FOREIGN POLICY, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Russia, Iran’s Mullahs Deepen Ties to Crush Ukraine: Why Is Biden Administration Silent? by Majid Rafizadeh

Posted By on October 22nd, 2022

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19011/russia-iran-crush-ukraine

In August 2015, Obama spelled out what his deal would accomplish. It is worth a look at it with the benefit of hindsight….

What is striking is that just about everything turned out to be exactly the opposite.

A report by Iran’s state-controlled Afkar News bears the title, “American Soil Is Now Within the Range of Iranian Bombs.”

“By sending a military satellite into space, Iran now has shown that it can target all American territory,” the report boasts about the damage that the Iranian regime could inflict on the US, “the Iranian parliament had previously warned [the US] that an electromagnetic nuclear attack on the United States would likely kill 90 percent of Americans.”

Russia is now deploying Iranian missiles, Iranian drones and personnel to attack Ukraine, and, incredibly, negotiating for America’s interests (supposedly) during the new Iranian nuclear talks in Vienna while the Americans are not allowed in the room.

This raises the question: Is the Biden administration so deeply in the thrall of Russia that Biden is actually “in Putin’s pocket”?

“Right now, the talks on revival of JCPOA are not on the US agenda,” US negotiator Robert Malley told CNN on October 17. The operative words, of course, are “Right now.” The Biden administration could be waiting until Congress is in recess for its Christmas break and unable to stop the deal.

Do not repeat these mistakes again. The Biden administration’s feckless leadership keeps empowering the world’s most despotic, destabilizing regimes: Iran’s mullahs, Russia, the Chinese Communist Party North Korea, Turkey, Venezuela…. Drop the nuclear deal. Not “right now.” Forever.

The Biden administration appears to be willing to turn a blind eye to crimes committed by the Iranian regime and its staunch ally, Russia, presumably not to jeopardize the revival of former President Barack Obama’s disastrous 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The deal would enable the ruling regime of Iran – against whom their own people are heroically rebelling – to soon have an unlimited nuclear weapons capability, unlimited missiles with which to deliver the weapons and empower the regime and its terrorist militia, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), with a trillion dollars to wreak more mayhem in the Middle East.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

#LetsVoteBrandon Williams: An Insurgent Republican in a Dead Heat Race for Congress in Upstate New York By Susan D. Harris

Posted By on October 22nd, 2022

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/10/letsvotebrandon_williams_an_insurgent_republican_in_a_dead_heat_race_for_congress_in_upstate_new_york.html

While Governor Kathy Hochul’s lead against Rep. Lee Zeldin seems to be tightening, there are other New York State races to watch.

City and State New York magazine identified six congressional races to watch, singling out one as “one of the most competitive in the country” — NY-22: Francis Conole (D) v. Brandon Williams (R).

Let’s take a look at how Williams’s #LetsVoteBrandon campaign started.

John Katko, the Republican representative for New York’s 24th Congressional District, announced he was scurrying out of Washington forever after casting his Trump Impeachment vote in 2021.  (To which President Trump commented, “Great news, another one bites the dust.  Katko, from Upstate New York, is gone!”)

Indeed, there was no love lost between Katko and his constituents, who continually voted for him as the lesser of two evils, then loudly lambasted him for “continually backing Democratic legislation” that went against everything they believed in. 

Then came the redistricting mess.  Katko was originally elected to New York’s 24th Congressional District, much of which is now the new, open 22nd district.

Enter Brandon Williams, a Navy veteran, husband, father and truffle farmer from Cayuga county.  “I just can’t sit by and see what’s happening to our country.  I think people are starting to wake up and say ‘Wow, we may be in trouble.’”  That’s what Williams told a local paper as he entered the race to represent the NY-22 back in February.

