Supreme Court Set To Issue ‘Rule for the Ages’ on Trump’s Immunity That Could Reshape 2024 Race.
Source: https://www.thefp.com/
https://search.app/ZLVqNHVCdQi
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/
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From Israel: Confronting That Madhouse!
I want to return, first, to the statement of Charles Q. Brown Jr., US Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. As I wrote on Friday, he indicated that the US would not be able to help defend Israel during an attack by Hezbollah in the same way it did when Iran sent missiles towards Israel.
He cited several reasons, but the one I want to focus on here is his concern that US forces might get involved:
“Brown said the Biden administration continues to urge Israel against widening the conflict in the north. Washington’s key message is ‘to think about the second order of effect of any type of operation into Lebanon, and how that might play out and how it impacts not just the region, but how it impacts our forces in regions as well.’”
https://www.jns.org/us-will-have-difficulty-defending-israel-against-hezbollah/
Let’s examine that statement. His first concern is American forces in the region. I get that. But what is implied in this statement—but never spoken explicitly—is this:
Israel, you are having a very difficult time. Hezbollah is shelling your north. Tens of thousands of your citizens are living in temporary quarters because they are not safe in their homes. Some of those homes have been leveled. Many dunams of forest and beautiful parkland have been destroyed by fire because of the shelling.
“We recognize that no nation can tolerate this sort of on-going attack indefinitely. And it is possible that the only way you will be able to stop this is by widening the conflict beyond your current shelling.
“But be that as it may, we don’t want you to do it because then our troops in the area might be impacted.
“Just live with it
This from a representative of the nation that is supposed to be our greatest ally, whose president (and I will come back to him) declared passionately back in early October that the US was with us (emphasis added):
“…the United States stands with Israel. We will not ever fail to have their back...
“Israel has the right to defend itself and its people. Full stop...
“And my administration’s support for Israel’s security is rock solid and unwavering.”
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/10/07/remarks-by-president-biden-on-the-terrorist-attacks-in-israel/
Then he came to Israel later in October and declared:
“I come to Israel with a single message: You are not alone. You are not alone.
“As long as the United States stands — and we will stand forever — we will not let you ever be alone.”
I want to make it very clear. There are many Americans who ARE with us. Ordinary Americans, including many Christian Zionists. Members of Congress: Great friends such as Ted Cruz (R-TX), Lindsey Graham (R-SC). Members of the previous administration such as Mike Pompeo and Mike Pence. Many others. But the current administration? Another story altogether.
Members of the Biden administration, notably special envoy Amos Hochstein, pictured, have been pushing for a “diplomatic solution” – some agreement on paper that would forestall further military action by Israel. But Israel is far too savvy to buy into this.
Israel is keenly aware of the fact that Security Council Resolution 1701 of 2006 was breached in its entirety. Eric Mandel, director of MEPIN (Middle East Political Information Network), has just written that the UNIFIL forces put in place by that resolution did not stop a single one of the missiles moved by Iran to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
There was an Israeli proposal – rejected by Hockstein – that 1701 be enforced now. Resolution 1701 calls, among other stipulations, for Hezbollah to pull back behind the Litani River, which is some 18 miles from Israel’s northern border; Hochstein proposed an agreement that would require Hezbollah to pull back some six miles. What Prime Minister Netanyahu, who has his head screwed on properly, said was that any “diplomatic” solution would have to be reinforced by Israeli troops. The IDF would have to move into southern Lebanon and ensure that Hezbollah truly did pull back.
I have written previously about how nonsensical it was that Hockstein went into Lebanon and spoke with members of the Lebanese government regarding some sort of diplomatic agreement. The Lebanese government is powerless, I wrote, and Hockstein should have recognized this and spoken with Hezbollah.
Eric Mandel certainly concurs that the Lebanese government is powerless. Pretending that Lebanon is anything other than a failed state misleads the American people, he wrote. An example of how powerless the government is: Iranian weaponry is being moved into Lebanon via air. At the Beirut-Rafic Al Hariri International Airport, security personnel turn a blind eye, explaining that their families would be at risk if they tried to stop the movement of weapons.
According to a report of just over a week ago, the weaponry not only comes in via the civilian airport, ballistic missiles, Burkan rockets, anti-tank guided missiles, explosives containing toxic powder and much more are being hidden in the civilian airport after arrival.
https://www.ynetnews.com/
But while I said that Hockstein should have gone to Hezbollah, Mandel takes it further, and properly so: Hockstein should have gone to Tehran, he says, as Iran is calling the shots.
