ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Here is How the Dems Could Replace Biden Through an Internal Coup And who could replace him. by Daniel Greenfield

Posted By on February 10th, 2024

https://www.frontpagemag.com/here-is-how-the-dems-could-replace-biden-through-an-internal-coup/

I spent years telling skeptical conservatives that, yes Biden was going to run for reelection. Many didn’t believe it until he filed, became the automatic frontrunner, and had no opponents to speak of.

And while public perceptions of his state keep dropping, the Democrats have few options.

Sure, rank and file Dems could shift their support to Rep. Dean Philips, who is in possession of his full faculties and actually campaigning, but there’s zero sign of that happening. Instead, New Hampshire Dems wrote in Biden after he refused to even compete in their state in order to score a big hand-delivered win in South Carolina. (With 4% turnout.)

But here are the four scenarios ranked in order of probability.

1. Biden is the nominee – barring a serious medical breakdown, the frontrunner becomes the party nominee. – Most likely

2. Biden resigns – significant pressure is brought to bear on Biden, his aides and family members to get him to drop out – second most likely

3. Philips beats Biden – panicked by Biden’s poor polls and deteriorating condition, Democrats ignore the party and switch to Philips – least likely

4. DNC removes Biden  – that’s the interesting ‘X’ scenario.- third most likely

Even if Biden does drop out, the results will be messy. It’s too late for anyone else to file to run. The only other candidate on the ballot is Rep. Dean Philips who has few allies and the Dem establishment is not about to let a dark horse whom they piled on win. They’d rather have Trump than Philips. (If you’re skeptical, think of all the Republicans who would rather have had Hillary than Trump.)

But what if Biden doesn’t drop out?

Let’s go back for a moment to Hillary Clinton’s fainting incident which was publicly dismissed, but privately was taken very seriously.

Then-Democratic National Committee head Donna Brazile considered replacing Hillary Clinton at the top of the party’s ticket last year after the presidential nominee appeared unsteady and stumbled following a September 11 memorial service in New York, Brazile writes in her new book.

As rumors swirled about Clinton’s health and the future of her presidential campaign, representatives of Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley contacted Brazile, she writes, apparently to offer their services.

“Gee, I wonder what he wanted to talk to me about?” Brazile writes about Biden.

Brazile writes that she considered several potential replacements for Clinton and Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., the vice presidential nominee, and concluded Biden and Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., would be the strongest combination to beat Donald Trump in November.

Brazile, who was abruptly brought on to replace former DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz during the party’s convention last summer, did not have the power to unilaterally remove Clinton and Kaine.

But DNC rules give the party’s chairman the authority to set the ball in motion.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Moshe Dann: Can Israel Win the War Against Terrorism?

Posted By on February 10th, 2024

https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/can-israel-win-the-war-against-terroris

The problem is that many Israeli leaders not only believe that Israel cannot win its war against terrorism, but that Israel should not win – that Palestinians deserve a state, regardless of who will be in charge – because this would relieve Israel of moral and legal dilemmas, e.g. “the occupation.”

Most (if not all) countries go to war to win; Israel, however, is different. First, neither Israel nor the PLO conceives of the conflict as a war, since they have mutual ongoing political, security, and economic interests; terrorism, therefore, is seen as part of an ongoing relationship. Until Oct 7, Israeli leaders assumed that this was also true for Hamas.

This leads to the second reason: Israel was not fighting to destroy terrorism, but to prevent attacks, neutralize or arrest terrorists, and then, temporarily, return to a “status quo.” That’s why warnings about what Hamas was doing were ignored by Israel’s political, military, and security leaders; they duped themselves.

Hope-doped, drugged by self-assurance, and seeking to appease the Obama/Biden administrations, the EU, the UN, and the international community, they accepted “the two-state solution” (2SS). They failed to understand that the conflict is not over territory, but is – as Hamas proclaims – a religious war to eliminate Israel. That explains why Palestinian leaders consistently reject offers of statehood in return for recognizing Israel’s right to exist, and why they continue to launch terrorist attacks against Jews. They are engaged in a “holy war” against Jews and Zionists as “invaders” and “occupiers of Palestine” – all of it. That is a call for genocide.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Israeli basketball team wins after Irish team refuses to shake hands “Basketball Ireland fully supports our players in their decision,” the national governing body for basketball in Ireland said in a statement regarding the refusal to shake hands with Israel’s team.By Michael Starr

Posted By on February 10th, 2024

https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-785904?utm_medium=email&_hsmi=293469766&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9zLrcE4y-

An Israeli women’s basketball team beat Ireland 87 to 57 in the first game of the 2025 Women’s EuroBasket qualifier in Riga on Thursday evening, a game in which sport was overshadowed by politics when the Irish team refused to shake hands with their Israeli counterparts.

