BOOKS Comments turned off

N. S. Lyons Twilight of American Democracy? A new book argues that an elite class of influential Americans took control of the ship of state.

Posted By on September 9th, 2024

https://www.city-journal.org/article/twilight-of-american-democracy

It’s been a confusing summer for those who still believe nothing is amiss about the American republic. One moment the sitting president was, according to the near-universal insistence of mainstream media, sharp as a tack—all evidence to the contrary declared disinformation. The next he was suddenly agreed to be non compos mentis, unceremoniously ousted from the ballot for reelection, and replaced through the backroom machinations of unelected insiders. Overnight, the same media then converged aggressively to manufacture a simulacrum of sweeping grassroots enthusiasm for that replacement, the historically unpopular Kamala Harris. To call this a palace coup via the New York Times would not seem to stray too far from observable events.

What, some may wonder, just happened to our supposedly sacred democracy? A growing group of dissident right-wingers has sought to supply an explanation. United around the premise that the governance of the United States doesn’t function as we’re told it does, this group believes that the country has not operated as a constitutional republic for some time; it is only the façade of one, effectively controlled by a cadre of plutocratic elites, party insiders, unelected bureaucrats, and subservient media apparatchiks—in short, an unaccountable oligarchy.

Among the sharpest recent guides to this argument is a slim new book by the columnist and influential young New Right thinker Auron MacIntyre, titled The Total State: How Liberal Democracies Become Tyrannies.

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Mark P. Mills The Political Cost of the Energy Transition Elected leaders will pay a price for green policies that hit citizens in the pocketbook.

Posted By on September 9th, 2024

https://www.city-journal.org/article/the-political-cost-of-the-energy-transition

For physicists, energy is about the laws of nature; for engineers, it’s about manufacturing prowess. For citizens, however, energy is generally about money. Energy purchases are unavoidable—whether directly, by paying our electric bills or for gas in our cars, or indirectly, by paying for the energy costs embedded in food, vacations, and everything else. Politicians often use “pocketbook” language when talking to voters because they know how important lowering everyday costs are for most Americans. But does anyone believe that there won’t be a political cost from the embrace of “bold” energy policies that are sharply raising citizens’ energy bills?

To understand where current federal energy policies are taking the nation, we can look to the states, the “laboratories of democracy,” and especially to a group of them eagerly following California’s lead, putting into effect massive changes to energy policies.

Consider New Jersey. As its website brags, it has “one of the most ambitious Renewable Portfolio Standards in the country.” Earlier this summer, headlines featured news about citizens shocked at soaring electric bills, thanks to a state-approved price hike. And that’s just for starters. Early in August, PJM, the grid administrator that manages electricity for a 13-state region that includes New Jersey, reported the results of its auction for supplying next year’s wholesale power: the bids came in nearly ten times as high as last year.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Biden-Harris World Is Afire A confused but also encouraged world of enemies watches the listless United States and wonders whether to try something stupid. By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on September 9th, 2024

https://amgreatness.com/2024/09/09/the-biden-harris-world-is-afire/

Somehow the United States ended up this summer with no engaged president and an absent vice president who avoids the missing president and is frantically repudiating everything she co-owned the last three years.

The world was already confused over how President Joe Biden was apparently declared by unnamed Democratic insiders and donors unfit and unable to continue as their presidential candidate—as if he were a dethroned Third-World usurper.

It further wondered how those who staged his removal had no problem allowing him, in his debilitated state, to continue as America’s commander-in-chief until January 20, 2025. They demonstrated their priorities that focus on retaining power, not the welfare of the nation or the will of over 14 million Biden primary voters.

Vice President Kamala Harris, until Biden’s forced abdication, was judged by these same backroom fixers as too incompetent to ever be commander-in-chief and thus for three years a good reason why Biden apparently was not forced out earlier.

Now nominal Vice President Harris is on the campaign trail nonstop, while Biden has taken the most vacation time off and worked the shortest workweek in presidential memory.

The world again wonders who is in charge, what they believe, who is a friend, and who is an enemy. Harris is busy trying to get elected on three premises: disowning her prior co-ownership of what was mostly a disastrous Biden term and certainly no recommendation for reelection; reinventing her affluent radical past and present as moderate and working-class; and keeping absolutely silent about any detailed agenda or policy plan for governance as president.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Islamist terrorism is staging a barbaric comeback From Solingen to Moscow to Hartlepool, jihadist attacks risk becoming the new normal. Tom Slater

Posted By on September 9th, 2024

https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/09/08/islamist-terrorism-is-staging-a-barbaric-comeback/

Islamist terror has returned to Europe. But in truth, it never really went away.

On 23 August, the German city of Solingen was the scene of an all too familiar and barbaric crime.

Issa Al H, a suspected member of Islamic State, slashed at the necks of people in a crowd, as they gathered to celebrate the city’s 650th anniversary.

He killed three people and injured eight more.

Islamic State swiftly took responsibility, calling this murderer a ‘soldier’, and hailing the attack as an act of ‘revenge for the Muslims in Palestine and elsewhere’.

