The Narrative Wars

Townhall 

War in our time is not only about taking land or gaining decisive victories on the battlefield. Indeed, recent experience in Ukraine and the Persian Gulf shows just how hard that is. But nations and movements at war now employ information or cognitive war to undermine the confidence of targeted populations in their governments, their causes, and reality itself. Cognitive warfare also serves to isolate, stigmatize, and incite hatred against enemies. A notable example is the intense campaign on the Left and the Right to corrupt the meaning of the term genocide, particularly about Israel and, to a lesser degree, Azerbaijan. The United States has been and is targeted in campaigns of vilification by the Soviet Union, Russia, China, and radical Islamists.

The accusation of an Israeli genocide against Palestinian Arabs is an old invention of Soviet and PLO propaganda, mainly to cover up the failures of Palestinian leadership during and after 1948 and the defeats of Moscow’s Arab proxies in genocidally motivated wars against Israel.  Nonetheless, the charge persists and is clearly intended to be a charge against all Jews, not just Israel or Israelis. This antisemitic narrative drowns out legitimate criticism of Israel in a chorus originating from Tehran and its proxies.

The tactic of preemptively accusing others of the crimes you have committed, are committing, or intend to commit is an old Soviet tactic, originally used to conceal the enormity of Stalin’s genocides against the Ukrainians, the Crimean Tatars, the Chechens, the Ingush, and others. Today’s antisemites on the left and right have merely freshened it up.

On the Left, Columbia University Professor Jeffrey Sachs inveighs against the supposedly biblically driven narrative of Israel’s government to commit genocide against Palestinians. Sachs has frequently appeared on Iranian and Russian television to denounce Israeli and American policies. He also claimsthat NATO enlargement, not Russian aggression, is responsible for the war in Ukraine. In other words, his is a baseless anti-American political stance. And he is certainly not alone in espousing such lethal narrative fantasies.

On the right, Tucker Carlson also accuses Israel of genocide and of not being a democracy.  Additionally, he has served as a vehicle for Vladimir Putin’sjustifications of his genocidal war against Ukraine. Thus, it is also no surprise that Carlson has become a hero to white supremacists.

Worse yet, this poisonous concoction of ideas has infected some foreign policy think tanks in Washington, D.C. Eldar Mamedov, a non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute, readily ascribes the charge of genocide to anyone he does not like. Mamedov, who was expelled from his position in the European Parliament for involvement in Qatargate, accuses Israel of genocide in Gaza and of having “its fingerprints” all over the expulsion of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020-23.

Unfortunately for Mamedov, Sachs, and Carlson, both charges are baseless. Israel’s response to the October 7, 2023, genocidal attacks by Hamas that raped, murdered, and kidnapped men, women, and children is harsh, but it is not genocidal, as U.S. military expert John Spencer pointed out. Indeed, the Palestinian population has grown 10-fold since 1948, or why this genocide only began in 2023 after Hamas’ own genocidal attack on Israel. As Bret Stephens wrote in the New York Times, if Israel wished to commit genocide, “why hasn’t it been more methodical and vastly more deadly?”

Mamedov’s remarks are equally groundless regarding Karabakh. In 1993, several UN Security Council resolutions spoke to the forced displacement of Azerbaijani civilians from what was regarded as Azeri territory.  Nevertheless, about 700,000 refugees fled to Azerbaijan and were replaced by Armenians.

Many Armenian diaspora communities and the Armenian government accused Azerbaijan of ethnic cleansing in 2023 when it won the territory back, while failing to acknowledge that the Armenians had themselves engaged in ethnic cleansing of the same territories twenty years previously. Fortunately, both governments are now on the road to peace, thanks to the Trump Administration.