The Israeli Basketball Association (IBBA) said on social media that the victory came “despite the lack of sportsmanship of the visiting team.”

“Basketball Ireland fully supports our players in their decision,” the national governing body for basketball in Ireland said in a statement.

Ireland’s team refuses to associate with Israel’s team

The statement by Basketball Ireland detailed that it informed the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) on Wednesday that its players would not be exchanging gifts or formal handshakes before or after the game, and that players would line up by the bench rather than at center court for the playing of their anthem.

The move came in response to comments made by Israeli players and published by IBBA that included “inflammatory and wholly inaccurate accusations of antisemitism.”

IBBA published an interview with Israeli basketball player Dor Saar on Tuesday in which she touched on the behavior and statements of the Irish team.

“It’s known that they are quite antisemitic and it’s no secret, and maybe that’s why a strong game is expected,” said Saar. “We have to show that we’re better than them and win. We talk about it among ourselves, we know they don’t like us and we will always leave everything on the field and in this game especially.”

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Trial Of Mann v. Steyn, Part V: Jury Instructions And Closing Argument Francis Menton

Posted By on February 10th, 2024

ttps://us7.campaign-archive.com/?e=a9fdc67db9&u=9d011a88d8fe324cae8c084c5&id=90d2677a69

The last day of trial, yesterday, was devoted to jury instructions and closing arguments. Unfortunately, I had to miss the opening argument from Mann’s counsel John Williams. But I was then able to listen to almost the entire argument of Simberg’s counsel Victoria Weatherford, the entire argument by Mark Steyn on his own behalf, and the entire final rebuttal from Mr. Williams.

My overall comment on the closings of Ms. Weatherford and Mr. Steyn is that they were straightforward reviews of the evidence, or lack thereof, as it applied to each element of the claims, as those had been outlined by the judge in the jury instructions. Because Mann had presented little to know relevant evidence, the closings were quite devastating. Ms. Weatherford’s approach was more an item-by-item review of how plaintiff had failed to prove each element, while Steyn focused more on a few particularly noteworthy issues; but both were well within norms for this type of argument. By contrast, Williams’s rebuttal was almost entirely off point and/or improper. He drew repeated (and correct) objections, several of them sustained, ultimately forcing the judge to re-read to the jury the entire instruction as to the elements and burdens of proof for defamation in order to correct an incorrect statement of the law made by Mr. Williams.

In general, I have great faith in juries. And in this case, where my view is that the evidence strongly favors the defense, it should be an easy decision. However, given the highly charged politics of the subject matter, I do not have confidence in how the jury will come out.

The Jury Instructions

The instructions had been negotiated between the plaintiff and defendants, and mostly came from standard forms. There may have been some objections that one side or the other had preserved, but that was not mentioned publicly. Although I am not an expert in defamation law, the instructions seemed to me to be a fair summary of the law, with the exception that I was surprised that the phrase “actual malice” was not used. However, the instructions did use the words that I understand to be the operative definition of that “actual malice.”

ISRAEL Comments turned off

The Empty Sloganeering of a ‘Two-State Solution’ By Danielle Pletka

Posted By on February 9th, 2024

https://www.nationalreview.com/2024/02/the-empty-sloganeering-of-a-two-state-solution/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=homepage&utm_

The Palestinian people are pawns, props in a local, regional, and global game that puts their real interests last.

It is beyond ironic that the vile attacks of October 7 have revived the notion of a two-state solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians — an idea that was, until that moment, politically moribund. Of course, such a “solution” was far from Hamas’s aim, but it remains the only idea available to the lazy diplomatic and peace-processing class. The two-state idea serves the aims of political leaders in the United States and Europe flailing for a response to the far Left’s anti-Israel-driven outrage over the war in Gaza. It answers the mail to the demand to “do something.”

But the one question no one has bothered to ask is, Is it good for the Palestinians? And the short answer to that question is no.

“Two-state solution” is part of the lexicon of sloganeering-cum-politics that includes “black lives matter,” “defund the police,” and “cease-fire now.” And like all of those reductionist bumper stickers, it crumbles under scrutiny. The evolution of each of these ideas is predicated on a grain of truth: Of course black lives matter. There is indeed police brutality. A cease-fire now would indeed end the fighting in Gaza, albeit briefly. And a two-state solution would certainly satisfy the symbolic demands for a Palestinian state.

