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POLITICS

NYT Puff Piece On Democrat Ilhan Omar Again Whitewashes Her Apparent Anti-Semitism Ilhan Omar has tweeted, ‘Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.’ The New York Times didn’t see fit to discuss that in its profile. Warren Henry

http://thefederalist.com/2019/01/03/nyt-puff-piece-democrat-ilhan-omar-whitewashes-apparent-anti-semitism/

The bad news is that The New York Times decided to close 2018 by whitewashing the anti-Semitic record of incoming House Democrat Ilhan Omar. The good news is that the Times and Omar apparently still believe the whitewashing is necessary.

“Glorified and Vilified, Representative-Elect Ilhan Omar Tells Critics: ‘Just Deal’” is a fairly representative headline for the story by Sheryl Gay Stolberg, a puff piece of the sort one might find at Teen Vogue instead of the Gray Lady.

In this telling, soon-to-be representative Omar is the plucky immigrant who transcends bullies, the sexism of Somali culture, and the intolerance of an unnamed Christian pastor to become one of the first two Muslim women in Congress. Indeed, a professor quoted in the article calls Omar “the epitome of the so-called American dream, but for much of white Christian America, she’s an American nightmare.”

The problem with this sort of propaganda is what was left unreported. According to the story, “Her support for the boycott, divest and sanctions movement to pressure Israel to improve treatment of Palestinians is making Jewish leaders nervous.”

This formulation is laughably incomplete, beginning with the failure to quote any Jewish leader detailing their issues with Omar. (Lonny Goldsmith, editor of TCJewfolk, a media nonprofit in the Twin Cities, says only that she’s a “politician,” and in paragraph 23 of the story.)

Enter the House of Pelosi The main Democratic goal will be destroying Donald Trump.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/enter-the-house-of-pelosi-11546473467

Nancy Pelosi takes the oath as Speaker of the House for the third time Thursday, a suitable reward for gaining 40 seats. If you expect a new era of progress in Washington, however, fair warning. The main Democratic goal will be investigating, not legislating. Then again, the country could do worse than policy gridlock, and it probably will.

The new Democratic House is being compared with the first Pelosi majority of 2006, but there’s one big difference: The 2018 Democrats ran on no discernible agenda beyond rejecting Donald Trump and all his works. The animating purpose of Congress will be investigations to damage, and perhaps impeach, the President to tee up total Democratic control after 2020.

Mr. Trump’s tax returns and foreign business dealings will get frequent star turns. Democrats think they can prove Mr. Trump has exploited his office for personal enrichment, or in some way that matters to Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. If not, at least they’ll embarrass the Trump family. Ivanka and Jared should prepare for subpoenas and dives into their email habits and security clearances.

Democrats will also run investigations into payments to Stormy Daniels; the Administration’s policy of separating children at the border; and every consultation with a business about a deregulatory decision. House Democrats will trail every cabinet officer down to whether he ordered a cocktail on a commercial flight. This will present even greater problems in staffing federal agencies.

Nadler-Trump Feud to Resume — With Higher Stakes . By Adele Malpass

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/01/03/nadler-trump_feud_to_resume_–_with_higher_stakes_139078.html

Old grudges die hard and Donald Trump and Rep. Jerry Nadler have been stoking theirs for decades. The two New Yorkers with a history of mutual dislike are preparing for another rumble in the new Congress, when Nadler takes the gavel as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. After years of back-and-forth, Nadler may get to land the ultimate punch on Trump by controlling the first step in an impeachment process.

Unlike other New York Democrats who have tried over the years to ingratiate themselves with Trump for campaign donations, Nadler has tried a different tack. For the last 30 years, he’s consistently attacked Trump, which has elevated the congressman’s profile among liberals in New York and Washington.

The two have been trading barbs since the late 1980s when Nadler was in the New York State Assembly and Trump was developing the Penn Rail Yards into an apartment complex and park in Nadler’s district on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Using his now-familiar rhetorical style, Trump called the project the “greatest ever” and the “most important project” needed for New York City. He wanted one of the buildings to be taller than Chicago’s Sears Tower so it would be the tallest building in the U.S., which he said was a distinction that should belong to Manhattan.

