"On FOX News' 'Hannity,' Victor Davis Hanson gave his opinion on why the Biden Administration has not secured the southern border: "It begs the question. So many down sides. There all down sides: inequality with citizens vs illegal aliens, they don't need IDs or a passport to go back and forth. We can't go in to a hotel and get a room for free. The asymmetry is stunning and then the national security dimensions, we don't know who these people are, why are 25,000 Chinese nationals coming. Nobody knows. The question is why, Sean. Why is Biden, the people controlling Biden doing this? All we come up with is they want to change the demographic. They believe that 2020 was a revolutionary moment in united States history. 60-70% of the people, for the first time in history, did not show up on election day in some of the key swing states. They feel it's hard to authenticate ballots. It's not hard to get somebody voting who is maybe not qualified to vote or does haven't a proper mail in or early ballot. They see opportunity there. Think that's one of the reasons it and they want a constituency for entitlements, redistribution, big government. No sensible explanation why a president is so nihilistic and do such damage to his country except for pure partisan advantage.' "
Friday, February 23, 2024
Benjamin Netanyahu Unveils Plan for Post-Hamas Gaza
This will leave Israel to contend only with Hezbollah, the various Iran-backed Islamist militias, all of the neighbors who want Israel pushed into the sea, with Iran, and even with feckless* American politicians who run hot and cold, with no detectable logic behind the sudden changes.
"Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a plan for a post-Hamas Gaza — assuming that every single Hamas fighter can be hunted down and eliminated.
The plan comes as Israel sent a negotiating team, led by Mossad Director David Barnea, to Paris on Friday to pursue talks over a potential ceasefire and hostage release deal that may put an end to the four-month long war.
More than 29,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to the ministry of health in the enclave. Hamas’ October 7 attack killed 1,200 people in Israel, according to Israeli authorities.
"It is belaboring the obvious to note that there cannot be a path forward in Gaza that does not include the terms "post-Hamas," which can only mean every single Hamas fighter has been hunted down and captured or killed.
On the security file, the envisioned plan includes Israel closing off Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, giving Israel complete control of entry and exit from the enclave. At present, Egypt controls access to and from Gaza’s southern border via the Rafah crossing.
Netanyahu’s plan says Israel will cooperate “as much as possible” with Egypt, in coordination with the United States.
It is not clear whether Israel has obtained Egypt’s sign-off on that element of the plan, or any part of it. But an Israeli official told CNN that the plan was “aligned” with the US.
There has been no immediate official US reaction to the proposal.
See Related: Israel Issues Ultimatum to Hamas: Release Hostages or Suffer the Consequences; Disgraceful: Biden Throws Israel Under the Bus With Move to Force Ceasefire *
Catherine Herridge Posts Important Update on CBS' Seizure of Her Files
"As we reported, Catherine Herridge was fired from CBS during a bloodbath of them cutting hundreds of employees.
Her firing got the most attention because of her excellence in reporting and the suggestion that it was more than just a layoff when it came to her being let go, just after she'd been reporting on the Hur Report. That suspicion grew louder when it was learned that CBS had also seized Herridge's files, computers, and records, which included her "privileged sources."
"According to George Washington law professor Jonathan Turley:
The timing of Herridge’s termination immediately raised suspicions in Washington. She was pursuing stories that were unwelcomed by the Biden White House and many Democratic powerhouses, including the Hur reporton Joe Biden’s diminished mental capacity, the Biden corruption scandal and the Hunter Biden laptop. She continued to pursue these stories despite reports of pushback from CBS executives, including CBS News President Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews.
"This concerned many that this could "chill" reporting and sources providing information to reporters. Some like Turley and journalist Brit Hume said they had never heard of anything like this before.
"Catherine Herridge has now posted an important update from SAG-AFTRA, which covers broadcast journalists as well as actors. They posted a statement ripping CBS' actions and coming to her defense, demanding that CBS return her files and records to her. They indicated there was progress because of outreach from CBS and they hoped to resolve the question soon. " . . .
