MY SAY: Comments turned off

MY SAY: IN DEFENSE OF VIVEK RAMASWAMY

Posted By on August 23rd, 2023

At the risk of incurring some anger from valued readers, I wholeheartedly approve of Ramasamy’s reflections on ending aid to Israel in 2028.

Aid to Israel has historically been a cudgel to force Israel’s acceptance of policies inimical to its independence. Examples abound:

In the shuttle diplomacy following the October Yom Kippur War of 1973 Israel bowed to the demands for withdrawal made by the aggressor Anwar Sadat of Egypt after a crude warning by Kissinger that failure to do so would lead to a” reassessment” of aid. Again, during the Camp David Accords of 1978, Vice President Mondale pressured Menachem Begin to accept all Sadat’s demands for territorial concessions by hinting at a reduction in aid. In 1992 Secretary of State James A. Baker III gave Israel’s Prime Minister Itzhak Shamir a blunt public warning that unless Israel halts building Jewish settlements in so-called occupied territories, it would not get $10 billion in U.S. loan guarantees. In October of 1998 after the Oslo Accords failed to get Israel’s full commitment to abandon the cities of Judea and Samaria to the PLO, a meeting was held at the Wye River in Maryland where Secretary of State Madeleine Albright hinted that aid would be reconsidered if Prime Minister Netanyahu did not accede to Arafat’s demands.

Ramaswamy recognizes the value of the Abraham accords to ensure peace and deterrence to Iran’s genocidal agenda.  A defense agreement with sharing of intel is far superior to aid at a time that America’s economy, military and infrastructure are failing.

I’m saving my opprobrium for the trio of rats- Matti Friedman, Daniel Gordis, Yossi Halevi who are issuing a call to world Jewry to “support Israel but not its present government”…..How does one do that? By threatening to cut off aid unless the democratically elected government is toppled? rsk

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Liz Peek: Vivek Ramaswamy could surprise everyone at first Republican debate

Posted By on August 23rd, 2023

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/vivek-ramaswamy-surprise-everyone-first-republican-debate

Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley is going after Vivek Ramaswamy. She’ll have plenty of company Wednesday night; Ramaswamy is surging in the polls making him, like Ron DeSantis, an obvious target at the GOP debate. 

My guess: Ramaswamy will hold his own and then some. Why? Because Ramaswamy is super smart and is talking common sense. Boy does this country need a big dose of common sense!

Haley pillories Ramaswamy for pledging to cut off aid to Israel in 2028, saying he’s “walking away from America’s special alliance with Israel” – a headline-grabbing accusation. But Vivek would only do so, he explained in an interview, if his plan to negotiate peace between Israel and other Middle East nations is successful. If he fails, then Vivek would continue to support Israel’s defense. Common sense.

The political novice, who was virtually unknown six months ago, traffics in controversial statements (Haley also jumps on him for saying he would defund the FBI, for instance) but seems to say what a lot of Americans are thinking.  As he recently told Fox Business’ Neil Cavuto: “I’d rather lose this race and speak truth at every step than to win by saying what I’m ‘supposed to.’”

An Emerson poll shows Ramaswamy at 10 percent of the vote, tied with DeSantis for second place. Five months ago he did not even register on the Real Clear Politics average of polls. Vivek is still miles away from catching up to Donald Trump, who in that poll has 56 percent of the vote.   

Asked a few months ago how he might secure the nomination, the long-shot candidate said winning in Iowa and New Hampshire would be key. Currently, he is trailing far behind in both states.

But, like Bernie Sanders and other improbable political stars, Ramaswamy has authenticity – a vital attribute that money cannot buy. (Just ask Hillary Clinton.) Also, he is carrying zero political baggage and owes no one, having mostly financed his own campaign.

