NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Dear Santa: Why Is Christmas So $@#*% Expensive This Year?

Posted By on December 22nd, 2023

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/12/22/dear-santa-why-is-christmas-so-expensive-this-year/

Jill Biden’s creepy video, featuring a troupe of tap dancers showing off the garish Christmas decorations in the White House, prompted one journalist to comment that they are “really going for the Hunger Games as this year’s Christmas theme.”

While they’re prancing around in the capital, out in the districts everyone else is struggling to pay the sky-high cost of this festive season.

Are you traveling to be with friends and family? Airfares are 18% higher than they were Christmas 2020. And if you try to cut costs by driving, gasoline prices are 45% higher.

Buying food for your guests will cost 20% more than the last Christmas before Bidenflation took hold.

PNC Bank’s annual “Christmas Price Index,” a gimmicky index that measures the cost to buy all the gifts mentioned in “Twelve Days of Christmas,” has gone up more than 13% in the past two years.  

Haven’t bought a Christmas tree yet? It will cost you about 10% more than last year, which is on top of the 10% increase the year before, and 10% the year before that.

Those Christmas lights decorating the house? Your electric bill will be 24% higher. If you’re sending Christmas cards, stationery costs are up 27% under Biden.

At least drowning your sorrows in alcohol is getting less expensive.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Hezbollah Has Already Opened the Northern Front The buffer zone has moved south of the border, and the IDF faces daily mortar attacks from Hezbollah.

Posted By on December 22nd, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/articles/israel-has-already-opened-the-northern-front-lebanon-hezbollah-iran-d4a6b62e?mod=opinion_lead_pos7

Rosh Hanikra, Israel

Will Israel launch a military operation to clear Hezbollah from its northern border? Or is the war there already under way?

“We see a steady escalation in terms of the range and variety of munitions being launched by Hezbollah at Israel,” Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, international spokesman of the Israel Defense Forces, told a group of foreign journalists at a briefing in northern Israel on Dec. 18. “We can do the same, if we need to, against Hezbollah that we are doing against Hamas in the south. This may be the scenario that we will need to implement.”

The briefing took place at a deserted kibbutz called Rosh Hanikra. Only yards from the border with Lebanon, it once was a flourishing community of 1,400 people but was evacuated, along with 27 other communities, in the days following Hamas’s massacre on Oct. 7. Israel has withdrawn its civilian population 2.5 miles south from its border with Lebanon, obliging 86,000 people to leave their homes. The residents of these border communities have become refugees in their own country.

Amid the deserted houses, fields and farms, the IDF conducts its daily duel with the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia. More than 1,000 Hezbollah attacks have taken place since Oct. 7 as the Lebanese Shiite Islamist group seeks to maintain a controlled second front to aid its Sunni allies in the south.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Hour Is Getting Late By Tom Klingenstein

Posted By on December 21st, 2023

https://tomklingenstein.com/video/the-hour-is-getting-late/

America today exists in a state of war, a cold civil war. On one side is the Woke Regime. On the other side, our side, is the American Regime.

The Woke Regime defines justice as group outcome equality. For the American Regime, on the other hand, justice is a reward for individual merit. A regime based on merit will always give rise to group differences. These two regimes are utterly irreconcilable. You can’t admit people to college, flight training, law schools, or anything else according to merit and, at the same time, according to group quotas. It’s one or the other. There is no middle ground; hence, the two sides are implacable enemies. This is what makes it a war. 

The woke left understands this; too often, the American side, especially its political leadership, does not. You don’t win a war if you don’t know you’re in one. The woke side fights. They show us no mercy; we, on the other hand, ring our hands and take a beating. We try to reach across the aisle, but in a war, this is a sucker’s game.

The Woke Regime is comprised of a loose confederation of our most important institutions: media, academia, government, charitable foundations, and corporations, particularly big tech. 

The George Floyd riots show this confederation in action. Woke agitators sparked the flames that lit the riots; the regime’s intellectual leaders justified the riots; its corporate donors gave billions to Black Lives Matter’s network; its media looked the other way; its justice system freed criminals, and its security apparatus and political leaders fanned the flames. No, not all Democrats are Woke Leftists, but virtually all Democrats go along so they might as well be Woke Leftists.

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Tevi Troy Why Universities Target Jews Elite schools are increasingly monocultural institutions that reject free thinkers.

Posted By on December 21st, 2023

https://www.city-journal.org/article/why-universities-target-jews

Many Jewish students, parents, and donors are rethinking their allegiance to America’s elite universities. They think that Jewish students are not welcome there.

