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Daniel Greenfield :Socialism Leaves South Africa in the Dark What happened when a nation tried Bernie Sanders’ power plan.

Posted By on May 16th, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273705/socialism-leaves-south-africa-dark-daniel-greenfield

Nearly 150 years after electricity came to South Africa, the country is in the dark. The blackouts can strike at any time and then lights, hot water and even major industries vanish into the darkness.

Storing perishable food in the fridge has become a gamble. The meat you buy today may be inedible tomorrow if the rolling blackout arrives and lasts long enough to destroy all the food you cooked.

With rolling blackouts that can last for as long as twelve hours, South Africans have grown used to eating by candlelight and heating water the old-fashioned way. Those who can afford it have been stocking up on generators. But the demand is so high that it can take a month to even obtain a generator.

It’s not just homes and small businesses. Factories and mines are struggling to maintain the country’s industrial base when power can vanish for the entire workday. Traffic lights run off the same power grid and when it goes into ‘load-shedding’ mode, the roads become a snarled maze of honking cars.

South Africa is out of power. The load-shedding blackouts are a last-ditch effort to avert a national blackout that will send the entire country spiraling into a deeper and more enduring darkness.

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Orbán at the White House By Shoshana Bryen

Posted By on May 16th, 2019

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/05/orbn_at_the_white_house.html

“Hungarians, Croats, Serbs, Bulgarians, Czechs, and others correctly think of themselves as twice occupied — once by Hitler and once by the USSR.  Now they are free to be Hungarian, Croatian, Serbian, etc.  This has, for many of us, both positive and negative ramifications — none of which is equivalent to the Iranian practice of hanging homosexuals or stoning adulterers.”

Despite the fact that the Trump administration has spent two years communicating its concerns with Hungary regarding academic freedom, anti-Semitism, and other illiberal positions of the Hungarian government, the visit of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to the White House for a meeting with President Donald Trump has set off alarm bells — primarily among those already inclined to disapprove of the president’s guest list.

A former Obama staffer summed up the concern, saying, “It still remains rightly shocking to see Trump cozy up to authoritarian leaders. The American President should be supporting democratic allies with shared values rather than autocrats who are actively undermining U.S. interests.” (This from an administration that believed that the Islamic Republic of Iran should be legitimized and concluded diplomatic, trade, and travel agreements with Raúl Castro’s Cuba.)

Hungary and other Central European countries are complicated, and shunning them is likely to create more problems. These are NATO members, former Warsaw Pact members, E.U. members, bound to the West in ways that make their future a key interest of the United States and the rest of Europe. And, on the other side, Russia.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Muslim groups apologize for video of children singing about decapitation see note

Posted By on May 16th, 2019

https://www.israelhayom.com/2019/05/16/muslim-groups-apologize-for-video-of-children-singing-about-decapitation/

Oh Puleez!!! They apologized? The kids were singing what they learn and hear everyday. rsk

Declaring “the mistake is ours to own,” Muslim leaders in Philadelphia said and apologized Wednesday for an event last month, where children were captured on video speaking in Arabic about beheading Jews and the liberation of Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site.

The Muslim American Society’s Philadelphia chapter and the Leaders Academy, a gathering place for homeschooled children that rents space at the site, issued a joint statement on Wednesday that sought to explain how the questionable material found its way into an annual event meant to celebrate diversity in Muslim communities.

A video uploaded to the group’s Facebook page showed children dancing to a revolutionary anthem often used by Islamist groups, and two young girls reading from a prepared text. One said, “We will chop off their heads, and we will liberate … Al-Aqsa Mosque.”

The contested site, revered by Jews as the Temple Mount and by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, is at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The compound is the holiest site for Jews and the third-holiest site in Islam. It has been a flashpoint of violence in the past.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION, POLITICS Comments turned off

Washington’s Disaster Cynicism Puerto Rico is already getting $40 billion in relief.

Posted By on May 16th, 2019

Few spectacles in Washington are as cynical as disaster relief, but the current debate is even worse than usual. Democrats are portraying Puerto Rico as a victim of Republican bigotry, though the island has received billions since Hurricane Maria in 2017.

