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February 2024

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Biden’s Lies on Top of Lies on Top of Lies A pathological prevaricator. Victor Davis Hanson

By on February 19th, 2024

https://www.frontpagemag.com/bidens-lies-on-top-of-lies-on-top-of-lies/

In the last week, Joe Biden had flat-out lied in the most egregious fashion in so many ways.

In his disastrous press conference of last week, he claimed that special counsel Hur’s report exonerated him. Anyone who read the findings concluded exactly the opposite.

According to Hur, Biden would have been indicted for his willfully unlawful removal of classified documents except for two reasons: one, the Department of Justice protocols apparently prohibit indicting a sitting president; and two, Biden suffers such cognitive decline that the special counsel believes a jury would more likely pity him into acquittal than convict him of what he is certainly guilty.

He lied that Hur brought up his son’s death (“How in the hell dare he raise that?”). In fact, Biden as is his serial wont, raised it, and does on a regular basis, usually deliberately and further lying that his son died while on military duty in Iraq (he died six years subsequently as a civilian in Walter Reed Hospital), and always contorting the death to enhance his own greater sense of grieving.

He lied that he notified authorities when he discovered that he unlawfully had taken out classified documents to various residencies (perhaps for over some 30 plus years during his senatorial and Vice Presidential tenures). In fact, Biden only admitted that he had apparently for decades unlawfully removed classified files in 2017, to his ghostwriter in a recorded tape, and then he hid that fact and kept quiet for five years—until his administration’s special counsel began to investigate Trump for the same thing. Note the worried ghostwriter erased the tape of Biden’s confession as soon as he learned there was an appointment of a special counsel. (Destroy evidence much?)

He lied that the files bore no classification marks. In fact, they did and do.

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Fraud Allegations and Financial Fiascos: The Saga of Trump’s Legal Battles Roger Kimball

By on February 19th, 2024

https://amgreatness.com/2024/02/18/fraud-allegations-and-financial-fiascos-the-saga-of-trumps-legal-battles/

Donald Trump is facing a wall of legal trouble. It’s possible that with all these darts being thrown, one will stick and he will be brought down. More likely, I think, is that he will prevail.

How do you spell “persecution?” How about “D-o-n-a-l-d T-r-u-m-p?” It sometimes seems that the entire judicial apparatus of the state has been mobilized against the man.

According to my abacus, he faces some 90 counts on four separate indictments in four states. And that doesn’t count the suits brought by the aging fantasist who claims that 30, 35 years ago—she can’t quite remember—Trump assaulted her in a dressing room in the swank department store Bergdorf Goodman in Manhattan.  There were no witnesses. She can’t say what year the assault was supposed to have occurred, let alone what month or day.  Moreover, the entire scenario was straight out of an episode of “Law and Order,” one of her favorite television shows. She displayed a Donna Karan blazer dress that she says she was wearing when assaulted. Problem: That garment did not exist at the time. The whole case was ridiculous, and Trump said so, which is how he got caught up in a surreal defamation case and was hit with an $83.3 million fine.

$83 million of the crispest. For saying that the wackette in question was off her rocker and, not to put too fine a point on it, that she was lying. Most experts believe that Trump will not have to part with anything like $83 million, if indeed he winds up owing the accuser-in-chief anything at all, at the conclusion of his appeals.

But the case of E. Jean Carroll, for that is the name of the decrepit aspiring bimbo, is just an hors d’oeuvre or appetizer in the great Get Trump Sweepstakes.  On Friday, Justice Arthur Engoron of the New York Supreme Court found Trump guilty of fraud because he had, said the Justice, overvalued some of his real estate assets when applying for bank loans.  The banks looked over the applications, found them in order, and were pleased when Trump paid them back in full and on time.  Result?  That marvelous contingency, a victimless crime.  Nevertheless, Donald Trump is the Emmanuel Goldstein of “Our Democracy™.”  No expedient is too extreme. He must be stopped.

Indeed, Letitia James, the Attorney General of New York, actually campaigned on the promise to Get Trump and shine a “bright light into every dark corner of his real estate dealings.”  That was six years ago.  Now Justice Engoron, part judge, part jester, has hit Trump with an eyewatering $355 million judgement and forbidden him or his evil spawn, Don Jr. and Eric Trump, from running their companies in New York for a period of three years.

