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October 2021

Hillary Clinton, Conspiracy Queen By David Harsanyi

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/10/hillary-clinton-conspiracy-queen/

Two of the most corrosive dirty-tricks schemes in modern American history lead right back to her.

‘T here’s always been a kind of paranoid streak in American politics,” former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton told Jennifer Senior at The Atlantic Festival recently. “But it never was given such voice, such a platform, or had so much money behind it until we saw the rise of the right-wing radio voices like Rush Limbaugh, and we saw the rise of Fox News. And then, of course, the Internet just put it on steroids.”

It’s true, no doubt, that democratized media exacerbates the worst (and best) of human tendencies. Yet, it is quite jarring to hear this complaint coming from a person whose operatives were likely involved in birtherism and later were the driving force behind the Russian “collusion” hoax — two of modern political history’s most corrosive conspiracy theories.

Even as Hillary was going on about the devastating role that paranoia plays in our political interactions, Senior somehow forgot to ask her a single question about an ongoing investigation by Special Counsel John Durham into her campaign’s role in concocting an oppo file and creating a narrative that the 2016 election was stolen by Putin. The week of the interview, Durham was reportedly handing down a new set of subpoenas on a law firm with ties to Clinton’s 2016 campaign. Last month, Hillary’s former lawyer Michael Sussmann was indicted for allegedly giving false statements to the FBI in connection to a Clinton-campaign deception that engulfed nearly the entire political world for nearly five years. There has now been one more indictment for allegedly lying about Russian “collusion” in 2016 than there was for any criminal conspiracy tied to the election. Has anyone even asked Hillary about these indictments?

Even if Clinton was kept in the dark about the oppo file that was filled with half-baked lies and unverified bar talk — and being kept in the dark is the excuse she’s heavily leaned on her entire scandal-ridden career — she wasn’t merely an innocent bystander, looking on while dirty tricksters damaged trust in the system for political gain.

Debunking the 1619 Project By Matthew G. Andersson

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/10/debunking_the_1619_project.html

Debunking the 1619 Project

by Mary Grabar

Mary Grabar has authored a serious, mature book that should be in every American household and classroom.  Its message is so critical to understand that it might usefully serve as required reading in a test and qualification for American citizenship. There were a couple sections I found demandingly granular, but they stem from her determination to get the story re-assembled factually, as much historical detail was falsified or ignored by the 1619 project members.

Ms. Grabar “debunks,” either directly or by implication, at least four primary objects:

the asserted significance of the date 1619;
the asserted unique culpability of Jefferson and other Founders in American slave-labor perpetuation;
the assertion of unique colonial and early Republic promotion of slave markets and slave trading and;
the asserted educational value of such historical revisionism that also rests on a modern policy narrative of unresolved racial discrimination and harm in legal and financial dimensions. 

Ms. Grabar doesn’t merely “debunk” the 1619 Project, she devastates it, by a relentless, professional marshalling of facts and data, and with thoughtful argumentation, choice sourcing and careful footnotes.  For its depth in historical research, the book reads very smoothly. I found it a “page-turner” as the case she makes unfolds with surprise, pleasure and wisdom, concerning not only the facts of colonial slavery, but its larger context in American history, and indeed in a larger context still, of world history. 

Sopranos Prequel Goes Squishy on the Sixties By Jack Cashill

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/10/sopranos_prequel_goes_squishy_on_the_sixties.html

This weekend, I went to the theater to see the Sopranos prequel, The Many Saints of Newark. I watched with the kind of critical eye an astrophysicist might have brought to Star Wars.

At the time of the 1967 Newark riot, the foundational event of the movie, I was a 19-year-old living in Newark with my siblings and widowed mother. My late father had been a Newark cop, and my Uncle Bob, also a cop, was in the thick of the riot from the initial assault on the Fourth Precinct to its bloody end 26 deaths later.

