#trump visits saudi arabia

[reality-detective]

* * * Las Vegas Shooting * * *

Part 2

What else was going on during the LAS VEGAS SHOOTING that they didn’t want us to know about?

There were two things/motives going on with this FALSE FLAG…possibly more.

Let’s talk about the first one. 👇

Let’s take a look at this VERY IMPORTANT Q drop.

We have talked about many of these elements… pointed out by Q…in reference to the Las Vegas shooting.

The other elements will be discussed as we dig further.

☝️That Q drop (#92) was dropped on NOVEMBER 5th!!

In the movie “Back to The Future”…the professor and Marty proclaimed “TIME TRAVEL was discovered on NOVEMBER 5th!”

One backstory to this presentation… May 30th, 2022 presentation titled “Capitulation/Trump’s World Tour.” This becomes relevant to the Las Vegas Shooting!

the Patriot Act several times now, and how that act, which was signed by President George W. Bush after 9/11…gave our government, the NSA, and the intelligence agencies the ability to spy on us Americans.

When Trump came into office, he was able to use the Patriot Act in his favor.

He was able to connect all the dots with the cabal… who was connected to who…who was funding who, etc.

TRUMP “HAD IT ALL!”

Trump knew about the Saudis' role in the plot on 9/11, their massive amounts of funding to the Cabal (including to the Clintons and the DNC), and the child trafficking.

Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, one of the biggest contributors to the Clintons and the DNC, not only owned the Four Seasons, but also was a large shareholder of Twitter, Apple, and Citigroup.

He was also not a fan of Donald Trump. They routinely got into it on twitter, such as the exchange below. 👇

After Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia and his infamous sword dance ceremony in May, 2017, there was a power change in Saudi Arabia.

King Salman was now at the helm with his son Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Bin Salman would go on to help Trump and the White Hats bring down Twitter, Google, and Facebook.

Those stories are also in the “Capitulation/Trump’s World Tour” presentations from May 30/31st, 2022.

The May 2017 meeting between Trump and King Salman (and his son Mohammad), was not just another meeting. It was a business meeting.

Trump was more than willing to help Saudi Arabia’s decline in oil profits due to the boom in fracking. He allowed them to be listed on the New York stock exchange.

In return, he got the Saudis to make significant changes, such as liberating women, the end of illegal funding, no more contributions to American politics, no more supplying funds to terrorists or splinter groups, and of course to put an end to the child trafficking.

If they didn’t take the deal Trump threatened to declass everything he had on them from the NSA. King Salman took the deal. All of a sudden, women were allowed to drive, ISIS was retreating, and Syrian rebels suddenly ran out of ammunition.

Although King Salman cooperated…not all the royalties in Saudi Arabia were happy…especially those who were losing the power they once had.

They also didn’t want to become liberal.

Many came to resent King Salman, and started to plot against him, his son Crown Prince bin Salman, and President Trump.

At the forefront of this anti Trump/anti King Salman movement was Ahlaweed bin Talal, and the previous Deputy Crown Prince, Muqrin, and his son, Mansour.

DONALD TRUMP and the Saudi Crown Prince MOHAMMED bin SALMAN were meeting secretly in Vegas to discuss the impeding arrest of the Saudi Prince's.

The Las Vegas Shooting was an Assassination Attempt against Donald Trump and The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia…by Mossad, ISIS, The FBI, Australia, and possibly UK Spooks or intelligence operators.

DIVERSION

LAS VEGAS SHOOTING

The shooting out of Paddock’s window was supposed to be a diversion. There would have been a lot of gun shooting noises during the assasination attempt, so the attack on the crowd was to cover-up the gun fire that would have ensued.

The real shooting took place from black helicopters and men on the ground, with very little coming from Paddock’s room.

Remember the real story…Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the attempt on his life.

Steven Paddock was a C*I*A pilot who smuggled guns and children for the Saudis. His role at the Las Vegas shooting was the diversion tactic for the hit teams.

Eventually Trump and his team got wind of the assassination plot against them.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman was secretly ushered out of the building, and rescued by a helicopter that came in and rescued him.

Trump and bin Salman’s security detail also created a diversion story saying that Bin Salman was over playing cards at the Tropicana Hotel.

There are pictures of bin Salman leaving the entrance to the Tropicana…but it turns out that was just a decoy and a ruse in order to get bin Salman out of the Mandalay Bay hotel, which they did successfully.

The black helicopters belonged to the Mossad (Israeli Intelligence)…who fired machine guns at the crowd and at Bin Salman’s rescue effort.

This is the reason they turned off their transponders, to cover-up their role in the shooting.

How did TRUMP know Bin Salman was going to get assassinated?

What if Q drop 92…which gave us all the Las Vegas shooting hints…was purposely dropped on November 5th, because…according to the movie “Back to The Future” November 5th was the day time travel was invented?

Was time travel involved in the Las Vegas shooting?

I have mentioned that Donald Trump could be a time traveler!

On October 5th, 2017…just four days after the Las Vegas shooting...Chief-of-staff John Kelly summoned:

the Joint Chiefs of Staff,

NSA boss Mike Rogers,

Pacific Commander-In-Chief Harry Harris,

and combatant commanders to the White House.

This was to bring all hands on deck to back Trump against the deep state, and the cabal.

Continued in Part 3

All links connected 👇

[kp777]

By Thom Hartmann

Common Dreams

March 31, 2023

The Republican Party's most dangerous grift today has been their embrace of the lie that America is not a democracy but instead is a theocratic republic that should be ruled exclusively by armed Christian white men. It's leading us straight into the jaws of fascism.

Nobody ever accused Republicans of not knowing how to make a buck or BS-ing somebody into voting for them. Lying to people for economic or political gain is the very definition of a grift.

Whenever there’s another mass- or school-shooting, Republican politicians hustle out fundraising emails about how “Democrats are coming to take your guns!” The result is a measurable and profitable spike in gun sales after every new slaughter of our families and children, followed by a fresh burst of campaign cash to GOP lawmakers.

But the GOP’s ability to exploit any opportunity that comes along — regardless of its impact on America or American citizens — goes way beyond just fundraising hustles.

When Jared Kushner was underwater and nearly bankrupt because he overpaid for 666 Fifth Avenue and needed a billion-dollar bailout to cover his mortgage, his buddies in the Middle East (Saudi Arabia and the UAE) blockaded American ally (and host to the Fifth Fleet) Qatar until that country relented and laundered the money to Jared through a Canadian investment company.

