Kamala Harris has two cards. And she plays them all the time.


	During her failed presidential campaign, she repeatedly accused opponents, include Biden, and voters who didn't support her,&nbsp;of racism and sexism.


	Embracing the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade and restoring the abortion question to the states, Kamala is playing the same old tune. <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/02/politics/kamala-harris-essence-festival/index.html">Only worse</a>.

<blockquote>
	
		Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday drew a connection between&nbsp;the Supreme Court&nbsp;overturning the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling to the legacy of the US government “trying to claim ownership over human bodies” during an appearance at the Essence Festival in New Orleans.
</blockquote>


	Comparing abortion laws to slavery at a black event is really something even for Kamala.


	There's room to make the comparison largely because in both cases the government, in response to vocal lobbying from interested groups, decided that a certain group of human beings had no rights and could be harmed with no recourse.


	The legal analogy between babies and slaves is fairly obvious.


	Kamala however is trying to argue that limiting the right of people to kill their babies is the government&nbsp;“trying to claim ownership over human bodies”.


	Mind you, this is coming from the same administration that decided to&nbsp;“claim ownership over human bodies” by demanding that millions of people take a vaccine.

Kamala Harris Compares Abortion Rules to Slavery

Kamala Harris has two cards. And she plays them all the time.


	During her failed presidential campaign, she repeatedly accused opponents, include Biden,

Kamala Harris Compares Abortion Rules to Slavery

Mask mania is back just in time for beach weather. Grab your swimsuit and your N95. Or at least if the CDC<a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2022-07-01/cdc-recommends-a-third-of-americans-wear-masks-ahead-of-holiday-weekend"> has its way</a>.

<blockquote>
	
		The percentage of Americans who should be wearing a mask indoors in public spaces or considering the measure is increasing as the country heads into the holiday weekend.

	
		According to&nbsp;data&nbsp;from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 33% of Americans should be masking while indoors and an additional 36% should be considering the measure based on their risk for severe&nbsp;COVID-19&nbsp;as of Thursday.
</blockquote>


	We are talking about millions of people.&nbsp;


	The CDC's hit list includes Alameda, Monterey and San Francisco County. Along with much of Oregon. San Diego, Los Angeles, and Orange County are up to medium level and potentially next on the mask parade.


	That covers a bunch of major population centers on the west coast.


	6 Washington counties are on the list. And <a href="https://www.wtvr.com/news/coronavirus/cdc-covid-community-levels-june-23-2022-where-masks-are-recommended-virginia">17 Virginia counties</a>.

<blockquote>
	
		Seventeen localities in Virginia rank as high where masking indoors is recommended by the CDC. That includes Colonial Heights, Dinwiddie, Henrico, Hopewell and Petersburg.

	
		Sixty-three localities in the Commonwealth now rank as medium, including much of Central Virginia.
</blockquote>


	And a nice<a href="https://www.wboy.com/news/health/coronavirus/cdc-recommends-more-north-central-wv-counties-mask/"> chunk of West Virginia</a>.

<blockquote>
	
		&nbsp;The CDC updated its mask recommendations this week to include more north central West Virginia counties.

	
		Last week, the CDC recommended residents of 13 West Virginia counties wear masks. This week, it’s recommending residents of 16 counties do so:
</blockquote>


	The question is will anyone care?


	Most of the goodwill has been exhausted and people have been happy to get back to normal. That's a majority. But vocal minorities are happy to bring back the mask culture wars. And all the ugliness and virtue signaling that comes with it.&nbsp;

CDC Tells Millions of Americans to Mask Again. Will Anyone Listen?

Mask mania is back just in time for beach weather. Grab your swimsuit and your N95. Or at least if the CDC has its way.


	
		The percentage of Americans

CDC Tells Millions of Americans to Mask Again. Will Anyone Listen?

The official story is that Hunter Biden may have been smoking crack and soliciting half the world's oligarchs, including those in Communist China, but there was no government angle to it.


	Somehow all that money was being thrown at a crackhead due to his native talents, not who his father was.


	The 'firewall' between Hunter and Joe Biden has been repeatedly dented by revelations from the laptop.


	And these latest revelations show that Hunter was<a href="https://nypost.com/2022/07/02/hunter-bidens-laptop-had-contacts-for-google-execs-us-officials-for-china-policy/"> actively collecting</a> the information of key US officials in a position to aid his Chinese business interests.

<blockquote>
	
		Hunter Biden’s hard drive contained an enviable lineup of contacts for top US officials tasked with overseeing the US-China relationship...
</blockquote>


	The list apparently included...

<blockquote>
	
		Bruce Quinn — who is listed in the hard drive as a “Director for Implementation” at the US Trade Representative office of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan — said he had no idea why he would be among the names in the hard drive.

	
		“I have never met him. I can’t even imagine,” Quinn told The Post. “Back then I used to go to all kinds of conferences and seminars. There is no doubt he could have attended one of the events with me.”

	
		All of the others named as US-China contacts in Hunter’s address book either declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment from The Post. They include:

	
		Thomas Parker, a special advisor to the vice president for national security affairs

	
		Sarah E. Kemp, who served as a commercial counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing

	
		Patrick Mulloy, former commissioner&nbsp;of the United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission
</blockquote>


	If you're going to do business in China, these would be good people to know. But they would also be very good people to know if you're a Chinese company that wants to do business with America or with Americans. And these people would be a whole lot more likely to pay attention to the Veep's son than to some random lawyer.


