12 House Democrats from New York — including the chairs of the powerful Oversight Committee and Judiciary Committee — issued statements within minutes of each other on Friday calling for New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to resign in the wake of a sixth sexual harassment allegation.
Why it matters: Pressure for Cuomo to resign is now coming from Congress. 13 of the 19 House Democrats from the New York delegation have now called for his resignation, with the 10 on Friday joining Rep. Kathleen Rice — who called for the governor to step down on March 1 after a third accuser came forward.
The list includes:
House Judiciary chair Jerry Nadler
House Oversight chair Carolyn Maloney
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Rep. Jamal Bowman
Rep. Mondaire Jones
Rep. Grace Meng
Rep. Yvette Clark
Rep. Adriano Espaillat
Rep. Nydia Velasquez
Rep. Anthony Delgado
Rep. Brian Higgins
Rep. Sean Maloney
Between the lines: As of 11:40 a.m., six Democratic members of the New York delegation had not appeared to join Friday’s coordinated campaign — Reps. Hakeem Jeffries, Gregory Meeks, Tom Suozzi, Ritchie Torres, Paul Tonko and Joe Morelle.
The big picture: The statements come one day after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and 59 New York state lawmakers called for Cuomo to resign.
New York State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie has authorized an impeachment investigation into Cuomo. 47 state senators have said Cuomo should step aside, more than the 46 needed to convict the governor if he’s impeached by the Assembly.
The governor is also facing an independent inquiry from the New York attorney general and a police inquiry in Albany.
The crusading Manhattan district attorney who is investigating former President Donald Trump’s finances said Friday he will not seek reelection for a fourth term.
In a memo released to his staff, District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr., who was first elected in 2009, did not provide a reason for his decision not to seek reelection.
“Representing the People of New York during this pivotal era for our city and our justice system has been the privilege of a lifetime,” he wrote in the memo released by his office. “Working in partnership with Manhattan communities, the D.A.’s Office we built together over the last decade has taken us beyond the ambitious blueprint we laid out in 2009.”
Mr. Vance wrote that he was most proud of building safer communities in New York and addressing what he sees as racial inequity in the city’s criminal justice system.
“We made enduring, systemic reforms — using the power of our discretion to massively reduce our criminal justice footprint and the inequities that underlie unnecessary prosecutions,” he wrote.
He is currently pursuing a wide-ranging probe into Mr. Trump’s family business and financial dealings.
It was reported this week that Mr. Vance was ramping up his investigation into Mr. Trump, zeroing on his Seven Springs estate in Westchester County, New York. Mr. Vance is said to be reviewing whether the former president inflated its value to secure loans or other financial benefits.
Mr. Trump has slammed the investigation as “a witch hunt.”
Oklahoma became the latest to lift virtually all Covid-19 restrictions on Thursday, bringing the total number of states that have chosen to fully reopen—despite warnings from public health officials—to seven, with a number of others also moving in that direction.
KEY FACTS
Oklahoma: Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) said he will be signing an executive order on Friday that will roll back his few remaining coronavirus restrictions, removing limits on events and public gatherings, as well as the state-wide mask mandate (the state averaged 643 cases and 23.9 deaths each day over the past week).
Wyoming: Gov. Mark Gordon (R) announced March 8 that the state would repeal its statewide mask mandate and allow “bars, restaurants, theaters and gyms to resume normal operations” on March 16, but stipulated face masks will remain mandatory inside the state’s schools (the state averaged 7,343 cases and 1.3 deaths each day over the past week).
Texas: The largest state to remove all restrictions, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) announced on March 2 that Texas would be nixing its mask mandate and allowing businesses to reopen “100%” this Wednesday, banning jurisdictions from implementing local mask mandates unless they meet certain hospitalization metrics (the state averaged 4,909 cases and 189.9 deaths each day over the past week).
Mississippi: Gov. Tate Reeves (R) also decided to drop the state’s mask mandate and all Covid-19 restrictions on March 2, with the limits lifted the next day (the state averaged 396 cases and 14.6 deaths each day over the past week).
Montana: Gov. Greg Gianforte (R) announced the end of Montana’s mask mandate on Feb. 12, removing the last of the state’s restrictions, though some local jurisdictions have kept face covering requirements in place (the state averaged 129 cases and 2 deaths each day over the past week).
North Dakota: The state opted not to renew its mask mandate, first enacted in November, when it expired in January 2021, ending North Dakota’s restrictions (the state averaged 78 cases and 0.4 deaths each day over the past week).
