FOREIGN POLICY, ISRAEL Comments turned off

How To Blow Up the Middle East War in Five Easy Steps The Biden administration’s approach to Iran destabilized the Middle East and led to the October 7 Hamas attack and subsequent regional chaos. By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on October 3rd, 2024

https://amgreatness.com/2024/10/03/how-to-blow-up-the-middle-east-war-in-five-easy-steps/

When Joe Biden became president, the Middle East was calm. Now it is in the midst of a multifront war.

So quiet was the inheritance from the prior Trump administration that nearly three years later, on September 29, 2023—and just eight days before the October 7 Hamas massacre of Israelis—Biden’s national security advisor Jack Sullivan could still brag that “The Middle East region is quieter today than it has been in two decades.”

So, what exactly happened to the inherited calm that led to the current nonstop chaos of the present?

In a word, theocratic Iran—the nexus of almost all current Middle East terrorism and conflict—was unleashed by Team Biden after having been neutered by the Trump administration.

The Biden-Harris administration adopted a 5-step revisionist protocol that appeased and encouraged Iran and its terrorist surrogates Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis.

The result was a near guarantee that something akin to the October 7 massacres would inevitably follow—along with a subsequent year of violence that has now engulfed the Middle East.

First, on the 2020 campaign trail, Biden damned long-time American ally Saudi Arabia as a “pariah.”

He overturned the policies of both the previous Obama and Trump administrations by siding with the Iranian-supplied terrorist Houthis in their war on Saudi Arabia.

Biden accused the kingdom of war crimes, warning it would “be held accountable” for its actions in Yemen. Biden-Harris took the murderous Houthis off the U.S. terrorist list.

Almost immediately followed continuous Houthi attacks on international shipping, Israel, and U.S. warships—rendering the Red Sea, the entryway to the Suez Canal, de facto closed to international maritime transit.

Worse still, by the time of the 2022 midterms, when spiraling gas prices threatened Democratic congressional majorities, Biden opportunistically flipped and implored Saudi Arabia to pump more oil to lower world prices before the November election. Appearing obnoxious and then obsequious to an old Middle East ally is a prescription for regional chaos.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

‘Redefining masculinity’: Kamala’s hubby, Doug Emhoff, accused of slapping woman so hard at Harvey Weinstein event she ‘spun around’ By Monica Showalter

Posted By on October 3rd, 2024

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/10/redefining_masculinity_kamala_s_hubby_doug_emhoff_

Democrats have been gushing about Kamala Harris’s husband of four years, Doug Emhoff, as a model for American men.

He’s a “wife guy.” He ‘redefines masculinity,’ as MSNBC host Jen Psaki put it. He’s a “dreamboat,” “a hunk,” a “fantasy man” and a “sex symbol,” as Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell put it, unable to control herself.

That was after news broke that Emhoff had gotten his previous family’s nanny pregnant and apparently paid her off to keep quiet about it, the very thing that leftist prosecutors put President Trump in the dock for. For Emhoff, that episode flushed his marriage to his first wife and their two teenage kids down the toilet, freeing him up to go get ‘girlfriends.’

For Democrats, that news made him a male role model, and a lot of them couldn’t stop publicly swooning about it, which is precisely when the gushings started.

Now just in time for ‘Domestic Violence Awareness Month,’ as Breitbart columnist John Nolte noted, Emhoff is back in the news, credibly accused by an anonymous woman lawyer in New York who had been his girlfriend in 2012 of slapping her so hard she “spun around.”

According to the Daily Mail:

Vice President Kamala Harris’s husband assaulted his ex-girlfriend, three friends have told Dailymail.com.

The Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, 59, allegedly struck the woman in the face so hard she spun around, while waiting in a valet line late at night after a May 2012 Cannes Film Festival event in France.

One of her friends told DailyMail.com that the woman called him immediately after the incident, sobbing in her cab, and described the alleged assault.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Why They Hate Trump By J.B. Shurk

Posted By on October 3rd, 2024

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/10/why_they_hate_trump.html

If you’re old enough to vote in the United States, then you’re old enough to remember a time when Americans of all political stripes liked Donald Trump.  A public figure for most of his adult life, a businessman with a taste for luxury, and a showman who embodied the “American dream,” Trump appeared in television shows and movies because people enjoyed seeing him.  For decades, he was an American icon with universal name recognition, a global brand, and even a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 

Then he moved into the political arena, and everything changed.  Actors, musicians, and politicians who had once jumped at the chance to be photographed with him pretended they had never met.  Writers and entertainers who had always praised him for his generosity began calling him filthy names.  Television networks that had made boatloads of money from his goodwill with the public started slandering him as a “wannabe dictator,” a “Nazi,” and a “threat to democracy.”

