The "Middle East and Terrorism" Blog was created in order to supply information about the implication of Arab countries and Iran in terrorism all over the world. Most of the articles in the blog are the result of objective scientific research or articles written by senior journalists.
From the Ethics of the Fathers: "He [Rabbi Tarfon] used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it."
Referrals Hunter Biden could face include violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act and the Mann Act.
House
Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.)
said he plans to file "between six and 10 criminal referrals" against
Hunter Biden once the committee finishes its investigation.
One of the charges would include illegally transporting women across state lines for prostitution, according to the New York Post.
"The Democrats kept saying, 'Oh, we don't have any evidence. You
don't have any evidence.' Well, [Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene] showed
them evidence," Comer said during an interview with Fox Business.
During her questioning of the IRS whistleblowers on Wednesday, Greene displayed sexually graphic images printed on posters and asked questions that involved allegations about whether or not Hunter used his company to write up expenses for prostitutes.
"She showed them evidence of the president's son committing a crime,
violating the Mann Act," Comer said. "She showed the plane tickets, she
showed the pictures, she showed the evidence. You know, there's no
question he violated it. That's another thing that he could have been
charged with."
Comer added that other referrals the first son could face include violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
"He was money laundering," Comer said. "He was racketeering. He
committed wire fraud. He violated the Mann Act. The list goes on and on
and on."
D.C. suburb says injunction on mandatory "storybooks" with sex workers, kink, drag, gender transitions would cause "significant disruption," stigmatize children, violate federal law.
Maryland's Montgomery County Public Schools claims it was flooded
with opt-out requests when the books were introduced in the curriculum
in January, giving it legal justification, on logistical grounds, to
issue a blanket policy of no exceptions and no notifications.
The district didn't provide a specific number or even vague range, however, in its memorandum opposing the motion
for preliminary injunction by Catholic, Muslim and Ukrainian-Orthodox
parents who filed the First and Fourteenth Amendment lawsuit in May.
The July 6 amended complaint adds plaintiff Kids First, a new
unincorporated association of Montgomery County parents with children in
MCPS or who would be "but for" the new policy. It includes "Muslims,
Catholics, Protestants, Latter-day Saints, and Jews, and is open to
individuals of all faiths."
MCPS spokesperson Christopher Cram told Just the News he was seeking
"any information available" on the number of requests the school invoked
to justify the new policy but couldn't provide anything Friday. The
districts' lawyers didn't respond when asked.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a reliably liberal
advocacy group on most issues, has been especially vocal and visible in
challenging the policy.
"Public schools have an obligation to be inclusive and neutral," Maryland Director Zainab Chaudry said at a multifaith rally Thursday. "They can't be favoring one group over another."
MCPS is the only known district nationwide to go this far, setting "a
dangerous precedent for more bullying, more harassment, more
intimidation for children within schools," according to Chaudry. "We
can't teach children allyship and tolerance and inclusion by forcing
them to assimilate" and give up "their own diverse identities."
Cram didn't answer when asked to evaluate Chaudry's claim about MCPS pioneering a no-exception policy.
Our #Maryland Director Zainab Chaudry (@zainabnc) giving remarks at today's rally calling on @MCPS to restore its opt-out option and parental notification policies for content some parents feel would force their children to violate their sincerely-held religious beliefs. pic.twitter.com/R1le20RmXj
MCPS "cannot plausibly claim that an opt-out policy that is both
required by state law and was willingly followed until March 2023 could
somehow harm the public interest if followed for the duration of this
case," the parents' June 12 memorandum in support of a preliminary
injunction states.
Maryland law requires districts to honor "family life and human
sexuality" curriculum opt-outs "for any reason," and MCPS policy directs
schools to "accommodate requests" from students and parents for
classroom content "they believe would impose a substantial burden on
their religious beliefs," the memo also states.
In addition, the storybooks go beyond "basic civility and kindness
toward all," explicitly encouraging children to "question sexuality and
gender identity, focus on romantic feelings, and embrace gender
transitioning," the memo reads.
