By Hassan Mahmoudi, AM THINKER

The protests in Iran are now in their fourth month, and the government is responding with increasing aggression. It has already executed two protesters, both for murder, condemned another protester to death, and has accused 20 or more protesters of crimes punishable by death.

Recently, the Iran Human Rights Society printed a letter from a high school student who was arrested for attending a protest. The law enforcement agents to whom he refers were probably members of the Ministry of Information (MOIS) intelligence service because they tend to drive Samand brand white cars. However, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps occasionally work with MOIS, with the IRGC seizing people and then delivering them to MOIS for interrogation. Given the known track record of the regime when it comes to those who threaten it, there’s good reason to believe the letter is legitimate.
Read more…

by Majid Rafizadeh, GATESTONE  •  December 17, 2022

Farideh Moradkhani, niece of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, denounces the Iranian regime in a video posted on YouTube. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)

• Where, also, are the women’s movements of the West?
• The sister of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Badri Hosseini Khamenei, came out criticizing the whole establishment and calling for the overthrow of her brother’s “despotic caliphate”.
• Read more…

Elon Musk calls it ‘extremely concerning’

By Patricia Tolson, EPOCH TIMES December 15, 2022

New documents reveal how the United States government used a secret Twitter portal to censor COVID-19 content that contradicted the government’s narrative.

In its ongoing probe into Twitter’s censorship practices, America First Legal has obtained a fourth set of documents (pdf) exposing a secret Twitter portal, which U.S. government officials used to censor dissenting COVID-19 views in violation of the First Amendment. It’s a revelation Elon Musk described as “extremely concerning.”
Read more…

T. Belman. I see a different aspect of the problem. Israel has passed Basic Laws but there is a disagreement whether are superior to ordinary laws. The concern seems to be that the override law will allow,  infringement of rights.

Israel does not have a constitution. Therefore the “rights” are not defined  in a constitution. They are derived by the Court from the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty (1992)

“The basic human rights in Israel are based on the recognition of the value of the human being, the sanctity of his life, and his being a free person, and they shall be upheld in the spirit of the principles included in the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel.”

“One should not violate the life, body, or dignity of a human being as such.”

When the Court overrules a law they usually hold that the law infringes on a person’s “dignity”. It alone decides what rights “dignity” encompasses. This is an overreach. It should be up to the Knesset to decide what rights are encompassed.

Experts opposed to a High Court override say existing power to strike down legislation is crucial to safeguarding democracy, scholars in favor decry court’s unchecked authority

By JEREMY SHARON, TOI         

From left: Dr. Tamar Hostovsky Brandes, Prof. Yaniv Roznai, Adv. Yonatan Green, Prof. Moshe Koppel and Times of Israel editor David Horovitz at a ToI Live event in Jerusalem’s Israel Democracy Institute, December 15, 2022. (Oded Antman/IDI)

Prominent legal scholars discussed the incoming coalition’s plans to curtail the High Court’s power during a Thursday event hosted and live-streamed by The Times of Israel, exploring its likely far-reaching impact on Israeli democracy and society.

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by David Stockman

The unspeakable stain of the Covid tyranny requires the very opposite of the “pandemic amnesty” that the craven poltroons at the Atlantic magazine suggested recently. That’s because the precedent was such a grave affront to constitutional liberty and capitalist prosperity that those responsible should be exposed, hounded and shamed, and prosecuted where warranted, so that future power-grabbers will forever be reminded that tyranny cannot be imposed with impunity.

Read more…

The hatred of the accomplished Musk and the worship of the hollow man Bankman-Fried are sad commentaries on how liberalism has descended into progressivism and ultimately into Stalinism.

By Victor Davis Hanson, AM GREATNESS

Before the midterm November elections, Sam Bankman-Fried was a left-wing billionaire heartthrob.

He properly grew up on the Stanford campus, where his parents were well-known left-wing activist law professors. He went to a tony prep school and on to MIT.

Bankman-Fried mocked society’s bourgeois capitalist conventions by dressing and looking like a slob in cut-offs and T-shirts.
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Some students report being spat upon and harassed, while some campus groups have forced out those who support Israel

By Douglas Belkin, WSJ,

Tufts University, in Medford, Mass., shown several years ago, denounced antisemitism while championing free speech.PHOTO: BRIAN SNYDER/REUTERS

Adina Pinsker commutes to Rutgers University in Newark, N.J., to study supply-chain management. She is also active in Hillel International, the nation’s largest collegiate Jewish organization.

