Archive for the ‘opinion/news’ Category

The longer the delay in Israel’s invasion of Gaza, the more likely the Democrat Party will lose Jewish members

Posted: October 29, 2023 by John Ruberry in Israel, Israel vs Hamas, middle east, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

Although the White House denies it, there have been reports that Joe Biden has told Israel to delay its expected invasion of Gaza.

The speculation is that Biden wants the Hamas terrorists to release the estimated 200 hostages, some of whom are Americans, beforehand.

My belief is that Biden is instead trying to placate the old school, pro-Israel wing of the Democrat Party, which can trace its founding to 1948, the year of Israel’s founding, and the woke, pro-Palestianian, and yes, pro-Hamas wing of the Democrats. Think of Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) as the face of the old guard and think of US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), of the Squad, as the face of the new wing.

Can Biden–or more accurately, his handlers–pull it off?

For now, yes.

But the longer what I’m calling a “warm war” between Israel and Hamas continues, the more likely Jews will question why they support the Democrats. Oh, before October 7, there was cold war between Israel and Hamas, once the invasion of Gaza starts, then that will be a hot war.

The daily protests in support of Palestine/Hamas, populated by wokesters and Palestianian-Americans who equate Israel with Nazis, must eat at the heart of most Jewish people.

Most American Jews of course are Democrats, for a lot of reasons, but the primary one, in my opinion, is that as a discriminated people, Jews feel they should stand up for other marginalized groups. Party affiliation for the politically engaged–and Jewish people usually are–is not something that is easily shed. Much like religion.

For instance, my parents, Irish Catholic Democrats, despite their disgust with what was called “the New Left” in the 1960s–I now call that movement the proto-woke–took a decade to switch their political affiliation. Jimmy Carter of course hastened their transition, as it did for so many other Dems.

The false Zionists-are-Nazis drumbeat is a daily rhythm. Ten more weeks–well short of a decade–of this hatred might be too much to bear for many Jews.

Jewish people are generous donors to the Democrats and other liberal groups. At roughly 2.5 percent of the US population–which is concentrated mostly in Blue States–we are not about to see a lasting Republican majority if there is a rightward shift among Jews. But some reliably-Democrat House seats in states like New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and even California might become swing districts.

A few years ago, Little Marathon Pundit had a Jewish boyfriend. You name the woke cause, and he supported it. I asked her to see how “Sam” felt about the growing anti-Semitism within the Democratic Party. Sam told her it was “troubling.” Jewish Democrats I know have had similar trepidations for years.

But now there is a daily two-hour-hate parade in many large American cities against Israel, and yes, Jews. As well as daily anti-Jewish memes poisoning social media, many from celebrities.

The parades and the meme frenzy will wind down once the Israel-Hamas war is over; hopefully that conflict will end with a resounding victory for the IDF.

Afterwards, we may see a different Jewish electorate.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

The GOP and moderate Dems should be paying attention to Chicago’s anti-migrant protests

Posted: October 25, 2023 by John Ruberry in crime, election 2024, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

If Republicans–or even those few moderate Democrats–want to advance their political career, a good place to start is Chicago’s Southwest Side.

There have a been a series of protests in the mostly Hispanic Brighton Park neighborhood, which has a sizable Asian minority, over the migrant crisis created by Joe Biden and the Democrat Party.

Residents found out through the rumor mill that the administration Mayor Brandon Johnson, Chicago’s far-left mayor who was elected six months ago, has his haughty eyes on Brighton Park. 

And rumors are true sometimes, and they were confirmed when residents noticed bulldozing on property that has been vacant for a while. Chicago’s 12th Ward, which has slightly less than 60,000 residents, will have a population bump soon. However, many of them will be living in tents, although a contractor is calling them “yurts.”

Environmental testing is still being performed, but it appears, like it or not, that the nascent yurt community, which Chicago officials are calling a 10-acre “winterized base camp,” at 38th and California, is a done deal. And plenty of residents don’t like it.

There have been 24-hour protests at the future migrant camp for over a week now.

Most of these residents are minorities. Looking at local media video reports, the ethnic makeup of the protesters appears to be roughly half Hispanic and half Asian. That was the impression Mrs. Marathon Pundit got when she drove past the anti-camp protests last Friday.