Pre-kindergarten students, for example, are required to read Pride
Puppy, which "promotes pride parades as family-friendly events without
cautioning about the frequent nudity and sexually explicit conduct that
many parents find objectionable –especially for children."
MCPS policy never guaranteed parents exemptions from the storybooks,
just "reasonable and feasible adjustments" specifically for religious
beliefs, while expressly warning they may be refused if requests become
"too frequent or too burdensome," the district's July 12 memo against
the injunction states.
"Through conversations with principals, MCPS became aware that
individual schools could not accommodate the growing number of opt-out
requests without causing significant disruptions to the classroom
environment and undermining MCPS’s educational mission," according to
the memo.
Excusing children from the storybooks is also at odds with the school
district's "efforts to cultivate an inclusive and welcoming learning
environment" and would "undermine its goals of reducing stigmatization
and fostering social integration of all students and families," the memo
reads.
The district also challenged the portrayal of the requests as
uniformly rooted in religious belief, even though the plaintiffs did not
limit their constitutional claims to infringement of religious beliefs.
MCPS said "many" requests were not religious – again without
providing a number or range – and that some parents just opposed their
children learning about sex, "LGBTQ issues" or "instructional materials
that were not age-appropriate."
Associate Superintendent Niki Hazel, who oversees curriculum and instructional programs, provided more detail in her declaration.
Honoring opt-outs could cause "high student absenteeism," given that
parents in just one elementary school "sought to excuse dozens of
students, she said.
Teachers would have to "track and accommodate" requests, but media
specialists and others "who spend time in multiple classrooms each day"
would also face burdens in ensuring "they were abiding by the
accommodations granted to every student they encountered across an
entire school," according to Hazel.
The district could violate Maryland and federal nondiscrimination
laws if it allowed some students to "leave the classroom whenever
language arts lessons draw on books featuring LGBTQ characters," Hazel
claimed, because this would expose "students who believe that the books
represent them or their families … to social stigma and isolation."
Perhaps fearful of similar headaches prompted by exposing children to
adult themes, the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center canceled
its Asian American Literature Festival with a month's notice July 5, The Washington Post reported.
The festival touts its track record
of "engaging queer/trans/nonbinary communities of color, including
youth leadership pipelines," and programming includes "campfire-style
queer ghost stories."
Citing internal Smithsonian emails about "the current political climate," the Post reported the festival underwent a Smithsonian Directive 603
review to "identify potentially sensitive issues" that could prompt
"public debate or questions from the public, news media, Congress and
the Administration," but it's not clear the review was relevant to the
cancelation.
A Smithsonian spokesperson told the Post it canceled the festival
because organizers were a month behind deadlines and hadn't presented a
"full packet of confirmed materials."
That explanation was challenged in an open letter by "partners and co-organizers" who feared "the Smithsonian’s desire to censor trans and nonbinary programming" could have been "the driving factor."
Thanks to the appeasement
policies of the Biden and Obama Administrations, the ruling mullahs of
Iran, called by the US State Department the top state sponsor of
terrorism, have now also emerged as a major arms exporter. Moreover,
coupled with imminent nuclear bombs, they appear determined to ramp up
their exports even further.
Defense Minister Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Ashtiani, echoed
a similar message. He pointed out that Iran has "no restriction" on
exporting military equipment to other countries, including Venezuela.
Due to the Biden Administration's appeasement and Obama's nuclear
deal, the Iranian regime has doubled down on enriching uranium to 84%
(weapons grade is 90% ); vowed to become "one of the world's largest
arms exporters"; caused former US allies Saudi Arabia and the United
Arab Emirates to turn to the Chinese Communist Party for protection;
escalated aggression in the Middle East to push the US out of the area;
and expanded Iran's military presence in Latin America to threaten the
United States.
How is the Biden Administration responding? It is reportedly
threatening Israel, which Iran's former President Akbar Hashemi
Rafsanjani, on December 14, 2001, called a "one-bomb country": If this
"one bomb country," roughly the size of New Jersey (8,700 sq. mi; 22,600
sq km) does not go along with the Biden Administration's plan to allow
Iran to have as many nuclear weapons as it likes – while the US is
bribing Iran's mullahs with up to $100 billion please not to use them on
the Biden Administration's watch -- the US will "reassess" its
diplomatic ties with Israel.
