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Mini-Merkel’s Mega Meltdown German conservatives head for a welcome new leadership race.

Posted By on February 11th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/mini-merkels-mega-meltdown-11581380318?mod=opinion_lead_pos3

German politics was thrown into new turmoil Monday when Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, leader of the center-right Christian Democratic Union, announced she won’t run for Chancellor next year. The defense minister, known as AKK, was Chancellor Angela Merkel’s preferred successor.

The final straw for Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer and her critics was a conflict with the CDU’s local branch in Thuringia in the former East Germany. State elections there in October were inconclusive, as has become the norm in Germany. The CDU and center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) hemorrhaged votes while the neo-communist Left and far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) surged. After months of negotiations, local CDU leaders agreed to cooperate with the AfD and the free-market Free Democratic Party to form a state government—defying Mrs. Merkel and Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer’s blanket ban on CDU alliances with the AfD.

Yet Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer—called “mini Merkel” for her close relationship with Germany’s long-time leader—never enjoyed full control of the party. Her selection as leader in late 2018 represented an attempt to suppress debate within the party by rejecting the free-market convictions of Friedrich Merz or the more assertive tone on cultural issues from Jens Spahn, both of whom challenged AKK.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The Cold War Over Venezuela Moscow has a stake in Maduro’s regime, but its value to Putin depends on oil. By Walter Russell Mead

Posted By on February 11th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-cold-war-over-venezuela-11581379011?mod=opinion_lead_pos9

There weren’t many bipartisan moments in last week’s State of the Union address. Most Democratic legislators sat on their hands as President Trump hailed overall rising wages as well as record low unemployment for African-Americans, Asian-Americans and Hispanics. But in a move that testifies to the humanitarian and geopolitical concerns Venezuela presents, Democrats and Republicans rose together to applaud Juan Guaidó, the president of Venezuela’s National Assembly, who is recognized as the country’s legitimate ruler by nearly 60 nations including the U.S.

Days after U.S. legislators applauded Mr. Guaidó, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was in Caracas, offering aid and comfort to the beleaguered government of Nicolás Maduro. The message seemed clear: Russia is prepared to stand up to the U.S., even in the Western Hemisphere, to protect its Venezuelan allies.

For the Trump administration’s foreign policy, the tangle with Russia over Venezuela is a local problem with global consequences. When I interviewed him recently, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo identified a short list of administration priorities for 2020. Real progress toward change in Venezuela and an improved relationship with Russia are both high on the list. With both Russiagate and Ukrainegate in the rearview mirror, it would appear that the administration has a new freedom to reach out diplomatically to the Kremlin—but that hardly comports with the rock-star treatment given to Mr. Guaidó in Washington last week.

More than three years into the Trump administration, the U.S.-Russia relationship remains icy. The U.S. has placed sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which would connect Germany to Russian natural gas. In northeastern Syria, American and Russian forces have engaged in tense standoffs even as Vladimir Putin doubles down on his support for Bashar Assad. The week before the State of the Union, Mr. Pompeo visited Ukraine, bringing promises of aid and support. This looks and feels more like a Cold War than another “reset” of the U.S.-Russia relationship. What’s going on?

IMMIGRATION, POLITICS Comments turned off

Bloomberg Pledges to Investigate ICE ‘Abuse’ in Immigration Proposal By Mairead McArdle

Posted By on February 11th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/bloomberg-pledges-to-investigate-ice-abuse-in-immigration-proposal/

Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg released a sweeping immigration proposal on Monday in which he pledged to launch an investigation into alleged Immigration and Customs Enforcement “abuses.”

In his ten-page proposal, Bloomberg pledges to launch a Department of Justice probe into the 400 allegations of sexual assault or abuse reported against ICE since 2017 while limiting the opportunity for future abuses by “significantly reducing immigrant detention for those who do not pose a threat to public safety.”

The proposal also calls for extending the legal status of participants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which protects from deportation undocumented immigrants who were brought into the country as children, and those in the Temporary Protected Status program, which shields immigrants who cannot return home due to natural disaster or armed conflict.

Bloomberg would also implement a place-based visa system, which would allow states and localities to accept immigrants to help address the economic and social needs of different locations. The plan would encourage professionals to apply for visas, including doctors, nurses, entrepreneurs, and international students.

The former New York City mayor promised not to embrace policies that “run counter to American values,” such as President Trump’s travel ban, a southern border wall, or family separations at the border.

After heavy bipartisan backlash, the Trump administration in June, 2018 shuttered its “zero tolerance” policy of allowing children to be separated from their parents after the family crossed the border illegally. Over the previous year, migrant children were separated and housed separately from their parents as the adults were prosecuted.

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Great Exploitations: Greta Thunberg to Get Her Own BBC Show By Matt Margolis

Posted By on February 10th, 2020

https://pjmedia.com/trending/great-exploitations-greta-thunberg-to-get-her-own-bbc-show/

Well, it’s starting to become more clear why Greta Thunberg wanted to trademark her name. It turns out that BBC Studios is developing a TV show about Greta Thunberg.

