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June 2023

The Biden Administration’s Secret Capitulation to Iran’s Regime by Majid Rafizadeh

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19727/capitulation-to-iran

The Biden administration also reportedly wants to pump $17 billion dollars into the Iranian regime’s treasury. These benefits will not only enable the mullahs’ to finalize their nuclear weapons program, but also to send more arms to Russia to attack Ukraine, as well as to further enable the regime’s ruthless expansion throughout the Middle East — in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and the terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip — and throughout Latin America.

The US, intriguingly, seems hell-bent on supporting a regime that its own Department of State has called the “top state sponsor of terrorism.”

Based on Iran’s abysmal track record of complying with its own agreements, any deal in which Iran might promise to stop enriching uranium is just a sick joke.

“I continue to believe, Biden said on July 14, “that diplomacy is the best way to achieve this outcome.”

Someone recently replied, “Neville Chamberlain believed that diplomacy was the best way, too.”

The Biden administration, by keeping the American people and the Congress in the dark regarding these ongoing secret negotiations with Iran, appear to understand that is doing something malign. The countries disastrously affected by any “deal” with the Islamist regime of Iran are “only” the US, the Gulf States, Israel, Latin America and Europe. The Biden administration nevertheless appears determined to give the ruling mullahs of Iran the ultimate $17 billion gift: the deadly nuclear deal — so that Iran will promise not to use their nuclear weapons on this administration’s watch.

In spite of strong opposition from the Congress, the Biden administration has been holding​ ​secret talks in Oman to reward the ruling mullahs of Iran with a nuclear deal that will pave the way for Iran legally to obtain as many nuclear weapons as it likes, empower the ruling mullahs with billions of dollars, lift sanctions, allow it to rejoin the global financial system and enhance the theocratic regime’s legitimacy on the global stage.

Comer: New Bank Records Will Reveal $30M Foreign Payments to Biden Family By Eric Lendrum

https://amgreatness.com/2023/06/16/comer-new-bank-records-will-reveal-30m-foreign-payments-to-biden-family/

On Thursday, Congressman James Comer (R-Ky.), Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, claimed that recently-subpoenaed bank records will reveal that the Biden family accepted bribes from foreign nationals to the tune of at least $30 million.

As the New York Post reports, Comer said in an interview on Fox News that “we have more bank records coming in, we’re going to exceed $10 million this week. And I think we’ll get up to between $20 and 30 million.” Comer has said that at least nine members of the Biden family have received foreign income from bribes and shady business deals, including son Hunter, brother James, sister-in-law Sara, son Beau’s widow and Hunter’s ex-girlfriend Hallie, Hunter’s wife Melissa, and Hunter’s ex-wife Kathleen Buhle.

The other three members of the Biden family who have received foreign income, according to Comer, are one grandchild and two of his brother’s children.

The claims come amid ongoing revelations concerning an FBI informant who formally accused Biden of bribery while he was vice president, recording his claims in an FD-1023 form. The document, which has been reviewed by the Oversight Committee, claims that both Joe and Hunter Biden each received a bribe of $5 million from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings, in exchange for a promise that the elder Biden would drastically change U.S. foreign policy.

Since then, Comer has subpoenaed additional Biden bank records from Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, HSBC, and Cathay Bank.

“We’re going to continue to follow the money,” Comer added in his Thursday interview. “This is going to be hard for Joe Biden to explain.”

Israel develops world’s first system to shoot down hypersonic missiles against which Russia & Iran claimed there is no defense and more defense news from Tom Gross Tom Gross

https://madmimi.com/p/06e2961?pact=168249-174108441-7235361215-013d0ba9f2f1fb56788e00ac2a3b474156542426

The new hypersonic missile interceptor system, developed by Israeli state-owned Rafael Advanced Defense Systems has already been shown to the US military, who are considering buying it.

Both Russia and Iran have stepped up production of hypersonic missiles in recent months amid claims that they cannot be intercepted, in what could prove to be a major defence problem for Israel, Ukraine and their allies.

Russia’s hypersonic cruise missiles fly in the upper atmosphere and travel at five times the speed of sound and have already been used in Ukraine.

