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Ruth King

Robert Spencer:Loyola Marymount University: It’s “Islamophobic” to be “Counter-Jihad” If you don’t like the prospect of getting blown up by a Muslim screaming “Allahu akbar,” you’re a hateful bigot.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2019/10/loyola-marymount-university-its-islamophobic-be-robert-spencer/

The Los Angeles Loyolan tells us that it is Loyola Marymount University’s “award-winning, student-run news organization,” and it is not surprising that it would have won awards from the people who give out awards these days, because like all campus papers, it is a reliable guide to how deeply the far-Left indoctrination that most professors are conducting is taking root in their unwitting students. One of those students is the Assistant Opinion Editor for the Los Angeles Loyolan, a young man (I know that because he helpfully informs us that his pronouns are “He/Him/His”) named Cristobal Spielmann, who is, like all well-informed, duly woke students today, horrified at the prospect that someone would be so “racist” as to oppose jihad mass murder and Sharia oppression of women and others.

Inside Higher Ed may weep bitter crocodile tears over my noting the ominous assumptions behind Spielmann’s words, as the young fellow is only a child, but he is a child putting his views out in the public forum, and consequently must deal with public dissent from his views – at least until he and his fellow fascists secure power.

Is America Becoming Sinicized? By Victor Davis Hanson

https://pjmedia.com/victordavishanson/is-america-becoming-sinicized/

“All these reasons and more explain why there wasn’t a single major Western politician who warned the world of a frightening, Chinese-dominated future — one in which the West turned into China rather than China into the West. The single figure who finally issued such a warning, brash Donald Trump — without prior military or political experience — was as loudly and publicly damned as he was privately and quietly admired for doing so.”

A little over 40 years ago, Chinese Communist strongman and reformer Deng Xiaoping began 15 years of sweeping economic reforms. They were designed to end the disastrous, even murderous planned economy of Mao Zedong, who died in 1976.

The results of Deng’s revolution astonished the world. In four decades, China went from a backward basket case to the second-largest economy on the planet. It lifted hundreds of millions of Chinese into the global middle class.

Deng’s revolution came at a cost of terrible environmental damage, the rampant destruction of local communities and continued political repression. A more efficient economy empowered dictatorship.

Abroad, China systematically violated every tenet of international trade and commerce. It stole copyrights and patents. It ran up huge trade surpluses. It dumped products at below the cost of production to hook international customers. It threatened critics with boycotts, divestments and expulsions. It manipulated its currency. It demanded technology transfers from companies doing business in China. It created a vast espionage network in Western countries to steal technology. And it increasingly bullied and threatened its Asian neighbors.

Such criminality abroad and such repression at home was contextualized and mostly excused by Western nations.

U.S. foreign policy toward China seemed to be based on the belief that the more China modernized and the more affluent its citizens became, the more inevitable Chinese political freedom would be.

Supposedly a free-market China would drop its communist past to become a Westernized democracy such as Japan, South Korea or Taiwan. Once China fully joined the family of successful, law-abiding nations, it would empower Western freedoms and help create a stable international order.

Rural Voters’ Pride and the Left’s Prejudice Progressives say the poor go ‘against their interests’ but don’t mind when the rich favor high taxes. By Crispin Sartwell

https://www.wsj.com/articles/rural-voters-pride-and-the-lefts-prejudice-11571263966

They’re at it again, trying to find the reasons rural Americans “vote against their own interests”—in this case why people out here still support President Trump (though folks I know are wavering). The question was classically formulated by Thomas Frank in his 2004 book, “What’s the Matter With Kansas?” But it’s an application of a basic human thought process.

I tell you my views. You disagree with me. I believe my opinion is the one every rational person would come to in an objective assessment of the facts. It’s irrational to disagree with me, especially because I went to a good college and you didn’t, and especially because you are working against your own interests as people like me define them. So what needs explaining is how you could be so irrational.

Sheer genetic redneck boneheadedness is a possibility. If I am feeling generous toward you, I’ll conclude that it isn’t your fault. You are being manipulated by malevolent forces—the surviving Koch brother, Fox News, the Russians, Mr. Trump’s Twitter feed. Those are the targets I was aiming at in the first place—after all, who needs to grapple seriously with the views of ignorant, manipulated rubes? After I figure out how to fix Fox News, I can work on fixing you so that you vote according to your interests, as I enumerate them.

