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August 2018

MEDIA Comments turned off

Media Conspiracy Theories About Devin Nunes Are Getting Out Of Control by Mollie Hemingway

By on August 14th, 2018

http://thefederalist.com/2018/08/14/media-conspiracy-theories-devin-nunes-getting-control/
The media claims it’s crazy for Devin Nunes to say in ‘secret’ audio that Democrats want to impeach President Trump and that he has political reasons for opposing Rod Rosenstein’s immediate impeachment.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee secretly bought and paid for an information campaign alleging treasonous collusion between Donald Trump and Russia to steal an election belonging to Clinton.

The campaign was run by Fusion GPS, which specializes in spreading information into the media. Fusion GPS principal Glenn Simpson and British ex-spy-for-hire Christopher Steele secretly met with myriad media companies during the campaign and after the election to spread their dramatic tales claiming that Trump campaign affiliates were working hand-in-hand with Russian operatives, and that the Russians had compromising information on President Trump.

They also got the information — which they claimed came from Kremlin operatives and other Russians with ties to Vladimir Putin — into the U.S. government to secure widespread spying on the Trump campaign.

Literally nothing of significance alleged in the information campaign has been proven to be true. Yes, Russia is a country with Putin as a leader, and yes Carter Page visited Russia, but two years into one of the most thoroughly investigated issues of our time, no evidence has been provided to come even remotely close to proving Page is a mastermind spy who secretly coordinated with Russian officials to bring down America’s next president. Or that Michael Cohen went to Prague to make arrangements with the Russian officials. Despite the dramatic claims of Paul Manafort’s involvement in this Russian plot, Special Counsel Robert Mueller has told the court that nothing in Manafort’s money-laundering trial will touch on this claim.

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ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Ambrose: Donald Trump doing plenty for black Americans Jay Ambrose

By on August 14th, 2018

http://www.bostonherald.com/opinion/op_ed/2018/08/ambrose_donald_trump_doing_plenty_for_black_americans

President Trump is making life better for black Americans everywhere you look while his predecessor fumbled. But hey, say his critics, not everything is perfect yet, so don’t give in to his policies. It’s an unbudging, self-inflicted blindness that can hardly be called racism itself even though it is similarly destructive.

The loudest Trump triumph of the moment has been dips to the lowest black unemployment in history, and get this: Jobs confer purpose, they provide pride, they build community, they set one up to help others, they enable social mobility, they lift the spirit. Welfare limps, jobs jog and you don’t get them through semi-socialist policies. You get them through deregulation and tax reform of the Trump kind, encouraging businesses to expand, lowering expenses and inspiring entrepreneurship.

Well, the critics say, there is still a large gap between black and white unemployment, and yes, there is, but you hardly address it by saying current job gains are therefore not that big a deal. We’re told, too, that jobs multiplied during the Obama administration. They did, but slowly as black family income dropped, hindrances known as regulations abounded and President Barack Obama said manufacturing would never be the same again. Manufacturing is now taking off.

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ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

MY SAY: IN DEFENSE OF NANCY PELOSI

By on August 14th, 2018

To begin with, I don’t agree with Nancy Pelosi on anything. However, the hypocrisy of the Democrat Party throwing her under the bus is perverse. This is especially so from a party that has found common ground with racism, anti-Semitism, scandal mongering and scraping the bottom for “dirt” on adversaries. Pelosi is not a racist like her fellow Democrat Maxine Waters who is so easily tolerated by Keith Ellison’s party. She has never uttered anything like the lyrics of Anthony Delgado running for New York’s District 19, who said “ni**a” and critiqued America’s founders as “dead presidents” who “believe in white supremacy.”

