Biden’s first big speech to Congress bombs on all counts

 By Post Editorial Board | New York Post

President Biden’s speech Wednesday night failed on all counts: It didn’t sell his latest spending plan, it didn’t sell his larger agenda — and, worst of all, it didn’t sell him.

President Joe Biden makes his first joint address to Congress on April 28, 2021.Bloomberg via Getty Images

Start with the utterly bizarre “mask theater.” All the politicians in the room have been fully vaccinated, and Biden’s own CDC says that’s enough. So why the universal masking, and the social distancing? The message, cutting across the president’s occasional optimism, was that this nightmare will never end — which simply isn’t true.

President Joe Biden’s socially distanced first speech to Congress on April 28, 2021.Bloomberg via Getty Images

 Equally, obviously false was Biden’s now-routine effort to claim all the credit for successful vaccinations: All that was set in motion before he took office.

Then he moved into a series of disjointed claims about his “American Families Plan” that barely tracked, even though he was reading a prepared text.

President Biden’s speech was mixed with lies and empty rhetoric.

It seemed like he was just skipping whole paragraphs and even pages. You could see even Democrats wincing above their masks.

He tossed in a few blatant whoppers, like his repeated claims that economists “left, right and center” agree his program will work just as he says.

Despite being fully vaccinated and socially distanced, Biden insisted on wearing a mask.

Oh, and a classic Biden non sequitur, attacking those who oppose his plans to hike taxes on the rich: “Ask them, whose taxes are you going to raise?”

“No one’s” is the answer — because the opposition isn’t looking to spend trillions more than the feds already do.

Yet he never gave any clear unifying theme for the “families” plan, because it doesn’t have one. It’s just another grab bag of items off Democrats’ wish list.

President Biden attempted to take all the credit for the vaccination program, which was put in place by his predecessor, Donald Trump.

Then, bizarrely, he wandered into something like a State of the Union speech, ticking off mostly vacuous sales pitches for a host of bills he’d like Congress to pass.

Mixed in were lies about how he’d solved the border crisis as vice president, plus vague waves at a foreign policy (and trade: He talks “buy American” as much as the guy he replaced) and some noise about being tough militarily when the Defense Department is about the only federal agency he doesn’t want to spend more on.

The speech left many Republicans and even some Democrats wincing.

The speech was packed with hoary clichés and empty rhetoric about unity, spiced with blather about “white supremacy” and “systemic racism” even as he was insisting (correctly) that nearly all cops only work hard to protect the public.

After all that, his effort to close with the traditional message of hope fell pretty flat, because he was out to show confidence in America after failing to give America reason to have much confidence in him.

https://nypost.com/2021/04/29/bidens-first-big-speech-to-congress-bombs-on-all-counts/

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RELATED ARTICLE

‘What About 9/11?’ Twitter Ridicules Joe Biden After He Calls Capitol Storming The ‘Worst Attack On Our Democracy Since The Civil War’ In First Address To Congress

 

Joe Biden said during his first address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday evening that the Capitol storming on January 6 was the ‘worst attack’ on democracy since the Civil War.

The claim immediately led to major backlash, especially from those on right-wing Twitter, who pointed to a slew of other tragedies in America between the 1860s and 2021 – like the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack, Pearl Harbor, presidential assassinations and others.

‘January 6 was worse than 9/11? Or Pearl Harbor?’ Glenn Greenwald, a journalist and former attorney wrote in a Twitter thread.

‘Or the Oklahoma City bombing? Or the dismantling of civil liberties in the name of the Cold War and War on Terror? Or the mass surveillance program secretly and illegally implemented by NSA aimed at US citzens (sic)?’ he continued, calling the president a ‘drama queen’ for hyperbolizing the January 6 riots.

‘How about the War on Drugs, mass incarceration and Jim Crow?’ Greenwald quipped. ‘Were those worse ‘attacks on democracy’ than the 3-hour Capitol riot on Jan. 6?’

‘The assassination of JFK? The interference in domestic politics by the CIA? The list of worse attacks than Jan. 6 is endless,’ he concluded.

– Read more at the Daily Mail

https://www.gopusa.com/?p=109640?omhide=true

 

Let's Celebrate: Our Black Republican Blog Goes Over Two Million Pageviews!

 

Winners And Losers From First Release Of 2020 Census Data

By Mike Schneider | Canadian Press

More than a year since the 2020 census began in a remote Alaska village, the first numbers to emerge from the nation’s once-a-decade head count were released on Monday, showing how many congressional seats and Electoral College votes each state is getting based on its population.

Because the number of seats in the House of Representatives is set at 435, it’s a zero-sum game with one state’s gain resulting in another state’s loss — like a pie with uneven slices. As one state gets a larger slice because of population gains, that means a smaller slice for a state that lost population or didn’t grow as much.

Here’s a look at the 13 states that will gain or lose political power — and federal money — through the apportionment process because of changes in population over the past decade:

THE WINNERS

TEXAS — The Longhorn State is the big winner, adding two congressional seats courtesy of 4 million new residents. Demographers say people moving from other states like California have contributed a significant chunk of the growth. The nation’s second most populous state will now have 38 congressional representatives, behind only California.