Iowa: Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) ended the last of the state’s restrictions, the mask mandate issued in November 2020, in early February (the state averaged 481 cases and 14.4 deaths each day over the past week).
SURPRISING FACT
All seven of the states that have fully reopened are run by Republican governors.
Persecution of Christian women worldwide has risen dramatically in the last year as a new study released by Open Doors International found that forced marriages have increased by 16%, and physical violence against women has increased 31%.
Global persecution watchdog group Open Doors International released the 2021 “Same Faith, Different Persecution” report on gender-specific religious persecution ahead of International Women’s Day finds(GSRP) to detail the plight of the global persecuted Church and how this especially affects women.
GSRP has risen to the highest level recorded in the three years since the report was first issued in 2018, as women face a higher potential risk of religious persecution than men. The report’s data comes from the top 50 countries on the group’s annual World Watch List between Oct. 1, 2019, and Sep. 30, 2020.
Helene Fisher, a global gender persecution specialist for Open Doors International and one of the authors of the report, told The Christian Post that the increased threat to women is often because women have fewer rights in most of the top 50 countries for religious persecution.
“Because [women] have fewer rights and fewer protections, they’re just an easier target,” Fisher said.
“They can also be targeted with impunity, which means that if there is a population that doesn’t want the Christians to thrive, they can go after the women and girls. And there aren’t consequences for those aggressors. So, it is a question of the women and girls having fewer rights for legal protections. [Women] are more vulnerable in the society, and they are just the easiest way to disable the Christian population.”
Fisher and the other authors of the report — Eva Brown, Elizabeth Lane Miller and Rachel Morley — highlight that faith, combined with their gender, puts women more at risk.
The five most common “pressure points” among women in the top 50 countries on the World Watch List for religious persecution are forced marriage, sexual violence, physical violence, psychological violence and forced divorce. Each category increased since last year’s study.
Ninety percent of the top 50 countries where Christians are most persecuted report forced marriage as a pressure point, and 86% of countries report sexual violence.
Reports of psychological violence among women in these countries rose from 40% to 74% from the 2020 report to the 2021 report. Forced marriages increased by 16%, and physical violence increased by 31%.
Women are often used as pawns to target the Christian community. Persecutors often target the daughters of pastors to weaken the core of the church community.
“It is a well-documented fact that rape can be used as a weapon of war,” the report reads. “Women’s bodies essentially become the second battlefield. The ‘capture’ of women in a community demonstrates to the men that they were unable to ‘protect’ them. Persecutors are seen as ‘dominant.’ In the midst of using these women as pawns, of course, real women are violently abused.”
Targeting women, the child bearers, and forcing them to convert is a tactic used to destabilize the future generation of the Church, the development of families and the raising of Christian children.
Trafficking women as a form of religious persecution is on the rise, particularly in Asia and Africa, the report finds. Christian refugees or internally displaced peoples are especially vulnerable to this.
“Trafficking as a form of religious persecution continues to pose a threat in all regions on the World Watch List and it is rising, particularly in Africa and Asia. Globally, 17 countries (up from 10 the previous year) reported incidents of trafficked women and girls,” the report adds. “Countries engaged in conflict were most likely to report instances of sexual violence and trafficking.”
Extremist groups in the Middle East and North Africa often weaponize trafficking by forcing or seducing Christians into marriage or sexual slavery and forced conversions to Islam.
Women who are able to escape their captors often struggle to reintegrate into their home society due to shame, stigma and damaged self-worth.
A young Nigerian girl named Ester was abducted by Boko Haram and was impregnated by one of her captors, the report chronicles.
When she returned home, she was shunned, and the community called her baby “Boko” after the militants who abducted her. This tactic of shame is sometimes part of the extremists’ goal.
Fisher said the narrative in Christian communities in response to this should use biblical truth to fight the false narrative Islam seeks to spread through the shame of rape and sexual exploitation of women. Doing so will foil the persecutors’ strategies, she said.
“Our value is not determined by what has been done to us, but is determined by what has been done for us by Jesus Christ. Just holding on to that truth can radically change the future of a community,” Fisher shared.
In China, the shortage of women due to gender-biased sex selection of males and the one-child birth policy has led to human trafficking webs that force women into marriages to produce male children. The U.S. State Department reported that traffickers increasingly sent girls to China for arranged marriages from impoverished Christian communities.
In its 2020 Trafficking Persons profile on Pakistan, the U.S. State Department noted that “traffickers increasingly targeted impoverished Christian communities to send females to China for arranged marriages.”
