WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

America and the Saudis Saving the alliance will require telling the truth about Khoshoggi.

Posted By on October 21st, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/america-and-the-saudis-1540159637

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has hurt itself badly with the killing of journalist Jamal Khoshoggi, and its serial explanations are compounding the damage. President Trump will lose control of the Saudi-U.S. relationship if he doesn’t speak truth to these Saudi abuses and to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the 33-year-old power in front of the throne.

The most complete Saudi statement, issued late Friday night, at least admits that Khoshoggi was killed in its Istanbul consulate at the hands of Saudi agents. But the story that Khoshoggi was killed in a “fight and a quarrel” isn’t credible on its face. “The brawl aggravated to lead to his death and their attempt to conceal and cover what happened,” said the Saudi statement. That must have been some lopsided “brawl” with a 59-year-old journalist confronting multiple security agents, as if he were Liam Neeson in “Taken.”

The story is contradicted by information leaked by Turkish officials who say Khoshoggi was killed quickly and dismembered on the scene. The Saudis still haven’t produced Khoshoggi’s body, or provided more details of precisely how or when he died.

The “fight” story also conveniently lays blame on lower-ranking officials while effectively absolving members of the royal family, especially the Crown Prince known as MBS. The Saudis say they’ve arrested 18 officials and sacked five others. Several are part of MBS’s inner circle, and it’s unlikely they would have acted without at least the tacit assent of the Crown Prince. Khoshoggi, who had a wide following in the Middle East, had criticized the Crown Prince for his authoritarian tactics in trying to reform the Kingdom.

POLITICS Comments turned off

Why Is the ‘Blue Wave’ Looking More Like a Splash Than a Tsunami? By John Fund

Posted By on October 21st, 2018

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/10/midterm-elections-democrat-blue-wave-predictions/

Good news on the economy and bad behavior by Democrats may be energizing Republicans.

Every election people talk about an “October surprise” that upends the conventional wisdom about the outcome. Well, it appears we can see the contours of at least one October surprise. The Democrats have managed to shoot themselves in the foot with their handling of the Brett Kavanaugh nomination and the antics of their most extreme supporters. The “Blue Wave” that liberals have been waiting for may still come, but it’s more likely to splash the knees of most GOP incumbents than to submerge them.

Veteran political handicapper Charlie Cook puts it bluntly in his latest column at the Cook Political Report, in which he asks whether “those who led the out-of-control demonstrations on Capitol Hill against the Kavanaugh nomination have any understanding of how much damage they did to Democrats and the party’s chances of winning a majority in the Senate. His answer: “My guess is they don’t. But Senate Democrats probably do.”

Cook now says the odds of Democrats winning a Senate a majority are “long, no better than 1 in 5.” As of today, “a Republican net gain of a seat or two seems most likely, moving the GOP up to either 52 or 53 seats, though a gain of three seats or no net change [is] entirely possible.”

As for the House, political analysts still make the Democrats the odds-on favorites to retake control there for the first time since 2010. But while the new Wall Street Journal/NBC poll out today gives Democrats a nine-point advantage nationwide in voting for the House, it tells a different story in the battleground seats that will determine control:

The Democratic advantage has vanished in House districts that matter most. In districts rated as most competitive, the parties are dead even on which one should control Congress. In last month’s poll, Dems led by 13 points among registered voters and 6 points among likely voters.

In other words, Republicans have a real chance to beat the odds and hold their losses below the 23 seats that would transfer House control.

The reasons for this turnaround are various and go beyond the shrinking of the enthusiasm gap between the parties (before the Kavanaugh nomination, Democratic voters were more enthusiastic). The WSJ/NB poll shows President Trump with a 47 percent job approval, his highest rating yet as president. At the same time, 43 percent of registered voters say Republicans handle the economy better versus only 28 percent who pick Democrats. That’s the largest lead on that question the GOP has ever had in the WSJ/NBC poll.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Don’t Believe the Saudi Lies By The Editors

Posted By on October 21st, 2018

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/10/jamal-khashoggi-killing-saudi-arabia-lies/

Nineteen days after Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi disappeared in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul, the Saudi regime has at last acknowledged the obvious, that Khashoggi is dead. After first insisting that he had left the consulate of his own accord despite video evidence to the contrary, and then slamming the allegations of his murder as “baseless” and threatening oil sanctions against those claiming otherwise, the kingdom has finally settled on its official story: Khashoggi was inadvertently killed inside the consulate during a fistfight that just happened to break out in the midst of an otherwise standard meeting with Saudi intelligence officials. The regime has made a show of dismissing and arresting several officials it says were rogues, and attributes responsibility for the killing to them only.

