BIDEN AND HARRIS FUEL CAMPUS ANTISEMITISM BY DECLARING JEW-HATERS HAVE A POINT

Year two of the siege on Jewish students begins

The start of the semester means a renewed surge of delegitimization of Zionism and open antisemitism. Merely denouncing outrageous examples of hate won’t be enough. 

 

By Jonathan S. Tobin

 

JNS

Aug 30, 2024 

 

  

A pro-Palestinian protest at Harvard University

 

The passage of a few months since the end of the spring school semester doesn’t seem to have changed much. Students returning to colleges and universities across the United States this past week were often greeted with indications that the war on the Jews on campuses is hardly over. On the contrary, round two may be just as dangerous for their ability to live openly as identifiable Jews and supporters of the one Jewish state on the planet as the past school year.

Throughout the nation came evidence that the infrastructure and the funding, whether from domestic radicals or dark foreign sources such as Iran, of pro-Hamas and openly antisemitic activists have dissipated during the summer.

At the University of Michigan, Israel-haters not only harassed newly arriving students but shut down student government to push the school to adopt an illegal discriminatory BDS divestment program.

At Temple University in Philadelphia, members of the openly antisemitic Students for Justice in Palestine made clear their intentions and strategy by starting off the semester with a demonstration outside of the school’s Hillel chapter while waving the flag of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a designated foreign terrorist organization. That they would choose to target Hillel, which has, for the most part, not been in the vanguard of the pro-Israel movement but is in most cases simply a communal group for Jewish undergraduates, says all there is about what it means to be “pro-Palestine” in 2024.

These are just two of many examples where anti-Israel agitators have shown that they are prepared to resume the same siege on Jewish campus life that was the hallmark of the 2023-24 academic year in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks and atrocities on southern Israel that launched the current war.

Some university presidents have lost their jobs for their indifference to the surge in Jew-hatred within their institutions; others have voluntarily resigned, albeit by pressure from their actions—or rather, their inaction. But for the most part, the end result from those in charge of America’s elite and sometimes not-so-elite schools remains one in which they regard the problem as navigating between two supposedly equally legitimate interests. In doing so, they place the right of Jews to live and learn on campus without being attacked for their faith and beliefs as being no more important than the right of those who are allied with the genocidal antisemites of Hamas to openly express their hateful beliefs. And to make life difficult, if not impossible, for Jews who are not willing to go along with leftist intellectual fashion and denounce Israel.

The focus on the presidents of schools also ignores the far more important part that is being played by their lower-level employees who staff diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) departments that, among other duties, help craft student orientation programs that set the parameters for appropriate behavior. Since these are the very people who help promote the false doctrines of critical race theory and intersectionality that provide an intellectual cover for the hatred of Israel and Jews, resistance against any effort to promote awareness of antisemitism is likely.

More than just college campuses

Moreover, as we’re increasingly learning, the danger is not confined to the institutions of higher education. The situation in secondary schools and even the lower grades in many places across the country is just as, if not more dire. The educational establishment and teachers’ unions have been captured by leftist ideologues just as ready to falsely label Israel as a “settler/colonialist” and “apartheid” state and to regard it and Jews as “white” oppressors.

The question then arises as to what, if anything, should be different about the response of the Jewish community, organizations, educators, parents and students to this challenge.

Each school and community is different. Some institutions behaved better than others in responding to the way that pro-Hamas mobs tried to take over campuses and create hostile environments for Jewish students and faculty. It’s also true that many schools exhibited no lack of decorum, where the crisis passed without there being much evidence of its impact.

But whether individual school districts are relatively free of antisemitic and anti-Israel propaganda or where they run rampant, the need for Jews and friends of Israel to think seriously about how to respond to another several months of ongoing siege warfare is imperative. At the college level, the same is true for parents, students and alumni to understand that recycling the community relations strategies of earlier times or merely hoping that the storm will pass or be dissipated by the end of fighting in the Middle East (a doubtful outcome) won’t address the problem.

There is no shortage of ideas about what to do. Some involve withdrawing Jewish kids of all ages from the secular system for education. Some say just abandon the current elite schools to places where more sensible policies are employed or to create new colleges. Others involve pressure campaigns in which funding—either from alumni of specific schools or from the government—would be cut to offending institutions.

There is something to be said for all these ideas. But in terms of a broad strategy in dealing with what must be understood as a crisis for Jewish life in America, what is needed is a consensus about basic principles.

The first requires Jews to drop the pretense that the current debate about Israel and antisemitism in American education is one in which there is something to be said for those on both sides of the demonstration lines popping up at campuses across America.

They don’t ‘have a point’

Contrary to what President Joe Biden said at the Democratic National Convention or what Vice President Kamala Harris has said in several different contexts in the last three years, those falsely accusing Israel of genocide do not “have a point.”

Whatever people think about specific Israeli military actions, the purpose of the protests in the United States is no different from those of the terrorists who carried out the worst mass slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust on Oct. 7. Whether they call themselves “pro-Palestine” or anti-Zionists, the goal of eradicating Israel—something that could only be accomplished by the genocide of its population—is the same.

No one who cares about the safety of Jews in the United States, the greater diaspora or Israel should concede the point that there is a moral equivalence between the Palestinian war to destroy the Jewish state and efforts to defend it.

It is also vital that every Jewish and campus community understand that treating anti-Zionism as a valid idea worthy of debate in the current context is a betrayal not only of Israelis fighting for their lives but of Jewish kids who are caught up in the current political maelstrom. Rather than seek to paper over these differences, we must make it clear that those chanting “from the river to the sea” or cheering on Palestinian terrorism are engaged not just in hate speech but in open incitement to carry out acts of violence against Jews.

Don’t fall for the Islamophobia trap

Part of that must also involve something difficult for many liberal Jews, and especially, the largely failing organizations that purport to represent them. They must drop their acceptance of the moral equivalence between the fight against antisemitism and the entirely dubious cause of addressing “Islamophobia,” a stance embraced by the Biden-Harris administration. The vast majority of what is now labeled Islamophobia is no more than an acknowledgment of the rampant anti-Jewish hatred among American Muslims and those who claim to represent them. Muslims are not being targeted on college campuses. Jews are.

That also means that the Jewish community must stop relying on failed liberal groups like the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee to speak up for their interests. Despite their outsized budgets and impressive public relations campaigns in which they have sought to position themselves as responding to the crisis, such organizations have proven unable to shake off their past allegiance to the same toxic leftist doctrines that created this mess. As much as it is instinctual for Jewish groups to try to unite in such circumstances, they are arguably as much a part of the problem. Like they must do at and for academic institutions, Jews need to seek to build new groups and coalitions that understand what is at stake and can move forward with concrete actions to help mitigate antisemitism across America.

