Rabbi Yoseph Yitzchak Schneersohn became leader of the Chabad movement in 1920, the year that Lenin and his Communists finally consolidated their control over Russia. Jews had hoped for some relief. The civil war had seen the Petliura massacres, in which the one of the White Armies fighting the Reds deliberately targeted the Jews as enemies and murdered about 100,000 of them, aside from the rape and pillage that always accompanied their visits to Jewish areas. Let us each in our own, less than perfect and so very human way, further that turning towards the deepest of things. Now that was over. But what followed was not much better. Lenin was an evangelizing atheist. He would tolerate no rival for the allegiance of his subjects, and he did not hold himself responsible to a Supreme Power. He set about demolishing organized religion. (READ MORE from Shmuel Klatzkin: Our Political Leaders Have Been Revealed) Lenin’s government had a special section, the Yevsektsia, dedicated to wiping out the practice of Judaism. Yevsektsia stood for yevreiskaya sektsia, the Jewish section. It was run by Jewish Communists, Jews who hated their heritage and now took action to destroy it.  These betrayers of their own now made their way forward in the party. They used their inside knowledge to help Lenin dismantle the traditional community structures that had seen the Jews through many prolonged difficulties under the tsars. Rabbi Schneersohn set himself to organizing an underground network to resist. Through a network of utterly dedicated followers they strove to maintain education, observance, and morale in the face of relentless persecution by the regime and its secret police. It was dangerous work. It led to the gulags or death. The danger only increased when Lenin died and Stalin took over. Eventually, in 1927, the secret police imprisoned the rabbi and interrogated him under torture and resolved to execute him. But the news had escaped the control of the torturers, and soon telegrams were arriving in the Kremlin from all over the world. Senator William Borah, a conservative Republican and chairman of the Senate’s Foreign Affairs Committee, joined with Senator Robert Wagner, a liberal Democrat, in petitioning the Russians, as did the Coolidge State Department. Other European governments expressed their concern, including Weimar Germany. This week marks the ninety-seventh anniversary of the date that the rabbi was notified that he was going to be set free and expelled from Russia, a date still celebrated today by those who identify with Chabad. When the first stage of his liberation came to pass, and he left Leningrad by train, hundreds of his followers came out to bid farewell, not caring that they were under surveillance and might well be arrested and made to disappear for attending. The rabbi addressed the people as he got on the train: May God be with us as He was with our ancestors; may He not forsake us nor abandon us … Only our bodies went into exile, but not our souls … We must proclaim openly before all that with regard to any matter of our religion — Torah, mitzvahs, and Jewish custom — it is not subject to the opinion of others, nor can any oppressive force be used against it. And that message of where the ultimate power lies, thrown down in challenge in the rail station before Stalin’s secret police, still rings out today, decades after Stalin’s empire crumbled. The rabbi moved first to Latvia and then to Poland, and that is where he was in 1939 when Hitler invaded, kicking off World War II and the horrors it brough, including the deliberate massacre of a full third the world’s Jewish population. The rabbi was in the chaos of Warsaw. Bombed and now occupied by Nazi troops. There, too, the hand of freedom reached out to him. The American government prevailed upon the Germans to send someone to escort the rabbi to safety, and within a few months, he had arrived in New York. The rabbi was ever grateful to all that America had done on his behalf. On the other hand, he warned his followers not to be beguiled and to think that the self-sacrifice our religion requires of us would not be required in America. In this respect, he told his flock, “America is no different.” Freedom Beckons Us to Him With the resurgence of antisemitism, and with the Left’s selling it as something America must embrace, we can see what the rabbi meant. Religion is not meant to go to sleep when times are good. That is a formula for decadence and corruption and civilizational collapse. It must always be vigorous and intelligent. It must make us always aware that the great biblical cry for liberty, “Let my people go!,” is only half the verse, which concludes “that they may serve Me.” Our freedom depends on our allegiance to the deepest of all things; it is not just a blank check to do whatever. Forgetting about the purpose of freedom endangers freedom itself. Our Constitution itself cannot survive indifference to the deepest of commitments, our commitment to the source of our own souls, who is the Source of all beings. As John Adams presciently declared: “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”(READ MORE: The Lies of the Biden Presidency Are a Problem) With the failed assassination of Trump in our minds, talk about God’s governance are suddenly on many peoples’ lips. There is a widespread recognition that we need a new mindset, a new sense of shared purpose, shared citizenship, shared humanity. In his speech accepting his nomination, Donald Trump publicly recognized God’s providential hand in sparing his life, and refrained from using the attack on his life as a weapon with which to bash his political foes. It came as a great relief to a troubled nation, a relief not totally diminished by the rambling and combative statements that followed later. Let us each in our own, less than perfect and so very human way, further that turning towards the deepest of things. It is the core of our freedom, as individuals and as a nation together. It’s the message Rabbi Schneersohn brought to our shores, made only clearer and more powerful for having survived the cruelties and persecutions of the twin horrors of Communism and Nazism. Let’s not wait until we must suffer the cruelties of tyranny ourselves. It’s time to find our soul as a nation once more, renew our spirit and be living examples of liberty. Its power draws people’s souls if we only will show what it really means to us. Rededicating ourselves to the One who upholds us all, we cannot fail. The post Let Us Recognize God’s Providential Hand appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

