We’ve normalized all kinds of genuinely destructive actions in the name of stopping the spread, such as shutting down schools on a dime, giving unchecked power to teachers unions, and firing people for not getting vaccinated. We've upended our children’s mental health, expanded our opioid crisis, mandated things we have no business mandating, and cratered our economy.
Click here for the full story
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Hamas Frogmen Chased Off By ‘Killer Zionist Dolphin’
Arab paranoia and conspiracy theories may be comical, but the Hamas maritime threat is no laughing matter.
By Pesach Benson, United With Israel
Hamas said that a group of its frogmen commandos were chased off the Gaza coast by a “killer Zionist dolphin.” According to the Jerusalem Post, the claim first appeared in Al-Quds, a Hamas-run newspaper.
The reports didn’t specify when the incident occurred or what exactly the frogmen were doing.
The Gaza terror organization also posted a video on Monday saying one of its frogmen commandos was killed by an IDF dolphin during the May, 2021 Gaza conflict.
The U.S. Navy is known for training bottlenose dolphins to locate and mark undersea mines. Bottlenose dolphins have a highly evolved sense of hearing. By making clicking sounds and listening to the echoes, they can locate prey, avoid predators and navigate obstacles, a skill known as echolocation. They were first used during the Vietnam War and were also deployed in the Persian Gulf during the First and Second Gulf Wars.
Hamas frogmen infiltrating Israel from the Mediterranean at the Zikkim beach during the Gaza war of 2014. (IDF)
It’s not clear if the Israeli Navy trains dolphins. The U.S. Navy denies rumors that it trains dolphins to kill, saying it’s impossible to train them to be combative.
In 2015, Hamas also said it captured a dolphin it claimed was carrying Israeli spying equipment.
Conspiracy theories about mysterious Zionist animals abound. Birds tagged with Israeli leg bands have sparked rumors and fueled conspiracy theories in Sudan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. In 2011, Hezbollah killed an endangered Bonelli’s eagle that an Israeli ornithologist tagged to track its movement.
Egyptians often attribute shark attacks in the Red Sea to the Mossad and on several occasions, PA President Mahmoud Abbas has accused Israel of releasing wild boars to damage Palestinian agriculture.
And in 2018, an adviser to Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claimed that Israel and other nations used lizards and chameleons to spy on nuclear facilities.
Hamas’ Maritime Threat
While Arab paranoia is somewhat comical, the Hamas maritime threat is no laughing matter.
During the 11-day conflict in May 2021, Hamas claimed it had drone submarines carrying explosives and capable of navigating themselves to maritime targets before blowing up. Israel destroyed one shortly after its launch. It’s believed that Iran is assisting Hamas in developing small drone ships and submarines while providing the terror group with military-grade underwater gear.
During the Gaza conflict of 2014, four Hamas frogman infiltrated Israel from the sea about one mile up the coast from the border. They were quickly spotted and killed by a tank shell. Automatic weapons, explosives and grenades were found on their bodies.
With the Israeli Navy enforcing a blockade on Gaza, Hamas frogmen are also reportedly key figures in smuggling Iranian weapons into the Strip.
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Biden Has Met the Enemy, and He Is Us
What if Kamala Harris believed it when she likened the Capitol riot to Pearl Harbor and 9/11?
By the Editorial Board
The mistrust of political leaders that has been eroding American national cohesion for years is matched only by their apparent willingness to say and do things that justify it.
So when Vice President Kamala Harris suggests, as she did last week, a sort of equivalence between last year’s Capitol riot on the one hand and Pearl Harbor and 9/11 on the other, we might give her the benefit of the doubt and put it down to a characteristic combination of historical ignorance, cheap rhetorical excess and hyperpartisan overreach. With the Biden administration’s political woes intensifying in an election year, the identification of the domestic opposition as a seditious enemy may be their last, best hope of salvaging something.
But there’s another, more intriguing possibility. What if she and the administration she works for actually believe their own narrative that they are engaged in an existential, twilight struggle against the forces of darkness among us. That those forces are as menacing to the American way of life as were the Axis powers and Islamist terrorists? What if the military leaders who have been steeping themselves in the modern-day canon of progressive thought see the threat of white supremacist ideology, domestic far-right extremism and the revanchism of the Trumpists as the principal clear and present danger to national security?
To ask this is not necessarily to mock or even challenge the idea that the U.S. has profound domestic divisions, or to deny that some in the country reject the basic elements of the compact necessary to keep a democracy from violently disintegrating.
