 in the atmosphere in 2120 would sit at 531 ppm or .05%. Not exactly choking the planet.

So, our government is essentially crippling our economy, sending inflation through the roof, and introducing a level of energy instability Americans haven’t seen in half a decade to solve a problem that simply doesn’t exist. The governments of serious nations don’t do that.

Finally, there is the open border and the flood of illegal immigration. Since Joe Biden has been president, almost 10 million people, mostly military-aged males, have poured across our border. American taxpayers must support virtually every one of them.

To put that in perspective, if they were a state, the illegal aliens who arrived since Biden’s inauguration would be the 11th largest state, just above New Jersey and just below Michigan. Add to that the 20 million illegals already here, and they would be a larger population than every state other than California and Texas.

But it’s not just that the government is allowing millions of people to invade the country. It’s also what governments are doing once the invaders are here. Boston closed a community center to house the illegals. New York City has been paying tens of millions of dollars to hotels to house them and recently forced kids to attend school online because their schools were filled with illegals. What’s more, two weeks ago, New York’s mayor announced the city would give $53 million in prepaid debit cards to illegals. Astonishingly, some places give illegals more than citizens on welfare!

All of this costs likely more than $300 billion a year, twice widely circulated estimates of $150 billion that base their number on the laughable assumption that there are only 15 million illegal aliens in America when the number is likely more than 30 million.

And as if spending hundreds of billions annually on illegal aliens wasn’t enough, the illegals are increasing crime in America’s cities even as we deal with skyrocketing domestic crime. From beating up NYPD cops in broad daylight and being released within hours to gangs targeting gated communities outside of Detroit to moped gangs terrorizing New York, illegals have become more and more brazen as they understand the consequences of crime are minimal, particularly when compared to a new spirit of robust government enforcement that is emerging in Central America. And, of course, this doesn’t even begin to measure the consequences of the 100,000 American deaths from the unsecured border’s fentanyl trade.

All of this (and much more...) demonstrates that the United States is no longer a serious nation. America not only no longer protects families, but it also actively keeps parents from protecting their children. America no longer seeks to create a framework for prosperity but rather burdens citizens with crippling inflation and stultifying costs to battle a fictional problem. America no longer seeks to defend herself from invasion or her citizens from vicious, violent criminals. When a nation stops protecting its borders, citizens, and prosperity, it ceases to have the right to be called serious.

Every single one of these problems and policies has at its core the Democrat party and the swamp bureaucracy that infects every level of government. However, one part of America is still struggling to remain serious, and it’s not represented by the GOP ruling class. It’s the grassroots, it’s the people who were Tea Party patriots, and it’s the citizens who don’t drink the media’s propaganda.

The Declaration of Independence states, “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government…” In this case, it’s not a government per se that has become destructive to those ends but the Democrat party. Let’s hope that in November, those who take America seriously take the opportunity to show that vile, despicable party the door…



X22, On the Fringe, and more- February 18

 




NATO’s New Mission: Peace Through Censorship

In the cognitive warfare concept, NATO has embraced and refashioned the leftist ideology of the woke DIE cult, both based upon the communist lie of knowing one’s thoughts better than the individual.


When pondering the ranks of institutions captured by leftist elitists, one of the most ominous is the American military. The left is brazenly proselytizing, neutering, and politicizing the American military with its DEI ideology—an inherently partisan, divisive assault designed to hollow out its historical warfighting spirit and value system. That the left would expand its political proselytizing into affiliated militaries within our alliances is to be expected. That these politically subversive assaults on our and our allied military must be opposed is imperative.

To wit: the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

A transatlantic military alliance in search of a reason for perpetuating its existence, NATO was a prime target for left-wing capture and weaponization; consequently, embracing the left’s paranoid narratives, NATO seeks a new mission that placates the elites by asserting that, in stopping nebulously defined authoritarians, the first line of defense is censoring and controlling member states’ free citizens.

