90 Miles From Tyranny

Monday, October 24, 2022

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Visage à trois #551

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Quick Hits Of Wisdom, Knowledge And Snark #731

DOD Is Forging A Woke K-12 Army With Race And Sex Indoctrination In Military Schools

Shocking brainwashing of military kids is taking place at overseas schools managed by the Department of Defense Education Activity.

The Pentagon’s investigation into the U.S. military in 2021 found about 100 individuals engaged in extremist activities out of a force of 2 million. It appears investigators were looking in the wrong place. The search for extremists might have yielded better results had they examined the Department of Defense Education Activity (DODEA), the government agency that administers K-12 education to the children of military personnel.

The Claremont Institute’s recently released report “Grooming Future Revolutionaries” describes shocking indoctrination taking place at overseas schools. It is a must-read, especially for military parents of the nearly 70,000 children in these schools.

I am a military spouse and the mother of a former DODEA student. The particular teacher training that was the focus of Claremont’s report is the reason, in part, why I lost all trust in the system.

In May 2021, I saw that DODEA would be holding an “Equity and Access Summit” for teachers and administrators. Knowing that “equity” means different things to different people, I wanted to get a sense of what it meant at DODEA. When I managed to gain access to the recordings, I was absolutely floored by what I saw and heard.

As the Claremont report shows, the summit featured hours of teacher training steeped in critical race and gender identity theories.

Claremont released a video of summit clips in which a principal talks about a student who felt like he’d done something wrong because he’s a “young, white male.” The teacher said she didn’t know what to tell him — but she seemed pleased with the breakthrough. Perhaps she was just following the lead of DODEA’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) chief Kelisa Wing, who is currently under investigation by DOD for a history of disparaging comments toward white people.

Video Evidence of Teachers Pushing CRT

The report also highlights literature teacher Gregory DeJardin’s presentation called “Combating 1- Sided Narratives (Decolonize the Curriculum).” DeJardin insists teachers become social activists and interviewed several students in his class at Vicenza High School in Italy about their difficulties with “majority culture.” It was painfully apparent in their answers that they were parroting his dogma, as one student said: “[School] is getting better about being more diverse and not taking a very normative perspective but there are definitely issues and I feel like it is still incredibly skewed to the white, male, heterosexual and Protestant gaze.”

Betty Roberts, an educator at Robinson Barracks Elementary School in Germany, talked about critical literacy. She wants her students to look deeply into textbook versions of events to find hidden biases. She asks her students questions like: “Is the American Revolution still being fought today?” She presses further and asks if the American Revolution was just a “transition from one group of rich white men to another group of rich white men.” Roberts goes on to express her gratefulness to the teachers’ union for its training on white fragility because she recognized her need for cultural humility.
Normalizing Transgenderism

Aside from the relentless instruction on anti-racism and white privilege, a clear effort was underway to normalize transgender identities and the notion of a gender spectrum. Genevieve Chavez and Lindsey Bagnaschi, presenters of “Ally 101 — Creating an Inclusive Classroom for LGBTQ+ Students,” talked about gender transitions they have facilitated for students at their schools in Spain and Germany, respectively — sometimes without...

Comment comes after Blinken says Beijing is pursuing reunification on 'much faster timeline.'

Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Michael Gilday, shown in this file photo, said, “When we talk about the 2027 window, in my mind, that has to be a 2022 window or potentially a 2023 window; I can’t rule it out.”

Beijing could invade Taiwan as early as this year or next, the chief of U.S. naval operations said at a forum in Washington on Wednesday. The comments came days after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Beijing was pursuing reunification with the island “on a much faster timeline.”

Adm. Mike Gilday, the chief of naval operations, told an Atlantic Council event that his assessment was based not just on speeches by Chinese President Xi Jinping but “how the Chinese behave and what they do.”

“What we’ve seen over the past 20 years is that they have delivered on every promise they’ve made earlier than they said they were going to deliver on it,” Gilday said. “When we talk about the 2027 window, in my mind, that has to be a 2022 window or potentially a 2023 window; I can’t rule it out.”

Last year, the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command chief, Adm. Phil Davidson, told Congress that China was pursuing the military ability to invade Taiwan by 2027.

“I don’t mean at all to be alarmist by saying that,” Gilday said of his more imminent timeline, “it’s just that we can’t wish that away.”

Gilday is not the only American official to warn of a more immediate invasion of the democratically governed island than previously expected. Blinken on Monday said he believed there had been “a change in approach” by Beijing, which he said was no longer prepared to accept Taiwan’s self-government.

“Instead of sticking with the status quo that was established in a positive way, a fundamental decision [was made] that the status quo was no longer acceptable and that Beijing was determined to pursue reunification on a much faster timeline,” Blinken said.

For their part, Chinese officials have done little to quell concerns of an invasion of Taiwan, even as they have provided little indication of a possible timeline.

On Saturday, Xi used a speech at the 20th Communist Party National Congress to vow Beijing would “never promise to renounce the use of force” to reunify with Taiwan, threatening to use “all measures necessary” to...

Visage à trois #550

Three Videos For Your Viewing Pleasure:

Three Additional Bonus Videos:

Quick Hits Of Wisdom, Knowledge And Snark #729

GOP Gives Dire Warning to IRS Caught Red-Handed Destroying Documents; Millions of Americans Affected

GOP lawmakers have issued a stark warning to the IRS over their handling of millions of taxpayer filings during the first few months of the Biden administration.

Republicans are threatening the agency with increased oversight due to their apparent unwillingness to explain the destruction of 30 million “information returns” in 2021.

According to Fox Business, these returns must be filed by small businesses and other such organizations to inform the IRS of their transactions.

At the time, the agency claimed that “software limitations” hindered their ability to process those returns, so they decided to simply destroy them.

These supposed “limitations” provided a rationale for a larger budget for the agency from Congress, to the tune of $80 billion.

Treasury secretary Janet Yellen claimed that the new and improved budget will help the IRS modernize its technology, Fox Business reported.

Republicans on Capitol Hill were not content with the IRS’ explanation and have demanded more information as to why the returns, which require a lot of time and expense to file, were destroyed.

GOP requests for such a report have been met with a flat refusal.

GOP members of the House Ways and Means Committee wrote a letter this week to IRS commissioner Charles Rettig demanding answers, Fox Business, reported.

The letter, co-signed by Reps. Kevin Brady of Texas and Tom Rice of South Carolina, said, “The Administration’s refusal to respond to the Committee, engage in a substantive discussion with staff about the request, and ultimately deny access to the decision memorandum obstructs the Congress’ important role to conduct oversight.”

Republicans argue that the lack of transparency on the issue raises red flags.

In May, the IRS told lawmakers that releasing such a memo would result in a “significant risk to the agency,” Fox reported.

Republicans aren’t buying it. “This blanket refusal from the IRS based on a perceived risk to the agency is unacceptable,” Brady and Rice wrote. “Congressional oversight does not stop whenever the executive branch identifies a perceived risk.”

“The decision to destroy information returns diligently prepared by millions of American taxpayers is ripe for congressional oversight.”

This latest instance of GOP ire toward the IRS is one in a long line of grievances.

GOP lawmakers have heavily resisted the agency’s efforts to monitor the bank accounts of citizens under the...