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Ruth King

Ami Horowitz Video: Refusing Kids Gender Reassignment Surgery Is it abuse?

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/08/ami-horowitz-video-left-think-its-abuse-refuse-ami-horowitz/

In this new Daily Wire video, Ami Horowitz takes to the streets of New York, the woke capital of the world, to ask bystanders what they think about hormone therapy and gender reassignment for children. The results are disturbing. Don’t miss it!

Taliban’s Regulations For Women It will send chills down your spine. Ashlyn Davis

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/08/talibans-regulations-women-ashlyn-davis/

Conventional media have put all their resources into whitewashing the brutalities of the Taliban and giving them an image makeover, so as to make them acceptable to the modern world and perhaps win these mountain savages a seat at the United Nations. They tell us that Taliban 2.0 is a whole different entity and is not comparable to the Taliban that had wreaked havoc in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. After all, the Muslim group has promised to honor women rights and allow them to continue to work as usual. Little girls could receive education as well.

We are a little confused by the Taliban’s commitment to permitting girls to go to school, because quite recently, Taliban jihadis were going door-to-door hunting down girls as young as twelve years old, to take them as sex slaves. We have learned of a woman being lashed for wearing revealing slippers and another burka-clad woman being shot dead for not covering her face enough. And these atrocities have happened under the rule of the moderate, women’s-rights-acknowledging Taliban 2.0.

Leaders of the Muslim outfit have clarified their views on women’s rights in the country: “The rights of women will be under the Sharia law,” affirmed Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, during their first press conference since conquering Kabul.

And what are the rights granted to women by this esteemed Islamic law? Let’s look at the “rights” Afghan women enjoyed during Taliban 1.0 from 1996 to 2001; or shall we call them impositions?

Women were not allowed to walk out of their homes without a burqa covering every inch of their skin, including their feet, hands and face. Most women during that period opted for the shuttlecock burqa that covered them from head to toe; there was a little gap for the eyes, but with a net or mesh covering the gap so that their eyes couldn’t be seen. It was mandatory for every woman to be accompanied by a male family member – a blood relative – while she was out on the street.

No man should be able to hear the footsteps of a woman, hence, high heels or any kind of footwear that produced a sound while walking were banned from use by women.

Forty Years of Misunderstanding Islam When will it be time to listen to what the jihadists tell us about their faith-based hostility and ambitions? Bruce Thornton

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/08/forty-years-misunderstanding-islam-bruce-thornton/

The debacle in Afghanistan is first and foremost the consequence of the Biden foreign policy team’s spectacular incompetence. Setting a date-certain withdrawal was in itself a blunder, signaling the Taliban that all they had to do was to keep telling us what we wanted to hear and then wait, but withdrawing troops and abandoning Bagram airbase before evacuating our citizens was willful stupidity. It left the Afghan army vulnerable, and ceded the skies to the enemy. So too was leaving behind billions in advanced armaments for the Taliban. There’s no question that Biden’s name will forever be linked to one of the worst military blunders in the postwar period.

But an older error set the stage for bad decisions that have empowered modern jihadism for forty years––the failure to understand the true nature of Islam as documented in 1400 years of practice and doctrine. As a result, we have pursued policies based on delusion and false paradigms.

The first mistake was our misreading of the 1978-79 Iranian Revolution and the kidnapping of our embassy staff in November 1979. Jimmy Carter’s feckless response followed the stale narrative of anti-colonial resistance to our Cold War self-interested disregard for aspirations to national self-determination, political freedom, and human rights. Our ally the Shah of Iran, despite Iran’s geostrategic and economic importance, fell victim to Carter’s naïve belief that “moral principles” and “idealism” were more significant than military readiness and a realist willingness to use force to protect our national interests and allies. Misled by that paradigm, Carter withheld support from the Shah, assuming that a secular coalition would replace him.

Locked in the paradigm of neo-imperialist resistance to movements of nationalist self-determination, Carter failed to understand the true origins of the Iranian Revolution. In reality, the revolution was a religious phenomenon, a response to the Shah’s modernization and secularization policies such as emancipating women and protecting minorities like Jews and Baha’is. The Ayatollah Khomeini, godfather of the revolution, made this motive clear in 1963 when he said the Shah’s regime was “fundamentally opposed to Islam itself and the existence of a religious class.”