The persecution of men and women presents itself very differently due to structural vulnerabilities. Since women are more confined to the home, their persecution is less visible in nature.
“The religious persecution against men is focused, severe, and visible, whereas the religious persecution of women tends to be complex, hidden and violent,” Fisher explained.
Men are more likely to face imprisonment and are pressured by the government in the workplace or public sphere. But women are often held hostage in their own homes, Fisher stated.
Men are also likely to be killed or forced to join the military, while women are likely to be trafficked, forced to flee the country and have an increased chance of being abducted.
“When they are going after the women, they can accomplish the same ends in a much less visible manner. Now, if it’s less visible, it’s less of a risk to the persecutor …,” Fisher said. “We find that a lot of the ways women and girls are targeted tends to be hidden because it’s in the domestic sphere.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated the situation as levels of persecution, especially domestically, have risen to produce a “shadow pandemic.” The pandemic has also led to a rise in abductions due to decreased security.
“We have noticed of course that COVID has made the vulnerable even more vulnerable,” Fisher shared.
In Latin American and sub-Saharan Africa, criminal groups especially intensified criminal activity against Christians during the vulnerabilities of the pandemic and lockdowns.
Oftentimes, Christians in heavily persecuted countries are met with backlash from the government when they report persecution inflicted on them. When governments turn a blind eye to violence, it takes “tremendous tenacity” from the Christians to even be acknowledged.
“[Governments] doing nothing is failing to provide justice and protection. That is doing something that is effectively aggressive against Christians by not providing those basic citizenry services or human rights services,” Fisher said. “And we do find that around the globe, we have so many cases where it is difficult for Christians to bring a case of individual attacks against someone.”
The attacks against Christian women especially target the family unit, marriage and the individual by targeting the woman’s worth. The GSRP report concludes that a multi-faceted solution is required to address such a complex problem.
The GSRP analytical team suggested that local faith actors develop a faith-based approach to respond to the toll on the church, family and community.
“Although someone’s choice to convert to Christianity may expose them to persecution, that faith can also be a resource for strength, comfort and forging a path forward as a response to the persecution and discrimination they might encounter as part of a minority religion,” the report stated.
Research from the World Watch List shows more than 340 million Christians globally endure high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith, which amounts to one in eight Christians around the world.
A New Jersey lawmaker has introduced a bill that will require the State to provide the capability to vote in person to all voters in all elections. This bill is one in a set of bills introduced by Republican Assemblyman Gerry Scharfenberger to protect election integrity in New Jersey.
In 2020 Scharfenberger also introduced a bill requiring voters to present proof of identity when voting and a bill to purge ineligible voters from voter rolls. Scharfenberger plans to introduce in a few days a new bill requiring the New Jersey government to establish a hotline for reporting election fraud.
Voters go to the polls at Sara Smith Elementary polling station, in the Buckhead district, in Atlanta during the Georgia Senate runoff elections, on Jan. 5, 2021. (Virginie Kippelen/AFP via Getty Images)
Voting in Person
The bill requiring that all elections in New Jersey provide voters with the capability to vote in person at polling places was introduced by Scharfenberger in February. The measure also prohibits the governor from restricting the right to vote in person without the New Jersey legislature’s approval while preserving voter’s right to choose to vote by mail.
“The Legislature has been wrongfully cut-out from having any real say in these decisions—that cannot continue any longer,” Scharfenberger said in a statement, referring to Democrat Governor Phil Murphy’s Executive Order taking away the ability to vote in person in the 2020 election on the grounds of limiting the spread of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic.
“These are not some arbitrary choices with little impact, we are dealing with constitutional rights,” Scharfenberger said in the statement.
“My office was inundated with calls and emails and texts from people who were very upset that they could not go to the polls … they [felt] that they were disenfranchised,” Scharfenberger told The Epoch Time in an interview on March 5. He said that among constituents who called him were people of all political persuasions.
Many citizens wanted to go to vote in person because they felt it was their right, Scharfenberger added. “That’s the way they’ve always voted and they feel most comfortable and I think that’s only fair.”
“The arguments that they made were very compelling, … they would go into a Home Depot or Lowe’s, and there would be massive crowds, yet they were prohibited from going to a polling station where they would go one at a time into a booth,” Scharfenberger said.
COVID-19 safety precautions such as wearing masks, using disinfectants, and spacing people out could have been easily applied at polling stations, Scharfenberger said, similar to how they were applied in stores or on public transportation.
