The Artful Dilettante is a native of Pittsburgh, PA, and a graduate of Penn State University. He is a lover of liberty and a lifelong and passionate student of the same. He is voracious reader of books on the Enlightenment and the American colonial and revolutionary periods. He is a student of libertarian and Objectivist philosophies. He collects revolutionary war and period currency, books, and newspapers. He is married and the father of one teenage son. He is kind, witty, generous to a fault, and unjustifiably proud of himself. He is the life of the party and an unparalleled raconteur.
Progressive filmmaker and activist Michael Moore rewrote the words of the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance on Monday, asking his readers to unite against President Donald Trump and “MAGA-heads” in the country.
“I pledge allegiance to the people of the United States of America. And to the democracy for which we all stand: One person, one vote, one nation, part of one world, everyone! A seat at the table! Everyone! A slice of the pie! With liberty and justice, equality, and kindness and the pursuit of happiness for all,” Moore wrote on his Substack account.
The “Fahrenheit 9/11” director said he wrote the new pledge “[f]or the people and for the country that deep down — in spite of its MAGA-heads, in spite of its insanity — we’ve decided to fight for its survival, holding onto a belief that we can make it better, that we can fix it, that we can end the madness and create a true Democracy for which it stands.”
After providing his pledge, Moore called on readers to act and offered several actions that would take just a few minutes, including emailing a one-sentence message to an elected official, calling a member of Congress, signing up for a local progressive group or creating a sign for an upcoming rally.
He implored readers to take at least one political action every day.
“Our hearts do not go more than a second without creating a beat. Our lungs do not skip more than 3 seconds without taking a breath. Can we all, all of us, together, pledge to not skip a day right now without taking some simple sort of political action?” Moore wrote.
Moore has come out against staples of the United States in the past but has usually targeted the Second Amendment, which protects the right to gun ownership. In 2022, he proposed a “28th Amendment” to the U.S. Constitution to repeal the Second Amendment and enforce nationwide gun control.
The inalienable right of a free people to be kept safe from gun violence and the fear thereof must not be infringed and shall be protected by the Congress and the States. This Amendment thus repeals and replaces the Second Amendment,” Moore wrote at the time.
Lindsay Kornick is an associate editor for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to lindsay.kornick@fox.com and on Twitter: @lmkornick
Whether naive or ignorant, leaving apathy aside, modern man associates the notion of “slavery” with either Roman households and gladiatorial games or plantation management in the South. For the older generations, moral education found dramatic support in the TV series “Roots” (1977). By now, only a few have personally experienced the division of public transportation and benches, etc. by “color” — a shameful reminiscence of slavery and racial discrimination.
We have been taught in school that slavery is evil. As written in the U.S. Declaration of Independence (1776), “all men are created equal”. Of course, nobody should own another man in the same way that he owns a horse or a cow. It is fundamentally incompatible with a Christian attitude towards life. Judging human dignity based on skin color is as immoral as it is stupid. So far, so good.
In the context of a post-Soviet Marxist revival, however, dramatically reinforced by the George Floyd affair, which elevated a habitual criminal to martyrdom, “white” Westerners have been pressured to do penance in recent decades. As if personally responsible for decisions made by those in power centuries ago, they are expected to tolerate “reciprocal discrimination” presented as “positive action” and make reparations for sins of the past. If they stand up for themselves and protest against revisionist absurdities, they risk being accused of “privilege blindness”, etc. (Marxist conspiracy theorists traditionally allude to oppressive “structures” into which only the ideologically initiated have full insight.)
Like bestial, cruel, and undignified treatment of our fellow men in general, slavery in one form or another has been prevalent as far back as our annals go. Even today, old-style slavery is widespread in certain parts of the world. In terms of numbers, however, there have never been more slaves in the world than in the twentieth century — long after the abolition of slavery in the U.S. during the 19th century.
Nobody in their right mind would haunt modern-day Italians with accusations of having exploited neighboring peoples, such as the French, as slaves. However, none of those, who are busy accusing the West of “inherited (collective) guilt” in connection with the eighteenth-century slave trade, take the trouble to address the current situation in Africa where slaves are traded along the same lines as 300 years ago.
In our time, when “The 1619 Project” was born, American school children know practically nothing about the victims of communism. For them, Che Guevara is the epitome of a “cool” rebel, whose iconic silhouette they love to wear on their T-shirts, as opposed to a cold-blooded killer in the ranks of “revolutionary” psychopaths. And few college students can barely account for the heinous crimes of Nazism. Indeed, indoctrinated by both news and social media, many have difficulty recognizing Jews as genocide “victims” rather than “executioners” because of the long-standing conflict with Muslims in the Middle East.
Why this obsession with, not the slavery of “Islamic warlords”, nor that of “KZ-camp Nazis” or “Gulag Bolsheviks”, but the transatlantic slave trade of eighteenth century America which ended more than 150 years ago?
