The Hierarchy of Democratic Deceit by Stephen Hayward

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/10/the-hierarchy-of-democratic-deceit.php

It is a well-known pattern going back decades now that Democratic candidates conceal their leftist views from the voters, running as moderates, and sometimes, like Democratic Senator Bob Casey in Pennsylvania right now, practically denying they are even Democrats! We’ve seen how Kamala Harris has disavowed her previous far-left issue statements wholesale, while winking to the progressive base that “my values haven’t changed.”

I’m not sure it is working. Last weekend when driving around Berkeley, where there are always a ton of lawn signs ahead of an election, I noted how few Harris-Walz signs there were. If you delve into left-wing social media, you find out very quickly that a lot of progressives are furious with Harris for moving to the middle and abandoning her previous positions. The Bernie-swills are convinced that this is why she is slipping! For example:

One of the issues most conspicuously missing from the Harris campaign is climate change, which we are told is the greatest existential crisis facing humanity evah! If they really believe this, don’t you think they’d be talking about it more? Of course, as we reported back in June, there is solid survey evidence, from Democratic pollsters, that talking about electric cars actually reduced support for Joe Biden. (And now several Democratic candidates are saying “What electric car mandate? Never heard of it. . .” Even though their votes are on the record.)

Trump’s Media Haters Still Don’t Get It Martin Kaufmann

https://issuesinsights.com/2024/10/25/trumps-media-haters-still-dont-get-it/

Editor’s note: This has been excerpted with permission from the author. To read the entire article, click here.

This is an actual headline that appeared in a “journalism” newsletter 13 days before the election: “How much coverage of Donald Trump is too much?”

The column is from Tom Jones, senior media writer at the Poynter Institute and, you’ll not be surprised to learn, a man consumed by Trump Derangement Syndrome. I’ve said in the past that Jones’ daily “Poynter Report” column would be more accurately titled, “Why I Hate Donald Trump and Fox News.” (For what it’s worth, Jones would dispute this. In 2020, I sent him an email pointing out glaring biases evident in his commentary. He responded, among other things, by writing, “I can promise you that I don’t have an agenda other than to point out really good journalism and call out shoddy journalism.” Self-awareness apparently isn’t his strong suit.)

These days I only occasionally read Jones’ tedious, predictable commentaries, and only then for the same reason that a child pinches himself: to see how much pain I can endure.

In this instance, Jones claims to be upset that the legacy media has devoted so much time to Trump trolling Kamala Harris in a McDonald’s photo op and his outrageous asides, most notably ruminating on the late Arnold Palmer’s junk.

Iran’s Assassination Program in Europe: Europe Goes Back to Sleep by Robert Williams

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21041/iran-assassinations-europe

“In order to maintain a degree of separation from the terror cells it operates in Europe and to ensure plausible deniability, there is no direct contact between Tehran and members of the cells. In the case of the recently detained French cell, instructions on where and when to carry out attacks were relayed via international networks of criminals and drug smugglers.” — Daniel Dolev, Israeli investigative journalist, shomrim.news, September 5, 2024.

In addition to the Iranian dissidents that it has been hunting for years, the Iranian regime now literally hunts Jews in Europe.

Iran, in other words, has extended its operations from having terrorists as proxies to having criminals as proxies.

According to Britain’s MI5, the situation is about to get much worse….

Despite all this clear knowledge… the leadership of the European Union and the UK refuse to designate the IRGC a terrorist organization. Instead, European countries target Israel with arms boycotts, constant condemnation and general opprobrium, although Israel’s fight against Iran belongs at least as much to Europe and the West, no matter how hard — out of dread — they might try to deny it.

If they think that pressuring Israel not to confront this existential threat will make it disappear, they are sadly mistaken. As in World War II, it is by supporting Israel in defeating aggression that they will stop it.

Last year, by an overwhelming majority, the European Parliament passed a resolution to that effect, but the EU nevertheless refused to designate the IRGC as such. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell claimed there were legal obstacles, however, that claim has been refuted as a lie.

After Iran’s direct missile attack on Israel on April 13, the European Parliament again, by an overwhelming majority, adopted a resolution to designate the IRGC a terrorist organization…. It also requested that the EU add Hezbollah to the terror list. Borrell, once more, simply refused, arguing that “listing this organisation as a ‘terrorist organisation’ would have no practical effect.”

Designating the IRGC as a terrorist organization would make it possible to press terrorism charges and prosecute both members of the organization and those supporting it. It seems as if the majority of European leaders are once again determined, as in appeasing Churchill’s crocodile, to be “eaten last.”

