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The Jewish left botched its response to the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting by Jonathan Neumann

Posted By on November 4th, 2018

https://nypost.com/2018/11/03/the-jewish-left-botched-its-response-to-the-pittsburgh-synagogue-shooting/

The aftermath of Pittsburgh has been a disgrace.

In ordinary times it would have been unseemly to comment on the atrocity at the Tree of Life Synagogue so soon after it unfolded. It was the most deadly anti-Semitic attack this country has ever seen. It should have given us pause and brought us together.

But these are not ordinary times. Donald Trump is president.

Before the bodies of the dead had gone cold, let alone been buried and mourned, the Jewish left sacrificed an opportunity to cry in unity and chose instead to call for division.

Bend the Arc, reputedly the largest Jewish social-justice organization in the nation, published a letter blaming the president for the attack. Other groups, such as The Jewish Vote and If Not Now, also saw the attack as a chance to castigate the president.

Apparently these liberal groups need reminding that the shooting at a Jewish community center in Kansas occurred during the Obama administration.

Instead of trying to score political points, would not a more appropriate response have been to urge calm upon the hyper-partisanship that has seen both sides court incivility?

Yet more egregious, however, was the excoriation by Jewish liberals of their fellow Jews who support President Trump. Another three Jewish social justice groups — Torah Trumps Hate, Hitoreri and Uri L’Tzedek — penned an open letter to the National Council of Young Israel (NCYI), blasting the Orthodox synagogue umbrella group for its statement condemning the attack.

NCYI’s sin?

Concluding its heartfelt statement by expressing appreciation for “the strong words of support from President Trump and the administration in urging everyone to work together to combat anti-Semitism.”

P.C.-CULTURE Comments turned off

Our House Divided: Multiculturalism vs. America Thomas D. Klingenstein

Posted By on November 4th, 2018

https://americanmind.org/essays/our-house-divided-multiculturalism-vs-america/
Following Trump’s lead—and Lincoln’s.

Many conservatives did not see that Trump had framed the 2016 election as a choice between two mutually exclusive regimes: multiculturalism and America. What I call “multiculturalism” includes “identity politics” and “political correctness.” If multiculturalism continues to worm its way into the public mind, it will ultimately destroy America. Consequently, the election should have been seen as a contest between a woman who, perhaps without quite intending it, was leading a movement to destroy America and a man who wanted to save America. The same contest is being played out in the upcoming midterm elections.

I realize the term “multiculturalism” is somewhat dated, but I mean to freshen it up by using it in its most comprehensive sense: a political philosophy. Multiculturalism conceives of society as a collection of cultural identity groups, each with its own worldview, all oppressed by white males, collectively existing within permeable national boundaries. Multiculturalism replaces American citizens with so-called “global citizens.” It carves “tribes” out of a society whose most extraordinary success has been their assimilation into one people. It makes education a political exercise in the liberation of an increasing number of “others,” and makes American history a collection of stories of white oppression, thereby dismantling a unifying, self-affirming narrative without which no nation can long survive.

During the 2016 campaign, Trump exposed multiculturalism as the revolutionary movement it is. He showed us that multiculturalism, like slavery in the 1850’s, is an existential threat. Trump exposed this threat by standing up to it and its enforcement arm, political correctness. Indeed, he made it his business to kick political correctness in the groin on a regular basis. In countless variations of crassness, he said over and over exactly what political correctness prohibits one from saying: “America does not want cultural diversity; we have our culture, it’s exceptional, and we want to keep it that way.” He also said, implicitly but distinctly: the plight of various “oppressed groups” is not the fault of white males. This too violates a sacred tenet of multiculturalism. Trump said these things at a time when they were the most needful things to say, and he said them as only he could, with enough New York “attitude” to jolt the entire country. Then, to add spicy mustard to the pretzel, he identified the media as not just anti-truth, but anti-American.

ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Israel to host forum of leading digital nations for first time Yehuda Shlezinger

Posted By on November 4th, 2018

http://www.israelhayom.com/2018/11/04/israel-to-host-forum-of-leading-digital-nations-for-first-time/

Conference will be held in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv on November 19-21 • Participating countries to present their visions for a digital future • Conference host Social Equality Minister Gila Gamliel: “Our uniqueness is that we leave nobody behind.”

The annual international Digital 9 forum, comprising the world’s nine leading digital countries, will convene in Israel for the first time later this month.

