JOE’S JEWS: JOAN SWIRSKY

https://www.thepostemail.com/2021/02/01/joes-jews/D

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Quick question: What is the most fanatical terrorist state in the world?

Quick answer: According to a 2017 report––the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism is Iran.

Anthony Blinken, Wikimedia Commons, public domain  

I go back to 2017 to remind readers that this report was issued by the new Trump Administration’s State Department and that it departed radically from the assessment of Barack Obama’s State Department and the previous eight years of the Obama regime’s starry-eyed infatuation with that terrorist state, to the degree that both Barack Obama and then-VP Joe Biden were enthusiastic co-architects of the Iran deal (aka the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action).

The Obama-Biden deal offered the mullahs relief from sanctions and mountains of money in exchange for their oh-so-trustworthy promise to use the nuclear weapons they were developing exclusively for peaceful purposes.

And yet, after the deal was signed on July 14, 2015––significantly, and I believe purposefully, during the three-week mourning period that Jews observe every year for the destruction of the Holy Temples in Jerusalem––and after Obama-Biden gave Iran $150 billion, and then another $1.3 billion!, Iran’s hostilities substantially increased in terror sprees in Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Afghanistan and Iraq.

And that is not to omit Iran’s bountiful sponsorship of terrorist groups including Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, and other Palestinian groups like Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, in addition to their murderous militias of terrorism against U.S. troops.

But to me, all that pales in comparison to the oft-repeated statements of the mullahs of Iran––including Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei––who have been calling Israel a “cancerous tumor” and threatening to “wipe Israel off the map” for decades now.

New Documentary Reveals the Character Behind Thomas Sowell’s Brilliant Economics By Stacey Lennox

https://pjmedia.com/culture/stacey-lennox/2021/01/31/new-documentary-reveals-the-character-behind-thomas-sowells-brilliant-economics-n1419638

A documentary chronicling the life and work of Thomas Sowell narrated by Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow and Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Riley has now been released for public viewing. It is a preview of Riley’s written biography of Sowell titled Maverick, which will be released May 25, 2021, and is available for pre-order now. Sowell, a brilliant economist known for his conservative views, has published his work widely but has remained personally somewhat reclusive.

Riley previewed his work in an interview with Dave Rubin. Riley has known Sowell for about 15 years and became familiar with his work during college when he debated affirmative action. A classmate said he sounded like the famous economist.

Rubin and Riley talked about how Sowell’s work had influenced their thinking even though they had already been on their way to supporting economic freedom before reading Sowell. Sowell’s work reinforced their own ideas. Riley also said that Sowell’s work and willingness to engage in public debates on issues related to race and economics made it easier to be a black conservative. He says he gets far more support today than Sowell received earlier in his career.

The documentary begins with Sowell’s childhood and his birth in South Carolina. He was orphaned at a young age, and a great-aunt and her daughters took him in and raised him. To provide young Thomas with greater opportunity, they moved north and settled in Harlem in New York City. A family friend took him under his wing and introduced him to the public library, which opened a new world to the young boy.

Armed Antifa Occupy Hotel, Shout at Cops: ‘Pigs in a Blanket, Fry ‘Em Like Bacon’ By Tyler O’Neil

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/tyler-o-neil/2021/02/01/armed-antifa-occupy-hotel-shout-at-cops-pigs-in-a-blanket-fry-em-like-bacon-n1422141

On Sunday, a group of homelessness activists who dressed up in antifa-style black bloc, armed with batons and knives, entered the lobby of the Red Lion Hotel in Olympia, Wash., demanding the hotel open rooms for homeless people. Antifa agitators allegedly assaulted an employee while other employees hid in a basement room for more than six hours. The police eventually secured the hotel, but in the skirmish, agitators chanted, “Pigs in a blanket, fry ’em like bacon,” a death threat against cops.

Hotel employees first called the cops at about 11 a.m. Sunday. The staff said a “mob of people wearing black” armed with hatchets, batons, and knives had entered the lobby and demanded the hotel open rooms to them, KIRO7 reported. The antifa agitators wore gas masks, helmets, and goggles, apparently preparing for a battle.

The antifa agitators, organized with the group Oly Housing Now, occupied the hotel after advocates had booked 17 rooms and demanded that Thurston County continue to pay for the room with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funding.

The Olympia Police Department (OPD) estimated about 45 antifa agitators stormed the hotel, both inside and outside the building. After staff hunkered down in the basement for hours, police finally evacuated them from the building, the city announced.

At the time of the occupation, guests had booked approximately 40 rooms. Those guests sheltered in their rooms during the occupation, and the police department secured a safe place for them as they cleared out the hotel.

