Saturday, April 13, 2024

As Iran readies to attack Israel, remember this is Biden’s design

  NY Post 

He handed it billions in ransom and sanctions relief, broke off relations with the Saudis and did all he could to resuscitate President Barack Obama’s disastrous 2015 nuclear deal. 

  "Many unknowns remain around Iran’s promised retaliation against Israel for its killing of a cluster of Quds Force fighters (including top brass) in Syria.

"One thing is certain, however: This is President Biden’s foreign policy working by design

"That’s why America’s most committed regional enemy is menacing our most important regional ally, as US analysts sit and mull over the size and scope of the strike — and the White House basically wrings its hands. 

"Not that Iran needs to do anything big.

"Thanks to Biden, Iran already is winning the battle for regional supremacy with proxy actions.

"Israel’s already fighting an Iranian proxy on one front in Gaza as another, Hezbollah, has been launching rockets across the border with Lebanon and exchanging fire with Israeli forces in what may well be a prelude to open war.  

"Meanwhile, the president, guided both by short-term hopes of winning back lefty voters and by a cadre of demented lefties on his staff, has abandoned Israel.

"But from the day he took office, long before Iran struck Israel via its cat’s-paw Hamas, Biden has empowered and emboldened Tehran." . . .  

The Hollywoke Meltdown

 The Hollywoke Meltdown - The American Spectator

"Diversity quotas replaced filmmaking merit. And it got much worse much faster. You couldn’t just be a black, female, or gay writer-director-producer, you had to be anti-white or anti-male or anti-heteronormative." 

 "I’ve been writing for years about the steep decline of cinema — in fact all art and media — this century. My very first article for this fine publication (fortunately for my integrity, a true statement rather than a transparent bid for a raise) a shocking six years ago explored how even a moderately good action picture like 2008’s Taken was beyond the capability or intent of 2018 Hollywood. Because the idea of a loving tough-guy dad rescuing his helpless teen daughter with manly “certain skills” while his gorgeous ex-wife frets realistically became anathema soon afterward. Hollywood had not yet fully mutated into Hollywoke, but it devolved fast.

"Today, most people recognize the film industry as the creative wasteland it has become. A brand new Rasmussen poll shows Americans by a two-to-one margin think movies have gotten worse in the 21st Century. The poll found 54 percent believe motion picture quality has deteriorated in the last 20 years. Only the usual 27 percent of unshakable zombies assume the opposite. What happened to the screen trade during this time period is a tale perhaps not worthy of Edward Gibbon (The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire) but a lot more justified.

"Most of the great auteurs and producers either retired or expired, and the studio system they enriched became a vacuous shell. Academia-spawned progressives took over, minus the talent to extend, duplicate, or simply maintain their marvelous inheritance. All they knew how to do was implode artistic truth with leftwing fantasy, reducing a once beloved industry into a pedestrian liberal message factory.

" 'If you want to send a message, try Western Union,” Frank Capra once said about blatant preachiness on film. Yet Capra was a master at instilling moralistic philosophy into his pictures, except he did it with heartwarming stories about virtuous people in some of the greatest films of all time. Modern filmmakers both dismiss that aspect of the craft and lack the skill to create anything close to It Happened One NightMr. Deeds Goes to TownMr. Smith Goes to WashingtonMeet John Doe, and It’s a Wonderful Life.

"But in 2001, they found a loftier goal than the genius director who immortalized the year, Stanley Kubrick with 2001: A  Space Odyssey, which was attacking the War on Terror and the American men fighting it. They made an unprecedented number of antiwar pictures slamming those heroes as ignorant pawns or psychopaths — American SoldiersRedacted (about the rape and murder of a 15-year-old Iraqi girl by U.S. soldiers), Stop-LossThe Mark of CainHome of the BraveGreen ZoneIn the Valley of Elah (a peacenik bridge too far for director Robert Redford) — while our guys were in harm’s way." . . .

Sadly, Hamas has many supporters in the U.S. and in Congress

 Hamas has always had and still has grandiose plans to enslave and slaughter Israel’s Jews - Andrea Widburg  "During World War II, the Nazis envisioned enslaving and eventually exterminating the Jewish race. Muslims in the Middle East and Central Europe were happy to make common cause with the Nazis as Nazi goals aligned with Mohamed’s mandateIt turns out that Hamas has the exact same plans this time around. In the 1940s, the civilized world stopped the Muslim and Nazi plans; this time, the world is no longer civilized and is abetting this great evil." . . .