The original plans for “Trump City” included a television studio, shopping mall, massive parking structure, and private park — and it involved moving a highway. This would be a major change to the neighborhood. Nadler aligned with community groups who opposed the development, which they called “the phallic symbol,” “tacky” and “overbearing.” By the early 1990s, Trump was having financial difficulties and just wanted to get the project approved and built.

At one point, he wanted federal highway funds for the undertaking, which Nadler, who by then was serving in Congress, managed to kill. Nadler also convinced then-HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo to stop Trump from getting a federal mortgage guarantee for his project, which the real estate mogul wanted to categorize as blighted land. “This was an area in the middle of some of the most expensive real estate in the country, which Trump was calling blighted in order to receive federal funds,” recalls Nadler spokesman Daniel Schwarz. “Donald Trump has a long history of trying to take advantage of the system to help himself. Congressman Nadler has always stood on the other side.”

Andrew Cuomo: ‘Joe Biden Has the Best Case’ of 2020 Dem. Hopefuls By Mairead McArdle

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/cuomo-joe-biden-has-the-best-case-of-2020-dem-hopefuls/

New York governor Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday that Joe Biden has the most “credibility” of the many prospective candidates for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

“I think of all the names that are out there, I think Joe Biden has the best case,” Cuomo told radio station WAMC. “I think Joe Biden has the best case because he brings the most of the secret ingredient you need to win for a Democrat, which is credibility.”

Cuomo, who himself was rumored to be exploring a presidential run until he ruled it out several weeks ago, also said he expected the primary field to be crowded.

“I think there’s going to be a big field,” Cuomo said in response to questions about the candidacy of Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, who announced that she was forming an exploratory committee earlier this week. Other possible Democratic candidates include Senators Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Bernie Sanders, and Kirsten Gillibrand.

“I think the problem for the Democrats is going to be this: It is going to be credibility,” Cuomo said. “I think that the main issue for the Democrats is not going to be the articulation of the negative. It is going to be the articulation of the positive.”

Elizabeth Warren: Dead phony walking By Thomas Lifson

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/01/elizabeth_warren_dead_phony_walking.html

Elizabeth Warren obviously has no concept of the damage she already has done to her future in national politics by revealing her DNA test results showing that she has less Native America DNA than the average citizen of this country. How else could she have issued her bizarre Instagram video announcing her presidential campaign? The live-feed video she posted to Instagram (but did not archive) lives on and has made her into a national joke, confirming that deep down, the genuine, authentic Elizabeth Warren is a phony.

The estimable William A. Jacobson of Legal Insurrection dubs the video her “Dukakis Tank Moment,” a judgment shared by Boston Herald columnist Jaclyn Cashman.

Warren’s cringeworthy event – streamed on Instagram Live on New Year’s Eve – is a friendly chat with her followers.

“I’m here in my kitchen – and um – I thought maybe we’d just take some questions and I’d see what I can do,” Warren said.

At which point she not-so-casually said she would grab a beer. Seems innocuous enough. Beer has a time-honored place in presidential politics. But this resident of Cambridge’s la-di-dah Linnaean Street and erstwhile Harvard elitist is really an extra oaky chardonnay kind of lady. Her poor husband was so befuddled – apparently not fully clued in on the stunt – that when she offered him one he declined. More of a 20-year-old tawny port sipper, no doubt.

The most authentic thing about the video, in fact, was its bogusness: Warren once again trying to pretend she is something she is not.

It is widely believed that the stunt in which presidential candidate Dukakis rode in a tank with a tanker’s helmet on – an effort to prove his toughness on national security – backfired, as he looked completely unnatural.

