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January 2019

THE PARTY OF DEATH: STEVE CORTEZ

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/01/31/the_party_of_death_139331.html

Catholics long were a bulwark of the Democratic Party. This allegiance crystalized in the 1884 election in which James Blaine and the Republicans smeared opponent Grover Cleveland’s Democrats as the party of “Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion,” referring to alcohol legality, Catholic churches, and former Confederate support. The phrase badly backfired on Blaine, making Cleveland president and creating a solid Catholic voting bloc for Democrats for a century.

Today, Catholic Americans are a pivotal swing voter group, with incredible success in deciding national winners. This bloc was especially determinative in 2016 when working-class Catholics in the Midwest, many of whom had voted twice for President Obama, flocked across the aisle and delivered Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin for Donald Trump. In fact, Trump won the Catholic vote by a 52 percent-45 percent spread, almost the same Catholic margin that had returned Obama to office in 2012.

Looking to 2020, Democrats’ task of reclaiming Catholic voters has become daunting due to recent pro-abortion extremism and the blatant anti-Catholicism of prominent Democratic politicians.

Last week New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, himself a Catholic, ordered the spire above the One World Trade Center illuminated in pink to commemorate passage of the most permissive abortion law in America, which allows the procedure to be performed all the way up to birth. In response, Albany Bishop Edward Scharfenberger wrote to Cuomo that “your advocacy of extreme abortion legislation is completely contrary to the teachings of our pope and our Church.” Politically speaking, Cuomo’s position is also contrary to overwhelming public opinion, as only 13 percent of Americans, per Gallup, support legal third-trimester abortion, including only 18 percent of Democratic voters.

But compared to the Democrats in Virginia, Cuomo actually seemed restrained. House Democrats there submitted an abortion bill that sponsor Kathy Tran admitted would permit pregnancy termination even once delivery of the baby begins. Gov. Ralph Northam — who is a physician — responded to the uproar by going even further, stating that “if a mother is in labor…the infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and family desired.”Apparently, the extremist governor of Virginia thinks that making a fully delivered newborn baby “comfortable” while his or her right to live is determined represents … compassion?

Venezuela’s Guaidó says police showed up at house looking for his wife By John Bowden

https://thehill.com/policy/international/427885-venezuelas-guaido-says-police-showed-up-at-house-looking-for-his-wife

The self-proclaimed interim president of Venezuela says police forces loyal to President Nicolás Maduro showed up at his house asking for his wife in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Opposition leader Juan Guaidó told reporters at a public event Thursday that the move was meant to intimidate him as he seeks international support for his bid to oust Maduro as the country’s president.

“I will hold you responsible for any intimidation of my baby, who is just 20 months old,” the head of Venezuela’s National Assembly said.

In a tweet, the interim president wrote that police forces had returned to his house, though it was unclear for what purpose.

“At this moment the FAES is in the apartment of my wife Fabiana,” Guaidó tweeted, adding that Maduro would be held responsible for his daughter’s safety.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who has been a vocal supporter of Guaidó’s bid to oust Maduro, tweeted that Cuban-trained “shock troops” were in Guaidó’s home and that there would be “severe” consequences for any violence.

HIS SAY: JUAN GUAIDO-INTERIM PRESIDENT OF VENEZUELA

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/30/opinion/juan

CARACAS, Venezuela — On Jan. 23, 61 years after the vicious dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez was ousted, Venezuelans once again gathered for a day of democratic celebration.

Pérez Jiménez was fraudulently elected by a Constituent Assembly in 1953. His term of office was scheduled to expire in 1958. But rather than calling for free and transparent presidential elections, he was undemocratically re-elected after holding a plebiscite on his administration late in 1957. Following widespread protests and a rupture within the military establishment, the dictator left the country and Venezuela regained its freedom on Jan. 23, 1958.

Once again we face the challenge of restoring our democracy and rebuilding the country, this time amid a humanitarian crisis and the illegal retention of the presidency by Nicolás Maduro. There are severe medicine and food shortages, essential infrastructure and health systems have collapsed, a growing number of children are suffering from malnutrition, and previously eradicated illnesses have re-emerged.

We have one of the highest homicide rates in the world, which is aggravated by the government’s brutal crackdown on protesters. This tragedy has prompted the largest exodus in Latin American history, with three million Venezuelans now living abroad.