That message is being sent in two ways. First, these schools aren’t admitting Jewish students at the rates they once did. Harvard used to be about 20 percent Jewish; today, it’s below 9 percent. At the University of Pennsylvania, long considered one of the friendliest campuses to Jewish students, the number of observant Jews admitted has dropped by about two-thirds, from 200 in the early 2000s to about 70 today, according to Inside Higher Ed. Jewish enrollment is down across much of the Ivy League.

Second, the Jewish kids who are admitted increasingly feel uncomfortable on campus. In a now-infamous congressional hearing, the presidents of Harvard, Penn, and MIT struggled to say definitively whether calls for genocide violated their campus codes of conduct. Schools committed to “safe spaces” are strangely silent about anti-Semitism, and in some cases seem implicitly supportive of acts of intimidation and violent protest.

In response, some top Jewish students are forswearing their dreams of Columbia or Yale and applying elsewhere. Some prominent Jewish donors have publicly condemned the schools’ double standards and begun pulling funding, or they have threatened to do so. The Jewish community had previously been downright devoted to America’s elite educational institutions. These slow, even belated, steps show that the long-honed Jewish knack for sensing danger finally has kicked in.

The current situation facing some Jewish students on college campuses, and the Jewish reaction to these trends, evokes a disturbing historical parallel. Nations that have antagonized Jews, and have seen Jews flee in response, often were experiencing a deeper rot and corruption. History is littered with nations, from Imperial Spain to Czarist and then Soviet Russia to Nazi Germany, whose underlying problems were worsened by government-sponsored scapegoating and driving away of Jews. Persecution of the Jews did not always cause those nations’ decline, but it was a signal that it was coming.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Robert F. Kennedy Jr hailed for ‘single greatest defense of Israel’: ‘Worth three minutes of your time’ BySumanti Sen see video

Posted By on December 21st, 2023

https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/us-news/robert-f-kennedy-jr-hailed-for-single-greatest-defense-of-israel-worth-three-minutes-of-your-time-101702960343411.html

Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s exchange with Krystal Ball, where they discuss who is responsible for the tragic situation of Palestinians in Gaza, has gone viral

Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s heated exchange with Breaking Points commentator Krystal Ball, where they discuss who is responsible for the tragic situation of Palestinians in Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, has gone viral. The two spoke about the Palestinians’ plight, civilian casualties and other complications the ongoing conflict has caused.

The conversation spiralled into a heated exchange when Ball and Kennedy began debating the political logistics behind the conflict. They also went back and forth over how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu handled the situation. “The Palestinian people are arguably the most pampered people by international aid organisations,” Kennedy said.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr and Krystal Ball’s heated exchange

“Are you kidding me?” Ball said, shocked. “Even before this war, 78 percent of people in Gaza had not enough food to eat.”

“Why are you blaming Israel?” Kennedy asked, and Ball went on to cite the blockade on food. Kennedy then went on to say Hamas’ leadership stole international aid, becoming rich in the process. He accused Ball of making Israel look responsible for the poverty in Gaza.

“They have no control over their own territory!” Ball exclaimed. “Israel controls everything that comes in and goes out.”

“Why do you insist on blaming Israel?” Kennedy said. “Why not Hamas?”

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Fetterman: Tiktok ‘warping’ young people’s views on Israel-Hamas war “Hamas started this, and they actually broke the ceasefire and they attacked and murdered babies, children, women,” the Pennsylvania senator said. “It’s outrageous.” David Swindle

Posted By on December 21st, 2023

https://www.jns.org/fetterman-tiktok-warping-young-peoples-views-on-israel-hamas-war/

U.S. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) on Wednesday told Jake Tapper of CNN that the popular social media app TikTok is distorting Americans’ perception of the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Tapper, who is Jewish, had asked Fetterman—who is not, but has been one of the most vocal Zionists in Congress of late—about a New York Times/Siena College poll which found that 72% of registered voters aged 18 to 29 disapprove of the way U.S. President Joe Biden is handling the Israel-Palestine conflict. Why do so many younger people, especially Democrats, see Israel differently from the senator, Tapper asked.

“I really don’t know,” Fetterman replied. “I do know that a lot of people are getting their perspective from TikTok.”

“If you’re kind of getting your perspective on the world on TikTok, it’s going to tend to be kind of warped or not reflective of the history and actually the way things absolutely are,” said Fetterman. “Hamas started this, and they actually broke the ceasefire and they attacked and murdered babies, children, women—attacked a music concert and everything. It’s outrageous.”

He went on to say that “it’s been very clear that Israel would very much want there to be peace. But they’ve made it very clear that after Oct. 7, that’s just not possible so long as Hamas is allowed to exist.”

