NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Markets and Miracles John Stossel

Posted By on December 30th, 2023

https://pjmedia.com/john-stossel/2023/12/27/markets-and-miracles-n4925036

In this season of giving, I’ll donate to the Doe Fund, a charity that helps drug abusers and ex-cons find purpose in life through work.

Doe’s approach doesn’t include many handouts. It’s mostly about encouraging people to work. “Work works!” they say. 

It does. Most Doe Fund workers don’t go back to jail. 

I’ll also donate to Student Sponsor Partners, a nonprofit that gives scholarships to kids from low-income families so they can escape bad public schools. SSP sends them to Catholic schools. 

I’m not Catholic, but I donate because government-run schools are often so bad that Catholic schools do better at half the cost. Thanks to SSP, thousands of kids escape poverty.

Yet some on the left say giving time and money to charity is a mistake. Their trust in government leads them to think that government programs are much better at lifting people out of poverty. 

FOREIGN POLICY, ISRAEL Comments turned off

Biden Panders to His Far-Left Base, Hangs Up On Netanyahu Robert Spencer

Posted By on December 30th, 2023

https://pjmedia.com/robert-spencer/2023/12/30/biden-panders-to-his-far-left-base-hangs-up-on-netanyahu-n4925110

As 2024 fast approaches, Old Joe Biden is facing some serious obstacles to keep on pretending to be president until he is older than nearly three-quarters of our presidents were when they died. One of the most serious of these is that his far-left base, having been thoroughly miseducated to hate America and all that it stands for, also hates one of its staunchest allies, Israel, and is outraged that the Biden regime appears to be standing by the Jewish state. But Rashida Tlaib and her pals need not be concerned: in a bid to keep these Marxists in line and pulling the Biden lever, Old Joe just made a big push to keep their support.

The Daily Caller reported Saturday that the addled and aging corruptocrat “reportedly hung up on Prime Minister Netanyahu after a heated phone call about the Palestinian tax revenue dispute.” News of this latest embarrassment comes from “two U.S. and Israeli officials and a source with knowledge of the issue.” No one seems to be saying that Old Joe, in the fog of his galloping dementia, mistook Netanyahu for an annoyingly persistent telemarketer, so apparently the hang-up was entirely intentional.

The dispute revolves around the fact that “amid the Israel-Hamas war, the Israeli government has refused to release some tax revenues it collects for the Palestinian Authority that it says would go to the terrorist group Hamas.”

It’s understandable that such hesitation would anger Old Joe. After all, the Biden regime has never hesitated to shovel money to the Palestinians, without any regard for the possibility that it could end up in the hands of Hamas. The alleged president demonstrated, for anyone who was paying attention, which side he is really on when he went over to Israel in late October and met with Netanyahu. He took the opportunity to announce that he was giving $100 million to Gaza, which meant, regardless of his warnings that Hamas better not grab the money, that it would end up in Hamas’ coffers. There was no entity in Gaza that was not controlled by Hamas and that could both receive this money and keep it out of the hands of the terror group.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Nikki Haley, welcome to the Thunderdome The former South Carolina governor is facing the first major test of her ability to withstand a maelstrom in the presidential campaign.By Alex Isenstadt and Natalie Allison

Posted By on December 30th, 2023

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/12/30/nikki-haleys-first-real-test-of-2024-00133336

Nikki Haley is finally under the microscope.

After evading attacks for weeks from her Republican rivals, it was a town hall question about the origins of the Civil War that finally seemed to stick.

And it couldn’t have come at a worse time. With weeks to go before voting starts, Haley is now facing the first major test of her ability to withstand a maelstrom in the presidential campaign. It is a significant moment not only for the former South Carolina governor, but for the broader effort among Republicans hoping to stop Donald Trump from steamrolling to the nomination.

“This is Haley’s first time under the bright lights, and she must power through this and tackle Trump now,” said Scott Reed, a veteran GOP strategist. “Or else.”

Haley’s rivals treated her Civil War comments as a lifeline for their own dimming prospects in the race. DeSantis and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie quickly condemned her answer at their own campaign events this week. And Haley, the former U.N. ambassador, spent much of Thursday addressing questions about her remarks, putting her in the position of explaining rather than selling her candidacy.

