Displaying posts published in

August 2019

CENSURING ISRAEL: COMMON SENSE ON LIFE SUPPORT By Meir Jolovitz *****

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/24343?fbclid=IwAR3xs0eN1rb-piy8YGK8mGIYZXWtqItEAG9m-1O1egcHzJV3hEmykgKLM3k

Congressman Steve King, a Republican from the 4th District in Iowa, is perceived to be racist. Rightly, or wrongly. King made a few comments – opining about several political issues – which all liberal voices, and not a small number of Republicans, deemed to be racist, even if only marginally so.

With a ruptured reputation now solidly in hand, the consequences that would follow seemed almost axiomatic. Condemnation. Rebuke. Censure. And to be sure, the expectation that he might be banned from circles where he was certain to find himself excoriated and unwelcomed.

So, are we all good with this so far?

Let’s play it out.

With his damaged political stature well established, if Steve King, the democratically elected Congressman, wanted to visit South Africa, and that nation said “no” – what would the Democratic Party’s position be? That’s a rhetorical question, of course, because we all know the answer. Uniformly.

What would Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and the litany of progressive candidates for the most important and most powerful job in the world say? What would the self-professed experts, those political pundits from CNN, MSNBC, or the New York Times say, as they competed to outdo each other in flaying the congressman?

Hell, what would J Street or the Anti-Defamation League say? And, what would AIPAC say?

We know the answer. They would issue a press release that would each echo the other. You made your bed, Congressman King. Now sleep in it.

What unmitigated hypocrites. All of them. All except the Zionist Organization of America, the National Council of Young Israel, Coalition forJewish Values,  Americans for a Safe Israel (AFSI), and the Republican Jewish Coalition (and perhaps one or two others whose press releases went unnoticed).

Ending ‘Catch and Release’ by Rachel Bovard

amgreatness.com/2019/08/24/ending-catch-and-release/

As Congress persists in serially ignoring anything having to do with the border crisis, the Trump Administration continues to release regulations aimed at fixing the problem of illegal immigration.

The administration on Friday released its latest rule to address a longstanding “pull” factor: that illegal migrants who arrive with children immediately are released into the interior of the country.

This process, often called “catch and release,” has bedeviled multiple administrations for years. It has its roots in a 1997 legal agreement known as the Flores settlement. Though originally having to do with detention conditions, judges have expanded and interpreted the settlement to mean that children cannot be detained for more than 20 days.

The practical effect leaves the government with two choices: separate families when they get here, detaining the parents and placing their children with foster families, or release families to await processing together.

The latter has been the approach of most presidents. The Trump Administration, however, enacted a strict application of the law in 2018 when it began separating families to detain the adults and then reversed itself after public outcry.

The consequences of a “catch and release” policy are self-evident. U.S. Border Patrol wastes time and resources arresting crossers who are then immediately released. Illegal crossers are incentivized to cross, knowing they’ll be released instead of being detained. Many of them do not show up for their designated court dates, remaining in the country illegally and without documentation, creating a permanent underclass.

Andrew McCabe’s Unjust Deserts Roger Kimball

amgreatness.com/2019/08/24/andrew-mccabes-unjust-deserts/

I was going to pass by in silent contempt the news that CNN—the network that patrons of airport lounges cordially dislike and that no one else watches—just decided to hire disgraced former FBI honcho Andrew McCabe as a commentator. He’ll fit right in, I thought, with other such mountebanks barking against Donald Trump not only at CNN but also at MSNBC not to mention The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other retirement homes for the anti-Trump fraternity.

But Andrew McCarthy’s column at NRO on Saturday reminded me that the case of McCabe is important. It says something critical not just about one of the most important players in (to cite the subtitle of McCarthy’s new book) “the plot to rig and election and destroy a presidency,” but also about some larger issues, which from one perspective might be said to turn on the task of guaranteeing the peaceful transition of power in a democracy and, from another, on the ambition of our justice system to provide (as the legend chiseled into the pediment of the Supreme Court says) “equal justice under law.”

