President Trump's America First Foreign Policy Is "Moral Realism"

Dr. Michael Bender, a political analyst and Marshall Fellow at The Heritage Foundation, believes critics of President Trump's "America First" foreign policy fundamentally misconstrue his approach to international relations, which is based upon principles of "Moral Realism."

Read the whole thing at TheLatest.com: https://thelatest.com/tlt/president-trump-america-first-foreign-policy-is-moral-realism-donald-trump-moral-realism-for-1553626557

Trump v. Ocasio-Cortez: Reform or Revolution?

 

With his executive order on Free Speech, President Trump established himself as a true reformer, while his Democratic opponents have embraced revolution. Therefore, America faces a stark choice between reform or revolution in the 2020 elections.

Read the whole thing at TheLatest.com: https://thelatest.com/tlt/trump-ocasio-cortes-reform-revolution-donald-trump-alexandria-ocasio-1553285076

Barbarians Inside the Gates

Pages from Leonardo Da Vinci's "Codex Leicester"

Yesterday, by accident of chance or fate, I found myself seated next to a lawyer for The Hammer Museum on a transcontinental flight from LAX to Reagan National Airport in Washington, DC. 

As a chatty person, I thought an attempt at conversation might pass the time, so discovering my seat mate was in the museum business, I shared some pet obsessions about over-restoration, forgery, looting, de-accessioning, and the sacrifice of great art for contemporary garbage by museums such as the now-suicided Corcoran Gallery of Art.

As The Hammer Museum is operated by UCLA, and I had an MFA from UCLA, and was still involved in the arts, I looked forward to an interesting discussion with an art world insider that could perhaps shed some light on what was going on. I shared my admiration for the Getty Museum and Crystal Bridges in Arkansas, and the fact that I'd published a novel about the art world, Alice Goldfarb Marquis' murder mystery set at the Museum of Modern Art, Brushstroke!

But more I talked, the quieter my seat mate got, until she said that she had work to do, put on her headset, and never spoke again for the duration of the flight.

I thought the reaction a bit strange. Someone I know said I was probably just an annoying gabby seat mate, the person didn't want to talk, and not to read anything into the reaction.

But something about her silence set me to thinking, and so I looked up The Hammer Museum on Wikipedia, once I got home.

What I discovered didn't exactly shock me, but it explained the silent treatment. The attorney apparently represented an institution which was doing the kind of stuff that I had been complaining about.

Most interestingly, The Hammer Museum had auctioned off Leonardo Da Vinci's Codex Leicester in 1994 for some 30 million dollars--although it had been Armand Hammer's favorite item (he renamed it the "Codex Hammer") and among the most valuable and important works in the collection.

Bill Gates bought the Codex and used it for a Microsoft screensaver, among other things. It still tours around different museums today, drawing crowds.

Who better represents the greatness of Western Civ than a universal genius like Da Vinci? 

Curiously, that same year UCLA entered into a 99-year agreement to manage The Hammer Museum. 

I wondered, why would any educational or cultural institutions want to get rid of a material relic of the greatest genius in history, especially when it could inspire students, faculty and members of the public--and symbolize a connection between arts and sciences that might inspire future generations?

Money could certainly be a reason, but then a thought occurred...

Leonardo Da Vinci was obviously a Dead White Man. Could another reason have been "Social Justice?" 


After all, universities in recent years have seemed obsessed with denigrating genius, part of a continuing assault on Western Civilization

So, I took a look at The Hammer Museum website today, and found that while they seem to have not yet sold off their Rembrandts or Impressionists, they have indeed added quite a bit of ghastly contemporary art...and programs on "Social Justice."

The homepage even featured a special section (scroll down) decorated with an ugly picture:

Discussing Social Justice 

Public programs and exhibitions at the Hammer that have engaged art and ideas on issues of social justice.

 

"Show up, dive in, stay at it": Post-Election Community Gathering 

This public forum featured speakers from Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, 

Los Angeles LGBT Center, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, and UCLA. 

The Watts Rebellion: 50 Years Later 

Three historians discuss the past and present of race relations in the United States. 