But it’s legitimate to ask what this means for the administration’s larger conception of national security. How does the perceived need to focus on domestic threats affect the objectives of America’s global strategy? No one would say it’s impossible to confront domestic threats and external challenges at the same time. But this administration claims to face a greater threat from domestic enemies than any in the past 150 years. The most important question: How does the rest of the world—especially America’s adversaries—hear the Biden-Harris message, and what calculations do they make as a result?
The answer is depressingly obvious.
Mr. Biden seems to think that triumphing over his domestic enemies is itself the primary condition for assuring the success of America’s interests in the world. Rallying the leaders of 100 countries at his Summit for Democracy last month, he called the struggle “the defining challenge of our time” and said that democracy was in retreat in the U.S. too.
He may ultimately prove right. At minimum we can say that America will have trouble pursuing its interests if it is hobbled by bitterly divisive domestic politics.
But in the meantime autocrats aren’t easily persuaded by rallying cries for democratic renewal. They’re more impressed by the realpolitik of diplomacy and strategic decision-making, and for now they’re seizing their chances.
In Europe, the Middle East and Asia, the early steps of the Biden administration seem—to friends and potential foes alike—to reflect the distraction from the threat at home.
Diplomats in the countries of these regions speak—in public and even more emphatically in private—of a world in which America has retreated to the sidelines.
We don’t know how the latest Ukraine crisis will play out, but the concessions the Biden team has already made to Vladimir Putin are causing deep disquiet all over Europe.
Sitting down to negotiate with Russia over its demand for changes in the military posture of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Central and Eastern Europe is a step beyond what any of Mr. Biden’s post-Cold War predecessors have done. It’s worth noting again the irony of a Democratic president who came into office promising to repair U.S. alliances. As alarming as Donald Trump’s rhetoric sometimes was to European leaders, Mr. Biden’s diplomacy is proving scarier in practice, as it did in Afghanistan.
Elsewhere in the world there is evidence of a vacuum left by American leadership getting filled in ways that are unlikely to further American interests.
Officials in the Middle East are listening to the Biden security priorities with unease—and making their own plans. Last month Saudi Arabia and Iran began an unexpected diplomatic rapprochement. Though little solid progress has been made so far, the consequences could be far-reaching. The Trump administration’s tilt toward Riyadh and an Israel-Arab détente has been replaced by vacillation. The elusive search for an Iranian nuclear deal, the ostracizing of the Saudis because of the brutalities of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and the progressive left’s aversion to full support for Israel suggest an America reduced to follower rather than leader status.
The largest question concerns China. Perhaps the Biden team is subordinating all security considerations to the development of a brilliant strategy to manage and counter China’s rise. But the signs so far are not encouraging.
Mr. Biden isn’t primarily to blame for the fact that a third of American voters don’t think he’s a legitimate president. But he does lead a party many of whose activists don’t seem to think America’s traditional values are worth defending at home or abroad. And when his administration elevates (or reduces) its domestic opponents to the status of a foreign enemy, the only winners are the real foreign enemies.
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My friend Toameh writes:
Arabs 'Frustrated' With Biden's Iran Policy
It remains to be seen whether the Biden administration and the other parties negotiating with Iran's mullahs will heed the voices coming from the Arab world -- or continue to allow the mullahs to hoodwink them by having the US sanctions lifted while Tehran continues to advance its plans to obtain nuclear weapons and extend its control to more Arab countries. (Image source: iStock) |
Syrian-born TV host Faisal Al-Kasim recently asked his 5.9 million followers on Twitter the following: "Which is better, Israel's reputation or Iran's reputation in the [Middle East] region?" The result of the poll showed that 74.8% viewed Israel as having a better reputation as opposed to 25.2% in favor of Iran.
The next day, Al-Kasim, who hosts a popular debate show on the Qatari-owned Al-Jazeera network called The Opposite Direction, conducted another survey on Twitter. This time, he asked his followers: "Do you support the Israeli bombing of Iran and its militias in Syria?"
According to the results of the poll, 77.8% said they supported the Israeli military strikes, while only 22.2% voiced opposition.
Al-Kasim's findings did not come as a surprise to many Arabs, especially those living in the Gulf states, who continue to express deep concern over Iran's ongoing meddling in their internal affairs.
This concern is being expressed as the talks aimed at restoring the 2015 nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), are taking place in Vienna between Iran and world powers that are signatories to the deal.
The Iranians are demanding the complete lifting of sanctions imposed by the US after its unilateral withdrawal from the deal in 2018, as a precondition for reaching a new agreement with the world powers.
Many Arabs, however, are worried about the Europeans' and Biden administration's perceived appeasement of the mullahs in Tehran.