The killer is a Syrian asylum seeker, who was slated for deportation last year to Bulgaria – the place where he had first registered for asylum.

He only managed to stay in Germany because he was not at his asylum accommodation when immigration officials showed up to collect him.

In Germany, this kind of Islamist nihilism is, disturbingly, becoming the new normal.

In May, in the city of Mannheim, a suspected Islamist extremist stabbed six people at an anti-Islam rally. A police officer later succumbed to his injuries.

What’s more, the number of foiled plots in Germany, even over the past few months, is staggering.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Mass Insanity in Response to Hamas Brutality A moral sin of cosmic proportions. by Ed Brodow

Posted By on September 9th, 2024

https://www.frontpagemag.com/mass-insanity-in-response-to-hamas-brutality/

The entire world is witness to a form of mass insanity. In response to the brutal murder of more than 1,200 innocent people by a gang of savage terrorists together with the taking of more than 200 hostages, people and governments are supporting the murderers and, in so doing, are committing a moral sin of cosmic proportions. The collective disgrace is beyond comprehension.

The pressure seems to be focused on Israel, instead of on the Hamas murderers. The Biden/Harris administration, many Western governments, protestors on college campuses, and even Israeli citizens are siding with the terrorists. “Why isn’t Netanyahu doing more to gain the release of the hostages?” “Why aren’t we insisting on a ceasefire?” This is what happened after October 7th and it happened again this week when Hamas brutally murdered six hostages. What they are all missing is that Netanyahu didn’t kill those people, Hamas terrorists did.

Attorney Leo Terrell put it succinctly: “Where’s the pressure on Hamas?” Alan Dershowitz agreed. The question, Dershowitz said, is not why isn’t Israel doing more to gain the release of the hostages. The question is, why isn’t Hamas releasing the hostages? “Bring them home” puts the onus on Israel. The slogan should be, “Let them go.” Israel does not have a responsibility to sacrifice its national security. No, Hamas has a clear obligation to release the hostages.

The protests have nothing to do with ceasefires, Dershowitz says, they have to do with cease Israel. Hamas’ stated goal is the elimination of the State of Israel. If Israel agrees to a ceasefire, Hamas wins. Hamas will be free to reconstitute itself and continue its assaults on Israel. That is why Netanyahu is correct in aiming for the complete obliteration of Hamas.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Manhattan Attorney’s Spokesman: Bragg’s Case Against Trump is ‘Nonsense’ “They are so obsessed with getting him.” by Robert Spencer

Posted By on September 9th, 2024

https://www.frontpagemag.com/manhattan-attorneys-spokesman-braggs-case-against-trump-is-nonsense/

It has been obvious right from the beginning that Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s case against Trump was a half-baked mélange of wild exaggeration, unwarranted conclusions, and legal sleight of hand, all in pursuit of allowing Bragg’s fellow Democrats to intone sanctimoniously that Trump was a “convicted felon.”

In a refreshing twist, however, now a top spokesman for Bragg’s own home base, the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office, has admitted as much, calling Bragg’s case “nonsense.” As of this writing on Thursday afternoon, the poor fellow is not yet looking for new employment, but he may be soon.

Nicholas Biase, the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office’s chief spokesman, didn’t mean to out Bragg as a corrupt, politically motivated destroyer of our legal system. He did so in a private conversation with a woman who turned out to be an undercover operative for podcaster Steven Crowder. Instead of impressing his date, Biase ended up on Crowder’s “Mug Club,” ripping into his boss in front of the whole aghast world.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Biden-Harris Jobs Con Continues

Posted By on September 9th, 2024

https://issuesinsights.com/2024/09/08/the-biden-harris-jobs-con-continues/

As it has done every month this year, the Biden administration continues to gaslight the public about job growth. Each month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports headline-grabbing job-creation numbers, then quietly cuts that number in subsequent months – often by huge amounts.

The latest report is no exception. The headline Friday is that the economy created 142,000 jobs in August – a figure that is close to economists’ expectations and that prompted CNN to cheer “The sky is not falling.”

But buried in the report is the fact that the BLS sharply cut the number of jobs created in both June and July.

Where the BLS had initially claimed that 206,000 jobs were created in June – which was treated as good news because it beat economists’ expectations – after two subsequent downward revisions it now says job growth in June was just 118,000.

In other words, it had overestimated job growth in June by 42%! Did anyone see a headline announcing that?

And while the BLS first claimed that 114,000 jobs were created in July, it slashed that down to 89,000 – a 22% cut.

It has done the same thing all year. It first claimed that 353,000 jobs were created in January. Now it says that number was 256,000. In April, it reported 175,000 new jobs. Now it says there were only 108,000.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Dear Kamala, We Want To Go Back. And So Should Everyone Else

Posted By on September 9th, 2024

https://issuesinsights.com/2024/09/09/dear-kamala-we-want-to-go-back-and-so-should-everyone-else/

At every rally, without fail, Vice President Kamala Harris gets the crowd to start chanting “we’re not going back!”

