Critics raise concerns about Strategic Petroleum Reserve's decline - The Center Square Staff

 

by The Center Square Staff

To curb rising gas prices last summer, Biden released more than 200 million barrels from the U.S. stockpile, bringing the reserves to the lowest point since 1984.

 

Lawmakers are raising concerns that the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which President Joe Biden has relied on heavily since taking office, is getting dangerously low.

Gas prices hit record highs last summer, surpassing $5 per gallon nationally. To curb rising prices, Biden released more than 200 million barrels from the U.S. stockpile, bringing the reserves to the lowest point since 1984.

“By gutting vital fuel storage to lower short-term prices, the Biden Administration exposed the U.S. to future market volatility and increased supply dependence on adversarial nations instead of supporting an all-of-the-above energy approach to unleash American energy potential,” House Oversight Republicans said in a letter to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.

Republicans argue Biden used the reserve to temporarily lower prices ahead of the last November midterm elections. Oversight lawmakers say the Department of Energy has failed to provide documents requested in the inquiry despite repeated requests.

“As a depleted SPR weakens the U.S.’s ability to respond to future supply disruptions, prompt delivery of the requested documents is vital to help Congress ensure U.S. energy security,” the letter said.

According to AAA, the current national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline is $3.53, up from $3.46 a week ago and $3.40 one month ago.

Gas prices are poised to continue rising. As The Center Square previously reported, OPEC+ announced Sunday a cut in oil production to the surprise of many who speculate prices could rise significantly as a result.

Energy prices have soared under Biden’s administration, in part because of the disruption to global oil markets caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but also because of Biden’s work to discourage domestic oil and gas drilling and pipeline development.

House Republicans passed the “Lower Energy Costs Act” last week pointing to those very price increases, but the bill is unlikely to get the needed Democrat support to gain traction in the Senate.

“Only a few short years ago, foreign governments were unable to use energy as a weapon against the United States,” Daniel Turner, executive director of the energy workers advocacy group Power the Future, recently told The Center Square. “Then Joe Biden came along and made OPEC great again. Just last week, the House of Representatives passed a bill to put America back on the road to energy independence and it’s clear OPEC was paying attention. The Senate should pass H.R. 1 immediately and President Biden finally needs to put politics aside and unleash the power of American energy. Otherwise the high prices of food, utilities, and food will continue to punish the American people.”

The Center Square Staff

Source: https://justthenews.com/nation/states/center-square/critics-raise-concerns-about-strategic-petroleum-reserves-decline

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The mainstreaming of American antisemitism - Matthew M. Hausman, JD

 

by Matthew M. Hausman, JD

Not all hatreds are equal Bigotry in the US is steadily declining against most minorities but drastically increasing against Jews.

 

The Looming perfect storm of antisemitism                                                       A.F. Branco

There’s no doubt that antisemitism is increasing in the United States while prejudice and hate crimes against other minorities are generally on the decline. This trend is reflected by US law enforcement statistics, but is also apparent to those of us who have witnessed or experienced it personally. Rioters have harassed Jews and vandalized their property in urban areas and suburbs, Orthodox Jews are assaulted in New York with impunity, Jewish students are attacked on college campuses, and conspiracy theories regarding Israel and the Jews are spewed in university classrooms by leftist professors.

Words deemed triggering to persons or groups designated as victims are routinely cancelled by the progressive establishment, but antisemitic stereotypes are tolerated, expected, and even encouraged. Antisemitism is acceptable on the political left, right, and all points in between and has been mainstreamed in academia, the media, and common culture. Despite herculean efforts by liberal Jewish leaders to blame today’s surging antisemitism on white supremacists, however, there is evidence to suggest it is increasing far more rapidly among progressives and the identity communities they champion.

Moreover, white supremacists are not responsible for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (“BDS”) Movement, Israel Apartheid Week, street violence against the Orthodox in New York City, or the targeting of Jews on campus. Progressives are.

The liberal establishment nevertheless does its best to ignore leftist and minority Jew-hatred and overlook the use of classical tropes and stereotypes by progressives, including members of the Democratic Congressional “squad.” Indeed, Bernie Sanders embraces Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, while others defend them against criticism over rhetoric deemed disparaging to Israel or offensive to Jews.

The prevalence of antisemitism has been on the rise since the Obama administration, when bias incidents and hate-crimes against Jews proliferated. Nevertheless, Mr. Obama avoided acknowledging the anti-Jewish hatred that permeated his progressive base and often led to violence.

And how has President Biden addressed his belated recognition of the problem? By establishing an interagency council “to better coordinate U.S. Government efforts to counter antisemitism, Islamophobia and other related forms of bias and discrimination,” according to a White House press statement. Despite lip service regarding the “threat to the Jewish community,” however, the statement failed to stress the historical uniqueness of antisemitism. By implying that Islamophobia and other sundry hatreds are “related forms of bias and discrimination,” it instead equated antisemitism with prejudices that are fundamentally dissimilar and inapposite.

Not all hatreds are equal and such implied comparisons are inaccurate and tone-deaf to the fear and pain caused by antisemitism. Indeed, hatred of Jews is the world’s oldest, most pernicious, and enduring of all prejudices, and it is historically distinct from Islamophobia, misogyny, and other forms of bias.

No other form of bigotry has persisted for so long, produced so much anguish, and been so consistently defended by its purveyors or blamed on its victims – whether in Christendom, the Islamic world, or either end of the political spectrum. And no other hatred is as multifaceted, as Jews have been persecuted for thousands of years based on religious, ethnic, racial, national, cultural, economic, and xenophobic stereotypes. In European and Islamic societies, Jews were treated as quintessential aliens, the ultimate outsiders.

