Excellent article by Stephen Green over on PJ Media

/

Team Biden Can't Understand How It Blew Middle East Peace, and I Can't Stop Cry-Laughing

Excerpts:

Less than one month into his solitary, sad little term, Biden lifted former president Donald Trump’s restoration of U.N. sanctions on Iran. The White House and the State Steno Pool sold the move as something that "could help Washington move toward rejoining the 2015 nuclear agreement aimed at reining in the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program." Trump had withdrawn from Barack Obama's "Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, in 2018, accusing Iran of serious violations."

"Trump had Iran broke and boxed in," I wrote. "Biden unleashed the Kraken."

In addition to that, Biden restored US funding to UNRWA (a virtual arm of Hamas) and removed the Houthis from the Foreign Terrorist Organization and Specially Designated Global Terrorist lists that Trump had finally put them on late in his term. 

But perhaps the most bone-headed move was Biden's rejection of Mike Pompeo and Jared Kushner's Abraham Accords, negotiated under Donald Trump's auspices between Israel and a growing number of Arab states. 

The genius of the Accords was twofold. The first is that the peace agreements were bilateral between Israel and each Arab nation — no U.S. security guarantees required. The Accords were meant to be self-sustaining as trade and cultural contacts grew between states that had been officially at war for decades.

The second is that the negotiations bypassed the Palestinians completely.

Every other peace effort was premised on something more impossible and only slightly less ridiculous than trying to ride a pogo stick to Mars: negotiate a settlement between Israel and the Arabs of Gaza/West Bank before negotiating a formal peace between Israel and the rest of the Arab world.

The Palestinians don't want peace. They want to murder Jews from the river to the sea — and then some. And yet every American president from Bill Clinton to Barack Obama insisted on pounding their skulls on the cement wall of Palestinian intransigence. 

The Accords roadmap was to bring one Arab nation after another on board, culminating in Trump's second term with Saudi Arabia. With Iran broke and the Arabs at peace with Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah would have withered on the vine. Then, and only then, peace might be brokered between Israel and the Arabs of Gaza and the West Bank.

Instead of carrying on, White House PressSec Jen Psaki breezily denounced the Abraham Accords in May of 2021 as having failed to do "anything constructive" because, as I wrote above, the "entire administration is naifs, weaklings, idiots, and Marxists." The Biden-Harris administration let the Accords wither while they empowered Iran and pursued an old-school peace plan starting with — surprise! — an Israeli/Palestinian peace made impossible because Biden had already empowered Iran.

So now the administration has spent the last year, described in dizzying detail by Foer, scrambling around trying to figure out how to put out the fires when they're the ones who poured the gasoline and lit the match.

Brace yourself, Bridget

/

This has been expected and reported on several times by Greenwich Time since early last year, so no surprise, but the deal has finally been consummated and the sale price disclosed. Whether the changes that are coming will be good — dubious — or bad, the Village as we’ve known it won’t be the same. Good-bye, local businesses; it was a good run.

Much of 'unique' Old Greenwich business district sold for $19M after 80 years owned by family trust

By Robert Marchant, Staff Writer

GREENWICH — A large section of real estate in Old Greenwich, including 17 retail storefronts, 17 office suites, 10 apartments and a large warehouse, has been sold by a family trust to new owners for $19 million.

The Nolan-Thomas family trust, owned by the descendants of a wealthy real-estate developer who built up the businesses along Sound Beach Avenue a century ago, has held the large real estate portfolio for generations.

The new owners are OG Real Estate LLC. The sale was completed in mid-September, and could bring substantial changes to the retail sector of Old Greenwich.

…. The family trust was started after the death of  George Boles in 1944. George Boles was a major property owner and early developer of the Old Greenwich business district in the early part of the 20th century. The current businesses on Sound Beach Avenue and Arcadia Road were built under his management beginning in 1920. Boles had six sisters, and a large number of nieces and nephews; members of those Nolan and Thomas families maintained ownership of the properties for decades.

The holdings include much of the retail operations in the Sound Beach Avenue corridor, known locally as "the village." 