	&nbsp;

Hunter Biden's Laptop Had Contact Info for US Officials Involved in China Policy

The official story is that Hunter Biden may have been smoking crack and soliciting half the world's oligarchs, including those in Communist China, but there

Hunter Biden's Laptop Had Contact Info for US Officials Involved in China Policy

Insurrection.


	I've said it before, let me say it again, if a judge in any apolitical case were being targeted at his or her home with angry protests and death threats, those responsible would very quickly be in prison and the protests would be shut down by a heavy law enforcement presence.&nbsp;


	This is happening because the Biden administration and its allies, which include Gov. Hogan, refuse to enforce the law.


	At this point we're far past a discussion in "right-wing media". The Supreme Court has directly requested and been turned down by, among others, Gov. Hogan, who <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-asks-maryland-officials-stop-picketing-justices-houses-rcna36460">keeps prattling about</a> "political norms".

<blockquote>
	
		Gail Curley, the&nbsp;Supreme Court’s marshal, has written to the governors of Maryland and Virginia and local officials in suburban Washington, D.C., asking them to enforce state and county laws that prohibit picketing at&nbsp;private homes.&nbsp;&nbsp;

	
		In the letter to Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, she said laws in his state prohibits assembling “with another in a manner that disrupts a person’s right to tranquility in the person’s home,” and provides a penalty of up to 90 days in jail.&nbsp;
</blockquote>


	A "Republican".

<blockquote>
	
		“Since then, protest activity at justices’ homes, as well as threatening activity, has only increased,” Curley said in the letter, with large groups using bullhorns and banging drums.&nbsp;“This is exactly the kind of conduct that Maryland and Montgomery County laws prohibit.”
</blockquote>


	And if right-wing protesters were doing this at Kagan and Sotomayor's homes, there would be action.&nbsp;

<blockquote>
	
		In a letter to Marc Elrich, the executive of Montgomery County, Curley said a separate county law prohibits picketing “in front of or adjacent to any private residence.”&nbsp;She noted that the author of the county ordinance has urged county officials to enforce the law against protesters who gather outside the justices’ homes.

	
		Both letters to the Maryland officials were dated&nbsp;Friday.&nbsp;The marshal also sent letters Saturday to Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, and Jeffrey McKay, chair of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in Northern Virginia, where other justices' live, asking for enforcement of a similar Virginia law.
</blockquote>


	Virginia may or may not enforce the laws on a state level, Gov Hogan and Elrich have made it clear that they won't.

<blockquote>
	
		The response from Maryland officials was lukewarm.&nbsp;In a statement on Saturday, Hogan’s office said the Maryland Attorney General's office has questioned the constitutionality of the state’s anti-picketing law, and noted that the Justice Department has declined to enforce federal laws that would stop the demonstrations.

	
		“In light of the continued refusal by multiple federal entities to act, the governor has directed Maryland state police to further review enforcement options that respect the First Amendment and the Constitution,” said Michael Ricci, Hogan's communications director.
</blockquote>


	The Federal entities in question are under the control of the Biden administration which supports active intimidation of justices. But that has nothing to do with Hogan's refusal to do so.


	The First Amendment does not protect harassing people in their homes. It certainly does not protect intimidating judges in their homes.


	There are laws on the books here. State and local officials are deliberately refusing to enforce them because they support the intimidation.&nbsp;

Gov. Hogan, Officials, Refuse to Enforce Laws to Stop Supreme Court Harassment

Insurrection.


	I've said it before, let me say it again, if a judge in any apolitical case were being targeted at his or her home with angry protests and

Gov. Hogan, Officials, Refuse to Enforce Laws to Stop Supreme Court Harassment

And meanwhile AG Garland and the rest of the Biden administration are actively abetting this leftist insurrection and campaign of<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/dfw/news/the-colony-man-arrested-terroristic-threat-against-supreme-court/"> political terro</a>r.

<blockquote>
	
		&nbsp;20-year-old man from The Colony has been arrested and charged with making terroristic threats against the Supreme Court.

	
		Mikeal Deshawn Archambault tweeted he was going to kill the justices after their decision in the Dobbs case overturning Roe v. Wade last week.

	
		The tweet, since deleted, said: "I'm finna [sic] everyone in the SUPREME COURT with my ak47."
</blockquote>


	Just business as usual.&nbsp;


	These are countless numbers of these and users have repeatedly documented Twitter refusing to even remove them. You can see <a href="https://foxmetronews.com/news/uncle-clarence-twitter-allows-racial-slurs-death-threats-against-scotus-to-fly-hot-and-heavy/">some of them</a> still up.


	&nbsp;


	&nbsp;

Another Day, Another Arrest for Threatening to Kill Supreme Court Justices

And meanwhile AG Garland and the rest of the Biden administration are actively abetting this leftist insurrection and campaign of political terror.

Another Day, Another Arrest for Threatening to Kill Supreme Court Justices

The late, great Angelo Codevilla (RIP), hardly the bombastic Donald J. Trump, <a href="https://amgreatness.com/2021/09/21/angelo-privilege/">offered a dire warning to Americans</a> that the swamp (our ruling class) has pervaded nearly every aspect of American life. Republicans and conservatives in general must take heed or be permanently thrust into a minor party role. A menacing part of swampism is its absence of international borders as <a href="https://americanmind.org/salvo/stakeholder-globalism/">Mike Jones has articulate</a>d, Globalism belongs to a species of liberal thinking that deplores barriers to trade and disapproves strongly of borders…the key articulators of this movement now include not only Silicon Valley but also the military-intelligence complex, NGOs, and non-institutionalized protest groups whose global operations are facilitated by smartphones.”