As I have noticed before in this space, Andrew McCabe was a central player in the pseudo-investigation of Hillary Clinton’s misuse of classified information and self-enrichment schemes while secretary of state. He was one of the people who made sure that the probe went nowhere.

McCabe was also a central figure in the get-Mike-Flynn operation and, later, the Great Trump Hunt that occupied Andrew Weissmann’s Howdy Doody dummy Robert Mueller for some two years. McCabe leaked information about an investigation to a Wall Street Journal reporter and lied about leaking in casual conversations with superiors as well as under oath. Yet he will soon be reporting for duty at CNN.

I was going to pass by in silent contempt the news that CNN—the network that patrons of airport lounges cordially dislike and that no one else watches—just decided to hire disgraced former FBI honcho Andrew McCabe as a commentator. He’ll fit right in, I thought, with other such mountebanks barking against Donald Trump not only at CNN but also at MSNBC not to mention The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other retirement homes for the anti-Trump fraternity.

But Andrew McCarthy’s column at NRO on Saturday reminded me that the case of McCabe is important. It says something critical not just about one of the most important players in (to cite the subtitle of McCarthy’s new book) “the plot to rig and election and destroy a presidency,” but also about some larger issues, which from one perspective might be said to turn on the task of guaranteeing the peaceful transition of power in a democracy and, from another, on the ambition of our justice system to provide (as the legend chiseled into the pediment of the Supreme Court says) “equal justice under law.”

As I have noticed before in this space, Andrew McCabe was a central player in the pseudo-investigation of Hillary Clinton’s misuse of classified information and self-enrichment schemes while secretary of state. He was one of the people who made sure that the probe went nowhere.

McCabe was also a central figure in the get-Mike-Flynn operation and, later, the Great Trump Hunt that occupied Andrew Weissmann’s Howdy Doody dummy Robert Mueller for some two years. McCabe leaked information about an investigation to a Wall Street Journal reporter and lied about leaking in casual conversations with superiors as well as under oath. Yet he will soon be reporting for duty at CNN.

Biarritz Summit: Bright Moment in Silly Season by Amir Taheri

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14772/biarritz-g7-summit

In one of those delicious ironies that add flavor to history, as the G7, which ended up including Russia after the fall of the USSR, saw its real power to affect global trends decline while its ambitions to rule the world spiraled. The group could do nothing about the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the disintegration of the USSR, the collapse of the Warsaw Pact, the seizure of power by the mullahs in Iran, China shifting gears towards a capitalist system, the wars triggered by Saddam Hussein and the rise of international terrorism in the name of religion. More importantly, perhaps, the “global politburo” had no role in the dramatic technological changes that dragged the world into something bigger than the Industrial Revolution.

By the mid-1990s the G8 summit, as it was before Russia was kicked out, had morphed into a talking shop and a photo-op for political leaders in search of relevance in a new world they could no longer control. In one of the summits, hosted in Lyon by France, the participants made “decisions” on almost everything under the sun, knowing all along that they had neither the intention nor the power to act on any of them.

Well, how relevant is the G7 today? The short answer is: not very much.

Journalists across the globe have always regarded this time of the year, the heart of the summer, as the silly season in which nothing of much interest happens, at least on the political front. The silly season is filled with news of the birth of double-headed sheep in New Zealand, the discovery of the remains of Atlantis, the lost continent, in the Algerian Sahara or, to add a bit of spice, the suicide of a pedophile billionaire in a high-security prison in America.

Thus, one might say that the G7 summit in the French resort town of Biarritz, starting Saturday, is an exception to the silly season rule. Or is it?

“There Is No Christian Anymore in This Town”: Persecution of Christians, June 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14766/persecution-of-christians-june

Three men and one woman robbed, beat, and poisoned Sagheer Masih, a 35-year-old Christian auto-rickshaw driver. “He was well-mannered, polite and very friendly. Knowing he had the responsibility of taking care of three younger siblings… he ensured that he always got to work early and left late in order to gather as much money as he could to care for them…. Instead of killing him in on the spot, they forced him to drink poison and acid and left him there to die….” — International Christian Concern, June 20, 2019, Pakistan.