Just this week, after Trump deregulated toxic trains leading to a horrible crash and the contamination of East Palestine, Ohio, Steve Bannon — already charged with multiple fraud-related crimes and then pardoned by Trump — showed up this week to hustle $300+ water filters to the people of that town.

The grift is at the core of the GOP’s existence, and has been since Nixon blew up LBJ’s peace talks with the Vietnamese in 1968 and then took cash bribes from the Milk Lobby and Jimmy Hoffa in the White House while having his mafia-connected “plumbers” wiretap the DNC’s offices at the Watergate.

— Republicans successfully fought the ability of Medicare to negotiate drug prices for decades; in turn, Big Pharma pours millions into their campaign coffers and personal pockets (legalized by 5 Republicans on the Supreme Court).

— Republicans beat back Democratic efforts to stop insurance giants from ripping off seniors and our government with George W. Bush’s Medicare Advantage privatization scam; in turn, the insurance companies rain cash on them like an Indian monsoon.

— Republicans oppose any effort to replace fossil fuels with green energy sources that don’t destroy our environment; in turn, the fossil fuel industry jacked up the price of gasoline into the stratosphere just in time for the 2022 election (and you can expect them to try it again in 2024).

— Republicans stopped enforcement of a century’s worth of anti-trust laws in 1983, wiping out America’s small businesses and turning rural city centers into ghost towns while pushing profits and prices through the ceiling; in turn massive corporate PACs fund ads supporting Republican candidates every election cycle.

— Republicans authored legislation letting billionaires own thousands of newspapers, radio stations, and TV outlets; in turn the vast majority of those papers (now half of all local papers are owned by a handful of rightwing New York hedge funds) and stations all run daily news and editorials attacking Democrats and supporting the GOP.

— Republicans Trump and Pai killed net neutrality so giant tech companies can legally spy on you and me, recording every website we visit and selling that information for billions; in turn, major social media sites amplify rightwing voices while giant search engines stopped spidering progressive news sites.

Newspeak — George Orwell’s term for the grift where politicians use fancy phrases that mean the opposite of what people think they mean — has been the GOP’s go-to strategy for a half-century.

Richard Nixon, for example, promised to crack down on drugs, but instead used that as an excuse to crack down on anti-war liberals and Black people. Instead of an economic grift, it was a political grift.

As Nixon‘s right hand man, John Ehrlichman, told reporter Dan Baum:

“You want to know what this was really all about? The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and Black people. Do you understand what I’m saying? “We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or Black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and Blacks with heroin and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. “We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. “Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.“

The grift is a recurrent theme through Republican presidencies in the modern era.

Ronald Reagan told us if we just destroyed America’s unions and moved our manufacturing to China and Mexico, great job opportunities would fill the nation.

He followed that up by promising if we just cut taxes on the morbidly rich, prosperity would trickle-down to the rest of us.

Reagan even assured us that raising the Social Security retirement age to 67 and taxing Social Security benefits would mean seniors could retire with greater ease.

All, of course, were grifter’s lies. Republican presidents since Reagan have continued the tradition.

George W. Bush called his program to make it easier to clear-cut America’s forests and rip roads through wilderness areas the “Healthy Forests Initiative.”

His program to legalize more pollution from coal-fired power plants and immunize them from community lawsuits (leading to tens of thousands of additional lung- and heart-disease deaths in the years since) was named the “Clean Air Act.”

Bush’s scam to “strengthen” Medicare — “Medicare Advantage” — was a thinly disguised plan to privatize that program that is today draining Medicare’s coffers while making insurance executives richer than Midas.

Donald Trump told Americans he had the coronavirus pandemic under control while he was actually making the situation far worse: America had more deaths per capita from the disease than any other developed country in the world, with The Lancet estimating a half-million Americans died needlessly because of Trump’s grift.

Jared and Ivanka cashed in on their time in the White House to the tune of billions, while Trump squeezed hundreds of millions out of foreign governments, encouraging them to illegally pay him through rentals in his properties around the world.

Other Trump grifts — most leading to grateful industries or billionaires helping him and the GOP out — included:

— Making workplaces less safe — Boosting religious schools at the expense of public schools — Cutting relief for students defrauded by student loan sharks — Shrinking the safety net by cutting $60 billion out of food stamps — Forcing workers to put in overtime without getting paid extra for it — Pouring more pollution from fossil fuels into our fragile atmosphere — Gutting the EPA’s science operation — Rescinding rules that protected workers at federal contract sites — Dialing back car air pollution emissions standards — Reducing legal immigration of skilled workers into the US from “shithole countries” — Blocking regulation of toxic chemicals — Rolling back rules on banks, setting up the crisis of 2023 — Defenestrating rules against racially segregated housing

While Nixon was simply corrupt — a crook, to use his own term — in 1978 when five Republicans on the Supreme Court signed off on the Bellotti decision authored by Lewis Powell himself, giving corporations the legal right to bribe American politicians, the GOP went all in.

Ever since then, the GOP has purely been the party of billionaires and giant corporations, although their most successful political grift has been to throw an occasional bone to racists, gun-nuts, fascists, homophobes, and woman-haters to get votes.

Democrats at that time were largely funded by the unions, so it wasn’t until the 1990s, after Reagan had destroyed about half of America’s union jobs and gutted the unions’ ability to fund campaigns, that the Democratic Party under Bill Clinton was forced to make a big turn toward taking corporate cash.

Since Barack Obama showed how online fundraising could replace corporate cash, however, about half of the nation’s Democratic politicians have aligned with the Progressive Caucus and eschewed corporate money, returning much of the Party to its FDR and Great Society base.

The GOP, in contrast, has never wavered from lapping up corporate money in exchange for tax cuts, deregulation, and corporate socialism.

Their most dangerous grift today, though, has been their embrace of the lie that America is not a democracy but instead is a theocratic republic that should be ruled exclusively by armed Christian white men. It’s leading us straight into the jaws of fascism.

Bannon’s grift in East Palestine is the smallest of the small, after his being busted for a multi-million-dollar fraud in the “Build the Wall” scheme and others, but is still emblematic of the Republican strategy at governance.

When all you have to offer the people is a hustle, then at the very least, Republicans figure, you should be able to make a buck or gain/keep political power while doing it.

[reasonandempathy]

Why is the American Left so Anti-Saudia but they say nothing about Iran?

