Illegal Migration Is Invasion thumbnail

Illegal Migration Is Invasion

By Adam Ellwanger

As the situation at the Texas/Mexico border continues to deteriorate, the premise of federalism is being tested in ways not seen in more than a century. The Biden Administration has openly refused any real effort to slow illegal entries, while as many as 13 million foreigners have crossed illegally since his inauguration. It took Texas longer than it should have to grasp that they were actually working to facilitate illegal entries. Eventually, though, Governor Greg Abbott recognized that the Lone Star State would have to act alone against Biden’s open border policy. After he implemented aggressive actions to stop the flow, the feds went to extraordinary measures to ensure that the border would remain open, cutting razor wire placed along the Rio Grande and doggedly fighting Abbott’s policies in federal court.

A major escalation occurred when the governor formally declared the situation an “invasion.” Predictably, Democrats howled at the use of a term with such rhetorical force. But if “invasion” is a faithful characterization of what is happening, then we have an obligation to call it that. And if there is an invasion at the southern border, then it must be stopped by all means—whether by federal intervention or in defiance of it.

What exactly constitutes an “invasion”? What are the characteristics that have defined invasions throughout human history? I propose that there are five. The first is that an invasion is something that the inhabitants of the nation being invaded never requested or invited. Second, invading forces are comprised predominantly of military-aged men. Third, invaders are primarily motivated by self-interest. Fourth, invaders carry the insignia of their home nations with them. And, finally, an invasion must pose a genuine threat to the existing social order of the place being invaded. With these criteria in mind, let’s examine the situation at our southern border.

Who Invited You?

The first characteristic of an invasion is that the people being invaded didn’t ask for the invaders to come. The influx of Europeans to the Americas in the sixteenth century serves as a prime example. Not all of the Europeans who made the trek across the Atlantic saw conquest as the purpose of their journey. The Puritans, for example, meant only to create a habitable environment for a life of religious observance apart from the repressive order they left in England. The Spanish conquistadors, on the other hand, set out to conquer and subdue the peoples they encountered in the Americas. But regardless of their intentions, neither the Puritans nor the conquistadors were invited by the indigenous tribes of those lands.

In the same way, there has been no formal invitation for the people of Central and South America to pass through our southern border illegally. America does, in fact, invite immigrantsbut it requires that they apply to do so. Advocates of unlimited immigration may argue that the United States has invited the millions who are crossing illegally. Only 40 years ago, we rewarded illegal immigrants with a mass amnesty and citizenship. Today, we allow illegal immigrants to attend our public schools (often at “in-state” tuition rates reserved for citizens); we give them driver’s licenses, welfare, and medical care. Are these benefits not an invitation? Nothese are incentives, which are not the same thing.

These incentives are often extended by individual states in defiance of federal law. Chicago, New York City, and other “sanctuary cities” have declared that they will not enforce federal immigration law (though they claim it’s only to protect the illegal immigrants who have already arrived). It’s plain that these cities never intended their policy to be taken as an invitation: simply look at their outrage and complaints after states like Florida and Texas began sending them illegal immigrants.

If there’s no invitation, you’ve got an invasion.

Where Are the Women and Children?

Anyone who views photographs of the many caravans moving into Eagle Pass will immediately see that the vast majority are men—almost exclusively men between the ages of 18 and 50. Whatever women and children there are, they are outnumbered by military-aged males. This disproportionality shows that the many requests for asylum are disingenuous. When the Trump Administration began screening to determine that family groups arriving were indeed family, we learned that women and children are often used as props by unrelated men who might otherwise be rejected for asylum. The overrepresentation of men suggests these people are not refugees. If they were fleeing from war, wouldn’t the military-aged men be at home fighting? Wouldn’t the caravans be comprised mostly of women and children?

Of course, the men are (probably) not planning a military assault on Dallas or Tampa, but planned military operations are not a prerequisite for a mass migration of people to be considered an invasion. If people migrate in sufficient numbers, they may not need to attack in order to conquer the region in question. At a certain point, there are too many individuals to deport: the nation being invaded has no choice but to (attempt to) integrate the newcomers.

With or without military activity, all historical invasions have consisted overwhelmingly of men in the initial stage. Indisputably, this is what is unfolding at America’s southern border.

What Are They After?

Today’s illegal immigrants undertake a treacherous journey—and they don’t do it because they want to help American citizens. They cross the desert because they believe it will benefit them personally. We constantly hear that they are “in search of a better life.” This refrain quietly concedes that the immigrants are seeking economic advantages. They may not get rich. But they will, in all likelihood, attain a level of wealth (and various social benefits) that would have been all but impossible in their countries of origin.

Regardless of their nationality, the people in the caravans are united by one characteristic: like all invading forces, they’re motivated by self-interest.

Which Flag Do They Fly?

Just as warships or fighter jets are marked with the insignia of the nation to which they belong, all invading forces bring with them the signifiers of their home. In past eras with high immigration, newcomers to the United States willingly gave up the language of their former homes. Germans, Italians, and Poles often fully transitioned to speaking English within a generation.

In contrast, the immigrants flooding over our southern border often resist assimilation—and are encouraged to do so. There are people who have been in the United States illegally for decades who still know almost no English. These people often live a life apart from the nation at large, congregating in particular neighborhoods in our major cities. But their attempts to hold onto their language and the norms of the homes they left are not the only indications they are invaders.

Who can ignore the fact that the people leading the caravans carry the flags of their homeland? Flags from Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, and El Salvador are all on display in media images of the new arrivals. This affinity remains once they are in the United States. When the U.S. soccer team plays Mexico in California, it amounts to a home game for the Mexican team. Given a choice between the nation they left and the nation they chose instead, many “Mexican-Americans” choose to cheer for Mexico rather than America. Drive around a city with a high immigrant population like Houston, Los Angeles, or Orlando and you will see a surprising number of cars with stickers that pay homage to the home they abandoned: Mexican flags, geographical outlines of central American nations, and the like.

This resistance to assimilation—a resistance that is indulged and enabled by both public and private institutions—is a key sign that the people arriving illegally are invaders. For many, the aim isn’t to become Americans: it is to exploit the opportunities that America affords, and then to send the money earned to their families who still live back in their (true) home.

A New America?

All invasions change the way of life in the region they invade. The European invasion of the Americas completely transformed the Western hemisphere. A century after England renounced its claim to India, the signs of its invasion are still seen throughout Indian society.

The idea of the “melting pot”—an American metaphor for cultural assimilation in which the many peoples who come here become one—is now seen as a form of cultural chauvinism. Since the nineties, the dominant metaphor has been the “salad bowl,” where all the different peoples who inhabit the United States retain their various identities despite living in close geographical proximity to one another. The people who insist that “diversity is our strength” are often the same ones who assure us that mass immigration will have no discernible effect on American society.

How many more Central Americans—many of whom will not be readily assimilated—can we add to the bowl before it becomes a different sort of salad? A million? Ten million? Twenty? None of the proponents of unfettered immigration will even entertain the idea that there might be a tipping point, but there are signs that we are quickly approaching it. The recent arrival of relatively insignificant numbers of illegal immigrants in New York City and Chicago have been enough to spark housing crises, budgetary strain, and a rash of public violence that is (somehow) worse than the already-demoralizing norm.

Many who cross illegally leave their home nations because they are poor. Even when working illegally in the U.S., many still fall below the poverty line, so they are often dependent on the welfare state. In these situations, housing, food, health care, and court costs are all paid by the state, which is to say “taxpayers.”

Whether or not illegal immigrants intend to change America, they are. How much life in the nation will change depends on how long citizens tolerate the crisis. But the American way of life is already being transformed, and this shows that it amounts to an invasion.

Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way

It’s true that invasion is a strong word. But by any historically-informed perspective, it is the right word. Shying away from it amounts to a refusal to acknowledge the gravity of the problem. In the face of a world-historical tide of illegal migration, any term other than invasion is just a strategy that allows one to look away from the humanitarian catastrophe happening at the border and along the way. It’s a failure of courage—a feigned blindness that deliberately ignores the onerous ramifications that the crisis has for our own citizens and the safety of those who attempt the dangerous journey to America.

If we have any prospects of thwarting the invasion—indeed, if we are even to discover the will to do so—we and our leaders need to find the strength to admit it is happening.

*****

This article was published by The American Mind and is reproduced with permission.

TAKE ACTION

The Prickly Pear’s TAKE ACTION focus this year is to help achieve a winning 2024 national and state November 5th election with the removal of the Biden/Obama leftist executive branch disaster, win one U.S. Senate seat, maintain and win strong majorities in all Arizona state offices on the ballot and to insure that unrestricted abortion is not constitutionally embedded in our laws and culture.

Please click the TAKE ACTION link to learn to do’s and don’ts for voting in 2024. Our state and national elections are at great risk from the very aggressive and radical leftist Democrat operatives with documented rigging, mail-in voter fraud and illegals voting across the country (yes, with illegals voting across the country) in the last several election cycles.

Read Part 1 and Part 2 of The Prickly Pear essays entitled How NOT to Vote in the November 5, 2024 Election in Arizona to be well informed of the above issues and to vote in a way to ensure the most likely chance your vote will be counted and counted as you intend.

Please click the following link to learn more.

Polls Show Who Republicans Want As Trump’s VP Running Mate thumbnail

Polls Show Who Republicans Want As Trump’s VP Running Mate

By Casey Harper

Republican voters have suggestions for former President Donald Trump when he considers his running mate for vice president.

The Center Square Voter’s Voice poll released this week asked voters this question: “Who should Donald Trump choose as his vice presidential candidate?”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis narrowly edged out the other potential candidates. DeSantis was once seen as a serious threat to Trump for the presidential nomination, but after Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate was raided by the FBI, Trump’s poll numbers soared. DeSantis was left behind in the polling and never recovered.

Now, according to the survey, 18% of Republicans want DeSantis to be Trump’s vice presidential running mate.

In a close second place is former Ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who received 17% support from Republicans as Trump’s vice president.

Haley was the last Republican contender to drop out of the primary. She was able to win nearly 100 delegates, and put up a fight in states like Vermont and South Carolina. But, ultimately, she dropped out after Trump roundly defeated her on Super Tuesday.

Kate Guenther | The Center Square

Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and South Carolina Gov. Tim Scott are tied for third place with 15% support among Republicans.

Notably, Democratic former Congressman Tulsi Gabbard received 7% support, the only Democrat to get that kind of backing from Republicans.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem received 6% support among Republicans to be Trump’s running mate. Many analysts have said Trump should pick a female vice president to persuade Haley supporters and suburban women to support the ticket.

Trump has not said who he is leaning toward most for his vice president, however the New York Post recently reported that Trump has ruled out Ramaswamy, but that Ramaswamy would be considered for a cabinet position.

Trump is not expected to pick former Vice President Mike Pence since their relationship has soured in recent years.

Pence told Martha MacCallum on Fox News last week that he would not endorse Trump for president.

Pence, who was unable to pick up steam in his own presidential primary bid, said there are “profound differences between me and President Trump on a range of issues.”

There is little indication that President Joe Biden will drop Vice President Kamala Harris as his running mate.

The vice presidential pick for Trump in particular could be key to shifting what is a close race.

The Center Square poll shows Trump beating Biden 46%-45% with likely voters in a head-to-head faceoff. With such a close margin, Trump’s pick for VP could make or break the race.

Notably, if third-party independent candidates like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Cornel West, and Jill Stein stay in the race, Trump’s lead grows to 3 points.

The Center Square Voters’ Voice poll was conducted in conjunction with Noble Predictive Insights in March, querying 2,510 respondents roughly split between both parties along with 340 true independents. The margin of error for likely voters is +/- 2.1%.

*****

This article was published by the Center Square and is reproduced with permission.

TAKE ACTION

The Prickly Pear’s TAKE ACTION focus this year is to help achieve a winning 2024 national and state November 5th election with the removal of the Biden/Obama leftist executive branch disaster, win one U.S. Senate seat, maintain and win strong majorities in all Arizona state offices on the ballot and to insure that unrestricted abortion is not constitutionally embedded in our laws and culture.

Please click the TAKE ACTION link to learn to do’s and don’ts for voting in 2024. Our state and national elections are at great risk from the very aggressive and radical leftist Democrat operatives with documented rigging, mail-in voter fraud and illegals voting across the country (yes, with illegals voting across the country) in the last several election cycles.

Read Part 1 and Part 2 of The Prickly Pear essays entitled How NOT to Vote in the November 5, 2024 Election in Arizona to be well informed of the above issues and to vote in a way to ensure the most likely chance your vote will be counted and counted as you intend.

Please click the following link to learn more.

Congress Passes Funding Package, Leaves for Recess and Fails to Secure Border thumbnail

Congress Passes Funding Package, Leaves for Recess and Fails to Secure Border

By Federation for American Immigration Reform

Early Saturday morning, Congress passed a spending bill to fully fund the government through Fiscal Year (FY) 2024, which ends September 30. In both the Senate and House of Representatives, the bill garnered more Democratic than Republican votes. In the Republican-controlled House, the bill failed to gain a majority of Republican support, but passed by a vote of 286-134.  The final vote in the in the Senate was 74-24.

