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British Jewish Newspaper Buckles to Hamas by Sam Westrop

Posted By on September 5th, 2019

https://www.meforum.org/islamist-watch/59302/british-jewish-newspaper-buckles-to-hamas

On August 23, the Jewish Chronicle (JC), Britain’s largest Jewish newspaper and one of the oldest Jewish newspapers in the world, published an apology and handed 50,000 pounds (more than $60,000) to Interpal, a British Muslim charity linked closely to Hamas, the murderous Palestinian terrorist organization in Gaza.

The apology and the payout come in the wake of a March 2019 article in the JC(since taken down), in which journalist Orlando Radice reported that Interpal was itself “deemed by the US a Specially Designated Global Terrorist Organization in 2003.” Radice also claimed that the chairman of Interpal, Ibrahim Hewitt, “has been widely described as an Islamic extremist who believes that adulterers should be stoned to death and has compared gay people with pedophiles.”

The JC is not the first publication to end up paying money to Interpal to avoid a lawsuit. In June 2019, the Daily Mail and Mail Online gave the charity more than $145,000.

In this specific case, what did the JC get wrong? What exactly is Interpal? And why has the newspaper now handed over $60,000 to a charity considered by the U.S. government to be a terrorist organization?

MEDIA Comments turned off

A Shameless Lying MSNBC Hack is the Face of the Media Lies, smears and the new media normal. Daniel Greenfield

Posted By on September 5th, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/274756/shameless-lying-msnbc-hack-face-media-daniel-greenfield

At the end of July, MSNBC’s biggest and dullest conspiracy theorist got some very bad news.

After over a year of booming ratings, The Rachel Maddow Show’s viewership had crashed. It had been a long road for Maddow, the former blonde Catholic high school girl who had decided she wanted to be a media personality and ended up with an MSNBC show through the efforts of Keith Olbermann.

And after Keith was gone, MSNBC had to settle for a slightly less effeminate version of Olbermann.

Maddow had retained the key elements of Olbermann’s personality, the unhinged conspiracy theories, histrionic delivery, the dark hair and even the fashionably ugly boxy black glasses. The former blonde not only looked and sounded like Olbermann, but she had learned to hit the same buttons in her audience.

One man had made her MSNBC career possible and another moved her show into the top cable spot.

That man was Robert Mueller. There was no Russian conspiracy theory too bizarre or insane to earn a rant from Rachel. Going where few dared go, Maddow began insisting that Russia was conducting a “continuing operation” and might even be in control of the White House and the entire country now.

And then the Mueller Report and later, Mueller’s testimony, destroyed all of Maddow’s conspiracies.

At the height of her Russian conspiracy theories in which she connected everyone and their uncle to Moscow, Maddow had could boast 4 million viewers while claiming to be the top cable news show. In July, she had fallen to fifth place without even 2.5 million viewers to scrape together for her rants.

HISTORY Comments turned off

The Ghosts of World War II By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on September 5th, 2019

https://pjmedia.com/victordavishanson/the-ghosts-of-world-war-ii/

World War II ended 74 years ago. But even in the 21st century, the lasting effects endure, both psychological and material. After all, the war took more than 60 million lives, redrew the map of Europe and ended with the Soviet Union and the United States locked in a Cold War of nuclear superpowers.

Japan and South Korea should logically remain natural allies. Both are booming capitalist constitutional states. Decades ago both nations emerged from devastating wars. And in pacifist fashion they vowed never to suffer such mass carnage again.

Both nations are staunch allies of the United States. They are likewise similarly suspicious of their neighbor, aggressive communist China, which threatens their economies and security. Yet Tokyo and Seoul are now more adversaries than democratic allies, and they are locked in a bitter fight. In their acrimony over trade and past war reparations, neither can forget World War II.

South Koreans continue to press for more reparations to atone for the horrific treatment of the Korean Peninsula by Japanese occupiers and imperialists. Imperial Japan stripped Korea’s natural resources and exported thousands of Korean women to war zones to be raped by Japanese troops.

A Bad Deal, 80 Years Ago

The wealthier that South Korea becomes, the more an ascendant Seoul begins to rival — and worry — Tokyo. And the more distant World War II becomes, the more Japan and South Korea relive their bitter shared wartime past.

The United States has had difficulty forming a Pacific alliance of containment against a bellicose China. Australia, the Philippines and Southeast Asian nations fear Chinese aggression. But they also share bitter memories of merciless Japanese imperialism that killed as many as 15 million Chinese — the vast majority of them civilians.

In their minds, our allies know China is the chief threat. But in their hearts, even now they can’t quite forget how their ally Japan once committed genocide throughout the region.