FLORIDA — The nation’s third most populous state adds one congressional seat because of a population gain of more than 2.7 million. This boosts its House delegation to 28 and Electoral College votes to 30, furthering the Sunshine State’s importance in presidential elections.

COLORADO — Population growth around Denver helped Colorado gain an extra seat, its first new House seat in 20 years. The mostly college-educated transplants have helped Colorado go from being a solidly Republican state to a competitive swing state to, now, a solidly Democratic one — though the state’s districts will be drawn by a nonpartisan commission.

MONTANA — By gaining a congressional seat, Montana goes from having a single House representative to having two. The gain marks a rebound for Montana, which had two congressional seats for most of the 20th century but lost one after the 1990 census.

NORTH CAROLINA — Fueled by retirees and job seekers, North Carolina’s population boom is earning it an extra seat, raising its House count to 14. The gains have been concentrated in the Charlotte and Raleigh areas.

OREGON — Oregon is getting a new congressional seat for the first time in 40 years, going from five House members to six. Although Democrats control state government, they have agreed to give up their advantage in redrawing the state’s political districts for the next 10 years in exchange for a commitment from Republicans to stop blocking bills.

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THE LOSERS

CALIFORNIA — While California is still the nation’s most populous state, its stagnant growth over the past decade causes it to lose a single seat for the first time in 170 years of statehood. Its number of House members goes from 53 to 52 for a state that has been a symbol of limitless growth and endless possibilities since the Gold Rush of the 1800s.

ILLINOIS — Illinois goes from 18 to 17 House members, continuing a 40-year streak of losing congressional seats.

MICHIGAN — The number of House members representing Michigan drops from 14 to 13, particularly because of population losses in the Upper Peninsula.

NEW YORK — There was no question New York was going to lose a congressional seat, but the suspense lay in whether it would be one or two seats. The Census Bureau says New York lost its seat by a mere 89 people. The loss of one seat reduces its House delegation from 27 to 26 members.

OHIO — Sluggish population growth over the past decade causes Ohio to lose a single congressional seat, continuing its streak of losses every decade since 1960. The adjustment reduces the Buckeye State’s House seats from 16 to 15.

PENNSYLVANIA — Although Pennsylvania remains an important presidential battleground, its influence will be diminished by the loss of one Electoral College vote. Its House delegation drops from 18 to 17 members.

WEST VIRGINIA — A decadeslong exodus of residents finally causes West Virginia to lose a congressional seat, reducing its representation in the House from three to two members.

https://www.gopusa.com/?p=109524?omhide=true

The Critical Theory of racism and wokeism

William Haupt III | The Center Square contributor

U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C. – Photo by Bonnie Cash / AP

“Woke and cancel culture are signs of a judgmental culture. In their world you cannot speak to another person without worrying about what they will be thinking about you.”

– Abhijit Naskar

All societies have a particular social, legal and cultural set of traditions that they live by. These are the vectors of authority that maintain the values, ideologies, and institutions in a civilization. These societies adapt to change for survival. Many transformations take years and even decades. Those that take place through healthy, peaceful social and cultural evolution compliment a normal society.

But if social, cultural or political change is forced upon a society by violence, revolt or war, it divides and weakens a nation. Violence or forceful reformations intimidate people and they will fight back. Disorderly change is unsustainable without continued extortion, disturbance and destructiveness. When all cultural, social, and political traditions that bring order to a society vanish, it will perish.

In the early 20th century, a German school of social philosophy developed called Critical Theory. Critical Theory critiques culture and challenges the underlying power structures of society. It is a movement to liberate people from the restrains that control law and order. In Critical Theory, the only things that exist are hierarchies of power, and those hierarchies must be totally eliminated.

The goal of these theorists is to completely dismantle a culture and reinvent it from the ground up.

This radical philosophy crept into our academic institutions in the 1980s. Within a decade, it infiltrated almost every university in the world. Graduates took this ideology with them to media newsrooms and corporations and it has entrenched itself as the primary Western culture for millennials today.

This new religion, AKA “wokeism,” has infected every facet of American culture. Since wokeism is self-centered destruction of society, it must create its own commandments and rules to meet its goals and objectives. Wokes use these rules to banish anyone who they consider a threat to them.

“Casting stones at anyone who disagrees with you shows what a loser you are.”

– Barack Obama

Critical Theory does not improve society, so wokes use every means possible to eliminate people that support the traditional institutions, morals and social values that guide normal socialites. They develop their own rules for the majority and ostracize everyone who does not conform to their laws.

Critical Theorists have found that “racism” is one of the most powerful tools to eliminate everything that stands in their way of accomplishing their vision of a society free from all past guidelines and traditions. They disavow all institutions and homogeneity that maintain moral civic law and order.

London University’s Eric Kaufmann claims using race as the sole criteria to justify what one does to disrupt an entire society is unacceptable. Attacking a race as a privileged class, or one with a different cultural or political view, creates social distrust, disrespect and dissent between races.

“We are ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.”

