It appears that any criticism of Israel, any at all, is anti-Semitic. Or so the major news outlets would have us believe. Criticize the out-sized influence Israel holds over our own government, criticize the murder of medics, unarmed protesters, and children, and you will be dubbed an anti-Semite. It’s a race card, and, as it is with all race cards, is brandished by a coward who  realizes he has no real argument to counter with. Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar recently experienced this firsthand, when she pointed out the obvious-to-everyone fact that Israel, via AIPAC and other entities, wields enormous influence over our own government. That influence does include large sums of money, which Omar acknowledged with the statement, “It’s all about the Benjamins.” Cries of anti-Semitism erupted from the four corners, along with the usual sob stories of historical Jewish plight and persecution. And in my effort to learn a bit about the history of Israel, I came upon a recent piece by Philip Giraldi, entitled, Israel’s Story, with the subtitle, “Lies from start to finish”. Giraldi writes about an historical incident I had not known, specifically, the massacre at Deir Yassin:

“Israel was founded as a product of terrorism, some would say the “first modern” style terrorism, to include bombings of non-military targets and random massacres of civilians. In a notorious attack on the village of Deir Yassin on April 9, 1948, more than two hundred Palestinians may have been slaughtered by Jewish terrorists affiliated with the Irgun and Lehi groups. The exact count of the victims is unknown because a subsequent Zionist clean-up team systematically destroyed many of the bodies.”

The massacre at Deir Yassin triggered the massive 1948 Palestinian exodus, where 700,000 Palestinian Arabs fled their homes in face of the real threat of more massacres to come.

He also mentions another historical tidbit on the founding of the modern state of Israel, the assassination of Folke Bernadotte by the murderously fanatical Zionist group, Lehi. Bernadotte’s murder is ironic in the extreme, because he had previously negotiated the release of 31,000 prisoners from Hitler’s concentration camps. He was unanimously chosen to be the mediator in the Arab-Israeli conflict of 1947-48, only to be killed by members of Lehi who didn’t take kindly to the split-down-the-middle approach. Lehi wanted everything, and wanted the Arabs out of Palestine. His assassins fled to Israel, and the few Lehi members arrested by Israeli police were pardoned and released.

This is history that no one I’ve ever met knows. But mention it, and you’re an anti-Semite!

Anti-war Republican and vociferous opponent of the Iraq War, Walter Jones, has died

FEE: Red flag gun laws turn due process on its head

Reason: San Francisco’s accidental surveillance state and the future of privacy

At least we aren’t England. Yet. London to require GPS trackers for certain residents convicted of “knife possession”

MIKE GRAVEL: How to legalize cannabis throughout the U.S.

Reason: Journalists criticize CNN for planning journalism about Howard Schultz Ed: One puzzling aspect of the 2016 campaigns was the almost-constant coverage that almost every mainstream outlet gave Trump, despite clearly despising him. Of course, they wanted the ratings, but it’s fairly apparent that that very coverage played a part in Trump’s eventual victory.

GEORGE WILL: Limited government requires a limited President

BARNEY FIFE THINKS HE’S THE PUNISHER: Watch Glendale cops taser a man 10 times, handcuff him, pull his pants down, and taser his groin

JIM BOVARD: Trump’s absurd claim that Americans are free from government coercion

GLENN GREENWALD: Jeff Bezos protests the invasion of his privacy, as Amazon builds a sprawling surveillance state for everyone else

Finland learns a new economic concept, specifically capital consumption: Finland abandons ‘helicopter money’ experiment: No new jobs created

High Times: Getting in the mood: How marijuana could change depression and anxiety treatment

Wired: Inside the push to legalize magic mushrooms for depression and PTSD

Kamala Harris, former DA of San Francisco and current US senator, is running for President on the Democratic ticket. Back when she was a DA, Harris had an affinity for prosecuting and jailing the parents of truant children, something that she took great joy in, as this video of her speaking about it attests:

Watch the video and you will see someone completely convinced of their rationalization for abuse of power.  The greatest evil in the world comes from people who are able to rationalize that evil as some sort of moral crusade. What’s more fascinating, though, is her body language. Her facial expressions, her slimy glee in discussing the topic of incarcerating the parents of poor families, is indicative of someone completely possessed, and intoxicated by, power. The power to hurt others, to intimidate, to threaten, scare, and then sic the armed enforcers of the state on anyone she wishes. Except, of course, people who aren’t poor, because they can hire a lawyer and fight back.

