Displaying posts published in

May 2019

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Ben Weingarten :’Most of China’s 1.4 billion people have no religious affiliation. Is there any reason to believe that China is a less moral place than the United States?’ asks Max Boot.

By on May 10th, 2019

https://thefederalist.com/2019/05/10/no-isnt-moral-equivalence-communist-china-u

No, There Isn’t Moral Equivalence Between Communist China And The U.S.

Just as trade negotiations between China and the United States may be reaching their crescendo, an outspoken ex-conservative has made an assertion about the People’s Republic of China (PRC) likely to warm the hearts of the leaders of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Writing in the Washington Post on his desire for an “unapologetic atheist” to someday ascend to the White House, Max Boot says:

There are too many examples of evil committed in the name of God to assume that people act morally because they are afraid of divine punishment. More likely, people are social animals who develop moral codes so they can live at peace with their neighbors. That’s why almost all societies, whether religious or not, have similar taboos against murder, robbery, rape and other sins.

Most of China’s 1.4 billion people have no religious affiliation, and fewer than 7 percent are monotheists. Is there any reason to believe that China is a less moral place than the United States, where 70.6 percent profess to be Christians? [Emphasis mine]

Boot’s apparent attempt to draw moral equivalence between China and the United States would be news to the 1.4 billion Chinese citizens living in the world’s leading surveillance state—to the extent they are able to read his article behind the Great Firewall, and not one of the 1 to 2 million Uighurs currently imprisoned in “re-education camps” or countless others held captive for challenging the Party line.

It would be news to members of the dissenting Chinese diaspora being tracked down and targeted by the Communist regime at every corner of the Earth. And it would be news to those peoples whose sovereignty is threatened by the CCP and the People’s Liberation Army that serves it—“it” being the Party, not the country.

Continue reading →
POLITICS Comments turned off

Congress’ Central Planners Want To Block Access To Credit J. Frank Bullitt

By on May 10th, 2019

https://issuesinsights.com/2019/05/10/congress-central-
Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez want to use the police power of the federal government to ban a legitimate business activity because the socialist senator from Vermont finds “it is really disgusting.” To the callow representative from New York, it’s “economic brutality.”

This is the deep thinking that goes into the Democrats’ legislating process. Outlaw something because some subjectively find it repulsive. Or something seems scary. Or appears to be unfair. Or because someone decides for the rest of us “this isn’t who we are.” It’s the sort of lawmaking that should frighten us all.

The menacing scourge that Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez want to save the country from? Credit card interest rates that exceed 15 percent.

“Every major religion on Earth,” says Sanders, “has condemned usury.”

Usury is defined by Investopedia as “the act of lending money at an interest rate that is considered unreasonably high or that is higher than the rate permitted by law.” Merriam-Webster says it is “the lending of money at exorbitant interest rates” or “an unconscionable or exorbitant rate or amount of interest.”

Continue reading →
POLITICS Comments turned off

Islam and the Tweedle Dems -Amil Imani

By on May 10th, 2019

https://edwardcline.blogspot.com/2019/05/islam-and-tweedledems.html

I present a guest column by a fierce and eloquent campaigner against Islam and its creeping conquest of America, Amil Imani. This is appropriate on the occasion of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi allowing the opening prayer in the House of Representatives to be read by an anti-Semetic Muslim, Imam Omar Suleiman. . This is a “soft” victory of Islam’s goal of Islamizing America. CAIR must be doing victory laps to celebrate this coup. See this startling news item.  Edward Cline

“Marxist Democrats is commonly described as a marriage of convenience, where Muslims will ally with leftist politicians, who will joyfully yield some of their authority to this group of enforcers so principled conservative politicians and Christians who advocate sane social policies are kept out of office. To acquire power has always been the goal of the Democrat party.While America is in hibernation, Muslim organizations with the help of Democrats have been busy, working “stealthily” to change America into what is called “soft jihad.”  

