No one elected Mark Milley The general doesn’t belong anywhere near the levers of power that we the voters grant our elected officials: Stephen Miller

https://spectatorworld.com/topic/elected-mark-milley-china-military/

A coup by any other name and maybe even a little light treason. Those are the accusations flying over revelations in a new Bob Woodward book about what Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley did after the January 6 Capitol riots.

Milley reportedly held several phone calls shortly after January 6, with both Speaker Nancy Pelosi and with his counterpart in China. According to Woodward, the general gave assurances to Gen. Li Zuocheng that he would alert the Chinese to any possible coming attack, nuclear or otherwise.

There is no evidence President Trump was planning any kind of strike against China, or Iran, or Florida. No battle plans were being drawn. Miller supposedly took these actions after Trump signed an executive order removing US forces from Afghanistan. Woodward and Robert Costa write that Milley was concerned that Trump would ‘go rogue’ post election loss. Milley held meeting and phone calls without Trump’s knowledge and directed staff, ‘No matter what you are told, you do the procedure. You do the process. And I’m part of that procedure.’ Milley then went around the room to each general and demanded what the book is calling ‘an oath’.

The trouble is, Milley wasn’t legally granted any of these extraordinary powers. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff essentially usurped the chain of command and attempted to take civilian control of the United States military away from a duly elected president, simply because of his own gut feelings tinged with a bit of paranoia.

The Simple Economics behind California’s Governor Recall Election by Lee Ohanian

https://www.hoover.org/research/simple-economics-behind-californias-governor-recall-election

For the last three years, my Hoover colleague Bill Whalen and I have been writing weekly in this space about California policies and politics. During this time, I have become painfully aware of how life is quickly deteriorating for many California families, including those running small and medium-sized businesses, and this deterioration reflects a decline in the quality and accountability of state and local governance.

Just how bad is it? California ranks 49th for the cost and ease of doing business, its unemployment rate is only surpassed by Nevada (California is 49th in the country) it ranks 40th in taxes and in K–12 public school quality, it ranks 49th in housing affordability, it ranks 48th in economic freedom, and it ranks 49th in road quality, which costs California drivers an extra $2,500 annually in higher insurance premiums and car repairs.

Need more stats about California’s devolution?

Drought occurs every three years, yet there have been no major water infrastructure investments since the 1970s.
Businesses are leaving the state at twice the rate as recent years.
Crime rates have increased by one-third.
More than one out of three Californians lives in poverty or near poverty.
An “affordable” apartment unit can cost over $1 million to build.
Despite high salaries, only one in five Silicon Valley households can afford the median-priced home.
Nearly 30 percent of American’s homeless are in California.
The unemployment department paid over $30 billion in fraudulent benefits while delaying legitimate payments for months.
Failure to manage forests has led to wildfires that create carbon emissions equivalent to that of an extra 10 million cars on the road annually over the last decade.
Just three categories—Health and Human Services, K­–12 public schools, and the prison system—eat up two-thirds of the state’s budget.
In public schools, 80 percent or more of Hispanic and Black students are not proficient in mathematics.
State and local government workers earn more than twice as much (including retirement contributions) as private-sector workers.
San Francisco, where 2 million hypodermic needles are left each year on city sidewalks, has 50 percent more drug addicts than high school students.

As UN Gathers in New York, Covid May Prove To Be the Least Scary Thing Banny Avni

https://www.nysun.com/editorials/as-united-nations-gather-in-new-york-covid-may/91657/

As heads of state, foreign ministers, ambassadors and members of their entourage gather on the banks of Turtle Bay, let’s pray next week’s opening of the United Nations General Assembly doesn’t become a Covid super spreader.

After last year, when the annual gabfest, known as UNGA for short, was conducted virtually due to pandemic fears, next week’s event will be attended in person by luminaries from most of the world’s countries.

Last month the American mission to the world body sent a letter urging all countries to send a pre-recorded message rather than come to New York. Most, possibly including President Biden, ignored that request. Although the White House is yet to publish Mr. Biden’s schedule for next week, most at Turtle bay believe he’ll attend UNGA in person.