– Alex Solzhenitsyn

We do not live in a racist free world and never will. Get over it. But race is a covert commandment of the religion of wokeism. It is used discriminately for their personal gain to discredit and publicly administer their personal brand of social justice against anyone who is not a diehard liberal woke.

With the election of Donald Trump, the wokes took over Congress and the media and wokeism has become the official driving force to discredit and eliminate anyone who is not a woke progressive.

From 1869 to 1935, all 45 Blacks elected to Congress were members of the Party of Lincoln, the GOP. This domination of Blacks in Congress only changed due to the Depression politics of FDR. Franklin Roosevelt was the first president who gained universal support from Black America. They changed political stripes like many white Americans because they thought he’d end the Depression.

Republican U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R, S. Carolina, has been in the Senate since 2014. He receives email and phone threats from around the U.S. He is labeled an “Uncle Tom.” They say he sold out his race to Republicans.

“Why won’t people accept I am Black and I am conservative?”

– Tim Scott

As someone who has witnessed racism daily in 2020, Scott was asked by the GOP to author legislation to reform the country's law enforcement departments. The bill he presented to Congress was supported by police unions and civic groups nationwide. And it was revered as a quality bill.

But Senate Democrats. led by Kamala Harris, emboldened a national outcry to speak out against Scott’s legislation and filibusted Scott’s bill to prevent if from going to the floor. Scott told FOX News that Democrats blocked his bill because they wanted to use “race” against the GOP in the next election.

“This bill cannot be salvaged and we Democrats refuse to debate or amend it.”

– Kamala Harris

While this bill was being discussed in the Senate, Tim Scott’s office was deluged with threats and racial innuendoes claiming he did not belong in Congress because he was not a Democrat. His life was threatened as well as his family members. And the Black Caucus scorned and ridiculed Scott.

“This is nothing more than pure liberal racist politics at its very worst against the GOP.”

– Tim Scott

Democrats have repeatedly claimed the filibuster is racist since they won control of Congress. Yet they used it repeatedly to stop Republican legislation the entire time Trump was in office. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said, "If the Democrats really believe what they’re saying about racism, then why did they themselves use a racist tool against Senator Scott’s police reform bill last year?"

Bill Clinton once said, “Do as I say, not as I do.” Today, racism has become the main commandment for wokes to cancel out anyone who is conservative or says anything they do not agree with. There is no forgiveness in the religion of woke; especially if you are Black and Republican. In every state legislature as well as the federal government, Black Republicans are banned from Black caucuses.

To wokes, racism is only a dirty word when they choose to make it one to further liberal left causes.

Every Black Republican in recent U.S. history has been victimized by the left as an Uncle Tom and has also been accused of “trading blackness for whiteness.” Yet from the end of the Civil War until 1935, every elected Black official in the federal government was a Republican, the party of Lincoln.

Wokes have proven they are not against racism. Race is only a tool that they use freely against anyone black or white that does not support the self-promoting ideology of the uncompromising liberal left.

“Wokeism, is not what America is about. It distorts our glorious founding and our real history to make this country look like something it isn’t now, or ever has been.”

– Mike Pompeo

https://www.thecentersquare.com/national/op-ed-the-critical-theory-of-racism-and-wokism/article_11271ebe-a42c-11eb-91a7-73990da1289e.html?utm_source=National&utm_campaign=f181737b0e-NATIONAL_B2C_NEWSLETTER&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_6119470e60-f181737b0e-39066515

These Parents And Teachers Have Had Enough Of Critical Race Theory In Classrooms

By Kerry McDonald | Foundation for Economic Education 

More parents are waking up to the “woke” ideology that is seeping into their children’s classrooms and curriculum. Increasingly, they are speaking up and opting out.

Last week, Andrew Gutmann, a father of a student at the elite, $54,000-a-year Brearley School in Manhattan, wrote a scathing open letter to the school community. He stated that he wouldn’t be re-enrolling his daughter this upcoming academic year due to the school’s singular focus on “anti-racism” efforts that, according to Gutmann, are overtly racist and exclusionary.

“I object to Brearley’s vacuous, inappropriate, and fanatical use of words such as ‘equity,’ ‘diversity’ and ‘inclusiveness,’” wrote Gutmann in his 1700-word letter, which was published on Friday at journalist Bari Weiss’s website.

“If Brearley’s administration was truly concerned about so-called ‘equity,’ it would be discussing the cessation of admissions preferences for legacies, siblings, and those families with especially deep pockets,” the letter continues. “If the administration was genuinely serious about ‘diversity,’ it would not insist on the indoctrination of its students, and their families, to a single mindset, most reminiscent of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Instead, the school would foster an environment of intellectual openness and freedom of thought.”

“And if Brearley really cared about ‘inclusiveness,’ the school would return to the concepts encapsulated in the motto ‘One Brearley,’” Gutmann concludes. “Instead of teaching the extraordinarily divisive idea that there are only, and always, two groups in this country: victims and oppressors.”

The Brearley School’s headmaster responded to the letter, calling it “deeply offensive and harmful.” But more parents are coming forward to speak up against these initiatives that are rooted in critical race theory, the push to view social and cultural issues through the lens of racial identity and, in particular, power structures related to that identity.

