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June 2018

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OUR IMPLODING PRESS: PATRICK MAINES

By on June 14th, 2018

https://amgreatness.com/2018/06/14/our-imploding

Patrick Maines recently retired as president of the Media Institute, a nonprofit think tank promoting a strong First Amendment, sound communications policies, and journalistic excellence

If democracy in the United States is imperiled, as some say it is, then the pregnant question remains: Imperiled by whom? For the Left, Democrats, the pop culture industry, most of the mainstream press, and those in the permanent government bureaucracy known colloquially as “the deep state,” the answer is always Donald Trump. Trump because he is a president unschooled in the manners and mores of the country’s so-called elites.

For most everybody else, the answer may be found in the reflection of those same people and institutions whose over-the-top antics are a consequence of their hatred of Trump. They marinate in a vat of hypocrisy and self-promotion, and soothe themselves with the belief that the ends (removing Trump) justify their means.

Consider, for instance, the quality of political news coverage from outlets like CNN, NBC, and its offspring, MSNBC. No matter when you tune in, you can count on tendentious and nonstop anti-Trump commentary offered in a manner that perfectly blends hubris with hysteria.

But where is the historical perspective? Where is the gravity one would expect from people who work in the only industry protected by name in the constitution? If, in fact, the media are essential to our democracy, is it too much to expect from them the modest acknowledgment that nothing is more central to a democracy than elections, even those that are won by people one dislikes?

A Shameful Surrender

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The Real Rising Extremism in America By Eric Lendrum

By on June 14th, 2018

https://amgreatness.com/2018/06/14/the-real-rising-extremism-in

As the adage goes, “Accuse your opponents of that which you are guilty.” Avoid the blame, or embarrassment, for your own vices by first declaring that your enemies are guilty of those same ills so that the disgust and attention are shifted away from you.

The American Left has all but mastered this tactic, having successfully accused the Republican Party—and the Right as a whole—of being bigoted, sexist, racist, and the like, while completely erasing the Democratic Party’s history as supporters of slavery, against women’s suffrage, and in favor of segregation and Jim Crow. Their dramatic switch came only when it was politically expedient for them to attempt it, as Lyndon Johnson understood with his infamous (private) declaration before signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964. (For those who aren’t aware . . . let’s just say Johnson had a blunt way of declaring that African-Americans would be loyal to Democrats for the next two centuries.)

But this tactic has never before been used so liberally (pardon the pun) as it is used today, where just about every person to the right of Joseph Stalin is “literally Hitler,” anyone who voted for Trump (if even reluctantly) is “alt-right,” and anyone who opposes open borders, multiculturalism, and globalism is “far-right.” Everyone from libertarians to Christians is part of some kind of fringe, although the definition of “fringe” now encompasses the bulk of the cloth.

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The Silencing of the Inspectors General By Victor Davis Hanson

By on June 14th, 2018

https://amgreatness.com/2018/06/14/the-silencing-of-the-inspectors

Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz, an Obama Administration appointee, is scheduled to deliver a report this week on DOJ and FBI abuses during the 2016 campaign cycle. Remember: His last investigation of FBI misconduct advised a criminal referral for fired former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, who allegedly lied to federal investigators.

McCabe and at least a half-dozen other FBI employees quit, retired, were fired, or were reassigned as a result of fallout from the politicization of the FBI. Yet, as Barack Obama left office, his chief of staff, Denis McDonough, strangely boasted that the Obama Administration “has been historically free of scandal.” Obama himself recently concluded of his eight-year tenure, “I didn’t have scandals.”

Those were puzzling assertions, given nearly nonstop scandals during Obama’s eight years in office involving the IRS; General Services Administration; Peace Corps; Secret Service; Veterans Administration; and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, not to mention the Clinton email server scandal, the Benghazi scandal and the 2016 Democratic National Committee email scandal.

For nearly eight years, the Obama Administration sought to cover up serial wrongdoing by waging a veritable war against the watchdog inspectors general of various federal agencies.