Ramaswamy recently introduced these ten bold “truths,” as he calls them:

“1. God is real. 2. There are two genders. 3. Human flourishing requires fossil fuels. 4. Reverse racism is racism. 5. An open border is no border. 6. Parents determine the education of their children. 7. The nuclear family is the greatest form of governance known to mankind. 8. Capitalism lifts people up from poverty. 9. There are three branches of the U.S. government, not four. 10. The U.S. Constitution is the strongest guarantor of freedoms in history.”

Liberals hate these opinions, because they shred the progressive double-think that is destroying our country. The kind of idiocy that says letting criminals go free will reduce crime. Or that an open border which allows deadly drugs to flood our nation is “humanitarian.”

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Justice Requires Fair Procedures by Alan M. Dershowitz

Posted By on August 23rd, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19919/justice-requires-fair-procedures

“Justice, justice you shall pursue,” the Bible commands (Deuteronomy 16:20); and that, in doing justice, one must not “recognize faces.”

The late US Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter once observed that the history of liberty is largely a history of procedural fairness. Our constitution embodies that history by reading “the due process of law.”

Lately, however, many so-called progressives have been willing to ignore procedural safeguards and due process in their campaign to get former President Donald Trump — to misuse the law in an effort to prevent the leading Republican candidate from running against the incumbent candidate for president. In doing so, they are violating the second principle of justice: “Do not recognize faces.” That commandment is the basis for the blindfolded statute of justice.

Some progressives who would ignore procedural safeguards to get Trump acknowledge that this is because they regard him as especially dangerous and therefore undeserving of due process. Special injustice for an unjust man!

Injustice, once practiced against an unjust person, will serve as precedent for deploying it against just persons.

Another weapon is scheduling. They are trying to get convictions in friendly locations before the 2024 elections, and willing to risk reversal on appeal, which would occur only after the election. Accordingly, they are seeking very early trial dates…. No decent defense lawyer would agree to try a case with so little time to prepare. Yet a group of prominent “get Trump” Republican lawyers has filed a brief supporting that unconstitutional rush to injustice.

These and other “get Trump” lawyers should read the Judeo-Christian commands to do procedural as well as substantive justice, and not to recognize faces. If they follow those wise commands, they will stop trying to “get Trump” or potentially any of us. Instead, they will pursue justice without regard to the face, name or party of the person being investigated and prosecuted.

Whatever one thinks of former President Donald Trump, everyone who cares about liberty for all must oppose the weaponization of laws and procedures that are aimed at him, lest the weapons be turned on us.(Image source: iStock)

“Justice, justice you shall pursue,” the Bible commands (Deuteronomy 16:20); and that, in doing justice, one must not “recognize faces.”

MOVIES AND TELEVISION Comments turned off

The Oppenheimer File: Missing Cast and Forgotten Back Stories Crucial historical facts concealed By Lloyd Billingsley

Posted By on August 23rd, 2023

https://amgreatness.com/2023/08/21/the-oppenheimer-file-missing-cast-and-forgotten-back-stories/

In the early going of this marathon film, J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) tells a hostile government committee that his testimony should be understood in the context of his life and work. Context also is important for movies, but Oppenheimer keeps key back stories off the screen.

Viewers see the “Hitler Invades Poland” headline from September 1, 1939, but do not see or hear anything about Josef Stalin’s Communist forces invading Poland on September 17, 1939. This joint invasion started WWII and came about because of the Stalin-Hitler pact of August 23, 1939. Viewers see nothing about the Pact, and no headline such as “Stalin Invades Finland,” marks November 30, 1939.

While the Pact was in operation, Hitler’s National Socialists (Nazis) invaded Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, and took over France by the summer of 1940. Under the Pact, the Nazi and Soviet intelligence forces collaborated and Stalin handed hundreds of Jewish Communists over to the Gestapo. Jewish scientists in America would have been well aware of that deadly exchange, but not a word in Oppenheimer.