I always found it weird how much the Left seems to dislike Saudi Arabia and highlight its human rights abuses and why the alliance is against American national interest. This is far back as Michael Moore’s documentary Fahreneit 9/11, Vox who did a special on weapons sales to Saudis, Morning Joe which kept calling MBS a butcher, The View after Biden’s visit and Krystal Ball on Breaking Points.

Interestingly these same people always go at pains to say why US should seek peace with Iran and how the government does not represent the American people. When Trump was sabre rattling Iran they said he’d start WW3. It took until the hijab protest angle for them to cover Iran critically. Even Egypt who is an American vassal under El-Sisi gets criticised all the time including by Vox/MSNBC but when the Muslim Brotherhood got in power after the Arab Spring, which is against all sorts of progressive causes, they were never really criticised.

I always get frustrated by how people throw everything to the Left of Trump as "the Left".

Joe Scarborough is nobody's Leftist. He was a far-right wing congressman from Florida in the 90s and voted to impeach Clinton in 98. MSNBC has routinely fired left-wing and Muslim dissenters to the Mainstream Washington politics (which is center-right), and to this day is filled with center and right-wing talking points. You think the Left would have Raytheon War Privateers talking up Israel in itss slow-rolling genocide without criticism?

That being said, I would significantly advise OP read a book, or talk to a leftist. Preferably in real life. The concept of "The Left doesn't criticize Iran or Muslim Brotherhood" is somewhat divorced from the broader reality and context. Saudi Arabia and Egypt are American allies and their actions are things that the US Government directly or indirectly supports.

Saudi Arabia is a US ally, so the left is critical of that close relationship and the supplying of arms such as fighter jets to such a brutal regime (currently engaged in a devastating war in Yemen using American weapons). In contrast, the US has huge tensions with Iran, so the call from the left is "do not escalate this to war." In both instances the intent is the same: to reduce the threat of war.

Try to say what you're saying directly and in descriptive language and it falls apart at face value.

"The left-wing has no criticism of anti-democratic Theocratic states." Center-left criticism of the Muslim Brotherhood has been around for a long, long time. It's easily google-able.

Or how about: "Why does the Left criticize an American vassal state with a puppet in charge?"

Bringing up the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt just speaks to how little attention you pay to the Country. The Muslim Brotherhood hasn't been in power there since 2013 when a military junta took over and threw thousands of them in jail.

[mariacallous]

The old man standing beside the prime minister on Wednesday, who spoke with pain and emotion about what happened in Israel on Saturday the 7th, was until 13 days ago one of the main targets of the rightist, Bibi-ist poison machine.

Ministers and lawmakers of the ruling party urged him to mind his own business, not to interfere with our lives and to respect our democracy.

Right-wing media personalities mocked his advanced age and moments of confusion. They rebuked him for not meeting the prime minister sooner. They reminded him that Israel wasn’t a banana republic and we have no need for his repeated preaching of “shared values.”

They received these messages directly from the most senior rank in Israel. The sentiment in the Prime Minister’s Office was this: Let’s hang in there until November 24, our dear brother Donald Trump will return and then we’ll be free.

Israel, as a nation, has much to be ashamed of this cursed year. The campaign against U.S. President Joe Biden is at the top of the list of shame. If he had been made of the same stuff as the vengeful, infantile Trump, who never forgave anyone for slighting him, he wouldn’t have rallied to our side in a way that was no less than historic. Nor would there have been a visit here. It’s extremely doubtful we would have seen the defense aid now being funneled to us in such quantity and quality. They don’t make friends of Israel like this anymore.

It’s not easy for a person who will turn 81 in a month’s time to fly to a place with a seven-hour time difference, open an intensive, exhausting schedule of discussions and meetings and then board the plane back to Washington again. He didn’t have to do it. His secretary of state spends many days here, the secretary of defense was here. He could have sent his vice president, Kamala Harris. She is also a staunch friend of Israel, and she was also subject to the inevitable shower of abuse (in the context of the judicial overhaul) from the cartoon foreign minister, Eli Cohen.

Biden came to Israel, a state at war, to express his love and commitment to the Jewish state, and also to warn enemies like Iran and Hezbollah not to join the war. So far he has done everything he could humanly do to strengthen Israel, from the aspects of security, strategy and leadership. Granted, it doesn’t harm his election campaign – quite the opposite. A survey released in the United States on Wednesday shows that for the first time in a long while, he is rising in the polls in contrast to Trump. His team, headed by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, is running the crisis in a much colder fashion than Biden’s emotionalism. For them this is an opportunity to prove to the Middle East – especially to Saudi Arabia – what a superpower looks like when it comes to the help of an ally in danger.

His and Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s involvement in the war cabinet discussions is unprecedented, like everything that is happening now. At this point, they’re more updated than the defense cabinet ministers in all the security details regarding Gaza and the northern border, should it conflagrate.

In the short term, this will help Israel prevent opening a northern front. In the long run, it could be a strategic problem. But sometimes what strengthens the United States could weaken Israel. The Abraham Accords, like the deal being formed with Saudi Arabia, which is now suspended, were based on the Sunni states’ recognition that Israel is the strongest state in the region. But when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls his parents when he’s beaten up at school, and they rush in to help, Israel looks weak.

Besides, Biden doesn’t trust Netanyahu and his cabinet, whose extreme members constitute a clear danger to the state’s – and region’s – security. The prime minister has proved in the nine months between January 4 and October 7 that he needs close supervision.

At countless crossroads, he acted irrationally and consistently ignored the warning signals raised in front of him. Again and again, he violated his commitment to the president to legislate in agreement with the opposition. He infuriated the Americans so many times that they find it difficult to believe he’s changed.

He hasn’t, and he won’t. So beside the huge carrots being granted to Israel, there’s also a big stick hovering above.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Donald Trump made up to $160 million from international business dealings while he was serving as President of the United States, according to an analysis of his tax returns by CREW.

Throughout his time in office, President Trump, his family and his Republican allies repeatedly assured the public that his refusal to divest from his businesses wouldn’t lead to any conflicts of interest. Americans were promised that Trump would donate his salary, which he did, until maybe he didn’t—all while siphoning millions from taxpayers that more than offset his presidential pay. When it came to foreign conflicts of interest, Trump and his company pledged to pause foreign business. They did not.