“Bad” Feminism 

Re-watch one of our most popular programs. In October 2016, Roxane Gay, Andi Zeisler, and the Hammer’s Connie Butler discuss the political, social, and cultural relevance of contemporary feminism.  

Now Dig This!: Art and Black Los Angeles 1960–1980 

This digital archive of the 2011–2012 exhibition examines the legacy of African-American artists in L.A., many of whom were connected to civil rights and Black Power movements. 

Social Justice in Church and State

Watch this 2014 program with Sister Simone Campbell who discussed the resurgence of social justice issues in the Catholic Church. 

Truly, when it comes to The Hammer Museum, the Barbarians are "inside the gates."

Jiří Kolář's "Forms of Visual Poetry" Shows What's Past Is Prologue...

 

Contemplation of Jiří Kolář's original and compelling collages and poetry -- on display at the American University Museum at Katzen Arts Center in Washington, DC until March 17th -- captures the destructive impact of political commissars upon artistic expression under totalitarianism of many stripes.

Read the whole thing at TheLatest.com: https://thelatest.com/tlt/jiri-kolar-forms-visual-poetry-shows-what-past-is-prologue-jiri-kolar-dissident-art-polit-1552426185

President Trump Comes Out Swinging for Free Speech at CPAC

President Trump took a strong public stand on behalf of free speech on campus in his March 2nd speech to the Conservative Political Action Coalition, making it an issue for the upcoming 2020 elections.

Read the whole thing at TheLatest.com: https://thelatest.com/tlt/president-trump-comes-out-swinging-free-speech-cpac-free-speech-hayden-williams-uc-1551652016

Robert Knight's 10-Step Program for Evangelical Christians

 

Robert Knight's A NATION WORTH FIGHTING FOR: 10 STEPS TO RESTORE FREEDOM is a political manifesto calling upon Evangelical Christians to "go on offense against the darkness, not cower in our church buildings, hoping it will go away..."

Read the whole thing at TheLatest.com: https://thelatest.com/tlt/robert-knight-10-step-program-evangelical-christians-christian-evangelicals-2020-el-1550875469

Mike Cernovich's HOAXED: A Defense of Freedom of Speech

I admired Mike Cernovich for his stand for freedom of speech with Milo and Pam Geller at UC Berkeley in September 2017 (an event Ann Coulter declined to attend). He stood up for freedom of speech then, and he has stood up for freedom of speech once again in this film. HOAXED deserves to be seen by every American who cares about the First Amendment, without regard to political orientation.

Read the whole thing at TheLatest.com: https://thelatest.com/tlt/mike-cernovich-hoaxed-a-defense-freedom-speech-donald-trump-covington-catholi-1550345691

Chairman Cole's Confession

ART FROM THE SWAMP: How Washington Bureaucrats Squander Millions on Awful Art (NY: Encounter Books, 2018)

Read the whole thing at TheLatest.com: https://thelatest.com/tlt/chairman-cole-confession-national-endowment-for-the-art-1549926859

Conductor-in-Chief

President Trump's recent State of the Union address demonstrated his uncanny ability to conduct members of Congress like a well-tuned orchestra to deliver a message of unity and hope for the future, on behalf of his crusade for American civilization's motto: "E Pluribus Unum."

Read the whole thing on TheLatest.com: https://thelatest.com/tlt/conductor-chief-donald-trump-state-of-the-unio-1549555268

Memo to the President: Take a “Listening Tour” of Federal Agencies

Following the end of the government shutdown, President Trump needs to take a "Listening Tour" of federal agencies to remind government employees he's in charge while giving them a chance to vent face-to-face. It would signal a change of tone in leadership, while disarming the "Resistance" and encouraging good government.

Read the whole thing at TheLatest.com: https://thelatest.com/tlt/memo-president-take-listening-tour-federal-agencies-donald-trump-civil-service-goo-1548882842

President Trump Knew When To Fold

Perhaps Kenny Rogers' 1978 song, "The Gambler" best explains why President Trump ended the Government Shutdown yesterday. He folded because he saw didn't have the cards in his hand to win. He now needs to come up with an alternative to end the stalemate before the February 15th deadline.

Read the whole thing at TheLatest.com: https://thelatest.com/tlt/president-trump-knew-when-fold-government-shutdown-nancy-pelo-1548502666

Where Were the Police During Covington Catholic Confrontation?

