What else do people need to happen to admit this administration (every single one of them) are completely corrupt and/or incompetent. My heart goes out to Israel
I struggle to find one example of a challenging situation handled well by this administration. If I hear “let’s be clear” one more time I think I will be violently ill.
This is more accurate than my bleached down assessment. With the swill of progressive hyperbole constantly being served (we’re all choking on it), on I err on the side of understatement. It isn’t intended to be generous but you’re correct, we don’t owe them any grace.
regional war that could morph into WW III is about to happen and Team Biden bears a great deal of responsibility, military stockpiles are currently depleted, the oil resource drained, debt is astronomical (fun fact, interest payments on the debt overtook military spending this year) and we have ruling class that openly despises Americans and enlightenment values. we are in trouble.
“I honestly don't think that an administration can do much worse than what we are seeing right now”
Which begs the question, which administration would likely have precluded the opportunistic savagery we have witnessed. Eli Lake and the never Trumper fools he carry’s water for should be forced to answer the question.
You are right. Trump handled the Middle East differently: he brought about a movement toward peace with the Abraham Accords. The never-Trumpers are blinded by their naive arrogance. The woke left has allowed America to be invaded, our police departments to be disintegrated and our military to go woke. Does anyone believe we could stand up to a deadly serious terrorist massacre as is happening in Israel?
Unfortunately, I just spoke to a friend with family in Israel and she did exactly that. Somehow this was Trump's fault. She was also shocked that Fox News had favorable coverage for Israel. She is a "forever democrat, trump hater" and she doesn't see where the real anti-semitism is coming from - the left.
There is no reasoning , soon enough MSNBC will drop some headlines "Did Trump reveal intelligence that led to this?" No evidence but just enough to confirm the hate.
Check out Thom Hartmann on X. He essentially says that Trump shared intel on the Iron Dome with Iran via Russia. Where is the “alliance for truth” and why aren’t they calling out these absurd conspiracy theories? Ridiculous.
Mary, a US Carrier Attack force complete with aircraft, guided missile cruisers and destroyers are heading to park themselves outside the Lebanese coast with Hezbollah in its sights in case they try to take advantage of the situation, allowing the IDF to concentrate on Gaza. Attack aircraft are being rerouted to land bases nearby. We just might get a war out of this that might take care of Israel's terrorist enemies. You along with everyone else on this thread may hate the senile Biden - but this country has Israel's back. Your heart should go out to Israel, but they have help.
Everything Biden and his cabal or imbeciles and traitors did was wrong from the start. The fact that we "might" finally being doing something right is cold comfort.
Yeah after how many slaughtered Israeli women and children, elderly and men just minding their own business only to be butchered or kidnapped? How many young women raped and tortured by these savages? Biden has blood on his hands.
Put your thinking cap on, Bruce. Just this once. There is basically only one reason Hamas launched what will eventually be called a suicide mission - and that is because their Iranian sponsors wanted to scuttle a potential Saudi-Israeli deal (that was stupidly trumpeted by both the US and Saudi Arabia before the fact) that would have completely altered the dynamic of the Middle East going forward, marginalizing Iran. Saudi Arabia would normalize relations with Israel and opened up bilateral trade for American military defence guarantees. It's a deal rivalling the only thing I applauded Trump for, the Abraham Accords. In fact, this deal is something I could foresee Trump doing himself. This attack is strategic and would have happened if Trump was still President. Everyone here, including the author of this article, thinks Biden is out to coddle Iran - and maybe he wanted to. And has been. But this deal, now probably abandoned because Saudi is fearful of the death toll Israel will extract from Gaza, was designed to counter Iran - not support it. Anyway, just my thoughts. Feel free to blow me up. Others here have..
Even if this was the case of which you make a good one both Iran and Hamas still need buckets of $ to carry this out. That $ came from the Biden admin. It's difficult to see it any other way. I don't think the timing of $ released to Iran or Palestine & the attack was just coincidental. Not to mention, IMO, the world sees the US the weakest it's ever been. Now there is talk about all the weapons that were left behind in Afghanistan and whether those weapons were used to kill Israelis. IMO, it's not a farfetched thought.
Nah Lee, not going to attack you. I just think that the issue of the Iranian influencers in the Biden administration, his payment of $6 billion and Blinken crowing about renewing aid to the Palestinians make the attack a natural consequence. Hard to hide my revulsion for Biden, I guess. And impossible to hide it for those, such as the "Squad" idiots who still temporize.
Lee, while I am horrified by the potential of our indirect involvement in this catastrophic event, I appreciated your insight into the 'why' of it all. On the surface, it appears to be an antagonistic suicide mission. But on this string people say the Palestinians have been building towards for 20 years. If they've been building for 20 years for this attack, did they know that far in advance they would be willing pawns in a threatened dictatorship's supremacy and power? I'm just trying to learn and understand, outside of my galactic dislike of the current administration's weakness and ineptitude.
Lee, I agree that the pending Saudi-Israeli agreement had to be a timing trigger - maybe the most important one. But that does not diminish the role of the Biden administration in providing comfort and financial resources to both Iran and Hamas. Robert Gates warned us years ago that Biden has been wrong on every major foreign policy decision. And Biden continues his string of misjudgment, misinformation, and failure.
You have no idea what the "US Carrier Attack Force" is sent to the ME to do...stop pretending that this administration did anything but something random. You position is clueless and hopelessly ignorant of any facts that are already present.
According to the excellent reporting being done by Bari Weiss, according to the knowledgeable experts, apparently Hezbollah is not a player here and threatening them is utterly meaningless.
Knowledgeable experts? As in the ones in Israeli intelligence who completely missed a surprise attack just outside their back door? Hezbollah is always a player, and will try to take advantage if they sense an opening. Sending American forces there is prudent.