“Well, look,” she said in Pennsylvania last month, “America has tried those failed policies before, and we are not going back! We are not going back! Not going back!”

Well, look, Kamala, we want to go back! And we fervently hope and pray that most Americans do as well. And that they vote that way in November.

We want to go back to a time before Joe Biden and Kamala Harris wrecked the economy, before they unleashed the inflation monster, before they threw open the border, let criminals run free, and exuded weakness abroad.

In other words, we want to go back to a time when a tax-cutting, pro-growth, anti-regulation, strong defense president was in the White House and America was prosperous and the world at peace.

What we don’t want is to go forward with the Biden-Harris disaster, which is what Kamala Harris and Tim Walz will give us, good and hard.

So, as a reader service, we’ve gathered a brief sampling of reasons why the public should join us in desperately wanting to go back to the “failed policies” we had under Trump, and not continue with the “leadership” we’ve seen under Biden-Harris. (Readers are invited to add to this list using the comment section below.)

ISRAEL Comments turned off

The Oslo Effect: The Weaponization of Hostages to do Hamas’s Dirty Work for It by Melanie Phillips

Posted By on September 9th, 2024

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20922/israel-weaponization-of-hostages
https://melaniephillips.substack.com/p/the-oslo-effect

The demonstrators [in Israel] are backed by assorted military and intelligence types in a treasonous attempt to lever Netanyahu out of office by creating division and demoralization while Israel is fighting for its life. Their core claim is that Netanyahu is prolonging the war and condemning the hostages to death solely to appease extremists in his coalition and thus remain in power.

Of course, everyone desperately wants the hostages brought back home. But the idea that the ceasefire deal would achieve this is sheer fantasy.

Only a few of the hostages would be released in the first phase. Hamas would then use the ceasefire to regroup and rearm, spinning out the continuing negotiation farce to keep the rest of the hostages trapped and thus retain control of the Gaza Strip.

It would only ever release all the hostages (if at all) with Israel’s total surrender. That’s what those calling for an immediate ceasefire deal are actually promoting.

The only way to save the hostages is through military pressure. That’s one reason why it’s imperative for Israel to retain control of the Philadelphi corridor, the area of Gaza that borders Egypt.

The importance of this corridor cannot be exaggerated. Israel’s capture of it has uncovered deep below its surface an extensive infrastructure of giant tunnels into Egypt — thus revealing the principal route through which Hamas imported its rockets, weapons and ammunition. [Emphasis added]

Hamas needs to control the Philadelphi corridor in order to resupply itself. Without that, it will be finished. That’s why it’s insisting that there will be no deal while Israel remains in control.

The vast majority of the military and security officials who belong to the authoritative Israel Defense and Security Forum are adamant that Israel must not cede control of the corridor. The forum’s chairman, Brig. Gen. Amir Avivi, said last week that tens of thousands of rockets and thousands of Hamas Nukhbah terrorists were waiting inside the Egyptian Sinai to go into Gaza through Philadelphi.

BOOKS Comments turned off

CHAPTER 35: Artificial Intelligence and America’s Children__Space Is No Longer the Final Frontier—Reality Is* by Linda Goudsmit

Posted By on September 9th, 2024

https://goudsmit.pundicity.com/28046/chapter-35-artificial-intelligence-and-america

goudsmit.pundicity.com  and website: lindagoudsmit.com 

It is time to take a look at what the globalists have in mind for little Johnny and Humanity 2.0. We begin with a history lesson provided by Dr. Michael Rectenwald in his April 14, 2023, article, “Hacking Humanity: Transhumanism”:[i]

The term transhumanism was coined by Julian Huxley, the brother of the novelist Aldous Huxley and the first director-general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). In an essay entitled “Transhumanism,” published in the book New Bottles for New Wine (1957), Huxley defined transhumanism as the self-transcendence of humanity:

The human species can, if it wishes, transcend itself—not just sporadically, an individual here in one way, an individual there in another way, but in its entirety, as humanity. We need a name for this new belief. Perhaps transhumanism will serve: man remaining man, but transcending himself, by realizing new possibilities of and for his human nature.1

One question for transhumanism is indeed whether this transcendence will apply to the whole human species or rather for only a select part of it. But Huxley gave some indication of how this human self-transcendence might occur: humanity would become “managing director of the biggest business of all, the business of evolution….”2 As the first epigraph to this Part makes clear, Julian Huxley was a proponent of eugenics. And he was the President of the British Eugenics Society.3 It was in his introduction of UNESCO, as the director-general that he suggested that eugenics, after the Nazi regime had given it such a bad name, should be rescued from opprobrium, “so that much that now is unthinkable may at least become thinkable.”4 As John Klyczek has noted, “In the wake of vehement public backlash against the atrocities of the Nazi eugenic Holocaust, Huxley’s eugenics proper was forced to go under-ground, repackaging itself in various crypto-eugenic disguises, one of which is ‘transhumanism.'”5