The new appropriations bill provides $1.2 trillion in funding for multiple departments within the government. These include the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and State Department, all of which are responsible for implementing our immigration laws.  Unfortunately, while the bill gives money to these departments, it does not mandate policy changes that would secure our borders and enforce our immigration laws.  In fact, it reinforces Biden Administration policies allowing the mass processing and release of illegal aliens into the country.

Supporters of the bill will point out that it includes funding for 22,000 Border Patrol agents and 41,500 detention beds, an increase from 34,000.  However, without policy changes, the Border Patrol agents will likely be used to process and release illegal migrants and the detention beds will remain unused.  Indeed, that outcome is almost guaranteed as the bill does nothing to end the administration’s catch-and-release policies, build the border wall, or stop the abuse of asylum and parole laws. This means business as usual at the border.

Subsidizing Illegal Immigration

Instead of deterring illegal immigration, some of the largest line items in the bill effectively subsidize it. The appropriations bill provides $3.9 billion to the State Department to support foreign countries with migration and refugee assistance. The bill further provides funds to Latin American and Caribbean countries for economic assistance and to address “irregular migration,” consistent with the radical Los Angeles Declaration to “promot[e] principles of safe, orderly, humane, and regular migration.” The bill provides money to support development in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras and includes a broad-based exemption for funds going to humanitarian assistance from requirements to combat corruption, human rights abuses and drug trafficking.  That exemption goes so far as explicitly noting that receiving State Department funds does not require “demonstrable actions to secure national borders and stem mass migration.”

Other funding in the bill subsidizes illegal aliens once they are in the country. The bill allocates $650 million to the Shelter and Services Program (SSP), operated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to provide grants to NGOs and sanctuary jurisdictions which facilitate illegal immigration. Another $117 million is provided to the Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP) within FEMA, which in the past has been abused to provide the same type of grants for shelter and services for illegal aliens.

The appropriations bill also provides $470 million to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for the Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program. Under the Biden Administration, ATD has been used to allow illegal aliens to check in via a mobile application rather than be subject to GPS monitoring. The Biden Administration and its “abolish ICE” allies have been working to eliminate detention altogether and instead rely on ATD to allow illegal aliens to freely move about the United States.

Expanding Legal Immigration

In addition to appropriating money, the funding bill expands two visa programs: the H-2B program and the Special Immigrant Visa program for Afghan nationals.

H-2B Program Expansion. The appropriations bill authorizes Secretary Mayorkas to increase the number of H-2B visas available in FY2025 beyond the 66,000 statutory cap.  It does so by allowing the Secretary to include thousands of workers who have participated in the program in the past, also known as “returning workers,” without counting those workers against the cap. Last year, Mayorkas used a similar exemption to increase the number of H-2B workers by 64,716 – nearly doubling what Congress intended – making a total of 130,716 visas available in FY2024. Additionally, the bill changes how wages for H-2B workers are determined, allowing employers to not only use private wage surveys but also to base the prevailing wage on the geographic area (rather than the national survey data, which is generally higher).

SIVs for Afghan Nationals. The bill likewise increases the total number of special immigrant visas (SIVs) for Afghan nationals without improving the vetting process.  It makes an additional 12,000 SIVs available for Afghans in FY2025 – plus family members who do not count against the cap – despite the fact that the United States has had no presence in Afghanistan since 2021 and the program is slated to expire in December 2024. Many of the Afghans seeking SIVs were illegally paroled into the U.S. without proper vetting after the fall of Kabul in August 2021. Adding to the security risk, in 2022, the State Department and DHS took the extraordinary step of waiving certain terrorism-related inadmissibility grounds under INA 212(a)(3)(B) for Afghan nationals, which may apply to SIV applicants.

Additional Provisions

Unaccompanied Alien Children. The bill makes no policy changes to prevent unaccompanied alien children (UACs) from being trafficked or released to unvetted sponsors.  The bill provides $5.4 billion in funding for the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) to process UACs and to maintain an average of 16,000 beds for UACs in their care. It also provides additional funding that is triggered if the level of children needing housing surpasses the bed space provided. The bill, however, does nothing to force the agency to better screen sponsors or increase well-being checks after minors are released to sponsors. To the contrary, it handcuffs the government from going after sponsors by expressly prohibiting ICE from using information it may obtain on an alien sponsor for enforcement action, unless that sponsor has a charge or felony conviction for certain serious crimes.

Earmarks. Finally, the appropriations bill contains more than a hundred pages of earmarks, amounting to billions for pet projects. These earmarks allow Members of Congress to request federal funds to be allocated for specific projects in their home districts. For example, Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) were successful in including $500,000 for an immigrant workforce development program; Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) was able to secure $450,000 for childcare programs specifically for immigrant families; and, in Colorado, Democratic Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper got $93,000 for the International Rescue Committee to provide services to immigrants and refugees.

Other harmful provisions in the appropriations bill include:

  • $160 million in taxpayer funds for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which is typically funded by fees and those seeking benefits, to process asylum applications and work authorizations;
  • $97 million for migrant and seasonal farmworker programs instead of supporting American jobs;
  • $15 million for the Case Management Pilot Program (CMPP) to provide welfare benefits and aid illegal aliens facing deportation;
  • $10 million for the Citizenship and Integration Grant program, which has been routinely awarded to organizations involved in active litigation against DHS; and
  • 2-year funding for the Office of Detention Ombudsman.

Conclusion

Even after the bill was passed, lawmakers continued to debate its value. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) commended passage of the appropriations bill but also promised “a series of meaningful bills” to address the border crisis in the coming weeks. Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) meanwhile took the first steps to remove him as Speaker, with House Freedom Caucus (HFC) Chair Bob Good (R-Va.) saying, “Frankly, I can’t defend the speaker.”  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer praised the bill’s passage, claiming that “It is good for the country that we have reached this bipartisan deal.”

Many Republicans are no doubt frustrated because Congress has had multiple opportunities to step in and end the Biden Border Crisis and has failed to act. Nearly a year ago, the House passed the FAIR-supported H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act, but the Senate has refused to take it up. In addition, Congress has now passed FY2024 funding, four short-term spending bills (continuing resolutions), and considered a foreign aid package, all without including any of the critical policy changes from H.R. 2. Now, Congress is providing funding to the agencies responsible for enforcing our immigration laws without ending the policies have that created the worst border crisis in history.

Under the Biden Administration, Americans across the country are forced to face the consequences of its disastrous border policies in their communities and daily lives. Rather than taking a stand and fighting for border security, however, Congress opted for the status quo.  Funding alone won’t solve the Biden Administration’s border crisis, and neither will weak bills that reinforce this administration’s open-borders agenda. In the coming weeks and months, FAIR will continue to advocate for meaningful steps to secure our borders and enforce our immigration laws.  It is far past time for Congress to act.

To learn more about H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act, and how you can get involved, visit FAIR’s activist toolkit here. To read more about actions that Biden can take to secure our borders today, click here.

AUTHOR

Joe Chatham joined FAIR in 2022, bringing significant congressional, campaign, and nonprofit experience to the organization. As part of FAIR’s influential government relations team, he helps manage Capitol Hill outreach and policy, advocating for a secure border and a just, equitable legal immigration system.

Before joining FAIR, Joe worked with a large range of organizations, from congressional offices and political campaigns, to intergovernmental organizations and think tanks. Most recently, he served as counsel to a member of congress, where he handled the representative’s immigration portfolio for the House Committee on the Judiciary.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan, a Master in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School, and a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School.

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EDITORS NOTE: This FAIR Take column is republished with permission. © COPYRIGHT 2024 FEDERATION FOR AMERICAN IMMIGRATION REFORM, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

November 5, 2024 — America’s ‘Drain The Swamp’ Day thumbnail

November 5, 2024 — America’s ‘Drain The Swamp’ Day

By Dr. Rich Swier

Americans are praying that November 5, 2024 will go down in history as “Drain The Swamp Day.”

It is time that all patriots band together and drain the swamp that is creeping toward every city, county, state and our national capital. The swamp is in the school house and in the White House. The swamp exists in every classroom and boardroom in America.

There are many swamp creatures but the most dangerous and deadly are those who attack our faith, families and freedoms.

Swamp creatures use various weapons against freedom loving patriots from the Covid-19 lockdowns and mandates to the control of what we eat, use, drive and how we live in order to “save the plant” from global warming.

But the most nefarious and most successful weapon is — EDUCATION!

It began in the afternoon of September 12th, 1905 at Peck’s Restaurant in downtown New York. That is the date that our current “cultural war” began led by the Intercollegiate Socialist Society or ISS.

MarxistHistory.org reported:

The Intercollegiate Socialist Society (ISS) was a national non-party group dedicated to the organization of current and former collegians for the socialist cause and the spreading of socialist ideas on campus.

There were at least two isolated cases of socialist organization on campus prior to the establishment of the ISS in September 1905. From about 1901 there was a college socialist club organized at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

Chapters were often small and their names frequently did not emphasize their connection to the national society or even with the socialist cause, as was the case, for example, with the Wesleyan Social Study Club headed by Harry Laidler, one of the first organized and affiliated with the ISS. A second chapter was formed at Columbia University in New York City, with a student named Walter Lippmann playing the leading role. Over the course of the first three years, affiliated socialist clubs were organized at Harvard, Princeton, Barnard, New York University Law School, and the University of Pennsylvania.

Since 1904 education has become the “weapon of choice” used by the swamp to take our children and turn them against their own best interests and against their faith, their families and their freedoms to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

What is The Swamp’s Primary Weapon?

The swamp’s weapon against we the people is education.

Soviet politician, political theorist and revolutionary and the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1953 Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin wrote,

“Education is a weapon whose effects depend on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed.”

Education includes public school education K-12, college and university education, education provided by our military to its new recruits and to its leadership, corporate education and training, education one receives by reading books, watching films, television and reading newspapers and magazines. Each of the these forms of education can potentially become a weapon for “good” or “evil” depending on if it is in the hands of a patriot or a traitor and at whom it is aimed.

Ulysses S. Grant wrote,

“There are but two parties now: traitors and patriots. And I want hereafter to be ranked with the latter and, I trust, the stronger party.”

Who are Members of the Traitor Party?

Perhaps some examples of education that has been used against the faithful, traditional family and our freedoms can help us understand the breath and depth of their agenda.

  • Government grants to public, private and non-profits to portray Christian Americans as Nazis. The Biden administration is doling out taxpayer money through an anti-terrorism grant initiative to a university program that has explicitly lumped the Republican Party, as well as Christian and conservative groups, into the same category as Nazis, according to documents shared exclusively with Fox News Digital. DHS’s Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention Grant Program (TVTP) provides funds to various public, private, and non-profit institutions — such as universities and county governments — “to establish or enhance capabilities to prevent targeted violence and terrorism.”
  • Childhood Red-Gender Guards. One of the most depressing stories of 2023 features a British teacher who claims to have been removed from her job in a prestigious, fee-paying English high school for the heinous crime of referring to her pupils as being female. This is despite the school in question being a girls’-only institution. Giving testimony to an independent enquiry into childhood gender dysphoria, the anonymous educator told of an occasion in May 2021 when she greeted her 11-year-old students with the innocuous phrase “good afternoon, girls”. Immediately, the politically primed students piously informed her that “not everyone here identifies as female”, even though they all clearly were. One particular classroom cadre even stood up and demanded the teacher “acknowledge their pronouns”. The following day, the girls all wrote their names on the whiteboard, together with their preferred pronouns – including one who affected the nonsensical labels “they/them”. The junior Red Guards even held a lunchtime protest against their “oppressor”, bearing home-made placards with modish slogans like “Trans lives matter”.
  • Government programs encouraging children to have sex, an abortion and use drugs without parental knowledge. As part of its month-long focus on adolescent health, the Biden administration is promoting a document that tells Planned Parenthood and other taxpayer-funded family planning offices how to talk to minors about sex without their parents overhearing, and how to secretly deliver birth control to adolescents without parental knowledge or consent. The plan to speak about sex one-on-one with impressionable youth begins during scheduling. “Confirm with youth clients that you have their phone number/contact information rather than their parents’ contact information,” the document tells federal grant recipients. “At the beginning of the visit, do a privacy screen. Ask ‘Are you alone in the room?’ or ‘Can other people hear what you are saying?’” The document links to a webinar which fleshes out these ideas in greater detail.

