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Sowell Documentary:
https://pjmedia.com/culture/stacey-lennox/2021/01/31/new-documentary-reveals-the-character-behind-thomas-sowells-brilliant-economics-n1419638?utm_source=pjmedia&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm&newsletterad=&bcid=fa0d4516ae2f8e8f2b2b61db63a47129&recip=18421364
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I seriously doubt any of my older grandchildren read my memos and/or are conservative in their thinking. Perhaps, had I lived closer to them and had more influence on their thinking it might have made a difference. They mostly went to liberal colleges and universities and virtually all live in cities where radical thinking is the in thing. Two of my grandchildren favor legalizing "mary jane." When you lose the battle just accept what is inevitable seems to be the basis for their thinking.
The one thing they all have in common and is redeeming and gratifying is they are productive, responsible and good citizens. My concern is that the America they will live in will eventually make them cringe, threaten their freedoms, if not take them away, and it will be too late for having embraced the liberal path and swallowed too much Kool Ade.
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It appears Biden's foreign policy is going to be tepid and thus, most likely, a failure.
Also, stop and think, Democrats want to retain the fencing around Congress but are happy to stop building Trump's Wall. In 12 days Biden has proven to be the worst president in American history and that is a mouthful. He has increased unemployment in high paying jobs, returned us to becoming energy dependent, has altered women's sports, proposed spending billions of dollars totally unrelated to anything COVID but wants to bail out cities and states who have been irresponsible with their own budgets. He has favored foreigners over Americans in far too many instances, caved to unions regarding opening schools. This latter circumstance is the equivalent of spitting in the eyes of black children whose educational opportunities were already making their futures less bright. To make matters even worse, Biden has chosen the pen and Executive edicts over Congress and compromise yet claims he wants to the a unifying president.
As for his radical party they continue to attack Republicans, even hysterically threatening some with expulsion from Congress, because of their differing views and have the audacity to believe they have the right to speak freely.
Biden has made no effort to return law and order to cities continuing to being destroyed by radicals but has devoted every waking moment to undoing Trump's accomplishments. If it is possible to top these pathetic and destructive decisions many of his administrative appointments are as anti-American, anti-capitalist, anti-education, and anti make America first in their sentiments, philosophy and previous comments and actions.
Finally, Biden has allowed Pelosi to weaponize politics even further by not stopping the impeachment of Trump as an out of office former president all the while professing he wants to bring unity. Some of the best legal minds proffer this is an unconstitutional act and even our pathetic wimp of a Chief Justice has recused himself from presiding.
As I write , this is day 12.
In previous memos I had Biden writing in his mythical Diary and he was up to day 68. I still have 10 more theoretical and satirical days for him to remain in office before he resigns and Kamala becomes our first female and "colorful" president.
Stay tuned and buckle up because it can get worse.
And:
Democrats Trying To Turn America Into Police State
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The Ettinger Report:
Biden's Mideast Policy – Reassessment or Repeat?
Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, "Second Thought: US-Israel Initiative"
Track record
President Biden's foreign policy and national security team reflects a
resurgence of the State Department's worldview. An examination of this
worldview and its track record is required, in order to avoid past mistakes.
This track record consists
of such critical issues as:
*In 1948, the State Department led Washington's opposition to the recognition
of the newly established Jewish State, contending that the Jewish State would
be helpless against the expected Arab military assault, would be pro-Soviet,
would undermine US-Arab relations, destabilize the Middle East, threaten
the US supply of oil and cause severe long-term damage to US interests.
Deputy Secretary of State, Robert Lovett, claimed: "recognizing the Jewish State
prematurely would be buying a pig in a poke."
*During the 1950s, the US courted Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser,
considering him a potential ally and extending non-military aid, while Egypt
evolved as a key ally of the USSR, supporting anti-Western elements in
Africa, intensifying anti-US sentiments among Arabs, and
attempting to topple every single pro-US Arab regime.
*In 1978/79, the US betrayed the pro-US Shah of Iran, while embracing Ayatollah Khomeini – including intelligence
sharing during the initial months of the Khomeini regime - under the assumption
that he was controllable and seeking freedom, democracy and positive ties with
the US.
*In 1980-1990, the US collaborated with Saddam Hussein, including
intelligence-sharing, supply of dual use systems and extending $5bn loan
guarantees. The assumption was that "the enemy of my enemy is my
friend."