Earlier this month, Jewish TikTok employees reported experiencing antisemitism on the job and anti-Israel bias in content moderation. 
In March, Noa Tishby, the former Israeli special envoy for combating antisemitism, told JNS she regarded TikTok as the most hateful social media platform.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Elite American Universities Completely Beyond Hope Francis Menton

Posted By on December 21st, 2023

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2023-12-20-elite-american-universities-completely-beyond-hope

In a post last week I marveled at the sudden discovery by the Presidents of Harvard, Penn and MIT of the importance of freedom of speech when it involves demonstrators favoring elimination of Israel and slaughter of Jews. Yet somehow, at the same institutions, comparable principles just don’t seem to apply in the case of basic dissent from leftist political orthodoxy. When the official party line gets questioned, all the elite universities have multiple tactics to diminish and banish the deviators, whether that be by demanding loyalty oaths (e.g., “diversity statements”) in hiring or admissions, holding mandatory “diversity” or “sensitivity” training sessions, disinviting speakers, conducting pretextual investigations of dissenters, funding the favored and denying tenure to the disfavored, and many other such methods.

So how bad is it out there on elite campuses, really? It’s not so easy to find out. Mostly, the schools keep the worst of the rot fairly well hidden from the public, and for that matter from alumni. The publications sent to alumni (I get several of them) wildly play down the extent of the left wing political orthodoxy enforcement.

But the controversy following the Congressional testimony of the three Presidents had caused the curtain to get somewhat pulled back. The past couple of weeks have seen a few enterprising commenters putting together some collections of very revealing university materials for students, and of statements by university officials.

My first example comes from an unlikely source, an op-ed columnist at the New York Times named Pamela Paul. Ms. Paul is a relatively recent addition to the Times’s stable of regular columnists, having come off a stint as editor of their Book Review. Many commenters at the Times seem to think Ms. Paul is a “conservative,” although I would say that is far overstating things. (For example, here is a November 30 column about the possibility of a second Trump presidency (“[W]e know there’s a bomb under the table — the threat of a second Donald Trump presidency . . . [C]rippling destruction . . . will ensue.”), and another from September 21 defending President Biden against a potential impeachment (“The impeachment inquiry is just the latest twisted Republican abuse of Democratic precedent.”))

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Liz Peek: ‘Bidenomics’ is a flop – and America knows it

Posted By on December 21st, 2023

https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/4371449-bidenomics-is-a-flop-and-america-knows-it/

“Wages for workers are up!”  

That was the sunny news delivered by President Biden at a recent campaign stop. Is it true? Not really. Though real wages have finally trended slightly higher, Americans are still underwater since Biden entered the Oval Office.  

The Biden camp may have dropped talking up “Bidenomics,” but the spiel’s half-truths and tone deafness live on.  

The Biden reelection campaign is still trying to sell its economic policies to skeptical voters, even as a recent Wall Street Journal shows that “Only 23% of voters say Biden’s policies have helped them personally, while 53% say they have been hurt by the president’s agenda.” Biden’s pitch hasn’t worked, isn’t working and won’t work. But, they aren’t giving up.   

Joe Biden is unhappy about his poll numbers — as well he should be. They are historically terrible; the only person those low grades could possibly please is Jimmy Carter, who no longer sets the benchmark for most unpopular president ever. According to Real Clear Politics, Biden’s average approval rating across all polls stands at 40.5 percent; that compares with44.5 percent for Donald Trump at the same point in his presidency, 46.5 percent for Barack Obama and 58 percent for George W. Bush.   

Biden apparently laid into his team before Thanksgiving, demanding his aides do something to improve his standing. The upshot is yet another salvo from the White House about the wonders of Bidenomics, including the usual rewriting of history about what a catastrophe Joe Biden faced as he took office in January 2021.  

In a campaign event just recently, Biden claimed, “You know, when we started, the … economy was reeling.” White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre reiterated that myth in a briefing a few days ago, saying the economy “was in a tailspin.” It was not; in the quarter he took office, the recovering economy grew 6 percent, unemployment was dropping sharplyand annualized inflation stood at 1.4 percent.   

The president’s pitch rests largely on dishonest or misleading data, as is the case when Jean-Pierre touts the number of new business start-ups and applications as a sign that Bidenomics is working. As it happens, there was a big surge in new business applications — during Donald Trump’s presidency.   

When Trump took office, in January 2017, monthly new business applications totaled 263,878; in December 2020, his last month, applications — at the height of the COVID panic — amounted to 349,734, an increase of 32.5 percent. So far in Joe Biden’s presidency, applications have actually dropped slightly, from 486,082 recorded in January 2021 to 464,838 last month. 

