Mike Pence: Biden Broke Our Deal With the Taliban

2021-08-17 Mike Pence

In February 2020, the Trump administration reached an agreement that required the Taliban to end all attacks on U.S. military personnel, to refuse terrorists safe harbor, and to negotiate with Afghan leaders on creating a new government. As long as these conditions were met, the U.S. would conduct a gradual and orderly withdrawal of military forces.

Unanimously endorsed by the United Nations Security Council, the agreement immediately brought to Afghanistan a stability unseen in decades. In the past 18 months, the U.S. has not suffered a single combat casualty there.

But when Mr. Biden became president, he quickly announced that U.S. forces would remain in Afghanistan for an additional four months without a clear reason for doing so. There was no plan to transport the billions of dollars worth of American equipment recently captured by the Taliban, or evacuate the thousands of Americans now scrambling to escape Kabul, or facilitate the regional resettlement of the thousands of Afghan refugees who will now be seeking asylum in the U.S. with little or no vetting.

Once Mr. Biden broke the deal, the Taliban launched a major offensive against the Afghan government and seized Kabul. They knew there was no credible threat of force under this president. They’ve seen him kowtow to anti-Semitic terrorist groups like Hamas, restore millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinian Authority, and sit by earlier this year while thousands of rockets rained down on Israeli civilians.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/mike-pence-biden-broke-our-deal-with-the-taliban-11629238764

Why Satan should chair your meetings

2021-08-03 James Surowiecki

Deep in the laws and commentaries of the Talmud, there is an unusual provision about capital punishment: if all 71 judges in a capital case agree that the death penalty should be imposed, then it is automatically taken off the table … if everyone is seeing things a certain way, you may well have missed something important.
It takes a rare leader to see discord as a boon, however. Alfred Sloan, the legendary boss of General Motors from the 1920s to the 1950s, was one such maverick. “Gentlemen, I take it we are all in complete agreement on the decision here,” he said at the end of one board meeting. “I propose we postpone further discussion of this matter until our next meeting, to give ourselves time to develop disagreement and perhaps gain understanding of what the decision is all about.”

https://www.economist.com/1843/2021/08/03/why-satan-should-chair-your-meetings

https://archive.is/wW7Dr

‘Inconvenient Minority’ author: How are Asian Americans succeeding if US is systemically racist?

2021-07-15 Joshua Q. Nelson

“Critical race theory asserts that the world and America are divided into a racial caste system, Whites on the top, Blacks on the bottom,” Kenny Xu, author of “An Inconvenient Minority: The Attack on Asian American Excellence and the Fight for Meritocracy,” said on “America Reports.” “But they have no idea what to do with the Asian Americans because the Asian Americans are a minority that has been discriminated against in this country, and yet they succeed and they achieve. And that, I think, inconveniences the critical race theory narrative today, and that’s why I wrote this book.”

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/inconvenient-minority-author-how-are-asian-americans-succeeding-if-us-is-systemically-racist

Stephen Miller: Migration to US Debunks ‘Racist Country’ Myth

2021-05-09 Eric Mack

While Democrats and the Biden administration are pushing a narrative the United States is a flawed country that is systematically racist, former Trump White House senior adviser Stephen Miller presents the most basic fact debunking that as fallacious doctrine.

“The best measure of the kinds of freedom, rights, dignity that is afforded by a society is whether or not people are trying to leave en masse, or whether or not people are trying to arrive en masse,” Miller told Fox News’ “Life, Liberty & Levin.”

“It is as basic a measure as you’re going to get.”

And Miller reminds host Mark Levin, the entire world sees benefit emigrating to America, so therefore it cannot be the evil country Democrats profess it to be.

“In the United States, we are the No. 1 global destination for migration, and we have been for a very long time,” Miller said.

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/stephenmiller-openborder-migration-reform/2021/05/09/id/1020677/

Rev. Graham reacts to Biden leaving ‘God’ out of prayer proclamation: ‘There is no one else to pray to’

2021-05-07 Charles Creitz

Graham … opined on Facebook about the president leaving God out of his proclamation:

“Why would President Biden omit God? … I was deeply saddened to read that President Biden is the first president to omit the word “God” in his proclamation. That speaks volumes doesn’t it? It is hard to believe we have come this far,” he wrote.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/rev-graham-reacts-to-biden-leaving-god-out-of-prayer-proclamation-there-is-no-one-else-to-pray-to

Opinion: So you want to tax the rich? Okay, let’s start with Harvard.

2021-04-27 Henry Olsen

America’s charitable foundations and billionaire universities hold at least $1.5 trillion in assets. That’s far more wealth than that of Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and the founders of Google and Oracle combined.

Democrats often criticize these billionaires for not paying their fair shares, but they pay a lot more than these wealthy institutions. Rich universities and grant-making foundations pay a mere 1.4 percent in federal taxes on their net investment income, a fraction of the 23.8 percent rich people pay on their capital gains.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/04/27/so-you-want-tax-rich-okay-lets-start-with-harvard/

 

It’s good that a left-leaning publication published a critique of a policy of some Democrats.

Comment on shooting

2021-03-23 GFGates

Law enforcement, and our legal system, is entirely reactive, not proactive. There is almost nothing law enforcement can do until a crime has been committed. And that’s the way it should be. Further, there is very little the government can do to prevent gun crime because criminals don’t obey the law. The one person ultimately responsible for your safety is YOU. And if you’re an honest, law-abiding citizen and want to personally do something to protect yourself and reduce gun crime — carry a gun.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/boulder-colorado-shooter-meena-harris-kamala-niece-tweet

Illegal Content and the Blockchain

2021-03-17 Bruce Schneier

Security researchers have recently discovered a botnet with a novel defense against takedowns. Normally, authorities can disable a botnet by taking over its command-and-control server. With nowhere to go for instructions, the botnet is rendered useless. But over the years, botnet designers have come up with ways to make this counterattack harder. Now the content-delivery network Akamai has reported on a new method: a botnet that uses the Bitcoin blockchain ledger. Since the blockchain is globally accessible and hard to take down, the botnet’s operators appear to be safe.

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2021/03/illegal-content-and-the-blockchain.html

Also

https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-bitcoins-greatest-feature-is-also-its-existential-threat/