URLs du Jour

2019-03-02

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  • The Washington Free Beacon reports on the results of a Senate-sponsored investigation: China Infiltrating U.S. Education System in Propaganda Coup.

    The Chinese government has infiltrated nearly every sector of the U.S. education system via a package of programs and monetary schemes that seek to indoctrinate American children and bring the Communist government's propaganda into the classroom, according to a new report by a Senate investigatory body.

    The wide-ranging report by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has found that China has spent nearly $200 million on educational entities known as Confucius Institutes. These programs have been instated in U.S. schools across the country with the mission of indoctrinating students and painting a sympathetic portrait of the Chinese Communist government, according to the report.

    Caveat Lector: the Beacon's prose is considerably more lurid than the language in the report itself. (Linked above.)

    But for the nth time, a reminder: The University Near Here remains a proud host to a Confucius Institute. In an article no longer available at the Union Leader website, UNH claimed they would review the situation this year.


  • At Reason, Peter Suderman recollects that 2010-era GOP claims that Obamacare was a "government takeover of health care" were, at best, overwrought. But guess what? Medicare for All Would Actually Be a Government Takeover of Health Care.

    The single-payer health care plans now being put forth by Democrats under the label "Medicare for All," however, would eliminate that coverage. As Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D–Wash.) said this week when announcing House Democrats' new Medicare for All bill, the plan would "mean a system where there are no private insurance companies that provide these core comprehensive benefits that will be covered through the government." Unlike Obamacare, then, Medicare for All can legitimately be described as a government takeover of health care.

    Although Jayapal's plan would allow for the creation of a secondary market for supplementary coverage in addition to the government-run plan and direct cash payments to doctors, the market for the private health coverage that tens of millions of Americans currently have would be eliminated. Employers and insurers would be prohibited by law from providing the same benefits as the the government plan, a prohibition that goes further than some other countries with national health care systems. Private insurance as we know it today would be illegal.

    Will the GOP's arguments against M4A be crippled due to its previous wolf-crying?


  • At National Review, Kevin D. Williamson asks the question on which we all ponder now and again: Harris, Ocasio-Cortez, Reich: Dumb or Dishonest?.

    Senator Kamala Harris, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Robert Reich — Democrats are truly testing our prowess in 2019’s championship round of that peerless political parlor game, “Dumb or Dishonest?”

    We don’t play that game when it comes to the great blithering demos at the center of our democracy, because we already know the answer: stone-cold stupid. The American voter bears out the wisdom of the managerial proverb: “None of us is as dumb as all of us.” At the moment, voters are cheesed off because they got a tax cut and because the federal government acted, for once, with uncharacteristic directness and speed.

    When the Republican tax bill lowered taxes for the great majority of taxpayers — all but about 4 million, as the hilariously named Government Accountability Office runs the numbers — the IRS got a move on and changed the withholding schedules. As a result of which, the people who got a tax cut got a tax cut right then, their paychecks getting a little bigger as Uncle Stupid skimmed off a little less.

    You can see where this is going.

    Yes indeed. But if you'd like to follow the tale to the end, click on through and RTWT.


  • The UNH Survey Center has issued the results of its latest polling. The abstract:

    Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden are the current favorites in the 2020 New Hampshire Democratic Presidential Primary, with Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren trailing. However, most voters are still trying to decide whom to support. Among Democratic candidates, primary voters believe Biden is most likeable, has the right experience, and has the best chance to win the general election, while Sanders is seen as the most progressive. Just over two-thirds of Republican primary voters would vote for Donald Trump if the primary were held today, while one in six would vote for John Kasich and very few would support William Weld.

    Disclaimer: the Survey Center isn't particularly accurate in its predictions even when they poll a few days before an election. Nearly a year ahead of time? Probably meaningless.


  • And the wicked, wicked Babylon Bee marks the latest tweet from Everyone Who's Never Read A History Book Shocked As Socialist Turns Into Authoritarian At First Whiff Of Power. Specifically:

    Comments the Bee:

    After a recently elected democratic socialist politician suddenly began using authoritarian, elitist-sounding language mere weeks after getting her first whiff of power, every single person in the country who's never read a history book expressed their shock and surprise at the sudden transformation.

    The woman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, tweeted "We're in charge" in the context of a proposed sweeping government takeover of the economy, saying her critics who haven't proposed an alternative were "shouting from the cheap seats." She also declared "I'm the boss, how about that?" in a recent video interview. The statements shocked certain groups of people across the country, namely, those who haven't been in the same room as a history book anytime in the past few decades.

    We're just one election away from the Road to Serfdom.


Last Modified 2024-01-24 6:35 AM EDT