WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

We need more anger about Islamist terrorism, not less After Solingen, it’s time for a fightback against both the Islamo-fascists and our complacent elites. Brendan O’Neill

Posted By on August 28th, 2024

https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/08/26/we-need-more-anger-about-islamist-terrorism-not-less/

The wisdom of the late Norm Macdonald has rarely felt so prescient. ‘What terrifies me’, the Canadian comic once tweeted, ‘is if ISIS were to detonate a nuclear device and kill 50million Americans. Imagine the backlash against peaceful Muslims.’ It was a perfectly aimed jab at those who fear the public reaction to terrorism more than terrorism itself. At those leftish talking heads and phoney liberals who see people in Manchester, Paris or Brussels being blown limb from limb by radical Islamists and instantly think: ‘Oh no, the Islamophobia is going to be terrible.’ These cowards and fainthearts have been out in force once more following the ISIS knife atrocity in Solingen.

The bodies of the people slain by the Islamist fanatic were barely cold before sections of the media were fretting over how the ‘far right’ might react. It was on Friday evening, at a festival celebrating the 650th anniversary of the founding of the west German city, that a man went on a knifing frenzy. Three people were killed and eight wounded, four seriously. The suspect is a 26-year-old from Syria who, according to German prosecutors, shares the ideology of the Islamic State and was acting on those tyrannical extremist beliefs when he wielded his knife. He arrived in Germany as an asylum seeker in 2022, but although his claim was rejected, the authorities failed to deport him. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the slaughter, describing it as an intentional slaying of European Christians ‘to avenge Muslims in Palestine and everywhere’.

So this was an act of war. A low-level, lone-wolf act of war, but an act of war nonetheless. It was a violent assault not only on the citizens of Solingen but also on Germany itself, and in particular on its Christian heritage.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

The Gaza End Game Will the US let Israel win?Alan Joseph Bauer

Posted By on August 28th, 2024

https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-gaza-end-game/

Tony Blinken is back in Israel for his ninth visit since 10/7. I wish I had his frequent flyer points.

Humor has always been a part of warfare. In order to endure oftentimes unspeakable experiences or images, people sometimes need to find a way to laugh. There is a story of British warships preparing to engage a German U-boat wolfpack in the Battle of the Atlantic. A submarine commander messaged his destroyer counterpart that in the event of engagement with the enemy, he would plan to stay on the water surface. The destroyer captain dryly responded, “So do I (meaning not get sunk).”

The Gaza war has also intertwined some jokes and laughter along with the pain, tears, and suffering. Very early in the war was the “Lego Gaza City” set with all gray parts heaped in a huge mound—just like the real thing. There was the UberEats type delivery soldier bringing food on a bicycle to his comrades in a destroyed building in Khan Yunis. And who could forget the soldier who knocked on the door of a house in Gaza to no answer. When he moved away the camera showed that nothing but the door was left to the entire building. While rockets and drones were actively on their way from Iran, one fellow put up a short video. He begged the Iranians to attack the “Jewish holy sites” as he showed on a detailed map of Israel. Each site was a branch office of the Israel Tax Authority.

As Tony Blinken once again returns to Israel, the question is what is the endgame? Hamas kidnapped so many Israelis—both live and dead—in order to use them as their strongest bargaining chip in finishing off the war. I do not believe that Yahya Sinwar or anyone else in Hamas expected the war to go as it has, with tens of thousands of Gazans dead, many of them Hamas members. I don’t think that they expected the massive levels of destruction that have led to thousands of buildings being destroyed and many thousands more being in need of dire repair before anyone will use them again. I doubt that they expected Israel to easily grab the Philadelphi Corridor on the Egyptian border and thoroughly flatten Rafah as Israel has done.

Hamas ostensibly should be like Germany or Japan and simply say yes to whatever is offered to them. They—as the Palestinians always have—are certain that they are the victors. They “demand” (like a guy with a gun facing him “demanding” something) that Israel stop fighting, remove all troops and give Rafah back to Hamas for more weapons running. While the Saudis seem to have unlimited oil, the Palestinians seem to have unlimited chutzpah. Israel is supposed to just get up and leave Gaza as if nothing happened on 10/7 or thereafter during which over 300 Israeli soldiers have been killed fighting in Gaza. Hamas, or what’s left of it, is delusional. They want to go back to the 6th of October with a slightly less valuable real estate portfolio.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Progressives’ Long March Targeting the Constitution’s guardrails against tyranny. by Bruce Thornton

Posted By on August 28th, 2024

https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-progressives-long-march/

The “long march through the institutions” is the name given to the left’s turn towards Cultural Marxism as the means for taking control of the political order and shifting it to the left. For many conservatives, this movement in the Sixties accounts for the subsequent changes in political ideology, government policies, sexual mores, culture high and low, history, and revisions of school curricula from kindergarten to universities.

