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Ruth King

Impeachment: A Runaway House NY Sun – Editorial Board

www.nysun.com/editorials/impeachment-a-runaway-house/90989/

Judge Kenneth Starr’s speech today in defense of President Trump will go down in history as one of the great pleadings ever delivered before the Senate. He called on the solons to rebuff the charges of a “runaway house.” He called for an end to the era of eager impeachment. Generations from now, law professors will teach it to their students. It will endure as a masterpiece of constitutional law and wisdom.

We confess that we were skeptical when news hit the wires that Judge Starr would appear on the President’s behalf. The judge, after all, had been the independent counsel who pursued President Clinton to a failed impeachment. We had long opposed the very idea of an independent counsel as an affront to a central construct of our liberty, separated powers. He had ignored the warnings of Justice Antonin Scalia.

Yet today, Judge Starr dealt with all that in an honest and courageous way. He began with a point on which we had failed to reflect. The Constitution may, as it does, require that the senators, when sitting as a court of impeachment, be placed under oath. The oath is to do impartial justice. The Constitution, though, fails to require such an oath of the House, even when it is enacting articles of impeachment.

“Huawei, Fortinbras and Xi Jinping” David Goldman

https://www.asiatimes.com/2020/01/article/huawei-fortinbras-and-xi-jinping/

TS Eliot’s summary judgment on Shakespeare’s Hamlet – “So far from being Shakespeare’s masterpiece, the play is most certainly an artistic failure” – brands the Nobel laureate as a ninny. Eliot propounded a cramped, Aristotelian, pettifogging, aestheticizing view of art, and crouched tight-jawed and squinty-eyed before Shakespeare’s sprawling genius. Hamlet is both a tragedy – a national tragedy as well as a personal one – and a sprawling comic romp. It is a tragicomedy in the mold of the first great dramatic work of the modern period, de Rojas’ 1499 play Celestina.

Hamlet is also a play for our times, an object lesson for the United States and a solemn warning to us all. 

Here is the plot of Hamlet in a nutshell: The soldiers who meet the Ghost of Hamlet’s murdered father on the ramparts of Elsinore Castle were not posted there by accident: As they explain in the play’s opening lines, the King of Norway, young Fortinbras, will invade Denmark soon, and they are set as lookouts. The Ghost comes along and distracts them and young Hamlet, and the dramatis personae engage in various machinations until, at the end, all of them lay dead on the stage. Just as Hamlet expires, who should enter but Fortinbras, who asks: “Who’s in charge here? Uh, everybody’s dead. I guess I am.”

Shakespeare’s audience doubtless rolled in the aisles. Fortinbras, the play’s shadow protagonist, typically is cut from modern productions (for example, the 1948 Laurence Olivier film version), which makes the rest of the action meaningless. Such is the atrophy of the modern sense of humor.

After Monsey Attack, Jabotinsky’s Heirs Offer Free Security Guidebook to US Synagogues By: Moshe Phillips & Joshua Goldstein

http://thejewishvoice.com/after-monsey-attack-jabotinskys-heirs-offer-free-security-guidebook-to-us-synagogues/

In the wake of repeated violent physical attacks on synagogues and Jews in New York and elsewhere, Herut North America, a leading Zionist activist organization, is offering a new, cutting-edge guide to help congregations better organize their security efforts to protect synagogue attendees. The “SYNAGOGUE SECURITY TOOL KIT©” is being offered free of charge to all members of the Jewish community interested in improving security as well as synagogue leaders.

We have developed this ebook guide as a hands-on tool to aid synagogues with both evaluating their security needs as well as organizing their own security teams. This information packed booklet is specifically designed to give Jews the information they need to feel empowered around security related needs and issues. Included are checklists, assessment worksheets, planning guides, practical advice, and more.

The Herut team responsible for this booklet includes IDF veterans, individuals trained in counter-terrorism, longtime community security volunteers, and legal professionals. Users of the guidebook will find practical, actionable ideas whether their synagogue has a security plan currently in place or is now considering forming a volunteer security team and needs an action plan.

