R.I.P. Michael Ledeen
Posted By: Judy W., 5/20/2025 11:58:42 AM
“I often say to people, you’ve all seen these demonstrations in the streets of Iran, thousands of people chanting, “Death to America.” What do you think they mean?What is that all about anyway? Is that some local street festival? Is it something they do to amuse themselves? And the answer is no. That’s exactly what they have in mind.” That was Michael Ledeen at the David Horowitz Freedom Center’s Restoration Weekend ten years ago. Obama was clinging to power in his last years and Ledeen let him have it in characteristically direct terms. Then, as he had always been, Ledeen was direct, compelling and unequivocal in standing up to evil.
Below, you will find ...
Most Recent Articles posted by "Judy W."
and
Most Active Articles (last 48 hours)
Most Recent Articles posted by
Judy W."
R.I.P. Michael Ledeen
3 replies
“I often say to people, you’ve all seen these demonstrations in the streets of Iran, thousands of people chanting, “Death to America.” What do you think they mean?What is that all about anyway? Is that some local street festival? Is it something they do to amuse themselves? And the answer is no. That’s exactly what they have in mind.”
That was Michael Ledeen at the David Horowitz Freedom Center’s Restoration Weekend ten years ago. Obama was clinging to power in his last years and Ledeen let him have it in characteristically direct terms. Then, as he had always been, Ledeen was direct, compelling and unequivocal in standing up to evil.
Unwinding the bureaucracy’s grip on American life will take an effort that outlasts this president and the next. But last week’s executive order is a start.
The second Trump administration contains multitudes. Rhetorically — and, often, practically — it has advanced an expansive view of executive power that echoes its leader’s famous, l’état-c’est-moi-esque declaration that “I alone can fix it.” And yet, in its concurrent attempts to rein in the most egregious excesses of our presumptuous and recalcitrant federal bureaucracy, it has tasked itself with effecting reforms that run in precisely the opposite direction.
Clarice Feldman is on vacation, so I borrowed from my 'week in review' column an editor's pick of the week's top stories, modified for the article format.
There are more than three big stories this week to sum up this time. Americans are beginning to get a sense of the new pope. Tariffs are having their impact. The CPI shows inflation shrinking. The U.K. continues to appall us with its wokesterly governance, which is now seeing some backtracking on immigration, as is Gavin Newsom's California. We can also add news of how bad Joe Biden's mental decline was and the press that covered it up. But these are honorable mentions.
Iran appears to be using diplomacy to stall, deceive and advance its nuclear capabilities behind closed doors, while securing financial and geopolitical concessions from the West.
The disturbing part is not that Iran's mullahs are following their usual tactics. The horror is that American officials and Western leaders appear to be falling for this shell-game all over again.
The problem with enriching hostile regimes to "buy quiet" is that this is the money they use to build nuclear weapons with which to attack us.
An additional problem, unfortunately, is that the Iranian regime has a well-documented history of lying.
From my perch at American Thinker, rumors sometimes come my way. One of them, seemingly a solid one, is that a well-financed effort is underway to acquire several major conservative outlets, including Human Events, The Post Millennial, and The Daily Caller, to roll them up under a single owner. According to what I’ve heard, the forces behind this effort are donors sympathetic to the vision of the Republican Party that Liz Cheney, Mike Pence, Paul Ryan, and Mitt Romney espouse.
As a matter of principle, I’m deeply opposed to the idea of a consortium controlling multiple once-independent websites.
Big Trump Action Goes Mostly Unnoticed
5 replies
Donald Trump just made it harder to go to federal prison.
On Friday, President Trump issued a new executive order with a remarkably broad scope and deep implications, under the title “Fighting Overcriminalization in Federal Regulations.” It starts with plain, clear, direct language:
The Code of Federal Regulations contains over 48,000 sections, stretching over 175,000 pages — far more than any citizen can possibly read, let alone fully understand. Worse, many carry potential criminal penalties for violations. The situation has become so dire that no one — likely including those charged with enforcing our criminal laws at the Department of Justice — knows how many separate criminal offenses are contained in the
The Imaginary Casey Means
15 replies
Yes, there is a fight right now among MAHA activists. Yes, it has to do with the announcement on May 7 2025 that “wellness influencer” and bestselling author Casey Means was replacing Dr Janette Nesheiwat as President Trump’s nominee for the office of Surgeon General. Dr Nesheiwat, it emerged, had misrepresented her medical credentials.