Referring to remarks by US special envoy for Iran Robert Malley, who told CNN that "at some point in the not-so-distant future, we will have to conclude that the JCPOA is no more, and we'd have to negotiate a wholly new different deal," the Saudi newspaper Al-Yaum described the statements as "frustrating messages that reflect the overall American position towards the Iranian escalation."
The newspaper said that the Biden administration's position "raises a question mark about the seriousness of American efforts to save the world from Iranian threats."
"The Iranian regime insists on adopting, supporting and arming terrorist entities in order to continue committing crimes and violations that destabilize the security and stability and the deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the region."
According to Iraqi military expert Adnan Salman:
"Iran's interventions in neighboring countries such as Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, Bahrain and Kuwait have become clear and tangible... Iran created many supporters for it in these countries to implement its old policy of exporting the [Islamic] revolution."
Saudi writer and political analyst Abdel Aziz Khamis pointed out that since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, Iran's "expansionist steps" in the region increased. The Iranian intervention, Khamis said, reached its climax when Iran boasted that it occupies four Arab capitals: Baghdad, Beirut, Sana'a and Damascus:
"The Iranians have turned these Arab capitals into bases for its armed militias, providing them with money, weapons and everything they need to assert Iran's hegemony over the region... The Ansar Allah group in Yemen [the Houthis], Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Hezbollah Brigades and Sayed al-Shuhada Brigades and other gangs in Iraq, as well as other brutal gangs in the Syrian and Palestinian territories, have served as tools that allowed Tehran to interfere in the affairs of these countries and threaten others."
Like other Arab commentators, Khamis said that he does not understand the silence and indifference of the international community towards the "aggravating situation of Iranian tampering with the region."
Saleh Al-Qallab, a prominent Jordanian writer and former minister of information, warned that the "Iranian penetration of the Arab region has crossed all borders."
"The situation in this region is not comfortable at all," he said. "What Iran is doing is tantamount to an open war against the Arabs."
Al-Qallab pointed out that the Iranian-backed Houthi militia in Yemen has been launching rocket and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia. He called on the Arabs to rally behind Saudi Arabia as it continues to face threats by Iran's proxy.
Former Kuwaiti Minister of Information and Culture Saad Bin Tefla Al-Ajami said that the world powers that are currently holding negotiations with the Iranians in Vienna do not care about Iran's "hostile policies" towards the Arabs. "Iran is interfering in the region with the aim of dominating it," Al-Ajami remarked.
"Iran is driven by a combination of racist ideology and the absence of an Arab or international deterrent to stop its blatant interference in the [Arab] region. Iran seeks to create a state within a state in the Arab countries. The current Lebanese model of Iran's hegemony through Hezbollah is the model that Iran aspires to and plans for in all the Arab countries."
Al-Ajami expressed disappointment over the failure of the international community to move to "deter the Iranian intrusion." The international community, whose representatives are negotiating with the Iranians in Vienna over Tehran's nuclear program, "is not concerned about [Iran's] aggressive policies against us," he added. "The priorities and interests of the world powers are different from ours, although they are aware of Iran's destabilizing policies for the entire region."
Echoing the Arab countries' growing concern over the current US policy towards Iran, Egyptian writer Emil Amin said that the Biden administration's decision to negotiate with the Iranians was "dangerous and intriguing."
The Biden administration, Amin added, refuses to disclose information about the negotiations that could "pose grave dangers" to the US.
"The Biden administration argues that making this information available may harm American national security and reveal intelligence sources. This excuse is flimsy and weak. Here is the clear truth: the weak Biden administration is striving to reach an agreement [with Iran] at any cost to beautify its image in front of the Americans."
Such warnings on the part of Arabs about Iran's malicious intentions surface each time the world powers and the Iranians resume the nuclear deal talks in Vienna.
These warnings reflect the increasing concern in the Arab world about a deal that would embolden Iran's mullahs and encourage them to continue their "expansionist and hostile" policies against the Arabs. The warnings, which have become commonplace in the Arab media, are mainly directed towards the Biden administration.
It is encouraging, nonetheless, to see the growing support among Arabs for Israel's military strikes against the Iranian-backed militias in Syria. The Arabs seem to understand that Iran's intervention in Syria has caused more violence and bloodshed there.
Likewise, Israel's better reputation compared to Iran among many Arabs, as shown by the survey by the Syrian-born TV personality, is a point of light.
These Arabs, in short, are saying that they view Iran and the United States, and not Israel, as the major threats to their security and stability.
