06/2/16

How to Make America Great Again

By: Cliff Kincaid | Accuracy in Media

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It is sign of the times that when people are told that Harvard was founded by a Puritan minister and dedicated to Christ and His Church, most react by wondering if this can actually be true. The reaction is evidence that Cultural Marxism has almost succeeded in eradicating the facts about the Christian roots of American education.

During her 2016 commencement address, however, Harvard President Drew Faust referred to gathering near Harvard’s Memorial Church, one of those “enduring symbols of Harvard’s larger identity and purposes, testaments to what universities do and believe at a time when we have never needed them more.” She added, “And much is at stake, for us and for the world.”

This was an extraordinary statement of historical accuracy. What’s more, she went on to tell the graduates that values should be a major influence in their daily lives.

She said, “For this morning’s ceremony I wore the traditional Harvard presidential robe—styled on the garment of a Puritan minister and reminding us of Harvard’s origins. Values were an integral part of the defining purpose of the early years of Harvard College, created to educate a learned ministry.”

It’s rarely mentioned these days, but the official website declares that “Memorial Church of Harvard University is a space of grace in the center of the Yard, rooted in the good news of Jesus Christ.” In fact, Harvard itself was rooted in that good news.

The real history of Harvard and other colleges is seldom mentioned in the new, modern, and secular America that we have today. But I went to my bookshelf for a copy of Vaughn Shatzer’s 1999 book, History of American Education, which tells the almost forgotten story of how Harvard and other colleges, including Princeton, Yale, William and Mary, Rutgers, and even Columbia, were based on a Christian worldview.

The facts in this small, 127-page book are not only important but politically relevant today, as Shatzer devotes a section to Hillary Rodham Clinton’s involvement in the federal takeover of America’s schools. That effort today is known as Common Core.

Going back in history, Shatzer writes, “Many of our Founding Fathers such as John Adams, John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and Fisher Ames attended Harvard. Amazingly, Fisher Ames, who proposed wording for the First Amendment, entered Harvard at age twelve.”

“Of the first 126 colleges formed in America,” he notes, “all but three were formed on Christian principles. Up until 1900 it was very rare to find a university president who was not an ordained clergyman.”

Is the pendulum now swinging away from Cultural Marxism and back toward America’s founding principles?

Referring to Widener Library and Memorial Church, Harvard President Faust said, “we need the qualities that both represent, because I believe that reason and knowledge must be inflected with values, and that those of us who are privileged to be part of this community of learning bear consequent responsibilities.”

She continued, “Up until the end of the 1800s, most American college presidents taught a course on moral philosophy to graduating students. But with the rise of the research university in the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century, moral and ethical purposes came to be seen as at odds with the scientific thinking transforming higher education.”

She added, “But in today’s world, I believe it is dangerous for universities not to fully acknowledge and embrace their responsibilities to values and to service as well as to reason and discovery. There is no value-free science. There is no algorithm that writes itself. The questions we choose to ask and the research we decide to support; the standards of integrity we expect of our colleagues and students; the community we build and the model we offer: All of this is central to who we are.”

The issue of “who we are” has to consider the Founding Fathers and who they were, and why America was so successful for so long.

Shatzer’s book looks at many of the Founding Fathers. However, one of them, Thomas Jefferson, is particularly fascinating because today he is regarded as having been a proponent of the “separation of church and state.” In fact, while president he was chairman of the school board of the District of Columbia. One of the principal textbooks was the Bible. Jefferson hired clergy to teach classes.

He founded the University of Virginia in 1817 and its official motto was a Bible verse, John 8:32, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” The scripture was also inscribed on the walls inside the Rotunda.

It may not be Harvard President Faust’s intention to return the American educational system back to its original Christian values. But in order to truly make America great again, the “values” she talks about have to be given their true meaning within the context of American society at large.

She concluded her address by saying, “Reason and responsibility. Widener and Memorial Church. Harvard and the world. We have a very special obligation in a very difficult time. May we and the students we send forth today embrace it.”

Her speech is a good first step, but can these brick and mortar colleges and universities be saved?  Or have they been so corrupted that the real solution lies in an educational revolution that transfers learning to less expensive and mostly online institutions such as Amberton University, a nondenominational Christian institution? That university proclaims that its Christian commitment “does recognize its unique role in education and believes that the principles of Christianity and academic excellence run parallel, not perpendicular.”