A post by former Vice Presidential Candidate Nicole Shanahan, without whose financial and strategic support for RFK Jr’s candidacy, neither he nor President Trump would be in power right now, has been widely circulated. Shanahan found it “strange” that a direct assurance to her from RFK Jr, in exchange for her support for his confirmation,
The Destroyer
17 replies
Don’t be discouraged, but this is the worst, most horrifying story I have ever had to cover. Whatever we believed the trafficking problem was, things were much worse, much more literally demonic, and much more widespread than anyone imagined. The first clue appeared yesterday in FBI Director Kash Patel’s astonishing tweet:
(Snip) Deeply disturbing is an understatement. For whatever reason, the media isn’t reporting the whole story. But the Trump Administration has initiated one of the largest and most urgent federal law enforcement responses in history. The ABC article buried the lede, which was that the entire FBI is now involved in responding to an altogether new and horrifying threat.
BRADDOCK, Pennsylvania — Sen. John Fetterman‘s (D-PA) mental acuity was just fine to Democrats.
But then he stood up for Israel.
And now, to hear his anonymous staffers moan, you would think he was Joe Biden Part II.
He is not. (Snip)
Gone were any signs of the early struggles he faced between May of 2022 and February of 2023 when he was in recovery from both the side effects of his stroke as well as depression; in place instead was the man I have covered since he first ran for office as mayor of this old steel town in 2005 and won by absentee ballot.
In the weeks before David Horowitz’s passing, he wrote an article and finished another book. In and out of the hospital, he would call me on the phone to relay another idea for a series or another article about the Left. (Snip) The one thing that David would never do is give up.
His superhuman endurance was not physical, it was a matter of conviction. Long after his body had failed, he kept going, writing, thinking, arguing and above all else…fighting.
In his final op-ed, ‘The Biggest Lie of All’, published weeks before his death, David reproved Republicans for underestimating Democrats and the Left. That had been his overriding theme
Will the next pope continue the last pope’s consistent record of appeasing Islam?
The late Pope Francis had a long record of whitewashing Islamic jihad violence and making moral equivalence arguments in order to downplay jihad terror. Back in 2017, Ahmed al-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Cairo’s al-Azhar, noticed the pope’s yeoman service for the Islamic cause and thanked him for his “defense of Islam against the accusation of violence and terrorism.”
Francis was not just a defender of Islam but also a defender of the Sharia death penalty for blasphemy. After Islamic jihadists in Jan. 2015 murdered the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists who had drawn Muhammad, Francis obliquely justified the murders
King Abdullah and the Islamists
3 replies
A remarkable situation is fast developing in which the West is becoming more Islamist — the term for Islamic holy war extremism — than the Arab Muslim world itself.
This week, Jordan banned the extremist Muslim Brotherhood. All Brotherhood offices there have been closed, and its assets will be confiscated, shortly after 16 of its members were arrested in an alleged armed plot against the kingdom.
The authorities found weapons and explosives being stored in residential areas and transported across Jordan; secret missile-manufacturing facilities that could have produced up to 250 short-range missiles; and “training and recruitment operations” linked to the group.
Most Active Articles (last 48 hours)
Comey: Don’t Regret ‘Innocent’ 86
47 Post — It Was ‘Clever,’ Artistic
Political View Point 47 replies
47 Post — It Was ‘Clever,’ Artistic
Political View Point 47 replies
Former FBI Director James Comey said Monday on MSNBC’s “Deadline” that he did not regret his “86 47” social media post because it was “clever” and an artistic political point of view that he admired.
Host Nicolle Wallace said, “Take me back to the walk on the beach.”
Comey said, “We were walking on the beach. We went to the beach to prepare for this week, which was the launch of my book and to think about the book and to prepare to answer questions about it. And we were walking back towards the road and we saw in the sand someone had arranged shells with numbers.
MSNBC contributor Claire McCaskill said Monday on “Deadline” that American voters were “not smart enough” to keep President Donald Trump away from the presidency.
McCaskill said, “There’s a huge swath of Americans that don’t know about that because their algorithms are purposely not feeding them politics because they don’t want to hear about it. But you know what they’re all going to know about? They’re all going to know about higher prices. They’re all going to know that they’re spending more at Walmart than they spent this time last year. They’re all going to know that their 401Ks are down. They’re all going to know that.
During an appearance on FNC’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino discussed the details surrounding Jeffrey Epstein’s death.
According to Bongino, Epstein committed suicide. “You said Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide,” host Maria Bartiromo said. “People don’t believe it.” (snip) Bongino added, “He killed himself. Again, you want me to — I have seen the whole file. He killed himself.”
Combat sport clubs used to boost recruitment
for white nationalist hategroup, report says 31 replies
for white nationalist hategroup, report says 31 replies
Combat sport clubs have been used to boost recruitment for a white nationalist hate group, according to a report released by the legal advocacy organization Southern Poverty Law Center.