Whether naive or ignorant, leaving apathy aside, modern man associates the notion of “slavery” with either Roman households and gladiatorial games or plantation management in the South. For the older generations, moral education found dramatic support in the TV series “Roots” (1977). By now, only a few have personally experienced the division of public transportation and benches, etc. by “color” — a shameful reminiscence of slavery and racial discrimination.
We have been taught in school that slavery is evil. As written in the U.S. Declaration of Independence (1776), “all men are created equal”. Of course, nobody should own another man in the same way that he owns a horse or a cow. It is fundamentally incompatible with a Christian attitude towards life. Judging human dignity based on skin color is as immoral as it is stupid. So far, so good.
In the context of a post-Soviet Marxist revival, however, dramatically reinforced by the George Floyd affair, which elevated a habitual criminal to martyrdom, “white” Westerners have been pressured to do penance in recent decades. As if personally responsible for decisions made by those in power centuries ago, they are expected to tolerate “reciprocal discrimination” presented as “positive action” and make reparations for sins of the past. If they stand up for themselves and protest against revisionist absurdities, they risk being accused of “privilege blindness”, etc. (Marxist conspiracy theorists traditionally allude to oppressive “structures” into which only the ideologically initiated have full insight.)
Like bestial, cruel, and undignified treatment of our fellow men in general, slavery in one form or another has been prevalent as far back as our annals go. Even today, old-style slavery is widespread in certain parts of the world. In terms of numbers, however, there have never been more slaves in the world than in the twentieth century — long after the abolition of slavery in the U.S. during the 19th century.
Nobody in their right mind would haunt modern-day Italians with accusations of having exploited neighboring peoples, such as the French, as slaves. However, none of those, who are busy accusing the West of “inherited (collective) guilt” in connection with the eighteenth-century slave trade, take the trouble to address the current situation in Africa where slaves are traded along the same lines as 300 years ago.
In our time, when “The 1619 Project” was born, American school children know practically nothing about the victims of communism. For them, Che Guevara is the epitome of a “cool” rebel, whose iconic silhouette they love to wear on their T-shirts, as opposed to a cold-blooded killer in the ranks of “revolutionary” psychopaths. And few college students can barely account for the heinous crimes of Nazism. Indeed, indoctrinated by both news and social media, many have difficulty recognizing Jews as genocide “victims” rather than “executioners” because of the long-standing conflict with Muslims in the Middle East.
Why this obsession with, not the slavery of “Islamic warlords”, nor that of “KZ-camp Nazis” or “Gulag Bolsheviks”, but the transatlantic slave trade of eighteenth century America which ended more than 150 years ago?
Apparently neglected, because it poses an ideological taboo, the twentieth century saw the rise of the most powerful slave empires the world has ever known: Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany, and Communist China.
Totalitarianism has proven to be inextricably intertwined, not only with “arbitrary trials and executions”, but also with “systematized slavery” — the exploitation of men as livestock resources to be consumed at will. Altogether, playing on credulity, human perversion reaches no greater heights than in totalitarianism.
From the moment that Lenin took over the Kremlin, wholesale massacres and slavery began. The Gulag archipelago became the “freezing inferno” of modernity, the burial ground for untold millions of slaves, political prisoners deprived of their humanity.
Neither Soviet Russia nor Communist China is in danger of being accused of the sins of slavery, because they were not involved in the export of slaves from the coasts of Africa. Incidentally, Arab and Ottoman Muslims also go free, although they could be responsible for far greater slave trade (e.g. trans-Saharan, Crimean, and Barbary) and slaveholding than Europeans and Americans combined.
The notorious “Generalplan Ost”, a Nazi vision with historical roots in the nationalist “Drang nach Osten”, was a sickening manifestation of ideological delusion and evil. It envisaged Germanic colonization of Eastern Europe and Russia west of the Urals, based on a premise of racial superiority and natural right to “Lebensraum” at the expense of other peoples. Amounting to a prepared “genocide”, industrial-style plans, apart from “Wehrbauer” settlements, included enslavement, expulsion, and extermination of both Jews and Slavs.
As soon as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was broken, Nazis displayed an unbridled abuse of Russians, whom they considered “Untermenschen” without claim to dignity, deluded by racist dogmas of Aryanism. In contrast, Bolsheviks were literally prepared to enslave and massacre anybody without regard to ethnicity. The loyalty of the individual citizen to the party mattered less than the capricious intrigue that permeated the organization from top to bottom. As the great purges revealed, nobody could feel safe in the long run. — At the hands of anti-Christian, totalitarian ideologies, alternately Bolshevik and Nazi, Russians have suffered in the twentieth century like few others in the world.
