IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Trump Proposes to Bus Illegals to Sanctuary Cities A political masterstroke. Matthew Vadum

Posted By on April 15th, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273482/trump-proposes-bus-illegals-sanctuary-cities-matthew-vadum

President Donald Trump’s proposal to ship immigration detainees to so-called sanctuary cities –which are Democrat strongholds— is a political masterstroke, if the Left’s wounded animal-like howling is any indication.

With this politically brilliant tactic, the likes of which would never have come from a President Jeb Bush or a President Mitt Romney, Trump continues to demonstrate that he is one of the few Republican presidents in modern American history who actually knows how to fight the Left. He is giving leftists a well-deserved taste of their own medicine.

And what better place to send illegal aliens than to sanctuary jurisdictions? They claim to welcome illegals and provide services for them. Their sanctuary policies, by which they harbor and shield illegals from U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE), are magnets for illegals, giving them incentives to sneak across the border or overstay visas.

The president’s plan only gives sanctuary cities more of what they claim to want.

“We’ll bring them to sanctuary city areas and let that particular area take care of it,” Trump said April 12 at the White House. “They say, ‘we have open arms,’ they’re always saying they have open arms, let’s see if they have open arms.”

POLITICS Comments turned off

Here it comes: Rep. Tlaib blasts Dem leadershipBy Thomas Lifson

Posted By on April 15th, 2019

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/04/here_it_comes_rep_tlaib_blasts_dem_leadership.html

The first overt sign of the trouble that lies ahead for Nancy Pelosi and the Democrat leadership with the emergence of a radical Muslim wing of the party arrived Saturday.

Following the discovery of a video clip of Rep. Omar referring to 911 as “some people did something,” the blowback has been fierce, including in deep blue New York City, where the wounds of death and destruction (and lingering health issues among first responders) still are very painful. Rep. Tlaib is not happy with what she perceives as inadequate support for her fellow Muslima in Congress, and extended the criticism on this specific issue by another Twitter user into a broader attack on the party leadership:

Rashida Rashida Tlaib
They put us in photos when they want to show our party is diverse. However, when we ask to be at the table, or speak up about issues that impact who we are, what we fight for & why we ran in the first place, we are ignored. To truly honor our diversity is to never silence us.
Tlaib‏Verified account @RashidaTlaib
To say that Representatives Rashida Tlaib and Ihan Omar have chips on their shoulders would be an understatement. Both women embrace the notion of Muslim victimhood in a party that stokes the grievances of a variety of minorities who are encouraged to see themselves as victims and seek balm in the form of concessions from the majority.

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Mayor Buttigieg’s Promise

Posted By on April 15th, 2019

https://www.nysun.com/editorials/mayor-buttigiegs-promise/90647/

Mayor Peter “Pete” Buttigieg’s speech throwing his hat into the ring for president strikes us as the best debut from a Democrat since 2004. That’s when the party’s nominee was introduced at Boston by a young senator named Barack Obama, who stressed the idea of a UNITED States of America. Mr. Buttigieg captured at his launch this evening a youthful optimism that, other than Mr. Obama, our country hasn’t heard from a Democrat since JFK.

Not that we’re unmindful of what happened in respect of the nominee in 2004. Senator Kerry boasted of heroism in a Vietnam war he’d betrayed. He was called out by veterans of the shallow water inland fast tactical vessels known as Swiftboats, which had carried the war to the communists infesting the Mekong Delta. His fellow Swiftvets deemed him “unfit for command” and sank his campaign.

Mr. Obama, though, ended up winning the presidency four years later. He had a thinner resume than that of Mr. Buttigieg, who appeared in arms in Afghanistan and has been six years a mayor. Mr. Obama, though, ran a refreshing campaign, handily dispatching an angry candidate in Senator McCain, only to fail at finding policies as unifying as his early speeches. He set the stage for President Trump.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Ex-Communist Nations Suffer from Central-Planning Woes, Still By John Fund

Posted By on April 15th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/04/slovakia-communist-central-planning-mindset/

Soviet troops are long gone, but red tape and disregard for the rule of law live on.

