Federalist writer Eddie Scarry lets his hostility to Israel poke through the seams

Here's another example of how the Federalist's writers are going downhill, as their contributor Eddie Scarry, in pretending neo-cons are truly the ones against J.D. Vance, goes so far as to attack support for Israel from the right-wing side, and perpetuates the RINO opposition to the war on Iran's dictatorship:

Worth slightly more attention is what Thiessen wrote this week in The Washington Post. Recall that Thiessen is the Post content creator and former George W. Bush speechwriter whom Trump, for inexplicable reasons that may be explained in the future, has reportedly been reading and consulting privately about foreign affairs. Thiessen took an opportunity on Thursday to continue the very obviously coordinated attack on Vance planned by a slimy mix of neocons, lazy Republicans, and Israel Firsters.

Evaluating the Iran war, which has grown increasingly unpopular, even among Republicans, Thiessen wrote, “Perhaps it’s time for the president to take the advice of those who have delivered him success in Iran — not those like Vance who have failed him.”

Thiessen blames the failures in Iran not on what certainly look like short-sighted decisions by the commander in chief, but on Vance, whose primary responsibility in the conflict has been negotiating its end with Iran’s leaders. That’s at least honest. But let’s look at what Thiessen says a real victory, without any negotiation, would look like.

He wrote that the war’s objectives are: “eliminate remaining [Iranian] leadership figures; further entomb Iran’s nuclear sites; take out Iran’s remaining ballistic missile sites; destroy the economic and energy infrastructure that provides the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps with a financial lifeline, as well as key highways, railroads, airports and seaports by which the regime gets financial assistance from bordering countries; and demolish Iran’s remaining defense industrial base so it cannot rebuild its destroyed capabilities.” Then, with presumably a straight face, Thiessen said, “That’s it.”

Oh, is that all?!

Well, not really. Thiessen, perhaps to his credit, didn’t even pretend to hide the ball. Though having concluded, “That’s it” — just the complete decimation of a global energy supplier’s entire transportation infrastructure and economy — Thiessen went on to do the equivalent of, But wait! There’s more! He then said the U.S. would simply have to commit to keeping American troops just off the shore of Iran in perpetuity and “provide covert support” to Iranian rebels, in hopes that they might fight their own government. You know, just like they are now! Wait, that’s not actually happening, is it? Oh well!

Mr. Scarry ignores so much of previous research it's not even funny. He relies on reports from the otherwise shoddy AP Wire, doesn't pay any attention to the Tea Party Patriots research on the USA public's support for the war, and even ignores that much of the Iranian inhabitants are unarmed, making it difficult to fight against the Iranian government savages. If that's how Scarry's going to act, can somebody like that be counted on to fight against the Islamofascist regime being established in Europe? Or even the USA itself?

With this, the Federalist continues to send troubling signs they're not dedicated to freedom and liberty any more than say, Ron Paul, who was probably the role model for some of their more questionable writers. It's utterly head-shaking as it's sad they're becoming as overrun with phonies like Scarry, much like the Democrats are becoming overrun with Islamists and communists.

Joe Sacco minimizes the seriousness of Islamic terror in India

The Washington Post wrote some fluff-coated takes on GNs published this year, and it includes one by the anti-Israel cartoonist Joe Sacco, who's now apparently trying to downplay the seriousness of Islamic terrorism in India, in the pages of a GN titled "Once and Future Riot":

For decades, Sacco has carved out a space for rigorous, fact-based journalism in comics, with books on the Palestinian territories, the Bosnian war and other topics. Here he examines the Muzaffarnagar riots that tore through Uttar Pradesh, India, in 2013. Interviewing survivors and perpetrators on both sides, he carefully depicts how relations between the region’s Hindu and Muslim communities broke down. In the process of telling the story of these few days of violence and pain, he lays out a larger narrative about the rise of Hindu nationalism that is all the more troubling for the evenhanded way he explains it.

When he attacks Indian nationalism, it's harder to believe his approach is "evenhanded", especially when the following panel suggests otherwise:

So the Muslim figure on the panel is denying there's such a thing as "love jihad", even though there have been cases of this occurring in what could be described as one of the worst forms of coercion, and attempts to force women to convert to Islam. Also notice how the panel depicts non-Muslims attacking one who is Muslim, and it's set up to make it look like they're doing it out of false accusations. What "careful depictions" is Sacco working on here? This is shameful, right down to how the non-Muslims assaulting the Islamist are made to look nasty, while the cleric, by contrast, is depicted as calm and sympathetic. The riots in Muzaffarnagar were sparked by the murder of 2 men by 7 culprits who were Islamists (and certainly had names often used by followers of the Religion of Peace), and were handed down sentences eventually for their repugnant crimes. It won't be shocking if Sacco obfuscated all that. What's drawn in the panel is anything but "fact-based".