As alibis go, this barely qualifies. It is a wildly implausible story clearly designed to absolve Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman of responsibility of the murder and therefore leave open the way for continued close relations with the United States. President Trump and Secretary of State Pompeo seem inclined to suspend disbelief, which would be a serious mistake. The situation demands a tougher, less credulous approach.

The Saudi explanation has changed enough times to give the impression that the kingdom was trying on different hats to see which might fit. There is convincing evidence that Khashoggi’s killing was the result of a premeditated operation carried out with bin Salman’s support. Turkish intelligence has alluded to a recording of the killing not released to the public, but thanks to video surveillance, the world knows for certain that a group of Saudi musclemen flew into Istanbul and entered the consulate hours before Khashoggi arrived. Several of these men are members of bin Salman’s inner circle; one, since dismissed from his post, is among the crown prince’s closest advisers. Very little happens in Saudi Arabia without bin Salman’s foreknowledge and approval, so the notion that he would be so unaware of his inner circle’s activities regarding one of the regime’s highest-profile international critics is laughable.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Mob Rule and the Resistance By Carl M. Cannon

Posted By on October 21st, 2018

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2018/10/21/mob_rule_and_the_resistance.html

My friends and colleagues in the media, particularly at CNN, have taken offense to the idea that the self-styled “Resistance” to Donald Trump can ever be characterized as “a mob.”

It’s an unflattering description, but is it unfair? Are violence and physical intimidation now part of the Democrats’ playbook? To weigh that question, let’s do a thought experiment. The following actions all have taken place in the past two years. As you read about them, substitute the words “left” for “right,” “liberal” for “conservative,” and “Democrat” for “Republican.” As you do, consider how CNN, the New York Times, and the rest of the mainstream media would cover these events if the labels were reversed:

January 21, 2017: Addressing the crowd at the Women’s March, featured speaker Madonna says she’s thought “an awful lot about blowing up the White House.” Actress Ashley Judd compares Trump to Hitler and those who attended his inauguration the day before to Nazis.

June 14, 2017: James T. Hodgkinson, a 66-year-old Democratic activist from Illinois shoots up a baseball diamond where Republican members of Congress are practicing for the annual Congressional Baseball Game. Apparently intending to kill several GOP House members, including Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise, who was grievously wounded, Hodgkinson had volunteered for Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign, and belonged to a Facebook group called “Terminate the Republican Party.”

October 28, 2017: At a parade in Annandale, Va., Wilfred Michael Stark III, 49, is arrested after trying to block the van carrying Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie. Although Stark identifies himself as a journalist, he was there on behalf of a website run by Democratic Party activist David Brock, which Brock purchased for the stated goal of electing Hillary Clinton president.

November 3, 2017: Kentucky Republican Rand Paul is tackled from behind without warning by next-door neighbor Rene Boucher, breaking six of the senator’s ribs. The assailant claims he lost his temper because of an ongoing dispute the two men had about yard trimmings, but he was known by other neighbors as a partisan Democrat who attacked Republicans on social media. “May Robert Mueller fry Trump’s gonads,” he once posted.

HOMELAND SECURITY, IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

DHS Warns of Cartel Role in Illegal Alien Caravan By Rick Moran

Posted By on October 21st, 2018

https://pjmedia.com/trending/dhs-warns-of-cartel-role-in-illegal-alien-caravan/

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen warned on Sunday that cartels would try to exploit the illegal alien caravan moving toward the United States border with Mexico to infiltrate members.

