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Trumperman and the Joker Legions Peter Smith

Posted By on October 11th, 2019

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/peter-smith/2019/10/trumperman-and-the-joker-legions/

BIFF! BOFF! BAM! WACK! THWACK! POW! KAPOW! KRUNCH! WHAM! ZAP! OOOFF! Devotees of Adam West’s Batman will recognise these vivid descriptions, among others, of blows landed on the villains by the crime-fighting duo. I am not sure that Mike Pence quite fits the mould of Burt Ward’s Robin but (HOLY EMULATION!) he comes close enough. Trump, however, is surely the archetypal Batman. Flawed but heroic.

Faster in print than the NYTimes, more powerful than a Clinton, able to build tall buildings before breakfast. They’d like to impeach him here and impeach him there, those Dems they try to impeach him everywhere.

Sorry, I have totally mixed comic book and literary heroes. But, let’s face it, take your pick, Trump is a superhero of one description or another. Making America Great Again, slapping down Dems as he bats away yet the latest fake exposé. Achievements already too long to count, here’s a (very) attenuated accounting.

# Taking the unemployment rate to a fifty-year low and combining that, at last, with rising wages

# Taking unemployment among blacks and Hispanics to record lows

# Performing the impossible miracle (according to Obama) of bringing back hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs

# Reducing those needing food stamps by some 7 million

# Replacing the job-killing NAFTA with the USMCA (if Pelosi would only bring it to the floor)

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

GOING GREEN BLUE FUNK- AUSTRALIA BY ROGER FRANKLIN

Posted By on October 11th, 2019

https://quadrant.org

Like other towns and cities across Australia, poor Melbourne is seeing its daily life disrupted by green pests who think it their moral duty to sit down in intersections and block traffic. They are headquartered at the Carlton Gardens (above), on the northern edge of the CBD, where it is against the law to camp. But this is Victoria where what is illegal and what the police do about it are two very different things.

Not so long ago, for example, an agglomeration of layabouts, drug addicts, drunks, beggars, the deranged and, to the peril of pedestrians and their footwear, prodigious public defecators, was allowed to coalesce on Flinders Street near the entrance to the famous train station. In fits and starts the occupation went on for a year. In typical Melbourne fashion, when a citizen upbraided the rough-sleeping legion, Victoria Police moved him on and left the ferals in peace.  Thus, while one might think the Extinction Rebellion mob’s current encampment would be an immediate target for eviction — are there no fire hoses in Melbourne? — nothing has been done. Instead, the climate hysterics are indulged to violate the law, left untroubled as they make their daily plans and then allowed to sally forth intent on disrupting the lives of others.

To be fair to the police on the ground, their impotence is a sadder reflection on braid-encrusted senior commanders who, an observer can only conclude, must have ordered them to go easy on that enforcing-the-law business. Taking steps to restore traffic flow and allow commuters to get home has the potential to generate criticism from sources such as the ABC, which today has given over a page of its website to  former Radio National journalist Chloe Adams, to parade her righteousness. It is quite a piece of work, Ms Adams’ justification for making of herself a look-at-me public nuisance, replete with errors of fact and, underscoring it all, an arrogant ignorance that is jaw-dropping to behold.

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France’s Homegrown Terrorism by Giulio Meotti

Posted By on October 11th, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14980/france-homegrown-terrorism

French police investigating a woman for suspected ties to ISIS discovered a USB drive that contained personal details, including home addresses, of thousands of French police officials. Who provided that information?

“In the street, veiled women and men wearing jellabas are de facto propaganda, an Islamization of the street, just as the uniforms of an occupying army remind the defeated of their submission.” – French journalist Eric Zemmour, September 28, 2019.

Le Monde, France’s most prestigious newspaper, ran an op-ed after the recent attack, charging the country with “Islamophobic McCarthysm.” Harpon, the terrorist who murdered his colleagues at police headquarters, would have agreed.