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Scholars Say They Were Plagiarized by Claudine Gay, Ignored by Harvard Investigation By Ryan Mills & Zach Kessel

Posted By on December 21st, 2023

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/scholars-say-they-were-plagiarized-by-claudine-gay-ignored-by-harvard-investigation/

Harvard and its president Claudine Gay are doing damage control amid an ongoing plagiarism scandal, with the embattled leader requesting even more corrections to her past work, this time her 1997 Ph.D. dissertation — the foundation of her academic career.

But the total of seven corrections requested so far still leaves dozens of other instances of potential plagiarism unresolved. And scholars who believe their work was plagiarized have told National Review that they were never contacted by Harvard as part of its investigation into Gay’s academic work.

For instance, it does not appear that any of the corrections will address portions of Gay’s doctoral dissertation drawing heavily from the work of Vanderbilt University professor Carol Swain, in some cases reproducing her writing word for word without citation.

Swain — who has been outspoken about her feelings on the plagiarism scandal — told National Review that she is concerned by Harvard’s response to the revelations of its president’s academic-integrity issues. She feels that the university should have reached out to her and the other scholars both as a professional courtesy, to inform them their work may have been plagiarized, and as part of their fact-finding effort to determine the extent of Gay’s transgressions, since they’re the foremost experts on their own work.

“I have a problem with the way Harvard has reacted to the entire situation, because it seems like — with the assistance of some of their professors and other elites — they’re trying to redefine what is plagiarism,” Swain said, “and they’re making the argument that there are different levels and, by extension, that some of it is acceptable. That is a problem for higher education in America.”

A number of experts and academics contacted by National Review said that the examples of potential plagiarism that have been flagged are serious, and the large number of instances suggests a pattern.

Lee Jussim, a social psychologist and distinguished professor at Rutgers University, said he’s “never seen anything like” the plagiarism scandal involving Gay.

“I can tell you, I expelled a student from my lab when I first got to Rutgers who I caught doing something not all that different — probably less — than what she has done,” he said.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

HOLIDAY GREETINGS FROM RUTHFULLY YOURS

Posted By on December 21st, 2023

T’WAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS AND ALL THROUGH THE HOUSE

NOT A CREATURE WAS STIRRING, NOT EVEN A MOUSE.

I MUSED WITH REGRETS AND TREPIDATION

AT THE PARLOUS STATE OF OUR BELOVED NATION.

CORRUPTION STALKS THE BIDEN CLAN

BUT THE MEDIA PROTECTS THE FAILING MAN.

ISRAEL WAS ATTACKED WITH GENOCIDAL REFRAINS

IGNORED BY ANTI-SEMITES WITH FECAL BRAINS.

QATAR FUNDS THE HATRED STUDENTS UTTER

COGNOSCENTI PRONOUNCE THAT NATION AS “GUTTER.”

OUR BORDERS NO LONGER CONTAIN AN INVASION

OF UNDOCUMENTED MILLIONS WITH LEGAL EVASION.

OUR MILITARY INDULGES WOKE POLICIES WITHOUT SENSE

WHILE OUR ENEMIES PREPARE FOR A MAJOR OFFENSE.

 

SUDDENLY THERE AROSE SUCH A JOYFUL CLATTER

I RUSHED TO THE WINDOW TO SEE WHAT WAS THE MATTER.

IT WAS A BRIGADE OF CITIZENS SAYING “ENOUGH!”

TO PROGRESSIVE POLICIES THEY WOULD REBUFF.

ON ELECTION DAY THEY WILL PROCLAIM THEIR NOS

TO BETRAYING ALLIES AND KOW-TOWING TO FOES.

NO TO QUOTAS INSTEAD OF MERIT AND GRADES.

NO TO 1619 PROJECT, DEI AND WOKE CHARADES.

NO TO LOCKDOWNS AND CLOSING OF SCHOOLS.

NO TO HEALTH CZARS THAT TAKE US FOR FOOLS.

NO TO FOREIGN FUNDING IN HIGHER EDUCATION.

NO TO OPEN BORDERS AND UNFETTERED IMMIGRATION.

NO TO SURVEILLANCE AND DICTATS FROM CAPITOL HILL.

NO TO FOREIGN OIL FOR ENERGY- DRILL, BABY, DRILL.

THEY HOISTED A BANNER FOR ALL TO SEE.

SPORTING THE WORDS ‘DON’T TREAD ON ME.”

OFF THEY MARCHED INTO THE NIGHT

THEIR GPS PATH FROM LEFT TO RIGHT.

SO, WITH A DOLLOP OF OPTIMISM AND A TAD OF CHEER

I WISH YOU ALL HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR.

RUTH KING