In the last few hours, up to four people of sound mind have asked me if I thought that the attempt to kill Trump could have been a self-assassination attempt. We’re talking about adult people, educated, with important jobs, who — although I wouldn’t put my head on a block either — should be able to pass a drug test without too much trouble. They weren’t even all leftists, they weren’t even all anti-Trump, and they weren’t even joking. There are people out there that believe that Trump is such a moron as to ask a guy to shoot him but try not to kill him too much. The purely human Trump knows well that he has been very close to death. It goes without saying that security remains one of the major issues. But it’s impossible to get them to change their minds about what I consider to be the biggest global problem in July 2024: the epidemic of stupidity. These are people we have to live with and it forces us to take a breath, clear our throats, and respond with things such as “no, I don’t think Trump is trying to blow his own head off to win the election. Throughout history, headless presidents have enjoyed very little success in the race to the White House.” It is obvious that the attack has boosted Trump’s image. Not for nothing. The shooting, I have already written, was not against Trump, it was against his voters, against conservative ideas, and indeed against the entire free and democratic nation as we know it. The growing support for Trump is not the general empathy for an innocent man who almost got killed. We also feel compassion while watching Biden stumbling blindly and that is not the reason one might vote for him. The support for Trump is a result of his heroic reaction fitting in perfectly with his government program, giving him all the credibility that the Democrats have tried to take away from him in recent months. I don’t care if it’s a minority. I worry that the first thing some people think when they’ve come close to killing the future president of the United States is, “Well, I’m sure it’s all set up by his own team to win the election.” I mean, those people walk the streets, they have kids, they take them to school, they go to work. I don’t know, those people fly airplanes, or handle cases in their lawyers office, or perform open-heart surgery, all the while exuding the worst kind of psychopathy. The Republican candidate we are seeing after the attack is a renewed man. He has not changed, he has only strengthened his convictions. That is as far as the political Trump is concerned. The purely human Trump knows well that he has been very close to death. That’s why he said at the convention: “And I’ll tell you, I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of Almighty God.” Anti-Trump Media Subdued Things are not going well for the Democrats. Even the New York Times seems to have taken the smile off Joe Biden’s face. Just this Friday its digital front page went with “Biden Plans to Resume Campaigning as More Democrats Urge Him to Quit.” And they are not being as belligerent with Trump as they have been up until now. Are you aware of what this means? Indeed, everything is changing, everything is happening very quickly and right before our eyes. Even Mother Jones, always radically anti-Trump, has considerably keyed down its usual bile, limiting themselves to a criticism of there being too many men on stage at the Republican National Convention. “The 2024 RNC was indeed a man’s world,” the author concludes, “one that many asserted would be nothing without women dutifully supporting them.” Coyly feminist lip service. Is that really all the criticism for the politician who until a few days before the attack, for the leftist media, was going to end democracy in the United States? So I’m left with a bittersweet taste in my mouth. On the one hand, it seems that even the most critical are willing to view Trump differently (too bad someone had to try to kill him first), on the other, I maintain my concern about the epidemic of stupidity, and the lunatics who have asked me with all seriousness if Trump had tried to kill himself to win votes. READ MORE from Itxu Diaz: A Summer of Satire: Let It Go, Let It Go. Can’t Hold It Back Anymore! French Elite Have Done It Again Get Your Boat Ready for a Perfect Summer Vacation The post Trump Shooting Reveals a Stupidity Epidemic appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

