Friday, November 17, 2023

A tale of two headlines -CNN offers up more unintended humor

  Ken LaCorte (substack.com)  

1. The ground jumped up and hit him; This CNN headline is perplexing:

"Why is someone being arrested if this man fell and hit his head? The way this headline is worded, it sure sounds like it was the guy’s own fault. Until you consider this headline instead:" . . .

LGBTQ and the Palestinians… spread the woke! -

 


Islamic State group targets gays with brutal public killings | AP News   ..."The Islamic State group has reserved one of its most gruesome methods of killing for suspected gays -- throwing them to their death from building rooftops.

. . .“ 'I’d prefer it if you shoot me in the head,” 32-year-old Hawas Mallah replied helplessly. The second man, 21-year-old Mohammed Salameh, pleaded for a chance to repent, promising never to have sex with a man again, according to a witness among the onlookers that sunny July morning who gave The Associated Press a rare firsthand account.

" 'Take them and throw them off,” the judge ordered. Other masked extremists tied the men’s hands behind their backs and blindfolded them. They led them to the roof of the four-story hotel, according to the witness, who spoke in the Turkish city of Reyhanli on condition he be identified only by his first name, Omar, for fear of reprisals.

"Notorious for their gruesome methods of killing, the Islamic State group reserves one of its most brutal for suspected homosexuals. Videos it has released show masked militants dangling men over the precipices of buildings by their legs to drop them head-first or tossing them over the edge. At least 36 men in Syria and Iraq have been killed by IS militants on charges of sodomy, according to the New York-based OutRight Action International, though its Middle East and North Africa coordinator, Hossein Alizadeh, said it was not possible to confirm the sexual orientation of the victims.

"The fear of a horrific death among gay men under Islamic State rule is further compounded by their isolation in a deeply conservative society that largely shuns them." . . .

Very simple, really -Israel's entry into Gaza has nothing to do with exacting revenge

  Jonathan Rosenblum (jewishworldreview.com)

"Hamas is the best spokesman for Israel.

"The most gruesome footage of the atrocities of October 7 comes from the body cameras worn by the invading savages. Unlike the Nazis yemach shemam, notes the estimable Douglas Murray, the Hamas murderers were not even ashamed of their lack of any flicker of humanity.

"Next Ghazi Hamad, a senior member of Hamas's political bureau, proclaimed on Lebanese TV that Hamas's attacks on October 7 were just the first of many to come, and that the Gaza-Israeli border would be one of continual warfare. "Israel is a country that has no place in our land. We must remove it because it constitutes a security, military, and political catastrophe to the Arab and Islamic nation," he explained. In short, Israel must be destroyed.

"There is no reason to doubt Hamad's sincerity on this point. He is simply repeating what is already explicit in Hamas's charter. Thus Israel has no choice but to destroy Hamas. Indeed Israel may be obligated to do so under the anti-genocide conventions, in light of Hamas's expressed genocidal intent towards the Jews of Israel.

"Israel's entry into Gaza has nothing to do with exacting revenge. It is an act of self-defense, pure and simple. True, the bloodthirsty mobs on campuses and in major metropolitan areas worldwide bellow that Israel is a colonialist intruder in the Middle East, and lacks any right to exist. But they can hardly expect Israel to acquiesce in that judgment and agree to its own disappearance. Point one.

"Point two: Destroying Hamas requires destroying its vast network of underground tunnels, which exceed the London underground in length, and eliminating its entire military command and infrastructure.

"Point three: Because Hamas locates all its military assets in or under civilian areas — hospitals, schools, mosques, and apartment buildings — that destruction will inevitably result in the deaths of civilians. Of course, we will never know how many, as figures reported by the Hamas Health Ministry lack all credibility. That same Health Ministry claimed 500 dead from a bomb on the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital — a claim dutifully reported by the international press. The actual number was 50 or less, and from an errant Islamic Jihad rocket to boot." . . .

Watch Secretary Blinken Die Inside As He Watches Biden Take Reporters' Questions

 Spencer Brown, Townhall

"When Biden delivered remarks in Poland after Russia invaded Ukraine, he ad-libbed a line about how "for God's sake, this man [Putin] cannot remain in power," sending Blinken scrambling to correct the record and explain . . ."


