How Biden and Obama Failed in the Middle East

Democrats have been the wimpy kid who gave their lunch money to the school bully every morning so he wouldn't disturb them. TD

Victor Davis Hanson

" . . .Ten, the Obama and Biden teams -- Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Susan Rice, Leon Panetta, Jake Sullivan, Antony Blinken, and Lloyd Austin -- were force multipliers of their presidents' naivete and incompetence."

"The short answer to why both the Biden and Obama administrations failed to achieve peace in the Middle East is that they took actions opposite to President Donald Trump's current efforts, which have led to a ceasefire.

"First, consider Iran.

"Iran was flush with cash, on a trajectory toward a nuclear weapon, and arming Israel's "ring of fire" enemies: Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis.

"The radical Islamic world of the Middle East was convinced that Israel would be doomed eventually.

"Yet both Democratic administrations let Iran profit from oil sales.

"They talked of delaying, but not ending, Iran's nuclear program. And they feared that Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis were indomitable terrorist threats.

"Thus, the disruptors of peace were appeased rather than deterred.

"Two, both former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden pressured Israel in general and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in particular to make constant concessions.

"But neither offered any plan for how Israel was to survive when Iran sought its destruction, and Tehran's terrorist triad aimed to bombard it with missiles, rockets, and drones.

"Worse, once the larger Middle East saw Democratic presidents appeasing Iran and its terrorist appendages, they concluded it was unsafe to take risks by allying with a delusional United States.

"Three, both Obama and Biden despised and personally insulted Netanyahu, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and the Saudi royal family." . . .  More...

The Thing That Works

 John Stossel

They listen to people like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who says, "Capitalism ... is the absolute pursuit of profit at all human, environmental and social cost. That is not a redeemable system."

. . . "For thousands of years, everyone but the nobility was poor. Then, when some countries tried capitalism, wealth skyrocketed.

"When people are allowed to buy and sell things freely, everyone is better off.

"Socialists don't get that. AOC insists: "No one ever makes a billion dollars. You take a billion."

"But no billionaire showed up at my door demanding I give them money. Under capitalism, they can only get rich by offering people something we think is better than what we bought before.

"Yes, Amazon's founder is now absurdly rich, but consumers didn't lose. Jeff Bezos got rich by inventing a way for us to shop efficiently and pay less.

"And as Forbes points out, most billionaires weren't born rich.

                 Video: AOC "is why there are directions on a shampoo bottle"

. . .  "Maybe, but capitalism also lifted more people out of poverty, created more opportunities and improved more lives than any other system.

"Economist Thomas Sowell said, "I don't ask, 'What is the cause of poverty?' Everybody is born poor and ignorant. The question is, what factors allow some groups to get from that position?"

"'Sowell put it well," concludes Forbes. "What is the difference between people today and people in the Stone Age? Difference is -- we know more. That's how you get a higher standard of living, from experiments in the marketplace, the laboratory, always trying to find new things. That's why planning doesn't work, because if we already knew it, we'd already be doing it!"

"Only capitalism allows the experiments that create better lives." . . . More...

Humor: How many Democrats does it take … - Eric Utter

"How many Democrats does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

(Trick question. Many Democrats don’t know how to screw in a lightbulb and most have their servants do it. It should be noted, however, that hundreds of them in Washington, D.C. will debate what kind of bulbs should be legal, their maximum wattage, etc., etc.)" . . .

Fixing the Failures of the Pro-Life Movement -

  American Reformer; via Glenn Gaither   

"Defending the rights of the unborn is not enough. A pro-life party worthy of its name would defend motherhood, maternal character, and parenthood, too.

A Never-Before-Seen Look at Life’s First Moments | Baby Oliver

"Conservatives have long understood that abortion has fundamentally changed the sexual constitution of America, its system of honor and shame shaping relations between the sexes. But they have mostly underestimated the scope and nature of the abortion revolution.

"Abortion is usually seen only as part of the Left’s rights revolution. Pro-abortion activists see the “right to choose” as an expression of individual autonomy, providing “the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life,” as Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Advocates slip other “rights” into American life through this window, including access to contraception, obscenity, sodomy, same-sex marriage, and suicide.

“Pro-life” framing focuses on how the baby’s “right to life” limits female autonomy. Autonomy is thought to be a good, but only up to a point where it meets the baby’s personhood. A woman’s right to swing and punch is limited by the baby’s nose. Much ink has been spilled to prove that the baby is indeed a life—all to the good.