What degree of dementia is that?
Thanks to the appeasement policies of the Biden and Obama
Administrations, the ruling mullahs of Iran have now emerged as a major
arms exporter. Moreover, coupled with imminent nuclear bombs, they
appear determined to ramp up their exports even further. Defense
Minister Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Ashtiani, pointed out that Iran
has "no restriction" on exporting military equipment to other
countries, including Venezuela. Pictured: Then US Secretary of State
John Kerry (L) meets with then Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad
Zarif at the United Nations April 27, 2015, in New York City. (Photo by
Jason DeCrow/Pool/Getty Images)
"Introducing the Islamic Republic's defense and military capabilities
and sharing them [with friendly countries] can expand the country's
defense relations and strengthen deterrence," the Iranian Armed Forces
Chief of General Staff, Major General Mohammad Bagheri, recently bragged to Iran's state-controlled Mehr News at a gathering of Foreign Ministry officials and ambassadors in Tehran.
"The Iranian Armed Forces are fully prepared to upgrade
the level of ties in various fields, including the wholesale export of
defense and military equipment as well as training, exercises, and the
practical transfer of experience."
Defense Minister Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Ashtiani, echoed a similar message. He pointed out that Iran has "no restriction" on exporting military equipment to other countries, including Venezuela.
"The future world is a different world. The new world
order geometry is altering with the emergence of several new powers,
particularly in Asia and in different fields."
Iran currently possesses the largest and most diverse ballistic missile program in the Middle East. No country other than Iran has acquired long-range ballistic missiles before
obtaining nuclear weapons. While ballistic missiles can be used for
either offensive or defensive purposes, the sophisticated ones are
mainly developed as delivery vehicles for nuclear weapons.
According to John Kirby, Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the US National Security Council:
"As of May, Russia received hundreds of one-way attack
[unmanned aerial vehicles], as well as UAV production-related equipment,
from Iran. We are releasing a graphic that shows how Iranian drones are
being transferred to Russia: the drones are built in Iran, shipped
across the Caspian Sea... and then used operationally by Russian forces
against Ukraine. Russia and Iran's actions are violations of their
obligations under UN Security Council Resolution 2231 by participating
in these transfers of drones from Iran to Russia without UN Security
Council approval."
The regime's rise as an exporter of weapons seems to have begun with
then President Barack Obama's 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal. Among the many rewards that the Obama Administration offered to the Iranian regime was one setting October 18, 2020 as the date
when the arms embargo on Iran would be removed and allowing the regime
to export, import, buy and sell weapons legally, however it might wish.
The arms embargo had been previously placed on Iran by the five members of the UN Security Council in 2007, during the Bush administration. The embargo encompassed
a wide range of weapons, including large-caliber artillery, drones,
combat aircraft, battle tanks, armored combat vehicles, attack
helicopters, missiles, missile launchers and warships.
The second gift to the ruling mullahs of Iran is the presidency of Joe Biden. The Biden Administration's obsequious leadership and the removal of the arms embargo may well have emboldened the Iranian regime to ratchet up its import and export of weapons.
Iran's ruling mullahs are also currently boasting
that China is another customer for their weapons. "Our power has grown
to levels where China is waiting in line to buy 15,000 of our drones," a
senior official from Iran's Intelligence Ministry recently said at the Imam Khomeini International University in Qazvin. "Since the day we turned to the East," he added, "the West could not bear it and an example was the war in Ukraine."
"Today we have reached a point that 22 world countries are demanding
to purchase unmanned aircraft from Iran," Major General Yahya Rahim
Safavi proclaimed at Imam Hussein Military University in Tehran.
Iran's regime has also been focusing on the proliferation and export of long- and short-range precision-guided ballistic missiles. According to a report by Forbes:
"Russia also wants Iran's Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar short-range ballistic missiles
(SRBMs) with ranges between 186 and 435 miles, respectively. A large
order of such missiles could give Russia some substitution for its
arsenal of ballistic and cruise missiles, which has reportedly dwindled,
enabling it to sustain its bombardment of Ukrainian cities."