One long strip along Sound Beach Avenue includes a butcher shop, a barber shop, a sushi restaurant, a jewelry store, an art gallery, a sewing business, a children's store, a women's clothing store and a bank. Another section on Arcadia encompasses a real estate business, an optical store, a deli, a dry cleaner and a fitness studio. A third small parcel includes two small businesses next to the Berkshire Hathaway real estate business. Also included is a 11,226-square foot, single-story warehouse.

Family members who held ownership in the trust were absentee owners, using a management company to run their holdings in Old Greenwich.

[And those family members, all elderly, were “difficult”, to put it mildly. Still, it’s doubtful things will improve with this sale.]

Sale price reported of Old Round Hill Lane, which is neither old — its a development — nor on Round Hill Road, but hey ...

/

(rolls royce courtesy of P. diddy’s car loan / bail fund, llc)

5 Old Round Hill Lane, $10.5 million, $11.9 asked. Purchased new for $11.2 million in 2007 and sold to this now-former owner for $10.375 in 2013. Considering the money put into it after that purchase and the current value of 2013 dollars, there was no jackpot here.

It's about time he did; certainly the media won't do it

/

Issues & Insights reports that the Trump campaign has finally answered the Democrats’s and their media flunkies’ 2025 falsehoods by posting Kampalla’s own agenda.

After being beaten over the head for months by Democrats about “Project 2025” – about which the left has mounted an unprecedented disinformation campaign – Donald Trump has finally figured out how to respond. And it’s a doozy.

Up until now, all Trump would say about Project 2025 is that he didn’t know anything about it. That left the door open for Democrats to say whatever they wanted about that effort and claim it’s a Trump plan.

Project 2025 was never a Trump plan. The book Democrats keep parading around is called “Mandate for Leadership,” which the conservative Heritage Foundation has published every four years since 1980.

It is and always has been meant as a guide for any incoming administration to policies that conservatives endorse. No one outside of policy wonks knew about it, much less read it. And in the 44 years since the first edition came out, only two presidents have used it – Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump – both of whom implemented pro-growth tax cuts, cut back the regulatory Leviathan, and spurred strong, widely shared, economic growth.

This year, with no record to run on, Democrats decided that their entire campaign had to be built around scaring voters about Trump. But since calling him a “threat to democracy” and arresting him wasn’t working, they decided to find another bogeyman. And they settled on the “Mandate.”

At 900 pages, it was big enough that they could find a few things that, taken out of context, seemed frightening, and then they just made up the rest because who’d bother to check?

The campaign worked. An NBC poll finds that American adults have a more negative view of Project 2025 than they do of socialism.

The Democrats are still at it. They even held a mock hearing last week.

The press has apparently tired a little bit of the lies the party is peddling. CNN just called out Tim Walz for claiming that Project 2025 would require parents to register their pregnancies with the federal government.

“Walz’s claims are false,” CNN states categorically.

But up until now, the Trump campaign has inexplicably been on defense.” I don’t know anything about it,” Trump would say. Some of the ideas are nutty, he’d say. “I have my own agenda.” Etc., etc.

At last, and hopefully not too late, he’s figured out how to turn the tables on Harris. And it just took one post on X.

Here it is:

If you’re interested, the left-leaning “Verify” has an almost-objective, reasonably fair explanation of Project 2025; it’s origins, it’s policy recommendations, and whether much of it could pass Congress (hint: it wouldn’t).

I don't think even the Mickster is going to fall for it this time; right, Mick?

/

Twitchy: How About NO? AP Tries Touting COVID Boosters, Gets OBLITERATED Instead

The media really need to stop trying to make COVID boosters a thing. They tried earlier this summer to say a 'surge' would require a return to 2020 measures (yeah, that's never gonna happen).

We all know people -- we've seen them online -- who've had multiple boosters and still get COVID multiple times. We're all fed up and only die hards are going to continue getting boosters.

But here's the AP, doing its best to get people to get vaxxed.

They write:

Fall means it’s time for just about everybody to get up to date on their flu and COVID-19 vaccines – and a lot of older adults also need protection against another risky winter virus, RSV.