"Conservatives have also long emphasized how permissive abortion laws produce a culture of death. Life everywhere is cheapened when it can be ended in the womb. The old or ill, facing life’s inevitable end, will either be ushered out through physician-assisted suicide or shunted away. A culture of death is also callous to children generally, tolerating forms of child abuse and neglect. 

The emphasis on life more easily gains purchase in today’s environment because it exists within our rights framework. But, as the pro-abortion votes in most state referenda after the Dobbs decision show, the movement has not won the hearts and minds of the American people. Part of what the pro-life movement has missed is how abortion also affects the ethos of family life and shapes female priorities and character away from motherhood. Abortion exists downstream from feminist career ambitions and associated lifestyles. Once women adopt such lifestyles, they become, mostly, either softer on abortion or positively pro-abortion. Defending abortion means defending a way of life that depends, in many cases, on access to abortion." . . .  More...

Where on earth do these Democrats come from?

 The moral compass of Democrats and Gen Z [especially] women  I find rather terrifying. 

“These are not your father’s political assassins. Things have changed. For one thing, today’s assassins have popular support with the kids.”

After all, didn't many of them support the Hamas slaughter of Israeli families and their infants? 

AfterMath

Communists Are Winning Office Throughout the Country   . . . "The DSA is running the most radical people for political office, not just at the top but also at lower levels. They are working in cities and states that are already blue and woke, and even solid red states. Many Americans don’t realize what is going on.

"Zohran Mamdani is a DSA member and a communist Islamist. Ketanje Jackson was pushed forward by the DSA for the Court. AOC is a DSA plant." . . .

Stu Smith posted: "The California governor section is where DSA’s “lesser evil” logic gets especially funny. "They warn voters not to cast a left-wing protest vote because “the stakes are incredibly high” and “the chance of the top two candidates both being Republicans is still very real.” "Then they land on Tom Steyer. Yes, billionaire Tom Steyer. "DSA admits Steyer is “somehow running the most progressive campaign,” praising him for backing a billionaire tax, state-level Medicare for All, labor unions, and calling ICE a “violent extremist group.” "But they still cannot fully stomach him. The guide calls him the “most progressive” viable candidate, then immediately adds: “Time will tell whether he’s truly a class traitor.” "Even when they endorse the billionaire, the highest compliment they can offer is that maybe he will betray his own class." . . .

Michael Goodwin: Dems continue to wallow in denial and do the dumbest things – it's clear they haven't learned a thing “So Donald Trump, Republican Party: This is a new DNC. We are not going to sit back and not take you on when you fail the American people.” 

"If it really were a new DNC, Dems would have a fighting chance of winning back public trust. 

"Instead, they are living examples of the maxim that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result." . . .

Watch: Bill Maher Calls Out The Left’s Selective Tolerance For Political Violence  . . . “These are not your father’s political assassins. Things have changed. For one thing, today’s assassins have popular support with the kids.” . . .

Exclusive | Dead voters' signatures appear on Dem candidate's forms: 'Our democracy nowadays' “'This is why people lose faith in government, because you have people running for office who are willing to lie and cheat because they can’t compete by following the rules,” McCreight said in a statement."

More at the Tunnel Wall blog

Spencer Pratt’s Mother’s Day Post is a Gut Punch to Democrats

 Daily Wire News

From the comments: "Virginia and the south is with you Spencer don’t be surprised if Miss Heidi is our first lady one day. I really see good things for you and your family and this country with you leading the way God bless you and you’re fight for truth, justice and the American way that has been hijacked from the REAL Americans that love this country and will fight for it till the end. You give ..us all hope.

"Make California California again!"

Another comment: "Looking at this reminds me of Newsom abandoning the needs of the people of California after the wild fires. The news failed to mention how Newsom was responsible for the Santa Ynez Reservoir sitting empty, in need of repair for a year, when Newsom knew the fire season was approaching. This was Newsom's way of having a fire sale but many are to dumb to understand the reality of the act of gross neglect and malicious conduct on Newsom's part."

The Four Horsemen of the New Antisemitism › Victor Davis Hanson

  American Greatness  

"Instead, what is left in the pathway of demonizing Israel and blaming Jews, here and abroad, is the supposed bigot Donald Trump and his “irredeemable,” “deplorable” MAGA movement—for now, the last dam holding back the rising flood." 

"Few predicted that blaming Israel and the Jews who support it would flare up in the early 21st century—and in America of all places, where there are nearly as many Jews as there are in Israel.

"After all, Israel is the only consensual society in the Middle East. It holds regular elections and maintains tripartite judicial, executive, and legislative checks and balances.