Missing too from Carter’s thinking was the historical role of jihad in Islamic reform movements. Khomeini’s sermons and books, the latter dismissed by our security agencies, were clear on the religious obligation to create a political-social order based on Islam and Sharia law. And the means for achieving it was jihadist violence and martyrdom. After he took power in Iran, Khomeini articulated the violent nature of jihad: “Islam is a religion of blood for the infidels but a religion of guidance for other people.” And its goal is the global triumph of Islam: “We shall export our revolution to the whole world. Until the cry ‘There is no god but Allah’ resounds over the whole world, there will be jihad.” Such statements are consistent with Koranic verses such as “Slay the idolators wherever you find them,” or “Fight those who do not believe in Allah,” or “O you who believe! Fight those of the unbelievers who are near to you and let them find in you hardness,” or “Kill them wherever you find them.”

It’s Dawning on the Democrats: Biden-Harris Will Drag Them Down By Charles C. W. Cooke See note please

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/08/its-dawning-on-the-democrats-biden-harris-will-drag-them-down/

So did National Review, with rare exception tie its prestige and probity to a pair of losers in their intemperate and relentless bashing of Donald Trump….rsk

They’ve tied their party to a pair of losers.

T he Joe Biden–Kamala Harris ticket was well-placed to run against Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election. History may show that, beyond that, it turned out to be fit for no other purpose.

We hear an enormous amount these days about the problem of “Flight 93-ism” on the American right, but a great deal less about the concomitant panic that has led the Democratic Party to behave as if last year’s election represented its last gasp. Since Joe Biden took office in January, his party has been busy cramming everything it has ever wanted to do into a series of multi-trillion-dollar, must-pass bills; hawking a patently unconstitutional elections-supervision bill that would hand it full control of America’s democratic infrastructure; and engaging in a frenzied attempt to pack the Supreme Court, discredit the Senate, abolish the filibuster, and add new states to the union by simple majority vote. If you ask for an explanation of this preposterous behavior, you will be told that it is the product of the Republican Party’s dastardly scheme to implement Jim Eagle. If you look more closely, however, you’ll sense something else: fear — that, in a desperate attempt to remove President Trump from office, the Democrats tailored themselves a straitjacket from which they will struggle mightily to escape.

This fear is well-founded. Joe Biden is an aging, incompetent mediocrity whose main claim to fame, like the Delta Tau Chi fraternity from Animal House, is his long tradition of existence. Kamala Harris, his vice president, is a widely disliked authoritarian whose last run for the White House was stymied by her inability to garner support from more than 3 percent of the Democratic-primary electorate. If, prior to the disaster that was the last fortnight, the Democrats hadn’t sensed that they’d tied their party to a pair of losers, they sure as hell must have now.

Women and girls hardest hit in Afghanistan By C.S. Boddie

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/08/women_and_girls_hardest_hit_in_afghanistan.html

For Afghan girls and women who must remain in Afghanistan, it doesn’t matter what the USA does now.  What the USA did is the issue.  

Many voices are sounding off on this reality, but their words do not matter much to everyday women in Afghanistan.  It is all sound and fury now.

Had the government of Ashraf Ghani and the army of Afghanistan stayed in place and continued to operate and govern after the U.S. military pulled out, Afghan women and girls might have had a chance, might have had futures, even if fighting with the Taliban continued.  Now their prospects and even their lives are over.  Oh, sure, many will live on, but their lives will be torturous.

It seems President Biden just waved his hand and said get our troops out of Afghanistan now.  Did he understand what would happen to girls and women in Afghanistan with that directive?  When he chose to “go to zero” suddenly, pulling our military out completely, did he even consider Afghan girls and women?   Doubt it.

Why?  Aren’t the Democrats always hyper-focused on the plight of women?  Did Biden have room in his heart only for American women? 