Thrice annually, NATO’s Joint Warfare Centre’s (JWC) Public Affairs Office publishes a magazine for its 31 members, “The Three Swords.” In Issue 39 of October 2023, Commander Cornelis van der Klaauw [hereinafter, “the Commander”], a Royal Netherlands Navy Subject Matter Expert in the Strategic Communications and Information Operations NATO Joint Warfare Centre, wrote, “To raise awareness of a new NATO concept that is in its infancy, but that will have a significant impact on individuals, groups, societies, and the way future wars are fought: cognitive warfare.”

In 2021, NATO initiated this “new concept’s” implementation, and the final concept is on the verge of being approved by NATO’s Military Committee. Evidently, that means it is time for the alliance to inform the free world that 2024 will usher in 1984.

Cognitive warfare is a fact of the modern age and everyone, whether civilian or military, is a potential target. Cognitive attacks are aimed at exploiting emotions rooted in our subconscious, bypassing our rational conscious mind. This is achieved by exploiting biases, fallacies, emotions and automatisms, but also through nanotechnology, biotechnology and information technology [NBIC].

Yeah, once that first shovelful of authoritarian disinformation is heaped upon our unwitting brains, we populist-peasants could become domestic threats, performing the enemy’s work for them gratis. Enter NATO, who knows what you are thinking even if you do not. As the Commander enlightens us:

In cognitive warfare, the ultimate aim is to alter our perception of reality and deceive our brain in order to affect our decision-making. We are commonly unaware of such attacks before it is too late and they have already affected their targets. Therefore, we must protect ourselves by raising awareness and developing a system of indicators and warnings that can provide real-time information. [Italics mine.]

This will sound familiar to those devotees of the Maoist DIE cult’s unconscious bias canard within the larger disinformation op of “systemic racism” (which can never end, lest all those credentialed H.R. apparatchiks lose their sinecures). Per the Commander, “cognitive warfare” is so pervasive, incessant, and unending that you do not consciously recognize it and will always need NATO to sniff and stamp it out.

While cognitive effects are not measurable in the typical sense, they do affect how we think, what we feel and how we act… They are taking place already now, and these attacks will continue to become more sophisticated. Several countries are developing NBIC capabilities and collecting data for use in targeting the cognitive dimension. These activities are supported by aspects such as datamining and data analytics, and are further combined with artificial intelligence. [All italics mine.]

Apparently, these cognitive attacks are so sophisticated that the author cannot cite a specific instance, though he does offer what might (someday) be considered such an attack—the “Havana Syndrome.” One can only suppose “cognitive warfare” is like pornography: one knows it when one sees it. But NATO has a handy list of those who are most susceptible to whatever cognitive warfare may or may not be employed against the free world’s citizenry:

The most vulnerable are individuals who feel a lack of belonging, feel marginalized, think they lack the ability to express their grievances or believe they are deprived of their rights. Usually this is combined with a lack of trust in governance and social structures. These perceptions can stem from ethical, racial, religious, economic or even historical reasons. Vulnerabilities are also the key when it comes to understanding how we can protect ourselves against a cognitive attack.

Yes, all pigs are equal, but some populist-pigs are more vulnerable than others. If you think this is a recipe for political repression, you are correct. Consider the handy list of potential domestic terrorists and traitors the Commander provides:

In Western societies, there are four fundamental vulnerabilities to consider:

• Government structure: The Western liberal democratic structure is vulnerable to cognitive attacks and at the same time limits the opportunity to detect and defend against these attacks.

Translation: Freedom is dangerous to the free world.

• The media and information landscape: Limited means or lack of willingness to share information openly, especially in combination with low literacy or underdeveloped critical thinking skills, opens up a critical vulnerability that can be exploited by adversaries.

Translation: The free world needs smart people to determine what information is safe for we numbskulls to consume. One cannot say “consider,” because our critical thinking skills are too underdeveloped to be trusted to do that.

• Social structures: Fragmented social structures and particularly echo chambers are vulnerable to false and misleading narratives. The lack of communication between people that only exchange information within their own communities is an easily exploited vulnerability.

If you think the Commander’s talking about the corporate media, progressive blogs, or MSNBC rather than conservative blogs and Fox News, see item four (below).

• Increasing level of populism: People who feel that they are not being heard or properly represented in institutions and that the “elite” is disregarding their concerns see populism as the solution to their problems, making them especially vulnerable to cognitive manipulation.