Isn’t that what the Founders had in mind?


Cliff Kincaid is the Director of the AIM Center for Investigative Journalism and can be contacted at [email protected].View the complete archives from Cliff Kincaid.

06/2/16

Trump Will ‘Negotiate’ With The New Axis Of Evil – Has No Clue Concerning National Security

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

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Donald Trump is simply terrifying when it comes to our enemies and national security. What we need is a leader who will deal from a position of strength, not negotiate from a meeting room. Trump may be a businessman, but when dealing with the New Axis of Evil, we need a warrior, not a deal maker. We’ve had enough of that with Barack Obama.

Trump’s positions on our adversaries goes well beyond clueless and naive… I believe he wants the presidency because he’s on a power kick and it will enrich him immeasurably, while bailing him out of financial difficulties. It’s the ultimate get-rich scheme and so many have fallen for it. Hillary Clinton would be a deadly disaster on the national security front as she would carry forth what Obama has started… reducing our military might even more, while taking kick-backs from the likes of China, Russia and Middle Eastern players. Trump may be just as bad. He claims he will rebuild the military, but he is aligning himself with strongman Vladimir Putin. That is a recipe for war. Either Putin will play Trump for a fool, or Trump would throw in with him on global expansionism and dictatorial mandates. Either way draws the US into a war, one that we probably cannot win in our weakened state.

You can see indicators all over the place concerning what lies ahead with our enemies under a Trump presidency. It doesn’t take a Cassandra to tell you what is coming.

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North Korea’s DPRK Today has endorsed Donald Trump as a “far-sighted” and a “wise politician.” “The president that US citizens must vote for is not that dull Hillary but Trump, who spoke of holding direct conversation with North Korea,” the editorial said. This propaganda outlet is a mouthpiece for Kim Jong-un, the insane tyrannical leader of the Hermit Kingdom.

The article, first reported by the website nknews.org, went on to praise the April foreign policy speech that Trump gave in Washington, DC, where he threatened to withdraw US forces from South Korea if the government didn’t pay the United States for defense. That’s protection money and something that the mafia would do, not the US. Trump has also said he would meet directly with Kim Jong-un.

“Who knew that the slogan ‘Yankee Go Home’ would come true like this?” the editorial quipped. The NoKos are thrilled at the prospect of Donald Trump being president. What does that tell you? They are a front for the Chinese. Under a Trump presidency, South Korea would be weakened tremendously, leaving them open to conquest by the North Koreans. The NoKos would also gain access to international markets and go mainstream, regardless of their record of human rights violations and terrorism. As National Review put it: “From the mouth of the man who may be America’s next president, North Korea has reason to believe that Trump offers something that 60 years of war-footing preparation and hundreds of billions of dollars could not: A dynastic throne for the Kim family in perpetual dominion over the Korean peninsula.”

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Regardless of Trump saying he will get tough with the Chinese, in the end he would negotiate with them and give them pretty much everything they want. All the while, they will keep building their military up in the South China Sea; they will keep stealing our military secrets; they will keep deluging us with 10,000 cyber attacks a day; and they will keep preparing for war… a war that will wipe us out and take down the US given half a chance.

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Then there’s Russia. Trump earned high praise in December from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who called the GOP front-runner “talented” and “very colorful.” Putin had said he believed Trump wanted to “move to a more solid, deeper level of relations” between the United States and Russia. “How can Russia not welcome that? We welcome that,” Putin told ABC News in December. Trump responded, saying he believed he would “get along fine” with Putin if elected.

From a press conference with Vladimir Putin:

Russian President Vladimir Putin had kind words for his “stablemate” Donald Trump during an annual end-of-the-year Q&A session in Moscow.

“[Donald Trump is] a really brilliant and talented person, without any doubt,” [Vladimir] Putin told reporters, according to a translation by Interfax. “It’s not our job to judge his qualities, that’s a job for American voters, but he’s the absolute leader in the presidential race.”

The GOP frontrunner has been blunt about his plans for defrosting U.S. relations with Russia should he be elected president.

