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Ruth King

The Fiery Angel Michael Walsh’s survey of Western culture and its enemies. Mark Tapson

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270567/fiery-angel-mark-tapson

As Europe commits slow-motion suicide via a flood of Muslim migrants, and as Marxist mobs in America exploit the issue of immigrant family separation to advance their open-borders agenda, it is useful to step back from the hysteria and reflect on the bigger picture of the cultural history of the West and the inimical forces seeking to subvert it.

Michael Walsh’s compact new book The Fiery Angel: Art, Culture, Sex, Politics, and the Struggle for the Soul of the West provides that salutary perspective. A subtitle as grand as that promises a sweeping survey of the West’s artistic and intellectual heritage, as well as an insightful portrait of its enemies, and Walsh is one of the few writers who can deliver on that promise.

One would be hard-pressed to find another conservative intellectual, or intellectual of any political stripe, of Michael Walsh’s caliber. In terms of the depth and breadth of his familiarity with both high and low culture, only the iconoclastic Camille Paglia comes to mind as a rival. But Paglia isn’t also an American Book Award-winning novelist, journalist, distinguished classical music critic, and screenwriter. Walsh also writes political commentary for – among others – PJ Media, American Greatness, and the New York Post under both his own name and occasionally his alter ego David Kahane (Rules for Radical Conservatives: Beating the Left at its Own Game to Take Back America). He also happens to be a friend of mine, but my praise is not simple favoritism; his accomplishments speak for themselves.

Like its predecessor The Devil’s Pleasure Palace: The Cult of Critical Theory and the Subversion of the West (which I reviewed for FrontPage Mag here), The Fiery Angel not only draws heavily from the storytelling realms of opera, classical music, and literature from Aeschylus to Wharton, but also includes a liberal (in the plentiful, not political, sense) dose of pop culture references from Amadeus to the Twilight saga. “This volume,” Walsh introduces the book,

Lies, Damned Lies, and Immigration Policy The falsehoods that protect a political interest. Bruce Thornton

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270571/lies-damned-lies-and-immigration-policy-bruce-thornton

No policy debate is more filled with dishonesty and duplicity than immigration. The whine of political axes being ground is continually drowned out by Emma Lazarus sentimentalism, “we’re a nation of immigrants” clichés, promiscuous virtue-signaling, and the current weepy melodramas of children “ripped from their mother’s arms.” The whole sordid business exists, of course, to perfume some simple truths: Leviathan Dems want more voters and more dependents of the entitlement-industrial complex; Wall Street Republicans want plentiful cheap labor. The only thing missing are the facts about the reality of immigration both illegal and legal.

Start with imprecise numbers. We are told that there are currently 11 million illegal aliens in the U.S. Others say it’s closer to 20 to 25 million. The point is, nobody knows. We do know that close to a third of federal inmates are illegals. But we don’t know much about the rest, except for those illegal alien “dreamers” on television lamenting how they have to “live in the shadows.” We don’t know the extent of the costs to taxpayers of illegal immigration, even as we are told by amnesty supporters that they are net contributors to the economy through payroll and sales taxes. But they don’t tell us if that sum subtracts the $26 billion sent back to Mexico. We do know that taxpayers spend $2 billion a year to provide medical services to illegal aliens just in emergency room visits. According to Christopher Conover, state and local circumventions of federal prohibitions against health care for illegals are indirectly costing taxpayers $17 billion a year in care for illegal aliens. And that’s just health care. Some estimates put the total cost of illegal aliens at $89 billion, while others go as high $135 billion.

The Democrats Are Done Pretending to Be Moderate By Kyle Smith

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/06/democrats-done-pretending-to-be-moderate/They think they’re unpopular because they aren’t left-wing enough.

The Democratic love of socialism was for many years the love that dared not speak its name. No more. Now the party is figuratively jumping on Oprah’s couch shouting its love of socialism. You’d have to plug your ears not to hear it.

Socialist Bernie Sanders is unquestionably the spiritual leader of the Democratic party, which is radicalizing itself in his image, and on the strength of her blowout Democratic-primary win over liberal incumbent Joe Crowley in the party-ruled NY-14 congressional district, soon-to-be-congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is now one of the most prominent faces in the Democratic party. A poll last fall put support for socialism at 44 percent among Millennials, and even more disturbingly, 23 percent of this group agreed that Joseph Stalin is a “hero.” Socialized medicine, i.e., Medicare for all, is the hottest issue on the Left (unless you count hating Trump as an “issue”).

In short, Democrats are who we thought they were. They’re just losing their inhibitions about it. As the woke-youth site Vox puts it, “Maybe Democrats should stop being afraid of the left” because “Ocasio-Cortez’s victory is a big sign that Democrats can run on socialist ideas and win.” Talk of revolution flows naturally. After Justice Kennedy announced his retirement, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews said, “I tell you, the Democratic base is wired now for a revolt.”

