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We traded narcissistic success for mentally deficient incompetence:
Meanwhile:
According to this Democrat, blaming Biden for rising gas prices is un-American.
For God's sake, the King is naked you fool.
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Crisis for Biden’s Chaotic Foreign Policy
The administration’s approach to great-power diplomacy with Russia and China has completely failed.
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One can argue that we should not pluck Ukraine's chestnuts out of the fire. America , post war, allowed itself to turn omnipotence into arrogance and we weakened ourselves by overspending and thinking we could police the world.
On the other hand, one could argue we are the only nation capable of standing up to tyrants. The problem is, we have had only a few really good presidents in the last decades. Reagan and Trump in my opinion and the rest not so good and some total disasters, ie. Carter, Obama, Biden.
Ukraine Needs More Than Sympathy From the West to Beat Russia
I know sending us planes and weapons is risky. But the risks of inaction are even greater.
By Victor Pinchuk
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Learning Lessons From the War in Ukraine
By: George Friedman
After a war, all parties turn to “lessons learned,” a phrase that has become commonplace. A war is, in a hideous way, a learning opportunity, with the goal being that the successes and failures of one's own forces are identified and the process that led to either outcome is studied and integrated into planning and training for the next war. This is altogether reasonable and necessary. It is also obvious that the process is an occasion for finger-pointing: Taking credit for another’s victories or shifting blame for defeats is an inevitable part of the learning process, not to mention the promotions process. Officers are human like the rest of us. A more troubling aspect of the learning process is that the war gets elevated to revealed truth, and sometimes guides nations to future defeat, the past towering over all the changes that have rendered the lessons learned not only useless but catastrophic. Napoleon’s infantry charge was much valued in 1914, with leaders initially unable to grasp the meaning of the machine gun.
The world is filled with lessons from the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I do my share, but it is important to understand that the middle of a war is not the best place to draw conclusions. Wars are tricky things, as the U.S. learned in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. Still, it is in battle that the most important lessons are learned and implemented without a two-year renewal process. Staying alive is a great motivator for innovation.
The Russians are said to be throwing major reserves into the fight. They are also recruiting Syrian army forces and, it is said, mercenaries from around the world. Obviously, they expect a long war and are running short of infantry, or something else is happening. Perhaps they intend to follow this war by rolling into Eastern Europe, and they are recruiting foreign forces for occupation duty – an interesting theory for which I have not the slightest evidence. The Ukrainians are mobilizing all their citizens. How long will citizens fight if the battle becomes hopeless?
It is on the strategic level, not the operational or tactical level, that the important lessons can be seen. Russia is a poor country with a middling army, and not a great power. But it is surrounded by even poorer countries with even worse armies. Spirit can get you so far, but a ruthless, disciplined army might get you where you want to go. It is not a pretty sight, but it can be very effective.
In the end, you know who won by whose flag is flying over the capital, and that we will find out.
But the most important strategic lesson so far has nothing to do with Russia or Ukraine. The United States has demonstrated that perhaps the most powerful weapon in the world is the weaponized dollar. World trade requires U.S. dollars, either in hand or as the benchmark against which trading takes place. The euro is a distant second, and no one would sign onto a five-year construction project denominated in yuan. In order to access dollars, one must have access to the place that prints them, the Federal Reserve, or to some financial institution swimming in dollars – and such institutions are obsessed with not running excessively afoul of U.S. regulations. The story of how this works is as complex as a naval airstrike, and yet can be more deadly. No dollars means that no one will take local moolah with which to buy anything. The United States, being by far the largest economy in the world and the largest importer, can wreak havoc on a country. As Iran has discovered, lack of access to dollars coupled with blocking exports can cripple a nation’s economy.
The key to weaponizing the dollar and trade is the cooperation of other nations. The United States has mobilized not only most of NATO but also countries like Japan, which is far from the fighting but close to the dollar. The desire of allies neither to engage in kinetic war nor to tick off the United States created a coalition of central banks all cooperating to isolate the Russian economy, which depends on the export of primary commodities (energy) rather than industrial or technical products. The combination of banning Russian energy imports to the U.S. and managing the dollar as a weapon – in concert with a large alliance – poses an unanticipated military crisis for Russia.
It has been said that no nation has been more than three unserved meals away from revolution. The details are nonsense, but the principle is correct. Heroic action is somehow more manageable than long, unremitting misery. It is one thing to die for your country; it is another to see your children go hungry.
The American war strategy is partly derived from not wanting to engage Russian troops in combat, both because of an aversion to losing any more wars and because the center of gravity of the enemy today is not military but financial. Unlike an airstrike, financial strikes don’t suddenly explode. They slowly grind away at the fabric of the nation until the flag itself lies in tattlers. Or that’s the theory.