Hitler and the Mufti of Jerusalem.


. . ."To a man, in the early years of the war, the British officers told my grandfather that they were dubious about their chances against Field Marshall Erwin Rommel. If Rommel’s forces prevailed, they said, the Nazis would give the local Arab population permission and weapons with which to slaughter every Jewish man and boy while either slaughtering or sexually enslaving the Jewish women and girls. (Think: ISIS on a grander scale.)

"My grandfather, therefore, had the bright idea to send my mom to Java, far from the war. He never could have predicted the Japanese entry into the war.

"My point with this family history is that it shows that the Arabs have long dreamed of slaughtering and enslaving the Jews who live on the land that is now Israel. That’s why I was completely unsurprised to learn that Hamas really believes that it can prevail in this war and that, when it wins, it can slaughter and enslave the Jews.". . .

"Thankfully, in the 1940s, the civilized world banded together to fight back against the Nazis. By doing so, they prevented the Arabs in and around BMP from fulfilling Mohamed’s mandate to slaughter and/or enslave all the Jews. However, we’re not a civilized world in 2024. This time, while the Muslim dreams remain unchanged, the surrounding world, including Democrats in America, is happy to work with Hamas to make that dream a reality." . . .    (Emphasis mine, TD)


I do not accuse the likes of Rashida Tlaib, the Squad, and many other Democrats (who staunchly defend Hamas) as being murderers. I merely posit that if Hamas began killing Jews here, these people are not likely to stand up and defend them. TD   To wit:

Rashida Tlaib's Meltdown Over 'Death of America' Chants Begs a Key Question (townhall.com)    "Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) did not like it when Fox News pressed her about the pro-terrorist rally that occurred in her district. People were shouting “Death to America” in Dearborn, which has become a hotbed for antisemitism, anti-Israel activism, and pro-Hamas
antics. As Rebecca 
wrote, the Michigan Democrat, one of the most vocal voices that supports the terrorists, refused to speak with Fox News: " . . . Watch the video here   
. . ."Yet, the key question from this confrontation was why Fox News was the only outlet asking her about this insane rally. RedState’s Bonchie posted this on social media. If a Republican had a Klan rally in his or her district, you bet CBS, NBC, ABC, and a host of other networks would be camped outside of their congressional office." 

NO doubt, this traitorous Muslim mouthpiece who justifies Islamic terrorism, celebrated and encouraged the “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” chanting in Dearbornistan, Michigan. Not only is she pro-Hamas and pro BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions against Israel), her abject hatred for Jews and Christians isn’t something she has ever tried to hide.

“In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the world, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, Master of the Day of Judgment. It is You we worship, and upon You we call for help. Guide us to the straight path, the path of those You have blessed, not those against whom there is anger, nor of those who are misguided.”

 One opinion: “I TOLD YOU OBAMA WAS THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE! We are a captured state. Your country has been invaded, captured and the terrorists are now in control. Prove me wrong.”

Trump's win of the week

Don Surber (substack.com)

"The most out-of-touch regime in American history is installed in Washington. Custer understood the Indians better than Obama’s puppet and his merry band of chest-feeding DEI hires understand the American people."


"Gabriel Sherman of Vanity Fair unleashed the oddest take yet on President Trump’s stunning electoral buoyancy. Sherman postulates that while Democrats have succeeded in keeping The Donald away from campaigning by tying him up in phony prosecutions and frivolous lawsuits, the strategy has backfired because it has given his campaign staff free rein to win the election for him.

"Sherman wrote, “Trump’s 2024 campaign has already demonstrated Trump can run an effective operation. ‘This campaign is locked down,’ a Republican close to Trump said. In previous cycles, Trump populated his campaigns with huge egos like Roger Stone, Kushner, Ivanka, Steve Bannon, Kellyanne Conway, Corey Lewandowski, and Brad Parscale, among others. In 2024, Trump’s inner circle is made up of heads-down operatives Susie Wiles, Chris LaCivita, Miller, and James Blair, who don’t play their agendas through the media. ‘You have experienced people who don’t leak,’ longtime Trump confidant Stone said. Trump trusts his senior team to do their jobs. In the past, Trump worked the phone constantly, soliciting advice from a wide circle of friends, family, Manhattan business associates, and media personalities. Trump’s style of pitting staffers against one another created an incentive to leak. ‘The side whose opinion lost would run to the media,’ a 2020 campaign veteran explained. ‘This time, he’s not talking to randos.’”

