Blinken Admits U.S. Pressure on Israel Led Hamas to Back Away from Deals

Townhall  

"However, the Biden Administration official did question why there hasn’t been a worldwide outcry for Hamas to put down its weapons and surrender, noting that most of the global pressure to end the ongoing war has been on Israel."  Sarah Arnold 

 

"In revealing admission, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged that American pressure on Israel played a significant role in causing Hamas terrorists to back away from previously discussed deals. Blinken's comments, which surfaced amid escalating tensions in the Middle East, shed light on the complex dynamics between the U.S., Israel, and Hamas. The revelation raises questions about the Biden Administration's approach to Middle East peace efforts and whether its actions have unintentionally emboldened terrorist groups.

"During a recent interview with the New York Times, Blinken said that in the first few days after Hamass attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people with 251 taken hostage, he threatened Israel that outgoing President Joe Biden would not visit the country as planned unless the government allowed aid into Gaza. He described how, just five days after the attack, he met with Israeli leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv. During the meeting, the group debated ensuring humanitarian aid reached Palestinians for hours. This proposal raised concerns about prioritizing aid to those linked to terrorist groups rather than focusing on Israel's security.

"Here’s more of precisely what Blinken said: . . ."

Fire, Snow And A Storm Of Climate Nonsense

Issues & Insights  

(Newsom’s insane regulations on the insurance industry has sent fire coverage premiums soaring, if homeowners can get insurance at all). I&I

"Los Angeles is burning and the East Coast and Midwest have been walloped by cold and snow. Naturally, the global warming alarmists screech and honk about human reliance of fossil fuels. It a gross and irresponsible assumption.

"It never takes long for the foolish to break out and Vermont socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders didn’t disappoint on Wednesday when he tweeted: “80,000 people told to evacuate. Blazes 0% contained. Eight months since the area has seen rain. The scale of damage and loss is unimaginable. Climate change is real, not ‘a hoax.’ Donald Trump must treat this like the existential crisis it is.”

"Unfortunately, he speaks for the many who are uninformed and naive, as well as those who want to use the man-made global warming narrative as a means to fundamentally change this country – and the West – into a political society run by leftists who, to borrow an applicable phrase, have difficulty resisting their authoritarian impulses.

"Overshadowed by the tragic Los Angeles fires is the Arctic blast that dropped temperatures and snow in much of the country. This too, is man’s fault. But then when it doesn’t snow, well, man is to blame for that, as well.

"As we have been doing in regard to global warming for about three decades, allow us to offer some facts that don’t scream as loudly but are facts nonetheless:   

• While “there’s a growing tendency to tie every fire, flood, or storm to climate change,” says meteorologist and climate researcher Anthony Watts, “a closer look at history, meteorology, and land management reveals that these claims are often oversimplified by low-information journalists, and fail to address more immediate, actionable causes.” Watts goes on to cover California wildfire history, explains why weather rather than climate is a factor, and discusses the impacts of policy mistakes, so read the entire piece.
• Full article here...

Why was John Lennon’s atheist anthem ‘Imagine’ sung at Jimmy Carter’s funeral — at the late president’s request?

Peter Barry Chowka   

"Lennon stated: “‘Imagine’, which says: ‘Imagine that there was no more religion, no more country, no more politics,’ is virtually The Communist Manifesto, even though I’m not particularly a Communist and I do not belong to any movement.’ [10] He told NME: “There is no real Communist state in the world; you must realise that. The Socialism I speak about ... [is] not the way some daft Russian might do it, or the Chinese might do it. . ."

"I was surprised, if not shocked, when two A-list celebrities, country singers Garth Brooks and his wife Trisha Yearwood, took the microphones at the State Funeral for Jimmy Carter yesterday and began performing “Imagine,” written by former Beatle John Lennon in 1971. The song is widely described as an “atheistic anthem” and incredibly is said to be one of the late 39th president’s favorite songs." . . .