It’s become a cliché to compare Washington politics to Wag the Dog (1997) or Idiocracy (2006), perhaps the two most-cited political movies of this era. A forgotten political film from the 1990s, though, deserves more attention for its prescience: Warren Beatty’s Bulworth, which appeared in theaters 20 years ago this spring. (Spoilers follow. The movie is streaming on the Starz pay-TV service.)

The Tawdry and Dumb Nazi Charge By Rich Lowry

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/06/27/the-tawdry-and-dumb-nazi-charge-218932

he Nazi analogy has long been recognized as the crudest and dumbest form of argument, but it is enjoying a renaissance.

Former CIA Director Michael Hayden notoriously and unapologetically tweeted a photo of Auschwitz-Birkenau as a response to family separations at the border. Upon a report that parents at the border were being told that their children were being taken to get bathed and disappearing, Chris Hayes of MSNBC tweeted, “What does this remind you of?” Soledad O’Brien chimed in, “Welp, I guess we’ve put to rest the question: ‘Nazi Germany: Could it happen here in America?’”

I have a relaxed attitude toward harsh political rhetoric, but Nazi analogies are over the line, and combined with the left’s taste for personally confronting Trump officials and supporters, they portend greater civil conflict and, perhaps, violence.

You don’t deal with Nazis, you don’t talk to Nazis, you don’t tolerate Nazis. You do to Nazis what happens to them, gruesomely and often, in the Quentin Tarantino film “Inglourious Basterds.” To consider your domestic political opponents Nazis is to place them beyond the pale and beyond the ambit of civil society. They must be confronted and crushed, by means fair and foul.

NeverTrump is Now Never SCOTUS By Julie Kelly

As Democrats have (another) collective meltdown over this week’s Supreme Court rulings and the impending retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, President Trump’s supporters are venting their own rage at another target: NeverTrump Republicans. https://amgreatness.com/2018/06/29/nevertrump-is-now-neverscotus/

Minutes after Kennedy announced he would step down later this year, Washington D.C. talk-radio host Larry O’Connor tweeted that NeverTrumpers “should be spending the day explaining their decision” not to vote for Donald Trump.

Fox News Channel’s Laura Ingraham reminded folks that none of the recent Supreme Court decisions “would have been possible if the #NeverTrumpers had their way.” Her colleague, Sean Hannity, roasted NeverTrumpers in his opening monologue Wednesday night: “For all of you NeverTrumpers, if you would have had your way . . . Hillary Rodham Clinton would have been making now a second appointment.”

And an Investor’s Business Daily editorial posed the question: “Conservatives are celebrating a number of important victories at the Supreme Court, as well as the chance to replace moderate Justice Anthony Kennedy. But none of these wins would have been possible if the Never-Trump crowd had its way. How about a mea culpa?”

I’ll go a step further: If NeverTrumpers had their way, we would now be contemplating the possibility of Associate Justice Barack (or Michelle!) Obama.

Both Parties Mobilize for Supreme Court Battle Over Kennedy’s Successor White House and GOP dust off playbook from Gorsuch nomination, and Democrats search for a way to derail pick By Louise Radnofsky and Joshua Jamerson

https://www.wsj.com/articles/with-trump-supreme-court-coming-democrats-weigh-strategy-1530209462?cx_testId=16&cx_testVariant=cx&cx_artPos=1&cx_tag=collabctx&cx_navSource=newsReel#cxrecs_s

Republicans and Democrats readied for the battle to choose Justice Anthony Kennedy’s successor, with the White House dusting off the plan it used to win last year’s Supreme Court fight and Democrats searching for a way to derail President Donald Trump’s nominee amid a heated midterm election campaign.

The White House again has enlisted Leonard Leo, executive vice president of the Federalist Society, a conservative lawyers network, to assist in a selection process that already is focusing on fewer than a half-dozen candidates. Within hours of Justice Kennedy’s retirement announcement Wednesday, Mr. Leo took a leave of absence from the Federalist Society to serve as Mr. Trump’s outside adviser on the nomination.

People close to the White House selection process anticipate that a nominee will be announced before Mr. Trump departs for the coming NATO summit, which begins in Brussels on July 11, with Republicans hoping for confirmation hearings in mid-August and a full Senate vote ahead of the November midterm elections.

The pick presents the Republican president with the opportunity—and challenge—of seeking to replicate an early success of his presidency, the nomination and swift confirmation of Justice Neil Gorsuch to succeed the late Justice Antonin Scalia.

Marc Short, Mr. Trump’s legislative affairs chief, said in an interview that he “would like to believe that Republican senators recognize” the opportunity to fulfill a longstanding GOP campaign pledge to remake the court.

