NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Stefanik Urges Probe into Hochul after Feds Bring Chinese Foreign-Agent Charges against Former Staffer

Posted By on September 4th, 2024

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/stefanik-urges-probe-into-hochul-after-feds-bring-chinese-foreign-agent-charges-against-former-staffer/?utm_

Representative Elise Stefanik called for a probe into New York governor Kathy Hochul and her administration after the Justice Department indicted the governor’s former deputy chief of staff on Tuesday for allegedly working as an agent of the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party.

Linda Sun, a former staffer for Hochul and former governor Andrew Cuomo, was arrested today with her husband, Chris Hu. The charges relate to her work as an unregistered foreign agent for the Chinese government and money-laundering that Hu allegedly engaged in to hide the proceeds of Sun’s efforts.

Until today’s arrests, few members of Congress had commented on some New York government officials’ apparent ties to China’s consulate general in Manhattan and pro-Beijing community organizations. Stefanik (R., N.Y.) is the first to call for an investigation into Hochul and her administration.

“Failed Far Left Democrat Kathy Hochul allowed Communist Chinese spy Linda Sun unfettered access to the highest levels of New York State government,” Stefanik said in a statement to National Review this afternoon.

“From allowing Chinese police stations, to maintaining a sister city partnership between NYC and Beijing, this is another example of New York Democrats facilitating the influence campaign of Communist China. I am calling for a complete investigation into Kathy Hochul and her administration so that hardworking New York taxpayers receive the transparency we deserve.”

EDUCATION Comments turned off

One-Third of K-12 Students Behind Grade Level By Eric Lendrum

Posted By on September 4th, 2024

https://amgreatness.com/2024/09/03/one-third-of-k-12-students-behind-grade-level/

A recent study shows that roughly one-third of American K-12 students in the 2023-2024 academic school year are behind their grade level in a variety of subjects.

As Axios reports, the data was compiled by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) through their “School Pulse Panel,” a survey of almost 4,000 grade schools that are considered nationally representative. The data from June of 2024, taken from the responses of 1,651 schools, shows that there has been virtually no change from the 2021-2022 school year, when 33% of students were learning at a level that was below their actual grade.

The study also examined the differences based on geographic region and locality, discovering that schools in the Western United States are performing worse than any other area of the country, with about 40% of students behind their grade level. When comparing urban areas and rural areas, the study found that 38% of students in city schools are behind their grade level, compared to 31% of students in suburban schools.

These findings further confirm that the long-term effects of the Chinese Coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdowns are continuing to be felt today, with the biggest impact being on American education. The quality of schooling in America plummeted sharply while schools were shut down, with virtually no improvement after the implementation of “remote learning” and “hybrid” schooling that combined partial in-person education with continued remote learning. Even after returning to full in-person schooling, many students have not recovered to pre-pandemic levels in their education.

Some of the strategies being employed by schools to combat this decline include hiring even more teachers, with 55% of schools choosing this strategy due to it being either “very” or “extremely effective.” Another 35% of schools are also spending more time focusing on target areas, while 18% are engaging in family outreach.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

The Evil of Cowardice Ben Shapiro

Posted By on September 4th, 2024

https://pjmedia.com/benshapiro/2024/09/04/the-evil-of-cowardice-n4932220

On Saturday night, the Israeli military made a macabre and horrifying discovery: the slain bodies of six hostages taken by Hamas, including American citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin. All six hostages had been shot point-blank in the head some 48-72 hours prior, presumably upon the approach of IDF soldiers; Hamas terrorists chose to murder the hostages they had held in terror tunnels for over 300 days rather than risk their liberation.

The discovery sent the entire nation of Israel into mourning. On Oct. 7, Israelis were forced to remember that the enemy they face is not merely violent, but purely evil. In subsequent months, with the extraordinary progress of the IDF in Gaza over the protestations of the Biden administration, Hamas’ evils were relegated once more to the realm of military conflict. But the very thought of these victims — Goldberg-Polin, 23; Eden Yerushalmi, 24; Ori Danino, 25; Alex Lobanov, 32; Carmel Gat, 40; and Almog Sarusi, 27 — suffering without sunlight, food or water for nearly a year, all to be shot to death within hours of their possible freedom, reopened all the wounds of Oct. 7.

