Kamala Harris Would Be Disastrous for the Middle East

National Interest  

Foreign Policy cites what it calls Harris’ “mantra” of favoring “what can be, unburdened by what has been.” In practice, this “mantra” and her public statements show a pronounced indulgence toward Iran and a hostility to Israeli efforts to ensure its own survival.

"With Donald Trump and Kamala Harris functionally tied in the polls, it is high time to ask: What would a Harris foreign policy look like?

First, let’s dismiss the idea that Harris has little foreign policy experience and, therefore, will likely rely heavily on veterans of the Biden, Obama, and Clinton administrations. This view is comforting to the alumni of previous Democratic administrations and suggests continuity. It is also convenient for partisans and pundits on both sides of the Blue-Red divide, allowing them to defend or attack Harris based on the Biden record.

"But this is a false premise. Harris actually has far more executive-branch foreign-policy experience than Trump did in 2016 and more than Republican challengers in 2012 and 2008. Harris has visited twenty-one countries on seventeen foreign trips as a representative of the president and met with more than 150 leaders of allied or independent nations, including the leaders of China and Russia. Significantly, she led the U.S. delegation at three Munich Security Conferences, where NATO leaders gathered to debate and discuss global threats. These meetings include prime ministers, defense ministers, foreign ministers, generals, admirals, and diplomats.

"And Harris sharpened her foreign policy views inside the White House by attending “almost every National Security Council meeting and, more important still, almost every President’s Daily Brief,” according to Fred Kaplan in Slate. The Daily Briefs draw on the most complete information that U.S. intelligence can offer, and the meaning of various developments is dissected by subject-matter experts and the president’s senior staff. It’s far more than a daily graduate-level seminar; it is a real-time laboratory of how information is assimilated and how executive decisions are made.

"Finally, she has had years of regularly scheduled one-on-one meetings with Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. In these settings, views were crafted, tested, sharpened, discarded, or re-forged.

"So, the idea Harris has no foreign-policy views of her own is laughable. No one with that level of experience and access is a blank slate to be scribbled on by aides.

"Some point to the “high turnover” among her vice-presidential staff to suggest that her views are erratic or ephemeral. This “evidence” also does not deliver the conclusion it suggests." . . .

The Significance of the ‘Make Women Female Again’ Hat

 Ultimately, the hat is one small part of a much larger message and movement. “The point is: Say it loud; say it proud,” Megyn said. “You might think that you’re in the minority, but you’re not – especially on this issue.” Megyn said the reality is simple: “Women are still women… we’re the only ones who are female.” And that understanding “crosses party lines,” she added.

. . ."It didn’t take long for the hat, which is from Kellie-Jay Keen’s (a.k.a. Posie Parker) Adult Human Female collection, to spark a firestorm in the comments section and across the internet. On Monday’s show, Megyn shared why chose to wear the hat and what the fight for women’s rights means to her." . . .

Why She Wore and Posted About the Hat   "Megyn said the main reason she wore the hat is because she is “fed up” with trans activism infiltrating women’s spaces and rights. “I’m sick of all the bullsh–t,” she declared. “I’m sick of denying women’s rights in the name of sparing people’s feelings.” This extends to “women’s bathrooms, and women’s lockers, and women’s swimming lanes, and sports, and places that are supposed to belong to women,” she continued. The reason: “Trans women are not women,” she said. “They’re men.”

"While Megyn expressed empathy for the “difficult situation that the people who genuinely suffer from gender dysphoria are going through,” that does not include “glommers like Dylan Mulvaney” who she believes is looking for attention in that category. “No, zero empathy for somebody like that,” she explained. “I care about women, I care about girls, I care about their feelings – that’s who I’m fighting for.”

"As such, “I’m going to wear the hat,” Megyn reiterated." . . .

The Taliban extends their thanks to Biden and Kamala for arming their military

Taliban shows off US military vehicles 3 years after Afghanistan withdrawal

   

"National security analyst Hal Kempfer joins LiveNOW's Austin Westfall to react to video showing members of the Taliban celebrating the third anniversary of the American withdrawal from Afghanistan by parading through a former U.S. air base with abandoned American weapons and vehicles. Bagram Airfield was once the center of America's war to unseat the Taliban and hunt down the al-Qaeda militants responsible for 9/11. Uniformed soldiers marched with light and heavy machine guns, and a motorcycle formation carried the Taliban flag. President Biden’s decision to pull troops from Afghanistan faced widespread global backlash after Taliban insurgents retook the country in a matter of days in 2021."