In an article last month at City Journal, Weiss described many of the parents who have come forward from prestigious private schools in major cities to criticize what they see as indoctrination of their children into a leftist ideology of “wokeism.” In an article last week, Weiss shared a letter from a teacher at one of these prep schools who is no longer willing to be silent about this ongoing indoctrination of students.

“As a teacher, my first obligation is to my students,” wrote Paul Rossi, who teaches mathematics at the posh Grace Church High School in New York City. “But right now, my school is asking me to embrace ‘antiracism’ training and pedagogy that I believe is deeply harmful to them and to any person who seeks to nurture the virtues of curiosity, empathy and understanding.”

“‘Antiracist’ training sounds righteous, but it is the opposite of truth in advertising,” Rossi concludes. “It requires teachers like myself to treat students differently on the basis of race.”

Grace Church High School made headlines in March for releasing an “Inclusive Language Guide” that, among other recommendations, urged the school community to become more “welcoming and inclusive” by avoiding words such as “mom and dad,” “parents,” and “boys and girls.”

Opting Out, Building Up

As more parents and educators feel emboldened to speak out against the rising tide of wokeism in their children’s schools, it offers opportunities for change.

Some of that change might come from schools reining in their woke rhetoric if enough parents object, but much of the change will likely come from parents opting out of these private schools for other options. As more independent schools realize there is a market for focusing strictly on teaching and learning without political indoctrination, they will be able to differentiate themselves from schools seeped in critical race theory.

Similarly, more parent demand for alternatives to woke education will lead to more entrepreneurial efforts to build new learning models that focus on individual development over group affiliation.

The demand for non-woke education is skyrocketing. Who will meet it?
— Pedro Domingos (@pmddomingos) March 12, 2021

I recently received an email from an Asian mother whose child attends a private school in the Boston area and who is fed up with the school “trying to ‘brainwash’ kids.”

“The social pressure to conform with what the schools define as ‘moral compass’ is enormous and exhausting,” she wrote. “The underground chattering is bubbling and I wonder where the parents would ultimately draw the line and declare enough is enough. I personally feel time may be ripe for more innovative and balanced models to challenge the status quote of the existing learning institutions.”

The demand for non-woke education truly is skyrocketing and it presents a moment ripe for “creative destruction” in the education sector.

The term creative destruction was popularized by economist Joseph Schumpeter in his 1942 book, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy,to describe the dynamic process of new business models and organizations replacing outdated or inadequate enterprises. He explained that capitalism is “the perennial gale of creative destruction,” fueled by entrepreneurship and innovation.

YES. Or: start new schools + new colleges.

But What About Public Schools?

Parent demand may spur the private sector to offer alternatives to woke education through free-market capitalism, but what about the children forced to attend government schools that are much less responsive to market signals? Like many elite private schools, public schools are also embracing woke ideology at alarming rates.

In February, Illinois legislators voted in favor of enacting new “Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leading Standards” in the state’s teacher education programs. These programs must begin to reflect the new standards that focus on “systems of oppression.” Illinois teachers-in-training will be expected to “explore their own intersecting identities,” and become “aware of the effects of power and privilege and the need for social advocacy and social action to better empower diverse students and communities.”

Around the same time the Illinois standards were passed, a group of educators released a document criticizing objective math education as being racist, and called for “dismantling white supremacy in math classrooms by visibilizing the toxic characteristics of white supremacy culture with respect to math.” States like Oregon seem to be taking note.

And last month, the California Board of Education passed an ethnic studies curriculum for K-12 students that focuses primarily on four ethnic groups, including African Americans, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, Latino Americans, and Native Americans. While the new statewide ethnic studies curriculum is not a high school graduation mandate, as California legislators and the state’s teachers union originally proposed before California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed the bill last fall, the new school curriculum emphasizes group identity over individualism.

Ahead of the governor’s veto, The Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote about the state’s proposed ethnic studies curriculum: “This is ugly stuff, a force-feeding to teenagers of the anti-liberal theories that have been percolating in campus critical studies departments for decades. Enforced identity politics and ‘intersectionality’ are on their way to replacing civic nationalism as America’s creed.”

Many parents may disagree with the woke ideology their children are exposed to in schools, or they may simply prefer that these schools focus on academics, not activism. But too many families have too few options beyond a mandatory public school assignment. Expanding education choice policies, as more than two dozen states are currently attempting to do, will enable more families to choose their preferred educational setting.

Private school parents are courageously pushing back against the ideology of wokeism that is invading their children’s schools, and they are using their resources to find or build different learning models. Education choice policies will allow public school parents the same opportunity of exit and innovation.