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A Tale of Two Presidents By J.B. Shurk

By on February 19th, 2024

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/02/a_tale_of_two_presidents.html

President-In-Name-Only Joe Biden finally decided to visit East Palestine, Ohio — the community that last year endured both a toxic train derailment and the government’s questionable decision to burn the spilled hazardous chemicals and poison the region’s air.  Given Biden’s obvious cognitive decline, it’s impossible to know whether PINO mistakenly thought he was heading out to provide aid and comfort to Palestinian terrorists in their war against Israel or whether he wanted to belatedly feign love for blue-collar Americans before demanding their votes in November.  Either way, Dementia Joe made the trip late in the day on a Friday so that coverage of his visit would disappear with the rest of the administration’s conveniently flushed news.

For their part, the good people of East Palestine were quick to declare with numerous signs that PINO Biden’s arrival was “Too Little, Too Late.”  As Wandering Joe stood anxiously behind him and fidgeted in his coat pockets, the village mayor thanked the White House’s nursing home patient for his “long-awaited visit” while “acknowledging this disaster should have never happened.”  Unlike Biden, who arrived a year late and brought only note card–scripted empty promises, President Trump visited this community in the midst of the tragedy and brought truckloads of bottled water for the victims.  He also cast a giant spotlight on the environmental disaster as it was unfolding and expressed concern for the villagers’ health.  Decrepit Joe — the guy whose administration invests heavily in “green energy” scams that fleece the American people — showed through a calendar year of radio silence that environmentalism is pointless unless it pays.  Maybe if the blue-collar workers of East Palestine had ponied up 10% from their cleanup collection fund for Quid-Pro-Quo Joe’s campaign or family coffers, the federal government would have felt that the catastrophe deserved more urgent attention.

Of all the jeering cardboard signs mocking PINO Joe for his un-timely visit, perhaps the most pointed were in the hands of two smiling schoolgirls.  One said loudly, “Resident — NOT — President,” while the other begged the Oval Office chief, infamous for creeping on little girls, “Don’t Sniff Me!”  It is common to find children carrying signs in political protests that are almost certainly designed by their parents.  However, in this instance, the mischievous grins on those girls’ faces revealed that they understood what a sad, cringe-worthy punch line Biden has become.  When nearly 90% of Americans believe that Child-Sniffer Joe is mentally unfit, kids get the joke.  Joe Biden’s “presidency” is too defective for anyone to take seriously.  

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BOOKS Comments turned off

CHAPTER 6: “An Unaware and Compliant Citizenry” Space Is No Longer the Final Frontier—Reality Is [upcoming release April 2024] by Linda Goudsmit

By on February 19th, 2024

https://goudsmit.pundicity.com/27557/chapter-6-an-unaware-and-compliant-citizenry

goudsmit.pundicity.com   lindagoudsmit.com 

We have discussed the weaponization of education in American schools and its sinister political objective to eliminate high literacy, individual agency, and independent intelligence. Dr. Dennis Cuddy, historian and political analyst, wrote an extraordinary article published on NewsWithViews, April 26, 2021, “An Unaware and Compliant Citizenry.”[i]

Cuddy documents the seismic shift in public education’s mission, from teaching basic skills and foundational knowledge to teachers acting as agents of social change and teaching political activism. The following are excerpts from the article:

The Clintons’ and others’ efforts to “produce an unaware and compliant citizenry” began with the National Education Association (NEA), whose President Catherine Barrett wrote in the February 10, 1973 edition of SATURDAY REVIEW OF EDUCATION:

“Dramatic changes in the way we will raise our children in the year 2000 are indicated, particularly in terms of schooling…. We will need to recognize that the so-called ‘basic skills,’ which currently represent nearly the total effort in elementary schools, will be taught in one-quarter of the present school day…. When this happens—and it’s near—the teacher can rise to his true calling. More than a dispenser of information, the teacher will be a conveyor of values, a philosopher…. We will be agents of change.”

Via values clarification techniques, the values of students were to be changed to situation ethics…. In the 1980s, Hillary Clinton along with David Rockefeller, Jr. and others became Board members of Carnegie’s National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE), with Mario Cuomo chairman and N.C. Governor Jim Hunt vice-chairman. The president of the NCEE was Marc Tucker, who right after Bill Clinton won the presidency in November 1992 wrote a letter to Hillary Clinton saying this would give them a chance to implement their “cradle-to-grave” plan for all Americans.