Is Apple Gearing Up for China-Style Internet Control in the U.S.? By Janet Levy

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/08/is_apple_gearing_up_for_chinastyle_internet_control_in_the_us.html

Recently, Apple announced that it will deploy a new algorithm, NeuralMatch, to monitor iMessages and images on its devices. The ostensible purpose is to scan for photos containing nudity sent by or to children and also for photos of nude or seminude children. If a number of suspect images are backed up to an iCloud account, they will be decrypted and inspected, and the user reported to law enforcement. Police could then investigate or prosecute the user for possession of child pornography or for child sex abuse or other offences. But, well-intentioned as the motive may sound, this is a matter of grave concern for privacy. Once such surveillance is begun, it opens the gates for other tech firms to follow suit, and worse, for warrantless scans for nefarious government purposes.

Coming as it does from Apple, this is a curious development in the U.S. For although Apple has bent over backwards to please the Chinese government on its surveillance and censorship needs, it has vehemently resisted assisting the U.S. government. It has refused to unlock cellphones for criminal investigations and prosecutions, citing concerns about protecting the data and privacy of its customers. It has received — and objected to — at least 10 requests from federal courts for extracting date from locked iPhones. But now, in a complete turnabout, if Apple thinks (or its algorithm decides) that certain images are illegal, it will cooperate with the authorities.

In 2016, the FBI asked Apple to unlock a phone used by one of the Islamic terrorists who attacked the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health, murdering 14 people and injuring 22. Apple declined, citing a corporate policy to never undermine the security features of its products. Following another terrorist attack at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida, in 2019, Apple again rejected a government request to unlock the perpetrator’s phone. Then-Attorney General William Barr insisted that tech companies have an obligation to give law enforcement access to encrypted devices, but Apple refused. It said doing so would weaken encryption and thus jeopardize the data security of its customers.

So much for Joe’s threats: Taliban IGNORE Biden’s demand to let civilians into Kabul airport and westerners are beaten.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9925153/Thousands-desperate-Americans-allies-scramble-Kabul.html

By Sam Baker and Chris Pleasance for MailOnline and Elizabeth Elkind, U.S. Political Reporter For Dailymail.Com and Wires

 US airlifts more than 19K in 24 hours as desperate Afghans cause a STAMPEDE at the airport amid fears of an ISIS-K attack
Desperate Afghans waded through sewage at Kabul airport today in a last-ditch effort to escape Taliban rule 
Evacuees said they had been attacked by the Taliban and prevented from getting to Kabul airport 
The reports emerged less than 24 hours after President Biden said the Taliban needed to let people leave  
Fears are growing that crowds could try to storm the airport or that opportunistic terrorists will launch an attack – fears that will only grow as troop numbers dwindle
Those not already at airport now have little chance of escape, as Taliban stop all Afghan citizens reaching it
Members of the GOP said on Tuesday night that Biden has ‘blood on his hands’ because of who is left behind 
Taliban has warned President Biden that there will be no extension to the August 31 evacuation deadline
US evacuated 19,000 people from Kabul, across 48 different flights, over the last 24 hours, White House says 
Two Congressmen who travelled to Kabul to witness the chaos say: ‘We won’t get everyone out on time’
Pentagon commanders have also warned of Islamic State-offshoot called ISIS-K who are targeting planes
Afghanistan’s former interior minister claims he Taliban are killing innocent children in power consolidation

Thousands converged on Kabul airport on Wednesday in a desperate bid to leave Afghanistan amid reports the Taliban are stopping westerners getting in, less than 24 hours after President Joe Biden said he would only pull troops by August 31 if the insurgents allow safe passage.

The U.S. has ramped up its airlifts and has evacuated 19,000 people in the last 24 hours and has already started pulling out military forces with just six days until the deadline, which Biden has promised to stick to. 

But the Taliban has ignored the president’s threats and is beating up people trying to leave, according to reports, and both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have said there isn’t enough time to get everyone out. 

My Grandfather’s Crimes Against Humanity A family memoir gets surprising reactions from Lithuanians, Russians and Jews. By Silvia Foti

https://www.wsj.com/articles/jonas-noreika-human-rights-concentration-camps-holocaust-world-war-ii-russia-lithuania-11629914334?mod=opinion_lead_pos10

I grew up the proud granddaughter of a Lithuanian war hero who fought against communists. My grandfather, Jonas Noreika, has a school and streets named after him. When my mother, on her deathbed in 2000, asked me to write a story about her heroic father, I enthusiastically agreed.