Iran’s new “Fattah” missile is even before advanced and has been pointed at Tel Aviv, possibly to deter a potential Israeli strike on the regime’s nuclear program. Iran says the Fattah can fly at 15 times the speed of sound and strike Tel Aviv within 400 seconds.

Tehran is also sending thousands of shorter-range missiles and drones to Russia for use against Ukraine, in return for Russia sending its advanced fighter jets to Iran that could be used by the regime to attack Israel.

How Obama uses his puppet, Joe Biden, to impose his third term on America Victor Sharpe

http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/sharpe

This is Obama’s Third Term in all but name.

“Any state, any entity, any ideology that fails to recognize the worth, the dignity, the rights of man, is obsolete.

“It has existed in the past, it is here in the present, and will, alas, be there in the future.

“The all-powerful state is not a new world that has never existed before. On the contrary, it is merely an extension of what began in the old one.

“Such an overarching regime has patterned itself under every dictator who has planted the ripping imprint of a boot on the pages of history since the beginning of time.

“It has refinements, technological advances, and a sophisticated approach to the destruction of human freedom. But, like every one of the super states that preceded it, there is that one iron rule that it must maintain and retain to survive – logic is an enemy and truth is a menace.”

The words above were spoken by Rod Serling in a Twilight Zone episode from June 2nd, 1961, titled, The Obsolete Man.

It is the story of Mr. Wordsworth who was condemned to death by the state because he refused to stop thinking as an independent human being in a soulless, all powerful state where such dissenting behavior was considered a dangerous aberration. He was thus deemed to be obsolete in the New World Order; a “crime” punishable by death.

And so it is with great sadness that the wonderful, divinely inspired human experiment called the United States of America is remorselessly slipping into its own twilight zone.

Logic and truth, freedom of expression and citizens’ rights, as enshrined in the magnificent Constitution and Bill of Rights, began to be increasingly deemed treacherous and obsolete by the vast and growing power of Big Government under the two-term baleful and imperial presidency of Barack Hussein Obama whose army of unelected apparatchiks eagerly did his bidding without question.

Senator Fetterman needs to resign and seek the medical help he deserves By Thomas Lifson

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/06/senator_fetterman_needs_to_resign_and_seek_the_medical_help_he_deserves.html

As a stroke victim, Senator John Fetterman has my deep sympathy. As well, he has my best wishes for recovery, a task to which he should devote himself full-time. But as he demonstrated yesterday in a hearing covering the damage to Interstate 95 in Philadelphia – a link vital to many of his constituents – he is incapable of representing them in the Senate. I watched with a mixture of pity and horror as he was unable to form basic sentences in English, much less pronounce simple words correctly, when Senator Carper from neighboring Delaware asked him to comment:

The citizens of Pennsylvania deserve representation in the Senate for the next five years. Senator Fetterman deserves the time and support needed for a full-time commitment to therapies for the damage his stroke has done.

Reparations Are No More Than a Dream of Privilege Black Americans tragically turned our focus from rights and laws to identity politics and victimization. By Shelby Steele

https://www.wsj.com/articles/reparations-are-no-more-than-a-dream-of-privilege-civil-rights-indentity-politics-victims-175f259a?mod=opinion_lead_pos7

If simple logic were the only measure of truth in matters of race, reparations for black Americans would make perfect sense. We have endured four centuries of an especially mean and degrading persecution. Slavery, and the regime of segregation that followed it, was dawn-to-dusk, cradle-to-grave oppression. The only argument against reparations would be that no contemporary offer of reparation could ever be sufficient compensation.

But since the 1960s, we blacks have been all but overwhelmed with social programs and policies that seek to reparate us. Didn’t the 1964 Civil Rights Act launch an era of reparation in America?

And didn’t that era continue with President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society and War on Poverty, two sweeping excursions into social engineering that he hoped would “end poverty in our time”? Then there was school busing for integration, free public housing, racial preferences in college admissions, affirmative action in employment, increasingly generous welfare payments and so on.

More recently, in American institutions of every kind, there has emerged a new woke language of big-hat-no-cattle words like “equity,” “inclusion,” “intersectionality,” “triggers,” “affinity spaces,” “allies” and of course the all-purpose “diversity,” today both a mandate and a brand. America has had some 60 years of what might be called reparational social reform—reform meant to uplift not only the poor, but especially those, like black Americans, whose poverty meets the bar of historical grievance.

