President Trump’s moving, statesmanlike State of the Union address By Andrea Widburg

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/02/president_trumps_moving_statesmanlike_state_of_the_union_address.html

On Tuesday night, two very different events took place. The first was President Trump’s State of the Union speech, one that showcased incredibly good news about the state of America today, soaring rhetoric, and moving human interest stories. That’s what this post is about. The other event was the embarrassing Democrat temper tantrum, something that we’ll save for a less uplifting, but perhaps more amusing, post.

What touched the audience most during the speech were the interactions Trump had with his honored guests. There are too many of these interactions to retell for this post, but the following guests were especially moving:

There was Juan Guaido, the true president of Venezuela, who is being kept out of office by the tyrannical socialist, Nicholas Maduro. To Guaido, Trump had one message:

All Americans are united with the Venezuelan people in their righteous struggle for freedom! Socialism destroys nations. But always remember, freedom unifies the soul.

There was Kelli Hake, a war widow, and Gage, her 13-year-old son. Kelli’s husband and Gage’s father had died when his vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb that Qassem Soleimani had supplied. It was a vivid reminder of the havoc and death Soleimani sowed throughout the Middle East.

There was Jody Jones, whose brother, Rocky, was randomly shot to death by an illegal immigrant who was still on the streets thanks to California’s sanctuary state policy.

There was Iain Lanphier, an 8th grader who wants to be part of the new Space Force. What was really awesome, though, was that Iain was there with his great grandfather, 100-year-old Brigadier General Charles McGee, a Tuskegee Airman and career military pilot who fought in WWII, Koran, and Vietnam.

Nancy Pelosi throws a public temper tantrum and other Democrat misbehavior By Andrea Widburg

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/02/nancy_pelosi_throws_a_public_temper_tantrum_and_other_democrat_misbehavior.html

Two different events played out on the floor of the House on Tuesday night. The first was President Trump’s powerful, moving, uplifting, and optimistic State of the Union speech. The second was the immature, arrogant, intemperate, and really disgusting temper tantrum in which Democrats indulged.

The most obvious sign of a complete mental breakdown on the left was Nancy Pelosi’s conduct during the speech. Her petulant behavior could not be missed because she was seated behind the president, to his left. Whenever the camera was on Trump, it was on Pelosi too.

Pelosi’s hissy fit first showed itself when Pelosi refused to give Trump the traditional formal introduction. Traditionally, Speakers of the House say that it is their “high privilege and distinct honor of presenting to you the President of the United States.” Pelosi, however, in grudging and rushed tones, simply said, ‘Members of Congress, the President of the United States.”

Renewable Energy Fairy Tales By Norman Rogers

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/02/renewable_energy_fairy_tales.html

The very wrong energy policy being pursued in the U.S. and even more so in Europe has its roots in a 1987 report from the United Nations. The report called Our Common Future is normally referred to as the Brundtland Report after Harlem Brundtland, a Norwegian Politician, and chairman of the committee that wrote the report. Mrs. Brundtland in the introduction to the report states that: “We became convinced that major changes were needed, both in attitudes and in the way our societies are organized.” Scandinavian reformers always believe that they are a model for the rest of the world. By 1987 Norway was already well on the way to becoming an extremely wealthy country due to its offshore oil fields. It’s not that surprising that Norwegians may perceive accidental geological wealth as proof of their moral superiority.  Nor is it surprising that the Norwegians opted not to preserve the oil for future generations. The failure of Scandinavian ideology is most evident in Sweden where massive third-world Moslem immigration has devastated the country. The Brundtland Report takes a dark view of the world and sees its dark view as a good reason to rearrange the world along Scandinavian lines.

The key finding of the Brundtland Report is this:

“Humanity has the ability to make development sustainable to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

Trump Impeachment Agonistes He addresses Congress on the eve of acquittal as his approval rating rises.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-impeachment-agonistes-11580860797?mod=opinion_lead_pos2

Donald Trump delivered his third State of the Union address Tuesday night in one of the most paradoxical political scenes in memory. The President stood before the House Speaker who recently impeached him, and a day before the Senate will acquit him as his approval rating rises.

