Displaying posts published in

August 2018

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Jerusalem: Why Palestinian Leaders Say Don’t Vote by Bassam Tawil

By on August 31st, 2018

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12915/jerusalem-arabs-election-boycott

Palestinian leaders do not want to see any improvement in the lives of the Arabs in Jerusalem so that they can continue to incite against Israel and accuse it of discriminating against its Arab population.

Palestinian leaders and their religious clerics do not want to see Arabs live a comfortable life under Israel. They are afraid that the world would see that Arabs can have a good life under Israeli sovereignty.

They are also afraid that Palestinians living under the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip will start envying the Arabs living in Israel — and then demand from their leaders similar conditions.

Ramadan Dabash wants to help the residents of his village of Sur Baher in particular, and east Jerusalem in general, improve their living conditions. He wants them to receive better services from the Jerusalem Municipality. The 52-year-old businessman and social activist, however, has been facing a campaign of threats by several Palestinian leaders and administrative bodies over his decision to run in the municipal election, slated for October 2018.

Recently, Dabash announced his decision to run in the upcoming election at the head of an Arab list called Jerusalem for Jerusalemites. He has repeatedly made it clear this summer that his decision is not politically motivated and that his only intention is to seek improved municipal services for the Arab residents of Jerusalem. Dabash has also called on Arab voters to end their boycott of the municipal election because they are the only ones who stand to lose from such a move.

Facing threats and pressure from various Palestinian factions and leaders, most of the Arab residents of Jerusalem have been boycotting the municipal election under the pretext that participation in the vote was tantamount to recognizing Israeli sovereignty over east Jerusalem, which was annexed to Israel in 1980. This boycott has hurt the Arab residents themselves, who were left without representatives in the municipal council, someone who would fight for their rights. The Jerusalem Municipality has, despite the absence of Arab representatives, continued to provide various and basic services to the Arab residents of the city.

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P.C.-CULTURE Comments turned off

Ron Pike :The Darkening

By on August 31st, 2018

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2018/08/darkening/

I suspect many others share my grave concern for the Australia our grandchildren will inherit. Will they even know what has been lost, having been ‘educated’ to accept not the supremacy of history, logic, fact and rational argument but the doctrines favoured by their ‘educators’?

Growing up as I did in the Riverina in the Forties and Fifties, we had a large Aboriginal population and a huge influx of settlers after both world wars, mostly from Europe but mixed with smaller numbers of Asians from many countries. We were unaware of racism or division on ethnic lines so manifest today. Everyone was striving to build a better life and I warmly remember a great sense of unity of purpose.

We were building a better homeland after defending our freedom in two horrific conflicts. New arrivals were fleeing countries shattered and divided by war and most were prepared to start again, work hard, build better lives side by side with Aussies doing the same thing.

Our goals were similar because we were united by the vast land we shared and the opportunities offered by it. We went to school together, we played sport together, we helped one another at harvest time and worked with our dads most weekends. We fished the ‘Bidgee and shot rabbits in the hills. We trusted our ABC as the purveyor of our local, national and overseas news and never doubted its accounts of events far and wide, let alone the invaluable market reports and weather forecasts. We sat around the radio and listened to the ABC relay the Test cricket and Davis Cup. We trusted our national broadcaster and knew its local reporters as neighbours and friends. Respect cemented all those relationships, which flourished without regard to skin colour or ethnic origin.

Multiculturalism and diversity were words we never used and probably wouldn’t have understood had they been invented in those days. By the time we left school and went to work we all considered ourselves Australians and patriotic Australians to boot. We knew and understood that “the land of a fair go” meant equal opportunities for all. As to outcomes, we accepted that hard work and, yes, luck shaped them and our fortunes. We appreciated that this was our larrikin way of endorsing the same philosophy grandiosely expressed in the American Declaration of Independence – “that all men are created equal and are thus endowed with the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

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ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Peter Smith Means and Ends in the Climate ‘Debate’

By on August 31st, 2018

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/doomed-planet/2018/08/means-ends-climate-debate/

Groupthink among climate scientists — ‘the science is settled’ brigade — has constrained public debate, which was entirely to be expected. You see, believers are predominantly devoted to promoting ‘solutions’ and that, rather than open-minded inquiry, is the warmists’ objective.

Someone among my group of “climate change is real” mates sent me and others a series of those heat-stripe charts from dark blue (cold) to dark red (hot) for various places and showing that it had grown hotter over the past 100 to 200 years or so. The earliest was from central England and dated from 1772. Climate Lab Book is the source for these charts if you want to look them up. One wag responded that these charts made it easier for people who couldn’t read graphs. Uneducated Deplorables presumably.