There is, of course, a downside. In every war the homefront suffers. In the U.S. during World War II, gasoline was severely rationed along with things like cosmetics (metal in the case, oil in the makeup). The United States endured, with grumbling, because unlike the other nations, three meals a day were available and movies were playing.
The United States today is facing a degree of pain in its economic offensive, mostly in the cost of gasoline and other goods. The question is whether it will stand behind the economic offensive to defend a nation of strategic importance to the United States but of little emotional significance. Getting even for the attack on Pearl Harbor was one thing, guaranteeing the safety of Kharkiv is another matter. It is easier to fight than to limit your diet.
So, getting back to lessons learned. The military lessons that people are obsessed with are not definitive. Russia may win, and an ugly win is still a win. Russia may lose, and a loss in Ukraine might mean a lot or a little to the Russians. We are not ready to do what I have done, and discuss the deeper meaning of Russia’s military outcome.
But we are already able to speak of two things. First, the use of the dollar and access to the Fed appear to be a striking weapon. The U.S. has isolated Russia without the need for a blockade. The lesson, tried in a small portion with Iran, proved its effectiveness, and Russia showed it could scale. And most important, it is a weapon only the U.S. has. This week, U.S. officials are talking with Chinese officials. The Chinese have many economic problems and need dollars. That does not mean they will go quietly and without demanding concessions, but the Chinese have learned that Russian military power does not match U.S. economic power. As for invading Taiwan, one glance at Russia’s performance in Ukraine and the U.S. counter proves two things: Do not ever assume a war is a slam dunk. And do not assume the only defenses in a kinetic war are things that go boom.
The outcome of the Ukraine-Russia war is of some strategic importance, and of great moral importance. That outcome is unknown as yet. But the certainty of the U.S. controlling the global trade currency has been demonstrated, at least until an alternative currency emerges and people are prepared to sign five-year deals in it.
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Finally:
Iran Deal II: Biden’s Next Disaster - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics
By Jed Babbin
He’s as determined to get it through as Putin is to repossess Ukraine.
Yesterday, Iranian missiles struck near the huge U.S. consulate in northern Iraq. Iran claimed the attack was in retaliation for an Israeli strike that killed two members of its Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Syria last week.
What is President Biden going to do about it? He’s bound and determined to make a new nuclear weapons deal with Iran.
For one brief moment, it appeared that Vladimir Putin, of all people, was going to prevent Joe Biden from making the worst mistake of his presidency. Biden is obsessed with getting Iran to sign a new version of the 2015 nuclear weapons deal that Obama signed and Trump canceled in 2018. It will be even worse than the original deal.
Biden is obsessed with getting a new deal with Iran for two reasons. First, he has dedicated his presidency to undoing everything that Donald Trump did, regardless of how good it was for America’s economy and national security. Trump’s cancellation of Obama’s “Joint Cooperative Plan of Action” deal (JCPOA) with Iran was one of the best things he did as president. Second, Biden wants to outdo Obama and believes a new version of the JCPOA would be his signal achievement.
For one brief moment, it appeared that Vladimir Putin, of all people, was going to prevent Joe Biden from making the worst mistake of his presidency.
Biden has relied on indirect negotiations with Iran because Iran’s negotiators won’t deal directly with Americans. Biden is convinced that he can trust Iran to live up to its obligations under a new nuclear weapons deal.
Last month, Biden’s Iran negotiation team fell apart when three of the team quit because Biden was being too soft on Iran. Our position in the talks has not improved since.
Thanks to leaks by former State Department official Gabriel Noronha, who reportedly has been given a leaked draft of the deal, the agreement Biden is about to sign would do several things. Among them is the release of about $7 billion held by South Korea which Iran could spend on its nuclear program and terrorism.
Also, according to Noronha’s statements, the deal would lift sanctions on Iranians Mohsen Rezaei and Ali Akbar Velayati who were responsible for the 1994 bombing of a Jewish facility in Argentina where 85 people were killed, and hundreds more were injured. It would also remove sanctions against Iranian Gen. Hossein Dehghan, who led the Iranian Guard forces in Lebanon tied to the 1983 Beirut bombings where 241 U.S. Marines were killed.
As Noronha has said, the new deal would be a disaster.
About a week ago, Russia demanded that if Biden wanted to close the deal with Iran that Russian trade with Iran would have to be exempted from the new sanctions the world has imposed on Russia over Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Last Tuesday, Russia’s principle negotiator, Mikhail Ulyanov, increased Russia’s demands by seeking to protect all future trade and investment with Iran against Ukraine-related sanctions.
Ulyanov has been the principle negotiator with Iran. China, the UK, France, and Germany — all of whom signed the original deal in 2015 — were content with giving Ulyanov that responsibility. So was Biden.