Maybe so, but it's not like the Republicans are ANY better. We can't even pass any resolution right now regarding Israel for support, aid or anything else because a few Republicans had a temper tantrum and now we don't have a Speaker of the House, leaving Congress completely impotent.
For me, the jury is still out on if the ouster of McCarthy was good or bad. I agree that both parties took their eye off the ball of keeping America and the world safe but it is as if the Biden Administration is actively causing chaos. The open border, shutting down our energy industry, removing sanctions from Iran way before they unfroze the $6 billion dollars, and even putting in ridiculous people in important positions because they check off a DEI box. The democrats own all of these. The world is much more dangerous place becuase of Biden not Matt Gaetz.
If you're going to kick out the Speaker, you should have someone in the wings ready to take the job. As a manager I've learned that, unless there's gross negligence/violence, I don't fire someone who is underperforming without a plan for how the work will get done in their absence.
So as a manager, you allow an underperforming individual poison your organization until you have a viable option to replace them?...that is not leadership, hopefully you have very few employees that count on you to make the right decision.
It depends. Say someone works 40 hours a week. If someone is only doing 30 hours worth of work and I can't immediately replace them, I'll put them on a PIP but have learned that PIPs usually fail. The alternative is loading up each of the rest of my staff with six extra hours of work a week. Sure, they're unhappy that Person X isn't doing as much as they should but they'd be even more unhappy having to put in a bunch of extra hours that my boss won't let me compensate them for. It takes at least six months to hire someone so, for that time, having someone work 30 hours is better than having no one work zero.
> [...] sought a Treasury Department exemption to release more than $360 million to Palestine despite concerns that at least some of it would go to Hamas. (According to a May 2021 State Department press release, that money went to humanitarian organizations providing, among other things, emergency shelter, food, and healthcare, including “mental health and psychosocial support.”)
------------
That is such an incredibly silly and childlike way to think about money. Money is a fungible good. For an analogy, say you spend $500/month on food. Then the government gives you a $360 worth of EBT/food stamps. Will you now be spending $860/month on food? No -- you will take the $360, add in $140 of your own money, and still spend $500/month on food. Then you take the extra $360 extra you now have and put it towards something else (maybe a nicer apartment, or clothes, or some other necessity that EBT doesn't cover -- this isn't meant to be a condemnation of EBT, just an analogy).
That $360 million in the monitored accounts of course will be spent on humanitarian purposes. But those humanitarian things were things the Palestinian Authority was *already* spending money on. So it frees up money to be spent on other things. For example, giving it to a Hamas-aligned building contractor who over-charges for infrastructure, and takes half of his allotment to funnel to militants.
The same is true of the $6 billion given to Iran. You could probably trace every rial of that $6 billion to good causes. But at the same time, Iran quietly can increase military spending and training programs by $6 billion.
I saw a clip of Blinken saying this on the news yesterday as well. Our elite is either the stupidest elite in the history of the world or believes that we are the stupidest population in the history of the world.
This is the time for our leaders and the progressive, pro-Palestine voting
allies to admit their mistakes and right their wrongs. They trusted the wrong people and developed the wrong strategy. Don’t continue with the current madness.
On a side note, I bet they cringe every time the media describes the attack on Israel as happening on the “southern border”. It’s too easy to make the mental connection with our lack of a southern border. Look for our compliant media to change their verbiage soon.
I don't think your statement is a binary choice; yes they are that stupid - the over-educated class thinks very highly of themselves and as part of that, they really do think the rest of us aren't as smart as them. Joetato was a dullard on his best day, but that never stopped him from lying about his academic record or calling out people who would challenge his lies.
Philly Guy, they believe that we are the stupidest population in history because they believe we are ALL like the people who voted them into office. Really, really stupid. But then, again, they do just happen to be the stupidest elite in history, as you said.
No, no, no, this is all intentional. Biden may no longer understand all of what is happening, but he was certainly behind it when he had all his faculties. His puppet masters are bent on the destruction of Western Civilization.
This non-fungibility of cash argument is a case study in media gyrations. Surely everyone is aware that the time worked between 10:15 and 10:37am last Tuesday was the cash disbursed on Little Debbies at Kroger.
Idiot plebs and their limited understanding of finances.
Money IS fungible. To give it to terrorists thinking they will somehow DECREASE their terrorism in favor of things that would lend sympathy among the population for those whom they want to terrorize, is the real naïveté. Terrorists are gonna terrorize to the max. Give them anything, and their fanaticism will use it for more terror. I suggest you set your superiority complex about finance aside and humble yourself with the recognition of your limited recognition of human behavior.
Is it naïveté? One wonders if it isn’t pure willfulness, a continuation of the Obama administration’s pandering to the Iranian leadership. Or, maybe just sheer stupidity.
Could be anything. I gave the commenter the benefit of the doubt with a benign “diagnosis”. But yes, he could be expressing partisanship support for Obama or Biden or even sympathy for the terrorists themselves.
This is neither the time for sarcasm nor satire. Given the gravity of what occurred and what is to come, clarity and precision of speech is a necessity. Every effort to minimize error in communication must be made. Clleverness of thought is best applied to resolving the problems at hand.
people know, but that's party line. I always remember when thinking about elites and the Democrats that with a straight face they will say castrating a boy turns them into a girl. If they are capable making that argument then there is no reality that can't be bent .
they know, its the equivalent of millions flowing to the Biden family but there is no check saying "Bribe for Vice President Biden" so nothing to see here!
I keep wanting to point out that it’s like when restaurants and airplanes used to have smoking‘sections ‘.. ‘cause we all know that the smoke definitely stays in its defined‘section’
Bingo - these funds free up the same amount of funds for Iran to do with whatever nefarious things it wants. Who can't understand that? Apparently Brian Nelson in the Treasury Department is an idiot.
