Unknown's avatar

About theartfuldilettante

The Artful Dilettante is a native of Pittsburgh, PA, and a graduate of Penn State University. He is a lover of liberty and a lifelong and passionate student of the same. He is voracious reader of books on the Enlightenment and the American colonial and revolutionary periods. He is a student of libertarian and Objectivist philosophies. He collects revolutionary war and period currency, books, and newspapers. He is married and the father of one teenage son. He is kind, witty, generous to a fault, and unjustifiably proud of himself. He is the life of the party and an unparalleled raconteur.

Top Thirty Reasons Kamala Harris Would Make a Terrible President

Kamala Harris’ political history proves that putting her in power is a bad move that hurts Americans..

The powers that be decided this week that despite her disastrous approval numbers and long history of unpopularity among Democrat voters, Vice President Kamala Harris will take President Joe Biden’s place as the blue party’s presumptive 2024 candidate.

Here are 30 reasons why Harris, whether through Biden’s resignation or the upcoming election, would make a terrible president.

1. She Covered Up Biden’s Cognitive Decline..

Harris had a front-row seat to President Joe Biden’s mental and physical deterioration but never said a word. In fact, she routinely issued statements indicating Biden was fit enough to stay president.

2. She’s Sympathetic to Pro-Hamas Demonstrators..

Harris believes the pro-terrorist activists taking over college campuses, occupying highways, and defacing military cemeteries are merely “showing exactly what the human emotion should be.”

3. She Refuses to Oppose Abortion Until Birth..

Harris famously refused to say which abortion limits she supports in a September 2023 sitdown with CBS’s Margaret Brennan.

4. She Shirked Her Duties as Border Czar..

Biden named Harris as border czar in 2021, but it took her months to visit ground zero of the record-breaking invasion her administration incentivized. The Border Patrol chiefs responsible for securing the border also confirmed that Harris never spoke with them.

5. She Also Put Other Countries’ Borders Before Her Own..

Harris traveled thousands of miles away from the U.S. border invasion she was tasked with handling to deliver “peace and security” to the borders of Ukraine, which “is a country.”

6. She Knowingly Spread the Border Patrol Whipping Lie..

Harris claimed she saw “horrible” footage of Border Patrol agents whipping illegal border crossers, but a U.S. Customs and Border Protection investigation found no evidence that the horseback unit used their reins to strike migrants.

7. She’s Wildly Unpopular..

One of Harris’ most notable accomplishments is receiving the worst vice presidential rating in the history of modern polling. Her abysmal job approval ratings have only continued, often ranking worse than Biden’s, and do not suggest that she’s up to the task of taking over the presidency.

8. And Disliked by Her Staff..

A whopping 92 percent of Harris’ staff left in her first three years as vice president.

9. She’s out of Touch..

While arguing against voter ID laws, Harris claimed that it’s “almost impossible” for rural Americans to make a photocopy.

10. She’s a Bad Speaker..

Harris has tried to come off as inspirational, but her speeches and public addresses are often riddled with jumbled, off-script chattering or unintelligible babble that rivals Biden’s incoherence.

11. She Praised the Persecution of Lifesaving Pregnancy Centers..

Harris used the presidential podium to cheer on Democrats for “taking on rightly the crisis pregnancy centers.”

12. She Supported Bailing Out 2020 Rioters.

Accused rapists, repeat offenders, and rioters alike benefitted in June 2020 when Harris encouraged her social media followers to donate to a bail fund dedicated to those arrested for their months-long, $2 billion siege of cities like Minneapolis. The vice president later lied about her involvement in the money-raising scheme.

13. She Dodges Questions About Defunding the Police..

During the peak of Black Lives Matter calls to defund the police in 2020, Harris refused to say whether she supported defunding law enforcement. Instead, she championed meeting the “dire need for mental health resources.”

