Wednesday Potpourri

First, while our intelligentsia is agonizing over misinformation it has largely failed to see that the Biden administration has mismanaged foreign policy, especially in the Middle East.

It takes a special level of stupidity to think that the word “Don’t” constitutes a policy or especially a deterrent.

And yet, Biden keeps mouthing this word, while seeing that no one, from Vladimir Putin to the ayatollahs in Iran, takes him seriously.

In Martin Gurri’s words:

So we said "Don't" to the Iranians and they did. So we said we stand with Israel but we also said we condemn Israel. So we called the ruling prince in Saudi Arabia a "pariah" the we begged him for more oil production. Is there a plan anywhere in here?

On the Powerline blog, Scott Johnson had this to say:

Biden and his team have forfeited every element of deterrence against the Iranians. Rather, they have showered the mullahs with money and love while they have financed and accommodated the regime’s activities. They have communicated nothing but fear of the regime. The Biden administration seems not to understand that the regime cannot be appeased.

Now Biden seeks to hedge the Israelis in from responding to the massive Iranian attack. The attack, by the way, targeted Jerusalem among other areas throughout Israel. The Dome of the Rock escaped unscathed thanks to air defenses, but destroying an Islamic holy site and killing Muslims are A-Okay in pursuit of the genocide of the Jewish people. They have their priorities in order.

Second, while the Biden administration helped the Israeli military defend against the Iranian attacks, the truth is, the administration policy, consisting in constantly carping about Israeli military tactics, encouraged said attacks.

And, constantly criticizing Israel while forgetting about the atrocities committed by Hamas, must have given the Iranians the wrong ideas.

Third, after sending its military to help the Israelis, the Biden administration, notably speaking out of both sides of its mouth, immediately told Israel that it would not support a counterattack.

By now, however, the Israelis no longer take the Biden administration’s word very seriously.

It is worth noting a point that everyone else has been noting, namely, that Israel is the only country that is constantly being told to restrain itself, and to accept being attacked violently.

Fourth, one cannot fail to remark that the governments of Jordan and Saudi Arabia contributed to the Israeli effort. One understands that they both have publicly supported the Palestinian people, but, as I have had occasion to remark, the Saudis in particular have no affection for Hamas or the Muslim Brotherhood. 

Fifth, meanwhile in Bidenland, Morgan Ortagus reminds us that Biden had been doing his best to revive the Iran nuclear deal, through a policy of appeasement. In her words:

Reminder: Biden allowed the UN sanctions on Iran's drones and ballistic missiles to expire less than six months ago. The very same drones and missiles en route to Israel right now.

Sixth, Richard Grenell reminds the world of what it all looked like before Biden took office.

In his words:

Donald Trump had Iran broke. Joe Biden gave the Iran Regime hundreds of billions of dollars in sanctions relief, credit and cash. Iran is now attacking Israel with Joe Biden’s money.

Seventh, Victor Davis Hanson has also taken the measure of Biden’s foreign policy mismanagement. Here are some of the points he sees as contributing to the mess in the Middle East:

On the eve of the October 7 massacres, National Security Advisor bragged in an essay that his Mideast portfolio was “quieter than it has been for decades”.  Now we are on the verge of a multifront Middle East war. How did Joe Biden inherit a decades-long regional calm and turn it into a precursor to a gargantuan war?

1. Talk loudly and carry a twig. Issue hollow Obama-like “redlines” or serial Biden threats to aggressive enemies like the vapid “Don’t!” Witness a U.S. President who works a 3-day week, struggles to read a teleprompter, and shouts more at conservative Americans than at America’s enemies.

2. Destroy hard-won deterrence. Abruptly pull out of Afghanistan. Abandon $50 billion in weapons to terrorists. Abandon a new $1 billion embassy. Abandon a $300 refitted air base. Abandon thousands of NATO allies, thousands of U.S. contractors, and thousands of Afghan allies. Lose 13 Marines in a horrific scramble to get out, while killing collateral Afghan civilians in a supposedly “righteous strike”. Call the entire American humiliation an impressive withdrawal.

5. Coddle terrorist Iran. Seem eager to resume the Iran Deal. Lift sanctions. Allow $100 billion in oil profits to flow into Iranian coffers. Restore aid to the terrorist Palestinian authority and Hamas. Ignore Hezbollah’s terrorism. Remove the terrorist designation of the Houthis. Mostly ignore over 120 Iranian attacks on American installations. Transfer suspended funds to Iran at the rate of $1.2 billion for each American hostage it took.