It turned out that all the diplomatic overtures made by America — overtures largely accepted by the supposedly intransigent administration of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — meant nothing. As Netanyahu pointed out, “whoever murders hostages does not want a deal.” That was predictable enough, given the fact that Hamas’ chief goal is its own survival — a goal directly at odds with Israel’s necessary goal of extirpating Hamas. That is why Hamas has consistently declared for months that there would be no hostage release without a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, along with the discharge of hundreds of convicted terrorists and murderers. Anything less than survival for Hamas is a loss. Dead Palestinians help Hamas achieve its goal of pressuring Israel; dead hostages help Hamas achieve its goal of pressuring Israel.

ELECTIONS, MEDIA Comments turned off

Here’s the Real Reason Harris Won’t Hold News Conferences Mark Tapscott

Posted By on September 4th, 2024

https://pjmedia.com/marktapscott/2024/09/03/is-this-the-real-reason-harris-avoids-the-media-n4932193

It’s going on 45 days since Vice President Kamala Harris last held a news conference with journalists, and speculation is rampant about how much longer she will go before convening another such gathering.

Here’s my suggestion: She won’t.

Or if she ever does, such gatherings will be few and far between.

Harris watched President Joe Biden all but ignore the White House press corps for more than three years. When he did deign to stand in front of the journalists to take a series of well-scripted questions, doing so invariably drew attention to his waning cognitive abilities.

But here’s the overlooked fact that is even more significant than the spotlight that shone on Biden’s decline during news conferences: rarely was he ever asked a challenging question by any of the assembled journalists other than Fox News’ Peter Doocy. And even rarer were the tough follow-ups that are essential to getting some semblance of the truth out of most politicians. More often, the questions have tended to be softballs that suggest most of the journalists present are sympathetic to the Biden-Harris administration.

What’s the lesson here that Harris and Democrats are likely drawing? Ignoring the national media is a no-downside proposition for them because, for the most part, the Mainstream Media is in their pockets.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Israel Has the Right to Win Not a right to defend itself. A right to win. by Daniel Greenfield

Posted By on September 4th, 2024

https://www.ruthfullyyours.com/wp-admin/post-new.php

“Israel has a right to defend itself,” Kamala told CNN. And then insisted that the “war must end.”

What Kamala was really saying was that Israel has a right to defend itself against an attack, but it doesn’t have a right to win.

Democrats and some Republicans have offered the same formulaic responses since Oct 7.

And long before that.

“Israel has a right to defend itself from rocket attacks,” Obama said in 2014 before calling for a ceasefire. Israel has a right to defend itself, Bush and Clinton used to say before urging a quick end to the fighting in order to make a deal with the terrorists Israel is defending itself against.

Israel has a right to defend itself is the bare minimum allotted to anyone. Everyone has a right to defend themselves when they are attacked. Agreeing to it is not a pro-Israel statement. It is at best a neutral position to which the alternative position is that the Israelis should have allowed themselves to be overrun, destroyed and massacred, men, women and children, on Oct 7.

Anything less than the assertion that Israel has a right to defend itself is a declaration that it deserves to be destroyed. And that is the state of the debate within the Democratic Party.

On one side are the supporters of a two-state solution who want to split Israel between the Jews and the Islamic terrorists. Every time the terrorists invade and kill Jews, the Israeli army would have the right to briefly defend the country before the politicians make a new deal with the terrorists. On the other side are the one-state solution backers who don’t believe Israel has a right to exist and therefore no right to defend itself and support the Islamic terrorists who call themselves ‘Palestinians’ in their quest to destroy it by any means from BDS to genocide.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Harris Hangs On To Overall Lead, But Trump Maintains His Hold On Vital ‘Swing States’: I&I/TIPP Poll Terry Jones

Posted By on September 4th, 2024

https://issuesinsights.com/2024/09/04/harris-hangs-on-to-overall-lead-but-trump-maintains-his-hold-on-vital-swing-states-ii-tipp-poll/

Presidential candidate Kamala Harris still holds a slight lead over former President Donald Trump, but will it last after last week’s interview with CNN? Harris still enjoyed an edge with prospective voters as Labor Day approached, the latest I&I/TIPP Poll suggests, but it might not be sustainable as Trump consolidates his strength among swing-state voters.

