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January 2021

President Biden Should Quash Abbas’ Newest Offensive by Moshe Phillips

https://www.algemeiner.com/2021/01/08/president-biden-should-quash-abbas-newest-offensive/

In December, both Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas and Russian leader Vladimir Putin called for the “Quartet” to be the sponsor of future negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. But why?

The Quartet was established in Madrid in 2002 and is comprised of the United Nations, the European Union, the United States, and Russia. It has been irrelevant for many years — at least since May 2015, when Tony Blair officially resigned from his role as Special Envoy, and arguably long before that.

The Biden administration should abandon the Quartet as soon as possible before Abbas’ offensive sees success.

A review of the Quartet’s website is instructive on why Abbas has been so vocal lately about his support for the Quartet’s increased involvement.

The tagline included at the top of every page of the Quartet’s website is “supporting the Palestinian people to build the institutions and economy of a viable, peaceful state in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”

It’s important to break down that sentence.

First, the tagline does not mention Israel at all. That, in and of itself, is decision that cannot be defended in any way. How can one claim to support peace between two sides and ignore the very existence of one side in your mission statement?

Second, Israel’s major cities and Ben Gurion International Airport would be within easy rocket range of terrorists sitting on the Palestinian side of the border of a “West Bank” state. Does anyone honestly believes that a new Palestinian government would stamp out the terrorists? Does anybody remember the Oslo Accords, which obligated the Palestinian Authority to outlaw and disarm all terrorists? Who enforced that, and who will enforce future Palestinian compliance?

The woke purge Twitter’s suspension of Donald Trump is a chilling sign of tyranny to come. Brendan O’Neill

https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/01/09/the-woke-purge/

Cancel culture doesn’t exist, they say. And yet with the flick of a switch, billionaire capitalists voted for by precisely nobody have just silenced a man who is still the democratically elected president of the United States. With the push of a button in their vast temples to technology, the new capitalist oligarchs of Silicon Valley have prevented a man who won the second largest vote in the history of the American republic just two months ago — 74million votes — from engaging with his supporters (and critics) in the new public square of the internet age.

Not only does cancel culture exist — it is the means through which the powerful, unaccountable oligarchies of the internet era and their clueless cheerleaders in the liberal elites interfere in the democratic process and purge voices they disapprove of. That’s what Twitter’s permanent suspension of Donald Trump confirms.

The new capitalists’ cancellation of the democratically elected president of the United States is a very significant turning point in the politics and culture of the Western world. We underestimate the significance of this act of unilateral purging at our peril. It demonstrates that the greatest threat to freedom and democracy comes not from the oafs and hard-right clowns who stormed the Capitol this week, but from the technocratic elites who spy in the breaching of the Capitol an opportunity to consolidate their cultural power and their political dominance.

Twitter’s ban on Trump is extraordinary for many reasons. First, there’s the arrogance of it. Make no mistake: this is the bosses vs democracy; corporates vs the people; exceptionally wealthy and aloof elites determining which elected politicians may engage in online discussion, which is where most political and public debate takes place in the 21st century. Those who cannot see how concerning and sinister it is that a handful of Big Tech companies have secured a virtual monopoly over the social side of the internet, and are now exploiting their monopolistic power to dictate what political opinions it is acceptable to hold and express in these forums, urgently needs a wake-up call.

MY SAY: THE ABHORIORS

I got e-mails suggesting that I was too flippant regarding the riot and break-in on January 6, 2021. Maybe they are right.

For the record I despise, detest, loathe, execrate, and revile mob violence. Even more…Je Suis the Capitol. Okay? Enough.

President Trump was denied a fair hearing of evidence- affidavits and video proof of election chicanery. The Supremes and state judges dismissed his lawsuits and allegations without even a cursory look at evidence. The faux conservative media  would not even consider what was a legitimate request for hearings and transparency but now sanctions the venal calls for impeachment. The Justice Department, the FBI, the CIA, and Homeland Security denied the President his well-earned day in court.

In the Senate, the Mitt Romney clones jumped off the listing Trump ship of state like rats and displayed selective outrage after turning a blind eye to the riots that destroyed and torched cities and private property in the name of racial justice.

Also abhorrent is the tolerance of the Democrat party for blatant anti-American, anti-Semitism and racism in the corridors of power. rsk

Iran, China, Promise to be the Biggest Tests of Biden’s Presidency in 2021 by Con Coughlin

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16905/iran-china-policy-tests

There is eager anticipation among many of Washington’s foes that Mr Biden’s inauguration will result in the new president adopting a less confrontational tone with the outside world than his predecessor.

China’s communist rulers, for example, are hopeful that Mr Biden will engage in the kind of meaningless trade deals so beloved of his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama. These are the trade deals where Washington agrees to improve trade ties with Beijing on the understanding that China addresses the unfair trading relationship between the two countries, knowing full well that China’s communist rulers have absolutely no intention of fulfilling their end of the bargain.

Before making any move that he may later regret, Mr Biden needs to think long and hard about the likely implications of trying to improve relations with Tehran.