Trump pulled in the most money from the United Kingdom, where his Aberdeen and Turnberry golf courses in Scotland helped him gross $58 million. Trump’s now-defunct hotel and tower in Vancouver helped him pull in $36.5 million from Canada. Trump brought in more than $24.4 million from Ireland, home to his often-visited Doonbeg golf course, as well as $9.6 million from India, and nearly $9.7 million from Indonesia.

Trump’s presidency was marred by unprecedented conflicts of interest arising from his decision not to divest from the Trump Organization, with his most egregious conflicts involving businesses in foreign countries with interests in US foreign policy.

The full extent to which Trump’s foreign business ties influenced his decision making as President may never be known, but there is plenty of evidence that Trump’s actions in the White House were influenced–if not guided–by his financial interests, subverting the national interests for his own parochial concerns. For example, while campaigning in 2015, Trump bragged to a crowd in Alabama about his longstanding business ties with the Saudis. “They buy apartments from me. They spend $40 million, $50 million,” he told the crowd. “Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much.” In office, Trump continued to benefit from Saudi business and faced repeated criticism, especially in the wake of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, for his apparent desire to shield Saudi leaders from criticism, going so far as to question US intelligence while parroting allegations from Saudi Arabia that Khashoggi was tied to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Other instances of Trump’s business interests bleeding into his administration’s foreign policy abound. In 2019, Trump stunned the US foreign policy establishment by pulling US troops out of northeast Syria. The decision had no obvious benefits to the US and was a bombshell reversal to allied Kurds, but it was a victory for Turkey, where Trump had done business for years. In China, Trump again shocked even his GOP allies when he pledged to help sanctioned Chinese company ZTE because, as he tweeted, there were “[t]oo many jobs in China lost,” despite warnings from US intelligence officials that the company’s products may be used by the Chinese government to spy on Americans. When Trump’s tax returns were released more than four years later, they showed a Chinese bank account he claimed to have closed in 2015 and, according to CREW’s analysis, more than $7.5 million in income from China. In Argentina, Trump held off on enacting tariffs until after trademarks for his company had been approved.

Trump also used the US foreign policy apparatus to direct business to his properties. For example, Trump’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom reportedly told embassy staff that Trump pushed him to get the British Open to be held at one of his Scottish golf resorts. During a trip to Europe, Trump insisted on staying at his remote Irish resort in Doonbeg, claiming it was “convenient,” while the Trump Organization promoted his visit. Trump also reportedly pressured the Irish prime minister to meet him at Doonbeg, and threatened to move his visit to Scotland instead if he didn’t.

Despite a near constant stream of reporting about corruption involving Trump’s business at home and abroad, Trump and his family have spent years swearing they put a hold on all foreign deals and that the presidency was without conflicts of interest. After his election Trump proclaimed, “The law’s totally on my side, meaning, the president can’t have a conflict of interest.” Eric and Don Jr. echoed that sentiment. In a June 2017 interview on Good Morning America, Eric proclaimed that he and his father didn’t talk about business at all and that Trump has “zero conflicts of interest.” In October 2019 Eric said on Fox News, “when my father became commander in chief of this country, we got out of all international business.”

The Trumps did not put a hold on foreign business. In fact, they even signed new deals. Barely two weeks after Eric Trump claimed the Trump Organization put foreign business on hold, the Trump Organization trumpeted approval to build “a new ballroom, pool, spa, leisure facilities, 235 additional resort rooms, gate house and much more” at the Doonbeg golf course in Ireland. A local council in Scotland also voted to allow the Trump Organization to expand its Aberdeen golf course by building 550 homes and a second golf course. Eric Trump celebrated this “new phase of development” on Twitter. At the same time, Eric was bashing Hunter Biden on Fox News for “cashing in” while his father was Vice President.

The Trumps took advantage of the presidency to revive dormant old deals as well, revisiting projects in countries like India, Uruguay, the Dominican Republic, and more during the administration.

The Trumps were openly engaging in multiple international business deals and let the world know that they hoped to continue expanding internationally after Trump left office. According to the Wall Street Journal, Eric Trump predicted that after Trump leaves office, the “Trump Organization will launch a major expansion that will in part focus on luxury hotels abroad.” Don Jr. was even more specific, telling an Indian newspaper, “India is a market that we would be very interested [in] post politics,” along with “other markets.”

It’s no secret that Trump was struggling financially before he announced his run for office. His tax returns show that the presidency was great for his bank account. Congressional Republicans may have halted their inquiry into Trump’s finances, but there is still much to discover about the extent to which he truly abused the presidency for his own personal profit.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Dave Whamond :: @DaveWhamond

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

January 28, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

JAN 29, 2024

Today—last night U.S. time—three military personnel were killed and 34 more wounded in a drone attack on the living quarters at a U.S. base in Jordan, near the Iraq-Syria border. U.S. troops are stationed there to enable them to cross into Syria to help fight the Islamic State. There have been almost-daily drone and missile strikes on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria since the October 7 attack on Israel by Iran-backed Hamas. The U.S. has blamed Iran-backed militant groups for the attack, and while no one has officially claimed responsibility yet, three officials from such groups have said an Iran-backed militia in Iraq is responsible. 

President Joe Biden today called the act “despicable and wholly unjust,” and he praised the servicemembers, who he said “embodied the very best of our nation: Unwavering in their bravery. Unflinching in their duty. Unbending in their commitment to our country—risking their own safety for the safety of their fellow Americans, and our allies and partners with whom we stand in the fight against terrorism.”

“And have no doubt,” he said, “we will hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner [of] our choosing.”

Republican war hawks have called for retaliation that includes “striking directly against Iranian targets and its leadership,” as Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) said, or by “Target[ing] Tehran,” as Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) said. Republicans are blaming Biden for failing to “isolate the regime in [Iran], defeat Hamas, & support our strategic partners,” as Representative Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) wrote on X, formerly Twitter, today. 

But there is, of course, a larger story here. The Biden administration has been very clear both about the right of nations to retaliate for attacks and about its determination to stop the war between Hamas and Israel from spreading. 

Iran would like that war to spread. It is eager to stop the normalization of relations between Arab states and Israel, and is backing Hamas in Gaza, the Houthis in Yemen, and Hezbollah in Lebanon—all nonstate militias—to try to stop that normalization.  

They are trying to stop what Patrick Kingsley and Edward Wong outlined in the New York Times yesterday: a new deal in the Middle East that would end the war between Hamas and Israel and establish a Palestinian state. The constant round of phone calls and visits of Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken with at least ten different countries is designed to hammer out deals on a number of fronts. 