Another key point to keep in mind is for those defending Jewish kids to put forward solutions that defend free speech while treating anti-Jewish hate language the same way society deals with racism against other minorities. We must be clear that criticizing Israeli policies or even expressing opposition to Israel’s existence is entirely legal. But calls for Jewish genocide or support for Hamas and its allies should be treated, especially in private venues rather than public squares, the same way authorities deal with advocacy for anti-black racism or support for the Ku Klux Klan. Which is to say, it cannot be tolerated. And just as history teaches that anti-masking laws helped take down the KKK, the same can happen to those hiding their identities behind face masks and keffiyehs.

Perhaps even more difficult for American Jews to understand is that there is no possible compromise with the anti-Zionists either in the context of campus protests or in efforts to rid K-12 schools of antisemitic propaganda, whether it is labeled human-rights advocacy or “liberated” ethnic studies. There is no halfway point at which Americans can agree to disagree with those who think the grievances of the Palestinians justify destroying the only Jewish state or terrorism. The unspeakable atrocities of Oct. 7 were a feature of the Palestinian and anti-Zionist cause, not a bug. Those who think otherwise or believe such “resistance” is understandable, if lamentable, are not taking a reasonable point of view but justifying mass murder. That will remain the case whether or not there is some temporary halt to the fighting in Gaza or even if Israel avoids an expansion of the war against Hezbollah in Lebanon and their paymasters in Tehran.

Jews are not alone

Another mistake is overestimating the strength of contemporary antisemites.

Though they largely control the educational establishment and have a powerful grip on popular culture and other sectors of society, they remain a minority among Americans, most of whom continue to support Israel, the sole democracy in the Middle East. Whatever one may think of the sincerity of those on the left, including Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, who maintains that they are supportive of Israel while also being reflexively hostile, their fear of being labeled “anti-Israel” is an acknowledgment of political reality. Jews are not alone in this country. Even as support for Jerusalem has lessened among Democrats and liberals, who have fallen prey to woke ideas that bolster the myth of the “settler/colonial” Jewish state, most independents and Republicans remain solidly pro-Israel. The same can be said about a sizable minority of Democrats. These basic facts show why a timid approach to confronting the pro-Hamas mobs is a terrible mistake.

Lastly, we must never lose sight of the foundation for contemporary antisemitism: woke ideology. The surge in left-wing antisemitism would be unimaginable without the way American institutions of higher learning have been steeped in critical race theory and intersectionality. They have indoctrinated a generation of educators, academics and students in a belief in an endless and unwinnable race war in which all oppressors and all victims are somehow linked. That is why so many otherwise ignorant students now reflexively believe that Israelis are all “white”—though a majority are, by the definitions of the left, people of color because they trace their origins to the Middle East or North Africa—and that the conflict with the Palestinians is one about race, rather than Islamist intolerance of the Jewish presence in their ancestral homeland.

Any solution to the current problem of American antisemitism must therefore include a rolling back of the woke tide and DEI infrastructure in education, the arts and government.

Above all, Jews who worry about another year of a siege of Jews in American education must remember not to play by the rules of the antisemites. We must push back and stand up, rather than seek shelter and concede the public square to the Jew-haters. Anything else is a recipe for the further erosion of Jewish safety.

ISRAEL'S FIRST LINE OF DEFENSE IS ITS OFFENSIVE CAPABILITY

IAF aims to degrade Hezbollah’s capabilities while preparing for war

Former IAF Commander says the air force and intelligence units are closely monitoring enemy arenas for future "surprises." 

 

By Yaakov Lappin

 

JNS

Aug 30, 2024 

 

 

Hezbollah unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) crossing from Lebanon gets intercepted by an Israeli fighter jet over an area near the Lebanon-Israel border, as seen from northern Israel, August 25, 2024  

 

The Israeli Air Force is systematically degrading Hezbollah’s capabilities while preparing for a full-scale war, according to a former IAF commander. 

On Aug. 25, the IAF launched a significant preemptive strike against Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon, following intelligence that indicated an imminent large-scale missile and rocket attack on Israel. The operation, executed shortly before dawn, struck thousands of rocket launchers and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) storage sites, with the aim of disrupting the terror organization’s ability to carry out its planned assault.

Former IAF commander Maj. Gen. (res.) Amikam Norkin said during a webinar organized by the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) on Aug. 26 that the preemptive strike was meticulously planned in response to concrete intelligence gathered by Israeli security agencies.

“Israeli intelligence recognized that Hezbollah [planned] to act against strategic targets inside Israel,” he stated. 

 

   100 Israeli fighter jets carried out a preemptive strike against Hezbollah on Aug 25

The strike involved around 100 fighter jets striking multiple Hezbollah positions, focusing on rocket launchers and UAV units concealed in open fields and wooded areas. According to Norkin, the IAF specifically avoided targeting launchers in densely populated areas to minimize the risk of civilian casualties.

Norkin emphasized that the IAF’s actions are carefully calibrated to achieve tactical objectives while avoiding war.

“At the tactical level, I think that we achieved what we planned to achieve,” he said. While he was unsure that Israel is “at the right level” now in terms of its position against Hezbollah, “We’re in a better situation than compared to a month ago.”

Despite the preemptive strike, Hezbollah still managed to launch some 300 rockets and drones toward northern Israel. Most were successfully intercepted, said Norkin, including all of the drones launched toward central Israel.

Norkin also pointed out the significance of suicide drones in this conflict, describing them as the “main story” due to their precision and the threat they pose to strategic targets.  

The IAF’s preemptive strike against Hezbollah is part of a broader strategy to manage multiple combat fronts in the ongoing conflict, according to Norkin. Since the outbreak of the war on Oct. 7, the IAF has been engaged not only in Gaza and Lebanon but also in Syria and Yemen. Israeli warplanes struck Yemen’s Al-Hodeida Port on July 20 in retaliation for a deadly Houthi drone attack on Tel Aviv. The IAF is also engaged in counter-terror operations in Judea and Samaria. 

“Every day in the last 10 months there is high-alert air power that is … waiting for any, let’s say, surprises, on each of the fronts, especially from the northern front,” he said. This was especially true during the first few months of the war, when “we thought Hezbollah might try to send special forces into Israeli territory,” he added.

Maj. Gen. (ret.) Yaacov Ayish, former Israeli Defense Attaché to the United States, suggested that Hezbollah’s limited retaliation for the assassination of the terror group’s top commander in Beirut last month was a calculated decision influenced by broader strategic considerations. 

“Hezbollah has the ability to launch something like 3,000-4,000 rockets a day, but they chose to use only a very limited portion of their power,” he said. This restraint, according to Ayish, reflects Hezbollah’s and Iran’s desire to avoid triggering a full-scale war.

Israel’s decision to hit launchers that were about to be used by Hezbollah and to remove immediate threats, and to target weapons storage sites, are part of a cumulative Israeli strategy to degrade the terror group’s capabilities “for the day after.”

While Israel, too, seeks to avoid escalating the situation to a full-scale war, its removal of these threats is part of preparations for such a war, “which I’m afraid is imminent,” he said. 

Addressing Hezbollah’s actions since Oct. 8, when it joined in the war started by Hamas with its invasion of southern Israel a day earlier, Ayish stated, “We have to ask why they decided to take it to the next level and why in a limited way.”

