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In Afghanistan, we’ve opened the gates of hell By Jeff Goodson

Posted By on September 30th, 2021

https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/569994-in-afghanistan-weve-opened-the-gates-of-hell?rl=1

“Fourteen centuries of war between Islam and the West just got ramped up on steroids. ”

The Afghanistan fiasco is the worst strategic blunder since 1938: the year that British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain waved around a copy of the Munich Agreement and proclaimed “peace in our time.” Chamberlain’s failure to understand the enemy gave Germany the space it needed to invade Poland — the event that marked the start of World War II. Chamberlain resigned in 1940 when his political support evaporated. Winston Churchill assumed power, ultimately snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.

President Joe Biden’s debacle will have no such savior; the Islamic jihad isn’t that kind of war. Instead of getting us out of Afghanistan, and bringing peace in our time, he’s opened the gates of hell. In one disastrous and grossly ill-conceived strategic move, Biden has armed and empowered the Taliban and elated every Muslim fanatic from Morocco to Mindanao. Not since 9/11 have events so galvanized our enemies — U.S. forces abandoning the field; the Afghan military laying down arms; and the Taliban reestablishing their Islamic Emirate.

Of greater consequence, Biden has handed over to our enemies the geographical heart of Khorasan — the historic Islamic cultural, intellectual and theological center that was overthrown by the Mongols in the 14th century. It included parts of what today are six Asian countries stretching from Iran to Kyrgyzstan. For the Salafi jihadists, the heart of Khorasan is Afghanistan. And for the last several years, the Islamic State-Khorasan (ISIS-K) has been establishing a center of operations there for its global Islamic caliphate.

We got a taste of what to expect from ISIS-K on Aug. 26, when 13 American soldiers and 169 Afghans were killed in two suicide bomb attacks on the Kabul Airport.

ISIS-K isn’t alone. The Afghanistan-Pakistan region hosts the largest collection of terrorist organizations in the world, including 20 of 61 groups designated by the U.S. State Department as foreign terrorist organizations. All of them — including Al Qaeda and the Islamic State — are now celebrating this epic victory over the infidels.  

We don’t need a blue-ribbon beltway panel to see what comes next. Afghanistan is evolving before our eyes into the Asian epicenter of the global Islamic jihad — exactly what we set out 20 years ago to stop, and did stop for 20 years. Now, we’re left watching the slow train wreck that U.S. strategy set in motion.  

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“Common Sense – Where Has It Gone?” Sydney Williams

Posted By on September 30th, 2021

https://swtotd.blogspot.com/

Common sense: noun – sound and prudent judgement. Its best antonym: unreasonable – without reason.

Common sense is a phrase we all know but rarely practice. So why is it called common? In A Pocket Philosophical Dictionary, Voltaire wrote: “Common sense is not so common.” It does not appear to exist among our cultural and political elite, where reason has given way to ideology. Ralph Waldo Emerson is alleged to have said: “Common Sense is genius dressed in working clothes.” That is, perhaps, what William Buckley meant when he said he would rather be governed by the first four hundred names in the Boston telephone directory than the Harvard faculty? Today, politicians, professors, CEOs, the media and many in the world of entertainment dress more informally, which may be sensible in terms of personal comfort, but a lack of common sense pulsates through their daily activities and commentaries.

Common sense has been banished by the self-righteous. This part of Connecticut is not immune. Last week, in my local paper The Day, appeared an article about the sensible (my word) refusal of Old Lyme’s First Selectman (a Republican) to bring to a vote a resolution proposed by the Democratic Selectwoman which would identify racism as a public health crisis. His refusal was based, first, on the question: What does racism have to do with public health? Secondly, he pointed out such a resolution would imply the town has a race problem. Even the Democratic Selectwoman has said that she does not believe the people in Old Lyme are racist, yet she wants this resolution. Admittedly, the town of 7,000 is estimated to be 97.4% white, but that does not mean the community is racist. Certainly, the Republican First Selectman is not. His daughter is married to a black man whom, with his wife and children, we often see at our beach club. And Old Lyme is among a handful of Connecticut towns that welcome refugees.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

They all know how to do it. Sydney Powell

Posted By on September 30th, 2021

https://defendingtherepublic.org/newsletter/?utm_source=JangoMail&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=They+all+know+how+to+do+it.+(344384898)&utm_content=

The government “has an interest in” patents for the technology with the ability to real-time monitor an election … change votes … insert false voters … and predetermine the outcome of an election by applying a computer algorithm.

This is such a hard fight to get to the truth because the deception and manipulation has been happening a long time.  The corruption has grown exponentially among the entrenched elites, globalists, and communists here and abroad.  It crosses both political parties.

