When Has War Even Been ‘Proportional?’

From AM Greatness.com (Nov. 16, 2023):

Proportionality in war is a synonym for lethal stalemate, if not defeat.

When two sides go at it with roughly equal forces, weapons, and strategies, the result is often a horrific deadlock—like the four years of toxic trench warfare on the Western Front of World War I that resulted in 12 million fatalities.

The purpose of war is to defeat the enemy as quickly as possible with the least number of causalities—and thereby achieve political ends.

So, every side aims to find superior strategies, tactics, weapons, and manpower to ensure as great a disproportionate advantage as possible.

Hamas is no exception.

Its savage precivilizational strategy to defeat Israel hinged on doing disproportionate things Israel either cannot or will not do.

First, Hamas spent a year planning a preemptive butchery spree inside Israel. Its ruthless murdering focused on “soft targets” like unarmed elderly, women, children, and infants, mostly asleep at a time of peace and holiday.

Second, it sought to collectively shock Israel into paralysis by the sheer horror of decapitating civilians, burning babies, mass raping, and mutilating bodies.

Another apparent aim of such premodern barbarity was to blame Israel’s “occupation” for turning Gazans into veritable monsters, with hopes of derailing the renewed Abraham Accords.

Third, the gunmen took more than 240 hostages back with them to Gaza.

Again, that was a disproportionate tactic designed to meter out the release of captives in exchange for “pauses” and “cease-fires” to save Hamas.

Additionally, Hamas made implicit threats of gruesome executions of captives unless Israel ceased their retaliation for October 7.

Fourth, all the while Hamas shot rockets into Israel, more than 7,000 in total, and all aimed at civilians.

Not one launch was preceded by dropping leaflets or sending text messages to Israeli civilians to vacate the intended target areas—a protocol often used by the Israel Defense Forces.

The unapologetic aim was to kill thousands of Israelis at random and disproportionately.

In fact, in just the last few four weeks, Hamas has launched more than twice as many rockets into Israel as Nazi Germany managed to launch V-2s into Britain in five months.

Fifth, Hamas sought to create a multibillion-dollar tunnel city beneath Gaza. The labyrinth’s sole purposes were to stockpile weapons and ensure safe havens for terrorists to shoot rockets and regroup after their terrorist missions.

Sixth, the subterranean headquarters of Hamas elites, along with weapons depots, were strategically placed under hospitals, mosques, and schools to “shield” them from Israeli attacks.

The expectation was that the IDF would be hesitant to target such “civilian” and “humanitarian” areas in a way Hamas never would.

Seventh, Hamas forced the civilians of Gaza to remain among the street fighting. They often shot those who resisted.

They also killed Gazans who fled the city. Hamas sought to increase civilian fodder as collateral damage from Israeli attacks. Such deaths were to be broadcast worldwide to win sympathy for Hamas terrorists and force a cease-fire.

Eighth, Hamas bragged that it could repeat strategies 1-7 endlessly on the supposition Israel would tire, the world would turn against it, and it at last could murder enough Jews to end Israel altogether.

Israel in turn seeks its own disproportionate response to defeat Hamas.

First, it seeks to single out and kill the actual Hamas terrorists, and especially the 2,000 or so killers of October 7.

Second, it tries to warn civilians to flee anywhere that Hamas masses. Just as Hamas wants its own civilians killed for propaganda purposes, so Israel seeks to avoid killing them.

Third, by targeting Hamas and warning civilians to keep their distance, Israel does not deny that there will be collateral damage.

But it hopes to convince the world that any civilian deaths are mostly the fault of Hamas and not the IDF.

And to the degree that Gaza City is left in rubble, Israel wishes to remind its enemies that the wages of murdering Jewish infants unfortunately will be a disproportionate response, whose full effects will deter any future attack.

Fourth, Israel understands that a country of 9-10 million is facing a virulently hostile 500 million-person Arab Middle East. The United Nations is on the side of Hamas. A now anti-Semitic Europe has been hijacked by immigrants from the Middle East. Israel’s sole patron the United States is buffeted by a hard-left new Democratic Party that is not a reliable partner.