The following year, at the July 2–5, 1993 NEA’s national convention, President Clinton addressed the delegates and thanked the NEA for “the gift of our assistant secretary,” referring to long-time NEA activist Sharon Robinson, who became U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education for the Office of Education Research and Improvement (OERI, where I had worked in the Reagan administration). President Clinton went on to say that he believed his goals for America closely parallel those of the NEA, further stating: “And I believe that the president of this organization would say we have had the partnership I promised in the campaign of 1992, and we will continue to have it…. You and I are joined in a common cause, and I believe we will succeed.” On December 15, 1993, EDUCATION WEEK reported that “Debra DeLee, the former director of governmental relations for the NEA, has joined the Democratic National Committee as its executive director.”

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

How I learned to stop worrying and oppose a Palestinian state The world does not need yet another genocidal terrorist entity. Benjamin Kerstein From December 2023)

By on February 19th, 2024

https://benjaminkerstein.substack.com/p/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and

“I used to care,” Bob Dylan once sang, “but things have changed.”

I’m afraid that I’m feeling much the same these days regarding the prospect of Palestinian statehood. Up until Oct. 6, I felt that while a Palestinian state would be problematic in many ways, we still had an obligation to adhere to the same right we demand for ourselves—self-determination. I also believed that demographic issues and the corrosive effect of continuous occupation left Israel no option but the two-state solution.

As a result, I supported the 2005 withdrawal from Gaza because I felt those arguments still held despite multiple Palestinian refusals of peace and their continuing embrace and promotion of terrorism.

I must admit that I was wrong. Things have changed. A generational trauma will do that sort of thing. At the moment, “the day after” this war is a matter of complete indifference to me. I do not know what the political future of the Palestinians will be. I also don’t care. I care solely about preventing another Oct. 7 or worse. If that means a Palestinian state must never be established, then so be it.

I believe this for two reasons. The first is a matter of principle, the second is wholly practical in nature

First, though I still believe that all peoples have a right to self-determination, I do not believe that the Palestinians have the right to determine themselves upon the destruction of Israel. Oct. 7 made it clear that this is precisely what they have done and intend to keep doing. Statehood would only further this ambition, and this cannot be morally justified under any circumstances. In fact, to do anything that would further such an ambition would be, by definition, not only immoral but anti-moral.

In practical terms, it is now very clear what the nature of a Palestinian state would be. The Gaza withdrawal was often described at the time as an experiment. On Oct. 7, we received the results. They have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that a Palestinian state would be a genocidal terrorist entity, likely of a theocratic nature, with the ultimate intention of aiding in the establishment of a global Islamic tyranny. The world already has several states of this kind—most notably Hamas’ ally Iran—and certainly does not need another one.

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Four Months Into the War Against Hamas, the IDF Is Far Outperforming American Expectations, Report Says

By on February 19th, 2024

https://www.nysun.com/article/four-months-into-the-war-against-hamas-the-idf-is-far-outperforming-american-expectations-report-says

Did President Biden try in October to throw Israel off a ground operation in Gaza? If so, Israeli pluck and knowhow are — at least so far — carrying the day.

What is for some a slow go and daunting political landmine is for others a bigger success story than has been publicly acknowledged — namely, Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, and the American outlook on it could be about to change. 

It is no secret that the relationship between President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu is about as warm as the month of February. What is lost in the miasma of increasingly strained relations between Washington and Jerusalem is that irrespective of attempts by the White House to micromanage the conflict and despite comments by Mr. Biden himself that Israel’s military response has been “over the top,” the truth is that some bumps in the road notwithstanding, it has mostly been spot on. 

For proof of that, one can look at how all of Hamas’s terrorist battalions in the northern Gaza Strip have been decimated or how the Hamas mastermind, Yahya Sinwar, is said to be cowering like a rat in a dark tunnel somewhere underneath Khan Younis. 

One can also look at an underreported meeting that took place in Israel about a week after Hamas attacked on October 7. As journalist Amit Segal reports in this weekend’s edition of the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, at that time Mr. Biden dispatched a three-star Marine heavyweight, Lieutenant General James Glynn, to Israel as well as two senior officers with a view to advising Israel on what to do — and what not to do — in  its operation to rout Hamas in the Gaza Strip. 