And there it is. As the Sex Pistols long ago identified: “the problem is you.” Note, too, the use of “feel”—not “think.” Seems we populist-peasants have this irrational, erroneous impression that the elites are getting richer and more powerful at our expense. Crazy, right?

In sum, the Commander argues that in cognitive warfare, everyone is a potential target, with populists being the most susceptible. Further, the reason cognitive attacks work is that they “achieve a specific aim without the target becoming aware of an attack. Generally, the damage is already done before the target realizes that it has been targeted.” Worse still, he declares, “In the future, there will only be one rule in warfare: There are no rules.”

So, how does NATO intend to protect our domestic one-percenters from we populist-peasants after we have been subconsciously riled up by authoritarians? By fighting for peace through censorship to attain “cognitive resilience” and “superiority.”

It bears repeating that, while he cannot cite a specific instance of the allegedly ongoing cognitive warfare, the Commander enumerates the technologies that can facilitate the devolving of free people into our authoritarian enemies’ pawns: social media platforms, smart devices, digital networks, gaming platforms (and their subcultures), virtual reality environments, digital spaces serving as echo chambers, and the Metaverse.

NATO plans on using “science” in the service of monitoring and censoring these technologies:

Knowing one’s vulnerabilities is important, but knowing when a cognitive attack is taking place is just as vital… For example, it is essential to maintain awareness about the information we unknowingly share that can be used against us. At the same time, technological solutions can help to identify cognitive attacks through algorithms and artificial intelligence, but also with real-time pattern and signature recognition. General awareness and technological solutions may alert us to cognitive attacks in good time and help us in determining the best way to respond. This brings us to the subject of creating cognitive resilience. [Italics mine.]

And that “best way to respond” to create “cognitive resilience” would be what, Commander?

Within the Cognitive Warfare Concept, cognitive resilience is defined as “the capacity to withstand and recover quickly from an adversarial cognitive attack through the effective preparation of groups and individuals.” …We must look at the current ways in which cognitive activities are conducted, and by which means. In order to keep the initiative, we need to anticipate possible future developments. Currently such future developments include ways to read thoughts and emotions, which can enable measurements of the effect of cognitive activitiesBased on the result, models can be developed to improve decision-making, but also to identify weaknesses to exploit. [Italics mine.]

If you find this ominous, you are not a member of NATO’s bureaucracy. In fairness, the Commander does envision a day when peace through censorship will no longer be necessary. Why? Because one day science will disarm we populist-peasants before the authoritarian enemy can tailor our minds to suit its nefarious purposes:

THERE ARE OTHER RAPID developments in the fields of [NBIC]… One of the most promising projects is the development of embedded synthetic DNA or sDNA. This can be a useful alternative to silicon semiconductors. Currently it is possible to store 2.14 × 106 bytes of data on sDNA. This organic material could enable human-machine interfaces and is often seen as the 47th human chromosome.

…Furthermore, neural nanotechnology can be used to bring nano-sized robots close to a neuron via the bloodstream and make it possible to link the human brain directly (i.e. not intercepted by our senses) to a computer, making use of artificial intelligence in the process. But we must keep in mind that this is a two-way street: such an artificial intelligence will, in turn, be linked to a human brain. [Italics mine.]

“Hook me up, Commander! I’m ready to defend the brave new world!”

Speaking of “resilience,” in an act of legal positivism that would make the Warren Court blush, “resilience” provides the murky rationale upon which NATO justifies its new creepy mission to police free people and infringe on their liberties:

…Article 3 of the Washington Treaty, NATO’s founding document. It establishes the principle of resilience:

“In order more effectively to achieve the objectives of this Treaty, the Parties, separately and jointly, by means of continuous and effective self-help and mutual aid, will maintain and develop their individual and collective capacity to resist armed attack.”

While we are still waiting for an instance of an armed attack, the Commander is not:

Article 3 includes supporting the continuity of government and the provision of essential services, among them resilient civil communications systems. This means that cognitive resilience, as an aspect of promoting and enhancing civil preparedness, requires that NATO plays a key role – but only in support of its member nations’ own efforts and not as a standalone actor. NATO nations differ in their cultural, social, technological and governmental structures and with that, their susceptibility to cognitive attacks. A tailored approach is needed to provide the right support to the nations. [Italics mine.]

