I hope the tide I believe is bubbling up will happen at the ballot box and there will be an overwhelming rejection of "woke" nonsense and radical efforts on the part of deranged Democrats, who hate this country and want to change it beyond belief.
If this does not occur then you can kiss America goodbye because the opportunity to try and re-establish law and order and constitutional dictates will be beyond grasp.
The toothpaste will be out of the tube and cannot be returned. Sounds radical? Perhaps, but this comment will prove prescient because what it takes to recover from decades of dramatic and negative manipulation, under the guise of positive change, will have won.
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Totalitarianism: Can It Happen in America? | PragerU
And:
https://www.
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What The Hell Is Wrong With Democrats?
By Derek Hunter
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Bernie why stop at economics.? He has been wrong on any major issues since birth. The man is a corrupt mean spirited ignoramus.
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Home Depot Co-Founder Bernie Marcus on President Biden: 'What the hell does he know about economics?'
By Brian Sozzi
Home Depot co-founder and billionaire businessman Bernie Marcus isn't sure he would be able to create the home improvement chain today if he tried given onerous regulations on small businesses and a challenging economic backdrop.
"I don't think so," Marcus — a well-known proponent of free market capitalism and small businesses — said on a new edition of Yahoo Finance Presents. "I think if we had the regulations that we have today, Home Depot would be a chain of 12 stores. I just don't think we could have grown."
Marcus also had some choice words for politicians, the Biden administration, and notably the occupier of the Oval Office.
"Most of the people in Washington never ran a business," added Marcus, who is also the new author of Kick Up Some Dust: Lessons on Thinking Big, Giving Back, and Doing It Yourself. "You have a president that never worked a day in his life — never worked a day in his life. What the hell does he know about economics? But he sure spouts about it a lot."
A new survey out of Bank of America found that among the primary concerns of small businesses are inflation, commodities prices, a potential recession, interest rates, and the U.S. political environment.
Fresh findings in early September on small businesses from Kabbage also were downbeat.
"While revenue is up, the data also revealed overall profits among U.S. small businesses have slightly declined 4% over the same time period," the survey found. "The data shows small businesses continue to anticipate future economic obstacles as 75% of respondents report feeling impacted by inflationary pressures and 56% expect pressures to last at least a year until summer 2023."
Marcus, who co-founded with friend Arthur Blank The Home Depot with two stores back in 1979 and who retired as Home Depot chairman in 2002, was also the founder of the influential small business lobbyist the Job Creators Network.
Today, Home Depot is a sprawling retail chain of more than 2,300 stores in the U.S. and Canada.
Marcus reiterated that more needs to be done to empower small businesses.
"Running a business, hiring people, training people and being able to produce a product takes a certain skill and you have to understand that skill," Marcus added. "Just running a small pizza restaurant, for Christ's sakes, takes skill. And they're [small businesses] getting pummeled day to day. And we are fighting on a hill every day to beat some of these regulations. As some we win, some we lose. But there's nobody out there that really puts the time and effort into it."
Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.
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Israel-Lebanon Maritime Border Agreement: Defeat for Israel
“Ending wars is very simple if you surrender,” said American political satirist P.J. O’Rourke.
It is a very true statement, but lost on far too many today.
The Israeli government recently announced that it has reached a historic agreement settling its maritime border dispute with Lebanon. Prime Minister Yair Lapid and other members of the ruling coalition have tried to claim that the agreement is a victory for Israel.
“This is a historic achievement that will strengthen Israel’s security, inject billions into Israel’s economy and ensure the stability of our northern border,” Lapid said.
But we have to look at what led to the agreement in order to understand whether it is truly a victory or a surrender.
In 2013, the Karish oil field was discovered off the coast of Israel in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located in waters claimed by Israel but also partially by Lebanon, though the Lebanese claim is largely without merit.
In June 2022, the company that licensed the field, Energean, brought a production vessel into the field. The Lebanese government protested that no action to develop the field should be undertaken until U.S.-mediated negotiations—which began in 2020—on the exact location of the maritime border between Israel and Lebanon had been concluded.
