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Ruth King

What Bahrain’s deal with Israel really means Trump is bringing major changes to the Middle East Charles Lipson

https://spectator.us/bahrain-israel-peace-deal-trump-middle-east-iran/

On September 15, representatives from the oil-rich Kingdom of Bahrain will meet Israeli leaders at the White House to sign a historic peace deal. It will normalize relations between the Muslim state and the Jewish one, not long after the United Arab Emirates concluded a similar pact. Expect more such ‘normalization deals’. They supplement other White House initiatives, such as the deal it brokered between Serbia and Kosovo, which includes both countries establishing closer relations with Israel.

The deals are significant for several reasons. First, they represent a common regional front against the Iranian threat, which has been developing beneath the surface for some time. Their public expression sends a stronger signal to Iran and opens the door to greater cooperation between Arab states and Israel, the region’s most developed economy and the leader in advanced military technology.

These deals also signal that Arab-Muslim regimes are less concerned with domestic, Islamist opposition to their outreach to Israel. Equally important, they show that the Palestinian Authority no longer holds a veto over fellow Muslims’ relations with Israel. We saw another sign of Palestinian weakness last week when the Arab League refused to condemn the UAE for its accord with Israel.

What changed to prompt these deals? The answer is not a greater threat from Iran. The danger from the mullahs is no higher now than it was in 2005, 2010, or 2015. Iran’s Sunni neighbors and Israel have all been threatened by Tehran’s expansionism, aggressive religious ideology, and support for terrorist movements for years. Yet, until recently, Israel was the only country seeking normalization with its Arab neighbors. What finally convinced the Arab states to come to the table was actually a shift in US policy.

Democrats’ Destroy-Trump Efforts Almost Comical By Joan Swirsky

https://canadafreepress.com/article/democrats-destroy-trump-efforts-almost-comical

For the past 50 or more years, the Democrat Party––always leftwing but today both viciously anti-American and virulently anti-Semitic––has worked tirelessly to inflict its worldview on everyone in America.

By stealthily infiltrating our media, our schools (from pre-school to universities), and since Obama our Intelligence Services and Military, it has sought to convince our electorate that high taxes, open borders, sanctuary cities, shipping manufacturing jobs to foreign countries, post-birth infanticide, and total government control from cradle to grave are good––and that the U.S. Constitution, capitalism, high employment, law and order, indeed patriotism are bad.

No one has spelled out the devolution of the Democrat Party and the key players responsible for its demise more comprehensively than writer Shari Goodman––read her entire article here!

WORSE THAN COVID-19

Since the election of 2016, when business mogul Donald J. Trump outsmarted 20 Republican opponents, all career politicians, and trounced Hillary in the Electoral College to win the presidency, Democrats seem to have contracted a mutating virus a thousand times worse than Covid-19.

The anti-Trump symptoms are identical in all of those “tolerant” Regressives: 

·         Shout down opposing views.

·         Spew insults and epithets.

·         Create falsehoods and pretend they’re true.

·         Support the domestic anarchists and terrorists of Black Lives Matter and Antifa and the vast destruction they’ve sown for the last four months.

·         Vow to vote for a seriously cognitively compromised candidate and a running mate who accused him of both racism and sexism.

Almost comical!

Biden: From No Campaign to Faux Campaign J.T. Young

https://spectator.org/biden-campaign-2020/

Biden has gone from no campaigning to faux campaigning. Over the last two weeks, America has gotten a good look at the Biden campaign’s strategy and tactics for the race’s homestretch. They intend to focus primarily on race, while minimizing direct exposure and maximizing their indirect exposure through advertising.

President Trump’s law-and-order offensive and polling rebound explain why Biden is abandoning his virtual campaign for at least a vestigial one.

On September 4, Rasmussen’s job approval daily tracking poll showed Trump with a 52 percent approval rating. This matched his 2020 high, last hit on February 27, following his Senate impeachment trial acquittal and before coronavirus lockdowns. It is also 4 percentage points better than Obama had on the same date in 2012. With Biden’s poll leads already shrinking, Rasmussen’s results showed Trump could have further upside too.

Biden’s campaign had gone on Spring Break and never returned. In an August 31 piece, the New York Times delicately explained that “the coronavirus shuttered the campaign trail in March” to describe Biden’s public absence. The reality is that as soon as Biden had secured the nomination, he ceased making public appearances to avoid the gaffes that had plagued him at rallies and with the press.

The tightening race has produced increasing Democrat anxiety. As the New York Times again reported, “Some Democrats worry that Mr. Biden has not been public enough in laying out his own views. Concerned allies have been on the phone with Mr. Biden’s team in recent days urging him to get out more.” And by “more,” they meant “some.”