Mr. Trump touted his substantive policy achievements as he began to frame his case for re-election. They include tax reform and deregulation that gave the economic expansion a second life and has produced the tightest labor market since the 1960s. Wages are now rising for the least skilled and educated, a reversal of the Obama years when most gains went to those who held financial assets.

The President also celebrated his record number of first-term judicial nominees, who are remaking the judiciary as he promised in 2016. He talked about criminal-justice reform, which he pushed across the finish line in Congress despite doubts in his own party. And he talked at some useful length to make the case for education choice, especially for poor children denied it by teachers unions and a Democratic Party that increasingly opposes even charter schools. This will be a clear point of contrast in the election, and it’s a winning issue.

Paris Metro Passengers Lauded for Preventing Antisemitic Assault on Young Jewish Man

https://www.algemeiner.com/2020/02/04/paris-metro-passengers-lauded-for-preventing-antisemitic-assault-on-young-jewish-man/Passengers on the Paris Metro who prevented an antisemitic assault on a young Jewish man on Saturday night have been warmly praised by a leading community defense group.

In a statement on Monday, the National Bureau of Vigilance Against Antisemitism (BNVCA) highlighted the role played by passengers who interceded when four men attempted to chase the Jewish man.

The incident took place late on Saturday night at the Jean Jaurès station in northeastern Paris. The 25-year-old man, who wore a kippah that identified him as a Jew, was approached by four men said to be aged between 30 and 40, one of whom asked the victim for a cigarette. When the young man replied that he did not have any cigarettes, the attacker pinned him against the wall of the station, telling him, “You Jews have enough money, you can buy me some.”

At this point, other passengers intervened, blocking the four men and enabling the young Jewish man to safely depart the scene.

Israel Harshly Criticizes European Union Over Rejection of Trump Middle East Peace Plan

https://www.algemeiner.com/2020/02/04/israel-harshly-criticizes-eu-over-rejection-of-trump-middle-east-peace-plan/

The European Union rejected parts of US President Donald Trump’s peace plan for the Middle East on Tuesday, prompting an angry response from Israel which has strongly backed the American proposal.

The plan, announced by Trump last week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his side, was rejected outright by the Palestinians.

The EU, which often takes time to respond to international developments because of a need for unanimity among its 27 members, had said last week that it needed to study the Trump plan before it would give its verdict.

It made its conclusions public on Tuesday in a statement from EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who said Trump’s plan departs from “internationally agreed parameters.”

Rush -By Andrew C. McCarthy

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/rush/

“There is no one like him. Let’s keep him in our prayers.”   Amen! rsk

I haven’t felt much like working the last couple of days. Or like doing much else. See, Rush Limbaugh is a longtime friend of mine. Like all of Rush’s friends and tens of millions of other Americans, I’m reeling from the sudden diagnosis of advanced lung cancer.

Rush is an American original. It is said of some originals that, if you didn’t have them, you’d have to invent them. (Voltaire was talking about God when he said it; Don King, of course, about himself.) Yet no one could ever have invented Rush, because he was inconceivable.

When he burst upon the national scene over three decades ago, popular political media was the preserve of the political left. The thought of anyone, much less an unabashed conservative, carrying a three-hour daily broadcast through monologues teeming with conviction and good cheer — with the occasional phone call but virtually no guests — was not just unheard of. It was not in the realm of perceived possibility.

It took talent on loan from God, for sure. But it mainly took a guy with supreme belief in himself. Belief that was well-founded because it sprang from a unique combination of life-experience, of getting off the floor when life knocks you down, and of a sense of destiny about doing what you’re born to do. Add to that Rush’s abiding faith in the innate goodness of America — of her traditions, love of liberty, willingness to sacrifice, and grasp that human flourishing means learning from our mistakes.

