Good evening! Today's Evening Edition includes:

• Daily Bible Verse
• Elite schools immerse students in toxic "anti-racism"
• Biden Gets Two Senate Confirmations
• The EO Pen Strikes Again
• Jury Selection Begins For Chauvin Murder Trial
• Border Official:  Biden "Inherited" This Problem
• A Reader Writes...
• America The Beautiful

Sincerely,

Mike Huckabee

BIBLE VERSE OF THE DAY 

Elite schools immerse students in toxic "anti-racism"

By Mike Huckabee

We’ve all heard stories about wealthy parents and how important it is for them to get little Elam or Bella into just the “right” private school, even the right pre-school. If their kids are going to get into Harvard or Yale, they reason, they have to create a perfect resume that starts at birth. That isn't new.

But some parents in moneyed areas of California and New York are questioning what the modern incarnation of these schools is doing to their kids. Only they don’t DARE talk about it.

I think a lot of us who’d heard about “cancel culture” might not have realized what a powerful and destructive force it’s become in America until the past week. That’s because it’s gone so far overboard that now it just feels crazy. A line was crossed. It was only a matter of time before this happened, because once canceling things became the mindset, it could never end; there was always something else to cancel. Once they got to Dr. Seuss, Pepe Le Pew and Dumbo, just about everybody was saying, “Hey, wait a minute!”

Among certain social and professional circles, however, the slightest deviation from this way of thinking is not permitted. And that’s what inspired an amazing article about parents who are at a loss for how to deal with their kids’ schooling, particularly the damaging messages constantly being sent about the evils of capitalism and whiteness.

The author, Bari Weiss, was invited to attend a very surreptitious meeting of parents in a West Los Angeles back yard, where they expressed an all-encompassing fear of speaking out against some of the things their kids were being taught. These small get-togethers are so top-secret, participants turn off their cameras and use pseudonyms for their Zoom calls. Their kids all go to the most prestigious school in town, Harvard-Westlake. Tuition: $40,000 a year.

What are their kids getting for that? Plenty...of garbage. It’s not just the highly ironic demonization of capitalism, but constant identity politics, a total focus on becoming an “anti-racist institution.” Here’s the mindset, as stated by the school.

After an analysis conducted by an “outside expert” who did a “school-wide assessment” in 2014, they made changes to their “curriculum, hiring practices, student programs and professional training.” Perceived racial inequity is treated as an “urgent crisis,” with anti-racism required “at the individual, interpersonal, institutional and structural levels...” The steps they’ve taken in the past several years “are far from being enough,” they say. Anti-racism must be “an essential element of our curriculum and culture.”

So how does that translate into the day-to-day experience of students? Well, as you might expect, the kids are being told that America is evil and that they bear collective racial guilt. “They are making my son feel like a racist because of the color of his skin,” one mother says. Parents describe this as an ideological movement that is taking over the schools.

No parents interviewed for this article allowed Weiss to use their names --- not one. They are terrified of being exposed. The school can ask kids to leave for any reason, and once this happens, according to one parent, “you’ll be blacklisted from all the private schools and you’ll be known as a racist, which is worse than being called a murderer.”

One parent who was born in a Communist country said, “I came to this country escaping the very same fear of retaliation that now my own child feels.”

The kids are fearful, too, of the social shaming that goes along with being identified as a racist, or even as a capitalist. “The kids are scared of other kids,” said one of the moms. Another mom said, “My son knew I was talking to you and he begged me not to. He wants to go to a great university, and he told me that one bad statement from me will ruin us. This is the United States of America. Are you freaking kidding me?”

The kids are described as anxious, paranoid, insecure, and closed off even from the kids who would otherwise be their close friends. And it’s much more important that they read WHITE FRAGILITY than to read Shakespeare (whom we’ve seen canceled or censored in some schools). The schools appear to be indoctrinating their students at the behest of the prestigious universities that will presumably be welcoming them. “The colleges want children --- customers --- that are going to be pre-aligned to certain ideologies that originally came out of those colleges,” said one STEM teacher.