The Lebanese government’s statements were swiftly followed by action from the terror group Hezbollah, which dominates Lebanon. It launched drones towards Karish at the beginning of July. The drones were shot down by the IDF, but Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had made his point. “Our eyes and missiles are locked on Karish,” he said.
The truth is, the dispute was less about Karish and more about a nearby gas field called Qana, which extends into the disputed maritime territory and has been claimed by Lebanon. According to numerous reports, in late June, Lebanese President Michel Aoun had already agreed that the field straddles a recognized maritime border and the proceeds from its development should be split between Israel and Lebanon.
This fair compromise came to an abrupt halt with the Hezbollah drones and Nasrallah’s threats. Even though these were not major actions and did not harm a single person, they appear to have thrown the Israeli government into a panic. Israel promptly gave up any claims disputed by Lebanon, even though these claims had already been recognized as legitimate.
In other words, the Israeli government is claiming that the maritime agreement is a victory because Israel gained what was never in dispute and gave up everything that was.
It is true that tensions between Israel and Hezbollah appear to have been lowered due to the agreement, but this means nothing more than that a potential war has been averted because Israel surrendered.
This provides a major boost to Hezbollah, which will be seen as strong-arming Israel to the finish line without making much of an effort. It will also boost the Iranian proxy’s popularity at a time when it was on the wane due to the economic situation in Lebanon, for which Hezbollah has been partially blamed.
Israel’s concessions also make it look weak, given that it seemingly snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. If the president of Lebanon agreed to divide Qana only a few days before the drone incident, and the final agreement gives Qana entirely to Lebanon, how can that possibly be seen as anything other than a massive concession?
As former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman tweeted in reaction to the proposed agreement: “We spent years trying to broker a deal between Israel and Lebanon on the disputed maritime gas fields. Got very close with proposed splits of 55-60% for Lebanon and 45-40% for Israel. No one then imagined 100% to Lebanon and 0% to Israel.”
One can certainly argue over the merits of the deal, but there is no doubt that Israel had a strong hand and folded anyway. In other words, Israel capitulated to terrorist threats. It surrendered and lost.
This goes well beyond a simple maritime border dispute. It will be understood by Hezbollah as proof that it can get its way in any dispute with Israel, and there are many, including the terror group’s persistent territorial claims on the Golan Heights, which are inside Israel’s sovereign borders.
Moreover, Hezbollah’s patrons in Iran will conclude that it is easy to force Israel to give up on its interests. All it took was some unarmed drones and Israel retreated. Iran will reinterpret Israeli political and security leaders’ persistent threats against its nuclear weapons program.
Let there be no mistake, Israel’s concession will embolden Hezbollah, Iran, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and numerous other terrorist entities that are constantly probing for Israel’s weaknesses. They will see the agreement as an Israeli defeat.
Israel must seek ways to reverse this outcome, or it could soon be facing far more serious threats.
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Because Bibi and Trump were behind this momentous proposal, Obama operating through Biden squashed it.
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Torpedoing of the Trump Peace Plan Cost Israel Dearly
Former Israel Air Force commander Amir Eshel has taken pride in scuttling a plan that both Netanyahu and Trump believed best for Israel and regional stability.
(JNS) Maj. Gen. (res.) Amir Eshel, a former Israeli Air Force chief who has been Defense Ministry director general for the past two years, is by all accounts a serious man who has done a lot for the state. As such, it was jaw-dropping to learn how he thwarted one of the most historic potential developments in recent years, which could have been on the same scale as the United States recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Reading Ben Caspit’s interview with Eshel in Maariv earlier this month, one cannot but feel both surprise and disappointment.
The other 50% was to be subject to negotiations by the two parties, but only if the Palestinians met various stringent benchmarks such as stopping incitement and cracking down on corruption; connecting Gaza and Judea and Samaria under one authority; and adopting of democratic norms.
The plan, officially called “Peace to Prosperity,” was launched at the White House on Jan. 28, 2020. Trump said at the time that “recognition can be immediately achieved” and that the United States “will form a joint committee with Israel to convert the conceptual map into a more detailed and calibrated rendering” so that the lines of sovereignty be clearly defined. Moments later Netanyahu told the press entourage that he would pass a resolution to that effect in the upcoming weekly Cabinet meeting.