	Many of us find refuge in blaming our non-compos mentis current President. Sadly, the very system, from top to bottom and regardless of political affiliation, that derailed Donald Trump’s second term as President 45, has gleefully supported and defended Biden as their useful idiot. I have several friends who are never-Trumper Republicans, who I surmise voted against Trump and for Mr. Biden, regardless of his obvious and innumerable failings. Little did they know that the mean-tweeting Orange Man, who never did anything that wasn’t grand, boastful and beautiful, was our last hope against the Swamp becoming preeminent, possibly for our lifetimes.


	When George W. Bush declared war on Afghanistan the evening of 9/11, 2001, one of his first squishy commitments was to hide credible information about our alleged friends, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Qatar, by neglecting to justly implicate them as enablers to Osama bin Laden’s terror strike on American soil. Fast forward twenty years and on 9/11 2021, as Codevilla pointed out before his death,” <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/full-transcript-president-george-bush-speaks-911-memorial/story?id=79959676">Bush would say to our nation</a> about our patriotic American veterans, many of whom had gone to war for him, losing life or limb, “There's little cultural overlap between violent extremists abroad and violent extremists at home. But in their disdain for pluralism, in their disregard of human life, in their determination to defile national symbols, they are children of the same foul spirit, and it is our continuing duty to confront them.” In an effort to virtue signal his presidency, Bushy 43rd’s theoretical allows him to easily separate a religion from its more extreme practitioners, but the preponderance of evidence washing up on America’s shore has beggared his deceit.


	In <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/09/10/1036129645/biden-sept-11-attacks-video-unity">his address on 9/11/21 to the American people</a>, Bush bastardized America’s moral obligation, stating, “We also witnessed the darker forces of human nature: fear and anger, resentment and violence against Muslim Americans, true and faithful followers of a peaceful religion." Can we believe that the many incidences of radical Islamic violence in our own country represent G.W.’s assessment of Islamism as a peaceful religion? <a href="https://leb.fbi.gov/articles/featured-articles/the-evolution-of-terrorism-since-911">Lauren B. O’Brien, an intelligence analyst at the F.B.I.’s Counterterrorism Unit has said tha</a>t, “The United States faces a more diverse, yet no less formidable, terrorist threat than that of 2001.” Examples include but are not limited to the Fort Hood terror attack where Nidal Hasan, a U.S. Army major and psychiatrist, fatally shot 13 people and injured more than 30 others; the terrorist attack that killed 49 people and wounded 53 more in a mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida; a terrorist attack, consisting of a mass shooting and an attempted bombing by Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California…all done in the name of Allah. Our leaders haven’t a clue how to identify radical from peaceful Muslims.


	Most Americans don’t recognize that the rot starts at the top. The Pelosi-Schumer rot. In fact, <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/312605-schumer-trump-being-really-dumb-by-going-after-intelligence-community">Schumer even warned incoming President Trump that it was dumb to take on the intelligence agency wing</a> of the swamp to over Russia’s misinformation attempts to make him lose the election. We now know also about General Milley’s not-so-secret communique to the top CCP general, reassuring him he would call before we attacked China.


	In a tribute to Codevilla, <a href="https://amgreatness.com/2021/09/21/angelo-privilege/">Julie Ponzi</a> points to the long-time Republican foreign policy guru under Nixon and Ford: “Henry Kissinger wrote that America should only fight ‘wars that it could afford to lose’—as if there were really such a thing-- thus blurring important distinctions between war and peace. Intellectually crippled this way, U.S. military forces…have not aimed for victory.”


	In addition to Bush showing his Swamp cards to America, Biden’s ham-handed withdrawal from Afghanistan left behind Americans and our true+ Afghan allies in addition to <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/09/the-taliban-just-received-the-largest-weapons-transfer-in-50-years/">between $10 billion to $90 billion in equipment and arms</a>, which should never have been relinquished to our enemies and for which we will never receive an accurate accounting. The raison d'être for this laissez faire approach is the military-industrial complex (MIC), a vital part of the Swamp, which <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/coronavirus-defense-spending/">since 9/11 has received trillions [with a T] of dollars in government contracts, which they’ve largely used to feather their own nests</a>. Channeling an obvious Biden mentor, Alfred E. Newman, “What, me worry about this equipment and armaments? We can just have our good friends in the MIC sell us more at an even higher price! Come on, man!”


	In addition to the defense industry, the MIC is joined at the hip by our military’s top brass, <a href="https://www.pogo.org/report/2018/11/brass-parachutes/">many of whom go on to work for these defense industry players after retirement</a> making many multiples of the sums they made in the armed services, now working as lobbyists, corporate executives or corporate directors/members/trustees. It is no wonder that so many of them worked against President 45’s reelection given his desire to cease America’s endless war in Afghanistan and bring all the weapons, munitions and equipment home along with Americans and Afghan supporters rather than leaving this cache there for our enemies and need the MIC’s help in replacing the equipment.


	God forbid most Americans learn about these myriad Swamp failures because as <a href="https://amgreatness.com/2021/09/25/times-reveals-fbi-role-in-january-6/">Angela Kelly writes</a>, “Our illustrious fourth branch of government is supposed to keep [all] politicians in line. The mainstream press runs cover for the Left in this country because, for the most part, they are the Left. The media consistently either fails to cover the Left’s scandals, or they quickly move on to hype a less deserving story.”


