Washington’s Weak Excuses For Restraining Israel

 

We are less than a month away from the first anniversary of Hamas’s bloody breach of a cease-fire, which launched war in Gaza. This war should have ended months ago with a decisive win by Israel, and would have done so if not for the interventions of the Biden-Harris administration. By putting all the pressure on Israel to reach a cease-fire on just about any terms, so long as they are acceptable to Hamas, the Democrats have strengthened Hamas’s bargaining position while delaying an end to the conflict.

Representative of the administration’s mindset is the latest apologia for the Biden-Harris regime, written by Thomas Friedman in the New York Times, grandly titled “How Netanyahu Is Trying to Save Himself, Elect Trump, and Defeat Harris.” This hit piece begins by accusing Benjamin Netanyahu of dragging out negotiations with Hamas over the release of the hostages, and purports to hold him accountable for the death of six Israeli hostages (one with dual American citizenship) who were shot in the head by Hamas leaders. Later in his essay, Friedman does briefly refer to the real villain of the situation, Yahya Sinwar, as a “murderous Islamo-Fascist leader” to make the point that it is “also” (along with Netanyahu) in Sinwar’s interest to prolong the war for two ends: first, to create massive strains in the now fragile US-Israel alliance, and second, to provoke internal discord in Israel.

Election and Campaign Fatigue

 

We are fortunate to have some newcomers posting insightful and intriguing posts to balance out the dominance of politics that has taken over most of us in this election cycle. It’s wonderful to read some new “voices” and get a mix of perspectives.

I am fortunate to have loyal followers and I deeply appreciate them. But how many times can those of us who compose posts write about Kamala or Walz or Trump or Vance? How many different ways can we write about the border or the economy or Marxism or lies or the media (but I repeat myself)?

What Maria Theresa Taught Me About Ruling

 

In the Shadow of the Empress is a long Kindle read that moves from the Austrian queen Maria Theresa’s life to those of her daughters in France and Italy and then back again to royalty’s doings in Austria. Besides some dense historical background up front, the story is immersive and turns these figures from the past into warm human beings. So I’m glad I soldiered through and learned what it took to be in charge back in the 1700s.

1. It’s possible to take your job seriously as a monarch. Somewhere, I got the impression that monarchs pretty much hung out in the castle, used up the national treasure on exquisite objects, languished as sickly heirs, did cruel stuff, contracted syphilis, went insane, beheaded people on trumped-up charges, and had mistresses. Power and riches just went to their heads. And I wasn’t wrong; all this did happen. However, there was actually important work to be done, and kings and queens undertook these tasks to varying degrees.

Quote of the Day: Robert E. Wood on the Classics

 

One summer a student of mine was working as assistant to a Texas Utility lineman who discovered that he was majoring in philosophy. “Philosophy!” he said. “I love Plato’s Republic!” When asked what else he read in philosophy or even in Plato, he said, “Nothing, just the Republic. Whenever I finish it, I start all over again, rereading and rereading.” The man had discovered a classic, a work that has been reread innumerable times by reflective readers throughout the centuries. As I tell my students, Aristotle gets smarter every time I read his work.

Robert E. Wood in this book, page 181

The five things Trump must do when debating Harris this week, plus three bonus predictions!

Stuck in Marcus Aurelius’s Time

 

You are a mad scientist with a time machine. You learn that a massive thermonuclear war is going to destroy the world in the very near future. What do you do?

In To Turn the Tide, a science fiction novel by S. M. Stirling, you pick a time in the distant past to disappear to, like Roman times. You misappropriate research funds to buy everything you need to be comfortable and to play “Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” in your new home.

As a physicist you know little about the period. You need translators and subject matter experts. Since you are in Vienna, the best time for you to go back to is Second Century Rome. The Empire is at its apogee, but you will be distressingly close to the Marcomanni War and Galen’s Epidemic.

Propaganda Under a Dictatorship

 

The following is quoted from Chapter 5 of Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited, published in 1958.  The chapter’s title appears above.  It’s the first paragraph of the chapter.  Note that after the introductory sentences, the entire paragraph is Huxley quoting Albert Speer.  We begin:

At his trial after the Second World War, Hitler’s Minister for Armaments, Albert Speer, delivered a long speech in which, with remarkable acuteness, he described the Nazi tyranny and analyzed its methods.  “Hitler’s dictatorship,” he said, “differed in one fundamental point from all its predecessors in history.  It was the first dictatorship in the present period of modern technical development, a dictatorship which made complete use of all technical means for the domination of its own country.  Through technical devices like the radio and the loudspeaker, eighty million people were deprived of independent thought.  It was thereby possible to subject them to the will of one man. . . . Earlier dictators needed highly qualified assistants even at the lowest level – men who could think and act independently.  The totalitarian system in the period of modern technical development can dispense with such men; thanks to modern methods of communication, it is possible to mechanize the lower leadership.  As a result of this there has arisen the new type of the uncritical recipient of orders.”

