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Ruth King

Jews, African Americans and the Democrat Party The trap of blind loyalty. Kenneth Levin

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2019/10/jews-african-americans-and-democrat-party-kenneth-levin/

In democracies, minority groups will often embrace one political party and cling to that attachment irrespective of changing political circumstances. This seems especially true of minorities that have experienced discrimination, marginalization, and other forms of abuse.

In America, the groups that have been most closely attached to the Democrat Party for virtually the last century are African Americans and Jews. Even consideration in the abstract of the wisdom of being predictably committed to one party would suggest likely more negative than positive consequences – for example, being taken for granted by that party while given up on and not pursued by the other – and experience has borne that out.

This would seem to be most obvious with regard to the African American experience. Consider, for example, the Democrats’ decades-long lock on control of most of America’s big cities, many with African American majorities, and the record of public education in those cities.

Little weighs as heavily on impoverished children’s potential for extricating themselves from their difficult circumstances and shaping a better future for themselves than the quality of the education they receive in their elementary and secondary schools. But the African American populations in our large urban centers have consistently been very poorly served by their schools and lag significantly behind national averages in command of basic skills.

Those in charge of the relevant cities point to lesser per student spending on their schools due to lesser tax subsidies as compared to the subsidies provided in other jurisdictions. Another argument is that the difficult family circumstances these cities’ impoverished children often face undercut the children’s ability to make full use of the educational opportunities available to them in their public schools. 

About that Fox Poll By Steve McCann

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/10/about_that_fox_poll.html

Journalism and those claiming to be journalists in the America have not only been increasingly and overtly partisan over the past 25 years but also increasingly indolent.  Far too many rely on the lunacy, vitriol, and rumormongering on social media as the primary source of many of their stories and to make assumptions as to what American society thinks on any particular issue.  Another source of so-called “news” is generated by their ideological cohorts in the polling industry. 

Polling in modern America has degenerated into a vehicle to create news, headlines and to shape public opinion on an issue or an individual.

 Over the past few days the lead on every cable news channel and the headline in virtually all newspapers is Fox News claiming in their exclusive poll that 51% of Americans now favor impeachment and removal of President Trump. 

How did the Fox polling unit come up with this number?

The Fox news polling companies interviewed 1,003 registered voters ostensibly throughout the length and breadth of the United States.  Many polling companies use either all adult Americans (254 million) or registered voters (158 million in 2016) as their universe for polling.  Obviously the greater the number of potential people to contact and question the easier a poll is to complete and to skew a result.  In reality, what matters is who votes in an election.  In 2016 86% (or 136.6 million) of registered voters cast a vote.  A poll of likely voters would inherently be more reliable but more difficult to achieve.  Currently only Rasmussen among national polls uses exclusively likely voters and they are among the most reliable.

Is America Entering a Dark Age? By Victor Davis Hanson

https://pjmedia.com/victordavishanson/is-america-entering-a-dark-age/

Many of the stories about the gods and heroes of Greek mythology were compiled during Greek Dark Ages. Impoverished tribes passed down oral traditions that originated after the fall of the lost palatial civilizations of the Mycenaean Greeks.

Dark Age Greeks tried to make sense of the massive ruins of their forgotten forbearers’ monumental palaces that were still standing around. As illiterates, they were curious about occasional clay tablets they plowed up in their fields with incomprehensible ancient Linear B inscriptions.

We of the 21st century are beginning to look back at our own lost epic times and wonder about these now-nameless giants who left behind monuments that we cannot replicate, but instead merely use or even mock.

Does anyone believe that contemporary Americans could build another transcontinental railroad in six years?

Californians tried to build a high-speed rail line. But after more than a decade of government incompetence, lawsuits, cost overruns and constant bureaucratic squabbling, they have all but given up. The result is a half-built overpass over the skyline of Fresno — and not yet a foot of track laid.

Who were those giants of the 1960s responsible for building our interstate highway system?

