FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

President Biden’s July Middle East visit – nuts and bolts Ambassador (Ret.) Yoram Ettinger

Posted By on July 6th, 2022

https://bit.ly/3O0lQj7

*A major goal of President Biden’s July, 2022 visit to the Middle East – in addition to increasing the Saudi and Emirati oil production – is the restoration of the US stature as a reliable strategic ally of the pro-US Arab regimes, and stop their drift toward Russia and China.

*At the same time, Biden pursues a JCPOA-like agreement with Iran’s Ayatollahs and embraces the Muslim Brotherhood.

*However, the attempt to restore the US’ strategic reliability, while aiming for a JCPOA-like accord with Iran’s Ayatollahs and embracing the Muslim Brotherhood, constitutes a contradiction in terms, since all pro-US Arab regimes view Iran’s Ayatollahs and the Muslim Brotherhood as lethal threats. Moreover, they are convinced that a JCPOA-like accord would bolster (as did the 2015 JCPOA) the Ayatollahs’ regional and global subversion, terrorism, fueling of civil wars, drug trafficking, money laundering and the proliferation of advanced military systems to rogue entities in the Middle East and beyond.

They are also frustrated by the State Department’s underestimation of the fanatic vision of the Muslim Brotherhood, and taking lightly its terror network throughout the Middle East and beyond (e.g., India and Thailand).

HOMELAND SECURITY, IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Police Arrest Illegal Immigrants after ‘Hero Citizen’ Tipped Off Authorities to Planned Mass Shooting By Brittany Bernstein

Posted By on July 6th, 2022

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/police-arrest-illegal-immigrants-after-hero-citizen-tipped-off-authorities-to-planned-mass-shooting/

Police in Richmond, Va., said a tip from a “hero citizen” helped prevent two illegal immigrants from carrying out a planned shooting at a Fourth of July celebration.

“A hero citizen picked up the phone and overheard a conversation there was a mass shooting being planned here in the city of Richmond, Virginia,” Richmond Chief of Police Gerald Smith said during a press conference on Wednesday.

Police said they found evidence that Julio Alvarado-Dubon, 52, and Rolman Balacarcel, 38, were planning an attack at the city’s Independence Day celebration at the Dogwood Deli amphitheater and a city baseball game.

After the citizen called in the tip on July 1, police investigated the suspects’ residence and saw “evidence in plain view” to corroborate the tip. Officers seized two assault rifles, a handgun and 223 rounds of ammunition from the home.

Officers arrested Alvarado-Dubon and charged him with being a non-U.S. citizen in posession of a firearm on Friday. Balacarcel, who is Alvarado-Dubon’s roommate, was arrested and charged on the same count on Tuesday after a weekend of police surveillance.

The pair is being held without bond. Both suspects may face additional charges, police said.

Police did not identify a motive for the foiled attack.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Joe Biden and the Circular Firing Squad By Michael Brendan Dougherty

Posted By on July 6th, 2022

https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/07/joe-biden-and-the-circular-firing-squad/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=featured-content-trending&utm_term=second

The word is definitely out that the president’s stock is going to zero — and it’s time to get out while you still can.

The giant sucking sound you’re hearing is the panicked divestment of elected Democratic politicians, progressive activists, and the mainstream media from the Biden administration. The word is definitely out that the president’s stock is going to zero — and it’s time to get out while you still can.

Two weeks ago, in a foreboding sign for the White House, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — with a finger to the political winds blowing on Instagram — announced that she wasn’t ready to support Biden in 2024. Then came California governor Gavin Newsom, asking “Where’s my party?” as Republicans and conservatives continue to score political wins. Newsom’s question sparked 2024 speculation for him, and then he stoked the flames even higher by buying ad time in Florida, demonstrating that he could identify and take on the real Republican threat, who is sitting behind a desk in Tallahassee: DeSantis.

After the Fourth of July weekend, we are now getting the hilarious reports — usually ones that a lame-duck president faces late in his second term. The first six sentences of Edward-Isaac Dovere’s dispatch for CNN sum it up:

Debra Messing was fed up. The former “Will & Grace” star was among dozens of celebrity Democratic supporters and activists who joined a call with White House aides last Monday to discuss the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.

BOOKS, ISRAEL Comments turned off

ZIONIST UNDERGROUND POET COMES ALIVE IN NEW BOOK BY MOSHE PHILLIPS

Posted By on July 6th, 2022

https://www.israel365news.com/271107/zionist-underground-poet-comes-alive-in-new-book-opinion/

It’s not too often that the release of a new book of poems that are over 80 years old can be seen as a transformative moment in the American Jewish community. It can be argued that this happened in June. The Complete and Translated Poetic Works of Avraham Stern published by Yishai Edberg is the first book of English translations of history’s key Zionist revolutionary.

For decades Israel’s left-leaning academic establishment, as well as Jewish educators in the United States, successfully fought to minimize the impact the Stern’s LEHI group, and the Irgun underground Stern had originally fought in, had on London’s decision to end the British Mandate. It’s only in the last 20 years or so that English speaking readers have been able to really learn the details about LEHI’s story.

