The “Iran Deal” Soon to Be Resuscitated by Lawrence A. Franklin

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17513/iran-deal-resuscitated

Raisi’s election, “engineered to guarantee his victory,” looks suspiciously like a ploy by Iran’s Supreme Guide Ali Khamenei to terrify the American negotiators into capitulating to Iran’s demands even faster and more recklessly, to avoid negotiating with an opponent more uncompromising than the one with whom they are negotiating at present.

The JCPOA is allegedly designed to prevent, or at least postpone, Iran’s drive for a nuclear weapons capability along with the means to deliver them. Among the deal’s many major drawbacks is that after it expires, Iran can enrich as much uranium to have as many nuclear weapons — and the means to deliver them — as it likes.

Despite signs that the P5+1 negotiating team will subscribe to a re-constituted JCPOA “understanding,” there seems to exist no trust that the Islamic Republic will comply with any agreement. The IAEA’s catalogue of doubts regarding Iran’s compliance with any nuclear safeguards is lengthy.

Based on Iran’s pattern of obstructionism, the impending renewal of the JCPOA does not inspire confidence that the Islamic Republic — even if it verbally agrees, or this time signs a document — will ever be in compliance.

It is also sadly assumed, based on past patterns, that the US, in its eagerness to secure a deal — any deal — will back down when faced with any Iranian demand.

The latest alteration before the Americans trying to revive the “nuclear weapons deal” — known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — with Iran is the carefully staged election this month of Ebrahim Raisi to its presidency. A clerical hardliner known as “the Butcher,” he is responsible for thousands of executions of oppositions leaders, torture and other “ongoing crimes against humanity.”

Raisi’s election, “engineered to guarantee his victory,” looks suspiciously like a ploy by Iran’s Supreme Guide Ali Khamenei to terrify the American negotiators into capitulating to Iran’s demands even faster and more recklessly, to avoid negotiating with an opponent more uncompromising than whomever they are negotiating with at present. Upon his victory, Raisi immediately announced that he will not meet with US President Joe Biden, and that Iran’s “ballistic missile program and its support of regional militias” were “nonnegotiable.”

Zampolits of Wokeness Veterans-turned-lawmakers, with active duty whistleblowers, are the nation’s last defense against the Pentagon’s racialist commissars. By J. Michael Waller

https://amgreatness.com/2021/06/29/zampolits-of-wokeness/

Wokeness might do to the American military what no foreign enemy ever could: Fracture the world’s greatest armed forces from within, through divisive political indoctrination and controls.

Wokeness—extreme ideological intolerance of opposing views and the imposition of life-destroying punishments for the insufficiently woke—is organized fratricide. 

The fratricide has a higher purpose: A political purge of a targeted institution or culture through mass action, the destructive power of which will create a new utopian status quo. 

The Soviets tried this. Their armed forces had a dual command structure, one military and one political, throughout the ranks. The purpose, amid purge after woke purge, was to purify the military along ideological lines. 

Wokeness itself isn’t an ideology, however. It isn’t critical race theory. It’s a behavioral system of dictatorial political and cultural control. 

The wokeness that General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, denies he is imposing throughout our armed forces, is nothing new. Robespierre of the French Revolution was woke. So were the Bolsheviks. The Wehrmacht was woke, as was the National Socialism it served. In America, the Ku Klux Klan, Weather Underground, and the Black Liberation Army were woke. The latter two groups from the 1970s became incubators of the critical race theory that has flowered into controversy today.

Once implemented, wokeness swarms upon people to pit them against one another. It destroys national, cultural, and professional identity and unity. It decays mutual respect and trust. It rots our institutions and our spirits from the inside.

NY mayor’s race in ‘chaos’ as 135,000 extra votes show up By Thomas Lifson

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/06/ny_mayors_race_in_chaos_as_135000_extra_votes_show_up.html

Don’t you dare question the integrity of the 2020 presidential election because Democrats can always be trusted to run fair, honest and transparent elections. That’s the narrative and you’re expected to stick with it, even in the face of then nation’s biggest, richest, most sophisticated city obviously bungling the race to elect its next mayor.

It’s so blatant that even the New York Times recognizes the problem and applies the word “chaos.” Katie Glueck writes:

The New York City mayor’s race plunged into chaos on Tuesday night when the city Board of Elections released a new tally of votes in the Democratic mayoral primary, and then removed the tabulations from its website after citing a “discrepancy.”

The results released earlier in the day had suggested that the race between Eric Adams and his two closest rivals had tightened significantly.

But just a few hours after releasing the preliminary results, the elections board issued a cryptic tweet revealing a “discrepancy” in the report, saying that it was working with its “technical staff to identify where the discrepancy occurred.”

