By Joseph R. John, DR RICH SWIER June 22, 2014

If you have young children, grandchildren, nephews, nieces, are an educator, are a therapist, are a religious leader, are an elected official of any party, or care about very young children getting an excellent education in grades K-12, you should take time to listen to the below videos by Dr. Duke Pesta.  Dr. Pesta’s discussion is about the indoctrination of students in the Common Core curriculum.  Common Core does not encourage students to read the greatest novels in history, it’s not about teaching students to think outside of the box, nor is it about teaching students to excel beyond the capability of their fellow students in their grade, and it is not about mentoring gifted students.

Common Core teaches students it is not fair for some students to highly achieve beyond the ability of their fellow students—it is about teaching students that everyone should achieve equally and collectively together, resulting in that students’ progress in learning at the lowest possible common denominator so no one is left behind.  Common Core is the plan by the federal government to take over the control of local school board’s education programs and what is taught in the local schools, it pushes an agenda controlled and tested by the Department of Health Education and Welfare and results in recording specific details on “each student’s” thinking, religious beliefs, patriotic beliefs, and family beliefs, in violation of privacy laws.

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by Jonathan Spyer, Foreign Policy

One of many billboards in Damascus celebrating the victory of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The Arabic caption reads: “If the country’s dust spoke, it would say Bashar al-Assad.” (AFP)

Two years after celebrating victory in the Syrian civil war, the regime of Bashar Assad is facing renewed unrest. A mini-insurgency is under way in Daraa province, the birthplace of the 2011 revolt. Stormy demonstrations are under way in adjacent Suwayda. The economy is hurtling toward the abyss.

What has changed, in two short years? How has Assad’s triumph turned to disaster?

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This letter is a response from Oxford to Black Students attending as Rhodes Scholars to remove the statue of Oxford Benefactor, Cecil Rhodes.

THE LETTER IS WHAT OXFORD SHOULD HAVE SAID, NOT WHAT IT DID SAY.

Interestingly, Chris Patten (Lord Patten of Barnes), The Chancellor of Oxford University, was on the Today Programme on BBC Radio 4 on precisely the same topic. The Daily Telegraph headline was “Oxford will not rewrite history”. Patten commented “Education is not indoctrination. Our history is not a blank page on which we can write our own version of what it should have been according to our contemporary views and prejudice” Rhodes must fall ????

“Dear Scrotty Students,

Cecil Rhodes’s generous bequest has contributed greatly to the comfort and wellbeing of many generations of Oxford students – a good many of them, dare we say it, better, brighter and more deserving than you.

This does not necessarily mean we approve of everything Rhodes did in his lifetime – but then we don’t have to. Cecil Rhodes died over a century ago. Autres temps, autres moeurs. If you don’t understand what this means – and it would not remotely surprise us if that were the case – then we really think you should ask yourself the question: “Why am I at Oxford?”
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All the country needs is a couple of weeks without the president seeming to be the source of this cacophony for the national interest in sensible government to reassert itself.

By Conrad Black, AMGREATNESS 

Possibly by accident, there are preliminary signs, green shoots, that the president is by experimentation moving toward the campaign strategy most appropriate for the summer. It is Donald Trump, even more than Joe Biden, who should be practically silent. Because the looming presidential nominee of the Democrats is completely unfeasible, inarticulate, and incoherent, the Democratic campaign consists essentially in round-the-clock mudslinging from the 90 percent of the national political media that hates Trump and will do anything, no matter how unprofessional, to remove him.

Notoriously, it is to this contemptible level that the principal American media have descended. The Trump campaign will continue to have his words and actions distorted, misrepresented and hurled back at him by serried ranks of bloodless assassins in the press. He should leave the refutation of them to his very able press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, who dispensed in short order this week the CNN White House reporter who asked last week if President Trump was pleased the North won the Civil War.

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By Lynne Lechter, AMERICAN THINKER

In front of Mt. Rushmore and hitting every high note possible to counter the sickening cancel culture anarchists defiling our country, President Trump gave a rousing, heart wrenching battle speech.  And a battle it is — for the guts and soul of our great country.

