America undergoing a dangerous experiment

Thanks to the Biden Administration’s unofficial open-borders policy, some two million unauthorised migrants crossed into the United States last year, intent on heading north to ‘sanctuary cities’. No wonder. Apart from providing generous welfare, local officials refuse to hand over illegal immigrants for deportation.

The sanctuary city phenomenon is just the latest manifestation of a totalitarian movement intent on destroying from within, the basis of American society. It doesn’t matter that conferring the rights of citizenship on those who are non-citizens violates the American Constitution. Some states even permit undocumented migrants to obtain driver’s licences, and New York City has just given 800,000 non-citizens a vote in local elections. Who needs citizenship?

Not all Americans approve. Many are abandoning their homes in sanctuary states to move to places like Florida, Texas, South Carolina, and Tennessee.

Over the last decade, the tri-state area of New York lost over a million people, while Californians watched 1.625 million comrades take their skills, capital, taxes and businesses with them as they moved to places where governments respect the federal Constitution and reflect their traditional values and beliefs. The headquarters of tech giants Oracle and Hewlett-Packard, whose roots can be traced back to the founding of Silicon Valley, are among departures.

But, in common with its woke counterparts, California’s problems are of its own making. They include unfulfillable public pension promises and a vast social safety net, beyond the capacity of its remaining workers and businesses to fund. This is unsustainable.

Indeed, what we are seeing is the emergence of two Americas, based upon two conflicting philosophies. One champions authoritarian control, the other economic growth and freedom.

In his book, Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail, founder of the world’s biggest hedge fund, Ray Dalio, warns this growing ideological divide raises a ‘dangerously high risk’ of a US civil war within the next decade. He outlines the six stages of the internal order/disorder cycle, which end in civil war. He argues the US is currently at stage five — bad financial conditions and intense emotional conflict.

Dalio observes how voters move to electorates which match their beliefs, crowding out those who don’t, and how they watch different television stations and believe different facts. The number of cross-party friendships is at an all-time low. People today are inclined to excuse bad behaviour when it comes from their side and exaggerate it when it comes from the other.

It is clear the current state of America is the result of decades of self-loathing indoctrination and policies which have deliberately confused welfare dependence with compassion. Poorer communities have become perpetual incubators of poverty and violence. Almost 70 per cent of black children are born to single mothers and, as the Brookings Institution confirms, ‘the policy implications for out-of-wedlock births are staggering’. Single mothers are far more likely than married mothers to be poor and to instill in the minds of their children a sense of victimhood and learned helplessness. This, in turn restricts social mobility and entrenches inequality. America’s ten ‘most dangerous cities’ bear witness to this trend.

The immediate response is to decriminalise the law and to demonise and defund the police. This has proven to be a disaster and hits poorer communities the hardest.

It is now obvious that America is in the final stages of a social experiment gone horribly wrong. How it is resolved only time will tell. However, the woke states are running out of other people’s money and there is no sense that capitalist states will bail them out.

https://spectator.com.au/2022/01/uncivil-war

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Sinema: A principled Leftist

Democrats and progressives are furious not because Senator Kyrsten Sinema shamelessly flip-flopped or put her career ahead of her convictions, but because she refused to do so.

On a wide array of issues, Senator Kyrsten Sinema is as progressive as they come.

The Arizona Democrat is a one-time Green Party activist who has been an ardent champion of LGBTQ rights, an unwavering supporter of abortion access, a proponent of stiffer gun control regulations, and a defender of affirmative action. Over the past year, her votes in the Senate have aligned with President Biden's position 97.5 percent of the time. In fact, out of 41 major bills and nominations tallied by the website FiveThirtyEight, Sinema has voted with the president on all but one.

But because of that one — her vote last week against eliminating the 60-vote requirement to end a filibuster — Sinema has been denounced and demonized by her fellow liberals and Democrats.

She has been labeled a "traitor" to her "constituents" (Representative Jamal Bowman of New York), a "moral disgrace" (Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin), "a sellout" (Senate candidate and former US representative Abby Finkenauer of Iowa), and an "anti-democratic tool" (CBS star Stephen Colbert). She has been excoriated by one MSNBC host for "upholding white supremacy" (Tiffany Cross) and slammed by another as "a menace to the continuation of American democracy" (Keith Olbermann). She has been censured by the executive board of the Arizona Democratic Party.