For months Congress has haggled over relief money for California fires, Midwest floods, Gulf Coast hurricanes and more. These bills are typically bipartisan feeding frenzies, with no disaster too small to waste. Last week more than 30 Republicans in the House joined Democrats to pass a $19 billion bill. No one has any idea how most of this will be spent, and plenty will be wasted as such aid often is. The main hang up has been money for Puerto Rico, and Democrats claim that GOP offers are insufficiently generous. Democrats think they can paint President Trump and Republicans as heartless and anti-Hispanic to boot.

But more than $40 billion has been allocated to Puerto Rico, particularly through Federal Emergency Management Agency and Housing and Urban Development accounts, which over time is obligated in contracts and then spent. The White House noted in April that roughly $19 billion of the more than $40 billion has been obligated so far across 14 government agencies, $8 billion of which is unspent.

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Blaming America First on Iran Trump is trying to protect U.S. interests, not start a war.

Posted By on May 16th, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/acting-out-in-tehran-11557961728

When the U.S. withdraws its diplomats from a foreign country amid a security threat, the domestic reaction in a previous age would have been to show solidarity against an adversary. But this is Washington in 2019, so the loyal opposition is reacting to the threat from Iran by blaming—President Trump.

“Either the Trump administration is trying to goad Iran into war or a war could come by accident because of the administration’s reckless policies,” declared former Obama official Wendy Sherman Wednesday, after the State Department withdrew personnel from Iraq.

Ms. Sherman is sore that Mr. Trump withdrew from the failed nuclear deal that she helped negotiate with Iran, but even she must realize that Shiite militias in Iraq often act as proxies for Iran. Does she want another Benghazi? Yet she blames Mr. Trump for a “march to war with Iran” and wants Congress, Europe and business leaders to “stand in [national security adviser] John Bolton’s way.” Senator Bernie Sanders says he’s also worried about “provocations on the part of the United States against Iran.”
***

Who does Ms. Sherman want to stand in the way of Gen. Qassem Soleimani? He’s the leader of Iran’s Quds Force, the expeditionary arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), that used the windfall from Ms. Sherman’s nuclear deal to finance terror and instability throughout the Middle East.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

The Humanitarian Hoax of Pearson Education: Killing America With Kindness – hoax 30 by Linda Goudsmit

Posted By on May 15th, 2019

 http://goudsmit.pundicity.com/22688/the-humanitarian-hoax-of-pearson-education

The Humanitarian Hoax is a deliberate and deceitful tactic of presenting a destructive policy as altruistic. The humanitarian huckster presents himself as a compassionate advocate when in fact he is the disguised enemy.

Pearson plc, a public limited corporation, is a British multinational multi-billion dollar publishing powerhouse and the largest education company in the world. Pearson Publishing’s reported 2017 share in global revenues was $8.2 billion with a staggering 60% control of U.S. textbooks sales. It listed the Libyan Investment Authority as its largest financial contributor. Pearson is an anti-American, pro-globalism, antisemitic, pro-Muslim globalized education provider that is indoctrinating our American children.

Pearson is the premier global educational humanitarian huckster hawking its anti-American message of globalism to K-12 students and teachers in America. Its globalized curriculum comports to Obama’s pet Common Core Initiative Standards (CCIS). Globally, Common Core originated from the One World Education concept, a global goal orchestrated by the Connect All Schools program. Its origin is funded by the Qatar Foundation International (QFI) and supported by the United Nations Agenda 2030. This is how it works.

Obama appointed Vartan Gregorian, board member of the Qatari Foundation International (QFI), to the prestigious and influential President’s Commission on White House Fellowships. The Qatar Foundation International partnered with the Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education in 2011 to integrate classrooms in the U.S. and international schools through a program called Connect All Schools.