Silence from the White House after Taliban parade abandoned American weapons "US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have yet to acknowledge the footage released by the Taliban this week celebrating three years since America’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.

"The Taliban celebrated with some of the $7 billion in US military equipment left behind in Afghanistan in a military parade to mock America and what they left behind. "The regime paraded US and Soviet-era military weaponry, vehicles and equipment through a former US airbase, Bagram."

Iran's Mullahs and Their Deadly Serious Plan: The Total Annihilation of Israel and the US

Majid Rafizadeh; Gatestone Institute   

The Iranian regime and its proxies appear to believe they have the perfect opportunity to eradicate Israel. They perceive a weak administration in the United States under President Joe Biden and VP Kamala Harris: the US has released billions of dollars that mainly assist Iran in arming its proxies. 

"The war initiated against Israel on October 7 by the Iranian regime, along with its proxies and terrorist groups — Hamas, the Houthis, Hezbollah, and Iraqi Shia militias — is far more than a minor skirmish or an isolated act of aggression.

"The conflict appears to be a meticulously orchestrated campaign aimed at the total annihilation, at this point, of the Jewish state.

"The Biden-Harris administration does not yet seem aware of the real gravity of the situation. Although it has recently provided much extremely welcome support to Israel, it has not shown until last week the unwavering support that would have acted as a real deterrent. That is what would have caused the Iranian regime to have second thoughts, stopped them dead in their tracks.

"This conflict is a battle for survival not only for Israel but for the region, and ultimately for Europe and the United States.

"Israel understands the stakes: Iran's belligerency requires an unequivocally committed response from the United States. In that part of the world, wishy-washy means a green light, open season. The consequences are assumed to vary from minimal to non-existent – and often even a profit!

"Apart from extremely generous supply ships and materiel, rhetorically there has been just another unelectrifying "Don't." Where is the message that if Iran or any of its sidekicks goes anywhere near Israel -- or anyone else -- what a shame it would be if a country as magnificent as the Islamic Republic of Iran, along with its distinguished regime, were actually to be returned to the seventh century?

"Iran has no interest in becoming a sand dune. That is why it has proxies, so that they will do the attacking and take the incoming retaliation, ensuring that their devoted patron, Iran, will not have to. Iran's proxies are its human shields." . . .

Meanwhile Iranian speakers here in the U.S. hold classes to teach Americans to shout,  "Death to America! Death to Israel!"

Kamala says, "Gauge this"!

Power Line  

“Every socialist experiment in human history has started with caps on food and it has resulted in bread lines like you can see in the image behind me…This is a mistake. It is anti-American.”

Toon added by TD

"John Hinderaker has performed a public service in expounding on the stupidity of price controls. It is egregious in the context of “grocery chains” (as Harris refers to them in her speech), where profit margins run between 1 and 2 percent. As I say, there oughta be a law, and I don’t mean price controls.

"I particularly appreciate the concision of former Obama administration economist Jason Furman’s comments to the New York Times. “Egg prices went up last year — it’s because there weren’t as many eggs, and it caused more egg production,” Furman told the Times. More generally, he observed, “This is not sensible policy, and I think the biggest hope is that it ends up being a lot of rhetoric and no reality. There’s no upside here, and there is some downside.”. . .

. . .Yesterday Harris unveiled her plan to mitigate the pain she has caused in a speech at a campaign rally in Raleigh (White House transcript here.) However, you have to wonder if Harris knew what she was talking about as she read her script. She called it “price gauging” — and she’s agin it: “So, believe me, as president, I will go after the bad actors. (Applause.) And I will work to pass the first-ever federal ban on prou- — price gauging [gouging] on food.” That’s what she said (video below)."

 "David Friedberg SHREDS the Kamala Harris Grocery ‘Price Gouging’ Plan  Video

“Every socialist experiment in human history has started with caps on food and it has resulted in bread lines like you can see in the image behind me…This is a mistake. It is anti-American.”@friedberg… pic.twitter.com/IurKyCT1cT

— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) August 17, 2024

"Here is a slightly more expansive statement of the case by David Friedberg flagged by Elon Musk. Friedberg is founder and CEO of The Production Board and co-host of the All-In podcast.   

Video

 

Kamala’s economic plan: gouge corporate profits

 Noel S. Williams  

Kamala is an equivocating imposter who tries to shield her socialist bona fides in pandering fashion. 

 "Kamala has unveiled her economic plan. Put the veil back on it, please. Under the concocted fabrication of price gouging, she is seeking excuses to justify gouging corporate profits.