“Putting IRGC on the EU terror list is an important step to protect the national security, to protect our communities, particularly the Iranian diaspora and the Jewish community because there is a genuine terror threat and because they are not only targeting and conducting terror plots but they are also nurturing homegrown Shia islamist radicalisation, using the Isis and Al Qaeda methods. However, because IRGC is not proscribed (as a terror group), these activities are not outlawed.” — Kasra Aarabi, director of IRGC research at United Against Nuclear Iran, eureporter.co, May 6, 2024.

Are European politicians really that eager for the votes of their unassimilable newcomers — who appear to be planning to take over Europe? Or are Europe’s politicians afraid that if they fail to delegitimize Israel at every opportunity, the newcomers might inflict even more terrorism on European soil? Does Europe really want to live in a state of being permanently extorted? The price goes only one way: up.

Tulsi Gabbard Joins Republican Party, ‘The Party of Common Sense’ David Zimmerman

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/tulsi-gabbard-joins-republican-party-the-party-of-common-sense/

Tulsi Gabbard announced Tuesday night she is officially joining the Republican Party as she continues stumping for former president Donald Trump on the campaign trail two weeks out from the November election.

Gabbard left the Democratic Party to become an independent in October 2022 and endorsed Trump in August after Robert F. Kennedy Jr., also a Democrat-turned-independent, ended his longshot presidential campaign and threw his support behind the GOP nominee.

“It is because of my love for our country and specifically because of the leadership that President Trump has brought to transform the Republican Party,” Gabbard said at a rally in Greensboro, N.C., “that I’m proud to stand here with you today, President Trump, and announce that I’m joining the Republican Party.”

The move seemed to surprise Trump as he appeared on stage. After her speech, Trump said he “didn’t know” Gabbard had decided to join the Republican Party.

“I’m joining the party of the people, the party of equality, the party that was founded to fight against and end slavery in this country,” she said in explaining her decision. “It is the party of common sense and the party that is led by a president who has the courage and strength to fight for peace.”

In her leadup to the big announcement, Gabbard slammed her former party and Vice President Kamala Harris for being “anti-freedom,” “pro-censorship,” “pro-open borders,” and “pro-war.” She also criticized Harris for “shamelessly” accepting endorsements from “warmongers” like Dick and Liz Cheney, reiterating that a second Trump presidency represents peace. Trump has vowed to end the ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

Daniel Penny’s Homicide Trial BeginsManhattan DA Alvin Bragg is plowing forward with a case that never should have been charged. Andrew McCarthy

https://www.nationalreview.com/2024/10/daniel-pennys-homicide-trial-begins/

Tragically, the homicide trial of former Marine Daniel Penny, in connection with the choking death of Jordan Neely, a violent, mentally disturbed vagrant who was menacing passengers on a New York City subway train, is underway. Jury selection began on Monday.

Last spring, Penny, who happens to be white, was indicted by Manhattan’s elected progressive, Democratic district attorney, Alvin Bragg — not long after Bragg indicted Donald Trump in the farcical case that was tried earlier this year. There is a symmetry here.

The Progressive Prosecutor Project is mainly about two things: using government’s law-enforcement apparatus against the political enemies of progressive Democrats and converting the justice system into a racialized morality play — not law and order but oppressors and oppressed. Just as Bragg would never have charged Trump if the former president hadn’t been the Democrats’ political nemesis and likely opponent in the 2024 election, Bragg would never have charged Penny had Penny been a black former Marine who intervened to protect himself and other passengers from Jordan Neely — particularly if Neely, who was black, had happened to be white.

Kamala’s Inane Talking Points Only two talking points matter: Which candidate’s past record and current agenda best appeal to voters? And which candidate seems the most authentic and genuine? By Victor Davis Hanson

https://amgreatness.com/2024/10/24/kamalas-inane-talking-points/

As Vice President Kamala Harris slips in the polls, the Democratic National Committee/Harris Campaign/mainstream media fusion talking points become even more absurd.

Claiming that J.D. Vance and Donald Trump were “weird” did not work—especially given the genuinely odd behavior of vice presidential candidate Tim Walz and would-be First Gentleman Doug Emhoff.

Nor was the next Harris meme convincing that the frenetic and non-stop Trump was somehow “exhausted,” “senile,” and “confused.” Voters know the workdays of the younger Harris are usually far shorter—or sometimes not workdays at all.

But Harris also falsely claimed the physically and mentally challenged Biden was, in her words, “absolutely authoritative” and “very bold and vibrant.”