Antisemitism is the only prejudice that is acceptable in all quarters – from the extreme right to the woke left. It is enabled by a UN that delegitimizes Israel as a Jewish nation and falsely accuses her of persecuting minorities, but ignores real atrocities that occur around the globe, including the slaughter of non-Muslims in Africa, discrimination against Copts in Egypt, and persecution of Christian minorities throughout the Mideast. It is also fostered by liberals who question Israel’s legitimacy, politicians who appease Islamist terrorists, and journalists and academics who use historical revisionism to blame victims instead of perpetrators.

Ironically, those who enable antisemitism are most vocal in condemning all hatreds generically. They decry racism but refuse to acknowledge the pervasiveness of Jew-hatred worldwide and in progressive society. Organizations that demonize Israel and validate Palestinian revisionism (like BDS) are applauded, while classical antisemitic conspiracy theories and blood libels (e.g., that the Israeli military targets civilians and children) are updated for modern consumption and repeated in mainstream publications and classrooms.

Falsely equating antisemitism with Islamophobia and other prejudices overlooks the fact that bigotry in the US is steadily declining against most minorities but drastically increasing against Jews. It also ignores that the most significant increase in Jew-hatred today is coming not from white supremacists, but from Biden’s political base, including leftists, minority communities, and the progressive wing of his own party.

Thus, expressing faux concern for Jews against this political backdrop – without conceding the uniqueness or ubiquity of antisemitism – bespeaks deception, ignorance, or cognitive dissonance. What it doesn’t represent is honesty or integrity.

Biden’s proposed interagency council seems as lacking in backbone as the anti-hate House Resolution sponsored by Congressional Democrats in 2019, which though initially intended as an explicit condemnation of antisemitism fell far short of the goal. That resolution was necessitated by antisemitic rhetoric from the Democrats’ side of the aisle; but they couldn’t muster enough support for its passage until they rewrote it as a generic proclamation against hate without specifically focusing on Jew-hatred. The final product was a diluted statement that failed to mention the specific slurs that had signaled the need for such a resolution in the first place. Though touted as a moral victory by House Democrats, it was desultory and ethically shallow.

Like his party’s anemic resolution in 2019, Biden’s interagency council lacks moral boldness, despite cheerleading from Jewish party loyalists. And its omnibus mission statement reflects the ambivalence of an administration that is blind to antisemitism when it comes from the left, has BDS supporters working in the White House, and seeks to appease organizations that promote terrorism (e.g., the PA) and regimes intent on destroying Israel and exterminating her people (i.e., Iran).

The Democrats cannot claim moral high ground when they can’t even acknowledge obvious antisemitism within their party ranks or political base. They only disgrace themselves by failing to do so.

Detractors can say what they want about former President Trump, but they cannot reasonably accuse him of antisemitism in light of his philosemitic record. It was Trump who ordered the US Embassy move to Jerusalem, made confronting antisemitism a State Department priority, and mended a relationship with Israel torn asunder by the Obama administration. It was also Trump who made possible the Abraham Accords, which exposed the revisionist underpinnings of the two-state solution by showing Israel capable of concluding economic and recognition agreements with Arab nations without the need to create a hostile Palestinian state.

One can disagree with specific policies of Israel, or any other country; but opposing her right to exist by denying Jewish history is antisemitic. So is falsely accusing Israel of human rights violations, while ignoring real abuses that occur in China, Cuba, Iran, and elsewhere. And so is supporting progressive Democrats who verbalize antisemitism without fear of party censure and endorsing UN resolutions intended to bolster apocryphal Palestinian claims by denying the Jews’ well-documented history in their homeland.

Though progressive Jews do not create antisemitism, their kneejerk tendency to defend political allies who deny Jewish historicity, delegitimize Israel, and falsely accuse her of human rights abuses does help facilitate its acceptance by the mainstream. In fact, many progressives believe antisemitism is simply a response to bad Jewish behavior, including the reestablishment of Israel at the supposed expense of Palestinians – a people without historical portfolio whose narrative was created to delegitimize the Jewish State by repudiating Jewish history.

Moreover, self-delusion plagues the nontraditional community – where many Reform and Conservative rabbis deleted the “Prayer for Israel” after the election of Netanyahu and his coalition of conservative and religious parties. Such delusion is further exemplified by those who criticize Netanyahu’s goal of reforming a court system that would not pass constitutional muster in the US – where the executive and legislative branches of government are responsible for appointing federal judges (not a committee in which a majority of nonelected officials wields such authority as in Israel) and where court jurisdiction requires standing and justiciability (which Israeli courts do not).

Liberals’ criticism of Israeli judicial reform actually contradicts the constitutional and democratic principles they claim to emulate and is more consistent with the progressive impulse to circumvent constitutional democracy through judicial subversion – and undermine Israel’s right to determine her own destiny.

Such tropes have infected the mainstream as US antisemitism has skyrocketed. Sadly, the situation is exacerbated by liberals who refuse to challenge the antisemitism of their political bedfellows, and instead lend credence to hoary cliches that undermine Israeli sovereignty and threaten Jewish continuity.

And most of them are too blindly partisan to see the connection.

 

Matthew M. Hausman is a trial attorney and writer who lives and works in Connecticut. A former journalist, Mr. Hausman continues to write on a variety of topics, including science, health and medicine, Jewish issues and foreign affairs, and has been a legal affairs columnist for a number of publications.

Source: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/369669

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Jim Jordan subpoenas former Manhattan prosecutor in first strike against office prosecuting Trump - John Solomon

 

by John Solomon

Former special assistant district attorney Mark Pomerantz had publicly pressed for charges against Trump.

 

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan on Thursday subpoenaed a former Manhattan prosecutor who openly campaigned to criminally charge Donald Trump – in the first significant strike at the office that brought the historic indictment against the former president this week.

