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Ruth King

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Tim Walz Accepts VP Nomination in Speech Combining Misleading Attacks on GOP with Cheery Optimism By Brittany Bernstein

By on August 22nd, 2024

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/tim-walz-accepts-vp-nomination-in-speech-combining-misleading-attacks-on-gop-with-cheery-optimism/

Minnesota governor Tim Walz accepted the Democratic nomination for vice president on Wednesday night in a speech before the party’s convention that was filled with falsehoods about Republican positions on a number of issues, from abortion to entitlement reform.

Walz, like other Democrats who spoke at the convention in previous days, falsely suggested that access to IVF may be in danger. He spoke about his and his wife’s experience with using fertility treatments to conceive their two children.

“I’m letting you in on how we started a family because this is a big part of what this election is about: freedom,” he said.

However, there is no evidence that Republicans are looking to ban IVF. In fact, the GOP platform passed at the party’s own convention last month expressly stated support for IVF. “We will oppose Late Term Abortion, while supporting mothers and policies that advance Prenatal Care, access to Birth Control, and IVF (fertility treatments),” the platform reads.

Walz touted how he has “protected reproductive freedom” as governor of Minnesota, where he says, “We respect our neighbors and the personal choices they make and even if we wouldn’t make those same choices for ourselves, we’ve got a golden rule: mind your own damn business.”

He went on to claim “some folks,” like former president Donald Trump and Senator J. D. Vance, “just don’t understand what it takes to be a good neighbor.”

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Mike Gonzalez A Decade of Ignorance Ferguson inaugurated ten years of lies about race in America.

By on August 22nd, 2024

https://www.city-journal.org/article/ferguson-inaugurated-ten-years-of-lies-about-race-in-america

This month marks the tenth anniversary of events that changed the trajectory of this country, and not for the better. On August 9, 2014, Darren Wilson fatally shot Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Riots erupted the next day and continued for months nationwide. Black Lives Matter exploited the mayhem it had helped cause, helping it swell into a malign global force. The activist model pioneered at Ferguson has had a lasting impact on American politics, as this year’s pro-Hamas demonstrations prove.

The catalyzing event was a personal tragedy, but from a journalistic perspective, it should have been pretty ho-hum. Wilson was a cop, and Brown had just robbed a convenience store, violently overpowering the clerk. When Wilson tried to stop him in the street, Brown scuffled with him, reaching inside his police SUV through the driver’s window. Brown then ran off and Wilson gave chase. At some point, Brown turned around and charged Wilson. That was when Wilson killed him.

The entire encounter, the Department of Justice later said in a revealing report, lasted two minutes. And that’s how long the story would have lasted, too, except that Wilson was white and Brown was black, and had just turned 18 less than three months earlier.

Those with political motivations manipulated the tragedy in several ways. They claimed that Brown had tried to surrender, raising his hands and pleading with Wilson, “Hands up, don’t shoot!” but the policeman still wantonly gunned him down. That fed the narrative that the killing was part of an epidemic of police killing unarmed blacks in America. And this, in turn, reinforced a theme that the country is “systemically racist” and oppressive.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Iran’s Ayatollahs bully the US by destabilizing Saudi Arabia Yoram Ettinger

By on August 22nd, 2024

http://bit.ly/4dzWi9V

Since the February 1979 Ayatollahs’ Islamic Revolution – which transformed Iran from “America’s policeman in the Gulf” to the epicenter of anti-US terrorism – Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has attempted to erode the US strategic posture, regionally and globally, including Latin America.  Thus, the IRGC has agitated and radicalized the Shiite communities in the pro-US, oil-producing, Sunni Arab countries, while training Shiite terrorists and providing them weapons and explosives. The IRGC has focussed on Bahrain and Saudi Arabia (Bahrain’s patron), and especially on Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, which is the home of the bulk of Saudi oil reserves, as well as, the main Saudi refinery and export terminal of Ras Tanura, where the Shiites – who are a 20% minority in Saudi Arabia – constitute a majority.  Moreover, the Ayatollahs claim title to the major offshore Al-Durra oil and natural gas field, currently controlled by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

The Saudi perception of Iran’s Ayatollahs

*The Saudi Crown Prince, Muhammed bin Salman (MBS), the de facto ruler of the kingdom, does not allow the March 2023 resumption of the Saudi-Iranian diplomatic ties to smother the reality of the inherently subversive, terroristic, anti-Sunni and imperialistic track record of Iran’s Ayatollahs. MBS is cognizant of the fact that the Ayatollahs’ 1,400-year-old Shiite ideology – as stipulated in their 1979 Constitution, school curriculum, mosque sermons, and documented in their systematic rogue policy – mandates the toppling of all pro-US, oil-producing, “heretic” Sunni regimes, especially Saudi Arabia, which controls Mecca and Medina, the two holiest Moslem sites, and rivals the Ayatollahs for the dominance of the Moslem World and the Persian Gulf.