This US policy was perceived by Saddam as a green light for Iraq's invasion of
Kuwait, as documented by the meeting between Saddam and the US Ambassador to Iraq,
April Gillespie, 8 days before the invasion, when she asserted
(reflecting the position of the State Department) that an invasion of Kuwait
was an inter-Arab issue.
*During 1993-2000, the US Administration hailed Arafat as a messenger of peace,
worthy of the Nobel Prize for Peace and annual US foreign aid, ignoring his
annihilationist vision, as reflected by his 1959 and 1964 Fatah and PLO
charters, hate-education system and intensified terrorism.
*In 2009, the US embraced the anti-US Muslim Brotherhood, ignoring its terroristic nature,
and defining it as a political, secular entity. Thus, the US turned a cold
shoulder toward the pro-US Mubarak, paving the road for the Muslim Brotherhood
ascension to power in 2012/13, a blow to all pro-US Arab countries, which have
been afflicted by Muslim Brotherhood terrorism.
*Until the eruption of the 2011 civil war in Syria, the State Department
considered Bashar Assad a reformer and a potential moderate due to
his background as an ophthalmologist in London, married to a British woman and
President of the Syrian Internet Association. Similarly, Hafiz Assad ("the
butcher from Damascus") was regarded as a man of his word, a credible
negotiator, justifying Israel's giveaway of the strategically overpowering
Golan Heights.
*In 2011, the State Department was a key engine behind the US-led NATO military
offensive, which toppled Libya's Qaddafi, notwithstanding his dismantling of
Libya's nuclear infrastructure, fervent war on Islamic terrorism, and providing
the US unique counter-terror intelligence. The toppling of Qaddafi transformed Libya into a platform of
civil wars and global Islamic terrorism.
*In 2011, the Washington, DC foreign policy and national security establishment
welcomed the tectonic eruption of violence on the Arab Street as a march toward
democracy, progress toward peaceful-coexistence, Facebook and youth revolutions
- an Arab Spring.
However, a reality check demonstrates that it has been a ruthless
Arab Tsunami, exposing endemic intra-Arab and intra-Muslim terrorism,
subversion and violent power struggles, tribally, ethnically, religiously,
ideologically, locally and regionally.
*In 2015, irrespective of Iran's core fanatical, repressive and megalomaniacal
ideology and systematic perpetration of war and terrorism, the architects of
the Iran nuclear accord (JCPOA) provided Iran's Ayatollahs with a $150bn
bonanza to bolster their ballistic, terroristic regional and global
expansionist machine.
They were guided by the assumption that the Ayatollahs were credible partners for negotiation,
amenable to peaceful-coexistence and influence-sharing with their Arab Sunni
neighbors. Moreover, the US disappointed most Iranians, by renouncing a
military (regime-change) option against the ruthless and lawless regime in
Teheran.
Middle East reality
In view of the aforementioned track record – which highlights a systematic gap
between Middle East reality and State Department policy - President Biden's
Middle East team may benefit from the studies of the late Prof. Elie Kedourie
(London School of Economics and Political Science), an iconic Middle East
historian, whose politically-incorrect books and articles have been vindicated
by Middle East reality.
According to Prof. Kedourie (The Chatham House Version): "The sober assumption
that Middle East instability is endemic has found little favor either in
Britain or in America….
"One of the simplest and yet most effective means known to mankind of
keeping in touch with reality is to contrast what people say with what they
do…. Alien conventions and unfamiliar speech add to the confusion…. All too
often assumptions are not tested on the pulse of experience, they remain mere
abstract doctrines, and men are taken up and praised for what they say rather
than for what they are….
"The language of modern English and American politics is now adopted by
the whole world and - divorced from the tradition in which it has value and
dignity - becomes a debased, inflated jargon, a showman's patter by which
[Middle East] tyranny is made to seem constitutional, and crookedness to look
straight….
"What may one properly mean by a settlement of the Palestine problem....?
This dispute has become secondary…. The dispute now lies between Israel and the
Arab states…. In the wider dispute, Israel is the immediate but not the most
important factor. This lies in the rivalries of the Arab states…. A solution of
the Palestine problem will accomplish little even if all the Israelis were
exterminated and their state destroyed. For then would perhaps come a
quarrel about the spoils and issues even more intractable, but certainly not
peace….
"Tidy doctrines will not help, and simple answers will deceive. The
disorder of the Middle East is deep and endemic, and the disappearance of
Israel… will neither cure or even mitigate it. The very attempts to
modernize Middle Eastern society, to make it Western or 'democratic' must bring
about evils, which may be greater than the benefits….