	As <a href="https://americanmind.org/salvo/deep-state-deep-trouble/">Josiah Lippincott has warned</a>, “This deep state is in control. It is clear that no populist elected leader can trust America’s security establishment. Senator Chuck Schumer warned President Trump on Rachel Maddow’s show in 2017, the intelligence community has “six ways from Sunday of getting back at you…The military establishment is gloating now and flexing its muscle. After the election, outgoing Syria envoy Jim Jeffrey admitted that the Pentagon and State Department had consistently lied to Trump about troop levels in Syria. Before he left office, Trump’s order to have troops out of Afghanistan by January 15 was overruled by the establishment. Trump, far from trying to start a war on his way out of office, sought to end one. As Chinese tech magnate, Jack Ma Yun said recently, “You are under the government’s thumb.” Apparently in America too, Jack!


	We should remember George Orwell’s 1984 alarm, “The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears…freedom is the freedom to say two plus two makes four. If that is granted, all else follows.” The Swamp’s two plus two equalizing whatever they want it to be must not continue to hollow out America! An almighty housecleaning is in order in 2022 and beyond.

It Took Biden to Prove the Swamp is Wide and Deep

The late, great Angelo Codevilla (RIP), hardly the bombastic Donald J. Trump, offered a dire warning to Americans that the swamp (our ruling class) has

Of the myriad things our nation needs, reverse racial discrimination isn’t one of them. Yet race has become our de regueur bright shining lie, just as John Paul Vann wrote about the Vietnam War. Race is presently the most-searched Google term, yielding more than 3.8 billion results. The vast majority of universities around the nation advance Critical Race Theory (CRT). They also produce research and training programs on “how to be non-racist.” These must-have training programs go by names like, “Research Task Force on Understanding and Addressing Blackness and Anti-Black Racism in our Local, National and International Communities.” The casual observer would conclude that the only kind of racism that exists is targeted at black people.


	Anti-White racist (<a name="_Hlk57992810">AWR</a>) training has commenced top-down in our society. For example, all members of the federal government’s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/M-20-34.pdf">Executive Branch have been required to attend anti-racism training</a>. Here they are told that "virtually all white people contribute to racism" or at minimum "benefit from racism." Hard work and luck are disregarded. The same top-down training approach has enveloped corporate America and the academy. But as Thomas Sowell concludes in The Quest for Cosmic [Social] Justice, “Like so much that is done in the quest for cosmic justice, it makes observers feel better about themselves—and provides no incentives for those observers to scrutinize the consequences of their actions on the ostensible beneficiaries. As in other cases, human beings are sacrificed to the tyranny of visions because those sacrificed are not the same as those exhilarated by the vision.”


	One can reasonable ask how this accusatory movement against White racism came about. It is easy to trace the anti-racism movement’s origins back to the theme of “when the servant becomes the master” where the privileged become transposed into serfs and serfs into the privileged. It began ironically around the time America was founded with the birth of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, the progenitor of modern communism--Marxism and Leninism. Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit was known as the slave-master dialectic--when the slave becomes the master. Today’s AWR organizations like BLM, Antifa, Black Visions Collective, Campaign Zero, Justice Collaborative, Justice Coalition and Reclaim the Block are all directed by communist tenets.


	What happens if you are not, nor ever have been a racist? Because you’re white it will be treated as a prevarication, and you, as exercising your mistaken white privilege. If you were against President Obama’s policies, this is prima facie proof of your racism. Mr. Obama certainly encouraged today’s AWR movement. In his new book, The Promised Land, Obama says, “Trump promised an elixir for the racial anxiety of millions of Americans spooked by a black man in the White House.” His support of the racism narrative after the Ferguson shooting of an unarmed black man who had stolen $50 worth of cigarillos from a convenience store, and his close association with Al Sharpton, race-baiter extraordinaire, speaks to his role in sparking the anti-White racism movement. Obama even advanced the now debunked narrative that Michael Brown had yelled to the police, “Hands up, don’t shoot” which was awarded <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2015/12/hands-up-dont-shoot-false-216736">one of the most media 'Pinocchios'</a> of 2015.


	As opinion columnist <a href="https://www.christianpost.com/voices/sorry-but-im-not-buying-obamas-portrait-of-racist-america.html">Michael Brown penned</a> about Obama, “This very eloquent, charismatic, and gifted leader who could have helped unite our nation only divided us further, promoting identity politics and playing the race card… &nbsp;But that is not why more than 70 million Americans voted to elect (or, reelect) Donald Trump. And that’s why Lawrence Jones, himself Black, was right to say, 'I feel like President Obama has started to demonize some of the very people that voted for him… I don't like his demonization...to paint 70 million people as just these cold-blooded racists... when you take the highest office in the land, you're going to receive criticism and you can't just say that it is deeply rooted in race.'”


	David Horowitz, once a <a href="https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/11/david-horowitz-where-we-are-and-what-we-face.php">proud American leftist</a> and now the progenitor of the Horowitz Foundation, FrontPage Magazine, and many more conservative projects, recalls, “The ‘social justice’ radicals still have the best slogans. They call themselves progressives but are actually reactionaries. They call themselves liberals but are actually bigots. They say they’re for peace when they are organized for war. It is always the same war: to bring down the United States of America.” Regarding the left’s accusations of systemic racism, white privilege and police oppression, Horowitz says, “Democrats control 100% of every major inner-city in America and have for 50 to 100 years. Every killing field--Detroit, Chicago, Baltimore, St. Louis--is 100% in the hands of the Democrats. Every injustice in these inner cities– real or imagined--that policy can affect, Democrats are 100% responsible for.” And now we have them calling the shots for our country’s racial intersections.