SAG-AFTRA strongly condemns CBS News' decision to seize Catherine Herridge's reporter notes and research from her office, including confidential source information. This action is deeply concerning to the union because it sets a dangerous precedent for all media professionals and threatens the very foundation of the First Amendment.
It is completely inappropriate for an employer to lay off a reporter and take the very unusual step of retaining and searching the reporter's files, inclusive of confidential source identification and information. From a First Amendment standpoint, a media corporation with a commitment to journalism calling a reporter’s research and confidential source reporting "proprietary information" is both shocking and absurd.
Continue reading...
Social justice warriors: from oppressed to oppressors
Yesterday’s left sought to achieve social justice by elevating the oppressed. Today’s left increasingly seeks to achieve social control by bringing down the “oppressors.” If successful, the outcome will be the attainment of a society of mediocrity — one easily controlled by an authoritarian state. J.A. Frascino
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| Toon added by TD |
"Leftist activism has come full circle. In just a few decades, the political left has evolved from “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country” to debasing America as an unexceptional, colonialist, xenophobic, racist nation founded in slavery and straddled by a Constitution framed by slave owners.
"In the past, social reformers and activists represented directly the aggrieved or subjugated elements of society. Women’s suffrage was fought for and won by women. Worker’s rights were fostered by men such as Samuel Gompers, an immigrant cigar maker who founded the AFL. Anti-segregation movements were spearheaded by MLK Jr. Social justice warriors of the past were those who were personally involved in and committed to resolving social injustices.
"Fast forward to the 21st century. From the truly oppressed personally seeking relief, yesterday’s leftist activists have been replaced by a cadre of surrogate “reformers” — liberal, white, virtue signaling morality preachers fighting fabricated injustices for self-gratification. They are moved by a desire or need to be perceived by themselves and others as morally superior champions of equality and social responsibility. They frequently care little or know little about the social issues against which they rail. Not given to critical thinking, they derive their purpose from media disseminated talking points, espousing the cause du jour to sustain their membership in the ranks of enlightened elitists. They even reject the outcomes of their own activism. Illegals on my doorstep? Wind turbines in my backyard? Crime and homelessness in my neighborhood? No thanks! Yesterday’s social justice warriors were in search of social justice. Today’s are in search of a halo.
"These virtue signalers constitute the rank and file of the new army of social justice warriors." ...
ISIS Renews Calls for Terror
. . ."Solidify your plans and diversify the attacks: detonate explosives, burn them with grenades and fiery agents, shoot them with bullets, cut their throats with sharp knives, and run them over with vehicles… Come at them from every door, kill them by the worst of means, turn their gatherings and celebrations into bloody massacres, do not distinguish between a civilian kaffir, and a military one..."
Raymond Ibrahim "On Jan. 4, 2024, the Islamic State (ISIS or IS) claimed the terror attack on Kerman, Iran, where 100 were killed on Jan. 3. In the same audio recording, titled “And Kill Them Wherever You Find Them [Koran 9:5],” IS unwittingly underscored the rigidity of Islam, and how some of its demands may appear counterintuitive to even “radical” Muslims.
"The statement begins with a predictable encomium to jihad and the importance of al-wala’ wa’l-bara’ (love for Muslims and hate for non-Muslims). It then moves on to “the crimes of murder and ugly massacres perpetrated by the Jews against the Muslims of Gaza.”
"While also predictably denouncing the Jews as “one of the sects who holds the most animosity to Muslims,” the statement urges a more focused jihad, one not based on modern or secular priorities -- such as human, national, or territorial rights -- but rather jihad in keeping with Islam’s worldview:
The battle with the Jews is a religious one and not a national or populist one! It is not a battle for land, soil, or borders! In fact, it is a war that is legitimized by the Book [Koran] and the Sunnah, and not through national rules or jahiliyah [pagan] laws. A Muslim fights the Jews because they have committed kufr [disbelief] against Allah Almighty, they have fought His prophets, and have held animosity toward Muslims.