In a head-to-head matchup, Harris holds a 48% to 45% advantage over Trump in the September I&I/TIPP Poll, with 1,386 registered voters answering the survey from Aug. 28-Aug. 30. The poll has a margin of error of +/-2.8 percentage points.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Israel: Ceasefire Deal Will Prevent Hostages from Coming Home, Anti-Government Protests Only Embolden Hamas by Bassam Tawil ******

Posted By on September 3rd, 2024

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20917/israel-protests-embolden-hamas

Hamas leaders, who are closely observing the protests, are likely to harden their stance in the hope that the Israeli government will give in to the demonstrators’ demands, including an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Hamas has the Israeli public pressuring their government to allow Hamas to “live to fight another day”: to rearm, regroup and continue attacking Israelis – as Hamas official Ghazi Hamad vowed.

Hamas leaders are banking on the Biden administration to compel the Israeli government to give in to the terror group’s demands…. It has long been the dream of Hamas and many Palestinians to see the US turn its back on Israel.

Hamas’s primary goal is to remain in power and return to the pre-October 7 era, when it built a large terror infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. Hamas knows it will not be able to accomplish its aims without a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and an official end of the war.

That is why Hamas is insisting that Israel withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. Israel’s presence there obstructs Hamas’s efforts to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip through cross-border tunnels, as it has been doing for the past two decades.

Hamas is reportedly demanding US and international guarantees that Israel will not target the terror group anytime in the future. Until then, Hamas will continue to hold on to many of the hostages as an “insurance policy.”

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the October 7 atrocities, will not release all the hostages at once. He will continue to physically surround himself with many of them to ensure that Israel does not kill him. Sinwar does not care how many Palestinians in the Gaza Strip perish, as long as he is permitted to stay alive.

Even if Hamas were to initially release 10 or 20 hostages as part of any agreement, who could ensure that the remaining captives would be released? Are we supposed to take Hamas’s word for it? Are we supposed to believe that the Americans, Egyptians and Qataris would be able to force Hamas to comply with the terms of any agreement?

Hamas is only interested in a deal that would keep it in power and make Israel lose the war. Hamas does not feel under pressure, at all, to reach any deal. Why should it? If US President Joe Biden were serious about reaching a deal, all he has to do is phone the leader of Qatar and tell him, as he allegedly told Netanyahu a few weeks ago, to “stop bullshitting me!”

The hostages-ceasefire negotiations have broken down because of insufficient pressure from the Biden administration on Hamas’s patrons in Qatar. The failure of the negotiations should be attributed to Qatar’s lack of action against the Hamas leaders who are living in luxury in Doha. Qatar is not doing anything because it is not under any serious pressure from the Biden administration. Has the Biden administration considered using the threat of withdrawing the US Central Command from Qatar’s Al-Udeid Air Base from to pressure the Gulf state’s rulers into convincing their friends in Hamas to free all the hostages?

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Will The Biden-Harris Administration Allow the World’s Leading State Sponsor of Terrorism to Acquire Nuclear Weapons? by Majid Rafizadeh

Posted By on September 3rd, 2024

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20909/biden-harris-iran-nuclear-weapons

Iran’s runaway strides in its nuclear program have taken place largely under the watch of the Biden-Harris administration.

Will this administration allow the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism to acquire nuclear weapons? It many have been what the Obama administration wished — so long as it was “not on my watch” — but it was a terrible idea then, and it is a worse one now. The prospect of Iran and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps arming groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Iraqi militias with nuclear weapons is bad for the world’s health.

Iran’s regime that has also repeatedly vowed to annihilate the State of Israel and the United States— after that, presumably, the oil-rich Gulf states. Iran already controls five other countries in the region: Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq. There are flashing neon signs that Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s dream of “exporting the Revolution” is steadily extending to America’s backyard. Latin American rogue states allied with Iran could potentially be transformed into nuclear-armed threats.

BOOKS Comments turned off

Why the West Must Fight for Its History Frank Furedi

Posted By on September 3rd, 2024

https://quadrant.org.au/features/ideas/why-the-west-must-fight-for-its-history/
Dr Frank Furedi is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent. This was an edited extract from his introduction to his new book, The War Against the Past, to be published by Polity this month.

There was no formal declaration of war. No gunshots rang out. It didn’t even make the local news. But, sure enough, at some point at the turn of the twenty-first century, a war against the past was launched.

Who were the culprits? They are hard to pin down. The partisans supporting the assault on the legacy of European civilisation are not members of a party. They have not issued any war aims and have never formulated an explicit strategic vision. They are also a heterogenous bunch, a coalition of disparate interests and movements.