The truth is that for decades — both before and after the fall of Nazism — Bolsheviks operated a slave system with “terror” as the principal weapon. Since then, Maoists have followed suit. In moral terms, Bolsheviks and Maoists have no advantage over Nazis — unless “racism” as an ideological, explicit motive is made the ultimate measure of evil.
In the footsteps of Young Turks, who exterminated Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians under cover of WWI, Stalin used WWII as a pretext for deportations of entire peoples (e.g. Crimean Tatars) — resulting in millions of deaths. There was no limit to his social engineering. A vengeful tyrant and untroubled killer, he was as revolutionary as anybody.
Maoists have advanced in a similar way in Tibet and Xinjiang where presently hundreds of thousands are held as forced-labor slaves in so-called “education camps”.
In totalitarian states, the life of the individual citizen belongs to somebody other than himself. Like Africans on antebellum plantations, he is deprived of his right to self-determination. Whatever the rhetoric of “official propaganda”, he remains the property of the state. Without restrictions, he is a slave proper. Everybody except the tyrant himself is in reality a slave.
If the slave resists and demands his freedom, he is punished. And when he tries to escape from slavery, the slave owners send their dogs and guns after him. In the end, his choice is between submission and death. That was also the essence of Kunta Kinte’s reluctant realization in “Roots”.
In summary, there are ideological reasons for political activists to target the West while turning a blind eye to crimes committed on a much larger scale by their own political allies in Soviet Russia and Communist China — not to mention Muslims of the caliphates. Basically, everything useful in the war against Western civilization will be weaponized. The anti-democratic enemy is opportunistic.
Whether you are a “decent man” never depends on your skin color, gender or age, but the thoughts and feelings that guide your actions among your fellow men. It is that simple.
“In spite of its glowing talk about the welfare of the masses, Communism’s methods and philosophy strip man of his dignity and worth, leaving him as little more than a depersonalized cog in the ever-turning wheel of the state.” — Martin Luther King, Jr
Infamous “Squad” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) recently issued a reaction to the attack on individuals calling for the release of Israeli hostages still in Hamas captivity during a demonstration held in Boulder, Colorado, this past weekend. She stated in a post on social media that she was “horrified” by the attack.
“My heart is with the victims and our Jewish communities across the country,” the post said. “Antisemitism is on the rise here at home, and we have a moral responsibility to confront and stop it everywhere it exists.”
One person who wasn’t impressed by the reaction was former Major League Baseball star Kevin Youkilis. The two-time World Series winner, who is himself Jewish, called out AOC and demanded to know what she, personally, has done to confront those who are calling for intifada in the city of New York.
“Jews are targeted with violence and it’s the same virtue signal post time and time again,” he wrote in his response to her reaction on X. “What have you done to confront those calling for intifadas in NYC? Until you create a plan of action, your repeated virtue signaling after the violence occurs holds no weight.”
Youkilis is primarily known for the time he spent playing for the Boston Red Sox, but the final year of his career was spent playing for the New York Yankees.
Youkilis was asked what action he wanted to see Ocasio-Cortez take, to which he responded, “Confront the radical mobs chanting for intifadas in NYC.”
“That would be brave leadership, but we know politicians, on both sides of the aisle, shy away in fear of losing votes and power,” he added.
“In the midst of last year’s chaos at Columbia University, Ocasio-Cortez called anti-Israel agitators on campus ‘peaceful.’ The message came as Jewish students were recommended to stay home as students were caught on camera sympathizing with Hamas. The FBI described Sunday’s violence as a ‘targeted terror attack.’ Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, was accused of using homemade incendiary devices to light eight people on fire as they gathered to advocate for the return of Israeli hostages in Hamas captivity in a daytime attack at Boulder’s Pearl Street Mall,” Fox reported.
Videos of the Boulder attack show a man, shirtless, standing with a menacing posture and holding two more devices after the first assault on bystanders, while someone in the crowd of people recorded him.
Local authorities eventually swarmed the scene, and Soliman surrendered. The suspect first arrived in the U.S. on a non-immigrant visa in August 2022. That visa expired in February 2023, but instead of leaving the country, he decided to stay.
Soliman then received a work permit from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in March 2023 that was valid for a year, expiring in March 2024. Again, he decided to stay in the country illegally.
The suspect is now looking at multiple charges for his actions on Sunday.
Advocates had gathered for a Run for Their Lives event, which is a walk/run to help raise awareness and call on the government to provide assistance in freeing Israeli hostages who are in Hamas captivity. Victims of Soliman’s attack range in age from 52 to 88. One of them was previously listed in critical condition.
Elon Musk blasted the big tax-and-spending-cut bill backed by President Donald Trump.
Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill” is a “disgusting abomination” that will boost the federal deficit, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO said.
Musk until recently led DOGE, the Trump administration’s effort to cut government spending.
Musk on Tuesday tore into the massive tax-and-spending-cut bill backed by President Donald Trump, calling it a “disgusting abomination” that will explode federal budget deficits.