On March 12, the Biden administration said it would either negotiate the deal without Russia’s inclusion or Russia would have to drop its demand. It isn’t clear at this point whether China or Russia would accept a new deal without Biden caving in on Russia’s demands. It’s also unclear whether Biden will, sometime soon, cave in to Russia’s demands.
It’s not too early to begin to learn the lessons that Putin’s Ukraine invasion teaches. As I wrote here last week, the first lesson is that Russia is a brutal power and that Putin is comfortable with his forces committing war crimes to achieve his goal of bringing Ukraine back under total Russian control. Biden won’t learn that lesson.
Another lesson from that war is that Russia is not a “new” nation under Putin, but just another Stalinist power intent on expanding its domination over former Soviet states. Neither China nor Iran is more trustworthy. Biden is unable or unwilling to learn that lesson.
On March 6, Ulyanov bragged about how Biden has been taken to the cleaners in the Iran negotiations. He said, “I am absolutely sincere in this regard when I say that Iran got much more than it could expect,” he said. “Our Chinese friends were also very efficient and useful as co-negotiators.”
What Iran has gained has been widely reported. To begin with, Iran has violated virtually all the requirements of the 2015 deal. It is now reportedly within a month of being able to produce a nuclear weapon. This is the much-feared “breakout point” that Israelis have warned about for years. Under the original deal, Iran’s enrichment of uranium was capped at 3.67 percent. It has enriched significant weights of uranium to 60 percent, which is close to weapons-grade material, manufactured uranium metal, and is believed to have developed nuclear triggers that can detonate nuclear weapons.
Iran’s development of missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons was not even covered by Obama’s 2015 deal. Iran won’t admit whether it now has missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons.
In the new deal, essentially all sanctions would be ended against Iran and the Iranians who have worked assiduously to produce nuclear weapons. Even the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is under the direct control of the ayatollahs, would be relieved of sanctions. The IRGC, which is Tehran’s principal terrorist arm, would be sanction-free under the new deal.
In March 2021, China signed an agreement with Iran under which it promised to invest $400 billion in Iran over 25 years in exchange for a steady supply of Iranian oil. Biden has never attempted to sanction China for violating our sanction against purchase of Iranian oil.
Under a new deal Iran would get access to about $7 billion (possibly as much as $12 billion) by South Korea. We should remember that Biden persuaded South Korea to release about $18 million of those funds to pay Iran’s delinquent UN dues.
Iran would also gain access to funds held by the U.S. under Biden’s new deal. Internationally, there is about $120 billion in Iran’s funds frozen by international sanctions. Iran would gain access to all or most of those funds under Biden’s new deal. Anyone who doubts that much of those funds would go to fund Iran’s terror operations around the world is as incompetent as Biden and his national security team.
The other terms of any new agreement won’t include those necessary to preclude Iran from developing and using nuclear weapons. There will be no new inspection regime that would allow inspectors to visit any suspected nuclear development site without notice or other limitation. They won’t compel Iran to export all of its enriched uranium with means to verify that they have done so. In short, it will be another disaster much like Obama’s 2015 deal.
The negotiations were suspended Friday but, sooner or later and probably too soon, Biden will make his new deal with Iran. It will endanger our national security and that of NATO members and Israel.
Those of us who have followed events in Iran since 1979 when the ayatollahs seized power know that Iran will never surrender its nuclear weapons capabilities peacefully. All Biden’s new agreement would accomplish is to aid Iran’s global terrorism and make war — possibly nuclear war — more imminent.
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Iran Is Using the War in Ukraine to Strengthen its Presence in Syria
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attend a news conference, a day ahead of the first meeting of the new Syrian Constitutional Committee, at the Untied Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Oct. 29, 2019. Photo: Reuters / Denis Balibouse.
JNS.org – According to political sources in Jerusalem, during their meeting at the Kremlin on March 5, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the Iranian threat and the Islamic Republic’s military entrenchment in Syria. Though the details of their conversation are unknown, senior Israeli security sources say Iran is exploiting the war in Ukraine to shore up its military presence in Syria.
The Syrian army now controls almost all of southern Syria. It closely coordinates with the Iranian militias, which significantly concerns Israel.
The anticipated nuclear deal between Iran and world powers is also no longer the focus of international interest, which naturally has shifted to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The signing of the deal may also be delayed by Russia’s demand of the United States that sanctions on Russia be lifted in the context of the deal. In the absence of a new deal, Iran can keep violating the 2015 agreement by enriching uranium beyond the allowed threshold.
If the nuclear deal is not signed in the coming days, Iran will be able to race toward the bomb with no international monitoring.
Putin has a clear interest in undercutting the nuclear deal, which President Biden is keen on signing as soon as possible. Although the Iranians are expressing concern about the delay, they are also keeping an eye on the United States, which is under tremendous pressure, and rubbing their hands in glee as Putin, their ally, makes life difficult for Biden.