Of note, too, Bob had married into a large Newark Italian family. As a kid, I spent considerable time in the family compound. I knew how that world turned. David Chase should have. An Italian American a few years older than I am, Chase created the stellar HBO series, The Sopranos, and was the creative force behind the movie. In the series, which ran from 1999-2007, there was scarcely a false note. In the movie, alas, scarcely a note rings true. 

Not surprisingly, given the times we live in, race is at the heart of the movie’s misfire. As Chase told a friendly interviewer, he was living in a Newark suburb when the riot erupted. Watching from afar, he and his suburban friends told each other, “I hope they burn that place down, those motherf**kers. Corrupt, c**k-sucking white people.” The “white people” Chase refers to here included not only my family and me, but also — to the detriment of the movie — the characters who people it, cops and gangsters alike.

Does Biden Want A Depression Of His Very Own?

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/10/04/the-research-that-shows-how-destructive-the-biden-spending-will-be/

It’s truly frightening how obsessed the Democrats are with spending nearly $5 trillion on infrastructure and social programs. They’re behaving as if our republic would buckle and collapse if their agenda isn’t passed. The real danger, though, are their ideas, which are economic IEDs.

More than 20 years ago, UCLA professors Lee Ohanian and Harold Cole, now a University of Pennsylvania professor, produced a report that showed President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s policies not only didn’t end the Great Depression, they extended the misery by seven years. Simply put, there was too much government intervention in the economy.

FDR’s policies and those of President Joe Biden and the Democrats are not entirely analogous. Ohanian and Cole focused “primarily on the impact of Roosevelt’s early policies that allowed for monopolies and too much union power to increase prices and salaries.” The Democrats’ bills are mostly, but not exclusively, about spending other people’s money.

Another difference: We are not in a depression. The country is recovering from a downturn caused by officials foolishly locking down the economy, which they told us was necessary to beat the pandemic.

However, we can expect at best a sclerotic economy, and depression-like conditions, if the Biden bills become law. The unbridled spending will exacerbate the inflation that’s disrupting the U.S. economy as well as compound the supply chain problems that are blowing “a stagflationary wind through the global economy.”

Citadel professor of ethics and free enterprise leadership Richard Ebeling calls “the fiscal mindset of those in the White House and in Congress who are proposing new federal budgetary expenditure,” and tax hikes “in the trillions of dollars,” a “fantasy land of financial irrationality.”

Why Is Joe Biden Embracing Europe’s Failed Green-Energy Socialism?

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/10/05/why-is-joe-biden-embracing-europes-failed-green-socialism/

These are the worst of times for Europe when it comes to energy. Not only are its green schemes failing to produce enough energy, but because of environmental laws, taxes and regulations, conventional energy prices are shooting through the roof. Inexplicably, President Joe Biden wants to recreate the same failed policies here.

Europe faces a winter of energy discontent, thanks to its absurd green programs that have created sudden extreme shortages and sharply higher prices for natural gas around the world. Officials thought they could cut carbon dioxide emissions to zero simply by building more wind farms and regulating fossil fuels out of existence.

Wrong. Sure, they built wind farms and shut down coal and nuclear plants, but they didn’t think of the simplest question: What if the wind doesn’t blow, or the sun doesn’t shine? As cold weather looms, Europe has had an unusually windless period, triggering severe deficits.

To make up for the shortfalls, Europe has gone back to the natural gas market. But who supplies its natural gas these days? Russia, which has cut supplies to Europe mainly, it seems, just to watch it squirm.

Things are so bad that Germany has returned to evil coal for fuel, only to be told by providers that, sorry, prices are sky high and supplies are tight. After closing all its nuclear power plants, which supplied CO2-free energy, foolish Germany has no choice. Nor does the rest of Europe, suffering the same self-inflicted green maladies.

“Europe’s increasingly expensive gas and electricity prices are sending a strong signal to manufacturers to consider temporary plant closures and to home and office owners to turn down thermostats to conserve fuel this winter,” wrote Reuters last week. “Front-month gas futures are now more than six times more expensive than at this point last year, as the region struggles to import enough gas to refill its depleted storage ahead of the winter peak heating season.”