How is the Biden Administration responding? It is reportedly
threatening Israel, which Iran's former President Akbar Hashemi
Rafsanjani, on December 14, 2001, called a "one-bomb country": If this "one bomb country," roughly the size of New Jersey (8,700 sq. mi; 22,600 sq km)
does not go along with the Biden Administration's plan to allow Iran to
have as many nuclear weapons as it likes – while the US is bribing
Iran's mullahs with up to $100 billion please not to use them on the
Biden Administration's watch -- the US will "reassess" its diplomatic ties with Israel.
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and
advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of
Harvard International Review, and president of the International
American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US Foreign Policy. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu
How one cop with a handgun stopped a heavily armed terrorist’s massacre.
Mohamad Barakat packed three long guns, four handguns and a vest with
magazines in every pocket, as he drove through Fargo, North Dakota. The
Downtown Street fair, which claims over 150,000 visitors, was on its
second day and 5 minutes away. The Red River Fair, which recorded nearly
as many people, was two days away from ending and 15 minutes away.
It’s unknown which of those locations Mohamad might have been headed
to use up his 1,800 rounds of ammo and hand grenade, but he never got
there.
The Muslim terrorist joined other rubberneckers who stopped to look
over the scene of an accident, but unlike them Mohamad was after more
than a few pictures to put up on social media. The concentration of
police officers and firefighters had proven to be irresistible.
Al Qaeda and ISIS both encourage crowdsourced Muslim terrorists to
take out law enforcement officers before hitting civilians. And Muslim
terrorists, like the attacker who came after NYPD officers in Times
Square with a machete during the New Year’s Eve ball drop, have done
that.
Mohamad was packing a whole lot more than a machete. Pretending to be
a casual observer, he hung around waiting until police officers were
passing nearby and then he opened fire.
The Muslim terrorist raised his rifle and shot through the open car
window of his gray sedan, ambushing three Fargo police officers,
shooting and killing Officer Jake Wallin, an Afghanistan and Iraq war
vet who had recently joined the force, and wounding Officer Andrew Dotas
and Officer Tyler Hawes. He also shot and wounded Karlee Koswick: a
young woman who had been in the accident. Dotas and Hawes were saved by
their flak jackets and by the courageous firefighters on the scene who
stayed under cover while Mohamad shot at them, but then rushed to help
the wounded officers and kept them alive until they could be brought to a
hospital.
And then Mohamad ran into trouble.
While the three officers he had shot had not even gotten a chance to
draw a gun, Officer Zach Robinson did not go down and he returned fire.
With Mohamad’s .223 caliber rifle pitted against the officer’s 9mm
handgun, Officer Robinson still managed to “incapacitate” the Muslim
terrorist’s weapon. The Muslim terrorist had burned through most of the 60 rounds in his double stacked mag while the officer had managed to draw his fire, reload and keep him occupied.
Then one of his shots disabled the Muslim terrorist’s rifle from 75
feet away. With his primary weapon gone, Mohamad grabbed a handgun and
tried to continue the fight, and was shot dead.
The officer was “the last person standing between this individual,
who was obviously pretty dead set on some pretty horrific acts,”
Attorney General Drew Wrigley described. He mentioned that it was “a 4
to 5 minute drive to downtown Fargo” where the fair was in full swing.
“It’s clear to me that this person was out to kill,” Fargo Mayor Tim Mahoney said. “When you look at the amount of ammunition this shooter had in his car, he was planning on more mayhem in our community.”
In the week since the July 14 attack took place, authorities have
resisted providing any specifics about the Muslim terrorist or his
motive. Flag Family Media, a local radio station, had its request for
information about Mohamad because it had already all been turned over to the FBI.
Mohamad’s neighbors in the Fargo housing complex claimed that he
was quiet and refused to interact with them. “He didn’t want to be
around you and of course that made you not want to be around him.”