The first is for a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel, which would require the exchange of more than 100 Israeli hostages taken on October 7 for thousands of Palestinians held by the Israelis. The second is for a new, nonpartisan Palestinian Authority to take control of Gaza and the West Bank. The third is for international recognition of a Palestinian state, which would be eased by Saudi Arabia’s recognition of Israel. If that recognition occurs, Arab states have pledged significant funds to rebuild Gaza. 

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has rejected this proposal, but his popularity is so low people are talking openly about who can replace him. Hamas and Iran also reject this proposal, which promises to isolate Iran and the militias from stable states in the Middle East.   

Behind this story is an even larger geopolitical story involving Iran’s ally Russia. As Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg retorted when Senator Wicker called on Biden to respond to the attack that killed three Americans “swiftly and decisively for the whole world to see”: “Wasn’t funding Ukraine and Israel the first, critical step in deterring Iran? We are in this place now due to the Russian fifth columnists in the Republican Party including Trump who slavishly do Putin’s bidding.”  

Rosenberg was referring to the fact that Iran is allied with Russia, and Russia is desperate to stop the United States from supporting Ukraine. Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, apparently thought his February 2022 invasion of Ukraine would establish control of the eastern parts of that country in a matter of days. Instead, the invasion has turned into an expensive and destabilizing two-year war that has badly weakened Russia and that threatens to stretch on.

In the United States, today marks the 100th day that extremist Republicans have refused to provide supplemental funding for Ukraine or Israel arguing that funding to protect the U.S. border must be addressed first. On October 20, 2023, as David Frum pointed out today, Biden asked Congress for “$106 billion to aid Ukraine and Israel against attack by Russia, Iran, and their proxies.” That funding has bipartisan support, but “[f]or 100 days, House Republicans have said NO,” Frum said. “Today, Iranian proxies have killed Americans.”

Republicans’ insistence that they want border funding has proved to be a lie, as Democratic and Republican senators have hammered out a strong agreement that extremist Republicans now reject. Former president Trump has made it clear he wants to run on the idea that the border is overwhelmed, so has demanded his supporters prevent any solution. Today, on the Fox News Channel, when asked why Republicans should let Biden “take a victory lap” with a border deal, Senator James Lankford (R-OK), who has been part of the border deal negotiation team, responded with some heat: 

“Republicans four months ago would not give funding for Ukraine, for Israel, and for our southern border because we demanded changes in policy. So we actually locked arms together and said we’re not going to give you money for this, we want a change in law. And now it’s interesting, a few months later, when we’re finally getting to the end they’re like, ‘Oh, just kidding, I actually don’t want a change in law because [it’s] a presidential election year.’ We all have an oath to the Constitution, and we have a commitment to say we’re going to do whatever we can to be able to secure the border."

MAGA Republicans in charge of the Oklahoma Republican Party showed where Trump Republicans stand when they voted on Saturday to “strongly condemn” Lankford for “playing fast and loose with Democrats on our border policy.” They said “that until Senator Lankford ceases from these actions the Oklahoma Republican Party will cease all support for him.” 

In The Atlantic, Frum noted that “vital aid to Israel and Ukraine must be delayed and put in further doubt because of a rejected president’s spite and his party’s calculation of electoral advantage. The true outcome of the fiasco in Congress will be the collapse of U.S. credibility all over the world. American allies will seek protection from more trustworthy partners, and America itself will be isolated and weakened.”

Rosenberg wrote: “If you are unhappy with Iran today, first thing you should do is come out for funding Ukraine fully. Nothing will embolden Iran more than a Russian victory in Europe.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[progressivepower]

Ex-GOP Rep Recalls Exact Moment He Knew Lindsey Graham Would Sacrifice His Dignity. A royal visit in Saudi Arabia gave former Republican David Jolly a much better understanding of the key Trump ally, he told MSNBC's "The Beat." http://ow.ly/y1fL104MWOT

[alanshemper]

It is easier to attribute disaster to one political party instead of examining networks and recurring figures responsible for a multitude of tragedies over the past twenty-five years.

Jamie Gorelick is one of these figures, a Forrest Gump of 21st century corruption. Like Garland, she is a Democrat who serves GOP objectives, the most notable of which for Garland was working as Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner’s lawyer and getting them the White House clearances that they should have been denied due to conflicts of interest.

As a result of Gorelick’s actions, Kushner gained classified intelligence that he likely shared with or sold to foreign states, including Saudi Arabia, from which he pocketed two billion dollars, and Israel, to which he has been tied since birth due to his family’s long friendship with the Netanyahu family, to the point that Benjamin Netanyahu slept in Jared’s bed when visiting the United States.

[...]

Gorelick described being mentored by Dershowitz, who has been accused of raping children procured by his client Epstein, as “a joy and a thrill” and cites him as a major influence. (Dershowitz denies being a child rapist and said he just liked being massaged in his underwear in Epstein’s home.)

16 Nov 2023

[darkmaga-returns]

Alex De Waal

Oct 20, 2024

Israel is a behind-the-scenes powerbroker in Sudan.

It’s long been clear that the road to peace in Sudan runs through Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — America’s three closest Arab allies. But last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reminded Sudanese that he has a stake in their country too.

Speaking at the UN General Assembly in September, Netanyahu caused a stir among Sudanese when he held up two maps, ‘The Curse’ and ‘The Blessing.’ The first had Israel’s sworn enemies — Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and the Houthis in Yemen—marked in black. The second had its friends in green — among them Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Sudan.

Shortly after that, Israeli journalist Jonathan Lis wrote that Israel was floating a possible deal to end the fighting in Gaza, in which senior Hamas leaders would go into exile in Sudan. Hamas denied it — Yahya Sinwar would rather die in Gaza than flee to safety. Thee Sudanese Armed Forces, or SAF, denied it too. But the fact that Sudan is on Israel’s radar serves brings into focus how Sudan’s war is entangled in the Middle East’s higher-profile conflicts.

In 2020, as part of a deal in which the Trump Administration removed Sudan’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism, Sudan agreed to join the Abraham Accords. General Abdel Fattah al Burhan, head of Sudan’s sovereignty council and de facto head of state, met with Netanyahu in Kampala, Uganda. The breakthrough meeting was hosted by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, but it was brokered by UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed, known as MBZ. Sudan then froze Hamas assets in Sudan.