14. She May Have Plagiarized Her Go-To Childhood Story..

Harris loves to tell a story about asking for “fweedom” from her stroller at a civil rights march. That supposed childhood memory, however, suspiciously resembles one Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. told Playboy in 1965.

15. She Supports Race-Based Wealth Redistribution..

During her short-lived presidential campaign in 2020, Harris debuted plans for a $100 billion home-ownership subsidy for black families she claims should be repaid for “generations of discrimination.”

16. She’s a Gun Grabber..

Harris threatened during the 2020 Democrat primary debate to take “executive action” on guns if Congress did not meet her demands by passing “the most comprehensive background check policy we’ve had.” After taking office, Harris claimed no one is “trying to come after your guns” as the Biden administration and Democrats prepared to do just that.

17. She Wants to Raise Taxes..

During the 2020 vice presidential debate, Harris proudly promised the Biden-Harris White House would repeal a bill that prevented a $4 trillion increase in taxes.

18. She Wants to Ban Fracking..

“There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking,” Harris said during a 2019 CNN town hall.

19. She Voted Against Protections for Born-Alive Babies..

Harris failed infants in 2019 when she voted alongside other Democrats against legislation that would compel doctors to give babies born alive after botched abortions the same level of care other humans receive.

20. She Wants to Strip Americans of Their Health Insurance..

During a CNN town hall forum in 2019, Harris said she wanted to eliminate all private insurance, which would strip millions of Americans of their health coverage.

21. Yet She Wants Taxpayer-Funded Health Care for Illegal Border Crossers..

“I am opposed to any policy that would deny in our country any human being from access to public safety, public education or public health, period,” Harris told CNN’s Jake Tapper in 2019.

22. She Proudly Enabled the Jussie Smollett Race Hoax..

Harris called the staged hate crime an “attempted modern-day lynching.” She did not apologize even after Smollett was found guilty of felony disorderly conduct and making false police reports.

23. She Socializes With Notorious Antisemites..

Harris claimed Rev. Al Sharpton, who has a history of inciting race riots and anti-Jewish pogroms, has “spent his life fighting for what’s right and working to improve our nation.” She also spoke at a summit with ties to the former Women’s March Chair Tamika Mallory, who stepped down after praising Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

24. She Demanded Twitter Deplatform Trump..

In 2019, Harris called on then-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to suspend Donald Trump’s account because she deemed his tweets incendiary.

25. She Sponsored Legislation That Would Codify Abortion Through All Nine Months..

As a senator, Harris was a proud co-sponsor of the original version of the “Women’s Health Protection Act,” which sought to codify abortion through all nine months of pregnancy.

26. She Compared Border Security to the KKK..

As a senator, Harris asked the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement if he “saw any parallels” between the KKK and his agency.

27. She’s Into AOC’s Socialism..

When pressed about Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s proposed 70 percent tax hike in 2019, Harris called the freshman legislator “fantastic” and praised her for “challenging the status quo.”

28. She’s Openly Anti-Catholic..

As a senator in 2018, Harris smeared Brian Buescher, a nominee for the U.S. District Court in Nebraska, for his affiliation with the famous Catholic fraternal organization Knights of Columbus and its historically pro-life views.

29. She Aided the Character Assassination of Brett Kavanaugh..

Harris not only publicly declared her belief in Christine Blasey Ford’s evidenceless allegations against Justice Brett Kavanaugh but used her position as senator to interrupt and smear the Trump nominee numerous times during his 2018 confirmation hearings. Even after Kavanaugh officially joined the high court, Harris claimed his confirmation was a “denial of justice for the women of this country.”

30. She Prosecuted Journalists for Doing Their Jobs..

As California attorney general, Harris prosecuted journalists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt for exposing Planned Parenthood for trafficking the body parts of aborted babies. Part of her prosecution involved a raid on Daleiden’s house, where investigators allegedly seized footage further implicating the abortion giant and handed it over to Harris’ abortion campaign donors.

