ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

The Dehumanization of the Jews Pro-Hamas activists like to claim the Palestinians are being “dehumanized.” Actually their foes are. by Robert Spencer

Posted By on May 1st, 2025

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm-plus/the-dehumanization-of-the-jews/

The “dehumanization” of the Palestinian Arabs is a common feature of their victimhood propaganda against Israel as their never-ending jihad to destroy the Jewish state continues.

In late March, the far-left “journalist” Chris Hedges interviewed the deceptive anti-Israel propagandist Muhammad el-Kurd in a video decrying “the dehumanization and infantilization of Palestinians by Western activists and media, and the psychological toll it has on its subjects.” That video appeared shortly after another piece of Palestinian victimhood propaganda showcased a “Palestinian-Canadian doctor, Tarek Loubani, spinning tall tales of alleged Israeli atrocities in Gaza.

In describing the supposed dehumanization of the Palestinians, Loubani said: “Ask yourself: what did you feel the last time you killed a mosquito? A mosquito that bites and takes your blood is literally taking a drop of your blood to feed its children. They cannot complete the reproductive process without a tiny bit of your blood. And yet you felt nothing. That’s kind of a small window into dehumanization.”

Back in the real world, however, the dehumanization was all going in the other direction. In fact, the dehumanization of the Jews is deeply embedded in Islamic religious texts. The Qur’an is well known for describing Allah transforming the disobedient Jews into apes and pigs (2:63-66; 5:59-60; 7:166). To this day, Hamas and other jihadis delight in calling their opponents “the sons of apes and pigs.”

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Trump Counterrevolution and the Moral Ledger Trump’s counterrevolution presses on—quietly, methodically, and morally—while a flailing opposition offers only chaos, debt, and deflection in response. By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on May 1st, 2025

https://amgreatness.com/2025/05/01/the-trump-counterrevolution-and-the-moral-ledger/

Despite the media hysteria, Trump’s counterrevolution remains on course.

Its ultimate fate will probably rest with the state of the economy by the November 2026 midterm elections. But its success also hinges on accomplishing what is right and long overdue—and then making such reforms quietly, compassionately, and methodically.

No country can long endure without sovereignty and security—or with 10 to 12 million illegal immigrants crossing the border and half a million criminal foreign nationals roaming freely.

The prior administration found that it was easy to destroy the border and welcome the influx. But it is far harder for its successor to restore security, find those who broke the law, and insist on legal-only immigration. Trump is on the right side of all these issues and making substantial progress.

Everyone knew that a $2 trillion budget deficit, a $37 trillion national debt, and a $1.2 trillion trade deficit in goods were ultimately unsustainable.

Yet all prior politicians of the 21st century winced at the mere thought of reducing debts and deficits, given that it proved much easier just to print and spread around federal money. As long as the Trump administration dutifully cuts the budget, sends its regrets to displaced federal employees, seeks to expand private sector reemployment, and quietly presses ahead, it retains the moral high ground.

The elite universities have long hidden things from the American people that otherwise would have lost them all public support.

They deliberately sought to neuter Supreme Court rulings banning race-based preferences by stealthily continuing their often-segregated policies on campuses, from admissions and hiring to dorms and graduations.

They have taken billions of dollars from autocracies, such as communist China and Qatar. And they have partnered abroad with their foreign illiberal institutions and then disguised their quid pro quo subservience.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Turkey: Sweeping Arrests, Torture, Censorship by Uzay Bulut

Posted By on May 1st, 2025

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21582/turkey-arrests-torture-censorship

On March 19, just days before the March 23 primaries of Turkey’s main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), Istanbul’s Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu — the CHP’s leading candidate who was thought by many possibly to win the next presidential election against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — was arrested on contested charges of “corruption and terrorism.”

A day earlier, on March 18, Imamoglu’s university degree was revoked, “citing ‘nullity’ and ‘clear error’ as grounds for cancellation… The decision affects Imamoglu and 27 other individuals whose academic credentials have now been invalidated….”

“All of the detainees, absolutely all of them, were tortured terribly while being detained. They were tortured terribly in the detention vehicle, while being taken to Gayrettepe [police station]. There are young people among them who are in really bad shape. What is terrible is that there is nothing [as evidence against them] in their investigation files, not even a photo against them. ….. [T]hese are revenge trials. The prosecutors who took testimonies of detainees yesterday, today do not talk with the lawyers, in any way… This is not a [proper] judiciary.” — Sezgin Tanrıkulu, MP from the CHP opposition party, March 27, 2025.