As of this writing, there is no release date, no number of episodes set, and no network attached yet. If there’s no title yet, I think it should be called “Skipping School.”

But, we do have a series description courtesy of BBC Studios:

The series will follow Greta’s international crusade, which takes her to the front line of climate change in some of the most extraordinary places on earth, as she explores what actions could be taken to limit climate change and the damage it causes.

As she travels Greta meets not only leading scientists but political leaders and business heavyweights, exploring the scientific evidence with them and challenging them to change.

The films will also charts her own journey into adulthood as she continues to be confronted by the real world consequences of inaction; and will share some of the quiet moments as she writes the impactful speeches that are now broadcast and analysed around the world, as she lives a teenage life like no other.

Greta is also the subject of a new documentary at Hulu that is also being developed.

“Climate change is probably the most important issue of our lives so it feels timely to make an authoritative series that explores the facts and science behind this complex subject,” said Rob Liddell, the producer of the upcoming series on Greta. “To be able to do this with Greta is an extraordinary privilege, getting an inside view on what it’s like being a global icon and one of the most famous faces on the planet.”

Is it just me, or this girl being over-exposed?

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The White House Has Identified and Will Cut Ties With ‘Anonymous’ Resistance Official By Matt Margolis

Posted By on February 10th, 2020

https://pjmedia.com/trending/breaking-the-white-house-has-identified-and-will-cut-ties-with-anonymous-resistance-official/

The White House has identified and will be parting ways with the “anonymous” senior Trump administration official behind the critical editorial published in the New York Times editorial in September 2018, and a recently published book, A Warning, according to former U.S. attorney Joe diGenova, who made the claim Monday morning on WMAL’s “Mornings on the Mall.”

Senior White House officials have declined to comment on the subject.

“I am part of the resistance inside the Trump Administration,” claimed the official in their anonymous NYT op-ed.

President Trump is facing a test to his presidency unlike any faced by a modern American leader.

It’s not just that the special counsel looms large. Or that the country is bitterly divided over Mr. Trump’s leadership. Or even that his party might well lose the House to an opposition hellbent on his downfall.

The dilemma — which he does not fully grasp — is that many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.

I would know. I am one of them.

POLITICS Comments turned off

Party Leaders on Edge After Democrats’ Ragged 2020 Launch . By Julie Pace

Posted By on February 10th, 2020

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/02/10/party_leaders_on_edge_after_democrats_ragged_2020_launch_142356.html

For Democrats, this was supposed be a moment to begin easing three years of built-up of anxieties. Instead, the launch of the 2020 presidential primary has left the party deeply unsettled and President Donald Trump gleeful about the chaos.

Party leaders are on edge over embarrassing technical issues that marred this past week’s Iowa caucuses, as well as lower than expected turnout in the leadoff state. Front-runners Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg face questions about their long-term political viability, while some supporters of the two leading women left in the race — Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota — are raising alarms about what they view as persistent sexism.

“It’s a hard start,” said Laura Keeler, a 35-year-old from Concord, New Hampshire.

Indeed, it’s far from the 2020 launchpad most Democrats envisioned as they eagerly anticipated their opportunity to take on Trump. The turbulent start to this election year has also crystallized the challenges confronting Democrats in trying to mount a formidable challenge to an incumbent backed by an energized and united Republican Party and fortified by a soaring economy.

MY SAY: Comments turned off

MY SAY: AN AFTERNOON AT THE BALLET-ARS VINCIT OMNIA

Posted By on February 10th, 2020

Yesterday, after a full week of imposed house/bed rest due to a vicious virus, I finally left my home. I had purchased tickets to a City Center performance of Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake where the swans and the doomed lovers are all performed by male dancers. When it premiered in 1995 antedating political correctness it caused quite a stir. I was curious to see its latest revival. I had an aisle seat and as soon as I was comfortably ensconced, I calculated the distance to the quickest exit.

When I saw the magnificent set and the music began I eased into the performance and actually enjoyed it and remained until the last note.

I love ballet and often the combination of music and great dancing transcends admittedly silly plots and gives way to enchantment.

That never happened at this performance although most of the dancing was superb and a raucous bar scene featured excellent ballerinas as well in vivacious and demanding roles. This is a dark and strange version of a classic ballet.

 I was surprised at my reaction and enjoyment -evidence of “ars vincit omnia”- art conquers all. Sometimes. Rsk

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Once and Future Scandal Victor Davis Hanson *****

Posted By on February 10th, 2020

https://amgreatness.com/2020/02/09/the-once-and-future-scandal/

Soon the worm may turn. The real scandal is back on the horizon, and at last, we may learn that no one is above the law—most certainly not a group of smug and mediocre apparatchiks who assumed they had the moral right to destroy a presidential candidate and later an elected president.