Jordan Boyd, The Federalist

Biden to Kamala: Disaster to Catastrophe

Will Democrats take the plunge with Kamala or go for someone else, like a Gavin or even a “drafted” Michelle?

Democrats have a dilemma because they must honor identity politics, but they also must have a candidate credible to people who follow politics superficially, through the establishment media. Biden lost credibility in that context, and he instantly became toast. Kamala is vulnerable to that same thing because she is just so incredibly goofy, inarticulate, and incoherent, despite their now trying to sell her as a “tough prosecutor” — in California, where they don’t prosecute many real criminals. Their main advantage is they can repeat all the cheating from 2020 and 2022 with no accountability (Democratic governors in all the swing states); and they can create national chaos on election “day” via a green or medical emergency, or perhaps a new war, and use the chaos to blur the results in their favor (as during COVID). They are truly capable of anything, with no limits, boundaries or morals of any kind. Not your daddy’s Democrats!

Biden was the most improbable, incompetent president in American history. His election (riddled with unverified, subjectively counted mail-in ballots) was the most questionable, by far.

But the media covered for him; the media made him. Until they were done with him, he was surviving in power, despite a record worse than Jimmy Carter’s. When the media turned on him, Biden was done. But not a moment before.

Most people don’t think through the issues required to maintain a democracy, much less a republic (we ARE the latter, or were.) The media does our thinking for us, at least most of us. “Thinking” is too flattering a word. It’s more production value than anything of substance.

The 99.99 percent leftist media carried Biden, making him President against all odds. They can do it with Kamala too. Don’t be naive, and don’t be complacent. Trump may prevail, or he may prove a quixotic figure. The final judgment lies with the perspective of the future. For now, we are poised for an epic battle between good and evil.

Follow Dr. Hurd on Facebook. Search under “Michael Hurd” (Charleston SC). Get up-to-the-minute postings, recommended articles and links, and engage in back-and-forth discussion with Dr. Hurd on topics of interest. Also follow Dr. Hurd on Twitter at @MichaelJHurd1, drmichaelhurd on Instagram, Michael Hurd Ph.D. on LinkedIn, @DrHurd on TruthSocial

When DEI can Kill

Elon Musk was spot-on when he slammed Boeing for focusing on woke DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) goals instead of  prioritizing product quality and safety. 

“People will die due to DEI,” he stated, in a post on X. 

Adding, Musk asked a rhetorical question in another tweet: 

“Do you want to fly in an airplane where they prioritized DEI hiring over your safety?”

True enough, in a 2023 report on “Global Equity, Diversity & Inclusion”, Boeing admitted the following: 

“Our goal was to achieve diverse interview slates for at least 90% of manager and executive openings. We exceeded that target with 92% of interview slates being diverse, resulting in 47% diverse hires at the management and executive levels.”

“DEI really means ‘division, exclusion, and indoctrination,’ and it is wrong.” – Gov. Ron DeSantis

The same report added:

“Across Boeing, we continue to make progress on our commitments as we advance representation and inclusion company wide. We know diversity must be at the table for every important decision our company makes – every challenge we face, every innovation we design. Equity, diversity and inclusion are core values because they make Boeing — and each of us individually — better.”

Do DEI metrics make Boeing products safer for air travel passengers? Well, just look at what happened to Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, a Boeing plane. 

A Reuters article on the plane incident reported:

“The incident happened as the jet climbed following takeoff from Portland, Oregon, en route to Ontario, California, on Jan. 5. As Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 reached just over 16,000 feet, the panel tore off from the side of the jet, leaving a neat, refrigerator-sized, rectangular hole in the aircraft. The pilots immediately signaled that the plane would have to land. The aircraft landed safely with all 171 passengers and six crew on board. Several passengers suffered injuries. The plane had been in service for just eight weeks.”

So much for DEI policies at Boeing.