	The Anti-Racism Vocation


	Robin DiAngelo, a white woman, took the nascent “Only Whites Can Be Racist” movement and brought it crashing into to the mainstream with her book, White Fragility. She began her career as a university professor but has now followed the money, becoming a diversity consultant. Black scholar John McWhorter argues, “White Fragility was published in 2018 but jumped to the top of the New York Times best-seller list amid the protests following the death of George Floyd and the ensuing national reckoning about racism. DiAngelo has convinced university administrators, corporate human-resources offices, and no small part of the reading public that white Americans must embark on a self-critical project of looking inward to examine and work against racist biases that many have barely known they had...I have learned that one of America’s favorite advice books of the moment is actually a racist tract.” Could this actually be true of the entire Diversity, Equity &amp; Inclusion (DEI) industry?


	DeAngelo believes the impulse to individualize is in itself White privilege--a method for playing down the societal racism all white people have assimilated. For a price, these authorities are there help you repent for your sins. They offer working documents and experiential resources to facilitate white folks’ emancipation to become allies for anti-racism and belatedly the communist ideology undergirding it. But there are several assumptive problems with these anti-White racism programs.


	First, such programs assume the guilt, not innocence, of White people. Americans are all granted, white people included, through a Supreme Court decision in Coffin v. United States, 156 U.S. 432 (1895) the presumption of innocence of persons accused of crimes. Yet you can now lose your job, fail to get promoted, be placed on probation, and uninvited to important social gatherings because of accused racism. Since employees are urged to attend anti-White racism training based solely on the color of their skin, that may also be racist. Persons of color need not participate.


	Second, trying to prove a negative is a logical impossibility. It won’t stand up in jurisprudential court and if it is the cornerstone of an ideologically-motivated social program, that program is falsely premised, on fallow land. CoEqual, formerly Center for Talent Innovation released a statement saying, “White cis straight men hold the majority of power in corporate America and in our society. If we want equitable workplaces, we need them to be involved and engaged in DEI action.” Much of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/06/13/after-years-marginalizing-black-employees-customers-corporate-america-says-black-lives-matter/?arc404=true">corporate America is falling all over itself</a> trying to demonstrate its anti-racism bona fides. Whether it impresses customers or shareholders remains to be seen. <a href="https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/09/corporate-america-wants-you-believe-its-virtue-lloyd-pettegrew/">Elsewhere I have opined</a> that such behavior bears no real product or service value and is simply corporate virtue-signaling by those in charge.


	Third, it is important to distinguish charges of White racism from disparate outcomes. Thomas Sowell has written eloquently on this subject in his Discrimination and Disparities, “No one who looks at the facts of life can look very far without encountering not only extreme disparities in outcomes but also the pervasive reality of luck…wholly fortuitous factors, from the standpoint of the individual, can have a major influence on how one’s life turns out.” The anti-White Racist movement has never been able to identify a societal issue (except anti-White racism) that was not worthy of repute.


	Assuming Something Is Really Broken, How Not to Fix It


	Perhaps the most lucrative consulting gig is to offer AWR training to employees. An example of the reach and influence of this leftist doctrine can be seen by the depth and breadth of its reach. For example, the Florida Supreme Court established in 2008 a Standing Committee on Fairness and Diversity. This included continuing racial indoctrination programs for attorneys like “Recognizing and Eliminating Bias from Court Operations”; one of its chapters is titled “Institutionalizing Fairness and Diversity.” This example is mirrored nationwide. The unproven assumption for which there is little if any empirical evidence is that there is strong racial bias in our state and federal legal system against, not for, defendants of color. As Kenneth L. Marcus urged in the Wall Street Journal, “The focus should be on invidious discrimination, not statistical disparities and social change…The problem with much of today’s antiracism is that it doesn’t really oppose invidious discrimination and may even foment it.” This is because those <a href="https://www.independent.org/news/article.asp?id=13318&amp;omhide=true">researchers allow their passion and/or ideology to create</a> what is termed a “demand characteristic” in the study design—wherever they look AWR will appear. <a href="https://www.independent.org/news/article.asp?id=13318&amp;omhide=true">Gary M. Galles analyzes</a> much of this research concluding, “these studies employed sleight of hand to characterize conservatives as condoning inequality while implying that others do not.”


	On September 22, 2020 President Trump issued an <a href="https://www.snopes.com/news/2020/09/24/trump-diversity-training/">executive order</a> halting the use of CRT in federal training programs and in one chorus he was condemned by everyone to the left of Mitt Romney.


	The origin of AWR is viewed by progressives as white people’s original sin. This argument embeds into White consciousness that most black people are the same, facing impossible barriers, wounded and perpetually oppressed. It is what Peter DeWitt terms the <a href="http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/finding_common_ground/2012/02/the_stigma_of_low_expectations.html">stigma of low expectations</a>. The fact that there is abundant evidence of black success across America, including electing a mixed-race President, either means AWR wasn’t powerful enough to keep these individuals down or it is useful political fiction used to give them moral high ground. 
	 
	Loyd Pettegrew is a Professor Emeritus of Marketing Communication at the University of South Florida.