"She has been appropriately labelled as a chameleon, but as she pretends to distance herself from Bidenomics, perhaps “hermaphrodite” also applies (in the sense of something in which two opposite qualities are confusingly combined).

"That’s because she plans to propose a federal ban on food and grocery price gouging, something Biden was always harping on about. In reality (a realm the chameleon-cum-hermaphrodite doesn’t occupy), it is great American companies operating on a flexible and streamlined business model that she intends to gouge.

"Let’s just cut straight to the bottom line -- i.e., net profit margins.

"In her socialist mindlessness, it is not foolhardy tax-and-spend policies by drunken Dems (let’s not keep offending our great “drunken” sailors), but corporate greed that is exacerbating inflation. What follows is a representative list of companies in the food and grocery business that Kamala mistakenly (or worse, deceptively) believes are extorting excessive profits.". . .

Kamala Harris gets dragged, from even the left, on her communist price-control scheme  "Now she wants price controls to control it.

"Funny how no one but her had ever thought of it -- or that she thought it was the way to fix the economy.

"Except of course, that it isn't." . . The Nightmare Of Grocery Shopping In Venezuela

Elon Musk on Twitter:

What happens when price controls are mandatedhttps://t.co/we0uQnBr9R.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 16, 2024

In Venezuela, government supermarkets sell price-controlled food, making them far cheaper than private stores. But Valero explains that people are allowed in state-run supermarkets just two days per week, based on their ID card numbers. The system is designed to prevent shoppers from buying more than they need and then reselling goods on the black market at a huge markup.

Why they are streaming across our border.

Reasons we must fear Kamala Harris

Kamala Harris Tyrannical 2019 Video Resurfaces: 'I Will Snatch Their Patent So That We Will Take Over'  . . ."[Patent] law is notoriously complex, and there are certainly some drug companies that take advantage of them. I have no love for the Pfizers of the world who raked in billions with their flawed COVID vaccines. But her view of the government’s role is chilling, and she seems drunk on power (that she didn’t even have at the time)." . . .

So let's take a look at the profit margins of one grocery chain that Kamala claims is 'price gauging'   . . ."Grocery stores are not gouging. Democrats are trying to divert blame for high prices from themselves. 

 It is a true shame that the media doesn't show a graph of what grocery store margins are instead of campaigning for these people whose goal is to make the government more powerful and to make more people dependent on the government for their survival. 

 

Kamala says her policies are about creating opportunities. The only opportunity is to create more government bureaucrats. 

They are intent on remaking (destroying) the greatest country that ever existed.

Why Price Controls Don’t Work | Insights    . . ."Why are price controls such a bad idea? They distort price signals, which are core to markets’ functioning effectively and, not unrelatedly, economic growth. Prices balance supply and demand, coordinating production and consumption. They are signals, full stop. On the demand side, when they are high and rising, they encourage more people to cut back, substitute and economize. At the same time, high and rising prices imply greater potential profit, signaling producers to boost supply—which eventually helps keep prices in check.

"But if prices can’t fluctuate freely, they don’t tell producers when they need to crank up output. Nor do they incentivize people to adjust consumption in order to help limited supply stretch further in the short term. As a result, you don’t get the changes in behavior that help stabilize prices. Heck, price controls can even cause severe shortages if prices are set near or below producers’ costs, which discourages production by destroying the profit motive—ultimately driving prices far higher still.

"Price controls aren’t hard permanent ceilings. Sometimes the caps reset periodically, causing prices to jump in blocky stair-steps, much as the UK is enduring with household energy prices under its retail price cap right now. Or, they lift, and shortages quickly drive prices much higher—potentially higher than they would otherwise have been." . . . 

This won't be good: Economically Dumb, Politically Smart - The Atlantic  ..." According to the Econ 101 model of prices and supply, when a product is in shortage, its price goes up to bring quantity demanded in line with quantity supplied. This price increase sends a signal to producers to make more stuff. If you cap prices, you get shortages. That’s because there isn’t enough of the demanded good to go around, and producers don’t have sufficient incentive to start making more of the good to meet demand in the future." . . . The rest of this article is behind a paywall, but what matters is that you know the above, TD

 I do not know if this video will make you fear Kamala Harris or - wisely - the American voter. Listen carefully for their thoughts on how Kamala might handle the economic situation; surely they have some idea of her administrative qualifications. TD

Kamala Harris Is Fast-Tracking Citizenship Applications in an Attempt to 'Reshape the Electorate'

RedState   

Harris’ mindset was exposed on her 2019 campaign website which linked to a study touting the “electoral implications” of not deporting some illegal immigrants. Those individuals, the campaign wrote, “could provide sizable contributions to the margin of victory in swing states." 