*He is aware that Saudi Arabia is a top prize for the Ayatollahs, since it constitutes the chief component of the Persian Gulf’s 48% of global oil and natural gas reserves, a focal point of global economy, in general, and the price at the pump, in particular. Furthermore, toppling the pro-US Saudi regime would accord the anti-US Ayatollahs control of the Arabian Peninsula, which dominates much of the shipping route between Europe and the Far East.

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EDUCATION Comments turned off

Should Schools Ban Phones? Jacqueline Nesi evaluates the evidence related to phone-free schools

By on August 22nd, 2024

https://www.afterbabel.com/ Jonathan Haidt

“Schools should ensure that classroom learning and social time are phone-free experiences.”  

— U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy

“Cell phone use in schools has gotten out of control. It’s gotten to the point that students don’t talk face to face, but instead text one another when they’re sitting right next to each other! …research tells us what we already know: excessive cell phone use impacts students’ mental health and academic performance. It’s time to update our policy [to ban cell phones] and make it a district-wide responsibility.”  

— Jackie Goldberg, Los Angeles Unified School District Board President

“It’s 2024 – and all families rely on cell phones to stay connected and communicate now more than ever…parents want to be able to have clear and open channels of communication with their own children. Banning cell phones outright in school or treating them like contraband instead of using effective classroom management is entirely unreasonable and not grounded in the reality we will live in.” 

— Keri Rodrigues, President of the National Parents Union 

It’s back-to-school season, and you know what that means! We’re talking about school cell phone bans.

Should schools ban phones outright? Are there other options? Is there any research on this? 

This is a big topic, so I cover it in two parts. In this post, I discuss the research on phone bans. In the second post, I talk about specific policies, and how schools can implement them.

So, please, grab a seat, put away your cell phone (in your backpack, out of sight, for the duration of this period), and let’s get to it! 

Wait, what’s going on?

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

This Week Today | Current Events from Israel Rabbi Ben Packer

By on August 22nd, 2024

https://mailchi.mp/dd9d88d97a17/israel-current-events***

Gaza
There were serious developments in Gaza this week. First of all, 6 dead bodies of Israeli hostages were retrieved by the army from a tunnel. It was already known that 5 of the 6 had been killed. It was suspected that the 6th was killed, but hadn’t been confirmed. All 6 had been kidnapped alive from communities adjacent to Gaza on Oct. 7th. It is unclear as to how they all were killed, but there are suggestions that at least some of them were killed by IDF attacks near the tunnel where they were being held. There are some on the left who are blaming Prime Minister Netanyahu for this, but that just shows how crazy and bitter these people are. 

In a bit of a surprise move, Israeli forces pushed through a section of the Gaza Strip (Kissufim) all the way to the beach this week. This is the third corridor that crosses the entire Strip that has been created by the IDF since the beginning of the current conflict. It’s unclear what exactly precipitated the move, but is likely connected to a recent uptick in rocket fire. In the areas of the other two corridors (Netzarim in the middle of the Strip and Philadelphia in the south bordering Egypt), the IDF continued this week to eliminate terrorists and destroy tunnels. It was announced this week that over 150 tunnels in the Rafiach area have been destroyed so far. Two reserve soldiers were tragically killed this week in the Netzarim corridor by a roadside bomb. Another soldier was also killed while engaging terrorists. 

The hostage negotiations appear to be deadlocked. Hamas refuses to agree to a deal in which Israeli forces remain in Gaza. So far, Prime Minister Netanyahu has refused any scenario where troops are pulled out of certain areas, like the Netzarim and Philadelphia corridors.

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ELECTIONS Comments turned off

The DNC, Lies and Videotape Democrat fakery and media silence. by Lloyd Billingsley

By on August 22nd, 2024

https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-dnc-lies-and-videotape/

This summer marks 20 years since an Illinois state senator calling himself Barack Obama delivered the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention. This year’s DNC confirms that the more accurate designation is DSM – the Dictatorship of the Subjunctive Mood now spreading reality dysphoria across America.