She was also, as my mother might have said “well brought up.” She is the daughter of the late US congressman Thomas D’Alesandro, Jr., of Maryland, a hard Roosevelt supporter. As Rafael Medoff wrote in the Jerusalem Post in 2007 (https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed-Contributors/Pelosis-father-and-the-Holocaust)

“What is not widely known is that D’Alesandro broke ranks with president Franklin D. Roosevelt on the issues of rescuing Jews from Hitler and creating a Jewish State. D’Alesandro was one of the congressional supporters of the Bergson Group, a maverick Jewish political action committee that challenged the Roosevelt administration’s policies on the Jewish refugee issue during the Holocaust, and later lobbied against British control of Palestine. The Bergson activists used unconventional tactics to draw attention to the plight of Europe’s Jews, including staging theatrical pageants, organizing a march by 400 rabbis to the White House, and placing more than 200 full-page advertisements in newspapers around the country. Some of those ads featured lists of celebrities, prominent intellectuals, and members of Congress who supported the group – including D’Alesandro. D’Alesandro’s involvement with the Bergson Group was remarkable because he was a Democrat who was choosing to support a group that was publicly challenging a Democratic president. ”

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Why is Nobody Talking about the Union for the Mediterranean? by Judith Bergman

By on August 14th, 2018

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12838/union-for-the-mediterranean

The EU countries involved in the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) appear unbothered by promoting “integration” — or even claiming “a common heritage” — with countries such as Mauritania, where, according to recent reports, up to 20% of the population (Haratines and other Afro-Mauritanian groups) is enslaved, and anti-slavery activists are regularly tortured and detained.

There is not the slightest allusion in the UfM yearly report, or in the 2017 Roadmap for Action, to the fact that in most Muslim countries, sharia law influences the legal code — especially regarding marriage, divorce, inheritance and child custody — and that gender inequality may therefore be institutionalized and not something likely to change, regardless of the number of UfM projects.

Given these large sums of money involved, it is remarkable that the UfM and its activities enjoy little to no scrutiny in the European press.

In July, the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) celebrated its 10-year anniversary. Most Europeans, however, are unlikely to have heard about the Union, let alone the anniversary. The media rarely reports on the UfM and its activities.

The participating countries in the UfM are the 28 European Union (EU) member states and the Southern Mediterranean countries, which include Albania, Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Mauritania, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, “Palestine”, Syria (temporarily suspended), Tunisia and Turkey. Libya has observer status in the UfM. The UfM is chaired by a “co-presidency” shared between the European Union and Jordan. The UfM Secretariat maintains the daily operations of the UfM and is run by a Secretary General, presently Nasser Kamel (Egypt).

The UfM was launched by a decision of the UfM Heads of State and Government in Paris in July 2008, and constitutes an institutionalization of the Barcelona Process, which began in November 1995 with the signing of the Barcelona Declaration.

According to the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed), the Euro-Mediterranean alliance launched by the Barcelona Declaration Process “was structured around three main work areas (political and security dialogue; economic and financial partnership; and social, cultural and human partnership)” between the EU and the mainly Muslim majority countries in North Africa and the Middle East (usually referred to in UfM context as the Southern Mediterranean).

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Toronto Shooting: Politically Correct Cover-Up? by Tom Quiggin

By on August 14th, 2018

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12831/toronto-shooting-cover-up

The Hussain “family statement” was not written by the murderer’s parents at all, but rather by Mohammed Hashim, a professional activist connected with the National Council of Canadian Muslims. Its American parent organization, as stated in its own documents, is CAIR, designated as a terrorist entity by the United Arab Emirates.

Contrary to what Hashim purportedly wrote in the statement, there is no evidence that Hussain was diagnosed with or treated for a mental illness, even after one of his high-school teachers reported to the police 10 years ago that Hussain had said “I want to kill someone… I just feel it would be really cool to kill somebody.”

Given the global climate, to which Canada most certainly has not been immune — as well as Hussain’s dubious connections — the attempt by the government and the media to dismiss potential links to terrorist groups or inspiration from jihadist ideologies, is both premature and politically transparent.