During the conference, which will be held in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv simultaneously on November 19-21, the new advances positioning Israel at the forefront of global digital innovation will be on display.

The conference will also include panels on the issues of smart cities; digital education; health and economy; ethical problems in the digital age; and digital transformation.

Additionally, Social Equality Minister Gila Gamliel will launch “Campus,” a national platform for online education, and will also unveil the national digitization work plan for 2019 known as “Digital Israel.”

Each of the participating countries will present their visions for a digital future and the national projects they are seeking to advance.

“I’m happy to have the privilege of representing the State of Israel and the government of Israel as president of the D9 forum and host the annual conference, which is shaping the face of tomorrow,” Gamliel said.

ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Israel Is Making Arab Friends ‘Hatikva’ plays in Abu Dhabi, Netanyahu visits Oman, and the ‘cold peace’ with Egypt gets warmer. By Joshua S. Block

Posted By on November 4th, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/israel-is-making-arab-friends-1541361880

The Middle East is changing. On Oct. 28 Israel’s culture and sports minister, Miri Regev, toured the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi. She was in the United Arab Emirates for the International Judo Federation’s Abu Dhabi Grand Slam, where Israeli athletes were allowed to compete under their flag for the first time. The Israeli team took the gold, and its national anthem, “Hatikva,” was played in a country that does not formally recognize Israel.

Although Israel and the Arab Gulf states have long had clandestine diplomatic ties, recent public gestures of normalization have taken the relationship to a new level. Hours before Ms. Regev arrived in Abu Dhabi, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned from a historic visit to Oman, where he met with Sultan Sayyid Qaboos bin Said al Said.

The same weekend, Yousuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah, Oman’s foreign minister, told a security forum in Bahrain: “Israel is a state present in the region, and we all understand this. The world is also aware of this, and maybe it is time for Israel to be treated the same [as other states] and to also bear the same obligations.” He added: “Our priority is to put an end to the conflict and move to a new world.” The foreign ministers of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa and Adel al-Jubeir respectively, also called for rapprochement with Israel.

HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

How President Trump Saved The Last Tank Plant In America: Loren Thompson

Posted By on November 4th, 2018

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lorenthompson/#2c5303742a3b

If you want to believe America is still the “arsenal of democracy” that Franklin Roosevelt described in 1940, you might want to avoid looking too closely at the U.S. manufacturing sector. China has become the world’s premier industrial power, greatly out-producing the United States in everything from steel to smartphones. Germany’s machine-tool industry outshines our own. No U.S. shipyard has built a commercial ship destined for international commerce in decades.

The economic consequences of America’s manufacturing decline have been widely reported. What gets less attention is how industrial decay might impact national defense. Nobody really knows how a future great-power conflict might unfold, but Washington could be forced to use nuclear weapons to avert defeat if it can’t mobilize quickly for conventional combat. President Trump is the first chief executive since the Cold War ended who seems to grasp what a waning industrial base might one day mean for our security.

On Thursday of this week, I toured the last remaining tank plant in America, located in Lima, Ohio. General Dynamics, a donor to my think tank and consulting client, flew me there to see where it assembles the latest version of the Army’s M1A2 main battle tank. The cavernous facility contains 1.6 million square feet of manufacturing space. The Trump administration is investing a boatload of money in modernizing the facility, but it’s clear the place was neglected for a long time after Washington declared victory over communism.

How neglected? The Army actually wanted to close it — it is a government-owned facility — even though it was the only surviving tank plant in the Western Hemisphere. At the time, the Obama administration was forecasting relaxed tensions around the world, and steadily withdrawing U.S. military units from Europe. Obama’s predecessor had done the same. Up until the 2014 Russian invasion of Ukraine, nobody thought Moscow was going to be a problem. So the Army figured it could save money by mothballing the plant and reopening it at some future date.

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

The Stages of (Liberal) Grief: Anger By Nicholas L. Waddy

Posted By on November 4th, 2018

https://amgreatness.com/2018/11/04/the-stages

Having explored the historical genesis of liberal derangement, especially in the wake of Donald Trump’s election in 2016, and having disclosed the role to be played by Denial after the probable failure of Democrats’ “blue wave” in 2018, we now proceed to the next stage of our analysis. We turn our attention to the forms of liberal Anger that are likely after November 6th.

Part three of a four-part series.