The groundless accusations being leveled by Sachs, Carlson, Mamedov, and others are no accident and do reflect a visceral antisemitism. Mamedov deploys the smear tactic of guilt by association, e.g., his attacks on Jared Kushner’s luxury hotel project in Albania.  It is dismaying that an institution purportedly devoted to the critique of foreign policy publishes such vitriol in its ironically named flagship publication, Responsible Statecraft. But antisemitism validates the French proverb, “Les extrêmes se touchent” (the extremes touch each other). In these narratives, we see the same denial of facts and support for the narratives of America’s enemies at the expense of U.S. friends and partners, whether they be Israel, Azerbaijan, or, in Carlson’s case, Ukraine. A founder of the German Socialist movement, August Bebel, called antisemitism the “socialism of fools”. It is also the racism of fools.

These fallacious and poisonous narratives must be exposed to the pitiless glare of the truth. President John Adams, a co-author of the Declaration of Independence, stated that "Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." On Independence Day, this is a fitting response to those who would employ lethal narratives to incite hatred and warfare at home and abroad.

Podcast thread for July 11

 

too bored.

Hubris Sinks Canada

American Thinker 

Andrew Moran, the economics editor at Liberty Nation News, writes that Canada seems to be quietly revising the core tenets of its “climate change” religion.  Under a headline that bluntly announces, “Canada Admits Justin Trudeau’s Climate Agenda Was a Scam,” and a lede that asks, “Is it too little, too late for the struggling nation?” Moran analyzes a seventeen-minute YouTube video that Prime Minister Mark Carney published on June 30.

In that video, Carney states that Canada can no longer afford to pursue the lofty “green energy” goals established by his predecessor, Justin Trudeau, which, among other directives, required Canada to cut its “greenhouse gas emissions” by nearly 50% of its 2005 levels by 2030.  (For what it’s worth, the U.S. has greatly outperformed its parasitic neighbor up North with regard to emissions reductions, even though being “green” has become a big part of Canadians’ warped self-image.)  While Carney makes it clear that he remains a climate cultist at heart, his “fireside chat” with Canadians looks like a “rally ‘round the flag” pep talk meant to encourage his fellow climate-change-communists to bite their tongues for the sake of taking on President Trump.  Calling Trudeau’s environmental edicts “expensive” and “divisive” while paying lip service to Alberta’s energy industry in a year when the province’s conservative citizens are pushing hard for secession from the United Kingdom’s pet realm in North America, Canada’s premier central-banker-turned-prime-minister grudgingly admits that his ice commune cannot survive much longer by depending upon welfare handouts and free security from the United States.

“The climate crisis is still with us, and our commitment to fighting it is absolute,” Carney assures “global warming” zealots who see the productive use of hydrocarbon molecules as mortal sins leading to eternal damnation.  “But the certainties of the world of 2015 are long gone,” Carney laments much like a welfare queen who realizes his American taxpayer-provided largesse has come to an end.  “Our neighborhood hasn’t been this hostile since Canada was founded.  The world hasn’t been this unstable geopolitically since the end of the Second World War.”

Those are some pretty bleak statements from Canada’s banker-in-chief!  This is what I hear Carney saying: Don’t worry, “global warming” nuts!  We will continue fighting the weather with our meaningless words (which, by the way, arrive with heavy exhalations of carbon-dioxide-tainted condescension — egad!) until we have transferred all of your wealth into our bank accounts and built a mass surveillance system that tracks your every movement (in the name of “saving the planet”)!  But, for right now, the bad American president down South will no longer subsidize our vanity projects, virtue-signaling, or climate communism.  I know, it’s terrible.  Not being able to fight our imaginary enemy, the weather, as part of our mass propaganda efforts to centralize all economic activity, is disheartening.  Not being able to condition the peasants to believe that it is selfish to wish for a standard of living beyond that of a fifteenth-century serf is as unbearable as the dreadful decades when frontiersmen had to defend their lives from local indigenous peoples, whose lands we have stolen and plan to give back sometime soon…after enough Christian churches have mysteriously burned to the ground.  Even though we have no military and provide no security for the North American continent, not being able to stomp our feet and get our way feels like suffering through a global war.  Being forced to produce and export anything besides our empty rhetoric is a bit like Armageddon, dontcha know.  Anyway, we must pretend to be sane for the time being, or we might lose Alberta to the real Americans!