Bratislava, Slovakia — Thirty years ago, I traveled throughout Europe reporting on the fall of Communism for the Wall Street Journal.

So this year I looked forward to retracing my steps in the countries that kicked central planning to the curb. Most are now full members of the European Union and will elect members to its parliament next month. I wanted to see how things had worked out.

For my first leg of travel this year, I accompanied the Free Market Road Show, a merry rotating group of economists, journalists, and business leaders who for the last dozen years have traveled through up to 45 cities a year holding public forums and attracting media coverage. Their message is simple: The path to prosperity is to enhance the rule of law, lower taxes, respect individual freedom, decentralize government, and limit burdensome regulations. The show’s sponsor, the Austrian Economics Center, believes that the road show has helped shift public opinion toward that view. Certainly the center’s director, free-market economist Barbara Kolm, has prospered. Last year, she was named vice president of the Austrian Central Bank.

Our first stop on the Road Show was a mere 40 miles from the Road Show’s headquarters in Vienna, which evoked a warm memory for me. On New Year’s Eve in 1991, I stood in front of the castle in Bratislava and witnessed the birth of a new nation: Slovakia, which was peacefully separating from Czechoslovakia with a show of fireworks and a 21-gun salute.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

The Theory Behind My Disinvitation If the purpose of speech is to get the better of one’s opponent, why not do it via censorship instead By Harvey C. Mansfield

Posted By on April 15th, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-theory-behind-my-disinvitation-11555269706

Mr. Mansfield is a professor of government at Harvard and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.

Recently I was disinvited from giving a commencement address at the small Liberal Arts College within Concordia University in Montreal. My speech was to be on the study of great books, to which that college is devoted. The invitation was a surprise, and the rejection less of one, because I am a white male conservative professor.

Though I teach at Harvard and lecture elsewhere fairly often, I don’t get invitations for occasions when universities put their principles on display. My last commencement address was for a private high school in rural California.My relative lack of celebrity likely made me easier to disinvite. Most universities don’t ask a professor to speak at commencement, figuring that the professors have already had their turn. Students and parents prefer the relief of hearing something not worth remembering on which they won’t be tested.

Still, I had been invited and then disinvited. My reaction was more a sigh than a rush of anger at the manifest insult it was. Having devoted my life to teaching the great books, I was not going to be tongue-tied or at a loss as more specialized professors might be. Each of my classes is a commencement address. Thus the fear about my appearance at Concordia was not that I would speak badly. But what was the reason behind it?

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Winner in Israel Turns Out To be New Voting Law By Michel Gurfinkiel

Posted By on April 14th, 2019

https://www.nysun.com/foreign/winner-in-israel-turns-out-to-be-new-voting-law/90646/

Who was the real winner in the recent Israeli elections? The answer: the 2014 electoral law. It requires a list to garner at least 3.25 % of the vote to get seats at the Knesseth.

In 2015, the first time it was in force, it helped both Prime Minister Netanyahu’s conservative Likud party and Yitzhak Herzog’s liberal Zionist Union to emerge as the country’s main political forces, with 30 and 24 seats respectively out of 120 — against eight smaller parties, Right and Left, who got from 5 to 13 seats each.

This time, it was even more effective, providing 36 seats to Likud and 35 seats to the Blue-White Coalition, the indirect heir to ZU, and leaving less than one half of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, to nine lesser lists. In other words, the 2014 law is turning proportional representation into something closer to a bipartisan system. Quite an achievement.

Pundits like to argue about the comparative theoretical merits of the majority system, a feature most famously of America, and proportional representation. More often than not, however, countries just pick up an electoral system for practical reasons.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Thousands of Iranians carry anti-U.S. placards at nationwide protests following Friday prayers

Posted By on April 14th, 2019

https://www.israelhayom.com/2019/04/14/iranians-march-to-protest-us-blacklisting-revolutionary-guards/

Thousands of Iranians carrying signs reading “I’m a Guard too” and “Down with USA” marched on Friday to protest against the U.S. designation of the elite Revolutionary Guards as a foreign terrorist organization.