Generals, veterans and citizens issue petition accusing Sec of Defense Austin of violating his oath to the US Constitution By Carol Greenwald

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/06/generals_veterans_

The Committee to Support and Defend has initiated a petition to the Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to “honor his oath” to “support and defend” the Constitution of the United States. The petition “respectfully insists” that Austin immediately countermand orders he has issued since taking office that have eroded military cohesion and readiness. The petition argues that Critical Race Theory is a toxic Marxist ideology with anti-Constitutional objectives. Ordering its teaching in the military endangers America’s national security, in contravention to Austin’s oath to protect and defend the Constitution and the United States from all enemies.

The petition is the third scathing criticism of the Biden administration’s policies which retired generals and admirals and other military veterans have issued in recent weeks, citing concerns over national security and the dangers to our liberties.  In an unprecedented action, over 200 retired generals and admirals issued a letter in May which stated that the United States was facing the “greatest danger to our constitutional Republic since 1776”. The letter stated that our nation is in “deep peril” as we fight the supporters of Marxism who are opposed to our constitutional freedoms and liberties.

Last week, the Committee to Support and Defend led by LTC Allen West (ret) issued a letter signed by over 1000 military veterans which stated that as veterans they were still morally and ethically bound to protect our Constitution and country. They wrote:

“As such, we put our nation’s leadership on notice. We believe that the hard left turn toward Socialism and Marxism endangers our citizens and the future of this great nation…We are disgusted by the dismantling of the rule of law in our great country. We never thought we would see the return to Vietnam style disdain for public service. Unfortunately, this disregard and disrespect is corrosive and will lead to dangerous situations for citizens and law enforcement.”

Rebuild Gaza — why? By Abraham H. Miller

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/06/rebuild_gaza__why.html

If the Biden administration wants to rebuild something, there is plenty of need in American cities.

Nearly anyone who follows events in the Middle East believes that the ceasefire imposed on Israel by the Biden administration won’t last more than three or four years, if that long, before Hamas’s Iranian rockets are once again launched from Gaza.

So, why should America be on the hook for rebuilding Gaza when Hamas’s next round of indiscriminate rocket attacks and Israel’s response with tactical air strikes is inevitable?

Since Israel left Gaza in 2005, there have been either major engagements or minor skirmishes almost every year.  The pattern is familiar. Hamas indiscriminately fires Qassam rockets into Israel, kidnaps Israeli soldiers, or organizes a military assault on the border, and Israel responds with artillery, airstrikes, or ground assaults, and sometimes all three.

To call the ensuing ceasefires after those engagements “fragile” is an understatement.  The most recent one will be no different.

Israel agreed to the current ceasefire because of the Biden administration’s pressure. It is no secret that Israel sought to further degrade Hamas’s fighting capabilities but was restrained from doing so. 

Our ‘Woke’ Pentagon Leaders Are Weakening America’s Defense

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/06/30/our-woke-pentagon-leaders-are-weakening-americas-defense/

One of the most disturbing developments to emerge from the Biden administration has been the Defense Department’s sudden embrace of Marxist Critical Race Theory – so-called ‘Woke’ ideology. It’s a clear and present danger to our national security and should be halted immediately.

Even West Point, the Army’s elite university where tomorrow’s generals are educated, isn’t immune to the Woke disease. Soon-to-be Army second lieutenants are being indoctrinated with Marxist-based Woke ideology.

You can thank Commander in Chief Joe Biden and his Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley for this. Milley, an Ivy League grad, has aggressively shifted the military toward the political left by compelling officers to push racist CRT ideas down conscripts’ and officers’ throats.

“The United States Military Academy is a university. And it is important that we train, and we understand – and I want to understand white rage. And I’m white, and I want to understand it,” Milley said in recent remarks before Congress. “So, what is it that caused thousands of people to assault this building and try to overturn the Constitution of the United States of America? What caused that? I want to find that out.”

He added: “I’ve read Mao Zedong. I’ve read – I’ve read Karl Marx. I’ve read Lenin – that doesn’t make me a communist.”

He’s right about that. But embracing their ideas and putting them into practice, and CRT is definitely Marxist, does make you a communist or a Marxist ― or, at the very least, a willing tool of the same.

Biden’s Fact-Free Infrastructure Fact Sheet This White House fact sheet has hardly any facts in it. By Dominic Pino

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/bidens-fact-free-infrastructure-fact-sheet/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=featured-content-trending&utm_term=second

On June 24, the White House put out a fact sheet on the much-celebrated bipartisan infrastructure deal. The purpose of these fact sheets is not to present a full, detailed explanation of proposed legislation, and we don’t have an actual bill yet. Indeed, the purpose is more political — to set the narrative and give the public a reference point from which to start debate on whether the proposals are good ideas. It would be unfair to expect full details from a fact sheet, but we should expect some details. Especially when the White House prefaces the whole thing with the notion that it’s “showing that democracy can deliver results.”

