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Iran’s Oil Funds Genocide by Lawrence Kadish

Posted By on March 5th, 2024

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20458/iran-oil-funds-genocide

History is filled with the terrible retribution inflicted on America’s foes when those enemies underestimate the United States.

Consider Imperial Japan, which totally underestimated the United States. Hitler thought we could manufacture cars but never have the ability to produce tanks, an air force, a two-ocean navy and the willpower to fight and win. The Soviets told the West: “We will bury you.” And Osama Bin Laden’s ashes will never be found.

So when US Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) warns Iran that their role in supporting the terrorist murder of some 1,400 Israelis by Hamas has the potential to result in immensely serious “consequences,” he is attempting to ensure that Tehran does not make the fatal mistake of underestimating the United States.

Looking on the surface, it might be easy to do so. Japan saw that the U.S. Congress debated and delayed for months before finally instituting a military draft in 1940. Hitler saw the American-based Nazi Bund convene a rally at Madison Square Garden. We currently have a president whose ability and political will have openly been questioned. The House of Representatives is in disarray. We are facing a multi-trillion dollar debt. Surely we must be distracted and incapable of action.

All the more reason that Graham’s warning, which included “tak[ing] down an oil refinery” for every hostage killed. “The only way you’re gonna keep this war from escalating is to hold Iran accountable,” Graham recently stated.

On October 22, Graham said: “We’re here today to tell Iran: We’re watching you. If this war grows, it’s coming to your backyard.” And to make a point, he made that statement from Tel Aviv, as part of a delegation of ten U.S. Senators. “There won’t be two fronts, there’ll be three,” he added, allowing the recipient of that message to ponder what and where that third military front would be.

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Bankrupt Iran: Close Their Oil Cash Cow by Lawrence Kadish

Posted By on March 4th, 2024

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20457/bankrupt-iran-close-their-oil-cash-cow

This article was first published by Gatestone on October 23, 2023.

History is filled with the terrible retribution inflicted on America’s foes when those enemies underestimate the United States.

Consider Imperial Japan, which totally underestimated the United States. Hitler thought we could manufacture cars but never have the ability to produce tanks, an air force, a two-ocean navy and the willpower to fight and win. The Soviets told the West: “We will bury you.” And Osama Bin Laden’s ashes will never be found.

So when US Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) warns Iran that their role in supporting the terrorist murder of some 1,400 Israelis by Hamas has the potential to result in immensely serious “consequences,” he is attempting to ensure that Tehran does not make the fatal mistake of underestimating the United States.

Looking on the surface, it might be easy to do so. Japan saw that the U.S. Congress debated and delayed for months before finally instituting a military draft in 1940. Hitler saw the American-based Nazi Bund convene a rally at Madison Square Garden. We currently have a president whose ability and political will have openly been questioned. The House of Representatives is in disarray. We are facing a multi-trillion dollar debt. Surely we must be distracted and incapable of action.

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It’s up to us By Richard Jack Rail

Posted By on March 4th, 2024

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/03/up_to_us.html

The time’s fast coming when America will rip itself apart if reasonable people don’t stand up to injustice and stupidity masquerading as social justice

Some years ago, Ann Coulter commented about the TV series Law and Order: Special Victims Unit: “The scripts involve the sort of real-life crimes that are a lot more common since our country has become ‘diverse,’ such as child rape and incest. But the child-rapists are never diverse, as they are in real life. No, the perps are always blond, blue-eyed American men. In fact, the modern American white male is the least rapey, most gentle, protective, chivalrous creature God has ever created.”

This has been obvious to anyone interested in the truth for, oh, six decades or thereabouts. People who can think follow facts to logical, reasonable conclusions. They don’t force-fit reality to a template based on doubtful assumptions that produce silly rules and policy, such as the presumption of police racism that led to the prohibition on profiling. We all profile as a matter of course. To profile is to think, to narrow a search universe. When you look for a lost sock, you ignore panties and pencils.

The Left, sticking to social justice templates and assumptions, refuses to acknowledge reality that doesn’t fit. So it’s up to conservatives to re-establish law and order by using common sense and following facts to reasonable, lawful conclusions. The time’s fast coming when America will rip itself apart if reasonable people don’t stand up to injustice and stupidity masquerading as social justice.

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The truth about the Houthis They are not anti-Imperialist rebels – they are a vicious and reactionary Islamist cult. James Heartfield

Posted By on March 4th, 2024

https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/03/02/the-truth-about-the-houthis/

Over the past few months, Yemen’s Houthi rebels have been attacking container ships and energy tankers in the Red Sea. The Houthis say that these attacks are retaliation for Israel’s incursion into Gaza. This has delighted anti-Israel activists in the West, who have taken to the streets with a new chant: ‘Yemen, Yemen make us proud, turn another ship around.’