The report tracks the efforts of the Patriot Front — one of the most visible groups in the white nationalist movement, formed following the deadly 'Unite the Right' rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 — and their focus on recruiting new members through Active Clubs.
Barack Obama Absurdly Claims “Nobody
Has Done More” to Find Cures for Cancer
Than Joe Biden 24 replies
Has Done More” to Find Cures for Cancer
Than Joe Biden 24 replies
In a statement released Sunday evening in response to Joe Biden’s cancer announcement, former President Barack Obama absurdly claimed Joe Biden has done the most work to find treatments for cancer.
On Sunday, it was reported that 82-year-old Joe Biden was diagnosed with an “aggressive form” of prostate cancer. (Snip) “While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management,” the statement said.
“Michelle and I are thinking of the entire Biden family. Nobody has done more to find breakthrough treatments for cancer in all its forms than Joe, and I am certain he will fight this challenge
Illegal aliens are being recruited to join sophisticated criminal networks in the United States that stage accidents and injuries to get payouts through the nation’s personal injury system, House Republicans told Attorney General Pam Bondi.[snip] “These fraudulent schemes pose serious risks to public safety, increase consumer costs, and raise insurance premiums for the motoring public,” the Republicans wrote. “According to the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud, insurance fraud costs the U.S. $308 billion annually, with $45 billion attributable to property and casualty insurance fraud. More importantly, these activities put innocent motorists at risk of injury or even death.”
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday gave the Trump administration the green light to revoke special legal protections for thousands of Venezuelan immigrants, which could pave the way for them to be deported.
The high court granted an emergency application filed by the administration, meaning officials can move forward with reversing a decision made at the tail end of the Biden administration to extend protections for more than 300,000 Venezuelans under the federal Temporary Protected Status program. The brief order noted that liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson would have denied the application. Litigation will now continue in lower courts.
Megyn Kelly spoke to top urologist Dr. David Samadi about former President Joe Biden's shocking, aggressive prostate cancer diagnosis, who pointed to one part in the announcement that puts the timing into question.
During the Sirius XM "The Megyn Kelly Show" podcast, Kelly asked about comments made by oncologist Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, who said on "Morning Joe" that Biden's form of cancer doesn't just "develop in the last 100, 200 days."
Dr. Samadi not only agreed with Dr. Ezekiel that it likely wasn't just discovered, but said the comment in Biden's cancer statement, about it being "hormone sensitive," proves the diagnosis can't be new.
A California building owner confronted the homeless encampments in downtown Los Angeles with an unusual musical deterrent.
While other businesses have taken to blasting loud music in front of their stores to prevent the homeless population from taking up space, one building owner turned to a repeat dose of playing Pinkfong’s “Baby Shark” through loudspeakers. [Tweet, video]
Tracy, a woman who lives in the encampment next door to the building, was not amused.
“They played ‘Baby Shark’ all night long,” Tracy, a woman who lives in an encampment next door to the building at the corner of West 11th and Main streets, told NBC4 Los Angeles.
Nicușor Dan was the pro-EU, pro-war and pro-NATO Romanian presidential candidate supported by Brussels.
When Nicușor Dan came in second place in the first round of elections, CTH noted he was very likely to succeed because the stakes are just too high for the European Union. The largest NATO military base in Europe is being built in Romania.
There was simply no way the collective assembly of the Intelligence Community, the military industrial complex, the pro-Ukraine elements, the anti-Russia NATO/EU alliance were going to allow defeat. As expected, Dan won.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is seen as the “face” of the Democratic Party according to new polling. In a Co/efficient survey conducted from May 7 to May 9 among 1,462 likely voters, 26% identified Ocasio-Cortez as the face of the Democratic Party. Another 26% said there is no one currently leading the party, while 22% chose “other.” Ocasio-Cortez was far ahead of other listed Democrats. Coming in a distant second was close ally Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). The pair recently went to various states with their Fighting Oligarchy tour. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) placed third in the survey with 8%.
President Trump wished Biden well after revelations of his advanced prostate cancer.
That’s fine. Trump is actually a very magnanimous fellow. What’s not fine are the talking heads concocting a false reality about Biden. Here are two of the talking points reverberating around the media eco-chambers: he is a decent man and a longtime public servant.
In many quarters, it is considered improper and unenlightened to talk ill of the dead. Though Biden is not quite there, yet, it may also be considered churlish to talk ill of the ill. Rather than stumble over themselves conjuring a false image of a decent public servant,
Comments:
I knew David Horowitz and Michael Ledeen, two great men. I mourn their recent passing as much as I have always mourned Rush's early death.