"The Biden-Harris administration is granting citizenship to immigrants at speeds not seen in over a decade while a wholly disinterested mainstream media is doing little more than bragging about it.

"There was a time in this country when journalists would find stealing an election a topic of interest. A threat to democracy, even.

"Instead, the New York Times recently published a glowing report indicating that over the first nine months of the fiscal year, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USIS) is averaging under five months to process naturalization applications.

"That process took almost exactly a year on average in 2021. What could possibly be happening in 2024 that would cause the administration to view the process of turning an immigrant into a citizen with the right to vote with such urgency?

"While the answer to that seems glaringly obvious, Xiao Wang, chief executive of Boundless, a company that offers services to immigrants seeking help with the naturalization process, makes it even more clear.

" 'The surge in naturalization efficiency isn’t just about clearing backlogs; it’s potentially reshaping the electorate, merely months before a pivotal election," Wang admits. "Every citizenship application could be a vote that decides Senate seats or even the presidency."

"That’s not subtle. At all. "Reshaping the electorate" has always been the goal of this administration. It was the only way Biden was going to win in 2024. Now, it might be the only way to drag Harris across the finish line come November." . . .

Retired Minnesota Cop Makes Shocking Charge Against Tim Walz

Robert Spencer; PJ Media 

Oh, surely not! Why, surely an American public servant wouldn’t willingly aid and abet the destruction of a major city, would he? Of course, he would. These are, after all, radical leftists we’re talking about. Nagel opines, "I think it was all part of a much greater scheme because he truly doesn't like the police.

https://rofcbybroc.com/

"When Kamala Harris picked Tim Walz as her running mate, Reuters informed us that he was a “plain speaker from the American heartland to help win over rural, white voters.” That’s what the Harris-Walz campaign wants us to think, but it has quickly become a virtually impossible narrative to sustain. Now, a retired Minnesota police lieutenant has shot another hole in the left’s already tattered Walz “America’s dad” narrative, and shown yet again how far left the Leftist Next Door really is.

"Fox News reported Thursday that retired Minnesota State Patrol Lt. John Nagel knows the real Tim Walz behind the propaganda smoke and mirrors: "He is not a moderate, he has never been a moderate and here in Minnesota he has been anti-police, he has raised taxes, he is nowhere near being a moderate." 

"Even worse, "he’s anti-police, defund the police, when you have police families, and we have an officer killed in the line of duty, when that family looks at the governor and says we don't want you at the funeral. That should tell you a great deal of how law enforcement in general feels about Walz." 

"Indeed. It also tells us why the left loves him so much and why patriots should regard him as potentially even more dangerous than Harris herself." . . . 

Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He is author of 28 books, including many bestsellers such as The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades), The Truth About Muhammad, The History of Jihad, and The Critical Qur’an. His latest book is Muhammad: A Critical Biography. . . .

This Florida Sheriff is an effective TV personality

Marion Sheriff: ‘Worthless human being’ wanted on child molestation, sexual battery charges - Ocala-News.com

"In a video posted on social media this week, Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods asked for the public’s help to locate a “worthless human being” who is wanted on multiple charges including sexual battery, molestation of a child, and human trafficking.

"On Wednesday, July 10, during his regular “Wanted by Woods” Facebook segment, Sheriff Woods stated that Jahwreinsley Marley is wanted for three counts of sexual battery, lewd and lascivious molestation, human trafficking for commercial sex activity, solicitation, and battery.

"The sheriff further stated that Marley is a “vile” man who “has taken away the innocence of more than one child,” and his alleged actions have “permanently changed the lives of his victims.”

"No further details were provided by Sheriff Woods regarding the alleged crimes that were committed by Marley.

"According to the sheriff, Marley is currently in hiding, and law enforcement believes that he has people who are helping to keep him hidden.

“ 'If you are hiding him, I will have a spot for you in my jail as well,” stated Sheriff Woods. “So, I suggest you turn him in instead.” . . .

 Having said that, let's watch a non-Gavin Newsom - governed sheriff give a press conference:

The Weird, Creepy, Surreal—and Dangerous—2024 Campaign

 Victor Davis Hanson  "The already-long 2024 presidential campaign has become the strangest in modern history.