Likewise, sources at UCLA’s medical school told the Washington Free Beacon about the disastrous consequences of DEI “racial preferences” on medical schools. An excerpt from the Washington Free Beacon article reads: 

“So when it came time for the admissions committee to consider one such student in November 2021—a black applicant with grades and test scores far below the UCLA average—some members of the committee felt that this particular candidate, based on the available evidence, was not the best fit for the top-tier medical school, according to two people present for the committee’s meeting. Their reservations were not well-received. When an admissions officer voiced concern about the candidate, the two people said, the dean of admissions, Jennifer Lucero, exploded in anger. ‘Did you not know African-American women are dying at a higher rate than everybody else?’ Lucero asked the admissions officer, these people said. The candidate’s scores shouldn’t matter, she continued, because ‘we need people like this in the medical school.’” 

Unsurprisingly, admissions officers with a bit more common sense were alarmed at Lucero’s angry outburst. 

Faculty members with firsthand knowledge of the admissions process say it has prioritized diversity over merit, resulting in progressively less qualified classes that are now struggling to succeed”. 

“We are not consistent in the way we apply the metrics to these applicants,” one such official penned in an email seen by the Washington Free Beacon. “This is troubling.”

Adding, the official mused

“I wondered, if this applicant had been [a] white male, or [an] Asian female for that matter, [whether] we would have had that much discussion.”

Disturbingly, the Washington Free Beacon cited one former member of the admissions staff  as saying: “We want racial diversity so badly, we’re willing to cut corners to get it.”

“I have students on their rotation who don’t know anything,” one member of the admissions committee told the Washington Free Beacon. “People get in and they struggle.”

Elaborating on the situation at UCLA, the Washington Free Beacon article said that “faculty members with firsthand knowledge of the admissions process say it has prioritized diversity over merit, resulting in progressively less qualified classes that are now struggling to succeed”. 

It can be presumed that these “struggling” students are already treating patients, or will eventually do so. “Woke” medical schools are producing many graduates with subpar proficiencies, at the expense of patients. 

Such DEI ludicrosity has been mimicked by the American Secret Service. Kimberly Cheatle, the present head of the Secret Service, seems to be enamored of DEI ideologies

“We need to attract diverse candidates, and ensure that we are developing and giving opportunities to everybody in our workforce, and particularly women,” Cheatle said in an interview with CBS News. 

In light of the recent shooting of former president Donald Trump, observers have noted how one female Secret Service agent who was meant to protect Trump at that time was shorter, while others seemed to be struggling to get at their holsters. Notably, Daily Wire commentator Michael Knowles sarcastically pointed out that prioritizing DEI and hiring women “known for their physical strength” in the Secret Service “is a great way to get presidents assassinated”. 

“Secret Service agents are obviously no longer expected to be real life Jason Stathams, who can go any place, any time, under any conditions. No more leatherneck, battle hardened, super fit guys required. Too much ‘toxic masculinity’.”

Based on an article by Brussels Signal, Cheatle has amended the fitness criteria for candidates applying to the Secret Service. The article stated that “one only needs to be able to do fourteen push-ups, twenty sit-ups, and run (or walk, if tired) a mile and a half in under 20 minutes”. 

Furthermore, the same Brussels Signal article noted: 

“Secret Service agents are obviously no longer expected to be real life Jason Stathams, who can go any place, any time, under any conditions. No more leatherneck, battle hardened, super fit guys required. Too much ‘toxic masculinity’.”

In remarks to The Washington Stand, Lt. Col. (Ret.) Bob Maginnis, Family Research Council’s senior fellow for National Security, stated: 

“At the Pentagon, the Biden officials make decisions that were previously based on merit, physical fitness, and a record of outstanding performance. However, Biden officials discard merit-based decisions in favor of diversity, equity, and inclusion and mission success is thrown away. As a result, especially when physical fitness and sheer strength are indicators of mission success, the Biden people have purposely diminished our readiness to perform critical functions.”