The result is that Israel still cannot conduct a fully disproportionate war without endangering its source of military resupply in the United States, and a wider conflict with the Islamic world.

And so, the war continues.

Hamas strives for a more disproportionate terrorist agenda to prolong the war. And Israel strives for a more disproportionate retaliation to end it.

The anger arises at Israel mostly because it is Jewish, and thus far its conventional disproportionality is proving more effective than the terrorist disproportionality of Hamas. [source]

More great points from VDH that are hard to disagree with.

Critical Race Theory for the Rest of Us

From The Public Discourse.com (Nov. 8, 2023):

What is Critical Race Theory?

A movement that was virtually unknown for decades is now, thanks to prominent national activism, a household name. The United States continues to grapple with the legacy of slavery and the persistence of racism. For many, Critical Race Theory (CRT) seems to be the most plausible and coherent framework through which to view the history of racism and its lasting impact on modern life. But as Edward Feser argues in All One in Christ: A Catholic Critique of Racism and Critical Race Theory, CRT does more harm than good for racial harmony, an ideal that is better served by such Christian principles as those embodied in the Catholic Church’s social teaching. In Feser’s book, Catholics, other Christians, and even non-Christians will find much to help them confront CRT and the perennial challenges of living in a racially diverse society.

The Christian Response to Racism

The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church states:

The Incarnation of the Son of God [Jesus Christ] shows the equality of all people with regard to dignity: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28).

Since something of the glory of God shines on the face of every person, the dignity of every person before God is the basis of the dignity of man before other men. Moreover, this is the ultimate foundation of the radical equality and brotherhood among all people, regardless of their race, nation, sex, origin, culture, or class.

Only on such a principled basis, Feser says, could one overcome racism. Biology can refute many racist claims, but hardened racists can always find genetic differences between races to rationalize their prejudice. Defenders of universal human dignity, like the Church, therefore ultimately appeal to the transcendent human nature that we all share in our spiritual soul—which cannot be reduced to genetics.

From each man’s soul—“by which he is most especially in God’s image”—spring his distinctly human capacities to know and love God and other people. It creates a “bond between the human person and the Creator,” the Church says, that grounds his “fundamental inalienable rights, of which God is the guarantor.” God alone, and not one’s parents, creates the soul. It is immortal, and after separating from the body in death it will reunite with the body “at the final Resurrection.” And if he develops his spiritual capacity to love, even the humblest, least educated person—like St. André Bessette—will, after this life, surpass in eternal glory kings and popes who were reckoned among the mighty on earth.

Given the Church’s beliefs, it is not surprising that, when race-based slavery first appeared in the early modern era, Feser notes, “[t]he Church immediately condemned [it] in the harshest terms possible.” In 1537, Pope Paul III bluntly called the opinion that the native peoples of the New World were mere animals the invention of

[t]he enemy of the human race, who . . . in order that he might hinder the preaching of God’s Word of salvation to the people, . . . inspired his satellites . . . to publish abroad that the Indians of the West and the South, and other people of whom We have recent knowledge, should be treated as dumb brutes created for our service, pretending that they are incapable of receiving the catholic faith.

In other words, Feser says, “in this document from five centuries ago, the pope characterizes as nothing less than satanic” the racism that underlay slavery. The same natives, the pope said, “and all other people who may later be discovered by Christians, are by no means to be deprived of their liberty or the possession of their property, even though they be outside the faith of Jesus Christ.”

Although many Catholics ignored the pope, the Church’s teaching was clear and emphatic. Over centuries, the teaching was repeated and extended to condemn the enslavement of Filipinos and black Africans. Leo XIII applauded slavery’s abolition in Brazil in 1888. And when Nazism emerged, Pius XI condemned its racist nationalism. Throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, popes have continued to speak out against the mistreatment of minorities. [read more]

Another article on CRT: Critical Race Theory is the new segregation across schools nationwide

J6 Bombshell: Secret Service got intel on 'high potential' for violence but didn't tell agents

From Just the News.com (Aug. 1, 2024):

The Secret Service developed intelligence that there was a “high potential for violence” before the Jan. 6 Capitol riot but failed to share that information with its agents guarding Donald Trump, Mike Pence or Kamala Harris that fateful day, according to a bombshell report delivered to Congress on Thursday that exposed a fresh round of failures by the presidential protection agency.

Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari's report was forced into the public by pressure from House Administration Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., and it confirmed earlier Just the News reporting, including that the Secret Service whisked Harris, then the Vice President-elect, within 20 feet of an undetected pipe bomb at Democrat National Committee (DNC) headquarters in Washington because it failed to employ its normal explosive detection tools.

“The Secret Service had not employed all its explosive detection tactics and measures for the security sweep, instead providing only canine teams at the DNC building that day. Afterward, the Secret Service did not report the buildings evacuation as an unusual protective event, as required by its policies,” the inspector general concluded

The report, obtained by Just the News, not only adds dramatic new details about security and intelligence failures on Jan.6, 2021 but it also offered powerful new evidence to the growing inquiry into how the Secret Service failed to detect the gunman who wounded Trump at a July 13 rally in Butler, Pa.

Congressional aides briefed on the report said its findings and six recommendations for improved communication, training and other security tactics were delivered to Secret Service management in April, three months before the Trump assassination attempt. Cuffari, himself, made a point in the report to stress that the shortcomings exhibited during the Capitol riot 3 1/2 years ago should be a learning event for the Secret Service.

"The events of January 6 were unprecedented and the issues we identified during our review presented an opportunity for the Secret Service to be better prepared in the future," the report implored.

The report also revealed some friction between Cuffari's office, the chief watchdog for Homeland Security, and Secret Service managers, who disagreed with some of the report's findings and recommendations.

The report shows that the Jan. 6 events exposed some of the same failures now suspected to be at the center of the rally tragedy, including problems with communication with local police, faulty security sweeping and inadequate threat identification. [read more]

Is this general incompetence (which is bad in of itself) or something more? 

Another J6 article:

Vicious FBI Agents Accused of Terrorizing Innocent J6 Families and Harassing Children Sue to Keep Their Identities Hidden

Docs: FBI Believed It Lacked Probable Cause To Raid Mar-A-Lago But Did So Anyway

From The Federalist.com (Dec. 16, 2025):

The FBI did not believe it had probable cause to raid President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in 2022, but did it anyway after pressure from then-President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice, according to newly uncovered emails.

Emails released by Sen. Chuck Grassley’s office show that officials at the FBI and DOJ communicated about FBI concerns about the warrant in the months leading up to the August raid.

In one June 1 email an unidentified FBI assistant special agent in charge wrote to FBI official Anthony Riedlinger, “Very little has been developed related to who might be culpable for mishandling the documents.”

“[FBI Washington Field Office] has been drafting a Search Warrant affidavit related to these potential boxes, but has some concerns that the information is single source, has not been corroborated, and may be dated. DOJ CES opines, however, that the SWs meet the probable cause standard.” The same agent described the “potential boxes” as “presumably of the same type as were sent back to NARA [National Archives and Records Administration] in January.”

Notably, the unnamed FBI official said that while they “continue[d] down the path towards a search warrant, WFO believes that a reasonable conversation with the former President’s attorney (stating that the FBI and DOJ are readying a search warrant, and have developed information that there are more documents at Mar a Lago), ought not to be discounted.”

A separate email (sent weeks after the aforementioned, on July 13) to Robert Stuart Sinton, Lisa R. Gentilcore, and Anthony Riedlinger from a redacted official states: “We haven’t generated any new facts, but keep being given draft after draft after draft. Absent a witness coming forward with recent information about classified on site, at what point is it fair to table this?”

Another email dated July 29 noted that the scope of the search was being “widened.”

