IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Trump: “The Wall is Getting Done One Way or the Other!” President sends a warning to obstructionist Democrats. Matthew Vadum

Posted By on February 1st, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272746/trump-wall-getting-done-one-way-or-other-matthew-vadum

President Trump is growing impatient over the lack of progress bipartisan negotiators in Congress have been making in talks over funding a desperately needed wall on the nation’s porous multi-state border with Mexico – and this continuing failure makes another government shutdown increasingly likely this Feb. 15.

The GOP-controlled House of Representatives voted 217 to 185 on Dec. 20 for a spending bill with $5.7 billion for the wall. The measure floundered in the Senate and the partial shutdown got underway Dec. 22. The Senate remains in Republican hands but the House is now controlled by Democrats.

Trump engaged in what his handlers characterized as a strategic temporary retreat when he signed a bill Jan. 25 to reopen the government for a three-week period after the longest federal shutdown on record, dropping his demand that Congress appropriate funding for the wall before restoring the government to full functionality until Feb. 15 after which the government could partially shut down again. Trump said he’ll use the time to continue to push lawmakers for money for the wall and is perfectly willing to shut the government down again if he doesn’t secure appropriations for construction of the project.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

North Korean Military Proliferation in the Middle East and Africa By Janet Levy

Posted By on February 1st, 2019

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/02/north_korean_military_proliferation_in_the_middle_east_and_africa.html

President Trump, to meet in late February with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in a second attempt at ridding the dictatorship of nuclear weapons, maintains he is making historical progress and North Korea no longer poses a nuclear threat to the U.S. Yet, earlier this week America’s top intelligence official, Dan Coats, rebutted that view. In a congressional hearing, Coats said North Korea wouldn’t completely give up nuclear weapons because its leaders view them as “critical to regime survival.”

Given today’s political urgency, a clear-eyed, comprehensive look at North Korea’s military capabilities and its long-standing and wide-ranging proliferation couldn’t be more timely and it is offered by retired Marine, author and political science professor, Bruce Bechtol. His new book, North Korean Military Proliferation in the Middle East and Africa: Enabling Violence and Instability (University Press of Kentucky, 2018), uses open-source intelligence reports, defectors’ testimony, field interviews and the work of fellow experts, to quantify the full extent of North Korea’s military capabilities and what it will take to stop the regime’s illicit activities.

Bechtol enumerates North Korea’s nuclear proliferation that includes weapons, capabilities, training, advice, assistance with fabricating facilities, equipment repairs and military backup. He profiles North Korea’s diversified capabilities that go beyond nuclear weapons programs to include myriad ballistic missile systems, maritime technology advances, airborne platforms, WMDs and cyber-warfare expertise. He lists the countries and non-state actors that benefit from their relationships with the rogue regime and details the country’s illicit financial networks and creative shipping arrangements that enable the regime to skirt sanctions and carry out global proliferation.

The Hermit Kingdom’s first nuclear weapons test occurred in 2006. By 2015, it had the capability to launch a nuclear weapon on a ballistic missile that could hit the U.S. In 2016, it put a satellite into space using a missile with a range of 7,200 miles. Other tested ballistic missile systems, according to Bechtol, include a solid-fuel missile with an advanced GPS system for pinpoint guidance, a three-stage mobile ICBM able to carry a miniaturized nuclear warhead, and a two-state and a liquid-fueled mobile missile able to reach higher altitudes and distances than previous missiles.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The Palestinians: Who Really Cares? by Bassam Tawil

Posted By on February 1st, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13655/palestinians-lebanon

Protests by the Palestinians in Lebanon are unlikely to draw any attention from the international community, including so-called pro-Palestinian groups that are active especially on university campuses in the US and Canada, among other places.

The real “pro-Palestinian” groups are those who are willing to raise their voices against the mistreatment of Palestinians at the hands of their Arab brothers. The real “pro-Palestinian” groups are those who are prepared to defend the rights of women and gays living under Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The real “pro-Palestinian” groups are those that are prepared to advocate for democracy and free speech for Palestinians living under the repressive regimes of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The real “pro-Palestinian” groups are those who are prepared to condemn Lebanon for its racist and discriminatory measures against Palestinians, living and dead.

