NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Exposing Biden’s record on race The president plays both sides of the race card for political gainBy Deneen Borelli

Posted By on June 16th, 2021

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/jun/14/exposing-bidens-exploitive-record-on-race/

For decades, President Joe Biden exploited race to advance his political career. 

Mr. Biden’s long history in public life provides ample evidence in both words and deeds of the now president playing both sides of the race card for political gain.

So in Mr. Biden’s own words, “Look at my record, man.”

Here we go.

Early in his political career, Mr. Biden befriended Democratic segregationists to capitalize on their power to advance in the Senate chamber and his political goals. For example, Mississippi Sen. James Eastland, who offered his assistance to help Mr. Biden with his re-election in 1978, said Blacks were “an inferior race.” 

Mr. Eastland also called the Brown vs. Board of Education decision a “monstrous crime,” and together, Mr. Eastland and Mr. Biden worked on an anti-busing bill to prevent desegregation in schools. 

Mr. Eastland mentored Mr. Biden during his early Senate career and Mr. Biden maintained a fondness for him. 

When commenting about his past relationships with segregationists, Mr. Biden often recalled favorable memories of his emotional connection to racist Democrats. 

While running for president for the third time, Mr. Biden said before his donors referring to Mr. Eastland, “He never called me ‘boy,’ he always called me ‘son.’”

Mr. Biden siding with segregationists in his early career is such an obvious political liability that then-Senator Kamala Harris drove an 18 wheeler truck through it during a Democratic debate. 

There is also Mr. Biden’s relationship with the late former Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd of West Virginia. Mr. Byrd was a former recruiter for the Ku Klux Klan and even with this backdrop, Mr. Byrd was elevated to the highest role in the Senate.

Mr. Byrd, by the way, filibustered the 1964 Civil Rights Act for over 14 hours. Let that sink in for a moment.

But none of this mattered to Mr. Biden. During the eulogy at Mr. Byrd’s funeral in 2010, then-Vice President Biden said, “He was a friend, he was a mentor and he was a guide.”

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Comic relief from a serious Israeli drama By Ruthie Blum

Posted By on June 16th, 2021

https://www.jns.org/opinion/comic-relief-from-a-serious-israeli-drama/ 

 The sight on Sunday night of the trendy Tel Aviv set celebrating the new Israeli government with great fanfare—flags and all—was nothing short of hilarious. After all, one would have been hard-pressed to locate a single person in the throng of thousands dancing in and around the fountain at Rabin Square who had voted for Yamina, the party whose chairman had just been sworn in as the country’s next leader.

Indeed, ahead of the March 23 Knesset elections—the fourth round in two years—the munchkins chanting the equivalent of “Ding dong! The witch is dead” at the ousting of Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu would have shuddered with horror and disgust at having Naftali Bennett become prime minister.

Yes, in the eyes of the state’s chattering classes, the kipah-wearing Jew who made a fortune in high-tech exits was and still is a capitalist “fascist” bent on annexing Judea and Samaria at all costs. And Yamina (“Rightward”), in their view, was merely an iteration of Habayit Hayehudi (Jewish Home) and the Religious Zionist Party headed by Bezalel Smotrich, with far-right pariah Itamar Ben-Gvir  of Otzma Yehudit in its ranks.

A similar opinion was frequently expressed by the radical leaders of Labor (Merav Michaeli), Meretz (Nitzan Horowitz) and certainly by Mansour Abbas, leader of the Islamist Ra’am Party. Yesh Atid’s Yair Lapid and Blue and White’s Benny Gantz have less of an ideological stake in any of it, which is why they are referred to euphemistically as “centrists.”

