“Doonesbury” vs. Hamas -

  The Lid (lidblog.com)

Portion of comic strip shown here:

. . . "In the latest Sunday installment of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Doonesbury strip, a fictional anti-terrorist fighter—known as “the Red Rascal”—bursts into the bedroom of an actual Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, who is living in Qatar.

"The cartoon shows Haniyeh enjoying luxurious accommodations and identifies him as “one of three Hamas leaders worth billions, who enriched themselves with donor money intended for impoverished Gazans!”

"One of America’s most beloved newspaper comic strips has dared to poke fun at Hamas. Get ready for controversy!

"In the accommodations, he identifies him as “one of three Hamas leaders worth billions who enriched themselves with donor money intended for impoverished Gazans!”

"Garry Trudeau, the writer and artist of Doonesbury, has dared to acknowledge a fact about the Hamas leadership that most of the mainstream news media prefer to ignore." . . .

Joe Biden’s Middle East Mess

 Joe Biden’s Middle East Failure - POLITICO   The Biden administration thought it could ignore the bad in the Middle East. Now his Middle East doctrine is collapsing.

"Sure enough, over the past few weeks, the Gulf states have not closed ranks with an Israel fighting a growing list of Iranian proxies. They are nervous that the Gaza war could spiral into broader regional conflict."

"Speak to any Israeli official these days, and there is a good chance they will mention the conceptzia. The term traces back to the commission of inquiry after the surprise Yom Kippur war of 1973, a way to describe not just operational failures of intelligence but conceptual ones. Now as then, Israel’s vaunted security services had built policy on a flawed assumption: this time, that Hamas was focused on preserving its grip on Gaza and had lost interest in large-scale confrontation with Israel. The concept made sense — until Hamas proved it grimly wrong by killing more than 1,400 Israelis on Oct. 7.

"By now everyone in Washington has had a chuckle at Jake Sullivan, the president’s national security adviser, who said in a speech on Sept. 29 that “the Middle East region is quieter today than it has been in two decades.” His words aged poorly, to say the least. But they should have raised eyebrows even if Hamas had not carried out its violent attack." . . .

. . ."Everything else was shunted aside. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict was ignored. Key diplomatic posts went unfilled: The administration did not bother to appoint an ambassador to Egypt until this March. Last year I asked an American diplomat to describe his country’s Syria policy. He shrugged and laughed. His job, he said, was to keep the Middle East off Biden’s desk, echoing words I have heard repeatedly from American officials since 2021." . . .

Biden Insisted on Vacation in Face of Threat From Iran, Now He's Rushing Back. Something Is Up. – RedState   . . ."He's spent almost 40 percent of his vacation, with nine trips to Delaware already in 2024.  But in the face of everything that was coming down, this was an incredibly selfish and bad move." 

"I'd like to think he was shamed into it by the reaction." 

"But that doesn't sound good. Anything that makes him come rushing back, when he's so insistent on vacation, is likely to be something major going on. Either it's intel/movement by Iran or Israel tipped them off they're about to make a big move, and things are going to get very hot." 

Laura Loomer asks:  How many drones do you think Iran bought with the $16 billion @JoeBiden just sent them? "Biden’s foreign policy has failed. Iran never would have attacked Israel under a Trump Presidency. They would have been too scared to FAFO.

 ‘You got a win. Take the win’: Joe Biden tells Netanyahu; The Telegraph 

However, Israel has said the “campaign is not over yet”.

 "American forces intercepted 70 drones and at least three ballistic missiles, according to CNN, while Mr Biden also said that US support for Israel was “ironclad”.

“ 'You got a win. Take the win,” Mr Biden reportedly told Mr Netanyahu, adding that the US will not participate in any offensive operations. Mr Netanyahu reportedly said that he understands the US’s position." . . .

Iran ‘thumbed their nose’ at the Biden administration

 Aryeh Lightstone - Mr-Mehra   "Rabbi Aryeh Lightstone, a former advisor to U.S. Israeli Ambassador David Friedman, joined ‘Fox & Friends Weekend’ to weigh in on Iran’s latest drone attack against Israel.

