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June 2023

Silvio Berlusconi, Ex-Italian Prime Minister and Media Magnate, Dies at 86 His outsize personality, wealth and news platform helped him control the conservative wing, but subsequent legal and sex scandals eroded his standing

https://www.wsj.com/articles/silvio-berlusconi-media-magnate-who-dominated-italian-politics-for-years-dies-at-86-98c096be?mod=hp_lead_pos3

Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s longest-serving postwar prime minister, a conservative who swept into power on a popular antigraft platform and stayed there for two decades with the help of his big personality, vast wealth and a powerful media empire before falling to a raft of scandals, has died. He was 86.

An extraordinarily divisive figure in Italy and often a target of ridicule abroad for his ribald jokes, sex scandals and overlapping political and business interests, Berlusconi conditioned Italian politics and embodied its conservative movement during and after his tenure as Italy’s leader.

His death was confirmed by an official from his political party. Berlusconi was in the hospital for more than a month in April and May with a chronic form of leukemia. His state funeral in Milan’s cathedral will take place on Wednesday.

Early on in his political career, Berlusconi brought a breath of fresh air to corruption-plagued politics. The persona he cultivated of a self-made man struck a chord with millions of Italians fed up with a political class tainted by corruption, patronage and infighting.

Can Trump Clean The Augean Stables on the Potomac? Joe Biden’s Department of Justice is as corrupt as Hunter Biden’s laptop. Few people of either party trust it, nor should they.  By Roger Kimball

https://amgreatness.com/2023/06/10/can-trump-clean-the-augean-stables-on-the-potomac/

There is a reason that, since before the time of the emperor Tiberius, treason trials have been a favorite tool of totalitarians. Such proceedings allow them to get rid of nearly anyone they dislike. Successfully brand someone a “traitor,” an “enemy of the state,” and, bang, into the oubliette they go.

I think the treason trial is the appropriate heuristic for what is happening, and what has been happening to Donald Trump ever since 2015 when he descended the escalator.

The charge that Trump was “Putin’s poodle,” a “Russian asset,” etc., during the Russia collusion hoax was a sort of treason trial. And remember how elaborate it all was, a veritable glass onion, thanks in large part to Hillary Clinton, whose campaign concocted, paid for, and disseminated the infamous fantasy “dossier” fabricated by former MI6 spook Christopher Steele. And it was Hillary, remember, who first broadcast the charge that servers in Trump Tower were secretly communicating with Russia’s Alfa Bank. The Justice Department, the FBI, the intelligence services—all were in on that game.

Trump’s two impeachments were episodes in the long-running treason trial, as was Liz Cheney’s January 6 show trial, as are the still unfolding series of indictments that have dogged his footsteps with increasing ferocity as the 2024 election looms and Trump’s poll numbers stubbornly refuse to recede.

A lot of legal hermeneutical ingenuity has been lavished on the current criminal indictment, a 37-count blockbuster revolving around charges that Trump mishandled classified documents he had stuffed away at his Mar-a-Lago mansion in Palm Beach. I think those analyses are mostly beside the point, so much wasted foolscap. The indictment, which histrionically relies heavily on the 1917 Espionage Act, is, when looked at with a sufficiently jaundiced eye, an amusing performance. Macbeth would have said it was a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

3 Potential Scandals Plaguing The FBI-Biden Bribe Saga By: Ben Weingarten

 https://thefederalist.com/2023/06/12/biden-bribe-scheme-is-a-three-part-scandal-saga/

The recent and credible bribe allegations against the president could reveal the truth about the ties between the Biden family and the FBI.

FBI Director Christopher Wray narrowly avoided contempt of Congress proceedings last week over his refusal to provide the House Oversight Committee with an unclassified document memorializing a trusted informant’s allegation that then-Vice President Joe Biden accepted a $5 million bribe from Ukrainian energy oligarch Burisma.

Dramatic as the near-rebuke may have appeared, and as explosive as the contents of the FBI’s concealed FD-1023 form seem to be, the trio of apparent scandals this saga touches on transcends its immediate significance.