State television showed crowds shouting: “What’s America thinking? Iran is full of Guards” after leaving Friday prayers at Tehran University on their way to a rally in a nearby square. Similar state-sponsored protests were held across Iran, it said.

Iranian officials have condemned U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision on Monday to blacklist the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps , a step is likely to raise tensions in the Middle East.

Tehran retaliated by naming the regional United States Central Command (CENTCOM) as a terrorist organization.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Gordon Ramsay accused of cultural appropriation over ‘Asian’ restaurant By Patrick Sawer, Helena Horton

Posted By on April 14th, 2019

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/04/13/gordon-ramsay-accused-cultural-appropriation-asian-restaurant/

He has described his latest venture as inspired by the “culture, flavours and the incredible cooking” of Asia.

But Gordon Ramsay has now found himself caught up in a row over cultural appropriation after his new restaurant was accused of tokenism and lazy stereotyping.

The award-winning chef is opening Lucky Cat, which he calls “an Asian eating house” inspired by 1930s Tokyo, describing it as part of his “long time vision”.

During one of the venue’s preview nights last week diners were treated to dishes such as mini wagyu pastrami burger with ‘Asian’ chilli jam, English asparagus with a smoked ponzu emulsion and smoked duck breast with plum and Japanese nashi pear.

Ramsay said on the night: “I’ve toured and worked in much of Asia over the years and the culture, the flavours, and the incredible cooking never fail to inspire me. We’ve got a great team behind this project and we’re ready to bring something really special to London this summer.”

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Shamima Begum was cruel enforcer in Isil’s morality police, say Syrian witnesses Josie Ensor Robert Mendick,

Posted By on April 14th, 2019

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/04/13/shamima-begum-cruel-enforcer-isils-morality-police-say-syrian/

Shamima Begum, the Bethnal Green schoolgirl, served in the Islamic State’s “morality police” and also tried to recruit other young women to join the jihadist group, well-placed sources have told The Telegraph.

She was allowed to carry a Kalashnikov rifle and earned a reputation as a strict “enforcer” of Isil’s laws, such as dress codes for women, sources claimed.

The claims are at odds with Miss Begum’s own account of her four years with the group, which she joined at the age of just 15.

Miss Begum, now aged 19, has insisted she was never involved in Isil’s brutality but spent her time in Syria as a devoted housewife to a jihadist fighter.

Miss Begum, whose discovery in a refugee camp in northern Syria in February sparked a public outcry, said she concentrated on bringing up the couple’s children. They subsequently died of malnutrition.

Her husband, Dutch fighter Yago Riedijk, offered a similar story, saying Miss Begum “sat in the house” and that she would pose no danger to the British public if allowed back to the UK.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Terrifying video on antisemitic conference at the University of North Carolina By Thomas Lifson VIDEO

Posted By on April 14th, 2019

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/04/terrifying_video_on_antisemitic_confer

Ami Horowitz, the investigatory filmmaker who often exposes campus madness, has produced a video that ought to terrify anyone familiar with the history of Weimar Germany.  Then, as now, universities were among the leaders in whipping up Jew-hatred and actually persecuting Jews.  One of the neglected aspects of the origins of the Holocaust is that the purge of Jews from Germany’s famous universities opened up new career possibilities for those faculty and students who remained once their institutions were Judenrein.We are not (yet) at the point of expelling Jews from faculties and student bodies, but we are at the point of violent attacks on Jews being justified by faculty members at prestigious universities, as a jaw-dropping interview in Horowitz’s latest video (embedded below) shows.  We are also at the point where multiple academic departments at such a university — a publicly owned and funded institution of (purported) higher learning — are comfortable sponsoring an academic conference with open Jew-hatred, and government funds (nearly a quarter million dollars!) are allocated to sponsor it.