One Year Later

 Ben Shapiro

"For a moment after Oct. 7, the West sympathized with the Israelis. And then the West decided to go back to sleep — to watch its children march with Hamas and Hezbollah flags alongside terror supporters imported from abroad." . . .

"In the West, we are on vacation from history.

"That's because we are living on the interest earned by our parents and grandparents. The European continent, until the war in Ukraine, had never experienced a more peaceful respite from history than since the end of the Cold War; America has enjoyed its own peace dividend, with spending ballooning to unprecedented levels and our wars fought in distant lands.

"When you are on vacation from history, you tend to engage in foolish fallacies. Fallacies like the idea that evil doesn't exist; that negotiation solves all conflict and that weakness brings with it peace instead of war; that apologizing for Western civilization is a corrective to past injustice rather than an incentive for future violence.

"On Oct. 7, 2023, history returned with a vengeance.

"On that day, Hamas — an evil terrorist group — invaded Israel and engaged in a triumphant orgy of rape and slaughter, the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust. Some 1,200 Israelis were murdered; 250 were dragged back into the hellhole of Gaza.

"Hamas proved that evil does exist. The terrorists and their civilian counterparts celebrated their evil. They livestreamed it. They cheered as the broken and mutilated bodies of the slain were paraded through Gaza. They handed out candies as teenage dancers were raped and shot at a music festival.

"Yes, evil exists. It turns out that human beings are not all seeking the same things — that we do not all have the same priorities or the same values.

"Hamas proved that conciliation with evil and weakness toward it bring about only suffering. Israel has surrendered territory to a variety of terrorist groups over the past few decades: areas of the West Bank — Biblical Judea and Samaria — to the terrorist Palestinian Authority; the Gaza Strip to Hamas; southern Lebanon to Hezbollah. All have become terror havens. The only way to defeat evil is through credible threat of crushing force. The Western fallacy that negotiation is a strategy rather than a tactic — that we can talk our enemies into peace — is indeed a lie. Victory brings about peace; strength brings about peace.

"And the year since Oct. 7 proved that the West has lost her way.

"We have lost our way." . . .

 

Whoda thought? A bum charge against John Kerry

 Jeff Jacoby   

. . ."Ironically, Kerry has been falsely accused of an offense that other prominent Democrats have committed. Just last month, Hillary Clinton publicly suggested that Americans who engage in Russian-backed election "propaganda" ought to be "civilly or even in some cases criminally charged." . . .

"I am no fan of John Kerry, a fact I have never disguised. In my view he was a poor senator and a worse secretary of state and I am enduringly grateful he never became president. A column I wrote about him in March opened with the observation: "I have followed John Kerry's career for 40 years, but I still cringe at things that come out of his mouth." (Kerry had told journalists that if Russia would reduce its carbon emissions, people would "feel better" about its assault on Ukraine.)

"So when Republicans and conservatives began berating Kerry over the weekend for the latest thing to "come out of his mouth," I figured at first that he had indeed said something egregious.

" 'John Kerry and other elite [D]emocrats hate the Constitution," Representative Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, seethed in a post on X. In a column headlined "John Kerry against the First Amendment: Saying the Quiet Part Aloud," National Review's Andrew Stuttaford accused the former secretary of state of a "disturbingly authoritarian" desire to see media outlets "muzzled" if they disagree with him. The respected New York Sun and The Daily Wire played up the story, while the right-wing website PJ Media declared that Kerry had "literally" called for the "end of First Amendment speech rights." Even Elon Musk got in on the act: "John Kerry is saying he wants to violate the Constitution," he claimed.

"But Kerry was saying no such thing."  [contrary to my own posts, TD]

"Last week, during a World Economic Forum panel, Kerry fielded a question about "tackling climate misinformation." He responded by noting that there is considerable "anguish over social media" and its impact on society. That impact includes "our problem, particularly in democracies ... of building consensus around any issue." Few would disagree that the rise of the internet dramatically weakened the influence of traditional media outlets that were once trusted sources of information. The old system has "been eviscerated, to a certain degree," Kerry said. People now "self-select where they go for their news, for their information.' " . . .