"Secretary of State Antony Blinken couldn't maintain a poker face while listening to his boss, President Joe Biden, answer questions from reporters following his high-stakes meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Northern California this week. 

" 'After today, would you still refer to President Xi as a dictator?" came the question from a reporter noting it was a term Biden used to describe the leader earlier this year.

" 'Well look, he is," Biden responded. "He's a dictator in the sense that he's a guy who runs a country that is a communist country that's based on a form of government totally different than ours," the president added. 

"While it's true that President Xi is a genocidal tyrant and leader of one country making up a new axis of evil along with his pals in Russia, North Korea, Iran, and elsewhere, Secretary Blinken apparently would have preferred Biden not criticize his Chinese counterpart as the Biden administration works to (rather inexplicably) mend fences with a country set on dominating the globe. 

"Just watch Blinken's face and reaction when Biden calls Xi a dictator:" . . .

This would explain the Trump sticker on Blinken's car. TD 

UPDATE: Joe Biden is 'embarrassing the US on world stage' as he makes another mistake (msn.com)  . . ."The crowd at the conference and other dignitaries laughed warmly at Biden's comments, but one foreign policy expert said that Biden "increasingly doesn't know what he is saying or doing."

"Nile Gardiner, a Washington-based foreign policy expert and director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at The Heritage Foundation, said to Daily Express US: "Joe Biden is increasingly losing his mind and he is evidently unfit to be president of the United States.

" 'All the evidence suggests that Biden is always capable of massively embarrassing the United States on the world stage. That problem grows by the day and it is evident."  . . .

Hamas Caucus Begs Hakeem Jeffries for Help As the Walls Come Tumbling Down –

  RedState

It was a call echoed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who said in a brief interview that with “the highly racialized targeting of many of these members, we absolutely need leadership that would defend our members from that.”


"Few will be shocked to find out that some of the same radical Squad members (and their allies) who have alleged, without evidence, some of the vilest and incendiary things about Israel in the aftermath of the Hamas terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians are now running to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), begging him to call off powerful critics ahead of the Democratic primaries.
"Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.), for instance, are facing formidable primary challengers who have in part been motivated by their stance on the Israel-Hamas war. As a result, the Progressive Caucus PAC led by anti-Israel Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) has been aggressively pushing Jeffries to protect them from criticism and primary challengers, warning that whatever money they burn through in the primaries will be money they don't have in the general election:

In a closed-door meeting at party headquarters last Thursday, the three lawmakers who lead the Progressive Caucus’ PAC met with Jeffries and Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), the head of House Democrats’ campaign arm. They told the Democratic leader he needed to keep the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee out of Democratic primaries.

[...]

“If we have to spend a lot of money to keep our incumbents in office, then that’s less money that gets spent on frontline districts and districts we can pick up, so it is a real problem,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), a co-chair of the PAC. “And that’s why it’s really important to be clear to AIPAC that they need to stand down and that we are going to vigorously defend our members.”

"Despite the open war of words going on in the Democratic Party now regarding who stands where in the battle between Hamas terrorists and Israel - which manifested itself in the pro-Hamas rioters' attack on the DNC HQ, Jeffries has maintained that he will back up members as he tries to get Democrats back in the majority in 2024." . . .


Thursday, November 16, 2023

Why Do These Harvard Organizations Support Hamas? -

 Intellectual Takeout

"We hear much these days about the rise of anti-Semitism in the United States, both on campuses and in the public square. We need to remember that the vast majority of these protests and attacks, which range from shouted slurs to out-and-out violence, don’t reflect the attitudes of most citizens, but originate and are carried out by select groups—often with monetary incentives."

"On October 7, 2023, the terrorist organization Hamas initiated a series of brutal attacks on the state of Israel that killed more than 1,400 Israelis and left more than 5,000 people wounded. On October 8, a group of Harvard University organizations issued a joint statement on Instagram blaming Israel for this assault, holding “the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.” That statement brought immediate condemnation from various individuals and groups as well as repercussions, with some donors cancelling their ties to the university and some employers either withdrawing job offers to students associated with these Harvard organizations or threatening to do so. Some groups later apologized for supporting this statement.