Once more, the Commander insinuates that the freer the people, the more susceptible they are to being authoritarian dupes. Still, at least the Commander allows that NATO can only infringe on your rights if your local authoritarians invite them to do so. And they would never, ever do that. COVID lockdowns, schmockdowns…

When pondering the paranoiac prophecies and prescriptions of NATO’s Nostradamus, one could imagine the Commander being institutionalized. Instead, he will be lionized by his brass-spackled bureaucratic peers and the soulless sybarites schlepping the well-groomed grounds at the latest World Economic Forum.

In the cognitive warfare concept, NATO has embraced and refashioned the leftist ideology of the woke DIE cult, both based upon the communist lie of knowing one’s thoughts better than the individual. Ironically, everything the Commander claims about cognitive warfare can be fairly applied to the woke DIE Cult and its mandatory proselytization within every aspect of American (and many NATO members’) life. (As an aside, one cannot help but note how NATO’s cognitive warfare concept will be approved in 2024, i.e., during the U.S. presidential election.) But I digress…

Thus, NATO will seek to control the God-given rights of the free world’s member nations’ citizens (individually and/or collectively). Collective security devolves into collective suppression; “peace through strength” into “peace through censorship;” and NATO’s mission into that of the old Warsaw Pact—the subjugation of free people.

I, too, have a concept, though I admit it requires multi-tasking and I cannot claim it is new. How about NATO not placate the elites by censoring and suppressing free people, populist or otherwise? Instead, how about NATO actually protects America and our Free World allies’ citizens’ God-given rights and defeats the Axis of Authoritarianism confronting us in this new Cold War?

But what do I know? I’m a Republican populist-peasant who opposes censorship, communists, authoritarians, tyrants, and all enemies of our Constitution, foreign and domestic. Hey, wait a minute…

Maybe the Chi-coms made me say all that?!




Biden plots to deepen the deep state in a bid to 'thwart' a victorious Trump's capacity to govern


Peaceful transition of power?

Not on your life with the scheming leftists Bidenites currently entrenched in the White House.

According to Fox News, citing a report from the Associated Press, they are busy as beavers these days, 'bracing' for a second President Trump term, and preparing to 'thwart' his capacity to govern.

The Associated Press report reads:

A collection of activists, advocates and legal experts is promoting new federal rules to limit presidential power while urging Biden’s White House to do more to protect his accomplishments and limit Trump in a possible second term. All of that is happening with far less fanfare than plans by Trump supporters to create a conservative government-in-waiting via an effort known as “Project 2025.”

The Office of Personnel Management, the federal government’s chief human resources agency, proposed a rule against reclassifying tens of thousands of workers so they can be more easily fired. According to spokesperson Viet Tran, the office will finalize the rule in April. That means that a future administration would likely have to spend months — or even years — unwinding it if they want to try to do so.

Which is frankly shocking. 

Obviously, what the voters want is unimportant. That they elect Trump to clean out this establishment of partisan plotters is of no conscience-twinging importance to them at all as they plot to ensure their permanent power, because in their minds, they have a "divine right" to rule.

"Activists, advocates, legal experts"? This sounds like the same bunch that created the "shadow campaign that saved the 2020 election," in the famous 2021 Time magazine piece by Molly Ball. They did succeed in rigging the election against Trump -- and the voters -- at least once.

So now they are active again, and they do what they do, working to make the transition from one party to another as hellish as possible, working out ways to tie Trump's hands, impede his ability to govern, and if the American people who voted for him lose out, not their problem.

So much for civil society. So much for the comity of democracy. This is warfare and they've fired the first shots.

It's very disturbing that they are attempting to tie Trump's hands here should he win the election, which they seem to be banking on, and thus, are determined that he is forced to lead a bureaucracy that has no loyalty to him whatsoever, and zero professionalism, too. We all know how they plotted, connived, lied and deceived in his previous term.