Call Them on Their Lies

 

The repeated lies by the legacy media in defending Kamala Harris range from annoying to outrageous. They will do almost anything to support her and her supposed positions (which mainly are copied from Donald Trump).

As Eddie Scarry points out in an insightful The Federalist article, Republicans need to engage with these interviewers in a whole new way. He suggests two strategies for calling out Kamala’s defenders:

Quote of the Day – Results

 

This outfit has been getting a lot of publicity without having really accomplished a hell of a lot in bombing results.
– Curtis LeMay to his public relations officer before committing the XXI Bomber Command to a low-level nighttime fire raid against Tokyo.

NASA needs a Curtis LeMay. Especially after the Spaceliner kerfuffle.

Visit our website: https://arkmedia.org/
This conversation on YouTube: https://youtu.be/O7F7Pq-XI40

Show Notes:

What Does Success Consist Of?

 

Frodo: I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.

Gandalf: …Bilbo was meant to find the ring. In which case, you were also meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought.

Saturday Night Classics: “Red Hot” by Billy Lee Riley and the Little Green Men

 

From Sam Phillips and the Wizards at Memphis’ Sun Studios in January of 1957, Billy Lee and his Little Green Men make you wish you had what he has, ‘cause his dame has gams up to here, lips like cherry wine and all dat. A real looker. A little dangerous. And while you think your purty gal is somethin’. Billy Lee scoffs and guffaws.

Nah, he won and you lost. Enjoy your little date at the malt shop. Billy Lee and his girl are gonna paint the town red. And some of that red just might be blood. Envy much?

In defence of Sir Winston Churchill

 

I am a citizen of Great Britain.

I listened to a podcast in which Darryl Cooper Esq. made several claims. The primary Cooper Esq. thesis is Sir Winston Churchill is not a saint (true) but the person who turned WW2 into something else. In essence, Mr. Cooper Esq. states Sir Winston Churchill drove the war into a longer and even more painful event.

Reagan

 

We have just seen the movie Reagan and I hope to set down a few brief thoughts about this powerful experience. For that is what it was, and a wonderful opportunity to remember the life and painful end of one of my small handful of life icons. First and foremost, I simply cannot urge too strongly that everyone who can get to this movie. Please do so as soon as possible. This message is especially aimed at those of us who are reaching up into the stratospheric levels of the aging process.

Jon Voigt should get the Best Supporting Actor award for his portrayal of a close advisor to several party secretaries of the USSR, ending with his time in the service of Mikhail Gorbachev. His role served as a narration vehicle for many of the critical moments that Reagan played such a prominent role in, especially the meeting in Reykavik in which Gorbachev demanded that Reagan abandon the “Star Wars” Defense System and Reagan’s response was a simple “Nyet!”

The entire production was la superbly produced return in time, showing some of the background leading up to events and moments many of us in the aforesaid age category have both read about and lived through. Although it should be no surprise to anyone, the moment in the Berlin Wall speech—surely one of the great speeches in the entire history of oratory—in which the president called on Gorbachev to “tear down this wall,” may have been the crowning highlight of the movie.

Quote of the Day: The Soul that Celebrates, Sings

 

In Judaism joy is the supreme religious emotion. Here we are, in a world filled with beauty. Every breath we breathe is the spirit of G-d within us. Around us is the love that moves the sun and all the stars. We are here because someone wanted us to be. The soul that celebrates, sings.  ––Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

At a time when we’ve seen the corruption of the word “joy” by the Democrat candidate for President, Judaism always invites its members to fully experience its qualities. It can’t be manufactured, or contrived; it doesn’t have to dominate one’s reality or everyday life.

Should I Go?

 

There is an event planned for Washington, DC on September 29, 2024. It is a rally to Rescue the Republic. I listened to Bret Weinstein on Joe Rogan’s podcast make a pitch for the rally. I agree with his point: It is critical that the powers that be see the strength of their opposition to the direction of the country; that it will likely take several hundred thousands showing up to do that. The “silent majority” rhetoric will not cut it. There are already plans in place to diminish the size of any organic expression in the polling booth. Only a visible act of strength will do two things: (1) give a tangible voice for a new direction, and (2) make a “steal” in November more evident were it to occur — and thus rob of powers that be of even marginally credible claims of popular support.