"Thus, Muslims must fight Jews for no less a reason than that Jews reject Islam. This, of course, is very consistent with Islamic doctrine: Muslims must hate, fight, and subjugate all non-Muslims “until all religion is Allah’s (Koran 8:39).”
"IS especially emphasized that true jihad has nothing to do with either national (Palestinian) identity or territory:
[T]he purpose of battle is to impose tawhid for Allah and upholding His word. This purpose has been absent from the latest battle in Gaza, and was very apparent in the official speeches and declarations made by the [Arab/Muslim] leaders of the various groups. The battle from its beginning to its end is being fought over soil, and a country that they have made into a reason to spill blood for! . . .
"A presidential historian said Jill Biden has played a key role in Joe Biden’s decision to run for re-election.
"In contrast to past first ladies like Bess Truman and Lady Bird Johnson who wanted to leave Washington, Jill Biden enjoys her role and wants to stay in power.
“She is the vital part. Dr. Jill Biden is it,” Douglas Brinkley said.
" 'If you cut to ’68, Lyndon Johnson was – quit in March of ’68 and people will say because of Walter Cronkite. No,” he said. “The big thing was his health was bad, he had a bad heart, he was smoking, high blood pressure, tension, and Lady Bird Johnson didn’t want to stay in. And she wanted – let’s go back to Texas and convinced Johnson to step down.”
“ 'That’s not the case with Jill Biden. She likes power. She wants to stay. She wants some sense of revenge,” he added." . . .
Thursday, February 22, 2024
UPDATED 2/23: The Cancelled Black Harvard Professor Who Found No Racial Bias in Police Shootings. Irony at the end!
Kurt Mahlburg - Intellectual Takeout
Economist Roland Fryer talks to @bariweiss at @uaustinorg about his journey from a broken home to one of the youngest black tenured professors in Harvard history, the inconvenient policing data that got him canceled, and what motivates his academic work. https://t.co/PLYp7kMSyd pic.twitter.com/5jJwqn49yS
— The Free Press (@TheFP) February 19, 2024
"Unless you have lived under a rock for the last four years, you will be very familiar with the claim that black Americans are disproportionately victims of police shootings compared with their white counterparts.
"But a nearly eight-year-old study challenging this narrative is enjoying renewed attention thanks to a recent high-profile interview of the study’s author, African American economist Roland Fryer, by journalist Bari Weiss of The Free Press.
"Professor Fryer published the controversial findings in 2016 while on the faculty of Harvard University. Regarding police shootings of civilians, the study concluded, “We are unable to detect any racial differences in either the raw data or when accounting for controls.”
"While the study did find racial disparities in the use of nonlethal force in police encounters with black Americans, when it came to shootings, Fryer’s results were emphatic. In fact, after controlling for variables, Fryer and his team found that black Americans were slightly less likely to be shot by police than whites, though that difference was not statistically significant.
"The finding flatly contradicts the claims by Black Lives Matter and other activist groups that racism drives police officers to use deadly violence against African Americans at far higher rates.
"Far from being an obscure academic, Fryer, at age 30, became the youngest African American ever awarded tenure at Harvard—and ultimately one of the highest-paid professors at the Ivy League school, with over 50 published papers to his name. In 2008, he was named one of the top eight young economists in the world by The Economist and, in following years, was decorated with several other significant accolades." . . .
https://youtu.be/rHDhj7Bua1Q“And I said, ‘I guarantee you I’ll publish it. We’ll see what happens.’”
“ 'I lived under police protection for about 30 or 40 days,” Fryer said. “I had a 7-day-old daughter at the time … So I was going to the grocery store to get diapers with an armed guard. It was crazy. It was really, truly crazy.”