"[In the Middle East], political power is traditionally capricious in the
transmissions, acquired by violence and established by repression…. Political
stability is chancy and precarious…. Habits of stability are unknown, and the
subject has more reason to fear the displeasure of his masters…. Sedition,
treason and civil war are common enough in Middle Eastern history….
"The Muslim theory of international relations recognizes two possible
situations only: war on the 'infidel' or his subjugation to the
'faithful.' Peace with him de jure is hostility until he recognizes the
authority of the Muslim ruler…. The comity of nations, or the sanctity of
treaties, the rules of natural justice, or decent respect for the opinions of
mankind, are quite alien and largely unintelligible to the Middle East…. (ibid,
pp 1-12)
Conclusion
In 2021, ten years following the eruption of the Arab Tsunami – and contrary to
the expectations of the State Department - the Arab Street is still dominated
by its intrinsic 1,400-year-old instability, unpredictability, violent
intolerance, human rights squashing, despotism, intra-Arab and intra-Muslim
wars and terrorism, and the tenuous nature of all regimes, policies and
accords, while the Arab Tsunami has yet to reach its peak.
Such a policy failure is attributed – if one
employs Prof. Elie Kedourie's studies – to "successive and cumulative
manifestations of illusion, misjudgment, maladroitness and failure (ibid,
p. ix)."
Will President Biden's foreign policy and national security team, dealing with
Iran's Ayatollahs and the Middle East at-large – which are epicenters of global
proliferation of ballistic and nuclear technologies, as well as Islamic
terrorism - learn from past critical errors by avoiding, or repeating, them?
At stake is regional and global stability, including the national security and
homeland security of the USA.
And:
| Biden Administration Fumbles While Iran Makes Sprint for ULTIMATE Weapon | | Are they Betraying America? |
| | Keep Reading → | |
|
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Fitton persists:
 | Judicial Watch Asks U.S. Supreme Court to Uphold Court Ruling Requiring Hillary Clinton Email Testimony Judicial Watch announced that it filed a petition for writ of certiorari (“cert petition”) with the U.S. Supreme Court asking it to take up its challenge to an appeals court order exempting Hillary Clinton from testifying under oath about her emails. Judicial Watch argues the court should hear its case because the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit erred in giving Clinton unwarranted special treatment that conflicts both with Supreme Court precedent and the precedents of other courts of appeal, including its own. READ MORE+++
How un-American can you get?
| Read it Here >> ++++++++++++++++++ A Letter to My Liberal Friends If you want to know what
worries conservatives, look at California.
By Bret Stephens Opinion
Columnist
Last Wednesday, Nick Kristof addressed
his column to his conservative hometown friends in Yamhill, Ore.,
urging them to hold liberals accountable while doing the same for right-wing
extremists, kooks and charlatans. In that spirit — and with Nick’s cheerful
acquiescence — I offer a rejoinder in the form of a letter to my liberal
friends. Dear Friends, No, I can’t relax! And no, I’m not
worried that the Biden administration is going to send Trump voters to
“re-education camps,” impose Cuban-style socialism or put out the welcome mat
for MS-13. I’m just afraid that today’s Democratic leaders might look to the
very Democratic state of California as a model for America’s future. You remember California: People used to
want to move there, start businesses, raise families, live their American
dream. These
days, not so much. Between July 2019 and July 2020, more people — 135,400 to be precise —
left the state than moved in, one of only a dozen times in over a century when
that’s happened. The website exitcalifornia.org helps
keep track of where these Golden State exiles go. No. 1 destination: Texas,
followed by Arizona, Nevada and Washington. Three of those states have no state
income tax, while Arizona’s is capped at 4.5 percent for married couples making
over $318,000. In California, by contrast, married
couples pay more than twice that rate on
income above $116,000. (And rates go even higher for higher earners.)
Californians also pay some of the nation’s highest sales tax rates (8.66
percent) and corporate tax rates (8.84
percent), as well as the highest taxes on gasoline (63 cents on a gallon as of January,
as compared with 20 cents in Texas). How does California fare on these
fronts? The state ranks 21st in the country in
terms of spending per public school pupil, but 37th in
its K-12 educational outcomes. It ties Oregon for third
place among states in terms of its per capita homeless rate.
