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Ruth King

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The Senate Knows Enough to Acquit Trump This trial doesn’t require witnesses. The articles of impeachment should fall on legal grounds alone.This trial doesn’t require witnesses. The articles of impeachment should fall on legal grounds alone. By David B. Rivkin Jr. and Elizabeth Price Foley

By on January 6th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-senate-knows-enough-to-acquit-trump-11578262402?mod=opinion_lead_pos7

Give Nancy Pelosi this: She has chutzpah. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell responded Friday on the Senate floor to the House’s refusal to appoint managers and transmit its articles of impeachment against President Trump to the upper chamber. “For now,” Mr. McConnell said, “we are content to continue the ordinary business of the Senate while House Democrats continue to flounder. For now.”

Mrs. Pelosi’s response: “The GOP Senate must immediately proceed in a manner worthy of the Constitution.” Never mind that the hold-up is at her end.

Yet now that Mr. Trump has been impeached, the Senate is constitutionally obliged to address the matter. Neither Mrs. Pelosi’s intransigence nor Senate rules, dating from 1868, that peg the commencement of an impeachment trial to the House’s appointment of impeachment “managers” justify an indefinite delay.

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At Massive Solidarity March, New York Governor Pledges Millions to Secure Jewish Sites, Fight Antisemitism By Benjamin Kerstein

By on January 6th, 2020

https://www.algemeiner.com/2020/01/05/at-massive-solidarity-march-new-york-governor-pledges-millions-to-secure-jewish-sites-fight-antisemitism/

The “No Hate, No Fear” march against antisemitism in New York City, January 5, 2020. Photo: screenshot.

Thousands of demonstrators crossed the Brooklyn Bridge from lower Manhattan on Sunday to express solidarity with the Jewish community in the wake of a wave of antisemitic violence.

The march, titled “No Hate, No Fear,” attracted members of all faith communities and some of the state’s most prominent officials and politicians.

Governor Andrew Cuomo told the crowd, “Discrimination, racism, antisemitism, is repugnant to every value that New Yorkers hold dear, and repugnant to every value that this country represents,” the Associated Press reported.

He pledged $45 million in state funding for security around Jewish sites and institutions.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted in solidarity, saying, “We stand with the many thousands of our brothers, sisters and friends in NYC marching against the rising Antisemitism. We will not waver in our battle against Antisemitism and hate.”

Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, said in a statement, “While antisemitism continues to rear its head in the United States and throughout the world, we must move from defense to offense. We will not be silenced when Jews are murdered in synagogues and will not be ignored when those who wear kippahs are being killed in the street. We must join hands and stand as a wall against the wave of hatred.”

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DPS NOTE ON YESTERDAY’S RALLY

By on January 6th, 2020

DPS Note:

This was a terrific rally and enormously encouraging to see so many people get off their sofas on a Sunday and walk across the Brooklyn Bridge in cold weather to make their point.

But ……Some of it annoyed me – a lot.For example, as reported, Gov. Cuomo denounced “discrimination, racism and antisemitism” ….. 

But he didn’t denounce the new State Law which he proudly signed which puts violent anti-Semites back on the street the same day as they’re arrested, with no bail and no regard for their being a continuing danger to the community. 

He’s at a rally which is the result of an appalling number of attacks on Jews by Jew haters. The whole point of the outpouring of anger and emotion was to demonstrate against anti-Semitism. But the good Governor couldn’t help himself. He couldn’t just say that anti-Semitism is bad. He had to throw in discrimination and racism to cover all the required politically correct bases so no one can accuse him of favoring the Jews. READ IT ALL

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Softball CNN Interview With Iranian Ambassador Borders On Propaganda January 4, 2020 By David Marcus

By on January 5th, 2020

https://thefederalist.com/2020/01/04/softball-cnn-interview-with-iranian-ambassador-borders-on-propaganda/

For three years now, CNN has dedicated itself almost exclusively to attacking Donald Trump. It’s own laughable claim of being straight, objective news is clearly abject nonsense to anyone who has watched it for more than 5 minutes. And that’s all fine. All news outlets have their biases, and while it would be nice if CNN owned theirs, it doesn’t really matter if they refuse to. But last night something happened that didn’t just look like anti-Trump sentiment, but rather straight up Iranian propaganda.

Anchor Erin Burnett interviewed Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations Mavid Ravanchi, and what viewers were treated to was not so much an interview as a joint press release. From the first question, whether the US had committed an act of war by killing Qasem Solemiani, to the final one, whether this act of war “changes the game,” everything was framed as poor Iran being bullied by a President Trump who at best overreacted and who at worst is lying to the American people.

Not only was there no push back whatsoever in regard to any of the claims made by Ravanchi, several vital questions went completely unasked. How on earth can one interview the Iranian ambassador without asking about Iranian support for a violent attack on an American embassy last week? Or how about an attack on a base that left an American contractor dead? Or the shooting down of an American drone over international waters?

