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September 2022

A heartbroken grad watches the woke descent of the US Naval Academy By Drew J. Reiner

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/09/a_heartbroken_grad_watches_the_woke_descent_of_the_us_naval_academy.html

As reported by TheBlaze, it is apparent that those in charge of the U.S. military are on a mission to destroy what is left of a once unmatched war-fighting capability that was earned by blood and sweat.   As a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy (USNA), I may be qualified to analyze recent events that had the commandant of midshipmen publish the “Diversity Education Program” as an USNA standing order on how to “foster a culture of inclusion across the Yard.”  

It is inconceivable that instead of promoting unity, strength, and courage among other noble attributes of military leaders, the U.S. Navy and specifically USNA are advancing that midshipmen are to be assigned as agents of this diversity nonsense and that these young, impressionable students

• serve as a walking safe space for peers and

• facilitate discussion among company-mates to ease the tensions surrounding diversity topics.

These are actual bullet points from material used to train midshipmen in executing this destructive diversity directive on the Yard.  What is a “walking safe space”?  Can a person be a “space”?  If I were a midshipman, I would run from such an assignment, with demerits accrued if necessary.  

Will the person or persons who wrote that vile speech please step forward? By Patricia McCarthy

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/09/will_the_person_or_persons_who_wrote_that_vile_speech_please_step_forward.html

While pathetic old Joe Biden delivered his “soul of the nation” speech on Thursday with the fury and rage of a demented man, everyone knows he did not write the words he spewed with such venom.  So, who did write it?  And exactly who thought staging the event like Hitler’s Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl was a good idea and that parroting Hitler’s gestures would win over supporters?   

The Nazi-like staging could only be lost on the very young.  Are the writer (or writers) and stage designers so contemptuous of America, as Obama surely was, that they thought presenting Biden as some third world dictator would be well-received?  From Independence Hall where our Founders signed the Declaration of Independence?   

Surely, they must be proud of their work.  One might expect them to admit authorship and enjoy bragging rights.  But no, no one has claimed credit for what will come to be known as the most infamous speech ever delivered by an American President.  Whoever they were, they need to be identified and fired for they are enemies of America.  

Oh, we all get that the goal was to drive Trump supporters into the streets to wreak violence in the style of Antifa and Black Lives Matter, those thugs who are allowed to destroy entire cities without being charged with any crimes.  That was abundantly clear.  

The left badly wants an excuse to accuse Republicans of the kinds of violence those left-supported groups commit on a regular basis.  But conservatives simply do not behave that way.  On the whole, Trump supporters are more evolved than the street goons the leftists cheer.   Biden claimed that Trump’s supporters are violent but given Kamala’s support for the rioters of the summer of 2020, it is the left that incites violence and participates in it, and then bails out the perpetrators.

Biden Puts the ‘Total’ in Totalitarianism America has come perilously close to the edge of the point of no return. By Roger Kimball

https://amgreatness.com/2022/09/03/biden-puts-the-total-in-totalitarianism/

Joe Biden certainly set the punditocracy abuzz with his neo-totalitarian performance piece at Independence Hall in Philadelphia on Thursday. The significance of that speech can be broken down into three parts, two of which have already received abundant commentary. 

The first has to do with the theater of the piece, its optics or stagecraft. As many commentators (myself included) noted, the feel of the event was distinctly, and distinctively, bombastic. The melodramatic red lighting, the presence of armed Marines flanking the president, and Biden’s hectoring, gesticulating delivery made the event seem eerily reminiscent of a speech by Stalin, Mao, or—the closest parallel—that diminutive former house painter who, for a few short years, mesmerized the world with his elaborately staged rallies before pushing ahead with more kinetic activities. 

