Category: Culture

Commentary: We May Be Headed for a 1930s Nightmare with the Rise of Weimar America

Connecticut Star Staff

Something eerie, something creepy, is happening in the world — and now in America as well. The dark mood is brought on by elite universities, the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion industry, and massive immigration from illiberal nations and anti-Enlightenment societies.

At Hillcrest High School in Queens, New York, hundreds of students rioted on news that a single teacher in her private social media account had expressed support for Israel. Waving Palestinian flags, and screaming violent threats, the student mob rioted, destroyed school property, sought the teacher out and tried to crash into her classroom — before she was saved from violence by other teachers and an eventual police arrival.

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Pope Francis Punishes Another Conservative American Catholic Leader: Report

Connecticut Star Staff
Cardinal Raymond Burke

Pope Francis is reportedly planning to remove an American conservative cardinal, who has been critical of the Vatican in the past, from his apartment over issues of “disunity,” according to ABC News.

Cardinal Raymond Burke, 75, was removed by the pope as the Vatican’s high court justice in 2014 and has been openly critical of Francis’ statements on LGBTQ issues and reform of the Catholic Church. Francis allegedly held a meeting with other Vatican leaders on Nov. 20 to discuss his plan to remove Burke’s apartment and salary as a retired cardinal because he is a source of “disunity,” according to ABC News, which cited two anonymous sources.

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Commentary: One in Every 39 Americans Will Die of a Drug Overdose at Current Rate

The Center Square
Person Taking Pills

Despite the passage of state and federal laws that were supposed to reduce fatal drug overdoses, the annual U.S. drug overdose death rate has quintupled over recent decades:

Over the most current year of available data, more than 110,000 people in the U.S. died of drug overdoses, a rate of 33 per 100,000 population.

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Trad Catholic Family Dragged Out of Home at Gunpoint, Locked in Van After FBI ‘Goaded’ Teen to Post Offensive Memes, Dad Says

Connecticut Star Staff

A traditional Catholic family was allegedly “dragged out of their home at gunpoint, handcuffed and locked in a van” earlier this year after the FBI “goaded” their 15-year-old son to post  “offensive memes” online. The teen, a volunteer firefighter and altar boy, was then hospitalized on mental health pretenses, according to his father, Jeremiah Rufini.

The FBI’s aggressive “investigation” only resulted in a misdemeanor conviction against the boy for breach of peace, but financially devastated the family with substantial legal expenses.

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Commentary: Hispanics Reject Biden’s Agenda

Connecticut Star Staff

Joe Biden and the Democrats hemorrhage Latino support into 2024. In fact, the trend grows into perhaps the biggest single liability for the Left into next year’s election. The liberal site Axios sent up a warning flare, declaring the breakdown in Biden’s Hispanic support as “an alarming, re-election-threatening, full-blown crisis for the White House.”

The latest battleground state polling from my organization, the League of American Workers, validates that assessment, and points to potential seismic gains for the cause of patriotic populism among Hispanics this election cycle. Specifically, the latest survey highlights massive Hispanic dissatisfaction with Biden and leftist policies in the key battleground of Arizona, one of the most Hispanic states in America.

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Study: States with Restrictive Abortion Bans See 2.3 Percent Hike in Births After Roe Overturned

The Center Square

In the first half of 2023, roughly 32,000 babies were born in states that implemented abortion restrictions after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last June, a 2.3% increase, according to a new analysis.

In the first six months of 2023, “births rose by an average of 2.3 percent in states enforcing total abortion bans,” leading to an estimated 32,000 births that might have otherwise been aborted, according to a new analysis published by the IZA Institute of Labor Economics initiated by the Deutsche Post Foundation.

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Commentary: The ‘Complexity’ of Idiocy

Connecticut Star Staff

Often, yours truly has expounded (okay, ranted) upon the term “narrative,” which is just an artful euphemism for “lie.” A device drawn from fiction, as opposed to non-fiction, it facilitates lying by eliding the need for providing the facts and proving the truth of one’s assertions. Consequently, it is a boon to propagandists, who can harp on a “narrative” ad nauseum to provoke and persuade the public to do as the purveyor of the lie seeks.

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Faith in the American Dream Plummets Under Biden: Poll

Connecticut Star Staff

A majority of U.S. voters feel that the “American dream” cannot be achieved, according to a poll conducted by the Wall Street Journal and NORC.

Approximately 36% of voters said that the American Dream – as defined by the notion that if an individual works hard, they will get ahead – was attainable, down from 68% who said the same last year, according to the WSJ/NORC poll released on Friday. Roughly two-thirds of voters feel the economy is in poor condition as inflation continues to outpace wages and prices continue to rise.