What speech has been more reprehensible than the demagoguery vomited out by Joe Biden at his speeches before Freedom Hall (lit in red), his SOTU in Congress, and his vile diatribe at the Democrat convention?

NO SENSE OF IRONY: Pro-Palestinian Protesters Liken Israelis to Nazis—Across From Holocaust Museum

 Daily Signal 

"Protesters eventually began slowly marching across several city blocks, complete with a police escort, megaphones, drumbeats, and local Baptist pastor Frederick Haynes slamming Israel as an “apartheid” state from the back of a pickup truck." ...

DALLAS—Two days before the first anniversary of the start of Israel’s war with Hamas, hundreds gathered in Dallas on Saturday around historic Dealey Plaza—and across the street from a Holocaust museum—to call for the Jewish state’s destruction.  

"Pro-Palestine activists swarmed the famous site of President John F. Kennedy’s November 1963 assassination for an afternoon of chanting and defiant speeches before marching through city streets. 

"The rally was one of dozens across the U.S. and Canada that anti-Israel groups had planned as part of an “International Day of Action” to commemorate “one year of genocide” in Gaza and “one year of resistance” since Oct. 7, 2023—when Hamas terrorists killed or kidnapped, raped, and tortured, some 1,200 people in Israel. 

"Numerous protesters likewise praised Palestinian “resistance” and demanded no more U.S. military aid to Israel.  

"Several of the protesters’ signs equated Israel to Nazi Germany. Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, who is Jewish, made the same comparison during a speech, saying she understands “genocide” because her own people endured it under Adolf Hitler." . . .

TV host breaks down hearing former Hamas hostage’s torture story

New Site Allows Voters to Calculate their Cost of Living Changes During Disastrous Biden-Harris Era

Warner Todd Huston

 ‘Was my life better under Donald Trump’s policies or is my life better under Kamala Harris’s policies?'” Collins continued."

A new tool has launched online to help voters track how high their cost of living has soared under the disastrous Biden-Harris administration.

The tool was created by former political director of the National Republican Convention Gentry Collins who launched his “Gas and Groceries” calculator this month.

“Survey after survey after survey shows that swing voters in swing states care about household affordability,” Collins told the hosts of “Just the News, No Noise.” “They can’t afford their gas, they can’t afford their groceries, they can’t afford the mortgage, their credit card bills are going through the roof and nobody is talking to them about it as directly as we ought to be.”

“What we’ve been able to do with our gas and groceries project is to allow voters in any zip code in the country to enter their zip code online and to see just the plain facts [with] no spin, no issue advocacy [and] no advocacy,” Collins added.

“What was your life like when it came to the price of a car to groceries or or a gallon of gas or mortgage affordability and so on in your zip code at the end of the Trump presidency, versus what it looks like here at the end of the Biden Harris administration,” Collins continued.

“Gas and Groceries cites that groceries are up 25% in cost since Biden became the president-specifically that egg costs are about 72% higher than when Trump was in office,” Just the News added."

J.D. Vance cuts to the quick of the problem with disaster agency FEMA's resources going to the illegals

terrellaftermath

Monica Showalter  . . ."When Fox News journalists brought up that Republican complaints about FEMA blowing its budget on illegals and not having enough cash to help hurricane survivors, were being met by Democrats retorts that that was false owing to the federal budget structure, Vance did a pretty good job of getting to the quick of the problem and sorting the matter out." . . .

 . . ."How was that money really spent? Florida's Sens. Rick Scott and Marco Rubio first noticed the problem last May.

The bottom line here, is that the agency has lost focus. That has cut into its ability to achieve its core mission, which is disaster relief. It was bad in fire-hit Lahaina, Hawaii, very obvious in this Hurricane Helene aftermath, and now with a new hurricane is on the way, with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas saying they may not have enough money to respond to that. That's an agency that has done everything but pay attention to what it's supposed to do.

J.D. Vance had it right on that, and in his later suggestion that the military needed to be called in to coordinate the response. He's a good man for President Trump to have in a storm, the biggest of which will be in draining the Washington swamp in 2025.

