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Ruth King

Guatemala’s President Defends Democracy Against the U.N. He booted the Commission Against Impunity, which has jailed innocents while promoting socialism. Mary Anastasia O’Grady

https://www.wsj.com/articles/guatemalas-president-defends-democracy-against-the-u-n-1536098714

Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales announced Friday that the agreement his country has with the United Nations Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala won’t be renewed. The commission—known by its Spanish acronym, CICIG—has one year to tie up its work and, by Sept. 3, 2019, leave the country.

Mr. Morales sent a letter to the U.N. secretary-general advising him of the decision. In a press conference Mr. Morales said that CICIG should immediately begin transferring its responsibilities to “corresponding [Guatemalan] entities,” mainly the attorney general.

On Monday CICIG’s top prosecutor, Colombian Iván Velásquez, flew to Washington, though he didn’t reveal why and has no public events scheduled. His spokesman said the trip had been planned for a while. It wouldn’t be the first time the prosecutor went north on a secret mission.

The U.S. Congress pays a substantial part of CICIG’s budget, but Mr. Velásquez has refused to answer questions at congressional hearings or in any public forum. Instead he meets behind closed doors on Capitol Hill, where he can control the narrative in front of an audience—both left and right—that is unfamiliar with or doesn’t care about CICIG’s transgressions against innocent Guatemalans. He also seems to have State Department sympathizers.

Mr. Morales’s detractors charge that he fired Mr. Velásquez to protect himself. CICIG has been investigating the president and alleges that he was the beneficiary of illegal campaign financing. He denies wrongdoing and enjoys immunity as long as he holds office. Mr. Velásquez has been working to lift that immunity.

Mr. Velásquez might successfully defend his commission if the standoff with the president were the only disputed issue. But under his leadership there is strong evidence that CICIG routinely flouts the rule of law and tramples civil liberties in violation of the Guatemalan constitution. His methods can’t be supported by a republic that pledges allegiance to transparency and human rights. CONTINUE AT SITE

The Kavanaugh Histrionics Senate Democrats turn the hearing into a presidential campaign.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-kavanaugh-histrionics-1536103645

Expectations were low for Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing, and Senate Democrats on Tuesday wasted no time meeting them. We can’t tell if they’re going through the histrionic motions or if they might actually try to block a confirmation vote.

Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley couldn’t finish his first sentence before California Democrat Kamala Harris interrupted to demand a hearing delay. Democrats continued to speak over the Chairman even after they were ruled out of order to the jeers of protestors who had to be removed from the hearing room. Democrats interrupted 44 times in the first hour, part of what NBC reported as a “plotted, coordinated strategy” organized by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer over the weekend.

The main charge is that Mr. Grassley is “denying” crucial documents to “hide” Judge Kavanaugh’s record. The Senators are ignoring the 307 opinions he has written, and the 17,000 pages of material he provided in response to the committee’s questionnaire—the most extensive ever demanded of a nominee. The Senators have already received more than half a million pages about his time as a lawyer and judge—more documents than were provided for the past five Supreme Court nominees combined.

Democrats haven’t found a killer issue in all of this, so they are demanding documents from Judge Kavanaugh’s time as a staff secretary in the Bush White House. The documents would reveal little about Judge Kavanaugh’s legal thinking, since as staff secretary his job was to vet and monitor what President Bush saw each day.

Former Senator Jon Kyl Will Succeed John McCain By Jack Crowe

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/former-senator-jon-kyl-will-succeed-john-mccain/

Former U.S. senator Jon Kyl will succeed former senator John McCain, the Arizona Republic reported on Tuesday.

Arizona governor Doug Ducey announced Kyl’s appointment at the Arizona capitol on Tuesday morning. Kyl, who represented Arizona in the Senate for 18 years before he retired in 2013, has reportedly agreed to serve through the end of the year at a minimum.

Kyl shares McCain’s conservative bona fides and is viewed by the Ducey administration as the obvious choice to complete McCain’s unfinished business due to his years of Senate experience.

