Politik

"It has been reported that Malcolm X once said that if you have no critics, you'll likely have no success. If indeed having critics is the key to success, then critical race theorists have every reason to be wildly optimistic."

"With the public rise of the COVID-(16)19 effect, the Left in America has mounted a sinister defense: nothing to see here. Rank-and-file Democrats like former Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe say criticisms of critical race theory are "conspiracy theories." So-called Squad member Ilhan Omar tweeted in June 2021, "Republicans love to create outrage over things that aren't actually happening. People should be asking them, what elementary, middle and high school is teaching Critical Race Theory and why they are spinning false narratives." Nikole Hannah-Jones, the chief author and proponent of the critical race theory-based 1619 Project, says her newly formed black liberation schools are "not teaching critical race theory." Even the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, repeatedly dismissed claims that elements of critical race theory are being taught at West Point and throughout the military. He's focused on "white rage" instead."

"More specific to the classroom, the two largest teachers unions in America- the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA) deny outright that critical race theory is being taught, even while AFT invites Ibram X. Kendi- the author of How to Be an Antiracist- to be a featured speaker at their 2021 national conference. Moreover, while denying the teaching of racial and gender theories in the classrooms, both unions have multimillion dollar legal funds dedicated to defending teachers who run afoul of local or state laws that ban the teaching of critical race theory. Like corporate America, higher education, mass media, and our military, these unions call their efforts "diversity, equity, and inclusion" (DEI)- obfuscating their Marxist aims in cozy language. Note to self: when the left denies something, they are usually just confirming it."

"Conservatives have got the culture-war act down. Trump was a culture-war president with almost no policy arm attached. The question conservatives at the conference were asking was how to move beyond owning the libs to effecting actual change. Christopher Rufo, the architect of this year’s school-board-meeting protests against critical race theory, argued that conservatives had erred when they tried to slowly gain power in elite cultural institutions. Conservatives were never going to make headway in the Ivy League or the corporate media. Instead, Rufo argued, they should rally the masses to get state legislatures to pass laws embracing their values. That’s essentially what’s now happening across red America."

"These unions and fellow-traveler Leftists have good reason to deny the existence of radical left-wing theories. The curriculum, and teachers, almost never come out and state what they are teaching is "critical race theory." They don't have to. Instead, they hide behind coded language that is designed to confuse parents and hide the real goal. The preferred language of the Left is ever changing, which- as the authors of the fantastic book Cynical Theories point out- is because "they stem from a very particular view of the world- one that even speaks its own language in a way. Within the English-speaking world, they speak English, but they use everyday words differently from the rest of us." A key part of the Left's CRT denial is the way in which they hide the difference between curriculum and pedagogy- a distinction that has recently risen to the forefront in public debates. Pedagogy refers to the methods, practices, and purposes of teaching; curriculum is what is specifically being taught. Curriculum is what kids are taught; pedagogy is how they're taught. Some today believe education is primarily an information and skill transfer, so they tend to talk only about what skills or information are taught- what content is on the curriculum. The hidden secret, used effectively by Progressives, is pedagogy- method of teaching. They deny CRT is in the curriculum, instead embedding their entire CRT methodology into their teaching pedagogy."

"There is no salvation for civilization, or even the human race, other than the creation of a world government."

"A federation of all humanity, together with a sufficient means of social justice to ensure health, education, and a rough equality of opportunity, would mean such a release and increase of human energy as to open a new phase in human history."

"In an interview with CNN in 2020, Crenshaw described Critical Race Theory as "a practice. It's an approach to grappling with a history of White supremacy that rejects the belief that what's in the past is in the past, and that the laws and systems that grow from the past are detahced from it." "Critical race theory attends not only to law's transformative role which is often celebrated," claimed Crenshaw, "but also to its role in establishing the very rights and privileges that legal reform was set to dismantle. Like American history itself, a proper understanding of the ground upon which we stand requires a balanced assessment, not a simplistic commitment to jingoistic accounts of our nation's past and current dynamics." In other words, CRT undermines and exploits America's unique and very successful fusion of diversity and cultural assimilation, and considers all issues in the context of past societal imperfections- regardless of enormous struggles and efforts in creating a more perfect society, including a civil war, massive economic redistribution, and groundbreaking legal changes. Even more, it incorporates and advances an increasing list of causes as new or additional reasons for eradicating society and transforming the country. Indeed, CRT repositions what is the most tolerant and beneficient society on earth as a miserably dark and impoverished nation, from its beginning to today."