___________

Kerry McDonald is a Senior Education Fellow at FEE and author of Unschooled: Raising Curious, Well-Educated Children Outside the Conventional Classroom (Chicago Review Press, 2019). She is also an adjunct scholar at The Cato Institute and a regular Forbes contributor. Kerry has a B.A. in economics from Bowdoin College and an M.Ed. in education policy from Harvard University. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with her husband and four children.

https://www.gopusa.com/?p=109345?omhide=true

Maricopa County 2020 Election Audit Proceeds Despite Democrat Efforts to Stop It

BY MATT MARGOLIS | P J Media 

In this Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2018 photo, Maricopa County Elections official Joanne Tillson instructs election volunteers on ballots issues during a training session in Phoenix. The elections chief for the Arizona county that includes Phoenix is pledging that voters won’t face the same difficulties they experienced in August’s primary when dozens of polling locations opened late. Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes said this week elections county employees instead of contracted workers will set up the voter check-in machines that were not put in place on time on Aug 28. (AP Photo/Matt York)

Earlier this month, the Arizona Senate leadership hired a team of independent auditors to complete a “comprehensive, full forensic audit of the 2020 election in Maricopa County, including a hand recount of all ballots.” Despite the efforts of the state Democratic Party to thwart it, the audit is proceeding.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Chris Coury had ordered the Arizona Senate to “pause” the audit if the Arizona Democratic Party would post a $1 million bond to cover the costs of the delay. The party refused to so.

“The Arizona Democratic Party will not risk our supporters’ hard-earned dollars to pay off the Cyber Ninjas for a procedure they are billing Arizona taxpayers to the tune of $150,000,” the Arizona Democratic Party said in a statement.

The Trump campaign sued Arizona election officials last year, alleging irregularities in Maricopa County, a county Donald Trump won in 2016. According to state-certified results, Biden won the county by just over 45,000 votes and barely won the state by a 10,457-vote margin. If the audit discovers the alleged irregularities, it could prove that Trump is the legitimate winner of Arizona, and it could have huge implications for other states where irregularities were discovered.

The Arizona Republican Party was pleased by this latest development. “Democrat’s bluff called and they fail to post a $1million bond to stop forensic audit,” the state GOP tweeted.

Former President Donald Trump is also keeping an eye on what’s happening in Arizona.

“The Democrats are ‘swarming’ the Great State of Arizona trying to get the Forensic Election Audit stopped, because only they know exactly what they’ve done, and they understand Voter Fraud far better than anyone,” he said in a statement Friday night. “This could be Voter Fraud at the highest level. Don’t think that Arizona is the only State.”

On Saturday morning, Trump called for “large-scale security” for the team conducting the audit.

“The Republican Party is demanding that Governor Ducey of Arizona immediately provide large-scale security for the brave American Patriots doing the Forensic Audit of the 2020 Presidential Election,” Trump said. “Governor Ducey will be held fully responsible for the safety of those involved. State police or National Guard must be immediately sent out for protection. The Democrats do not want to have this information revealed, and they will do anything to stop it. Governor Ducey must finally act!”

Matt Margolis is the author of Airborne: How The Liberal Media Weaponized The Coronavirus Against Donald Trump, and the bestselling book The Worst President in History: The Legacy of Barack Obama, and The Scandalous Presidency of Barack Obama.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2021/04/24/maricopa-county-2020-election-audit-proceeds-despite-democrat-efforts-to-stop-it-n1442426?utm_source=pjmedia&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm&newsletterad=&bcid=227841a8b1ca836b99e21ea36efa6859&recip=28551147

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RELATED

A Majority of Voters Think Cheating Affected the Results of the 2020 Election

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Trump Vindicated as Judge Rules Michigan Secretary of State Violated Election Laws

BY MATT MARGOLIS | P J Media 

AP Photo/John Raoux

A judge in Michigan has vindicated President Trump by ruling that Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, broke state law when she unilaterally changed election rules concerning absentee balloting in the 2020 election. This ruling legitimizes a key claim made by the Trump legal team in its challenges to the 2020 election.

A major change imposed by Benson was loosening the signature verification requirement for absentee ballots. Michigan Court of Claims Chief Judge Christopher Murray ruled that this change violated Michigan Administrative Procedures Act.

The court made the following conclusion:

…nowhere in this state’s election law has the Legislature indicated that signatures are to be presumed valid, nor did the Legislature require that signatures are to be accepted so long as there are any redeeming qualities in the application or return envelope as compared with the signature on file. Policy determinations like the one at issue — which places the thumb on the scale in favor of a signature’s validity — should be made pursuant to properly promulgated rules under the APA or by the Legislature.

Over 3.1 million Michiganders voted by absentee ballot in November. Biden “won” the state by just over 154,000 votes, according to the state-certified results.

“I’m glad the court sees Secretary of State Benson’s attempts at lawmaking for what they are – clear violations of her authority,” said State Rep. Matt Hall, a Republican. “If she wants to make changes like these, she needs to work with the Legislature or properly promulgate them through the laws we have on the books.”

“The Legislature is an equal branch of government charged with crafting laws,” Hall continued. “This is not the role of the Secretary of State, and there is a clear process that must be respected. Unfortunately, Secretary of State Benson has a pattern of not respecting that process. She issued a mandatory directive requiring local election officials to apply a presumption of validity to all signatures on absent voter ballots, but there is nothing within state law allowing for that type of power from her position. As a result, this directive was found to be not in accordance with our laws and not valid.”