Jordan's subpoena to former Special Assistant District Attorney Mark Pomerantz comes just days after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg pointedly declined to provide documents and testimony to Jordan's committee, calling it an interference in his investigation.

In a letter last month, the GOP-led panel requested Pomerantz’s voluntary cooperation, but he declined to cooperate at the direction of Bragg's office. 

The subpoena compels his cooperation, setting up a potential legal battle pitting the oversight powers of the federal legislative branch against a state judicial system.

In his letter transmitting the subpoena, Jordan told Pomerantz his testimony was needed in part to inform legislation that would protect future presidents from political persecutions.

"The New York County District Attorney’s unprecedented prosecutorial conduct requires oversight to inform the consideration of potential legislative reforms that would, if enacted, insulate current and former Presidents from such politically motivated state and local prosecutions," Jordan wrote.

"These potential legislative reforms may include, among other things, broadening the existing statutory right of removal of certain criminal cases from state court to federal court."

You can read the letter here.

2023-04-06-jdj-to-pomerantz-subpoena_0.pdf

The letter also noted that Pomerantz publicly criticized Bragg for failing to aggressively prosecute Trump last year, and even wrote a memoir describing his eagerness to investigate the 45th president. The GOP chairman said Pomerantz’s public statements about the investigation strongly suggest that Bragg’s subsequent indictment is politically motivated. 

The letter called the former prosecutor memoir a a "300-page exercise in score-settling and scorn."

John Solomon

Source: https://justthenews.com/government/congress/jim-jordan-subpoenas-former-manhattan-prosecutor-first-strike-against-office

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Biden EPA takes aim at coal plants with new proposal - Addison Smith

 

by Addison Smith

The proposed restrictions are sure to wreak havoc on coal plants across the continental US.

 

President Joe Biden's Environmental Protection Agency is moving to impose sweeping new restrictions on coal plants across the nation for the first time in more than a decade.

The EPA outlined a proposal Wednesday to crack down on emissions limits under Mercury and Air Toxics Standards. The proposition includes a 67% emissions reduction limit for pollutants such as lead, nickel and arsenic for all coal plants in America, as well as a 70% reduction standard on mercury emissions for plants that use lignite coal.

Lignite plants are primarily located in Texas and North Dakota.

In a press release on the proposal, EPA Administrator Michael Regan said the effort would help protect the planet and improve public health.

“By leveraging proven, emissions-reduction measures available at reasonable costs and encouraging new, advanced control technologies, we can reduce hazardous pollution from coal-fired power plants, protecting our planet and improving public health for all,” he stated.

Despite the projected $230 million to $300 million price tag, EPA officials told reporters that the rule, if put in place, could yield up to $3 billion dollars in so-called climate and health benefits.

If approved, it would be the strictest crackdown under the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards since they were adopted under then President Barack Obama during his first term.

Political leaders from coal states immediately decried the regulation, saying it put their states economy in danger.

“The Biden administration continues to wage war on coal and affordable, reliable energy by issuing unnecessary regulations intended to drive down electricity production from our nation’s baseload power resources,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said. “With one job-killing regulation after another, the EPA continues to threaten the livelihoods of those in West Virginia and other energy-producing communities across the country.”

Addison Smith

Source: https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/energy/bidens-epa-takes-aim-coal-plants-new-proposal

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Biden hands the Middle East to China - James Lewis

 

by James Lewis

Since China is smarter, more ruthless, and much more strategic than our present policy goofballs, China's "Anti-Abraham Accords" solve some deeply stuck problems, while creating new anti-American threats.

While the United States has been hypnotized by our domestic battle of Biden versus Trump, China has made a major move in the Middle East.

It has negotiated an alliance of convenience between those thousand-year enemies, the Saudis and Iranians, whose theological feud goes back to the generation after Mohammed.

China has thereby effectively countered the Abraham Accords negotiated by the U.S., the Arab states (with Saudis in the background), and Israel.

We are now seeing the Chinese game of Wei-chi (the Japanese call it Go), and you practically need a computer to keep track of the moves.

Let's take this from Israel's viewpoint to simplify things.  Since 1979, when the U.S. allowed our the Shah of Iran to be overthrown, a fierce new stream of warlike jihad has come to world power.  Shi'ite Iran has turned into a global spider with hairy legs all over the planet, driven by a murderous hatred of Israel, the United States, and the weakened Christian West.

Donald Trump used the Abraham Accords to forge a historic new alliance between Israel and key Arab states, an unprecedented move for peace.  China has now countered the Abraham Accords by enabling what could be called the "Anti-Abraham" Accords, which puts China in the driver's seat in the Middle East, now threatening to topple U.S. influence there.

Since China is smarter, more ruthless, and much more strategic than our present policy goofballs, China's "Anti-Abraham Accords" solve some deeply stuck problems, while creating new anti-American threats.  (Don't imagine that China is not involved in our domestic politics, either.)

Israel has been under Iran's guns since Jimmy Carter gave Iran to the mullahs in 1979.  Every single day in the last fifty years, Iran's schoolchildren have been made to shout "Death to Israel!  Death to America!," and our brain-stuck foreign policy establishment has only played the pitiful, helpless giant.

The Iranians are now near 95 percent uranium purification, which puts them within weeks of a usable bomb, putting Israel (and other sane nations) under existential threat.  Iran's nuclear technology has advanced with the help of two major powers: Russia and China, and both are in the new four-way accord between China, Russia, Iran, and Saudi Arabia.

For now, Putin has been tied down in the Ukraine, which is rapidly draining his resources, his army, and his worldwide credibility.

Let's look at the costs and benefits.