Corporations Embrace The Swamp

A number of American companies have embraced the swamp by educating their staffs on diversity, equity and inclusion. Among these are American companies like:

  • ANHEUSER-BUSCH. Its Bud Light division which embraced non-binary/gender fluid Dylan Mulvaney to market their Bud Light Brand, which has since lost 26% of sales and still plummets costing the company billions. Read more herehere and here.
  • TARGET. One of the first companies to stick out their necks for the LGBT agenda, Target was woke before woke was a word. So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the chain who introduced a controversial line of “Love Is Love” shirts way back in 2012 was ready to board the transgender train. Back then, retail analyst Britt Beemer warned that the Target strategy isn’t “very smart,” especially in conservative states, where it does the biggest business. “Anytime a retailer gets away from doing what they should be doing by being involved in a social cause, [they lose].” Target got a taste of that last year, when the mega-retailer — who helped launch the war on gender six years ago with its mixed-gender bathrooms and fitting rooms — decided to fill its racks with merchandise to help young people reject the biological sex God gave them. From chest binders that strap down breasts to compression underwear to hide bulges for boys, Target is taking direct aim at America’s children.
  • LEVI STRAUSS. Last fall, Jennifer Sey, a longtime Levi’s executive, wrote a blockbuster book about the radical undercurrent at America’s oldest jeans company called, “Levi’s Unbuttoned: The Woke Mob Took My Job But Gave Me My Voice.” Sey’s candid, behind-the-scenes tell-all made quite a splash, especially her frank assessment of upper management’s radical politics. “Today’s executives reared these kids with an ‘I’m not your Dad, I’m your friend’ parenting philosophy, and they chase their children’s approval,” she writes. “They want to impress their woke kids with their own progressive bona fides.” Their latest idea? A gender-neutral clothing line. CEO Chip Bergh announced the idea this month, dismissing any fears about “a Bud Light-type backlash” against the 170-year-old company. Unisex clothing, he argued, is the wave of the future in a supposedly trans-accepting society.
  • STARBUCKS. Anyone who’s ordered a cup from the iconic green mermaid has been fueling more than their caffeine fix — they’ve been financing the movement to trans our sons and daughters. After a divisive pronoun campaign in 2019 called #WhatsYourName, the mega-retailer one-upped America’s other woke CEOs last year by offering to ship employees’ children out of state to change their sex. A statement from the company’s Sara Kelly announced that Starbucks is committed to the most outrageous forms of corporate activism — including paid travel for transgender surgery. “Regardless of where you live or what you believe, partners enrolled in Starbucks healthcare will now be offered reimbursement for eligible travel expenses when accessing abortion or gender-affirming procedures when those services are not available within 100 miles of a partner’s home.”
  • SPORTS ILLUSTRATED. Men who picked up a copy of the 2023 swimsuit edition hoping to see actual women at the beach are in for quite a surprise with this year’s edition. Instead of a biological female on the cover, the woke magazine opted for Kim Petras, a busty man who underwent gender-transition surgery at age 16. “I was so excited when I got the call to be in Sports Illustrated,” Petras, a German-born singer, told SI. “It’s very iconic, and a lot of very iconic people have done it before, so [it was a] big dream come true for me.” Asked about the pushback he might get, 30-year-old Petras replied, “It’s definitely a scary time to be transgender in America, but there’s also so much more representation than there’s ever been, and there’s so many things on the bright side.” Back in 2006, the singer was considered “the world’s youngest transsexual” after he appeared on a television show describing his transition, which started with hormones at just 12 years old.

The Bottom Line

Faith, family and freedom are the bedrock values of patriots. Faith breeds morals, values, good behavior and gives one a higher calling. God rules the world, not governments. The traditional family of one woman, one man and their biological children are the foundation of our culture and society.

Our freedoms are outlined in our Constitution. Without those freedoms there is only one road and that road leads to the the gulag.

It is not a cliché that our very lives, liberties and pursuit of happiness are in grave danger.

Today,  big government has now become the ‘opiate of the people!

©2024. Dr. Rich Swier. All rights reserved.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Let’s Have More Civility … But Is this possible under current circumstances? thumbnail

Let’s Have More Civility … But Is this possible under current circumstances?

By John Droz, Jr.

In our local paper they did an Op-Ed advocating that we should do a better job of working together as a country. In that piece they cited a meeting of some prior US Presidents, where a public statement was generated. In it there were the expected platitudes — like there needs to be more civility across the board…

So, what are the major prerequisites for civility? They appear to be:

  1. honesty,
  2. competence with the topic being discussed,
  3. open-mindedness,
  4. politeness,
  5. 5being thick-skinned, and
  6. similar overall values and objectives.

Put another way, how can you have a civil communication with a person who:

  1. is dishonest?
  2. has little competence with the topic being discussed?
  3. is close-minded?
  4. is rude and insulting?
  5. easily takes offense?
  6. has radically different values and objectives?

This is a good explanation (from The Institute for Civility in Government):

“Civility is about more than just politeness, although politeness is a necessary first step. It is about disagreeing without disrespect, seeking common ground as a starting point for dialogue about differences, listening past one’s preconceptions, and teaching others to do the same. Civility is the hard work of staying present even with those with whom we have deep-rooted and fierce disagreements. It is political in the sense that it is a necessary prerequisite for civic action. But it is political, too, in the sense that it is about negotiating interpersonal power such that everyone’s voice is heard, and nobody’s is ignored. And civility begins with us.”

All this sounds good, but they never mention honesty! My 2¢ is that without HONESTY, nothing else matters!

Although I looked up multiple definitions of “civility” from a wide variety of Internet sites, I was struck by the fact that honesty was almost never mentioned as a necessary ingredient for civility.

To me, dishonesty is the crux of the discord that has been sewn into our society. It is impossible to have any kind of civil discussion with people who outright lie.

Of course those who are guilty of this dishonesty, frequently resort to accusing the truth-tellers of lying. So we get into he-says/she-says diatribes, or excruciating discussions about minutia like “it depends on what the meaning of ‘is’ is.”

Another version of dishonesty is HYPOCRICY. A plethora of examples abound: a person who preaches tolerance, but is intolerant of those who disagree with him; an environmentalist who advocates for environmentally destructive policies (e.g., industrial wind energy); politicians who claim to be about unity, but are promoting division; media that calls for objectivity, while being exceptionally biased; religious clergy who have little respect for their religion’s dogmas; public education advocates who send their children to private schools; celebrities who denounce materialism, but live in excess. Etc., etc.

I’ve often heard foolish statements (from legislators, school administrators, business executives, scientists, etc.) and the natural response is: “This person is either incompetent or dishonest. Or both.”

The two main contributors to this explosion of dishonesty are: 1) a poor K-12 education system that focuses on political correctness, not Critical Thinking, and 2) a major decline in adherence to Judeo-Christian values that America was built on.

The poor education has resulted in widespread incompetence, as most K-12 graduates can only process soundbites, have memorized politically correct positions, and have essentially no ability to do Critical Thinking. As adults they are keenly aware that they really understand very little about anything, so they cover that deficiency by robotic recitation of politically correctisms (“but we need to save the world”), and when that stops working they resort to making stuff up (aka lying).

Added to this, the rapid decline in traditional values has made things like the Ninth Commandment seem to be as archaic as getting around with a horse and buggy. The new set of standards is Relativism, which basically means that you can set whatever standards you like — the hell with everyone else. This mentality includes such gems as “the end justifies the means” which not only opens the door for lying, but honors it as a righteous effort to bring about your personal beliefs.

What a mess!

We need to stop and think every so often about whether the path we (and our society) are on, are in our best interest? Yes, almost everybody is doing it — so that must make it OK, right? No. That’s what the Pied Piper and the Emperor’s Clothes are all about.

Did we learn anything in Kindergarten?

Let’s take some quiet time and give some thought to all this…

Here are other materials by this scientist that you might find interesting:

Check out the Archives of this Critical Thinking substack.

WiseEnergy.orgdiscusses the Science (or lack thereof) behind our energy options.

C19Science.infocovers the lack of genuine Science behind our COVID-19 policies.

Election-Integrity.infomultiple major reports on the election integrity issue.

Media Balance Newsletter: a free, twice-a-month newsletter that covers what the mainstream media does not do, on issues from COVID to climate, elections to education, renewables to religion, etc. Here are the Newsletter’s 2023 Archives. Please send me an email to get your free copy. When emailing me, please make sure to include your full name and the state where you live. (Of course, you can cancel the Media Balance Newsletter at any time – but why would you?

Polls Predict Trump Besting Biden in Battleground States thumbnail

Polls Predict Trump Besting Biden in Battleground States

By Family Research Council

Former President Donald Trump is leading incumbent Joe Biden in key swing and battleground states, according to a bevy of recent polls. Four Emerson College/The Hill polls released this week show Trump besting Biden in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin. Last week, Emerson College/The Hill surveys showed Trump leading Biden in Pennsylvania and Georgia. According to this week’s polls, in a one-on-one contest, Trump is leading Biden 52% to 48% in Arizona and Wisconsin, 51% to 49% in Nevada, and an even narrower 50.3% to 49.7% in Michigan.

When the playing field is broadened to include third-party candidates, Trump still maintains his lead. In Arizona, Trump would lead with 46%, while Biden would garner 38%, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 6.5%, and Cornel West and Jill Stein less than 2% each, with just over 7% left undecided. In Wisconsin, Trump would lead with just over 43%, Biden would earn just shy of 40%, Kennedy 6%, West, and Stein less than 1% each, and nearly 10% of voters would remain undecided. In Nevada, Trump would lead with 41%, Biden would trail behind with 36%, Kennedy with nearly 9%, West with 2%, and Stein with just about 1%, with 11% of voters left undecided. And in Michigan, Trump would lead with 43%, Biden would take just over 40%, Kennedy less than 5%, West and Stein 1% each or less, and 10% of voters would remain undecided.

Emerson College/The Hill’s surveys last week showed Trump beating Biden 52% to 48% in a head-to-head match in both Pennsylvania and Georgia. When third-party candidates were included as options, Trump maintained his lead in Pennsylvania with 44%, Biden trailed behind at 40%, Kennedy at less than 6%, and West and Stein at 1.2% each, with over 8% of voters left undecided. In Georgia, Trump would keep his 44% top post, but Biden would fall to 37%, and Kennedy, West, and Stein would see almost no change in support, but 10% of voters would be left undecided.

Significantly, Biden’s approval rating is below 40% in all six battleground states polled, with a low of 32.5% in Nevada and a high of 38.7% in Michigan. Additionally, in each state Emerson College/The Hill polled this week — Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin — more than half of respondents said that Biden “does not deserve to be re-elected.”

Emerson College/The Hill’s national survey released earlier this month showed Trump and Biden practically tied at 45% each, with 10% of voters left undecided.

Over the past several months, polls have almost unanimously shown Trump beating Biden in a November matchup. A post-State of the Union poll from HarrisX showed the 45th president beating his successor by five points, with 13% undecided. When undecided voters were asked which way they lean, Trump still lead Biden by four points, 52% to 48%. Once again, when independent and third-party candidates were added to the mix, Trump maintained a strong lead at 41%, with Biden trailing six points behind at 35%, Kennedy at 12%, and West and Stein at about 1% each, with 10% of voters undecided. When undecideds were asked which way they lean, Trump still came out on top at 44%.

Last month’s Harvard CAPS/Harris poll also found that Biden’s popularity across the nation is suffering, with illegal immigration, rampant inflation, skyrocketing crime rates, and a disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan ranking among his worst failures as president. Surveyed voters also said they would reelect Trump over Biden 48% to 43%, with 9% of voters undecided. When undecided voters were asked which way they lean, Trump bested Biden 53% to 47%.

AUTHOR

S.A. McCarthy

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.

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TRUMP: “November 5th I believe will be the most important day in the history of our country.” pic.twitter.com/co4y2EHKCb

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) March 25, 2024

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Is the White House Playing Political Games with Israel’s Soldiers and Hostages? thumbnail

Is the White House Playing Political Games with Israel’s Soldiers and Hostages?

By Family Research Council

After having lived in Israel for more than 10 years?” until 2017?” I suppose my emotional reaction to worrisome news from the Jewish State is a little more intense than some other Americans’ might be. My first response to reports of violence and death ?” wars and rumors of wars ?” is to immediately contact some half a dozen very well-informed Israeli friends to find out what’s really going on. Of course, what I primarily want to know is how serious are the reports? And what’s happening to them and their neighborhoods? Are their families alright?

But another question is always, “So … what are you hearing?”

My visit to Israel in August 2023 gave me a chance to happily celebrate life with my friends and their loved ones, and to catch up and enjoy face-to-face conversations. As always, there were the inevitable political questions, but mostly updates on our sons, daughters, grandchildren, and mutual friends. Concerns about potential conflicts are always relevant, but during those warm summer get-togethers, there was little talk of that.

However, just weeks after my return to the U.S., October 7, 2023 happened.

Early news broadcasts on that terrible morning were heart-stopping: some 1,300 Israeli women, men, children, and infants had been savagely tortured, gang-raped, mutilated, burned alive, and otherwise slaughtered by Hamas terrorists. The published accounts were physically sickening, and increasingly detailed subsequent news reports were horrifying. Videos of vicious abuses briefly appeared online, confirming the worst, most violent acts. Meanwhile, 253 hostages had been kidnapped. This assault included an attack on the Nova music festival in the same area adjacent to the Israeli-Gaza border. There Hamas terrorists killed more than 360 people and took as many as 40 hostages, many ?” if not most of whom ?” were viciously subjected to sexual violence.

In the days that followed, there was silence from my friends, nor did I comment on what I was learning from international reports. Rather than typical “bad news,” it felt like a terrible sickness had struck us all speechless. There were no words.

After the deadly offensive, the current chairman of Hamas’s “political bureau” and senior political leader of Hamas, had plenty to say. Ismail Haniyeh declared, “Today, the enemy has had a political, military, intelligence, security and moral defeat inflicted upon it, and we shall crown it, with the grace of God, with a crushing defeat that will expel it from our lands, our holy city of al Quds, our al Aqsa Mosque, and the release of our prisoners from the jails of the Zionist occupation.”