Also true of these parallel political constructions is that the slogan has precious little to do with the actual lives it purports to value. The Black Lives Matter movement, while soothing to upper-class suburban whites focused intently on their virtue and their Land Rovers, has enriched a few grifters at its heart and delivered shockingly little to the actual blacks who live in America’s cities and are disproportionately victims of crime, beset by poor schooling, drugs, broken families, and more.

Ditto the mindless effort to slash police budgets in the unreasoned hope that by destroying the instruments of law enforcement, somehow there would be fewer incidents of police brutality. Instead, as numerous failed experiments in a light police footprint have demonstrated, crime has skyrocketed, businesses have been forced to shut down, and cities like Portland, Ore., San Francisco, Oakland, and Washington, D.C., have spiraled into dystopia.

Back to the Palestinians. They are people before they are a nation or a movement. And like the hapless props for the various other slogans/movements, their fate is of little genuine interest to their putative champions. To be pro-“Palestine” has come to mean little more than to be anti-Israel, shortchanging the very people such a position is intended to support.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

A Quick Look at the 21st Century So Far by Drieu Godefridi

Posted By on February 9th, 2024

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20340/21st-century

If you add to this the European Union’s obsession with the environment, which has become little more than a machinery for imposing constraints, vexations, punishments and taxes in the name of “energy transition”, it appears that stagnation is a problem from which Europe might have the greatest difficulty in freeing itself.

China talks tough about Taiwan, but seems leery of using its considerable military force if it can count on the US failing to respond.

Above all, the Chinese regime is a ruthless dictatorship in which people and their property disappear, and there are no mechanisms for peaceful reform.

If there is a single element of the American system that Europe should replicate, it is this flexibility in the labor market.

Will that never happen? No, of course not. That is why Europe will continue to stagnate, while America, despite all its current difficulties, opens up the way of the future.

If the economic and geopolitical facts examined here are anything to go by, the 21st century will be more American than ever.

We are not quite a quarter of the way into the 21st century, but already a few clear structural trends have emerged, even if it is impossible to predict the next “black swans” — radically unpredictable events with far-reaching consequences – that might occur. Here are four of the trends.

Since 2000, Europe has stagnated on many fronts — anemic growth, a crashing birth rate, military disinvestment — from which countries such as Belgium and Germany have still not emerged. Perhaps most worrying of all, according to criteria such as patents, capital investment, and stock market giants such as GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon), Europe has stopped innovating. People innovate in the United States; they still innovate in Asia, but in Europe – hardly at all. If you add to this the European Union’s obsession with the environment, which has become little more than a machinery for imposing constraints, vexations, punishments and taxes in the name of “energy transition”, it appears that stagnation is a problem from which Europe might have the greatest difficulty in freeing itself.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Multiple ‘Drag Queens’ in the News This Week For Appalling Sex Crimes Against Children By Debra Heine

Posted By on February 9th, 2024

https://amgreatness.com/2024/02/08/multiple-drag-queens-in-the-news-this-week-for-appalling-sex-crimes-against-children/

The left’s favorite expression of gay pride has been in the news this week for all the wrong reasons. Multiple “Drag queens” and “transgender stars” have been arrested for appalling sex crimes against children.

The stories feature cross-dressing men who allegedly abused children in Oregon, Australia, West Virginia, and Kentucky.

“Drag queen” Eron David Griffin, 42, accused of sexually abusing minors at his part-time home salon business in Salem Oregon:

BREAKING: Oregon drag queen Eron David Griffin arrested on child s*x crime charges. He was charged with 3 counts of third-degree s*xu*l abuse and commercial s*xu*l solicitation.

Griffin performed with and befriended another drag queen named Kelsey Meta Boren who’s a convicted… pic.twitter.com/Nj4BupB5oa

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 7, 2024

Griffin, who performed under the name “Stella Mess,” was arrested in November but police didn’t publicized the investigation and arrest until this week.  The investigation was reportedly launched in October after multiple minors claimed he sexually abused them.  Police are now seeking other victims of the alleged pedophile.

Griffin has ties to convicted pedophile Kelsey Meta Boren, whose drag stage name was  “Alwaiz Craving” (always craving) the Post Millennial reported.

Boren was convicted in Lane County, Ore. last year of 11 felony counts of encouraging child sexual abuse in the first degree. Boren had worked at an elementary school and was a drag queen ambassador for a queer nonprofit in Oregon.

Griffin was charged with three counts of third-degree sexual abuse and sexual solicitation.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Could Joe Biden Order a U.S. Attack on Iran? Given Biden’s low approval ratings, I am worried that a desperate “wag the dog” attack on Iran to distract Americans from the president’s political problems at home cannot be ruled out. By Fred Fleitz

Posted By on February 9th, 2024

https://amgreatness.com/2024/02/09/could-joe-biden-order-a-u-s-attack-on-iran/

Could Joe Biden bomb Iran? There are loud calls by some members of Congress and pundits to do this in response to the surge in attacks by Iranian proxy groups against U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria and shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

Some thought it was telling last weekend when National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan refused to rule out a U.S. attack on Iran during a press interview.