Now that the four-and-a-half-month-long Ukraine impeachment bookend to the 22-month Mueller charade is over, it clearly accomplished nothing other than substantially raising the polls of both Donald Trump and the Republican Party. The public was reminded that Representative Gerald Nadler (D-N.Y.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) are every bit as childish, peevish, and absurd as Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).

So, we are now back to the existential issue of the entire Trump phenomenon: to what degree did the Hillary Clinton campaign collude with high-ranking Obama officials, and the top echelons of the FBI, CIA, and the national intelligence apparatus, to surveil, defame, and hope to derail Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign by unlawful means?

Who in the federal government then continued Clinton’s efforts after the 2016 election to disrupt and indeed attempt to destroy the Trump transition and presidency?

Eventually, someone will sort out whether that post-election effort on the part of federal officials to abort the Trump presidency, abetted by the media and #TheResistance, was a simple follow-up to the Clinton-DNC-Perkins Coe-Fusion GPS collusion against candidate Trump—or a sick preemptive attempt of the administrative state to smear Trump as a “Russian asset” because of their worries about the exposure of their own prior criminality and Trump’s iconoclastic agenda.

But for now, the following statements are irrefutable.

HISTORY, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

What Americans Can Learn from F. W. de Klerk’s Great Betrayal of South Africa Ilana Mercer

Posted By on February 10th, 2020

https://amgreatness.com/2020/02/09/what-americans-can-learn-from-f-w-de-klerks-great-betrayal-of-south-africa/

Universal suffrage is not to be conflated with freedom. As Iraqis learned after their “liberation,” ink-stained fingers don’t inoculate against bloodstains—or rivers of blood.

In what should serve as a lesson for Americans today, recall that 30 years ago on February 2, 1990, F. W. de Klerk, South Africa’s last white president, turned the screws on his constituents, betraying the confidence we had placed in him.

I say “we,” because, prior to becoming president in 1989, De Klerk was my representative, in the greater Vereeniging region of Southern Transvaal, where I lived. (Our family subsequently moved to Cape Town.)

A constellation of circumstances had aligned to catapult De Klerk to a position of great power. A severe stroke forced the “The Crocodile,” President P. W. Botha, from power in 1989. Nothing in the background of his successor, De Klerk, indicated the revolutionary policies he would pursue.

In response to a 1992 referendum asking white voters if they favored De Klerk’s proposed reforms, we returned a resounding “yes.” Sixty-eight percent of respondents said “yes” to the proposed reforms of a man who sold his constituents out for a chance to frolic on the world stage with Nelson Mandela.

For it was in surrendering South Africa to the African National Congress that De Klerk shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Mandela.

Why was De Klerk trusted to negotiate on behalf of a vulnerable racial minority? For good reason: he had made his views abundantly clear to constituents. “Negotiations would only be about power-sharing,” he promised. At the time, referendum respondents generally trusted De Klerk, who had specifically condemned crude majority rule. Such elections, in Africa, traditionally have amounted to “one man, one vote, one time.” Typically, such elections across Africa have followed a familiar pattern: Radical black nationalist movements take power everywhere, then elections cease. Or, if they take place, they’re rigged.

Among much else, De Klerk’s loyal constituents agreed to his scrapping of the ban on the Communist-sympathizing ANC. Freeing Nelson Mandela from incarceration was also viewed as long overdue as was acceding to Namibia’s independence, and junking nuclear weapons. Botha, before de Klerk, had by and large already dismantled the most egregious aspects of apartheid.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Victor Orbán’s Lesson in Prudence for Western Intellectuals Titus Techera

Posted By on February 10th, 2020

https://amgreatness.com/2020/02/09/victor-orbans-lesson-in-prudence-for-western-intellectuals/

There is more to be said about this remarkably discrete teaching, but this is the necessary introduction. Intellectuals need to learn from the politicians.

To judge by what scares liberals internationally, the unassuming Israeli academic Yoram Hazony is the most dangerous intellectual active today. The National Conservatism Conference he organized in Rome last week has already been demonized in The Guardian and elsewhere. The one British member of Parliament in attendance, Daniel Kaczynski, was forced by the Tories to apologize publicly for being in the same room as the most successful politician on the continent, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

For his part, Orbán was a model of moderation and spoke in his typical direct style, cutting through the false pieties and not mincing words about unflattering realities, not even those concerning him or his country. He was interviewed by Hudson Institute scholar Christopher DeMuth and the entire conference hung on his every word, though it is unclear if his subtlety was well understood.

Orbán stated plainly that he’s been in politics for decades, about half in opposition and half in power, and he understands both sides. Although he was welcomed as a leader, he chose to speak as a follower. He said Hungary is a small country in need of allies and in need of the European Union, despite the enmity of the national conservatives for the EU. He also said small countries cannot afford not to have smart leaders, in the only moment he came close to bragging.