It now remains to be seen whether the Biden administration and the other parties negotiating with the mullahs will heed the voices coming from the Arab world -- or continue to allow the mullahs to hoodwink them by having the US sanctions lifted while Tehran continues to advance its plans to obtain nuclear weapons and extend its control to more Arab countries.
Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.
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Give these a thought:
Life is not a fairy tale. If you lose your shoe at midnight,
you’re drunk!!
If women are upset at Trump’s naughty words, who in the hell
bought 80 million copies of 50 Shades of Gray?
Jim Comey answered, "I don’t know," "I don’t
recall," and "I don't remember" 236 times while under oath. But
he remembered enough to write a book.
President Trump should nominate Hillary Clinton for the next
opening on the supreme court. Then he could finally get her investigated.
Not one feminist has defended Sarah Sanders. It seems women's
rights only matter if those women are liberals.
No Border Walls. No voter ID laws. Have you figured it out yet?
Chelsea Clinton got out of college and got a job at NBC that
paid $900,000 per year. Her mom flies around the country speaking out about
white privilege.
SOCIALISM: An idea that is so good that it has to be
mandatory. Bernie Sanders walks into a bar and yells... "Free drinks for
everyone!" Then he looks around and says "Who's buying?"
And just like that they went from being against foreign
interference in our elections to allowing non-citizens to vote in our
elections.
Watching the left come up with schemes to "catch
Trump" is like watching Wile E. Coyote trying to catch Road Runner.
President Trump's wall will cost less than the Obamacare website
alone. Let that sink in, America.
We are one election away from open borders, socialism, gun
confiscation, and full term abortion nationally. We are fighting evil.
They sent more troops and armament to arrest Roger Stone than
they sent to defend Benghazi.
60 years ago, Venezuela was 4th on the world economic
freedom index. Today, they are 179th and their citizens are dying of
starvation. In only 10 years, Venezuela was destroyed by democratic
socialism.
Russia donated $0.00 to the Trump
campaign. Russia donated $145,600,000 to the Clinton Foundation. But
Trump was the one investigated !
Nancy Pelosi invited illegal aliens to the State of the Union
address. President Trump Invited victims of
illegal aliens to the State of the Union address. Let that sink in.
A socialist is basically a communist who doesn't have the power
to take everything from their citizens at gunpoint ... Yet!
How do you walk 3,000 miles across Mexico without food or
support and show up at our border 100 pounds overweight and with a cellphone?
Alexandria Ocasio Cortez wants to ban cars, ban planes, give out
universal income and thinks socialism works. She calls Donald Trump crazy.
Bill Clinton paid $850,000 to Paula Jones To get her to go away.
I don't remember the FBI raiding his lawyer's office.
The same media that told me Hillary Clinton had a 95% chance of
winning now tells me Trump's approval ratings are low.
"The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run
out of other people's money." So said Margaret Thatcher
Maxine Waters opposes voter ID laws; She thinks that they are
racist. You need to have a photo ID to attend her town hall meetings.
Trump — They're not after me. They're after
you. I'm just in their way.
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If you are interested in the theft of voting rights by radical Democrats you should watch and read this by the nation's foremost authority on voting rights, Hans:
Life is not a fairy tale. If you lose your shoe at midnight, you’re drunk!!
If women are upset at Trump’s naughty words, who in the hell bought 80 million copies of 50 Shades of Gray?
Jim Comey answered, "I don’t know," "I don’t recall," and "I don't remember" 236 times while under oath. But he remembered enough to write a book.
President Trump should nominate Hillary Clinton for the next opening on the supreme court. Then he could finally get her investigated.
Not one feminist has defended Sarah Sanders. It seems women's rights only matter if those women are liberals.
No Border Walls. No voter ID laws. Have you figured it out yet?
Chelsea Clinton got out of college and got a job at NBC that paid $900,000 per year. Her mom flies around the country speaking out about white privilege.
SOCIALISM: An idea that is so good that it has to be mandatory. Bernie Sanders walks into a bar and yells... "Free drinks for everyone!" Then he looks around and says "Who's buying?"
And just like that they went from being against foreign interference in our elections to allowing non-citizens to vote in our elections.
Watching the left come up with schemes to "catch Trump" is like watching Wile E. Coyote trying to catch Road Runner.
President Trump's wall will cost less than the Obamacare website alone. Let that sink in, America.
We are one election away from open borders, socialism, gun confiscation, and full term abortion nationally. We are fighting evil.
They sent more troops and armament to arrest Roger Stone than they sent to defend Benghazi.
60 years ago, Venezuela was 4th on the world economic freedom index. Today, they are 179th and their citizens are dying of starvation. In only 10 years, Venezuela was destroyed by democratic socialism.
