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June 2018

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NeverTrump is Now Never SCOTUS By Julie Kelly

By on June 29th, 2018

As Democrats have (another) collective meltdown over this week’s Supreme Court rulings and the impending retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, President Trump’s supporters are venting their own rage at another target: NeverTrump Republicans. https://amgreatness.com/2018/06/29/nevertrump-is-now-neverscotus/

Minutes after Kennedy announced he would step down later this year, Washington D.C. talk-radio host Larry O’Connor tweeted that NeverTrumpers “should be spending the day explaining their decision” not to vote for Donald Trump.

Fox News Channel’s Laura Ingraham reminded folks that none of the recent Supreme Court decisions “would have been possible if the #NeverTrumpers had their way.” Her colleague, Sean Hannity, roasted NeverTrumpers in his opening monologue Wednesday night: “For all of you NeverTrumpers, if you would have had your way . . . Hillary Rodham Clinton would have been making now a second appointment.”

And an Investor’s Business Daily editorial posed the question: “Conservatives are celebrating a number of important victories at the Supreme Court, as well as the chance to replace moderate Justice Anthony Kennedy. But none of these wins would have been possible if the Never-Trump crowd had its way. How about a mea culpa?”

I’ll go a step further: If NeverTrumpers had their way, we would now be contemplating the possibility of Associate Justice Barack (or Michelle!) Obama.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Both Parties Mobilize for Supreme Court Battle Over Kennedy’s Successor White House and GOP dust off playbook from Gorsuch nomination, and Democrats search for a way to derail pick By Louise Radnofsky and Joshua Jamerson

By on June 29th, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/with-trump-supreme-court-coming-democrats-weigh-strategy-1530209462?cx_testId=16&cx_testVariant=cx&cx_artPos=1&cx_tag=collabctx&cx_navSource=newsReel#cxrecs_s

Republicans and Democrats readied for the battle to choose Justice Anthony Kennedy’s successor, with the White House dusting off the plan it used to win last year’s Supreme Court fight and Democrats searching for a way to derail President Donald Trump’s nominee amid a heated midterm election campaign.

The White House again has enlisted Leonard Leo, executive vice president of the Federalist Society, a conservative lawyers network, to assist in a selection process that already is focusing on fewer than a half-dozen candidates. Within hours of Justice Kennedy’s retirement announcement Wednesday, Mr. Leo took a leave of absence from the Federalist Society to serve as Mr. Trump’s outside adviser on the nomination.

People close to the White House selection process anticipate that a nominee will be announced before Mr. Trump departs for the coming NATO summit, which begins in Brussels on July 11, with Republicans hoping for confirmation hearings in mid-August and a full Senate vote ahead of the November midterm elections.

The pick presents the Republican president with the opportunity—and challenge—of seeking to replicate an early success of his presidency, the nomination and swift confirmation of Justice Neil Gorsuch to succeed the late Justice Antonin Scalia.

Marc Short, Mr. Trump’s legislative affairs chief, said in an interview that he “would like to believe that Republican senators recognize” the opportunity to fulfill a longstanding GOP campaign pledge to remake the court.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The #MosqueMeToo Movement Muslim women stop rationalizing or tolerating abuse. See note

By on June 29th, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-mosquemetoo-movement-1530226224

Ms. Kahn’s hubby is imam Feisal Abdul Rauf who wanted to build a mosque near Ground Zero. They were implicated in a $20 million lawsuit alleging her husband, imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, pilfered $3 million from two nonprofits — including her own……rsk

Ms. Khan, founder of the Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality, is author of “Born with Wings: The Spiritual Journey of a Modern Muslim Woman” (Spiegel & Grau, 2018).

The #MeToo movement seemingly has touched all corners of American society—business, religion, journalism, sports, politics, academia, culture and more. Yet there remains a deep, global pool of alleged perpetrators. Perhaps unsurprisingly, reports of abuse and exploitation have surfaced from within the Muslim community, in the U.S. and abroad.