Israel is now seeing a new way to hold off the fanatical mullahs, using China as the new guarantor of the balance of power in the Middle East.  Right now, Russia is no threat, but Iran has become a major arms supplier to Russia in its desperate war in Ukraine.

In the absence of any strategic U.S. vision, China can therefore play an immensely powerful role as the nuclear "peace-maker" in the Middle East.

The Saudis have joined China in the "Anti-Abraham Accords" because the Saudis have performed miserably against Iranian aggression.  They are also facing a threat to their very existence from the nuclear fanatics next door.

Iran hates the Saudis for ancient religious reasons.  Fifty years ago, the Ayatollah Khomeini tried to use Muslim pilgrims to the annual Hajj ceremonies in Mecca to overthrow the Saudi kingdom.

Meanwhile, the Biden regime looks even weaker than Jimmy Carter, the silliest U.S. administration in the 20th century.  Biden's own dark history combined with his vile hatred of Trump has now created an historic chance for China to stage a major power play, not just in Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific, but also in the Middle East, with its oil resources and endless strife.

China also wants to dethrone the U.S. dollar as the world's reserve currency, which could severely impact our economy.  The U.S. dollar has made the United States the safe refuge for capital around the world in troubled times.  When things go badly in Europe or South America, capital flees to safe harbors, and the U.S. has been the safest for almost a hundred years.

What we are seeing is therefore not an Axis of Evil, but a kind of Iron Mace of Evil — an axis has only two end points, but a medieval mace has as many as you want.  This is Wei-chi, not chess.

China could tame the existential threat of Iran using its growing links with Tehran.  But China will exact a price for its favors, as it always does.  Nobody outside Iran benefits from fanatical mullahs with nukes, which can destroy cities all over the world in 15 minutes.

We do not yet have a viable defense against ICBMs.

Think of an old-fashioned kaleidoscope that clicks into a colorful new pattern whenever you rotate the tube.  The kaleidoscope can organize in many different ways, but the power that turns the tube is in control.  China just turned the tube.

Goofy Joe has now alienated Europe (by blowing up their Russian gas pipeline); he has shown lethal weakness against a constantly irritated Latin America by collapsing our southern border, while Brazil, Venezuela, and Cuba are either bitter U.S. enemies or rising competitors.

Our fuddy-duddy regime just tried to undermine Israel by whipping up left-wing riots that blocked Netanyahu's eminently fair and sensible judicial reforms.

Every friend you alienate will look for better allies in a lethally dangerous world.  Israel may prefer the U.S., because we have so many values in common.  But in the face of a malignant nuclear Iran, now allied with the Saudis, and a desperately confused Europe, with newly ambitious South American countries — all the players will be sorely tempted to abandon the U.S. when push comes to shove.

The "Russia, Russia, Russia" hoax was bad enough for domestic politics, but the real Wizard of Oz today is "China, China, China."

Photo credit: YouTube screen grab.

James Lewis

Source:https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/04/biden_hands_the_middle_east_to_china.html

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China's Race to Dominate the Military and Emerging Technologies - Lawrence A. Franklin

 

by Lawrence A. Franklin

Communist China is currently preparing its people for war. America is not. The American people, who take their magical lives -- when compared to so many people in the world -- for granted, may be in for a tormenting shock.

• The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) openly says it wants to establish dominance in emerging critical technologies as part of its strategy to supplant the United States as the world's dominant power, establish a new world order and replace the US-led international system established after WWII.

• The US has only a little time left in this race. Reports indicate that deep cuts to the military made by several administrations have severely impaired its ability to catch up. Remaining talent and resources will possibly be reallocated in a new administration, if it is not too late by then. China has been supercharging its military for years while the U.S. has sat back, watched, and argued about unrelated social issues.

• Communist China is currently preparing its people for war. America is not. The American people, who take their magical lives -- when compared to so many people in the world -- for granted, may be in for a tormenting shock.

China has been supercharging its military for years and is preparing its people for war. America is not. The American people, who take their magical lives for granted, may be in for a tormenting shock. Pictured: DF-17 hypersonic missiles at a military parade in Beijing, China, on October 1, 2019. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) openly says it wants to establish dominance in emerging critical technologies as part of its strategy to supplant the United States as the world's dominant power, establish a new world order and replace the US-led international system established after WWII.

The US has only a little time left in this race. Reports indicate that deep cuts to the military made by several administrations have severely impaired its ability to catch up. Remaining talent and resources will possibly be reallocated in a new administration, if it is not too late by then. China has been supercharging its military for years while the U.S. has sat back, watched, and argued about unrelated social issues.

China also hopes to exploit the military potential of new technologies. Some, such as hypersonic advances, have the potential for developing sophisticated new weapons systems. Others, such as the science of "Big Data," can enhance military targeting while rapidly collecting, analyzing and storing immense amounts of information.

Robotics, another modern technology, has already been deployed by the US military against improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and suicide bombers in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The anti-armor Javelin missile, originally a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, will eventually be fired from a 7-ton robot as it surveys targets beyond the forward edge of the battle area. The Javelin has proven successful in Ukraine as a check against Russia's advantage in armored weapon systems, particularly when Russian tanks travel in columns. In future wars, robots could guide unmanned jets as well as armored vehicles.

A "directed energy weapon" (DEW) can direct the flow of atomic particles. New advances in DEW technology include high-powered microwave weaponry and chemical laser systems.

Another promising military application is the science of quantum technology (physics/chemistry). A quantum, the smallest measurable unit of light (a photon) or electricity (an electron), can become the medium of an encrypted intelligence messaging sent, say, from a command headquarters to a military front.

Quantum communications, when encrypted (quantum encryption), are impervious to decryption. China dispatched the first quantum message , from Vienna Austria to Beijing, via satellite in 2017.