Anger is, as previously discussed, the dominant emotion discernible in the Left’s reaction to Trumpism. In fact, rage is rampant among liberals. What has kept this anger in check, however, is a sense of assurance that the Trump phenomenon is something akin to a death spasm among conservatives. Leftists have long assumed that “progress” of the sort they desire is inevitable, and indeed they can point to many victories won in the last few decades. Moreover, soaked as they are in identity politics, the Left puts great stock in America’s changing demographics. They presume—understandably, given their inveterate anti-white racism—that the “browning” of America can only foretell doom for Republicans.

They ignore the obvious counterargument: this country has been “browning” for a long time, and the Republican Party is today stronger than it has ever been since the 1920s. In any case, it cannot be overstated how integral it is to the peace of mind of liberals to assume that the Republican Party will soon die an ignoble death, and therefore, they believe, any upsurge in nationalism or conservatism is a temporary aberration. The march of history towards the broad, sunlit uplands of progressivism will soon resume.

The failure of the “blue wave” would be a punch in the gut to this attitude of complacency and self-satisfaction on the Left. The American people will have chosen Trumpism and Republicans not once, but twice. As leftists see it, this will mean an affirmation of “hate” and a rejection of their own worldview of “inevitable” progress. The liberal throng (sometimes understandably mistaken for a mob) will have expended vast energies, and donated vast sums, to achieve a victory that remains elusive if not utterly improbable. The bile will rise in leftist throats as it begins to dawn on them that the last gasp of conservatism, which they perceived President Trump to hail, may instead be an enduring realignment of American politics that is favorable to Republicans. They will despair at the fact that millions of women and minorities, who by rights belong on the Democratic plantation, deserted the cause. They will, in short, experience anger on a scale that will make 2016-18 seem like child’s play.

POLITICS Comments turned off

ARIZONA- A BLUE WAVE OR A RED BACKLASH

Posted By on November 4th, 2018

https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/robertrobb/2018/11/04/2018-arizona-election-turnout-blue-wave-red-backlash/1836438002/

Democrats haven’t won a statewide race in Arizona since 2008.

When the Democratic state corporation commissioners who won that year, Paul Newman and Sandra Kennedy, lost their re-election bids in 2012, it was the first time in Arizona history that there was not a single Democrat holding statewide office.

The Democratic nadir was 2014. The Democrats ran what I thought was the finest and best-qualified slate of candidates for statewide office – from governor to state superintendent – in my lifetime, and perhaps in state history.

They all got swamped – except for David Garcia in the superintendent race, who was narrowly edged out by Diane Douglas.
What explains the drought for Democrats?

This Democratic electoral desert is a recent phenomenon. For the state’s first century, there was always at least one statewide elected Democrat in office. For most of the state’s history, Democrats actually dominated. Republican voter registration in the state didn’t surpass that of Democrats until 1986.

As late as 2006, Democrat Janet Napolitano smashed her Republican opponent for governor and Democrat Terry Goddard comfortably won re-election as attorney general.

So, what explains the Democratic drought since 2008, since it hasn’t primarily been from a lack of well-qualified candidates?

With the rise of independent registration, those remaining registered Republican or Democratic tend to be pretty brand loyal. There is not nearly as much crossover voting – a Republican voting for a Democrat or vice versa – as there used to be in the state.

And brand-loyal Republicans dominated the turnout. Since 2008, Republicans have been more than 40 percent of the general election turnout every year except 2016, when it dipped to 39 percent.

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

ELECTIONS ARE COMING ON NOVEMBER 6, 2018

Posted By on November 4th, 2018

There are many good columns and editorials on the serious consequences of the upcoming election by excellent journalists and commentators. Now here it is in a nutshell from the President of our nation Donald Trump.

“This election is a choice between Republican results and radical resistance.
It’s a choice between greatness and gridlock.
It’s a choice between jobs and mobs.
And it’s a choice between an economy that is going strong
and the Democrats who are going crazy.”

POLITICS Comments turned off

Screeching Harpies Vow ‘No Sex!’ Unless Men Vote for Democrats By Megan Fox

Posted By on November 4th, 2018

https://pjmedia.com/trending/screeching-harpies-vow-no-sex-unless-men-vote-for-democrats/

Since scratching and beating on the doors of the Supreme Court had zero effect on keeping Justice Brett Kavanaugh off the court, the ladies of the left have decided to go with a new tactic: a sex strike! That’s right, fellas, you’re all out of luck with the #Resist girls. Author Wednesday Martin has penned an essay at CNN called “What if Women Went On a Sex Strike Before the Midterms?”