In February an anonymous Pakistani woman posted on Facebook about being sexually harassed while on the hajj to Mecca. Egyptian-American feminist Mona Eltahawy then shared her own story of abuse as a teenager. This likely marked the birth of the #MosqueMeToo movement. Today Muslim women across the world continue to report stories of inappropriate sexual experiences within their communities and sacred spaces—environments meant to foster spiritual growth.

This has provoked responses ranging from supportive sisterhood to rage and even disbelief. Even Muslim women are deeply divided. Many find themselves torn between centuries of tradition, modern social pressures, and their own beliefs. Like many Muslim women living in the West, I have struggled to find the balance among my religion, my culture and American social mores.

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IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Hundreds of Women’s March Protesters Arrested in Senate Office Building By Bridget Johnson

By on June 29th, 2018

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/hundreds-of-womens-march-protesters-arrested-in-senate-office-building/

Capitol Police arrested nearly 600 Women’s March protesters who filled the atrium of the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill today in opposition to the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” border enforcement policies.

The women and a few men chanted “Abolish ICE” and donned foil blankets like those given to child detainees in photos of Texas border processing facilities recently released by Customs and Border Protection.

Protesters at the sit-in also chanted “We care!” in a likely nod to the olive-green jacket worn by first lady Melania Trump on the flight to visit children at the border last week, which said on the back “I really don’t care, do u?” She returned to the border again today for a second visit, jacket-less.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) was arrested along with about 575 others.

Capitol Police said the protesters were charged with the D.C. Code violation of crowding, obstructing or incommoding. They were processed on the scene and released.

Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) also appeared to cheer on the protesters.Demonstrators are planning a Saturday “Day of Action” with #FamiliesBelongTogether protests across the country.

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MEDIA Comments turned off

NYT undercuts Mueller By David Zukerman

By on June 29th, 2018

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/06/nyt_undercuts_mueller.html

Two New York Times writers have offered evidence that the actions of the Russians and former director James Comey may not have been so crucial to the defeat of Hillary Clinton after all, calling into question the raison d’etre of the Mueller investigation.

First, Charlie Savage on June 28, commenting on the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, noted that Donald Trump promised to name conservatives to the high court. Savage then acknowledged, “Court-focused voters helped deliver Mr. Trump’s narrow victory over Hillary Clinton….” (Actually, the win was not “narrow.” Trump got 304 electoral votes to Clinton’s 227.)

Another editorial on the surprise defeat of Rep. Joseph Crowley by 28-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Sanders-ista, in the primary for a House seat from a district extending from the Bronx to Queens attributed the ten-term congressman’s loss to

“a sense of hubris and complacency… the kind that contributed to Hillary Clinton’s loss to Donald Trump… In Mrs. Clinton’s case, it may have stopped her from campaigning harder in states like Wisconsin and Michigan, places where Mr. Trump eked out narrow victories. In Mr. Crowley’s case, it may have led him to become smug.”

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Migrants and France will break the EU – or make it: Francesco Sisci

By on June 29th, 2018

http://www.settimananews.it/italia-europa-mondo/migranti-francia-la-ue/

It is France—not Germany, Italy, or any other country on the old continent—that can decide today what will happen to the young but already troubled European Union. The EU is under siege.

There is a medium-term threat to the EU which is about the future of the single currency, endangered on a thousand fronts. Even though it is not in the eurozone, with the Brexit, Britain will shake the single market and the single currency; Italy poses the problem of reforming the economic and financial institutions of the EU; Germany and its northern partners are pulled by isolationist drives.

But these are medium-term issues, which will come to the fore next year after the Brexit becomes official and the elections of the European Parliament in 2019. In the short term, it is the urgent issue of migration that is breaking the continent asunder, and here perhaps it is France that has many of the solutions. And the vote on Brexit was about migrants not about the single market or the single currency.