Cartels are already heavily involved in moving illegal aliens and drugs into the U.S. and, given the confusion and chaos associated with the caravan, would surely see a golden opportunity to sneak cartel members into the country.

“While we closely monitor the caravan crisis, we must remain mindful of the transnational criminal organizations and other criminals that prey on the vulnerabilities of those undertaking the irregular migration journey,” Mr. Nielsen said in a statement Sunday.

“We fully support the efforts of Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, as they seek to address this critical situation and ensure a safer and more secure region,” the secretary said.

Those efforts have failed in Mexico, where approximately 2,000 illegals are still moving toward the U.S. border after barging into the country on Friday. Mexican police tried to stop the human wave but after scuffling at a border crossing with Guatemala, Mexican police basically gave up.

Thousands of migrants reached the Guatemala-Mexico border on Friday, breaking through a fence on the Guatemala side of a bridge separating the two countries. On the Mexican side of the bridge, they were met by Mexican police in riot gear. Others, meanwhile, waded into the Suchiate River or took rafts to get to Mexico.

Many of the migrants are seeking refugee status in either Mexico or the United States.

The Mexican Interior Ministry said on Saturday that 640 Honduran migrants have requested refuge in Mexico. It also said that priority attention would be given “164 women, some of them in advanced stage of pregnancy; 104 girls, boys and teenagers, who are from 3 months old to 17 years old; as well as older adults who have varying degrees of disability. This group includes a minor who traveled alone.” CONTINUE AT SITE

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Senator Cory Booker Accused of Sexual Assault by Gay Man By Rick Moran

Posted By on October 21st, 2018

A gay man who describes himself as a liberal Democrat is accusing New Jersey Senator Cory Booker of sexually assaulting him in 2014. Booker is considered a leading contender for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020.

The man, who wishes to remain anonymous for now, penned a lengthy open letter which was posted on Twitter, describing the assault which occurred in a bathroom following a meeting at his workplace where the two met.

The letter goes into excruciating detail.

I stopped to use one of the building’s single-occupancy restrooms. Upon washing my hands prior to leaving, I hear knocking on the door. When it comes to these restrooms, it is customary to knock first in case someone is using it, even though there is an inner lock. When I opened the door, Mr. Booker was there. He smiled and very gregariously said, “Hey!” We engaged in some brief idle chitchat in the entryway and then he asked me to speak in private. What happened next, happened so fast that it was hard for me to comprehend what was going on. It was one of those surreal moments where what was happening was such a deviation and such a perversion of one’s natural daily routine that I hardly knew how to react. He pulled me into the bathroom, albeit not too forcefully, and slowly pushed me against the restroom wall. He said that “Being a hero was a serious turn-on.” He continued, “The Senate appreciates fine citizens like you. Especially this senator.” He then put his left hand on my groin, over my jeans, and began to rub. I seem to remember saying something like “What is happening?” It was a bit like having vertigo. He then used his other hand to grab my left hand with his right and pulled it over to touch him. At the same time, he disengaged from rubbing me and used his left hand to push me to my knees from my shoulder for what was clearly a move to have me perform oral sex on him. At that point, I pulled away quite violently and told him I had to go. I did not see him again before he left.

The victim says he contacted journalist Ronan Farrow, the “father of the #MeToo movement,” who requested a phone conversation but never got back to him after the victim gave Farrow his number.

He also contacted a lawyer. Grabien reached out to the attorney who is mentioned in the letter:

Grabien News has reached out to the accuser’s attorney, Harmeet Dhillon, to verify he has consulted with her, as he described in the letter.

“All I can say at this time is that the man is considering his next steps and has no further comment at this time,” Dhillon told Grabien.

BOOKS Comments turned off

Our Orwellian tax code by Andrew C. McCarthy

Posted By on October 21st, 2018

https://www.newcriterion.com/issues/2018/10/our-orwellian-tax-code
A review of Liberal Suppression: Section 501(c)(3) and the Taxation of Speech by Philip Hamburger

Anyone who has ever been audited by the IRS—no, let’s check that. Anyone who has ever lived in fear of being audited (now I’ve got everyone’s attention) knows well that there is more to the tax code than even its voluminous girth suggests. Still, would even the most cynical among us suppose that the code, in just one of its most promiscuous provisions, reflects the uniquely American history of left-wing hostility to free speech?