Sacco continues to prove he's one of the worst pro-Islam propagandists in the political comics business, and I hesitate to think what disfavors he's done for 9-11 survivors in the USA in the near quarter century since the tragedy in NYC. The Wash. Post is similarly doing disfavors by sugarcoating his works, and only make clear they're one of the worst papers to talk about the comics medium in any format.

A graphic novel about Muslim immigrants written as a victimology tale, and some more focused on illegal immmigration and communism

Here's a review from Noahpinion of several GNs focused mainly on the subject of immigration, and wouldn't you know it, one of the products listed here is written as a form of Islamic victimology of the most grating kind:

If rightists want to read a story about immigration that confirms all their worst fears, Huda F. Cares? will probably do nicely. It’s a story about a deeply conservative, completely insular Muslim family who lives in America but is not fundamentally of America. They stick primarily to themselves, living out their traditionalist religious lifestyle in seclusion. Their family trip to Disneyland — the one time they let themselves venture outside their enclave — is the subject of the story, and yet almost none of the book is spent describing Disneyland at all. Instead, it’s all about internal family dynamics.

They do occasionally encounter Americans outside their family, but these are pretty much always presented as threats or opponents to be overcome. Regular Americans insult Huda’s family and try to sexually harass the (conservatively dressed) women. When one of the girls is detained at the park for hitting a sexual harasser, the mother takes a video and threatens to summon the online mob against the park security, ultimately forcing them to let her daughter off the hook. At the end, the family decides that the world is always going to be against them, and that they have to stick together as a family to resist.

This is presented as a hopeful conclusion, since the family ultimately puts aside their constant squabbling to unite against the outside world. But it’s not the kind of story a lot of Americans would probably like to hear about immigration.

What's offensive here, of course, is how it presents regular Americans as revolting (and if the writer sees fit, I'm sure she'd also villify Europeans), and isn't that fascinating how the American citizens are even presented stooping to sexual misconduct. With the biggest oxymoron being that yes, of course even Muslim obviously aren't safe from sexual violence, but it's mainly that committed by Muslim men, and almost 2 decades ago, there was a horrifying case in Iran of a woman who killed a rapist in self defense, also to defend her niece, and for that, she was tragically sentenced to hang. Yet the writer of this disgraceful GN would rather accuse Americans, no matter their ethnicity, of being that evil.

Making matters regarding this propaganda GN worse, there was an atrocious incident in Westchester, New York back in 2011 where a Muslim group at Rye Playland caused a ruckus after women from the group wearing hijabs were denied access to some of the rides because they went against safety rules. Last year, a vaguely similar case regarding burkas occurred in Kansas City after a Muslim woman was told she couldn't wear it on the roller coaster ride for safety reasons. And she had the gall to call the staff "racist", but never "anti-religious". As a result, one can legitimately wonder if Huda F. Cares? really is based on fact, assuming that's how it's marketed. If anything, it's a pretty sick example of a propagandist who follows the beliefs in Islam that make a woman's body out to be an abomination, and has no confidence or self-respect. Stories like this are also obviously written as a belief that the host country should literally conform to the twisted beliefs of the "immigrant", but not the other way around. Is that acceptable?

This also reminds me of how almost 15 years ago, the awful Geoff Johns wrote apologia for the Religion of Peace when he shoehorned a Muslim protagonist into the Green Lantern franchise, and regular Americans who aren't Muslim were depicted as hostile and repellent. Similar problems occur in the Muslim Ms. Marvel series by the equally awful G. Willow Wilson (and later written by the now equally awful Saladin Ahmed). So this new GN is nothing new. But neither is it approvable.

Oddly enough, there's another GN on this list that might involve Muslim characters titled I Was Their American Dream, and this, by contrast, doesn't seem to build upon victimology propaganda:

I Was Their American Dream follows an archetype that has basically become the staple of the immigrant memoir genre — the story of a kid who come to America at a young age, and struggles to fit in at school while also dealing with their parents’ old-world quirks and problems. Malaka Gharib executes this in fine form, telling the story of her mixed Egyptian-Filipino family with humor and warmth, and adding plenty of informative cultural context.

Of all the immigrant memoir comics I read, this one was the most unambiguously positive. America never wrongs or excludes the protagonist in any way — she finds a way to fit in at school just as easily as any white kid in the 80s or 90s, and then she goes to college and has fun there too. Her parents get divorced, and her dad moves back to Egypt for a better job, but America remains the land of promise, wealth, and safety. The art is pretty cartoonish, but it adds to the generally silly fun tone.