Michigan was not the only state where Democrat state officials unilaterally changed election laws, so this ruling certainly raises legitimate doubts whether Biden truly won the election without invalid votes.

Matt Margolis is the author of Airborne: How The Liberal Media Weaponized The Coronavirus Against Donald Trump, and the bestselling book The Worst President in History: The Legacy of Barack Obama. You can follow Matt on Twitter, Gab, Facebook, MeWe, Heroes, Rumble, and CloutHub.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2021/03/17/trump-vindicated-as-federal-judge-rules-michigan-secretary-of-state-violated-election-laws-n1433162

NYT Columnist Argues Mass Rioting, Looting Last Summer Was Just Something Republicans 'Believe' Happened

By Leah Barkoukis | Townhall.com

Source: AP Photo/Morry Gash

Throughout last summer, Americans witnessed widespread rioting and looting many BLM demonstrations caused across the country. Now, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is arguing that all that destruction was just something Republicans "believe."

Krugman made the comment in a series of tweets criticizing Republicans for being most concerned about illegal immigration and the deficit, according to a Pew study.

"You might think that it would be hard to obsess over the deficit when it was actually Trump who blew the deficit up, to zero complaints from his party," Krugman tweeted. "But that would be assuming that R voters know about that, or would even be willing to hear it."

"In reality, given that GOP supporters believe that rampaging mobs burned and looted major cities — somehow without the people actually living in those cities noticing — getting them to see facts about something as abstract as the deficit is a hopeless cause," Krugman continued. 

He also said in a separate thread that “BLM may have been the best-behaved protest movement in history,” claiming there were only a small number of bad actors.

In reality, the violent demonstrations caused up to $2 billion in property damage and resulted in 18 deaths, according to Fox News. 

Critics hit back at Krugman's suggestion.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE REST OF THIS ARICLE.

[EDITOR’S NOTE: This article contains links to numerous videos that show the violence committed by BLM and Antifa rioters.]

 

North Carolina's Lt. Gov. Robinson goes nuclear on 'insane' and 'insulting' leftist narrative on voter suppression

 By Chris Pandolfo | The Blaze

The lieutenant governor of North Carolina, the first black man to hold that office, excoriated arguments from Democrats that compare voter integrity measures such as the new law passed in Georgia to racist voter suppression laws of the Jim Crow south. A requirement to show ID to vote is not voter suppression.

 

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THIS DEVASTATING AND POWERFUL VIDEO.

On Thursday, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R) testified at a hearing in the House of Representatives titled, "Oversight of the Voting Rights Act: The Evolving Landscape of Voting Discrimination." In his opening remarks, he said it was "insane" and "insulting" for anyone to compare the voter ID laws passed in Georgia and other states to Jim Crow laws that were used to tyrannize black Americans and keep them from voting.

"My people were put in the belly of ships, bound by chains, and endured the middle passage. My people were whipped, beaten, and sold as property. In Reconstruction and throughout Jim Crow, black people were intimidated, harassed, and even killed to keep them from having a voice in government," Robinson told House lawmakers. "Symbols like chains, nooses, and burnt crosses are not just symbols of death, they are symbols of forced and coerced silence.

"The sacrifices of our ancestors so I could have the opportunity to become the first black lieutenant governor of my state, to see a black man sit in the White House, and for millions of us to be leaders in business, athletics, and culture is incredible," he continued.

Turning to the Georgia law, which Democrats have accused of implementing "Jim Crow in 2021" by suppressing the minority vote, Robinson demanded to know how black voices were being silenced or kept out of the political process.

"How? By fear of a noose or chains? To be fired from work? To be ostracized by their communities? No. A free ID to vote. Let me say that again, a free ID to vote," he said.

He continued:

How absolutely preposterous. Am I to believe that black Americans who have overcome the atrocities of slavery, who were victorious in the civil rights movement, and who now sit in the highest levels of government cannot figure out how to get a free ID to vote?

That we need to be coddled by politicians because they don't think we can figure out how to make our voices heard? Are you kidding me!?

The notion that black people must be protected from a Free ID to vote is not just insane, it's insulting.

Later in the hearing, Robinson made it clear that historically it was the Republican Party that supported voting rights for black Americans and the Democratic Party that supported voter suppression and Jim Crow.

"That history is clear who stood on which side at every turn in history. It is clear, it's not even in dispute," Robinson said. "What we want is integrity, we don't want power. We want integrity."

He also defended Republican-supported voter ID laws as "simple American responsibility" and reminded the Congress that Jim Crow laws "wasn't just a poll tax."

"You stepped outside the line during Jim Crow, you'd find yourself swinging from a tree," he said.

Robinson called voter ID "common sense legislation for the common good."

"To say that somehow poor people, black people can't be involved in that responsibility, again, is insulting," he said.

https://www.theblaze.com/news/north-carolinas-lt-gov-goes-nuclear-on-insane-and-insulting-leftist-narrative-on-voter-suppression

On Race, It's Heads the Left Wins, Tails America Loses

By Larry O'Connor | Townhall.com 

Source: AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana

Remember that "national conversation about race" the political Left has been demanding for decades in this country? Well, apparently, we are having it now. This is what that conversation looks like. 