The layoffs prevention measure is probably significant in that we have an example before us of what happens when a government lays off thousands of useless and mischief-making bureaucrats, in the presidency of Javier Milei of Argentina. Milei acted swiftly to lay off one third of Argentina's worthless bureaucrats and now his government has posted its first surplus in memory. His country's economy is recovering, his people are happy, his political support remains high, and his success is a model for other nations now about how to fix a wokester-wrecked economy.

The U.S. wokesters, won't accept that they are servants of the people and serve at the voters' pleasure. They demand an arrangement to keep them in power forever, and will make Trump's life hell should he return to power on a popular wave in 2024.

What Biden gets out of this is not entirely apparent, but obviously, a loyal government bureaucracy in his post-presidency could come in pretty handy with regards to the Biden Family Business, in opportunities to be had, in favorable regulatory rulings, and in staying out of the crosshairs of the law as they carry on what they carry on to build their family fortune and continue their political influence.

It could be that Biden owes favors to the deep state and this is his way of paying them back with interest. It could be that Barack Obama is pulling the strings here, paving his way for some kind of return to power, even if by proxy.

Trump and his camp should make this sneaky move to extend bureaucrat power as public as possible so as to give voters yet another reason to vote for him and vote for a GOP Congress to work with. We all know how sleazy and unprofessional and politicized these supposed servants of the people are. They have failed at impartial professionalism and by this alone need to be thrown out on their ears. 

One can only hope that the Trump team finds a way to surprise them.



As Long As Universities Are Identity Obsessed, America Will Have A Surplus Of Stupid Students

Many university professors have an intellectually close-minded mentality and produce ill-informed, civically ignorant students.



American civilization with its wealth has built an educational system beyond anything imagined in the past. We have staffed our universities with more than 1.4 million full- and part-time teachers. Of those instructors, 60 percent of college instructors identify as “left” or “far-left.” Many of them have an intellectually close-minded mentality based on racial and sexual identity. One result is that we are producing ill-informed, civically ignorant students.

A year-long study conducted by researchers at the Center for American Institutions at Arizona State University, where I am a professor, found that many teachers in introductory American history survey classes in colleges filter the curriculum around racial, ethnic, sexual, and so-called gender identity, usually to the detriment of a well-balanced and comprehensive understanding of our nation’s past. The use of identity-focused terms, primarily the defining terms for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), e.g., “white supremacy,” “toxic masculinity,” and “homophobia,” infuse course instruction. In a review of 75 introductory history course syllabi found in large and small public and private colleges, DEI is the focus.

American higher education is producing students who not only despise America itself and our nation’s values, they’re also ignoramuses. A survey conducted by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni in 2019 showed that 63 percent of students did not know term lengths for U.S. senators or congressmen, only 15 percent could identify James Madison as the “Father of the Constitution,” and nearly 20 percent thought Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was the author of the New Deal. Things have not gotten better. In a recent survey, one in five Gen Zers believed Osama bin Laden’s views were good. Let’s be clear: Bin Laden wanted to destroy Western civilization by any means possible.

Much of the blame for what is occurring in our universities should be placed on the woke professoriate that appears more intent on pursuing a political agenda than imparting basic knowledge and critical thinking skills to their students.

Addressing the Problem

Regents and state legislatures should insist on educational transparency by requiring all academic units to place on the first page of their websites current syllabi, class enrollments, faculty minutes, and administrative announcements. There is no reason that students and the general public should not have access to this information.

Former Gov. Scott Walker, who headed the National Commission on the Study of American History in Our Colleges, has called for reformation of our universities. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who served on the commission along with former Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, told Fox News that if a student leaves college without a basic understanding of the roots and foundation of American values, that student has no roots, no sense of identity, and becomes “like a leaf in the wind.”

Some colleges and universities are addressing the problem by offering new degree programs that emphasize civics and classical education to better root students in American values. We see this in the creation of schools focusing on civics at Arizona State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, New College in Florida, Flagler College, and the University of Texas, Austin.

These programs should be supported, but they are only a small start. Of more than 15 million students in American colleges, only a small number of these students will declare majors in a civic degree program. This is especially the case with so many students being rightfully concerned about job opportunities.