Viewers never learn that for nearly the first two years of the war, Stalin and Hitler were allies. The Communist Party USA collaborated with pro-Nazi groups in America and did everything in its power to keep the United States out of the conflict. In Oppenheimer, no Communist is asked to account for what he or she did during the Pact, and why they stayed in the Party after many others left, never to return.

The Communist Party USA was founded, funded and controlled by the USSR and members pledged loyalty to the Soviet regime. Oppenheimer portrays Party members as misguided liberals concerned about the conflict in Spain. Viewers hear about “the brigades” but no character explains that the Abraham Lincoln Brigades were a Communist Party militia that opposed anti-Franco groups such as the Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista. The POUM fighters included George Orwell, author of 1984, Animal Farm, and Homage to Catalonia. See also Cecil Eby’s Between the Bullet and the Lie.

Inquiries about Oppenheimer’s “left wing” associations fail to note that the Party had an open and secret membership, as Whittaker Chambers detailed in Witness. John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr cite evidence that Oppenheimer was a member of a secret Party unit at UC Berkeley, where his friend Haakon Chevalier, a professor of French literature, was an active Communist. In the movie, Jefferson Hall plays Chevalier, and Oppenheimer resists his request to pass on information to the Soviets.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Where are the 650 children of King Kamehameha Elementary school? By Susan Daniels

Posted By on August 23rd, 2023

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/08/where_are_the_650_children_of_king_kamehameha_elementary_school.html

Governor Josh Green, while pushing the climate change narrative on news show Face the Nation, said that King Kamehameha Elementary school burned to the ground. He said that 650 students attended the school. How many are accounted for?

Residents of the scarred island told me that everything on the news is a lie. The mayor of Maui, Richard Bissen, said that 850 people are still missing. The same day the governor said 1,100 are missing. If they actually know how many are missing, then they must know who is not. Where are the children of Lahaina?

The truth is they have no idea how many people are missing because there is no way to gauge how many tourists were in Lahaina when the fire swept through. And in 2022, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Hawaii had the fourth highest homeless rate in the nation and most of them, I am told, were in Lahaina.

Bissen was asked by reporters ten days after the disaster how many children were missing. He responded: “I don’t know.” When pushed by increasingly angry reporters he said he’d tell them if he knew. He knows or has a good idea. His body language says so.

It is now common knowledge that the schools were closed that day and children were either home alone or with grandparents since their parents were all at work.

We have all seen the hundreds of burned-up cars lining the single road in and out of Lahaina, yet the politicians claim that only 111 people have died. So where are all the elementary-aged kids? The inept mayor doesn’t want people to know.

We are told that cars melted in the heat in the 2000-degree heat. A body is cremated at between 1400-1600 degrees. The smaller the body the less time it takes. Ashes and bones were shoveled into body bags, according to residents, and they ran out of the 450 bags they had. But only 111 people died?

Stationed on the neighboring island of Oahu are 27,000 military troops who could have been sent immediately to help:10,000 Marines at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, 12,000 Navy sailors, and 5500 Air Force personnel at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. That was not done.

MEDICINE AND HEALTH Comments turned off

Is Wokeness Taking Over and Worsening the Medical Industry? By Catherine Salgado

Posted By on August 23rd, 2023

https://pjmedia.com/culture/catherinesalgado/2023/08/21/is-wokeness-taking-over-and-worsening-the-medical-industry-n1720871

A lot of people started to notice during COVID-19 that some doctors seemed more interested in government policies and narratives than in excellence in healthcare. But with recent stories on radical leftism in hospitals and medical education, it seems necessary to ask just how much woke has permeated the medical field and whether it will bring down the quality of healthcare in the U.S. Could individuals eventually even be denied medical care based on political affiliation?

Two recent stories illustrate the infiltration of leftist politics in the medical field. I already reported on the Mayo Clinic offering a course that examines “racial equity,” “structural racism,” and alleged “anti-Blackness.” It appears to be a course for doctors, nurses, and medical staff to be indoctrinated in critical race theory (CRT).

