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December 2023

HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

Woke Ways Shrink U.S. Military to Smallest Fighting Force in Eight Decades Milt Harris

By on December 20th, 2023

https://pjmedia.com/miltharris/2023/12/18/woke-ways-shrink-us-military-to-smallest-fighting-force-in-8-decades-n4924846

It was bound to happen. Another unwanted side effect of woke culture is raising its ugly head. The U.S. military is now at its lowest levels in over 80 years, and the reason is not general disinterest, as some would have you believe. Military experts have sounded the alarm about the Biden administration’s “woke” policies within the Department of Defense as the U.S. military is poised to be the smallest it has been in eight decades, while facing emerging global threats.

Retired Navy SEAL Mike Sarraille accused the White House of treating U.S. troops stationed in the Middle East like “cannon fodder,” claiming that the Biden administration’s leadership has heavily impacted the recruitment crisis.

“The few in the military have always carried the burden for the many, but the alarming decrease in numbers not only poses a threat to our national security and defense strategy, but it also raises a question: can we confront the emerging global threats? This is not a recruitment issue. This is a leadership problem,” Sarraille told Carley Shimkus on “Fox & Friends First.”

Sarraille continued: “Talent begets talent, and quite frankly, why would this younger generation want to go work for an administration that uses their troops as cannon fodder in the Middle East like we’re seeing? The administration, instead of creating a lethal force in raising our technology capabilities, has decided to implement woke progressive policies like renaming bases and funding or providing additional funding for DEI programs.”

Mike Glover is an Army vet and a counterterrorism expert. He teaches a special operations prep course in Utah. Glover has seen the number of sign-ups for his course dwindle as the various military branches struggle to recruit new service members. He believes the crisis stems from low morale, which has ultimately been impacted by a progressive policy push within the DOD.

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FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Diplomatic option toward Iran is self-destructive Yoram Ettinger

By on December 20th, 2023

http://bit.ly/3tp5fB4

*The US State Department’s diplomatic option has facilitated the transformation of Iran from “the American policeman of the Gulf” to “the largest anti-American venomous octopus in the world,” stretching its rogue arms from the Persian Gulf through Africa to Latin America and the US-Mexico border, which it perceives as the soft underbelly of the US.

*The diplomatic option – including a frail US response to sustained Iranian attacks on US installations in the Persian Gulf region – has aggravated Middle East instability, threatening the survival of every pro-US Arab regime, and is inducing anti-US global Islamic terrorism.  This is severely eroding US posture of deterrence, benefitting Russia, China and mostly Iran, while undermining US national and homeland security. 

*The diplomatic option has suspended most economic sanctions – without Congressional consent – surging Iran’s oil export from 500,000 barrels per day to 2-3 million barrels per day, increasing Iran’s national income by some $100bn, mostly dedicated to bolster Iran’s anti-US rogue operations, increasingly in Latin America, the US’ backyard.

*The diplomatic option has consistently overlooked the decisive power of the Ayatollahs’ imperialistic ideology, and its determination to export the anti-US Islamic Shiite Revolution. Consequently, the State Department has deluded itself into believing that an astounding financial and diplomatic bonanza would induce Iran’s Ayatollahs to accept peaceful coexistence with their pro-US Arab Sunni neighbors, become good-faith negotiators, and abandon their 1,400-year-old religious, fanatic vision, which is enshrined in their Constitution, K-12 school curriculum, Friday mosque sermons and official media.

*However, as expected, the mega-billion-dollar bonanza yielded by the diplomatic option (e.g., the 2015 JCPOA and the current suspension of economic sanctions) has bolstered its global terroristic network, advancing its vision to topple all pro-US Sunni regimes, and bring the “infidel” West to submission, especially the “The Great American Satan,” while egregiously oppressing and suppressing Iranian women and religious and ethnic minorities.  
*The State Department’s diplomatic option was initiated in 1978/1979, stabbing in the back the pro-US Shah of Iran, and contending that Ayatollah Khomeini was anti-Communist and therefore potentially pro-Western and a stabilizing element geopolitically, “…holding a Gandhi-like position… preoccupied with tractors, not tanks….”

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ELECTIONS Comments turned off

California Lieutenant Governor Calls for Trump to Be Removed from State Ballot By David Zimmermann

By on December 20th, 2023

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/california-lieutenant-governor-calls-for-trump-to-be-removed-from-state-ballot/

A California official is now calling for former president Donald Trump to be removed from California’s 2024 presidential-election ballot following the Colorado supreme court’s ruling that removed Trump from its state’s ballot.

In a letter dated Wednesday, California lieutenant governor Eleni Kounalakis (D.) urged California secretary of state Shirley Weber (D.) to “explore every legal option to remove former President Donald Trump from California’s 2024 presidential primary ballot,” given the Colorado supreme court’s decision. On Tuesday, the court voted 4–3 to disqualify Trump from appearing on the Centennial State’s ballot because he allegedly incited an insurrection on January 6, 2021.

“This decision is about honoring the rule of law in our country and protecting the fundamental pillars of our democracy,” Kounalakis wrote to Weber.