The Israeli military recently beefed up preparedness on the northern border after Iran announced the deaths of two Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officers in an alleged Israeli strike near Damascus International Airport. According to Israeli security sources, the two officers were involved in Hezbollah’s precision-guided missile project.
Residents of southern Lebanon have expressed fear that the Iranian response would be carried out by Hezbollah from there. However, Israel Defense Force sources believe the response could also come from pro-Iran militias in Syria, Iraq or Yemen, using missiles or drones.
The Israeli assessment is that the Iranian response will come, but may be delayed by the Vienna nuclear talks. With the talks reportedly on the verge of an agreement (before Russia made its demand for its own sanctions relief), Israel believes that for now, Iran will not want to risk an escalation and the loss of the new status the agreement will grant it in terms of selling oil to Western countries.
The two Iranian colonels killed in the strikes were laid to rest in a large, official funeral in Tehran attended by former IRGC commander Brig.-Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari and IRGC Aerospace Force Commander Brig.-Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh. Iran threatened to take revenge against Israel, and Israeli military intelligence believes the threat is serious and will be carried out.
In 2018, seven Iranians were killed in an Israeli strike on the Tiyas military airbase (aka the T-4 airbase) east of Homs in Syria, including Col. Mehdi Dehghan Yazdeli, a commander from the IRGC Aerospace Force’s Shahid Karimi UAV base. In that case, the Iranians responded by firing dozens of rockets at Israeli targets in the Golan Heights.
While the cannons roar in Ukraine, Iran is active
As the war in Ukraine continues, the Iranians have begun a series of coordinated diplomatic and military moves with the Russian regime.
On Feb. 27, Gen. Ali Mamlouk, the head of Syria’s National Security Bureau, visited Tehran for the first time in two years, meeting with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Ali Shamkhani, secretary-general of Iran’s National Security Council. They discussed tightening security coordination and preparations for any possible repercussions for Syria from the war in Ukraine.
In the meeting with Ali Mamlouk, the Iranians also asked for quicker implementation of the Iranian-Syrian economic memorandums of understanding regarding energy, agricultural produce and the transportation sector. Alongside military activity, Iran is also deepening its economic involvement in Syria.
According to Israeli security sources, the Iranian militias in Syria have stepped up their activity in the south, in the Daraa and Suwayda regions, which worries Jordan’s King Abdullah, especially in light of increased drug smuggling from Syria to Jordan and from there to the Gulf States.
Iran has also intensified its arms smuggling to Syria and Lebanon, including drones, precision-guided missiles and aerial defense systems. According to Syrian sources, Israel is worried that Russia will help the Syrian army intercept its aircraft. Hence, it has preferred to attack Iranian targets in Syria with surface-to-surface missiles.
On March 2, Falih al-Fayyadh, one of the heads of the umbrella organization of the pro-Iranian militias in Iraq, Al-Hashd al-Shabi (the Popular Mobilization Forces), paid a visit to Damascus. There he met with Syrian President Bashar Assad and discussed the reinforcement of security on the Iraqi-Syrian border and the curtailing of the activity of the Kurds in Syria.
Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and conquest of large swaths of territory may, in the Iranians’ assessment, force Russia to transfer some of its military forces from Syria to Ukraine. As a result, Russia’s military power in Syria could decline while Iran’s military power and influence could grow.
Israel is concerned that Russia will give Syria its advanced S-300 anti-aircraft defense system. This system is already present in Syria, but Russian soldiers currently operate it. Its operation by the Syrian army’s air-defense forces could hamper the Israeli Air Force’s freedom of action in attacking Iranian targets in Syria.
A calming signal from Russia
A few days ago, the Russian embassy in Israel announced that the security coordination in Syria between the IDF and the Russian army would continue, affirming that “Our military officials discuss the practical issues of this substantively on a daily basis. This mechanism has proven to be useful and will continue to work.”
The Russian embassy posted on Facebook: “We are maintaining close contacts with our Israeli colleagues. We do not want Syrian territory to be used for actions against Israel or anyone else.”
As the war in Ukraine continues, however, things could change. In January 2022, Russian warplanes conducted a joint aerial patrol with Syrian planes along the Golan border to warn Israel about its attacks in Syria. The Russians are playing a carrot-and-stick game, and Israel does not want to find itself in a confrontation with them.
It is unclear how the Israeli attempt to mediate between Russia and Ukraine will turn out, or what will happen in Syria if Israel eventually has to side unequivocally with Ukraine and the United States. Israel cannot zigzag and “walk between the raindrops” indefinitely to maintain its freedom of action in Syria.
With Putin, there is no free lunch. At the moment, he is using Israel’s services to achieve his goals. However, ultimately what matters is interests, and in the course of the war in Ukraine, the picture could change rapidly, possibly to Israel’s detriment.