In the last days of the Trump administration, al-Burhan signed the declarative section of the Abraham Accord, in the presence of then U.S. Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin. Plans for a formal signing with Israel moved slowly, with a timetable reportedly agreed only in February 2023, when Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen visited Khartoum.

[jcmarchi]

UAE blocks US congressional meetings with G42 amid AI transfer concerns

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/uae-blocks-us-congressional-meetings-with-g42-amid-ai-transfer-concerns/

UAE blocks US congressional meetings with G42 amid AI transfer concerns

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There have been reports that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has “suddenly cancelled” the ongoing series of meetings between a group of US congressional staffers and Emirati AI firm G42, after some US lawmakers raised concerns that this practice may lead to the transfer of advanced American AI technology to China.

However, a congressional spokesperson, who provided this information, chose to remain anonymous due to internal committee policy, as reported by Reuters.

The order was given directly by the UAE’s ambassador to the US, who halted the meetings between staffers from the House Select Committee on China and G42, as well as various Emirati government officials. This development only adds fuel to the fire of high tensions surrounding the scrutiny of G42 amid a $1.5 billion agreement with Microsoft. Some US congresspeople are already worried about sensitive technology getting into the hands of a UAE firm that reportedly has Chinese ties.

The committee’s spokesperson expressed increased concerns regarding the G42-Microsoft deal due to the UAE’s unwillingness to engage in talks. “Expect Congress to become more involved in overseeing these negotiations,” the spokesperson said.

The cancelled meetings may signal a diplomatic crisis due to the increased attention of China hawks in Congress. The efforts of these lawmakers to closely scrutinise the G42-Microsoft deal have particularly sparked controversies. Members of Congress are focused on ensuring that sensitive AI developments and products resulting from the agreement will not be diverted by the Emiratis to China.

The State Department gave no comment, whereas G42 directed the media to the Emirati government. The UAE embassy spokesperson announced that the situation resulted from a “miscommunication,” as they were notified of the staff delegation just the day before their planned arrival. The embassy emphasised its regular engagement with committee members and staffers in recent months, asserting that the committee has been kept informed about joint UAE-US efforts to strengthen control over critical advanced technologies.

The congressional staffers had planned these meetings as part of a regional visit from July 16-19. Their agenda included discussions on the transfer of sophisticated chips from companies like Nvidia to the UAE and Saudi Arabia, as well as US-China tech competition.

Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba cited a July 11 letter from committee chairman John Moolenaar to US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan as the reason for the cancellations. This letter, co-signed by House Foreign Affairs chair Michael McCaul, requested a White House intelligence briefing on Microsoft’s investment in G42 before the deal could progress to its second phase, which would involve transferring export-restricted semiconductor chips from Nvidia and sophisticated AI model weights.

The Biden administration has taken a positive view of the G42-Microsoft deal, stating that G42’s severance from China’s Huawei has been a major positive factor for the deal. However, last year, the administration also imposed sweeping curbs on AI chip exports, requiring licenses for shipments under a more restrictive policy than the previous Trump administration. Additionally, the policy of restricting exports to China requires licenses for exports to the UAE and some other Middle Eastern countries.

It is noted that a regional visit by a congressional delegation took place, during which they met with Saudi officials who expressed a desire to alleviate US companies’ concerns about the activities of the Chinese government in Saudi Arabia. Their goal was to obtain permission to import advanced American chips.

The level of interaction between US and other countries’ authorities illustrates the link between technological innovation, international political relationships, and national security issues.

See also: UAE unveils new AI model to rival big tech giants

Want to learn more about AI and big data from industry leaders? Check out AI & Big Data Expo taking place in Amsterdam, California, and London. The comprehensive event is co-located with other leading events including Intelligent Automation Conference, BlockX, Digital Transformation Week, and Cyber Security & Cloud Expo.

Explore other upcoming enterprise technology events and webinars powered by TechForge here.

Tags: artificial intelligence, China, uae, usa

[pscottm]

Trump took money from foreign governments. Will he do it again?

Trump earned up to $160 million in total from businesses in foreign countries while he was in office, according to one recent estimate from the Washington watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). That estimate included income from at least 69 foreign trademarks granted to Trump businesses and 150 foreign officials who visited a Trump business.”

“Millions of those dollars flowed to the Trump Organization from corrupt and authoritarian governments such as China, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, according to a January report from Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability.”

[zooterchet]

Suicide is Painless

Preschool: SKI Sheriffs, through Katie Stevens, childhood girlfriend. The interdiction of international arrests, through the marijuana and arts community. Blocked by Christophe Stevens, theft of mail and data circuits, to defraud collegiates into writing careers. Christophe Stevens, held in national prison, alongside HJ Carver.

Elementary School: German Nationalist, the removal of elders not serving the common poor, their new class of race and proclivity. The trap of the old and poor, to repeat their lives, through children, to bring us a Greatest Generation. Blocked by Alexandra Gaetano, report of her great uncle, Joseph Biden, as under threat, and resulting strip of library and book goods, a Rabbinical shutdown of Hopkinton OSS (Office of Strategic Services).

Highschool: Central Intelligence Agency, a fat pornography actor in love with a cheerleader, seeking to serve in political science unions to prevent George W. Bush from being slandered in the press; despite being a sitting United States President, the founder of the Air National Guard; ground boots experience, at Waco, avenging the Oklahoma City Bombing, with Albert Gore on helicopter overwatch. Blocked by Jenna Williamson, through the Mossad, arrest on grounds of anti-Semitism; mocking King George, and Adolf Hitler, through class elections saluting George Washington and George Soros, two Gypsy Irish.

UMass-Amherst: Exxon-Mobil, as a Sonatech employee out of Dupont Petrochemical, real representative family member, Sarah Dupont, on campus to clear recruitment. The colonization of the Middle East, Israel, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, for future trade between Arabs and Muslims, and Jews and Catholics, with Calvinist Protestant axis strategem as center of program. Blocked by Matthew Lennox, seeking to become a Rabbi, necessitating gay sex and theft of job, to prove loyalty to MI-6.