As listed on its website, Rescue the Republic has an 8-point message that I believe is broadly supported in the country and, if not, we are no longer the country we thought we lived in:

Hold this episode up to your face. Now point at it and smile. You, too, can be a pitchman.

What Does Tree Worship Have to Do with Injustice?

 

… you shall appoint judges and officials throughout your tribes to administer true justice for the people. You must not distort justice: you shall not show partiality; you shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes even of the wise and twists the words even of the just. Justice, justice alone shall you pursue … You shall not plant an asherah or any kind of tree next to the altar of the LORD, your God, which you will build.

An obvious question, of course, is about the proximity of these verses: what does the tree have to do with perverted justice? Why is a tree antithetical to justice and impartiality?

Air Force Flight Attendant

 

I was surfing YouTube, and I ran across an Air Force Senior Airman (E-4) who relates his journey in changing careers in the Air Force from an office job, to getting a flying job.  There were two choices available to him at the time, loadmaster and flight attendant.  Flight attendant came up first.  When he made this career change, he already had six years in the Air Force, and he wanted to stay in.  He hated his job, so he changed specialties.

If you search in YouTube or Google, you’ll find his vlog easily enough.  There aren’t a lot of videos on that subject.

H.R. McMaster on Why the Trump Administration Was “At War with Ourselves”

 

General (ret.) H.R. McMaster, the Fouad and Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, returns to Uncommon Knowledge to discuss his latest book, At War with Ourselves, in which he candidly recounts his experiences as former national security advisor to President Donald Trump from 2017 to 2018. In this wide-ranging interview, McMaster delves into the complexities and challenges he faced while serving in the administration and describes his role in providing the president with multiple options and safeguarding his independence of judgment, partially by drawing on the Stoic philosophy of Epictetus to “play well the role assigned to you.” He reflects on the internal tensions and conflicts within the White House, often exacerbated by differing agendas among staff and cabinet members. McMaster also discusses the difficulties in maintaining a productive relationship with President Trump, especially when offering candid advice that sometimes led to alienation. The conversation is a revealing look into McMaster’s often tumultuous experiences in the Trump White House but also emphasizes the importance of a well-structured decision-making process in the realm of national security. Recorded on July 10, 2024.

They say Labor Day marks the ordinary American’s starting point for following a particular election cycle, setting off a scramble for undecides by campaigners and a busy couple of months for pollsters. Henry Olsen returns to discuss where things stand in the presidential race as we head toward the first debate; he offers some potential outcomes that will determine the extent of the Republican majority in the Senate; and he expands on his piece about the populist parties’ successes in eastern Germany, explaining “Ostalgie,” and detailing the adjustments mainstream parties will have to make if they want to maintain stability in the West.

Plus, James and Charlie are emphatically pro-Churchill.

Censorship from the Democrats tells you all you need to know.

 

Just a quick thought – inspired by a comment from @WBob on another thread (Bob, if I misrepresent your comment, please correct me – I can’t find it right now…).  In a recent post, I commented on Facebook censoring the adjacent picture, labeling it as “Violent and graphic.”  Bob commented on another thread of the tendency of Democrats to censor alternative viewpoints, rather than debating them.  

But that made me wonder, how would Democrats debate a patriotic image?

They can’t.  And they know it.  Which is just another example of one of my long-held opinions:  Censorship is for those who KNOW they’re wrong.  If you suspect that you might be wrong, you argue and debate.  But if you KNOW you’re wrong, you censor.  You know that your views are wrong, or evil, or destructive, or whatever.  They’re indefensible.  So you don’t defend them.  At that point, all you can do is prevent any alternative viewpoints from being expressed.  And accuse those who don’t go along as being racist, or being climate deniers, or whatever.  If you know you’re wrong, there’s nothing else you can do.

Ambivalence About Governance

 

Does the Torah really want us to have a monarchy? After all, the text is ambivalent:

If, after you have entered the land that the LORD your God has assigned to you, and taken possession of it and settled in it, you decide, “I will set a king over me, as do all the nations about me,” you shall be free to set a king over yourself.

The biggest story this week are “The Big Lies” the media are telling in order to protect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz against their absolute weakest issue: the immigration crisis that was specifically engineered by the Biden-Harris Administration.

Also this week: