NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Biden’s Latest Student Loan Forgiveness Scheme He keeps flouting the law to buy votes by writing off college debt.

Posted By on July 15th, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/articles/joe-biden-student-debt-forgiveness-supreme-court-income-based-repayment-plan-11f1c5fa?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

President Biden is determined to make student loans for college a new entitlement even after the Supreme Court struck down his $430 billion cancellation. The Education Department on Friday wrote off another $39 billion in debt. And this is only a down-payment on the President’s bigger plan to sweeten Obama-era repayment plans. Call it debt cancellation on the installment plan.

Obama-era repayment plans cap borrower monthly payments at 10% of discretionary income and let borrowers discharge unpaid debt after 10 to 25 years. Yet the Education Department said Friday that borrowers will receive credit for payments even during months when they weren’t making them. This adds up to $39 billion in new loan forgiveness.

The Administration also boasted that it has approved $116.6 billion in loan forgiveness to date, including $45 billion through “improvements” to public-service loan plans. That’s $68,828 of writeoffs on average for each qualifying government and nonprofit worker. Now the Administration plans to “improve” repayment plans for all borrowers.

The Education Department plans to slash payments to 5% of discretionary income, which would be redefined to exclude more earnings. Borrowers earning less than $32,800 wouldn’t pay a cent. Even years in which they don’t make payments, as during the pandemic, would be counted toward their required payments.

The Administration estimates that a typical graduate of a four-year public university would save nearly $2,000 a year, or about $40,000 over 20 years. That’s several thousand dollars more than the already generous Obama writeoffs, and loan balances wouldn’t grow from unpaid interest as they do now.

A grad earning $50,000 with $50,000 in debt would have to pay only $860 a year compared to some $6,200 under a standard payment plan. Borrowers would have an incentive to take out more debt, and colleges would raise tuition. The Biden plan includes no reforms that would mitigate this debt ratchet.

FOREIGN POLICY, ISRAEL Comments turned off

Biden Administration Funding Iran’s Nuclear Bomb Tests, Threatening Israel for Trying to Prevent Them? by Majid Rafizadeh

Posted By on July 15th, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19803/biden-funding-iran-nuclear-bomb

Secret attempts by the Biden Administration to reach an interim deal with the mullahs threaten not only to add an estimated $100 billion into the treasury of the Iranian regime’s struggling economy, but, worse, catapult an Iranian nuclear menace onto the world.

Iran’s aggression threatens not only its own brutalized citizens – Iran has executed more than 200 people in just the first half of this year and deliberately poisoned more than 1200 schoolgirls — but also the entire region, Europe and the United States.

Reports also indicate that the Iranian regime’s illegal nuclear activities have escalated in 2023 under the Biden Administration’s watch.

In spite of these factors and the strong opposition from the Congress — including a warning from U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul that according to the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015, any agreement, even an informal one, with Iran about its nuclear weapons program, must be approved by Congress and no funds released until after 60 says — the Biden Administration has been holding​ ​secret talks in Oman…

Along with this Iranian plan to join the “nuclear club,” abetted by the Biden Administration, this same Biden Administration, in the face of Iran’s openly stated commitment to Israel’s destruction is, according to one report, now pressuring Israel to “commit suicide” or risk losing American support.

The dangerous legacy the Biden Administration appears to want to leave includes threats to the only democracy in the Middle East while capitulating to the world’s most vicious dictators in Afghanistan, China, Venezuela and Iran — which the US State Department has called the “top state sponsor of terrorism” — and soon, thanks to the Biden Administration, armed with nuclear bombs.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Is Erdoğan Hoping to Bring 84 Million Turks into Europe? by Burak Bekdil

Posted By on July 14th, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19802/erdogan-europe

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan talks about an “evil West” but wants to become part of it — perhaps to “improve” it?

Erdoğan needs money. He needs it now, and preferably from Western markets instead of one-off cash injections from Russia and friendly Gulf states.

Erdoğan aims to… [k]eep within the EU membership process, which he calculates may give Turkey better borrowing options on international markets, as well as the possibility of sending 84 million more Turks into Europe and potentially changing its prevailing religion.

Could [Erdoğan] be hoping that the U.S. Congress will endorse the sale of F-16 Block 70 fighter jets to Turkey? There will be many horse-trading moments during the process, but this is the beginning of a new tactical warfare between Erdogan’s Turkey and the West.