Sadly, there are a large number of Americans who are waiting to be told how to think/feel about this situation (and others). When Taylor Swift or Beyoncé or MSNBC or Fox News weighs in, they will subconsciously shift how they feel about it and then feel more comfortable that their ‘tribe’ feels the same way. It doesn’t matter if it’s the border, crime, Biden, Ukraine, Trump, Covid, etc... Americans have been taught to be intellectually lazy and fear thinking differently than what they perceive to be the popular idea within their circles.
It is long past time to recognize that the so-called current administration is a facade. Does anyone truly believe that a man who cannot finish a sentence is actually making qualitative decisions? Or that the individuals in the so-called cabinet, who never miss an opportunity to demonstrate their utter incompetence at everything, other than the ability to tell egregious lies with a perfectly straight face, are actually directing the execution of policy. It’s telling that, while ex-President Bush immediately issued a searing condemnation of this 7th century atrocity, there has been not a word from the not so-ex President Obama. Not a word. Meanwhile those that directed this slaughter of women, children, and the elderly are getting yet another infusion of $billions. Israel will do what it has to do. It has no choice. It is our choice as to whether we want to keep electing people who were complicit in Israel’s 911.
The totally botched Afghan withdrawal was a good indicator of this administration's intelligence and competence. I've heard that US weapons left in Afghanistan may have been used by the Hamas terrorists. Whether or not they actually were, they certainly could have been. And don't try to ask Biden about the attack. He read a statement and then fled the room as reporters shouted questions.
And State is no doubt populated with smart people but led by dumb simplistic Democrat appointees who view the world as oppressor/oppressed. In their binary paradigm, the Palestinians have the moral high ground.
Embarrassed and astounded how this administration’s incompetent ideologues have made every foreign policy situation worse in 33 months.
Seems like the Obama admin’s naïveté was at least tempered by the presence of some realists, although that admin hated Israel and liked Iran just as much as this one. I sincerely hope Trump gets back in and smokes whoever replaced Qasem Soleimani as head of Iranian terror. And all his lieutenants, too.
I guarantee that there are many people in this administration who are on Hamas's side. It would be interesting and informative to hear the private conversations among the people in this administration.
Former NBA star Amar’e Stoudemire has it exactly right:
“I woke up this morning with some disturbing news out of Israel that Hamas [are] kidnapping children, putting them in cages, killing women, killing the elderly. That’s some coward s**t. That’s cowardly. And for all y’all Black Live Matter [supporters] who ain’t saying nothing, [saying] ‘Let me figure out exactly what’s happening before saying anything’, f**k you,” he said.
As former Secretary Gates observed: “Joe Biden has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past 4 decades.”
America cannot afford one more minute with this imbecile and his gang of miscreants and saboteurs in charge. Remove Biden NOW.
The Biden administration is so obsessed with restarting a deal with Iran that it has looked the other way, rewarded them with money and relaxed sanctions. The Iranians know they can get away with it with Biden sitting on his hands.
It’s the equivalent of the U.S. justice system policies under Soros backed DAs that are slowly destroying cities. Cash bail, not prosecuting low level crimes, looking the other way instead of charging criminals for criminal acts. The crooks will push as far as they can until they are stopped. Liberal policy at its worst.
The US in exercising real politique foreign policy often will do deals with unsavory often undemocratic regimes. We do so because either alternatives are worse or we can stomach the fallout.
That explains our relationships with the Saudis orcyhe Eqyptians over the past decades. It explains our suppprt of Ukraine today. South Vietnam in the 60’s.
Iran is a completely different kettle of fish.
What is the benefit? The country wants to destroy not only Israel but liberal democracy everywhere. It wants to build a bomb, will fund terror, provides zero economic benefit to us. Why fo we do anything diplomatically with them?
It makes no sense and never has. I loathe to think OBama and Biden are antisemites ( same with leaders in State) but eventually if the shoe fits …
Biden has been born out to be the foreign policy idiot that many ptedicted.
The so-called Democratic Party, the party of anti-Semitism, sends billions of dollars and shiploads of tanks to a country that is not even an ally, but will will they lift a finger to assist the only true ally we have in the Middle East? Of course not, because it's populated by Jews.
and that is an ugly point that needs to be made. For the left Jews are members of the oppressor class and none worse than Israeli jews. The modern left and their allies hate them with a passion and they have been comforted and supported by the Democratic party.
Had a physical reaction to seeing those jackwagons in NYC supporting Palestine. To answer your question Bruce, it's NO! I couldn't think of another group of people that I would like to see take a long walk off a short plank.
The failures of the Obama/Biden foreign policies regarding the Middle East which have led to the strengthening of the murderous theocracy of Iran and its terrorist arms will have a disastrous impact on the Democrat's chances of holding the Presidency unless Biden's administration does a complete about face on Iran and the terrorist organizations it supports. And, for God sakes, stop repeating the ridiculous fiction that Iran can only use the $6 billion the Biden administration has provided for humanitarian purposes; it is an idiotic argument.
yup and buildings and bulldozers are central to many military operations. And even where the aid food or supplies access was controlled by Hamas and used to supplement their rule.
And no one ever saw and applied the lessons of how “humanitarian aid” was used by African terrorist to inflict atrocities in places like Sudan? Interesting how John Kerry never computed this and applied it to other geographical regions in foreign policies, but extrapolates small changes in temperature to indicate droughts and starvation in climate policies.