That narrative is accurate to a point, but it often suggests that before the Sixties our culture and politics were still firmly grounded in the Constitutional order, and Western culture defined by its Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian civilizational origins. But the way for the left’s “long march” was prepared by the Progressives’ “march” that began over a century ago. The Democrats’ policy platform unveiled during their convention and endorsed by Kamala Harris is a good starting point for seeing Progressivism’s continuity with the Marxist march to the modern center-left Democrat Party that has been taken over by their expanding and hardening leftist caucus.

The platform obviously endorses the Dems’ technocratic, hypertrophied Federal Government, and the greater centralization of power necessary for their utopian ambitions. As the Wall Street Journal puts it, “the platform is also a peek into an economic worldview in which the government is the answer, almost no matter the question. While private businesses are always ‘gouging’ or adding ‘junk fees,’ or otherwise trying to rip somebody off, Washington’s wise men are capable of providing for the American people, if only they have the power to pass the laws and regulations.”

Here is an item from the platform predicated on a Progressive idea more than a century old: “Health care should be a right in America, not a privilege,” the platform asserts. “We’ll never quit fighting to protect and expand the Affordable Care Act.” The ultimate goal is to completely nationalize healthcare, which will no doubt make doctors unionized public employees, and lead to worse outcomes costing trillions of taxpayer dollar––as Britain’s National Health Service and Obamacare serially demonstrate.

NATIONAL SECURITY AND DEFENSE Comments turned off

The Crisis in the Armed Forces By Will Thibeau

Posted By on August 28th, 2024

https://tomklingenstein.com/the-crisis-in-the-armed-forces/

Editor’s Note: A cold civil war is won or lost by the capture of institutions. Even today, many conservatives regard the military as one of the last institutions resisting capture by the new regime. Will Thibeau, director of the American Military Project at the Claremont Institute’s Center for the American Way of Life, argues that precisely the opposite is true: that the Armed Forces were “among the first American institutions to formally embrace the radical logic of group quotas.“ This new organizing principle is directly linked to a steep decline in military standards and performance, with life-and-death consequences for Americans and America.

Part I of Identity in the Trenches: The Fatal Impact of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion on U.S. Military Readiness.

In August 2021, the world watched as American forces scrambled to evacuate Afghanistan as the Taliban reclaimed power. The panicked withdrawal reached a tragic climax on August 26, when 13 American service members (and more than 100 Afghan civilians) were killed by a suicide bomber in the Kabul airport, where security was a U.S. responsibility. Four days later, when the last military planes took off from that same airport, hundreds of American citizens were left behind. A month later still, when the secretary of Defense, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the CENTCOM commanding general were called before Congress to account for the failure, they neither offered explanations nor accepted responsibility. The message was clear: Incompetence would be the new norm for the U.S. military — a predictably lethal status quo.

The Afghanistan debacle was dramatic, but it was only one small part of a much larger picture. The United States Armed Forces were once the envy of the world, in large part because we selected the best of the best, and instilled in our fighting men an unshakeable military ethos. Both the ethos and the selection, however, have been in steady decline as the Department of Defense succumbs to a dangerous ideology: that of group quotas, or forced outcome equality for identity groups based on race and sex.

Critics of the current state of affairs in our Armed Forces waste precious breath on disturbing but minor issues like reading lists, drag shows, and TikTok trends. This paper serves as a call for focus and precision on the prevalence of race and sex-based quotas, and the accompanying collapse in professional standards, in the fight to reclaim the integrity of the institution of the military. 

Quotas, by one name or another, have been defense policy since 1965 when Secretary Robert McNamara decided to make the Pentagon the leading edge of the effort to adhere to the principles and policies of the Civil Rights Act. This history is important to understand because it clarifies the mission ahead. 

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Allison Schrager Demystify the Ivies A loss of trust and stature could be just what our elite universities need in order to fix themselves.

Posted By on August 28th, 2024

https://www.city-journal.org/article/demystify-the-ivies

Long before Hamas’s attack on Israel last fall, Americans had grown skeptical of their elite universities. The safe spaces, the academic-speak elevating inane ideas, and the cancellations of nonprogressive arguments all suggested institutions adrift. Events on campuses since October 7 destroyed any lingering illusions. The anti-Israel (and often anti-American) frenzies seemed tolerated, if not supported, by university administrations and even encouraged by some faculty. It has been a disgraceful spectacle.

Have we finally hit bottom? If so, things may start getting better. A loss of trust and stature could be just what our elite universities need in order to fix themselves.

