Displaying posts published in

May 2019

Mueller’s Preposterous Rationale for Tainting the President with “Obstruction” Allegations by Andrew C. McCarthy

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/05/robert-muellers-preposterous-rationale-for-tainting-the-president-with-obstruction-allegations/

Volume II of his report does exactly what he claimed to be avoiding.

In gross violation of Justice Department policy and constitutional norms, a prosecutor neither charges nor recommends charges against a suspect, but proceeds to smear him by publishing 200 pages of obstruction allegations. Asked to explain why he did it, the prosecutor says he was just trying to protect the suspect from being smeared.

This is the upshot of the Mueller report’s Volume II. It might be thought campy if the suspect weren’t the president of the United States and the stakes weren’t so high.

The smear-but-don’t-charge outcome is the result of two wrongs: (1) Mueller’s dizzying application of Justice Department guidance, written by the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), holding that a president may not be indicted while he is in office; and (2) the media-Democrat complex’s demand that only laws they like — those that serve their anti-Trump political purposes — be enforced.

On the matter of the OLC guidance, the Mueller report exhibits the same sleight-of-hand that I detailed in Monday’s column regarding its account of the George Papadopoulos saga — in which Mueller obscures the fact that the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation (“Crossfire Hurricane”) was opened on the false pretense that a Russian agent named Joseph Mifsud confided to Trump adviser Papadopoulos that Russia had thousands of Clinton emails, which Papadopoulos told Australian diplomat Alexander Downer the Kremlin planned to publish in a manner timed to damage Clinton for Trump’s benefit. To the contrary, if you wade through the fine print of Mueller’s report, you learn that Mifsud was not a Russian agent; there’s a good chance he did not tell Papadopoulos anything about emails; in relating to Downer that Russia might have damaging information on Clinton, Papadopoulos said nothing about emails or about Russia trying to help Trump; but, two months after they spoke and the hacked DNC emails were published, Downer (in consultation with the Obama State Department) leapt to the overwrought conclusions that Papadopoulos must have been referring to those emails (he wasn’t) and that Russia and the Trump campaign must be collaborating to undermine the election (they weren’t).

Brennan and Clapper Are Still Working as Agents of Influence for Russian Military Intelligence By David Forsmark

https://pjmedia.com/trending/brennan-and-clapper-are-still-working-as-agents-of-influence-for-russian-military-intelligence/

During the Cold War, all kinds of terms made it into our lexicon through spy stories. “Moles,” for instance, were direct traitors in political office, the military, or intelligence agencies. They were directly employed by the enemy and fed them classified information.

“Useful idiots” were people who unwittingly bought into the propaganda of the other side, and spread those ideas through a misplaced sense of right and wrong.

“Agents of influence,” are somewhere between the two. They aren’t directly employed by the enemy; but they spread enemy propaganda from a lofty position that influences ordinary people to believe it. And they do it on purpose.

Since 2016, former CIA Director John Brennan, and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper have acted as agents of influence for the Russian GRU—and they had to know it.

NBC News and CNN are not making these two guys rich because they know less about Russian intelligence operations than the average person; they obviously know more.

Trump Asserts Executive Privilege Over Full Mueller Report by Mary Clare Jalonick and Lisa Mascaro

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/05/08/trump_asserts_executive_privilege_over_full_mueller_report_140277.html

The White House is invoking executive privilege, reserving the right to block the full release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on the Russia probe, escalating President Donald Trump’s battle with Congress.

The administration’s decision was announced just as the House Judiciary Committee was gaveling in to consider holding Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress over failure to release the report.

Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler of New York declared the action by Trump’s Justice Department was a clear new sign of the president’s “blanket defiance” of Congress’ constitutional rights. “Every day we learn of new efforts by this administration to stonewall Congress,” Nadler said. “This is unprecedented.”

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said the action was rather a response to the “blatant abuse of power” by Democratic Rep. Nadler.

“Neither the White House nor Attorney General Barr will comply with Chairman Nadler’s unlawful and reckless demands,” she said.

Democrats’ Plan to Destroy Jobs Boom By Betsy McCaughey

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/05/08/democrats_plan_to_destroy_the_jobs_boom_140272.html
If you’re looking for work, this is the best job market in 50 years. The economy is soaring.

But Democrats running for president are pitching plans that will destroy millions of jobs, doubling the number of people out of work.

Consider “Medicare for All.” It could wipe out a staggering 2.5 million health insurance and health care jobs nationwide, causing the number of unemployed people in this country to jump by almost half.

New research by Stanford University doctors in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that Medicare for All will cause hospitals to lose a whopping $151 billion in payments the first year. Hospitals will be forced to eliminate as many as 1.5 million jobs overnight.

Meanwhile, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., who’s sponsoring Medicare for All legislation in the House, admits it will cause 1 million insurance employees to get canned. She cavalierly suggests they can retire or get job retraining. Tell heartless Jayapal to do that herself.