Trump Airs ‘Impactful’ Ad About Kamala Harris’ Support of Taxpayer-Funded Sex Changes for Prisoners During NFL

 Megyn Kelly

 Given the Biden-Harris administration’s slow response to Hurricane Helene relief, Megyn said it is but the latest example of where their priorities lie. “So, we are going to fund the sex change operations of serial killers… meanwhile, the Biden administration is saying that we need to dig deep into our pockets to help the victims of Hurricane Helene,” she noted. “Help! Make it make sense.”

   "While TV viewership may not be what it once was, millions of Americans still gather to watch the NFL every Sunday. And with the election just five weeks away, it appears as though the Trump campaign is looking to make a splash with a national audience by running a new attack ad against Kamala Harris across the networks covering the big games.

"The 30-second spot focuses on Harris’ support of taxpayer-funded sex change surgeries for prisoners and illegal immigrants, and it has been called “effective” even by those who are no fan of the former president.'

"On Tuesday’s show, Megyn was joined by Joe Pagliarulo, host of The Joe Pags Show, to discuss the success of the ad and who the Trump campaign was able to reach with its placement." . . .

Late last month, team Trump debuted a new ad that takes aim at one of Harris’ most controversial positions – her support of so-called ‘gender affirming care’ for incarcerated criminals and  illegal immigrants. Watch it here on X

 

IDF chief: Commemoration is day of ‘deep soul-searching’ as Israel continues fight ‘for our right to be a free people in our land’; Herzog: We aim for ‘space for national mourning’

"I’ve heard psychologists speak of the need for “closure” in the aftermath of tragedies. Personally, I don’t think such a thing as closure can exist for the family or friends of those taken on Oct. 7th. I pray that the God of Israel will grant His peace, a peace that passes all understanding, to those left behind. I know they will never forget their loved ones and neither should anyone with a heart and a conscience." Comment to this article.

https://www.terrellaftermath.com/

ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 367   "Israel on Sunday evening prepared to mark the first anniversary of the worst terror attack in its history, as the wounds of the October 7 massacre still feel raw, many of the bereaved continue to seek answers about their loved ones, the plight of the hostages looms over commemorations and fighting still rages on several fronts.

"President Isaac Herzog vowed to “make space for national mourning,” as military chief Herzi Halevi promised to undergo a deep soul-searching, while the IDF released never-before-seen footage from the October 7 onslaught, as many questions still remain about the chaos and turmoil of that day.

“ 'A year has passed since life came to a halt, the skies darkened, and all of us witnessed the monstrous cruelty of the enemy that sought to bring destruction upon the Jewish people, the State of Israel, and Israeli society,” said Herzog in a statement on Sunday.

“ 'We are all still in pain, and we seek to make space for national mourning, for the tears over the terrible disaster that struck us,” he said, announcing a three-day tour of the Gaza border communities devastated by the attack. “I pledge — we will rebuild and restore everything anew, and that rebuilding will not be complete until the hostages return home.”

"Halevi, meanwhile, said the first anniversary of the massacre “is not only a day of remembrance but also a day calling for a deep soul-searching. To recognize failures and learn from them, while examining the challenges, those that have been and those that are yet to come.” . . .

Horrors at Netiv Ha’asara

"Channel 12 news on Sunday aired more extensive and unedited footage of the horrors carried out in the home of Gil Taasa, a firefighter who lived in the border community of Netiv Ha’asara.

"The video shows Gil and two of his sons running for the backyard bomb shelter amid the early morning rocket sirens. Later, terrorists are seen bursting into the backyard and throwing a grenade inside the shelter. Gil jumps on the grenade and is killed, saving the lives of his children, Koren and Shay, who were wounded. The terrorists force the kids back into the apartment, where one of them rummages through their fridge, ignoring the pleas of the bleeding children, as he casually sips from their bottle of Coca-Cola.

After the terrorists left the apartment, the two boys ran to the nearby home of their mother, Sabine — who was separated from Gil, and was living in an attached apartment. They were ultimately rescued alive. The Taasas’ older son, Or, was slain separately that day, at the Zikim Beach, where he was out fishing with friends" . . ..