With over 500 Hezbollah operatives, many of them commanders, having been killed in the conflict so far, the Iran-backed terror army on appears to be balancing its response with the need to preserve its remaining capabilities, and coordinating its actions closely with Tehran.

Ayish highlighted the importance of Israel’s offensive capabilities as the first line of defense, followed by robust systems like the Iron Dome as the second line of defense.

EQUALLING JUDAISM AND NAZISM

The Nazification of anti-Zionism

It’s designed to make audiences, aided by the ubiquitousness of social media, despise all Jews.

 

By Ben Cohen

 

JNS

Aug 30, 2024

 

 

In an interview with The Jerusalem Post on Aug. 28, Yonathan Arfi, the head of the French Jewish umbrella body Crif, complained that most of his fellow citizens have an understanding of antisemitism that is rooted in the memory of the Second World War. The indelible association of Nazism with Jew-hatred, Arfi argued, prevents today’s generations from perceiving antisemitism as a live and current threat to the Jewish communities in their midst.

Given that Arfi represents a community that has endured a 200% increase in antisemitic outrages since Jan. 1, his views on this matter deserve to be taken seriously. And on one level, he is right. Antisemitic skinheads are still out there, but right now, they don’t represent the greatest threat to Jewish communities. Nonetheless, because they are seen as the true inheritors of the ideology behind the Holocaust, casual observers are blinded to the reality that today’s antisemites aren’t overly concerned with shaving their heads, wearing keffiyehs instead of swastikas and chanting “From the River to the Sea” instead of “Sieg Heil.” As a result of these optics, the pro-Hamas solidarity movement that has mushroomed in Western countries since the Oct. 7 atrocities is not, in the eyes of many, targeting Jews per se, but rather ideas and symbols—Zionism, the State of Israel—that can be denounced in the language of anti-colonialism, and not for their connections to Judaism.

If there is a logic here, it might perhaps be explained along these lines: Just as opposing the Vietnam War in the 1970s didn’t necessarily mean opposition to the existence of America and Americans, so opposing Israel’s defensive war in Gaza in the 2020s doesn’t mean that you’re an antisemite of the Nazi eliminationist variety. This view is bolstered by the fact that the pro-Hamas movement presents itself as a rainbow coalition of different ethnicities, religions and lifestyles that couches its rhetoric within general appeals to equality and human rights.

Because of that perception, I think it’s a mistake to focus this debate solely on the matter of presentation. The fact remains that we are dealing with an upsurge of antisemitism unprecedented in scale and venom since the Holocaust. And much of what we are witnessing echoes the Nazi period, particularly before the implementation of the mass extermination policy at the turn of the 1940s. Indeed, these echoes are a big part of the reason why there is so much ominous thinking among Jewish communities about where all this is heading.

Of course, there are significant differences between then and now, the most obvious being that during the Nazi era, antisemitism was a state-driven policy, whereas today it’s a civil society phenomenon in Western countries. Still, there are two overlaps that are worth pointing out.

Firstly, while Western governments aren’t actively discriminating against their Jewish populations, many of them are feeding antisemitic sentiments. This is certainly true of those countries in the European Union, such as Spain and the Republic of Ireland, which have pushed for unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state and advocated for sanctions against members of the current Israeli government. These politicians have essentially blessed the notion that Israel is a rogue state committing war crimes and therefore deserving of anger—anger that all too often gets directed at Jewish communities. As Arfi pointed out, “We all live with the idea that some people consider Jews to be legitimate targets for a battle happening 4,000 kilometers away.”

Secondly, many of the tactics and methods supported by the Hamas acolytes mirror the anti-Jewish measures introduced by the Nazi regime. A particularly shocking example emerged last week when the ultra-left New Communist Party in Italy published a blacklist of institutions and individuals who “support or promote the Zionist state in Italy.” In essence, this was an electronic version of the Nazi boycott campaign of Jewish-owned stores and businesses in Germany during the 1930s that helped give rise to the Holocaust a few years later.

In tandem with that is the rewriting of Jewish history and the caricaturing of Jewish theology. Social-media platforms like X (Twitter) and Instagram have been flooded with content that mocks the link between the land of Israel and the Jewish people, casting Israelis as Ashkenazi colonists who have willfully stolen Arab territories. The feed of Richard Medhurst—an Anglo-Syrian propagandist whose unhinged ravings are published by Iran’s Press TV and Russia’s RT—is replete with disparaging references to Ashkenazi Jews, to give one example. Medhurst’s co-thinkers, like Scott Ritter, an American former U.N. weapons inspector and convicted pedophile, and Mary Kostakidis, an Australian reporter who has enthusiastically embraced Medhurst’s own hatred of Zionism, form a reliable echo chamber for this theme and others, such as the slander that Jewish “chosenness”—a purely religious notion about the Jewish relationship with God—is actually an ideology of racial and national superiority. All these outpourings are designed to make their audiences despise all Jews, everywhere; in Israel, where they occupy and persecute the “indigenous” Palestinian Arabs, and outside, where the vast majority of Jews who support Israel, and have family and friends there, are framed as inherently suspect.

As I’ve argued before—and here is the link between the antisemitism of the last century and that in this one—anti-Zionism has morphed into “antizionism.” Freed from its hyphen, what remains is an ornate, multi-layered conspiracy theory with pretensions to be a revelatory, liberating and compelling explanation for why the world is in a rotten state.

For that reason, I think we can now reasonably speak of the “Nazification” of anti-Zionism. As the Nazi newspaper Der Stürmer, citing the German historian Heinrich von Treitschke, declared from its masthead: “The Jews are our misfortune.” For their inheritors, it’s the “Zionists” who play the same nefarious role, but for all intents and purposes, there is no practical distinction between these two categories. If we are to educate non-Jews about the evils of antisemitism, we are obliged to demonstrate its consistencies across different historical periods. The core message is, after all, evolving in the same way as the trajectory of antisemitism through the ages: You have no right to live among us as Zionists; you have no right to live among us; you have no right to live.

I DIDN'T KNOW THEY COULD DO THAT

By Bob Walsh

Apparently there are now surgical ways to change your eye color.  The procedure has a 90% plus risk of dangerous adverse outcomes, including blindness.  WHY THE FUCK WOULD ANYBODY DO THIS ??  They never heard of tinted contacts?

This is apparently done by injecting dye into the cornea.  Does not sound like fun to me.

GREASY GAVIN WANTS IT BOTH WAYS

 By Bob Walsh

 

 

The God-Emperor of the formerly great state of California, Greasy Gavin (God I Want To Be President) Newsom, is trying to have it both ways with regards to gas prices in California.

He wants a special session of the legislature to deal with "gasoline price spikes."  His idea of dealing with this is to INCREASE the level of administrative bullshit on gas refiners.  This would include a mandatory emergency storage set-up, which could be released under some circumstances to temporarily increase supply to (hopefully) stabilize prices.  \

He also wants to give a very modest credit to electrical service consumers.  

Democrats in the state senate are not supportive of the special session, so it is not likely to happen.  They might try to ram the bills thru the current session, which ends in two days.