"Lightstone said the attack was an insult to the Biden administration from Iran. It saw Iran launch some 300 drones and missiles toward Israel from its own territory, though Israel says it and its allies intercepted roughly 99% of them.

" 'Iran looks at the Biden administration and sees complete and total weakness," Lightstone said on Sunday. "Just look at how Iran thumbed their nose at President Biden. They proceeded with this--whether it was performative or whether it was deliberate--over 300 attack objects headed from Iran into Israel in the middle of the night."

" 'That action happening was testing whether Biden's 'don't' was to Iran or whether it was to Israel, and they've put a bet that when Biden says 'don't,' he's talking to Israel. Just like all of the 'don'ts' in the last six weeks that have been about Israel and not about Hamas," he added.

"Israel has so far responded to the attack only by striking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to formally respond to the attack." . . .

First Responder Near Gaza: “What I Saw There Will Stay With Me Forever

 First Responder Near Gaza: "What I Saw There Will Stay With Me Forever (israelrising.com)

"I had the opportunity to speak with Rabbi Yehuda Levi. Rabbi Levi usually spends his time teaching and guiding groups on the Temple Mount and in Jerusalem. He also volunteers for Hatzalah – an international Jewish run emergency response organization."

In the above video – he describes what he saw in the Gaza communities he went down to help.

What happened to "Don't"? Iran attacks Israel

 BREAKING: It's On. Iranian Drones Detected Heading Toward Israel; Israel and Jordan Close Air Space – RedState   . . ."Both Israel and Jordan have closed air space.

Biden had staggered back from his perpetual vacation and is allegedly convening an emergency meeting of his national defense and foreign policy advisers."

Next: Biden Insisted on Vacation in Face of Threat From Iran, Now He's Rushing Back. Something Is Up

• Central Command Moving Warships to Protect Israeli, U.S. Forces From Iranian Attacks
• Iran Pirates Israeli-Owned Container Ship in International Waters
• With the U.S. on the Brink of War With Iran, the Biden Administration Tries One Last, Desperate Ploy
• Middle East Tensions Are About to Get Hotter (and It's All on Joe Biden)
• REPORT: Iran Attack on Israel Expected Within Next 48 Hours
• Iran Warns US That If It Helps Israel Defend From Iran's Retaliation Itself Then the US Is Next

"RedState will continue its coverage of this breaking news as the story unfolds."

WATCH BREAKING: Iran Launches Counter-Attack Against Israel | WLT Report   

NEW: Initial reports estimate Iran launched between 50 and 100 military drones against Israel.

These are believed to be HESA Shehed 136 "suicide drones."

The drones are fired in multiples from a launch rack to attack ground targets and overwhelm air defenses. pic.twitter.com/8CY2EeG9q9

— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) April 13, 2024

Flashback: Joe Biden warned America before the 2020 election that Trump "is going to get us to war in Iran."

President Biden is now on the verge of getting America involved in a regional war in the Middle East after Iran's military drone attack on Israel.pic.twitter.com/s1JIhzbsX4

— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) April 13, 2024

BBC News presented this statement from Israeli Chief of General Staff Herzi Halevi:

“The IDF [Israel Defence Forces] can handle Iran. We can act forcefully against Iran in places near and far.”

"Don't Dodge The Truth", Douglas Murray EVISCERATES Muslim Politician on Immigration!

 Modern Wisdom (youtube.com)

Comment to this video. Errors in spelling left uncorrected: "When they went to arrest the last of terrorists of the Bataclan nightclub massacre the police had to fight there way in . They had to deploy over 2000 police and fight the entire Muslim neighbourhood to get to the terrorists. If I did that to protect a murderer I would be charged as complicit in murder and face a life sentence. Why is it not the same. Because they are Muslim and we have a double standard when it comes to accepted behaviour."

"A phobia is an irrational fear. Islamaphobia is a perfectly normal reaction to what is happening."