It’s clear that those Western leftists currently cheering on the Houthis know very little about this regressive movement.

Officially known as Ansar Allah (‘Supporters of God’), the Houthis have been in open rebellion against the Yemeni government since 2004. They now govern much of the populous west and north of Yemen. Since 2014, they have controlled the capital, Sanaa, forcing the internationally recognised Yemeni government to relocate to Aden, a port city on the southern coast. Today, the Houthis are the dominant force in a divided country.

To help us understand the rise of the Houthis, it is helpful to turn to Tribes and Politics in Yemen, a 2017 book by Austrian anthropologist Marieke Brandt. A product of extensive anthropological fieldwork in the Houthi stronghold of north-west Yemen, it shows that the Houthis’ rise owes more to the collapse of Arab nationalism in Yemen than any positive, internal dynamic in the movement itself. They have merely exploited the decay of the once powerful nationalist forces that drove the formation of the republic of North Yemen in 1962, before dominating Yemen proper after unification with Communist South Yemen in 1990.

The Houthis, like at least a third of Yemenis today, are Zaydi, which is a branch of Shia Islam. Like other Shia Muslims, the Zaydis believe that the position of state ruler, or Imamate, is hereditary. They trace their lineage back to Al-Qasim al-Rassi, who was a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammed’s son-in-law, Ali ibn Abu Talib.

In the ninth century, Zaydi imam Yahya ibn al-Husayn, backed by members of the Sadah (Yemeni nobles), established control over northern Yemen. The Zaydi dynasty proceeded to rule over the north right up until 1962, when nationalists overthrew the Imamate and the Sadah. From this point, many Zaydi factions in northern Yemen felt marginalised.

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The Truth About Illegal-Alien Criminality Do illegal aliens actually commit fewer crimes than do legal American citizens? by John Perazzo

Posted By on March 4th, 2024

https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-truth-about-illegal-alien-criminality/

This past December, U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP) personnel encountered 301,983 aliens who had crossed America’s unprotected southern border unlawfully. That astonishing, unprecedented figure pushed the total number of illegals who had entered U.S. territory during 2023 to roughly 2.54 million. If we include also the estimated 840,000 so-called “got-aways” known to have slipped into the American interior, the total jumps to about 3.4 million. That is more than the populations of all the cities in America except New York and Los Angeles, and more than the populations of 22 separate U.S. states – all in just a single year.

These figures stand in stark contrast to those of 2020, the final year of the Trump administration, when the corresponding numbers were 516,908 illegal-alien encounters with border authorities, plus another 119,000 “got-aways,” for a combined total of just under 636,000 unlawful intruders – scarcely 18.7 percent of the 2023 total.

Democrat defenders of open-borders immigration policies and their allies in the media have long claimed that illegal aliens make wonderful neighbors who, per capita, commit significantly fewer crimes against persons and property than do native-born American citizens. President Biden’s campaign co-chair Rep. Veronica Escobar, for example, repeated this mantra as recently as Friday on CNN Newsroom, in reaction to the high-profile murder of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, allegedly by a Venezuelan national living illegally in the United States.

But common sense alone should tell us that people who blithely ignore American immigration laws are likely to disrespect federal, state and local laws as well. Indeed, as Ronald Mortensen  pointed out in The Hill, “virtually all adult, illegal aliens commit felonies” such as forgery, fraud, identity theft, and perjury, “to procure the documents they need to get jobs, to drive and to obtain other benefits that are restricted to U.S. citizens.” These documents include Social Security cards, drivers’ licenses, green cards, birth certificates, and I-9 forms, among others.

The crimes of illegal aliens also include a multitude of violent, bloody, highly destructive offenses. And this is by no means a new phenomenon. In 2005, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report that looked at the criminal histories of 55,322 aliens who had “entered the country illegally and were still illegally in the country at the time of their incarceration in federal or state prison or local jail during fiscal year 2003.” Those 55,322 illegals had been arrested 459,614 times — an average of 8.3 arrests apiece — and had committed almost 700,000 separate criminal offenses, or roughly 12.7 offenses each. Approximately 12 percent of their arrests were for violent crimes such as homicide, robbery, assault, and sex-related offenses; 15 percent were for property offenses like burglary, larceny, theft, and vandalism; 24 percent were for drug crimes; and the rest were for a wide array of transgressions like DUI, fraud, forgery, counterfeiting, weapons violations, immigration crimes, and obstruction of justice.

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American Paralysis and Decline When the road to salvation becomes too painful even to contemplate. by Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on March 4th, 2024

https://www.frontpagemag.com/american-paralysis-and-decline/

“We can bear neither our diseases nor their remedies.”