“California must stand on the right side of history,” Kounalakis added. “California is obligated to determine if Trump is ineligible for the California ballot for the same reasons described in [Anderson v. Griswold]. The Colorado decision can be the basis for a similar decision here in our state. The constitution is clear: you must be 35 years old and not be an insurrectionist.”

Under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, no person can assume public office if they “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the U.S. However, a district court concluded last month that the so-called insurrection clause “did not intend to include the President as ‘an officer of the United States’. . . [or] a person who had only taken the Presidential oath.”

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

Gaza Hospital Boss Admits He’s a Hamas Commander, Used Medical Facility as Terror Base By Ari Blaff

By on December 20th, 2023

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/gaza-hospital-boss-admits-hes-a-hamas-commander-used-medical-facility-as-terror-base/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_

Ahmed al-Kahlout, the manager of the Kamal Adnan Hospital in northern Gaza, admitted during an interrogation with Israeli security forces that Hamas used the medical facilities to advance its military operations.

“I know 16 employees in the hospital — doctors, nurses, paramedics and clerks — who also have different positions in the Qassam Brigades,” Kahlout told Israel’s Shin Bet in a video clip released on Tuesday afternoon, referring to the military of Hamas. “They hide in hospitals because, for them, a hospital is a safe place.”

Kahlout, whose hospital is located in the Jabaliya neighborhood of northern Gaza, explained to Israeli security officials, “They [Hamas] won’t be targeted when they are inside a hospital.”

“That they will not be harmed when they are inside a hospital. Hamas has offices inside the hospitals. There are places for senior officials, they also brought a kidnapped soldier there. There is a designated place for interrogations, internal security, and special forces. Everyone has private phone lines inside the hospital,” Kahlout added.

The hospital manager also told Israeli officials that he’d been involved in the Palestinian terror group for over a decade and had risen through its ranks over the years. “I was recruited to Hamas in 2010 with the rank of Brigadier General. There are employees in the hospital who are military operatives of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades – doctors, nurses, paramedics, clerks, and staff members,״ Kahlout said, according to an Israeli military press release.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

What Have They Done? Noah Rothman

By on December 20th, 2023

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/what-have-they-done/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=hero&utm_content=related&utm_term=second

The only thing reassuring about the Colorado supreme court’s 4–3 decision disqualifying Donald Trump from appearing on the state’s presidential ballots is the horror it inspired. Trump fans, Trump critics, and Trump adversaries alike recoiled. Even if they didn’t look askance at the dubious legal rationale that prevailed in this court, the assault it represents on the civic compact proved too much for even some of Trump’s most indefatigable opponents to defend.

That’s a modest silver lining. It will prove no comfort as the decision’s political reverberations unfold. The sense that unelected functionaries and professional bureaucrats have dedicated themselves to the effort to steal from Republicans their agency by simply ruling Trump out of the political process isn’t exclusive only to the MAGA movement’s true believers. GOP voters across the Republican spectrum increasingly believe that, to one extent or another. They will expound on that concern to anyone willing to listen. Anyone would rebel against such an imperious intervention into affairs as intimate as their vote. Americans, in particular, are disinclined to just sit back and take that sort of peremptory imposition.

Even if this sentiment was just a heuristic that folks who don’t spend their free time reading charging documents used to navigate the criminal allegations against Trump, it’s an understandable (if wrong) cognitive shortcut. When it comes to the Colorado case, however, the allegation is well-founded. The logic to which Minnesota’s supreme court appealed when it rejected a similar effort to bar Trump from the ballot, citing the 14th Amendment’s restrictions on candidates who “engaged in” insurrection, is unassailable.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Colorado Undermines Democracy in the Name of Democracy I was one of ten House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump after January 6. I think the court’s decision is shameful. Peter Meijer

By on December 20th, 2023

https://www.thefp.com/p/colorado-court-trump-2024-peter-meijer-democracy?utm_campaign=email-post&r=8t06w&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

For years, we’ve been told that Donald Trump is a worse-than-Hitler threat to democracy and that those who opposed him—leading Democrats, the courts, Noam Chomsky, Michael Avenatti, Rachel Maddow, the hosts of The View, even old Twitter—were just trying to protect it. It’s odd then to now be told that the best way to save democracy is by banning Trump from the ballot.

That’s what happened in Colorado yesterday, when the state’s Supreme Court ruled in a 4–3 decision that former president Donald Trump—currently the most popular presidential candidate—was disqualified from appearing on Colorado ballots for the 2024 presidential election. 

The decision—perhaps the most extra-constitutional act by a high court in my lifetime—is astonishing on every level. 

First, the reasoning:

The Colorado court did it by reinvigorating Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, which reads in part that “no person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States” who has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”

Those words were written in 1866, less than a year after the Civil War ended, a war in which over 300,000 Union soldiers died to keep America united, in order to bar many former Confederate officials from serving in government.

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FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Xi warned Biden during summit that Beijing will reunify Taiwan with China The Chinese leader’s message in San Francisco got the attention of U.S. officials because it was delivered at a meeting that was intended to reduce tensions.