Initially in New Jersey, anybody could request a vote by mail-in ballot and that system worked well, Scharfenberger said, but a year or two before the pandemic, the New Jersey State administration began to send vote-by-mail ballots to all who had requested it anytime in the past. That upset and confused people who usually vote in person but voted by mail occasionally due to being away or other reasons, Scharfenberger said.
In the November 2020 election, when mail ballots were sent to all voters, there were many erroneous ballots sent, Scharfenberger said. He added that he received calls from people who received ballots for their relatives who had passed away long ago or moved out of the state, or from married women who had changed their name and received two ballots—one under their maiden name and one of their married name.
Prohibiting in-person voting is denying people the right to be able to physically go to a poll, Scharfenberger said. But if erroneous ballots “ended up in the wrong hands, they could be open to fraud, “ he added.
Virginia voters head to the polls at Nottingham Elementary School in Arlington, Va. on Nov. 5, 2019. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Voter ID at Polling Places
Another bill introduced by Scharfenberger together with Republican Assemblyman Kevin Rooney requires registered voters to present identification when voting at a polling place. The bill lists 12 types of acceptable IDs such as a New Jersey driver’s license, U.S. passport, employment ID, birth certificate, or student ID.
The measure, introduced in June 2020, does not exclude voters who do not possess any of the 12 identification types from voting. They can still provide two pieces of “supplemental identification” like a proof of residence, a utility bill, a mortgage, or rental statement.
If they are unable to provide even any supplemental identification they may be challenged, but the legislation still gives challenged voters an opportunity to establish their right to vote before their district’s board of elections.
Scharfenberger said his constituents told him that when they went to vote nobody asked them for any ID and that they were appalled by it. Identification is needed to rent a car, to pick up tickets to a minor league baseball game, and to apply for food stamps so there is no reason not to extend the same sort of protection to voters, Scharfenberger said.
Voters should be able to show some form of ID to prove who they are, Scharfenberger said. “The public would want this and understands why it’s important. It’s just another layer of safeguarding the honesty and integrity of the elections.”
Cleansing the Voter Rolls
Lucas Sae, 22, (L) turns in his voter registration form to temporary worker Loren Quiroz (R) as his father Ramiro Saez looks on, at the Miami-Dade County Elections Department in Doral, Fla., on Oct. 6, 2020. (Wilfredo Lee/AP Photo)
Scharfenberger in December also introduced a bill to cleanse the voter rolls of ineligible voters. The bill requires state authorities to establish in New Jersey “a voter list maintenance and crosscheck program” in order to keep voter lists accurate and up-to-date.
Under the program, a new statewide secure voter registration system would be established and maintained, according to the bill. The new system should provide the capability to verify information about newly registered voters and remove duplicates, non-resident, deceased, or ineligible voters from the voter rolls.
It is “very haphazard” when people deceased for years, sometimes decades, still remain on the voter list, Scharfenberger said. Another “huge problem” is people being registered in multiple states, he said. Scharfenberger does not blame people for it. If someone’s relative passes away or someone moves for their job to another state, those people have a lot on their minds and are too occupied to notify authorities to update their voter record, he said.
Therefore Scharfenberger proposed the use of computer software called Crosscheck, which scans all the voter rolls, and identifies ineligible voters whose names should be removed, using social security numbers or other information. The system findings can be verified by reaching out to people picked up by the system, Scharfenberger said.
Such a system would resolve issues where people have two names because they got married or divorced, he added. “At least you know that the rolls would be accurate and you can feel confident that whoever is on those voter rolls are legitimate voters,” he added.
Voter Fraud Hotline
Scharfenberger plans to introduce a new bill soon that will require the New Jersey government to establish a hotline for reporting voter fraud. He said it’s important that people who got a hold of a deceased person’s ballot or are aware of other irregularities have an avenue to report on these events. “It’s just another tool to be able to keep fraud to a minimum,” he said.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie arrives to deliver the State of the State Address in the Assembly Chambers at the Statehouse in Trenton, New Jersey, on Jan. 14, 2014. (Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images)
The bills introduced by Scharfenberger have been co-sponsored by several Republican lawmakers, but he plans to get Democratic lawmakers to co-sponsor them: “I’m hoping to get a bipartisan push,” he said.
Several Democrats were receptive to ideas presented in these election integrity-related bills, Scharfenberger said. “I’m going to appeal to their sense of fair play, that we really all benefit—both parties—from honest, accurate elections.”
“This is the most basic component of choosing a leadership so the other issues can be debated and addressed. … This is the most basic, basic right—we have to be able to choose our leaders and who we want to represent us. And I think every patriotic American citizen could live with the results of any election as long as they’re confident that it was fair enough,” Scharfenberger said.
