Thursday Morning Breakfast For The Brain

Served up piping hot and just for you.

Who Rules in America? Not You

Via American Greatness

Ralph Nader made the chief executive officers of America’s largest corporations a proposition in 1996. Considering they had built their fortunes on generous tax benefits and subsidies—valued at an estimated $65 billion a year back then and footed by everyday Americans—would they consider opening their annual stockholder meetings with the Pledge of Allegiance? America had “bred them, built them, subsidized them, and defended them,” as Nader wrote, and as Obama would later more directly say: “You didn’t build that.”

Federated Department Stores, now Macy’s, was the only corporation that responded positively. Half of them never replied to Nader, while others reacted so indignantly that the late political scientist Samuel P. Huntington registered their responses as evidence of corporate America’s post-national identity.

“As a multinational . . . Ford in its largest sense is an Australian country [sic] in Australia, a British company in the United Kingdom, a German company in Germany.” Aetna’s CEO denounced the idea of pledging allegiance to America as “contrary to the principles on which our democracy was founded.” Motorola condemned the proposal’s “political and nationalistic overtones.” Costco’s CEO responded: “What do you propose next—personal loyalty oaths?” Kimberly-Clark’s executive fumed that it was “a grim reminder of the loyalty oaths of the 1950s.”

Today, the same CEOs who long ago disabused themselves of dirty things like patriotism now insist that they know what’s best for the country they left behind.

“Top CEOs plan to get dramatically tougher on state legislators over proposed new restrictions on voting,” Axios reported on Monday. After a weekend Zoom summit, these CEOs are “threatening to withhold campaign contributions—and to punish states by yanking investments in factories, stadiums and other lucrative projects.” The call featured a constellation of leading industry managers, including James Murdoch, Ken Chenault, Ken Frazier, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, Levi Strauss CEO Chip Bergh, Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank, and executives of Delta, United, and American Airlines.

The debate over whether the laws in question are racist or excessively restrictive is ultimately a waste of time because this has less to do with policy than it does with power. Even with ideological considerations accounted for—that is, some or most of these CEOs really do believe certain voting laws are bad—the outcome is the same: a stronger Democratic Party is good for them.

Of course, the Republican Party is similarly beholden to the same economic elites and organized interest groups—which makes them especially pathetic because, by an odd turn of fate, corporations have aligned themselves more closely with the Democratic Party. Recall Joe Biden received more billionaire support than former President Donald Trump during the 2020 election, and there was, by Time’s proud admission, “a conspiracy . . . behind the scenes” spearheaded by CEOs to ensure Biden’s victory. Intimately involved in that “shadow effort” were equally shadowy groups and persons like Norman Eisen, a former Obama Administration official and author of the foreign policy apparatus’ regime change playbook.

Conservatives, Republicans, and others who, in response to these woke corporatists, attempt to disprove that a specific law is racist miss the point. There is no good faith argument to be had, no common ground to seek. For too long the right has deluded itself with the belief that the better argument will prevail on the merits. But these people don’t care about rational debate, and as long as that is the situation, neither should you. In the current reality, only power checks power and what the Right lacks is not a better argument, but a willingness to exercise power where and how it can.

Read the entire article HERE.

U.N. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield Tells Al Sharpton Group: ‘White Supremacy’ in America’s ‘Founding Documents and Principles’

Via Breitbart News

U.N. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told Al Sharpton’s National Action Network (NAN) on Wednesday that “the original sin of slavery weaved white supremacy into our founding documents and principles.”

Thomas-Greenfield addressed the NAN’s 30th annual summit, praising Sharpton for a “lifetime of activism” and thanking him for “never backing down.” She did not mention Sharpton’s history of antisemitic, racist, and homophobic rhetoric, or his role in inciting riots against Jews.

Instead, Thomas-Greenfield recited a familiar theme from Critical Race Theory, which holds that America was founded upon white supremacy, and that racism infects all of America’s institutions as a result.

In her prepared remarks, Thomas-Greenfield said:

I spoke on the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. That day – and commemoration – was personal for me. So, I told the UN some personal stories. I told them about how my great-grandmother Mary Thomas, born in 1865, was the child of a slave. Just three generations back from me. I grew up in the segregated South. I was bussed to a segregated school. On weekends, the Klan burned crosses on lawns in our neighborhood.