So last week the Biden camp unveiled a different approach from that of the last six months. To counter President Trump’s momentum from his law-and-order attacks, Biden made speeches, attended a listening session, met the press, and unleashed his biggest ad buy.

Trump has a plan for any post-election insurrection Andrea Widburg

www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/09/trump_has_a_plan_for_any_postelection_insurrection.html

Last week, I predicted that if Trump has a clear victory on November 3, any uprisings after the election will be of short duration because Trump will have a clear path to end them.  On Thursday, Trump confirmed that this is what he intends to do.

My post came about because I was thinking about the Democrats’ threat that, if the election result is anything but an overwhelming victory for Biden, they will take to the streets in orgies of violence.  They are also threatening to overthrow the usual processes of the Electoral College by sending Democrat party electors even if the state has broken for Trump on election day.

Never-Trumpers Need A Lesson In Basic Math

https://issuesinsights.com/2020/09/11/never-trumpers-need-a-lesson-in-basic-math/

In his op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, Walter Olson defends his decision to not vote for Trump four years ago by saying he will double-dog not vote for him this year.

Like every other never-Trumper, the reason is almost entirely personal.

“No modern president has shown so little care for or grasp of how government works … his conduct fell short of what Americans should expect … the lack of impulse control, the vindictive meanness of spirit, the Niagara of lies,” Olson writes.

He hoped Trump would, once in the White House, “put away childish things … and banish his internal Falstaff.” But alas, Olson writes, “Mr. Trump didn’t change. He won’t change now.”

Let’s leave aside the tenuous claim that Trump’s conduct disqualifies him. Compared to what? Bill Clinton’s Oval Office assignations with an intern? Barack Obama’s repeated attempts to bypass the Constitution to get his leftist policies enacted, or use the IRS and the FBI to hamper political opponents? And never mind about the illegal wars, mass internments, spying on political opponents, and other violations committed by past presidents.

Let’s even concede that Olson and other never-Trumpers are right that Trump has debased the office with his mean tweets, loose grasp of facts, and inappropriate off-the-cuff remarks.

So what?

Systemic Racism? Think Again. By David Solway

https://pjmedia.com/columns/david-solway-2/2020/09/11/systemic-racism-think-again-n920545

The funny thing about the word “systemic” is that it more often than not has no referent—that is, it often refers to nothing concrete or observable, but is essentially an expression of unverifiable belief or, in the case of assumed racism or “critical race theory,” a “social justice” delusion. There are systemic realities, of course, but racism in the U.S.—or in my country, Canada—is not one of them.

When noted black writer, lawyer, and columnist Larry Elder challenged his interviewer Dave Rubin, who assumed the existence of that evanescent something called “systemic racism,” Rubin was unable to come up with a single example of this apparent social evil. There are, of course, empirical examples of racism against blacks, but also against browns, reds, whites, and everything in between. This is a human reality that cannot be expunged—though it can be mitigated. However, despite the spread of BLM riots and protests across the country, there is nothing systemically racist about the United States.

As I have pointed out elsewhere, America has become one of the most racially tolerant nations in the world. A country in which blacks are materially represented in the national community as actors, sports figures, journalists, broadcasters, police chiefs, surgeons, notable scholars, academics, poets, novelists, university presidents, corporate executives, municipal mayors, state governors, members of Congress and Supreme Court justices, including a black president, two black attorneys general and two black White House chiefs of staff, is not a racist country. The notion of “systemic racism” is a powerful revolutionary motivator, a handy slogan bandied about by race baiters and “social justice” agitators, but it is nothing less than a monumental canard. There is no such thing.

Republicans demand answers on Mueller team wiping phones, suggest ‘anticipatory obstruction of justice’ Congressional Republicans call the purported accidental ‘wiping’ an ‘amazing coincidence’

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/republicans-demand-answers-on-muellers-team-wiping-phones

Congressional Republicans demanded answers on Friday as to whether there “was a widespread intentional effort” to wipe the mobile devices of multiple people on former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team during the Russia probe, and suggested this could amount to “anticipatory obstruction of justice.”

The calls come after newly released records from the Justice Department showed that at least several dozen phones belonging to members of Mueller’s team were wiped of information because of forgotten passcodes, irreparable screen damage, loss of the device, intentional deletion or other reasons—all before the Justice Department inspector general’s office could review the devices.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, penned a letter to Attorney General Bill Barr and FBI Director Christopher Wray on Friday, pressing for details on what actions were taken to recover material deleted from the mobile devices assigned to Mueller’s team.

“It appears that Special Counsel Mueller’s team may have deleted federal records that could be key to better understanding their decision-making process as they pursued their investigation and wrote their report,” Grassley wrote. “Indeed, many officials apparently deleted the records after the DOJ Inspector General began his inquiry into how the Department mishandled Crossfire Hurricane.”