America’s elite universities remain the envy of the world, with unrivaled academic talent and Nobel Prize–winning research. They still attract talented students and produce leaders in government and industry worldwide, commanding a status that few other schools can match. But their stature has fallen. Some federal judges say that they won’t hire law clerks from Columbia University. One survey found that 33 percent of hiring managers are less likely to hire Ivy League graduates now than five years ago. Employers can’t be blamed, argues Nate Silver, when they assume that many applicants were admitted for dubious reasons, were coddled academically with inflated grades, and are likely to bring divisive politics into the office.

Several trends led to this point. As the American economy transitioned to knowledge-based industries, the returns on college education increased, and elite universities became more important. They also became more desirable globally, enhancing the reputation of undergraduate and professional degrees. More people attended college, placing a higher premium on slots at elite schools. Attendance at such schools was presumed to ensure a job on the fast track. (On average, however, graduates of these universities don’t earn much more compared with similar students from other schools.)

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Oprah vs. Hulk What the aesthetics of the DNC and RNC reveal about our politics. Christopher F. Rufo

Posted By on August 28th, 2024

https://www.city-journal.org/article/oprah-vs-hulk

Political conventions are a form of theater. The stage, the lights, the confetti; the personalities, who, from the rostrum, make the case for their party; and the driving ambition: to rally the base, demoralize the enemy, and win.

In most years, the oratory supports the agenda. The parties select their nominees, assemble a platform, and focus their rhetoric on how their policies will improve the life of the nation. But this year, the agenda took a back seat to aesthetics.

Donald Trump’s policy proposals—control the border, cut taxes, and achieve peace through strength—have been the same for a decade. Kamala Harris’s have been carefully hidden. She has distanced herself from her previous positions and presented emotion, most notably, “joy,” in lieu of concrete policies. Given this situation, let’s set aside substance for a moment and focus on style.

The two conventions this year, the DNC in Chicago and the RNC in Milwaukee, featured two speakers who captured their respective parties’ aesthetics: television host Oprah Winfrey, for the Democrats, and professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, for the Republicans.  

The Democrats selected Oprah for an obvious reason. She is a star—and a star-maker. For decades, Oprah has curated her image as a compassionate friend, generous hostess, and moral voice. She appears in public immaculately dressed, coiffed, lighted, and staged.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Where’s Kamala’s Convention Bounce?

Posted By on August 28th, 2024

https://issuesinsights.com/2024/08/28/wheres-kamalas-convention-bounce/

Two days ago, Nate Silver, the media’s favorite polling “expert” who on election day in 2016 gave Hillary Clinton a 71% chance of winning, said polls had Kamala Harris 5 points ahead of Donald Trump and that “our best guess is that her lead will increase further, especially given that almost none of the polling was done after her strong acceptance speech on Thursday.”

Of course, Silver was hardly alone. The leftist media was fully expecting a big bounce in Harris’ poll numbers.

So, where is Kamala’s big convention bounce?

The Morning Consult found Harris’ lead over Trump unchanged since last Thursday.

A Yahoo/YouGov poll, which was also conducted after the convention, found that “if Harris got a ‘bounce’ from the DNC, it was a very small one — too small to alter the fundamentally deadlocked nature of the 2024 contest.”

The RealClearPolitics average had Harris at 48.3% last Monday. It is currently at 48.4%. But her lead over Trump actually shrank slightly, from 1.6 points last Monday to the current 1.5.

The FiveThirtyEight average had Harris at 46.7% last Monday, and 47.1% this Monday. It also shows that her lead over Trump has declined since the convention ended last Thursday, going from 3.7 on Aug. 23 to 3.4 now.

And, Harris’ odds of winning went from 51% chance on Aug. 19 to 49% today, according to Polymarket. Trump’s went from 47% to 50%.

NATIONAL SECURITY AND DEFENSE Comments turned off

Iran: ‘Most Aggressive Foreign Election Threat to U.S.’by Robert Williams

Posted By on August 27th, 2024

The Biden-Harris administration has not lifted a finger against Iran for a reported 200 attacks on US troops in the Middle East, which include firing on US Navy ships, closing the Suez Canal, launching a Hamas-Hezbollah-Houthi War against Israel, not to mention the atrocities Iran’s regime commits every day against its own people. By ignoring sanctions against Iran and presenting no deterrence, the administration has, in fact, set up Iran to do all of that.

The US could probably close down Iran’s election-interference activities, but [m]ore to the point, the administration has the same goal as the Iranian regime: it does not want Trump elected, either.

These Iranian efforts include fraudulent websites posing as news sites, and the impersonation of social and political activist groups “to stoke chaos, undermine trust in authorities, and sow doubt about election integrity.” — Microsoft Threat Analysis Center, August 9, 2024

[T]here can be no doubt that a Trump presidency poses a genuine threat to Iran. Meanwhile, the lavish gifts, accommodations and appeasement that the Biden administration continues to shower upon the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism, ensures the Islamic regime’s survival.

