Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Wednesday Potpourri

First, a radical transgender activist Bernie supporter shot up a church in Houston. An illegal migrant male pretending to be a woman was carrying a gun with the words, “Free Palestine” on it. How long before the press and the politicians blame it all on gun control laws?

Second, a sidelight on some recent mass shootings, from the Twitter account of Libs of TikTok:


Colorado Springs shooter: nonbinary 


Nashville school shooter: trans 


Aberdeen shooter: trans 


Denver school shooter: trans 


Iowa school shooter: trans/genderfluid 


Lakewood Church shooter: trans 


The modern LGBTQ+ movement is radicalizing our youth into becoming violent extremists.


Third, we do not know what treatments these trans youth were suffering. And we do not know whether puberty blockers and cross sex hormones make them more violent. 


We do know that puberty blockers, given to children, make them stupid.


The Daily Mail has the story:


A world-renowned expert who found puberty-blockers can harm children's IQ says woke academics initially dismissed her research as 'biased'.


University College London neuropsychologist Professor Sallie Baxendale published a review of the potential impact of the powerful drugs on teens who take them. 


Her alarming study highlighted cases where young girls seemingly lost between 7 to 15 IQ points while taking the medications, which halt bodily changes in puberty. 


But despite the concerning findings, Professor Baxendale initially struggled to find a publisher for her review. 


Three separate journals rejected her paper in which she called for 'urgent' research into the impact of the drugs on children's brain functions.


Fourth, the Biden administration and Tom Friedman are out in force blaming Benjamin Natanyahu for the horrors that are being visited on Gaza.


Yet, the Israelis have stood resolute in support of the operation to destroy Hamas.


This, from the Financial Times, Monday:


Four months into the war, there is mount­ing inter­na­tional pres­sure, includ­ing from staunch allies such as the US, for Israel to rein in its offens­ive in Gaza, which has killed more than 27,900 people, accord­ing to Palestinian offi­cials.


But Israeli Prime Min­is­ter Ben­jamin Net­an­yahu is adam­ant that the fight­ing will con­tinue until Israel has achieved “total vic­tory” over Hamas — and opin­ion sur­veys sug­gest the major­ity of the pub­lic remains firmly behind the war effort.


Fifth, Tom Friedman devotes his Wednesday column to some reflections on his own self-importance. As always, he is hawking the two state solution, even though the Palestianians, staunch supporters of Hamas, have rejected it. 


In short, more key players in the Middle East need movement toward a demilitarized Palestinian state today than at any time that I can remember — most of all the Palestinians, for whom this moment offers a unique opportunity to realize their dream of independence in their homeland in a state next to Israel.


Speaking of useful idiots, Friedman defines the concept. He does not quite understand that the Palestinian dream has nothing to do with a dream of independence. The Palestinian dream involves destroying the state of Israel and killing Jews. It has nothing to do with co-existence, peaceful or otherwise.


In his fevered brain Friedman imagines Mohammed bin Salman addressing the Israeli Knesset in a grand gesture, echoing the gesture made by Egyptian president Anwar el-Sadat in 1977.


Having a rather limited memory-- like his hero Joe Biden-- Friedman does not recall that, for his efforts, Sadat was shot by gunmen from the Muslim Brotherhood in 1981. 


Keep in mind that Hamas is a military branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. If you believe that the Saudis would grieve their loss, you are as ill-informed as Tom Friedman.


Sixth, obviously, Friedman is happy to blame Israeli prime minister Netanyahu. Consider this, from this week’s column:


One reason Hamas is so strong today is that Netanyahu has done everything he could for the last decade and a half to undermine the Palestinian Authority, which was created as part of the Oslo agreements, governs the Palestinian-populated areas in the West Bank and cooperates with Israeli security services. At the same time, in recent years, Netanyahu deliberately strengthened Hamas, which has controlled Gaza since ousting the Palestinian Authority in 2007. That is because he and Hamas share the same objective: weakening the Palestinian Authority and preventing a two-state solution.


Friedman believes that the Palestinian Authority, led by the notable anti-Semite Mahmoud Abbas, wants nothing other than to coexist peacefully with Israel. If you believe that you will believe anything.


The following comes to us from the European parliament:


On 24 August 2023, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas claimed that the Holocaust was not caused by antisemitism, but that Hitler ‘fought’ the Jews because they dealt with ‘usury, money and so on’.