Time and again in the interview Ravanchi claimed that by killing Solemiani the US had moved from an economic war (pulling out of the Iran Deal) to a military war. But Iran has engaged in military actions against America and American interest for months now. The network that fatuously insists they are all about the facts allowed the ambassador to flat out lie to the their viewers without the least bit of resistance.

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‘MOP’ Up the Mullahs Chuck de Caro

By on January 5th, 2020

We have ordnance that can kill enemies 200 feet underground. But the important part is to limit civilian casualties while causing the Iranian economy and regime to implode.

While the mullahs in Iran continue to threaten the United States with worldwide terrorist attacks against American individuals and groups, it might be time for them to reconsider their position.

The mullahs are attempting to run a formerly evolving modern state, utilizing the ideas of 12th-century Shia Islam; they remain in power through the repression of the well-paid Revolutionary Guard. Their most urgent strategic priority is a regeneration of Persian ascendancy not seen since Darius the Great. Their methodology for this new Persian Empire is to complete a nuclear bomb production industry now nascent among some 40 dispersed and hardened sites.

The mullahs are willing to force the Iranian people to absorb the effects of crushing economic sanctions imposed by the United States, the United Nations, and cooperating countries in order to build their bomb.

As a result, the mullahs in 2019 precipitously raised fuel prices 50 to 200 percent and immediately were inundated by waves of violent protests in most of Iran’s larger cities. An estimated 1,500 Iranian protesters died.

The Iranian economy remains dependent on oil production and export. Its most vulnerable points are the six oil production centers at Abadan, Esfahan, Bandar-e Abbas, Tehran, Arak, and Tabriz. If any one of those is reduced in capability, even for a short time, the economy will further weaken, and domestic instability will increase.

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An Antidote to the Iran Hysterics Roger Kimball

By on January 5th, 2020

https://amgreatness.com/2020/01/04/an-antidote-to-the-iran-hysterics/

Trump has always shown that he prefers diplomacy to military action. At the same time, he understands, as did Ronald Reagan, that diplomacy only works when it is backed up by military strength and a willingness to exercise it.

In the great contest now underway to determine the most fatuous responses to the elimination of the Iranian terrorist, Major General Qasem Soleimani, on January 3, Matthew 22:14 has the last word: “Many are called, but few are chosen.”

We lack instruments of sufficient vigor and precision to cut through the ambient static that this stupendous event has occasioned; we cannot at this early juncture award the palm to any one emetic effusion. Nevertheless, we can with confidence say that, as usual, both the Washington Post and the New York Times are in the running for that unwholesome distinction. 

The Post, running with one of its traditional favorites, captured the judges’ attention with a headline. Remember the splash the paper made when President Trump eliminated the murderous ISIS thug Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi last October? The Post was on it with a headline (probably the most ridiculed of 2019) announcing that “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, austere religious scholar at helm of Islamic State, dies at 48.” 

“Austere religious scholar” really does deserve some sort of award. 

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Iran Ends Commitment to Nuclear Deal It Never Abided By in The First Place By Matt Margolis

By on January 5th, 2020

https://pjmedia.com/trending/breaking-iran-ends-commitment-to-nuclear-deal-it-never-abided-by-in-the-first-place/

The New York Times reports that “Iran’s government said it was ending all its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal and that it would no longer limit its enrichment of uranium.”

The announcement came after Iran’s National Security Council held an emergency meeting on Sunday to discuss the country’s nuclear policy in the aftermath of Maj. Gen. Qassim Soleimani’s assassination.

The statement said: “The Islamic Republic of Iran will end its final limitations in the nuclear deal, meaning the limitation in the number of centrifuges. Therefore Iran’s nuclear program will have no limitations in production including enrichment capacity and percentage and number of enriched uranium and research and expansion.”

This would be earth-shattering news if Iran ever stuck to the limitations of the nuclear deal in the first place.

The Iran Nuclear Deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action went into effect in July of 2015 and has a been a disaster ever since. Three months after the deal was made, Iran launched a ballistic missile test, in violation of the agreement Obama hailed for effectively containing Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

In April of 2016, Barack Obama conceded that Iran was already violating the “spirit” of the deal, though he claimed they were still sticking to the “letter” of the deal. A month later, Iran had officially violated the terms of the nuclear deal, as well as U.N. resolutions for three times. By July, German intelligence believed that Iran was attempting to acquire technology that could be used for its military nuclear program, again, in violation of the deal. In November of 2016, the U.N.’s atomic watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), reported that Iran had, for the second time, exceeded a soft limit on sensitive material under the nuclear deal.

All this was while Barack Obama was still president.

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The Tattoo: A Sign of the Times By David Solway

By on January 5th, 2020

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/the-tattoo-a-sign-of-the-times/

Tattoos are not new. What is new is their ubiquity and extent of body coverage. They meet the eye with livid starkness everywhere one looks, turning the atmosphere and the culture positively fluorescent. What was once a niche market has expanded exponentially. Practically everyone of a certain age group, say, late teens to early fifties, seems to flaunt these decorative glyphs and totems on every visible part of their bodies, including the head and face. (Actress Amanda Bynes and rapper Post Malone are recent celebrity examples.) And judging from my experience in the change room of the gym where I work out, these chromatic blemishes, particle illustrations of a much wider significance, appear on the less visible parts of a person’s anatomy as well.