Their euphoria at Bennett’s taking the reins, then, is both comical (or would be if Israel’s domestic and foreign challenges weren’t so monumental) and illustrative of just how deep the pathological loathing for Netanyahu runs in certain circles.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

How will Bennett deal with Bedouin illegal Negev land grabs? David Isaac

Posted By on June 16th, 2021

https://www.jns.org/with-bennett-at-the-helm-how-will-he-steer-the-bedouin-negev

Israelis think of the desert area as its “Wild West,” a place where sovereignty is more honored in the breach, and where concerns center on crime and national security. For the government, the biggest challenge is bringing to heel unregulated Bedouin building on state land.

 Israel’s newly sworn-in Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has many landmines to avoid. One concerns land issues in Israel’s Negev Desert, specifically whether he will rein in unregulated Bedouin settlements that some say threaten to overwhelm Israel’s land reserves in the south.

“Bennett is selling the Negev!” was one of the first broadsides hurled against the new premier by Benjamin Netanyahu, who attempted to use the issue as a last-ditch effort to peel away right-wing members from the Knesset’s vote of confidence in the government on Sunday. He claimed that Bennett would hand control over parts of the south to the Ra’am Party—the first Arab party to agree to join an Israeli government. The Bedouin make up an important part of Ra’am’s base, and one of their key voting issues centers on illegal housing.

The Negev—and the Bedouin who make up 25 percent of its population—has long been a political football in Israeli politics, although it’s often pushed to the backburner. Israelis think of the desert area as its “Wild West,” a place where Israeli sovereignty is more honored in the breach, and where there are concerns over crime and national security. For the government, the biggest challenge is bringing to heel unregulated Bedouin building on state lands. The Bedouin are spreading rapidly because they are growing rapidly; they have one of the highest birthrates in the world, in part due to polygamy. Designated a crime in Israel, it is largely unheeded by the Bedouin. A 2012 Tel Aviv University study found that one-in-three Bedouin men have at least two wives.

“They have families with sometimes 30, 40, even 50 children. … When they’re grown, they have to build somewhere, and this is the recipe for the illegal houses that we have in the thousands in the Negev,” said Kobi Michael, senior researcher at Tel Aviv’s Institute for National Security Studies and editor of the institute’s periodical “Strategic Assessment.”

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

The President of Platitudes Freddy Gray,

Posted By on June 16th, 2021

https://spectatorworld.com/topic/president-joe-biden-platitudes-nato-summit/

President Joe Biden turned up almost three hours late to his NATO press conference tonight. He offered no apology, because, well, why should he? He then gave a short speech. It was adequate enough, albeit predictable and rigid — read as it was almost entirely from a teleprompter. It wouldn’t be Biden if he didn’t open with a gaffe, though. He managed to stumble early by saying ‘we’re still averaging in the last seven days the loss of 300 deaths per day.’

In answer to a press question about Putin, he said ‘I’ll be happy to discuss with you when it’s over, not before, about what the discussion will entail’. That didn’t make much sense. He successfully quoted Benjamin Disraeli and said ‘the proof will be in the pudding’ without jumbling the words. But it was another flat and deeply uninspiring performance from a president who looks bored and sounds listless on the world stage. ‘America is back,’ he keeps saying. ‘Diplomacy is back.’ But it isn’t very impressive. The G7 summit last weekend came and went, as it always does, with lots of big talk and no great breakthroughs.

It cost the British government more than $5 million to expand the runway tarmac at Newquay airport in Cornwall so that Biden could land at last week’s G7 summit. Who are we to criticize such largesse — diplomacy is infrastructure, too. In these spending days of magic-money make-believe, what’s another few million here or there? Still, cynical people might wonder what — beyond local economy stimulation — people gained from Biden and the other world leaders’ hellaciously expensive trip to the Cornish seaside. The total bill for the 2013 G8 meeting in Northern Ireland came to around $127 million, but at least the then Commander-in-Chief, Barack Obama, was able to give one or two of those pretty speeches he did so well.