During his speech in Milwaukee at the recent l Republican National Convention, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis condemned leftist DEI initiatives in various American institutions: 

“They stand for DEI, which really means ‘division, exclusion, and indoctrination,’ and it is wrong. They mandated that you show proof of a COVID vaccine to go to a restaurant, but they oppose requiring proof of citizenship to cast a vote,” DeSantis went on, highlighting the absurdity of leftist obsessions with skin color and “gender” rather than merit and capabilities. 

Hopefully, leftists won’t kill themselves in the process of implementing their DEI ideologies as well. 

Angelina Tan, Remnant Newspaper

Trump Lays Out Vision for Second Term

Donald Trump speaks to a crowd at the RNC - Allison Dinner /Shutterstock

Donald Trump speaks to a crowd at the RNC – Allison Dinner /Shutterstock© Provided by The Telegraph

It has happened. Two conclusions seem inevitable. First, that we are looking at a second Trump presidency, barring an act of God. Second, that between now and November lie four months of relentless identity politics.

Welcome to the American election 2024, Donald Trump vs Kamala Harris edition. With Joe Biden succumbing this evening to the ravages of age and Covid, he used whatever judgment he had left to nominate Harris as his heir and successor.

Test Your MASH Knowledge

QuizGrizTest Your MASH Knowledge

Ad

History will not view that decision kindly. For one thing, Harris is one of the least popular politicians to have ever occupied a post this senior. As I pointed out three weeks ago, a poll last year granted her the ignominious status of worst vice president this millennium.

In recent weeks, her popularity has bumped along marginally ahead of the Presidents, but still well into double-digit negatives, and about five points behind Donald Trump. Is it any wonder? A quick Google reveals that her stock-in-trade is that most toxic political currency, the gaff. She has quipped bafflingly about coconut trees, clapped along enthusiastically to a song attacking her in Spanish, sung The Wheels On The Bus idiotically to the cameras to a tune that nobody recognised, and repeated her gnomic motto – “what can be unburdened by what has been” – no fewer than 62 times in speeches, providing fodder for an eye-wateringly effective Republican attack ad this month.

On top of this, her record is yet to be tested. Take, for example, her checkered history as a self-proclaimed “progressive” prosecutor. In her 2019 campaign tract, she wrote: “America has a deep and dark history of people using the power of the prosecutor as an instrument of injustice. I know this history well – of innocent men framed, of charges brought against people of colour without sufficient evidence, of prosecutors hiding information that would exonerate defendants, of the disproportionate application of the law.”

Her words were later used to describe her own failings. Her worst moment probably came in 2010, when 600 drug-related cases were voided after her office failed to disclose key information about the mishandling of evidence to defence attorneys. She made things worse later that year by opposing a San Francisco initiative to legalise marijuana – 1,560 people were jailed for marijuana offences during her tenure as attorney general – then later supporting decriminalisation legislation.

Test Your MASH Knowledge

QuizGrizTest Your MASH Knowledge

Ad

Similarly, she opposed the softening of minimum mandatory sentences, but rolled out a criminal justice plan while running for president that proposed ending them.

The list goes on. Harris has also been criticised for her handling of wrongful convictions, resisting DNA testing that may have exonerated suspects and failing to disclose crucial evidence that may have tipped the scales against the accused in sexual abuse cases.

Ironically enough, she was also criticised on race grounds, rejecting demands from civil rights activists to investigate cop shootings in Los Angeles and San Francisco in the wake of the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson in 2014, resisting legislation that mandated body cameras for all police officers a year later, and prosecuting parents of truanting pupils, despite complaints that this hit poor black people hardest.

All this was some time ago, it is true. But when you’re running for president as a Democrat candidate, this is the sort of record that will be scrutinised by the Republicans and the press, and subsequently the electorate. They will also pick over her attitude towards Israel, which has been hostile to say the least, when 80 per cent of American voters support the Jewish state.