There was much self-congratulation at last week’s meeting of NATO allies over the effort to “Trump-proof” the alliance. The fact that the leaders of the world’s greatest defensive alliance see the once and likely future leader of the country providing the bulk of its military capacity as a mortal threat suggests a certain lack of perspective. It is beyond negligent that Europe has not spent the two-and-a-half years since the invasion mobilizing its vast resources to defend Ukraine. What is it exactly about Trump that threatens our European allies? Was it his warning that the Nordstream pipeline and a dependence on Russian fossil fuels endangered German security? Was it his depiction of China as a strategic competitor gaming WTO rules to seize market share and extract critical technologies from the West? (READ MORE from Karl Pfefferkorn: Failure Is for Other People) Or perhaps it was Trump’s persistent criticism of allies who failed to meet their defense spending obligations? Can any of these points now be viewed as threats to the alliance, no matter how belligerently they were presented? No. So why the frantic effort to protect NATO from a Trump redux? Allies Dislike Trump’s Style Much of the European contempt for Trump derives from style rather than substance. European grandees spend their time here among America’s coastal elites, who share their center-left politics and the genteel mannerisms of the transatlantic cultural elite. John Kerry is an exemplar of the sort of American our European allies find congenial: a haughty Boston Brahmin and loyal to the green catechism as Greta Thunberg. The fact that most of the country’s interior rejected his 2004 candidacy should suggest to the Euros that there is an America beyond their preferred social circle they might want to become acquainted with. From a VFW post in Lincoln Nebraska, NATO countries look less like loyal allies and more like Eurotrash spongers who disappear before the waiter presents the bill, leaving the American patsy searching his pockets for cash. When Trump prods our allies to meet their spending commitments, he speaks for millions of Americans who may never darken the door of the Brookings Institute, but who pay their taxes and wish to know what we are getting for our disproportionate commitment to the defense of Europe. Our European allies also fail to set aside their loathing for Trump’s antagonistic style and consider how he appears to the leaders of the predatory states threatening NATO and the West. Both Putin and Xi rose through communist hierarchies that inculcated a ruthless amorality and contempt for weakness. The closest parallel to this career path in the United States may be New York City real estate development, which also rewards aggression and punishes losers, albeit with bankruptcy rather than labor camps. Which is to say, Trump is a type that Putin and Xi understand and respect. How else can we explain the rather restrained behavior of these two thugs during the Trump administration, and their subsequent predation after his replacement by the feckless Biden team? The question for our allies is not who they find most clubbable, but who is best suited to deter NATO’s adversaries. A superannuated Biden has clearly lost his capacity for deterrence. The specific fear among our allies is that a new Trump administration will either abandon Ukraine altogether or impose a settlement on Kiev that rewards Russian aggression. While Trump may well share our allies’ moral condemnation of Putin’s invasion, he also understands that American interests in this war are not identical to Ukraine’s. (READ MORE: Europe: With Friends Like These …) Reclaiming all of Ukraine’s lost territory is not worth sparking a general war between Russia and NATO, much less a nuclear exchange. The U.S. military is already stretched thin, and facing down a rapidly expanding Chinese Navy practicing the isolation if not outright invasion of Taiwan. It may not be in the interests of the U.S. to pour treasure and weapons into a grinding, inconclusive ground war in Ukraine, especially if it comes at the expense of our ability to meet our obligations to other allies. Ultimately, the defense of Ukraine must be primarily a job for European nations. The European Union has three times Russia’s population, and an aggregate economy nine times the size of Russia’s. Europe’s technological capacity and industrial base could simply overwhelm Russian suppliers now scrounging old equipment in Siberia and importing obsolete chips from China. It is beyond negligent that Europe has not spent the two-and-a-half years since the invasion mobilizing its vast resources to defend Ukraine.  As a rough comparison, recall that two-and-a-half elapsed between Pearl Harbor and the invasion of Normandy, during which time the United States transformed itself into a military superpower. At a minimum, Europe should become Ukraine’s Arsenal of Democracy, freeing the U.S. to address the looming conflict in the western Pacific. Nothing would placate a new Trump administration more than a decisive European commitment to assume responsibility for Ukrainian security and “Putin-proofing” the NATO alliance. The post Hey Allies, Why Not ‘Putin Proof’ NATO Instead? appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

