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The End of Everything: How Wars Descend into Annihilation by Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on May 23rd, 2024

“In The End of Everything, Hanson tells compelling and harrowing stories of how civilizations perished. He helps us consider contemporary affairs in light of that history, think about the unthinkable, and recognize the urgency of trying to prevent our own demise.” — H. R. McMaster, author of Battlegrounds

War can settle disputes, topple tyrants, and bend the trajectory of civilization—sometimes to the breaking point. From Troy to Hiroshima, moments when war has ended in utter annihilation have reverberated through the centuries, signaling the end of political systems, cultures, and epochs. Though much has changed over the millennia, human nature remains the same. Modern societies are not immune from the horror of a war of extinction. 
 
In The End of Everything, military historian Victor Davis Hanson narrates a series of sieges and sackings that span the age of antiquity to the conquest of the New World to show how societies descend into barbarism and obliteration. In the stories of Thebes, Carthage, Constantinople, and Tenochtitlan, he depicts war’s drama, violence, and folly. Highlighting the naivete that plagued the vanquished and the wrath that justified mass slaughter, Hanson delivers a sobering call to contemporary readers to heed the lessons of obliteration lest we blunder into catastrophe once again. 

ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Rewarding fascism Today’s recognition of the State of Palestine is virtue-signalling at its most dangerous and dumb. Brendan O’Neill

Posted By on May 23rd, 2024

https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/05/22/rewarding-fascism/

So now we know what it takes to become a state: the murder of Jews. Rape, kill and kidnap Jews and seven months later, the leaders of Ireland, Spain and Norway will recognise your statehood. That’s the lesson of today’s coordinated spectacle of virtue-signalling in Dublin, Madrid and Oslo: pogroms work. The butchery of civilians gets results. Fascism has its rewards. This is ‘diplomacy’ at its most dangerous.

Of course, Irish taoiseach Simon Harris, Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez and Norwegian PM Jonas Gahr Støre are presenting their pious recognition of Palestine as a stab for peace. This is about helping to ‘create a peaceful future’, said Harris. They’re either delusional or they’re engaging in doublespeak. For the true impact of their imperious intervention will be to exacerbate hostilities. Hamas will feel emboldened. It now knows that a wonderful gift awaits it if it keeps battering Israel: a state of its own. In dangling this dream before Hamas, the three PMs have all but green-lighted its terrorism.

Rarely has virtue-signalling felt so reckless. The PMs are so keen to broadcast their correct-think to the world that they appear not to have given one thought to what the consequences might be of three European nations butting in to a bloody war. Their blindness to everything but their own righteousness was best summed up in the figure of Simon Harris. There he was on the steps of Government Buildings in Dublin sermonising about how this is ‘the right thing to do’ – translation: ‘aren’t I wonderful?’ – without so much as a flicker of concern for the global impact of rewarding an act of apocalyptic violence.

That really is what is happening here. Harris and the others were careful to condemn Hamas’s 7 October pogrom, of course. Harris called it a ‘barbaric massacre’. And yet the fact is that today’s announcements, this vain granting of legitimacy to a Palestinian state, would not be happening had it not been for 7 October. Indeed, Harris expressly linked his recognition of Palestine with the ‘appalling’ and ‘unconscionable’ war in Gaza. Yes, a war started by Hamas. On 7 October. With its carnival of anti-Semitic barbarism, the likes of which the world had not seen since the Holocaust. And there you have it. Want a state? Start a war. Kill some Jews. Job done.

Whatever subjective spin the three PMs put on their heedless act of global virtue-signalling, the objective consequence is the legitimation of Hamas. Indeed, Hamas has warmly welcomed their recognition of Palestine, describing it as ‘an important step towards affirming our right to our land’. I’m not into guilt by association, but seriously – when an army of anti-Semites starts singing your praises, you’ve messed up. Badly.

ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Ireland, Spain, Norway Recognize Palestinian State; Israel Recalls Ambassadors by James Lynch

Posted By on May 23rd, 2024

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/ireland-spain-norway-recognize-palestinian-state-israel-recalls-ambassadors/?utm_source=recirc-

Israel is recalling its ambassadors from Ireland, Spain, and Norway after the three European nations announced that they would formally recognize a Palestinian state.

Ireland, Spain, and Norway announced on Wednesday they will be formally recognizing a Palestinian state beginning next Monday, and each nation called for a cease-fire to end the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.

“I am sending a clear message today: Israel will not be complacent against those who undermine its sovereignty and endanger its security,” Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz said upon its decision to recall the ambassadors.

The countries’ ambassadors in Israel will be subject to “reprimand talks” where they will be shown footage of the atrocities Hamas committed against innocent civilians on October 7.