There’s nothing pretty about a Joe Biden address. We all know that he has a speech-impediment. It is to his great credit that, as a young man, through hard work and grit, he turned himself into a half-decent speaker. At times in his career he has given powerful and moving addresses. But he’s not young any more — and his public performances are less and less convincing. Nastier right-wingers like to call his speeches ‘CAR CRASH’ as they share clips of the most cringe-inducing moments. But the most disheartening thing about Biden’s speeches is not that they are ‘disastrous’ — just that they are mediocre, sad and flat. He mumbles and fumbles and rambles; he umms and errs, he seems lost in his own mind. He is the president of platitudes, delivered badly and without conviction. He sounds bored and he makes awkward errors.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Benny Avni: Message to Iran: ‘The Era of Lies Is Over’ 

Posted By on June 16th, 2021

https://www.nysun.com/foreign/message-to-iran-the-era-of-lies-is-over/91542/

As Israel’s new government settles in, President Biden and Prime Minister Bennett agree to disagree on Iran — which means we could be at the start of a geopolitical game of good-cop-bad-cop.

Addressing the Knesset before the Sunday vote that made him premier, Mr. Bennett said that “as the greatest threat to Israel, the Iranian nuclear project is reaching a critical point.” The Mideast, he added, “is yet to recover from the effects of the first nuclear deal, which emboldened Iran to the tune of billions of dollars, and with international legitimacy.”

Renewing it “is a mistake that will once again lend legitimacy to one of the most discriminatory and violent regimes in the world,” Mr. Bennett said. Then he made clear that “Israel will not allow Iran to be equipped with nuclear weapons. Israel is not a party to the agreement, and will maintain full freedom to act.”

Freedom to act is key to the new government’s Iran policy, as it was for Benjamin Netanyahu when he was prime minister.

Yes, Yair Lapid — the new foreign minister and alternate prime minister — said one of his top goals is to repair relations with America’s Democrats. Addressing the foreign ministry staff, he said that Israel must prepare for renewal of the JCPOA. Yet he insisted that “this is a bad deal” and that “Israel will use every option at its disposal to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon.”

In an interview last week, outgoing chief of the Mossad, Yossi Cohen, detailed some secrets behind the Israeli methods — sabotage of Iran’s nuclear facilities, assassinations of top nuclear scientists, and, most glaringly, taking an entire nuclear archive from a warehouse at the heart of Tehran and safely smuggling it to Israel.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

What the West Can Learn from China’s War on India by Judith Bergman

Posted By on June 15th, 2021

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17416/china-war-on-india

China’s border actions against India have been described as a “salami tactic”. China seems to be seeking to dominate territory through incremental operations too small to attract international attention and not large enough to spark an actual war with India — but sufficient to accumulate real results over time in the form of gained territory. It is similar to the tactic China has been using in the South China Sea.

For this purpose, China uses gray-zone warfare, a maneuver at which the country has become expert, especially against Taiwan. The concept entails actions that fall just short of war — others have termed it “indirect war” — but the purpose is the same: to overcome resistance — or a perceived enemy — by inducing exhaustion.

“Overall, China’s increasing ties to the Indian Ocean and beyond have expanded enormously over the past two decades…. Crucially… it appears that China does intend to develop some sort of Indian Ocean force.” — Christopher Colley, Wilson Center, Washington D.C., April 2, 2021

“If India is weakened militarily and economically… its value as a counterweight to China and the broader U.S. goal of countering China’s regional influence would also be undermined.” — Daniel S. Markey, Council on Foreign Relations, April 19, 2021.

One year after China ordered an attack on the disputed border between India and China in the Himalayas — which deteriorated into a situation in which 20 Indian soldiers and several Chinese soldiers were killed — tension along the border remains high.

“China’s occupation since May 2020 of contested border areas is the most serious escalation in decades and led to the first lethal border clash between the two countries since 1975,” according to the “2021 Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community,” published on April 9, 2021 by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Military tensions between China and India go back nearly six decades to the 1962 Sino-Indian war, when China began attacking India. Although relations subsequently improved, the shadow of the war remains partly in the form of disagreement between the two countries about where the exact border — or the Line of Actual Control (LAC), as it is called — is located.