I would like to be clear about the situation in Venezuela: Mr. Maduro’s re-election on May 20, 2018, was illegitimate, as has since been acknowledged by a large part of the international community. His original six-year term was set to end on Jan. 10. By continuing to stay in office, Nicolás Maduro is usurping the presidency.

My ascension as interim president is based on Article 233 of the Venezuelan Constitution, according to which, if at the outset of a new term there is no elected head of state, power is vested in the president of the National Assembly until free and transparent elections take place. This is why the oath I took on Jan. 23 cannot be considered a “self-proclamation.” It was not of my own accord that I assumed the function of president that day, but in adherence to the Constitution.

‘Empire’ Actor Jussie Smollett Alleged Hate Crime Investigation Yields More Questions, No Answers By Patrick Poole

https://pjmedia.com/trending/empire-actor-jussie-smollett-alleged-hate-crime-investigation-yields-more-questions-no-answers/

Two days after the incident, the ongoing investigation into the alleged hate crime targeting “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett has raised more questions than it has answered. Pictures of two shadowy figures released last night — Chicago Police are calling them “persons of interest” — will only add to the controversy.

As I reported here at PJ Media yesterday, Smollett claims he was physically assaulted by two individuals wearing ski masks and gloves at 2 a.m. Tuesday in downtown Chicago. They allegedly shouted, “This is MAGA country,” along with other racist and anti-gay slurs. Smollett, who had just visited a Subway sandwich shop, is black and gay and had been a harsh critic of Donald Trump for years prior to his presidential campaign.

But shifting versions of the story told by Smollett have raised questions about what exactly happened.

For instance, Smollett initially was reluctant to make any kind of statement, but in his initial interview with police 45 minutes after the alleged attack, he made no mention of the MAGA claims.

When that element was reported by TMZ and other media outlets, Chicago Police denied the claim. But after contacting him a second time, Smollett expanded his version of the story to include the MAGA element.

The Associated Press reported yesterday that police have reviewed hundreds of hours of surveillance video from the heavily monitored area, but found no images of the attack. The city of Chicago operates an advanced linked network of 30,000 closed-circuit cameras around the city, the New York Times reported last May.

Last night, Chicago Police announced they had two possible persons of interest and released shadowy photos of the pair.There is no video, however, of the two individuals and Smollett ever being together. The time of the videos is between 1:30 and 1:45 a.m., at least 15 to 30 minutes before the time of the alleged attack, according to local media. CONTINUE AT SITE

Wake up and smell Mr Schultz’s coffee, Democrats – America’s never going to going to elect a loony lefty as President, even against Donald Trump: Piers Morgan

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-

Who’s going to stop Donald Trump being re-elected in 2020?That is the big question looming large over America’s political landscape as the clock ticks ever louder on the next election.

Maybe it will be Special Counsel Robert Mueller, whose much-awaited report into alleged collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign team and Russia is expected in the near future?

Should Mueller produce real hard evidence directly implicating President Trump, it would be game over for The Donald. But I very much doubt that’s going to happen.

If he had found any, we’d surely know about it faster than a greyhound flies out of a trap.

Maybe it will be old age or ill health?

But I very much doubt that will happen either.

Trump, who will be 74 by the time he faces the voters again, shows no sign of slowing down or losing a single ounce of his combative energy.

Maybe it will be Hillary Clinton, who has spent the past two years seething with indignant fury that she lost and is apparently ‘seriously considering’ running again?

But I am 100% confident that won’t happen. Mainly because Trump would think Thanksgiving had come early.

So who CAN stop Trump?

The pool of Democrat candidates who have so far indicated they will run is distinctly underwhelming.

Land Grabs in Hong Kong as Beijing Challenges the Freedoms of Former British Colony: By Sophia Yan

https://premium.telegraph.co.uk/newsletter/article1/land-grabs-in-hong-kong-as-beijing-challenges-the-freedoms-of-former-british-colony/?

Late on a recent morning, a woman slowly rode a bicycle beneath the trees along the sun-dappled shores of Sha Tau Kok, a small village on the Hong Kong-China border.

It was a rare moment of tranquility amid modern China’s bustling urban sprawl. But now this crescent of greenery is at the centre of increasingly fraught tensions between the former British Colony and president Xi Jinping’s Communist government in Beijing.

Six years ago, mainland authorities occupied a small parcel of land in the village – reportedly for military use – after diverting the course of a river.

Carrie Lam, chief executive of Hong Kong, initially said her administration was unaware of any such land occupation.

But the apparent cross-border land-grab angered local residents, who have in turn criticised hamstrung city officials for failing to stand up to Beijing.

“How could the government not be aware?” Mr Yau, a local landowner, told local media when the border breach emerged last November. Mr Yau, who did not give his first name, said he feared losing the land his family grew rice on for generations.
The waterfront near Sha Tau Kok, a village at the heart of a land dispute between Hong Kong and mainland China
The waterfront near Sha Tau Kok, a village at the heart of a land dispute between Hong Kong and mainland ChinaCredit: Sophia Yan/Telegraph

The Hong Kong government said in a statement that it was looking into the issue and that mainland personnel had agreed to refrain from using the land “until a consensus is reached on the boundary issue”.

The Slow Death of Western Civilization Amil Imani

https://www.amilimani.com/index.php/archives/show?show=262&start=10

Persia was the greatest empire on the planet and the most civilized nation until she was infected with Islam and suffered a slow death. A Muslim is required to abide by and live under the laws of Sharia and not the Constitution of the United States of America or any other laws. Because it is mandatory for a Muslim to adhere to Islamic laws and not to a man-made law like the US Constitution, a Muslim can never be a both Muslim and an American at the same time. They are incompatible with the US Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and our Judo-Christion values.

Like a virus, Islam is an invader. I am no longer worried about Persians because Persians by the millions have either left Islam or are on their way out. I am concerned about Western Civilization which is on the verge of death with the help of Islam apologists, Islam enablers and their collaborators: the liberal media, Hollywood celebrities, the liberal University professors, and both Democrats and many Republican politicians.

When our so-called educated leaders, call Islam a “religion of peace,” they are appeasing, if not lying outright. We, the people, elect our leaders and we hold them accountable to be honorable to their oath. When they use their voice to call the deadliest threat to everything we cherish, they not only legitimize Islam but also, they confuse the rest of the uninformed population with a false belief.Therefore, those politicians will become the agents of death, using political correctness to advance their own lofty agenda.

Ignoring the smoldering fire and relying on a few local “firefighters” to keep the fires from spreading is either naive or outright criminal, and it is certainly the easiest thing to do.

SYDNEY WILLIAMS: JANUARY 2019 THE MONTH THAT WAS

swtotd.blogspot.com

Mainstream media has gone from a trusted source of unbiased news to proselytizing for the political Left or Right, but mostly the Left. Opinions, which were once relegated to the editorial page, have migrated to the front page and became “news”. The reader is left unsure as to what is fact, what is fake and what is opinion. It is a trend that has accelerated as social media has gone mainstream. We have become two camps, divided by a hatred that grows ever bitter. Like the Biblical Joshua, we warily approach those we don’t know: “Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?”

Compounding the problem has been an abundance of data. In 1982, Buckminster Fuller introduced the Knowledge Doubling Curve. He noted that knowledge doubled every hundred years until 1900, when a linear growth in knowledge transitioned to exponential growth. By 1945 knowledge was doubling every twenty-five years. Today, estimates are that it doubles every twelve months. The curve will steepen. But wisdom does not stay pace with knowledge. We no longer question assumptions or listen to contrary opinions. We read and hear what supports our views. Thus, we grow apart. Political correctness and identity politics have hardened positions. A tsunami of information is not all that inundates our lives. As we grow older, we are encouraged to stay active, to fill every hour – play tennis, golf, learn to paint, travel abroad, attend an aerobics class, and check Instagram, Twitter and Facebook for ephemeral messages. We are told health and longevity depend on it. But that leaves too little time to think, to read, or to take a solitary walk and quietly ponder issues that have perplexed man for centuries. Idleness need not be idle.

The above serves as a prelude to a month that did not take time to smell the roses – except for those furloughed by a shut-down government. It was that, with all its consequences – intended and unintended – which monopolized domestic news, while a hesitant and bumbled Brexit dominated international news. The vagaries, inefficiencies and pitfalls of democracies served to delight schadenfreude-infected autocracies, like Russia and China? But what person who has ever tasted the sweetness of liberty would not prefer the imperfections of a Donald Trump, Nancy Pelosi or Theresa May to the efficient but brutal Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping? Would those in Turkestan, Somalia or Guatemala prefer to live in socialist Russia, China and Venezuela, or in capitalist Japan, Switzerland and the United States? When we complain and demonstrate against our democratic institutions, we should be reminded of Martin Luther King, whose January 15th birth we celebrated on the 21st. He was a man who battled oppression and fought for love and understanding. In 1967, a year before he was assassinated, King spoke: “Let us be dissatisfied, until that day when nobody will shout ‘White Power!’ – when nobody will shout ‘Black Power!’ – but everyone will talk about God’s power and human power.” His wish of fifty years ago remains just that, a wish.

The Sinister Creep of Gender-Identity Ideology By Madeleine Kearns

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/01/gender-identity-ideology-honest-inquiry-demonized/Honest inquiry into the causes of gender dysphoria is being demonized.

With debate over the Equality Act looming, two groups held events in Washington D.C. last weekend. The first, “Women Stand Up,” was organized by members of Standing for Women, along with other bipartisan women’s- and lesbian-rights groups across Britain and North America. The second, “The Inequality of the Equality Act: Concerns from the Left,” was put on by the Heritage Foundation and featured an all-liberal panel.

Jennifer Chavez, a liberal lawyer on the Heritage panel, pointed out an irony:

One of the significant differences between here and the U.K. is that there are journalists in the U.K. speaking out about [the issue]. And here there are journalists speaking out but not with the sort of national reach and name recognition that the journalists who are speaking in the U.K. have had and I think that has made a humongous difference. So, we need journalists to speaking about this and covering both sides of the story at least.

Ironically, Chavez was later misquoted (and a correction was issued) by Tim Fitzsimons of NBC News. Fitzsimons’s piece focused on the conservative politics of the Heritage Foundation and ignored the progressive parents’ testimony.

This is particularly striking, since the host at the Heritage Foundation, Ryan T. Anderson, explained that the event had only come about once a progressive mother, whose autistic daughter has identified as a boy for the past four years, contacted him saying she’d been ignored by liberal organizations and media.

“As a lifelong Democrat I am outraged by my former party and find it ironic that only conservative news outlets have reported my story without bias or censorship,” the mother, who wished to remain anonymous to protect her daughter’s privacy but is known to National Review, wrote.

Anderson introduced the event by acknowledging that while he and the panel and audience likely disagreed on a range of issues from abortion to taxes, “If ‘gender identity’ becomes a protected class in federal civil-rights law, there will be serious negative consequences. That’s where we agree. And that’s where we can work together.”

Trump Compared with What? By Victor Davis Hanson

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/trump-compared-with-what/

Trump, as most presidents, of course, will point to achievements next Tuesday. And despite the 90-percent-negative media coverage and the shutdown, he can brag about continued robust economic growth, low unemployment, record oil and gas production, tax reform and reduction, and a generally positive economic picture.

Manufacturing jobs show marked increases. Minority unemployment is at record lows. Deregulation, not more regulation, is now the new gospel.

Abroad, for all the herky-jerky presidential rhetoric and musical-chairs key appointments, there is emerging a reification of the NSC’s 2017 strategic assessment emphasizing principled realism. China’s trajectory to global supremacy is no longer shrugged off in the West as inevitable — and it will likely renegotiate downwards its mercantile trade surpluses.

We have been quite harder on Vladimir Putin than at any time under the previous administration. NATO is coughing up millions more in defense investments. There is new attention to missile defense.

ISIS’s land hegemony is almost gone. The verdict is out on North Korea and Iran as well as planned redeployment out of Afghanistan and Syria, but the consensus is also that U.S. foreign policy prior to 2017, reifying the status quo with Pyongyang and Tehran, and paralysis vis-à-vis the Taliban and ISIS, was failing. For all the melodramas about the “wall,” at least there is an effort to secure the border to reduce illegal immigration, and the Democrats at some point will have to explain why they now utterly reject their long-held past agreements to fortify parts of the border with a wall.