“I think these bills will legitimize elections from now on.”
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a professor at Stanford University Medical School, recently said that COVID-19 lockdowns are the “biggest public health mistake we’ve ever made…The harm to people is catastrophic.”
Professor Jay Bhattacharya MD: The lockdown harms are worse than Covid. Scientists are being silenced. pic.twitter.com/Oo3Nk6poqA
In the 2nd Part of our interview with (now London Mayoral Candidate) Laurence Fox, we're joined by Jay Bhattacharya, Professor of Medicine at Stanford, to talk Covid-19 Lockdowns.
Several U.S. states have started to ease their COVID-19 restrictions over the past few weeks.
Bhattacharya, who made the comments during an interview with the Daily Clout, co-authored the Great Barrington Declaration, a petition that calls for the end of COVID-19 lockdowns, claiming that they are “producing devastating effects on short and long-term public health.”
As of Monday, the Great Barrington Declaration has received signatures from over 13,000 medical and public health scientists, more than 41,000 medical practitioners and at least 754,399 “concerned citizens.”
During the interview last month, Bhattacharya said that the declaration comes from “two basic facts.”
“One is that people who are older have a much higher risk from dying from COVID than people who are younger…and that’s a really important fact because we know who his most vulnerable, it’s people that are older. So the first plank of the Great Barrington Declaration: let’s protect the vulnerable,” Bhattacharya said. “The other idea is that the lockdowns themselves impose great harm on people. Lockdowns are not a natural normal way to live.”
Demonstrators rally outside the Pennsylvania Capitol Building regarding the continued closure of businesses due to the coronavirus pandemic on May 15, 2020 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. MARK MAKELA/GETTY
He continued, “it’s also not very equal. People who are poor face much more hardship from the lockdowns than people who are rich.”
In an email sent to Newsweek, Bhattacharya wrote:
I stand behind my comment that the lockdowns are the single worst public health mistake in the last 100 years. We will be counting the catastrophic health and psychological harms, imposed on nearly every poor person on the face of the earth, for a generation.
At the same time, they have not served to control the epidemic in the places where they have been most vigorously imposed. In the US, they have – at best – protected the “non-essential” class from COVID, while exposing the essential working class to the disease. The lockdowns are trickle down epidemiology.
Last week, Republican Governors in Texas and Mississippi announced the end to their statewide mask mandates, as well as allowing a majority of businesses to reopen.
“Starting tomorrow, we are lifting all of our county mask mandates and businesses will be able to operate at full capacity without any state-imposed rules. Our hospitalizations and case numbers have plummeted, and the vaccine is being rapidly distributed. It is time!” Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves tweeted last week.
Similarly, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said during a press conference that “It is now time to open Texas 100 percent.”
Stanford’s Dr. Jay Bhattacharya told Newsweek that COVID-19 lockdowns are “the single worst public health mistake in the last 100 years.”https://t.co/SeIynQ1UI5
I’m sorry — but these are the left’s rules, and because they set them, I’m going to play them.
President Biden is not in good mental health. Just this week he forgot the name of the Defense Department and its leader Secretary Lloyd Austin.
Come on guys, this is obvious. And every day! His staff who are hiding his true condition for benefit of their careers are sickening. They should have said it earlier. Either we’re going to have a hobbled nominee who’s going to lose to Trump or they handed nomination to Bernie. https://t.co/IGjcwA5Ff9
“And I want to thank the sec — the, the ah former general. I keep calling him general, but my, my — the guy who runs the outfit over there,” Mr. Biden said during a White House event on Monday announcing the nomination of two female generals to lead U.S. military combatant commands.
It’s not the first time Mr. Biden has forgotten the names of those in his Cabinet. In December, he mispronounced the name of his nominee for the Department of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra. At the time — like pretty much every time we publicly see Mr. Biden — he was reading off a teleprompter.
Mr. Biden has still not been to the Southern border — likely because he’s too weak to travel and has refused to give a full-scale press briefing — likely because he’s too feeble and mentally confused to give reliable, White House-approved answers.
In December, then President-elect Biden bizarrely broke his foot — by tripping on a rug after a shower as he chased after his dog Major. I guess he pulled the dog’s tail like a 4-year-old. The entire story made no sense.
Yet, our press corps seems entirely uninterested in the mental health of Mr. Biden. When he trips up his speech, they make excuses for him. They glamorize his early bedtime and video game playing as a return to normalcy.