Canada’s “climate change” cultists are not happy.  “We’re already paying the price for that in terms of record heat, uh, record temperatures in Canada and around the world,” said one “global warming” loon who has clearly not seen any temperature recordings from the early part of the twentieth century, when daily highs often exceeded those of today.  Because Canadian citizens do not understand that Americans prop up their entire economy, they believe that carbon taxes, electric vehicle mandates, and expensive “green energy” boondoggles come with no cost.  Canada is blessed with abundant reserves of crude oil, but Canada’s brainwashed people believe that it would somehow be better for their economy if they ban new hydrocarbon projects and destroy existing oil pipelines.  Economic growth through economic suicide is the Canadian way.

You know who acts so stupidly and selfishly?  Trust fund babies who don’t have to work because daddy has made sure that they’re taken care of for life.  For decades, America has been Canada’s daddy, and American taxpayers have subsidized Canadians’ lifestyles while asking for nothing in return.  Trade deals have allowed Canada to export most products (usually originating in China) into the United States, while restricting what U.S. producers can send up North.  Canada’s territorial defense is entirely dependent upon the benevolence of Americans who have allowed Canada to take shelter under the U.S. national security umbrella.  Canadian officials and cultural leaders demonize Americans, call us terrible names, and pretend to be gracious stewards of the environment and indispensable leaders of the “rules-based” international system.  But Canada exists only because of America’s restraint and generosity.  Canadian idiots are always talking about how they’d fight to the death if President Trump tries to conquer their country.  The president does not need to send a single soldier into an Arctic frontier filled with loud and irrelevant hippies.  The moment Canada loses the privilege of selling China’s junk in American markets, Mark Carney’s economy implodes.  America is an energy exporter these days.  We don’t need anything from communist China’s vassal state up North.

Perhaps that’s why 42% of Canadian manufacturing companies are considering moving their businesses to the United States.  A KPMG survey of Canadian producers shows that 77% of those Canadian companies considering a move plan to do so within the next two years.  Furthermore, 57% of Canadian manufacturers have paused, reduced, or cancelled capital investment projects.  Companies cited Canada’s expensive “green energy” regulations, burdensome corporate taxes, and government restrictions on capital investment as major reasons for fleeing Canada’s centrally controlled economy.  As Canada embraces a system of “climate change” communism that has more in common with China’s politburo-managed economy than with that of the United States, manufacturers are abandoning the wintry ideological prison up North that has survived only by behaving as a blood tick sucking up Americans’ charity. 

Prime Minister Carney cannot save his failing state.  As Liberty Nation’s Andrew Moran notes, Canada’s “obsession with climate change” has been “disastrous for a nation rich in natural resources.”  “Green energy” policies have proven to be “vanity projects” that wreck economies.  “Countries keep turning to crude oil, natural gas, coal, and nuclear power to meet their energy needs.  The United States realized it.  Europe is starting to come around.  Asia always knew it.  Canada was the last nation to finally understand that oil and gas are the answer, not a windmill.”  Unfortunately for Canadian citizens, committed “global warming” fanatic Mark Carney is not capable of saving Canada’s sinking ship.  

Over at the Conservative Treehouse, Sundance says it best: Despite Canadians’ “unwillingness to accept reality,” our Northern neighbors are “economically dependent on the United States as the customer for any export.”  Without American consumers, “Canada is structurally incapable of economic growth.”

Unfortunately, Canada is filled with America-haters whose arrogance prevents them from recognizing the fragile state of their economy.  U.S. Ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra, has tried to warn ungrateful Canadians of their folly.  Because Canada’s government controls the news media, Canadians falsely believe that they are independent and strong.  Their hubris will lead them to the painful discovery that they are dependent and weak.