To those who object that I am flirting with Godwin’s Law by invoking old AH, I reply that the flirtation was not mine but the doing of Biden’s producers and puppeteers. The visual similarity between Joe Biden’s event and some nighttime events at Nuremberg are just too striking to be coincidental. Leni Riefenstahl, as someone noted, would have been proud. Those who point out that Biden’s speech took place on September 1, a fraught day on the Polish border anno domini 1939, may be too ingenious for this historically illiterate age, but who knows? Often these things are, as our Marxists friends like to say, no accident. There are wheels within wheels. 

Which brings me to the question of the intent behind the theatrics. Was this exercise in garish, totalitarian kitsch a “gaffe,” as some are saying—an aesthetic miscalculation for which that blinking inarticulate muppet who is Biden’s press secretary will have to apologize? Apparently not, since she just said that the speech was “not political.” 

The entertainment committee never sleeps. 

Joe Biden’s four-D speech By Ruthie Blum

https://www.jns.org/opinion/joe-bidens-four-d-speech/

 In the fall 2004 issue of the Jewish Political Studies Review, published by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Natan Sharanksy outlined what he called the “new anti-Semitism”—a resurgence in democratic countries of Jew-hatred aimed at the State of Israel.

In his piece, the author of Fear No Evil and The Case for Democracy presented a “three-D” test (demonization, double standards and delegitimization) that he had devised to distinguish this worrisome phenomenon from acceptable criticism of Israeli policies.

Little did he know at the time that, nearly two decades later, the word “new” could be removed from the description. Indeed, the dastardly triplet not only continues to be applied to the Jewish state by its sworn enemies, but has become mainstream even in the halls of power in Washington.

Rather than being eradicated through exposure, however, the three-D vilification technique has proven so effective that the left began to adapt it to discredit any figure or movement that doesn’t toe its line. The practice is especially blatant during political campaigns, such as the one being conducted in Israel ahead of the Nov. 1 Knesset elections and those surrounding the midterms in the U.S. Congress.

Here, a fourth “D” can be added to the arsenal: disingenuousness. As is the case with the “new-old” anti-Semites who pretend only to be targeting certain policies, the above detractors claim merely to be protesting against a particular politician. In Israel, it’s opposition leader and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In the U.S., it’s former President Donald Trump. That the supporters of each, who constitute half of their countries’ populations, are also treated to hefty doses of the first three Ds is where the last comes in.

Nothing better illustrates this demonization, imposing of double standards, delegitimization and disingenuousness than U.S. President Joe Biden’s prime-time speech to the nation on Thursday in front of Philadelphia’s Independence Hall.

The Origins of Woke A forgotten satirical book from the nineties predicted cancel culture. Phoebe Maltz Bovy

https://www.commonsense.news/p/the-origins-of-woke?utm_source=email

At a church book sale in my Toronto neighborhood, I found The Official Politically Correct Dictionary and Handbook, a bestseller by Henry Beard and Christopher Cerf first published 30 years ago. I always gravitate to books like this—first to see whether there is anything new in this world, and then to remind myself that the overly simplistic answer is no. (See also the 1995 compendium Debating Sexual Correctness. The #MeToo discourse existed prior to #MeToo.) It seems we’re living through a kind of 1990s revival—fueled, I suspect, by nostalgia for pre-Covid, pre-9/11, pre-internet times. Or maybe just by teenagers’ timeless desire to dress the way everyone did decades ago.

The front cover of the dictionary shows a man, a woman, and a dog, each affixed with labels such as “hair disadvantaged” (he’s balding), “woman of noncolor” (she’s white), and “nonhuman animal companion” (it’s a shaggy dog). None of them, though especially the woman and the dog, would be out of place in a 2022 farmers market. (Again: cyclical fashions.)

The back cover bears a warning: “Be sensitive or else!,” with the follow-up, “Welcome to the nineties. But you better watch what you say. If you’re not politically correct, not even your pet—oops, your animal companion­—will love you anymore.” Beard’s author bio begins, “Although Henry Beard is a typical product of elitist educational institutions and a beneficiary of a number of negative action programs, he has struggled to overcome his many severe privileges.” And Cerf’s: “Christopher Cerf is a melanin-impoverished, temporarily abled, straight, half-Anglo-, half-Jewish-American male.” Privilege disclaimers in the early 1990s! I had to have it.   

