By Mike Huckabee
October 17, 2023
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BY MIKE HUCKABEE
Blessings on you and your family from all the Huckabee team!
Mike Huckabee
DAILY BIBLE VERSE
Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.
3 John 1:2
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Sincerely,
Mike Huckabee
Israel is poised to launch a ground offensive to obliterate Hamas
Here is the link to Fox News’ continually-updated page on Israel’s strike back against Hamas:
https://www.foxnews.com/live-news/hamas-attack-israel-war
With Israel poised to launch a ground offensive to obliterate Hamas, we’re hearing the usual cries that they must declare an immediate ceasefire. It’s what the terrorists count on: they inflict maximum damage, then useful idiots cry that it’s inhumane for Israel to strike back with deadly force. The terrorists hide out for a while, then they do it again. Lather, rinse, repeat. Well, let’s hope Israel doesn’t go along with that again.
These defenders of terrorists always couch their pleas as compassion for the cause of the oppressed Palestinians. But as I mentioned recently, much of what is popularly believed about the “Palestinians” was fabricated, and pretty recently. If you’ve been led to believe that there is a group of people called Palestinians with an ancient historic claim to a homeland that just happens to be right where Israel is, then read this fascinating history by Rabbi Michael Barclay and see how you’ve been bamboozled. The ancient history of the Palestinian homeland dates all the way back to 1964, when it was dreamed up by a PR agency.
Federal judge issues partial gag order on President Trump
Monday, DC federal Judge Tanya Chutkan went along with special counsel Jack Smith’s request for a partial gag order on former President Trump in his trial over the January 6th riot. She answered his attorneys’ objections by saying that it doesn’t restrict him from criticizing the DOJ or claiming the charges are politically motivated. But he can’t specifically attack the prosecutors or court staff, which Smith claims might spark threats against them. (But it’s okay for Biden to paint Trump supporters as domestic terrorists and threats to democracy.)
Chutkan chillingly told Trump’s attorneys that Trump “does not have a right to say and do exactly as he pleases.” She said, “You keep talking about censorship like the defendant has unfettered First Amendment rights. He doesn’t. We’re not talking about censorship here. We’re talking restrictions to ensure there is a fair administration of justice on this case.” Yes, she’s not talking about censorship. She’s just telling a former President what he’s allowed to say during an election campaign, with the threat of jail looming if he happens to guess wrong about what speech is and isn’t allowed under the First Amendment.
That explanation had all the calming effect of hitting a beehive with a claw hammer. Trump immediately tweeted, "WILL APPEAL THE GAG ORDER RULING. WITCH HUNT!" (You know, that comes dangerously close to criticizing the judge.) He also said it’s not just an attempt to gag him but to silence his supporters during an election campaign.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-issues-eight-word-promise-after-gag-order/ar-AA1ijtWh
Indeed, this could go all the way to the Supreme Court, and it should, if need be. Jeff Charles at Redstate.com has a good analysis of the repercussions.
https://redstate.com/jeffc/2023/10/16/judge-slaps-gag-order-on-trump-censorship-or-justice-n2165134
Trump’s political opponents love to accuse him of “smashing norms” and posture as if they are the great defenders of “our democracy.” But they’ve destroyed faith in the justice system by politicizing and weaponizing it to the level of a Third World banana republic and are “defending democracy” by abusing the legal system to try to silence a particular candidate and keep him off the ballot.
Want to talk about “smashing norms?” First, they launched felony charges against a former President on ridiculous grounds, like possessing his own presidential documents. Then they insisted on holding the trials all at once, during the height of a presidential election campaign where he’s the leading candidate against their boss. Now, we have an unelected judge appointed by another Trump political enemy (Barack Obama) lecturing him that he doesn’t have a First Amendment right to say whatever he wants. They’re smashing norms down to the sub-atomic level.
If she really cared about ensuring the fair administration of justice, she would have thrown this garbage case out of court and sanctioned Smith for wasting the taxpayers’ time and money with it. And if she doesn’t like me saying that, too bad. It’s my First Amendment right.
Trump reviews Biden interview
In case there was any doubt, former President Trump has responded to the “60 Minutes” “interview” of President Biden, and it wasn’t a rave review. His full comments are here, but the gist of it is that the media relentlessly attack him while ignoring Biden’s many, many failures and leading him along in interviews “like a lost child.” Trump also noticed that every question to Biden contained the answer, to make it easy by giving him a big hint about what to reply.
https://www.westernjournal.com/trump-blasts-60-minutes-biden-interview-noticed-question-contained/
I noticed that, too. At times, I wondered if I was watching “60 Minutes,” or “Politicians Week” on “Celebrity Jeopardy.”