Appointing a few hundred faculty to teach in these programs, as important as it is, will only put a minute dent in overall faculty numbers. Tenured faculty remain a bulwark against meaningful university reform in a system that protects them from even being reprimanded for being little more than propagandists. Furthermore, tenured far-left faculty members end up hiring other tenured faculty and contract instructors along identity and/or partisan lines.

This hiring system prevents the appointment of young scholars who might have conservative views or even applicants researching what were once considered traditional topics. This is especially the case in the humanities. These narrow job searches and the tenure system are supported by university administrators who are themselves disposed to left-wing agendas. Tenured faculty might be a dying breed as cost-conscious universities appoint more contract full-time and part-time instructors who are just as woke as their privileged tenured peers, but they are a significant part of the problem.

So what can be done to ensure intellectual diversity in our universities and colleges? The first step is for regents and state legislatures to insist that all faculty searches include broad areas of expertise and not be restricted to candidates focused on racial, ethnic, sexual orientation, or gender identity. In the humanities and social sciences, faculty appointments should be made in presidential studies, as well as economic, business, and military areas of instruction. Such searches in themselves won’t ensure that identity-focused faculty will still not be hired, but broader searches provide an opportunity for more intellectually diverse applicants and hires. State legislatures and boards of regents can establish broad outlines for faculty appointments without subverting faculty governance.

An even more radical approach to reforming the American university is to begin to reimagine (a favorite word of the left) the university curriculum itself — beyond just requiring students take civic courses. The modern university curriculum emerged in the late 19th century and evolved in the 20th century based around departments with highly specialized trained faculty. These departments can be combined and reintegrated into new interdisciplinary programs with more expansive curricula.

Why not have a multi-disciplinary program on human transformation that includes anthropologists, child psychologists, animal behaviorists, historians, and sociologists? Such a curriculum would provide students with access to broader knowledge, opportunities to engage in critical thinking, and better preparation for a changing world. This enlarged curriculum challenges instructors to leave their academic silos and move beyond narrow identity topics. It would also force them to learn and confront confounding evidence from other fields.

Our modern university structures are having destructive effects on our students and society. They need immediate reform. 



Government Bureaucrats Could Use 'Kill Switch' to Stop People From Driving Because... Reasons


Ward Clark reporting for RedState 

A provision in the 2021 "infrastructure" spending package, as it turns out, includes a provision that directs the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to come up with a way to stop you from driving your car or truck if the government doesn't want you to. The measure is sold as a way to keep people from driving while impaired, but the implications are chilling.

A provision in the bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that President Joe Biden signed in 2021 directed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to come up with a rule by this year requiring new cars to have “advanced drunk and impaired driving prevention technology.”

The law describes this tech as being able to “passively monitor the performance of a driver of a motor vehicle” and “prevent or limit motor vehicle operation if an impairment is detected.”

Critics immediately raised privacy, cost, and reliability concerns any such “monitoring” system would raise, only to be reassured by the mainstream press that this was much ado about nothing. The provision was meant only to keep drunk drivers off the road.

Because, you know, we should all feel so much better when the legacy media and the Democratic Party - but I repeat myself - "reassure" us that this won't be any big deal.

Here's the onion:

But the law doesn’t specifically forbid such systems from communicating with third parties or allowing them to shut down cars remotely. And you can bet that cops, government agencies, insurance companies, and who knows who else will all want access to it.

What’s more, in its “advanced notice of proposed rulemaking,” NHTSA makes clear that such a system won’t necessarily be limited to preventing drunk driving.

Note the weasel-wording there: "won't necessarily be limited to preventing drunk driving."

Think about this for a moment. This technology has the threat of doing much more than the proponents are advertising. There are a  few layers to peel off here:

  • Once the foot is in the door to use this to prevent drunk driving, it's open to prevent night-time driving, driving in peak traffic times, or any other reason or time that some unelected bureaucrat might want to disallow. This is a slippery slope we shouldn't want to be perched upon.
  • While it's unclear how much this technology will cost, it's sure that it won't be cheap - and it will be added to the cost of every new vehicle.
  • How accurate would this tech be, and how many resources would it take to monitor? At present, Americans take about 1.1 billion automobile trips per dayThat comes out to about 11 billion miles per day traveled, 411 billion daily trips, and 4 trillion miles per year. How will any tech like this handle that kind of volume?