Woodward’s Non-Revelation There’s no need for the tell-all books. Trump tells us every day.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/woodwards-non-revelation-11599780795?mod=opinion_major_pos1

The books professing dark revelations about President Trump appear to be lined up from here to Election Day, like aircraft heading into LaGuardia. This week it’s Bob Woodward’s turn, with the big news reportedly being that Mr. Trump told him in a taped conversation on Feb. 7 that he had played down the coronavirus despite knowing it was “deadly stuff.”

This is not news. We know Mr. Trump played down the virus threat at the time because he said so publicly many times. We wrote an editorial about it on March 12, “The Virus and Leadership,” warning Mr. Trump that voters would judge his Presidency largely on how he handled the virus. Q.E.D.

Mr. Trump now says he was trying to keep people from panicking. And given his preoccupation with marketing, we believe him. We also know the President understood the virus was deadly, even if the risks weren’t fully clear, because he barred arrivals from China on Jan. 31 and Europe on March 11.

His Administration’s Covid-19 record has also been better than he makes it sound—in mobilizing private-public efforts for testing, PPE and vaccines, and preventing a financial meltdown in March. His main failing has been inconstant rhetorical leadership. He has undersold the virus risks and oversold his own achievements when what the public has wanted all along is the candid reality. This is no small failing in a crisis.

But we know all this because it is on the public record. This may be the most transparent Presidency in history, for better or worse. His faults and mistakes are on constant display, whether in his own voice or leaks to a press that wants him gone.

Democrats are now citing the Woodward non-reveal as proof that Mr. Trump is responsible for 190,000 deaths, which is contemptible even by today’s political standards.

Mail-Vote Madness in Pennsylvania The swing state is heading toward an election crackup that could draw the entire country into a legal brawl.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/mail-vote-madness-in-pennsylvania-11599865002?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

Pennsylvania has already suffered one interminable mail-vote delay in 2020, and a repeat in November could draw the entire country into a legal brawl, while putting the result of the presidential election into serious doubt. How about heading off this too-predictable debacle before it happens?

A week after the June 2 primary, about half the counties in the Keystone State were still tallying ballots. On June 11, Philadelphia alone had 42,255 votes uncounted. President Trump won Pennsylvania in 2016 by 44,292.

If Mr. Trump and Joe Biden run neck and neck in November, how long might Pennsylvania keep the Electoral College hanging? In the campaign’s closing weeks, arriving mail votes will pile up in local offices, but state law says they can’t be processed until 7 a.m. on Election Day. This wasn’t enough preparation to give timely results when 1.5 million residents voted absentee in June, and it won’t be in November.

Tight deadlines are another problem. Pennsylvanians can request a mail ballot as late as 5 p.m. on Oct. 27. For votes to count, they must arrive at local election offices by 8 p.m. on Nov. 3. That leaves seven days, including a Sunday, for applications to be handled, blank ballots delivered, and votes dropped off or return mailed. The U.S. Postal Service says such a turnaround is unrealistic and creates a high risk of tardiness. America’s first postmaster general, Ben Franklin, would be unhappy to see his Pennsylvania setting up the USPS for failure.

How to Steal an Election – Part II by Chris Farrell

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16491/transition-integrity-project

Through the release of the TIP report, the American Left has established itself and its dishonest storyline as the official narrative of the 2020 presidential election. They have alerted the militant wing of their movement to seize control of the lead-up to election day, to election day itself, and all the way out past inauguration day. This is a campaign unto itself — not an event.

No single statement or particular recommendation is completely outrageous… they support and amplify dubious premises: Leftist protestors are non-violent while Trump supporters are agents provocateurs; Trump will misuse the military and law enforcement to hold on to power; universal mail-in voting poses no risk of fraud; finding new ballots weeks after the election is completely normal; news critical of Biden is misinformation; a Trump victory will be evidence of foreign interference, etc.

Now you understand how the Left intends to disrupt and steal the 2020 presidential election. You understand the psychological warfare techniques being used right now to convince you (wrongly) of being demoralized and weakened. You have been warned. The question for you and others in opposition to the TIP plan is: What are you going to do?

Having established the Left’s documented plan to disrupt the 2020 presidential election, let’s examine further some of the information operations techniques now being deployed against the American public to persuade and influence the election “season” ahead.

The very publication of the Transition Integrity Project (TIP) report and the subsequent news media reporting about it are components of psychological warfare within the broader information warfare campaign aimed at spreading demoralizing rumors to Trump supporters. The goal is to break down and weaken support before, during and after election day. Demoralized and unmotivated supporters do not make their support for their candidate public. They do not campaign in neighborhoods or post yard signs. They do not vote. They do not volunteer at polling places. They become convinced their hopes are a lost, and highly controversial cause. They do not wish to be called a racist, or a hater, or identified with other fringe elements. They stay at home and watch TV.