Chinese Communist Party leaders have maintained a keen interest in securing for China a lead in quantum disciplines. Chinese quantum expert Jian Wei-pan -- in large part responsible for the launch of the first quantum satellite in the summer of 2016 -- briefed CCP Politburo Members on the military advantages, should China secure a solid lead in this technology.

China is in an additional race with the US in the field of "advanced data analytics": the ability to sift through enormous amounts of information at great speeds, using artificial intelligence both to identify trends and predict events. This capability reportedly can improve the training of pilots, commercial or military.

China appears determined to master "big data analytics" by applying advanced computers to assist the People's Liberation Army in planning. Chinese President Xi Jinping, at the 19^th Party Congress in 2017, personally endorsed the integration of "big data" into the Chinese economy. The CCP stated at the time:

"By 2030, our country will reach a world leading level in artificial intelligence theory, technology and application and become a principal world center for artificial intelligence innovation."

Intelligence collection tracking systems have been improved. For instance, new drone technology easily exposed a training exercise that featured U.S. Special Forces personnel attempting to infiltrate a hypothetical enemy area of operations.

The "Swarming Drone Pack" -- whereby one drone can transmit data simultaneously to the entire swarm -- can, in addition, both help or complicate US/NATO Special Forces operators' missions.

Advances in quantum sensing enable discernment of nuclear ordinance or radioactive materials embedded below the earth's surface -- such as in monitoring a nation's non-declared atomic storage, or attempts by adversaries to shield nuclear weapons programs.

The Free World's "tech war" against the CCP and the race to dominate artificial intelligence is also a contest in which the victor will dominate the global dissemination of information. The winner will establish future international rules and standards, especially for digital technologies. Xi threw down the gauntlet in a 2020 speech in which he announced the plan for establishment of a "Digital Silk Road" – asserting that control of information as a critical part of total control over a "new world order."

China has so far aggressively been leading in the extraction of rare earth materials necessary for vital weapons systems. China dominates the extraction of neodymium necessary for Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles and samarium needed for nuclear reactors.

Communist China is currently preparing its people for war. America is not. The American people, who take their magical lives -- when compared to so many people in the world -- for granted, may be in for a tormenting shock.

Dr. Lawrence A. Franklin was the Iran Desk Officer for Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. He also served on active duty with the U.S. Army and as a Colonel in the Air Force Reserve.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19563/china-emerging-technologies

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Prosecuting Political Foes Is Incompatible With Democracy - Jonathan S. Tobin

 

by Jonathan S. Tobin

[T]he willingness of so much of the chattering classes to justify attempts to jail political opponents is antithetical to the survival of democracy in both countries.

• Their [the left's] claim is that both Trump and Netanyahu are enemies of democracy. That makes achieving their downfall... a righteous cause.... Actions that would easily be seen as an abuse of power are justified because of a supposedly higher purpose....

• [B]oth men are political leaders being singled out by prosecutors for charges that weren't so much tailored to their circumstances as they were invented for the sole purpose of taking them down.

• [T]he only reason any prosecutor is looking for a way to charge him is because he's a hated political foe.

• [T]heir foes justify using the legal system against them because they claim they are enemies of democracy but whose main purpose appears to be toppling the government.

• [T]he willingness of so much of the chattering classes to justify attempts to jail political opponents is antithetical to the survival of democracy in both countries.

• Such prosecutions only serve to undermine public confidence. They convince supporters of those charged that there is a two-tiered system where political foes not favored by the legal apparatus are treated differently.

• [D]emocracy, which relies on both sides, accepting each other's legitimacy, is in real jeopardy of failing. The real threat to it doesn't come from conservatives in either country. It can be found in a political culture that has been embraced by the left that is willing to stop at nothing to crush opponents.

As different as the cases against Former U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are, what they have in common is that both men are political leaders being singled out by prosecutors for charges that weren't so much tailored to their circumstances as they were invented for the sole purpose of taking them down. Pictured: Trump and Netanyahu meet in the White House on September 15, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Doug Mills/Pool/Getty Images)

These are heady times for those who hate both Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu. The news that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg had persuaded a grand jury to indict the former president was greeted with chortles of satisfaction from the Jewish left, which was already celebrating the recent setback suffered by the Israeli prime minister after he put judicial reform on hold.

Trump being booked in New York is not only being celebrated by those who call Netanyahu "crime minister" because of the long-running legal case on corruption charges that he has been fighting in and out of the courts for years. It has also allowed them to see the pair, despite the obvious differences between the two men and the legal stratagems that have been deployed against them, and their predicaments as part of a common struggle against what Haaretz called the way they both attack their respective countries' democratic institutions.

To the left, that's the important point.

Their claim is that both Trump and Netanyahu are enemies of democracy. That makes achieving their downfall not so much a matter of alleged wrongdoers getting their comeuppance but can be portrayed as a righteous cause in which threats to the common good are eliminated by lawfare. In that way, even the flimsiest of charges or the use of tactics that target an individual rather than enforcing the law is normalized rather than condemned as violating legal ethics. Actions that would easily be seen as an abuse of power are justified because of a supposedly higher purpose to the prosecution.

As different as the cases against Trump and Netanyahu are, what they have in common is that both men are political leaders being singled out by prosecutors for charges that weren't so much tailored to their circumstances as they were invented for the sole purpose of taking them down.

The cases against Trump and Netanyahu

The indictment of Trump is driven largely by a novel legal tactic focused on his alleged payment of hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels. While such actions are deplorable, they are not illegal; nevertheless, it's being treated as a form of fraud because it is considered an unreported campaign contribution. This is an absurd argument that has never been successfully used against any politician and is unlikely to withstand scrutiny by higher courts even if the deep-blue courts of New York City railroad it through. It's possible that Trump's businesses have also been scrutinized for some possible illegal behavior in ways that practically no other New York real estate firm has been treated.

