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Ruth King

J. D. Vance and the Emerging Counter-Elite How a second Trump administration could avoid some of the pitfalls of the first. Christopher Rufo

https://christopherrufo.com/subscribe?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=email-subscribe&r=8t06w&next=

Former president Donald Trump’s selection of Ohio senator J. D. Vance as his running mate has generated much commentary. The mainstream media has tried to frame Vance as a postliberal “threat to democracy,” while Trump’s supporters have celebrated him as a bridge to a new generation.

But there is a deeper story here. The Vance selection is not a gambit to secure a particular demographic or region—white men are Trump’s base; Ohio is a safe red state—but an effort to cultivate an emerging counter-elite that could make the second Trump administration substantially more effective than the first.

This story is built into J. D. Vance’s biographical arc. He was the all-American kid who rose from humble beginnings to make his way in the world: the Marines; Yale Law; venture capital; a best-selling book. He learned the language of the prestige institutions, cultivated powerful patrons, and quickly climbed the ladder in academia, finance, and business. He had made it.

Then, his story takes a turn. Having entered the ranks of America’s elite, Vance became disillusioned and disenchanted with it, correctly identifying it as a force of hypocrisy and corruption. He defected—first, by parting ways with the respectable conservatism of the Beltway, and then by embracing Donald Trump.

Kamala Harris Should Not Have Snubbed Bibi The VP missed an important opportunity to show Americans where she stands on Israel. Eli Lake

https://www.thefp.com/p/kamala-harris-netanyahu-washington-dc-july-24

When Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, his fourth such speech, the new leader of the Democratic Party was missing. Vice President Kamala Harris, who was busy delivering an address to the Zeta Phi Beta sorority’s Grand Boulé in Indianapolis. 

In normal times, Harris’s snub of Bibi would be expected. Democrats still sting from Netanyahu’s campaign in 2015 against former president Barack Obama’s nuclear deal. When Netanyahu spoke before a joint session that year to make his case, many Democrats boycotted. Things have only gone downhill since then: Bibi’s relationship with President Joe Biden has been strained in recent months; Senator Chuck Schumer blasted Bibi from the House floor in March; the Squad, along with lots of left-wing activists and many Arab American groups, have decried Israel’s war in Gaza as a “genocide.” 

But Harris effectively won her party’s nomination within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement Sunday that he would not seek reelection. In other words: she does not need to please the anti-Israel base of her party in order to win a primary.

Instead, what Harris needs to do is spend the precious 100 days before the election defining herself before the nation. Simply sitting behind the rostrum as the leader of the Jewish state delivered a stirring address about how his country’s enemies were also America’s would have neutralized the Trump campaign’s efforts to paint the vice president as a San Francisco socialist who is out of touch with everyday people. 

“Nobody knows where Kamala Harris stands on Israel,” former GOP foreign policy adviser Dan Senor told The Free Press. “She’s a blank slate. This was a high-profile opportunity to define herself on this issue, and she took a pass.” 

Judge Glock: Kamalanomics The presumptive presidential nominee is no moderate.

https://www.city-journal.org/article/analysis-of-kamala-harris-economic-record

While Joe Biden campaigned as a moderate, he has governed as one of the most progressive presidents in modern American history. In 2020, Biden sought to distance himself from self-declared socialist Bernie Sanders; after Biden as president pursued massive stimulus and spending programs, Sanders became one of his biggest supporters.

Now that Biden has announced that he will not pursue reelection, the Democratic nomination will likely fall to his vice president, Kamala Harris. While Harris may campaign as a moderate, analysis of her economic record does not support that label.

In her time in the Senate, Harris positioned herself on the far left of a Democratic Party already moving sharply to the left. According to DW-NOMINATE, a measure that compares the votes of senators and representatives and ranks members from -1 (most liberal) to 1 (most conservative) Harris was the second-most liberal member of the Senate when she served from 2017 to 2021, behind only Elizabeth Warren. In fact, her overall voting record is more liberal than that of Bernie Sanders. Though it is difficult to compare members across time, Harris’s score (-0.709), which is based largely on economic votes, ranks among the more left-wing in American history.

Harris’s senatorial record differs starkly from that of her boss. While Biden shifted left on entering the White House, he remained a moderate across his nearly four-decade Senate career. His approximate -0.3 DW-NOMINATE score put him close to the middle of his party throughout his time in the upper chamber.

No J6 Treatment for Pro-Hamas Rioters At the same time Chris Wray testified that “political violence” is on the rise and the FBI investigates all incidents regardless of politics, Hamas sympathizers tore up the nation’s capital–again. Julie Kelly

https://www.declassified.live/p/no-j6-treatment-for-pro-hamas-rioters

As expected, House Democrats used Wednesday’s appearance by FBI Director Christopher Wray as an opportunity not to denounce the attempted assassination of Donald Trump but to exaggerate the threat of “political violence” in America.

“Political violence of any kind is dangerous, unlawful, and unacceptable,” Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash) lectured during the House Judiciary Committee hearing intended to press Wray for details about the events of July 13. “I understand the increased tenor of political violence that is racking the country. It has been on the rise, fomented by dehumanizing rhetoric by top officials including the former president.” (In some circles, that is known as “blaming the victim.”)