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The FCC Chair Casts Doubt on ABC's Claim That 'The View' Is a 'Bona Fide News Program'

Townhall 

We've long had issues with 'The View,' the ABC panel show launched by the late Barbara Walters in 1997. Nearly 30 years later, 'The View' has turned into one of the most Leftist, woke shows on television, where the hosts routinely lie about Donald Trump, Republicans, and conservatives.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr is also casting doubt on ABC's claim that 'The View' remains a 'bona fide news program,' and he points to a story Townhall reported a few days ago. Namely, that co-host Sunny Hostin said she'd still vote for Graham Platner, and that Republicans do not have the moral high ground over a guy who abused and allegedly raped a former girlfriend, has a Nazi tattoo on his chest for almost 20 years, and has a disturbing social media history.

Hostin said in the segment that America is in an 'existential crisis' requiring that we 'flip the Senate' back to Democrat control.

That's what Carr points to as proof that 'The View' is not a 'news program,' and thus not exempt from the political equal opportunity rules.

It seems, on some level, 'The View' is aware it's in trouble. The program landed on the wrong side of New York socialists after declining to bring on the socialist candidates backed by NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani, reportedly over concerns about FCC rules. Co-host Sara Haines also enraged a Mamdani staffer after she called Congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier an 'antisemite,' and said Chevalier would probably proudly call herself that, too. A Mamdani aid reportedly reached out to producers to express her displeasure.

This time, Hostin had to tell viewers that Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth have both denied allegations of sexual assault.

Hostin also said Bernie Sanders is the candidate for 2028.

And Ana Navarro said the program can influence elections.

That makes 'The View' more than just a news program. News programs are meant to inform people, not sway elections or influence candidates.

Democrats Will Never Stop Trying to Abolish ICE

Townhall 

Yesterday, Rep. Ro Khanna once again called for the abolition of ICE, saying the agency enforcing the duly enacted immigration laws passed by Congress was a violation of human rights. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the same thing in response to an ICE-involved shooting in Houston, where an illegal alien who was in the country for more than three decades was killed after he tried to run over law enforcement with his vehicle. 

Rep. Morgan McGarvey of Kentucky also called for the abolition of ICE this week, claiming he saw deplorable conditions at an ICE detention facility in his state.

"I just left an ICE detention facility in Kentucky," McGarvey said, "where my team and I conducted an oversight visit. I personally met with some people from Louisville to listen to their stories, and what I heard, it's outrageous and it's heartbreaking."

"I met with a guy and he told me he came into the country legally," he continued. "He has not been charged with or convicted of a crime but there he is, sitting in a Kentucky jail. ICE will tell you this is just some administrative proceeding. Tell this to a guy who's been sitting in a jail for nine months, who's missed birthdays, who's missed holidays, who gets tears in his eyes every time he talks about his six-year-old daughter because he doesn't know when or how he's going to get to see her again."

"It is crazy. But this is what happens when the Trump administration sets quotas. Just this past week they set another quota of 2,000 people per day," McGarvey said. "ICE has rounded up 60,000 people they have in custody. 70 percent of them do not have a criminal charge against them. When you are rounding up people, when you are ripping up families, and tearing apart communities, and you are going after people who have done nothing wrong, how is that making us safer?"

Gretchen Whitmer just pardoned a convicted murderer, and Tim Walz pardoned a pedophile to protect them from deportation. Far too many Americans have been killed by illegal aliens, either through drugs, street crime, drunk driving, or CDL trucking accidents. They are all criminals due to the fact they came into this country illegally.

No one believed McGarvey's sob story, by the way.

McGarvey is on the illegal alien's side.

Yes. They side with illegals over Americans.

They want the votes.

It's bizarre but explicable. Democrats hate America and love power. Illegal aliens help them destroy America and gain power.

Amen. Vote them all out.

It Turns Out Young MAGA Wants American Strength—Not Isolation

Townhall 

There has been a growing divide among conservatives over the direction of American foreign policy: whether to maintain a more hawkish posture that projects power abroad, or to treat intervention as a failure and pull back from the world. 