Influence Peddling

The first scandal — hiding in plain sight for years yet never fully exposed, let alone prosecuted — concerns the Biden family’s potentially criminal, national security-imperiling, public trust-eroding influence peddling. The reality of this influence peddling makes the stunning allegation of a Joe Biden bribe seem infinitely more plausible than it might otherwise appear.

The House Oversight Committee’s recent review of thousands of records from subpoenas to four banks — which preceded its pursuit of the FD-1023 — shows that “Biden family members and business associates created a web of over 20 companies,” the majority of which were formed during Biden’s vice presidency. Through this web, “the Biden family, their business associates, and their companies received over $10 million from foreign nationals’ and their related companies” [emphasis original] during and after the then-vice president’s tenure.

Israel and the “Kissinger Era” — A Zionist response This is the man who said: “The best result [of the Yom Kippur War] would be if Israel came out a little ahead but got bloodied in the process.” Op-ed. Moshe Phillips

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/372627

A military historian and author recently asked me for comment on Israel and the “Kissinger era” (as he put it) for an essay he was working on marking the occasion of Henry Kissinger’s 100th birthday—he had read several of my op-eds about Kissinger.

I believe my response to him is worth sharing with a wider audience.The “Kissinger Era” in Middle East diplomacy refers to the years when the secretary of state brokered agreements based on the idea that Israel should give up tangible assets in exchange for something less than actual peace. Thus in 1975 he pressured Israel into surrendering the Mitla and Giddi passes in the Sinai and the Abu Rodeis oil fields there in exchange for a brief “non-belligerency” pledge from Egypt.

After Kissinger left office, the dynamics of Arab-Israeli diplomacy changed, in ways that Kissinger–for all his reputed brilliance–never expected. Egypt’s Sadat realized the only way to get back the entire Sinai was to sign a peace treaty with Israel, and so he did. Yasser Arafat realized the only way to get an almost-sovereign territory and a de-facto army was to sign a peace agreement with Israel, so he did. Jordan, and then more recently several Gulf kingdoms, decided it was more advantageous to them to sign peace treaties with Israel, so they did.

But two essential problems haunt both the Kissinger Era agreements and the post Kissinger agreements. The first is that a treaty signed with a dictator can be tossed out at any moment, for any reason. That happened during the brief rise to power of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. It also happened when Israel agreed to give Gaza to the PA, and then shortly afterwards Hamas took over.

But the second, and also a very serious problem, is that not a single of the aforementioned Arab regimes has undertaken genuine peace education. They have not taught their citizens to embrace peace and coexistence with Israel. They have likewise made no effort to teach their children in this regard. So anti-Semitic and pro-terrorist hatred still simmers just below the surface among the Arab masses in all of those countries, ready to explode. Thus the extraordinary concessions Israel made for each of those treaties, in the end, secured for the Jewish State what are little more than ceasefire agreements.

The United Nations’ Jihad Against Israel by Bassam Tawil

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19715/un-jihad-against-israel

The UN, ostensibly dedicated to protecting human rights, and has, in fact, devolved into hurling bogus, tabloid-style allegations as it joins other blood-libel false charges by considering the addition of Israel to its list of blacklisted entities in its 2023 Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC) Report.

The UN resolution draft bizarrely, with no evidence, “…accuses Israel of recruiting three Palestinian minors as human shields and combatants,” among other offenses….

One of the leaders, in the zeal unjustly to add Israel to the UN blacklist, is World Vision International. It circulated an open letter — with 18 co-signatory NGOs — addressed to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, repeating the phony and libelous charges against Israel regarding child recruitment.

In addition to this evangelical missionary organization’s own anti-Israel history — which features comparing Israel to Hitler’s army and falselyaccuses it of funding Hamas — World Vision International’s list of co-signers features a “Who’s Who” of anti-Israel organizations, including Human Rights Watch, authors of the notorious report accusing Israel of “apartheid” and “crimes against humanity”.