Of course, the next thing we knew was that Israel had declared all-out war against the Hamas terror group. A price had to be paid for the terrorists’ diabolical attacks, and rescues had to be attempted to return the remaining hundreds of captured innocents ?” many of whom have still not been freed. The Israeli response has been unsurprisingly fierce and violent.

Meanwhile, October, November, December, January, February passed. Now, in March of 2024, some of the hostages have been released, but another 130 are still held captive, and there are reports that around 30 victims are likely dead.

Shortly after October 7, Israel declared war on Hamas, and the world continues to watch the IDF’s determined efforts to decimate Hamas’s murderers and to destroy the terror group’s military infrastructure. These efforts also target Hamas’s maze of tunnels, along with caches of weaponry and stashes of cash in international currencies, hidden away in kindergartens, schools, hospitals, and family homes.

When Israel’s military launched its response to Hamas’s October 7 violence, the Biden administration was appropriately agreeable. President Joe Biden and his team expressed sympathy to the shattered survivors and the Israeli public’s horrified state of mind. It was, after all, the most violent attack on the country since the founding of Israel in 1948.

Today, however, that initially warm response has chilled. The more Israel’s military response succeeds in destroying the Hamas infrastructure in Gaza and its thousands of fighters ?” most of whom have been intentionally situated in residential areas, hospitals, schools, and mosques ?” the higher the human death toll has risen, including women and children. At the same time, of course, there is the agonizingly slow process of moving through the maze of tunnels that hide, not only remaining hostages, but also Hamas terrorist leaders and their minions.

Despite Joe Biden’s initial empathy for Israel, along with my Israeli friends, I am increasingly shocked by the ever-increasing arrogance of America’s leadership. Most amazing is their outrageous attempts to use this conflict to manipulate U.S. voters in the upcoming presidential election. There are two dangerous battles going on in Israel simultaneously ?” one against Hamas, but also continuous attacks by Hezbollah are striking Israel’s northern border. These parallel onslaughts are both funded and advised by Iran’s “Death to Israel” regime.

Yet today, in the midst of this significant international conflict, it seems that President Biden and his political allies, including Senator Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), are making efforts to overthrow the elected prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, by calling for new elections. This is happening during the most violent war that has taken place in Israel since its founding. Are these activities an attempt to influence Muslim voters in key states during America’s upcoming election? Sadly, that seems to be true.

Such political manipulation reflects shocking disrespect and disregard for Israel’s security and autonomy as a nation. It also insults the intelligence of those of us that recognize very well ?” in fact, more clearly than ever ?” those who wholeheartedly support the best interests of both the United States and Israel and those who do not. Painful as the Gaza conflict continues to be, alongside rumors of impending war at the Lebanon border, these betrayals of trust by the Biden administration will become increasing exposed as the U.S. approaches the presidential election on November 5.

Our responsibility as Christian believers is also becoming clearer now than ever: In the coming months, some actions are essential for those of us who love America and also support the State of Israel. We need to vigilantly watch, fervently pray, speak the truth, and stand with our allies and friends in Israel. They, their elected leaders, and their military men and women need our support today and every day ?” perhaps more than ever before.

AUTHOR

Lela Gilbert

Lela Gilbert is Senior Fellow for International Religious Freedom at Family Research Council and Fellow at Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom. She lived in Israel for over ten years, and is the author of “Saturday People, Sunday People: Israel through the Eyes of a Christian Sojourner.”

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Trump in an exclusive interview with Israel Hayom: “Only a madman or a fool would not have reacted to the October 7 attack the way Israel did” pic.twitter.com/pjd3AJoKLc

— Mossad Commentary (@MOSSADil) March 25, 2024

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Imperial Angina thumbnail

Imperial Angina

By Middle East Media Research Institute

If anyone ever wanted proof that America is a global empire, the last few days and weeks are illustrative. The Biden Administration told governments in Ukraine, Israel, and Niger to stop certain behaviors – in two of those cases behaviors during a war. In Haiti, the Americans endeavored to install a new interim government and secure some peacekeepers after the resignation of Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry. Meanwhile, the U.S. waged both war and diplomacy to disrupt the Houthi regime in Yemen from targeting shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

On the surface, this seems impressive – almost simultaneously exerting your will, or trying to, at far distances and on multiple fronts, in Ukraine, Israel, Niger, Haiti, and Yemen. And while the United States struggles to deal with runaway debt and runaway illegal immigration, I agree with political analyst Niccolo Soldo that in many ways both the coercive “soft-power” and hard power of “Turbo-America” has never been more ubiquitous.[1] Certainly America is rife with problems, many more Americans are unhappy with the situation of the country than are happy with the way things are going, a 20-year trend of dissatisfaction.[2] But would-be rivals, movements, and hegemons, looked at individually – Russia, China, the European Union, Iran, the global Salafi-Jihadist insurgency – seem weaker and more vulnerable (a lasting alliance of China with Russia, Iran, and North Korea coordinating closely is a more formidable challenger) on a global stage.

But a closer look at American interaction with the five countries I mentioned – Ukraine, Israel, Niger, Haiti, and Yemen – does reveal the very real limits of imperial power.

On Ukraine, reports say that the Biden Administration urged that country to stop a “brazen” campaign targeting Russian oil refineries deep inside that country’s borders using attack drones.[3] The American concern being not only that Russia could widen the war but that such attacks could cause a spike in global oil prices, igniting destabilizing inflation. Of course, both Russia and Iran would also benefit from a spike in oil prices. The Biden Administration finds itself in a strange position on the Ukraine War, it wants the war to continue, to “bleed” or “weaken” Russia (which in some ways is stronger than when the war began), it cannot give up in an election year. But it is also increasingly distracted and pushing the Europeans to pick up more of the financial and military supply burden. While much is made of delays caused by House Republicans in sending additional billions to Kyiv, Ukraine is running out of soldiers as many flee the country while others are kidnapped on the streets and sent to the front.[4]

If Washington wants Ukraine to keep fighting Russia – within limits – they want Israel to stop fighting in Gaza. Evidently the risk of a wider conflict with nuclear Russia is more manageable than a ground war with terrorist Hamas. As the Democratic Party drifts left, Israel has become a divisive partisan issue inside the United States more than ever before.[5] Far from being captive to Israeli interests, Washington is increasingly concerned with the reactions of Iran, Qatar, and the radical masses worldwide supporting Hamas.[6]

In Niger, the site of a major American drone base, Washington sent a high-level State and Defense Departments team to rein in the military junta in Niamey and warn it about ties with Russia and Iran. The maneuver seems to have backfired spectacularly as the generals initially announced the end of the military agreement allowing U.S. forces to be based in the country. Despite the announcement, the Americans have not been thrown out yet and some hope remain that Niger may be convinced to relent.[7]

On Haiti, the U.S. is exerting pressure for an interim ruling council to be set up quickly, something that is not happening. Not only does the country have no president or prime minister, it has no army and its police force is outgunned and outmanned by gangs that control most of the capital.[8] Everyone in the international community claims to want a “Haitian-led, Haitian-owned political process” while Haitians increasingly seem to want a strongman who can impose order and guarantee some security and normalcy.

Off the coast of Houthi-ruled Yemen, the U.S.-led air and sea campaign, which is putting American sailors and warships under sustained fire not seen since the Second World War, continues.[9] The Americans also met – indirectly – with Iran in Oman to try to get the Houthis’ main patron to pressure them.[10] It does not seem to have worked. While Western airstrikes may have prevented some ships being sunk, Houthi Yemen seems empowered. While the outside world focuses on the threat to shipping, the Houthis not only portray themselves as the zealous protectors of Gaza, distracting from their own disastrous governance in Yemen, but are also working to mobilize, indoctrinate and militarize the Yemeni population they control (which is the majority of 33 million people who live in the entire country).[11] The military manpower the regime is raising is to be unleashed at the proper time against the Houthi regime’s opponents inside Yemen, breaking a tenuous ceasefire and a sham peace process. After that, who knows where such a force – larger than all of Iran’s other Arab proxies all put together – could be deployed? The Houthis’ ideological vision of themselves and their role is dangerously ambitious and expansive.

An imperial metropole, blessed with wealth and military might can do a lot. It can project power from afar, especially through the air, through diplomacy and through either punitive sanctions or imperial largesse. It can certainly talk in idealistic and philosophical ways about rights and values. America’s “megaphone” on the world stage is unmatched. But in Ukraine, Israel, Haiti, and Yemen real power and conflict resolution will come in the old-fashioned ways on the ground, often in ugly and brutal ways.

The war in Ukraine will end when either Russia or Ukraine wears the other down in combat, a question of numbers, spilt blood, and brute force. Israel will either crush Hamas in spite of the Americans or it will face a revitalized set of adversaries ringing it and the likelihood of another war in short order.[12] In Haiti collapse will continue until someone – a gang lord, politician, or a man in uniform is able to enforce a semblance of order through the use of violence. And in Yemen, the Houthi rebels will either succeed in creating a large ground force that will sweep their Yemeni adversaries and threaten the region or they will be stopped – on the battlefield.

America is powerful, but at times these days it seems that it is everywhere and nowhere at the same time. There is considerable, high-profile movement but not necessarily forward motion. America is forceful but will not or cannot concentrate enough force alone to bring about the resolution of these conflicts, they are instead managed or ameliorated, resolution postponed rather than decisively solved. One is reminded of King Frederick the Great of Prussia’s dictum that “he that defends everything defends nothing.”

AUTHOR

Alberto M. Fernandez

Alberto M. Fernandez is Vice President of MEMRI.

Sources:

[1] Niccolo.substack.com/p/turbo-america, April 21, 2022.

[2] News.gallup.com/poll/469070/americans-dissatisfaction-nation-eases-high.aspx, January 31, 2023.

[3] Ft.com/content/98f15b60-bc4d-4d3c-9e57-cbdde122ac0c, accessed March 25, 2024.

[4] Nytimes.com/2023/12/15/world/europe/ukraine-military-recruitment.html, December 15, 2023.

[5] Reuters.com/world/us/biden-dogged-by-democrats-anger-over-israel-reutersipsos-poll-finds-2024-02-29, February 29, 2024.

[6] Npr.org/2024/03/22/1240148688/israel-gaza-war-state-department-memo-damage-reputation, March 22, 2024.

[7] Taskandpurpose.com/news/niger-us-troops-partnership, March 18, 2024.

[8] Apnews.com/article/haiti-activate-military-gangs-bb05bdc98d0c7fafdccbbce5743223ed, March 17, 2023.

[9] Stripes.com/branches/navy/2024-03-22/houthi-eisenhower-navy-red-sea-13392591.html, March 17, 2023.

[10] Timesofisrael.com/iran-reportedly-pushed-us-to-broker-gaza-ceasefire-during-secret-talks-in-oman, March 16, 2024.

[11] Twitter.com/A_ALGABARNI/status/1765424788846022755, March 6, 2024.

[12] See MEMRI Daily Brief No. 582, A Small Step For President Biden In Gaza, A Big Step Towards Total War, March 20, 2024.

EDITORS NOTE: This MEMRI column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Appeals Court Sides With Trump, Reduces Bond In Civil Fraud Case thumbnail

Appeals Court Sides With Trump, Reduces Bond In Civil Fraud Case

By The Daily Caller

An appeals court agreed Monday to reduce Trump’s civil fraud case bond while he appeals the ruling.

If Trump is able to put up the $175 million bond within 10 days, the court agreed to block collection of the judgement, according to the Associated Press. Trump initially faced a Monday deadline to pay the $454 million bond to cover the judgement issued by Judge Arthur Engoron.

Trump’s lawyers indicated in a court filing last week that he would not be able to post bond, writing that “very few bonding companies will consider a bond of anything approaching that magnitude.” His attorneys sought to stay the execution of the judgement.

In response, James argued Trump had not supplied evidence that he would be unable to pay.

“If defendants were truly unable to provide an undertaking, they at a minimum should have consented to have their real-estate interests held by Supreme Court to satisfy the judgment,” the filing stated.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

AUTHOR

KATELYNN RICHARDSON

Contributor.

POSTS ON X:

🚨BREAKING: Trump reveals he is paying newly reduced bond in cash pic.twitter.com/Wiu8bFnYSP

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) March 25, 2024

🚨 BREAKING: NY Appellate Court reduces Trump bond to $175 million and gives him 10 MORE days to come up with the money.

YOUR THOUGHTS? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/fe9G2vIaSc

— Proud Elephant 🇺🇸🦅 (@ProudElephantUS) March 25, 2024

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

RINO Saboteur Mike Gallagher Double Crosses GOP Base With Deliberately-Timed Resignation To Narrow House Edge To One Seat thumbnail

RINO Saboteur Mike Gallagher Double Crosses GOP Base With Deliberately-Timed Resignation To Narrow House Edge To One Seat

By The Geller Report

Republican Representative Mike Gallagher, chairman of the House select committee on China, announced he’s leaving Congress on April 19, which will temporarily leave House Republicans with just a one-seat majority.

If Gallagher resigned before the 2nd Tuesday in April, they could have an special election to fill his seat. But by waiting until the 19th, the seat cannot be filled until after the Nov. election.

The answer to this act of treachery is to expel Mike Gallagher now and hold a special election. They threw out George Santos who always voted MAGA, in the interest of the we the people. Throw this traitor out.