Abbas has made similar antisemitic remarks in the past. In a May 2023 speech at the UN, he likened Israelis to Nazis, saying that they ‘lie like Goebbels’. In August 2022, he accused Israel of having committed ‘50 holocausts’ against the Palestinians and in 2018, he claimed that the Holocaust was caused by the ‘social role’ of Jews as money lenders.


Unfortunately, such hatred continues to be taught through Palestinian schoolbooks, which are ultimately financed by the EU


Of course, Abbas replaced Yassir Arafat, a man whose uncle, the Mufti of Jerusalem allied himself with Hitler during the Nazi era-- and who told Hitler he wanted the German tyrant to help him rid the world of Jews.


Seventh, and then there is the case of Washington Post columnist, Karen Attiah. 


David Bernstein explains in Reason:


It's kind of horrifying that the loudest voices bemoaning Palestinian civilian suffering in Gaza will harshly criticize everyone and anyone–Israel, the US, the EU, the UN Security Council, American Jews, you name it–except for Hamas (and its allies like Iran), and the one thing they won't do is suggest Hamas surrender, even though that would immediately end the war, and also end Gazans being ruled by an oppressive medieval theocracy that steals aid money to build weapons and villas for its leaders.


In short, no matter how much they purport to care for Palestinians, their biggest priority is that Israel not emerge victorious over Hamas. I won't go so far as to claim that they don't care about the Palestinians. I will claim, strongly, that they hate Israel much more.


If Attiah cared about the Palestinian people she would be using her column to militate for a Hamas surrender. That would certainly save lives. 


Eighth, meanwhile in another war zone, that would be the streets of New York City, the police are under violent assault. Apparently, our illegal migrant population does not respect authority:


City cops are getting beaten at a record-setting pace — a disturbing and dangerous trend fueled by radical protests, an influx of criminal migrants, bail reform, anti-cop rhetoric and soft-on-crime prosecutors, experts told The Post.


The number of cops hurt by suspects surged 20% in 2022, when 4,724 uniformed officers suffered injuries in attacks, compared to 3,933 in 2021.


But the law enforcement nightmare grew worse last year, when 4,077 cops were hurt by suspects in just the first nine months of 2023 — on pace for a record-breaking 5,436 injuries, the latest NYPD stats show.


“Well over 5,000 cops were attacked and injured last year – that’s not only a record, it’s a full-blown epidemic,” Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry told The Post.


“The vicious attacks on police officers we’ve seen recently didn’t come out of nowhere. This dangerous environment has been building for years. . . .


It’s not going to get better until those who attack police officers are consistently prosecuted and kept in jail. And that won’t happen unless New Yorkers keep speaking up to demand an end to the chaos.”


Ninth, when Defense Secretary Austin visits the ICU, he is replaced by his deputy, one Kathleen Hicks.


What do we know about Kathleen Hicks, aside from the fact that she has no experience with military matters. Zero Hedge reports:


Hicks is a policy wonk focusing on climate change, health security, and DEI issues. She holds a Ph.D. in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 


She also served on the Truman Center for National Policy:

She served on the Center’s board with Vice Chairman Hunter Biden, Kamala Harris, Jake Sullivan, and Pete Buttigieg, ring leaders in the Biden Administration. The Center promotes critical race and gender theology in the State Department and the military and advocates decarbonizing the military. 


What did Austin task her to do at the Pentagon? Glad you asked:


After the January 6th protests, Secretary Austin delegated Hicks to conduct a sixty-day review of white nationalism and racist ideologies in the military (AKA Inquisition). It created the false impression of counter-revolutionary forces embedded in the military. The report was tacitly released last month and provided no evidence supporting Austin’s justification for purging the military of right-wing extremism. Military morale and recruiting have bottomed out at an all-time low. 


Do you think that our military is in the best of hands?


Happy Valentine’s Day!


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1 comment:

sch said...

What struck me about the SecDef affair was that despite two hot wars and presumably frequent meetings of the Nat Sec Council or whatever stands in for it in the Biden admin, Lloyd Austin's counsel/opinion/advice was not requested or felt needed such that the White House was completely unaware he was off the radar for 3 weeks and evidently the press did not discover that he was out of pocket til the 3d or 4th hospital day in early January. It appears Lloyd Austin's status in this administration is way below the usual for SecDef.