What happened?  Donald Trump dared to challenge the political status quo.  By publicly questioning the economic and foreign policy decisions of the Establishment Class in Washington, D.C., he became an existential threat to a system that has long worked against the interests of the American people.  As David Plouffe, one of Barack Obama’s closest advisers, inveighed before the 2016 presidential election: “It is not enough to beat Trump.  He must be destroyed thoroughly.  His kind must not be allowed to rise again.”  Plouffe had harsher words for the guy with a wholesome cameo in Home Alone 2 than he ever had for the leaders of China, Hamas, or Iran.

Why is this one American’s voice so threatening to the old guard?  It’s simple: President Trump is (1) a political outsider who (2) rejects the supremacy of the administrative state and (3) prioritizes Americans over foreign nationals.  

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Give That Woman An Academy Award: Flashback to Susan Sarandon at Columbia And her pro-Hamas support. Hugh Fitzgerald

Posted By on October 3rd, 2024

https://www.frontpagemag.com/give-that-woman-an-academy-award-flashback-to-susan-sarandon-at-columbia/

Susan Sarandon, the aging Hollywood Squadroon, was just one of the Hollywood luminaries who signed a letter calling for a “permanent ceasefire” in Gaza. Before that, Sarandon had made a habit of showing up at anti-Israel rallies around the country, to offer her own inimitable brand of antisemitism. As far back as November 17, 2023, for example, she told a crowd at Union Square that Jews are “getting a taste of what it is like to be Muslim in this country, so often subjected to violence,” and she apparently approved. Never mind that Muslims in this country are dispensers, not recipients, of violence. Or that in the past eleven months, the number of antisemitic hate crimes in this country has been eight times as large as those directed at Muslims.

It is worth recalling that back on April 19, 2o24, Sarandon was at Columbia, where she had come to lend her moral support to pro-Hamas demonstrators. Her call-and-response, or rather call-and-repeat, can be found in the video above.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Is Anyone Here Competent? Responses To Hurricane, Port Strike, Add To White House Failures

Posted By on October 3rd, 2024

https://issuesinsights.com/2024/10/03/is-anyone-here-competent-responses-to-hurricane-port-strike-add-to-white-house-failures/

Hurricane Helene has wrought deadly and destructive havoc across the South and Appalachia, killing dozens and doing billions in property damage. Fast on Helene’s heels, we now have another disaster hitting the U.S.: The longshoreman strike that now threatens to shut down much of the U.S. economy.

And very conspicuously, Joe Biden did nothing about it. No jawboning. No ideas. No attempt to cool tempers and bridge differences to get a deal. Apparently Biden’s leaving it to others as he whiles away the remainder of his only term as president at his beloved Rehoboth Beach vacation home.

Kind of like his administration’s reaction to the devastation from Hurricane Helene, the second-deadliest hurricane of this century. A complete failure.

As for the port shutdown, Biden as president has the authority and political clout to help mediate a dangerous strike that has both economic and national security implications. But he did nothing to stop the potentially devastating walkout. He apparently has left it in the hands of anonymous aides and incompetent Cabinet members to deal with the mess.

They are failing spectacularly. Yes, Biden did nothing. Nor did Vice President Kamala Harris, a likely preview of what’s in store if she becomes president. How about Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg? Is he on a second paternity leave? If not, why has he done zip about this?

How about Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo? Don’t the nation’s ports have something to do with “commerce”?

Here was her response when asked about it in a television interview. “I have not been focused on that,” she said in a CNBC interview, in which she was appearing as a campaign “surrogate” for Harris.

“Not been focused”? Is that a sick joke? That’s her job. No, instead of doing her job, she’s chosen instead to join Harris’ election campaign, while still being paid by public tax dollars. By the way, the strike could cripple our economy, costing by some estimates as much as $4.5 billion a day.

BOOKS Comments turned off

Hiding Mengele How a Nazi Network Harbored the Angel of Death by Betina Anton

Posted By on October 2nd, 2024

Read the international sensation already translated into 9 languages!

A Brazilian journalist’s investigation unearths the story of a network of people responsible for hiding “The Angel of Death,” the infamous Nazi doctor who fled to South America and escaped justice for over thirty years.