The standoff seemed go on for at least 45 minutes, yet no officer appeared to "de-escalate" the conflict, as called for in police guidelines. No one interposed themselves between two hostile camps. No one asked anyone to "move along" or "break it up." Instead, police permitted a tense confrontation between crowds which could have led to a bloody brawl, or worse.

Read the whole thing at TheLatest.com: https://thelatest.com/tlt/where-were-police-during-covington-catholic-confrontation-covington-catholic-school-nath-1548170892

A Bipartisan Commission Could End Government Shutdown Now

Washington attorney Joseph I. Goldstein suggests President Trump and Congress establish a bipartisan commission to oversee Border Wall construction, to end the Government Shutdown now. This would allow appropriation of $5 billion dollars, as promised by President Trump in his 2016 campaign, while Congress could condition actual expenditures upon expert oversight, thus retaining authority, while permitting both sides to save face.

Read the whole thing at TheLatest.com: https://thelatest.com/tlt/a-bipartisan-commission-could-end-government-shutdown-now-government-shutdown-border-wal-1547827560

The Government Shutdown Isn't About A Wall

The current government shutdown isn't about construction of a wall along the US-Mexican border; rather it's a symbolic struggle over whether President Donald J. Trump is allowed to remain President. This is a fight President Trump can't afford to lose.

Read the whole thing at TheLatest.com: https://thelatest.com/tlt/the-government-shutdown-isn-about-a-wall-government-shutdown-donald-tru-1547247795

Patreon's Purge "One of the Most Important Speech Wars of Our Time"

Like Ayatollah Khomeni's 1989 fatwa against "The Satanic Verses," Patreon's purge of "Sargon of Akkad" for "hate speech" marks a tipping point for freedom of speech on the internet, revealing the totalitarian objectives of the censors. Dissident YouTubers must be protected by President Trump, just as Margaret Thatcher protected Salman Rushdie.

Read the whole thing at TheLatest.com: https://thelatest.com/tlt/patreon-purge-one-most-important-speech-wars-our-time-jordan-peterson-sargon-of-akka-1546986446

Mary Poppins Returns!

After half a century, Mary Poppins returned to movie theaters this Christmas with something for everyone--older viewers who saw the original, younger viewers who met her for the first time, and middle-aged viewers who wanted to share their own childhood experience with a new generation.

Read the whole thing at TheLatest.com: https://thelatest.com/tlt/mary-poppins-returns-mary-poppins-julie-andrews-dis-1546717492

Some New Year’s Resolutions for President Trump

Christmas feasting ended, we turn to 2019 with a mixture of apprehension and hope, humbly offering some New Year’s Resolutions for President Trump...

Read the whole thing at TheLatest.com: https://thelatest.com/tlt/some-new-year-resolutions-president-trump-new-year-039-s-resolutions-pre-1545845758

President Trump's 2018 Highs and Lows

Washington consultant Joe Gelman believes appointing Justice Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court was President Trump's greatest success in 2018. "Failing to drain the Swamp" is his greatest failure, "because instead the Swamp is draining him."

Read the whole thing at TheLatest.com: https://thelatest.com/tlt/president-trump-2018-highs-lows-president-donald-trump-justice-1545239154

Read Jane Jacobs' "Systems of Survival" to Understand Donald Trump

 

Jane Jacobs' 1992 "Systems of Survival: A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics" might explain Donald Trump's 2016 victory better than Steve Bannon's "Fourth Turning" or President Obama's "Arc of History."

Read the whole thing at TheLatest.com: https://thelatest.com/tlt/read-jane-jacobs-systems-survival-understand-donald-trump-trump-jane-jacobs-obama-1544982292

Bannon and Frum Debate Trump's American Populism--in Canada

Steve Bannon and David Frum's Munk Debate from November 2nd was one of the stranger television shows that I have seen. Contra Frum, Bannon argued President Trump is a transformative figure in "the Fourth Turning" of American history (The Revolution, Civil War and New Deal were the other three). So the Obama Administration's end represented the exhaustion of one cycle, the Trump Administration the beginning of another.

