How “human rights” believers fund evil Britain’s faith in Mahmoud Abbas’s regime has been a stunning misjudgement Melanie Phillips

https://melaniephillips.substack.com/p/how-human-rights-believers-fund-evil?utm_source=email

This week’s Jewish Chronicle features a major story by David Rose, which reveals that Britain has been investing millions of pounds in training the Palestinian Authority in human rights even while the PA has been perpetrating torture and beating a prominent Palestinian democracy and human rights campaigner to death.

David’s story can be read here, here and here.

The opinion piece that I wrote for the JC to accompany the story follows below.

***

For many in the west, it has long been an article of faith that peace will only come to the Middle East when the Palestinians gain a state of their own.

Along with the EU and America, successive British governments have promoted a “two-state solution” to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs.

Central to this thinking is a key distinction. Hamas is considered beyond the pale as Islamist extremists who throw gay Palestinians off rooftops to their death and make no bones about their aim to destroy Israel. But the Palestinian Authority headed by Mahmoud Abbas is deemed “moderate” and entitled to run a future state of Palestine that would be part of the community of nations.

The JC has now exposed this faith in the PA as an excruciating misjudgment.

For while Britain has been investing millions in it in the arrogant belief that it can teach it western values, Palestinian officers have been murdering and torturing dissenters who campaign for their human rights.

DR. FAUCI’S RETIREMENT ANNOUNCEMENT Adam Andrzejewski

http://OpenTheBooks.com

DR. FAUCI’S RETIREMENT ANNOUNCEMENT: Since January 2021, our auditors broke international news with our investigations of the Fauci Family compensation, benefits, royalty payments and other financial perks. In December 2021, we first estimated Fauci’s pension and updated our projection this week. Fauci will retire on at least $374,000 a year.

This week, our oversight was cited at The Federalist, Sinclair Broadcast Group (200 ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox affiliates across America), in an interview on Wake Up America morning program at NewsMaxTV, The Washington Times, Reason, The Daily Signal, the Daily Caller, and even our findings were mentioned at Slate.

Then, on Real World at Fox News, Neil Cavuto interviewed Tony Fauci and asked him about that taxpayer-guaranteed golden parachute. The doctor feigned ignorance, but we know the truth! And so does The Daily Caller. It’s backed by hard numbers and the government’s own formula to calculate retirement packages…

Student Debt Forgiveness Is Biden’s Bluto Moment His plan will feed inflation and hurt him politically. By Kimberley Strassel

https://www.wsj.com/articles/student-debt-forgiveness-is-bidens-bluto-moment-inflation-college-loans-university-education-payments-bills-savings-11661464019?mod=djemalertNEWS

If political moves received letter grades, Joe Biden’s student loan “forgiveness” mark might rank down there with the Deltas of “Animal House.” Think of it as the president’s Bluto moment.

In case the White House missed it, Democrats had recently been getting it together. After an 18-month food fight over the Biden agenda, the party finally united to pass the Inflation Reduction Act. It suckered spend-happy Republicans into passing a semiconductor bill that vulnerable Democrats could brag about back home. The left has successfully fanned fears on abortion, putting GOP candidates on the back foot. And Donald Trump is in the headlines—right where they want him.

Then along comes Blutarsky, and seven years of college down the drain. It would be hard to fashion a program that carries more political risk for less political reward. In the name of paying off that powerful voting bloc known as “overeducated and underemployed deadbeats,” Mr. Biden is dumping on his own inflation message, dividing his party, and insulting any American who has ever worked, saved or paid a bill.

Inflation remains voters’ biggest worry, and they understand Washington’s role in feeding it. Only recently they watched General Motors and Ford hike the prices of electric vehicles by $6,000 to $8,500—roughly pacing the $7,500 tax credit the Biden “inflation reduction” law bestows. Cause, effect. Millions of American parents read Mr. Biden’s Wednesday loan announcement as news that they will be paying $10,000 more for tuition next year (and the year after that, and after that) as colleges reap the loan windfall.