California’s roads now are mostly the same as we inherited them, although the state population has tripled. We have added little to our freeway network, either because we forgot how to build good roads or would prefer to spend the money on redistributive entitlements.

Has the Time Come to Put Down Lawlessness, Insurrection and Rebellion? By David Solway

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/has-the-time-come-to-put-down-lawlessness-insurrection-and-rebellion/

In 1347 a London resident by the name of Roger the Raker plunged through the rotting floorboards of his house into a makeshift latrine and drowned in his own accumulated excrement. As historian Martyn Whittock informs us, “One major problem in the Middle Ages was sewage disposal,” with many householders forced to dig cesspools in their cellars, or pipe their ordure “into the unused cellars of unwary neighbours,” to accommodate the overflowing waste, practices which sealed poor Roger’s fate. Medieval sewage provides a compelling metaphor for the dubious political sanitation issue of our own times, and especially for the ideological filth voided by the American Left on the social, cultural and political landscape of the nation.

Any decent and impartial observer can see that leftist and corporate America has come to resemble a cloacal bog of lies, corruption, slander, censorship, entitlements and violence, a veritable “swamp” as it has been aptly called. What commentator Diana Sitek writing in American Thinker calls “the entitlement to depravity embedded in the Left’s social justice dogma” is both massive and unrelenting. The media, the academy, the entertainment industry, Big Tech, the Democrat Party, and the “Deep State” are profoundly engaged in a networked alliance to overturn the results of a lawful election and subvert a legitimate and effective presidency. President Trump has vowed to “drain the swamp” but it is moot whether a single individual, regardless of the power of high office, with little in the way of institutional support — and despite his strength of character and resolve — can thwart what is nothing less than an ongoing political putsch.

The attempt to impeach the president on no reasonable or substantial grounds is merely another frantic yet tenacious effort by the coup-obsessed Left to unravel the fabric of a constitutional republic. This is plainly the purpose behind the Democrat’s infamous Green New Deal inspired by the U.N.’s Agendas 21 and 2030 which, under the guise of sustainable development, lay out a plan for the punitive regulation of reliable energy sources, the elimination of private property, redistribution of personal wealth, restriction of due process and, of course, the diminishment of American dynamism and prestige. It is a program that perfectly encapsulates the overarching agenda of the political Left, namely, a protracted war on the free enterprise system and the emasculation of the Constitution of the United States, to be accomplished under the stewardship of a plutocratic elite.

Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) guide for the perplexed, 2019 Amb. (Ret.) Yoram Ettinger

Based on ancient Jewish sages, October 10, 2019, https://bit.ly/2OBJ3Nw 

1. US-Israel special ties are highlighted by Columbus Day (October 14, 2019), which is always celebrated around Sukkot (October 13-20, 2019). According to “Columbus Then and Now” (Miles Davidson, 1997, p. 268), Columbus landed in America on Friday afternoon, October 12, 1492, the 21st day of the Jewish month of Tishrei, in the Jewish year 5235, on the 7th day of Sukkot, Hosha’na’ Rabbah – a day of special universal deliverance and miracles.  Hosha’ (הושע) is “deliverance” in Hebrew; Na’ (נא) is the Hebrew word for “please” and Rabbah (רבה) is “The Sublime.”  The numerical value of Na’ in Hebrew is 51 (נ – 50, א – 1), and the celebration of Hoshaa’na’ Rabbah is on the 51stday following Moses’ ascent to Mt. Sinai.

2. the 3rd Jewish pilgrimage holiday (following Passover and Shavou’ot – Pentecost) has been celebrated for the last 3,300 years, commemorating the Exodus, the 40 years of wandering in the Sinai Desert, the construction of the Holy Tabernacle and the victories along the way into the Land of Israel. It reaffirms faith in God, reality-based optimism, gratitude for the Ingathering and the harvest. Sukkot reminds people of human limitations and (its humble structure) emphasizes the importance of humility. Humility is a central message of Sukkot, as demonstrated by the seven day relocation from one’s permanent residence to the temporary, humble, wooden Sukkah (booth).