Yoni Ben Menachem, a veteran Arab affairs and diplomatic commentator for Israel Radio and Television, is a senior Middle East analyst for the Jerusalem Center. He served as director general and chief editor of the Israel Broadcasting Authority.
This article was first published by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
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Ukraine: What Is in America’s Interest?
As a result of the Russian invasion and partial destruction of Ukraine, the question “What is in America’s interest?” is the question of the day. Specifically, how much should America get involved in defending Ukraine?
On the Left, the question “What is in America’s interest?” is moot.
On the Left, “America’s interest” is regarded as essentially a chauvinistic, nationalistic, even fascistic term.
If the Left were concerned with what is in America’s interest, it would not advocate — and, under President Joe Biden, implement — open borders. It is not in America’s interest to allow millions of people to illegally enter the United States.
If the Left were concerned with what is in America’s interest, it would not advocate — and, under Biden, implement — policies to change America from an energy-independent country into an energy-dependent country.
If the Left were concerned with what is in America’s interest, it would not advocate lying to its youth by telling them that America is systemically racist, that it was founded in 1619, that it fought the Revolution to preserve slavery and that the Founders were immoral racists. It would not advocate defunding police departments. It would not have advocated depriving young children of education for two years.
The Left everywhere despises America. And the American Left is no exception. Most liberals love America, but they vote for the Left. So, their love is irrelevant.
Let’s now turn our attention to the Right.
Unlike the Left, people on the Right are preoccupied with the question, “What is in America’s interest?” That is why the Trump-era slogan “America First” so resonated with conservatives.
Conservatives believe, correctly, that open borders lead to the end of a country as a distinct national entity. (The Left believes it, too, by the way.) They want America to be energy independent so as not to depend on other countries — especially countries such as Iran, Russia and Venezuela — for its energy. Whatever the distant future risks of carbon emissions may be, they do not compare to the present risks of an energy shortage, energy dependence and runaway inflation. And they believe that America, despite its flaws, has been exactly as Abraham Lincoln described it: “The last best hope of Earth.” Therefore, teaching young Americans that America is the very opposite is not only a lie, but it will also destroy the foundations of this country.
In foreign affairs, however, conservative answers to the question, “What is in America’s interest?” are neither as clear nor as unanimous as they are concerning domestic issues.
Take the present crisis, the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
One hopes that virtually all conservatives (and virtually all people across the political spectrum) regard the invasion as evil. Whoever doesn’t has a malfunctioning conscience.
Yet, some people, on the Right as well as the Left, do not put the entire blame for the war on Putin. Their chief argument is that Putin felt threatened by the possible expansion of NATO into Ukraine.
That anyone outside of Russia would offer this argument is depressing. Do the people who make this argument believe that Russia has a legitimate fear of an attack by a NATO country? Or do they believe that Putin fears an attack by a NATO country?
If Russia is ruled by a paranoid dictator without a conscience (as evidenced by his murdering Russian dissidents and the ongoing laying of Ukrainian cities to waste), his paranoia is not to be honored. To cite the example of Hitler again, he sought the annihilation of the Jews because he feared them; he constantly reiterated his paranoid belief that the Jews sought the destruction of Germany and of the Aryan race. Paranoid dictators need to be confronted, not patronized.
Moreover, in 1994, Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons (inherited from the former Soviet Union). It signed an agreement called the Budapest Memorandum with Russia, the U.K. and the U.S. in which it agreed to dismantle its nuclear weapons and delivery systems (bombers and missiles). In return, Ukraine was assured that Russia, the U.S. and the U.K. would refrain from threatening it and respect its “independence and sovereignty and the existing borders.”
In other words, the only threat between Russia and Ukraine was Russia threatening Ukraine.
One should also add that between 1932 and 1933, Soviet Russia murdered between four and six million Ukrainians in what the Ukrainians call the Holodomor (Ukrainian for “murder by starvation”).
Still, the argument goes, the Ukrainians provoked Putin by courting NATO membership.
NATO notwithstanding, the primary “not in America’s interest” argument goes like this: “What Putin is doing is wrong, but essentially it is none of our business. The United States has no interest in Ukraine.”
To this argument, one can ask: Other than an attack on America, when and where does America have an interest? And why? If a Russian dictator can invade and decimate another country in an act of unprovoked aggression and it not be in America’s interest, what about China invading Taiwan, or Iran unleashing nuclear weapons against Israel, or North Korea doing so against South Korea? Why are Taiwan, Israel or South Korea more “in America’s interest” than Ukraine?
And, finally, what about the moral question? Is morality “in America’s interest”? I have supported the notion of “America First.” But as a conservative and as a religious conservative, I do not believe in “America Only.” For the same reasons, I believe in “my family first,” but I do not believe in “my family only.”