Read the whole thing at TheLatest.com: https://thelatest.com/tlt/bannon-frum-debate-trump-american-populism-canada-trump-administration-populism--1544894974

The Unforgettable William Barr

Sometime in 1993, fate seated me next to former Attorney General William Barr on the Washington-NY shuttle. We spoke for about an hour about the recent tragic raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas which killed 76 people. He told me no one would have died if it had been properly handled. He knew because he supervised a similar raid at a prison in 1991--where everyone lived. I never forgot that conversation...

Read the whole thing at TheLatest.com: https://thelatest.com/tlt/the-unforgettable-william-barr-william-barr-trump-waco-1544458494

President George H. W. Bush (1924-2018): Outspoken Foe of Political Correctness

President George H.W. Bush is memorialized as an American war hero and symbol of civility. However, Americans need to remember that opposition to Political Correctness is equally his legacy, declared in a May 4, 1991 University of Michigan commencement address.

Read the whole thing at TheLatest.com: https://thelatest.com/tlt/president-george-h-w-bush-1924-2018-outspoken-foe-political-correctness-george-h-w-bush-political-corr-1543682367

Chicago on the Nile

Dr. W. Raymond Johnson with Chicago House's collection of ancient Egyptian prints and drawings

The Oriental Institute's "Chicago House" in Luxor is a Monument to American Civilization in Egypt


Read the whole thing at TheLatest.com: https://thelatest.com/tlt/chicago-nile-egypt-flaubert-chicago-1543337623

Egypt Recovers From Arab Spring

Author at the Giza Mena House Hotel (Cairo)

A recent visit to the Pyramids showed Egyptian tourism recovering from civil strife and economic woes of the Arab Spring.

Read the whole thing at TheLatest.com: https://thelatest.com/tlt/egypt-recovers-arab-spring-egypt-pyramids-arab-spring-1543149285

Joseph Gelman Says American Jews Must Reject Politicization of Pittsburgh Massacre

Joseph Gelman with former Israeli President Shimon Peres

Following the Tree of Life synagogue massacre in Pittsburgh last Saturday, Joseph Gelman urges the American Jewish community to reject politicization and instead work with people of goodwill across the political spectrum--including President Trump.

Read the whole thing at TheLatest.com: https://thelatest.com/tlt/joseph-gelman-urges-american-jews-reject-politicization-pittsburgh-massacre-trump-anti-semitism-hate-1541017509

William Woodward's Natural Beauty

For Woodward, artistic beauty isn’t merely a social construct. It is actually inherent in human nature. In fact, it is found within our DNA. The pull of beauty is eternal, and from the cave-dwellers of Lascaux, to the cliff-dwellers of Washington, people commune with nature via art.

Read the whole thing at TheLatest.com: https://thelatest.com/tlt/william-woodward-natural-beauty-art-realism-beauty-1540604741

The Palestinian-"Caravan" Connection

Posted at http://www.pueblosinfronteras.org/members.html:

Palestine and Latin America: Marches for Justice meet

On Tuesday, April 10, the Mexican Coordination for Palestine (CORSOPAL) and the #WorldwithoutWalls delegation handed over a letter from the Palestinian Stop the Wall Campaign to the Via Crucis March of Migrants as it arrived in Mexico City.
At the same moment that Palestinians in Gaza started the #GreatReturnMarch, migrants from all over Central America, in particular Honduras, started their march towards the US border, militarized by the Wall of Infamy. The letter highlights the connections between the people struggles as well as the complicity between the powers that oppress them.

From Palestine, as part of a people whose majority is refugees and displaced persons because of Israel’s ongoing ethnic cleansing of our lands, we want to extend our solidarity.

We want to tell you that we are in struggle together with you.

We salute your March of the over 1500 migrants that challenge US racist and exclusivist migration policies that stop the people from crossing borders, depriving them of their basic rights to freedom of movement and rights as refugees. We recognize that most of you have been forced to leave your homes because of US foreign policies and oppressive political regimes backed by the United States and, we add, Israel as the one state that has since the seventies until today militarily and politically backed each and every coup, dictatorship and anti-peoples regime in Latin America.

As Palestinians we feel deeply connected to your experiences.