“Europe’s climate follies created fuel shortages and price spikes rippling through global energy markets,” CFACT, a climate think tank, tweeted in response to Europe’s energy shock. “Demand for natural gas has soared due to waning wind production, the shutdown of coal and nuclear plants, and lower Russian gas deliveries.”

Yang says he has left Democratic Party By Monique Beals

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/575201-yang-says-he-has-left-democratic-party

Former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang announced his departure from the Democratic Party today, describing the experience as “strangely emotional.”

Yang announced in a statement on his website that he was opting to change his registration to become an independent voter. 

“Breaking up with the Democratic Party feels like the right thing to do because I believe I can have a greater impact this way,” Yang said.

Yang also acknowledged his experiences with thousands of Democrats during his previous presidential and mayoral bids. 

“At first, many didn’t know what to make of the odd Asian candidate talking about giving everyone money. But over time I established deep relationships with some of the local leaders who have worked in party politics for years,” he said of the experience. 

Yang added that he was “confident that no longer being a Democrat is the right thing.”

Who Are the Advisors Who Circle a Confused President? by Lawrence Kadish

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17831/president-advisors

Published reports reveal that John Podesta, Bill Clinton’s former chief of staff and senior counselor to Barack Obama, has sent a memo to every Democratic Congressman reminding them the party “must unite and act together” to pass Biden’s “infrastructure” agenda.

Podesta, according to an email released from Wikileaks, was also previously approached by an advisor to Dominion Voting Systems who was “offering ‘anything’ that might defeat Trump.” What was the advisor to the voting machines company offering?

Podesta’s older brother, Tony, was a long time mega Democratic lobbyist and fund raiser. His lobbying career has been resurrected with a New York Times report that the embattled Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei has hired Podesta. Huawei was identified as a national security threat by the Trump administration and faces federal charges of racketeering and conspiring to steal trade secrets from American companies. One supposes that Podesta’s retainer is in dollars and requires him to promote the interests of a company alleged to be an extension of the Chinese government.

Given Biden’s curious response to ABC News, one could legitimately ask, just whose national policy are we actually pursuing? The president’s or his advisors?

Henry the VIII had Thomas Cromwell as his Privy Counselor with Cromwell playing a vital role in the King’s personal, domestic, and international relationships.

Napoleon depended on Talleyrand as his Grand Chamberlain, a master diplomat who managed to serve King Louis XVI, the leaders of the French Revolution, and then Napoleon.

Biden Ignores Palestinian Support For Terrorists by Bassam Tawil

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17822/palestinian-support-terrorists

The Biden administration’s talk about achieving a “two-state solution” does not seem to impress many Palestinians. They believe, according to a recent public opinion poll, that this solution is no longer practical or feasible. These Palestinians, the poll found, prefer to wage an “armed struggle” against Israel.

With such views, it is safe to assume that the Palestinian state the Biden administration is hoping to establish alongside Israel will be controlled by Iranian-backed terrorists such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad…..

The findings of that poll confirmed that a majority of Palestinians continue to see Hamas and other terrorists as their heroes and role models. The results also confirmed that a majority of Palestinians continue to believe that violence and terrorism are the best and only way to deal with Israel.

Their demand reveals that an overwhelming majority of Palestinians have no confidence in Abbas and are likely to reject any peace agreement he signs with Israel. First, anyone who signs a peace deal with Israel will be regarded as a traitor and rewarded the same ill-starred way as Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, who signed a peace treaty with Israel and was assassinated. It is a consequence with which Abbas is acquainted.

Those who continue to talk about a “two-state solution” are not only deluding themselves, but also endangering the security of the Middle East by seeking to establish yet another terrorist state, especially so soon after the debacle of the U.S. surrender to the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Despite the decision by the Biden administration to resume financial aid to the Palestinians and work toward reviving the “peace process” with Israel, most Palestinians continue to support Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that does not recognize Israel’s right to exist.

The Biden administration’s talk about achieving a “two-state solution” does not seem to impress many Palestinians. They believe, according to a recent public opinion poll, that this solution is no longer practical or feasible. These Palestinians, the poll found, prefer to wage an “armed struggle” against Israel.

In his recent speech before the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly, U.S. President Joe Biden, expressing his administration’s policy toward the Israeli-Arab conflict, said:

“The commitment of the United States to Israel’s security is without question. And a support – our support for an independent, Jewish state is unequivocal. But I continue to believe that a two-state solution is the best way to ensure Israel – Israel’s future as a Jewish, democratic state living in peace alongside a viable, sovereign, and democratic Palestinian state.”

Ironically, on the same day Biden that delivered his speech at the UN General Assembly, another public opinion poll published by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research on September 21 again showed that many Westerners are clueless about the real attitudes of the Palestinian public.

The findings of that poll confirmed that a majority of Palestinians continue to see Hamas and other terrorists as their heroes and role models. The results also confirmed that a majority of Palestinians continue to believe that violence and terrorism are the best and only way to deal with Israel.

With such views, it is safe to assume that the Palestinian state the Biden administration is hoping to establish alongside Israel will be controlled by Iranian-backed terrorists such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, whose declared goal is to replace Israel with an Islamist state after killing or expelling as many Jews as possible from their homeland.

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

Israel is the most libeled democracy in the world. To challenge the lies of Israel’s antagonists Michael Ordman compiles a dazzling list of Israeli achievements in every field of human endeavor. In his words:

“Israel’s universal positive impact continues at fast pace. They include Covid-19 treatments, anti-bacterial breakthroughs, and 3D-printed blood vessels. There are major benefits to the disabled, anti-racist education, diverse flora, agricultural training and relief for the disadvantaged Vietnamese. Technical achievements include more vegan meat, electric vehicle battery life, cybersecurity, electronic skin and navigation without GPS.  International investment in Israeli startups is at an unprecedented level.”

 

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
HIV therapy counters Covid-19. Israeli-managed Code Pharma developed its Codivir treatment for HIV at its Israeli R&D center. It has just completed a successful Phase 1 trial in Brazil for using Codivir against the coronavirus and has applied to start a Phase 2 trial on 150 patients in Israel, Spain, Brazil and South Africa.
https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/israeli-scientists-say-their-antiviral-drug-could-stop-covid-19-679437
 
IDF medics’ home care for Covid patients. Doctors and nurses currently serving in the IDF have commenced the “Hand-in-hand” initiative. Coronavirus patients are transferred from hospital to home-based care. They are monitored remotely from a command center, with at least once-a-day on-site visits from medical personnel.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/313640
 
Covid update from BGU. Useful webinar on coronavirus mutations and the booster shots from two leading Ben Gurion University experts – Prof. Nadav Davidovitch, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., and Dr. Anat Rosenthal, Ph.D.
https://americansforbgu.org/video/webinar-covid-update/#
 
Good bacteria to kill bad bacteria. Scientists at Tel Aviv University have enabled friendly bacteria to attack bad bacteria with toxins and neutralize them. They programmed safe bacteria to attack only specific pathogens, using the Type 6 Secretion system that germs use to destroy cells.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-antibacterial-weapon-arms-good-germs-to-kill-bad-germs/
 
US approval for bacteria vs virus test. Israel’s MeMed Diagnostics (see here previously) has received US FDA clearance for its MeMed BV blood test that can distinguish, in minutes, between bacterial and viral infections. It can help prevent the inappropriate use of antibiotics that leads to antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-memed-gets-fda-approval-for-breakthrough-infection-test/
 
3D printed blood vessels from plant leaves. Scientists at Israel’s Technion Institute have succeeded in 3D printing a network of blood vessels that can provide blood to implanted tissues. The collagen used in the printing process was derived from tobacco plants and made by Israel’s Collplant.
https://www.jpost.com/science/the-future-of-personalized-medicine-technion-team-built-blood-tree-from-scratch-679872  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omKrw_eYIFI
 