As Iran has demonstrated consistently since signing the 2015 nuclear deal with the Obama administration, Tehran’s primary objective is to become the dominant power in the Middle East — not to live in peaceful coexistence with other nations in the region.

The revelation that Hezbollah has doubled the arsenal of advanced guided missiles it keeps trained on Israel during the course of the past year is a timely reminder that Iran, together with the numerous terrorist proxies it supports throughout the Middle East, promises to present the incoming Biden administration with its most critical foreign policy challenge in 2021.

Marx, Heidegger and the Crocodile by Amir Taheri

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16933/marx-heidegger-mesbah-yazdi

Because Fardid knew no German, his knowledge of Heidegger was based on scanty reading and misreading of French or Persian translations.

Fardid’s understanding of Heidegger could be summed up in two erroneous beliefs: society’s need for order and the need for an unimpeachable leader to impose that order. He also claimed a visceral hatred of Marxism in all its many different forms

No one was allowed to join the debate and suggest, ever so modestly, that maybe it was time for Iranians to use their own heads and begin thinking themselves.

At a time that the ruling elite in Tehran were busy marking the anniversary of the killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the Khomeinist movement lost another of its iconic figures: Ayatollah Muhammad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi.

The 86-year-old cleric who changed his surname from Givehchi (sandal-maker) to Mesbah (Arabic for lamp) was alone among Khomeinist mullahs to have secured the title of “Super Scientist” (Allameh in Arabic) from the establishment. He was marketed as “the greatest living Islamic philosopher” and, as head of the Imam Khomeini Center of Studies, the custodian of Khomeini’s theologico-political heritage.

As Democrat lies compound, the truth will out By Earick Ward

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/01/as_democrat_lies_compound_the_truth_will_out.html

Have you ever lied, or ever watched someone else lie?  What commonly occurs is a compounding of more lies, designed to cover the original lie and subsequently keep the truth from being discovered.

It is not enough that the left cheated (a lie).  What we are witnessing today is the left flailing about, working tirelessly to conceal its deceit.

If leftists rightfully won the 2020 presidential election, and now the subsequent Georgia Senate runoff, one would think we’d see a measured process for transitioning Joe Biden and Kamala Harris into the presidency and vice presidency.   

What we’re seeing instead is chaos.  A myriad of leftist entities, from pols to Media, Big Tech, Hollywood, and others, are whipped into a frenzy to silence dissent and cut short the president’s term.

There are the 25th Amendment, impeachment, punishment, and threats of punishment of anyone who dares question the legitimacy of the vote, and now mass censorship of the president and American citizens?  Are these necessary when a peaceful transition of power is scheduled to occur in a mere 10 days?  

If you have the truth, pound the truth. If you don’t have the truth, pound the table.

What we are witnessing is a tantrum of spoiled children, pounding the table.

We know they lied.  They know they lied.  We know they know they lied.  The more that they flail about, the more at peace you should feel that our cause is just.

Conceding Defeat to Fraud Is Not Patriotic By Dennis L. Weisman

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/01/conceding_defeat_to_fraud_is_not_patriotic.html

I. Introduction

In the aftermath of the protests that devolved into deadly riots in Washington, D.C. and resulted in the breach of the Capitol building, there is a temptation to stand down and not question any further whether Joe Biden is the duly elected president of the United States.  That question, which is key to preserving our democracy, must not go unanswered, violence or no violence.  We hear claims that what occurred in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday happens only in third-world countries.  Perhaps the more germane question is whether these types of elections are third-world phenomena and fall well short of the integrity we should demand of our election process and the officials who preside over it.

 I make no claim that the voting irregularities writ large are of a scope that would change the outcome of the presidential election because I honestly do not know.  But this uncertainty, which I believe that many share, and not just supporters of Donald Trump, is a cancer on the Republic because it strikes at the foundation of our democracy.  If we can’t trust the elections, we can’t trust the politicians who come to power as a result of those elections, and without trust there is no democracy and ultimately there is no country.

II. The “Patriotic Myths”

The first myth is that patriotism demands that we now stand down in questioning the results of the presidential election.  In fact, the opposite is true.  There are no circumstances in which outstanding, credible questions regarding the integrity of our elections should go unanswered because without ensuring the integrity of our elections, we can have no enduring fidelity to those politicians who emerge victorious from those elections.

The second myth is that there is ample time to study the election results and procedures after Mr. Biden’s inauguration.  But what if the wrong man occupies the Oval Office, one not duly elected by a fair and impartial vote of the American people?  What are the American people supposed to do after the fact?  What is the constitutional procedure for removing a sitting president from office should it be discovered ex post facto that he was the product of a fraudulent election?  

The third myth is that a true patriot knows when to stand down even if there are voting irregularities.  The necessary implication is that Mr. Trump is not a patriot because he refuses to go away quietly and simply accept defeat, deserved or otherwise.  I do not doubt that Mr. Trump’s ego plays a prominent role in his challenging the election results.  He does not like to lose.  But there is a much larger issue at play.