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Commentary: Young People Turn on Biden over Stagnant Wages and Inability to Launch

Connecticut Star Staff

Young voters were one of the core coalitions that installed President Biden in the White House, supporting him by a twenty-four-point margin in 2020. Peering deeper into the data, young voters have been slowly drifting away from Democrats in each election since 2012. That drift has rapidly accelerated in the past three years as economic issues have become paramount for young adults. New polling suggests Biden is on track to lose double-digits with voters under thirty compared to the 2020 election, and economic issues are at the center of the problem.  

Stagnant wages, crippling inflation, a housing affordability crisis, the importation of cheap foreign labor, and an absurd regulatory environment that stifles small business growth are issues all Americans face, but young people are hit particularly hard in Biden’s economy.

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UK Museum Says Roman Emperor Was Trans, Will Be Referred to as ‘She’

Just the News

A U.K. museum says that Roman emperor Elagabalus was a transgender woman and it will refer to the third-century ruler as “she.”

The North Hertfordshire Museum said it wants to be “sensitive” to the reported preferred pronouns of Elagabalus, who ruled from A.D. 218 to A.D. 222 before being assassinated at the age of 18, according to The Telegraph.

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Commentary: The Five Types of Traditionalists

Connecticut Star Staff

All traditionalists share a few hallmark traits. Among them are traditional morals, a burning desire for government reform, and a strong distaste for progressive societal values. As with any sect, though, sub-stereotypes exist. In traditionalists circles, there are five types of people. Not a single traditionalist doesn’t fit into one of these boxes. (Or at least, that’s how it seems. Could it be possible that sticking everyone into a box doesn’t capture the whole person?)

What are these types? And how does each stand out as unique?

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Commentary: The Need for Authority

Connecticut Star Staff

When I was 14, I wanted to be Kurt Cobain. I wanted to drop out of school, be sad and poetic, and start a rock band. I actually said this to my dad. He took me to a burger joint and heard me out. After listening to my explanations, my father said, “Son, you’re full of s***.” That simple statement was enough for me. I regained perspective and went back to being a normal teenager. My dad had fulfilled his role as the authority in my life. It was a good moment. Authority is necessary. It is an innate part of human nature, but it is in crisis today because it has been rejected. Why?

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Commentary: Europe Needs to Embrace Western Civilization Again

Connecticut Star Staff

For the first time in a millennium, Europe no longer plays a critical role in promoting Western civilization nor in world history at large.

Ostensibly it should. Some 750 million people live on the European subcontinent.

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Commentary: 13 Traditionalist Gift Ideas for Kids

Connecticut Star Staff
Opening Presents

Christmas is just around the corner! We often look forward to the holidays with heaps of joy … and maybe a little trepidation. There can be so many presents involved, particularly given the numerous people and parties. It can be a lot for anyone to deal with.

But presents can’t just be ignored: Children love gifts, and they find so much joy in the simple act of opening sparkly, wrapped boxes. Plus, presents are a great opportunity to share traditional values with children. But instead of opting for the “more is more” mentality of mainstream culture, let’s embrace the mantra “fewer but better.” Let’s explore alternative gift ideas that not only support traditionalist values but also won’t overwhelm children, parents, or our wallets.

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Commentary: Five More Stupid Things the Left Demands You Believe

Connecticut Star Staff

It wasn’t the last column in this space — that one took a detour because somebody had to address the manifest awfulness of Nikki Haley — but the one before that introduced you, dear reader, to what might become an ongoing series.

Because the Left in America is now built on the failed proposition that magical thinking, the imagination of a human race that acts nothing like the current one does, can reflect reality if only enough time, money, and effort (and blood, because it always comes down to blood) are poured into the mix.

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Commentary: The Meaning of Thanksgiving Can Save America

Connecticut Star Staff

Thanksgiving, according to Britannica.com, has come to “has come to symbolize intercultural peace, America’s opportunity for newcomers, and the sanctity of home and family.” This definition captures the ideals, more relevant than ever, of one of America’s favorite holidays. But these ideals are threatened, because America’s mainstream institutions have either rejected them, or have created an environment where they are no longer possible.

This is immediately obvious with the “woke” doctrine of race-based oppressor and oppressed, now promoted by academia, the media, entertainers, politicians, and corporations. Maybe the fellowship of the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians is mostly fable, cruelly debunked by history.

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Commentary: Five Stupid Things the Left Would Have You Believe

Connecticut Star Staff

I was on a media panel talking about what the Left has done to the Fourth Estate in America and how that damage might ultimately be repaired. And afterward, I spent a lot of time interacting with sponsors and attendees, and a common thread seemed to run through those conversations.