Meanwhile, Erdogan’s regime has arrested many dissident journalists and continues to apply financial and judicial pressure on media outlets that refuse to operate as mouthpieces for the regime.

“There was no chance for a defense…. The decision appears prepared beforehand.” — Elif Taşdöğen, attorney, medyanews.net, January 22, 2025.

Meanwhile, the government continues to pardon and release imprisoned Turkish Hizbullah terrorists.

The Erdogan regime’s support for Islamic terror groups such as Hamas and ISIS (Islamic State) is also well-documented…..

Meanwhile, do Europeans really want the possibility of up to 87 million more Turkish citizens flooding Europe?

On March 19, just days before the March 23 primaries of Turkey’s main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), Istanbul’s Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu — the CHP’s leading candidate who was thought by many possibly to win the next presidential election against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — was arrested on contested charges of “corruption and terrorism.”

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

‘Stupid Intelligence’ Is Threatening Trump’s Nuclear Negotiations with Iran by Con Coughlin

Posted By on April 30th, 2025

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21583/iran-nuclear-stupid-intelligence

Trump argued that the JCPOA failed to address key issues such as Iran’s continued research into producing weapons-grade nuclear material, development of ballistic missiles and Tehran’s support for Islamist terror groups in the Middle East. Is he repeating their mistake?

Reports emerging from the Omani-mediated talks suggest that, rather than seeking the complete dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear programme, Trump is instead prepared to settle for a less demanding settlement, one that allows Tehran to continue with its nuclear activities so long as they are not linked to producing nuclear warheads. At this point, that is folly. If Iran is able to enrich any uranium at all, it can easily enrich it to a weapons-grade level of 90 percent within weeks.

Yet, despite compelling evidence that Iran has continued work on its clandestine programme to produce nuclear weapons, American intelligence chiefs such as Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard continue to insist that there is insufficient evidence to conclude that Iran is actively attempting to build nuclear weapons.

This has led to calls for the administration to undertake an immediate reappraisal of Washington’s intelligence assessment regarding Iran’s nuclear ambitions to acquire nuclear weapons as a devastating matter of urgency, and for the Trump administration to undertake an urgent reappraisal of Gabbard.

Sadly, the Norwegian Nobel Committee will most likely never reward Trump with the Nobel Peace Prize, no matter how much peace he delivers. To them, a worthy recipient was Yasser Arafat, among other leaders now known more for their failures than for success.

Trump instead would do well to focus on becoming the greatest leader of the 21st Century, another Churchill, by ridding the world of Iran’s nuclear weapons threat for once and all, as well as its ballistic missile program and its ability, through its proxies, to keep exporting terrorism.

With the Trump administration seemingly intent on negotiating a new nuclear deal with Iran, it is vital that the White House first makes a realistic assessment of the current state of Iran’s nuclear programme, which most Western intelligence experts believe is aimed at producing nuclear weapons.

After US and Iranian officials met for a third round of talks in the Gulf state of Oman at the weekend, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi openly said that Iran remained extremely cautious about the success of the negotiations to resolve a decades-long standoff.

IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Immigrant Education Trump admin revokes 4K foreign students’ visas in first 100 days, nearly all with serious criminal records More than 500 of the foreign students whose visas were revoked reportedly had assault records By Danielle Wallace , Bonny Chu

Posted By on April 30th, 2025

https://www.foxnews.com/us/trump-admin-revokes-4000-foreign-students-visas-first-100-days-nearly-all-serious-criminal-records

The State Department revoked the visas of 4,000 foreign students – 90% of whom have serious criminal records – during the first 100 days of President Donald Trump’s second term, a senior State Department official confirmed to Fox News Digital.

“Our visa system has lacked oversight and accountability,” a senior State Department official told Fox News Digital. “Over the past 100 days, the Trump Administration has worked to fix a broken system.”

“Secretary [Marco] Rubio has led the State Department to take a surgical vetting approach to ensure individuals in America as visitors are abiding by ours laws,” the source said. “We established an action working group, which has resulted in thousands of visas being revoked because these individuals broke our laws. This is what effective governance looks like.”

