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)
WASHINGTON — Joe Biden was never diagnosed with prostate cancer until last week, and the last time he was screened for it was more than a decade ago, a spokesperson for the former president said Tuesday. “President Biden’s last known PSA was in 2014. Prior to Friday, President Biden had never been diagnosed with prostate cancer,” the spokesperson said. (Snip) In recent years, doctors have increasingly begun screening for the disease in older patients. President Donald Trump, 78, received a PSA screening as recently as this year, according to medical records released by the White House. Since he revealed his
Should Federal Judges Have Power To Block
Presidential Actions? Most Voters Say
‘Yes’: I&I/TIPP Poll 43 replies
Presidential Actions? Most Voters Say
‘Yes’: I&I/TIPP Poll 43 replies
Federal judges have recently halted a number of President Donald Trump’s executive orders and White House initiatives, setting off a firestorm of debate over how far judges’ power should go. As it turns out, most Americans of virtually all political persuasions think that judges should have the power to delay a president’s moves, the latest I&I/TIPP Poll shows.
In its April 30-May 2 national online poll of 1,400 voters, I&I/TIPP posed the following statement and question: “Federal district judges are appointed by the president, confirmed by the Senate, and serve lifetime terms. There are currently 677 such judges in the U.S.
The leaders of Canada, Britain, and France warned Israel that they will take “concrete actions” if it does not pause a military offensive in Gaza and lift restrictions on humanitarian aid into the territory.
The Israeli military began a series of air strikes against what it said were Hamas targets on Friday, ahead of the launch of “Gideon’s Chariots,” a new ground offensive which is aimed at gaining “operational control” of the northern and southern parts of the Gaza Strip.
The joint statement, released by the British government on Monday, said, “We strongly oppose the expansion of Israel’s military operations in Gaza.
MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace claimed Wednesday on “Deadline” that President Donald Trump humiliated the people of the United States during his Oval Office meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Wallace said, “Another day for the history books today from Donald J. Trump. An astonishing display from him in the White House today Donald Trump meeting with the president of South Africa and attempting to ambush and humiliate that leader inside the Oval Office. But what he did instead was embarrass and humiliate the people of the United States of America again, in his meeting with President Ramaphosa,
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.”
An impeachment inciter is eyeing a new opportunity to serve the Democratic Party in the state where woke goes to die, and the laughter can’t be contained.
Years after being hailed as a “whistleblower” for his role as lead witness in the first impeachment of President Donald Trump over the GOP leader’s “perfect” phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, retired Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman is suggesting he has new political aspirations. Though reluctant to make himself a “sacrificial player,” the Ukrainian-born social media flamethrower is considering a Senate bid in Florida.
Speaking with CBS New Miami, Vindman said of the potential challenge to appointed incumbent Florida Sen. Ashley Moody (R),
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%.
Americans celebrating Memorial Day by hitting the road will likely be paying the cheapest gas prices since 2003.
GasBuddy, a fuel savings platform, said Tuesday that it forecasts the national average price of gasoline to be $3.08 per gallon on Memorial Day. That would make it the cheapest since 2021 in nominal terms. After adjusting for inflation, it would be the lowest since 2003.
This is not expected to be short-lived. Prices of gasoline are expected to average around $3.02 per gallon between Memorial Day and Labor Day, with prices falling below three dollars on some days.
More Truth About Global Warming
21 replies
Media reports are laced with unsubstantiated claims that man is overheating his planet. Every time climate change is mentioned in a story, even features in a newspaper’s food or fashion pages, it is understood that humans are turning Earth into a muggy greenhouse by burning fossil fuel. No evidence is provided to corroborate the claim. Man-made global warming just is and skeptics are deplorables.
But the facts tell a different story.
Roy Spencer, a University of Alabama-Huntsville climate scientist, has determined that “65% of the U.S. linear warming trend between 1895 and 2023 was due to increasing population density at the suburban and urban stations;
Jeffrey Epstein and trust in the government
20 replies
Ah, Jeffrey Epstein. We finally have an official statement from our own side, and it contradicts every last thing our own side has believed now for years.
Let’s all approach this analytically.
I would be willing to bet that no one reading this right now was there in that jail cell. No one reading right now was on the island, on the plane, or anywhere else relevant to the case. We have secondhand knowledge at best. It is easy to believe a conspiracy theory. It is hard to admit it if you are wrong.
Do I think serious crimes were committed? Yes.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will not approve COVID-19 vaccines for many Americans absent trial data showing that the benefits outweigh the risks, top agency officials said on May 20.
“Moving forward, the FDA will adopt the following Covid-19 vaccination regulatory framework: On the basis of immunogenicity—proof that a vaccine can generate antibody titers in people—the FDA anticipates that it will be able to make favorable benefit–risk findings for adults over the age of 65 years and for all persons above the age of 6 months with one or more risk factors that put them at high risk for severe Covid-19 outcomes,” such as asthma or cancer,
Impeach Jill for being a lousy wife
19 replies
We wish former President Biden the best. I pray for his recovery. Honestly, I hope that Jill plans to go to confession and admit that she loved the title of First Lady a lot more than being a devoted wife. My guess is there a lot of ladies in the country who can't believe her disregard for Joe Biden's health and well-being. Again, she loved the title and staff.
And now there is prostate cancer:
The 82-year-old former president was diagnosed Friday after doctors found a “small nodule” on his prostate during a medical exam earlier this month -- with the cancer cells having spread to the bone, his spokesman revealed Sunday.
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.