“Their tactic is to befriend someone when they come in [to prison]. If they don’t convert, they will then start spreading rumours about them, that the person is a snitch, so that they will be ostracised. Then the beatings follow.” — An inmate, according to a Ministry of Justice report; The Times, June 7, 2019, United Kingdom.

“We cannot allow the Christians… to allege that Jesus is the Son of God,” explained one mosque leader; “this [is] a serious blasphemy to Muslims.” — Morning Star News, June 3, 2019, Uganda.

Slaughter of Christians

Mali: On June 9, Islamic Fulani gunmen massacred at least 95 Christians — including women and children. During their rampage of a Christian village, they it set ablaze before leaving; several of the slain were burned alive. “About 50 heavily armed men arrived on motorbikes and pickups,” a survivor recalled. “They first surrounded the village and then attacked — anyone who tried to escape was killed…. No one was spared — women, children, elderly people.” Security sources confirmed that the raiders also randomly killed domestic animals in the village. It was “virtually wiped out.”

Burkina Faso: Islamic terrorists slaughtered 29 Christians over the course of two separate raids. The first took place on Sunday, June 9, in the town of Arbinda; 19 Christians were slaughtered. The next day, another ten Christians were murdered in a nearby town. An additional 11,000 Christians fled the region and were left displaced; they feared if they were to remain in their villages they would be next. “There is no Christian anymore in this town [Arbinda],” said a local contact. He added that “It’s proven that they [terrorists] were looking for Christians. Families who hide Christians are [also] killed. Arbinda had now lost in total no less than 100 people within six months.” These June attacks follow a string of Islamic terror attacks in the West African nation over the preceding six weeks that left at least another 20 Christians dead.

Tom Cotton Discusses His New Book ‘Sacred Duty’

https://freebeacon.com/issues/tom-cotton-discusses-his-new-book-sacred-duty/

Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) discussed his new book Sacred Duty about his time serving in “The Old Guard” and honoring fallen American soldiers during an appearance on Fox News’s Fox & Friends on Monday.

“One of the most meaningful things I’ve done is serving in the military, and if I wasn’t serving in Iraq or Afghanistan leading troops in combat, I can’t think of anything more meaningful than serving at Arlington National Cemetery with The Old Guard honoring our nation’s fallen heroes and everything they mean to America,” Cotton said.

Created in 1784, The Old Guard is the oldest regiment in the army and has been the army’s official ceremonial unit since 1948. The regiment sometimes performs more than 20 funerals per day. They also jumped into action after the Pentagon was hit on 9/11.

“On 9/11, when American Airlines Flight 77 slammed into the Pentagon, funerals continued to go on, but The Old Guard also rushed down to the Pentagon to help provide military aid and security on that site. In a way it became the first army unit to deploy to a new battlefield in the war on terrorism,” Cotton said.

“For the first 170 years before The Old Guard came to Arlington in 1948, they were serving on the front lines of almost every war, all the way up to World War II. The story of The Old Guard’s history is kind of the story of America as a nation,” Cotton added.

AOC: Jeff Bezos started Amazon fire to ‘make billions in insurance fraud’

AOC: Jeff Bezos started Amazon fire to ‘make billions in insurance fraud’

https://genesiustimes.com/aoc-jeff-bezos-started-amazon-fire-to-make-billions-in-insurance-fraud/

The feud between US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and businessman Jeff Bezos reached another level today as AOC blamed the Amazon fire on Bezos.

“The Amazon fire is so heartbreaking. And you look at who would profit. Well clearly the man who owns it: Jeff Bezos. He obviously started the fire to make billions in insurance fraud.”

Jordan Peterson: The deepfake artists must be stopped before we no longer know what’s real

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/jordan-peterson-deep-fake

Something very strange and disturbing happened to me recently. If it was just relevant to me, it wouldn’t be that important (except perhaps to me), and I wouldn’t be writing this column. But it’s something that is likely more important and more ominous than we can even imagine.