POLITICS Comments turned off

Meet the ‘super pro-cop’ gorgeous young Latina running for Congress who calls herself ‘the anti-AOC’ By Thomas Lifson

Posted By on September 5th, 2019

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/09/meet_the_super_procop_gorgeous_young_latina_running_for_congress_who_calls_herself_the_antiaoc.html

Catalina Lauf is 26 years old and running for Congress in Illinois, hoping to unseat a Democrat incumbent and push aside Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as the youngest woman ever to be elected to Congress.  Kyle S. Reyes of Law Enforcement Today writes:

She’s a young Latina. She’s from Illinois.  She’s running for Congress.  And she’s the polar opposite of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

She’s conservative. She’s smart.  She’s gorgeous.  She supports law enforcement.  She actually loves America.  Her idol is Ronald Reagan.  And she’s not afraid to ruffle feathers.

Photo via Law Enforcement Today.

Her name is Catalina Lauf, and she’s 26-years-old.  Her goal is to steal a Democratic-held seat outside Chicago.

Ms. Lauf announced her bid for the GOP primary in the 14th Congressional District of Illinois, a GOP-leaning district covering a swath of western suburbs of Chicago.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

TONY SMITH: INSINUATE, INCRIMINATE, INCARCERATE- ON THE APPALLING INJUSTICE DONE TO CARDINAL PELL IN AUSTRALIA

Posted By on September 4th, 2019

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2019/09/insinuate-incriminate-inca

Constable Plod asked me: “Are you able to describe the innards of that very room where Bixby says that he was interfered with most horrible ten years ago?”

“Well, yes, of course,” I replied. “I go there quite often. It’s a room in my club.”

“Ah-Ah!” Plod exclaimed. “So, you admit to being in the very vicinity where this grave offence happened?”

“No, I admit to nothing. I know nothing of the assault on Bixby. If it occurred, it wasn’t me. I wasn’t there.”

“Excuse me Mr Smith, but you have already admitted to havin’ been in the room.”

“Yes, but not at the time Bixby claims he was there, I responded.”

“Ah-Ah!” Plod exclaimed again. “And what time is that exactly?”

“Well, I don’t know, I wasn’t there,” I said in an exasperated voice.

“Now, now, Sir. No need to take that tone with me, I’m just doing my job. The fact remains that Bixby has provided me with a description of the room which matches up and which proves to me he was there. So, he was there and you was there. Now that’s what I call a fact. What do you say to that?”

“Look, I’ve been in the room many times and usually other club members are there too. Ask them! They come and go, so it is very unlikely that anyone would have the opportunity to assault Bixby.”

“So, Sir, are you saying that Bixby made the whole thing up?” Plod queried.

“I don’t know. All I know is that I didn’t do it.”

POLITICS Comments turned off

THE POLL WEEVILS IN 2016

Posted By on September 4th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/most-accurate-2016-poll-shows-biden-warren-sanders-beating-trump/

Most Accurate 2016 Poll Shows Biden, Warren, Sanders Beating TrumpBy Mairead McArdle

The poll that most closely predicted the outcome of the 2016 presidential election shows Joe Biden and several other Democratic candidates beating President Trump in a 2020 general-election matchup.

Biden would beat Trump by twelve points in a general election, garnering 54 percent support to Trump’s 42 percent, according to the September IBD/TIPP poll. Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and Kamala Harris of California also lead Trump by three to four points, close to within the margin of error.

Among voters who lean Democratic, Warren currently has 24 percent support, up from 17 percent last month, according to the poll. Biden meanwhile slipped two points from August to 28 percent among the same voters. Support for Sanders remained level at 12 percent, keeping him in third place. Harris saw her support drop this month from 11 percent to 6 percent. South Bend, Ind. mayor Pete Buttigieg and New Jersey senator Cory Booker trailed them, polling at 5 percent and 4 percent respectively.

HISTORY Comments turned off

Five Things They Don’t Tell You about Slavery By Rich Lowry

Posted By on September 4th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/09/five-things-they-dont-tell-you-about-slavery/

It didn’t begin or end in the United States.

The same people most obsessed with slavery seem to have little interest in the full scope of its history.

There has been an effort for decades now — although with new momentum lately, as exemplified by the New York Times’ 1619 project — to identify the United States and its founding with slavery.

To the extent that this campaign excavates uncomfortable truths about our history and underlines the central role of African Americans in our nation, it is welcome. But it is often intended to undermine the legitimacy of America itself by effacing what makes it distinctive and good.

Yes, slavery and racial prejudice were our great original sins. It would have been better if we had, like the British, been leaders against the slave trade and for abolition (the representation of slaveholders in Congress and the rise of King Cotton forestalled this). But we didn’t invent slavery, even in its race-based form.

Slavery didn’t make us unique, which is obvious if we consider its history in a little broader context. Critics of the American Founding don’t like to do this because it weakens their case and quickly brings them up against politically inconvenient facts that they’d prefer to pass over in silence.

Let’s dwell, then, on a few things they don’t tell us about slavery. None of these are secrets or are hard to find, but they are usually left out or minimized, since they don’t involve self-criticism and, worse, they entail a critical look at societies or cultures that the Left tends to favor vis-à-vis the West.