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Climate Protesters Glue Themselves to a Floor. Hilarity Ensues. By Lincoln Brown

Posted By on October 22nd, 2022

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/lincolnbrown/2022/10/21/climate-protesters-glue-themselves-to-a-floor-hilarity-ensues-n1638863

“Failing to plan is planning to fail.” I forget where I first saw that line. I think it was on a sign on a wall in some place I worked in college, and variations of it have appeared in countless places over the years. As ubiquitous and pedantic as it may be, the saying is true, as a group of climate protesters in Germany have discovered. And they paid the price for not thinking ahead.

On Wednesday, nine climate activists calling themselves members of Scientist Rebellion broke into the Autostadt Museum, in Wolfsburg, Germany, across the street from the Volkswagen plant. According to the Daily Mail, They proceeded to super glue their hands to the floor of the Porsche exhibit because you know, all of the cool activists are gluing themselves to things these days.

One may assume that they would sit until Volkswagen agreed to lobby for decarbonization in the transportation industry and the German government agreed to lower the speed limit. The Blaze stated that the protesters said that Volkswagen supported their right to protest, but that apparently was as far as the company was willing to go.

For a group of people who call themselves scientists, how is it that they forgot about that little thing called biology? The human body needs to eat, drink, and, of course, relieve itself. But there they sat, amid a leftist version of the game Twister (Right hand, glue!), and as the old song goes, eat, nor drink, nor potty had they none.

They griped that they had not been given bowls into which they could urinate and defecate, and they could not order the food they wanted since people were allowed to leave the museum but not return. They had to rely on whatever Volkswagen provided. Furthermore, Volkswagen had the audacity to turn the heat and lights off. Volkswagen owns the building, and Volkswagen pays the bills. Volkswagen gets to turn the lights off if it wants.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Biden’s Diesel Fuel Supply Crisis Could Soon Cripple America in Ways Never Before Seen By Ryan Ledendecker

Posted By on October 22nd, 2022

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/ryanledendecker/2022/10/21/bidens-diesel-fuel-supply-crisis-could-soon-cripple-america-in-ways-never-before-seen-n1638814

Oil prices and President Joe Biden’s continued draining of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) have dominated the headlines over the past few weeks, but analysts say a more impactful and serious crisis on the energy front looms: a diesel fuel shortage.

Diesel doesn’t get as much of the limelight as oil and gas, but it should because diesel fuel is the industrial lifeblood of the United States, and the price of diesel alone probably has a more significant impact on inflation and the prices you’re paying at the grocery store over any other factor. Without ample amounts of diesel, semi-trucks don’t move, farms are shut down, and critical manufacturing sectors are crippled.

As Bloomberg noted this week, “The US has just 25 days of diesel supply, the lowest since 2008, according to the Energy Information Administration. At the same time, the four-week rolling average of distillates supplied, a proxy for demand, rose to its highest seasonal level since 2007.”

The Biden administration has remained strangely silent, probably hoping that the dismal news doesn’t hit the mainstream because it’s a total political timebomb waiting to go off, especially as the midterm elections are so close.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Democracy Needs Defending: Sydney Williams

Posted By on October 22nd, 2022

https://swtotd.blogspot.com/

The question: Will young people schooled to disdain America for her racist and imperialist past, and her misogynist and non-inclusive present be willing to defend her in time of war?

The United States has long shunned standing armies. Such an attitude is in the “American DNA,” as Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI) stated in an interview a week ago in The Wall Street Journal. Nevertheless, the military was respected. That appears to have changed. A recent annual poll by the Reagan Institute, showed a “great deal of confidence” in the military at 45%, down 25% in three years – victim of “woke ideology,” according to Representative Gallagher.

Is this lack of respect for the military symptomatic of a greater problem? Historically, a positive aspect of democracy has been the ability to criticize it. Yet we now live in an Orwellian world, defined by identity politics, where truth is not based on historical or empirical evidence, but on what we are told. Identity politics is a way of relegating the individual to the group, a precursor to authoritarian rule We should be able to love something, yet criticize it, with the goal of making it better. Now, discrimination has taken on a new look. Instead of racial or gender discrimination, we have discrimination against dissenting opinions – the censoring of conservatives on college campuses, and the blocking of political opinions that do not conform to a prescribed message. 