. . ."The employment of, in my opinion, this questionable song as the coda of the Carters’ careers is a fitting close of the circle to what I have known about Jimmy Carter since very early on. As I detailed in my blog published at American Thinker on December 30, 2024, the day after Jimmy Carter died, I covered Carter’s campaign for the White House in 1976 and his inauguration as the president of the United States in 1977. In those early years before the hagiography surrounding his presidency and his decades as an ex-president was firmly established, I saw and photographed Carter on many different occasions, public and private. More often than not, he came across as an angry, arrogant, and condescending man, contemptuous of his staff and reporters – not at all like the media’s portrayal of him as a “grinning Georgian” deeply imbued with Christian values."

Of Course: It Was Arson; Started by arsonists? Magnified by bureaucrats.

Hot Air 

"The reality, though, is simpler: mentally ill homeless people, poor land management, misplaced budget priorities, and insane DEI-obsessed policies made this disaster inevitable." 

. . ."Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jillian Michaels and Sara Foster have joined Donald Trump in slamming local and state officials amid the devastating Southern California wildfires.

"RadarOnline.com can reveal the fitness personality, 90210, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer stars took to social media to express their frustrations while slamming Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and California Governor Gavin Newsom. ...

"Foster, 43, made her feelings clear on X, writing: "We pay the highest taxes in California. Our fire hydrants were empty. Our vegetation was overgrown, brush not cleared.

" 'Our reservoirs were emptied by our governor because tribal leaders wanted to save fish. Our fire department budget was cut by our mayor. But thank god drug addicts are getting their drug kits."

"Like Trump, 82, Foster also called on Newsom and Bass to resign as she claimed their "far left policies have ruined our state. And also our party." . . .

. . ."And what about controlled burns? Didn’t they at least do that? No. “Forest Service Halts Prescribed Burns in California. Is It Worth the Risk?” reported KQED in October. See: If a controlled burn got messy, it would look bad, like, politically, and also, fire can be scary! So the U.S. Forest Service didn’t do them.

"Here’s Michael Wara, energy and climate expert at Stanford University, explaining: “I think the Forest Service is worried about the risk of something bad happening [with a prescribed burn]. And they’re willing to trade that risk—which they will be blamed for—for increased risks on wildfires.” Which, he says, can then just be blamed on “Mother Nature.” . . .  Hence, the dangers of an ill-informed public. TD

Of Course: It Was Arson Here's a lesson in Bureaucracies and how they affect us all. TD:

Those 60 engines sent yesterday to the Cali fires are not on the fire lines...yet.https://t.co/FmQ9jYQc8C
They've been ordered to submit to a DOT inspection in Sacramento that's scheduled for 4:30 pm today.
If they clear the inspection, they'll THEN be able to drive 400 miles to…

— Lars Ultra MAGA Larson (@LarsLarsonShow) January 9, 2025

 Socialism update: No lights in Cuba, no water in L.A.  "At some point, socialism collapses. It does not have to be overthrown, it simply collapses on its own. 
"Down in Cuba, mismanagement did not update the power plants. 

"Over in Los Angeles, environmental fanaticism means that the fire hydrants can't pump water. 

"Incredibly, no one in LA has the courage to explain why the hydrants can't pump water. 

This is the story:" . . .

Media Commentators Seek to Regain Trust: It Won’t Work

 The American Spectator  

. . ."The Lies: Trump colluded with Putin. The Hunter laptop was a Russian deception. Nick, the kid in Covington, Ky., was an anti-Black and anti-Indian Catholic racist. Trump has dementia and insiders agree the 25th Amendment must be invoked. Biden is sharp as a steak knife and at the top of his game." . . .

"In the wake of the debacle known as the Biden presidency, certain media commentators who supported Biden and looked the other way for a time as he declined cognitively in front of their own eyes and ears, now write critical columns about Biden in an apparent effort to regain relevance and trust as the second Trump presidency is about to begin. It won’t work. Their credibility is gone, hopefully forever.

"Two examples of this phenomenon are Bret Stephens and George Will, two conservative writers who succumbed to Trump Derangement Syndrome and rendered themselves irrelevant to the new conservative movement that propelled Trump into the White House for the second time. 