They weren’t so kind to former President Donald Trump.
USA Today declared: “Trump is mentally unfit to be president,” writing “Since Donald Trump’s election, mental health professionals have come forth in historically unprecedented ways to warn against entrusting the U.S. presidency to someone exhibiting dangerous mental impairments.”
The New York Times wrote countless stories and columns questioning the mental health of the former president, conceding in a 2017 article titled: “Who decides whether Trump is unfit to govern?” and that “the mental health of Donald Trump has been under scrutiny since he began running for president.”
There was incessant speculation about whether the 25th Amendment should be invoked to remove Mr. Trump based on his alleged mental fitness. The House of Representatives even introduced a bill to empower Congress to establish a commission of at least eight doctors including four psychiatrists to evaluate whether Mr. Trump was fit to govern.
If Mr. Trump slipped up — let’s say by using two hands to drink a glass of water or had trouble walking down a slippery ramp at West Point — the press was there in a millisecond to cast doubt on his physical acuity.
“Even if it’s baseless and unfair, few things stick to a modern president like images of physical frailty,” Politico wrote of the two instances, noting “just how damaging such a picture of weakness can be, and that it often comes with a “political cost.”
— Joe Biden has cognitive decline (@End_Oligarchy) March 7, 2020
OK. So those are the standards. The press set them in the previous administration. So where are there critiques of Mr. Biden? I dare you to find one by the mainstream media.
The press is so in bed with the Biden administration that they willfully ignored Mr. Biden’s cognitive decline on the campaign trail (not knowing which state he was in, referring to his campaign as the Harris-Biden ticket, saying that 150 million Americans lost their lives to gun violence and another 120 million died of COVID-19) and instead chose to write stories about how the Trump campaign’s targeting of Mr. Biden in this area would backfire on them.
Now they’re working overtime to cover for his misstatements (“typical Biden gaffes”) and fragility (from Snopes on his Pentagon flub: “It’s unclear whether Biden literally ‘forgot’ his defense secretary’s name at that moment, or whether, for example, he got stuck doing an extended ‘folksy’ ad-lib after initially tripping over his words).”
Give me a break.
It’s time to seriously question Mr. Biden’s fitness for the job. His lack of availability to the press, his verbal stumbles when giving teleprompter remarks, his obvious confusion when visiting offsite locations — all should set off alarm bells of cognitive decline.
It may not be nice, but it’s necessary. The American people deserve to know who is really running their government.
Awkward debate moments with Joe Biden: Julian Castro edition
The California Department of Education has proposed an ethnic studies “model curriculum” that includes, among other things, chanting the names of Aztec gods in an attempt to build unity among schoolchildren.
SCOOP: California's proposed "ethnic studies" curriculum calls for the "decolonization" of American society and has students chant to the Aztec god of human sacrifice. The solution, according to one author, is a "countergenocide" against white Christians.
Here's the story.🧵
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) March 10, 2021
R. Tolteka Cuauhtin, the original co-chair, worked on the early American history material. In the references, he denounces the United States as a "Eurocentric, white supremacist, capitalist, patriarchal, heteropatriarchal, and anthropocentric paradigm brought from Europe.” pic.twitter.com/E7HYup9GKy
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) March 10, 2021
The solution, according to the curriculum materials, is to “name, speak to, resist, and transform the hegemonic Eurocentric neocolonial condition” in a posture of “transformational resistance.” The ultimate goal, Cuauhtin says, is to engineer a "countergenocide" against whites. pic.twitter.com/KgndpbW3iT
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) March 10, 2021
Included in the draft curriculum is a list of “lesson resources” with a chant based on “In Lak Ech,” which it describes as “love, unity, mutual respect,” and “Panche Be,” which it describes as “seeking the roots of truth.”
The chant starts with a declaration that “you are my other me” and “if I do harm to you, I do harm to myself.” Before chanting the name of the Aztec god Tezkatlipoka, the text reads: “Seeking the roots of the truth, seeking the truth of the roots, elders and us youth, (youth), critical thinking through.”
It adds: “Tezkatlipoka, Tezkatlipoka, x2 smoking mirror, self-reflection Tezkatlipoka.”
Tezkatlipoka is the name of an Aztec god that was honored with human sacrifice. According to the World History Encyclopedia, an impersonator of Tezkatlipoka would be sacrificed with his heart removed to honor the deity.
In Aztec mythology, Tezkatlipoka is the brother of Quetzalcoatl, Huizilopochtli and Xipe Totec — all of whom appear to be invoked in the proposed chant.