Those serious crimes included arson, wildlife and human trafficking, child endangerment, domestic abuse, driving under the influence and robbery, according to the New York Post, which first reported the number. 

More than 500 of those impacted students whose visas were revoked have criminal assault records, according to the Post. 

“They came, and they were breaking the law with no consequences,” a source said to the Post. “We set up a special action team to handle this.”

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

New German government to include first-ever Jewish woman minister Karin Prien, currently an education minister at the state level and spokesperson for her party’s Jewish Forum, is only second Jewish federal minister appointed since end of WWII

Posted By on April 30th, 2025

https://www.timesofisrael.com/new-german-government-to-include-first-ever-jewish-woman-minister/

Incoming German prime minister Friedrich Merz has named Karin Prien as education minister, the first Jewish woman appointed as a minister in the country, and only the second Jewish minister overall, since the Holocaust.

Prien, a lawyer who currently serves as education minister of the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein, is a member of the center-right Christian Democratic Union party, whose National Board she co-chairs. Prien serves as spokeswoman for the CDU’s Jewish Forum.

The cabinet named Monday is expected to enter office on May 6.

Born in Amsterdam, where her maternal grandparents moved from Germany before Hitler’s rise to power, Prien moved to Germany when she was young and took citizenship there at 26.

Though she was not raised religious, she grew up conscious that members of her father’s family had been killed in the Holocaust. When Prien became a German citizen, she said, it was for her mother “a big to-do, and she didn’t really like it.”

In 2016, after a visit to the Yad Vashem museum in Jerusalem at age fifty, Prien began to speak openly about her Jewish heritage.

Three years later, when a German satirical party fielded candidates bearing the last names of key figures in the Nazi regime, Prien criticized the gag, saying, “To claim that one wants to fight right-wing populists in this way is either naive, a lie or at least not very intelligent.”

The incoming education minister has returned on several occasions to the theme of antisemitism following the Hamas terror group’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which started the ongoing war.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

China caves on 125% tariff for major US export after White House predicts Beijing can’t keep up

Posted By on April 30th, 2025

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/china-caves-on-125-tariff-for-major-us-export-after-white-house-predicts-beijing-can-t-keep-up/ar-AA1DQXAe?

China waived a 125% tariff on ethane imports from the U.S. on Tuesday, according to a report from Reuters.

China had initially imposed the tariff earlier this month as part of its retaliation against President Donald Trump’s Liberation Day tariff campaign. China is responsible for purchasing roughly half of America’s ethane exports each year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Chinese companies that rely on U.S. ethane include Satellite Chemical, SP Chemicals, Sinopec, Sanjiang Fine Chemical and Wanhua Chemical Group, while the key U.S. exporters are Enterprise Products Partners and Energy Transfer.

Ethane joins a growing list of products that China has granted tariff exemptions for amid the ongoing trade war with Washington.

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Spain’s blackouts are a disaster made by Net Zero Renewables have made our energy grids dangerously unreliable.Fraser Myers

Posted By on April 30th, 2025

https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/04/29/spains-blackouts-are-a-disaster-made-by-net-zero/

‘We face a long night’, warned Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez yesterday evening, after much of Spain, Portugal and south-west France were plunged into darkness by the worst power outage in European history. Tens of millions of people were left without electricity. Trains were halted, planes were grounded and the internet was shut down. Modern life ground to a halt across the Iberian Peninsula. Although the exact causes of the blackout have yet to be declared, we can be certain of one thing: the risk of such outages will only get worse as we embark on the path towards Net Zero.

Spain and Portugal are increasingly reliant on solar and wind power. Renewables were supplying 80 per cent of electricity just before the outages. The blackouts were triggered by a rapid loss of power – of around 15GW, the equivalent of 60 per cent of Spain’s national electricity demand. It is not clear what exactly led to this loss, although a cyber attack has been ruled out. What matters is that a renewable-heavy grid is far less able to absorb this kind of shock than one that runs on traditional energy sources.

Coal and gas plants, or hydroelectric dams, have what is called ‘inertia’ built into the system, whereas wind and solar do not. The spinning turbines used in traditional energy generation will not immediately grind to a halt when there is a fault, acting as a buffer against power outages. ‘In a low-inertia environment’, explains energy expert Kathryn Porter, ‘if you have had a significant grid fault in one area, or a cyber attack, or whatever it may be, the grid operators therefore have less time to react. That can lead to cascading failures if you cannot get it under control quickly.’