Hiding at a university campus and spewing hatred against Israel does not make one “pro-Palestinian.” Rather, it makes one just an Israel-hater. Will the “pro-Palestinian” groups listen to the urgent messages coming from the people in Lebanon they claim to represent?

A Palestinian who tries to bring a bag of cement or other construction materials into a refugee camp to build a house is subjected to arrest, interrogation, trial by military court and a fine.

Is this happening in the Gaza Strip? No. Is it happening in the West Bank? No. This inhumane and unjust practice is taking place in an Arab country where more than 500,00 Palestinians live: Lebanon.

Moreover, this ban on the entry of construction material is punishing not only the living, but also the dead. Palestinians say that because of the prohibition, they cannot even find enough stones and cement to build graves.

The wretched condition of the Palestinians living in Lebanon is often ignored by both the international community and the Western main stream media. The only Palestinians the international community seems to care about are those residing in the West Bank and Gaza Strip — those whose grievances can be blamed on Israel.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Resilient U.S. Economy Fuels Best January For Stocks in 30 Years Gains by banks and small caps helped lift the Dow and S&P to their best starts since the 1980sBy Amrith Ramkumar

Posted By on January 31st, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/resilient-u-s-economy-fuels-january-stock-market-recovery-11548939600?mod=hp_lead_pos1

Banks and smaller companies that were among the market’s laggards last quarter have helped stocks to their best January in 30 years, a sign investors are favoring sectors tied to the U.S. economy.

Despite a modest performance from U.S. indexes Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 both closed the month with their biggest January gains since the 1980s. The industrial average’s 7.2% rise was its best January performance since 1989, while the S&P’s 7.9% advance was its best start to a year since 1987.

Through Wednesday, the KBW Nasdaq Bank Index had risen 14% this month, on track for its best-ever start to a year. Meanwhile, the Russell 2000 index of small-capitalization companies—many of which are domestically focused—was heading for its best January since 1987, with a 10% advance.

The reversal shows that investors who were bracing for a sharp slowdown in U.S. economic activity have been soothed by cautious comments from the Federal Reserve, signs of strength in the labor market and data pointing to tepid inflation.

Although lukewarm economic activity in Europe and China has clouded the outlook for global growth and hurt multinational corporations reliant on trade flows, companies from banks to industrial firms have said U.S. consumer demand remains resilient. CONTINUE AT SITE

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Silly, Sillier, Socialism! Peter Smith

Posted By on January 31st, 2019

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/opinion-

Put aside the natural aversion to the Davos billionaires. Capitalism is the only system which can continually reduce poverty and increase overall prosperity. Yes, capitalism creates very rich people, but capitalism won’t work its wonders without very rich people.

The new star of the (increasingly radical) Democratic Party, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez attends a symposium on 21 January where she is asked if it is moral to have “a world that allows for billionaires.” She replies it is not, adding that “a system that allows billionaires to exist when there are parts of Alabama where people are still getting ringworm because they don’t have access to public health is wrong.” By the way, before I look at the morality of having billionaires, ringworm is a common fungal infection that can strike anyone and is easily treated with antifungal creams obtainable inexpensively from any local pharmacy. The clunky machinery of public health is not required.

In the blink of an eye Ms Ocasio-Cortez has become sufficiently celebrated to be referred to as “AOC”; like, say, FDR, LBJ or JFK. Fortunately for America she is only twenty-nine years old and therefore can’t run for the presidency. A recent poll found that 74% of Democrats would consider voting for her were she to run. The rational mind boggles.

The lady is on the extreme end of the callow scale. This is an excuse of sorts for her saying that the world will end in twelve years unless something is done about climate change and for espousing naive socialist nostrums through her Green New Deal, GND to those in the know. But what about the supposed adults who support her?