Soft jihad is practiced where Muslims are not strong enough to unsheathe the sword of jihad, where the true nature of Islam is exposed and when the public would likely stamp them out.  A critical tool of soft jihad involves penetration of the American educational system, such as Da’wa, the religious duty of each Muslim to convert non-Muslims and strengthen the Islamic Ummah.

Continue reading →
WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

China’s Not-So-Secret Weapon Against America: Capitalism by Thomas McArdle

By on May 10th, 2019

https://issuesinsights.com/2019/05/10/chinas-not-so-secret-weapon-against-america-capitalism/

The big tariff confrontation going on between Washington and Beijing, on which the markets are currently so focused, is in the larger scheme of things a sideshow. Over four decades, as China has opened itself to the world, the United States has allowed itself to become the Celestial Empire’s largest trading partner, it having surpassed Canada in 2015 with the exchange of goods well in excess of $600 billion a year.

Economically we are one flesh, divorce impermissible, with an imperious power whose long-term strategy clearly includes being able to win a war versus us. War or not, however, American decline is expected and welcomed by China’s rulers.

To which the oft-heard retort is that the free market will ultimately free the Chinese people. That underlying hope over these many years, however, is taking an awfully long time even to begin to be fulfilled.

In the meantime, the multitude of American businesses that depend on their association with China, especially those that tap into its vast ocean of cheap labor, be it directly or indirectly, will fight tooth and nail to maintain and expand U.S.-Chinese commerce. Boeing, Starbucks, Westinghouse, Apple, Ford – they’re all committed for the long haul, and not interested in withdrawing.

Continue reading →
NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Comey Acknowledges Strzok, Page Damaged FBI: ‘It Made Us All Look Bad’ By Jack Crowe

By on May 10th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/comey-acknowledges-strzok-page-damaged-fbi-it-made-us-all-look-bad/

Former FBI director James Comey conceded Thursday night that former FBI agent Peter Strzok and his mistress, former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, damaged the Bureau’s reputation through their political partisanship.

Strzok and Page have been publicly excoriated by Republicans and allies of President Trump ever since the release of anti-Trump text messages they exchanged while they were working on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team.

“Considering the high standards that we set for law enforcement, what do you think should have been the consequences for Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and Andrew McCabe?” an audience member asked Comey during a CNN townhall Thursday night.

“I think, given the standards that we have — especially we in the FBI have — there should have been, and was, severe discipline around their behavior,” said Comey. “As [CNN host] Anderson [Cooper] said, very different episodes of behavior. Everyone has opinions — about political issues, about religious issues, and sports issues. You can’t bring them to work and have them affect your work. There have to be severe consequences. FBI employees must tell the truth, always. And if they don’t, I don’t care what it’s about, it’s going to be investigated and there’s going to be severe consequences.”

Comey went on to explain that he was unaware of the bias exhibited by Strzok and Page at the time Strzok was serving as the lead investigator of Russian interference in the election, but admitted that the revelations about Strzok and Page’s hostility toward Trump damaged the FBI’s credibility.

“So, do you acknowledge that this whole episode with Strzok and Page, that it damaged the reputation of the FBI and that it perhaps tarnished the investigation?” asked Cooper.

Continue reading →
NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

William Barr vs. Eric Holder: A Tale of Two Attorneys General By Michael W. McConnell

By on May 10th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/05/william-barr-vs-eric-holder-a-tale-of-two-attorneys-general/

The differences between the cases are informative.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has declared it a “constitutional crisis” that Attorney General William Barr refuses to divulge the small parts of the Mueller report that contain grand-jury material. By a straight party-line vote, the House Judiciary Committee voted to hold Barr in contempt of Congress.

What did Pelosi think when Barr’s predecessor, Eric Holder, refused to divulge documents to a congressional committee and was held in contempt? “Ridiculous!” she said. What did Holder and Obama say? That the House subpoena was a violation of “separation of powers.”