"Business Insider has provided an excellent timeline of these events. Here we find that soon after the storms of protest broke, “the statement was amended to remove the names of its signatories, and has since been deleted.”

"When I first read the online articles reporting this news about Harvard, my imagination conjured up a diverse collection of university clubs, a far-left chess club, for example, or a women’s field hockey team. Later, after I’d tracked down the original unamended document, I was in for a mild shock." . . .

Report: Rashida Tlaib Member of Facebook Group That Celebrates Hamas (legalinsurrection.com)

Backed by the cold, unsmiling faces of Democrat allies.

"Fox News reported that Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) belongs to a Facebook group that celebrates Hamas in its longtime fight to annihilate Israel and murder Jews.

"I haven’t seen Tlaib, who has no problem showing off her hatred for Israel and Jews, confirm she belongs to the Palestinian American Congress/USA Facebook group.

"The Tlaib in the group joined in 2018, which coincides with her Congressional campaign." . . .

"Qadar also shared a graphic naming many Jewish Congress members who supposedly “have dual loyalty to Israel and the United States.” The “dual loyalty” is an antisemitic trope. Squad member and antisemite Rep. Ilhan Omar has repeated that trope, among many others.

"Palestinian American Congress is a hidden group, meaning it won’t appear if you search for it.

"Recent posts have glorified Hamas since it invaded Israel, killing over 1200 and kidnapping 240:" . . .

The world isn’t outraged when Jews are slaughtered - JNS.org  

How can Israel survive in a world that is outraged by existence? “Top Story” with Jonathan Tobin and guest Dan Senor, Ep. 118

In this week’s episode of “Top Story,” JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin discusses how antisemitism fueled by toxic left-wing ideologies is motivating the mobs calling for Israel’s elimination. In so doing, they’re not merely erasing Jewish history and rights, but ignoring the myriad successes that Israel has accomplished in its 75 years of existence.

Two Words Describe Biden’s Presidency:  Reckless Endangerment –

  Issues & Insights

In any case, someone accused of reckless endangerment “isn’t required to intend the resulting or potential harm, but must have acted in a way that showed a disregard for the foreseeable consequences of the actions.” That is the very definition of Joe Biden’s presidency.


"This week we’ve been treated to three government reports that all point in the same direction: Disaster.

"Interest payments are through the roof. Real wages continue to fall. And a record number of illegals crossed the border.

"That’s just the domestic news. As of this writing, Americans are being held hostage by Iran-supported Hamas terrorists who killed nearly two dozen other Americans when they invaded Israel. Our military forces face increasing Iranian-sponsored attacks in Iraq and Syria. While President Joe Biden lets Iran off the sanctions hook for another four months.

"The worry isn’t just whether Biden – the architect of these disasters – will be voted out of office next year. It’s whether the U.S. can survive until then.

"Start with the terrible news on the home front. On Monday, the Treasury Department released its monthly financial report, and it was alarming. In October alone, the government made $76 billion in net interest payments – a 76% increase from a year ago and a 153% jump from two years ago.

"The Treasury report projects that gross interest payments will top $1 trillion this fiscal year. That will be more than we plan to spend on defense, or Medicare, or Medicaid, or any non-defense domestic discretionary program. And that’s if all goes well, which it rarely does.

"Then, on Tuesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its monthly inflation report for October. While the White House bragged that inflation had declined – from 3.7% in September to 3.2% – what matters to everyday Americans is whether their wages are keeping up with price increases.

"They aren’t. For four months in a row – and 27 out of the past 31 months – worker wages failed to keep pace with Bidenflation. As a result, real wages today are more than 3% below when Biden took office. That, combined with rising interest rates, is costing the average family $7,400 a year, according to economist E.J. Antoni." . . .

New York Appellate Judge Stops Ridiculous New York Gag Order of President Trump -

 The Last Refuge (theconservativetreehouse.com)

The temporary pause in Engoron’s gag orders comes as a separate, more sweeping gag order on Trump in his criminal case in Washington, D.C. has also been lifted pending oral arguments before an appeals court scheduled for Monday.

"Everything happening in/around the courtroom of Judge Engoron in New York City has been ridiculous in the extreme.