Surely there is now no doubt. There has been a secular decline in the intelligence and common sense of those who identify as progressives; and, to boot, in their common decency. Witness the Kavanaugh ordeal and the despicable attack on the Covington kids, as just two examples of many. But I digress. Back to billionaires.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Let Us Not Become Veneztralia Michael Galak

Posted By on January 31st, 2019

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2019/01/let

What I do not understand is Venezuelans voting for the very policies which subsequently devastated their country. What I understand even less are the polls indicating Australian voters are buying Bill Shorten’s Chavez-lite policies and class-war rhetoric.

Venezuela, the richest country in South America not so long ago, is sliding into the abyss of civil war and bloodshed. The shops are empty and astronomic inflation has rendered the national currency, Bolivar, worthless. Oil production, the economy’s mainstay, is reduce to a trickle and default on overseas loans is likely. Venezuela’s military, up to its neck in drug-trafficking, has been shooting people on the streets, with 26 are dead by the latest count. The country is in torment and turmoil. Whether one calls the massive protests and demonstratikons a rebellion, a revolution or an insurrection makes no difference; suffering is the same no matter what name you give it.

This tropical country, blessed with abundant fertile soil, an extensive coastline and one of the world’s largest known oil reserves, is motherless broke. People are emigrating in droves to anywhere they can, voting with their feet. The only governments which support the present regime are the usual suspects: Moscow, Moldova and the Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine, plus China, Turkey, North Korea, Cuba and Zimbabwe.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

What Northam’s Walk Back Really Means By Alexandra DeSanctis

Posted By on January 31st, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/what-northams-walk-back-really-means/

After a disastrous interview yesterday morning on WTOP radio, Virginia governor Ralph Northam attempted some damage control that somehow muddled the situation even further. That interview, of course, dealt with a bill proposed in Virginia that would significantly loosen the state’s limits on abortion in the last three months of pregnancy. The sponsor of the legislation, Kathy Tran, conceded during questioning that her bill could permit a woman to receive an abortion even during labor.

Asked about Tran’s bill and her comment, Northam offered some thoughts that ended up touching off a firestorm: “When we talk about third-trimester abortions, these are done with the consent of obviously the mother, with the consent of the physician — more than one physician, by the way — and it’s done in cases where there may be severe deformities. There may be a fetus that’s non-viable,” he said. This was objectionable enough, but the governor went on.

“If a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen,” Northam continued. “The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.”

For many observers, this sounded a bit too close to possible infanticide. After Northam’s interview became the subject of scrutiny, his spokesperson offered a statement on the governor’s remarks:

Republicans in Virginia and across the country are trying to play politics with women’s health, and that is exactly why these decisions belong between a woman and her physician, not legislators, most of whom are men.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

A Curious Time for InsideHigherEd to Lose Interest in Campus Speech By Frederick M. Hess & Cody Christensen

Posted By on January 31st, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/a-curious-time-for-insidehighered-to-lose-interest-in-campus-speech/

Colleges have a free speech “problem.” From high-profile instances at Missouri, Yale, and Middlebury, to more recent events at UC Berkeley and Sarah Lawrence College, we’ve seen college leaders allow the campus left to harass speakers, silence debate, and drive conservative views and values from the academy.

This state of affairs is one reason why InsideHigherEd’s annual survey of college and university chief academic officers has been especially useful. Since 2015, this survey has been the only annual snapshot that captures what senior college administrators think about trigger warnings, free speech, and academic freedom — and thus the only reliable way to gauge changes in their actions or attitudes. In light of the contretemps of the past year, many were eager to see what campus leaders had to say.

Unfortunately, in the latest survey, released last week, those questions had been neatly scrubbed from the survey. Yep, one of the nation’s primary news outlets covering higher education decided that now would be a propitious time to stop asking about academic freedom and free speech on campus.

What might appear to be simply a curious case of bad timing is emblematic of a larger problem with the higher ed-industrial complex — a tendency to sweep under the rug those developments which raise uncomfortable questions about the orthodoxies and agendas pervading campus culture. This dynamic was on full display last fall in the lawsuit that Students for Fair Admissions has mounted against Harvard’s admissions policies, when all the quarreling factions of academe responded by finding a way to link arms in the cause of race-based admissions.