I can read graphs despite my membership of the Deplorables. As can most, if not all, of those sceptical of the alarmist hypothesis. I responded in a reasoned and diplomatic way that those who thought the charts showed anything of interest or significance were halfwits. Or, I may have said that they had only half a brain. I’d had a glass or two of wine at the time. But leaving this particular way of expressing myself aside, what is my point?

My point is that we are in an interglacial period (thankfully) and, to boot, we are coming off a Maunder Minimum (low Sunspot activity) dated around 1645 to 1715. This is otherwise referred to as the Little Ice Age. Thus, there is no dispute that the earth has gradually — though not evenly — warmed since then. To point this out as though it were profound is profoundly irritating to those with a full quota of wits.

I thought it might be instructive to employ what in the business world is called facilitation. You break an issue down; and then, by approaching it from the least- to the most-contentious parts, you try to forge a consensus among people in a room. A consensus is infeasible when comes to climate. But a process of breaking down the climate change hypothesis into parts might put the debate on a more intelligent footing and, perhaps, deter people from broadcasting banal heat charts. It’s a simplified breakdown. I want a degree of licence on that matter. Only the first three of the six parts listed below would find unanimity among true believers and sceptics.

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MEDIA Comments turned off

Banned From Twitterstan An interview with Bosch Fawstin. Mark Tapson

By on August 31st, 2018

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271169/banned-twitterstan-mark-tapson

Bosch Fawstin is an Eisner-nominated cartoonist, the creator of The Infidel series featuring his anti-jihadist superhero Pigman, and the winner of the 2015 AFDI Mohammad Cartoon Contest organized by Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer which took place in Garland, Texas. Muslim fundamentalists have issues with artistic representations of the Religion of Peace’s warlord prophet, so two armed jihadists tried to disrupt that event and slaughter the participants but were killed in the attempt. Especially since then, social media attacks and death threats have become a way of life for Fawstin, whose artwork has graced many David Horowitz Freedom Center pamphlets and FrontPage Mag articles (including this one).

I asked my friend and colleague Bosch recently about being targeted for his defense of free speech and about his perspective on the social justice agenda dominating the comics world.

Mark Tapson: Earlier this year Dutch freedom fighter Geert Wilders announced that he was organizing a “Draw Muhammad” contest similar to the Texas event which you won, to be held in his party’s offices in the Netherlands, and that you would be the judge. Quite an honor. It’s already drawing condemnation, if you’ll pardon the pun; an op-ed in The Economist, for example, argues that it should not be allowed to go forward and that legislation should be drafted against “speech which is grossly offensive, menacing or false.” How do you respond to that?

Bosch Fawstin: I think The Economist’s estimation is grossly offensive, menacing and false. Muslims have MURDERED cartoonists over cartoons. The time for anyone to be offended by cartoons – and not by those who murder over cartoons – is over, at least in reality. In the unreality that leftists and Muslims demand that we observe, cartoons cause terrorism, with some Muslims even calling cartoons themselves terrorism. This is mad, and it has to be pushed back against and mocked, and that’s partly why I continue to draw Mohammad cartoons.

MT: The Southern Poverty Law Center, the news media’s go-to source for so-called “hate groups” even though the SPLC itself is a leftist-funded smear organization, included you in an “anti-Muslim roundup” in May. The left insists on using this demonizing label “anti-Muslim” rather than anti-Islam. Can you talk about the distinction?

BF: “Anti-Muslim” is a smear which requires our own cultural values to be used against us, as our culture values people, individual human beings, unlike Islamic culture, and so to call Islam critics “anti-Muslim” is to defame them as anti-people, not as critics who are fighting evil ideas. And it works, to an extent, as the weaker among us don’t want to be associated with those who are [considered to be] against people. As for the SPLC, the first thing they did right after I survived a jihadist attack was to list me as a one-man “hate group,” and they did an interview right after the attack in which they said that they were trying to find my location, and that they had whittled it down to one area. Think about that: an American citizen almost dies in an attack by the Islamic enemy, and this American arch-hate group, SPLC, acted as if they were working with the Islamic enemy, trying to find my location (to what end?) and defaming me, while saying nothing about those who had just tried to kill me and everyone else at the Garland event.

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ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Enough with the Victimhood: Millionaire Athletes and Their Lost Cause As an American black citizen, I have had enough of what the Left has done to my race. Sylvia Thompson

By on August 31st, 2018

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271191/enough-victimhood-millionaire-athletes-and-their-sylvia-thompson

Reprinted from BarbWire.com.

I must admit I have never in my life purchased a ticket to a sports event. I am not a sports enthusiast. But I am an American black citizen, and I have had it up to the gills with black people who embrace victimhood. I also highly resent my being expected to do the same in order to affirm my “blackness.”

Black victims these days, for the most part, are the product of decades of Black Americans being used primarily by white progressive leftists to advance an anti-American agenda.

The current brouhaha surrounding the despicable behavior of NFL athletes toward the National Anthem and the American flag is a prime example of what the Left has done to my race.

One must assume these players and their guilt-conflicted white coaches and owners (and victimhood-inflicted black coaches) are being manipulated by the Left, because no intelligent, thinking people would deliberately cut themselves off at the knees. Essentially, what these young misguided mostly black men are doing is ensuring the demise of their lucrative paychecks. Further, I would wager that if these teams consisted of all white athletes, none of this idiocy would be allowed. We are witnessing this travesty because the vast majority of players are black and can whine “oppression” if appropriate action is taken against them for their unconscionable behavior.

The twisted reasoning that claims these protests are to highlight “injustice” and “police brutality” is a laughable crock. What they do in fact is dishonor valued symbols of this nation’s heritage and cover over truth about black crime.

Black males bear the brunt of police encounters because black males commit disproportionately more crimes. Police encounters with black men are so often confrontational because so many of these men, especially the young, don’t think “compliance” applies to them. They foolishly assume they are above the law and disrespect for police officers is an act of honor.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Bruce Ohr Kept Mueller’s ‘Pit Bull’ Andrew Weissmann ‘in the Loop’ on Dirty Dossier in 2016 By Debra Heine

By on August 31st, 2018

https://pjmedia.com/trending/bruce-ohr-kept-muellers-pit-bull-andrew-weissmann-in-the-loop-on-dirty-dossier-in-2016/

Justice Department official Bruce Ohr kept Andrew Weissmann — also known a special counsel Robert Mueller’s “pit bull” — informed about the anti-Trump dossier before and after the 2016 election, Fox News’ Catherine Herridge reported on Thursday.

Besides Weissmann, according to Herridge’s two sources, Ohr also collaborated with former FBI agent Peter Strzok, former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, former deputy director Andrew McCabe, at least one other DOJ official, and a current FBI agent who worked with Strzok on the Russia case.

Ironically, one of the sources said Weissmann was kept “in the loop” on the fraudulent dossier while he was head of the criminal fraud division. Mueller went on to assign him to his special counsel team of “13 angry Democrats” (as President Trump calls them).

Weissman is a Democrat partisan who attended Hillary Clinton’s election night party and thanked then-acting attorney general Sally Yates in January 2017 after she defied President Trump’s travel ban order. Known to be an unscrupulous attorney who uses intimidating, hardball tactics, Weissmann has had several high-profile rulings overturned — but only after livelihoods were destroyed.

Former federal prosecutor Joe diGenova referred to Weissmann as a “Jack the Ripper-like” fiend in a recent segment on Fox News. CONTINUE AT SITE

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EDUCATION Comments turned off

The Permeation of Propaganda in the College Student Brain By Eileen F. Toplansky

By on August 31st, 2018

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/08/the_permeation_of_propaganda_in_the_college_student_brain.html

In 1937, an editorial in The New York Times declared that “what is truly vicious is not propaganda but a monopoly of it.” Thus begins an article titled “Propaganda Techniques of German Fascism,” written by Clyde R. Miller and reprinted in the fifth edition of Modern English Readings (1946). This text was used by college students. There is nothing dealing with gender, white privilege, social justice, the religion of peace, or alleged microaggressions.

When pundits discuss the culture wars, it is essential to see how so many present-day textbooks have contributed to generations of young people who have, for the most part, never been exposed to how America’s ideals have shaped the country. Instead, students are indoctrinated by public school teachers with connections to Antifa. More chilling is that these same teachers publicly acknowledge they would not protect the rights of students who disagree with them.

Thus, the article by Miller is quite apropos at a time when the education establishment, as well as the hi-tech companies’ “monoculture,” seeks to monopolize the information highway. As Jeremy Carl writes:

The evidence of Silicon Valley’s hostility to the Right is everywhere. Prominent conservatives from Michelle Malkin to William Jacobson to Dennis Prager … – and an even greater proportion of those whose politics lean farther to the right, many of whom do not have access to mainstream media and rely on social media to fund their work – have seen themselves banned from major Internet platforms or had their content censored or demonetized. In most cases they are not even given grounds for their punishment or means of appealing it. While some more ‘mainstream’ conservatives may not feel excessively troubled by the banning of more provocative voices farther to the right, in taking this attitude they make a tactical, strategic, and moral mistake. They do not understand how the left operates. When voices farther to the right are removed, mainstream conservatives become the new ‘far-right extremists’ – and they will be banned with equal alacrity.

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EDUCATION Comments turned off

Free speech and multiple perspectives By Michael James

By on August 31st, 2018

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/08/iced_americanos_and_dismantling_the_patriarchy.html

Brown University has censored one of its researchers who did a study on rapid-onset gender dysphoria. The study’s author is Lisa Littman, an assistant professor in behavioral sciences.