Racial exclusion barely comes up. The protagonist/author grows up in an immigrant “ethnoburb” in Southern California where there are almost no white people, so white people are simply exotic and interesting to her, rather than dominant and threatening. When she first encounters white people en masse, it’s as a college student, and while they can sometimes be obtuse, she generally views them as fun and even exotic.

Overall, if you want a story of successful middle-class immigration, this is a good pick. There’s also a sequel called It Won’t Always Be Like This, about the author’s time visiting her father in Egypt.

This doesn't sound noxious like the prior example, so at least we're getting somewhere with this item. In a footnote, interestingly enough, the blogger also notes:

At one point the protagonist declares that “I KISSED A LOOOOTTTTT OF WHITE GUYS.” This is not necessarily the kind of thing you’d want to write in a graphic novel in the “woke” age, but I found its innocent confident positivity to be extremely charming.

One could wonder if the star's background is why he's letting it slide? Well, in any event, it's not something to get hysterical about if a non-white girl decides to date white guys. That's her choice, and nobody else's. What should matter is horrific incidents like this recent one that occurred last year.

And then, amazingly enough, Noahpinion also lists an item that covers the negative side of illegal immmigration, Just Another Story: A Graphic Migration Account:

This is the best comic I’ve read about illegal immigration. It’s about a Salvadoran boy (the author’s cousin) whose mother decides to take him to America to escape desperate poverty and the constant threat of violence in El Salvador. The story is gripping, tense, and harrowing — it feels like Lord of the Rings, with hobbits sneaking across Mordor. The main danger is not the U.S. Border Patrol, but the various criminals who try to exploit, rob, kidnap, or murder would-be illegal immigrants headed north. In the end, they make it, but only barely, and they’re emotionally scarred for life by the journey.

If you want to understand what’s really at stake when people immigrate illegally, and what they have to face in order to do so, this is a good lesson.

Those criminals who attack the illegal aliens could surely include Mexican mafias like Los Zetos. I'm amazed a blogger who confirms he's a leftist is willing to highlight a GN of this sort. However, he also lists one that, despite attacking communism, also attacks Donald Trump, titled Worm: A Cuban American Odyssey:

This is another story about a refugee from a communist dictatorship — this time, Castro’s Cuba. American leftists tend to have romantic fantasies about revolutionary Cuba, but Worm depicts an impoverished, slowly decaying country filled with fear, where neighbors rat on their neighbors and daily life is ruthlessly repressed. (The art style really compounds the feeling of anxiety.) The title refers both to a parasite that almost kills the author/protagonist, and to the protagonist’s father, who is labeled a “worm” for daring to secretly oppose Castro.

In the end, Rodriguez and his family escape Cuba on the famous 1980 Mariel Boatlift, and make it to America, where they succeed economically (after facing the usual challenges). The Rodriguez family idolizes America for saving them from a brutal dictatorship and giving them the opportunity to become middle-class.

But then Trump gets elected, and the nation suddenly seems far less friendly to immigrants. A now-grown-up Rodriguez decides that Trump is similar to Castro, and decides to use his art to oppose Trump. Rodriguez creates what’s probably still the most iconic political cartoon about Trump — an image of a melting, screaming, eyeless orange head that appeared on the cover of Time. It’s not the happiest ending, but at least America is a place where dissidents can still go against the President in public — at least for now.

Oh, good grief. A better question and topic would be why anybody approves of allowing a communist regime to continue existing instead of finding how to depose of the commies in charge and replace them with more civilized representatives. And how come Trump's seen as a problem, but not the time when Bill Clinton sent a Cuban boy, Elien Gonzalez, back instead of allowing him to stay with relatives? That wasn't bad in any way?

If one really has to take issue with Trump on anything, it's whether he's being soft on Cuba's communists, which is no more acceptable than being soft on Russia's. But when a GN like the above builds so predictably on a intentions that may not be altruistic, that's why it's appalling that yet again, another comic was written as an unfortunate excuse for attacking conservatives. Granted, the GN may take an objective look at how communism is an evil ideology. But that still doesn't make it okay to merely bash Trump because he supposedly created an atmosphere hostile to Cubans. I'll admit though, it's amazing the blogger acknowledged there's leftists who regrettably take a romantic view of communism, when it's all a lot darker than we think.