"Free speech is found in the Middle East only in Israel, where religious apostasy, criticism of one’s own country, gender equity, and tolerance of gays are guaranteed in marked contrast to all its neighbors.

"It was once common knowledge that Israel had survived the huge numbers of its enemies because its tiny population was better educated, freer, more adept at Western technology, more tolerant of dissent—and because it enjoyed the goodwill and bipartisan support of the United States.

"True, the recent affluence of the Gulf States has presented a thin veneer of Westernism that has fooled many in the new anti-Israel media. But just because Qatar did not censor a celebrity newsman’s broadcast from Doha does not mean Qatar is a free society. After all, no Western journalist would dare schedule a broadcast from Qatar with a Qatari who had condemned the regime for its intolerance or announced his religious apostasy from Islam.

"So why and how did millions of Americans begin to express hatred for Israel and, albeit more subtly, the Jews who support it?

"There are four converging fronts in this perfect storm.

Demography

"First, in demographic terms, the US Muslim population is expanding exponentially, due almost entirely to recent immigration and higher birth rates than the American norm (e.g., 2.5–8 versus 1.6–1.7).

"There are now nearly five million Muslim Americans. These numbers are anticipated by 2030 to surpass the Jewish American population." . . .More...

Here's Why the Iranian People Never Rose Up, and It's Not the Reason You Think

Dmitri Bolt

   "President Trump reveals the Kurds REFUSED to hand over American arms to the Iranian people The Kurds disappointed us . . ."We sent some guns with ammunition. They were supposed to be delivered, but they KEPT IT. I said they're gonna keep it. What do I know?!"

"President Trump revealed on Monday to reporters why the Iranian people were unable to rise up against the regime during Operation Epic Fury. 

"According to the president, it was not simply because public morale had been crushed following the regime’s harsh crackdown on protests in late 2025 and early 2026. He said a broader U.S. plan to help arm anti-regime forces inside Iran was ultimately derailed by a third party: the Iraqi Kurds, whom the United States had planned to rely on as ground forces in southern Iran.

"'No weapons, they have no guns. We thought the Kurds were gonna give us weapons, but the Kurds disappointed us," President Trump revealed in the Oval Office. "The Kurds take, take, take. They have a great reputation in Congress. Congress says, oh, they fight so hard. No, they fight hard when they get paid."

"'So I'm very disappointed in the Kurds, but they were given, I said it wasn't gonna work, by the way," he added. "I just have to say it. I disagreed with what they did, they gave it. I said, they'll never get there. And I was right, I like to be right. In this case, too bad, but we sent some guns with ammunition and they were supposed to be delivered, but they kept it. I said, they're gonna keep it, but what do I know? I've only been doing this a short period of time."

"This comes as negotiations with Iran, and hopes for a permanent ceasefire, appear to be on life support, with regime negotiators repeatedly making promises, walking them back, and offering what President Trump has reportedly dismissed as unserious peace proposals. More...

‘The View’ Is a Cancer on the Culture and the Country

Derek Hunter  

"The View is a cancer and it metastasizes through society via its audience; an army of hateful AWFULs weaponized by ignorance and set upon the country like Frankenstein’s monster. We have ABC News to thank for it, and Disney on top of that, both of which are the cultural equivalent of cigarette companies. Remember than and vote accordingly." 

"It almost seems impossible, and I wouldn’t believe it if didn’t see it with my own eyes, but through the miracle of “new math” and the sheer stupidity of the ABC New product “The View,” it is not possible to bring five human beings together and make their collective IQ less than the sum of their individual IQs. How can people coming together be dumber collectively than individually? Skill, I have to assume, and really trying. I say trying because all the ladies on The View are so dumb that they have to be trying, like the whole show is some sort of dare. The end result is a show that makes its audience dumber – a cultural cancer on the country.

In order to avoid any standards to skirt from lawsuits, and to deny anyone not a doctrinaire leftist claims of “equal time” on the public airwards, The View is part of ABC News, not ABC entertainment. Those of us who work on the public airwaves know that there are rules before elections that require, should a candidate ask for it, that they get equal time as a guest on a show 30 days before a primary and 60 days before a general election. 

"It's rarely an issue, as few Democrats have the guts to appear on conservative talk radio because they can’t actually defend their agendas or policies, so they don’t ask for that time – and it has to be asked for. But conservatives aren’t afraid of leftists and would happily take on the five harpies on the show. Producers, however, know that would be an absolute disaster for the show, so they will never allow it. As a “news” show and a “journalistic” outfit, they don’t have to. 

"It's not surprising ABC would do this, but you’d think Disney might want to protect the brand. Maybe they are." . . .More...