Other charges that may be pending against Trump in either the District of Columbia, where he might be charged for inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, or in Georgia, where he is accused of trying to swing the 2020 presidential election in his favor by looking for more votes, may have more merit. Still, both of those cases run afoul of other pitfalls, such as the fact that even foolish or bad speech isn't normally treated as criminal.

But while Trump is a singular figure who has shattered all sorts of precedents, both good and bad, the only reason any prosecutor is looking for a way to charge him is because he's a hated political foe.

The same is true of the charges against Netanyahu, even if the person ultimately responsible for the case—former Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit — was a former supporter turned political enemy.

The three cases against him that are being tried in a Jerusalem District Court have, if anything, even less substance to them than the ones against Trump. One concerns his acceptance of expensive gifts of champagne and cigars from admirers, though the notion that doing so constituted a breach of trust or fraud is absurd. The second involves discussions between the prime minister and the publisher of the hostile Yediot Achronot newspaper in which Netanyahu suggested that he might support legislation that undermined the Israel Hayom newspaper (Yediot's pro-Netanyahu competition) in exchange for favorable coverage. The prosecutors involved labeled that a "breach of trust" but, here again, it's not clear what existing law the conversation (which led to nothing) broke. The third charge sounds more substantial since it alleges that Netanyahu traded regulatory decisions that favored the Bezeq Company for favorable coverage on its Walla news site. But since Walla remained critical of the prime minister, the claim that it was bribery lacks substance. Even if the outlet had changed its tune, here again, there is no law in Israel that states that obtaining favorable coverage is bribery.

As with the complicated attempt to use the Stormy Daniels affair against Trump, Netanyahu's foes don't care that the cases against him lack substance. They believe him to be a criminal simply because he is a hated political foe who is difficult to beat at the ballot box. If it takes cases in which a man will be convicted of violating laws that don't actually exist on fake claims of fraud, that's OK because they see it as similar to charging Jazz Age crime boss Al Capone with not paying his taxes rather than for murder.

The difference is that Capone really was the head of a criminal enterprise. Dislike or disagree with them all you want, but Trump and Netanyahu are not criminals. They are political opponents. And so, their foes justify using the legal system against them because they claim they are enemies of democracy against whom the normal rules of political conduct cannot apply.

The real threat to democracy

In recent years, one of the standard talking points of the political left in both Israel and the United States has been to state their fears about an alleged war on democracy being waged by their political rivals. In the United States, the claim that Republicans were "semi-fascists" and bigots who had to be defeated in order to save democracy was a rallying cry for Democrats in the 2022 midterm elections. In Israel, in the past three months, hundreds of thousands of opponents of Netanyahu have also been employing the same kind of hyperbole about saving democracy. They believe that the stakes are sufficiently high to justify blocking highways and sabotaging their country's economy and national defense purportedly to stop judicial reform legislation, but whose main purpose appears to be toppling the government.

The arguments in favor of their opposition to judicial reform don't stand up to scrutiny and, when stripped down to their essentials, amount to a belief on the part of many Israelis that the nationalist and religious voters who favor Netanyahu and his allies can't be allowed to govern. That is why even people like opposition leader Yair Lapid and others in his camp — once ardent critics of the out-of-control and essentially lawless Israeli Supreme Court — now oppose judicial reform.

The claims of Democrats that Republicans oppose democracy because of differences over voter integrity laws are just as lacking in substance. Trump may be deserving of criticism for not accepting the legitimacy of election results, yet the willingness of Democrats to shamelessly sabotage his administration with conspiracy theories about Russian collusion, and to use their media and Big Tech allies to silence negative stories about the Biden family corruption in 2020, shows that they are just as guilty of behaving badly in pursuit of political power.

That's why we should ignore the claims that the defense of democracy requires political prosecutions.

On the contrary, the willingness of so much of the chattering classes to justify attempts to jail political opponents is antithetical to the survival of democracy in both countries. Contrary to the claims of their detractors, the legal wars against Trump and Netanyahu are not a matter of demonstrating that no one, no matter how powerful, is above the law. In fact, both men are being treated as if they are below the law.

Such prosecutions only serve to undermine public confidence in the justice system. They convince supporters of those charged that there is a two-tiered system where political foes not favored by the legal apparatus are treated differently.

No matter what they think of the two men, Israelis and Americans who care about preserving democracy should be hoping that the cases against Trump and Netanyahu end as quickly as possible with neither man being convicted. The alternative is a scenario in which democracy, which relies on both sides accepting each other's legitimacy, is in real jeopardy of failing. The real threat to it doesn't come from conservatives in either country. It can be found in a political culture that has been embraced by the left that is willing to stop at nothing to crush opponents.

Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS (Jewish News Syndicate).

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19566/prosecuting-political-foes

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Trump pleads not guilty to 34 counts - Madeleine Hubbard

 

by Madeleine Hubbard

He was expected to plead not guilty to the charges.

 

Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records and conspiracy related to his alleged role in hush money payments to two women.

Trump, the first former president to ever face criminal charges, is expected to be released on his own recognizance.

Judge Juan Merchan unsealed the indictment in the brief proceeding, according to multiple reports, but details about the charges are still uncertain.

The charges are related to a hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy playmate Karen McDougal ahead of the 2016 election.

During the proceedings, prosecutors alleged that Trump made "threatening" social media posts and statements ahead of the arraignment, NBC reported.

Trump ignored questions from reporters as he left the courtroom.

is slated to return to his Palm Beach, Florida, home, where he will give remarks Tuesday evening. 