Josef Mengele, known worldwide for unimaginably cruel human experiments and for sending thousands of people to the gas chambers at Auschwitz, was a fugitive in South America for thirty-four years after World War II, sought by the Israeli secret service and Nazi hunters. Hidden for half that time in Brazil, Mengele created his own paradise, a life where he could speak German, maintain his beliefs, his friends, and his connection with the homeland. Never caught, he lived out the rest of his days thanks to a small circle of expatriate Europeans willing to help him.

One such person was Austrian ex-pat Liselotte Bossert, who buried Mengele with false documents to keep his true identity hidden even after his death in 1979. When the world finally discovered where the remains of Josef Mengele were in 1985, kindergarten teacher Liselotte was escorted from the São Paulo school without further explanation to the students. One six-year-old, Betina Anton, could not let this mystery go. Decades later as an experienced journalist, Betina decided to investigate, but when she found Liselotte, she could not imagine how deep this case would take her.

Written in Portuguese and English by the author and based on extensive research, including interviews, unpublished documents, and news coverage from that era, Hiding Mengele is a suspenseful narrative not only haunted by the doctor’s horrific experiments, but also by the motivations driving a community to protect one of the most evil people known to mankind.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Charles Lipson Iran attacks Israel: what does it mean and what happens next? Right now, the attack looks constrained

Posted By on October 2nd, 2024

https://thespectator.com/topic/iran-attacks-israel-what-does-it-mean-and-what-happens-next/

A few hours before Iran launched missiles at Israel, America’s spy satellite saw Iran moving the weapons onto their launching pads. They told Israel (and leaked to the media) that an attack was “imminent.” They were right.

Within hours, several hundred Iranian missiles were flying toward the Jewish State, just as they had in April. The earlier attack caused little damage — most of the missiles were intercepted — and early reports are that the recent attack met the same fate.

Israel’s success shooting down the missiles is crucial, not only because it saved lives but because it does not require Israel to launch a full-scale counter-attack.

Safety from the missiles did not protect all Israelis, though. A small group of terrorists attacked and killed innocent civilians at a café in Jaffa, a suburb just south of Tel Aviv. We don’t know yet whether that attack was coordinated with Iran or its proxies.

The common theme of the local terrorists, Iran’s Islamic Regime, and Iran’s regional proxies, Hamas (in Gaza), Hezbollah (in Lebanon) and the Houthis (in Yemen), is to kill as many Jews as possible and, they hope, ultimately extinguish the Jewish state. “From the river to the sea,” means the Middle East must be Judenfrei. Virtually all other states across the region already are. Many had large Jewish populations for centuries. No more. Where are the Jews of Cairo, Baghdad and Damascus? They were killed, chased out or fled. Their children are living in Israel, and they don’t have romanticized notions of peace with their antisemitic neighbors.

What gives them hope is not only Israel’s enormous economic and technical progress, but the threat Iran poses to the Sunni Arab countries across the region. Facing that threat, they have increasingly looked to Israel as a strong partner. That was the strategic logic behind the Abraham Accords, forged in the Trump administration.

Iran faces these long-term strategic challenges, compounded by a failing economy and the more recent challenge of its proxies’ defeats. Tehran had to do something in response to those recent losses, and it is hardly surprising they launched a missile barrage. They live in a region that respects “the strong horse,” and they had to show the allies they have armed, trained and funded that they do not stand alone.

The missiles fired at Israel make that symbolic statement. Beyond that, what should we make of the latest attack?

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Classical v. Unclassical Curricula School syllabi in the U.S. run the gamut from Marxism to Biblical stories. By Larry Sand

Posted By on October 2nd, 2024

https://amgreatness.com/2024/10/02/classical-v-unclassical-curricula/

Chad Aldeman, a Virginia-based researcher who focuses on education-related issues, recently detailed the educational experience of his daughter, who completed sixth grade in June. He writes that her teachers didn’t use textbooks, assign homework, or expect kids to study at home for tests, didn’t teach kids to sound out words, and didn’t drill times tables. He also mentions that there were no spelling tests, students didn’t practice handwriting of any kind, cursive or otherwise, and didn’t learn the 50 states and their capitals, let alone world geography.

Aldeman is very concerned by this shift, arguing that her educational experience has “reduced instructional time devoted to science and social studies and emphasized isolated skills such as critical thinking or reading comprehension over teaching students a coherent body of knowledge and facts.”

The scenario spelled out by Aldeman is hardly an isolated case, as traditional pedagogical fads have replaced tried and true methods. Additionally, political causes in education are frequently front and center to the detriment of traditional learning. In a 2022 statement, the National Council of Teachers of English declared: “The time has come to decenter book reading and essay-writing as the pinnacles of English language arts education.” Instead, teachers are urged to focus on “media literacy” and short texts that students feel are “relevant.”