Presidential aspirant Bernie Sanders brags Medicare for All will prevent Americans from having to choose between food on the table and medicine. Sorry, Bernie, but if your job is eliminated, putting food on your table will be impossible.

Dems’ Dark Money Disconnect: Groups Mum on disclosure by Susan Crabtree

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/05/08/dems_dark_money_disconnect_groups_mum_on_disclosure__140274.html

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, who has spent years railing against so-called “dark money” conservative groups for what he regards as their outsized, improper political influence, now grudgingly concedes that it’s a problem on both sides.

The Rhode Island Democrat has had little choice as recent reports from groups calling for less money in politics, such as the Washington-based Issue One, have found that left-wing nonprofits far outspent conservative ones in the 2018 midterms and are gearing up to expand their activity this cycle.

Conservatives have adamantly – and consistently – said their side’s spending is lawful and protected free speech that shouldn’t require disclosure of wealthy donors by the nonprofits engaged in it. But the left is far more divided on the transparency question as it gears up to try to deny President Trump a second term.

Not surprisingly, most of these liberal groups aren’t part of Whitehouse’s outspoken quest for immediate disclosure. Nor do they want to discuss some of their more questionable practices that are attracting new scrutiny.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, who has spent years railing against so-called “dark money” conservative groups for what he regards as their outsized, improper political influence, now grudgingly concedes that it’s a problem on both sides.

The Rhode Island Democrat has had little choice as recent reports from groups calling for less money in politics, such as the Washington-based Issue One, have found that left-wing nonprofits far outspent conservative ones in the 2018 midterms and are gearing up to expand their activity this cycle.

Conservatives have adamantly – and consistently – said their side’s spending is lawful and protected free speech that shouldn’t require disclosure of wealthy donors by the nonprofits engaged in it. But the left is far more divided on the transparency question as it gears up to try to deny President Trump a second term.

Not surprisingly, most of these liberal groups aren’t part of Whitehouse’s outspoken quest for immediate disclosure. Nor do they want to discuss some of their more questionable practices that are attracting new scrutiny.

That reticence hasn’t stopped Whitehouse from continuing to lambaste “shadowy” conservative groups in speech after speech while pressing his Senate colleagues to pass a bill that would require super PACs and certain nonprofits to disclose their donors.“There is a rot in our American democracy, and there is a shadow over the halls of Congress,” the three-term senator said in a speech on the chamber floor late last year. “The rot is dark money, and the shadow is special-interest influence empowered by that dark money.”

Ilhan Omar’s Ignorance and Bigotry on Gaza Rockets by Alan Dershowitz

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14190/ilhan-omar-gaza-rockets

Does Ilhan Omar not realize that Israel ended its occupation of Gaza in 2005, when Israel removed every soldier and settler from that area?

The American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee issued a statement condemning Israel for “targeting and killing Palestinian civilians, including children and infants.” Irresponsibly, it never once mentioned the firing of 698 rockets by the rules of Gaza that target Israeli civilians, and it never mentioned the sad reality that Hamas and Islamic Jihad deliberately use “Palestinian civilians, including children and infants” as human shields in order to increase the number of Palestinian civilians who are inadvertently killed or injured by Israel’s legitimate efforts to protect its civilians from unlawful rocket attacks.

Israel is also celebrating its 71st year of independence. No nation has contributed so much to humankind in so short a period of time. No nation faced with threats compared to those faced by Israel has ever had a better record of human rights, compliance with the rule of law or concern with avoiding civilian casualties. The world should join Israel in celebrating its 71 years of statehood. The world should also recognize that if Israel’s enemies stopped attacking its citizens, there would be peace. But if Israel stopped defending its citizens, there would be genocide.

All decent people should be outraged at the terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip that fired 698 rockets at Israeli civilians, killing four, injuring 234 and traumatizing thousands of innocent children. Imagine what other countries, including the United States, would do if lethal rockets targeted their civilians. Yet, Israel has responded with restraint. To be sure, 30 Palestinians were killed and 154 injured by Israeli efforts to stop the rocket rampage. Many of these were terrorists, but some were civilians who were put in harm’s way by the terrorists.

Washington Post Makes Gaza Assault on Israel into Israel’s Fault by Sie An Bradley

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

In the Washington Post article “Israel, militants escalate clashes,” published May 6, 2019, the title gives the reader the impression that Israel is escalating clashes with “militants.” First, Hamas and (Palestinian) Islamic Jihad initiated the assault on Israel, to which Israel justly responded in defense. Hamas is the people’s elected governing body in Gaza and also an internationally recognized terrorist organization. Islamic Jihad, which is also a terrorist organization, receives funding and arms from Iran and is known to collude with Hamas.