Well, according to new polling, young MAGA voters aren't ready for isolationism.

According to a new Reagan Institute poll, 72 percent of young MAGA voters believe the United States should be “more engaged and take the lead” in foreign policy, while 85 percent say a strong U.S. military is essential. Seventy-three percent support military action against Iran, 60 percent approve of sending U.S. weapons and equipment to Israel, and 62 percent view NATO favorably.

And that's not all.

Young MAGA voters not only want the U.S. to lead, they want that leadership to be driven by American values: 74 percent agree that “the U.S. has a moral obligation to stand up for human rights and democracy whenever possible in international affairs.” Almost 80 percent agree that “promoting freedom and democracy in authoritarian countries” should be a focus of U.S. foreign policy and that “defending people facing religious persecution in other countries” should be a U.S. priority. And 64 percent said they support “funding programs and organizations designed to advance freedom and democracy abroad,” while just 31 percent said the programs were “not worth the expense.”

Isolationism has begun to grow in popularity among Republicans in recent years, as Americans have grown weary of "forever wars" in the Middle East, a fatigue that has since bled into other conflicts as well. Republicans broadly began to sour on continued support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia, and some even pushed back when President Trump moved against Iran—first in Operation Midnight Hammer, then again in Operation Epic Fury. Some conservatives read this as a genuine isolationist turn taking hold of the party. That may not be the full picture. 

Young MAGA voters, in particular, may be recognizing something more nuanced than a blanket rejection of American power abroad: that the foreign policy failures of the 21st century had everything to do with the people running them, and nothing to do with the underlying philosophy itself.

Young conservatives are not rejecting strength; they are rejecting two decades of half-measures and open-ended occupations, wars treated as political balancing acts instead of campaigns to be won, led by officials unwilling to commit fully or stand by their convictions when public opinion turned.

Trump Says He Left Instructions to Bomb Iran If He Is Assassinated

 Trump said he has been the top target of Iran for a long time.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he has left instructions for Iran to be bombed if he was ever assassinated by the regime, following the collapse of a temporary ceasefire agreement between the United States and Iran.

Earlier this week, Trump warned that he was a top target for Iran after renewed conflict between the United States and Iran led to an exchange of military strikes and an end to the temporary ceasefire agreement. Trump said the United States would bomb Iran at unprecedented levels if he was killed.

“I’ve been on their list for a long time. That’s what we’re dealing with,” the president told The New York Post on Friday. He added, “The only thing is, I’ve left instructions—if anything happens, to just literally bomb them at levels that they’ve never seen before.”

Trump discussed the threat presented against his life by the Iranian regime during a press conference at the NATO summit on Wednesday. He said he was “number one” on Iran’s “kill list.”

Trump’s comments came after the United States conducted precision military strikes against Iran and hit more than 80 targets on Tuesday and about 90 targets on Wednesday. The U.S. military said the strikes were launched in response to a “clear and dangerous violation” of the ceasefire agreement with Iran.

The U.S. military strikes were carried out after Iran attacked three commercial tankers in the Strait of Hormuz weeks after a memorandum of understanding was signed and the conflict between the United States and Iran was temporarily ended.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Wednesday that it targeted U.S. military sites in Bandar Salman, Bahrain’s Fifth Naval District, and Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait as part of a joint missile and drone operation.

In a Friday post on Truth Social, Trump said Iran asked the United States to continue “talks” following the exchange of military strikes. He said that while the United States has agreed to continue negotiating, it has told Iran “in no uncertain terms, that the Cease Fire is OVER!”

History of Threats

Trump departed from the NATO summit in Turkey on Wednesday on the old Air Force One aircraft after arriving in the new Air Force One, a $400 million Boeing 747-8 luxury aircraft gifted by the Qatari government. The White House said Thursday that the transportation swap was a “distraction and misdirection” intended to address threats against Trump.

“As the President has said recently, there are many enemies of America who have their sights on him, and we use every tool at our disposal—including distraction and misdirection—to address those threats,” said White House communications director Steven Cheung.