According to the Yedioth report, the Americans sought, at the president’s behest, to “help the commanders of the IDF think about the difficult questions before them.” That thinking hinged mainly on trying to dissuade Israel’s military leaders from launching a ground operation in Gaza. 

It was done by playing the Jewish guilt card: to wit, by prognosticating 20 daily IDF casualties if Israel went forward with a ground invasion, which by Mr. Glynn’s estimation, Mr. Segal writes, would be “time-consuming and bloody.”

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David Cameron’s patronising advice would doom Israel to defeat Who does he think he’s talking down to? And if he had his way, what would have been the point of the last few months of fighting in Gaza? Richard Kemp

By on February 19th, 2024

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/14/david-camerons-patronising-advice-would-doom-israel/

David Cameron has virtually called on Israel to surrender to Hamas as it prepares to destroy the terrorist group in Rafah. For that is surely the meaning of his words on Monday: “What we want is an immediate pause in the fighting and we want that pause to lead to a ceasefire”. That’s also exactly what Hamas want, and has demanded from Israel — an end to the war that it is catastrophically losing. 

Would Cameron have called for a ceasefire as Allied troops were poised to cross the Rhine in March 1945? By that time millions of German civilians had been killed in the fighting and it was a certainty that many more would die as the war proceeded towards unconditional German surrender. 

Of course Israel cannot halt its offensive now any more than the Allies could then, and Cameron must know that – just as Blinken knows it. In reality their words of caution to Israel amount to virtue signalling aimed at the Israel-sceptical elements of their electorates. Like a schoolmaster lecturing a recalcitrant schoolboy, Cameron has told Israel to “stop and think very seriously before it takes any further action”. 

Who does he think he’s talking down to? Does he seriously believe the Israeli war cabinet and general staff have not been working round the clock for months, “thinking seriously” about every action they take in this war? Meanwhile Blinken has told Israel to come up with a plan to minimise civilian casualties before they launch the campaign against Hamas in Rafah. In other words, exactly what they are already doing and have been doing with considerable success since this war began. 

So far the IDF has wreaked devastation on Hamas. It appears the terror army is no longer able to function as a coherent entity, with reports that senior leaders are unable to communicate with their combat units. The IDF says the Hamas fighters that remain in Rafah must now be dealt with, along with the terrorist leadership there. 

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

POSITIVE NEWS FROM ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

By on February 18th, 2024

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

In 1922 the infamous British White Paper bowing to Arab pressure ceded 76 percent of the Palestine Mandate- all the land east of the Jordan River to the Hashemites who forbid Jewish settlement.

The British justified their betrayal with the statement: “England…does not want Palestine to become ‘as Jewish as England is English’, but, rather, should become ‘a center in which Jewish people as a whole may take, on grounds of religion and race, an interest and a pride.’ 

Well Michael Ordman’s weekly catalog does indeed inspire interest and pride and current demographics show that Israel is far more Jewish than England is England. rsk

POSITIVE NEWS DURING A WAR
 
Dramatic rescue of two Israeli hostages. (TY WIN) All of Israel celebrated the news that IDF special forces had rescued two Israeli-Argentinian hostages in a daring overnight operation in Rafah. The President of Argentina had just completed his historic visit to Israel and was also delighted with the outcome.
https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel-at-war/1707714683-idf-rescues-2-hostages-during-op-in-rafah
 
Rescue app saves lives.  The app Digital 101 is one of the technical innovations that has vastly improved survival rates of wounded IDF personnel during the current war. The app, developed by Israel’s K Health (see here previously) and two army reservists, transfers medical data about the wounded from battlefield to hospital.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/ryc9a00yia
 
Critical gear for female IDF soldiers. Operation Israel is a group of over 100 volunteer professionals and experts. They have shipped millions of dollars’ worth of critical gear to the IDF. They are now responding to urgent requests from female IDF soldiers for properly fitting shoes, helmets, vests, uniforms, and backpacks.
https://www.jns.org/wire/operation-israel-launches-girl-power-to-equip-women-idf-soldiers-with-critical-gear/
https://www.operationisrael.org/   https://www.operationisrael.org/girlpower
 