As for the homeless people Oly Housing Now put in the hotel, Olympia’s Crisis Response Unit is finding them shelter. They will not be allowed to remain at the hotel.

As the police removed antifa agitators from the hotel, protesters nearby shouted death threats at them.

“Pigs in a blanket, fry ’em like bacon!” protesters chanted as police removed the occupiers.

Farther Along, or, the Accident Chain By David Mamet

https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2021/02/08/farther-along-or-the-accident-chain/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_

“Is it a Good Idea to destroy midtown Manhattan because America had slavery 160 years ago? Or to promote the California wildfires rather than to “artificially” clear brush and create firebreaks? Are we humans capable of a logical and moral understanding of the past (history); or a practicable and rational projection of its lessons (economics)?”

How is it that California, with the highest taxes in the nation, is incapable of managing its forests, deal­ing with homelessness, educating its young, and, in short, addressing those problems for which its citizens are taxed?

Friedrich Hayek observes that taxes exist to fund those things everyone needs but that no individual can pay for. We all need streetlamps, but no individual can pay to electrify his city. Where did the taxes go, and why have we lost the will to ask the question?

Here we observe the great wisdom of the Prophets’ Tongue. I do not refer to Proverbs, or the Sayings of Solomon, but to the inseparable conjunction, the Hebrew letter vav.

“He came (y’vo)” and “he saw (y’reh)” are linked by the vav: Y’vo v’y’reh. The conjunction may mean and or but, which might cause and/but explain the ineradicable Jewish tropism toward ambiguity.

Twenty Million Vaccine Doses Are Missing By Jim Geraghty

https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/twenty-million-vaccine-doses-are-missing/

On the menu today: It’s the most mind-boggling figure, tucked deep in a Politico story on a Saturday: The Biden administration “is still trying to locate upwards of 20 million vaccine doses that have been sent to states.” Meanwhile, around the country, stories of vaccine doses being administered to hospital donors, boards of directors, and other wealthy not necessarily priority recipients start to pile up.

The Case of the Missing Twenty Million Vaccine Doses

On the campaign trail and before his inauguration, President Joe Biden and his team offered a consistent, bold, clear promise: They were ready to step into the executive branch of government and quickly increase the pace of vaccinations from coast to coast — even if the Trump administration had left a mess.

Then-candidate Joe Biden, June 30: “If I should have the honor of being elected president, on the day I’m sworn in, I’ll get right to work implementing all aspects of the response that remain undone. I’ll have more to say about my day one COVID-19 agenda in the weeks to come. But my response will begin well before I take the oath of office. It will start as soon as the election is decided.”

From the Biden campaign’s COVID plan: “Biden will be ready on Day One of his Administration to protect this country’s health and well-being.”

Nine N.Y. Public Health Officials Quit amid Feud with Cuomo over Vaccine Rollout By Mairead McArdle

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/nine-n-y-public-health-officials-quit-amid-feud-with-cuomo-over-vaccine-rollout/

At least nine senior state health officials have quit the New York State Health Department since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, in part due to clashes with Governor Andrew Cuomo over his approach to battling the virus.

The senior officials who have resigned or retired from the state health department in recent months include the deputy commissioner for public health, Dr. Isaac Weisfuse, who left in late summer.

Following Weisfuse’s departure, the director of the bureau of communicable disease control and the medical director for epidemiology also left. Last month, a state epidemiologist also announced her departure.

Much of the tension between health officials and Cuomo stemmed from the governor’s refusal to rely on longstanding vaccine distribution plans. Cuomo dismissed vaccine distribution plans developed and tested at the local level over many years and implemented his own plan that involved tapping large hospital systems as distribution hubs, the New York Times reported Monday.

“The governor’s approach in the beginning seemed to go against the grain in terms of what the philosophy was about how to do this,” Weisfuse remarked to the Times. “It did seem to negate 15 to 20 years of work.”

The governor requested that federal officials to work only with New York state rather than with local officials in New York City, a decision that hamstrung the city’s efforts to set up its own vaccination sites, according to one city official.

Before the vaccine rollout dispute, officials related that the state health department was not heavily involved in decisions regarding permitting public gatherings and ordering businesses to shutter based on the spread of the virus in their areas.

Biden’s climate change orders take a sledgehammer to Western state economies: Senator JohnBarrasso (R_WYOMING)

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/bidens-climate-change-orders-take-a-sledgehammer-to-western-state-economies-barrasso/ar-BB1dhErP

EXCERPT:

Biden’s unhelpful executive orders

We worked together to pass a historic, bipartisan environmental innovation law. It supports the development of groundbreaking technologies like carbon capture and carbon use, while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions from school buses, trucks, refrigerators and air conditioners. We succeeded in making sure these measures would not raise costs or cost Americans their jobs. 