Yes, you can get your flu and COVID-19 shots at the same time. Don’t call them boosters — they’re not just another dose of last year’s protection. The coronavirus and influenza are escape artists that constantly mutate to evade your body’s immune defenses, so both vaccines are reformulated annually to target newer strains.

“Right now is the best time” to get all the recommended fall vaccinations, said Dr. Mandy Cohen, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as she got her flu shot Wednesday. She has an appointment for her COVID-19 shot, too. It’s “the single most effective thing you can do to protect yourself, your family, your community.”

After COVID, is there anyone who still trusts anything our government minders tell us? Very few, it seems:

The challenge: Getting more Americans to roll up their sleeves. Last year, just 45% of adults got a flu vaccination and even fewer, 23%, got a COVID-19 shot. A survey released Wednesday by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases shows an equally low number intend to this fall.

I actually know two older friends who boasted to me that they’d just been (voluntarily — that will probably change, for all of us) injected with both a flu “vaccine” and the latest version of the Bat Flu non-vaccine. A bit baffling, but I also know that they intend to vote for Kamalla Ding Dong, so I suppose it’s not so surprising after all.

BONUS CONTENT: Remember this one? I doubt Joe does, but he wouldn’t; he can’t.

Won't you be my neighbor?

/

Oh! Thanks to Kamalla and our courts, you already are.

Nantucket: ICE Arrests Illegal Aliens Charged With Multiple Child Sex Crimes

Elmer Sola

Authorities announced the charges against Elmer Sola, 49, of El Salvador:

Elmer Sola, 49, of El Salvador, was arrested Sept. 10 in Nantucket by ERO Boston officers. Authorities say Sola was in the country illegally and is charged with 11 counts of sex crimes against a child.

Sola was arraigned in Nantucket Superior Court on Aug. 14 on three counts of aggravated rape of a child and eight counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, according to the ERO Boston office.

“Elmer Sola illegally entered the United States and then made his way to our Nantucket community before allegedly committing some horrific and despicable crimes against a child,” said ERO Boston Field Office Director Todd M. Lyons. “ERO Boston officers will not tolerate such a threat to the children of our New England neighborhoods. We will continue to prioritize the safety of our public by arresting and removing heinous noncitizen offenders.”

Bryan Daniel Aldana-Arevalo

Then there’s Bryan Daniel Aldana-Arevalo, 26, of El Salvador.

The Nantucket Police Department arrested and charged Aldana=Arevalo “with assault and battery on a child under 14 (two counts) and one charge of aggravated rape of a child with a 10-year age difference” this summer.

Guess what. Despite the heinous charges and his immigration status (illegal alien), he was released three days after he went into custody on $20,000 bail.

Gean Do Amaral Belafronte

In 2021, Nantucket Police arrested and charged Gean Do Amaral Belafronte, 31, of Brazil, with indecent assault & battery on a person 14 years or older:

The incident took place on April 13, 2021, and an arraignment for Belafronte was originally scheduled for June 9, 2021 after he was arrested. But Belafronte, a 31 year old Brazilian noncitizen, never appeared for the session and a warrant was issued for his arrest by former Nantucket District Court Judge Thomas S. Barrett.

According to ICE, Belafronte lawfully entered the United States on Oct 8, 2018 but after violating the terms of his lawful admission in the aftermath of this sexual assault, voluntarily departed the United States on April 18, 2021 – five days after it allegedly took place.

Belafronte reentered the U.S. at some point without detection.

Police found him in March when they picked him up “via an arrest warrant” on March 12. A court arraigned him on the charge from three years ago, but released him “on $500 cash bail or a $5,000 surety bond.”

I dunno, it strikes me that shoplifting on Greenwich Avenue must be a fairly low- success game when you look like a denizen of the South Bronx (UPDATED)

/

I mean, I understand the Willie Sutton factor, but still ...

Over the years that Greenwich Free Press has dutifully published Police Report press releases on the latest bust for shop lifting, “return” and credit card fraud, I’ve noticed that, almost without exception, the perps have, ah … “exotic” names suggestive of a non-WASP ethnicity. I’m not suggesting that only our darker-hued citizens engage in this sort of behavior — far from it — but the fact that they’re the ones getting caught makes me wonder whether it’s because they’re being discriminated against, or is it because they stand out from the usual Greenwich Avenue shopper, thereby attracting the attention of shopkeepers and security guards.