Now Harris asserts that Trump is a “fascist,” a “dictator,” and “unfit” for office. But this new talking point will also not stop the Harris campaign’s hemorrhaging—and for a variety of reasons.

First, voters see the election as a conflict of two absolutely antithetical visions.

On the one hand, is the prior Trump 2017-20 concrete record: border security, no major wars abroad, calm in the Middle East, a deterred Russia, Iran, and China, low inflation, low interest rates, lower crime, lower taxes, strong deterrent military—and opposition to mandatory electric vehicle mandates, biological males competing in women’s sports, and the woke/DEI agenda.

On the other hand, is the Biden-Harris 2021-2024 record: the unchecked entry of 12-20 million illegal aliens and a destroyed border. People still struggle under Biden-Harris’s earlier hyperinflation and high interest rates. The horrific regional wars in Ukraine and the Middle East continue. Biden-Harris embraces the unpopular DEI/Woke agenda.

Harris herself knows that the Biden-Harris years were a failure. That is why she has shed almost all of their hard left-wing agendas—policies she has embraced for much of her adult life.

So suddenly, in the last 90 or so days, Harris has completely flipped and flopped.

Now she is for more of, not defunding, the police. She pivots for a secure border, not 20 million illegal aliens pouring across it. Harris brags about fossil fuel energy, not banning fracking, and for increasing, not cutting, defense.

The EU is falling apart Poland’s suspension of the right to asylum is another giant crack in the Brussels regime. Tim Black

https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/10/22/the-eu-is-falling-apart/

‘The state must regain 100 per cent of the control over who enters and leaves.’ What makes this statement so remarkable is who said it. Because it wasn’t a Eurosceptic populist making this case for a nation’s sovereignty over its own borders. It was Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk.

Yes, that Donald Tusk. The died-in-the-wool Europhile and former president of the European Council. A man so enamoured by the EU’s borderless dream he damned those concerned about the 2015 migrant crisis as racists and xenophobes. A politician so committed to the passport-free promise of the EU’s Schengen area, that he has relentlessly defended it, even as it has visibly creaked under the migratory waves of the past decade.

And yet here he is now, issuing a call to take back control of Poland’s borders, pledging to wage a ‘merciless’ fight against illegal immigration. He now sounds more like the Brexiteers he once said deserved ‘a special place in hell’.

The ostensible prompt for Tusk’s rather surprising conversion to the merits of national sovereignty lies on Poland’s and the EU’s border with Belarus. Over the past three years, thousands of migrants from Belarus, the Middle East and Africa have crossed into Poland from the east and sought to claim asylum. Tusk claims that this influx is part of a ‘hybrid war’ being waged by Russia via its Belarusian ally / proxy. Belarusian border guards are said to be waving migrants through as part of an attempt to destabilise Poland and the EU. So in response, Tusk has announced ‘the temporary suspension of the right to asylum on [Polish] territory’.

Yet while Tusk has been invoking the spectre of Russian foul play to justify pulling up Poland’s drawbridge, it’s hard to escape the suspicion that he’s more worried about threats closer to home. His pro-EU, centrist Civic Platform coalition may have narrowly won Poland’s parliamentary elections last year. But it has been struggling ever since, and is currently level-pegging with the Eurosceptic Law and Justice Party (PiS) in the polls. Tusk knows only too well that the EU’s inability to address public concerns about high levels of immigration and a broken asylum system is fuelling the revival of his domestic opponents. Tusk’s suspension of the right to asylum whiffs of an attempt to neutralise the populist appeal of his rivals.

Tusk is far from alone among struggling Europhile politicians in suddenly discovering the importance of national borders. Last month, Germany’s colossally unpopular chancellor, Olaf Scholz, introduced border controls on all of Germany’s land borders. This was partially in response to an Islamist terror attack in Solingen, west Germany, but mostly in response to mounting pressure from voters and populist parties.

Hamas Loyalist Professor: Huda Fakhreddine at the University of Pennsylvania “While we were asleep [on October 7th], Palestine invented a new way of life.” by Sara Dogan

https://www.frontpagemag.com/hamas-loyalist-professor-huda-fakhreddine-at-the-university-of-pennsylvania/

#4: Huda Fakhreddine, University of Pennsylvania

An associate professor of Arabic literature at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Huda Fakhreddine has repeatedly voiced praise for the Jew-hating terrorist group Hamas and has specifically lauded their barbaric attack on innocent Israeli civilians  on October 7th during which over 1200 were slaughtered and many more raped, mutilated, and taken hostage.

On October 7, 2023, just hours after this massacre, Fakhreddine tweeted in Arabic, “While we were asleep, Palestine invented a new way of life,” clearly celebrating the brutal slaughter of Israeli innocents.