“Recognizing a Palestinian state will lead to more terrorism, instability in the region and jeopardize any prospects for peace,” the Israel foreign ministry said on X. “Don’t be a pawn in the hands of Hamas.”

The Palestinian Authority and Hamas celebrated the decision from Ireland, Spain, and Norway to recognize a Palestinian state, although the leaders of each country distanced themselves from Hamas.

“This is an investment in the only solution that can bring lasting peace in the Middle East,” Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre said, referring to a two-state solution.

“We hope that our recognition and our reasons contribute to other western countries to follow this path, because the more we are, the more strength we will have to impose a ceasefire, to achieve the release of the hostages held by Hamas, to relaunch the political process that can lead to a peace agreement,” Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez said to Spain’s lower legislative chamber.

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Has America Finally Had It With Joe Biden? A record that remains indefensible. Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on May 23rd, 2024

https://www.frontpagemag.com/has-america-finally-had-it-with-joe-biden/

Joe Biden’s personal approval rating is at historic lows; almost all his policies do not poll fifty percent. He is behind Trump in almost all the swing states. And now he lies serially even to sympathetic interviewers. In short, finally Biden has been exposed for what he always was and represented.

Senator and Vice President Joe Biden was always sort of a buffoon. He is by nature a grandstander who handsomely profited from his office while posing as good ole Joe from Scranton.

He is a blowhard meddler, one who proverbially has been “wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades (Robert Gates),” from dissenting on the Bin Laden raid to his trisection of Iraq scheme.

He is a fabulist who believes that the more animated he misleads and slurs (“semi-fascists” “fat”, “lying dog-faced pony soldier”, “chumps”, “dregs of society”, etc), the more likely he is to get away with it. He is a confessed plagiarist. And he has also invented much of his biography, from would be star, college-scholarship athlete and brilliant law student to semi-truck driver and jailed civil rights activist. His uncle, we are instructed, was eaten by cannibals. Joe assures us that he was the first in his family to go to college.

And he is a racist with a repertory of racial taunts and smears unrivaled among modern politicians (“junkie”, “boy”, “you ain’t black”, “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy”, “put y’all back in chains”, the Corn Pop and golden-leg hairs sagas, the “racial jungle” memes, the strange brag about Delaware as a “slave state” (e.g., “You don’t know my state. My state was a slave state. My state is a border state.”), and his encomia for the old Democratic racists of the Senate from former Klansman Robert Byrd (Biden’s self-described “mentor” and “guide”) to segregationist James Eastland (“never called me boy”).

Biden has always had a mean streak that explains why for years he lied about the tragic, fatal auto accident of his first wife and child, using it to libel the truck driver, who was neither drunk nor culpable but smeared publicly for years by Biden as intoxicated and guilty. For years he ignored the pleas of the trucker’s family to please stop libeling an innocent driver.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Biden Again Releasing Millions of Barrels from Oil Reserves in Attempt to Lower Gas Prices By Eric Lendrum

Posted By on May 23rd, 2024

https://amgreatness.com/2024/05/22/biden-again-releasing-millions-of-barrels-from-oil-reserves-in-attempt-to-lower-gas-prices/

On Tuesday, the Biden Administration announced that it will be releasing another 1 million barrels of oil from a reserve in the Northeast, in yet another effort to lower gas prices ahead of the November election.

ABC News reports that the reserve in question, located in New Jersey and Maine, was established in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in 2013. The sale by the Biden Administration will take place in increments of 100,000 barrels, with the hope that there will be a competitive bidding process that will guarantee the flow of gasoline to local retailers throughout the summer.

The Energy Department said that the move aims to help “lower costs for American families and consumers,″ after a congressional mandate called for the executive branch to sell off the nearly 11-year-old Northeast reserve before its closure. This mandate was part of the spending deal that was passed in March to avoid a government shutdown.

The sale of 1 million barrels – which amounts to about 42 million gallons – comes as the average price of gas nationwide currently sits at about $3.60, according to data from AAA. This is not the first time that the Biden Administration has resorted to tapping into emergency reserves just to lower gasoline prices for political expediency, as he previously did so ahead of the 2022 midterm elections; this move was credited as one of several reasons why the Democratic Party did not face landslide losses as most polls projected.

“The Biden-Harris administration is laser-focused on lowering prices at the pump for American families, especially as drivers hit the road for summer driving season,” said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm in a statement. “By strategically releasing this reserve in between Memorial Day and July 4th, we are ensuring sufficient supply flows to the tri-state and Northeast at a time hardworking Americans need it the most.”

NATIONAL SECURITY AND DEFENSE Comments turned off

Loose Talk About the End of Everything If the past is any guide to the present, we should take heed that what almost never happens in war can certainly still occur. By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on May 23rd, 2024

https://amgreatness.com/2024/05/23/loose-talk-about-the-end-of-everything/

After a recent summit between new partners China and Russia, General Secretary Xi Jinping and Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin issued an odd one-sentence communique: “There can be no winners in a nuclear war and it should never be fought.”