Related: Another careful listening to Biden’s interview revealed that when he describes his goals for a second term, he’s inadvertently describing the situation he inherited from Trump and deliberately destroyed.
Stay tuned: Afternoon vote for Speaker
This afternoon, Rep. Jim Jordan will attempt to compile enough votes to become House Speaker. And while he was facing a lot of dissension, he seems to be gaining the votes he needs.
https://www.westernjournal.com/jordan-gaining-major-steam-republicans-shift-support-speaker/
Rep. Mike Rogers also backed Jordan, upending that plot to use all the Democrat votes to elect a “bipartisan” speaker.
This is partly because Jordan has a very good staff and knows how to organize and win, and it’s partly because the conservative base is fed up with this embarrassing infighting and is “melting the phone lines” of GOP Congress members, telling them to vote for Jordan and get back to governing already.
I also suspect that the AP inadvertently helped Jordan by getting extremely former Representative Liz Cheney to provide a negative quote about what a danger he (yes…“he”) would be to the Constitution. The AP certainly knows the conservative audience. There’s nobody Republicans respect more than Liz Cheney. Well, maybe Joy Behar.
https://www.westernjournal.com/ap-tries-use-liz-cheney-thwart-jim-jordans-speaker-bid-backfires/
It’s so much bigger: Here’s how Chinese money funds Hamas, Hezbollah
What sanctions? As the saying goes, Iran has more money now than it knows what to do with. Sadly, the main thing Iran knows to do with money is fund terrorism.
New figures show the greatest flow of Iranian oil to China in at least a decade, and as the DAILY CALLER reports, “overall Iranian oil sales are rebounding as the Biden administration has adopted a more conciliatory approach to dealing with Iran than the Trump administration.”
Here it is in diplomat-speak, from ClearView Energy Partners: “We have suggested that this recent surge in Iranian crude and condensate export volumes could be ascribed to rapprochement between Washington and Tehran via discretionary enforcement of U.S. sanctions.”
We’d boil all that fancy phrasing down to two words: “Sanctions, schmanctions.”
Jason Brodsky of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) put it almost as bluntly: “Iran has generated about $80 billion in revenue from oil sales, defying U.S. sanctions under the Biden administration because of lax enforcement. That is a policy chosen by the Biden administration.” China helps fund terrorist aggression, he said, when this money goes to fund “Tehran’s proxies and partners.” Like Hamas. The intermediary for this is the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which, like Hamas, is a State Department-designated terrorist organization.
The Chinese are happy to buy sanctioned Iranian oil because they’re able to get it at a discount. With the price of oil so high now, that makes the purportedly forbidden fruit very attractive.
BLOOMBERG reports that as of August, China was purchasing about 1.5 million barrels of sanctioned Iranian oil a day.
According to Robert Greenway, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Center for National Defense (who also helped design Trump’s Iran sanctions), “The facts are indisputable, China is the principal customer of Iranian oil. It’s in contravention to sanctions we are enforcing. {Editorial aside: enforcing??] I have studied the IRGC people for 35 years, I have fought them, I have seen every bit of U.S. intelligence produced over the last 35 years pertaining to them --- I can tell you that the IRGC benefits directly from oil sales in about 10 different ways.”
A spokesperson for the National Security Council insists that this is false, that the Biden policy on sanctions “to ensure that (Iran) is unable to sell oil to new purchasers is a complete success, and there are no plans to lift, waive or provide any new sanctions relief for Iran.”
Sounds like yet more gaslighting from the administration, as China is clearly buying the oil. The White House also continues to deny any knowledge that Iran was involved in the Palestinian attack on Israel. Anyone care to wager that the #1 state sponsor of terrorism didn’t have anything to do with THIS?
As for China, the Biden administration has also --- let’s see, how was that put? --- “adopted a more conciliatory approach” in dealing with the CCP. And here’s something else to keep in mind about China. (If you don’t have a subscription to THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, just read the headline.)
