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December 2021

‘Obsessed’ Biden administration put settlements on par with Iran nukes Blinken insisted on the devotion of equal time to Iran and settlements in his meeting with Gantz. By Lahav Harkov

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/obsessed-biden-administration-put-settlements-on-par-with-iran-nukes-688721

The Biden administration has put the issue of settlements on the same level as the Iranian nuclear threat in its discussions with Israeli officials, multiple Israeli diplomatic sources said in recent days.

“The Americans bring up ‘settler violence’ all the time, obsessively,” a senior diplomatic source in Jerusalem lamented.

When Defense Minister Benny Gantz was in Washington last week to implore the Americans to take a tougher stance against the Iranian nuclear threat, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken insisted they devote equal time to discussing settlements as they did to Iran, which Israeli diplomatic sources found baffling.

Blinken told Gantz that the Israeli government’s settlement activity is “destroying the chance of a two-state solution.”

Another Israeli source involved in Gantz’s visit to Washington said the description of the meeting is “inaccurate and the meeting with the secretary of state was friendly and mostly dealt with the Iranian matter.

“Other topics, such as the Palestinian issue, were discussed but were not the focus of the meeting,” the source added. 

Gantz’s meetings with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin went more smoothly, the sources said. US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan is coming to Israel next Wednesday to discuss Iran.

Talk of the American “obsession” came after Public Security Minister Omer Bar Lev came under fire from Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and others on the Right for speaking of settler violence with Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland, making no mention of Palestinian attacks on Israelis.

Bar Lev tweeted a photo of his meeting with Nuland, explaining that she was “interested, among other things, in settler violence and a way to reduce regional tensions and strengthen the Palestinian Authority.”

Biden’s Build Back Better Lie Revealed: $5 Tril Isn’t ‘Zero’

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/12/15/bidens-build-back-better-lie-revealed-5-tril-isnt-zero/

President Joe Biden and other Democrats have smugly responded “zero” or “nothing” when asked what the massive Build Back Better plan will ultimately cost. Not to be rude, but this is an outright lie, as a new government analysis clearly shows.

“My Build Back Better Agenda costs zero dollars,” Biden tweeted on Sept. 25 from his White House account. “Instead of wasting money on tax breaks, loopholes and tax evasion for big corporations and the wealthy, we can make a once-in-a-generation investment in working America. And it adds zero dollars to the national debt.”

In the ensuing weeks, that lie got repeated by others. That includes White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki, who told gullible leftists in the mainstream media that the bill would cost nothing, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who added the novel twist that the massive bill is “fully paid for.”

Since the lie went out over official social media, it wasn’t a slip of the tongue or the accidental hyperbole of a man in obvious age-related mental decline. It was an official White House policy statement, one that makes Biden’s whole administration look profoundly foolish, dishonest and deceitful.

No person with any schooling in basic math, economics, statistics or, alternatively, simply having plain common sense, would believe that spending trillions of dollars on nonproductive programs would actually result in zero net costs without massive added tax hikes. It’s simply not real.

That’s where the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) enters the picture. As it turns out, estimates for Biden’s plan from the CBO, the nonpartisan congressional think tank that officially “scores” new legislation for what it would cost the U.S. Treasury, show it would be the largest spending program ever undertaken by the U.S. And no, its costs aren’t zero.

The CBO concludes that the Build Back Better bonanza would add $3 trillion to U.S. deficits by 2031, an amount most would agree is a bit north of “zero.”

A Compendium Of Hate Crime Hoaxes: Jussie Smollett’s Was Just The Tip Of The Iceberg Armando Simón

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/12/14/a-compendium-of-hate-crime-hoaxes-jussie-smolletts-was-just-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/

There are opinions, announcements and news events that the media hivemind suppresses through news blackouts believing that if a news event is not reported then it is not news, and people will not know, similar to the philosophical conundrum of, if a tree falls in the forest and there is no one around to hear, has it made a noise? One of these taboo topics is hate crime hoaxes, since it jars with the media hivemind’s goal of convincing people, particularly blacks, of the idea of “systemic racism” in our society as a means of promoting a race war and peddling CRT.