No one would disagree, even though several officials of both hypocritical governments have previously threatened their neighbors with nuclear attacks.

But still, why did the two feel the need to issue such a terse statement—and why now?

Rarely has the global rhetoric of mass annihilation reached such a crescendo as the present, as existential wars rage in Ukraine and Gaza.

In particular, Putin at least believes that he is finally winning the Ukraine conflict. Xi seems to assume that conventional ascendant Chinese military power in the South China Sea has finally made the absorption of Taiwan practicable.

They both believe that the only impediment to their victories would be an intervention from the U.S. and the NATO alliance, a conflict that could descend into mutual threats to resort to nuclear weapons.

Thus the recent warnings of Xi and Putin.

Almost monthly, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un continues his weary threats to use his nuclear arsenal to destroy South Korea or Japan.

A similarly monotonous, pro-Hamas Turkish president, Recep Erdogan, regularly threatens Armenians with crazy talk of repeating the “mission of our grandfathers.” And he occasionally warns Israelis and Greeks that they may one day wake up to Turkish missiles raining down upon their cities.

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Democrats’ fight against hate crimes vanishes in the face of antisemitism Julian Epstein

Posted By on May 23rd, 2024

https://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/4671152-democrats-fight-against-hate-crimes-vanishes-in-the-face-of-antisemitism/
Julian Epstein is the former chief counsel to the Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee and former staff director of the House Oversight Committee.

For the past few decades, Democrats have consistently demanded a strong response to the rising number of hate crimes motivated by race, ethnicity, ancestry or sexual orientation. Among other things, they have insisted on universal condemnation of the crimes and vigorous enforcement of federal laws that criminalize hate crimes. 

Spurred by the brutal hate murders of James Byrd Jr., and Matthew Shepard in the late 1990s, the Department of Justice has prosecuted hundreds of these cases in recent administrations, including 70 convictions by the Biden Department of Justice as last September. As chief counsel to the Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee years ago, I was involved in the push for stronger enforcement. It was a central part of the Democrats’ civil rights agenda.  

But now the Democratic Party has an antisemitism problem on its left flank, and its tune has changed a bit. Leftist professional organizers have mobilized student groups and mobs elsewhere to attack, harass and obstruct the free movement of Jews — all of which are crimes.   

Many openly support Hamas and the October 7 civilian massacre, calling for the destruction of Israel and for the repatriation of Jews to places like Poland. One student leader at Columbia asserted that “Zionists don’t deserve to live” in a livestream video. (University officials took no disciplinary action until the video was widely publicized.)   

Of course, the spike of over 8,873 antisemitic incidents of assault, harassment and vandalism in 2023 — a 140 percent increase from the previous year — was somewhat predictable.  

Numerous progressive groups like the Democratic Socialists of America (which counts among its supporters Democrats in Congress) and local chapters of Black Lives Matter celebrated Hamas’s genocidal attack as an act of liberation. A progressive Columbia professor called the attack “awesome”; one at Cornell was “exhilarated”; a Stanford instructor segregated Jewish students in an apparent slander of Israelis for being imagined “colonizers.” Democrats have largely looked the other way and declined to namecheck any of these bigotries.  

What would Democrats say if paid organizers incited mobs to attack Black students, impede their movement and publicly demand their repatriation to Africa? What would they say if college professors and their curricula slurred the ancestral heritage of Hispanics? They would rightly be outraged and would insist on maximum legal consequences against the perpetrators. 

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Has Gavin Newsom’s Brain Always Been Mush? Or has he grown battier over the years?

Posted By on May 23rd, 2024

https://issuesinsights.com/2024/05/23/has-gavin-newsoms-brain-always-been-mush/

California’s health is vital to this country. It’s too important to be run by political cranks. Unfortunately, it has become a True Blue state, setting much of the agenda for progressive politics everywhere. At the top is Gov. Gavin Newsom, who at one time seemed almost a happy warrior. Now it’s clear he’s an impulsive leftist hack who’ll say and do anything in the service of seeking ever greater power.

His most recent descent into Democratic madness was obvious a couple of weeks ago, when he blamed California’s $45 billion deficit on climate change.

“We anticipated that shortfall,” Newsom said at a news conference in which he outlined his plan to close the budget gap. “What we didn’t anticipate is these rain bombs … these atmospheric rivers that led to a federal declaration that led to FEMA and the IRS moving in a direction where we couldn’t collect our taxes until, I believe Nov. 16, as opposed to April 15.” 

He went on to say he considered “our financial delays as just another example of why we need to tackle” climate change, which “has impacts well beyond those that are often promoted.”

