Wednesday Potpourri

First, as the race for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination begins, among the contenders is one Tulsi Gabbard. Considering that Mark Cuban managed to make a fool of himself by declaring that Donald Trump does not relate to strong, intelligent women, one cannot help but relish the irony in his naming Gabbard to be the Director of National Intelligence.

And then there was Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz-- who is evidently not a strong, intelligent woman-- declared that Gabbard was a “Russian asset.”

But then, surprisingly, Sen. Bernie Sanders replied to the effect that she Debbie should stifle herself.

In his words:

Tulsi Gabbard has put her life on the line to defend this country. People can disagree on issues but it is outrageous for anyone to suggest that Tulsi is a foreign asset. 

Second, speaking of cabinet member qualification, Liz MacDonald recites the qualifications of Biden’s cabinet secretaries. It is a rather sad bunch indeed:

Xavier Becerra, HHS - not a doctor, he’s a lawyer, ex-attorney general of California 

Jared Bernstein, Chair of Council of Economic Advisors - not an economist, Bachelor’s degree in music, masters in sociology. 

Pete Buttigieg, Transportation Secretary - no transportation background, Mayor of Indiana, “pothole Pete” 

Mayorkas, DHS Secretary - no security background, lawyer, Asst U.S. attorney, Obama transition team. 

Jennifer Granholm, Energy Secy - no energy background, Michigan Governor. 

Gina Raimondo, Commerce Secretary - No trade background. 

Gov of Rhode Island Deb Haaland, Interior Secy - New Mexico Congressman And just for kicks…

Bill Nye, the environmentalist “Science Guy” — no background in environmentalism or science, he’s a mechanical engineer and comedy writer.

Third, it’s bad enough that Joe Biden was trying to assert a moral equivalence between Israel and Hamas. He was also trying to manage the IDF. It was perfidy at the highest level. Let’s not keep saying that Biden was a friend of Israel.

Marina Medvin reports:

Netanyahu just revealed how Biden was trying to keep Israel from retrieving the hostages from Rafah, including American hostages. 

“Biden called me before entering Rafah and said to me: Prime Minister Netanyahu - you will be left alone!” 

“I answered him, ‘then we will do it alone!’” 

“Two days later, Blinken was sent to threaten me — ‘You will not receive any armaments.’” 

“I answered him, ‘We will fight with our hands and claws. We will not compromise on Rafah.’” 

“The Americans estimated that 20,000 people would be killed in Rafah. It turned out to be an absolute lie.” 

Palestinians were holding many hostages in Rafah, including American hostages. The leader of Hamas was also hiding out in Rafah.

Fourth, we recall the pogrom mounted in Amsterdam by anti-Semites. And we were wondering where the anti-Semites got the idea that they could do it and get away with it. Apparently, they read the city’s mayor correctly.

Dutch News reports:

Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema has said she would not again use the word “pogrom” when talking about the violence surrounding the Ajax-Maccabi Tel Aviv football match earlier this month, saying the word was now being used as propaganda.

Halsema also told current affairs show Nieuwsuur on Sunday evening that she should have mentioned the trouble caused by Maccabi supporters before and after the Europa League game in the Dutch capital. It emerged later than 10 Maccabi fans were arrested on the evening of the match and several more are included on a police “wanted” list.

“What I wanted to emphasise was the sadness and fear experienced by Jewish Amsterdammers,” she said. “But I have to say that in the following days, I saw how the word pogrom became politicised, to the level of propaganda.

“The Israeli government spoke of a ‘Palestinian pogrom on the streets of Amsterdam’ and in The Hague the words were used to discriminate against Moroccan Amsterdammers, Muslims. That is not what I meant or what I wanted.”

As for which groups are defending Amsterdam’s Jews, the answer is conservative Christians:

And ahead of last week’s parliamentary debate on the violence, Israel’s minister for the diaspora Amichai Chikli sent a 27-page special report to The Hague with its own analysis of the situation to politicians.

The report, which purported to outline links between Dutch organisations and Hamas, was used by the fundamentalist Christian SGP to draw up a motion stating that all Dutch organisations considered to be pro-Hamas by Israel should be put on a terrorism sanctions list.

The Telegraaf newspaper quoted Chikli as saying that “the Dutch authorities should take legal and economic measures against the criminals and as Geert Wilders suggests, deport those involved”.

The mayor declared that they were merely dealing with individuals who had behaved badly.

Now you know the attitude that sustains anti-Semitism.

Fifth, as for the feminization of the publishing world, it is proceeding apace. 

The following is from Helen Andrews:

University faculties went from being 32% female in 1987 to over 50% female in 2020...The majority of New York Times employees are female. The publishing industry is 77% female...coincided with a drastic cultural shift in the direction of feminine values.

Could it be that the results of the most recent election represented a repudiation of said feminization?

Sixth, Hitler lives. Or, at least, his dream of ridding the world of Jews lives on. Nowadays it’s called the Palestinian cause. 

According to Gerfried Ambrosch the current anti-Israeli mania was produced by melding of Nazi ideology with traditional Muslim attitudes towards Jews. From his Quillette article:

Anti-Israel activists in Germany who call on the country to “free Palestine from German guilt” not only downplay our Holocaust responsibility but also ignore the significant role that German antisemites played in shaping anti-Zionism in the Middle East. Their influence reflects a deep-rooted and enduring anti-Zionist strain within German antisemitism that predates even the rise of Nazism.

However, as historian Matthias Küntzel points out, while Islam traditionally treated Jews “with contempt or condescending toleration,” imported antisemitic conspiracy theories escalated this animosity by vilifying Jews as agents of diabolical evil.

Seventh, on a more positive note, it is good to be polite. Emma Jacobs writes in the Financial Times that rudeness is bad for business:

… rude­ness can demo­tiv­ate col­leagues and lead to a dys­func­tional work­place. Research in the Applied Psy­cho­logy Journal found rude­ness dimin­ished indi­vidu­als’ per­form­ance and their abil­ity to work in a team, which “may even have life-threat­en­ing con­sequences”.

Eighth, a few words from Peachy Keenan, about the august body called the American Academy of Pediatrics. You may know that this body has supported transmania transitions:

Of all the sulphuric, corrupt, evil institutions I want to see turned to ash, the one I most long to see getting leveled is the AAP. The American Academy of Pediatrics is the reason my doctor felt empowered to make me leave the exam room so she could ask my devout Catholic 16 yo son if he "felt comfortable with his gender," and then give him a lecture on using condoms. 

The AAP is the organization that twisted medicine and science to give cover to gender orcs seeking to ragdoll vulnerable young children for their dastardly political purposes. They gave the OK to trans surgeries. Chemical castrations. "Puberty blockers" (no such thing).

They're the ones who give new parents the option in the labor and delivery room to check "no gender" on their baby's intake form. They have lost the thread. Parents and children are not patients to them anymore: they are just dumb cannon fodder for their Quixotic political schemes. Dismantle, defund, and destroy it. Bring real medicine back to families. We need it!

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