I am highly skeptical of further US involvements overseas, but in this case we have the beginnings of a second holocaust along with the killing and capture of multiple US citizens. If house republicans had sense (they do not) they would introduce a declaration of war against the Hamas organization. It would pass the house and likely the senate facing opposition from the left. Force team Biden to understand the gravity of the situation cause right now damage control is their only priority.
Eli. Let’s not forget the senior DOS official on Iran has been suspended for several months pending investigation into his security clearance. He also has a few cronies in DOD and elsewhere.
Jay Solomon wrote a piece a few weeks ago in TFP “Inside Iran’s Influence Operation.
Robert Malley, special envoy on Iran...suspended
Ariane Tabatabai...currently serving the Pentagon as chief of staff for Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations. She used to serve as a diplomat on Malley’s Iran nuclear negotiating team after Biden took office.
Biden and this whole administration just need to go. They just do. They are just too dangerous to have this much power and control.
I do not even think it is evil, I believe that these people are just so naive that they build policy around the mental masturbations of academic fools that live in self reinforcing bubbles that distort reality and deny common sense.
Any car mechanic sitting in the Oval Office would have seen more clearly what the outcomes of all these things would be.
God save us from over educated, under experienced, idealists who spend more time writing white papers and trying to get published than actually living in the world.
Look, it is really hard to LIKE Trump. The man is a grade A asshole. But that does not mean he is an idiot or wrong.
Think I am pretty typical when I say that I loved the man's policies, his determination to fix problems he saw and follow through. I loved that he had the balls to say what most people knew to be common sense but were too afraid to say.
But I can do without the crazy shit.
That said, I think we would all be much better off today had he been allowed to govern without the democrats and the establishment undermining him and if he had won reelection.
If I could have Trump's policies and his fearlessness without Trump I would be thrilled. But I am pretty sure you gotta take one with the other at this point.
That being the case, and seeing where this current administration is taking us, I would have to vote for him. I just would. As much as I like Scott and DeSantis, they just lack Trump's balls.
Maybe. But maybe its the crazy of Trump that allows him to say and do the things that we actually like.
I mean, cmon....can you see DeSantis talking to a room full of executives from GM and Ford and telling them he will put a 10% tariff on any cars they import if they close a plant in Ohio?
Do you see DeSantis having the balls to go to Europe and tell the Germans that they need to get off Russian energy because it puts them at risk?
DeSantis has potential. He does. But he is still too much of a politician and too sensitive to the prevailing wisdom and too tightly tied to the party leadership to actually say things that are wildly unpopular with the elites.
But bad governance that is stable is just robust bad governance. We got that with Clinton and with Obama too. Bush Jr. even.
The problem is that we have had bad, steady, stable governance.
What is needed is someone who will strip the system down, tear it apart, so that it can be rebuilt.
Once it is rebuilt, then we can look to stability.
Trump was never elected to bring stability. He was elected to smash to pieces a stable system that was and is undermining the economy, national security and culture of the US.
Trump would have the nerve to call for the abolishment of the Federal Reserve, which, given its track record, might not be a bad idea. No other republican out there would have the nerve.
Trump would have the nerve to tear the DOJ apart and strip it down and he would take any blow thrown his way with a shrug of the shoulder and some bombastic theatrics. But he would do it.
The system is broken. Our institutions are not trusted and they are failing. The system needs a reboot and a redesign and it needs to be flushed of the rampant corruption. I work for the Feds, I know how things actually get done. I work in the administrative state and I know how it actually runs the government by manipulating politicians by not providing good information or spinning the information it does provide. Heck, it will even deny information exists knowing that it does or could easily be gotten. I've helped prepare briefs to congress. I have seen how they are constructed and the conversations that go on in meetings to determine their content and wording.
What else do people need to happen to admit this administration (every single one of them) are completely corrupt and/or incompetent. My heart goes out to Israel
I struggle to find one example of a challenging situation handled well by this administration. If I hear “let’s be clear” one more time I think I will be violently ill.
Try naming a challenging scenario that was less than a total disaster.
I honestly don't think that an administration can do much worse than what we are seeing right now.
This is more accurate than my bleached down assessment. With the swill of progressive hyperbole constantly being served (we’re all choking on it), on I err on the side of understatement. It isn’t intended to be generous but you’re correct, we don’t owe them any grace.
regional war that could morph into WW III is about to happen and Team Biden bears a great deal of responsibility, military stockpiles are currently depleted, the oil resource drained, debt is astronomical (fun fact, interest payments on the debt overtook military spending this year) and we have ruling class that openly despises Americans and enlightenment values. we are in trouble.
Feels like the feature, not the flaw, doesn’t it?
“I honestly don't think that an administration can do much worse than what we are seeing right now”
Which begs the question, which administration would likely have precluded the opportunistic savagery we have witnessed. Eli Lake and the never Trumper fools he carry’s water for should be forced to answer the question.
You are right. Trump handled the Middle East differently: he brought about a movement toward peace with the Abraham Accords. The never-Trumpers are blinded by their naive arrogance. The woke left has allowed America to be invaded, our police departments to be disintegrated and our military to go woke. Does anyone believe we could stand up to a deadly serious terrorist massacre as is happening in Israel?
What a clueless comment, written as a hypothetical to distract from the utter incompetence of the current leadership...try another tact Biden-lover!!
I give you my word as a Biden - c'mon man!
“Folks, that’s a true statement; not a joke.”
Think about it!
Getting tired of hearing "This president takes matters very seriously....
One would think that a serious person would have done SOMETHING to show some level of competence!
I’m so glad I can say I never voted for him or Obama.
Pass the barf bag.
at this point, WW III could break out and the Dem response will be trump something or other.
Unfortunately, I just spoke to a friend with family in Israel and she did exactly that. Somehow this was Trump's fault. She was also shocked that Fox News had favorable coverage for Israel. She is a "forever democrat, trump hater" and she doesn't see where the real anti-semitism is coming from - the left.