New York’s Unequal Rights Amendment

Linda R. Killian

The underhanded purpose of Prop. 1 is to memorialize a laundry list of left-wing policies that had zero chance of passing through normal legislative order and public comment.  

"In November, voters in New York will be asked to approve Prop. 1, an Equal Rights Amendment to the state’s constitution that progressive Democrat politicians claim will provide ironclad protections for abortion rights, reproductive freedom, and equal rights for everyone.  It is a lie and a deceitful trap.

"If approved, Prop. 1 will add nothing to the state’s existing statutory rights to abortion on demand, a right that was enacted more than half a century ago in 1970.  Prop. 1, or, more formally, an Amendment to Protect against Unequal Treatment, creates over a dozen new special categories of protected individuals, beyond the traditional legal categories of race, color, creed, religion, and sex.  Prop. 1 would codify new constitutional protections for age, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy outcomes, national origin, and autonomy.  There is no mention of abortion.  Other special protected categories such as LGBTQ and disabilities have long enjoyed constitutional protection in New York.  There are no new “rights” for women.

"The title of the constitutional proposal betrays its real intent: the unequal treatment of individuals." . . .

Kamala's Tone-Deaf Tweet About Lebanon Sparks Outrage. Will She Delete It?

 Matt Margolis

“To show this level of cavalier indifference just literally takes my breath away,”  former Clinton advisor Doug Schoen said of the Biden-Harris administration's response to Hurricane Helene."

"As we've reported here at PJ Media, the response to the hurricane, one of the deadliest in U.S. history, has been nothing short of disastrous. Tens of thousands of Americans remain without power, clean water, or basic resources, and many are bracing for weeks of hardship as the federal government drags its feet, potentially suppressing the vote in Republican-leaning counties.

"The Biden-Harris administration has been trying to create the appearance of engagement, and yet, even those efforts have fallen flat. Last week, Kamala Harris’s announcement of $750 checks for those who have lost everything—a disgusting insult to the intelligence and dignity of the American people. This pathetic gesture was bad enough, but on Saturday evening, Kamala added even more insult to injury.

"In a tweet from her official VP account, Kamala Harris felt it was appropriate to boast about a new humanitarian aid package... for Lebanon. While Americans ravaged by Hurricane Helene are left to fend for themselves due to insufficient federal aid. The Biden-Harris administration, never shy with throwing money around to other countries, announced a $157 million aid package for humanitarian relief.

"The people of Lebanon are facing an increasingly dire humanitarian situation," Kamala tweeted. "I am concerned about the security and well-being of civilians suffering in Lebanon and will continue working to help meet the needs of all civilians there."

"She continued, "To that end, the United States will provide nearly $157 million in additional assistance to the people of Lebanon for essential needs such as food, shelter, water, protection, and sanitation to help those who have been displaced by the recent conflict. This additional support brings total U.S. assistance to Lebanon over the last year to over $385 million.' " . . .

Hillary Demands ‘Total Control’ of Social Media Via Censorship

PJ Media  

Hillary Clinton says that social media companies must censor people's content or else "we lose total control." pic.twitter.com/eOB9cStozX

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) October 5, 2024

"Hillary Clinton never fails to remind non-lobotomized Americans what a massive bullet we dodged in 2016.

"It’s by no means outside of the realm of possibility that, had she succeeded in assuming power, we would all be rotting in some government work camp for Deplorables at this very moment.

"It was just a couple of weeks ago that Hillary Clinton appeared on MSNBC to promote “criminal penalties” meted out to Americans for “misinformation” on the web — as defined by herself, of course, and some Bill Gates-funded “fact check” racket.

"She was back at it this past Friday, this time with CNN eunuch Michael Smerconish, advocating for the repeal of Section 230 of the 1996 Telecommunications Act so as to achieve “total control” of the dissemination of information.

"Via Mediate (emphasis added):

The former secretary of state joined CNN’s Michael Smerconish on Friday to promote her new book Something Lost, Something Gained, and Smerconish at one point honed in on chapters where Clinton discussed social media and its negative effects on people, especially youths.

Clinton argued it’s clearer than ever that social media content ups anxiety and depression in kids and people are “addicted” to it.