I shared these stories and others to acknowledge, on the international stage, that I have personally experienced one of America’s greatest imperfections. I have seen for myself how the original sin of slavery weaved white supremacy into our founding documents and principles. But I also shared these stories to offer up an insight, a simple truth I’ve learned over the years: Racism is not the problem of the person who experiences it.

Those of us who experience racism cannot, and should not, internalize it, despite the impact it can have on our everyday lives. Racism is the problem of the racist. And it is the problem of the society that produces the racist. And in today’s world, that is every society.

In America, that takes many forms. It’s the white supremacy that led to the senseless killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many other Black Americans. It’s the spike in hate crimes over the past three years – against Latino Americans, Sikh and Muslim Americans, Jewish Americans, and immigrants. And it’s the bullying, discrimination, brutality, and violence that Asian Americans face everyday, especially since the outbreak of COVID-19. That’s why the Biden-Harris administration has made racial equity a top priority across the entire government. And I’m making it a real focus of my tenure at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations.

But when I say racism is a problem in every society, that means looking beyond America’s borders too. Across four decades and four continents in the foreign service, I experienced racism in countless international contexts. From overly invasive searches at airports, to police racially profiling my son, to being made to wait behind white patrons for a table at a restaurant. Racism was and continues to be a daily challenge abroad. And for millions, it’s more than a challenge. It’s deadly.

Some of the cases Thomas-Greenfield cited, including the Breonna Taylor case, have no evidence of racial bias whatsoever. Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron — the state’s first black attorney general — announced last September that no charges would be filed against police officers in the case because they knocked first before Taylor fired his weapon at them.

Thomas-Greenfield also boasted that President Joe Biden “immediately re-engaged with the Human Rights Council, and have announced our intention to seek election to that body, so that we can advance our most-cherished democratic values around the globe.”

Read the entire article HERE.

Footlocker Looted Again Despite $200 Million In Donations To BLM Causes

Via True Pundit

Footlocker stores in Minnesota were looted and trashed once again despite the company having donated $200 million dollars to Black Lives Matter causes in the past year.

Minnesota has been hit with yet more violent unrest over the last two nights in response to the police killing of Daunte Wright, who was shot by a female officer who mistook a gun for a taser.

Footage from Sunday night showed looters breaking into a shoe store and stealing Nike trainers, because apparently justice for Daunte Wright looks an awful lot like getting your hands on a brand new pair of Air Max.

Looters also targeted Footlocker, with footage from the scene showing the store completely cleaned out.

By the end of the night, around 20 Brooklyn Center businesses had been looted as well as sporadic looting in surrounding areas, and the chaos was repeated last night

Read the entire article HERE.

Here We Go Again… Now Cheese Is Racist

Via PJ Media

In this year alone, we’ve learned that trees are racist, as are fonts. Heck, even not being racist is racist!

So, I guess the news that cheese is racist now shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Environmentalists in Brighton and Hove in England are trying to get more plant-based school meals, citing not only the environmental impact of animal agriculture and fishing industries, as well the apparent racism of dairy products.

“Animal agriculture and fishing industries are leading causes of deforestation, ocean dead zones, water pollution, biodiversity loss and species extinction,” reads the petition started by Alison Plaumer of Extinction Rebellion. “Not only that, intensive animal farming poses a significant threat for the development of new pandemics and for furthered antibacterial resistance to emerge.”

Plaumer also told the city council last month that “Arguably, there is a racist element to serving dairy too much because 65 percent of the world’s population are lactose intolerant, many from the BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) community.”

“Loads of parents around here give lots of support to this,” Plaumer claims. “What do children want? They want action. They want it now.”

Most kids probably want cheese, too. Because cheese is awesome, and I feel bad for anyone who can’t have cheese because, as I said, it’s awesome.

If cheese is racist, what does that make Hunter Biden, who used to smoke parmesan cheese because it looked like crack?

The petition is calling for two plant-based food days be introduced at all public schools, and all council-run events to be entirely plant-based after the pandemic is over.

That’s cute.

According to Impossible Foods, their Impossible Burger, the plant-based burger of choice that’s available at Burger King, the ingredients of their burger are the following:

Water, Soy Protein Concentrate, Coconut Oil, Sunflower Oil, Natural Flavors, 2% Or Less Of: Potato Protein, Methylcellulose, Yeast Extract, Cultured Dextrose, Food Starch Modified, Soy Leghemoglobin, Salt, Mixed Tocopherols (Antioxidant), Soy Protein Isolate, Vitamins and Minerals (Zinc Gluconate, Thiamine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B1), Niacin, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Vitamin B12).