There is no reasoning , soon enough MSNBC will drop some headlines "Did Trump reveal intelligence that led to this?" No evidence but just enough to confirm the hate.
Check out Thom Hartmann on X. He essentially says that Trump shared intel on the Iron Dome with Iran via Russia. Where is the “alliance for truth” and why aren’t they calling out these absurd conspiracy theories? Ridiculous.
Both…corrupt AND incompetent. Not to mention clueless.
Mary, a US Carrier Attack force complete with aircraft, guided missile cruisers and destroyers are heading to park themselves outside the Lebanese coast with Hezbollah in its sights in case they try to take advantage of the situation, allowing the IDF to concentrate on Gaza. Attack aircraft are being rerouted to land bases nearby. We just might get a war out of this that might take care of Israel's terrorist enemies. You along with everyone else on this thread may hate the senile Biden - but this country has Israel's back. Your heart should go out to Israel, but they have help.
Everything Biden and his cabal or imbeciles and traitors did was wrong from the start. The fact that we "might" finally being doing something right is cold comfort.
I agree.
But comfort it is.
Yeah after how many slaughtered Israeli women and children, elderly and men just minding their own business only to be butchered or kidnapped? How many young women raped and tortured by these savages? Biden has blood on his hands.
Put your thinking cap on, Bruce. Just this once. There is basically only one reason Hamas launched what will eventually be called a suicide mission - and that is because their Iranian sponsors wanted to scuttle a potential Saudi-Israeli deal (that was stupidly trumpeted by both the US and Saudi Arabia before the fact) that would have completely altered the dynamic of the Middle East going forward, marginalizing Iran. Saudi Arabia would normalize relations with Israel and opened up bilateral trade for American military defence guarantees. It's a deal rivalling the only thing I applauded Trump for, the Abraham Accords. In fact, this deal is something I could foresee Trump doing himself. This attack is strategic and would have happened if Trump was still President. Everyone here, including the author of this article, thinks Biden is out to coddle Iran - and maybe he wanted to. And has been. But this deal, now probably abandoned because Saudi is fearful of the death toll Israel will extract from Gaza, was designed to counter Iran - not support it. Anyway, just my thoughts. Feel free to blow me up. Others here have..
Even if this was the case of which you make a good one both Iran and Hamas still need buckets of $ to carry this out. That $ came from the Biden admin. It's difficult to see it any other way. I don't think the timing of $ released to Iran or Palestine & the attack was just coincidental. Not to mention, IMO, the world sees the US the weakest it's ever been. Now there is talk about all the weapons that were left behind in Afghanistan and whether those weapons were used to kill Israelis. IMO, it's not a farfetched thought.
Nah Lee, not going to attack you. I just think that the issue of the Iranian influencers in the Biden administration, his payment of $6 billion and Blinken crowing about renewing aid to the Palestinians make the attack a natural consequence. Hard to hide my revulsion for Biden, I guess. And impossible to hide it for those, such as the "Squad" idiots who still temporize.
Lee, while I am horrified by the potential of our indirect involvement in this catastrophic event, I appreciated your insight into the 'why' of it all. On the surface, it appears to be an antagonistic suicide mission. But on this string people say the Palestinians have been building towards for 20 years. If they've been building for 20 years for this attack, did they know that far in advance they would be willing pawns in a threatened dictatorship's supremacy and power? I'm just trying to learn and understand, outside of my galactic dislike of the current administration's weakness and ineptitude.
Lee, I agree that the pending Saudi-Israeli agreement had to be a timing trigger - maybe the most important one. But that does not diminish the role of the Biden administration in providing comfort and financial resources to both Iran and Hamas. Robert Gates warned us years ago that Biden has been wrong on every major foreign policy decision. And Biden continues his string of misjudgment, misinformation, and failure.
Our gifts to Iran was helpful? Obama and Biden, whom I supported in 2008, are a dismal disappointment.
You have no idea what the "US Carrier Attack Force" is sent to the ME to do...stop pretending that this administration did anything but something random. You position is clueless and hopelessly ignorant of any facts that are already present.
Thank you, Ken, for your positive contribution.
According to the excellent reporting being done by Bari Weiss, according to the knowledgeable experts, apparently Hezbollah is not a player here and threatening them is utterly meaningless.
Knowledgeable experts? As in the ones in Israeli intelligence who completely missed a surprise attack just outside their back door? Hezbollah is always a player, and will try to take advantage if they sense an opening. Sending American forces there is prudent.
Maybe so, but it's not like the Republicans are ANY better. We can't even pass any resolution right now regarding Israel for support, aid or anything else because a few Republicans had a temper tantrum and now we don't have a Speaker of the House, leaving Congress completely impotent.
For me, the jury is still out on if the ouster of McCarthy was good or bad. I agree that both parties took their eye off the ball of keeping America and the world safe but it is as if the Biden Administration is actively causing chaos. The open border, shutting down our energy industry, removing sanctions from Iran way before they unfroze the $6 billion dollars, and even putting in ridiculous people in important positions because they check off a DEI box. The democrats own all of these. The world is much more dangerous place becuase of Biden not Matt Gaetz.
If you're going to kick out the Speaker, you should have someone in the wings ready to take the job. As a manager I've learned that, unless there's gross negligence/violence, I don't fire someone who is underperforming without a plan for how the work will get done in their absence.
So as a manager, you allow an underperforming individual poison your organization until you have a viable option to replace them?...that is not leadership, hopefully you have very few employees that count on you to make the right decision.
