Antisemitism From the Left

Betsy has had a distinguished career but she seems unaware that antisemitism has always had its principal home on the Left. Karl Marx himself despised Jews even though he was one. And Hitler was a socialist.

By comparison, antisemitism among conservatives was always a token thing, a hangover from Christian enmity towards the people who had slain the Christians' God. So the British Conservative party made a Jew their Prime Minister in the late 19th century and Neville Chamberlain had some antisemitic views but he was the British Prime Minister who declared war on Hitler

Betsy McCaughey

Jews are feeling increasingly afraid and unwelcome. Last week, girls on the basketball team of a Jewish private school in suburban Hartsdale, New York, were jabbed and hit with antisemitic slurs by players from Yonkers' Roosevelt High School. "I support Hamas, you f---ing Jew," a Roosevelt player snarled. The game had to be called off in the third quarter, and the Jewish girls needed school security to help them leave.

Antisemitic incidents were already on the rise in 2021 and 2022. Now they are up nearly 400% year over year since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack against Israel, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt explains, "I am not talking about, you know, stores producing IDF T-shirts. I'm talking about a coffee shop on Long Island, an ice cream parlor in the Bay Area, a restaurant in Chicago." It reminds him of his grandparents' barbershop, which was vandalized by the Nazis in Germany. "I can't believe this is happening in our country today."

Believe it.

The mainstream media choose to downplay it and the Democratic Party is, at best, divided. Antisemitism has often come from the Right, but it appears now to be coming from the Left.

When the presidents of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, and the University of Pennsylvania caused outrage by saying at a congressional hearing in December that calls for Jewish genocide don't necessarily violate campus policy -- "it depends on the context" -- Democrats' reactions were mixed.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) had no problem with moral clarity. "There is no 'both sides-ism' and it isn't 'free speech,' it's simply hate speech," Fetterman said. It should be "reflexive" to "condemn antisemitism."

But former President Barack Obama, the titular head of the party, had a different response. He reached out to Harvard and made a behind-the-scenes effort to save President Claudine Gay's job.

On Dec. 13, the House of Representatives voted on a resolution to condemn antisemitism on campuses and demand the resignations of the presidents of Harvard and MIT for tolerating it. Democrats split, with 84 supporting the resolution and 125 opposing. Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) called it a "gross overreach" to tell colleges whom they should hire.

Sorry. If the discrimination had been against black students, the vote would have been unanimous, and Democrats would have clamored to pull federal funding from the colleges. But Jewish students can pound salt.

Jewish hostages, too. The public's indifference to the eight American Jews captive in Gaza, the media's silence and President Joe Biden's tepid efforts to get them released, are telling.

Recall that during Jimmy Carter's presidency, 52 American diplomats and citizens were taken hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, and endured 444 days of captivity.

During that ordeal, Americans tied yellow ribbons around trees and Walter Cronkite announced on the nightly CBS news how many days the hostages had been captive. Carter's failure to get them out contributed to his landslide loss to Ronald Reagan in 1980.

That's unlikely to be a factor this November because this time, so few Americans care.

Granted, there are only eight hostages, and they were not serving the U.S. in an official capacity when they were taken. Even so, the silence is troubling.

In 2014, First Lady Michelle Obama made it a cause celebre when 200 Nigerian school girls were abducted. They weren't Americans, but she said, "In these girls, Barack and I see our own daughters."

Prominent Democrats today are not holding signs saying "Bring Back Our Hostages." Families of the American hostages released an ongoing TV ad on Jan. 7 to fill the void and build awareness.

Over the centuries, hatred of Jews has come from many directions. The latest wave appears linked to progressive opposition to Israel's treatment of Palestinians, according to a study done by Arie Perliger, director of security studies at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. All Jews must bear the guilt, the thinking goes.

By failing to condemn antisemitism, politicians, academics and their media allies are doing our enemies' bidding. One week ago, ISIS released a 67-minute diatribe calling for the destruction of Jews worldwide to avenge Israeli strikes against Gaza. The message was "kill them wherever you find them."

Meanwhile, Jewish families privately talk at the dinner table about Anne Frank, hiding in attics, and where this new wave of antisemitism could lead.

It's time for all Americans to denounce it.

https://townhall.com/columnists/betsymccaughey/2024/01/10/antisemitism-from-the-left-n2633403

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California's Next Amusing idea -- a wealth tax

Do they want to say goodbye to all their rich people? Could be. There are some amazing morons in the Democratic party

Because California is one of those places where bad ideas go to achieve immortality, a wealth tax is being placed back on the table in the state assembly.

You know, it seems like only yesterday [It was only yesterday, Steve —editor.] I reported that progressive groupthink had doomed California to a slow-motion suicide starting 30 years ago. But instead of reversing course, one representative is adding another few drops of arsenic to the state's coffee supply.