JUST IN – Biden is out, quits presidential race. pic.twitter.com/ejrsIpM66L — Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) July 21, 2024

from The People’s Voice: TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/

from RT: The current US president has withdrawn from the 2024 election following weeks of pressure over his mental and physical state US President Joe Biden has offered his “full support and endorsement” to Vice President Kamala Harris to be picked as the Democratic Party nominee for the upcoming elections. Biden proclaimed his support on […]

JUST IN – Hillary Clinton endorses Kamala Harris. — Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) July 21, 2024

by Deana Chadwell, All News Pipeline: In 1170 King Henry II and Thomas a’ Beckett, the Archbishop of Canterbury, got into an intense argument. In the Middle Ages the Church and the Crown had almost equal power. Either entity could arrest, try, imprison, or execute. Either could own property, confiscate property, or stand an army. […]

HOLY SMOKES! Trump Assassination Attempt — It’s all about to Blow UP!! ?Senator Ron Johnson: A SECOND SHOOTER — And a Mystery ATF Agent that’s Now Gone Dark! • July 13, Secret Service did not attend the 9am Security meeting with Local Law Enforcement —— Law Enforcement… pic.twitter.com/yJ2hK75Fal — MJTruthUltra (@MJTruthUltra) July 21, 2024

According to CNN Special Correspondent Jamie Gangel, four potential running mates for Kamala Harris have been mentioned to run alongside her. The names being floated include: Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro WATCH: .@jamiegangel on a Sunday so you know it's Extra Important, it is. Possible VP contenders for Kamala Harris could choose from 7.21.24 455 pm ET pic.twitter.com/WWSZ6n5iB0 — Jeff Storobinsky (@jeffstorobinsky) July 21, 2024 Per Mediaite: Soon after Gangel’s reporting, Shapiro endorsed Harris. The reporter theorized that creating a list of running mates could scare away “some challengers” who might consider making a run for the nomination. She also explained that with just more than three months until the election, Harris and her team are hitting the ground running. In a statement, Harris accepted Joe Biden’s endorsement and officially announced she would seek the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. Kamala Harris has released a statement “I am honored to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination” pic.twitter.com/5f6JbdJLPf — philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) July 21, 2024 “On behalf of the American people, I thank Joe Biden for his extraordinary leadership as President of the United States and for his decades of service to our country. I am honored to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination,” Harris said. On behalf of the American people, I thank Joe Biden for his extraordinary leadership as President of the United States and for his decades of service to our country. I am honored to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination. — Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) July 21, 2024 “Kamala Harris should be the next President. I’ve known @VP going back to our days as AGs, and she has what it takes to defeat Donald Trump and lead our country thoughtfully and with integrity. I look forward to campaigning for her as we work to win NC up and down the ticket,” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said. Kamala Harris should be the next President. I’ve known @VP going back to our days as AGs, and she has what it takes to defeat Donald Trump and lead our country thoughtfully and with integrity. I look forward to campaigning for her as we work to win NC up and down the ticket. — Roy Cooper (@RoyCooperNC) July 21, 2024 POLITICO published a list of nine potential running mates for Kamala Harris. In addition to the four names mentioned by Gangel, the outlet listed the following individuals: Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer California Gov. Gavin Newsom Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker Maryland Gov. Wes Moore Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg From POLITICO: Moments after President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential contest and endorsed his vice president on Sunday, speculation began swirling over who would be Kamala Harris’ running mate. Some Democrats started floating their preferred picks. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, for instance, “would be an excellent choice” to share the ticket, said Philadelphia Democratic Party chair and former Rep. Bob Brady. Govs. Andy Beshear of Kentucky and Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina are both being considered as running mates, according to a person familiar with the conversations. And a Democratic strategist close to the White House said that Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) is also under consideration. The people were granted anonymity to speak freely about the new political dynamic. “The question is: who can beat Trump in their home state?” said the Democratic strategist close to the White House. The strategist noted that Kelly, who easily won his reelection in a state Biden carried four years ago, is being eyed for his unique biography, having flown combat missions in the Navy and commanded the International Space Station as an astronaut. His wife, former Rep. Gabby Giffords, has become a hero to grassroots Democratic organizations fighting gun violence after she was a victim of it at a campaign rally for her reelection. The attack left her severely injured. “The good thing is she’s got a lot of unbelievable options,” the strategist said of Harris. A number of names have been floated and all of them spoke out in support of Biden’s decision to step down — and even some are already voicing support of Harris as the nominee.