Another House Republican Is Resigning—Narrowing GOP Edge To One Seat

By: Sara DornForbes, March 24, 2024:

Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wisc., is resigning from Congress effective April 19, he announced Friday—delivering a major blow to the Republican conference’s slim majority that has shrunk as former President Donald Trump’s ideological allies have overtaken the GOP.

Gallagher, who announced last month he would not run for re-election, said he made the decision to leave before his term ends “after conversation with [his] family” and “worked closely with House Republican leadership” on his timeline for stepping down.

Gallagher has expressed frustrations with his party as it has become increasingly beholden to Trump’s divisive brand of politics—he said earlier this month he was unsure if he would attend the GOP convention in July, citing his decision not to seek re-election, and he was one of only four Republicans to vote against impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

His resignation means Republicans can afford to lose just one vote to pass legislation without the support of Democrats, after a string of resignations and indicted former Rep. George Santos’, R-N.Y., removal from Congress.

A special election to replace ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., is set to take place in May. McCarthy’s former seat in California’s 20th Congressional District is a safe red seat, so it’s likely going to give Johnson a GOP win.

Before that, however, is an April 30 special election to replace Rep. Brian Higgins, D-N.Y., a longtime left-wing lawmaker who departed earlier this year. That election will likely see Democrats add to their tally, which would keep the House majority at one seat.

Read more.

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

POSTS ON X:

Mike Gallagher’s extremely selfish decision to leave Congress early and push us towards a Hakeem Jeffries speakership should not be allowed to happen.

Mike Gallagher should be expelled so the people of Wisconsin’s 8th District can have a special election to replace him. pic.twitter.com/rx6p1JEgAw

— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) March 23, 2024

I would like to thank my friend @mtgreenee for calling for the immediate EXPULSION of RINO Mike Gallagher.

Mike Gallagher shouldn’t be allowed to leave on his terms. His terms will totally SCREW over the Republican majority!

Get rid of him now!

— Alex Bruesewitz 🇺🇸 (@alexbruesewitz) March 23, 2024

House GOP started their term with a narrow minority.

They kicked George Santos out.

Ken Buck resigned.

Now Mike Gallagher is leaving.

If our elected representatives don’t get their act together FAST, we could witness a Democrat takeover of Congress.

You cannot understand how…

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) March 22, 2024

RELATED ARTICLE: Top GOP lawmaker announces early exit, leaving Republicans with temporary one-seat majority

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. All rights reserved.

Biden The Terrible Pushing for Mass Murdering Jihadis to Rule the Gaza Strip thumbnail

Biden The Terrible Pushing for Mass Murdering Jihadis to Rule the Gaza Strip

By The Geller Report

What could Biden possibly hope to achieve by empowering savages whose only goal is to annihilate the Jews?

Securing Muslim vote in America? To what end?

It would be like FDR trying to get the American Bund (Nazi) vote.

Biden is Pushing for These Terrorists to Rule the Gaza Strip

By: Leah Rosenberg, Israel Unwired, March 20, 2024:

“Officers by Day, Terrorists by Night.” That basically sums up the “security” establishment of the Palestinian Authority that Joe Biden is pushing Israel to hand over control over the Gaza Strip. Do they not realize that they are dealing with moderate terrorists who want to kill Jews moderately? The difference between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority is that the Hamas is honest, while the Palestinian Authority often put on a façade of moderation that is clearly two-faced.

The goal of Israel’s war in Gaza was to remove the terror threat and terror infrastructure and rescue all of the hostages. Placing the Palestinian Authority in charge would mean that Israel would be wiping out one problem, and then retracting all of the progress by starting over from scratch.

Israel’s security establishment has been working on the false assessment that somehow the Palestinian Authority is a moderating force among Arabs. The simple fact is that the Palestinian Authority pays the families of terrorists enormous sums of money. So, the main disincentive of a terrorist, that committing a terror act will destroy the lives of their family, is also non-existent due to the Palestinian Authority’s pay-for-slay program.

American policy that presses Israel to give over Gaza to the Palestinian Authority is dead wrong. More importantly, no more than perhaps 15-20% of Israel’s population is interested in this direction. So, Biden and the hostile State Department is caught up in the past. They need to get with the times. Israel will not prostrate itself in order to follow America if that means endangering its own population to endure future massacres.

Continue reading.

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Wisconsin Investigators: Illegals Flooding the Voter Rolls in Swing States thumbnail

Wisconsin Investigators: Illegals Flooding the Voter Rolls in Swing States

By The Geller Report

You don’t think these totalitarian destroyers are going to go quietly, do you? They are power without accountability, merciless, wild criminals and in-your-face oath breakers without fear of the law or punishment.

They operate with impunity.

It’s going to get worse. Much worse.

Wisconsin Investigators Allege Illegal Aliens Are Flooding the Voter Rolls in Swing States

By:  Guest Contributor Jay Valentine at The Gateway Pundit. Mar. 24, 2024

Leftist election fraud happens every 2 year cycle – it just happens a little differently each time.

Story continues below advertisement

In 2024, the unique new fraud scheme – demonstrated in the data – at scale, in multiple states – now – is allegedly registering illegal aliens, flown in via the Biden Express, delivered to newly formed homeless addresses – then sending the migrants on their way – and collecting their ballots – and voting them.

This was discovered by the Wisconsin team – using INNOVATION.

This is happening at super scale – think hundreds of thousands already – it is completely invisible to all current relational technology. It is equally invisible to the RINO bunch telling you to vote early, ballot harvest and do not question elections.

The only difference is in 2024, the Wisconsin team found it early – and has a successful, tried and proven strategy to fight it.

Here’s the scam.

Religious NGO’s (non-governmental orgs) like Catholic, Lutheran and other types of do-gooders collaborate with the Biden administration to take those migrants – the ones who arrive by plane – into the heartland – and then allegedly register them.

The details are fascinating. These NGOs set up addresses that seem like homeless shelters – but aren’t – they are migrant ballot registration collection points. Some are just offices in crappy strip malls.

We know because we drill into the actual address photos. Watch our videos on Omega4America.com.

The migrants show up, get a phone, gift cards worth several grand, get registered to vote.

The details are fascinating.

These NGOs set up addresses that seem like homeless shelters – but aren’t – they are migrant ballot registration collection points. Some are just offices in crappy strip malls.

We know because we drill into the actual address photos. Watch our videos on Omega4America.com.

The migrants show up, get a phone, gift cards worth several grand, get registered to vote.
In Wisconsin, for instance, there is a Form EL-131.

Form EL-131 says if you are homeless, check the box. You can register to vote with no supporting ID.

For you election deniers, and Republican types – read this slowly so you can comprehend this madness.

In a swing state, one of 7 that will determine the next leader of the free world – today – using Form EL-131, anyone with a heartbeat can register to vote with no ID, as long as they check the box that says “homeless.”

Or someone can do it for them! What can go wrong?

This is what the Republican Party allowed to happen – bending over and taking it – with literally zero push back.

Continue reading

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

RELATED ARTICLE: Declaration of Election Fraud in Arizona

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Google and Meta Function as Extensions of the U.S. Intelligence Community thumbnail

Google and Meta Function as Extensions of the U.S. Intelligence Community

By The Geller Report

Name redacted has published an exposé on X exposing the enormity of government censorship and the willing subjugation of America’s largest tech companies. For those of us censored and suspended for years, we hardly knew or understood the enormity of what the individual was up against.

Breathtaking.

Full thread here:

Google and Meta function as extensions of the US Intelligence Community. With Jacqueline Lopour, Google’s Head of Trust & Safety, and Aaron Berman, Meta’s Head of Elections Content/Misinformation Policy, both being career CIA officers, it underscores the CIA’s substantial control over online censorship.

Why is this CIA-Big Tech revolving door, where career CIA officers wield power to censor & decide what misinformation is, purposefully suppressed in the broader conversation about censorship?

Why are career CIA officers like Jacqueline Lopour & Nick Rossmann, who both have a history of spreading misinformation & promoting the RussiaGate conspiracy theory, now in senior roles in Trust & Safety at Google, deciding what is misinformation & overseeing content moderation?

The cumulative number of former Intelligence Community personnel hired by Meta & Google since 2018 is staggering. Before 2018, there were only a handful. Here are the combined hires by both companies:

  • CIA-36
  • FBI-68
  • NSA-44
  • DHS/CISA-68
  • State Dept-86
  • DOD-121

2. Why would Google specifically choose these six senior executives to attend an @ISF_OSAC event in DC?

Everyone in this picture, alongside former CIA Director Robert Gates, is a current senior executive at Google & a former career CIA officer, except for the attorney from… pic.twitter.com/xV9hh8vSEk

— Name Redacted (@NameRedacted247) February 25, 2024

Why would Google specifically choose these six senior executives to attend an @ISF_OSAC event in DC? Everyone in this picture, alongside former CIA Director Robert Gates, is a current senior executive at Google & a former career CIA officer, except for the attorney from Perkins Coie (2nd from the left). Jacqueline Lopour spent 10 years at the CIA before joining Google in 2017. She is currently Head of Trust & Safety, where she not only determines what constitutes misinformation but also wields considerable power in content moderation on Search & YouTube. In this interview, Lopour is promoting the RussiaGate conspiracy theory. I wonder if she believes her own propaganda.

3. Jacqueline Lopour spent 10 years at the CIA before joining Google in 2017. She is currently Head of Trust & Safety, where she not only determines what constitutes misinformation but also wields considerable power in content moderation on Search & YouTube.

In this interview,… pic.twitter.com/JbWTfQi5ad

— Name Redacted (@NameRedacted247) February 25, 2024

Jacqueline Lopour, a career CIA officer, played a significant role in developing various intelligence programs at Google & YouTube:

  • Manages intel operations for violent extremism, misinformation, hate speech, etc.
  • Led development of intelligence programs for global election analysis.
  • Developed the “YouTube Intelligence Desk.”
  • Developed Google’s first machine-learning threat detection & analysis program.
  • Provided daily COVID-19 briefings to senior leadership at Google & YouTube CEO

LinkedIn: https://t.co/2NSR0FJLFt

n 2015, Lopour authored a rather bizarre article titled: “The best reason for Iran deal? The West will learn where to drop bombs.”

Reuters: The best reason for Iran deal? The West will learn where to drop bombs.

5. In 2015, Lopour authored a rather bizarre article titled: “The best reason for Iran deal? The West will learn where to drop bombs.”https://t.co/kMi26tOqre pic.twitter.com/vykCOcdcuK

— Name Redacted (@NameRedacted247) February 25, 2024

Nick Rossmann spent over 5 years at the CIA before joining Google in 2022 as Senior Manager of Trust & Safety. His activity on Twitter/X is troubling, especially considering his current position in content moderation.

Why does Nick Rossmann have a problem with white people? Here are some examples of Rossmann’s unhinged behavior on Twitter/X (all archived):

Negative tweets about white people:

Here are some examples of Rossmann’s unhinged behavior on Twitter/X (all archived).

Negative tweets about white people:

Hoping Trump voters cough on their grandparents (giving them COVID) & “get to rot”- https://archive.is/rppqw

Asking Trump if he is an agent of a foreign power – https://archive.vn/xi7t8

Calling Trump “a lunatic & a racist”, tagging Keith Olbermann & using the hashtag “Resist” – https://archive.vn/Pk5Kh

Calling anti-vaxxers Nazis & Confederates – https://archive.vn/YWMDD

6. Nick Rossmann spent over 5 years at the CIA before joining Google in 2022 as Senior Manager of Trust & Safety. His activity on Twitter/X is troubling, especially considering his current position in content moderation.

Why does Nick Rossmann have a problem with white people?… pic.twitter.com/9q0D3gpTni

— Name Redacted (@NameRedacted247) February 25, 2024

Christopher Porter spent most of his professional career in the Intelligence Community. After 9 years at the CIA, he joined ODNI where he was Head of the IC Cyber Analysis Council leading a team of CIA, FBI, NSA & DOD regarding US elections. While at the ODNI, he regularly briefed President Biden so it’s only natural that as of June 2022, he joined Google as Head of Threat Intelligence. Porter is also a member of the Atlantic Council. His LinkedIn bio states that he likes to talk about Russia & election security.

LinkedIn — https://archive.is/pFOI2

7. Christopher Porter spent most of his professional career in the Intelligence Community. After 9 years at the CIA, he joined ODNI where he was Head of the IC Cyber Analysis Council leading a team of CIA, FBI, NSA & DOD regarding US elections.

While at the ODNI, he regularly… pic.twitter.com/MYcf9LDa5y

— Name Redacted (@NameRedacted247) February 25, 2024

Deborah Wituski joined Google in 2018 as Senior Director Global Intelligence. Her only prior work experience was 19 years at the CIA, where she was Chief of Staff to the Director. Wituski is a member of Council on Foreign Relations.

8. Deborah Wituski joined Google in 2018 as Senior Director Global Intelligence. Her only prior work experience was 19 years at the CIA, where she was Chief of Staff to the Director. Wituski is a member of Council on Foreign Relations. pic.twitter.com/WnkAQKqUkd

— Name Redacted (@NameRedacted247) February 25, 2024

Now why would Deborah’s intelligence desk at Google be so concerned about Putin’s personal life or the innerworkings of the Kremlin?