EVERY ADVANCEMENT IN POLICE TECHNOLOGY RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT THE PROTECTION OF CIVIL LIBERTIES

Ford's new tech turns police cars into high-tech watchdogs

Automaker’s new patent: Turning cars into speed cops

 

By Kurt Knutsson

 

Fox News 

August 29, 2024 

 

 

 

Ford Police Interceptor

 

Ford Motor Company recently filed a patent application that's raising eyebrows and sparking debate about privacy and surveillance on our roads. The patent, "Systems and Methods for Detecting Speeding Violations," describes a system that could turn Ford vehicles into mobile speed detectors capable of reporting other drivers to the police.

The patent application was filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in January 2023. However, it was formally published by the USPTO on July 18, 2024. 

This innovative yet controversial technology has the potential to revolutionize traffic law enforcement while simultaneously raising significant concerns about privacy and civil liberties.

How it works

The proposed system utilizes a sophisticated combination of onboard cameras and sensors to monitor the speed of surrounding vehicles in real time. If a car is detected exceeding the speed limit, the system springs into action. It captures a high-resolution image of the speeding vehicle, meticulously records the speed, time and precise location of the violation and then compiles this information into a comprehensive report.

This data package is then transmitted directly to police or roadside monitoring units via a secure internet connection, providing law enforcement with instant, actionable intelligence.

 

Ford speed-violation detection patent image

 

Potential benefits of the proposed system

Proponents of the system argue that it could significantly streamline the enforcement of speed limits, potentially leading to safer roads and reduced traffic fatalities. Automating the detection and reporting process could dramatically reduce the need for dangerous high-speed police pursuits, keeping both officers and drivers safer. Furthermore, the technology could be seamlessly integrated into self-driving cars, creating a network of autonomous speed monitors patrolling our highways.

Concerns about the mobile speed detection technology

However, the potential benefits are accompanied by a host of concerns. Privacy advocates worry that this technology could represent a significant step towards a surveillance state, where every vehicle on the road becomes a potential informant. There are also serious legal questions about the admissibility of evidence collected without direct police observation. Moreover, the system's inability to confirm the identity of the driver – a limitation shared by current speed camera technology – could lead to wrongful accusations and legal complications.

 

Ford speed-violation detection patent image

 

Ford's response

In response to the growing concerns, we contacted Ford, and a spokesperson clarified the company's intentions: "The patent explicitly states this idea is specific for application in law enforcement vehicles, such as the Ford Police Interceptor, and it's a system that would automate a capability that law enforcement already have in use today, except this would utilize the built-in system and sensors in the vehicle. This patent does not state that driving data from customers' vehicles would be shared with law enforcement, which is what some media have incorrectly reported. And note, patent applications are intended to protect new ideas but aren't necessarily an indication of new business or product plans."

However, skeptics point out that the language in the patent application seems to leave room for broader applications, potentially opening the door for future expansion of the technology's use.

Legal and practical challenges

Implementing such a system would face numerous hurdles, both legal and practical. The admissibility of evidence collected without direct police observation could be challenged in court, potentially rendering the system ineffective as a law enforcement tool. The inability to confirm the identity of the driver, similar to current speed camera limitations, could lead to innocent vehicle owners being wrongly penalized for violations committed by others driving their cars. Furthermore, there's likely to be significant public backlash against what many would perceive as an invasive surveillance system.

Kurt's key takeaways

Ford’s patent for mobile speed detection technology presents a fascinating yet contentious development in traffic law enforcement. While it promises enhanced road safety and efficiency, it also raises critical questions about privacy and the potential for misuse. As this technology evolves, it will be crucial to balance its benefits with the protection of civil liberties, ensuring that advancements in safety do not come at the expense of our personal privacy. The ongoing debate will undoubtedly shape the future of how such technologies are implemented and regulated.

POOR JUDGEMENT CAN BE DEADLY

By Bob Walsh

 

Top inset: Isaac Arthur Arndt. Bottom inset: Jaelyn Walker. Background: Scene of Jaelyn’s murder. 

 

Jaelyn Walker was 14 when she was murdered about ten days ago.  She had the poor judgement to pick a bad boyfriend, Issac Arthur Arndt, 18.

Arndt showed up at the Clay County (Minn) Law Enforcement Center late August 19.  He was covered in blood and slightly injured.  He told the cops that he and his girlfriend (ex-girlfriend actually but he probably didn't mention that) had been attacked by an unknown bad guy in Gooseberry Park.  He stated that they had taken off in different directions and the bad guy went after Jaelyn.

Her mom had noticed that she was not where she was supposed to be when she was supposed to be there and tracked her down using her phone.  The cops found her body near a bicycle trail on Elm Street hidden in the woods.  She had multiple stab wounds.  A weapon was found at the scene.

During a second interview Arndt admitted to having a romantic relationship with the girl for several months, and that that relationship had recently ended.  He also asserted that they met in the park where Jaelyn demanded information about his new girlfriend.  He stated he refused and the situation turned violent.  He then copped to stabbing her "about 13 times" and then slit her throat.  He then hugged her.  Isn't that sweet?  He then stabbed her in the back and dragged her body away.

Arndt was then arrested (he was in Fargo N. D. by that time) and extradited back to Minnesota.  He is being held against a $1 million bond. 

A MOSQUE IS NOT A SAFE HIDING PLACE FOR PALESTINIAN TERRORISTS

5 Palestinian gunmen, including top commander, killed by IDF at West Bank mosque

Islamic Jihad chief in Tulkarem area among dead; another operative detained; two soldiers hurt; Palestinian death toll since start of operation rises to 17

 

By Emanuel Fabian

 

The Times of Israel

Aug 29, 2024

 

 

Palestinians stand outside a damaged mosque following an Israeli military operation in the West Bank refugee camp of Al-Faraa, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. 

 

Israeli forces killed five Palestinian gunmen overnight who were hiding in a mosque in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, including a local terror leader, the Israel Defense Forces, police and Shin Bet security agency said on Thursday morning.

The IDF launched a large-scale operation in Tulkarem early Wednesday. Troops were also operating in the city of Jenin and the Far’a camp near Tubas as part of the operation.

According to Palestinian media, the death toll since the start of the operation had risen to 17 as of Thursday morning. The IDF said that it had killed at least 12 gunmen in the first 24 hours of the operation.

In Tulkarem, troops of Border Police’s elite Yamam counterterrorism unit were dispatched to a mosque in the city following intelligence provided by the Shin Bet of a group of gunmen holed up there.

The Yamam officers carried out a tactic known as “pressure cooker” that involves escalating the volume of fire directed at a building to force suspects to come out.

The Israeli forces had fired shoulder-launched missiles at the mosque as part of the tactic, and two gunmen were killed.

 

Israeli soldiers take position during an army operation in Tulkarm in the northern West Bank on August 29, 2024. 

In an adjacent building, another four gunmen were identified, and three of them were killed in an exchange of fire with the Yamam officers, while the fourth surrendered.