"Last year alone, billionaire growth grew by $250 billion dollars. That’s the entire size of the state budget," Assemblyman Alex Lee (D-San Jose) told KCRA 3 News this week, referring to a study by the left-leaning California Budget and Policy Center.

"And if we just impose a 100% wealth tax on those greedy bastards' unrealized gains," Lee didn't say but implied, "then we would have all the money! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"I'm delighted after so many times of introducing the wealth tax, it's finally getting its first hearing," Lee actually did say. Lee's Bill 259 will be taken up by the Assembly's Revenue and Taxation Committee this week.

I don't have to explain to you why a wealth tax is such a supremely stupid idea that it takes a Bay Area socialist to champion it because even Lee's brother and sister Democrats are having none of it. Brendan Richards, Deputy Comms Director for Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom, almost immediately took to Twitter/X to insist that "a wealth tax is not part of the conversation – wealth tax proposals are going nowhere in California."

And that's true. Lee tried to get a hearing on his wealth tax in the Assembly last year. But Democrat assemblycritters shot the proposal with a silver bullet, drove a wooden stake through its heart, chained it in silver, set it ablaze, and finally scattered the ashes on the Santa Ana winds. That's because the comparative grownups who still run California's Democrat establishment know they can't afford to alienate California's progressive billionaire establishment.

But that's now. Tomorrow, like Dracula coming back from the dead for yet another sequel, I suspect will be a different story.

Lee is one of the Democrat-controlled Assembly's Young Turks, a 28-year-old Bay Area know-nothing progressive who is already serving his second term. He ran as a "democratic socialist" and was even endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America.

In his second race, he defeated his Republican opponent, Bob Brunton, by an almost three-to-one margin. Because people in the Bay Area would rather gnaw off their own elbows than allow themselves to be represented by a Republican who won't take all their money and use it to weaponize vagrancy.

From Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York to Ilhan Omar in Minnesota to young Mr. Lee in California, socialists appear to be the future of the Democrat party in hardcore pockets across the nation. Lee might not get his wealth tax in 2024 or even in 2025 — but unless his party's trajectory changes, he'll get it by 2030 or so. You don't start running for office at 25 or 26 years old unless you're on a mission and, whatever their faults are policy-wise, the country's democratic socialists are committed.

Californians with annual incomes greater than [dr_evil_voice] ONE MILLION DOLLARS [/dr_evil_voice] are "only about one-half of 1% of all tax returns filed in the state but collectively pay about 40% of all California personal income taxes," the Los Angeles Times reported in 2022.

These are the same people Lee claims "effectively pay little-to-no taxes," even though Sacramento's income tax coffers are almost half-filled by one-two-hundredth of the taxpaying population.

But you know what? I'm done defending the likes of data thief Mark Zuckerberg and mega-polluter Leonardo DiCaprio from the likes of Alex Lee. They wanted to lord it over a permanent underclass, and now that they've got one, they'll have to live with the electoral results.

https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2024/01/10/californias-next-suicidal-idea-will-shock-you-unless-it-doesnt-n4925362

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Flooded With Good Intentions

Sen. John Kennedy is upset because Sen. Rand Paul wants to limit federal flood insurance. But Paul is right. In my new video, Paul says, "(It) shouldn't be for rich people."

That should be obvious. Actually, federal flood insurance shouldn't be for anyone. Government has no business offering it. That's a job for ... the insurance business.

Of course, when actual insurance businesses, with their own money on the line, checked out what some people wanted them to insure, they said, "Heck no! If you build in a dangerous place, risk your own money!"

Politically connected homeowners who own property on the edges of rivers and oceans didn't like that. They whined to congressmen, crying, "We can't get insurance! Do something!"

Craven politicians obliged. Bureaucrats at the Federal Emergency Management Agency even claim they have to issue government insurance because, "There weren't many affordable options for private flood insurance, especially for people living in high-risk places."

But that's the point! A valuable function of private insurance is to warn people away from high-risk places. But instead of heeding that warning, politicians said, "Don't worry. Since private companies won't insure you, we will."

Of course, the politicians claimed they'd price the insurance properly so they wouldn't lose taxpayer money. "We must (do) everything we can to protect taxpayer dollars." said Colorado Sen. Wayne Allard.

But Paul points out, "Like most things in government, they continue to lose money." So far, the government lost $36 billion of your money. Yet they still insure people who can't get private insurance.

Kennedy thinks that's fine. "The first role of government is to protect people and property," he shouts from the Senate floor. "I thought this is what libertarians believe."

No, Senator, we believe government should protect our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and then leave us mostly alone.