The Illinois senator told the nation his father was a Kenyan goatherd who went to school in a tin-roof shack. He rode that story into the US senate and in 2008 ran for president, promising a fundamental transformation of the United States of America. In the 2017 Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama, David Garrow confirmed what others had already revealed, that the vaunted Dreams from My Father was a novel, not an autobiography or memoir, and the author a “composite character,” one of the numerous fakes on the political scene.

Under DSM, a politician can make false claims with little if any challenge from the establishment media. For example, Sen. Elizabeth Warren built a career on the false claim that she was a Cherokee Indian. The honorable course would be to resign but the Massachusetts Democrat went on to run for president.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal claimed he served in Vietnam, a claim that was exposed as false by the New York Times. That prompted no resignation from the Connecticut Democrat, who in 2017 demanded that Trump attorney general pick Jeff Sessions return an award from the David Horowitz Freedom Center. Consider also Delaware Democrat Joe Biden.

Even hagiographical hooey like Mark Bowden’s 2010 “The Salesman” outed Biden as a poor student and semi-literate plagiarist. Biden did better as a serial prevaricator, falsely claiming that his first wife was killed by a drunk driver, that his son Beau was killed in Iraq, that he acted as a liaison for Golda Meir during the Six Day War, and so on. Such fakery made Biden a natural choice for the composite character.

As vice president, Biden “got China” and the “Big Guy” ran the business operations through son Hunter, dealings now coming to light in more detail. Biden also had leverage with Ukraine, using his power to get a prosecutor fired. In classic corrupt style, the Delaware Democrat used the power of his office to enrich himself and his family.

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ELECTIONS Comments turned off

A Deep Dive into a Harris Word-Salad Why her handlers are keeping her sequestered from the media and voters. by Bruce Thornton

By on August 22nd, 2024

https://www.frontpagemag.com/a-deep-dive-into-a-harris-word-salad/

Recently Larry Elder provided us with a sample of Kamala Harris’s thinking on various issues. A deep dive into one will demonstrate why her handlers are keeping her sequestered from the media and voters.

Here’s one from the year of her stillborn 2020 presidential primary, when she didn’t get a single vote, and from which she had to ignominiously withdraw:

“So, there’s a big difference between equality and equity. Equality suggests, ‘oh everyone should get the same amount.’ The problem with that, not everybody’s starting out from the same place. So, if we’re all getting the same amount, but you started out back there and I started out over here, we could get the same amount, but you’re still going to be that far back behind me. It’s about giving people the resources and the support they need, so that everyone can be on equal footing, and then compete on equal footing. Equitable treatment means we all end up at the same place.”

The first problem is Harris’s typical simplistic and redundant writing style. Phrases like “same place,” “back there,” “equal footing,” “equitable treatment” are vague. We assume she’s talking about socio-economic status and education, which leftists and progressives claim are products of the unjust political and economic order and “systemic” oppression. Since these are the keys to success, “resources and support,” i.e. transfers of money, or subsidized goods and services, must be provided to peoples so “we all end up in the same place” ––in other words, equality of result rather than opportunity, the fly in this word salad.

This sentiment is important, since it lies behind numerous dysfunctional leftist policies, and has been obvious in Democrats’ policy proposals since FDR, and took a quantum leap during Barack Obama’s presidency. Today, they have moved even farther left during the Biden-Harris administration, which along with Harris’s vice-president candidate Tim Walz, promise to leave centrism and common sense completely behind, damaging even further our economy and national character in the pursuit of correcting what is called “income inequality.”

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ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Don’t Forget What Harris And Biden Have Done To The Country

By on August 22nd, 2024

https://issuesinsights.com/2024/08/22/dont-forget-what-harris-and-biden-have-done-to-the-country/

When Americans listen to Kamala Harris’ acceptance speech tonight, they need to tune out the thrill-up-the-leg praise from the media and the audience’s stream of verbal bouquets and ask themselves one question: Are they better off today than they were four years ago. For all but a few, the answer would be resounding “no.”

In the only debate between President Jimmy Carter and challenger Ronald Reagan in the 1980 campaign, just days before the election, Reagan asked what the Harvard John F. Kennedy School of Government called “one of the most important campaign questions of all time:

“Are you better off today than you were four years ago?” 

Voters said no, and sent Reagan to the White House with 489 electoral votes and sent Carter home with 49.

Forty-four years later, the question is still relevant, and still yields the same response, because:

The unemployment rate was 4.3% in July 2024 – the fourth straight month it has increased – compared to 3.5% in February 2020 when politicians and unelected public health officials began choking the economy with pandemic lockdowns. Even though that comparison is bad enough, it’s somewhat misleading, because there are 5 million fewer Americans in the labor force than there were just before the lockdowns. Adjusting for that, the real unemployment rate, which has never been below 4% while the Biden-Harris regime has been in office, would be 5.2% today.