In all, five Palestinian gunmen were killed and one Israeli Yamam officer was lightly hurt in the exchange, according to the military.

Among the dead in the mosque was Muhammad Jaber, known as Abu Shuja’a, who Palestinian media had previously reported to be the commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s local wing in the Nur Shams camp in Tulkarem.

 

 Muhammad Jaber, known as Abu Shuja’a, was commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad cell in Tulkarem.

 

Jaber had survived several previous attempts by Israel to kill him, according to Palestinian media.

The Shin Bet said Jaber was involved in planning and directing many terror attacks, including the killing of Amnon Muchtar in a terror attack in Qalqilya in June.

The detained terror operative in the building adjacent to the mosque was identified by Palestinian media as Mohammed Qassas, a founding member of Islamic Jihad’s local wing in Tulkarem.  

The large operation, involving the Kfir Brigade, the Duvdevan Commando Unit, combat engineers, and Border Police, was expected to last at least several days, military sources said Wednesday.

The ongoing operation was focused on dismantling a Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror network in the Tulkarem area, as well as in Jenin and the Far’a camp near Tubas.

While the army has said it has seen a relative decline in terror coming from the northern West Bank in recent months, it has also seen continued attempts by terror operatives to launch attacks.

After a series of smaller operations in the northern West Bank, the IDF decided to launch a more extensive operation, targeting three areas at once — Jenin, Tulkarem and Far’a — where terror operatives were seen as operating together, military sources said.

The large-scale operation was also launched in part following an intended suicide bombing in Tel Aviv earlier this month.

Dozens of explosive devices were neutralized and weapons were also seized, the army says, attaching footage showing soldiers shooting at bombs planted along roads in the West Bank.

The IDF has also been ripping up roads in the West Bank where it said it had intelligence of explosive devices that were planted there. So far, dozens of bombs hidden underneath roads have been neutralized, the military says.

The IDF has carried out several drone strikes amid the operation. In the past 10 months, the IDF has carried out more than 60 airstrikes in the West Bank, using drones, attack helicopters, and fighter jets.

One IDF soldier was also moderately wounded amid the operations, the military added.

Troops taking part in the raid were operating in an area from which an attempted suicide bombing in Tel Aviv was launched last week, IDF sources said.

The military believed that a terror network that planned and directed the intended attack was based in the Tulkarem area.

The bomber was named by Hamas as Jaafar Mona, from the West Bank city of Nablus. He was killed when a bomb in his backpack exploded prematurely as he walked down a Tel Aviv sidewalk. One passerby was injured.

The Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror groups claimed responsibility for the attack on August 18.

 

Israeli soldiers arrest two Palestinian men during a raid in the Nur Shams camp near the city of Tulkarem in the West Bank on August 28, 2024.

Tensions in Israel and the West Bank have soared since October 7, when terrorists burst through the Gaza border into Israel in a Hamas-led attack, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages.

Since October 7, troops have arrested some 4,850 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 1,960 affiliated with Hamas.

According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, more than 650 West Bank Palestinians have been killed in that time. The IDF says the vast majority of them were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops or terrorists carrying out attacks.

During the same period, 27 people, including Israeli security personnel, have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another five members of the security forces were killed in clashes with terror operatives in the West Bank.

OLDEST ISRAELI HOSTAGE DIED IN CAPTIVITY BECAUSE HE WAS DENIED PROPER CARE BY HAMAS

Rescued hostage reveals cruel final days of fellow captive

86-year-old Arie Zalmanovicz, whose death in captivity was confirmed in December, was denied proper medical care. Approximately 40 days after his abduction, Hamas released a 28-second video showing Zalmanovicz lying on a bed, connected to a monitor and complaining of feeling unwell. Later footage showed him motionless and covered with a white sheet. 

 

By Ilya Egorov  

 

Israel Hayom

Aug 29, 2024 

 

 

Qaid Farhan Alkadi and Arie Zalmanovicz  

 

New details shared by the rescued hostage Qaid Farhan Alkadi on Thursday on his time in Hamas captivity sheds light on the tragid death of another hostage, Arie Zalmanovicz, 86, from Nir Oz.

According to Alkadi, Zalmanovicz, whose death in captivity has been confirmed in December by Israeli authorities, was alongside him until his very last moments and may have died because he was denied proper care by Hamas terrorists. On Wednesday, it was reported that Alkaid, following his rescue, recounted seeing a deceased hostage beside him during their captivity. Zalmanovicz, a founding member of Kibbutz Nir Oz, was the oldest hostage held by Hamas. He leaves behind two sons and five grandchildren.

Kibbutz Nir Oz issued a statement following the revelation, blaming the Hamas captors of deliberately denying Zalmanovicz essential medicine. "About two weeks ago, a chilling video was released documenting the moments of our friend Arie Zalmanovicz's abduction from his home. Today, we learned of Farhan Alkadi's testimony, who was rescued from captivity. He reported seeing Arie dying beside him after being denied necessary medication and medical treatment. This account completes the painful picture for us, revealing the hellish moments Arie endured from his abduction to his tragic end. It serves as a disturbing firsthand testimony of what the remaining hostages in Gaza are experiencing".

Alkadi was extracted from a tunnel in southern Gaza in what security officials described as a "complex operation". During his debriefing, he disclosed for the first time that he was moved underground shortly after witnessing a murder. He explained that he was initially taken to an apartment rather than a tunnel, where he saw one of his fellow captives dying while their captors filmed the incident. Alkadi stated, "Immediately afterward, they filmed me too, and then I saw how he was killed."

Approximately 40 days after his abduction, Hamas released a 28-second video showing Zalmanovicz lying on a bed, connected to a monitor and complaining of feeling unwell. Later footage showed him motionless and covered with a white sheet.

Earlier in August, a video and photographs were released for the first time, showing Zalmanovicz during his abduction from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz to Gaza. The footage depicts the 85-year-old being transported on a motorcycle, flanked by his captors, while surrounded by dozens of cheering Gazans attempting to approach and strike him.

The kibbutz further stated the following: "We appeal once again to all involved parties, especially to the Israeli government and its leader – every additional moment in captivity poses a real threat to the hostages' lives. There's no time for hesitation or delays. Everyone must be brought home now before it's too late. Every moment is critical, and any delay could result in more lost lives".

OK, BUT WHERE ARE THEY GOING TO EVACUATE THEM TO?

Israel’s FM calls for temporary ‘evacuation’ of Palestinians from Judea and Samaria

“We must deal with the threat just as we deal with the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza,” said Israel’s Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz.

 

By David Isaac 

 

Israel Today

Aug 29, 2024

 

 

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz

 

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday called for “the temporary evacuation of Palestinian residents and whatever steps are required,” after the IDF overnight Tuesday launched a large-scale anti-terror operation in Judea and Samaria.

“This is a war in every respect and we must win it,” Katz tweeted.

“The IDF is working intensively starting tonight in the Jenin and Tulkarem refugee camps to thwart Islamic-Iranian terrorist infrastructures that have been established there,” he said.