Another redacted email sent on July 20 shows the FBI’s Washington Field Office did “not believe (and has articulated to DOJ CES) that we have established probable cause for the search warrant for classified records at Mar a Lago. DOJ has opined that they do have probable cause, requesting a wide scope including residence, office, storage space. … Continued investigation and additional interviews have not found any witness who has reported seeing classified records at Mar a Lago since the return of records via [Redacted] compliance on June 3, 2022.”

In fact, FBI officials were purportedly worried about the optics of executing such an uncertain search warrant.

According to an Aug. 4 email from an unidentified agent, then-Deputy Assistant Attorney General George Toscas said in a meeting that he “frankly doesn’t give a damn about the optics” of the search warrant despite concerns of FBI officials and their apparent desire to execute the warrant in “a professional, low key manner.”

“I understand that this request may not go well at DOJ, however, it is FBI serving and executing the search and it will be our personnel who will have to deal with the reaction to that first contact,” the email from the unidentified agent reads.

The FBI raided Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8. Special Counsel Jack Smith then brought charges against Trump stemming from the raid as part of Democrats’ “get-Trump” lawfare. Smith alleged Trump mishandled classified documents. Smith’s prosecution against Trump was dismissed last July after Judge Aileen Cannon found his appointment unconstitutional, as then-Attorney General Merrick Garland lacked the authority to appoint Smith. [source]

Abuse of power. All because the Briben regime wanted to get President Trump.

US Retaliates on ISIS for Killing 3 Americans: Operation Hawkeye Strike

From Newsmax.com (Dec. 20, 2025):

The U.S. military launched large-scale strikes against dozens of Islamic State targets in Syria on Friday in retaliation for an attack on American personnel, U.S. officials said.

A U.S.-led coalition has been carrying out airstrikes and ground operations in Syria targeting Islamic State suspects in recent months, often with the involvement of Syria's ‍security forces.

President Donald Trump had vowed to retaliate after a suspected ISIS attack killed U.S. personnel last ‍weekend in Syria.

War Secretary Pete Hegseth said the strikes targeted "ISIS fighters, infrastructure, and weapons sites" and that the operation was "OPERATION HAWKEYE STRIKE."

"This is not the beginning of a war — it ⁠is a declaration of vengeance," Hegseth said. "Today, we hunted and we killed our enemies. Lots of them. And we will continue," he added.

Trump said on social media that the Syrian government ​fully supported the strikes and that the U.S. was inflicting "very serious retaliation."

At a speech in North Carolina on Friday night, Trump called it a "massive" blow against the ISIS members that the U.S. blames for the December 13 attack on coalition forces.

"We hit the ISIS thugs in Syria. … ‍It was very successful," Trump said at a rally in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.

U.S. Central Command said the strikes hit ⁠more than 70 targets across central Syria, adding that Jordanian fighter jets supported the operation.

One U.S. official said the strikes were carried out by U.S. F-15 and A-10 jets, along with Apache helicopters and HIMARS rocket systems.

Jordan's air force participated in the strikes, state-owned Jordan TV reported on Saturday, saying they had targeted sites affiliated to Islamic State in southern Syria, within the framework of Amman's ⁠cooperation with the U.S.-led coalition.

Syria reiterated its steadfast ​commitment to fighting Islamic State and ensuring ⁠that it has "no safe havens on Syrian territory," according to a statement by the foreign ministry.

Two U.S. Army soldiers and a civilian interpreter were killed on ‍Saturday in the central Syrian town of Palmyra by an attacker who targeted a convoy of American and Syrian forces before being shot dead, according to the ‌U.S. military. Three other U.S. soldiers were also wounded in the attack.

About 1,000 U.S. troops remain in Syria.

The Syrian Interior Ministry has described the attacker as a member of the Syrian security forces suspected of sympathizing with Islamic State.

Syria's government is ⁠led by ​former rebels who toppled leader Bashar al-Assad ‍last year after a 13-year civil war, and includes members of Syria's former al-Qaeda branch who broke with the group and clashed with Islamic State.