Clinton called for Congress to step in and the repeal of Section 230, 1 1996 telecommunications law that provides limited immunity for legal liability for internet platforms.

"The full quote: . . ."

We need national action and sadly, our Congress has been dysfunctional when it comes to addressing these threats to our children. So you’re absolutely right. This should be at the top of every legislative, political agenda. There should be a lot of things done. We should be, in my view, repealing something called section 230, which gave platforms on the internet immunity because they were thought to be just pass-throughs, that they shouldn’t be judged for the content that is posted. But we now know that that was an overly simple view, that if the platforms, whether it’s Facebook or Twitter or X or Instagram or TikTok, whatever they are, if they don’t moderate and monitor the content we lose total control and it’s not just the social and psychological effects it’s real harm, it’s child porn and threats of violence, things that are terribly dangerous. . . .

Related: Hillary Clinton Demands ‘Criminal Penalties’ for Americans to Deter ‘Misinformation’

UPDATE- A love song to Hillary: How Can I Miss You When You Won't Go Away?

Victor Davis Hanson: How to Blow Up the Middle East War in 5 Easy Steps

 Daily Signal

In part, Biden-Harris was caving to increased antisemitism at home and the rise of powerful, pro-Palestinian groups on U.S. campuses and in critical swing Electoral College states.

"When Joe Biden became president, the Middle East was calm. Now it is in the midst of a multifront war.

"So quiet was the inheritance from the prior Trump administration that nearly three years later, on Sept. 29, 2023—and just eight days before the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre of Israelis—Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, could still brag that “the Middle East region is quieter today than it has been in two decades.”
"So, what exactly happened to the inherited calm that led to the current nonstop chaos of the present?
"In a word, theocratic Iran—the nexus of almost all current Middle East terrorism and conflict—was unleashed by Team Biden after having been neutered by the Trump administration.
"The Biden-Harris administration adopted a five-step revisionist protocol that appeased and encouraged Iran and its terrorist surrogates Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis.
"The result was a near guarantee that something akin to the Oct. 7 massacres would inevitably follow—along with a subsequent year of violence that has now engulfed the Middle East.
"First, on the 2020 campaign trail, Biden damned longtime American ally Saudi Arabia as a “pariah.”
"He overturned the policies of both the previous Obama and Trump administrations by siding with the Iranian-supplied terrorist Houthis in their war on Saudi Arabia.
"Biden accused the kingdom of war crimes, warning it would “be held accountable” for its actions in Yemen. Biden-Harris took the murderous Houthis off the U.S. terrorist list.
"Almost immediately followed continuous Houthi attacks on international shipping, Israel, and U.S. warships—rendering the Red Sea, the entryway to the Suez Canal, de facto closed to international maritime transit." . . .

John Kerry Thinks Free Speech Is “Dangerous” And “Outdated”

RTM  

"John Kerry isn’t the only one bashing the First Amendment. An anti-free speech movement is rapidly growing in the country led by law professors and supported by politicians, reported the New York Post." 

"John Kerry called the First Amendment “dangerous” and “outdated” while speaking at the World Economic Forum on Sept 24.

"During his WEF speech, Kerry said that free speech is a “major block” and suggested that The United States of America should have a “truth arbiter,” reported the New York Post. 

He said, “You know, there’s a lot of discussion now about how you curb those entities in order to guarantee that you’re going to have some accountability on facts, etc. But look, if people only go to one source, and the source they go to is sick, and, you know, has an agenda, and they’re putting out disinformation, our First Amendment stands as a major block to be able to just, you know, hammer it out of existence. So what we need is to win the ground, win the right to govern, by hopefully winning enough votes that you’re free to be able to implement change.”

"Kerry blamed social media as the main source for his anti-free speech view.". . .

John Kerry Laments That First Amendment Is ‘Major Block’ to Stifling Speech Video

In this episode of The Spectator P.M. Podcast, hosts Ellie Gardey Holmes and Lyrah Margo discuss the importance of the First Amendment and how free speech is a right that cannot be taken away from Americans. They also discuss how Kerry’s comments are part of the Left’s continued efforts to suppress conservative media outlets, such as The American Spectator.