New graphic novel about October 7, 2023 features moral equivalence

The Times of Israel reported about a graphic novel being developed with a Canadian academic, and it looks like this product, unfortunately, relies on moral equivalence, blurring the differences between Jewish victims and Islamic aggressors, despite any claims to the contrary:

In the annals of graphic novels being written about the stories of those affected by the Hamas terror onslaught of October 7, 2023, “Echoes of October” may be the first in which the creators wish to remain mostly anonymous.

The fictional, kids-geared upcoming graphic novel has four child narrators — from Gaza City, Toronto, Tel Aviv, and the Druze town of Daliyat al-Karmel — each one telling their stories leading up until October 7, the day on which each of their fathers was killed.

The Jewish Israeli father from Tel Aviv was killed at the Nova desert rave, where he was working as a DJ, while the Druze boy’s father, an elite IDF soldier, was killed fighting near Gaza, defending the kibbutz communities.

The Palestinian girl’s father was killed as part of the wave of Gazan civilians who entered Israel on that day through the security fence to join the brutal assault, and the Canadian girl’s father — they’re not Jewish — was murdered during the onslaught at the kibbutzim, where he had been staying to help aid Palestinians.

So we're supposed to care about somebody who's father participated in a mass jihadist attack on defenseless women and children, not to mention also men, and, in allusion to what's further discussed below, we're also supposed to believe quite literally that he was dragged into this? I'm sorry, but this entirely obscures what influence the Islamic religion had in the whole tragedy, and how severe its indoctrination was all these years in the Hamas/PLO enclaves. Not to mention how taqqiya (deception) and naive conduct of specific victims made it possible for the jihadists to betray many of said victims.

To that end, and to avoid bias as much as possible, three of the four creators — including one of the two writers, the artist and the colorist — have opted to remain anonymous and together chose a pseudonym, Ami Adan, as the author name.

“We wanted to have as few preconceived notions as possible and we chose the name Ami Adan as an amalgamation of identities,” said Omri Rose, a professional voice actor who is Israeli and is one of the novel’s two writers, the only team member who opted to identify himself.

The idea for the graphic novel came about after October 7, when a Jewish Canadian academic who had previously been in touch with Rose began reaching out to him in solidarity following the Hamas terrorist attack.

“He wanted to do something, especially because things were so tough in Canada,” said Rose.

Rose’s Canadian co-creator particularly wanted to create something that would represent all sides affected by the conflict, but without authors whose names and origins would lead readers to draw their own assumptions.

“He sees this as a labor of importance,” said Rose.

The two began tossing around ideas for a graphic novel based on children, but with the focus on multiple perspectives and authenticity.

“It is pro-peace,” said Rose. “We firmly believe in Israel’s right to exist and also that the Palestinian people deserve respect and their own say, free of Hamas. It is anti-Hamas.”

Unfortunately, this just sounds like another effort to legitimize the whole fabrication of a Palestinian Moslem/Arab state at Israel's expense, obscure that many of the Gazan Islamists had nothing but hatred for the hostages, kept Arabic-translated copies of Mein Kamph in their households, don't accept Israel's existence no matter what they think of the Hamas, and "multiple perspectives" is little more than clue of defeatism involved. Not to mention that again, if they won't question whether the Religion of Peace had any influence in the horror of October 7, 2023, then what good will this GN be? The following notes that:

None of the deaths are explicitly explained, including the Gazan father, who is not a member of Hamas and instead is described as someone pulled into Hamas activities, without much say in the matter. [...]

Rose said that he and the other writer spoke with Gazan journalists and other Palestinians, as well as members of the Druze community, to create authentic storylines.

Umm, is that meant to imply he was merely coerced? Because as surviving hostages have testified, there were even journalists who were involved in the evil, and do the artists and writers of this GN take anything by Islamists in Gaza at face value? I'm sorry, but there's many clues here that this GN, if any, will not offer any meat-and-potatoes perspective, and will toe a PC line that forbids any objective view of the issues involved. Such moral equivalence is simply unacceptable.

Marvel's bizarre combination of Muslim Ms. Marvel with dogs

Recently, Marvel published a special titled "Marvel Mutts", starring the Muslim Ms. Marvel who was created as a propaganda vehicle. Here's the information Comic Book Club Live provides:

Join the Marvel Mutts in their very first comic book adventure! Collecting issues #1-12 of the Friday Funnies series, these heartwarming tales – and wagging tails – are sure to elicit a round of a-paws. Featuring Lockjaw, Lucky, Cosmo, Bats and Ms. Marvel’s dearest doggie, Mittens, this pack is packing the cute. So fetch yourself a copy and have a ball with Marvel’s Mightiest Mutts!