Why then was Mohamad in America? As previously revealed by a Front Page Magazine investigation,
decades of aggressive refugee resettlement has fundamentally changed
the face of this quintessentially American city. 8% of Fargo is foreign
born and Somalis, Iraqis and other Muslim refugees outnumber Hispanics
in the school system. The nearby mega-mosque, blocks from where Mohamad
carried out his attack, and Muslim businesses attracts other arrivals.
A previous Muslim terrorist attack in a Minneapolis mall had been
carried out by Dahir Adan, a Somali refugee who had initially been
resettled in Fargo, and who had roamed the mall shouting, “Allahu Akbar”
and asking people if they were Muslim before stabbing them.
Fargo recently elected
State Rep. Hamida Dakane, its version of Rep. Ilhan Omar, to the state
legislature representing the growing Muslim population in the area. Both
Republicans and Democrats in the area and the state have their share of
responsibility for this crisis.
A city and a state that no one would have associated with Islamic
terrorism in the past has nurtured two Islamic terrorists. Mohamad, no
doubt planned to kill more than one police officer and wound a few
others. He had come prepared for an extended firefight and with the two
fairs going on in the area might have succeeded in killing hundreds if
not thousands.
Gov. Doug Burgum had previously resisted ending refugee resettlement
under Trump while claiming that the pipeline of foreign migrants showing
up in the state had been vetted and were safe. Concerned North Dakota
residents want answers after this latest Islamic terrorist attack.
While Mohamad’s terror attack was stopped in its tracks by his
improvisation and the courage of an outgunned police officer, the next
time Fargo residents and North Dakotans may not be so lucky.
“We really need a diverse population to be more like a normal
American city,” Mayor Tim Mahoney had previously argued. After Fargo’s
second Muslim terrorist and first major Muslim terrorist attack, does
Mayor Mahoney feel that the city is diverse enough?
How many people have to die so that Fargo will meet its diversity quota?
What was wrong with the descendants of Swedes that they needed to be
replaced by Somalis, Iraqis, Sudanese, Bosnians and other “diverse”
representatives of an ideology that believes infidels need to be killed
at shopping malls and street fairs? How many times must the cry of
“Allahu Akbar” rise over bloody bodies until the desire for diversity is
finally staunched?
Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, is
an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and
Islamic terrorism.
For decades, gangsta rappers have raked in money, fame, and recording
industry awards hand-over-fist by promoting a culture of violence,
drugs, crime, misogyny, hedonism, and greed. There has been not a peep
of an objection from the Progressive Left to the damage this has done
and continues to do to generations of young people, especially in poor
inner-city communities, where rappers, gang members, and drug dealers
are idolized and emulated by far too many. But let one country music
star complain that American cities have degenerated into a wasteland of
lawlessness and chaos, and triggered leftists leap to smear him publicly
as a violent racist.
Quadruple-platinum-selling country artist Jason Aldean has found himself the target of a wave of leftist condemnation over the new video
of a song (which was actually released months ago) titled, “Try That in
a Small Town.” The video intersperses actual footage of rioting,
looting, and confrontations with police in cities, with shots of Aldean
and his band performing before a courthouse in a public square in
Columbia, Tennessee.
The lyrics and imagery capture the kind of random violence that has
become endemic in Democrat-run urban hellholes all across America –
carjackings, the knockout game,
and armed robbery – as well as open contempt for law enforcement and
the American flag in a country whose children have been taught by
decades of leftist educators that their homeland is a uniquely
oppressive and evil nation in world history. Aldean warns in the song
that that attitude wouldn’t be tolerated in small-town America, and he
issues a sort of “molon labe” warning to the anti-Second Amendment activists who aim (pun intended) to disarm law-abiding gun owners.
