NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Generals Contradict Biden on Afghanistan

Posted By on September 29th, 2021

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-brass-faces-the-afghan-music-joe-biden-general-mike-milley-kenneth-mckenzie-senate-hearing-afghanistan-11632867833?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

They supported leaving 2,500 U.S. troops in the country and have doubts about the ‘over-the-horizon’ counterterror strategy.

President Biden hopes the political fallout from his botched Afghanistan withdrawal will fade quickly, but Tuesday’s Senate hearing with the secretary of Defense and two top generals doesn’t cast his decisions in a better light.

The hearing underscored that the President acted against the advice of the military in yanking the residual U.S. force from the country. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley and Gen. Kenneth McKenzie both made clear in their testimony that they recommended that about 2,500 U.S. troops stay in Afghanistan to delay a Taliban takeover.

That’s not what Mr. Biden said he was told. Asked in an ABC News interview days after the August fall of Kabul if his military advisers urged him to maintain America’s small footprint in the country, Mr. Biden said, “No one said that to me that I can recall.”

The scandal isn’t that the President ignored military advice—he’s the decision-maker. It’s his refusal to own his decision. Mr. Biden wants political credit for ending America’s involvement in Afghanistan, but he’s not willing to take the political risk of admitting he overruled the brass in the process.

The generals also undercut Mr. Biden’s spin about their advice as the chaotic withdrawal was underway. He said the generals unanimously supported his Aug. 31 deadline for the departure of U.S. troops. But as Gen. Milley confirmed in questioning by Sen. Tom Cotton, that advice was given on Aug. 25—10 days after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Say, How Is Joe Biden’s Memory These Days? By Jim Geraghty

Posted By on September 29th, 2021

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/say-how-is-joe-bidens-memory-these-days/

Back on August 19, President Biden insisted none of his top military advisors warned against withdrawing from Afghanistan on his preferred timeline, and that none of them wanted the president to keep about 2,500 troops in the country.

Today before the Senate Armed Services Committee, U.S. Central Command General Frank McKenzie and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Mark Milley both said they had recommended President Biden maintain 2,500 troops in Afghanistan. McKenzie said he had also warned that a full withdrawal would lead inexorably to the collapse of the Afghan forces and government.

Back in August, Biden told George Stephanopoulos:

STEPHANOPOULOS: But your top military advisors warned against withdrawing on this timeline. They wanted you to keep about 2,500 troops.

BIDEN: No, they didn’t. It was split. Tha– that wasn’t true. That wasn’t true.

STEPHANOPOULOS: They didn’t tell you that they wanted troops to stay?

BIDEN: No. Not at — not in terms of whether we were going to get out in a timeframe all troops. They didn’t argue against that.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So no one told — your military advisors did not tell you, “No, we should just keep 2,500 troops. It’s been a stable situation for the last several years. We can do that. We can continue to do that”?

BIDEN: No. No one said that to me that I can recall.

EDUCATION, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Why Aren’t Men Going to College? Do disappearing college males know something we don’t? Lewis M. Andrews

Posted By on September 29th, 2021

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/why-arent-men-going-to-college/

Recent reports that the male percentage of the U.S. college population has fallen to 40%, the lowest ever, have generated predictable concerns. If, as it is often said, today’s young people will need at least a bachelor’s degree to be successful in tomorrow’s economy, then the reluctance of so many men to pursue one would seem to be a threat, both to themselves and to the larger society. How will the coming contingent of low-educated men fare in an increasingly technological world? And how will the relatively high number of successful women find enough husbands to form families and nurture successive generations?

Yet history teaches that trends that at first seem irrational, anti-social, or even self-destructive can sometimes reflect an underlying wisdom. Certainly, those families that abandoned the relative security of ancient Italy for the Roman Empire’s more distant provinces ended up far less vulnerable to the later barbarian invaders. Similarly, many of the medieval patients who defied their doctors’ orders and declined the standard bloodletting treatment likely saved their own lives. Coming closer to the present, those investors who did not go along with the “can’t miss” margin account strategy so popular on Wall Street in the summer of 1928 had good reason to congratulate themselves just a year later.

Could something similar be happening with the growing number of young men who refuse to go from high school on to college? Are they smarter than they appear?

Judging by the reader comments attached to the various alarmist articles on declining male enrollment, a good number of their countrymen suspect they are. Noting that the atmosphere on the nation’s campuses has become increasingly hostile to masculinity—with courses depicting white men as intrinsically racist, a quasi-judicial system biased in favor of women, and a general elevation of emotion over rigorous debate—many article commenters, both men and women, go on to express a surprising admiration for those adolescent males who choose to avoid it.

IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Biden’s Border Lies Show Contempt For Constitution

Posted By on September 29th, 2021

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/09/29/bidens-border-lies-show-contempt-for-constitution/

President Joe Biden and the officials in his administration have a bad habit of telling us that they’re not doing what we clearly see they are doing. Case in point: Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas who, despite repeatedly and insistently claiming the border is “closed,” has admitted it really isn’t.

