Lucas: Biden’s weakness on display in Mideast

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If Joe Biden were not such a weakling, he would have warned Iran of the U.S. destruction of Hamas unless the Islamic terrorist group released all Americans it is holding hostage.

Instead, Biden is providing Hamas, Iran’s jihadist proxy, with $100 million in humanitarian aid that will surely end up in the hands of the Hamas terrorists.

The United States says it does not pay ransom for hostages, except when it does. That is when Americans are taken hostage by Iran or one of its proxies, and a Democrat, like Joe Biden or Barack Obama, is in the White House.

Then the U.S. is fair game and Iran, the biggest spreader of terrorism in the world, keeps taking Americans hostage. The money keeps rolling in.

Hardly had Biden announced approval of the $100 million in aid to the Palestinians in Gaza then Hamas, which controls the place, released two Americans they had kidnapped during their barbaric killing spree Oct. 7 where they slaughtered 1,400 people in Israel, including women and children.

Among those killed were 30 Americans, who Biden failed to mention —or hold Iran accountable for — in his rambling and confused speech last Thursday. Other Americans, including children, were also kidnapped and are being held in Gaza, if they are still alive.

It is a good thing that the two Americans — mother and daughter Judith and Natalie Raanan from Illinois — were released.

Maybe if Biden comes up with another $100 million for Hamas to rip off, he can get two more Americans released.

It is not as far-fetched as it sounds. Obama sent a planeload of cash to Iran to release five U.S. hostages. And Biden is, or was, unfreezing $6 billion for Iran in exchange of five American hostages Iran recently let go.

Biden’s policy, like Obama’s before him, is to pay terrorists rather than eliminate them.

The Jew-hating, America-bashing mullahs in Iran and the Islamic terrorists have Biden’s number and have had it since the day Biden launched his humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan where 13 U.S. American service members were needlessly killed at the Kabul Airport.

Smelling weakness, Russia’s Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, Hamas terrorists invaded Israel and China inches closer to invading Taiwan.

Meanwhile the U.S border remains wide open and nobody, including the FBI, knows how many terrorists are among the almost two million getaways that have crossed illegally into the U. S.

During his visit to Israel, Biden was supposed to hold a major summit on the Israel War in Amman, Jordan, with Jordan King Abdullah, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

But, using the bombing of a hospital in Gaza as an excuse — for which Hamas was guilty of  — Abdullah stiffed Biden and cancelled the meeting. And the photo op of Biden making peace in the Middle East was never taken.

So, Biden flew all the way to Israel to settle for a photo of him hugging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Tel Aviv airport.

It was at that meeting that Biden advised Netanyahu how to conduct the war, something he has never done with President Volodymir Zelensky in the Ukraine.

Of course, Biden can attack Putin. Biden does not have hate-filled Russians demonstrating against him and his support of Ukraine. But he has thousands of hate-filled antisemitic pro-Hamas groups in the U.S. demonstrating against Israel but has little to say about them.

Biden is brave enough to attack Putin, who started the war in Ukraine, but fearful of even uttering the name of Iranian leader Ayatollah Khamenei, let alone attacking him.

Biden needs to take the next exit on his road to appeasement.

Peter Lucas is a veteran Massachusetts political reporter and columnist.

 

 

Collegiate Charter School offers path to college

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Do you think a college education is financially impossible for your child? We can help. Set your child up for success by enrolling them in the Collegiate Charter School of Lowell. Last year, we found over $750,000 in needs-based grants, aid, and scholarships for our 28 graduates. According to a National Center for Education Statistics study, in 2022 high school graduates ages 25-34 years old made $36,600 a year while the student with a bachelor’s degree made $59,600.

We are accepting applications right now to be a part of this wonderful newer K-12 school. We are located near the Rourke Bridge off Middlesex Street in Lowell. Please check out our open houses on Nov 13 and Nov. 28 from 5-7 pm. You may also apply on our website at www.collegiatelowell.org

As our motto says at Collegiate, your child will be seen, be heard, and belong. We offer a strong college preparatory curriculum in a family-type atmosphere. The whole family can go to school together since we offer a kindergarten through 12th grade level program. New changes at Collegiate make our school even more appealing. Collegiate is upping its game when it comes to athletics. Mid-November we will be cutting the ribbon on a brand-new regulation-sized soccer field and we are also now offering football. Lowell Catholic and Collegiate Charter have formed a unique partnership. The partnership allows Collegiate players to play on the Lowell Catholic team.

The Collegiate Charter School of Lowell is capped at 1,200 students from K-12, and although they have other sports like basketball and volleyball they did not have enough students for a full football roster. This gives their students a chance to play for the first time. Collegiate Athletics Director Kyle Pelczar says, “It’s a great opportunity for our students to play and they are really excited to be part of the team. It’s teaching them that we can make great things happen if we pull together.” The co-op application was sponsored by Lowell Catholic as the host school and approved by the MIAA (Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association), after first being approved by the Commonwealth Athletic Conference (CAC), Lowell Catholic’s athletic conference.

This report provided by Collegiate Charter School of Lowell

‘Anatomy of a Fall’ complex, worthwhile mystery

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Cannes award-winner “Anatomy of a Fall” suggests a mash up of last year’s “Tar” with Sandra Huller (“Toni Erdmann”) giving a Cate Blanchett-level performance as a writer accused of her husband’s murder; Ingmar Bergman’s landmark “Scenes from a Marriage;” and, of course, Otto Preminger’s courtroom classic “Anatomy of a Murder.”

