Why the Left Hates Israel and America

They hate success and happiness in others

Star Parker

This week, my organization, Center for Urban Renewal and Education, held an event in Michigan's 12th congressional district, the district of Rep. Rashida Tlaib.

Forty Christian pastors -- white, Black, Hispanic -- attended to speak out in support of Israel.

We brought these Christian spokespersons into the backyard of one of the most aggressive voices in the U.S. Congress speaking out against Israel and supporting the terrorism and aggression against the Jewish state.

But a crucial element in our message is that the policy turf being staked out in this debate has implications far beyond providing moral and material support to Israel.

We're talking about values that are as central and crucial to the future of our own country as they are for Israel.

Regarding Tlaib, per Census Reporter, her district is 43% Black; the poverty rate is 21% (150% the national average); and 61% of adults are unmarried -- a rate 25% higher than the national average.

Tlaib's voting record is hardcore left. She gets a 100% rating from NARAL and Planned Parenthood, reflecting her support of abortion. She gets a 100% rating from teachers unions, reflecting support of failing government schools and opposition to parental choice in education. And she gets a 0% rating from organizations supporting lower taxes and spending, such as Americans for Prosperity, Campaign for Working Families, and National Federation of Independent Business.

Tlaib consistently supports, along with her colleagues of "the squad" -- Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts -- the left-wing agenda expanding the welfare state, tilting at climate change windmills and supporting values like abortion that contribute to the breakdown of the traditional family.

In other words, Tlaib aggressively supports the very policies that keep her district poor.

These are also the values that are bankrupting our country, as government spending now sucks up 25% of our GDP and we drown in debt.

In 2020, when the country was torn apart with riots after the death of George Floyd, my organization did a campaign posting billboards in low-income neighborhoods promoting the "success sequence."

The "success sequence," based on policy research in Washington, points to the personal behavior that leads to the best chances of avoiding poverty and moving from low-income status to middle class. That is, finish high school, get married, and take any job.

When we posted billboards with this message that this is the way to avoid poverty, Black Lives Matter went to the billboard company and demanded they take them down.

What about our message so offended Black Lives Matter?

They reject, along with all those on the left, values that rest on personal responsibility. They embrace only a culture of victimhood and blame.

In this worldview, the only explanation for achievement is exploitation.

This is their explanation for the success of Israelis, who built, from nothing, a modern country with per capita GDP higher than most European countries. And this is their explanation for those who have achieved success and wealth in our own country.

This year, for the first time ever, in the Gallup annual survey asking about sympathy for Israelis compared to sympathy for Palestinians, those identifying as Democrats expressed sympathy for Palestinians 11 points higher than Israelis. Our youth, those born between 1980 and 2000, expressed sympathy for Palestinians 2 points higher than for Israelis.

The culture of blame and victimhood has captured the left and our youth.

These values are incompatible with the values of a free country, which can only exist when individuals take personal responsibility.

It should be clear that those expressing opposition to Israel are also voices antipathetic to America's future as a free country.

Our shared values with Israel go beyond democracy. They are about the most basic ingredient of a free society. Personal responsibility. This is the value that the left so deeply hates.

https://townhall.com/columnists/starparker/2023/11/08/why-the-left-hates-israel-and-america-n2630922

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Judge makes major move against transgender athletes

This week, a Miami federal judge upheld a law that bans transgender athletes in public schools and universities, ruling against a student’s claims of discrimination.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Roy Altman ruled that Florida’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act does not violate the 14th Amendment – the equal protection clause of the United States Constitution. The judge ruled that “sex-based classifications are substantially related to the state’s important interest in promoting women’s athletics,” according to the Florida Sun-Sentinel.

The judge, who was appointed by former United States President Donald Trump, explained the decision in a 39-page order dated Monday.

“The Plaintiff is right to say that the statute treats transgender girls differently from both cisgender girls and transgender boys,” the judge wrote. “Under the law, after all, biological females (whether cis or trans) can play on both girls’ and boys’ sports teams. Transgender girls, by contrast, considered male by birth, cannot play on girls’ sports teams.”
“But not all gender-based classifications violate the Equal Protection Clause,” he said.

The Washington-based Human Rights Campaign brought the case on the student’s behalf. In a statement to the Florida Sun-Sentinel, the organization said that its litigation team “is actively working with the plaintiffs on potential next steps” following the judge’s decision.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/sport/nba/judge-makes-major-move-against-transgender-athletes/ar-AA1jAjR0

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‘This Is How I Know God Has His Hand on It’: Riley Gaines Made Advocating for Women’s Sports Her Full-Time Job

Twelve-time NCAA All-American college swimmer Riley Gaines questioned, “Where are the feminists?” when she was forced to compete against a male athlete who said he was a transgender woman. He was “leading the country by body lengths” in swim competitions, leaving his female competitors behind.