Here are the lyrics, credited to songwriters Kelley Lovelace, Neil Thrasher, Tully Kennedy, and Kurt Michael Allison:
Sucker punch somebody on a sidewalk
Carjack an old lady at a red light
Pull a gun on the owner of a liquor store
Ya think it’s cool, well, act a fool if ya like
Cuss out a cop, spit in his face
Stomp on the flag and light it up
Yeah, ya think you’re tough
Well, try that in a small town
See how far ya make it down the road
Around here, we take care of our own
You cross that line, it won’t take long
For you to find out, I recommend you don’t
Try that in a small town
Got a gun that my granddad gave me
They say one day they’re gonna round up
Well, that shit might fly in the city, good luck
Try that in a small town
See how far ya make it down the road
Around here, we take care of our own
You cross that line, it won’t take long
For you to find out, I recommend you don’t
Try that in a small town
Full of good ol’ boys, raised up right
If you’re looking for a fight
Try that in a small town
Try that in a small town
Try that in a small town
See how far ya make it down the road
Around here, we take care of our own
You cross that line, it won’t take long
For you to find out, I recommend you don’t
Try that in a small town
The video concludes with a few nostalgic images that reflect the
sanity, sense of community, and peaceful order that Aldean’s song
associates with small-town America.
Pretty tame stuff, actually, but Progressives hate white America,
small-town America, law enforcement, and gun culture, so it was
inevitable that Aldean would face a barrage of celebrity and media
condemnation.
Former singer-songwriter and prominent gun control advocate Sheryl Crowe, for example, tweeted her indignation,
falsely accusing Aldean of promoting violence: “Jason Aldean, I’m from a
small town. Even people in small towns are sick of violence. There’s
nothing small-town or American about promoting violence. You should know
that better than anyone having survived a mass shooting,” she wrote,
referring to the 2017 massacre at a Las Vegas music festival where
Aldean was performing. “This is not American or small town-like. It’s
just lame.”
Rolling Stone magazine – the same far-Left outlet that published a sickening denunciation of the popular anti-child trafficking movie Sound of Freedom – predictably chimed in with an article (under the category, “Dog Whistles”) titled “Here’s What’s Wrong With Jason Aldean’s Vision of America.”
It cites University of Oklahoma professor Karlos K. Hill, “a scholar of
racial violence,” who labels the song a “narrative of white
nationalism. But it’s packaged in this really nice, seemingly benign package of country music.” [Emphasis added]
It’s white nationalist now to want your town to be free of rampant crime and wanton destruction. Who knew?
The left-wing propagandists at TheWashington Post offered up a partial explanation for the controversy
by noting that some of the footage used in the video came from Black
Lives Matter demonstrations (apparently it’s racist to connect BLM with
the “mostly peaceful” rioting that rocked America throughout 2020). It
also pointed out that the courthouse featured in the video was the scene
of a lynching (nearly 100 years ago), and that Columbia was the scene
of a race riot (nearly 80 years ago).
And yet WaPo then goes on to acknowledge that the video
production company TackleBox confirmed that Aldean had nothing to do
with choosing the site, a “popular filming location outside of
Nashville” that has also been featured in the Lifetime movie Steppin’ Into the Holiday and Disney’s Hannah Montana: The Movie.
Nevertheless, the cancel culture mob swelled so swiftly that the
cowards at CMT, the Country Music Television network, panicked and
pulled the video from rotation. Gun control activist Shannon Watts, who had tweeted
that Aldean “has recorded a song… about how he and his friends will
shoot you if you try to take their guns,” crowed about her own part in
the CMT cancellation, writing on Tuesday, “Proud to have had a hand in
getting CMT to reject this racist and violent song.”
Prominent conservative politicos from Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis
to Marsha Blackburn and Kristi Noem have stepped up in public support of
Aldean. “When the media attacks you, you’re doing something right,” DeSantis tweeted. “@Jason_Aldean has nothing to apologize for.” In a video posted to Twitter on Wednesday,
Noem stated, “I am shocked by what I’m seeing in this country with
people attempting to cancel this song and cancel Jason and his beliefs.”
In the past 24 hours I have been accused of releasing a
pro-lynching song (a song that has been out since May) and was subject
to the comparison that I (direct quote) was not too pleased with the
nationwide BLM protests. These references are not only meritless, but
dangerous. There is not a single lyric in the song that references race
or points to it – and there isn’t a single video clip that isn’t real
news footage – and while I can try and respect others to have their own
interpretation of a song with music – this one goes too far.