Oh, wait! There is this:

"From “Dr. Jill Biden would make a great Surgeon General because she’s a great doctor” to “Republicans have overruled the will of the voters” in Virginia because the State Supreme Court tossed out the unconstitutional power grab Democrats tried to rush through, you’d have to try to get the basic facts of daily life and basic civics as wrong as these women do."

‘The Odyssey’ set to be bastardized beyond all recognition

 Olivia Murray 

 "The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history. Then have somebody write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history. Before long that nation will begin to forget what it is and what it was..."

"I read Homer’s The Odyssey in ninth grade, and though it’s a work of legend, reading that story was a crucial watershed moment in my intellectual development—the characters were larger than life, defined by glory and heroism, full of depth, and enviously alluring. And, for having seen relatively few Hollywood productions (compared to the average American), I did see the 2004 Troy, which I absolutely loved. While I wouldn’t say the movie was objectively worth grand acclaim, it was carried by the film’s score, the aesthetic beauty of the scenery (despite the CGI), and the casting of two very specific characters: Diane Kruger as Helen, and Brad Pitt as Achilles. (And I was thrilled to see a very handsome Sean Bean playing Odysseus, able to connect that story with my ninth-grade education.)

"While Pitt is clearly an attractive man, it was his portrayal of Achilles that made him such a dream: morally gray, hypermasculine, deeply loyal, dangerous (but gentle with Briseis), peak Western warrior. Kruger? She was simply stunning, a believable “face that launched 1,000 ships,” noble and resplendent.

"So, it is with that point in mind that I have nothing but disgust and contempt for Christopher Nolan’s planned production—entirely undeserving of being called an “epic” take. The new Achilles and the new Helen? Truly an abomination if the rumors turn out to be true. Ellen (“Elliot”) Page, a very petite woman who cut off her breasts because she’s “trans,” is reportedly set to fill Pitt’s shoes, and Lupita Nyong’o is said to be playing Helen. Now, Nyong’o’s physical unattractiveness has nothing to do with her skin tone, which is offensive in and of itself because Helen was not black and I’m so sick of the woke swaps, but Lupita is just not a pretty woman." More...

Hollywood has gotten many stories completely wrong out of prejudice, tokenism, and a desire for visual spectacles, but I don’t think it has gotten one THIS wrong.

. . . "And in this light, Athena is played by Zendaya, a black woman who is 29 years old. And Achilles is played by…Elliott Page. Ex-Ellen Page. “Trans-Man”...All 5’ 2”, 105 pounds of her. The greatest warrior hero in the Greek mythos, a synonym for his power and his anger, played by a tiny woman.

Achilles the warrior

"There is no purpose to this that I can see other than “inclusivity,” and an obvious pandering to “the rules.” But what is lost when race, sexual orientation, and gender are made criteria for anything is talent. Instead of ability being the sole arbiter of who is a pilot, or a doctor, or who is best suited to a part, we get quotas and agendas. United has committed to 50% “diversity” at its pilot school. That’s what I want—a diversity pilot hire. I want a doctor hired for race and sex rather than one hired for ability. Or an actor chosen to include LGBTQ+++ (or however many letters are fashionable today) rather than being suited to their role." . . .

Read it for yourself: Representation and Inclusion Standards | Oscars.org | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

They are actually pitching their failures as positives.

 Union-funded anti-Spencer Pratt ad sparks backlash as critics say it could help him  

"A political advertisement opposing Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt is drawing attention online as critics argue the messaging could ultimately benefit the former reality TV star instead of hurt his campaign.

"The ad, which has circulated widely on X in recent days, attacks Spencer Pratt over homelessness, policing and public employee unions while urging voters to reject the Republican candidate.

"Republican Spencer Pratt is the last thing Los Angeles needs for mayor," the speaker in the video says. "Pratt opposes using taxpayer money to build brand new houses for unhoused neighbors, saying it's time for the homeless to get help or get out.

Red State: Anti-Spencer Pratt Attack Ad Implodes Spectacularly As It Makes Slam Dunk Case for LA Mayoral Candidate

NOW: Leftists are being brutally mocked for DROPPING THIS “attack ad” on LA Mayor candidate Spencer Pratt — which says he opposes rampant homelessness and supports the police
LMAO — and they’re spending hundreds of thousands to blast this everywhere! 

“Pratt says it's time… pic.twitter.com/VYLB2QSUPD

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) May 10, 2026

More...

Holding the Media Responsible for the SPLC Scandal

"For those who have long watched Southern Poverty Law Center and the extraordinary influence it has with the media, the last few weeks have been positively beautiful to behold." 

