Flooding, Devastation in Wake of Hurricane Helene; An “Unprecedented Tragedy”

New York Times: Some of the worst devastation was in the towns and cities nestled between the forested mountains of western North Carolina, with roads, power lines and water treatment facilities heavily damaged throughout the region. Local and federal officials along with the National Guard raced to deliver supplies to paralyzed areas, and repair and restore what they could, while dozens of other teams searched for people who fell victim to the raging floodwaters or were still looking to escape. “This is an unprecedented tragedy that requires an unprecedented response,” Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina said at a news briefing on Sunday afternoon (New York Times). Daily Wire: “We are grieving tremendous losses today,” Buncombe County Sheriff Quentin Miller reportedly said during a Sunday evening news conference, adding that search and potential rescue operations were still underway. Asheville, a city of roughly 95,000 residents located in the Blue Ridge Mountains region, received 14 inches of rain over three days. Some other areas got as much as 30 inches, or four months’ worth of rainfall, according to Fox Weather (Daily Wire). USA Today: More than 2 million people remained without power Sunday evening across the Southeast in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, including more than 430,000 in North Carolina, where the deadly storm pulverized homes, trapped residents, spawned landslides, and submerged communities under raging floodwaters. At least 90 people have died across multiple states since the record-breaking storm hit Florida’s Big Bend as a Category 4 hurricane with 140-mph winds Thursday, before moving north through Georgia, Tennessee, and the Carolinas and weakening to a post-tropical cyclone. The death toll is expected to rise (USA Today). The flooding: (X)

Elite Media Mourns Death of Terror Leader Nasrallah

Elite media are not just biased, they have shown their depravity. From the Washington Post: Nasrallah was seen as a father figure, a moral compass and a political guide. He was lauded as the man who empowered Lebanon’s once downtrodden and impoverished Shiite community (Washington Post). The Associated Press lauds the terror leader: Seen by his supporters as a charismatic and shrewd strategist …  Idolized by his Lebanese Shiite followers and respected by millions of others across the Arab and Islamic world…. (Associated Press). The New York Times has a similar tone: A powerful orator, he was beloved among many Shiite Muslims, a historically marginalized group in the Arab world, and created a state within a state in Lebanon that provided social services (New York Times). The word that does NOT appear in the New York Times story: Terrorist. Washington Free Beacon: mainstream media outlets portrayed the now-former Hezbollah leader as an erudite “father figure,” a “moral compass,” a “savior,” and a “roly-poly figure” who “empowered” Lebanon’s “downtrodden” (Free Beacon). David Strom: The whitewashing of terrorists isn’t a mystery once you understand that the primary goal of the modern left is to destroy all vestiges of Western culture, it makes sense. Why they think our culture will be replaced with a superior one doesn’t. I can’t imagine leftists want to live under Sharia law, so clearly, they see an alliance with Islamists as a temporary tactical move, not a durable state of affairs (Hot Air).