6. Pressure Israel not to destroy Hamas—and not to reply to missile and drone attacks on the Israeli homeland. Threaten to cut off military aid to the only democratic government and longest U.S. ally in the Middle East should it finish off Hamas. Signal the Middle East that there is growing distance between

Israel and America. Try to subvert if not overthrow the elected government of Israel. Transfer U.S. weapons stocks from Israel to Ukraine. Ignore thousands of missiles launched by Hamas and Hezbollah, and 100,000 Israelis internally displaced from their homes.

7. Run up the U.S deficit by $1 trillion every 100 days through reckless spending for entitlements, massive green subsidies, and DEI initiatives—while neglecting American shortages of munition stocks, arms, ships, and planes.

8. Recalibrate the U.S. military by substituting DEI criteria for past meritocracy. Accuse white males of being suspect white supremacists, then investigate them, then find no such evidence—and then suffer a shortage of a record 41,000 recruits. 

Lose the confidence of the American people in the military, so that less than half the population polls high confidence in the armed forces. Render the Uniform Code of Military Justice a mere construct.

Eighth, the Jerusalem Post reports that Iran had informed Turkey of the pending attack on Israel and that Turkey informed the United States. 

Iran informed Turkey in advance of its planned operation against Israel, a Turkish diplomatic source told Reuters on Sunday, adding that the US conveyed to Iran via Ankara that its operation must be "within certain limits."

Obviously, this has been strenuously denied. I report; you decide.

Ninth, your tax dollars at work, supporting National Public Radio. As you know, one Uri Berliner, a longtime editor at NPR has denounced the station for having become a left wing propaganda machine.

To which NPR President Katherine Maher took serious exception. It turns out that Maher is a pathetic flake herself. Being white and blond she has still bought into all the anti-white supremacy noise:

I mean, sure, looting is counterproductive. But it’s hard to be mad about protests not prioritizing the private property of a system of oppression founded on treating people’s ancestors as private property.

Evidently, NPR must be defunded. It has every right to hire a certifiable imbecile as President, but there is no reason for the taxpayers to foot the bill. 

Late news has it that Uri Berliner has been suspended from the network without pay for a few days. If he does not toe the line, he risks being fired.

Tenth, remember the good old days when armies of overpaid consultants declared that remote work was the future.

I have to give myself some credit for having pointed out that this  fairy tale was destined to fail. Now, the New York Post reports on the most recent study, from the University of California, at Berkeley. It tells us that working remotely is career suicide:

A new study co-authored by Enrico Moretti, an economist at the University of California at Berkeley, highlights its repercussions on fleeing professionals. Moretti’s research reveals that leaving major cities can cripple career prospects….

Moretti’s findings challenge the notion that remote work heralded an era of geographic flexibility in living and working, stressing the enduring importance of urban hubs in career advancement.

“The big takeaway is that market size matters,” Moretti told Insider. “It’s clear that larger markets improve the quality of the match.”

The pandemic-induced migration might have lured many with promises of lower costs and spacious homes, but it came at a cost. Living in industry hubs fosters professional networks and serendipitous knowledge exchanges, fueling innovation and productivity.

Eleventh, as the DEI mania recedes another university-- this time Harvard-- is returning to merit, that is, to standardized tests:

Harvard University announced last Thursday that it would be reversing its “standardized testing-optional” policy for applicants to the Class of 2029. This change in course — Harvard dropped the SAT/ACT requirement for applicants four years ago — comes on the heels of announcements by fellow Ivy League schools Dartmouth and Yale in February that they would be doing the same.

  

… it represents a setback for the continuing effort by left-wing academics to redirect higher education away from the pursuit of excellence and toward the pursuit of an ideological agenda.

Twelfth, a word from New York City politician, Maud Maron, regarding the way illegal migrants are displacing American citizens.

It is not very large, as these matters go, but it is certainly relevant:

Yesterday my eldest son’s soccer team could not play one of their scheduled games because migrants refused to leave the field the league had permits for, even after the cops came and told them they needed to leave. Finally the ref said it was too late to start the game and left. Two teams of high school boys, in uniform, with their coaches present. and a valid permit, could not play a soccer match in NYC because our city has become lawless. Not the biggest issue or problem, but so ugly and so diminishing to the quality of life.

I am happy to inform you that I now have some free consulting hours in my coaching practice. If you are interested, contact me at StuartSchneiderman@gmail.com.