Biden’s New Iran Nuclear Courtship The White House wants to push the issue past the 2024 election.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-administration-iran-deal-nuclear-weapons-international-atomic-energy-agency-7251bbe1?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

Here we go again. The same people who gave us the Iran nuclear deal in 2015 are trying to pull off a new version that would send Iran cash on day one in return for promises down the road.

The deal taking shape, per press reports in the U.S. and Israel, isn’t the “longer and stronger” agreement President Biden promised. He held that out for months but Iran refused. Now, in a remarkable retreat, the Biden Administration is pursuing an unwritten “understanding” with Iran to get to the brink of a nuclear breakout but go no further.

Iran has enough uranium enriched to 60% purity for several nuclear weapons, and it can get to weapons-grade quickly. But the U.S. isn’t asking Iran to turn over enriched material. The deal mooted in the press offers financial relief for Iran via sanctions waivers, plus a promise of no new sanctions or International Atomic Energy Agency censures, while requesting only that Iran not enrich uranium beyond 60%.

Color us skeptical that an unwritten agreement, without clear technical restrictions, would compel Iran to reinstall monitoring equipment, turn over data or submit to enhanced inspections. It isn’t clear what role the IAEA would play, and the U.S. would risk Iranian withdrawal if it insisted on real verification or responded meaningfully to Iran’s foreign aggression or domestic crackdowns.

“Trust but verify” is being turned on its head. There’s no trust and little verification. The new strategy is hope and pay.

Last week the U.S. gave Iraq a sanctions waiver to pay Iran $2.76 billion for gas and electricity. This looks like the kind of goodwill gesture—a bribe to keep talking—that the U.S. ruled out in October 2021. The Biden Administration says the waiver is unrelated, citing past payments driven by Iraqi energy needs, but this one is five times as large.

The Administration says Iran will spend the Iraqi funds only on food and medicine, as if money isn’t fungible. In reality the U.S. is freeing up billions of dollars that will finance the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its imperialism across the Middle East.

No One Is Looking Forward to the 2024 Presidential Election Trump’s indictment and a low approval rating for Biden are leading to voter dread with 16 months to Election Day Simon J. Levien & Aaron Zitner

https://www.wsj.com/articles/presidential-election-2024-biden-trump-2c1e9bcc?mod=hp_lead_pos1

As Donald Trump entered a Miami courtroom earlier this week to face federal charges, drawing a raucous crowd and a crush of news media, John Newman felt fatigued by the thought that 16 months of a presidential campaign were yet to come.

“I wish I had a fast-forward button,” said Newman, a political independent in Chicago who is looking for a moderate Republican to support but fears Trump will crowd out his rivals.

Welcome to the election of dread.

Trump’s legal troubles are a sign of the country’s divisions, says John Newman of Chicago. 

If there’s one thing that voters of both parties—and independents—agree on, it’s that few are looking forward to the run-up to November 2024. The two leading candidates, Trump and President Biden, look to be heading for a repeat of 2020, and few see much to relish in that.

The two men are universally known, robbing the electorate of the potential to fall in love with someone new. “We know based on past performance what you’re going to bring to the table. There is nothing more to learn,” said Patrick Gray, a Democrat in Bay City, Mich. “I’m tired of it already.”

Within their own parties, Biden and Trump stoke plenty of anxiety to match whatever enthusiasm they can generate from the faithful. Polling suggests a substantial majority of Democrats don’t want Biden to run for office again. Trump remains the dominant force within the Republican Party, but many say they are open to someone new who doesn’t bring the former president’s combative divisiveness—or the distraction of a grueling court battle.

And no one can claim with a straight face that Biden, at 80 years old—or Trump, 77—represents the youthful vigor or embodiment of America’s bright future that many have found appealing in past presidential candidates.

Neither Biden nor Trump can even claim that a majority of Americans approve of his job performance in office, and so the potential rematch is shaping up to be a battle of who is less unpopular.

‘There is nothing more to learn’ from a Biden-Trump rematch, says Patrick Gray of Michigan. 

