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Month: June 2024

IDF Frees Four Hostages

by Owen | 0929, 8 Jun 2424 | Foreign Affairs | 0 Comments

Four hostages kidnapped by Hamas from the Nova music festival during the 7 October attacks have been rescued in a daylight raid deep in central Gaza.

Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 22, Andrei Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41, were freed during a “high-risk, complex mission” from two separate buildings in the Nuseirat area, the Israel Defense Forces said.

The IDF said the four are in good medical condition and have been transferred to the ‘Sheba’ Tel-HaShomer Medical Center, where they have been pictured embracing family members waiting at the facility.

[…]

IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said the mission was based on “precise” intelligence and that Israeli forces came under fire during the operation.

One special forces officer was wounded in the Gaza hostage rescue and later died in hospital, Israel police said.

Few comments. First, this is why the war continues. It all could have ended months ago had Hamas released the hostages and surrendered. Hamas is the aggressor and they will not stop until someone stops them. That is what Israel is doing… stopping them.

Second, I’ll admit, I thought all of the hostages were dead by now. The horror that must have experienced is unimaginable.

Third, it is notable that the hostages were being held in civilian houses protected by Hamas fighters and supporting civilian residents – if one can even articulate a difference between who is formally Hamas and who is just casually Hamas. And those differences fluctuate from moment to moment. Asking the IDF to tell the difference in real time is an unreasonable standard.

Fourth, I’ve been trying to think of how I would react – how most Americans would react – in a similar situation. Israel essentially gave Gaza to the Palestinians years ago. They have been self-governing while Israel continues to manage the borders. Israel has provided financial, infrastructure, and logistical support for the improvement of the Gazan condition. The Palestinians elected Hamas and have overwhelmingly supported them ever since. Over the years, Gazans have launched rockets and terror attacks into Israel.

Where is there a similar situation in America? The federal government has essentially ceded millions of acres of land to many Native American Tribes. They are effectively self-governing within the borders of the reservations. The taxpayers of the nation provide financial, infrastructure, and logistical support for the improvement of the Tribal condition. What if one of the tribes launched an attack on Summerfest, killed over a thousand people, raped old women and children, took hundreds of hostages, and retreated to the reservation? Would you support bringing down the full force of the U.S. Military on Tribal forces until every single hostage was freed? Would you support continuing the action until the people who launched and supported the attack are dead or in prison? Would you support a reconsideration of allowing the same people who launched the attack to continue to hold the reins of power and exercise self-governance?

I would. Most Americans would. That is what Israel is facing and why most Americans support them.

Baraboo School Board’s Ridiculous Reaction

by Owen | 1053, 7 Jun 2424 | Crime, Education | 2 Comments

I got to this part of the story and just rolled my eyes.

“That this adult felt emboldened to behave in this way in front of hundreds of students and other adults should deeply trouble us all; this type of behavior will not be tolerated,” the school board said, adding that it “condemns such actions and asks the community to take a stand and speak out against this type of behavior that threatens the fabric of our democracy.”

The story is that a dad went up on stage during graduation and pushed the superintendent because the dad didn’t want the superintendent to shake his daughter’s hand. The dad’s behavior is completely inappropriate. He’s been appropriately charged with disorderly conduct.

To extrapolate this dad’s idiotic, isolated, behavior as something that “threatens the fabric of our democracy” that requires that the “community take a stand” is absolutely idiotic. Get over yourselves, Baraboo School Board. This is one guy and he’s been dealt with. His behavior is not indicative of anything other than he’s a dolt. And I’m willing to bet that the Baraboo School Board is not the paragon of democracy.

Biden’s Not Old

by Owen | 1041, 7 Jun 2424 | Politics | 0 Comments

That’s what they are trying to tell us. Don’t believe your lying eyes. Listen to the regime.

The White House was forced into a fresh damage control effort Wednesday to defend the 81-year-old commander in chief’s acuity as he embarked on a grueling foreign trip and as the race gets nastier by the day.

The latest episode was sparked by a Wall Street Journal article that cited descriptions – disputed by the White House – of the president’s state of mind and fitness from what it described as more than 45 interviews with both Democrats and Republicans. The president was depicted as speaking so softly in one meeting about Ukraine that he was almost unintelligible to some participants. Other sources questioned whether he was fully in command of key details of his own policies.

Democrats accused Republicans quoted or referred to in the account of making false claims and contradicting previous statements to damage Biden politically. Washington Sen. Patty Murray, for instance, complained on X that her comments to the Journal about the president’s strong engagement in a meeting on Ukraine in January were not used by the paper.

Not that I want to help Biden, and not that they are reading a little Wisconsin blog… but this is idiotic PR. They would be much better off saying something like, “yes, he’s old and has slowed down a bit, but Biden is experienced and up the job for another term.” Yes, it’s still a lie, but flatly denying what all of us are seeing is stupid.

Biden’s Idiotic Faux Border Order

by Owen | 0940, 5 Jun 2424 | Politics | 2 Comments

Any thinking person can see the sham this is.