"The incident has shed light on the left’s reluctance to accept findings that challenge their beliefs, the influence of academia in promoting certain narratives, and the speculation that public opinion is shaped by various institutions." . . .
I'm sure this highly agitated MSNBC's race lady Joy Reid and launched a major diatribe by her. TD
.@ClayTravis: "Does Joy Reid have any opinions other than everybody's racist but her?" pic.twitter.com/ritiivz66G
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) January 16, 2024
Blind Justice or Blind Rage: New York’s Legal System Faces Ultimate Test With Obscene Trump Award
Having campaigned on bagging Trump on any basis, James turned the law into a virtual license to hunt him down along with his family and his associates.
For example, if you are the NRA, James will seek your destruction for financial irregularities, but if you are Black Lives Matter or Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, there is little real risk in such controversies.
"If the only protection in New York is the discretion of figures like James, few businesses would relish the future. The message is that you can expect blind and equal justice so long as you don’t run afoul of the Democrats in power.
"If you are unpopular, you could be looking at not only unprecedented actions and fines, but a need to virtually liquidate your assets just to be able to appeal a decision.
"This should shock the conscience of anyone concerned about the integrity and fairness of the New York legal system. Confiscatory fines and required deposits leave not just defendants but the entire system bankrupt." . . .
West Coast, Messed Coast™: It's Gavin's Border Invasion Now
Victoria Taft (causeaction.com)
"A good week to you, West Coast, Messed Coast™ dear readers, where California, Oregon, and Washington’s governors are probably reverse-engineering the way New York’s attorney general was able to shutter a business she didn’t like with a never-used civil procedure.
They’ve likely ordered their minions to go through the file of “never-used laws” to use to confiscate some rich guy’s buildings. After all, socialists have to find someplace to put all those military-aged Chinese men coming over the border in San Diego County in the TikTok-guided invasion.
GAVIN’S INVASION
This week on the West Coast, Messed Coast™, as Joe Biden visited BelAir to rake in campaign donations, the lovely little burg of Jacumba (hey, Fox News, it’s pronounced hah-KUM-bah, not ha-KOOM-buh) in East San Diego County, was being overwhelmed. Thousands of freedom loving invasion-level chaos tourists are pouring over the border and expecting a handout from Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.).
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| "I'm such a wonderful person!" |
While Texas puts up concertina wire and shipping containers to stop the flow of humanity, Democrat NGOs are handing out Welcome Wagon gift baskets. Maybe Oakland has room for them with everyone leaving or hiding because of Newsom’s out-of-control crime.
The illegal immigrants go to Jacumba and wait for the Border Patrol, which will give them a ride to process them and never see them again.
NEW: Live in Jacumba, CA this AM, where there has been an explosion in Chinese crossing illegally.
CBP sources tell FOX 20,000+ Chinese have been encountered just since October 1st.
That’s up more than 4,000% over all of fiscal year 2021, when only 450 Chinese were encountered. pic.twitter.com/trBAr3lfFj— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) February 19, 2024
Oh, by the way....California’s Budget Deficit Is Even Worse Than Originally Projected (legalinsurrection.com) "The last time we checked on California’s budget, the deficit was a whopping $68 billion, which was twice the original amount (due to Bidenomics). The deficit has grown considerably since that December report. It now stands at $73 billion." . . .
Chutzpah: Trans activists who desecrated St. Patrick's cathedral now demand an apology
Monica Showalter - American Thinker
Yesterday, St. Patrick's Cathedral hosted the funeral of Cecilia Gentili, a transgender, atheist prostitute. Funeral was attended by hundreds of trans activists in thongs/fishnet/halter tops/fur. They celebrated the dead prostitute by mocking St. Cecilia, saying: "This whore.… pic.twitter.com/qMeUA0rfhK
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) February 16, 2024
. . ."And the Church is well on the road to becoming a dump, too, if it doesn't hold firm on this and tell the mau-mauers to take a hike with their apology demands, and no doubt, lawsuit. Is there anyone at that Church strong enough to stand up to the mau-mauers of this lobby, who have used bullying tactics to get their way all through America's institutions? They've found an especially attractive soft target in the Catholic Church, whose pope is often a vindictive weakling but always wants to be seen as 'nice' people inclusive of all, no matter what the sleazy agenda.