On Friday, Trump denied reports that Israel allegedly shared intelligence with the United States regarding a recent Iranian plot against him. “Israel came up with nothing,” Trump said. However, he reiterated that he is “No. 1” on Iran’s list of targets.

In February, Trump said he had given instructions to his advisers to be carried out if he was assassinated by Iran.

“If they did that, they would be obliterated,” Trump said. “I’ve left instructions. If they do it, they get obliterated. There won’t be anything left.”

Following Trump’s statement in February, an Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said claims that Iran was planning to kill U.S. officials were “fabrications by warmongers.”

U.S. officials previously confirmed they have been tracking threats by Iran against Trump and former administration officials for several years. Iranian officials threatened Trump during his first administration in 2020, after he ordered an airstrike that killed Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani.

In November 2024, the Department of Justice said that Farhad Shakeri, a 51-year-old Iranian national, had been directed by Iranian officials to conduct surveillance and plot the assassination of Trump just prior to the presidential election.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/trump-says-he-left-instructions-to-bomb-iran-if-he-is-assassinated-6060151?&utm_source=MB_article_paid_f&utm_campaign=MB_article_2026-07-11-ca&utm_medium=email&est=cyi7GMLkMFliQ0Cis9xMck4ANJZWk5Z9lTmSO92YwPs2oSJ9415AxpBJqyIxR7xYC04Z&utm_content=more-top-news-4

Treasury Slaps Sanctions on Iran Supreme Leader's Personal Banker

Townhall 

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office has slapped sanctions on Iranian financial facilitator Ali Ansari, the banker of Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, after Iran resumed attacking international ships in the Strait of Hormuz. 

The Treasury Department said that Ansari has embezzled from the Iranian regime, diverting publicly funded wealth into an overseas portfolio of real estate and commercial holdings to enrich himself, regime elites—including notable senior figures within the Supreme Leader’s Office—and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).  

OFAC  also targeted key Iranian exchange houses that move billions of dollars annually on behalf of sanctioned Iranian banks, using layers of shell companies to obscure the regime’s illicit financial activity.

“The so-called Supreme Leader is hiding in seclusion while his regime crumbles,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. “Treasury will continue using every tool at its disposal to isolate him and other regime elites from the global financial system.  We will preserve these assets for the Iranian people.”

Dubai-based Iranian national Ali Ansari embezzled from the Iranian regime and has amassed a global network of investment properties and financial holdings, according to the Treasury Department. 

The Treasury Department also sanctioned Iranian exchange houses that move billions of dollars on behalf of sanctioned Iranian banks. 

Using numerous shell companies and bank accounts across multiple jurisdictions, Ansari has accumulated millions of dollars’ worth of holdings under the Saint Kitts and Nevis-based Smart Global Limited, a holding company established in 2011 under the former name Ziba Leisure Limited.

As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of the designated or blocked persons described above that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC.  In addition, any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, individually or in the aggregate, 50 percent or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked.  Unless authorized by a general or specific license issued by OFAC, or exempt, OFAC’s regulations generally prohibit all transactions by U.S. persons or within (or transiting) the United States that involve any property or interests in property of blocked persons.

Violations of U.S. sanctions may result in the imposition of civil or criminal penalties on U.S. and foreign persons.  OFAC may impose civil penalties for sanctions violations on a strict liability basis. 

 OFAC’s Economic Sanctions Enforcement Guidelines provide more information regarding OFAC’s enforcement of U.S. economic sanctions.  The prohibitions include the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any designated or blocked person, or the receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services from any such person.  

Furthermore, engaging in certain transactions involving the persons designated today may risk the imposition of secondary sanctions on participating foreign financial institutions.  OFAC can prohibit or impose strict conditions on opening or maintaining, in the United States, a correspondent account or a payable-through account of a foreign financial institution that knowingly conducts or facilitates any significant transaction on behalf of a person who is designated pursuant to the relevant authority.

The goal of the sanctions is to change behavior.