"It helps having a campaign manager who isn’t married to the man who most wants Trump to lose." . . .

"It was the mugshot that did Democrats in. Americans saw themselves in it because we know, if they can do it to him, they will do it to us."

Bill Maher: 'I Always Liked America, and Thought Death to It Was Bad' UPDATED Post at bottom; Hamas supporter threatens city officials.

"If the Democrat party keeps moving in the same direction and with the same speed that it has in the past several years -- and the country’s demographics keep changing apace -- by 2032 or 2036, Democrat candidates themselves may be chanting “Death to America” on the campaign trail."  Eric Utter

  Twitchy   "Bill Maher is more right than wrong these days. And if you'd have told us that would happen 20 years ago, we'd have laughed at you.

"Watch as Bill takes on the 'death to America' crowd, who chanted that lovely slogan at the Al-Quds Day rally in Dearborn, Michigan. The mayor of Dearborn has assured us the community stands for peace (we don't believe you), and Rashida Tlaib (who won't condemn the rape of Israeli women by Hamas) flipped out when asked about the chants.

"Watch Maher on this:

. . .

'Death To America' chants ring out … in America? - Eric Utter   . . ."A local imam named Usama Abdhulagani also spoke, telling the gathering that “Israel is ISIS, they are Nazis, they are fascists.” As if averring that Israelis are Nazis isn’t insane enough, they are also ISIS, too?

"The Daily Caller, which has been following the story, noted that it contacted Michigan Democrats to ask if they condemned the chant, with a number of them replying in the affirmative. However, despite repeated requests for a statement of condemnation, The Daily Caller said that others, including Rep. Debbie Dingell, Rep. Haley Stevens, Sen. Debbie Stabenow, Sen. Gary Peters, and Rep. Rashida Tlaib refused to share their stance on the matter, while Gov. Whitmer did not respond to a request for comment.

"If “Death to America” isn’t hate speech, what would be? Is it not verbal “violence?” It certainly could be seen as inciting violence. And multiple Democrat state representatives — and the governor — declined to condemn it?!" . . .

Language advisory: WATCH: Unhinged Pro-Hamas Woman Finds Out Threatening City Council Members Isn't a Good Idea – RedState    . . ."But even by their standards, the actions employed by a woman at a Bakersfield, California, city council meeting were particularly unhinged. Riddhi Patel (who some media said identified as "non-binary") started off slow, saying she was there to push for a ceasefire resolution. She also spoke about some other issues. But it began to go downhill when she told the council they were "horrible people." Ordinarily, most people would know it's not a great idea to threaten people right to their faces at a city council meeting--on video and in front of a microphone. But let's listen as Patel goes completely off the rails." . . . Video: she speaks Rashida Tlaib's lingo

And if what she said already wasn't bad enough, that's when she got even more direct. She said the council wanted to criminalize "resisting." She closed with, "You guys want to criminalize us with metal detectors? We'll see you at your house. We'll murder you." 

UPDATED: Gaza protester, 28, says she'll murder lawmakers at public meeting - then sobs like a baby after being arrested and jailed over vile threats | Daily Mail Online   . . .""A pro-Palestine protester told California lawmakers she'd murder them at a council meeting - then sobbed like a baby after being arrested and hauled before a court.

"Riddhi Patel, 28, was all tough-talk at the Bakersfield meeting Wednesday, as including Mayor Karen Goh discussed calls back a motion calling on Israel to declare a ceasefire. They later rejected the motion. 

"Standing at a microphone during public comments, Patel said: 'I hope one day somebody brings the guillotine and kills all of you mother******.

" 'You guys want to criminalize us with metal detectors, we’ll see you at your house, we’ll murder you.' 

"But the bloodthirsty activist's snarling bravado vanished in court two days later, when she was seen sobbing uncontrollably after being charged over her threats." . . .