Bridgewater Triangle: Professional MUSHer, at print of materials through MUD, MUSH, MUX, and MUCK, with cybersex and prostitutes and drug dealing; the life of a diletente in poverty, like any American under the Obama years, loading a truck and working on hard pavement, in factories and warehouses and hospital programs, buying grass and drinking beer; the hardest times in Massachusetts history, the height of the gay rights and pink pride movement, funded by Boston mobsters out of Friends Stand United. Blocked by Michael Charlebois, own father, horrified at the prospect of son visiting a Japanese dominatrix and marrying into the Japanese Imperial Family, as a hidden Noble, through grandmother, Georgette Charlebois, a Mussolinist operative out of Providence, Rhode Island.

Southern New Hampshire University: Alterna Comics, a freelance writer's career out of Boston under Charlie Baker, the new hope for the state of Massachusetts; away from nicotine bans, marijuana busts, and prostitute's sanctions, an internet led by physical obstrusive laws of location being origin of violation, without Germans or unions interfering with Massachusetts business, and open attendance of college under the Trump Era. Blocked by John Remby, seeking to marry woman courting, Kara Williamson, to cheat on her husband, a bigot out of the warehousing community, that had attempted to punk author out under 2003 referendums through Sharon, Massachusetts, and the Comcast Israeli investment.

Twitter: Employ of Elon Musk, through Joseph Biden and INTERPOL. Report of spy's dealings, to inspire country.

[yessadirichards]

U.S. country music star Toby Keith dies at 62

WASHINGTON

Country music star Toby Keith, celebrated in Middle America for his patriotic fervor and songs extolling the pleasures of drinking, has passed away aged 62, a statement on his social media account said Tuesday.

"Toby Keith passed peacefully last night on February 5th surrounded by his family. He fought his fight with grace and courage," a statement posted to Keith's account on X, stated.

The Oklahoma-born singer, who was a roughneck in the oil fields of his home state before breaking into country in the 1990s, had been diagnosed with stomach cancer in 2022.

Keith was a controversial figure who often raised eyebrows for the intensity of his nationalist sentiments, with detractors calling him jingoistic.

"Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)," released in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, memorably has the line, "We'll put a boot in your ass / It's the American way."

In "The Taliban Song," Keith describes ordinary Afghans praying for U.S. forces to drive out the foreign fighters of the Taliban and al-Qaida -- which was led by the Saudi-born Osama bin Laden. In the chorus, Keith sings, "Ride, camel, ride!"

Usually clad in a cowboy hat, he also had a long list of songs exploring the cathartic effects of alcohol including "I Love This Bar," "Whiskey Girl," "Get Drunk and Be Somebody," "Drinks After Work" and "Drunk Americans."

"Beer For My Horses," one of Keith's best-known songs, sings of getting tough on crime and corruption.

He was also known for his feuds and grudges, including against The Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines -- touring with a doctored photo of her and Saddam Hussein after her comments against the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Keith was the most famous performer at former U.S. President Donald Trump's inauguration in 2017, though he also played at events for Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama.

He frequently performed for U.S. troops overseas, often raising his middle finger in the air in an unsubtle message to foreign adversaries.

Later in 2017 he played a male-only concert in Saudi Arabia to mark a Trump visit there -- an unlikely venue for a star more often seen packing arenas in the U.S. heartland.

[swldx]

9775Khz 0400 12 DEC 2023 - VOICE OF AMERICA (UNITED STATES OF AMERICA) in ENGLISH from MOPENG HILL. SINPO = 55344. English, news anchored by Tommy McNeil @0300z. U.N. Security Council envoys spoke of unimaginable suffering and urged an end to the war in the Gaza Strip on Monday as they visited the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing, the besieged Palestinian enclave's only entry point for aid. China's representative to the United Nations, Zhang Jun, asked by reporters if he had a message to nations that opposed a cease-fire in Gaza, said simply: "Enough is enough." Most U.N. member states support an immediate and lasting cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, as dire conditions worsen for its 2.3 million residents. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that thousands of people in the besieged Palestinian enclave were "simply starving." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy received a standing ovation at the National Defense University in Washington Monday after he addressed U.S. military officers, kicking off a visit to Washington aimed at persuading Congress to provide more military aid to Ukraine before funding runs out. Tensions between Congo and Rwanda have escalated, heightening the risk of a military confrontation that could draw in Burundi, the top U.N. official in Congo warned the Security Council on Monday. A draft agreement from the UN’s COP28 climate summit has dropped references to the phaseout of fossil fuels, triggering a backlash from countries that accuse Saudi Arabia and other petrostates of thwarting efforts to tackle global warming. Special counsel Jack Smith on Monday asked the Supreme Court to take up and rule quickly on whether former President Donald Trump can be prosecuted on charges he plotted to overturn the 2020 election results. Smith made his request for the court to act with unusual speed to prevent any delays that could push back the trial of the 2024 Republican presidential primary front-runner, currently set to begin March 4, until after next year’s presidential election. The United Nations has ended its 10-year peacekeeping mission in Mali following the government’s request that alleged the force was inadequate to respond to growing violent extremism in the West African nation. The U.N. effort in Mali has been the deadliest peacekeeping mission in the world, with more than 300 personnel killed. Landlocked Mali has struggled to contain an Islamic extremist insurgency since 2012. @0305z “Daybreak Africa” anchored by male announcer (w/African accent). Backyard fence antenna w/MFJ-1020C active antenna (used as a preamplifier/preselector), Etón e1XM. 100kW, BeamAz 350°, bearing 84°. Received at Plymouth, United States, 14087KM from transmitter at Mopeng Hill. Local time: 2200.

[summarychannel]

The flood of the Egyptian army Military movements by the Egyptian army on the borders of the Gaza Strip in preparation for the dark scenario

Updates on the Al-Aqsa Flood operation presented in this episode of Samri Channel. Starting with Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who announced that the United States reserves the right to refreeze the Iranian $6 billion that was released as part of a detainee exchange deal. Blinken said during his visit to Israel on Thursday: “We maintain strict control over these funds and reserve the right to freeze them.” Blinken pointed out that "Iran's receipt of money into its bank accounts - in this case in South Korea - in exchange for oil sales was in accordance with the agreements reached during the era of the previous administration, the Trump administration." He added: “None of the money transferred to Qatar was spent, nor did any party from Iran reach it.

 The US Treasury Department implements control over the resources in this account, and it can be allocated to humanitarian needs only, that is, to purchase food, medicines and medical equipment without them reaching the hands of Iran. This came in response to a report by the Washington Post, in which it was said that US officials and the Qatari leadership decided Preventing Iran from benefiting from the $6 billion released as part of a prisoner exchange deal, against the backdrop of the Hamas movement’s attack on Israel.