Meanwhile, your local New York watering hole, where the barkeep is required by the city to card all patrons for proof of vaccination but, in what Assemblyman Mark Levine says could “expose them, and NYC, to serious risk,” next week’s visiting dignitaries and their posse are not required to show such documentation. Instead, according to UN officials, they’re encouraged to be vaccinated before arrival.

Oops. As is traditional, next week’s first scheduled national speaker is Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonero — the world’s most outspoken opponent of Covid vaccination. He already contracted the virus and remains adamant that no one, including him, receives the shot.

Joe Biden’s next blunder – Jerusalem Biden has set his sights on Jerusalem so far as his next blunder following Afghanistan. Jack Engelhard

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/313549

You are probably wondering what comes next for the man who’s done everything wrong since he became president.

Wait no more. Biden has set his sights on Jerusalem so far as his next blunder following Afghanistan.Biden is prepared to fix everything that ain’t broke.

Robert Gates, defense secretary under Obama, put it like this: “Biden has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.”Say this about that, he is consistent, and to remain consistently wrong, Biden seems determined to reopen the US special consulate in Jerusalem.

(That is totally separate from the US Embassy in Jerusalem.)
Accordingly, the Taliban are now people we trust, and the Palestinian Authority are Israel’s partners in peace…among other such fantasies.
Trump had the consulate shut down, largely because he was clear-eyed and knew that it was designated to do business with the PA—terrorists.

That has never been a bother to Biden and fellow Democrat lawmakers, who view the term terrorist differently from Monday to Thursday.

Accordingly, the Taliban are now people we trust, and the Palestinian Authority are Israel’s partners in peace…among other such fantasies.

Re-opening the consulate amounts to a reward for terrorism…terrorism aimed specifically against Jews through the Palestinian Authority’s Martyrs Fund.

Why Arabs Do Not Trust the Biden Administration by Khaled Abu Toameh

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17734/why-arabs-do-not-trust-the-biden-administration

The main concern for the Arabs is that the “humiliating” manner in which the US ended its presence in Afghanistan has sent a message to Iran and its proxies — Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis — that the Americans are not only weak, but that they cannot be trusted to support or defend their allies.

The Iran-backed Houthis appear to be be telling themselves: If the US is so weak and has no problem betraying its allies and friends, perhaps this is the right time to step up the attacks on Saudi Arabia.

The past few days have witnessed a significant escalation in the attacks of the Houthi militia in Yemen against civilian areas in Saudi Arabia.

[T]he Biden administration had already sent another message to Iran and its proxies when it removed the Houthi militia from the list of terrorist organizations.

“[T]here is no indication that the Houthis will stop their aggressive policy aimed at imposing a fait accompli [Iranian control] on the Arab Peninsula,” which includes Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen, as well as the southern portions of Iraq and Jordan.” — Kheirallah Kheirallah, veteran Lebanese journalist and political analyst, Al-Araby.co.uk, September 3, 2021.

“Iran… is working to perpetuate a reality in Yemen that resembles the reality of Hamas’s control of the Gaza Strip since 2007.” — Kheirallah Kheirallah, Al-Araby.co.uk, September 3, 2021.

Yemeni journalist Zakaria Al-Kamali expressed fear of what he called “the Afghanization of Yemen.” — Al-Araby.co.uk, September 7, 2021.

What the Arabs find most disturbing is that the Biden administration has failed to take a tough stance against the increased Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia. So far, the Biden administration has responded to the attacks by issuing laconic statements describing the drone and missile attacks on civilian targets in Saudi Arabia as “unacceptable.”

Iran… is leveraging the weakness and confusion in the Biden administration to extend its control more widely.

Is there a connection between the hasty and disorganized US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the increased attacks on Saudi Arabia by the Iranian-backed Houthi militia in Yemen?

Many Arabs political analysts and writers are convinced that the Biden administration’s flawed handling of the crisis in Afghanistan, which resulted in the Taliban takeover of the whole country, has emboldened various extremist Islamic groups, including the Houthis, who are now threatening Washington’s Arab friends and allies.