“The Swedes were too eager to receive Erdoğan’s blessing and Erdoğan used that yearning to tie them down. Remember Gulliver in the Land of Lilliput?” — Eugene Kogan, defense expert, Tbilisi, Georgia, to the author, July 10, 2023.

If logic worked in politics, the question to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan should have been: Why has your country had so passionately sought out, in vain, membership in the European Union?

Erdoğan talks about an “evil West” but wants to become part of it — perhaps to “improve” it? Why did Turkey send its 15,000 sons, only to greet with honor 700 dead soldiers in a war that took place 8,000 km away on the Korean Peninsula? Turkey has been a full member candidate for the EU since 1987, but the Korean military campaign earned it NATO membership in 1952.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Donald Trump and the Standard of Evidence John O’Sullivan

Posted By on July 14th, 2023

https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2023/07/donald-trump-and-the-standard-of-evidence/

The headline on the New York Times story of ex-President Trump’s indictment is a wonderfully unintentional guide to the topsy-turveydom of American life in the Biden era: “US Justice System Put on Trial as Trump Denounces the Rule of Law”. To start with, the front-page piece is not a simple factual report—“Trump Indicted on Thirty-Seven Counts”, say—but “news analysis” which signalled Schumpeter’s definition of Marxism (“preaching in the garb of analysis”) even before Wokedom tightened its grip on US journalism.

It’s worse now, of course, and relentless too. An accompanying report inside warns in another headline that “Trump Backers Unleash Wave of Violent Threats, Worrying Some Analysts”. The worries of analysts don’t usually make it into headlines, and we don’t learn about the reactions of “other” analysts. Presumably, if quoted in the NYT, those complacent fellows would argue that the threats—one of which is the simple word “Retribution”—were religious and military metaphors used by all parties at times but, when employed by Republicans, more worrying than the actual if “largely peaceful” riots of the Left.

To revert to the front-page headline, though, Trump did not in fact “denounce the rule of law” unless every indicted man who proclaims his innocence is held to be denouncing it. He said that law enforcement had been “hijacked” by the Democrats, including elected Democratic prosecutors, to take out the most formidable opponent they face in next year’s presidential election, namely himself.

In a few paragraphs I’ll deal with the thirty-seven charges levelled against the former President by the Special Prosecutor looking into, inter alia, his retention of classified national security documents in insecure conditions in his Florida home, Mar-a-Lago. These are serious charges and pose a real threat, namely a long prison sentence. But his claim that the Democrats had hijacked law enforcement to take him out of the 2024 election is largely true.

Largely? Well, Trump is probably not the most formidable challenger Biden could face next year. He may be the strongest candidate in the GOP primaries, but his negatives are so high with the full electorate that he would probably lose to the President where a challenger like Florida’s governor, Ron de Santis, would enter the race as the favourite.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

And Just Like That, It’s No Longer an Insurrection By Victoria Taft

Posted By on July 14th, 2023

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/victoria-taft/2023/07/13/and-just-like-that-its-no-longer-an-insurrection-n1710334

And just like that, the January 6 insurrection is no more. And the deconstruction story is really something. At the center of this narrative switcheroo is non-other than Ray Epps.

Before we get to that, let’s remember how we got here. It took only moments for the Democrat media complex to anoint the January 6 breach and riot at the U.S. Capitol Building an “insurrection.” As if beckoned by an unseen force, narrative builders dutifully lined up to receive the official wafer on their tongues, and voilà! “Trump supporters” who had never committed an act of violence at years of peaceful and crowded rallies were eligible for a 20-year prison stretch.

Shortly thereafter, the insurrection became a deadly insurrection when the same media reported, wrongly, that police officers were killed by rioters on January 6.

The only ones who died on January 6 were killed by police.

Awful it was, but insurrection? No.

Now, however, insurrection is just passé.

And you can thank Ray Epps

HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

Is America Losing The Battle For Naval Superiority To Red China? By: Shawn Fleetwood

Posted By on July 14th, 2023

https://thefederalist.com/2023/07/13/is-america-losing-the-battle-for-naval-superiority-to-red-china/

The U.S.’ ongoing naval challenges give Red China an opportunity to accumulate more power throughout the Indo-Pacific.

It’s no secret Red China has spent the past several decades heavily investing in its armed forces. In a matter of decades, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has evolved into the largest military in the world, retrofitted with some of the latest and most advanced weapons systems.

