Random thoughts #27

Biden is withholding weapons from Israel that were approved by an overwhelming congressional vote. Why isn’t this an impeachable offense?

It was rumored that Italy paid Muammar Gaddafi $2 billion a year to stop the migrants from reaching Italy. With Gaddafi now gone, the floodgates are open. I was wondering if the US could pay Obrador $2 billion to keep the illegals from entering Mexico. A good friend who knows these things said “No. The cartels would assassinate him immediately.” Then my friend said that he thinks that the Biden Administration has an agreement with the cartels to allow illegal entry into the United States.

No one has mentioned that the new EPA internal combustion engine restrictions will kill the RV industry. The battery banks required to electrify large class A buses will be too heavy and the pickup trucks would not be able to tow the larger fifth wheels. Yet from the RV industry comes only silence.

I am proud of my carbon footprint. I have a big SUV and a diesel pickup to tow my fifth wheel. I also have a Can Am Spyder and a Piaggio motorscooter. 

The positive sentiment of the public regarding the Viet Nam war waned over time with the mounting casualty lists and demonstrations. Will the same thing happen with Israel? Currently, the student demonstrations are having little impact on the public which overwhelmingly supports Israel. Maybe the public just considers them part of the kook fringe as spoiled, privileged, mostly white foul mouth rich kids.

Have you noticed that all the students interviewed and all the professors that are demonstrating are in the Arts and not the Sciences? It is though serious students in business, engineering and the sciences and their (non Muslim) professors are still trying to get an education.

When I attended my niece’s inauguration as president of Harvey Mudd College, the ceremony which was at neighboring Pomona College was delayed when a group lay in front of the auditorium and covered themselves with sheets. The police let the platform party and family into the back entrance and the other participants and attendees were taken to a site on the Mudd campus. Mudd is an engineering school and one of their professors told me that he doubted if any of the protestors were Mudd students. He said they were likely from one of the liberal arts schools because “Mudders were too serious to be engaged in such nonsense.”

If I were in university administration I would have told the students that they can protest but cannot disrupt the business of the university. No encampments. No threats to Jews and Jewish students. No hateful slogans espousing violence. Those who disobey will be expelled (not suspended) from the university. This close to the end of the semester and graduation an expulsion would have a deterring significant impact.

Remember how the media covered the right wing demonstration in Charlottesville? White nationalists, neo-Nazis, the KKK and the alt-right kooks showed up to protest the removal of a Robert E. Lee stature from a city park. The protest turned violent. Trump was president and said that “You had some very bad people in that group. You also had some very fine people on both sides.” The media went ballistic condemning Trump for not unilaterally condemning just those on the far right. Well Biden did much the same thing when he condemned antisemitism and islamophobia. No criticism from the media here. Talking about walking down the proverbial middle of the road.

Why isn’t it hate speech when student protestors say vile things about Jews? Students joined by outsiders are chanting the most vile slogans. Consider “From river to sea, Palestine will be free” advocates the eradication of Israel and the killing of 10 million Jews. How about “Globalize the intifada”? The last time this praised the suicide bombings of temples and Jewish businesses. “Death to Zionists” is hardly subtle. Neither is “Burn Tel Aviv to the ground”. Then there are chants at Jewish students of “Go back to Poland”, “Death to Zionists” and “Go back to Germany and get gassed.” I won’t list the obscene ones.

What about the university in Iran offering scholarships to students expelled by their American universities? I can just see the “Gays for Palestine” and the “Queers for Hamas” flocking to Iran and its warm embrace of the LGBTQ crowd.

My other half watches Fox News. I noticed that they have adopted the language of the left calling illegals “migrants.” On their website they are even capitalizing “B” in black. One wonders if their conservatism is just marketing.

The Republican AGs are the only line of defense against the tyranny of the Biden Administration. Several states have said that they are not adopting the Title IX mandates on transgenders. The EPA is being sued to block its carbon rules which go beyond its authority. There is a suit to block the rule on background checks at gun shows. A suit on the pausing of natural gas exports. The AGs have asked the EPA to stop using civil rights laws to investigate actions and policies in pursuing “environmental justice.” The AGs sued the Department of Agriculture over its LGBTQ guidance (the Department of Agriculture?). The AGs sued when Biden reinstated California’s emission standards. They sue when Biden stopped the Keystone pipeline. They are suing the Biden administration over its policies on school and workplace protections for transgender people alleging that the rules go well beyond the law. There are others as well. Again the question is what are the republicans in congress doing other than making fools of themselves with their endless bickering?