So shrugged the ancient historian Livy (59 B.C.- A.D. 17) of the long decline of Roman national character that, in his age, finally ended the Roman Republic.

Like a patient whose medicine proves worse than the disease, Livy lamented that the Romans knew that they had become corrupt and lawless.

But the very contemplation of the hard medicine needed for restoration—and the furious reaction that would meet the remedy—made it impossible to save the patient.

America is nearing such an impasse.

We know that no state can long exist after opening its borders to over 7 million illegal aliens, requiring neither background checks nor legality.

The recent murder of a Georgia female jogger by an illegal alien and the savage beating of New York policemen by similar others hardly merit media attention.

Everyone knows that neither new appropriations nor new laws are needed to secure the border as it was in 2020.

Instead, we could just stop suicidal catch-and-release, deport lawbreakers, privilege the legal over the illegal immigrant, demand would-be refugees apply for asylum first in their native countries, finish the border wall, and pressure Mexico to stop undermining the territorial integrity of its northern neighbor.

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Gearing Up for ‘Biden’ Versus Trump: Not If, But When and How to Replace Biden If Trump can praise those he defeats, call for unity, and campaign in 50 states in non-Republican strongholds, then he can win. By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on March 4th, 2024

https://amgreatness.com/2024/03/04/gearing-up-for-biden-versus-trump-not-if-but-when-and-how-to-replace-biden/

President Joe Biden is declining at a geometric, not an arithmetic, rate. His cognitive challenges are multifaceted.

His gait is shaky. His daily use of stairs now risks the chance of a tenure-ending fall. Even when he sticks to the teleprompter, he so slurs his speech, mispronounces words, and glides his syntax that at times he becomes as incomprehensible at the podium as he is unsteady in his step.

He now speaks a strange language foreign and untranslatable to most Americans. White House transcribers leave hiatuses in their written texts of his remarks to reflect that they either have no idea what he said, do not wish to publicize their guesses at what he said, or do not wish the public to know what he was trying to say.

Despite the circling-the-wagons media and the passive-aggressive sycophants like the opportunistic Gov. Gavin Newsom in waiting, the left understands that Biden will be lucky to get to the August convention. This spring and early summer, he will not campaign as a normal presidential candidate, and this time around, there is no pretense of the COVID epidemic to excuse his absence.

The people have already polled numerous times that their president is unfit to serve now and, in the future, should not run. So the 2020 Faustian bargain is in shambles. Remember its quid pro quos: all the major Democratic presidential candidates of 2020 nearly simultaneously pulled out the primaries to coronate Biden—but only on the condition that Biden would play to the hilt his “ol’ Joe Biden from Scranton” schtick that would offer a veneer to the otherwise unpopular hard left agenda of the new Bernie Sanders/Elizabeth Warren/the Obamas/Squad Democratic Party.

The people voted for a “return to normalcy,” all while the left destroyed the southern border, unleashed a critical legal theory/George-Soros crime wave, dismantled hard-won deterrence abroad, and printed money to spur hyperinflation.

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Even Biden Doesn’t Want To Talk About ‘Bidenomics’ Anymore: We Have The Receipts

Posted By on March 4th, 2024

https://issuesinsights.com/2024/03/04/even-biden-doesnt-want-to-talk-about-bidenomics-anymore/

After President Joe Biden embraced the term “Bidenomics,” he and his White House staff couldn’t get enough of it. But either Biden’s forgotten all about it, or the administration realized that it was doing no good to brag about something the public didn’t believe. Either way, the term is vanishing from use.

It was in a speech in Chicago on June 28, 2023, that Biden decided to bear-hug the term.

“I didn’t come up with the name. I really didn’t,” he said. “I didn’t realize the economists in the Wall Street Journal did.  But I’m happy to call it ‘Bidenomics.’ And guess what? Bidenomics is working.”

Biden thought he was catching a wave. The economy seemed to be turning a corner, the rate of inflation was decelerating, job growth was strong. Surely the public would come to realize that the worst was behind.

Embracing the term would make it easy, the thinking probably was, to claim credit for any good news.

And, boy, did Biden try to tie “Bidenomics” to whatever good news he could find. At least initially.

The problem was that the more Biden tried to tell the public how he’d rescued the economy, the less the public believed it. Biden’s approval rating continued to slide. His grades on his handling of the economy did likewise.

In our I&I/TIPP Poll last June – taken just before Biden started talking up Bidenomics – we asked Americans if they agreed with Biden that the economy was strong. Only 36% did so. A New York Times/Sienna poll released over the weekend finds that only 18% those surveyed think Biden’s policies have helped them personally. (That compares with 40% who say Donald Trump’s policies helped them personally.)