“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore,” Musk wrote in a post on his social media site X.null
“This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,” added the Tesla and SpaceX CEO.
“Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know
Musk led the Trump administration’s DOGE effort to cut government spending and waste until last week, when his term as a temporary “special government employee” expired.
Musk added in a follow-up post that the bill “will massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion (!!!) and burden America citizens with crushingly high spending.
The White House quickly shrugged off the criticism from Musk, a vocal Trump supporter who spent over $250 million backing Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.
“Look, the president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said when asked about the post.
“It doesn’t change the President’s opinion. This is one big, beautiful bill, and he’s sticking to it,” she said.
Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, a fiscal hawk and one of only two Republicans to vote against the House version of Trump’s bill, wrote, “He’s right,” in response to Musk’s post.
Musk replied to Massie: “Simple math.”
Earlier Tuesday, Trump lashed out at Sen. Rand Paul after the Kentucky Republican criticized the bill’s provision to raise the debt ceiling by trillions of dollars.
Trump accused Paul of failing to understand that the bill would spur “tremendous GROWTH.”
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Key Points – Ukraine’s recent “Operation Spiderweb” drone strikes deep into Russia, targeting strategic bomber bases, are characterized as “pure theatre” and strategically meaningless despite generating significant media attention.
-The targeted bombers (Tu-95s, Tu-22m) play a peripheral role in the current conflict, primarily launching occasional cruise missiles.
-These symbolic attacks do not alter the fundamental battlefield reality where Russian forces continue to make slow, methodical advances in key areas like Donbas, pursuing limited objectives through a war of attrition.
-Russia, worried, but undeterred by these strikes, remains focused on consolidating its gains, while Ukraine’s reliance on such actions suggests a shift towards optics over substantive military outcomes.
The Department of Education announced Monday that the month of June will now be recognized as “Title IX Month,” commemorating the 53rd anniversary of the federal civil rights measure being signed into law while highlighting how the previous administration undermined efforts to protect girls and women under the law.
Title IX Month replaces Pride Month celebrated by the Department of Education under former President Joe Biden, who in 2022 declared June LGBTQ Pride Month. From there, Biden’s DOE Pride Month celebrations focused on gender ideology, critical race theory, and diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. Not this June.
The Department is recognizing June as ‘Title IX Month’ to honor women’s hard-earned civil rights and demonstrate the Trump Administration’s unwavering commitment to restoring them to the fullest extent of the law,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a release.
The Department of Education on Monday announced the first of its monthlong initiatives: Title IX investigations of the University of Wyoming and Jefferson County, Colorado, Public Schools for allowing biological males into female-only spaces.
The department’s Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation of the University of Wyoming for allegedly allowing a biological man to join the campus sorority Kappa Kappa Gamma.
“A school receiving federal funding that supports, sponsors, or promotes a sorority or fraternity, must meet its obligations under Title IX to protect its students from sex-based harassment and sexual assault, regardless of the sorority or fraternity’s policy,” the DOE wrote.
The investigation into Jefferson County Public Schools centers on district policy “that students will be assigned to share overnight accommodations with other students that share a student’s ‘gender identity,’ thus removing the safeguard of single-sex overnight accommodations.”
The case involves an 11-year-old girl who would have had to share a bed with a biological on an overnight school trip. The school district’s definition of a girl includes boys who identify as girls.
“Title IX provides women protections on the basis of sex in all educational activities, which include their rights to equal opportunity in sports and sex-segregated intimate spaces, including sororities and living accommodations,” McMahon wrote. “This Administration will fight on every front to protect women’s and girls’ sports, intimate spaces, dormitories and living quarters, and fraternal and panhellenic organizations.”
Several federal environmental agencies are facing cuts of at least 28% under the Trump administration’s new budget blueprint that was released late Friday.
Departments such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Park Service would see deep and specific cuts for the 2026 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1 under a budget proposal released by the Office of Management and Budget, The Hill reported Monday.
The EPA would see a 34.7% cut to its payroll for science staff and staff working on environmental programs and environmental management. The Park Service would see a 30% cut to its staff in charge of its system operations. And the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration would get a 28.4% cut to its staff operations, research and facilities payroll.
But the cuts aren’t just for staff. A number of offices related to energy and environmental research, as well as disaster response, are reduced or eliminated, The Hill reported. The new blueprint for example eliminates the NOAA’s office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, and it also cuts federal assistance at the Federal Emergency Management Agency by 31.9%.
White House budget requests are typically seen as a signal of an administration’s priorities rather than a realistic road map because Congress controls appropriations, The Hill reported. The Trump administration has signaled it is willing to go further to challenge congressional authority by instituting massive layoffs at many agencies with more on the horizon.
THE ARTFUL DILETTANTE 