Democrats yell at you about how racist you, your history, and your country are, and you must agree with them. If you explain you aren't racist, you are told that this merely proves how racist you are. If you point out that there is nothing you have ever done or said in your entire life that is in any way racist, you are told that you haven't actively been "anti-racist," so, therefore, you are racist. 

If you point out that you married a person of a different race and brought into this world mixed-race children and that it's pretty obscene that you would be called a "white supremacist" since, by the very nature of your progeny, you have helped to advance the notion that race is meaningless and what matters is the content of one's character, you are labeled a white oppressor who has used his own family to expand his racist colonialism instinct. 

You are then told to shut your mouth, listen to the rest of your company's critical race theory-infused diversity training and sign a document agreeing with everything you've been told or else lose your job. 

This is the conversation on race. Stop talking and admit you and your country are racist. 

It's not really a conversation as much as a lecture under extreme duress. 

So... when does it end? The answer could be found in the streets of Minneapolis last night.

"We are never going to be satisfied," said an anonymous Black Lives Matter protester after Derek Chauvin received guilty verdicts in the George Floyd murder trial. 

This woman is not a one-off and not an outlier. This woman represents the Democrat's base. This woman represents the voters being exploited and used as political pawns by rich, white, liberal Democrats like Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden who have questionable race records of their own. 

This woman represents the rage on the streets of America's largest cities that have been destroyed by Democratic mayors and city councils over the past several decades. She is angry, and that anger is being exploited by the very individuals who contributed to the conditions that brought rise to the anger in the first place. 

And yesterday, the reactions from Democrats and their partners in the corporate-controlled, propaganda media told you everything you need to know about the conditions of race relations in America in the post-Obama and Trump era. 

The adults in the room who understand our system of justice and recognize that our laws, courts, and law enforcement institutions are not designed to prevent people from doing evil acts, they are designed to render justice and punish those fallen human beings who will inevitably do evil things, should have rejoiced that our system works. 

They should have rushed to the microphones and cameras to thank God for the US Constitution and our Founding Fathers for providing the greatest system of justice the planet has ever known. 

They should have proclaimed that this guilty verdict proves that our system is not systemically racist and our judicial system, slow and methodical as it must be, ultimately works. 

That's what they should have done, but they didn't. 

Instead, they rushed to those same microphones and cameras to proclaim that this guilty verdict proves that we have a broken, systemically racist country, and this verdict means nothing. They used this guilty verdict to make a case for sweeping "reforms" that will castrate law enforcement efforts in America and make those very same African-Americans who have been convinced they are daily victims of cops actual victims of horrific criminal elements in their own neighborhoods. 

Of course, if the jury had returned a "Not Guilty" verdict, these same politicians would be showing that the verdict proves that we have a broken, systemically racist country, and the verdict means nothing. The difference is they'd be making those statements while cable news shows video of cities burning, storefronts being smashed and looted, and cops in riot gear being attacked by Antifa thugs during "mostly peaceful protests." 

Either way, you see the trap we are stuck in, right? 

A not guilty verdict proves we have a broken, systemically racist country, and the judicial system and policing must be blown up, defunded, and reconstructed in the vision of Ibram X. Kendi. 

Meanwhile, a guilty verdict proves we have a broken, systemically racist country, and the judicial system and policing must be blown up, defunded, and reconstructed in the vision of Ibram X. Kendi. 

It's heads they win, tails the country loses when it comes to the politics of race and criminal justice in this country. 

When does it end? It ends when the politicians, corporations, and media giants no longer benefit from dividing our country with hate and lies. 

Now, it's on us to see that through. 

https://townhall.com/columnists/larryoconnor/2021/04/21/on-race-its-heads-the-left-wins-tails-america-loses-n2588309?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=04/21/2021&bcid=1b87ed489cb499e9d52de389e64c7f01&recip=19399969

Mixing politics with baseball is un-American

By William Haupt III | The Center Square contributor

 Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred – Photo by LM Otero | AP file photo

  “There is no place in baseball for politics and no place in politics for baseball.”

– Branch Rickey

Considered America's National Pastime, baseball has helped to reshape this nation. From the Civil War to civil rights and beyond, the game of baseball has always reflected the positive aspects of American life. It has set national trends, influenced our culture and improved our economies. It has inspired movements, instilled pride and united us during wars. It has healed our social wounds and built American cities. Most importantly, it broke the color barrier for integrating professional sports.

In 1942, former baseball player Branch Rickey became president of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Rickey was only an average player, but he was the greatest asset to the game he loved. He devoted his life to protecting and improving America’s pastime. He did more than anyone to preserve the ethics and principles of an institution that made America a unique and insightful nation. In the baseball world, he set the bar for all future executives for promoting good will within the baseball community.

Rickey was a man of character with deeply religious convictions. He sowed the seeds of baseball much the same as Johnny Appleseed introduced apple trees to large parts of America.

He was all American and often attacked communism and socialism. He was fearlessly intelligent, well read, and thoughtful. His favorite book was the Bible, which he often quoted chapter and verse.