For nearly a year — from her beginning as a long shot to her recent rise in polls — Haley went relatively unscathed. Her opponents have highlighted, with little effect, her evolving answers on issues like abortion and transgender rights. But they spent less money against her, too. As of Wednesday, Haley had $14 million spent against her in negative advertising, compared with nearly $37 million for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and $19 million for Trump, according to Rob Pyers, a nonpartisan data analyst. Trump has focused his hammer-like attacks on DeSantis, not Haley. And much of the media scrutiny over the past year focused on the Florida governor’s campaign missteps and policy proposals

But that changed Wednesday night in Berlin, New Hampshire. Haley’s halting and convoluted response to a town hall questioner — and her ensuing attempts to clarify her comments, later acknowledging slavery as a cause of the Civil War after first declining to do so — put a harsh spotlight on her, arguably for the first time during the primary. Within hours, news outlets had begun digging into her past remarks on the issue, resurfacing an interview she’d given in 2010 in which she offered similar beliefs about the root causes of the Civil War.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Roger Kimball:When will Harvard give Claudine Gay the boot? Gay is bad for Harvard, but Harvard is bad for the country, so her continued presence is a net positive.

Posted By on December 30th, 2023

https://thespectator.com/topic/harvard-claudine-gay-boot-plagiarism/

You are probably almost as sick of hearing about Claudine Gay — as of this writing, still the president of Harvard University — as I am of writing about her. As I pointed out a year ago in this space, Harvard’s appointment of Gay, a black woman, was simply the next chapter in the university’s long-running pursuit of its racial spoils system. Gay’s entire academic career has been a testimony to the power of that enterprise. What a prize Harvard had in Claudine Gay: a black female who was an avid proponent of the whole “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” racket. Could there be any doubt that she was being groomed for the top slot?  

When Gay joined the presidents of MIT and UPenn (also female, but unfashionably pale-faced) before the House Committee on Education, she, like her peers, beclowned herself. “Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate you university’s code of conduct?” That was the super-easy-to-answer question that Representative Elise Stefanik posed to the ladies. They tied themselves in knots over that one — it all depends on “context,” don’t you see — and Liz Magill, the (now former) president of Penn sealed her fate by producing a truly cringe-making video a day or two later in which she groveled, apologized  and underscored her moral pygmyhood. 

In short order, Magill was shown the door by Penn’s board. “One down, two to go!” was the chant among many critics. MIT seems to have successfully circled the wagons around its president Sally Kornbluth. But Claudine Gay was more or less in the position of someone who gets stopped for speeding and then is discovered to have been driving on an expired license. 

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The Iranian Regime’s Killing Machine by Majid Rafizadeh

Posted By on December 30th, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20262/iran-killing-machine

In addition to increasing the level of enriched uranium to near nuclear-weapons grade; helping to fund and plan a genocidal war against Israel; attacking US troops in Syria and Iraq with its militias more than 100 times in just the last two months to try to force the US out of the region, and incontinently bogus-trialing, torturing (even children) and executing its own citizens, the Iranian regime has also been orchestrating the assassinations of individuals, particularly those considered opponents to the ruling mullahs’ clerical establishment.

With Iran’s nuclear bombs now well on their way, how much more harm does the Iranian regime have to do to finally be stopped? ?

In addition to increasing the level of enriched uranium to near nuclear-weapons grade; helping to fund and plan a genocidal war against Israel; attacking US troops in Syria and Iraq with its militias more than 100 times in just the last two months to try to force the US out of the region, and incontinently bogus-trialing, torturing (even children) and executing its own citizens, the Iranian regime has also been orchestrating the assassinations of individuals, particularly those considered opponents to the ruling mullahs’ clerical establishment.

Authorities in Cyprus recently thwarted an Iranian plot to assassinate Israeli businessmen in the country. Cypriot police apprehended two Iranian asylum-seekers who were in communication with another Iranian linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Crops, as disclosed by a Cypriot official on December 19, 2023. The official conveyed that the arrest of the suspects resulted from a collaborative operation with Israel’s Mossad security service. A statement released by the Israeli Prime Minister’s office on behalf of the Mossad, said that Iran’s utilization of Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus for “terrorist purposes” and as an “area of activity and transit to attack Israeli and Jewish targets” is a matter of great concern.

This is not the first time the Iranian regime has plotted to kill Israelis in Cyprus. The attempt marks the third reported instance of an Iranian plot to target Israelis and Jews in Cyprus within the span of roughly a year. In July 2023, Cypriot authorities foiled a terrorist plot involving an Iranian-backed assassination squad targeting Israelis and other members of the Cypriot Jewish community.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Douglas Murray, Col. Richard Kemp explain uphill battle for Israel Douglas Murray and Col. Richard Kemp – two of Israel’s most beloved friends, indeed – answer some FAQs on the current war.

Posted By on December 30th, 2023

https://m.jpost.com/bds-threat/article-779863

It might have been mistaken for a rock concert as hundreds of 20- and 30-somethings streamed into Tel Aviv’s Carlton Hotel last week. But these young adults weren’t there for any music. Instead, they were clamoring to hear the perspectives of two prominent advocates for Israel.

