ISRAEL Comments turned off

Israel and Its Global Discontents Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on July 14th, 2023

https://victorhanson.com/israel-and-its-global-discontents/

I just returned from 17 days abroad and watched a lot of BBC and CNN international news, given there were no other alternatives. Their coverage of the recent Israeli effort to destroy a terrorist network in Jenin was surreal. It can be summed up as the following: Killing Jews randomly inside Israel is acceptable behavior. But trying to stop that by using violence to break up terrorist enclaves are crimes against humanity.

This asymmetry is, of course, not new. But what continues to explain the Western, and indeed, European, dislike of Israel?

The old anti-Semitism?

The fear of Islamic terrorism (Europeans slurring Judaism and Jews earn no rebuke, but printing a cartoon mocking the prophet can get an editor killed)?

The boilerplate leftwing mantra of “imperialism” and “colonialism” that slurs Israel as a Western interloper that has no business in the historic homeland of the Jews?

The Western overdog syndrome? Elite Westerners, Europeans in particular, must pay obeisance to the “victims” of the West?

Add up the biases and the current Pavlovian hostility still remains surreal. Yet one thing remains constant: year-by-year the leftwing/radical Palestinian/the Squad mantra of a Palestinian nation “to the sea” is not going to happen, ever.

I also just returned from Israel, and I was there a year ago as well. It has never seemed so wealthy, busy, and confident—despite media accounts to the contrary and Palestinian terrorists’ recent attacks on Jews inside Israel.

Construction cranes are ubiquitous. Young people predominate. Families are everywhere with not one or two, but three, four, and five children.

There are few visible homeless. There are no smash-and-grab crimes, no car jackings, no Saturday night shooting gallery à la Chicago, nor gratuitous violence such as in a typical day in Portland or San Francisco. I saw no excrement on the sidewalk. Sophisticated San Franciscans should send a delegation to Tel Aviv to be instructed in municipal hygiene.

Contrary to propaganda, Israel is diverse. There are black, brown, and white Jews, secular and religious, native born and immigrant. There are lots of Arab Israelis who at least publicly, whatever their private sentiments, seem to enjoy living more inside Israel than outside it.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Ten Reasons Why Affirmative Action Died Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on July 14th, 2023

https://amgreatness.com/2023/07/12/ten-reasons-why-affirmative-action-died/

The end of affirmative action was inevitable. The only surprise was that such intentions gone terribly wrong lasted so long.

First, supporters of racial preferences always pushed back the goal posts for the program’s success. Was institutionalized reverse bias to last 20 years, 60 years, or ad infinitum? Parity became defined as an absolute equality of result. If “equity” was not obtained, then only institutionalized “racism” explained disparities. And only reverse racism was deemed the cure.

Second, affirmative action was imposed on the back end in adult hiring and college admissions. However, to achieve parity, remediation early at the K-12 school level would have been the only solution. Yet such intervention was made impossible by teachers’ unions, the rise of identity politics and government entitlements. All were opposed to school choice, self-help programs, critiques of cultural impediments, or restrictions on those blanket entitlements,

Third, class, the true barometer of privilege, was rendered meaningless. Surrealism followed. The truly privileged Barack and Michelle Obama and Meghan Markel lectured the country on its unfairness—as if they had it far rougher than the impoverished “deplorables” of East Palestine, Ohio.

Fourth, affirmative action supporters could never square the circle of proving that racial prejudices didn’t violate the spirt of the Declaration of Independence and the text of the Constitution. What they were left with was the lame argument that because long ago the 90% white majority had violated their own foundational documents, then such past bad unconstitutional bias could legitimately be rectified by present-day “good” unconstitutional bias.

Fifth, supporters never adequately explained why the sins of prior generations fell on their descendants who grew up in the post-Civil Rights era. Nor could they account for why those who had never experienced institutionalized racism, much less Jim Crow apartheid or slavery, were to be compensated collectively for the suffering of long-dead individuals. No wonder 70% of the American people in many polls favored ending affirmative action including a half of African-Americans.

Sixth, there never was a “rainbow” coalition of shared non-white victimhood—a concept necessary to perpetuate the premise of white privilege, supremacy, and rage, so integral to race-based reverse discrimination. More than a dozen ethnicities earn more per capita than do whites.