The measure takes effect immediately because the new policy is triggered when arrests for illegal entry reach 2,500. About 4,000 people already are entering the U.S. each day. It was a major policy shift on a critical election-year issue that’s exposed Biden to Republican criticism over an unprecedented surge in new arrivals in an election year.

First, Biden has been saying for years that he is unable to do anything at the border without congressional action. Then he pops up this week and does something via executive order. He lies because it is his nature.

Second, if we can close te border after 2,500, then why cant we do it at zero? Why do we just have to allow over 900,000 illegal aliens into our nation every year before we lift a finger? Why must Americans and American taxpayers take on the burden of supporting these people when we are already so, so broke?

Biden is intentionally destroying our country by throwing open our borders to allow in the refuse of the world. This is just a head fake during an election year to bamboozle the stupid.

MPS is terrible at math

by Owen | 0601, 4 Jun 2424 | Education, Politics - Wisconsin | 6 Comments

My column for the Washington County Daily News is online and in print. Not withstanding the resignation of the superintendent last night, MPS is rotten to the core.

The Milwaukee Public School District is absolutely awash with money. Already one of the highest spending districts in the state, the district received hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars from state taxpayers, COVID money, and a new tax increase. They have so much money that they cannot even tell anyone where they are spending it. And yet, the kids in their charge continue to receive a terrible education. Milwaukee’s voters do not seem to care, but the cost to the rest of the state is enormous.

One cannot discuss MPS without reminding ourselves how terrible the district is at educating kids. After all, all of the money is supposed to be for educating kids, right? According to the state Department of Public Instruction’s district report card, only 17.3 percent of MPS students are proficient or better in language arts. That means that less than one in five district kids can read or write at or above grade level. For math, it is worse. Only 11.1 percent kids can do math at or above grade level.

The district’s graduation rate is a pathetic 71.1 percent compared with a 91.8 percent state average. Considering how abysmal the performance scores are for MPS kids, the fact that they are graduating over 70 percent speaks to how pathetically low the standards are to graduate from MPS.

Keeping in mind the knowledge of how bad MPS is at their core mission of educating kids, the recent debacle over finances should enrage you even more.

A couple of weeks ago, federal officials suspended funding for the Head Start program (a program that has proven to be ineffective and should be shuttered, but that is not the subject of this column) over MPS officials slipshod management of the program. Last week, state officials at the DPI threatened to withhold state funding until MPS submits mandatory financial reports to the state. MPS is eight months late in submitting the financial reports.

It is clear that MPS has become so dysfunctional that they cannot even manage to submit routine financial reports that have been done for decades. The more cynical of us might suspect that they have not submitted their financial reports because they do not want people to know where they are spending all of the money. As a practice, however, I try to not ascribe to malice what can readily be explained by rank incompetence. And if there is any word that describes MPS’ leadership, “incompetence” is a word that is easily defensible.

Federal and state actions come as MPS has submitted its budget for this year. At $1.47 billion, MPS intends to spend about $1.5 billion to educate about 62,000 students. For those doing quick math at home, yes, that is over $24,000 tax dollars being spent per student to ensure that one in five can read and one in 10 can do math.

Bear in mind that MPS has been rolling in cash for years. During the pandemic, MPS received over $1 billion in COVID relief money despite the fact that their schools were closed much longer than most other schools in the state.

In the most recent state budget passed last year, state lawmakers increased K12 spending by $1 billion. The lion’s share of that went to MPS.

Just a couple of months ago, district voters idiotically passed a referendum that allowed MPS to jack up property taxes to spend an additional $252 million. During the debate over that referendum, MPS officials were unable or unwilling to even tell voters where the money would be spent.

Given how bad MPS officials are at math, it is no wonder that they are terrible at teaching kids how to do it.

If there was ever a case for ending the government monopoly on the delivery of education, MPS is it. While they spend an eye-popping amount of money, they are unwilling or unable to give details on where the money is being spent. And at the end of the day, they are dreadfully bad at executing their core mission to educate kids. How much longer will parents and taxpayers ignore the fact that MPS is a failed institution? If history is any guide, the answer is “forever.”

Zelensky Stumps for Biden

by Owen | 0907, 3 Jun 2424 | Foreign Affairs, Politics | 1 Comment

He knows who is buttering his bread. You’ll forgive me if I put little stock in the opinion of a wannabe dictator welfare queen.

‘Does (Trump) want to become a loser president? Do you understand what can happen… the institutions of the United States will become very weak – the US will not be the leader of the world anymore.’

[…]

‘A ceasefire is a trap,’ he said, adding that Putin would humiliate Trump by violating the terms of any deal to ‘go further’ in Ukraine and pursue his own goals.

He said that failure to continue providing Ukraine with aid and military support would degrade America’s reputation as a powerful world leader.

‘This is not about him [Trump], as a person but about the institutions of the United States. They will become very weak. The US will not be the leader of the world any more… in terms of international influence it will be equal to zero,’ the Ukrainian president declared.

He also warned a Trump decision to end US support of Kyiv could embolden other countries and groups with nefarious intentions to risk waging wars of their own.