Both Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Biden’s Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby maintain that sanctions have not been weakened. (Kirby has also said, ridiculously, that although Iran has “of course” been “broadly” aware of Hamas’ terrorist activities, there is “no evidence” that Iran was “directly” involved in this PARTICULAR attack or that they “specifically cut checks to support this.” Good grief. It sounds like the same convoluted rationale they use to claim Joe wasn’t involved in Hunter’s business deals.) But Richard Goldberg, senior adviser for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (also with the National Security Council during the Trump administration), said that there’s currently “no appetite to sanction China or to enforce sanctions on Iran. The idea that Kirby can say with a straight face that we are enforcing our sanctions, it’s simply not true, not rational and not possible.”
Continuing: “We are not doing any sanctions enforcement right now, quite intentionally, because it is part of the give to Iran to entice them to stop short of developing a nuclear weapon. The Iranians think they have the White House where they want them.”
https://dailycaller.com/2023/10/14/china-helping-iran-fund-hamas-hezbollah-terrorist-groups
If Kirby is telling the truth (pause for helpless laughter) and has no evidence that Iran was involved, Iran sure was ready to jump in and start issuing threats. On Sunday --- after meeting on Saturday with the leader of Hamas in Qatar --- the Iran foreign minister posted on social media: “If the Zionist aggressions do not stop, the hands of all parties in the region are on the trigger. The responsibility for the possible opening of new fronts of resistance in the region and any escalation of today’s war directly falls on the United States and the Zionist regime.” Ah, they attack, and it’s our fault when it escalates.
One of these “parties” is Lebanon, home to the Iran-backed Hezbollah group, which has already been clashing with Israelis at their border. At the time of this writing late Monday, tensions were building there. Hezbollah’s heavily armed presence is no doubt another example of Iranian oil money being distributed to terrorists.
https://www.newsmax.com/headline/iran-israel/2023/10/15/id/1138352
Heritage Foundation Senior Fellow Stephen Moore sees Biden’s war on fossil fuels at home, which started on Day One of his presidency, as financing our enemies. “This was so predictable and avoidable,” he says. “The systematic reversal of former President Donald Trump’s pro-America energy policies has gotten worse month after month.”
He goes into detail about the specific policies and how they have led to $4-5 per gallon gas at the pump, going on to say the consequences are much more serious than that. “This isn’t just an economic self-inflicted wound but a deepening national security threat as well.”
For the past 50 years, terrorist organizations such as Hamas have been financed with petrodollars. “The nation that has control of oil markets has a commanding height of geopolitical influence around the world.” Moore cites a number of policy examples and notes that the depletion of our strategic petroleum reserve under Biden puts us “behind the 8 ball” in responding to terrorist attacks in Israel.
So we must regain the energy dominance we had under Trump. (Chalk this up as one more thing Trump had right.) “That means producing ALL our energy,” Moore says. Until then, we’ll keep making “America weaker and our enemies stronger, and the world will be a much more dangerous place in the years to come.”
https://dailycaller.com/2023/10/14/opinion-biden-wants-help-israel-stop-war-energy-stephen-moore
Finally, financial analyst Larry Kudlow at FOX BUSINESS NEWS explains very clearly how we know the White House is gaslighting us about sanctions being in place on Iran. In just a few years, Iran has gone from producing about 400,000 barrels of oil per day to about 3.5 million and are on their way to 4 million. Where’s all that oil going? Kudlow points out the obvious: “Iran has a favorite customer. China.”
The numbers are staggering. In 2020, Iran sold China about $6.5 billion in oil. In 2021, Biden’s first year in office, that number skyrocketed to $23 billion. In 2022, it leaped again, to $30 billion. So, we’re talking about $60 billion flowing to the world’s #1 sponsor of terrorism in just a few years. (Compared to this, Kudlow calls the $6 billion we paid for those five hostages “small beer.”)
“If we didn’t lift the sanctions, how come they’re producing and selling all that oil?” he asks.
Not surprisingly, Kudlow doesn’t buy the administration’s claim that Iran didn’t know and even help plan the massacre in Israel. He quotes Elliott Abrams at NATIONAL REVIEW from the day of the attack: “Hamas depends heavily on Iranian funding. Iran was broke when Donald Trump left office, but is now pretty flush in cash. That’s not just because of the recent deal for U.S. hostages...but because the Biden administration has not been enforcing oil sanctions…”
The full Abrams piece is at the link. (NATIONAL REVIEW does offer a limited number of articles for free.)
https://www.nationalreview.com/2023/10/the-hamas-attack-changes-everything/
Kudlow also brings up Iranian Foreign Exchange Reserves, which were about $4 billion three years ago. They are now at $70 billion. How did a sanctioned nation rack up that much foreign currency?