Namely, the multiplicity of utterly indefensible, absurd propositions that make up the narratives and constructs by which our left-wing current ruling class seeks to base its power over us.

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Commentary: Supporting Censorship Will Backfire on the Right

Connecticut Star Staff

Free speech has long been one of the most sacred American values. Until recently, commitment to free speech in general was bipartisan and widespread. Almost every American from every political persuasion valued free speech.

There used to be some debate on the margins. Conservatives were wary of extending free speech protection to corrosive things like pornography, and liberals were wary of official speech endorsing religion. But, as recently as the 1990s, neither side believed its opponent should be censored, and the idea of exempting “hate speech” from the normal rule against censorship did not have much traction.

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Commentary: John F. Kennedy – A Remembrance

RealClearWire

Sixty autumns have passed since the assassination of John F. Kennedy that Friday, Nov. 22, a day that traumatized a generation of children and revealed the impermanence of their innocence. For many, it was their first rendezvous with death. It endured as a vivid remembrance even as other memories lapsed with the passage of age. Many of those children are now grandparents, having lived past the average American life expectancy in 1963. Others, like my father, are not here for the somber milestone. But until his own twilight, my father – like any Irish-Catholic child of that period – remained haunted by that afternoon, transfixed by what Kennedy meant at that time, and committed to imparting those reminiscences unto his three sons.

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Commentary: As Biden Turns 82, Reality Sets in as 2024 Approaches Rapidly with Trump Still Leading Polls

Connecticut Star Staff

Another week, and amid more calls for President Joe Biden, who just turned 82, to step aside, former President Donald Trump is extending his lead in national polls over Biden for the 2024 election, with 46.6 percent for Trump to 45 percent for Biden in the latest average of polls taken by RealClearPolitics.com.

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Study: Life Expectancy Gap in the U.S. Favors Women over Men

Connecticut Star Staff

A new study indicates that, on average, American men are dying about six years before their female counterparts.

According to Axios, the report was published on Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The study shows that the overall life expectancy gap between the two genders increased further in 2021, building off a trend that has been ongoing since 2011.

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Commentary: New Research Points to Dad’s Drinking as a Significant Factor in Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

Connecticut Star Staff

Men drink more, are more likely to binge drink and are almost four times more likely to develop alcohol use disorder than women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Yet when it comes to diagnosing babies born with birth defects associated with alcohol consumption, such as fetal alcohol syndrome, historically only the mother’s drinking habits are taken into consideration.

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New Documentary Film Pokes Holes in False George Floyd Narratives

Connecticut Star Staff
George Floyd Protesters

A sobering new documentary aims to debunk the false narratives surrounding the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the trial of Officer Derek Chauvin.

“The Fall of Minneapolis,” produced by Alpha News journalist Liz Collin, also examines the tragic impacts of the Black Lives Matter riots, including the collapse of law and order, that continues to this day.

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George Soros Funded Anti-Israel Groups Behind Riot at DNC HQ

Connecticut Star Staff
Soros DNC

The radical anti-Semitic protest movements that were responsible for a violent attack against the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters in Washington D.C. have been funded by far-left billionaire George Soros.

According to the Washington Free Beacon, the groups IfNotNow, Jewish Voice for Peace, and the Democratic Socialists of America were the culprits in the incident on Wednesday, where roughly 150 rioters blockaded the entrance to the DNC building out of protest of the party’s tentative support for Israel amidst its conflict with the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

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Commentary: The Demographics of Polarization

Connecticut Star Staff

Women around the world are having fewer than two children. But while population decline is well underway in most nations, there are a handful of nations that are still experiencing a population explosion. The implications of this challenge the foundations of cultural and national independence, most particularly in nations whose populations have stopped reproducing. The nations still experiencing rapid population growth have cultural traditions that stand in stark contrast to the nations with stable and declining populations. These profound demographic and cultural differences, when combined with a massive and ongoing transfer of people from high birth-rate nations into low birth-rate nations, introduces the potential for polarization on an almost unimaginable scale.

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Nearly 60 Percent of Muslim Americans Polled Say Hamas Is ‘Somewhat Justified’ in Israel Attack

The Center Square

As pro-Palestinian protestors descended on Austin and other cities over the weekend, following a “day-of-rage” protests last month, a new poll reveals that a majority of Muslim-Americans surveyed – 57.5% – think the Islamic terrorist organization Hamas “was justified in attacking Israel as part of their struggle for a Palestinian state.”

Hamas, the acronym for Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya (Islamic Resistance Movement), was designated by the U.S. State Department as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997. “It is the largest and most capable militant group in the Palestinian territories and one of the territories’ two major political parties,” according to the National Counterterrorism Center.