Importantly, Israel is recommended for blacklisting while Palestinian and Iranian armed groups are distinctly not.

The Palestinian Authority disassociates itself, when it is convenient, from its armed wing, Fatah, and other terror groups while “unofficially” inciting them to violence and even genocide. This is the Palestinian Authority we are talking about — dominated by the ruling Fatah faction headed by Mahmoud Abbas – not Hamas or Islamic Jihad,

Furthermore, “the IDF repeatedly conveyed warnings to the hospital staff, Palestinian officials, and international aid organizations, including the World Health Organization, requesting that they act in order to stop the hospital from being used for military purposes.” [https://embassies.gov.il/UnGeneva/NewsAndEvents/Pages/Hamas-uses-hospitals-and-ambulances-for-military-terrorist-purposes.aspx]

[T]he early childhood indoctrination to terrorism by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad is so well documented that it is beyond dispute. The same brainwashing administered by Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority is only slightly more discreet, but has consistently been presented as the supposedly moderate face of the Palestinian struggle, as if the organization concerns itself more with legal and diplomatic warfare.

Unfortunately, Abbas’s statements to his constituents on official PA television –as opposed to the general English-speaking medialeave a dramatically different impression: “We salute every drop of blood spilled for the sake of Jerusalem….shed for the sake of Allah, Allah willing. Every martyr will be placed in Paradise, and all the wounded will be rewarded by Allah.”

With the astronomical sum of pooled international donations that flood into Palestinian control every year through countless NGOs and humanitarian organizations, it is inconceivable that the poverty among so many Palestinians, especially in the refugee camps, is anything but a desired and designed effect: the result of, shall we say, “questionable” governance. The combination of intense early childhood indoctrination to hatred and terror with hopeless deprivation are a deliberate recipe for terrorism.

Photos of these dead children fuel sympathy donations, funds flow in the billions, and Palestinian officials, their families, and their friends enjoy the high-life at the expense of their own people – all in the name of “the Palestinian cause” and the fight against Israel.

The [Defense of Children International – Palestine’s] website regularly features standard-looking photos of adolescents such as 17-year-old Mahmoud Majed al-Aydi and claim them as victims of Israeli aggression. Eventually, the not-so-innocent photos emerge of this same teen toting an automatic weapon.

None of these supposed child-welfare organizations seriously takes Palestinian groups to task for terrorizing children in Israel, for rocket strikes on kindergartens. None of them gives aid to expand the availability of rocket shelters in Israeli playgrounds or barricades to defend against car-rammings , or to offer trauma counseling to children terrorized across Israel by both rocket and terror attacks.

The question needs to be asked: Is it actually “child welfare” that is at issue here, or is it the demonization of Israel, the only democratic country in the area, and one that actually implements human rights, thereby threatening the repressive dictatorships around it that is at the heart of the matter?

“One cannot consider the cynical exploitation of Palestinian children by the Palestinian nationalist movement without recognizing that international NGOs that claim to act on the behalf of the welfare of children often encourage this exploitation by refusing to criticize this practice.” — Ahron Shapiro, senior policy analyst, aijac.org.au, May 30, 2018

“Nowhere is this more evident than in the case of the NGO Defence of Children International-Palestine, which has been identified by NGO Monitor as having close ties with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine…. [E]ngaging in violent activity, must be addressed with the same vigour as allegations of mistreatment at the hands of Israelis.” — Ahron Shapiro, senior policy analyst, aijac.org.au, May 30, 2018

Instead of waging Jihad (holy war) on Israel, the UN might start paying attention to the human rights violations and massive child abuse committed by Palestinian and Arab leaders against their own people as well as against Jews.

The United Nations has adopted the nasty habit of many Palestinians: throwing everything at Israel but the kitchen sink. Accusations against Israel have ranged from fabricated claims not merely of “apartheid,” but climate apartheid, water apartheid, violating women’s rights (the only country accused of that in the midst of a sea of crushing Islamic fundamentalist regimes!), to kidnapping and murdering Palestinian children to harvest their organs.