Test Your 1960s Trivia Knowledge

QuizGrizTest Your 1960s Trivia Knowledge

Ad

How will she explain the fact that she insisted that the Rafah operation was impossible just weeks before it was successfully carried out by the IDF? How will she explain her blatant Jew-baiting when she demanded an immediate ceasefire, then allowed the longest pause to extend before adding caveats about Israel’s security? To put it another way, Donald Trump will eat her for breakfast.

Before that expected fate becomes a reality, however, we have a carnival of identity politics to look forward to. There were several far more popular and competent candidates than Harris for the position, such as Gavin Newsom, Governor of California, or the Governor of Michigan Gretchen Whitmer, who has the significant modern political advantage of XX chromosomes.

There was also Josh Shapiro, the “openly Jewish” Governor of Pennsylvania, a divided swing state, who is one of the most popular politicians in America, winning praise from even from Republicans after his dignified and compassionate response to the attempted shooting of Trump and the death of firefighter Corey Comperatore.

These figures now must content themselves with a possible vice president slot on the ticket. Why? None of them are well-known amongst the electorate, it is true. But also, none of them is black.

For this is 2024 America, and for the Democrats at least, race matters more than at any point since the civil rights movement. And not in a good way. With pressure mounting on Biden to step down, Harris’s team let it be known that it would be “offensive” if he were to name a white successor, even – it was implied – if that person was of far greater competence than her.

Remove race from the equation, and Harris is a terrible pick for VP. Add it to the mix and she is still a terrible pick, but one that is far more difficult to avoid without igniting a row over identity politics. The Democrat party of today is composed of a sensible wing in mortal combat with a radical fringe, led by the lunatic Alexandira Ocasio-Cortez and her fellow members of the “squad”. If Biden would have allowed his successor to be elected at the upcoming party conference, the radicals would unite with the trade unions and may seize the nomination.

Such a disaster is likely avoided by the appointment of Kamala Harris. But who will she choose for her running-mate? Someone from the moderate, Biden tradition or a sacred cow from the radical Left?

Frankly, at this point it doesn’t matter at all. Biden has screwed America. Arise, President Trump, and God help us.

Sign up to the Front Page newsletter for free: Your essential guide to the day’s agenda from The Telegraph – direct to your inbox seven days a week.

Toxic Fallacy: “If You Don’t Get It, I Shouldn’t Have to Explain”

I often warn my clients about believing arbitrary assertions. Sometimes it can be convenient to do so, but acting on something for which there are no facts to back it up can be psychologically unhealthy. Here’s an example excerpted from my most recent book, “Bad Therapy, Good Therapy and how to Tell the Difference” (available exclusively at DrHurd.com).

Joe and Melissa have been married for sixteen years. Last year, Joe accepted that he had a gambling addiction. He joined a local chapter of Gamblers Anonymous, a Twelve Step program for compulsive gamblers. At first, Melissa was happy Joe sought help. However, after a while she became uneasy as Joe began to keep his distance. He went to Gamblers Anonymous (G.A.) meetings every night; spending more and more time with G.A. friends and shutting out others even if they didn’t gamble.

When she tried to confront him about it, Joe responded: “You are an enabler. For me to have been sick all these years, you must have been sick too. You made it easier for me to gamble. It doesn’t matter if you can’t see this. You did it unconsciously. And until you accept that you are diseased, there is no hope for you either.” Melissa was distressed and angry over his claim. To add insult to injury, Joe revealed that he had been relapsing. He admitted to gambling numerous times since beginning G.A. What disturbed her most about this discovery was that Joe did not seem bothered by it. She learned that his sponsor (a kind of confidante who also had a gambling problem) told him not to be “so hard on yourself.”