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is slated to hold his own press conference at 4 p.m. ET regarding the indictment.

Trump and other Republicans have said criticized Bragg and said the investigation is politically motivated.

This is a developing story ... 

Madeleine Hubbard

Source: https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/all-things-trump/trump-pleads-not-guilty-34-counts

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Read 34-count Trump indictment here - Madeleine Hubbard

 

by Madeleine Hubbard

Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan court on Tuesday.

The indictment against former President Donald Trump was unsealed Tuesday with 34 criminal charges related to falsifying business records. 

You can read the indictment in full here:

Donald-J.-Trump-Indictment.pdf

Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan court on Tuesday to all counts stemming from his alleged role in hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy playmate Karen McDougal ahead of the 2016 election.

Madeleine Hubbard

Source: https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/all-things-trump/read-trumps-indictment-here

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Biden's Anti-Israel Policy Empowers Iran, Palestinian Terrorists -- Bassam Tawil

 

by Bassam Tawil

 Biden seems more concerned about a plan to fix the deeply broken judicial system in Israel than about Palestinian threats to destroy Israel and kill as many Jews as possible.

• US President Joe Biden appears more worried about the Israeli government's plan for judicial reform than the growing support among Palestinians for terrorism against Israel.

• He seems more concerned about a plan to fix the deeply broken judicial system in Israel than about Palestinian threats to destroy Israel and kill as many Jews as possible.

• We did not see Biden raise any objection over the Palestinians' "Pay for Slay" policy, which rewards terrorists and their families for the murder of Jews. We did not see Biden raise any objection over the Palestinian leaders' glorification of terrorists, who are being celebrated as "martyrs" by a majority of Palestinians. We did not see Biden raise any objection over the thousands of Palestinians who regularly take to the streets to celebrate the murder of Jews in terror attacks perpetrated by Palestinian terrorists.

• As Biden was criticizing the democratically elected prime minister of Israel, senior (unelected) Palestinian officials were continuing to use every available podium to spread more libels against Israel.

• Has Biden ever shown any concern that the Palestinians are living under highly undemocratic regimes, with the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, and Hamas in the Gaza Strip? Has Biden or anyone from his administration ever asked the Palestinians why they do not have a functioning parliament?

• The crisis Biden has triggered with Israel because of his recurring criticism of a badly-needed judicial reform plan is great news for Iran and its Palestinian proxies, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), two of the many Islamist terror groups that openly call for the elimination of Israel.

• By sparking a crisis with Netanyahu and the Israeli government, Biden has succeeded in bringing happiness to the enemies of both Israel and the US, perhaps in an effort that will be fruitless, to appease them. The message the Biden Administration is sending is that you are rewarded if you are an enemy of the US but punished if you are a friend.

• Biden has placed himself alongside the mullahs of Iran who are expressing hope that the protests against the Netanyahu government will lead to the "collapse of the Zionist regime."

• The mullahs are clearly happy to see Biden's attacks on the Israeli prime minister, who has been spearheading efforts to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

• The mullahs are also undoubtedly delighted to see the Biden administration turn its back on its major ally and the only democracy in the Middle East: Israel. In the view of the mullahs and most of Israel's enemies, the US has always been the "Great Satan" that stands in the way of achieving their goal of destroying the "Little Satan" Israel.

• Basically, Iran does not want any democratic presence in the Middle East and has presumably been attacking US interests in the area to force the US to pull out.

• In reality, it looks to many in the Middle East as if the Biden Administration's objection to long-overdue judicial reforms is really just a pretext for trying to bring down the democratically-elected Israeli government and replace it with a new government that will allow the US to accept that Iran may have all the nuclear weapons it wants, perhaps with some feckless "compromise," such as "so long as it does not field them." This would be a deeply terrible plan that the Biden Administration might, alarmingly, decide to accept.

• The current US anti-Netanyahu approach will do nothing except empower Iran and its proxies, Hamas, PIJ and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and incentivize them to carry out more terror attacks – not only against Israelis, but against Americans as well.

• The Israeli government's judicial plan is probably not perfect, but it could not be more dangerous than Iran's continued effort to produce nuclear weapons or the Palestinians' rising support for terrorism.

• The Biden administration would do well to understand that those who want to kill the Jews also want to see dead the friends and allies of the Jews. That is why it would be most helpful for America's national security if Biden and his officials immediately defused the tensions and ceased their rhetorical attacks against a small country that is in reality America's only true friend and most trusted ally in the Middle East.

US President Joe Biden appears more worried about the Israeli government's plan for judicial reform than the growing support among Palestinians for terrorism against Israel, and threats to destroy Israel and kill as many Jews as possible. Pictured: Members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade Palestinian terrorist group at a rally in the Balata refugee camp near Nablus, on December 20, 2022. (Photo by Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP via Getty Images)

US President Joe Biden appears more worried about the Israeli government's plan for judicial reform than the growing support among Palestinians for terrorism against Israel.

He seems more concerned about a plan to fix the deeply broken judicial system in Israel than about Palestinian threats to destroy Israel and kill as many Jews as possible.

While Biden has not hesitated to publicly criticize Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government over the judicial overhaul plan, he has yet to speak out against the Palestinians' support for terrorism and their ongoing campaign to isolate and delegitimize Israel.

We did not see Biden raise any objection over the Palestinians' "Pay for Slay" policy, which rewards terrorists and their families for the murder of Jews. We did not see Biden raise any objection over the Palestinian leaders' glorification of terrorists, who are being celebrated as "martyrs" by a majority of Palestinians. We did not see Biden raise any objection over the thousands of Palestinians who regularly take to the streets to celebrate the murder of Jews in terror attacks perpetrated by Palestinian terrorists.