This industry sounds like a mill that turns out good little anti-capitalists, race police and political warriors. And the kids know their futures depend on going along.

They’re even taught how to “speak woke,” as this is a complex and ever-evolving language. One school in Manhattan helpfully offers a 12-page language guide. I’ll bet they have to update it weekly, as we’ve seen once-approved terms such as “sexual preference” suddenly become offensive. (It’s not a “preference” –- last I heard, it’s an “orientation.”) And then there are all the pronouns. As the article says, “Fluency in ‘woke’ is an effective class marker and key for these princelings to retain status in university and beyond.”

Even the black kids who attend these posh schools and who can almost certainly look forward to a glorious professional life are brainwashed into thinking they are “oppressed” because of the color of their skin.

One math teacher in New York City said he felt as though he were in a cult and trying to keep the students from becoming members. He was alarmed at the toll it was taking on his students. “They are being educated in resentment and fear,” he said. “It’s extremely dangerous.”

Yes, even the math and science classes have been permeated by “identity” ideology. For example, in physics class, “they don’t call them Newton’s Laws anymore,” according to one upperclassman. “We call them ‘the three fundamental laws of physics.' They say we need to ‘decenter whiteness,’ and we need to acknowledge that there’s more than just Newton in physics.”

I suspect that if they ever had a statue of Sir Isaac Newton or Shakespeare on campus, it’s long gone.

The paranoid atmosphere at these schools is reminiscent of George Orwell’s 1984 --- isn’t it awful that we keep having to invoke that book these days? --- where everyone is constantly afraid of being “found out,” of not showing sufficient love for Big Brother or not looking hateful enough in the Two Minutes’ Hate. Every word, every expression is scrutinized. Whoever lets his guard down will be made a nonperson. And isn’t that very much like being canceled?

This is not going to change until families get out of their “elite” mindset and choose to get out of such a toxic system. To parents who are reaching the breaking point: you are not a racist just because some twisted prep-school faculty says you are. “Anti-racism” is poison. It IS racism. There are other ways to be well-educated (likely BETTER educated) and successful than to go to an Ivy League school.

Another big way to make change: stop giving these schools money. I notice that they talk a good anti-capitalist game but love money like Scrooge McDuck.

Biden Gets Two Senate Confirmations

By Mike Huckabee

The Senate has confirmed Merrick Garland as Attorney General by 70-30 (GOP leader Mitch McConnell was among 20 Republicans voting to confirm) and Martha Fudge as Secretary of HUD by 66-34.

I generally think that unless there are serious reasons to reject a nominee (like that Xavier Becerra is a vicious leftist partisan with zero qualifications for running Health and Human Services), then Presidents should be allowed to pick the people they want for their team. Elections have consequences, and this is one of them, as unhappy as it might be.

However, in these cases, the Republican confirmation votes are drawing heavy criticism.

Garland was so evasive and acted so clueless when asked about major issues he’ll be dealing with that he was either lying under oath or he hasn’t looked at a newscast in 20 years. Neither bodes well for his job. His refusal to say whether he would kill the Durham investigation or prevent its findings from being made public virtually insures that the only plotters of a genuine coup against the legitimately-elected government in the past five years will get off scot-free.

As for Fudge, as Matt Margolis recounts at the link, she carries more baggage than American Airlines. She has a long history of being a radical race-baiter, viciously insulting Republicans, and spouting insane racial conspiracy theories. And she got the votes of 16 Republicans.

Again, while I generally think Presidents should be allowed to pick their teams, both of these nominations could have been confirmed 51-50. It wouldn’t have prevented them from taking office, but at least it wouldn’t have given Americans the impression that these are acceptable, bipartisan, mainstream choices when they are anything but.

The EO Pen Strikes Again

By Mike Huckabee

In a little-reported executive order, President Biden, having already issued an order championing transgenderism in the military, ordered that the taxpayers will now pay for “medically necessary” gender transition drugs and surgery for military members and veterans.