Unfortunately, as I dug deeper, I discovered to my horror that my grandfather was also a Holocaust perpetrator involved in murdering at least 8,000 Jews. On my story’s release, Russians wanted to use me, Lithuanians vilified me, and Jews embraced me.

Ms. Foti’s grandfather Jonas Noreika.
Photo: Courtesy of Silvia Foti

My grandfather wrote an order on Aug. 22, 1941 to send thousands of Jews to a ghetto in Zagere, where they were slaughtered. My family story has brought this to the forefront, toppling Lithuania’s image as an innocent bystander in the Holocaust.

As a result, Russian TV, radio, newspapers and even the press secretary from the Russian embassy in Washington begged me for interviews, promising an audience of millions. They gushed that my story was important because it overturns the heroic story of a Lithuanian partisan. I had to say no. The last thing any Lithuanian wants to hear is a lecture from the Russians on mistreating innocent people.

What Are Joe Biden’s Fixed Principles? A crisis reveals a president with little introspection and even less penetration into the world’s problems. By Joseph Epstein

https://www.wsj.com/articles/borax-door-to-door-salesman-statesmanship-joe-biden-presidency-administration-11629921697?mod=opinion_lead_pos9

Joe Biden is the 46th U.S. president, the military’s commander in chief, leader of the free world. So why can’t I take him seriously? When he steps out to make a speech or give a rare press conference, he looks as if he is setting out to do a commercial to sell me gutters or roofing shingles. Mr. Biden strikes me as the Borax Man—a term from my Chicago youth for that slick salesman, whom you are always mistaken to allow in your house.

The Borax Man was a familiar type when I was growing up. So familiar that I dropped such a character, whom I named Sy Bourget, into a short story of mine called “Kaplan’s Big Deal.” In that story I wrote: “Bourget—he didn’t pronounce the t in his name—was so good, it used to be said, that he could sell aluminum siding to people who lived in high-rise buildings.” A main chancer, he studied human motives “toward the end of manipulating others to say yes.” Everyone, he believed, “was an operator, or at least wanted to be, and the only difference between people was that there were those who operated successfully and those who didn’t. Winners and losers, the old story.”

The problem Mr. Biden presents is that it is difficult to believe anything he says. The reason is that it is hard to believe that he himself really believes in much of anything, except getting ahead. As the American president—thanks to his good luck in having Donald Trump for an opponent—he has now surely accomplished this in excelsis.

Yet Mr. Biden lacks the convincing solemnity of manner, the gravitas that all world leaders, the fate of millions riding on their decisions, require. Instead he comes off as a man with little introspection and even less penetration into the problems facing the world. At a moment of crisis, these deficiencies carry grave consequences.

The Coming Afghan Migration Crisis Europe understandably fears a refugee surge like the one from Syria.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-coming-afghan-migration-crisis-europe-joe-biden-alexander-lukashenko-taliban-11629831981?mod=opinion_lead_pos4

The immediate crisis in Kabul will end when U.S. forces depart, but President Biden’s surrender to the Taliban will have deleterious effects far beyond Afghanistan. Another migration crisis in Europe could be among the most consequential.

“Migrants and refugees from Syria, Iraq and Libya will be joined by people from Afghanistan,” Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko saidMonday. “Even though they are going to end up in the West, they will be going and flying through Belarus.”

Mr. Lukashenko, isolated after his brazen theft of last year’s presidential election, has been facilitating illegal immigration into Europe. So far more than 4,000 have crossed into neighboring Lithuania this year, up from a few dozen in 2020. Poland and Latvia also have had to reinforce their borders with Belarus as they cope with thousands of illegal crossings.

The strongman has made clear that Minsk is weaponizing the migrants over the European Union’s sanctions on his government’s elites and some Belarusian industries. He told the U.S. and U.K. to “choke on your sanctions” earlier this month. Mr. Lukashenko has plenty of reason to believe he can behave with impunity.

The International Monetary Fund this week granted the regime a nearly $1 billion lifeline through “special drawing rights.” (See nearby.) Mr. Biden and his European counterparts, overwhelmed in Afghanistan, never organized effective opposition to the move despite their influence at the IMF.