70 years ago, our Nakba (catastrophe) began when Israel established itself on the mass ethnic cleansing of our people and over half of our people have been, often at gunpoint, forced out of their homes and their lands for Israel to establish its apartheid regime. Since 1948 when entire villages were fleeing Israeli military aggression and massacres, until today, Israeli policies of occupation and colonization continue to expel our people by taking our lands and destroying our communities. Israeli repression, including ongoing invasions, night raids and large scale incarceration, aims to make live impossible. Half of the Palestinian male population passes at least once through Israeli prisons.

Israel has built an up to 8 meter high Wall around Gaza to besiege its population and around the West Bank villages and towns our people so that today we are allowed to access and use only 13% of our historic homeland.

Like you, we know the Via Crucis of long marches.

As you are marching to claim your rights as migrants, in Palestine the people of Gaza, the large majority of them refugees expelled from their homes 70 years ago, have started their Long March of Return. Every Friday tens of thousands of people are marching to the militarized border of Gaza that is part of Israel’s wall structure that imposes since over a decade the brutal siege on Gaza. People demand an end to the siege and occupation, they demand their UN sanctioned Right of Return. They demand an end to Israeli apartheid. Regular marches to the military checkpoints at the exits of our cities and Israel’s up to 8 meter high wall that is ghettoising our villages in the occupied West Bank are ongoing as well.

We may be geographically far away from your march but our oppressors are united in the same criminal and cruel policies, mutually supporting each other.
Israeli walls are the example for the US administration when promoting the Wall of Infamy at the US-Mexico border. Not by chance the same Israeli companies build both walls. Not by chance the same drones tested on our people in Gaza are being used to militarize the southern border of Mexico to comply with US dictates.

While many of you have been driven from your homes in Honduras by Juan Orlando Hérnandez regime, Israel has signed a military agreement with JOH. Israel has invited him as the first foreign president to participate in the celebrations of Israel’s 70 years of establishment on the ethnic cleansing of our people, ironically then cancelling the invitation because of human rights abuses for which Israel has provided assistance since the coup against Manuel Zelaya.

Just as Donald Trump has ordered a military troops to be deployed at the US-Mexico Wall to defend the US racist and exclusionary policies against your legitimate claims for rights, Israel has stationed its military and snipers behind the border wall to Gaza against unarmed civilians. Over 30 people have been killed so far by Israeli snipers inside Gaza, thousands injured while the international community remains in complicit silence. The US veto against any condemnation of Israel’s ongoing massacre of civilians at the #GazaReturnMarches aims to protest as well its own criminal policies. Yet, Palestinian popular mobilization will persist and grow.

We know that we share a struggle for our rights and dignity, for the right to freedom of movement, for the right to live on our lands and homes, for the right to self-determination.

For us all existence is resistance.

We know that our struggles united can achieve a #WorldwithoutWalls and Justice, Freedom and Equality for all.

In solidarity,
Palestinian Grassroots Stop the Wall Campaign

The Khashoggi Affair: Business As Usual For Saudi Arabia

Jamal Khashoggi

Adnan Khashoggi 

Dr. James Kurth

Pundits have declared the gruesome death of Jamal Khashoggi an international crisis, but one authority on international politics disagrees. Dr. James Kurth of Swarthmore College confronted Uncle Adnan Khashoggi in 1977 and remains sanguine about the future of Saudi-American relations. He believes assassinations are normal in the Arab world, advises the Trump administration to do nothing to stop them, and resist the siren call of "Democracy Building."

Read the whole thing at TheLATEST.com: https://thelatest.com/tlt/the-khashoggi-affair-business-as-usual-for-saudi-arabia-saudi-arabia-jamal-khashoggi-i-1540003328

Eva Brann--The Imaginative Conservative

In 2015, Dr. Eva Brann, a tutor at St. John’s College in Annapolis, published a 12-point essay titled “Reflections on Imaginative Conservativism” declaring: “The imaginative conservative’s practical project is survival without loss of soul.” After reading that, I ordered her book on the topic, "Then and Now," which begins with Herodotus. Still seeking to learn more, I went to Annapolis, to ask Dr. Brann in person how Imaginative Conservatism works....