Syria has been cooperating with a U.S.-led coalition against Islamic ‍State, reaching an agreement last month when President Ahmed al-Sharaa visited the White House. [source]

Good.  An example of FAFO. The lesson is don't mess with America when she has a real competent leader.

Is Religion the Opium of the People, or the Ladder?

From Breakpoint.org (Sept. 8, 2022):

“Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature,” wrote Karl Marx, “…the opium of the people.” Decades of often painful historical experience has proven his observation both right and wrong. Believing in God does ease pain and suffering of faithful followers, but he was wrong in thinking that religion, especially Christianity, leaves them with nowhere else to go from there.

A recent article in The Economist put it this way: “Religious belief really does seem to draw the sting of poverty.” Although there is a correlation between poverty and decreased mental health, the article highlighted German sociologist Dr. Jana Berkessel’s recent findings that religion significantly mitigates this effect.

A variety of similar studies confirm this. Regular attendance at religious services consistently correlates with longer life spans, stronger immune systems, and lower blood pressure, as well as decreased anxiety, depression, and suicide. Kids raised in religious households have a lower incidence of drug addiction, delinquency, and incarceration. They’re more likely to graduate high school. In short, the nearly unanimous scientific consensus is that religious belief is good for you.

Of course, Marx’s point was that these benefits only serve to keep people content in their chains and to keep them distracted so much by the next world that they do nothing to change this one. Many critics today take the critique even further. Religion, especially Christianity, has not only been used to pacify people in their oppression but is the very source of it.

Of course, the charge that Christianity has been co-opted, corrupted, and weaponized to justify all kinds of abuse, conquest, and enslavement, is undeniable. At the same time, it’s also undeniable that Christianity has been a global force for the kinds of goods now so pervasive, it’s hard to even imagine the world without them. Many of the rights and principles we consider to be naturally occurring features of the world only came to be by the influence of Christianity.

In the ancient pagan world, violence, rape, infant exposure, and prostitution were rules, not exceptions. Almost immediately, Christianity began to revolutionize pagan ethics, particularly in its view of the poor and the outcast. Roman Emperor Julian famously wrote that when the “impious Galileans support not only their poor, but ours as well, all men see that our people lack aid from us.”

To a world with no reason to believe in the equality of all people, Christianity taught that “there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.” This belief was grounded in the Christian view of the human person, which had no parallel in the ancient world and which created an explosion of literacy, social mobility, and human rights that we now take for granted in the modern world.

Christianity’s unique contributions in humanizing the modern world are yet another reason to not simply lump all “religious beliefs” into the one blanket category. All religions are simply not the same, not in substance nor impact.

Economist Robin Grier, for example, conducted a cross-national survey of 63 formerly European colonies. She found that, across the board, Protestant Christianity, in particular, was “positively and significantly correlated with real GDP growth,” and that “the level of Protestantism is significantly related to real per capita income levels.” A National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) paper found that only certain religious beliefs—notably beliefs about heaven, hell, and an afterlife—are linked with economic growth. In other words, it’s not just about having a “religion,” but about what your religion teaches.

Consider Africa. A recent paper from NBER analyzed educational outcomes among religious children. Though Africa is becoming increasingly religious across the board, the paper found that in many countries, “primary school completion for Christians was more than double that of Muslims or Africans adhering to local religions.” Christian communities far outpace others when it comes to intergenerational educational growth.

Writing in 1843, Karl Marx couldn’t have anticipated how thoroughly science would analyze his claims about religion. He’d likely have been among the modern theorists surprised that the world is becoming more religious, not less. As one writer with The Brookings Institution put it, “While weak state structures collapse and aid agencies switch priorities, one group of actors persists against all odds: religious institutions.”

Of course, this isn’t why anyone should believe the truth claims of Christianity. They should be believed if they are true. At the same time, the fact that Christian belief has been an educational, social, and economic ladder for millions suggests these beliefs ought to be taken seriously. [source]

Main Points of Jonathan Alpert's Article "Is 'Trump Derangement Syndrome' Real?"