None of what follows is meant to excuse the practice of slavery in the United States, or its longevity. Nor is it to deny that the Atlantic slave trade was one of history’s great enormities, subjecting millions to mistreatment so horrifying that it is hard to fathom. But if we are to understand the history of slavery, it’s important to know what happened before 1619 and what happened elsewhere besides America.

POLITICS Comments turned off

ThinkProgress Smears Dan Crenshaw on ‘Universal Background Checks’ By Charles C. W. Cooke

Posted By on September 4th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/thinkprogress-smears-dan-crenshaw-on-universal-background-checks/

Dan Crenshaw has every right to oppose a ‘universal background check’ bill.

At ThinkProgress, Josh Israel miscasts Dan Crenshaw’s argument against the “universal background check” bill that the House of Representatives passed earlier this year (and which Crenshaw opposed):

“With universal background checks, I wouldn’t be able to let my friends borrow my handgun when they travel alone like this. We would make felons out of people just for defending themselves,” he tweeted.

It is unclear why Crenshaw does not believe his friends could pass background checks to get their own weapons or to borrow his. If they are convicted felons who are not allowed to possess weapons, it would seem important for Crenshaw or other friends to know that before arming them.

Israel’s reading of Crenshaw’s tweet is based upon a misunderstanding of the bill (H.R. 8) that Crenshaw opposes. Under current federal law, Crenshaw is allowed to loan, gift, or sell a gun to any adult within his home state of Texas, provided he believes that that adult is permitted to own one. If H.R. 8 were signed into law, this would change. Specifically, H.R. 8 would prevent Crenshaw from selling a gun to anybody without the buyer undergoing a background check; it would limit his ability to gift or loan a gun to recipients within his own family; and it would narrow the circumstances in which he could effect a “temporary transfer” dramatically, to those in which the temporary transferee feared “imminent death or great bodily harm.” Because he has read H.R. 8, Crenshaw knows this, and he knows, therefore, that if H.R. 8 were to become law it would prevent him from loaning his friends guns per se — not because his friends are unable to pass a background check, but because there would be no such thing as loaning a friend a gun.

POLITICS Comments turned off

New Marquette Poll: Trump Trails Biden by Nine Points in Wisconsin, But Ties Warren and Harris By John McCormack

Posted By on September 4th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/new-marquette-poll-trump-trails-biden-by-nine-points-in-wisconsin-but-ties-warren-and-harris/

According to the latest Marquette Law School poll of registered voters in Wisconsin, Joe Biden leads Donald Trump 51 percent to 42 percent, while Elizabeth Warren and Trump are tied at 45 percent. Trump is also tied with Kamala Harris at 44 percent, while Bernie Sanders narrowly leads Trump 48 percent to 44 percent.

The Marquette survey is another data point backing up the argument that Biden is actually more electable than his Democratic rivals. He leads Trump by 9.4 points in the RealClearPolitics average of national polls, while Warren leads Trump by 3.6 points in the RCP average and Harris leads by 3.0. 

In 2016, of course, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by 2.1 points, but lost the Electoral College because 78,000 voters in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan gave Trump the edge.

Trump can afford to let Pennsylvania and Michigan flip in 2020, but he would still win the Electoral College 270 to 268 if he holds Wisconsin and the rest of the 2016 map stays the same. 

4

Wisconsin remains a strong contender to be the “tipping-point” state in the Electoral College in 2020, and Biden will likely be touting the fact that the “gold-standard” pollster in Wisconsin shows him with a big lead, while his rivals would make the race a toss-up. 

Biden’s rivals can counter by pointing out that at this point in the 2016 presidential race (when Trump had been running in the GOP primary for less than three months) Marquette showed Hillary Clinton leading Trump 51 percent to 35 percent.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Storming Back to the Impeachment Charade By Andrew C. McCarthy

Posted By on September 4th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/09/impeachment-charade-jerry-nadler-house-democrats/

Jerry Nadler claims to be conducting an impeachment inquiry, but his committee has never actually voted to have one. Here’s why.

Elections have consequences. This was a point we tried to make many times in the run-up to the 2018 midterm elections. The Democrats won control of the House fair and square. That means they get to drive the agenda.

Their agenda, kinda sorta, is the impeachment of President Trump — which is to say, the quixotic quest to build political support for it. According to the Washington Post, that effort is about to sink deeper into farce: Hearings on Stormy Daniels and the hush-money payments to conceal trysts that Donald Trump had — allegedly, of course — a decade before he ran for president.

Such a quest is a two-edged sword, though. If this is how the Democrats choose to spend the public’s time and money, they must be accountable for it. They must be pressured to demonstrate the courage of their anti-Trump convictions. So far, for all the bluster, they’ve gotten away with cowardice.

Most of the impeachment quasi-action is in the Judiciary Committee, chaired by Representative Jerrold Nadler (D., N.Y.). We have to qualify the word “action” because, while Nadler claims to be conducting an impeachment inquiry, his committee has never actually voted to have one.

This reflects the political needle Democrats cannot thread.