Where are the tough-old-bird cardinals of old who'd stand up in heartbeat to defend what is sacred and valuable in this faith, so that there will be striving faithful instead of self-satisfied freaks in the pews? The Church's response thus far has been adequate in that they rightly cancelled the Mass, but weak, very weak, and now they're stuck with a tar baby they can't extricate themselves from easily.
It's time for some serious leadership from the front. If they don't care about themselves, they do need to care about what is sacred and holy because these power-hungry activists want to take it over and dictate their terms, rendering the Catholic Church into a mainline Protestant Church with empty pews. Time to man up to these clown-show bullies in dollar-bill boas, Cardinal Dolan, the clergy who permitted this, and all Church leaders who haven't so far been silenced for their traditional values by the utterly weak pope.
A recent Joe Biden promo shows that he’s held together by videotape editing
"When it comes to Donald Trump, what you see is what you get…and what you’ve always gotten. He is the modern equivalent of Oliver Cromwell’s instruction to Sir Peter Lely, his portrait painter, that the painting should be honest, showing “warts and all.” Trump is now as he always has been.
"Trump is a master of puffery (which is not the same, factually or legally, as lying). He speaks discursively, taking an endless amount of time to get to his point, but he always gets there at last. He’s repetitive, which is something a good salesman needs to be. He can speak telegraphically, packing enormous content into short phrases (e.g. “build the wall” became his visually effective shorthand for the problems of illegal immigration and the need for a fix). And he openly and often childishly insults his enemies. Trump is still Trump.
"Joe Biden, however, is a shell of himself. Just compare Biden in 2012, a mere 12 years ago, when he was debating Paul Ryan with a recent appearance. In this first video, he’s a bully and a liar who completely intimidates Paul Ryan. Biden’s lack of intelligence shows in the stupid political positions he takes, but he’s totally on the ball: . . .
In this case, I counted 28 cuts in this 2 minute video. 28. In something this short, *maybe* you do 5-6 cuts max. https://t.co/2xS3cSacst
— Joe Concha (@JoeConchaTV) February 21, 2024
Biden's Border Crisis Is Now on Full Display in Times Square Billboard
Biden's Border Crisis Is Now on Full Display in Times Square Billboard (townhall.com) "A billboard in Times Square went up on Thursday highlighting how the Biden administration’s failure to secure the border is affecting communities across America.
“The Biden administration has allowed the southern border to descend into chaos that is now affecting the entire country," said Elaine Parker, Chief Communications Officer of the Job Creators Network. "Notably, Main Street is facing elevated crime that is increasing operating costs for nearly one-third of brick-and-mortar small businesses, according to our latest polling. It’s also having a chilling effect on consumer foot traffic. President Biden needs to stop playing political games with the southern border.”
Viewers are then directed to SecureOurBordersNow.com where people can learn more and sign a petition.
"The Biden administration already has the tools and resources to secure the southern border," site visitors are told. "Tell the White House to act NOW." . . .
Billboard depicting the migrant attack on police goes up in Times Square - Washington Times
"New Times Square Billboard! "Biden has allowed the border to descend into chaos, and it's affecting the entire country, including small businesses that face elevated costs due to crime. "Sign the petition to secure the border: jobcreatorsnetwork.com/secureourborde
New Times Square Billboard!
— Job Creators Network (@JobCreatorsUSA) February 22, 2024
Biden has allowed the border to descend into chaos, and it's affecting the entire country, including small businesses that face elevated costs due to crime.
Sign the petition to secure the border: https://t.co/Ci5AHoOEmE pic.twitter.com/uRLDmQva45