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ANTI-SEMITISM, HISTORY Comments turned off

Pogrom at Kibbutz Be’eri: Jews Under Fire by Nils A. Haug

By on August 21st, 2024

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20885/pogrom-at-kibbutz-beeri

“As word came that murderous hordes were approaching, the Jews attempted to flee. Those who could not, barricaded themselves indoors and prayed for a miracle.”

This moving narrative describes not the shocking events of October 7, 2023, at Kibbutz Be’eri and other communities in Israel, but the massacre of eastern European Jews nearly 400 years earlier by Cossacks during the 1648 Khmelnitsky pogroms, in what is now Ukraine.

Although Jewish settlements in the greater Kievan Rus region, Ukraine and Crimea included, can be traced to the 8th -10th centuries, a record of pogroms took some time to emerge. Not limited to the Rus region, pogroms were widespread in middle ages Europe as a whole. In the Rhineland area, the First Crusade of 1096 led to mass slaughter of Jews who had settled there, and the same later in Palestine when the Crusaders arrived. In England, the York pogrom of 1190 resulted in the expulsion of Jews from the land for nearly 400 years.

The long and woeful history of eastern European pogroms: the massacre of innocent, peace-loving Jews in their small villages, their shtetls, commenced about a thousand years ago and continues today. Out of these pogroms came the words of Rabbeinu Gershom, who in the 10th century wrote in his work, Zechor Brit Avraham (Recall the Covenant of Abraham):

“Wounds, bruises, and fresh blows
are inflicted on the daughter of Israel
She is pained and embittered in a foreign land
hunted like a bird from Mt. Moriah.”

The year 1391 witnessed the infamous Spanish pogrom in which Sephardic Jewish communities were destroyed, and those who refused to convert to Catholicism were murdered. By 1492, the date of final expulsion, there were few, if any, openly practising Jews left in Spain.

Nearly 400 years later, in 1881, a continuous four-year pogrom occurred in southern Russia, when thousands of shtetls with their Jewish occupants were eliminated. With numerous pogroms in between, some 40 years thereafter, between the years of 1918 and 1920, major pogroms were instigated throughout Ukraine, in which more than 250,000 Jews were murdered. The mass migration of Ashkenazi Jews from Ukraine and Russia to America can be traced to those events.

Only one day after Israel’s declaration of Independence in 1948, “murderous hordes,” like the Cossacks of before, once again sought to purge Jews in the region through an existential attack by five Arab armies. This time was different, however: the Jews had weapons and successfully fought back against the intended massacre.

In 2021 at the city of Lod, Israel, an intended pogrom of “violence and terror” by contemporary “murderous hordes” was attempted, but fortunately with limited success. In a repeat of history, and despite relocation to their ancestral homeland of Israel, Jews were forced once again to “barricade themselves in their homes in fear of the rampaging mobs while others chose to flee the city until calm was restored.” Still, this was not yet the Be’eri pogrom of 2023.

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

Biden’s Both-Sidesism Collides with Reality P. David Hornik

By on August 21st, 2024

No, Mr. President, suicide bombers and the Israeli army are not the same.

“We’ll keep working to bring hostages home and end the war in Gaza and bring peace and security to the Middle East,” President Biden said Monday night at the Democratic National Convention. He went on to say that “Those folks down the street”—the anti-Israel protesters—“have a point: a lot of innocent people are being killed on both sides.”

On Sunday night in Tel Aviv, a suicide bomber accidentally blew himself up as he was about to enter a synagogue. The Tel Aviv police chief said that if the bomb had not gone off accidentally, “it would have caused vast damage and multiple casualties.”

The would-be bomber was a Palestinian from the West Bank, and Hamas—Israel’s main adversary in the Gaza fighting—claimed credit for his would-be attack and vowed to carry out more.

If the bomber had succeeded to enter the synagogue, his act would not have been the same as Israel’s antiterror warfare in Gaza, which, like all antiterror warfare in populated areas, sometimes exacts civilian casualties—though “No urban fight in history has resulted in such a low ratio” of civilians to combatants killed.

But the Biden administration has for a while been embracing moral equivalency regarding the Israel–Hamas war in Gaza, and now characterizes it as a war that simply has to end so that peace can prevail. “Peace” means a return of the Israeli hostages neatly balanced by a complete, or near complete, withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

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