Epoch Original docudrama Gender Transformation: The Untold Realities

Award-winning director Tobias Elvhage, whose most recent awards include Best Short Film at the 2023 LA Documentary Film Festival and Winner of the 2023 European Cinematography Awards, joins experts interviewed in the Epoch Original docudrama Gender Transformation: The Untold Realities, in the panel discussion moderated by Facts Matter Host Roman Balmakov after the theatrical premiere of the film.

Don’t miss this exclusive event!

Date : Friday, June 16, 2023
Location: Cinema Village in New York City

7:00 PM – 8:30 PM Film Premiere
8:30 PM – 9:30 PM Panel discussion with directors and cast

Iraq and Tehran’s Illusions by Amir Taheri

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19713/iraq-iran-illusions

In the past two decades, that is to say since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in Baghdad, a new discourse has developed in which post-Saddam Iraq is depicted as part of an empire being built by the Khomeinist regime in Tehran.

[T]he Khomeinist empire-building scheme in Iraq has failed. To be sure, Iraq is now slated as Iran’s principal trading partner. But this is largely due to exports of Iranian gas and electricity to Iraq, exports for which Iraq has failed to pay so far. Iraqi debts to Iran are estimated at between $17 and $22 billion.

[Iraq’s] Shiite community, assuming that such a label is accurate, is also divided with those remaining loyal to Tehran providing a dwindling minority.

Iraq had signed oil exploration and production deals with more than 60 countries while the Islamic Republic is excluded. Last week, Baghdad signed a deal with Ankara for a gas pipeline to the Turkish port of Yumurtalik to supply Europe.

Iraq may still be uncertain about what kind of future it wants. But one thing is certain: it doesn’t want to be a fiefdom for the mullahs of Tehran.

In the past two decades, that is to say since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in Baghdad, a new discourse has developed in which post-Saddam Iraq is depicted as part of an empire being built by the Khomeinist regime in Tehran. Tehran’s surrogates in Beirut refer to this supposed empire as the “Resistance Front,” while Iran’s opponents label it a “Shiite Crescent” that also includes parts of Syria still under Bashar al-Assad’s control.

Gender’s Truth-Distortion Field Across the English-speaking world, the discussion of trans rights is governed by taboos, sacred myths, and, in some cases, outright lies. by Sean Masters / Raimund Hume

https://quillette.com/2023/06/10/genders-truth-distortion/

Imagine you’re a policymaker considering the rules that govern the care of gender non-conforming children. You’ve heard slogans to the effect that “gender-affirming care”—which is to say, expressing reflexive support for the announced gender identity of trans-presenting children—is the right thing to do. It has to be, you’ve come to believe. It’s got the word “affirming” in it. And it’s backed by many (though, as we shall see, not all) reputable-sounding bodies such as WPATH, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health. Your own staff tell you that you will be hailed as progressive and enlightened for heeding such advice, but denounced as phobic and regressive if you express scepticism. Some darkly warn that your failure to fall into line on this issue may literally put the lives of trans children at risk.

But by now, you’ve also heard of the various scandals surrounding those who’ve promoted gender-affirming care with excessive zeal, and even recklessness, in other jurisdictions. And you’re looking to get ahead of such controversies in your own jurisdiction.

Perhaps you’ve been following the situation in England and Wales, where the country’s only gender-identity clinic for people under 18 has been shut down following a report that showed children were being rushed into irreversible transition therapies without adequate safeguards.

You might also have taken note of the fate of venerable LGBT-charity Stonewall, whose reputation has suffered in some circles due to its “Diversity Champions programme,” by which employers can pay to display a special logo; and its “Workplace Equality Index,” which boosts the profiles of employers that follow Stonewall’s lead on seemingly questionable policies, such as giving multiple email accounts to “gender fluid” workers.