His numbers haven’t improved since then. The TIPP Economic Optimism Index is lower today than it was then. Just 27% now give Biden an “A” or “B” grade on handling the economy, while 53% give him a “D” or an “F.”

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Election Countdown: Trump Surges in Swing States Amid Legal Turmoil The election is eight months away. The Democrats will not be sitting by idly. They have a country to ruin and power to maintain, and they are not going to let up on Trump. By Roger Kimball

Posted By on March 3rd, 2024

https://amgreatness.com/2024/03/03/election-countdown-trump-surges-in-swing-states-amid-legal-turmoil/

When is Jack Smith’s birthday?  Someone should give him a copy of the Justice Department’s manual with a bookmark in Section 9-85.500 “Actions that may have an impact on Election.” He and his boss, Attorney General Merrick Garland, can open their office reading group by having someone read the beginning of that passage aloud: “Federal prosecutors and agents may never select the timing of any action, including investigative steps, criminal charges, or statements, for the purpose of affecting any election or for the purpose of giving an advantage or disadvantage to any candidate or political party.”

But, of course, that is exactly what Jack Smith intended to do with his case against Donald Trump in Washington, DC.  Trump was set to go on trial March 4, the day before Super Tuesday, in what is one of the most Democratic cities in the country, in a court presided over by Tanya Chutkan, an ostentatiously Trump-hostile judge.  As Byron York noted, “Democrats envisioned a weekslong trial tying Trump down in a federal courtroom, followed by a guilty verdict from a deep-blue Washington, D.C., jury, followed by a long sentence imposed by Chutkan, followed by a move by Smith to imprison Trump pending appeal. Bingo! Trump would be behind bars by Labor Day, and Biden would cruise to victory.”

A few days ago, the Supreme Court wrecked this envisioned party by agreeing to hear Trump’s case that, as president on January 6, 2021, he enjoyed immunity from criminal prosecution.  SCOTUS agreed to expedite the case, but no one expects them to finish before the election in November.

Of course, Trump is being besieged on many other fronts.  There’s the $450 million Judge Arthur Engoron says he must pay because… because why? Oh, right, because he defrauded banks by overvaluing his assets when he made loan applications.  The banks did their own arithmetic, made the loans, and were pleased that Trump paid them back on time and in full.  So it was a fraud in which no one was defrauded, but Trump still must be fined into possible bankruptcy.  While we’re shopping for our legal friends, someone should get Engoron a large-type version of the 8th Amendment, which is brief and to the point: “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”

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Biden Administration Not Stopping Iran, Russia, China, the Houthis by Majid Rafizadeh

Posted By on March 3rd, 2024

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20440/biden-not-stopping-iran-houthis

What is essential to remember is that the Houthis and other proxies of Iran are in all likelihood deeply apprehensive about the prospect of their senior leadership being targeted. By refraining from targeting Houthi leaders, the United States has inadvertently emboldened the group and allowed them to act with impunity.

In recent months, the Red Sea has become a battleground for attacks by the Iran-backed Houthis of Yemen, with the Biden administration facing mounting criticism for its failure to quell the escalating violence. As the Houthi group continues to build its weapons stockpile in Yemen, supported by the Iranian regime, the urgency of the situation cannot be overstated. It is critical that the United States reevaluate its military strategy to effectively address this growing threat.

The current approach, adopted by the Biden administration, is characterized by a reluctance to directly target Houthi leadership. The administration has opted instead to focus solely on destroying weapons and equipment.

This approach, however, has proven ineffective in deterring the Houthis from launching further attacks. What is essential to remember is that the Houthis and other proxies of Iran are in all likelihood deeply apprehensive about the prospect of their senior leadership being targeted. By refraining from targeting Houthi leaders, the United States has inadvertently emboldened the group and allowed them to act with impunity.

A former US military official, who spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity, pointed out that the current campaign against the Houthis is similar to previous failed endeavors:

“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 Trump administration’s targeted killing of Qassem Soleimani, head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), for instance, resulted in cessation of Iranian harassment of the US as long Trump was in office. If one wants to induce meaningful change in the behavior of the Houthis, unfortunately decisive blows will be necessary.

Sadly, the reliance on cosmetic strikes to destroy Houthi drones and missiles is both financially unsustainable and strategically futile. Continuously expending resources on missiles, worth multi-millions dollars each, to counter far less expensive Houthi weaponry is not a dazzling long-term solution. The Biden administration would be better served targeting Houthi weapons depots and missile launchers to disrupt their military capabilities in a significant way.

Merely intensifying attacks on Houthi infrastructure, however, will not suffice. Without substantially degrading Houthi military capabilities, the recently redesignated terrorist group will continue to pose a significant threat. Therefore, it is imperative to adopt a multifaceted approach that also targets the source of the problem – Iran’s regime.