Asians have been subject to coerced internment, immigration restrictions and zoning exclusions. Yet on average they do better than whites economically and enjoy lower suicide rates and longer life expectancies. The arguments for affirmative action never explained why Asians and other minorities who faced discrimination outperformed the majority white population. As a result, affirmative action ended up discriminating against Asians on the premise they were too successful!

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Have We Reached Peak Virtue Signaling With EVs?

Posted By on July 14th, 2023

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/07/14/have-we-reached-peak-virtue-signaling-with-evs/

The cars that were going to save our world from the scourge of carbon-based global warming are, says one media outlet, “​​piling up on dealer lots” because they can’t be sold. Maybe we’re finally at the point where most if not all of those who are desperate to demonstrate their green cred already have an EV and don’t need another battery-powered adult toy.

Even though “the auto industry is beginning to crank out more electric vehicles (EVs) to challenge Tesla,” Axios reported Monday, “there’s one big problem: not enough buyers.”

Two days later, Market Watch said that as “EV sales stall … there’s a ‘step back from euphoria.’”

While ​​Tesla Inc. and BYD Co., a Chinese conglomerate, have strong growth numbers, the rest in the industry, which has been incentivized to build, build, build by government mandate, can’t sell their EVs.

Korean luxury brand Genesis “sold only 18 of its nearly $82,000 Electrified G80 sedans in the 30 days leading up to June 29, and had 210 in stock nationwide — a 350-day supply,” Axios says.

Meanwhile, “Audi’s Q4 e-tron and Q8 e-tron and the GMC Hummer EV SUV, also have bloated inventories well above 100 days,” and “the Kia EV6, Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Nissan Ariya are also stacking up.” Even “the once-hot Ford Mustang Mach-E now has a 117-day supply.” 

Axios is blaming the high price of EVs for the lack of sales, but that doesn’t explain why Tesla and BYD continue to sell electric cars. Could be there’s another factor.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Pakistan: Kidnapping, Forced Marriages, Forced Conversion by Uzay Bulut

Posted By on July 14th, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19800/pakistan-forced-marriage-conversion

Imagine if you are a child from a persecuted religious minority living in one of the world’s most oppressive countries. The country’s majority culture and institutions are largely shaped by a religious ideology that has no regard for anything outside that system, as well as a record of mistreating women and girls.

Sadly, the government of Pakistan appears complicit in these and other crimes: it fails to provide women and children with required legal protection. A bill to criminalize forced religious conversions has been presented in the Sindh Assembly at least three times (2016, 2019 and 2021). Each time, it was rejected.

Any military or economic cooperation with Pakistan should be conditioned on Pakistan’s improvement of human rights and liberties for minorities, and a respect for international law. A government that is complicit in the abduction, forced religious conversion, sexual abuse and coerced “marriages” of minority children should not be considered qualified to benefit from any aid or cooperation from the West.

HISTORY Comments turned off

America’s Strength for Freedom by Lawrence Kadish

Posted By on July 14th, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19801/america-strength-for-freedom

Earlier this month, a Gatestone Institute reader, Goh Heung Yong, submitted a comment in which he noted:

“No one should forget that it was America’s strength for freedom, that freed just about all of Asia from Japanese occupation. Her power for peace liberated half of Europe and kept Stalin’s predatory advance at bay. America still is that shining beacon for freedom and civilized existence.”

His astute observation reveals a number of important insights regarding the historic role of the United States during World War II. While much of our attention is often drawn to the European theater of operations, America fought a two-front war. The Pacific theater was a literal fight-to-the-finish as our Marines, Army, Navy and Army Air Corps created a ring of steel around the Japanese Empire intent on fighting for every square inch of land. America won in the Pacific at enormous cost, and only the use of two atomic weapons finally brought the conflict to an end.

What few Americans appreciate was the path of destruction and litany of war crimes committed by the Japanese Empire throughout their zone of occupation, which included huge swaths of China.

Historians have documented their crimes; these included repeated massacres of civilians and prisoners of war, sexual slavery, human experimentation, forced labor and starvation. While those crimes occurred wherever the Emperor’s soldiers occupied Asia, China bore the brunt of Japan’s assault on humanity. Historians estimate that from 1937 to 1945, nearly 4 million Chinese, mostly civilians, were killed as a direct result of Japanese violence.

FOREIGN POLICY, ISRAEL Comments turned off

What Does Biden Have Against Israel? The President treats the governing coalition in Jerusalem worse than he does Iran.