Philip Hamburger would.

To be sure, the Columbia Law School scholar is better described as erudite than cynical. Professor Hamburger is best known in recent times for his deep dive into modern government’s sprawling, unaccountable fourth branch, Is Administrative Law Unlawful? (Spoiler: Yes!). But his oeuvre has long focused on another topic, similarly consequential to popular sovereignty in our constitutional republic: liberalism. Liberalism not just in the classical sense of being liberty-minded, but liberalism in the political connotation: the nigh-antithesis of liberty-mindedness, most familiar to contemporary Americans as progressivism (and, if I may interject, about as progressive as it is liberal).

In his latest offering, Liberal Suppression: Section 501(c)(3) and the Taxation of Speech, Hamburger builds on the scholarship of his 2000 law review article, “Liberality,” which unfolds the phenomenon of liberalism as more attitude than ideology….

The unexpected but entirely apt framework for the story is a dryly worded, decades-old statute which, as is the Orwellian wont of the tax code, taketh away in the same breath as it giveth. Section 501(c)(3) permits an exemption from taxation to nonprofit business entities, referred to throughout the book as “idealistic” organizations to encapsulate their broad-ranging religious, cultural, educational, and social missions—organizations such as the one that publishes this magazine, for instance.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL: MICHAEL ORDMAN

Posted By on October 21st, 2018

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Israeli heart surgery for Iraqi-Kurdish newborn. (TY Nevet) An Iraqi baby born with a congenital heart defect is being flown to Israel for life-saving surgery after an emergency appeal to Israel’s Interior Ministry. Baby Ahlam, from Iraqi Kurdistan, suffers from the reversal of the main arteries carrying blood from the heart.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/iraqi-kurdish-baby-heads-to-israel-for-urgent-surgery-after-minister-intervenes/

US approval for brain scan software. I reported previously (Nov 2016) on Israel’s Aidoc whose AI image software helps radiologists in fast detection of acute brain bleeds in CT scans. Aidoc’s system has now received US FDA approval and is currently in use at Israel’s Sheba Medical Center.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-brain-scan-reading-ai-based-software-gets-thumbs-up-from-fda-time/

US approves Teva’s cancer treatment. (TY Arlene) The US FDA’s oncology committee has approved CT-P10 – Teva’s monoclonal antibody biosimilar to Rituxan (rituximab) for the treatment of various forms of cancer. The development of biosimilars has the potential to increase accessibility to therapies for patients.
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-teva-receives-fda-nod-for-rituxan-biosimilar-cancer-drug-1001256084

“Moses” blasts bladder stones. Conventional treatment of bladder stones uses a laser that causes the stone to be repelled, extending the time taken to destroy it. Israeli biotech Lumenis’ laser technology (named “Moses”) keeps the stone in place, saving time, anesthesia and money. Nice simple video demonstrates this.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/moses-a-new-stone-striking-method-seen-as-game-changer-for-urologists
https://www.youtube.com/embed/eU4sdpa9rLM?rel=0

A replacement for the “forgotten valve”. Israeli startup Trisol Medical is developing a minimally invasive device that can replace a faulty tricuspid heart valve. The tricuspid valve is known as the “forgotten valve” as other bio-techs have focused efforts developing replacements for the aortic and mitral valves.
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-trisol-medical-raises-27m-1001256513

Contact lenses for the nose. Israel’s Beck Medical has developed NozNoz – a silicon nasal insert that curbs the appetite by blocking the senses of smell and taste. The effect is to prevent stimulating the body’s olfactory bulb that controls hunger and food preferences. NozNoz is comparable to contact lenses for the nose.
https://www.israel21c.org/the-contact-lenses-for-the-nose-that-might-help-you-lose-weight/