Yet, regardless of our political persuasions, it may become necessary to defend this nation, which means that critics must be willing to pick up arms, to defend what they have been taught is indefensible. So, the question must be asked. Is it possible to defend a nation where partisanship has given birth to hatred? Our internecine bickering has been noted by leaders in China, Russia, and Iran who use our own words to drive deeper the wedge that separates us. When we claim our nation is racist, inequitable, and imperialist, they agree – we are the “Great Satan,” as Iran’s leaders say. Now, with so many pundits, politicians and teachers declaring we are a nation born on the backs of slaves, it is difficult for many to recognize how fortunate they are to live in this land. And it may prove difficult for them to recognize that freedom is not free, and that there are times when it must be defended.

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

JFK’s Cuban missile crisis: Lessons for Biden: Lawrence Haas

Posted By on October 22nd, 2022

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/3698207-jfks-cuban-missile-crisis-lessons-for-biden/

“I’ve got a guy over there in Moscow who’s in a corner,” President Kennedy mused about Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev during the Cuban Missile Crisis, “and I don’t want to get him in a corner. I want to give him the opinion he can get out.”

Kennedy’s recognition that Khrushchev would need to find a way out of his corner (i.e., a political off-ramp) if he were going to remove the Soviet missiles from Cuba, as the United States was demanding, was but one savvy piece of JFK’s seasoned diplomacy that helped resolve the crisis peacefully.

This month marks the 60th anniversary of that crisis, and Washington now faces a leader in Moscow who is threatening to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine, which could trigger a full-scale nuclear war. If the Cuban Missile Crisis was the most perilous moment of the Cold War, Vladimir Putin’s nuclear threats may mark the most perilous moment to date of the post-Cold War period.

JFK’s leadership during 13 days of high drama provides five lessons to help President Biden navigate today’s crisis.

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Biden Deflects To Saudi Arabia: Shoshana Bryen

Posted By on October 22nd, 2022

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/10/biden_deflects_to_saudi_arabia.html

Deflection. That’s when someone tries to turn aside responsibility and shift it to someone/something else. Today’s example is the rampage by the White House and Democrats against Saudi Arabia, accusing it of cutting oil production because it is in bed with Russia against American interests in Ukraine.

CNN correspondent Manu Raju tweeted on Wednesday [Rep.] “Ro Khanna and [Sen.] Dan Blumenthal are calling for bill in lame-duck halting arm sales for a year. Calls for NOPEC legislation. And Durbin this AM: ‘I don’t see any reason to arm them now if they believe their future is linked to Vladimir Putin in any way.’”

National Security spokesman John Kirby tried deflection as he announced the White House’s displeasure: “The Saudi Foreign Ministry can try to spin or deflect…  (but) The Saudis conveyed to us… their intention to reduce oil production, which they knew would increase Russian revenues and blunt the effectiveness of sanctions… They could easily wait for the next OPEC meeting… we are reevaluating our relationship with Saudi Arabia… continue to look for signs about where they stand in combatting Russian aggression.”

The reason the White House wanted the cuts to wait until the next OPEC meeting may have something to do with America’s mid-term election. Why the Saudis would care about that is unclear. The fact is that countries make economic and security decisions based on their own interests and their peoples’ interests.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

It Is Remarkable How Badly Putin Has Screwed Up In Ukraine Francis Menton

Posted By on October 22nd, 2022

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2022-10-20-it-is-remarkable-how-badly-putin-has-screwed-up-in-russia

Sometimes I look at the U.S. government under President Biden, and I think that it couldn’t be possible to be more incompetent than this. But take a look at any of the U.S.’s main geopolitical adversaries — besides Russia there’s China, and Iran, and perhaps you might throw in a Venezuela or a North Korea — and you quickly realize that all of them have far, far more incompetent government policy than the U.S. on its very worst day.