But why would anyone be calling for American airstrikes against Iran? Why didn’t the massive U.S. airstrikes against Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria last week and the 14 or more U.S. airstrikes against the Houthi rebels in Yemen halt their attacks?

The answer to both questions is that American deterrence in the Middle East has seriously eroded during the Biden administration.

Much of this erosion is due to three years of American weakness and foreign policy failures caused by the administration’s incompetent foreign policy. This includes the disastrous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, U.S. feuding with Israel and Saudi Arabia, the Biden administration’s attempts to appease Iran, and a frivolous foreign policy that treats climate change as the principal national security threat to the United States.

American credibility in the Middle East was further undermined by Biden administration policies in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack on Israel. Although Biden officials offered strong support for Israel immediately after this attack, there soon were signs of a split between the U.S. and Israel as administration officials began to publicly criticize the Israeli government for the way it was conducting the war against Hamas.

Worried about criticism from his progressive supporters, President Biden and his senior national security officials have pressed the Israeli government to end the war quickly and agree to a peace plan based on the two-state solution. Israeli officials have rejected ending the war before it can guarantee Israel’s security and defeat Hamas. They have also said two-state solution peace plans are off the table due to the October 7 attack.

There have also been press reports of growing tension between Biden and Netanyahu, including the president abruptly ending a December 23 phone call with the Israeli leader, Netanyahu repeatedly rejecting Biden’s calls for Palestinian sovereignty, and a report that Biden was running out of patience with Netanyahu

EDUCATION, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

An Act of War “A Nation At Risk” sounded alarms over 40 years ago, but we keep hitting the snooze button. by Larry Sand

Posted By on February 9th, 2024

https://www.frontpagemag.com/an-act-of-war/

In April 1983, U.S. Secretary of Education Terrell Bell created the National Commission on Excellence in Education, directing it to “examine the quality of education in the United States.” The panel found that “the educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people.”

The report famously asserted, “If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might have viewed it as an act of war.” It also insists that “…academic excellence [is] the primary goal of schooling [and it] seems to be fading across…American education.”

Edward B. Fiske, education editor of the New York Times at the time, described the report as “35 pages that “shook the U.S. education world [becoming] one of the most significant documents in the history of American public education.”

Sadly, however, a 1998 Hoover Institution report revealed that “little has changed” and that the nation was still very much at risk.

Here we are in 2024, over 40 years after the alarm bells sounded, and what have we done about the “act of war?”

Not much at all. What follows is a very brief overview of our current condition.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Domestic Terrorism History Month Influence of violent leftist radicals still on the rise. by Lloyd Billingsley

Posted By on February 9th, 2024

https://www.frontpagemag.com/domestic-terrorism-history-month/

Last Sunday marked 50 years since the Symbionese Liberation (SLA) Army kidnapped Patricia Hearst, granddaughter of newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst. Patty took on the nom de guerre Tania and joined her SLA captors in armed robberies. Arrested in 1975, Hearst drew 35 years but served less than two before President Jimmy Carter commuted her sentence.

In 2001, President Bill Clinton granted Hearst a full presidential pardon. She married police officer Bernard Shaw and now showcases her French bulldogs at the Westminster Kennel Club. Nice story, but reports come up short on the SLA and other domestic terrorists, whose influence is now on the rise.

The Symbionese Liberation Army was headed by Donald DeFreeze, also known as Cinque Mtume, who served five years for robbery, escaped Soledad prison, and hooked up with radical leftist Patricia “Mizmoon” Soltysik. DeFreeze drew inspiration from Ron Karenga, also known as Maulena Karenga, born Ronald McKinley Everett in Maryland in 1941.

In the late 1960s Karenga rose to prominence as a theoretician of the black nationalist movement. In “The Quotable Karenga” handbook, he told followers:  “When it’s burn, let’s see how much you burn. When it’s kill, let’s see how much you kill. When it’s blow up, let’s see how much you blow up.”

In 1971, a court convicted Karenga of kidnapping and torturing two women in his organization. According to “Karenga Tortured Women Followers, Wife Tells Court,” from the May 3, 1971 Los Angeles Times, Karenga stripped naked Deborah Jones and Gail Davis, whipped them with an electrical cord, and beat the women with a karate baton. Karenga also stuck a hot soldering iron into Davis’ mouth and cranked down on her toes with a vice.