“There is no one in Arizona more prepared to represent our state in the U.S. Senate than Jon Kyl,” Ducey said in a statement. “He understands how the Senate functions and will make an immediate and positive impact benefiting all Arizonans. I am deeply grateful to Senator Kyl for agreeing to succeed his friend and colleague of so many years.”

Kyl, who could be sworn in as soon as Tuesday night, was asked to consider succeeding his longtime friend and colleague just hours after McCain passed away on Saturday night, following a battle with brain cancer.

Cindy McCain, who was reportedly consulted during the search process, celebrated Kyl’s appointment in a statement on Tuesday morning.

David Archibald That Other Paris Pact, the One We Ignore

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2018/09/paris-treaty-important/

While our leaders have been eager to impress the world with Australia’s resolve to hobble its economy before the altar of the climate gods, another international accord is observed only in the breach. That’s the one insisting we maintain 90-day fuel supplies.

It seems we are finally rid of Julie Bishop, who resigned in a huff as foreign minister because she wasn’t made prime minister. Apparently, among the slights of her rejection, what particularly rankled was her failure to get a single party-room vote from any of her fellow WA Liberals. Presumably they know her better than anyone, which no doubt explains a lot. For others, those who have not lashed themselves to the mast of the Liberals’ Hesperus, she also uttered this reminder of her lack of fitness for higher office: Australia must honour the Paris Agreement and reduce emissions by 26%. “When we sign a treaty,” , she said, “parties should be able to rely on us.”

Yes, we should honour the Paris agreement — but not the climate one. There is a far more important treaty, also signed in the City of Light, to which are signatory. This is the International Energy Agency agreement of 1974, born out of the OECD in response to the First Oil Shock. The idea was that all the signatories would keep 90 days of fuel supplies on hand and be prepared to share in the event of an emergency.

Australia signed on in 1979 but is not honouring our treaty obligations. We know that because the new Department of Energy, under its new Minister Angus Taylor, says so. From the website (emphasis added):

As an IEA [International Energy Agency] member and signatory to the IEP Treaty, Australia is required to hold oil stocks equivalent to at least 90 days of the previous year’s average daily net oil imports. The Department is working to implement Australia’s compliance plan to address the current shortfall in oil stockholdings. The Department’s priorities for the IEA include working with the IEA to progress Australia’s plan to return to IEP treaty compliance.

At ISNA, Linda Sarsour Warns Muslims About “Humanizing” Israelis Daniel Greenfield

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/271235/isna-linda-sarsour-warns-muslims-about-humanizing-daniel-greenfield

Anti-Semitic Islamist activist, Linda Sarsour, was in fine form at ISNA, warning Muslims that if they weren’t fighting Israel, they were complicit. She warned them against even daring to “humanize” Israelis, as Steve Emerson reports at The Algemeiner.

Her tone often was not aimed at inspiring Muslims to be more politically active, as much as it was to shame them for not doing so. If they aren’t sufficiently engaged in advocating for the Palestinian cause, she said, “you as an American Muslim are complicit in the occupation of Palestinians, in the murder of Palestinian protesters. So when we start debating in the Muslim community about Palestine, it tells me a lot about you and about the type of faith that you have in your heart.”

Worse still, “if you’re on the side of the oppressor, or you’re defending the oppressor, or you’re actually trying to humanize the oppressor,” she said, “then that’s a problem sisters and brothers, and we got to be able to say: that is not the position of the Muslim American community.”

That seems like a slap at Muslim activists who have engaged in dialogue with Zionists and Israelis, and even traveled to Israel under a program financed by the Shalom Hartman Institute. Wajahat Ali, for example, was disinvited from speaking at this weekend’s convention for failing to make the Palestinian cause his paramount issue as a Muslim.

If you’re going to kill Jews, you have to dehumanize them.

And “resistance” is all about killing Jews. ISNA is part of a continuum of organizations that support Islamic terror against Israel.