"Stephens, who used to write for the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page but now writes a column for the far-left New York Times, recently criticized Biden for “four deceptions” and “four illusions” that will “not serve his legacy well.” The illusions, according to Stephens, were:"

1. That the illegal migration on the southern border was “seasonal” and under control.
2. That it was “highly unlikely” that the Taliban would seize power when America withdrew from Afghanistan.
3. That inflation was “transitory.”
4. That Biden was the best candidate to beat Trump.

The four deceptions were:

1. That he would be a transitional president.
2. That he would be “bipartisan and moderate.”
3. That he was mentally and physically fit to serve a second term.
4. That he would not pardon his son Hunter.

"It is true that Stephens also wrote columns critical of Biden on some issues and policies, but let’s look more closely at the most important of the Biden deceptions — his mental unfitness for the presidency. That mental unfitness was evident to people with eyes willing to see and ears willing to hear as early as 2020-2021, but Stephens posed as blind and deaf when it came to Biden’s cognitive decline until May 2024, when he wrote that “perceptions about the president’s physical and mental fitness are hardly baseless,” while also writing that Biden can allay such perceptions if he performed reasonably well in the debate with Trump. We all saw how that went." . . .

The cover-up of the president’s cognitive decline must be thoroughly

 investigated.   . . . "We simply don’t know who was actually making executive decisions for the country since Jan. 20, 2021. We don’t know to what extent Biden actually performed his presidential duties after swearing under oath that he would “faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States.” It is imperative that Congress use its full investigatory power to answer these questions. Every key presidential aide, every Cabinet officer, and every medical professional who examined and treated the president must be questioned under oath about this conspiracy of silence and the cover-up of the president’s cognitive decline."

Rogue Prosecutors and the Rise of Crime

 Imprimus; Hillsdale 

 "The lesson for voters across America is to pay close attention to “low visibility” local races—such as district attorney races, which directly impact public safety—to protect their communities against the kind of devastation we see in so many of America’s once great cities." 

https://rofcbybroc.com/

The following is adapted from a talk delivered on March 11, 2024, at the Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship on Hillsdale’s Washington, D.C. campus, as part of the AWC Family Foundation Lecture Series.

"The writers of our Constitution placed their faith not in specific guarantees of rights—those came later—but in a system of checks on government power. Foremost is the separation of powers among the three branches of the federal government, as well as between the federal government and the states. For this system to work as designed, people in each branch of the federal government and in the state governments must do their jobs and stay in their respective lanes.

"But what happens when district attorneys—members of their states’ executive branches—refuse to execute the laws of the land? We are witnessing the results today in blue cities across America.

"Approximately 90 percent of criminal cases in the U.S. are handled by the 2,300 elected district attorneys spread across 3,143 counties. The rest are prosecuted by U.S. attorneys operating under the Department of Justice. Until recently, elected county district attorneys upheld their end of the social contract by firmly and fairly enforcing state criminal laws and protecting citizens’ rights. Regardless of party affiliation, these gatekeepers of the criminal justice system did their job. Over the last 30 years, they played a critical role in driving down crime rates, which peaked in 1992, by prosecuting violent criminals, while at the same time creating thousands of alternatives to incarceration, such as drug courts, domestic violence courts, mental health courts, and other highly successful programs.

"That changed in 2015 with the launching of the George Soros-funded “progressive prosecutor” movement. This movement is animated by two beliefs. The first is that the entire criminal justice system is systemically racist. The second is that the only way to fix the system is to dismantle it by replacing law-and-order district attorneys with pro-criminal and anti-police district attorneys. The sick irony of this movement is that in the areas where it has prevailed, the most harm has been done to the racial minorities whose interests it purports to represent.