In January, China reportedly withdrew nearly 10,000 soldiers from depth areas on its side of the LAC while keeping front-line soldiers in place. Despite 11 rounds of talks — the latest on April 9 — de-escalation remains elusive. China refuses to disengage from two friction points in Hot Springs and Gogra.

In May, Indian Army Chief General MM Naravane told Indian troops to keep a watch on Chinese activities along the LAC. China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has reportedly begun annual war drills in “in-depth areas… located 100 to 250-km from the Line of Actual Control (LAC).”

MY SAY: Comments turned off

MY SAY: ELECTIONS HERE AND THERE

Posted By on June 15th, 2021

Second: Israel’s fractious parliamentary politics have probably ended the tenure of Benjamin Netanyahu whose accomplishments far outweigh his mistakes. Under his leadership Israel cemented relations with formerly hostile nations through combined projects in medicine, science and technology. Furthermore, Israel became a powerhouse in its “Silicon Valley” with its dazzling contributions to every aspect of the digital communications era. When his party allies turned against him, he was ousted.

That’s what happens in nations with parliaments.

Margaret Thatcher served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990. She was the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century and the first woman to hold that office. In 1987, an upswing in the economy led to her re-election but her opposition to England joining the European push for continental unity alienated members of her own party.  In November 1990, she failed to receive a majority in the Conservative Party’s annual vote for selection of a leader. She withdrew her nomination, and John Major, the chancellor of the Exchequer since 1989, was chosen as Conservative leader.

More reason to keep our fractured but still viable two party system….rsk

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Who Let Capitol Protesters Into the Building on January 6? By contradicting the groupthink on January 6, Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) is taking fire from the usual suspects while most of his Senate colleagues remain silent. By Julie Kelly

Posted By on June 15th, 2021

https://amgreatness.com/2021/06/14/who-let-capitol-protesters-into-the-building-on-january-6/

Judge Amit Mehta thinks no one let protesters into the Capitol building on January 6.

During a pre-trial detention hearing on Friday—Joe Biden’s Justice Department continues to demand jail time for nonviolent offenders before their trials even begin—the D.C. District Court judge made that false claim. “No one was let in,” the Obama appointee told the lawyer representing Jason Dolan, an alleged Oath Keeper and former U.S. Marine with no criminal record. (Mehta denied the government’s motion for detention but admitted it was a “close call.”)

Mehta, of course, is flat wrong. Videos taken by people at the Capitol not only show some U.S. Capitol Police officers ushering protesters toward the building and allowing them to enter but, as American Greatness exclusively reported last month, USCP officers also cautioned several protesters how they should behave.

In fact, in an anonymous interview with the Gateway Pundit in May, Dolan himself described how someone inside the Capitol opened the doors. (Dolan was arrested three days after the interview was posted.) The Justice Department, in a motion to keep Dolan incarcerated awaiting trial, called his story a “conspiracy theory.”

Thousands of Hours of Video Unseen

In Mehta’s defense, he only has access to cherry-picked video evidence provided by the Justice Department, which is keeping more than 14,000 hours of surveillance footage captured by the USCP security system under seal by insisting the recordings are “highly sensitive” government material. Judges, defense attorneys, and Capitol defendants are at the mercy of whatever damning clips federal prosecutors produce for any given case.

A select group of lawmakers, however, is authorized to view the raw footage: Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) is one of them. As ranking member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Johnson has directed his staff to closely examine the recordings to get a detailed account of what happened that day. 

“We’re going to look at relevant sections, trying to identify points of conflict and egress,” Johnson told me by phone on Friday. “I want a general, overall sense of the full spectrum of behavior in and around the Capitol.”

Johnson’s office already has flagged a slice of footage that may seriously undermine the accepted narrative—perpetuated by federal judges in court hearings and nearly everyone else—that “insurrectionists” broke into the building without permission.