Full video for reference:

9. Now why would Deborah’s intelligence desk at Google be so concerned about Putin’s personal life or the innerworkings of the Kremlin?

Full video for reference- https://t.co/iZJ1EyYTOv pic.twitter.com/CvDx7Ce0cC

— Name Redacted (@NameRedacted247) February 25, 2024

Katherine Tobin joined Google in 2021. Her career path is like the others listed in this thread: after 6 years at Booz Allen Hamilton, she spent 4 years at the ODNI, followed by 4 years at the CIA, & then returned to the ODNI for another 3 years. With over 10 years of experience in the Intelligence Community, Google was the obvious choice for her. On her LinkedIn bio, she states that her favorite problems to solve are promoting DEI.

10. Katherine Tobin joined Google in 2021. Her career path is like the others listed in this thread: after 6 years at Booz Allen Hamilton, she spent 4 years at the ODNI, followed by 4 years at the CIA, & then returned to the ODNI for another 3 years.

With over 10 years of… pic.twitter.com/RtIeJiWBB3

— Name Redacted (@NameRedacted247) February 25, 2024

Katherine wrote a blog post on LinkedIn, sharing her transition from the CIA to the private sector titled “My New Mission: From Spying to Startups.”

For anyone interested, here is her personal blog — https://kttobin.net

11. Katherine wrote a blog post on LinkedIn, sharing her transition from the CIA to the private sector titled “My New Mission: From Spying to Startups.”

For anyone interested, here is her personal blog- https://t.co/FClvI77Qf7 pic.twitter.com/Dqqqa5nL0n

— Name Redacted (@NameRedacted247) February 25, 2024

Beth Schmierer joined Google in 2022 as a Global Threat Analyst and Intel Manager. Her only prior work experience was five years at the CIA. Additionally, she spent nine years in Madrid working for the State Department, where she claims to have been tasked with “implementing the US government’s agenda in Spain & Latin America”

12. Beth Schmierer joined Google in 2022 as a Global Threat Analyst and Intel Manager.

Her only prior work experience was five years at the CIA. Additionally, she spent nine years in Madrid working for the State Department, where she claims to have been tasked with… pic.twitter.com/BjNY3LOA92

— Name Redacted (@NameRedacted247) February 25, 2024

Omar Ahmed joined Google in 2020 as Manager of Trust & Safety at Google/YouTube. His only prior work experience is 10 years at the State Department. I suppose his experience in Indonesia, Afghanistan & Senegal qualifies him to be a content moderator.

13. Omar Ahmed joined Google in 2020 as Manager of Trust & Safety at Google/YouTube. His only prior work experience is 10 years at the State Department.

I suppose his experience in Indonesia, Afghanistan & Senegal qualifies him to be a content moderator. pic.twitter.com/CXzvlf913R

— Name Redacted (@NameRedacted247) February 25, 2024

Jamie Washington joined Google in 2018 as Director of Threat Intelligence. Her only experience prior to joining Google is 2 years at the FBI and 13 years at the CIA (2 years in Iraq).

14. Jamie Washington joined Google in 2018 as Director of Threat Intelligence. Her only experience prior to joining Google is 2 years at the FBI and 13 years at the CIA (2 years in Iraq). pic.twitter.com/p9tVGNEtLh

— Name Redacted (@NameRedacted247) February 25, 2024

Chelsea Magnant joined Google in 2018 as Public Policy Manager. Her only prior work experience was at the CIA for 9 years. She’s also an instructor at Aspen Institute

15. Chelsea Magnant joined Google in 2018 as Public Policy Manager. Her only prior work experience was at the CIA for 9 years. She’s also an instructor at Aspen Institute pic.twitter.com/SmMtD3fvgq

— Name Redacted (@NameRedacted247) February 25, 2024

Dawn Burton joined Google’s Trust & Safety team in 2022. She was previously at Twitter Trust & Safety but was fired by @elonmusk. Prior to this, she spent 6 years at DOJ, then 4 years at FBI as a Senior Advisor to James Comey.

After a career at DOJ & FBI, working for James Comey, it’s totally normal that she would transition to Trust & Safety departments at tech platforms, right?

16. Dawn Burton joined Google’s Trust & Safety team in 2022. She was previously at Twitter Trust & Safety but was fired by @elonmusk. Prior to this, she spent 6 years at DOJ, then 4 years at FBI as a Senior Advisor to James Comey.

After a career at DOJ & FBI, working for James… pic.twitter.com/SVJ6vropxe

— Name Redacted (@NameRedacted247) February 25, 2024

Yong Suk Lee joined Google in 2019 as Director Global Risk Analysis. His only prior work history is 22 years at the CIA where he was the Deputy Assistant Director of Korea Mission Center. He is also a member of Council on Foreign Relations.

17. Yong Suk Lee joined Google in 2019 as Director Global Risk Analysis. His only prior work history is 22 years at the CIA where he was the Deputy Assistant Director of Korea Mission Center. He is also a member of Council on Foreign Relations pic.twitter.com/Sz2R9lI1Gk

— Name Redacted (@NameRedacted247) February 25, 2024

Candice Bryant joined Google in 2021 as Executive & Internal Comms Manager. Her only other work experience was 17 years at the CIA. She led the CIA’s social media team with the goal of boosting the agency’s public image.

Politico: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/09/08/cia-least-covert-mission-510043

18. Candice Bryant joined Google in 2021 as Executive & Internal Comms Manager. Her only other work experience was 17 years at the CIA.

She led the CIA’s social media team with the goal of boosting the agency’s public image. https://t.co/zBTHgWjBwb pic.twitter.com/XCNl68vNCJ

— Name Redacted (@NameRedacted247) February 25, 2024

I could list over 100 more examples of individuals whose sole work history is within the Intelligence Community or career State Department diplomats. Many of these individuals hold positions as content moderators and policy managers. Most of them joined Google/YouTube after 2018. Is it merely a coincidence that censorship has increased aggressively since then? If you are a “journalist” who covers the censorship issue but chooses to ignore the revolving door, you lack integrity. If you are a notable figure who’s been censored on Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube, it’s crucial to start questioning why career CIA officers are employed by these companies as content moderators.

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Moscow jihad murderers screamed ‘Allahu akbar,’ death toll now 137, Russia says U.S. shared no ‘concrete information’ thumbnail

Moscow jihad murderers screamed ‘Allahu akbar,’ death toll now 137, Russia says U.S. shared no ‘concrete information’

By Judicial Watch

The rumors are flying on X: the Jews did it, the Americans did it, etc. It seems unlikely that any of that is true, however.

Why would the Americans, who support Ukraine, mount an attack that Russia is almost certain to accuse the Ukrainians of masterminding or aiding? This attack is likely only to intensify Russia’s war against Ukraine, and the U.S. supports Ukraine, so as evil and feckless as the Biden regime is, it seems unlikely that it is behind it.

As for the Israelis, the rumor mongers’ reasoning is that this will enable people to see that jihadis really are evil. That also, however, is unlikely. Neither Israel nor the U.S. acknowledges the reality of Islamic jihad. Few see the Israeli/”Palestinian” conflict as a jihad, although that is what it is. And so few are likely to see any connection between this attack and Hamas’ jihad against Israel.

“Allahu Akbar” is what the terrorists shouted after killing innocent Russians in Moscow. ISIS is getting stronger and stronger again. Today Moscow tomorrow Amsterdam , London, Berlin or Paris unless we stop them. #MoscowAttack pic.twitter.com/gzfdFxaO31

— Geert Wilders (@geertwilderspvv) March 24, 2024

Moscow terror attack: 4 gunmen arrested, death toll rises to 137

by Patrick Reevell and Tanya Stukalova, ABC News, March 24, 2024:

The death toll in the terror attack at Moscow’s Crocus City Hall has risen to 137 people, including three children, Russia’s Investigative Committee said Sunday, as the search operation continues for bodies under the rubble.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was informed Saturday that four suspected gunmen responsible for the attack were arrested near Russia’s western border with Ukraine, Russian news agencies reported.

Seven others have been detained and the search for other accomplices is ongoing, the state news outlets reported.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the deadly attack Friday night, in which gunmen opened fire on concertgoers at one of Moscow’s largest entertainment complexes. The attackers then set the complex on fire….

The death toll as a result of the terrorist attack has increased to 137, Russian investigators said Sunday, adding that three of the victims are children….

Investigators said more than 500 rounds of ammunition and 28 magazines, as well as two Kalashnikov assault rifles, were found at the scene….

“The terrorists also used flammable liquid to set fire to the premises of the concert hall, where there were spectators, including the wounded,” the statement said….

Putin did not acknowledge the ISIS claim for the attack, saying Russia was still investigating. But he sought to suggest that Ukraine could bear some responsibility, saying the suspected attackers had been detained while trying to cross the border to Ukraine and claiming they may have received some help from there.

“According to the preliminary data, they had a crossing of the border prepared from the Ukrainian side,” Putin said.

Ukrainian officials vehemently denied any involvement and warned that the Kremlin would try to exploit the attack by falsely blaming Ukraine to drum up greater support for its war….

The U.S. said it shared intelligence with Russia that warned that ISIS was preparing similar attacks on concerts in Moscow just two weeks ago. A U.S. State Department official said Saturday that the U.S. government had shared information on a possible attack with Russian authorities in accordance with its longstanding “duty to warn” policy….

Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said the U.S. didn’t pass along any “concrete information” prior to the attack….

Continue reading.

ROBERT SPENCER

RELATED ARTICLES:

DEI top dogs warn intelligence officials to avoid using words such as ‘jihadist’ and even ‘Radical Islamists’

The UN’s Ayisha Siddiqa: Whites are to Blame for Everything

‘We warned you not to convert Muslims to Christianity, but you failed to heed. This has cost your life.’

Pro-Palestinian Nurses in England Mistreat a Nine-Year-Old Jewish Patient

Harris won’t rule out ‘consequences’ if Israel enters Rafah

The Spectacular Raid on Hamas Combatants Inside Al-Shifa Hospital

POST ON X:

One of the apprehended terrorists responsible for the attack in Moscow had to be wheeled into court with a wheelchair. He was fine when they caught him. pic.twitter.com/5fQ7FPhaO6

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) March 24, 2024

EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

The Bigger Meaning of Schumer’s Speech  in a Nutshell thumbnail

The Bigger Meaning of Schumer’s Speech in a Nutshell

By Marvin A. Treiger

Senator Schumer’s speech during which he called for “regime change” in the government of a democratic ally on the floor of the Senate was unprecedented in American history. Let that sink in.

It reflects a new level of anti-democratic big power arrogance designed to achieve for Hamas and the Jihadists the victory they cannot achieve on the ground. He dares to do this because he thinks he can get away with it. Biden approved the speech the following day.

Behind him rests the entire U.S. apparatus of influence and subversion that has been mobilized against and inside Israel as well. Threats of cutting off aid, activating sympathetic contacts in the retired IDF ranks, government and the media and even seeking to mobilize mass demonstrations against the standing government of Netanyahu.

Schumer knows that new elections in the middle of a war would bog Israel down for six months and guarantee their defeat. He omits the overwhelming support Israelis have for eliminating Hamas on the one hand and for not creating a sovereign Palestinian state led by the corrupt and semi-Jihadist Palestinian Authority on the other.

He denies Bibi’s increasing popularity and solid popular support for finishing the job against Hamas. Schumer’s speech was based upon a tissue of lies and calumnies against the Israeli polity using Bibi as a cipher.

Schumer, “our” leader is the one who threatened that our own Supreme Court would “reap the whirlwind” for its Constitutionally inclined decisions. Properly understood, this  actually reflects the growing desperation of our governing elites in the face of populist nationalism in America, in Israel, and indeed, around the world.

Schumer’s speech reflects that desperation.

The stakes couldn’t be higher. Behind it all is the pro-Iran policy initiated by Obama beginning in 2008 after his election. The recent release of ten billion in funds to Iran at this time cannot be understood in any other way. They may now continue to freely finance their proxy wars.

U.S timidity in the face of Iran’s direct attacks on us through its proxies especially by the Iraqi Shias and  the Houthis, with Hamas, Hezbollah and elements of the security forces of the PA taking on Israel, is not primarily fear of a regional war. It is a reflection of a Mullah/Democratic Party alliance to establish a new middle east while avoiding a regional war.

Iran is the world’s third largest potential supplier of oil and the fourth largest of gas. The deal from the beginning was this: certain connected companies get access to your resources and eventually you get to have nuclear weapons.

The biggest problem with this scenario is that the Jihadis have their own agenda as do other forces in the region. Shia Islam seeks to triumph over Sunni Islam by obliterating Israel as proof they are the true Islam. Acquiring the bomb assures their hegemony over the region as a springboard for their larger agendas.

So, Iran takes what we give them and attacks us anyway. Hamas, pretends to negotiate to “save themselves” as the U.S. argues it must, but keeps making ludicrous demands that Israel has no choice but to turn down. Watch negotiations in Qatar for  the outcome.

Desperate, Schumer finds himself as a shill for Iran and the Jihadis by seeking to overthrow the only force in Israel capable of insuring that nation’s survival.