It depends. Say someone works 40 hours a week. If someone is only doing 30 hours worth of work and I can't immediately replace them, I'll put them on a PIP but have learned that PIPs usually fail. The alternative is loading up each of the rest of my staff with six extra hours of work a week. Sure, they're unhappy that Person X isn't doing as much as they should but they'd be even more unhappy having to put in a bunch of extra hours that my boss won't let me compensate them for. It takes at least six months to hire someone so, for that time, having someone work 30 hours is better than having no one work zero.
> [...] sought a Treasury Department exemption to release more than $360 million to Palestine despite concerns that at least some of it would go to Hamas. (According to a May 2021 State Department press release, that money went to humanitarian organizations providing, among other things, emergency shelter, food, and healthcare, including “mental health and psychosocial support.”)
------------
That is such an incredibly silly and childlike way to think about money. Money is a fungible good. For an analogy, say you spend $500/month on food. Then the government gives you a $360 worth of EBT/food stamps. Will you now be spending $860/month on food? No -- you will take the $360, add in $140 of your own money, and still spend $500/month on food. Then you take the extra $360 extra you now have and put it towards something else (maybe a nicer apartment, or clothes, or some other necessity that EBT doesn't cover -- this isn't meant to be a condemnation of EBT, just an analogy).
That $360 million in the monitored accounts of course will be spent on humanitarian purposes. But those humanitarian things were things the Palestinian Authority was *already* spending money on. So it frees up money to be spent on other things. For example, giving it to a Hamas-aligned building contractor who over-charges for infrastructure, and takes half of his allotment to funnel to militants.
The same is true of the $6 billion given to Iran. You could probably trace every rial of that $6 billion to good causes. But at the same time, Iran quietly can increase military spending and training programs by $6 billion.
I saw a clip of Blinken saying this on the news yesterday as well. Our elite is either the stupidest elite in the history of the world or believes that we are the stupidest population in the history of the world.
This is the time for our leaders and the progressive, pro-Palestine voting
allies to admit their mistakes and right their wrongs. They trusted the wrong people and developed the wrong strategy. Don’t continue with the current madness.
On a side note, I bet they cringe every time the media describes the attack on Israel as happening on the “southern border”. It’s too easy to make the mental connection with our lack of a southern border. Look for our compliant media to change their verbiage soon.
they are not accountable and rarely face consequences,so why should they care?
The never ending refrain of modern American government, "are they really this stupid or is it all intentional"
I don't think your statement is a binary choice; yes they are that stupid - the over-educated class thinks very highly of themselves and as part of that, they really do think the rest of us aren't as smart as them. Joetato was a dullard on his best day, but that never stopped him from lying about his academic record or calling out people who would challenge his lies.
It’s not that they think we’re stupid. The fact is they really don’t care what we think.
They are too thick to make the correlation between an Israeli border and our border. I take that back -- they don't even think about our border.
Philly Guy, they believe that we are the stupidest population in history because they believe we are ALL like the people who voted them into office. Really, really stupid. But then, again, they do just happen to be the stupidest elite in history, as you said.
It's the latter, PG. They think we are all "deplorables" who clutch our bibles and guns.
The Bibles are to keep our morals in line, and the guns are to keep our federal government in its lane.
This entire administration is silly and child like in their delusions but evil in consequences.
No, no, no, this is all intentional. Biden may no longer understand all of what is happening, but he was certainly behind it when he had all his faculties. His puppet masters are bent on the destruction of Western Civilization.
I think they are achieving their nefarious goals.
Watch London, Paris, Brussels - Europe has been seeded with militants to destroy those countries from the inside as well.
Doubtless. But this “it’s all about us” attitude isn’t really reflective of the source of this conflict.
This hostility has existed for generations before Chris C hopped on the Santa María and headed west.
On that note - Happy Columbus Day - or as history has been rewritten in the liberal shitholes like Seattle - happy Indigenous People's Day!
This non-fungibility of cash argument is a case study in media gyrations. Surely everyone is aware that the time worked between 10:15 and 10:37am last Tuesday was the cash disbursed on Little Debbies at Kroger.
Idiot plebs and their limited understanding of finances.
Money IS fungible. To give it to terrorists thinking they will somehow DECREASE their terrorism in favor of things that would lend sympathy among the population for those whom they want to terrorize, is the real naïveté. Terrorists are gonna terrorize to the max. Give them anything, and their fanaticism will use it for more terror. I suggest you set your superiority complex about finance aside and humble yourself with the recognition of your limited recognition of human behavior.
Is it naïveté? One wonders if it isn’t pure willfulness, a continuation of the Obama administration’s pandering to the Iranian leadership. Or, maybe just sheer stupidity.
Could be anything. I gave the commenter the benefit of the doubt with a benign “diagnosis”. But yes, he could be expressing partisanship support for Obama or Biden or even sympathy for the terrorists themselves.
I wasn’t. You run a tad literal Rob.
OK. It's the engineer in me.
Ah...Ah...Ah....I'm gonna go with the latter. Although there is a good case to be made for sheer stupidity.
That whooshing sound you hear is satire flying right over your head.
I guess you missed the sarcasm.
This is neither the time for sarcasm nor satire. Given the gravity of what occurred and what is to come, clarity and precision of speech is a necessity. Every effort to minimize error in communication must be made. Clleverness of thought is best applied to resolving the problems at hand.
people know, but that's party line. I always remember when thinking about elites and the Democrats that with a straight face they will say castrating a boy turns them into a girl. If they are capable making that argument then there is no reality that can't be bent .
I think it comes from atheists still seeking some form of religion.
that along with if there is no God they are God and Gods create their own reality.
"That is such an incredibly silly and childlike way to think about money. Money is a fungible good."
They Know That. This is just Spin.
they know, its the equivalent of millions flowing to the Biden family but there is no check saying "Bribe for Vice President Biden" so nothing to see here!