O.J. is back in the news

 WATCH: CNN Reporter Has Major Freudian Slip Discussing Death of OJ Simpson – RedState  . . .Summarizing his life, CNN reporter Stephanie Elam appeared on the brink of suggesting that many people just wanted to see a black man get away with murder: 

It’s also just worth noting how much was impacted by this trial, Jake. So many things happened. We saw policing changing here in the city, and it’s also worth noting because of that unrest, that racial unrest in the 90s, that is why so many people, who may not have been invested in O.J. Simpson, were just happy to see that someone who is rich and famous, and black, could get away with... er... with what other people did in the system, as well, too.

 O.J. Simpson, RIP - The American Spectator    "He helped make the 1990s the trashiest decade."  "O.J. Simpson acted as a transracial figure prior to June of 1994. Post–June 1994, he acted as a racially polarizing figure who did more to stoke resentments against African Americans than any other person.

"Some African Americans, angered over the not guilty verdicts for the white policeman who clubbed Rodney King in the same city a few years earlier, regarded it as cosmic justice that Simpson got away with murdering two white people. Many whites wondered why some of their black countrymen hated them so much as to allow an obviously guilty murderer to walk, and others viscerally cheered such an unjust verdict. Some whites started to fantasize about something like this happening to the Juice.

"The case pulled a mask off to reveal another inconvenient truth. We loved Bill Cosby and Jared from Subway once, too. Simpson possibly struck us as the first cautionary tale that the pixelated image sold to America differed profoundly from reality.

"One cannot say O.J. Simpson started cable news’s 24-hour feeding frenzy. Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan, that girl who fell into the well in Texas, and Joey Buttafuoco dragged us there first. But in doing that to the culture, after doing that to Ron and Nicole and before bequeathing us Keeping Up with the Kardashians, O.J. left a tabloid-and-trash-tv legacy that more than undid the stellar legacy he built on the gridiron and silver-screen prior to June of 1994. He helped make the 1990s the trashiest decade.

"Rest in peace."  And thanks for leaving us the Kardashians.

A favorite OJ scene from "Naked Gun Nordberg Goes Down". "Nordberg"? Scandinavian?

After Demanding Mob Confront Trump Officials in Restaurants - Mad Maxine Waters Whines After She's Confronted in Restaurant, Plays Race Card (VIDEO)

 The Gateway Pundit | by Cristina Laila   "Remember when Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters (CA) riled up a leftist mob and told them to harass members of Trump’s Cabinet in restaurants?

"Maxine Waters encouraged violence against Trump supporters and members of Trump’s Cabinet.

“ 'If you see anybody from [Trump’s] Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them, and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere!” Maxine Waters shouted to a rabid Los Angeles mob in June 2018." . .  .

The same Maxine Waters that went on Joy Reid's show to offer a venomous screed about how Republicans exist to threaten her life said this, calling for harassment and violence against Trump officials in June 2018.

It's safe to say Joy Reid also supported that. pic.twitter.com/QITIOy8bz5

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) February 3, 2021

Recall the Rodney King riots when several Maxine Waters constituents beat truck driver Reginald Denny nearly to death. When they were released from jail, Waters was pictured hugging them. TD

Maxine Waters Embraced the Thug Who Slammed Concrete on Reginald Denny's Head (independentsentinel.com)

Waters did not learn a thing from the experience. She went on to describe the LA Race Riots as, quote, “a rebellion, and in ways understandable.” Including, apparently, the part about smashing people’s brains in for being the wrong color. Yep, that’s the Democratic Party’s new expert on race relations.

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 21^st 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 Night, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Meet 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 Soldiers, Redacted (about the rape and murder of a 15-year-old Iraqi girl by U.S. soldiers), Stop-Loss, The Mark of Cain, Home of the Brave, Green Zone, In 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." 

MUSLIM CONGRESSwitch, Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), refuses to condemn her fellow Michigan Muslims’ chanting of “Death to America”    

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.

New York City Council Opens Meeting by Praising Allah as the Supreme Lord of the World (VIDEO) | The Gateway Pundit | by Jim Hᴏft

“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."