The problem is that France has, for years, been in a state of denial about the proliferation of radical Islam.

This time, the terrorist did not use firearms; his victims were not unarmed children, cartoonists or Jews but policemen.

The site of the October 3 attack was also striking: “The interior of the Paris police headquarters is supposed to be a stronghold; it is the symbol of public order in France and of the anti-jihadist struggle that has been shaken,” the French scholar Gilles Kepel told Le Figaro.

“We have entered a… terrorism made in France… with a mixture of Friday preaching by extremist imams, social networks and the instrumentalization of fragile individuals. It is about creating a new panic in society by targeting iconic … places… The attack is a major turning point in Islamist terrorism.”

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

China: Modern Blueprint for Global Power by Lawrence A. Franklin

Posted By on October 11th, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14959/china-global-power

President Xi Jinping’s doctrine includes rejecting as illegitimate any “unequal treaties” forced on China by Euro-Atlantic powers, such as Great Britain’s imposition of the McMahon Line, which awarded to the British Crown Colony of India hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of Chinese territory.

Chinese military exercises, new weapons systems and the surreptitious militarization of several landfill and disputed islands in the South China Sea, all indicate that Beijing intends to become — at the very least — East Asia’s dominant regional power, thereby supplanting the US as the pre-eminent authority in the Western Pacific Ocean.

According to one American analyst on Chinese military affairs, in 2018 alone, China conducted approximately 100 military exercises with 17 countries.

In recent years, the Chinese Navy has been demonstrating better precision targeting by its anti-ship missile system, the presumed target being US aircraft carriers.

The People’s Republic of China, which celebrated its 70th anniversary on October 1, is led by the Chinese Communist Party’s General Secretary, President Xi Jinping. In his speeches, Xi often refers to “Qiang Zhong Gwo Meng” (“the Chinese dream”), a code phrase for the era of rejuvenation when China will eventually overtake the United States as the most powerful nation in the world.[1]

Xi claims that China offers the world a different type of rising global leader — a “guiding power.”[2]

Beijing apologists depict China as a non-predatory power, comparing it favorably to Europe’s colonial countries in the past and to today’s United States.

POLITICS Comments turned off

Dems Move to Impeach, Senate GOP Writes Mean Letters Julie Kelly

Posted By on October 11th, 2019

https://amgreatness.com/2019/10/10/house-dems-move-to-impeach-senate-gop-writes-mean-letters/

Unlike House Democrats, Senate Republicans are all talk and no action. They should take a cue from their House counterparts on the other side of the aisle.

While Congressional Democrats continue to violate House protocol, constitutional guardrails, and the boundaries of common decency in their quest to impeach President Trump, Senate Republicans are fighting back—by.writing mean letters. 

This vicious counterpunch, launched by powerful Word documents, carefully crafted by the most erudite Senate committee staffers, formatted on embossed letterhead, and signed with a real-life autopen, will undoubtedly strike fear and panic in the heart of their intended targets. Federal bureaucrats finally will face a long-overdue reckoning once these printed dispatches, personally delivered by the steadiest, most well-manicured hand in the Hart Office Building, arrive in their inbox. One shudders at the thought of the poor Justice Department flack or inspector general office assistant tasked with handling such dangerous weaponry as he/she struggles with how to present the devastating blow to his/her boss.

An infuriating sideshow to the Democratic House’s impeachment “inquiry” is that Senate Republicans refuse to wield their power with any measure in return. Instead, while House committee chairmen haul Trump administration officials and former campaign associates out in front of cameras to publicly humiliate them while issuing a flurry of subpoenas to create the chimera of a lawless presidency, Senate Republicans make empty threats and send letters. It’s an inexcusable abdication of power and a pathetic display of political cowardice.