"Even left leaning pundits and political commentators have begun to retreat from the fevered pace of the NY civil case because they can see the appeals court intervening.

"Earlier today appellate judge David Friedman finally intervened in the insufferable gag order and put some common sense back into the case putting a stay on the lower court order.

NEW YORK (AP) — A gag order that barred Donald Trump from commenting about court personnel after he disparaged a law clerk in his New York civil fraud trial was temporarily lifted Thursday by an appellate judge who raised free speech concerns.

Judge David Friedman of the state’s intermediate appeals court issued what’s known a stay — suspending the gag order and allowing the former president to freely comment about court staff while a longer appeals process plays out.

The trial judge, Arthur Engoron, imposed the gag order on Oct. 3 after Trump made a false comment about the judge’s law clerk on social media. He later fined Trump $15,000 for violations and expanded it to his lawyers after they questioned the clerk’s prominent role in the trial.

Ruling at an emergency hearing Thursday, Friedman questioned Engoron’s authority to police Trump’s speech outside the courtroom — such as his frequent gripes about the case on social media and in comments to TV cameras in the courthouse hallway.

Friedman said that while it’s true that judges often issue gag orders, they’re mostly used in criminal cases where there’s a fear that comments about the case could influence the jury. Trump’s civil trial doesn’t have a jury." . . .

Understanding Hamas’s Genocidal Ideology; A close read of Hamas’s founding documents clearly shows its intentions.



This article was featured in One Story to Read Today, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a single must-read from The Atlantic, Monday through Friday. Sign up for it here.

“Not every German who bought a copy of Mein Kampf necessarily read it … But it might be argued that had more non-Nazi Germans read it before 1933 and had the foreign statesmen of the world perused it carefully while there was still time, both Germany and the world might have been saved from catastrophe.”

— William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

'Intellectual Rot': Dr. Phil Excoriates Universities for 'Endorsing' Pro-Hamas Student Groups | CBN News   TV personality Phillip McGraw — known professionally as “Dr. Phil” — is condemning the “intellectual rot” he sees invading institutions of higher education as college campuses around the country are teeming with pro-Hamas students in the wake of the terrorist group’s deadly attack on Israel in early October.

“The Hamas invaders were not soldiers; they were assassins,” McGraw said in a video posted to X. “The Hamas charter calls for the ultimate annihilation of all Israeli Jews, followed by the annihilation of Jews around the world. Sound familiar? Sadly, some people — including some right here in America — actually celebrated the slaughter and blame those being murdered, raped, and kidnapped.” . . .

“ 'Americans nationwide have been appalled and shocked,” explained the best-selling author and show host. “The leadership of these supposedly highly sophisticated schools are so busy virtue signaling and coddling students who think that words are violence but [actual physical] violence — horrific, inhumane violence — is social justice, that they have forgotten it is their job to teach their students to think and to test reality.”

“ 'Instead of training tomorrow’s leaders,” he added, “they are profoundly demagnetizing our culture’s moral compass among the college population.”

"McGraw, 73, went on to note he is no expert in geopolitics but made clear during his impassioned, five-minute monologue that he doesn’t need to be one to clearly see Hamas’ attack against the Jewish state as “utterly sick, twisted, disgusting, and inexcusable.”

WARNING, VERY GRAPHIC! Video out of Israel shows room full of children massacred by Hamas   Please share this video that is guaranteed to be banned.

Being blocked more now; try here:

WARNING, VERY GRAPHIC! Video out of Israel shows room full of children massacred by Hamas May all those college demonstrators see this as well. TD



‘This war is prophetically significant’: why US evangelical Christians support Israel

Lukewarm commentary on evangelical support for Israel from a left-wing source.

“They’re following the scripture, and what the scripture says about Israel: ‘Those who bless Israel will be blessed,’ they take it literal, and I’m one of those people,” Burchett said. 

  Evangelical Christianity | The Guardian  One strand of evangelical theology holds that the return of Jews to the region starts the clock ticking on a seven-year armageddon, after which Jesus Christ will return

"It didn’t take long for many evangelical Christian groups in America to show their support for Israel.