Over recent years, I have cataloged a large number of hate crime hoaxes involving Muslims, gays, and blacks (I have also compiled a long list of fraudulent accusations of rape, but that is a topic for another time). The reason I have done so stems from my research background: I prefer data (i.e., facts) as opposed to verbosity. If I write an eloquent essay stating that hoaxes are common, a leftist can counter with an equally eloquent essay stating that they are rare (this has occurred in other topics with sophists writing that the media hivemind is impartial and that there is no censorship in universities). But, if I cite facts, a leftist’s verbal diarrhea is ineffective.

Here, then, are some of the participants in the Oppression Olympics:

At Emory University, a black employee vandalized vending machines and wrote racist graffiti and swastikas before being discovered. The university did not disclose the race of the employee.

A black woman pretended to be a 6-foot-tall white Klansman and sent death threats to her neighbors.

A black student at East Carolina University posted a racist invitation to a fraternity party that read, “No blacks.”

Avigdor Lieberman’s crass admonition to a sector decimated by COVID closures Ruthie Blum

https://www.jns.org/opinion/avigdor-liebermans-crass-admonition-to-a-sector-decimated-by-covid-closures/

Israeli Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman is famous for many things, but tact isn’t one of them. And this week, he outdid himself, displaying a marked lack of sympathy for all the people in one of the country’s key industries—tourism.

It’s pretty rich, so to speak, for the honcho charged with safeguarding and growing the economy to be dismissive of such an instrumental sector. Then again, the former Moldovan’s imitation of Kremlin-like power-wielding is as solid as his rejection of Soviet-style fiscal policies.

Though he subsequently claimed to regret his “wording,” what Lieberman had said during Sunday’s Cabinet meeting was that anyone in the tourism business affected by what is emerging as a new set of draconian coronavirus restrictions—due to panic over the Omicron variant of COVID-19—should “find another job.”

This was after announcing that the government wouldn’t be compensating them for their plight, which he asserted wasn’t going to be ending any time soon. Tough luck.

The outcry that ensued was understandable. Even Israelis who generally oppose nanny-state politics were incensed, mainly because it is the government that decided to close the borders to non-citizens. It is the government as well that keeps coming up with plans—often silly, ineffective or unenforceable—to prevent the spread of what it is incomprehensibly referring to as a “fifth wave” of the pandemic.

A Dissident Voice at Cornell By George Leef

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/a-dissident-voice-at-cornell/?itm_source=parsely-api

The administration at Cornell University has gone absolutely mad with its “antiracism” crusade. Critical race theory education becomes mandatory, and it even appears to think it can compel people to accept the curriculum.

Law professor Bill Jacobson is speaking out against this astounding perversion of academic values. He explains what has been going on at Cornell in this Legal Insurrection article:

Here is a slice from his statement in opposition to the administration’s reeducation mandates:

Proposal F starts with the compulsion that “Faculty must understand structural racism and the forces of systemic bias and privilege” (emphasis added). Later, Proposal F “requires” that faculty accept that “structural racism, colonialism, and injustice, and their current manifestations have a historical and relational basis.” That CRT worldview, which in its current incarnation is often misleadingly referred to as “antiracism,” is off the table for debate under this proposal. Rather, CRT becomes the official ideology of the University. The rest of the proposal dictates how that mandate will be implemented, including dictating “a framework for interacting with other faculty, with students, with members of the staff, and the broader community” with the faculty “educational requirement . . . to support the faculty in this effort.” Why such compulsion? This campus already is awash in CRT-driven programs, courses, events, workshops, and faculty and student activism, and the separately proposed Center will further the breadth of CRT-based education.

If I were a Cornell grad, I’d let the school know that I would never donate another dollar to them and would try to convince as many Cornellians that the place is no longer worth supporting.

There Is No ‘Conservative Case for CRT’ By Nate Hochman

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/there-is-no-conservative-case-for-crt/

The Washington Post published a piece this morning by contributing columnist Gary Abernathy, ostensibly one of the Post’s right-leaning voices, arguing that “there’s a lot for conservatives to embrace in critical race theory.” It’s the latest in the budding subgenre of “the conservative case for [insert X left-wing policy here] think pieces: “the conservative case for the Democratic Party,” “the conservative case for Roe v. Wade,” “the conservative case for ditching the Electoral College,” and so on. But it is in a league of its own when it comes to the sheer absurdity of its line of argument, which operates off of a surprisingly shallow understanding of both CRT and conservatism. (Note: The Post capitalizes “white” and “black”; quotations from Abernathy here will duplicate this style for the sake of accuracy in quoting, not to endorse it.)