As Biden was criticizing the democratically elected prime minister of Israel, senior (unelected) Palestinian officials were continuing to use every available podium to spread more libels against Israel. These falsely include that it is committing massacres against the Palestinians and "stealing their property."

Has Biden ever shown any concern that the Palestinians are living under highly undemocratic regimes, with the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, and Hamas in the Gaza Strip? Has Biden or anyone from his administration ever asked the Palestinians why they do not have a functioning parliament?

It is worth noting that the Palestinian Legislative Council has been inoperative since 2007, when the Iranian-backed Hamas terror group violently seized control of the Gaza Strip after toppling the US-backed Palestinian Authority and killing possibly hundreds of Palestinians.

On March 28, Biden told reporters that the Israeli government "cannot continue down this road" with its judicial reform plan and stressed that he is not going to invite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House "in the near term."

Earlier this year, Biden told The New York Times that any fundamental changes to Israel's judicial system should be based on a consensus to get legitimacy from the public and be sustainable.

He also called Netanyahu in early March and "expressed concerns" over the plan.

The crisis Biden has triggered with Israel because of his recurring criticism of a badly-needed judicial reform plan is great news for Iran and its Palestinian proxies, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), two of the many Islamist terror groups that openly call for the elimination of Israel.

Media outlets affiliated with Iran and its terror proxies also seem to be taking delight in reporting about the crisis, and highlighting Biden's statement that he is not going to invite Netanyahu to the White House "in the near term."

Iran's official media has also gleefully underscored the crisis between the Biden administration and the Israeli government.

"White House snubs Netanyahu," rejoiced a headline in the mullah's newspaper, Tehran Times. "For now, it looks like Netanyahu has to wait by the postbox before an invitation letter arrives from Washington DC."

By sparking a crisis with Netanyahu and the Israeli government, Biden has succeeded in bringing happiness to the enemies of both Israel and the US, perhaps in an effort that will be fruitless, to appease them. The message the Biden Administration is sending is that you are rewarded if you an enemy of the US but punished if you are a friend.

Iran and its terror militias are not only enemies of Israel, but the US too. That is seemingly why they often burn Israeli and US flags together when they take to the streets to demonstrate against Israel and the US.

Biden has placed himself alongside the mullahs of Iran, who are expressing hope that the protests against the Netanyahu government will lead to the "collapse of the Zionist regime."

"The current internal and external conditions of the illegitimate regime have been unprecedented over the last seven decades," remarked Iran's Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).

"The Zionist regime's status is so shaky that many are hopeful the regime will collapse by internal factors. This important incident will happen soon with God's help and the people of Palestine and the region will get rid of the cancerous tumor [Israel]."

When the mullah's media outlets talk about the "external conditions" affecting Israel, they are mainly referring to the tensions between the Israeli government and the Biden administration.

The mullahs are clearly happy to see Biden's attacks on the Israeli prime minister, who has been spearheading efforts to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

There is no doubt that the mullahs, together with their agents Hamas and PIJ, now believe that the crisis Biden has sparked with Israel will hamper, hinder or even halt Netanyahu's efforts.

The mullahs are surely aware that any Israeli military action against Iran would require some form of coordination between the US and Israel.

The mullahs are also undoubtedly delighted to see the Biden administration turn its back on its major ally and the only democracy in the Middle East: Israel. In the view of the mullahs and most of Israel's enemies, the US has always been the "Great Satan" that stands in the way of achieving their goal of destroying the "Little Satan" Israel.

Basically, Iran does not want any democratic presence in the Middle East and has presumably been attacking US interests in the area to force the US to pull out.

As Biden and his administration remain obsessed with the Israeli government and would love to reverse the results of the last election in Israel, which saw Netanyahu and his allies score a victory, they have nevertheless failed to voice concern over the Palestinians' repeated calls for murdering Jews.

A public opinion poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in mid-March showed that 68% of Palestinians support the formation of terror groups such as the Lions' Den, whose members have carried out a series of shooting attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians over the past few months.

The poll found that 71% of the Palestinians support the Palestinian terror attack in which Jewish brothers Hallel Yaniv, 21, and Yagel Yaniv, 19, were killed in early March.

Moreover, the poll showed that Palestinian support for a return to armed confrontations (a euphemism for terrorism) with Israel has increased from 55% late last year to 58%.

The Israeli government's judicial plan is probably not perfect, but it could not be more dangerous than Iran's continued effort to produce nuclear weapons or the Palestinians' rising support for terrorism.

The Biden Administration appears unperturbed that more than 70% of Palestinians polled support the cold-blooded murder of two innocent young Jewish brothers by Palestinian terrorists in early March.

The Biden Administration claims that it views a plan to reform Israel's judicial system as the biggest threat to security and stability in the Middle East. This makes the mullahs and all the Islamist terrorists happy.

In reality, it looks to many in the Middle East as if the Biden Administration's objection to long-overdue judicial reforms is really just a pretext for trying to bring down the democratically-elected Israeli government and replace it with a new government that will allow the US to accept that Iran may have all the nuclear weapons it wants, perhaps with some feckless "compromise," such as "so long as it does not field them." This would be a deeply terrible plan that the Biden Administration might, alarmingly, decide to accept.

The current US anti-Netanyahu approach will do nothing except empower Iran and its proxies, Hamas, PIJ and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and incentivize them to carry out more terror attacks – not only against Israelis, but against Americans as well.

The Biden administration would do well to understand that those who want to kill the Jews also want to see dead the friends and allies of the Jews. That is why it would be most helpful for America's national security if Biden and his officials immediately defused the tensions and ceased their rhetorical attacks against a small country that is in reality America's only true friend and most trusted ally in the Middle East.

Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19564/biden-anti-israel-policy-iran

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