White Makes Us All Wrong

Of the myriad things our nation needs, reverse racial discrimination isn’t one of them. Yet race has become our de regueur bright shining lie, just as John

Many academics of the libertarian or conservative bent have learned from experience that it is better to keep one’s thoughts and voice to oneself. We self-sensor reluctantly and only out of necessity. In these troubled academic times rank no longer has its privileges regarding first Amendment rights on campus. Failure to follow publicly the progressive academic orthodoxy can bring one trouble in the form of being canceled.


	Before canceling became de rigueur on campus and throughout the academy, opposition was largely confined to voicing opinions in the academic public square. With the rise in the popularity and power of neo-Marxism, canceling has become the new academic armament. Neo-Marxism emanated from Marxist theory in the 1970’s and 80’s as a framework for explaining the repressive functions of the capitalist state; its adherents could be found in political science, philosophy and public policy. Fifty years later it has birthed young scholars from economics to medicine and the STEM subjects, who think nothing of censoring or discarding people and texts they find objectionable.


	The Neo-Marxist cancel culture has been most readily demonstrated in the violent protests against visiting campus speakers like Charles Murray, Christina Hoff Summers, Ben Shapiro, Heather Mac Donald and <a href="https://www.thecollegefix.com/11-times-campus-speakers-were-shouted-down-by-leftist-protesters-this-school-year/">myriad others</a>. Even in academic meetings like the American Political Science Association, U.C. Berkeley Law Prof. John Yoo, who had served in the George Bush Justice Department, was disrupted while speaking. As contradictory as it may seem, even an ACLU executive was prevented from speaking at two different university gatherings.


	Less apparent is that the academy is not just banning free speech, but also written expression. Some of you may be familiar with Bruce Gilley, Professor of Political Science at Portland State University and a member of the Board of the National Association of Scholars. His academic work is erudite and compelling, teaching evaluations are excellent and the fact that he is a tenured full professor means that his university and departmental colleagues honor and respect his academic work.


	Sadly, the academy can’t stop eradicating his important scholarship in a most rapacious way. A brief history will explain. On September 8, 2017 an article by Gilley, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2017.1369037">“The Case for Colonialism,”</a> was published in the academic journal, Third World Quarterly. The article was very well researched, written and documented; I found it enlightening as I think most of you would as well! He begins his article by saying, “For the last 100 years, Western colonialism has had a bad name. Colonialism has virtually disappeared from international affairs, and there is no easier way to discredit a political idea or opponent than to raise the cry of ‘colonialism’.”


	Within days of the journal issue’s release, there was harassment and even death threats by academics across the country crying “colonialism” against the journal’s editorial members and, of course, Gilley himself. To stem the threatened violence, the editor, with Gilley’s approval, withdrew the article.


	The crime Gilley committed against the academy was providing a compelling case with evidence that many countries including Hong Kong and India actually prospered under western colonialism and would have been much worse off without it. In fairness, he also details corrupt colonization efforts like Spain’s efforts in the Americas as exploiting the natural resources and its people that were much worst off for it. He ends with a thought experiment to help make his case:


	“Suppose that the government of Guinea-Bissau [a poor African nation] were to lease back to Portugal the small uninhabited island of Galinhas that lies 10 miles off the mainland and where the former colonial governor’s mansion lies in ruins. The annual lease would be US$1 so that the Portuguese spend their money on the island and the Guinea-Bissau government is not dependent on a lease fee. Suppose, then, that the US$10 million to US$20 million in foreign aid wasted annually on the country were redirected to this new offshore colony to create basic infrastructure. As part of the deal, the Portuguese would allow a certain number of Guinea-Bissau residents to resettle on the island each year. Portuguese institutions and sovereignty would be absolute here for the term of the lease – say 99 years, as was the case with the mainland parts of Hong Kong. A small European state would grow up on the African coast. At 60 square miles, Galinhas could, over time, easily accommodate the entire population of Guinea-Bissau. If successful, it would attract talent, trade and capital. The mainland parts of Guinea-Bissau would benefit from living next to an economic dynamo and learning to emulate its success, while symbolically escaping from the half-century anti-colonial nightmare of Amilcar Cabral. The same idea could be tried all over the coastlines of Africa and the Middle East if successful. Colonialism could be resurrected without the usual cries of oppression, occupation, and exploitation.”


	Only an ideologue of the neo-Marxist bent would argue against impoverished, third-world nations benefiting from benign efforts of this ilk. But in the academy, one only need to utter the word “colonialism”, and reason, the exchange of ideas and debate exit stage left.


	One would hope that academic publishers, a capitalistic enterprise aiming to sell as many books to as many people as possible, would consider in an enlightened way, a book series on the subject of colonialism. Last Monday, Lexington Books, the academic imprint of publisher Rowman &amp; Littlefield, canceled&nbsp;Gilley’s new biography, The Last Imperialist: Sir Alan Burns’ Epic Defense of British Empire, just two weeks before the book was scheduled to ship. The book had already passed peer review with Lexington Books in December and received rave reviews, especially from two of the scholarly giants in the field of colonial history and was in pre-sales.