Russia donated $0.00 to the Trump campaign. Russia donated $145,600,000 to the Clinton Foundation. But Trump was the one investigated !
Nancy Pelosi invited illegal aliens to the State of the Union address. President Trump Invited victims of illegal aliens to the State of the Union address. Let that sink in.
A socialist is basically a communist who doesn't have the power to take everything from their citizens at gunpoint ... Yet!
How do you walk 3,000 miles across Mexico without food or support and show up at our border 100 pounds overweight and with a cellphone?
Alexandria Ocasio Cortez wants to ban cars, ban planes, give out universal income and thinks socialism works. She calls Donald Trump crazy.
Bill Clinton paid $850,000 to Paula Jones To get her to go away. I don't remember the FBI raiding his lawyer's office.
The same media that told me Hillary Clinton had a 95% chance of winning now tells me Trump's approval ratings are low.
"The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money." So said Margaret Thatcher
Maxine Waters opposes voter ID laws; She thinks that they are racist. You need to have a photo ID to attend her town hall meetings.
Trump — They're not after me. They're after you. I'm just in their way.
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If you you are interested in the theft of states voting rights then you should listen to and red this by the nation's authority on
same, Hans Von Spakovsky.
He is a co-writer with John Fund who I had speak at a previous SRIC President's Dinner Fund raiser
Links to two short videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Hans paper on the John Lewis bill. https://www.heritage.org/
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Let's hear it from our corrupt FBI:
FBI Refuses to Explain FBI Role in January 6
Julie Kelly January 11, 2022
A top official with the Federal Bureau of Investigation repeatedly refused to disclose how many FBI agents and informants were involved in the Capitol protest on January 6, 2021.
Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday morning, Jill Sanborn, executive assistant director of the FBI’s national security branch, cited privileged protocols as to why she would not tell Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) the number of FBI assets that “actively participated” in the protest. “Sir, I’m sure you can appreciate that I can’t go into sources and methods,” Sanborn, who served as assistant director of the FBI’s counterterrorism division when the protest erupted on January 6 and would have full knowledge of FBI undercover operations, told Cruz.
The Texas senator also demanded to know if FBI agents committed any violent crimes or incited any violent crimes on January 6. Sanborn again declined to answer. Presenting photos of Ray Epps, a man caught on video on both January 5 and 6, imploring people to “go into the Capitol” but has not been charged with any crime, Cruz asked Sanborn whether she knew Epps. “I’m aware of the individual, sir, I don’t have the specific background to him,” Sanborn replied.
“Miss Sanborn, was Ray Epps a fed?” Cruz asked. Again, Sanborn said she could not answer the question. Cruz also asked why, based on reporting by Darren Beattie at Revolver News, Epps’ “magically disappeared” from the FBI’s Most Wanted List related to January 6.
Again, Sanborn had no answer.
According to a recent Newsweek investigative report, the Justice Department stationed elite FBI forces at the FBI training academy in Quantico the weekend before January 6; hundreds of agents were deployed to the Capitol grounds that morning.
In September, the New York Times confirmed that FBI informants infiltrated the Proud Boys, an alleged militia group, and participated in the first breach of the Capitol perimeter right before 1 p.m. The man seen with the Proud Boys before the first intrusion was Ray Epps.
Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) asked Matthew Olsen, head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, whether any plain-clothes officers were at the Capitol on January 6. Olsen, who announced today the formation of a domestic terror unit within DOJ, said he was not “aware” of any plainclothes officers within the crowd or inside the building on January 6. Cotton slammed Olsen for repeatedly refusing to give the committee specific answers. “Did you prepare for this hearing, did you know this hearing was happening before this morning, Cotton asked Olsen.
Cotton also pressed Olsen about Epps; Olsen deferred the question to Sanborn. “Do you really expect us to believe you’ve never heard the name Ray Epps, you don’t know anything about him?” Cotton asked. Olsen said he had “no information at all” about Epps.
About Julie Kelly
Julie Kelly is a political commentator and senior contributor to American Greatness. She is the author of January 6: How Democrats Used the Capitol Protest to Launch a War on Terror Against the Political Right and Disloyal Opposition: How the NeverTrump Right Tried―And Failed―To Take Down the President. Her past work can be found at The Federalist and National Review. She also has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, The Hill, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, and Genetic Literacy Project. She is the co-host of the “Happy Hour Podcast with Julie and Liz.” She is a graduate of Eastern Illinois University and lives in suburban Chicago with her husband and two daughters.
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Do you buy this? You decide.
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