The survey did find time to ask whether conservative and liberal students feel welcome in classrooms on their campus. Four percent of provosts expressed reservations about whether liberal students feel welcome; 12 percent expressed concerns about whether conservative students do. Given that surveys of students have indicated that half of them report having censored themselves in class for fear of what will be said in response, this kind of question provides a useful, sometimes laughable, window into the self-serving bubble that campus mandarins occupy.

POLITICS Comments turned off

Trump and the Latino Vote By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on January 31st, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/donald-trump-and-the-latino-vote/

Trump would not have to change his policies to capture 40 to 50 percent of the Latino vote (which is quite different from “Latino” spokespeople on television and the Jorge Ramos crowd), as opposed to simply articulating them:

1) The “new” Democratic party not only show signs of a new more insidious anti-Semitism — as we’ve seen from comments by Senator Feinstein, Harris, and Hirono, and the surreal and barbarous statements coming out of Virginia and New York on third-trimester abortion (and near infanticide). But it is now becoming anti-Catholic to a degree not seen in decades in America. Why would a devout Catholic wish to side with such bigotry? Trump is on the right side of the abortion and the religious-discrimination issues.

2) Hispanic unemployment is at record low levels in a growing economy. One can see the realities by simply driving around small towns in Central California where the flurry of activity and demand for labor are unprecedented, and workers have a range of options and leverage not seen in the 21st century. Even slight decreases in border crossings are force multipliers in the empowerment of Mexican-American and other Hispanic citizens in efforts to boost wages and gain options in employment. Trump’s policies did much of that, visible even in highly regulated and less dynamic California. Few middle-class commuters wish to endorse the New Green Deal that would mandate soon ending chain saws, leaf blowers and the workers’ daily commute.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

No Shutdown for Small Business The NFIB survey shows another hiring surge in January, and better pay for workers. By James Freeman

Posted By on January 31st, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/no-shutdown-for-small-business-11548951611

Many political reporters have spent the last six weeks cataloging alleged harms to the economy from the partial government shutdown ended last week. Meanwhile outside of government, America’s small companies were ramping up their historic effort to employ new workers. That’s according to the latest National Federation of Independent Business employment survey, due out later today.

“Job creation was solid in January with a net addition of 0.33 workers per firm (including those making no change in employment), up from 0.25 in December,” reports NFIB Chief Economist William Dunkelberg. He adds that the measurement of January’s job creation among small firms was “the best reading since July.”

While many government workers were sitting at home waiting for taxpayer dollars to start flowing again, business owners were hoping that new job applicants would start showing up at America’s small firms. “Thirty-five percent of all owners reported job openings they could not fill in the current period, down 4 points from December’s record high. Labor markets are still tight,” says Mr. Dunkelberg.

A tight labor market means higher pay for scarce workers. The NFIB economist elaborates:

The percent of business owners reporting that they increased employee compensation continued at 45 year record high levels. Thirty-six percent reported higher compensation in January, up 1 point from December and one point below September’s record high. Twenty percent planned increases in the next few months (down 4 points), predicting further gains in wages and benefits.

This welcome news that the small business economy continued to hum while parts of the government came to a halt doesn’t mean there are no clouds on the horizon. While hiring plans were still positive in January, they were less robust than in the prior period. Says Mr. Dunkelberg:

A seasonally-adjusted net 18 percent plan to create new jobs, down 5 points from December’s reading. Not seasonally adjusted, 23 percent plan to increase total employment at their firm, and 3 percent plan reductions. Job creation plans were strongest in construction (net 32 percent), and manufacturing (net 26 percent).

He adds that owners of small firms aren’t expecting much of an economic slowdown this year though he believes growth in 2019 will likely be less rapid than last year due in part to the continuing worker shortage across the U.S. economy. CONTINUE AT SITE