Well, good luck if you have a soy allergy. I guess if you have a soy allergy you’re racist, too.

Read the entire article HERE.

The Left Wants Kids to See White Supremacy Everywhere, and It’s Destroying Pop Culture

Via The Daily Signal

“Certain elements of our community are threatening to get people fired,” tweeted Yale professor Nicholas Christakis on Apr. 3. “Even if someone just poses a question, or expresses a conflicting view, you’re immediately labeled a problem, a white supremacist, and people will say, ‘Find out where they work.’”

Christakis was quoting an excerpt from a recent piece in The Atlantic, and famed Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson agreed that this was concerning, pointing out that The Atlantic itself helped to foster this atmosphere of witch hunting.

Then, in an ironic twist, a Twitter user revealed to Peterson that Atlantic alumnus Ta-Nehisi Coates had brought his brand of woke ideology to comic books, and had based his interpretation of the villain Red Skull—the comic book equivalent of Hitler—on Peterson.

Peterson is no stranger to controversy. Depending on who you ask, he’s either a lifesaving guru or the devil incarnate.

The 58-year-old Canadian psychologist first garnered attention from a series of videos he posted in 2016 where he criticized Canada’s bill C-16, which is similar to the Equality Act in the U.S.

The bill introduced gender identity and expression as a protected class, which Peterson argued would lead to government-compelled speech, as people would be forced to use the preferred pronouns of transgender individuals. He decried the bill as the government using force to push an ideology.

He followed up on the video’s success with a self-help book, “12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos,” which sold over 5 million copies worldwide and became a global bestseller. The book particularly resonated with young men adrift in the world who were seeking some form of structure.

Rules like “stand up straight with your shoulders back” and “make friends with people who want the best for you” were a force for good in these men’s lives, and drove Peterson to new heights of popularity.

But as popular as Peterson is, he has his fair share of detractors. His outspoken criticism of woke culture and identity politics have opponents claiming he’s everything from a white supremacist to a Nazi.

Enter Coates.

Coates is most famous for writing woke screeds for The Atlantic. His portfolio includes articles advocating reparations and calling Dr. Ben Carson a bigot, as well as books where he demonizes all Trump supporters as white racists and calls the first responders on 9/11 “menaces of nature.”

This, in Marvel Comics’ mind, made him the perfect choice to write a series of “Captain America” comics.

And while Coates has been in the process of putrefying the Captain America brand for a few years now, his story of butchering a beloved pop culture franchise in the name of identity politics is not unique in the modern media landscape.

Take, for example, HBO’s recent television adaptation of Alan Moore’s landmark “Watchmen” graphic novel. While the original work explored philosophical themes of ethics and meaning, the adaptation dives headfirst into woke politics.

White supremacy features as the overarching evil of the show, and each new episode revels in showing the audience that white people are not to be trusted. The white characters in the show are depicted only as openly racist skinheads or secretly evil Klansmen, complete with robes hidden away in the closet.

While the phantasm of white supremacy lurks in many pieces of media today, what makes Coates’ comparison of Peterson to comic-book Hitler stand out is the contrast between what Peterson represents versus what Coates wants him to be.

Read the entire article HERE.

BLM Founder Calls For Abolishing Police In All The Areas Where She Doesn’t Live

Via The Babylon Bee

LOS ANGELES, CA—BLM co-founder and “trained Marxist” Patrisse Cullors has called for defunding the police in response to police shootings. She later clarified, however, that she only supports abolishing police in all the areas where she doesn’t live.

“The police in my wealthy white area of LA can stay,” she said. “And the ones around my home in Atlanta. Also, the ones who protect my other home in Albany. I think I have a fourth house too, but I can’t remember where it is. Wherever it is, the police there can stick around as well.”

According to sources, Cullors needs all these properties for her important work, and to hide from the urban hellscapes where police are being defunded.

“I need a lot of houses. All good Marxists have a lot of houses!” said Cullors.

Police have assured Cullors that they will remain at full strength in the wealthy, majority-white neighborhoods where she lives.

Bernie Sanders reportedly condemned Cullors after finding out she now has more houses than he does.

Check out all of the Bee’s takes on a world gone mad HERE.

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