"Given the volume, international scope, financial implications, and extraordinarily complex logistical requirements of today's illicit markets, it is illogical to assume that governments are not more deeply involved in these criminal activities than ever before. What is more, some of these governments are not merely accomplices but the actual leaders of criminal enterprises. (Text is part of Moisés Naím's reply to Peter Andreas comments in the first part of this article)"

"Yet we are concerned with more than just the financial impact. These groups may infiltrate our businesses. They may provide logistical support to hostile foreign powers. They may try to manipulate those at the highest levels of government. Indeed, these so-called “iron triangles” of organized criminals, corrupt government officials, and business leaders pose a significant national security threat."

"Litvinenko’s theory was that Putin and the intelligence services have taken over, manipulated and absorbed the criminal groups... We had accepted the idea that the world of the Russian mafia was like that. But it’s true that the case made other people think this gentleman [Alexander Litvinenko] had told the truth, because now he was dead."

"Grinda stated that he considers Belarus, Chechnya, and Russia to be virtual "mafia states" ... One cannot differentiate between the activities of the government and OC [organized crime] groups."

"[Litvinenko's thesis] said the Kremlin, its well-resourced spy agencies, and the Russian mafia had merged. In effect, they formed a single criminal entity, a mafia state. Litvinenko's reward was a radioactive cup of tea, delivered to him by two Russians in a London hotel bar."

"Is Russia a fascist state? A totalitarian one? A dictatorship? A cult of personality? A system? An autocracy? An ideocracy? A kleptocracy? The best description of the Russian state is a mafia state."

"The term “mafia state” was pioneered by Bálint Magyar, a sociologist in Hungary, Russia’s closest ally in Europe. Magyar and his colleagues have elaborated on the concept in the last decade, as Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán has amassed power, eliminated political and economic rivals, and turned the institutions of his state into instruments of personal power."

"Systems of governance that are seized by a tiny cabal become mafia states. The early years —Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton in the United States—are marked by promises that the pillage will benefit everyone. The later years—George W. Bush and Barack Obama — are marked by declarations that things are getting better even though they are getting worse. The final years — Donald Trump — see the lunatic trolls, hedge fund parasites, con artists, conspiracy theorists and criminals drop all pretense and carry out an orgy of looting and corruption. The rich never have enough."

"The United States is a failed democracy and a mafia state, the natural result of what happens when capitalism is deregulated."

"As Castro’s swearing-in ceremony on Jan. 27 approaches, the new president faces a daunting question: How do you rebuild democratic institutions in a mafia state?"

"The Nelson Mandela Moot Court Competition, co-organized by the Human Rights Council Branch, is the only moot court competition for students from all around the world that is explicitly dedicated to human rights."

"UN Human Rights Council has appealed to increase humanitarian support to 3.5 million people including 700,000 from 2021 alone who were displaced due to the conflict in Afghanistan, the United Nations body said in a statement. Spokesperson of UNHCR... said... that around 23 million people, or 55 per cent of the population, are facing extreme levels of hunger - nearly nine million of whom are at risk of famine. UNHCR has assisted some 700,000 displaced people across the country in 2021, the majority since mid-August. Every week, the agency is helping nearly 60,000 people, according to the statement. "But as we reach thousands of people, we find thousands more people who are in need of humanitarian assistance", Baloch said, appealing for "further resources for the most vulnerable". He noted that "single mothers with no shelter or food for their children", displaced older persons left to care for orphaned grandchildren, and people taking care of loved ones with special needs."

"The Human Rights Council also works with the UN Special Procedures established by the former Commission on Human Rights and now assumed by the Council. These are made up of special rapporteurs, special representatives, independent experts and working groups that monitor, examine, advise and publicly report on thematic issues or human rights situations in specific countries."