In 2014, 47 of the nation’s 73 inspectors general signed a letter alleging that Obama had stonewalled their “ability to conduct our work thoroughly, independently, and in a timely manner.”

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REVIEW OF EDWARD CLINE’S BOOK “PRESENCE OF MIND”

By on June 14th, 2018

https://militaryreviews.blogspot.com/2018/06/review-edward-cline-presence-of-mind.html
Ed Cline is a most prolific and articulate and intelligent writer. It is hard to keep up with his excellent columns, let alone his dozens of novels. Check out:

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_fb_1_13?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=edward+cline+books&sprefix=edward+cline+%2Cinstant-video%2C291&crid=1SDYNZ24YWHS6

Presence of Mind by Edward Cline is subtitled, “A Chess Hanrahan Novel.” It is one of four thrillers that feature private detective Hanrahan. Although published in 2010, the series was originally written in the 1980s. In chronological order the four books are: With Distinction, First Prize,Presence of Mind and Honors Due. First Prize was published by the Mysterious Press in 1988. All are now readily available for order online.

The first book of the series, With Distinction, takes place in a small college town where Hanrahan has retreated from the world. He’s essentially “on strike” from a country spiraling out of control. When a philosophy professor is murdered, police chief Hanrahan solves the case. Along the way, he learns a great deal about the causes of the country’s problems. At the novel’s conclusion, he decides to return to New York City to solve cases involving moral paradoxes.

Chess Hanrahan deals with some aspect of the “establishment’s” intellectual and moral corruption in each novel. In With Distinction it’s academia. First Prize deals with the aesthetic vandalism of the publishing profession. Honors Due lifts the rocks covering Hollywood and the stage in order to examine what’s underneath. In each case, he solves the paradox of how moral corruption under the guise of “idealism” can and does lead to murder. In Presence of Mind Chess confronts what is now called the Deep State’s foreign policy empire. As he explains to a traitorous villain who is selling out the United States to the Russians,

“I’d like to have been born a hundred years ago, so that as I grew older, I could witness the growth of civilization and enjoy its fruits. But, I wasn’t. I have to stand by and watch it being sabotaged and overrun by barbarians in this time. I want to understand why that’s happening and, when I can, to try and stop the carnage. Most people either aren’t aware that that’s what’s happening, or they’re aware but avert their eyes and minds.” I paused. “I’m a thinking man. I don’t want illusions.” (pg. 137)

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A Night in the Globalist Box Edward Cline

By on June 14th, 2018

https://edwardcline.blogspot.com/2018/06/a-night-in-globalist-box_12.html

Make sure you’re not retiring in dirty pants, or having an Islamophic seizure, or Carr the globalist floor walker will sentence you to a night in the box. Or more months or years, so you can get your mind right, and “tolerant” and submissive. I refer to the arrest and instant imprisonment of Tommy Robinson, on May 25th, without so much as a show trial – public or secret – for thirteen months in a prison allegedly housing a low population of Muslim prisoners who could nevertheless plot his murder.

This points to an act of government called a “bill of attainder.” Britain, as well as the U.S., has a history of such exercises of state power. I touch on bills of attainder in my article, “Magna Carta in the Dustbin” from May 29th, but will elaborate on the subject here.

Robinson was arrested ostensibly for a “breach of the peace,” but was actually charged with violating the terms of a prior arrest in Luton, for filming members of a grooming rape gang outside the Canterbury courthouse. Overall, Prime Minister Theresa May just wanted to shut him up about the grooming gangs her government had failed to combat lest she and her government be accused of racism and bigotry; most of the victims were white British girls and the rapists were Pakistani; Islamic racism was permitted for “diversity’s” sake. It leaves open the unasked question: So, who were the racists?

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Immigration Standoff Shakes Merkel’s Fragile Government German chancellor’s veto of plan by interior minister to control and reduce illegal migration angers conservatives in her coalition By Bojan Pancevski

By on June 14th, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/immigration-standoff-shakes-merkels-fragile-government-1528912541

BERLIN—A rebellion over immigration in German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc is threatening the stability of her fragile coalition.