Origins of the Movement

"The progressive prosecutor movement—more accurately called the rogue prosecutor movement—is the predictable outgrowth of efforts by earlier Marxist radicals to alter or destroy the American way of life. At its root is the belief that our country and its institutions, including capitalism, are racist. One of the early leaders of the movement to abolish prisons is the infamous Angela Davis, now in her 80s, who in her 2003 book, Are Prisons Obsolete?, equated prisons to modern-day slavery. “The prison,” she wrote, “has become a black hole into which the detritus of contemporary capitalism is deposited”; throwing people into prison, she continued, “relieves us of the responsibility of seriously engaging with the problems of our society, especially those produced by racism and, increasingly, global capitalism.' ” . . .

CA Dem Becomes Sputtering Mess When Asked Why Assembly Is Holding Special Session on Trump As Fires Rage

 Rusty Weiss; RedState

"Rather than fighting Trump, Newsom probably should have listened to him. The president-elect repeatedly advised the Democrat governor to clear out forest floors in an attempt to limit wildfires."

"California State Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D) was left a sputtering mess responding to a reporter demanding to know why Democrats are holding a special legislative session to combat Donald Trump while wildfires are ravaging Los Angeles.

"Ashley Zavala, capitol correspondent for KCRA-TV, confronted Rivas on why, despite the devastation, he is going through with a special legislative effort designed to find ways to undercut the incoming president.

" 'Is now the right time to have a special legislative session on allocating money to fight Trump in a way that you could already do without a special legislative session?" Zavala wondered.

“ 'Um, so I'm, ya know, I'm here t-to address this, this, uh, you know, these, these, these, these… wildfires. This is a historic wildfire," a flummoxed Rivas replied. "This is a historic event, these wildfires, as I mention, are gonna be quite possibly some of the worst wildfires and disasters in the state and national history.' " . . .                

As wildfires rage in Los Angeles, Speaker of California's Assembly Robert Rivas would not answer my questions, if now is the right time to have a special session to legally fight Donald Trump.

Both the CA Senate & Assembly gaveled into the Trump-related special session today. pic.twitter.com/GfgXkGnrDj

— Ashley Zavala (@ZavalaA) January 9, 2025

Jonathan Turley on The Trump Sentencing: Curtain to Fall on Merchan’s Hamlet on the Hudson

"As predicted, the two federal cases never saw a trial in Florida or Washington, D.C. In Georgia, Fani Willis was dropped from her racketeering case, which has gone nowhere due to her own misconduct. It is like the Allied forces launching the Normandy Invasion to capture Monaco."  JT

Trump Sentenced to Unconditional Discharge in New York Hush Money Case

"Trump won’t face punishment, but will be labeled a felon." Which the TV leftists will savor as they recite those words slowly.

Jonathan Turley on The Trump Sentencing: Curtain to Fall on Merchan’s Hamlet on the Hudson  "Below is my column in the Hill on the sentencing this week of President-Elect Donald Trump in Manhattan. Judge Juan Merchan waited to schedule the hearing for just ten days before the inauguration, limiting the time available to appeal. His order suggests that, if there is any interruption or delay in his sentencing, he might follow the advice of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and suspend sentencing for four years, a terrible option that we previously discussed. One could call that passively aggressive, but it seems quite actively aggressive.

"Here is the column: . . 

."But the whole point of a trophy-kill case is the trophy itself. Merchan will not disappoint. While indicating that he is inclined to a sentence without jail or probation, he will finalize the conviction of Trump just 10 days before his inauguration. In so doing, he will formally label the president-elect a convicted felon."

 Disappointment from the Supreme Court  

. . ."This very disappointing order will present us with the spectacle of one of the most corrupt, if not the most corrupt, and unethical “judges” — a word I put in quotation marks to express the deep disdain I hold for this person, who has been referred to as the Captain Ahab of the Judiciary — passing judgment on the former and future president of the United States solely for the purpose of giving the Democrat party its “pound of flesh.” . . .

 Trump's Surprisingly Mellow Response to SCOTUS Decision on Sentencing

. . ."Presently, there's a pending interlocutory appeal on the immunity issue, and once Trump has been sentenced, there will be a direct appeal of the judgment and sentence as well. The ultimate resolution of the matter may be months — if not years — away. But for all the effort expended to "get Trump," what they got was a second Trump presidency."  Susie Moore   Also here.