John Kelly: No, I Did Not Call the President an Idiot; ‘He and I Both Know’ That’s ‘Total B.S.’ By Debra Heine

https://pjmedia.com/trending/john-kelly-no-i-did-not-call-the-president-an-idiot-he-and-i-both-know-thats-total-b-s/

The White House pushed back hard Tuesday against the extremely unflattering portrayal of President Trump in legendary journalist Bob Woodward’s scathing new book about the Trump administration. Woodward, who helped break the Watergate scandal over 40 years ago, is still a highly respected Washington journalist.

According to excerpts from the book, published at the Washington Post, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly called Trump an “idiot” during discussions with colleagues in the White House.

“He’s an idiot. It’s pointless to try to convince him of anything. He’s gone off the rails,” Kelly was quoted in the book as saying. “We’re in Crazytown. I don’t even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I’ve ever had,” he reportedly said.

Kelly allegedly would lose his temper often and said he thought Trump was “unhinged,” according to the report.

If the story seems familiar, it’s because the media first reported the allegation that Kelly called Trump an idiot last spring. He denied the charge then, calling it “total B.S.” and he’s denying it now.

“The idea I ever called the president an idiot is not true. As I stated back in May and still firmly stand behind, I spend more time with the president than anyone else, and we have an incredibly candid and strong relationship. He always knows where I stand, and he and I both know this story is total B.S. I’m committed to the president, his agenda, and our country. This is another pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump and distract from the administration’s many successes,” Kelly said.

Indoctrination Saturation By Victor Davis Hanson

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/09/social-justice-indoctrination-saturation-social-media-sports-movies/

The all-seeing social-justice eye penetrates every aspect of our lives: sports, movies, public monuments, social media, funerals . . .

A definition of totalitarianism might be the saturation of every facet of daily life by political agendas and social-justice messaging.

At the present rate, America will soon resemble the dystopias of novels such as 1984 and Brave New World in which all aspects of life are warped by an all-encompassing ideology of coerced sameness. Or rather, the prevailing orthodoxy in America is the omnipresent attempt of an elite — exempt from the consequences of its own ideology thanks to its supposed superior virtue and intelligence — to mandate an equality of result.

We expect their 24/7 political messaging on cable-channel news networks, talk radio, or print and online media. And we concede that long ago an NPR, CNN, MSNBC, or New York Times ceased being journalistic entities as much as obsequious megaphones of the progressive itinerary.

But increasingly we cannot escape anywhere the lidless gaze of our progressive lords, all-seeing, all-knowing from high up in their dark towers.

The Peter Strzok–Lisa Page texts, along with the careers of former FBI director James Comey and his deputy Andrew McCabe, reveal a politicized and in some sense rotten FBI hierarchy, beholden far more to its own exalted sense of a progressive self than merely to investigating crimes against the people.

Lois Lerner was a clumsy reflection of how the IRS long ago became weaponized in service to auditing deplorables. Former CIA director John Brennan and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper used their supposedly nonpartisan positions to further political agendas. That each in his own way is clownish does not mitigate their rank efforts to graft intelligence agencies onto political causes.

Trump and White House Say Woodward Book Is Fabricated, ‘Nasty’ By Justin Sink and Shawn Donnan see note please

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-04/kelly-says-he-didn-t-call-trump-idiot-disputing-woodward-book?srnd=premium

Woodward has been shown before to be a prevaricator….”In 1976, AIM published a 12-page demolition by the noted author, Victor Lasky, of Woodward and Bernstein’ s The Final Days. We asked Mr. Lasky to take a close look at Bob Woodward’s most recent book, Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA. Mr. Lasky found the book “so bereft of substance as to make the adventures of Baron yon Munchausen appear genuine.”rsk

Donald Trump and his allies attacked a soon-to-be-published book by legendary investigative journalist Bob Woodward that portrays the president as mercurial, untruthful and inept and his staff as consumed by infighting and disdainful of their boss.