By insuring risky property, Paul points out, "You're actually doing the opposite of what you would think government would want to do; you're promoting bad behavior."

Exactly.

Years ago, Federal Flood Insurance encouraged my bad behavior.

I wanted to build a house on a beach. When I asked my father to help with the mortgage, he said, "No! Are you crazy? It's on the edge of an ocean!"

Dad was right. It was a dumb place to build. But I built anyway, because Federal flood insurance, idiotically, guaranteed that I wouldn't lose money.

I enjoyed my house for ten years, but then, as predicted, it washed away.

It was an upsetting loss, but thanks to Uncle Sam, I didn't lose a penny.

I'm grateful. But it's wrong that you were forced to pay for my beach house.

Paul is right to say that people with second homes "should not get insurance through the government."

Actually, no one should get flood insurance through the government, but Paul fears that his irresponsible colleagues won't approve killing the handout altogether. Instead, he just proposes limiting the handout to primary residences.

It would be a start.

But even this slight reform is too much for Kennedy, who says, "If you earn enough to buy a second home, we shouldn't discourage that."

No, we shouldn't. But we shouldn't subsidize it with taxpayer money! Doesn't he get the difference? Federal flood insurance is like buying drunk drivers new cars.

Adding to the idiocy, there is no limit on how many times the government will give away your money.

I took your money once. I apologize for taking it, but when my government offers me a handout, I feel stupid not taking it.

Let's get rid of federal flood insurance and all subsidies that encourage people to do foolish things.

https://townhall.com/columnists/johnstossel/2024/01/10/flooded-with-good-intentions-n2633395

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Biden's Continued Cynical Use of Race

The Left are shameless in their preoccuption with race

President Joe Biden is "down" with Black voters and I'm not speaking street slang.

A new USA Today/Suffolk University Poll reveals one in five Black voters say they will support a third-party candidate instead of the president. That's down substantially from the 92% of non-Hispanic Blacks who voted for Biden in 2020, according to the Pew Research Center.

The president's strategy for shoring up his and Democrats' most loyal supporters? Telling them their biggest threat is "white supremacy."

Nothing about the failing schools so many poor and minority children feel trapped in; or violence in big cities that kill many young Black men most weekends and increasingly during the week; or the disproportionate abortion rate among Black women that has kept their percentage of the population mostly stagnant; or the necessity of putting more Black fathers in homes to provide loving disciple to their children.

Biden has a long history of using race as a political weapon while doing little to improve the lives of Black Americans.

Speaking at the Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, where in 2015 a white gunman shot and killed nine members of a Bible study, Biden again demonstrated his insincerity about race by making statements that have been proven false.

He claimed to have been a "civil rights activist." He wasn't. He claimed to have "spent more time in the Bethel AME Church in Wilmington, Delaware, than most people I know, Black or white." He hasn't. He also claimed that church was "where I started a civil rights movement." He didn't.

As a New York Post editorial noted, "(Biden has) pushed such baloney time and again." He has claimed to have been arrested during civil rights demonstrations and while on the way to see Nelson Mandela in prison. Neither is true.

Biden claimed to have persuaded segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond to vote for the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Wrong on two counts. Thurmond did not vote for the act and Biden was not in the Senate in 1964.

There was also his 2006 remark: "You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent." In 2020, he said if Blacks didn't vote for him "you ain't Black." In 2010, he warmly eulogized Sen. Robert Byrd, a former Exalted Cyclops in the Ku Klux Klan, saying he was "one of my mentors" and that "the Senate is a lesser place for his going." As early as 1977, Biden said that forced busing to desegregate schools would cause his children to "grow up in a racial jungle." In 2007, he referred to Barack Obama as "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean."

So many more examples, but not enough space.

Democrats have played the race card for decades, even blaming poor performances (see former Harvard President Claudine Gay) on bigotry, not plagiarism and a failure to denounce antisemitic campus demonstrations. Their talk has been cheap and the results negligible. One wonders why so many still vote for them given their record. White Democrats only show up in Black churches at election time and are not seen for another two or four years. Shouldn't that tell them something?

White supremacy is a minority view. Christians call it a sin. There are no pure-bred people. We are all mixed up in the great gene pool of life, as Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. has brilliantly demonstrated in several PBS programs on African American lives. To hate another person because of their race is to hate a part of one's self.

Given the declining poll numbers for Biden, among especially young Black voters, it would appear they are starting to figure out how Democrats have duped them for decades. Biden's out-of-touch speech in Charleston is likely to do little to improve his favorability among their party's once solid voting bloc.

https://townhall.com/columnists/calthomas/2024/01/10/bidens-continued-cynical-use-of-race-n2633389

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<> http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

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