This has the effect of being unintentional comedy, or laughable for all the wrong reasons, because anybody who knows what Islam is like knows the Religion of Peace abhors dogs, and look what trouble it's led to in Britain. In the Arabic language, the synonym for dog "kalb", is even used as a slur. It's clear at this point Marvel's not even trying to draw in the followers of the ummah they supposedly coveted in their bizarre leftist attempts to "please everyone" in the past decade or so, because if they did, they wouldn't have made a character with a Muslim background the star of such a vehicle, nor would they have written her owning a dog for a pet.

In the end, the whole premise first concocted over a decade ago has certainly become very dated at this point, and one must wonder how much longer Marvel's going to keep repeatedly wasting money on a political vehicle that nobody's interested in. The same can be said for DC, if they're still depicting Geoff Johns' own Islamic propaganda concoction, Simon Baz, as such a practitioner. It could actually benefit badly developed characters if they put them in limbo for some time, then wrote out the part about their being Islamists and trying something like depicting them as Arab/Pakistani Christians and/or Buddhists instead. Unfortunately, chances they're willing to do that are very slim.

EXCELLENT: PHILLIPE KARSENTY WINS THE AL DURAH CASE

Finally, some justice has been found in this most notorious blood libel. As Richard Landes now reports at the Augean Stables, Phillipe Karsenty has won the case. If you can read French, here's something about this from Nouvel Observateur.

We now need to hope that France 2 television will fire Charles Enderlin, and have nothing more to do with the libelous fauxtographer who filmed the propaganda in the first place. They should and must do so if they're to hang onto their credibility as a TV network.

Not only that, but the law in France that allows "high-ranking" people like Enderlin to sue for alleged slander should be changed, just like Canada's alleged Human Right Commission should be discarded. Some calls should be start being made for the abolition of such foolish laws.

Until then, it's relieving to finally see the blood libel of the al Durah hoax discredited.

LIES OF THE LEFT - A RECAP

Here are a few of the lies of the left - lies which animate their worldview and dominate their politics:

(BTW: ALL OF THEM HAVE BEEN DISPROVED! YET THE AVERAGE DEMOCRAT BELIEVES THEM ALL!)

Bush stole Florida and the 2000 election.

Bush stole Ohio and the 2004 election.

Libby and the White House leaked Plame's ID to punish Joe Wilson.

9/11 was either an inside job, or the Bushies let it happen to allow them to perpetrate endless war.

The Turkey was plastic.

Bush lied about Saddam's WMD.

Democracy for Iraq and the Middle East was an afterthought conjured up by Rove to validate the war after the WMD's weren't found.

The Bush Tax Cut went mostly to the rich and hurt the economy.

Bush had the worst jobs record since Hoover.

Bush is a militarist and a unilateralist.

Bush is an anti-little people/pro-Big Business stooge despite passing the biggest increase in federal education spending and in Medicare spending - and his attempt to pass a expansive immigration bill - (all liberal projects).

Bush is in the back pocket of the Israel Lobby AND the House of Saud - simultaneously.

Bush said Saddam was connected to 9/11.

Bush used family influence to get into TANG and to get out, and this was covered up.

Bush said the words "yellowcake" and "Niger" in his 2003 SOTU.

Gitmo is a gulag.

There was torture at Abu Ghraib and it was Rumsfeld's fault.

Bush should have been attending soldiers' funerals like other presidents.

There was rampant looting of the Baghdad Museum right under the noses of US troops.

The Lancet report proved that we have killed 300 Iraqi civilians a week since the war began, and that this has otherwise gone completely un-reported.

The Patriot Act is the biggest infringement of civil liberties of all time - and it's unnecessary.

Canada and the UK and every other nation with taxpayer financed universal healthcare, have better healthcare than the USA.

45 million Americans are uninsured for heathcare, and this is a government disgrace which requires a government solution.

The MSM is biased IN FAVOR of Bush.

The Democrats won control of Congress because of the Iraq War.

There is no global war on terror or jihadism

ALL OF THESE HAVE BEEN PROVEN FALSE. Much proof HERE.

The Left and the Democrats are obviously in fantasyland, and no good policy can ever come from that.

Propaganda Wise

Ever since Steve McIntyre nudged the Goddard Institute for Space Studies to correct its error in the "adjusted" data many of the AGW folks (global warming is man made) have been saying that this is a minor correction. [in the comments]

Without "the hottest year on record was 1998" the climate looks more naturally variable.

Scientifically this is minor correction.

Propaganda wise it is a big thing.

It has also alerted people to the idea that data and methods must be open in science.

Update 13 Aug 007 1709z:

Steve McIntyre on why Hansen's Error Matters.

Cross Posted at Power and Control and at Classical Values