It’s a fact that California has had some heavy weather. To blame it on man’s combustion of fossil fuels is irresponsible. Actually it’s worse, it’s a sign of instability and desperation. As our friends at the Committee to Unleash Prosperity said, “This man has a serious case of climate change derangement syndrome.”

But the governor said what Democrats want to hear and he is happy to give it to them.

Newsom’s ongoing breakdown became obvious in his now infamous August 2021 “damn” interview with editorial and opinion writers from the McClatchy chain’s California newspapers.

Just weeks from a recall election that he won, Newsom was described as “unhinged,” “odd,” “testy,” and “angry.” He said “damn” nine times, at one point screeched that he loves “this damn state.” Those who had the patience to watch the video in its entirety said he smacked his desk with his hand and fist 59 times.

At least he wasn’t rolling around a couple steel balls in his hands.

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China’s Dream, America’s Nightmare Daryl McCann

Posted By on May 22nd, 2024

https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2024/05/chinas-dream-americas-nightmare/

Talk of a future war between Beijing and Washington is obsolete. Communist China is already at war with the United States even if, to quote Churchill, “all the great responsible authorities” have stood “gazing” at this disturbing truth “with vacant eyes”. So writes Peter Schweizer in Blood Money: Why the Powerful Turn a Blind Eye while China Kills Americans. Supported by an extensive research team, Schweizer chronicles the key methods the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) employs to pursue “disintegration warfare” against the United States, from fuelling the fentanyl crisis and arming criminal gangs to commandeering Hollywood and maximising the deleterious effects of COVID-19 on the American population: “It is often said that China is in a cold war with America. The reality is far worse: the war is hot, and the body count is one-sided.”

Disintegration warfare, writes Schweizer, is a modern-day adaptation of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, holy writ for every leader of the People’s Republic of China from Mao to Xi, and since 2006 required reading for members of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Sun Tzu, an ancient Chinese strategist, suggested that “all warfare is based on deception” and “the supreme act of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting”. The strength of Blood Money is that it comprehensively outlines how Xi Jinping and his coterie are going about the business of stealthily disintegrating the one power standing in the way of the Middle Kingdom resuming its place as the dominant force in the world. The mighty United States must, too, become a tributary state of China, but for that to occur America must be broken and defeated, preferably “without fighting” back or in any way defending itself.

Blood Money is mostly about how the CCP aims to defeat America (and the West) though there are moments when the discussion turns to why. For instance, Schweizer provides a
telling quotation from the Supreme Leader contained in a textbook given to all PLA officers. China and the West, according to Xi, are essentially incompatible because of differing ideologies and social systems: “This [incompatibility] decides it. Our struggle and contest of power with the West cannot be moderated. It will inevitably be long, complex, and at times extremely sharp.” The history of the CCP, after all, is a case study of destroying the independent integrity of everything that comes into its purview, from Tibet to the World Health Organisation. The only question is whether the politburo ever believed the Tibetan Autonomous Region would be, in any sense, self-directed. The belligerent paranoia of the CCP is a function of its Leninist nature and millennial fancies. Today the utopian vision is not Mao’s Great Leap Forward but Xi’s China Dream, though the same Leninist impulse prevails: the enemy must be “disintegrated”.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Deception and Misinformation Insidious weapons of terrorists — and of leftists in academia. by Dr. Shmuel Katz

Posted By on May 22nd, 2024

https://www.frontpagemag.com/deception-and-misinformation/

It is becoming more and more challenging to get advanced academic education without being exposed to malicious educators and others, who are willing to advance their own agenda, and ignore the interest of their students.

The recent turmoil in multiple universities in the USA and elsewhere, is only a symptom of many years of on-going indoctrination which is being ignored, due to various excuses.

Recently, there were again, alarms from the PJTN organization and from others, about the indoctrination of the young students in the K-12 classrooms, in multiple states.

I am glad that we have many organizations who would like to do better than the others, in exposing and marginalizing the bad operatives.

We need all of them, as there may be some that will reach groups of people, that others would not be able to do.

Some of the problems of having that many organizations are related to the fact that unfortunately, many times, they are not delivering the same messages, nor addressing the same problems, in systematically and repetitiously effective ways. We know from the science of commercial marketing, that if we want people to remember, identify, and ultimately, buy a product, they will have to hear the messages multiple times, and in different ways. Therefore, sharing well documented, similar, valuable, basic, and relevant information, by different sources, will significantly amplify the distribution of the messages, and will hopefully result in reaching and convincing more people, to act in their own interest, to expose and marginalize evil.

One of the hot topics of today is related to the insidious infiltration of radical groups into our educational system, with serious effects on the society at large. This phenomenon is not new. It happened already in the past, but recently it has gained momentum, which is affecting not only the students, but also educators and political decision makers. Consequently, it negatively affects the population at large.