Yet no one was blindsided or misled by Sinema's vote, which was consistent with the position she has articulated since entering the Senate three years ago. "Whether I'm in the majority or the minority, I would always vote to reinstate the protections for the minority," she said in 2019. "It is the right thing for the country."

In other words, Democrats and progressives are furious not because Sinema shamelessly flip-flopped or put her career ahead of her convictions, but because she wouldn't do so. In the teeth of cruel mockery, open harassment, and the loss of financial and political support, Sinema declined to betray her principles. John F. Kennedy had a term for senators like her. He called them "profiles in courage."

https://jeffjacoby.com/25968/there-a-term-for-senators-like-kyrsten-sinema

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Time for Mayor Eric Adams to “Put Up or Shut Up” on New York City's Crime Wave

There are people who would refuse a visit to the “Big Apple”, even if they won a free all-expenses-paid trip. However, to millions of New York City residents, our country’s largest metropolis is the “apple of their eye”.

Big cities are like that. Their appeal is often in the eye-of-beholder. Nevertheless, no matter if you live in a massive metropolis, or a sleepy little rural community, you aspire to live in a safe and secure environment.

For decades, New York City, and to be fair, dozens of other liberal-run U.S. cities, has been anything but. During the last two years, crime in the Big Apple has skyrocketed. The insane “defund the police” movement and liberal policies by former mayor Bill de Blasio's are to blame.

When you handcuff your law enforcement officers and refuse to crack down on criminals, this is the logical result. However, like most liberal-run states and cities, logic seems to elude these people. Their logic is fewer police officers will make the bad guys repent their evil ways.

Common sense points to the exact opposite. Bill de Blasio is no longer the Mayor of New York City. Many are thankful “Comrade Bill” and his fanatically liberal policies are gone. However, New York City is still “solid blue” when it comes to its political colors.

Despite suffering through de Blasio's abysmal liberal policies, especially those on crime, New Yorkers still seem bent on electing a Democrat to run their city. Eric Adams is the latest Democrat to basically run away with the election.

Adams buried his Republican, Curtis Sliwa, by nearly 40 percentage points. The 2021 New York City Mayoral Election met the definitive definition of a landslide. In sports jargon, it would be deemed a blowout.

Adams won in no small part because he is a Democrat in a heavily liberal city. However, the newly elected mayor of the Big Apple ran on a bunch of promises as well. Eric Adams ran on his strong ties to law enforcement.

In a city befallen by skyrocketing crime, being a retired police captain was a huge plus on Adams’ resume. Having political experience as a former NY State Senator, Adams seemed to possess all the tools to lead the country’s biggest city.

Likewise, Adams has developed the “art of the good political speech”. He seemed to know how to push all the right buttons with New York City voters. In one of the most crime ridden cities in the nation, Adams mentioned all the right talking points when addressing the crisis.

But now that he’s swept his way into office, some are insisting it’s time to “put up or shut up”. As New York City mourns yet another slain police officer, New Yorker’s say it’s time to stop talking about crime and do something about it.

With the freshness of the slaying of NYPD Officer Jason Rivera fresh in everyone’s mind, Adams has vowed to “roll out a real plan”. Nevertheless, this proclamation, however wonderful it sounds, still doesn’t offer a single strategy for ending a wave of violence in the city.

These “proclamations” of “I have a plan” have a nice ring to them on social media, but they’re little more than idle fodder. What bothers people the most is, despite all the talk, Adams hasn’t mentioned a single strategy.

Radical liberal policies within the city and across the state of New York have fueled the crisis. Albany, New York, is where the pitiful bail reform legislation was approved. In addition, New York City’s streets are full of neglected people.

Inside this wave of mental illness and depravity is a criminal element that the system keeps replenishing. An alarming number of New York law enforcement officers have either quit or retired in disgust. Bill de Blasio even shut down some critical NYPD departments.

New York City has a worsening public homelessness crisis. In addition, they approved laws that drop dangerous criminals back on the street within hours of arrest. Incorporate a reduced number of police, no one should be surprised.

The city has turned into a real-life version of the fictional “Gotham City”. However, there is no “Batman” ready to fly in and save them. New Yorkers are counting on newly elected major Eric Adams to do that. Understandably, it’s his job.

Eric Adams is also a politician whose secondary job is to talk a lot. He’s obviously got that aspect of being mayor down. Nevertheless, it’s time to put up or shut up. But in a city as dysfunctional as the Big Apple, no one should be holding their breath.