In an earlier era—the 1990s—when the first wave of mobilisation was taking shape, the English historian J.C.D. Clark warned against representing the promotion of this conflict as the “outcome of a grand conspiracy”. He wrote that it is “the result of a thousand separate, distantly related acts, the promptings of widely absorbed assumptions”. Nevertheless, argued Clark, despite its diverse and uncoordinated prompting, it amounted to a “distinct enterprise of historical disinheritance”.

Hostility towards the past evolved slowly, and then all at once, its intensification occurring haphazardly without any serious long-term thought. The use of the term “war” to account for the systematic pursuit of historical disinheritance is not simply metaphorical. In effect, this war leads to the diminishing of the authority of the past, to the discrediting of its legacy and to the killing of the soul of communities whose way of life remains underpinned by European culture.

This book’s principal argument is that the main driver of the culture war is an undeclared War Against the Past.

At times, supporters of the culture war against Western civilisation behave as if this perilous territory continues to represent a menace to the contemporary world. Their constant targeting of the legacy of the past—its physical symbols, values and achievements—resembles a frenetic moral crusade seeking to make people feel ashamed about their origins and who they are. Culture warriors have, in effect, opened up a second front to gain mastery over how the past is viewed.

The goal of cancelling the legacy of Western civilisation is pursued through reorganising society’s historical memory and disputing and delegitimating its ideals and achievement. They seek to erase the temporal distinction between the present and the past to achieve this objective. There has never been a time in living memory when so much energy has been devoted to readjusting the past and questioning and criticising historical figures and institutions. At times, it seems as if the boundary between the present and the past has disappeared as activists casually cross over it and seek to fix contemporary problems through readjusting the past.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

The deaths of these hostages shame the Western conscience It is time to call out Western liberals’ craven silence in the face of Hamas’s fascism. Brendan O’Neill

Posted By on September 3rd, 2024

https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/09/01/the-deaths-of-these-hostages-shames-the-western-conscience/

The discovery of the bodies of six Israeli hostages in a tunnel in Rafah confirms what many of us knew about Hamas – that it is a Jew-killing machine that masquerades as a national-liberation movement. That it has no purpose beyond the persecution and slaughter of the Jewish people. That its aim, for all the crowing of its useful idiots in the West about ‘resistance’ and ‘decolonisation’, is nothing more and nothing less than the fascistic terrorising of the inhabitants of the Jewish State. The ‘brutal murder’ of these six people, their only crime their Jewishness, is the bloodiest proof yet that in Hamas Israel faces not only a military foe, but also a virulently racist, existential threat.

But the discovery of the slain Jews shines a harsh light on other people, too. Not just Hamas, but also us, the West, and especially that portion of it that calls itself ‘progressive’. When I saw the photos of the four men and two women killed by their captors in a dank lair in Rafah, I thought to myself: there are people in my community here in the UK who have defaced posters of these people. There are people on my streets who scrawled the word ‘coloniser’ on their faces. There are people in my profession who described the day they were kidnapped as a ‘day of celebration’. There are people in London – and New York, Berlin, Sydney – who expressed solidarity not with these six seized Jews, but with the racists who seized them.

And it made me think: it is not enough today to condemn Hamas. We must also ask how so many in the West came to share in Hamas’s twisted, bigoted hatred for these six human beings. Why so many in the West made excuses for their abduction, vandalised their likenesses and falsely called their persecution ‘resistance’. The barbarism uncovered in Rafah is on Hamas. But the Western conscience is not wholly innocent of this depraved crime.

Let us be clear: the horror in Rafah is what some progressives in the West felt ‘exhilarated’ by, it’s what they ‘celebrated’. This is Hamas, this is its ‘resistance’. All six, according to the IDF, were ‘brutally murdered’ a ‘short time’ before being found. They were: Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, an Israeli-American; Alexander Lobanov, a 32-year-old father of two; Carmel Gat, a 40-year-old from Tel Aviv who was visiting her parents in the Be’eri kibbutz on the day of the 7 October pogrom; Almog Sarusi, a 27-year-old who loved ‘travelling around Israel in his white SUV with his guitar’; Eden Yerushalmi, a 24-year-old who was bartending at the Nova music festival; and Ori Danino, 25, who was about to embark on an electrical-engineering course when he was seized.