Ms. Merkel’s weekend decision to veto a plan by her interior minister aimed at controlling and reducing illegal migration—and the minister’s refusal to back down—has shattered an uneasy truce between conservative backers and opponents of her liberal asylum policy.

At issue is one measure in a 63-point action plan by Interior Minister Horst Seehofer —one that would instruct border police to turn back migrants found to have applied for asylum in other countries of the European Union’s border-free area.

After Ms. Merkel opposed the measure, Mr. Seehofer, in a rare revolt by a minister against the head of the German government, on Tuesday canceled the planned presentation of his plan, declaring the measure integral to any attempt at bringing illegal immigration under control.

There appeared to be few avenues left on Wednesday for Mr. Seehofer other than to compromise or resign—an unprecedented break in the conservative movement that would leave the government without a parliamentary majority.

Residents gather at the Bavarian Transit Center Manching/Ingolstadt for asylum-seekers in Ingolstadt, Germany. Photo: Alexandra Beier/Getty Images

The standoff has reignited a dispute that erupted in 2015 when Ms. Merkel opened the country’s borders to hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers, some of whom had become stranded in Eastern Europe. About 1.4 million entered the country in the wake of her decision and while the flow has slowed, around 10,000 continue to stream in each month.

The chancellor’s open-door policy came close to tearing her conservative movement apart and the split was only mended after Mr. Seehofer, then governor of Bavaria and the chancellor’s most vocal in-house critic, agreed to join her new government in March. CONTINUE AT SITE

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EDUCATION Comments turned off

The Attack on Educational Excellence Schools considered ‘too Asian’ were once branded ‘too white’ or ‘too Jewish.’By Jason L. Riley

By on June 14th, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-attack-on-educational-excellence-1528844469

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio stands 6½ feet tall but still managed to come up short last week. The progressive Democrat wanted to eliminate the entrance exam for the city’s eight elite public high schools to ensure that more black and Hispanic students were admitted. State lawmakers, citing opposition from Asian families, blocked the move. Good for them.

The number of available slots at these schools is fixed, and last year Asian students were awarded 52.5% of them, according to the city’s Department of Education. By contrast, whites comprised 28% of the total, while Latinos and blacks were 6.5% and 3.8%, respectively. You’ll find similarly lopsided racial and ethnic results in other large cities—Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia—where black and Latino students are underrepresented in academically selective public high schools while whites and Asians are overrepresented.

Asian families in particular fear that replacing an objective test with what amounts to a racial quota system would come at the expense of Asian children. Given that other schools and programs for high-achieving students around the country are being pressed to become more “diverse,” those concerns are understandable.After the Montgomery County school district in Maryland changed admissions standards for gifted-and-talented programs—by broadening the definition of “gifted,” among other adjustments—black and Latino acceptance rates ticked up while Asian admissions fell. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology is an elite magnet school in Northern Virginia that also uses an entrance exam. The school’s acceptance rate matches Georgetown University’s (just 17%) and its student body last year was 2.2% Latino, 1.5% black and nearly two-thirds Asian. A 2017 profile of the high school in Washingtonian magazine noted that administrators are under constant pressure from outsiders to increase the number of black and Latino students by watering down the selection criteria. CONTINUE AT SITE

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The Fracturing of the Jewish People Israel has become a red state while U.S. Jews remain blue. By William A. Galston

By on June 14th, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-fracturing-of-the-jewish-people-1528844625

“Israel is the home of all Jews,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared in his address to the American Jewish Committee Global Forum in Jerusalem last weekend. “Every Jew should feel at home in Israel.” There is a lot of history packed into these terse sentences, and just as much controversy.

The assertion that Israel is the home, not just a home, for all Jews is the core of classical Zionism. It implies that no other country can be a home, even if the Jews living there think it is. The Jews of Andalusia thought they were at home—until Christian rulers arrived and expelled them in the 15th century. The Jews of Germany thought they were fully German until a regime defined by murderous hatred of all Jews came to power.