As so many pointed out, I was present at Route 91 – where so many
lost their lives – and our community recently suffered another
heartbreaking tragedy. NO ONE, including me, wants to continue to see
senseless headlines or families ripped apart.
Try That In A Small Town, for me, refers to the feeling of a
community that I had growing up, where we took care of our neighbors,
regardless of differences or background or belief. Because they were our
neighbors, and that was above any differences.
My political views have never been something I’ve hidden from, and I
know that a lot of us in this country don’t agree on how we get back to a
sense of normalcy where we go at least a day without a headline that
keeps us up at night. But the desire for it to – that’s what this song
is about.
A return to some semblance of normality in America sounds like a
slice of heaven, but unfortunately, that ship has sailed. The Left
considers the yearning for normalcy and social stability to be white
nationalist nostalgia for a time before BLM conquered corporate America,
before Critical Race Theory metastasized throughout our schools, and
before national anthem kneeling protests ruined our national pastimes.
The Left doesn’t want a return to normalcy. It wants normalcy
in every facet of American life to be disrupted, if not eradicated, to
pave the way for revolution, for the “fundamental transformation” of a
country they hate into a Progressive utopia.
This is why the Left defended the devastation wreaked by BLM and
Antifa as “mostly peaceful,” but will denounce, demonize, and destroy
Jason Aldean over what they perceive to be a mere “dog whistle” in a
video.
This is why the Left has normalized political violence, criminal
chaos, and open borders madness – because the collapse of the entire
system is the goal.
This is also why the Left turns a blind eye to
the dozens of mostly black-on-black shootings every weekend in Chicago,
but doesn’t want small-town gun owners to protect their loved ones,
their property, and their way of life from the agents of chaos who have
overrun America’s cities.
Today’s Left is a violent revolution in progress. Messages of
defiance and resistance — like a hit country song — cannot be tolerated,
and the messenger must be destroyed. But to paraphrase “Try That in a
Small Town”: cross that line and see how it works out for you.
Mark Tapson is the Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, focusing
on popular culture. He is also the host of an original podcast on
Frontpage, “The Right Take With Mark Tapson.”
Justice Minister Yariv Levin served as acting prime minister while Netanyahu was in surgery.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads a cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on July 2, 2023
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
underwent surgery at Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer to receive a
pacemaker on Saturday night, the Prime Minister's Office stated.
"I
feel great, but I'm listening to my doctors," said Netanyahu in a video
posted to social media ahead of the surgery. "The doctors said I'll be
released from the hospital tomorrow by the afternoon and I'll be able to
arrive at the Knesset for the vote."
The prime minister added that he hoped an agreement would be reached on the reasonableness standard bill set to be voted on Monday afternoon.
Earlier
this month, Netanyahu was admitted to Sheba Medical Center after losing
consciousness and hitting his head at his home in Caesarea. After a
series of tests, the prime minister was released from the hospital with a
holter monitor, a type of portable electrocardiogram for cardiac
monitoring.
On
Saturday night, the holter monitor detected an issue with his heartbeat,
leading to Netanyahu's doctors advising him to have immediate surgery
to get a pacemaker, the prime minister said in the video.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seen during a press conference on
Operation Shield and Arrow on May 10, 2023 (credit: CHAIM TZACH/GPO)
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is working to reach a consensus on the reasonability standard, fearing mass refusal to serve in the IDF.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant Yonatan Sindel/Flash90
Defense
Minister Yoav Galant (Likud) began working with the heads of the
coalition to extend the summer session of the Knesset in an attempt to
reach an agreement on the reasonability standard.
"The situation
is very worrying, the legislation should be postponed," he said
following the announcement by hundreds of pilots and staff in the IAF
that they would stop volunteering.
Gallant
has recently had talks with the Chief of Staff, and realized that the
failure to report to the reserves could lead to damage to the combat
readiness of the IDF. He is now working with the heads of the coalition
to get the Knesset's recess to be postponed, in order to allow a broad
agreement to be reached regarding the reasonability standard.