Iran is working “to establish an eastern terrorist front” in Judea and Samaria, said Katz, following its proxy model in Lebanon with Hezbollah and the Gaza Strip with Hamas, by “financing and arming terrorists and smuggling advanced weapons from Jordan.”

He continued: “We must deal with the threat just as we deal with the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza.”

The Palestinian Health Ministry has reported at least 11 deaths so far in the IDF operation—six in Jenin and five in Tubas, a city northeast of Nablus (Shechem).

The IDF operation was launched following an uptick in terrorist incidents in the region, including the murder of a Jewish guard 10 days ago.

Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria have been calling for the army to take action, warning that an Oct. 7-like attack into Israel’s central region is only a matter of time if the problem is allowed to fester.

Israel Gantz, head of the Binyamin Regional Council and chairman of the Yesha Council, commenting on the IDF operation, said on Wednesday: “If we don’t do to Nur Shams what we did to Nuseirat [in Gaza], then God forbid, they’ll do to Bat Hefer [a village in central Israel] what they did to Be’eri [a kibbutz on the Gaza border decimated on Oct. 7].

“The time has come for us to face reality: Next to the beds of our children in Judea and Samaria, in Bat Hefer and Kfar Saba, lives a population that wants to kill Jews.”

THE POPE AND THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY USUALLY REFUSE TO CALL OUT WHAT'S HAPPENING BY ITS PROPER NAME - THE ISLAMIST WAR TO ERADICATE CHRISTIANITY AND DESTROY THE WEST

The moral cowardice of European Christian leaders

The Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury are accused of abandoning the defense of the Bible. 

 

By Melanie Phillips

 

JNS

Aug 29, 2024

 

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby speaks during a meeting with Pope Francis and Primates of the Anglican Communion at the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City on May 2, 2024.

 

The outspoken Chief Rabbi of South Africa, Dr. Warren Goldstein, has once again given voice to crucial truths that others have shamefully ignored.

He accused both Pope Francis and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, of being indifferent to the murder of black Christians in Africa and the terrorism threat in Europe while being “outright hostile” to Israel’s attempts to battle jihadi forces led by Iran.

“The world is locked in a civilizational battle of values, threatened by terrorism and violent jihad,” said Goldstein. “At a time when Europe’s very future hangs in the balance, its two most senior Christian leaders have abandoned their most sacred duty to protect and defend the values of the Bible. Their cowardice and lack of moral clarity threaten the free world.”

Goldstein’s blistering accusations were on the mark.

Christians in Africa have been subjected to barbaric slaughter and persecution by Islamists for decades. Two years ago, Open Doors, an organization that supports persecuted Christians, observed: “In truth, there are very few Muslim countries—or countries with large Muslim populations—where Christians can avoid intimidation, harassment or violence.”

In Jan. 2024, a report for Genocide Watch confirmed that, since 2000, 62,000 Christians in Nigeria have been murdered by Islamist groups in an ongoing attempt to exterminate Christianity. In addition, more than 32,000 moderate black Nigerian Muslims and non-faith individuals have been massacred.

According to a report in 2020 by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, Christians in Myanmar, China, Eritrea, India, Iran, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Vietnam are being persecuted.

These facts were reported in June by Peter Baum for The Daily Blitz. Yet the mainstream media all but ignore these atrocities. There are no marches in Western cities to accuse these countries of facilitating crimes against humanity. There are no NGO-inspired petitions to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to declare these countries and groups guilty of genocide.

Instead, the media and Western elites demonize Israel as the pariah of the world for defending itself against these genocidal Islamists. This unique and egregious double standard is the hallmark of classic antisemitism.

The attitude of the church leaders is even more astonishing. The hundreds of thousands of victims of this persecution are their flock. The goal of this onslaught is the wholesale destruction of the faith they lead.

 

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby exchanges gifts with Pope Francis at the Vatican on May 2, 2024.

 

Yet from Welby and the Pope have emerged little more than occasional expressions of measured concern. And even then, they usually refuse to call out what’s happening by its proper name—the Islamist war to eradicate Christianity and destroy the West.

The 10-month war against Israel by Iran and its proxies following the Oct. 7 pogrom is a crucial front in that onslaught against Western civilization. Yet as Goldstein said, the Pope and Welby have stood passively by while African Christians are “butchered by jihadi groups with direct ties to Israel’s enemies in Gaza and the West Bank.”

The jihadi ideology, he said, was also a clear and present danger to Europe. As a result of open-border policies, immigrants poured into the U.K. and across Europe, many of them “brandishing a violent jihadi ideology deeply hostile to Christianity, liberal democracy and western values.”

The result has been surging antisemitism leaving Diaspora Jews living in fear. Yet on the ideology fueling this civilizational onslaught, Welby and the Pope have been silent. Instead, they have recycled the Islamists’ propaganda that demonizes and delegitimizes Israel with lies.

Last December, the Pope described Israel’s Gaza war of self-defense against genocide as “terrorism.”

Last month, Welby endorsed the advisory opinion of the ICJ that Israel’s occupation of the “Palestinian territories” was illegal. The court’s opinion, which owed everything to politics and virtually nothing to law, was based entirely on lies and distortions.

Yet Welby commented, with a passion that’s wholly lacking when he talks about the slaughter of Christians in Africa, that Israel was guilty of “systematic discrimination”; that it was “denying the Palestinian people dignity, freedom and hope”; and that “ending the occupation is a legal and moral necessity”.  

Every part of that was a falsehood. Israel is not in illegal occupation of the disputed “West Bank” areas of Judea and Samaria. On the contrary, the Jews are the only people with a legal right many times over—from the terms of the 1922 Palestine Mandate and then through international laws of self-defense and those permitting the retention of territory that is still used for belligerent purposes—to what is now Israel, the “West Bank” and Gaza.

So, why are the Pope and the archbishop given to such unholy perversity? The reason is partly psychological, partly political but mostly theological.

First, there’s the fear of antagonizing the Muslim world and, as a result, bringing about yet more persecution of Christians.

Second, there’s internalized self-flagellation corresponding to Western liberals scourging themselves for “white privilege.” Back in 2020, Welby said he was ashamed of the Anglican attitude towards black people and declared that the church was “deeply, institutionally racist.” The Pope, an acolyte of left-wing “liberation theology,” has a similarly anti-West mindset.

The deeper reason, however, is theological. That was illuminated by the sharpest challenge of all that Goldstein hurled at the Archbishop of Canterbury.

By supporting the ICJ ruling that the “West Bank” and eastern Jerusalem are “occupied territory” to which the Jewish state has no rightful claim, said Goldstein, Welby was effectively rejecting the Bible—which, in addition to theology, was a book of historical fact.

This was because, said Goldstein, the boundaries of Israel, which are delineated repeatedly throughout the Torah as the word of God, include the ancient lands of Judea and Samaria that, along with Jerusalem, also figure in other books of the Bible as the historic kingdom of Israel.