I assume we’re no longer allowed to question how dangerous elective surgery and hormones that disfigure perfectly healthy bodies could ever be “medically necessary.” No cost estimate of this order was given, but considering the procedures usually range from $100,000 to $200,000 apiece, and a recent study estimated there are about 15,000 current military personnel and 134,000 veterans who identify as transgender, I assume this will end up being one very expensive executive order.

It seems as if a policy change that radical with a price tag that high would be something that Congress would be expected to investigate and debate, but the man who assailed Trump for being a dictator who ruled by executive order decided to take it upon himself. Sounds like he’s transitioned to being exactly what he campaigned against.

Jury Selection Begins For Chauvin Murder Trial

By Mike Huckabee

Monday, jury selection began in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the killing of George Floyd, and it’s a job that’s about as popular as being sheriff of Dodge City.

Floyd’s death already sparked rioting, arson and looting that caused over $2 billion in damage and 19 shootings (or as the Democrats call that, “mostly peaceful protests”), and potential jurors are understandably terrified of being targeted if they vote to acquit. The state has done everything it can to prevent that, bringing the full force of prosecutorial power against Chauvin; but courts are supposed to be run on evidence, not the wishes of violent mobs or what politicians want in order to prevent mob violence.

And if the jurors go solely by the evidence, there is a chance that Chauvin will be acquitted. Roger Kimbell at the Spectator lays out the case, including extenuating evidence that prosecutors kept hidden until well after the riots. You might be surprised at how much of it conflicts with the well-known media narrative. As horrifying as the “I can’t breathe” video of Floyd was, like many viral video clips, it didn’t tell the whole story, by a long shot.

However, even as Minneapolis businesses board up their windows in preparation for what they assume will be more post-trial riots, Kimbell argues that the trial should be moved elsewhere. He believes there's no way Minneapolis jurors won’t feel intimidated to vote guilty even if they don’t believe it, which will make this nothing more than leftwing political theater.

It is indeed ironic that the same “progressives” who claim they’re fighting racism and America’s racist history did it first by bringing back segregation and judging people by their skin color, and now by reviving jury intimidation and the lynch mob mentality. Sorry, but this doesn’t seem like “progress” to me.

Border Official: Biden "Inherited" This Problem

By Mike Huckabee

Watch President Biden’s southern border coordinator Roberta Jacobson try to deflect his responsibility for the rising crisis at the border and inadvertently admit it’s his fault.

A few other choice quotes: “President Biden has made clear from day one that he wants to change our immigration system. Doing so means truly building back better because we can’t just undo four years of the previous administration’s actions overnight.”

Oh, but you can! Biden’s executive orders undid four years’ worth of Trump’s actions to secure the border, and almost overnight, we have a rising humanitarian and security crisis.

“We’ve seen surges before. Surges tend to respond to hope, and there was a significant hope for a more humane policy after four years of pent-up demand.”

So that’s what’s causing those massive new waves of illegal border crossings by migrants and drug gangs: too much hope. And is it really America’s responsibility to comply with the “demand” of people to enter our nation illegally?

Probably the most jaw-dropping moment came when she claimed Biden “inherited” this problem. No, Joe: you inherited a border wall that was nearing completion. The sudden illegal immigration crisis you created all by yourself.

A Reader Writes Back...

Hi Mike - your newsletter is the only one I subscribe to, and I agree with 99.9% of everything you say and appreciate the viewpoint you come from. I actually just went back and watched some of the 2016 Primary debate with you in them and realized that you are exactly what we need as a President. Oh, if only! Definitely need to put Jesus first if we're ever to return to greatness.

One point I'd like to bring up: I feel as if we've allowed the left to control language and I think it's time we push back. When conservatives walk through the halls of congress, they're insurrectionists and when leftists burn down cities and do billions of dollars of damage, they're 'mostly peaceful protesters'. Conservatives seem to use the language that is fed to us by the left wing media and it would be nice if we could just stop repeating them. It's not as though anything they say is the truth anyways, right?

Love you, Mike. Keep up the good work. We need more like you!

America The Beautiful

God's creation is all around us. To learn more about Kenai Fjords National Park, visit its website here.