It won’t stop with college inflation, even Democratic economists warn. Every $20,000 of loan forgiveness is $20,000 the favored college forgiven can blow on urban loft refits or Hawaiian vacations. “Pouring roughly half [a] trillion dollars of gasoline on the inflationary fire that is already burning is reckless,” Jason Furman, the Obama administration’s top economist, tweeted. Americans already doubted Mr. Biden’s new climate and health law would do much to lower prices, but they’ll draw a direct line from the loan bailout to further price hikes. A CNBC poll says nearly 60% of Americans fear this handout will make inflation worse.

The plan rips a new fissure in the Democratic Party, as nonsuicidal members run for cover. Maine Rep. Jared Golden called loan forgiveness “out of touch.” New Hampshire Rep. Chris Pappas said this is “no way to make policy.” Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet noted that the plan doesn’t address the underlying problem of rising tuition. Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan, running for the Senate, said the forgiveness “sends the wrong message to the millions of Ohioans without a degree working just as hard to make ends meet.”

What unites these Democrats? Each is in a competitive race, and they clearly already see the potential to alienate large cross-sections of the American electorate. Sure, loan forgiveness may benefit up to 40 million people, and energize Gen Zers and some millennials to vote for the Democrats they were going to support anyway. What about the other 220 million voting-age Americans who are being asked to float the upper crust’s seminars on gender identity and social justice?

William Barr’s unredacted memo about Trump deserves more outrage The contents of the memo and the hand that Merrick Garland’s Justice Department had in keeping it from being released are disturbing.

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/william-barrs-unredacted-doj-memo-trump-deserves-outrageo-rcna45068

By Shan Wu, legal analyst and former federal prosecutor

A 2019 unredacted Justice Department memo, relied upon by then-Attorney General William Barr to justify his decision not to charge former President Donald Trump with committing obstruction of justice following Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, was released Wednesday.  

The release was made possible thanks to a 2019 lawsuit filed by the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) under the Freedom of Information Act. 

This unredacted memo may go unnoticed by many Americans because both Trump’s and President Joe Biden’s Justice Department delayed its release for years until now — when the Mueller probe seems like ancient history. But the contents of the memo should outrage every American, and the misguided efforts of Biden’s Justice Department to oppose its release gives us all a reason to worry about Attorney General Merrick Garland’s perspective.

To people familiar with the department’s byzantine organizational hierarchy, the positions of the memo’s authors — the assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel and the principal associate deputy attorney general — are significant. For those not familiar with these two positions: if this were, say, high school, those in the legal counsel’s office are the “nerds,” and those in the deputy attorney general office are the “jocks.” 

The head of the Office of Legal Counsel does not prosecute cases because OLC is the egg-head think tank of the Justice Department, tasked with advising not only the attorney general but also the Office of the President and all executive branch agencies. In essence, it’s a group of lawyers’ lawyers — the legal department of the nation’s law firm. 

On Biden’s “Student Loan” Payoff to Our Anti-American Universities Rewarding those who have done incalculable harm to our country. Precisely the opposite of what we need. Bruce D. Abramson

https://bda1776.substack.com/p/on-bidens-student-loan-payoff-to?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Do You Know What Time is Is?

There’s a very important debate going on to the right of America’s center.  My friend David Reaboi sums it up nicely with a single question: “Do you know what time it is?”  Some of us understand that we’re not living in an era of normal political competition over policy preferences.  We’re facing an existential threat from forces determined to transform America into something that its founders would never recognize.  Not everyone on the right gets it.  Some of our allies still think that even seemingly major losses are just part of the game; there will always be another free election after which we can set things right.  Bless their hearts!  (Southern readers, please correct usage).

Just to be clear—I know what time it is.  The series I just wrapped up about the irreparable corruption at the heart of America’s institutions is far too radical for those who think we’re debating policy.  It’s a call for a restructuring far more radical than anything we’ve seen since at least the New Deal.