It’s time for a revolution. At the polls, and in the bedroom. And in our understanding of who women are, sexually and otherwise. Given the tight interweaving of economic and political power with sexual entitlement, female sexual autonomy has never been more urgent, and women’s sexual pleasure has never been more political. Let’s consider what it might mean to go on a sex strike of sorts — to get what we want, rather than give what we think we owe others.

It seems the Democrats have finally got their bumper sticker for 2018: “Zero F*cks for Anyone. #Resist”

What’s revolutionary about women using sex to get what they want? And worse, aren’t feminists supposed to reject femininity and female wiles in favor of more equal ways of advancing? I’m confused. Didn’t we just have a whole #MeToo campaign against the casting couch? Females willing to trade sexual favors in exchange for stuff is exactly the kind of girl Harvey Weinstein was looking for.

A women’s sex strike against service sex, a refusal to do it out of a sense of obligation, would force us to confront these basic inequalities. Our current administration has amped up the notion that women are mere extensions of male will and pleasure, there to serve at every turn…What are the President’s insults to Stormy Daniels other than assertions that the woman who enjoys sex or profits from it in any way — emotionally, financially, or physically — is unnatural, immoral, and unattractive? In this world order, female sexual autonomy is not only dangerous and destabilizing; it is increasingly hard to imagine. And female pleasure is irrelevant, even pathological, if it exists at all.

I’m pretty sure the president’s insult of Stormy Daniels had less to do with how much she likes sex (yeah, we know) and more to do with her hideous character and willingness to attack his family for money. She’s also not attractive, and most people don’t believe he’d cheat on Melania (the most beautiful woman on earth) with a horse-faced tramp who hired one of the most crooked lawyers on earth.*

In the ancient Greek comedy by Aristophanes, the character Lysistrata urges women to go on a sex strike to get men on both sides to end the Peloponnesian War. In our case, a sex strike against service sex can be a powerful statement — that female desire, a metric of agency like women’s votes, will be heard.

Am I the only one who knows that Lysistrata was a comedy performed by all men? They were mocking women, not making some big statement about women’s power and rights. Why is everyone so dumb? I didn’t even graduate college and this woman has a doctorate from Yale? (Note to parents: do NOT waste your money on the Ivy League!)

Fellas, if you’re feeling nervous that this idea might catch on, the #Resist ladies were good enough to put together one last sexy campaign to show you what you’re missing. Take a good look, because that’s all you’re going to get!

I know it’s going to be rough. I mean, these ladies are something else!

I’m sure by now you guys are worked up into a lather that cannot be quenched without some of this #Resist lovin’! Am I right? CONTINUE AT SITE

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Why Do Middle Eastern Refugees Vandalize Christian Structures? by Burak Bekdil

Posted By on November 4th, 2018

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13195/refugees-vandalism

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has often argued that Christian Europe should admit more Muslim refugees.

“I’ll tell you strictly Muslim-to-Muslim. These (European social workers) are funny. I don’t know why on earth they are in love with a Muslim cause that even we Muslims despise.” — Syrian migrant to the author, Lesbos, Greece.

“The Syrian refugee crisis in lands stretching from the Middle East into the heart of Europe is another episode in a grandiose, multi-faceted Middle Eastern dilemma: Muslims in this part of the world view the Christian West as ‘evil;’ yet they know Christian lands are the most decent places to live economically and politically.” — Burak Bekdil, 2015.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in his speech at the United Nations General Assembly in September, launched a scathing attack on the European Union. He accused the EU of having not done enough to support the refugees and claimed that the EU should pay Turkey more than it pledged (three billion euros).

Erdoğan has often argued that Christian Europe should admit more Muslim refugees. In a 2016 speech, he angrily threatened to open the floodgates of migrants into Europe again (in 2015 alone, three quarters of a million migrants passed through Turkey on their way to Europe).

Is Erdoğan using the mostly Syrian migrants as a bargaining chip to recalibrate his country’s failed admission to the EU? Is he simply carpet-trading by trying to maximize the amount of European money coming as aid into Turkey? No doubt, but not only that. His Islamist ideology dictates that the number of Muslims living in all corners of the Old Continent should one day herald a demographic victory for Islam.

“Occupying infidel lands” by the force of sword was an Ottoman idea. Occupying infidel lands through demographics is one of the features of post-modern Islamism, as Muslim nations, unlike the Ottoman Empire, lack the military might needed for military invasion.