If I were determined on a life of crime, I think I’d choose a forum where it would be easier to blend in and thus escape detection, yet the Avenue continues to draw petty thieves like wasps to dead fish. Why?

Just one of the imponderables of life.

Here’s a recent example of what I’m talking about:

“On Sept 25 Greenwich Police arrested three people from New York following an incident related to alleged return fraud at a retail store on Greenwich  Ave.

Plainclothes officers conducted in person surveillance and observed behavior consistent with return fraud. On scene investigation revealed that the suspects conspired to return several items to the store that had been stolen. The items totaled a financial loss of over $1800.

All three were detained and arrested.

Miss Tanisha bynoe on an earlier occasion

Woman pleads guilty to passing counterfeit bills in Wetzel County

Tanisha Bynoe, 36, Brooklyn, NY was charged with Conspiracy to Commit Larceny 4, Larceny 4, and Criminal Impersonation. She  was able to post the required 7% minimum of her $50,000 bond and was released. She was assigned a date in Stamford Superior Court on Oct 9, 2024.

Trumane A Gibbs, 31 of Brooklyn was charged with Larceny 4 and Conspiracy to Commit Larceny 4. His bond was set at $50,000, which he was unable to post. He shares the date in court on Oct 9, 2024.

Ajla Kazaferovic, 26, of Utica, NY was also arrested. She was charged with Larceny 4, Conspiracy to Commit Larceny 4 and Criminal Impersonation. Her bond was set at $100,000, which she was unable to post. She was not released from custody.

“Police said Ms Kazaferovic was found to have an active extraditable arrest warrant from New York.”

UPDATE: From the comments section, this:

According to Greenwich CAPP [Community and Police Project — I looked it up — Ed] presentations, approximately $50-$100K in merchandise is stolen in the Greenwich business district daily....and not including what the hedge funds steal in the second floor suites. Police say they are overrun by Asian, Middle Eastern, and Eastern European gang members and are very well organized. I didn't believe it either until I witnessed someone walking out of Saks with a +$50K handbag without paying. With all the jewelers, high end retailers, and banks on the Avenue....those figures are entirely possible on average.

Fortunately, the Border Czar and her Democrat bosses are ensuring that that won't happen here

/

Continental Gaslighting: EU Releases Alarming Report - Europe Is Too 'White' and 'European’, titled, “Welcome to Barbieland”

The European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) has published a report warning of the danger that “whiteness” and “Europeanness” pose to the European Union.

Titled Welcome to Barbieland: European sentiment in the year of wars and elections, the September 25 report discussed how many people have become “visibly disillusioned with the European project” in a way that has surprised those supportive of the bloc.

Rather than citing economic or energy issues faced by the EU, the report blamed, among other things, how “white” the MEPs elected by EU citizens are following the 2024 European Parliament elections in June.

The health of democracy inside the EU is being undermined by several blind spots of European political leaders, comprising the EU’s “whiteness”, a subdued European sentiment in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), and evidence that Europe’s youth show signs of being unconvinced by the bloc today, according to a report published Wednesday by the European Council of Foreign relations.

...In a section headed “Beyond ‘western’ Europe”, the report’s authors note that CEE populists seized on the 2015 refugee crisis to argue that their countries were not inferior to the West, a feeling they had laboured under since accession, but were in fact superior “because they had not lost their cultural identities to multiculturalism”, while the 2022 invasion of Ukraine by Russia proved they were right all along about Vladimir Putin.

“[N]ot only might many people and governments in Central and Eastern Europe feel vindicated, but they may now also claim the right to moral leadership in the EU,” the report says.

The danger from this, the report posits, is that CEE citizens are in danger of drifting even further towards “an ‘ethnic’ understanding of Europeanness”.

As evidence, the report cites the fact only CEE governments have expressed opposition to implementing obligatory relocations that form part of the EU’s new migration pact, while Czechs, Slovenians and Bulgarians are among the EU societies most likely to nominate immigration as one of the top two most important issues facing the EU.