The featured speakers at the International Salon were the former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, Col. Richard Kemp; and author and political commentator Douglas Murray, who has become a social media star since Oct. 7 and whose book War on the West (2018) quickly became a New York Times bestseller.

Both Kemp and Murray have spent the past two and a half months in Israel covering the war. “I’ve almost made aliyah” quipped Kemp.

When the charismatic Murray entered the room a little late, for reasons that he would later share, the audience broke into applause. While Kemp has been known for years for endorsing the IDF as the “most moral army” in the world, Murray shot to fame at the opening of the current conflict with his acerbic response to an interviewer’s question as to whether Israel’s response to the Hamas atrocities of Oct. 7 could be considered “proportionate.”

In a segment on Britain’s Talk TV, which went instantly viral, Murray responded: “There is some deep perversion in Britain whenever Israel is involved in a conflict, and it’s the word you just used – ‘proportion,’ ‘proportionate,’ ‘proportionality.’ Only Britain is really obsessed with this.

“Proportionality in conflict rarely exists. But if we were to decide that we should have this fetish about proportionality, then that would mean that in retaliation for what Hamas did in Israel on Saturday [Oct. 7], then Israel should try and locate a music festival in Gaza, for instance (and good luck with that), and rape precisely the number of women that Hamas raped, kill precisely the number of young people that Hamas killed.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

The Mess in Maine The 2024 presidential election is already an unprecedented political quagmire Matt Taibbi

Posted By on December 29th, 2023

https://www.racket.news/p/the-mess-in-maine

Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows decided Thursday to remove Donald Trump from the state’s presidential ballot. Jared Golden, a Democratic congressman from Lewiston who voted to impeach Trump over the January 6th riots, quickly issued a statement:

We are a nation of laws, therefore until he is actually found guilty of the crime of insurrection, he should be allowed on the ballot.

Eight years ago this month, the big story in the presidential race was whether or not Trump was out of line in saying Hillary Clinton got “schlonged” in the 2008 primary. A Washington Post “linguistic investigation” quoted Steven Pinker in saying that “given Trump’s history of vulgarity… it’s entirely possible that he had created a sexist term for ‘defeat,’” but the paper concluded that Trump’s problem was that “he’s a gentile who, linguistically, may have wandered too far from home.”

Normally campaign season is a period of heightened engagement, as people scour the Internet to research even the most inane questions, knowing that at the end of the process, they get to cast votes on them. It’s why news companies tend to fatten up in election years, like Grizzlies during salmon runs. People are absorbed by dramas in which they feel themselves to be participants.

This year the public is being forced to research questions in which they have no say. We all understand now that there’s a disqualification clause in the 14th Amendment. We also understand that this clause seems to have been written with deliberate vagueness. I’m no lawyer, but I doubt the 14th Amendment was designed to empower unelected state officials to unilaterally strike major party frontrunners from the presidential ballot. If it was, that’s a shock. I must have missed that in AP Insane Legal Loopholes class. Is there any way this ends well? It feels harder and harder to imagine.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Red Cross finds little sympathy among Israelis amid accusations of ineptitude, bias As the war drags on with nothing to show for its backroom approach, the Red Cross has found it harder to maintain that its strategy is working. David Isaac

Posted By on December 29th, 2023

https://www.jns.org/red-cross-finds-little-sympathy-among-israelis-amid-accusations-of-ineptitude-bias/

“Humanitarianism,” “compassion,” “neutrality”—these are the words the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) would like linked to its name. In Israel, the word more commonly associated with the organization is “mud.”

The ICRC has come in for criticism from the Israeli premier on down, with the public consensus being that the ICRC is at best a glorified taxi service, and at worst the most prominent of the consistently anti-Israel and biased so-called “humanitarian” groups.

Israelis blame the ICRC for failing to reach the hostages held by Hamas. Eighty-one days into the war, the Red Cross still hasn’t managed to gain access to the remaining captives held by the terror group. 

Israeli anger has intensified as reports emerge of the grim situation of the abductees, with reports of torture, sexual abuse, lack of food and medical care. Some hostages have been killed in captivity.

The ICRC didn’t help its cause when on Dec. 23 its president, Mirjana Spoljaric, blamed Israel, telling Channel 12 that “both” Hamas and Israel were responsible for the ICRC’s failure to reach the hostages. (Yehonatan Sabban, former ICRC spokesman in Israel, said he had to watch the interview four times because he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.)