Avraham Stern (Yair)  was the founder and leader of the Stern Group (maligned by the British as the Stern Gang). After Stern’s 1942 assassination by British detectives In Tel Aviv his soldiers later formed the LEHI (Fighters For the Freedom of Israel.)

Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir was a member of the LEHI’s three man high command after Stern’s assassination. In 1998 Stern wrote in Haaretz about Stern stating:

“Those who revere his memory know a great deal about Yair Avraham Stern, who in the 1940s established the underground LEHI movement to fight against the British regime in Palestine. Yair –as his friends knew him– believed that only the expulsion of the British from the Land of Israel would enable the Jewish People to establish an independent Jewish state, and he foresaw that this goal could only be achieved by force. However, his admirers knew little about the “other” Yair: Yair the poet.

Edberg’s translation brings Stern’s distinctive poetic voice to English. No easy task.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

SEC Climate Disclosure Rule: A Duck That Quacks By Rupert Darwall

Posted By on July 6th, 2022

https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2022/07/05/sec_climate_disclosure_rule_a_duck_that_quacks_840873.html

In his recent memoir, former attorney general William Barr recounts how the Trump administration lost its attempt to include a citizenship question in the 2020 census. After losing in the Supreme Court, Barr briefed President Trump on what had gone wrong. “If people were straightforward from the beginning, it could have gotten done,” Barr explained. “The trouble is the administration was too cute by half, and [Chief Justice John] Roberts threw the penalty flag.” The Supreme Court had thrown out the citizenship question because the Commerce department’s declared rationale for it was pretextual—that is to say, it was not the real reason that the Trump administration wanted a citizenship question in the census.

Much comment on the controversial climate disclosure rule proposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has centered on whether the SEC has the necessary legal authority. By the end of the comment period on June 17, the SEC had received more than 3,400 letters, significantly more than usual. Linked to legal arguments on whether the SEC has an adequate statutory—or, indeed, constitutional—basis for its climate proposal is the question of pretextuality: Is the SEC being genuine in the stated justification for its sweeping climate disclosure rules? Should the SEC harbor doubts about its legal standing to compel climate disclosures—notably, greenhouse gas emissions data—from listed companies, it increases the likelihood that it will advance a public justification for the proposed rules that differs from its real one so that it better fits within its statutory authority.

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Under Biden, U.S. Pushed Further Back in Latin America by Judith Bergman

Posted By on July 6th, 2022

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18641/latin-america-china

China is now Latin America’s largest trading partner (excluding Mexico).

China’s relationships with Latin American countries however, are about far more than trade.

“It is not necessary to show malevolent PRC intentions with respect to its activities in Latin America and the Caribbean to conclude that the current and long-term implications of that engagement are grave for prosperity, democracy, and liberties in the region, as well as the security and strategic position of the United States.” — Professor Evan Ellis, US Army War College, “Testimony before the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission,” May 20, 2021.

China also has another advantage: No regard for human rights or democracy. It is more than happy to invest in and trade with authoritarian dictatorships like itself.

“… U.S. influence has been diminishing in the continent.” — Martha Bárcena, former Mexican ambassador to the United States, The New York Times, June 9, 2022.

The odds of Biden’s new plan winning over Latin American countries — where China has already massively invested in building roads, railways, harbors, bridges and a host of other infrastructure and communications projects, with no questions asked on the environment, climate or “inclusivity” — are probably low. Even Biden administration officials do not seem to harbor any illusions about the new plan’s ability to change facts on the ground….

“As long as China is ready to put its cash on the table, we seem to be fighting a losing battle.” — U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, Reuters, June 8, 2022.

“Latin American governments complain that there’s a lot of talk but ask ‘where is the money’?” — Welber Barral, Brazil-based partner at BMJ Consultores Associados, Reuters, June 8, 2022.

“The U.S. is losing Latin America to China without putting up a fight, Ecuador’s ambassador to Washington told Axios.”

“And China is waiting, saying, ‘We’re here. We’re giving you money.’ They want control of course, but they don’t say that.” — Ivonne Baki, Ecuador’s ambassador to the US, Axios, September 23, 2021.

China has overtaken the United States in trade terms “in large swathes of Latin America,” according to a recent Reuters analysis of UN trade data from 2015-2021. Reuters added that “outside of Mexico, the top U.S. trade partner, China has overtaken the United States in Latin America and widened the gap last year.”

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Children’s Library Association Pushes Gender Confusion On Kids With Pro-LGBT Summer Reading List By: Kennedy Kruse

Posted By on July 6th, 2022

https://thefederalist.com/2022/07/05/childrens-library-association-pushes-gender-confusion-on-kids-with-pro-lgbt-summer-reading-list/

The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) is pushing multiple LGBT recommendations in its 2022 Notable Children’s Books and Summer Reading Lists. Some of these books include a simple picture of a gay union, while other suggestions are fully centered around transgenderism, but in each case, these recommendations are meant to normalize and promote LGBT values and lifestyles to children. 