On
behalf of the Defense Minister, it was stated, "The Defense Minister,
Yoav Gallant, is working in all ways to bring about a broad agreement,
prevent damage to Israel's security, and keep the IDF out of the
political controversy."
The letter in which IAF personnel declared
they would refuse to serve was signed by 1,142 Air Force reserve
personnel, including 235 fighter pilots, 89 helicopter pilots, 98
transport pilots, 173 combat aircraft fighters, 124 control personnel,
167 headquarters personnel, and 80 soldiers from the elite pararescue
force Unit 669.
"We are in the three weeks [between the fasts of
17 of Tammuz and Ninth of Av]," the pilots wrote in a letter sent to the
members of the Knesset, Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and Air Force
Commander Major General Tomer Bar. "It is the duty of all of us to
prevent the destruction of a third Temple! It is the responsibility of
all of us to stop the division, polarization, and deep rift that has
opened up in the nation. The Jewish and democratic character of our
country is dear to all the people of Israel - this is the contract
signed by all parts of the people in the Declaration of Independence.
This foundation constitutes the core of the consensus of Israeli
society, on the basis of which we all serve the State of Israel with
dedication and sacrifice under governments of all shades of the
political spectrum."
The debate on the law to reduce the
reasonability standard, which was approved this week for its second and
third readings in the Knesset plenum, will begin on Sunday at 10:00 a.m.
in preparation for the final vote. Final approval of the bill is
expected on Monday afternoon.
The DOE projected regulations are expected to go into effect in 2029.
The Biden administration is expected to crack down on water heaters in order to "reduce carbon emissions."
The Department of Energy said in its proposal on Friday that this
proposal would "accelerate deployment" of electric heat pump water
heaters and reduce carbon emissions, according to Fox News.
"Today’s actions — together with our industry partners and
stakeholders — improve outdated efficiency standards for common
household appliances, which is essential to slashing utility bills for
American families and cutting harmful carbon emissions," Energy
Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in a statement.
"This proposal reinforces the trajectory of consumer savings that
forms the key pillar of Bidenomics and builds on the unprecedented
actions already taken by this Administration to lower energy costs for
working families across the nation," she added.
The DOE projected regulations are expected to go into effect in
2029. The department also predicted that this proposal would save
Americans about $198 billion.
"It's just spreading to more and more appliances. It seems that
almost everything that plugs in or fires up around the house is either
subject to a pending regulation or soon will be," Ben Lieberman, a
senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute told Fox News
Digital in an interview.
Senior Islamic Jihad official calls on 'Palestinian' groups to unite, utilize 'historic opportunity' of crisis in Israel for war against the Jewish State.
Islamic Jihad terrorist Flash90
Nasser Abu Sharif, a member of the Islamic Jihad terror group's
political wing, has called on the Palestinian Arab groups to unite in a
war against Israel.
Abu Sharif stressed, "The Zionist entity is
also facing real crises and suffering from significant internal
disagreements. Therefore, the Palestinian nation is facing a new stage,
and standing before a historic opportunity which it must utilize for
fighting and the conflict for the sake of the Palestinian problem, and
to achieve victory and remove the occupation from the Palestinian land."
Speaking to Al-Quds Radio,
which is affiliated with the Islamic Jihad, Abu Sharif said that the
Palestinian struggle is continuing and even intensifying in Judea,
Samaria and Jerusalem, because the Palestinian people see the struggle
as the proper way to fight the Zionist operation which executes policy
of "Judaizing" the land.
"We
are facing a dilemma and a great danger. We have no solution other than
battle and conflict. We are also facing a historic moment in which we
need to unite behind this path. Unfortunately, the internal
disagreements between us and the internal problems we have still exist,
since the Palestinian Authority continues to repress, bring to trial,
and stop the fighters of the Palestinian opposition, while using its old
tactics."
He also called on the Palestinian Authority to stand by
the "Palestinian nation" in its conflict against Israel, and provide it
with everything necessary to manage the war against the "Zionist
occupation, the plans of Judaizing, and the settlers' herds."
"We
are standing before a historical moment which we must utilize for war
against the Zionist entity, which is facing real and large crises," Abu
Sharif emphasized.