I keep wanting to point out that it’s like when restaurants and airplanes used to have smoking‘sections ‘.. ‘cause we all know that the smoke definitely stays in its defined‘section’
Bingo - these funds free up the same amount of funds for Iran to do with whatever nefarious things it wants. Who can't understand that? Apparently Brian Nelson in the Treasury Department is an idiot.
Sadly, there are a large number of Americans who are waiting to be told how to think/feel about this situation (and others). When Taylor Swift or Beyoncé or MSNBC or Fox News weighs in, they will subconsciously shift how they feel about it and then feel more comfortable that their ‘tribe’ feels the same way. It doesn’t matter if it’s the border, crime, Biden, Ukraine, Trump, Covid, etc... Americans have been taught to be intellectually lazy and fear thinking differently than what they perceive to be the popular idea within their circles.
It is long past time to recognize that the so-called current administration is a facade. Does anyone truly believe that a man who cannot finish a sentence is actually making qualitative decisions? Or that the individuals in the so-called cabinet, who never miss an opportunity to demonstrate their utter incompetence at everything, other than the ability to tell egregious lies with a perfectly straight face, are actually directing the execution of policy. It’s telling that, while ex-President Bush immediately issued a searing condemnation of this 7th century atrocity, there has been not a word from the not so-ex President Obama. Not a word. Meanwhile those that directed this slaughter of women, children, and the elderly are getting yet another infusion of $billions. Israel will do what it has to do. It has no choice. It is our choice as to whether we want to keep electing people who were complicit in Israel’s 911.
Blood on Biden's hands. No way to sanitize this disgrace.
The totally botched Afghan withdrawal was a good indicator of this administration's intelligence and competence. I've heard that US weapons left in Afghanistan may have been used by the Hamas terrorists. Whether or not they actually were, they certainly could have been. And don't try to ask Biden about the attack. He read a statement and then fled the room as reporters shouted questions.
This administration may not be on Hamas’s side, but it’s filled with postmodern, simplistic racial essentialists who are no friends of Israel.
yup, a state department that hangs BLM flags on the embassy is not a serious operation. But the pay is good!
And State is no doubt populated with smart people but led by dumb simplistic Democrat appointees who view the world as oppressor/oppressed. In their binary paradigm, the Palestinians have the moral high ground.
Embarrassed and astounded how this administration’s incompetent ideologues have made every foreign policy situation worse in 33 months.
its amazing how quickly things fall apart.
Seems like the Obama admin’s naïveté was at least tempered by the presence of some realists, although that admin hated Israel and liked Iran just as much as this one. I sincerely hope Trump gets back in and smokes whoever replaced Qasem Soleimani as head of Iranian terror. And all his lieutenants, too.
I guarantee that there are many people in this administration who are on Hamas's side. It would be interesting and informative to hear the private conversations among the people in this administration.
they are scrambling to avoid responsibility looking who to blame and perhaps throw under the bus.
Don't call this a "tragedy". It is an atrocity.
Former NBA star Amar’e Stoudemire has it exactly right:
“I woke up this morning with some disturbing news out of Israel that Hamas [are] kidnapping children, putting them in cages, killing women, killing the elderly. That’s some coward s**t. That’s cowardly. And for all y’all Black Live Matter [supporters] who ain’t saying nothing, [saying] ‘Let me figure out exactly what’s happening before saying anything’, f**k you,” he said.
wow!! Guess he can get away w/ speaking truth to power!!
As former Secretary Gates observed: “Joe Biden has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past 4 decades.”
America cannot afford one more minute with this imbecile and his gang of miscreants and saboteurs in charge. Remove Biden NOW.
The Biden administration is so obsessed with restarting a deal with Iran that it has looked the other way, rewarded them with money and relaxed sanctions. The Iranians know they can get away with it with Biden sitting on his hands.
It’s the equivalent of the U.S. justice system policies under Soros backed DAs that are slowly destroying cities. Cash bail, not prosecuting low level crimes, looking the other way instead of charging criminals for criminal acts. The crooks will push as far as they can until they are stopped. Liberal policy at its worst.
The US in exercising real politique foreign policy often will do deals with unsavory often undemocratic regimes. We do so because either alternatives are worse or we can stomach the fallout.
That explains our relationships with the Saudis orcyhe Eqyptians over the past decades. It explains our suppprt of Ukraine today. South Vietnam in the 60’s.
Iran is a completely different kettle of fish.
What is the benefit? The country wants to destroy not only Israel but liberal democracy everywhere. It wants to build a bomb, will fund terror, provides zero economic benefit to us. Why fo we do anything diplomatically with them?
It makes no sense and never has. I loathe to think OBama and Biden are antisemites ( same with leaders in State) but eventually if the shoe fits …
Biden has been born out to be the foreign policy idiot that many ptedicted.
Agree- what is the benefit? Eliminating Israel seems the only reason.
The so-called Democratic Party, the party of anti-Semitism, sends billions of dollars and shiploads of tanks to a country that is not even an ally, but will will they lift a finger to assist the only true ally we have in the Middle East? Of course not, because it's populated by Jews.
and that is an ugly point that needs to be made. For the left Jews are members of the oppressor class and none worse than Israeli jews. The modern left and their allies hate them with a passion and they have been comforted and supported by the Democratic party.
And they were out in force in NYC yesterday demonstrating their support of "Palestine." Is it possible to hold such people in greater contempt?
Had a physical reaction to seeing those jackwagons in NYC supporting Palestine. To answer your question Bruce, it's NO! I couldn't think of another group of people that I would like to see take a long walk off a short plank.
Yep. It's all fun and games until it's you or your family members being beheaded.