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Victor Davis Hanson Commentary: The Lasting Damage of the ‘White Privilege’ Smear

Connecticut Star Staff

One of the many satanic paradoxes of the Third Reich’s architecture of the Final Solution was the requirement — mandated after the 1939 outbreak of the war — that Jews anywhere under German rule or occupation had to wear a yellow badge or armband with the Star or David.

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Poll: Americans Say Schools Should Focus on Math, Reading, and Writing

The Center Square

A large majority of voters say that public schools should focus on the basics – math, reading, writing, science and social studies – to improve the quality of public education in the country.

That’s according to the latest The Center Square’s Voters’ Voice poll conducted in late October in conjunction with Noble Predictive Insights. The poll of 2,605 likely voters includes 1,035 Republicans, 1,074 Democrats, and 496 true Independents, and is among the most comprehensive in the country.

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Report: Mountain States Among ‘Most Free’ in North America

The Center Square

Mountain states rank among the “most free” in North America, according to a new report from the Fraser Institute.

The Canadian think tank employs 10 variables for its Economic Freedom of North America 2023 reports and scores states based on categories such as government spending, taxes, labor market freedom, legal system and property rights, sound money, and freedom to trade internationally.

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Commentary: Masculine Men Are Women’s Unsung Heroes

Connecticut Star Staff

Contemporary America is hounded by terms like “toxic masculinity,” “the patriarchy,” and “the male gaze.” Men all over the nation—indeed, the world—are lambasted daily by derogatory, angry media seeking to devalue and wipe out their nature.

I have a message for you: Don’t listen to it. Masculine men are the very thing we need—now more than ever in the battle of traditionalism versus progressivism. Though the media has attacked the vital value of gender itself, we know they’re wrong. We know male and female is how we’re made. Even now, traditional femininity is making a huge comeback across the internet. And what do we as traditional women most need?

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Vatican Approves Allowing Transgender People to Receive Baptism and Become Godparents

Connecticut Star Staff

On Wednesday, the Vatican released a document declaring that people who believe themselves to be “transgender” will now be allowed to be baptized and be named as godparents, with certain limitations.

As reported by Fox News, the document in question was an official response to a dubia seeking guidance on how to deal with the issue, submitted by Brazilian Bishop Giuseppe Negri of Santo Amaro. The document was signed by Pope Francis himself and promoted by the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

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CDC: School Vaccination Exemptions Highest Ever Among Kindergartners

The Center Square

A record high number of kindergartners started last school year with an exemption from one of the vaccines U.S. health authorities require.

The overall percentage of children with an exemption increased from 2.6% during the 2021-22 school year to 3% during the 2022-23 school year, the highest exemption rate ever reported in the U.S., according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report published Thursday.

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Commentary: ‘American Refugees’ Is a New Book That Offers Some Surprises About Those Fleeing Blue States

Connecticut Star Staff

By now, most readers are aware of the ongoing exodus from blue states to red states, from places like California and New York to the Carolinas, Texas, and Florida. Some of these migrants are retirees in search of warmer weather. Some are millennials in U-Haul vans looking to lower the cost of living or in search of better jobs.

And some are just men and women fed up with high taxes, bad schools, street crime, crumbling cities, and left-wing policies.

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Commentary: A Veterans Day Anniversary That Turned the Tide and Saved the World

Connecticut Star Staff

America’s Veterans Day is recognized in other English-speaking countries as Remembrance Day. With the anniversary this month of both the Battle of El Alamein and the North Africa “Torch” Landings, the observance has an added meaning.

In November 1942, for all intents and purposes, the outcome of World War II hung in the balance. On all fronts, the Axis forces were advancing while the Allies suffered setbacks in almost every theater of combat. But momentum began to shift; if the month began with pessimism and despair, it ended in a cautious optimism that the Allied cause had commanders who could win.

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Commentary: On Veterans Day, Let’s Recommit to Healing Invisible Wounds of War with the Help of a Wagging Tail

RealClearWire

As Americans observe Veterans Day this year, it’s important to be mindful of the challenges facing former military members. The wounds of war—both seen and unseen—should be top of mind. Beyond simply recognizing the struggles, we should also recommit ourselves to doing something about it. And for returning military heroes facing the invisible scars of battle—notably Post-Traumatic Stress and Traumatic Brain Injury—a valuable medicine is often four legs and a wagging tail. 