To partisans, the difference between the cases is obvious. Barr is defending Trump; Holder was Obama’s self-proclaimed “wing man.” That is enough for many journalists and most politicians. The rest of us might want to know: What is the legal or constitutional difference between Holder’s refusal to provide documents and Barr’s?

Here is the background of the Holder contempt. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE), a unit of Holder’s Department of Justice (DOJ), conducted an operation called “Fast & Furious,” intended to track illegal gun sales. In fact it put hundreds of weapons in the hands of Mexican criminal gangs, leading to the death of an American officer. On February 2, 2011, after news of the operation emerged, Holder’s assistant attorney general sent a letter to Congress declaring that the Obama administration had no knowledge of the operation. This letter was false, as Holder later admitted.

A congressional committee wanted to know why it had been misled. BATFE employees leaked to Congress that the department was still suppressing the truth about the operation and retaliating against whistleblowers. The committee wanted to dig into that. It demanded DOJ documents “relating to actions the Department took to silence or retaliate against Fast and Furious whistleblowers,” so that it could determine “what the Department knew about Fast and Furious, including when and how it discovered its February 4 letter was false, and the Department’s efforts to conceal that information from Congress and the public.”

The committee’s first request for documents came early in March of 2011. The department did not comply with the request. On March 31, the committee issued its first subpoena. Again the department failed to comply. Over the next six months, the committee held a series of hearings, and Holder eventually admitted that the Fast & Furious operation had been “fundamentally flawed” and that DOJ’s February 4 letter denying administration knowledge was “inaccurate.” DOJ released thousands of pages of documents, but refused to give Congress all the documents it was asking for.

Continue reading →
HOMELAND SECURITY, IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

With illegals surge, Border Patrol officers are catching the measles and mumps and…By Monica Showalter

By on May 10th, 2019

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/05/with_illegals_surge_border_patrol_officers_are_catching_the_measles_and_mumps.html

Should catching the measles, or mumps or chickenpox or tuberculosis, be part of a federal employee’s job description? You know, take the TB the way the military at war with an enemy takes the bullet? Except, of course, that the military can defend itself. Border Patrol agents cannot.

It is now. InfoWars, via Drudge Report, has some news on just this appalling state of affairs:

More agents than ever before are calling in sick to work or showing up sick, says a Border Patrol union representative who worries too many agents are succumbing to illnesses brought by illegal aliens.

Carlos Favela, president of the National Border Patrol Council Local 1929, says the number of agents affected by illnesses has reached alarming levels in recent years, with an estimated 20 to 25 agents from the El Paso sector calling in sick each day, while others come in to work sick because they’ve used up their sick days.

“I believe this is probably the record, you know, Border Patrol-wide, since ever, of agents calling in sick,” Favela told ABC-7.

Continue reading →
NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Two stunning revelations on Russia hoax investigation yesterday from DC super-lawyers Victoria Toensing and Joe DiGenovaBy Thomas Lifson

By on May 10th, 2019

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/05/two_stunning_revelations_on_russia_hoax_investigation_yesterday_from_dc_superlawyers_victoria_toensing_and_joe_digenova_.html

Washington, D.C. super-lawyers Joe DiGenova and Victoria Toensing have consistently been ahead of the news on the course of the unfolding scandal of spying on the Trump campaign and administration.  Appearing last night on Lou Dobbs’s Fox Business Network show, the two law and marriage partners revealed that the DoJ inspector general has already concluded that the last three of four FISA warrants were illegally obtained.Moreover, with the revelation from John Solomon that that “[n]ewly unearthed memos show a high-ranking government official who met with Steele in October 2016 determined some of the Donald Trump dirt that Steele was simultaneously digging up for the FBI and for Hillary Clinton’s campaign was inaccurate, and likely leaked to the media,”

Horowitz is re-opening the investigation into the legitimacy of the first of four FISA applications.Watch:Make no mistake: this means that crimes were committed and criminal referrals from the I.G. are coming.  Those who signed the applications — a group that includes James Comey and Rod Rosenstein — face criminal prosecution.The second revelation from the duo is, if anything, even more shocking: the FBI attempted to set up a sting on George Papadopoulos by offering him $10,000 in cash — which he left on the hotel room bed where it was offered to him.  