Posted By on July 14th, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-israel-benjamin-netanyahu-tom-nides-iran-abraham-accords-judicial-reform-639bd846?mod=opinion_lead_pos3

Why does President Biden go out of his way to snub, criticize and give marching orders to the government of Israel? At least rhetorically, the President and his Administration treat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his governing coalition worse than they do the ruling mullahs in Iran.

Mr. Biden declined again this week in gratuitous public fashion to invite Mr. Netanyahu to the White House, pointing to the Prime Minister’s elected coalition partners. Tom Nides, Mr. Biden’s departing Ambassador to Israel, chimes in that the U.S. must speak up to stop Israel from “going off the rails.” Each gibe makes headlines in Israel.

When Mr. Netanyahu was most vulnerable, in late March, Mr. Biden needlessly decreed that Israel “cannot continue down this road” on judicial reform. The Prime Minister had already changed course and agreed to moderate the reforms—a domestic Israeli affair in which the U.S. President has no business. Mr. Nides publicly instructed Mr. Netanyahu, as if with his chauffeur, to “pump the brakes.”

The effect of this piling on is for Israelis to see that the U.S. sides with their opposition parties. This is no way to treat a democratic ally and no way to pursue U.S. interests while Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud Party is in power, as it has been for most of the past 25 years.

Whether Israel’s proposed reforms would rein in its high court’s unusual powers, in the absence of a constitution, or tip the balance too far toward British-style parliamentary supremacy, is for Israelis to debate. Which they do, noisily, without Mr. Biden’s commentary.

HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

Do Not Let China Attack America from America by Gordon G. Chang

Posted By on July 12th, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19799/china-attack-america-within

It is way past time to end the ability of the Chinese regime to conduct political warfare against the United States from American soil. America’s defense begins with closing down the America ChangLe Association.

American presidents for decades have known that China’s diplomats and agents were violating American sovereignty and did either nothing or virtually nothing to stop these activities. Therefore, China’s Communists naturally thought they could get away with even more blatant conduct.

Americans may think they are at peace, but the Communist Party believes it is locked in an existential struggle with America. People’s Daily, speaking for the Party, declared a “people’s war” on the United States in May 2019. The Chinese regime has been conducting “unrestricted warfare” against America for decades.

“While it is fair to say that the CCP prefers to win this war without fighting, it is more accurate to say that the CCP intends to win without us fighting back. Through political warfare, the CCP disarms us intellectually and psychologically as it co-opts, corrupts, and ultimately controls key American elites, particularly political and foreign policy decision makers.” — Kerry Gershaneck, NATO fellow for Hybrid Threats, to Gatestone Institute, July 11, 2023.

Beijing has almost certainly purchased most of the Biden family. In March, a spokesperson for Hunter Biden’s legal team admitted that Hunter had received “good faith seed funds” from an energy company in China. That was essentially an admission of bribery… no Chinese business in these circumstances would pay seed money.

In addition to the Bidens, China has purchased hundreds — if not thousands — of politicians, academics, businesspeople and law enforcement officials at the federal, state, and municipal levels.

How do we know this?

“The Chinese Communist Party uses three color-coded ‘political-interference tactics’ to gain influence over American citizens at home as well as those who naively travel to China. Blue refers to sophisticated cyberattacks on target computers, smartphones, and hotel rooms for possible blackmail. Gold refers to bribes, while yellow means ‘honey pots,’ sexual seduction.” — Charles Burton, of the Ottawa-based Macdonald-Laurier Institute, to Gatestone Institute, July 10, 2023.

China’s agents work out of, among other places, Beijing’s four consulates and large Washington, D.C. embassy as well as nine or so police stations, many state banks and enterprises, Confucius Institutes and Confucius Classrooms, and organizations such as the Chinese Students and Scholars Association. China’s regime, over the course of decades, has penetrated just about every organization of influence in the United States.

The United States faces a challenge it is now seriously underestimating.

What should the United States do in the face of such challenge? The regime uses every point of contact to destroy America, so America needs to sever every point of contact with the regime.

Americans cannot afford to leave any Communist Party member or any Chinese saboteur, agent, official, banker, or corporate officer in America. There should be no Chinese consulates in the U.S., and the embassy staff of hundreds should be cut down to the ambassador, his personal staff, and family.

Extreme? By no means. Why should we ever allow China to attack America from America?