All this is going on as our own elections heat up with Biden trailing in key swing states. A Trump victory is seen as a fatal blow to this whole mid-east project. Internationally, Trump would resume creating a functional Arab/Israeli rapprochement bringing peace to the region.

And, much worse for the ruling elite, a MAGA victory would break up the governmental, military censorship apparatus that is key to manipulating the public. There would be hell to pay and our “overseers” know it.

The violation of democratic norms through lawfare, etc., has been so egregious that they have become so fearful of a Trump victory that for them this is an existential crisis.

What do you do when you believe you are facing an existential crisis? You pull out all the stops and resolve to prevail no matter what. Of course, you hope you won’t have to but you get nervous if too many signs suggest your loss starts to seem likely.

We seem to be moving towards such an inflection point  All the signs are there. Strap yourselves in.

TAKE ACTION

The Prickly Pear’s TAKE ACTION focus this year is to help achieve a winning 2024 national and state November 5th election with the removal of the Biden/Obama leftist executive branch disaster, win one U.S. Senate seat, maintain and win strong majorities in all Arizona state offices on the ballot and to insure that unrestricted abortion is not constitutionally embedded in our laws and culture.

Please click the TAKE ACTION link to learn to do’s and don’ts for voting in 2024. Our state and national elections are at great risk from the very aggressive and radical leftist Democrat operatives with documented rigging, mail-in voter fraud and illegals voting across the country (yes, with illegals voting across the country) in the last several election cycles.

Read Part 1 and Part 2 of The Prickly Pear essays entitled How NOT to Vote in the November 5, 2024 Election in Arizona to be well informed of the above issues and to vote in a way to ensure the most likely chance your vote will be counted and counted as you intend.

Please click the following link to learn more.

Young People Aren’t Nearly Angry Enough About Government Debt thumbnail

Young People Aren’t Nearly Angry Enough About Government Debt

By Laura Williams

Young people sometimes seem to wake up in the morning in search of something to be outraged about. We are among the wealthiest and most educated humans in history. But we’re increasingly convinced that we’re worse off than our parents were, that the planet is in crisis, and that it’s probably not worth having kids.

I’ll generalize here about my own cohort (people born after 1981 but before 2010), commonly referred to as Millennials and Gen Z, as that shorthand corresponds to survey and demographic data. Millennials and Gen Z have valid economic complaints, and the conditions of our young adulthood perceptibly weakened traditional bridges to economic independence. We graduated with record amounts of student debt after President Obama nationalized that lending. Housing prices doubled during our household formation years due to zoning impediments and chronic underbuilding. Young Americans say economic issues are important to us, and candidates are courting our votes by promising student debt relief and cheaper housing (which they will never be able to deliver).

Young people, in our idealism and our rational ignorance of the actual appropriations process, typically support more government intervention, more spending programs, and more of every other burden that has landed us in such untenable economic circumstances to begin with. Perhaps not coincidentally, young people who’ve spent the most years in the increasingly partisan bubble of higher education are also the most likely to favor expanded government programs as a “solution” to those complaints.

It’s Your Debt, Boomer

What most young people don’t yet understand is that we are sacrificing our young adulthood and our financial security to pay for debts run up by Baby Boomers. Part of every Millennial and Gen-Z paycheck is payable to people the same age as the members of Congress currently milking this system and miring us further in debt.

Our government spends more than it can extract from taxpayers. Social Security, which represents 20 percent of government spending, has run an annual deficit for 15 years. Last year Social Security alone overspent by $22.1 billion. To keep sending out checks to retirees, Social Security goes begging to the Treasury Department, and the Treasury borrows from the public by issuing bonds. Bonds allow investors (who are often also taxpayers) to pay for some retirees’ benefits now, and be paid back later. But investors only volunteer to lend Social Security the money it needs to cover its bills because the (younger) taxpayers will eventually repay the debt — with interest.

In other words, both Social Security and Medicare, along with various smaller federal entitlement programs, together comprising almost half of the federal budget, have been operating for a decade on the principle of “give us the money now, and stick the next generation with the check.” We saddle future generations with debt for present-day consumption.

The second largest item in the budget after Social Security is interest on the national debt — largely on Social Security and other entitlements that have already been spent. These mandatory benefits now consume three quarters of the federal budget: even Congress is not answerable for these programs. We never had the chance for our votes to impact that spending (not that older generations were much better represented) and it’s unclear if we ever will.

Young Americans probably don’t think much about the budget deficit (each year’s overspending) or the national debt (many years’ deficits put together, plus interest) much at all. And why should we? For our entire political memory, the federal government, as well as most of our state governments, have been steadily piling “public” debt upon our individual and collective heads. That’s just how it is. We are the frogs trying to make our way in the watery world as the temperature ticks imperceptibly higher. We have been swimming in debt forever, unaware that we’re being economically boiled alive.

Millennials have somewhat modest non-mortgage debt of around $27,000 (some self-reports say twice that much), including car notes, student loans, and credit cards. But we each owe more than $100,000 as a share of the national debt. And we don’t even know it.

When Millennials finally do have babies (and we are!) that infant born in 2024 will enter the world with a newly minted Social Security Number and $78,089 credit card bill for Granddad’s heart surgery and the interest on a benefit check that was mailed when her parents were in middle school.

Headlines and comments sections love to sneer at “snowflakes” who’ve just hit the “real world,” and can’t figure out how to make ends meet, but the kids are onto something. A full 15 percent of our earnings are confiscated to pay into retirement and healthcare programs that will be insolvent by the time we’re old enough to enjoy them. The Federal Reserve and government debt are eating the economy. The same interest rates that are pushing mortgages out of reach are driving up the cost of interest to maintain the debt going forward. As we learn to save and invest, our dollars are slowly devalued. We’re right to feel trapped.

Sure, if we’re alive and own a smartphone, we’re among the one percent of the wealthiest humans who’ve ever lived. Older generations could argue (persuasively!) that we have no idea what “poverty” is anymore. But with the state of government spending and debt…we are likely to find out.

Despite being richer than Rockefeller, Millennials are right to say that the previous ways of building income security have been pushed out of reach. Our earning years are subsidizing not our own economic coming-of-age, but bank bailouts, wars abroad, and retirement and medical benefits for people who navigated a less-challenging wealth-building landscape.

Redistribution goes both ways. Boomers are expected to pass on tens of trillions in unprecedented wealth to their children (if it isn’t eaten up by medical costs, despite heavy federal subsidies) and older generations’ financial support of the younger has had palpable lifting effects. Half of college costs are paid by families, and the trope of young people moving back home is only possible if mom and dad have the spare room and groceries to make that feasible.

Government “help” during COVID-19 resulted in the worst inflation in 40 years, as the federal government spent $42,000 per citizen on “stimulus” efforts, right around a Millennial’s average salary at that time. An absurd amount of fraud was perpetrated in the stimulus to save an economy from the lockdown that nearly ruined it. Trillions in earmarked goodies were rubber stamped, carelessly added to young people’s growing bill. Government lenders deliberately removed fraud controls, fearing they couldn’t hand out $800 billion in young people’s future wages away fast enough. Important lessons were taught by those programs. The importance of self-sufficiency and the dignity of hard work weren’t top of the list.

Boomer Benefits are Stagnating Hiring, Wages, and Investment for Young People

Even if our workplace engagement suffered under government distortions, Millennials continue to work more hours than other generations and invest in side hustles and self employment at higher rates. Working hard and winning higher wages almost doesn’t matter, though, when our purchasing power is eaten from the other side. Buying power has dropped 20 percent in just five years. Life is $11,400/year more expensive than it was two years ago and deficit spending is the reason why.

We’re having trouble getting hired for what we’re worth, because it costs employers 30 percent more than just our wages to employ us. The federal tax code both requires and incentivizes our employers to transfer a bunch of what we earned directly to insurance companies and those same Boomer-busted federal benefits, via tax-deductible benefits and payroll taxes. And the regulatory compliance costs of ravenous bureaucratic state. The price paid by each employer to keep each employee continues to rise — but Congress says your boss has to give most of the increase to someone other than you.

Federal spending programs that many people consider good government, including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and health insurance for children (CHIP) aren’t a small amount of the federal budget. Government spends on these programs because people support and demand them, and because cutting those benefits would be a re-election death sentence. That’s why they call cutting Social Security the “third rail of politics.” If you touch those benefits, you die. Congress is held hostage by Baby Boomers who are running up the bill with no sign of slowing down.

Young people generally support Social Security and the public health insurance programs, even though a 2021 poll by Nationwide Financial found 47 percent of Millennials agree with the statement “I will not get a dime of the Social Security benefits I have earned.”

In the same survey, Millennials were the most likely of any generation to believe that Social Security benefits should be enough to live on as a sole income, and guessed the retirement age was 52 (it’s 67 for anyone born after 1959 — and that’s likely to rise). Young people are the most likely to see government guarantees as a valid way to live — even though we seem to understand that those promises aren’t guarantees at all.

Healthcare costs tied to an aging population and wonderful-but-expensive growth in medical technologies and medications will balloon over the next few years, and so will the deficits in Boomer benefit programs. Newly developed obesity drugs alone are expected to add $13.6 billion to Medicare spending. By 2030, every single Baby Boomer will be 65, eligible for publicly funded healthcare.

The first Millennial will be eligible to claim Medicare (assuming the program exists and the qualifying age is still 65, both of which are improbable) in 2046. As it happens, that’s also the year that the Boomer benefits programs (which will then be bloated with Gen Xers) and the interest payments we’re incurring to provide those benefits now, are projected to consume 100 percent of federal tax revenue.

Government spending is being transferred to bureaucrats and then to the beneficiaries of government spending who are, in some sense, your diabetic grandma who needs a Medicare-paid dialysis treatment, but in a much more immediate sense, are the insurance companies, pharma giants, and hospital corporations who wrote the healthcare legislation. Some percentage of every college graduate’s paycheck buys bullets that get fired at nothing and inflating the private investment portfolios of government contractors, with dubious, wasteful outcomes from the prison-industrial complex to the perpetual war machine.

No bank or nation in the world can lend the kind of money the American government needs to borrow to fulfill its obligations to citizens. Someone will have to bite the bullet. Even some of the co-authors of the current disaster are wrestling with the truth.

Forget avocado toast and streaming subscriptions. We’re already sensing it, but we haven’t yet seen it. Young people are not well-informed, and often actively misled, about what’s rotten in this economic system. But we are seeing the consequences on store shelves and mortgage contracts and we can sense disaster is coming. We’re about to get stuck with the bill.

*****

This article was published by AIER, American Institute For Economic Research, and is reproduced with permission.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

TAKE ACTION

The Prickly Pear’s TAKE ACTION focus this year is to help achieve a winning 2024 national and state November 5th election with the removal of the Biden/Obama leftist executive branch disaster, win one U.S. Senate seat, maintain and win strong majorities in all Arizona state offices on the ballot and to insure that unrestricted abortion is not constitutionally embedded in our laws and culture.

Please click the TAKE ACTION link to learn to do’s and don’ts for voting in 2024. Our state and national elections are at great risk from the very aggressive and radical leftist Democrat operatives with documented rigging, mail-in voter fraud and illegals voting across the country (yes, with illegals voting across the country) in the last several election cycles.

Read Part 1 and Part 2 of The Prickly Pear essays entitled How NOT to Vote in the November 5, 2024 Election in Arizona to be well informed of the above issues and to vote in a way to ensure the most likely chance your vote will be counted and counted as you intend.

Please click the following link to learn more.

Biden’s New Rule on Auto Emissions Will Accelerate Death Spiral for Auto Manufacturers thumbnail

Biden’s New Rule on Auto Emissions Will Accelerate Death Spiral for Auto Manufacturers

By Ronald Stein

For one of the wealthier countries on this planet, America, with 330 million that represents about 4% of the world’s 8 billion on this planet, President Biden is speeding ahead with EV mandates to ditch most new gas cars by 2030.

Biden may not be cognizant that 80 percent of the 8 billion on this planet earning less than $10 a day, which is more than 6 billion on this earth, may never be able to enjoy the materialistic living styles of those in wealthier countries, nor ever own an automobile.

In America, the elites have bought EV’s, and the elites may continue to buy EV’s, BUT we’re quickly running out of elites!

  • The average debt in America is almost $60,000 across credit cards, mortgages, auto loans, and student loans.
  • The common folk need a workhorse vehicle, not just a second car toy that sits in the garage to be used on short ventures!
  • The current EV ownership profiles are reflected in the oligarchic elite that are highly educated, highly compensated, multi-car families, with low mileage requirements for the families second car.
  • Current EV owner profiles are dramatically different from most vehicle owners as they are single-car owners, not as highly educated, nor as highly compensated, and have higher mileage requirements for their workhorse vehicle.

Mandating a change to EV ownership and further austerity onto those that can least afford, the Nation and the other 96% on this planet may face a rebellion from those that need transportation.

Biden seems to be oblivious to the fact that there are more than 1.4 billion vehicles in the world, and almost 300 million trucks in the world, there’s been a mandate movement to have EV’s replace ICE vehicles to reduce emissions from the vehicular transportation sector.

Well, to-date, the mandate to EV’s has been a failure as we’re running short of elites that are buying them, and the auto manufacturers are starting to absorb the financial hits !