The failures of the Obama/Biden foreign policies regarding the Middle East which have led to the strengthening of the murderous theocracy of Iran and its terrorist arms will have a disastrous impact on the Democrat's chances of holding the Presidency unless Biden's administration does a complete about face on Iran and the terrorist organizations it supports. And, for God sakes, stop repeating the ridiculous fiction that Iran can only use the $6 billion the Biden administration has provided for humanitarian purposes; it is an idiotic argument.
even the Iranians say they could use it for whatever they want. Only team Biden spouts that nonsense.
As if the money isn't fungible.
If humanitarian aid is food and if an army runs on its stomach, then humanitarian aid becomes military aid.
yup and buildings and bulldozers are central to many military operations. And even where the aid food or supplies access was controlled by Hamas and used to supplement their rule.
Good point. The news reports that the bulldozer used by Hamas to break through the security wall into Israel was provided by the US as economic aid.
And no one ever saw and applied the lessons of how “humanitarian aid” was used by African terrorist to inflict atrocities in places like Sudan? Interesting how John Kerry never computed this and applied it to other geographical regions in foreign policies, but extrapolates small changes in temperature to indicate droughts and starvation in climate policies.
Then again, I don't think John Kerry has ever calculated anything correctly except his near identical physical appearance as Lurch.
I am highly skeptical of further US involvements overseas, but in this case we have the beginnings of a second holocaust along with the killing and capture of multiple US citizens. If house republicans had sense (they do not) they would introduce a declaration of war against the Hamas organization. It would pass the house and likely the senate facing opposition from the left. Force team Biden to understand the gravity of the situation cause right now damage control is their only priority.
Eli. Let’s not forget the senior DOS official on Iran has been suspended for several months pending investigation into his security clearance. He also has a few cronies in DOD and elsewhere.
Is it Malley, Blinken’s old school chum?
Yes
Jay Solomon wrote a piece a few weeks ago in TFP “Inside Iran’s Influence Operation.
Robert Malley, special envoy on Iran...suspended
Ariane Tabatabai...currently serving the Pentagon as chief of staff for Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations. She used to serve as a diplomat on Malley’s Iran nuclear negotiating team after Biden took office.
please, that was just one spy, the Iranians infiltrated plenty of team Biden
Biden and this whole administration just need to go. They just do. They are just too dangerous to have this much power and control.
I do not even think it is evil, I believe that these people are just so naive that they build policy around the mental masturbations of academic fools that live in self reinforcing bubbles that distort reality and deny common sense.
Any car mechanic sitting in the Oval Office would have seen more clearly what the outcomes of all these things would be.
God save us from over educated, under experienced, idealists who spend more time writing white papers and trying to get published than actually living in the world.
the guy who did see this is currently looking at jail time.
I have to agree.
Look, it is really hard to LIKE Trump. The man is a grade A asshole. But that does not mean he is an idiot or wrong.
Think I am pretty typical when I say that I loved the man's policies, his determination to fix problems he saw and follow through. I loved that he had the balls to say what most people knew to be common sense but were too afraid to say.
But I can do without the crazy shit.
That said, I think we would all be much better off today had he been allowed to govern without the democrats and the establishment undermining him and if he had won reelection.
If I could have Trump's policies and his fearlessness without Trump I would be thrilled. But I am pretty sure you gotta take one with the other at this point.
That being the case, and seeing where this current administration is taking us, I would have to vote for him. I just would. As much as I like Scott and DeSantis, they just lack Trump's balls.
DeSantis doesn’t lack balls. It’s just he stands strong without the theatrics and crazy of Trump.
Maybe. But maybe its the crazy of Trump that allows him to say and do the things that we actually like.
I mean, cmon....can you see DeSantis talking to a room full of executives from GM and Ford and telling them he will put a 10% tariff on any cars they import if they close a plant in Ohio?
Do you see DeSantis having the balls to go to Europe and tell the Germans that they need to get off Russian energy because it puts them at risk?
DeSantis has potential. He does. But he is still too much of a politician and too sensitive to the prevailing wisdom and too tightly tied to the party leadership to actually say things that are wildly unpopular with the elites.
I prefer stable governance over theatricality. Because the latter isn’t sustained.
Well sure. Who does not prefer that?
But bad governance that is stable is just robust bad governance. We got that with Clinton and with Obama too. Bush Jr. even.
The problem is that we have had bad, steady, stable governance.
What is needed is someone who will strip the system down, tear it apart, so that it can be rebuilt.
Once it is rebuilt, then we can look to stability.
Trump was never elected to bring stability. He was elected to smash to pieces a stable system that was and is undermining the economy, national security and culture of the US.
Trump would have the nerve to call for the abolishment of the Federal Reserve, which, given its track record, might not be a bad idea. No other republican out there would have the nerve.
Trump would have the nerve to tear the DOJ apart and strip it down and he would take any blow thrown his way with a shrug of the shoulder and some bombastic theatrics. But he would do it.
The system is broken. Our institutions are not trusted and they are failing. The system needs a reboot and a redesign and it needs to be flushed of the rampant corruption. I work for the Feds, I know how things actually get done. I work in the administrative state and I know how it actually runs the government by manipulating politicians by not providing good information or spinning the information it does provide. Heck, it will even deny information exists knowing that it does or could easily be gotten. I've helped prepare briefs to congress. I have seen how they are constructed and the conversations that go on in meetings to determine their content and wording.
nope, DeSantis has positive qualities but he a donor class man.
Biden is also a grade A asshole. But he is incometent.
Incompetent or Incontinent? LOL
Could be both.
He wears an XL Depends before and after his nap, so I think it's incompetency.
Well, yeah both-no joke man.
This is just so sickening that I don't have more words than that. Thank you FP for keeping us updated.