Male Underachievement and the Gender Turf Wars Ari David Blaff Ari David Blaff

https://quillette.com/2021/09/12/male-underachievement-and-the-gender-turf-wars/

The National Student Clearinghouse (NSC), a non-profit education organization, published a report earlier this year that ought to have alarmed many Americans. Compared to the prior semester, the decline in male university enrollment was double that of women:

Enrollment declines are steeper for men than for women across all sectors (declined by 400,000 and 203,000 students, respectively). This trend is especially visible in the community college sector, with male enrollment dropping by 14.4 percent compared to a 6 percent decline in female enrollment. Also, the increase of 44,000 female students (+1 percent) is contrasted with a drop of 90,000 male students (-2.7 percent) in the public four-year institution sector.

If this trend continues, an NSC executive confirmed, “In the next few years, two women will earn a college degree for every man.”

This isn’t news, however. While COVID-19 has played a major part in the overall decline in enrollment, the unfortunate reality is that boys and men have been struggling academically for decades. Male and female academic performance began to diverge in the 1950s:

The Harvard economist Richard Murnane has tracked high school graduation rates since the 1970s and concluded that men have essentially stagnated at around 80 percent (slightly below the ~85 percent indicated by the table above), while women continued to rise, today approaching 90 percent. Women are the principal reason that national graduation rates are up.

Milley’s Alleged Secret Calls To China Are Just Another Reason Americans Believe The System Is Rigged By Inez Feltscher Stepman

https://thefederalist.com/2021/09/14/milleys-alleged-secret-calls-to-china-are-just-another-reason-americans-believe-the-system-is-rigged/

The Washington Post published extremely serious allegations against Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley yesterday, although of course the paper tried to make the centerpiece of the story former President Donald Trump’s erratic behavior.

From WaPo:

Fearful of Donald Trump’s actions in his final weeks as president, the United States’ top military officer twice called his Chinese counterpart to assure him that the two nations would not go to war, a senior defense official said Tuesday after the conversations were described in excerpts from a forthcoming book.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley told Gen. Li Zuocheng of the People’s Liberation Army that the United States would not strike. One call took place on Oct. 30, 2020, four days before the election that defeated Trump. The second call was on Jan. 8, 2021, just two days after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by supporters of the outgoing chief executive.

Milley went so far as to promise Li that he would warn his counterpart in the event of a U.S. attack, according to the book ‘Peril,’ written by Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa.

The story here, however, is not Trump, no matter how much the corrupt corporate media would have it be so. The story is that a military leader defied civilian control over the direction of America’s foreign policy, and did so through secret talks with our chief adversary on the global stage.

Under every president, we hear about “[name] derangement syndrome”; there was Bush Derangement Syndrome, and Obama Derangement Syndrome. But only Trump Derangement Syndrome seems to have led the ostensible upholders of “norms” and “democracy” to treat as no big deal actual violations of democracy’s most sacred norms in the service of thwarting Donald Trump.

The ‘Foul Spirit’ of George W. Bush and America’s Ruling Class Bush’s complete misunderstanding of that day, coupled with his apparent desire to rub our noses in his own failure and the failures of his class, is profoundly offensive. By Lane Scott

https://amgreatness.com/2021/09/14/the-foul-stench-of-george-w-bush-and-americas-ruling-class/

As with so many other aspects of our time, we seem destined to suffer the most trite and underwhelming imitations of things that once were great or at least impressive. Exhibit A would be the great war advocate, George W. Bush. Can there be a more perfect synthesis of the last 20 years of disappointing American politics than this man? He exemplifies everything—unaware, unashamed, unapologetic—that the American ruling class has become. NeverTrumpers and neocons yearn for a return to the days of measured, steady Bush leadership. We are told constantly now that he is kind, polite, well-bred: a politician from a more dignified tradition of public servants than those of late. But of course, in reality he is none of these things.

The everlasting incompetence and mesmerizing self-delusion on display at his recent 9/11 remarks make that clear.

