ISRAEL Comments turned off

Israel’s Major Airstrike in Damascus—Why Now? Are Iran and the terror masters cooking up something new? P. David Hornik

Posted By on April 2nd, 2024

https://pdavidhornik.substack.com/p/israels-major-airstrike-in-damascuswhy?utm_source=substack&publication_id=1319513&post_

According to foreign (non-Israeli) media reports, at about 5 p.m. on Monday, missiles fired from Israeli F-35 fighter jets struck a building beside the Iranian embassy in Damascus. Killed on the spot was a very big fish—Mohammad Reza Zahedi, the top commander in Syria of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)—along with six other Iranian officials.

Zahedi is considered the highest-ranking IRGC official to be killed since the US assassinated Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad in January 2020. The airstrike appears to have been both an intelligence and a military feat.

An intelligence feat, because the meeting being held at the time of the strike was reportedly supposed to be top-secret—which would make sense considering Zahedi and others’ seniority plus the fact that Israel had already assassinated a series of Iranian officials in Syria in recent months.

And a military feat, because the building beside the Iranian embassy—supposedly a consulate, but apparently a command center—was part of a complex of diplomatic structures including, right nearby, the Canadian embassy in Syria. A slightly misfired missile hitting the Canadian embassy would, of course, have been a painful and dire incident for Israel.

MEDICINE AND HEALTH Comments turned off

John Tierney The WHO’s Power Grab The last thing we need: a new and unaccountable global pandemic czar

Posted By on April 2nd, 2024

https://www.city-journal.org/article/the-whos-power-grab

The response to Covid was the greatest mistake in the history of the public-health profession, but the officials responsible for it are determined to do even worse. With the support of the Biden administration, the World Health Organization (WHO) is seeking unprecedented powers to impose its policies on the United States and the rest of the world during the next pandemic.

It was bad enough that America and other countries voluntarily followed WHO bureaucrats’ disastrous pandemic advice instead of heeding the scientists who had presciently warned, long before 2020, that lockdowns, school closures, and mandates for masks and vaccines would be futile, destructive, and unethical. It was bad enough that U.S. officials and the corporate media parroted the WHO’s false claims and ludicrous praise of China’s response. But now the WHO wants new authority to make its bureaucrats’ whims mandatory—and to censor those who disagree with their version of “the science.” 

The WHO hopes to begin this power grab in May at its annual assembly in Geneva, where members will vote on proposed changes in international health regulations and a new treaty governing pandemics. Pamela Hamamoto, the State Department official representing the U.S. in negotiations, has already declared that America is committed to signing a pandemic treaty that will “build a stronger global health architecture,” which is precisely what we don’t need. 

If we learned anything from the pandemic, it was the folly of entrusting narrow-minded public-health officials with wide-ranging powers. The countries that fared best, like Sweden, were the ones that ignored the advice of the WHO, and the U.S. states that fared best, like Florida, were the ones that defied the White House Coronavirus Task Force and the Centers for Disease Control. This wasn’t a new lesson. Previous research had shown that giving national leaders new powers to respond to a natural disaster typically leads to more fatalities and economic damage.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Turkish Television Discusses Hitting Greece by Uzay Bulut

Posted By on April 1st, 2024

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20531/turkish-tv-discusses-hitting-greece

[T]he Turkish government aims to conquer the Greek islands in the Aegean Sea – either militarily or demographically. The goal is the same: the islands’ capture.

The Turkish media also falsely and repeatedly claims that “152 Greek islands and islets in the Aegean belong to Turkey”. These islands, however, historically and legally, belong to Greece, mainly through the 1924 Treaty of Lausanne, 1932 Turkish-Italian Agreements and the 1947 Paris Treaty.

Conquest is part of Islamic jihad (warfare in the service of Islam) which, according to Islamic scriptures, is a communal obligation. The ideology of conquest in the name of jihad is what drove Ottoman Turks to invade and conquer lands stretching across Asia, Europe and Africa for more than 600 years.

According to Islamists, Muslim military expansion is an act of Allah’s favor because Allah bestows those places upon Muslim conquerors.

The Turkish government’s stance on the genocide is a bizarre combination of denial and conceit. First, they say that their ancestors did not commit genocide and that it was merely a war of self-defense. Then, they proclaim “they [Christians] deserved it” and “if need be, we could do it again”.

The US government seems to ignore that Turkey – acting as if it is the successor to the Ottoman Empire – does not stop threatening Greece, Cyprus and Armenia with military invasion.

The US Congress would be well advised to reconsider its decision regarding F-16 sales to Turkey and this alliance altogether.

On Turkey’s pro-government TV channel AHaber, political analysts and national security specialists on February 28 enthusiastically discussed how the Turkish Air Force could strike Greek islands in the Aegean Sea.