In many places, the curriculum has taken a Marxist turn. In New York City, students now receive lessons critical of capitalism, that black Americans should receive reparations, that student loans are equivalent to “debt peonage,” and the feasibility of abolishing the police.

In Evanston, IL, the district is loaded with Critical Race Theory bilge. Schools there are committed to equity and to “identifying practices, policies, and institutional barriers, including institutional racism and privilege, which perpetuate opportunity and achievement gaps.”

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Why Arabs Are Celebrating the Death of Hassan Nasrallah by Bassam Tawil

Posted By on October 2nd, 2024

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20984/arabs-celebrate-nasrallah-death

“Israel just made all the Middle East happy tonight.” — Israeli-Lebanese Christian journalist Jonathan Elkhoury, X, September 27, 2024.

“As a Lebanese, this is one of the happiest days in Lebanon’s history…. As a human being who holds peace before my eyes, this is the most important day for our region. Nasrallah and Hezbollah have terrorized the Lebanese people since the 1980s…. Every Lebanese and every decent human being should feel joy at the downfall of one of the greatest evils of our time. Now, we have a real chance to look forward… and sitting down with Israelis and the West for genuine negotiations on normalization and peace between our countries—Israel and Lebanon.” — Jonathan Elkhoury, X, September 24, 2024.

“Honestly, Lebanon should toss Nasrallah into the sea like the U.S. did with Bin Laden—no land deserves that filth. Though, I do feel bad for the fish.” — Amjad Taha, United Arab Emirates, to his 571,000 followers on X, September 28, 2024.

All the students at US university campuses who have been protesting Israel’s war against Iran’s terror proxies, such as Hezbollah and Hamas, should hear the voices of these Arabs. These voices demonstrate how many Arabs have also been harmed by terrorism and how they wish for a better future for their children and their people. These voices also show that in the war against Islamist terrorism, a growing number of Arabs consider Israel an ally.

Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist group in Lebanon who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on September 27, was often described by many in the West as a “formidable enemy” of Israel. Nasrallah’s death, however, has shown that many Arabs, including some of his fellow Lebanese citizens, also considered him an enemy and arch-terrorist. The Hezbollah chief was responsible for killing not only a large number of Israelis over the past three decades, but also many Arabs, especially in Lebanon and Syria.

That is probably why the news of Nasrallah’s elimination was greeted with jubilation by many Israelis and Arabs.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The fight for free speech in Ireland isn’t over yet The government has shelved its proposed hate-speech laws, but this is not the end of its censorious agenda. Lorcan Price

Posted By on October 2nd, 2024

https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/10/01/the-fight-for-free-speech-in-ireland-isnt-over-yet/

Lorcán Price is an Irish barrister and legal counsel for ADF International. He has been advising a coalition of Irish politicians opposed to the hate-speech bill.

The Irish government’s mission to make Ireland the wokest place in the Western world suffered a setback late last week, when justice minister Helen McEntee quietly announced that the government was dropping its plan for highly controversial new hate-speech laws.

These proposed speech restrictions were included in the Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill. McEntee has now conceded that ‘the incitement-to-hatred element [of the bill] does not have a consensus’. Describing these proposed hate-speech laws as lacking ‘consensus’ is a piece of masterful understatement. The legislation – which will live on with the hate-speech elements removed – has attracted criticism for its far-reaching implications for free speech, not just in Ireland but also across the West.

And with good reason. Dublin is home to the European HQs of various major tech and social-media companies, such as Meta, Google and X. If it had been introduced in its original form, the bill would have had a huge impact on social-media users across Europe and further afield, as those companies based in Ireland would have been regulated under the new laws. This would have given the domestic Irish legislation outsized global significance.

The original bill criminalised ‘incitement to hatred’, but its definition of hatred was completely circular. Ministers rejected all attempts to introduce a more workable and clear definition into the law, because doing so would make convictions ‘significantly more difficult to secure’.

The vague definitions didn’t stop there. The bill would have criminalised ‘hatred’ expressed against someone on the basis of their ‘gender identity’, which was defined as the ‘gender of a person or the gender which a person expresses as the person’s preferred gender or with which the person identifies and includes transgender and a gender other than those of male and female’.

Bizarre and confusing passages such as this were not drafting mistakes. They were a central feature of the proposed law, designed to create a state of uncertainty as to what would constitute illegal ‘hate speech’.