“Our equal opportunities, our dignity, our mental health, all of the different things, our feelings—the words they [those on the Left] love to use—that doesn’t matter,” Gaines told Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts on “The Kevin Roberts Show” podcast. “What matters to them is protecting the feelings of a male, even if it means we [women] become collateral damage in the process, which we most certainly have.”

Gaines was swimming for the University of Kentucky when she competed against Lia Thomas, formerly Will Thomas, in the 200-meter freestyle. But the NCAA told her teammates and her that Thomas’ swimming was “non-negotiable.”

“We felt violated. We felt humiliated. We felt betrayed. We felt belittled,” she said.

Gaines and Thomas ended up tying, but there was only one trophy, so they gave it to Thomas because they said it would look good for photos, Gaines recalled.

“It wasn’t until they really reduced everything that we had worked our entire lives for down to a photo-op to validate the feelings and the identity of a male. It wasn’t until that, ultimately, I realized I was done waiting,” Gaines said.

Gaines had plans to go to dental school once she graduated, but after tying to the hundredth of a second, she has made advocating for women’s fairness in sports her full-time job. “This is how I know God has His hand on it,” said Gaines.

She said she frequently talks to people who support her but can’t speak out because of fear they could lose their jobs. But she said to remember “we are in the overwhelming majority. Again, if you just saw how politicians voted, you wouldn’t think so, but we are. Even the overwhelming majority of the Democratic Party knows this is wrong,” she said.

“If we want a change, you have to use your voice. We have to let people know as a group that a majority of us female athletes—or females in general—are not OK with this,” she declared.

“We have an administration in the White House right now, who is changing Title IX to where it’s no longer preventing discrimination on the basis of sex, it’s preventing discrimination on the basis of gender identity,” the All-American said.

“This means men can join sororities. This means men will have full access to bathrooms, locker rooms, changing spaces. This means men could take academic and athletic scholarships away from women. Men can live in dorm rooms with women. So, it’s bigger than just women’s sports.”

Gaines said her faith is what has kept her grounded. People will direct personal attacks and “negative comments” toward her. But she realized, “Why would I want to please those people? We have an audience of one [God]. … That’s who we should be looking to please.”

“I avidly want to stand for the truth in whatever capacity that is, whatever topic that is. There is one objective truth,” she said. “There is one biblical truth. The Left, they love this language of ‘speak your truth.’ OK: There’s one truth.”

https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/11/08/riley-gaines-made-advocating-womens-sports-her-full-time-job-this-is-how-i-know-god-has-his-hand-it

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Mark Houck, Family Sue Biden DOJ for ‘Malicious and Retaliatory Prosecution’

Pro-life activist Mark Houck and his wife, Ryan-Marie Houck, are suing the federal Department of Justice over the DOJ’s treatment of their family, accusing the DOJ of a “faulty” investigation that led to an excessively forceful arrest and a “malicious and retaliatory prosecution” that has severely impacted their entire family.

Houck is a Catholic father of seven who was arrested and charged with violating the Freedom of Access to Abortion Clinic Entrances, or FACE, Act by President Joe Biden’s administration. A jury found him not guilty of the federal charges in January, and he announced in August that he is running for Congress in Pennsylvania’s 1st Congressional District.

The DOJ’s FACE Act charges stemmed from a 2021 incident outside a Philadelphia-based Planned Parenthood where Houck pushed an abortion clinic volunteer who was repeatedly harassing his son, Mark Jr. Local authorities ultimately dismissed the matter—until the Biden DOJ re-upped it in response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Mark and Ryan-Marie Houck believe they were targeted by the Biden DOJ in an effort to intimidate, silence, and scare the family for their pro-life work—praying outside abortion clinics for the women headed inside to abort their unborn babies.

“This lawsuit will send a strong message to the DOJ that the United States of America does not belong to [Attorney General] Merrick Garland or the FBI; it belongs to all Americans, despite our many disagreements on different issues,” said Shawn Carney, president of the pro-life organization 40 Days for Life, which is representing Houck. “We all believe that we should have the right to free speech and be protected from unlawful infringement by our own government.”