74 new cancer research grants. The Israel Cancer Research Fund (ICRF) has announced 74 new cancer research grants valued at over $4.6 million, that will be funded in 2021/22.
https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/israel-cancer-research-fund-receives-74-new-grants-679387
https://www.icrfonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2021-Funded-Grant-Synopses-as-of-9.1.21.pdf
 
Eli explains CPR. United Hatzalah CEO Eli Beer gives another of his straight-forward step-by-step guides – this time to CPR which could save a life if an EMT failed to arrive in the 3 minutes that United Hatzalah target.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J36Bbr1MGpA

Our Woke National Icons Milley, Fauci, and Biden are soulless men who reveal the bankruptcy of our ruling class. By Victor Davis Hanson

https://amgreatness.com/2021/10/03/our-woke-national-icons/

As we watch events unfold in 2021, obvious questions about the fitness of our national leaders present themselves. Who are these new woke national icons and how did they come to lord it over the rest of us? Here are some observations by way of preliminary explanation.

The Strategist

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley conceded to Congress last week that he has been an anonymous source to controversial “inside” progressive muckrakers detailing the supposed dysfunctions of the prior administration. He strangely characterizes such anonymous, self-serving, behind-the-scenes leaking as some sort of public-service transparency. Evidently, it is now a part of the chairman’s duties to serve the media.

Among the many “background” quotes that Milley provided to meet his journalistic obligations were his various comparisons of his commander-in-chief to Nazis—a violation of Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. He reportedly offered further allegations to journalists that news outlets like the Epoch Times and Newsmax were “terrorist” organizations. When pressed on such details the usually punctilious Milley shrugs, in the fashion of James Comey’s under-oath testimonies, that he does “not recall” such specifics.  Such is the honor of the nation’s most visible military officer.

Although by statute Milley lacks operational command, he admittedly has intervened in the operational protocols concerning the use of nuclear weapons. At one point, after a conversation with, and on the apparent prompting of, HouseSpeaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), he redirected normal decision-making channels concerning the potential use of nuclear weapons through his own person. That is forbidden by law—despite what his beltway apologists have pleaded.

More interestingly, though, Milley took it upon himself to call up the major military leaders of Communist China, and to apprise them that (in his opinion) the United States was in crisis (“messy”). No worries, though: the freelancing Milley assured the People’s Liberation Army heads that they should not worry about any preemptive attack or aggression, since Milley himself apparently was in de facto charge of such strategic decision-making and would warn them in advance if his country seemed dangerously aggressive. Thus far in the imbroglio, the Pentagon and the retired military apparently seem comfortable with such a radically new role for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

Milley ignored that Trump was the first president in memory who did not initiate a major new military engagement. And when pressed under oath, Milley himself later confessed that he did not think Trump was likely to start a war against anyone—which raises the question of why he even made such a peremptory call to our adversaries? Much of what Milley has testified to under oath before Congress is flatly contradicted by transcripts of his phone call with Pelosi, is in utter conflict with statements made by President Biden and the State Department and cannot be reconciled with his own frequent prior disclosures to journalists.

In sum, America’s highest-ranking honorific military officer has violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice, has violated the law concerning his own advisory role as chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and has either serially not told the truth, or assumes that Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, several journalists (and various earlier incarnations of himself) are all not telling the truth.

Milley has set a new precedent for the leadership of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: it is now permissible to be overtly political, to leak confidential conversations to progressive book-writing journalists, to freelance and warn likely enemies if and when the U.S. military might take action against them, and to pick and choose when to exercise (illegally) operational command, and when (legally) to refrain, or at least to remain “only” an advisor, when culpability for a disaster, like the one in Afghanistan, is determined.

Historians will later ponder why this officer has not resigned and what his continued tenure says about the status of the current U.S. military.