Wray himself said he has observed an “alarming phenomenon” in recent years of political passions turning to violence. We don’t care what an individual is mad about, Wray warned, “when it turns to violence, that’s when we draw the line, that’s when we get engaged.”

This is part of the “both sides” blarney Joe Biden and the media have attempted to promote since the shooting on July 13. In other words, neither side is more responsible that the other for random incidents of political violence.

Which, of course, is a lie.

Never Underestimate Joe’s Ability To Foul Things Up

https://issuesinsights.com/2024/07/26/never-underestimate-joes-ability-to-foul-things-up/

He just poured billions into climate grants that have no reason to exist.

Not long after the global temperature, which doesn’t actually exist in any statistically meaningful way, blew through the mark at which we are supposed to start burning, and days after a new paper showed that the global warming narrative is exactly backward, the Biden administration awarded $4.3 billion in climate grants. It’s the work of an incompetent.

As well as that of an ideologue, which is equally as dangerous, since ideologues tend to refuse to listen to reason.

In 2020, when Joe Biden was running for office, he was thoroughly sullied when Barack Obama, his boss of eight years, said “​​don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to f–k things up.” Over his three years and six months as president, Joe has amply demonstrated that Obama was correct. And he did it again this week, when his Environmental Protection Agency announced its “selected recipients of over $4.3 billion in Climate Pollution Reduction Grants to implement community-driven solutions that tackle the climate crisis, reduce air pollution, advance environmental justice, and accelerate America’s clean energy transition.”

We predict the funds will do none of those things. The entire “initiative is just one small piece of the vast economic waste of the falsely named Inflation Reduction Act, with its multi-trillion dollars of subsidies for uneconomic projects,” says blogger Manhattan Contrarian, who incisively likens it to Mao’s “Great Leap Foward.”

The Biden Administration Empowering Deadly Houthi Terror Group by Majid Rafizadeh

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20816/biden-administration-empowering-houthis

[S]hortly after taking office, on February 12, 2021, Secretary of State Antony Blinken officially removed the Houthis’ designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. This decision marked a significant shift in U.S. policy: it delisted a group that, according to a Yemeni government intelligence report, has close affiliations with Al Qaeda and ISIS, and, according to other reports, regularly commits crimes war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The Biden administration’s policy has involved releasing billions of dollars to the Iranian regime, and refraining from enforcing stringent sanctions against Iran. The influx of funds has doubtless enabled the Iranian regime to allocate substantial financial resources towards supporting and arming the Houthis as well as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

This flow of capital has not only sustained Iran’s regional influence but is also prolonging the conflict in the region.

The US Navy, thanks to the Houthis, has reportedly been facing “its most intense combat since World War II” and has reacted by destroying three “small boats” whose crews attempted to board a container ship in the Red Sea; a fourth boat “fled the scene.”

Responding to the Houthis was left to little Israel. Last week, its air force targeted Yemen’s port city of Hodeida “in an attempt to prevent the ongoing delivery of weapons to the Houthi militia by Iran”.

Yet, not one senior US official – not US President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris nor Secretary of State Antony Blinken — bothered to greet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “The Churchill of the Middle East,” at the airport when he landed this week in Washington, D.C. In an additional snub, Harris boycotted his speech to Congress.

A former U.S. military official, speaking to CNN on the condition of anonymity, criticized the current approach, likening it to past unsuccessful efforts: “The US campaign against the Houthis appears to bear the hallmarks of many of these highly circumscribed, scrubbed campaigns of the past where we seek to avoid causing them actual pain.”

The administration… needs to redesignate the Houthis as a full-fledged “Foreign Terrorist Organization.” In January, after pressure, the Houthis were ultimately named “Specially Designated Global Terrorists,” a level below “Foreign Terrorist Organization”, which enables them still to receive funding and enter the United States.

Given the growing threat posed by these developments, and especially Iran’s nuclear weapons program, it is imperative that the US take decisive steps to address the issue effectively before the situation further deteriorates into an even larger international crisis.

This is the end of the Democratic Party as we knew it Joe Biden’s withdrawal will open the floodgates to unrestrained California-style progressivism. Joel Kotkin

https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/07/22/this-is-the-end-of-the-democratic-party-as-we-knew-it/

The end of Joe Biden’s presidency also signals the demise of the old Democratic Party, with its roots in liberal ideals and advocacy for ‘the common man’. Although Biden, to his own detriment, chose to adopt the progressive views now dominant in the media and political apparat, he remained, at least superficially, a man of the old Roosevelt-Truman-Kennedy Democrats.

With the ascension of Kamala Harris, the Democrats have made a full break from their historic roots as the party of workers and have gravitated towards the decidedly post-industrial politics of California-style progressives. Rather than worrying primarily about lifting up living standards, the party’s emphasis will now be on issues like climate change, abortion, reparations and trans advocacy.