In case you’d like to know more about how these reserves work…
https://www.thebalancemoney.com/foreign-exchange-reserves-3306258
Kudlow explains that sanctions against other countries are passed by Congress and are THE LAW. There are primary sanctions, “which prohibit citizens and companies of the sanctioning country from engaging with any sanctioned country.” (Example: U.S. and Russia.) Then there are secondary sanctions, which “stop third parties from banking or engaging in commerce with the sanctioned country.” (Example: say, France and Iran.) In the case of Iran, these gave banks around the world a choice: “Either stop dealing with Iranian banks or you’ll lose access to the entire U.S. dollar financial system [which includes over 90 percent of the world’s transactions].”
The execution of these sanctions, he explains, is monitored by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC). If Biden were enforcing both primary and secondary sanctions on Iran, then the Iranians would not be producing and selling all that oil to China. In other words, Janet Yellen is lying. And terrorists are using Chinese money to kill Jews.
Surprising
Here’s yet another surprising effect of forcing northern blue states to deal with some of the open border/illegal immigration problems their Party inflicted on red border states: Suddenly, the New York Times is sounding like a newspaper in a southern border state and talking about how this is a “real problem!”
Tragic Example
In the latest tragic example of Democrats suffering the consequences of their own policies, in blue Lansing, Michigan, county Democratic Party secretary Theodore Lawson is dead after a 15-year-old male panhandler demanded a dollar from him, then shot him in the head on the street. We extend our deepest condolences and prayers for his family.
https://www.westernjournal.com/teen-allegedly-murders-prominent-democratic-activist-cold-blood/
The story notes that despite strict gun control laws, Lansing has seen a rising wave of youth offenders carrying guns and committing gun violence. Yes, that’s happening in spite of disarming law-abiding citizens. It’s a real mystery.
Music Note
If you’re in the Nashville area next Sunday, the Josie Music Awards will be held at the Grand Ole Opry Theater. It’s a major indie artist awards show featuring lots of performances by the nominees in a variety of genres. Our own Laura Ainsworth is up for Artist and Vocalist of the Year (jazz/blues categories) for her terrific new album of standards, “You Asked For It.” (https://shop.bandwear.com/collections/laura-ainsworth-shop)
Laura won’t be performing, but if you’d like to see the show, cheer her on and maybe spot her and husband/co-writer Pat Reeder in the audience and say hello, you can buy tickets here:
https://www.axs.com/events/468008/josie-music-awards-tickets?skin=grandoleopry
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice weighs in on Hamas’ attack on Israel
Some of our current generation of mutton-headed liberal college students seem convinced that Israel “had it coming,” a notion that can only be born from the combination of leftist political indoctrination and refusal to teach critical thinking that’s characteristic of today’s “higher education.” Not that they’ll pay any attention to people who actually know what they’re talking about, but former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice weighed in on the ridiculous assertion that the attack was due to Israel oppressing Palestinians in Gaza and refusing to give up anything.
Here’s what she said to Townhall.com’s Guy Benson:
“[Former Israeli Prime Minister] Ariel Sharon, by the way, who was no powderpuff when it came to the defense of Israel, believed that (giving up Israeli settlements in Gaza) was the right thing to do. I don't think they wanted to govern Gaza any longer. It was in Israel's interest to get out. And they not only gave up Gaza, they gave up four settlements around Gaza at the time...That shows what the Israelis went through to actually evacuate Gaza. And you're right, what they got in return was Hamas, which continued its terrorist activities...And so, the idea that the Israelis didn't want to achieve peace -- and you're going to hear a lot of that this next week, that this is Israel's fault, that the Israelis never really tried for peace. The Israelis tried for peace...the Israelis tried everything."
I would hope that’s clear enough even for a Harvard student to understand, but then, I also mistakenly thought they could understand that mass murder was bad.
ACT scores fall
High school students’ scores on the ACT college entrance test have fallen to their lowest level in 30 years, and the media rushed to blame it on the COVID-19 pandemic.
As Mike Miller at Redstate.com notes, it couldn’t possibly have anything to do with schools deemphasizing “white supremacist” subjects like math, science and English to focus on LGBTQ and CRT propaganda while lowering standards and cutting advanced classes to promote “equity.”