"The Human Rights Council is an inter-governmental body within the United Nations system responsible for strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe and for addressing situations of human rights violations and make recommendations on them. It has the ability to discuss all thematic human rights issues and situations that require its attention throughout the year. It meets at the UN Office at Geneva."

"Despite the high expectations that attended its birth, the eighteen-member CHR was immediately dominated by Cold War realities. Its chair, Eleanor Roosevelt, was kept on a tight leash by the US government, which was determined to thwart any binding obligations that interfered with “the internal problems of nations” and to use the commission’s forum mainly to castigate the Soviets’ misdeeds. The US and Soviet delegates both rejected proposals to allow an individual to petition the UN over human rights violations by his or her government. The two Superpowers were also behind the CHR’s momentous decision to split its task into three separate components: the drafting of a nonbinding declaration of principles, followed—at some indeterminate interval—by the conclusion of a human rights convention and, finally, the creation of a means of enforcement. The first task was completed within two years, but the second took twenty more, and the third still another year to come to life. By 1948 the Superpowers had effectively blocked the efforts of human rights activists and the smaller countries to play a significant role in global politics."

"The Council was created by the United Nations General Assembly on 15 March 2006 by resolution 60/251. Its first session took place from 19 to 30 June 2006. One year later, the Council adopted its "Institution-building package" to guide its work and set up its procedures and mechanisms. Among them were the Universal Periodic Review mechanism which serves to assess the human rights situations in all United Nations Member States, the Advisory Committee which serves as the Council’s “think tank” providing it with expertise and advice on thematic human rights issues and the Complaint Procedure which allows individuals and organizations to bring human rights violations to the attention of the Council."

"The Task Force on Secretariat services, accessibility and use of information technology was established in July 2011. It is mandated to study issues related to the improvement of the secretariat services to the Council and its mechanisms, the accessibility to the Council’s work for persons with disabilities and the feasibility of the use of information technology."

"It was my pleasure to speak to #AIPAC2019 today. My message was not only to reaffirm the essentiality of the U.S.-Israel relationship, but also that the U.S. stands with the Jewish people and Israel in the fight against the world’s oldest bigotry: anti-Semitism. The rise of anti-Semitism & anti-Zionism strikes at the very foundation of freedom. The Trump Administration opposes it unequivocally & will fight it relentlessly, from the fever swamp of the UN Human Rights Council to the world’s #1 proponent of anti-Semitism: Iran. We will not grow weary of this fight. Israel should be admired, not attacked, embraced, not vilified. I’m proud to lead American diplomacy to support Israel’s right to defend itself, stand with the Jewish people"

"List of current permanent representatives to the United Nations"

"United Nations in popular culture"

"Model United Nations"

"United Nations television film series"

"World Summit on the Information Society"

"Ancient Greece gave birth to democracy, but recent events in the country reveal a cruel new twist to self-rule that focuses less on people power and, instead, on the influence of media. Rule by media, or “mediacracy,” results when governments use media to enhance their role in society and media come to represent “the people.”"

"Communism also infected other movements for the transformation of society. The totalising ideas, institutions and practices of Marxism-Leninism had a profound impact on the political far right. The one-party, one-ideology state with its disregard for law, constitution and popular consent was implanted in inter-war Italy and Germany. Neither Mussolini nor Hitler acted only in response to communism; and the forced submission of society to comprehensive control took different forms in the USSR, Italy and Germany. But the importance of precedent is scarcely deniable. The objective of an unrestrained state power penetrating all aspects of life – political, economic, social, cultural and spiritual – was a characteristic they shared. The same phenomenon emerged in the secularist Baathist regime in Iraq under Saddam Hussein and appeared in the Islamist plans of Osama bin Laden as well as in the rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan. All such leaders from Mussolini and Hitler down to bin Laden have detested communism. They dedicated themselves to its annihilation. Yet they were influenced by communist precedents even while regarding it as a plague bacillus. Communism has proved to have metastasising features. It will have a long afterlife even when the last communist state has disappeared."

"Conservative or rightist extremist movements have arisen at different periods in modern history, ranging from the Horthyites in Hungary, the Christian Social Party of Dollfuss in Austria, Der Stahlhelm and other nationalists in pre-Hitler Germany, and Salazar in Portugal, to the pre-1966 Gaullist movements and the monarchists in contemporary France and Italy. The right extremists are conservative, not revolutionary. They seek to change political institutions in order to preserve or restore cultural and economic ones, while extremists of the centre and left seek to use political means for cultural and social revolution. The ideal of the right extremist is not a totalitarian ruler, but a monarch, or a traditionalist who acts like one. Many such movements in Spain, Austria, Hungary, Germany, and Italy have been explicitly monarchist. The supporters of these movements differ from those of the centrists, tending to be wealthier, and more religious, which is more important in terms of a potential for mass support."

"We know that extremist demagogues emerge from time to time in all societies, even in healthy democracies. The United States has had its share of them, including Henry Ford, Huey Long, Joseph McCarthy, and George Wallace. An essential test for democracies is not whether such figures emerge but whether political leaders, and especially political parties, work to prevent them from gaining power in the first place—by keeping them off mainstream party tickets, refusing to endorse or align with them, and when necessary, making common cause with rivals in support of democratic candidates. Isolating popular extremists requires political courage. But when fear, opportunism, or miscalculation leads established parties to bring extremists into the mainstream, democracy is imperiled. Once a would-be authoritarian makes it to power, democracies face a second critical test: Will the autocratic leader subvert democratic institutions or be constrained by them? Institutions alone are not enough to rein in elected autocrats. Constitutions must be defended—by political parties and organized citizens, but also by democratic norms. Without robust norms, constitutional checks and balances do not serve as the bulwarks of democracy we imagine them to be. Institutions become political weapons, wielded forcefully by those who control them against those who do not. This is how elected autocrats subvert democracy—packing and “weaponizing” the courts and other neutral agencies, buying off the media and the private sector (or bullying them into silence), and rewriting the rules of politics to tilt the playing field against opponents. The tragic paradox of the electoral route to authoritarianism is that democracy’s assassins use the very institutions of democracy—gradually, subtly, and even legally—to kill it. America failed the first test in November 2016, when we elected a president with a dubious allegiance to democratic norms. Donald Trump’s surprise victory was made possible not only by public disaffection but also by the Republican Party’s failure to keep an extremist demagogue within its own ranks from gaining the nomination."

"When you say "radical right" today, I think of these moneymaking ventures by fellows like Pat Robertson and others who are trying to take the Republican Party away from the Republican Party, and make a religious organization out of it. If that ever happens, kiss politics goodbye."

"True, there were fascist leaders and movements in some of these countries whose rhetoric went further, conjuring up visions of national regeneration rather than merely reaffirming the old order. But the fascism of the Falange Espanola de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista - to give the Spanish fascist party its full, grandiose title - was only a small component of Franco's fundamentally conservative support; the key word in Franco's merged Falange Espanola Tradicionalista was the last one. In other cases, notably in Austria, Hungary and Romania, the dictatorship acted to suppress or at least restrain fascist parties. Only in Germany was fascism both revolutionary and totalitarian in deed as well as in word. Only in Germany did dictatorship ultimately lead to industrialized genocide."

"The most grotesque decision was probably made when the extreme right of the benches was allotted to the National Socialists in the Reichstag. They should have been seated between the Communists and the Independent Social Democrats."

"It is important that we do not allow ourselves to be intimidated by the right-wing extremists. [...] We will not let up in the fight against right-wing extremism."

"These are hard things. But I'm an American President, not a President of red America or blue America, but of all America. And I believe it's my duty—my duty—to level with you, to tell the truth no matter how difficult, no matter how painful. And here, in my view, is what is true: MAGA Republicans do not respect the Constitution. They do not believe in the rule of law. They do not recognize the will of the people. They refuse to accept the results of a free election. And they're working right now, as I speak, in State after State to give power to decide elections in America to partisans and cronies, empowering election deniers to undermine democracy itself."