In a city where liberal Democrats have a stranglehold on political offices, the prospects are bleak. Adams, despite all his noble rhetoric, must contend with a radically liberal state capitol. The New York City District Attorney has already gutted prosecutorial powers.

In light of the recent police officer death, Albany legislators are screaming the famous old fallback “gun control”. They ignore the fact the gun used to kill Rivera was stolen. Eric Adams may really want to curb violence in his city.

However, he better not expect much help from his radical liberal cronies. Maybe it’s time to cast an ominous winged shadow across the New York City skyline. Perhaps it’s time for Gotham to summon a “real Batman”.

https://steadfastclash.com/the-latest/time-for-mayor-eric-adams-to-put-up-or-shut-up-on-new-york-citys-crime-wave/

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Trinity of Terror – Mainstream Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats

While people are galvanized at the mention of Donald Trump, one thing he accomplished was to lay bare the dangerous alliance of the mainstream media, Big Tech, and the Democratic Party. This covert relationship was always there, we all suspected it, but it took a lightning rod like Trump for them to show their true colors. These entities together no longer do they attempt to hide their contempt of conservatives. It is open season, and they are using all of the tools at their disposal in this battle for the soul of America.

They use their influence to shape thinking. This is done through withholding information from the citizens, or simply proclaiming any uncomfortable information as a conspiracy theory or ‘disproved.’ Phrases like ‘proven false narrative,’ are tossed about freely. When that doesn’t work, they simply lie, or reshape the truth to fit their narrative. There is little effort given to presenting information in a balanced manner.

We saw it with the claims that Russia influenced the election – all disproven, but the years’ long smear campaign that was unleashed had done its job, creating the impression in many people that it was a truth. For four years the media claimed that Trump was using his office to generate profit, but not a bit of credible evidence to that claim has ever surfaced. Did Big Tech label these as a proven false narrative? No. Unlike previous President’s, it became open season on Trump’s children and wife.

Let’s not forget Hunter Biden. How could we? he’s the smartest guy Joe Biden knows. When it was clear that the information about his finances and the Big Guy’s links to them would hamstring the Biden campaign, Big Tech simply removed it and the mainstream media refused to cover it. Rather than let the electorate form their own opinions, they simply made the story go away. It is a case of guilt by omission.

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The events of January 6 are regularly called an ‘insurrection’ by the media, but no one has been charged with insurrection. There was no possible way that any actions that could have been taken that dark day would have allowed the President to remain in power. Yet we are constantly water-boarded with an out of control protest being called something that has yet to be proven in court. Just because they use that word, doesn’t necessarily make it so.

According to all three elements in this unholy alliance, the 2020 election was pristine – not a single instance of corruption. This would be a first for Presidential elections since the election of George Washington, yet we were told that Biden’s election could not be questioned. Look at how Twitter dealt with it…anyone that posted that they had doubt of the election were labeled a ‘QAnon conspiracy supporter’ and had their accounts removed. Five years ago, this kind of Stalinesque purge would have garnered outcries of censorship with demands for action. Instead, while tens of thousands of conservative voices were silenced, while the Democratic Party gloated. The media barely covered this mass censorship of opposing viewpoints, further establishing their culpability in this alliance.

Remember the news media saying that Trump ordered Lafayette Park cleared for a photo op? That was proven to be an outright lie, but who ever apologized for it, or was held responsible? No one. In the real world, if you made a highly publicized mistake, you would lose your job. There are no repercussions for the media running with outright lies, or for Big Tech censoring views that they don’t agree with. When they are caught, no one loses their jobs or is publically held accountable. At most, a tiny retraction is run, often months after they have inflicted their damage, and even then, it is buried.

It has gone so far now that there are cries to have conservative media channels blocked from cable or satellite TV. The reason is simple – there can only be one voice in the American electorate – that of the progressive left. All other voices are silenced.

Liberals like to gloss over their relationship with the media and Big Tech. That is because it works to their advantage. If this kind of orchestrated online terror campaign was waged against them, they would be the first calling for regulations and controls.

This trinity of terror is a direct threat to our democracy. It makes fair elections all but impossible because only one narrow and dark perspective is offered to the American people. There is no one held accountable for unilaterally censoring differing opinions that don’t fit the desired left-wing narrative.

https://flagandcross.com/trinity-of-terror-mainstream-media-big-tech-and-the-democrats/

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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