And last Thursday, the 12th Ward alderperson, Julia Ramirez, got “roughed up” by the crowd at the protest, but it appears she was only shoved around a bit. 

Apparently, Ramirez wasn’t told about Yurtville ahead of time. Surprised? You shouldn’t be. Leftists like Johnson are always right, or at least they believe themselves to be. And when you question leftists, you are called said to be “uninformed” or “racist,” or someone who is “oversimplifying a nuanced issue.” I know, I live among leftists just north of the Chicago. 

Last night there was a public hearing at a Southwest Side high school about the construction of the migrant camp. Block Club Chicago reports that 500 residents showed up. While there was some support expressed for the migrants, some chants broke out, including, “Send them back” and “No queremos venezolanos,” which is Spanish for, “We don’t want Venezuelans.”

What about Asians? Specifically East Asians.

East Asians feel threatened in woke era Chicago. A friend of the Marathon Pundit family–an immigrant from Hong Kong who lives in McKinley Park, which is next to Brighton Park–told me a while back, “The criminals see us as ripe prey,” adding, “they believe that all of us all own convenience and liquor stores and that we always carry wads of cash on us.”  His garage was broken into earlier this month. There was no cash stolen, other than some loose change, but the thieves made off with a pair of boots. He didn’t even bother calling the Chicago Police, knowing that even if the culprits are caught, they’ll walk. And of course, that crime won’t figure into Chicago crime statistics.

Block Club Chicago reported last month that, “Precincts with a high Asian-American population cast 77.8 percent of their votes for [Paul] Vallas,” a moderate Democrat who Johnson defeated in the April runoff. Vallas ran on a strong law-and-order platform.

Chicagoans, you elected Johnson. As the old expression goes, “You made your bed, now sleep in it.” Although to be fair, Vallas carried the 12th Ward. 

One lesson from the midterms is that Hispanics are trending toward the GOP. Illinois’ moribund Republican Party should be reaching out to them, but probably aren’t. Because they’re morons. And the Asian population, particularly East Asians, might be looking for a political home.

GOP, get moving. And not just for votes. Siding with these protesters is the right thing to do.

And those few moderate Democrats left, it’s time to confront the woke wing of your party.

Here’s my non-nuanced message I recommend for the GOP and moderate Dems: Secure the border, build the wall, protect America.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Today’s elitist college students are good at standardized tests, but they can’t figure out good and evil

Posted: October 15, 2023 by John Ruberry in education, Israel, Israel vs Hamas, middle east, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics, war
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By John Ruberry

Sherman McCoy, the Yale-educated lead character of Tom Wolfe’s novel The Bonfire of the Vanities–and an old money WASP–saw himself as a “Master of the Universe.”

But as the Book of Proverbs says, “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”

At America’s elite universities, such as Yale and the rest of the Ivy League, as well as NYU, Stanford, and some others, there are thousands of students who see themselves as Masters of the Universe. In reality, they have the right family connections, and they are very good at taking standardized tests, such as the SAT. Or, instead of being old money types like McCoy, they check the right woke boxes. 

Ryna Workman, who is non-binary (box one), Black (box two), and a leftist (box three), in her (Workman prefers they/them pronouns) role as president of the NYU Student Bar Association president, wrote a hateful anti-Israeli statement about the October 7 attacks that, among other things, said that the Jewish state “bears full responsibility for this tremendous loss of life.” Among those murdered were babies. The Nazi’s Einsatzgruppen also indiscriminately killed babies–and many others–during the Holocaust.

People calling their political enemies Nazis is as old as the Nazi movement and almost always it’s an overstated charge–but calling Hamas members Nazis is accurate. 

Fortunately, there has been some pushback. Winston and Strawn, an elite Chicago law firm where Jim Thompson, Illinois’ longest-serving governor–and a Republican–once served as CEO, repealed its job offer to Workman. 

Good.

After former Harvard president Lawrence Summers, who had previously served in the Clinton and Obama administrations, decried the dozens of Harvard student groups siding with Hamas over Israel in a statement, some of those organizations retracted their support. 

Summers, on X, said, “In nearly 50 years of @Harvard affiliation, I have never been as disillusioned and alienated as I am today.” 