The Magnitude of Nasrallah’s Evil Is Difficult to Overstate

A short history … not to be forgotten: 1. 1983 Beirut Barracks Bombings: Hezbollah murdered 241 U.S. servicemen in a devastating suicide attack. This remains one of the deadliest days for the U.S. Marine Corps since World War II, demonstrating the group’s lethal capabilities early on. 2. 1983 U.S. Embassy Bombing: Hezbollah’s bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut resulted in the deaths of 17 Americans, including CIA officers and military personnel. This attack underscored the group’s intent to target U.S. interests globally. 3. 1984 U.S. Embassy Annex Bombing: In yet another Hezbollah-led attack, two Americans were killed, marking a continuation of their brutal assault on U.S. diplomats and personnel in Lebanon. 4. Kidnappings in the 1980s: Hezbollah systematically kidnapped, tortured, and killed American hostages in Lebanon. High-profile victims like CIA Station Chief William Buckley endured horrific treatment, showing Hezbollah’s commitment to psychological and physical terror. 5. 1985 TWA Flight 847 Hijacking: Hezbollah hijacked TWA Flight 847 and brutally murdered U.S. Navy diver Robert Stethem. His execution on the tarmac, broadcast worldwide, exemplified their cruelty and disregard for human life. 6. 1996 Khobar Towers Bombing: In Saudi Arabia, Hezbollah’s involvement in the bombing of a U.S. Air Force housing complex led to the deaths of 19 U.S. service members. This attack further highlighted the group’s willingness to strike American forces far beyond Lebanon. 7. 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War: During this war, Hezbollah’s indiscriminate rocket fire killed several American-Israeli dual citizens. Hezbollah’s unprovoked aggression toward civilians marked yet another chapter in their long history of violence. 8. 2007 Karbala Attack: Hezbollah-trained militants ambushed and killed five U.S. soldiers in Karbala, Iraq, showcasing the group’s expanding influence and lethal training operations beyond Lebanon (X) Moral clarity from Speaker of the House Mike Johnson: Hassan Nasrallah’s reign of bloodshed, oppression, and terror has been brought to an end. A puppet of the Iranian regime, he was one of the most brutal terrorists on the planet, and a coward who hid behind women and children to carry out his attacks. Thanks to the brave men and women of the Israeli military, justice was delivered for Israeli victims of his heinous crimes, their families, and the United States. The world is better off without him (X). A timeline chronicling the terror history of Hezbollah and Nasrallah (Hezbollah).

Israel’s Novel Strategy for War: Victory

Over the course of the last two-plus decades and successive American administrations, Israel has been arm-twisted and cajoled and threatened away from actually defeating the enemies that want to destroy it. Lee Smith, author of “Strong Horse”: Israel’s attack also shows that almost everything U.S. and other Western civilian and military leaders have believed about the Middle East for the last 20 years was simply a collection of excuses for losing wars. The questions that senior policymakers and Pentagon officials, think-tank experts and journalists have deliberated over since the invasion of Iraq—questions about the nature of modern warfare and the proper conduct of international relations in a multipolar world, etc.—can now be set aside for good because they have been resolved definitively….  Rather, it means killing your enemies, above all those who advocate and embody the causes that inspire others to exhaust their murderous energies against you. Thus, killing Nasrallah was essential…. The Obama faction, of which Biden and Harris are a part, is in Iran’s corner. Moreover, only a fool could be blind to the fact that the Pentagon way of war, three decades into the 21st century and a world away from the United States’ last conclusive victory, means death for all who pursue it (Tablet). Benjamin Netanyahu: If someone rises up to kill you, kill him first. We have settled accounts with someone who was responsible for the murders of countless Israelis and many nationals of other countries, including hundreds of Americans and dozens of French. Nasrallah was not just another terrorist, he was the terrorist. He was the axis of the axis, the main engine of Iran’s axis of evil (X).

The Power Dynamic in the Middle East Has Shifted

Jared Kushner: September 27th is the most important day in the Middle East since the Abraham Accords breakthrough. I have spent countless hours studying Hezbollah and there is not an expert on earth who thought that what Israel has done to decapitate and degrade them was possible. This is significant because Iran is now fully exposed. The reason why their nuclear facilities have not been destroyed, despite weak air defense systems, is because Hezbollah has been a loaded gun pointed at Israel. Iran spent the last forty years building this capability as its deterrent …  And now, over the past six weeks or so, Israel has eliminated as many terrorists on the US list of wanted terrorists as the US has done in the last 20 years. Including Ibrahim Aqil, the leader of Hezbollah’s Islamic Jihad Organization who masterminded the 1983 killing of those Marines (X). Israel Hayom: What we’re witnessing is the systematic dismantling of Hezbollah’s command structure. The precision strikes in its Beirut stronghold, targeting vital strategic assets, deliver an unprecedented blow to the very concept of “resistance.” This operation challenges the misguided notion that a network of terror groups could somehow push the Jewish state out of the Middle East (Israel Hayom). John Podhoretz—in a piece that recounts recent achievements by Irael: The Netanyahu government acted, and with a kind of determination and confidence that has breathed new strength and a new sense of resolve into the Jewish people. Whatever the divisions and concerns and cautions inside the corridors of power about the astonishing onslaught of Israel against the Iran Axis of Evil, the fact is Israel stared into the abyss and said, “Not today. Not this week. Not this month. Not ever” (Commentary).