3. Sukkot ( in Hebrew) is named after the first stop during the Exodus from Egypt, the town of Sukkota (סוכותה), as documented in Exodus 13:20-22 and Numbers 33:3-5.  Itcommemorates the transition from nomadic life in the desert to permanence in the Promised Land; from oblivion to deliverance; and from the spiritual state-of-mind during the High Holidays to the mundane of the rest of the year. 

Ukraine Smoke and Mirrors There’s no substance behind the accusation Democrats claim is impeachable. By Kimberley A. Strassel

https://www.wsj.com/articles/ukraine-smoke-and-mirrors-11570746257

Democrats and the media for three years used a fog of facts and speculation to lull America into forgetting there was never a shred of evidence of Trump-Russia collusion. They flooded the zone with another flurry of scattershot claims in their campaign against Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Republicans might bear these tactics in mind as they confront the left’s new impeachment push.

In the two weeks since the White House released the transcript of President Trump’s call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the debate has descended into the weeds of process and people. This is unsurprising given House Democrats’ decision to keep hidden the central doings of their impeachment inquiry, and the media’s need to fill a void.

The press has responded by seeking to weave dozens of obscure Ukrainian and U.S. names into a crazy quilt of corruption. Readers have no time to keep track of all the Vlads, envoys and meetings in Spain, and that’s the point. The goal is to cover the Trump administration in ugly.

Republicans for their part are miffed at the highly irregular manner in which all this is unfolding. So they’re highlighting the anonymous whistleblower, his motives and his methods. They’ve pointed out the whistleblower’s admission that his information was secondhand. They’re drilling into whether he was biased on behalf of a current Democratic presidential candidate. They are (correctly) pointing out that the whistleblower has no legal right to anonymity.

Motive matters, but what matters more is the accuracy of the complaint itself. The real news of the past few weeks has been the steady accumulation of evidence that its central claim is totally wrong.

Which shouldn’t be surprising, given how many facts the complaint mangled about the call. It alleged, for instance, that Mr. Trump asked Ukraine to “locate and turn over servers.” He didn’t. It claims Mr. Trump “praised” a prosecutor named Yuriy Lutsenko and suggested the Ukrainian president “keep him in his position.” That didn’t happen either. There’s more, and when the whistleblower can’t get the facts of the call right, it’s no surprise he got his conclusion wrong too.

There is simply no evidence of what House Democrats have made the central claim of their impeachment inquiry: that Mr. Trump engaged in a “quid pro quo” by withholding aid to Ukraine unless it “opened an investigation” into former Vice President Joe Biden. CONTINUE AT SITE

New Report: The Congressional Favor Factory

https://www.openthebooks.com/openthebooks_oversight_report_-_the_congressional
Breaking.Why is it that 97% of Congress get reelected each year even though only 17% of Americans believe they’re doing a good job? 

Our latest breaking report on The Congressional Favor Factory investigates this suspicious phenomenon.

We followed the money and found a culture that has “conflict-of-interest” written all over it. 

Even worse, Congress writes their own rules to protect their re-election campaigns.

Click here to download our breaking report, free of charge.

The Media Bend Over Backward to Protect Elizabeth Warren from the Washington Free Beacon’s Damaging Scoop By Jim Geraghty

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/10/the-media-bends-over-backward-to-protect-elizabeth-warren-from-the-washington-free-beacons-damaging-scoop/

Caught in another apparent lie about her personal history, Warren offered another vague response — and her allies in the press dutifully bought it.

About a week ago, David Byler of the Washington Post  irritated Elizabeth Warren fans and some members of the media by arguing that “many journalists either match the demographic profile of her base or live around people who do. . . . Warren’s view of politics closely matches the prevailing media view of what politics ‘should’ be.”