WATCH: Unhinged Pro-Hamas Woman Finds Out Threatening City Council Members Isn't a Good Idea – RedState   . . ."So, the activists still didn't get the ceasefire resolution they keep agitating for. It's ridiculous because what would it even mean, when it would have no effect on anything? 

"Patel found out that, at least in this case, she wasn't just going to get off like so many leftist activists before her. 

Officers booked Patel on eight counts of intent to terrorize and eight counts of threatening state officials for a total of 16 felony charges. They remain in police custody on $2 million bond.

"Now that's the way you discourage threats, that's the proper way to deal with things. And I doubt anyone who watched that would follow in her footsteps with a similar action. It sounds like someone's finally going to face real consequences for her actions." 


20 Women Soccer Players Withdraw From League Over Transgender Players

“There’s a massive impact. I’m a very small club, we’ve only got seven teams ... and now I’ve lost both my women’s teams, and it was a direct result of members of the Flying Bats who were male playing in a female competition.” 

Zero Hedge   "Calling itself the “biggest LGBTQIA+ women’s and non-binary football club in the world,” the Flying Bats FC has made international headlines for fielding 5 self-identifying transgender players, with at least nine transgender players in the wider NorthWest Association.

"Critics have said the Bat’s domination of the four-week pre-season Beryl Ackroyd Cup, which followed an undefeated season in 2023 that produced scorelines disproportionate to other teams’ results, was a direct result of the inclusion of male-born transgender players.

"According to the feminist and pro-woman online news source, Reduxxpresident of St. Patrick’s Football Club Frank Parisi said a March discussion over the Flying Bats FC’s ease of victories had prompted an informal meeting with stakeholders of the Northwest Sydney Football Association to address “concerns around how implausible it has become for any team to win against the Flying Bats as well as physical safety concerns.”

"Incensed by the Flying Bats’ domination, other clubs asked the league’s governing body Football NSW to force them into playing in a mixed-sex league.

"One club official told the Daily Telegraph, “Our girls are here to play for fun and expect to play in the female competition. They did not sign up for a mixed competition. It was so disheartening for them to see the huge difference in ability—they’re killing it.”

"The involvement of transgender athletes in sports is a current hot-button issue, as policymakers grapple with how to balance the effects on women’s players, versus the “rights” of female-identifying players born as biological men.

"Advocates argue that transgender individuals should be able to participate in sports according to their gender identity, while opponents raise concerns about fairness and competitive advantage." . . .  (Emphases in the original,TD)

Friday, April 12, 2024

Democrats Will Champion Despicable Pedophilia Within Five Years, or Less

 DC Larson - American Thinker  

"Today, transgenderism is all the rage in progressive precincts. Democrat President Joe Biden named Richard Leland Levine Assistant Secretary of Health, in 2021. Richard had earlier taken to wearing women’s attire and rebranded himself “Rachel.”

"Rush Limbaugh warned Democrats would eventually promote pedophilia.

"Progressivism never stops. Its advocates never say, “This is far enough.” No sooner is one objective completed than left-wing agitators shout that a new social justice battle be waged.

"For centuries, God-ordained families headed by one biological man and one biological woman have been civilizations’ bedrocks.

"But just as progressives hunger to rewrite Western Civilization’s history (witness scholastic textbook revisionism and the razing of American Founders’ statuary), they crave cultural destruction.

"First, they urged same-sex marriages to be legally recognized. Never mind that some 2,000 years of world cultural norms, not to mention the morality as declared in Scripture, were arrayed against such abominations.

"In an April 3 Des Moines Register essay, former Polk County District Court Judge Robert B. Hanson (who had ruled in favor of same-sex Iowa marriages in 2007), tellingly characterized legalizing such deviant unions as being but a step on “the road to progress.”

"The obvious implication: “progress” is an as-yet-unreached destination, meaning additional ambitions are desired.

"Additional degenerates insisted they, too, deserved acceptance. Polygomous marriages and “throuples” were proclaimed legitimate by cultural disruptors. Members of the unnatural wedlock depicted by TLC program Sister Wives asserted they hoped to “combat social prejudices.”

"Again, popular sentiment opposing aberrance is the product of common sense, traditional cultural mores, and Biblical mandate." . . .

I Was a Girl Scout. Here’s Why My Daughters Won’t Be One.