By the ALSC adding these books to the reading list, it communicates that these works are of “especially commendable quality, books that exhibit venturesome creativity, and books of fiction, information, poetry, and pictures for all age levels (birth through age 14) that reflect and encourage children’s interests in exemplary ways.” 

For example, children from birth to preschool are encouraged to read “The Pronoun Book” by Chris Ayala-Kronos to complete the summer reading list. As kids just begin to learn how to talk and read, they can also get a head start on trans pronoun propaganda. 

In this book, young readers are taught that they can’t know what people want to be called. A boy may want to be called a “she” instead of he. A girl may desire to use plural pronouns such as they/them or a “neopronoun” such as co, ey, per, or xe.

“Milo Imagines the World” by Matt de la Peña is another “notable” children’s book on the library association’s list, and while the book is not LGBT-centered, it slips in a picture of a same-sex wedding.

The story follows a young boy named Milo and his sister riding the train to see their mom. While on the crowded train, Milo looks at the faces around him. Notebook and pen in hand, he imagines and draws the lives of the people he sees.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

How Much Fossil Fuel Is Left? Humanity can adapt to whatever climate change may occur—with sufficient prosperity and political will. By Edward Ring

Posted By on July 6th, 2022

https://amgreatness.com/2022/07/05/how-much-fossil-fuel-is-left/

Fossil fuel powers the economic engine of civilization. With a minor disruption in the supply of fossil fuel, crops wither, and supply chains crash. With a major disruption, a humanitarian apocalypse could engulf the world. Events of the past few months have made this clear. Without energy, civilization dies, and in 2020 fossil fuels continued to provide more than 80 percent of all energy consumed worldwide.

This basic fact, that maintaining a reliable supply of affordable fossil fuel is a nonnegotiable condition for the survival of civilization, currently eludes far too many American politicians, including Joe Biden. Observes energy expert and two-time candidate for governor of California Michael Shellenberger: “One month ago, the Biden administration killed a one-million-acre oil and gas lease sale in Alaska, and seven days ago killed new on-shore oil and gas leases in the continental U.S. In fact, at this very moment, the Biden administration is considering a total ban on new offshore oil and gas drilling.”

Another basic fact, easily confirmed by consulting the 2021 edition of the BP Statistical Review of Global Energy, is that if every person living on Earth were to consume half as much energy per year as the average American currently consumes, global energy production would need to nearly double. Instead of producing 547 exajoules (the mega unit of energy currently favored by economists) per year, energy producers worldwide would need to come up with just over 1,000 exajoules. How exactly will “renewables,” currently delivering 32 exajoules per year, or six percent of global energy, expand by a factor of 30 to deliver 1,000 exajoules?

EDUCATION Comments turned off

How ‘Racial Literacy’ Erodes Education By Eileen F. Toplansky

Posted By on July 6th, 2022

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/07/how_racial_literacy_erodes_education.html

As the country plunges deeper into Wokeland, the institutions of alleged higher learning continue to support and promulgate the ideology of the Left.

The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) offers an online book titled “Racial Literacy” edited by Detra Price-Dennis.

Chapter titles include the following:

To Dismantle Racism, We Must Discuss It
Everyday Colorism: Reading in the Language Arts Classroom
Centering #BlackLivesMatter to Confront Injustice, Inspire Advocacy, and Develop Literacies
Reopening Racial Wounds: Whiteness, Melancholia, and Affect in the English Classroom
Tough Talking: Teaching White Students about Race and Responsibility
Antiracist Language Arts Pedagogy is Incomplete without Black Joy

Thus, “[t]his collection shows how teaching from a racial literacy perspective is in conversation with antiracist, culturally responsive, equity-oriented frameworks that uplift curriculum design and instructional strategies to help educators [.]”

In effect, “[t]he English language arts classroom provides a significant place to begin as English Language Acquisition (ELA) schol­ars and teacher educators are illuminating the ways white supremacy of language policies and practice devalue Black ways of knowing, being, and doing in schools.”

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Biden Sets his Sights on K-12 Education By James Stansbury

Posted By on July 6th, 2022

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/07/biden_sets_his_sights_on_k12_education.html

“Biden’s education council is a hyper-partisan packed court that is likely to dismiss any family input that differs from their progressive views.”

Few noticed or cared when U.S. education secretary Miguel Cardona announced on June 14 the launch of the National Parents and Families Engagement Council (NPFEC). The NPFEC “…will serve as an important link between families and caregivers, education advocates and their school communities. The Council will help foster a collaborative environment where we can work together to serve the best interest of students and ensure they have the academic and mental health support they need to recover from the pandemic and thrive in the future.” 

While this sounds promising, a journalist with Tony Perkins’ Family Research Council (FRC) in their Washington Stand newsletter took an interest and identified some major red flags; “Yet one look at some of the council’s 14 acknowledged members shows it represents a small segment of elitist, left-wing views.” For example:

The National Action Network started by Al Sharpton made an “LGBTQ Alliance” in 2015 “…to promote “the hiring or participation of gay/transgender people “in all areas of religious and public life.”