We should not send NATO troops into Ukraine, but we should allow Poland to supply Ukraine with fighter jets. Anyway, why is that different from our supplying Ukraine with anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons? If Russia having nuclear weapons prevents us from even allowing a third country to send jets into Ukraine, the lesson is simple and clear: If you want to paralyze the West, develop (or steal) nuclear weapons. Then you can destroy any country you choose.
If conservatism means “America First,” count me a conservative. But if conservatism means “America Only,” count me out.
This column was originally posted on Townhall.com.
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Media Manipulation: Putin’s Ukraine Invasion Evil but Warring on Israel and Armenia OK - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics
By Dov Fischer
It’s automatic to feel a bond with Italians and — especially — Armenians.
About my love for Armenians.
I grew up in Brooklyn, in mostly ethnically Jewish neighborhoods. There were kosher restaurants galore; Irv’s Knishery in Canarsie was my favorite. There was Tina’s Bake Shop, who made the best chocolate cream pie ever. In time, I stopped patronizing them as I learned they baked on Shabbat. There was Appy’s Deli. What can I say? I miss Appy’s.
Jews everywhere. On Friday nights, a middle-aged guy down the block would wheel his television outside to his front yard, and a dozen of his buddies would congregate to watch the Yankees game. I never missed it. As soon as Sabbath meal with my Mom and sisters had ended, and we had recited grace, I hurried down the block. The men looked forward to my participating because I knew more baseball lore and data than a “walking encyclopedia.” I would have made a great baseball announcer, synergizing the best of Mel Allen, Tom Hamilton, and Vin Scully. We Orthodox Jews may not engage in employment on Shabbat, but I woulda called ’em for free. Ah, but we also may not engage electricity on the L-rd’s day. So I became a rabbi, an attorney, and a columnist.
I attended yeshiva (Jewish parochial school) for twelve years until college. “Some of my best friends” were Jews. Also all my worst enemies.
I first got to know non-Jews when I went to college. Thing is, Columbia University in the City of New York had plenty of leftists to keep me busy. My friends mostly were commies. That’s basically all I had to choose from. One kid had a beard like Trotsky. He ended up an investment banker on Wall Street. From Das Kapital to Dow Jones in less than a decade. Makers’ Mark tastes better than vodka.
In time I met more non-Jews: professors, other college friends, coworkers. I came to enjoy other cultures, too, although I best can be described as “Such a Jew what you are!” My favorite music includes a bunch of Irish songs. My favorite? This one. (And, by the way, Happy St. Patty’s Day this week: Erin Go Bragh! And … Fund the Police!)
I found that I love Italians, too. Their heritage and culture, at least as practiced in America, are so similar to Jewish culture that you almost can’t tell Lucky Luciano from Bugsy Siegel. During the 1940s — think On the Waterfront — Italian unions ran the Manhattan and Jersey City docks, and they helped Jews illegally run guns to the nascent country of Israel when Harry Truman invoked his inner Joe Biden and imposed a full ban on allowing any weapons to the Jews as they were being attacked by seven Arab countries intent on murdering the Jewish country before it even birthed. Ethnic Italians, like ethnic East European Jews, are loud, emotional, hug and kiss, what-you-see-is-what-you-get. We eat starches. We respect Mama. They do the construction stuff in Joyzee — Bada bing! Bada boom! — and we represent them in court and with the IRS. Walk softly and carry a big attaché case.
I have continued expanding my cultural horizons and ethnic fascinations. Probably my best non-rabbinic friend is an American-born attorney of Formosan (Taiwanese) descent who is depressed that his beloved Seahawks suddenly are bereft of Russell Wilson and Bobby Wagner. I try to console him by reminding that, when I followed the NFL until Kaepernick ruined it for me, my team was the Jets. The Jets have been rebuilding since the 1970s. The Biblical Jews got through the Sinai and into the Promised Land sooner. Divide the Red Sea? The Jets can’t even pierce through a four-man defensive front line.
My dear friend is unaware how much he has expanded my horizons as we enter the Year of the Tiger. Like all Jews, I love Chinese food. It’s a Jewish thing. Also, it’s equally crazy — if you think about it — as Jackie Mason observed: “No Chinaman ever asks a Jew where he can find a good matzo ball.”
And then there are the Armenians.
I have come to value Armenians deeply. As a law professor of twenty years, I have taught more than two thousand students; many of Armenian descent. I love their sense of tradition, family, religious devotion, and overall ethnicity. I cannot eat their foods because of kosher rules, and I have not attended their worship, but I love their devotion to heritage. A particular divorced Armenian lady and her two grown daughters became very close to my family and to my wife, Ellen of blessed memory. Among my law students, I connect warmly with everyone: blacks, whites, Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, Arabs, Hispanics, Asians, Indians.