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Commentary: Trump’s Popularity Is Not Inexplicable

Connecticut Star Staff

In a routine that has become familiar of late, CNN’s Jim Acosta reports the ongoing ascendancy of Donald Trump in the polls with a mixture of dismay and disbelief. With these emotions front and center on his November 5 cable show, Acosta grimly reported the latest polling on the 2024 presidential candidates, noting that Trump is now ahead of Biden in five out of six crucial swing states. In Nevada, where Trump lost by 2 percentage points in 2020, Trump is now up by 11 points over Biden.

As Acosta proceeded to interview experts in an attempt to make sense out of this, the prevailing message was Biden is too old, and that has voters worried. David Frum, a reliable uniparty stalwart, reassured Acosta that “Trump is only three years younger than Biden,” and that Trump is so weak and elderly that he “can’t even open a jar of pickles.” The men then proceeded to applaud Biden as physically hale and hearty, dismissing concerns about his age as unwarranted.

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Anti-Israel Protestor Allegedly Beats 69-Year-Old Man to Death with Bullhorn

Peter D'Abrosca

A pro-Israeli protestor from Thousand Oaks has died after a pro-Palestinian protestor allegedly hit him over the head with a bullhorn during a clash between the two groups Sunday. 

Ynet News confirmed that Paul Kessler, 69, died of internal bleeding after the blow to the head. 

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Commentary: Elites Are Confounded by Populist Sentiment and Surprised Their Failures Are Fueling Their Ouster

Connecticut Star Staff

American populism’s rise is directly connected to the failures of our self-styled elites.  American elites have in numerous instances missed the coming of important crises, some of which they have caused. Average Americans have borne the brunt of these crises.  Today’s populist rise is simply the people’s recognition of the elites’ hypocrisy and culpability in what they have had to endure.

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Commentary: Corporate Big-Mouths at Coca-Cola and Delta Wouldn’t Shut Up About George Floyd but When It Comes to Hamas – Crickets

Connecticut Star Staff

When radicals used the sad death of fentanyl addict and opioid abuser George Floyd to burn down America’s cities in summer 2020, they earned nothing but praise from many of our country’s biggest corporations.

Overnight, America’s corporate giants became footsoldiers in the Left’s “woke” revolution, tut-tutting their customers’ LGBTQ “microaggressions,” pouring millions of dollars into the Marxist-led Black Lives Matter, and condemning the “systemic racism” of the country that birthed them.

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Commentary: Finding Common Ground Through Empathy

Connecticut Star Staff

While liberals tend to view conservatives as cold-hearted, rule-bound, and self-interested, right-wingers often consider left-wingers irrational, sensitive, and destructive. Both characterizations, are, of course, exaggerations, and they fail to recognize the political common ground of human empathy and compassion.

In the far-off days before he was famous, Jordan Peterson, along with some colleagues, published research showing that personality traits strongly predict political belief. According to the study, left-wingers tend to be higher in traits related to compassion and the desire for equality, while right-wingers tend to be higher in traits related to orderliness and concern for social norms. While no one’s political beliefs are predetermined merely by psychology, temperament may dispose an individual toward a certain political position. This is especially helpful to remember when trying to understand people with differing political beliefs from one’s own.

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‘He Sees All White People as Racist’: Military Assessment Criticizes Air Force Colonel’s Leadership

Connecticut Star Staff

Col. Ben Jonsson, an Air Force officer who accused his fellow “white colonels” of being “blind to institutional racism,” is the subject of blistering criticism from subordinates at MacDill Air Force Base, where he served as commander from 2020 to 2022. 

Jonsson is among the more than 300 military officers awaiting Senate approval for a promotion. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., has blocked Democrats—and now some Republicans—from rubber-stamping these promotions in a dispute over the Pentagon’s taxpayer-funded abortion policy. 

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Commentary: The Left Ramps Up the Supreme Court Intimidation Campaign

Connecticut Star Staff

The Left’s campaign of vilification and intimidation to try to control the Supreme Court is a saga with a number of shameful chapters dating back to the smearing of Robert Bork in 1987. Their game plan is simple: defeat originalist nominees to the Court by whatever illegitimate attacks can be conjured up. Failing that, bully and delegitimize the Supreme Court justices who are not deciding cases with the policy-driven activism that is the hallmark of the modern Left. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) has made this his mission.

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Commentary: Tribalism and Democracy

Connecticut Star Staff

This latest war between Israelis and Palestinians, growing worse by the day, has its origins in the horrific slaughter of civilians by Hamas terrorists on October 7. It’s accurate to condemn this atrocity and blame Hamas for starting the war. It’s also completely reasonable to make a value judgement. Islamofascism is the greater evil and must not prevail. It terrifies not only Israelis but also countless millions of Arabs throughout the Middle East and beyond.

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