A portion read, “pulsating creation huitzilopochtli cause like sunlight, the light inside of us, in will to action’s what brings… Xipe Totek, Xipe Totek, x2 transformation, liberation, education, emancipation. imagination revitalization, liberation, transformation, decolonization, liberation, education, emancipation, changin’ our situation in this human transformation.”
A linked video showed what appeared to be students engaging in a unity chant with some of the language described.
Another chant used the term “Hunab Ku,” or “One-God,” which Encyclopedia Brittanica identified as a Mayan deity.
That portion of the chant read: “we’re here to transform the world we’re spiraling, rotating & revolving in, giving thanks daily, tlazokamati, giving thanks daily, tlazokamati, healing & transforming as we’re evolving in this universe, universe, of Hunab Ku, Hunab Ku, x2 Nahui OlIin Lak Ech – Panche Beh, Ethnic Studies For All, Represent!!”
According to CDE’s website, the school board is supposed to review a draft of the curriculum on March 17-18. CDE did not respond to Fox News’ request for comment.
Reported by Discovery Institute researcher Chris Rufo, the curriculum was just one of many diversity programs to gain attention in recent months. Much of its language and content bears resemblance to other programs that have been associated with critical race theory — a controversial way of analyzing identity that has been the subject of intense debate.
The California curriculum’s introduction argued that the program would help marginalized groups.
“By affirming the identities and contributions of marginalized groups in our society, ethnic studies helps students see themselves and each other as part of the narrative of the United States,” it read. “Importantly, this helps students see themselves as active agents in the interethnic bridge-building process we call American life.”
The guiding principles included goals including, “celebrate and honor Native People/s of the land and communities of Black Indigenous People of Color.” Another guiding principle read: “Center and place high value on the pre-colonial, ancestral knowledge, narratives, and communal experiences of Native people/s and people of color and groups that are typically marginalized in society.”
The field of ethnic studies, it claimed, “critically grapples with the various power structures and forms of oppression that continue to have social, emotional, cultural, economic, and political impacts.”
The above chants were part of a list of instructional resources for educators to use in order to facilitate discussions about “race, racism, bigotry, and the experiences of diverse Americans.”
The “chants, affirmations, and energizers,” the curriculum read, “can be used as energizers to bring the class together, build unity around ethnic studies principles and values, and to reinvigorate the class following a lesson that may be emotionally taxing or even when student engagement may appear to be low.”
While some have praised these types of programs as a way to enhance racial understanding, others have been more critical.
Williamson Evers, an Independent Institute senior fellow and former assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Education, told Fox News that California’s curriculum furthered a “neo-racist ideology.”
“They’re denying that the principles of America’s founding — all men are created equal, they’re endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights and so forth — that these principles can, through time, bring about human rights for all,” he said Wednesday.
California’s Department of Education is set to vote on a new ethnic studies curriculum that seeks to “displace White, Christian culture” and encourages chants to Aztec deities.
The proposed changes would affect a curriculum used by the state’s entire primary and secondary education system, which serves 6 million students.
“Next week, the California Department of Education will vote on a new statewide ethnic studies curriculum that advocates for the “decolonization” of American society and elevates Aztec religious symbolism—all in the service of a left-wing political ideology,” City Journal summarizes.
The model curriculum instructs teachers to “challenge racist, bigoted, discriminatory, imperialist/colonial beliefs” and critique “white supremacy, racism and other forms of power and oppression” in the classroom.
Ideally, teachers will inspire “social movements that struggle for social justice” and “build new possibilities for a post-racist, post-systemic racism society” among students.
“The ultimate goal is to “decolonize” American society and establish a new regime of “countergenocide” and “counterhegemony,” which will displace white Christian culture and lead to the “regeneration of indigenous epistemic and cultural futurity,” City Journal’s Christopher Rufo notes.
Specifically, the curriculum advises teachers to lead students in various indigenous songs, chants, and affirmations, including the “In Lak Ech Affirmation,” which appeals directly to the Aztec gods.
“Students first clap and chant to the god Tezkatlipoka—whom the Aztecs traditionally worshipped with human sacrifice and cannibalism—asking him for the power to be “warriors” for “social justice.” Next, the students chant to the gods Quetzalcoatl, Huitzilopochtli, and Xipe Totek, seeking “healing epistemologies” and “a revolutionary spirit.” Huitzilopochtli, in particular, is the Aztec deity of war and inspired hundreds of thousands of human sacrifices during Aztec rule. Finally, the chant comes to a climax with a request for “liberation, transformation, [and] decolonization,” after which students shout “Panche beh! Panche beh!” in pursuit of ultimate “critical consciousness,” the curriculum stipulates.