If 2020 is any guide, and if the two ultimately top their tickets come Election Day, it will be a razor-thin contest: Biden’s margin of victory in 2020 in the states that decided the election was less than 77,000 votes across four states, although he won the popular vote by seven million.

China Overtakes Russia as Dominant Power in Central Asia by Lawrence A. Franklin

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19726/china-russia-central-asia

Communist China’s People’s Liberation Army has established a military presence in Murghab, Tajikistan, close to the Chinese border with Afghanistan. There is also no doubt that Russia’s embarrassing military imbroglio in Ukraine has helped China supersede Moscow as guarantor of Central Asian state sovereignty.

[Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart] Tokayev has…. denounced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As the Kazakh leader is doubtless aware, some notable Russian nationalists such as former Russian Prime Minister and President Dmitry Medvedev have mused that, after Ukraine is dealt with, Kazakhstan will follow.

China offers Central Asia four basic dimensions of assistance that Russia can no longer provide: financial investment, complementary commerce, development of transport infrastructure, and construction of industrial plants such as oil refineries.

China is building a Chinese-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway, which will ultimately span the expanse of Central Asia to the Middle East. Beijing appears determined to link China and Europe by fashioning thoroughfares that avoid crossing Russian territory that pass through a mid-level corridor of the Caucasus countries.

In exchange, China will be granted wide access to Central Asia’s considerable energy resources. Chinese companies, for example, appear eager to tap into Turkmenistan’s vast natural gas reserves. Chinese oil corporations would also likely dominate Kazakhstan’s petroleum export market to service China’s insatiable desire for more fuel.

It increasingly looks as if that there is some truth in French President Emmanuel Macron’s comment that Russia appears to have become China’s vassal state. It certainly seems as if the Chinese Communist Party has made considerable progress toward achieving its broad objectives of fostering China’s Global Development and Security Initiatives. Neither plan appears to have a principal role for Moscow.

China recently hosted a summit of the leaders of Central Asia’s former Soviet Republics in Xi’an, China, the site of the start of the ancient Silk Road. The symbolism attached to Xi’an as the site for the 18-20 May gathering underscores China’s intent to remind Central Asian leaders that Chinese civilization’s relationship with the region predates ties to Russia by centuries. It also might demonstrate China’s resolve to replace Russia as Eurasia’s hegemon. China, in fact, did not even invite Russia to the conference.

Lesson Learned: Study Shows Charters Outperform Traditional Public Schools By: Auguste Meyrat

https://thefederalist.com/2023/06/16/lesson-learned-study-shows-charters-outperform-traditional-public-schools/

If traditional public schools want to succeed, they should follow charter schools’ lead.

People debating school choice have long had a difficult time finding a comprehensive study to really show the difference between charter schools — publicly funded schools that are run independent of a district or union — and traditional public schools. In most instances, the variables are too numerous for anything to be conclusive. Charter schools seemed to be better, but only certain charters in certain states with certain kids during certain years.

Finally, a new study has come out that indicates charters are indeed generally better than traditional public schools. Tabulating the academic progress of 1.8 million charter school students, researchers at Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes determined that these students were the equivalent of 16 instructional days ahead on English and six instructional days ahead in math. To make sure they weren’t comparing apples to oranges, these students “were each paired with a ‘virtual twin’ (i.e., a nearby pupil possessing similar demographic traits and prior test scores) enrolled at the district school that the charter student otherwise would have attended.”

Naturally, the gains varied from state to state and school to school. In states such as New York, Massachusetts, Tennessee, and Rhode Island, charter school students outpaced traditional public school students by more than a month of instruction in reading and math. Additionally, charter schools that operate under a charter management organization (CMO), like the Knowledge Is Power Program or Founders Classical Academy, did better than their non-CMO counterparts, particularly in math.

And before skeptics give the “But Covid!” excuse, it’s worth noting that these results follow a pattern of steady progression over a decade: “The center’s first national analysis, issued in 2009, showed charters under-performing traditional schools in both core subjects; in a 2013 follow-up, they slightly bested traditional schools in English while still lagging in math.” Unlike most traditional public school systems, charter schools are relatively young and have accordingly experienced growing pains; Covid was incidental to this. Even among charter schools that were part of the same CMO, older campuses outperformed newer ones.