Hope in sight for vision impaired. (TY WIN) Israeli startup ICI Vision has developed Orama – digital glasses to help the visually impaired to see more clearly. Orama uses artificial intelligence (AI), eye-tracking software, a built-in 3D camera and more, to map and project images onto an individual’s remaining healthy retina cells.
https://www.israel21c.org/digital-glasses-offer-hope-of-sight-for-vision-impaired/
https://www.youtube.com/embed/BrR_CbsHLkU?rel=0

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Extremist Persecution of Christians, May 2018 by Raymond Ibrahim

Posted By on October 21st, 2018

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13156/extremist-persecution-christians-may

“Churches and individual Christians have faced increased restrictions in recent months, raising concerns that these pressures signal a coordinated campaign of intensified action against churches by the governing authorities.” — Middle East Concern, Algeria.

A Muslim man walked into a cathedral and threatened to blow it up for preaching the Gospel and not the Koran. — France.

“The Indonesian government should revisit the country’s blasphemy law…. To honor religious freedom as enshrined in Indonesia’s constitution, the government must respect all religions and stop criminalizing Christians when they are merely exercising their right to free speech.” — International Christian Concern, Indonesia.

The Extremists’ Slaughter of Christians Inside Churches

Indonesia: Six suicide bombers from one Muslim family attacked three churches on May 13, during Sunday Mass services; at least 11 worshippers were killed. The suicide bombers consisted of a father, mother, and four children, two boys and two girls, aged 9,12, 16, and 18. According to the report:

“More than 40 people were injured in the blasts. The first attack that killed four people, including one or more bombers, occurred at the Santa Maria Roman Catholic Church… The father of the family accused of carrying out the suicide bombing had detonated a car bomb during his attack. The incident was followed by a second explosion at the Christian Church of Diponegoro that killed two people. In a third attack, at Pantekosta Church, two more died, police said.”

A witness described one of the attacks, where the mother and the two youngest jihadis detonated themselves. Because she was carrying two suspicious bags (apparently of explosives), “officers blocked them in front of the churchyard, but the woman ignored them and forced her way inside. Suddenly (the bomb) exploded.” The father “was very active in the mosque,” said an acquaintance; “he never missed any of the five daily prayers, but he avoided discussing religion.” “The four children were studying in schools run by the Muhammadiyah,” long thought the most moderate Islamic school in Indonesia, said a family neighbor. “To me they were normal people,” he added.

Russia: Four gunmen stormed a church in Grozny, the capital of Russia’s Muslim-majority Republic of Chechnya, and killed three people, a churchgoer and two police officers, on May 19. The attackers — who were also armed with knives, hatchets and homemade explosives — were also killed in the gunfire exchange with security forces at the Church of Michael the Archangel. According to the report:

POLITICS Comments turned off

The Dominatrix Party By Ilana Mercer

Posted By on October 21st, 2018

https://amgreatness.com/2018/10/21

Throughout Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s recent ordeal, Democratic women and their house-trained houseboys attempted to derail the decent part of the process, rendering a U.S. Senate confirmation hearing into a small-minded, mean-spirited, undignified, and gossipy affair.

In tenor, Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings resembled a tabloid, a woman’s magazine, or the female-dominated Trump-watch panels, assembled daily by the Fake News networks.

As to the women folk in the gallery: They were plain gaga. These libertine “ladies” appeared constitutionally incapable of abiding by standards of decency and decorum, as demanded in such a solemn setting.

Thank our lucky stars we must that Democratic distaff are not yet disrobing, as do their Russian heroines. Pussy Riot, the Putin-hating, all-girl pop band, specializes in desecrating holy places and flashing holey places.

This kind of abandon, albeit moderated, extended to liberal lady senators. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and her soul sisters in the Senate conducted themselves like kids who can’t quit interrupting the grownups, nagging for license to break protocol, so as to harangue and harass the “bad” man in the chair.

On the day the Democrats lost—and Kavanaugh won his seat on the high court—a primal, collective, atavistic howl rose from the Senate gallery’s female quorum.

In response, a journalist in attendance quipped that this is “what the Left sounds like.” He ought to have stated the obvious. Sure, there are a few male eunuchs among these girls gone wild. But this is predominantly what women of the Left sound like.