The wave of migration from Africa arrives in Europe mainly via Libya, but also from Morocco and Algeria. In the last two countries, there is still a strong French influence, and in Libya France and Italy compete over influence.

From here, the northern shores of Africa, the migrants make the last leap, the least dangerous one, crossing the Mediterranean to land in Malta, Italy, Spain, or Portugal, and from there they may move further north. However, the migrants have already made most the dangerous and difficult jump, through a path of death and slavery in the Sahara desert. It is in Mali, Niger, and Chad that the black African migrants converge. These countries are historically under French influence, and even though recently a new Italian presence has arrived, it has not undermined the French one.

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ISRAEL, MOVIES AND TELEVISION Comments turned off

In an attempt to portray European anti-Semitism, ‘Spiral’ spins out of control Documentary sets out to highlight the troubling plight of French Jews, but ultimately asks Israel to share the blame — merely for existing By Jordan Hoffman

By on June 29th, 2018

https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-an-attempt-to-portray-european-anti-semitism-spiral-spins-out-of-control/

I doubt I’ll have stronger mixed feelings about a movie this year than Laura Fairrie’s documentary “Spiral,” an examination of the new wave of European anti-Semitism.

As one who is more attuned to this than the average American, I can say the film will be an effective tool for explaining to skeptics just how bad the problem has become, especially in France. I’m glad this movie exists — truly! (Keep that in mind as I commence to slam it over the next several paragraphs.)

There’s a rigid pomposity to the film’s narrative, which weirdly swerves from great sympathy to victim-blaming. It’s in the title: A spiral, while headed downward, is cyclical. It takes two to tango, Fairrie’s film suggests, and a partner in this dance of discrimination is the very existence of the Jewish state. It’s quite flabbergasting.

“Spiral” takes its time to get there, though. The film first introduces characters that only later reveal themselves to be connected. There’s a lawyer, Julien, who reminds us of some of the recent atrocities, such as the kosher market that acted as a “part two” of the Charlie Hebdo killings. Also the shootings at a Toulouse school; the first children killed on French soil specifically for being Jewish since World War II. Julien is the face of vigilance against this wave, and a hero.

Against this, a Parisian Jewish family leaving for Israel with their tail between their legs. They are seen as cowards, if not pawns of the manipulative Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greedily rolling out the red carpet for what can only be no good, right?

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ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The Prince, the President, and the Providence of the Temple By David P. Goldman

By on June 29th, 2018

https://pjmedia.com/spengler/the-prince-the-president-and-the-providence-of-the-temple/

Prince William, the second-in-line to the British throne and its future heir, visited the Western Wall of the ancient Jewish Temple in Jerusalem today. His visit was the first official visit by a member of Britain’s royal family to Israel, and his appearance at the Kotel has enormous significance. So did the earlier visit of Donald Trump, the first sitting US president to visit the Kotel. The two heads of state of the English-speaking world thus acknowledged the undying connection of the living Jewish people to the ancient Jewish Temple, as well as the State of Israel’s sovereignty over Judaism’s most holy site. This is of such high moment that no American head of state ventured to do so before.

The Prince and the President did more than validate Israel’s claim to its holy sites in Jerusalem, though. They came not only as rulers but as pilgrims, offering prayers at the retaining wall of the Mount on which the Temple once stood. By doing so they did homage to the most importance pillar of Western governance, namely that government itself depends on a sense of the sacred.

What makes governments legitimate? What makes it possible for a nation-state to rise above the mere affinity of tribe and clan and assert its permanence as home and refuge of its people? What entitles it to inflict violence on those at home or abroad who would harm it, and require of its youth that they shed blood in its defense? In one form or another the nation-state must embody a sense of the sacred, by which I mean the aspiration to eternity that makes possible our individual hope of transcending earthly existence, and in extreme conditions takes precedence even over the bonds of family.

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