When she arrives on campus, she takes an indirect route to class and tucks inside her shirt the silver Star of David she wears around her neck. These are precautions, she said, to avoid harassment from students who dislike Israel, the people who support it, or both.

Read more…

By Tanya Berlaga, AMER THINKER

Last week, Congress passed the “Respect for Marriage” Act.  As usual, the name the proponents (or, sometimes, opponents) invent for the bill does not accurately represent its purpose.  You may remember that the “For the People” Act was a lot less useful to the people than it was to the Democrat party.  The “Inflation Reduction Act” did nothing to reduce inflation.  And the “Don’t Say Gay” bill did not ban the word “gay.”
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Someone needs to teach the Biden administration just what antisemitism is

By MELANIE PHILLIPS

Elizabeth Frawley Bagley at Senate confirmation hearing, May 2022<
>
The Biden administration has announced the establishment of an inter-agency group that will co-ordinate US government efforts “to counter antisemitism”.

President Joe Biden said: “Antisemitism has no place in America. All Americans should forcefully reject antisemitism — including Holocaust denial — wherever it exists.”

Read more…

By Daniel Greenfield, 15 Dec 

It’s December. The cold winds are blowing and darkness comes early. Worker productivity drops across the board except for the one class of workers who don’t work any other time of the year.

Congress.
With the midterm elections in the rearview mirror, the Senate is a furious hive of activity, dirty deals and furious negotiations as its small membership uses the opportunity created by the incoming House Republican majority to rush legislation through the lame duck session.
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JStreet is not Jewish or pro-Israel, it exists solely to advance Democrats. It is anti-Israel and the Reform Movement is now the same. Op-ed.

By Moshe Hill, INN

Ilhan OmarReuters

(JNS) J Street, a far-left organization that has done more to turn Israel into a partisan issue than any other, has joined other anti-Israel Jewish groups (Ameinu, Americans for Peace Now, Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, Habonim Dror North America, J Street, New Israel Fund, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and T’ruah – note that the Reform Movementisout in the open) in an attempt to browbeat Kevin McCarthy—likely to be the next speaker of the House—into not kicking virulent antisemite Rep. Ilhan Omar off the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Read more…

Can Israel and Indonesia normalize diplomatic relations? It would be an Asian game-changer.

By MARK REGEV, JPOST

UAE PRESIDENT Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed is greeted by Indonesian President Joko Widodo at the beginning of the G20 Summit last month, in Bali. (photo credit: Leon Neal/Reuters)

When the presumptive next prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his goal of expanding the Abraham Accords to include additional countries, speculation arose as to which Arab or Muslim state would be the next to normalize ties with Israel. Though unlikely to materialize soon, one particularly attractive candidate is located over 8,000 km. away in southeast Asia – Indonesia.

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https://www.dickmorris.com/trump-leads-desantis-by-22-points-wsj-poll-was-rigged-lunch-alert/

By David Israel , JEWISH PRESS– – December 15, 2022

A rendering of King Hezekiah’s inscription.

Archaeologist Prof. Gershon Galil on Wednesday night revealed on Channel 14 what they believe to be one of the most important archaeological discoveries of all time in Israel, which they say presents a breakthrough in the study of the history of Israel in the biblical period.

Read more…

This could become one of the biggest stories of 2023, even if the corporate media tries to hide it.

By Rod Thomson, PJ MEDIA  Dec 14/22

One of the greatest potential threats to public health to come from the COVID imbroglio has been the introduction and forced acceptance of the experimental, barely studied, first-time mRNA vaccine. Most places, not all, have grudgingly backed off the shot mandates, but Americans still have precious little information on the vaccines’ efficacy and dangers—except for the rapidly growing VAERS database of severe post-vaccine adverse events.

So now we finally have one major political leader willing to take the leap forward to launch a long-needed full-scale investigation using the powers of the state. No real surprise that it is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

Read more…

NEW ATLAS BREAKS IT DOWN.
IT WON’T WORK
HE SUMMARIZES IN THE LAST THREE MINUTES.

FOR A CONTRARY VIEW GO HERE;
EXPLAINER: What can the Patriot missile do for Ukraine?

Col MacGregor agrees with New Atlas.
Putin’s next move will be DEVASTATING, and NATO is out of options | Redacted News

Starts at 30 minutes.  Well worth watching.