Or, wrote Hockstein (and please note this very carefully): “At the very least the administration should send Hockstein to Oman or Qatar, where the president’s minions engaged in secret negotiations with Iran behind the backs of Congress. I heard that from the Omanis and Qataris during my visits last year.”
And here we are getting to the heart of the matter. The reality, when faced, chills the blood. Hezbollah – which, says Mandel, is best viewed as a branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps – may petition Tehran regarding a disinclination to engage in a full war with Israel now. Such a war would be a disaster for Hezbollah, and for Lebanon more broadly. But ultimately it is Iran that will make the decision.
Since October 7, as we see above, the arsenal of rockets in the possession of Hezbollah has been reinforced, including with additional Iranian smart rockets. Says Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, “Hezbollah’s missiles and growing military might are a true threat.”
Mandel believes that the most likely reason Iran is not promoting a full-scale attack by Hezbollah on Israel now is because it wants to “preserve Hezbollah’s massive 200,000 accumulation of missiles, rockets, drones, anti-tank weapons and mortars as a sword of Damocles hanging over Israel’s head, a deterrence against an Israeli preemptive strike on the nuclear weapons infrastructure in Iran.”
https://www.pressreader.com/israel/jerusalem-post/20240628/282037627353837
My friends, to say that this is enraging is an understatement. If the world had paid attention, had cared, this would not be the current situation. Iran is on the cusp of becoming a nuclear nation, this because of the weakness of the agreement that was to prevent this, and the degree to which Iran ignored the limitations of that agreement.
We must go back to the Obama administration to understand this situation. Obama negotiated a very bad deal with Iran, a deal that, on top of everything else, had a sunset clause. As I followed reports about the negotiations for the deal, I often wondered which side the American team was supporting – so willing were the Americans to make allowances for Iran. What is more, I became aware of lies that Obama told the American people, so that they were in the dark regarding the leniencies in place in the agreement.
Obama, who was no friend to Israel, empowered Iran. And the world, not terribly invested, sailed blithely by.
For years, who was it who spoke against the dangers of Iran, over and over? None other than Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
t taken seriously. He was seen as “over the top” with his warnings. And the world kept going.
Had there been more attention paid to what he said, we wouldn’t be where we are now. And what must be noted is that while the world sees Iran and Hezbollah primarily as Israel’s problem, it is a problem for all of the western world.
We saw a four-year reprieve in the situation with the Trump administration, 2017 to 2021. Donald Trump, for all his bellicose style and worrisome eccentricities, got it. He broke off the deal with Iran—the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)—and re-mposed sanctions.
When Biden – who was vice president under Obama and takes instruction from him to this day – entered the White House, he sought to reverse the good that Trump had done. Biden has made outrageous concessions to Iran and seeks entente with Iran, to the advantage not of the US but the rulers of Iran.
Among the things Biden has done is weaken sanctions against Iran, which has enabled Iran to bring in billions of dollars, some of which has been utilized for strengthening Hezbollah. Iran is currently bringing in more money than it was before sanctions were instituted by Trump.
This should not have happened, but it did happen:
“Texas Senator Ted Cruz has condemned the Biden administration for its role in financing Iran's military aggression against Israel. In remarks made on his podcast ‘Verdict,’ Cruz stated…'This tragically is the result of the Biden Foreign Policy of Appeasement and the entire Democrat Party backing away from Israel and sending billions of dollars to Iran.’
“He further criticized the administration for allowing sanctions on Iranian missiles to lapse…”
https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-797625
I urge you to see and share the video below, of a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing that further exposes how the Biden administration has enabled Iran instead of blocking it, hiding information from the people in the process. Senator Cruz says that Biden has permitted $100 billion to flow into Iran.
https://www.cruz.senate.gov/newsroom/videos/watch/it-is-unacceptable-that-the-biden-admin-has-flowed-100b-into-iran
I recently cited Rabbi Moshe Taragin, and I am moved to cite him again here. On Friday, he wrote:
“It has been our legacy to stand tall and block out the noise and the hatred. We have always possessed this courage and this different spirit, and our current crisis should be no different…
“To be a Jew is to be comfortable standing alone…
“For centuries, we preached monotheism to a world drunk on pagan gods. We stood alone. For centuries we spoke of a civil society that preserved the dignity of humankind, while the world was subjugated by brutal tyrants and miserable societies. We stood alone. For the past thousand years, we have faced malicious hostility and brutal violence while we were consistently demonized as the ‘other.’ We stood alone.