In addition to swearing to combat and stop the violent anarchists — Marxists he factually called them — Trump exhorted the cowardly Republicans to stand up and speak out.  Speak out we all must do as well.  Moreover, he condemned the poisonous government school system that has taught our kids to hate our country, thereby erasing all the noble, good, and innovative advances in their memories that America has meant to the world and the incredibly fortunate residents who call America their home.

There have always been those who want to tear down America.  From the Brits, to the slave owners, to the communists to the present-day anarchists.  Yet, the essence of America has always prevailed.

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All of a sudden, Iran’s Quds Force chief needs a visa to enter Iraq, while PM Kadhimi is taking aim at Iran-leaning officials. Still, everyone knows real change only comes to those who wait

By Zvi Bar’el, HAARETZ

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi waits for delegations at the prime minister’s office in Baghdad, Iraq, May 14, 2020.Credit: Iraqi Prime Minister Media Office/Handout via REUTERS

General Esmail Ghaani, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force, and successor to Qassem Soleimani, had a surprise at the beginning of June. He was required to obtain an official entry permit from the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs to enter the country along with a delegation he was leading. That would never have happened to Soleimani, who came and went as he saw fit, without approval or a visa and sometimes even without an invitation.

But when Mustafa al-Kadhimi took over as prime minister of Iraq in May, he ruled that every person entering Iraq, including VIPs, will need a visa. This was not the only signal that Iranian involvement in Iraq would be facing a new government willing to reconsider the boundaries of Iranian influence in the country. Shortly after al-Kadhimi was appointed, he began a campaign to weaken the clout of Iran’s supporters. He removed a long list of senior officers and officials from their posts, including national security adviser Falih al-Fayyadh, who had served for about a decade, and also heads the Shi’ite militias that Iran supports and funds – on top of the budget they receive from the Iraqi government.
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Trump declared war on the cancel culture promoted by the extreme left and supported by the Democrats and mainstream media. He stressed why America’s history and values make America great. He dedicated himself to defeating the forces which claim otherwise and protecting the constitution, free speech and the rule of law.  He also dedicated himself to reclaiming education in schools.

Beautiful speech.

For the text of the speech go here.

Kuwaiti newspaper cites unnamed senior source as saying Jerusalem behind recent incidents in Iran, following an alleged attempt by Tehran to hack Israel’s water infrastructure

By JUDAH ARI GROSS, TOI

Centrifuge machines in the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran, November 5, 2019. (Atomic Energy Organization of Iran via AP, File)

Israel was responsible for two blasts at Iranian facilities — one related to uranium enrichment, the other for missile production — over the past week, a Kuwaiti newspaper reported Friday.

The Al-Jareeda daily cited an unnamed senior source as saying that an Israeli cyberattack caused a fire and explosion at the largely underground Natanz nuclear enrichment facility in the predawn hours of Thursday morning.

According to the source, this was expected to set back Iran’s nuclear enrichment program by approximately two months.

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STARTS AT 5:30

FANTASTIC INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM

DAMAGE EXCEEDED $500 MILLION. WHO IS GOING TO PAY FOR IT

Three mysterious incidents, linked by explosions – at least two of them at secretive nuclear and weapons facilities – have rocket Iran in the past week.

By SETH J. FRANTZMAN, JPOST

Three mysterious incidents, linked by explosions – at least two of them at secretive nuclear and weapons facilities – have rocked Iran in the past week. All three have been reported by Iranian media with various excuses about how they are less serious than they appear, that they are being investigated and that there is no major story to tell.  On June 25, a massive explosion, seen many miles away in Tehran, burned a hillside near a missile complex at Khojir. On June 30, a medical center suffered a fire in Tehran, killing at least 18 people. And on July 2, an incident at Iran’s Natanz enrichment facility was mentioned by the country’s official media, without elaboration. Officials claimed that only a shed was damaged. In each case, officials appeared to try to get ahead of the story by obfuscating about the seriousness of the incident or why it took place at a sensitive facility.This leads to key questions about why so many explosions or incidents have affected key aspects of Iran’s military-industrial complex. Rumors posted on social media and elsewhere online have suggested not only a cover up but also allegations of a “cyber” attack or other concerns about how these incidents unfolded. Iran alleged a cyber attack harmed Shahid Rajaee port in May, in the wake of an Iranian cyber attack on Israel.

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