Now That They Know The Truth, Will It Matter?

One of the lessons supposedly learned from the Holocaust was that it is easier to ignore the unthinkable than to deal with it. Unfortunately, the attack on Israel and the world’s response to that attack illustrate the fact that we have not learned that lesson.

On March 5th, CBN reported the following:

For the first time in nearly five months, a United Nations mission is recognizing Israel’s claims of Hamas brutality toward Israeli women and men on October 7th. Meanwhile, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah unleashed more rockets on northern Israel from southern Lebanon.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry welcomed the U.N. report issued by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, acknowledging that Hamas and other terrorist organizations committed sexual crimes in the attack last October.

Posting on X, the mission stated, “The UN also recognizes that the crimes were committed simultaneously in different locations and point to a pattern of rape, torture and sexual abuse. The report also acknowledges the existence of ongoing sexual crimes against the Israeli women and men being held hostage by Hamas and calls for the immediate release of the hostages.”

Israeli U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan called on the Secretary-General and Security Council to join the mission in condemning Hamas.

He had earlier challenged the international body, saying, “In the future, you won’t be able to claim that you didn’t know, just as the world claimed after the Holocaust that you were not exposed to the suffering and horrors. Those who remain indifferent are complicit in the crimes themselves.”

Erdan held up a tablet and played testimonies of women brutalized by Hamas, charging the U.N. with apathy and indifference.

A spokesperson for one freed hostage on the tablet was telling of her ordeal, saying, “And she went into the shower and while she was there one of the terrorists went inside, took his clothes off, with a gun towards her head told her to do everything he wanted.”

The IDF also declassified a call it intercepted from a Hamas terrorist, who is also a UNWRA-employee, and U.N. elementary school teacher.

The article also notes:

In the U.S., the State Department defended its meeting with war cabinet minister Benny Gantz who was invited to Washington without the authorization of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Spokesman Matthew Miller stated, “He (Gantz) has a critical voice in the delivery of humanitarian assistance. He’s an important figure in the sitting government of Israel. And so that’s why we engage with him.”

Miller added, “Our goal is clear to establish a comprehensive aid strategy that includes air, land, and sea routes to maximize the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza and ensure that aid is distributed to everyone in Gaza who needs it.”

This is an effort to undermine Israel’s war effort. The world has seen the horrors of Hamas and Hezbollah and their war on innocent civilians, yet it choses to criticize Israel for wanting to live in peace and safety.

Do We Really Want To Give Away American Sovereignty?

On February 19th, American Greatness posted an article about the pandemic treaty the World Health Organization (WHO) is negotiating.

The article reports:

Despite the immense influence wielded by the United Nations, attention to its rumblings is typically rare outside the international crisis du jour. Breaking from this trend, the ongoing negotiation of a pandemic treaty at the World Health Organization has captured the global spotlight long before reaching its anticipated conclusion. Yet, despite this heightened attention, the public debate on how to head off future pandemic threats has largely overlooked the potential impact of the WHO Pandemic Agreement on fundamental freedoms, notably freedom of expression.

Underway since March 2023, the pandemic accord negotiations seek to establish legally binding rules to enhance international cooperation and to strengthen the role of the WHO in preventing, preparing for, and responding to future pandemics.

To purportedly achieve these objectives, the draft text currently under consideration would commit parties to “tackle” such things as misleading information, misinformation, or disinformation, without offering a definition for these terms or specifying how this would be done. It would also require the “management” of so-called “infodemics,” defined as “too much information, false or misleading information, in digital and physical environments during a disease outbreak” causing “confusion” as well as “mistrust” in health authorities. These provisions cast a looming shadow of censorship that should alarm anyone who values open discourse and transparent governance.

America is blessed in that our Founding Fathers gave the power to sort out misinformation and truth to the citizens of our country. That sorting was not to be left to the government. We saw during the Covid pandemic that a disease could be used as a weapon to trample the rights supposedly guaranteed by our Constitution. Understand that these rights were not given by our Constitution–they were supposed to be protected by our Constitution. Also understand that the American Constitution was put in place to limit the power of the government–not the rights of the people. I am not willing to surrender those rights again.

The Border The News Is Ignoring

Illegal immigration has been a problem for a long time. The problem was exacerbated when President Biden took office and undid the Executive Orders President Trump had put in place to stem the tide of illegals entering America through our porous southern border. The problem was further exacerbated when the Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s) realized they could get money from the United Nations (mainly funded by U.S. taxpayers) and the U.S. Government for providing resources for illegal immigrants. The invitations went out throughout South America. Now the invitations are going out throughout the world. The impact on America is obvious–our cities and states are struggling with housing and food for the illegal immigrants and the taxpayers are providing food, housing, and medical care while we can barely take care of our own. But now we also have a problem on our northern border.

On Sunday, The New York Post reported:

Unsettling Post footage and interviews with US residents along the Canadian border offer a rare glimpse into the thriving migrant smuggling operation that has taken hold up north in addition to the debacle to the south.

Residents of bucolic Swanton, Vt. — a town of about 6,500 people located just across Lake Champlain from New York and about a 10-minute drive from the Canadian border — have been getting a troubling firsthand look at the US’s northern illegal migrant crisis for months.

The town’s plentiful woods make the leafy hamlet an ideal spot for hunters — and also provide ample camouflage for smugglers, who have become so rampant that some locals are packing pistols to protect themselves and turning into amateur sleuths to help thwart them.

“Now I’ve got the Border Patrol guys on speed dial,” local Chris Feeley, 52, recently grimly acknowledged.

According to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data, the number of migrants illegally entering the US at the northern border last year topped 12,200 — a 240% spike from 2022.

The article notes:

Feeley told The Post he has been hunting in the area since he was a teenager, with his favorite vantage point a tree stand about 18 feet above the ground on the property of a local farm.

The elevated perch not only provides a bird’s-eye view of any approaching white-tailed deer but also the area around the Canadian border, which sits just 250 yards from his lookout.

He said that in the past, it was not unusual for him to go an entire day of hunting without encountering another person. But that all changed around three years ago.

Feeley recalled being in his tree stand one morning when a startled group of deer unexpectedly ran by — followed by two men “of Mexican descent” with backpacks and walking sticks, one of whom was looking intently at the screen of his smartphone.

At least the Border Patrol is free to protect our northern border.

 

The Next Big Climate Scare

In America (and in some other places) we just aren’t paying enough attention to our impending doom due to global warming, global cooling, or whatever climate change is currently fashionable. Therefore, it is time to raise the stakes to get our attention. Brace yourself, we are about to start hearing about deaths due to climate change. How you actually calculate that is a mystery, but that hasn’t stopped the propagandists yet.

On Thursday, wattsupwiththat reported:

The next big climate scare is on the way. Advocates of measures to control the climate now propose that we begin counting deaths from climate change. They appear to believe that if people see a daily announcement of climate deaths, they will be more inclined to accept climate change policies. But it’s not even clear that the current gentle rise in global temperatures is causing more people to die.

In December, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke at COP28, the 28th United Nations Climate Conference, and mentioned climate-related deaths.

“We are seeing and beginning to pay attention and to count and record the deaths that are related to climate,” she said. “And by far the biggest killer is extreme heat.”

According to Ms. Clinton, Europe recorded 61,000 deaths from extreme heat in 2023, and she estimated that about 500,000 people died from heat across the world last year.

Global temperatures have been gently rising for the last 300 years. Temperature metrics from NASA, NOAA, and the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom estimate that Earth’s surface temperatures have risen a little more than one degree Celsius, or about two degrees Fahrenheit, over the last 140 years. But are these warmer temperatures harmful to people?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, most cases of influenza occur during December to March, the cold months in the United States. Influenza season in the southern hemisphere takes place during the cold months there, April through September. The peak months for COVID-19 infections tended to be the cold periods of the year. More people usually get sick during cold months than in warm months.

More people also die during winter months than summer months, according to many peer-reviewed studies. For example, Dr. Matthew Falagas of the Alfa Institute of Medical Sciences and five other researchers studied seasonal mortality in 11 nations. The research showed that the average number of deaths peaked in the coldest months of the year in all of them.

It’s easier to stay healthy when the weather is warm–the sun provides Vitamin D, and as long as you don’t overdue it, fresh air and sunshine are healthy.

Please follow the link to the article. It includes some very interesting charts, including the one below:

 

Numbers don’t lie.

Misled Again

On Tuesday, Hot Air posted an article about the continued funding of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). Evidently things are not what they seem.

The article reports:

The Biden administration is continuing to build a disappointing track record of weak responses to foreign affairs crises and deceptive promotion of its own efforts at home. The latest example comes on the heels of the explosive revelations that at least a dozen members of the United Nations’ Palestinian relief agency, the UNRWA, took part in the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7. In response, the White House claimed that they had reinstituted a freeze on funding for the UNRWA that had already been in place under Trump but was lifted by Joe Biden. That seemed like a step in the right direction at the time, but now we’ve learned that a very important detail was left out of the announcement. As Guy Benson reports at Townhall, the “freeze” in funding only applies to new, additional funding requests. Previously approved funds will continue to flow to them as usual.

  • That really does not solve the problem. We have all seen the pictures of Hamas hijacking the aid trucks that come into Gaza and stealing the supplies. How much of what we send actually goes to people in need rather than terrorists?

The article concludes:

Guy Benson correctly points out that this sleight of hand from Biden’s team is part of a larger pattern. You will recall that when Biden grudgingly agreed to add the Houthis back to the list of designated terror groups, he did assign them a designation, but it was a toothless classification compared to the position they occupied on the Foreign Terror Organization (FTO) watchlist under Donald Trump. That’s basically what he’s doing with the UNRWA. He’s giving someone a slap on the wrist when what they really need is a punch in the nose.

Joe Biden’s incompetent policies both at home and abroad aren’t simply embarrassing on the world stage, though that’s clearly true also. They are dangerous. They pose a threat to our own troops as we recently saw yet again and they put our allies at risk. He seems unwilling to do anything of substance that could be seen as too contrary to the wishes of Iran. You really have to ask yourself why.

Does the Biden administration support America?

Let’s Leave The United Nations And Ask It To Leave New York City

Today, Fox News reported that Israel has shared information with the Biden administration on staffers for United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) who were involved in the October 7 attacks on Israel.

The article reports:

The dossier specifically alleges that 12 employees who worked with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) aided in different capacities. 

According to the dossier, seven UN staffers crossed into Israel on Oct. 7 while other were accused of “participating in a terror activity” or coordinating vehicle movements.

The document says two joined Hamas terrorists in raiding an Israeli kibbutz and directly participated in violence, another two staffers kidnapped an Israeli woman, holding her hostage in their personal home; and, another UN staffer doled out ammunition to the Hamas terrorists.

I have previously posted pictures of a Palestinian kindergarten class (article here) showing the students dressed in combat gear preparing to invade Israel and drive the Jews into the sea. Schools and camps in Gaza are funded by UNRWA. This is what they are teaching the children.

The article notes:

The dossier specifies the UN workers involved, providing their photos and a description of their roles at the agency. 

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the individuals who were alleged to have been involved in the attack are no longer employed. 

“Of the 12 people implicated, nine were immediately identified and terminated by the Commissioner-General of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini; one is confirmed dead, and the identity of the two others is being clarified,” said Guterres.

Would they still be employed if the information had not been shared?

Transformation of the United Nations

Author: R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D

When President Ronald Reagan was asked why he left the Democrat Party, he replied, “I didn’t leave the Democrat Party; the Democrat Party left me!” Meaning of course, that the principles and policies of the Democrat Party had changed to the extent that they were no longer consistent with his views of America. We are now facing the same situation with the United Nations (UN).

The original charter of the United Nations, when it was created after World War II, was focused on ending wars, promoting world peace, and human rights. The UN has morphed into a platform for global government and the elimination of individual national sovereignty. The evidence for this is substantial, as reflected in the revised mission statement in the UN’s Agenda 30, which includes the following, “We, the UN, are determined to manage consumption and production, and urgent action on climate change. Achieve full and productive employment for all. Adopt fiscal, wage, and social protection, and progressively achieve greater equality. Facilitate orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility of all people (i.e. open borders). Require universal vaccine documentation for all international travel.” This is nothing less than a totalitarian statement of socialism, make no mistake about it.

The UN has been capitalizing on the COVID19 outbreak and the manmade climate hoax to expand its worldwide control. With organizations like the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization (WTO), the UN is attempting to infringe and limit the rights and freedoms existing in individual nations. Just recently, the UN announced an effort to control freedom of speech worldwide (under the guise of misinformation) and stated that the United States should repeal its constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech since it is too broad in scope.

Clearly, the UN has moved towards world governance and a socialist agenda controlled by a group of bureaucrats. I do not want our freedoms controlled by some world government, and I assume neither do you as a freedom loving American. We must elect candidates who recognize the threat of global governance and are willing to fight against it. Leaving the UN would be a good place to start and would send a clear message that we stand for America first and will not surrender our independence.

Your Tax Dollars At Work

On Monday, The New York Post posted the following headline:

Don’t believe the lies: The UN is paying illegals using US taxpayer cash

Why are we still supporting the UN? Can’t we kick them out of New York City and use the building for kitchy condos?

The article reports:

In 2021, early on in America’s historic border crisis, I wrote that the United Nations was abetting the problem by handing out debit cards and cash vouchers to aspiring illegal border crossers on their way north.

One outraged group of 21 border security-minded lawmakers pitched a bill that would require the United States, the UN’s largest donor, to turn off the taxpayer money spigot.

H.R. 6155 never caught fire, though, in no small part because “fact checks” from outlets such as the AFP claimed that the UN was doing no such thing.

Those fact checkers lied.

The UN’s just released the 2024 “Inter-Agency Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants from Venezuela” (R4V for short), a planning and budget document for handing out $1.6 billion in 17 Latin America countries.

It confirms the UN, with the helping hands of 248 named non-governmental organizations, is indeed giving debit cards to illegal migrants — funded, in large part, by US taxpayers.

Despite the R4V plan title naming Venezuelans as recipients of this aid operation, the document’s fine print (footnote on page 14 and paragraph on page 43, for instance) says the largesse goes to “all nationalities” and “multiple other nationalities.”

We are sending foreign aid to these countries which is being misused and stolen by the tyrants who govern them, and then we are giving money to the people who flee those tyrants. Until the citizens of those countries are willing to stay in those countries and fight for freedom, nothing is going to change. America is the country it is because our Founding Fathers fought for it. Admittedly we are not currently going in the direction that they planned, but their system of government has generally held. It’s time to cut off the funding that is not going directly to the people in need. American money does not need to uphold tyrants or encourage people to break the law, either directly or through the UN.

Who Is UNRWA?

On December 27th, Zero Hedge posted an article about The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) .

The article reports:

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) was originally a small agency mandated to provide basic humanitarian relief for Palestinians, including a vote for renewal every three years. Seventy-three years and four generations later, and with more than 30,000 employees and an annual budget of more than $1 billion, it has astonishingly become one of the largest UN agencies.

The article notes:

In the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, UNRWA has, in fact, long been operating as the de facto government. By providing the residents of the Gaza Strip with various services, UNRWA exempted Hamas from its responsibilities as the governing body, such as creating a working economy that would pay for education and healthcare, and allowed it, instead, to invest resources in building tunnels and manufacturing weapons. If UNRWA were not there, Hamas would have been forced to fill the vacuum and, for example, build hospitals and schools and find solutions to economic hardship, including unemployment and poverty.

As senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk said, in explaining why no cement could be spared from terror tunnels to build bomb shelters for Gazan citizens:

“The tunnels were built to protect the fighters of Hamas from [Israeli] airstrikes. As you know, 75% of the residents of the Gaza Strip are refugees. It is the responsibility of the United Nations to protect the refugees.”

Hamas was effectively saying: We are responsible for what happens underground, while UNRWA is responsible for what happens above ground.

In addition to evolving into a monster-sized agency, UNRWA has also morphed into a very costly incubator for terror. UNRWA-run schools emphasize and promote the “right of return,” a euphemism for flooding Israel with millions of Palestinians and turning it into a Muslim-majority Islamist state backed by Iran.

Please follow the link to read the entire article. Is there any doubt that we need to stop supporting the United Nations? American taxpayer dollars are funding terrorism.

Time To Exit The United Nations?  

Author:  R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D    

The United Nations (UN) was formed in 1945 right after the end of World War II.  Like the League of Nations formed after World War I, it was hoped that the UN would foster global peace among nations.  It is time to assess whether the UN has achieved that objective and whether our participation in it is beneficial to our country.  There have been many wars since the creation of the UN such as the Korean War, Vietnam War, Israeli Six Day War, Iraq War and currently Russia/Ukraine and the Israel/Hamas conflict.  

One might argue that the presence of the UN has prevented a nuclear World War III, but that would be a stretch to say the least. The threat of mutual destruction has been the controlling factor in preventing nuclear war thus far.  Whether that will continue with the spread of nuclear weapons to China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and inevitably Iran remains to be seen. The existence of the UN does not seem to have prevented nuclear proliferation.   

Is membership in the UN beneficial for the United States? The UN started with 51 countries and now has 189. The majority of these countries are not democratic and their values and principles are not consistent with our constitution.  Worse still, the structure of the UN General Assembly gives every country one vote with the weight of the smallest country (Tuvala, population 12,000) carrying the same impact of the United States.  Currently, the United States pays up to 25% of the UN annual budget of about $4 billion which amounts to $1 billion a year.  Money that could be spent on securing our borders, for example.  

Some other areas of concern are the leftist leaning decisions of the UN.  The World Health Organization arm of the UN mishandled the COVID 19 pandemic and failed to hold China in anyway responsible for the creation and spreading of the manmade virus. The UN’s unwavering support of the climate change extremist’s agenda, such as the Paris Accords, and the war against fossil fuels threatens our country and way of life, while allowing China and India to continue to build coal burning power plants.   Another example, is the UN’s failure to condemn the barbaric atrocities of Hamas for almost two months and their history of condemning Israel at the slightest excuse. They have never condemned Iran, the biggest sponsor of terror in the world.  The latest example is UNESCO’s (UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) global wide guidelines that would severely restrict free speech in the media and social platforms. The guidelines require the blocking of any speech that they label as “misinformation.”  Sound familiar?  They also boldly stated that the U.S. Constitution needs to be changed to reflect these new guidelines. 

  It is time to have a serious debate as to whether we want to turn over the governance of our country to some global authority.  Some of the leftists in this country believe we should.  I do not and hope neither do you. With China increasingly controlling the UN by placing members of their communist party in key positions, we must make an honest evaluation of whether the UN has outlived its usefulness. 

Where Is The International Outrage?

On Tuesday, The Times of Israel posted an article about the treatment of the hostages Hamas kidnapped on October 7th. Considering what the Hamas
Charter says about Israel and Jews, it is not surprising that the hostages were not treated well. However, some of the treatment is well outside the boundaries of international law.

The article reports:

A Health Ministry representative tells the Knesset Health Committee that the hostages freed from Hamas captivity were given tranquilizer pills before being handed over to the Red Cross for transfer to Israel. The drugging would have aimed to make the hostages appear calm, happy and upbeat after suffering physical abuse, deprivation and psychological terror for more than 50 days in Gaza.

Dr. Hagar Mizrahi, head of the Health Ministry’s medical division, specifically names the drug Clonazepam. Known as Clonex in Israel and sold under the brand names Klonopin and Rivotril elsewhere, the drug is used to prevent and treat anxiety disorders, seizures, bipolar mania, agitation associated with psychosis, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

The ministry representative does not disclose whether the drugging has been confirmed by blood tests done on the released hostages at Israeli hospitals, or from the freed hostages’ testimony, or both.

Families of hostages speaking earlier to the committee were the first to raise the issue.

Where is the United Nations? Where is America? Where is the international outrage?

Things Not Being Said Publicly

On Saturday, Townhall posted an article about the continuing war in Gaza. Although the Biden administration and some other countries are putting pressure on Israel not to end Hamas, some countries in the Middle East are not in agreement with allowing Hamas to survive.

The article reports:

In the days after the brutal October 7 attacks executed by Hamas, Egypt knew what was going to happen. They deployed tanks to the border while their prime minister vowed that his country would sacrifice millions to keep their borders safe. He was not referring to Israel. So, what’s the latest? Well, Haaretz is reporting that Israel’s Arab neighbors are telling Jerusalem privately that they shouldn’t stop military operations until Hamas has been annihilated. They view them as a domestic threat:

The article includes a quote from an article in France 24:

The outcome of a joint summit of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in the Saudi capital highlighted regional divisions over how to respond to the war even as fears mount that it could draw in other countries. 

…The final declaration on Saturday rejected Israeli claims that it is acting in “self-defence” and demanded that the United Nations Security Council adopt “a decisive and binding resolution” to halt Israel’s “aggression”. 

It also called for an end to weapons sales to Israel and dismissed any future political resolution to the conflict that would keep Gaza separate from the Israeli-occupied West Bank. 

Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who before the war was considering establishing formal diplomatic ties with Israel, told the summit he “holds the occupation (Israeli) authorities responsible for the crimes committed against the Palestinian people”. 

…Some countries, including Algeria and Lebanon, proposed responding to the devastation in Gaza by threatening to disrupt oil supplies to Israel and its allies as well as severing the economic and diplomatic ties that some Arab League nations have with Israel, the diplomats said. 

However, at least three countries — including the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which normalised ties with Israel in 2020 — rejected the proposal, according to the diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity. 

In a televised address Saturday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Arab leaders “have to stand up against Hamas”, which he described as “an integral part of the terror axis led by Iran”. 

Why is there so much talk about crimes committed against the Palestinian people and so little talk about crimes committed against Israelis on October 7th and before and after? Where is the concern for the rockets fired consistently on civilian populations in Israel since March 2006? How would America handle things if Mexico had been firing rockets into Texas since 2006?

The United Nations Has A Dietary Plan For America

On Tuesday, The Washington Free Beacon posted an article about one United Nations Agency’s plan to fight climate change.

The article reports:

The United Nations agency that is pushing wealthy nations to curb their meat consumption in the name of climate change is led by a top Chinese Communist Party official who is known for using the agency to serve Beijing.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization—which counts CCP official Qu Dongyu as its director—is set to release a plan next month that calls on “the world’s most-developed nations” to fight climate change by curbing “their excessive appetite for meat,” Bloomberg reported Saturday. It’s unlikely, however, that the directive will apply to China. The United Nations still considers China a developing country, and Qu himself has long faced criticism for using his U.N. post to advance Beijing’s interests.

The article explains one possible motive for the push toward eating less meat:

A reduction in global meat production, meanwhile, could help alleviate Chinese concerns over food security and land scarcity. China is the world’s largest meat importer thanks in part to “scarcity of land for feed and forage” and “rising production costs” that have limited its production, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture report published in July. China experienced large-scale food shortages in 2022, prompting protests in more than a dozen cities.

In August 2023, The Guardian reported the following:

China is approving new coal power projects at the equivalent of two plants every week, a rate energy watchdogs say is unsustainable if the country hopes to achieve its energy targets.

The government has pledged to peak emissions by 2030 and reach net zero by 2060, and in 2021 the president, Xi Jinping, promised to stop building coal powered plants abroad.

But after regional power crunches in 2022, China started a domestic spree of approving new projects and restarting suspended ones. In 2022 the government approved a record-breaking 106 gigawatts (GW) of new coal-fired power capacity. One gigawatt is the equivalent of a large coal power plant.

So why is a country that is building coal plants to generate electricity at the rate of two a week complaining that Americans eat too much meat?

It really is time for America to leave the United Nations, take over the building in New York and turn it into condominiums.

Irony

On Saturday, Just the News posted the following headline:

UN climate confab may have largest carbon footprint in event’s history, more than 400 jets

Aren’t those the people who want us to drive mini electric cars and eat bugs?

The article reports:

The upcoming United Nations (UN) climate conference in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), known as COP28, appears likely to have a larger carbon footprint than any previous UN climate change summit.

More than 70,000 people are expected to show up to COP28, about 25,000 more people than last year’s summit, COP27. The conference, which runs from Nov. 30 through Dec. 12, will focus on global strategies to reduce emissions and accelerate the shift away from fossil fuels in favor of green energy.

About 40,000 people attended COP26 in 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland,  while nearly 45,000 people attended the 2015 summit in Paris, France, where the Paris Climate Accords were signed.

Conference attendees have drawn scrutiny in previous years for traveling to and from the event in private jets while lecturing on the importance of reducing emissions. Notably, a luxury concierge service has been offering to arrange private jet charters ahead of this year’s conference.

In addition to flying in and out of the UAE, many attendees will also stay in high-end hotels and have access to “environmentally sustainable, socially responsible, delicious and nutritious food and beverage,” according to COP28’s website.

On October 16, 2021, Zero Hedge posted the following headline:

UN Climate Change Conference Reportedly Using Diesel Generators To Charge Teslas Being Used As Shuttles

Some highlights of that article are posted here.

The article also notes:

One of the key issues to be discussed at COP28 is the shape of a so-called “loss and damages” fund, a de facto international climate reparations program. Special presidential envoy for climate John Kerry recently suggested that the U.S. will pay “millions” into the fund, a number that many activists and representatives of poorer countries find to be inadequate. China is unlikely to have any significant obligations to the fund because it is classified as a developing country, despite its status as the world’s top emitter and second-largest economy.

If you have not yet figured out that the purpose of climate change is to take money away from the countries that have it and give it to China and other ‘developing’ countries, you have not been paying attention.

The Sanctions Expired On Wednesday

On Tuesday, Reuters reported that the U.N. Security Council restrictions on giving missile technology to Iran expire on Wednesday. The United States has the power to veto that expiration, but has chosen not to.

The article reports:

The restrictions were defined in Resolution 2231 of 2015 endorsing a deal by which Britain, China, the European Union, France, Germany, Russia and the U.S. removed sanctions against Iran in return for Tehran curbing its nuclear programme.

In 2018, then-President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the deal, known as the JCPOA, leaving unilateral U.S. sanctions in place, and Iran subsequently accelerated its nuclear programme, which it says is purely peaceful.

With the deal in shreds, U.N. sanctions intended to prevent the theocratic state developing long-range nuclear-capable ballistic missiles came back into force. But these will finally expire on Wednesday.

Russia has grown close to Iran since invading Ukraine in February 2022 and itself being shunned by the West. Many of the hundreds of one-way attack drones it has used to bomb Ukraine in the last year are believed to have been made in Iran.

Now Russia has stated that it no longer needs to obey the restrictions once they expire. They have not stated whether or not they plan to support Iran’s missile development.

Recent events have shown us that the Biden administration is truly the third term of Barack Obama. We are supporting terrorists and turning our back on our traditional allies.

Your Tax Dollars At Work

On Tuesday, The U.K. Daily Mail reported the following:

Since the fall of Afghanistan, the U.S. has forked over funds to groups under the brutal Taliban regime to the tune of $2.35 billion. 

That’s according to a new report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), released to the public on Tuesday. 

Another $1.7 billion ‘remained available for possible disbursement’ at the time of the report, dated July 30.

Why are we giving money to people who hate us? Can’t they hate us for free?

In May 2023, U.S. News reported:

The Taliban’s return to power has affected all citizens. In December 2022, for example, the government reinstituted public floggings and executions. But Afghan women, in particular, have seen decades of hard-earned rights stripped away during less than two years of Taliban rule. Though the Taliban initially promised to uphold women’s and minority rights, they have instead imposed strict restrictions. The most recent blow to women’s rights came in April, when women were banned from working for the United Nations, further limiting their participation in the workforce and day-to-day life.

The article at U.S. News includes a timeline of how the Taliban has taken away women’s rights since they took control. Why are we sending these people money (that we don’t have)?

The article at The U.K. Mail concludes:

UN experts say 20 years of progress for women and girls were undone with the takeover of the Taliban in 2021. Women have now largely been banned from attending high school and driving or working outside the home. 

Sopko [John Sopko, head of SIGAR (Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction)] noted in April that in addition to the $2.35 billion, another $3.5 billion is slated to come in to Afghanistan through an international fund.

‘I don’t trust the Taliban as far as you can throw them,’ Sopko told the committee. ‘The information we’re getting — again, not from the State Department who isn’t talking to us or USAID … is that the Taliban are already diverting funds.’ 

‘I haven’t seen a starving Taliban fighter on TV, they seem to be fat dumb and happy. I see starving Afghan children on TV.’

‘If the purpose is to help the Afghan people we have to have effective oversight,’ Sopko said, blaming an ‘over-reliance’ on international agencies he said have been ‘horrible’ about providing his agency with information.

It would be interesting to know who is responsible for the reconstruction of Afghanistan. It would also be interesting to know why we are giving the country that kind of money as they are eliminating the rights of women? Do we care about women’s rights overseas?

Another Reason To Leave The United Nations

On Sunday, CBN News reported that on Friday, the United Nations voted 98-17, with 52 abstentions to have the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to advise the world body concerning Israel’s “occupation” of territories in the West Bank (biblical Judea and Samaria, including Jerusalem), maintaining that it is a form of de facto annexation. Thankfully, the United States voted against the resolution. The measure will next go to the UN General plenary in December to be officially ratified.

The article reports:

Lapid  (outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid) cautioned that the vote could prompt more violence from Palestinians. “This step will not change the reality on the ground, nor will it help the Palestinian people in any way; it may even result in an escalation,” he warned. “Supporting this move is a prize for terrorist organizations and the campaign against Israel.”

Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan tweeted, “there is no authority that can declare that the Jewish nation is an occupier in its homeland,” and added that the appeal to the ICJ in The Hague was “the last nail in the burial coffin” of reconciliation between Israel and the Palestinians. Defense Minister Benny Gantz said the resolution was “disconnected from reality.”

The resolution contains language stating that Israel’s continued control of territories it won in the 1967 Six-Day War can be considered a form of annexation, and therefore is not legal. Since 1967, Israel declared sovereignty over Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, but military law still applies in other parts of the West Bank. 

The Biden administration had campaigned against the UN resolution and urged Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas not to introduce it. Part of Abbas’s strategy may be to cement his legacy, since the 87-year-old president has not held elections in 16 years and a succession struggle is in its early stages.

The resolution also calls for investigations into Israeli actions concerning its capital which are “aimed at altering the demographic composition, character, and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem.” It also says Israel has adopted “discriminatory legislation and measures.”

Until the Palestinian Authority removes from its charter the goal of removing Israel as a nation, there is no possibility of a peaceful, two-state solution. The Palestinian people may want peace, but their leaders do not. We need to remember that when the Arabs controlled the Old City part of Jerusalem, the Jews were not allowed to worship there. Jews are still not allowed to pray on the Temple Mount. Israel is a democracy. Arab states generally do not support democracy.

Funding Our Enemies

On Saturday, The Associated Press reported:

President Joe Biden signed an order Friday to free $7 billion in Afghan assets now frozen in the U.S., splitting the money between humanitarian aid for poverty-stricken Afghanistan and a fund for Sept. 11 victims still seeking relief for the terror attacks that killed thousands and shocked the world.

No money would immediately be released. But Biden’s order calls for banks to provide $3.5 billion of the frozen amount to a trust fund for distribution through humanitarian groups for Afghan relief and basic needs. The other $3.5 billion would stay in the U.S. to finance payments from lawsuits by U.S. victims of terrorism that are still working their way through the courts.

International funding to Afghanistan was suspended and billions of dollars of the country’s assets abroad, mostly in the United States, were frozen after the Taliban took control of the country in August as the U.S. military withdrew.

The article concludes:

The United Nations last month issued an appeal for nearly $5 billion, its largest ever appeal for one country, estimating that nearly 90% of the country’s 38 million people were surviving below the poverty level of $1.90 a day. The U.N. also warned that upward of 1 million children risked starvation.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Friday night that it is “encouraged” by Biden’s executive order.

“”It’s also important to reiterate that humanitarian assistance alone will be insufficient to meet the tremendous needs of Afghan women and men and children over the long term, and it is critical that the Afghan economy is able to restart in order for these needs of the Afghan people to be met with a sustainable and meaningful manner,” Dujarric said.

David Miliband, head of the International Rescue Committee, on Wednesday urged release of the funds to prevent famine.

“The humanitarian community did not choose the government, but that is no excuse to punish the people, and there is a middle course — to help the Afghan people without embracing the new government,” Miliband said at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on the matter.

I hate to be cynical (but I’m good at it), but does anyone think that the money given to the Taliban will be used to improve the living conditions of the people living in Afghanistan? We only need to look at the Gaza Strip to see how humanitarian aid can be misused to buy weapons and build military infrastructure. All of that money should go to the victims of 9/11 and their families. Why are we funding terrorism?

Who Decides?

Yesterday The Daily Caller posted an article about the Taliban’s request for representation at the United Nations. The article includes a list of the countries that will decide whether the current Afghanistan Ambassador to the United Nations remains in place or the Taliban gets to seat its Ambassador. The nine countries which will make this decision are the United States, China, Russia, Sweden, the Bahamas, Bhutan, Chile, Namibia and Sierra Leone.

The article reports:

The Islamic militant group wrote the U.N. Secretary-General, Portugal’s Antonio Guterres, Monday to request permission to participate in the ongoing gathering of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly, according to The Associated Press. Five days prior, Afghanistan’s current ambassador to the U.N., Ghulam, Isaczai, provided Guterres with a list of the Afghan government’s delegation for the proceedings.

The Taliban letter was written with the letterhead “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” and was signed by the Taliban’s appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ameer Khan Muttaqi, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. The letter said that former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani was removed from power by the Islamic militants Aug. 15, and that the global community no longer recognized him or his government as the leaders of Afghanistan. As a result, Muttaqi said, Isaczai could no longer represent Afghanistan at the U.N.

It should be noted that if the Taliban is seated in place of the current Afghan Ambassador, the Taliban inherits Afghanistan’s seat on the U.N. Women’s Rights Commission. I suspect that I am not the only person that has a problem with that.

Trying To Establish Legitimacy

Yesterday One America News reported that the Taliban has asked to address the United Nations in New York this week. They have nominated Doha-based spokesman Suhail Shaheen as Afghanistan’s UN Ambassador. There is a problem with that–Ghulam Isaczai is already Afghanistan’s UN Ambassador.

The article reports:

The Taliban have asked to address world leaders at the United Nations in New York this week and nominated their Doha-based spokesman Suhail Shaheen as Afghanistan’s U.N. ambassador, according to a letter seen by Reuters on Tuesday.

Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi made the request in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday. Muttaqi asked to speak during the annual high-level meeting of the General Assembly, which finishes on Monday.

Guterres’ spokesperson, Farhan Haq, confirmed Muttaqi’s letter. The move sets up a showdown with Ghulam Isaczai, the U.N. ambassador in New York representing Afghanistan’s government ousted last month by the Taliban.

Haq said the rival requests for Afghanistan’s U.N. seat had been sent to a nine-member credentials committee, whose members include the United States, China and Russia. The committee is unlikely to meet on the issue before Monday, so it is doubtful that the Taliban foreign minister will address the world body.

Eventual U.N. acceptance of the ambassador of the Taliban would be an important step in the hardline Islamist group’s bid for international recognition, which could help unlock badly needed funds for the cash-strapped Afghan economy.

Guterres has said that the Taliban’s desire for international recognition is the only leverage other countries have to press for inclusive government and respect for rights, particularly for women, in Afghanistan.

The Taliban letter said Isaczai’s mission “is considered over and that he no longer represents Afghanistan,” said Haq.

Until a decision is made by the credentials committee Isaczai will remain in the seat, according to the General Assembly rules. He is currently scheduled to address the final day of the meeting on Sept. 27, but it was not immediately clear if any countries might object in the wake of the Taliban letter.

The Taliban is a terrorist regime, but they are no less a terrorist regime than Iran. How many UN member countries are ruled by tyrants or dictators? The United Nations was supposed to be a beacon of freedom and peace. Instead it has become a place where terrorists and dictators come to be given legitimacy. It really is time for America to leave the United Nations and ask the United Nations to leave America.

Showering Terrorists With Cash

The Daily Caller reported yesterday that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) will be sending $64 million in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan to address the “compounding effects of insecurity, conflict, recurring natural disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic.” That makes my head hurt. How about sending $64 million in aid to America to house our homeless veterans and improve healthcare for our veterans?

The article reports:

The funding will come from USAID and the State Department, and will be distributed through the United Nations and independent aid groups, the agency said in a press release. The humanitarian aid will help provide vulnerable Afghans with “critically needed food, health care, nutrition, medical supplies, protection, hygiene supplies and other urgently needed relief.”

USAID also said it has created a Disaster Assistance Response Team to lead the U.S. government’s humanitarian response in Afghanistan and work with partners on the ground to provide assistance.

Does anyone actually believe that the money will be used for humanitarian purposes and not to arm terrorists in the Middle East?

The article concludes:

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday urged Afghanistan’s neighbors to keep their borders open to refugees and promised to ensure the Taliban does not block humanitarian assistance, particularly to groups such as women and girls.

“The United States will also work with the international community to help ensure that the Taliban follow through on its commitments and advance unhindered humanitarian access, freedom of movement for aid workers of all genders, safety and security of humanitarian staff, and safe passage for all those who wish to leave Afghanistan,”  he said in a statement.

I think it’s time to remove the State Department from our government. They obviously do not work for us.

 

Does Anyone Actually Believe This?

Yesterday Newsbusters posted an article about some recent reporting done by Newsweek. Newsweek posted the following headline, “Seeking World Recognition, Taliban Vows to Help Fight Terror and Climate Change.” I am willing to believe that the Taliban seeks world recognition. I am not willing to believe that they will help fight terrorism and climate change.

Newsbusters reports:

Newsweek Senior Writer of Foreign Policy Tom O’Connor pushed how Taliban Cultural Commission member Abdul Qahar Balkhi “told Newsweek that his group sought worldwide recognition of the Islamic Emirate.” Balkhi propagandized to the outlet how the organization’s drive for “recognition” would be bolstered in part by the terror group’s commitment to “fight terror” and so-called climate change. “‘We hope not only to be recognized by regional countries but the entire world at large as the legitimate representative government of the people of Afghanistan,’” Balkhi said in part, according to Newsweek.

It is damning that a U.S. publication would lower itself so far down the eco-extremist cesspool that it would attempt to humanize an Islamic terrorist group currently slaughtering people in Afghanistan as a result of President Joe Biden’s massive foreign policy failure.

The article at Newsbusters concludes:

Newsweek’s decision to provide a megaphone to the Taliban wasn’t the first time a prominent outlet has tried to nonsensically lump the terrorist group and climate change together. Recently, CBS News published an outrageous story blaming climate change for the Taliban’s rise. CBS News climate and energy reporter Cara Korte’s absurd story was headlined: “How climate change helped strengthen the Taliban.”

But O’Connor’s Taliban spin was horrific in another context as well. The United Nations reported in July that “[m]ore women and children were killed and wounded in Afghanistan in the first half of 2021 than in the first six months of any year since records began in 2009.” The UN said these records followed “the Taliban offensive to take territory from Government forces.” But that didn’t stop O’Connor from summarizing the Taliban’s absurdity that “militants would never again be allowed to launch attacks against other countries” in the first paragraph of his story.

Conservatives are under attack. Contact Newsweek and hold it to account for pushing the Taliban’s talking points.

Anyone who relies on the mainstream media as their only news source at this time is not hearing the truth. The lies that they are hearing endanger themselves and our country.

This Would Be Funny If It Were Not Tragic

Townhall is reporting today that Secretary of State Antony Blinken has asked the United Nations not to give the $75 million in aid America is giving them for aid in the Gaza Strip to Hamas. Where does he think the money to build the terror tunnels into Israel came from? Some of it came from Iran, but much of it came from international humanitarian aid that was never used to help the people of Gaza.

The article reports:

“There’s a recognition we need to continue to discuss and have conversations with our key partners in the region, who played an instrumental role in getting to the point we reached last Thursday, and also to discuss the path forward on rebuilding Gaza,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki recently said. “And as you noted, Mike, we know that won’t be easy, in part because we want to prevent funding from going to Hamas.”

While the West lines up to write “relief” checks, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is boasting about endless support from Iran.

“We have our own funds. We have our own income. We don’t need to take any of the money from the fundings that come for reconstruction. In this case I’d also like to say we need to thank the Islamic Republic of Iran which also has not stopped at any point of assisting Hamas and other Palestinian factions with money and arms, with experience and support,” Sinwar said during a press conference this week in Gaza. “They were with us. Really although they weren’t present in person, they were with us. Through that capability that they gave us, we were able to hit the enemy and terrorize the enemy.”

Is Secretary of State Blinken really naive enough to think that the humanitarian aid will actually be used for humanitarian purposes?

More Of The Same

The Washington Examiner is reporting today that the United Nations has placed China, Cuba, and Russia on the U.N. Human Rights Council. They will become sitting member on that Council as of January 1.

The article reports:

On Jan. 1, China, Cuba, and Russia will become members of the U.N. Human Rights Council. Yes, China, which has imprisoned 2 million of its Uighur citizens in gulag reeducation camps, sterilized thousands, and used the rest for de facto slave labor, is donning the U.N. human rights mantle. Cuba, a dystopia tolerated by the Western media elite for its creaking art deco façade, sees many of its best and brightest choose to brave shark-infested waters in search of better lives. Vladimir Putin’s Russia wages a very thinly veiled war on all who question the Kremlin. Whether it’s Novichok nerve agents and Alexei Navalny, open windows and journalists, or gang attacks on gays, Putin’s Russia despises human rights.

It is not simply alarming that these governments are joining the Human Rights Council, but that so few governments and organizations are bothered by it.

The article concludes:

But the challenges go beyond human rights. In the face of repeated and successively increasing Iranian breaches of nuclear arms agreements, the U.N. sits idle. In the face of escalating Chinese circumvention of North Korean sanctions, the U.N. sits idle. U.N. officials like to blame the U.N. Security Council’s permanent members for these issues. But the truth is that the U.N. itself is to blame. Its leaders, now and before, have failed to address the broken structures that sit at the heart of their organization. They should act. But they won’t. They’re happy instead to make speeches and then return to the extensive and expensive budgets afforded to all U.N. staffers. It is extraordinary, for example, that so much of the U.N.’s money continues to be spent in New York City and Geneva rather than out in the field where it might, just might, save lives and make the world a slightly better place.

The U.N. doesn’t deserve many birthday presents. Not this year, at least. And likely not next year.

Unfortunately the United Nations has chosen to ignore the Preamble to its Charter, which states:

  • to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and
  • to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and
  • to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and
  • to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

When an organization betrays the charter that formed it, it is time for the organization to disband. The United Nations’ actions in recent years have done nothing to promote peace, freedom, or human rights. It’s time for them to go.