Despite my edgy writings and my humor that always risks offending, never once in twenty years and among 2,000 students has anyone ever expressed umbrage. I somehow have side-stepped cancel culture, except for two Jewish rabidly leftist professors who would destroy me if they could because I wrote that Kamala Harris leveraged her immorality to rise in California Democrat circles. Rush Limbaugh read the whole article on his radio show, and it thus got a gazillion hits, made me famous, so those two Jewish leftists tried going after me. The score is:
• For Dov — 2,000 non-Jewish students of every imaginable background.
• Against Dov — 2 whining knee-jerk bleeding-heart Jewish rabidly leftist professors for AOC and Black Lives Matter and against yarmulkas.
(Oh, and by the way: Kamala Harris rose in California Democrat circles immorally.)
In my gaining a deeper appreciation for Armenian Americans and their culture, I learned about the Medz Yeghern, something too close to the Shoah (Holocaust) that Nazi Germany inflicted on Jews. In light of Turkish dictator Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s extraordinary anti-Semitism (until last week, as it happens), my affinity towards Armenia only has increased. I always devote time in one of my last Spring Term classes to speak about April 24 and the Medz Yeghern. Armenian American students often have come to me after class or written me, even years later, that they were emotionally touched during those moments when the Orthodox rabbi with the yarmulka spoke about the evil Ataturk perpetrated and how Turkey to this day will not at least admit they sinned grievously a century ago.
It is outrageous that that the world, which now appropriately condemns Putin for disrupting the social order and sympathizes with Volodymyr Zelensky and Ukraine, never offered sympathy for Armenia as the Artsakh region faced horrific destruction only recently at the hands of Azerbaijan during the 2020 Second War over Nagorno-Karabakh. During the Soviet Union years, the region was deemed an autonomous oblast and was known as Artsakh. It is an enclave geographically within Azerbaijan, but approximately 80 percent Armenian ethnic and religiously Armenian Apostolic. In a 1991 referendum, as the Soviet Union collapsed, the population voted overwhelmingly to unite with Armenia. However, Azerbaijan launched war to assert sovereignty. The thing is, Putin and Iran — very bad players, but Armenia’s main energy suppliers — supported Armenia in the conflict while Turkey backed Azerbaijan. Amid the conflict, the Armenian Apostolic Ghazanchetsots (Holy Savior) Cathedral in Shusha, the main seat of the Artsakh bishopric and a landmark of Shusha and of Armenian cultural and religious identity, was attacked and damaged to the degree that Human Rights Watch declared it a possible war crime. Azerbaijan now has altered its historic construction. It was Azerbaijan who launched war to change the map.
Remember? Neither do most anyone else — because the media decided not to manipulate sympathies on that one. Walter Duranty of the New York Times had manipulated news of Stalin’s 1932-1933 Holodomor mass murders in Ukraine, so they passed unnoticed here. Again, the Times chose mostly to ignore the Shoah, assuring Hitler almost free rein there.
The media pick and choose “good guys” and “bad guys,” then proceed to tug at heart strings to manipulate public opinion. Similarly, they align towards Israel’s haters and therefore present the only country in the world with a Jewish majority dishonestly as “apartheid.” Consider: Jews cannot even set foot in Mecca or Medina. There is no synagogue in all of Saudi Arabia. By contrast, Arab Muslims in Israel engage in all aspects of daily public life, receive the same government benefits Jews do, hold political office, even comprise a critical component of the present governing Israeli political coalition. Arab Muslims are included among Israeli university professors, graduate students awarded government fellowships, high-ranking judges, and even receive monthly government stipends aimed at encouraging large families. When Arab terror groups strike at Israel with murderous rockets, they base launchers on rooftops of residential apartment buildings, on hospital grounds, and in school yards. Then, when Israel strikes defensively to obliterate those rocket-launch sites, the photos look awful, and the media choose not to explain. So no Ben & Jerry’s.
The left media are at war with conservatives. They manipulate others to hate DeSantis, Pence, Cotton, Pompeo, Cruz, Tucker supporters, Trump supporters, populist conservatives, Israel supporters, Armenia supporters.
Like Zelensky, we won’t roll over.
Read Dov Fischer every Monday and Thursday in The American Spectator and follow him on Twitter at @DovFischerRabbi
To attend any or all of Rav Fischer’s weekly 90-minute live Zoom classes on the Weekly Torah Portion, the Biblical Prophets, the Mishnah, Rambam Mishneh Torah, or Advanced Judaic Texts, send an email to: shulstuff@yioc.org
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Radical liberals and left wingers took over education and now control our liberal art departments and college campuses. They are also starting to control the next generation's minds of those in public schools with their CRT dangerous garbage and racial baiting.
Now those who create television ads are busy inculcating /brainwashing viewership with their distortions and corporate America has swallowed the bait.
This is how you destroy a nation, shape that nation's self-image and turn it's population into brain dead zombies.