By on December 20th, 2023

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/china/xi-warned-biden-summit-beijing-will-reunify-taiwan-china-rcna130087

By Kristen Welker, Courtney Kube, Carol E. Lee and Andrea Mitchell

Chinese President Xi Jinping bluntly told President Joe Biden during their recent summit in San Francisco that Beijing will reunify Taiwan with mainland China but that the timing has not yet been decided, according to three current and former U.S. officials.

Xi told Biden in a group meeting attended by a dozen American and Chinese officials that China’s preference is to take Taiwan peacefully, not by force, the officials said.

The Chinese leader also referenced public predictions by U.S. military leaders who say that Xi plans to take Taiwan in 2025 or 2027, telling Biden that they were wrong because he has not set a time frame, according to the two current and one former official briefed on the meeting. 

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Lincoln Memorial steps vandalized with ‘Free Gaza’ graffiti, red paint

By on December 20th, 2023

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/lincoln-memorial-steps-vandalized-with-free-gaza-graffiti-red-paint/ar-AA1lNZIn

“National Park Service conservators have begun the process of removing the paint this morning, though it may take multiple treatments over several days to remove all of it,” Park Police added. “The steps on the west side of the Reflecting Pool are closed to visitors while the conservation work takes place.” 

It is not immediately clear who was behind the incident.

Dozens of anti-Israel protesters were arrested on Tuesday after staging an illegal rally inside the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C., an act led by activist Linda Sarsour, according to reports. 

Last Monday, a protest calling for a cease-fire led to over 40 arrests at the Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill, Fox5 DC reported. 

The pro-Palestinian protesters were illegally demonstrating inside the Congressional space, according to authorities. 

Just after 10 a.m., a Capitol spokesperson told Fox 5 that the demonstrators arrived, with one man even climbing a statue in the atrium, before being charged with resisting arrest. 

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ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Yielding to Temptation: Colorado’s Supreme Court Blocks Democracy to Bar Trump on the 2024 Ballot

By on December 20th, 2023

https://themessenger.com/opinion/colorado-supreme-court-bars-trump-from-ballot-14th-amendment-january-6-disqualification

The Colorado Supreme Court has issued an unsigned opinion, making history in the most chilling way possible. A divided court barred Donald Trump from appearing on the 2024 presidential ballot. 

For months, advocates have been filing without success in various states, looking for some court to sign off on a dangerous, novel theory under the Constitution’s 14th Amendment. They finally found four receptive jurists on one of the bluest state supreme courts in the land.

Even on a court composed entirely of justices appointed by Democratic governors, Colorado’s Supreme Court split 4-3 on the question. The majority admitted that this was a case “of first impression” and that there was “sparse” authority on the question. Yet, the lack of precedent or clarity did not deter these justices from making new law to block Trump from running. Indeed, the most controlling precedent appears to be what might be called the Wilde Doctrine.

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MOVIES AND TELEVISION Comments turned off

Netflix and the Erasure of History It was good while it lasted By Edward Ring

By on December 20th, 2023

https://amgreatness.com/2023/12/20/netflix-and-the-erasure-of-history/

Trust should not be doled out easily to anyone, especially white people.”
– Excerpt from “Leave the World Behind,” released on Netflix December 8, 2023

If anyone thinks Netflix has abandoned the so-called woke programming that earned them sustained criticism back in the spring of 2022 and may have played a role in their cratering stock price at the time, their new movie should put that thought to rest. Woke, for lack of a better term, is alive and well at Netflix. Their cozy relationship with nouveau plutocrat power couple and White House alumni, Barack and Michelle Obama, and the blockbuster bomb of a movie they’ve produced together, epitomizes the culture of Netflix today. Such casual racism. “Don’t trust white people.” It’s ok when they do it. But don’t you dare.

To truly appreciate where Netflix is today, one must recall how they began. During the golden age of movie DVDs, in the late 1990s, Netflix arose as the mail-order alternative to renting videos from walk-in stores. But creative destruction never ends. Just as Netflix movies by mail drove corner movie rental stores out of business, streaming made DVDs delivered by mail obsolete.

On September 29, Netflix shipped their last DVD to subscribers and cancelled the service. And with that, one of the last, best windows into nearly a century of American culture was closed forever. At its peak around 2019, more than 100,000 movie titles were available on DVD, arriving in the familiar red envelopes. But as the subscriber base for DVDs shrank and competition from other streaming services grew, Netflix management decided the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze.

This is a rational business decision. Netflix, a content behemoth with an enterprise value that has soared to more than $170 billion, doesn’t need the headache of managing 17 DVD distribution centers tasked with shipping and receiving actual physical media. Netflix owns server farms that dispatch movies electronically, and their investment in physical assets must now prioritize production studios where the company invests literally billions in generating original content. With more than 50 percent of all video consumption in the U.S. now consisting of user generated content at zero cost to platforms like YouTube and TikTok, Netflix’s challenge is keeping their 240 million streaming subscribers, not hanging on to a dwindling cadre of 1.2 million DVD clients.

Nonetheless, losing public access to what was, by far, the greatest collection of movies ever compiled is a tragedy.

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