Right now, the Border Patrol is dealing with a sudden and overwhelming influx of Haitians following last summer’s coup in that poverty-stricken country. They’re part of a growing mix of people from Central America, South America, the Caribbean, and even as far away as the Mideast and Africa, trying to cross illegally our porous southern border.

How many have come? And how many have been deported? After weeks of prevaricating and hemming and hawing, Mayorkas responded in a TV appearance Sunday to the growing border disaster.

It didn’t go well. As the New York Post pointed out, Mayorkas lied at least seven times on “Fox News Sunday” defending the administration’s border policies that have wrought such chaos. That might not be a record, but it is surely close.

Among those lies:

Mayorkas’ fresh claim of “at least 12,000” Haitians and other illegal entrants out of 17,000 released at the border and into the U.S., a statistic he said he didn’t know just days ago. It will get worse because at least another 4,000, perhaps more, are on the way from Central America.

DAVID'S SLINGSHOT DPS, ISRAEL Comments turned off

Behind Israel’s Swift Rollout of Covid-19 Vaccine Boosters By Dov Lieber and Thomas Grove 

Posted By on September 29th, 2021

https://www.wsj.com/articles/behind-israels-swift-rollout-of-covid-19-vaccine-boosters-11632821987

By getting early access to Pfizer’s vaccine, Israeli scientists had more and earlier data than their counterparts elsewhere—and were willing to act on it

TEL AVIV—In late July, dozens of Israeli scientists and government health officials were locked in a marathon video call where they examined new data indicating that the effectiveness of the Covid vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE was waning.

Infections from the new Delta variant were increasing, and growing numbers of people were falling seriously ill, even those who had had both shots of the vaccine. Lives were potentially on the line.

Within days of the midnight vote that decided to distribute a third shot, the first of millions of booster shots were administered, months before the U.S. or any other country would take the same step.

“It was a really tough discussion,” said epidemiologist Gili Regev-Yochay, who presented key research on the effectiveness of booster shots. “[But] it was a decision that was reached essentially with one voice.”

Throughout the global effort against Covid-19, Israel’s public health experts have been consistently ahead of their counterparts elsewhere in the world. By securing an early supply deal with Pfizer for its vaccine, sweetened in part by a promise to share data from Israel’s extensive network of health maintenance organizations, they have had an edge in understanding how the vaccine behaves in the real world.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

A New Word for the Administration For Those Who Have Chosen Power and Profits over Patriotism by Lawrence Kadish

Posted By on September 29th, 2021

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17812/paskudnyak

“Paskudnyak” will surely become familiar to our ears during the remaining years of the Biden Presidency as this ill-starred administration becomes the tool of power players, profiteering lobbyists, and Progressives intent on abducting an enfeebled White House for their own socialist mission.

[T]he Biden administration has revealed itself to be a weekly calamity that must be blamed on either incompetence or worse, a captive of special interests whose agenda has nothing to do with protecting the nation’s future.

The President’s popularity has declined to its lowest level since he was sworn in, with half the nation’s adults disapproving of his performance, according to a report by Reuters. Not surprisingly, the dramatic plummet began following his disastrous retreat from Afghanistan that will see countless Afghans executed for embracing our democratic principles.

From Capitol Hill to the White House, we are witnessing the hinge of history that will determine whether America will continue as a respected world power and it will be decided, in very large measure, by those who may well have chosen power and profits over patriotism.

We might want to make the word “Paskudnyak” a plural.

For the Afghans left behind….

For the French who were double-dealed….

For the Texans confronting an open border that mocks our nation’s sovereignty…

And for the members of the Fed who privately know just how destructive our massive national debt will be to our future…

All of them may want to learn a word not currently in their vocabulary:

“Paskudnyak”

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Palestinian Leaders: No to Solving Economic Crisis by Khaled Abu Toameh

Posted By on September 28th, 2021

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17774/palestinian-solving-economic-crisis

The Hamas charter does not talk about improving the living conditions of the Palestinians. It does not talk about boosting the economy or creating job opportunities for unemployed Palestinians.

Instead, the charter talks about jihad (holy war) and urges all Arabs and Muslims not to abandon the fight against Israel….

“The people of the Gaza Strip want their freedom,” he said. “They want the return of their land. Israel does not know the reality of the Palestinian people and believes that economic solutions would prompt the Palestinians to abandon their goals of liberation and achieving the right of return. This is not an economic or material issue.” Hazem Qassem, Hamas official, i24news.tv, September 13, 2021.

The PA and Hamas leaders are apparently worried that the Palestinians would forget about the jihad against Israel once they have jobs and a strong economy.

That is why the PA and Hamas rejected former US President Donald Trump’s plan for peace in the Middle East, “Peace to Prosperity.”