Macron’s Pessimistic Moment by Amir Taheri

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18853/macron-pessimistic-moment

“Prepare for the end of abundance!” This is the message that French President Emmanuel Macron offered in his first post-holiday pronouncement last month. Though supposedly addressed at the French people, Macron’s lamentation seemed to have the entire “Western world” in mind.

In its current version, the nomos [organizing principle] trying to seize control in almost all Western societies could be described as “victimism”.

In victimism the state is seen as a cash machine distributing money among the victims, while apologizing to them. In the past few years. Western states, both in Europe and North America, have distributed countless trillions…

Some philosophers, among them the German Jürgen Habermas, have tried to give victimism a Christian varnish. In their reading, the Western world, long after having adopted “secularism”, remembers Christianity as a school of frugality, empathy for the downtrodden and atonement of sins symbolized by Christ as the ultimate victim.

The trouble with that reading is that it is closer to the Greek concept of the scapegoat, than to the Christian concept of redeemer.

“Prepare for the end of abundance!” This is the message that French President Emmanuel Macron offered in his first post-holiday pronouncement last month. Though supposedly addressed at the French people, Macron’s lamentation seemed to have the entire “Western world” in mind.

According to him the era of easily available capital and seemingly endless natural resources, notably oil and natural gas, is already over. The “Western world” must learn to live in a different way.

‘There We Will Strike Them’: The Munich Massacre and Its Aftermath by Richard Kemp

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18859/1972-munich-massacre

Prime Minister Golda Meir — who had been a signatory to Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948 — refused to bargain with [the terrorists], branding it blackmail. She later said: “We have learnt the bitter lesson. One may save a life immediately only to endanger more lives. Terrorism has to be wiped out.”

Meanwhile Berlin offered safe passage and unlimited cash to the terrorists….

Libyan president Muammar Gadaffi had funded the attack at the behest of PLO leader Yasser Arafat, who subsequently denied any involvement and two years later was feted in a standing ovation at the United Nations General Assembly.

“We were not engaged in vengeance. What we did was to concretely prevent in the future. We acted against those who thought that they would continue to perpetrate acts of terror”. — Mossad Chief Zvi Zamir, in an interview with Yossi Melman, (17 February 2006), Haaretz.

Too often Western nations, despite earlier rejection, condemnation and sometimes hostility, have eventually been obliged to follow the lead Israel was first forced to take to protect its people. American and European responses to jihadist attacks on their own territory, especially after 9/11, is an example of that. We are at present living through another example: the Iranian nuclear threat. Israeli leaders have repeatedly warned that Tehran’s nuclear programme not only represents grave danger to their own country but to the entire region and to the world. As in its response to Munich, Israel is conducting a covert campaign to stop it, including by targeted assassinations. Meanwhile the US and European countries are appeasing the mullahs in Tehran, just as they did with Palestinian terrorists in the 1970s, and are on the verge of striking a deal that will pave the path to an Iranian nuclear capability. This time, ignoring Israeli warnings will have even more dire and far-reaching consequences.

In memory of: David Berger, Anton Fliegerbauer, Ze’ev Friedman, Yosef Gutfreund, Eliezer Halfin, Yosef Romano, Amitzur Shapira, Kehat Shorr, Mark Slavin, Andre Spitzer, Yakov Springer, Moshe Weinberg.

Fifty years ago this week, 5th and 6th September 1972, the world watched in horror as Jews were again brutally murdered on German soil, at the Olympics in Munich. Eight Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) terrorists, using the cover name “Black September,” tortured and murdered 11 Israeli athletes, emasculating one of them as he lay dying in front of his team-mates. They stormed the athletes’ accommodation, killed two immediately and held the remainder hostage, demanding the release of 234 terrorist prisoners held by Israel. Prime Minister Golda Meir — who had been a signatory to Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948 — refused to bargain with them, branding it blackmail. She later said: “We have learnt the bitter lesson. One may save a life immediately only to endanger more lives. Terrorism has to be wiped out.”