As if to prove Byler’s point, days later the Washington Free Beacon published a damaging scoop about the end of Warren’s early 1970s tenure as a grade-school teacher in Riverdale, N.J., and the mainstream media circled their wagons.

On the campaign trail and social media, Warren has claimed that her employment in Riverdale was effectively ended by her pregnancy, using the anecdote as a way of connecting with female voters:

It’s a neat story — as it turns out, a little too neat. The Free Beacon went back and found the minutes of the Riverdale Board of Education’s 1971 meetings, which make clear that in April of that year, the board unanimously offered her a second-year contract, and that in June, her resignation was “accepted with regret.”

When Beacon reporter Collin Anderson reached out to the Warren campaign for a response, it didn’t offer one. Instead, it talked to CBS News, which published a piece the next day with the headline, “Elizabeth Warren stands by account of being pushed out of her first teaching job because of pregnancy.”

British Police Arrest Over 800 Climate Change Protesters Trying to Shut Down Airport By Mairead McArdle

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/british-police-arrest-over-800

London’s Metropolitan Police arrested over 800 climate change activists this week throughout the city, some of whom attempted to shut down London City Airport on Thursday.

Demonstrators with Extinction Rebellion, a climate activism movement that says it encourages civil disobedience to compel government action, have cropped up around London over the past four days. Activists said they planned a “Hong Kong-style occupation of the terminal building,” a reference to pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong who shut down the city’s international airport in August.

The group targeted the London airport over the travel hub’s £2 billion expansion plan, which activists say does not comply with Britain’s goal to have net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

At least 29 people have been charged with crimes. The protests have so far not forced the airport to close but have caused some delayed flights.

One protester, former Paralympic cyclist James Brown, even climbed on top of a British Airways plane. Another activist refused to resume his seat on a plane as the flight was preparing to depart and began lecturing the other passengers on climate change before police removed him from the plane for “disruptive behavior on board,” the airline said.

The London protests come as climate change emerges at the forefront of the political debate in the U.S.

Turkey and the Kurds: It’s More Complicated Than You Think By Andrew C. McCarthy

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/10/turkey-and-the-kurds-its-more-complicated-than-you-think/

We are grateful for the Kurds’ help, and we should try to help them in return. But no one wants to risk war with Turkey.

O n Monday, President Trump announced that a contingent of fewer than 100 U.S. troops in Syria was being moved away from Kurdish-held territory on the border of Turkey. The move effectively green-lighted military operations by Turkey against the Kurds, which have now commenced.

Some U.S. military officials went public with complaints about being “blindsided.” The policy cannot have been a surprise, though. The president has made no secret that he wants out of Syria, where we now have about 1,000 troops (down from over 2,000 last year). More broadly, he wants our forces out of the Middle East. He ran on that position. I’ve argued against his “endless wars” tropes, but his stance is popular. As for Syria specifically, many of the president’s advisers think we should stay, but he has not been persuaded.

The president’s announcement of the redeployment of the Syrian troops came on the heels of a phone conversation with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. This, obviously, was a mistake, giving the appearance (and not for the first time) that Trump is taking cues from Ankara’s Islamist strongman. As has become rote, the inevitable criticism was followed by head-scratching tweets: The president vows to “totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey,” which “I’ve done before” (huh?), if Turkey takes any actions “that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits.” We can only sigh and say it will be interesting to see how the president backs up these haughty threats now that Erdogan has begun his invasion.

All that said, the president at least has a cogent position that is consistent with the Constitution and public opinion. He wants U.S. forces out of a conflict in which America’s interests have never been clear, and for which Congress has never approved military intervention. I find that sensible — no surprise, given that I have opposed intervention in Syria from the start (see, e.g., here, here, here, here, here, here, and here). The stridency of the counterarguments is matched only by their selectiveness in reciting relevant facts.

I thus respectfully dissent from our National Review editorial.