Robin DiAngelo, one of the guest lecturers, wrote the New York Times bestseller “White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism.” If that isn’t bad enough, her “area of research is in Whiteness Studies and Critical Discourse Analysis, tracing how whiteness is reproduced in everyday narratives.” Whatever that means. And what does any of this have to do with providing excellent medical care?

Now Campus Reform is reporting on San Diego State University (SDSU) using Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) standards to judge potential applicants for a professor of cancer biology. “Candidates must satisfy two or more of the eight Building on Inclusive Excellence (BIE) criteria,” the job listing states. What are those criteria? SDSU thoughtfully provides them—here are a few:

Candidates that meet BIE criteria: (a) are committed to engaging in service with underrepresented populations within the discipline, (b) have demonstrated knowledge of barriers for underrepresented students and faculty within the discipline…(d) have experience or have demonstrated commitment to integrating understanding of underrepresented populations and communities into research…(f) have experience in or have demonstrated commitment to research that engages underrepresented communities…and/or (h) have research interests that contribute to diversity and equal opportunity in higher education.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

College Rip-Off Why it’s good that fewer people go. by John Stossel

Posted By on August 23rd, 2023

https://www.frontpagemag.com/college-rip-off/

It’s August. Many young people head off to college.

This year, fortunately, fewer will go.

I say “fortunately” because college is now an overpriced scam.

Overpriced, because normal incentives to be frugal and make smart judgements about who should go to college were thrown out when the federal government took over granting student loans.

Why?

Because our government basically vomits money at everyone who applies.

If private lenders gave out the loans, they’d look at whether they were likely to be paid back. They’d ask questions like: “What will you study? You really think majoring in dance will lead to a job that will pay you enough to allow you to pay us back?”

Government rarely asks these questions. Bureaucrats throw money at students. Many don’t benefit. Many shouldn’t even be going to college. Today, nearly half of the students given loans don’t graduate even after six years.

Many feel like failures.

College is good for people who want to be college professors or who major in fields like engineering and computer science that might lead to good jobs. But that’s not most people. Government loans encourage everyone to go to college, even if they’re not very interested in academics.

Government’s handouts also invite colleges to keep raising tuition. Over the past 50 years, college cost rose at four times the rate of inflation. Four times!

Years ago, I reported how colleges were suddenly wasting money on luxuries like fancy gyms and even day spas. Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that it’s gotten worse: The University of Oklahoma bought a monastery in Italy for study abroad students! The University of Kentucky built a theater where students play video games.

“Why not raise tuition?” asks the typical college president. “Uncle Sam pays the bill!”

When I went to Princeton, tuition was $2,000. Now its $60,000.

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

There’s More To Story Than ‘Climate Change’ — The Media Must Keep Pushing And Asking Questions About The Lahaina Fires Linnea Lueken

Posted By on August 23rd, 2023

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/08/23/theres-more-to-story-than-climate-change-the-media-must-keep-pushing-and-asking-questions-about-the-lahaina-fires/

The legacy media, quick to attribute every natural disaster to climate change, has actually done some good reporting recently on the tragic wildfires that destroyed the town of Lahaina and killed probably more than 100 people as many are still missing. Media reports were not so honest at first.

In the initial days after Lahaina burned, of course, outlets like The New York Times breathlessly said climate change made Hawaii “a tinderbox.”

This is despite the fact that, regardless of the public perception of Hawaii that the Times authors give, “a far cry from the dry landscape normally associated with fire threats,” the island state is actually one of the most fire-prone in the country. This is due in large part to its unique geography, which allows eastern trade winds to dump water on the eastern volcanic slopes – leading to the familiar verdant rainforest. But the western sides of Maui and the other islands in the chain are a lot drier naturally, and are home to dry grassy hills.

This effect was compounded by a passing hurricane to the south. Because the wind goes from a high-pressure zone to a lower-pressure zone, the low pressures of Hurricane Dora far to the south aided in the accelerated downhill wind speeds on Maui. These high, dry winds knocked around power cables that may have led to the initial sparks, which were then turned into firestorms that swept downhill and through town. 