On July 22, two youngsters — 18-year-old Reese Fallon and 10-year-old Julianna Kozis — were killed, and another 13 people, ranging in age from 17 to 59, were wounded in a brutal shooting attack at a number of restaurants on Danforth Avenue, in Toronto’s popular Greektown neighborhood. The perpetrator, who was later identified as Faisal Hussain, killed himself after exchanging gunfire with police.

Hussain’s firing stance and ability to reload his 40-caliber Smith and Wesson handgun while on the move suggested that he had experience with firearms.

The following morning, the Toronto Police Service issued a statement that indicated they had already identified the shooter, yet did not release his name until later that afternoon. Meanwhile, a statement allegedly from the Hussain family made the rounds in a number of news outlets.

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MEDIA Comments turned off

The Coordinated ‘War of Words’ Against Trump The latest surge of fake news from the establishment media axis. Lloyd Billingsley

By on August 14th, 2018

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271026/coordinated-war-words-against-trump-lloyd-billingsley

The goal was 100 but at this writing 70 news organizations, including major dailies such as the Miami Herald, Minneapolis Star-Tribune and Denver Post, have agreed to “produce independent opinion pieces about Trump’s attacks on the media.” Leading the campaign is Marjorie Pritchard, deputy editorial page editor of the Boston Globe.

“We are not the enemy of the people,” Pritchard told reporters, and as she tweeted, “This is not about being a Democrat. And this is not about being a Republican. This is about the importance of a free press, enshrined in the Constitution, something we should all get behind.” Even so, readers had cause to wonder if the “coordinated editorial campaign” was something of a non-event.

Coverage of President Trump in the establishment media remains approximately 90 percent negative, so the campaign would hardly signal a new direction. Readers might also wonder about the rallying cry.

President Trump has not tampered with the First Amendment and never said the media was the enemy of the people. He did tweet “It is the FAKE NEWS, which is a large percentage of the media, that is the enemy of the people!” Readers might take the coordinated campaign as another example.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Legacies of Robert Mueller’s Investigations By Victor Davis Hanson

By on August 14th, 2018

Some 450 days ago we were treated to melodramatic announcements from the media about the start-up of Robert Mueller’s “dream” and “all-star” team.

Reporters gushed in the general hysteria of the times that Mueller would no doubt soon indict President Trump, some of his family, and almost anyone else in his campaign—and therefore end the Trump aberration.

Press puff pieces highlighted the résumés of his superstars—of Lisa Page (no comment needed), Peter Strzok (less than no comment needed), Jeannie Rhee (a former attorney for the Clinton Foundation, Ben Rhodes, and for a bit Hillary Clinton), Andrew Weissman (Clinton zealot, Obama and DNC donor, and the cheerleader to Sally Yates’s refusal to carry out a presidential order), Aaron Zebley (the former attorney for Clinton staffer Justin Cooper who set up the infamous Clinton home server and smashed to bits her mobile devices), and a host of other pros, who were all shortly to prove Trump-Russian “collusion.”

Although that Mueller mandate of collusion was never formally defined, much less explained as a criminal offense, the media salivated at the idea that Mueller’s whiz kids nonetheless were going to find it and no doubt thereby usher in impeachment.

Now we have gone from melodrama to bathos.

The supposed high drama of election sabotage has descended into leveraging Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen and then outsourcing him and his baggage to federal prosecutors. The FBI, having seized from his home and office his stealthily recorded and secret tapes of his own alleged lawyer-client conversations with Trump, now hope to find therein something, anything, untoward with which they can accuse and damage the president.

Paul Manafort is to be exposed for what most already knew he was, a high-flying wheeler-dealer and influence-peddler along the lines of his Clintonite doppelganger, Tony Podesta. Mueller’s team at some point presumably will embarrass Trump concerning his Cohen-arranged hush deals about an alleged fling a decade earlier with a playboy bunny.