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The fury of Europe’s farmers The continent-wide revolt against the green agenda has shaken the EU elites to their core. Fraser Myers

Posted By on April 1st, 2024

https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/04/01/the-fury-of-europes-farmers/

Europe’s farmers are rising up – and the elites are terrified. In France, farmers recently staged a four-day ‘siege of Paris’, blocking major roads around the French capital. In January, thousands of tractors descended on Berlin in Germany, lining the streets leading up to the Brandenburg Gate. In Brussels, farmers have gathered from all over Europe to demonstrate against the EU and pelt the European Parliament with eggs. In the Netherlands, tractors have caused the longest traffic jam in the nation’s history, as part of a years-long battle between farmers and the government. This farmers’ revolt is now truly Europe-wide. From Portugal to Poland, from Ireland to Italy, almost every EU country has been rocked by protests. So what is driving this populist uprising? What do the farmers want?

Farmers in each country have their own specific grievances, of course. But there is a common root to their anger. What connects them is the European Union’s green agenda, which has been imposed on agriculture from on-high. It has made farmers’ lives a misery, sacrificing their livelihoods at the altar of climate alarmism. Bureaucrats who have no idea how farmers work and live, have essentially been condemning farms – many of them run by families for generations – to oblivion, all at the stroke of the regulator’s pen. And farmers are simply not putting up with it anymore.

The first stirrings of revolt began in 2019, in the Netherlands, with the so-called nitrogen crisis. The Dutch Supreme Court ruled that the government was failing to cut nitrogen pollution to EU-approved levels. In response, the Dutch government promised ‘drastic measures’ to cut nitrogen emissions. In all but name, it declared war on its nation’s farmers. Suddenly, the government had turned against one of its most important and impressive sectors.

MY SAY: Comments turned off

MY SAY: BOOK AND MOVIE ” THE BOYS IN THE BOAT”

Posted By on April 1st, 2024

 Daniel James Brown had been inspired to write his 2013 non-fiction novel, The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, after a chance meeting with the elderly Joe Rantz.

In December 2023, the movie “The Boys in the Boat” directed by George Clooney was based on the true story of the come from behind rowing team at the University of Washington got to compete for gold at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

It’s a wonderful, patriotic and inspiring story. rsk

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Season of Life By J.B. Shurk

Posted By on April 1st, 2024

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/03/the_season_of_life.html

As the Christian world celebrates Resurrection Sunday, the Northern Hemisphere is springing with new life.  Buds on trees are visible, and baby animals are moving around for the first time.  It is a season of rejuvenation.  These sights are pleasing reminders that physical death is insignificant next to the prospect of everlasting spiritual life.

Farmers are counting down the days until the final frost and the opportunity to plant new crops in warming soil.  Growing food teaches that, as in our individual lives, timing is often critical.  If you plant corn too early, seedlings will die; if you plant too late, an early autumn frost can kill the crop.  Sweet corn needs both a lot of sun and sufficient moisture.  Heavy rains can drown young plants before they have time to strengthen their roots.  When stalks are growing tall in harsh summer heat, though, a good rain can make the difference between a bountiful harvest and a desiccated field.  A gentle breeze is helpful for pollination; strong winds, however, might break stalks in half.  Seeds should be sown close to each other but never too close — or you’ll end up with tiny ears!  Sweet corn plants grow well together, but they also need their space to produce delicious, milky kernels.

Think about those lessons in the context of human life.  Sometimes we need temperate weather to survive; at other times, we need intense heat, wind, or rain to grow as individuals.  We must learn to endure harsh conditions.  Sometimes we must even seek out dangerous storms.  If a young child is made to suffer too early or for too long, the damage can cut short an otherwise healthy life.  If a young adult suffers too little, however, then he may never grow strong enough or wise enough to truly live.  To find joy, we must experience disappointment.  To be whole, we need other people.  To be our best, though, we need the space to become the people we are meant to be.  As on a farm, sometimes violent storms weaken us; sometimes they make us remarkably resilient.  Such is life.  Timing is everything.  

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Easter Reflections: George Washington’s Farewell Address in Today’s America George Washington’s exhortations and admonitions are residues of a lost and probably unrecoverable past. What that means for us now and in the future is sobering to contemplate. By Roger Kimball

Posted By on April 1st, 2024

https://amgreatness.com/2024/03/31/easter-reflections-george-washingtons-farewell-address-in-todays-america/

Sitting down the day before Easter, I thought I might say something about this most awful (in the old sense) holiday in the Christian calendar.  But then Joseph R. Biden, the President of the United States, issued an official proclamation denominating March 31 as Transgender Day of Visibility. Farewell Easter! You just got superseded by the latest freak show in the great Democratic carnival of perversity. 

I can’t compete with Transgender Day of Visibility.  Nor can I compete with “Lizzo,” the kinky, obese black singer who performed for Joe Biden’s “grassroots” fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall last week.  That event, which featured three presidents—Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and Joe Biden—pulled in some $26 million for Biden’s 2024 presidential coffers. Tickets to the event topped out at $500,000 a pop. How’s that for a “grassroots” extravaganza?  That same day, Donald Trump went to the wake for Jonathan Diller, the New York City cop who was gunned down in cold blood by Guy Rivera, a black ex-con who had 21 prior arrests. He also made a donation to a charitable organization to pay off the house mortgage for Diller’s widow. 

I feel stymied by these contrasts, so I thought I would reprise, with some updates, a column featuring George Washington that I wrote for a prior Easter. 

