Archive for 2023

October 31, 2023

ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: Muslim Group to Biden: ‘Ceasefire by 5PM Tuesday or We Walk.’

If the stakes were not so high in Israel and the situation was not so tragic, and if Joe Biden were not at least the titular president of the United States, it would almost be worth a chuckle or two. But the stakes are almost too high to measure for a moment of comedy, and while Biden is clearly not in charge, his handlers must certainly be vexed, if nothing else.

On Monday, the National Muslim Democratic Council sent the administration a letter. In essence, Biden has until 5 p.m. Eastern tonight to force Israel into a ceasefire with Hamas. If not, it could cost him at the polls. The council claims that the voters’ trust in Biden has been “eroded” by the administration’s support and the “funding of armaments.”

And the council maintains that this is no idle threat. The council promises to mobilize Muslim Arab and “allied” voters to withhold any endorsements, support, and even votes from candidates who did not call for a ceasefire “and endorse (sic) the Israeli offensive against the Palestinian people.” There is no mention of the October 7 attacks and as Just the News pointed out, the letter contains nothing about Hamas.

Meanwhile: Protesters calling Antony Blinken a ‘murderer’ demand ceasefire in Gaza and derail hearing:

‘Stop the brutal, brutal massacre in Gaza…Ceasefire now! Ceasefire now,’ one heckler shouted.

They also held signs saying: ‘All the walls have got to go’ and ‘Free Gaza’.

Another shouted: ‘Blinken, you have blood on your hands! Murderer.’

Note the blood on the hands of protestors, possibly a callback to the 2000 Rallah lynching:

The 2000 Ramallah lynching was a violent incident that took place on October 12, 2000 – early in the Al-Aqsa Intifada – at the el-Bireh police station, where a Palestinian crowd of passing funeral marchers broke in and killed and mutilated the bodies of two Israel Defense Forces reservists…Aziz Salha, one of the lynchers, waving his blood-stained hands from the police station window. Salha was later arrested by Israel and sentenced to life imprisonment, but was released in 2011 as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange.

Ed Morrissey notes: Anti-Semitic Left About to Blow Dems Apart.

There’s just one little problem with this threat, which is that Muslims only make up a population that’s half that of Jews in this country, and Jews vote more often and reliably. This may not be an all-or-nothing in either group — some Muslim voters no doubt abhor what took place in Israel, while some Jews may want Israel to stand down — but among both groups, it’s fair to assume diametrically opposed positions.

Which means that Democrats may have to choose which demo to cut loose. On those terms, the Hamas Caucus and the NMDC will clearly lose. Jewish Democrats vote more reliably with the party, held fundraise and organize more and for longer, and Israel is more popular with the broader electorate than Hamas will ever be.

Besides, Jewish voters spurned by Democrats in this situation may not necessarily thunder over to the GOP, but they certainly know the GOP would welcome them if they did, especially on the issue of Israel vs Hamas. The [National Muslim Democratic Council] has no place else to go, except maybe the Greens. If they don’t know that yet, they’ll learn it the hard way soon enough.

Roosevelt managed to keep his coalition of disparate voting groups, which included both northern intellectuals, minorities, and racist southern “Progressives”  united enough to win four terms as president. Biden (read: Obama) may not be as lucky this time around.

Posted at 8:14 pm by Ed Driscoll on Oct 31st, 2023

NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG:

Posted at 7:15 pm by Glenn Reynolds on Oct 31st, 2023

SO THE WHITE HOUSE EXECUTIVE ORDER ON AI HAS A SECTION ON “EQUITY:”

Advancing Equity and Civil Rights

Irresponsible uses of AI can lead to and deepen discrimination, bias, and other abuses in justice, healthcare, and housing. The Biden-Harris Administration has already taken action by publishing the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights and issuing an Executive Order directing agencies to combat algorithmic discrimination, while enforcing existing authorities to protect people’s rights and safety. To ensure that AI advances equity and civil rights, the President directs the following additional actions:

Provide clear guidance to landlords, Federal benefits programs, and federal contractors to keep AI algorithms from being used to exacerbate discrimination.

Address algorithmic discrimination through training, technical assistance, and coordination between the Department of Justice and Federal civil rights offices on best practices for investigating and prosecuting civil rights violations related to AI.

Ensure fairness throughout the criminal justice system by developing best practices on the use of AI in sentencing, parole and probation, pretrial release and detention, risk assessments, surveillance, crime forecasting and predictive policing, and forensic analysis.

“Equity” is a code word for leftist politics.

Posted at 6:56 pm by Glenn Reynolds on Oct 31st, 2023

PALLYWOOD NEEDS A BIGGER CAST OF EXTRAS:

UPDATE: He’s back! This time portraying a radiologist:

More: He’s back!

Posted at 6:30 pm by Ed Driscoll on Oct 31st, 2023

IOWAHAWK:

I understand why individual leftists are pulling down the posters but: Why Are British Police Tearing Down Pictures of Hamas Hostages?

Who are the police protecting here? It certainly isn’t Britain’s Jewish citizens or their right to free speech and assembly. It is anti-Israel, pro-Hamas mobs and vandals.

I’m pretty sure the guys who made It Happened Here shot it in 1964 as a warning to England, not a how-to guide.

Posted at 5:30 pm by Ed Driscoll on Oct 31st, 2023

NOT ANTI-WAR, JUST ON THE OTHER SIDE: I Wrote that Hamas Raped and Beheaded. Yale ‘Corrected’ Me.

I escaped Yale University this weekend to celebrate the Jewish Sabbath in Brooklyn with a deeply pious Chasidic community, the neighborhood papered with “KIDNAPPED” posters featuring the faces of Israelis taken hostage by Hamas.

I was relieved to be away from hostile protests where many of my classmates have cheered—in reference to Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre of Israelis—that such “resistance is justified.” At an Oct. 25 protest, Yale students publicly admonished an Oct. 12 op-ed I wrote for the Yale Daily News. In it, I noted that the student group Yalies4Palestine had blamed the victims for their plight, arguing that “the Israeli Zionist regime [is] responsible for the unfolding violence,” and called on the Yale community “to celebrate the resistance’s success.”

I was in Brooklyn when I learned that the Yale Daily News had done its own part to help the “resistance,” excising four sentences from my piece. They referred to Hamas’s atrocities. “Yes, they raped women. Yes, they kidnapped children. Yes, they beheaded men. Yes, they cheered the whole time.”

Appended to the article now is the following correction, made without my knowledge: “Editor’s note, correction, Oct. 25: This column has been edited to remove unsubstantiated claims that Hamas raped women and beheaded men.”

Anika Seth, the paper’s editor and “one of the inaugural Diversity, Equity & Inclusion co-chairs” at Yale will have a bright future at the New York Times.

Posted at 4:45 pm by Ed Driscoll on Oct 31st, 2023
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