‘Falafel King’ donates 25,000 portions to IDF. Shimon Biton, owner of Falafel Biton in Be’er Ya’akov, south of Tel Aviv, has been dubbed the “King of Falafel.” He has donated 25,000 portions of Israel’s national snack to IDF soldiers fighting in Khan Yunis in Gaza. In addition, security personnel always eat free at his restaurant.
https://www.jns.org/falafel-restaurant-donates-25000-portions-to-israeli-soldiers/
 
The biggest homecoming yet. 80% of southern moshav Shokeda’s 132 families have returned to their national-religious community, 4 miles from Gaza. The homecoming was the largest single movement of people into the Tekuma Region near Gaza since its evacuation following Oct 7. Some immediately began mowing their lawns.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/4-miles-from-war-in-biggest-homecoming-yet-hundreds-of-evacuees-return-to-shokeda/
 
Malawi kibbutz workers sing for hostages. In recent months, agricultural workers from Malawi in Africa have been working at Kibbutz Zikim. The issue of the kidnapped Israelis touches their hearts and prompted an acapella band to make a new arrangement of the song; “Home” and a music video filmed in Malawi.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzJpEwpYsLA
 
Gaza mystery (TY UWI) While the IDF was fighting Hamas in the Bani Suheila neighborhood of Khan Yunis, they discovered a desk in one of the houses. On it was an inscription which read: “The table of the late Levi Eshkol.” Donation of Dubek Ltd. 1981.” How did the desk of Israel’s ex-Prime Minister (1963-69) get there?
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/385142
 
Oct 7 Heroes medal. (TY UWI) “The President’s Medal for Civilian Heroism,” is to be awarded to civilians who showed outstanding heroism on October 7. The announcement said it is to honor ordinary citizens, who risked their lives, “out of a sense of unity of fate and mutual Israeli guarantee, with the aim of saving lives.”
https://www.algemeiner.com/2024/02/13/israels-president-announces-new-civilian-heroism-medal-for-heroes-of-october-7/
 
Bedouin Oct 7 heroes honored. Military service for members of the Bedouin tribes is not mandatory, yet more than 1,500 are presently serving in the IDF. Public figures came to the Friends of Zion Museum in Jerusalem as a tribute to 13 civilian Bedouin who saved men, women, and small children while being fired at by Hamas.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-786571  
 
 
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Another breakthrough in dementia research. Tel Aviv University researchers found a method of preventing memory deterioration in the animal model of Alzheimer’s disease. They detected physiological changes that appear 10 to 20 years prior to cognitive decline. They also hope to prevent cognitive issues from anesthesia.
https://www.jns.org/israeli-team-prevents-memory-deterioration-in-alzheimers-animal-model/
 
A gut feeling. (TY UWI) Researchers from Israel’s Bar-Ilan University have uncovered a potential link between Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and the composition of the gut microbiome. Certain bacteria were more prevalent and diverse in those with ASD. It could lead to the development of possible treatments.
https://tps.co.il/articles/israeli-research-points-to-gut-microbiomes-role-in-autism-spectrum-disorder/
 
Neurofeedback device effective for treating PTSD. (TY Dr Salem) In a recent trial, the Prism neurofeedback device from Israel’s GrayMatters Health (see here previously) significantly improved the condition of 67% of the chronic PTSD patients in its recent trial. Almost one third achieved remission after three months of therapy.
https://nocamels.com/2024/02/brain-activity-monitor-proves-efficacy-in-ptsd-therapy-study-finds/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165178123006613
https://www.graymatters-health.com/clinical-publications
 
Doctors removed 3lb tumor from 4-year-old. (TY UWI) Surgeons at Israel’s Emek Medical Center in Afula successfully removed a huge Wilms tumor (see here previously) weighing 1.3 kg from a four-year-old child. The tumor, in the right kidney, measured 16 cm by 12 cm and constituted over 7% of the girl’s body weight.
https://tps.co.il/articles/israeli-doctors-remove-1-3-kilo-tumor-from-toddler/  
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/wilms-tumor/symptoms-causes/syc-20352655#
 
Hadassah’s new rehab center. Wounded IDF soldiers from Gaza are being treated at the new Gandel Rehabilitation Center in Jerusalem, part of the Hadassah Medical Organization, which opened in January 2024. Construction sped up after Oct 7, thanks to $29 million from the government plus $5.5 million donations.
https://www.jns.org/wounded-warriors-find-multiple-ways-to-heal-at-hadassahs-new-rehab-center/
 