But today, for the first time since the Talmudic era, there are two strong, self-confident centers of Jewish life. One of them embodies the Zionist proposition; the other rejects it outright. American Jews, the largest diaspora population, don’t believe they are living in exile, or even in danger. America is different, they insist. To the extent that America rests on civic principles rather than ethnic or religious identity, its liberal democratic institutions can accept Jews as equal citizens, as George Washington promised in his famous letter to the Touro Synagogue.

For most American Jews, the U.S. isn’t a temporary resting place interrupting ceaseless wandering; it is their permanent home. When they say “Next year in Jerusalem!” at the end of each Passover Seder, they don’t mean it literally.

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Strike Down ObamaCare, Says Justice Department Twenty states sue again, claiming the mandate is unconstitutional. Now the federal government agrees. By Sai Prakash and Neal Devins

By on June 14th, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/strike-down-obamacare-says-justice-department-1528931393

Twenty states have filed a lawsuit against the federal government arguing that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional—and this time the federal government agrees. When the Justice Department filed a brief last week taking the states’ side, critics furiously insisted that the failure to defend ObamaCare is a threat to the rule of law. Don’t be moved by selective outrage. This refusal to defend is actually more restrained than President Obama’s. And, as before, the courts will decide the ultimate questions.

The new lawsuit, filed in February, arises from a change in the law. The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act repealed the penalty for failing to purchase health insurance, while leaving in place language to the effect that doing so is mandatory. In 2012 Chief Justice John Roberts held that the individual mandate could pass constitutional muster only by being construed as a tax. Now that the tax is gone, the plaintiff states argue, the mandate must be considered an attempt to regulate commerce. As such, it’s unconstitutional under the views of a five-justice majority in the 2012 case.

The states further argue that other ACA provisions are inextricably linked with the mandate—a view with which four dissenters agreed in 2012 (and on which Chief Justice Roberts has not expressed an opinion).The Justice Department’s filing turns not on some independent executive judgment about the ACA but on a straightforward interpretation of the Supreme Court’s 2012 precedent. When Attorney General Jeff Sessions informed Congress of the decision not to defend the ACA, he emphasized that the department’s decision will not prevent the courts from ultimately having the last word on the constitutional question. CONTINUE AT SITE

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Help Is on the Way for Middle Eastern Christians Under President Trump’s orders, USAID is directing aid to persecuted communities in Iraq. By Mark Green

By on June 14th, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/help-is-on-the-way-for-middle-eastern-christians-1528931329

When Islamic State captured the Iraqi town of Telskuf four years ago this week, terrorists desecrated the local Chaldean Catholic church and beheaded congregants on the altar. The slaughter was only one episode from the genocide ISIS waged on Christians and other vulnerable religious groups across its so-called caliphate, nearly exterminating some of the region’s most ancient faith communities.

The U.S. stands with the persecuted religious and ethnic communities of the Middle East. And the federal government won’t rest until these oppressed people receive the help they need to thrive again. That’s the message I will deliver personally to Christian and Yazidi leaders when I visit Iraq this month. On behalf of President Trump, I will assure them that American assistance will soon turn from an inconsistent trickle into a steady stream.

President Trump already has directed U.S. armed forces to finish the fight against the ISIS barbarians, and today the group no longer holds territory in Iraq. But as Vice President Pence said at this year’s religious broadcasters convention, “Victory in combat is only half the battle.” The president directed his administration last October to end its support for United Nations programs that fail to provide aid for every group in need. Now, the U.S. Agency for International Development, which I lead, is charged with providing more effective and direct support to persecuted religious and ethnic minorities.

Four days after Vice President Pence announced the shift, I directed USAID to develop aid projects that address the challenges facing Christians, Yazidis and other minority groups in the region. To this end, USAID has redirected more than $60 million in humanitarian and stabilization assistance to provide infrastructure support and lifesaving aid in Northern Iraq. The money has helped rebuild schools, hospitals, power stations and wells, and eased the transition of those returning home. CONTINUE AT SITE

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