What kind of a person stands on the very spot where heroic, valiant Americans perished in a tragic last-ditch effort to save a symbol of their ruling class—either the Capitol or the White House, no one knows for certain—and dares to offer criticism of the American people? What kind of cretin could possibly stir himself to lecture the public while standing on the very spot where common, average, everyday people sacrificed themselves to save members of the elite? 

Does any thinking person for a moment believe, were the shoe on the other foot, that a plane load of Bushes, Clintons, and Obamas, highjacked and heading straight for Dollywood with the intention of killing as many ordinary Americans as possible, would rise up and sacrifice themselves to save us?

This historic blunder would be enough for an average underperforming president, but George W. Bush is no average underperformer. These words were delivered not only on the occasion of the common man’s selfless sacrifice par excellence, but also hot on the heels of our ruling class’ greatest military blunder and most embarrassing episode in perhaps our entire national history. The idea that George W. Bush would have the audacity to do anything other than demur the opportunity to speak on 9/11, just weeks after the total failure of our entire engagement in the Middle East, is astonishing.

Instead of heaping praise on this small group of valiant Flight 93 Americans, and humbly asking their forgiveness for his errant and misguided attempts to avenge them, including the embarrassing foreign adventurism undertaken in their name, Bush instead searched the American landscape for a recent, festering wound to scratch . . . and broke it wide open. Why? Why did he feel the need to do this? 

Alluding to the events on January 6, 2021, Bush lectured ordinary Americans—some of them the very people who felt compelled to answer his call to defend America 20 years ago at Ground Zero—on what he considers to be their latent propensity to act like the terrorists he and his fellow negligent elites allowed to murder nearly 3,000 of us. One can believe that the misguided and foolish rioting of January 6 was profoundly wrong, and still feel in one’s bones how inappropriate and small Bush was to profane the remembrance of our heroes with his tedious little lecture.

That extra step to insult is truly breathtaking. This great failure of a wartime president alluded to the chaotic milling about and general parading through the Capitol by a bunch of nincompoops (who neither brought weapons nor used them) and compared it to heinous crimes of murderous zealots. He likened people who essentially walked into the Capitol building and then back out again while harboring incorrect political sentiments to those who slaughtered as many innocents as they possibly could using hijacked commercial jets which they transformed into great flying bombs of incinerating fuel. American citizens behaving badly should not be compared, under any circumstances, to the people who pulverized, at terrific speed, airplanes full of innocents into some of our most iconic and important buildings, instantly killing themselves and everyone onboard in a final nihilistic act of rage and impotent fury. 

The sheer violence to common decency, statesmanship, and self-awareness that George W. Bush, a man I voted for twice, achieved with his 9/11 speech is, I confess, difficult to comprehend.

Surrendering Afghanistan to the Taliban: Who Is Managing Biden? by Chris Farrell and Shea Bradley-Farrell

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17733/managing-biden

As we bear the humiliation of Biden’s surrender, remember: the United States has the power to affect whatever it wishes…. It is only a question of political will. Deadlines, such as the artificial August 31st withdrawal from Afghanistan, mean absolutely nothing if we do not wish it.

The US could financially squeeze Pakistan — the country that has harbored and funded the Taliban for two decades — and change the entire operating environment in Afghanistan. Overnight, the circumstances could have be reversed 180 degrees at 100 mph — yet, for this administration, it seemed not “desirable.”

Nothing was “missed.” …. Similar deceit and double-talk have surrounded Biden’s crisis and national security disaster at our southern border.

Are we to expect to be lied to, placated, deceived, or misdirected by our administration?

WWII was predicated on an unconditional “war guarantee” by France and Britain to defend Poland, should any country attack Poland…. At the end of WWII, who got Poland as a war prize? Stalin. Thanks, FDR. Twenty years of combat following the Taliban/al Qaeda attacks of 9/11, and to whom does Biden surrender Afghanistan? The Taliban. Thanks, Joe.

“America is back!” President Joe Biden declared, in February 2021.

If so, what happened?