Arguably the biggest winner will be identity politics. After all, Harris’s career was made possible by both traditional femininity – most evident in her career-boosting affair with a much older man, former California State Assembly speaker Willie Brown – and her identification with feminist causes. Her mixed-race background has been – forgive the expression – her trump card.

It’s highly unlikely that a politician of such modest gifts would have had such a meteoric career if she had been a man or a plain vanilla woman. Clearly, her elevation to vice-president was entirely based on her identity as the product of West Indian and South Asian parents, as well as her XX chromosomes. If elected, she would be America’s first DEI president.

‘They Should Be Ashamed of Themselves’: Netanyahu Unloads on Anti-Israel Protesters in Passionate Address to Congress By Zach Kessel

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/they-should-be-ashamed-of-themselves-netanyahu-unloads-on-anti-israel-protesters-in-passionate-address-to-congress/

‘They stand with Hamas. They stand with rapists and murderers,’ Netanyahu said, even as anti-Israel protesters congregated outside the Capitol.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu had harsh words for anti-Israel protesters in his Wednesday address to a joint session of Congress, slamming the activists as “useful idiots” for Iran and other bad actors even as they congregated outside the Capitol.

“Defeating our brutal enemies requires both courage and clarity,” he said. “Clarity begins by knowing the difference between good and evil. Yet, incredibly, many anti-Israel protesters choose to stand with evil. They stand with Hamas. They stand with rapists and murderers. They stand with people who come into the kibbutzim — into the home — with the parents and the children, the two babies in the secret attic, and murder the parents, find the secret latch to the attic, find the babies, and they murder them. These protesters stand with them. They should be ashamed of themselves.”

Netanyahu referenced the claims from many anti-Israel protesters that Hamas terrorism constitutes legitimate resistance while Israel’s retaliatory war is out of bounds.

“They refuse to make the simple distinction between those who target terrorists and those who target civilians — between the democratic state of Israel and the terrorist thugs of Hamas,” he told the chamber.

The prime minister stressed in his speech that anti-Israel protesters are not just opposed to the existence of the Jewish state but are anti-American as well.

“These protesters burn American flags even on the Fourth of July,” Netanyahu said. “And I wish to salute the fraternity brothers at the University of North Carolina who protected the American flag — protected the American flag — against these anti-Israel protesters.”

After a brief round of “U-S-A” chants, Netanyahu took aim at Iran, referencing the recent revelation from Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines that the Islamic Republic has been funding campus protests in the United States.

The Biden-Harris Green Crown Jewel Just Shattered — Literally By Andrew Follett

https://www.nationalreview.com/2024/07/the-biden-harris-green-crown-jewel-just-shattered-literally/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=header&utm_content=popular&utm_term=fifth

Both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have been enthusiastic about the kind of wind-power project that just failed catastrophically in the Northeast.

A major offshore-wind-power project approved by the Biden-Harris administration was shuttered last week after a turbine dramatically shattered, spewing sharp fiberglass shards onto nearby beaches and into the Atlantic Ocean.

Lifeguards now patrol the beaches in full body personal protective equipment and thick gloves while participating in cleanup to protect from the severe dangers of shattered fiberglass shards, which can cause serious health problems. Six beaches in Nantucket, Mass., and the surrounding area are closed because of the risks involved in cleanup. Dangerous shards of the turbine from Vineyard Wind are still washing up on the beach. The turbines were about 13 nautical miles south of Martha’s Vineyard and were part of the country’s second-largest offshore wind farm.

The controversial offshore wind turbines were approved in 2021 after the Biden-Harris administration aggressively pushed them as a solution to global warming. Many more turbines are on the way. Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, told National Review that the Biden-Harris administration claimed this project was a “major milestone,” leading to “rapid fire” development. “There’s nine leases within the Rhode Island-Massachusetts area alone,” Brady said.

The Biden-Harris administration rushed the approval due to blind faith in wind power’s superiority. Kamala Harris in particular has been adamant about wind energy’s safety.

“America is at the start of a historic transition away from fossil fuel plants that pollute our communities and toward cleaner and safer energy sources,” Harris once claimed [emphasis added].

The turbine operator allegedly took two days to notify nearby towns of the disaster, directly violating agreements between the wind operator and the town.

Of Course Harris Was the Border Czar By Mark Krikorian

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/of-course-harris-was-the-border-czar/
If she wasn’t the border czar, what was she doing staging a perfunctory photo op at the border after months of resisting it?

As part of its promotion of Kamala Harris’s candidacy, the legacy media is working overtime to deny that President Biden named his vice president as “border czar.”

As NR’s Matthew Wilson noted, Axios has hilariously been trying to do cleanup on its repeated labeling of Harris as “border czar.” (The BBC described her that way as well.) Joining Axios in retailing the Harris-for-president talking points are Time, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, CBS News, and no doubt many other tentacles of the media octopus.

But of course she was the border czar.

Czars in the non-Romanov sense have been around in some sense for a century or more, but the idea of a “czar” in charge of a specific policy issue really took off in the FDR administration during World War II, with a transportation czar, a shipping czar, even a synthetic-rubber czar.