That’s when things got messy. Even as Netanyahu made those comments, Kushner said the exact opposite to the US media. Despite his prearranged understanding with Netanyahu, Kushner said that the sovereignty bid would be carried out only after the Israeli election two months later.
This put Netanyahu in an embarrassing situation, as it turned the prime minister’s comments to the press into a farce; Netanyahu was once again cast as a liar and the trip to Washington was considered a failure. Sovereignty slipped between Israel’s fingers.
It’s still not clear why Kushner effectively misled Netanyahu. In his book, he writes that the sovereignty bid was part of the plan and thus it should not have unfolded in the way Netanyahu envisioned. But this runs contrary to what all the other actors have said, including Trump in his speech. There is a big difference between “immediately” and in two months.
In his interview with Caspit, Eshel seems to complete this puzzle. He admitted to telling Kushner that the sovereignty push should not go through so fast. He convinced Defense Minister Benny Gantz that the United States should be pressured on this so that Netanyahu would be stopped. At the time, Gantz was the main challenger to Netanyahu in the race to become the next prime minister. The Trump administration was careful not to treat him with disrespect because they were worried about being portrayed as meddling in the election. That’s why Gantz and Eshel were invited to White House.
Eshel claimed that if the sovereignty bid was carried out immediately, “This would kill the Trump plan … No Arab ruler would agree to have Israel reap the benefits of the deal without giving anything in return. No one would be able to support having Israel get upfront payment, whereas the Palestinians wait indefinitely for their back-loaded end of the bargain.”
When Eshel told this to Kushner, the latter responded that the White House had gotten the Arab rulers to agree to the move. But Eshel put his foot down, and apparently managed to have Kushner slam the brakes.
The unfortunate truth is that Israeli defense officials (both serving and retired) are wedded to a paradigm that ultimately prevented Israel from realizing this historic move—even though those very officials agreed that Israel would be well served by it.
Looking back, it is clear that Eshel’s move resulted in the entire Trump plan being shelved. As soon as the sovereignty bid collapsed, the “deal of the century” joined a whole host of other peace plans that would never go forward. But this time, the plan was actually pro-Israel.
Eshel’s rationale about Arab rulers supposedly being against the measure is disappointing.
Why should Israel not take something if it is offered by the United States?
Why is it Eshel’s job to think for the Arab rulers?
If Kushner said that he had their support, why would Eshel undermine this without even talking to them?
Why try to outsmart the prime minister, the White House and the Arab rulers?
The entire rationale of the Trump peace plan, as Kushner and then Israeli Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer explained, was to bring Israel closer to the Gulf states. With the Palestinian issue no longer topping the Arab agenda—as was made clear by Gulf officials in direct and indirect conversations—why would the sovereignty move have stopped this?
In 2019, I saw with my own eyes how a Bahraini official lashed out at the Palestinians, employing coarse language. If that’s what the senior Gulf official was willing to show an Israeli journalist even before the Abraham Accords were signed, just imagine what he was actually thinking. So it is quite possible Eshel missed the mark with regard to the Arab rulers’ sentiments.
Moreover, despite Eshel’s claim—that Israel would be cashing in the rewards of the deal too early—the deal does involve Israeli concessions. Netanyahu agreed to a Palestinian state and was essentially willing to give up 50% of Area C. The proof in the pudding is that even on the Israeli right there was opposition to the plan; Eshel’s claim that “Israel was not giving anything in return” was flat wrong.
This is what the timeline of the deal included: Israel was to adopt the plan, which was indeed good for Israel despite forcing it to make concessions, and this would have made Gulf states and other countries tell the Palestinians, “Look, we’ve made sure that you will get your share from Israel and the United States. Now it’s our turn for normalization.” Eshel and Gantz, unfortunately, killed this before it got underway. Only because Netanyahu remained laser-focused on sovereignty were the Abraham Accords eventually finalized, miraculously.