Fortunately for those of us seeking to make the case that the American republic has already fallen and that those of us who love its defining principles must work towards a restoration, the Biden Administration is the gift that keeps on giving.  Fresh on the heels of his 87,000 new armed enforcers charged with destroying small businesses and terrorizing regime critics, Biden announced plans to hand a half-trillion dollars to America’s most broken institution.  President Biden actually seeks to reward American higher education for decades of corruption and fraud.  That’s what his student loan giveaway is all about.  If he buys himself a few votes from recent grads at the expense of angering most of the country, that’s gravy.  It’s really a gift to America’s universities.  It’s a reward for the important role they’ve played in burying our republic.

That gets things exactly backwards.  In fact, the corruption of America’s universities is the central story I tell in The New Civil War.  If you have not yet read the book, the fundamental problem lies with the academic incentive system.  Far from promoting independent thought or creativity, academia rewards only confirmation.  Push conventional wisdom one step further from reality, and you win.  Anything else, you lose. 

Let Djokovic Play Barring the tennis champion from the U.S. Open has nothing to do with science or public health. Vinay Prasad

https://www.commonsense.news/p/let-djokovic-play?utm_source=email&triedSigningIn=true

The credibility and legitimacy of public health demands two things. The rules have to make sense; they can’t be nakedly contradictory. And the rules have to benefit people. You can’t demand jumping through hoops merely for optics.

The treatment of the tennis star Novak Djokovic, who is officially blocked from competing in this year’s U.S. Open, set to begin on Monday, violates both. Keeping him from playing because he has not received a Covid-19 vaccine undermines the credibility of the White House, which set the policy, and public health more broadly. I’m saying this both as a Democrat and a doctor gravely concerned about eroded trust in our institutions.

Djokovic is one of the best tennis players of all time. He is currently vying for most majors of any champion (21 to date), competing with Rafael Nadal (22) and Roger Federer (20).  But there will forever be an asterisk next to those comparisons because Djokovic is banned from entering the U.S. to compete in this year’s U.S. Open because of a byzantine rule that non-U.S. citizens cannot enter the country without proof of vaccination.

This rule makes no sense from a medical or public health standpoint. 

Consider the facts. Djokovic is 35 years old, and he is in terrific health. He has had and recovered from Covid-19 twice. This—and the fact that current variants are less lethal than prior strains—means that Djokovic’s odds of doing well were he to get sick with Covid-19 again are remarkably good, and lower than his risk of seasonal influenza.  If Djokovic gets a vaccine at this moment it would be against the ancestral, Wuhan strain of the coronavirus and there is no good evidence this would further improve his odds.

Radical Group Trying To Transition Your Kids Now Operating In 4,000 Schools Nationwide…By Susan Berry

https://thestarnewsnetwork.com/2022/08/26/report-the-gay-straight-alliance-network-now-operates-in-more-than-4000-u-s-schools/

The Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) Network, which promotes radical gender theory in elementary, middle, and high schools, now operates over 4,000 “gender and sexuality alliances” under the guise of student “clubs,” reports Christopher Rufo at City Journal.

A senior fellow and director of the Initiative on Critical Race Theory (CRT) at the Manhattan Institute, Rufo explained the GSA Network is a “professionally staffed nonprofit with a multimillion-dollar annual budget. GSA Network serves as an umbrella organization for more than 4,000 “gender and sexuality alliances” across 40 states.”

After rebranding itself in 2016 as the Genders & Sexualities Alliance, GSA Co-Executive Director Ginna Brelsford noted:

The name change has been a long time coming.  We have heard from countless youth leaders who understand their genders and sexualities to be uniquely theirs and have moved beyond the labels of gay and straight, and the limits of a binary gender system. For several years, students have been naming their individual school-based clubs in a way that reflects the values and identity of its members.

Brelsford further explained the “function” of school GSA clubs had “evolved.”