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Pride vs. Shame How much more are we willing to tolerate before there is no escape? by Cal Thomas

Posted By on July 12th, 2023

https://www.frontpagemag.com/pride-vs-shame/

Perhaps America needs its own walk of shame. If we had one, the traffic would likely be pretty heavy, but the results might be the redemption of our corrupt and tainted souls.

DUBROVNIK, Croatia – Twenty-one episodes of the popular HBO series “Game of Thrones” were filmed in this city of 16th-century high walls and complicated history. One of them was shot along a section of St. Dominic Street, known as the walk of shame.

The very concept of shame seems foreign to us today, like the stockades of the American Puritan era which were designed to humiliate those who violated what were then cultural norms and serve as a warning to others not to tread similar paths.

After Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) was recently censured by the Republican House for promoting the Russia collusion fiction in the 2020 election, Democrats chanted “shame, shame, shame.” It’s nice to know they have some standards besides the double standards they usually display.

At the end of the LGBTQIA+ community’s celebration of “Pride Month,” it might be worthwhile to consider some of the downsides of pride and its opposite — shame, or humiliation.

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Nobel Laureate: “Climate science has metastasized into massive shock-journalistic pseudoscience”

Posted By on July 12th, 2023

https://gript.ie/nobel-laureate-climate-science-has-metastasized-into-massive-shock-journalistic-pseudoscience/

Dr. John F. Clauser, joint recipient of the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics, has criticized the climate emergency narrative calling it “a dangerous corruption of science that threatens the world’s economy and the well-being of billions of people.”

Along with two others, Dr Clauser, an experimental and theoretical physicist, was the 2022 recipient of the Nobel Prize for work done in the 1970s that showed “quantum entanglement” allowed particles such as photons, effectively, to interact at great distances, seemingly to require communication exceeding the speed of light. 

He has criticized the awarding of the 2021 Nobel Prize for work in the development of computer models predicting global warming, according to a coalition of scientists and commentators who argue that an informed discussion about CO2 would recognise its importance in sustaining plant life. 

In a statement issued by the CO2 coalition, Nobel Laureate John Clauser Elected to CO2 Coalition Board of Directors – CO2 Coalition Dr. Clauser said that “there is no climate crisis and that increasing CO2 concentrations will benefit the world”

He criticized the prevalent climate models as being unreliable and not accounting for the dramatic temperature-stabilizing feedback of clouds, which he says is more than fifty times as powerful as the radiative forcing effect of CO2.

Dr. Clauser notes that bright white clouds are clearly the most conspicuous feature in satellite photos of the earth.

These clouds are mostly produced by the evaporation of seawater by sunlight. They cover variably one third to two thirds of the earth’s surface.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Loving Dad Joe Engages Son in Life of Crime By John Green

Posted By on July 12th, 2023

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/07/loving_dad_joe_engages_son_in_life_of_crime.html

The propaganda ministry is in full spin mode, trying to explain why Joe Biden is parading around the world with Hunter in tow.  The two are together for state dinners, overseas junkets, and weekends at Camp David.  As the narrative goes, Hunter is a troubled man, victimized by the demon of addiction.  Any appearance of presidential impropriety is simply a loving father concerned about his son, holding him close to keep him out of trouble.

I say hogwash.

Organized crime bosses protect themselves from legal jeopardy by insulating themselves from the dirty work.  They use underlings to sell their product, collect the money, launder the money, and if necessary take the fall.  If a legal price is to be paid, it’s paid by the expendables.  The boss keeps them quiet with hush money, legal assistance, and witness intimidation.

Does anyone believe that a cartel boss helps an arrested underling out of love?  Nope.  He does it in service to his own selfish interests — which brings me to Hunter Biden’s loving father, Joe.

We’ve learned a great deal about the Biden family business in the last three years from abandoned laptops, congressional investigations, and federal whistleblowers.

We know that Hunter was working on a deal with a Chinese energy company in which 10 percent would go to the “big guy.”  We learned from Hunter’s business partner, Tony Bobulinski, that the “big guy” was Hunter’s code name for his dad, Joe Biden.  Oddly, Bobulinski was never interviewed by Biden’s consigliere or his crew, the Department of Justice.

What was Hunter selling to the Chinese?  We’ve learned that from WhatsApp text messages to Henry Zhao, the group chairman of China’s Harvest Fund Management.  He texted:

The Bidens are the best I know at doing exactly what the chairman wants from this [partnership].