In our prior news blast, we included the video of sworn testimony of a man who  created an algorithm to secretly flip votes for a Republican in 2000 for a Florida election. Jerry Nadler and Maxine Waters, among others, heard the testimony. 

He submitted an affidavit to Congress in support of his testimony.  His dog was shot that very day.  His testimony and warnings have been ignored.  They All Know.

This disgusting corruption crosses both political parties and involves key positions in the government itself, including, apparently, the Defense Department and the “Intelligence Community.”

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The left’s three-pronged assault on America: Covid, the border, submission to China By Patricia McCarthy

Posted By on September 29th, 2021

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/09/the_lefts_threepronged_assault_on_america_covid_the_border_submission_to_china.html

So, Joe Biden allegedly got his third jab on live TV on Monday.  He was already “fully vaccinated” and still wore a mask.  Does that give anyone confidence in the vaccine?  

Then he said that he would not allow us to return to normal until 98% of all Americans are vaccinated!  While the CDC is sure to approve the vaccines for ages five and up before the end of the year, despite the hundreds of thousands of vaccine injuries and deaths, Biden must think we need to vax newborns the moment they take their first breath (if they are not killed and dissected, their body parts sold first as permitted by the Democrat bill just passed in the House).

Biden, as surely everyone knows by now, even those who voted for him, is seriously cognitively challenged.  He was never a smart man but now he is non compos mentis.  He understands nothing about science, certainly not the science of virology or epidemiology.  He reads words from teleprompters others have scripted.  He has no grasp of the meaning of the words he is reading. 

The man and his minders are a plague upon America far more devastating than covid.  Covid is the hoax on which they, the global elite, have hitched their wagon to, the pseudo-plague that will bring all of us rubes to our knees.  Some Australian states have capitulated, devolving into a functional tyranny.  Police attack persons on the street without a mask or even for leaving their homes.  

Are those Stalinist tactics coming here?  Quite likely in some states, despite the fact that all their lockdowns, mask requirements and vax mandates have made not an iota of difference in the number of cases of those allegedly diagnosed with Covid.  The Los Angeles City Council  just unanimously passed a resolution requiring proof of vaccine to enter all indoor venues, including grocery stores!  This is madness.  This is medical tyranny.  This is not about anyone’s health.  As Dr. Aaron Williams commented on Laura Ingraham’s program, “This is psychological warfare, not evidence-based medicine.”  Are detention camps for the unvaccinated next?

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

AUKUS Security Alliance Exposes EU’s Fecklessness by Soeren Kern

Posted By on September 29th, 2021

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17810/aukus-security-alliance

“If an authoritarian nation, such as China, displaces America as the dominant global power, then democracies all over the world will feel the consequences.” — Gideon Rachman, columnist, Financial Times.

“Too many European elites still do not want to admit that democracies are in a systemic rivalry with autocracies. Refusing to acknowledge reality is convenient for them since it justifies their inaction. But we need to do the opposite and double down in our defense of democracies.” — Andreas Fulda, China expert, University of Nottingham.

“The US thinks about how to contain China. And Australia too is in the position of thinking about how one contains, as opposed to how one accommodates; that’s the fundamental difference with France. As a consequence, the US looks like the better partner.” — Richard Whitman, professor of politics and international relations, University of Kent.

“I think it was the only option for Australia because the French were not going to annoy or unnecessarily irritate Beijing. They wanted trade, economic, and investment relations. Now, Australia will have the capability to sink the Chinese navy in 72 hours; that’s what this is all about. The Chinese know they have been outmaneuvered, and they’re very angry. In a very short period of time, Australia has gone from a doormat to something very considerable — it’s an extraordinary development.” — Joseph Siracusa, geopolitical analyst, Sky News Australia.

“The lesson of the past few weeks is that the world does not run on Brussels time, with its long periods for consultation, courteous attention to the electoral cycles of 27 countries, and sacrosanct weekends, evenings, and lunch breaks.” — Edward Lucas, Europe analyst, Center for European Policy Analysis.

“France underestimated how China’s naked military ambition, chronic disregard for international order, and barely concealed aspirations to control the deep Pacific and Antarctica pushed Australia to make tough decisions about the future.” — Craig Hooper, geopolitical analyst, Forbes.

“It is hard to overstate the importance of the so-called Aukus alliance between the US, the UK and Australia — and the implicit geopolitical disaster for the EU.” — Wolfgang Münchau, commentator, The Spectator.

“The extent of Emmanuel Macron’s fury is absurd, and only shows the sublime lack of self-awareness that has come to characterize Europe’s myopic political elites…. The European establishment has a long history of treating its geopolitical partners abysmally while wearing a mask of moral superiority.” — Editorial board, The Telegraph.