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called the law “one of the biggest victories to fight global warming in a very long time.” I agree. Free market innovation — not costly regulation — is the best way to address a changing climate.

We were successful in these efforts because we found common ground. Now, as the top Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, I’m ready to work with President Biden to solve our energy challenges.

So far, the Biden administration’s actions are nowhere near his unifying words on Inauguration Day. On Day One, the president signed executive orders to stop the Keystone XL pipeline and rejoin the Paris climate accord. The next week he halted new oil, gas and coal leases on federal lands.

These orders will take a sledgehammer to the economies of Western states without putting a dent in climate change.

A federal leasing ban would kill an estimated 62,000 jobs in New Mexico, nearly 120,000 in Texas and more than 33,000 in my home state of Wyoming next year alone, according to the American Petroleum Institute. It will also eliminate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue that these states depend on for public schools, roads, water projects and other essential services.

In response to the Keystone cancellation, TC Energy has announced 1,000 layoffs, and the potential union jobs lost could be 10 times higher.

Jennifer Granholm, Biden’s nominee to be Energy secretary, even admitted at her confirmation hearing that some energy jobs “might be sacrificed.” Handing out pink slips will not unite red states and blue states.

SENATOR HIRAM REVELS (R- MISSISSIPPI) 1870

A Republican from Mississippi, Hiram Revels took office on February 25, 1870. He became the first Black senator a mere three weeks after Black men gained the right to vote with the 15th Amendment. During his time in office, Revels fought for Black Americans’ civil rights and education.

“Iran, You’ve Done the Impossible” — Hillel Neuer’s UN Testimony

https://civicrm.unwatch.org/civicrm/mailing/view?reset=1&id=1889

Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer

As member states targeted Israel at the 45th Session of the UN Human Rights Council, UN Watch’s Hillel Neuer took the floor to give credit to Iran’s escalating aggression, sponsorship of terror, and subversion across the Middle East for achieving the impossible: convincing Arab nations to abandon “ardent, age-old antagonism, to open unprecedented new relations with Israel.”

Mr. Chair,

They said it could not be done. They said it was impossible. 

But after the latest remarkable advances toward resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict, the world must acknowledge and say to the Islamic Republic of Iran: You did the impossible.

For decades, Arab states and Israel fought each other in wars, while the Arab League enforced a global economic boycott of the Jewish state. Whatever happened, the Arab states would always blame Israel.

But since around 2006, this began to change. And if anyone most deserves the credit, it’s Iran.

If not for Iran’s escalating aggression across the Middle East; if not for its sponsorship of wars and terror through Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and other proxy militia in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Gaza; if not for Iran’s subversion in other countries, like the terrorist plot by the Qassam Suleimani Brigade just uncovered this week in Bahrain, Arab nations might never have concluded that the greatest threat to their security is not Israel, but, on the contrary, that both Arabs and Israelis face a common and increasingly dangerous threat: the hatred, terror and war fomented by Iran.

Indeed, if not for Iran’s aggression, imperialism and terrorism, it is impossible to imagine that so many Arab nations would be abandoning ardent, age-old antagonism, to open unprecedented new relations with Israel.

THE KENNEDY CENTER RECEIVED A QUARTER BILLION IN TAXPAYER MONEY AND PAID THEIR PRESIDENT $5+ MILLION SINCE 2016 by Adam Andrzejewski

https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandrzejewski/2021/01/31/kennedy-center-received-270-million-from-congress-and-paid-their-president-5-million-since-2016/?sh=3d1baad236d6

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. disclosed that it has received $269.4 million in federal funding since 2016 – including $42 million in grants and last year’s $25 million coronavirus earmark that was mostly used for payroll.

Even during the 2020 pandemic, the Center grew their net assets by $3.3 million to $505 million. Since 2016, our auditors at OpenTheBooks.com found a $114.4 million increase in net assets – from $390.6 million.

During this five-year period, their president, Deborah Rutter, received pay and benefits amounting to $5.1 million. Peak earning years were 2018 and 2019 when she was paid $1.3 million annually. During the 2020 pandemic year, she cut her pay to $507,375, which is still more than the U.S. President makes at $400,000.

We reached out for comment and Chairman David M. Rubenstein provided this response:

“Deborah Rutter is at the top of her field and her salary is competitive with peers at the country’s largest performing arts organizations. In her more than six years at the Kennedy Center’s helm, Deborah’s vision, leadership, and artistic and financial results have exceeded the board’s expectations. Even before the pandemic forced a complete shutdown, she voluntarily offered to take no salary until further notice. Her outstanding leadership and dedication to the Center, both before and during the pandemic crisis, have proven that she is the right person at the right time.”