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Ruth King

Trade Talks with China Begin amid Naval Spat By Mairead McArdle

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/china-trade-talks-begin-amid-naval-spat/

China urged the U.S. on Monday to provide a good atmosphere for trade talks, even as it made “stern complaints” about an American warship sighted in what it claims are Chinese waters.

The U.S.S. McCampbell, a guided-missile destroyer, ventured near the disputed Paracel Islands in the South China Sea on a “freedom of navigation” mission, intended to “challenge excessive maritime claims,” the Pacific Fleet said.

The spat comes just as representatives from China and the U.S. meet for trade negotiations Monday and Tuesday, addressing U.S. allegations that China steals technology information.

“The two sides both have responsibility to create necessary and good atmosphere to this end,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said. “As for whether this move has any impact to the ongoing China-U.S. trade consultations . . . to properly resolve existing issues of all kinds between China and the U.S. is good for the two countries and the world.”

Last year, President Trump imposed duties as large as 25 percent on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods, leading China to respond by levying duties on $110 billion in U.S. goods. On December 1, the two economies agreed tentatively not to raise tariffs further.

Dem. Rep. Denies Responsibility for Mistakenly Labeling Girl’s Murder ‘Hate Crime’ By Jack Crowe

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/representative-sheila-jackson-lee-denies-responsibility-for-mistakenly-labeling-girls-murder-hate-crime/

Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D., Texas) refused to take responsibility Sunday for labeling the murder of a seven-year-old African-American girl a “hate crime” before sufficient evidence materialized to support the claim.

Jackson Lee, who encouraged the public to treat Jazmine Barnes’s murder as a hate crime during a rally days after her death, claimed Sunday that her earlier statements, made before the police arrested and charged an African-American man with the murder, were not irresponsible.

While addressing a crowd of hundreds gathered near the Houston, Texas street where Barnes was shot and killed on December 30, Jackson Lee urged her audience to call the murder a hate crime, citing eyewitness accounts that suggested a white man was responsible.

“Do not be afraid to call this what it seems to be — a hate crime,” Jackson Lee said.

On Sunday, Houston Police arrested and charged Eric Black, a 20-year-old African-American man, with the killing. Asked at a news conference Sunday afternoon whether her initial characterization of the murder as a hate crime was irresponsible, Jackson Lee responded, “absolutely not.”

Joe diGenova: ‘Cardinal’ James Comey — The man who destroyed the FBI

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/joe-digenova-cardinal-james-comey-the-man-who-destroyed-the-fbi

Wyatt Earp. Elliot Ness. J. Edgar Hoover. Inspector Clouseau. James Comey. The names reflect a continuum of greatness to farce and mediocrity. In the annals of U.S. law enforcement, no individual has reached the depths of disgrace as James “Cardinal” Comey.

The “Cardinal” was a sobriquet FBI agents used to denigrate their leader. As Deputy Attorney General, he was called “drama queen.” Known for his pomposity and self-regard, Comey cut a swath of arrogance unknown in either of those illustrious organizations. He was the cult of personality. He surrounded himself with sycophants, people dedicated to his promotion and their advancement. The Bureau and the public became the losers.

James Comey politicized the FBI, America’s premier law enforcement agency. It started on July 6, 2016, when he usurped the authority of Attorney General Loretta Lynch in violation of the Constitution, the law and DOJ regulations.

He destroyed Hillary’s campaign when he unethically and unprofessionally described her conduct with pejorative words such as “criminal” and then illegally exonerated her of the crimes.

President Obama should have fired him that day. But he did not. Why? Perhaps because he had knowledge of Hillary’s avoidance of any protected email channels because he communicated with her on her private server using a pseudonym.

Comey is a poseur. He pretends to be Thomas Becket but he is, in fact, the assassin, Henry II. He claims in his memos he doesn’t do sneaky things, leak or do weasely things. Yet in his interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier he pretended not to know what a leak is.

Trump to deliver prime-time address, travel to Southern border amid shutdown standoff

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-to-t

President Trump announced that he will address the nation on Tuesday night before traveling later in the week to the U.S.-Mexico border, as he seeks to highlight border security and presses Democrats for wall funding amid the protracted standoff that triggered a partial government shutdown now stretching into its 17th day.

“I am pleased to inform you that I will Address the Nation on the Humanitarian and National Security crisis on our Southern Border. Tuesday night at 9:00 P.M. Eastern,” Trump tweeted on Monday.

The Health of Nations By J. D. Vance

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/01/tucker-carlson-health-of-nations-markets/

Conservatives should heed Tucker Carlson’s advice. We shouldn’t assume that what is good for markets is good for all of us.