Who’s Destroying Civic Norms Again? Trump? By J.B. Shurk

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/06/whos_destroying_civic_norms_again_trump.html

It’s hard to believe how many high-ranking government officials have been serving time behind bars these last couple decades.  Bill Clinton got caught selling military secrets and influence to communist China in return for campaign contributions.  Hillary Clinton got caught storing top-secret materials on an unsecured email server in a bathroom closet.  Lois Lerner got caught using the IRS as a weapon for targeting conservatives and influencing the 2012 election.  Attorney General Eric Holder was held in contempt of Congress for withholding subpoenaed documents concerning the Obama administration’s transnational gunrunning racket.  Barack Obama, Jim Comey, John Brennan, and James Clapper were all thrown in the clink for spying on a political opponent’s campaign and then covering up their illegal activities by framing the victim as a covert Russian agent.

The saddest thing was watching Dementia Joe Biden stumble out of the White House in cuffs, as remaining federal agents finally arrested him for decades of corruption involving quid-pro-quo schemes that enriched his family by selling the powers of his various offices to the highest foreign bidders.  

Oh, right — none of that happened, because the Deep State and those in bed with the Deep State protect their own.  At this point, anybody not being attacked or politically persecuted should be presumed as secretly working for some shady enterprise hostile to the best interest of the United States.

Yet somehow special counsel Jack Smith has the temerity to stand before the American people, announce the federal government’s continuing crusade to keep President Trump from office, and shamelessly declare, “We have one set of laws in this country.”  Right.  What he really means is, “The Deep State controls America, and if you mess with those gangsters, we’ll lock you up and throw away the key.”  Jack Smith — like Robert Mueller, Andrew Weissmann, so many inspectors general who ignore crimes under their purview, and too many partisan political operatives posing as judges — is just another thug enforcer sent out to protect the ruling regime.  Well done, Jack!  Collect your thirty pieces of silver and career advancement as your reward!

The Pandemic of Nuclear Trash Talk Is it all just saber rattling, buffoonery, the last braggadocious mutterings of a failed regime? Cheap efforts to obtain deterrence that arms have lost? Perhaps. And then again, perhaps not. By Victor Davis Hanson

https://amgreatness.com/2023/06/11/the-pandemic-of-nuclear-trash-talk/

After the world escaped a nuclear exchange during the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962, it has been generally understood that nuclear-armed nations did not publicly threaten their rivals and enemies with thermonuclear weapons.

Of course, there were occasional lunatic exceptions to the rule. Since 2006, when the unhinged North Korean regime acquired nuclear weapons, the world has periodically dismissed the zany threats from the Kim dynasty. Kim Jong Un has sporadically warned he might strike Japan, South Korea, and the United States—usually in an outrageous and outlandish fashion.

Kim finally was warned of the consequences of his brinkmanship rhetoric, most famously by Donald Trump in 2018. He reminded Kim that the American nuclear button was bigger than North Korea’s—an eerie counter-warning that for a time led to the cooling of North Korean rhetoric.

Pakistan went nuclear in 1998. From time to time, its prime ministers have warned India that in any confrontation, what Pakistan lacked in numbers and arms would be made up by the preemptive use of nuclear weapons. But again, Pakistan’s threats, like those of Kim Jong Un’s, were dismissed as the rantings of the insecure and blustering, who were otherwise deterred by much larger nuclear arsenals.

But the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine opened a new chapter in nuclear trash-talking. The Ukrainian war has proved dangerously unique in a variety of ways. True, there have been prior large land wars involving nuclear powers. The first Gulf War of 1991 saw Britain, France, and the United States combine to help crush Iraq without mention of nuclear arms. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979 without such threats. Neither did China mention a nuclear option in 1979, despite a less-than-successful short invasion of Vietnam. Nor did Great Britain, in its 1982 retaking of the Falkland Islands, talk of the bomb, although recently declassified documents revealed that the Royal Navy carried 31 nuclear weapons on its expeditionary fleet—presumably depth charges, bombs, and missiles—to the chagrin of the current Argentine government.