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POLITICS

Mayoral Mismatch Chief executives of cities don’t usually make good presidential candidates. Joel Kotkin

https://www.city-journal.org/mayors-presidential-candidates

Mayors have had little success in becoming president, with only one big-city chief executive, Grover Cleveland of Buffalo, later governor of New York, actually making it to the White House. Yet this year’s running of the donkeys includes several: a minor-city chief executive, Pete Buttigieg of South Bend; a former big-city mayor, Cory Booker of Newark; former San Antonio mayor Julian Castro; and John Hickenlooper, formerly chief executive of Denver before becoming Colorado’s governor. They may yet be joined by New York’s Bill de Blasio. Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti considered a run but thought better of it, perhaps realizing that his city’s burgeoning homeless population and rampant inequality would dog him on the campaign trail. The other mayors’ records are not much better than Garcetti’s, but they didn’t hesitate to jump in.

Buttigieg’s record is nothing remarkable. South Bend remains plagued by racial tension and a high murder rate. Buttigieg’s big challenge, according to Slate’s woke take, is whether being gay will make up for the unfortunate reality that he is also white and male, especially given his failure to embrace “the idea of gayness as a cultural framework, formative identity, or anything more than a category of sexual and romantic behavior.”

Tlaib’s Anti-Semitic Hate Elicits Stunning Support From Democrats The Left sets into Jew-hate overdrive. Ari Lieberman

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273768/tlaibs-anti-semitic-hate-elicits-stunning-support-ari-lieberman

Just when we thought the Democratic Party could stoop no lower into Corbynism, we are treated to comments made by Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich), which were stunningly breathtaking in terms of their sheer mendacity and revisionism. In a podcast interview with Yahoo’s Skullduggery, Tlaib noted that she always has a calming feeling when thinking of the Holocaust because it was her Palestinian ancestors who provided safe haven for the Jewish survivors of post-Holocaust Europe. Then she lamented about the high cost her ancestors endured because of their alleged benevolence toward the Jews, and cited the loss of their homes, land, livelihood and human dignity as examples.

Tlaib, who is an avid supporter of the anti-Semitic BDS crew, ended her revisionist version of history by hoping for a one-state solution. This is a pernicious euphemism for flooding Israel with millions of hostile Palestinian “refugees” and their descendants, and is a common refrain for those wishing for Israel’s destruction.

Tlaib’s lies were so outrageous and revisionist that it’s difficult to believe that her interviewers allowed them to go unchallenged but unchallenged they went. Perhaps their lack of challenge was a function of ignorance or perhaps something more nefarious was at play; either way, it is incumbent on those interested in furthering the truth to rebut these fabrications whenever they rear their ugly heads.

Tulsi Gabbard Becomes First 2020 Dem to Speak Out against Facebook Censorship By Jack Crowe

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/tulsi-gabbard-becomes-first-2020-dem-to-speak-out-against-facebook-censorship/During a recent appearance on comedian Joe Rogan’s podcast, Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D., Hawaii) became the first and only Democratic presidential contender to voice opposition to the censorship of Facebook users.

During the interview, Gabbard split with fellow Democrats — many of whom have cast conservative concerns about tech censorship as a “conspiracy theory” — arguing instead that companies like Facebook have betrayed the longstanding American commitment to free expression by ousting unpopular political commentary from their platforms.

“There’s just been news recently about Facebook banning certain individuals . . . because of their speech. They disagree with the speech they’re using or the ideas they’re pushing forward. Unchecked, First Amendment rights going out the window,” she said, referring to Facebook’s recent purge of users on the political fringes such as Infowars reporter Paul Joseph Watson and notorious anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan.

“The argument is [the First Amendment] doesn’t apply because they’re a private company, right?” Rogan responded.

“Yes, but they re trying to get the best of both worlds. The fact that they are claiming to say, ‘Hey, this is a free space for open communication for everyone’ while at the same time saying ‘You know, what Joe, I don’t like what you’re saying about this, so we’re going to ban you and whoever your friends are from this conversation’ — I think that’s a big problem.”

22nd Dem Enters 2020 Race — With Tirade Against Free Speech in Politics By Tyler O’Neil

https://pjmedia.com/trending/22nd-dem-enters-2020-race-with-tirade-against-free-speech-in-politics/

On Tuesday morning, Gov. Steve Bullock (D-Mont.) announced his candidacy for president in the Democratic 2020 presidential primary. Bullock may have a #MeToo scandal brewing — New York Mayor Bill de Blasio “ripped” into him for failing to warn about an aide’s history of sexual harassment before that aide became de Blasio’s chief of staff. Bullock is virtually unknown across the country, and he decided to enter the gates campaigning against free speech in politics.

That’s right — spinning a yarn on the evils of corruption, Bullock condemned free speech in politics in his campaign announcement video. In fact, he made it the center of his campaign.