Abernathy argues that “conservatives should consider that maybe [the Left] has a point” about CRT because “many conservatives pride themselves on being grounded in logic rather than emotion,” and “logic dictates that something as historically obvious as the impact of slave labor on the success of our nation should be acknowledged and more comprehensively taught, along with the fact that our legal, governmental and economic institutions were crafted, intentionally or otherwise, to favor White people.” He does not elaborate on which of today’s American institutions unfairly favor whites, or by what standard he’s judging the unfair privileges they bestow. He simply asserts that “logic dictates” it is so.

Certainly, many on the left would agree with that assessment. But many on the right don’t; conservatives tend to be skeptical of claims that disparate outcomes — the social-justice Left’s favorite metric to cite as proof of discrimination — are inherent evidence of injustice. Abernathy frames his argument as addressed to the Right, but makes no attempt to actually engage with these conservative critiques of CRT. Nor does he even make any reference to basic conservative principles beyond the fact that “many conservatives pride themselves on being grounded in logic rather than emotion.” In other words, it’s not entirely clear why Abernathy thinks conservatives should support CRT, beyond the fact that he wants them to.

There are many reasons to object to CRT from a conservative perspective. It is a corrosive racialist ideology that undermines American institutions, it teaches citizens to categorize one another on the basis of race, and it presents a dark and twisted view of U.S. history.

Poverty, Economic Turmoil Shaking Erdoğan’s Throne by Burak Bekdil

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18008/turkey-poverty-economy

Erdoğan’s biggest political rival ahead of the 2023 presidential elections seems to be — poverty.

The first decade of Erdoğan’s rule actually brought relative prosperity to Turks. Per capita GDP rose sharply from $3,688 in 2002 to $11,796 in 2012… Since 2013, however, reckless nepotism, increasing authoritarianism, corruption and economic mismanagement have boosted interest-rates, inflation and unemployment, bringing per capita GDP down to an estimated $7,500.

Nearly half of Turkish workers are minimum wage earners, meaning that millions of families must survive on $233 a month

Unfortunately, since early 2018, the lira has been on a downward slide due to constant geopolitical tensions with the West, widening current account deficits, shrinking foreign currency reserves and mounting public debt.

As the lira crashes to insane historic lows, local salaries are also severely devalued.

Erdoğan is heading fast to becoming the victim of his own miscalculations: a dramatically mismanaged economy and geostrategic challenges that went beyond Turkey’s political and military might.

Perhaps these missteps will be the beginning of the end of Erdoğan’s ugly populism — his neo-Ottoman ambitions that have caused major damage to Turkey’s economy as well as the country’s international isolation.

A punishing economic crisis in 2000-2001, the worst ever in modern Turkish history, pushed millions of Turks below the poverty line. In 2002, Turks went to the ballot box to punish a ruling coalition of mainstream parties and elected as prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. By a simple twist of fate, nearly two decades later, Erdoğan’s biggest political rival ahead of the 2023 presidential elections seems to be — poverty.

National Debt Essay Contest challenges youngsters who will pay the bill A $100,000 national contest program asks students to confront America’s multi-trillion deficit before it craters the nation’s future

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18032/national-debt-essay-contest

(New York, New York) – Warning that the devastating impact of a multi-trillion dollar debt increase now being created by the Biden budget will fall squarely on the shoulders of a generation of Americans blithely unaware of the fate that awaits them, philanthropist, national real estate investor, and Gatestone Institute Board member Lawrence Kadish and the Gatestone Institute have launched a $100,000 national educational essay contest that challenges young students to share their understanding of the looming Biden debt, the role of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and how their generation intends to pay down their share of the deficit.

Entitled, “The Gatestone Institute’s Student Contest on America’s National Debt,” selected essay winners will be provided with up to $10,000 cash, (if there are ten winners at $10,000 each), or as provided for in the rules of the contest, determined by a panel of judges selected by Gatestone, and chaired by Larry Kudlow, former Director of the National Economic Council.