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

As Michael Ordman writes, “Israel is the country that is constantly striving to create a better future for us all”- from Albania to Zambia and in every continent and nation in between lives are ameliorated by Israel’s contributions to science and medicine and technology. That does not deter the turpitude in the United Nations, in academia, the media and among the vicious boycott and divest movements.

However, Israel thrives and succeeds as a democracy and locus of an unbroken chain of Jewish faith, survival and future.

B.D.S. really defines Israel’s religious legacy: Bible, Devotion, Survival. Rsk

The Biden Administration’s Nuclear Deal Is the Biggest Gift to the World’s ‘Top State Sponsor of Terrorism’ by Majid Rafizadeh

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18852/biden-administration-iran-nuclear-deal

The main beneficiaries of the increased revenues will most likely be the office of Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and more importantly the IRGC’s elite branch the Quds Force, which carries out extraterritorial operations to advance the revolutionary principles of the Islamic Republic abroad.

A considerable part of the economy and Iran’s financial systems are owned and controlled by the IRGC and the Office of the Supreme Leader…. This economic haven means that state and non-state actors, such as the Houthis, Hezbollah, the Shiite militias in Iraq and Bashar Assad’s Syria, will be the next major beneficiaries of Biden’s sanctions relief and new nuclear deal.

The Biden administration will more likely contribute to more tensions between Iran and other countries in the region, and lead to further regional insecurity, destabilization, humanitarian tragedies, and most likely a major war.

Biden’s new nuclear deal is the biggest gift that one could give to the world’s “top state sponsor of terrorism”: unlimited nuclear weapons, no inspections past present or future, the missiles to deliver them, enriched uranium to be held by Russia and returned to Iran or wherever they both decide, “$100 billion per year to spread terror around the globe” — in short, assured expansion of the “Revolution” not only throughout the Middle East but further, straight into America’s soft underbelly, Venezuela.

The Biden administration’s new nuclear deal with the ruling clerics will lift economic sanctions against the Iranian regime the moment the deal enters into effect.

At that moment, the Iranian regime will receive approximately $90 billion. The Biden administration will also instantly be lifting sanctions on the Iranian regime’s energy sector, which will also significantly boost the regime’s oil and gas revenues.

Biden’s infantile, self-aggrandizing ‘democracy’ speech Oliver Wiseman

https://spectatorworld.com/newsletter/bidens-infantile-self-aggrandizing-democracy-speech/?utm_source=

“Even if you buy Biden’s infantile, self-aggrandizing Harry-versus-Voldemort account of the current moment, the president offers you no solutions other than “vote for me.” Which, of course, was the whole point of the speech.”

Democracy for dummies 

Allow me to indulge in a quick thought experiment. Let’s assume that Biden is exactly right when he says, as he did in his primetime address last night, that the extremism of “MAGA Republicans… threatens the very foundations of our republic.”

In this experiment, the dark diagnosis is the truth and Biden knows it to be the truth. What should a responsible president do under such circumstances? The answer, as my colleague Matt Purple put it in his must-read reaction to the speech, is to seek to vanquish election denialism and ugly conspiracy theories by “working to bring [Trump supporters] back into the national fold” rather than “treating them like the enemy — which will drive them deeper into the MAGA maw.”

Look at what Biden has done in office and you will struggle to find instances of such action. Examples of exactly what a responsible president should not do, however, are easier to come by. To list a few, briefly: recommend the effective abolition of the filibuster; vilify Supreme Court judges; look on as your party spends tens of millions of dollars boosting the most extreme voices in Republican midterms; slander anyone who refuses to support your voting legislation as no better than a segregationist; describe modest changes to the rules that govern elections as “Jim Crow on steroids”; indulge in economic policymaking by executive edict in a way that you know is unconstitutional.