It is not as if Europe’s leaders are unaware of these risks. The International Energy Agency (IEA), which vociferously promotes Net Zero in public, circulated a confidential paper to world leaders last week, ahead of the UK government’s summit on the future of energy security. According to Bloomberg, the IEA warned that ‘systemic challenges will emerge from balancing increasingly renewable-dominated grids’. For energy systems to work, supply needs to be matched precisely to demand, or ‘balanced’, which is made infinitely more difficult with renewables, which are so variable and unpredictable – a fact green ideologues are usually reluctant to acknowledge.

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

US’ Iran Policy – Iranian Reality vs. Alternate Reality Yoram Ettinger

Posted By on April 30th, 2025

http://bit.ly/4jr2N1G

It has been maintained that Iran’s Ayatollah regime is Israel’s problem, does not pose a serious threat to the US and global stability, and is manageable via negotiation. However, this assumption is repudiated by the march of facts.

1. Irrespective of Israel, Iran’s Ayatollah regime is driven by a 1,400-year-old fanatical vision, that is underscored by Iran’s school curriculum, mosque sermons, official media and sustained policy. This fanatical vision mandates the toppling of all pro-US Sunni Arab regimes and bringing the “infidel” West to submission, primarily “The Great American Satan.” Since the February 1979 toppling of Iran’s Shah, the Ayatollah regime has emerged as the leading global epicenter of anti-US wars, terrorism, drug trafficking and the proliferation of advanced military systems. It considers Israel as “The Little Satan” – the vanguard of the US in the Middle East and its first line of defense.  Moreover, the Ayatollah regime has expanded its anti-US rogue operations beyond the Persian Gulf and the Middle East, into Africa and Latin America, which is the soft underbelly of the US. For example, since the early 1980s, Iran has established terrorist training camps and ballistic missiles testing grounds in Latin America, solidifying strategic cooperation with drug cartels in Mexico, Columbia, Bolivia, Ecuador and Brazil, as well as with all anti-US Latin American governments, while proliferating terrorist sleeper cells on US soil (according to the FBI).  

2. It is suggested that the Ayatollah regime is willing to talk, and therefore, supposedly, it is incumbent upon the US to expedite negotiations, attempting to clear up misconceptions. Supposedly, negotiation reduces the prospects of – and is preferable to – war.

However, as appealing as is the Iranian talk, the policy toward Iran must be based on the Iranian walk, which has been antithetical to its talk. 

EDUCATION Comments turned off

John D. Sailer How Universities Restrict Faculty Freedom The fellow-to-faculty model helps administrators strong-arm academic departments into hiring their preferred candidates.

Posted By on April 30th, 2025

https://www.city-journal.org/article/university-fellow-to-faculty-hiring-diversity-independence

Late last year, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) slammed the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression in an unusual social media exchange. “FIRE receives major funding from groups with clear and well-known political, ideological, and economic interests,” the 110-year-old professional organization’s X account said in a back-and-forth with FIRE vice president Alex Morey. “FIRE is complicit w/ the attacks on higher education being led by the Right. You know this but still push the line that you are somehow nonpartisan. How hypocritical.”

The criticism was ironic, given that last year the AAUP received $1.5 million from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which extensively funds ideological projects. More ironic still, AAUP claims to cherish faculty self-governance—that is, the faculty’s freedom to manage its own professional affairs. Yet, it has remained silent as social-justice advocates, many funded by the Mellon Foundation, have undercut faculty authority—a major issue created by the “fellow-to-faculty” activist pipeline.

Throughout my recent City Journal series, I’ve shown how dozens of American universities have developed special fellow-to-faculty hiring programs. Universities use these initiatives to recruit postdoctoral fellows—often with extra administrative involvement in the selection process and a heavy emphasis on diversity—and favor those fellows for tenure-track jobs. It’s a favorite tool of the Mellon Foundation, and it helps administrators strong-arm departments into hiring their preferred candidates.

That threatens faculty self-governance. Multiple professors told me how deans denied or limited their departments’ funds for regular hiring, while strongly encouraging them to hire through fellow-to-faculty programs. In effect, these initiatives allow administrators to use budgetary carrots and sticks to reshape faculty hiring, normally the domain of academic departments.