Justice Department Moves to Conceal Police Misconduct on January 6 Preventing defendants from telling juries exactly what happened on January 6 is the Justice Department’s latest attempt to cover up pervasive police misconduct. By Julie Kelly

https://amgreatness.com/2021/12/13/justice-department-moves-to-conceal-police-misconduct-on-january-6/

After months of foot-dragging, Joe Biden’s Justice Department is preparing for the first set of trials related to its sprawling prosecution of January 6 defendants: Robert Gieswein, who turned himself in and was arrested on January 19 for his involvement in the Capitol protest, is scheduled to stand trial in February.

A week after his arrest, Gieswein, 24 at the time, was indicted by a federal grand jury on six counts including “assaulting, resisting, or impeding” law enforcement with a dangerous weapon that day. He has been behind bars ever since, denied bail while Judge Emmet Sullivan delayed his trial on numerous occasions. Gieswein is among 40 or so January 6 defendants held in a part of the D.C. jail system solely used to detain Capitol protesters.

Federal prosecutors accuse Gieswein of using a chemical spray against police officers and carrying a baseball bat. Clad in military-style gear, Gieswein climbed through a broken window shortly after the first breach of the building. He told a reporter on the scene that “the corrupt politicians who have been in office for 50 or 60 years . . . need to be imprisoned.” Democratic politicians, Gieswein complained, sold out the country to “the Rothchilds and the Rockefellers,” a remark the FBI investigator on his case described as an “anti-Semitic” conspiracy theory.

Ahead of Gieswein’s trial, the Justice Department asked Judge Sullivan to strictly curtail how Gieswein can defend himself. A motion filed earlier this month argued Gieswein should not use self-defense against law enforcement as a reason for his actions on January 6. (Prosecutors also stated that Gieswein should not blame President Trump for his alleged criminal behavior,  claiming it is “objectively unreasonable to conclude that President Trump could authorize citizens to interfere with the Electoral College proceedings,” a legal torpedo to the Democrats’ nonstop accusations that Trump “incited” the events of January 6.)

“[The] Defendant will not be able to put forth any evidence that he had a reasonable belief that his actions were necessary to defend himself against the immediate use of unlawful force,” Matthew Graves, the new U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, wrote in the December 1 filing. “Through his words and actions, the Defendant made plain his intent. The Court should exclude any testimony and evidence purporting to assert a claim of self-defense.”

Preventing Gieswein from telling a jury exactly what happened on January 6 is the Justice Department’s latest attempt to cover up pervasive police misconduct. Gieswein’s alleged offenses coincided with the time frame when Capitol and D.C. Metropolitan Police officers started attacking thousands of protesters assembled outside the building on January 6. 

Law enforcement deployed explosive devices known as “flashbangs,” which emit a powerful burst of light and sound to temporarily stun the intended victim, into the crowd around 1:15 p.m. on January 6, just moments after Trump finished up his speech at the Ellipse less than two miles away. Police also used rubber bullets, tear gas, batons, and in some cases, their own fists to assault protesters.

Prosecutors know this is fact—and it’s precisely why the Justice Department is desperate to keep any video footage or testimony that portrays these vicious assaults out of the public eye. As I have reported, the Justice Department and U.S. Capitol Police want roughly 14,000 hours of surveillance video captured by security cameras on January 6 to remain under protective orders. The trove is considered “highly sensitive” government material by Biden’s Justice Department; even defendants are strictly limited as to how they can view this classified footage used as evidence against them.

Guess who won the Miss Universe contest this year By Ethel C. Fenig

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/12/guess_who_won_the_miss_universe_contest_this_year.html

The Wuhan coronavirus’s omicron variant and anti-Jewish/anti-Israel bigotry don’t stop the important events in life, such as the Miss Universe contest, held in Israel last Sunday night.  The show must go on, and it did!  Beautifully! 

Held in Israel’s southernmost city, Eilat, bordering Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia and on the Red Sea, the contestants had their fun in the sun before, during, and after the competition.  

The beauties didn’t just prance around.  They did some serious, educational stuff about their countries.  

The pageant included traditional displays of national costumes, swimwear and a series of interview questions to test contestants’ public speaking skills. The top 10 showed off intricately bedazzled full-length gowns in either gold, silver or bronze. The Philippines’ Beatrice Luigi Gomez wore an asymmetrical cut dress with one sleeve, highlighting a new tattoo she said “celebrates her womanhood.” 

Sure, master of ceremonies Steve Harvey stumbled a bit because of a mistaken cue card, announcing the wrong home country of the winner, but, professional that he is, he quickly recovered and went on with the show.