What’s missing from this analysis? Social-justice leftists understand the interests of nonrich people in purely material terms. A poor person who isn’t a strong advocate of food stamps or public housing is regarded as plainly irrational. There’s no accounting for intangible qualities such as self-respect, which a particular person or subculture might value highly. By contrast, progressives don’t regard it as irrational when a wealthy person favors high taxes or other policies that would hurt his bottom line. This account of what is and what isn’t in people’s interests, and who is and who isn’t rational, conveniently always militates toward the future to which progressives are already committed.

NANCY PELOSI: “THERE WILL BE NO VOTE ON IMPEACHMENT”…BY LIZ SHIELD

https://amgreatness.com/2019/10/16/morning-greatness-pelosi-says-there-will-be-no-impeachment-inquiry-vote/

THERE WILL BE NO VOTE

When I watch Pelosi’s highly-choreographed press conferences, I get the feeling she’s trying to convince herself of her righteousness just as much as she is trying to get the public to buy in to the Democrats’ plan.

“There’s no requirement that we have a vote, and so at this time we will not be having a vote,” Pelosi said. “We’re not here to call bluffs — we’re here to find the truth, to uphold the Constitution of the United States. This is not a game for us. This is deadly serious.”

How serious? As serious as the reasons the Democrats needed to impeach Trump after the sensational Mueller Report was released? What happened to those reasons because we were told those were DEADLY serious too.

There will be no vote, not because of any principles, but because Pelosi doesn’t want to put her vulnerable members on the record and she may not have the votes. Why hold a vote that could threaten her majority when there’s no downside and she will not be held accountable with negative media coverage for breaking from the norms and traditions of impeachment. (Why is Trump so dangerous for “breaking norms” but Pelosi’s norm-breaking is glossed right over?) Her clown Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) will continue to leak strategic information to the media to help damage the president and ignore the fact that, despite chest thumping about the seriousness of manufactured charges, this is entirely hidden from the public . There is no downside for the Democrats to hold a secret, hidden tribunal to impeach the elected President of the United States. It’s that simple and that’s why it is happening.

Rep. Mark Meadows demands Adam Schiff call whistleblower to testify By Charles Creitz

https://www.foxnews.com/media/mark-meadows-calls-for-adam-schiff-whistleblower-testify

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., must call the initial Trump-Ukraine whistleblower to testify, according to Rep. Mark Meadows.

“Obviously, tonight, Nancy Pelosi decided to not put a resolution on the floor which would hopefully start the process of it being fair,” Meadows claimed Tuesday on “Hannity.”

“Jim [Jordan] and I have been now in over 40 hours of deposition and what we’re finding is that Adam Schiff only wants to have witnesses who will give the response that he hopes they will give — and even at that it’s a swing and a miss.”

Pointing to reporting earlier this month that the whistleblower allegedly had contact with Schiff’s staff prior to filing his complaint, Meadows said that individual must answer for those claims.

Top Diplomat Testified That Obama Admin, Not International Community, Orchestrated Ukraine Prosecutor’s Firing Sean Davis

https://thefederalist.com/2019/10/16/top-diplomat-testified-that-obama-admin-not-international-community-orchestrated-ukraine-prosecutors-firing/

The Obama administration, not the international community, orchestrated the ouster of a Ukrainian prosecutor investigating a company connected to Joe Biden’s son, a top diplomat testified to Congress yesterday.
October 16, 2019 By Sean Davis

A top U.S. diplomat and expert on Ukraine testified to Congress yesterday that the Obama administration — with former Vice President Joe Biden as its point man — orchestrated the firing of the Ukrainian prosecutor who was investigating a company connected to the Biden family, sources familiar with the testimony told The Federalist.

The testimony of George Kent, a State Department official who works on the agency’s Ukraine portfolio, directly contradicts claims that the Obama administration was merely following the lead of the so-called international community in demanding the firing of Viktor Shokin, a controversial Ukrainian prosecutor who was reportedly investigating Burisma, a global energy company long suspected of corruption and money laundering. In 2014, Burisma paid Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s son, tens of thousands of dollars to sit on its board despite the younger Biden’s complete lack of expertise or professional experience running a multi-national oil and gas concern.

Kent told lawmakers on Tuesday that the Obama administration spearheaded the efforts to have Shokin removed from his position as the top federal prosecutor in Ukraine. Kent said the international community — namely the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Western nations within the European Union — were deferential to U.S. directives on the matter. At a 2018 event organized by the Council on Foreign Relations, Joe Biden — who was tasked by then-President Barack Obama to lead the U.S. government’s efforts in Ukraine — bragged about threatening to withhold a billion-dollar loan guarantee if the Ukrainian government refused to fire Shokin.