This devastating video is old but is still relevant. https://youtu.be/kHD9xfuuVwc
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THE SILENT BRAINWASH
Brainwashing is best accomplished when you have no idea that it is being done but simply occurs as part of the fabric of your life. While you may "feel" that something is wrong, you are being programmed nonetheless. Think about TV Commercials and shows with these facts in mind.
Facts:
US population 334 million consisting of 57.8% white, 18.7% Latino, 12.1% Black and 11.4% Asian or other.
Then break that down to about 10% of all existing marriages that are interracial including those of all races, and only 5.6% of the population that identifies as LGBT. You would expect the same ratios in TV commercials if they represented America but here's what you see instead, taken from a log of TV commercials over a 4 month period, which is quite different.
For TV, white men as the majority of Americans have all but disappeared. When they are in commercials they are either old, ugly, and sick or they are the partner of a black woman and have no speaking part. In 3 of the commercials, the white men are doing laundry and always paired with a little girl to whom they are delivering the clean clothes. In other words, less than 10% of the population is driving 90% of the narrative.
There were zero commercials of White fathers and sons. None! So while 75% of white children live with both their parents, including their fathers, we choose instead not to model that in favor of the 62% of black children that do not live in a two parent household? This is our new normal in their eyes? As acceptable? Is this the healthy "normal" image we want to model to our population?
Equally disturbing, young white boys and teens have also disappeared, unless they were flagrantly new age gay, as though that represents the "majority" instead of the pitifully small minority. What distorted perception of reality does that serve? The study found a majority of the children were white girls with a black "brother" even though this represents the smallest percentage of any reality discussed thus far! The MAJORITY of TV commercial couples consist of a white woman with a black man when in reality these makeup about 6% of the 30% of blacks that are married or about 2% of our population. Are you starting to see how ridiculous, yet pervasive this extraordinary brainwashing is? Exactly what are they trying to program into us with this relentless deluge of non-reality?
Surprisingly, in the month of December, there was an uptick (but not a majority) in good looking white male models, but researchers determined that in each and every case it was a cologne commercial and every one of those commercials were made in Europe where they still use white men in their commercials. Here, on the other hand, they prefer to portray young white males as so mind-numbingly stupid as being incapable of delivering their lines and couldn't even say "Liberty Mutual", the insurance company featured in the commercial.
Over a period of 4 months, it concluded that while the African American population in America is only 12% they were in 94.3% of the commercials. Black males are only 5% of our population yet were in 89.7% of the ads. Then you have to ask, where are the Asians and Latinos that makeup nearly THREE TIMES the black population? Are they in THREE TIMES the number of ads or is something severely skewed here in the minds of Hollywood and Madison Avenue?
The fact is that while white males make up the largest segment of our population, they were in only 4% of the TV commercials! In most of those cases, they were in their 60's to '80s and were pushing medication for debilitating diseases, reverse mortgages (Tom Selleck), or Medicare plans. While the study had many, many more alarming facts, one that really stands out is that virtually every ad campaign for new cars featured a woman driver except for Lincoln. In the commercials for automobiles, there were more black women drivers than white women. Again, Europe was the exception here where Mercedes and BMW had NO VISIBLE DRIVERS!! They showed the cars cruising highways but never allowed a view where the driver was visible. I found that very interesting. Are they more interested in selling the product while we appear to be more interested in selling the political/racial message?
And it is not just our commercials that offer this skewed media driven unreality. It is also nearly impossible to turn on a show that doesn't have a gay couple or LGBT component, yet in reality, only one in twenty-five should, if they want to accurately represent the less than 4% of the population that fall in this group. The results of this brainwashing are dramatic and very successful. Despite the low percentage in real life, when polled, Americans have been brainwashed to believe that 24% of all Americans are LGBT! Based on commercials, they must also believe that the "average" American family is biracial, that white man barely exists and Latinos/Asians do not exist at all.
That is the magic and the tragedy of the fake, dishonest and unrealistic "woke" TV that we watch and are affected by 24/7, even though it is far afield from our reality. Ditto for the "woke" minority that follows mindlessly in its wake, thinking that this bizarre narrative is in fact real or justified when it is merely an illusion and fabrication. They truly do control our entire thought process and will distort our perception of reality, if we allow them to.
While it is one thing to erase the stigma of single parenthood, bi-racialism, or unusual sexual preferences, it is another thing completely to portray them as the "Role Model" or "Norm", as representative of our entire society, especially at the expense of true normality or realism. In this case, it looks like White, Latino, Asian and straight lives don’t matter according to them, and Black privilege with a side of LGBT has taken us over!
And:
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Choices:
| Volodymyr Zelenskyy's Classical Choices |
| by Victor Davis Hanson via American Greatness A number of pincers are poised to envelop increasingly damaged Ukrainian cities. Is it to be Salamis, Thebes, Thermopylae—or Melos? ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ |
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