The trap this represented was fully revealed when Papadopoulos returned to the USA and customs agents unsuccessfully searched for the $10,000.  One of them told Papadopoulos, “This is what happens when you work for Donald Trump.”  They make the point that the rot at the FBI is not confined to a few appointees at the top.  A large number of lower-ranked officials were involved in these stings and associated frauds, and not a single one spoke up as a whistleblower.  A heartening assertion from the two well connected figures is that they are confident that justice will be done — that grand juries and indictments are in process. Watch:

Continue reading →
P.C.-CULTURE Comments turned off

Even Architectural Criticism Must Follow The Correct Political Narrative Francis Menton

By on May 10th, 2019

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2019-5-8-modern-architecture-theres-no-accounting-for-taste

This past Sunday I joined the good people from Maggie’s Farm on their annual “Urban Hike” in New York City. This year they rounded up a group of about 13. The hike started at the Museum of Natural History (80th Street and Central Park West — near the geographical center of Manhattan Island) and proceeded uptown on a meandering path of about 9 miles, stopping at sites that included things like Pomander Walk, Straus Park (Leo Straus was the founder of Macy’s who died on the Titanic), and Columbia University. The weather was chilly with persistent rain. Toward the end of the hike, at about 155th Street, we had just stood on Edgecomb Avenue at the top of the bluff overlooking the spot where once had stood the Polo Grounds (actually a baseball stadium that was the original home of the Mets, and before them the New York Giants baseball team), and we turned the corner, and suddenly this:

Several gasps and “Oh my God”s erupted spontaneously. I heard the words “Darth Vader building” uttered behind me. Whatever this black block might be, there had been no mention of it in the hike itinerary that had been provided to us; and yet this building was clearly the dominant presence in the neighborhood. Viewing it from the street, its function was not obvious. Had this thing been dropped in by space aliens? What could it possibly be, and why was it here?

Continue reading →
WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The Eagle and the Dragon: Destined for Rivalry:By:Srdja Trifkovic

By on May 10th, 2019

https://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/the-eagle-and-the-dragon-destined-for-rivalry/

A new round in the U.S.-China trade dispute has started in earnest. Last Sunday (May 5) President Donald Trump tweeted that he would raise the current 10 percent tariff on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports to 25 percent. The President doubled down on his trade war threats with China early today (May 10), just hours after last Sunday’s decision went into effect. In addition he warned that he’d continue raising tariffs on Chinese imports if there was no agreement: the Chinese “should not renegotiate deals with the U.S. at the last minute.”

Only last week, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin sounded optimistic about the latest round of bilateral negotiations, with Mnuchin telling Fox Business that the deal was “close to done.” The Chinese then suddenly revised some of the key provisions of the 150-page draft agreement. Specifically they tried to soften the language on the theft of intellectual property, financial services, forced technology transfers, and currency manipulation. Lighthizer and Mnuchin were taken aback at the extent of the changes in the draft and on Monday told reporters that Chinese backtracking had prompted Trump’s tariff order.

The current talks in Washington between China’s trade delegation and U.S. officials nevertheless will continue. Trump’s team has a strong hand, while the Chinese may have overplayed theirs. The U.S. economy grew by an annualized 3.2 percent in the first quarter of 2019, easily beating market expectations and following a 2.2 percent expansion in the previous three-month period. By contrast, on a quarter-on-quarter basis, the Chinese economy grew 1.4 percent in the first quarter, compared to a 1.5 percent expansion in the previous period. It was the weakest quarterly growth rate since the first quarter of 2016. New U.S. tariffs could further slow China’s growth rate and jeopardize President Xi Jinping ambitious “Made in China 2025” program of economic, technical and scientific development. Right now China needs an agreement far more badly than the U.S.

Continue reading →