By rejecting all the offers, the leaders of the Palestinians are actually telling… the world: For the Palestinians, the conflict with Israel is not about financial aid or boosting the Palestinian economy. Do not expect the Palestinians to make any concessions to Israel because of the billions of dollars that you are offering or have already given us.

This is an important message that needs to be grasped by the Biden administration in the aftermath of its decision to resume financial aid to the Palestinians. The Biden administration and other Western donors are wrong to assume that their funds could change the hearts and minds of the Palestinians. The only way to bring about such a change is by ending the anti-Israel rhetoric of Palestinian leaders and media outlets — something that is not likely to happen, at least not in the foreseeable future.

Palestinian leaders have again proved that they are continually and cynically putting their own interests before the best interests of their people.

On September 13, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid presented a plan for improving the conditions of the two million Palestinians living in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Vaccine Mandates: The End of Covid? Or the Beginning of Tyranny?

Posted By on September 28th, 2021

https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/vaccine-mandates-the-end-of-covid

This Will Come Back to Haunt Us

By Jay Bhattacharya and Jonathan Ketcham  

Why the push for vaccine passports and mandates? Public health officials have offered one overriding justification: As soon as enough of us are vaccinated, we’ll reach herd immunity and the disease will stop spreading. Vaccine passports and mandates get us there faster.

This is nonsense.

We have good reason to doubt that, if most everyone got vaccinated, we’d achieve herd immunity. That’s because the protection offered by the Covid-19 vaccines against infection is short-lived. A large study of vaccinated patients in Qatar found that, by five months after the second jab, the vaccine’s effectiveness had already started to wane. It continued to protect against severe disease and death, but it did not provide any protection from less severe infection.

In fact, getting Covid and recovering from it is better protection from future reinfection and severe Covid disease than any of the available vaccines. This is clear from an excellent Israeli study. 

That study, conducted at the Maccabi Healthcare Services, in Tel Aviv, makes clear that it is probably safer to be in a room filled with unvaccinated people who have recovered from Covid than it is to be in a room filled with vaccinated people who have never had Covid.

Now, looking beyond the epidemiology, it’s worth considering the psychology that comes into play when we start forcing people to do things: It is practically a mathematical certainty that the mandates will lead many people to distrust the government, leading experts at places like the Centers for Disease Control, and our most prominent research universities even more than they do now. Why, the thinking goes, are you forcing me to do something that, you insist, is obviously good for me? If it were obviously good for me, you wouldn’t have to force me to do it. 

The mandates, far from persuading the unvaccinated to fall into line, will further undermine the authority of those pushing them — and, critically, it will make it that much harder to persuade the public to get vaccinated when an even more dangerous pandemic sweeps the globe.

BOOKS Comments turned off

The Dying Citizen: How Progressive Elites, Tribalism, and Globalization Are Destroying the Idea of America Kindle Edition by Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on September 28th, 2021

Human history is full of the stories of peasants, subjects, and tribes. Yet the concept of the “citizen” is historically rare—and was among America’s most valued ideals for over two centuries. But without shock treatment, warns historian Victor Davis Hanson, American citizenship as we have known it may soon vanish.

In The Dying Citizen, Hanson outlines the historical forces that led to this crisis. The evisceration of the middle class over the last fifty years has made many Americans dependent on the federal government. Open borders have undermined the idea of allegiance to a particular place. Identity politics have eradicated our collective civic sense of self. And a top-heavy administrative state has endangered personal liberty, along with formal efforts to weaken the Constitution.

As in the revolutionary years of 1848, 1917, and 1968, 2020 ripped away our complacency about the future. But in the aftermath, we as Americans can rebuild and recover what we have lost. The choice is ours.

BOOKS Comments turned off

The Sussmann Indictment Is A Window Into Establishment Corruption

Posted By on September 28th, 2021

https://thefederalist.com/2021/09/27/the-sussmann-indictment-is-a-window-into-establishment-corruption/

On this episode of The Federalist Radio Hour, Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, joins Culture Editor Emily Jashinsky and Senior Editor Chris Bedford to discuss his book “A Republic Under Assault: The Left’s Ongoing Attack on American Freedom” and how the deep state used corruption to attack former President Donald Trump.

“It wasn’t even just reporting material that they should have known was bad,” Fitton said. “It was: they wanted to put people in jail that they had a political distaste for and, in the case of [Paul] Manafort, they wanted to kneecap the Trump campaign by going after his campaign manager,” Fitton said.

The corporate media, Fitton said, is one of the largest culprits in this scheme and shouldn’t get away with their malfeasance.

“This idea that journalists deserve special protection from the laws that govern the rest of us is as objectionable as the idea that, you know, Hillary Clinton shouldn’t be prosecuted because she lost the presidency and leave her alone,” Fitton said. “This is garbage. Garbage ethics.”