POLITICS Comments turned off

If You Can’t Impeach Him, Embarrass Him Those calling for President Trump’s tax returns probably won’t find much. Seth Barron

Posted By on May 15th, 2019

https://www.city-journal.org/trumps-tax-returns
Disappointed by Robert Mueller’s failure to demonstrate President Trump’s perfidy, Democrats are focusing anew on the president’s tax returns. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is refusing to order the release of Trump’s federal returns to the House, saying that there is no legislative purpose for doing so, but a new effort to expose Trump’s tax history runs through Albany, where Democrats in 2018 gained solid control of the state senate for the first time in decades. Governor Andrew Cuomo has promised to sign a bill making its way through the legislature that would submit any New Yorker’s state tax returns to Congress, on request from the chairs of any of three revenue-related committees.

The excitement among Democrats is palpable. “We are facing a constitutional showdown,” says State Senator Brad Hoylman, the legislation’s sponsor. “New York, as the home of the president’s state taxes, has a special responsibility to step into the breach.” Assemblywoman Pat Fahy concurs, saying that “we can help hold the president accountable and we will set future precedents for all elected officials, that neither you as a president nor your business interests are above the law.”

National politicians and media are equally enthusiastic. “We will press on, because if we don’t, Trump will escape scrutiny and we won’t be able to hold future presidents accountable for abuse of power, malfeasance or corruption,” says House Investigations Committee chair Adam Schiff. New York writer and Trump critic Jonathan Chait asks: “Do Republicans believe Trump’s financial secrets contain no signs of serious corruption or vulnerability to leverage by a hostile power?”

POLITICS Comments turned off

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

Posted By on May 15th, 2019

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.”

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

What are the odds that the Durham investigation is for real and will bring the bad actors to justice?By Thomas Lifson

Posted By on May 15th, 2019

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/05/what_are_the_odds_that_the_durham_investigation_is_for_real_and_will_bring_the_bad_actors_to_justice.html

Following the disclosure that U.S. attorney John Durham has been tasked with investigating and prosecuting potential crimes in the origin of the Russia Hoax, we learned some very encouraging facts that suggest that the Russia Hoax will be fully aired and miscreants brought to justice. Like Howie Carr, who had a front-row seat when John Durham went after corruption in the FBI Boston office, I am “cautiously optimistic” (Howie’s term) that Durham and his boss A.G. Barr want to get to the bottom of the hoax and put those who may have committed crimes in prison.

In Boston, Durham faced a gigantic scandal that was very damaging to the FBI and did not blink. He got John Connelly, Whitey Bulger’s protector, sentenced to 40 years in prison. This does not sound like a prosecutor who can be persuaded to lay off getting to the truth in order to protect the reputations of important people and institutions.

But we must concede that there are plenty of reasons to worry that that the biggest political scandal in American history — the political weaponization of both the federal intelligence and law enforcement communities to spy on political opponents of the sitting president and remove a duly elected president from office — will be swept under the rug. Even a sober-minded man of integrity like William Barr might be persuaded that the harm to public trust in our system would be too profound and that our allies and foes overseas might see us as so weakened that they would take actions inimical to our interests.

P.C.-CULTURE Comments turned off

Vermont Replaces Columbus Day with Indigenous People’s Day By Mairead McArdle

Posted By on May 15th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/vermont-replaces-columbus-day-with-indigenous-peoples-day/

Vermont on Friday became the sixth state to eliminate Columbus Day, replacing it with Indigenous People’s Day.

Governor Phil Scott, a Republican, signed a bill designating the second Monday in October a day honoring Native Americans rather than the 15th-century Italian explorer.

“Vermont was founded and built upon lands whose original inhabitants were Abenaki people and honors them and their ancestors,” the state’s new law reads.

“I know it’s controversial from many standpoints, from many people, but you know, it’s just a day, and we’ll get through it,” Scott said last month after the state legislature passed the measure.

Vermont’s move comes on the heels of similar bills in Maine and New Mexico, whose Democratic governors signed the holiday change into law last month. Hawaii, Oregon, and South Dakota had already chosen to celebrate Indigenous People’s Day instead of Columbus Day.

Some modern Native American tribes object to the celebration of Christopher Columbus, who led several expeditions to Central and South America and spearheaded the European colonization of the New World.