In a letter to acting U.S. Capitol Police chief Yogananda Pittman last week, Johnson zeroed in on the suspicious activity of several individuals around 2:30 p.m.—right before more than 300 protesters entered the building through doors on the upper west terrace. Moments before, according to Johnson’s letter, an “unauthorized” person tried unsuccessfully to open a set of double doors.

Five people returned to the double doors shortly thereafter and walked past a USCP officer. “The security footage, which did not include audio, appeared to show the police officer gesturing toward the doors as these individuals walked past him. Once at the double doors, one of the five individuals pushed the left door’s crash bar and this time, it opened. All five individuals exited the building at approximately 2:33 p.m.”

But the last person to leave left the door ajar, “allowing people from the outside of the building to gain entry into the Capitol. At 2:34 p.m., as people began to enter through this door, the police officer who was in the vicinity of this door one minute earlier, walked into another hallway away from this door and out of the view of the security camera.” For nearly 15 minutes, Johnson estimates, 309 people entered the Capitol building while law enforcement did little to stop them.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

In Maricopa County, are missing ballots the smoking guns? By Andrea Widburg

Posted By on June 15th, 2021

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

I’ve stayed away from writing about the election audit in Arizona’s Maricopa County because I felt that, until the audit was completed, there wasn’t much point in trying to offering commentary about its progress. The big outlines were known: The audit was being carried out meticulously and both Democrats and NeverTrumpers objected vociferously. On Monday, though, a conservative reporter with a good reputation revealed some really stunning facts: Several hundred thousand ballots are missing and boxes that purported to hold ballots for counting contained only blanks.

Here’s Patrick Howley’s report (emphasis mine):

Several hundred thousand votes that were counted in Maricopa County, Arizona are associated with missing ballots, according to an audit organizer who is speaking regularly with people on the audit floor.

“We found a ballot shortage, anywhere from 5 to 10 percent of the votes,” Josh Barnett, an audit organizer who led the affidavit drive to make the audit happen, tells NATIONAL FILE. “It looks like a couple hundred thousand ballots are unaccounted for. The ballots are missing.”

“I also know that there were boxes filled with blank ballots in those pallets. There were blanks in there,” Barnett said, citing a person who is frequently at the audit site as part of the audit process. “They (election officials) were doing it for appearance, to try to hide the fact that ballots are missing by saying, ‘It’s okay, they’re all right here.’ But the ballots are blank.”

Read the rest here.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Mark Levin provides insight about what happened in Israel By Andrea Widburg

Posted By on June 15th, 2021

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

Those who long for a parliamentary system in America, instead of our “winner take all” system, would do well to look at what’s been happening in Israel. Benjamin Netanyahu, after 12 years as Prime Minister is now out and, in his place, there’s an unstable coalition made of people whose only common bond is that they, like the Israeli equivalent of America’s Deep State, wanted Bibi out. Mark Levin does a good job explaining how what happened.

In parliamentary systems, the people do not vote directly for the Prime Minister. Instead, parliament itself chooses its leader. If there’s a clear majority and a single minority, it’s simple. If there’s a clear majority and several minorities, all of which are too small to combine against the majority, it’s still simple.

It starts being a problem when there isn’t a majority but is, instead, only a plurality. A plurality means that one party received more votes than each of the other parties received. However, the first party nevertheless failed to receive more than half of the total votes. Dictionary.com offers a good example:

For example, Gabriel won the plurality for school vice president with 40 percent of votes while Kiara came in with 35 percent and Carl with 25 percent. If Gabriel had received 54%, he would have received both the majority and plurality. 

In that situation, all the various parties start making deals – building coalitions – in the hope that their coalition will have a majority of members in the parliament. When the coalitions fall apart (as they often do), elections begin all over again. It’s an unstable system, especially in times of war – and Israel is always in a time of war.