Directed and co-written by Justine Triet (“Sibyl”), the film is a dense, sophisticated deep dive into the complexities of a marriage after the French husband dies in a tumble from the third floor of the family’s fix-it-up, wooden chalet in Grenoble, where he, his German writer-wife and their piano-playing 11-year-old son Daniel (Milo Machado Graner) lived.

Before her husband’s death, Huller’s Sandra Voyter is interviewed in the chalet by a young journalist. But they have to give up because Sandra’s husband Samuel Maleski (Samuel Theis), also a writer, although a failed one, is renovating on the third floor and blaring deafening music.

When their son Daniel, whose vision has been impaired by an accident, returns to the chalet with the blue-eyed family dog Snoop, he finds his father bleeding and mortally injured at a front of the chalet. He calls his mother. But it is too late; the man dies. How did he fall? He has an injury that suggests that he was whacked on the skull before he fell. Will the wife, the only known person to have been in the chalet, be indicted? A suspect, she is interviewed by the authorities.

One of the many things we learn about Sandra and Samuel (the characters have the same first names as the actors) is that they use real experiences and people they know as fodder for their fiction. In fact in a crucial development, the authorities learn that Samuel may have been recording a fight he got into with Sandra on the day before his death. The case becomes news. Sandra becomes the focus of national attention. Her neighbors in the glorious Alpine city of Grenoble never accepted her, and yet they pack the courtroom where her fate will be decided.

Huller is like quicksilver as the accused wife. It’s impossible to get a fix on her. While she hikes the mountainous area near the chalet, the authorities eerily reenact the accident in the distance using a dummy. At times, “Anatomy of a Fall” reminds one of Park Chan-wook’s similarly labyrinthine and darkly romantic 2022 murder mystery “Decision to Leave.” Sandra and her lawyer Vincent Renzi (vulpine-faced Swann Arlaud) appear on the verge of more than a professional relationship. In one heated exchange with her husband, Sandra says that she was forced by their marriage to leave her home in Germany and her language to live in Grenoble and speak French. In “Anatomy of a Fall,” all marriages are a mystery.

At two-and-a-half hours, “Anatomy of a Fall” can be a tough sit. But like “Sibyl,” Triet’s 2019 “Persona”-like examination of a relationship between a psychologist-writer (Virginie Efira) and an actor (Adele Exarchopoulos), the film is full of fascinating flourishes. At the tribunal, lawyers clatter up and down stairs like mice in a maze, while the “other” audience, the one in the courtroom, sits slavering for more juicy bits about Sandra’s sexual history to be revealed. The film is a sexual house of mirrors. As you try to figure out whodunnit, Vincent whips up a lunch of spaghetti, parmigiano and fresh pepper. Huller is riveting as usual, and “Anatomy of a Fall” gives us a lot to chew over.

(“Anatomy of a Fall” contains gruesome images, profanity and mature themes)

“Anatomy of a Fall”

Rated R. In English, German and French with subtitles. At the AMC Boston Common and Coolidge Corner Theater. Grade: A-

Notre Dame Academy is full STEM ahead

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The Academy of Notre Dame Tyngsboro, a private Catholic Upper School is accepting applicants for the 2024-2025 academic year.

NDA is known for rigorous academics concentrated on STEAM, small class sizes, and personalized attention. The teacher to student ratio is 1:13 ensuring attention and support as students challenge themselves academically.

The Academy offers three levels of courses: College Preparatory, Honors, and Advanced Placement. All levels of instruction offer a rigorous college preparatory education that provides empowering opportunities and real-life applications. The vibrant community encourages student leadership.

Students take a minimum of four lab classes but gain real world experience visiting biotech, medical research, and engineering companies. Curriculum is further enhanced through guest speakers including forensic scientists, bio engineers, and other STEM professionals.

The Academy is proud to have received a $1 million gift in support of Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si, which focuses on care for the natural environment and all people, as well as broader questions of the relationship between God, humans, and the Earth. This generous gift enabled NDA to build Merrimack Valley’s only geodome for environmental and sustainability programs, create a new Environmental Learning Lab, and add additional environmental science courses.

Over 50% of NDA graduates pursue degrees in the fields of science, technology, engineering, or math. Those fields have the fastest job growth, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Academy serves as the educational partner for the Boston Hockey Academy, a tier I AAA program for boys. The unique course schedule enables BHA players to attend classes in-person in the morning and participate in practices and games in the afternoon. In addition to aspiring elite hockey players, NDA also supports students pursuing Division I figure skating and equestrian goals.

The Academy sits on 200+ acres with athletic fields, running trails and other amenities.  Over 50% of students play sports including Soccer, Basketball, Volleyball, Tennis, Golf, Swimming & Diving, Cross County, and Track & Field.

Clubs and activities include Model UN, NDA Playmakers Drama Guild, Mission & Ministry, Glee, Science Club, Slam Poetry, and more are also available.

All students benefit from a diverse student body – students at the Academy hail from many different areas: Massachusetts, New Hampshire, California, Ohio, and other countries such as Russia, Kazakhstan, Canada, and Latvia.

The priority deadline for admissions, financial aid, and merit scholarships is Dec. 31.  ndatyngsboro.org/admissions/ 978-649-7611, ext. 351.

This report provided by The Academy of Notre Dame Tyngsboro