Such developments have prompted Beijing to take more aggressive actions throughout the Indo-Pacific region in recent years. Just last month, a U.S. destroyer was abruptly cut off by a People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) vessel during a transit through the Taiwan Strait. The incident occurred a few weeks after a Chinese fighter jet came within 400 feet of a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft while the latter was conducting a patrol of the South China Sea.

China has also made it a habit of conducting regular intrusions into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone and has, at times, carried out naval operations in the Taiwan Strait. Beijing has furthermore issued numerous threats to invade Taiwan if the island refuses to abdicate its sovereignty to the Chinese government. Taken collectively, these actions demonstrate growing confidence among Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party in their nation’s military capabilities.

While the U.S. currently maintains its status as global hegemon, its ongoing naval challenges give Red China an opportunity to accumulate more power throughout the Indo-Pacific. Persistent failure to maintain a sizeable fleet and meet recruiting targets is hampering the Navy’s ability to fulfill its operations, which are necessary for upholding U.S. national security and peace throughout the world.

IMMIGRATION, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

French riots show the future of Joe Biden’s America By William Davis

Posted By on July 14th, 2023

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/07/french_riots_show_the_future_of_joe_bidens_america.html

As the U.S. deals with the consequences of mass immigration, important lessons can be learned from our oldest European ally.

Over the past few weeks, France has been engulfed in riots after a 17-year-old boy was shot and killed by a police officer during a traffic stop. The rioting and looting have largely been centered in communities with many migrants from North African and Islamic nations. The rioting has caused more than one billion dollars in property damage, and has led to thousands of arrests. It has also led to a renewed debate in Europe about the costs of mass migration and whether or not those costs are worth it.

It’s not just the U.S. that has experienced an influx of foreign nationals in recent years. France took in a record number of migrants in 2022, both legal and illegal. The European Union resettled nearly one million migrants last year, not including refugees from war-torn Ukraine. The main countries of origin for these refugees were Syria, Afghanistan, Turkey, Venezuela, and Columbia. Just as we’ve seen in the U.S., these large influxes of migrants have had a destabilizing effect on the continent’s cultural, economic, and political life. The carnage occurring in France is the result of long-simmering tensions finally coming to the surface. It’s the results of migrants from third-world, war-torn countries not assimilating into their new country, but bringing the baggage from their old countries with them.

During the France riots, a group of North African migrants could be seen chanting “f*ck France,” and “We’re just here for the welfare!” The crassness of these migrants certainly isn’t representative of everybody seeking to come from the third world to prosperous western nations, but it is indicative of a larger problem with mass immigration. Many of these foreign nationals come from countries where violence and chaos has been normalized, and the importation of migrants from these types of countries can also serve to normalize the same type of disorder in their new countries. This is why what’s happening in France should serve as a warning sign for Americans.

More than five million illegal aliens have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border since Joe Biden took office, according to a study from the Federation for American Immigration Reform. With some exceptions, these migrants tend to be low-skilled, poor, and come from countries where violence is normal and women and certain minorities are degraded. By importing millions of foreign nationals who come from countries with cultures and values that are diametrically opposed to ours, American leaders are setting the stage for exactly the kind of strife and turmoil that is occurring in France.

Other nations in Europe that have taken in fewer migrants are not experiencing the same disorder and breakdown in national cohesion that France is currently experiencing. Take Poland, for example, which has much stricter immigration controls and far more national self-respect than most European countries, and as a result has largely remained peaceful and united. Poland Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki used the French riots to present a stark dichotomy between the two nations.

HISTORY, ISRAEL Comments turned off

How Jews Fared in 19th Century ‘Palestine’ Before Zionism and Balfour. July 14, 2023 by Hugh Fitzgerald

Posted By on July 14th, 2023

https://www.frontpagemag.com/how-jews-fared-in-19th-century-palestine/

In recent years, Palestinian and other Arab propagandists have claimed that before the Zionists appeared, supposedly intent on taking over by force land “belonging to the Arabs,” the local Arabs in “Palestine” (a toponym not used by the Arabs until the late 20th century, for until 1948 they thought of the area as part of “southern Syria”) had gotten along quite well with the Jews who had been living in the area long before the arrival of the first Zionist pioneers from Europe.

In this version of history, it was only when Jews, having become Zionists, suddenly became land-grabbers, “stealing Arab land,” that the Arabs, quite justifiably, turned on them in self-defense.