The ‘Virtue’ of the New Totalitarians Later ages are always surprised by the casual brutality of totalitarian regimes. What they neglect is the unshakeable (though misguided) conviction of virtue that animates the totalitarians. By Roger Kimball

https://amgreatness.com/2021/01/09/the-virtue-of-the-new-totalitarians/

What was the most disturbing thing to happen in the last few days? 

Some say it was the horrifying spectacle of the mob besieging and breaking into the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. 

That was indeed disturbing, especially the pageant of wanton assaults on property in the seat of our government and, most of all, the images of Ashli Babbitt, the young woman who was shot and killed, apparently by law enforcement. 

There is much we do not know about what happened that afternoon. But I think Tucker Carlson was right about two essential things. 

One, that President Trump bears some responsibility for what happened. He “recklessly encouraged,” as Carlson put it, his distraught supporters. I should note, by the way, that I believe that the president’s supporters are right to be distraught—and not just because their guy lost. That’s the nature of elections. One candidate wins, the other loses. So long as the election is fair, and is seen to be fair, all is well. The loser, and the loser’s supporters, may mutter, but they accept the result and go home. 

But in the 2020 election there were huge and, in my view, determinative irregularities. Had the votes been fairly counted, I believe, Trump would have won. But they weren’t. 

Hence the anger among his supporters. The president should have appreciated their anger and acted accordingly. He ought also to have appreciated that by January 6, the game was over. There was nothing Vice President Mike Pence could have done that would have changed the outcome of the election. When Trump concluded his remarks to the crowd by encouraging them to “walk down Pennsylvania Avenue” and go “to the Capitol,” he was playing with fire. He ought to have discerned as much.

But I believe Carlson is also correct that the president did not intend or foresee the mayhem that followed. As the transcript of his remarks shows, he encouraged the crowd “to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.” He ought to have known that more could transpire. A huge, fired-up crowd is a mob just waiting to happen. But Carlson was right: this was a “political protest” that “got out of hand,” not an “insurrection” or an act of “domestic terrorism,” as Joe Biden and others we quick to claim. 

Why Trump Will Weather This Nonsense He’ll be back. Dov Fischer

https://spectator.org/trump-will-return/

We have been through this drill before — as with Charlottesville and as when President Trump held a press conference alongside Vladimir Putin overseas and stated that he believed Putin’s questionable asseveration that Russia had not messed with the 2016 American elections. Everyone is smart except Trump.

I view the video, and more than 95 percent of the people who made their ways inside clearly were just drifting and roaming around, walking mostly in single or double file, as in a tour of the Capitol.

In each case, the Mainstream Media whipped up a froth and frenzy. In all of human history, we essentially were told, there never had been such perfidy. We kept hearing, night after day after night after day, the carefully selected clip: “There were fine people on both sides.” So that meant, we were told, that President Trump, grandfather of Orthodox Jewish children, benefactor of Jared Kushner, doting father of Orthodox Jewish Ivanka, a man who commuted the unfair sentence of Shlomo Rubashkin, endorses Nazis. As recently as this very week, the Mainstream Media still are at it, still lying shamelessly that he endorsed Nazis at Charlottesville. While I was watching the nightly Hebrew news out of Israel on Israel’s equivalent of PBS, the Left-oriented public broadcasting station that the Government funds and that the taxpayers hate because all their Mainstream Media likewise are Left-oriented, their Thursday news report included that same precisely edited clip: “There were fine people on both sides.” Not a word about how the President in truth had condemned Nazism and White Nationalists two separate times in the same four-minute conference. That is why the general Israeli population hate their Mainstream Media and love Trump.

There was a similar froth and frenzy during and after that overseas press conference with Putin: James Clapper and John Brennan were all over CNN asserting that the President had perpetrated treason and such. It was worse than Benedict Arnold giving secrets to the British in the days when the Brits were our mortal enemies. (Interesting how time changes realities.) How could the President publicly say, alongside Putin, that he believes Vladimir Putin and not his own director of intelligence? Why didn’t Trump look Putin in the face, in front of world news media, and call him a liar and a crook and a tyrant — and then privately try to negotiate other issues that were on the table? As if any world leader ever would stare another in the face, in front of the world media, and would speak that way, that directly, rather than scold behind closed doors.

Nikki Haley Likens Trump Twitter Ban to Act of Chinese Communist Party By Zachary Stieber

https://www.theepochtimes.com/nikki-haley-likens-trump-twitter-ban-to-act-of-chine

Social media companies banning President Donald Trump is something the Chinese Communist Party would do, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley said Friday.

“Silencing people, not to mention the President of the U.S., is what happens in China not our country,” Haley wrote in a tweet.

Twitter announced earlier in the day that it was permanently removing Trump’s account, which had been active since before he took office in 2016. The company claimed his recent tweets were inciting violence.

Trump in response accused Twitter of “banning free speech” and coordinating “with the Democrats and the Radical Left in removing my account from their platform, to silence me—and YOU, the 75,000,000 great patriots who voted for me.”

Trump said his team has been negotiating with competitors to Twitter and is looking into building their own platform in the near future.

Facebook also banned Trump, at least for the remainder of his term.