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IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

America Needs a Border Wall Like Houses Need Insulation How Trump’s wall will help keep heinous criminals out of America’s cities. Michael Cutler

By on August 14th, 2018

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271010/america-needs-border-wall-houses-need-insulation-michael-cutler

Readers familiar with my writing know of my fondness for analogies to break down the, sometimes complex and always frustrating issues on U.S. immigration. Today, I will use an analogy comparing the proposed border wall along the U.S./Mexican border to insulate America with the way that various forms of insulation are used in constructing buildings to save money and provide other benefits.

Properly constructed homes and buildings are weatherproofed and insulated to create barriers that keep out rain and to keep their interiors warm and cozy in the winter and cool in the summer.

Various strategies and materials are used to achieve these essential goals. Insulation is installed inside outer walls and in the spaces under the roofs of the houses while double-pane windows, storm doors, and weatherstripping are used to seal up other vulnerable areas.

These measures are costly to install, but over the life of the building, these measures more than pay for themselves. Depending on location, home heating and cooling costs can be significantly reduced when effective insulation prevents costly warm air from escaping from the house during the frigid days of winter, and by preventing hot air from leaking into our homes during the sweltering days of summer when the air conditioners are humming and devouring expensive electricity.

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POLITICS Comments turned off

Keith Ellison Gets His #MeToo Moment The DNC deputy chair’s alleged pattern of abusing women. Daniel Greenfield

By on August 14th, 2018

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271025/keith-ellison-gets-his-metoo-moment-daniel-greenfield

Until last week, Karen Monahan’s progressive credentials had been impeccable. But now the activist is one of two women who have accused one of the top figures on the left of physical and emotional abuse.

Born in Iran before the Islamic Revolution, she was adopted by American parents and not only identified as an Iranian-American, but also worked with the pro-regime National Iranian American Council (NIAC).

Keith Ellison was also a NIAC regular. He had spoken before the Iranian group and had received fundraising support from it. The first Muslim congressman from Minnesota, with a list of Islamist and leftist connections as long as his right arm, was a natural NIAC ally.

Monahan had also been an organizer with the Sierra Club and worked with the Environmental Justice Advocates of Minnesota (EJAM). Ellison was one of the founders of EJAM. Both Ellison and Monahan were leftists moving through the same claustrophobic maze of Minnesota leftist political organizations.

At some point after Ellison’s divorce from his wife, Kim Ellison, they began a relationship that lasted for years until it ended in 2016. Now, Karen Monahan is accusing Ellison of domestic abuse. Her tweets and statement allege that Ellison assaulted her, cheated on her and badly traumatized her.

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BOOKS Comments turned off

V.S. Naipaul’s ‘Universal Civilization’ The ‘curmudgeon’ author and Nobelist believed that the pursuit of happiness will outlast all its rivals.By Tunku Varadarajan

By on August 14th, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/v-s-naipauls-universal-civilization-1534200168

V.S. Naipaul, who died Saturday at 85, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature on Oct. 11, 2001, a month after al Qaeda’s attack on the American homeland. As many in the West were still struggling to fathom what drove Islamist fanatics to commit mass murder, it was reassuring to see the Nobel go to Naipaul, who had unapologetically insisted on the universality of Western beliefs.

In the days after 9/11, when a sense of spiritual decapitation briefly prevailed, a lecture Naipaul had delivered in 1990 at New York’s Manhattan Institute leapt back to life from the archives. I received it by email from a friend, read it hungrily, and passed it on to others I thought would be healed by it.

The lecture was titled “Our Universal Civilization,” and in it Naipaul tried to answer what he called some “very serious questions”: “Are we—are communities—only as strong as our beliefs? Is it enough for beliefs or an ethical view to be passionately held? Does the passion give validity to the ethics? Are beliefs or ethical views arbitrary, or do they represent something essential in the cultures where they flourish?”

In response, Naipaul extolled some of the social values al Qaeda had seemingly just attacked, among them “the pursuit of happiness” and “the idea of the individual, responsibility, choice, the life of the intellect, the idea of vocation and perfectibility and achievement.”

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