 Heather Carson - Intellectual Takeout

That was then..."On my honor, I will try: To serve God and my country, To help people at all times, And to live by the Girl Scout Law."


This is now.....Jumping ahead to the meat of Ms. Carson's article:

. . ."The current Girl Scout promise is the same, but with small print that a substitute for the word “God” may be used in accordance with a person’s own spiritual beliefs. It’s a change that did not sit right with many Christian families, and in 1995, a new organization was started called American Heritage Girls, whose emphasis is unquestionably Christian. Since its humble beginning in a kitchen, American Heritage Girls has recently celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2020 and boasts more than 50,000 members in 15 countries and in all 50 states.

"As I think back to my own time as a Girl Scout, and stop to consider its decline, a few things stand out. Where Girl Scouts once emphasized traditional American values, they now invite diversity. Where Girl Scouts once focused on teaching skills that prepared a woman to nurture and build a home, they now focus more narrowly on STEM activities, at the expense of a well-rounded experience.

"The cultural emphasis on instant gratification, as well as the focus on a college degree and career as the main means of success, have encouraged young girls, and women, to abandon the development of the traditional feminine virtues that were once part of being a woman. With more women out of the home, there are fewer available to lead troops and spend the time necessary to develop girls into women with a foundation in more traditional values. This kind of commitment requires time and space for relationships and is best fostered by hours in nature, sitting around a campfire singing songs with best friends, while also serving one another and the community.

"I’m not sure Girl Scouts, as an organization, will be able to fully recover its numbers, but the decline in participation may prove to be the stimulus they need to recognize that what Girl Scouts is now offering isn’t what the majority of girls in this country actually want." . . .

Muslim Convert Planned Ramadan Attack on 21 Idaho Churches

 Daniel Greenfield | Frontpage Mag


"Coeur d’Alene, an Idaho city with a population of over 50,000, had too many churches. Alexander Scott Mercurio, a new teen convert to Islam, had a plan to “fix that real soon.”

"Ramadan was almost over and Mercurio was unhappy because he believed that he was a bad Muslim who hadn’t even assaulted, let alone killed any Christians, and would go to hell.

“I am a hypocrite who has not even spat in the face of a kafir (non-Muslim),” he complained in online chats. “Let alone spilled their blood and induced terror into their hearts and minds.”

Mercurio wasn’t sure if he could be considered a good Muslim without killing Christians.

“I really don’t want to miss out on the opportunity for jihad in Ramadan,” he worried.

"While the bloody Islamic holiday of Ramadan is often used as a pretext to warn America, Israel and other countries to stop fighting Islamic terrorists lest it offend Muslims, it’s actually a time of redoubled terrorism. And Mercurio wanted to get in on that murderous spiritual opportunity.

“I’ve been thinking about Jihad. Well, I always am, but I mean it’s Ramadan,” Mercurio agonized. “I have motivation for nothing but fighting, like some kind of insatiable bloodlust for the life juice of these idolaters, a craving for mayhem and murder to terrorize those around me… primarily against churches.” . . .

Idaho Governor: No, We Aren't Playing the Pronoun Game Here

 Karen Townsend – HotAir

"It's about time public officials stood up and said enough is enough. It looks like we're going to have to get politicians involved to stop the madness." 

"Idaho Governor Brad Little signed House Bill 538 on Monday. This means that Idaho school districts will soon have to remove any requirements that teachers use the preferred pronouns of transgender students.

"The legislation enacts protections for public employees, including teachers, who are unwilling to use someone's preferred name and pronouns. Idaho Statehouse Republicans overwhelmingly supported it. 

"Teachers will no longer be allowed to refer to a student by a name or pronoun that doesn't match their birth sex unless the teacher has parental consent. Teachers have the right to sue their school district if they are disciplined for refusing to use a transgender student's preferred name or pronoun. 

"The governor's spokeswoman said that he “supports policies that advance free speech and parental rights.” She said the bill does both

“While Gov. Little expects state employees to treat each other and members of the community with dignity and respect, he does not support government compelling speech at risk of penalty or excluding parents from significant decisions impacting a child’s health and wellbeing.”  

"The law takes effect on July 1. This affects non-binary people, not just transgender students and public employees." . . . 