So, are hurricanes to blame? No. Despite media claims, data show hurricanes are not getting more frequent or extreme. Is drought the culprit? Also, not likely. While the Times cited a 2015 study that claimed Hawaii was seeing less rainfall, available drought severity and coverage data seem to refute this.

MEDICINE AND HEALTH Comments turned off

We Won’t Be Masked Again 

Posted By on August 23rd, 2023

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/08/23/we-wont-be-masked-again/

A summer surge of COVID-19 has some wondering aloud if we should return to mask mandates. For now, the official line, despite the media effort to rekindle coronavirus hysteria, is that it’s unlikely. But we heard that before, in 2020, right before public health officials dropped their mask tyranny on us. If they do it again, we have an obligation to say no.

Are we calling for civil disobedience? Are we suggesting that Americans resist orders that are not laws but are instead decrees issued by despots? Absolutely, and without reservation.

Masks are dehumanizing. When we cover our faces, we no longer look like people. We look like monsters, freaks from bad science fiction movies. Half-blank faces stare back at us as our ability to communicate is skewed. A masked society is a hideous society.

When we wear masks because we are told to, we subjugate ourselves, surrender our agency to others. We symbolically kneel before abusive authorities that should have no authority over us. Are we free people or are we subordinates to politicians and an administrative structure that has accrued illegitimate power?

Masks project fear. Who wants to live in a world that is frightened, driven by panic, hiding behind a facade of protection? It was demoralizing to see the extremes that people went to to cover their faces during the pandemic. (Some of those in the video referenced here were clearly using caricatures to spoof the mandates, but we don’t need those again, either.)

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Continuing Atrocities: Blasphemy Laws in Pakistan by Mohshin Habib

Posted By on August 23rd, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19917/atrocities-blasphemy-laws-pakistan

“What began as accusations against two Christian brothers has escalated into a devastating wave of violence, resulting in the destruction of over 20 churches and 500 homes. The situation remains tense as the community grapples with the aftermath of this unfortunate incident.” — Pakistan Christian Post, August 18, 2023.

“Both men were taken into custody on the next afternoon and handed to the Counter-Terrorism Department, Punjab for investigation. Section 295-B relates to desecration of the Koran and carries a punishment of life in prison. Section 295-C relates to insulting Muhammad and is punishable by death.” — Morning Star News, August 18, 2023.

After the Pakistani Supreme Court’s 2018 acquittal of Asia Bibi, a Christian who was charged with blasphemy and kept in solitary confinement for eight years until TLP members held protests across Pakistan. Muhammad Afzal Qadri, a TLP co-founder, also called for the murder of the three Supreme Court justices involved in hearing Bibi’s appeal, stating: “The Chief Justice and two others deserve to be killed.”

“Videos circulating on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms showed a violent mob dragging a half-dead man on the streets of Sialkot, Pakistan on December 1, 2021. Young men were throwing stones at him and kicking his body as he was dragged mercilessly by those who called themselves the ‘protectors’ of the sanctity of the Prophethood. The videos go on to show ghastly scenes of the mob burning a corpse as dozens of men not only look on, but use their cell phones to take selfies….” — Atlantic Council, January 15, 2022.

On July 8, 2023, police arrested a 35-year-old Christian for allegedly sharing a post on Facebook, although “Even the imam of the village mosque told them that the post contained nothing derogatory against Islam, and that they should desist from stoking religious tension.” — Morning Star News, July 12, 2023.

“Pakistani authorities need no more evidence to see how dangerous the blasphemy laws are – they are abused to make false accusations that can, and have, led to unlawful killings and even whole communities being attacked and their homes burnt.” — David Griffiths, Director of the Office of the Secretary General of Amnesty International, August 25, 2020.

No changes in the situation have yet been observed.