This claim is as false as the one that so many peoples in the West accept about Islamic Spain being a splendid example of interfaith tolerance and cultural syncretism. Elder of Ziyon several months ago compiled news reports from the period before the Balfour Declaration, even before the first stirrings of Zionism, to show what had been the real relations of Muslims to Jews in “Palestine.” More on the evidence showing the treatment that Jews had to endure at the hands of Muslims in “Palestine” in the period “before Balfour and before Herzl” can be found here: “A short catalogue of Arab intolerance of Jews in Palestine before both Zionism and the Balfour Declaration,” Elder of Ziyon, April 10, 2023:

There is no doubt that there were some friendships between some Jews and Arabs in Jerusalem and throughout the Arab world, but to use them as evidence of widespread acceptance of Jews as equals or near-equals is not only flawed reasoning but utterly false.

The evidence that Jews were treated horribly is irrefutable.

IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Illegal Immigration and Western Spiritual Sickness Enforcing the law has become abnormal. Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on July 14th, 2023

https://www.frontpagemag.com/illegal-immigration-and-western-spiritual-sickness/

The usual suspects have weighed in on recent belated efforts to enforce U.S. immigration laws.

Our now bankrupt media, the corrupt government of Mexico, and the Diversity/Equity/Inclusion apparat have damned a series of laws recently passed by the Florida legislature and signed by Governor Ron DeSantis that enforce existing federal immigration laws.

Such critics seem oblivious to the current violence that is paralyzing Europe in general, and in particular France—as if such European chaos offers no lessons for the U.S. or any other salad-bowl, open-borders Western nation.

Florida decided no longer to provide de facto and illegal exemptions to foreign nationals who entered and now reside in the state illegally.

Gov. De Santis is conveying a message to the country that not enforcing the laws, exempting those who break them, or treating foreign nationals as if they had a birthright to enter the U.S. illegally, does not even win gratitude from those who violate U.S. law.

Such American magnanimity is seen, and rightly so, by illegal immigrants and the government who sends them here, as Western spiritual decadence. Thus illegal immigration is to be unapologetically leveraged and forever manipulated—and rarely to be reciprocated with any appreciation.

The Mexican government was not only more fearful of destroying the U.S. border during the Trump years; it oddly also gave the hated Trump more respect than it had shown either the supposedly messianic Barack Obama or compliant Joe Biden.

Indeed, the more Mexico praised and manipulated Obama and Biden, the more contempt it showed the U.S. Paradoxically, the more Mexico denounced Trump, the more it conceded to Trump that it must begin to cease its export of multimillions of its own citizens.

No one is now arguing that Florida is breaking any laws by enforcing them.

Again, the outrage is instead over the state’s legal adherence to the law.

No one privately believes the illegal aliens affected by the new enforcement are euphemistically merely “undocumented migrants.”

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

The Moral Equivalence of Political ‘Karens’ In the end, there’s only one choice. by Bruce Thornton

Posted By on July 14th, 2023

https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-moral-equivalence-of-political-karens/

EXCERPT:

“Problem-solving,” then, bespeaks the influence of progressive technocracy, rule by credentialed elites. In times of crisis like war, “working across the aisle” and “bipartisanship” make sense. But in legislating peace-time policies, such cooperation can empower malign bills, like last December’s $1.85 trillion omnibus spending bill that threw more fuel onto the feckless spending and debt bonfire. This fiscal atrocity was a bipartisan, “reach across the aisle” disaster, with

18 Republican Senators and nine House Republican members voting for the bill.

Protecting our unalienable rights and freedoms is the purpose of federal power, whereas “solving problems,” with few exceptions, should be the purview of states, communities, and civil society.

Finally, the understandable “pox on both your houses” sentiment frequently involves a specious moral equivalence. We can sympathize with the dying Mercutio’s curse on both the Montagues and Capulets, but Romeo and Tybalt are not morally equivalent. Romeo was impulsive and naïve, but Tybalt was a vicious bully and a thug.

So too with No Labels’ moral equivalence between the two parties, or especially between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, which is the rationale for fielding a third-party candidate. But the metric for judging between parties and candidates is not decorum or “problem-solving,” but freedom: Which candidate and party is the champion and defender of ordered liberty, and the Constitution’s institutional bulwarks against tyranny? Which respects the freedom of individuals, families, the states, and civil society to direct and manage their lives without the heavy hand of a technocratic Leviathan and its bureaucratic minions interfering and imposing their ideological preferences?

In the end, there’s only one choice––between freedom and tyranny. Everything else is the duplicitous distractions of political guildsmen and lupine opportunists.