Christopher Knight - American Thinker

Victims of SPLC for the past fifty years and more would do well to strike while its wounds are fresh, and hold the media inescapably culpable in its activism against the innocent.

"We are owed an expansive apology. That however would require sincere admission on the part of the aggressors that they did us wrong.

"A vigorous scan through the legacy news from this past two weeks has not turned that up. Indeed, the parties at fault have circled the wagons instead of confronting the problem. They are attempting to make it out that the Department of Justice at the behest of President Trump is executing a campaign of persecution against a “storied civil rights organization,” as CNN on Facebook described Southern Poverty Law Center.

"For those who have long watched Southern Poverty Law Center and the extraordinary influence it has with the media, the last few weeks have been positively beautiful to behold. That nigh-unassailable bastion of “anti-racist monitoring” has been indicted in federal court for funneling $3 million of its nonprofit coffers toward paying the very racial extremists it professed to stand against. The scheme could have sprung from the pages of a comic book: SPLC funding neo-Nazis and other white supremacists to actively hate people, so that SPLC could campaign against them. It’s basically akin to the fire department putting the torch to your house and expecting to be paid to put it out.

"SPLC’s motives and actions could almost be laughable. But there is no hilarity in this situation. Not with SPLC having fought tooth and claw across the previous five and a half decades to establish itself as the definitive arbiter of “hate” in America. Which in the case of SPLC happens to be anything to the right of the Politburo. Conservative individuals and organizations, and especially Christians, however minimum the magnitude of their actions, have long been cast by SPLC as being “extremist hate mongers” to be abhorred. This, while Southern Poverty turns a blind eye to the violence and mayhem and even loss of life brought about by leftist groups such as Antifa and those inspired by Black Lives Matter.

"No, there is not and never has been any intention by the Southern Poverty Law Center to legitimately monitor hate groups. The organization is just as Morris Dees and his confederates intended it to be: a weapon against liberty-minded people and groups that few would dare oppose without also being likened to racists." . . .

More...

WSJ: Iranians Starting to Notice Nepo Babytollah's Absence

  HotAir  

"Editor's Note: For decades, former presidents have been all talk and no action. Now, Donald Trump is eliminating the threat from Iran once and for all." 

"Did the Wall Street Journal discover sarcasm over the weekend? Or do Iranian "negotiators" really believe in Mojtaba Claus?

"With talks going nowhere, the WSJ's reporting team offers a look at the supposed friction within the regime remnants, centering on Beef Supreme Mojtaba Khamenei. No one has heard a public peep out of the Nepo Babytollah since the strike on his father's palace at the start of the war, except (supposedly) IRGC chief Ahmad Vahidi, who's used Mojtaba as his personal sockpuppet to create a flat-out military junta. Iranian officials insist that Khamenei The Slightly Less Deader is still alive and "managing" regime affairs, but his only public statements come through IRGC media outlets.

"Yesterday, the WSJ reported that this is only now becoming a problem for so-called moderates who want to find an accommodation with the US before the Iranian economy totally collapses. And now, even hard-line supporters are beginning to ask questions as the internecine fighting between factions heats up:

His absence is becoming a bigger problem for Tehran as it tries to negotiate an end to the war. Iran’s rulers have shown unity during the fighting, coordinating their political messaging and maintaining command and control over their armed forces. But they are fracturing over how far to go to strike a deal with the U.S.

Khamenei’s protracted absence from the public eye has been particularly unsettling for his hard-line supporters who are questioning the legitimacy of the talks, said Arash Azizi, a historian and lecturer at Yale University who focuses on Iran and has reviewed group chats of hard-line regime supporters.

Iran’s hard-liners have taken aim at more moderate Iranian politicians who are playing a prominent role in talks—most notably parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who they see as too compromising.

“They wonder about where he is,” Azizi said of the new supreme leader. “They’re dismayed by what they see as Ghalibaf and the team leading the National Security Council negotiating and giving too many concessions to the U.S.”

"Let's recap a bit. Moderates wonder why Khamenei hasn't shown proof of life to endorse Vahidi's junta fully. Vahidi's hard-line supporters wonder why the Cardboardatollah hasn't spoken up to denounce the moderate "negotiators" who are still talking with the US. The solution to this fracture is as obvious as it is impossible – have Khamenei make a public appearance to settle the question. Even if he is disfigured and maimed, if he's actively "managing" the regime, he can do that much. As for his personal safety, other regime leaders make quite a show of public defiance ... so why not the Supreme Leader, supposedly anointed by Allah?" . . .More...