It seemed to Melissa that perhaps he ought to be at least somewhat hard on himself for gambling when the goal was to quit. She became confused and ended up in a therapist’s office. The therapist asked Melissa to invite Joe to a session with her. Joe refused, indicating that Melissa had her own disease and it was good for her to get help – so long as the therapist was a believer in the Twelve Step philosophy.

Melissa couldn’t understand what Joe meant by “diseased.” She explained that it was hard enough for her to think of her husband’s gambling problem as a disease—a psychological problem for sure, but not a disease. And the idea that she herself was diseased made her feel like Joe was blaming her for his problem. The therapist suggested that Melissa ask Joe if he could explain the reasons why he felt she had a disease. Joe seemed irritated at the question and simply replied, “If your therapist is a believer in Twelve Steps, he should be able to tell you.”

But Melissa persisted, and Joe finally told her to read Melody Beattie’s book, “Codependent No More.” Melissa did, and while she found the book made some interesting points about not unwittingly encouraging the addict’s problem, she still saw no evidence that she herself was diseased or an enabler as the author defined the term. After hearing this, her therapist gave her another task: Whenever Joe made a claim about her with respect to this “disease,” she was to calmly respond, “Why?” or “Please explain what you mean.” If Joe became indignant, she would resolve not to become upset about it. Her therapist predicted that she would find this difficult and possibly even painful, but she needed to make it a habit. She needed to learn that nobody, not even her husband, was allowed to make claims without facts they could defend.

The point is that this involves more than just communication. Joe’s error is in making an arbitrary assertion. Melissa made the mistake of not recognizing it as arbitrary. When anyone makes an assertion that contains no facts, learn to put that individual on the defensive by demanding facts. Never become defensive yourself. It’s a waste of time and it’s not good for you.

Follow Dr. Hurd on Facebook. Search under “Michael Hurd” (Charleston SC). Get up-to-the-minute postings, recommended articles and links, and engage in back-and-forth discussion with Dr. Hurd on topics of interest. Also follow Dr. Hurd on Twitter at @MichaelJHurd1, drmichaelhurd on Instagram, Michael Hurd Ph.D. on LinkedIn, @DrHurd on TruthSocial

After Hamas is Gone,  How does Israel De-radicalize the Palestinians in Gaza ?


A book by Hitler is discovered in the house of Ahmed Samarah (photo credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON UNIT)

In June, Fadi al-Wadiya, a physiotherapist from Doctors Without Borders, was killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza. Doctors Without Borders quickly took to social media, condemning the “abhorrent” attack in multiple languages in a post that received millions of views and thousands of shares.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) responded by publishing photographic evidence that al-Wadiya was an operative in the missile program of the terrorist group Islamic Jihad in Gaza and therefore, a legitimate target. He was a physiotherapist, but he was also a terrorist.

Upon returning from a trip to the region last month, we have been struck by the inclination among Americans to assume that Hamas represents only a narrow slice of Gaza’s population. Many seem unaware, at best — or purposely ignoring, at worst — of the extent to which Hamas has its tentacles entrenched into Gazan society. That is why a sustainable peace will depend on the creation of a deradicalization campaign that helps to erode Hamas’s base of support.

Palestinian polling from June suggests that the majority of Gazans are still satisfied with Hamas and that the level of satisfaction has gradually increased since last year. Similarly, most Gazans approve of Hamas’s decision to launch the war on October 7 and would prefer Hamas rule over the US-backed Palestinian Authority (PA). Shortly after the Hamas massacre, videos surfaced of Gazan residents cheering at the sight of wounded or dead Israeli hostages arriving on trucks and motorbikes.

In early June, the IDF rescued four hostages from Gaza. Outrage swirled on social media when a prominent Gaza doctor and his renowned journalist son were killed during the raid. Except, it turns out, the doctor and journalist were actually the ones holding these hostages on behalf of Hamas.

It gets worse.