“During the nightmare of the Holocaust, Hitler tried to erase us from this planet, while much of the world stood by silently. We stood alone. During the first few decades of the State of Israel, hostile Arab countries partnered with the powerful Soviet Union in an attempt to crush our small country. We stood alone.
“As people of a different spirit, we cannot be intimidated by the violence and the rage we face. This is our responsibility to past generations who stood tall and stood alone. We owe it to them...”
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-808023
Rabbi Taragin was not alluding specifically to Hezbollah and Iran, but to world Jew-hatred more broadly. But his words echoed loudly in my own heart.
Right now, as we face the dangers to our north, we stand alone. And we know it.
We are at the eleventh hour, and yet I believe it does not have to be this way. I dream, in my fantasies, of a western world that says, we failed the Jewish people inexcusably during the Holocaust and now “Never Again” calls to us. Iran must realize that today we stand with Israel: An attack on Israel is an attack on all of us.
Yes, yes, fantasies, as I said. Expressions of a longing deep in my soul.
But there is something that can and must be done. Donald Trump, who gets it and will tighten the screws on Iran, must be brought back into the White House.
This is not just for Israel, it is for a safer world. The world is badly served by the belligerency, hegemonic aspirations, enablement of terrorist entities, and fostering of widescale violence of the mullahs.
In my view, the current policy of the Biden administration is not just bad policy, it is evil in what it promotes.
It was the hope of many of us here (and well as of many in the US), that Biden would do badly enough in the debate to lower his chances of winning the election, but not so badly that the powers that be in the Democratic party would decide to remove to him before he was officially nominated at the Democratic convention in mid-August.
Well, he performed horrendously (although Jill gushed about how well he did). Many are calling for his removal, and the nightmare aspect of this is that Michelle Obama’s name is floated as a possible replacement. I am reading that Biden himself will decide whether to run again, although it is perhaps too soon to see how this will play out.
The information I have provided above, with regard to how Biden’s government has been conducting itself and the dangers inherent in his stance, must be shared very broadly
Keep praying to Heaven for Israel. Pray that the tears might be lifted from our hearts.
Pray for the strength and wisdom of our leaders, for the safety of our soldiers, and for the rescue of our hostages.
Pray in a spirit of hope.
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ways From the
Trump v. Biden Debate
It was a night of revelations, lessons, and questions
By DOV FISCHER
I don’t like to write redundantly, echoing what I anticipate so many wise pundits will be writing after the Trump-Biden debate. Therefore, I comment below on matters other than Biden’s bumbling, doddering poor performance.
1. I actually think Biden did well for what I expected. I expected more mumbling, more whoppers, and more incoherence than he projected. I really mean that. For what he now is capable of being and doing at this point in his life, I feel a bit bad that we soon will be advocating after November that the Department of Justice must work to lock him up. He won’t survive imprisonment — assuming he even realizes he is in prison. On the other hand, he may be comforted by having Hunter nearby for daily father-son companionship. (READ MORE: The Most Disastrous Debate Performance in U.S. History)
2. I hope that President Trump finally, finally, finally has learned that, sometimes, less is more (and more is less). I had been writing and hoping so much that he would not be goaded into interrupting or overly insulting Biden during the debate. I believe that the single biggest Biden pre-debate mistake was demanding in advance that, when one candidate speaks, the other’s microphone needs to be shut off so that any disruptive interruptions, no matter how justified by ad hominem lies, simply would not be heard. I am not completely sure that President Trump’s discipline, remaining quiet whenever Biden spoke, would have been that amazing otherwise. Instead, Pres. Trump always hit back — effectively — but he did not allow himself to be goaded off message. Therefore, insults about the felony sham trial and similar red-meat provocations elegantly slid off his sleeve to the floor, to be mopped up after the debate.
3. I really hope he watches the video of the debate and sees what I am saying. His supporters will vote for him, no matter what. His TDS opponents will vote against him (though unsure for whom), no matter what. The debate was for the Independents and the suburban soccer moms or whatever sobriquet they now wear. Would they see a Trump who scares them and seems to have a temper out of control that can explode unexpectedly at any moment? Or has he “grown,” learned from the past, and become (argh!) “more presidential”? On this, he nailed it. If he had overdone it when goaded over Stormy or the Bragg-Marchan disgrace, that would have been the spin and the next day’s viral videos. Instead, the big viral will be “Biden’s Minute 13.”
4. I liked the debate. It was the best since Reagan vs. Carter, though Trump vs. Hillary was weirdly gripping in its way, and Bush II vs. Kerry had one moment I never will forget. (Kerry the tree hugger was ranting that Bush was in cahoots with the lumber and foresting industry, and Bush turned to him, opened his suit coat, inserted his hand inside the inner jacket pocket, and asked Kerry “Want some wood?”) But this was a great debate. Jake Tapper and Dana Bash were almost equally fair. None of that Candy Crowley finger-on-the-scale cheating. They asked legitimate questions of both sides. And I equally liked that Trump did something I always have done in debates (albeit debates of far lesser consequence): If I don’t like the question, I first use some of the time to finish my response to the previous question, then I say one sentence addressing the instant question, and then I use that as a launching pad to talk about whatever I want to talk about next. Trump did that magnificently again and again, so masterfully and brilliantly. Don’t let CNN dictate your presentation. Do they want to pin you on “January 6”? Fine. So say something about how Pelosi refused your request to bring in the National Guard, now regrets her fault in the Jan. 6 debacle for which she is primarily responsible, and — by the way — on that Jan. 6 we had a great economy, on that Jan.6 energy was cheap, on that Jan. 6 food was affordable, on that Jan. 6 Ukraine and the Mideast were at peace, and on that Jan. 6 the sun was shining, or whatever.
5. Stormy and the felonies were going to come up. That’s crummy, but that’s fair in vicious American politics. So Trump briefly denied the Stormy stuff and parried the felony thing as well as he could: The “judge” and DA are Democrats, the scam will be overturned, and nothing proves better that he was a victim of Banana Republic lawfare than that his polls shot up, and his fundraising went through the roof, after the convictions.
6. Charlottesville also was going to come up. He answered well — that it now is documented to be a lie that he ever said Nazis and White Supremacists are fine people. Ergo, it is a lie that Biden sought the presidency when he heard Trump say what he never said. If I had my druthers, though, I would have liked for Trump to have stated explicitly that even the famous left-oriented fact checker, “Snopes,” formally published this week that the claims about what Trump said about Charlottesville are definitely proven to be lies, false claims. “So, according to the ‘authoritative’ Snopes, Joe, you are yet again a liar. That reminds me, Joe, of that time you lied about how your uncle was eaten by a cannibal, or that you watched a Pittsburgh bridge collapse in front of your very eyes, or that your family members were coal miners, exactly like the biography of the British Neil Kinnock, or that you graduated law school toward the top of your class when you actually were in the bottom, at 76th of 85 . . . or was it that you graduated 75th of 84, Joe? Please help me out on that one, Joe. Which was it — 75 of 84, or 76 of 85?” (READ MORE: Here’s How Trump Should Debate Adderall Joe)
7. When Biden was not staring into space, he frequently displayed contemptuous facial laughing as Trump spoke. My eyes mostly focused on Trump when he spoke and on Biden when he did, but I occasionally looked at the other guy. I could see Trump restraining himself, and that won him points. As I watched Biden grin, sometimes ostensibly laugh, I thought back to how he used that same contemptuous tactic when he debated Mitt Romney’s vice presidential running mate, Paul Ryan. Maybe it worked for him in 2012 — and maybe not — but this time it helped seal the deal. This time Biden is the president, and his incessant grinning and laughing were not only the opposite of “acting presidential” but also came at the wrong time in his life, when many in the public were wondering whether he was all there. I wonder how many viewers asked themselves “Is he thinking that he is somewhere else now, maybe nibbling on a girl’s ear or whatever? What is so funny that I am missing? I wish he would let me in on the joke. The guy is getting creamed in front of 200 million people. Why is he laughing?”
8. It is doubtful Biden’s weak voice resulted from a cold. We all know that. But even more curious is why, when he won the pre-debate coin toss, which gave him the right to choose between having the final say in the debate, the final closing words, or standing at the right or left podium, he chose to be at the right podium and to give Trump the final word. In a debate like that, the final word is everything. It allows your strongest points to be the last ideas that resonate in viewers’ and listeners’ minds. And, truth to tell, it allows the last guy to lie through his teeth on whatever he likes without getting rebutted — not that he should). I continue trying to figure out why it mattered more to Biden to have the right podium, which may have proven to be his wrong podium than to have the final say. Does one side’s profile of his face and head seem older than the other? I don’t know.
9. Last: I am wrestling with whether the time now has come for Trump supporters to consider leaving Biden alone. He is now in danger of being replaced by a more competitive Democrat. I choose to not name that person. If the Democrats at this late hour would replace Biden, they would have to leapfrog Kamala. Here, these pushers of Identity Politics thrust Kamala, a Woman of Color, into the veep role, and she therefore is next in line to run. After Eisenhower, Nixon. After JFK, LBJ. After LBJ, Humphrey. After Nixon, Ford was given the nod to seek his own term. After Carter, Mondale. After Reagan, Bush I. After Clinton, Gore. After Obama, Biden. Almost always, the serving Vice President is next in line to run. The thing is, Kamala is probably less electable than Biden, sort of like Spiro Agnew compared to Nixon. She may have carved for herself the status of worst Veep in American history, and surely in the Bottom Five. As a campaigner, she rose to the top of the 2020 Democrat primaries for a few halcyon moments when she did that thing where she basically (correctly) called Biden a lifelong racist bigot and told the story of her sad life being bused to school. (This writer attended Jewish parochial school, yeshiva, and was bused from home to school all my years of elementary and middle school. And here I am.) Immediately after that fleeting moment on top, as the whole left-wing mainstream media coalesced behind her and published Kamala hagiographies, she immediately plummeted like an anvil in a Bugs Bunny or Roadrunner cartoon. (READ MORE: That Debate Might Be the End of the Road for … Barack Obama)
So the Democrats are stuck. If they replace Biden with her, they actually get weaker. If they replace Biden with anyone else but her, the last two months of the race will center around Ocasio, Ilhan Omar, Joyce Reid, Joy Behar, and Friends attacking the party for anti-Black racism, misogyny, and prejudice against people who are public fools.
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As I suspected:
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Supreme Court Says Donald Trump Is Partly Shielded From Prosecution
The decision may effectively delay the trial of the case against the former president on charges of plotting to subvert the 2020 election.
Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times
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The Obama and Biden Administrations: Paving the Way for a Nuclear-Armed Iran
by Majid Rafizadeh - Gatestone Institutte
- America's "diplomatic efforts," instead of putting a stop to Iran's nuclear program, have only resulted in a series of concessions that have empowered the Iranian regime. The lack of stringent enforcement and verification measures, and especially lifting secondary sanctions -- by which any country that does business with Iran is prohibited from doing business with America -- have allowed Iran to accelerate its nuclear activities "under the radar."
- Iran's continued development of ballistic missile technology and its persistent test firings of missiles, both in clear violation of UN resolutions, were largely overlooked. In addition, the growing bellicosity of Iran's huge militia, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as well as the nuclear program itself, were apparently never addressed with the seriousness they warranted -- thereby allowing Iran to expand its military capabilities and regional aggression unchecked.
- The Iranian regime strategically allocated these funds to support and expand its own proxy presence throughout the region, including, among other spots, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, Mali, Burkina Faso and the Gaza Strip.
- The Trump administration implemented a "maximum pressure" policy aimed at curtailing Iran's economic capabilities by particularly focusing on reducing the country's oil exports, and, most importantly, establishing "secondary sanctions" that banned any country doing business with Iran from doing business with the US.
- The Biden administration's passive approach of trying to use what might look like "protection money" to try to bribe Iran into compliance has simply backfired. Iran took the billions and, unsurprisingly, appears to have fungibly used them to finance several wars in the region -- Hamas and Hezbollah's war against Israel, the Houthis' war against Israel and the US, and Iran's own April 13 missile- and drone-attack against Israel -- as well as Iran's nuclear weapons program.
- The Biden administration, sadly, seems to have been the enabling factor in Iran's continued regional assertiveness and nuclear advancement. The administration's series of policies favorable to Iran significantly strengthened the regime to the point where Iran and its proxies are now actively engaged in a comprehensive war against Israel, the Sunni Arab Gulf States and, since October, more than 150 attacks on US troops in the region.
America's "diplomatic efforts," instead of putting a stop to Iran's
nuclear program, have only resulted in a series of concessions that
have empowered the Iranian regime. (Image source: iStock)
As Iran is on the brink of acquiring nuclear weapons, the responsibility for this development lies squarely on the shoulders of the Obama and Biden administrations. Through a series of misinformed and misguided policies, they have paved the way for Iran to realize its nuclear ambitions.
America's "diplomatic efforts," instead of putting a stop to Iran's nuclear program, have only resulted in a series of concessions that have empowered the Iranian regime. The lack of stringent enforcement and verification measures, and especially lifting secondary sanctions -- by which any country that does business with Iran is prohibited from doing business with America -- have allowed Iran to accelerate its nuclear activities "under the radar." The leniency and strategic missteps of both the Obama and Biden administrations have thus critically undermined global non-proliferation efforts, bringing the world to the current situation where Iran stands about to become a nuclear-armed state.
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