A few days later on October 12, Fakhreddine doubled down on her warped view of the conflict, posting a “Statement of Solidarity with Palestine”  which charged Israel with “sole responsibility” for Hamas’s October 7th massacre.  The statement claimed that “The Palestinian resistance efforts”—note the whitewashing of mass rape and baby-killing as acts of “resistance”—“are a response to 75 years of occupation, colonization, and apartheid by the Israeli settler colonial regime.”

In a Facebook post one week later, Fakhreddine added: “When we chant, ‘from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ we are calling for a one state, one person=one vote, where everyone living between the river and the sea is free and treated as a human being with rights and dignity. If some see freedom and equal rights for all as an existential threat, then they are the problem. No country should require oppression and apartheid to exist.”

As the anti-Semitism watchdog site Canary Mission notes, “‘From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free’ is a chant calling to dismantle the State of Israel. It has also been employed by Hamas leader Khaled Mashal to call for the replacement of Israel with an Islamic state.” It is a genocidal call for the annihilation of Israel and the destruction of its entire Jewish population.

So extreme are Fakhreddine’s views that she rejects even the common pro-Palestine descriptor of Gaza as an “open-air prison,” tweeting  that, “Gaza is not an open-air prison. Prisoners receive visitors and aid is allowed to be passed to them. Gaza is a Nazi-style concentration camp, a concentration camp under bombardment.” Fakhreddine’s comparison of Israel’s conduct to Hitler’s Nazi regime is a common and widely-used form of Jew hatred.

How to Save France? A new bestseller tackles that crucial question. by Bruce Bawer

https://www.frontpagemag.com/how-to-save-france/

In 2013, I wrote here about a new French bestseller, La France Orange Méchanique (France Clockwork Orange). In his book, the author, who adopted the pseudonym Laurent Obertone, did something very simple but also very powerful: looking past France’s national media, which, then as now, routinely either ignored or whitewashed or invented excuses for Muslim crime in that country, he examined the crime reports in countless local and regional media organs, all of which, it turned out, added up to a horrific picture of what Obertone described as a “new type of ultra-violent crime,” a “violence of conquest,” that had, it was clear, transformed what had once been a peaceful country into a veritable war zone.

But Obertone did more than quote crime reports. He served up a stern j’accuse: instead of taking Islamic violence seriously and responding to it with shows of strength, French authorities, he charged, routinely reacted with shows of extraordinary tolerance, because they equated tolerance with virtue, even as they considered it racist or Islamophobic or fascistic to criticize or judge or even acknowledge the sheer barbarity of even the most brutal Muslim offenses.

Obertone has now come out with a new book, and it has the simplest and bluntest of titles: Guerre – which in English, of course, is War. Divided into three sections, it’s several things in one: a snapshot (and unsparing analysis) of the contemporary French state, a self-help book, a manifesto, a training manual, a pep talk. His message is stark, his tone acidly cynical. France, he asserts, is governed by men and women whose first loyalty is not to the welfare and security of the French people but to a set of “progressive” values – none of which serves the best interests of the general public – and to their own power, which enables them to institutionalize these values no matter how many French citizens find them appalling. In their devotion to and promotion of these values, these political elites enjoy the full support of the country’s legacy media, the cultural establishment, and the academy. Taken together, these factions make up what Obertone calls “The Sect.”

Heather Mac Donald Prophets of Doom The dishonesty with which the media has portrayed Donald Trump from the beginning threatens our civil coexistence.

https://www.city-journal.org/article/prophets-of-doom

A quiz: Who said the following, and which speaker did the New York Times deem dark and demagogic?

“We’re not going to have a country” if my opponent wins.

My opponent is “a threat to our democracy and fundamental freedoms.”

“There is one existential threat:” my opponent.

“The only existential threat to humanity is climate change, and [my opponent] didn’t do a damn thing about it.”

The 2024 presidential election “might carry near-existential stakes.”

Blacks and Hispanics “have to wake up knowing that they can lose their very life in the course of just living their life. . . . [they] have to worry about whether their sons or daughters will come home after a grocery store run or just walking down the street or driving their car or playing in the park or just sleeping at home.”

“America must heed this warning”: my opponent is a “fascist.”

“No one has ever been as dangerous to this country” as my opponent.

“Folks don’t care if tanks roll by on the way to the store as long as the milk doesn’t cost more than 4 years ago.”

Answer key: The first quote is from Donald Trump. The rest are from: Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, Joe Biden, the New York Times, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Kamala Harris, and a New York Times reader.