Goldstein’s main challenge, however, was not political or legal but religious. In the Bible, God’s promise to the Jews of the entire Land of Israel is an “eternal oath,” an “unconditional covenant.” For a religious believer, this must supersede everything else without limit of time.

Yet Welby’s endorsement of the ICJ ruling that Israel was in illegal occupation suggested he did not regard the word of God as eternally binding. Was Welby therefore truly a religious believer, the rabbi was asking, or did he regard God’s promise as merely a myth?

That slices straight to the heart of Welby’s unholy attitude—the profound and enduring problem that certain Christians have with Judaism itself.

Christians who are faithful to the Hebrew Scriptures love the Jews and support Israel, appreciating that Christianity derives from Judaism. Other Christians, who don’t have such respect for Hebrew Scripture, have no such love for the Jews.

To such Christians, the Jews’ implacable refusal to accept the divinity of Jesus represents an eternal reproach to the church for repudiating its spiritual parent. It sets up internal tensions over whether Christianity can actually be justified.

The core of Christian anti-Zionism is therefore the perception by some Christians that the Jews represent a permanent challenge to the Christian faith itself.

These Christians can’t acknowledge that the Muslim world presents a threat because that would mean acknowledging the Muslim victimization of the Jews. Such Christians can’t accept that the Jews are victims of religious war because the people who victimized the Jews far worse than the Muslims were the Christians, whose attempt to wipe out the Jewish challenge to Christianity resulted in centuries of mass slaughter of Jews across Europe.

And so, while today’s Islamists are murdering Christians and Jews, trying to conquer the West and posing a terrifying threat to civilization itself, European Christian leaders have decided to dump their Jewish parent and embrace their Islamist assassin.

They have abandoned the Jewish people because they have abandoned the Hebrew Bible and with it the defense of Christianity and the West.

MAHMOUD ABBAS IS NOTHING MORE THAN A PAWN OF THE IRANIANS

Iran’s war against Israel from the West Bank

Under the current circumstances, handing the Gaza Strip over to the P.A. would not only be seen as a big reward to Iran and its terror proxies but most likely lead to a major war. 

 

By Khaled Abu Toameh

 

JNS

Aug 29, 2024

 

Israeli forces during a counterterror operation in Jenin and Tulkarem in northern Samaria on Aug. 28, 2024. 

 

The armed wing of the Iran-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) announced on Aug. 26 that five of its members had been “martyred while performing their combat duty in the West Bank.”

One of the gunmen, Yazan Daraghmeh, a commander of the Tubas Battalion militia, was killed in a “work accident” while planting an explosive device that was supposed to be used against Israel Defense Forces soldiers in his hometown of Tubas in the northern West Bank. The four other gunmen, Oday Abu Naasa, Ahmed al-Anteer, Taher Raddad and Mosab al-Muqasqas, were killed in recent clashes with the IDF. They belonged to similar armed groups in the cities of Jenin and Tulkarem, also located in the northern West Bank.

Armed and funded by Iran, the “battalions,” whose members are affiliated with PIJ, Hamas and the ruling Fatah faction headed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, began operating in the northern West Bank more than three years ago.

Since then, gunmen belonging to these groups have carried out countless attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers.

Recently, the gunmen started using improvised explosive devices (IEDs) against Israeli civilian and military vehicles. It is worth noting that some of these militias are based only a few hundred meters away from Israeli communities, both in the West Bank and inside Israel.

In May, Hamas terrorists in Tulkarem recorded themselves shooting toward Bat Hefer, an Israeli town near the border of the West Bank.

“Iran-supported Islamist militias are currently engaged in war against Israel on two fronts,” wrote British-Israeli analyst and journalist Jonathan Spyer, an expert on radical Islamic groups.

“The main focus of combat remains, of course, the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

“A ‘support front,’ as is the preferred term, has been maintained by Lebanese Hezbollah since October 8 in the Israel-Lebanon border area.

“Iran seeks as a strategic objective to surround Israel with a crescent of active fronts maintained by Iran and supported by Islamist client militias. As part of this, the [Iranian] regime is seeking to find a way to add an eastern component to this crescent—through Jordan to the West Bank….

“Tehran has succeeded in establishing and maintaining an arms route in which military materiel, brought from Iran into Lebanon, is then transported across the Syrian-Lebanese border, via Jordan, into the West Bank.

“The maintenance of this route is of strategic importance to Iran. It is intended, over time, to flood the West Bank with weaponry, and by so doing, to eventually make this area a third front in the ongoing long war against Israel.”

Many gunmen are said to have joined the “battalions” in the West Bank, especially in areas controlled by Mahmoud Abbas’s P.A. The P.A. security forces, however, haven’t really done anything to disband or disarm the militias. This is the same P.A. that, since its establishment 30 years ago, did nothing except watch while Hamas expanded throughout the Gaza Strip, eventually taking control over the entire coastal enclave in 2007.

The P.A.’s failure to crack down on the “battalions” means that Iran now has a small army in the West Bank. It will not be long before members of this army attack Israel in the same way as the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led invasion of Israel, in which 1,200 Israelis were murdered, with many raped, tortured and burned alive. In addition, more than 240 Israelis, including babies, women and the elderly, were abducted to the Gaza Strip, where 107 of them are still being held as hostages.

Those who persist in advocating for the establishment of a Palestinian state next to Israel must take into consideration that doing so would lead to the rise of more Iran-backed “battalions” in the West Bank and other areas over which the P.A. is given control. Since the gunmen are frequently praised as “heroes” by many Palestinians, neither Abbas nor anyone who replaces him would have the courage to take them on.

Instead of ordering his security forces to crack down on the “battalions,” Abbas appears to have other priorities. He is evidently planning to return to the Gaza Strip. In a recent speech before Turkey’s Parliament, Abbas declared:

“I have decided to head with all members of the Palestinian leadership to the Gaza Strip, and I will work with all my energy to be with our people, as our lives are not more precious than the life of any Palestinian child.”

On Aug. 25, a committee set up by Abbas to prepare for the return of the P.A. to the Gaza Strip decided to “contact the political bureau of Hamas and other Palestinian factions in order to agree and reach an understanding with them” on Abbas’s plans to head to the coastal enclave. Abbas, it seems, believes that he can reach an advantageous deal with Hamas, whose members staged a bloody coup against his P.A. in 2007 and were preparing to assassinate him.

The P.A. will never be able to assume control of the Gaza Strip as long as Hamas’s military capabilities have not been destroyed. Even if Abbas does go back to the Gaza Strip, it is not probable that he would be able to confront Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups there. As in the West Bank, new “battalions” and militias will no doubt spring up in the Gaza Strip under Abbas’s P.A. to pursue the jihad (holy war) to eliminate Israel and replace it with an Islamist state.

Under the current circumstances, handing the Gaza Strip over to the P.A. would not only be seen as a big reward to Iran and its terror proxies but most likely lead to a major war.

 

Originally published by the Gatestone Institute.

ON THIS DAY

By Bob Walsh

 

 

On this day 102 years ago the first commercial radio advertisement was broadcast.  It was an apartment building advertising vacancies.  (I would have thought that radio commercials were older than that.  Broadcast radio has been around since the end of 1920.)