“Baseball is slow to change and accept new ideas. Sometimes it takes years.”

– Branch Rickey

Rickey, who had fought in the trenches during World War I with Black Americans, was eager to get them into Major League Baseball. In 1945, he founded a league for Black players to scout ballplayers. He was determined to find the best Black ballplayer to convince owners to desegregate baseball. He said, ''I may not be able to end racism in every sport, but I can do it here in baseball.''

In October 1945, he signed Jackie Robinson, a fellow GI and graduate of UCLA. After a stint with the Dodgers' minor league team in Montreal, Robinson made his debut in Major League Baseball in 1947. This bold move broke the league's color barrier. Robinson and Rickey formed a lasting bond. They worked the rest of their careers on improving the lives of all Black Americans. 

Photo: Wesley Branch Rickey (R) (December 20, 1881 – December 9, 1965),  an American baseball player and sports executive. Rickey was instrumental in breaking Major League Baseball's color barrier by signing Black player Jackie Robinson (L). Getty Images

Rickey's determination to desegregate Major League Baseball was born out of a combination of his religious beliefs and patriotism. He felt segregation violated the Christian faith and the GIs that had fought for America and world freedom should never be treated like second class citizens. Branch Rickey not only ended segregation in baseball, but he opened the door to end it in all major sports.

“I needed to win, so I promoted Jackie Robinson for his skills, just not his race.”

– Branch Rickey

Rickey was Mr. Baseball, but he did more for professional sports than just open the door for Black Americans in the major leagues. Shortly after Jackie Robinson stole his first base, fellow UCLA grad Kenny Washington became the first Black player to sign with an NFL franchise in 1947.

Baseball ended segregation in professional sports, yet Commissioner Rob Manfred moved the All-Star game this year from Atlanta to Colorado because of Georgia’s new voting laws. This was a slap in the face of all those who worked to desegregate professional sports. Politics and baseball don’t mix! Manfred had no right to bow to progressives and let leftist politics influence an American tradition.

President Joe Biden claims Georgia’s election reform bill is “Jim Crow in a suit and tie.” He falsely claims it prohibits family members from dropping off absentee ballots, restricts early voting, and limits voting hours. And the media and corporate America are helping to perpetrate this hoax. Yet every change in Georgia’s election law was made simply to prevent more problems like there were last election.

“This election bill is nothing more than a dog whistle to disenfranchise minority voters.”

– Joe Biden

Matthew Weil, of the Bipartisan Policy Center, claims this helps voters. It allows voters to obtain ballots without an excuse. Voters can also vote on Sunday. Counties must have drop boxes. It extended early voting three additional days. Voters can request a ballot 11 weeks in advance. The only change, which most Americans support, is you must show “any form of ID”, even a utility bill, to vote.

Richard Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California, said that many of the things this bill does is in line with what other states already do. It is confusing why the reworking of voting rights laws for the right reason is illegal, particularly when it is not as strict as many other states. He added, “There is little data that shows increasing ID requirements affects participation at all.”

Manfred claims he made the decision to move the All-Star game from Atlanta to Colorado under pressure from the Black Players Alliance, an organization of black players formed after the death of George Floyd. They also pressured Coke, Delta Airlines and American Express to support them.

The All-Star Game would have been a huge opportunity for Georgia’s large minority-owned small business community. They’re now left paying the price for leftist politics. These identity groups hurt the people this would have helped by perpetrating a false narrative with the help of the media.

“It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.”

– Thomas Sowell

Plato told us in 400 BC, “Don’t confuse me with facts.” Apparently, facts are not a strong suit for progressive politicians, baseball identity groups, and corporate America. If the left does not like a policy, they rally everyone in their camp to go into attack mode and cancel out any group, policy or individual they disagree with. This is dangerous and antithetical to the values of our great republic.

Not so long ago, American baseball was a great equalizer. It provided a place for political activists of all stripes and colors, professionals, blue color workers, the wealthy and the poor to forget their differences, and enjoy a game together. They’d “catch” a bag of peanuts from a wandering vendor and share them. They only fought each other over who could catch and retrieve a prized foul ball.

You can’t escape woke politics today, especially in America’s once great pastime, baseball. The baseball stadium was once our “national neutral zone.” Now it’s been violated by woke partisan politics. It is shameful that America’s Pastime is not only being influenced by identity groups and progressives but it is perpetrating false political narratives supported by American companies.

Rickey was recognized by the NAACP and numerous Civil Rights groups as the man who desegregated professional sports. Rickey and Jackie Robinson worked together for years to end segregation in major leagues and amateur sports. It is a shame that the very sport and the very two men that spent their lives fighting segregation are disgraced by progressive politicians and identity groups at an event honoring them and America's Pastime.

“Some day I'm going to have to stand before God, and if He asks me why, I didn't let that [Jackie] Robinson fellow play ball, I don't think saying 'because of the color of his skin' would be a good enough answer.”

– Branch Rickey

https://www.thecentersquare.com/national/op-ed-mixing-politics-with-baseball-is-un-american/article_cba92e3e-9e24-11eb-bd8a-3bf7b7e21798.html