Here’s a recent Jimmy Dore Show episode focused on Kamala’s sleaziness, and her penchant for avoiding “paper cases”, which refers to attempting to prosecute people who have the money to fight her wickedness:

The smear campaign currently ramping up against Tulsi Gabbard mirrors almost exactly that of the one against Trump, with baseless accusations of anti-Semitism, being a puppet of Putin and Syria’s Assad, supporter of terrorism, etc. For a representative taste of this attitude, see New York Time’s Bari Weiss on Joe Rogan. Weiss here appears extremely inarticulate, uninformed, and vicious, as she fails to defend her claim that Tulsi Gabbard is “monsterous”, and is the “motherlode of bad ideas”:

Weiss’ flustered attitude to Rogan’s polite, soft-ball questioning of her claims that Tulsi is monsterous is evidence of the bubble that these propaganda churners live in. Weiss in all probability has never been challenged to her face for any of her positions. As Jimmy Dore says, mockingly, : “When I go back to the New York Times I just say ‘Assad Toadie’ and everyone pats me on the head!” The elite propagandists that have been pushing endless war for the past two decades live in this same bubble. They have access to the mainstream media outlets, and even these outlets have been peppering their staff with “ex” intelligence analysts, sure to give the respectable sheen to any military action abroad.

For more info on that last fact, see this piece in Politico from about a year ago: The Spies Who Came in to the TV Studio

MICHAEL DOUGHERTY: One cheer for Tulsi Gabbard Ed: Important article for “conservatives” and libertarians. Gabbard will steamroll over her Democratic rivals, and, barring a third Ron Paul campaign, I’ll be voting for her.

Kansas City Star: Rand Paul accuses McConnell, other senators of forming ‘war caucus’

Do we want more Barney Fifes with a Punisher complex? This is how it happens: Alabama police officer won’t be charged for killing wrong person after mall shooting

The next chapter in the end of the drug war: Denver to vote on whether to decriminalize magic mushrooms

Bloomberg: Major DNA testing company sharing genetic data with FBI

Reason: Are you a woman travelling alone? Marriott might be watching you.

Also Reason: Marine vet films traffic stop from porch. California cop gives him a concussion.

Forbes: Could Apple ban unethical facial recognition and become patron saint of privacy?

High Times: Florida judge rejects limits on medical marijuana dispensaries

AMITY SCHLAES: America needs to relearn economics

SHIKHA DALMIA: President Trump: Market-based visas can buy you a lot of border security: “Cato Institute’s Alex Nowrasteh has proposed creating an additional visa category called the gold card that would give foreigners the option of working and living legally in the United States— but not citizenship—after paying a tariff. Congress could adjust tariff rates by age and education to guarantee that all immigrants make a net positive fiscal contribution. This would potentially cut back illegal flows and give the country much greater operational control over the border than physical barriers ever could. It would also generate additional funds to go after drug traffickers or criminals who pose a genuine security threat.”

Ed: This is a wonderful idea, and such a reasonable alternative to the black-and-white choice of either full citizenship or undocumented status. Given the reality of how much the human smugglers charge to get people into the US illegally, why not create a situation where that money isn’t funding human trafficking?

Military Times: Did Defense officials hide details of border mission from Congress?

BONNIE KRISTIAN: America’s abuse of national emergencies is the real national emergency : “Trump’s moseying course toward an emergency declaration is revealing, but not only where his border wall nonsense is concerned. Our entire national emergency system, governed in its present form by the National Emergencies Act of 1976, is ill-considered and ripe for abuse. It provides the president with a convenient sidestep of the legislature and Congress with yet another opportunity to abdicate responsibility to the executive. It is overdue for reform.”

RYAN MCMAKEN: The unseen costs of humanitarian intervention

FEE: If you’re warm right now, thank capitalism

The Intercept: Police make more than 10 million arrests each year, but that doesn’t mean they’re solving crimes

Forbes: Scientists rethink psychedelics as attitudes change toward formerly illicit drugs