The Kamala Harris campaign has previously said it had no indication it was hacked. Of course, why would Iran seek to harm Harris’s campaign in any way, when her presidency would guarantee the continuation of appeasement and accommodation that has been the norm for the Democratic party ever since Barack Hussein Obama was president?

The million-dollar question is what the Biden-Harris administration is doing to deter, discourage and hold accountable Iran’s Islamist regime for seeking to influence, destabilize, and hack the US elections? The answer appears to be: nothing

The Biden-Harris administration itself, after all, has been infiltrated by Iranian agents, as an investigation by Semafor showed last fall, with at least three Iranian agents working directly under U.S. Special Representative for Iran Rob Malley.

One of the agents, Ariane Tabatabai…. has been allowed to keep not only her job at the Pentagon, but her security clearance as well.

In the end, the Biden-Harris administration itself is the most important shill for Iran…. Why would the Biden-Harris administration want to deter Iran from anything?

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Important New Poll Reveals Most Americans Know China Is Funding the Fentanyl Murder of More than 100,000 Americans Each Year by Lawrence Kadish

Posted By on August 27th, 2024

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20907/china-funding-fentanyl-murders

In a recent national poll, more than half of responding Americans believe that China is deliberately exporting fentanyl to the United States for the purpose of harming, or even destabilizing our nation.

Were that true, some might reasonably describe that strategy as an act of war.

For China, it would be historic payback time.

Having lost a generation, a nation, and an empire to opium introduced by Imperial Britain during the 1800s, no one knows better than the Chinese that a drug scourge can bring a country literally to its knees.

So, it should not surprise anyone that they have become a center of illicit fentanyl manufacturing, with drug traffickers exporting the killing chemical to the one nation China must strategically injure if they are to make good on their intent to dominate the rest of the 21st Century: the United States. More than simply turning a blind eye to those who are creating the drugs, the U.S. House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party reported this spring that China is directly supporting the creation of fentanyl and other drugs by offering “tax rebates and other financial benefits” to those manufacturers, as long as those drugs are sold outside of China:

“According to the report, Chinese officials encourage production of precursor chemicals by giving ‘monetary grants and awards to companies openly trafficking illicit fentanyl materials.'”

One does not have to be a CIA analyst to appreciate the “why” behind such an action.

The cause and effect have not been lost on the American public. That recent poll, undertaken by the nationally respected polling company McLaughlin & Associates, revealed that a stunning 52.4 percent of Americans suspect that the Chinese are exporting the deadly drug for the specific purpose of destabilizing our society. Some 19.4% disagreed and 28.3% did not have an opinion.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

AI in the Writing Classroom: Professor, Beware By Michael Dowding

Posted By on August 26th, 2024

https://www.nationalreview.com/2024/08/ai-in-the-writing-classroom-professor-beware/

Generative artificial intelligence has no role in the walled garden of teaching a student how to write.

For nearly three decades, I’ve had the privilege of teaching media writing to generations of undergraduate and graduate students at Boston University’s College of Communication, helping them week after week to steadily acquire the skills they need to embark on successful careers. However, two years after the arrival and wider use of generative AI, it’s inarguably clear that, at every level of education, these tools represent nothing short of an existential threat to the writing classroom — undercutting the very way we formulate, develop, and express our intelligence.

Although I needn’t rehearse all of the many statistics describing the obvious decline of writing and literacy in our society, the temptation is too great. Last fall, Joseph Pisani grimly noted in the Wall Street Journal, “the average score on the ACT dropped to a new 30-year low, indicating fewer high-school seniors are ready for college.” That lamentable decline aligns with other research showing the number of teenagers who read for pleasure dropping steadily over the past 40 years, while the number of teens who rarely or never read for fun climbed from 8 to 29 percent.

Since writing instructors can confirm that the best way to learn writing is to read voraciously, it’s clear that we instructors already face a steep climb, competing with distractions ranging from TikTok and Snapchat to Netflix and the latest smartphone games. We already have a generation that refuses or is unable to read. Do we now want them unable to write, as well?

Ask virtually any college writing instructor today and you’ll get some variation of issues about student performance: an inexplicable unwillingness to read (either compulsorily or voluntarily), an inability to properly compose sentences that rise above the most pedestrian of structures (at best), or a crippling overreliance on writing and grammar tools whose scope only increases. Those concerns are now exponentially magnified.

With the arrival of gen AI in late 2022, my colleagues and I have been facing a game-changing inflection point: the increasing inability to accurately assess an individual student’s writing talent — their ability to create, develop, and express original thoughts in clear, compelling, audience-centric ways. Even in the face of clear policies prohibiting the use of gen AI in our classes, we now face an onslaught of prefab essays brazenly churned out in seconds by time-pressed, shortcut-seeking students eager to get their tickets punched before moving down the path to their degrees.