In light of the recent spate of attacks against Jews across multiple states we are offering the “SYNAGOGUE SECURITY TOOL KIT©; A Hands-on Guide to Preventive Safety for Your Congregation” ebook. This free reference to protecting your community will help you develop a security plan that you can implement in your synagogue, kollel, yeshiva, camp, or day school. Our goal is to have this booklet utilized by synagogues in all 50 states so that further anti-Jewish violence and bloodshed can be prevented. Please, help us reach our goal of preparing synagogues all across America to be more secure by ensuring the leaders of your synagogue see this booklet as soon as possible.

Ruthie Blum Netanyahu pulls the rug out from under his rivals

https://www.jns.org/opinion/netanyahu-pulls-the-rug-out-from-under-his-rivals/

Hours before the ceremony in Washington with U.S. President Donald Trump to present the Mideast peace plan, including a map of the borders of the proposed demilitarized Palestinian state, the Israeli premier announced that he was withdrawing his request for immunity.

Justifiably emboldened by his warm reception at the White House—and by the imminent unveiling of U.S. President Donald Trump’s 80-page “deal of the century”—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threw a curve ball at his rivals back home. Key among these was Blue and White Party leader Benny Gantz, who had flown to Washington separately from his nemesis to meet with Trump so as not to come off as an irrelevant tag-along on the trip. Gantz claimed that he was going to have to miss the big reveal on Tuesday afternoon because of the urgent need to be in Israel that very day to participate in the Knesset proceedings surrounding Netanyahu’s request for temporary immunity from prosecution in three corruption cases.

But he and the other legislators who have been trying to defeat Netanyahu in court, rather than at the ballot box—the same figures who are attributing the timing of Trump’s declaration to an attempt on his part to influence Israel’s March 2 Knesset elections in Netanyahu’s favor—were suddenly outmaneuvered.

On Tuesday morning Israel time, several hours before the ceremony at which Trump was scheduled to present the plan in its entirety, including a map of the borders of the proposed demilitarized Palestinian state, Netanyahu announced that he was withdrawing his request for immunity. Addressing the “citizens of Israel” in a post on Facebook, Netanyahu explained why he was making this move.

Alan Dershowitz Addresses Times Report On Bolton Manuscript In Senate Arguments VIDEO

https://dailycaller.com/2020/01/27/alan-dershowitz-john-bolton-impeachment/

It’s Time to Question Michael Atkinson on FISA Abuses by Julie Kelly

https://amgreatness.com/2020/01/27/its-time-to-question-michael-atkinson-on-fisa-abuses/

Now that the Justice Department and the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court have confirmed at least two of the warrants for Carter Page were unlawfully obtained, it is time to ask Atkinson—in the open, for all to hear—what role he had in helping to orchestrate the illicit spying on the Trump campaign.

In a fair world—one with responsible media organizations that didn’t act as propagandists for the Democratic Party—the news that a secret government court admitted it authorized unlawful warrants to spy on an innocent American based on his political activity would be front-page news.

The January 7 order issued by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court revealing that at least two of the four warrants against Trump campaign associate Carter Page were “not valid”—meaning they were illegally obtained—would be on a nonstop loop at CNN and would dominate the news and opinion pages of the Washington Post.

But alas, the average CNN viewer or Post reader will be hard-pressed to find coverage of such a shocking disclosure; after all, how could either outlet report that bombshell when two signers of the garbage applications—former FBI Director James Comey and former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe—now work as paid contributors to those same news organizations?

CDC is monitoring 110 possible coronavirus cases across 26 states in US

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/27/cdc-is-monitoring-110-possible-coronavirus-cases-across-26-states-in-us.html

U.S. health officials are currently monitoring 110 people across 26 states for the coronavirus, including the five patients who contracted the deadly infection in China and brought it back to America.
The disease isn’t spreading within the community in the U.S. and the risk to the public right now is still considered low, the CDC says.

U.S. health officials are currently monitoring 110 people across 26 states for the coronavirus, including the five patients who contracted the deadly infection in China and brought it back to America.