“I said, I’m telling you, you’re not getting the billion dollars,” Biden said. “I said, you’re not getting the billion. I’m going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours.”

Volker Testimony Destroys Narrative Of Diplomatic Turmoil Following Ukraine Phone Call Mollie Hemingway

https://thefederalist.com/2019/10/16/volker-testimony-destroys-narrative-of-diplomatic-turmoil-following-ukraine-phone-call/

Former special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker told lawmakers under oath that he was never asked to do anything wrong by any member of the administration, including President Trump.

The United States’ former envoy to Ukraine told congressional investigators neither country’s officials were concerned about anything in the July 25 phone call between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky until a campaign of leaks alleging abuse of power began surfacing in late August. Far from the media-fed narrative of officials being physically shaken by the call, Kurt Volker told lawmakers no one had expressed any concern to him about it, or about later allegations that requests for Ukraine’s help in corruption investigations was improper.

While Volker was tasked with managing the relationship between the Trump administration and the new government in Ukraine, he only heard that the Biden family had been mentioned in the phone call when anti-Trump bureaucrats began leaking classified details of the phone conversation to media outlets in late August.

Volker testified October 3 for nearly 10 hours behind closed doors after resigning his unpaid post as the State Department’s special envoy to Ukraine. Democratic lawmakers leaked portions of his testimony and text messages to paint a misleading narrative that he had confirmed an alleged quid pro quo of military aid for investigation of Ukrainian corruption.

Police Do Nothing as Antifa Thugs Violently Attack Trump Supporters After Minneapolis Rally By Megan Fox

https://pjmedia.com/trending/police-do-nothing-as-antifa-thugs-violently-attack-trump-supporters-after-trump-rally-in-minneapolis/

It seems the entire 24/7 news business is still going on about a “violent meme” that depicts Trump in a movie scene from The Kingsman. No one is upset about the original movie, where Colin Firth’s character kills a bunch of conservative Christians in a church, because violence against conservatives and Christians is A-OK with just about everyone except Christians and conservatives. They’re upset that some meme-maker put Trump’s head on the assassin and a bunch of media logos on the victims. For shame. How dare he.

Anyhoo, while they are blathering their outrage about fictional violence, actual violence is taking place against those Christian conservatives no one cares about on the streets of Minneapolis. There is a resurgence of Antifa violence against Trump rally-goers again as the 2020 election nears. At the president’s last rally, the streets were awash in patchouli and other foul things as Antifa rioted and attacked innocent people for wearing Trump gear or attending the rally. The police didn’t appear to be doing much about it.

In this video, a woman is slapped in the face while trying to get through the crowd.

Schiff pressed Volker to say Ukraine felt pressure from Trump by Byron York

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/schiff-pressed-volker-to-say-ukraine-felt-pressure-from-trump

In a secret interview, Rep. Adam Schiff, leader of the House Democratic effort to impeach President Trump, pressed former United States special representative to Ukraine Kurt Volker to testify that Ukrainian officials felt pressured to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter as a result of Trump withholding U.S. military aid to Ukraine.

Volker denied that was the case, noting that Ukrainian leaders did not even know the aid was being withheld and that they believed their relationship with the U.S. was moving along satisfactorily, without them having done anything Trump mentioned in his notorious July 25 phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Warren’s charmed campaign just entered a brutal new phase Tuesday night’s debate pile-on made clear that things are about to get rough for the new front-runner. by Ryan Lizza

https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/16/elizabeth-warren-debate-048163

Elizabeth Warren has enjoyed many of the trappings of a front-runner: the polling lead in Iowa and New Hampshire, a near-tie with Joe Biden nationally, explosive fundraising, big crowds. The only thing missing was the scrutiny and sniping from competitors that normally accompanies the rise of a new primary leader.

That changed on Tuesday night at Otterbein University, a small college outside Columbus, Ohio. Otterbein was named after the founder of the United Brethren in Christ, but the mood was anything but brotherly as Warren faced a barrage of criticisms from most of the other 11 Democrats on stage.

The candidate who brags about having a plan for everything was pilloried for not detailing how she would pay for her most expensive proposal. She was accused — sometimes subtly, sometimes explicitly — of being naive, dishonest, not adequately respecting her colleagues’ ideas, tearing people down, and failing to enact major legislation. She was attacked for believing in policies that were “punitive” and a theory of governing that was a “pipe dream.”

Warren’s biggest gains have come since the last debate, so Tuesday’s debate was the natural point for a more full-throated engagement from the other candidates. Until now, three elements central to Warren’s candidacy have received relatively little pressure from her opponents as she has slowly ticked up in the polls.