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The unholy alliance between wokeism and barbarism After 2023, surely no one will deny that Western civilisation is under threat from without and within. Brendan O’Neill

Posted By on December 29th, 2023

https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/12/29/the-unholy-alliance-between-wokeism-and-barbarism/

My favourite story about Spinoza concerns the time he lost his cool. A philosopher, a Jew and history’s finest defender of Enlightenment, Spinoza was normally a picture of quiet reason. But when he heard about the lynching of Johan and Cornelis de Witt he became gripped by an uncommon fury. The de Witt brothers were key political figures in the Dutch Republic, the enlightened new nation in which Spinoza enjoyed such great liberty to think and write. On 20 August 1672, at The Hague, they were set upon by a ferocious mob that held them responsible for the invasion of the republic by a French-English alliance. They were murdered, mutilated and clumps of their flesh were eaten.

Spinoza was enraged. He made a plan to visit the site of the mob’s savagery to hold a one-man protest. Think Greta Thunberg, but enlightened. He prepared a placard to hold up. But his landlord restrained him, fearing he too would be slain by the mob. And so history was denied the image of one of our great philosophers staging a lonely, angry protest. What did his makeshift placard say? It had two words on it. ‘Ultimi barbarorum.’ Rough translation: ‘You are the greatest of barbarians.’

This year more than any other I’ve understood how Spinoza felt. On numerous occasions in 2023 I’ve been tempted to go places with a placard saying ‘Ultimi barbarorum’. To the kibbutzim of southern Israel following Hamas’s fascistic savagery against the Jews there on 7 October. To George Washington University after students projected the words ‘Glory to our martyrs’ on the side of the library building: young Americans of unimaginable privilege taking pleasure in the butchery of Jews. To the lovely, leafy campus of Columbia in New York City where students planned to hold a meeting on Hamas’s stirring ‘counter-offensive’. To those ‘pro-Palestine’ marches in London at which the morally treacherous middle classes marched alongside individuals dressed as Hamas terrorists and extremists chanting for yet more slaughter in Israel: ‘Jihad, jihad, jihad!’

To New York University where students shouted, ‘We don’t want no Jew state / We want all of it’: a cry by the comfortable for Hamas to finish the genocidal job of eliminating Jews in the Middle East. To the streets of Manhattan where protesters shouted ‘Shame on you!’ at an Israeli woman whose daughter was kidnapped and brutalised by Hamas. Shaming the victims of racist terror – a low even for the unhinged woke. To any gathering of politically minded Gen Zers, to be frank, after polls found that huge numbers of them view Jews as an ‘oppressor class’ and believe Hamas’s pogrom was ‘justified’. And to the Sydney Opera House, where radical Islamists chanted ‘Gas the Jews’ and ‘Fuck the Jews’ mere days after Hamas murdered the Jews. Nazi-style parades, uncontained glee at genocidal violence, on the streets of a Western city.

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Upcoming U.S. Presidential Election Could Fuel Global Instability in 2024 By Fred Fleitz

Posted By on December 29th, 2023

https://amgreatness.com/2023/12/29/upcoming-u-s-presidential-election-could-fuel-global-instability-in-2024/

A failed, last-minute visit to Mexico by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas this week perfectly reflected the Biden Administration’s dismal foreign policy record in 2023 and what may lie ahead in 2024.

Blinken and Mayorkas traveled to Mexico City to meet with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to discuss how to stem the surge in illegal migrants crossing into the United States from Mexico. But instead of offering constructive proposals to address this crisis, López Obrador mocked Blinken and Mayorkas by dismissing the border crisis as a U.S. problem, called for opening border crossings, and urged the U.S. to strengthen its ties with Cuba and Venezuela.

This latest Biden Administration foreign policy debacle reflected how world leaders increasingly view Joe Biden as a weak and indecisive leader with an incompetent foreign policy. This debacle also reflected the incompetence of Biden’s foreign policy team because López Obrador was allowed to ambush Blinken and Mayorkas. A competent state department would have ensured this visit was a scripted affair, with differences between each country resolved privately and in advance during lower-level meetings.

Blinken and Mayorkas traveling to Mexico without knowing what López Obrador would offer was a rookie mistake one would expect during the first few months of a new U.S. administration, not from one that has been in office for almost three years.

The outcome of the Blinken/Mayorkas Mexico trip and Biden’s refusal to implement serious measures to stem the flow of illegal migrants crossing the U.S. southern border will have major security implications for the United States in 2024. Given a growing perception that Biden may be a one-term president who will be succeeded in January 2025 by a new president who will take aggressive action to close the border, the United States will likely see the largest surge of illegal immigration in history in 2024 as migrants from around the world rush to Mexico to take advantage of Biden’s weak border security policies.