And finally, he confirmed that he remains in close contact with former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whom he said he was ‘using as an instrument’ to hold informal talks with the US, and apologised for doing so.

New Mexican President. Same as the Old Mexican President.

by Owen | 0732, 3 Jun 2424 | Foreign Affairs | 0 Comments

Under this leadership, Mexico will continue to slide into being a Narco-state.

She has said that it is important to tackle what she says are the roots of the violence and has promised to invest in welfare programmes to prevent poor young Mexicans from being recruited by criminal groups.

On relations with Mexico’s northern neighbour, the United States, which at times have been testy under her predecessor in office, she said she would ensure there would be “a relationship of friendship, mutual respect and equality”.

But in a reference to the many Mexicans living and working in the US, she promised to “always defend the Mexicans who are on the other side of the border”.

Pumping taxpayer money into welfare does not solve the “root causes” of crime. Locking up crappy violent people solves the root causes crime. History has shown this to be the case time and time again. If you want to see an American city with a hollowed out core riddled with crime, look to the ones with giant welfare roles.

Why? Simple. First, welfare murders the work ethic and creates a culture of dependence, entitlement, and resentment. These are the cultural predicates of a criminal mind.

Second, free government money being carelessly pumped into neighborhoods fuels crime. Criminals know how to work the system to get money and the money readily flows into the drug trade. In Mexico, with the cartels controlling entire cities, it is child’s play for them to reroute the money into their pockets.

In regard to her comments about Mexicans in America, until we here a Mexican government talk about creating a culture and economy that will keep their citizens home instead of fleeing to the United States for a better life, Mexico and Mexicans will continue to suffer. He goal should not be to defend her citizens who illegally fled to another country to escape the hellhole that is their homeland. Her goal should be to encourage them to come home and build their own country.

Despite the international celebration of Mexico electing its first woman president, it looks like it will just be more of the same.

Oh, and don’t forget this. The cartels are ensuring that the Mexican legislature and local governments are staffed with their supporters.

As well as a new president, voters were also electing all members of Mexico’s Congress and governors in eight states, the head of Mexico City’s government, and thousands of local officials.

And it was local candidates in particular who were targeted in the run-up to the vote.

The government says more than 20 were killed across Mexico, although other surveys put the total at 37.

Biden to Pretend to Care About Border Months Before Election

by Owen | 2146, 2 Jun 2424 | Politics | 1 Comment

Whatever. By the time we see if anything Biden does is real or just another show, the election will be over.

Biden is reportedly expected to sign an executive order this week that will address immigration and border security amid criticism from both parties over his handling of the situation at the border, NewsNation reported last week, citing a border community leader who requested anonymity. NewsNation is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which also owns The Hill.

When asked on “Fox News Sunday” if Biden should receive credit for making moves on border security after months of requests from Johnson, the Speaker said, “I don’t … it’s too little too late now.”

“He’s trying to desperately show the American people that he wants to address the issue that he himself created,” Johnson continued. “We documented 64 specific actions that President Biden and Secretary [Alejandro Mayorkas] at [the Department of Homeland Security] took over … the course of three and a half years, beginning on the first day that President Biden [took office], to open the border. They did it intentionally; it’s had catastrophic effects upon our country that we’ll be living with for decades to come.”

Johnson and House Republicans have repeatedly lamented the Biden administration’s border policies, arguing they have contributed to the mass influx of migrants into the U.S. and the country’s fentanyl spread. In January, Johnson’s office released a list of 64 instances it claimed showed the Biden administration “undermining border security policy and encouraging illegal immigration.”

Mexican Officials Angry at Woman Who Keeps Finding Cartel Victims

by Owen | 1924, 1 Jun 2424 | Crime, Foreign Affairs | 0 Comments

A fallen state.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A Mexican volunteer searcher criticized in the past by the government has found more human remains in Mexico City and officials have attacked her for it — again.

The existence of clandestine body dumping grounds is sensitive for Mexico’s ruling Morena party. Morena, which is running the former Mexico City mayor for president in Sunday’s elections, claims the kind of violence that plagues other parts of the country has been successfully combatted in the capital.

But volunteer searcher Ceci Flores, who has spent years searching for her two missing sons, says that’s because officials haven’t bothered to look for bodies. It’s a common complaint by relatives of missing people in many parts of Mexico, where drug cartels and kidnap gangs use shallow pits to dispose of the bodies of their victims.

On Thursday, Flores posted a video showing what appeared to be human femurs and craniums in the tall dry grass of a hillside on the city’s east side. She suggested there were at least three bodies, and noted there could be more on the hillside.

Netanyahu Reiterates War Goals

by Owen | 1922, 1 Jun 2424 | Foreign Affairs | 0 Comments

Clear. Specific. Morally correct.

But a statement from the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office on Saturday said Israel’s goals — “the destruction of Hamas military and governing capabilities, the freeing of all hostages and ensuring that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel” — would need to be met before a permanent ceasefire can begin.

“Under the proposal, Israel will continue to insist these conditions are met before a permanent ceasefire is put in place. The notion that Israel will agree to a permanent ceasefire before these conditions are fulfilled is a non-starter,” the statement said.

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