"Here are 10 unanswered questions that illustrate how and why we’ve entered this bizarro world:

1. How can Kamala Harris merely promise us fixes to come in 2025 for inflation and an open border when she is still vice president for another six months? Why can’t she enact her proposed solutions to these problems (which she helped create) right now?

2. Would the media prefer to help her win but lose further credibility themselves by failing to ask why she has disowned her last three decades of leftist agendas, or to reclaim some of their reputations and thereby risk her losing?

3. Does the Left appreciate the new campaign and election protocols it has now established?

That is to say: "Cancel by fiat their virtual nominee four months before the election when he sinks in the polls?

"Nullify the outcome of a year of primaries and the will of 14 million voters?

"Threaten a sitting president with removal by the 25th Amendment process unless he steps aside as his party nominee?

"Anoint a replacement nominee before the convention and without a single primary—and then prevent any rival candidates from challenging her?

4. After the precedents of 2020 and 2024, is the future orthodox protocol for any Democratic nominee now to avoid all interviews and extempore speaking, and stick to teleprompted speeches and scripted responses only?

Is the fear that a transparent progressive messenger with an overt and honest left-wing message will double down on it and thus guarantee defeat?

5. For the next 80 days, has the chameleon-like Harris now become a temporary MAGA candidate, as she expropriates former President Donald Trump’s positions from border security to no taxes on tips? Does the media care to ask the new 80-day MAGA Harris why she has renounced many of her once emphatic beliefs?

"6. If Democratic presidential reelection candidate Joe Biden was pronounced fit as a fiddle before June 27, but after July 21 was abruptly forced off the ticket as too debilitated to continue as his party’s nominee, what exactly is his status now?

(Half-cognizant and thus able enough to continue his not-so-important task as America’s president, but also half-enfeebled and thus utterly unable to continue as the far more important Democratic nominee, it appears.)

"7. Does the new antisemitic Democratic Party prefer to risk losing with the radical nonentity WASP Tim Walz as vice presidential candidate rather than likely win with a popular, successful, and moderate Jewish Josh Shapiro?

"8. If one vice presidential candidate went to a war zone to serve with his deployed unit, while his counterpart preferred to retire from the military to avoid doing the same and lies about his abdication, how can the media credibly assert that the former’s tour was militarily suspect and yet pronounce the latter’s absence as heroic?

"9. If the current president canceled his reelection bid because he was too debilitated and unpopular, and is now rarely seen or heard, and if the vice president is out of Washington running a campaign in his place, but avoiding all press conferences, interviews, and unscripted addresses, who exactly, if anyone, is running the United States for the next six months of the lame-duck Biden-Harris administration?

"10. If Trump all summer has been compared by his enemies to Hitler and his murderous Third Reich, and if a 20-year-old would-be assassin and murderer with ease took up a sniper’s position to kill Trump—without a notified Secret Service or other law enforcement attempting to abort the shooter’s attempted assassination—what signal does that send to other would-be assassins for the next 80 days of the 2024 campaign? . . .More here...

Biden/Harris Maryland Event Has Embarrassing Moment When Dozens of People Walk Out

RedState

Harris disqualified herself with ignorant comments, not understanding or perhaps caring that overspending makes inflation worse. She talks about what she would do if she was elected on "day one" -- despite being in power now and not only not solving the problem but making things worse with bad policy. She also praised the "extraordinary Joe Biden." 

. . ."Shortly after Vice President Kamala Harris handed over the podium to President Biden on Thursday, dozens of attendees at a joint event simply stood up and left rather than listen to the retiring commander-in-chief.

"The rude demonstration was a stark showing of the enthusiasm gap among Democrats revved up by Harris’ sudden elevation as the party’s presidential nominee after Biden dropped out last month — amid reporting that Harris, 59, is seeking to redefine herself to gain distance from the unpopular incumbent.

"Adding insult to injury, when Biden, who regularly suffered low attendance at his own election rallies this year, and Harris greeted an overflow room, he was accused by multiple irate protesters of facilitating “genocide” in the Gaza Strip." . . .

Crowd leaves joint Biden-Harris event early after VP hands off lectern to lame-duck prez (nypost.com)  

Biden seemed to recycle that badly botched line in his Thursday remarks, saying, “We finally beat Big Pharma.” Although Biden urged the nation to “lower the temperature” of the election campaign last month after Trump was wounded in an assassination attempt, he used violent verbiage at the suburban Maryland event.

 "Donald Dump"? How grade school can one get? Intelligent arguments apparently not accessible to these people.