The only thing the American people know about this infrastructure deal is that politicians want to spend $1.2 trillion of their money. On what? Infrastructure. It should be said that this is an improvement over the Democrats’ proposed plan, wherein everything was infrastructure. At least we’ve narrowed down to actual infrastructure. But Congress agreeing to spend money on a broad category is a pretty low standard for celebration.

Boris Johnson Says It’s Time to Learn to Live with COVID By John McCormack

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/boris-johnson-says-its-time-to-learn-to-live-with-covid/?utm_

If you’re worried about society-wide COVID restrictions becoming a permanent feature of life in Europe, here’s a positive development in the United Kingdom:

Boris Johnson took an increasingly hardline approach to ending lockdown on July 19 today, telling the Cabinet the country will have to ‘live with Covid in the future’.

Amid clear signals that ministers are increasingly set on ending draconian restrictions in three weeks come hell or high water, the Prime Minister highlighted that the link between infections and serious illness and deaths has been significantly weakened.

Downing Street said the Cabinet – including new Health Secretary Sajid Javid – ‘agreed that once we have completed the road map, we will be able to live with Covid in the future, even if cases continue to rise, thanks to the protections provided by the vaccine.’

The United Kingdom has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, but the number of cases jumped from 2,000 per day in May to over 16,000 per day in late June.

The Daily Mail notes studies show that, in a society that’s mostly vaccinated, COVID’s infection-fatality rate is now about the same or a bit lower than that of the flu: “A separate study from scientists at Cambridge University found that fewer than one in a thousand people who catch Covid in England now die from the disease. They estimate the overall infection fatality rate (IFR) of coronavirus has been driven down to 0.085 per cent thanks to the country’s hugely successful vaccine rollout.”

An analysis conducted by the Associated Press found that unvaccinated people accounted for 99.2 percent of all COVID deaths that occurred in the United States during the month of May.

Restaurants Are Now Adding ‘Equity’ Charges to Customers’ Checks to Fight Oppression Will making customers pay “equity” charges backfire? Probably. Jon Miltimore

https://fee.org/articles/restaurants-are-now-adding-equity-charges-to-customers-che

“Where should we eat tomorrow?” my wife asked me excitedly as we sat on our deck Friday evening.

She had locked down a babysitter for Saturday night, and we were both eager for our first dinner date alone together in months.

“Broders’,” I answered without hesitation.

Located in southwest Minneapolis, Broders Pasta Bar is a local gem. It has a great outdoor patio and the best Italian cuisine in the Twin Cities. We had not eaten there since the pandemic began.

My wife nodded and started to make a reservation on her phone. Then her jaw dropped.

“You’re not going to like this,” she said.

An Equity Charge?

She was right.

On its website, Broders’ has a notice to customers notifying them of a new 15 percent “benefits and equity” charge they’ve instituted. They justify the charge, first, by explaining that “many states have allowed reduced minimum wages for service staff in the form of a tip credit.” (More on this in a minute.)

Republicans Mustn’t Get Hoodwinked on ‘Defund the Police’ Pivot By Andrew C. McCarthy

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/06/republicans-mustnt-get-hoodwinked-on-defund-the-police-pivot/

And by the way, if you go to the Black Lives Matter website, you will still find this: “#DefundThePolice: . . . We call for a national defunding of police. . . .” (Compare now-vice president Kamala Harris in 2020 praising Black Lives Matter as “the most significant agent for change within the criminal justice system”).
Democrats might be making the case for funding once more, but it comes with a big catch.

O bviously, it makes sense for Republicans to denounce the Biden administration over Jen Psaki’s ridiculous claim that it was the GOP that wanted to cut police funding, the White House’s . . . um . . . rationale being that opposition to the president’s economic wrecking ball of a stimulus proposal equals opposition to every individual item in that boondoggle — as if deciding not to buy the manse you can’t afford in the tony school district means you oppose public-school education.

Everyone knows it was Democrats who made “defund the police” a mantra — occasionally, even a litmus test of what it means to be a viable Democratic candidate or official these days (even as Democrats who championed the scrapping of police departments spent taxpayer funds on security guards for themselves).

Nevertheless, as I have pointed out before, the smarter progressives have never been in favor of defunding the police, never mind zeroing out their budgets to achieve a wholesale elimination of the police. They not only want full funding, but significantly increased funding levels.

But here’s the catch: They want to change the definition of what policing is.

The savvy Democrats know that, as violent-crime rates surge, the party is getting killed over its “defund the police” madness. There is nothing to be done about that in the short term: The Bolshevik Left has insisted that Democrats are dead serious about gutting law enforcement (AOC: “Defunding the police means defunding the police” — not “budget tricks or funny math”); and the “defund the police” rhetoric is associated in the public mind with the months of lethal rioting that began last spring, and that was led by Black Lives Matter and Antifa, for whom Democrats continue to provide cover.