He added: “Mark and his wife have valid and critical claims against the government that raided their house and pointed guns at them and their screaming children. Mark, his wife, and their seven children have been devastated by this horrific event, which should never have happened if not for the bigotry of our compromised DOJ.”

The Lawsuits

Houck and his wife filed their lawsuits against the DOJ on Monday but did not formally announce the news until Wednesday morning. Their complaints detail the trauma that the entire family suffered when they discovered armed FBI agents banging on their door early in the morning on Sept. 23, 2022.

Mark Houck’s suit describes this arrest as an “unnecessary and unlawful show of force,” accusing the agents of intentionally seeking to assault him and deprive him of his Fourth Amendment rights “by using excessive force to arrest him on non-violent charges when he had not threatened law enforcement, did not own a gun, and had offered to turn himself into authorities if indicted.”

Ryan-Marie Houck’s complaint describes how profoundly her husband’s arrest has impacted their children, Mark Jr., Ava Marie, Kathryn, Therese, Joshua, Augustine, and Imelda.

“Her children have also suffered immense emotional trauma and physical manifestations of stress that Mrs. Houck has carried alone while her husband was away during his imprisonment and prosecution,” the complaint says.

Most tragically of all, her complaint says, Ryan-Marie and Mark Houck have lost three babies through miscarriages “due to the stress of the FBI’s conduct and resulting prosecution.”

“The stress of these events was so difficult that the Houcks have been diagnosed with infertility,” the complaint says.

It describes in detail how Ryan-Marie Houck has suffered “severe emotional distress and physical manifestations of stress and post-traumatic stress” since the Sept. 23, 2022, raid, noting that the stress of these events has taken “an immense toll on her body.”

In addition to the “trauma, paranoia, and anxiety she has suffered,” the suit says, “she now carries the grief of losing three children and the pain of infertility.”

Mrs. Houck has also shouldered the emotional distress of caring for her seven children and their individual needs as they each process their own trauma from these events. The children continually come to her crying and suffering from nightmares. They slept in bed with her and her husband for the first month after the arrest, and they continue to ask to sleep in their parents’ bed. The children are easily triggered whenever the situation is brought up or unannounced guests arrive at the property, and she spends a significant amount of time counseling and comforting them.

Ryan-Marie Houck is seeking $3.25 million in damages for herself and for her children. Mark Houck seeks $1.1 million for malicious prosecution, retaliatory prosecution, false arrest, abuse of process, and assault.

Harm to the Houck Children

Thirteen-year-old Mark Jr., who “shouldered the emotional burdens of his mother his younger siblings” during his father’s arrest and prosecution, suffers from “immense anxiety” compounded by his “continual sleep deprivation and nightmares from the stress.” He and his siblings are seriously emotionally triggered if they encounter law enforcement in public as well as by the arrival of unexpected guests upon the property.

Eleven-year-old Ava Marie has “taken on an immense amount of stress” as she cares for her younger siblings in the aftermath of her father’s arrest and prosecution, the complaint says, causing her to endure severe sleep deprivation and nightmares and forcing her to take sleep medication in order to rest. “A once happy eleven-year-old girl, she now carries a great deal of sadness from the trauma of these events,” the complaint says.

Ten-year-old Kathryn has “experienced a severe loss of joy and deep sadness at her young age,” suffering from “severe anxiety and worry” and carrying “deep-seated fears that she will lose her father.” She also suffers from severe sleep deprivation and nightmares.

Nine-year-old Therese is the “most deeply traumatized of the children,” as the memory of SWAT personnel “staring her down at the back door” continues to haunt her to this day. Like her siblings, she struggles to sleep and with severe anxiety.

Seven-year-old Joshua, who was 6 years old at the time of the arrest, sobbed as he watched the FBI take his father away at gunpoint, yelling, “Please don’t take him, he is my best friend.” According to the complaint, Joshua becomes emotional if anyone mentions that day, is constantly worried about losing his father and his mother, and suffers from severe sleep deprivation like his siblings.

Four-year-old Augustine “cannot express in words the amount of worry and trauma he has suffered,” though he will often shout and cry for his parents, according to Ryan-Marie Houck’s complaint. He has started sleep-walking from the stress, and the suit describes him as “deeply impacted and traumatized by the raid and subsequent prosecution.”

Two-year-old Imelda, the youngest Houck, carries “deep-seated trauma.” She similarly suffers from anxiety and poor sleep, the complaint says.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/11/08/mark-houck-family-sue-biden-doj-for-malicious-and-retaliatory-prosecution

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

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

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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