The disease, which has killed at least 81 people in China and sickened more than 2,800 worldwide, isn’t spreading within the community in the U.S. and the risk to the public right now is still considered low, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporters on a conference call Monday.

The Deep State Tapestry of Deceit is Beginning to Unravel By Brian C. Joondeph

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/01/the_deep_state_tapestry_of_deceit_is_beginning_to_unravel.html?utm_source=vuukle&utm_medium=newsfeed

Deep state players in the Obama administration wove an elaborate tapestry of collusion, subterfuge, and electoral chicanery. While better suited for a Robert Ludlum novel, it played out in real time over the past four years.

Stars of the drama include familiar names such as James Comey, James Clapper, John Brennan, and Andrew McCabe. Supporting actors played an unwitting role, namely Carter Page and George Papadopoulos. The victim was then candidate Donald Trump. Heroes of the saga include Attorney General William Barr, U.S. Attorney John Durham, and a mysterious group simply called Q.

The plot was simple. The Obama administration, in 2016 and before, wanted to preordain the 2016 electoral outcome. What better way to do this than to spy on the rival presidential campaign? Since spying is illegal, a pretense was needed.

That’s where the Steele Dossier came in. The DNC, the Hillary Clinton campaign, and top Obama administration officials colluded with multiple foreign governments to fabricate opposition research on the Trump campaign alleging treasonous activities. This allowed the FBI to obtain a FISA warrant to spy on Trump campaign advisor Carter Page, and likely others as well.

The Obama administration colluded with foreign governments to influence an election. How ironic that this is exactly what President Trump was impeached for, and why he is a “dictator” and an “existential threat to democracy”. Can you say projection?

Islamist groups making inroads in local politics in America By Hesham Shehab

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/01/islamist_groups_making_inroads_in_local_politics_in_america.html

When Sadia Gul Covert was elected in 2018 and sworn into the office of Dupage County commissioner, she took her oath on the “Quran, Torah, and the Bible,” in what seemed at the time like a symbol of unity and moderation.

But Covert’s decision to cast her lot with the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) raises questions about the extent of her moderation.

Covert will be a speaker at the CAIR-Chicago 2020 Banquet fundraiser in February, among other Islamist speakers.

CAIR was connected to the terrorist organization Hamas during the terror-financing trial against the Holy Land Foundation (HLF).

According to the Justice Department report published in 2009, “HLF became the chief fundraising arm for the Palestine Committee in the U.S. created by the Muslim Brotherhood to support Hamas.”

In 2010, former assistant attorney general Ronald Weich sent a letter to four members of Congress in which he “included trial transcripts and exhibits” “which demonstrated a relationship among CAIR, individual CAIR founders, and the Palestine Committee.”

John Bolton preoccupied the media today, but it’s clear there’s no “there there” By Andrea Widburg

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/01/john_bolton_preoccupied_the_media_today_but_its_clear_theres_no_there_there.html

The big news on Sunday was a leak claiming that John Bolton, Trump’s former National Security Adviser, has a book coming out that says Trump told Bolton that he wanted to force Ukraine to investigate Biden before releasing security assistance money. Democrats went wild with delight; Republicans opted to ask questions rather than to come up with instant, wrong answers. They were wise to do so.

Many people noticed that, despite the Democrats’ immediate insistence that it’s absolutely pivotal to their impeachment case that they question Bolton before the Senate, that wasn’t what they were saying last year. Last year, they invited Bolton to testify but he declined . . . only to add that he would appear if they subpoenaed him. That was a bridge too far. Fearing a fight in Court with Trump (which is the usual way disputes between the Executive and Congress are resolved when it comes to subpoenas), the House went full Roseanne Rosannadanna and said, “Never mind.” Apparently Bolton wasn’t that important after all.

The announcement’s timing also made people question its legitimacy. Coming as it did in the middle of the impeachment hearing, it reminded many people of the way in which Christine Blasey-Ford’s allegations suddenly popped up during the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearing. It let Democrats turn his hearing into a circus, so why not do the same to President Trump’s impeachment?