Tucker Carlson’s monologue heard round the world is interesting on its own terms. In it, he argues against a conservatism that consistently prizes commercial interests above those of everyone else. I encourage you to watch or read it in full. Yet the response on the right is as interesting as Carlson’s monologue itself, for it reveals a discomfort among some conservatives for balancing the tensions that exist in our coalition and in our ideology.

There is, by many on the right, an effort to sing the praises of market capitalism without acknowledging the tensions between our pro-market principles and everything else. I respect Ben Shapiro a great deal, but I found this paragraph in his response to Carlson curious:

Supply and demand economics has powered most of the world’s human beings out of extreme poverty, and led to the richest society in human history. It has allowed us to live longer, in bigger houses, in more comfort. It has meant fewer dead children and more living parents. If we’ve blown that advantage, that’s our own fault. Traditional conservatives recognized that the role of economics is to provide prosperity — to raise the GDP. The role of a social fabric and a value system is to provide meaning.

Rashida’s Song Anthem for Democrats’ anti-Trump jihad. Lloyd Billingsley

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272471/rashidas-song-lloyd-billingsley

Rashida Tlaib is one of the first Muslim women in Congress but last week the Michigan Democrat revealed something else about herself. The first time Tlaib said “mother,” she had learned half a new word, the same one she showcased after being sworn in as a representative of the people.

“When your son looks at you and said ‘Mamma, look, you won — bullies don’t win.’ And I said, ‘Baby they don’t, because we’re gonna go in there and we’re gonna impeach the motherfucker!’” The self-described Palestinian-American may be okay once she comes out of her shell, but Democrats had her back.

Rising star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been busy proposing tax hikes to 70 percent and abolishing energy from gas and oil. She took a break from building socialism to blast the “faux outrage” over Tlaib as “Republican hypocrisy at its finest,” citing Trump’s claim of “locker room talk” for his “sexual assault” of ladies.

“I probably have a generational reaction to it, but in any event I’m not in the censorship business,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters. “But I don’t think it’s any worse than what the president has said.” That is understandable from a woman whose favorite Stalinist was Soviet agent Harry Bridges, and who thinks walls are “immoral.” On the other hand, the parallel is not quite right.

Trump has said that we are going to “bomb the shit out of ISIS” and lamented “shithole countries.” During the primaries he mocked rivals but never said “I’m going to defeat the motherfuckers.” Trump once expressed a desire to put Hillary Clinton in jail but never called the Clintons “motherfuckers,” a term Bill and Hillary often used for each other, according to Christopher Andersen in American Evita: Hillary Clinton’s Path to Power.

Escape from Portland Unarmed cops, an 18% murder rise, and vigilante justice. Daniel Greenfield

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272426/escape-portland-daniel-greenfield

It was a big year in Portland where the murder rate rose 18.6%. That was the perfect time for Portland’s progressive politburo to spend over $1 million on unarmed cops armed only with pepper spray.

There was a little bit of excitement when it was learned that their 200 hours of training would include “Taser Orientation” suggesting that they might be allowed to carry tasers. But Mayor Wheeler’s office explained that the weaponless cops weren’t being trained to use tasers, but “how to avoid being tased”.

Portlanders aren’t waiting for officers to show up and shout, “Don’t tase me, bro”. Instead in a city overrun with crime, they’re increasingly taking matters and guns into their hands.

Of the 32 violent deaths in Portland last year, 5 were found to have been carried out in self-defense. That tops the 4 deaths that occurred as a result of shootings by those cops who still have their guns.

Richard R. Hanley showed up in the parking lot outside Timeless Tattoo. The California homeless bum had previously made the news when he was arrested for attacking his ex-girlfriend and her new beau with a metal chain. Hanley, already on probation for a domestic abuse and strangulation conviction, with six felony and seven misdemeanor priors, also pulled out huge clumps of a female deputy’s hair.

Lara Kollab and the Disease of Jew-Hate What drove a well-educated young doctor from an affluent family to become a vile anti-Semite? Ari Lieberman

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272472/lara-kollab-and-disease-jew-hate-ari-lieberman

In medical terms, Lara Kollab’s career is dead on arrival or flat-lined. The prestigious Cleveland Clinic, where she was employed as a supervised resident, rightly fired her after only two months. Ohio’s Osteopathic Association informed me via Twitter that her medical training certificate is invalid because it was contingent upon her working in an accredited program. Because she was fired from the Cleveland Clinic, she is no longer in an accredited program. Moreover, because of the way medical residencies are scheduled, the earliest time that she can re-apply into another residency program is July 2020. Even then, it is doubtful that any hospital will accept her, except for perhaps Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, which also conveniently serves as a Hamas Headquarters in times of war with Israel.