Read the whole thing at TheLatest.com: https://thelatest.com/tlt/eva-brann-the-imaginative-conservative-conservative-imagination-trump-1539384109

Tucker Carson's "Ship of Fools": How a Selfish Ruling Class is Bringing America to the Brink of Revolution

Like Jordan Peterson, Tucker Carlson believes you should show that you can clean up your room before you “save the planet.” He holds views similar to Bill Clinton’s “Double Bubba” 1992 platform, calling for good jobs at good wages. But he says Democrats are now a Party of the Rich, whose liberal “meritocrats” became the “establishment” they pretended to despise.

Read the whole thing in TheLatest.com:  https://thelatest.com/tlt/tucker-carson-ship-of-fools-how-selfish-ruling-class-bringing-america-brink-revolution-democrats-ruling-class-trump-1538784201

The Trump Doctrine Promises to "Make the UN Great Again"

This week’s most important news took place on Monday in New York when President Trump unveiled his "Trump Doctrine" at the UN General Assembly, not in Washington over whether Brett Kavanaugh groped Christine Blasey Ford at a party some thirty-six years ago.

Read the whole thing at TheLatest.com: https://thelatest.com/tlt/the-trump-doctrine-promises-make-un-great-again-trump-united-nations-foreign-p-1538176137

Is Judge Kavanaugh the Republican Emmett Till?

 

Those who "believe all women" have forgotten the lesson of Emmett Till, falsely accused of sexual harassment by Carolyn Bryan in 1955.

Read the whole thing at TheLatest.com: https://thelatest.com/tlt/is-judge-kavanaugh-republican-emmett-till-brett-kavanaugh-sexual-harrass-1537541376

Trump’s Shanksville Speech Provides the Answer to 9/11

In contrast to a Bush-Obama legacy of despair and loss, Trump’s 9/11 Shanksville Flight 93 National Memorial address is a bold call to action: “Free people are never at the mercy of evil because our destiny is always in our hands. America’s future is not written by our enemies. America’s future is written by our heroes.”

Read the whole thing at TheLatest.com: https://thelatest.com/tlt/trump-shanksville-speech-provides-answer-9-11-trump-flight-93-shanksville-1536983494

Conservative Surrender Fueled "Crisis in the Humanities"

The current “Crisis in the Humanities,” illustrated by Benjamin Schmidt’s graph, is that students are “voting with their feet” to pursue STEM instead of Liberal Arts. He says this is due to economic pressures, but a contributing factor was Conservatives who steered students into STEM to escape PC indoctrination—thus ceding the Humanities to those who wished to “subvert the dominant paradigm.”

Read the whole thing at The Latest.com: https://thelatest.com/tlt/conservative-surrender-fueled-crisis-humanities-political-correctness-humaniti-1536363216

In 2018 Congressional Elections: US Constitution is at Stake

Bottom Line:

In "Seven Days in May," Kirk Douglas saved President Lyman from a coup. However, today's elite may care more about “saving the planet” than preserving, protecting and defending the Constitution.That’s why in the 2018 elections, more than the Presidency of Donald Trump is on the ballot…the US Constitution is at stake.

Read the whole thing at TheLatest.com (https://thelatest.com/tlt/us-constitution-stake-2018-elections-trump-resistance-revolution-1535755640)

Coulter's RESISTANCE IS FUTILE! How the Trump-Hating Left Lost Its Collective Mind

Bottom line:

Resistance is Futile! is not a screed, but rather a carefully documented study of media duplicities and double-standards, written with humor and panache.

Read the whole thing at TheLatest.com (https://thelatest.com/tlt/ann-coulter-resistance-futile-the-media-laid-bare-trump-media-ann-coulter-1535144594).

Thank you Sen. Nelson, Sen. Rubio & Cong. Gaetz!

Public Domain photo by Michael Strasser, DVIDS

For inserting this section into the 2019 John McCain National Defense Authorization Act signed by President Trump at Fort Drum, New York on August 13th:

2867.

Plan to allow increased public access to the National Naval Aviation Museum and Barrancas National Cemetery, Naval Air Station Pensacola

Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the Navy shall submit to the congressional defense committees a plan to allow increased public access to the National Naval Aviation Museum and Barrancas National Cemetery at Naval Air Station Pensacola.