Second, the subtitle goes on to express that the clash was the “Deadliest Fighting Since 2014 War” but does not point out that it was the deadliest for Israeli civilians, which is what should absolutely be mentioned in the title or subtitle. Not disclosing this fact upfront fails to alert the reader to the gravity of the assault on Israel, specifically Israel’s civilians, which The Washington Post continues to overlook and dismiss. The reader is allowed to make initial assumptions based on the biased presentation by experienced journalists before he even reads the article, if he does at all.

ON CAMPUS, THOU SHALT NOT SUPPORT ISRAEL BY RICHARD BAEHR

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/05/on_campus_thou_shalt_not_support_israel_.html

Hatred of Israel, and its close cousin, hatred of Jews, have been commonly held and expressed sentiments on college campuses in the US, Canada, and Europe in recent years. Anti-Israel speakers are invited to speak, paid handsome fees, and draw large audiences of enthusiastic students, faculty and administrators. Anti-Zionist groups, often dominated by Arab or Muslim students, proliferate and ally with groups representing other minority groups in an effort to create an intersectionality of interests, where various minority groups all rally in support of any of the causes any of the individual identity groups support. Groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine and the misnamed Jewish Voices for Peace, regularly taunt and harass pro-Israel students, disrupt meetings and talks by pro-Israel groups, and try to prevent pro-Israel speakers from appearing on campus.

Even at schools with a large percentage of Jewish students, university administrators appear to endorse actions directed at Jewish students or pro-Israel students though they never would allow similar activities directed against other minority groups they care to protect or favor.

Recently, Emory University gave its administrative stamp of approval to the posting of eviction notices by SJP on student dorm rooms (many of them with Jewish residents), meant to scare students and attempt to link the eviction threat to actions taken by Israeli authorities they falsely claim are routine in Israel and the West Bank.  In one of the lamest defenses ever offered for blatantly anti-Semitic activity on a college campus, a high-ranking Emory administrator offered this defense of the school’s approval of the eviction notice posting:“Emory interim vice president and vice provost Paul Marthers issued the initial statement. In justifying the posting of the flyers, Marthers stated they were “posted as part of a communication campaign by a student organization concerned with human rights in the Middle East.”

Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill), Compared US Soldiers to Nazis, Accused GOP of Treason: Daniel Greenfield

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/273707/senator-dick-durbin-compared-us-soldiers-nazis-daniel-greenfield

Senator Dick Durbin is always finding new lows. Here’s a low that the Democrat political lifer found back in 2005 when he compared American soldiers to Nazis.

Durbin claimed that Americans who interrogated Al Qaeda terrorists in Gitmo had committed atrocities similar to those that “have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime — Pol Pot or others.”

When Karl Rove noted that, “Al Jazeera now broadcasts the words of Senator Durbin to the Mideast, certainly putting our troops in greater danger”, Dems began shrieking that Durbin was being accused of treason.

Now here’s Dick Durbin accusing the GOP of treason.

Sen. Dick Durbin suggested Tuesday that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wasn’t putting election security legislation up for a vote because Republicans benefited from Russian interference in the 2016 election.

“There are two possibilities,” Durbin said. “He really doesn’t believe it, he doesn’t think the Russians were involved in 2016. He ignores the Mueller report and our intelligence agencies or in the alternative feels the Russians were on the side of the Republicans in 2016 and just might be again in 2020.”

This is a despicable accusation based on a discredited conspiracy theory. It’s an accusation of treason by a man arguably guilty of it.

And Durbin will never be fact-checked on this or held accountable for this false accusation and false claim.

Isreal’s Tourism Triumph : part 3 Edwin Black

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273659/israels-tourism-triumph-part-3-edwin-black

The sizzling restaurant scene.

Israel’s adversaries in the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement [BDS] thought they could starve Israel through economic warfare that included even its food sector. Many remember the BDS furor over SodaStream, Sabra hummus, ordinary fruits and vegetables, as well as Israeli cuisine and the country’s culinary scene. But none of it has stopped Israel’s restaurant sector from exploding into an audacious, red-hot success, now leading the planet in culinary excellence and bravado.

As far as the Israeli restaurant scene is considered, “BDS” stands for only one thing: “Breakfast, Dinner, and Sweets.” Across the country, Israeli restaurants sizzle with celebrity chefs and horizon-expanding culinary wizardry.

Decades ago, Israel’s culinary scene was largely defined by omnipresent falafel, shawarma and pizza stands, tomatoes and cucumbers sliced with endless variation, carrot juice vendors, over-glitzed coffee and pastry bars, and truck stop-style roadside eateries offering spiced Moroccan-style salads in drab arrays. Sameness and no sophistication were the main flavors of the day—every day. All that’s over.

In recent years, highly trained and innovative, if feisty, chefs have been opening one trendy restaurant after another. Now hip dining spots can be found everywhere—from hotel rooftops with majestic views to disused warehouses, converted old homes, tight alleys and sidewalks, rooftops, seaside balconies, hilltop niches, spots overlooking the seashore, a hillside, or even a wall—and the sometimes just the cramped space between two other cramped spaces.