The last eight months have been a rolling U.S. disaster domestically and internationally. We have witnessed the collapse of U.S, political and moral will to continue in Afghanistan and pretty much anywhere else in the world. Given the daily headlines of the last two weeks, what is the Biden administration’s message for Israel, Taiwan, Ukraine, and South Korea? Not to mention, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Mexico?

The most disturbing part is that apparently SOMEONE in the US government — or someone whose hands are on the levers of the organs of the state — wants it exactly this way. It is not random, an accident, or a mistake. “They” want a return to the “managed decline” that served as the hallmark of the Obama administration’s eight-year-long “fundamental transformation” of America. Given President Biden’s apparent decline in mental acuity, we are compelled to conclude that whoever is REALLY in power in the United States is not Biden. This is a planned, coherent (NOT BIDEN) strategy. Biden is weak.

Trial Over Killing of Activist Drives Dissent Against Palestinian Leadership Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas faces growing pressure after repeatedly delaying elections Thomas Grove

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trial-over-killing-of-activist-drives-dissent-against-palestinian-leadership-11631629137?mod=world_major_2_pos1

RAMALLAH, West Bank—A Palestinian military court began the trial of 14 members of its security forces who are accused of beating to death a critic of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, in a case that has highlighted what activists say is the growing reach of paramilitary troops in the West Bank and a creeping culture of authoritarianism.

Nizar Banat’s death in June sparked widespread protests in Ramallah and Hebron, where he lived.

The 42-year-old was well known for his videos on Facebook and YouTube, where he frequently berated Mr. Abbas and a government that had increasingly become unaccountable in the eyes of many Palestinians. Earlier this year, the Palestinian Authority that runs the West Bank canceled elections after opinion polls suggested the ruling Fatah Party would lose.

Other videos veered into attacks on Israel and what Mr. Banat called Western-style feminism. Many of the videos drew thousands of views.

Mr. Banat’s death, allegedly at the hands of security forces, was caught on security cameras outside the house where he was staying and went viral, further inflaming the antigovernment mood in the territory and triggering a short-lived protest movement before a brutal clampdown. Hamas, the militant group that rules Gaza and is regarded as a terror group by the U.S. and Israel, tried to expand its own influence in the West Bank during the chaos, though with limited success.

The current trial appears unlikely to assuage the anger over Mr. Banat’s death. His family didn’t appear at the courthouse in Ramallah where proceedings took place. They said their absence was a protest against a trial they said was meant to lay the blame on low-level officers and protect senior Palestinian Authority officials who had allegedly issued orders to drag Mr. Banat out into the street and beat him.

“We can’t be under the same roof with the killers of Nizar but moreover the proceedings are incomplete without those who actually issued the officers; those on trial are only scapegoats,” said Ghassan Banat, the victim’s brother.

Before the hearing began, 14 men accused of the killing were led into a black-barred cage in the courtroom. They stated their names when asked—the first time they had been publicly identified—but proceedings were cut short when their lawyer failed to appear. The next hearing was set for Sept. 21.

The lawyer for Mr. Banat’s family said the family could withdraw from the judicial process entirely if the defense for the accused drags out the trial.

Palestinian officials have presented Mr. Banat’s death, and the crackdown on protesters, as isolated incidents and said that they are committed to civil liberties. Critics say the events are part of a worrisome trend that has eroded trust in the Palestinian Authority.

Besides canceling the elections, authorities are struggling to address the economic fallout from successive Covid-19 lockdowns and are facing growing political pressure from the U.S. and European Union over the arrest of opposition activists.

Ghassan Khatib, the founder of the Jerusalem Media and Communication Center, a polling agency, and a vice president at Birzeit University in the West Bank, said the Fatah Party has been reluctant to offer up senior officials to public questioning over Mr. Banat’s killing because of the party’s internal divisions under the weakening leadership of Mr. Abbas, who is now 85.

Some Palestinians fear dissatisfaction with the leadership in the West Bank is turning into a crisis.

“The Palestinian public believes the deterioration in legitimacy and the split between Gaza and West Bank weakens the Palestinians vis-à-vis Israel,” said Mr. Khatib.