While visiting an IDF base, we watched raw footage from the October 7 attacks that had not been publicly released due to its gruesome, disturbing nature. After Hamas terrorists blew open border fences and entered Israel with rifles, grenades, missile-launchers, and anti-tank explosives, average Gazans then filed into the Israeli border communities to rape, murder, and loot. A mob of these Gazans, lacking the wartime weapons of Hamas’s military wing, killed and beheaded an agricultural worker at a kibbutz with a garden hoe.

During our trip, we also visited an IDF unit that collected intelligence from the scenes of the October 7 attack and from Gaza. The retrieved items included schoolbooks that deny the legitimacy of Israel, promote violence against its Jewish citizens, and feature games and puzzles that teach antisemitism to young Gazans.

No good can come from a blind insistence that there’s a small number of bad Hamas leaders, separate and distinct from some two million Gaza residents who just want a better life. That’s just not the reality on the ground, where Hamas is a terrorist group, a civil government, and a religious movement all rolled into one.

Frighteningly, Hamas’s tools for indoctrinating children parallel scenes from Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial, which features books and games from early 1930s Germany similarly teaching kids to hate Jews. One Israeli speaker told us that the Germans didn’t stop hating Jews after World War II out of the goodness of their hearts. Rather, occupying Allied personnel forced de-nazification upon them.

Untangling the web of extremism

That’s where the international community can help: by mobilizing the right people, organizations and governments to begin a deradicalization effort in Gaza and detangle the web of power and influence Hamas has built.

In theory, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which provides food, healthcare, education, and other basic civil services to Gazans registered as refugees in 1948 and to their descendants, would lead such a deradicalization effort. But UNRWA cannot be trusted to carry out this task.

According to Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, at least 12 UNRWA employees participated in the October 7 massacre, at least 30 more assisted, and over 10% of the agency’s employees in Gaza have ties to terror. Terrorists in Gaza have repeatedly used UNRWA facilities as bases for their operations. In February, the IDF discovered a Hamas data center hidden underneath UNRWA’s Gaza headquarters.

Breaking UNRWA’s monopoly on services in the enclave is critical.

These should be disaggregated and assigned to other UN organizations that have a global mandate. UNRWA, by contrast, was created solely for Palestinians, employs almost exclusively Palestinians, and has been co-opted by an extreme version of the Palestinian national narrative. That needs to change.

THE UNITED States can help. Our colleagues at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies published a report earlier this year that describes how.

For example, the US Agency for International Development and the US International Development Finance Corporation can centralize aid to Gaza; vet employees of the UN and other international organizations working in Gaza (such as Doctors Without Borders) to ensure their staff have no ties to terror; and help build a sustainable development model that aims for independence from aid. In so doing, they would reject the UNRWA model that perpetuates the conflict by passing entitlements from generation to generation.

Gaza needs a smart and purposeful investment and a radical deradicalization agenda.

If Germans moving past their hatred in the 1940s was hard, what needs to happen in Gaza may be tougher – but not impossible.

The Latest, Greatest Reason to DEFUND the FBI

So we now have evidence the FBI knew of the plot to assassinate Trump and chose not to act. No surprise. Some Republicans in Congress want answers. Do not hold your breath. The FBI was always questionable, at best. Now it’s openly, unapologetically a Gestapo in America operating on behalf of radical leftists to install a “progressive” dictatorship. The only solution is to defund the FBI for good, because it’s actively harming the cause and reality of freedom. And yes, arrest and try the worst offenders in the FBI Establishment, as an example of what happens when you mess with American liberty. Anything less than this, and even another Trump victory will not mean a thing.

Follow Dr. Hurd on Facebook. Search under “Michael Hurd” (Charleston SC). Get up-to-the-minute postings, recommended articles and links, and engage in back-and-forth discussion with Dr. Hurd on topics of interest. Also follow Dr. Hurd on Twitter at @MichaelJHurd1, drmichaelhurd on Instagram, Michael Hurd Ph.D. on LinkedIn, @DrHurd on TruthSocial