The #MosqueMeToo Movement Muslim women stop rationalizing or tolerating abuse. See note

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-mosquemetoo-movement-1530226224

Ms. Kahn’s hubby is imam Feisal Abdul Rauf who wanted to build a mosque near Ground Zero. They were implicated in a $20 million lawsuit alleging her husband, imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, pilfered $3 million from two nonprofits — including her own……rsk

Ms. Khan, founder of the Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality, is author of “Born with Wings: The Spiritual Journey of a Modern Muslim Woman” (Spiegel & Grau, 2018).

The #MeToo movement seemingly has touched all corners of American society—business, religion, journalism, sports, politics, academia, culture and more. Yet there remains a deep, global pool of alleged perpetrators. Perhaps unsurprisingly, reports of abuse and exploitation have surfaced from within the Muslim community, in the U.S. and abroad.

In February an anonymous Pakistani woman posted on Facebook about being sexually harassed while on the hajj to Mecca. Egyptian-American feminist Mona Eltahawy then shared her own story of abuse as a teenager. This likely marked the birth of the #MosqueMeToo movement. Today Muslim women across the world continue to report stories of inappropriate sexual experiences within their communities and sacred spaces—environments meant to foster spiritual growth.

This has provoked responses ranging from supportive sisterhood to rage and even disbelief. Even Muslim women are deeply divided. Many find themselves torn between centuries of tradition, modern social pressures, and their own beliefs. Like many Muslim women living in the West, I have struggled to find the balance among my religion, my culture and American social mores.

Hundreds of Women’s March Protesters Arrested in Senate Office Building By Bridget Johnson

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/hundreds-of-womens-march-protesters-arrested-in-senate-office-building/

Capitol Police arrested nearly 600 Women’s March protesters who filled the atrium of the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill today in opposition to the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” border enforcement policies.

The women and a few men chanted “Abolish ICE” and donned foil blankets like those given to child detainees in photos of Texas border processing facilities recently released by Customs and Border Protection.

Protesters at the sit-in also chanted “We care!” in a likely nod to the olive-green jacket worn by first lady Melania Trump on the flight to visit children at the border last week, which said on the back “I really don’t care, do u?” She returned to the border again today for a second visit, jacket-less.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) was arrested along with about 575 others.

Capitol Police said the protesters were charged with the D.C. Code violation of crowding, obstructing or incommoding. They were processed on the scene and released.

Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) also appeared to cheer on the protesters.Demonstrators are planning a Saturday “Day of Action” with #FamiliesBelongTogether protests across the country.

NYT undercuts Mueller By David Zukerman

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/06/nyt_undercuts_mueller.html

Two New York Times writers have offered evidence that the actions of the Russians and former director James Comey may not have been so crucial to the defeat of Hillary Clinton after all, calling into question the raison d’etre of the Mueller investigation.

First, Charlie Savage on June 28, commenting on the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, noted that Donald Trump promised to name conservatives to the high court. Savage then acknowledged, “Court-focused voters helped deliver Mr. Trump’s narrow victory over Hillary Clinton….” (Actually, the win was not “narrow.” Trump got 304 electoral votes to Clinton’s 227.)

Another editorial on the surprise defeat of Rep. Joseph Crowley by 28-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Sanders-ista, in the primary for a House seat from a district extending from the Bronx to Queens attributed the ten-term congressman’s loss to

“a sense of hubris and complacency… the kind that contributed to Hillary Clinton’s loss to Donald Trump… In Mrs. Clinton’s case, it may have stopped her from campaigning harder in states like Wisconsin and Michigan, places where Mr. Trump eked out narrow victories. In Mr. Crowley’s case, it may have led him to become smug.”

Migrants and France will break the EU – or make it: Francesco Sisci

http://www.settimananews.it/italia-europa-mondo/migranti-francia-la-ue/

It is France—not Germany, Italy, or any other country on the old continent—that can decide today what will happen to the young but already troubled European Union. The EU is under siege.

There is a medium-term threat to the EU which is about the future of the single currency, endangered on a thousand fronts. Even though it is not in the eurozone, with the Brexit, Britain will shake the single market and the single currency; Italy poses the problem of reforming the economic and financial institutions of the EU; Germany and its northern partners are pulled by isolationist drives.

But these are medium-term issues, which will come to the fore next year after the Brexit becomes official and the elections of the European Parliament in 2019. In the short term, it is the urgent issue of migration that is breaking the continent asunder, and here perhaps it is France that has many of the solutions. And the vote on Brexit was about migrants not about the single market or the single currency.

The wave of migration from Africa arrives in Europe mainly via Libya, but also from Morocco and Algeria. In the last two countries, there is still a strong French influence, and in Libya France and Italy compete over influence.

From here, the northern shores of Africa, the migrants make the last leap, the least dangerous one, crossing the Mediterranean to land in Malta, Italy, Spain, or Portugal, and from there they may move further north. However, the migrants have already made most the dangerous and difficult jump, through a path of death and slavery in the Sahara desert. It is in Mali, Niger, and Chad that the black African migrants converge. These countries are historically under French influence, and even though recently a new Italian presence has arrived, it has not undermined the French one.