Democrats like Bullock don’t phrase it this way, of course, but when they condemn “Citizens United,” they’re condemning the ability of everyday Americans to band together and spend money to promote political messages in the public square. Americans should be able to do this anonymously, just like Benjamin Franklin did under the pen name “Silence Dogood.” Contrary to the narrative spun by Bullock and others, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010) was a victory for free speech in politics and primary challengers, not corporate interests or corruption.

Bullock begins his video with an image of Berkeley Pit in Butte, Montana. The open pit copper mine is a toxic threat to the water in the area, and the Montana governor tried to make it an image of corruption. CONTINUE AT SITE

Warren: ‘Fox News Is a Hate-For-Profit Racket That Gives a Megaphone to Racists and Conspiracists’ By Tyler O’Neil

https://pjmedia.com/trending/warren-fox-news-is-a-hate-for-profit-racket-that-gives-a-megaphone-to-racists-and-conspiracists/

While some 2020 Democrats have appeared in town halls on Fox News, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) drew a line in the sand against the network on Tuesday.

“I love town halls. I’ve done more than 70 since January, and I’m glad to have a television audience be a part of them. Fox News has invited me to do a town hall, but I’m turning them down—here’s why,” she began in a long Twitter thread.

“Fox News is a hate-for-profit racket that gives a megaphone to racists and conspiracists—it’s designed to turn us against each other, risking life and death consequences, to provide cover for the corruption that’s rotting our government and hollowing out our middle class,” Warren tweeted.

“Hate-for-profit works only if there’s profit, so Fox News balances a mix of bigotry, racism, and outright lies with enough legit journalism to make the claim to advertisers that it’s a reputable news outlet. It’s all about dragging in ad money—big ad money,” she said. “But Fox News is struggling as more and more advertisers pull out of their hate-filled space. A Democratic town hall gives the Fox News sales team a way to tell potential sponsors it’s safe to buy ads on Fox—no harm to their brand or reputation (spoiler: It’s not).”

The Rantings of Rashida By Julie Kelly

https://amgreatness.com/2019/05/13/the-rantings-of-rashida/

For once, I find myself agreeing with the contemptible Rashida Tlaib, the freshman Democratic representative from Michigan. Her vile comment that she gets a “calming feeling” when she thinks about how Palestinians allegedly offered refuge to Jews fleeing the Holocaust indeed was “twisted” and “taken out of context,” as she tweeted over the weekend.

In fact, what she said in a May 10 podcast interview is much worse—and it wasn’t a gaffe or even an example of her propagating the myth that Palestinians aided European Jews after World War II. Tlaib knew exactly what she was talking about.

The “safe haven” Tlaib referred to is the state of Israel, which officially declared its independence 71 years ago Tuesday. Make no mistake: Tlaib, a Muslim who supports a Palestinian-backed “one-state solution” that could make Jews a minority in Israel, views the formation of modern-day Israel as a crime against the Palestinian people. She soothes her rage with the fabulist belief that the sacrifices of Palestinians paved the way for Israel currently to exist—hence her weird “calming feeling” remark.

And far from an act of compassion by the Palestinian people, according to Tlaib, the creation of this “safe haven” was violently forced upon the Palestinians after the World War II.

Kamala Harris’s Disastrous New Answer on Medicare for All By John McCormack

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/kamala-harris-medicare-for-all/

Soon after Kamala Harris launched her presidential campaign back in January, CNN’s Jake Tapper asked her, at a televised townhall, the following question about Senator Bernie Sanders’s Medicare for All bill (a piece of legislation that Harris is cosponsoring): “I believe it will totally eliminate private insurance. So for people out there who like their insurance, they don’t get to keep it?”

“Let’s eliminate all of that. Let’s move on,” Harris said after making some brief comments about the problems with private insurance.

On Sunday, Harris appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” for her first interview with Tapper since January, and she insisted she had only endorsed eliminating health-care “bureaucracy” and “waste” in her previous comments.

“But the bill gets rid of insurance,” Tapper interjected.

“No, no, no, no, it does not get rid of insurance. It does not get rid of insurance,” Harris replied, insisting that “supplemental” insurance coverage would be available.

After Tapper pressed her some more on the details of the bill, Harris eventually seemed to concede that supplemental private insurance would exist only for things like cosmetic surgery that are not services covered by the government under Medicare for All.

So why did Harris insist in the first place that the Medicare for All bill doesn’t eliminate insurance? It is not a factual claim that is in dispute. As the New York Times has put it: “At the heart of the ‘Medicare for all’ proposals championed by Senator Bernie Sanders and many Democrats is a revolutionary idea: Abolish private health insurance.”

The Medicare for All bill “outlaws the market for selling insurance that covers the same services included in Medicare for All. You can only sell private insurance that covers services outside of what is covered by that bill,” James Capretta of the American Enterprise Institute tells National Review Online. Sanders wants “to fight what occurs in most other countries, which is people opting out of the [single-payer] system through private insurance and going to privately run, privately paid doctors and hospitals that are a little better than the public utility system that everybody else uses.”

Ocasio-Cortez realizes she said something stupid and reacts badly By Thomas Lifson

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/05/ocasiocortez_realizes_she_said_something_stupid_and_reacts_badly.htm

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez finally understands that her claim that we have only 12 years to save the world from global warming disaster was a ridiculous statement. Having been mocked by her many enemies, and unable to defend the absurdity, she is actually digging a deeper hole for herself, trying to maintain the self-righteousness that seems to power her drive for political power.

In a tweet Sunday morning, she implausibly claimed that the 12 years ’til doom prediction was “dry humor” and that the GOP is too stupid to grasp her wittiness:

This is a provable lie. She spoke in public last January about her claim of 12 years to escape doom, and nobody laughed.  Her audience clearly did not think it was a joke, and she did not pause for laughter at the punch line.  Rather, she was greeted by applause:And she doubled down in April on Instagram, without a trace of a smile or humor. (view here).  The only mention of laughter was her explicit denial of any humor in the situation:For everyone who wants to make a joke about that, you may laugh, but your grandkids will not.

CNN Fact Checks Tlaib’s Holocaust Comments: ‘She Can’t Rewrite History’ By Jack Crowe

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/cnn-fact-checks-tlaibs-holocaust-comments-she-cant-rewrite-history/

CNN’s John King corrected Representative Rashida Tlaib’s (D., Mich.) revisionist history of the Holocaust on Monday, pointing out that Palestinian leaders supported the German extermination of Jews and violently resisted the creation of a Jewish state.

“It was my ancestors — Palestinians — who lost their land and some lost their lives, their livelihood, their human dignity. Their existence, in many ways, had been wiped out,” Tlaib said last week on the Yahoo News Skullduggery podcast. “I mean, just all of it was in the name of trying to create a safe haven for Jews, post-the Holocaust, post-the tragedy and the horrific persecution of Jews across the world at that time.”

“[Tlaib] ignored the fact that Palestinian leaders at the time allied themselves with Hitler and that total war is how the Arab world reacted to the declaration of Israeli independence,” King said Monday. “She can’t rewrite that history and you can’t project revisionist history,” he added before introducing his guest, Aaron David Miller, a former adviser to six secretaries of state, who castigated Tlaib for enflaming divisions by resorting to ahistorical Holocaust references.

“They were considering extermination of the entire Jewish community there as well,” Miller said of Palestinian leaders who believed German forces might arrive in the region after defeating allied forces in North Africa. “So this was ill-timed, ill-advised, and I think it clearly is simply going to antagonize and polarize the already polarized debate in Washington.”

David Harsanyi :Rashida Tlaib’s Lies Remind Us Why Israel Must Exist The Palestinian tragedy is self-perpetuating, led by those unable to come to terms with history.

https://thefederalist.com/2019/05/13/rashida-tlaibs-lies-remind-us-why-israel-must-exist/

During a recent SkullDuggery Podcast on Yahoo!, Rep Rashida Tlaib dropped a few historically illiterate thoughts on the Holocaust and Israel. None of it was especially surprising to anyone who’s followed far-left or Palestinian rhetoric for any amount of time.

For Tlaib, the Holocaust was primarily a tragedy for the Palestinian people, who were unable to repel Jews’ immigration and stop the formation of a Jewish state. Her words are a helpful reminder of not only why Israel exists, but also that the tragedy of the Palestinian people is neither the fault of the Jews, nor the British, nor the Holocaust.

Tlaib offers two important revisionist claims: The first revolves around the contention that Palestinian Arabs were not only welcoming of the Jews, but actually sacrificed their own dignity and lives so Jews could be safe. The second revolves around the notion that Jews were, or would be, safe under Palestinian rule. Here is how she put it:

I think two weeks ago or so we celebrated, or just took a moment I think in our country to remember the Holocaust. There’s always kind of a calming feeling I tell folks when I think of the Holocaust, and the tragedy of the Holocaust, and the fact that it was my ancestors — Palestinians — who lost their land and some lost their lives, their livelihood, their human dignity, their existence in many ways, have been wiped out, and some people’s passports… all of it was in the name of trying to create a safe haven for Jews, post-the Holocaust, post-the tragedy and the horrific persecution of Jews across the world at that time. And I love the fact that it was my ancestors that provided that, right, in many ways. But they did it in a way that took their human dignity away and it was forced on them. And so, when I think about a one-state, I think about the fact that why can’t we do it in a better way? And I don’t want people to do it in the name of Judaism, just like I don’t want people to use Islam in that way. It has to be done in a way of values around equality and around the fact that you shouldn’t oppress others so that you can feel free and safe. Why can’t we all be free and safe together?