Eshel claimed that his views were professional advice, not political. But it is clear that he inflicted major political damage on Netanyahu, and perhaps cost him the March 2020 election. It is also clear that Eshel’s move put Israel in a diplomatic quagmire. It is too bad that this crisis was triggered by a former major general in the IDF. It is not the first time that former generals turn out to be bunglers of diplomacy despite being experts in security.
Ariel Kahana is Israel Hayom’s senior diplomatic correspondent.
This article was originally published by Israel Hayom.
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Representative Buddy Carter
A GOVERNMENT THAT'S ACCOUNTABLE
You deserve a government that’s accountable. House Republicans want to deliver that.
That’s why H.R. 1 – the very first bill a House Republican majority will introduce in the 118th Congress – will repeal the 87,000 IRS agents the Biden Administration hired to audit small businesses and middle America, because taxpayer dollars should work for taxpayers and not against them.
Remember, Senate Democrats had the chance to prove that their new army of IRS employees would not go after middle America and unanimously rejected it. They need to be held accountable for that deceit. Biden, and all Washington Democrats, have turned their backs on the same people they campaigned on helping - those making less than $400,000 a year.
This is just the beginning. Oversight has been sorely lacking the past two years, because of course it has! Democrats control the House, the Senate, and the White House – they have no incentive to conduct oversight on themselves.
But that still doesn’t explain why they haven’t conducted some of the most basic of oversight and investigative functions, such as getting to the bottom of the origins of COVID-19 or monitoring how COVID-19 relief funds are being spent. That’s unacceptable and the American people are paying the price.
As a member of the House Budget Committee and a candidate for Chairman, I am also preparing to hold both the White House and Congress accountable to sticking to our budget deadlines so that the American people know how their hard-earned dollars are being spent and what our plan is to secure this country’s financial future. The American people have to stick to a budget, and so should the federal government.
Unfortunately, Washington Democrats can hardly be bothered to show up to work.
Under a Republican majority, that will change. We are going to fully reopen Congress so that Washington Democrats and Republicans alike are forced to show up for their constituents and do the work we were elected to do.
Only then can we have a government that’s accountable.
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One of the biggest crooks in The Middle East does not trust Biden:
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White House: We're deeply disappointed that Abbas told Putin he mistrusts Biden
White House criticizes PA chairman's comment to Russian President that US can't mediate peace talks with Israel.
The White House is “deeply disappointed” Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas told Russian President Vladimir Putin that he mistrusts the Biden administration, a spokesperson for the US National Security Council told Axios on Saturday.
Abbas, who met with Putin on Thursday, restated his mistrust of Washington in resolving the conflict with Israel while expressing appreciation for Russia's role in the process.
"We don't trust America and you know our position. We don't trust it, we don't rely on it, and under no circumstances can we accept that America is the sole party in resolving a problem," Abbas said.
While he is not pleased with the US, Abbas said he was "completely satisfied" with Russia's position towards the Palestinian Arab people.
Two US sources briefed on the issue told Axios’ Barak Ravid on Saturday that Biden administration officials were furious and made it clear to Abbas’ advisers.
“We were deeply disappointed to hear President Abbas’s remarks to President Putin. Russia does NOT stand for justice and international law, as evidenced by the latest vote at the UN General Assembly,” a White House national security council spokesperson told Axios. The UN General Assembly passed a resolution this week to condemn Russia's annexations in Ukraine.
The National Security Council spokesperson said Putin is a “far cry” from the type of international partner needed to constructively address the Israeli-Palestinian Arab conflict.
“President Biden, in contrast, has demonstrated US commitment for decades to seeking creative solutions and working toward the lasting peace needed to advance stability and prosperity throughout the Middle East,” the spokesperson told Ravid.
PA officials didn’t immediately respond to a request for a comment.
The PA had a tense relationship with the Trump administration and had been boycotting the US since 2017, in protest of Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and the relocation of the US embassy in Israel to the city.
However, since taking office, the Biden administration has renewed ties with the PA and had been crafting a plan aimed at “resetting” US ties with the PA.
In January, senior US and PA officials met virtually to renew the US-Palestinian Economic Dialogue for the first time in five years.
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