There are already common fraudulent schemes being perpetrated by both telephone and internet. One known as the “Grandparent Scam” is particularly reprehensible, first because it is perpetrated on elderly people who are, in general, more susceptible to tech-savvy criminals and second because it is based on the manipulation of familial love, trust and compassion. The criminal running the Grandparent Scam calls, or emails the victim, pretending to represent a grandchild who is now in trouble with the law or who needs money for a hospital bill for an injury that can’t be discussed, say, with parents, because of the moral trouble that might ensue. They generally call late at night — say at four in the morning — because that adds to the confusion. The preferred mechanism of money movement is wire transfer — and that’s a warning: don’t transfer money by wire without knowing for certain who is receiving it, because once it’s gone, it’s not coming back.

The Tragedy of the Times The loss of advertising dollars is why a newspaper spends its credibility sucking up to readers. By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-tragedy-of-the-times-11566596465

Thank you, Dean Baquet. Readers who complain about articles they don’t like, and who assume they are written under pressure from advertisers, could do worse than to study recent comments of the New York Times executive editor.

Mr. Baquet was secretly recorded at a staff meeting. A transcript was posted at Slate.com. But he has made similar points publicly. The gist: It’s readers nowadays who pressure newspapers to toe a line. Publishers pine for the era when advertising dollars insulated us from such pressures.

Under fire from its public for an anodyne and accurate headline about Donald Trump after the El Paso shootings, which the paper later changed, Mr. Baquet almost pleaded with his crew: “We are an independent news organization, one of the few remaining. . . . Our readers and some of our staff cheer us when we take on Donald Trump, but they jeer at us when we take on Joe Biden. They sometimes want us to pretend that he was not elected president, but he was elected president.”

If he meant a newspaper’s job is to report the facts and arrange them in a logical fashion regardless of the howling winds of reader prejudice, he’s right. Unfortunately it’s not clear this is what he meant.

To his credit, the Times has been one of a few news organizations that have refrained from labelling Mr. Trump a racist, as if this quality can be factually determined between the lines of his tweets. What Mr. Baquet is up against was illustrated by one of his own reporters, quoted in the Slate transcript saying, “I just feel like racism is in everything. It should be considered in our science reporting, in our culture reporting, in our national reporting.”

Michael Mann, creator of the infamous global warming ‘hockey stick,’ loses lawsuit against climate skeptic, ordered to pay defendant’s costs By Thomas Lifson

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/08/michael_mann_c

Michael Mann, a climatologist at Penn State University, is the creator of the “hockey stick graph” that appears to show global temperatures taking a noticeable swing upward in the era when humanity has been burning fossil fuels and dumping CO2 into the atmosphere. The graph was first published in 1998, prominently featured in the 2001 UN Climate Report, and formed part of Al Gore’s 2006 movie, An Inconvenient Truth.

The graph’s methodology and accuracy have been and continue to be hotly contested, but Mann has taken the tack of suing two of his most prominent critics for defamation or libel. One case, against Mark Steyn, is called by Steyn likely to end up in the Supreme Court. But another case, against Dr. Tim Ball was decided by the Supreme Court of British Columbia, with Mann’s case thrown out, and him ordered to pay the defendant’s legal costs, no doubt a tidy sum of money. News first broke in Wattsupwiththat, via an email Ball sent to Anthony Watt. Later, Principia-Scientific offered extensive details, including much background on the hockey stick.

Mahmoud Abbas’s folly By David L. Rosenthal

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/08/mahmoud_abbass_folly.html

Mahmoud Abbas has lived a long time. He has said some stupid things. But perhaps the stupidest thing he ever said was that the people today calling themselves Palestinians are directly descended from the ancient Canaanites. 

In a visit to the Jalazone Refugee Camp near Ramallah earlier this month, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas claimed that the Palestinians “will enter Jerusalem – millions of fighters.” (snip)

Abbas went on to claim that the Palestinians are descended from the people of ancient Canaan, saying “This land belongs to the people who live on it. It belongs to the Canaanites, who lived here 5,000 years ago. We are the Canaanites!”

Watch the subtitled video on MEMRI here.