Infrastructure? As of 2019, the state had an estimated $70 billion in deferred
maintenance backlog. Debt? The state’s unfunded pension liabilities in 2019 ran
north of $1.1 trillion, according to an analysis
by Stanford professor Joe Nation, or $81,300 per household. And then there’s liberal governance in
the cities. In San Francisco, District Attorney Chesa Boudin has championed the
calls for decriminalizing prostitution,
public urination, public camping, blocking sidewalks and open-air drug use. Click this link and take a brief stroll through
a local train station to see how these sorts of policies work out. Predictably,
a result of decriminalization has been more actual criminality. Recent
trends include an
estimated 51 percent jump in San Francisco burglaries and a 41 percent jump in
arsons. For the Bay Area as a whole, there has been a 35 percent spike in
homicides.
Yes, homicides have been rising in
cities around the country. But those trends themselves owe much to liberal
governance in like-minded jurisdictions like Seattle and New York, with their recent emphasis on
depolicing, decarceration, defunding, decriminalization and other deluded
attempts at criminal-justice reform. Funny, you don’t hear this about the
places Californians are fleeing to. Austin, the preferred destination
of San Francisco exiles, remains one of the safest big cities in
America (and it’s run by a Democrat). Another thing you don’t hear from Texas:
a board of education voting — as San Francisco’s just did —
to strip the names of Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and Paul Revere from
their respective schools, on grounds of sinning against the more recent
commandments of progressive dogma. Not that it really matters, since all these
schools remain closed for in-person learning thanks to the resistance of teachers
unions And then there is California’s
political class. Democrats hold both U.S. Senate seats, 42 of its 53 seats in
the House, have lopsided majorities in the State Assembly and Senate, run
nearly every big city and have controlled the governor’s mansion for a decade.
If ever there was a perfect laboratory for liberal governance, this is it. So
how do you explain these results? For four years, liberals have had a
hard time understanding how any American could even think of voting for
Republicans, given the party’s fealty to the former president. I’ve shared some
of that bewilderment myself. But — to adapt a line from another notorious
Californian — Democrats won’t have Donald Trump to kick around anymore, meaning
the consequences of liberal misrule will be harder to disguise or disavow. If
California is a vision of the sort of future the Biden administration wants for
Americans, expect Americans to demur. My unsolicited advice: Like
Republicans, Democrats do best when they govern from the center. Forget
California, think Colorado. A purple country needs a purple president — and a
political opposition with the credibility to keep him honest. The Times is committed to
publishing a
diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to
hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s
our email: letters@nytimes.com. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram.
Bret L. Stephens has been
an Opinion columnist with The Times since April 2017. He won a Pulitzer Prize
for commentary at The Wall Street Journal in 2013 and was previously editor in
chief of The Jerusalem Post ++++++++++++++++++++++ Only in Georgia! The GOP’s Marjorie Taylor Greene problemThe extremist Georgia congresswoman has no place in a major party, and even in a toxic political environment in which Republicans feel demonized, their reluctance to act is still indefensible.
Two years ago, House Republican Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) had no trouble in doing the right thing when it came to policing extremism in his caucus. But as calls grow for him to do something about Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), McCarthy is failing to respond. That the QAnon supporter with a history of backing a wide variety of lunatic conspiracy theories, including believing that the 9/11 attacks were faked and those with clear anti-Semitic themes like her claim that California wildfires were caused by space lasers linked to the Rothschild bank, stands unrebuked by her party is not only a disgrace. It’s also a gift that will keep on giving to their Democratic foes until McCarthy acts. His hesitancy to do so isn’t just a profound and indefensible mistake; it’s also a product of a changed political landscape in which both major parties seem neither able nor willing to deal with extremists within their rank. In a tribal culture war in which the goal is to brand all opponents as beyond the pale, the two sides have come to believe that punishing one of their own is giving their opponents an undeserved victory. In early 2019, things were very different. After tolerating Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) for years, his defense of “white nationalism” and “white supremacy” was finally a bridge too far for the GOP. With the strong support of other Republicans—though not then President Donald Trump—McCarthy removed King from all committee assignments. The following year, the party establishment went all out to support a primary challenge to King that resulted in his defeat, ending the problem that his continued presence in the House posed for Republicans. At the time, McCarthy’s exemplary discipline of King stood in stark contrast to the way House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was handling the Democrats’ extremism problem. When freshman House member Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) was exposed for having tweeted anti-Semitic memes about friends of Israel buying the support of Congress (“It’s all about the Benjamins”) and