It’s a phenomenon that continues to puzzle me. Every era, of course, is marked by its own fashion anomalies once considered normative or appealing, which we often tend to regard as quaint, ridiculous, garish or merely amusing—to take just one example, the dandyism of red waistcoats, green wigs and blue hair in 19th-century Paris. Today is no exception, though we need not look back to find them absurd or grotesque. How one can appraise sumptuary excesses like the fade cut, pink hair, septum rings, tongue studs, navel piercings, and the prevalence of the orgulous tattoo as in any way attractive boggles the mind.

As the World Journal of Psychiatry points out in a methodological case study focusing on statistical distributions and issues relating to epidemiology, tattoos were traditionally associated with deviance and psychopathology, typically criminals, gang members and “others belonging to marginalized and counter-cultural groups.” (One recalls those Grade B gangster films featuring Russian mafia members, their arms, backs and chests slathered with lurid insignia rankings.) The tattoo serves “to align the wearer with a specific group,” offering comfort, protection and a collective identity. Tattoos are often also used as a kind of rebus meant to “bolster low self-esteem” or “repair a crippled self-image.”

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The U.S., Iraq and Iran The Baghdad vote isn’t the last word on American troops.

By on January 5th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-u-s-iraq-and-iran-11578263875?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

The U.S. strikes in Iraq against Iranian-backed militias and Qasem Soleimani were necessary, but they always risked a nationalist backlash. The Iraqi Parliament’s symbolic vote Sunday to oust U.S. troops from the country is an example of that backlash, but it’s also far from the last word.

The vote was not decisive, as only a little over half of Iraq’s 329 members of parliament were present to vote on the nonbinding resolution. Kataib Hezbollah, the militia allied with Iran’s Quds Force that stormed the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad last week, issued threats against lawmakers who voted against the resolution.

Shiite lawmakers hold a majority and most voted in favor, while Kurdish and most Sunni members didn’t show up. Iraq’s minorities understand better than anyone the risk of Iranian domination, and both have supported a continuing American military presence.

Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi supported the vote, but he’s a caretaker who in November promised to resign after widespread protests sapped the legislature’s legitimacy. Elections for a new parliament are expected this year. The public already has registered its disgust with the Iraqi ruling class, and no doubt the U.S. and Iranian presence in the country will be major election issues.

The parliament also voted to file a complaint with the United Nations about the strike against Soleimani. Those suddenly concerned about international law apparently weren’t worried that Soleimani’s presence in Iraq was illegal under a 2007 United Nations Security Council resolution that was still in force. If the terrorist ringleader had adhered to that U.N. travel restriction, he’d still be alive.

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IMPEACHMENT, ILHAN OMAR ON SOLEIMANI, TRUMP’S LEGAL AUTHORITY

By on January 5th, 2020

There Is No Clever Democratic Impeachment Strategy George S. Bardmesser

https://amgreatness.com/2020/01/04/there-is-no-clever-democratic-impeachment-strategy/

We are now approaching three weeks since the House of Representatives voted to impeach President Trump on December 18. After passing the articles of impeachment that identified no actual crimes, congressional Democrats scattered all over D.C., celebrating in posh restaurants and ritzy bars.

Supposedly “neutral” journalists rejoiced, tweeting out “Impeachmas” cheers to their followers. Hardcore Trotskyists, Socialists, Maoists, Communists, Castroists, Che Guevarists, and other members of the progressive Left, celebrated all over the country. At long last, their three-and-a-half-year quest to impeach Trump, which started in April 2016, was close to fruition. 

Ilhan Omar ‘Outraged’ Over Soleimani Killing, About 9/11 Not So Much Robert Spencer
https://pjmedia.com/trending/ilhan-omar-outraged-over-soleimani-killing-about-9-11-not-so-much/

The traitor class has been particularly vocal ever since Qasem Soleimani was killed. The ever-winsome Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) tweeted Friday: “We are outraged the president would assassinate a foreign official, possibly setting off another war without Congressional authorization and has zero plan to deal with the consequences.” Wait, what? Soleimani was a “foreign official”? Isn’t Ilhan Omar aware that Soleimani was no staid and stolid Iranian “official” sitting bored behind a desk somewhere in Tehran, but was responsible for the deaths of over 600 U.S. soldiers in Iraq? Yes, she does know, and clearly she doesn’t care.

Trump’s Legal Authority Like other Presidents, he has the power to use military force against terrorists and to defend against attacks.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-legal-authority-11578095410

You may have read that Donald Trump can’t do anything right, and apparently now he’s exceeded his authority as President by ordering a drone strike against Qasem Soleimani without congressional approval. That’s the claim being made by Democrats and various legal worthies, except they’re wrong on the law and Constitution.

Mr. Trump is accused of violating the executive order against assassinations. But that long-time ban has never applied to terrorists, which Soleimani clearly was.

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