Littman noted that teen friend groups sometimes suddenly identify as transgender, all of them at the same time. Generally this occurs after the group goes on a spree of watching YouTube videos about transitioning and gorges themselves on social media sites dedicated to the subject.

“In the past decade, there has been an increase in visibility, social media, and user-generated online content about transgender issues and transition, which may act as a double-edged sword. On the one hand, an increase in visibility has given a voice to individuals who would have been under-diagnosed and undertreated in the past. On the other hand, it is plausible that online content may encourage vulnerable individuals to believe that nonspecific symptoms and vague feelings should be interpreted as gender dysphoria stemming from a transgender condition.”

Anyone in marketing knows that effective advertising reaps dividends; million dollars per minute Super Bowl commercials must pay off, or else they would disappear. Are the creeps who deliberately sow fields of adolescent sexual confusion on YouTube hoping to yield green pastures of pedophilic Parnassus? The creeps are not stupid; they know how to promote their brand. They also know where the potential victims hang out.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Knife crime, acid attacks… the Conservatives are now the party of law and disorder Allison Pearson

By on August 30th, 2018

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/politics/knife-crime-acid-attacks-conservatives-now-party-law-disorder

When did it happen? When did we become this ugly society where violent crime is an accepted part of life? See how our reactions are blunted, how hard it is for anything to shock us any more.

Acid thrown at two teenagers causes life-changing injuries? Oh, not again! Now, where did I put the Radio Times? A drive-by shooting on a street in broad daylight leaves an innocent girl dead? Mild flicker of dismay. Thinks: must call daughter to check she’s OK.

Man drives car at speed into cyclists on Westminster Bridge in an alleged copycat terrorist attack? Well, at least nobody died this time, quite lucky really. Another man is stabbed to death on a London street as police announce an inquiry into the murder of a nurse at her home in Teddington? Resigned shrug. Well, it’s the 100th such investigation in the capital this year. What do you expect?

The outrage tank is empty. Truly, it’s shocking how unshockable we are.

“It’s practically one a day,” John Humphrys said on the Today programme. It certainly feels like that. Last year, violent crime soared by 20 per cent, with 1.5 million offences recorded, and those are just the ones the police bother to write down. God knows what the actual figure is.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

German City Becomes Rallying Point for Anti-Immigration Protests Demonstrations in recent days began after the violent death of a resident of the eastern city of Chemnitz By Bertrand Benoit

By on August 30th, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/german-police-brace-for-more-protests-over-immigration-

BERLIN—The German city of Chemnitz saw renewed anti-immigration protests Thursday, five days after the violent death of a resident turned the city into a rallying point for far-right opponents of the government’s refugee policy.

The demonstrations, which turned violent at times, have shocked the country and are the latest manifestation of the divisions caused by the influx of close to two million asylum seekers since 2015.

Police are currently questioning two men—one from Syria and one from Iraq—over the fatal stabbing early Sunday morning of a local man identified by police only as Daniel H.

Within hours of the killing, protesters had taken to the streets shouting anti-immigration slogans. A video later posted on social media showed a group of white men chasing two foreign-looking youths as one man yelled “You aren’t welcome here.”

On Monday, a demonstration registered by a local anti-immigration group drew around 6,000 protesters—some performing the banned Nazi salute—around the city’s memorial to Karl Marx. About 20 people were wounded in clashes between rival groups of demonstrators and the police, according to regional authorities in Saxony, the eastern state where Chemnitz is located.

The state’s interior ministry had requested police reinforcements ahead of another protest planned during a visit to the city by Michael Kretschmer, the premier of Saxony, on Thursday. Björn Höcke, a right-wing leader of the Alternative for Germany, or AfD party, has urged supporters to conduct a “march of mourning” in Chemnitz on Saturday. Mr. Höcke has previously called for a reassessment of Adolf Hitler’s rule.

Thursday’s protest drew an estimated 900 participants according to the Saxony police, making it much smaller than Monday’s. It ended after two hours in the early evening without any incident.

The refugee crisis that peaked in the summer of 2015 rocked the sedate world of German politics and boosted support for the AfD. The party’s ratings went from low single digits to a 12.6% score at last year’s general election, making it the largest opposition party in parliament. Some of AfD’s best electoral results were in Saxony, where it came second only to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats.

Earlier this summer, a dispute over whether to tighten immigration rules divided Ms. Merkel’s party and came close to toppling her government. The two sides eventually reached a compromise after Ms. Merkel pledged to negotiate agreements with other European countries allowing Berlin to turn back asylum seekers who have open applications elsewhere. CONTINUE AT SITE

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