Egyptian girl treated in Israel. The daughter of an Egyptian official was injured in a traffic accident and hospitalized in Cairo. She was then transferred to Hadassah Hospital, where there is a dedicated ward for complex trauma in children. Israel approved the transfer as a humanitarian gesture.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/384823

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FOREIGN POLICY, ISRAEL Comments turned off

And The Winner Is — Hamas! by Alan M. Dershowitz

By on February 18th, 2024

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20399/and-the-winner-is-hamas

What will happen if Hamas is allowed to win this war? If Hamas is permitted to accomplish what it intended by its mass murders, kidnappings and rapes? If the victims of these atrocities— the people of Israel and all countries fighting terrorism — lose? If the prospects for peace in the region and the Free World are seriously damaged? If the relationship between the US and Israel, and the loss of faith in the US as the guarantor of freedom, continues to be fractured?

Instead, the Biden administration may be rewarding Palestinian terrorists by unilaterally recognizing a Palestinian State, which will, of course, soon become militarized.

The anti-Israel left-wingers are not going to vote for Trump, who is more pro-Israel than Biden. Nor are they likely to stay home on Election Day and help Trump. Centrist voters, on the other hand, are likely to vote against Biden if they think he is beholden to the Squad or other anti-American woke extremists.

As important as are the domestic electoral implications of Biden’s weakening support for Israel, the international implications are far more consequential. The world will be a far less safe place if Israel is prevented from defeating and dismantling Hamas’s military capabilities.

Israel is doing everything reasonable to decrease civilian casualties, while Hamas tries to increase them on both sides. American policy should be to help Israel defeat Hamas and prevent the recurrence and spread of its terrorism against civilians, rather than to help Hamas secure a victory by tying Israel’s hands.

So, unless the Biden administration changes course and encourages Israel to achieve its legitimate military goal of defeating Hamas, terrorism will win and civilization will lose.

What will happen if Hamas is allowed to win this war? If Hamas is permitted to accomplish what it intended by its mass murders, kidnappings and rapes? If the victims of these atrocities — the people of Israel and all countries fighting terrorism — lose? If the prospects for peace in the region and the Free World are seriously damaged? If the relationship between the US and Israel, and the loss of faith in the US as the guarantor of freedom, continues to be fractured?

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IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

2024 and the invasion at the southern border The destruction of the country for the sake of temporary partisan advantage seems a high price to pay Roger Kimball

By on February 18th, 2024

https://thespectator.com/topic/2024-invasion-southern-border/

Donald Trump crushed the New Hampshire primary, as every poll in Alpha Centauri predicted he would. Nevertheless, his sole remaining opponent for the GOP nomination, Nikki Haley, “vowed to fight on.” Why? A cynical person might suggest the interaction of two volatile liquids: cash, on the one hand, and consultants, on the other. Haley is swimming in both. The cash is coming from two sources: brittle, establishment faux conservatives like the Kochs and wily Dem operatives like the billionaire Reid Hoffman who, in addition to shoveling gobs of money to Nikki Haley, is also funding such entrepreneurial activities as E. Jean Carroll’s bizarre lawsuit against Donald Trump.

In a sane world, the support of a malignant figure like Hoffman would be disqualifying for Haley. Will Haley have dropped out (“suspended her campaign”) by the time you read this? Maybe. I predict, though, that as long as there is cash in the kitty, Haley’s consultants will “advise” her to “fight on.” After all, consultants are people, too, and they have mortgages and therapy to pay for.

But whenever the money runs out and Haley disappears, one thing that is not going to change is the overriding issue of this campaign. People are worried about inflation, yes; the economy, of course; America’s overextension in the foreign wars that have started since Joe Biden’s tremulous hand lay on the Bible and he promised faithfully to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States,” you betcha.

But as Iowa and New Hampshire and every poll taken across the fruited plain remind us, the one overwhelming, all-absorbing, keep-you-up-at-night concern is the southern border, which is to say the lack of a southern border. People everywhere, in the trenches in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California, as well as far-off Iowa and New Hampshire, are terrified by the hordes of trespassers pouring over the southern border.

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