From Grok.com:

Jonathan Alpert, a Manhattan-based psychotherapist, argues in his Wall Street Journal opinion piece (published around early November 2025) that "Trump Derangement Syndrome" (TDS)—a term often used dismissively in political discourse—is a legitimate psychological phenomenon he observes in his clinical practice. Drawing from his experiences treating patients, Alpert frames TDS not as mere partisanship but as a form of obsessive preoccupation akin to anxiety disorders or OCD-like behaviors. Below are the article's key points, based on its core arguments and examples:

• TDS as a Real Psychological Pathology: Alpert asserts that TDS is not hyperbole but a "profound pathology" manifesting as hyperfixation on Donald Trump, leading to irrational emotional distress. He describes it as the "defining pathology of our time," where patients exhibit symptoms like restlessness, sleep disturbances, and trauma-like responses triggered solely by Trump's image, name, or news coverage.
• Prevalence in Clinical Practice: He claims that approximately 75% of his patients present with TDS symptoms, often within minutes of starting sessions. This widespread occurrence, particularly in a liberal-leaning area like Manhattan, underscores its impact on mental health, with patients seeking therapy explicitly for Trump-related distress.
• Specific Symptoms and Triggers: Common manifestations include inability to sleep, feeling "traumatized" by Trump, and compulsive checking of news for Trump-related content, which exacerbates anxiety. Alpert shares an anonymized example of a patient who couldn't enjoy a vacation because seeing Trump on her device caused immediate triggering, illustrating how TDS disrupts daily life and enjoyment.
• Beyond Ideology: A Mental Health Issue: Initially skeptical and viewing it as ideological bias, Alpert evolved to see TDS as unhealthy fixation on a single figure, regardless of political validity. He emphasizes that such obsession—where Trump dominates thoughts and emotions—is maladaptive and requires therapeutic intervention to restore balance, rather than being dismissed as "normal" political disagreement.
• Call for Awareness and Treatment: Alpert urges greater recognition of political obsessions in mental health discussions, suggesting therapy techniques like cognitive reframing to help patients detach from the fixation. He warns that ignoring TDS could worsen societal polarization, positioning it as a broader cultural symptom needing professional address.

The article blends clinical anecdotes with broader commentary, sparking debate (e.g., criticism for potentially breaching patient confidentiality or politicizing therapy). Alpert's Fox News appearance around the same time amplified these ideas, but the WSJ piece focuses more on professional insights than partisan rhetoric.

Builders of J6 gallows remain unidentified while FBI and DOJ continue to pursue other defendants

From Just the News.com (Nov. 15, 2023):

In the early morning of Jan. 6, 2021, a group of unnamed and unidentified individuals were seen unloading and transporting the materials to assemble the infamous gallows that became the subject of numerous photographs during the protests.

According to surveillance video obtained by the Patriot Freedom Project from the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight, the unidentified individuals built the gallows in plain view on the National Mall in front of the U.S. Capitol building. Despite the full resources of law enforcement being deployed against thousands of individuals for participation in January 6—many charged with only misdemeanors—the builders of the gallows remain unidentified.

Photos of the gallows were included in the public hearings of the committee regarding the January 6 riot, and tied to right-wing movements by media like The New York Times.

Ed Martin, an attorney who represents Jan. 6 defendants, released the footage after obtaining it from the House Administration Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight.

On Wednesday, Martin said on the "Just the News, No Noise" TV show that after reviewing the footage “we figured out that four guys set up the gallows at 6:30 in the morning on January 6, it was a very serious production, they moved it out of a truck, they moved it across on wheels, they came back and forth.”

“And more importantly than anything, as some of the images you have up show, they went to get coffee at about seven in the morning, they went to coffee at the only coffee shop open at that time, which happens to be well, it's right next to Georgetown Law School. But it's also right across from the FBI headquarters in D.C. Something about this doesn't doesn't smell right,” Martin said. [read more]

It looks like the Briben’s FBI doesn't care to find out who built the gallows. A possible coverup? The current FBI and DOJ should.