	The new book series Problems of Anti-Colonialism, with Gilley as co-editor, of which Gilly’s The Last Imperialist was the first offering, was also canceled. The book series too had undergone successfully a thorough peer review process. Its aim is to reignite debate through a critical examination of the anti-colonial, decolonializing, and post-colonial projects and weigh better these various viewpoints and encourage anti-establishmentarian responses to the cancel culture wave sweeping academe. As Bruce Gilley has argued, “The overwhelmingly left-wing makeup of university faculties, combined with the rise of ideologically driven university bureaucracies, has destroyed the freedom necessary for the liberal arts and scientific inquiry.” It turns out that professors are only part of the problem; we now have a national cadre of academic administrators who are tone deaf to the need for First Amendment rights and viewpoint diversity at their respective universities. As Warren Treadgold, Professor of Humanities &amp;&nbsp; Byzantine studies <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/weekly-standard/the-roots-of-campus-leftism">has argued</a>, “Campus leftism has been much less concerned with helping the supposedly oppressed than with demonizing the supposed oppressors.”


	As an academic for 42 years, I too have seen and <a href="https://townhall.com/columnists/loydpettegrew/2020/09/21/academias-diversity-equity--inclusion-trifecta-threatens-us-all-n2576513">written about</a> the demise of freedom of speech and thought in America’s universities. I sadly agree with Bruce Gilley that the academy has been commandeered by leftist political interests, and can only be made whole through the exercise of political power against this novel academic censorship.


	Loyd Pettegrew is a Professor Emeritus of Marketing Communication at the University of South Florida.

Cancel Culture Spells the Demise of Academic Freedom

Many academics of the libertarian or conservative bent have learned from experience that it is better to keep one’s thoughts and voice to oneself. We self-

The gold standard of persuasion as a field of inquiry was presented by Aristotle in 335–322 BCE in his treatise, Rhetoric. In it he defines rhetoric as “the use of all the available means of persuasion.” Aristotle insists that human beings have a predilection to migrate toward truth and mostly arrive at truth on their own.


	In America and around the world today, social justice has become an ever-present rhetorical enterprise. There was very little in last week’s DNC convention that was not framed in a social justice mantel. The careful observer comes to realize that social justice is a term of assumed meaning and most frequently defined by what it is not—negation—instead of what it is or should be. This is why Thomas Sowell gave it a more accurate moniker—“cosmic justice” in his book, The Quest for Cosmic Justice.


	Evan Sayet’s new book, <a href="https://evansayet.com/the-woke-supremacy-an-anti-socialist-manifesto/">The Woke Supremacy: An Anti-Socialist Manifesto</a>, doubles down on the idea that being “Woke” and ridding America of discriminating rational thought is somehow the way to end our nation’s inequities. Corporate America is making a diligent effort to join the ranks of wokedom.


	Where once corporate America ignored such demagoguery, it seems a groundswell of change is now underway. For example, Chick-fil-A CEO <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chick-fil-a-ceo-criticized-shinin-black-mans-shoes-repent-2020-6">Dan Cathy recently shined the shoes of a Black rapper</a> on stage to make a point about fighting racism and repenting. This comes after Cathy was disparaged in the media in 2017 for stating his religious belief that marriage should be between a man and a woman. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. Many of his customers are now less than impressed.


	Like many of you, I have noticed over the past year that the vast majority of TV ads have become conspicuously inclusive. This year’s <a href="https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045219">U.S. Census</a> reveals that African Americans only comprise 13.4% of America’s population, but my informal survey indicates that about 60% of national ads feature black actors. Hispanics constitute 18.5% of the population but inhabit 35% of the TV ads surveyed. Asians are now 5.9% of America’s population and are featured in about 20% of TV ads. The <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2018/07/interracial-marriages.html">U.S. Census also indicates</a> only 10.2% of married couples in America are interracial, yet 39% of TV ads now display them.


	While I applaud this equal opportunity tip of the hat to minority actors, like many of you, I wonder why this overrepresentation of minorities in national product advertising is taking place. What actually is corporate America trying to accomplish? The straightforward answer is virtue-signaling, but does that even work? Kenneth L. Marcus, formed Assistant U.S. Secretary of Education for Civil Rights believes it doesn’t and may even make matters worse, “In today’s socialist [Black Lives Matter] movement, it is hate for a fictionalized version of America created by the socialist powers that be, in the universities, media, and elsewhere, that gives the Democratic Socialist’s life meaning and the Woke their only link to their fellow human beings…The new antiracism requires that we take our eyes off what antidiscrimination work is all about—combating invidious discrimination—and focus instead on social outcomes that arise in the absence of racial preferences. The primary focus of antidiscrimination, however, must be on [race-based] -mistreatment of individuals.”


	In our cancel culture running rampant in this election season, there is reason for corporations to fear the Twitter mobs who rejoice in putting people, products and companies on the hot seat for allegedly “racist,” exclusionary and other un-woke practices. As we have seen, the MSM indiscriminately promote and defend woke corporations in what they see as a war against freedom of conservative speech and ideology. They have&nbsp;zero tolerance if you don’t think and act in the way they advocate.


	Nike, the company that revolutionized running shoes in Oregon also lionized Colin Kaepernick’s taking a knee during our National Anthem, with a long and continuing activist history. Gino Fisanotti, Vice President for North American branding says, "We believe Colin is one of the most inspirational athletes of this generation, who has leveraged the power of sport to help move the world forward." The fact that many Americans and customers don’t support Nike’s activism has no impact or their corporate behavior.