I Was Right About the Hostages Being Dead

 TRAGIC: I Was Right About the Hostages Being Dead – PJ Media  

"There's absolutely nothing left for Israel to do but quickly finish the nasty business of clearing Hamas out of Gaza. And as I wrote two weeks ago, when the order does come down, you couldn't blame Israeli soldiers for adopting a take-no-prisoners attitude now that Hamas has murdered all of theirs."

 "Conservative criminal defense attorney and columnist Marina Medvin called it a "devastating Hostage negotiations update" because that's exactly what it is. In the ongoing negotiations between Israel and the Hamas terror organization, Hamas officials now say that "they wouldn’t commit to releasing 40 living hostages but could commit to 40 hostages total, dead or alive."

"Instead, the militant group has been unable to confirm that it has enough civilian hostages to fulfill its end of the deal in the initial phase of the proposed plan," according to the Wall Street Journal.

The admission by the militant group, which took more than 240 hostages during its lethal Oct. 7 attack on Israel, has heightened fears among families of the hostages, who are piling pressure on the Israeli government to cut a deal with Hamas that would pause the fighting and free at least some of the remaining captives.

"Medvin added, "Israeli military did not comment on estimates of how many hostages may remain alive."

"Sometimes, there's nothing worse than being right, and this is one of those times.

"Two weeks ago, I came to the sad conclusion that Hamas probably has "few or no living hostages left to trade. Through abuse, neglect, or just Hamas terrorists getting its thrills, the hostages might all be dead."

"The hostages include — or, I should say, included — six Americans that, to the best of my knowledge, Presidentish Joe Biden has never raised as an issue with Hamas. I also can't find any record of Biden mentioning any of those six Americans by name. That might be an unprecedented (but certainly intentional) lapse by an American president. It also gives lie to Biden's claim that his support for Israel is "ironclad" since he won't provide as little as lip service to Hamas' American hostages." . . .

Say, Did You Hear About Hamas' Plan to Enslave the Jews? – HotAir   . . ."In other words, some Israelis would experience the deeply 'humanist" experience of Hamas' Islamism as slaves. Since their property would have already been seized, where would they have gone to live? Prisons or camps, and likely a combination of the two, where they would have been worked to death -- and those would only include the Israelis that managed to survive more of the Hamas blood-lust pogroms that would have followed a conquest of Israel. 

"Can everyone now understand why the Israelis see October 7 as an existential moment?" . . . Who was it said, 'Work Brings Freedom'?

Pictured: Grandparents of 2022 Hamas victims 

Can America Survive if the Guilty Are Left Unpunished? Nah.

 Related: Tunnel Wall post about OJ Simpson. 

Then there are Congressional Democrats at their most contemptible. TD 

Kevin Downey Jr. – PJ Media  "No, the nation will not survive if there isn't a reckoning for politicians overtly working against Americans.

" 'History is full of stories of oppressed people rising and overcoming the tyrants who have wronged them. Sometimes the stories end with the two sides peacefully agreeing to make changes. Other times it has ended in a one-way walk up the stairs to a guillotine. 

"Romania's despotic communist leader, Nicolae Ceausescu, had his brains relocated to a brick wall after Romanians had enough of his tyranny.

"Italy's Fascist WWII leader, Benito Mussolini, was last seen hanging upside down in Milan next to his squeeze, both of whom had been recently perforated with a machine gun.

"Notable Nazis found "Spandau Ballet" as the last entry on their dance cards.

"When I say a reckoning is necessary, I am not condoning violence. But history has shown us that if humans don't pay a price for their crimes, violence will likely become that last resort. I hope it never comes to that.

"We as a nation are well beyond asking questions like, "Why are MAGA grannies getting busted for a peaceful 10-minute walk in the Capitol, but Antifa and BLM were allowed to burn the nation with near impunity?"

"Then there was that whole censoring-Americans-on-social-media thing, when the CIA, FBI, and other governmental agencies convinced social media companies to shut down people who dared challenge the notion that COVID vaccines and masks made a difference.

"We sat still as eight Trump associates were sentenced to prison (not to mention the DOJ's maniacal efforts to send Trump as well). Yet, the Biden Crime Family still hasn't been charged despite the overwhelming evidence of bribery and influence peddling against them. " . . .