“The EU continues to decline to take any serious responsibility for global peace and security, preferring to see the economic and commercial opportunities in the relationship with China, rather than the threat the Chinese Communist Party represents.” — Gerard Baker, columnist, The Wall Street Journal.

Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States have announced a new tripartite strategic alliance aimed at countering China’s growing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region. The AUKUS defense agreement, under which Australia will acquire American-designed nuclear-powered submarines, is a welcome paradigm shift intended to enhance the projection of Western military power in the region.

MEDIA, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

New York Times Pits “Principle” against Powerful “Rabbis” in Iron Dome Vote by Alan M. Dershowitz

Posted By on September 29th, 2021

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17809/new-york-times-pits-principle-against-powerful

[Catie Edmondson] cited no support for her “reporting” on the pressure placed by “powerful …rabbis,” nor did she name them, because her “reporting” simply was not true. She just made it up, because it supported the anti-Semitic narrative that AOC and her Squad deploy to deflect justified criticism of their anti-Israel and anti-American votes.

No powerful rabbis or lobbyists were needed to pressure the nearly 500 Democrats and Republicans who voted to fund the Iron Dome defense system….

No mention was made by the Times of powerful pro-Palestinian lobbyists or Imams, or of the pressure placed on AOC and others by radical leftists who hate Israel. No: it was supposedly”principles” that motivated the anti-Israel votes, and “powerful” rabbinical pressures that determined the “yes” and “present” votes. And this purports to be objective “reporting” from the newspaper of record.

After much criticism, the Times quietly removed the reference to “rabbis” without apologizing for its reporter’s mendacious anti-Semitism or disciplining her for her journalistic malpractice. Just imagine how quickly a journalist would be cancelled if she engaged in comparable bigotry toward another group. But the Times has long suffered from a double standard toward Jews and the Jewish nation.

You are not getting “all the news that’s fit to print” about Israel. You are getting only the “news” that its reporters and editors fit into their preconceived and biased narrative.

The Times must publicly, clearly and substantively apologize for its reporter lying about “powerful …rabbis” and explain how its editors could permit such an obviously anti-Semitic canard to be published on its pages. Quietly eliminating the offending words from its online version is cowardly and insufficient. It must acknowledge the harm that its false reporting has caused.

In purporting to “report” — not editorialize— about why AOC changed her vote from “no” to “present” on the iron dome funding, The New York Times congressional correspondent Catie Edmondson “reported” the following:

“[Progressives] have been caught between their principles and the still powerful pro-Israel voices in their party, such as influential lobbyists and rabbis.”

She cited no support for her “reporting” on the pressure placed by “powerful …rabbis,” nor did she name them, because her “reporting” simply was not true. She just made it up, because it supported the anti-Semitic narrative that AOC and her Squad deploy to deflect justified criticism of their anti-Israel and anti-American votes.

BOOKS, EDUCATION Comments turned off

Seth Forman: What Our Universities Have Wrought A review of “The New Civil War: Exposing Elites, Fighting Utopian Leftism, and Restoring America,” by Bruce D. Abramson

Posted By on September 29th, 2021

https://amgreatness.com/2021/09/28/what-our-universities-have-wrought/

Abramson’s achievement is to show that trust in the neutral institutions that adjudicate knowledge has collapsed, and to adroitly locate our universities at the center of this calamity.

In the first few pages of his rigorous and incisive book The New Civil War: Exposing Elites, Fighting Utopian Leftism, and Restoring America, Bruce Abramson sets out the features of America’s current crisis, and it’s not pretty. An authoritarian utopianism, he writes, has swept through America’s ruling institutions, carried on there by a “credentialed elite” that has become religiously attached to a particularly corrosive version of progressivism. This has led to a civil war, pitting progressives “hell-bent on transformation” against “patriots loyal to the American constitutional tradition” who “are locked in a struggle for the nation’s soul.”

The ineffectual shutdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic, the doctor-approved George Floyd riots, and the anomalous presidential election of 2020, writes Abramson, were the events that revealed the depth and breadth of the gentry’s institutional capture. “In fact, the United States jettisoned the rule of law and ceased functioning as a republic in mid-March 2020.” 

In another context, such sweeping indictments of America’s leadership class might plausibly be dismissed as the angry hyperbole of a writer who, by his own admission, “failed” as an academic and card-carrying member of the credentialed elite. But with this book, Abramson, a widely published strategic consultant and proud member of the class of citizens he calls the “renegade elite,” has clearly found his footing. The case he makes that an American nobility has emerged, consolidated its power at the highest levels of society, sealed off these institutions from ideological opposition, and adopted a worldview substantially at odds with foundational principles of the republic, seems chillingly tenable.

Abramson’s thesis, at least in its broad outlines, has received formidable backing from other, less “renegade” critics. Former New York magazine columnist Andrew Sullivan has puzzled over the “sudden, rapid, stunning shift in the belief system of the American elites” that “has sent the whole society into a profound cultural dislocation.” David Brooks, who wrote admiringly about his own social class in Bobos in Paradise (2004), admits he had no idea that the meritocrats would coalesce into an “insular, intermarrying brahmin elite,” or how aggressively this overclass would “impose elite values through speech and thought codes.”

“I underestimated our intolerance of ideological diversity,” Brooks confesses.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

New York Socialism: The Poor Subsidize the Rich You can’t be a good leftist unless you have someone else’s money to live on. And most of the country is busy paying for the lifestyle of the small remainder. By Dan Gelernter

Posted By on September 29th, 2021

https://amgreatness.com/2021/09/28/new-york-socialism-the-poor-subsidize-the-rich/

New York City’s budget will exceed $100 billion for the first time this year. Everything is open and above board, as you’d expect: The budget is broken down into eight separate documents and five supporting documents. The “Expense, Revenue, and Contract” portion, for example, is 781 pages. If you fancy a little light reading, you can browse it here. 

Of the money New York City plans to spend, about two-thirds comes from actual city taxes and revenues. The rest is a gift: $15 billion from the state, and $22 billion from the federal government. This is going to be used in a variety of constructive ways. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced, for example, he would spend $234 million cleaning up parks and graffiti. So at the very least New Yorkers can look forward to having the world’s cleanest parks by this time next year. 

After all, how could you possibly spend $234 million on a goal and fail to achieve it?

The best way, of course, is not to have goals: There are no “failure standards” for these expenditures, no way of judging success, no performance targets to be met. So forgive my cynicism if I suppose that quite a lot of money is going to end up lining peoples’ pockets. The New York Post reported in 2019 that de Blasio’s wife Chirlane McCray spent $900 million of public money on a mental health initiative and could show neither tangible results nor any accounting of how the money was spent.

But my main objection to someone like McCray spending hundreds of millions of dollars in New York City is that such a big chunk of that money is coming from taxpayers who don’t live there. It’s bad enough that New Yorkers are saddled with this trash. But why should New York’s Chirlane McCrays be sponsored by Missouri’s farmers?

The vast majority of American wealth is concentrated in the cities. So even if you believe in “spreading the wealth,” it should be cities that help subsidize the poorer countryside.  Why does the reverse happen so often? 

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Video: Fauci’s Flip Flops Exposed Everything wrong . . . every step of the way.

Posted By on September 29th, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/09/faucis-flip-flops-exposed-frontpage-editors/

Check out this compilation video of COVID czar Dr. Fauci flip-flopping on every position regarding the coronavirus pandemic, from school closures to social distancing to natural immunity and more. How is this fraud with his wildly vacillating recommendations still allowed to control every aspect of the lives of American citizens?

Don’t miss this must-see video below:

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Six Lessons from The Road — in America Americans are different from the rest of us. Katie Hopkins

Posted By on September 29th, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/09/six-lessons-road-katie-hopkins/

Sixty days into my latest foray on the road around America, I finally find myself alone with a desk, time, and the warm evening skies of Orlando to enjoy.

I am trusting you will forgive the irregularity of my reporting these last few weeks. Sadly, the quieter art of writing has been somewhat pushed to the corners of my days between speaking, traveling, and documenting my time noisily on social media. And I miss it.

From California to Arizona, then Dallas to Denver, I have been given a temperature check on where America is at, as a foreigner and respectful outsider. Now, I wanted to share my dix lessons from the road as I listen to people laughing down by the pool and fireworks thudding somewhere Disney-ish in the distance.

1) America is filled with good people.

I am constantly amazed by the polite and mannerly way Americans greet each other, share pleasantries and kindness, and encourage each other throughout their day. Some of it is professional customer service, where you are world-class in your ability to offer choice and endless options and do it all with a smile. But it is much greater than that. It is the kindly gesture in the elevator, the stepping back to allow another ahead of you in a line, or a shared joke about nothing in particular. This nation still has goodness running through it, like a seam of gold in a mine.

2) Change and clean ups can happen.

When there is a political will, change is possible. I have seen it with my own eyes in Venice Beach and Skid Row, where former centers of squalor were swept clean (albeit temporarily) for disgraced Governor Newsom to survive the recall. The futility of this exercise is obvious, but it does give evidence to the fact that when a politician is concerned for their own survival, change can happen. When it is simply inconveniencing or distressing ordinary Americans, it goes unchecked.

To effect change, politicians need to be made to feel much less comfortable in power.