Signs of the times: @realchrisrufo reports on California proposal to teach state's schoolchildren to despise European culture and heritage and chant to Aztec gods to whom humans were sacrificed by having beating hearts torn from their breasts. https://t.co/LB6lh9oxbv
Last night, CNN’s Brian Stelter contacted us about “Newsmax’s ratings declines for my CNN newsletter.”
Stelter contacted Newsmax at 9 p.m. on Wednesday night and said he would give us just one hour to respond, meaning a 10 p.m. deadline.
Without Newsmax’s response, CNN’s Stelter email newsletter, headlined “Newsmax’s rise and fall,” noted that “Newsmax TV gained a lot of attention last fall when disaffected Fox News fans flocked to the channel en masse. … Newsmax’s Nielsen ratings are way off the post-election highs that I wrote about three and four months ago.”
Stelter chalked up his “Newsmax is falling” story to his theory that “Newsmax is no longer getting a pro-Trump Big Lie ratings boost. Biden is a comparatively tame story.”
As it turns out, Biden is also a very tame story for CNN as well, which has seen its own ratings collapse in recent weeks.
Early Wednesday morning Newsmax sent Stelter the following response: “Only CNN would do a story on Newsmax’s drop in ratings when its own Nielsen total day impressions fell by 45% last week compared to the week after the election, and Brian Stelter’s own ‘Reliable Sources’ show fell by 44% over the same period with, more recently, his show having lost nearly 1 million viewers since January of this year.”
CNN’s Stelter was contacted to comment on his network’s ratings decline, but did not offer comment.
So, what’s the real story for the ratings spin from CNN?
CNN and Stelter have been advocates of “deplatforming” the Newsmax channel, in a clear censorship effort to reduce competition, especially as their own ratings have fallen off a cliff.
Here’s what the current Nielsen ratings really do show:
Newsmax remains the #4 cable news channel in the United States.
Newsmax remains a top 25 cable network for Total Day.
Newsmax growth has accelerated over the past three quarters, up 24% in P2+ impression and up 23% in A35-64 viewers, from fourth quarter 2020 to first quarter 2021.
Newsmax has seen double-digit P2+ ratings growth from fourth quarter 2020 to first quarter 2021, led by “Spicer & Co.” (+39%), “Greg Kelly Reports” and “American Agenda” (+35%), “Rob Schmitt Tonight” (+31%), and “Stinchfield” (+24%).
Over the past few months, Newsmax has had a sudden rise, catapulting the independent network as a top cable news player.
This fact has panicked not only CNN but Fox News, which has made dramatic changes in its lineup to counter Newsmax.
Meanwhile, Newsmax continues to take a huge portion of Fox’s audience in the linear cable world as it crushes Fox in the OTT space, streaming as it does to more than 40 million U.S. homes not connected to cable TV.
And, since Election Day, more than 5 million people have downloaded the free Newsmax App on their smartphone.
The bottom line: Newsmax is here to stay. That’s good news for Americans who desperately want fresh, independent voices, but bad news for establishment giants like Fox News and CNN.
For background, here’s CNN’s Nielsen ratings collapse data:
CNN — P2+ Impressions
Week of 11/9 M-F Total Day — 1.654 Million
Week of 3/1 M-F Total Day — 908,000
45% drop in audience
Week of 11/9 M-F Daytime — 1.855 Million
Week of 3/1 M-F Daytime — 1.059 Million
43% drop in audience
Average viewers Jan. ’21 — 2.1 Million
Average viewers Feb. ’21 — 1.1 Million
48% drop in audience
Brian Stelter’s “Reliable Sources” — P2+ Impressions
11/8/2020 show delivered 2.088 Million
3/7/2021 show delivered 1.164 Million
44% drop in audience
First 3 weeks of January — 2.1 Million
Last 2 weeks — 1 million
52% drop in audience
Important: See Newsmax TV now carried in 70 million cable homes, on DirecTV Ch. 349, Dish Network Ch. 216, Xfinity Ch. 1115, Spectrum, U-verse Ch. 1220, FiOS Ch. 615, Frontier Ch. 115, Optimum Ch. 102, Cox cable, Suddenlink Ch. 102, Mediacom Ch. 277, AT&T TV Ch 349, Sling, TVision, and Fubo or FindMore Cable Systems – Click Here.