"But first, we must be honest with each other and with ourselves. Too much of what's happening in our country today is not normal. Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic. Now, I want to be very clear, very clear up front: Not every Republican, not even the majority of Republicans, are MAGA Republicans. Not every Republican embraces their extreme ideology. I know because I've been able to work with these mainstream Republicans. But there's no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven, and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans, and that is a threat to this country."

"MAGA forces are determined to take this country backwards, backwards to an America where there is no right to choose, no right to privacy, no right to contraception, no right to marry who you love. They promote authoritarian leaders, and they fan the flames of political violence that are a threat to our personal rights, to the pursuit of justice, to the rule of law, to the very soul of this country. They look at the mob that stormed the United States Capitol on January 6—brutally attacking law enforcement—not as insurrectionists who placed a dagger to the throat of our democracy, but they look at them as patriots. And they see their MAGA failure to stop a peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 election as preparation for the 2022 and 2024 elections. They tried everything last time to nullify the votes of 81 million people. This time, they're determined to succeed in thwarting the will of the people. That's why respected conservatives, like Federal Circuit Court Judge Michael Luttig, has called Trump and the extreme MAGA Republicans, quote, a "clear and present danger" to our democracy."

"Fighting right-wing extremism with left-wing extremism will not work any more than extinguishing fires with gasoline."

"Nearly all the dictatorships of the inter-war period were at root conservative, if not downright reactionary. The social foundations of their power were what remained of the pre-industrial ancien régime: the monarchy, the aristocracy, the officer corps and the Church, supported to varying degrees by industrialists fearful of socialism and by frivolous intellectuals who were bored of democracy's messy compromises. The main function the dictators performed was to crush the Left: to break their strikes, prohibit their parties, deny voice to their voters, arrest and, if it was deemed necessary, kill their leaders. One of the few measures they took that went beyond simple social restoration was to introduce new 'corporate' institutions supposed to regiment economic life and protect loyal supporters from the vagaries of the market. In 1924 the French historian Elie Halévy nicely characterized fascist Italy as 'the land of tyranny . . . a regime extremely agreeable for travellers, where trains arrive and leave on time, where there is no strike in ports or public transport'. 'The bourgeois', he added, 'are beaming.' It was, as Renzo De Felice said in his vast and apologetic biography of the Duce, 'the old regime in a black shirt'. Even the Catholic Church, which the young Mussolini had despised, was accommodated under the terms of the 1929 Concordat."

"Kissinger now proposed three dangerous initiatives. The United States would illegally allow Iran and Jordan to send squadrons of U.S. aircraft to Pakistan, secretly ask China to mass its troops on the Indian border, and deploy a U.S. aircraft carrier group to the Bay of Bengal to threaten India. He urged Nixon to stun India with all three moves simultaneously. Kissinger knew that the American public would be shocked by this gunboat diplomacy. “I’m sure all hell will break loose here,” he said."

"Wilhelm II styled himself Admiral of the Atlantic, though that ocean had never been claimed to be an inland waterway. The fleet of gunboats that cruised up and down the Yangtze was a standing temptation for the local representatives of the Great Powers to give point to their often unreasonable demands by a demonstration or the threat of a bombardment. Many instances could be given of this kind of 'gunboat diplomacy' in the interests of missionaries, private debtors and even ordinary Christian converts."

"This area was of course quite large, but the point to be noted is that unlike every other religion, whose history is known to us, the field of early missionary enterprise of Islam was almost co- extensive with its political domains, acquired by military force. It is not the gunboats that followed the missionary, but the missionaries that followed the gunboats. (456)"

"Freedom of media, free press is one of the core values of the EU. It is completely unacceptable if this [hacking] were to be the case."

"The PM has assaulted democratic institutions by using the weapons grade spyware against them. For me, this is not a matter of privacy, it is an anti-national act, treason. The weapon was used against me, SC, other leaders, journalists, activists. Then why should we not debate the issue in Parliament? What is the reason the discussion is not happening. This is the question."

"This scandal shows we cannot talk about the rule of law any more in Hungary. Our demand is the resignation of the government."