POLITICS Comments turned off

You Can’t Spell ‘Lieu’ Without ‘Lie’ A look at the disreputable political career of Congressman Ted Lieu (D CALIFORNIA DISTRICT 33). Discover The Networks

Posted By on October 11th, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2019/10/you-cant-spell-lieu-without-lie-discover-networks/

Rep. Ted Lieu contends that the recent “whistleblower” allegations against Donald Trump give evidence of impeachable “misconduct” by the President in his now-famous July 25th telephone conversation with the President of Ukraine: “Soliciting Ukraine to get dirt on Trump’s political opponent [Joe Biden]: HIGH CRIME,” Lieu tweeted in promoting an allegation which has been utterly discredited by the now-public transcript of the phone conversation in question.

It is no secret that Lieu has detested Trump from the moment the latter was elected in 2016, and that he has never viewed Trump as a legitimate president – not even for even the briefest moment. The congressman first registered his contempt for Trump by joining dozens of fellow Democrats in boycotting the Inauguration in January 2017. A few days later, Lieu asserted that “our leader is potentially unhinged … and that is highly disturbing.” Wherever Trump’s name appeared in Lieu’s press releases, the congressman placed asterisks linking to a footnote that said: 

“In addition to losing the popular vote, Trump … is in violation of the Emoluments Clause … of the U.S. Constitution due to massive conflicts of interests and his refusal to put his global business holdings in blind trusts. Trump also benefited from Vladimir Putin ordering a multifaceted and brazen Russian influence and cyber hacking campaign with the goals of undermining faith in the U.S. democratic process, denigrating Secretary Clinton’s electability, and helping Trump’s election chances. Trump and his press secretary also routinely make stuff up.”

Moreover, Lieu’s website featured a “Cloud of Illegitimacy Clock,” which measured the length of Trump’s “illegitimate” term in the White House.

IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

In NYC the Term ‘Illegal Alien’ Can Cost You $250,000 The Left escalates its war on the First Amendment. Michael Cutler

Posted By on October 11th, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2019/10/nyc-term-illegal-alien-can-cost-you-25000000-michael-cutler/

The September 26, 2019 edition of the Washington Times included an article, NYC bans calling someone an ‘illegal alien’ or threatening to contact ICE that began with the following excerpt:

New York City has made it against the law to call someone an “illegal alien” or threaten them by calling immigration officials on them.

City Hall’s Commission on Human Rights released the new measures this week that could pose up to a $250,000 fine.

The restrictions say the term “alien” — typically used to refer to a noncitizen — is a loaded phrase meant to categorize migrants as “other” and dehumanize them.

Before we consider the attack on the First Amendment that protects our freedoms of expression to guarantee freedom of thought by the increasingly radicalized Democrats of New York City, we must consider how we have come to this point where our political “leaders” and the mainstream media have, in essence, become the “Ministry of Truth” that is found in Orwell’s novel, “1984.”   In that novel of a terrifying dystopia future, the Ministry of Truth formulated propaganda and administered the expansion of Newspeak, and was backed up by the Thought Police.

The misuse language to confound understanding, at least where immigration is concerned, can be traced back decades to the administration of Jimmy Carter, who began process of expunging the term “illegal alien” and even the term alien from the official lexicon that pertains to immigration.

The Carter administration coercively mandated that all INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) employees substitute the term “Undocumented Immigrant) for the term “Illegal Alien.”  Under his outrageous edict, recalcitrant  INS employees who continued use the legally accurate term illegal aliens would face extreme disciplinary punishment for using that proscribed term.

Indeed, the term “Alien” is a legal term that is defined in section, 8 USC §1101 of the Immigration And Nationality Act (INA) as simply being, “Any person, not a citizen or national of the United States.”

There is certainly no insult in that term or its definition- only clarity.  However, con artists seek to obfuscate the truth in order to swindle their intended victims.

POLITICS Comments turned off

Jews, African Americans and the Democrat Party The trap of blind loyalty. Kenneth Levin

Posted By on October 11th, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2019/10/jews-african-americans-and-democrat-party-kenneth-levin/

In democracies, minority groups will often embrace one political party and cling to that attachment irrespective of changing political circumstances. This seems especially true of minorities that have experienced discrimination, marginalization, and other forms of abuse.