This is, like so many similar examples of government overreach, a colossal waste of time and money, and an unforgivable intrusion on the privacy of every American.

At some point in the next year, I'm planning on buying a Ford Super-Duty pickup, for boat-towing and camper-hauling duties in summer and plowing in winter. A diesel pickup, properly maintained, should last half a million miles, which means that this truck will easily last my lifetime; I'm 62 and foresee maybe 25 more years (more if I'm lucky) of active driving, boating, camping, and the like. I reckon it will be the last truck I ever buy. An old buddy of mine is already calling it, jokingly, my "death truck." But I sure as hell won't be buying any vehicle with any of this kind of tech in it.

It's not about impaired driving, and it's not about highway safety. It's about control. It's always about control.



Here's What Happened When a Couple Volunteered to House Illegal Immigrants

Madeline Leesman reporting for Townhall 

A Massachusetts couple who volunteered to house illegal immigrants said that a family of four showed up at their doorstep less than an hour after they signed up. 

The couple, Chris and Jessica Stokes, live in Brookline. In the days before the couple signed up to house immigrants, hundreds of illegals were sleeping on the floor of Boston Logan International Airport with no place to go. The family that arrived at the Stokes’ house was in this type of situation.

“We really knew nothing,” Jessica Stokes said in an on-camera interview, emphasizing that they didn’t know their ages, where they were coming from, among other things. 

The family, which includes a couple and their two kids, came from Chile, then to Texas, then to Massachusetts.

"Just the dysfunction is really disheartening and I know that really well-intentioned people are working as hard as they can, it's a state of emergency. But it is distressing to see the volume," Jessica Stokes said.

“The need is so clearly overwhelming,” Colin Stokes added. “It boggles the mind that there are so many hundreds of those stories and those people who are in such a stressful, traumatic transition.”

Earlier this month, Townhall covered how illegal immigrants who were sleeping on the floors of Boston Logan International Airport were relocated to an “overflow” shelter at a community recreation center. The center, which was used for sports for children in the community, paused all its activities until further notice to handle the migrants.

"We're here today because we really don't have a choice," Democratic Governor Maura Healey reportedly said after touring the site with Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and other city officials.

“As you know, families continue to come into this country, continue to come into Massachusetts. And, we have, over the last several months, opened up locations throughout the state, including large overflow sites around the state…We have right now, about 7,500 families in Massachusetts housed through that program,” Healey said, adding that the state has “reached capacity.”

In an interview, Healey broke down crying as she spoke about the decision.


Germany Reaches NATO Spending Goal for First Time Since the Implosion of the USSR


streiff reporting for RedState 

Germany will hit the NATO spending goal of two percent of GDP for the first time in over three decades, according to a Defense Ministry spokesman commenting on NATO spending on Wednesday. The 2024 forecast of 2.01 percent of GDP is a 28 percent increase over 2023 outlays.

In 2024, 18 of 31 NATO (32, if we think Orban will ever be allowed by Moscow to permit a vote on Sweden's membership by Hungary's parliament) reached the spending target agreed upon in 2024. This is up from 11 member states reaching the target in 2023. According to preliminary forecasts, the number may grow by one as France is on target to hit the two percent goal in 2024.

FACTSHEET NATO Defence Spending by streiff on Scribd

These increases have been in the works for a couple of years and have nothing to do with Donald Trump's threats to abandon allies to Putin's Russia if they don't meet spending targets. As I noted in my post on the subject, NATO expenditures, in dollars and as a percent of GDP, have been increasing since 2015, and the rate of increase doesn't support Trump's claim that he was responsible for the increase. The bump in 2020 is due to the UK and France increasing their budgets, but only 10 hit the two percent target.

The increases are driven by Putin's invasion of Ukraine and the realization in most of NATO that a Putin success there will inevitably lead to him using the same pseudo-historical justification to attempt to reclaim other areas of the Russian Empire. It is also driven by the knowledge that America's defense expenditures are simply not sufficient to permit America to defend its interests, and that the US can't help NATO if it faces a major threat in the Western Pacific.