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly denied Tuesday an assertion by Woodward that he called the president an idiot. A former lawyer to Trump, John Dowd, denied calling his client a liar. Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said she had never heard Trump propose assassinating Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Defense Secretary James Mattis disputed belittling the president as acting like a fifth-grader.

“It’s just nasty stuff,” Trump said of Woodward’s book in an interview Tuesday with the Daily Caller. “I never spoke to him. Maybe I wasn’t given messages that he called.

Trump’s spokeswoman, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, called Woodward’s latest book a collection of “fabricated stories.”

The Washington Post published excerpts Tuesday of Woodward’s book “Fear,” a deeply reported examination of the Trump presidency. The book portrays an administration consumed by brutal infighting and a president whose anger at Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation can paralyze the West Wing for days at a time. Close advisers quietly maneuver to control Trump’s impulses and prevent political and national security disasters.

Papadopoulos Court Docs Provide More Evidence Russiagate Was A Setup To Get Trump Why didn’t the FBI wire George Papadopoulos and arrange for him to meet with Joseph Mifsud during the State Department conference? Margot Cleveland

http://thefederalist.com/2018/09/04/papadopouloss-court-docs-provide-evidence-russiagate-setup-get-trump/

Late Friday, attorneys for former Donald Trump campaign advisor George Papadopoulos filed their client’s sentencing memorandum in preparation for his September 7, 2018 sentencing hearing before federal judge Randolph Moss.

Papadopoulos pleaded guilty in October 2017 to making a false statement to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a crime that carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Special Counsel Robert Mueller previously argued that a sentence of up to 6 months imprisonment would be appropriate, but in Friday’s filing Papadopoulos’s attorneys argued for a sentence of probation.

In reporting the latest developments in the case, the mainstream media quickly latched onto two sentences in Papadopoulos’ memo to push the dying Russia narrative. The language the press proffered as supposed evidence of collusion came in a passage in which Papadopoulos’ attorneys sought to portray the Trump advisor as out of his depth.

As his legal team explained to the court, at a March 31, 2016 “National Security Meeting” with Trump and Jeff Sessions, “eager to show his value to the campaign, George announced at the meeting that he had connections that could facilitate a foreign policy meeting between Mr. Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. While some in the room rebuffed George’s offer, Mr. Trump nodded with approval and deferred to Mr. Sessions who appeared to like the idea and stated that the campaign should look into it.”

The press predictably played up this exchange as a gotcha moment, while it was nothing of the sort. There is nothing nefarious about this discussion, and it has absolutely no bearing on the question of whether anyone in the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to interfere in the presidential election.

Timely/Timeless Arab-Israeli Truths To Recall Each High Holy Day Season…Gerald Honigman

https://ekurd.net/timeless-arab-israeli-2018-09-02

At a time when our older children witness–if not actually participate in–the vilification of Israel and Zionism inside and outside the classroom on the typical “Progressive” university (and even high school) campus, as we enter a new High Holy Day season, there are certain timeless and timely truths that must never be forgotten. Indeed, if one cares about these issues, it’s best to prepare starry-eyed, save the world/fight for the underdog, naive offspring before they fly the coop. Like the Passover Haggadah, they need to be recited and reviewed for each generation…

It seems like yesterday when the author was one of those above kids…

The difference? He ( I ) took it upon himself, with parental encouragement, to be involved and to learn lots about the Middle East before leaving the nest. Those were the years leading up to the June ’67 Six Day War.

Sadly, polls now increasingly show–at least in the Diaspora, though Israel certainly has such problems too–that not many (especially non-Orthodox) Jewish students (let alone others) care much about such things any more…Ditto for their parents. Neither do many of their religious leaders who say things like they care about Israel but insist that it be an increasingly indefensible zipper of a state. These acorns don’t fall far from their trees.

Not that those who do care were ever in the majority, but things are now lots more worrisome. Presently, many Jews even criticize the American leader, President Trump, for recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving America’s embassy there. And who cares about their alleged and pointless reasoning given the reality of Palestinian Arab rejectionism of any Jewish State—regardless of size?