For those of you who were in hibernation this past week, Kollab, whose parents are Palestinian and Muslim, posted numerous anti-Semitic comments on her social media platforms. She routinely referred to Jews as “dogs,” trivialized the murder of six million Jews during the Holocaust, claimed that “Zionists” controlled the media and “Israel runs America,” and repeatedly expressed a desire to inflict harm on Jews. But the one comment that put the nail in the coffin for Kollab was the tweet where she expressed her desire to provide her Jewish patients with the wrong medication, effectively poisoning them. Not exactly the sort of sentiment that’s consistent with the Hippocratic Oath and precisely the sort of sentiment you’d expect from the likes of Doctor Mengele.

On Friday, Kollab issued an apology of sorts through her lawyer. This represents the first step in Kollab’s attempt to salvage what’s left her tattered career and reputation. But the apology was equivocal and laced with deception and deflection. She claimed that the offensive, anti-Semitic posts were made years before she was accepted into medical school. That is false. The vile comments, which included deep-seated hatred of Israel and support for terrorism continued up until 2017 and constituted one steady and continuous stream of anti-Semitic invective. Her views remained constant and unchanged even after her acceptance to Touro.

One of the mysteries of the Kollab case is why she would choose Touro of all places. Touro accepts all students from diverse backgrounds and ethnicities but when it was established in 1970, its focus was on higher education for the Jewish community. Over the years, the college became recognized for its high educational standards and consequently attracted a broader and more diverse student body.

An Epidemic of Erasures, Redactions, Omissions, and Perjuries By Victor Davis Hanson

https://amgreatness.com/2019/01/06/an-epidemic-of-

Imagine the following: The IRS sends you, John Q. Citizen, a letter alleging you have not complied with U.S. tax law. In the next paragraph, the tax agency then informs you that it needs a series of personal and business documents. Indeed, it will be sending agents out to discuss your dilemma and collect the necessary records.

But when the IRS agents arrive, you explain to them that you cannot find about 50 percent of the documents requested, and have no idea whether they even exist. You sigh that both hard copies of pertinent information have unfortunately disappeared and hard drives were mysteriously lost.

You nonchalantly add that you smashed your phone, tablet, and computer with a hammer. You volunteer that, of those documents you do have, you had to cut out, blacken or render unreadable about 30 percent of the contents. After all, you have judged that the redacted material either pertains to superfluous and personal matters such as weddings and yoga, or is of such a sensitive nature that its release would endanger your company or business or perhaps even the country at large.

You also keep silent that you have a number of pertinent documents locked up in a safe hidden in your attic unknown to the IRS. Let them find it, you muse. And when the agents question your unilateral decisions over hours of interrogatories, you remark to them on 245 occasions that you have no memory of your acts—or you simply do not have an answer for them.

Ocasio-Cortez Says She’s More Like a British Socialist, Wants High Taxes on ‘the Tippy Tops’ By Bridget Johnson

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/ocasio-cortez-says-shes-more-like-a-british-socialist-wants-high-taxes-on-the-tippy-tops/

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) told 60 Minutes in an interview aired Sunday that people should “call me a radical” as “it only has ever been radicals that have changed this country.”

“Abraham Lincoln made the radical decision to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. Franklin Delano Roosevelt made the radical decision to embark on establishing programs like Social Security,” she said.

Ocasio-Cortez is pushing for a Green New Deal that would ban use of fossil fuels in the country within 12 years. “It’s going to require a lot of rapid change that we don’t even conceive as possible right now. What is the problem with trying to push our technological capacities to the furthest extent possible?” she said.

Explaining her plan to raise taxes to pay for such initiatives as the climate plan, Ocasio-Cortez told CBS, “You look at our tax rates back in the ’60s and when you have a progressive tax rate system your tax rate, you know, let’s say, from zero to $75,000, may be 10 percent or 15 percent, etc. But once you get to, like, the tippy tops — on your 10 millionth dollar — sometimes you see tax rates as high as 60 or 70 percent. That doesn’t mean all 10 million dollars are taxed at an extremely high rate, but it means that as you climb up this ladder you should be contributing more.”

The congresswoman was asked if she has “Soviet Union, Cuba, Venezuela” in mind when she espouses socialism.

“Of course not. What we have in mind — and what my policies most closely resemble — what we see in the UK, in Norway, in Finland, in Sweden,” Ocasio-Cortez replied.