These so-called Masters of the Universe are playing with half a deck of cards, one filled with jokers, not the harmless harlequin types, but evil clowns of the Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix ilk. 

In the words that Dan Bongino uses so often, “They are stupid smart people.” These young elitists don’t know the difference between good and evil.

So many of them are the evil Jokers of the Universe.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Five Random Thoughts Under the Fedora: A Side Effect of Texas Success, An inconsistent COVID stat, Good Advice delivered the right way, The Three Second Solution and Groktoberfest Oct 28th

Posted: October 7, 2023 by datechguy in catholic, culture, medicine, opinion/news, personal, special events, Uncategorized
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There is a story about how the special rare style of eclipse that will be viewed from Texas is going to produce issues with Texas’ power grid renewable side because said eclipse will be so long.

This highlights one of the things that sane Red States need to address. As people flee to them the demand on basic services from Electricity to water are going to increase which means you have to build the infrastructure to handle said increases. This means power stations, dams etc which will mean some expense for state budgets.

Of course they might decide not doing this will keep the liberals out.

There was a story out of New Zealand that I referenced briefly yesterday that based on their specialties Doctors were given Covid Vaccine exemptions but only if they did not reveal said exemptions is yet another “post Christian” horror story where the general population was kept in the dark for fun and profit but there was a stat in the story that I must confess throws me off. To wit:

The most highly Covid vaccinated nations in the OECD are in order Portugal, Chile, Canada, Iceland, New Zealand, Spain and Australia. Their average percentage of the population vaccinated is 91 per cent. Their average rate of excess deaths so far in 2023 is 12 per cent above the five-year historical average.

The least Covid vaccinated nations in the OECD are Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Poland, Estonia, Czech Republic, Hungary and Switzerland. Their average percentage of the population vaccinated is just 63 per cent. Their average rate of excess deaths so far in 2023 is 0 per cent compared to the five-year historical average. In other words, they have averaged a normal death rate.

The great difference between excess deaths is not a surprise but the 0% figure from countries that have a 63% of the population vaxxed is. 63% is a solid majority of the population. I’m no doctor but the math seems inconsistent that there would be no statistical excess deaths given that more than 3 in 5 of the population took the jab if the jab is the cause.

I’d be interested in seeing the historical rates of some of the known COVID jab side effects pre-covid in those countries vs the others and I wonder what the booster rates were in those countries. That might be the difference.

Stacy McCain took on the Trevor Bauer story on great Major League pitcher who insisted on his innocence and had the courage and wisdom to hold out till said innocence could be proven.

While I suspect the lawsuit against MLB will be epic as his suspension cost him tens of millions of dollars the bottom line is that by not embracing the Church’s teaching on marriage and sex Bauer put himself in that situation. However as many young rich men won’t listen to that point Stacy pointed out some basic facts both about there statistical odds of a genital herpes but more importantly a basic fact of life that might make a more effective argument:

If a woman is very attractive, why is she still single at age 27? Why is she still in the dating market? What’s wrong with her?

Now if you’re date her for a while with the thought of Christian marriage you might be able to find out the answer to that question but if you’re out for a quick lay these are the risks you take.

God’s laws aren’t just the right thing they’re the smart thing.

Thursday I was at a stop light in Fitchburg with a large truck on my left next to me. The light turned green and because I was running early I paused before going because our two lanes were going to merge into one not wanting to bottle neck.

It’s a good thing I did because the very next moment a car from the lane whose light just turned red passed just in front of me at high speed, jumped the curb and crashed into a parked car at the bank parking lot where I had been five minutes earlier.

If I had been a second or two faster in moving forward that car would have hit my drivers door square and you would be reading something else this morning.

I seem to have run into a lot of things over my lifetime where the difference between life and death was a split second away. I guess all those Rosaries make a difference.

Finally if you are in the New England area on Saturday October 28th consider Groktoberfest put on by the good folks at Granite Grok .

It will be an excellent chance to meet up with other conservatives. There will be music, comedy, Local Groups and Vendors, food, beverages, Speakers and even a gun raffle. (Ruger 10-22)!

Tickets are on sale now here. I’ll be buying mine before the end of the week.

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