TWO MORE BIG DOGS JUMP OFF THE DEI WAGON

By Bob Walsh

 

Within the last two days both Ford and Lowe's have announced they are shitcanning their DEI programs.  They have apparently seen the light.  

COURT SAYS POT HEADS CAN OWN GUNS

By Bob Walsh

 

 

The 5th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals (New Orleans) just ruled that a female pot head in Texas can not be barred from owning guns.

The court cited the Bruen decision in their ruling.  They pointed out that while some early U. S. laws banned the carrying of weapons while under the influence (of alcohol) nowhere could they find a law that banned the ownership of firearms by regular drinkers.  

This situation came up when the cops showed up to bust the husband for shooting at their neighbor's house with a shotgun.  The Mrs, Paola Connelly, was prosecuted for possession of a gun by a user of marijuana.  She had some weed at the house and copped to smoking it on occasion. 

I WONDER IF YOUR INSURANCE COVERS THIS

 By bob Walsh

 

This little morality play ran out in the early hours of Wednesday in Philadelphia.  Two people were playing hide the salami in the back seat of the Range Rover when the woman accidentally kicked the vehicle into neutral and the car rolled into the river.  

I thought most cars now would not come out of park unless your foot (or somebody's foot) was on the brake pedal.

Neither one of them was hurt.  I suspect that the car is badly damaged.  Modern electronics do not like being dunked.  It took about five hours to fish the car out of the river. 

14-YEAR-OLD MURDER SUSPECT DECIDES TO THROW THE DICE

By Bob Walsh

 

Carly Gregg is pictured in court on April 16, 2024 together with her mugshot (right insert) and her mother Ashley Smylie (left insert).

 

There is no doubt that Carly Gregg, of Brandon, Mississippi, who was then 14, killed her mother and attempted to kill her stepfather in March of this year.  She was offered a deal of 40 years if she copped.  She ain't gonna do it.  If found guilty of murder, attempted murder and various lesser crimes she could get 93 years as a guest of the people.  Prison in ol' Miss ain't nothin' nice.  

Gregg shot her mother, Ashley Smylie, who was a respected high-school teacher.  Apparently mom confiscated some stuff from Carly's room and Carly didn't like that, so........

Carly's lawyer has argued that she was "compromised" by a change in her anxiety-depression medication just a few days before her murderous acting out.  He also asserts that she has experienced auditory hallucinations since being locked up.  She is scheduled for a psych eval soon.  Her trial is scheduled to begin in about three weeks.  She is being tried as an adult. 

SCOTUS TORPEDOES BIDEN'S MASSIVE VOTE BUYING SCHEME

Supreme Court makes devastating ruling by denying Biden's latest ploy to cancel MORE than $160 BILLION student loan debt

 

By Sarah Ewall-Wice

 

Daily Mail

Aug 28, 2024

 

The Biden administration was dealt another major blow by the Supreme Court, which denied its request to reinstate a major student loan forgiveness plan.

The high court declined to allow Biden's $160 billion Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan to move forward.

It comes after two federal judges last month sided with several Republican-led states and stopped Biden from moving forward with the debt cancellations.

The plan, announced in June 2023, was designed to lower monthly payments and speed up loan forgiveness for millions of Americans by tying monthly payments to the income and family size of a borrower.

The administration has already canceled more than $168 billion in debt for some 4.8 million borrowers. 

 

President Biden speaking about efforts to cancel student loan debt during an event in Madison, WI on April 8

 

At the end of July, the Biden administration announced it will begin moving forward with next steps in canceling student loan debt for tens of millions of borrowers this fall. 

The Education Department started emailing borrowers who have at least one federal student loan with an update on the potential student loan debt forgiveness available to them under the rule changes being finalized this fall.

It is the latest move in an a massive effort by President Biden to wipe out billions in student loan debt.

The rules if finalized would bring the total number of borrowers eligible for student loan debt cancelation to more than 30 million, including those who have already had debt wiped out since Biden took office.

The Education Department estimated the changes would cost $150 billion, but an estimate by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget put it between $250 billion to $750 billion.

Critics argue the administration is unfairly burdening taxpayers with a massive transfer of debt, and some Republicans have even accused the president of trying to buy votes ahead of the November election.

The Education Department will provide additional information to borrowers once the rules are finalized, but the emails this week will let borrowers know they have until August 30 to opt out if they do not want the upcoming forgiveness.

'Today, my Administration took another major step to cancel student debt for approximately 30 million Americans,' Biden said in a statement. 

'By providing more information to borrowers on how they can take advantage of our upcoming debt relief programs, borrowers will be prepared to benefit swiftly once the rules are final,' he continued.

'Despite attempts led by Republican elected officials to block our efforts, we won’t stop fighting to provide relief to student loan borrowers, fix the broken student loan system, and help borrowers get out from under the burden of student debt.'

In April, the Biden administration announced a set of rules giving the Education Secretary the ability to cancel student loan debt for tens of millions of borrowers. 

It was part of the administration's ongoing effort using the lengthier rulemaking process after the Supreme Court in June 2023 blocked their original $400 billion plan to cancel debt for some 40 million borrowers.

 

Protesters outside the U.S. Supreme Court on June 30, 2023. In a 6-3 decision, the court struck down President Biden's original plan to cancel up to $20,000 in student loan debt for millions of borrowers

 

The rules if finalized would impact multiple groups of borrowers including those who owe more on their loans now than when they started repaying them due to additional interest piling up. The administration estimated this change would impact nearly 23 million borrowers. 

The rules also address borrowers who have been in repayment for decades.  Those who have been paying undergraduate loans for more than 20 years would be eligible as well as those with graduate loans who have been in repayment for at least 25 years.

Other rules deal with borrowers who are eligible for loan forgiveness under other plans but have not yet applied such as the Income Driven Repayment (IDP) plan and for those who were enrolled in programs that were deemed to be of low-financial value for not meeting Education Department standards.

For borrowers who do want to opt out of student loan forgiveness under the rules being finalized, they will have to contact their student loan servicer. The Education Department said those borrowers will not be able to opt back in. 

 

Biden announced efforts through the regulatory process to cancel student loan debt for more than 30 million borrowers on August 8, 2024

 

The latest steps by the Biden administration this week come after an appeal court earlier this month blocked the implementation of the administration's separate Saving a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan.

The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in Missouri blocked all aspects of the plan from going forward for now. It is not yet clear whether the court will issue a final ruling in the case.

The ruling was in response to one of two lawsuits filed by more than a dozen Republican-led states in response to the Biden administration launching the SAVE Plan last summer. 

The SAVE plan was expected to lower payments for millions of borrowers while those who had been in repayment were expecting to see debt wiped out after ten years.

More than eight million borrowers had enrolled in the program, according to the White House. Some 400,000 borrowers had already had debt forgiven under the plan. 

After the ruling, the Education Department said borrowers who were enrolled in the SAVE Plan would be put in interest-free forbearance until the legal case was resolved.