I recently chanced across a photograph of the lower Manhattan skyline at night from Good Friday in April 1956. Three skyscrapers dominating the space feature certain windows illuminated to form gigantic crosses to commemorate that most solemn of Christian holidays. The year 1956 was not that long ago. But how much has changed in those 60-odd years! Can you imagine such a public display of Christian affirmation in New York today? Nor can I.

IMMIGRATION, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Great Replacement? As Americans Flee Blue Counties, Immigrants Move In

Posted By on April 1st, 2024

https://issuesinsights.com/2024/03/29/the-great-replacement-as-americans-flee-biden-counties-immigrants-move-in/

Earlier this week we reported on our findings about net domestic migration trends in the U.S. based on voting patterns in the 2020 elections. (See: “The Great Divorce: 3.7 Million Have Fled Counties That Voted For Biden.”)

But we realized there was a discrepancy in the numbers. For example, while more than 483,000 people have moved out of Los Angeles County since 2020, the county’s population only declined by 351,000. Over the past three years, more than 88,000 Americans left Harris County, Texas, yet its population actually increased by 104,000.

And, while we found that, overall, 3.7 million people moved out of Biden-voting counties since the 2020 elections, the population of these counties went down by less than 1.5 million.

Why the difference?

Were those who stayed behind particularly fertile and long-lived?

No. The difference is almost entirely from what the Census Bureau calls “net international migration.”

MEDIA Comments turned off

Media Tailspin Continues As Public Trust In News Outlets Crumbles: I&I/TIPP Poll Terry Jones

Posted By on April 1st, 2024

https://issuesinsights.com/2024/04/01/media-tailspin-continues-as-public-trust-in-news-outlets-crumbles-ii-tipp-poll/

Can the U.S. media ever reverse their reputation for dishonesty and bias and end their current tailspin? Given how the public currently views them, the answer is “not likely,” the latest I&I/TIPP Poll suggests.

Each month I&I/TIPP Poll asks registered voters from around the country to gauge their trust in the major media that supply them with news, features and other information.

Specifically, two questions were asked:

“Generally speaking, how much trust do you have in the traditional or established news media (Example: Washington Post, New York Times, NPR, CBS News, etc.) to report the news accurately and fairly?”

And, “Generally speaking, how much trust do you have in the alternative news media (Example: New York Post, Washington Times, NewsMax, The Daily Caller, RealClearPolitics, etc.) to report the news accurately and fairly?”

Responses to the first question make up the “Traditional Media Trust Index,” while answers to the second are included in the “Alternate Media Trust Index”; 1,419 Americans responded to the national online poll, which was taken from Feb. 28-March 1. The poll has a margin of error of +/-2.7 percentage points.

How well are the media doing their job of informing Americans? Not very, voters overwhelmingly
say. In fact, only one-third (34%) trust traditional media, and six in ten (61%) don’t. A third (32%)
say they have “little trust,” and another 29% have “no trust at all.”

BOOKS Comments turned off

CHAPTER 12: Seeding Race Wars Space Is No Longer the Final Frontier—Reality Is [forthcoming release May 2024]

Posted By on April 1st, 2024

https://goudsmit.pundicity.com/27668/chapter-12-seeding-race-wars

 lindagoudsmit.com goudsmit.pundicity.com 

James Lindsay’s analysis of Woke Marxism (Chapter 11) is supported by the extraordinary Testimony of Dr. Bella Dodd to HUAC in 1953.[i] The U.S. House of Representatives formed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1938 to look into subversive activity by private citizens. Bella Dodd (1904–1969) was a New York teacher, lawyer, labor union activist, and high-ranking member of the Communist Party USA in the 1930s and 1940s. She speaks candidly about her idealism; her seduction into the Communist Party as a young woman; and her growing disillusionment, disaffection, and final ardent anti-communist stance.

Bella Dodd testifies with an experienced insider’s voice, exposing the fundamental deceit of communism in her very personal and powerful sworn statement. She explains how millions of Americans, herself included, were sucked into communism with slogans and generalizations—seduced by feelings, not facts. Excerpts from her testimony are particularly relevant today:

Take, for instance, the whole question of antifascism. The Communist Party in this country set itself up as the one organization that was fighting fascism. Very few other organizations gave them a battle for that, and so the Americans got to feeling, “These are the anti-Fascists.”

We only learn now, after reading documents captured by the American soldiers in Germany, that throughout the time the Communists were calling themselves “anti-Fascists,” they were working with the German high brass while Hitler was in power…. Well, they took the anti-Fascist slogan and made themselves the protagonists of antifascism.

They did the same thing with the word “democracy.” It became very difficult to oppose them because they posed everything in terms of the word “democracy.” … (pp. 1746–1747)

They divide your loyalty to the “country” from loyalty to the “people.” They say, “We are the greatest Americans there are. We believe in supporting the people.”

Who are the people? They are for the class society—for the proletariat. They say, “The working class makes up 98 percent of the people. Therefore, we, in our desire to protect the people, are the greatest democrats that there are.” But they forget to tell you that as far as they are concerned, before they are through taking power, they will kill off large sections of the working class if it doesn’t go along with their program…. (p. 1748)