	A <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/sports/wp/2018/05/23/poll-53-percent-of-americans-say-its-never-appropriate-to-kneel-during-the-national-anthem/">2018 Washington Post/Kaiser Family Foundation poll</a> showed that more than half of Americans said it was never appropriate to take a knee during our national anthem; 86% of Republicans said it’s never appropriate as a form of protest, 51% of independents and 29% of Democrats were against this woke gesture. After the infamous ad premiered, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/04/nike-shares-tumble-after-company-reveals-new-ad-campaign-featuring-colin-kaepernick.html">Nike’s stock dropped 3.1%</a> but <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90399316/one-year-later-what-did-we-learn-from-nikes-blockbuster-colin-kaepernick-ad">Phil Knight said</a>, “It doesn’t matter how many people hate your brand as long as enough people love it, and as long as you have that attitude, you can’t be afraid of offending people...which is ultimately I think why the Kaepernick ad worked.” But for whom? Even with new President &amp; CEO, John Donahoe, Nike’s activism has continued. An <a href="https://s1.q4cdn.com/806093406/files/doc_downloads/2020/2019-Contribution-Report-for-Web.pdf">audit of Nike’s 2019 philanthropy shows</a> it donated $108,500 (83%) to progressive politicians and causes, but $23,000 (17%) to conservative politicians. The <a href="https://www.fleetfeet.com/running-shoe-buyers-guide/best-brands">Fleet Feet</a> website lists the best-selling running shoe brands in 2020. Nike resides in fifth place behind Brooks, ASICS, Hoka and New Balance.


	<a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/goodyears-response-to-anti-trump-anti-police-controversy-sparks-even-more-criticism">Goodyear has also recently snubbed conservatives</a> with a policy supporting the Marxist-inspired Black Lives Matter slogan while denying employee rights to express “Blue Lives Matter” and their right to wear MAGA hats at work. Their policy reads in part, “Goodyear has zero tolerance for any forms of harassment or discrimination. To enable a work environment free of those, we ask that associates refrain from workplace expressions in support of political campaigning for any candidate or political party, as well as similar forms of advocacy that fall outside the scope of racial justice and equity issues.” For Goodyear, BLM is apparently not a form of political advocacy. Social justice, whatever that means to Goodyear, is most commonly defined as simply an absence of disparities and inequalities, is legitimate while making and keeping America great is illegitimate? By early June, 2020, <a href="https://www.blackenterprise.com/black-lives-matter-corporate-america-has-pledged-1-678-billion-so-far/">corporate America had donated an astonishing $1.68 billion dollars to BLM</a> and this number continues to increase


	Breitbart released a list of corporate virtue signalers including:


	•&nbsp; Facebook, donating $10 million to groups fighting racial inequality, Peloton donating $500,000 to the NAACP’s legal defense fund.


	•&nbsp; Peloton CEO John Foley signaled its users that “Black lives matter. This week, what’s become clear to me is we must ensure this is an anti-racist organization.


	•&nbsp; Snap CEO Evan Spiegel told employees in a memo that he’s “heartbroken and enraged by the treatment of black people and people of color in America.” He criticized the United States for so-called racial and wealth inequality and called for a progressive income tax system and higher taxes on the wealthy.


	•&nbsp; Intel CEO Bob Swan wrote to employees saying, “Black lives matter. Period” and is pledging $1 million to “community organizations focused on social injustice.”


	•&nbsp; Netflix announced, “We have a platform, and we have a duty to our Black members, employees, creators and talent to speak up.”


	•&nbsp; Not to be outdone, Levi Strauss announced it was donating $100,000 to the American Civil Liberties Union.


	•&nbsp; Verizon also announced it was donating a total of $10 million to a variety of social justice organizations, including the National Urban League and the NAACP.”


	Thomas Sowell warns that social justice is really cosmic justice and that while its proponents never bear “the costs of social justice and how those costs change the very nature of justice itself, no one should be happy with cosmic [social] injustices. The real questions are: 1) What can be done about them—and at what cost; 2) What should we do collectively about them—and how much should be left up to individuals themselves?”


	Fewer U.S. corporations are resisting becoming so cavalier with their consumer reputation and brand image by eschewing being woke in favor of being successful in the marketplace. From 1987-2002 I served as a board member of the Arthur W. Page Society, an organization whose members included CCO’s of corporations like AT&amp;T, General Electric, Johnson &amp; Johnson, and premier PR firms like Burson &amp; Marsteller. The Page Principles advise companies, among other things, to: 1) Tell the truth; 2) Prove it with action; 3) Listen to stakeholders; 4) Realize an enterprise's true character is expressed by its people. This advice was instrumental in pulling AT&amp;T through the breakup of the Bell System and Johnson &amp; Johnson through two successive Tylenol poisoning crises without denigrating their corporate reputations and products with consumers. America’s corporations have changed radically, now supporting very leftist ideas in hopes that the cancel culture will leave them alone. Chick-fil-A, Nike and many other woke corporations would now be wise to pay closer attention to their consumers and leave their virtue-signaling to the academy and DNC.


	Since President Trump was elected, America has become a cornucopia of social justice warriors advocating prompt actions; yet none have added one iota more social justice to America. Instead they have caused grief and hardship to the victims of social justice violence and destruction, and schooled America on how to break its laws and threaten its citizens. Sowell warns us that “Justice at all costs is not justice;” social justice can’t be achieved through social injustice.


	Loyd Pettegrew is a Professor Emeritus in Organizational Communication at the University off South Florida. He received an interdisciplinary doctorate in Communication and Psychology from the University of Michigan.

Corporate America Wants You to Believe Its Virtue-Signaling

The gold standard of persuasion as a field of inquiry was presented by Aristotle in 335–322 BCE in his treatise, Rhetoric. In it he defines rhetoric as “the

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