For today I’m going to focus on Russia. As recently as five or ten years ago, I was willing to grudgingly concede to Vladimir Putin some decent successes, particularly on the international stage. Starting with a relatively bad hand, I thought he was playing it cleverly in world affairs. But by 2018 I had come to the view that no amount of foreign policy cleverness could overcome Russia’s growing weaknesses, from a stagnant crony-capitalist economy to declining population. In a piece on March 4, 2018 titled “How Are Things Going In Russia?” I went through a litany of negative indicators, from a 40% decline in GDP since 2014 (mostly due to then-declining energy prices), to declining population, to military spending badly constrained by the small economy.

And now comes the invasion of Ukraine. It would be fair to say that the invasion and its consequences have taken Russia from a major player on the world stage to a much less important player. Here are some of the many indicators:

Loss of the fear factor. The biggest benefit of a large army is not actually being able to win a war, but rather being able to intimidate your adversaries into doing your bidding without having to resort to hostilities. When the invasion began in February, everybody assumed that the Russian tanks would roll through Ukraine in a matter of days if not hours. Now, eight months later, Russia is steadily losing back to Ukrainian counter-offenses significant parts of the small amounts of territory it had captured. If little Ukraine can stand up to the Russians so handily, it gives spirit to every one of Putin’s neighbors.

BOOKS Comments turned off

‘The Sassoons’ Review: Hazards of Fortune The rise and fall of an international business empire—from shipping to banking and opium.By Norman Lebrecht

Posted By on October 22nd, 2022

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-sassoons-book-review-hazards-of-fortune-11666360783?mod=article_inline

The Jewish makers of modern finance have not gone unchronicled. Bookshelves creak beneath Rothschild tomes. The Lehman brothers have their story in lights on Broadway, and the ancient union of Goldman and Sachs has just made headlines again with mass staff layoffs. There is plenty of life left in these oligarchies.

The founders liked to keep wealth within the family, or at least within their circle. Jacob Schiff, John Pierpont Morgan’s chief adversary, gave his daughter in marriage to a Warburg. When in 1878 Hannah de Rothschild, England’s richest heiress, broke ranks by marrying the Earl of Rosebery, a future prime minister, no male Rothschild attended her wedding. Upon Hannah’s early death, however, they reclaimed her body for burial in a Jewish cemetery. Such habits die hard.

Tales of the super-rich never cease to fascinate. Stephen Birmingham’s “Our Crowd: The Great Jewish Families of New York” (1967) spent dozens of weeks on the bestseller list. “The Lehman Trilogy” has been staged in 24 languages. It’s not just the rags-to-riches fable that keeps the audience engrossed. There is a much deeper curiosity in those who made mountains of money and somehow managed to keep it.

The present story is one of a family that lost it all.

Grab a Copy

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Is the Bottom Completely Falling Out for Democrats? Guy Benson

Posted By on October 22nd, 2022

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2022/10/21/wave-watch-is-the-bottom-falling-out-for-democrats-n2614836

I’m not prepared to make declarative statements about how November 8th is going to go, and you know what they say about counting chickens.  But it’s increasingly looking like a red wave is cresting.  One of the questions I’ve been pondering for the last few months is whether 2022 will look more like 2018 (when the opposition party had a good night in the House, but underperformed in the Senate, due to various dynamics) or 2014 (when Republicans appeared to be underperforming through much of the cycle before a decisive break at the tail end made it political bloodbath).  Atmospheric clues and data breadcrumbs suggest that the latter historical analogue may end up looking more apt when the votes are counted in a few weeks.  Consider this:

Real Clear Politics’ Sean Trende calls this “a nice distillation of the ‘it is 2014 again’ theory of 2022.”  It’s far from guaranteed, but it’s compelling.  And if this is the Biden baseline, that’s dire territory for his party: 

The hallmarks of a substantial wave are cropping up everywhere.  Plausibly competitive races are looking…well, not: