Monthly Archives: November 2023

What The Israeli Defense Forces Are Discovering

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On Monday, The Times of Israel posted an article showing what the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have found at the Hamas headquarters under Gaza City’s Rantisi Hospital, which treats children. The headquarters was purposely placed there so that if the IDF were to attack the hospital, they would be accused of war crimes. Never mind the war crime of placing your command center under a children’s hospital.

The article reports:

IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari says the Navy’s elite Shayetet 13 commando unit and the 401st Armored Brigade have raided Gaza City’s Rantisi Hospital, which treats children, and that Hamas operatives were holed up there. He says he has just returned from the hospital, having filmed there, and that the IDF has evidence indicating that hostages were held there.

“Underneath the hospital, in the basement, we found a Hamas command and control center, suicide-bomb vests, grenades, AK-47 assault rifles, explosive devices, RPGs, and other weapons, computers, money, etc,” Hagari says, in an English-language press conference.

“We also found signs that indicate that Hamas held hostages here,” he says, adding that “this is currently under our investigation,” but that the IDF has intelligence to verify it.

“Additionally, we found evidence that Hamas terrorists came back from the massacre [in southern Israel] on October 7 to this hospital, among others, after butchering Israelis in their homes,” he says.

The Spokesman also noted the IDF’s efforts to protect the civilians in Gaza:

Hagari says the IDF has been working to enable the safe evacuation of patients from Rantisi over the last week, as well as from other hospitals in northern Gaza.

“Israel helped the hospital managers evacuate the Gaza patients to a safer hospital,” he says, adding that the IDF has been informed that “the last 18 patients in the Rantisi Hospital had safely evacuated to a safer hospital.

“This is because our war is against Hamas, not against the people in Gaza. Especially not the sick, the women, or the children,” he says.

“Our war is against Hamas who uses them as human shields,” Hagari adds.

Unfortunately many residents of Gaza support what Hamas is doing.

Not Really Looking For A Solution

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Generally speaking, the words coming out of the Biden administration support Israel. Generally speaking. However, the actions of the State Department under President Biden tell a very different story.

On November 14th, The Daily Caller reported:

The State Department, as part of its efforts to support refugee arrivals, is working with a coalition of nonprofits that includes several anti-Israel groups.

The State Department partnered with Welcome.US, a coalition of nonprofit groups, corporations and former politicians, in September 2021 to help new Afghan refugee arrivals find sponsors, jobs and housing. The coalition includes Islamic Relief USA, Amnesty International and the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) Oklahoma branch, all of which have made anti-Israel statements.

“The State Department applauds the launch of Welcome.US and looks forward to our ongoing collaboration and discussions with leaders across sectors to mobilize support to meet the needs of these arriving Afghans as they write a new chapter of the American experience,” the State Department said in a statement when the program launched.

Islamic Relief USA is affiliated with Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW). The Trump administration’s State Department cut ties with the group due to the “anti-Semitism exhibited repeatedly by IRW’s leadership,” Ellie Cohanim, then the deputy special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism at the State Department, told the Washington Free Beacon at the time.

The article notes:

“The Council on American-Islamic Relations and Islamic Relief Worldwide are not innocuous ‘faith-based’ groups,” Asra Nomani, cofounder of the Muslim Reform Movement, a group fighting radical Islamism, told the DCNF. “They are dangerous organizations that believe in political Islam, or Islamism, and stoke anti-American, anti-Jew intolerance and hate.”

I have written about CAIR recently (article here). They are listed as unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land Foundation Trial. If you are not familiar with that trial, now is a really good time to learn about it. However, beware–many search engines will lead you to fake news about the trial. The best thing to do is to look up the exhibits provided by the government in the trial and read them. They are very relevant to what we are dealing with today.

Board of Education Resolutions 

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Author:  R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D    

As I have mentioned in prior articles, the local Boards of Education are the only elected body that we have direct influence over when it comes to our county public school systems. The State Board of Education is made up of appointed members. It is incumbent on us to make sure that the local Boards of Education members know how we want the schools to operate. We can let them know by attending the Board meetings, contacting individual board members, or by formal resolutions directing them to take specific actions.  An example of the latter is the four resolutions that will be presented to the Craven County Board of Election on Thursday November 16 at their public meeting.    

The four resolutions consist of the following:  Resolution #1:   Removing identity focus (i.e. Critical Race Theory) from the curriculum in the schools in all grades. Removing all books, etc., that advocate CRT.  American is not a racist country and should not be portrayed as such. People should be judged by the content of their character and achievement and not their ethnic/racial identity.  Resolution #2:  Removing Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) teaching and practices from the schools. DEI is based on Marxist principles that advocate equal outcome instead of the American principle of equal opportunity. This teaching not only breeds distrust and hostility between the races, but undermines the notion that everyone should strive to achieve their best and should be rewarded appropriately.  Resolution #3:  Removing transgender instruction. The notion that any student can choose their gender rather than live consistent with their gender at birth is destructive and amounts to child abuse.  All children should be addressed by the pronoun consistent with their biological gender at birth and any child exhibiting gender confusion should be referred to their parent(s)–not to school counselors.  Resoution #4:   Climate Change. Children in public school are being indoctrinated with the unproven belief that climate change is being caused by man’s burning of fossil fuels and that the earth will become uninhabitable if drastic action like wind and solar are not implemented. This has become the ideology of the Left and anyone challenging their radical beliefs is labeled a “climate denier”.  This resolution would require that both sides of this issue be covered as part of regular science classes and not used as indoctrination. The climate has never been static and has always been changing. They are frightening our children with their unproven ideology. 

Most clear thinking conservatives will agree that the above issues need to be removed from the public schools. They represent a communist inspired threat to our way of life and American values. The public schools should be focusing on doing a better job teaching traditional academic skills.  For example, the recent report about the Craven County Schools showed that 57% of students are not reading at expected grade level and a whopping 65% are not achieving at the expected grade levels in math. Meanwhile, it is costing the  taxpayers close to $12,000 per year per student. It is high time that the Board of Education force the school administration to focus on improving academic performance and stop indoctrinating our children.  If you agree you should let your Board member know. It should be noted that these four resolutions were drafted by the Craven County 20th Republican Precinct, and endorsed by the Craven County GOP Executive Committee and the Craven County Republican Men’s Club.     

There Is No Moral Equivalency Here

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On November 13th, The U.K. Telegraph reported the following:

The IDF said it attempted to supply 300 litres of fuel for “urgent medical purposes” to Shifa hospital in Gaza City, but that Hamas prevented the hospital from receiving it – a charge which Hamas has denied.

Israeli troops said they placed the jerry cans of fuel close to the hospital, as had been coordinated with Shifa hospital officials.

“The IDF received evidence that Hamas officials prevented the hospitals from receiving the fuel,” the forces said.

Hamas denied it had refused 300 litres and said the offer “belittles the pain and suffering of the patients who are trapped inside without water, food, or electricity.”

It comes after three newborn babies died and dozens more were put at risk from a power outage caused by intense fighting nearby.

Late on Sunday, Al-Shifa and Gaza’s second largest hospital said they were suspending operations.

The article includes the following:

When Hamas decided to put their headquarters in a tunnel network under the hospital, they made the hospital a potential target. the Israeli Defense Forces have done everything they can to spare civilians, but when Hamas blocks fuel from the hospital, Hamas is guilty of war crimes. Civilized nations need to hold them accountable.

The Cover Story Never Made Sense

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In September 2022, the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipelines were blown up. The mainstream media claimed that the Russians had blown them up. This never made any sense–it was a source of income for Russia. There was speculation in some media outlets that in fact the United States was responsible (the claim was that the United States was the only country with the technology to blow up the pipeline). Well, it looks as if the truth might have stumbled out.

On Saturday, Fox News reported:

A former senior Ukrainian official was the coordinator of the explosions that ruptured the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipelines, the Washington Post reported, citing Ukrainian officials and European sources, and in conjunction with German periodical Der Spiegel.

Roman Chervinsky, a former commander of one of the Ukrainian special forces units, was the “coordinator of the Nord Stream operation” and managed a six-person team that carried out the devastating multibillion-dollar infrastructure attack in September 2022, according to the report.

The outlet said Chervinsky and the group of six people rented a sailboat under false identities and used deep-sea diving equipment to place explosive charges on the gas pipelines. 

Chervinsky did not act alone and did not plan the operation, but was obeying the orders of high-ranking officers who ultimately answered to Ukraine’s highest-ranking military officer, Valery Zaluzhny, the Post said, citing people familiar with his role.

That makes sense. Blowing up the pipelines was one way to limit Russia’s income from fossil fuel revenue.

The article also notes:

In February, Seymour Hersh, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, alleged that U.S. Navy divers laid bombs that destroyed the Nord Stream 2 pipeline under a direct order from President Joe Biden. 

The Seymour Hersh article reminds us that even Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists don’t always get the story right. The article makes no comment on who might have encouraged Ukraine to blow up the pipelines, so it is possible that the United States bears part of the responsibility.

People Vote With Their Feet

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On Saturday, The New York Post reported that in the past four years, ten billionaires have changed their residences from New York to Florida.

The article reports:

New York has lost 10 billionaires in the last four years — three of whom fled to Florida — leaving tax coffers lighter by tens of millions of dollars annually.

This year 62 New York-based billionaires appeared on the Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans, compared to 72 in 2019 and 65 last year. 

Investor and Washington Commanders owner Josh Harris, whose net worth was valued at $5.7 billion last year, has grown his fortune to $6.9 billion — but he packed his bags for Florida.

Other billionaires who have relocated from Gotham to the Sunshine State in the last four years include hedge funder Daniel Och — whose net worth now stands at $3.6 billion — and investor Carl Icahn, who’s worth $6.9 billion. 

“You have this incredibly high rate imposed on all of the income of the highest earners [in New York], and living just about anywhere else will substantially reduce your tax burden. Going to Florida will obviously eliminate your individual tax burden, and many of these billionaires clearly have that flexibility,” the National Tax Foundation’s vice president, Jared Walczak, explained.

The article notes:

New York relies on the top 1% of taxpayers to pay for 42% of its tax receipts, and billionaires’ incomes are taxed at the state’s highest rate — a staggering 14.8%, according to Walczak.

Although it’s impossible to quantify the exact loss in state taxes from billionaires’ fleeing without access to private income documents, “If you had someone who was earning $100 million [a year] in New York suddenly move to Florida, that’s something like a $11 million-a-year hit per year recurring to the state,” said Ken Girardin, the research director for the Albany-based think tank, Empire Center for Public Policy.

Even with the tax accountants and tax lawyers that billionaires can afford to hire, eventually they reach the point where it is not worth it to stay in a state that takes more money from them then the Medieval Lords took from the peasants. I just hope that when the leave New York, they leave their big spending government ideas behind.

They Are Here Already

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As the White House focuses on the ‘problem of Islamophobia,’ they might want to look at some of the Islamic groups that have been quite openly practicing anti-Semitism in America for years.

On November 8, Real Clear Investigations posted an article about the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a group connected to the Muslim Brotherhood (see article here for further information) that has been operating in America since 1994. CAIR was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation Trial, where the Holy Land Foundation was accused of funneling money to terrorists. If you can find the exhibits from that trial, they include “An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Group in America.”  (the group is the Muslim Brotherhood). Look at the list of unindicted co-conspirators, then look at some of the organizations on our colleges. After you compare those two things, the anti-Semitism we are seeing on our college campuses makes sense.

The article at Real Clear Investigations reports:

After Hamas massacred 1,400 men, women and children in Israel last month, FBI Director Christopher Wray warned that the terror group “and its allies” could inspire attacks on Americans “here on our own soil.” He also told the Senate that the FBI is conducting “multiple, ongoing investigations” into people affiliated with the U.S.-designated terrorist group.

What Wray didn’t say is that the FBI has been investigating Hamas’ biggest ally in America for the past 30 years – without seeking any charges. Launched in 1994 as a secret front organization to support Hamas, according to declassified FBI wiretap transcripts and FBI testimony, the Council on American-Islamic Relations has, in the decades since, become an accepted member of Washington’s lobbying community. The New York Times and other influential newspapers routinely describe CAIR as a “Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization.”

Although it has not repudiated its support for Hamas – which is committed to the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people – CAIR was enlisted by the Biden administration in May to take part in a White House initiative to fight antisemitism.

On Oct. 7, the day Hamas terrorists butchered 1,400 Jews, including 33 Americans – raping many and abducting some 240 others to Gaza from southern Israel – CAIR’s national executive director, Nihad Awad, delivered an anti-Israel message in Arabic which seemed to justify what Hamas did. Translated into English, it read: “All Arab peoples must go out on Sunday, Oct. 8 – and every day – in demonstrations in support of the Palestinians and in rejection of normalization with the occupier and the apartheid regime [Israel].”

Please follow the link to read the entire article. I am beginning to wonder if we have anyone in our government who represents the interests of the American people.

All Politics Is Local

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On Friday, The Patriotic News posted an article about the recent elections in Green Charter Township in Michigan. The voters there were not happy with the actions of their governing board, so they voted ALL of them out of office.

The article reports:

The good people of Green Charter Township, a small rural community north of Grand Rapids, ousted all five of the board members in a special election held Tuesday. They swapped the five, all Republicans, for candidates who ran without party affiliation. To show they meant business, the townspeople immediately called in locksmiths to change the locks on the main government building. 

The residents took such drastic action in opposition to the construction in their town of a $2.3 billion EV plant by a company, Gotion, that has links to China. 

Voters were angered that the now-ousted board moved forward with the project despite severe backlash from the community. At a hearing last year, one resident remarked, “My family members fought communism, and you’re bringing it right here.”

Another resident, Harry King, said, “Right now, we are not on friendly terms with China. They are threatening us. I consider them the enemy. I don’t want them here, either.”

The plan for the Michigan plant, and another targeted for Illinois, has reportedly caught the attention of congressional Republicans, who have called on the Treasury Department to investigate Gotion. In response, the company remarked, “We are a multinational company and don’t believe in political posturing and are still committed to bringing thousands of jobs to the state of Michigan.”

The residents realize that their fight is not yet over, but they are prepared to continue their opposition to the plant.

The article concludes:

Political newcomer Corri Riebow, who ran for the clerk position in the special election and won, said of the town’s brand new government, “We just plan on making it as difficult as possible for them to continue their process. They don’t even have a sight planned, they don’t have permits yet, so, we’re not their friend.”

This is what can happen when voters understand the issues and get involved.

A Short History Lesson

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On Thursday, The Federalist posted the following headline:

If Palestinians Wanted Peace And Prosperity, They’d Already Have It

The article notes:

In 2005, Palestinian Arabs were given autonomy over the Gaza Strip for the first time in their history. To make it happen, the Israeli government forcibly removed thousands of Israelis from the area. Without military protection, Jews would be murdered by Palestinians, who prefer their land Judenfrei.

As Jews were being evicted from their homes, some began to dismantle the farms and hothouses they’d built, reluctant to hand over years of hard work. In the name of peace, however, American Jewish donors purchased the 3,000 remaining greenhouses that stood over 1,000 acres for $14 million and gave it to the Palestinian Authority, gratis. A large portion of the donations were earmarked for “crucial equipment like computerized irrigation systems” and other modern farming systems for Palestinians.

As soon as the Jews were gone, mobs of Palestinians showed up and broke windows, stole irrigation hoses, water pumps, and everything else they could get their hands on, destroying everything they could, as “police” stood by and watched. This happened before Hamas came to power. Before any blockades.

At that point the mobs destroyed the hope of continuing the prosperity that had just been handed to them.

The article also reports:

By 2007, the unity government between the PLO and Hamas had fallen apart after the latter won a landslide election in 2006 and began defenestrating its political opponents. It was a warning. There has not been a real election in the West Bank since. And it’s a good thing because Islamists would surely grab power there as they had in Gaza. Joe Biden likes to say that Hamas doesn’t speak for Palestinians, but the ugly truth is that Hamas is a far better ambassador of the Palestinian people than the “moderate” Fatah party, which we prop up with billions of dollars.

The article notes that the only way to create a successful society in the Gaza Strip would be for Israel to take it over and set up civic institutions. However, that does take into consideration the children who have been trained almost from birth to hate Jews and to fight them.  In the end, “liberating” the Gaza Strip from Hamas would probably be about as successful as liberating Afghanistan from the Taliban was.

The Court Gets It Right

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On November 10th, The Epoch Times reported that the Minnesota Supreme Court has refused to take a case designed to remove President Trump from the ballot.

The article reports:

The Minnesota Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit that sought to keep former President Donald Trump off the state’s Republican primary ballot on Wednesday, after having heard arguments on whether they should take the case.

In a brief opinion and order written by Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Natalie Hudson, the justices said the petition was dismissed without prejudice.

Free Speech for People, a liberal group, had sued on behalf of eight local voters, arguing that the secretary of state putting President Trump on the ballot would be an “error.”

The article notes the reason the group has tried to remove President Trump from the ballot:

The 14th Amendment grants citizenship and equal rights to all persons born or naturalized in the United States. Ratified after the Civil War, it also included a section that prohibited those who had participated in “rebellions” or “insurrections” against the nation from holding office.

The Minnesota petition argued that, under section three of the 14th Amendment, President Trump is disqualified from holding elected office again because he engaged in an “insurrection.”

There are some problems with this. The most obvious is the fact that generally speaking insurrectionists have guns. The only people who had guns on January 6th were the police, and the only person who was shot that day was an innocent civilian. The second problem with this charge is the speech President Trump gave on that day. In his speech on January 6th, President Trump stated, “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.” Those are not the words of an insurrectionist.

There Seems To Be Some Confusion Here

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On Thursday, The Daily Wire reported the following:

UPDATE: Israel Refutes White House Claim About ‘Humanitarian Pauses’

The article reports:

On Thursday morning, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that starting today Israel will implement daily, four-hour humanitarian pauses in its attack on the terrorist group Hamas in Gaza. However, following the widely reported claim that Israel had agreed to four-hour humanitarian pauses beginning today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office dismissed the White House’s statement.

Kirby said the Israeli government stated they will suspend military operations during the four hours and they will announce three hours before the pause begins when it will start, CBS News reported, adding, “President Biden told reporters Thursday morning that he has asked Netanyahu for a pause even longer than three days for the release of hostages.” Israel has reportedly already been “implementing these pauses since Sunday, opening a daily four-hour humanitarian corridor on Salah a-Din road for Palestinians to evacuate northern Gaza to its south,” The Times of Israel reported.

Following the announcement from the White House, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office issued a statement saying, “The fighting continues and there will be no ceasefire without the release of our hostages. Israel is allowing safe transit corridors from the north of the Gaza Strip to the south, as 50,000 Gazans did just yesterday. We once again call on the civilian population in Gaza to evacuate to the south.”

Israel has been under a tremendous amount of pressure both from the United States and the European Union to declare a ‘pause’ in the fighting in Gaza. Why in the world should Israel declare a ‘pause’ when Gaza has made no effort to release the hostages they are holding or to inform the world of the condition of the hostages?

The article concludes:

On Thursday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant met with the 252nd Sinai Division, which is operating in the northern Gaza Strip and was clear about Israel’s objectives.

“We must remember that in Beit Hanoun (city on the northeast edge of the Gaza Strip) is the battalion from which the terrorists came to murder and kidnap in Kibbutz Erez, Netiv Ha’Asara, and Sderot,” Gallant said, “This battle has meaning beyond the symbolic aspect. We need to ensure that all terrorist infrastructure in Beit Hanoun is destroyed. We will not stop, we will continue with all our might until we eradicate the Hamas organization – we will strike the entire chain of command, military depots, communications channels, tunnels, bunkers, and headquarters, everything.”

Referring to the horrific October 7 massacre executed by Hamas on the Israeli civilian population, he continued, “The answer to these brutal and barbaric acts is to wipe out Hamas. From here we will move on. If we don’t wipe out Hamas in Gaza, we will have ten more of these [massacres] from other places.”

The Israel government is the one who gets to determine how to handle the terrorists on its border. I can’t imagine any other country putting up with the terror attacks that Israel has put up with since it became a nation. Any other nation would have obliterated the Arabs who support terrorism by now.

Don’t Know Or Don’t Care?

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On Thursday, The New York Post posted an article about how some of the pro-Hamas protestors in England view recent and current events in the Middle East.

The article includes the following:

Two girls interviewed at one pro-Hamas protest in London were asked what their reaction was when they first learned that Hamas had attacked Israel on October 7.

“I don’t believe they did, did they,” said one.

“Honestly, I think I need to be a bit more clued up on everything that’s going on, so I feel I’m not really qualified to answer that too well,” said the other.

Well, she appeared to feel “qualified” enough to turn up at an anti-Israel demo.

Her friend, holding a banner, actually said, “I mean, I’m not sure I’ve seen anything that shows that that’s actually happened.”

That is frightening.

The article continues:

These two ignoramuses should have come to Israel with me this week.

Specifically, they should have come to the site of the music festival massacre, and seen the remains of that “peace rave” where people their age, and very similar to them, were gunned down and raped just as the party was “coming up.”

Or perhaps they should have come with me to the small community of Nir Oz on the border of Gaza.

I have been to kibbutzim like this many times in the past. The citizens of these small towns and communities are often very left-wing. Often “peaceniks.” They have been accustomed to rockets for years.

Douglas Murray, the author of the article, walked through some of the areas that were attacked on October 7th. The article includes pictures of the destruction. We should not be concerned about the Israeli attack on the military strongholds in Gaza, we need to be concerned about the monsters that attacked innocent civilians and butchered them while celebrating their actions. The people who purposely killed women, young children and babies on October 7th need to be killed themselves. There is no chance of rehabilitation.

Having The Courage To Tell The Truth

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On Wednesday, The Conservative Review posted an article about the screening of a film called “Bearing Witness to the October 7th Massacre.” The screenings will be held in Los Angeles and New York City.

The article reports:

Hollywood superstar Gal Gadot will help host uncensored screenings of footage laying bare the atrocities that Hamas committed in its Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Screenings of the film, which has been titled “Bearing Witness to the October 7th Massacre,” will be held in Los Angeles and New York City, according to the Wrap. Hollywood celebrities, journalists, and other influential figures are being invited to attend the events.

The Israel Defense Forces are providing 47-minutes of footage for the private screenings. The Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee are also helping organize the screenings.

The article notes:

But the backlash against her has been fierce. The Quds News Network, a Palestinian “news” organization with connections to Hamas and Islamic terrorism, posted about the screening on social media, generating more than 50 million views and a ton of reaction.

“When we say these are not harmless opinions or individuals or careers to support, we aren’t exaggerating. Gal Gadot is a former IDF soldier using her access in Hollywood to push propaganda for an ongoing genocide,” said UCLA professor Nour Joudah.

The current spin by the ‘Palestinians’ is that Israel is committing genocide by going into Gaza. Israel is attacking military targets. What was Hamas doing when it went into Israel on October 7?

Using The Law Against Your Political Opponents

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The story below is one of the things that makes me wonder about the future of America. Somehow we have lost the concept of equal justice under the law and many legal actions have become totally political.

On Tuesday, The Washington Examiner reported the following:

A POLITICIZED, GROSSLY UNFAIR LAWSUIT AGAINST TRUMP. Former President Donald Trump testified Monday at the trial of the lawsuit, filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James, alleging that Trump inflated the values of his real estate properties to receive lower interest rates on loans. It’s important to note that Trump has already lost the case. The judge, Arthur Engoron, weeks ago pronounced Trump guilty of the actions alleged, and what is going on now in court is the penalty phase, in which Engoron will decide whether to confiscate Trump’s business empire.

The punishment will be extraordinary and unprecedented. This is how Axios has described it: “Former President Donald Trump is at risk of losing the New York real estate empire that the rest of his career was built on. Forcibly dismantling Trump’s company is so unusual that no one is quite certain how it would play out.”

Engoron could decide to cancel the business certificates of all of Trump’s companies. “If the business certificates were canceled,” Axios continued, “the relevant assets — which include Trump Tower, Trump Park Avenue, 40 Wall Street, and Trump National Golf Course Hudson Valley — would be put under the control of a court-appointed receiver, who operates much like an executor of an estate. The receiver would continue to manage the properties, but also could be allowed by the court to sell some — particularly if cash was needed to pay off legal penalties or creditors. Trump, who views himself as a consummate dealmaker, would not be at the negotiating table.”

That is a punishment so out of line with the behavior alleged in this case that it boggles the mind. It is made possible by two factors: a bad law and a hyperpoliticized attorney general. On the bad law, New York’s Executive Law 65(12), the former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy wrote: “The law doesn’t require a showing of harm. The state need not prove the defendant even intended to defraud anyone, much less actually defrauded someone. It need not be established that any creditor or financial institution even relied on the defendant’s misrepresentations, that those misrepresentations were material, or that anyone was actually fooled by them.” There need be no victim — after all, in this case, no bank or financial institution is suing Trump for cheating them, nor does there need to be any crime involved — in fact, prosecutors looked at the same evidence and declined to charge Trump.

Hopefully this case will eventually suffer the same fate as the case against former Virginia Governor Bob McDonald. However, the damage done in getting there will be immense and inexcusable.

Does Anyone Else Have A Problem With This?

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On Thursday, The U.K Daily Mail reported that a CNN journalist was embedded with Hamas on October 7th and had prior knowledge of the attack. CNN has since fired the journalist.

The article reports:

CNN has ‘suspended all ties’ with a freelance photojournalist who appears to have been embedded with Hamas on October 7 at the time of the terror group’s barbaric assault on Israel. 

Hassan Eslaiah has been filing photographs of the conflict to CNN and The Associated Press since the Hamas attack on October 7. They include images of a burning Israeli tank from which soldiers were kidnapped.

Now, photos have emerged of him posing with Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. He also posted a now-deleted video to Twitter in which he described how Hamas fighters kidnapped Israeli soldiers from the burning tank. 

The article concludes:

Honest Reporting notes that photographers Mohammed Fayq Abu Mostafa and Yasser Qudih ‘happened to be at the border just in time for Hamas’ infiltration.’

In response to the reporters, a Reuters spokesperson said that the agency acquired pictures on October 7 from photographers that it did not previously have a relationship with. 

‘The photographs published by Reuters were taken two hours after Hamas fired rockets across southern Israel and more than 45 minutes after Israel said gunmen had crossed the border. Reuters staff journalists were not on the ground at the locations referred to in the HonestReporting article,’ the statement also reads.  

‘Did the photojournalists who freelance for other media, like CNN and The New York Times, notify these outlets? Judging from the pictures of lynching, kidnapping and storming of an Israeli kibbutz, it seems like the border has been breached not only physically, but also journalistically,’ the HonestReporting feature read. 

In his video front of attack, Eslaiah appears to be wearing his own clothes and is not identifiable as a member of the media. 

In 2021, it was widely reported that the Associated Press used the same office space as Hamas in Gaza. 

Eslaiah was previously pictured in a loving embrace with Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in an undated photo. 

Honest Reporting was founded by veteran Israeli journalist Gil Hoffman. Its motto is the ‘audience deserves to know.’ 

‘When international news agencies decide to pay for material that has been captured under such problematic circumstances, their standards may be questioned and their audience deserves to know about it,’ one section of their report on Eslaiah reads.

‘And if their people on the ground actively or passively collaborated with Hamas to get the shots, they should be called out to redefine the border between journalism and barbarism.’ 

There should be a more severe penalty for withholding information about a surprise attack on innocent civilians.

This Really Isn’t A Surprise

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Yesterday MSN posted the following headline:

New York abandons electric snow plows

The article explains the reasons why:

This winter, New York won’t be using electric snow plows. Failure of vehicle tests has caused the local snow removal company to revert to diesel-powered vehicles.

The New York Department of Sanitation had three years ago, requested several Mack electric trucks. Primarily intended to clean streets and remove garbage, one of these trucks had been fitted with a snow plow as part of an experiment. This decision was unsurprising since in the “Big Apple”, it’s standard practice to fit garbage trucks with plows.

The experiment was not successful. The plow, dragging across the road and the snow buildup in front of it, created substantial resistance. Moreover, the plow required almost constant movement, eliminating the option for loading pauses. Consequently, the electric vehicle’s power supply was insufficient for the demands of a New York winter, known for its heavy snowfall, as reported by the website.

…The report further detailed that after nearly two hours, the electric plow had to discontinue the route for recharging. While the truck was efficient for garbage collection, its performance significantly dipped when facing snow removal tasks.

I have a problem with one of the statements above. A New York winter does not have really heavy snowfall. The average yearly New York City snowfall is 40 inches (source here). The average yearly snowfall for Boston is 52.7 inches (source here). The average yearly snowfall for Concord, New Hampshire is 67.7 inches and for Mount Washington, New Hampshire 281.8 inches (source here). If electric snow plows are too wimpy for New York City, imagine how useless they would be in New England.

Nothing To See Here

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I am beginning to wonder if America is capable of having an honest election or if our leaders just like us to work hard for various candidates every two or four years.

On Wednesday, The Gateway Pundit reported the following:

As The Gateway Pundit reported earlier, several voting machines in multiple districts across Northampton County had to issue emergency paper ballots due to “votes getting flipped and not recording properly” on their voting machines.

Shortly after the error occurred Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure was clearly frustrated about the problems at the polls and told Lehigh Valley News “I’m livid at the election folks and ES&S.”

ES&S (Election Systems & Software) ExpressVoteXL machines were used in Northampton County elections.

Shortly after the machine errors occurred Northhampton County held an emergency press conference and invited Linda Bennett the Senior Vice President of Customer Operations at Election Systems & Software to explain why votes were switched in the retention race between Judge Jack Panella and Judge Victor Stabile for the Pennsylvania Superior Court.

When asked by an attendee of the press conference why the voting machines had errors Bennett responded “It was a human error, based on someone from our team that programmed the election.”

She continued “They made a mistake putting the printed text on the card as opposed to the screen. … Someone from our team inadvertently put the wrong name.”

It may be time to go back to paper ballots hand-counted at the precinct level.

 

The Truth Eventually Comes Out

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I have no idea what should be done about the Biden family corruption. It is becoming more obvious every day that there was an awful lot of money flowing to the Biden family from foreign countries with no apparent product in sight. The whistleblowers that the FBI and the DOJ claimed were lying are having their stories verified by other witnesses. What a mess.

On Wednesday, Just the News posted an article about some recent developments in the Hunter Biden scandal.

The article reports:

Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss has told Congress he sought special authority from the Justice Department in 2022 to file tax charges against Hunter Biden in other jurisdictions but was never granted it, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan disclosed Tuesday.

Jordan told reporters after a closed-door interview with Weiss that the prosecutor’s acknowledgement to lawmakers  that he sought “special attorney” powers in the Biden case amounted to a new change in the DOJ’s story and corroborated allegations made earlier this year by IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler.

“He said Weiss maintains: I would have always been able to get it if I had to ask for it. But then his answer was: I asked for it and wasn’t given it,” Jordan said at an impromptu news conference in the House O’Neill building after finishing the interview with Weiss.

The whistleblowers told Congress earlier this year that Weiss told them at an October 2022 meeting with prosecutors that he sought “special counsel” authority to charge Hunter Biden with tax evasion charges in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles and was turned down.

The article concludes:

In an interview Tuesday night with the Just the News, No. Noise television show, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said the information from Weiss fits of pattern of consistency from the whistleblowers and changing stories from the Biden administration during his impeachment inquiry.

“Well, I’m not surprised, There have been so many lies by President Biden, by his administration, by the deep state actors who were supposed to be the ones to prevent this type of Vegas influence-peddling operation by our leaders at the highest level,” Comer said.

“The whistleblowers continue to be spot on in everything they said. … Not only do you have a massive crime by the Biden family, you also have a massive coverup. And you know, I think the deposition today was valuable information as we move forward,” he added.

President Biden will not be removed from office–even if he is impeached in the House of Representatives, the Senate will not vote to remove him from office. I honestly don’t know if he will ever be held accountable for his crimes.

Banned By The Biden Administration!

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On Tuesday, The Washington Examiner posted a list of five things that the Biden administration has attempted to restrict.

This is the list:

Gas stoves

Incandescent lightbulbs

Plastic straws

Gas-powered cars

Washing machines

Anyone looking at this list three years ago would have called it a conspiracy theory, but here we are.

The article notes:

The Department of Energy estimated the rule would save consumers 9 cents per month after originally promising higher savings for consumers when the rule was proposed earlier this year. The backlash to the rule caused the House of Representatives to pass the Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act, which would prevent the Consumer Product Safety Commission from using federal funds to enforce the rule on gas stoves. The bill has not been taken up by the Senate.

…One efficiency standard the Biden administration was successful in implementing was a lightbulb rule that outlaws nearly all incandescent bulbs from being sold. The standard went into effect in August.

…Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced in June that a plan would be implemented to phase out single-use plastics on public lands by 2032, citing environmental impacts.

In response to the proposed action, the House of Representatives passed an appropriations bill that would prevent the Interior Department from going forward with the effort. Rep. John Rose (R-TN), who introduced the amendment to deny the measure, argued the alternatives to plastics may not be more environmentally friendly.

…The Biden administration has been a strong advocate of electric cars and phasing out gas-powered vehicles, with the Department of Transportation’s proposed fuel efficiency rules being a recent example of this push.

The proposed rule would raise standards for fuel efficiency to 66 miles per gallon for cars and 54 mpg for trucks by 2032, something National Highway Traffic Safety Administration acting Administrator Ann Carlson has said is “good news for everyone.”

…A proposed efficiency standard by the Department of Energy for washing machines, which could go into effect as early as 2027, has also been criticized as restricting more effective washing machines from being sold.

The Energy Department said the standards would save consumers $3.5 billion annually on energy and water bills, but opponents of the rule argue it would drive up costs for washers while also being detrimental to their effectiveness.

Let’s work together to make sure that the Biden administration has no more success in banning items that make life easier and more efficient for most Americans.

Dealing with Threats from China

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Author:  R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D    

In spite of the naïve efforts of Henry Kiesinger, who advocated the policy of reaching out to communist China, China has become militarily and economically not only our rivals, but in some ways they have surpassed us. Is their government less totalitarian and communist in their principles and actions? Definitely not. Quite the opposite–their plan is to dominate the world, and they appear to be succeeding. A compromised Joe Biden who clearly has been profiting from shady business deals his son and brother made with China is not helping. 

Now that we are in this adversarial position with a powerful China, made so primarily by our buying their products, what do we do about it? There are several things we must do. First, we must clearly recognize their global ambitions as a threat to our country and treat them as such.  Second, we must stop awarding them special privileges such as favored nation status and exemptions from rules governing other developed countries. Third, China must no longer be permitted to purchase land or major businesses in our country.  Allowing them to buy our farm land and food processing industries is about the dumbest things we could do.  Fourth, many colleges and universities are receiving research grants and programs funded, and in many cases staffed, by the Chinese. This not only allows them access to our developing new technologies but also to  control the actual outcome and reporting of this research. Look where Dr. Fauci’s funding of gain of function research in the Wuhan lab got us.    Fifth, we need to return the manufacture of essential products to this country as President Trump had initiated. The idea that most of our essential pharmaceuticals are manufactured overseas is seriously risky.    Sixth, close the border and deport all illegals including the increasing numbers of Chinese that are coming over the southern border. 

Last but not least, we should shut down access to the social platform TikTok as India has done. TikTok is increasingly being accessed by the youth of our country. It is estimated that 60% of TikTok users are age 11 to 26. TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is like most Chinese corporations, controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. In fact, our federal government has banned TikTok from being used on any federal government devices. If TikTok presents this kind of risk, why are we allowing our impressionable youth to be exposed to the propaganda, personal data collection, and anti-American ideas prevalent on it?  A recent study showed that the mechanism that TikTok uses of short videos can in the long term affect a person’s brain and diminish their ability to focus and stay on task. This is particularly true for young users. Thirty four of our 50 states have joined the prohibition of using TIkTok on state owned devices. So far, only Montana has banned TikTok on private/personal devices.

North Carolina should step up and do the same. 

Given the compromised Biden regime, the Republican controlled House of Representatives is our only current option to address this issue.   Another reason, among many, to vote for Donald Trump. 

Both Sides Are Not Playing By The Same Rules

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I wonder if the people who are supporting Hamas understand that Hamas views their country’s civilians as shields in time of war and the enemy country’s civilians as legitimate targets. That has been illustrated by the attack on Israeli civilians on October 7th and Hamas’ use of their citizens as shields and for propaganda purposes.

On November 4th, The Washington Examiner reported the following:

Hamas has been holding up efforts to get Americans and other foreign nationals out of Gaza and into Egypt through the Rafah Border Crossing by putting its own wounded fighters on departure lists meant for Americans, dual citizenship holders, Palestinian civilians, and other foreign nationals, according to a senior Biden administration official.

Since Oct. 7, when Hamas first invaded Israel, people holding dual, American, or some other foreign citizenship have been trying to leave through Gaza’s southern border and into Egypt, but their efforts have been blocked by Hamas, who officials have said were making unreasonable demands in order to let them cross into Egypt.

The senior administration official provided insight into these demands during a background call with reporters on Friday. The official explained that Hamas provided the United States, Israel, and Egypt with multiple departure lists that included injured Palestinians who were wounded during the war and should be allowed to leave with Americans and other foreign nationals, which is not objectionable, the official said, but after vetting the individuals on the list, it showed many of them were injured Hamas fighters.

The review found that nearly a third of the wounded Palestinians on the first list were actually Hamas fighters and that it would be unacceptable to allow them to exit Gaza, the official said. While the administration would be happy to let injured Palestinian civilians out of Gaza, they just couldn’t let Hamas fighters leave on the departure list.

A deal was eventually worked out to let civilians (not fighters) exit the Gaza Strip, but this is an example of how Hamas is fighting this war. Israel is doing its best to limit civilian casualties, but when civilians are used to shield rocket launchers, there will be casualties.

The Economy Is Questionable At Best

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I love it when a Democrat is in power–when unemployment rises it is always a surprise–even at Fox News.

On November 3rd, Fox News posted an article about the current state of the American economy.

The article reports:

U.S. job growth slowed more than expected in October, a sign the labor market is finally softening in the face of higher interest rates, stubborn inflation and other economic uncertainties.

Employers added 150,000 jobs in October, the Labor Department said in its monthly payroll report released Friday, missing the 180,000 jobs forecast by Refinitiv economists.

The unemployment rate, meanwhile, unexpectedly ticked up to 3.9% — the highest level in nearly two years. The pickup in the jobless rate suggests that layoffs are on the rise; the survey of households shows that the number of workers laid off rose in October by 92,000 from the previous month.

The unemployment number of 3.9% is not really a good measure of the economy unless it is looked at in relation to the workforce participation rate, currently slightly down at 62.7. Just to give some perspective, the workforce participation rate was 62.8% when President Trump took office in January 2017. It peaked at 63.3 in February 2020 (the ‘stop the spread’ shutdown began in March 2020). The reported unemployment rate is calculated only counting people who are looking for jobs. I suspect that if you counted everyone who is able to work but not working, the number would be much higher.

The article also notes:

The report also contained steep downward revisions to job growth at the end of the summer. Gains for August and September were revised down by a total of 101,000 jobs to a respective 165,000 and 297,000, the government said, suggesting that the labor market is weaker than it previously appeared.

The bottom line here is that the economy is not really growing although inflation is. For further details, please follow the link above to read the entire article.

 

Rebuilding Only A Part Of The Wall

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On November 1st, The Daily Caller posted an article about the Biden administration’s rebuilding of a small part of the border wall.

The article reports:

Republican Texas representatives are demanding that the Biden administration explain its reason for changing its tune on border wall construction, according to a Wednesday letter first obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Over 20 Republican lawmakers led by Rep. Chip Roy are questioning how the Biden administration came to reverse its previous promise to the delegation of lawmakers sent Wednesday to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, according to the letter. Mayorkas initially wrote that there was an “immediate need” for such action in an Oct. 5 filing in the Federal Register initiating the construction, but quickly attempted to walk back the admission.

The interesting part of this story is where the wall is actually being built.

The article notes:

On Inauguration day in 2021, President Joe Biden terminated the Trump administration’s previous border wall construction. The Trump administration oversaw the construction of 452 miles of border wall during his four years in office, according to Politico

“The recent notice to restart border wall construction – only in Starr County – raises the question of whether or not DHS and the Department of Justice (DOJ) are preempting a Starr County-specific lawsuit filed by GLO [General Land Office]. It also raises questions as to why the Biden administration is not restarting border wall construction in other border sectors,” the lawmakers wrote.

“Our border is still in chaos. The American people deserve to know the extent of the executive branch’s border security decisions and the motivations behind them,” the lawmakers wrote.

The Biden administration has also slowly filled in gaps in the border wall in Yuma, Arizona, which is a major crossing point for illegal immigration.

It is also interesting that at the same time the government is building this small section of wall, it is selling off the material originally purchased to build the wall (article here).