A First! Border Czar Kamala Harris Visits Border

Sarah Arnold for Townhall: Vice President Kamala Harris visited the southern border on Friday for the first time since June 2021 despite being President Joe Biden’s “border czar.”  As she called for stricter immigration policies and the sudden need for a border wall, Harris also vowed to stop the flow of fentanyl …. (Townhall). Wall Street Journal: The U.S.-Mexico border on Friday was the latest stop on Kamala Harris’s reinvention tour, and defending her record there will take more than a smile and shifting blame…. The Vice President chose Douglas, Ariz., for her border speech, hoping to convince swing-state voters that she’s serious about reducing the flow of migrants. The visit represents a shift to Plan B after the failure of her first strategy, which was to dodge the issue. Her campaign spent the first weeks after she gained the nomination telling the press that President Biden had never named her “border czar.” But residents in border towns like Douglas aren’t likely to forget how security has unraveled on her Administration’s watch. More than 10 million migrants have been apprehended nationwide during the Biden Presidency, with a peak of 3.2 million last fiscal year. That compares with about three million in total under President Trump (WSJ)

13,099 Murderers

That’s the number that have crossed our border as a result of the Biden/Harris open border policy. And that is just the tip of the iceberg: 62,231 convicted of assault, 14,301 convicted of burglary, 56,533 with drug convictions and 13,099 convicted of homicide. An additional 2,521 have kidnapping convictions and 15,811 have sexual assault convictions. There are an additional 1,845 with pending homicide charges, 42,915 with assault charges, 3,266 with burglary charges and 4,250 with assault charges. 13,099 convicted of homicide. An additional 2,521 have kidnapping convictions and 15,811 have sexual assault charges (Fox News). It’s treasonous (X).

John Kerry on the First Amendment: “a Major Block” to Hammering Out Disinformation

This is today’s Democratic elite: Leftists who bristle at the Bill of Rights. John Kerry at the World Economic Forum: The dislike of and anguish over social media is just growing and growing. It is part of our problem, particularly in democracies, in terms of building consensus around any issue. It’s really hard to govern today…. You know there’s a lot of discussion now about how you curb those entities in order to guarantee that you’re going to have some accountability on facts, etc. But look, if people only go to one source, and the source they go to is sick, and, you know, has an agenda and they’re putting out disinformation, our First Amendment stands as a major block to be able to just, you know, hammer it out of existence (Real Clear Politics). Colin Wright: The First Amendment isn’t an impediment to eliminating disinformation, it allows citizens to call out disinformation being spread by our ideologically captured institutions. Kerry’s view assumes the government is omniscient and above criticism. It’s not, and never will be (X). National Review: Kerry’s comments came 45 minutes into a World Economic Forum panel on economic development, held during its week of “sustainable development impact meetings,” a series of panels primarily focused on climate change and international markets (National Review).

Young Men Now More Religious Than Young Women

New York Times: For the first time in modern American history, young men are now more religious than their female peers. They attend services more often and are more likely to identify as religious. “We’ve never seen it before,” Ryan Burge, an associate professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University, said of the flip. Among Generation Z Christians, this dynamic is playing out in a stark way: The men are staying in church, while the women are leaving at a remarkable clip. Church membership has been dropping in the United States for years. But within Gen Z, almost 40 percent of women now describe themselves as religiously unaffiliated, compared with 34 percent of men, according to a survey last year of more than 5,000 Americans by the Survey Center on American Life at the American Enterprise Institute (New York Times).

Elon Musk: “If Trump is NOT elected, this will be the last election”

Musk: Very few Americans realize that, if Trump is NOT elected, this will be the last election. Far from being a threat to democracy, he is the only way to save it! Let me explain: if even 1 in 20 illegals become citizens per year, something that the Democrats are expediting as fast as humanly possible, that would be about 2 million new legal voters in 4 years. The voting margin in the swing states is often less than 20 thousand votes. That means if the “Democratic” Party succeeds, there will be no more swing states!!  Moreover, the Biden/Harris administration has been flying “asylum seekers”, who are fast-tracked to citizenship, directly into swing states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin and Arizona. It is a surefire way to win every election (X).