"Hours after Hamas attacked the country on 7 October, killing more than 1,400 people, Christians United for Israel, an evangelical lobbying group which claims to have more than 10 million members, posted a message to on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“ 'To the terrorists who have chosen this fight, hear this, what you do to Israel, god will do to you. Despite today’s weeping, joy will come because he [god] who watches over Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps,” CUFI, whose founder believes the presence of Jews in Israel is a precursor to Jesus Christ returning to Earth, wrote.

"Soon an “Evangelical statement in support of Israel” was issued by the ethics and religion liberty commission – an arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, a denomination which has 45,000 churches in the US." . . .




Retreat Was Not an Option Then and Is Not Now -

Will there be no Nuremberg trials for these monsters?

  American Thinker  . . ."The Barack Obama and Joe Biden administrations, which some call the “Obiden Administrations,” are directly responsible for the current Nazi-like atrocities being committed against Israel. These two leftist administrations financed this terrorism. Even after revelations about war crimes committed against Israeli civilians, the Biden administration is proposing a new package of aid to Gaza! The Biden administration (along with most Americans) knows full well who will be the beneficiary of the $100 million dollars of new humanitarian aid. Secretary of State Blinken has admitted that the administration cannot be sure that the aid/funds will not fall into Hamas’s hands." . . .


. . ."Europe today is awash in Islamic terrorism. Remember the Charlie Hebdo massacre in France? These are just a few of the almost limitless examples of Islamic barbarism. The atrocities committed in the name of “Allah” date back to the time of its founding in the sixth century. No better indication of Islam’s true nature is found than the followers of Muhammad becoming allies with Hitler’s Nazi Germany in World War Two. Raymond Ibrahim has written extensively about Islamic barbarity and its current attempt to destroy the Christian world.

"The ongoing Hamas atrocities in Israel should be a warning to the Western world that this could happen here. Why wouldn’t Hamas, with its Jihadist allies in Hezbollah (founded by Iran), come to the United States and do similar horrific butchery of innocent civilians? Hamas’s leaders have declared, “We are ISIS.” We know they are already here. FBI Director Wray has previously warned of this danger created by our porous southern border." . . .

The Greta Thunberg Intellectual Society

LGBTQ and the Palestinians… spread the woke! - American Thinker   "It’s very exciting to see that the alphabet narcissist brigade has decided to “stand with” Hamas. 

"The reason it’s so exciting?  Hamas will finally be educated about microaggressions, pronouns, gendered language, systemic racism and all their cisgendered heteronormative privilege!". . .

"Gays are not welcome in Palestine how do people not understand that? how many more need to die? "But the gay community will stay silent for diversity or as we call it cowards."


 . . ." 
If Hamas plays their cards right (and pays $40,000), Dylan Mulvaney might even do a video promoting their cause!" . . .

How can American campuses not be aware of this? If they know of the massacre, are they so evil that they support Hamas over Israel? Why must the innocents of Israel be yoked with the inadequate and benighted rulers of the once-great nation America? The Tunnel Dweller (Not to be confused with the moles of Hamas).

Biden Goes Off-Script After His Speech — It's WORSE Than You Could Imagine -

  Analyzing America  . . ." 'Before I say even more what’s on my mind, I’m now gonna leave this podium,” Biden said. The video quickly went viral on social media as people mocked Biden’s apparent mental decline.


“ 'What a speech… Epic in its brilliance,” one person commented sarcastically. “So sharp, witty and funny,” another person said mockingly.

“ 'Before I lie even more, Im going to walk away,” another person said.

"President Biden is accused of lying during the speech by suggesting he participated in the Civil Rights movement.

"Biden talking about his time as a public defender. “It was a lesson I learned coming out of — not like real leaders in the civil rights movement — but when I came out of the civil rights movement as a kid as a public defender.” Biden said.

"Biden was a public defender for a brief time. After significant research, BuzzFeed found that Biden defended a cow thief in Delaware.

"A poll from NBC found that the majority of Americans (68%) believe Biden does not have the mental and physical health to serve as president.

"The poll also found that a staggering 43 percent of Democrats believe Biden is not mentally and physically healthy to serve as president.

"This concern among Democrats has doubled since 2020. Prior to 2020, just one in five Democrats were concerned about Biden’s mental acuity.". . .