On the other hand, Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi, on Wednesday, made the first phone call with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman since the return of relations between the two countries, in March, regarding “the current military escalation in Gaza.” Saudi Arabia and Iran reached an agreement on March 10, 2023, sponsored by China, stipulating the return of diplomatic relations between the two countries and the reopening of the two embassies. The Saudi Al-Ikhbariya channel said that Prince Mohammed bin Salman received a phone call from Raisi, during which the call “discussed the current military escalation in Gaza and its surroundings.” She added that the Saudi Crown Prince affirmed that “the Kingdom is making possible efforts in communicating with all international and regional parties to stop the ongoing escalation,” and stressed “the Kingdom’s position rejecting targeting civilians in any way and taking the lives of innocent people, and the necessity of observing the principles of international humanitarian law,” noting that “ "Deep concern over the seriousness of the humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip and the harm to civilian lives." The Saudi Crown Prince also affirmed his country's "steadfast position towards supporting the Palestinian cause and supporting efforts aimed at achieving a comprehensive and just peace that guarantees the Palestinian people's access to their legitimate rights."

Finally, the episode shows an opinion article published by the World Political Review website by writer Alexander Clarkson, in which the latter said that Egypt may be the biggest victim of the ground operation that Israel intends to carry out against the Gaza Strip, if thousands of residents of the Strip flock to the Rafah land crossing. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi had confirmed that “we have 9 million guests living in Egypt, in safety and security,” explaining that “the Palestinian issue is the Arab issue, and it is important that its people be steadfast and present on their land, so that the issue is not liquidated, and we are doing our utmost.” An effort to alleviate it.” Al-Sisi continued, during his speech at the 2023 graduation ceremony of the military academy and colleges, on Thursday evening: “In the current period, there is a lot of talk and there are rumors from biased people, so I wanted to emphasize that Egypt is sparing no effort and is moving with its brothers among the leaders of Arab countries and our friends and allies to find a solution to this matter.”

#Egypt #Palestine #Egyptian army

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

[from Haaretz]

* * * *

US Response to Israeli-Hamas War.

          The US continues to provide support and assurances to Israel that are unreserved and unequivocal. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Tel Aviv to communicate US support directly to the unity government organized by Prime Minister Netanyahu and opposition leader Benny Gantz. Blinken will visit with the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt in an effort to contain the conflict.

          Biden has moved decisively and acted boldly in managing the crisis. The inane patter about Biden’s age has suddenly receded into the background. See, e.g., Washington Post Editorial Board, Biden rises to the occasion on Israel and Hamas. Trump sinks to a new low. (This article is accessible to all.)

At a time when the United States, and the world, desperately need decency and moral clarity, President Biden has provided both. His words regarding the wanton atrocities Hamas has committed against hundreds of Israeli civilians, as well as many Americans and citizens of other countries, in the past week have been unequivocal.

In condemning the terrorism, and offering support to Israel’s military response, the president also reminded the new emergency war government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of its responsibilities under “the law of war.” These measured statements put the United States in just the right place: supportive of Israel but positioned, if need be, to influence and temper its response.

          As the Post’s editorial board praised Biden’s response, it described Trump's comments as being “in a reckless category of their own.” After reviewing his litany of breathtaking comments and the understandable anger of the Israeli leadership in response to those comments, the Post concludes:

Mostly, though, it is Americans who need to take notice of these comments — especially Republicans, both voters and politicians. To their credit, some of Mr. Trump’s rivals for the GOP nomination denounced his remarks. Even by his standards, they showed an extraordinary penchant for . . . converting an international crisis into a drama about himself. Mr. Trump’s latest outburst showed how fortunate this country is that he is not in the White House now and how unfortunate it would be if he ever returned to it.

          The war in Gaza is not about American politics. Yet, it serves as a stark reminder that the proper measure of the remaining time before the 2024 presidential election is, effectively, infinity. Anything that can happen probably will happen. We cannot predict how unknowable events will affect the outcome of the 2024 election. But what we can predict is that a president who is knowledgeable, steady, calm, decent, and determined is more likely to handle unknowable events better than a candidate who is mercurial, narcissistic, impulsive, and ignorant. See The Bulwark, Will Narcissist Trump’s Bizarre Praise for Hezbollah Hurt Him? As author Dennis Aftergut concludes,

Ordinary Americans’ repulsion at Trump's indecency may well be part of what saves American democracy from him.

          Foreign wars frequently determine the fate of US presidents. In choosing to stand firmly by Israel, Biden has made the right choice for America and Israel—and likely made a choice that will help us defend democracy in the US in 2024 and beyond.

Former Hamas leader calls for “Day of Rage.”

          A former Hamas leader has called for a “day of rage” on October 13, 2023. Per the Washington Post, the phrase “day of rage” is “a standard call for demonstrations.” But after the massive terrorist attack on Israel, calling for a “day of rage” has taken on an ominous undertone that has caused synagogues, schools, and cities to heighten their security alert status. See WaPo, D.C. region to boost security Friday after call for Hamas ‘day of rage’

          The call for a “day of rage” by a former Hamas leader has brought home the reality of the terrorist attack to tens of millions of Americans who will experience heightened security in the relative safety of homes, schools, and cities that are thousands of miles away from Israel and Gaza.

          Millions of parents and grandparents received notes on Thursday evening that read something like this:

We know many of you are aware of the online post calling for individuals throughout the world to take up arms in a global day of "rage" tomorrow, directed primarily at Jewish and Israeli institutions. We do not fall into this category, but we want to make sure we are as cautious as possible. It pains us to have to write these types of emails to you, just as we know it pains you to have to read them. This is undoubtedly a frightening time for everyone, and we share in your feelings of unease, sadness and shock. Since we all know the global situation is rapidly evolving, we do ask you to please stay close to your phones and ask your child's other emergency contacts to also stay close to their phones.

          The point of terrorist attacks is to create fear and instill terror far beyond the reach of the terrorist groups. In that, Hamas has succeeded—for a time. I urge everyone to recognize that many Americans are feeling additional anxiety, anger, and fear, even if they have not been touched directly by the terror attack and war in Israel and Gaza. Trying to discuss or resolve questions about the status of Gaza and the West Bank through the lens of the Hamas terror attack and Israel’s declaration of war is not a good idea—at least not at this time.

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]