In America, the groups that have been most closely attached to the Democrat Party for virtually the last century are African Americans and Jews. Even consideration in the abstract of the wisdom of being predictably committed to one party would suggest likely more negative than positive consequences – for example, being taken for granted by that party while given up on and not pursued by the other – and experience has borne that out.

This would seem to be most obvious with regard to the African American experience. Consider, for example, the Democrats’ decades-long lock on control of most of America’s big cities, many with African American majorities, and the record of public education in those cities.

Little weighs as heavily on impoverished children’s potential for extricating themselves from their difficult circumstances and shaping a better future for themselves than the quality of the education they receive in their elementary and secondary schools. But the African American populations in our large urban centers have consistently been very poorly served by their schools and lag significantly behind national averages in command of basic skills.

Those in charge of the relevant cities point to lesser per student spending on their schools due to lesser tax subsidies as compared to the subsidies provided in other jurisdictions. Another argument is that the difficult family circumstances these cities’ impoverished children often face undercut the children’s ability to make full use of the educational opportunities available to them in their public schools. 

MEDIA Comments turned off

About that Fox Poll By Steve McCann

Posted By on October 11th, 2019

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/10/about_that_fox_poll.html

Journalism and those claiming to be journalists in the America have not only been increasingly and overtly partisan over the past 25 years but also increasingly indolent.  Far too many rely on the lunacy, vitriol, and rumormongering on social media as the primary source of many of their stories and to make assumptions as to what American society thinks on any particular issue.  Another source of so-called “news” is generated by their ideological cohorts in the polling industry. 

Polling in modern America has degenerated into a vehicle to create news, headlines and to shape public opinion on an issue or an individual.

 Over the past few days the lead on every cable news channel and the headline in virtually all newspapers is Fox News claiming in their exclusive poll that 51% of Americans now favor impeachment and removal of President Trump. 

How did the Fox polling unit come up with this number?

The Fox news polling companies interviewed 1,003 registered voters ostensibly throughout the length and breadth of the United States.  Many polling companies use either all adult Americans (254 million) or registered voters (158 million in 2016) as their universe for polling.  Obviously the greater the number of potential people to contact and question the easier a poll is to complete and to skew a result.  In reality, what matters is who votes in an election.  In 2016 86% (or 136.6 million) of registered voters cast a vote.  A poll of likely voters would inherently be more reliable but more difficult to achieve.  Currently only Rasmussen among national polls uses exclusively likely voters and they are among the most reliable.

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Is America Entering a Dark Age? By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on October 11th, 2019

https://pjmedia.com/victordavishanson/is-america-entering-a-dark-age/

Many of the stories about the gods and heroes of Greek mythology were compiled during Greek Dark Ages. Impoverished tribes passed down oral traditions that originated after the fall of the lost palatial civilizations of the Mycenaean Greeks.

Dark Age Greeks tried to make sense of the massive ruins of their forgotten forbearers’ monumental palaces that were still standing around. As illiterates, they were curious about occasional clay tablets they plowed up in their fields with incomprehensible ancient Linear B inscriptions.

We of the 21st century are beginning to look back at our own lost epic times and wonder about these now-nameless giants who left behind monuments that we cannot replicate, but instead merely use or even mock.

Does anyone believe that contemporary Americans could build another transcontinental railroad in six years?

Californians tried to build a high-speed rail line. But after more than a decade of government incompetence, lawsuits, cost overruns and constant bureaucratic squabbling, they have all but given up. The result is a half-built overpass over the skyline of Fresno — and not yet a foot of track laid.

Who were those giants of the 1960s responsible for building our interstate highway system?

California’s roads now are mostly the same as we inherited them, although the state population has tripled. We have added little to our freeway network, either because we forgot how to build good roads or would prefer to spend the money on redistributive entitlements.