American history 2022: The establishment versus the American people By Andrea Widburg

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/08/american_history_2022_the_establishment_versus_the_american_people.html

For those wondering about my absence from these pages, I’m on vacation. The theme of this trip is the American Revolution and, by the time I return home in 10 days, I’ll have visited some of the most storied places in Revolutionary America, from historical towns to Founders’ homes to important battlefields. Because the leftist encroachment on Jefferson’s and Madison’s homes (Monticello and Montpelier, respectively) has been in the news lately, I thought I’d share some impressions with you about three places: Colonial Williamsburg, Yorktown, and Mount Vernon. At all those sites, the American spirit is intact.

Colonial Williamsburg is the meticulously restored one-time capital of the Colony of Virginia as it existed in the mid-18th century. Hundreds of employees wear historically accurate dress, speak in 18th-century terms, and provide insights into life in a southern colony on the eve of the Revolution. Visitors can see historically accurate representations of functioning blacksmiths, shoemakers, milliners, wigmakers, silversmiths, apothecaries, and so much more. I highly recommend it.

I was last in Williamsburg in 2015 and, aside from a few newly restored buildings, the biggest change was the obsessive and obsequious references to “enslaved people.” Some of it was historically appropriate; some was transparent white guilt and virtue signaling.

A teacher planned to erase Whites from her classroom décor By Pandra Selivanov

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/08/a_teacher_planned_to_erase_whites_from_her_classroom_dcor.html

It’s that time of year when the dog days of summer give way to the excitement of going back to school. Children tow their parents through the store, on the hunt for trendy backpacks, lunch boxes, and outfits. Parents shell out thousands of dollars to make sure their children have everything they need, and much that they don’t, for the coming year. The biggest concern of most families is that their child receives quality instruction while having an enjoyable experience in the classroom.

However, in Utah, parents of children attending William Penn Elementary near Salt Lake City got a nasty shock when a 4th grade teacher announced on social media that it was her first year teaching at a majority White school and she was interested to see whether “posh white parents” would be opposed to her classroom, which was designed to cater to non-white students.

The backlash was swift. Concerned parents reported the incident to the school. To her credit, the school principal took swift action, issuing a statement that it was her “personal commitment…to ensure every student feels safe and welcome,” and that it is “inappropriate for any employee to make students feel unwelcome in any way, shape or form.” The teacher removed the offensive post and apologized. The district is now investigating to determine if any of its policies have been violated.

The Trouble With Trudeau By David Solway

https://pjmedia.com/columns/david-solway-2/2022/08/26/the-trouble-with-trudeau-n1624567

It is no secret that Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau is a believer in and advocate for totalitarian forms of government. We recall his gushing eulogy for Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and his candid admiration for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with its facility for “turning on a dime” in making and executing policy.

The fact that Miami has over the years become a haven for Cuban escapees and boat people and that Vancouver welcomes a steady stream of Chinese immigrants, who approximate 20% of the municipal census (as of 2019) and rising steeply like the city’s towering skyline where Chinese billionaires park their money, must mean something — more precisely, it must mean that Trudeau is grossly mistaken or even rather daft in his political loyalties, convictions, and affiliations.

As a graduate of the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Young Global Leaders Programme and a disciple of its founder Klaus Schwab, Trudeau enjoys an intimate relationship with the proponents of the Great Reset that seeks to replace the successful free-market system of Western nations with an oligarchic model of top-down governance and corporatist domination, presumably for the benefit of all its “stakeholders.” What could go wrong?

Plenty. The WEF is obviously in a close, symbiotic relation with the CCP. It touts the necessity of constant surveillance to ensure compliance with its mandates and decrees, an agenda, in Jeffrey Tucker’s words, of “technocratic central planning rooted in deep suspicion of basic tenets of freedom.” The human being will be subject to enhanced biosecurity protocols, synthetic biology, detector algorithms, advanced AI, and genetic editing. The object is total control over the life of the individual, allowing the government to monitor all one’s activities — where we travel, what we buy, how we spend, where we save and invest, what we write, where we work, how many booster shots we have received, and so on. If we donate to the “wrong” cause or run afoul of social media, our credit card or passport can be instantly invalidated. The state’s credentialing system is all-powerful.