accusing Jewish legislators of dual loyalty, there were calls for Democrats to mete out the same discipline to her. But after criticizing Omar, Pelosi punted on any effort to rein her in. Not only did Omar escape censure for her calumnies, she was rewarded with a coveted spot on the Foreign Relations Committee. She and the other radical Democratic BDS movement supporter Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) became, along with fellow “Squad” member Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), the rock stars of their party, feted by late-night TV comedians and given spots on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine along with their enabler Pelosi. In the ensuing two years, the ranks of the “Squad” have expanded with their members no less extreme. Tlaib and new addition Jamal Bowman (D-N.Y.) both spread the blood libel about Israel cruelly denying the COVID-19 vaccine to Palestinians, despite the obvious falsity of the charge. But thanks to the U.S. Capitol riot and the way it has helped focus public attention on right-wing extremists, nobody is paying attention to AOC and her friends. Why then isn’t the GOP House leadership acting quickly to make clear that Taylor Greene does not speak for Republicans and they want nothing to do with her? Blame it in part on the way the election and its aftermath further polarized American politics. In the wake of the events on Jan. 6, Democrats have seemed intent not just on impeaching Trump for his role in setting the riot in motion. They have also inflated a violent mob egged on by those who told them an election was being stolen into an “insurrection” they now wish to link to everyone who raised questions about the election results. Rather than focus on the actual extremists who took part in the violence or even just on Trump’s dubious efforts to overturn the results even after his legal options for challenging them had been exhausted, the left’s goals have become far more ambitious. They clearly want to make the Capitol violence the seminal event of recent history and to leverage it as a club with which they can beat anyone who dissents from their agenda for the foreseeable future. With a partisan mainstream media behind them and Big Tech oligarchs also assisting in this effort, Republicans feel besieged and delegitimized. The GOP base is angry about the way Trump and conservatives are being censored by the left’s media allies. Moreover, they point to the Democrats’ hypocrisy with respect to condoning violent extremists, such as those who took part in hundreds of “mostly peaceful” Black Lives Matter demonstrations last year that turned into violent riots in cities throughout America. Many on the right, even those who are opponents of white supremacists and anti-Semitism, are in no mood to sacrifice one of their own in order to placate opponents who will give them no credit for doing so—just as they got none for what they did to King. That explains why Taylor Greene is getting support from rank-and-file Republicans that King, who was arguably not nearly as out-of-control or threatening, never received. And with her declaration that Trump, who still retains the sympathy of many of the 74 million people who voted for him three months ago, is backing her, McCarthy seems to be reasoning that getting rid of her will anger Republicans more than it will appease the rest of the country. With Democrats now threatening to vote to expel Taylor Greene from her two committee assignments if the Republicans don’t do it first, the GOP leadership is being put in a position where it will be damned by some of their supporters for meekly acquiescing to Democrat demands if they act against her and damned by everybody else if they don’t. Like the constitutionally questionable effort to impeach Trump, the Democrats’ goal is not so much to punish Taylor Greene as to embarrass and divide the Republican Party. But to understand the source of Republican reluctance is not to condone it. As a growing number of prominent members of the party, as well as the Republican Jewish Coalition, have said, denouncing Taylor Greene and her wildly extremist stands is an imperative. Even if Republicans have good reason to feel aggrieved about the way they’ve been treated, all of the efforts to change the subject from Taylor Greene to Omar or the BLM rioters amounts to nothing more than whataboutism. As David Harris, head of the liberal-leaning American Jewish Committee aptly pointed out, anti-Semitic extremism exists on both the left and the right, but the lack of action against the former can never excuse a failure on the part of the GOP to deal with its Marjorie Taylor Greene problem. The dilemma here is, after all, not merely political. We have already seen what happens when anti-Semitism is normalized with respect to BDS supporters and others on the left. If Republicans were to act in a manner as to allow Taylor Greene to pretend that she has a place in the mainstream of her party, it would send an unmistakable signal that those who peddle similar anti-Semitic, violent and dangerous conspiracy theories that half the country backs them even if it isn’t true. Trump’s petulant unwillingness to plainly condemn extremists at every opportunity enabled his opponents to portray him as an anti-Semite, even if that was palpably false. But House Republicans are in no position to send equivocal messages when the extremist in question is a member of their own caucus. They must unambiguously ostracize Taylor Greene—and soon. If they don’t, they will be in no position to complain if Democrats and the liberal media make her the face of the GOP in coming years. Jonathan S. Tobin is editor in chief of JNS—Jewish News Syndicate. Follow him on Twitter @Jonathans_tobin. +++++++++++++++++++++ |
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