A new song for Democrats
The 1929 song “Happy Days Are Here Again” has been the unofficial theme song of the Democratic Party since FDR used it as a campaign song in 1932. But looking around at the filth-covered, crime-plagued dystopias that have been created in various cities and states by decades of Democratic rule, I think we can all agree that “Happy Days” are hardly the result of Democratic governance. In short, the party needs a new theme song.
“The Internationale” is a little too on-the-nose, so judging by the Party’s recent descent into widespread denial of reality and brutally-enforced self-delusion, I would like to suggest the 1939 tune recorded by everyone from Vera Lynn and Glenn Miller to Connee Boswell: “Wishing Will Make It So.”
https://youtu.be/LhoazjBWR3A?si=q0WVCKxxjMELbgHG
Here’s a sample of the lyrics. Tell me if this doesn’t sound like the current “woke” DNC platform:
“Wishing will make it so…Just keep on wishing and care will go…Dreamers tell us dreams come true, It’s no mistake…And wishes are the dreams we dream when we're awake…”
Are you a man who wants to be a woman? Well, just say you’re a woman, and you ARE! Wishing will make it so! Don’t like the police? Fire them all, and crime will magically go down by itself! Are people being robbed, raped and murdered every day? Claim that’s all in your political opponents’ imaginations, and it miraculously goes away! Are there inconvenient facts about sleazy deals or dishonest and disastrous national health policies that might harm your electoral chances? Bully social media platforms into silencing any talk about them and they disappear! Is the economy struggling and hamstrung by inflation? Then declare inflation over and the economy booming, and they are! Were only 10,000 jobs created during the last quarter? Say a million jobs were created…and they were! Suffering horrific problems caused by an open border? Then insist that the border isn’t open, and abracadabra! It’s secure!
I could easily fill up the rest of this essay by just continuing with that last paragraph. The Democrats have become the denial of reality party. They make up new jaw-dropping fantasies faster than President Biden invents new jobs that he used to hold. The question is, how have they brainwashed so many people into actually believing this tripe?
The answer is that they really haven’t. They’ve managed to take over a number of cities and states by driving the reality-based community out, leaving behind almost nothing but their natural constituency: self-deluded radicals and people dependent on government. That’s now become obvious with the year-end release of the latest Census data showing the continued exodus of population from blue to red states.
Texas and Florida make up about 15% of the US population, but accounted for 70% of population growth. From July 2021-2022, the US population grew by about 1.2 million, but California lost over 343,000 residents to other states, and New York nearly 300,000. Blue states that are still showing population growth, like Washington, mostly owe it to foreign immigrants.
The new term for this is the “Texodus,” since so many are heading to Texas, but Scott McKay at Spectator.org also adds “Flexodus” to cover the huge migration to Florida. As he notes, those who were disappointed that New York voters kept reality-denier Kathy Hochul as their Governor when they could have saved the state by electing Lee Zeldin must understand that the rational voters he needed to win had already moved to Florida and gave Ron DeSantis a landslide victory.
https://spectator.org/texodus-and-flexodus-and-what-they-mean-for-america/
But how long can this continual downward spiral continue? You’d think the people would revolt at some point, or the politicians would do something to head off the crash. But they won’t because, as McKay points out, this is planned. It even has a name: “Weaponized Governmental Failure.” Terrible leftist leaders like Gavin Newsom, Gretchen Whitmer and Lori Lightfoot want the productive, middle class people to move out because they actually expect results for their tax dollars and accountability from politicians. When they call 911, they think cops should show up. That’s not the Democrats’ model anymore. They hate normal Americans like that. They’re all in on maintaining power through identity politics, divisiveness, chaos, demonization and government dependence.
And if productive people leave and take their tax dollars with them? Who cares, as long as Democrats in DC keep taxing the productivity of red states and sending billions to failed blue states and cities?
The best thing that could happen to those blue states and the people in them might be forcing them to go through bankruptcy and get their houses in order, but that will never happen as long as Washington keeps refilling their troughs with other people’s money. There’s a way to stop that, but it will take a major change at the federal level, and not just of Democrats, but also some Congressional Republicans who are reliably complicit in the scam, as we’ve just seen.
Read McKay’s entire article. It’s a bracing blast of cold reality in a political world that’s been obscured by a fog of fantasy.
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