The previous worldwide gasoline usage peak was in 2019 before the Pandemic.

  • Today, there are 30 million EVs on the world’s roads that are owned by the elites that can afford them, and are mainly 2nd vehicles parked in the garage, or with low mileage usage, vs the high mileage workhorse vehicles that are internal combustion engines.
  • Today, there are also hundreds of millions of workers that now work virtually since the Pandemic and thus do not “drive” to work as often.

Well, even with those 30 million EV’s and millions of workers not driving as much, gasoline usage continues to rise. The International Energy Agency (IEA) reports that global gasoline consumption in 2023 blew past the pre-lockdown 2019 peak !

By re-enforcing the mandates to EV’s, Biden is forcing automobile manufacturers into a death spiral, as most of the 8 billion on this planet will never be able to afford an EV !

*****

This article was published by The Heartland Institute and is reproduced with permission.

TAKE ACTION

The Prickly Pear’s TAKE ACTION focus this year is to help achieve a winning 2024 national and state November 5th election with the removal of the Biden/Obama leftist executive branch disaster, win one U.S. Senate seat, maintain and win strong majorities in all Arizona state offices on the ballot and to insure that unrestricted abortion is not constitutionally embedded in our laws and culture.

Please click the TAKE ACTION link to learn to do’s and don’ts for voting in 2024. Our state and national elections are at great risk from the very aggressive and radical leftist Democrat operatives with documented rigging, mail-in voter fraud and illegals voting across the country (yes, with illegals voting across the country) in the last several election cycles.

Read Part 1 and Part 2 of The Prickly Pear essays entitled How NOT to Vote in the November 5, 2024 Election in Arizona to be well informed of the above issues and to vote in a way to ensure the most likely chance your vote will be counted and counted as you intend.

Please click the following link to learn more.

Islam is a Grand Delusion thumbnail

Islam is a Grand Delusion

By Amil Imani

“We are our beliefs,” it is said. Beliefs steer people in life. Some beliefs are harmless, some are the motive force for good, and yet others are delusional, misguided, and even outright dangerous. Every version of the belief called “Islam” ranges from the delusional to the dangerous.

“Allahu Akbar” is what the terrorists shouted after killing innocent Russians in Moscow. ISIS is getting stronger and stronger again. Today Moscow tomorrow Amsterdam , London, Berlin or Paris unless we stop them. #MoscowAttack pic.twitter.com/gzfdFxaO31

— Geert Wilders (@geertwilderspvv) March 24, 2024

Islam is a Grand Delusion, birthed by Muhammad’s hallucination, which he relayed to his first wife and employer, Khadija. Greatly frightened, he told Khadija that he had been visited by a jinn (devil) in the Hira cave. Khadija comforted the distraught man by assuring him that the episode was Allah’s way of choosing him as his messenger. Muhammad believed his rich wife-employer, who was 15 years his senior, and the delusion became a belief—Islam.

Remarkably enough, under the early tutelage of Khadija, Muhammad succeeded in attracting a number of influential followers. Before long, the movement gathered more and more power through violent campaigns, and faith was taken in new people and alien lands. This grand delusion, Islam, presently has in its stranglehold over a billion humans, posing an existential threat to all non-Muslims.

Islam is rooted in the primitive tribal mentality of “We against Them,” “We the righteous against the heathens,” and “We the servants submissive of the Great Allah against the rebellious enemies of Allah.” Islam is a polarizer. Islam is an enemy-maker. To Islam, a non-Muslim is a combatant against Allah, and he is fair game to be subjugated and killed.

When some billion and a half adhere to the pathological belief of Islam and use it as their marching order of life, the rest of humanity can ignore the threat only at its own peril.

Once again, a resurgent Islam is on a campaign of conquest throughout the world. Hordes of life-in-hand foot-solider fanatical Muslims are striving to kill and get killed. All they want is the opportunity to discharge their homicidal-suicidal impulse on their way to Allah’s promised glorious paradise. In the background, the foot soldiers’ wishes are granted by their handlers, the puppeteers, who pull the strings and detonate these human bombs. Those who cherish life must recognize these emissaries of death, what makes them, what motivates them, and how best to defend against them.

The campaign of death waged by the Islamist jihadist, be he a puppet or a puppeteer, is energized by the belief in delectable rewards that await the faithful implementer of Allah’s dictates. Through highly effective indoctrination, the jihadist has come to believe firmly in Islam’s grand delusion. He believes that Allah is the one and only supreme creator of earth and heavens, that it is his duty and privilege to abide by Allah’s will and carry out his plans at all costs; he believes firmly in a gloriously wonderful immortal afterlife in paradise, for which a martyr’s death is the surest quickest admission. Although the dominating theme of the delusion is quasi-spiritual, the promised rewards of the afterlife awaiting the martyr are sensual and material. All the things and activities that the jihadist desires and cannot attain or practice and rejects in his earthly life will be purified and proffered to him in the paradise of the next life. Thus goes the delusion.

It is important to understand that the human mind is not a perfect discerner of objective reality. In actuality, reality is in the mind of the beholder. The outside world supplies bits and pieces of raw material that the mind combines to form its reality. Depending on the type and amount of bits and pieces a given mind receives, its reality can be very different from that of another.

The more prescribed and homogeneous a group, the greater its consensual reality, since the members share much in common experiential input and reinforce each other’s mindset. Thus, members of a given religious order, for instance, tend to think much more similarly to one another than to members of other groups with different experiential histories.

Therefore, various approximations of objective reality rule the mind. The degree to which these approximations deviate from the larger group’s consensual reality determines the extent and severity of the delusions.

A cocaine mainliner, for instance, under the influence of the drug, may become convinced that a bug is burrowing under his skin. In his absolute, although false, certitude of the reality of his perception, cocaine users are known to take a knife to their own body to dig the burrowing bug out before it has penetrated too deeply.

A methamphetamine user’s reality is often distorted differently. Under the influence of the drug, an intense paranoia overtakes him. His reality is dominated by the belief that one or more people are lurking about to harm or kill him. He may wield a deadly weapon, going from room to room, from closet to closet, in search of the assailants.

If you believe a bug is camping deeply inside your body, you might try to dig out the non-existent bug. If you believe that people are lurking around the house to harm or kill you, you go after them before they get you. If you believe that all the troubles of the world are due to the evil-doings of the non-Muslims who war against Allah, then you do all you can to fight and kill them, particularly since Allah tells you to do so in the Quran.

The drug-induced delusions are hallucinations. They are dramatic and usually transitory, while religiously-based implantation of ideas program the mind with lasting delusions.

Delusions, even when they are at great variance from the objective reality, can rule the mind without the need for drugs or as a result of neurological dysfunctions or other factors. The young and the less-educated are most vulnerable to believe the claims of charlatans, con artists, and cunning clerics as truth and reality.

A tragic example of the young’s susceptibility to induced delusion is the case of thousands of Iranian children who were used as human minesweepers in the last Iran-Iraq war. The mullahs issued made-in-China plastic keys for paradise to children as an enticement to go forward and clear the minefield with their bodies ahead of the military’s armored vehicles. The children believed the murderers and rushed to their deaths, thinking that they were headed for Islam’s glorious paradise.

The repeated, intense indoctrination of the children even changed the perception of some of the charlatan mullahs so that they, themselves, believed their own lies, took their own keys to Allah’s paradise, and rushed to their deaths, clinging to the plastic trinkets. Hence, some of the puppeteers, in this instance, became puppets themselves. Such are the follies and fallibilities of the human mind.

It is, therefore, understandable that many of the higher-up Islamic puppeteers, who are usually brainwashed from early childhood, devote their fortunes and persons to the implementation of their deeply engrained delusions.

Deluded by the threats and promises of Islam, Muslims, poor or rich, vie with one another to further the violent cause of Allah.

Many non-Muslims are also victims of a different, yet just as deadly, delusion. They believe that Islam is a religion of peace, that only a small minority of Muslims are jihadists, and that Muslims can be reasoned to abandon the Quran-mandated elimination of the non-believers. These well-meaning simpletons are just as deluded as the fanatic jihadists by refusing to acknowledge the fact that one cannot be a Muslim and not abide by the dictates of the Quran.

©2024. Amil Imani. All rights reserved.

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BREAKING:

The official ISIS outlet “Al-Amaq” releases a longer statement on the attack in Moscow and includes a photo of the attackers. pic.twitter.com/dwC0TeTf4l

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) March 23, 2024

Victory: Landmark Decision on Voter ID! Time to Take Action and Demand Voter IDs in Every State of the Union! thumbnail

Victory: Landmark Decision on Voter ID! Time to Take Action and Demand Voter IDs in Every State of the Union!

By ACT For America!

In a significant win for election integrity, a federal judge has upheld Arizona’s crucial election integrity laws, dismissing unfounded challenges from the Biden DOJ and leftist groups.

This ruling should empower all 50 states to now pass Voter ID laws in time to impact our 2024 election!

At the heart of this victory is HB2492, championed by State Rep. Jake Hoffman, which mandates proof of U.S. citizenship to register for any election. This landmark legislation, signed into law by former Governor Doug Ducey, ensures that only eligible citizens participate in Arizona’s democratic process, guarding against voter fraud and bolstering public trust in our elections.

Watch Must-See Video Warning America on One-Party Takeover Plot.

WATCH: The Democrat Open Borders Plan to Entrench Single-Party Rule | Explained in Under Two Minutes

Moreover, HB2243, another vital component of Arizona’s election integrity efforts, focuses on purging voter rolls of individuals who are no longer eligible to vote in the state. This measure aims to maintain accurate and up-to-date voter registration records, further strengthening the integrity of Arizona’s electoral system.

Despite challenges and claims of discrimination from opponents, District Judge Susan Bolton aptly recognized the paramount importance of preserving the integrity of Arizona’s elections. Her ruling affirms that the state’s interest in preventing non-citizens from voting and ensuring public confidence in the electoral process outweighs any minimal burden placed on voters to provide documentary proof of citizenship.

This ruling marks a significant victory for election integrity advocates and underscores Arizona’s commitment to upholding the rule of law in its electoral practices. By safeguarding the integrity of our elections, Arizona sets a standard for transparency, fairness, and accountability in democratic governance.

Let’s celebrate this triumph for democracy and remain steadfast in our efforts to preserve the sanctity of the ballot box!


TAKE ACTION: Voter ID in Every State of the Union


RELATED ARTICLE: The Supreme Court Deals A New Blow To Voting Rights, Upholding Arizona Restrictions

EDITORS NOTE: This ACT! for America column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Ex-CIA, UN Firm Backed by Hamas Sponsor Linked to Gaza Pier Project thumbnail

Ex-CIA, UN Firm Backed by Hamas Sponsor Linked to Gaza Pier Project

By Judicial Watch

“We look forward to the port transitioning to a commercially operated facility over time.”

Last week, I wrote that Biden’s announcement of a two-month project to build a pier to transport aid to Gaza was a “trojan pier” that made no sense.

“Why not just use those existing ports and have Israel look at what’s going through and bring it in?  It seems like this is a lot of work for 60 days out when there are people starving, frankly,” a reporter asked.

And the spokesman responded with a confusing word salad because he had no good answer.

The actual answer is that the Biden administration does not actually believe that the Arab Muslim occupiers in Gaza are starving, let alone starving to death, otherwise it would be doing more than air dropping 11,000 meals and promising to have meal delivery running in 60 days.

The temporary pier setup is about bypassing Israel to provide long term access to Gaza.

While administration officials describe the pier as “temporary”, a senior official also admitted that “we look forward to the port transitioning to a commercially operated facility over time.”

That means it’s not actually meant to be temporary, but a permanent port for the terrorists.

Israeli sources are focused on the involvement of Qatar: an Islamic terror state and the state sponsor of Hamas.

At America’s request, Hamas ally Qatar has agreed to take charge of operating and financing the temporary pier on its way from the United States to the Gaza coast, Israel’s Channel 14 reported on Tuesday.

Qatar consented to run the port on condition that the construction work go to the Al-Hisi firm, “a company controlled and sponsored by Hamas,” according to Channel 14 correspondent Baruch Yedid, citing Arab media reports following a meeting in Cyprus between diplomatic officials from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates several days ago.

Qatar is a key financial backer of the terror group and has sent millions monthly to prop it up. Since 2012, the Gulf State has pumped an estimated $1.8 billion dollars into Gaza, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. Qatar also hosts senior Hamas leaders.

While details are still vague, one vector involves Fogbow, an organization run by ex-CIA and UN people.

A private U.S. advisory firm of former senior American military, CIA and humanitarian officials is proposing to operate the anticipated daily deployment of international aid ships from Cyprus to the Gaza coast, in a plan that would increase the American presence in the volatile region.

The proposal, pitched by the firm Fogbow with the hope that foreign donors will sign on in meetings this week, is being pursued separately from a U.S. military effort to build a giant pier off Gaza to enable the delivery of aid.

Who’s financing this? One guess.

Administration officials have said that while they are talking to several companies, including Fogbow, they haven’t formally agreed to support any specific group.

Qatari officials told The Wall Street Journal they would provide $60 million toward Fogbow’s efforts.

This looks like cutouts on top of cutouts propping up a terrorist group.

AUTHOR

DANIEL GREENFIELD

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.