Boris Johnson’s Climate-Change Dilemma By Madeleine Kearns

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/boris-johnsons-climate-change-dilemma/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=right-rail&utm_content=corner&utm_term=third

This November, the United Nations’s climate-change summit — rivetingly titled “COP26” — will happen in Glasgow, Scotland, the British government has announced. Given that polls now indicate a clear majority for Scottish independence north of the border, it’s a good idea to try to strengthen the union by uniting against a common enemy.

The BBC reports:

A ban on selling new petrol, diesel or hybrid cars in the UK will be brought forward from 2040 to 2035 at the latest, under government plans.

The change comes after experts said 2040 would be too late if the UK wants to achieve its target of emitting virtually zero carbon by 2050.

Boris Johnson unveiled the policy as part of a launch event for a United Nations climate summit in November.

He said 2020 would be a “defining year of climate action” for the planet.

The only trouble is that Johnson, who previously described the effect of global warming as the planet being swaddled in “a tea cosy,” has been accused of a lack of seriousness.

 

The prime minister “doesn’t really get climate change,” said Claire Perry O’Neill, the former Tory energy minister, who was recently sacked as the conference president. Conveniently for Johnson, most of his pledges — e.g. banning new petrol and diesel cars by 2035 — are scheduled for when he will no longer be in office.

The Art of Warping Elections Obama Paved the Way By Victor Davis Hanson

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/02/the-art-of-warping-elections/

N o sooner were Democrats’ Trump-Russia collusion charges debunked than they began to claim that Trump will do again in 2020 what Robert Mueller found he did not do in 2016: rig the election.

After 22 months, nearly 500 subpoenas, and somewhere around $35 million in costs, special counsel Robert Mueller’s much praised progressive “all-star” team of lawyers and investigators found no evidence that Donald Trump had colluded with the Russians. Trump did not warp the 2016 election, and so he had not unfairly defeated the supposed sure-winner Hillary Clinton. But again those who have investigated and attacked Trump nonstop probably are seeking to do in 2020 what they falsely accused Trump of doing in 2016.

Mueller’s failure to find any collusion evidence was not for want of the dream team’s “bombshell” and “walls are closing in” leaks to CNN and MSNBC talking heads, over the course of 88 weeks. Almost daily we heard ad nauseam that Trump was soon to be indicted, convicted, removed, or summarily dispatched.

If anyone should have found “collusion,” it was certainly the Mueller zealots, then de facto ramrodded by current MSNBC partisan “legal” analyst Andrew Weissmann. (How odd that John Brennan, James Clapper, Andrew McCabe, and Andrew Weissmann leak to MSNBC and CNN and then, in the out-phase of their perpetually revolving-door careers, end up rewarded by their receptacles as paid TV analysts).

In the end, the “hunter-killer team” imploded.

Corona and the Chinese ambassador’s Holocaust chutzpah Dai Yuming was being a true loyal Communist diplomat, spewing strategic propaganda with a purpose, part of which is to deflect from some inconvenient truths. Ruthie Blum

https://www.jns.org/opinion/corona-and-the-chinese-ambassadors-holocaust-chutzpah/

China’s acting ambassador to Israel came under well-deserved fire this week for invoking the Nazi genocide of the Jews to criticize Jerusalem’s preventive measures against the spread of the coronavirus.

At a press conference in Tel Aviv on Sunday, Dai Yuming said that he felt “bad and sad” over the “errors to limit or even ban entries of Chinese citizens” into Israel “because it actually recalled me the old days, the old stories that happened in World War II, the Holocaust. Many Jewish were refused when they tried to seek assistance. Only very, very few countries opened their doors. One of them is China. I hope Israel will never close their door to the Chinese. In the darkest days of the Jewish people, we didn’t close the door on them. I hope Israel will not close the door on the Chinese.”

Dai’s comments could not have been more outrageous.

The outcry that they unleashed in the press and on social media spurred the Chinese embassy in Israel to express regret. In a statement issued to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Beijing’s diplomatic mission basically claimed that its representative’s words had been misconstrued.

“[W]e would like to clarify that there was no intention whatsoever to compare the dark days of the Holocaust with the current situation and the efforts taken by the Israeli government to protect its citizens,” the statement read. “We would like to apologize if someone understood our message the wrong way.”