Mitt Romney Blasts ‘Deep Descent’ of Trump Presidency In op-ed piece, incoming Utah senator and former 2012 presidential candidate says president ‘has not risen to the mantle of office’ by Peter Nicholas see note please

https://www.wsj.com/articles/mitt-romney-blasts-deep-descent-of-trump-presidency-11546399916

Shame on Mitt Romney who was stumped badly by Obama in the 2012 debates, and ultimately rejected by Donald Trump when he auditioned for a cabinet post. An incoming Senator should concentrate on the ways a GOP representative can bring prosperity to his state…..rsk

WASHINGTON—Mitt Romney, the former Republican presidential nominee who will be sworn in as senator for Utah on Thursday, delivered a withering attack on President Trump’s character in an op-ed article published Tuesday.

Mr. Romney wrote in the Washington Post that U.S. presidents are role models who should “unite and inspire” a nation and display “honesty and integrity.”

“And it is in this province where the incumbent’s shortfall has been most glaring,” he wrote.

Mr. Romney’s article is an unusual attack from a member of the president’s own party. In the Senate, Republican criticism of Mr. Trump has been sparing, coming primarily from lawmakers who are on their way out of office, notably Bob Corker of Tennessee and Jeff Flake of Arizona.

By taking aim at Mr. Trump in so public a forum at the beginning of his term, Mr. Romney appears to be signaling that he will follow a more independent path when it comes to the president’s behavior. The piece inevitably will stoke speculation that Mr. Romney may want to challenge Mr. Trump for the 2020 Republican presidential nomination. Polling shows, though, that Mr. Trump commands the loyalty of rank-and-file Republicans.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Mr. Trump is sensitive to attacks from prominent political figures, though, and typically uses his Twitter feed to respond.

In a tweet Tuesday night, Mr. Trump’s 2020 campaign manager, Brad Parscale, wrote: “The truth is @mittromney lacked the ability to save this nation. @realdonaldtrump has saved it. Jealously is a drink best served warm and Romney just proved it.”

Warren On The Warpath? By Frank Salvato

Now comes word that Progressive-Fascist Elizabeth “I feel like I am a Native American Indian so I’ll just say that I am” Warren is seriously contemplating a run for President of the United States. I guess she embraces delusions of grandeur whether about ruling the teepee or the free world.

In her announcement, which didn’t take place in front of a crowd but in a YouTube video, the fraudulent wannabe-Cherokee said government “has been bought and paid for by a bunch of billionaires and giant corporations that think they get to dictate the rules that affect everyone…”

Evidently, Warren believes that the elitist and oligarchical powers that comprise the Fascist-Progressive faction that would see our country transform from a Constitutional Republic to Democratic Socialism would be more benevolent than the imperfect system we have today.

Does Capitalism have its flaws? Well, yes, but only when the pure Capitalist system is encroached upon by government regulations that seek to create opportunity for select groups. The flaws of Capitalism reside in an overreaching government, both at the Federal and State levels. When the free market is allowed to function without economic interference it serves the public like no other economic system. Capitalism is the only economic system that created a middle class and opportunity for all.

So, Warren, a woman who falsified her resume to land a six-figure teaching gig at Harvard, and who, as far as anyone can tell, wouldn’t know how to bag groceries at the local supermarket, is attempting to place herself back within the spotlight of relevancy by saying our economic system sucks and Socialism is superior.

I suppose we should ask Venezuelans about that.

It’s Not That Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Knows Nothing . . . By Chris Buskirk

https://amgreatness.com/2018/12/28/its-not-that-alexandria

Many on the right say she is a millennial know nothing. That’s not true. It’s just that everything she thinks she really knows is wrong.

As tragedy struck an acquaintance this week, I was reminded today of the fleeting nature of life. The Psalmist begged God, “O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!” What can one say to that but, Amen! As important and precious as our lives are, they are fleeting, delicate, ephemeral.

But Christmas is a season when we pause to remember and to honor the advent of the Creator who took on human vesture, as the Liturgy of St. James so memorably puts it, and in doing so we catch a glimpse of the eternal. Politics, though important, gets put into perspective.

Yet Christmas was also the day I was reminded of how quickly and perversely even the highest things are misused for low purposes. I realized almost immediately that I had made a mistake when, out of sheer habit, I looked at Twitter on Christmas morning. Within moments I happened upon a tweet from the Bronx’s newest congresswoman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

It began cheerfully enough: “Joy to the world.” Wonderful. “Merry Christmas everyone.” And a Merry Christmas to you, too! I thought. Look, per Rodney King, we can all just get along if only for a morning. The congresswoman-elect continued: “. . . here’s to a holiday filled with happiness, family, and love . . .” Lovely. Sounds like just the way to spend Christmas.

Trump Works While NeverTrump Predicts Doom—Again By Julie Kelly

https://amgreatness.com/2018/12/27/trump-works

While the president worked during the holidays—including surprise trips with the first lady to greet U.S. troops in Iraq and Germany—anti-Trump “conservatives” worked hard on their laptops to warn Americans of impending doom for Trump’s presidency.

Again.

In an uncharitable Christmas Day screed, National Review senior editor Jonah Goldberg served up some flashbacks from his NeverTrump past to yet again warn that Trump’s presidency will “end poorly.” Goldberg again condemned Trump for his lack of character; again blasted Trump supporters for emulating his bellicose style; and again unleashed a litany of alleged offenses—such as the president’s “rants against the 1st Amendment”—as evidence of why Donald Trump is, like, the worst president ever.

Goldberg is lashing out lately: From his borderline-misogynistic diatribe against a female journalist who outed National Review for accepting donations from Google while possibly suppressing negative stories about the tech giant, to an attack on his NR colleague Andrew McCarthy (which eventually elicited an apology from Goldberg), he seems more unhinged than usual.

Which makes his lazy harangue about Trump’s name-calling and mean-spiritedness all the more ironic. Please, Jonah, tell us more about character and manners just days after you called a woman reporter an “idiot,” a “McCarthyite,” a “failed-actress-turned-faux journalist,” and a “MAGA infomercial hostess.”

Goldberg isn’t alone. His fellow NeverTrump travelers are certain it’s really over for Trump this time.

“We should be deeply troubled,” insisted Goldberg’s sidekick, David French, after the December 20 resignation of Defense Secretary James Mattis. “Now is the time for Republicans in Congress to declare their independence from the Republican in the White House and refuse once and for all to rubber-stamp Donald Trump’s whims and desires.”

Tom Nichols—who seizes on every real or imagined scandal du jour to warn his fellow Americans that the end is (again near—fumed over Mattis’s resignation.

Hijab in the House By Bruce Bawer

https://pjmedia.com/homeland-security/hijab-in-the-house/

One of the notable results of the November 6 midterm elections was that the U.S. House of Representatives went from two Muslim members — Indiana’s André Carson and Minnesota’s Keith Ellison, who on the same day was elected his state’s attorney general — to three Muslims, Carson plus two new female members from Michigan and Minnesota. With few if any exceptions, the mainstream media rooted for these ladies throughout the campaign season and lustily cheered their victories, not because of their skills or experience or political views but because they represented “diversity.”

The same media also did their best to cover up unpleasant details about them. For example, Rashida Tlaib, the soon-to-be-installed member from Michigan, has a record of outspoken anti-Semitic comments (at her victory party, she wrapped herself in a Palestinian flag). As David Steinberg demonstrated in a bravura series of investigative articles for PJ Media, Ilhan Omar, the hijab-wearing future Gentlewoman from Minnesota (on her account, Democrats plan to lift a 181-year-old ban on head coverings in Congress), not only hates Jews but committed perjury and married her brother, likely as part of an immigration and student-loan scam. Nonetheless she is already being hailed as a “star” and has been elected to a leadership role in the House progressive caucus.

Granted, these are just two House members out of 435. And Ellison, who won election in Minnesota despite his chummy relations with Louis Farrakhan and highly plausible accusations of domestic abuse, is, so far, the country’s only Muslim state AG. But it’s a start — a foot in the door. At what point are we permitted to begin worrying out loud?

How about when we catch up with Canada, where the minister of Immigration is a Somali-born Muslim named Ahmed Hussen, who was last seen pushing the sinister UN migration pact and refusing to answer queries about it from Rebel Media, Canada’s online alternative news organization? (Canada’s mainstream media were too polite to ask Hussen uncomfortable questions about the UN deal.)

Or how about when we evolve as far as Germany, whose Minister of Immigration Aydan Özoğuz is the sister of two Hezbollah enthusiasts named Yavuz and Gürhan Özoğuz, who reportedly have “close ties to the Iranian government” and to various Holocaust deniers and who run a “virulently anti-Israeli, anti-American and anti-democratic” website called “Muslim-Markt.” In a 2013 interview, Aydan, the Immigration minister, said: “They are my brothers. I don’t deny my family. I think apart from my brothers on political issues.” Two years later she expressed the same sentiments in an NPR interview, saying that she and her brothers “have completely different views” but that she considers it “important to keep the channel of communication open in her family.” How sweet! One is reminded of Hillary’s sidekick, Huma Abedin, who got a pass from the media even though her father ran a top Muslim Brotherhood organization and her mother edited a Sharia law journal (for which Huma herself worked from 1995 to 2008) and sat on an Islamic council chaired by the vile hate preacher Yusuf al-Qaradawi.

In 2015, voters in the traditionally Polish-American city of Hamtramck, Michigan, elected the nation’s first Muslim-majority city council — leading a local Muslim leader to shout at an Election Night victory party: “Today we show the Polish, and everybody else!” As Robert Spencer wrote at the time: “Multicultural euphoria, meet Islamic supremacist reality.” No major U.S. city has a Muslim mayor yet, but it’s only a matter of time. Rotterdam has one: Morocco-born Ahmed Aboutaleb, who’s been in office since 2009 and who identifies as a devout yet Westernized Muslim. A dual citizen of the Netherlands and Morocco, Aboutaleb has said many of the right things about terrorism and integration, and has even been praised by Geert Wilders; but last December he got into trouble when he told an interviewer that “every Muslim is a bit of a salafist” and described his own mayoral work as “jihad in its most perfect form” — remarks which led Wilders to demand his resignation. A couple of months ago, Aboutaleb agreed to a plan that would cut off the flow of asylum seekers from North Africa into Rotterdam, which is already one of the most heavily Muslim — and crime-ridden — cities in Europe. But who knows what he’s really thinking? What can it possibly mean to be a devout yet Westernized Muslim? Whom is this guy hoodwinking? His fellow Muslims or us?

Sadiq Khan, who has been mayor of London for two years, also calls himself a “moderate, socially liberal Muslim.” Yet one of his first acts as mayor was to ban ads on public transport depicting scantily clad females. He claimed to be doing so on feminist grounds, although many observers saw it as a step toward Sharia. Under Khan, who has notoriously stated that living with terrorism is “part of living in a big city,” London authorities have focused less on Muslim crime and preventing terrorism and more on harassing “Islamophobes.”

Then there’s the Somalia-born Lord Mayor of Sheffield Magid Magid, who, since being named to that post earlier this year, has been celebrated by hip types all over the UK because he’s young, black, Muslim, and informal to the point of irreverence. In an interview with the Daily Mail, Magid referred to the current monarch as Queen Victoria, then, when corrected, said: “Yeah. Liz.” Making no secret of his disdain for the monarchy, his contempt for Donald Trump, and his indifference to the legacy of Winston Churchill, Magid appears to know absolutely nothing about the history of his city and has not bothered to read the guidelines to official protocol that he was given when he took office; but he’s big on immigrants, refugees, and asylum-seekers, all of whom, he says, “enrich our society,” and one of his chief goals is to establish an official Sheffield poet laureateship so he can give the job to a certain rapper. Anyone who criticizes him for any of this is, in his view, a racist. Magid comes off as such a buffoon that it’s hard to take him very seriously as a part of the Muslim menace, but perhaps it’s unwise, at this stage, to underestimate his ability to make a meaningful contribution to the Islamic assault on British freedom. CONTINUE AT SITE