[…]

“He says he wants to move on to a new, more substantial relationship, a deeper relationship with Russia, how can we not welcome that?” he said. “Of course we welcome that.”

Trump constantly states his admiration for Vladimir Putin and vice versa. It’s an ongoing bromance that should give Americans nightmares. Trump respects the way Putin controls the media there with an iron fist. I know he would love to do the same here. Putin’s strongman power is very alluring to Trump… he dreams of standing on a balcony somewhere with his arms spread wide and with adoring masses at his feet. These are the daydreams of aspiring emperors, tyrants, czars… that is the fantasy of Donald Trump. But with that type of power always comes subjugation. Leaders such as Putin and Trump lure the masses in with promises of nationalism, strength, prosperity and revenge. In the end, what they deliver is repression, poverty, slavery and death.

More from Tom Rogan at The National Review:

Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, is equally fond of Mr. Trump. In part, that’s because Trump frequently states his admiration of the Russian leader. And while some might say there is an almost sexual quality to Trump’s praise, it’s clear also that Donald is enamored by Vladimir. Again, it’s not hard to see why, for Putin represents Trump’s ideal of a leader. While Trump is infuriated by our free press, he sees Putin turn critics into corpses, then use them to deter future scrutiny. While Trump is disgusted by claims he’s an idiot, he sees Putin respond to similar descriptions by humiliating the West. While Trump wants to build a wall, he sees Putin building a half-mercantilist/half–Iron Curtain system of Russian imperialism. While Trump is astounded by those who reject his personality cult, he sees Putin broadcast global messages from his own mind’s eye.

Trump thinks the weak are losers. He’s willing to negotiate away what he considers weak, small and insignificant allies in favor of an alliance with a strong leader such as Putin. Trump is the very definition of a useful idiot and the communists would never let that go to waste. Through the arrogance and narcissism of Trump, Putin looks to control the US for his purposes and plans globally. If you thought Barack Obama was flexible, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

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Iran, who is in league with both China and Russia, is also negotiable according to Trump.

From CBS News:

“If we have to wait until the next president is sworn in to revisit this nuclear weapons agreement, then the next president better be someone who knows how to negotiate,” Trump wrote in an editorial published on the USA Today website.

“When I am elected president, I will renegotiate with Iran — right after I enable the immediate release of our American prisoners and ask Congress to impose new sanctions that stop Iran from having the ability to sponsor terrorism around the world,” the GOP frontrunner continued. “In fact, if I am elected, I am sure the prisoners will be released before my taking office.”

Notice how Trump says ‘negotiate’ and does not address negating the Iran deal. He intends to honor it. Negotiating with those who intend to use and destroy you does not work. They will lie and say whatever as they ready their military to take you out. What we need is a leader like Reagan, who built up the military and then spoke with our enemies, making it clear that if they stepped out of bounds, not only were we prepared to take them on, we would actually do it. Trump has no clue what the military or war entails.

Under a Trump presidency, those such as Pakistan and Middle Eastern countries would feel they have a free pass on terrorism and could ‘negotiate’ just about anything with Trump. Money would flow and lies would be told. Trump talks tough on ISIS, but he has no idea how to go about a conflict with them and how to win it. He claims he will have the most brilliant military minds around him, but so far, there are very few. In fact, the most knowledgeable in the military don’t want anything to do with Trump because they see the catastrophe that is looming. He has no concrete plans or policies. They simply don’t know what he will do and they find that even more worrisome than knowing what Hillary would do.

I believe that Trump will win the presidency. If he does, we are electing a megalomaniac and a pathological liar. We are ushering in a man who has been embroiled in 3500 lawsuits over the last 30 years. He’s a man who could not pass a security background check if his life depended on it – not that he would ever allow it. He has flip-flopped and changed his stance on virtually every issue countless times. Now he calls it ‘moderation’. He is a man who is a womanizer, a thug and akin to South American dictators. He is a man who doesn’t understand the Constitution or our military in the least. What he does understand is power, wealth and control. He excels at propaganda and reality politics. We are in a new cold war with the New Axis of Evil – Russia, China and Iran and Trump doesn’t understand the threat we face at all. Trump will negotiate us right into a world wide conflict… one in which he has no clue how to fight, much less win. It’s the Donald Trump show and I fear we are all about to get fired.